Day 1 of Christmas shopping

Firstly, I can't believe it's December already. This year, my gosh, went by so fast! But I say that every year.

And here's part of my tree! That's a Mickey Mouse ornament that I got from Disneyland Tokyo 3 years ago. I can't believe I haven't been back yet. Oh, I so need a job.


Despite the sweltering heat in Sydney (forecast said it would 42 degrees out where I am, car thermometer said 39 but I was in a shopping centre most of the afternoon so yeah) I ventured out into the world to get a start on Christmas. This is pretty early for me. I'm usually a late shopper. I didn't get much bought today. I'm still pondering on what the best gift is. My brother is like "Just get them photo frames! Just get them candles!" Like, how impersonal. Really. Not that they're bad gift ideas but, like, some effort would be nice. Unless you don't really care so much.

So, what I got so far for the grown ups (aunts and uncles).


- Candle gift set
- JAG wallet
- Tea cups and saucers





Tomorrow will probs be an update post about me and what's been going on. So, yeah, stay tuned for that. It will include a whole bunch of low quality camera phone photos!

Hermits United

Been at home post-Christmas. I have absolutely no reason to go outside. I was supposed to wake up early today and go somewhere but alas, no. Woke up in the afternoon. Probably wasn't helped by the fact I was watching things until 5am. Am definitely going out tomorrow. Buy some things.

I've been catching up on TV shows. Finished Weeds season 7, Breaking Bad season 1. The DVDs of The Wire are on sale at the moment, so thinking of starting on that. Apparently it's really good.

Randomly picked up some of my old Korean notebooks. I want to attempt TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean). Aiming to do the April Beginners exam. Keep my brain working. Watching stuff just really dulls your brain. Hoping to do N4 of the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) in December.

Also, it appears that I may end 2011 without my L's. Boo, self, boo.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas/long weekend! Mine was fun. Didn't get the things I wanted and I shouldn't complain but I always do. But I liked seeing how happy everyone was when they opened their gifts and liked them. And I can always just buy myself the stuff. Still have my list. XD Though, like my friend said to me, first world problem.

Also, this arrived today.



Present to myself. $32 USD then another $4 for shipping. On the day I bought it the Australian dollar wasn't on parity with the US dollar so it cost $37 AUD instead of $36.

So, enjoy the last few days of 2011. Hmm. This year, yeah ... happy to get rid of it.

3 sleeps to go

All my shopping is done. Which means no waking up early on Christmas Eve, trying to beat the crowds to do some last minute, stressed shopping. I was watching the news and Westfield Parramatta is trading until midnight tomorrow night. Crazy. I suppose if you're a shift worker you wouldn't have the time so it'd be really helpful. I wonder how busy it'd be ... I'd want to go just once for the experience I think.

I popped by The Face Shop in The Galeries Victoria yesterday. I was just going to buy random things for gifts for my cousins. They have baskets with a few things wrapped in a bag. So, I guess a gift bag? But rather it being priced as a set, they're priced individually. That is to say, everything in the bag is scanned. So, it's like buying it individually but they've taken the effort to put it in a bag to take away the thinking for you. Which is not a bad thing, really. I wouldn't know how to sift through all the products in the store and figure out some sort of combination of them that would work as a present.







Also, if you spend over $30 you can apply for a membership card. Though, the sales assistant at the register didn't offer this, which I thought was odd (from my limited Christmas retail experience). Every time I've been to Myer this Christmas shopping period I've always been offered a Myer One card, which I decline. Though, considering how much I spent at Myer this Christmas ... Also, every time I buy something at Kinokuniya I always think I should get a membership card too. Don't know if it's worth it now that I've already bought a whole bunch of stuff.

On holidays until the 10th January. Am not going to use my brain and forget about uni for a while. Well, as much as I can. I need to still work on some uni things ... ugh.

Also, long lines for Haigh's chocolate. I don't understand why.

9 to go

Day 2 of shopping. Wandered during the break between classes. Dropped by There Zakka on Quay Street. It's a cute little store with things like necklaces, camera straps, bags, pens, cups, notebooks. A whole range of things. Lots of cute little things which I think are from Korea, judging by the writing. I bought the necklace (below) and a "blue celeste" coloured gel ink pen (not pictured and only 99 cents!) I think it's one of those pens that you can use to write on Polaroid and/or Instax films. I have yet to try it but it seems like it could.



