BRAND'S® : High Tea & Immunity Workshop

A really sleepy photo of me ! 

Lately, I've been feeling really jaded and I also realized that I hasn't even recovered fully from my cough. I will just suddenly have the urge to cough non-stop, especially when it's too cold in the office. Even my manager is also concern about why my cough took so long to recover and suggested that I went to see another doctor.

Perhaps it's the lack of sleep, lack of exercise and my unhealthy diet that contributes to a weakened immune system. Now I realized that whenever I feel sick, I took a much longer time to recover back. Seeing another doctor just means more antibiotics and I hate eating antibiotics.

Health is so important, so I tell myself I have to learn how to boost my immunity in order not to fall sick so easily, so I took a little time off from work to attend a high tea and all about immunity workshop. It was organised by Cerebos Pacific Limited, a leading health supplements and food company in Asia Pacific.





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Held at The Vineyard at Hortpark, it's just one bus stop away from office. The afternoon sun was warm and it's nice to take a breather away from the workplace. 

The session started with a welcome address by Ms Yenn Lim, Marketing Manager of Cerebos Pacific Limited. To kickstart the workshop, everyone present had a toast with a bottle of this BRAND'S® MycoProtec Essence of Mushroom (BEOM) that was placed on the table of every seat. It's the first step to boosting our immune system.

When we talk about mushroom, many would usually associate them as ingredients in culinary dishes. Asked me about mushrooms and I can name you all my favourite type of edible mushrooms like the Shiitake mushrooms, Enoki mushrooms and Oyster mushroom. They sure add a distinct flavour to the dishes.
However, there's a more important role mushrooms plays in immunity protection.

BRAND'S® MycoProtec Essence of Mushroom is a health supplement that is Halal-certified and suitable for consumption even for the vegetarian.

A small bottle of BRAND'S® MycoProtec Essence of Mushroom contains specially formulated concentration of five rare and premium medicinal mushrooms namely, Lingzhi, Cordyceps, Maitake, Yamabushitake and Shiitake.

These five medicinal mushrooms have been scientifically proven to activate and strengthen different elements of the immune system. Mushroom beta-glucans are one key active compounds that is found to be effective in strengthening our immune system. Different mushrooms possess different types of mushroom beta-glucans and they cannot be fully released through normal cooking methods but the different beta-glucans from the 5 medicinal mushrooms are carefully extracted and retained in each bottle of  BRAND'S® MycoProtec Essence of Mushroom.  

We are the privileged ones to have Ms Ketki Vinayachandra, a certified and renowned naturopath, herbalist and nutritionist to share her expertise on mysterious world of mycology, stress, psychoneuroimmunology and its impact at various levels, free redicals and their impact on immunity and lastly the benefits of medicinal mushrooms.

Superbugs developed due to the fact of over reliance of antibiotics, so it's important to strengthen our immunity. Environmental factors like getting stuck in a traffic jam or psychological factor like meeting deadlines can cause stress. Stress can cause us to fall sick too.  

Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of how our behavior, thoughts and feeling can affects the nervous and immune systems. It's a chain of reaction from emotion to physical to cellular level. Example, after exercising or running,  the body will release a happy hormones known as endorphine. I heard that eating chocolate or talking to your crush releases endorphine too. All these makes one feels happy with a sense of well-being.

Our body also needs anti-oxiden. Best is drink veggie juice, fruits is better when eat on its own rather than when it's in the juice forms.

 Benefits of the 5 medicinal mushrooms

Reishi (Lingzhi): The Longevity Mushroom helps to promote better sleep, improved blood circulation and improve immune responses against cancer cells.

Maitake: The king of mushroom serve as a health tonic to enhance vitality, wellness and strength. It also improves blood pressure control and again boost immune responses in combating against cancer cells.

Cordyceps: The China's Medical Treasure Mushroom that looks like worms helps to strengthen immunity and relieve cough by fortifying the kidneys and lungs. It is also a wide used tonic to promote "Qi" circulation and improve energy levels.

Yamabushitake: The Monkey Head Mushroom is used for stomach ulcers and chronic gastric disorders. It also has the potential to improve mild memory loss in the elderly and beta-glucans from Yamabushitake can reduce tumor growth and improve immune responses. 

Shiitake: The forest mushroom and one of my favourite mushroom gives a boost in energy and stamina, support liver function, contains a variety of beta-glucans that helps to combat against viral infections. It has also been known to account for the low cancer rates of residents in two remote mountainous districts in Japan, where this mushroom is grown and heavily consumed.

