#and last monday this post got eaten by queue

[rogerdeakinsdp]

Cinematography by Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC: Stormy Monday (1988) directed by Mike Figgis

[40sandfabulousaf]

大家好! Over the weekend, I had my second simple breakfast out of compassion for starving Palestinians in Gaza. This time, I opened a can of button mushrooms and devoured everything within minutes; I was so hungry after exercise. Then, it was on to Grace's and Douglas' home for their huang jiu ji mian (yellow wine chicken noodles). A steaming huge bowl heaped with noodles drenched in divine broth and topped with chicken as well as ginger omelette had me salivating immediately. Because it was raining heavily, this meal was not only delicious, but very comforting too. Ginger pairs very well with rice wine and chicken and you can just imagine what it does to the broth. Let's just say I was stuffed to the brim and also very happy.

We WFH on Mondays and Tuesdays so I had another simple breakfast because until there's a permanent ceasefire, Gaza will remain on my mind. I chose kuai shu mian (instant noodles) in salted egg flavour, a collaboration between our local brand specialising in salted egg potato chips, Irwin, and Nissin. Mmmmmmm! I added more water to make mine soupy, but the flavour may be more potent when eaten dry. If you see this wherever you are in the world, you need to try it. For the record, I'm not paid anything to say this; I just really like the taste. I'll so buy this again next time!

A strong craving for shao ya mian (roasted duck noodles) sent me dashing to a nearby hawker centre for some. I'd requested for duck breast, which was served with blanched bak choy and QQ noodles in a gorgeous old-school printed plate. A small bowl of flavourful radish broth completed the meal. Hawkers whip up their dishes once queues start to form at their stalls; they don't have time for artsy fartsy plating. The vibrant crockery colours made my meal visually appetising in the least time-consuming way.

Speaking of pretty crockery, MI, CL, SC, ML and I caught up over lunch and look at the dish my zha jiang mian (pork noodles in bean sauce) was served in! CL ordered from the same stall and both of us agreed that they got the noodle texture down pat - SO QQ! They also had the sauce to mian ratio just right; it coated all the noodles, but wasn't too salty. This was so good, it set off a HUGE craving for zha jiang mian, so you'll be seeing it in future posts, at least until my craving is satisfied. I'll try different stalls' versions to see which ones I prefer.

Much has happened in Gaza since last week; I don't even know where to begin. Suffice to say that several countries have condemned Israel's murderous strikes in Rafah which resulted in many innocent Palestinian deaths. Some were burnt alive when tents in a humanitarian area designated as a safe zone by Israel caught fire. Meanwhile, the US chose to spend millions to build a floating pier to distribute humanitarian aid to Gaza when they could simply stop arming Israel. Well, that pier broke apart and repairs will reportedly take some time. Erm, this was built by the military, right? Is this what they're capable of? 下次见!

[morethanaprincess-a]

@trinitytalents​ asked:  Meta Mun

Send in ‘Meta Mun’ and the Mun will give commentary about the blog!

I have a bunch of small, behind-the-scenes sorts of things of how I currently run my blog! So I thought I'd gather them all up and share them for this reply:

I love the tumblr queue system and I use it quite often! It helps me from getting overwhelmed with replies and from flooding my dash with too much IC content at once. However, I don't trust the queue at all. I've had too many instances where tumblr has eaten a reply that took over an hour to write, various research and breaks aside. And the last thing I wanted to do was try to recollect every bit of dialogue, character thoughts, and other misc info that went into the post. So now I write everything first in google email drafts. I should use docs, but there's something refreshing about opening a blank email at the beginning of the week as I start working through my replies. So I'm just going to have 300+ email drafts which are all a week or a half-week's worth of IC replies, complete with HTML formatting.

I used to be a big stickler about replying to everything in order, only going in the order of when various drafts were added to the list. If it was Thursday and I had four drafts starting with a reply I received Monday, I'd start with replying to the Monday thread first and proceed accordingly. This tended to give me a lot of stress for several reasons, but primarily it was due to burnout on some threads and interactions and/or replying to multiple threads with the same mun and muse, because they'd replied to several threads at once. So now I work with what I've got muse for and try to write at least two IC posts per weekday, whether they're answering an IC meme or replying to a thread. At this point, that's about what I'm comfortable with as I balance work and other things. RP is still my biggest hobby right now and I love it, but changing that up helps me stay in love with it. I've also gotten better at reaching out to muns and explaining that I'm out of ideas and need some guidance about what their expectations are with our threads and interactions.

I feel like I should have coordinating icons for this blog, but as long as I have some sort of icon showing Sonia's expression for thread or part of a thread, I'm good.

In general, I try to give at least 24 hours before I reply to anything. For the most part, that's usually due to the amount of drafts I need to write and if I'm posting two per day, it naturally takes several days to post a reply to a thread. But mostly I do it because I don't want to overwhelm my writing partners, especially if the threads are multi-para to novella in size. It takes a significant amount of time to write those responses, including any research you might have to do. Not to mention replying to all of your writing partners in a timely fashion. So no matter how thrilled I am about a thread, I try to give at least 24 hours before posting a reply (though I may write it and queue it immediately!). The only exception is when a mun tells me they aren't overwhelmed by quick turnarounds and to please post things whenever I feel like it. Then I don't hesitate to reply back quickly.

[belphegor1982]

In the immortal words of Samwise Gamgee, well, I’m back :o) And what a trip. Okay, I spent some of it complaining because (in no particular order) heat, blisters, period cramps and the need to make frequent pit stops, and generally feeling tired and gross.

But let’s recap (again, all out of order). (Meant to add pictures I took, but can’t upload them for some reason. Bugger.)

Paris felt a lot - a LOT - like Bordeaux. The buildings have essentially the same feel to them, only bigger and a couple of storeys higher - it’s the same light-coloured stone, the same trees, the same roundstone, the works. That cognitive dissonance hit me several times, really strongly. 

The Métro, though. Awfully convenient, gets you places quickly without ever being impeded by traffic. Also makes it feel like you spend half the day underground. It’s uncomfortably hot (corridors and trains), SO MUCH NOISE. Still pretty sure the station of Châtelet-les-Halles is some kind of version of hell, or at least liminal space. It’s so enormous it’s got a multiple-level mall, a cinema, and a swimming pool somewhere. It’s harder to navigate the flow of people than a motorway (and about as easy slotting your way in).

While we were ankling around the Île de la Cité we swung by Notre-Dame. She’s surrounded by scaffolding and prefabs and you can’t even get to the parvis. It’s funny (and I mean weird), because the scaffolding looks like any other time a historical building’s having work done on, until you realise there’s no roof anymore and the spire is just... gone. 

Disneyland. Oh man, Disneyland. I can’t regret the blisters I got walking up and down the Magic Kingdom. I teared up before we even made it past the gates because just being in the Fantasia Gardens with the speakers blasting an instrumental version of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious :o) And that feel basically lasted till the end, despite the exhaustion. The level of detail you can spot all around is amazing, the music is unobtrusive enough and not annoying, and I love the number of rides that include boats and water ♥

A number of rides were closed for repairs, and I was surprised at how many got stopped then started again as the day went on.

Queues were generally not too insane, except on “Peter Pan’s Flight” where we queued for over an hour for a ride that turned out to be about 10 minutes long? And we never got around to do Big Thunder Mountain because the estimated queuing time kept going up and up and up. But on the whole, it didn’t feel like we spent our time standing in line, which I was afraid of.

Also I thought we’d see more characters! But apart from Donald (whom I got to hug ♥) and Jessie, a glimpse of Snow White and Mickey (from afar), we didn’t see anyone. 

But then again we missed the parade (doing Phantom Manor) where I could’ve seen many characters. *fatalistic shrug*

The map said picnics were to be eaten outside the park, but we totally just sat down and had our sandwiches in a bit of a hurry :D 

Most of the rides were in a mix of French and English whenever there was text and I was really happy about that!

