❅ Take My Hands ❅

Post holiday depression

2012-01-30T11:24:00.001Z

Gained some weight over babe's birhtday, Christmas, and Chinese New Year, so that explains the chubby cheek above, leave me alone, it's festive season! Valentine's Day is coming up, how many days more?... 15! Right, it should be enough for me to shed the excess oil. Not that Valentine's will take up much of my calories, but any add ons is definitely bad and fatal, so yes. This is diffidence talk, 'coz gaining weight just makes me cranky one way or another.

And now I start to doubt my ability in doing everything. Damn! Why does being skinny have to feel so good?!

Anyways, I just wanna ramble for a lil' bit, and this would be weird to be written down in my personal journal, because if it's on my diary, I would feel very embarrassing when I read back, but if I blog about it, what are the chances that I'd look back at my posts? Unlikely, so...yeah *rolled eyes*

So, call me fat if I fail to lose any weight after Valentine's! OKAYYYYYY, that, is obviously a joke. Don't be mean. Lol.

Okay bye.

The W Day!

2012-01-23T16:13:00.001Z

...and what W day were you thinking?!!!

It's Wayne's Day LOL -.-! Lame lame lame I know... :S

So, Wayne turned 2* (I respect human privacy so I'll just mute it just in case if he feels old LOL) few days back, and I cracked my head on how to celebrate the day with him and what to buy him as presents. I said cracked my head because he doesn't want anything that will cost me a lot of money, he went on and on about how I should earn my own money blah blah blah so yeah...

So I went out to get some ideas of celebration and I saw my cousin post on facebook of her handmade oreo cheesecake and immediately I got in touch with her for the recipe so...credits for her for that :) And also credits to technology! Hahh~

And this was the mess that I made in the kitchen :S

Decorated the hall to make it more festive-like as it could possibly be, with his favourite snacks.

I visualized these letter candles in my head and good thing that I finally managed to get it without looking high and low for them.

The birthday boy moment! Hahhh~~

Our desserts for the night :)

These were kinda pre-celebration kinda thing 'coz it was meant to be a surprise. And we went out for his birthday dinner on the exact birth day. Here are some of the pictures :)

Got a chance to dress up hehh :) I love my tights! Hoho..

I drink red wine because I am classy.

He drinks beer because he is rough.

HAHAHA okay okay just kidding.

Soup of the day which I loved but not so much for his taste, but oh well, speaking of differences, we have tonnes :/

Pan fried king scallops! Super yum!

Lamb...shank?!ordered by him. I forgot the name of the dish :S It was good too!

Sirloin steak with Diane sauce!! It was so so good! Exactly my cup of tea :)

My posing moments *shy*

My candid shot :)

So that's pretty much a wrap.

Junnie tagged me to do a dream wedding tag, since our darling is tying her knot very soon, which I will try to do the tag a lil' bit later I guess 'coz the tag HAS TO BE IN VIDEO FORM lol!!! hahhaha. Oh and ps: she created the tag herself, which is the coolest thing ever to do! So...if you're reading this, click on the link and do the tag alright?!! because it is going to be fun!

The Countdown Day

2012-01-16T15:01:00.000Z

It feels awhile since I blogged, because I don't really have anything to blog about since I'm exercising one of my new year resolutions-- to write more on personal journal, so... But I really wanna write something here, so I browsed through my pictures and decided to just briefly blog about the epic countdown experience I had in London.

So we had this Taiwanese cuisine located in Chinatown.

And of course, we had to visit the famous M&M's store in Leceister Square near the W Hotel.

I like the green one 'coz she definitely has her princess aura over there with her hahh.

The best BoBa in town? Bubblelogy!

Took a stroll in Winter Wonderland, even though it is after Christmas, but pretty lights just make me happy, so... :)

Babe's trying to win me a soft toy...

And then we finally took the hassle to cramp in the crowd near Big Ben.

The waiting process is such a pin in the butt, but the fireworks definitely worth the wait!

Recently...

2012-01-14T19:27:00.003Z

Cracked my whole head with Acorn to finally come up with the header above, my first attempt, hope it's not too shabby.