Next up is an interactive exercise and some DIY Tips on the breathing techniques against stress as well as some simply demostration on clearing a sinus. It's good to take deep breath occasionally when we are feeling stress to let our brain relax.

Next up we have Dr. Daniel Tsi, a specialist in medicinal plant pharmacology sharing on the latest scientific developments and discoveries of mushroom polysaccharides and beta-glucans in terms of how they benefits us in boosting our immune system.

While listening to the presentation, yummy food was served!

According to one's preference, the BRAND'S® MycoProtec Essence of Mushroom can be consumed straight from the bottle at room temperature, chilled or warm. I prefer mine to be warm so I would heat it up with a bowl of hot water first before drinking. It does taste a bit like the Essence of Chicken although chicken is not in the ingredients. A little bitter but does not leave a strong after taste like how the Essence of Chicken would. This is my new boost of immunity now. Shoo the medicines!

Now available at a recommended selling price of S$27.90 for a pack of 8 x 65ml bottles at all NTUC FairPrice outlets, and all Guardian outlets island wide.

For more information, please visit :

www.brandsworld.com.sg

Remember, prevention is better than cure and this is especially true when it comes to our health! 

POCC : Power Over Cervical Cancer Event - Power to Enjoy Retail Therapy

Power Over Cervical Cancer (POCC) is a campaign that aims to make Singapore the country with the lowest incidence of cervical cancer. 

Do you know that cervical cancer is the 2^nd most common cancer affecting women worldwide? Just in Singapore, 1 woman is diagnosed with cervical cancer every 2 days! O_O *Shocking* Ironically, this is the only woman’s cancer which can be prevented through vaccine. If you can prevent a cancer, why won't you? Together, we can have POWER Over Cervical Cancer and everyone needs to be aware of this.

In the month of May, there is actually two activities to support this POCC campaign.

 Power to Challenge

This is the stamp card for this challenge. In the card, it listed out the 7 retail merchants with their special deals for this POCC campaign. In order to be eligible to enter in the grand lucky draw on the key event day, participants have to get at least 4 stamps on the card.

Have actually thought of the 4 merchants that I wanted to visit and have even scheduled out a day trying to complete the stamp card but ended up facing a lot of challenges. 

First, when I called up one of the merchant, stating to make an appointment and mentioned POCC, they seems to be unaware of this campaign and asked me a lot of questions in return. Second, the location of one store was still listed at Orchard Central at some websites when it was already closed. So it was a wasted trip. A part of it is my fault for not checking from their official website but from other websites. Third, I have an issue with the items they want us to buy. Understand that purple is the campaign's theme colour but still finds it quite restricted.  

Anyway, just when I thought of giving up completing the card, JH commented on my photo that I posted on instagram saying she can help me get the LANEIGE stamp as she wanted to get the set. So, I felt a bit more motivated to try to complete the other 3 stamps. 

Up till the actual event day, I was still rushing, I went down to KissJane and bought a necklace but was told that the chop have been collected back the previous day. So they can only give me a pre-chop card. After that, Qing told me that the card submission will end at 5pm. It was already 4.30pm and I'm still left with 2 more stamps to collect, so no choice, but to give up and rushed down to the event venue.

Power to Enjoy Retail Therapy 

This actual event is held at Scape, Orchard, Level 2 Warehouse. 

The main purpose is to reach out to more ladies in the form of a mega sales to raise awareness. I was there at the actual event. It was so crowded and full of ladies at the sales racks, free pampering treats such as manicure, eyebrow shaping, etc. However, at the free consultation booth, there was just a few people there.   

5 Facts You Must Know

1) You can protect yourself against Cervical cancer by having regular pap smears and vaccination.

2) Most people would acquire HPV infections at some time in their life.

3) Cervical cancer is caused by a common virus called HPV. It can take 10-20 years for the infection to develop into cervical cancer.

4) Certain lifestyle factors (eg: smoking) increases the risk of cervical cancer as much as 10 times.

5) Regular pap smear testing combined with HPV vaccination can reduce your risk of cervical cancer by up to 94%. 

I remembered my colleagues telling me that they've already went for the vaccine and reminded me to go for it too. Anyway, it's three shots of the vaccine over six months and cost about $450 to $600 in all. This is really something not to be procrastinated. Time to visit their website to find a doctor which is nearest to me.   

For more information, please visit 

http://www.pocc.sg/

Sentosa 4D AdventureLand : Launch of New 4D Movie Experience – Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

Sentosa 4D AdventureLand has officially launched a new 4D movie, "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island." With this new launch, the long running "Pirates in 4D" starring the late Leslie Nielsen will be replaced. 

