Trilogy Beauty Class ... 트릴로지 뷰티클래스

 April 30th, I went to Trilogy's launching event of Hydra-Tone Softening Lotion. It was an invite only event that started at 11am, which I totally mistook it for 11:30 so missed a bit in the beginning..

Trilogy is a New Zealand natural skincare company that has gotten many beauty awards. I was introduced to this brand by a friend and I really love their Rosehip Oil Antioxidant+ and their Mineral Radiance Mask.

The Beauty class that was held on Thursday, April 30th was for the new product launch in May - Hydra-Tone Softening Lotion. We got to try it, make some great skin & body scrub and had snacks and lunch. The new Hydra-Tone Softening Lotion is a gel type lotion that is especially recommended for dry skin but it's perfect for all skin types. It helps remove residual cleansing product and make-up and it is absorbed quickly into your skin with a moisturized feel. The main ingredients as indicated on the label are hyaluronic acid (helps protect skin and moisturize), marshmallow (helps condition your skin), ylang ylang (helps maintain a healthy PH balance) and mulberry (helps brighten the skin). 

I've used it and it really does have a nice moist feel.

After the beauty class we had delicious snacks and lunch ready for us.



And we also had a visit by Lorraine, the Asia Regional Manager of Trilogy.

You can easily purchase them at any Olive Young store or buy them online on most of the major online shopping sites like GS shop, CJ mall, Lotte imall, Hmall.com, or Lotte.com. Also at the Lotte Duty Free, Dongwha Duty Free and The Grand Duty Free.

2015년 4월 30일 11시 메디엘 코스메틱 본사에서 진행한 봄 맞이 트릴로지 신제품 런칭행사에 다녀왔습니다!

시간을 착각하여 조금 늦게 도착하였으나 새로나온 하이드라 톤 소프트닝 로션의 소개와 함께 슈가 스크럽을 만드는 시간을 가졌어요.

친구를 통해 트릴로지를 알게 되었는데요 전 로즈힙 오일도 좋아하지만 미네랄 마스크도 굉장히 좋아한답니다. 꼭 한번 사용해 보세요! 굉장히 촉촉하고 탱글탱글한 피부를 느끼실 수 있으실 거에요..

올 5월에 런칭하는 신제품인 하이드라 톤 소프트닝 로션은요 젤 탕입으로 굉장히 흡수가 빠르고 촉촉하며 세안 후 화장품을 포함한 잔여물 까지 깔끔히 제거해준답니다. 모든 피부 타입에 적합하지만 노화가 시작되거나 건조한 피부에 특히 추천한다네요. 핵심성분으로는 보습에 뛰어나며 피부보호에 도움이 되는 히알루론산, 피지분비 조절과 PH밸런스에 도움이되는 일랑일랑, 피부 진정과 화사한 피부 연출을 도와주는 마시멜로 뿌리추출물 그리고 생기와 활력있는 피부연출에 도움을 주는 상백피 추출물들이 들어있답니다. 그 외에 백차 추출물광 알로에베라 추출물도 포함되어 있다고 하네요.

직접 사용해 본 결과 굉장히 깔끔하고 촉촉하며 화사한 느낌을 주더라고요.



트릴로지 아시아 메니저인 로레인씨가 방문해주셔서 얘기도 해보고 메디엘에서 맛나는 점시과 간식을 준비해주셔서 배부르게 먹고 좋은 체험하고 선물까지 얻어왔답니다.



기회가 되시면 꼭한번 사용해보세요~

여러 온라인 (GS shop, CJ mall, Lotte imall, Hmall.com, or Lotte.com) 및 올리브영에서 구매 할 수 있다네요.

No more hospital visits... Knock on wood!!

