30 Mar 2011

i spy a filofax!

Re-watching P.S. I Love You last night on Film4 reminded me of a print screen I made several months ago! Look what I found:



I print screened this while watching the film on my laptop. To my untrained eye, it appears to be a Red Finsbury in the Personal Size? Though one of you out there may be more of an expert than me so this is purely a somewhat educated guess from me!

Speaking of Filofax sightings, I noticed that one of my lecturers' use a Pocket sized Filo. Never had the chance to see what model it was though but I thought that is pretty cool as I rarely see them at university!

EDIT: On second thoughts, that looks like a Red Finchley! How can I not have thought that to begin with. The distinctive clasp...and I own three of those bad boys!

16 Mar 2011

overwhelmed by a mountain of work/social events...

So, I've been a bit quiet and lazy on my reading and commenting of other blogs. I'm really sorry about this as I know this has happened since I returned to university. Week in, week out, I have had netball three nights a week, at least a social event once a week and with work and exams actually counting 35% this year (compared to 5% last year), I have been working my socks off. I need at least a high 2.1 this year to give me any hope in my dreams of graduate medicine, and in order to get this, I have to work hard (well, twice as hard at Imperial College it seems...).

In all honesty, I'm pretty glad that I chose to do a biochemistry degree here as it is one of the few degrees which has a lot of spare time as I have had most mornings off this term thus far. This has allowed me to catch up on work as netball takes up so many evenings!

All in all, this is just a post to say, don't worry, I will be back to regular blogging soon. