My first order from Temu

I wanted custom jewelry in memory of my cats, and I was about to pay multiple times the price to middlemen. Just one piece of jewelry like that would have cost more than the entire contents of this Temu order, 8 products, if ordered from elsewhere.

Cotton shirt with my own print

The shirt is cotton as promised, but the quality of the print is such that I don't predict it will last very long. I ordered an Asian size XL, because I often wear size L in t-shirts available in Finland. I want a looser and longer shirt. Well, the shirt is indeed too big for me. That should correspond to a Euro size 38, but it is quite a lot bigger. A shirt with my own print cost 4.24 euros at Temu. The picture shows the shirt after the first wash.

 

 

Two custom cat necklaces

I was worried beforehand that there would be mistakes in the cats' names, but there aren't any. At first I thought the chains' locks weren't in the middle of the chain, but then I realized they had an extension piece. So you can choose how long the chain should be, which is convenient. The price of a cat-themed necklace with three cats at Temu is 3.15 euros. The pictures are of poor quality, sorry about that.

 

 

In an online store that looks Finnish (but isn't actually Finnish) with its name and website address, the price of a three-paw necklace would have been 39 euros (and that's supposedly a 50% discount), in an English-language store it would have been 27 euros, and in Temu it is 4.29 euros. But you have to pay ten times the price to middlemen, right?

 

 

 

Keychain in memory of cats

"I loved you your whole life, I'll miss you for the rest of mine." Unfortunately, the text on this keychain is dimmer than in the Temu product image.

 

 

Heat socks

How are the copycat socks compared to the real Heat Holders? The price at Temu is 4.38e, so you could get three of these for the price that Heat Holders cost in Finland. Let's see how long they last.

Two foldable travel ballerinas

One pair with cat theme, other similar to the ones that fell apart on the last cruise. I gave up ordering the Hello Kitty ones, there would have been more options for those too. Temu has a really wide selection of Hello Kitty products, it's rare to find them in Finland, especially clothes intended for adults.

It feels bad that I had to place an order without any discount code. All the codes I found were only valid in the app. I'm losing money because I don't have a smartphone.

I would never order electrical appliances or cosmetics from Temu. I also want cotton and not polyester in clothes. It's a different matter whether the clothes are actually cotton, even if they promise to be.

I should start a dropshipping business myself. I just need to come up with good products to order from Temu (affiliate link) and sell at a higher price.

Ps. I would have liked to order these Hello Kitty panties, but all the sellers only have one size available, which is not suitable for me. Are these definitely licensed and approved by Sanrio...?

 

 

 

The horror of food robots

I spent last week alone at home, and it was the last week before the start of the school year. In honor of that, I wrote, looked for cover images, and played on PS5.

The first days of writing went quite well, but then I made the mistake of starting to look for cover images for my writings on Pixabay, especially for the one I'm working on right now that I'd most like to finish. The working title of which is On the Beach, but it has to be changed because there's already a famous book with the same name.

When I went through tens of thousands of images, my eyes didn't like it. I finally had to stop because I felt so miserable. It's also a shame that the time spent looking for images is taken away from writing.

So first I suffered from eye pain, neck pain, and headache. And the next day I started getting nausea. I even dreamed that I was vomiting.

So that by the time the school year started, I could be in a state of sick leave.

 

 

So, when you're already nauseous anyway, what to eat when food feels nauseating? Where can you get protein and iron on a zero-carb diet when all meat feels disgusting? And an empty stomach makes you even more nauseous.

On Thursday, I rushed to the library before closing time to pick up my reserved books. It was a bit annoying that I couldn't reserve one book because it was in the library, and it was still there the night before. But someone had already borrowed it that morning. Exceptionally, I took 3 books from the free book shelf, one of which was on my list.

And I was in a hurry to also buy socks on the same trip, since Clas Ohlson also closes at seven. Maybe it wouldn't have been worth it, the price of thermal socks had just gone up by 3 euros. 26 euros for two pairs of Heat Holders socks.

 

 

When I got home, I was met with a frightening sight: a food robot. Of course, it stopped because of me, even though I tried to walk on the other side of the road. It hasn't been many months since a robot followed me all the way home, it didn't dare to pass me at any point. Pretty slow food delivery if it comes at my walking pace. Food robots are so pathetic that I don't understand how anyone can use them.

 

On Saturday I would have liked to celebrate the release of my debut novel, so it would have been a book launch, but feeling unwell and feeling like throwing up prevented that. I had big plans: opening a bottle of sparkling rosé wine, having a few drinks and going to a bar, but no.

 

 

 

I thought I wouldn't be able to play Tomb Raider 2 Remastered without cheats. I had always played the (original) game before only using cheats. At first I had great difficulty with the controls. I switched to modern controls when I couldn't accept that the jump button was the cube. Then I had to constantly google which button did something, like grab a ledge or dive. When I got through the Opera house level, I stopped, at least for now. It's a wonder I even got that far.

 

A frighteningly depressing experience

I have been depressed. I don't know if it's because of perimenopause, when it's always said that depression and low mood are among the symptoms.

But when I wrote excitedly for weeks, and then I'm not interested in anything anymore, too bad. Finally, I forced myself to finish one short story last week. There's also a certain problem with this, that it's hard to choose which short story to work on next. When you can't choose, you don't do anything. And of course, I started writing a new short story again.

