#467- Long Awaited

TGIF... or was

I'm so glad that it's mid-semester break. I really need to just sleep, catch up on as much work as possible and what not. Question is, how to fit all that I want to get done within this one week yet still catch up friends that I barely get to see nowadays.

Also, someone explain how people can be such Apple fangirls/boys, I mean I want to buy the new Iphone but turns out there are much more eager people out there especially for the new champagne iphone because that's the only one where it's obvious that you have the new iphone.

#466 - Once upon a time

I run from hate
I run from prejudice
I run from pessimists
But I run too late
I run my life
Or is it running me


Rediscovering wonderful music thanks to Youtube related music side tabs - Vanessa Carlton, Lady A and my fave Sara Bareilles who's a diamond in the rough.
 
  2:36 - absolutely lovely. I may have teared a little!

Break
= good vibes
= seriously bad addiction to Mario Kart which has followed the footsteps of Uniqlo to become a 'Family Favourite' (FF)
= serious laziness most of the time
= time flying past far too quickly
= busy Saturdays for a whole month. Craving a Saturday where I can just be a homebody!
= we made it to mooting quarter finals yayyy :) 
= another wedding reception - all my best wishes to the lovely bride and groom; hope they will have many more happy years together. Just realised, I actually need to find 'appropriate wedding guest style' clothes because I keep turning up very casually.
= celebrated a family friend's 60th birthday. I only hope that when I'm celebrating my 60th birthday, I'll be able to be as happy as him, surrounded by dear friends and family, really enjoying this special event.
= for those who procrastinate assessments by browsing time-wasting websites like me at the moment, I recommend Leechblock  for Mozilla users. It works!
= today was a pretty good day filled with much laughter and fun - watched Red 2 (yes it was good!), dined at Star Bar (reasonably priced gourmet food with an unfortunately long waiting time and beautiful decor and bathrooms), played pool with uni friends and had a little trek around the city. We're like a bizarre big family with familial roles and pet names already allocated - yay (:

Minus Jo and H. Took us several tries to get this photo on Ju's phone!

Shazz, my fellow shitty pronunciation buddy - funny times (:

Beer battered fish and chips with tartare sauce

happily coming home from reception

Roo - child of the family

gorgeous bridesmaid / maid of honour (:

#465- Bloody Shoutwidget

I have no idea why but I don't think my computer is infected with the Google redirect virus but rather there is something wrong with the coding in this blog altogether. Whenever I try to access it from google, the url of this blog first appears then it changes to shoutwidget and then to youtube.

Sweet, I don't know what you did when you tried to fix the shoutbox but I think you just fixed one problem only to cause another. Because I have no time to deal with that issue I originally created a wordpress but it's so not user friendly (I cursed at it every time something went wrong... and that happened a lot) so I created another blog specifically for my recaps. Go visit it, btw very plan and ordinary atm because I have no time to play around with designs (gahhhh law assignment) http://bittershzggrecaps.blogspot.com.au/

#464 - Young, restless, clueless

That sums me up nicely.
- Finished mid-sem exams and feel like I'm on holidays already (: After the oral, the teacher tells me I was very confident. That's definitely not true - I'm nervous and tense deep down; I'm just great at faking confidence and my outer shell. Last day of the first half of the second semester hanging out with lovely people. Bought a ticket for Conception Day too. This semester was a lot better than the first, mainly because I got to meet so many people, experienced new things and found like-minded people who have made me laugh many times and make me feel really fortunate to know them. Work has helped me to not be as awkward and more outgoing with new people and also to be more confident - yay (:
- Too addicted to Mario Kart after longing to own it since I was introduced to it in 2009, I play several rounds with Steph every day regardless of workload (:
- Whilst standing in the line for KFC, I was talking to friends about how I greet customers by saying "Hi, how can I help you" and they sometimes respond by saying "I'm good, thank you" and then went to the girl to order lunch and said "Hi how can I help..." massive facepalm moment right there. Clearly too engrossed in my work mentality haha  
 - A wise and experienced old soul tells me I'm a "young padowan" who still needs to learn the ways and that it's different for everyone. Yet I'm so clueless and rather afraid about how to proceed, fearing the consequences if I take a wrong step. I want to know how to handle this but I don't even know myself. One moment, I wonder how things will turn out but then I just lose faith and fall into an abyss of uncertainty.
- My respect for someone who I've the misfortune of doing group work dropped so much when they related their sleazy ways to the group with a smile on their face. I don't want to know what you've done and neither does anyone else. Gross.  
- Don't judge someone if I don't know the whole story.
- Getting my daily dose of trashy TV with the Bachelor Australia. "Awww, she has back fat" - women are so bitchy sometimes. Me included.
- Male PMS is real. 
- Rescuing a stray.
- Late night Thursday chilling with Rob: catch up session over sushi, ramen and milk tea.

