If you have been following Dawn Yang's blog like I do (or perhaps stalking it if you're too shy to admit it), you would have noticed that she recently did an advertorial for www.designluxurybrands.com, which - wait for it - happens to be an online scam site!

It appears to be a cheap copy of the site www.designerluxury.com. Pages like "Testimonials" have been ripped off the original site (See original and fake). Haha but at least fake site bothers to tailor their "Money Back Guarantee" page.

Several people have been cheated of their money from the fake site, being lured by the cheaper prices of *authentic* luxury goods. Dawn has since taken the advertorial down but I wonder if she was being scammed of her advertorial pay, or how many referrals the site got and eventually cheated girls of their cash.

When I took a first look at the site, I really thought they were pretty good deals! I'm lucky I don't have the thousands to splurge on designer items, or else I would have ended in the same hot soup as those who got cheated :( That being said, online scammers are really an irritating bunch!!

OK I didn't really intend to blog about this but I was surfing around and this topic caught my eye, so bear with the dryness while I hem and haw about my newly found blogosphere gossip. Haha!

Related Posts:
http://xiao_jpg.blogspot.com/2008/05/designer-luxury-scam.html

Back in secondary school, whenever the long holidays approached, the school would force us to buy from a list of "recommended books" and complete a book review assignment for our Chinese class.

One of the books I got was 红楼梦or "Dream of the Red Chamber", because my mother was a great fan of Chinese literary classics and poems, and the "四大名著" or the "Four Great Classical Novels".

I wasn't terrible at Chinese. In fact, I was considered alright with my As and B-pluses. (My school was historically a Chinese school so it was a culture to produce As and Bs for Chinese exams.) However, while I could regurgitate idioms, difficult words and structures of essays, I wasn't very good in speaking and reading. I remember struggling through the book and eventually getting a summary online, then translating it into Mandarin for my assignment. Needless to say, I don't really remember what the book's about.

After secondary school, I did well enough to skip the Chinese exams in Junior College. So effectively, I haven't been practicing the language for 5 years. (Dad speaks English and Mum is on this whole "multilingual" thing so she speaks dialect to me.)

A few days ago, I picked up 红楼梦; because I felt I was ready to appreciate the great work of fiction. I read every Chinese character in the book and after 2 days, I'm still at page ten. Not to worry! I'm sure my reading speed will pick up and I can finally claim that I've read one of the four (some says five?) great books in China history.

***

Last night I witnessed an accident involving a taxi and a motorcycle.

There was a loud screech of tyres and the next thing I saw, was the motorcyclist groaning on the ground and his vehicle in a wrangled mess. The front of the taxi was smashed and pieces of the headlights dangled above the road. The taxi driver was hurriedly getting bottled water for the motorcyclist, as the crowd of onlookers grew.

I felt a surge of emotions. "I pity the cab driver," I told Amal, who was with me when the crash happened. I felt nothing for the motorcyclist (in comparison to the driver), who was still sitting dazed on the ground, a patch of blood on his back growing.

But as I watched the cab driver scurry from his cab to the motorcyclist, my heart went out to him. Is his insurance premium going to increase by tenfold? Will he get penalised by his cab company? How is he going to pay for the motorcyclist's medical bills? Poor guy, just trying to earn a living. How long is he going to take to earn this back?

Amal looked at me weirdly and said that the motorcyclist was bleeding.

Yah, I thought I reacted pretty weirdly too.

• 22 dollars was the amount of money I spent on my cab ride because I was too lazy to travel.
• 18 minutes was the time spent at the location to which I'd cabbed.
  
  
• 12 were the number of people who dropped by the Nuffnang office today to collect their Family Day tickets. Congratulations!
  
  
• 7 were the number of shuttlecocks I counted lying idly on the ground when I popped over a while to watch my friends play some badminton.
  
  
• 5 were the number of plates of sushi I had for dinner, before I declared I was full, because of some "chew slowly and I'll be full" principle I'd just adopted. Of course, the bubble tea was the one that really did the trick.
  
  
• 2 were the number of people who laughed at me because I asked, "Oh wait, is October after August???"
  
  
• 1.5 hours was the amount of time spent with Valerie watching Japanese serials when she popped by the office and stayed.
  

Guess what I've been doing!

.
.
.

I've been finding a girlfriend for Scruffy! This is Cotton.



I think she's a very gentle, sweet dog with lovely tresses. Although a little picky about her food because she only loves apples. But Scruffy will share, since he eats everything, won't you, boy?



But either way, you don't have a choice, Scruffy. I'm making her your girlfriend. Heehee!

Felt super tempted to go for the SAAB City Duathlon this year, but then I saw the figures for the route distance and promptly erased all thoughts of participating.

