Paralegal....experience it in a "Malaysian" way...

  So, you have now graduated your L.LB, and currently either awaiting for your CLP intake, or otherwise intended. Anyhow, "paralegal" might be one of your thoughts at the corner of your brain. Maybe to work full time as a paralegal in a firm while doing your CLP part time, OR to permanently work as a "paralegal" in a firm. Either or, the following personal experience could be an insight for your decision making.

Disclaimer : the following story/article is for educational purposes only. Any similarity to names or events representing the living or death is purely coincidental.

General
  First of all, stop thinking that "paralegal" position means something higher than a clerk. In this country, paralegal is an educated clerk. You often get laid because they need another clerk (probably a more educated clerk, at least you know and understand some legal terms like "Power of Attorney" or "Assignment" and they don't have to explain one by one to you which was deemed as a waste of time).

  Your Salary?? They still gonna give you a normal uneducated clerk's salary. Rationale: you have no prior experience working in a firm. If you think you wanna be a paralegal just because you gonna get a better pay, please change your channel. Being a paralegal in a firm is just like being the soldier (兵) in a chess, especially when you are the rookie in a firm. Everybody is more experience than you, everybody is wayyy higher than you in position (because they have experience and you don't) and you will be just there, being the helpful hand and leg for others in a firm.

  Fret not theyself, looking at the bright side, you surely and definitely will learn tons of loads of experience that you are looking for. And if you are working in a litigation firm, congrats, your experience is way more than the normal conveyancing firm and its gonna help you a lot in your CLP (if you are intended to get one).

Experience
  Since my firm is a conveyancing firm, and we have quite a number of housing development projects, the experience i get is totally what of expected. The steps and regulation are not the only things that you should be focusing on, you should learn what to disclose and what not to, when to do and when not to and all the other things that rhyme with it.

  Conveyancing is all about standard forms and cover letters, the requirements for each banks, the procedure to get the approval from the Land Office and which party to forward those documents to. Once you get the hang of the procedure and steps, everything will start to make sense and you will know what you should do. Note : always try to get a bigger picture of the entire process, not just focusing on that one particular stage.

  For example, I started off by learning Perfection of Transfer and Charge, which means, once the Developer issued the individual/ strata title for a land under a housing project, we, the lawyer firm, are suppose to complete the transfer of Purchasers' name into the individual/strata title in lieu of the Developer's name. Since we have given our undertaking to the respective parties to do so, it would constitute a breach of trust if we refuse to proceed (unless the Purchasers themselves ignore/refuse to proceed).

Organizing
  Totally understandable that everyone in the office has their way of doing things, which sometimes contradicts your way of doing things. No matter what, hold on to your way, because if they were to question you something on a file which you used to handle, you know what you were doing, and you know where and how to get the answer. Every brain works in a different way. Since you are handling your file, make your own checklist, make your own file status, make your own label and notes. Do your things!

  Please do not fully trust your office boy/runner. If you received a call/fax requiring you to send over your boy for document collection, make sure you have jotted down somewhere in your PC/notes so that you track whether you have received the said documents. If you forgot, and your boy forgot, hail hydra! you gonna get the scolding.

  The same thing applies in sending documents either to your client or to a company, make sure you get the acknowledgement letter back safely and file it immediately. Keeping the acknowledgement letter in your tray and expecting yourself to do it later that week (when you are less busy), hahahhahaha.... please don't trust yourself, the moment you have the extra time, its gonna always be the FB time.

Have your own bible
  No, I am not talking about the typical christian bible. I'm talking about your "paralegal" bible. The one that's going to save your back.

  No matter how young you are or how much you think you have a good memory, please have your own bible. Jot down the process and steps for each of the work. Banks, especially, have their own way of processing the documents. Having a bible, and recording down the requirements for each and every bank is definitely going to save your day and hustles. Owh! don't forget the Person In Charge and their direct lines too. Thank me later!

Tips (Your favorite part)
1. If you encounter a fussy clients, or RED FLAG clients, calling and scolding you about something that you don't even know about. Ask them who did they liaise with previously (most probably they won't remember, because if they do, they won't scold you), get their contact number, name and our file reference/ property address, and inform them that the PIC will contact them back in short while. The best is to drop us an email with regards to the issue and we will revert back to them in due course.

