MooGoo (Online Shop, Australia)

 http://www.moogoo.com.au/

MooGoo is an Australian company that specialises in natural hypo-allergenic low-in-chemicals cosmetics and body care products. The brand started with an adaptation of an cow udder cream to the treatment of eczema and psoriasis, and has become a successful ever-growing cosmetic brand. At present, they sell, skin, scalp, hair and body products, and special creams for eczema, psoriasis, acne, sensitive skin, and much more.  The pricing is very good, more or less the same price you would pay for any commercial moisturiser or cosmetic product, but way better, way safer, way more natural and it is Australian made and operated.

The success of the brand is due to mouth to mouth advice, which says a lot about the company and the quality of its products. In fact, I myself learnt about it thanks to Jenny B., who mentioned the brand in one of our Yelp outings. I have been told that this is the case with other people, too.

I have tried many of their products and they are all great.

MooGoo products can be purchased from different pharmacies and natural remedies shops throughout Perth. However, my experience is that none of them has the full range of MooGoo products, at least the four places I have visited so far. This makes MooGoo's Internet site perfect for shopping everything you want in one transaction.

MooGoo's website is easy to navigate, informative, colourful, bright and fun. A cow is looking at you no matter where you go, always. Shopping from the website is no fuss. You have all the products listed, and its ingredients and virtues clearly displayed and commented about. 

You can check out as a guest or as registered customer. They accept payment by credit card, Paypal and Internet direct deposit, and orders over $50 are traceable. Many of the products have similar prices, or slightly cheaper, as the prices they are sold in the Perth stockists I visit. There is flat rate of 6.90 Dollars for any Australian shipping order, which is not bad if you order many things at once. International orders have the shipping fee waved, unless their heavy shampoo and conditioner bottles are in your cart.

Shipping is fast, and it is express for Western Australia, Northern Territory and South Australia. If you are not at home, you can opt for delivery at the door -but no responsibility accepted if lost- or deliver through Post Office, which is great. My parcel contained a generous sample of one of their creams, which was a nice surprise. We all love freebies, don't we? Their packaging is great with straw fibres used as filling. So organic, environmentally conscious, and very "cowy" indeed.

Customer service is based in Australia (Monday to Friday) and the lady at the other end of the phone was extremely helpful and nice.Their answering machine has a cow's moo as introductory greeting, which is kind of funny.

MooGoo international expansion has started, with branch websites starting to operate in UK, Ireland, USA, and Malaysia, and stockists overseas starting to be found and listed.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
1/ Tracking device should be provided even if you are not a registered customer.

2/ I love cows and MooGoo's website, but I think they could improve a bit their packaging. What works for a website or a booklet is not that appealing for a cosmetic package. At the moment, the brand looks like a baby products brand. This is not a complaint, I like the Swiss-ish fresh looking of the brand, but other packaging would help the company to sell better. Their cleansers bottles are, however, an example of how to pack something in a very appealing way and catch the eye of customers who have never heard about the brand before.  

3/ The Delivery Company that MooGoo uses should be advised to leave written notice of visit if nobody is at home when they visit. I had to call Customer Service because I did not know if the parcel had been sent, was lost or where had been taken.  

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Zurich Airport Dayrooms & Rest Area (Switzerland)

Zurich Airport Dayrooms & Rest Area
Ph.: +41 (0)43 816 21 08
Booking email
(Photo courtesy of the Zurich Airport's Website)

PROS 
+ Very easy to find within the airport.
+ They have rest rooms with long-chairs, and proper rooms (single, double or family). 
+ Wonderful lady at the desk, at least the day I visited. You won't find a friendlier person in the whole airport. Danke! 
+ Spotless clean facilities.
+ Comfortable room with a small bed, water basin, TV, several wall hooks to hung your clothing and little more.  
+ Seconds away from several budget restaurants.
+ Fair value for money - You pay for what you get. Still, I found the prices very cheap, having into account that this is Switzerland and Europe.
+ Simple but comfortable lounge area with computers, flights monitors and papers.
+ Wake-up call available.
+ They provide one-hour free Internet.
+ You can book by email. Mention your complete name, nationality, and flight details (date, time, flight number) of your arriving/departing aircraft. 

