My 10 Travel Essentials

I've decided to do this post as I am currently packing for my Australia trip which starts tomorrow. I remember how my packing list was so long when I was younger, like I included rubber bands, blue tack, 5 books and other junk. So I've decided to share with you guys my 10 travel essentials for now. I'll be starting the list with the more general items that most people will bring.

1) Portable charger + Cable

So first on the list, which is probably everyone's travel essential, is a portable charger. Personally I'm not the kind of people who uses a portable charger daily so most of the time when I actually do need it, the battery will run flat. But this portable charger here doesn't "leak", meaning the amount of battery remains the same even if you don't use it.

There's also this unbreakable cable that I have. I'm a really messy person so I always throw the cable in my bag, causing it to bend and break and expose the wire.

2) Camera

I'm using a Canon M3, which has a wifi function to transfer the photos to my phone so that I can upload it on Instagram or whatever instantly. I also got a leather pouch from qoo10 for $30 which looks a lot nicer than the original camera pouches in Canon. It's also detachable so it's quite cool.

3) Sketchbook + Drawing Material

To pass time on the plane, I'll usually bring a sketchbook to draw whatever and I'll bring an artist's pencil case to hold my pencils, a couple of drawing pens, an eraser and a ruler. When I went to London I also brought a mini sketchbook which I carry with me everyday because I visited many museums in that trip.

4) iPad

I'll bring my iPad for blogging, reading and watching anime in case the movies in flight are boring




5) Spectacles



I got this free sample of a blue light filtered specs from my mom so it doesn't really fit that well on my face. It's supposed to reduce the amount of blue light from entering your eyes from staring at your phone for too long. Not sure if it it actually works but I still bring it with me whenever I travel.

6) Dry Shampoo

This is seriously a game changer especially when it comes to long haul flights like I cannot stand it when my hair is greasy and flat and sticks all over my forehead. Dry shampoo is basically shampoo in a can and it works so well. I'm using Batiste because it's cheap (about $5 from Watsons), it works well, it smells great and most importantly it is travel sized so I can carry this on my flight.

7) Bio Essence Miracle Bio Spray

This is basically dry shampoo but for your face. It's actually my sister's but I use it occasionally when my face gets oily or sticky and it basically just refreshes your face.

8) Hand Sanitizer

Sometimes when I travel, I'll encounter super dirty public toilets which is so dirty that even the water tap is crawling w bacteria. or maybe it doesn't even have a sink. Like when I went to Grand Canyon last year, their water system doesn't work so this really comes in handy. You can get this from Watsons for about $2 which is very worth it.

9) Environmentally Friendly Bags
I always bring one of these to reduce on the amount of plastic bags used. Also, some countries charge for plastic bags so it's always good to keep one of these in my bag.

10) Medicine Pouch
And lastly my medicine pouch which I carry everywhere I go, which includes a bottle of eye-drop, 2 gastric medicine, 2 panadol, cough and allergy medicine. You never know when you'll fall sick so this comes in really handy.

That's all! I'll be going to Australia tonight and be back by 1st December so hit the follow button on the right (if you're using your computer) to get notifications when I write about my trip.

Pokemon GO Tips

After weeks and days of painful waiting, Pokemon GO was finally released. The 6th of August marks the beginning of the 'zombie' apocalypse in Singapore, where Pokemon GO players hunt for pokemons rather than human flesh. Mindless players roaming the streets of Singapore, heads down, phone in hand, with only one thought in their mind- "where's the pokemon?"

Exaggeration aside, this is really what Singapore looks like now. The other day I was at NEX with a friend to watch Nerve, and I swear Pokemon GO players were swarming in and out stores and even the library; the roof was overran by them too. 

I have to admit the game is really fun, I'm playing it too but I feel that a lot of people are taking it too far. Like I have friends who hunt for pokemon around Singapore at 3 in the morning. But of course I didn't post this for my readers to listen to me nag about how Pokemon GO ruins our lives (because I'm a player too :-)) 

So here are a couple of tips for Pokemon GO:

1) Pikachu as a STARTER
This is the first mistake that I made while playing Pokemon GO. When you first started, you'd be given a choice of one of the three starters- Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle but if you walk away from them, you'd encounter the fourth secret starter, Pikachu. I think Pikachu is a lot more rare than the starters because it's been three days since I started playing and I've encountered a couple of Bulbasaurs, a Charmander and two Squirtles but ZERO Pikachus!!