Then went to Kinokuniya after class was over today. So many people in the city!



I've been slowly buying one of my cousins Naruto. He gets some volumes on his birthday and then again at Christmas. Kinokuniya didn't have volume 12. Some early bird shoppers took it! On the shelf there was a quite a jump from volumes between about 13 to then 55 or something, from memory. So, I guess lots of people had bought all the ones in between.




Bought Looking for Alaska for myself. I don't really know what it's about but I've heard of it and seen quotes from it on tumblr. I still haven't finished/started 1Q84 yet either. An assessment is coming up soon so probably now is not the best time to be starting to read non-essential materials.

As I was searching through the bags that we usually keep all the ribbons and stickers for Christmas presents and stumbled across some old photos and some postcards.



This is from a Melbourne trip from years and years ago. I forget which year. 2006, me thinks. My dad had gone overseas and I just planned to go to Melbourne, with friends, without telling anyone except my brother. My dad took the digital camera with him and so I had to make do with disposable film cameras for the whole trip. I love going on the Neighbours tour. I love going to the street. I love it. I love riding on the mini-bus with mostly British/European backpackers. It's much more fun that you'd think because it's something that you only see on TV, usually. It's so much smaller in real life too. I also recommend the Neighbours trivia night. Alcohol, trivia, backpackers and a few Neighbours actors. A surprisingly fun night out. I've been on the tour and the trivia night twice. Great fun both times!



And some postcards from 2009. Bought but never sent. I thought the photos were really pretty and I didn't want to give them to anyone. So selfish. Might frame them. Ah, I want to go again! I wrote a whole list of the things that I wanted for Christmas but I decided all I really want is money to help be save up from a trip to Japan next year. Things. I don't really need things. There's this tumblr post, that I can't find at the moment, that says something along the lines of "life experiences brings more happiness than things". It was probably phrased better but that was the gist. And I tend to agree. So, no things. I want money so I can have life experiences.

Apparently there's good stress, eustress, and that's kind of what Christmas is to me. I kinda like that feeling.

Sleep then more shopping when I wake up. Fun fun :D

Only 10 shopping days left

and I've only bought presents for 3 people so far. Sort of. I bought a this necklace from the Kaboodle Designs stall on Level 1 Westfield Sydney for $25. I was just randomly looking at I really liked it. It's a necklace with a clock inside it. The recipient of this present is yet to be decided. XD





I also bought my brother Apple earphones. I bought my cousin 2 x Fujifilm 10 pack Instant Mini Film. JB Hi-Fi sells both the film and the Fuji Instax Mini. Jealous. So jealous. They need to start selling the film for the Instax Wide, which is what I got for Christmas last year.

Also, I'm on the lookout for a necklace with a red apple pendant on it and rings with skulls on them. I'm too easily influenced by J-Pop people XD. So, if anyone knows where I can get them, I'd be grateful. :)

Still so much shopping to do!

Merry Christmas!

Somewhat belated.

I spent Christmas Eve with family, at church, then with family again as we opened up gifts at midnight. At least that was the plan. The distribution of gifts took longer than expected. Christmas just has this completely generous feeling about it. Good will and all that jazz. Even though I was in some what of an odd mood to begin with being surrounded by so much family and general happiness - just infectious.

And my favourite present this Christmas is my brand new Fuji Instax 210 Wide. A gift from my brother. I'm using the film sparingly since I only have 20. It's kinda big but it's worth it for the size of the picture. Though, a Mini is tempting though. Also, it seems that there's no photo albums specifically made for Wide film like there is for the Mini. I'm just putting them in a regular sized photo album for now until I can think of an alternative. I also got an Esprit wallet, some jewellery, some bath stuff, a brush and some money (my Aunt's overtime pay which was $14.50. Which was cute because the adults were all handing out money to kids and I don't count because I'm nearing mid-twenties and am not a kid XD).

Oh, Christmas. The next one is so far away! Still, there's New Year's Eve and New Year's Day then Australia Day and a few months after that my birthday! Still lots of other magic days left!