2. Personally, I do chronology for every file I handle, because some clients, they want to know the date you send out the documents, and the date you receive the documents. Having your dates right is certainly a big help. At least you have a chance to let them know that you are not the cause for the delays. Thus, update your chronology everytime! Preferably right after you do something with the file.

3. If you were to leave a file half way done to the next day, remember to make a small note and staple on top of the file. That case, you don't have to crack your mind, recalling back what stage you are in for that file.

4. If your client calls to make an appointment for documents execution, push the appointment to one week later from the date you receive the client's call. That way, first, you don't have to rush and you can allocate some time to finish off the urgent files, and then proceed to prepare for the documents. I often prepare it in a soft copy and will only print out the same a day before the appointment (haiya, save paper la! Because some client syok syok say wanna come to sign, but suddenly will say no money to proceed, sia sia saja print out all the documents).

Conclusion
  Okay la, I think that's all la for this post. No closing paragraph, I'm tired.


  

Epiduo & CeraVe (The masterpiece for acne free skin)

I am very sure that my readers are well informed about my previous acne face and how terrible it was. For those who are new, please click here to visit the page.

Apparently I failed at keeping up with my diets. Its hard to NOT eat spicy food for people who can't live without spices. Together with all the stress and staying up late(s) , my breakout continues. Fortunately, it was not as bad as my previous acne face. My breakouts were minor, but it still leaves dark marks behind.

It was when my mom told me something she found on my face that actually made me feel anxious. To my surprise, there are some dark spots around my eyes area which look and feel like blackheads but can't get rid off using any sort of blackhead removers. Click here to see how I even tried using activated charcoal to get rid of my blackheads but yield no results.

Without further ado, I made an appointment to see a dermatologist in Ipoh, Malaysia to help me with my problems. Here are my pictures before the appointment.

Those blackheads like spots are mostly situated around my eyes

The doctor told me that those people with high pigmentation will face these problems very often. It is not harmful, but obviously its not nice and I want to get rid of it la...

So I was suggested to do a CO2 laser to remove those spots. 

The nurse applied Anesthetics on my face to numb it. I was left like this for an hour before the procedure begins. I was very scared and nervous because i was told that I will feel a sting during the laser and it terrified me. Well, to be honest, i didn't feel anything at all, i only smell something burnt. I guess that's my skin burning..lol.. 

This is me immediately after the procedure, you can see a few holes on my face with a minor bleeding. I can only feel the sting after 10 mins after the laser . it was bearable. 

So during the procedure, the doctor told me that she was unhappy with the breakouts on my face, so she gave me Epiduo gel and ask me to apply it every night before i sleep. She told me that Epiduo is the gel that reduces or even prevents my breakouts . Only when the gel does not work that she will prescribe oral medication for me . So i listened to her and tried Epiduo. 

Epiduo Gel

This gel has two active ingredients, adapalene and benzoyl peroxide, both of which are medicines used to treat acne. 

Adapalene is a form of Vitamin A , which really caught my attention because i have been researching about Vitamin A. What Adapalene does is that they unblock pores and sebaceous glands by reducing the growth of keratin on the surface of the skin. It also helps the skin to turnover. Therefore reduces acne and blackheads.

Benzoyl peroxide on the other hand breaks and shed the top layer of the skin. Having an antibacterial function, it kills any bacteria on the skin that feeds acne, and now you know why I said it is good. 

Not only this Gel, my dermo also recommended me to use CeraVe face wash instead of Hada Labo. She told me that Hada Labo is fine because it contains hyaluranic acids which moisture the skin, but CeraVe is better. So i gave it a try. SAY WHAT!! I AM SO IMPRESSED!!

 CeraVe is soapless, it does not have any bubbles or foams. At first, i was not use to the foamless facewash, but after a few wash, i finally know the trick. As long as the silkiness is there, it means the facewash is there. So i will rinse my face till I don't feel the silkiness anymore. 

So i did a small research on this product. It is even found on reviews.com, a website that reviews all sorts of products from head to toe, kitchen to bedroom. This product was reviewed as the best drugstore facial cleanser. Click on the link and read why it was considered to be the best facial cleanser.

Let me show you my face after a week or two. 

