I Love Pine Garden's Chinese New Year Goodies :)

Pine Garden's new product for the Chinese New Year, the Yam Paste Tri-Layer Chiffon Cake was featured on the Sunday Times in early January and caught my attention as i love yam paste and hubby agree to buy the cake for me :). I ordered the cake and other Chinese New Year goodies online to share with my family during Chinese New Year and we all love the cake's festive design and that it is really light and tasty and not too sweet. My mum is even planning to order it next year ;) I'm hoping Pine Garden will make it a regular item so that i can order it again for family gatherings. Hubby and i also love its Seaweed Folds and Steam Glutinous Rice which is really delicious and we could not stop munching on the Seaweed Folds while watching the Chinese New Year variety shows on Cable TV.

Yam Paste Tri-Layer Chiffon Cake

Seaweed Folds

Cheese Cookies

Pandan Cake

Steam Glutinous Rice

(Source: http://www.facebook.com/pgcake)

Happy Dragon Year Everyone :)

Delicious Reunion Lunch & Dinner With My Love Ones :)

Delicious Lunch @ Dian Xiao Er With My Family :)

Lovely Makeover Session @ Shiseido Metro Causeway Point :)

I went for my belated birthday makeover at Shiseido Metro Causeway Point yesterday before meeting my family for lunch there. The beauty consultant who did my makeover was really nice and helpful and i had purchased some products recently at the Metro's Sales from her and she had promised to do my makeover for me yesterday :)

Took a picture halfway through my makeover :)

Makeover done and picture taken during lunch

Picture taken when home. I'm really satisfied with the makeover and could not resist taking a picture with my lovely Yam Paste Triple Layer Chiffon Cake from Pine Garden :)

I appreciate that the beauty consultant took the time to give me useful tips on how to apply nice eye makeups for the Chinese New Year using the eyeshadow colors i bought recently and she also showed me the correct way of blending the colors.

I seldom use eye makeup as i find it too troublesome and just focus on using skincare products and light makeup. I normally just apply either my Biotherm BB cream or my SK-II Cellumination Pancake and lip gloss when i'm rushing for time but i love how applying some mascara and eyeliner helps to make my eyes look bigger and nicer during special occasions although hubby prefers me with no eye makeup as he said he is used to my natural look hehe :)

My mum even thought that i had put on false eyelashes after the makeover as the mascara used for the makeover was really great at lengthening and adding volume to my lashes and i bought it too so that i can use it for the Chinese New Year. I can't wait for Chinese New Year to arrive soon so that i can wear all the pretty new clothes i bought and catch up with my cousins during our family gatherings and play our yearly poker games hehe ;)

My newly purchased Perfect Mascara Defining Volume S$46

I bought this makeup remover pencil which cost only S$10 when i went Sephora recently and it will come in handy if i make any mistakes when applying my eye makeup ;)

Lovely My Melody Chinese New Year Decorations From Sanrio @ Takashimaya :)

Delicious Lunch @ Go Go Curry Orchard Ion :)

My mum and i could not resist taking some pictures when we saw the lovely Chinese New Year decor outside the food court @ Ion :)

Finally lunch @ my favorite eating place, starving! Must eat before we start our shopping session for Chinese New Year hehe ;)

Japanese Drama - Strawberry Night

All of the interesting Japanese dramas that i have been following in end 2011 like "Kaseifu no Mita" and Nazotoki no Dinner Ato De" have ended and it is time to look for more interesting Japanese dramas to start watching in 2012. I'm looking forward to watching Nanako's new drama "Lucky Seven" after her superb acting in "Kaseifu no Mita". Another Japanese drama i'm looking forward to watching is "Hungry" starring Mukai Osamu and he is really popular in Japan nowadays and really cute. I will post more information about the dramas soon. I'm also planning to watch Korean drama "Take Care Of Us, Captain" starring my favorite Korean actor Ji Jin Hee and Koo Hye Sun and i will write more about it soon.

There are several interesting new dramas currently showing in Japan and one of my favorite and "must watch" is this police drama "Strawberry Night" starring actress Takeuchi Yuko as a police detective. This Fuji TV drama started showing in Japan on 10 January, every Tuesday nights and the first episode already started off with a great viewer rating of 16.8%, the best start of all the new dramas thus far. In 2010, the drama special of ‘Strawberry Night‘ marked Takeuchi Yuko’s first starring role as a female detective, which was well-received by the viewers. She has always been acting in a sweetie pie or damsel in distress role and it is refreshing seeing her acting as a hot shot female detective and i enjoyed watching the special and looks forward to watching the drama. You can watch it online at (http://www.dramacrazy.net/japanese-drama/strawberry-night/).

