♡ 안녕히 계세요... ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

It’s going around well,I haven’t died and I’m back for ya ♪♫

Ahhh another trip into London... but this time to see a couple of friends whom were sorting out their visas for their study year abroad in Japan! Ren and Emily are finally going... it feels like a lifetime ago when we were talking about the whole thing but it's finally here and they're finally leaving me... for a few months may I add! I decided against wearing extremely heavy make-up this time around and I'm glad that I did because hello that horrible melty face feeling...

It was another disgustingly hot day in London, around the 33°c mark I believe and I felt more uncomfortable travelling than I had done previously! I literally just wanted to stand inside a freezer to cool down because even the shady areas were baking hot... cries. I headed into Starbucks near Trocodero whilst I waited for Ren and Emily to finish their visa stuff and as there tends to be air-con there; it was nice to chill out for a while and enjoy a refreshing drink! I actually finally managed to order the mocha cookie crumble frappe as for a while I haven't been enjoying the taste of coffee like I normally do... but this was delicious despite the fact I actually tend to dislike chocolate drinks! I think the coffee helped tone down the chocolate taste so it wasn't as sweet as I imagined it to be...

I met my friends at the "Four Bronze Horses of Helios" fountain which is less than a minutes walk from Starbucks and it's an amazing fountain based on the Greek legend of Helios:

"The greek legend is that of Helios, the young Greek god of the sun. He is the son of Hyperion and Theia. By the Oceanid Perse he became the father of Aeëtes, Circe, and Pasiphae. His other children are Phaethusa ("radiant") and Lampetia ("shining") and Phaeton. Each morning at dawn he rises from the ocean in the east and rides in his chariot, pulled by four horses - Pyrois, Eos, Aethon and Phlegon -- through the sky, to descend at night in the west. Helios once allowed Phaeton to guide his chariot across the sky. The unskilled youth could not control the horses and fell towards his death." information source: http://www.fountainsoc.org.uk/fountain/45

Isn't the fountain pretty? Well from the angles that I was sitting at I suppose but yeah... after meeting the girls and meeting a couple of their friends (new friends yay!) we headed towards Japan Centre for drinks and then for a sit down as by this point... I think the heat was getting to us all? We tried to go and sit in Leicester Square gardens but they were closed as the premiere for 'Red 2' was apparently happening that evening so builders were getting it all ready for the red carpet etc etc so as it was too hot to sit on the walls outside, we headed over to Misato's for food:

After that, another friend was coming to meet us after he had finished work but because of mis-communication, he didn't arrive until 5.30 and by this point we were all tired and feeling grotty from the heat so once he arrive we said our goodbyes to each other and parted ways! I am sad that I only got to spend a sparse few hours with Ren and Emily and even less time with Dayle but ugh weather... next time I'll see the girls will be when I'm out in Seoul myself and when they has holidays from studying (roll on next spring woohoo!) and I'm definitely going to try and see Dayle as much as I can before I piss off to the other side of the world!

Oh and literally minimum purchases for once... a couple of decent magazines that were on sale as some cute (yet extremely cheap for once) 3D stickers! I can't wait to use the stickers actually...

Peace Out

xoxo

♡ Personal Ramblings ♡

みなさん、こんにちは! 

I bam neomu seolleneun nal ireoke, duri hamkke gayo baby ♪♫

It's been a while since I've been active and sociable... forty three days to be precise but who's counting? I've been finishing my studies (two more modules to go then I'm finally complete and signed off!) as well as working to get some more money behind me. I've also been helping Toni with her online business and getting her ass into gear into buying supplies for the countless ideas she's been coming up with... dude seriously purchase the supplies you need y'hear me?

A couple of weekends ago I went and stayed around Rachael's to keep her company for a few days as her parents went on holiday. I think all we did was eat, sleep and watch 'Geordie Shore' as well as 'Keeping up with the Kardashians'... oh and I did meet a few of her friends she goes out clubbing with so we weren't completely cut off from the outside world! Oh I did take my camera with me with intentions of actual pictures with Rachael as they seem to be pretty limited... but it just ended up with taking pictures of the food we had consumed:

↑↑ Day one: bbq style food // Day two: lots and lots of sushi ↑↑

↑↑ Day three: picnic food // Day four: more sushi and chicken katsu ↑↑

I hated how the weekend went pretty quickly... but because I had booked the Monday off work it made the week feel that it had zoomed along which was good because I had made plans to go and visit Sharan in central London on the Saturday!

