Wednesday 23 October 2013

Accutane - my 2 1/2 months update

If there's someone whose acne condition worsened after consuming Roaccutane, man, that's me.

You won't believe how many clogged pores I have now and looking into the mirror is just depressing :(  I wish I could go on about how Accutane changed my life, but as of the 2.5th month, it hasn't done its magic yet. Tons of comedones and thanks to the alcohol the other night ( I know I shouldnt have had - but I gave in), I slept with makeup and the next day, I had a thousand more of them!!!
What a b*tch :((((

My derm has stepped up the pill intake to once every alternate day, and people have emailed me regarding Accutane every day or other, so here are some side effects to share through my personal experience these 2 months.

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1) Dry and cracked lips - I have experienced chapped lips but nothing major for me ( some people had dry lips that bled).
 I have a chap stick ( I use pawpaw / carmex and when I was in Taiwan I had Vaseline with me. 

2) Dry skin - I try to moisturise the dry patches on my legs if I remember but yes, it did cause me to have dry skin.

3) Increased sweating - OH GAWD YES. I feel like I sweat more than I did previously, not that I could do anything about it than to keep myself cool.

4) Mood changes and depression - Nope, not that I feel any differences before and after I took accutane. You do feel upset when Accutane does its course of purging but nothing more than that. 

I find this article really comprehensive and if anyone is thinking of seeking help through course of roaccutane or has been referred to consider so should read this:

Hope this helps! :)

Monday 7 October 2013

Day 3 - Bali - Kudeta (I)

Ah gawd, I havent been updating my blog for a long, long time.

Primary reasons are
1) my skin is still purging so i dont feel like taking photos
2) i haven't got to get my photoshop (so im using a freeware photo-editing software)

Takes a lot of effort to update a blog post but since I'm free and webs are growing here, so here I am!

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2nd Month - Accutane

My second prescription of Accutane saw lesser huge bumps, but more of comedones where you could see white heads ( and the itchy fingers are there to pick....)
Since my skin's really drying especially at the chin area, my dermatologist reduced intake of 3 pills to 2 pills a week, and steroids to control my outbreak. Well, my skin's definitely not clear at the moment so I  did not refuse the steroids.

Will be back for more updates. Probably gonna see her again for a third dose with hopes that my condition stablises by then!

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Day 3 - Bali (I)

I'm such a slacker that I stopped at the second day, so here's half of what I did on day 3. I edited like 40+ photos and I gave up hahha, there's quite a few good ones this time done with my SLR... and since we had JS' colleagues and friends whom were with us, it was fantastic taking tons of pictures!

The peach muesli that JS and I fight for every morning.
There are 4 choices for breakfast every morning - japanese, healthy, western, and indonesian. It's a 3-course ala-carte breakfast that we picked with the room selection when we made our booking.

 We would always fight for this fruit muesli that comes with the healthy breakfast meal!
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JS' starter was miso that day with tofu cubes.

Having a good breakfast really helped and this is one of the best breakfast I had besides the ones at Westin Munich and Westin Sao Paolo. Ala carte breakfast is awesome here!

To sidetrack, Westins are my favorite hotels for buffet breakfasts due to their wide and fresh selection of breads and breakfast items.
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JS' salmon with rice and my omelette and scrambled english breakfast.

Since it was still early, we went walking around streets of Bali for some light shopping and massage appointment before meeting the guys in the afternoon for lunch and Kudeta.
Staying in central Seminyak rocks because the street shopping is just round the corner of our hotel!
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Lost my aviators in Dubai so here's my new gold rimmed ones which I loved!
I still wanted new aviators but not for the moment.

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Heh, bag of the trip was my Longchamp Le Pliage in navy, bought in Nice Airport. Hung a craftholic multi-colored polka dotted rabbit charm off a boutique in Shanghai. It was really nice a year back, where I shopped wherever I traveled, so these are little momentos I bought.

My massage was done at Jari Menari, the massage place we always visit and it's the place to go. I've been to another massage place this trip and I tell you, you pay for what you get here! :)
You get a clean shower before the massage and the masseuse's skills are good. I always fall asleep while having a session here.

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It's quite hard to get an appointment if you don't pre-book before your trip (we usually pre-book 2-3 weeks in advance) and you have to be comfortable that there are only male masseuses here. My friends and I have been here umpteen times so don't worry about it. You could check out tripadvisor's reviews, they're one of the tops!


Met up with the guys who were leaving late evening that day, caught up for lunch at the little local cafe near the hotel.
They said they haven't had true local indonesian food, so we popped by this place which we saw when JS and I did street shopping.
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Mee Soto soup wasn't any good, but it was CHEAPPP. Like less than a dollar SGD.... I think it was 6-7,000 rupiah.
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Bakso is a must try. Meat ball soup with fried wanton, egg, taukwa and glass noodles. A dollar SGD.
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Me and my favoriteee teh botol! It's jasmine tea but better, and I had my first-go at it when I was in Jakarta, a local friend introduced me to it! I heard JS say that you can find this in a store in Lucky Plaza.
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Vintage bottle somemore.

Mee Goreng.
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Nasi goreng and a cute couple :D
Nick and Alice are getting married next year in Hong Kong (Alice's Hongkonger) so we are going to attend the wedding! I'm sure it's gonna be a partyyyy since both of them are such fun-goers!
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If you like what you see, you put a ring to it.
Nick just proposed 1 month ago in HKG.... :)

Groupie lunch shot!
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Nick ordered a black coffee and it was BADDDD hahahah!
It was unfiltered coffee and I am thinking if Balinese coffee is indeed made this way :O
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The tags with indicative prices are what we will bring to the cashier to make payment with. We ordered so much cos it was so cheap :-D

It was a 15 minutes walk to Kudeta so we took a quick stroll.
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Straw hat buddy.
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My weird poly friend, Teddy HAHAHA.

We settled with 2 sunbeds @ Kudeta's. I'll let pictures do most of the talking cos there were SO MANY of them taken, not that im complaining, really.
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I wore a TTR top, and I loved how the chiffon material went with the wind :)
Togas are my favorite thing!

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I just realised we were the only girls among the guys!
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The boys found a flag to pose with. I think men of their generation will always be boys, and that made it really easy to hang out with. I mean, I act like a kid all the time, hyper active and excited over everything, and these boys don't find it annoying LOL.
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The WONDER BOYS - always wondering what they're up to.

Made teddy my poly friend and best photog of the group do some pictures for both of us.
I like the feel of the sand, beach and sea and would love to do a casual shoot next end year (which JS and I did come to discuss) with a pro-photographer!
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It would be nice to mark that 6 year then! :-)
Venue unsettled, but should be overseas.

My single friend, Teddy. He's smart and kind at heart.
If keen, please email me :p
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Cocktails for the beach!
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Nick knows how to charm his girl the right way... by using the flag pole?
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JS took really nice shots of them I can't bear not to post :))))
Sweet, it's such a nice feeling to see a nice couple ending up together!

Well, a good group shot before the guys pack to the airport. We stayed a little longer at Kudeta, taking our time to slack and a nice italian dinner, I'll post pictures tomorrow!
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Bali's such a lovely place you can't help but want to go :-)