Good Friday

The weather was so sunny on Friday, we started off our Friday date at Waterfront. Waterfront is one of my favourite places in Vancouver, it looks more westernized and commercialized. Don't get me wrong, I love Asian places too, but once in a while I'd love to be immersed in a completely different atmosphere just to give myself a feeling that I'm in a foreign western land.

Well, I still consider myself as a tourist here, so I continue to tour around the city and country to discover places where locals may have gotten bored of visiting, or not thought of visiting at all. It is so true that people who were born in a particular city will be less likely to visit tourist spots of their own place, simple because they are not tourists.  They are so familar with the place to an extent that hot tourists spots are not so much of a thing to them.

:) Hehe so let me take up this job on behalf of you guys!

Despite the sun, the weather was a little chilly. But everyone got excited and started dressing up in summer clothes already!

We moved on to Davie street for some Sakura pictures. :) I'm very grateful for baby's patience although I know he's not a fan of photography, haha more of a fan of the person beside him *blushing*. He just walks me to places I want to go.

Seeing rows and rows of cherry trees lift up my weekend mood. They look so surreal!!

Ending this post with a photo of us ( I mean...our shoes) stopping by at the Vancouver sign at Canada Place. :) This city means a lot to us, isn't it? We met here, fell in love here, and continue to hold hands still after almost 17 months.

Hawaii Trip: Hotel Review (Aqua Palms Hotel)

We booked an evening flight so it wasn’t too tiring. The 6-hour flight was so smooth and we even got to watch the beautiful sunset on plane, what a romantic way to start our journey!

It was night time when we touched down Honolulu.  We took the public bus to the hotel and it was a 45-minute ride. Fortunately, google map did its job accurately this time and the bus stop was only 5-minute walk to the hotel. The $2.50 bus ride saved our pockets from taking cab. However, just be aware if you are carrying big luggages as you may not be allowed to get on the bus. In that case, airport shuttle may be a better option. 

For less hassle, we actually took a shuttle to the airport on the last day and the price was reasonable, only cost us about $12 each person. The hotel bell boy was thoughtful enough to have lent us a hand in the arrangement.

We were pleasantly welcomed by friendly receptionists at Aqua Palms hotel. Room rates were reasonably priced at $125 CAD/night including tax. Considering the big room size and strategic location, I think this hotel was truly a gem and worth every penny we paid. On top of that, they even provided lemon water and fresh apples for free in the lobby.

Location was also quite ideal as it was right across from Hilton Hawaiian Village. It was only 5-minute walk to the Hilton beach, so you could catch the Friday fireworks night at ease. For shopping lovers, this hotel was about 20-25 minutes of walking to Ala Moana shopping centre. There was a bus stop near the hotel and buses and shuttles came by quite often, so we had no problem moving around.

J Best thing I love about the hotel is the blue theme of the room decoration. It makes everything looks aquatic and fresh! Bed is lined with tropically designed bed scarf and cushions which is just a perfect resemblance of the sunny island. It helps to boost up the Aloha spirit instantly.

Hawaii Trip: Fashion

I know I know.... I should have blogged about my Aloha trip long time ago but I was always caught up with something else before converting my trip into words. But there you go, I've finally sat down to work on this and decided to split my trip into a few posts to include more details.

Being a girl coming from a tropical country with summer all year round, there are times when I miss the sun and summer fashion back home. Only until I've come to Canada, I realize how being able to wear short sleeves and flip flops out at anytime of the year can truly be a blessing, really! And Hawaii is the closest geographical substitute to home from Vancouver. 

Another reason Hawaii is on my list is because of a Japanese drama I watched long time ago. Courtesy of Proposal Daisukusen, the last proposal scene filmed in Hawaii was just stunning and made me in awe of the beauty of this land. Really wished I could enter my laptop screen and be teleported to Hawaii at that moment! *fangirling*

Source: http://marinmusic.blog.163.com/blog/static/44757576200831824653559/

Source: http://archive.kaskus.co.id/thread/1465359/540

My trip finally came true when baby had some credits left from the previous flight cancellation and it must be used before September. That was just a perfect vacation time for me as my work was less busy at that time. August was the off-peak travel season for Hawaii I guess, the low airfares was a double bonus for me! :D I know I know...Hawaii welcomes me with open arms.

