Friday, January 10, 2014

Taiwan tour 2013

After the HSC I got 4 months holiday and my family and I went to Taiwan for a week. I really like Taiwan, it's island culture and history is really interesting and I really liked how you have your bustling cities as well as your smaller village towns in very accessible locations. We got to visit Taipei, smaller towns like Keelung and a hot spring town on the east coast. 



We went to Yehliu Geopark on the first day and it was really cold, but we got to see some rocks that have been naturally formed by erosion and weathering into unique shapes. There was one called the ''Queen head'' and apparently you can't say you've been to Taiwan without snapping a pic of it. I didn't really think it was that impressive, but what got my attention was a rock that looked a lot like Sid's head from the Fire King scene in the movie Ice Age 2. 





Keelung village got famous because I think it was featured in a drama. The village was really crowded, full of tourists and locals trying to get their scooters through the narrow alleys. I disliked the noise and rush of people, but their Taiwanese food was the best I had encountered the whole trip. Got to have my favourite beef noodles with its very aromatic soup and of course extra chilli! We also gotta to try other speciality dishes such as drunken chiken, skin of a pigs head and seafood bowls in soup. I liked the seafood balls in soup the most as the soup was really clear, but flavoursome at the same time. Also think I prefer pig ears over head skin, haha.




Awesome onsen to myself at the resort town of . I could only bear the 43 degree water for about 20 minutes, then I had to get out because I was starting to sweat too much. However, it was still very relaxing and warmed me right up because I was sick of the bloody cold weather. In Taiwan I thought it was fine in the sun, but once dusk sets in the cold was really irritating... 



Taiwan's nature is also one to behold. We visited Tarako national park, where I thought the water looked really nice and refreshing. Here we got to visit a temple, walk in caves and spot ''little swallows'' in the cracks on cliffs. There was a lot of tourist here too, mainly from the mainland and buses got caught in a massive jam... Wished there was more english information there, as I was interested in learning about the indigenous people who called this land home. Got to eat famous bamboo tube rice at a cafe nearby. It was basically sticky rice stuffed in a bamboo stick and one had to smash the bamboo to get to the rice roll. It was fun to break and I enjoyed the novelty of it, but the rice tasted to ''plant'' for me.



I find the scooter bike culture in Taiwan really interesting, the guide of our tour said it was very easy to get a license and pretty much every family owns at least one. In Taiwan the busy highways and roads have their own lanes for these scooters and you can find scooters parked all over the street and in front of shops like this restaurant below. However it was quite shocking to see a family of five on one scooter in Taipei, many accidents happen on these each year. I would like to own one when I get my motorbike license. Too bad Australia doesn't sell these models of scooters, I like how easy and convenient they seem. 




Taiwan made me want to live in a quiet village in the future. I felt on this trip that the most beautiful of sights were always in the places away from the noise, where we feel calm and have time to look around and take in the world and it's glory. For example I got bored of following the tour and went off to take my own photos when I came upon this area on Alishan (Ali mountain), the place famous for tea. It wasn't on the map for tourists as a ''hot spot'', but I felt that this was one of the most loveliest sights I've seen on the trip. No tourists, no waiting, quiet. 


Despite this being my second trip to Taiwan, I wasn't bored at all, the tour guide Simky was great at telling us about Taiwan's culture, history, social issues and trends within the demographic. Whilst I was worn out from the bus rides, tourist and sore feet, I learned a lot on this tour and wouldn't mind returning one day.

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Thursday, January 2, 2014

New Year & Resolutions

So it's 2014 now and I just really wanted to reflect on the past year of 2013 as it has been a very tiresome and irritating year for me. Managing to complete the HSC exams to a level I was going to be happy with proved to be a challenge, I wasn't ever completely sure what standard I wished to fill, but going through 2013 has made me become less worried despite still be slightly confused.

 From the beginning of the year I have seen friends stress, slack and challenged by their motivations and desires to get to the end of the year, and at the end even when their results came out, it didn’t change what I thought of them as a person. It took me a while to realise this, but the ATAR was really just a number and it wasn’t something that could define you. I feel much better as a person and as someone entering a new university, a new environment and a new lifestyle.

