Gifts

On the Saturday before my actual birthday my family threw me a party/dinner, which was lovely because they remembered and they thought about me. I spent it mostly looking after my little cousins, making sure they didn't get bored. They ended up playing the PS3 in my brother's room while I sat on the floor watching videos on my laptop. But family parties tend to be more for the grown ups. The children are just ... there. It's not a criticism, it's an observation and I'm totally fine with that XD

Anyhoo after dodging questions about my age (I cannot still, at all, say that I'm 25), I got gifts. Yay, gifts.



I'm pretty sure the only reason I got this was because it says Harajuku on it and they know I love Japan. XD




Scarf, body lotion and a PEN. I love a good pen. I've been wanting to buy a good pen. I'm so glad someone got me a PEN. No sarcasm. No lie. I was thinking that when I hopefully, eventually, get a job I'll need a good pen. I was seriously so happy when I got this.




Shirt and cardigan. Oh, this shirt. This face. XD






The beanie is so cute. I want to wear it out when the weather gets colder. Love the necklace. So pretty. And the tin. I love tins. And random white out tape. I have not used white out or liquid paper since high school. XD




And cheap wine.


I was going to say my immediate family didn't get me anything but my dad buys me things anyway and he paid for my birthday lunch. Plus he gives me money all the time. So, really. Gifts all year round. My brother gave me money to extend my Flickr pro account. So yay.

I did make a list of what I wanted but they're not things I really need. And I can live without them. They were just books, DVDs and CDs. And yeah, I don't need them. My everyday life is not worse off without it. Although, I really want a new lens for my DSLR. Well, I suppose there's always Christmas ... XD

Lazy

I've been on mid-sem break now for a week. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO. Everyone else is either at work or at uni. I HAVE NO ONE TO DO THINGS WITH. So, my mid-sem break has consisted mainly of sleeping. Catching up on sleep even though I know sleep doesn't work like that really.

Today is Thursday. I only have today and tomorrow left of my break and I have done NOTHING. I'm going to catch up on all the uni work I missed while trying to finish off other assessment tasks. Do the demo L's test until I get nothing wrong. Yes, I do not drive or even have my L's. I can't wrap my head around it. I just can't.

I was going to clean my room so I can't even use my desk. My desk is currently just a place where things are stacked. My desk that I use to do uni work and internet things is the dining table. Yep.

Been such a homebody ...

Anyhoo, I did go out yesterday.



Long stretch of road to nowhere, really.

I watched Iron Man 2 and Captain America in preparation for watching The Avengers sometime before Monday. Possibly on my lonesome. Everyone stop being so busy! Makes me feel so ... lazy in comparison. XD

Light bulbs

Because my friend accidentally bought 100 of these instead of 10. It lights up in various different colours. The bulb is about the size of my thumb. It's not a regular sized bulb, if you were thinking that. Good for clubbing at night time or just being out at night. She gave me one for free and she's like "only if you wear it and blog and tweet about it!" Apparently these were everywhere like last year. I don't remember seeing them EVER. XD





She has a stall at Glebe Markets on Saturdays. She sells necklaces, pendants, earrings and bracelets. It's near the female toilets if you want to drop by!

Iron Sky

Iron Sky is a sci-fi comedy film set in the near future of 2018 (yeah, I think it's pretty close XD) about Nazis who established a military base on the moon after World World II and they're back to wage war with the Earth. It'll be in Australian cinemas May 10, 2012.

Check out the trailer!



I love sci-fi and going by the trailer it seems like it'll be a whole bunch of fun to watch!

You can see Iron Sky at your nearest Hoyts Cinema. Mine's Hoyts Broadway. Well, it's not my nearest but I frequent the city so much it might as well be! Don’t forget to check out their Xtremescreen, La Premiere and IMAX!

Happy viewing!

Happy Easter!

I shall be making my way through these chocolates as I do my assignment on the remainder of this Easter break. I'm so on holiday mode already when I shouldn't be.

Hope you had a great Easter break! Still contemplating whether I should go to the Easter Show this year. Didn't get tickets to the final day of the Harry Potter exhibition. All sold out! But I am going to the Super Junior concert in May even though I'm not that big of a fan XD

Takoyaki, Friday night markets

Blog feels neglected. Lots of things going on at the same time and I have poor time management.

But anyway ...

A couple of weeks ago before watching The Hunger Games a few friends and I went to the night markets in Chinatown for some food. I didn't take a lot of photos. The thing I wanted to eat the most were these takoyaki. I always walk by, look at the line and get discouraged but it doesn't take long. There's prawn, octopus and vegetable fillings at various prices, which I don't quite remember right now. You order, get a ticket and wait at the other side for your food. There's different types of sauces and wasabi available that you can add.





Yes, that is us eating night market food on the tables outside the McDonald's near the Entertainment Centre.

And I probably won't be blogging 'til after my last assessment in like 2 weeks but I wanted to blog something ... XD

KuraKura, Haymarket

On Friday night a bunch of friends and I decided to head over, last minute, to the new KuraKura at Haymarket. It's right above Kura the small, almost always busy Japanese restaurant.




We got there past 7pm. No reservation. There were 9 nine of us and we were told we had to wait 30 minutes for a table. Which was fine. So we stood and chatted for a bit. Didn't feel like 30 minutes. Our rationale for staying and waiting was that most places would make you wait at this time on a Friday night. When a table big enough freed up we were led to a section in a back that caters for larger groups of diners.

And, as you know, I'm a terrible blogger. Names of dishes escape me ...



Gyoza, 10 pieces, $10.50
By the by, anyone know where you can get cheap/cheaper gyoza? I just want to pig out on gyoza and beer one day.



