I’ve caught the travel bug, & I don’t want to be cured

February 3, 2016 in Everyday | Tags: , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Hello February! Both of my parents’ birthdays are in this month (Dad’s on the 8th, Mom on the 18th). It’s also a significant time for Chinese New Year (which falls exactly on my dad’s birthday this year). As you may know by now, each Lunar Calendar year corresponds to an animal in the Chinese zodiac. When the new year falls upon your zodiac sign, it becomes a significant time for YOU. This becomes your so-called “make-or-break” year…if you are superstitious like I am. When it becomes the year of your zodiac sign, you must wear something RED EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR. It could be something small like earrings or a bracelet (guys could even use a piece of red string tied around their wrist). Or it could be something large like a t-shirt or socks. The absolute best way to ward off negativity for the lunar year is to wear, & I am not joking…RED UNDERWEAR. I’ve done the red underwear thing before, & it actually worked for me. The key is to buy a whole bunch of inexpensive red underwear (so you can turn all of your laundry pink), so you can cycle through them during the week. This lunar year falls on my zodiac sign, so I’m going to wear a red bracelet. I haven’t decided if I’m going to go all out & do the red underwear thing this year or not.

This year has barely just begun, & I’m already swamped with activities. I’ve had so many friends & family celebrating birthdays in January. Both of my parents are celebrating their birthdays this month. Chinese New Year is a huge deal in my family. We go through the ritual of cleaning the entire house to sweep out negative energy, & most importantly, we change our bed sheets on the Chinese New Year’s Eve, to signify the changing of the year. I am also going on a ton of trips this year. In just this month alone, I’ve already got two trips planned. Next weekend, Jian & I are going to play in the mountain snow in Lake Tahoe, CA. (We can’t wait to take our All-Wheel-Drive Audi up to the mountain snow.) Then, the weekend after that, the whole family is going to San Diego to celebrate my mom’s 70th birthday. I can’t wait to spend some more fun time with my favorite nephew & niece.

Also planned for this year, I’m going back to San Diego in the summer for Comic Con. I already got my 4-day passes, & I really hope I get to meet my favorite actor in person this time…not just watch him from afar at some stuffy panel discussion. Jian & I are currently in the process of planning two other major overseas trips for this year. We really want to go back to Guangzhou, China to visit Jian’s maternal grandparents who are unable to travel. It would be really wonderful to spend quality time with them again, since Jian is one of their favorite grandchildren. We hope we can snag another awesome package deal like last time, & have another layover in Japan again. I have really been itching to go back to Japan with Jian & show him other incredible cities. However, I do realize that we tend to mostly visit Asian countries whenever we plan major vacations, so I have finally convinced Jian to go with me to London, England. Hooray!

I am in the very early stages of planning the London trip. I am making spreadsheets, & lists, & reading lots of travel guides. I am going through my usual over-organized pre-trip planning. I am just way too excited to be visiting a European country for the first time. Just like my trips to Shanghai & Tokyo, I am going to photo-blog the shit out of my London trip. I will probably get obnoxious. I’m not sure yet. Well, I never know how to properly end my blog posts. So, cheers.

Today’s song of the day:

My happy little blurb about taking baths

January 26, 2016 in Everyday | Tags: , , , , , | Comments closed

Pascal Campion Art

ALL Credits Belong To: PASCAL CAMPION at www.pascalcampion.com;  Artwork Shared Via: http://www.pinterest.com/pascalcampion

Wow, I can’t believe January is almost over. Time is flying by so fast. Lately, it’s been quite chilly where I live, especially in the evenings. So, I’ve been taking more baths in the past few weeks. I know that my region is still not out of the drought danger zone, therefore, I try to make a conscious effort to reuse/repurpose my used bath water in an attempt to not waste water.

When I take baths, I fully utilize my private time in the bathroom. I am not ashamed to say that I can take a bath for up to two hours (on occasion). According to today’s Pop Culture standards, “Netflix-ing & chilling” is the cool new “hang out” thing to do. For me, I believe that bathtime is my favorite chill & relax thing to do. After I shut the bathroom door & step into the hot bathwater, I can totally tune out the rest of the noise going on around me & unwind for the day.

