Saturday, December 5, 2015

November Favourites

Hi!

I'm currently waiting for my housemate to come home so we can make lasagna and banoffee pie. Yum! I haven't had lasagna in ages because it's so hard to find a halal one in the UK and for some unknown reason, banoffee pie is just so hard to get your hands on! We'll see how it tastes but I'm sure it'll be good (she's a good cook... I just bought the ingredients haha).

(Edit : I left that hanging yesterday. Lasagna was baked well, banoffee was delish and sweet and will be my lunch and dinner for a good few days now)





Anyway! I'm kinda free now because I've sent in my last coursework last weekend and school ends next week so we're practically already on break. I still don't know what I want to do on my Christmas break. I have exams early January so I have to study obviously but I still want to have some time to go to London and see some of my friends and EAT! You'd think I'd want to go eat fancy food. Not really, I just really want to go to Malaysian Hall and eat my favourite lauk hahaha how Malay am I.

It's already the 3rd of December. January is just in a few weeks can you believe that?!?!?! And I'll already be on my last term in university which is pretty daunting - time flies by so fast!! I've said that about a million times already but when I first got here, 3 years sounded so long!

I don't have much for my December favourites this time around because well.... I've not bought anything new and nothing I've loved loads 'cept for a few. And they're almost all Korean. Apologies..... no, actually not really hahahaha

1. Ramyeon




If you love spicy food as much as I do, then you're in for a treat. As a Malay, I do take pride that I can hold my cili padi. For me, nothing is good if there's no i) Salt ii) Cili padi. Like what is the point really if there's no cili padi. I even have them in my omelette. I've been eating spicy food since young and amongst my family, I'm the only one who can eat really spicy food. My brother used to but for some reason, he can't even do cili merah!!!

So anyway, I was introduced to this ramyeon by my housemate who was snapchatting it and it looked super good so I went to the Asian market and asked them to give me the spiciest thing they had in store and I made it as soon as I got home.

Guys. It was so spicy that I couldn't finish it. I had to take so many breaks in between because it was so spicy. The kind of spicy that I've never experienced before but still so good. Whenever I'm lazy to make myself rice, I just resort to ramyeon. I make sure to not have too much of it though because i) I don't want to run of it because I have to go all the way to the city to get my stock ii) I really am convinced eating that spicy is not good for you hahahah. It's the kind of pedas that goes to your head and you feel light headed. Over gila kan? But really, you have to eat it to understand where I'm coming from!

(I just realised I didn't post a photo of the actual ramyeon til 2 days after writing this post hahaha but of December 6th 9:52 UK time, the ramyeon I'm raving about is the one pictured under bad kitchen lighting) 

2. Korean Dramas (may or may not contain tiny spoilers)

I've said loads about 'Bubblegum' and it's already in the 12th episode and it's taken a darker turn but I'm still enjoying it loads because like I said, when the chemistry between the 2 main actors work, anything and everything works! Such a huge fan of Dong Wook and he is so charming in this. Also, very very handsome. I've always known him to be really handsome but maybe it's the constant lighting the production adopts to but here, he is so dreamy. Light radiating kind of dreamy. The storyline is very enchanting like and scenes just float and it gives off a very relaxed and chilled vibe and I love how they've incorporated light as a main element in this show. You'll understand if you've watched it! It also explores very deep and dark themes despite its light hearted title. The friendship between the main actors is unrivalled (the kind where one buys a type of ice-cream without even consulting with the other because they know each other too well) and it shows through out. It might be called as a typical friend-to-lovers drama but something about this show just gives me the FEELS.

But other than that, I've also been madly into Reply 1988. It's the third series of the Reply franchise, the first two being Reply 1994 and Reply 1997. I've not watched either but decided to get into this one. It is amazing. Dare I say that's an understatement?? An episode is a whopping 90 minutes so basically, when both episodes come out at the same time, it's as if I'm watching a whole movie! But it's brilliant - and ratings don't lie, the most recent episode got higher ratings than the finale of the previous series. Which should say loads.



Each episode presses on one main thing; like one episode was about mothers and the most recent one was about brothers. And it explores so many different aspects of it, so for example, the mother episode played on the ups and downs of being a mother, different perspectives of a rich mother and a poor mother and a single mother and the absence of a mother. It was so beautifully tied in, it made me tear loads. It's a really good show, very very heart-warming and how I like that most (if not all) episodes don't just center on the main couple, but instead on the dynamics of the different families. The different type of husband/wife relationship, the sibling relationship and most importantly, the friendship between the 5 eighteen year olds is so nice to see and so genuine, you can't help but feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I also especially love how much you can visibly see the dedication that went into production - everything looks very authentic, the set, the dressing, the cultural references. Everything! And please prepare your little fragile heart for the perfection that is Sunwoo. His relationship with his mother and sister is unreal sweet. Like the kinda man you can only ever wish to be acquainted with.

Wow. Over.

Regardless, if you're into Korean dramas but don't know what to watch, I sincerely recommend Reply 1988 (if you've not already completely fallen head over heels for the show). I absolutely love it and it's very different from a lot of things shown these days because of how much it emphasises on family relations. But of course there's the main couple everyone's rooting for because when do we not love a good ol' love story.