Been into this kind of old English style of decorations recently, so that explains the bird-flower-graphic kinda thing, yeah...

Been really into the colour of green too, just weird current obsession, just like how it was with yellow a while ago, so... yeah, that too.

Dug deep into my polishes, and loving this nail colour for this winter-- Here today, Aragon Tomorrow (suede) by OPI. Yes it has to be in suede, it's just pretty this way.

Been singing to GarageBand a lot, mostly The One That Got Away by Katy Perry, but not gonna upload the cover, because my singing voice is kinda... unbearable, so... yeah, that's that.

Been a while since I ramble too...

Anyways, this is just random. Just my way of catching up, blog soon!
xoxo,
Hal

New Year Resolutions

2012-01-02T17:22:00.004Z

2011's been alright, but let's make our 2012 a better one. ~~Since I'm a big fan of jotting down lists~~ In order to do so, I've of course made a list of my new year resolutions :)

✿ Always be the best person possible.
- Because you only live once.

✿ Read more (non-novel) books.
- I definitely need to work on my general knowledge more. One book per month would be the target.

✿ Vlog more, and update my personal journal more often.
- Vlogs allow me to look back at all the things that I've done and smiled on it so I love that but I've just been too shy to do that sometimes. And as for personal journal, sometimes I got too complacent with tweeting or blogging away my troubles and I don't like that, I've grown up to wanna have more privacy for myself now.

✿ Practise the piano.

✿ Healthy routine for healthy body.

✿ Learn to cook.

✿ Financial planning.

✿ Be generous to everyone, always lend a helping hand, but always keep the guards up, because we gotta admit, life is harsh.

✿ Make a positive impact to the world.

✿ Set big dreams and learn to live it.

✿ Believe in myself.

✿ Life is not gonna be easy, but live it right, and it will worth it.

✿ Don't let the evil and harshness of reality gets to me.
- I would like to preserve the simplest pleasure of living than picking up skills to destroy and hatred.

✿ Stop running away from problems, confrontations, and difficult conversations.

✿ Listen, but think on own feet.

✿ Be watchful.

✿ Always dress decently.

✿ Create.
- Pictures, films, music, poems... anything! Creativity brings you more than you can ever imagine.

✿ Be diverse.
- To voluntarily restrict one channel of information is foolish. And in learning to know other things, and other minds, we become more intimately acquainted with ourselves, and are to ourselves better worth knowing.

Last but not least, may you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy. :)

2.0.1.2 :D

2012-01-02T01:59:00.002Z

Happy New Year!!!
Have you jot down all your new year dreams and goals yet?
I do have mine to share, but right now I am just wayyy too exhausted to do that, countdown in the heart of London is madness!!

Talk soon :)

xoxo

The one that got away

2011-12-30T17:59:00.001Z

I love love love this song.
Sometimes you promise someone forever but it doesn't work out that way.

"...I will make you stay so I don't have to say that you were the one that got away..."

It's Christmas!

2011-12-26T00:03:00.000Z

You better watch out, you better not cry, better not pout I'm telling you why, santa claus is coming to town... Oh no, he's already here! What a joyous melody eh?!?! Hope it's not tooo late, but merry christmas!!!

They say Christmas is a magical moment, well being surrounded by all the beautiful lights, showered by best blessings and pampered by all the precious gifts and cards? I think that's pretty magical by itself!! Not to mention the bonding time that one can have in this day :)

Merry Christmas!!! ❄

2012 clutches

2011-12-22T11:06:00.001Z

2012 clutches

Was drowned by all the crazy year-end sales that are going on right now, all I really been wanting is just a nice clutch. So to avoid spending without control, I tried to put up a set of clutches that I kinda really been wanting, so it stopped my itch from clicking for a while :/ Unless any of these are on sale too, then I might not be able to hold on lol.