March 20th, 2015

My final visit to the hospital and checkup with the doc.. To see the progress and get the plastic thingy (sorry for my ignorance but I still don't know what they're called :( ) out of my nose that was correcting(?) my deviated septum. Boy, now I can believe you can practically stuff anything up your nose. I was wondering how kids got those huge toys stuck up their nose and had to visit the emergency room... I mean, I had my eyes closed when they were pulling it out but, wow, seriously they were huge.. And I just had thought it was some kind of tube. 

Anyhow, it was a quick visit: the nurse did her thing and the doc examined and told me it's healing well.. no infections or out of the ordinaries. I just need to take care of it a bit more with the cleansing for a month since there'll be scabs and occasional slight bleeding. Still am not supposed to blow my nose or pretty much he said blowing your nose is not good at all (for anyone). Mid April I should be able to start exercising and in about a month's time I should start getting some feeling back. It still feels a bit numb and stiff :( but it is still heeling so need to give it time. 

My check up for the first surgery went fine too. The swelling is all gone and I could see a huge change after the doc took pics to show the difference between the before and after photos. 

Breathing is much better now. I think it could get much better after the swelling goes down and I can feel my nose again, lol. It's weird because after the surgery, taste and scent are much more pronounced. 

Also, no snoring! And I'm feeling more rested as days go by.... Except for the occasional times where I can't really fall asleep but that has more to do with my insomnia problem and getting my biorhythm in order. However, sleeping 3 hours a day is ok because I do feel much more rested than I used to before the surgery. ;) But yes, a regular scheduled time wouldn't hurt either. 

I'd like to thank all my friends and family for being there for me and sending me good thoughts! 

Love you all! 

Organising...

Since I have had more time to myself..
I've had time to organise much more and get rid of the things I've thought about getting rid of..
However, the indecisiveness sometimes gets in the way and some other reason pops into mind and I'm holding onto it again...

Been trying to hoard less and go minimalistic.. it's not perfect but I'm sort of making it work.
Got rid of a lot of books, things and went through the clothing, shoes and bags, put them in a box of 'throw away' and 'donate'. I should go through them again and get a pile of winter clothes to get rid of. It's not perfect, but it's getting there...

While I've been organising all the things, in my mind, I've been organising something else too..

My address book or contact list on my phone has names and contact info of people that I just don't keep in contact anymore.. mostly from old work and yes, there are people that I do keep in contact but there are the ones I don't. I did keep them just in case.. but as years go by, I really don't think they'll or I'll ever contact again.. so what's the use of keeping those names and numbers?

I'm trying to make things simpler and focus on what matters the most.. and it comes to where I just need to delete some of those that doesn't matter and make room for what does.. I've already deleted the apps that I'm not using but thought I might and had downloaded.. there still are way too many apps on my phone :P

Organising my address book made me think about all my friends that I hadn't contacted personally. Yes, we have Facebook, and other social medias that keeps us updated in their lives in general, but phone calls and emails and letters, I feel, are much more personal and they do bring a smile to your face. So, I'm slowly building and updating that as well.

Second surgery... Thank heavens it's over!!!

March 6th, 2015

While my first surgery to fix the obstructive sleep apnea was concentrated in the oral area, my second surgery was all about the nasal area: fixing the crooked nasal cavity by inserting a plastic tube and burning of some tissues to broaden the airways, and some other thing I couldn't understand... :P

The morning of... I got ready to head to the hospital on the subway with the morning crowd headed into work. My surgery was scheduled for 10am but had to be there by 9:20 to see the doc before the surgery and and do a simple checkup. So, with all the people cramping up in the subway off I went...

Morning crowd...

Got to the hospital way early, talked to the doc, did some basic tests, got changed into hospital gown and off to the surgery...

I got another round of general anesthesia and this time it was different because I actually felt the liquids flowing into my veins and it hurt! But after that I only remember waking up again cold in the recovery, dizzy and just hurting all over and not being able to breathe through my nose. After gaining a bit of strength I was moved to a bedroom where I wasn't able to sleep for the next hour and half OR drink. So, tried to focus on some other things in order to forget...read a bit, played some game, chatted with my friend on FaceTime. Time did pass quickly and gosh, was I glad to be able to drink water!

