Onsen

You can Onsen with your mother

if you can accept that nakedness is just a state of being.

And it really helps if you are extremely short-sighted.

@ Toya-ko

Snow capped town

Just outside our cottage - Log Yukari

Ningle Terrace - 1km from the cottage

白い雪が街を染める頃にも
君の側にいさせて
私これからも
困らせてばかりかもしれないけど

白い雪が溶けて街が
鮮やかに彩られる頃も
こうして君の事が大事で仕方ない私でいたい

XOXO,

Isabelle

Fall is the season for Hairy Crabs

Fall means different things to different people, the crisp air, the turning leaves, Halloween, and if you're really lucky, pneumonia. It's also the time when even I have the common sense to put some cloth over my bare shoulders and swap my tank tops for a cable sweater.

To the Shanghainese, Fall is the season for eating hairy crabs.

I have always assumed that the Shanghainese' love for hairy crabs, like their obsession with powerpoint presentations and their preference for women with hairy armpits, was just part of the many fascinating and complex cultural traits that a Singaporean like me will never understand.

I was in Shanghai in October, when the palm-sized crustaceans with bushy claws from the Yangcheng river matured, and I witnessed how the city went wild with cheer after 8 months of anticipation. There wasn't a chinese restuarant who didn't offer this not-to-be-missed delicacy.

Served with chopped ginger and vinegar, the hairy crab is prized for its rich and creamy orange-coloured roe. A lot of effort is spent shucking open the shell to suck out the roe, and the meat though sweet, it is thin. Bad ROI if you ask me.

But savour it with a group of friends over a few rounds of Chinese wine or sherry, it's not hard to see why they make a culture of gathering together each year during fall to have hairy crabs.

Sometimes it's easy to overlook simple joys like the change in season. And perhaps Fall is simply the season to celebrate friendship.

I'll be back before the winter chills. Till then ~

Blue is the colour of Good Taste

Ariel: Have you ever seen anything so beautiful in your entire life?
Flounder: Wow, but umm what is it?

Ariel: I don't know
Scuttle: It's a dinglehopper!

(excerpt from Walt Disney's The Little Mermaid)

Who said that money cannot buy happiness doesn't know where to shop.

Some styles are timeless; some colours become legendary.

Nothing sings pretty like a lil' something from the trademark blue box.

But nothing excites me more than a thoughtful gift that captures the pulse of my personal and professional life.

Mr Robin Egg Blue is a passport holder

(Although The Little mermaid and her silly little friends wouldn't know what it is)

And the prettiest one I've ever seen.

Besides what better way to brighten the day of overworked immigration officers at airports

than a dash of colour and a bit of stylish inspiration from NY's Fifth Avenue.

Bangkok - The land of unexpected adventures

Thailand is a land of smiles for tourists, and they say that if you know how to exercise your tourist rights, you'll never be bored or alone. Whether you are revelling in the company of with a bewitchingly beautiful woman with a strangely deep voice, or feasting on authentic Tom Yam Gung, more often than not, a traveller would stumble upon an adventure that wasn't quite planned.

Now, there is no better way to experience Bangkok than to take its mass transit system or the BTS. In fact, it is the best way about Bangkok, because one would have to be living in Siberia for the past decade to not have heard of the famed rush hour traffic jam that makes double boiling chinese soup seem like fast food.

So it all started with me losing my way after I alighted at the Chidlom BTS Station.

I must have looked really sweaty and lost in my 4 inch spikes and black Karen Millen dress after walking for about 300 meters in the Bangkok humidity, when a guy stopped me in my tracks with a smile playing at the corner of his lips. He is clearly not local.

"Hey beautiful, whatcha doin? Are you lost? Where you from?" he asked with a thick accent that I couldn't quite place.

I stared at him dumfounded. English-speaking people are really rare in this country and when you see one, the last thing you want to do is to say something dumb and fuck up your chance of ever finding your way around.

"Yes I'm a bit lost. can you please point me to Ploenchit Road?"

"Yes, I'm lost, can you point me to Ploenchit Road?" he mimicked.