The ice cube Chanel is not new I am aware, so I don't really want that, but I've always think it's cute, so I included in this set because it seems like it belongs here too, and well, I love it :)

THE bridal shower

2011-12-20T16:21:00.000Z

Been losing track on Gossip Girl lately, probably 'coz the hype's faded and thus so does my obsession over it, but finally got myself into it again. Notice how I posted the photo of me in this baby green outfit? I had to, 'coz I just can't get myself over the scene of Blair's bridal shower!

Here are a few shots of it:-

It is an exact from head to toe Tiffany's party!!!! With beautiful white pearls and the famous baby green boxes and white ribbons!!!!

With waiters serving the most delicious desserts she loves most-- macaroons from Laduree and all her favourite food!

And no matter what went wrong, at the end of the day, she gets to sit down face to face, one on one with her best friend of the entire world, and talk through their hearts.

Best bridal shower a girl can ever have!!

Despite all this high-pitched screaming, I do realise that I live in a sad harsh and materialistic reality that I am learning to embrace, and I am sure you would agree with me. Let's get real, what is the probability of you finding someone who would share your happiness of basking in luxuries and not being judgmental about you? I wouldn't say impossible, but if you find one, be glad and hold on to it tightly.

Christmassy

2011-12-19T11:55:00.002Z

I like my outfit, very christmassy don't you think?! ☃ Though it's not the most trendy one... oh well :)

I've always liked how white pants turn out on models/mannequins, but I'm always too scared to try one, because if camera adds ten pounds, white pants tops that! :/ So I guess the best solution to this is to sculpt myself into fitting those nicely. Quoting Karl Lagerfield : "I think that fashion is the healthiest motivation for losing weight." Indeed.

Christmas is just around the corner, are you feeling all jolly for christmas yet?! I know I do, basking in lots of Christmas movies, making my own White Chocolate Mocha, making plans for celebrations and jotting down list of wishes ♥

Celebration is a good start of reborn :)

Graduated!

2011-12-15T11:59:00.002Z

I'll try to make it as simple as I can.

After a year of stress and moaning, I've finally graduated from my master study. Thank god! And yesterday was the long awaited graduation ceremony. Or, if you must be more formal, the congregation.

And as usual, they always got typo for my surname.

Yes, I'm The Hui Ling lol -.-! but they're nice to offer correction printing but well that's totally unnecessary so long as they got my name right on my cert lol.

Anyways...

Thanks for the lovely graduation attire from my parents :)

Thanks for the graduation gifts from my loved ones and babe's heart all the way from Malaysia that meant a lot to me ♥

Thanks for all the lovely people who took their time off of their busy schedule to celebrate the big day with me.

And last but not least, thanks to my parents who put their heart and soul into nurturing my development and education.

Which you manifest is before you.
Future begins now, let's make the best of it :)

Turn Around

2011-12-09T18:49:00.001Z

Been a while since I blogged, well, might not be that long ago, but since I am one who takes pleasure in blogging, so... it's kinda rare. Maybe.

Anyways... Back from the exact one month of holiday and mind-free relaxations, back to hassles in life that needed to be dealt with with a tough poker face.

Oh something off the topic: I think everyone will eventually reach up to a point to realise that being nice doesn't get you too far in life. This may be termed as "growing up". I hope it's not too late for me.

"Change your thinking, change your life." -Ernest Holmes

Cheers.

hotpot day

2011-11-14T14:58:00.001Z

Had hotpot with Wayne the other day before I flew to Malaysia. Hotpot is my comfort food in the depressingly low temperature fall.

Had it taiwanese way, scha with egg yolk. If you like spicy taste, it is something for you :)

Our ingredients and stuff. I always need my beancurd.

Happy child! XD

Staying warm is my priority for loungewear, so I love my fleece pj :)

Been occupied with the long distance/timezone difference talk with baby, hence the lack of updates over here :S And 'coz I haven't done my shoes shopping yet, hence no outfits pictures are taken thus far, daily outfits don't look very finish with a decent pair of shoes that screams my name.

Anyways, updates soon!!

xoxo

Back to my roots!!

2011-11-07T15:50:00.000Z

I randomly decided to go back Malaysia for holiday and the next thing I know I'd packed my luggage and ta-daa here I am in the KLIA waiting for my next flight home! Always act quick you know :)

Look at the sunshine!! Shone so crazily on me even though I was indoor!! Home sweet home babeh~!

xoxo

Day 4: Tour Barca!

