2018 Rewind or Whatever

It’s New Year’s Eve and everyone is reflecting back on the past 12 months. My social media is full of picture collages and soppy reminisces.

Fair enough, I guess I’ll join in. It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do.


1) Agi
In January, I got a kitten. Her name is Agi and I love her. She makes me happy and she is SUCH a cat. She does a lot of cat things and is generally just perfect.

2) Family
My baby niece grew into ... a slightly bigger baby, and her big sister turned into a little girl. These two girls are absolute angels, and their mother has done a far better job raising them than she gives herself credit for.

3) Bridesmaid again
I was asked by a dear friend to be her bridesmaid, which was somewhat of a surprise. It really moved me, in ways that I simply cannot put into words. It is a honour that I do not deserve, because she is a far better friend to me than I am to her, but it means so much to me that I will always strive to be as good to her as she is to me.

4) Korea
This year, in celebration of my 30th birthday, I had originally planned to man up  and travel solo to Korea. However, I procrastinated for too long, and the tickets for the tour I had settled on had sold out. I was pissed off with myself for being such a coward, but also was finally able to recognise that I will just keep prevaricating unless I found someone to come with me. So I did. Yes, I have to wait until 2020, but Elle has promised me that she will come and I am holding her to it. Or I will kill her.

5) 30
Oh yeah, I had a sort of big birthday.. Somehow, I have managed not to die over the past 30 years. I’ve also managed to stay single, childless and poor, so you know, I’m not sure how much of a good thing making it to 30 really is.

6) Croatia
I went on holiday. It was nice, and I didn’t get burnt. Yay! It cost me a lot of money and I didn’t even get to go to the place that was the inspiration for going there. Boo!

7) Clear Skin
In the middle of 2017, I went off the pill and my skin exploded with the hormonal mess that is my body. This is something that I really struggled with for the past 18 months, physically but also mentally and emotionally. It messed me up. Big time. It still does. But I think that I have finally got it under control. Skin care and diet have made all the difference.

8) Infertility
In October, I found out that I cannot naturally have children. I had suspected it for a long time, but to have a doctor who specialises in your condition say those words to you is a whole other thing.

9) Media
I got Apple Music and started listening to a lot more kpop in my every day life. I also signed up to Viki Pass, so I’ve been watching a lot more Korean dramas, especially since I got an amazon fire stick and could watch them on my TV. Both of these have been amazing, although likely to have played a massive part in me not wanting to socialise much.

The Smile Has Left Your Eyes

I’m going to start this post by just saying that this drama literally just made me cry a lot, and that I really like when films or dramas make me cry. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have started watching the last episode while waiting for my tea, because my food went cold and slightly soggy as I sobbed my heart out during the last 5 mins.

I don’t even think I want to do a normal review post.

It’s difficult because the first half of the series felt very different to the end - even half the cast seemed to just vanish. It starts out with Moo Young, the main guy, his brewery friends, Jin Kang, the main girl, her friend and her overpowering boyfriend, her brother, Jin Kook and all of his police buddies, one of whom becomes Jin Kang’s boyfriend. But by around half way through, we don’t really see any of them again apart from the main three, which felt a little weird. I get that we needed the start to show Moo Young’s cold and calculating side, to get unnerved by him, and to see how this changes with his relationship with Jin Kang, but it did divide the series for me a little too obviously.

Despite this, I did like this series a lot. Seo In Guk as Moo Young was worlds apart from the adorableness of Shopping King Louis. I wasn’t familiar with Park Sung Woong, who played Jin Kook, but very familiar with Jung So Mi, who played Jin Kang. Some bits were funny, some bits were sweet, some bits were shocking and some bits were sad. Viki did spoil a lot of it for me, but that didn’t stop me from getting caught up in the twists and turns. It was beautifully shot too - the cinematography was stunning, and the whole thing was presented in wide screen, which gave it a real film like feel.

Towards the end, I was thinking - you can tell this is a Japanese story. Korean writers seem to like to leave you on a happy ending, to give a glimmer of hope no matter what. Take Train to Busan. Practically everyone dies, there is a heartbreaking scene between the Dad and his daughter, but they end it with the pregnant lady and the daughter getting to safety. Not Japanese writers through. It’s like Koizora, in that the ending leaves you with nothing but a broken heart. No resolution, no indication of what happens next, just the end.

I just watched the end again because I’m a masochist.

Tl;Dr
It’s a proper drama drama
Watch it if you like being sad
I wouldn’t not watch it again

Next up I’ve decided to finally bite the bullet and watch Reply 1988. In fact, I stopped half way through the first episode to write this post. So far, Go Kyung Po is making me want to rewatch Chicago Typewriter, but other than that, it’s a bit weird.

Why I’ll never go back to Slimming World

A couple of years ago, I was Slimming World’s biggest fan, to the point that I even considered becoming a consultant. Now, I look back at those few months as a member with disgust, especially when they announce plan changes as ridiculous as their new ones, announced today.

My biggest problem with Slimming World, other than it triggering very unhealthy behaviour, has always been that it is shit for vegetarians, and bloody impossible for vegans. Meat eaters could eat their weight in steak, and yet I had to syn most of my protein sources. In their new plan, they have removed many of the vegetarian and vegan protein options, such as baked beans, peas and broad beans. These options are still free, just not a P food, which means that you can’t have them on SP. they have also decreased the healthy extra allowances of dairy free milks. You used to be able to have an entire litre of almond milk, but now, you can have 200ml of whole milk at 87 calories, but 400ml of almond milk at 52 calories. How can these two milks be considered equal? Sure you can now have two healthy A options a day, but these options have drastically different nutritional values. They seem to be linked only by calcium content, meaning that Slimming World is disregarding the the most basic rule of eating healthily - making sure you have a sensible split in macronutrients and don’t over consume calories.

There is just so much about this plan that doesn’t make sense to me. They recently announced that muller lights were no longer syn free. Fair enough, it never made sense to me anyway, but still, it’s a bit weird that such a staple of the plan is no longer free. My first instinct was that Slimming world were coming out with their own line of yogurts, but no sign just yet. They also decided that blueberries should be a speed food now. Other processed foods changing around a bit you can understand, recipe changes and what not, but blueberries, suddenly they’re healthier than they used to be? It’s ridiculous.

Yes, I lost a stone and a half on Slimming World. I also put on two stone at Slimming World, spent over £300 for the pleasure, developed a starve/binge/purge eating disorder and ruined all my bakeware.

Since I left Slimming World, I have a better knowledge of nutrition and a healthier relationship with food, and I don’t want to ever put that at risk again.

Three

A couple of days ago, I saw in the news about Onew’s enlistment date being set for next month. Initially, I was just sad that SHINee would be losing him for two years, but then I thought about seeing them promote with three members, and I’m not going to lie, it broke my heart a little. I cried when I saw Super Junior reduced to just four people on stage, but there is something so very much more heartbreaking about SHINee missing members.

Because that’s what it’s going to be like from now on. Assuming Taemin doesn’t enlist until he has to, it’ll be another 5 or 6 years until they can promote together again. It wouldn’t be ridiculous that at some point they’ll all be in the military except Taemin, or Onew after he’s back.

No doubt they’ll all keep busy in their personal careers. Hopefully Onew will go back to acting, and I’m sure Minho will before and after. Key has just launched his solo career so no doubt he’ll do more of that, and Taemin is already a well established solo artist. They all have back up plans.

To be honest, with the new laws in place, they have less time now, and less freedom. For Super Junior, they could defer until 30, and it didn’t really affect them before, but now, they’ve knocked two years off and added travel limitations. Onew may be cutting it fine enlisting 4 days before his 29th birthday, but Key only has 10 months until he is 28, and just over a year for Minho.

I’m assuming the 28 is in international age, because if it’s Korean age then they should all pretty much enlist right now. Except Taemin. Because he’s the baby.

They SHOULD all enlist together and then SHINee could just go on hiatus for as little as 21 months until they all come back ...

With SuJu, they could cope without pretty much everyone except Donghae and Eunhyuk - apparently - seeing as they didn’t do anything while they were away but revamped everything for their return. There were so many of them. With SHINee, its not so simple. I guess technically any combination of Onew or Taemin and Key or Minho would work, but that doesn’t mean I want to see it that way. I think I would rather wait for them to return together.

There’s already a massive empty space in SHINee, I don’t think I can handle another one.

Thirty but Seventeen

Normally, I try to write these posts immediately after completing the drama, but I finished Thirty but Seventeen a couple of days ago now, and have only just got around to actually putting together a post.

Normally, when choosing what series to watch next, I base my decision on ratings - the higher the rating, the more likely I am to watch it. This plan doesn’t necessarily always work out, but for the most part, it’s stood me in good stead. At the moment, I’m at the 9.6 sort of mark. However, I ignored  this method, and jumped into a 9.4 because I had seen Thirty but Seventeen advertised and really liked the look of it. Party because of the main lead being the guy from Degree of Love, but mostly because the premise intrigued me.