"I'm sorry? Do you or do you not know?" I quizzed, my annoyance slightly rising. There I was, late, lost and alone with this dude who was obviously trying to be funny.

"I'm sorry? Do you or do you not know?" he mimicked again.

Annoyed, I threw my hands up in annoyance and tried to turn my heels to walk off, but he blocked my way and pressed on, "Hey beautiful, follow me I know the place that you want to go, follow me. Cmon, follow me. Are you going for a meeting? Can I sit beside you and watch you?"

"I want to follow you wherever it is - this place that you are going to", he urged.

This time, I was completely creeped out.

If it wasn't because he look like he is well-versed in tribal warfare and could probably outrun an Olympic runner, I might have unleashed my unfiled fingernails on his face or sprinted off in my 4 inch heels. But no, he looked like he could out-wrestled me even in a clown suit.

So being brilliant at figuring out situations like this, I did what any intelligent woman would do when faced with a confrontational man: I pretended to have period cramps and demanded that he help me to purchase a pack of sanitary pad from the nearest convenience stall.

So there I was standing in the middle of the road doubled over, clutching my lower abdomen in mock pain and shouting, "Quick, go get the Kotex pads with wings! I can't move, it's too painful!"

Needless to say, he was not amused. Barely a minute into my acting, he muttered a "dumb bitch!" and strode away, as if the episode never happened.

The moment he turned his heels, I straightened up, finger-combed my sweat streaked hair and sashayed towards the nearest building to get guidance to my destination.

The Crease-less Frequent Flyer

Please excuse me for not updating as I was busy trading my pillowcase for a suitcase.

As you might have guessed, a lackadaisical lifestyle never stood a chance against an adrenaline-charged, jetsetting one with me. So in a typical Isabelle fashion, packed 3 pairs of heels, stuffed my Blackberry into my Birkin, and then up and beyond, away I flew to where the market beckons.

For the next few months, I'll be weeviling through the thicket of Bureaucratese to master the legislature and economics of each country, and serving the diplomacy-pie with a smile to anyone who is willing to listen to my spiel.

But for a vain, busy girl like me who is constantly on the go, finding the time to take care of my skin and stay beautiful is one of the hardest, but necessary task.

In my never ending quest to find the right balance between simplicty and perfection for my skincare regime, I chanced upon Hada Labo's Super Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Lotion, a miracle skincare product with a "One drop locks up an ocean" promise.

Hada Labo & the Super Hyaluronic Acid Lotion

Hada Labo's Super Hayaluronic Acid Moisturising Line, is one of the hottest skincare product with a cult following in countries like Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The Hydrating Lotion, in particular, is supposedly so popular in Japan that one is sold every 4 seconds!

The star ingredient, Super Hyaluronic acid, has twice the moisture retention capacity of Normal Hyaluronic acid.

It goes on like a toner but with a much thicker consistency, and a slight initial stickiness to it. But worry not, for the lotion gets completely absorbed with no traces of stickiness after I gently pat my face with my palm after application.

While the term "Hayaluronic Acid" conjures up images of skincare for old women with dry skin, the Super Hayaluronic Acid Hydrating Face Lotion by Hada Labo, was absorbed easily into my skin without much of a struggle. My skin feels so well taken care of that I don't even get the 'oily saucepan face' when I wake up in the morning.

In a world where we go for the niftiest gadgets, smallest credit card and all-in-one makeup kits, I found that the Super Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Lotion is the perfect skin hydrating companion when I travel. Just 2 drops is all I need to keep my entire face supple, hydrated and nourished - through the night and in the day!

Being busy and keeping pace with your new lifestyle is not an excuse to neglect your appearance and disregard your usual skincare regime, because life is too short to waste time on being ugly. But you can keep it easy and fuss-free by investing in suitable skincare products.

Till the next time. XOXO.

PS: By the way, the KL Hilton is awesome in an omfg way.

This reminds me of you

Just the other day, a friend sent me an email with Anna Zakuslyo for Anteprima (above) and said, "This reminds me of you...on so many levels!"