3. BTS



YO. Can. I. Just. Put it out there that the Part 2 album is my favourite of 2015?!?!?!?! I love every damn song - I even have their skit on my playlist (because why wouldn't you want to hear Jimin laugh)! They've very smartly split the Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa album into 2 parts, the first one released late April if I'm not mistaken so it's been 7 months since we've heard anything new from them. And I was very VERY excited to see how they could top their last album because it was so good.

K-Pop just surprises me again and again and AGAIN!!!!!!!! This album is gold, I love every damn song, I've had it on repeat and although it released late November, I've already listened to the whole album a months worth so it might as well be in my Favourites. It's sooooooo groovy, so danceable and when I heard it for the first time, it most definitely wasn't K-Pop reminiscent and I mean it in very good way. The beats, the melody, the VOCALS, the rap, is something else. They've been trying to set themselves apart from typical boy groups and they've pretty much done it. As much as I love EXO as they were like my first K-Pop loves, I can't compare this album to anything else because it's just that good. Rare is the time when you find an album where you love each and every song. No song you want to skip kinda thing? My favourite album of 2015!! Ugh, so in love. My favourite, if I had to choose, is definitely the Outro song. My favourite from the last album was also the Outro song but this one is ridiculous. Give it a listen !!! A lot of people have said it's very familiar to The Weeknd's 'Earned It'. I didn't think of it when I first heard it, the only thing I could think of when I heard this song was that it has decidedly become my favourite song of 2015.

There was an interesting read about BTS and how in the midst of the very conservative South Korean society, they're attempting to be more vocal (which not many groups are brave enough to do given the tight leashes they're on by their agencies). Come sit with me and I'll gladly explain how and why I'm so attracted to the South Korean culture - I still learn a lot these days about their behaviours and culture and it's super fascinating.




4. Dayana's Blog

I love reading blogs. In fact, I made mine because I loved reading my friends (that was in 2007 where everyone in my class was actively blogging). I wished they still blogged because they were all genuinely good writers and very expressive despite only being in high school then. I used to even have everyone's blog links on this blog but deleted them all a while back because no one was active anymore! If you need a hobby, take up blogging!! Sure, it's not really considered a 'hobby' per se, but it's really fun maintaining one because this space is entirely yours. You can write anything you want, express anything you want, put any thing you like. It's yours after all. Besides, it kinda acts like a time capsule. You can read what your 22 year old self said when you're 42. Cringe-worthy, of course but would we want it any other way? (EDIT : Just after I wrote this part, I went on Twitter to see that my mum tweeted (yes, she has Twitter as some of my closest friends would know) her own blog link! Hahahaha couldn't help but laugh because how cute!! Curious to see what she'll blog about! She's always told me she was better at speaking than she is at writing but I disagree - she's good in both! Yay, Mum! xxx)

A friend of mine (we've only met like once but she's already like a friend because we've had each other on social media for some time and she's the loveliest!!) runs a blog and she updates it weekly about her life in university in the US. And she writes like 1000x better than me! I keep telling about her to my mum because her blog is just so nice to read. Very calming for some reason. Here you have too many exclamation marks and fan-girling and pointless posts (but thanks for staying anyway!!). Hers is just very calm. Her blog posts are for the most part, about her daily life routine but even then, I find myself reading every single word because it's so well-written and the flow is so effortless. I'm so envious of good writing such as hers because I can never seem to be as eloquent in my writing despite blogging for 9 years now! Read hers after reading mine and you'll see what I mean! She updates it weekly and she's so much more active with her university routine there, makes me feel like a complete bum! Not that I already don't know I'm a bum, I didn't know just how much! Hahaha.

__

So ends my monthly favourite post! I haven't been out much for the month of November because I didn't really go out as I was down with a horrible cold and cough for 2 weeks and weather was really bad too so I didn't/couldn't leave the house much 'cept for classes. Alhamdulillah, I've gotten better since then! But I've still not been out much hahaha.

I was in Bath for a quick day trip last weekend to meet up with Puch whom I haven't seen in ages! And we went to have late lunch at Burger & Lobster! The branch in Bath is so gorgeous! Very fancy shmancy. And man, the food was so amazing, you don't want to finish it. I forgot how sedap it was! It's a good thing they don't have a branch in Bristol because then RIP allowance.

Hope December wraps up 2015 prettily and nicely, in a sparkly bow and ribbon. I'm thinking of getting a nice present for myself for Christmas, I just don't know what yet.

AND CAN WE PLEASE PAUSE TO PROCESS THE FACT THAT I'LL BE 23 NEXT MONTH?

Ok... breathe and slather more eye cream.

xx

4 comments:

  1. Who's blogger friend of yours? I want to read too

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  2. The link is in the title itself 'Dayana's Blog' tu

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  3. Hi Nadia! I still read your blog, haha. And I feel you! Back in high school everyone was so active on blogging and now....

    By the way, I tried that ramyeon, it's so good but soooooooooooooooo pedas. At one point I tried eating it really fast so I could just get it over with....

    WRONG MOVE! Took me hours for the pedas to hilang. Haha

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  4. Hi Natalia!! Been ages since I've since last heard/seen from you! Hope all is well with you! And thanks loads for still reading this blog! Means a lot!! :)

    And that ramyeon is SO teruk pedas dia but oddly so addictive - kalau dah tak pedas tahap ramyeon tu dah tak kira pedas anymore dah for me hahaha xx

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