Friday 27 June 2008

Phew!

It's been really tiring! The family came down to London on Friday morning. I'd actually set my alarm to wake up so that I'll be able to receive any calls in case they were near my place. Turns out that immigration was very fast, as was baggage claim, so they were at my flat much faster than expected - they arrived before my first alarm even rang!

Anyway, they came, and got settled in before we went out for breakfast in Chinatown, although most places were closed. We went around Borough Market for a few hours before we went back to the flat because I needed to pick up my dry cleaning. The parents rested a little while Ling, Pot and I went to pick Pot's friend up from Tower Hill station. Pot and his friend then went to the pub across the street while Ling and I went shopping at Waitrose for cleaning stuff, then picked up my dry cleaning. Ling and I managed to clean up the kitchen before Patty arrived, then we all went for dinner at Royal China in Canary Wharf.

On Saturday, we went to Borough Market again in the morning, and shopped around at Covent Garden and Selfridges in the afternoon. That night we had a barbecue. Didn't feel much like a barbecue though. We ate alot!

On Sunday, we woke up at 4am to go to the airport and flew to Barcelona. It was a Sunday, though, so even though we walked around, practically everything was closed! There was only one clothes shop open that I remember (and we certainly did buy a few things from it! I love my new dress *heart*)We did manage to find this one restaurant, though, that served quite good food (gotta love the paella!) and a really good sangria. We had that for lunch. For dinner, we went to Peblo Espanyol for a flamenco dinner show. It wasn't bad - the food was alright. I loved the first course, which was a chickpea stew with creamed spinach. Yum!!

On Monday, we went to the food market near our hotel (we stayed at the Rivoli Ramblas along La Rambla) for breakfast, then we went to see the Sagrada Familia. After that, we went to Maremagnum for shopping and a lunch at this restaurant called Elx, which apparently was awarded a Michelin star. We had paella again, although we also tried one that was made with noodles (note: noodles = pasta in this case). Ling didn't really like it at first, maybe because it's a little blah, but I liked it very much.

While we were shopping, one of the salespersons at Massimo Dutti recommended a steak restaurant at my dad's request. We went there for dinner. Food wasn't bad. Don't really remember, though, so it isn't spectacular.

On Tuesday, we went on a day-long tour around Catalunya. First stop was the Torres winery for a tour around their vineyard and a wine-tasting. Very commercialized thing, cheap wine. For its price, I guess it's alright. We've been spoiled by good wines!

After that, we went to Montserrat. Weather was nice, but we spent 2 1/4 hours of the 4 hours we had there lining up to touch the Black Virgin Mary, which was reportedly carved by the hands of St. Luke himself. The rest of our time was spent eating lunch at the Cafeteria and buying souvenirs.

The last stop on our trip was to Sitges. We followed a walking tour for a little bit, then went to sit at a pub and have Cava. Dinner that night was at a fusion restaurant that was recommended in the hotel's guidebook. Good food. I had a duck and pear dish that was absolutely fantastic! The pears were lovely and sweet.

Wednesday, we went shopping a bit in the morning, then flew back to London in the afternoon. For dinner, Ling, Pot and I walked out to the Indian restaurant nearby and bought food back. Yum.

Today, we went to Kulu Kulu for a sushi lunch. After that we went shopping (I bought 3 pairs of shoes, which makes it 6 pairs of new shoes I have acquired in the last 3 days!) before Ling and I returned to the flat to dump bags and use the loo. We met up again at Lillywhites, where the guys were having a blast - they bought 48 pieces of clothing altogether!

After that, we went to HK Diner for dinner, then walked to Oxford Street, and picked up the tickets for Sound of Music, then went shopping a little bit at Liberty, where Ling bought yarn. Sound of Music was gooood. A little different from when my dad, Ling and I first watched it, though. That time, the Maria was a better singer (the winner of the competition... Connie I think her name is), but the children were better today. Also, the Captain von Trapp looked and acted kinda like Mr. Ellis, the Economics teacher from Concord! LoL.

