♡ Foodie Day with Ahjumma ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

Warning; there shall be a tremendous amount of food pictures in this post so if you are reading this on an empty stomach... I caution you when proceeding any further!

I love Sharan to pieces, she lets me call her ahjumma without destroying me, and adore spending time with her whenever possible and so when I missed her birthday last month because of the vomiting sickness I had, it upset me greatly. But; when one door closes, another does open in some cases and thus we were able to arrange another date to hang out! We met literally just as I was getting off the train at Stratford station... talk about amazing timing and went ahead into Westfields. Honestly this place is just spectacular with the amount of shops, restaurants and activities to do... there is legit something for everyone. We headed over to L'orchidee in the food court on the ground floor for coffee and cake and swear down this is one of my favourite little hidey hole places in the entire shopping centre. With delicate desserts and tantalising cakes on offer as well as signature macarons with many flavours under the sun you really are spoiled for choice there. I ordered a latte whilst Sharan had a mocha and we both shared a piece of rainbow cake. Hands down the best rainbow cake I have tasted so far in my life as it wasn't overly sweet and was still so moist and juicy as if it had come straight from the oven.

After cake, coffee, and a catch up we went for a walk around, heading outside into the sunshine and window shopping at the same time. We went past David's Bridal which had some of the most beautiful dresses I have ever seen in my life... if I ever win the lottery I will go to this particular store just to get a whole wardrobe full of their dresses.

After much crying over the stunning garments that we would never be able to afford yet, we headed over to the MAC store back inside for a bit of pampering in there. Holy shit was it crowded inside though, especially around the lipstick counter which is where I wanted to be the most tch. Ahhh well when we finally managed to get to the counter, we tested out as many lipsticks as possible... which only added to my list of ones that I want one day (´；ω；`) Once we managed to drag ourselves away from MAC we then headed over to Wahaca's, a restaurant that I have been dying to drag Sharan to for an extremely long time now and I finally succeeded in doing so! The best part about Wahaca is that they do portions big enough to share with others, but small enough so you don't fill yourself up on one thing. We decided to order a main to keep to ourselves alongside a couple of sides to share and in the end we had; pulled pork burrito, pork pibil tacos, potato and chorizo quesadillas and queso fundido. Everything was amazing and didn't cease to disappoint, plus we didn't even feel slightly full after this meal and with the fact we had lots more walking to do... well it is just the tip of the iceberg here.

Oh what isn't a trip to Westfields with an obligatory trip to the Disney Store... aka me dragging my poor friends into my insane obsession with anything Disney. I wanted to buy all of the plushies and character cushions but alas... next time.

We then hopped over to Tottenham Court Road to meet one of Sharan's friends Rosie for food and a catch up - for Sharan as it was the first time meeting her from my perspective. We headed into Woo Jung's (which is a couple of doors down from Seoul Bakery) for a meal which I proceeded to order 돼지고기볶음 and some fried chicken with a sake, soy and garlic dipping sauce. Sadly the chicken was a little overdone so the outside tasted a little burnt but the kimchi and pork jeyuk was absolutely delicious!

We then met another of Sharan's friends Ikran and as she needed to go into Seoul Bakery and get some food herself, I hopped into the supermarket across the street for a couple of things. Coffee and biscuits... yep I'm transported back to my old student self immediately with this purchase. Oh and Rosie had to go at this point but I'm glad I met her because she's a very interesting person!

As it was still glorious weather wise, we decided to walk over to Trafalgar Square and on the way there was this quaint (and I think abandoned) church with a beautiful magnolia tree, that was blossoming, outside. I couldn't resist taking some pictures.

I'm so glad we walked to Trafalgar Square as we were able to enjoy the sunshine and talk without getting squished by unnecessary people on the underground. When we arrived, the sun was beginning to set and just wow... I can't remember the last time I watched the sun set in London and I'm glad we were somewhere where we could see all the pretty colours in the sky.