Moving on to my resolutions! Well for the past few years I vowed to lose weight but it has been a long process… so this year I decided to try to exercise more and eat more healthily. I just really want the confidence to feel good in my body and look good in what I want to wear, so wish me luck!




Saying goodbye to the 2013 me and onto 2014~






Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Xmas Wishlist~

I'm in Hong Kong right now with family and will be celebrating Xmas here this year. I am a little bit disappointed that I won't get to enjoy the annual Xmas BBQ in Australia, but experiencing Xmas here will be an unique experience. Hopefully it will be as joyful as other Xmas' as it is one of my favourite holidays.

As part of my enthusiasm for the countdown to Xmas I have made a wishlist collage!

xmas fashion wishlist

1. Mel by Melissa Vanilla Bow Ankle Boots.
2. Tattoo chocker
3. American Apparel tennis skirt- white
4. Clinique's Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion
5. Reebok ''Freestyle Hi'' Sneakers
6. Dollywink lashes in 01
7. Nyx Lip Plumper in Kim









Hoping to pick up extra shifts from work when I get back to Australia to pay for these >.<
 Wish me luck~





Sunday, October 6, 2013

Sorry for the hiatus! HSC and HOLIDAY

It's almost time for my HSC in less than a fortnight so for the past year I have been a bit distracted by my studies, school, tutoring etc. However I soon will be free again and plan to blog heaps! Nervous about the HSC exams, even though I am confident in getting a 79 Atar for my degree of choice at Macq....

Furthermore I am very excited for post-HSC life as I am going overseas for a month with my parents to Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea. Really can't wait to meet relatives and eat exotic foods. As if going away for a month wasn't enough, I am also going to Japan in January next year with my 4 other people for 2 weeks.

For the Japan trip since I mistrust anyone else organizing the trip I have volunteered to do all the organizing myself. From airplane tickets, hotel bookings and an itinerary I am fully in control. This is especially exciting and what was more exciting than planning was receiving a facebook message from my host father in response to my letter requesting to meet them while I will be in Japan. Here it is:




Can't wait to mail them back details and visit them next year. Haven't seen them since the beginning of 2012 and in 2010 when I was over there for exchange.Keen to attempt to communicate more with my HSC Japanese... I will be taking a friend with me and hope she will enjoy their hospitality and the quiet prefecture of Gunma.

Will write more blog posts on my future holidaysoon, but right now gotta go study for my ancient history exam, :(


Saturday, October 6, 2012

Review: Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick 660

hehe can't get enough of photo filters!




Finally found the perfect fuchsia pinky-purple lipcolour. It's Revlon's Super Lustrous Lipstick 660 in Berry Haute. Purchased for only $8.95!

It's colour is a cross between mauve and the purple you get on grape flavoured products. I think the purple is a bit of a cross between gumdrop and lollipop in their lipbutter series. It's a warm purple with pink undertones. 


It's easy to work with with its creamy consistency, but doesn't melt. It is very smooth. The result is a matte looking finish.The colour is true to the label after a good 3 swipes and doesn't settle into the cracks of my lip. The packaging is your standard black tube, however I dislike the transparent top as it makes me feel like I've lost the lid!

 It also has pretty good staying power as I wore it on a 34 degree day on the back of my hand and it didn't smudge heaps! Also when trying to remove it off my lips with a tissue which took forever, and I still had the obvious purple on my lips.


 
from top to bottom: 3 swipes, 2 swipes, 1 swipe.
natural lighting near window
room light on

natural light
Really good quality for its price, one of the best drugstore lipcolours I own (hohoho out of 3..)

 I was a really good impression of Revlon's line and I would purchase again.

You can purchase it from any of the big name retail shops eg. K-mart, Priceline or stand alone cosmetic shops eg. Cosmo's.

Overall rating: 4/5 (sorry lid!)


Yay got ma purrrrple on!