Okay, I'm feeling really sleepy now, so I'm going to end the drying cycle of the washing machine and fold laundry then go to sleep. Night!


Wednesday 18 June 2008

An exhausting two days

We didn't sleep on Sunday night. Well, we did, but only for about two hours!

We'd baked cookies (dark and white chocolate chunk cookies! Yum) and watched Sex and the City movie, although we fell asleep about 10mins into the movie :P I woke up at 6.40am to get ready to go out and shook Jin awake at 7am. Ran out of the flat at 7.40am, and took the train to the Russian Embassy for Jin to do his visa. Waited there for nearly 2 hours before we got in too.

Once we were done, we couldn't decide where to go, but ended up going to Leicester Sq and eating at Farmer Brown's. Yay! I really wanted the beef steak sandwich, but they didn't have steak, so I had one with bacon, mozarella, basil and tomatoes. Yummy goodness! I only ate half of it, though, before I was too full to finish it and had to hand the other half to Henry and Jin to finish.

When we were done, we walked to Traf Sq to see if we could find tour agencies for Jin, then we went home. Blablabla, Jin packed, we all went to King's Cross again, said goodbye. Jin went back to Sheffield and Henry took the tube to Heathrow. I went home and took a 4 hour nap before getting up for another 4 hours then going to bed again.

Today, I went out with Mel cos she's going home on Monday. We went to eat dimsum, then we had bubble tea, and walked around Troc a bit (Mel played ParaPara and DDR!) before going to Haagen Dazs to have a snack. I'm uber uber stuffed right now! *phew*

I can't wait for Friday to come!!!


Monday 16 June 2008

*sighs*

I'm feeling oddly exhausted.

Yesterday, I went to Vauxhall to collect my parcel from DHL. Stupid little me actually left the house without the address of the place I was meant to go to! Argh... Once I got to Vauxhall, I wandered around looking very lost till I found a map pinned up at the tube station entrance and stared at it for a while before I finally thought of where to go. It was a good thing I'd remembered the map I saw the night before!

It was a little heavy.. Not enough to warrant all the worrisome "it's kinda heavy - can you carry it all the way?" questions I got from the DHL staff, but heavy enough that it was tiring carrying it back to my flat, even on the 5 minute walk from the bus station to my flat.

Anyway, once I got it back to my flat, I immediately set up the shoe organiser, which took quite a bit of work with my hands and quite a bit of strength because it was hard to snap the thingies into place. At least now my shoes look a heck load more organised and orderly! Maybe I ought to take a picture?

Wei Jin came to London today. I wore a yukata when I went out to collect him from the station and got quite a lot of looks lol. It was fun! :P Anyway, I brought him back to the flat, and we hung out a bit before cooking dinner. It was the usual meal that I always seem to have when having friends over: garlic bread, spaghetti with prawns and rocket, and ice cream for dessert. We didn't manage to get to the ice cream, though - we were too stuffed after the spaghetti! We even kept a large box of the spaghetti in the fridge as leftovers.

We stayed downstairs to talk for a long while, but eventually moved upstairs to set up the mattress and everything. His friend called, though, and was apparently in a spot of trouble because he'd missed his flight home and was stranded in Heathrow, and Jin asked if he could stay over, and I didn't really have the heart to turn him down, especially when the couch was still free.

So here we are, sitting in my room while Jin showers. Hm. I wonder what tomorrow will be like?


Friday 13 June 2008

Outfit Snap: Kurotomesode!

A few months ago, I got a really gorgeous kurotomesode from a fellow IG-er on the trade thread. After months and months of delaying, I finally put it on and took pictures (yay!)
Butterfly and Bubbles Kurotomesode

Today's kitsuke was actually rather awkward. It was my first time putting on a kimono that was this slippery, and it was really difficult getting the hem to sit at the spot I wanted. As you can see, I'd actually tied it a little to loosely and a little too low. It's a good thing I'm not going out in this or the hem will get really dirty so quickly!

