Lunch

Having lunch at home means I can spend however much time I fancy decorating my food. And I can use my own crockery and cutlery. Defs cleaner.

PS. Note to self: to buy some quinoa tomorrow for some more experimentation :D

Joanna Wang, Donut King and Bride Wannabes

Her voice... sounds so.. luxe..?

 

 

I remember watching videos she made in her bedroom but I didn't end up finding her real channel. Joanna Wang rocks my socks. My favourite song covered by her is Vincent.

Yesterday I had a hotdog, a milkshake and two cinnamon donuts at Donut King. HOLY CRAP, I've never eaten something that brings back so many memories. Haha. There was a Donut King in a Westfield across the road from my primary school.  I'm not sure if it's still there now, but M, K and I used to go there after ALOT. M would get us a hotdog + milkshake to share, and she would get herself 2 cinnamon donuts and a cappucino.  Donut King have the best strawberry milkshake. There's something about that artificial strawberry flavour (quite like the Nesquik strawberry milkshake powder). While I was drinking it yesterday, I was reminded of the way my sister and I used to viciously suck up as much milkshake as we could, gulping as fast as we could so there would be less for the other person. M would also never (NEVER EVER) get us the donuts with the hard icing.  But yeah, this is really irrelevant to Joanna Wang. I never realised that one of my greatest childhood memories was fighting with K to get the last bit of milkshake.

 

 

The me from ten years ago would have totally ruled out being friends with K. But I'm really glad I have a different opinion now, haha! 'She'll probably be my bestest friend for the rest of my life. Those of you without siblings, you're missing out on a helluva lot.  Alot of fighting, arguing and sibling deathglares (I'm really good at this one). But also alot of good times, great memories and super friends.

 

 

Damn you Donut King. Your milkshake full broke my shell.

 

 

Anyway, digressing to a more shallow topic...

Has anyone watched Bride Wannabes on TVB? Can I just say, REALITY CHECK!  Haha geez, this is such an insightful show into HK culture, society's beliefs and values.  So, because of my bizarre obsession with HK, it's tv shows, and it's people, I have (or at least I thought I did) a good idea of what life is/was like over there.

(I can already tell its a tl;dr post, but too bad, I genuinely thought it was an interesting topic)

Ok, so going back 20 years, from what my parents and aunt tell me, there were significantly more men than women, thus giving women more options when it came to 'choosing a husband'. Twenty years ago, women were not as educated as they are now, they weren't as well paid and they all had the general idea of settling down and having kids, being a housewife, etc. Even the barely educated woman could find herself a good (background wise) husband. Just basically, women were in high demand and they could have themselves "diw gow ley muy" (literal translation: driving up the prices- more than they are actually worth. Low supply, high demand - simple economics lol).  In order to impress women, men had to outperform each other and I guess the women could just  sit back and watch it all happen.

 

 

[To be honest, I think this has fostered the "gong joo beng" (princess syndrome) and "gong lui"s (HK girl syndrome) appearing in modern society.]

 

 

Fast forward 20 years, now there are more women than men, ALOT more.   Women are now more educated, have better jobs than they did in the past but apparently it's really hard to find their significant half because: a) there are fewer men than women, b) men have more options - seeking wives in the mainland, who do have have "gong joo beng" and are obviously not "gong lui"s. 

 

 

People normally get married around when they're in their mid twenties to early thirties. The "leftover" women, single women in their late twenties, early thirties is what this show is about.

 

 

That was one long introduction.

 

 

So Bride Wannabes feature 5 single women I described before in their journey to find their significant other half.  They undergo lessons from a life coach, love expert (you have to google Santino. I rofl'ed), beauty advisor, fashion stylist, make up artist and matchmaker in order to 'better' themselves and find a bf.

 

 

Normally, I would not spend time to watch a show like this (*cough*farmerwantsawife*) but I was so fascinated by this. If I had to move to HK permanently, I might even experience culture shock.  Even though I can speak the same language and I watch all their cop dramas, I know very little of anything else, and this show was just a really good glimpse of what life is like over there. Asia is considered conservative, I guess, and so I think a reality show like this broadcasting on television is really rare. 

From Flickr- K-ideas.

Here's to summarising 10 episodes:

 

 

1) 30 year old divorced woman, Gobby (ugh Asian English names), ends up getting a bit of cosmetic surgery, and lots of confidence boosting sessions to improve her marketability.

2) 29 year old Bonnie is taught to un-cute-ify herself (GOD YES, someone finally points out there's something wrong with excessive cute-ness) and be more "real". She's a bit of a tomboy and is often seen as 'one of the guys'. I thought she was perfectly fine, but the show taught her how to look prettier and act more lady without taking any drastic measures. So.. she is ok. I think she's a radio host or something now. Not sure.

