Paris, My Sweet

"if you want to fall (helplessly) in love with 

Paris, read this book"  

how should i put this? i had some of the most magical moments reading this book. sometimes i can just connect my self with Amy in her search for her true self along the days of decadent viennoiseries and tres delicieux chocolats.

sure thing,  the protagonist, Amy is a successful woman; writing for Louis Vuitton while living in Paris. Yet so alone. Being alone in the city of love? That's ironic, isn't it? 

BUT 

what makes me fall for paris after years and years worshipping US, is the food. not the notion of it being the city of love... meh. sure, US is full of to-die-for steak, hot wings, and mesmerizing grandes cupcakes. but there's something about france and its wide range of sweet food; gateaux, viennoiseries, chocolats with divine quality (as described in the book) that captured me. maybe it has something with me being a little bit of a sweet tooth. hehehe. 

and i just know from the book that there's no French toast in France. it goes by the name pain perdu. and according to Amy, it waaaay more heavenly than those she had in America, let alone the ones we have in Malaysia. meh.

i hope someday, i can go to Paris and try all these sublime foodies. no matter how old i am when that time comes. and no matter if i'm torn between buying flight ticket to LAX or Charles de Gaulle, i'm going to go to the streets of Paris on the Velibs, munching on my Nutelle crepes, rather than walking along Miami beach on summer staring at all the hot American boys. oops :P 

now i got my eyes on : kettlebell

i've long accepted the fact that i'm not the cardio-maniac type. i despise jogging and running. brisk walking and cycling is okay, but considering the environment i'm living in currently... i'd rather be safe THAN sorry, rather than not safe THEN sorry.

so i've been thinking about doing weight training instead. and maybe some dumbbells or maybe kettlebells. so here i'm gonna paste some info i found :

1. For multiple-joint exercises, such as bent-over rows, chest presses or shoulder presses, you will need a slightly larger bell. Lie on your back on a bench or table, elbows bent at 90 degrees, upper arms parallel to the floor. Hold the bell in the hand of the weakest arm and straighten the elbow as you slowly push the bell upward toward the ceiling, as in a chest press. In a slow and controlled fashion, return to your start position. Repeat, counting repetitions until you can no longer proceed with control. If you can do more than 10 repetitions, move to a larger bell. If you can only do five or six or less, choose a lighter bell.

2. For single-joint exercises such as lateral raises, triceps extension and biceps curls, select a smaller kettlebell. To determine your best weight, hold the kettlebell in the hand of your weakest arm and slowly lift your arm to the side until your hand is at shoulder height. Slowly and with control, lower the arm to your beginning position. Repeat without resting. If you can do more than 10 but fewer than 15 repetitions, go to the next higher weight. If you can only do five or six repetitions, choose the next lower weight. 

3. Kettlebell prices :

Fitness Concept  (online price)

2lbs / 4kg = rm 23

4lbs / 6kg = rm46

6lbs / 8 kg = rm69

8lbs / 10kg = rm92

10lbs / 12kg = rm114

14lbs / 16kg =  rm160

18lbs / 20kg = rm206

the perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky

THIS IS ONE BOOK THAT SHOULD BE IN SCHOOL! would be my first thought after reading this book. 

it has all the elements that students can relate to, that teacher can relate to students, that everyone can relate to; friendship, family, sex, drugs. okay so maybe not everyone has experience on all that, especially the last two, but what's with the paranoid of  books content when internet literally has it all?

but i know schools in my country would NEVER get it into the curriculum. oh well. let me add an interesting equation : old people = paranoia = literally everyone with power in education matters = old people. 

hahaha to be honest, i read this book because Emma Watson starred in its movie adaptation. so i figured i'd try reading the book, just in case i stumble into the movie in the future. initially it strikes me as boring. the language is easy, the story is easy, but the unpredictability of it takes me further and further into the world of Charlie. 