Also, it was my first time tying an otaiko with my silver fukuro obi, which is why the otaiko looks rather weird at the back. To be honest, at first, I didn't think I had an obi that would match this kimono, but then I remembered that I had a silver fukuro obi, so I took it out. When I saw the purplish and reddish tones in the obi, I thought it would look alright with this kimono. I did want to try tying other bows with this kimono because it looks so young, but I felt lazy, so an otaiko is all I did haha. Well, otaiko is the correct and most formal bow to use with kurotomesode anyway.

What do you think of the colour coordination? For the obiage and obijime, I actually had quite a few choices. It was this blue set, or a pink set, amongst a few others. I honestly would have preferred a purple set to any of these, but my purple set hasn't arrived yet. Since it's been so hot these past few days, I thought I'd cool down the outfit a little with this blue set. The pink set made it rather warm and made me think of autumn. When I put the blue with this, it immediately makes me think of summer: it's got cool colours, butterflies, bubbles and a rainbow!

But it doesn't really matter, because I'll be sending this little girl back to her owner tomorrow anyway. I'll miss her~ She's sooooo pretty *hearts*

Do you like her too?


Tuesday 10 June 2008

*grumbles*

My monthly visitor has arrived. It's made me so irritable I feel like ripping out the throats of every male I hear (note: not see, but only hear). The only exception is my dad and my brother, but even with my brother I'm a little short tempered. I dunno but I think James could sense it and was smart enough not to talk to me today. Good for him. At least talking to other females, especially my sister and Liss (haven't spoken to my mum yet), made me feel calmer.

You know, I really need to get one of those slogan T-shirts saying "I have PMS, therefore I can legally kill you".


Monday 9 June 2008

Outfit Snap: More yukata pics!

Mel and I went to have lunch at Abeno Too yesterday!! We had loads to eat! First we had a yaki gyoza of black prawns and asparagus, then we had a vegetable omu-soba, then the Abeno special okonomiyaki! It had konnyaku and squid in it, then in the center, they put chicken, salmon and cheese, and topped it with bacon. Yum!! For dessert, Mel and I shared a hot cake, wafu style, which had two dango fried in the hotcake and matcha ice cream, anko, cream, butter and hot maple syrup. We were soooo stuffed after that!

We walked to Borders after that 'cause I wanted to see some books, and I'd managed to find this book about a geisha's life. A photographer had been following her since before she even went into training to be a geisha, and there are pictures and narratives of her story about her life from childhood till now. I forgot to take pics of the book, and my camera's out of battery atm, so I'll do it tomorrow.

For obvious reasons, reading the book inspired me to dress in kimono, but I was too lazy to do the whole thing, so I just dressed in a yukata. My red and gray obi had finally arrived in the mail that morning, so I wore this green yukata, which I'd been wanting to wear for ages!

Lovely, isn't it? I think the red obi brings out the colour of the flowers very well. This one is my somber outfit, although I can probably match this with a very dark green obi for an even more somber and boring outfit. I also thought that if I wanted a sweet outfit, I'd wear a white obi, and for a cheerful outfit, I'd wear a yellow one.

Yes, you can see my hadajuban sleeves in the sleeve openings in that picture, but that's only because I'm spreading my arms out. If I don't, then it looks perfectly fine.This next yukata was today's yukata. Photo was taken in a mirror, so I'm not a corpse, etc etc.


I'm not entirely happy with this outfit. I mean sure, I think it's passable for going out into public, but it doesn't "pop". This yukata originally came with a black gauze heko obi with a spider web pattern in glitter. I can't tie a heko obi to save my life, so I took this one out instead, as it's the only thing in my wardrobe that suits it passably. I do think that the other accessories I used balanced it out, though. But I really really like the idea of having dark blue rather than gray for the obi.. Maybe once I fix my tsuke obi, I'll be able to wear it with this! ^_^

I should point out that in all the pictures, the obi is actually the same. The only difference is the side I'm showing. I'm glad I decided to buy this one instead of all the other more colourful ones! I really did need a subtle and dark one.

