Hello!

I was supposed to finally get down to blogging but.. these days, I'd rather spend time on my fishy posts than write about my life (sighs). The latter's too tedious, despite the lack of activity (sad, yes). I'll go with frivolity (aka 没营养) for this post - been wanting to post about my favourite singers/actors/actresses since forever to.. I don't know, immortalise the memory of liking these people perhaps? Or to keep a visual record of all the pretty in my life, maybe. Or., to figure out my taste in men/people (lol). I've been asked about my "ideal type" on numerous occasions before and had difficulty giving a clear answer so this could help me with that ahahah and save me from mock exasperated responses like "you don't know?!", "you don't like anyone??" or "how can you not have an ideal type?"

I'll splitting this post into 2 different categories - singers/idols and actors/actresses because in Korea, people do not speak of them both in the same breath. Not that it matters to me but it makes the organising of pictures more convenient for me :D In Korea, the latter's in a completely different league from the former - idol actors are actually stigmatised in the film industry - somehow, having the ability to act propels actors to a higher level in the industry; they are highly regarded and their careers suddenly become far more prestigious and respectable. Idol singers may have spent half their lifetimes slogging it out at an entertainment agency but when placed next to an actor, rookie or not, their effort and sacrifices diminish in significance and in essence, they're simply perceived to be less capable, not as good, even inferior to their acting counterparts. It's hypocritical, really, considering that the beauty standards applied by the public to both categories are similar and much of that pretty we see among actors/actresses are likely to be manufactured anyway. They should be focusing on talent and hard work regardless of one's idol or acting roots! Interested to know more? Google "actors are more respected than idols in korea". There's even an article distinguishing the aura of an actor vs. an idol..

Note: I'm posting these images by their url so most probably won't show up on https/secure network - so access this post on an http/unsecured connection instead!

Update: I realise that posting images by url not only affects the view over a secured connection, there's also a problem with how secure those sites are and the risk it poses to viewers (urgh). So do NOT click on any of the pictures in this post, lest they lead you to unsafe sites.

A. Singers/Idols (Male)

 

 (1) Kim Jae Joong, JYJ (also named 'the angel')

King of my heart ❤

Has the voice of an angel

In a league of his own

Irreplaceable

Fan for 10 years and counting

(2) Lee Hong Ki, FT Island (also affectionately known to my family and friends as 'my hubby')

Fell in love with his voice

Still in love with his voice

Fan for 7 years and counting

Uncanny resemblance to my childhood Taiwanese boyband favourite, Zax Wang (the eyes are the same!!!)

 

vs.

The "Lead Singer" Syndrome (from left to right) - where falling in love with their voices is enough

Lee Hong Ki (FT Island), Seo Eun Kwang (BtoB), Kim Sunggyu (Infinite)

The "Blonde Hair" Syndrome (from left to right) - where blonde hair is a +1000000

 Kim Jae Joong (JYJ), Lee Hong Ki (FT Island), Jun Hyung (Beast)

 Kim Myung Soo (Infinite), Yook Sung Jae (BtoB), Seo Eun Kwang (BtoB)

G-Dragon (Big Bang), Lee Joon (MBLAQ), Lee Teuk (Super Junior)

What they have in common:
Vocal talent (if you're a singer with outstanding visuals but 0% talent.. go home), ability to rock blonde hairstyles, single eyelids(!), soulful eyes hahah

B. Actors

(1) Yeon Jung Hoon
Got to know him from a 2003 drama ("Yellow Handkerchief" which was a complete sobfest) and little Maddie decided that he was the type of guy she wanted to marry in future. Clearly, little Maddie was already very open-minded back then and the age gap didn't bother her one bit.


(2) Baek Sung Hyun
Some years later (probably sometime in 2004 or 2005), little Maddie thought things over and decided that she wanted to marry someone closer in age. She fell head over heels for little Sung Hyun (who was 14 at the time of filming for "Stairway to Heaven", oh yet another sobfest) and she now fondly remembers him as her 'first Korean love'. More than a decade has flown by since but no-longer-so-little Maddie still has a special place for him in her heart. It helps that he grew up really well, of course.

(3) Kim Soo Hyun
Oof, you charming alien from another star.

(4) Park Bo Gum ♡♡♡♡♡ (possibly the closest you can get to an angel on earth, personality-wise)
My daily dose of Vitamin C, nuff said.

                      (5) Song Joong Ki                                                   (6) Lee Joon Ki
             (he made soldiers sexy again)                          (LJK in sageuk fashion? Perfection.)


            (7) Lee Won Geun                           (8) Yoo Seung Ho                           (9) Lee Hyun Woo (you're killing me with your smiles) (and your intense, brooding gaze)       (and your goofball charms)

Ooh, the mature ones :P

                    (10) Kim Ji Seok                           (11) Jung Woo                         (12) Jin Yi Han
                             MAN                                              LI                                             NESS
                                                                           OVERLOAD

                                          (13) Lee Je Hoon                    (14) Ryu Joon Yeol

                                         (more eye smiles!)  (intelligent, loves languages, global traveller, CUTIE)  

                                                (15) Jo In Sung           (16) Lee Wan (looks like (17)!)
                                         (so dandy it hurts, I kid)         (clean-cut yet badboyish?)

Uh, result of overexposure to my mum's favourite Hokkien soap dramas HAHA

             (17) 陈冠霖, Taiwan                  (18) 謝承均, Taiwan                       (19) 黄少祺, Taiwan
      (I do like this look - see (14))             (this too, cute, no?)                              (hen shuai ye)

                 (20) 炎亞綸, Taiwan                  (21) Orlando Bloom                    (22) Dylan O'Brien 
    (combination of cute and handsome)         (Legolas, period)        (do I need a reason why? MELTS)

What they have in common:
Tall, single eyelids*, small eyes, expressive eyes, ohh dat swoon-worthy smile (melts in a puddle)
Basically, a great smile (eye-smile's a bonus) + great hair = the essentials on the outside.

C. Singers/Idols (Female)

(1) IU

(2) Hyeri, Girl's Day

That SMILE :D

(3) Jung Eun-Ji, Apink

(4) Sooyoung, SNSD

because she resembles a Malaysian actress (based in Hong Kong) who I find really pretty 

(see (9) below)

What they have in common:
Powerhouse vocals, bright smiles, clean image :D

D. Female Actresses

 

Look at that smile and eye smile 눈웃음, just look.

(1) Han Chae Young, #1 Goddess

(2) Lee Da Hae 

(coming in a close second, that is - before she did more plastic surgery)

 

I want to be,  I need to be as pretty as her!! And skinny too! And she has a tattoo to boot!

Have I mentioned that I love her?

(3) Gong Hyo Jin

(4) Honey Lee

(5) Ha Ji Won

So cute, so pretty, so elegant! 

Best part? 100% au naturel!

(6) Kim Yoo Jung (#pubertygoals)

(7) Song Ji Hyo

(8) Kim So Yeon

 

(9) Joanne Tseng, 曾之喬 (Taiwan)

 

(10) Puff Guo, 郭雪芙 (Taiwan)

(11) Vivien Yeo, 楊秀惠 (Malaysia)

(12) Eugenia Liu, 劉奕兒 (Taiwan)

I think she looks super like Anita Yuen but no one agrees with me!

What they have in common:

눈웃음 (crescent-shaped eye smiles), super bright smiles, sophisticated elegance, skinny, great characters, strong personalities (not overly feminine or the damsel-in-distress sort ugh), can pull off a mushroom/bob hairstyle

Okay, this post took wayyy longer than I expected (it was soo time-consuming curating/copying/pasting/saving pictures) but it was fun while it lasted! And here I have, a record of all the prettayyy in my life thus far! ^~^ Let's see if my taste in people will change over time hahah

See you again soon!

对90年代电视剧 爱爱爱不完!

(好久不见.. 不过又是华文篇！哈哈 深夜里感性的时候，思想写作都自动转为以华文来呈现。不过因为太久没打华文字了，有些生疏，写得不好的地方，还请多见谅）

啊，今天的话题是「90年代电视剧」！近年来，忽然吹起复古风-好流行把电影/电视剧故事设在80, 90年代的社会，例如《那些年，我们一起追过的女孩》，《我的少女时代》，《我的自由年代》，《请回答1997/1994/1988》韩国系列（我特强力推荐《请回答1988》！不看是你的损失啊哈哈），还有现在正追看的《美好年代》（虽然怀疑根本是抄袭回答系列的概念-连人物角色背景都好相似-不过还是超好看的。是没版权问题啦，不过要是导演编剧更有创意制造属于自己的角色的话，那该会有多好？）。由于把这些戏剧介绍给亲朋好友看时，最常遇到的问题是“你为什么这么喜欢看啊?", 所以我也开始认真思考我喜欢这’款‘戏剧背后真正的原因。

我根本沒有經歷過像「德善（덕선）」，「溫小光」，「林嘉恩」還是「林真心」在九零年代的高中/大学校園生活或日常生活方式，不過也不知為什麼，我就是特別特別地喜歡設在九零年代社會的連續劇。是因为我是所谓的 'old soul' 吗（有可能）? 还是单纯是欣赏以上电影电视剧的剧情或演员（不是）？

我，究竟是愛上了九零年代的什麼呢？

想了想，就写出了这么一个 '原因表‘:

我啊，就特別喜歡... 