Sharan, Ikran and myself then proceeded to sit on the steps at the square over by the big giant blue chicken... don't ask. We sat and talked for well over two hours and when it started to get slightly chilly, we decided to head over to Boba Jam for bubble tea and even more foods. It kind of felt like that we didn't stop eating at all that day but we did have breaks in between consuming... honest. I've only been in Boba Jam a couple of times previously so I wasn't fussed with what to order. In the end I decided on strawberry milk tea with tapioca pearls and brick toast with strawberries, banana and chocolate ice-cream. I normally don't like chocolate ice-cream but I didn't have the courage to ask if I could swap for a different flavour... my bad. Sorry for the duplicate pictures... I wanted to do a close-up shot as well!

After our time in Boba Jam, I was starting to feel a little sleepy and knowing that it would take a couple of hours to get back home, I said my goodbyes to my friends and departed. On the way, I had to go through Liverpool Street station and taking upon the opportunity, I nipped into Wasabi for a couple of boxes of sushi for my lunch on Sunday ahurhur o(｀ω´*)o

When I arrived back home there were a couple of parcels waiting for me! Despite the fact it was almost midnight and I was bare knackered... I still opened them! Inside one were my 嵐 singles and 「Popcorn」live dvd! Sadly a piece is broken on the inside, making a part of it loose and rattly, so I'll have to send it back so they can send me another copy ｡･ﾟﾟ･(>д<;)･ﾟﾟ･｡In the other parcels were my make-up brushes and Little Twin Stars cosmetic pouch  (*≧▽≦)

All in all, I had a pretty spectactular day filled with delicious food and amazing company. I'm glad ahjumma pushes me out of my comfort bubble and physically /m a k e s/ me meet new people because if she didn't... I would just stick with my very small circle of people I do trust and keep close to me. Did everyone else enjoy their weekend? Was the weather good wherever in the world you're located?

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ Scream For Me ロンドン! ♡

みなさん、こんにちは! 

This blog is certainly overdue... three weeks overdue to be precise! But it's usually a rare occasion for me to have another chance to go into London in a short space of time and on the 14th there was a gig happening at Wembley Arena that loads of my friends were interested in going to... especially two of my overseas friends Anima and Henna ヾ（*⌒ヮ⌒*）ゞ

The weather was absolute diabolical that day! It down poured from the moment I left home until the time I arrived at the stadium itself... then it magically stopped raining after about half an hour but we were still being dripped on because of the building! GAH ﾟ(ﾟﾉД｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡I only stayed there for a little over an hour because despite being given a hot chocolate by a lovely guy who worked there; my fingers, toes, butt and basically everything was cold and wet so I said goodbye to my friends (who I didn't want to leave to be honest) and headed over to Piccadilly Circus to meet Sharan.

I was so happy that it still wasn't raining when I crawled out of the station... I almost had to physically crawl up the stairs because of how wet and slippery everything was because of the weather! By this point I wasn't in such a great mood but the heat and warmth of Japan Centre soon improved my mood; as well as a lovely store clerk who complimented on my wig and we spent five minutes talking about hair dye and styles... her hair was amazing though and didn't need to be touched fff.

I only bought some donburi, cheap sale sushi, custard buns (which I shared with my mum and she loved it which was surprising!) and Arena37c magazine because there was Vivid on the front cover! I got an IV photocard though... and I couldn't change it because it was the last one left b'awh ﾟ(ﾟﾉД｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡

Seeing Sharan again made me a very happy bunny because the last time I physically saw her in person was back at the SCREW gig in May so it has been an extremely long time since I've seen her face. She had her friend Bichan, who is from Italy, with her and we immediately hit it off because all we could talk about was j-rock... and then Jay Park. Now I am not a fan of Jay Park because I have never listened to any of his music but I was made an honoury JWalker that day because... I actually don't know the real reason to be honest but I did try on Sharan's hat that she bought because Jay Park has one like it I believe? Anyway I quite liked the outcome of the pictures that I took of my face:

Afterward our long session in Costa having a catch-up etc, we headed over to M&M World in Leicester Square as Bichan wanted to go inside - as it was her first time visiting London - and I had never been inside either and it was just so much fun  and the smell of chocolate, peanuts and pure sugar was enough to get adrenaline pumping through everyone's veins ʘ‿ʘ The three of us had fun running around all three levels of the store for a good amount of time but after a while we were all thirsty and I was getting pretty hungry as I had not eaten any food since breakfast at this point...

