470 - 2020 in conclusion - Books

Oh dear... the previous update was in April. What did I say? I can't up hold my own promises to keep updating, at least once a month. ONCE A MONTH!! It's not that hard!!!!!!!

Ok, as usual, compiling the lists of books and movies I have seen this year so far. 

From Goodreads, I had read 50 books so far. Woohoo! Including 4 mangas in it. If I really wanted to add in mangas into the list, it would be a way longer list, so, I will just exclude the mangas (picture books are counted), making it to 46 books this year. Yay! Much much more than the previous 2 years combined!

Ok, here goes the list of books, in reading order.

January

-

February

-

March

21st - Secret Hero Society #3: Detention of Doom by Derek Fridolfs
27th - The Faerie Wars Chronicles #2: The Purple Emperor by Herbie Brennan
30th - Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

April

03rd - Contender #1: The Chosen by Taran Matharu
05th - Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman ( I did not finish the book the in 2 days. This has been a long time reading of my, about a year????)
06th - The Faerie Wars Chronicles #3: Ruler of the Realm by Herbie Brennan
        - Guardians of Magic by Chris Riddell
08th - The Faerie Wars Chronicles #4: Faerie Lord by Herbie Brennan
09th - The Faerie Wars Chronicles #5: The Faeman Quest by Herbie Brennan
10th - The Trials of Apollo #1: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan (again, I didn't read this book in a day, I read a few books at the same time and finishing them off consecutively)
16th - The Trials of Apollo #2: The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan

May

06th - Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
17th - Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
25th - Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (long time reading this too)
27th - Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
28th - Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones

June

01st - Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
05th - The Lunar Chronicles #1: Cinder by Marissa Meyer
09th - The Lunar Chronicles #2: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
13th - The Lunar Chronicles #3: Cress by Marissa Meyer
15h - Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
26th - The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen
        - The Lunar Chronicles #4: Winter by Marissa Meyer
30th - The Lunar Chronicles #4.5: Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

July

02nd - City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab
10th - Shades of Magic #1: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
27th - The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

August

02nd - Henderbell by J.D. Netto
31st - Shades of Magic #2: A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

September

04th - Blackbringer by Laini Taylor
14th - Winternight Trilogy #1: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

October

08th - Shades of Magic #3: A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
19th - Winternight Trilogy #2: The Girl in The Tower by Katherine Arden
20th - The Royal Rabbits of London #2: Escape From the Tower by Santa Montefiore, Simon Sebag Montefiore
26th - A Court of Miracles by Kester Grant
31st - Winternight Trilogy #3: The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden

November

09th - Sabriel by Garth Nix
20th - Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
24th - Lirael by Garth Nix
30th - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

December

01st - The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith
03rd - The Green-Eyed Prince by Brittany Fichter
08th - The Great Library #1: Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
17th - Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco
25th - The Blackstone Ritual by Swearinger Durham

What a looong list. So happy to read so many books this year! Mainly because of the COVID thing, I got the time to stay at home and read. Read. Read. From Goodreads, the shortest book I read was < The Fox and the Star> 80 pages, and the longest book was <Winter> with 824 pages. The difference!! 

Anyway, I got to buy lots and lots of books. We started ordering bookcrates too. Lol. All the way from U.K. and U.S.. The shipping fees made me cried. Hahahaha!!

Very honorable mentions that were not in the list, I finished the whole Haikyuu!! manga this year!!! I got up to speed on time for the author to finish off the story this year!!! If you haven't read it, go try it!! Really, really good sports manga. If you find it difficult to jump straight to manga, try the anime first. Just the first 2 seasons are enough, and then try reading the manga. Yay! Another series I finished this year was Battle Rabbits. I reread it again. 

I read the most number of books in April, 10 books? Lol. That was lockdown month I think? Or later? Anyway, this year, I finished off a few series/trilogies sort of.  Faerie Wars Chronicles, Six of Crows, The Lunar Chronicles, Shades of Magic, and the Winternight Trilogy. I practically polished off The Lunar Chronicles in a month. Sis said I was reading too fast that I didn't enjoy the books fully. Well... maybe? But I just want to know what happen next! 

There are a few surprise reads for me:

Six of Crows & Crooked Kingdom

Sis introduced me to this dulogy. These were high pace and no nonsense. Love it. Six main casts doing illegal high-stake stuffs. Yay. And the dynamic between the 6 of them.

Howl's Moving Castle & Castle in the Air

So different from the animation movies! They have more characters in the books! All told from one person pov. 

The Lunar Chronicles

I never would have thought I would have like an East Asian character in an YA book so much. KAI!!!! KAI!!! And Cinder is a half? I think??? I'm not sure anymore, but KAI!!! EMPEROR KAITO!!!!