Sooo smooothhhh ~~ , soft to touch, soft to see.

My dark spots are dealed by laser, my skin is so much softer and my breakouts are tremendously reduced.  Highly recommend CeraVe facial cleanser, but as for Epiduo, please patch test first before using, it is not meant for everyone. 

Please don't be confused between Hiruscar and Epiduo. Hiruscar is to reduce acne marks, while Epiduo is to prevent or reduce more breakouts. CeraVe on the other hand cleanse your face in the best way. 

I will continue to update all of you with my progress in my next post. HAPPY TRYING EVERYONE!! Do let me know your experience. 

Activated Charcoal Face Mask - Not for me

Activated Charcoal Peel Off Mask ; Activated Charcoal Mask - secret to perfect skin ; Activated Charcoal for hair or teeth ; It was very trending for the past few months, and it definitely caught my attention. However, I was little worried about my allergies, so I bought 15 capsules of activated charcoal for my first try.

Let me begin by explaining what is activated charcoal, and what it means by "activated".

"Activated charcoal” is similar to common charcoal, but is made especially for use as a medicine. To make activated charcoal, manufacturers heat common charcoal in the presence of a gas that causes the charcoal to develop lots of internal spaces or “pores.” These pores help activated charcoal “trap” chemicals.In other words, there are many "pores" ready to be filled in by absorbing any dirt present near it. And that's what makes this mask so famous - the ability to absorb dirt and oil on the surface of the skin.

But whether it really do the trick on acne prone skin is a different story. My skin is acne prone, and thus, I have large pores. This is because when excessive oil and dirt collect in your skin, your skin swells, which is very common among acne prone skin.

I have seen many review and did research on this activated charcoal mask. It claims that it removes dirt, excessive oil, and minimize pores. So, I gave it a try. Let me show you the result below. 

Before applying mask
(Many blackheads around my nose and pores are large and visible)

1. I personally use only 2 capsules.

2.Twist open the capsule and pour the
activated charcoal out in a container
(Note: do not do this near a fan)

                                      

3.Use drinking or filtered water to mix with
the powder. Do not use pipe water as it
contains Chlorine and will dry your skin.

4.use a mask brush to mix it. Mix till the
 powder blends with the water.

Apply mask over problematic area on the face
and leave it for about 15-20 minutes or till dry.
(I leave it until its partially dry)
(I did not leave the mask for too long as it will dry
out my skin, which is something that you will
want to avoid)

This is roughly what it looks like after the mask is dry.
Well, it doesn't change to a pale grey colour because it is not a
clay mask. The colour will remain the same. I use the sense
of touch to determine if the mask is dry.

Before applying the mask, I applied 10-15 minutes of hot towel around my entire face to open up my pores (LOL, I know I already have large pores, but I still do it anyway). After the mask is dried, I wash my face with warm water. It left black stain on my face after the first (only water) wash. I was terrified and quickly use facial wash to wash my face, and it was much better. 

Even after I washed my face using a facial wash, some stain still remained on my face.
This towel is the evidence to the stain that stayed on my skin. It also prove that I wiped off
any excess stain on my face on this point.

This is what it looks like immediately after removing the mask.
If compared, the blackheads are visibly gone. However my pores
did not shrink as the reviews promised.

Because the Activated Charcoal mask drains out all the oil on the surface of my skin and I used a facial wash to clean up my face after that, my face was terribly dry. It has that "kirk kirk" sound when I touch across my face. It feels clean of course, just like a dish washer cleans that oily plate. But deep down, I know my face shouldn't be this dry. So I quickly apply moisturizer to my skin.  

After a while, my face feels a bit tight and when I smile, my face forms tiny tiny wrinkles !! Because its too dry!! Oh no!!

I keep checking my face in the mirror every half an hour or everytime I walk past a mirror. And I was shocked by the result.

After 2 hours, my blackhead appeared again. Not because the blackhead has built up
in that short amount of time, but the blackhead wasn't removed by the mask at all, it was not
removed since the beginning of time.

Another thing i realized was, not only that the activated charcoal did not suck out the dirt from my pores, it however binds the dirt, and got trapped inside my pores. If you can zoom in and see (especially around the nose), there were certain pores which was originally clear and did not have black spot, and later got the black spot (appear like blackheads) after the mask. I was so disappointed ! And then I decided, Activated Charcoal is definitely not for me. It just worsen my condition because I have large pores.