Located at Imbiah Lookout, Sentosa 4D AdventureLand aims to provide ultimate fun to everyone. Beside the 4D movie, there's two other exciting rides namely the Extreme Log Ride and Desperados. Don't believe me? Read back to this post in Dec last year when I had so much fun trying out all the three rides. The Pirates in 4D was showing at that period.

Presented for the first time in Asia, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island features famous Hollywood cast like Dawayne Johnson a.k.a 'The Rock', Michael Caine, Luis Guzman, Josh Hutcherson and Vanessa Hudgens from the 2012 released blockbuster of the same title.

SimEx Iwerks developed and converted this movie into 4D format under the license from Warner Bros for an exclusive screening here at Sentosa 4D AdventureLand. Duration of the whole 4D movie is about 15 minutes and the theatre can hold up to 96 people per screening.  

Movie is about 17-year-old Sean Anderson receiving a coded distress signal from a mysterious island.

Together with his stepfather, Hank, Gabato and his beautiful daughter, they set flight on a helicopter in search to find the island. During the helicopter ride scenes, we can feel the big gush of wind blowing us.

The mysterious island has a stunning beauty with lots of dangerous creatures like the dinosaurs, volcanoes, etc. They later found out that they have to quickly escaped the island before the seismic shockwaves force the island to be buried underwater.  

As usual, the 4D effects are there to amaze us. This time round, other than the big gush of wind, water spraying, feet tickler, special lightings, there's a new POKING effect. I was so surprise to feel a gentle poke during the scene whereby a spear was being thrown, haha. Also, during the scene when they set foot on the mysterious island, I thought I caught a smell of the forest. Not so sure about this, check it out yourself. Hehe.

Ridwan Azman from Ah Boys to Men is here to grace the official launch. He performed and sang Justin Bieber's Baby!

Thumbs up for this new 4D show!

With a background in Accountancy, it was during the later years when Dato' A. Yogesvaran founded Sentosa 4D Magix Pte Ltd in 2005. He was conferred the title of Dato' from the Sultan of Pahang in Malaysia in 2008 for his achievements in the tourism industry. His entrepreneurial management also earned him the Global Indian Entrepreneur Award in 2011.

In April 2013, he created a new brand identity by repositioning the attractions collectively as a theme park named as Sentosa 4D AdventureLand. Visitors can now enjoy unlimited access to all three exciting experiences wthin its premises, via a One-Day Adventure Pass.

His comment on the transition of the 4D shows as follow:

" 'Pirates' has been our anchor 4D movie since our opening in 2005 - over 2.5 million visitors from around the world have enjoyed it. While we have received positive feedback on 'Pirates', our guests and key channel partners have expressed a desire for new experiences. After a long search, we have found, 'Journey 2: The Mysterious Island', to be suitable for our audience. The new show is also symbolic of the brand identity of our product to meet the desires of our audience, as the characters are very current, the story is based on a timeless classic novel and the adventurous theme brings out the child in every one of us."  

Opening Hours and Admission Charges

Opening Hours: 10am to 9pm daily (last ticket sale, redemption & entry at 8.15pm)

One-Day Adventure Pass (*Unlimited entry on day of visit*)

Adult - S$38.90

Child - S$26.90 (age 3 to 12 years old)

*Free entry for children below 3 years old.

*Sentosa Island admission and transport charges apply.

Yes, I tried the Desperados shoot out again! Yeah, so much fun!

For more information, please visit

http://4dadventureland.com.sg/

The new VOLVO V40 Cross Country

A little out of place is how I feel when I was there at the Volvo showroom the other day. So if you are expecting a post writing on how good their cars are, or the specifications of their cars, you may wish to visit Google and search for it. 

This post is going to be a boring post cause I just wish to clear and post up some photos taken there. It would be even more boring if I don't think of something to type here, so I'll give three reasons why I feel out of place there.

 One, I'm not pretty enough to blend in to act like the super models for the cars. (Not that there's any pretty super model there, there's just a lot of random people like us) 

Two, I've got no money nor car license to want to buy a car. (Maybe in my next life, I will get the chance)

Three, I've got zero knowledge about cars. (To me, a car is just a car that brings convenience in travelling from one destination to the other. I don't care if you drive a Ferrari or a Toyato, if you can bring me to the place I want to go, then, thank you. To some, it's a symbol of their status. The more expansive the car is, the more satisfaction they get. To others, it's a hobby. The cars are their collectible items. Whatever the reason is, there is always a huge demand for cars.) 

So why am I there? I guess it's just another reason for a meet up with Jess and Terence.  