2011-11-01T12:26:00.001Z

I mentioned something about early flight in my last post, so yes, we woke up as early as 0330, when the day was still dark, and waited at the lounge for the taxi to get us to the airport at around 0500.

When we were waiting to board. I'm not a big flight person, like I don't really like it, all the waiting all the checking all the ear pressure just really turn me off, but well, it is the fastest way of travelling so I try not to complain.

Of all the hassles, I got to watch sunrise over the stunning mediterranean sea!!! Too bad the man sat beside me was soundly asleep to miss this! LOL
But I fell right into deep sleep too after that because I am always either gorging on flight meals or deeply asleep on flight and I don't think I can help it :/

... ...

You know I am kinda trying to recall bits and pieces from my memory as I am writing this, so maybe I was really sleepy and all at that point, so I just arrived in the Placa d'Espanya without even noticing it. You know Barcelona and Palma are two entirely different entities. Barca is so huge, like you have to walk a lot from one place to another, and everything is so big! So... I'm not quite a fan of it to be honest, on first impression.

We walked around and took some pictures but in fact, the fatigue and the hunger stopped us from appreciating the beauty of architecture. So we went to grab some quick bites before we checked into our room situated just near Placa Catalunya.

We then walked to the nearby Catalunya Square and hopped on to the Barca tour bus after refreshments. You can see they gave us free cyan earphones that tell us about the place when we arrive to a certain tourist spot. And you know the formal informative speech can really turn you drowsy, especially when you already are! So I dozed off for a nice few minutes on the bus deck but the sights were all good and came to me with senses after I got that power nap with fresh air and sunshine :)

By the way, this pity boy was doing all the work guiding me through which places would be of my interests after I was awake LOL

We saw the Olympic Stadium too! I vaguely remember Olympic was held in Barca in 1992??!!! Yes it is, I learned that when I was watching Who wants to be a millionaire? on the tele, so I know. LOL

Naked lady showers herself in the public. Tsk tsk tsk, this serves as reverse teaching okay!

The very cute prawn hehh :)

The large port near the World Trade Centre. And the beautiful W Hotel is situated to overlook the sea! We'll stay there on our next visit k baby! :D

After that, as our stomach growl again, we hopped off the bus at the luxury shopping place and went food hunting.

We had this tomato garlic bread?! Whatever it was, it was super yummy! Or maybe we were just starving...

Steaks! Mine was Girona steak, but I forgot what's his LOL I'll update the post if he could recall his order and if anyone is desperate to know what he's eating but I doubt so I guess I'll just leave it LOL

We went back to the hotel that night and I fell right into the bed immediately without any small talk and whatsoever while he still had the energy to tidy up the room and his stuff and my stuff and etc. LOL and I wondered where did he get his energy always so up high.

Meanwhile... I was jotting down my shopping list for the next day in my dreams... :)

Day 3: I got my caricature!

2011-10-28T12:22:00.001+01:00

Back to day 3 of my trip!

The routine-- outfit of the day:

Theme for the day was sightseeing, so I went casual and reached for a bright easy dress. By the way I forgot to mention that since I left my violet cap with Popeye, I repurchased another hat to shield me from over exposure under the sun!

Anyways, we always had our breakfast in the hotel because it is included. The breakfast provided was fine, the regular western breakfast buffet with trays of hams, cheese, bacon and cured meat and stuff so that explains why I never brought it up in previous posts lol. The food was decent, but the drinks provided were not very thoughtful, well, in my opinion as I need my caffeine fix.

I was craving for iced coffee because well I hadn't had iced coffee for a long time thanks to the chilly weather in the Britain so... Wayne eventually ordered this iced coffee with ice cream on and I loved it!!

After that, we walked around the town, getting around to know the town better before we had to leave the next day. We came to Plaza Mayor, where street artists and performers seemed to be gathered at, and we finally had our caricature drawn! :D

The painter was really honest about my under eye dark circle! :/ But I still loved it.