Winternight Trilogy

My favourite trilogy I've read this year, I think. Initially, it was not easy for me to "get into" the book. After a few chapters, I got the hang of how the author might want the flow of the story to go, I got slowly into it. And.I.Am.Not.Disappointed. This Russia folklore-theme story, I never thought I would have like it that much. Story started of with main character being a child, and gradually grew up to an adult throughout the story. It's painful to grow up, reminded me of the Httyd books. Really painful.

Sabriel

Ahhh!!! I like Sabriel!!! So much that I find it difficult to read the second book in the series, because it's not about her anymore. T.T And then I found out what happend, I lost interest in the 3rd book. >_> 

Anything from V.E. Schwab

Shades of Magic, City of Ghosts and Addie LaRue. Read 5 books from her, City was for younger readers and felt so different from Shades, and Addie LaRue is a total different direction. The writings in Addie LaRue was so beautiful. Really. 

Well then, those were for 2020. 

Now onwards to 2021. How many books should I put in the Goodreads challenge? 25 books, I don't want to set the target to high or I will get intimidated. I have a few books I want to start on. My "Want to read" list in Goodreads is forever growing. XDDD It's 59 books now. Hahahaha!!!

So, I am aiming to finish The Great Library, The Trials of Apollo, Stalking Jack the Ripper (2 books left in my list!!), Gilded Wolves series/trilogies/duologies. And some other standalone books! Hope this would be another great year in reading for me. Wanted to enjoy it to the fullest! :)

469 - Lockdown, anyone?

How's everyone doing during the lockdown?

Every country's situation is different. Here, we are only onto our 12th? 13th? day of lockdown. So far I am comfortable with it. Glad that the company let us take unpaid leave, we really don't want to risk it as our job is ranked having the highest risk among other health profession for some reason. I still don't really see the point in continue on operating if you guys just kept accepting patients that are not "emergency".

Anyway, moving on from that.

People thought we might get bored staying at home for that long, instead, we kinda enjoy it. You see, we rarely have time to do so while working. We only have less than 12 hours staying at home for normal days, and we work 6 days a week. We hate it. I one another off days to do normal stuffs like house chores. We only have Sundays off, and what? You expect me to clean the house that day? We are exhausted. Duh.

Next next next... I don't want to dwell on unhappy thoughts.

Sooooo, lockdown time, I got to do lots of reading. :) No the quantity of books but the period of time I get to spend on them. :))))))

In March, I read 3 books. And for April, so far I have finished 2 books, 1 of them of which I have been reading since last year, hahaha. I am reading my 6th book of the year, according to Goodreads.

So...continue on reading!! And continue on shopping for books!!! :)))

468 - ?

Hello everyone.

Happy New Year~

I am back in Kuching for the holidays. Yay.

I had Penang kueh tiaw, Cantonese fried noodles, cha kueh and teh bunga for dinner last night. It was quite late at night, still, lots people were eating. Hahaha. The difference from Christchurch.

And for today, we had chicken rice for lunch! GOOOOD. The only unfortunate thing about the lunch was that, they used a watery salty kicap, not the thick manis one. Oh well. Still happy to eat chicken rice as always.

Our Singapore trip was... not good.

First of all, at the start of our long international flight, our plane from Christchurch to Sydney was held on the runaway for about an hour, despite arriving early in Sydney. Our docking gate was still held up by the plane that was scheduled to leave in 20 minutes by then. But, 30 minutes crept by, the huge plane was still not moving. Captain said, they were still waiting for 10 passengers to board, so should take another 5-15 minutes. Ok... And then, those minutes passed by, still NOT MOVING. Apparently, they were still waiting for another 2 passengers to clear custom!! SO!! What's happening here???!! Another plane delayed or what?!!!



...

In the end, the airport arranged another docking gate for us. We reached there within minutes, and to wait for someone to connect the bridge for us. HAhahahaha.

Flight from Sydney to Singapore was alright. Slight delay though. And at the leg of the journey, I got motion sick. Threw up twice. By the second time, I was just heaving. There's nothing left in me anymore yet still heaving. Painful.

Touched down. Threw up again in the toilet. OMG.

Went through custom like a breeze. And then baggage claim. That was when I received the second bad news. My hotel booking had been cancelled by the hotel. 3 hour ago.

WHAT THE HELL

They said my reservation "has been cancelled as no updated credit card was received (current card provided has been declined)"

What the hell does that suppose to mean. They never happen before. I used this credit card to book all my Singapore reservations these few years, and yet you are the only one saying it has been declined by the provider. Huh. I fired back the message saying we just touched down and were on the way to the airport, and whether the room was still available.

They replied "as your reservation had been already been cancelled due to declined card, you have to find another accommodation."

THAT IS SO IRRESPONSIBLE.

WHERE AM I SUPPOSE TO FIND A PROPER ACCOMMODATION AT 6:45PM IN SINGAPORE FOR THE NIGHT?! DON'T YOU KNOW HOW BUSY THIS TIME OF THE YEAR?!