I completely dressed myself up to the nine on the Saturday... which included wig wearing and full blown war pai- I mean complete make-up routine. As soon as I reached Chelmsford train station though... I knew that I had made a mistake wearing so much make-up as well as making the decision to wear a long wig because it was baking hot to the point that I physically felt like I was melting. Luckily I wasn't the only one suffering... but it was just such a horrible feeling being all sweaty and icky at the same time (。┰ω┰。)

↑↑ FOTD ↑↑

Sharan and I met up at Waterloo station and headed over to New Malden, my old stomping ground from my university days... it had been 16 months since I last went there so it was rather lovely going somewhere familiary. We met up with Sharan's friends Ny and Rissa and had lunch at Haru, which in all honesty is actually my favourite Korean restaurant in the whole of London/Greater London etc because of how delicious and authentic the food tastes, it literally transports me back to Seoul whenever I eat at this restaurant. 

↑↑ So much delicious food... it didn't last long ahurhurhur ψ(｀∇´)ψ ↑↑

I must admit that it was an extremely stupid decision to order seafood ramyeon on a scorching hot day... but it was what I fancied so I took the stupid route for sure but heck it was damn tasty and I guess that cancels out the stupidity ever so slightly. I also ordered some kkampunggi and kimchijeon but we kinda shared the kimchijeon amongst us and I shared most of the kkampunggi with Sharan... oops. Afterwards, we headed to K-Mart for some ice-cream but they didn't have any so I just bought a slushie cola drink thing which was really good to have in the heat... the others needed to go to the massive k-mart along the main road but because I don't do very well in the heat, I headed to 'The Place' with some other friends that were at a Korean Food Festival that was happening on that day... don't know why we didn't go along but eh don't think we missed much? 

'The Place' is a really cute, and recently opened because I only remember a different coffee shop being there, coffee shop that sells all kinds of drinks and even fruit waffles... how could I refuse a fruit waffle? In all honesty... it disappointed me because in my head I was expecting something like I had had on my Seoul trip back in 2011 and boy was I wrong. They were vacuum packed waffles (not freshly made) so they were a lot chewier than fresh waffles, the ice-cream was nice though and so was the fruit.

I absolutely loved the interior to 'The Place' as it had a vintage feel with a whole heap of books and quotes and it was so comfy to just sit back and enjoy the atmosphere and the company. It was amazing to catch up with Monique whom I last saw properly... must have been when Sapphire came down to visit even though we bumped into each other briefly at MCM Expo.

After we had all finished at 'The Place', Sharan and I headed back into central for a few more hours and to catch up properly alone. We went into Japan Centre first so I could buy a couple of magazines and a couple of drinks and even though it was early evening, it was still humid and the amount of people lingering around was beyond ridiculous and it just infuriates me when someone is walking slow in front of me or when a group practically take up the whole sidewalk or even both at the same time! Just be considerate for people around you you douchebags GAH ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

↑↑ Goodies from the whole day... smurfs haribo is officially the best ↑↑

After Japan Centre, we finally headed to 'The Diner' in Shaftsbury Avenue... at the OTHER end of Shaftsbury Avenue by The Forbidden Planet. This restaurant is a place I have wanted to go to for a while but everyone I tend to hang out with has only really been interested in eating Korean and Japanese food and it's just time for a change up... especially in the summer when the warm weather just makes me want to experience other foods. I don't know about Sharan's opinion but I adored 'The Diner' and the waitresses were just so cute and real attentive... possibly one of the best services I have had in a while. I decided to order an orange cream soda drink (who loves orange soda?! Kel loves orange soda) as well as a po boy hoagie with a side of onion rings, corn dog and hash browns of which I shared the sides with Sharan because there was just so much...

I definitely want to go back to 'The Diner' and try other things! But there are a few more restaurants on my bucket list before I move permanently to Seoul so I'll just push this residence on the back burner for a short while.