I am not sure what he was doing browsing a women's fashion catalogue, nor am I sure what he meant by that, although he clarified later that he meant the overall zeitgeist of the image.

But I felt beautiful.

Thank you.

Common Questions Asked of Interns

Ah, me! It's the time of the year again when school's out and interns come a flooding. I fondly recall a time not too long ago when I was a fidgety intern, oh-so-eager to please... But we're here not to talk about me or what happened but what is to come :)

You know what they say, intelligent bitches don't just happen, they are made by surviving le baptéme du fer. Now that yours truly is the one sitting at the other end of the table... picture World War 3 with black silk stockings and long eyelashes.

Be prepared freshies, or run and hide!

I don't know if kids these days study a 10-year-series or interview question 101, but I've never been a conformist and I pride myself in coming up with creative questions so disarming that it can cut the bull out of the most well-prepared interviewee to do a fair assessement based on my own observation.

So forget questions that sound as bland as "What are your strengths?" or "How would your peers describe you in 5 words". Because I know that nobody would ever give me "Lazy f*cker who doesn't bathe".

Nor will I be as mean as to ask you "What are the causes of the Korean Civil War?" although I'd be impressed if you can launch into a debate with me.

But I've never had a thing for empty vessel type overtly talkative kids, nor the type who are stupid enough to tell me that their favourite past time during the weekend is to go to church.

Having said that, I admire kids who have initiative, optimistic (in a never say never kind of way) and a keen interest in self-improvment in all aspects of their lives.

So here are some clues, for the smart ones who actually thought of asking me "who's my interviewer?" and then have the initiative to consult the google search bar for a nugget of information about me.

While my views are not representative of my company's I am first a person, then a corporate animal, and these are the top questions that I like to ask:

1) What is your favourite drink?

There is no right answer to this question, but the answer would show me that you have an idea about what I do.
2) What are your weaknesses?
3) What do you do during your free time?
4) Tell me an interesting piece of news that you came across today. Or if you think Naoto Kan is hot. You're screwed if you have no effin idea who that is.

There you have it, the rest will be a piece of cake. Rrraow!

A sunday kind of wonderful

Is there really a better way to conclude a busy, fulfiling week than waking up smiling on an early Sunday morning, reading the papers in bed and sipping coffee in a pink Victoria's Secret pyjamas?

Well yes...rolling out of bed on Sunday, just before noon. Breakfast is past lunch time, and it comes with truffle sandwiches, burgundy wine, a dresscode and good company.

While I'm not usually a fan of having dainty bites al fresco right in the middle of Singapore's heatwave, but I love themed tea parties.

And nothing befits tea parties during good times more than a candy-floss coloured sundress with a frivolous full-skirted silhouette that has a great emphasis on the narrowness of the waist. The look is a simple one that is influenced by the 1950s - a time when feminine fashion for women returned with a vengeance after the auterity of the 1940s.

While wide-brimmed hats and lacey gloves were the accessories of choice back then, keep the look modern and not overdo it, or you'll look like you've lost your way to a fancy dress contest. After all, the true beauty of the sundress is its ability to stand on its own without much adornment.

Dress on Isabelle: Pastel blue poplin dress from Sophisticate (52 Telok Ayer Street #01-05)

My name is Isabelle and I have a compulsive addiction to heels

To a compulsive shoe addict like me, sometimes heaven comes in the form of tiny, shiny, 5-inch spikes with a $15 price tag.

When Sabrina and I decided to spend a boring Saturday afternoon milling aimlessly around Far East Plaza, it was largely motivated by the idea of saving an afternoon's aircon bill, stuffing our face with oily junk food, and laughing at whales with too much make-up trying to fit themselves into frilly floral dresses that even Hello Kitty wouldn't be caught dead in.

Also, depending on which one of us you're asking, we were also tasked to uncover local fashion talents for SauceINK's upcoming issue.

Then, as if destiny decide to intervene in order to prevent Sabrina from getting bad karma because she was intending to buy ugy muscle T-shirts to distribute around her office, a shoe shop miraculously appeared in front of us with a sign that reads "SALE - All heels at $15".