Usually, I'm a B.M.W person, (My B.M.W here is referring to Bus, MRT, Walk) but when it comes to getting to places like the Singapore Island Country Club for meetings, I'm always thankful that I have a few colleagues who also stayed in the West area to send me back home safely. Really grateful for that. For personal events, I would have to go back to taking my B.M.W. again. On some rare occasion, there will be a bike waiting for me. The chance of a bike waiting for me is 1 over 50 events. 

This is my weight in a car collision if the car is going at the speed of 55km/h. That is like so scary. There's even a formula to calculate all these. Physics theory on Momentum and Collision, interested to find out more, please visit this link from UNSW, School of Physics, Sydney Australia. I don't know how people can score in a subject like physics. It's so uninteresting and all those formula don't makes any sense to me at all.  

How vintage. 

The Volvo advertisement spotted at the bus stop nearest to the Volvo showroom. 

Had our late dinner just opposite the Volvo showroom at Dawson Place. My first time there. The Japanese food there is cheap and not bad and there's a TV there too. 

Ok, boring post ended. More exciting posts coming up soon. Stay tuned.

F&N Sparkling Drinks Present MTV Sessions with The Temper Trap

Presented by F&N Sparkling Drinks is a music series titled MTV Sessions and it is back for its Sixth episode. 

Here's a list of artistes who have performed for the MTV Sessions. I'm glad to be invited to catch the first MTV Sessions in 2013 featuring an Australian Indie rock band, The Temper Trap. 

The Temper Trap is formed in 2005 and they released their debut album "Conditions" along with the lead single "Sweet Disposition" in 2009. The band's core members are Dougy Mandagi as lead singer, Jonathon Aherne on bass guitar, Lorenzo Sillitto on lead guitar, Toby Dundas on the drums and Joseph Greer on keyboards and guitar.  

Honestly, I've not heard of their songs prior to this event but when I told Stef about this band, she seems to have heard of their songs on radio before. Thus, I invited her to come along with me for this live and up-close performance. 

The MTV Sessions was filmed live in an intimate studio environment at Resort World Sentosa's Waterfront Studio. It was really an exclusive session with a crowd of only about 300 that night. 

For that one hour session, the band thrilled us with six of their songs which includes the most popular song "Sweet Disposition" to which the crowd sing together to. We were also the privileged few to listen to them live performing "Everybody Leaves In The End" acoustically for the first time. This song is a duet between Mandagi and Joseph Greer. There was also a Q&A sessions whereby they answered questions from Twitter and from the floor. They ended the night with a re-done of "Trembling Hands," which entered the Top 30 shortlist for 2013 APRA Song of the Year last month.

Normal Version

Acoustic Version

Trembling Hands is one song that keeps repeating in my mind. I'm quite fond of the song so the moment I went back home, I did a search of it on YouTube. When they performed this song, I was listening to it with my eyes closed. Swinging my body with the melody and following the lyrics of the song. Maybe it's the lyrics that I can so relate to that makes me like this song so much. It goes,

...............................

So throw me a line

Somebody out there help me

I'm on my own

I'm on my own

Throw me a line

Afraid that I have come here

To win you again

With trembling hands

Trembling hands

There goes the ending

It left me in the war

But I tried everything yeah

I'm done with my part

..........................................

With bubbly Stef. Thank u for accompanying me. Oh yeah, MTV Sessions premiers on MTV S.E.A, Starhub channel on 1st June, 11.30am (WIB), 12.30pm (SIN/HK/PH) and 1.30pm (MAL). Don't forget to catch it on TV! ^^

For more informations about the show and exclusive photos and videos of The Temper Trap MTV session, please visit

http://web2.mtvasia.com/microsite/mtvsessions/the-temper-trap 

Thanks for reading! 

[Happy Mother's Day] Mind Body Spirit Festival 2013 at Singapore Flyer

 

 It has been awhile since my mum and I went out together, as in just the two of us. Today being Mother's Day and having gotten two Day Pass tickets to the Mind Body Spirit Festival 2013, who else to bring along other than my mum to go with me?

 

My mum's a housewife and it's tough on her doing almost all the housework. She would sometime complained about having no public holidays like we working adults have. I felt heart pain for my mum as I hold her wrinkled and coarse hand in mine. So today, I'm gonna bring her out and pamper her to the max.

 

 The Mind Body Spirit Festival 2013 is held this weekend in celebration of Mother's Day and is a collaboration between Singapore Flyer and ICON events (organiser of the biggest yoga event in Singapore - Yoga By The Sea).

