+ Our friend, Andrea, has touched down in Melbourne last mid month! I’m so happy to have a friend out here but it does make me feel bad that we’re leaving him sooner than expected.
+ I’m slowly training Dan to become a blogger boyfriend…
+ I finished my contract with CH a few weeks ago and became a housewife!
+ Found sugar free hot chocolate and tastes sooooo good!
+ Last but not least… WE PURCHASED OUR TICKETS TO VIETNAM! The next task is to book for Thailand.
New segment alert! I absolutely love reading but too lazy to dedicate review posts for every single book I read. Also, maybe because I’m jaded from school book reports but for the life of me, I also can’t write reviews on books, lol. I figured, a monthly round up is the way to go with a few sentences regarding the book!
All links directs to Goodreads.
Black Magick, Vol. 1: Awakening, Part One by Greg Rucka & Nicola Scott (Illustrator)
Rating: 4/5. I’ve been into witchcraft lately and heard about this comic book. Intrigued, I found myself a copy and gave it a read. The illustrations are really cool and I love how Greg has incorporated witchcraft into a modern day. It’s a great story line and very informative for baby witches.
The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1: The Apocalypse Suite by Gerard Way (Writer), Gabriel Bá (Artist) & Dave Stewart (Colourist)
Rating: 3/5. I loved The Umbrella Academy on Netflix and wanted to dive more into it. For an entire volume, I felt the story line was moving way too fast and the characters lacked depth. There were a lot of similarities between the comic book and the TV series but overall, I didn’t enjoy the comics as much as I enjoyed the TV adaptation. I suppose I enjoy getting to know my characters a bit more…
Go Eat Worms! by R.L. Stine
Rating: 3/5. This is a Goosebumps classic! I have the entire Goosebumps series and one night felt like reading a Goosebumps book. Yes, they’re written for kids so I tried not to overthink the entire story. The worms were creepy and reading it at night did give me a few chills as R.L. Stine does a great description throughout the book. Otherwise, if you’re a bit older, the narrative gets a bit cheesy, lol.
A Thousand Miles to Freedom: My Escape from North Korea by Eunsun Kim, Sébastien Falletti & David Tian (Translator)
Rating: 2/5. I’ve read a lot of North Korean defectors memoirs and unfortunately, this one falls short. I understand the reality and horror of Eunsun Kim and her family, but unfortunately, I found it hard to connect and truly see and experience what she was going through. It felt as though she was just telling short stories that eventually led her up to where she is now in life. There was no depth to her characters – seriously, what about her sister’s background? She didn’t paint a picture of what North Korea was like, and instead, painted a picture of her years in China. This is a true story so I won’t be too harsh but there are other memoirs to read if you’re ever interested in North Korea.
Hope you guys enjoyed the first installment of monthly reads! It feels so good to get these reviews off my chest, lol.
Have you read any of these books? Got one in mind I should try? Let me know! And, if we’re not friends on Goodreads yet… what are you waiting for?
Thursday, April 4th, 2019
It’s officially autumn in Melbourne! I’m not complaining though because it’s warm enough to go out in a tank and tee but not hot enough to burn your eyeballs. I love the crisp mornings and warm afternoons!
Dan and I are starting the countdown to the end of our Melbourne trip and as each day rolls by, I am getting more and more excited to leave.
I am just sooooo done with living with roommates. Seriously. I think I’m going to write an entry on living with roommates when I get back home.
I particularly don’t enjoy one of my roommates right now and I guess because I know I’m out of here soon, my tolerance for his bs is shrinking and shrinking.
For example, he decided to shave his head in the backyard. Not a problem.
However, when you don’t clean up your hair… that’s disgusting. I mean, I like to eat outside from time to time so seeing blobs of hair is hella disgusting. His logic was “the wind will blow it away”. We’ve had a few windy days and they’re still stuck on the ground!
Since we have limited time left, we decided that every time we go out to eat, we’re going to hit up a new place. Dan and I have the tendency to return to restaurants if we love the food but I’m putting my foot down and told him we’re going to try new restaurants going forward.
Oh yeah, I finally managed to buy tickets to Avengers: End Game! Dan wants to catch it in IMAX before we go so I legit – kid you not – spent an hour or so refreshing the website until I successfully managed to get tickets for us. We’re catching it on April 25th!
The more I think about it, the more excited I am for this movie, lol. But seriously, the struggles to purchase tickets online is real.
By the time this post goes live, Dan and I will be on our Great Ocean Road road trip (God bless the scheduling option!) so I hope you have a fantastic weekend!
When I was back in Canada, I told myself that I was going to get a koala tattoo at the end of my Australia trip.
And so, I did.