沒有手機的互動（要嘛就親自上門拜訪，要嘛就打電話寄郵件 - BB機也蠻好玩的）

社區街坊的和睦與融洽（大家會互相照顧（也罩著對方），處處為對方著想，而不只是住隔壁楼上楼下熟悉的陌生人）

暖和的家庭聚餐（晚飯得一起吃呀，不管发生什么事，家人也永远是生活的重心）

不做作的友誼（因少了現實世界的種種誘惑，多出了一份真心與義氣）

朋友一起无忧无虑玩樂的時光（去露營，看螢火蟲，一起看漫畫，一起打球，一起做功課/K

書，一起在家裡吃披薩，一起在外瞎混等）

热血沸腾青春 （谁能敌得过青春那燃烧着的热情啊，敢爱敢恨，敢尝试敢挑战，不怕失败只怕错过）

真心待人的態度（人與人之間要是沒隔著一塊螢幕，相處時真情難免變得更難掩飾，人也變得更坦率，更懂得好好珍惜他人的真心）

懂得感恩的心态 （哎哟，跟现代以自我为中心的青少年比较啊，简直是差天跟地嘛）

做錯事时就勇于认错，敢作敢當（別把事情弄複雜，敢道歉，相同的敢原谅和包容）- 其实这不是九零年代专属的特征，只不过觉得在现实社会中，好难看到这种直率的态度了..

这究竟是對幸福家庭的一種憧憬嗎？對青春（差不多）已逝的遺憾嗎？對天真無瑕年少的自己的抱歉嗎？對怎麼一直遇到一些垃圾朋友的厌倦嗎？

(明天再继续）

I'm back! (Part 1)

Today's routine:

Woke up > Had breakfast with the family > Watched an episode of 'Entertainer' > Surfed the net > Read yesterday's and today's newspapers > Read a magazine > Had lunch > Watched a Taiwanese entertainment show on TV (Jacky Wu game show in Korea!) > Watched anime > Read a book > Dinner > Supper > Blogging right now!

This is what I call a good weekend :D Heh I haven't had many of such relaxing weekends ever since.. April(?) so I really treasure them now! Goodbye, stress and anxiety! And hello to restful and amazing weekends! I've waited so long for you! Come to mama! Let mama love you hahahha! 

Too much has happened over the past couple months and it's not quite possible to put everything down on record so I'm just going to blog about events as and when I recall them whilst typing (in no order of significance, though likely to be in reverse chronological order). It's impossible to translate the chaos in my mind into words anyway so here's a peek into my life over the past 3-4 months.

Dinner with the Yonsei exchange mates! 

Belated birthday celebration for Laun Shim 

Stay genuine, ever so clueless and happy-go-lucky always!

Reunion with Jamaica who flew in from Australia! <3 

(we all look like hobbits next to my roomie T.T)

Missing a few but the local gang's pretty much here! 

연세만세! YONSEI MANSE! (with the exception of the blue Ewha dude hahah)

I was absolutely knackered (British slang I picked up from my colleague!) by the time I knocked off around 7 pm - it's not so much the work but my recent physical condition, me thinks - so I was a little worried about how dinner would go.. but as it turned out, I needn't have worried after all. Despite my exhaustion, I had a fantastic time catching up with these precious exchange friends over dinner. I love that everyone's so genuine, so supportive of one another and so willing to share about their lives with each other.. :') Living in a society that's as emotionally closed off as ours, their candidness and sincerity are really things to be thankful for in life. All of us are such different individuals with different backgrounds, personalities, educational qualifications, careers etc. (we have an aspiring actor, a journalist, a lawyer, an industrial relations officer, a business development executive and a receptionist, all packed into the above picture) and yet, when you put us together, some wonderful magic that goes by the name of "friendship" happens. Plus, it's always fun to meet up with friends from other faculties because of their different perspectives on life (a refreshing change from all the stress, gloom and pessimism associated with law graduates these days - yes, even myself).

And about a week ago...

It was Daddy's birthday!

Happy Birthday, Daddy Dearest!

