Amputated Leg : Ramblings of an Obsessive Compulsive

~ bored with her mundane life ~ lost in a world of fiction ~ wanting, to the point of needing, a life of adventure and travel ~ looking back fondly at what her world was and dreaming of what it can become

September 16, 2009 • 10:12 pm 0

Style Watch: Blue Dress with Red Flats

Scarlett Johansson

Loving her blue silk polka-dot dress paired with red ballet flats. Makes me want to buy a new pair.

Image from PopSugar.com

Filed under: Style Watch , clothes, fashion, shopping

September 8, 2009 • 2:21 pm 1

Restaurant Bans You From Eating Their Own Food

Unbelievable! Un-effin-believable!

Disclaimer: This is a rant about the IMM branch of Secret Recipe. As Ayie would say, don’t mess with the cake!

Background: They are currently running a promotion where every $20 will get you a sticker. You complete 10 stickers and you get a free glass of iced lemon tea, a serving of garden salad and you get to purchase an entire cake for $21.50.

Secret Recipe at IMM

Strike 1: We pay for our lunch and as we were waiting for our change we remember that we had one of their promotion cards (where they stick all those stickers for you to complete). So when we get our change, we give them the card for the sticker. And what do they tell us? They can’t give us a sticker anymore because we should have given the card before we made payment.

Uhm… couldn’t they just have given us the sticker anyway? Since we just paid like a few seconds ago? They say no. Since they already gave us a new card with the sticker. And by the way, we can’t combine the cards to complete the 10 stickers.

So, FINE. We let it go. We will remember to give them the card before we pay, the next time.

Strike 2: We finally complete one card. So we decide to eat at Secret Recipe again so we can claim the cake and eat it for dessert.

So before we even order, we tell them we intend to redeem the card. We chose a cake, paid the $21.50 and asked for the free iced lemon tea and garden salad to be served at our table.

After lunch, we get out the cake and start slicing it up. We didn’t ask for extra plates, intending to use the same plates we had our lunches on.

The head waitress or manager, whoever she was, approaches us and tell us we CANNOT eat the cake in the premises. Why??? She says it’s because it’s a promotional item. It’s just for take out. She says that even if someone else buys take out, they wouldn’t be able to eat it in the restaurant either.

Point 1: If it was because it was a promotional item, then why were we able to eat the garden salad and drink the iced tea in the premises? Both were part of the promotion.

Point 2: It’s not as if all we bought was the cake. We had our lunch there. All we wanted was to cap it off with cake after.

Point 3: It’s their own friggin’ cake! It’s not a cake from some other restaurant. Some restaurants are fine with you bringing in cake and eating it in their place. Some even provide you with plates and utensils. But like I said, it’s their own friggin’ cake!

This is the first time I’ve ever encountered a food establishment not allowing you to eat the food you bought off their own menu.

Un-freakingly-believable!

Conclusion: We are not eating there ever again!

Ultimate FAIL.

Filed under: Reviews , personal, Reviews

September 6, 2009 • 8:15 pm 1

What I’m Loving: Multi Print Rain Boot

Rain Boots from GoJane.com

I hate getting my feet wet. And I hate the sudden rainstorms here in Singapore. You never know when a rain shower comes. It’s scorching hot coming in to the office but sometimes, by lunch time, the clouds look like Independence Day and you came in wearing your favorite flat sandals. Not good footwear in the rain.

So, as I was searching for shoes online I came across this pair of rain boots. Rain boots always make me think of those yellow or black plastic boots that construction workers wear.

This on the other hand, is a fashionista’s rain boot. Isn’t it darling?

I love it! =)

Filed under: What I'm Loving , fashion, shoes, shopping

September 3, 2009 • 10:14 pm 0

House of Books

My sister and I have a bookshelf overflowing with books in our condo’s living room. Everytime a visitor comes in they never fail to mention and be amazed at how many books we have and then ask if we’ve read them all.

I find those comments somewhat weird. *scratching head*

Are bookshelves not common in every house? Doesn’t everybody have a stash of books in their house? And to think that our one little bookshelf is not even 1% to the number we have back home.

All my life I’ve been surrounded by books. I got them as birthday gifts, christmas presents, pasalubongs and just for no reason. Every room in our house (yes, even the bathroom) had at least a stack of books lying around.

