From today’s Straits Times:

Some monks here are feeling the heat of competition provided by their foreign counterparts.

In particular, the local monks claim that foreign monks, who are mostly from China and Malaysia, are undercutting them by charging up to 50 per cent less for prayer sessions conducted at funeral wakes.

Mr Ang Juat Chong, 59, a Singaporean who has been a Buddhist monk for the last 18 years, said his monthly income has gone down by as much as 70 per cent in the last two years because of this.

‘Local monks charge about $1,200 to do Buddhist rites at funeral wakes, but these foreign monks charge only $600 or $700. So of course, funeral parlours will prefer to hire them,’ he told The Straits Times yesterday.

This is too much man. They’re replacing every single one of us?!

Tsk. Karma will come your way… just wait. I’ve seen it happy twice this month already to people who totally deserve it.

TGIF!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

Thanks to all your awesome people who remembered my birthday and helped celebrate it

There are no words to describe how grateful I feel, especially since my OWN father refused to celebrate it this year and my mom refused to celebrate it for the last few years.

Happy 21st birthday to myself

//

AFP
Tuesday, Oct 25, 2011

TAIPEI  - Taiwan plans to fine bloggers who make false claims or exaggerate on behalf of products and companies as the number of consumer disputes soars, authorities said Tuesday.

Parliament on Monday started revising a law to make it possible to fine bloggers and other reviewers up to ten times the payment they receive for false advertising, said the Fair Trade Commission.

According to local media, some bloggers are paid up to Tw$70,000 (S$2,947) per review.

Often the reviews are disguised as innocent journal entries, while in fact they talk up products and services to lure customers.

One recent controversy involved a popular blogger with a daily average hit of 140,000 who fabricated photographs to exaggerate the effect of beauty products, local reports said.

Legal disputes involving Internet commentaries have been on the rise in recent years, mostly caused by negative rather than positive assessments.

Under a different law, a woman was recently ordered to pay a noodle shop Tw$200,000 for calling its food “really bad” on her blog.

FINALLY. some form of control for bloggers.

Once again I would like to reiterate my stance that bloggers are NOT accredited forms of media. Read my previous rant on this. They are forms of media, just not credible ones.

Yes, they are entitled to their own opinions and yes, they can amass a following. In fact, some of them are quite interesting.

I guess my pet peeve lies with those “beauty  blogs” – some of them are just bloggers who jump on the bandwagon in anticipation of getting more freebies. Which girl will turn down bagloads of free makeup? not me for sure.

Now, i’ve been watching Drop Dead Diva recently, and boy, is it an awesome possum show! Laughs aside, it is so a smart show! From that, I’ve learned something about false advertising, and i definitely think that all these photoshop click-happy bloggers are falsely advertising about products.

Now, let’s hope they implement it in Singapore soon.

So, today, seeing as I desperately need to stay awake, I have decided to do up a blog post on doing my hair in Seoul, Korea.

Famous English-speaking salons

Since they are catered to english-speaking tourists (aka Westerners), naturally their prices will be jacked up. But if you can’t speak Korean, I guess they’re a safe bet. However, if like me you prefer your hair thick and full, these won’t be the places for you. Most caucasians love their hair layered and thinned out (ugh, why would you want to lose your hair so early in life?!)/

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Lucy Hair: 02-325-2225

Directions: Line 2 to Sinchon Station take Exit 1. Walk straight ahead until you reach Natuur Ice Cream shop and turn right. Approximately ½ block down on your left is a TWorld building Lucy Hair is on the 2nd floor.

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Hair & Joy: 02-363-4253

Directions and more information available on website: www.hairandjoy.com. Located in Hongdae off Line 2 at Hongik University Station Exit 8. Lucy (from above) came from this salon and prolly made enough to start up her own salon.

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Juno Hair : Really popular and famous chain throughout Seoul. I’ve heard that celebrities go there to do their hair. More information http://www.junohair.com/

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Toni & Guy: There are several locations throughout the Seoul Metro Area, find the one closest to you online at www.toniandguy.com/salon/finder.

What you should do

Print and bring many pictures, preferably of Korean celebrities. They will have the typical Korean cut, and therefore it’s easier for the stylist to gauge what exactly you want. If you don’t have photos, fret not. Most salons should have this “consultation area” where they have many pictures in a file so all you have to do is it point. The salon I went to even had laptops so you could google for styles you want.

Types of styles

Magic Straight: Rebonding – gives you straight hair

Magic Volume: Rebonding BUT the top parts near your roots are “bounced” up to give you volume. Same with your ends. Gives you an appearance of fuller hair, and isn’t flat against your head.Kind of like a bown / apple head. The curls at the ends of your hair can be done in any way you want, inward or outward or a semi-messy curls.

Wave / Water Wave: Gentle waves, not the ajumma (aunty) tight perms.However, the outcome depends on whether your hair is layered or not. The stylist should advise you accordingly.

What I did

I have really stubborn straight and thick hair. So I decided to go for the wave to see how I’ll look.

First, the gown.

then, the wash and cut. – Cut is complimentary with every treatment you order. No add-on prices.

I’m taking the above photo from the consultation table.

Now, to hook me up to the octopus-machine that curls your hair.