Apart from the Tutankhamen exhibition - which was SPECTACULAR (3,000 YEAR OLD WOOD statuettes, gah, so much beautiful I might make a post just for that), we ended up doing none of the museums we thought we’d be doing. We were (okay, I was) too knackered for the Louvre, the Quai Branly museum closes on Mondays, and we gave up on the Musée d’Orsay because at that point I simply couldn’t muster the energy to go from Iena to Orsay even with the Métro. But we did end up visiting the Musée National des Arts Asiatiques, which had an excellent temporary exhibition on the lives of the Buddha (focusing on Gautama, but with references to past lives as well), with magnificent parchments, gold-plated wood and stone statues and painted cloths from India, Pakistan, Tibet, Thailand, China and Japan. It was beautiful and very interesting.

on a general Paris note, we ended up eating out every lunch/dinner, and apart from Disneyland, the picnic we had planned (which was v. nice) with friends, and a quick McDonald’s after seeing Spider-man Far From Home, we only did Asian restaurants. Not on any kind of purpose, but the food is so diverse there! We had Cambodian, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, and I got bubble tea twice ♥♥♥ Really wish we had more bubble tea places in Bordeaux. It’s freaking delicious and exactly what’s needed on a hot day.

One of the restaurants we went to was Le Petit Cambodge, one of the places the terrorists hit on November 13th 2015. We were in the neighbourhood a bit late for lunch and it was open all afternoon. Turns out that 1) they make a pretty fantastic natin and 2) the idiots on Tumblr mocking the French crying because “white tears” really were talking out of their asses, big time. Said neighbourhood is quite diverse, like most of Paris. But idiots will say/do anything, that’s how you know they’re idiots. 

SO MUCH GOOD FOOD. Like, that’s what I’ll miss the most - being able to just take the métro (or not, the relatively - still 10x people than were we live - small town we stayed in had lots of restaurants, too) and find diverse and not too expensive places to eat. *sigh*

I have 250 posts in my queue and 112 posts in my drafts and I have no idea how I’ll be able to make them trickle out and not swamp your dash ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Bref, all in all, a pretty good stay - glad to have gone, and glad to be home :o)

[ahgaseda]

hi kat! im curious how do you answer your asks? i sent you an ask last week and dont know if got eaten haha

Hi hon! I’m not very active during the week because I work a lot so around 99% of my posts are queued. On the weekend, either Friday or Saturday, I will sit down and respond to asks and queue them up to post over a couple hours usually on Saturday so that way I’m not spamming anybody. I just go through them in my inbox until I’ve answered them all (except for requests which sit in my drafts until I finish them). When I’m online I will respond to asks as I get them because it helps me procrastinate with either my writing or laundry lol I have been really exhausted this week so I’m planning on spending the entire weekend in my pajamas and gaming and writing and literally having no contact with the outside world or humans whatsoever until I have to be back to work on Monday. 🤣

[chrysaliseuro2019]

Sandy Shore

Next morning it was time to move on from Nea Moudania. There was more peninsula to discover. After another hearty breakfast this time augmented by another Theodora specialty cake. This time a sort of chocolate cake. It did not seem to involve much sponge though Liz advises there was a base of it. Above that was chocolate mousse and on top of that about 2 cms (looked like 3) of whipped cream. My heart sank about the only thing that I found appetising about that was the sponge which was thin on. Liz had to pull her weight for two of us. I was beginning to understand why the sweet section of breakfast was more extensive than the savoury one. Clearly Theodora had a sweet tooth though the spanakopita was excellent, flaky and very tasty and she said was her favourite. Time for us to move on and Liz bade farewell to Theodora which apparently involved a big hug to her ample bosom. I did not know this at the time but as I separately went to say my farewells and thank you I stuck my hand out and was on the end of a Lathamesque fist pump. Apparently Theodora gave some last pieces of advice to Liz on destinations but finalised with "after a couple of days, if it's not working you can come home ie to the Sokratis as she had rooms coming free". It felt a bit like home too. On Theodora's advice we were heading for a town called Chanioti well down the Kassandra peninsula. Very booked out so we had had to take a large hotel for 3 nights not really our preference. However it had free cancellation right up to midnight on check-in day (which seemed by odd) and so we determined that if we saw anything better on the way to it we would switcheroo. The peninsula has a very narrow channel which separates it from the mainland. We drifted down slowly trying to stick to the coast. Got out at the little town of Nea Fokea and had a look at the byzantine tower and a little chapel. It had possibilities as a little Marina there and beach but a bit too early in our journey so kept going. We stopped for a coffee at a fairly ghastly place. A beach bar where there were wall to wall umbrellas cushions and sun lounges. Average age 25 and the music pumped up to a high level of decibels. Close to the bar you had to yell to make yourself heard. We made the coffee a take-away. Further on we saw a sign to another beach but as we pulled off the road we saw a couple of buses and then in the car park there were around 5 more. Clearly a venue for day trippers. We passed on and this was the ongoing story really. Nothing really jumping out at us. Either the odd big town which did not really look the goods or quite remote places where you don't know where you might get a feed. Didn't see many vacancy signs either. One slightly disconcerting thing is there seemed to be far more apartments for rent than hotel rooms. For us, the one or two night stayers, this is less than ideal as they really want week long bookings. Also you can't always walk up and find someone on the premises though in some places the owners are on site and have just sub-divided their house. We also hit some heavy traffic as basically there is one road in and one road out. At least on this side of the peninsula. We had been warned about that but we could see perhaps a 2-3km queue of dawdling traffic heading out with congestion in various other places too. Hopefully they were going home because the weekend was looming and it was back to work Monday. Could be painful for us getting back out if this is the norm. We finally arrived in Chanioti which was a small maze in itself and very lively but found our way to the hotel. It was every bit as soulless as we feared. Smart enough but a dozen people hanging around a pool with very little atmosphere. 3 nights here would not be fun. We went and had a look at the beach which was about 200 metres away and things went from bad to worse. Umbrellas and beach beds as far as the eye could see in either direction with the music going loudly as well. Not much serenity here. We retreated thinking - where to next? This joint was a last resort if we drew a blank elsewhere but we had now been going for 3 hours+ without a sniff re ally. On we went towards the bottom of the peninsula. Went down several back roads pointing to little towns but either nothing much there or on one occasion the 5 star resort complete with a fleet of Greg Norman yachts and the $$1000/night price tag. As we crossed over and started to make our way up the other side (western side) of the peninsula we found a nice little town called Loutra Beach (not to be confused with a similar place that seems to be on an island). Liz googled away looking for a room while I knocked on several doors where apartments were for rent. Liz had one possibility while I drew blanks. We headed into the centre of town to check Liz's lead but she had been led up the garden path by someone she spoke to. Nothing. We hadn't eaten anything since breakfast except for a few nuts so stopped for a Greek salad and soft drinks. Now around 5.00 and no closer. We tried one final hotel on the outskirts which was up a very steep hill, so great view, but nada. On we went steadily heading down the peninsula but nothing much jumping out. Tried a couple more hotels by walking up at Fourka Beach but again nothing and then Liz's perseverance on booking.com paid off. The hotel Paralio at Possidi beach which was close by had a room free with sea facing balcony. We whipped down there Liz took a look while I waited with the car in an area which didn't allow you to park ie residents parking (a local nicely tried to shoo me away but was happy when I said it would only be a few mins). Thumbs up from Liz and we were in. It was around 6.00 pm and a big day really but soon realised that the effort was worth it. Dinky room right on seafront ie sea across the road with balcony just above street level. Immediate dip in the sea as we were pretty hot. Enjoyed some drinks on our balcony post that. Also we decided that we weren't going to find anything much as user friendly and well located as this so booked a second night. For dinner we tried a couple of the nicer restaurants in town but both fully booked (as they were the following night which was Saturday). A very nice couple of locals who had just sneaked onto the last table in one of the restaurants sympathised with us. As soon as he heard where we were from he broke into a "throw the shrimp on the barbie" routine. Life must have been a bit too easy as there was no sense from the guys in the restaurant that a table might free up if we came back in 20 mins. It looked like one sitting even though some people were clearly going to finish in the near future. Even the young couple had had to talk them into giving them a table which was free but sort of in the passageway. We ended up going to the restaurant 50 metres away which was not as flash but just as full. Total bedlam as it was quite large. Seating seemed to be arbitrary. In fact also went there the next night and after I enquired of the boss lady who took all payments if we could sit at a certain table I was told if it's free just sit there. Service took a long time and we didn't choose particularly well. Liz had the stuffed peppers which can best be described as ho hum. I had the moussaka, tasty enough, but the copious amount of béchamel sauce fixed me up big time. The digestive system is not fond of creamy stuff. Also of course had a Greek salad. Very amusing young waiter who was not allowed to take orders (he was a meal deliverer and table setter upper) though he could get me a beer. As he spruced the table up by putting the table cloth down and separately brought the meals he stopped us if we tried to assist him in any way, saying - "that's my job". All with an infectious smile to go with the braces on his teeth. Despite the fare we enjoyed the ambience and were right by the sea. A short stroll around the very small village before heading home. The béchamel kept me awake and even tried a minnie heave (unsuccessfully) so have sworn off that. The next day was all about the beach. Breakfast was a disappointing event. Because the breakfast room was small we were encouraged to take our breakfast back to our own room. No hardship that as we had the balcony. Choice was very ordinary. Three sweet cereals no muesli, fried eggs sitting in a Bain Marie together with minuscule saveloys, cold pancakes. One of the pastries with custard was good as was a slice of cake with jam. Greek yoghourt was good though not much effort required there. We felt they are just going through the motions. Breakfast was included in the deal so they had to provide it but had skimped and didn't give a "toss", breakfast was not winning then business. Their location across the street from the sea was. Off to the beach though for a pretty full day of relaxation. I did go past the two flasher looking restaurants and managed to book one of them for the Sunday night. We also adjourned to a neighbouring cafe for lunch as our hotel was not serving food that day due to some kitchen issue. A very healthy club sandwich and chips was shared. That night we decided we liked the previous night's place enough to return. Just would choose differently. In truth its slim pickings in terms of choices in this town (with a number of clone restaurants) once the two main restaurants are full (and neither was very large). It was bedlam again and chokkers. A table was free literally near the entrance so away from the seafront which wasn't so bad as the wind had got up and it was a bit cool. After our advice to grab wherever is free from the boss we jumped in but we were so tucked away that service was not forthcoming. Not that it was fast in this place at any time. Luckily a table became free at the front by the sea we moved swiftly to grab it just ahead of others and we braved the wind which wasn't too bad as it turned out. Service eventually came and we shared grilled squid and sardines and a salad. Another pleasant evening and at the end the manic maitre de did spend a few minutes chatting to Liz which was nice as he had seemed pretty disinterested. Just run off his feet. Next day Liz was up earlier than me and walked to a neighbouring sandy promontory. Probably a couple of kms walk and it jutted out about 400 metres into the sea. She returned for breakfast and then I did the same. Very nice to walk out there and by the time I did it was pretty hot so I got right to the tip and had a quick swim to cool off. Water very clear around there and a bit cooler as more exposed. The rest of the day followed the usual routine of a beach day. We did have a pork gyros and chicken souvlaki for lunch. Pork good chicken not so. That night after drinks on the balcony we headed to the nicer restaurant. Food was undoubtedly better quality as was the clientele. Maitre de also charming. Liz's seafood pasta, more risotto like was plentiful and very tasty and I had octopus marinated in onions, tomatoes and whatever. Very very nice. Our time at Possidi was at an end. It had been painful finding it and as often is the case a combo of perseverance and luck got us there and in particular in our very pleasant room across from the sea. Just the right size of town/village (small) with enough action and good beach. Liz made a good point about the beach (they all seem to be sandy in this neck of the woods) which was that it was narrow, perhaps no more than 20-25 metres where we were, but that stopped there being masses of beds and umbrellas. We left wanting a little bit more which is always a good way to go.