Three weeks ago, I went to Vic Market Tattoo and met with Kane Berry to get my tattoo. I chose to book with Kane because I felt his portfolio matched what I wanted the koala to look like, and it looks like he has done tons of koala tattoos as well.
I already had a maple leaf tattoo (ayeeee, Canada!) and while I do love it, I felt like it was lonely and empty. A few months ago, I thought – hey! Why don’t I make my koala hold the stem of my maple leaf?!
Thank God Kane was able to make that happen! I was worried it wouldn’t work out but he spent about an hour going back and forth with designs to try to make the koala hold the stem. Eventually he did and it looks soooo adorable! I absolutely love it.
I think it took about an hour to finish and the pain wasn’t too bad. If you ever had a tattoo done, the process of wiping excess ink hurts more than the actual tattooing because the paper towel is basically rubbing against an open wound. The shading of the koala started to sting a bit towards the end as well.
I chose to have the maple leaf tattooed because I am proud to be a Canadian. But above all that, it’s a little piece of home I can take with me anywhere in the world. I love travelling (as you can probably tell) and it’s such a comfort to travel thousands of kilometers away from home but still have a piece with you. I thought I would leave Canada and move abroad, but after this experience, I don’t think I can ever leave Canada permanently.
That being said, I chose to have the koala tattooed on me because this is a once in a life time opportunity. It was on my bucket list to be live abroad and I’ve done that. I believe I won’t have an opportunity like this again and I don’t think I can pick up and move across the ocean once I settle down. I can move within Canada but probably not to another country. Australia was home to me for 6 months!
Plus, my maple leaf was lonely.
The end result! Fresh ink, not even healed yet. I love Kane’s idea of colour burst to bring out the koala a bit.
Thanks Australia!
PS: Apologies for the image quality here! I had these photos compressed three weeks ago but wasn’t ready to write this entry yet. I thought everything was okay with the compression as like every other photos I’ve shared but I guess not! I don’t have the original images anymore for me to re-compress and have them in a bigger size.
No, this is not an April’s Fool joke.
Sadly, we are saying goodbye to Melbourne and our expected leave date is April 30th.
We don’t have any regrets leaving Melbourne earlier than expected – in fact, we’re happy!
Melbourne has been great and our original plan was to work however long we needed to save the money to travel the world. We ended up having enough money sooner than expected which is why we’re completing our contracts and heading to travel soon.
Plus, after settling down, we ended up missing our friends and family, and the nature. Melbourne is nice, but damn is it flat. We miss the mountain views, and the accessible hikes in Vancouver.
When we first arrived, we struggled finding a job because the Working Holiday Visa has strict limitations. A lot of jobs that I got a call back ended up declining me because they learn that I was on a work visa. In such a competitive market, a lot of companies wants to invest in a long term worker than a contractor. I was lucky enough to score a 6 months contract, but ultimately, Dan and I don’t want to go through that entire process either.
We’re also ready to settle. We want to go back home and focus on our careers and saving for retirement and a down payment for a home.
Moving to Melbourne was a super fun experience. And all in all, we don’t regret it one bit, even if it’s shorter than expected. Our relationship grew a lot, and I learned a lot about myself, personally and professionally. Did I also mention that I learned to cook while over here?! I also learned to live in a suburb and not in the city where everything was lively and always open.
So, what’s next?
This month, we’re hitting The Great Ocean Road and wherever else is left in Melbourne for us to visit.
Later, we’re flying over to New Zealand to visit my best friend, Kendel. I seriously can’t believe my best friend and boyfriend are going to meet live in person! They’ve met over video chats a few time but nothing like the real thing, right?
After that, we plan to visit The Gold Coast and Sydney. I’m debating if I want to try out surfing or not – it’s never been an interest of mine but I also don’t want to leave Surfer’s Paradise without having to try surfing!
Once we’re finally done with Australia, we plan to visit Vietnam, Thailand, Montreal and possibly Toronto.
All in all, it’s about 1.5 months of training and we should arrive back home just before July 1st! I’m super excited to start a new chapter back home.
I remember when I wrote “My Luck in Men” a few years ago and it was a fun and popular post. The other day, I was going through my Spotify and realized how certain songs reminds me of a certain guy.
And that is how this post came to be. Here’s the most accurate song to describe either the guy or the relationship itself. It won’t be for all the guys because there are some that I legit didn’t have a song for.
I’ll provide a short description to why these songs resonate with a relationship but if you guys are more curious, check out the My Luck in Men post!
Stuttering by Fefe Dobson for “The High School Sweetheart”
“There’s a whole lotta things that I will forgive but I just can’t take a liar /
Yeah you’re stuttering”
The Highschool Sweetheart sexted his first girlfriend and gave me a lot of BS lies like “she hacked into my Facebook”. Towards the end of the relationship, I also walked in on them together watching a Harry Potter film.