I was feeling weak, tired and thirsty. My nose was blocked with gauze stuffed into it and breathing through the mouth made me thirsty all the time. I was released from the hospital around 8pm with nose still blocked, an IV needle stuck into my right wrist, so couldn't breathe properly and couldn't use my right hand. On top of that, I couldn't wear my glasses because it'll put weight on the nose and that was a no-no. So, I was half blind, and half-crippled...

Sleeping that night was really hard! Kept waking up and I couldn't sleep lying down so had to sit up again and that made it a little easier to sleep. 

March 7th, the day after the surgery I had to return to the hospital to get the gauze out of my nose and get the antibiotic shot. Getting that done even though it was very, very painful, I'm glad it was done because I'm feeling much better! 

Next appointment is a week later and I'll get rid of the stitches and the blue bandage that's covering the nose. And a week later from that they'll take the plastic tube out. 

I can't wait till everything is healed. For all the swellings to go down and have fully healed it'll take months.

There are also some precautions I need to take in the meantime (for about a month) like: no excessive exercising, no heavy lifting, no tilting the head down, no sauna or public bathhouse, no alcoholic beverages (up to 3months) 

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

I've been told I snore. 

Yes, people snore, and women do snore. The problem with me though is that I've been told I stop breathing after a very loud snore. And this had been going for some time and hadn't really thought much of it even though my family have had constantly told me to get it checked out. So after ignoring it for the longest time, I finally went to a sleep clinic to get myself checked. (Because it was getting serious and even I was starting to notice and coincidentally I saw a program related to sleep apnea and how badly it could affect your daily life and health.)

February 6th, 6:30pm was the day of the appointment with the doctor at my sleep clinic in Gangnam. We did a short survey, and met up with the doc and did the CT scan, x-ray, and blood works. Didn't take much time maybe an hour or so then at 9pm came back to the clinic to get hooked up on the wires and whatnots to get my brainwave, breathing and movement scanned and filmed. Went to bed around 11pm and the next day they had the results ready by 5pm. 

February 7th, second meeting with the doc... and I was hoping maybe a little retainer would do the trick but it wasn't going to be that easy. He said my results were pretty much on the top of one of his worst female patients. (I pretty much rank 2nd) the results said that I've been waking up over a 100 times in an hou tall becaue of sleep apnea and generally 30/hr is in the red zone and my results were 3times higher. Also, the longest I didn't breathe was 37seconds and that's not good. 

Hence, it came down to two choices, non-surgically I could be using the breathing mask to help me breathe during my sleep for the rest of my life OR surgically, I could broaden up my airways. Luckily, and thankfully I didn't have to get the complicated surgical procedure done.. just a simple not to painful surgery was an option for me, which involves: reduction of the tonsils, uvula and tongue. And yes, it sounded horrifyingly painful and frightening when the doc explained it. And it made me think of all the brave women out there who actually get jobs done willingly just for the sake of beauty... I could never do that. From the CT scan, we could also see that I had a narrow and crooked nasal cavity, hence that needs to get fixed as well and having all that fixed should cure 90% of my problem. (So, 2nd surgery si scheduled for 6th of March)

February 12th, 7pm - The Day of Surgery!

Nervous, anxious and a little frightened.. changed into hospital gown and walked into the surgery room. As I lay down on the surgical bed, I saw those circular lights that we see often on tv and the doctors started connected me to IVs and other electrical wires. The anesthetistf came in and started injecting something into the IV and put a mask on me, telling me to take deep breaths. After couple of breaths I don't remember anything but waking up in the recovery room, shivering.It wasn't painful at all, like the doctor had said, but felt all swollen and awkward, yes, swallowing was very hard. I started out with water, which was difficult, it felt like my throat was the size of a pin hole.