2) Don't level up/ evolve anything yet
Another mistake I made was to level up my Golduck and evolve my Weedle, both which have a relatively low CP. I didn't really know how to play the game on the second day and I was like "oh look I can evolve ok yeah I'll just do that." I've learnt that if you evolve a Pokemon with a higher cp, it's evolution will get an even higher CP. You can check this on a CP calculator which tells you how much CP the Pokemon will have when you evolve it. So unless you're really aching to fight in a gym, just wait awhile and see if you can find a Pokemon with a higher CP so that your Pokemon can be even stronger.

3) PokeAlert
Some people may call this cheating and stuff (it's actually condemned by Niantic) but I think it's a pretty cool app. Basically PokeAlert is an app that tells you exactly where the Pokemon is, including the time of its de-spawn. I tried using Poke Radar, which is the same thing, but is super laggy and it doesn't have the timer on it.

4) Play on a vehicle
This kinda beats the objective of the game which is for players to exercise more but this is so much easier. When I'm on the bus or something, I'd turn on the app and wait for the bus to pass by a Pokemon. Unless you enjoy staring at the phone, turn on the vibrations in your Pokemon GO settings and your phone will vibrate when a Pokemon pops up.

5) Turn off AR
There's an AR option on the right hand corner of the screen when you're catching a Pokemon. Turning it off will remove the legit background(?) of where you're at and it makes it easier to catch it because the Pokemon is automatically placed in the middle of the screen.

It's also easier to catch Pokemons when you're in school or working without people noticing heheh. 

6) Method of catching
To increase the catch rate, spin the pokeball with your fingers until little sparks appear and throw it at your Pokemon. But because it is a curve ball, you need to throw it to a side, left or right depending on which direction you spin the ball. 

I'm not really sure about this one but apparantly the size of the little inner circle matters when you throw the pokeball. From experience and friends, I think the bigger the inner circle, the higher the catch rate? I'm not really sure about this so if I'm wrong about it please leave a comment down below.

7) Transferring
You can only store 250 Pokemons in your phone. "Oh no so how am I gonna catch more Pokemons??" There's a transfer button on every Pokemon which you can use to get more PokeSpace (I just came up with this). You should transfer all the pokemons with very low CPs bc they're useless anyway and in exchange, you get 1 candy for it. 

8) Eevee evolution
I'm sure many of you are wondering "what's my Eevee gonna transform into...? I hope I get a Vaporeon" (A Vaporeon has the highest base stats, followed by Flareon and Jolteon). Just change the name of your eevee before evolving it- Vaporean--> Rainer, Flareon--> Pyro and Jolteon--> Sparky.

9) Heavy bag
Because I live at a Pokestop, I can get like 13401438 items a day easily which contributes to my super heavy and filled bag. Unless you upgrade the size of your bag, you can only have 350 items in it so what I do is I delete Potions to make space for other more important items like Revives and Pokeballs. My friend deletes his razzberries though.

10) Eggs
There are 3 types of eggs in Pokemon GO- 2.0km, 5.0km and 10.0km. And you have to walk the distance in order for the egg to hatch. The greater the distance, the rarer the pokemon is and so far, the only 10.0 km egg I got hatched me an Eevee...

Thank you to my friend @kageyami_law7 for teaching me how to play this game like a pro B)

#TeamMystic

Also I've included a follow button on my blog. If you want to be notified whenever I post, hit the follow button at the right hand side of the page. 

Thanks for reading!

SECRET to Lose Weight Quickly- Freeletics

NOTE: I've started another blog (notcolman.wordpress.com) and I won't be updating this blog anymore



"It's because I don't have time to go to the gym."

"Oh look it's raining. I guess I can't go jogging today."

"Yeah... I'll just work out tomorrow."