I asked them why was it declined and told them they were not suppose to drop this on me at the last minute. I checked back my email. There, they emailed me like sometime an hour before their check in time saying that my card had been declined and to update the card details or to pay not to secure the place. And gave me four hours to do that. All those time I was on my long international flight, how was I suppose to know?!

Days before my trip, I kept checking to see if I could pay first to further secure the room, but nooo. There on the site state clearly, "pay on site", so I trusted that. Apparently I should not.

We ended up paying roughly the same place for a much worse room, but still glad to have a place to sleep for the night. We didn't even bother to grab food once we reached the room.

The room was sooo small. And only one double bed, and hard mattress too. Oh well.

Next day was much better.

We checked out early and went to the airport straight. When I said early I meant like 9:30am. Father texted saying his flight had delayed and was left stranded in the airport. Reached airport, dropped in our luggage for the flight in the evening and dropped our overnight handcarry at the baggage storage. Long queue. Father arrived from terminal 4 via shuttle while we were in the queue.

Oh ya. Jewel is big. Huge. The shops looked elegant. As yes, I firmly believed that I was in an Asian country because of all of the restaurants inside Jewel, instead of apparel shops and what not in malls like in Christchurch. The Apple shop is so wide and clear and simple. Random thought. There was a huge waterfall in the middle of the building. Another convenient thing I found, it more or less linked all the terminals together! Great!! Though the long walk.

We went straight to Bugis after that. The night's hunger had caught up apparently. hahaha. Went to the Japanese western restaurant sis and I had been last year. wanting to show Father the beautiful food. This time round, sis ordered something different. I still the same, omu rice and Father ordered something beef. Sis ordered seafood paella. Spanish dish. Taste nice!! I liked all the seafood in it.







OMG. Why is this in draft?!!! When is this suppose to post????????!!

I have no idea how to continue on, so might as well just posted it as it is.

Oh well. I will set the date to 6 February then, the day we arrived back here....

467 - Of 2019

Well, the previous 2 posts were about books and movies and dramas I have had the chance to enjoy in 2019. Now, for this, I just want to conclude things I suppose...? Geez, I'm finding reasons to update.

So, I read 8 books in 2019. Hahaha. What a declined from... years ago. I don't think I did well in 2018 too. Oh well. My movie/drama list were much better. Haha. I spent more time on my phone in 2019 so... neglecting my readings.

Going through 2019, see if I can remember any interesting happenings through the year.

Final installment of How to train your dragon series came out at around January, and we all went crazy with multiple watches in cinemas. Got the chance to watch it in IMAX in Malaysia too. SOOO HAPPY. Was damn exicited at that time, despite having watched it a few times in NZ already. Lol.

I know that I bought my current phone somewhere in March. It's a OPPO R15Pro, Nebula purple colour I think? Can't really remember the name. Well, uptill now, I don't have much complain about it yet. I adopted the idea of changing phones within 2 years, to avoid having said phone when dead suddenly on me. I don't want to experience another Samsung Galaxy SII episode again. That was a nightmare. I lost all my South Island trip photos and my sis's graduation photos as well. Urgh. Same situation will go for my laptop too. Not going to be using it long, unless I bought a really expensive one that worth keeping long. The one we bought from Kuching, bland. I mean, it looked the same as every laptop on display in the store. I want a Dell XPS, but what did the salesman say? It's not much different bla bla and more expensive. I know it's more expensive, but with the functions it has, I think it is reasonable. But then, they don't have any stock on hand, if I want one, they will need to order it. What the heck. I might as well just get one from NZ. They always have stock unless I want it customised. Geez. So in the end, we get a bland looking laptop from Acer. It looked totally the same as the one sis's is using. I sometimes mistook it. Only the stickers on the keyboard area are differerent. So frustrating! And I bought antivirus for my laptop too. Finally. Or else just relying on the accompanied software, I don't think it was enough.

Something sad happened somewhere in March. Mass shooting. Where? In FREAKING NEW ZEALAND. And of all places, CHRISTCHURCH. What is wrong with this people?!!! Condolences to all the people involved. I was so damn happy that the Prime Minister passed the gun control bill in NZ. It was so fast that it shook the whole world. I applaud the PM for this. My wording might be abit weird, but you get the idea what I am saying.

Somewhere in April, we got MAP678. Yay. Father was with us in NZ.