For the first couple of days, I could only eat water, ice cubes and ice cream. I still have to be careful with what I eat because I can't risk the stitches tearing and bleeding. So, for the next couple of weeks until everything is all healed and my lower jaw and four lower front teeth are back to normal, I can only have liquid food, no seasoning, chunks, spice... just soft, cold, sweet stuff.. Oh, and I have to sleep sitting up until the swelling goes down. It's been pretty good so far, I guess it helps because I cant chew or swallow. However, I can't wait till I can eat alll the food I've been missing out on! :)

It's been about 10 days since the surgery and the swelling has gone down substantially, the bruises are almost gone, there stilll are a bit of yellow and blue, purple patches but it should disappear in time :)

I have a checkup at the hospital coming Monday to get the threads removed and to see how the healing's been progressing so far. 

Myungdong or Myeongdong (명동), the shopping mecca

I like and dislike Myungdong. It's a great place to shop but it really has just way too many people. So, if you're living in Korea and have a chance to go and would LOVE to avoid all the crowd.. I suggest you go early in the morning. However, all the action does start late in the day so I do suggest that you experience it if you already haven't. I came to Myungdong yesterday and today to do some last minute shopping before I leave for Thailand. Yes, I probably could have come here just for yesterday and skipped today if only I had not forgotten to take my passport and my duty free membership card.. Oh, and talking of duty free, if you're leaving Korea and/or going on a vacation do check out the duty free, they have great deals. Also online duty free is awesome as well.

Anyways, going back to my original topic - Myungdong, yes it's a wonderful place lots to shop, many places to visit near by and some wonderful shows to see. It's amazing how much has changed though.. It's mostly aimed at Chinese and Japanese tourist but still it amazes me how it has upped the variety in choices of food on the streets. 

Here you have the Korean-Chinese black noodle Jajangmyun (자장면) it's called black model because the sauce is black. Some call it Jjajangmyun (짜장면) but the peoper way of writing and pronouncing is JAjangmyun (자장면). 

Below is a picture of what it originally looks like...

One thing that totally caught me off guard is the pig feet... Yes, you may easily see them on the street at a local market but I hadn't realize they had started selling them on the strew of Myungdong. 

They also had kimbab..

Chicken and fish cake...

Meatballs...

Ribs...

Mung Bean Pancake (녹두전)...!!!

Strawberry Mochi! 

And CGV added something to their sign...

It was really interesting to see the changes and the crowd...
So if you have a chance do go and have a look-see! :D

Being me

We always ask ourselves at one point in our lives... "Who am I?" And sometimes the answer doesn't come easy to us. So we think and think and think and maybe we end up with an answer or we don't and try to get back to it again. Or come up with a satisfying answer for the time being and move on. 

So who am I really? Do I have an answer to that? No, I don't but I am still learning and trying to figure out. Maybe I'm looking at it all wrong. Maybe I'm not suppose to ask that specific question. Maybe the question should be "what do I want?"

Decisions

Making decision is not an easy task. 

There are so many variables to consider and while taking them into considerations  you need to factor in which is the best and ideal choice for you. 

Plus, it can't be perfect because life isn't perfect and you can't have it all. The universe just does not work that way. 

You'll have to make compromises and you'll have too give something up in order to gain the other that you desire more. 

Today, I was trying to decide and confirm on the accommodation for my trip on October. Yes, it's not a biggie but even in deciding an accommodation you have to compromise or you just pay every little dime for the thing you want and not I'm not a millionaire so I'm not going yo do that. Conclusion, I came up with a decision and I had to compromise. 

Anyways, the point is... we can't have everything.. Life is about making decisions and sometimes we make good ones and sometimes we make bad ones. And through those mistakes we learn. 

No work... All play!

So I haven't been working since end of July and it's been weird but I think I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Though, now it's time I should slowly start doing the search. Anyways, that's not the issue right now. When I started having all this time to myself first I imagined I'd be spending so much time doing so many things and meeting a lot of people that I wasn't able to... boy, was I wrong.. 