CONS
- This is more a good backpacker facility than a proper hotel. Dayrooms really describe what this place is. It serves a function if you need to stay a few hours. However, if you need to stay overnight, go outside.
- Bathrooms and showers are on the corridor, not inside the rooms. They are separated for women/men, though.
- You must pass a Police check-up counter  to enter and leave the area, and must show your passport each time. That is a bother.
- To get your free Internet hour, you need to register your mobile number and your password will be delivered by SMS. Why making things so difficult for just 1-hr? This is so last century!
- The toiletries in the room are reduced to a sachet of soap and 2 towels. The bathrooms have dispensers of body wash and soap. You can purchase very cheap amenities sets at the front desk, and hire more towels, robe and stuff like that if you stay overnight.
- The single room and its bed could be a bit small for you if you are a big person or very tall.  

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Louis' Tavern Transit Hotel Dayrooms (Bangkok, Thailand)

Louis' Tavern Transit Hotel Dayrooms 

Level 4, Concourse G (West Side)

Suvarnabhumi International Airport, 
Bangkok, Thailand
Ph: +66-2-134-6565-6
Website
Email

If you have a lot of waiting between flights, need to have a rest and take a shower, this might be your place.

 

 PROS
+ Located within the Airport and seconds away from restaurants and cafes.
+ Easy to drop by or book online.
+ Bookings by hours (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12) or overnight.
+ Simple but very clean and pleasant rooms. There is an offer of standard, superior and suite rooms.
+ Free all-day self-service light breakfast included.
+ Basic Toiletries provided, as well as two complimentary bottles of water and two mini-snacks.
+ Super-friendly and helpful cleaners and housekeeping ladies.
+ Spotless clean facilities.
+ Free unlimited Internet.
+ Electric adaptors provided if required.
+ Good selection of International TV channels.
+ TV includes monitor of flight departures and arrivals.
+ Very pleasant and quiet dinning area.
+ There is a massage shop, spa, and hairdresser's within the hotel. 
+ They have the coolest water taps on the planet.

CONS
- Service at the desk is sometimes unfriendly and/or lacking. I didn't feel welcome in my two visits. Desk staff can also misinform. Example, I asked for my flight's gate, as the TV display in the dinning area only showed the flights departing the following hour. I was told that my flight's gate wasn't displayed because it was too early. I went to my room, and try to verify that in my flights monitor to find that the gate was already displayed.
- This is an average three star hotel, but it is way overpriced for Thailand, especially if you pay for a small number of hours.
- Booking online doesn't guarantee that your room will be available at the time you specified when booked it. My experience. I was informed that my room was being cleaned when I arrived.
- Money Deposit of 500 Baths (20 bucks, approximately) required as a key deposit.
- The breakfast is not good. The sort of thing you find in backpackers hotels - continental bad quality breakfast. 

MIND
& Although you provide your credit card when you book online, your card won't be charged, and you'll have to pay at arrival.
& There are several Louis' Tavern VIP lounges scattered throughout the airport, but the hotel is on the 4th floor.
 
RECOMMENDATION
If you need to stay overnight, better go to any of the hotels within the airport area. They all offer free transfer shuttle, you pay about the same price, but you get a de-luxe hotel by the same price. I've stayed at one of them in the past, and it was fantastic.

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"The Lovely Bones" by Peter Jackson (2009)

The movie is based on Alice Seabold's eponymous book, which I read a few years ago and I absolutely loved. If you have not read the book, you will certainly watch the movie with different eyes. Unfortunately, Peter Jackson's adaptation does not convey the emotional depth of the novel.

The Lovely Bones is the story of a murdered girl grieving her own death and the emotional struggle of her family after her vanishing. It is, above all, a story of sadness, guilt, resentment, and redemption by forgiveness and letting go.

Jackson focused on two aspects of the book to develop his movie. 1/ the murder investigation, and 2/ the recreation of the limbo, or pseudo-heaven, in which the girl stays. By doing so, he's forgetting the core of the book, what makes it so meaningful and memorable.

The thriller occupies a minor part in the book, while the grieving of the family, the despair, sadness, uncertainty, pain, love, hatred, forgiveness and self-forgiveness is what matters. In fact the issue of who's the murderer is directly avoided in the book from the beginning,  and the name and face of the murderer do not appear until midway the novel. However, if Jackson wanted to create a thriller, why did he decide to show who the murderer is from almost the beginning of the film? The thriller is killed before starting! I really do not see the point.

Jackson has recreated limbo-heaven with great detail, awesome images and creativity. It looks gorgeous. However, all of that was unnecessary, since the limbo is barely drawn (narratively speaking) in the book, as what matters in the book is the story of the emotions. There are too many special effects and not enough lyric emotion or character drawing in the movie, too.