Wallet, say hello to Lolita



Sad days lay ahead for my wallet as from the end of last year have become highly interested in Lolita fashion.  For those who don't know, lolita is a part of the Japanese street fashion scene rising in popularity in the 90s. It is mainly based on stylistic trends of the Rococo and Victorian era, but also reflect the romantic period and vintage fashion. It is well known for its Doll-like look and elegant demeanour. There are different styles to lolita such as gothic, sweet and classic.

I could go on, but that's the generally info. If you would like to know more about lolita fashion I suggest you visit Hellolace or the EGL community on livejournal. Also forgot to mention that there are specific brands that cater lolita fashion which require quite some dosh to buy from them.

So the story wallet is, you can lose some weight.

My interest in Lolita began many years ago in 2007. Sad to say, but I was somewhat of a weeaboo . I was obsessed with Naruto and appointed all my friends a shinobi rank, drew cards dramatically like Yu-gi-oh, danced the Caramelldansen everywhere... you can read more about this in my otaku evolution post. Through titles like Vampire Knight, Rozen Maiden, Rose of Versailles and Umineko no Naku koro ni I desired to wear cute, dolly clothing. Also the fashion shown in Downton Abbey, Jane Eyre, Becoming Jane and other period dramas were so striking and I basically was inspired.

This inspiration led me to the EGL community on livejournal where I just lurked for several years learning about the brands, how to style, designers and the jargon eg. jsk, op, aatp, otk... It wasn't till I got a job about 2 years ago where I started seriously researching what I wanted and began stalking the egl sales community on livejournal for a deal. Technically my ''first'' lolita item was a Baby the Stars Shine Bright blouse and pannier from Shinjuku Closet Child, but I say it's this item (shown below) as I paid for it before the other 2 items and it completed my first ''look''. It was the BTSSB Olivia Regimental Stripes JSK in navy. After this I joined the Australian Lolita community on livejournal which proceeded to me being added to the Sydney Lolita group on facebook. Since then I have worked very hard at work to buy new clothes and met some awesome people within the Lolita circle! 





 




Monday, October 1, 2012

My Otaku Evolution

Despite ''otaku'' being a derogatory term in Japan, I believe that it is a good word to overall describe my interest in anime and manga.

Sorry this will be a long post it IS basically a recount of a large part of my life story.

 I haven't always been an ''otaku'', as my interest didn't peek till c. 2007, however I have been watching anime since I was about 5. This was when I thought anime was just any cartoon that spoke Cantonese. As a kid I grew up with anime in the Cantonese dub such as Doraemon, Cardcaptor Sakura, ママはぽよぽよザウルスがお好き (uber old aired in 1995), とんでぶーりん (1994), Chibi Mariko-chan and of course Sailor Moon. So I thought the home of asian cartoons was Hong Kong! Now that I think about it, all the anime VCDs mum got must of been bootlegs...



Either way watching anime in my childhood made me wanting for more as I finished more titles days by day. It was during primary school that I (after learning to understand the English language, yes I was a sad ESL student) seriously I don't even- watched anime in English dub.

There was a children's television program called '' Cheez TV'' broadcasting cartoons and anime. From my memory I watched Sailor Moon, Yu-gi-oh!, Pokemon, Cardcaptors, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece and Digimon. The program was replaced by '' Toasted TV '' in 2005 where I also grew an interest in western cartoons like TMNT, Winx Club and a French production which I hated called Code Lyoko. I also loved cartoon network and the Disney channel but that's 's unrelated here. However, it was a certain show on this program which changed my life forever...*drumrolllllll* NARUTO~~~ omfg dis show.


Naruto was the first anime I finally realised was Japanese- (the ninjas sorta gave it away). Before all this ''Toasted TV'' business I was still a girl who read magazines with titles like Dgirl (Disney Girl) and Total Girl. I mashed avocado into facemasks in my freetime and gave myself pedicures on the weekend (well I still do these things but then I bragged about it a lot more). What I had then but not now was a friendship circle of Anglo-Saxons who invited me to the best slumber parties watching Australian Idol, hearting Dean Geyer and served me lasagnas and baked potatoes. Excuse the stereotypes but they weren't into anime and such. 

