some trivia

This blog is so dead, mainly because things have been really busy for the past two and a half weeks. Unfortunately now is only the mid-point in this marathon – I will have to get through next week’s trip and write up my report within a week after I return. Sigh!

Anyway, here’s some trivia.

Did you know that ComfortDelGro runs 13% of London’s bus network? According to Monocle (which is an amazing magazine), ComfortDelGro is one of the world’s biggest transport companies – they have 46,000 vehicles! Their buses are in Australia, Ireland and Scotland, while their taxis are in Aberdeen, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Ho Chi Minh City and Liverpool. Their taxis are also in China, and they are even the 3rd largest taxi operator in Beijing!

       

 

Speaking of China, although the water usage per capita is only 20% of the global average, 660 cities in China suffer from water shortage, with 110 of the cities having severe water shortages.

Everyone also knows about China’s sizable investments and interest in Africa. Did you know that China convinced the African countries in which it invests heavily to close down the Taiwanese embassies they were hosting?

Did you also know that for every 1% increase in GDP, 1.03% of energy is expanded, and whenever an urban population grows by 1%, 2.2% more energy is consumed? Our growth comes at a sizable cost to the environment.

How much energy do you think Singapore consumed for all these?

1 good eye makeup remover and 2 to avoid

I recently blogged here about some good eye makeup removers from Kate and Kanebo, and a bad eye makeup remover from Clinique. I am happy to announce that Kanebo’s makeup remover is available in Singapore from their makeup counters!

At only $20, it’s marginally more expensive than some other brands out there, but is well worth the money as results are guaranteed. Just drip some on a cotton pad, wipe and it’s gone.

However, do not ever buy the Bodyshop Camomile Waterproof Eye Makeup Remover, or the Majolica Majorca Eye Reset Gel.

The Bodyshop one is simply useless – it hardly got rid of any of my mascara. Only when I completely soaked a cotton pad with the remover did its effectiveness improve marginally, but it was still not good enough and stung my eyes slightly.

My issue with the Majolica Majorca Eye Reset Gel is somewhat different. The gel is fairly effective in removing the mascara, but it left my vision extremely blurred – it was quite unpleasant actually. One would have thought that a brand with the best and most waterproof mascara would have an equally good eye makeup remover to accompany it, but unfortunately this is not the case.