Review: Own Days Optical Store @ Plaza Singapura

I've been wanting to blog about my new glasses, for the longest time. It has been 3 weeks since I've worn them out - a time which I think is sufficient enough for a fair review. Again, all reviews here are done solely from my point of view.

As my friends know it, I'm almost as blind as a bat and I can never go out with my glasses/contacts. And it will be very hard for me to go under the knives for a lasik surgery cos I'm just afraid something will go wrong during the procedure. So, year after year, I've been in search of that 1 pair of perfect glasses for my eyes.

A little background, my myopic degrees crept in when I was in Secondary school..? Back then, I seriously thought that wearing glasses was super cool, and everyone will look good in glasses. Thus, I made a new pair of glasses with every passing year - mostly metal frames which will corrode in time to come. 

Until I hit my Polytechnic years, whereby wearing glasses wasn't a fashion trend anymore... And I put on my first pair of contact lens. It was painful, and uncomfy but for aesthetics sake, I had to insert the lens into my eyes forcefully - and I was sooooooo overjoyed when they were in. It was contact lens from then on, but as I grew older, my eyes got more sensitive. They were itchy and red, in just like 6 hours of continuous wearing.. It wasn't that bad in outdoor situations but what made it worst was the air conditioning system, that was super dirty and dusty - I really felt the urge to just wear my glasses all day long... It didn't help when I had to meet friends after work and all. BUT I've never ever worn my lens to sleep through the night (prolly just a short nap or two).

Back to my story - many pairs of glasses and fogging of the lenses, and loose fitted frames which will slip off my face when I bow, and ill fitted ones which will give me headaches... I've finally found THE PERFECT PAIR. I happened to chance upon this ad on Facebook (now I know why Facebook app works), and I just randomly click on it to see what kind of no-frills spectacles shop it was, as they mentioned on the website that wearers could claim their glasses in just 20 minutes. Amazing, eh.

Brand Story

I was wondering where this brand came from as they didn't really broadcast anything on their website. Well actually, I felt a little dubious when I couldn't really find out where were they from, and if they wrote that they are from Japan, I would have gone down in the nick of time. Uh huh... Anything Japanese always catches my attention =) Subsequently, I read up a little bit and realised that they are 1 of the largest optical shops in Japan, and they have 120 shops worldwide. Awesome much!

Price Range

Their website is really clean cut which makes it easy to find information, and 1 of the banners stated "All In One" Price and it ranges from SGD$98 - SGD$198. So nothing more than SGD$198, awesome! And that included the frame and a pair of 1.60 high index aspheric lenses fitted in. Of cos, when I was there, they did mention that since I had pretty high degrees per eye, there was another option to upgrade to the ultra high index aspheric lenses, or other fanciful lenses (progressive lenses, transition lesnses, polarized lenses and coloured lenses) at only a fixed price of SGD$100. I didn't as my glasses was light weight enough. :) Bringing me to my next point:

Aesthetics

There was this pair of frames which caught my attention on the website, but I totally didn't remember the model cos it was quite an impromptu visit to the OWNDAYS shop. I was just standing there, trying out all sorts of frames, without any pushy sales person trotting around with me (another + point). It was then I approached 1 of the staff and told him that I was looking for something light weight, something angular and of course, something in vogue. He brought out a couple of frames - though super pretty, they weren't that frame I saw online. He then went into the storage area and brought out this pretty pair - OT2025 Ultem C2 Tortoise Shell. The frames were the Love Life range - which is a collaboration with Maomi Yuki. The project of "Love & Life" came from a Japanese TV program named "Tokyo Brand New Girls". 

"Maomi Yuki, a famous Japanese TV personality, originally designed these two-branded frames taking her "life full of love" as themes. There are full of her thoughts in these two brands, "Love" with feminine, luxury theme and "Life" with daily, natural prettiness. You can enjoy these two brands with relative themes, which are trying to produce woman's on/off in their lives."

My dream frames! Reason why I didn't manage to find it off the racks cos it was a super popular pair and that was actually the last pair they have in the store, reserved by someone who didn't come down to collect it (such a pity!). They do reservations for frames for up to 5 days, after which they will release the frames for sale off the rack. Anyways, I was super happy cos finally, I got to try it on, and it fitted my face to the pea! 

"Frames made with ULTEM, a new material which have surprising-elasticity and feathery-lightness.You can use this in your life with matte, good-feeling texture. We adopted clear-coloured material with no metal parts to nosepad, in order not to make the nosepad standing out."

I totally love how the nose pads were designed, which you can see from the picture above. It's not the shape of the usual nose pads as well. They are bigger and higher, well fitted for the lower nose bridges of Asians (another brilliant innovation from the Japanese). I love the way which that frame sits on my nose bridge cos they do not leave marks. I have a couple of frames with plastic nose pads but somehow, they love leaving depressions on my nose bridge. Maybe cos those glasses were heavy or something but nope, this frame, with my high degree lenses are super light weight.

Experience

I was soooooo happy with my new frames but since I worn my contact lens out that day, I had to remove them and wait for 20 minutes before conducting any tests on my eyes. The pretty people at OWNDAYS then passed me a piece of wet tissue to clean my hands, and a white contact lens case to store my lenses, while I sat down to let my eyes rest for 20 minutes. The test was conducted by the guy who helped me locate the perfect frame. They had this super cool machine, whereby you just have to put your head by the machine and it will detect your degrees, and that is something I have never experience before in other optical shops. So after a series of test, the optician told me that I do not have any astigmatism, something which I've been diagnosed with previously. Double joy! So once he got my final degrees, he brought me to a place to sit (since I was quite blind), and proceeded to make my glasses, in another 20 minutes. =D

And here's the final result. For once, I'm soooooooooo satisfied with my glasses and how good I can look with them on. I'm just gonna wave all the branded frames good bye for they have not and cannot be able to fit as snugly as this pair of glasses. =D

Credits to OWNDAYS Singapore for images and quotes

10 Years and Going Strong - JJ Lin in Singapore

I just had to blog about this concert as this has been the second highlight of 2013.