Do all these sound familiar to you? Because that's what I say all the time in the past (except I don't go to the gym). Recently I've downloaded a free workout app called Freeletics. It's basically an app with different sets of exercises for different parts of the body. It's a really short workout and the best part is, you can conduct it anywhere!

At the start of the year, I was gaining a lot of weight; my pants became tighter and my belly was getting flabbier but I never had the motivation to exercise because I hate jogging, swimming and playing basketball doesn't really help with weight loss unless I play competitively. So I was really glad when I came across Freeletics.

I've tried out a few workouts and I find that Metis and Morpheus really fit my requirements. I'll talk about Metis because it's my regular and I find it more effective

I read from a website that burpees are really good cardio exercises because you have to use almost every part of your body to do one burpee and I find that to be true because I always get really tired when I do them. What makes this exercise so good is that it requires every part of your body to move- arms, core and legs for burpees, arms and core for froggers and legs for high jumps. Don't be discouraged if you can't finish it the first time. The screenshot above is actually the 'Strength' version of Metis so if you're new at this, maybe you should try the 'Standard' version.

I think one reason why Freeletics is so efficient is because it has a timer and a Personal Best system and I try to get a new highscore no matter how tired I am. 

After doing a month plus of Freeletics, I lost around 4 kg and my waist got 2 inches smaller, which isn't actually a good thing because now my clothes are a bit too big. But yeah if you're trying to slim down, you should really try it out!

Thanks for reading!

https://www.freeletics.com/en

Geylang Bazaar 2016 YES's and NO's

Because of the construction work beside the train station, there is a need to walk one big round to get to the bazaar. So what my friend and I did was, we turned right after walking out of Exit A and walked around the construction. The walk is about 5 minutes long so just see it as a way of burning some fats before your sinful indulgence at the bazaar! After walking around, there is a traffic light to cross to get there. It's pretty obvious where the bazaar is because of all the colorful street lights. The first thing you should see when you cross the road is a henna shop and that was where we started our food trip!

1) NO to hennas

My friend decided to get a henna at the start and I should have stopped her. Because it got really messy; she kept on smudging the pigment on her food and hands. It was extremely inconvenient especially when the bazaar was crowded. However, if you really do want a henna, it is recommended to get it at the end of the day.

2) YES to Ramly Burgers

Ok so there are numerous Ramly burger stalls at the bazaar, which isn't surprising. So which one sells the best Ramly Burger, you ask? I've only tried the burgers at two stalls so I'll compare on those. The first Ramly burger stall is just a stone's throw away from the henna shop (face the henna shop and turn right). The sauce in the burger wasn't very strong but the beef was 10/10! At first, we were hesitant about consuming it because it looked like rare beef (it was our first ramly burger) but there were no regrets after taking a bite.

The second shop is up ahead. This time we tried the chicken burger. I preferred the beef patty over chicken but the sauce in this stall was the bomb. I think it was concocted with mayonnaise and chilli sauce but whatever it was, it was delicious! If I were to come here again, I'd go for the beef burger at the second stall. 

3) YES to BackAlley

BackAlley is no doubt my favourite stop of the night as they sold churros and thai iced tea! Who would say no to churros and thai iced tea like seriously. The churros were freshly fried and tasted so good. It was crispy and hot on the outside while soft on the inside. The amount of cinnamon icing and oreo powder used was really generous too.

4) NO to Cotton Candy Ice Cream

Before going to the bazaar, I saw a blogpost that gives shout outs to the nicest foods in the bazaar and this little devil here was one of the top ten. But take my word for it and do not buy this. It was such a mess eating it. The whole of my left hand got sticky just from holding the cup and what made it worse was the melting of the cotton candy. There was sugar all over my pants, shoes and worst of all my camera. Trying to devour the entire thing quickly was just insane. 

5) NO to bags

I mean like, what's there to even bring to a bazaar? Moreover, it gets in the way because of how insanely crowded the place is. There's also the risk of other people or yourself spilling food all over your bag, so really there isn't a point in bringing one. 

I'd definitely go back to eat more :-)

Thanks for reading!