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.