10km run, followed by 40km cycle, and finally a 5km run to the finishing line. Sure, I might be able to do the initial run and probably the cycle, but I could picture myself wheezing and spluttering during my last 5km. And every minute of my remaining run would be pure agony to my lungs and muscles. No way am I putting myself through that! Especially now that I've somewhat shelved my running routine (again).

Then, I noticed the next sentence in my newsletter,

For the novice, there is the half duathlon category where all distances are halved.

This got me all excited and my hopes raised. Until...

Half Duathlon - 16 yrs to 19 yrs - Run 5km/Cycle 20km / Run 2.5km

All. Hopes. Dashed.

They put an age cap on the half duathlon!! Are the organisers mad or what? When I was 16, a 5km run seemed like a bloody marathon to me. I don't think anyone is going to sign up for that. Therefore, they should just open registration to all age groups for the different categories. *Growls*

Yah lah. I like to eat sour grapes, can?

#1 Exams

My first paper was H-O-R-R-I-D. It was a Math paper, and I forgot to bring extra pencil lead, so I was stranded with a non-functioning pencil. I asked for some rough paper but due to some stupid new rules the invigilator refused to give me one, and that I had to "finish using up" my current answer booklet. I said, oh fine, and she walked away.

But I realized, a few moments later that it wasn't fine, because now I'd have to do my scribblings on my booklet and then I really believe in the fact that examiners mark better with good presentation. So I spent about 10 minutes with my blood boiling about not having paper to work with and hoping she'd walk down my aisle again so I could put up a good argument with her and protest against the unfairness it all. But she never did.

#2 Cooking

Mummy's away in China for business. If you recall, Daddy's currently recovering from his op, and is under a strict diet in which no chicken, no pork, no fruits and no vegetables are allowed, which essentially means he can only eat fish. (Seriously this is lame I thought patients are always encouraged to have more fruits and veggies but argh, Doctor's orders!)

Anyway, she entrusted the task of cooking to... me. ME! I love baking but I'm not exactly a great chef. The last time I tried cooking a pot of porridge, I burnt the bottom layer of porridge because I was too lazy to check on it. But today I took great care in stirring the porridge at intervals and Daddy loved it. Yay!

#3 A Million Little Pieces

I'm reading a new book! A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, who tells his story about his experience in rehab and finally bidding his addict days goodbye. I was lovin' it until the moment where I Googled about it, and read that the author fabricated key parts of the book. How do you continue reading a book as Fiction when you've started out reading it as Non-fiction??

Every night, my sister borrows my mobile phone, for my free incoming calls.

Her talktime varies. Sometimes, she goes on for hours, and sometimes she hangs up real quick. But most of the time, when she's speaking to her boyfriend, she takes much longer.

I've established a pattern, linking the length of her talktime to the topics discussed with her guy. I've found out that for 1 hour or more of talktime, she's usually fighting with her boyboy. About mundane stuff.

Extremely annoying mundane stuff.

Tonight I've listened to the most boring fight topic ever:

Boyfriend opens sweet wrapper for another girl (whom she dislikes very much).

"Oh, you opened sweet wrapper for her, what would others say about me? My boyfriend opens sweet wrappers for other girls.."

"You know she's a flirt, you still open sweet wrapper for her.. what are you trying to prove.."

"So if I share a burger with another guy, you will accept it?"

"One day you might just leave with another girl."

"The stuff you do are very scary."

I pity her guy. Not really. I kinda dislike him, although I've never met him. So I hope he leaves her soon. I'm evil, but it's because I love my sister.

I don't have a habit of picking up my land line when it rings.

My friends all call me through my mobile, and I get telemarketers most of the time when I pick up the home phone.

So usually, I just ignore it and let it ring.

I was alone at home today. I don't know why but today it rang and I picked up.

It was my distant aunt, who wanted to drop by to visit Daddy, with Distant Aunt 2. And there I was, stuck on the phone, trying to figure out what she was trying to say amidst the rapid Hokkien words. I gave up after she rambled on for about 20 minutes.

I also learnt one thing:

It's better to just agree with everything. Do not try to do polite comments or else you'll earn yourself an extra ten minutes of one-way conversation.

After watching scores of videos of the Big Mac Chant, I think if I go another minute without food I'm going to die of starvation.

I've never been good at this dieting shit. I have mini meals at least 6 times a day. When I'm not eating, I'm munching. How is it possible to cut down on my food intake???

Excuse me while I go drown myself in Merci chocolates.

• Yahoo's shares plunge after Microsoft exits (link)
  
  
• Myanmar Cyclone: Death toll "could reach 10,000" (link)
  
  
• Austria incest case: Father raped daughter in front of their children (link)
  
  
• Reality imitates art: Actor collapses on stage for real during heart attack scene (link)
  
  
• Prince Harry receives medal after deployment was cut short (link)
  

To my friends, thank you for the sms-es, phone calls and msn messages.