We even have a library-slash-office — really more my dad’s domain — and all it’s walls, floor to ceiling, is covered in bookshelves. The floor is also overrun with stacks of books because the bookshelves can no longer hold them in. I teased my dad that maybe the next time I come home, I’d find his door converted into a bookshelf (but wouldn’t that be cool? the door doubling as a bookshelf!). And I wouldn’t put it past him. It seems that every time I go home for a visit, a new bookshelf appears somewhere in the house. Last time I was there, his library now extends to the living room.

I wonder what I’ll come home to the next time.

—–

I never leave home without a book. It’s a great companion during long bus rides to the city or in the train commute to the office. I have a couple of books beside my bed for my bedtime reading. Every place I’ve ever lived, I inevitably set up a bookshelf somewhere in the room. Books are such a part of my life I can’t imagine other houses not overflowing them, bags not carrying a pocketbook or two and bathrooms not having a stash of Archie’s for ‘those‘ moments.

Maybe having a dad as a writer caused it. He loves books. He’ll buy them for any reason — to complete a collection, to support a co-writer, because it mentions the Philippines and even just because it was ridiculously cheap. He’s already well known in every second-hand bookshop in the city. He will animatedly relate how he found this 50-peso hard bound book stashed in a bin at Book Sale when it was sold for $50 dollars in Amazon or Borders. He’d buy it too even though he’d already purchased it at $50 dollars.

He believes in the power of knowledge books held. I remember back in grade school, he wasn’t one to readily give answers to our homework. He always said he surrounded us with books so we’ll learn to look for the answers ourselves. I’d always whine: why don’t you just give me the answer I’m looking for? why do I have to find a dusty old book when you already know the answer? It was to no avail. We had to fend for ourselves and it taught us great study habits.

I know that when I have my own home, I would reserve a room and make it into a library. The dream is to fashion it like those old english libraries — wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling of wooden bookshelves with that sliding ladder and with comfy sofas and armchairs in it. That’s the dream but the definite is to have at least a bookshelf in some corner in my home.

Filed under: Randomites , personal

September 1, 2009 • 7:01 pm 0

The Bread Toaster

One of my more memorable birthday gifts was a Tefal Bread Toaster from my mom… all because I wanted my bread toasted evenly with those brown stripes.

My mom knows me well.

Filed under: Randomites , personal

August 30, 2009 • 5:02 pm 0

What I’m Loving: Topshop Jersey Blazers

Jersey Blazer from Topshop

I am currently loving those jersey slouchy blazers from Topshop. It seems perfect for the hot and humid weather here in Singapore. It’s not as heavy and thick like normal blazers but it’s cool and not-too-casual enough for the office.

Pair it with a white long tank with black leggings? Perfect.

Filed under: What I'm Loving , clothes, fashion, jackets, shopping

August 25, 2009 • 5:23 pm 0

Über Geek: Altec Lansing iM600

Altec Lansing iM600

My iPod is over a year old already and I still (!) have not bought it a set of speakers. So far, this is what I’ve been looking at. It’s relatively cheap and it’s got an FM radio and alarm clock.

Here’s the write-up:

Pump out your best tunes with 17 watts of power from this compact, portable speaker system. Full wireless remote control lets you take charge of your iPod tunes and control the FM radio settings and volume.

Listen to over seven hours of continuous battery play or use the AC adapter

Alarm clock compatible with iPod

FM radio with station presets, LCD display and telescopic antenna

Input jack to connect your Mac

Wonder if I’m ever going to buy it… LOL

Filed under: Über Geek , gadgets, shopping

• 3:39 pm 0

What I’m Loving: Gucci Medium Tote

Gucci Medium Tote in Gunmetal

It’s not the more expensive leather bags from Gucci but this metallic-like bag is pretty cool. I saw this in one of the Gucci shops along Orchard months ago and I’ve been thinking about it these past couple of days (birthday gift for myself? hmm…). Anyway, had a hard time finding it in the online site — it’s apparently classified under Travel & Business totes.

It’s color is called gunmetal crystal and made out of GG lamé fabric with black leather trim. Can’t remember exactly how much it costs but I think it was under SGD700 bucks. (edit: SGD670, all prices as of 28 Aug)

It also comes in 2 other colors: dark gold/ebony crystal also in GG lamé fabric with dark gold leather trim (picture below – SGD630) and sand GG fabric with pink leather trim (SGD600).