[bardichealing]

Little Things part 2

So for some reason my post ‘Little Things’ has been going around like crazy. Whatever, it’s not the worst thing I’ve written on this hellsite and the message is important. But it works the other way around, too. Little things can make life better, but they can also cause an awful lot of hurt.

Last week I had a real doozy of a fight with my family. My father, who does all the cooking, decided I’d put on too much weight and he would cut my meals down. Not great that he was doing it without discussing it with me, but generally reasonable since I’m not able to be as active and a side effect of my medication is weight gain.

Except he went too far.

My dad has never had a weight problem and has piled plates. My mum is actually trying to lose weight (having gained, I’d be satisfied just not gaining any more right now) and has smaller but reasonable portions - enough to leave her feeling like she’s eaten and doesn’t want to snack but not so much she ever feels nearly full. He started giving me portions a bit smaller than her and they started creeping down. Mum and I both spoke to him and told him portions the same or slightly smaller than hers would do. He got better at it.

Then last week he started rapidly decreasing them again until it came to a head on Thursday. He had a mountain of food, mum had a reasonable diet portion. I had three mouthfuls. He hadn’t even cooked less - just given himself the extra.

The most important point - this was my favourite meal.

I mean my absolute favourite. The one I would ask for if I needed to ask for a final meal. It’s a version of spaghetti carbonara that I have never seen made outside my family. Instead of a thin cream sauce, the spaghetti is boiled to al dente then everything - spaghetti, bacon, mushroom, onion, and egg - is all flash stir fried together. The spaghetti comes out coated in just barely scrambled egg and bacon grease. It’s decidedly unhealthy but it tastes So. Good. And he rarely makes it. We’re talking MAYBE three times a year. It’s a huge treat for me, especially given that he normally makes the same meals repetitively over a two or three week period.

I left the table in tears. Clearly this was an indication my father had judged me too fat to be allowed to eat. Having it be my favourite meal was just an added jab. I considered calling a cab to take me for a takeaway. I considered skipping lunch every day in a bid to lose weight faster. I considered stopping eating altogether. None of those were healthy thoughts. I know that and I didn’t act on them. But they were chasing round my head while my stomach ROARED that I had given it just enough food that it knew it was hungry.

Mum tried to come up and comfort me, but I wasn’t for it. She had nothing to apologise for and if she was here instead of him, it meant he didn’t think he had anything to apologise for. She shouted at me. I shouted back. She screamed at him. I screamed at him. He yelled back. Eventually I got an apology and a promise it wouldn’t happen again. And a promise we’d have carbonara again this week.

Dad is very rigid in his meal planning. Sunday’s are a roast, Monday’s are something (usually a curry) made with the leftovers of the roast, Tuesdays are meat, Wednesday’s are pasta; Thursday’s are leftovers from the freezer, Fridays are fish, and Saturday’s are a ready meal or takeaway so he’s not cooking. We only had pasta last Thursday because his usual Thursday evening meeting was swapped to Wednesday so we swapped leftovers and pasta. So I was sure tonight would be carbonara.

Nope. Haggis lasagna. Which was very nice. But it also means a broken promise. It means something I was looking forward to was taken away without warning.

When you’re chronically ill, you lose so much. Things you took for granted, you can no longer do. I’m not driving because I don’t trust my concentration and don’t want to cause an accident. I can’t concentrate to read a book or my friends fics. I can’t take my dogs long walks - I can’t even stay standing in a queue for long. So small pleasures, little treats, mean so much. And taking them away hurts more than it should.

I don’t know when I’ll have my spaghetti carbonara again. I’d say maybe my birthday, but it’s a Saturday so I’ll be lucky to be asked what kind of takeaway I want (Chinese, always). My mum turns 60 that week so it will be all about her that week anyway. I desperately want it. I’d cook it myself but just scrambling one egg for lunch for me drains me. Cooking a full meal for three people would be beyond me. And it won’t make up for the broken promise. If that didn’t matter, why would giving me portions enough to feel like I’d actually eaten a meal matter?

I know in my head that in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter and I have a lot to be grateful for, but it hurts. When you don’t feel you have much to look forward to, taking it away leaves you with nothing. And that’s the worst feeling of all.

[seoulfulcity]

July 12, 2018: We’re Halfway There

안녕하세요,

I am finally halfway through the summer program, and the words my friend Valentino once said during the first week is starting to become reality: "Once we reach halfway through, it's going to go by fast". Now, I'm dreading the last half of the program knowing that I will be on a plane ride back to Los Angeles in a blink of an eye.

Happy three weeks here in Seoul! It's been an eventful week so this is how it went down. This blog recaps the events from Monday to Thursday only. A lot happened on Friday which necessitated a post on its own. Happy reading!