 

 

3) 28 year old Suki had just gotten out of a 5 year relationship with her ex and was losing hope of getting married. I had a problem comprehending this. Imo, it's ok to break tradition. You don't have to get married. Women had to get married in the past because they didn't have any means of supporting themselves, but that's obviously not the case nowadays. But anyway, three episodes into the series, she quits because she's already found a guy.

 

 

4) 39 year old Florence has been in one relationship during her whole life. She claims he was the love of her life before long distance got in the way, and a third person also appeared in the relationship. She only wants a guy who is 6 foot, younger than her, and loves her for who she is. At first, she refuses to get any cosmetic surgery and yeahhhh. I felt a bit bad for her. Everytime the matchmaker tried to pair her up with some guy, she would complain about their age, or their boringness or their lack of physical attraction. When I was watching this, I couldn't help but mutter alot to myself. "lack of physical attraction? girl, have you looked in the mirror today?!" "lady, you want to find a guy younger than you, with better looks, genuine and funny? you might find him, but I'm sure he's not looking for you". My point is just, if you're looking for Mr Right, you have to look past all that physical stuff, and you have to like the guy for who he really is, and not for his physical attributes. So yeah, she's a hypocrite and totally pissed me off towards the end.

 

 

5) Mandy (age undisclosed- but I'm guessing similar to Florence) is a strong independent woman who was looking for a life partner. When you look at her, you see nothing but STRENGTH! Haha, and I guess there aren't many guys who want a woman to rule in a relationship. She also quit before the show finished, but while she was on it, I had nothing bad to say about her.



Another thing which made me think "wtf" was what the men said in the show. Well, in particular, just this one guy. He was 39 and was paired up with Florence. Florence had finally found someone who met her criteria, but unfortunately for her, she didn't meet his. What he said really pissed me off because he was such an arrogant bastard. Something along the lines of, he does gym, and he's gone out with alot of women in the past. He thinks he's in good shape now and thinks Florence is too old (wth, same age bro!) for him. He also mentions that he's dated models and would like to date a Leng Mo. HA. HA. HA. LENGMO?!  Even if you're thinking it, don't say it out loud. Leng Mo's only like Edison :P

Cammi Tse- Teen Leng Mo. Blogged about her here.

In conclusion, this show made me rethink my wish to work overseas. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd still love to work there for a few years, but for the rest of my life? I don't know if I'd be able to handle it.  It made me appreciate the society we live in. Western culture seems to be more accomodating, more forgiving and definitely more relaxed. To me, it's less pretentious, image is not everything in Western culture. Maybe I'm just naíve but that's just my opinion right now. For those who read all the way down to here, care to express your opinion? I find that when I'm on a spiel, I tend to think one-sided only and .. yeah. Would be nice to hear some other opinions. :)

Such a long post. This makes me feel like a tv junkie. I promise I was only watching during my sleeping time and I got up at 9 today. I'll end it here. Hope everyone enjoyed the nice weather today :)

Just some link lovin'

If you have a few spare moments, I just wanted to share a few cool things I've watched recently:

1. EVOL - One of the few videos that's captured my full attention throughout the whole vid. It's pretty sweet 8)

2. Fiona Sit - 9:55pm Music Vid.  Cantopop singer, also an actress who appeared in a few of my fave TVB shows. I never really liked her because she's like one of those annoyingly 'cutesy' girls, but this vid was kinda cool. Watching music videos like this makes me wish I was in the entertainment industry. It looks like so much more fun than accounting.

3. MetroDad - I never admitted this before in the past, but I absolutely LOVE blogs about (joys and struggles) parenting. Don't get me wrong, I don't go there to seek parental advice, but these blogs are so damn hilarious (or in MD's own words 'fucking hilarious').  I don't want to link his blog here just incase he comes here and is appalled by my poor grammar.  Just to summarise, if I had to build my own significant other, I would definitely steal his personality and sense of humour. OH MY GOD, there have been so many instances where I snorted from laughing too hard and had some sort of food stuck up my nose (tmi I know).  If you know anyone like him, hit me up. Ahaha. OR if you know him.... kidding! ... ha.. haa.


4. Arm toning. I feel so tired watching this video. LOL!

5. And if you have ALOT of time to burn, play this game to feed the hungry. I don't know how legit this game is, but you have to match up a word with it's synonym/definition, and for every word that you get right, 10 grains of rice gets donated to the UN World Food Program. It's addictive and a LOT of fun.


