Bloggles

So, I have a backlog of NOTD swatches. These are more like “Nails of the last three weeks”.

17.09.09 – OPI – Kinky in Helsinki

I wasn’t sure if I liked this colour at first. It’s a little brighter than I’m used to but I’m glad to report that it grew on me in the end. While the pictures of it in direct sunlight suggest that it’s a bright hot pink, it has another dimension of red/magenta (a hint of which the indoor photo shows) depending on which angle you look at it from.

OPI – Kinky in Helsinki in direct sunlight

OPI – Kinky in Helsinki – artificial lighting indoors

20.09.09 – OPI – Yoga-ta get this Blue!

I bought this colour back in winter when I was searching for a vampy black-blue. I was a little disappointed to find that it was more blue than black but was glad that David requested I wear this colour again (he likes that it looks like the magneisum blue that a limited number of Rays racing wheels came out in). Perhaps it’s the recent sunshine that has allowed me to appreciate it for what it is because I loved it the second time ’round. It was a little dark for spring though, and didn’t go with the clothes I have been wearing so far this season.

Excuse the messy paint job in my photo. This was taken right after I painted my nails and before I got a chance to clean them up in the shower. I’m lazy and don’t really bother with nail polish remover. I prefer peeling off  and tidying up sloppy paint jobs in a hot shower – it’s not as messy and doesn’t stink! I’m also sure it’s a lot better for my skin.

OPI – Yoga-ta get this blue!

The wheels that inspired the colour choice. Rays released some of their wheels in this awesome magnesium blue.

24.09.09 – OPI – Melon of Troy

After rocking a darker shade, I thought a lovely, brighter colour should be in order. Enter Melon of Troy. I quite like this colour but am not a fan of frosty finishes. While it isn’t as bad as some others, the visible brush strokes/streaks annoy me. I don’t think it’s that significant that anyone else notices, though – I’m just being pedantic.

OPI – Melon of Troy

I am by no means an environmental activist or tree hugging hippie but over the past year or two, I’ve become more aware of my habits and the impact they have on the environment. I made a more conscious effort at recycling, which eventually led me to an epiphany, sparking in me a bigger change than just the initiative to sort my rubbish into in the correct bin.

It all started with  one of those ‘eco friendly’ shopping bags which I kept under my desk. Into it,  I would collect all things recyclable – paper, packaging, aluminium cans and plastic water bottles -  but found myself needing to empty it  more frequently than I would have liked. Turns out these water bottles weren’t very economical with the space in that bag. It took me a while, but I finally realised what my laziness to use one refillable drink bottle meant for our environment, i.e. 492837423873ty billion empty plastic ones that no longer served a purpose.

The learning curve continues. Much to my recent frustration, I found that 3 out of the 5 pens in my room no longer worked.

What the hell was I doing with 5 of the same pen and why did only 3 of them work?
This would have been attributed to my nasty habit of replacing one empty pen with a new one.

Why hadn’t I thrown out the ones that ran out of ink, you ask?
I guess because the pen itself was still more than just fine. The barrel, grip and clicky retractor thing were all in perfect condition and the Asian in me could not simply justify throwing it out.

What I failed to realise to do, was to buy some freaking ink refills. This way I would have a bunch of pens that all worked instead of just one or two amongst a growing collection of defunct ones.

Empty pens

The solution

Hey presto!

Here I was, thinking I was doing the right thing by taking the initiative to recycle when really, my actions in the first place were where the problem was stemming from. Prevention is better than cure and while I’m disappointed it took me so long, I’m glad I did eventually come to this revelation. Yes, the things you do to correct mistakes make a difference, but it’s the things you refrain from doing that make a bigger difference. Proactivity > reactivity. I understand that this is not something that clicks for people overnight but it all starts with the first step. You’ll wonder what changes you as one person can effect but collect all the recyclable things that you would’ve otherwise thrown out and you’ll soon agree that it all definitely adds up. A social experiment, if you will.