So we headed to Boba Jam for some bubble tea and then afterwards we went via bus towards Tottenham Court Road to eat at Seoul Bakery. I ordered the ramyun set and holy crap it was seriously the spiciest thing I had eaten in a while... I almost downed a whole bottle of water to cool down the pain but it didn't help... so I used a cold can of drink to help keep my lips from swelling up! That made me feel better ヽ(；▽；)ノ

At this point is was getting pretty late and as it takes me forever to get home, I said my goodbyes and made my trip back to Chelmsford where I had to wait 50 minutes in the cold and rain for the next bus to come and take me home... but luckily there was some nice people at the Tesco's Express that let me mooch around their store and read some magazines to keep myself warm! I'll be going back into London next Saturday (the 5th) when there is a UK Gal meet going on - which honestly to say I am crapping myself about going because I am not Gal but I was invited by a friend... and other friends that I know are going so it'll be nice to get make-up / clothing tips from others!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ I Went To London Again! ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

It's been a while since I've done anything productive and actually left my house for something else other than work. Originally yesterday was a day for me to go and hand in my final re-sit assignments for university but unfortunately I am struggling with one of them because with trying to put down the exact words I have inside my head is becoming a problem for me (_ _ll)

Anyway, I managed to spend an afternoon out in Central London (again!) and enjoy the company of some lovely friends - one of whom it was a goodbye as he was going back to Korea for a year or two, very sad times as he is a straight up sound guy. A group of us met outside of Leicester Square station - I swear it's the only train station people know of without getting lost... but anyway we all met around 2pm and at this time a few were hungry - including myself as I was naughty in skipping breakfast again... I must stop doing that (；￣Д￣）
We all headed over to Corean Chilli - a popular Korean restaurant located just a minute from the station exit - and were seated pretty much instantly. Now in the past when I have visited Corean Chilli, I have never had any problems from waiters/waitresses or the food but today was very different. Our waitress was extremely rude to us as a group and spoke in very short, sharp sentences and when it came to ordering, yes I'll admit we were a bit higglty pigglty but hey, that's what happens sometimes you know? I decided to go for my usual of Corean Chilli's sweet chicken with rice and a kimchi fried pancake, as I was seriously craving kimchi pancake for a while now. My friend Sasha also ordered the sweet chicken like I did... and well she wasn't impressed either with her food. Now... where to begin with this meal;

Pros

★ Was served to the table very quickly
★ Served hot

Cons

★ Kimchi pancake was slicked with oil and burnt around the edges
★ Chicken was more batter than meat
★ Almost chewed my jaw off said batter
★ Rice tasted like day-old food
★ Rice was non-sticky and felt like I was eating basmati rice
★ Poor Sasha only had one piece of vegetable whilst I seemed to have the rest
★ Sauce was too sickly sweet, unlike last time when it was just the right amount of sweet
★ Pineapple juice was warm
★ Pineapple juice in a glass that wasn't even £3.30 worthy
★ Waitress was extremely rude
★ Wouldn't let us pay separately even though we asked and we did it before in the past
★ Waitress ignored us for 15 minutes before giving us out bill

Yeah I don't think I'll continue with the cons... we shall be here all day to be honest. So basically my deal with this restaurant was the bad service, bad manners and for once, the bad food. Yeah it is only one bad experience at this restaurant but honestly, I doubt I will ever go back again.

Continuing on, a few wanted cake and I stated how in one of the bakeries located in Chinatown is a) massive and b) cheaply priced so we headed over to the Golden Gate Bakery - which honestly is one of my favourite bakeries because they are just so friendly and happy in there! Oh and one time I got loads of free cake for no apparent reason, so happy place! I ordered a slice of strawberry mousse cake which is delicious and perfect for the weather that we had for the day - seriously it was like we were being baked in an oven, I kind of regretted wearing jeans for the day by this point. After the bakery, Sasha and I headed into Boba Jam for some ice cold bubble tea but in a way it was Sasha who treated me to it because she needed to pay by card and there is a spending limit before you have to use card payments... so yeah Sasha I owe you one bubble tea!

