Mother's Day

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day last Sunday, be it celebrating with mum or the kids doing something special for you. Due to not-so-great circumstances, I wasn't able to give the mothers in my family a gift or bring them out for a good meal but I bought this kick-ass pink carnation cake to (hopefully) redeem myself.

A simple vanilla cake with fresh strawberries and cream from Green Pumpkin, a lovely little Japanese bakery at Nex. Mum said the cake was beautiful which is nice to hear :)

Anyway, was wondering if it's true that Singaporeans are not producing enough babies because I'm seeing quite a bit of baby activities on my news feed nowadays. Being in the position to have children without social judgement, Mother's Day sort of got me thinking about motherhood. Don't get too excited, I'm not planning on getting pregnant anytime soon.

My husband and I are neither financially nor mentally capable of raising a child but it really bothers me that the later we decide to start a family, the risk of birth defects is greater. Quite dilemmatic, isn't it? I don't know but practicality wins hand down for now...

Zumba Fitness

It's amazing how I managed to survive yesterday's Zumba Fitness class. After a two-week break, sort of kinda expected myself to faint in the middle of class or something. Got terrible lost figuring out the new routine and maybe that's why I didn't get unbearably breathless. Ha! Probably spent more time trying to figure out the exercises than actually doing now.

After three classes, I still can't differentiate Zumba from aerobics. Is there even a differences to begin with? You see, when I first started, the instructor asked us newbies if we know what Zumba is and looked kinda offended when I sort of relate the two together. Oopsie!

If asked to describe my Zumba Fitness class, I reckon it's like playing Just Dance or Dance Central on Kinect without the terrible score. The multipurpose hall is so huge that I can easily keep a good distance from the instructor and the class pros. I'm not pressurized to keep up and getting the steps right which is good. One thing I've learned is even if you don't get the steps, just whack with some enthusiasm and it would be enjoyable :)

Let's go phishing

Was kinda surprised to see a phishing email in my inbox as they usually go straight to the junk box. Either the spam filter is not working properly or the emails are getting more difficult to recognize. Hmm... I wonder.

But whatever the reason is, it pays to be suspicious of emails regarding your personal accounts even if they turned out to be legit. Some may find this a no-brainer but there are people out there who are unaware of such online scams, like my parents who are just starting to go online more frequently.

Phishing is the act of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing emails may contain links to websites that are infected with malware.

Anyway, here are what I look out for in a dubious email:

1. Unexpected, never received an email from this service before or have not used it in ages.
2. Subject title that's not straight to the point, contains spelling/grammatical errors, weird or too fanciful.
3. Sender's email address does not tally with the official website address. For example, xxx@paypal181421.com is not the same as xxx@paypal.com. 
4. Simple salutation with no mention of your name but this is not always the case since my bank notifications does begin with just "Dear Customer".
5. Email content with spelling/grammatical errors.
6. After clicking on the link in the email, see if you're being redirected correctly. The website might look right but if the address doesn't match, do not enter any information! Just to be safe, type in the website address that you're familar with.

There are plenty of other and maybe even better ways to identify a phishing email but these pointers worked for me. Help someone today by sharing what you know about the perils of the Internet :)

NOTW: Essie Lady Like x INM Northern Lights

I know I said I would use magnetic polish next but I got a little carried away... Sorry!

I recommended Essie Lady Like to Mum as an alternative to nude polishes but she didn't quite like it. Set it aside for myself as it's pretty and a colour I don't usually wear. Knew there will come a time where I'm just itching to do something out of the ordinary, then I got aspired and decided to use it for an accent nail manicure.

Haha, so random of me.

My idea didn't quite work out though because the INM Northern Lights holographic glitter top coat wasn't very outstanding. Probably didn't apply enough to make the accent nail super sparkly but I don't want to have a zillion coats on one finger. Ended up using it on all fingers which turned out quite nice.

Essie Lady Like is a mauve creme, soft and cool-toned. I don't have much luck with creme polishes and it streaked quite badly on me. It could be due to the uneven surface of my nails since I hardly buff them but thankfully after three coats, the streaks were a lot less obvious and almost disappeared with two coats of Northern Lights.