Even though I'm already halfway through, I still have not taken the time to explore the city and visit UNESCO World Heritage Sites or even done any touristy things like visit Gyeongbokgung Palace (경복궁) or even the Namsan Tower (N서울타워). I hope that it doesn't become one of my biggest regrets during this trip, but my mindset is that the bond I have with my friends right now is not something I could experience ever again but I can always go back to Seoul as a tourist in the future.

Monday, July 9, 2018: Florence messaged me on Kakao back in July 3 if I wanted to go to Super Junior's Ryeowook's fan meet since he was being discharged from the military on July 10. Being broke as we both were, we decided to just visit the cafés that were supported by Ryeowook fans: Café Ego, Café 333, and Andy's Coffee.

We decided to visit Café 333 and Andy's Coffee since they were both located in Hongdae.

Café 333 was our first stop and the place was decked out in Ryeowook's pictures. The counter had a welcome sign for his discharge, and tables were decorated with pictures of the idol. We ordered mocha and chocolate lattes and received a Ryeowook banner and two photo cards on top of the Ryeowook sleeve that came with our lattes.

Then we headed to Andy's Coffee just down the street from Café 333 where we ordered coffee and strawberryade. The coffee place gave us Ryeowook transparent fans and another cup sleeve with our orders.

After our trip, we walked around Hongdae and found the place where they filmed a scene in Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo (Yeokdo-yojeong Kim Bokjoo/역도요정 김복주) where Joohyung (Nam Joohyuk) was feeding Kim Bok Joo (Lee Sungkyung) with barbeque from the money he "found" on the floor.

We returned to Anam-dong a few hours after we started our day and I realized I have not eaten either breakfast or lunch yet, so I treated myself to one of my favorite places, once again. Remember that bossam (보쌈) place called Ssago (싸고)? I came back there for the third time since I arrived in Seoul, and even then, I was still learning new things such as Koreans actually referring Sprite here as cider (사이다). Odd.

It rained again that day, but it was not as humid as it usually is - the rain was freezing and I was out in Hongdae in a t-shirt and shorts. So, Florence and I went to Spao and bought myself a nice breathable summer sweater that's appropariate for Seoul's humid weather.

I also found out that Singaporeans call umbrella "brolly" thanks to Joyce. I am learning so many new things from Singaporeans, especially coming from being clueless about the culture just three weeks ago - I did not even know what a Singaporean accent was!

In Korean class, I told my professor that I was going to an event hosted by ISC to watch SBS's "The Show" rehearse and perform, so I will be missing class together with two other students, Andrea and Aubrey. The South Korean series is hosted by CLC's Yeeun, NCT's Jeno, and JBJ's Longguo. I got the line up on Monday which consisted of Apink, fromis_9, UNB, Golden Child, ONF, Kim Dong Han, MYTEEN, Jessi, Yoon Mirae, among others. KCON LA recently announced the lineup for this year's event which includes both fromis_9 and Golden Child, so I'm basically saving myself from spending an extra $100 to go both concert days to see the same groups I'm seeing here in Seoul for free.

Tuesday, July 10, 2018: SBS's "The Show" begins at 6:30 PM KST, so I had the whole day for myself - as expected, I did nothing. We were supposed to meet at the SBS Prism Tower lobby at 5 PM, and it takes about 40 minutes to get from Anam Station (안압역) to Digital Media City (디지털 비디아 시티); so I left at 3:30 to gave myself some extra time just in case I get lost.

There was a long queue outside SBS Prism Tower for ONF and MYTEEN fans. I was told that these fans don't have tickets and are hoping to go in to see their favorite groups perform, while I was in the lobby researching about the groups performing because the only thing I know about everybody was that they were Korean.

Heck, I thought fromis_9 was a boy group.

I was honestly only looking forward to see Jeno and Longguo with my own eyes.

My friends start slowly arriving and one of them went to a coffeeshop nearby that had Longguo on the cup sleeve, which made me more excited for the show to start. Salli and Carolina arrived and I didn't know they were even accepted to go to the show, so I spent the rest of the time until 6:30 with Andrea (Guatemalan), Aubrey (Chinese), Salli (Puerto Rican) and Carolina (Brazilian) teaching each other different Spanish dialects, Brazilian Portuguese, and Chinese words.

We were seated at 6:17 PM and the show started on time until 8 PM. BABA performed first, then TARGET, fromis_9, elris, Kyungri, Golden Child, MYTEEN, Kim Dong Han, Migyu, Jessi, ONF, The East Light, UNB, Gugudan SEMINA, Yoon Mirae, and Apink. Apink ended up winning that night - no surprises there.

Salli, Carolina and I took the subway back to Anam-dong together where Carolina told me about the Hanyang University Cruise Party - a booze cruise with unlimited drinks for an hour and ending the night at one of Gangnam's most revered clubs - Octagon - famous for being very selective with its guests. Octagon rejects most foreigners and men who are not up to standards with its rich beautiful image. Koreans usually get in for free and foreigners pay ₩30,000. The booze cruise was only ₩30,000 if we buy it before July 11 at 10 PM as a group of more than six people. One individual ticket is ₩45,000, and the tickets get cheaper the more people in the group.

Well, we managed to get more than six people within ten minutes and we bought the tickets together thanks to Wendelyn's credit card.

The three of us were starving when we reached Anam-dong, so I introduced both Salli and Carolina to, you've guessed it, bossam (보쌈) in the same place called Ssago (싸고). As you might have known by now, I am becoming obsessed with it.

After dinner, we went ahead to the Baskin Robbins place where I told both of them about the cute worker I saw last week. We checked the place out and no luck - though we ended up getting Pus in Boots cups and milkshakes to end our night.

I could not sleep later that night and I was still awake until 3 AM just in time for Thai, Davy, and Hyunjic-oppa (현직오빠) to get ready and meet up at Chicken Bus to watch the World Cup semi-finals with France competing against Belgium. I was awake already anyway so why not, right? I met with them downstairs. Matt and Sophie joined with us in front of Frontier House before going down the stairs to Chicken Bus. Later in the night, Wendelyn and Florence met with us at the restaurant itself while the game was playing.

Thai, Davy, and Hyunjic-oppa (현직오빠) were betting for Belgium to go into the finals, while Matt and I placed our money on France. Matt and Hyunjic-oppa (현직오빠) made a bet to pay for the winner's entire alcohol consumption for that night. We watched the game Korean-style with chicken and maekju (백주), or chimaek (치백), until the game ended at 5 AM, just in time for daylight to break.

If you've watched the 2018 World Cup finals, then you know that Matt and I won the bet.

Wednesday, July 11, 2018: I slept in until 2 PM that day and had no other plans besides updating my Blackpink blog. I went to the nearby PC bang (PC방) to play around and edit my Tumblr page and my past blogs in the late afternoon. I type my blogs on my phone and the Tumblr app has very limited options on setting up my page and my posts. I did not know the culture around PC방 prior to arriving, so I had to do some research.

1. PC방 are ubiquitous in Seoul - meaning that there is a PC방 in every corner of the street, almost as many as noraebang (노래방) places. Some PC방 are membership only, so you need to sign up and make an account to use the computers. Some, such as the one I go to, would hand you a card with a number on it and you log in using that card number.

2. They're insanely cheap! The PC방 I've seen can go from ₩500-₩1,500 per hour, so sometimes whenever I have nothing to do during the day and all of my friends are in class, I hang out in a PC방 and scroll down Tumblr or watch Are You Human Too? (Neodo Inganini?/너도 인간이니?) in DramaCool since both Viki and DramaFever are not working here in South Korea.

I logged out and caught up with Matt, Florence, Sophie, and Minki-hyung (민기형) at Sulbing Korean Dessert Cafe (설빙) just next to Chicken Bus and Seorae Korean Barbeque. They ordered Green Tea Snowflakes and Mango Snowflakes, while I got the Chocolate Brownie snowflakes.

Sophie asked me what I ordered and after telling them, everybody started laughing.  Minki-hyung (민기형) made a guess earlier what I would be getting and he guessed right - I was becoming too predictable.

