More food and hanging out with BFF

Before my BFF heads back to Sg, I had her go yum cha with me at lei garden, so that she can sink her teeth into those yummy roast pigeon. In my excitement, I over ordered and had to pack some stuff back, but not before we devoured those roast meat and my seafood soup dumpling...oh sooo yummy!

For dinner, since we didnt have anything prebooked, we decided to try our luck with this new Japanese place - 目利きの銀次／ Mekiki No Ginji. I had eyed the place but not tried it till now. It's pretty nice for yakitori sticks but I wont recommend the soup rice thingy. Simply coz I hate gluey soup base.

After dinner, we went back to my (or now, our) fav soy beancurd place!!! I just have to have my ginger version while she had her black sesame ones. Oh sooooo heavenly!!! The curd is just plain wobbly smooth!!! 

We decided to have another late nite and I was thinking about wee morn 2am"snacks" at 24hr Tsui Wah but changed my mind after pinching my waist...another day then!

BFF's in town!

All my posts are gonna be back dated since I have been such a slacker, only updating my Fb, which of course is not made public as this is.

My BFF flew in specially to keep me company during early Nov and I had such a ball with her. Caught up with another of our college mate who is also currently working in HK and well, it was girls' nite out. Had dinner. Had drinks, and plenty of chit chat.

For dinner, we headed to Maxim Palace in Central since my BFF loves roast duck and goose. We couldnt finish all the dishes because we ladies are such small eaters..haa haaa. The desserts werent great here but the beef and duck were rather good. The best thing is that the dishes are supposedly without MSG.

Hong Kong is just so pretty at nite. Decided to take a quick shot of Cheung Kong building while waiting for my gfs.

After dinner, we were up for more chatting and so off to Conrad lounge we went since both my other fren and I liked it there though she is a regular and I aint. Haha.

Both of us crashed the minute we reached home. It had been a long day but we havent had such fun for a long while. While the two of us snoozed away happily, we are fairly certain our other poor gf prob headed back to work on her legal cases. It's a tough life, being a lawyer. Glad I didnt make that my profession!

The next day, we headed for our pedi and mani, and afterwhich, a nice cheesecake at my fav haunt. It was just pure bliss, just hanging and doing what girlies do best, being company for each other. That includes, doing the masky thingie. Lol

After this, spontaneously we headed off for a quick drink (again) at our new fav alfresco dining spot in CWB. It was really nice, just sitting out in the open and enjoying the nice autumn breeze overlooking the harbor.

I am thankful for many things, and having my BFF is nothing short of a blessing. It's an irony sometimes, that I found it easier to turn to friends than family when things blow up in my face or going thru a rough patch. 

U would think friends are likely to use and betray you but in my experience, my good friends have never done that but family members did when it suited their goal and their convenience. This was a precious lesson learnt in 2013 which still send a chill down my heart. For that, I'm ever more grateful by the nice frens I am surrounded for which I will treasure alot.

Hong Kong: Another new hairdo for 2013 by my Japanese hairstylist!

It has been 6 long months since I went back to my Japanese hairstylist Ito san to get my hair fixed.
It's also the first time I will be visiting his new salon since his relocation in Causeway bay!

Between being busy and laziness, my hair has been growing steadily. Hoo Hoo! Just realise I only had been to hair saloon twice in this year! haa haaa...so much for getting ur hair trimmed every 4-6weeks rule)

I was getting quite used to my short straight hair by early July frankly.

By early Oct, I was bunning up my hair again!

Comes, November, I didnt know if I should cut it short again, long and straight as it is, but Ito san suggested a perm for my shoulder length hair. Ok, I have never had my hair permed at that length before and I havent seen many in reality with a nice outcome. Still, I thought what the heck, let's give it a try and if i hate it enough because it didnt suit me, I can always snipped it off.

SO after 3 hours...tadah! Here is my latest autumn hairstyle for the year.
I still havent quite decided if it suits me. Most of the reviews in my FB seemed to indicate positive reception (maybe my friends are just kind? Lol!), except for my cousin who thinks it made me looked more mature and my bro says it's very "Jappy"

This time round, I try to give it a more 360 degree view, back to front and from the sides. Sigh...some angles really are NOT my best angles. Oh well, just using my head to showcase the hairstyle afterall.

How? What do you ladies think?