 

If you've been my regular blog follower, you would most probably have read about my previous blog post on the Workout in the Sky at Singapore Flyer, a preview of this Mind Body Spirit Festival. If you have just stumbled upon this post, you may wish to read the preview post too. Cause that post is all about Yoga in the capsule of the Singapore Flyer, but today, we are not going into the capsule.    

 

My Day Pass tickets allowed me entry to all workshops at Bayview Room, as well as the Mega Workshops at Greek Theatre and a Fitness Marathon at the Greek Theatre.

 

 

Photos taken inside the Bayview Room while we waited for the workshop to begin. There's my media wrist tag, the coupon voucher booklet to be used at the Singapore Food Trail at Singapore Flyer, the fan at the ceiling, The red carnation mum received from the organisers and of course mum and I. 

 

We initially aimed to be there for their first workshop which started at 8.30am but ultimately we only reached there around 11.30am. My fault cause I overslept, I'm really not a morning person! I super hate to go to bed early and wake up early.  

 

 

Here's Jacqueline Hargreaves, a Yoga Master sharing on how longevity can be achieved from through yoga.  

 

 

This is Gopinath Sathya Seilan (Shrichakrayoga). He is here to share with us how to explore the potential of our body and master it. Some facts sharing first, an adult human body has 206 bones and if you have read the bible, it would have say something like God took a rib from Adam to make Eve, so the saying that Women have an extra bone (rib) is derive from here. In a baby, the brain was first develop and than the spine. 

 

After some sharing, we begin with some breathing exercise. We were asked to sit in a meditating posture while we breath in and out 50 times, each breath is short and strong.

 

 

Next, it's time for some action! He invited two guys from the floor to demonstrate this simple exercise to us. With one palm on the wall, swing the leg 20 times to and fro and left and right. This is equivalent to running 2km and good point is it won't cause any harm to the ankle and knee. We tried that out and we were really panting after the swings.

 

     

After that we went back to our Yoga mat, and this is my mum with one complex cobra posture. The leg is not only bend up but twisted. Omg, I can't do this.

 

 

Really enjoyed his workshop. The instructor showed us simple ways to exercise without causing harm and can be done at home. He also encourage interactions from the floor by asking questions, sharing stories which makes his workshop interesting.

 

 

There was a 15 minute break before the next session begins so more photos. This time with my hair tie up. I'm glad that my hair is now long enough to be tied up and I have yet to get irritated by my long hair. Let's see this time I can keep my hair till what length. Heehee.

 

 

The next workshop on Stress Management through Meditation is by Hitesh (Sahaja Yoga Meditation)  

 

He first started the workshop with a presentation on what is stress and how to manage it with meditation.

 

 

Some of the slides. Meditation is all about the inner energy flowing in the body. It started at the base of the spine known as the sacrum bone and rises upwards.

 

Performed a series of mediation action, and it was not an easy task for me, because meditation can only be done well when a person's mind concentrate fully without any distraction. I am one person who have to move about, and my brain is like always thinking so I'm like opening my eyes to peek now and then and scratching here and there throughout the session. I'm not a person who can appreciate meditation.   

 

 

Next workshop called the YogaDivas CORE is by Sarah from YogaDivas.

 

 

That is really some arm balancing!! This pose is called the side plank. I totally enjoyed her workshop too because she would played some soothing music and after each difficult pose, she would always give us a big smile and asked us to smile too. Make me feel very relaxed. For your information, she is one of the teacher from YogaDivas and they are doing outdoor yoga. For more information, do visit http://www.yogadivas.biz/index.html

 

 

This is our hot instructor, Marisela Dominguez from Core Synergy Studio teaching us some Zumba Fitness!

 

 

Never take much photos because this is one moving and dancing Zumba session! It was so fun, it gets us sweating with all the dance moves. Zumba is all about partying oneself into good shape. Dancing to songs like Shakira's Hips don't lie, Buster Poindexter's Hot Hot Hot, Psy's Gangnum Style, and many songs. For that one hour, we really just let our hair down and dance. It's a Latin inspired and calorie burning workout. Loving it.   

 

 

A group photo taken from Core Synergy Studio Facebook Page. We were all happy students that day. I think I am quite interested to take up Zumba lesson.

 

 

Lastly, we went to the Greek Theatre to take a look at the Pilates Mass Workout by In the Loop and Pilates Fitness. Both mum and I have enough of workouts and was so exhausted so we just watched a while by the side.

 

It was truly an unforgettable workout Mother's Day! Thank you for the invitation! Keeping fit and staying healthy is the way to life.  ^^v