There is a huge accident that leaves a girl, Seo Ri, in a long term coma and a boy, Woo Jin, blaming himself because he thinks he killed her. 13 years later, she wakes up and as luck would have it, the man now living in her old house is Woo Jin, and he reluctantly agrees to let her live there while she tries to find her family, but doesn’t realise who she is. Obviously they grow close and fall in love and live happily ever after etc etc etc.

The Rui Effect was strong with this one. The second male lead was the main guy’s nephew, and a 17 year old athlete. Chan. He and Seo Ri clicked instantly, she felt comfortable with him and he was always just a little ray of sunshine in a very confusing world for the girl who is essentially a 17 year old stuck in a 30 year old’s body. They were so well suited in so many ways, and let’s be honest, Woo Jin was a bit of a dick at the beginning, leaving an already lonely person feeling even more abandoned, so I think she really needed Chan at that time. I get that a 17 year old hooking up with a 30 year old would have been oh so wrong, but still, mentally and emotionally, it was hard not to support him in his one sided love.

It was funny, in a very not obvious sort of way. Just little throw away lines here and there. Like one of Chan’s friends randomly having a bubble bath in their house when Chan wasn’t even there. I felt sorry for the SA guy on Chan’s team who was always left out when the other three (main cast) were so close, but it did amuse me when they called themselves out on it at the end. I much preferred the main guy in Degree of Love rather than in this - I didn’t sense much chemistry and he seemed kind of awkward, and I honestly can’t tell if that was a character choice or not. Seo Ri was really good at portraying a teenager, but I struggled to ever think of her as an adult to be honest. Chan was lovely. The supporting cast were good, but I’m surprised they didn’t make more of Seo Ri’s childhood friend turned doctor - he seemed a little forgotten about and then just randomly chucked in here and there. I get that they didn’t really need him with Chan providing that corner of the love triangle, but still. It was sad in places, and I definitely had a few tears in my eyes at one point, but for the most part while it was really predictable, and kind of slow, it was actually just a nice, fun story.

TLDR
Chan was the sweetest.
Watch it if you want ... or don’t ... I don’t feel that strongly about it to care.
I like Chan.

One Hundred

I have watched 100 Asian dramas. One hundred. That’s crazy. 

Having just completed Thirty but Seventeen, I went onto mydramalist to update my drama list - which is something I do to track the series I have completed and the shows I want to watch next - and it kindly informed me of this little statistic. It also informed me that I’ve watched exactly 1700 episodes, plus 2 TV shows and 6 movies. All of this adds up to a grand total of 67.5 days worth of Asian TV.

And you know what? I don’t regret a second of it.

Lawless Lawyer

I am not doing well at blogging through October. I even finished Lawless Lawyer days ago, and never posted about it. I’m like 5 episodes into my next drama already. Bad blogger. Or maybe I’m just bringing back BOO - Blog Occasionally in October.

Anyway, Lawless Lawyer.

I actually really enjoyed this drama. It had lots of action, a bit of a complex story line and a romantic subplot that didn’t totally overpower the whole series. It kept me hooked throughout and Lee Joon Gi has grown on me A LOT.

The story revolves around a young boy who witnesses his mother being murdered for discovering corruption within the legal system of their city. He is brought up in a gang, but eventually becomes a lawyer with a plan to bring down the system. Throw in a similar background story for the female lead, a couple of twists, a amazing theme song, quite a lot of 50:1 fights where the main character escapes with a few cuts but wipes out everyone else and a hell of a lot of people calling other people hyung-nim, and you basically get the gist.

The two main bad guys are pretty big deals, although I don’t think I’ve seen either of them in anything before, nor have I seen the male lead before, although I know he has a huge following and will be the main reason for the success of the series. The female lead was in Moorim and Hwarang, and had a hair cut half way through this series.

While the story was concluded well, it did seem open to a second season, so I’d be interested if that did happen, although it’s rare in korean drama.

I’m not going to go into anymore because a) I can’t be bothered, and b) I finished it ages ago and can’t really remember what I wanted to say. I mostly remember wanting to talk about how I didn’t understand the fuss about Lee Joon Gi until I saw him in this.

Tl;Dr
This was really good fun.
Don’t rush to see it, but don’t avoid it either.
I’d watch it again, but I’m in no hurry to do so.


I’ve started watching Thirty Not Seventeen now. I’m enjoying it so far, and the Rui Effect is already in full force.

What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim?

I have just finished watching What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim. To be honest, I thought I’d powered through this drama, but actually, I’ve certainly watched a series quicker. I think it was just in comparison to the behemoth that was Six Flying Dragons, that watching this seemed to fly by.

Not going to lie, I had high expectations, and I’m not sure I can honestly say they were totally met. It was good fun but predictable; easy to watch but not addictive. Let’s just stay it doesn’t knock off any of my top 5. I’d very much rank it alongside the likes of  Strong Woman Do Bong Soon and Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo as a lighthearted romantic drama that I enjoyed but wasn’t anything particularly special. 

It’s the classic rich man falls for penniless girl plot, with some memory loss, family strife and copious  amounts of very obvious product placement thrown in. Just like The Heirs. Just like Boys Over Flowers. Just like Shopping King Louis ... I could go on. There were a fair few side stories, a rather disappointing second male lead*, and literally everyone had a very predictably happy ending. I do enjoy watching Park Seo Joon, and I thought Park Min Young was beautiful (I’ve only just realised that she was the lead in Healer and City Hunter - did not recognise her at all). It’s basically just crowd pleasing fluff with big names and pretty faces. So just like 98% of Asian drama. 

* they could have done so much with his character, but no, they basically wrote him off. He is listed as main cast, had a solo title card in the opening credits, the set up for a love triangle even past the big reveal - but no, I think the SA who played an intern had more screen time than him. And we all know how much I love a second male lead (it’s the Rui Effect). 

It is really highly rated on Viki at a 9.8, which puts it on a level with DotS, Bong Soon, Weightlifting Fairy and Healer, but I get the impression more and more that these ratings can’t be trusted to truly represent what they are supposed to mean as opposed to popularity scores. You see series that have yet to start airing with high scores because people start rating it based on the casting. They do tend to drop down quickly, but it’s a lesson to learn, to only pay attention to ratings on older shows. 

Edit: I feel like this post has come across as much more negative than I meant it to. I think I just missed the action and significance of Six Flying Dragons. This series was a classic kdrama - nothing new. I enjoyed it a lot, I really did, and it would probably be up there in my top 20 or so. 

Tl;Dr

It was enjoyable.

I recommend it to girls with unrealistic expectations of men. 

I probably won’t watch it again. 

Six Flying Dragons

I finally did it. I finally finished watching Six Flying Dragons, which I have been watching since April. That’s 5 months. I’m actually a little shocked by that.

You know what, I did really enjoy this series. It was really well done. It made me smile, it made me cry and it had the extraordinary ability to make me simultaneously horrified and sympathetic to the main character doing some truly horrendous things. The acting was great, the characters were interesting and the production value was amazing. Mostly, it was just fascinating to learn about such an influential period in korean history.

That being said, I have never had a series send me to sleep so quickly. I would start watching an episode wide awake, and less than 10 mins later, I would be asleep. That’s not to say I found it boring, far from, but it was heavy going and just too much to cope with at bed time. Whenever I watched it during the day, I could easily power through multiple episodes, but during the week, when I only watch drama right before I go to sleep, it would take me all week to finish one episode.

I think that pretty much sums up everything I want to say. I could write a more in-depth review but I don’t know that I see much point. It kind of feels weird not including the plot, but there were 50 episodes, each at an hour long, and a lot happened in every single episode - I’d be here all day. I’ve heard it’s a prequel to Tree with Deep Roots, so maybe I’ll watch that at some point, but at the moment, I’m more interested in What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim ... I mean, it’s Park Seo Joon, can you blame me??

Tl;dr
I’m glad I watched it
I recommend others watching it
I probably wouldn’t watch it again

Solitary

I live on my own. My family live over two hours drive away. My friends are anything from 25 minutes drive away to a little over an hour. Most have kids, most have jobs, and all are unable to get to you quickly if you need help.

Sometimes, you become very aware that should you need someone in an emergency, you have no one that you can call on, and that makes you feel very lonely. 

Explore

Instagram has a feature called explore, a page which shows you suggested content based on things you’ve previously liked, searched for or that people you follow have liked.

Normally, my explore page is full of something to do with the korean entertainment industry, namely funny clips of SHINee, BTS and Super Junior, with a few other artists shown in on occasion.

However, you watch one video of a puppy dancing while getting a hair cut * and all of a sudden, half your explore page is of dog grooming videos. I don’t like dogs, and I don’t care for seeing them with or without a pair of scissors in their face.

You somehow get sucked into a series of food asmr videos one time, and then you are bombarded with people eating ice and aloe vera for weeks to come. I get some people find it relaxing or tingly or whatever, but I’m not going to lie, I watch these things unwillingly with morbid fascination. Like I can’t not look at it. Nobody wants to straight up bite off a chunk of aloe vera and eat it, and you can see that she finds it bloody disgusting too, but hey, each to their own. **

Give me back SHINee being dorks and kiss scenes from korean dramas.






*ok so I may have watched that one video like a thousand times, but it was cute, he was DANCING.

** there is a part of me that quite wants to start an asmr account where I eat squishy foods and they make crunching sounds and vice versa. Like I’m eating a doughnut and instead it sounds like I’m biting through a raw potato. I think that’d be funny. Plus I think asmr makes a lot of money. I’d like to get paid to eat.

Shuffle

My music preferences are no secret - almost exclusively Korean with a splattering of Japanese and Chinese. Don’t get me wrong, I do like western music too, but I find that what is on the radio while I’m driving is more than adequate for me, and I don’t think I have purchased or downloaded western music since my ALLCAPS, Cameleon Circuit, Oceanic Six and Skyway Flyer days. That’s not to say I don’t have English language music, it just tends to be sung by someone in the Korean entertainment industry.

I don’t normally do tags on here, but I saw a post on a friend’s blog that I thought was quite a nice idea, so here I am.

Normally, I listen to music on YouTube, or via my iPod or my mix CD* in the car when the radio gets repetitive or just plain stupid (read; most of the time, specifically late night weekends). However, I recently updated my phone contract and with it, got 6 months free of Apple Music, so I have been using that lately because not only can I do it in the car, but it also plays when you shut the app, which is amazing. Anyway, the point of this is that my Apple music library is therefore more likely to be the newer stuff than the old favourites, but I guess we shall see.

10 songs, randomly on shuffle**. I’ve had to use an English title or romanisation because I don’t have hangul on my iPad, but obviously these aren’t their native titles.

1) SHINee - Love Should Go On

I much prefer the remix to this song, so much so that this version doesn’t sound quite right. This was from SHINee’s debut album, and boy, have they improved in that time.

2) DBSK/TVXQ - Don’t Say Goodbye

Again, not one of my favourite DBSK songs, but it is kind of nice to hear the original 5 members. This is from the Mirotic album, which is one of my all time favourite songs. 

3) Super Junior - Walking 

I love SuJu title tracks, but normally I’m not a fan of their albums as a whole thing. I do like this song though. It makes me think of holidays and rum in coconuts. It’s from Mr Simple, which was the album cover with Siwon in his lime green boxers, which I talked about a lot when it came out. It’s also really nice to hear all the members together here too, as I’m sure this was before they started going off to the military. Maybe minus Kangin. 

4) EXO - Can’t Bring Me Down 

So far, this list is very SM biased, which I suppose sums me up really. This is from an EXO album I haven’t listened to all the way through yet, and therefore I don’t think I’ve heard this before. I like it though. It’s very EXO.  

5) SHINee - Woof Woof

Ah I love this! I first saw this song on a SHINee World concert video, where the boys were all dressed up as dogs, and it’s just so SHINee. I love them. They are such dorks. It’s so catchy too.

EDIT - After posting, I was re reading through this post for mistakes and to check the videos worked. Watching this had tears running down my cheeks! Just seeing them all having so much fun together makes me so happy, but also breaks my heart. 

6) Taemin - Sexuality

I was low key hoping this would come up! Taemin is in SHINee, and this is from his solo album. In SHINee, Taemin is the little kid, but for some reason, as a solo artist, he’s all sexy. I find it very confusing. Especially in Move, it took me a good few times watching that to believe it was actually Taemin, he looked so grown up and ... sexy and wet. 

7) SHINee - SHINee World

Dibidibidi bling bling is Jonghyun ....

8) BTS - War of Hormone

Oh thank god, I was starting to wonder that we weren’t going to have anything other than Shinee, SuJu and TVXQ (I may have had to cheat just a little bit) . This was the first BTS song I ever heard , thanks to Eat Your Kimchi. I enjoyed it but it didn’t hook me into the band as a whole until Dope came out. I just remember thinking about how happy they all looked, in fact I think I even blogged about it. I really like V’s voice when he does the low sexy voice. I admit to doing the dance every time it comes on, especially in the shower.

9) Troublemaker - Troublemaker

I remember the buzz surrounding this subgroup when it came out, despite never really been interested in either artist before. It certainly made waves, being very provocative for korean broadcast, but that just seems to be HyunA’s concept. It’s so catchy, and while I haven’t listened to it for ages, I was reminded of it with the whole HyunA e’Dawn scandal right now.

10) U-KISS - Tick Tack

Woo, finally,  a Japanese track . I was obsessed with this song when it came out, and for some reason I much prefer the Japanese version over the Korean one. U-Kiss are an odd one, I love them but I discovered them during a rough patch so they have a weird bittersweet association. I’ve only downloaded my favourite songs so it’s quite impressive that they came up really.

11) Jonghyun - End of a Day

🌹 I have no words for this. I’m just going to listen. And cry.







* Yes I made myself a mix CD. Sometimes my iPod is dead and the radio is on shit hour. Yes is warn out and skips through half of Overdose, but what can you do?

** Watch this list be 90% SHINee now, because the first thing I did was to get their whole discography.

Plastic Surgery Monster

Usually, when I order things, I have them sent to my parents house, as I’m rarely in when parcels get delivered and there is a pretty good chance of someone always being around at my parents house, what with them both being retired and all. This means that when I come to stay, I usually have at least one parcel waiting for me. 

This time I had two... and they were both from Yesstyle and filled with Asian beauty products. 

I was very excited, especially about how I now have a full skincare and make up regeime using exclusively korean products, and my dad made a throw away comment about whether I was going to have plastic surgery now too. 

I laughed it off at the time but over the course of the day, it’s got me thinking, if money was no object, what would I change about myself?

I would definitely have some form of vision correcting procedure. My eye sight is awful. To wake up and be able to see clearly straight away is something I cannot even comprehend. I’ve spent my entire life in glasses and contact lenses. I can’t even walk the familiar path from my bed to the toilet without putting my glasses on, not to mention the saga of the sunglasses. From the limited research that I’ve done, as I understand it my eye sight is too poor to have laser eye surgery, which leaves me with a lens transplant. Having someone slice open my eyes sounds terrifying, but I would definitely do it to be able to see. 

On a slightly related note, I would also have some excess skin on my eyelids taken out. I have quite hooded eyes, and to make them just a little less so might be nice.

I’ve looked into this a few times, but something along the lines of invisible braces would be good, like invisaline. I have overcrowded teeth at the front on my lower and upper jaw, and while they aren’t awful and certainly don’t stand out, they have always been a feature I have felt insecure about. It’s the reason why I try to avoid smiling with my mouth open in photos. 

I suppose while I was at it, I would also have my teeth whitened. I have used whitening toothpaste all of my adult life and I don’t think it’s done anything to improve the colour of my teeth. I don’t even  consume all of the typical offenders, like coffee or tobacco, so I guess I’m just naturally susceptible.

The final thing I’d do is liposuction. It’d just be nice to be slim without having to do all the work first. 

So nothing too drastic then I don’t think, and nothing too painful! It’s not like I’d want my whole face reshaped, although I do think that loosing some weight will improve my face shape a lot. I’d love to have defined muscles - not in a really hench sort of way but just a strong way - although I recognise that building muscles takes a lot of time and effort and isn’t something that plastic surgery or a quick fix can achieve. So I’ll just have to keep slowing working on that, I guess.   

Cats and Korea

Today has been weird.

The plan was to head down to my parents today, but then I woke up to a load of cat sick on the floor, liquid cat poo in the litter tray and a very sorry for herself  kitten. She didn’t eat her breakfast and seemed to just want to sleep so I held fire on bundling her up into her carry case for a two and a half hour drive until she perked up a bit.

This meant that from about 10.30 onwards, I wasn’t really sure if I’d be heading down south today or not.

I complain about wasting my weekends a lot on this blog - the days when you don’t do anything productive. Normally on those days I do at least something though, be it putting some washing on, or running the vacuum around. I did all of that stuff yesterday. I did absolutely nothing today.

Unless you count me filling a teabag dish with water every hour or so and putting it next to my cats face so that she’d stay hydrated.  This was when she wasn’t moving from her make shift bed of the lid of my open suitcase, which is where she spent most of the day.

She seems ok now, and has had a few biscuits. She’s moving around again now, so that’s good, as it wasn’t like her to spend so long in one place, especially when I wasn’t in the same room.

You know what’s just occurred to me? This blog is either about my cats, or Korea.

Sounds pretty representative of my life, then.

Kitten Riddle

Its getting dark. You give the kitten some biscuits and lock the cat flap so that she’s in for the night. She meows a little when she realises, and scratches around a bit, but she soon settles and goes to find something else to do. You watch the end of your film. 

The film finishes and you head up to bed. The kitten isn’t downstairs so you expect to find her in your room somewhere. However, when you go into your bedroom, the kitten isn’t on the bed, which isn’t that unusual as she rarely sleeps on the bed unless you’re there. You look under the bed, but all you see are bottle tops she’s being playing with and abandoned. You look under the wardrobes. Nothing. You look in the drawers. Nada. You wonder whether you were being totally unobservant and missed her being in her bed in the living room, so you go back downstairs. She isn’t in her bed, her hidey hole, behind the sofas or anywhere in the hall or kitchen. You double check the cat flap - definitely locked. You rattle her biscuits but you are greeted by only silence. 

Baffled, you return upstairs. You look towards the window, and notice the gap is a little wider than normal. 