This phot is before being hooked up. And that’s my uber fierce and sassy hair stylist Jei. She cuts hair on 4-inch heels. Don’t mess with her! hahaa

After being hooked up.

my very straight hair before the perm

Fresh out of the salon – pardon my cockster face. an overnight flight + no sleep + 4 hour hair session made me super excited to see hot steaming food.

1 month after the perm

And it cost me just 96,000 won (SGD 107).My friend did Magic Straight for just 120,000 won (SGD 134).

We did it at a salon called Cecica at Sinchon, near the Women’s university. Not advisable if you are 100% english speaking, cos they don’t speak a single word of english there.

However, don’t go to Orang Salon – we asked for price and it was 200,000 won for Magic straight. gasp.

I can’t wait to go back there and re-perm it

Filed under: Musings Tagged: Doing your hair in Korea, Doing your hair in Seoul, Ewha Women's University, Magic Straight, Magic Volume, Perming your hair in Korea, Wave ]]> http://minipong.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/hair-ye-hair-ye/feed/ 0 20111023_jqt minipong magic straight 20111021_gosoyoung_2 20111023_clinah_1 20111020_leehyori_21 20110822_silolita_suzy_2 SONY DSC 20111023_jqt gown jas-haircut 3 4 me straight 1 2 http://minipong.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/indian/ http://minipong.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/indian/#comments Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:17:03 +0000 Cherry Chibaboom http://minipong.wordpress.com/?p=1158 ]]> and that’s the theme of my day. No, not being racist.

Thank you Hindus (of whom many are Indians) for celebrating Diwali / Deepavali. That’s how I can sleep late tomorrow cos it’s a public holiday.

I’m so frigging tired from the super awesome weekend I had. Granted, I may have pushed my ageing body to its limits by scheduling so many things in a row. Check this out:

Friday: Woke up at 4.30am. Worked. Went home. Ate. Napped for 1 hour. Went to Korean class. Went to Sukja’s house where we were supposed to hang out and cook Korean food. Turns out she organised a mini surprise birthday party for me (yay!). Even had a birthday cake with Korean wordings. We   Stayed till 4am and went home.

Saturday: Woke up at 10.30am. Went to meet Nita and Jasmine for awesome Jap birthday lunch and yummy froyo dessert at Bugis. Jasmine KO-ed at 2.45pm and went home to sleep. Met Wendy at 4.30pm to alter clothes, hang out, eat yums Korean food, etc etc. Headed over to Zouk and stayed there till 3am.

Sunday: Woken up abruptly by annoying parents. Cleaned house. Stoned. Watched Jersey Shore. Went to bed at 9pm but couldn’t sleep till 12am. Had to wake up at 4.30am next day. FML.

Monday: Worked. Had a last-minute secret collaboration with former magazine people to have a mini celebration for former colleague. Ended up being Old Chang Kee delivery girl for ex-colleagues who had no time to go out for lunch. Bought mini pork burgers as “birthday cake” since ex-colleague hates all things sweet. Chatted with most of nice ex-colleagues, one of whom even gave me a bunch of beauty products. Loves

Went home, watched Drop Dead Diva (MOST FRIGGING AWESOME SHOW EVER), napped for 1 hour. Went out to watch free 3D premiere of The Three Musketeers (WHICH IS ALSO ANOTHER FRIGGING AWESOME MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!). Went home, crashed at 11pm.

Tuesday: Today. SO SLEEPY. ZZZ. But have to finish work and then meet Kenny for birthday coffee. My day should end at 3pm. oh, blissful sleep… I can’t wait to have a nice long date with you for 24 hours or more.

Unfortunately, I have another birthday dinner with the family (which I’M supposed to organise) tomorrow.

Seriously, who’s ever heard of someone organising their own birthday dinner with their own family? Shows much family love hur.

Can’t wait for this weekend! I’ll be turning 21! WASSAPPPPPPPP.

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and that was a huge detour from my Indian theme.

Another reason why Indian is my theme today is cos I read this article about the world’s fourth richest man, an Indian dude named Mukesh Ambani who built a multi-billion dollar 27-storey home for himself and hs family (3 kids, 1 wife, 1 mother) and a 600-member staff. Technically it’s 60-storeys tall cos he’s got high ceilings.

This dude has a MALL for his house. sheesh.

here’s a breakdown of his house

It starts with 6 levels of parking lots, then you get to the lift lobby where there’s 9 lifts – carpark lifts, family lifts, guest lifts, and service lifts.

See the door on the left of the above photo? It opens up to this.

80% of the ceiling is covered with chandeliers, and this ballroom can seat hundreds.

There are so many lounges where you can relax.

Check out the bathrooms. Sheesh.

The dude even has a theatre in his house that seats 50. I wonder if he installed a box office just for the fun of it?

of course you work hard and play hard. here’s his very own in-house gym and swimming pool and yoga rooms and what-nots. by the way, it spans 2 levels.

It’s so luxurious but I can’t really feel envious of it.. How will you ever find your own family in this sprawling place?! Let’s hope they have individual tracking devices on each other and a floor map app on their iPad.

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Anyway, HAPPY DEEPAVALI EVERYONE!