And when I got my order, I did not realize how humongous the portion was.

I keep forgetting that I am in South Korea and not America - the portion sizes here are way bigger since most of the cafés and restaurants are catered for couples (again - couple culture dominates Seoul).

Going back to our dorms, we bumped into Valentino and Cara where we stood in front of the cheap street food restaurant everybody constantly buzzes about (Goreun Aetsal/고른 앳살) for a good hour.

Thursday, July 12, 2018: It was exam day for me, and it was my first one too. So as the good student that I am, I decided to dedicate my whole morning studying - in Donghae's Haru & One Day Café.

I planned to spend a few hours studying for my Korean exam on basic conversational sentences while sipping on Donghae's drink then head to the nearby Kondae (건대) shopping and food district to eat out.

I ordered a glass of lemon juice, took advantage of Donghae's Wi-Fi, and studied.

For ten minutes.

Then I sat there for the next hour looking at fans come and take pictures with the giant Audrey Hepburn portrait hanging on the wall. I was very distracted that day and decided to just walk around Kondae (건대) and look for something to eat.

I scoured through the whole place under the 96-degree weather and found nothing - I was craving pork or beef that I did not have to cook and was within my ₩10,000 budget, but to no avail. Most of the restaurants I've found served pretty much all chicken or meat you have to cook yourself and other menu items I was not craving.

Kondae (건대), the area surrounding Konkuk University, has plenty of Japanese restaurants, which is very lacking around Anam-dong, the area surrounding Korea University. Sometimes, I just want to take a break from Korean food and stuff myself with something different - Japanese, Mexican, Vietnamese, you name it.

I went back to Anam-dong to try out the cheap street food restaurant by the campus to see what was the hype about. The menu was all in Korean, but luckily I know enough for me to differentiate ramen (라면) from tteokbokki (떡볶이).

The prices were very cheap - regular kimbap (원조김밥) was ₩1,500, tteok-ramyeon (떡라면) was ₩3,000, and Busan fish cakes (Busan eomuk/부산어묵) was ₩2,000. Having spent some time around Myeongdong and Hongdae, I knew these prices were within range. One stick of fish cake in Myeongdong was about the same price, so I expected to be eating a plate of kimbap, a bowl of tteok-ramyeon, and a stick of eomuk.

Bad idea - I really keep forgetting that I'm not in America anymore.

The portion sizes were humongous and the three plates took up the entire space of my whole table.

It looked like I was about to film a mukbang video.

I messaged my friends who were nearby to crash at the place and help me finish my food - Florence, Matt, Lina, and Wendelyn came to rescue.

Florence and I ran out of the restaurant to catch our 4:50 Korean language classes right after the rest arrived.

We took a different route and entered the Media Hall where they had a TV situated at the hallway leading to Woodang Hall - and they were playing the K-Pop flash mob dance we filmed a week prior.

The class was starting in a few seconds and my professor wanted us to be on time for the exam since she was not extending the exam time for us if we come late.

Well, the exam was easy - it was actually a quiz. I was mentally preparing for a midterm-type exam since everybody else was studying for midterms.

I finished it in six minutes and lecture continued per usual.

After class, I invited my friends to go to Dongdaemun with me to walk around and maybe buy some clothes and souvenirs - Joyce, Valentino, Matt, Sophie, Wendelyn, and Cara joined with us and took the subway together to Dongdaemun History and Culture Park Station (동대문 역사문화공원). We walked up and past the LED Rose Garden and met up with Thai and Davy, who just came from eating live octopus at Gwangjang Market, then we headed to eat street foods by the Migliori Mall.

We took the bus from Dongdaemun back to Anam and met up with Minki-hyung (민기형) for some makgeolli, rice alcohol famous for its hangover headache, at Tosokjumak Makgeolli House (토속주막 막걸리) just under Monaco Bar. I have never had makgeolli before, but I had an understanding that makgeolli is sipped from a bowl with both hands, but I did not know that it was actually served in kettle pots! The ahjumma (아줌마) serving us placed two kettles next to me and I did not know what it was for - I asked the group if they ordered tea and Minki-hyung (민기형) laughed and told me that it was the makgeolli.

We played drinking games for the rest of the night - such as taking a sip if we say the word "you", rotating our names and responding to the name of the second person to our left, placing everything on the table with two taps, and removing the little man from everything we picked up and called him Hyunjic-oppa (현직오빠).

We left the makgeolli place at almost 2 AM and I bumped into my drunk friends from my Korean class - Darren, Peter, Angela, Cindy, and Sharon. Peter, Cindy, and Angela had too much soju for the night and we walked them back to Frontier House and Anam Global House. We spent a whole hour outside the CU Convenience Store just under the hill from CJ International and Frontier House trying to get Peter off of the streets and back to his dorm.

Darren and I managed to get him to his room and back to our dorms by 4 AM and Darren messaged me that he was treating me with a drink sometime for my help - earlier in the night, he was lightheadedly telling me how high his alcohol tolerance was and I wanted to challenge him since my tolerance is also in the higher side.

So, I'm looking forward to the night when we actually find out whose tolerance is actually higher - hopefully we find out this week.

My week 3 blog ends here, and I will be starting on my Friday blog hopefully today.

It's Monday of week 4 and I am looking forward for this weekend since this Friday is the booze cruise - I invited other people for the event, those I haven't had the time to hang out with or the people I met for a few minutes but want to get to know better.

I am dreading the end of this summer program. I have noticed that I've been taking my time absorbing every moment, looking at the faces of the friends I've made here and the buildings that have been part of my daily walks to school and realizing that I only have two more weeks to go to make the best out of this amazing chapter of my life. I really hope that one day, I will find the time to reunite with each and every one of them and relive these moments together.

It would be very easy to reunite with the Singaporeans since their country is so small and more than half of my friends are Singaporean.

This gives me the biggest incentive to visit Singapore very soon since I expect it to be one big reunion. Until then!

고마워요,

Chris 「크리스」

P.S. I will not miss the 112 steps going up the Frontier stairs and the neverending hills around this campus. Oh, my God! I will not miss it at all.

P.P.S. The couple and PDA culture here is still insane.

[oh-barcelona-blog1]

Captain’s Log: My 2nd Barcelona Birthday. A Barcelona appreciation post.

Today (as of writing), marks my 2nd year in Barcelona.

2 years ago, I packed my entire life (ok, just a bunch of clothes really) into 2 giant bags , boarded a 17hour KLM flight, and went off on a grand adventure.

And while I seem to be complaining about a lot of things Barcelona related lately -

the extra taxes I had to pay for just quite recently

the metro strike that happens on a weekly basis now,

but at least not on the same days as the taxi strike

the lack of access to some things I've pretty much taken for granted all my life: Apple Cider Vinegar, Malunggay, Corned Beef, Jollibee, 24/7 convenience stores

the lack of soul who can understand what I mean when I say "charot"

The list of things to love about Barcelona is far longer. So here's my top 10:

1. I can actually commute. Sure there's a metro strike nearly every Monday on the worst possible hours ever, but on most days - going from point A to point B is, at most, a 30m subway ride, with the nearest metro stop just a 3 minute walk from my place. And if the metro is not working, the buses are also as safe and reliable. Meaning, they're not trying to break your neck trying to drive 100mph all the time so they can reach their quota number of trips.

Just hang on to your bags, because while the transportation itself is great, the other passengers are not. I've been pick-pocketed once on a 6am drunken ride home from Villa Olimpica to Joanic. Never again (drunk on a train, I mean).

2. I can find and get a doctor's appointment online! Victory for the introvert in me. Back home, all of my doctor's appointments are c/o my mother. Not that I'm completely useless - it's just that my parents' doctors eventually became my doctors too.

I remember 3 years ago when I was trying to hide a kidney stone problem from my mom, I went to the hospital by myself, armed with just my medical insurance. I had to queue up because I didn't know any kidney doctor accredited by my insurance that I can call directly for an appointment. I waited for 2 hours just to get a name. I had to wait another 3 hours after to see the doctor.