The acting is very good, by both adult and young actors. I loved young talented Saoirse Ronan, whose face transmits great lyricism and performs with great conviction her role. Susan Sarandon makes a terrific quirky drunk Grandma. Rachel Weisz is good, too, but she doesn't play her role with the intensity and conviction with which Mark Wahlberg plays his role of father and husband. Stanley Tucci is also terrific and the weird neighbour.

Jackson adapted The Lord of the Rings superbly, so I was expecting another superb adaptation. This is not the case here. The movie does not honour the book, its spirit and depth. Still, this is a beautifully filmed well-acted movie, with a great script and stunning visuals.

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West End Deli (Leederville, Perth WA)

95 Carr St
West Perth Western Australia 6005
(08) 9328 3605
Website
Facebook
Hours:
    Mon-Sun 7:00 - 15:00
    Thu-Sun 18:00 - 22:00
   

Established by Justin and Christine Peters, the West End Deli is located in a quite corner in a quiet street in an odd area that is remarkable, precisely, because of the constant hub of customers visiting the place. It is a suburban place, and that has a relaxed atmosphere, and lack of hype, and that is visited by patrons of all ages and sorts. The inside space if wonderfully woody, with a mix of rustic, faux-decay and vintage quirky decoration elements, like the hanging-chairs lamps. It has the feeling of an old Italian or French café.

The staff are very smiley, friendly, and welcoming with all customers. The service is relative fast even for cooked dishes, and they have a waiter service, so you can seat and relax.

THE FOOD
 Their food is very good, and they have a good selection of dishes that stand out for their plating and great mix of flavours, colours and textures.
+ Their food is very good, great taste, texture and presentation, and the menu changes regularly, which is very exciting if you visit often. They also have a big selection of desserts, drinks, and wines.

The pork belly, caramelised peaches, basil, sweet potato was a superb dish regarding presentation, flavour, colours and textures. Pork Belly is fatty, so it really needs of contrasting refreshing flavours to clean the palate, and the mix in this dish was fabulous. The size of the belly was also great. Not too big, not too small. My belly was in love when met this peachy belly.

I also found excellent the charred octopus salad with pears, walnuts, charmoola and orange sauce.

Their home-made fettuccine, on the contrary, were disappointing in texture and flavour. They were a bit hard, not "al dente", therefore difficult to roll on your fork, they were dry, and the chilli was not hot at all. Nothing memorable. The dish needs a bit more of oil -perhaps herb or chilli infused oil- to make it smother, and a bit of more stuff on the plate.

DESSERTS 
They have a counter with already-made cakes, cup-cakes and muffins, decently priced, and a small menu of special desserts. The latter are much more expensive, but way more interesting and inventive.

The Pistacchio Jaconde was a highlight for me -  a crunchy cylindrical chocolate carcase enveloping a marshmallow fluff and pistacchio mouse resting on a sprinkled bed of pistacchio and berry, with fresh blueberries and pear puree dollops. The dish was artistically plated, and had a wonderful mix of colours, textures and flavours, with the right amount of sugar. It is a delicate, light and flavoursome dessert, perfect for summer. One of my favourite desserts of 2012, which is a lot to say!

Their cheesecake with salted dulce de leche, is an inventive fun dessert. The cheesecake is potted and served with a tube containing the dulce de leche -a sort of salted caramel cream- and a super-cute mini-bottle containing popping vanilla salts, which you add as a topping and keep popping in your mouth and ears while you are eating. However, the cheesecake is too sweet for my taste, and, therefore, the flavour of the cheese gets masked by the excess of sugar.

THE COFFEE

Their flat-while, despite being well prepared, is disappointly bland in flavour, strength and size of the cup. Average. To get a good one, forget sugar and order a long topped-up Macchiato, then you get a very good flat white :O.

EXTRA KUDOS
+ They open, morning, day and evening.
+ You can pay at the end, before leaving.
+ The staff refill you water glasses regularly. 
+ The place is good for groups and solo eaters.
+ They have EFPTOS.
+ Their toilets, at least the ladies', are very clean, stylish and classy. A bit small, but a pleasure to rest your derrière on.
+ They have a reasonable amount of newspapers for customers. 

DISAPPOINTING
- Most dishes contain small servings of food and are a bit pricey. There is no reason for that when most of the produce they use is seasonal. 
- They serve their coffee in those infamous tiny glasses that are becoming part of Perth coffee scene.
- The  service can be lacking or distracted even when the café is not busy.  