I don't know about you, but at the moment, we understood exactly how Carrie Bradshaw felt like when she went to Abu Dhabi and realise that embroidered sandals were sold at US$20 a pair - considering the fact that she is an ang mo, she probably got ripped off already , that's why the uncle kept her passport for her.

With bated breath, we surrendered to what I thought was a wet dream come true, and between the 2 of us, we almost cleared out the sale with more pairs of shoes than my grandfather will ever own in his lifetime...

Check it out!

Conventional wisdom has it that women with inexplicable affection for heels have issues.

But $15 for months of happy hours from the sense of empowerment that you get from being 5-inches taller than you really are, I tell you, the feeling is priceless.

And plus don't you think they're just lovely? Awwww....

Hi my name is Isabelle and I have an addiction to heels. My entire blog is peppered shamelessly with indications of it. In fact, you can also read about it here and here.

Outfit on Isabelle: FCUK inspired romper from BonitoChico

Mid-Year Resolutions

Having New Year's resolutions is like the Thais declaring a war against their state, or Linsey Lohan announcing that she found a cure for cancer- there is a lot of fanfare but nobody actually takes them seriously.

Remember my one of my earlier resolutions to go to New Zealand to pick apples? Well, like any New Year's resolutions, it never materialised.

But Mid-Year's resolutions are goals that are precipitated as a result of observations and experiences from the first half of the year, and then forecasted onto the next half a year. Simply said, they are the more realistic and trustworthy brothers of New Year's resolutions.

So here are my top 4 and I can assure you that they are not your usual run-of-the-mill list:

1) Learn Bahasa

I am seriously thinking of signing up for the Bahasa classes at the Community Club.

Already I hear guffaws from all you fancy schmucks. But what's the point of learning French and fancy German when I'm probably only going there once, at most twice in my entire life. When I took up Japanese, it was because I used to travel to the country a lot with my dad, and hence a basic grasp of the language was useful.

Nevermind the 'Hellos' and the 'How do you dos', I need to at least learn how to swear, say "I understand what you're saying" or act blur with a "I don't understand Bahasa" when I want to amuse myself with the kind of things that people say aloud when they think you do not understand their language.

Besides, coming from someone who made a boo-boo in Indonesia when I ordered "Selamat satay" and the guy just stared at me like his face would crack.

I only found out later that while I wanted to buy 10 satays, whatever I said actually meant something like "Greetings satay!" which not only doesn't make sense, it made me look really stupid. It's going to be a fantastic face-saving language if I travel out into the region in the next couple of months, and I expect to be doing that quite a bit.

2) Pick up Poker and be damn good at it
I wanna hold em like they do in Texas Plays, fold em let em hit me raise it baby stay with me, luck and intuition play the cards with Spades to start...

Alright, I'll admit that the Gaga fever got to me, but what with the 2 new casinos opening in Singapore at the Integrated Sentosa Resorts and the Marina Bay Sands, I think it's time I do my part as a proud Singaporean to win back some worthy "foreign investment" - One. Game. At. A. Time.


3) Learn to play golf
Like snorting noodles through your nostrils or bungee jumping, I'll bet that learning to play golf is one of those evergreen items on everyone's list of "Things to do before you turn 30". Well, it is on mine.

Who cares if Mark Twain once said that golf is “a good walk spoiled”, and nevermind that I'd probably golf a grand total of ONCE a year. Golfing is just one of those things that at the ripe young age of 24, you don't really know why you want to do it, but you simply have to have the badge on your sleeve.

Besides, it's way cooler than telling people that you have the Certificate of Achievement for scaling the Great Wall of China, which nobody actually gives a fly about.


4) Join a gym/ dance class
Before my ass sags like a duffel bag and before I get thrown into TAF club. Nuff said.

Look who's been misbehaving!

Rarely am I ever denied entry into clubs without an ID for looking underaged.

But when the door bitch of a certain popular club in town decidedly accused one of us for being a jailbait, we hiked up our already-too-short Herve Leger and BCBGMAXAZRIA dresses, slung on our lambskin Chanel 2.55 purses and brought our perfected mega-watt smiles to St James Powerhouse.




