Jocie Lilin: Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

Hello readers! Here's wishing everyone a merry xmas and happy new year!

I was playing with duffy as i ordered the artificial flower decor from taobao by wrapping it around her and she didn't dare to move afterthat.

super super cute! and its time for me to buy her cny clothes soon after the new year!

Anyway, similar to the previous years, i didn't really plan for any xmas or new year celebrations, it was always a impromptu decision to wants to organise one but everyone is not free because it was a last minute thing.
but exchanging xmas present with le gf has never been a impromptu one, haha, it has become like our tradition to exchg present for each other every year,and this year we increased the budget for the xmas present exchange to $200 because i am working right now so we are able to get something that is useful,practical and something that we know both of us will like the present with some worth value.

of cos budget is one thing, but the process of getting something special to someone, means you putting the extra effort to walk around and shop around trying to find a suitable present is the most tedious process.
And in this case for hers, i get her a customised beauty box which i have to go to more than one store to get the different item to be packed into the beauty box.

i am a practical person to some extent so i believe the gift that i give should be practical and useful to someone especially to my close friends if we are going to do xmas exchange.
Christmas is supposed to be an annual festival in commemorating the birth of jesus christ but i guess the customs of celebrating christmas that used to apply only for christinas has shifted to a wider audience, it has become one of the major occasions that we celebrated even if we are not christians.

I know the history of Christmas is very long and i am not going to digress further into it. But what i am trying to say is that it has become a marketed special occasion from retailers that encourage you to experience the joy of giving by having alot of sales during this festive period, nicely packaged gift sets etc, they make profits and you get the experience. fair enough.

i was only planning to exchange xmas gift with Michelle because i am lazy. heh
and i got my first daniel wellington watch!

and i think both of us actually exceeded our budget of $200, because this watch is selling more than $200 and le gf don't mind paying extra more when she knows i like a DW watch!
we have exchange so many presents to each other already that sometimes we don't even know what to get for each other.

and this is the beauty box that i have specially went to select the box, its gold colour so i name it the royal beauty box. it include Orbis product, the cleanser, toner, diet supplement, the diet supplement actually cost more than the clinic slimming pills, later on when she almost finish the tablets, she told me its doesn't realy work.
so orbis diet supplement is not really that effective, so for anyone who is interested to, don't bother. because i think it cost like $70-80 plus for this one packet.
and i got her the Dr young cc cushion, which was my day because they happen to have a self collection day before the xmas day which i specially headed down to town instead of east side to collect this product, and the other small items include the biore jelly makeup remover, blusher, innisfree loose powder etc.

We actually meet two days before xmas to exchange our yearly exchg present at holland village,

the dinner we had was quite horrible and i strongly advise anyone to visit the cafe.

firstly, the food was served quite slow, even though there was not much people. no crowds, and even after we left the cafe, we finally know why.

the food simply sucks.

michelle didn't even finish her food.

she was quite horrific when her hamburger bun was made of mushrooms. two super big piece of mushrooms, and i tried and i must say the taste is just eew.

I ordered some fried chicken stuff. not appealing, i still thought if we had ordered mexican cuisine is definitely going to taste so much better than this cafe.

and i forgot the name of this cafe located at holland village

but just remember the stretch of different restaurants, mexican cuisine etc, just spot the cafe that don't have crowds, should be coming from this cafe!

After a horrible dinner, we needed ice-cream!

okay i remember, this cafe is located just directly opposite haagan daaz.

so don't say i have not warn beforehand!

so we went to haagan daaz and ordered this seventh heaven! which we greedily ordered 7 different flavours of ice-cream based on our preference!

When it came with the dried ice! yummeh ice-cream. but way too sinful to eat it daily.

While eating our ice-cream, MTLW listened to my story of sadness.

all the rants. one story per day so i won't 中内伤.

but she got pretty used to having a complain queen gf.

hearing to me complaining about every single thing that i don't see eye with.

there was a few times i got so used to describing her as sadness that i almost blurted out calling her sadness! HAHAHA.

i can really write a storybook just on how she can irritate me so much in a span of 3 months.
Anyway, i ordered this tart from littletartbaker, you can view more photos on their instagram by searching littletartbaker.
this was the second time that i have tried their tarts, and i love it, it was quite good!
ordered it on xmas eve and share it with boyf when he is back from duty on xmas eve.
you guys might want to try it, just whatsapp her to order or fb-msg her to place your orders.