In May, Bulbasaur was so damn cute! My first time doing Medical Check in NZ, after all this year. And wow, the speed was so fast! Just about 2 hours? Every procedure done. Or maybe a bit less than that. Not like in Kuching, OMG. Need to arrive there so early in the morning before the clinic opens and queue for it. Even though we have made an appointment for it. Well, in NZ, I think they have like only a few slots available each day for it, so everything is faster. And once again, I experienced the lightheaded, and almost blackout. I hate doing blood test. Ah! I remembered this. Weeks later, or so, I went back again for another blood test. Geeezzzz. That time round, I was prepared for it. The first time I wasn't expected that, so maybe I got a bit panic when I left the room. What with the sudden black patches I kept seeing everywhere. Took me quite sometime to recover in the Sitting Area.
I think it was somewhere in May, I went into a small Hyun Bin frenzy mode. I tore every part of weibo and so to look for his movies. Of all, I like the 4 movies I watched multiple times of. The Swindlers, Confidential Assignment, Rampant, and The Negotiation. I was in awe for Confidential Assignment. Man! The man could hit and punch. It was so enjoyable to watch him hit stuffs. Same for Rampant. He's cutting zombie with that big blade. And maybe he was the main actor, he's so un-killable. Hahahahahaha.  For The Negotiation, wow. A villain. GOOOOD.

June... July... August...

SEPTEMBER. Huh?? Did anything happened in September? No...?

Ok, October. Charles's Wedding!!  Congratulations once again! Even though none of you are reading this. Hahaha. We went Australia for this. And followed by a small trip to Gold Coast. :)
By the way, I found peanut butter in NZ!! I am ignoring all the other peanut butter I saw in the supermarket. They are tasteless. I found this peanut butter that actually tasted something and nice! Checked the label, Made in USA. Hahahahaha!!!!

November??? Can't remember..

December...Oh well. I can't remember much. HAhahahahaha


All around the year, I could just recalled that, we went to quite a number of places to try new food. We went for Crepes, we went for Japanese restaurants we never been before. And the only new ones I enjoyed immensely was tomi. THE FOOD WAS SO DELICIOUS.

Some colleagues left for home etc. Some new trainees. Some useless colleagues.

Most important of all, I have been shipping 00Q so hard this year. OMG. The new 007 movie is coming out too!!!

I started playing Switch more towards the end of the year. We have now Sypro, Pokemon Shield, Ni no Kuni, Zelda, Pokemon Evee, Dawn of the New Riders...etc.

And on the sad note, ARASHI is going on hiatus at the end of 2020. This they announced beginning of the year in 2019. ..This.. uptill now I am still frustrated and upset. For their 20th anniversary, they tried lots of things. They opened up social media accounts. Twitter, YouTube, Weibo and Instagram. I am ignoring tiktok because I don't have one and I find it weird. They are trying to get close to their fans. Furthermore, they released all their singles in digital platforms too! The first group in the company to do this. Their latest release is on digital too! There's no updates whether they will be releasing the CDs not... I want CDs to be honest. I like physical copies. To mark their 20th anniversary, recently they collaborated with Netflix to release a their own documentary. I think I might need some courage to watch that. I can't really deal with seeing frustrated Jun-san. After the announcement, all I want to do is give him a hug and hope for the best for him. He poured so much into this, and like he said, going into hiatus and stopping everything he had been doing all this years, was like killing the thing he love the most with his own hands. I couldn't even begin to imagine how that feels. That was what got me so angry and frustrated.



There goes my mood....

466 - 2019 Watched list

So, Watched list. This include movies I have watched and so as drama. But then, I can't kept track of the dramas I have watched as easy as the movies. Movies, is one of, easier to record. Drama though, has multiple episodes. What if I just watched one episode and then put on hold? Does that count as"watched" ???? Hahahahahaha..... I'm confusing myself. Anyway, this is more of a movies list then. Unless I wanted to mention any dramassss.

Lets see...full list is in my Letterboxd account. So I'll just conclude what movies I have watched that I remember to log of the year, not the number of times I have watched them. I know that I have missed a few along the way, but anyway...

2019 movie lists:

1. How to train your dragon: The Hidden World (I remember this, I watched it in the cinemas multiple times)
2. 8 Mile
3. The Death of Superman
4. The Reign of the Supermen
5. Glass
6. Detective Dee and the Four Heavenly Kings
7. Venom
8. Paddington
9. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
10. Paddington 2
11. How to train your dragon 2
12. Shazam!
13. Killing for the Prosecution
14. Avengers: Endgame
15. The Swindlers
16. The Negotiation
17. Rampant
18. Confidential Assignment
19. John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum
20. Pokemon: Detective Pikachu
21. Aladdin
22. Godzilla: King of the Monsters
23. Dark Phoenix
24. X-Men: Days of Future Past
25. X-Men: Apocalypse
26. Stardust
27. Logan Lucky
28. Underworld
29. The Lion King (2019)
30. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
31. Space Jam
32. The Matrix
33. America's Sweetheart
34. The Matrix Reloaded
35. Angel Has Fallen
36. The Little Vampire
37. The Matrix Revolution
38. The Angry Birds Movie 2
39. Batman: Hush
40. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Ultimate Edition)
41. Joker
42. Knives Out
43. Hanson and the Beast 

Those in colour, means that I have watched those more than once. Hm... impressive. 43 different movies in a year. Hahaha. By the way, this is the year I discovered Hyun Bin's movies. All the korean movies in this are because of him, though there were just 4 movies. Hahaha. I went back to watch Secret Garden again, that's why the sudden motivation to watch his movies. Lol. Also, I started his new drama on Netflix too. It releases 2 episodes a week, and I'm so impatient about it. Grr...Anyway, multiple times. Lol.