At this point, one might think that Activated Charcoal and glue will yield a better result. Or mixing it with glue is the ultimate trick to make this mask work. Let me explain why I refused to use glue. 

Have you ever read the ingredients behind a school glue? The chemicals used in glue are not formulated for skin. You might say that those molecules are not small enough to penetrate the skin, but how sure are you? Personally, i'm not taking any risk as I already have problematic face. Besides, there are so many YouTube vidoes shows how much blood and tears it cost to remove the peel off mask. 

It is always feels satisfactory to see all those tiny tiny "dirt" being pulled out from the pores. Those are sebaceous filaments. Image below is the difference between a blackhead and a sebaceous filaments. 

Sebaceous filaments functions : A sebaceous filament is a tiny collection of sebum around a hair follicle, which usually takes the form of a small hair-like strand. They usually have white or yellow color, and can be expressed from the skin by pinching. These filaments are naturally occurring, and are not a sign of infection or any other ailment. They help to channel the flow of sebum within a given skin pore, allowing it to seep gradually to the surface. (source: wikipedia) 

In lay man terms, the function of the sebaceous filaments is to keep your skin moisturized. It is very easy to be confused between whitehead and sebaceous filaments. Whiteheads lie below the surface of your skin and blackheads are at the surface. The reason blackheads look black is because when that gunk clogging up your pore is exposed to air, it oxidizes due to the melanin in skin cells, turning black or dark brown.

What then causes whiteheads? Whiteheads are considered mild form of acne, which happens a lot to my skin. And clogged pores are the main cause of whiteheads. It is a type of acne that forms when dead skin cells, oil, and bacteria become trapped within one of your pores. One cause of blocked pores is hormonal changes, which are common triggers of acne. Certain life stages like puberty and menstruation can increase the amount of sebum, or oil, your pores produce. The increased oil production causes clogged pores and whiteheads. Can be controlled by changing lifestyle and medical treatment, but its not avoidable. 

Therefore, it is useless to use peel off mask (especially glue) to pull out all the sebaceous filaments as it will start refilling the pores once its removed. You might think that by removing the old sebaceous filaments and allow new one to produce, it will reduce the chance of getting whiteheads and blackheads. Actually, by removing the old sebaceous filaments, the pores are empty which allows bacteria to sit on easily. Bacteria acts faster than your toner shrinking your pores by the way. 

In the nut shells, activated charcoal is definitely good for skin. Try using commercial, non-peeling activated charcoal mask to remove dirt instead . I am not financially ready to buy commercial activated charcoal mask as it is quite expensive. That is the reason why I tried using the capsule one and end up disappointing myself because of my large pores. I wonder if the commercial one works on me. I should definitely try it one day. 

Note : Please correct me if i'm wrong, I will definitely want to know where I went wrong with the DIY activated charcoal mask or is it really not for me.  

CHEMICAL FREE ACNE SCARS REMOVAL

Too scared to use any commercial products? Couldn't find a suitable commercial products for your face, but those acne scars are torturing you? Try this.

Yogurt Honey Oat Mask
Making reference to the title above, this mask only uses 3 natural ingredients, but the result? Beyond Incredible. It will never fail to impress you for how amazing your face will look in just one month time. 
  I've applied this mask everyday for one year. Yes, EVERYDAY. You may wonder if it is risky and harmful to apply it everyday into our skin. Well, research in Google suggest mask (of any type) is only recommended to apply twice a week. But on the other hand, the same resource suggest that it is absolutely fine to apply a natural based mask everyday.
  Personally, i chose to follow the second suggestion. The rationale is that although some of the natural ingredient may contain chemicals like preservatives or food conditioners, so long as its safe to consume, then its safer to apply directly to our skin everyday. Assimilate it to taking vitamins everyday.
  I've been applying this mask continuously for one month, and the result really gave me a gasp and i couldn't stop starring at my reflection behind the mirror. Could my face get any smoother? I ask. The acne scars are gone, the skin is smoother, and hydration restored. Of course, it took me one whole month to see a slight change. Why one whole month? Because it is natural. The change is not obvious for the first few weeks. (note: you will feel the difference by touching, but as for visual effect, it takes time).