Anyway, Dad's operation was a success! They removed the polyp with no other mishaps, and he's currently recuperating at home.

We are all very thankful for that, except for one teeeny weeny problem: A patient in pain is one hard to handle patient.

1. Whines about his food
Because he has strict orders from the doctor about his diet, a lot of yummy things are off the list for him. Mum and I have been taking turns preparing his food for him, which kind of resembles baby food. Porridge with extremely soggy grains, and fish - the only meat he can take for now.

One day Mum fried some chicken wings for the rest of us, and he put on a face and started grumbling! To pacify him we all settled for porridge for our meals.

2. Disappears without anyone's knowledge
Dad had to take leave from work to rest, so he's spending most of his time in his bedroom, lying down and just staring at the ceiling.

So sometimes, he just... disappears. His room is empty, his car is gone. He returns a few hours later, and if we chide him about it, he grumbles that being at home is boring.

***

One thing good that has come out of it though, is that my sis, Dad and I are on the same page about Mum.

Because of his disappearing acts, Mum sat him down for a lecture.

If you want to go out, fine. But no outside food. No running about. NO CIGARETTES. No outside food. NO ALCOHOL. Come back on time. No running about. NO CIGARETTES, you get me? Ok, have fun with your friends.

One day, Dad came over and asked me, "Your Mummy.. she very naggy, hor?"

"23 years. Took you long enough."

Last Tuesday, Michael and I went down to Zouk for Madonna's Hard Candy album launch (thanks Matin!).



I think it was one the coolest events I've experienced at Zouk. It was colourful, noisy and there was lots of candy! I was dying to grab the free candy floss by the door but was concerned about my "image". The people there all looked so sophisticated and cool, and nobody was munching on candy floss. So I let it pass :(

The event started with a Muay-thai boxing contest. There contestants were female, and they were really, REALLY hot. I have a soft spot for toned abs and tanned legs! Well, it wasn't really a 'competition' per se, because both rounds concluded with ties. I know, right! Why have a tie when you can have winners =\

And oh, after the end of each round, there would be a topless guy with a great bod announcing the start of the next found. The audience loved him! They cheered for him whenever he came on the ring. I overheard this random guy commenting, "He must be paid quite alot to walk around naked like that."



After that, we got into the VIP bar, where there was free flow of food and liquor. I don't mean to sound ignorant or cheapo, but...

Free. Flow.

The finger food was fantastic! They had little cups of spaghetti, fried shrimps, chicken wings, fruit tarts, mini cheese hotdogs... I don't think I even tried them all.

Matin also got us to try this "Madonna drink" of the night, which was actually 42below mixed with orange. It tasted like... Orange juice. But they probably had to give it a nicer name (and fit it with the Madonna theme), hence "42 Minutes".

Matin and Rohai were already tipsy by the time we got there, so we spent most of the night teasing them, laughing and having loads of fun. Pictures!



I even made up my own joke.. to which Michael scoffed and rolled his eyes.

Q: Why is Madonna a proud person?
A: Because she's a prima donna.

Pri-Madonna. Geddit?? HAHA!

Discarded:

• 1 mattress
• 1 cartoon bedsheet
  
• 1 quilt
  
• 4 sleeping pillows
• 2 cuddling pillows (one of them given to me on my 17th birthday =< )
• 1 baby pillow
• 1 bolster

Aiyah, don't ask me why I have so many pillows. I'm just fond of them and I love to bump into pillows wherever I toss and turn to.

Initially I had insisted that we soak all the covers in hot water, but Mum maintained that bedbugs love cosy areas and that my bed was "too cosy". Wtf where got such thing one.

So when I was out, she threw out my pillows. She didn't even leave mercy for my BABY PILLOW. Mothers are weird. They give us our baby pillows, then they take them away when we've established our 10-year bonds with our baby pillows. After which, they leave us as poor, broken, and identity-less souls.

Bought:

• 1 extra uncomfortable mattress
• 1 super boring plain blue bedsheet
• 1 blanket
  
• ONE pillow
• NO bolster
  

Again, bought by Sneaky Mum when I was out. According to her, she spent a bomb on my "special mattress" which is supposedly good for my back.

What it actually is: A thin sheet of cotton placed on top of my bed, so thin it feels like nothing at all.

HMPH. I woke up with a bad back instead. How do people sleep on such stuff! It's hard and not fluffy at all. And the pillow! Who sleeps with ONE pillow? What do my arms hug?

Stole:

• Two pillows from Mummy

Coerced Glenn into buying:

• One bolster from Mini Toons

I'm a much happier person now.