KEEP IT IN THE PHAMLY

I normally LOVE the Eurovision Song Contest and look forward to it every year and I still do. However, I must admit I found Eurovision 2013 to be underwhelming. My favourite thing about Eurovision is the over-the-topness, the desperation to stand out and impress - it should be a giant music circus! This year was just meh though the host Petre Mede nailed it with her cheeky/charming humour.

I blame the tasteful winners of years past like Loreen's Euphoria in 2012 and bloody Lena's Satellite from 2010 for Eurovision's demise. Damn you ladies and your simple staging and decent songs! Too many countries are sending inferior versions of these subtler songs and performances and it's booorrrring and painful when they don't nail it.
2013 Eurovision didn't have anywhere enough ridiculousness, "reveals" and outrageous songs for my liking. Greece sent a 'novelty' act probably expecting them to BOMB but no, they were fantastic! Romania hurt Tigger Pham's ears but they were entertaining in their own way. Moldova's dress and hair was an exception in this year's contest when it should have been the standard!
I did thoroughly enjoy Loreen's Interval Performance. If more of Europe could send this calibre of artist into the semis and final I wouldn't complain about the performances being too normal/respectable. It's just this half-assed middle ground that's ruining the Eurovision I know and love.

The other day I was scrolling through my baby pics and discovered that my new hairstyle isn't so new. This is a pic of 2 year old me. Turns out I'm not fashion forward... or even fashion backward. I'm fashion sidewards.

The only difference (apart from 27 years in age) is I didn't shave the sides of my head back then because 2 year old me only had enough language to say 'long' and chuck a heart-stopping, window-breaking tantrum if Mum Pham did otherwise. I wish she hadn't indulged me because now in adulthood I don't use my decent sized English vocabulary to articulate how I feel. I make whiny noises when I don't like something and roar at people who get in my way.

So tell me honestly, who rocks it better? Mini me or grown up me. I know mini-me dressed better. Hot damn! Look at that tights to dress colour coordination then light long sleeve underlayer to match the light sandals. Why can't I dress like that?

I've always had a drinking problem in that I am too focused on my work to get up and get a glass of water. Even when there's a little part of my brain telling me I'm dying of thirst, I just tell it to stop being overdramatic and keep on working. Little Sissy Pham had to 'water' me when I first got into Diablo III for this very reason. Sometimes I would go a full day on one sip of water and only realise my bad when I stopped working and got hit with a dehydration headache. Yeah, those exist.


But at work, I don't have Little Sissy Pham bringing me regular glasses of water and cups of tea. I've had to step up my water game and I did so in shiny Sigg style. I got this Heritage Sigg 1L drink bottle in Vintage Gold from bodegadeluxe.com - look how pretty the colour is! There is a matte black version that I really wanted too but I lived up to my Shiny Jade mug and went the shiny gold bottle. Also, part of my brain didn't want a drink bottle that matched the boys' cars at work. There's enough matte black already in my world view. I got the whole kit - Sigg bottle cleaning brush and cleaning tablets because cleanliness is next to something that's not dirty, which is important when it's your drinking water. My Sigg gold bottle makes me huppy.

Have you ever tried to kiss yourself on the lips? ...Oh, okay - me either then. But that's where my brain went when I finally got around to Maybelline's Baby Lips in colour range.

As you won't remember from my Nivea Fruity Shine lip balm post, I've been hanging for the Maybelline Baby Lips colour range to drop in Australia. Too bad for me, I'm a stockpiler and had stocked up on Nivea Fruity Shine on sale and am only just starting to run out of juice now.


And I'm so happy to make the switch! Maybelline Baby Lips in colour is just as good as regular clear Baby Lips - you know how sometimes when they change the formula to add fluff details (like glitter or colour) it can affect the moisture? Well, super glad to say that Maybelline Baby Lips Colours are 110% moisturising. I'm sorry Nivea Fruity Shine, you were fun to kiss but now I've got a new favourite!

The Nivea Fruity Shine range has glitter and colour added that affect the smooth moist feel compared to their regular range of lip balm. Somehow Maybelline Baby Lips has managed to keep the moisture at a maximum and - by god - the staying power is even better than the first clear tube of Baby Lips I had.

Interwebs, say hello to my new favourite tinted lip balm - Maybelline Baby Lips in Berry Crush! I still prefer the US range - their packaging is way cooler and colours way bolder and I've read your lips absorbs the moisture whereas the Aussie one I'm currently using sits on top of my lips like a gloss. Oh well, when you live this far away from the rest of the globe, I guess you gotta appreciate what you can get. Or I guess I could just order it in from the States. Lord knows I can't seem to stop giving the Internet money to send me stuff in the mail.

It's Dad Pham's 68th birthday today! 2012-13 has been a bit rough on my papa.  He is finally starting to feel his age. Dad Pham used to be Mr. Invincible - never had a health problem. Well, body health issue. Dad's had schizophrenia brought on by PTSD from the Vietnam War since before we were born but that's a story for another day. Today's story is about dad's body health.

I'm sure nobody's noticed that I'm blogging about half as much as I used to but I am. And I have a good reason... by good I mean bad. I've been cheating on my blog with another blog that pays for my services. I've become a blogging prostitute! I guess if I enjoy it and feel empowered then it's okay. Jokes aside this is part of my day job: culturekings.com.au/blog. It's way cooler than my personal blog and has, like, socially fashiony musically sporty culturally relevant content but you can see my nerdy influences creepin' in. GoT meme anyone? Support my craft and check out the new Culture Kings blog!

Some things I don't need to remember but can't seem to forget - like the taste of methylated spirits in my potatoes from year 9 camp. Other things I should remember but always seem to forget - like I don't have a drunk stage when I drink, I go from tipsy straight to sick. No thank you, brain.

Last Friday I went drinking with the new work crew and instead of sticking to 1-2 clear spirits, I went and had a shot with the boyz. And oh man did I pay for it. Within half an hour my vision went splotchy purple and blue before I stopped seeing altogether. Then I had the pleasure of throwing up 10 times. Once in the middle of the club, 5 times in the bathroom then another 4 times when I got home.

Dad Pham was quite proud. The ex-navy captain in him was all, 'It's good! This is how you know you're having fun.' But it didn't feel like fun when stomach bile was coming out of my nose and it definitely didn't taste like fun either. The only upside I can see is this will remind me to not drink shots again until the next time I forget and drink shots. By my calculations I'll repeat this vicious cycle in 2018.

Gone are my days of awkwardly 'cleaning' my glasses on my dresses, tops and on one occasion, my cat because she was dryer than everything else in reaching distance. By 'cleaning' I mean swishing bits of fluff and grime around on the lens. Clearwipe Lens Cleaners have changed my life! By 'changed my life' I mean I can actually see stuff and you need to see stuff all the time when you drive and write and read and eat. Well, I guess you don't need to see to eat but I do like looking at food.

Hello poser me. I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. I am slowly but surely on my way to not being called a fatty boombah by science. I'm actually out of the overweight range after dropping 3kg in three weeks - yay! But that's just on the very edge of the healthy weight range for some one my height so I want to keep going because if I settled for just okay my life would be super dull and I'd probably be the first person to literally (meaning literally, not the new shitty 'used for emphasis' literal meaning - will you dictionary people stop adding bullshit words and definitions already please?!?!) die from boredom.

The other day while cooking with Dad Pham, I learned that my dad was a certified life saver back in the day. Our best conversations are had in our kitchen where we both avoid talking about the cooking because as soon as he tells me how I should be doing something, I get all, 'You're not my mother! You can't tell me what to do!'