After that, we dispersed from each other to be honest and I tagged along with Jackie to the KCC to see Jay for a filming thing they were doing. We literally walked from the KCC to Trafalgar, to Leicester Square, back towards Trafalgar and then onward towards Green Park. It was so long and in the heat we all seemed to tire easily but manages to find a nice piece of shade in Green Park;

I literally left the others to do their filming and I sat down under a tree and read more of my book. It's called 'Please Look After Mother' (엄마를 부탁해) and it's written by South Korean author Kyung-sook Shin. The book is about the disappearance of sixty-nine-year-old So-Nyo when is separated from her husband among the crowds of the Seoul subway station, her family begins a desperate search to find her. Yet as long-held secrets and private sorrows begin to reveal themselves, they are forced to wonder: how well did they actually know the woman they called Mom? It is such a powerful book and because of the style of writing, it made me believe that the author was telling a story from her life and it actually surprised me that this story is fictional. I enjoyed it so much and didn't put it down for two days straight, I seriously feel like reading it all over again now.

It was about 7pm when I decided to head home as instead of the usual 30-40 minute journey towards Kingston, I had to endure a grueling 2 and a half hours to my parents home here in Essex. I'm still finding it hard adjusting here and now that I won't officially graduate university until January, my plans to move to Japan and teach English out there has been pushed back a few extra months which suck beyond belief. Despite a few hiccups to the day and the extremely hot weather, it was nice to be in London and be away from Essex even for a few hours.

Peace Out

xoxo

♡ Day Trip to London ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

On Tuesday, I was finally able to go into central London without having the worry of work or study weighing heavily on my shoulders. I was originally meeting up with just Sharan for the day, but we decided to invite a few others especially since I don't know when I'll be seeing them again because of all my funds are being saved for my move abroad as well as the Olympics starting in London on the 27th of this month!

A few of the group met outside of Leicester Square station and upon deciding to go and find somewhere to eat - as it was close to about 1pm and some of us are extremely naughty and didn't have breakfast /whoops/ - a couple more people joined us on our stroll through Chinatown towards a small Japanese restaurant called Misato. I had never been to this place before so it made a nice change to the usual hideouts I tend to lurk around. I must admit that I was worried about prices as many locations in London can be extremely expensive, especially when it came to food, but luckily the costs where very low and the portions turned out to be rather large! Misato is very small, almost like a cafe/canteen style place and we only waited 10 minutes to be seated as there were six of us and they had to push tables together for us to fit. I was happy to order some inari sushi and kitsune udon with mango juice and even those three items came dead on £10 - which honestly as someone who worries about money I will be happy to return to this establishment again.

What made me happy was being able to feel comfortable around these people and mess around like crazy - especially when it came to them grilling me about my other half and I pretended to be all like "can't talk eating" and it changed the subject for five minutes before it came full circle around again /d'oh/ ('-'*)

After food, we headed over to Trocodero to wait for a few more people and as the weather was a bit iffy it was the best place to go and sit without being given death glares from people. On the way though we did stop off at Starbucks and get drinks - despite just finishing lunch literally 10 minutes ago - and me being me, I did contemplate having coffee but decided against it and went for a blackberry fruit frappe (｀・ω・´)” Sharan actually decided against having coffee also and went for the mango passionfruit frappe but we ended up drinking some of each others in the end!

It must have been an hour we spent in Trocodero before we headed over to the market in Chinatown where the プリクラ machines were and in the end only three of us went into the booths but it was ok - we made some blinding プリクラ pictures in the end!