Function of the ingredients.

 Oats : Main function is to absorb and remove excess oil and bacteria from your skin and exfoliate dead skin cells, thus helping to combat acne.

Honey : Main function is to moisturize the skin and treat inflammation.






Yogurt : It contains natural anti - bacterial and anti - fungal properties. Main function is to reduce irritating breakouts.




Steps to do mask.

This will be by-product.

Step 1 : Grind ground oats using a blender or food processors into powder form.
You can grind a large amount oats and keep it in a container so that you don't have to grind it every single time.



Step 2 : Prepare a small bowl, and fill in with a right amount of oat powder. You will know what is the right amount after some time.



 Step 3: Add a small amout of 
yogurt and mix until you get the consistency like on the right picture. Note that you should not add too much of yogurt because adding honey afterward will render the paste too watery and it will not sit on the skin.
 Step 4 : Add a small amount of honey and mix. The consistency should look like on the right.



Step 5 : Apply the paste on a clean dry face for 30 minutes and let it absorb onto your skin.
Mind that applying the paste might get a little messy, so it is preferable to do it near the sink. Caution with the hair also.


 Step 6 : after 30 minutes, the paste will be harden and dry, just like the picture on the right. Now you can wash your face. It is very difficult to wash it away with only hand and water. I suggest to wash it using a wet damp cloth. As you wipe it away using a wet cloth, the friction is also helping you to exfoliate your skin.



Tada! This is the end result. Feel the difference. At this point, use your favorite moisturizer to lock the moisture.







Side Note.

1.  I understand that I've mentioned about the usage of Hiruscar to remove my acne scars, but i too found another cost saving and lower risk alternative to fade my acne scars. So i stopped using Hiruscar for a little while and start applying the mask for one whole year. It definitely did not disappoint me. 
2.  I have a friend who is sensitive towards Honey. She tried applying honey onto one small part of her face and she got allergies. You can try different type of honey to see if you are allergy towards it. Sometimes it is just about the type of honey you are allergy to. I hereby disclaim any responsibilities towards any sort of negative result.
3. I will try my best to upload and submit my progress on my blog but it will take some time because it takes up to few weeks to track the progress.
4. I'm extremely sorry if you did not get any reply from me in this blog. I am not so sure what is wrong in the system, but my replies to your comments and questions are not appearing even after a few try. I will sort this out. 

Happy Trying Everyone! Drop your comments and questions below and share your successful stories to inspire others. 

Hada Labo skin care routine...(based on personal experience)

Acne prone skin? I've been in a situation where every direct salesman or woman will make me their target for their beauty products, it doesn't matter if its a set of face wash with moisturizer or if its a consumption product, I'll always be their first target. I can't even walk freely in supermarkets, because they will be chasing behind me with their brochure and products even-though I said No. And because my acne breakouts left me with a face of terrible scaring ( view my previous post for more details *with pictures*). I was really upset until one point where I wish i could just peel of my skin and replace with a new one.
  *at this point, I would like to advise those who are desperately wanted to have a better skin to not to try any random products, and even if you tried, if you feel uncomfortable like itchiness or redness or more breakouts, please stop using it and consult a doctor immediately. Because a product which suits you will not cause you any harm but improve your skin.
I went for a professional face spa (purely herbal) and wasted approx 1000 MYR in a year and yield no result.And the worst part is, my parents struggled to pay that fees just to make me feel better. Sigh.  I guess the owner of the spa is having a big meal somewhere right now. 

In the very beginning. my face was like this.

To begin with, most people are having this misconception about acne prone skin. Drying up your skin or using any product which will wash off your sebum oil on the surface will not help you in reducing your acne in any way. Believe me when I say drying up your skin will cause your face to be more oily than before. Reason?

Sebum is a naturally occurring substance that is produced by the sebaceous glands, which are found in the skin and mucus membranes. The primary function of sebum is to moisturize, lubricate and protect skin and hair. And when you dry up your skin by washing your face too often, or use any products which dries up your skin, your body system will send a signal to the Sebum and trigger it to produce more Sebum to protect your skin.