Going to Hawaii means a lot to me. It's a teenage dream come true, it's my first long trip with baby, and it's  the time to pull out my summer clothes and put them to use. Raincouver weather made me lazy and I just wanted to get away of the gloomy weather in exchange of a few sunny days.

 It had been a while since my travel luggage was so mini and light, thanks to the hot weather *Tee hee* And here I am, proudly presenting my fashion posts for the entire trip.

City tour day

Snorkelling day

 Half-day tour to Pearl Harbour and National Memorial Cemetery

Shopping day

Beach day

Hehe, I shall stop my narcissism here and write about my trip experience on the next few posts. Stay tuned!

Semi holiyear

2013 is not a huge holiyear for me since I spent most of my vacation going back home for Chinese New Year and I have some investment plans in mind. I decided to forgo a little bit of fun this year for more fun in future, if you get what I mean. :)

Having said that, I still managed to have brief tours around different cities in between my flight transit time and catch the beauty of different cities through walking. Yup, I'm one of those people who believes that walking is one of the best ways in capturing a city's beauty.

So there you go,  here's my travel update for the first half of 2013. That's the most economical way for me to travel around while saving my pocket from getting burnt. Glad that I'm able to keep up with both goals- Have fun and save money at the same time!

1. Seoul, South Korea

Seoul is more of a shopping city to me, my main goal was to shop for skincare/cosmetic products and bring back the whole MyeongDong to Vancouver *dreaming *. This is the place I'd observe street fashion and skincare condition because most of the Koreans have glowing skin that are very hard to be neglected! I wonder if it was hereditary or an obvious result of their advanced skincare technology, but either way, people with fair and nice skin walking by you create such a pleasant view for a foreigner like me. 

 I'm very concerned about a person's skin condition since young, not just myself but my partner as well. When I was in high school, I chatted with my best friend about ideal boy friend and I demanded a boy friend with decent skin as the most critical quality I looked for in a boy's appearance. It isn't just about self pleasure but I think a guy who has clean skin also reflects a big part of his hygiene habits. In my opinion, a guy with decent skin must have been quite clean or willing to put some effort to keep his face clean. If he is willing to spend some time on some thing that many guys don't give a shit about, he might be quite particular on his general hygiene habits as well. I experimented that on Kareshi and I think my theory is validated, it really works for me!

2. Victoria Bay, Hong Kong

Considering that I haven't been to Hong Kong for at least 10 years, I decided to take a walk during my transit time to Kuala Lumpur. I haven't been there since HK Disneyland and walk of fame were constructed, you can imagine how long that was! I only had approximately 8 hours for my trip, and I chose HK walk of fame because I could also enjoy the magnificent night view at Victoria Bay. Unfortunately, the weather was bad for a night view picture, but my disappointment was quickly offset by Bruce Lee's sculpture. I'm not a fan of Bruce Lee, but I think he together with Stephen Chow are 2 actors who best represent Hong Kong film industry in the past. They are epic, enough said.

3. Seattle, WA

Went to Seattle twice in a month and I've already witnessed a change in such a short period of time. Skagit River Bridge collapsed before my second trip and I kinda had a detour of it.

Hmm...the collapse looked terrible, not sure how long would the reconstruction take.

Otherwise, the tiny bits of my Seattle trips are shared previously  :) 

Seattle Trip Part 1

Seattle Trip Part 2

4. White Rock, B.C.

Funny how it took me so long to set foot on White Rock although it's only about 35-40 minute drive from Burnaby. WX kept telling me about this superb Japanese restaurant which sells amazing aburi sushi, Kareshi got that message and brought me to White Rock last Sunday. I'm very spoiled by Kareshi's effort in satisfying my travel desire, so I usually cook nice meals to satisfy his tummy instead, win-win situation *chuckle*. Anyway, White Rock is a good place for halfday trip, it's a place for beach walk and cheap seafood :). We took a walk at the beach and enjoyed a light meal at Taka's.

Aburi suhi at Taka's, WX said it melts in your mouth and I agree to that. I like the Salmon one, it has a soft texture and didn't taste as fatty. Yup, I'm not resistant to seeing animal fats visually and I'm still trying to overcome that.