I have a routine (go figure…) that I always follow before I step into the bathtub. I like to first clean the bathtub a little to get rid of all the loose hairs & soap/shampoo residue from the previous showers. (Nobody likes to take baths in a dingy tub!) Then, I like to set up all of my bath products around the bathtub in advance, so that I don’t have to get up every two minutes to grab something. While the tub is getting pre-filled, I will then utilize this time to pick a fresh set of clothes, brush my teeth, neatly arrange my towel right next to the tub, & finally…grab my tablet & the little blue plastic IKEA children’s stool that I use to prop up my tablet.

After I’ve gone through my pre-bath bath routine, I am now ready to, as the kids say these days, “Netflix & Chill”. Sometimes, I will watch an entire movie while sitting in the bath. Other times, I will play games or read an e-book. When I am in my bathtub, I feel like I am in my own little bubble, undisturbed until the moment I step out of the tub. Once I am in the tub, there really is no other thing to do but to relax. I don’t have any particular order or routine in which I clean myself. I just let all of my muscles relax & zone out for a little while. There are some times when I take quick & efficient baths just to clean myself & go. There are other times when I will truly use this time for myself, & sit in the bathtub until the water starts to get cold.

No matter how much time I spend in the bath, I will try to save my bathwater & reuse it to water the plants around my house. It’s often very tedious & boring to scoop out the water into a bucket & haul the heavy bucket to my garden. I often have to make multiple trips,  but at least it saves water. I often get achy joints when the weather gets colder, especially when it’s raining outside, & taking hot baths greatly soothes the pain in my joints. I thoroughly endorse taking baths whenever you can. Save the bathwater, & reuse it to water plants. OR, do as the Japanese people do & reuse the used bathwater to wash clothes. When the weather is less than warm, it’s always fun to take baths. Cheers!

Today’s song of the day:

5 culinary facts about me you probably didn’t know

January 21, 2016 in Everyday | Tags: , , , , | Comments closed

  1.   When I was a kid, I was diagnosed with A LOT of food allergies. I could’ve become the kid in the bubble who couldn’t eat anything, but over the years, I’ve given my allergies a big “F…You”, &have overcome most of my ridiculous food allergies. For the foods I still am allergic to, I take an allergy pill & proceed to eat my heart out without feeling the effects of an itchy mouth.
  2. I am a creature of habit. Once I find a food/dish I really enjoy eating (eg. roast beef sandwiches, macaroni & cheese, etc.), I can eat that same dish everyday for a week or more without getting sick of it. That’s why I always buy the exact same coffee drink & pastry at my local coffee shop.
  3. BUT… That doesn’t mean I don’t like to explore new &/or other foods. I was an extremely picky eater as a child, but now I heartily eat all the different foods I would never even look at let alone try (eg. tomatoes &/or most vegetables, Persian food, etc.).
  4. I have eaten some pretty crazy, Fear Factor style Asian foods in my life, which even surprises ME to this day. My family always makes jokes about how I mostly like to eat plain foods like: white toast with butter or naked pasta sans sauce or seasoning, which is often times true. So, I shocked myself when I dared to try snake soup in China. (I didn’t like it because who eats steaming hot soup in the middle of Summer?) I have also tried whale meat sashimi in Japan, which was not as weird as I would’ve thought. It tasted like very, very rubbery beef. I don’t think I will ever eat whale in Japan again due to their extremely appalling & inhumane whaling practices. That was a one-time deal. In Japan, I have also eaten horse meat sashimi. I fell in love with it immediately. That’s the most craziest thing I’ve ever tasted, & I absolutely cannot believe that I love it, let alone like it.
  5. I am Asian, but I’m not a very big fan of noodles (of any kind). Noodles don’t really appeal to me, but RICE on the other hand, gets me all sorts of excited. I love to eat rice, especially white rice of course, but fried rice, clay pot rice, crispy pan fried rice, are all tasty as well. Don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy a bowl of soup noodles, Phở or ramen every now & again, but I will not go out of my way to eat it. I am #TeamRice all the way.

Today’s song of the day:

Calendar

May 2026
S M T W T F S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  

Enter your email address to follow this blog & receive notifications.

Join 264 other subscribers