No.

No, she couldn’t ... could she?

You fling open the window and look out into the dark night. There is a distinct lack of kitten with four broken legs directly below, which is good. You make a noise, and hear a meow. Followed by a scrambling noise, and then the kitten appears over the fence. 

So yeah, Agi jumps out of buildings from the second story now. She’s also learnt to climb fences without the aid of bins, sheds and plants apparently, but I feel like the key point here is that she jumped out of a window. 

It’s Gone Away

For weeks, my local area has been covered with England flags. The radio is almost constantly playing  football themes. Pubs are constantly playing matches, no matter how posh they are. People who don’t normally talk sport are suddenly obsssed with it. Football fever is everywhere. 

Today, we got kicked out of the World Cup. 

So now, hopefully everyone will shut the fuck up about it. 

Unfinished

I just logged into Viki with the seed of an idea to start rewatching Decendants of the Sun, but then I discovered that I was half way through an episode of Six Flying Dragons. I haven’t watched it for weeks and I have no idea what was going on. So now I feel a bit of a commitment to watch that rather than restarting on DotS.

I went to an abbey today. It was nothing like Redwall. In more than the obvious sense - clearly there were no talking mice monks and warrior badgers, but just the layout of it. I guess I always had such a clear image of how an abbey should look without having any real life reference.

I used to adore the redwall books. I’d read through the series and go straight back to the first one to start again as soon as I’d finished the last. I still have them all, proudly displayed in my bookcase. Part of me would really love to read them again, but another part of me doesn’t want to kill the childhood love of the series by reading it as an adult. Plus, I’m missing the final two or three books, which I have never got as they changed the design and that bothered me.

I titled this post before writing it, based on not finishing the Dragons episode, but now it seems more relevant than I had intended.

Our Page

At the beginning of July, my plan was to blog every day again. Yeah I failed at that. Today, I figured out why.

I only blog on my iPad. I’ve not been using my iPad lately, as I haven’t been watching any drama. I haven’t been watching any drama because I’ve been reading. Also because Six Flying Dragons is bloody long. I mean, I’m on episode 20 and still struggle to watch it at night for more than 15 mins without falling asleep.

So, if I want to blog more, I need to either get back into the habit of watching drama again, or set myself some form of reminder. I’ll probably go with the drama option.

A fair few new ones have come out lately that I want to wat h, so they should have built up a good number of episodes now so I don’t have to wait. Plus I still really want to rewatch DotS.

One more week of school until we break up for the summer. I quite like the end of the school year - it’s always quite chill and we have a party day on the last day where we all just eat party food and play games and then say bye to the leavers. I think I’ll probably cry this year. For the rest of the week we have two trips planned so I doubt much will get done on the remaining two days, meaning the whole week is a bit of a write off really. Which is fine, but it’s not like I get to diss around as much as the kids do. Still, the end is in sight and that is always good.

I’m just going to leave this here.

June

I did not successfully blog during June.

It was a big month too, I don’t really know why I didn’t post. I think it’s hard to get into the rhythm of it when you’ve fallen out of it for a while. And, I’m not going to lie, it’s a bit daunting when you know you’ve got an audience. 

So - hello, audience. 

So I’m 30 now. Everyone made a massive and unnecessary fuss, work especially so, although I did get a lovely card and some treats from two of my students, which was very sweet. I also made a massive unnecessary fuss of myself, in the form of buying pizza for my whole school because I wanted it for lunch, and spending a ridiculous amount on skincare from Yesstyle. 

Last week I went on a trip into Birmingham with the afore mentioned two students, and we went to Pizza Hut, so that’s twice I’ve brought pizza for my students this month. I bet everyone is regretting not taking my subject now. 

It’s been very hot here over the past couple of weeks, and I’ve had to wear the same dresses twice in a half term. This is noteworthy but also ridiculous because normally I can go an entire half term without repeating an outfit. This shows me that a) most of my dresses are autumn/winter/spring appropriate, and b) I’m too fat to fit into half of my summer dresses. 

I’ve also got so fat lately that my chub rub is destroying my tights and I’ve had to start wearing cropped leggings under longer dresses, while considering making legging shorts for the shorter dresses, or else simply buying cycling shorts. 

Because of the above points, I’m now BEING GOOD. My aim is to lose half a stone each month for the next four months, and then keep it off until the wedding. I’m trying to eat well, exercise more, you know, the classics. Over the summer holidays I think I’ll try calorie counting, but right now, I’m just going for lots of fruit and veg and some daily hula hooping.

SHINee have been releasing a lot. I really like ‘I Want You’. ‘Our Page’ makes me cry. It still just doesn’t feel quite right.

🌹

Kitten Update

Agi has been living with me now for 5 months, so I thought I’d give you a little update on how she is getting on.

First off, she is nearly 8 months old, but she is definitely no longer a kitten. Technically, she is, but she just looks like a real cat now, and all her kittenyness is pretty much gone. Which makes me both really sad and kind of glad all rolled up into one.

She’s been spayed, and her fur is nearly totally grown back, so now she is free to wander the neighbourhood. So far she isn’t going any great distance, just into my garden or my neighbours. There was an incident the first time she went over the fence where she wasn’t quite big enough to climb back, so I had to go over to rescue her. This was after I climbed on top of the wheelie bin, leaned over the fence and tried to get her to jump into my arms. She even goes to the toilet outside, which is great because she’s raking up all my moss for me, but bad because my garden is full of moss covered cat poo.

She doesn’t rub herself all over my face so much anymore. Neither does she seem as interested in her toys as she was before she started going outside. She will however still come to lick my face if it’s near the floor and will come running when I call. She has developed a rather unpleasant habit of attacking people’s feet, however. I think I preferred the smothering.

She has full range of the house at night time now, but seems to sleep downstairs for the most part, coming up to lick my face at about 5 am, before settling down to sleep next to me until I get up. So far she has only chewed through one cable when she was little, and seems to leave them alone for the most part now, although I’ve also kept them tucked away as much as possible.

She used to get into every little thing I was eating, but now she selects which food she will incessantly bother me over. Ice cream, mostly, being a kitten after my own heart.

Her favourite things to do seem to be spying on the birds, meowing for no apparent reason and clawing at my carpets and furniture despite having a massive scratching post.

She sleeps in her carry case, her bed or my gym clothes drawer, which she accesses by crawling underneath the wardrobe and climbing into the drawer from the back. Sometimes she will come on my lap but not as much as she used to. I think it’s too warm for her now.

She is still very much my little shadow, and tends to follow wherever I am. When she goes outside she will check back in with me sporadically, to make sure I’m still here.

She likes to prove me wrong, evidenced by how she’s currently lying on my feet.

Why I Am Shit at Blogging

Hello.

So it’s, uh, been a while.

I have no excuse other than I just haven’t wanted to post recently. Work has been a little tense lately, and then it was half term, and now I’m back at school and the first week back is always exhausting. But I thought I should pop on this evening to at least post something.

It’s not even that I don’t have anything to post about. I have my May Korean Beauty haul to write up, as well as review posts on a fair few empties. I started a skincare instagram, and have been posting my morning and night routines, which I think will be infinitely more interesting when I have more products to play around with. I’m finding taking the photos hard though, and have so far found the inside of my bath the best place to consistently provide good lighting. I’ve thought about restarting my food instagram in the hope that it’ll inspire and encourage me to actually make it more than 2 hours into ‘healthy eating’ before making myself a cake.

I just looked up and there is a massive spider crawling up the wall. I was going to sleep with my door shut tonight but maybe I’ll let Agi in, just in case.

That’s assuming she doesn’t opt to sleep in the drawer all night again.

Paint and Belts

SHINee has always had slightly confusing teaser photos.

I even posted about it before - once in 2012 for Sherlock and again in 2013 for Dream Girl. I’m sure their teasers for every release since then have been as equally weird, but I didn’t post about them.

SHINee are currently gearing up for their comeback, which coincides with their 10th anniversary. A few teasers have already been released, and I already talked about that a little bit in my post complaining about Onew’s hair. SHINee’s fashion choices have also always been a little out there, although I think Key is in charge of that.

Anyway, back to the reason for this post.





These boys crack me up.

Korean Skincare Haul and First Impressions

At the start of April, I decided to use my Yesstyle account again for the first time in about 6 years. Having brought much of my current korean skin care collection on amazon, I was now finding that it was not only expensive, but also difficult to find all the products I wanted to try out. Yesstyle solved both of these issues, along with free shipping for orders over only $35, although the wait time was longer. However, I decided it was worth it and placed a small order, deciding that buying little and often was more efficient than buying everything all at once. I then placed another order at the start if this month, using the $10 off voucher from my first order and timing it with their upgrade to silver membership offer, which will afford me another $15 off and 6% off everything for my next order. The whole system is a little confusing, but anyway, here are the products I brought and my thoughts. 

