me again.


meant to be studying. hah. as we all know, what a joke that is! it's 5pm already. aiya. how annoying.

cam and his gf and maybe some other friends have headed off to NZ. they were rather late getting to the airport but they havent come back so im assuming everything went ok. i shall next see them in february i believe.

mmm. yesterday was a let-down. i'd been counting on getting my hair chemically straightened, permanently. oh what i dream it would be, to not have to shower, blow dry and then straighten my hair with a flat iron every god-damn morning, on top of putting on my makeup and general getting ready to do anything. and not having to worry about rain, or humidity, yes, that evil h-word!!! and especially so for travelling, the aeroplanes, the stopovers in foreign countries where i dont have electrical socket adapters for... but oh it was not to be. :(

apparently bleaching (i.e. dying hair blonde) and hair straightening cannot go together. otherwise i too should be joining leila and cathy's trend of shaving my head it seems. it's quite annoying. + the hairhouse warehouse staff where kind of rude about it. annoying people!
linda thought maybe i could try anyway, but i dont know...the risk seems a little too great. cos i know my hair is very fine, much more so than asian hair, and rather dead. then again, apparently if u over peroxide, on already bleached hair it's also meant to break. but that hasnt happened yet. then again maybe the bleached parts dont get bleached twice...im not really sure seeing as im not the one applying the stuff into my hair.

but linda straightened vicki's hair earlier in the year, and she bleaches or at least dyes it. linda also straightened her own hair about a week after she permed it, and then dyed it black the following week (not bleaching i guess, but still dying). but she used korean straightening products then for all the procedures. alas her magical store of korean straightening chemicals is all gone. :(

im assuming that the korean straightening is the same or at least related to what i've discovered is called 'japanese straightening', or sometimes 'rebonding'. meant to change the ions or something in the structure of the hair and re-make it, hence how curly hair can become straight. the japanese mainly use it for smoothing, adding shine and silkiness to their hair which is apparently quite course. everyone else int he world however does it for its straigthening properties. the unusual thing about the japanese process however is that it (if its the prope procedure, and not just a normal straightening lotion) it's meant to seemingly restore and improve the quality of ur hair, instead of killing it like every other chemical. and hence it is supposedly ok for bleached hair. though who knows.

in countries like australia the procedure whether its legit or not costs b/w $100 -$600. in asia countries it's considerably cheaper depending on where and the salon, eg. japan could be say $80, bangkok $10, singapore $50 or something similar.

after a considerable time of searching i have found the chinese translation for rebonding, so i believe i shall investigate it and chat with various hair salons in china and find out if their procedure will kill my hair or rebuild it as it's supposed to. they will of course try and convince me to cut the top layer of my hair into a mullet, while keeping long (sometimes rat-tails) underneath and crimp perm the top half so it looks like i've been electrocuted by a toaster- unless they've come up with a new equally ridiculous hair craze since last year- but i shall politely and determinedly decline.

i intend to make them test a small portion of my hair before doing any procedure, cos basically after some of my dying/ hair cutting experiences i know they have absolutely no idea how to deal with western especially fine hair. so it shall be an adventure no doubt, and hopefully not too much of a mis-adventure. luckily for me if i end up with no hair it'll be winter so i can just wear a pretty knitted beanie. moving on.


at least i kind of achieved something today. i went to the bank and finally set up internet banking which could prove handy when overseas. the silly girl who opened it for me though. god she could chatter away about nothing whatsoever! in between persuading me to do this and that with my account and open this other one and la-di-da-di-da she managed to keep me occupied for nearly 40mins talking about her housemates stealing her dog while she's at work, and her ex-bf from taiwan and her family in malasia and her sagas with melb public transport and the types of asian drama shows she likes to watch. now while im vaguely interested in some of these topics, ultimately if im in a bank trying to do a simple process and you're a total stranger, and i'd like to get on with the rest of my life, including packing for overseas and supposedly studying for exams, then i dont really care! my un-enthusiatic nods and murmurs did not seem to deter her though. she was quite the random motormouth. friendly of course but just....incessant. so yes, she wasted a fair amount of my precious time, and now ive wasted even more by talking about her and in the meantime i've forgotten what else i had to say in my post so i guess i shall be off.


ohh, actually. haha. half the reason i started this post was 'cause i was thinking of all the cool things i would be able to do again in another week or so (imaging that i wasn't going to be poor and crippled from paying rent, and trying to save up any money i happen to be lucky to earn, but we shall forget that for the time being), like manicures!



creepy as it sounds i'd love to bring some of these girls to australia. they could earn so much more for their businesses if only they could run them here! it's so cheap in china, or maybe rather so crazily expensive here.


but i reckon these girls have got some definite skills to their art. some of the designs u can choose them to paint on your nails (or the fake nails if your nails are crap) are really intricate and amazing. and some are fairly simply too, but mighty effective. ahh, the choices are great and then u can pick and match whatever colours, and add some diamantes or bubbles or whatever u wanna pay for.

some of the designs are so cute! like the 2008 olympic mascots! i hope i can find a girl who can do these!

and they dont use any stencils or special tools to paint either. they simply use the normal nail polish brush! or depending if they need to blend something maybe they use a sewing pin too. it's really very cool to watch them work.



i often got flowery designs last year, similar to the above and below photos. usually in pinks and whites and blacks.


and how pretty are these! i really like this design, i believe i shall try it. it's pretty simple but looks hot!




these black and white ones are quite sweet too. actually the top design works really well usually, all the random lines crossing over, i think i tried it once in some contrasting prupley colours, but i do quite like the black and white, and the crisscross pattern and bows on the bottom design are super cute! would look good with a black and white tweed mini skirt and long socks. haha.


i must take some photos of the underground plaza next time i am there. it's kind of like an underground greensy, but much cooler, with sections devoted to beauty, nails, hair, and tattoos; or sticker photos; bags, shoes, clothes, softtoys whatever. i love it!


ooh, this is a cool design. not very beautiful. but definitely cool!


haha, perhaps i should get all my nails done with the chinese flag before i go to get my visa re-newed haha... might just help to speed the process up, lol!