Sent this to myself from Jules' phone - two of my faves minus Rubes and the dudes.

Having too much fun with Rob's photo app hehe.

hahaha

#463- Google Redirect Virus

Good News! I just typed in 'Huan Zhu Ge Ge season 2 recaps' into google and I'm on the first page. I'm happy even though I'm about to drown myself in uni work, something good came out of my procrastination handiwork (my recap). Number 5 on that list, although the first four results are not recaps and my god the second one was all about recapping The New Princess Pearl, you can imagine my distaste when I saw that. No offence to whoever recaps it, I have great admiration for you because recapping takes time but seriously how can you fathom such garbage, I rate it on par with the third season of the original which should be banned (they replaced 3/4 of the main leads- enough said).

Next goal: How to be google to link directly to my post rather than the blog itself, and for any new visitors keen to read my recaps I've provided a search bar along with labels so you don't have to sift through lots of ramblings.

Write up Episode 2 by Sunday

Okay a bit of a flashback now, who remembers that time when you tried to access this blog and you got redirected to some random site. Well I think that's happening again because when I try to access this blog via google I get redirected to some random youtube video about origami. Sorry but I'd rather access my own blog then watch some person do origami which is so far removed from my purpose. Apparently I'm a victim of the google redirect virus.... does anyone else have it? If so google solutions for it may help.

#462 - W is for weddings

- Blogging because I'm procrastinating and don't want to do work. So bad but so good. My guilty pleasure.
- Second time attending a family friend's wedding reception. The colour scheme was Tiffany blue - gorgeous. The bride and groom were super cute together. The groom played 'A thousand years' on sax, awww. Traditional and western dresses. Mostly Canto people there. Endless refills of orange juice. Weddings are so nice because they make you believe that romance is still alive. It's like when you see old couples together and they're still so much in love. Reminds me of a really good chengyu I've come across: "執子之手，與子偕老" - I hold your hand and we'll grow old together. This saying kicks ass, this is what should happen when you make a vow to be together until death when you get married, not shit like divorcing, cheating, breakdown etc. Otherwise don't throw a frivolous costly affair and make promises that won't be kept.

- Cantonese people are so superstitious, à la my dear old ma who's a firm believer in old wives' tales. I'm attending another wedding reception in two weeks and that bride and her family didn't go to yesterday's reception even though they're fairly close family friends because it's considered to be 'unlucky'. Meanwhile according to dad, Shanghainese people are pretty laid back and don't have these wedding customs.
- Rudd's concession speech was so gracious. Aww I'll always have a soft spot for him. Pretty much my whole electorate was voting ALP. It's just a pity that the ALP was plagued with disunity and coup d'etats that undermined the party's image. So Liberal's back in power and we get Abbott - I guess we should just see if he delivers on his promises.
- I forgot to mention last week I was doing serious shit like contemplating how the next five years was going to pan out just for the heck of it. And well it looks like I'll have space to do Japanese for all of next year, I believe (: I'll love to achieve a high degree of fluency which means finishing three years but it really depends on well I can handle everything, especially in third year - that's gonna be rather difficult. I gotta get my act together.
- Break in ... six days. I'll probably be working most of the time but it's good to not be stressed with academic stuff. Cannot wait till this week is over and so many things are over and done with.
Now I'll just leave with pics of the wedding and yep, excuse the shitty iphone quality yet again which doesn't do justice to the absolutely stunning set up of everything:

Just sitting here looking pretty.