After プリクラ, a few of us split into groups as some wanted to go and eat whilst others needed to do things and I, myself, needed to head over to Arigato (a Japanese supermarket) for some things I like to cook at home. So, it was just Sharan and myself and we enjoyed the walk from Leicester Square down to behind the Boots in Piccadilly and then back again where we popped into Costa for a peach iced tea. After, we headed over to Tottenham Court Road station where we met up with Sharan's friend Bekki and ate dinner at Seoul Bakery. Now loads of my friends seem to go to Seoul Bakery often, but the fact was that this was my first visit to this restaurant, just like it was my first time visiting Misato! I've heard good things about Seoul Bakery though so I was happy to go along and try out the food (︶ω︶) I ordered the beef bulgolgi for my main meal as we decided to share Gimbap and pancake... to be slightly honest here I wish I had choosen something else to eat as the bulgolgi was nice it just wasn't for me ｡･ﾟﾟ･(>д<;)･ﾟﾟ･｡ But the service was lovely and so was the fact you can write on the walls! Myself, Sharan and Bekki all did a post-it note... can you guess which one is mine? /teehee/

After dinner, we headed over to Bar One which was across the road from the station to meet up with the others who went straight there whilst we had dinner. I didn't drink anything but Jackie kindly bought me a non-alcoholic mojito and it was delicious! Just wished they had skimped on the mint leaves just a little bit (。┰ω┰。) other than that... I headed home at around 8pm as it takes two hours to get back to where I specifically live in Essex as buses only run every hour and I had sadly missed one by five minutes so I had fifty five to kill... luckily I had a book on me!
Oh! I almost forgot that I did buy some goodies! A new gorgeous notebook that seemed way overpriced but I couldn't resist it /sobs/ and a packet of strawberry yogurt face masks! I spoke to the stall holder that sold them saying I had combination skin and after 10 minutes of finding the ones that would be suitable for my skin type... I did go for this particular one just because of the pink /creys

And that was really my day out in central London! I do apologise for such a lengthy post... I mean I was out for over 12 hours that day! I just hope I didn't bore you all to death...

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ Food Date with Ahjumma ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

So I came back to London for my studies and yesterday afternoon I met up with my lovely friend Sharan, who I met originally online and we met in person for the first time back in January and we clicked instantly. She treated me to a late lunch as she knows the reason to why I've been feeling down a lot lately and it was nice to be treated honestly, and for one day I pigged out and didn't worry about my weight and just enjoyed good food and good company. So originally Sharan and I met up in Starbucks in Kingston and I enjoyed a gorgeous Chai Tea Latte (small one as I do find it a bit sickly sweet for my taste) but I still enjoyed it all the same and when Sharan arrived we must have chatted for almost an hour before we took the train over to New Malden (why take a 30 minute bus journey when it takes about 5 minutes and two stops on the train eh?) and we headed over to a small restaurant called Haru.

Now I must admit I do have a confession to make; despite New Malden being a 20 minute bus journey away from me and it being a thriving Korean community, I have hardly been there and enjoyed the food because I've never had anyone to go with and even though I have gone into places and eaten by myself... recently I've just felt too scared to do it and so I was happy to jump at the chance to eat here with Sharan.

We sat out at the back of the restaurant, where you have to take your shoes off and sit crossed legged at a low table, which I enjoyed despite getting pins and needles every now and again! There was so much nice food on the menu it was hard to choose but in the end we had one dish that we would have to ourselves and a couple that we could share between us. I chose chicken udon soup and Sharan had don katsu with rice and the dishes we shared were these:

Ddeokbokki, Gimbap, Kimchijeon, Kkanpunggi

I do believe we devoured every last morsel of food and it was just seriously delicious! It felt like I was back in the heart of Seoul eating delicious and scrummy foods that they had to offer. After our meal, we had a hearty 30 minutes walk to Korea Foods, where I needed to get some bits and pieces for meals as I am here until Saturday morning and inside the supermarket it was wonderful. They didn't just have Korean food; they had Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese and even Singaporean food and after we got out little bits and pieces I was introduced to an ice-cream that was... how do I put it... it was wrapped in a plastic wrapper that felt exactly like the same consistency of a condom!

Never in my life had I felt this dirty and perverted eating an ice-cream... AND IT'S AIMED AT CHILDREN?! I have no words... It was tasty I'll admit and I normally hate chocolate ice-cream!

Ummm... I think that was about it for what happened yesterday! But now I must sleep for I am travelling back to my parents home tomorrow morning and when I get back I will write another blog post about TEFL, which is something I said I would do for my friend Ali ☆

Thanks for reading
xoxo