Charlie strikes me as someone with ADHD and maybe even autistic. i'd say both. why? the way he'd stray from the topic of his letters and also how he seemed to have some sort of difficulties getting his message conveyed to people around him. 

but he's one lucky boy because he has this wonderfully supportive family and these great friends... 

...something that everyone wants, but few realize that they already have.

all in all, it's a great book :D i can't wait to see the movie!

charlie and the chocolate factory

i think everyone but me has seen the movie version of this story. but i was too lazy to download the movie, and i need something light in between the thick novels, so i picked up the book. 

of course, it's amazing in its own childish way. maybe someday i'd watch the movie.

:)

dark places by gillian flynn

i had fallen in love, hard, to my first gillian flynn novel, gone girl. so i figured i would try to look into her other novels. and i picked 'dark places'.

it was not a wrong choice, at all. but i'd definitely say it's not my fave compared to gone girl.

dark places starts a little slow, beginning with the life of a dreadful woman, Libby. it was so boring, i thought about dropping the book. but once i get through half of the book, things just get better. well, maybe i'm just an impatient reader :P that's because at the last half of the book, i finally figured out what the hell happened.

brilliant storyline, i would say. it's just, i never thought that man and that girl could be the real killers. the Day family are just one unlucky bunch, ey?

cheerio.

kindle paperwhite : i can finally cross it from my wishlist

this is what kindle paperwhite looks like!

so i've been wanting an ebook reader for so long. but because malaysia has severe lack of ebook reader market, i had to turn to third party sellers, which are available all over lowyat network.

i've been peeking around sony's ebook reader since the beginning of the year, but at that time, it was priced around RM500+ which i think is quite expensive. so i waited. and while i was waiting (partly for my money to magically double up, partly for the ebook reader to get lower price) a new model of kindle came out, and i was immediately hooked. it can be read in the dark, i mean, what else do you want in an ebook reader? i definitely was crazy over that one aspect, and also the long battery life, up to 8 weeks on a single charge. and also the ability to search the meaning of a foreign word just by tapping on the word a bit longer. YAY!    

it took me around a month to set my mind on it, and after some approach to the sellers, i finally got my kindle paperwhite at rm400+. yes i know it's a steep price for usd119, but i believe it will worth the amount of books i'll be reading on it, so it doesn't matter much for me. (though now i'm officially broke :P)  

initially i was doubtful about getting a kindle since it can only read .mobi and not .epub files. however, i found out that we can easily convert epub into mobi and vice versa using this magical little software named calibre. so it was a blessing for the piles of epub files i have lying around my 'ebook' folder. not only that, i also currently use this software to manage the content in my kindle.

i'm very happy for finally getting my own ebook reader as this means that i can go back to my old old hobby, reading. i used to be the bookworm when i was in school, you know, that one student who you can find in library whenever circumstance allows so. but as i grow up and learnt to spend a lot of money shopping online and offline and getting piled up with many many commitment that require times, and being a student with not so much places to keep books, and also having the recent realization that flipping books makes me drowsy, i turned to reading ebook. initially i read on computer, around 6 books i guess, so you can imagine the huge eyestrain i got. 

so now, i'm back to being an avid reader. double yay!

   

my first MUA little haul :)

i have set my eyes on MUA for a long time, for both the good comments its products get, and the very attractive price of mere 1£ for each item. 

that's when i discovered Beauty Fiks page on facebook, which offers the service of buying makeup from their online websites. 

so when the pre-order for MUA is opened, i ordered a few things, well, 5 actually. because it's so cheap! can you blame me? hahaha

i LOVE the blush, it's so pigmented! i bought the Shade 5, fyi, which some said is the dupe of NARS Blush in Orgasm. 

and for the lipsticks, i bought shade 6,7 and 11. 11 is the standing one, which you can see is shades darker than the other two pink-based ones. i quite like them, though it may not last long for each application,but for rm8 a piece, it doesnt matter much 

:3    

i actually bought the pressed powder out of curiosity, but it is actually good in coverage. :)

so that's my haul for this time. next time i'll probably look into Sleek's products, especially the bronzer. gotta try new things eh? hahaha.