Mentaiko udon, $9.80
Apparently, according to a friend, it tasted very mentaiko-ish. However, maybe due to the alcohol I had already consumed, it tasted like creamy pasta to me. I couldn't really taste the mentaiko flavour nor the spiciness that the menu indicated with the picture of a chilli next to the dish on the menu.


Aburi salmon sushi
Which is one of my most favourite things ever.

On top of these there were other dishes ordered but I guess I didn't get around to taking photos of them on the night.



Drinks wise we order a bottle of umeshu for $25 since a friend, after coming back from spending 2 months in Japan, had gained a liking to it. Sake was ordered, as was umeshu and beer which came in a champagne glass.

There are no buttons on the table. Like to buzz the waiters/waitresses. So, if we wanted to order more we had to flag them down when they came to drop off the food or drinks. I guess, because it was busy, food came slowly than we would have liked but I was with a bunch of friends and chatting so time didn't feel that slow.

I would go again. Just to try all the other dishes that I didn't get to try yet!

• Find KuraKura at Shop 2, 76 Ultimo Road, Haymarket 2000.

Album

... otherwise known as another thing I bought. If you don't know, I have a Fuji Instax Wide Camera 210. I got it for Christmas a couple of years ago. So far I've been putting the photos into a normal sized album. They're loose in there and would fall out. So it was off to ebay I went to finally buy an album for them. This was $11-ish off ebay. Sent all the way from South Korea.

The package was rewrapped by Australia Post. I guess they opened to check it? I took it out of the plastic Australia Post wrap and the paper packaging was wet. I don't know what that's all about.

EDIT: oh, maybe the packaging was deteriorating and they wrapped it kindly for me?

Bossypants by Tina Fey, The Book Depository

I arrived home this rainy Sydney day to find a package from The Book Depository (www.bookdepository.co.uk). We all know that books in Australia are majorly overpriced and the truth is it is much cheaper for people to buy books (as well as many other things) online. I haven't bought books online before. I usually go to a book store, sigh and fork over the money for the book. I remember when books were much cheaper. They were right? Since when was the starting price of a book like over $10 or $15?

I chose to buy off Book Depository because they're cheap and have free shipping. Yes. Free shipping. I wonder how they make a profit?

I ordered it on the 21st February, the book was dispatched on the 24th and was in my hands by the 29th.

I love 30 Rock. Love it so much and as a result I think Tina Fey is amazing. When she released this book I wanted to buy it straight away but I think it must have been in the $20 dollar plus range when it came out and I just didn't buy it. (It's still $32.99 at Dymocks). But Bossypants came up somewhere on the website with that low price tag ($10.50) and I could justify purchasing it to myself even though I have many books that I still have not read (I'm looking at you 1Q84). XD





So I'm going to enjoy reading that sometime this week before all the uni readings pile up. Or maybe this is how my uni readings pile up ...

Random post with stuff in it

A couple of friends can back from overseas and I met up with them at dinner with a bunch of friends last night (Sunday). It was also an end-of-holiday/back-to-uni dinner was some of us too. Finally, in my last semester right now. First day back today and already worried about my time management.

Anyhoo, we had Korean for dinner last night and lots of soju and beer was had. Which was good because I haven't drunk a lot in a long time with other people. Bits of memory from leaving the restaurant and the train ride back are ... missing. I wasn't falling-over drunk. I was talkative-loud drunk and missing-little-bits-of-memory drunk. It was somewhat stress relieving. Catching up and just talking with a whole bunch of friends didn't hurt either. XD

So, yes, people came back from overseas and they handed out souvenirs.







These are photos that you can purchase from the Johnny's store in Japan. They aren't really that big fans of Johnny's people so the shop was probably underwhelming. Actually, even fans say the store itself is pretty crap. The only thing worth buying, to me anyway, are the photos. I just want them. I don't know what I'd do with them but yeah. I don't know what other stuff you can get there.

There's also a bunch of unofficial idol shops. I think that's where they got the pacer/mechanical from. Don't really think I could bring that to law school with me. XD Those have unofficial photos like taken by media and apparently some private and paparazzi ones too. That one of Matsumoto Jun, the guy without a shirt, is an unofficial photo.

The phone charm thing is from KDrama Heartstrings. I didn't finish the drama so I don't know if that bear makes an appearance anywhere. XD

And random things from my day ...



I was in the IGA in Market City and saw these as I lined up to pay. Kis-My-Ft2 are endorsing these mints soon-ish? This cost me 3 bucks and the only reason I bought them was because I knew they were or will endorse them. Lame, I know.



My new headphones. These are a really pretty pink-red colour. I bought them from Officeworks while buying supplies. It was around $10. I'm trying to save up for those Beats by Dr. Dre headphones. I want the white over ear ones. Putting that on a birthday list.



And the mints with the the headphones with the iPod.

And, yeah. That's all.

And it's midnight already.

Rather pointless but I wanted to blog. So, yeah. :D

Last night's dinner

Last night's dinner was hotpot/shabu-shabu. Though I suppose there wasn't much shabu-shabuing going on. We got quite full on dumplings, mushrooms, tofu and soup. Note for next time: DO NOT FILL UP ON SOUP! We thought we bought quite little food but we had food left over which is now living in my friend's fridge.

A few friends and I had dinner at a friend's apartment. She lives in a place that I didn't know had people living in it. It used to be an office and from the street there's no indication that people live there. Which is good, I guess. Too lazy and sleepy to write. So this shall be mostly photos.I gave up coffee and chocolate for Lent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent). Second day without coffee and I'm so sleepy all the time. Going to stock up on expensive fruit juice that gives you energy or something. XD