Fast forward to a few weeks back and I was suffering from an ear problem! I needed an English-speaking doctor, of course. Expat colleague told me about the hospital 5-minutes away from the office and that I'll definitely find what I'm looking for there. So I googled the hospital. Et voila! Found out that I just can book things online by just saying what kind of doctor I needed to see and they'll pull up the available dates. Picked a date, and then I just showed up on the day with my insurance cards and I just had to wait 10m to be called.

3. The beach is just 7 metro stops away from my house. Ok so I'm not really the biggest beach person (more about that in another post). The number of times I've been to the beach in the last 2 years is already 10x more than the number of times I've been to the beach in the last 10 years when I still lived back home. I think the proximity plays a huge role.

Going to the beach with a blanket and a book is my favourite cliché though, and I love that Barcelona has given me the opportunity to actually live it - minus the bikini and the abs that seem to be the requirement.

4.  Doing 10k steps a day is easy. Sidewalks exist. I don't have to worry about being side-swept by a car, a bus, or a motorbike if I want to walk home from work (which I actually do!). I can still get sideswept by asshole bikers but that's a lot less painful than a 1,500 kilogram box of steel, let me tell you.

I remember my first month in Barcelona, I walked to everywhere! Not because I wanted to walk but because walking seemed like a better alternative than facing my fear of getting eaten by the metro system and having to ask somebody for help.

And since I don't dare step inside a gym (except for Spinning classes every once in awhile), walking is a good alternative to running on a treadmill.

5. Museums, museums, museums! Really. Free museum Sundays are the best. MACBA, CCBA, MNAC, Picasso museum, and many more. And all I need is the will-power to drag myself out of bed and go there. They're all walkable or maybe 20m away via metro. There's always an event every 2 weeks. And to be honest, there's always a new museum that I haven't checked out every 2 weeks as well.

If ever I am bored in this city, it's my own fault.

6. The plazas. Bar food ain't great. But eating bar food with a side of beer, in a terrace in the middle of Gracia is more than great. People watching or gossiping, while you're chugging down beer, under the stars, is one of the best ways to kill time on a Friday evening after a long week at the salt mines -- and not be in the middle of the mall (ehem Greenbelt), or practically on the street in danger of getting run over by cars, taxis, and jeeps (ehem Makati). While they charge a bit more for the terrace tables, bar chow and beer still tend to be on the cheap side.

And if you're lucky, sometimes in Plaza del Sol, some (apparently) well known band will show up, set up with their acoustic guitars and cajons, and just start playing for shits and giggles.

7. Travel is easy (and cheap). Last week I took a friend to Girona (where they shot scenes from GOT), just for a 30€, 30m train ride. There's a fast train to Madrid, Valencia, Zaragoza, and to other cities in Spain. Lisbon is a 2h flight away, and so is Florence and Berlin. And round trip flights can cost you as low as 40€. If my wallet is a bottomless pit of Euros, I would be traveling every 2 weeks. Except that it's not and I only have 26 days of holidays to use.

8. Fiesta de Gracia. Every year, in August, my neighborhood goes insane decorating the streets according to a particular theme, trying to outdo each other in making the best papier maché art. There's a street party in every corner. And beer is as low as a euro. There are fireworks (firecrackers, really). There are giants. And there are concerts in the plazas. And for a few days, the locals and the tourists get drunk side by side and get along.

It's a magnificent site really. Although it can be a pain in the ass if you live here (luckily for me, while I live in the neighborhood, I sit right on the border so the party never reaches me) because the noise won't let you sleep, and the smell of pee will haunt you forever.

9. I get to live my dream of becoming a tour guide. I take pleasure in giving my friends both the touristy tour, and the "insider" tour when they're here. Of course, the Gaudi things are a must. But where to eat and drink is where I shine.

I like taking my friends to drink at the plazas, and steering them away from the overpriced scam of the restaurants in Gothic. I like showing them the streets that held the scenes of The Shadow of the Wind (at least to the ones who read it), and then stuff their faces with patatas bravas and mussels at tiny restaurants tucked in the smaller, more residential streets, of Gracia.

And when they flood their Instagram feed with pictures of their trip, captioned with "food-gasm" or "#besttripever", the sore feet and the extra pounds gained after were all worth it.

10. The opportunity to get to know myself better. What's a KAX blog post if there's no cheesy, moral of the story to it? While the last 2 years have shown me my boundaries, it has also shown me that I can be resourceful and persistent enough to not let them stop me from pushing forward. It has shown me that I can be independent and that I can take care of myself (struggling a bit here, but I'm learning). It has shown me that while my anxieties seem paralyzing sometimes, I also can drag myself out of bed kicking and screaming because I've never really acquired the taste for defeat.

It may sound terrible -- but while I do miss my friends, and my family, and the many comforts of home: I'm so glad to be here in Barcelona and be given the chance to slowly (really slowly) be the person I would like myself to be.

Bonus:

Getting called guapa, all the time! And not in a sleazy "Hola, guapa, give me a smile" kind of way either. The cleaning ladies in our office always says "hasta mañana, guapa!" when I say goodbye. Or the store owners after I've paid for my purchases tell me "Gracias, guapa!". Even the old lady in my building whenever I run into her in the lift always says "Buenos dias, guapa!"

Never mind that they probably say that to everybody, so I'm not special. I still take it as a validation and I say goodbye with a smile on my face, and a renewed confidence that puts an extra spring in my step. Priceless.

So yep, 2 years! Wow.Last year I wrote about how life has been so far, one year in. No major changes have occurred since then. Just tiny ones. Like:

My Spanish is still ridiculous but functional. I've moved up a half a size when it comes to my pants. I still haven't learned to walk in heels - and to be frank, I've given up. I've gotten way better in cooking. And all my clothes are still intact despite having to do my laundry and ironing by myself. Friends, I have. And they are a fantastic group of people. My lights still need changing, and so does my shower head. My savings is a joke. But I think this is the version of Kax I like the best :)

[runwiththewolfes]

Happy (Belated) Easter!  🐣

Wa-Wait... what?... Are you seeing things right? A family photo?..ALL of the Wolfès in one picture?..

Haha, don’t worry.. the world is not ending right now.. though I’ll admit it did feel like it, just to capture this photo! This Easter was a pretty big deal for us this year, being that Beau was born, Jozef is back home, my mother had just been in town and there were soo many caring neighbors, friends and folks of the community that had been sweetly curious as to how we have been doing and things like that! Garrett and I decided that we’d take a family photo, afterall it was the perfect chance right? So I thought..

The night before I always cook our Easter dinner so that way when we come home after attending Easter church service, where they had service followed by a play and an Easter egg hunt, we could come home later in the evening and strip down to our comfy clothes (or stay in our fancy clothes, depending on the mood) and dig in to eat! I’m known for my pies generally so I made a few Apple Tart pies to take to church, give to a few people and then one for us at home. The food preparations were all set and ready to go and all we had to do was get dressed and rock the day! I was so excited and set, you have no clue, I had made sure everyone’s clothes were out. I bought a new Easter dress and matching clothes for us all. The next morning was way more hectic than I had imagined. I timed everything all wrong, church started at 10am in the morning so I thought that if we woke up at 7:30am we’d be on-time since everyone had baths and showers the night before plus their hair all washed, clothes out as well. Oh boy, was I wrong.. We actually should have woken up at 6am on the dot and we possibly could’ve been walking through the doors at 10am.. or 10:15am. 

I woke up and the house was so noisy, everyone talking loudly, laughter roaring through our hollow built house.. I could hear pots and pans banging together in the kitchen. What time was it? I had to check my clock, the sunlight was greatly shining it’s beautiful morning rays into the bedroom and the bed  was empty besides the baby who was still somehow fast asleep through all of this madness. I had to check if he was breathing, a habit of mine, and then woke him up to get fed and changed as I looked over at the clock on the sideboard, still groggy from general tiredness and wiped my eyes out to re-read that again. 8:58am?! Ohhh no no noo, that’s crazy! I wouldn’t have time to make breakfast, brush my teeth, brush the littles’ teeth, comb my hair and the kids’, and get us all dressed and sitting in church by 10am! Argh, optimistic Rebekkah, stay optimistic. Right, I told myself I had this under control. 9:03am and a cranky baby who was woken up. Oh my goodness, move your tush!!