I need one of these cute little things that are always filled with Almond Roca (such an  Asian thing) at my wedding if I ever had one.

My mum is adorable.

亲人

Don't blame us for taking the flowers - they said we could and we're Asian, so why not LOLLL

Fun days

#461- Start of recaps

You may have noticed that I have stayed true to my word and have posted up the first Huan Zhu Ge Ge/ Princess Pearl season 2 recap. My goal out of this is simply to get onto the first page of hits when you google 'Huan Zhu Ge Ge season 2 recaps' because the first few pages are all crap, nothing like what are suppose to come up. All you get is either season 1 or heaven forbid, Xin Huan Zhu Ge Ge aka The New Princess Pearl which is a remake which does no justice what so ever to the original, I know that I haven't watched it so I'm in no position to say anything but after reading some recaps I've made up my mind. Those familiar with Huan Zhu Ge Ge from my generation or those who watched the drama when it first came know that there is no comparison to any other drama both past, present and in the future (I'm that adamant about it). And because I cherish it so much, it saddens me that no one else has bothered to recap it or sub it for that matter, thank you to Simon on youtube for subbing the first 5 episodes, keep it up and I look forward to seeing the project completed (I hope you read this one day). Maybe someone has written recaps for season 2 but perhaps it's not so easily accessible so if anyone has any ideas on how to get google to recognise this blog when I type those words in the search bar then please tell me otherwise I'm just to overload each recap with lots of labels like some people with their hash-tagging.

No idea when the next recap will be written, it's so much easier to just watch the drama rather then watch it, pause it, write down notes, note the time so you can screenshot later for pictures that you want to use and what not. I also need to start watching it with my mum so she can explain anything I don't catch otherwise these recaps won't be as comprehensive as I want. Don't forget to promote my recaps guys, probably once I've written more though there's 48 episodes altogether and I have no idea when I'll be nearing the finish line.

Huan Zhu Ge Ge/Princess Pearl Season 2 Recaps Episode 1

OST- sung by Zhao Wei the actress who plays Xiao Yan Zi

Entire first episode:

Warning any photos included my recaps will be of poor quality, I’m sorry but they don’t exist in HD.

Recap:

We start off with the typical flash forward in true Huan Zhu Ge Ge manner; our two leading ladies have run into dire trouble again. It’s no different this time as they’re about to receive the capital punishment (i.e. getting their head chopped off in the Qing Dynasty) as if they’re destined to be executed one way or another.

Some background info: Read Wikipedia, it’s pretty comprehensive! But the general gist is that Xiao Yan Zi, a commoner, assumed the position of a princess due to a series of misunderstandings. The real princess being Xia Zi Wei who is her sworn sister, at the end of Season 1 they return to their originally positions but they are betrothed to Yong Qi (5^th prince) and Er Kang respectively meaning that Xiao Yan Zi is a daughter-in-law to the Emperor so she gets to keep her title and stay in the palace and to keep her head.

Back to the story unfolding, there’s a procession going on in the streets, the commoners are gossiping about what the two princesses have done to anger the Emperor (Huang Shang) whilst Xiao Yan Zi and Zi Wei arrive on the back of a horse drawn carriage in handcuffs. All the while a distressed Yong Qi and Fu Er Kang watch helplessly from the crowd- you’ve got to feel sorry for these two, I mean their love interests put them through so much. The people of course love the two princesses as they’re from the people, even breaking free to plead with the officials to spare the lives of the princesses.

BUT cue in music here, first off Zi Wei spots Er Kang and crew (Er Kang, Liu Hong and Liu Qing) but let’s face it she only really notices Er Kang, and secondly an imperial edict arrives telling the official that the Emperor orders the death of the princesses without fail.