Then we proceeded to paint the already scarlett-coloured mega-club red.

We first popped into Powerhouse. Now, there isn't much to complain about Powerhouse. There was awesome R&B music, the people were less posey and more dancey, and there were not many whales who would attempt to do a somersault on the podium after one too many apple vodka. In fact, it was perfect, until someone came up to us:


[Guy] Hey it's my friend's 21st birthday and we are breaking a bottle to celebrate. Thought you ladies might like to join us?

I've never felt more like a cougar in my life.

But at the brink of inebriation, anything and everything seemed like a valid reason for us to clink our wine glasses together in celebration. And so I fibbed, telling the guy that we got kicked out of the other club for being underaged, a story which he readily lapped it up.

After about 4 hours and 2 bottles of champagnes, I was still left with a lot of mileage to party. But then the fluorescent lights came on, and I was left with the choice adjourning to Dragonfly for some cheesy CantoPop, or risk looking like a mime performer basking in Orchard if I didn't get off the podium.

Clearly I chose neither...Siao!

So here's to my awesome friends, who gamely allowed me to post some of our photos on my blog. We were many things that night, but above all, we had fun.

But to the door bitch at the first club: If I had a cheaper Chanel bag, I'd swing it into your oily face and bloody your pug nose. May we look younger than you forever.

Happy Easter Ya'll

I spent the Easter Holiday in exactly the same way I'd spend celebrating Deepavali.

But to all of you, whom the holiday meant something more, Happy Easter to ya'll!

Dress from Sophisticate: A dash of colour for a cheerful occassion.

Latest Fashion Trend in Hong Kong

If intelligence is a determinant of one's sex appeal, then there is no clearer indication of one's brain size than the size of one's glasses.

While I am not a big fashion experimenter on a daily basis, sticking to slim-cut basics and 4-inch heels, the same way Tiger Woods stick to blond women, every once in a while, I go overboard experimenting with new looks.

A while ago it was the Blair Waldorf look, for which I bought a headband that came with plumes of feather and a ribbon so huge that it will put the headgear of a Qing Dynasty princess to shame. Even then, I only enacted scenes from the Case of the Siao Overaged Teenager within the confines of my own room.

In Hong Kong, it was the studious, preppy look. The main ingredient of this look: huge, thick-rimmed vintage spectacles. Students wore it, the working class wore it, bankers walking towards the Central subway wore it. The trend was said to have started in London, then spread to Hong Kong, Korea and Japan. While the geeky-specs appeal got picked up in Singapore, the more conservative local dressers did not adopt it in a big way.

So I while in Hong Kong, I went all out, and treated myself to a giant pair of cow print spectacles. And in my understated geeky glamour that is both intense and uncontrived, I reigned the streets of Hong Kong, charming people into divulging their most well-kept dimsum enclaves.

After all, like all things related to sex appeal, the bigger the better, isn't it so?

If I were a book...

If I were a book, I'll be one of those giant collection of short stories that begin abruptly, burn brightly, and end abruptly in unexpected ways. Every story would be somewhat disengaged, with different complex characters, yet strangely resonating with the previous. There will be unflinchingly sealed pages hardened with dried up glue, with secrets that no one other than the author would know.

It took me more than a week and 2 pints of Erdinger for me to see the simplicity of this question.

Check out my interview with Social PR here.

Yours Mathematically, Best Boy Slave

Sometimes in life, mathematics theories are applied to the most unthinkable of situations, like gambling, picking up chicks, shoe shopping, and rush hours in the morning. Over an MSN conversation on Sunday, it was a proposition.

I have a weakness for well-arched, painfully skinny 4 inch heels in a way as if my intelligence depended on them. Inevitably, I have amassed legions of Foot-philes with a soft spot for my well-heeled appendages. And what do they say about shoe-philes; is that beneath the heel of every successful Shoe-phile is a dedicated Footphile.