JJ Lin has definitely grown over the years, and he is definitely one of the shiniest star in the Mandopop industry. 10 years and still going strong, he is back over the weekend for another sold-out concert, and I was part of the 8000-strong crowd which thronged Singapore Indoor Stadium on a rainy Saturday.

赞!

This is probably the only word I have for the Timeline concert 2013. As I had attended his previous 2 concerts, I feel that this one is the most awesome one he has ever done before. JJ kicked started the concert with 3 dramatic tracks in a row - 靈魂的共鳴, 木乃伊, 

御龍三國志 but I think it's just a Singaporean thingie that the crowd didn't get too hyped up yet. After that 曹操, which is also awesome cos he re-arranged the tune a little bit and it sounded more glam-up for a big scale concert. Anyhoots, I really like how he described the life of the villain from Chinese history.

So when he finally stopped singing, he broke into singlish and spoke to the audience "How can like that? You call this loud?" Not to mention, he's peppered a couple of "I Am Singaporean" declaration throughout the concert, but I still love this line "I am, and always will be Singapore's JJ Lin". He spoke much about his experience from the past 10 years but I was touched when he mentioned about the "extraordinary love" his loved ones will shower when he's back in Singapore. 

Next up was the famous love songs segment, which kickstarted with 背對背擁抱, 我還想她, 白蘭花, 不死之身, 美人魚, One Shot. I personally felt that this segment is abit anti-climax, but nevertheless, the songs had new arrangements which I thought was pretty nice. 

After that, he broke into another talking session, but I felt that he was still a little shy. And that's what's cute about him, right? Very boy-next-door, very shy, and extremely cute with his dimples. He also added more "Singaporean" declarations and also, he did mention about the imports of foreign goods. "This one imported, this must be good ah!" But not so with him, JJ has always been my inspiration and though tough, I have never given up on my love for music. ;)

The concert was just getting better, with the next segment starting with 黑暗騎士, which I thought without Ah Xin was nice too! But after getting the crowd hyped up, it anti-climaxed with 害怕.. I thought he teared up abit when he mentioned about finding the right person and the crowd was pretty receptive with Hebe. Anyways, I was touched when he was explaining about the right person.... before he broke into 不存在的情人, and 學不會. 

My guess is that the concert will pick up from this segment onwards as the next song was 豆漿油條. As read from previous reports from the Taipei leg of this concert, I thought he would do something like sitting on the swing, but no. Instead, he did an accoustic version of that song which was just as good. This song will always be the best representative of Singapore, in my opinion. =D And after that was 小酒窩 which was done accoustically too. He surprised me with another classic - 关怀方式. Totally lovin' that song cos I did improvise that song on my own as well. 

He started thanking all his band members, and he did something very close to the heart. This was also when he talked about his family and his late grandma.. I felt that it is really very brave of him, leaving everything behind for his dreams since 10 years ago. and with that, he broke into 飛機 featuring his brother, Lin Jun Feng. At this point, I was thinking, no fancy guests, no over the top effects, just JJ and his brother - indeed something very special, which beats the rest of his other concerts. Photos of both of them flashed in the background - heartwarming. And for those who didn't know, both of them enrolled into Ocean Butterflies previously but only JJ made it til the end. Nonetheless, Jun Feng is still very proud of his little brother, that he whipped out his phone to take a selfie with JJ on stage. How amazing was that!

The concert was getting more hyped up now, when the extended stage was filled with water, and JJ did a tribute to his idol, Michael Jackson, with Billie Jean, leading up to 就是我. It was also during this song he removed his jacket, and finally his shirt to reveal some really nice abs. =D The crowd got super high by now.

My favourite segment next - the piano was up on the stage. He started a chain of medley - Love U U, 記得 (super favourite of mine! and apparently the rest of Singapore Indoor Stadium cos everyone sang along with him), and 她說, which drove the crowd crazy when he introduced Stefanie Sun! She's really pretty, and having heard her sing the song she had penned herself, was just totally awesome. Pretty mummy also started teasing how sweet JJ was - by giving her this bracelet as a gift to thank her for agreeing to be his special guest. Their duet has gotta be 1 of the concert's climax cos it was super nice! After that, she broke into 逃亡, and surprisingly, the crowd sang along too. =)

After that segment, it was 修煉愛情, before breaking to introduce the rest of his band members and vocalists.. and joking about this turning into National Day message.... After that it was my second favourite song for the night 一千年以後. I have and still listening to this song from his previous concert on my phone. Super love!

Finally, we have reached the encore segment where he got the party started! 因你而在, We Together, 不潮不用花錢. Super high, but I super like him in this segment - he was dressed in what he would wear during rehearsals - t-shirt, jacket over track pants and wing-ed dunks with his Timeline concert trucker cap. Something very comfy, something very JJ Lin. He got up close and personal to his fans, and to some lucky ones, they managed to get his autographed Timeline concert tower. Awesome much, I didn't want the concert to end but this has indeed been a super happy night for me. Thank you JJ, and don't forget, the world may forget about you, but not us, cos you are, and always will be Singapore's JJ Lin.

Not forgetting, he promised everyone that night...

我們一起走到最後...

Disclaimer: Photos with courtesy from Unusual Entertainment, and JJ's Instagram.