I slid out of bed in a long grey tshirt that belonged to my husband and looked down at myself, my breast area was all wet and soaked from going too long without feeding Beau, who has a mean sleep game and could sleep a whole day without waking to eat at all. Ugh, I was getting annoyed already at the fact that the house was awake like it was nearly lunch time and no one decided to wake me on the one day that I was speaking of all week long..(queue the stare at my soaked shirt).. not even the baby. 

Time to get to business.  I pulled the shirt off and lifted the fussy baby onto my breast, grabbed my life-saving Solly Baby Wrap, put it on and snuck into the bathroom to brush my teeth, wash my face and attempt my hair all the while breastfeeding before I was whirled into whatever mess they’d made of my lovely house.

I did as much as I possibly could for my hair and ‘makeup’ in such a small time frame, if you consider just a bit of eye makeup something, I went back into the bedroom to put on a little house dress and carried Beau into the front of the house with me where I couldn’t believe my eyes at what I saw; Oisin and Jozef sitting on the couch laid back in their pjs laughing and talking while waving their hands about, the back door wide open and Apple, Oak and Sunshine were out in the backyard playing in mud which I knew by the muddy footprints on the patio, Aoife playing with her baby doll and changing it’s diaper, Liam and Garrett were no where to be found and the kitchen was a mess that looked like it was half-ass cleaned. I looked up at the stove. 9:32am.

“WHAT on EARTH is going on?!” I said in a fuming voice.

It took us about an hour and a half to get ready and into the car. The triplets had to take baths all over again, Garrett and Liam went out to get a fresh fruit salad... a fruit salad?! Forget breakfast at this point, I was full on agitation and felt like no one was helping to be productive. I think Zef took notice, he helped get the triplet bathed and into clothes (though not without a few tantrums from Apple) while Garrett and Liam showered from their run. I quickly put up the girls’ hair and combed through Liam’s and Oak’s. After quickly assuring that everyone looked at least semi-decent and putting the baby in his carseat, we piled into the SUV and off to church we went. It was 11:15am by the time we walked into the church doors, it was so crowded and there were people standing up to see the tail end of the play. We snuck into the back hoping that no one would notice us but we pretty much stood out and Sunshine was crying because she dropped a little flower she was holding but to be honest, the kids were all just hungry and we just had no time. It was all over within a few minutes and then the Easter egg hunt started and I had no choice but to allow them to eat a few of the treats in the egg because they hadn’t really eaten anything.

Later we walked up to the poppyfields that weren’t far from the church at all, with the tripod and camera to take some photos. Garrett insisted that we use a tripod instead of asking someone else to take them. It took sooo many tries to get one alright looking picture because it was either, no one looking at the camera, someone blinking, crying, talking, playing or all of the above. We were all hot and hungry so we grabbed a few more shots as best as we could and called it quits! Went home and ate every last bit of the food that I cooked up.

This week went by soo fast in this household! I thought I’d be able to get this post up on Monday but I got so caught up. I have a few posts to get up so don’t worry after this post I’m going to be making a post about what we’ve been up to and the story on how the kids reacted meeting their baby brother, whom I can’t believe is a month old! 4 weeks!

[svetlanabelikova]

Journaling (III)

content warning:

bodily functions

food talk

i shit in a bucket.

i know that was almost a week ago at this point but it has been a rough week. im going to go through it as best i can from memory. i think my last post was about a week ago and i was dreading the ‘shit in a bucket’ moment of my life which-- did not disappoint. it was just as bad as i thought it would be. 

monday: i set my alarm for about 6am with the intention of getting up and wondering around the house until my body was like ‘aye mate, the time is upon us.’ but instead i just ran around the house trying to get myself and the kids ready for school-- which turned out to be a good thing as it turns out, when it comes to shitting in a bucket, there are some rules you gotta follow. the principle one being that you have about an hour from toilet seat to dropping it into the hands of some lab assistant. we usually leave the house at about 7:20am or so, get the older two kids to their school before 7:40am, then take the youngest to her school by 8am, so i would then need to book it across town to the medical center, jaunt up to the lab and drop off the specimen. it was going to be a fairly tight schedule but you really can’t-- well, i can’t, produce on queue and with the chaos of the kids and everything... it just didn’t happen. but it turned out to be a good thing as my stupid-ass brother took out the truck the night before, literally ran it dry and left it outside on empty. so my mom had no choice but to use her tiny car which didn’t have space for me and three kids in car seats. so they left, i was able to be alone in my thoughts and then the moment came. i-- i am sure that i looked like a totally insane person. i had a lot of anxiety, i was just pacing around the room hyping myself up. it was a lot of ‘look, this is something that, while you’ve never done anything like it before, it will be a fun story to tell. you never pissed in a cup before either-- but you just did that on friday. you’ve never told everyone on the internet your weight and yet you did that too! this is nothing. you just gotta walk into the bathroom and just do it! this is something that you really want! if you want to be successful in this program you gotta deal with all the weird shit they throw at you! come on, get in there champ!’ it was not a pretty picture and i did not believe my own lies.  eventually the dark deed was done. i got to use my super advanced, medically sterile cup and popsicle stick. sealed it in a sterile bag, put that bag inside another bag with my name, the time and date on it, then waited for my mom to get back so she could drive me over to the lab. at the lab, i stood around for almost 20 minutes just waiting for someone to come out and tell me what i was supposed to do. eventually, someone came out, got my sample, then i went with my mom grocery shopping. that ended up running a little late, so we got the littlest from pre-k, then decided to go get lump from kindergarten a little early. while my mom went in to sign him out, i got a call from the lab. apparently, someone used one of my samples for the wrong test. i kept trying to get more information but the woman just did not want to tell me over the phone. just kept saying the specimen needed to be recollected and the sooner, the better. my phone is at like 28% at this point and i still haven’t eaten anything yet. we take the kids home, i change clothes, get the kids calmed down then drive back over there absolutely furious that they somehow used an ENTIRE SAMPLE for the wrong test and scare shitless (pun intended) that i’m going to have to shit in another bucket.  i get over there, wait in the waiting room for like 40 minutes before the nurse will finally see me and then tells me they just need another vial of blood. i give them the vial and go home. at this point, i start to notice my ears are stuffy. the day before (sunday) i had noticed my throat was sore. but it was the first big wind storm of the season, there was a high pollen alert from my area so i was just trying to tell myself it was allergies-- add to that my hyperfocus on the whole ‘shitting in a bucket’ thing and i just didn’t want to realize that it was a headcold coming on-- and wouldn’t ya know it-- it was a headcold. and my white blood cell count in all my tests for this week are all high. so i’m probably going to have to take them again when i’m feeling better. so tuesday through today (friday) i have spent in an anti-histamine daze. take a pill, feel better for an hour, sleep for 3 hours, take another pill, repeat. today however, i got 2 different phone calls to set up appointments next week: an upper GI scan (which by the way and tone the lady who i talked to on the phone said “Oh those are so fun.” means it will most certainly be not fun at all so....) and a follow-up with rupinder to go over all, and there is no joke here, 20 test results from the last week or so. as i mentioned before, everything is high but not scary high. the only things scary high are my b1 levels (i take vitamins to boost those and i guess there is just a lot built up in my system. oops), insulin (like i mentioned, my body over produces the stuff) and white blood cells (cause i was getting sick). everything thing else is high due to a shitty diet and being so overweight and once i get that under control, i expect to see all those levels drop. all week i have been eating about half a cup of oatmeal and whole wheat toast for breakfast than either homemade soup and salad for my other meals. which i don’t mind at all! i was vegetarian for over 8 years. i love salads and veggie burgers, etc. it is just a combination of it being expensive and that shitty, cheap food is more available. like yes, i could have been adding only veggie burgers and salad stuff to my grocery list but when your not paying for your own food, you kind of take what you’re given. but now that i’m seeing the toll it is taking on my health and trying to wrangle in what’s going on in my body, i am going to be more conscious of what i’m eating overall. i’ve gotten used to avoiding dairy due to my lactose intolerance, and red meat/ high sugar foods due to my gallbladder issues, but not being cognizant of calorie count and sodium levels and total fat-- all the stuff i used to make fun of skinny white girls in yoga pants doing in the grocery isle. i have to be that girl-- minus the skinny part. and the yoga pants. but i do have to be the bitch in the cracker isle turning the box over and doing the math in my head, trying to add up to the magic number that will make me... better. healthier. i have a lot of deep-seated hatred and unbridled vitriol for the health and fitness lifestyle. it has been pushed upon me my entire life and i’ve always gone out of my way to try and avoid it as much as fucking possible and while i’m never going to be drinking whatever the hell kombucha is or doing px20 or whatever other health craze is going on, i am going to have to put some of that acidic anger on the backburner-- at least for now.                            

