Chicken Livers from Barcelos

I quite like chicken livers and I don't see it often on menus (if at all). So when I did see it on Barcelos' menu, I was tempted to try it out.  Barcelos' has a similar concept to Nando's with it's Peri Peri sauces of various heat. If you've never tried Nando's and you don't like sour food, then Barcelo's isn't for you because the Peri Peri sauce is pretty sour.

But I did like their chicken livers, it was marinated and cooked just right. Has inspired me to try cooking livers at home more.

Coach Retail vs. Coach Factory Outlet

Have a read here http://www.brandculture.com/blog/2010/06/when-is-a-coach-bag-not-really-a-coach-bag-when-its-from-the-coach-factory-store/ regarding the difference between Coach Retail and Coach Factory Outlet. It's a big eye opener as I never knew how factory outlets operate these days. Not just Coach, but other brands too. I guess it makes sense to just manufacture stuff specifically for their outlets and sell at a cheaper price. But I don't think this would deter me from shopping at Outlets, especially in Oz and US - WE LOVE OUTLET SHOPPING! I think it's the thrill of finding a good bargain. Have you heard how Asian tourists going to NYC just hop in a cab with empty suitcases and immediately tell the taxi driver to go to Woodbury (Factory Outlets)? Yup....think that will be me next time....hehehehe. Seriously considering going just for the Thanksgiving Sales or Black Friday Sales next year!

Become a Citizen or be forced to lose your PR?!

By now most people in Singapore would've heard about the speech made by a certain Senior Minister. If you haven't, have a read about it here http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC100908-0000069/A-good-idea,-or-maybe-not-,,,

In all honesty, in my 7 years of PR I have never once had the inkling of wanting to convert to Citizenship because I don't want to lose my Australian Citizenship. I don't see why I should when there is always the possibility of me living back in oz. Perhaps if I had no intention to ever return I would gladly give it up, but not right now and I don't foresee myself changing that mindset in the near future. Truthfully I can't think of any good reason right now, except for those occasional cash incentives given once in a while which I'm ok to go without. Concessions when you go to the polyclinics and hospitals, but most of the time I go to private clinic for treatment anyway and I'm not really too concerned about voting in elections either.

Is Singapore really freaking out about not having enough citizens to populate the country? How can you possibly force anyone to become a citizen of a country whom they may not even be loyal to?

It almost makes me feel unwelcome now after all these years of trying to fit in. My husband and child are citizens, so will they ask me to become one? Maybe, maybe not since I pretty much don't have anything to contribute to the country....LOL!

How to create your own Ringtone for your iPhone - My Step by Step Tutorial

Making an iPhone ringtone is actually very easy. As long as you have some music on your iTunes, you can create endless numbers of Ringtones. Let's begin shall we? :) Click any of the pictures for a bigger version.

1. So find the song you want to turn into a ringtone. Then right click it and click Get Info. 

2. Then click the options tab. Here you can specify where you want your ringtone to start and end. It is best to keep your ringtone lengths to 30 seconds. It doesn't have to start at 0:00, if you want the chorus part, then just put in the time when that starts and add 30 seconds to it to get the end. Then click OK to close the window.

3. Then right click the chosen song again and this time click Create AAC Version. This will create a duplicate of your song. Notice the length of the song will be just as you specified. Listen to it again just to make sure it's where you want it to be. You can then go back to the original song and click the Get Info again and Options tab to unmark the start and end time to restore it to its original settings.

4. Then click and drag the duplicate onto your Desktop. You can then go ahead and delete the duplicate off your iTunes.

5. Go to the file on your desktop and change the extension to .m4r

6. Then drag the file from your desktop to the Ringtones folder on your computer. It should be something like the above, in the iTunes folder. Double click the file to play it and will play on iTunes and appear under the Ringtones tab on your iTunes - see below pic.

7. Link your iPhone to your computer and find the Ringtones tab on your phone and choose the ones you want to upload.

On your phone you'll find your ringtones under the Settings --> Sound --> Ringtone

Hope this helps! Feel free to repost and share with friends!

Coastal Scents Make-Up Haul

If you regularly trawl YouTube to watch various makeup tutorials by popular gurus, you would've one time or another come across them talking about Coastal Scents 88 Eye Shadow Palette. A lot of them gave very good reviews of the palettes and say how pigmented they are and how they are very value for money and are very comparable to MAC's eyeshadows which also draw rave reviews because of how pigmented they are. Pigmented meaning you don't even need to swipe so much of the stuff on your brush in order to see the colour. But we all know MAC is very expensive. So I decided to go get them myself. They don't sell this in Singapore so I bought it online from the US and used Comgateway to send to me as I had other stuff I was getting elsewhere too. I got 2 palettes, the 88 Ultra Shimmer and 88 Metal Mania - only because they were having an offer when you buy the two (of course!)

My Verdict: I totally love it! Now I think I'll never have to go buy another eyeshadow again, this is gonna last me for yonks. And they were right about the pigmentation, a light swipe of the colours as you can see in the photo below show how bright their colours are. And if you use an eyeshadow base/primer these colours will last you ALL DAY.

Nice matt, clean exterior and it tells you on the front which palette it is. Convenient cos all the other palettes are the same design. Here is the 88 Ultra Shimmer Eye Shadow Palette. The palettes aren't that big and can easily be packed into your suitcase or handbag if you need to take them with you.

There's a mirror, but unless you prop the lid on something, it'll just fall down and render the mirror kinda useless.

  

When it arrived one of the darker pinks was a little cracked :( The size of the pots are between the size of Singapore 10 and 20 cent coins.

The Metal Mania Palette is more warm hues.

Also bought the Blush Palette

The brown one in the middle is the contouring one, it looks scary and dark but it's really a matter of control on how much you put on the brush. The highlight colours I'm not really sure what to do with cos I don't usually do highlighting.