13.09.09 – Appin

We had been to this trail once before at the very beginning of our interest in off-road riding. As a mountain biking novice, the trail was quite daunting and challenging with technical sections that I mostly walked or took the bee-line through. It didn’t help that I hadn’t exercised prior to that in about 5 years but that was almost a year ago and I’d like to think that I have built up some fitness and a bit more skill (and gonads) since then. With this in mind, Appin has been a ride that we had set our sights on returning to (but with some knee and elbow pads). We finally got around to doing this on Sunday which turned out to be a pretty warm day.

We thought we’d be ok to navigate our own way around since Appin is known for being so well signposted but as you would have it, we’re not that observant and missed some turns along the way. Two unsuccessful attempts were made at riding the trail (one of which ending in someone kindly letting us cut through their family’s backyard to get back to the street) but don’t fret, we were lucky enough to bump into two friendly and ultra helpful riders who offered to take us through the loop. They even helped us set our bike suspension up properly! (Third time’s a charm!). Thanks Steve and Luke if you are somehow (but very unlikely) reading this! We were pretty worn down by then and had a hard time keeping up (that and we’re just crap and unfit riders, ha!) but it was still enjoyable. I skipped quite a few of the technical bits I had set out to overcome (that’s ok, I still don’t have knee and elbow pads and will use that as my excuse) but am sure I rode more of the trail than I did when I first visited it last year. I didn’t appreciate what an awesome ride it was back then but will definitely be going back for more since I have developed a taste for flowing single track!

Getting ready to roll at the entrance to the trail

Buggered after getting lost for the second time

Still smiling… this must have been taken on a rest stop on our first attempt at the loop, hah.
Note the riding gloves I am wearing…

… Because they are responsible for this hideous glove tan I have!

I was really excited about trying a nude polish for spring but was disappointed to find that it just blended in with my skin tone. I reassured myself that it would stand out once we started getting sunny skies because I would develop a tan for it to contrast against… Apparently not if I’m spending my days riding with gloves on! I’ll need to do some serious hand tanning to even this out if I ever want Samoan Sand to look good on me!

12.09.09

David’s rotors were on their way out… actually, they had already left. To address this, the Stevo’s magic touch was enlisted.

Stevo & David Vs. Rotor

The boys worked on the car…

… While I took stupid photos of Paul sitting on the ground looking like a cave man

… and his bike rolling on an orange Regamaster!

Guess whose dirty cambo foot this is? Eww!

12.09.09 – Warning: Lots of photos!

It was a little on the toasty side this weekend but all that sunshine made it really easy to take some nice eye popping photos of my latest haul.

I was giddy with excitement when David and I arrived at Paul’s to use his garage because I had just gotten these:

L-R: Blushingham Palace, Overexposed in South Beach, Skinny Dip’n in Lake Michig’n, Parlez Vous OPI?, Hey! Get in Lime!, Sahara Sapphire, Melon of Troy, Don’t Melbourne the Toast

His front yard makes for the perfect place to document the latest additions to my stash! That plant in the background makes this photo very Miami. As you can see, I’m sticking with my resolution to get with the colours, buying some that I wouldn’t usually consider.

Blushingham Palace, Don’t Melbourne the Toast

A comparison shot just to reassure myself that these two colours are indeed not the same.

Macarons have taken a back seat in recent times but I discovered last week another place that offered them! Yay!

L-R: Raspberry, Mango and Coconut, Lime

I wondered if these would bring them back… But alas, they did not. The flavours were nice but the texture wasn’t quite right

That night everyone went clubbing so I spent the evening at home with my parents which was nice. I don’t remember the last time I was home with them on a Saturday night. We grabbed a bite to eat (and bumped into my brother who was there with his mate) before taking Brandi and Sunni for a furl around the block. It was the first time we had them out together and Sunni was being really annoying, constantly yapping and nipping at Brandi’s heels but I soon discovered this was solved by walking him in front. The jealous little bugger just has to be number one all the time!

We then returned home where I  had a new rack for my polishes to organise ^_^ :

Goodbye to my old storage system!

… and hello to my sexy new display rack!