Heimish All Clean Balm - $16.65

I’ve tried this a few times now, and the jury is still out. I’ve not used a balm cleaner before, but it melts in your hands to a standard oil cleanser consistency so wasn’t that confusing to use. It smells much stronger than I expected, but it’s a nice, clean, medicinal tea tree type of scent. It seems to do a good enough job of cleansing, but no better than my current oil cleanser, and it does seem to leave my vision cloudier than normal. I do like it, but I think that’s more because of the novelty of a new type of product. For the most part, the Simple one would still be my go to oil cleanser, because it’s cheaper (especially when it was on offer for £2, how I wish I’d brought 60 rather than just 6) and more easily accessible. 

Klairs Freshly Juiced Vitamin Drop - $18.96

I’ve been using this every evening, and I do think my skin has started to look brighter. The consistency is different to what I was expecting, it’s much more of a lightweight oil than the serum or essence texture I had imagined. This does mean that it takes a little longer to absorb into the skin, and the first night I was a little worried that I would remain slick faced until I washed it off, but my skin soaked it up nicely. The dropper was fun to use, and I experienced no tingling, warming or irritation. I know you have to be careful with mixing ingredients with vitamin C, so I don’t use it when I have used my neogen bio peel pads, and while I’m currently only using it in the evenings, when I build up to using it in the day, I’ll make sure to use a sunscreen as Vitamin C can make you a little more sensitive to sun damage.

CosRX AHA BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner - $13.54

I haven’t really given this much of a go yet as I was far more focused on the klairs vitamin drop and far too scared to mix vitamin c with these acids, but the couple of times I have tried it, I’ve mostly thought how awesome is is to have a toner in mist form. I still class myself a fairly new to toners full stop, and alternate between using pads and my hands to pat the product in. Misting seems to make so much more sense than either of these options, as well as saving money and waste on cotton pads, so next time I buy a toner, I’m going to look for a mist one. I’m currently eyeing up the Pyunkang Yul one as a non acid toner, but research has also told me that I should be able to use this toner with the klairs drop as I don’t have sensitive skin and they are of a similar ph, so maybe I’ll start giving it a go in the mornings. 

CosRX Pimple Master Patch - $3.45

These are A M A Z I N G. Luckily, or not, depending on how you see it, I had a pretty big cystic break out on my chin right as these arrived. I popped one of these on, and while it wasn’t invisible, it wasn’t obvious either and I felt comfortable enough to go out with it on. Within a day, it had brought all the gunk to the surface, which normally takes multiple days if not over a week. My breakout was also much less painful as the swelling went down so much quicker. Definitely would repurchase, and will definitely use them every time I break out. 

Face Liftimg Roller - $4.25

This was a bit of an impulse buy because I was feeling fat faced at the time. The reviews were good , but I think you’d have to use this consistently for like half an hour every day or something to actually be able to judge it’s effectiveness. So far, all I can tell you is that it bemuses my cat and makes her swipe at it, which isn’t ideal when it is in such close contact to my face. 

Etude House Collagen Eye Mask - Free

I haven’t used this yet so I can’t comment on it at all, but I guess the packaging looks cute?!

This has turned out to be quite a long post, and this is only the first order. I think I’ll have to do another haul post tomorrow or something! Overall, I’ve liked everything I brought so far, but time will tell how many of these products I will repurchase when these ones have run out. 

Light

SHINee announced their comeback today.

They released a video of the four members, and while Minho and Taemin were looking their normal, idoly selves, Onew and Key were sporting new hair cuts and colours which I hope will make sense during their promotions.

Key is fairly active on social media, so I was already familiar with his hair style change, started by a rather startling video of him shaving it all off (leading to the fear that they were all going to enter the military). I’d seen a photo of Onew at a concert where he was covered up head to toe, suggesting that he’d done something drastic. To be honest, they look quite similar - I know Key shaved his own head, and it looks like Onew cut his own hair.

I liked Onew with red hair when he’s had it in the past, I think it’s just the style that looks a little odd, and to be honest, it just makes me worry about him more.

Hairstyles aside, it was mostly just lovely to see them all smiling so confidently and naturally.

I was just looking for a photo of the clip to put on this post (why is it so difficult to add photos to blogger these days) when I discovered that SHINee released a new Music Video a couple of weeks ago and it totally slipped under my radar. Mostly, this is because it’s Japanese, and SHINee are represented by a different agency for their promotions there, so I’ve always missed their Japanese stuff.

What’s important here though is that Jonghyun recorded this song.

Shine

I am obsessed with this song at the moment.

I didn’t know much about Pentagon before this song came out. I still don’t know much about them, other than at least two of the members appear to be very small, and one of them wears a cape for some reason.

Changes

Last night, I was asleep by 11pm. I woke up at 7 and only snoozed my alarm once rather than my normal two times, so I was more awake in the morning. You’d think that getting up earlier would make me more tired and therefore keen to go to bed early again, but no. For some reason, I’m instead wide awake.

I’d also like to point out that getting up earlier didn’t mean I was ready any earlier, it just meant that I changed outfit 4 times. Twice because I decided that I was too fat for two of the dresses, one of which bulged at the buttons and the other being very tight to zip up, once because I decided the dress was too short with flesh coloured tights, and finally the last change was the dress I settled on.

I guess I’m going to find this more and more as we get into summer and the weather improves. A lot of my summer clothes were brought when I was much slimmer, and therefore, being probably 2 stone heavier than that now, they understandably don’t fit so well any more. If I only had the will power to do something about it.

I should really try to go to sleep. I could always watch some Six Flying Dragons, I cant seem to watch more than 20 minutes of it before I fall asleep.

Bank Holiday

I kind of had in my head that I would aim to post at least every other day this month. I didn’t post yesterday, which means that I should post today. But about what?!

It’s been a bank holiday weekend this weekend, and the weather has been stunning. We took full advantage and I have spent much of the weekend with my parents out and about doing the typical sunny day British family thing.

In case you didn’t know, the typical sunny day British family thing is going to a National Trust property or walking around either a wood, lake or some form of hill or small mountain. We did both. As in went to a national trust property and walked around a wood, not that we also claimed a small mountain - although my dad did seem to be suggesting that at one point.

It was lovely, although bordering on too hot. The problem is that here in the UK, I don’t feel comfortable wearing my abroad holiday clothes no matter how hot it gets. I have no idea why, but something about wearing shorts (if they fit me, which I’m pretty sure they don’t) just doesn’t seem appropriate here.

In all fairness, if I lost some weight and was happier with my body, I probably wouldn’t care so much.

Secret Shame

Yesterday, I was in bed for 10.30 and settled down to watch the remaining half of episode 2 of Six Flying Dragons. I was asleep by 11, and don’t really remember watching any of it. This may or may not have been due to a major sugar low.

Let me set the scene.

Saturday last week, my friends and I were in Tesco buying birthday gumph for another friend when we walked passed the Krispy Kreme cabinet. I suggested we buy some, we decided against it, we moved on. Every day since then, I have thought about Krispy Kreme doughnuts. On the way home every afternoon from Monday through to Thursday, I was half way to Tesco before I thought better of it and resisted. Then Miffy messaged me about the Krispy Kreme doughnuts someone had brought into her work, and all resolve was lost. Especially after a class of wine at the pub.

I went to Tesco, and made it all the way there.

It was late so the choices weren’t fantastic. No prepackaged variety packs, it was help yourself.

I could have got one. I did not. I could have got three. I did not.

I got six.

And then I went home and ate them all.

Two classic glazed rings, can’t go wrong. Strawberry and Kreme, surprisingly good. Salted caramel, divine.  Lotus biscoff, disappointing. Classic glazed jam, can’t complain.

I would for sure have the salted caramel and the strawberry and Kreme again, as well as the classic glazed rings, obviously. The biscoff I wouldn’t bother with, I just didn’t like the custard and the doughnut itself wasn’t squidgy enough. The glazed jam one was nice enough but just oozed everywhere, so a bit too jam heavy and full on dangerous to eat.

In my defence, I didn’t eat them all. I left about a quarter of the biscoff one. Agi enjoyed the custard. Then I emptied the bin to hide the evidence from my visiting parents. Fat load of good that did when my mum reads this blog.

Six Stationary Dragons

I’m half way through the second episode of Six Flying Dragons. I have been for days. I have little to no desire to watch it, instead finding myself loosing time doing nothing and then deciding it’s too late to watch it now.

I know I need to give it a good shot. I’m watching it because it’s one of the most highly rated dramas on Viki, so it must be worth watching. It wasn’t even that I didn’t enjoy it, more that it just didn’t hook me in.

The ever growing desire to watch Decendants of the Sun might also have a little something to do with it.

I also thought of rewatching The 100, seeing as that is restarting fairy soon, so that’s probably not helping either.

Not that I’ve started watching either of these series instead.

Mostly I’m just too tired to be bothered to put it on.



EDIT: I was just about to settle down to sleep when I decided a security wee would be wise, seeing as I have drunk 2 litres of redbush tea since 6pm. I was surprised to find an empty landing, and even more surprised when the patter of little paws didn’t come racing up the stairs within seconds. Then I heard a very pathetic sounding mewling. Agi had shut herself in the lounge, and she was very lucky that I decided to pee or she’d have been stuck there, minus food, water and litter, all night. Not that she seems to like her food or water staying in their bowls at the moment, or her poop in the litter tray ...

Infinity

I saw Avengers Infinity War this evening. It was ok.