2013 semi holiyear has been doing its job greatly so far, hopefully I could think of more short trips for the coming months to tie up my 2013 traveliciously ;)

大自然的魅力

身处在仿如仙境的大自然的时候，只想以最真实的面貌留下这值得纪念的地方。

在那一刻，仿佛所有的化妆品都是多余的。除了疲于平日繁多的化妆步骤而决定素颜外，我更想 好好享受被大自然征服的感觉，踏踏实实地被它拥抱着。生长在城市，每天面对繁忙的日子，很善于忽略身边的小风景，所以更懂得珍惜大自然的美丽，看见漂亮的风景与呼吸新鲜空气的时候也不忘感谢神的恩赐和自己的福气。

原来，面对大自然的坦诚可是那么地舒适自在，无需多做修饰，只要一副风景，一份单纯，就足以丰富心灵上的视野。这，大该就是大自然的魅力。

U.S fashion post

I don’t consider myself as a super fashionable person despite my love for clothes shopping, thus the lack of fashion posts throughout my blogging life. However, I realize that there are numerous full-length body shots during my U.S trip, so I decided to make my first ever fashion post here.

Mk says: ‘Fart loud in fashion’, so I really want to fart out my confidence here by showing what I love to wear.

However, I have my own set of preferences when it comes to fashion. It doesn’t matter if people disapprove my styles, because I have my own set of preferences when it comes to fashion and believing in myself makes me proud and happy. All my friends can’t bear with my love for floral-printed and lacey clothes/short pants because half of my wardrobe is about them! The other half of my closet is filled with casual and simple clothes to blend with the floralness. My life principle has come to act on my fashion styles as well, because I am more fond of a colourful life over a dull and mysterious one, which explains well for my floral prints fever. They make me look cheerful, youthful, while bringing up the feminine side of me.

Short jumpsuits are my other love because they are really convenient and trendy. Dress up in one piece and you’re all set to go! This really matches well with my laziness. Most importantly, they have excellent concealing effect- longer legs and smaller butt, which is the perfect combo for me!!

However, my summer clothing is more vibrant than my winter clothing, simply because of the weather. Once I put the sweater on, you barely see what I wear inside, and that is VERY demotivating. On top of that, the cold weather is devastating enough to make me think less about the fashion and more about the warmth of clothes.

I believe my fashion preference also comes from my consideration about suitable fashion styles on me. I pick the styles which I think will look good on me amongst the sea of trendy clothes every year and I just work around them. I don’t like to splurge big bucks on a single look, so I spread out my budget wisely on various items that I can mix and match to come out with different styles. Wearing clothes that suit your body and image are very important, and that’s one of the critical fashion advices I adhere to.

=) Wear what you love, and enjoy what you wear.

*Thank you MK for the inspiration.*

So grateful for this song

Although I'm quite frustrated with the heavy workload during my spring break, something appeared and cheered me up tremendously. I'm so thankful for them!! Big bang with their latest track named 'blue'! Both of these are my favourites, seriously what more can I ask for ? Thank you February for bringing Big Bang back, and I'm now full of energy to pull through another 2 harsh months. 화이팅!!

Oh good December!

December is all about finals and holidays to me. I’ve dealt with my second last term 2 weeks ago with the end of my finals, and that also marks the start of my winter break simultaneously.

This year, I decided to stay put and celebrate the festive season with my fellow Vancouver friends since I had been busy travelling during winter for the past few years. I'm happy with my choice because every little thing that we’ve done in these 2 weeks makes me feel blessed with their presence.

So… this winter break is mainly about baking and cooking to me! Did massive cooking and some simple baking with my friend for our long-awaited ski trip.

First baking session of the term! The oven in my house is not functioning unfortunately, if not I could have foreseen more baking sessions in future. We baked banana and carrot cake as well as the regular brownies, in which both recipes were new to me.

And then there was sushi session! It was my first time making so many Sushis (approximately 50) myself besides my first attempt on making Unagi nigiri. I’ve to say, motivation was really the only pillar strength that kept me going for the whole 3 hours of making sushi alone. I love preparing food for people that I love because I love seeing their blissful faces out of the homemade meal, but I guess my cooking skills are not up to that level yet to witness that blissful moment, so more time for cooking in future is necessary.

Honestly, the effort and dedication I had put in for the trip was unbelievable. It all started from grocery shopping to baking and cooking, and lastly packing up, and it took me approximately 3-4 full days to get these things done.I think the time spent in food preparation was actually longer than the actual duration of the trip, which made me feel a little exhausted during the trip.

However, the compliments I've received from BFFs make me feel encouraged, especially when I was barely a good cook 4 years ago until I can cook decent meals and soup nowadays. The journey is not easy undeniably, and I just hope that my effort will be appreciated someday =). Thank you BFFs, your encouragement is definitely the precious light out of the dark.