It feels so nice to finally be able to wear yukata out, after holding onto them for months. Oh, I should point out that my kitsuke is messy cos these pictures are actually taken after I'd been in them for a few hours, doing chores, going grocery shopping and what-not. OH! I'd covered my face cos it looks funny in these pics. Yes yes, I'm vaaaaaaain.

So what do you think of them? Any suggestions on how to improve their look?


Saturday 7 June 2008

O_O So much space!!

I finally finished cleaning up and clearing out my room!


O_O OMG there's so much space!!! And it looks so neat and tidy on one side of the room.... And absolutely packed on the other lol. But I can't help it, I like having a bit of a mess around. If it were too empty, I'd feel weird! Unfortunately, even in this picture, I can't show how big and empty it really looks from my point of view on the bed, since it's doubled by the full length mirrors. *sighs*

Ling, is this cleared up enough for you? I've already vacuumed everything and dusted every surface in the room. At least now I'm confident there will be space for an inflatable double mattress!

I'd actually cleared it out halfway yesterday, but I couldn't finish up because I didn't have any plastic boxes to store my kimono in (yes, kill me, I'm mistreating them so badly ;_;). On a whim (and also because I still had the Ikea refund card, which I'd completely forgotten about and needed to use), I decided to go to Ikea today.

I'd mentioned it to Mel and she said she wouldn't mind going, and I was happy for the company, so we went together! We were to meet up at Tottenham Hale station at 1pm, and I left extra early just in case I was late (again). When I got to the station, I had a surprise! The District line trains were suspended between Whitechapel and..... some other place I don't remember.. because they were defusing an undetonated WW2 bomb at Bromley by Bow o_O I felt so weirded out!

It didn't really matter to me anyway, cos I needed the Circle line, not the District line. I got there early, but Mel got there a little late since the District trains were on severe delays. We first had lunch (Swedish meatballs!! Woo!) then walked around buying stuff.

I bought loaaaads! Amongst them were a new lampshade for my ceiling light!! It's this one:

Pretty, isn't it?? Oh and don't ask how I managed to take that photo when it was still bright outside. *shrugs* Just one of those weird things I can somehow manage to do I guess. But I will admit I really really like this picture :D

So yeah. I bought a sewing set, a puppy soft toy, an adapter in case the family needed it, lightbulbs, the lampshade and of course, my main reason for going to Ikea: the plastic boxes.

I was rather unlucky on the way back, actually. It was such a hassle carrying those boxes on the tube when everyone's rushing home!! Plus, it started raining when I got out of Tower Hill station, but I was lucky enough to be able to hail a cab.

Once I got to my room, I put the lampshade together (it came in pieces... It was sooooo fun to do it!!) and set it up after a long time of debating with myself on how to make the damned thing stay up. Then I felt irritated at all the mess in my room, so I started clearing things up straightaway.... And just didn't stop till I finished o_O

I was worried that if I did things too slowly, I'd have to vacuum tomorrow (I'd really rather not vacuum at any time past 8.30pm) so I did everything as quickly but neatlyas I could. Luckily, there wasn't much - all I had to do was put most of my kimono in the boxes, transfer Yan's boxes to below the staircase, and rearrange half the stuff, vacuum, rearrange the stuff again, vacuum again and finally set everything into its final places.

Tomorrow, I'm going out with Mel for lunch, cos I've been craving for Abeno Too. Once I get back, I'm going to have to sort out clothes and shoes for Oxfam. I already have a few things in mind that I need to get rid of, and as Ling suggested, what better way to get rid of it than to donate it to Charity? So yeah, I'm going to have to rearrange my cupboard.... again. Too bad the closest Oxfam to my place is all the way near school. *shrugs*

Okay, I gotta go shower now! I'm feeling dusty and filthy after all that cleaning, despite having washed my hands, feet and wiped all the exposed skin. Turrah!

.... Hee, I feel so accomplished today :D


Thursday 5 June 2008

Outfit Snap: Red Dress & Blue Goldfish Yukata

I promised on Sunday I'd post my red dress, but on Monday, when I typed out the entry, it turns out I'd only saved it on drafts, rather than posting it -_-" So I'm scrapping that post and retyping a red-dress one!