For this year, Aladdin was a surprise for me. Sort of. I didn't expect to like it, despite Aladdin being one of my favourite old Disney animations. Love it. And well, both actors are adorable together. :) Unlike the other 2019 Disney remake movie, I have totally no love for that. I dreaded watching it twice in the cinema, I don't think it was worth it. I was sooo reluctant to even watch it in cinema for the first time. At first, I was kinda thrill when it first released it's trailer some some some time ago. But gradually, I lost all interest in it. TOTALLY NO interest at all. And Scar. SCAR! Why not bring back Jeremy Irons for this?! You have Mufasa but why not Scar?!

Oh well...

Another surprisingly entertaining movie was Logan Lucky. I didn't realise that Daniel Craig doing a totally different accent was so entertaining!! - the other reason I went to watch Knives Out besides having Daniel Craig in it!- It was funny as hell. With this accent, the body language and attitude was so different from what I am used to!!! Get Daniel Craig to do more different accents please!!!! Even better, make more Knives Out sequel with him doing different accents in each sequel. I know that I'm not the only one rooting for this. But as always, his British accent is my favourite though. :)

How to train your dragon: The Hidden World. I have highly praised the graphics of this movie soooo many times. Especially the oceans, and the shadows and so. If you have not watch it, YOU HAVE TOTALLY MISSED OUT ONE OF THE MOST FREAKING BEAUTIFUL MOVIE OF THE YEAR. Damnnnn. The waterfalls were so damn realistic. And the dragon flying in the air in comparison to that, looked real enough. Gahhhhh. You're missing out if you have not watch it!!

Hmm... what else worth mentioning...Joker. Joker was intense. I can see why some people wouldn't like it at all. It was thought provoking. It was different. Movie of the year nominations, I can see where that is coming from...

Allllll right. Now, 2020, I hope to watch as much movies as possible. Hopefully in the cinemas!

Can't wait for Bond25!!!! No Time To Die. Daniel Craig's last! I am sad, but am happy he is free from it now and can do whatever he wants. 007 has been a bless and burden to him, I find. Totally a bless for 007 franchise. Anyway, still can't wait to watch it!!! Going to watch it in IMAX. I have booked my accommodation and submitted my leave. So, all is left now are the flight tickets and movie tickets. Yay! The movie title still got me laughing sometimes. XD

Another movie to anticipate would be Wonder Woman 1984. For this, I am not sure whether to be persistent in watching it in IMAX. The first one was, so... but if I do so for this, I would need to apply for leave within the duration of a month half. And to buy another set of flight tickets and so forth... It will be quite a big spend again... 

Honorable mention for 2020? Artemis Fowl. Let's see how it goes...

...

As for dramas... I will just list out what I could remember as of this moment. In no particular order:

Good Omens

Titans Season 2

Secret Garden

His Dark Materials

男亲女爱

Gotham Season 5

知否知否应是绿肥红瘦

Good Omens was goooood. Just 6 episodes, compact and nice. TITANS was...urgh. The best thing from it? We got NIGHTWING finally!!! Donna's story-line was... I don't like season 2 Donna. Give me back Season 1 Donna!!!! 男亲女爱 was still funny as hell!! That was a Cantonese sitcom sort of, not drama. It's 19 years since its released. By the way, this is also the year I discovered 黄子华先生's 栋笃笑. I like listening to him talk. Though I can't really grasps most of the things he said, it's in Cantonese by the way, but I still like it. Gotham, still felt a bit rush. Why aren't there any more seasons??? Secret Garden is still so enjoyable. My drop back korean drama. As for 知否, I didn't watch the whole thing COMPLETELY. I just watched the main actor's story-line. That's enough anyway. As for His Dark Materials, I have not even finish the first episode yet! The first season is complete with 8 episodes. I should really get started on it. :)

Yay~

465 - 2019 Read list

I was wondering, why am I so persistent on doing this every year? Despite my blog being dead the majority of the year. Maybe I like listing out things I have done so far? Even though it's not impressive at all. Anyway, let's get on with it. This will be a very short list. Trust me.


BECAUSE I HAVE ONLY READ EIGHT BOOKS THIS YEAR! .

What the hell...

I have been reading other stuffs online and so, not physical books. And also, I have so many books on hold. I didnt even finish them... excuses...