Er Kang, Liu Qing, Yong Qi (5th Prince) and Liu Hong watching from the side lines

Dissolve to white and we pick up our story from 6 months ago where we’re introduced to the Uyghur people who are making their way to Beijing to visit the Emperor. Here our focus is on this new girl, the princess of the group who shall play a major role in the future plot. Although if you’re making your way to the palace then you’re sure to have enemies, I mean that’s why they always bring the whole enchilada (makes me wonder whose left back at home base) to fend off surprise attacks from other Uyghur people who just happen to be stalking you so that they can take away the princess, Han Xiang. And for the record, the ‘King’ (don’t know what to call him) has like his whole army fighting against 10 people (how disproportionate but I love my Chinese martial arts so I’m not complaining even though it’s all fake. I mean how cool would it be to be able to ‘fly’ Chinese style where you seem to be running in air). So it’s only expected that the leader of the coup gets stabbed but it typical drama fashion you need not worry because 99.99% of the time, important live or live long enough for what they’re needed to do in which case it’s feasible for them to die later on. Oh and it turns out that the leader and Han Xiang are lovers (go figure) and you get the case of ‘save yourself and leave me behind’…. Stare at each other for what seems like a lifetime meanwhile everyone is fighting amongst you, guy leaves because let’s face he’s badly injured and that’s how that rendezvous ended.

Han Xiang, the Uyghur princess

Liu Qing and Liu Hong are opening up a hotel/Guest House and Xiao Yan Zi, Xi Wei, Er Kang, Yong Qi, Jin Suo (might just refer to them as ‘The Gang’ from now on for convenience) and the servants are all there to help them paint and what not (note that Fu Er Tai has been written out of this season, he married Saiya last season so he’s off in Tibet for the entirety of the season. Have got to say that his presence was missed, he provided comic relief as that lovely and all important third wheel). Everyone is merry, partly because of Xia Yan Zi’s character and her shortcomings when it comes to Chinese idioms (you can’t help but adore her) but in their quiet conversation Yong Qi and Er Kang mention the Empress Dowager and we know that we’re supposed to love to hate her so that can only mean bad news as well as another new character Qing Er who has some tie to Er Kang. And whenever Xiao Yan Zi is involved expect the worse, doing one of her flips with a bucket of paint in hand she manages to get everyone splashed with paint and with that comes bad news, the Empress Dowager is coming back earlier than expected. Apparently she’s even worse than the Empress (Huang Hou) in how she expects a princess to act.

Xiao Yan Zi up to her usual trouble making self

....and everyone is left to deal with the after effects of Xiao Yan Zi's actions

Cut to the Empress and her nanny Rong Mou Mou, (the two bitches) and they continue to resent our two beloved princess because let’s face even though the Emperor has many princesses and princes we’re really only ever going to acknowledge Xiao Yan Zi, Zi Wei and Yong Qi. The two resident bitches start plotting their next move against Xiao Yan Zi and Zi Wei because the arrival of the Empress Dowager can be manipulated to be in their favour, of course we should recognise the root of the problem with the two bitches and that’s Rong Mou Mou who seriously can’t help herself but to hate on others. Sorry to whomever I offend but she seriously is an old hag and I’m glad that the characters occasionally refer to her as that because she’s so spiteful speaking words to the Empress just to spark her renewed anger and distaste for Concubine Ling, the Fu household, the two princesses and just about everyone besides their own circle of people but it’s the reality because it’s dynasty China and there are some serious power struggles going on.

The two resident bitches

Back to the palace and our favourite Shu Fang Zhai (where the two princesses live) everyone is hurriedly getting the girls looking decent despite having paint splashed all over their face. And so they begin their mad rush to greet the Empress Dowager (practical lesson here don’t be late) with Zi Wei falling over every corner, you can’t blame her after you see the shoes that they wear (how they even walk just baffles me).