So here goes my red and white dress:





Isn't it cuuuuute? *hearts* I think this one looks better on me than the turquoise one, but they're essentially the same design, just a different colour. Maybe it's the neckline..?

I wore a yukata to Waitrose and the drycleaner's today! The weather was really nice and I'd just taken out my sky-blue kingyo (goldfish) yukata and thought it'd be perfect for the weather. I matched the sky today!



Yeah, the bow is slightly lopsided. I forgot to fix it before taking the photots. Also, the collar isn't pulled back enough, but for some reason, today, the collar just didn't want to stay back. *shrugs* Oh well..

Hehe, I know I'm probably too old to wear pigtails, but when I saw this yukata (the obi is from my red bunny set, and just happened to match it absolutely perfectly!), it immediately made me feel as though it was for young girls (think 13 to 15 years old). So, in the spirit of "looking young", I thought I'd put my hair in pigtails. Plus, a bun seems too formal, as does a pony-bun, and a ponytail is too normal. Hehehe. It kinda makes me feel like an anime character, really =^_^=

Acutally, with regards to the obi.... I'm very happy with this obi and yukata combination, but I thought that when I get home, I could probably pair this with my pink and yellow pre-tied obi. It's pink on one side and yellow on the other, and both colours show on the bow. Because of the goldfish, pink would look really good! On the other hand, if I wanted a duller colour, maybe dark olive green? For a calming colour, I'd just use white.

Ooooh I love this yukata! The colour schemes immediately come to mind once I take it out and put it on. Maybe I should do the same for all my other uncoordinated yukata? I've already pegged my other green yukata on having a dark red obi (which is on its way) or maybe yellow, or the same pink-and-yellow tsuke obi. Again, I'd pick white for a calming effect. *hearts*

I really ought to take more pictures of my yukata coordinates, shouldn't I?


Monday 2 June 2008

Maiko video!

Hehe! At the Immortal Geisha forums, I'd stumbled across this video when taking a peek into the Geisha and Maiko forum. It's of a maiko called Yukako riding a Segway. It's really cute!!



Hehehehe, doesn't she look like she's having loads and loads of fun??


Sunday 1 June 2008

New dress!

In one of my older posts, I mentioned that I'd bought a dress with a turquoise and pink pattern. Well, this morning, I was feeling restless cos I couldn't sleep with my blocked/runny nose (it feels so odd when one nostril is blocked and the other is leaking like a tap), so I took pictures!

Please bear in mind that this is a size 12 dress on a size 10 mannequin, so the dress looks very loose. It's more fitting on me, of course.

Front:

Side-front:

Side-back:

Back:

Upclose of front, to show pattern:


What think you? It does make my hips look like giant pears on a fat day, but if I wore the body-shaping thing, it doesn't look bad at all (and makes me feel pretty hehehe). Oh darn, I'd just realised I forgot to take pictures of the pair of shoes I have that might match this dress. Ah well, maybe next time?

Also, I think that if I really think I don't look good in this, my sister might wear it. Well, Ling? Will you wear this or is it too my-style?

P/S: I'll be updating everyday with pictures of some of my dresses! Tomorrow I'll probably put up pictures of my red dress hehehe.


Pictures!

Yay my camera is now fully charged!! *screams with joy*

On the other hand, my throat is getting worse and is starting to kill me. I'm going to go drink another tablespoonful of medicine. Ahhh Beechams! *heart*

Anyway, here are some pictures I took in the past hour :P

Kitty!! It's the cat from Kiki's Delivery Service. I bought this at the London Expo last week:

I dressed Yan's mannequin up in the yukata I wore to the Expo!
Front view:


Back:

Hehehe, what do you think? I'm not satisfied with the obi-obijime-obiage combination, but at the time it was the best I had. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to say so! ^_^

ETA> Ling, do you suppose Ma and Pa would let me buy a mannequin too? Just a cheap one? To put in my room? You know, so I won't have to drag you or Ma out whenever I want to put someone in a kimono hehehe. I'm currently using this ensemble as my display kimono in the corner of my room.