6. If you like the wiggles, or Chamillionaire, you might like this.  I never warmed up to the Wiggles and my parents never let me watch them on tv. There's something a bit off about 4 full grown men dancing and singing to toddlers. I don't know why toddlers love the Wiggles, but they just do. My nieces and nephews go CRAZZYY when they start talking about Ben10, Dora or the Wiggles. I mean, it's not wrong, it just doesn't feel right.

In other news - WHT

I totally flopped my finance exam.

Holy shit I have never been more stumped in an exam than today. I came out of the exam room looking the calmest out of my friends and well, I sure as heck didn't feel that way on the inside. I hate it when people say they arent in the 'mood' to do anything, because it just sounds so selfish - but this afternoon, I just wasn't in the mood to go home and tell my parents about my fail attempt in the exam. Bummed at my old uni, but got sick of my friend talking about the test so I resorted to retail therapy. Got my first pair of non ripped black jeans, yo.

Anyway, left this bit last because I was contemplating whether I wanted to share my pain with you all. I didn't want to be all fake and cheery with my links, and all,  so yeah. They helped. Especially the Wiggles one.

Hope y'all have a happy Friday!



Mortified

Got on the bus. As per usual, there are no seats left. I'm standing. The bus braked, I lost balance and pretty much landed on my left foot, which happened to be on someone else's left foot =_=

Apologized profusely and the suited guy glared at me. What else am I supposed to do? :( I weigh more than I look, and for that, IM SORRY! D:

Oh man. We have to endure another 30 minutes of this bus trip together.

In different circumstances I would have laughed at the painful expression on his face. Right now I just want to bury myself deep, deep, deep into a pile of sand. And so I'm writing this now to look busy. D:

D:
D:
D:

Damn you hillsbus! It's all your fault!!

Sent from my iPhone

the many uses of sanitary products

Hey guys, comment allez-vous?

It's occurred to me that there are a few products which have more than one use.  A prime example is the use of sanitary products. I would like to point out that if anyone is feeling queasy at me mentioning 'sanitary products', now would be a good time to stop reading.

Aside from their usual feminine use purposes, I've come to realise that there are three more ways to use these.

1. Turn into a superhero - LibraMan.

Remember this? Best ad ever.

Tried and tested? Saw a few people decked out in pads at our themed Christmas Party last year.
How? Stick them all over yourself and suddenly you become the zzzchhoong zchooong LibraMan.


2. Stop a nosebleed.

Self explanatory. 
This may be an effective way of soaking up the blood from your nose, but I can imagine it to be damn painful when you're trying to yank it out.

3. Stop an Asian guy from making a noise so you can continue taunting and robbing him.
Note: You need a female.
Tried and tested? Apparently so.  I feel so bad for that guy.
How? Pull a dirty tampon out of your pants and shove it in the mouth of your victim.  That will shut him/her up for sure.

*

For those who ceebs reading the article, basically 2 asian students were mugged and tormented by a group of 6 teen hooligans.  They were glassed, had their money taken, racist stuff was screamed at them and obviously one had a bloody (ew) tampon thrusted into his mouth. Everytime I read/think of that, I get the chills down my spine.  This is just as bad as eating poo.

It is SO gross. SO SO GROSS I cannot believe someone did this.  On second/third thought, this is probably even worse than eating poo.  At least poo is digested leftovers. We all did PD/H/PE, we should all know that the other stuff has unfertilised egg (ALMOST EMBRYO = ALMOST FOETUS = ALMOST BABY), blood and slime. Ew. 

OK. So to put things in perspective, EVERYONE on the train was getting mugged.  It just so happened that one passenger pointed to the Asians on the train, saying "rob them, they are Asian and have got money". The woman who said this was probably panicking, but if I could meet her, I'd give her a big hard slap across the face.  HEY LADY, thanks for stereotyping.

At the moment, I am so glad I am on a train line where everyone else who gets on looks very much like me. If someone on my train screamed out "rob them, they are Asian and have got money", the thief would look around and get confused because there would be so many of us. And because there would be so many of us, hopefully someone would stand up against the hooligans and strike a few Jackie Chan moves.

Anyone with weibo will know that there has been a HUGE reaction from the Chinese population.  I guess Australia doesn't look that good now, we're being accused of being more tolerant of racists etc. It's a bit ironic isn't it.  In HK, people are racists against the mainlanders "dai lok yun", causasians "guai low", subcontinental folk "yun dow yun", etc you know what I mean. They even hate against their own kind - I was talking to my sister in English (first language, yknow) on the MTR when we were in HK.  Some teen girl yells across the carriage "you guys think you're so great, just because you've been soaking in salty water (educated overseas), you think you're above the rest of us".

Hmm. This turned into a really race focussed discussion.  Didn't mean for this to happen. I just rambled.

Anyway., my final midsem tomorrow. :(