The humongous but beautiful cake that the sister ordered from Pine Garden's Cake! 

No idea why she got this particular design but the cream swirls were simply stunning *_* 

.. and pretty fun to play with too ^^ 

Oh, we brought the birthday boy for a dimsum buffet at Hai Tien Lo @ Pan Pacific Hotel and the food was pretty good by my standards, which says a lot about the food hahhah It's $68+++ per pax (every + for the $6 tea.. yes, drinks are not included in the buffet price) so it's important to plan what to order because you don't want to be filling your tummy up with cheap/lousy food! Gotta eat your money's worth! It isn't easy, considering that dimsum dishes are usually starchy/doughy and hence, very filling so remember to pace yourself and order wisely!

The 2 dishes of which each diner gets a serving - get them both!

As for the 2 dishes per table, we only tried the 'freshwater fish of the day, deep-fried with superior soya sauce' and 'chilled Boston lobster with fresh fruit salad', both of which are dishes I'll not order again. With regard to the fish, please, please, please ask the waiter/waitress about the type of fish in advance. We got catfish that day.. and well, both the appearance and the taste of the fish weren't very appealing, to say the least. I don't think I've ever had catfish before and I doubt I would like to have it again. I mean, its black, flat head, grayish-black body (immediately after it was served, I suspected it was a bottom dwelling fish cos of its shape and murky colour and urgh, I was right) and wide mouth reminded me too much of a particle reptil- ack I don't want to think about it ahahahah

In contrast, the lobster salad was good but I think the 5 of us finished the lobster meat in about.. 5 minutes? That works out to about 1 chopstick-full of lobster meat - which isn't very much - per person. There were loads of fresh fruits left of course but uh, if you're paying $74++ per pax, perhaps you would like something more substantial and pricey.

 Recommended: Deep-fried crispy cod with sesame seed served with mayo (oooh so good and tender), steamed barbecued pork buns (I love charsiewbauuu), fragrant fried carrot cake in XO chili sauce, steamed vegetarian dumplings with assorted mushrooms
Not recommended: Deep-fried crispy white bait fish (deep-fried batter, anyone?)

Recommended: Soups are decent but wayy too filling so go easy on those, fresh prawns done both styles (very fresh and sweet mmm!)

Not recommended: Didn't order much from these 2 pages but what we ordered, we liked

Recommended: Braised Ee-fu noodles, stir-fired seasonal green vegetables with sesame sauce

Not recommended: Porridges - filling and nothing to shout about, wok-fried rice with crab meat, egg and spring onion (not sure if I didn't enjoy it cos I was already stuffed from the earlier dishes or if it was just too bland)

Just get them all to end off the meal heh

Post-haircut transformation into a boy :P

Mandatory post-lunch coffee/tea (at work)

 

Laurent Bernard Chocolatier

Very fancy cafe selling handmade artisan chocolates but... they're always serving me tea in these cups! The rest, all coffee drinkers, get their coffees in normal blue cups but I always seem to get the cartoonish ones. Not sure if these are the only tea cups they have or if it's because of me HAHA (not that I'm complaining XD I really liked the bunny cup!)

Time for sleep so the rest will have to wait till tomorrow!

Late night thoughts

I haven't been here for close to a month (wow). That's what work does to me, huh?

I wanted to post about the lame ass inflatable race I went for last month but I'm not in the mood to do any typing. Perhaps.. tomorrow? (hopeful look)

I still have the wedding post (I know it's been 3 months!) too. (dry laugh) Soon, soon!

Maybe I should just focus on my other blog and its fishies?

The only way to go, is forward.

"8 exams, 8 hoops, 8 tries. 

It was less of a test of abilities and more a test of luck."

And now.. I'm relieved to say,

8 exams, 8 hoops, 8 tries.

All in, 

8 successes.

I'm not sure if it was just luck, divine intervention (trust me, I prayed a lot) or something else, but I am incredibly thankful to have made it through Part B. It has been a long 5-year journey since I first stepped into law school and with the release of the results, it feels almost as if I can proudly say that I've achieved something in life. To the self who has worked hard over the years, enduring sleepless nights and constantly pushing oneself beyond one's limits: 수고했어요. You've done a good job. Thank you for that. Part B may have been a case of 10 steps forward, 3 steps back but I trust that I can and  will emerge a better person. Rebuilding lost confidence is going to be immensely difficult (thanks ah you guys, getting paid $6k to shatter my self-confidence) but since I've already made it to this position today, I'm prepared to go all the way.