January
-

February
-

March
-

April
-

May
-

June
-

July
21st - Wizards of Once (The Wizards of Once #1) by Cressida Cowell

August
15th - Archie Greene and the Alchemist's Curse (Archie Greene #2) by D.D. Everest
23rd - Archie Greene and the Raven's Spell (Archie Greene #3) by D.D. Everest

September
-

October
03rd - Faerie Wars (The Faerie Wars Chronicles #1) by Herbie Brennan

November
03rd - Twice Magic (The Wizards of Once #2) by Cressida Cowell
17th - Knock Three Times (The Wizards of Once #3) by Cressida Cowell
26th - Batman Beyond Volume 5: The Final Joke by Dan Jurgens

December
13th - The Royal Rabbits of London (The Royal Rabbits of London #1) by Santa Montefiore, Simon Sebag Montefiore


Hm... All of them are categorised under Children's book. :) Can't help it. Children's book have nicer illustrations and so entertaining to read. I am tired of political stuffs in novels sometimes. So, Children's books, yeah.

Some honorable mentions are:
Good Omens
The Purple Emperor

Good Omens I have started reading it since the show ended. Progress is quite slow, but it's getting there. I should be able to finish it before June in 2020. Hopefully. As for The Purple Emperor, that might have a faster progress. I am more invested in that, I think.

For 2020, I was thinking of going into Artemis Fowl. Seeing that the movie is coming out, was wondering whether the publishers will reprint the books or make new illustrations of the books. We bought the first book recently, a new book cover of course. I have no idea which version is mine, the one back in home town. I can't seem to find it anywhere in bookstores now. I hope the movie is good, so they can green light the following sequels, IF there is a sequel.

 

 

 


Children's books are so pretty. And they easily come in hardcovers!!!!! I used to find it a bit awkward when I roamed about in the Children's section in libraries. Now I don't, just headed straight there once I stepped through the doors. Lol.

All the books were from the local libraries, hence the code on the upper left of the books.

Oh yeah, before I forgot, I want to mention that I'm getting more and more in love with Cressida Cowell's illustrations. I find it more and more... life like in Once's series. In the Dragons's series, it was funny sometimes, but then in the Once's series, I was in awe. Like I can spend a full minute looking at one illustration in the book. Wow.


Soooo, for my Reading resolutions for 2020, again, 10 books. Hahahahaha.

464 Australia Part 2 - Gold Coast

Second stop: Gold Coast

Gold Coast. First thing I felt stepping out of the arrival gates, warm. Really warm. And sunny. The last time we were here was about ...14 years ago? Wow.

Our trip to the apartments was long. Really. The other day sis said it was about an hour? Wow. And warm. Outside the windows, it really looked like some sandy warm country, hahaha.
We reached the place in the end, after I received an email stating information about late check-ins. Then I realised, it was Sunday. And the reception closed at 12noon on Sundays. Oh my goodness. Australia! Really!! This is a tourist spot, and the reception closes at 12noon on a Sunday??? Seriously?! Gah, anyway we got in alright as they had everything planned.

The place was spacious, but stuffy? The air-conditoner is running all right, but the air coming out was just normal temperature, not cool. So basically it was just blowing air. We got 2 rooms. One for father, another one for sis and I. Got a small bedside table between our beds, and a table lamp on top. It was unplug, and the socket was way at the end of the bed on the wall, no way they can connect. Hahaha. What's the point of it? We found a stand fan in the wardrobe, again, it had mirrors at the outer side of the sliding doors. And surprise, the fan was not working...  Father had his own en-suite bathroom in his room, and we got one full bathroom just outside of our room. Great.

We headed out after settling down. It was sooo warm. But a bit windy, so that helped, sort of. Still, sis and I wore hoodies. Father on the other hand, just a t-shirt and 3/4 length pants and out he went. Hahahaha. The contrast we made. We walked all the way to McDonalds. And believe me, it's quite a distance under the weather. It was a relief to finally stepped into McDonalds. And fries. We ordered fries! Yay! 24pieces of nugget cost $9.95? THAT'S CHEAP! We all had a burger each and I had my blueberry frozen drink.

Our first meal in Gold Coast. 

After that, WE WALKED ALL THE WAY BACK. Huh?? Why didn't we continue on... But it's good that we went back to have some rest.

We went back out there after some rest. This time, we stopped by 7-11. We had some interesting conversations with the cashier about the bus so and forth. We wanted to take the bus to Movie World the next day and also wanted to head down to Surfers Paradise. I think, father didnt really understand the bus card system. So the cashier kept repeating, hahahahaha!! We bought each a bus card (for life the cashier said, the card would last), and headed down to ...town I suppose?

It's Sunday, so it was pretty empty. We walked down further, and took the light rail and reached Surfers Paradise. Ooo. Now that was where all the people were. Lots. Compare to Melbourne, there's much more blondes there. We passed by car racings on the way, of which many more people boarded the tram. We reached Surfers Paradise finally. Lots of people and lots of shops. Souvenirs. We bought some souvenirs too.