Then we arrived to the La Rambla street, but to be honest, there wasn't much happening over there, mainly florists.

I liked how fountains were everywhere to be seen there :)

We had our lunch at The Tapas Club, feeding ourselves with four tapas namely the potato omelette, chicken croquettes, fried squid ring and prawn pancakes. All that I loved! Well, it's a vacation, so of course I was entitled to bask myself in high calories oily fried food okay! LOL

Anyways, it was still early after the lunch and all, so we made plan to do another visit to the beach, this time, the Cala Major beach near our hotel.

I put myself to sleep watching the sun set before my eyes :)

And that's my beach outfit of the day hehh.

We had our buffet dinner in the hotel that night, and...no pictures were taken because we were too hungry to remember to do so lol. Anyway, and we slept early that night because we had an early flight to catch the other morning to Barcelona.

13 Conversations About One Thing

2011-10-26T14:40:00.000+01:00

Take a brief break from my Spain trip, into an old movie that I recently watched.

13 Conversations About One Thing (2001)

This movie basically portrayed on how the four different characters take their views on the happiness of life; namely a physics teacher, a lawyer, an insurance company manager, and a cleaning lady-- showing how the harshness or unpredictability of life took its toll against the four different personalities.

The physics teacher, in his midlife crisis, was so fed up with his routined life, and decided to have an affair with his colleague. He taught his student a scientific term: entropy, a term which I strangely came across few years back. Entropy has the characteristic of when it combines with another energy, it becomes another different but stronger energy, and it is irreversible. So it has to wait until the next time when it can finally combine with another energy again, to achieve a stronger level.

Just like us. Like after we met this person, we transformed into a different person, and there is no way that we could reversed to the one that we used to be. We're irreversible. If we're lucky, we may meet another person that can finally transform us into something bigger, stronger. It is so sad! When a person is transformed, don't expect him/her to go back how he/she used to, you either learn to embrace it or you move on.

Day 2: Palmanova beach

2011-10-25T13:28:00.000+01:00

Here comes day 2 of the trip.

Day 2 outfit:

It was totally beach day, so I wore a bright blue jumpsuit outside of my bikini.

I saw this leaflet from our hotel and the cruise trip really caught my interest so Wayne thoughtfully decided that we should take up the cruise on our day 2 :) So we departed to the Palmanova beach, a lil' bit further from our hotel, but it was so worth it!!!

Here's the boarding area.

We arrived slightly earlier than the boarding time because we mixed up the timezone difference, but then we got some spare time to take pictures around the magnificent beach!

Cozy breeze and beautiful sand and water just took my breath away. Just like watching travel tv program right in front of your eyes, except that this was real!

Don't ask me why I giggled in such a high pitched voice in the end alright, it was just simply that I didn't see it coming from him LOL.

It was still earlier so we went down to stroll around the beach as we couldn't wait any longer to bask into the ocean! Sunbathing under the hut was the best, because it kept me from sunburnt yet I was able to enjoy the scenery as much as I want as well as embracing the warmth of the sun.

Time's finally set for the cruise experience!

I swear I did not edit the sparkles in the picture, they really looked that awesome!

There was this mini slide at the back of the cruise where you could slide down to soak in the salty sea water. How fun!!

Or, you could choose to just lie around on the top of the cruise and clinched in the arms of lovely breeze and sunshine like us :)

After two hours, we were finally back to the ground then it was time for relaxing sunbathing.

I edited it into dimmed version simply because I am shy I hoped in that way you wouldn't be much bothered about the details of the picture but you get the general idea of it-- sunbathing. LOL

LOOK AT THE COLOUR GRADIENCE OF THE SEA!!!

I forgot to mention I took the luxury and had ice creams throughout the trip because... it's one of the must-do in beach?! Hehh.

Anyways, then we got back and dressed up for dinner.

I ordered for Lobster Rissotto but unfortunately they didn't have it that day so I switched to Seafood Rissotto.

The Seafood Risotto.

The Escallop steak ordered by him. Tasted kinda special though.