We finally put a face to the title of Empress Dowager and Concubine Ling is expecting! And to add to their troubles of trying to sneak in undetected (because going under the radar totally works) they happen to find themselves right in front of the Empress Dowager, Emperor, Empress, and crew. It goes without saying they make a horrid first impression and I think that is even an understatement. Finally, Qing Er and Er Kang have a moment.

The Empress Dowager 

These two are so pitiful, their love interests make them worry so much

Qing Er the favourite grand-daughter of the Empress Dowager, and the niece of the Emperor

Arriving in spectacular fashion and notice Xiao Yan Zi's wonky head dress

The next part isn’t so important but it’s basically an interrogation of Emperor by Empress Dowager of last season’s events even going so far as to question the engagement of Xiao Yan Zi and Yong Qi (how dare she!).

And because of Xiao Yan Zi’s horrid first impression, Er Kang and Yong Qi begin to lecture her about etiquette and how to act when she’s summoned by the Empress Dowager and surprise, surprise they’re summoned and that’s when the episode ends.

Ending Comments:

I hope you enjoyed reading this recap, I know that Wikipedia does a good job of capturing the plot line but you get any information about all the little moments throughout the drama that we fan girls live for because nothing is better than OTP developments.

Please comment to give me feedback on to improve my recaps for future episodes. 

#460 - Dare I say

I'm really happy that break is just around the corner. I think I need one.
I think we were having a multicultural fest or something because last week and on Monday we had different random performances unique to certain countries and it made lunch a more pleasant experience. And then at 7PM we were camping out for Ball tickets and wow they sold out quickly, lucky we managed to snag a table of 10. Tickets were rather pricey and I did feel a slight sadness when I was withdrawing money from ATM to pay my friend but you know what, it's going to be a fun time. We might even just book a hotel room because it ends late. And these kinds of plans sound so grown up but yet I'm don't feel like one at all. Conception Day may be happening too. Plans, plans, plans.
We LL are absurdly unproductive people but have so much fun. On Wednesday we were supposed to helping out R & M prepare for the moot and all we did for three hours was...play Slenderman and convince M to play too, use the photo app on M's MacBook (primarily J & I) and laugh so hard because we looked so freaking hilarious and laugh even more. The food court probably thought we were crazy because we doubled up with laughter so many times hahaha :'D And I find that it was fate, fate working ever so hard in its mysterious ways, that led to me feeling so blissful and all the other possibilities that could have been and ifs. So many ifs. If I hadn't talked to C that fateful day, if C wasn't friends with J, if we didn't have class together, if we didn't have lunch, if we didn't click, if I had said no to mooting, if M and S didn't know each other and so forth. I would be experiencing a totally different kind of day that definitely would not be better than this one. Oh, all the things that could have been. 
Oh yep, we got another bye today since the other people were completely unaware that there was one this week so yay for that!
Work - customers can be so sweet and make the shift more enjoyable but then you can get really unpleasant people ever who are all high and mighty, thinking they're the shit because they're paying you and are ridiculously unreasonable. I witnessed a couple of them today, luckily I didn't serve them. Supposedly "flat" drinks that aren't even flat, pushing in line, smarmy attitude? Urgh attitude.
I lost my reading glasses at uni (yeah I also wonder how does one just happen to lose glasses?) and frantically searched for it the next day but I think it's truly lost and I'll never find it. Kinda feel like I'm missing a part of me because I use it so often. I reach for it on my table sometimes now and it's not there and it's an abnormal situation. I'm just like damn, I never really cared for it and only realised its worth until I lost it. :(
Hereafter are my random disjointed thoughts:
- My first impressions of people are so off.
- Lacking sleep all week. Slept past my stop because I stupidly chose G'ville as the stop to snooze.
- Finished three month spending ban on clothes. I gotta thank mum for forcing me to exercise restraint. Can't say the same for food, I buy so much food whenever I finish work that it kinda negates my frugal ways at uni
 - A genuine smile so full of warmth: nice, attractive and disarming;
- Syria: Assad's bad but US is even worse for trying to make up reasons to justify waging war;
- Voting: could care less