Movenpick Ice-creams

Surfers Paradise

We headed back once the sky started to turn dark. Light rail then bus. It was dark. Totally dark.


Next day...

We woke early and check-in at 9am at the reception and then we were off to Movie World. Took the bus to bus station in Halensvale then from there, we took a special bus to Movie World, we stopped by Wet n' Wild on the way. Which turned out, just next door to Movie World.

So, now these are all the photos. We spent the day walking around looking at stores and attractions. I am not much a rides person, so we only sat one. Wanted to try the spooky Scooby-Doo one, but it was not operating that day. Oh well, we were not in luck.

That's the Superman ride. The colours matches.

This is just plain adorable!!!!! 

We bought our lunch here.

Nice aren't they. We bought the souvenir cup too. :)

This is still so impressive to look at. I wonder how it would look like at night, with spot lights and rainy weather. 

Just some random thing I found. :)

One of my highlights of the trip, seeing these guys. Looney Tunes.!!! They're my absolute favourite!!! I got more emotional seeing them than the kids, hahahaha.

They have DCEU posters on each frames for posters. HAHAHAHA.

They had photoshoots for heroes too. We saw Superman, Green Lantern, then Flash, Supergirl and Wonder Woman. Oh.. Wonder Woman still had her old suit from New52. 

They even had a full section of the park dedicated to the Legion of Doom. Wow. The statues are amazing. I personally like Scarecrows. When I stood there staring at it, that was incredible.

Scarecrow is really good!!!! He's emitting gas occasionally.

Poison Ivy 

Killer Croc. I think, there's water blasting out of the pipe? Or not, just water fountains.

This is so big!!! Fit for Doomsday. A long queue for its ride. 

Captain Cold

Gorilla Grodd

This is really trueee.

Just around the corner was the Wild West section. The sun was super hot, really suits the area. There's water ride, of course we didn't go for that. Went to look around, collected the coin souvenirs. In the shop, I saw a big RoadRunner plushie!!! But it's only if you bought something from the store, then you could purchase it. NOOOOOO. We ended up leaving without it....

After this, sis and I went over to the WB kids section. AHHHHHH. LOONEY TUNES!!! I took way lots more photos here. I am not gonna post much here cause most photos have us in them? Hahahaha. 

Anyway, we took lots with the statues. And saw Baby Taz board! AARRGHHH. We sat the RoadRunner roller coaster like sis wanted. Hahaha. We ended laughing during the ride. LOL.

Moving on, we went to Justice League's area near the entrance. And went for the 4D experience, shooting alien stars. Starro? I didn't take any photos inside the Hall of Justice because apparently, we were rushing to the 4D experience? Grrrr. Was so pretty inside.

Once done, we went to look at the famous DC Rivals Hypercoaster. Wow.... that's incredible. My classmates went for it a few days ago. OMG. And I realised it now, I forgot to take a photo of it!!!!

Anyway, we went back the same way we came.

Before heading back to city with the other bus, we went to Westfield at the Halensvale station. They have EB Games etc. We stopped by the toy shop which I can't seem to remember the name of, and they have this Nightmare Before Christmas theme going on. They had on displayed, a pair of big NBC Jack and Sally mug. ARRGHHH. Those were so pretty!! And The vinyl figures too!! We saw a HTTY doormat too. We walked over to EB games, nothing much, and we headed straight the disc shop. Lots of stuffs inside, we saw TITANS and ROSWELL. WOW. And we bought both, hahahahahaha. So happy. We had hot drinks before leaving the place.

Went back to our apartment. Rest up a bit, went for dinner. We had steak! Texting my friend while eating throughout dinner, that was fun.

I can't remember what this is....

My steak, with mushroom sauce. Medium rare.

The 3 sides. Something onions, mushrooms and garlic prawns.

Salmon!

Happy to end our trip with steak. Dinner was nice.The picked the steak right while we were ordering.

Next day...

Our long trip back to Christchurch. A day. Needed to spent a day to get back to Christchurch. urrgh. 

We had brunch at the airport. We tried the Red Roster chicken of which we kept seeing on the roadside.

Happy with our trip. Bought lots of stuffs in WB Movie World. 

Our All-Stars!!!

463 Australia trip Part 1 - Melbourne

Yup. We went to Australia for my old classmate's wedding. Figured that since I am just across the sea, why not go and attend? A few flew in from Singapore/Malaysia, I should really make the trip. Food trip too.

First stop: Melbourne.

And it was great. Always happy to see my old classmates. The wedding venue was lovely. Decorations are pretty too. It was a long drive though, from the city. The weather was ups and downs. It was sunny, windy, rainy etc. Wonderful.