Everybody Knows by dUSTIN tAVELLA for “The Heartbreaker”
“He kisses you but he don’t mean it / Your boyfriend is a douchebag and everybody knows”
I remember when my friends and I went out for some wings and drinks and I told The Heartbreaker that I was going to meet up with him and his friends later (we were in the same restaurant but different tables). But plans changed and I left the restaurant with my friends temporarily. I can’t recall what exactly happened but I remember we ended up in Tim Horton’s and he was basically scolding me. We left the restaurant and my friends rolled their eyes. Later on, when this song shuffled on, the same friends told me that The Heartbreaker was a douchebag, haha.
Kiss Me Slowly by Parachute for “The Irish Lad”
“I can see you there with the city lights, fourteenth floor, pale blue eyes. Hold my breath as you’re moving in, taste your lips and feel your skin. When the time comes, baby don’t run, just kiss me slowly.”
It’s the pale blue eyes that caught me.
Best Thing I Never Had by Beyonce for “The Cheater”
“So when I think of the time that I almost loved you, you showed your ass and I, I saw the real you. Thank God you blew it, I thank God I dodged a bullet / I wanted you bad, I’m so through with that ‘Cause honestly you turned out to be the best thing I never had”
I was the side chick for The Cheater. After our short courting ended, I took a month long vacation to China and came back home. Desperate for a job, I returned to my old gym and that’s where I met Dan. I guess, without The Cheater, there would’ve been a high chance of me not returning to the gym and seeking employment elsewhere.
Nothing’s Gonna Stop us Now by Starship for Dan
“Looking in your eyes I see a paradise, this world that I’ve found is too good to be true. Standing here beside you, want so much to give you this love in my heart that I’m feeling for you / I’m so glad I found you, I’m not gonna lose you, thatever it takes I will stay here with you. Take it to the good times, see it through the bad times”
There are a billion love songs that I can choose for Dan but this song by Starship really stood out for me. Whenever it comes on, my first instinct is to smile and think of Dan. We’ve been through some rough patches and even took a break but I absolutely love this guy to death. Moving to Australia, I felt like I could do anything with him by my side.
Any of you guys have that one song that describes a relationship perfectly? Good or bad, let me know!
Two weeks ago, I finally redeemed Dan’s Valentine’s Day gift! For those who don’t know, I had a pixie cut last summer. While it was nice, the growing out phase was horrendous! I began to feel very self conscious and unhappy with my hair but I was also very cheap and couldn’t justify spending $100+ at a salon but also didn’t trust the Asians enough to fix what little hair I had grown out.
(I say Asians because they generally offer very cheap haircuts but can be a hit or miss).
So, I spent months and months complaining to Dan (lol) until on Valentine’s Day, he decided to get a gift card to a very fancy salon to finally get my hair fixed!
My appointment was at 12PM at Joey Scandizzo Salon in South Yarra. First impression of the salon? Holy cow, did my self confidence plummet!
EVERYONE HAD VERY BEAUTIFUL HAIR. EVERYONE. EVERYONE!
Behind me were rows and rows of awards this salon has won. They specialize in celebrity hairdos as well. The salon itself was grand and super beautiful and clean – soooo different from the usual Asian salons I go to.
You know it’s a fancy place when they hire dedicated hair washers. I kid you not – I’m so use to the stylist washing my hair before cutting it so I was taken back that they had someone else wash my hair before guiding me to my stylist’s chair.
Unfortunately, I forgot my stylist’s name but he gave me heaps of confidence back. I sat down and told him my life story and why I felt horrible about my hair. I told him I was looking for something that is easy to maintain (aka wake up and brush my hair), and something that I can just grow out without worrying that it would lose its shape again.
He instantly said – “bob”, especially given my hair length as well. He showed me a few styles he think I can pull off but they were waaaay too edgy – also, you know it’s a fancy salon when they do and suggest edgy looks rather than classic, safe styles.
We joked about my hair and be basically said “Your hair makes you look like a single soccer mom from the 80’s.”
Ouch, but also true and here’s why:
LIKE, SERIOUSLY… DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY I HATE MY HAIR?!
I basically had a weird mullet thing and when I got to the gym and sweat, it basically warps around my neck. Also, the tiny little ponytail that I do at the gym is ugly af.
For someone that usually goes to cheap salons, holy crap did I noticed the difference in technique when my stylist was saving me. It’s soooo much more different than the usual techniques I see at the cheap salons do – seriously, how is it that they all have the same technique but fancy pants salons each has their own techniques to cutting hair?
All in all, my session took about 1.5 hours to finish and stylized. Leaving the salon, I felt soooo much comfortable having people look at me and just fell in love with my hair again. I no longer fuss about it and I’m no longer sinking in money in products that claims they help promote growth. I’m content enough to wait patiently now.