A Footphile, like people with most forms of philism, are attracted to feet, in the same way some men are to big boobs, rebonded hair and plastic nails. I wouldn't call a Footphile a Fetishist, because then you'd conjure up the images of strange men with froth at the corner of their mouth, wear their pants at chest-level, and who overdosed on colgate and peanut shells as an infant.

No, in fact they are well-heeled, god-fearing and normal looking professionals who would make my obsession with stealing toilet papers from library toilets look dangerous and abnormal.

So on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I was having a normal serious conversation with a Footphile when it expectedly steered towards him volunteering to bring me shoe-shopping. My dwindling collection of kick-ass boots and 4-inch heels has to be replenished just so that he can polish them for me. Talk about taking boot-licking to a whole new level, which I basically interpreted as:

"Free fashion advice, new sinful heels. Oh and being unconditionally worshipped."

With that part of the conversation starting with "You are the enigma of Goddess Isabelle", I was pretty much sold on the idea.

Footphile: I want to be your BBS - Best Boy Slave. That is how it's meant to be. Damn, maybe it shld be BBSF.

Me: Huh? What is BBSF?

Footphile: You know, it's like BBF, Best Friends Forever.
Mathematically, B(BS)F, where F is substituted by BS, and the outside B and F remain constant.
So that makes me your Best Boy Slave Forever.

Spotted: Sophisticated Executive Fashion Boutique at China Square

Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl with the exquisite sense of style and a treasure trove of beautiful clothes will probably never have a case of "I've-got-nothing-nice-to-wear-for-work" (not that she has to work), but mere mortals like us with only a fraction of her clothing money would have lamented at the lack of non-mass executive wears available in the market at some point in time.

And chances are, at some point in time, we'd have experience the humiliation of turing up at work in the same blouse from G2000 as the office receptionist.

Sophisticate is a boutique tucked in a corner of the Raffles Place area that caters to the fashion needs of working fashion afficionados who loves to dress up in well-tailored non-mass dresses in rich fabrics.

Owner and designer of the label, Wendy, invited me to check out her new Spring 2010 collection, and I must say, that she has outdone herself again.

The tweed square necked dress that I was wearing in the photo above is one of my favourites in her new collection.

Exuding vintage glamour and feminine details, the dresses at Sophisticate are something that even Blair Waldorf would approve of.

You can check out part of her new collection on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#/album.php?aid=175467&id=785744851

From now till this Sunday, 17 Jan 2010, Sophisticate will have a booth in Isetan Parkway Parade. Isetan shoppers will be entitled to a 20% discount off the new collection, and a whopping 50% off Sophisticate's older collection.

PS: I had to sneak a photo of me in that dress in the dresser, so it's chopped off where my hand with the camera is. LOL.

Discounted Spinelli's Coffee

Spy with your little eye and see if you can spot me in one of Spinelli Coffee's promotional collaterals.

Successful spotters who can gobble up that in-store promotion card up can stand to get a discount on their Coffee.

PS: I am joking, just in case there are humourless and socially unaware people who actually gobble it up.

Don't okay!

Updates

I am a blogger who hasn't blogged for 2 months.

Guilty as charged, but with a reason.

There's been so many things going on with my life, both privately and professionally

1. I have resigned from my job as a Public Relations Executive in a global communications firm.
2. I went island hopping on a neighbouring island and OVERDOSED on gloriously cheap massages
3. I went to Korea and got caught in a blizzard, and contemplated getting a new nose the next time I go there
4. I am seriously contemplating going to New Zealand to pick apples/kiwis for a month before I start work again
5. I didn't make a list of new year's resolution because I know I won't stick to them
6. Started my obsession with black lacey stockings and ended my obsession on hunks with blue eyes and long fluttery eyelashes
7. Thinking of helping my friend launch a new project which I will sheepishly front

So here you have it, ther superficial mandatory, I'm-back-on-the scene updates.

Ironic as it may seem, I am not in the habit of posting my from-the-heart personal updates on my blog because people who don't get laid enough will always judge and will never be able to comprehend the way I chose to live my life.

PS: I'll be doing more regular updates since I am not working

PPS: Oh wait, I might not because my social calender is actually very packed.

We'll see. Till then....