Duffy with the tart!

On christmas day, as most of us does not have to work, and olm has bought a life vest for duffy as we are bringing her to the beach to play water.
so we tried her life vest at home before we headed to east coast park!
and she is so adorable that she does not dare to move a inch after we help her wear the life vest on her.
so she was keeping the same position, and we tried to make her chase after us etc but she refused to budge.
just staying still at that same spot that i just have to take some photos of her!

a video of her refusing to move at all.

initially i thought it was going to be crowded at east coast park, but surprisingly it was quite okay, i guess everyone was probably still sleeping at home after the late night out on the xmas eve.
nowsdays i found it pointless when you stay out so late on christmas eve if you are planning to spend half a day sleeping on christmas day.
what is the difference if you just sleep according to your daily bedtime and celebrate or go out with your friends the next day?
At least your body clock is not too screwed.
we managed to find a spot when we reach the park and i bought a mat and we quickly settled ourselves, bf came to join us from his house and mummy prepared some sandwiches, nuggets beforehand.
the only thing that i really hate is the sun.
it was a scorching hot day.
a video of duffy getting into the water and how she is so afraid of getting back into the water because of the splashing waves and its was pretty high tide on that day.

this was her before she become so funny after soaking in the salty water in the sea.

me taking a photo of olm and duffy before she go for her first splash!

simple makeup on that day!

i think i need to get this kind of sungglasses so that i won't look like mosquito when i wear sunglasses

photo with mummy!

and photo with the kiddy bf!

i was actually mad on that day because after we decided to leave the park, we need to at least bath duffy because her fur is all stucked with all those dirty particles in the sea, so initially she bring duffy to bath, and when we went to rinse our feet, i was looking for them because they was taking quite long but they was nowhere in sight.
and i saw a small signage on the tap where they allow to rinse their feets using the tap or to top up water and they indicate no bathing of pets.
so i was guessing that is probably why i couldn't find duffy and olm.
it was later on when i saw them coming back and she still did not managed to bath duffy because she saw the signage and she didn't bring duffy to rinse her body.
sorry but not sorry, rules are meant to be broken,
the signage only indicate the tap outside the shower area, which mean there was no signage on the open rinsing area to rinse before going to the shower cubicle, which i bring duffy to go in, i went to the male side because usually girl area are more crowded and there was barely anyone in the rinsing area.
but then olm's bf or jeremy told me to bring her to that tap area, which i brought her out since there wasn't alot of people using the guys side to rinse her la, cos she has so many stucked particles in her fur and if we don't clear it before we give her a proper bath at home, its gonna be difficult to remove later on.
i was already rinsing halfway when a muslim man came and was criticising us like,
"you guys never see the signage? no bathing of pets, be considerate!"
which got me fuming mad the moment someone got the cheek to come and criticise us.
i actually ignored and continue bathing duffy, because if you want me to be considerate, please slap your own mouth first when you are not being considerate in the first place.
if you want someone to be considerate, can you be considerate to know that we have to rinse our dog? and we are not actually bathing our pet.
we did not use shampoo, conditioner etc, its rinsing. not bathing.
its damm irritating if you encountered such human beings, because if i want to be spiteful, i can just bring duffy back to the big rinsing area for human size to rinse in the open area, because there is no signage, so you will also be L L right?
if this is the fact just because she is a dog.
you should just go to hell. no sense of compassion towards an animal who merely just need a quick rinsing and you just have to shoot your bloody mouth off.

i did show my face and attitude when he was looking at us.
olm and her bf was keeping quiet, but i don't think we are in the wrong.
only people who are selfish woud make such senseless comments.
and they better don't visit taiwan, since there are dogs everywhere and i see how you want to stop dogs from going areas that you have walked since they are literally everywhere.

in the end i went back home to give duffy a bath. nice cosy bath and she turned out fluffy again!