The problem is that these sorts of films always get bigged up. My feeds have been full of people saying that they cried buckets, and that sets an assumption that you will also shed a tear or two. I did not.

You see, I very much judge a film by its ability to make me cry, especially if it is a film that other people say have made them do so. Its why I didn’t get along with The Fault in our Stars. Everyone said it’s a tearjerker, and I just sat in the cinema totally dry eyed while everyone else bawled around me. One of the most surreal moments.

I am too tired to go into it in anymore depth. Basically, I didn’t cry and that ruined the whole movie for me.

*whispers* SHINee’s back

I started watching Six Flying Dragons. I currently have no idea what the hell is going on.

In other news, I found out two interesting things today. Firstly, that Henry is at the end if his 10 year contract with SM and has decided not to renew. This is no surprise really, he’s been quite vocal with how difficult he has found the company in recent years, but it does make me sad. I worry about what will happen with Super Junior M. I’ll also be sad to see his influence gone in other SM artists work too. But I hope it works out for him and he can have the freedom that SM never afforded.

It does seem like SM are loosing a lot of their talent lately. Obviously not counting the law suits, but first half of SNSD didn’t re-sign, and I’ll bet that f(x) are coming up for renewal soon and I’ll be super surprised if Amber at least doesn’t leave - judging by her recent YouTube career building and solo releases. Super Junior all re-signed, so it looks like they are all here to stay, and TVXQ probably are too. Hopefully SHINee are as well, but I can’t find anything solid about their contract situation, only that they are coming up to their 10 year anniversary.

In celebration of this, SM announced that SHINee would be making a comeback. I’m both really sad and super happy about this. Sad because a comeback minus one member is heartbreaking, but happy because they are and always have been one of my most favourite bands and I will always be excited about their new releases. The members all seem to be keeping busy, except Jinki, I’ve not really heard anything from him other than speculation that he wrote the 10th anniversary comeback advert.

I still feel my eyes prickle when I see the 5 of them together.

Past it

I remember being somewhere between 18 and 21, going to a bar on a Friday or Saturday night, and feeling ancient. 10 years later, not much has changed, I still feel just as old and out of place. 

I hate ‘going out’, especially with people who aren’t my friends. I just cannot be bothered with the noisy locations, the forced polite conversation and the awkward sitting around not making polite conversation because the music is too loud. 

I’d much rather be at home instead. 

What the .....

On Monday, I told the boy I was seeing that I didn’t think we were right for each other. He then proceeded to show up at my house, uninvited, at 10 o’clock at night.

On Wednesday, that boy sent me flowers to ‘show’ me just how much he ‘adores’ me.

On Friday, a friend of that boy text me to tell me how down afore mentioned boy has been because I broke his heart

Number one. I met this boy a handful of times, 6 at most. Not 6 years ago,but only 6 times.
Number two. Turning up at a girls house to declare your feelings is only romantic if she reciprocates. If she doesn’t, and she had made that perfectly clear, then it’s just creepy.
Number three. £30 for a tiny bunch of flowers is a rip off, and doesn’t show me anything other than that supermarket flowers are much better value and quality.

But none of this is anywhere near as ridiculous as number four ...

In what world is it ok for someone I have never even met to message me out of the blue and tell me what to do with my love life? How dare afore mentioned boy give out my personal details to a complete stranger?

I cannot explain how sick to the stomach I felt at receiving that message.

Bad Guys

First up, you may remember me basically saying I have been avoiding watching this drama for years, despite its high rating. Something about it just didn’t appeal and I was convinced I wouldn’t enjoy it. Boy, was I wrong.

Oh Gu Tak is a controversial detective, suspended after the murder of his daughter for going a bit crazy and beating people up. On the suggestion of his buddy, who happens to be the Police Commissioner, Oh Gu Tak joins forces with inspector Yoo Mi Young to bring three dangerous criminals out of prison to catch other criminals with the incentive of decreasing their sentences. Think Suicide Squad and you’ve pretty much got it. Park Woong Cheol is a famous gangster who took control of the whole of Seoul within a month. Lee Jung Moon is a genius psychopath serial killer who can’t remember killing his 15 victims. Jung Tae Soo is a contract killer who turned himself in and is ridiculously hot. Together, they are the Bad Guys Who Catch Bad Guys.

Yes, that’s pretty much the title. Inventive.

They pretty much run around investigating murders and beating people up and stopping organised crime. There is coherence, and every story does lead to the next which all comes together for the final few episodes. It was graphic, and even borderline upsetting at times, especially the organ trafficking episode, but it was shot so beautifully. The first couple of episodes in particular, the cinematography was stunning, although it was a shame that they had to blur out so much, as it was a little distracting. Basically every time there was a knife on screen, it was blurred out, and most if the characters seemed to spend most of their time holding knives. There was a realism to the way they rendered it, like you could see every pore on their faces, where as normally, the cast look almost airbrushed into perfection. There wasn’t even a romantic sub plot, unless you count Tae Soo going a bit gooey over the widow of one of his contracts. It just felt utterly different from any Asian drama that I have ever seen before, in literally every way.

I didn’t recognise many people in this drama. Jung Moon was Yoo Jung in Cheese in the Trap, which I hated and hated him in, although I enjoyed him in this. I just feel like Park Hae Jin is so much better suited to the creepy psychopath of this than the romantic, food obsessed, overaged lead of Cheese in the Trap. I also recognised the Police Commissioner as being the high up important army guy in Decendants of the Sun, which to be honest just made me want to rewatch it even more. Other than these two though, I didn’t recognise anyone, which is rare these days. I didn’t even know Jo Dong Hyuk, who played Tae Soo, which is a shame because he was lovely.

Would I recommend it? Yes, its a great drama that actually deserves the title of ‘drama’.

Would I rewatch it? Maybe, but at least not for a long time. I’m not sure how exciting it would be when you know what’s going to happen.

What comes next is difficult again. Do I learn from this experience and go for Six Flying Dragons, being a highly rated drama that I’ve avoided, this time because it’s so freaking long? Or rewatch DotS? Or do I start on Switch, which is currently quite highly rated, but I’m unsure whether that’s solely because it’s new, still airing, and stars Jang Geun Suk? I think I might go for Six Dlying Dragons ...

Why are you here?

I finished watching Bad Guys this evening. I intended to write a review post about it. Instead, somehow, I lost an hour on instagram and now it’s too late. So it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

You know, each one of my posts get a very similar number of views. That suggests that a similar number of people are accessing this blog every day. What if those people are the same people? An audience who reads my posts every single day and notices when I miss a day. I don’t know why anyone would intentially read this drivel, but I suppose it’s possible.

Hello, if you’re here on purpose, but why?? I don’t post anything at all interesting.

Hello, if you’re not here on purpose. I’m sorry to have wasted your time.

Not Quite

I was hoping to do a review post tonight, but I’m half an hour through the final episode of Bad Guys and I can’t seem to keep my eyes open, so I guess that’ll be tomorrow or something instead.

I don’t like typing on iPad. Everything is never quite right when you do, and you end up having to change a lot as you re-read through it.

I dint think I cab even write anymore, I, too tired. I’ve had a stinkin* headache all day. I can’t eve; be bothered to change wga5 had been written so here you go, what my blogs look like before I proof read them. I blame the iPad keyboard.

Done

Less than 24 hours ago, I wrote “I’m not giving up completely” on this boy I’ve been seeing. But you see, I’m pretty stubborn, so when I’ve made my mind up about something, it’s set. So today I ended things with said boy. 

He did not take it well. To be fair, he could have been worse, but he certainly didn’t handle the news with maturity. Instead he keeps sending me messages about how sad he is, sometimes with teary emojis to reinforce his point. We went on a handful of dates and I feel like he is reacting as if we were in a long term relationship. 

Do I feel good about it? Of course not. I don’t like to make anyone upset. But I don’t feel as bad about I as I feel I should.

I know I made the right decision, because at the end of the day, he was not right for me. He was too young, in literally every meaning of the word. I need someone with more maturity and more life experience; someone who can give me as much as they receive. 

This is what I’m realising. Relationships are about balance. In this case, I don’t think any aspect of our relationship would have been on even standing. 

I don’t want to go into too many details, because that would be unfair. 

Nah

Oops, I seem to have forgotten to post since Thursday night. I was doing so well too, and it’s been the weekend so it’s not like I’ve been too busy to post. In fact, I’ve literally done nothing. Another wasted weekend. 

I did go on a date. I’m not really feeling it, which is a shame because I was feeling quite positive about the whole thing not so long ago. All of a sudden, there’s a lot of things bothering me, and I can’t help feeling like I was liking the thought of having someone more so than the actual someone themselves. I’m not giving up completely, just being a bit more careful. I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up. 

I saw an advert in the paper today for a paper boy/girl, and they were offering £10 an hour. £10 an hour!! I thought £3 or £4 would be the going rate. It’s no wonder you see more adults delivering papers now than kids. Hell, I’m considering it for £20 a shift .... it’s just that the shift starts at 5am. 

I’m good thanks.

I just want to sleep

I just woke up from my pre sleep nap and remembered I hadn’t posted, so here I am even though I would much rather go to sleep instead.

