Lotions and Potions!

I was reading an article the other day about myths and fallacies of facial creams. At one point, the writer questioned the need for a special eye cream when the face cream/moisturiser could do the job.

I already knew this fact and it got me thinking about many unnecessary creams in the market.

I never saw the need to buy a separate cream for the eye area and saw it as a ploy by creators, to milk us women dry by assailing our vanity. Our vanity has made clever marketers become unreasonably exploitative. I know the modern man too has become rather vain.  It is evident with abundance of products out there for the male species and the line seem to be expanding at a rapid speed. BTW, this has made some men look more polished and smooth skinned than women. J

I think I digressed a bit there. I am not talking about men’s beauty products.

I am questioning the need for a special eye cream on the market (and creams for specific areas on the face & for specific purposes) and why women allow themselves to be fooled day in and day out. Me (not to the full extent) included!

I have never bought an eye cream but I have come to own eye creams with periodical deals with my regular beauty potions. Eg; buy all three (moisturiser, night cream and eye cream) and get for less than half price. So I go, umm… I don’t really want the eye cream but I can do with the other two and the price of the deal (most of the time) is cheaper than buying the two products (I want) separately. I get the eye cream free. No harm there.

These deals happen closer to Mother’s Day, Christmas, and maybe Valentine’s Day.

Even though I did not want or need the eye cream, I come home and happily slap it around the eyes, thinking, “Oh what the heck, it was free.”

Eye creams have done squat around my eyes. I have never seen any visible benefits. Still I use it until I see the bottom of the jar.

What can I say? It was free! J Then there’s the cleansing cream and make-up remover. Wouldn’t the first do the same as the other? Do we really need to buy a separate make-up remover?  What about mascara/eye make-up remover? Why buy this when you can use your face cream or good old fashioned Sorbolene cream or even baby oil to remove mascara?Which are fraction of the price of above creams. I am not sure about using the cleansing cream here as it could be too harsh around the eye. 

Yep, as women we have been had!

There is one thing I can vouch for though.  Retin-A! 

Face cream with Retin-A as a main ingredient does wonders to the skin.

No kidding!

The day my 18 year-old came home drunk!

Legality can have a phenominal affect on one’s thinking. When you add peer pressure and the desire to fit-in, to the fold, you have a lethal mix!

My daughter never could stand the smell of alcohol and always complained,” I don’t know how you could drink that stinky stuff” Until………..

One by one, her friends reached 18 and had parties to celebrate the coming of age with alcohol. My daughter is the youngest (by months) It needn’t be said that alcohol was the centrepiece of any party. Screaming, “LOOK, we now have the green light to drink” However, the ones that were not yet there (I mean 18) did not drink. Or so I thought………..

Then it was my daughter’s turn to celebrate her 18th. We had a party for her at a local restaurant. Sure champagne was flowing and lo-and-behold, the birthday girl too had one in her hand. I was wondering, “When did she grow out of stinky smell and grow into it?”

It has vanished almost overnight. Peer pressure, the need to fit-in, call it what you will, was evident. It has grappled her. Still, I was surprised to see few of her friends refusing drinks. I was promptly informed; it was because they drove to the party and because of the zero tolerance for provisional drivers.

Long live laws and rules!

Thereafter the focus was parties with inevitable drinks. Before a party, my daughter would go to the liquor store to buy her drinks to take with her. (Of course, they were premixes – not the hard stuff)

I told her many times, “you don’t have to drink just because others are doing it. You can buy sparkling grape juice instead” She would always give me an ‘are you ‘for real’ look’, and then go ahead and buy the drinks.

This trend continued with every party until one day there was a farewell party to one of her friends. She was to go with another friend to the party and I was to drive them there. By this time, I had stopped trying to convince her that she needn’t drink if she doesn’t like it. However, hadn’t given up altogether on my mission to convince. So, I kept chanting my mantra whenever I saw a window of opportunity and she kept ignoring me -the vintage-what does she know-mother.