Gosh; reading back over this post it's just /almost/ completely food isn't it? Ahhh well food is just a lovely thing and there's just so much to explore of it in all honesty! I'm going back into London on Monday to meet Ren and Emily as they'll be heading off to their study year in Japan /sob sob/ but I'll meet them out there next summer and they want to come to Seoul for a visit as well... so it's not like it's forever! But I'll still miss their faces so I'm bare looking forward to seeing them

Peace Out

xoxo

♡ Skin Food Wildberry Cleansing Gel ♡

みなさん、こんにちは! 

I'm such a massive fan of Skin Food products ever since I purchased some from my trip to Seoul way back in 2011. Even though I am usually a creature of habit; I was in the market looking for a new cleansing gel / make-up remover as my current one kept drying out my skin and giving me break outs which is a whole new side of things that had never happened to me before and so I looked through what Skin Food had to offer on ebay and found this little gem.

This little beauty has two uses; to take off make-up and to wash away any dirt and oil etc. It's suppose to leave the skin all soft and supple and for once... it actually does what it says on the label! I've been using this cleansing gel for about a month now and incorporated it into my daily facial routine but only using it at night time to get rid of the day's 'stuff' as I call it and so when I wake up my skin feels all lovely and soft! 

Pros

↑↑ Gets rid of all traces of dirt, oil and make-up

↑↑ Pretty decent pricing - I got mine off ebay for about £7

↑↑ Is great for every day use and not just for special occasions where you need to take off make-up

Cons

↑↑ Sometimes it can leave an oily film on my skin if I accidentally don't clean all of it off properly and it's annoying because it just feels like that my skin is greasy when it isn't

↑↑ Takes about 2 - 3 cotton pads to get my entire face and neck area clean which equals to a lot of the product being used

Overall Verdict: ★★★★☆

In all honesty I was expecting the price to be a little lower for the size of the bottle - it's 160ml by the way - but it's lasted over a month and I still have about half of the product left so all in all it's amazing value for money! I also like how it has helped with my skin (I have combination and am prone to extreme breakouts on my chin and on my t-zone area) and doesn't clog up my pores.

Thanks for reading!

Peace Out

xoxo

♡ London MCM Expo Weekend ♡

みなさん、こんにちは! 

Girl jigeumui nareul mideojwo (Nae anen michin sarami isseo) ♪♫

It's been over a month now since expo had finished... despite having almost a whole week off work and then some... you would have thought that I'd had the motivation ((there's that darn word again)) and time to write this blog post... brain says no though (_ _ll)

It's been a couple of years since I last went to the expo - I actually thought that 2010 was the last time I went but it was actually in 2011 the last time I visited... d'oh. But this time instead of making plans and then coming up with excuses not to go to the event; I actually stuck to my guns and went along yay (ノ￣ω￣)ノ I made the plans with Emilia and we opted to stay in a hotel close to the Excel centre - Forest Gate to be precise - and it wasn't so much of a hotel... but more a residential home turned B&B? Either way the place was really nice and a great distance from Excel as well as central London despite having to keep chopping and changing to different lines to get to said central of London.

Emilia and I headed off into central for the Friday evening for food and purikura... typical right? But sadly the purikura photobooth place might be closing down and there was limited sheets for the actual purikura machine so we did that first to beat the whole expo rush and actually get a memento of our time together! 

↑↑ Best purikura to date... ↑↑

After purikura we then headed over to Eat Tokyo, a restaurant I have wanted to go eat at for aaagggeeesss but couldn't find it when Toni came down to visit so this time I stuck to my guns and kept going (as well as with the help from Emilia's gps on her iphone!) until we found the place booyeah (￣︶￣)

Eat Tokyo is seriously the smallest place I think I have ever eaten in... and I've been in some pretty small places in London as well as in Seoul... but the atmosphere was bubbly and the smells of the food were simply divine! There was a small queue as well so we didn't get seated for about 30 minutes and by that point we were both starving and ready to eat anything and everything! Emilia and I opted for a couple of  side dishes to share as well as a main dish each. We went for the tamago omelette and chicken teriyaki california rolls then I chose a mixed katsu bento box whilst Emilia had a sushi bento box and I tell you what for the prices that were given... the portions were massive! Almost as good as Misato's but the pricing is just slightly higher... but I'm definitely going to return to this establishment before I head to Seoul for my teaching gig (︶ω︶)