However due to the inevitable events of growing up and increase immigration into Australia I made friends with a band of Asians towards the end of primary school. We happily discussed the latest Naruto episodes at school and graffitied each others pencilcases with '' Believe it! '' and ''I <3 Sasuke/Gaara/Itachi/Rock Lee''... (how did that happen?). It was all very fun and crazy and we gave each names from the Akatsuki, I was f-ing Zetsu but that wasn't the main issue. We grew more fanatic as we watched more anime and ate more Pocky so I'm sad to say- I WAS A WEEABOO .                     There I said it.                  It only got worse after I discovered fanfiction.net and created OCs and stories in my head where I'm dating Draco Malfoy whilst two timing with Zero Kiryu... anime was my lyf. Fanfiction also opened up a whole bunch of new vocab eg. yaoi, yuri, lemons, fanservice, seme, uke, ship, canon, non-canon etc... I avoided most of these tags- I was still so innocent.

No I don't want to see anyone naked, thank you.

When I entered high school those friends disappeared so I was on a lone wolf journey of re-self discovery. By the time I was in year eight I dropped the ''kawaiis'', ''baka'' and ''urasai'' and watched a wide range of genres. As nobody around me liked anime etc. I was left to choose what I read and watch without judgement. I also started to read a lot more manga as I didn't have anyone to pass me the avi.s and mp4.s anymore. I learnt more about the genres eg. shoujo, shounen etc. However, I still only read/watched mainstream eg. Vampire Knight, Gakuen Alice, One Piece, Deathnote, that bandwagon. I also played a lot more videogames on my nintendo ds which was technically the first handheld I called my own. Started playing pokemon, mario, final fantasy here comes my J-gaming. Only used to play GTA and Prince of Persia but I finally found out what the hell a Chocobo was.
farming is lyf
I also started figure collecting and attending conventions my first being Supanova in 2008. I also made my first cosplay for that event which was Rukia from Bleach in her school uniform. Fanart was also a strong hobby of mine and you can still find some amateur drawing on my deviantart: @jelloxmello. At first I was a noob buying bootlegs, but after reading some posts on DannyChoo I became more accustomed to what legit ones looked like. On a holiday to Hong Kong I bought tonnes of merch including magazines and posters. I was on a otaku rampage again, but this time, not a weeaboo. thank god.

Now things get a bit complicated chronologically but can't tell you everything!

With higher education came a higher desire to learn about human relationships. Many things came up during this period:
- first ecchi scene in a josei manga
- finally got the guts to read that NatsumexMikan fanfic with lemons
- realised Sora will always be Riku's uke
- Xion is a cockblocker
- Togainu no chi is not for kids
- I love bishounens, whatever they are doing.

much more...


My all time favourite canon pairing~

Also played my first visual novel! (not saying which) My favourite genres were post-apocalyptical, horror and survival. I thoroughly enjoyed Battle Royale, Bio-meat Nectar, Eden:It's an Endless World! (which is still one of my favourites). Also went to baka manga updates for more manga to read. Watched a hell lot of anime a few seasons ago including HOTD, to aru kagaku no railgun, durarara, hakuoki shinsengumi etc. Stopped drawing fanart as well cause of study and lack of skills. Developed an interest in guro for a while, especially the works of Junji Ito.

Fast-forward to the present... 

I now enjoy manga more than anime and like a lot more that isn't mainstream. In my old age reading vintage shoujo as well now- I recommend Glass Mask by Muichi Suzue. Only mainstream I've read recently would be One Piece, but stopped after Ace's death... Haven't watched anything new anime wise since Anohana and Fate/zero. You can say I've lost my passion, however I've expanded my interests in not just Japanese anime, but culture, language and fashion. Still then I've found my leaf village flag and burned it, no longer buy bootleg nendoroids and finally bought a pretty hot Lelouch figurine. I mostly play PC games now as I've married every bachelorette on Harvest Moon DS. Went to Japan for a 2 week exchange program and had a holiday in Tokyo at the beginning of 2012. In the future I plan to teach English in Japan and study Japanese at university. 

That's it guys! My otaku evolution, hopefully this post wasn't too long...




~Still a closet yaoi fan- what will I become?~