And we walked around the city after that to do some shopping, the great thing about it was the stores mostly closed at 8pm!

Day 1 of Palma

2011-10-24T14:06:00.001+01:00

I've been craving for beach holidays for sometime until Wayne finally gotten around into getting a week's leave off his busy working life. We immediately booked on a trip and happily flew to Palma de Mallorca, a beautiful island in Spain.

The view from our hotel room balcony was splendid, overlooking the spectacular Cala Major beach! Imagine waking up to this view with beautiful sunshine and cozy temperature! Britain's weather was like around 10~15 'C on average, so imagine how awesome to get away from that cold wet weather into this > 20 'C sunny days!

Freshened up ourselves and we headed out to be the tourists!

So outfit of the day:

Day 1

- Hehh, I finally managed to change on my favourite flip flops and of course, even though I savoured the sunshine, I am still the typical Asian who appreciates having fair skin, so the cap and sunglass were supposedly attached closely on me.

Just a few steps down and we had a glimpse of the beach! But we were so hungry so instead of indulging ourselves in the sand, we left town for food.

So we arrived at the Place d'Espanya, and took a quick stroll at the passeig des born, which is a luxury shopping street but was closed on Sunday boo!

I was starving and then we found this cute restaurant!

Popeye themed! My childhood friend! :)

I was a good girl I drank coke. No alcohol please *cough cough*

Grilled Hake. It was super fresh and yumm!

Must-have: Seafood Paella. There was no big difference from the paella in Leeds' La Tasca, but well, shorter waiting time. lol

Time for serious tourist activity! So we went to the La Seu Cathedral, the gigantic cathedral in town. And noticed that I wasn't wearing my cap anymore? Well, 'coz I left my cap in the restaurant :/ Guessed I would let Popeye play with my cap then lol.

The tap water you can see around the cathedral.

And if you have cinderella dream, you can get some air from this fairy tale horse carriage around the city, which is kinda amazing, but I've grown out of that princess phase so nah-ah I'll pass lol.

We then walked around in the maze of the city, searching for the various museums and cathedrals but I think it would be too much hassle to go in depth in all of it so...

Our first day ended by taking leisure walk around the beautiful environment and also finding our way back to the hotel 'coz it was our first day and the city was really kind of a maze! Seriously! lol...

xoxo

Sunny Wonderland

2011-10-22T18:13:00.000+01:00

After almost a week of luxury sunbathing in the breathtaking beach and sunshine, I am finally back, but well, maybe with a tan.

There is no better way to rest than travelling occasionally, might be physically tiring, but you know how satisfied you feel in the end, especially when you are finally eager to just go home and sink into a great hot bath.

Spain was such a great getaway for me from Britain's cold weather in the Autumn. Updates soon!

xoxo

JJ

2011-10-14T18:16:00.000+01:00

I'm always so drawn into his voice.

Just gotten around into this album of his, and it is so good! Been a while since I listen to chinese songs, and his voice is just awesome.

about grief

2011-10-11T14:20:00.000+01:00

People grief the way they know how,
take it or leave it.

Nostalgia is denial

2011-10-11T11:37:00.001+01:00

Was looking at the recent movies the other day and found Midnight in Paris, a Woody Allen movie. I am quite picky when it comes to movie, because I am always very trapped in the movie scenarios so I gotta be very selective to prevent myself from feeling crappy for something that does not hit me in real life. But I always watch Woody Allen's after careful inspection of the trailer.

Nostalgia is denial- denial of the painful present... the name for this denial is golden age thinking- the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one one's living in- it's a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present. - Midnight in Paris, 2011

One of my favourite quote from the movie, because that is so so true, can you not agree? :)

Present is always unsatisfying, because life is always unsatisfying.

Still hold your head up high.

SS 2012

2011-10-05T11:37:00.001+01:00

The Louis Vuitton SS 2012 fashion show melts my heart! And Kate Moss is as awesome as she always does!

And the Chanel SS 2012 is equally breathtaking! It seems a lil' bit different from what I have seen in previous Chanels, but well it is just my amateur opinion.