To be honest, I'm still getting use to it. It's actually a little harder to manage than long hair permed because the curls are harder to twirl into rolls since they are still short. Ito san says I dont have to go back till 4 months later, just to let the hair grow more to make it more gentle wave I suppose. Let's hope my laziness doesnt destroy his good work!

Previous:
Hairstyle 2013, May - Link

Disappointment with my long time massage therapist. So Goodbye it is.

Not that I am surprised at the outcome but really, some people can be such a disappointment. There's a reason why every service provider should be changed every half decade max...because when someone stays long enough, they really dont cherish you no matter how nice you treat them.

For the last 5 years, I have been engaging the services of this HK lady for home massage. Initially her service was good but as every person on this earth, familiarity breeds "bad service". Despite the fact that I had always treated her more as a friend than just a service, she became more and more unreliable over the last 2 years.

There are always excuses. Always last minute cancellation on the actual day, or she will have sudden appointments and she cannot fulfil her 3 hours appointment with us. Sometimes she will promise to come but then dont with very vague reasons.

Just this year, she wanted to raise the price and we didnt even counter argue with her despite her declining service level. When her dad was in hospital, we were sympathetic and close an eye to her sudden cancellation and when he passed, we also gave her some "funeral money" as per custom. It was required since technically we didnt have to. When we go on hols, we would normally get her some food stuff etc back. I think we have been rather nice to her, too nice that I think she decided that she can shove us to lower priority since I have always told her we are appreciative of her presence since she is really a very good massage therapist. I dont know if that's why she felt like we cant do without her.

The past year, my man has been very unhappy with her shoddy service and we were already contemplating to look for a new massage therapist. I have been resisting to comment on her attitude because I know her character after all these years.

However today, again, she sent a message that she wasnt able to do 3hrs massage because she has another client at 7pm. So if i want, I have to move my time earlier.

This was the 3rd time she has done this and in view of all the bad attitude, I finally sent her a query sms.

I told her this because I am really tired of always accommodating my time with hers.

"I believe I have explained to you before that 3pm is too early for us, and we can only start at 3.30pm.
What is puzzling is that we have always been engaging you for 3 hours massage service and so this is not some first time or last min request. I would have thought you would allow us or expect the session with us to end at 6.30pm all these while since you have been coming to our place for so many years. So I would prefer not to change my time. Hope u understand."

I didnt think my sms is nasty or fiery but her reply was curt and quick with a fire icon, stating "I see. Then I have to suspend our session and thanks for the last few years."

I was really unhappy at her non apologetic brush you off attitude.
So I finally reveal what I had wanted to tell her off for a while now.

"I think you are overreacting. All these years, you know perfectly well that my only request from the start was to keep our 3 hours slot on Sunday which you agreed to since '08. We had NEVER changed that and its not a new request. When I used to remind you of our booking every week, you used to tell me not to worry and that Sunday slot is always ours. So I had trusted and taken your word for it.

I am not expecting you to not have new clients after us but it is only reasonable to expect no changes to our slot, esp without any discussion or advance notice. It would only be professional and reasonable to expect you to inform us in advance if you have serious last min changes in your scheduling. Since the 7pm are new clients, you could have told them that you could only start 7.30pm when they first booked you, rather than making me your old time customer shift our time. I knew nothing of your new scheduling until I realized recently that I can no longer book you beyond 2.5hrs. It's grossly unfair to us, especially since we have never once cancelled on you last min or change our time without one week's notice. Whereas you have consistently cancelled on us 2 hours before appointment for the past 2 years and now this?I find it strange that you should be so angry with my feedback and not willing to change my timing for you again repeatedly. Does it mean as customer, we dont even have room for comments on your service? If that is your stand, that you are right and we are wrong, then I wish u all the best."

I shared the incident with my man and am glad that he agreed with me, that I wasnt overeracting and that we were right to raise this since we are paying her for our service. He has been quite annoyed with her for some time now esp the last min cancellation with no reasons or fake reasons. His stand was we are already so used to her not coming at last min that it doesnt make us miss her service anymore. He added that this is often the outcome when you are too nice to people whose services you engaged.

I normally dont like to have that "I'm paying u so I am your boss or have all the say" attitude, but these people really piss me off. They make me feel like I must be distant and distrusting at all times which is not the person that I am.

Oh well. That's life.
We meet all sort of people.
I'm not sure what her problem was.
Maybe she prefer new customers that she can overcharged or maybe she got lazy, or maybe she is getting menopause. Regardless, her loss not mine.