On the Saturday morning; Emilia and I had originally planned to wake up early and get to the excel centre early but we realised that we didn't have to exactly rush to get to the venue so we dilly dallied a little and got to the centre around 11am... it was soooooo crowded already and the queue to buy tickets were already out the doors at the front... I do believe both Emilia and I were extremely relieved that we decided to buy our tickets online so all we had to do was sweep in, grab our wristbands, wait a few moments for some strange reason and then swoop out again and into the main hall! 

↑↑ Isn't Emilia pretty?! GFDI woman... ↑↑

The only problem I have with standing still for more than ten minutes is that I tend to find that I get all fidgety and bored ugh... After spending a while inside the hall and talking to a few people that we both knew separately, we went and sat outside for a while as it gets extremely hot inside and as we were both enjoying the sunshine... there seemed to be a small gathering of Deadpools... it was pretty fantastic though because I soddin' love Deadpool man! He's not my favourite character but he always cracks me up into mass bouts of laughter （　´∀｀）

We stayed at the excel for all of the afternoon where we met some new people and chatted away with them for a while and then we decided to head back to our hotel to rest and wash away all of the grim as Saturday was pretty sweltering... and I felt vile so having a shower sounded like the best plan ever at that point! We stayed in watching Titanic and had a small pizza party!

Day three of the weekend started later as well... not as late though as we had to check out by 11am (aka leave the keys on the side and skulk out like thieves in the night jfc) and we headed into Stratford Westfields to get a coffee hit from Starbucks:

I ordered a soy triple caramel frappe with no cream... holy crap the amount of sugar in this drink had my head spinning all day! I also decided to say that my name was Leo (my favourite member from the k-pop group VIXX... look at said video in this blog post for reference) and the barrista man obviously had thought  that I said 'Neo'... yes I decided to say I was from The Matrix (_ _ll)

I've never been to the expo on Sunday's before and honestly... Sunday is officially and definitely the best day to go in because the crowds are much smaller and prices on certain things had been deduced because I think many stall holders just want to get rid of stock? Either way I managed to grab a few bargains! I think Emilia got a few bargains as well... I can't remember to be honest! Also there were some serious amazing cosplays on the Sunday! Because of the smaller crowds, I managed to stop and actually take some photographs of different ones. Here are my favourites from the entire weekend:

I cried happy tears when I saw a Gundam cosplay... it was the only one but hey at least there was one! Also the child storm trooper had a storm trooper teddy bear! Crying even more again because it was holding hands with a Boba Fett cosplayer fhskahfkjads

These storm trooper cosplayers were amazing... the patience they had was phenomenal because of the amount of people that wanted pictures with them were extreme... like extreme extreme! Also look at the one with the child Jack Frost cosplayer... right in the feels again.

After hanging around outside with Zore and Emi and listening to some sound music... Emilia and I headed off as we had trains to catch and yeah... sobs it was horrible parting from Emilia because I adore that girl to pieces and the expo weekend was seriously so memorable and the best one I've ever had so I thank her from the bottom of my heart for putting up with me and my weirdness. Oh... have one more picture showing off all the goodies I nabbed from the entire weekend:

↑↑ I regret nothing with these goodies ↑↑

Peace Out
xoxo

♡ I Had A Visitor That Came To Stay ♡

みなさん、こんにちは! 

Note: you remember what I wrote about motivation in my last post? Well this one has taken a little over a few weeks to write... oops!