One of the way to keep your Sebum production under control, is to moisture your skin. Hyaluronic Acid is a well known moisturizing agent which effectively lock down your skin moisture subject to the humidity - relative to the seasons and the climate. It has a unique ability to hold in moisture (1000 ml of water per gram of Hyaluronic Acid ) . Incredible? Indeed.

Personally, I use a product from Japan (Hada Labo) which contains a dense amount of Hyaluronic acid. 

It has few types. What I used in the beginning is the white series. As you can see in my previous post, I had a serious acne breakout with a very terrible scaring. After I found out how actually a sebum works and the way to control it, I gave it a try. I dare not to use the blue series as the blue ones has whitening effects. I did a small survey and found out that people with acne prone skin are not recommended to use any thing which has whitening effects (Although I was dying to become fairer from the result of sunburn), but since i was mainly on reducing my acne breakouts, I did not dare to take the risk of using the blue series and proceed to take the white series.

I used this cleanser in the beginning

It has the self-foaming pump bottle and the normal package, if you are a busy woman or a lazy woman (like me), I will recommend the self-foaming pump because it takes less effort to make the cleanser into foam form, and you can always buy the right one and squeeze it inside the self-foaming bottle and recycle it. But if you prefer the right one, then please do take the effort of making the cleanser into a foam before applying.

lather it till it becomes like this

Direction : wet your face, squeeze approx 2cm (or a 10 cent amount because its very concentrated) onto your palm, lather with warm water and massage gently onto face. After rinsing thoroughly, dab your face with a clean towel.

After some time, I realize there are some other similar cleanser from Hada Labo which is much more affordable for me. Basically, they have 3 types.

1. Deep clean & Blemish control
2. Deep clean & Pore refining
3. Hydra & whitening

I'm not so sure about the difference, but I realize that this is not as concentrated as the previous one, and its more watery. But by lathering the same amount of cleanser, gives the same result. I used the Deep clean & Blemish control, and it did dry out my skin, but i guess its because it cleanses your skin thoroughly including your apparent sebum. And I keep using it until now. Please make sure you do the necessary and sufficient moisturizing procedure after washing your face, it is very very important.

Just apply the toner first, following by a moisturizing lotion. (* all in small amount, do not be greedy by applying your moisturizer in a large amount, you are just wasting your product. Because our skin is only able to absorb a certain amount of lotion. ). In the beginning, after applying the lotion, I realize my face is so oily, literally oily. If this happens to you, please do not be terrified, this is just a stage where your face is trying to adopt with the new situation that's happening on your skin. Your skin needs time to get used to the current product. Do not lose faith as you can see a tremendous difference in just one month time.

I apply it twice a day, morning and night, especially at night. It's like a MUST for me. My apologies for not providing any personal "before after" photos, this is because I've been using this product for almost a year, and I did not capture the "before" photos, so there is no point showing the "after" photos. Note that I did not use the mask showed above, I did my own mask (I will do a preview on that soon) and somehow, both the mask and this product helped me a lot in reducing my breakouts.

If you apply make up very often, and if you really are a makeup person, you definitely will know that its hazardous for you to bring those makeups to bed. If you watch actress interview on how they keep their face in good condition, you will realize the first thing they mention will be about removing makeups thoroughly before going to bed. I use this product, also from Hada Labo which is olive oil based makeup remover and this is for heavy makeup. Although I don't apply heavy makeups, but my concept was, if it can remove heavy makeups thoroughly, then it definitely can remove light makeups even thoroughly, I don't know if this concept is true, but I believe it.

Directions : DO NOT WET YOUR FACE before applying this, both your face and your hand should be dry, squeeze a reasonable amount, and start massaging around your face. Rinse your face with water, the water will emulsify the oil and it will start to become milky. Then, wash with cleanser. 

Hiruscar after few months....pics

Hello bello everyone!! Uploading my new pics after few months upon request...hope Hiruscar will impress everyone of u!! currently only four photos available...

Only the reddish parts are my scars...the few black dots are my moles..lol...

this are my left right face.....you can see my face are quite clear now although its not as smooth as baby's skin...or normal healthy skin....but it does look so much better than last acne dark marks face.....agree??

Now let me show you the whole face look of me...before using Hiruscar and after using Hiruscar....

after Hiruscar

before Hiruscar