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT 
- My main criticism to the restaurant and its food is the lack of consistency in the quality of the dishes served. Some of them are artistically prepared and served, while others are average. I have seem most of their egg brunches and I would not bother with those. However, the sides look yummy. I think that they should put a bit of more effort in having a threshold regarding quality of the dishes, so there is a balanced standard and not the differences I have experienced myself.   
- The ventilation system is deficient. They have huge fans on the walls, but there are blind spots, underneath the fans, and the tables underneath can be very hot and humid if you happen to be there on a hot day. There is an air-con device on the wall, but has never been on during my visits. 
- Their website does not show their drinks, wine list, and dessert menu. It takes little effort to improve that.

TIP
* Order a takeaway coffee to get the size you want. It is slightly more expensive but way bigger.
* Go there for things you cannot prepare at home or buy at a normal bakery, as those are the ones that will wow you.

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Fashion Magazines' Beauty Advice - 3

Final words, after the first and second entries on this topic.

A confession - I do love some luxury beauty products -especially make-up- advertised in fashion magazines, mostly because of the glamorous packaging and design, and their wonderful scents.

Another confession - My life at University extended longer than for most students. I was poor when I was a student, a postgraduate student and a PhD. student. Too poor, too long. I used to go to stores and use perfume and make-up testers for my beauty purposes. The expensive ones. I can be very cheeky. That is a virtue when you are poor, believe me. I could only afford things like Maybelline or cheaper brands. Being able to have something luxury today is not only a pleasure, it is an indication that I have reached a point in life that I dreamt about when I was poor. Kudos to me. 

This does not change a thing what I have said about beauty products in the previous entries.  

If you like luxury items be clear why you do buy them. Do not fool yourself thinking that they will have a bigger impact on your physical beauty, or the state of your skin, hair or nails. Sometimes they do, sometimes they do not.  I'd say, most times they do not.

An example of positive difference I find it in MAC eye shadows, which are a bit pricey -even if bought online- but they don't smudge, last the whole day and don't irritate my skin.  Way better than any other brand I have tried.

An example of no difference can be found in the Chanel Foundation powder and Revlon Mineral Foundation I use in summer or the Revlon Photoready airbrush mousse and Lancôme Vitalumière foundations that I use in winter. The colouring is the only difference, and they both do a great job.

An example of negative difference. I cannot tolerate most Lancôme moisturisers, which have a burning effect on my skin. However, my skin does not react or have a problem with moisturisers from L'Oreal, Neutrogena, Nivea, Dove, Sukin and other "cheapies".

***

Fact  - Chanel and Bourjois are part of the same brand and produced in the same facilities, but packaged and marketed differently.

Fact - L'Oreal owns not just L'Oreal mainstream products, but also Lancôme, Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Biotherm, Cacharel, Diesel, Kiehl's, Stella McCartney, Garnier, Maybelline, Vichy, La Roche, Kerastase, Redken, among many other luxury, medium quality and natural-beauty brands. Sometimes they are the same thing packaged differently with different colouring, and scent.

This being the case, if you find a medium-quality product from these holdings, there is a high probability that they have been produced in the same facilities, are good quality, and have similar qualities, minus the glamorous packaging and high price.

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"Moon" by Duncan Jones (2009)

Moon is an indie retro-Sci-Fi film that narrates the last days of San Bell on a station on the moon at the end of his 3-year contract.

The storyline is excellent, but the script and the mood of the movie get deflated mid way, as the movie does not have a marked tempo and the in crescendo necessary for the viewer to get excited and anxious towards the end. Although the story carries on very well, there is not enough tension and mystery to give the movie the little push up it need it to get a more rounder film.

The aesthetics of the movie are very much the same you could find in classic sci-fi of the 1970s, with miniature lunar sets, clean white interiors and furniture, miniature vehicles. Even the robot is chunky and heavy, more emotional than functional, nothing to do with modern robotics. Even the atmosphere is classic, with that unsettling feeling of old sci-fi movies. 

Sam Rockwell really shines in his double performance, especially in the skin of the first character, showing what a great actor he is. The changes of clothing are minimal, but his performance really gives life to two different people.  In fact, Rockwell makes the movie, as it is him who carries the weight of the story and makes it believable. This is a performance worth of an Oscar nomination.

Keven Spacey, the voice of robot Girty, is not especially inspired, though, as his voice is dull and plain and improper of a chunk and primitive robot. One would expect 1/ a more mechanical voice, if the robot is as it looks, or 2/ a more human voice, with more human inflexions and tone, in case the chunkiness is just apparent.

I hated the voice in off at the end, summarising what happens at the arrival to earth... which I found a little bit cheesy and unnecessary, unless you want to shoot a follow up.

A very good science-fiction film, entertaining, and well acted, that did not live to my expectations. 

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