I don’t even have anything to say. Had a lovely evening in with Rachey tonight and she helped me figure stuff out, while eating sticks a celery and watching Moulin Rouge.

Agi is very pouncy at the moment. I need to figure out how to change that because she is absolutely destroying my arms and legs. It was a lovely day today and everyone else was in short sleeves and bare legs, and there’s me with my cardigan and black tights because I don’t want to expose my mauled limbs. I think I just have a constant smell of Savlon about me from the amount I have to plaster on new scratches every day.

Right that’s enough. Good night.

Retrospect

I forgot to post last night. It didn’t even occur to me until I woke up this morning, and then it was literally my first thought. It wasn’t even like I was doing anything or had a particularly late night.

To be honest, I think I’m struggling a bit with the lighter nights. I don’t ever remember being like this before, but it’s like I can’t judge time in the evening any more, and all of a sudden it’s 9pm and I haven’t eaten yet. I blame the year for passing by so quickly - it doesn’t normally go this fast.

Retrospect is a fine thing you know. I was feeling so confused after Monday night, but now I think I know what happened. I listened too much to what he was saying and totally didn’t pick up on what was actually happening. I’m still not 100% sure that my suspicions are correct, but I think I need to take a few steps back, stop planning so far ahead and stop trying to move things along as quickly.

I kind of don’t want to end the post there, so now I need to think of something else to say. I’m actually really enjoying Bad Guys. It’s very different from anything else I’ve seen, and is far more greusome, but it’s also shot beautifully and the story lines are intriguing. I’m glad I bit the bullet and gave it a chance, it is definitely worth the high rating.

Who knows

As far as first days back go, today wasn’t bad, other than there being no non dairy milk, therefore forcing me into having a black decaf tea. It was the classic can’t get to sleep and then keep walking up every half hour thing though this morning, as I was paranoid that I’d over sleep and be late. But other than that, all fairly straight forward

Then this evening, a boy came round and I cooked us fajitas, with dairy free cheese that my cat kept trying to nab until we were forced to lock her out of the room. He said they were good, and I think they were ok to be fair, but I’d be interested in his true opinion. I did offer him to buy his own chicken and dairy items if he wanted them!

Boys can be like that, they often might say one thing but mean something else because they don’t want to say it. Tonight for example, I’m not sure if what he said was what he meant, or just because he didn’t know how to say what he was really thinking.

Time Flies

Back to work tomorrow. The easter holidays have flown by, and I would totally not complain at another two weeks off. That’s the problem with lomger breaks, you get used to not working, and then it becomes harder to get back into the swing of things. Tonight for example, I intended to get an early night. Yet here I am, nearing midnight and I’m still awake.

I am tired though. I woke up early this morning - at least early for a day without plans.

I have also eaten a lot of dairy in the past few days so need to do something about that. I can’t very well see what effect giving up dairy has if I don’t actually give it up.

I guess this is turning until a “from tomorrow I’ll do this and this” type of post. This is boring even for me so I’m going to cut it short here instead, and go to sleep.

sleeeeep

I didn’t post last night because it was very late and I decided to try and get to sleep instead.

Tonight, I’m attempting to post to avoid missing another day, but I’m really tired and just want to go to sleep. I’m aware that I’m spelling things wrong and making a lot of silly mistakes, and pretty soon I won’t be bothered enough to correct them.

In the old days, this used to be called sleep posting. Basically when your eyes are so heavy that they’re barely open as you type. Great fun to reread, more embarrassing for the other party.

Short run down of the past couple of days in sleep post style.
Friday - Had a date, we talked a lot, my cat spilled dip all down my front.
Saturday - new home visit, floor picnic, trip to park, girl chats

I’m so sleepy now

Lo Siento

Super Junior released their latest song today, and I really like it, far more than their past couple of releases since their two year hiatus, because apparently they can promote without everyone apart from Donghae and Eunhyuk.

Literally, while the other members were in the army, they still released music, even now, with their two main vocalists in the military, but they just full on put a stop to everything from the moment Eunhae enlisted to when they discharged.

It makes me really sad to see an incomplete Super Junior. During the two year break, I welled up a bit to see only 4 people representing what should be 15 members. Currently, there are 7 active members, Leeteuk, Heechul (although he isn’t performing), Shindong, Yesung, Donghae, Eunhyuk and Siwon. Ryeowook and Kyuhyun are still in the army, and Zhou Mi and Henry are only in the Chinese sub unit. I know Kibum and Hangeng are no more, and Kangin is reflecting after doing far too many very naughty things, but Sungmin? It’s pathetic that he’s been forced out of his group just because he got married and didn’t tell the so called fans. It makes me so angry, especially with what happened to SHINee. How I wish Onew had been there for their last performance together. Life is too short to boycott a member because of something so stupid. You never know what will happen next and I certainly don’t want Sungmin to be sidelined because he got married.

Anyway, sorry, I got a little carried away there. Back to the song.

It just felt like Super Junior. It was catchy, and I’ve played it about 10 times today, with it stuck in my head the rest of the time. I liked Black Suit, but it just didn’t really work for me somehow. Super Duper was good fun but meh. Lo Siento is just classic SuJu. All the pelvic thrusts for a start. Super Junior just wouldn’t be Super Junior without thrusting.

I particularly enjoyed Shindong’s part where he clearly had something wrong with his eyebrow. If someone next to me at a bar lifted his eyebrow at me that frequently over that little a time, I would definitely move away as quickly as possible, especially to dance with Leeteuk instead.

Can we take a moment to talk about Eunhyuk’s styling on M Countdown? A bright yellow, baggy, double breasted suit, with a purple satin shirt is bad enough, but why top it off with a mullet? Poor boy.

I really liked Leeteuk’s outfit though. 

Chief Kim

I haven’t written a review post in a L O N G time. How do I even start? Maybe I should go back and read some of my old reviews for inspiration.

Ok, so it’s been 5 years since my last review post. 5 years. That’s crazy. 

It’s seems that I had a little formula going. First I’d explain the plot, then I’d say what I thought, and then I’d say what I was going to watch next. For the Japanese dramas I used to find links between the actors and what else I’d seen them in, which actually I might reinstate, although I don’t know how much fun it’d be without the Gokusen factor. 

I realise that I’m procrastinating. 

Chief Kim is about Chief Kim...

Excellent start there. Let’s try that again.

Kim Sung-Ryeong is a dodgy accountant for dodgy people in somewhere that isn’t Seoul. His life ambition is to move to Denmark, and takes on dodgy jobs to eek out as much money from the monsters and criminals as he can. He is consistently arrested for fraud, but is so skilled at covering his tracks that he is always released with lack of evidence. One day, his secretary tells him about a job opening as chief of the accounting department at TQ group where they promise not to discriminate in regards to education and experience. Kim goes for the job with the plan of embezzling a huge sum of money to get him to Denmark, and newly appointed director Seo, an ex prosecutor, convinces the chairman to hire him to act as their puppet in various fraudulent activities. However, Chief Kim isn’t as easily controlled as that, and soon comes to realise the corruption within the management of the company. He grows closer to his colleagues and develops a conscience, eventually taking on Director Seo and the Chairman to protect the rights of his colleagues. 

I’m not going to lie, it look me a fair amount if time to get through this series. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but it didn’t grab me too much for the most part, although the last 4 or 5 episodes I could have watched one after the other. I found Namgoong Min’s Chief Kim to be a little too over the top, and Nam Sang Mi as Deputy Yoon a little bleh. I did have a soft spot for Director Seo though, even though he was the villain, but that was probably because I have a soft spot for 2pm’s Junho. I did find the absolute lack of romance really refreshing, especially when you thought they were going to go there, but then they didn’t. A particular favourite example was when Deputy Yoon complained of the cold, and Chief Kim looked like he was about to take off his jacket, but instead said that she should have worn something warmer like he did. Having said that, I would have totally approved of Deputy Yoon and Director Seo getting it on at the end. 

Namgoong Min was the lead in Beautiful Kong Shim, and I must say I preferred him in that, although the characters were actually quite similar. Obviously I already knew Junho from 2pm, but he was also the lead in the last drama I watched, Just Between Lovers, along with Kim Kang Hyun’s Clerk Lee. To be honest, I loved their friendship so much in Just Between Lovers that I was kind of disappointed with their lack of contact in this. I also recognised Accounting Director Choo as the investigator from   While You Were Sleeping, and the Chairman’s son was also someone suspicious in Suspicious Partner.

Would I recommend it? Sure, why not. It’s good fun.
Would I watch it again? Probably not. I really enjoyed seeing where this drama ended up, but I don’t know that I’d be overly bothered about goimg through it all again.

Next up is a tricky one. Technically it should probably be something like Replay 1988 or The Good Doctor, older dramas that have high ratings*, but I find myself tempted by Jang Geun Suk’s Switch, currently still airing, or rewatching Dots.
To be honest, Dots will probably win, because I want to see Onew. Seeing Song Joong Ki doesn’t hurt either.