Yes, it didn't turn out exactly the way I planned it and hoped it'd go but I think only thing good that came out of this break is that I was able to really get a good rest and that I had some time to think (maybe too much, but that's okay too). Since 1998, I have been preoccupied with work and pretty much wrapped up in making a living that I forgot to really enjoy. I have taken things for granted, especially living here.. but that's another story. I've justified and made excuses to myself saying it was okay if I didn't do certain things: either I was too busy or too tired. Which, yes it's true but also could work as an excuse because we are capable of doing things if and when we put some effort in it. So, yes, it may have been excuses or not but that's all in the past. 

I forgot how much I missed writing and yes I've been scribbling a little here and there in my journal but after yesterday, meeting two bloggers, I thought to myself  what happened to my blog?! So here I am, updating and writing again. This is a challenge to myself.. And I hope I can accomplish it! Write at least once a week (I know, you might say only once? But I'm starting slow and one step at a time :p) I recently started studying online to get my credential to teach Korean.. and I thought, I could write about some useful Korean idioms and put it up as well.  So I'll try to do that once a week as well :)

There, now I've made it official! One post a week on pretty much anything I want. And another a week on Korean idioms :) until the end of this year(2014). 

April 29th, 2013-DAY 1 of my trip around the Peninsula!

So my plan was to leave at 6am on Monday morning and drive towards Seolak Mountain. 
(Seolak Mountain is the highest mountain of the Taebaek Mountain range located in the Gangwon province.)

It kind of didn't work out because first, it was raining awfully bad with thunder and lightening.. and I had some unfinished business to take care of. But we - my mum, our dog, Nari, and I - were on the road around 7:40.

The reason for heading to Seolak Mountain was to visit the Ulsanbawi, which  I had climbed to the very top when I was 5 years old. And I have a medal to proof it!

Ulsanbawi is in a rock formation and tor climb it you have to go up these incredible steel staircases. The original path up the mountain was taken down because it was too old and getting rusty here and there so, they have a new and better and safer path up to the top. I remember this particular climb even though I was only 5 because it was slightly drizzling and when I was on the top I remember reaching up and being able to touch the clouds (or so I thought . It was the most amazing thing and it still is one of the most amazing memories that I have of my childhood. Also, the fact that I was only 5, and yes I have a medal to prove this, and climbed the whole 808 steps all by myself was very self-satisfying. So, I wanted to go down that memory lane and experience it again.

It did give me a fright and I was half worried and half daring when the rain kept pouring. Plus, we took the wrong highway, the longer one, and went around because I forgot to check the map and print it out before I left.. Though it was a  big relief to see the sun peeking out when we reached the east coast and finally headed to the mountain. The beach was just so marvelous that I had to stop and take a moment. So we parked and took pictures and breathed in as much as we could. I was worried at first because it wasn't what I had planned but I figured I'm not really in any tight schedule and this is what road trips are about.. So started enjoying the delays and detours. 

Since this was my very first time driving somewhere besides the vicinity of where I live AND without a map... we got lost again.. yes my fault.. but  no biggy...

When we finally reached the parking lot of the mountain, we were so glad that it wasn't raining anymore. However it was very windy and the park rangers and the shop keepers kept telling us we might not be able to make it to the top....NO! I told myself I came all this way and I'm going to the top. AND I did!

The wind was really strong. You could hear it howling and it also sounded like huge waves crashing in. You could also feel it push you this way and that..but after an hour and half we finally made it to the top with a few rest in between. 

And on our way down..

We settled on spending the night in Seokcho so found a nice motel overlooking the East Sea. Had dinner at the beach fish market and I finished my work that I still had to wrap up. 

I guess because of all the excitement I couldn't fall asleep so started writing this blog but didn't finish it because I started to feel drowsy around 1am. So.. here I am finishing it up. ^^*