On the day of the party the friend had text my daughter inquiring if my daughter wanted her (the friend) to buy her drinks as well as she was about to buy hers. My daughter had said ‘yes’ and came and told me “mum you don’t have to drive me to the liquor store, xxxx will buy my drinks”. I asked, “what sort of drinks is she going to buy you?” –BTW, this particular friend does the nightclub rounds almost every Friday/Saturday nights. I guess I was justified to assume she would be able to handle or used to drinks than my daughter who is just pretending to be grown up. Besides, the friend turned 18, lot earlier than my daughter did — My daughter replied, “Dunno”. This answer alone showed how ‘mature’ she really is where alcohol was concerned. I explained about alcohol, their different strengths and different coping abilities with individuals, gave the choice to text back, and ask the friend what she intended to buy or ask the friend to buy what my daughter normally buys.

As you might expect, she did not text. After all what do I know? I am too ancient. It is hip to have a drink in the hand even if you knew nothing of what you are drinking. It is still alcohol and it shows I am all grown up now!!!!!

Anyway, the arrangement was for one set of parents to drop them off at the party and the other set to dive them back. We did the driving to the party.

I was very tired that day but I managed to keep my eyes open until she came home. Around midnight I heard the knock at the front door.When I opened the door her friend was standing in front and my daughter standing behind her with a hazy look about her. The sight initially puzzled me as I saw no reason for the friend to get off the car. Naturally, as any mother would understand, in a split second, million scenarios ran through my mind. Being ‘drunk’ never crossed my mind. surprisingly. My daughter looked ‘out of it’ and I didn’t know why. As soon as I opened the door, the friend zoomed past me,followed by the daughter. They went straight to her room and she plonked on the bed shoes and all, and the friend who carried my daughter’s belongings –handbag, mobile phone- kept them on the desk and said “love you, talk to you tomorrow”.

I followed the friend to the front door and asked, “What happened?” to which she replied, “Nothing, she is just tired” This put my mind at ease. Sort of.

Call me naive!

Next day I asked my daughter “what happened at the party yesterday?” Apparently the ‘vintage mother’ was right. The alcohol the friend bought –premix vodka- was too high in alcohol content for my daughter. She said, “I had two drinks and was half way through my third one, when I thought, this is stupid I am not drinking anymore” May be that’s when she realised funny things were happening. Things like: -she saw everyone had a twin, the floor seems to be out of alignment etc J The earth seems to be spinning and so forth…………

She said she started to drink water after that. J To flush the drenching I suppose. J

Yep, I did not miss the opportunity. No, I did not lecture her. I merely explained the difference of having a drink (or two or three) and enjoying it and being drunk and making a fool of one’s self, not to mention one’s safety.

She then started her defence with……

“I was not drunk, I had too many late nights and I am so tired”

“Look at my eyelids they are dark”

“Everyone else was drunk and slumped in the couch but I wasn’t“

“xxxx (the friend she went with) was spewing and even fell down the stairs and sent her knee through the wall and smashed it.”

I replied, “When xxxx came here she was together and even carried your personal belongings for you, you on the other hand didn’t even know who I was”.

I was more concerned in making sure she knew and accepted she was drunk and in the future knowing and understanding her alcohol.

Little bro does not miss an opportunity to torment the big sister “Akki got drunk” J

Blogging

Blogging has taken over as the modern day diary to a great extent. I have never owned a diary in my life and always saw people who wrote in diaries especially with “Dear diary” as weird! I never could see the therapeutic effect of off-loading even if it meant only the ‘dear diary’ saw or heard your inner most feelings.  

Having a diary meant you had to guard it with your life. Some even used small padlocks or bought lockable diaries.   All hell break loose if anyone else (especially siblings) dare to have a sneak peek in the diary.

It was/is a definite ‘no’ ‘no’to peek at another’s diary. It would be called wrong, lack of respect for another’s privacy among other things. Still,blogging has taken over from the poor cousin (diary) despite the fact it is bare for anyone to read, laugh, or abuse. Not just your siblings but your enemies down to complete strangers read your blogs and even get abused for seeing things the way you do or having a differing opinion. Still people don’t seem to care.

I never owned a diary nor did I saw the need to. Still, I love owning a blog! So what is the secret enticement? Does anyone know? Is there anyone like me out there?

Perhaps it is the joy I feel when I am on the net. Perhaps it is not having to write until my hands hurt nor deal with mistakes and messy pages with constant erasing.

Perhaps I have changed! Simple as that. Still, I know that is not it. Because I still cannot imagine using a diary?!?!?!

However, I have no qualms about blogging.