* I’m trying to go by rating on Viki, which is hard when they don’t actually list the series in order. I’m on the 9.6’s now, except for Six Flying Dragons and Jewel in the Palace as they’re both 50 episodes long. There is also Bad Guys, which hasn’t appealed, but maybe I should give it a chance.

Ok that’s my first review in 5 years done. I don’t have a photo because blogger has made that difficult, but if you really want one you can just google ‘Chief Kim Junho’ and that should see you right.

Lazy Day

I had a really busy day yesterday. Up and out at 8.30 to drop Agi off at the vets, home for a quick cup of tea and then off to get petrol and some buttons from Hobbycraft, then finishing a dress, meeting a friend fir lunch and then having a two hour walk before heading back to pick up Agi. Sure after that it was quite quiet, but that was a fair amount if running around for a day off.

Today I woke up, tidied my dining room a bit and did a load of laundry. That’s it.

This evening, at 8.30, I was looking to see what was on, and saw I had two options at 9. I decided I wouldn’t watch either as I was too tired and something starting at 9pm seems late when you live alone. So I turn off the TV and play on my phone for a bit. Next thing I know, the light goes off because it’s 10.30, and somehow I just wasted 2 hours, mostly on instagram, and both the shows I decided not to watch have finished. I come to bed and somehow, now it’s nearly 12.30.

If I have a super power, it looks like it’s the ability to fast foward exactly 2 hours into the future. I suppose it’s a good way of getting out of a fight - chances are it’s finished before you even know it’s started.

Spayed

Agi was spayed today.

I was really worried that she would be in a massive mood with me, not just fir the operation, but also because I left her and that I couldn’t give her anything to eat since her tea last night. Luckily, if she was pissed off, she got over it quickly, as she is being as lovely as ever. She’s currently lying over my shoulder asleep, and has been cuddled up to me al,let ever since we got home.

Other than the time when I was sitting on the floor and she kept trying to attack my crotch. That felt a bit vengeful.

Dairy Free

Today I got my food shop, and not a single item contained dairy. Therefore, here starts my dairy free experiment to better skin and hopefully loosing some weight too. 

The first thing everyone says when you look for advice on how to prevent adult breakouts is that you should cut out dairy. I asked my doctor about it and she seemed to think it was all poppycock, but I know of other doctors who subscribe to this theory. The internet is littered with stories of people who cured their acne by going dairy free - in fact it’s actually really difficult to find any stories of people that gave up dairy and found it did nothing for them. 

I’ve long thought we shouldn’t eat dairy. Think about it, when you have a dodgy tummy, you avoid dairy. Why? Because it makes you feel worse. When I had a tummy bug a couple of years ago, I thought I’d eat a yogurt when I had started to feel able to risk something that wasn’t dry crackers. I thought the friendly bacteria might help. Do you know what happened? I got cramps so painful I cried out and had to make a mad dash for the toilet. I did not make it. It was traumatic. 

I gave up dairy for a week once before. After I started eating it again, I had horrible stomach pains and thought to myself that clearly dairy does not agree with me, but yet, for some reason, I continued and got myself used to it again. 

There are other reasons to go dairy free, but I’m just curious as to the effect of no dairy on my skin ... and my waistline. 

SMTown

All of the SM artists are in Dubai at the moment for SMTown, and there has been a lot of activity on social media covering their visit. I saw Minho dancing, which was good, and Key has been posting a lot on his Instagram so I think that’s good too. Taemin always has that serene smile of his, so I’m hoping that he is doing okay too. I’m only really still worried about Onew.

His charges were dropped the other day, finally. Basically, months and months ago, he got really drunk one night, fell over and grabbed a girl on the way down. She went to the police but pretty much instantly dropped the charges, but the claim had been made and investigations had to be done. It was a huge scandal and prevented him from promoting with SHINee. This was upsetting at the time, but plain heartbreaking when Jonghyun died and we realised that was the last chance for the boys to perform  together. At the funeral, he didn’t look well, and at the airport the other day, he just looked ... small and sad. There’s been a lot of photos and videos from the top of the Burj Khalifa but I’ve yet to see Onew and that worries me a lot. I’m sure he must have been there, as it looks like everyone is (SMTown, more like SMCity) - I just want to see him messing around with his friends like he used to, with Key slightly off to the side looking all embarrassed.

Ok so I’ve just spent a L O N G time on instagram and have finally found proof that Onew was at the tower, and was smiling. Leeteuk did some form of backstage thing at the concert so I need to find a subbed version of that to get a better idea what they were saying, but they all seemed okay. I even watched some fancams of the show, and yes, I have tears streaming down my cheeks but at least they looked like they were having fun.

My heart is a little more at ease now.

Happy birthday Jonghyun 🌹

Redesign

Do you think I need to revamp this blog? It’s been a long time, and while I like my blog design, I don’t know whether it’s not a little out dated. I don’t read anyone else’s blog anymore so to be fair I have no idea what the cool kids have their blogs looking like. I just feel like maybe it’s time to change. Also, I don’t think I need links to all the drama reviews down the side anymore - it seems pretty irrelevant. 

I have felt pretty crap all day today, starting from late yesterday evening, when I randomly started getting weird tummy cramps. Luckily they finally seem to have stopped this evening, so I have no idea what that was all about, but going out shopping with a sqiffy tummy is no fun at all. I didn’t buy any jeans, but then again I knew that I wouldn’t as they wouldn’t have had what I wanted, but I did buy two new dresses from Seasalt and managed to walk into and out of Saltrock without buying anything, which is a first. I also managed to not go into the Cadbury shop at all, which is another first. 

I’m heading home tomorrow. Agi has her operation booked in for Monday morning so I figured it’d be nicer for her to have the weekend at home to settle back in. I’m tempted to invite a boy over on the evening as we’d planned to get a takeaway, and as I won’t have got any food in yet, it seems good timing, but I also won’t have shaved my legs, so there’s that to consider too. 

We Shall See

I have a few posts in mind that I want to write. One is about tags. Another is about snails. Neogen pads. The difference between the Mediheal green sheet masks. All of these require time and effort, so who knows when you will be getting them. We shall see. Not today, at any rate. 

We went for a walk today. I realised that I need to buy some more jeans because mine got really filthy from a certain three year old trudging through lots of mud and then deciding to refuse to walk. Luckily, my mum and I had planned to go shopping tomorrow anyway. We don’t really know why we are going, as neither of us really need anything. I just want to go as we haven’t gone in my last few visits here, even though we always say that we will. I think mum wants to go just so she can go to Costa. To be fair it’s a pretty pointless trip, but never mind, I might post tomorrow about how I’ve managed to buy £1000’s worth of stuff for a fiver. I might post about spending a grand on stuff worth £5. We shall see, but hopefully it’s not the latter.  

I finally finished all my easter chocolate today. So technically, I should be able to go dairy free from tomorrow. The problem with trying to do anything here is that my parents fill their house with delicious tempting things, none of which I make a habit of keeping in my own home. So we shall see, but I can at least try. I need to give the whole dairy free thing a proper go at least, just to see whether it helps my skin clear up a bit. If it doesn’t then I don't think I’ll bother, even though there are a lot of other positives to going dairy free. I don’t know. We shall see. 

We shall see. I’ve written that a lot in this post. I guess that’s the title then. 

Auntie Gushing

Today, as I was tucked up in my sisters bed with my niece, eating mini chocolate Easter eggs out of her Easter bucket, I thought to myself that I should post about this moment later.

I don’t really know what else past me wanted to write, though.

Maybe something about how precious those moments are. She had just told me that she couldn’t choose between me and chocolate, which I think is fair, chocolate is very important. Or rather, she couldn’t chose between chocolate and Night Ninja, as that is my name at the moment. A couple of days ago I was Captain Turbot, but I think that Night Ninja sounds much more fun, even if that does make me a villain.

She wanted to play a lot of ‘Stuck’, which is when she bounces on me until I get fed up and then grab her, tickling her into a big hug that she struggles out of. Repeat about seventy thousand times until she gets distracted by chocolate. She also wanted to play a lot of wearing the Easter bucket as a hat, which is all well and good until she finds it significantly more amusing when it’s full of solid chocolate eggs and foil wrapper fragments. Repeat about seventy thousand times until I managed to convince her to do it to Gran instead.

Ahh she’s so lovely.

Foggy Mornings

I don’t really have anything to post about today.

I’m on Easter holiday at the moment, which means two weeks off work. Gradually, my bed time gets later and later, which means that my wake up time also get somewhat later and later. This is very much exasperated by being in Somerset, and for some reason, finding it exceptionally difficult to wake up when I’m here. I don’t know what causes it, but it’s like there is anaesthetic in the air. Waking up is like trying shake a thick fog out of my head. This is particularly unpleasant when my mother lets the cat in not just before I can properly wake up, but when I’m still fast asleep, which then means I not only have to try to shake the drugged feeling, but also defend myself from a miniature panther who’s sole desire is to bite my ears, nose and chin as much as possible.

Anyway, the point of this was to complain about how going to bed at the same time doesn’t mean that I sleep at the same time. I’ve not even watched anything, I just find myself wasting hours on rubbish of absolutely no significance. I’ve been playing a lot of 1010!.

I didn’t add the exclamation point, it’s part of the games name.