Neat and clean actress Takeuchi Yuko tried out the role of a detective for the first time in the 2010 drama special, “Strawberry Night“, and she has reprised this role for a full-fledged drama adaption this year. You can watch the special at (http://www.mysoju.com/japanese-drama/strawberry-night/) if you miss it last year. Takeuchi plays the role of Himekawa Reiko, a non-career female detective who still managed to climb up the ranks in very short time. Her biggest weapon is her incredibly sharp intuition that enables her to know the feelings of a criminal better than the criminal himself. It’s a fresh role, depicting a female detective that is cold, powerful, in some moments, graceful, and yet oh so fragile due to her past.

The drama special was based on Honda Tetsuya’s best-selling novel, “Strawberry Night”, about a mysterious serial murder case. The drama serial will continue his novel series about Himekawa Reiko, adopting the stories from many of his other installments. Takeuchi is absolutely enthused about this project. She commented, “One characteristic of a drama serial are the guest appearances in each of the episodes and I can’t wait to work with all the guest actors. Further ‘Strawberry Night’ will become much more powerful thanks to the new members of the team, so it might be even more fun this time.”

Several key characters from the drama special will reprise their roles in the drama serial as well, including Takeda Tetsuya, Nishijima Hidetoshi, and Ukaji Takashi. Other familiar faces will once again be played by Namase Katsuhisa, Takashima Masahiro, Endo Kenichi, Watanabe Ikkei, and Tsugawa Masahiko. It was also announced that Koide Keisuke was added to the cast as one of the new members at the police station.

Maruyama Ryuhei will be the second new addition to the team next to Koide Keisuke. His role will be that of a rookie detective and mood maker of the new investigation unit. It’s also Maruyama’s first time portraying the role of a detective. He commented, “I’m getting very nervous, knowing that this drama is based on such popular novels (by Honda Tetsuya). Just like my character, I’d like to live a life without forgetting how to enjoy it.”

The first episode starts with an incident which occurs while the members of “Team Himekawa” under Himekawa Reiko of the First Investigative Division’s Tenth Section are on stand by at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police headquarters. Yasufumi Yoneda caused a train accident 10 years ago, where the train overturned and killed more than 100 people. Now, Yasufumi Yoneda is found dead at the same location where the accident occurred. His body is severed into two symmetrical halves. An investigation is underway to determine the cause of death - was it suicide or murder? Reiko Himekawa and her team from the Metropolitan Police Department leads the investigation.

Reiko discovers that only a short time existed between Yasufumi's exit from a drinking establishment that he frequented and the time of his death. If Yasufumi was murdered, the crime was premeditated. Reiko also learns that Yasufumi talked in the drinking establishment about having to pay out 860 million yen to the victims in the train accident 10 years ago, including to the president of the victim's compensation group Mutsuo Ogawa (Kazu Murakami), who lost his eldest daughter in the accident, and Saneharu (Izumi Fujimoto).

Reiko and her team learns further that at that the time of train accident 10 years ago, station employee Kazutaka Tokuyama (Kenichi Takito) tried to save Saneharu before she was crushed to dead. After the incident, Kazutaka Tokuyama resigned. Reiko then spots a poster at the station where Kazutaka Tokuyama formerly worked. The poster depicts an image of a body symmetrically halved into two. Apparently, the painting was drawn by the former station employee Kazutaka Tokuyama.

Reiko then goes to Mutsuo Ogawa's home with Detective Kazuo Kikuta (Hidetoshi Nishijima). When they arrive, nobody answers the doorbell. When they touch the door, the door swings open. They go inside. Reiko then finds the dead body of Mutsuo Ogawa lying in the bathroom. The body is also halved into two symmetrical pieces. Reiko assumes that Yasufumi Yoneda and Mutsuo Ogawa were killed by the same person after spotting a particular piece of fabric on Mutsuo Ogawa that was also found on Yasufumi Yoneda.

After conducting further interviews with train accident survivors, Reiko is sure that Kazutaka Tokuyama is the person who killed Yasufumi Yoneda and Mutsuo Ogawa....

(Source: http://www.fujitv.co.jp/strawberrynight/index.html)
(Source: http://www.tokyohive.com/tag/strawberry-night/)
(Source: http://www.tokyohive.com/2011/06/takeuchi-yukos-strawberry-night-will-become-a-drama-series-next-year/)

(Source: http://www.tokyohive.com/2011/06/kanjani8s-maruyama-ryuhei-added-to-the-cast-of-strawberry-night/)

(Source: http://asianmediawiki.com/Strawberry_Night)
(Source: http://asianmediawiki.com/Strawberry_Night_%28Drama%29)
(Source: http://www.tokyohive.com/2012/01/drama-prime-time-report-–-january-9th12th/)