With flash

Without flash

Some air bubbles are visible because Northern Lights needs to be shaken quite vigorously to spread the glitter as it settles at the bottom. Do share if you know of a less violent way of shaking things up :)

Coppelia's cautious celebration

Found the programme to Coppelia while packing my pigsty of a room which sort of reminded me that I haven't seen a review on the ballet in the papers. Google to the rescue!

I thought Coppelia enjoyable and quite funny. Couldn't help but agree with what I heard in the Coppelia showcase of One @ The Ballet that unlike many ballets, Coppelia is completely human and maybe that's why it is so easy to understand. Well, it could also be because the story is so simple. Haha! The comedy element is definitely higher here but it is a little sad too because Dr Coppelius was bullied and mocked by the villagers.

Thought it was quite unfortunate the opening night didn't get a better review. I watched the day after where the lead roles were played by Chihiro (Swanilda) and Kenya (Franz) instead. In my opinion, they were brilliant! Given the chance, I would love to catch the performance with Rosa and Timothy too as it would be a totally different performance despite being the same dance. Serious!

Chihiro's doll dance in act 2 was amazing and super realistic. I was in awe... And Kensuke really stood up among the group of guys who were doing something sneaky that I don't quite remember what but he was so silly and funny!

The solo dances in act 3 by Iori and Li Jie were beautiful and I think it could be their first time in the spotlight. So happy for them if it's true. I was sitting in the front row of circle 2 and I can see Iori's teeth! She made me feel like she smiled wholeheartedly while dancing Dawn. Prayers by Li Jie was a little wobbly but it was so touching that I teared! *fans face*

Not too concern about the wobbling because I believe it's something that can be improved with practice and/or experience.

16 March 2013
Coppelia's cautious celebration
The Straits Times, by Tammy L. Wong

As the flagship dance troupe here, the Singapore Dance Theatre is the sort of company that all of us who grew up dreaming dance want to see triumph. Kicking off its 25th year with 19th-century romantic ballet Coppelia, one cannot help wonder that for the company, the best is yet to be.

Seen through 21st-century eyes, Coppelia can perhaps be described as a romantic-comedy. The plot is thin and the choreography (originally by Arthur St Leon, with staging and additional choreography by Janek Schergen) is too familiar and lacking in verve.

Boy (Franz) meets girl (Swanilda), whom he will marry in Act 3, but gets enchanted in the early acts by a life-like doll, Coppelia. Throw in one eccentric Dr Coppelius – the creator of Coppelia – a village teeming with playful youth, a mysterious room of dolls and music by French composer Leo Delibes, and Coppelia begins to spiral with cliches, demanding patience.

Timothy Coleman, dancing as Franz, had the requisite good looks and charm for the leading man but, alas for him, had to wait until Act 3 to show any mettle.

Rosa Parks as Swanilda demonstrated authoritative fast, fleeting footwork, but seemed uncomfortable in a role that relied heavily on acting chops.

Act 1 began with some promise – bright lights (lighting design by Adrian Tan), lovely sets and long phrases of neat group work by the entire company. Ryo Suzuki stole quiet moments even as he was kept dancing at the sides.

Act 2 piqued interest with a change in set design and a committed rendition of Dr Coppelius by Yann Ek – artistic director Schergen dancing under a pseudonym. But by the time Act 3 unfolded, the high jinks, enthusiastic energy and cheerful surprises – all elemental in this traditionally feel-good ballet – were missing.

As a company, perhaps it is prudent to remember that Coppelia's success demands a combined, energetic effort from all. In merriment, corps dancers need to each convince the audience that they are having a grand time as well for the audience to be swept along.

For a ballet chosen to celebrate a 25th anniversary, the opening night's performance of Coppelia by the company was, at best, academic and cautious, with too much resting unfairly on poor Park's slight shoulders.

I love the czadas and mazurka parts (folk dances) so much and don't even know why! I would imagine the clicking sound of the Cuban heels whenever the dancers do a half break. Crazy, I know... So grateful for the chance to do character dances when I was learning RAD grade 7 and 8 ballet syllabus.

Coppelia is more than just dancing and as mentioned in the review, there was a lot of acting involved as well. All dancers did an awfully good job and I'm so so proud of them :)