Third massive cooking session was done with my lovely friends. We had homemade dinner together on Christmas and it was really lovely. As much as I enjoy celebrating Christmas commercially and doing it the outgoing way, spending Christmas in someone else’s house gave me a new definition of Christmas. Christmas celebration can be simple, lovely, warm despite there’s no Christmas presents involved.

I’m just happy that I’m an easily-contented person to have found this feeling awesome.

2011 is coming to an end although I can’t believe how time has sky rocketeered throughout the year. Hmmm, time for some self-reflection and wrap ups ehh, stay tuned!

Most motivated summer break.

I’ve never felt this organized before during my break, I feel like I’m following a constant schedule I set for myself just so that I spend my time wisely. Everything is progressing smoothly fortunately. Indeed, I’ve never been learning so many things before during break time like this, so much that I actually feel excited about all the new things coming to me. As a late 21 year old, I would love to maximize my time for beneficial things rather than pure luxury in summer.

It’s all about improvement and achievement this time.

Although I’m shuffling my time among family, friends, and myself, I can never get bored of the time when I’m home because there are just so many activities that are attainable to me even at home. I sweat, study, try out new things, have fun and be inspired by all these things continuously. As much as I'm exhausted with the activities, I'm always rejuvenated by the wonderful time with BFFs weekly as a sweet retreat.

Who says we can only waste time at home? You have yet to know about the awesomeness of home.

For the first time in summer, I’m feeling very healthy about the lifestyle I’m following.

I think, I still love the feeling of being somebody to myself and challenge myself with new things from time to time. Most of us have the learning power to be what we want to be, so it’s just a matter of how you activate the button to make it happen.

‘Your mind is a garden. Your thoughts are seeds. You can either grow flowers or weeds.’

I chose a colourful garden, thus I’ve already started all the gardening work. And you?

Plans for May

It’s the time of the year again for our BFF reunion. Seeing them brings me an indescribable sense of comfort and security, that’s simply because they know me much better than myself, I daresay. Being the last Summer break for most of us as a Student, I think this summer is going to be extremely precious to us since it’s the last time we can enjoy all the student privileges.

Cost of graduation= no discounted movie tickets and karaoke

This summer is also my busiest break with so many plans ahead of me, but I’m definitely enjoying it delightfully because I know I would have accomplished much after the break, knowledge and experience wise. This is my plan for May:

1. Diet.
Oh my god, my life has always been in a dilemma! People either say that I’m quite skinny or I’m fat. As much as I’m confused with the contrast, what upsets me the most is hearing the remark of me looking bigger-sized than a guy, when I consider myself a distance away from 'big sized'. Anyway, criticisms are only going to make me better, and I won't wait for another inflow of criticisms to come. So,I will lose some weight healthily until I don’t hear anything negative about my size anymore. Diet go go go!

2. Hangul.
I can read most of the words for now, thus I’m working on the vocabulary and sentence structures by watching online videos. I’ve a competition with Xin on our Hangul proficiency at the end of the break, and I've faith in myself to do well when I’m very determined to pull off something. I decided to self-learn make it more challenging, so please stay tuned my rival!
=P Good luck on your summer Korean class too!

3. Music composition.
It’s just a continuation on what I’ve been doing for a few months now. I’m also learning to play piano without music sheets to train my ears. I believe that mastering this skill will enhance my music composition to make them sound more vibrant and smooth. Wish me luck, peeps!

4. Nihon-go
Although I’m focusing more on Hangul now, it doesn’t mean that I neglect Japanese completely since my goal is to master both languages in 5 years time. So, I’m revising my past textbooks nowadays and planning to take the JLPT before going on to the next level. I once told a friend that I can expand my career opportunities in Asia with the 7 languages I’ll soon master, since I’ve always wished to work in different countries in future as a way to travel to different parts of the world. Of course, I understand that opportunities do not drop by without efforts being made, so I’m equipping myself from time to time to make myself a better rival to the others.

Keeping myself busy is the most efficient way to keep me motivated and make good use of the break time. After learning a bit about emotion management, I realized spending my time with worthy people always brings the best out of me and makes me feel calm. That's what matters to me at this stage of life.

Live life, love life, then only can I bring myself to my dreams.

P/S: Photography by PY, arigatou!