 

#459- SHOW LUO 'OVER THE LIMIT" WORLD TOUR SYDNEY 130830

THIS IS THE POST I'VE BEEN DYING TO WRITE AND HOPEFULLY YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN DYING TO READ.... maybe not the last part

Where do I begin a part from saying that I still regret not being able to go in 2011 but Friday and Saturday was just surreal. Friday in particular because I went to Show's fan sign and he shook my hand (squeal!) turned into a crazy fangirl on spot jokes, had to leave but yeah I was fangirling

Photo SPAM suffice to say that Show was amazing if you could not deduce that already. He performed so many songs, glad I listened up on the day, tip whenever you go to a concert make sure you're familiar with the artist's songs because it makes the experience all the more enjoyable. Show being the awesome entertainer that he was made so many jokes, I caught the majority of it but this is where I wish I could understand mandarin fluently.

Mini rant:
I recently read this article on the Daily Telegraph which brought up people being on their phones during a concert which I reckon is stupid as it in using a phone for the mere purpose of going on the internet and what not. I mean why do you pay to see a concert a part from the fact of actually seeing the performer in person, I guess I can excuse it when someone uses a phone as a camera but sometimes we get too caught up in the social media need that we forget the need to live life in the moment. I admit that my actions may constitute that which I just complained about but

How do I lose all that cheek flab?

Lining up outside in the cold wind was not good, I think it took it's toll because I'm currently sick which is amazing because I haven't fallen ill lately. Better how are you fairing?

Signed tickets, courtesy of Show himself <3 where he shook our hands afterwards. I wish we were allowed to take photos of him and with him. If only but it was so worth it even if I rearranged all my uni classes on Thursday for nothing because I got free food at Dulce De Luna and Lord of the Fries' opening that day as well

Preconcert photo

Our seats weren't that bad, originally we were behind the VIPs but in order to attend the fan sign I had to downgrade our seats yet pay more if that makes sense. Story is, there was a promotion where you could get $228 tickets for only $100 but I bought them before they announced the fan sign where the criterion was that you had to pay $188 or more to attend and because I only paid $100 we couldn't go. So I changed the tickets, paid extra money but was seated further back which I don't really regret because let's face it, I'm short and had I stuck with my original seats we probably won't be able to see past the heads in front of me because we'd be at the back of the ground level rather than at the front of the tiered level.

Show starting with You Wo Zai- Count on me

Inflatable tikis to match his jungle themed remake of his song WOW

Did I mention how Show loves his fans and how he's doesn't forget to pay them back with fan service even during a concert

Well midway through a song, Show proceeded to leave the stage little did we know that he was going to pop up right in front of the VVIPs who obviously swarmed around him the moment they saw him, like any ordinary person would (admit it if you were in their position you'd do the same). Show then began to pose for them and started to take selfies of himself using the fan's phones so they'd have a photos taken by Show of himself. So the next time Show comes or someone else that I love and adore, expect to see me in the VIP section and no where else.

Cheng Yao

Show then performed this skit with one of the dancers where they were 'fighting' and that led to a banana being thrown at Show and taking it in good grace Show began to eat it leading to THE CUTEST THING EVER

THIS CUTIE <333333 CAN NEVER GET OVER THIS

Ai Feng Tou, if only he did the Da Lung dance would totally get up and start dancing it along with him

Show's towel

Bounce

One lovely and truly memorable concert. I may not have gone to the one in 2011 but I can say that I have met him in person and have attended one of his concerts.

We also managed to get some posters afterwards

You know I just realised that CNBLUE concert was only 3 months ago, it felt like such a long time ago but it isn't which means I must restrain myself from the next act that comes down under. Not sure about how that'll work, it'll be circumstantial if Rainie is coming well sorry I'm going because she hasn't held a concert since 2007 when she came with Show and she's having a World Tour at the moment but Australia isn't on that list but in the event that she changes her mind... well I will be lying to not say that I'm interested.