 

 

I miss my cats. I just can't accept the loss of them, nor stand it. I always cry when I stop to think about it.

And I miss Friday. It really hit me for the first time around Valentine's Day. I guess I'll have to dare to try the private server at some point, even though they say (of course) there are only assholes left in the players, and no perks. So, playing with assholes without perks?

 

 

Should I order from Temu?

I admit it. For the first time ever I checket out Temu's (affiliate link) selection. I was really disappointed when I noticed that in honor of buying more Heat Holders thermal socks, the older ones started to fall apart. So I don't have enough socks again, I guess I never will. I didn't bother buying more since they are so expensive, almost 15 euros a pair. Well, I found a Heat Holders copycat brand, Heat Control, from Temu. Yes, that would do.

Temu is pretty annoying because it always does everything it can to prevent you from buying anything. The page jumps everywhere and back to the beginning when you have scrolled down for a long time. It required registration all the time. And when the settings were changed to Finnish, the one I had used disappeared from the selection options. How could I just look for acrylic socks when apparently that kind of material is not known at all in Finland? I had to change back to English.

It's not realistic to order from Temu anyway, since there is a minimum order limit. I would only be interested in ordering if I could get those little things in the mail at home, I don't want to pick up a package from some far away place. And I wouldn't be interested in paying the postal processing fee. Do I have to pay that even if I order just one product from China that costs less than 1 euro?

 

 

Scary bout

In honor of the opening day of the skiing World Championships, I had a seizure. First, I noticed that I couldn't see the text properly. Then I started having pain in my eyes, head, and neck. Then my left arm went numb first, and then the left side of my face. It's not the first time I've had a seizure like this, but it's been a long time since the last one. I always suspect a TIA, but they claim that it's not accompanied by pain. A few hours later, I started to really feel my neck, so much so that I tried to cry and desperately took several painkillers. I didn't know that my neck was so bad. I thought that doing dumbbell exercises every other day would have kept it in shape. So, neck stiffness + eye strain, this is the end result.

 

 

Well, that's why I went on "sick leave". No reading, no writing. No schoolwork. Especially not finishing an essay, when my body felt like it had had enough of it already on the day before. Well, yeah, I've still read, way too much.

 

Poor person bought expensive socks, and dreams of toothpaste

Clothes just dare to fall apart. I'm talking about the clothes I wear at home. Socks, underwear, t-shirts, pajama pants, leggings, sweatpants. The problem with pajama pants is that they are only available in stores once a year at a certain time of year. The same thing with fluffy socks, of course.

My shoes also fell apart. My only "better" (=non-sneakers) "winter" shoes, ankle boots. The heel started to come off. Luckily, it stayed partially on until I got home. Other similar ones fell apart during the last move. Now I only have sneakers.

The 46-year-old towels are also showing signs of falling apart. Can't you trust anything in this world anymore?

 

 

 

Heat Holders-socks

 

I made a daring move, and bought socks. I only had three pairs of Heat Holders socks (affiliate link), and I need more. I now ordered three new pairs, from the same online store as last time. The socks cost almost 15 euros a pair.

I am against plastic in clothes, and that is why it is sad that the only socks that are warm enough for my feet are made of acrylic, i.e. plastic. I can't even wear acrylic clothes on other parts of my body, they itch and cause red marks on my skin. And of course, I always wear knee-high wool socks over my Heat Holders socks.

 

I also dream of a longer winter jacket. My current one was given to me for free by relatives as a poor relief fund about 15 years ago, and it's otherwise good but too short. Padded trousers could also be nice in the coldest weather. Of course, I do have a pair. It was a good idea to steal them from my aunt, since I've never worn them because they're too short for me.

Durable underwear?

And what would be good underwear? The last time I bought a multipack of Sloggi (years ago), they fell apart in the first wash.

And now, most recently, I bought a multipack of Pierre Roberts. I broke the first one in my anxiety on the day my cat Tabitha died, and I thought it was my fault. But no. The others have also broken in the same place, i.e. the seam. So, not gonna buy again.

So soon (now?) I won't be able to find any panties for me in the supermarkets, for example. They have to be made of cotton, durable and not have itchy lace in them, for example.

Parodontax toothpaste

I have been completely addicted to Parodontax toothpaste for decades. Without it, my gums start to bleed. A few years ago, a big bad company bought Parodontax and ruined it completely. They removed all the active ingredients, so it no longer keeps your gums healthy.

The original Parodontax toothpaste is almost impossible to find anywhere anymore. Only in Holland. It may be that they are running out of stock there too. I ordered "a few" tubes of it through Amazon Germany a couple of years ago. And I had been wondering if I should order it again now, when/if they still have it.

But now I found out that, for example, on Amazon Germany you can get a toothpaste called Paromed, which has the same ingredients as the original Parodontax! Is this what I have been waiting for? A copycat product to save me.

I've been dreaming of a cheaper phone subscription for a long time, and now I found out about a company called Globetel. The cheapest monthly fee is 5.90e. Let's see if it's a scam company. To change the subscription, you should know how to change the SIM card in your cell phone... where are the instructions for my 25-year-old Nokia cell phone? Yeah, I'm just so helpless. I'm afraid that if I open that ancient cell phone, it will break forever.