I need therapy lalalala therapy ohhh ♪♫

Over the bank holiday a couple of weekends ago, I had Toni finally come and stay with me! We had been talking about seeing each other for a good couple of months and made the decision for her to come down to me because a) last time I went up to visit her and b) because she wanted to go into London for a day so it was pretty much a win win situation for us both. I originally decided not to bother getting all prettied up but an hour before I was meant to leave, I suddenly changed my mind and made myself look at least half decent for the arrival of my friend:

I am forever in love with my new wig 

I went and met Toni at Kings Cross station because she is a little fuzzy with directions and stuff but I didn't mind going to meet her as it got me out of the house and injected some fresh air into my system. I tend to enjoy riding on public transport as it means I can plug my i-pod into my ears and daydream off into my own little world without being disturbed. Kings Cross station is really a confusing place because there are two main areas to catch your train as well as St Pancreas International station across the way... and in all honesty I am used to going a certain way up into the station itself but this time I actually ended up on the other side! For once, lady luck was in my favour as Toni was on the same side of the station also so we happily met after a few panicky moments. We then headed up a level to Wasabi and nabbed some food to munch on the way back to mine. I got the sweet chilli chicken katsu box as it's seriously one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten in my life

Travelling back to my place can go two ways; good or bad. We somehow met in between this time around as buses are fair and few to my house and tend to come every hour, we had missed one by about 15 minutes so spent the rest of the time sitting down and catching up with everything, despite the fact that we practically talk to each other almost every day via IM, we still manage to keep up conversations. I love talking to Toni because she's just as bat shit crazy as I am and she pretty much gets what I'm on about 99.9% of the time... except for when it comes to k-pop... but I'll turn her one day

A couple of reasons for Toni's visit was to go into London for a day as well as seeing Iron Man 3 at the cinema - it's turned into a tradition of ours to see comic book films at the cinema with each other now! Sadly because of the EXTORTIONATE prices at the cinema... we had to decide against going to see the movie as payday for both or us was just slightly out of reach. But we did stick to the London plan despite the bipolar weather that decided to hit on the one day we were going out... Originally we were going to meet another friend, Gigi, but sadly because of /many/ closures and line updates, she couldn't come and meet us but we still had a good time despite the gloom and delays. First, we headed over to Japan Centre as Toni wanted a magazine and I /needed/ a few bits and pieces a.k.a strawberry and melon milk! Oh we both also purchased some curry bread... my reasons was because I've never actually tried curry bread before and it tasted ok... but I tried half cold and the other half I heated up in the microwave and it just tasted better hot in my opinion.

After Japan Centre... we decided to go to a restaurant to eat and I was intending on remembering where Eat Tokyo was but right at the last moment I forgot so we headed over to one of my favourite cheap and cheerful places; Misato - Toni somehow let me do all the decisions on what to do that day goddammit woman! I think both of us had an extreme 'eyes bigger than belly' moment because I was silly enough to order the beef rice as well as some chicken karrage......

I'm not even slightly ashamed to admit that I ate about 95% of this food... but I'm glad that I wasn't the only one who over ordered either as Toni did exactly the same thing but ordered the udon as well as the chicken teriyaki rice - not the one I usually order but a different style one. Let's just say that afterwards we felt a little bit sick and needed to walk around in the fresh air to get rid of the food babies we were both carrying. After about an hour we headed over to the purikura photobooth to do the usual shots I tend to do whenever a friend comes down to visit or I meet up with someone for a day .

We decided to incorporate a lot of things that Toni and I tend to talk about through IM, so that included Marvel, Kamen Rider W and just full on............. us! I must admit that this is one of my favourite photosets that I have done in a long time. Because the photoboot was pretty darn busy, it took almost two hours from the moment we arrived to the moment we left before we decided to head home as we had finished getting what we wanted and were pretty much exhausted. I did managed to stock up on my favourite rose milk tea as well as getting a packet of instant ramyun as well as some melon and grape soda!

The time between our trip into London and when Toni had to leave was spent sleeping, eating and watching a lot of TV. Toni and I seem more comfortable around each other when we don't have to rush around doing anything, plus Sundays in a quiet village tend to be rather... slow so buses are rare and few (_ _ll)

All in all the time spent with Toni was really lovely and I wish it didn't go so quickly... but next time we see each other it's my turn to go up to where she lives! Also I think we were pretty gutted that we couldn't go and see Iron Man 3 at the cinema because of prices... but if we could have gotten away with getting a student ticket like when we saw The Avengers we would have been first in line for the first Sunday viewing at the cinema /d'oh/

Thanks for reading!
xoxo