[theblondegoesabroad]

Day 91 and 92

Monday 19th August and Tuesday 20th August 2019

The last few days have consisted of a heap of travelling. The not so fun kind. For Jamie, it was thousands of kms in a plane and for Benoit and I, it was about the same amount of kms by car – well it felt like it. We arrived in our respective homes at around the same time which is absolutely crazy. I for one am 100% over driving, I don’t think I have driven for that long before in my life (because Benoit needed to study I was the driver from Madrid to Home) and no longer want to even look at the car for at least a few days! It was hard dropping Jamie off at the airport, it was so cool to have him in this hemisphere with me and I am going to miss him and his crazy energy a lot!

Here are some numbers; 6555km driven, 5700 euros spent, 2716 photos taken by yours truely, 666 times Jamie described something as ‘sick as fuck’ – which rapidly declined when we started calling him out on it, 510km walked – each!, 350 incredible tunnels driven through, 210L of water drunk, 130 flights of steps climbed – each!, 101 aperol spritz’s drunk, 99 times that we listened to our unofficial roadtrip song, 50 photos that Jamie probably took, 30 incredible days, 21 years old - the birthday present that got this thing started, 18 incredible destinations we stayed at, 11 hours of me singing on the way back to Belgium, 7 pairs of sunglasses bought (2 lost – both by Benoit), 6 countries visited, 5 languages ‘used’,  4 Toyota Hilux utes spotted, 3 now tanned humans, 2 minor collisions* and 1 promise – to do it all again as soon as we can.

Here’s what I can’t quantify; the constant smiles on our faces, the laughs we had, the incredible amount of bad jokes, the amazement of what we saw each day, the excitement that was absolutely fizzing through Jamie at every new destination we saw, the strengthen bond between us all and the memories that we will have from now on. I won’t go over everything we did and every place we stopped because after what we saw, it would take way too much time and hopefully you have already read about it on the previous blogs. But to sum it up; we had the experience of a lifetime. Three best friends travel Europe on a summer roadtrip. Sounds like a synopsis of an average American movie (that I (and Jamie) would probably watch)! But it was. It was a dream. It was an unforgettable experience. It was exquisite.

I like to think we have seen some pretty incredible things. I asked the boys for their highlights of the trip. Benoits main highlight was our night we spent camping in the beautiful Switzerland, we had the perfect set up, hammocks, a view and some beers. The tiny streets of the swiss towns (one that was like a 45 degree angle, one way and only just big enough for us to fit through), the incredible views we got driving through the swiss alps, the mountains, the fresh air and the overall cleanliness of Switzerland. Another was the open-air concert we went to in Norcia, Italy, our favourite band, hardly any people there, 2m from the stage, the sun setting behind them and a vibe like no other. Plus it was cheap as chips!

For Jamie; he had a few. Which is good news. Some that were up there was the view we got of Paris when we were exhausted after a day of walking around, we climbed for what felt like hours up to the Sacre Coeur and got the incredible view from the top; it was rewarding and breathtaking. Another was seeing Gaudi’s works, the incredible architecture of the Sagrada Familia, which makes you marvel the building and feel incredibly humbled. But for him, the main one was the excitement of arriving in Europe, walking through the airport gates, a goofy grin (probably some relief that he got on the right plane) and seeing Benoit and I, the promise of an amazing month to come, the unimaginable reality that was about to happen, ‘the moment before it all starts’.

For me, it’s difficult to pinpoint a highlight, I have so many good memories, I feel so lucky to have experienced all of them with my two favourite boys. It was honestly incredible to share it with them. I loved Italy, the history, the small towns, the landscapes, the fiats but I have always loved Italy so that was not a surprise. I also loved the food in Italy, I don’t think I have eaten so much gelato and pizza in my life and I am completely happy about that. But if I really had to choose, I think it would be when we stopped in Reims, found the place that Mum, Dad and I went to get dinner and a despos at and did the same. In the moment, we were hot, sweaty, tired, sick of driving and still needing to get to Paris, really just needing a large glass of ice water but looking back it was a full-circle moment, and pretty special. I was there five years ago with Mum and Dad and now again with Jamie and Benoit, having a despos seeing how much has changed. How much I have changed. And how cool it was to share that moment with Jamie. After all – travel is the only thing that costs money but actually makes you richer – and possibly slightly heavier thanks to Italy.

Here I would also like to thank everyone that made this ‘trip’**possible.

Firstly for getting Jamie over here, for me, it started off as an idea that I thought would put me into the best sister in the world books for the rest of my life, but I never could have dreamed of how much better it was than that initial idea. In my opinion, we have succeeded. We were able to show Jamie how much the world has to offer, how much more there is to see and how there is so much more to look forward to. If only you all could see him and the big grin that was permanently pasted on his face that makes you want a some of whatever he is on! For me it was probably one of my highlights of the trip, seeing him so happy again. So thank you, to Mum and Dad, Gran and Deeda, Jo, Nico and Jt, Nan, Grant and Jill and of course, Benoit and myself. You all contributed to a bloody good cause and I was lucky enough to benefit from it too! Now its his job to fill you all in, answer your million questions, show you all the photos and to thank you all individually for helping him have a pretty amazing time.

Secondly to all the amazing people that opened their homes to us, who shared with us their corner of paradise, their family and showed us more than we would have seen alone. We are so incredibly grateful to the homes that were opened up to us without question. So without further a due; thank you to Joelle and Paul who hosted us for Jamie’s first weekend in Europe (and who continue to host me), seeing Liege with Benoits family who Jamie and I both feel very close to was magical and we wished for more time with them. I think that was my only planning error, we all wished for more time with each other. But never the less we had an amazing weekend, a famous pizza party, and a climbing session; so a rather good introduction to Benoits family life. Thank you to Joelle and Paul and Pauls brothers (Marc and Benoit) for letting us stay at Stavelot. An incredible house where we watched an amazing sunset and Jamie discovered the pleasures of Belgium beer with Benoits friends who made the effort to come out to see us. Thank you to the LeBouc’s (Marie’s lovely family) who welcomed us into their home with open arms, just like they did when Mum and Dad came to visit me five years ago. I will forever be grateful to Rotary for connecting our families. Thank you to Vincent Henry and his wife for hosting us at Saint Lion in the south of France for two nights, sharing with us their slice of mountaineering paradise, their love of nature, wine, honey and fried courgette flowers. Thank you to Marc Henry at Goussargues for letting us use his holiday home as a base for a few days and even giving us a welcome cocktail – spritz! We still miss that incredible pool. And thanks to Daphne (his daughter) who let us crash her time there with her friends. Thank you to Denis and Isa at Carcassone for having us for one incredible night where we felt like prised guests rather than gate crashers after the amazing reception dinner we received. And last but not least Eric – the partner of Murielle (Benoit’s aunt) who hosted Benoit and I on our very big journey back home. To all the above, thanks again and I hope one day we can return the favour.

I am at a loss of words to how to sum this up. How to write the final (for now) “Jamie in Europe” blog post. I kind of just want to rewind about a month and do it all again. So instead of me finishing it up, I shall rely on a literacy genius, someone well known for his way with words and simply say that was ‘sick as fuck’. Love Kate xxxxx

*one by me -someone reversed into us at a queue when I was driving, one by Benoit – he backed into a pole.

** Trip is a word I truly dislike, it is so small, it hasn’t got any presence about it and it definitely doesn’t get close to describing the amazing month of travel that you just experienced, the things you saw, what really affected you, how you felt. None of that fits into the word ‘trip’. A ‘trip’ is going to Auckland and back, not a mind-opening month of travels! Anyway, rant over and I shall endeavour to find a better word.