       

The colour theme was rose gold, I think. As most of the colours tend to go that way. I tried champagne, tasted weird. Lol

Anyway, sis and I were in Melbourne for 3 days 2 nights. Glad to come to Melbourne. Lots of different food to see, but we didn't get much chance to do so. Walking down the streets, were shocked to see that everywhere we see, Asians. Hahaha. Can't really find any natural blondes in the crowd. Felt like Singapore. And I didn't felt like the odd one out with my colour. Lots of Asians shops. And the food!!! Oh!! Malaysian food!!!! There's one “Laksa House" OMG. Though we didnt try any of the laksa. Hahahaha. First night we arrived, we tried Japanese food, becauseeeee, Laksa house was full!!!!

Seafood yakisoba & chicken katsu don

Looks nice aren't they? But not so much on the taste though. I don't like the katsu sauce though.

For the next night's dinner though, tasted much better. We went to "Laksa House"! We were early, so many seats and tables! And ordered iced milo! Chicken rice always tasted good! Gahh...

Hainanese Chicken rice

I can't remember the name but this taste so nice!!!

Old classmates and I made plans to have dinner that actually. But then, until 6:30pm, there's still not a beep. Sis and I decided to just head out for dinner instead. We had an early flight tomorrow, not going to sleep that late. Kind of disappointed not able to have dinner with them, maybe next time. My friend met up with us after dinner. We wanted ice-cream (I was craving Natural ice-cream at that point), friend drove us this apparently quite popular Italian ice-cream some distance away. There's a queue in front. Ooh.

Chocolate and Cookie & cream

I have no idea why did we got such normal flavours. Hahahahaha!!!!

On the side note, I love our place in Melbourne. It's an apartment. Everything is in it. I specially like the wardrobe sliding doors big mirrors. That was nice! Also, they have the washer/dryer thing. That was nice. And the airconditioner. Great. Always happy to see air-conditioner.

Next morning's trip to the airport was... a down. I knew they gave us a 20min window, but still, did they have to push it that close??? I think the van arrived at 8:20am, OMG. Other than that, Melbourne airport was homey. Maybe because it's just a domestic flight? We took off on time. Yippee.

462

First day of the November. The previous post was the first day of October.

So, up till now, updates...updates..

Yep, I am still hip deep in the ship and fanfictions. I have been rereading fics too. Hahahaha.

My shifts are alright right now. The colleague I mentioned that of whom going to take long leave? She's coming back in a weeks time, so I am not covering her shift anymore, but I am taking others' shift. Weird. Just let me day off. Duh.

The new shifts have put me and sis on Sundays for coming weeks. NO. We don't work on Sundays. We specifically said so. I am not taking the risk. We are ok to work Monday to Saturday, but not Sunday. If our hours are not enough, then put in more for weekdays. Not Sundays. Sunday is our church day.

I have started reading <Wizards of Once> 2nd book and <Good Omens>. <Good Omens> I read it kind of routinely every night, to get the the reading done. Or else I will keep putting it on hold. I need to read more. Really. I keep buying books, but didn't try hard enough to spend time on them. What's the matter with me... Anyway, <Good Omens> is an interesting read. I started with watching the Amazon series first, then get in on the book. I like how the characters are portrayed in the series. When I read the book, it's a bit different. I find that refreshing. I mean, you will form your own interpretation of the characters via their interactions. By the way, I find that I like to read in some place quiet. I can't really concentrate on my reading when the television is on. I find people's voice distracting, especially coming out from the television. More so if it's dramas. Game shows are alright? Hmm.. I'm not sure I think.

Hm....moving on. Not much to watch in the cinemas recently. I'm waiting for KNIVES OUT and MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN. For now, I think my local cinemas are scheduling session times for KNIVES OUT, but not the other one. Meh. Why not???



Watching Maleficent on Sunday. I'm not looking forward to that.

461 - First day of the tenth month in 2019

Dammnn. I am really behind in my reading. Only 3 books complete so far. NOOOOOO

I have been investing most of my time on reading fanfictions apparently. What with drowning in the same ship all over again. I realized, second time round is much more....hm.. Impact is much heavier. Hahaha. I can't seem to get my hands off my mobile phone or laptop to search through the tags of my ship.

If up til now you're still confused what this "ship" thing I'm talking about, then cheerssss. No need to worry yourself over it. If those that have shipss that you're invested in, well, glad you have. XDD

I NEED TO START READING PHYSICAL BOOKS. I know there's kindle or so, no need physical books. But hey, I prefer reading physical books. Period. Unless it's fanfictions. That I don't care whatever type they came in, as long as I can access it.

Other then that, I constantly craving fried chicken this few days. I wonder why. Fries is an ongoing affair, but fried chicken? I thought that was occasional.

Work has been fine this few weeks. What with my shifts consisted mostly morning shifts. Yay. But this will stop soon. One of my colleagues is taking a long leave soon, so, besides me, who's going to cover? Hmm?

And apparently, this is the first post of the year?!!!

WHATTTT.