Christmas in Disneyland California

Disneyland California was one of the stops during my California winter trip, it was also the second Disneyland I visited after Disneyland Tokyo. Being the loyal Disney fan, I’m very proud to say that I had been growing up together with the Disney family, and I’m still joining my niece and nephews for Disney cartoons occasionally without getting bored of them. Come to think of it, I’m so glad for the presence of these cute characters in my childhood because they brought me tonnes of joyous childhood moments and left me with very good impression on cartoons in general. At least they are not some no-brainer programmes parents use to stalk time or distract their children so that they can do their own things. That’s how I learned the names of various animals by remembering Mickey MOUSE and Donald DUCK etcetera to build up a good foundation to start kindergarden. Also, some Disney cartoons are quite educational indeed as they consist of many morally right values, apart from some other ones which test children on their mathematical and scientific skills.

Hahaha, Disney please hire me as an ambassador, I can definitely do an excellent promoting job!

Anyway, we went there a day after Christmas, thus the crowd was still huge due to the seasonal holiday. The huge crowd affected our schedule by a whole lot and we ended up playing a few rides only because of the nasty queue.
Even taking pictures with mascot also required a super-long queue ok!! Everything seems to be so precious in Disneyland.
That makes pre-planning important with so many events and shows going on in a day, so we picked a few shows of our interests and had rides in between these shows, in hope to maximize our fun times in this wonderland. It was slightly ruined in the end as some shows had very limited seats to cater everybody, so we had to pick up Plan B – the spontaneous plan by taking rides with fewest people and watching shows that fit our timing.

Everybody please take a look at this ferris wheel carefully, can you notice the difference? This was the nastiest ferris wheel I had ever taken in my life, because the carts weren’t fixed in a specific location, so it would slide from one end to the other end as the ride was in motion. OMG, can you imagine the carts sliding from left to right at the top of the wheel continuously? It was just a nasty idea for an acrophobia person! Fortunately, I had my friends who joked with me at that time, if not I would have just closed my eyes for the entire ride, that’s for sure!

Honestly I wanted the Disney hats so much, was even thinking of getting a few for my nephews but the cost was a bomb, so I did it in an economical way- taking pictures. Sorry kids!

I feel you, bug!! It’s also tough to be a human.

Okay, this workshop caught my eyes as it provides information on the process of Disney animation. You can see a frame of animation which comprises of hundred of slides or so when you rotate the handle or the ball, it’ll show a series of step-by-step motion of the Disney characters. I’m so amazed with the skills these Disney’s graphic designers possess after seeing all these crazy work.

After struggling with the long line-ups for half a day, we gave up queuing for rides in the end and decided to wait for the Christmas parade in the evening. Taking pictures is definitely the best way to leave as much memories as possible to compensate with the lack of thrilling mechanical rides experience.

Finally the Christmas parade was here! I couldn’t really take a lot of pictures as the Disney characters were moving too quickly. Thus I took some time off camera to enjoy the Christmas atmosphere with Christmas carols re-sounding the otherwise busy street.I believe that living in Disneyland is many girls’ dream with fantasies embracing every corner of this wonderland. Seriously, even a street looked so dreamy and fancy, as if you could just build a hut there and live for the rest of your life.

Okay okay *slap self*, I know that this is way too impossible, but that’s how most girls will sink into the fantasies the moment they step into Disneyland.

Our whole Disneyland experience was very unforgettable, and it even ended with an epic moment. I had the most epic fireworks-watching experience in my life!

Why said so? Because it started raining right before the show. We watched it under heavy rain without any shade nor raincoat, the fireworks were shooting to the sky while the raindrops pouring on everyone of us simultaneously. So irony I know, but how could you leave Disneyland without watching the signature Disney fireworks at night?

No way, the rain could not water off our enthusiasm for fireworks! Fortunately the performance did not disappoint us, everything was just incredible except for the rain, and we definitely paid a physical price for the awesomeness, since some of us fell unwell on the next day.

Never mind, how many times in life can you actually watch fireworks in rain right? It would probably be my one and only.

My Disneyland California visit wasn’t an entirely pleasant experience,but I blame the crowd and weather for bringing down my excitement by a bit and caused me to prefer Disneyland Tokyo visit over it. Well, it wasn’t an uncontrollable decision due to our packed schedule and 26th seemed to be the ideal date for our visit. Hopefully I could visit another Disneyland in summer next time and make up for the things I missed out during this trip.

That very well predicts my next Disneyland trip---Disneyworld Florida.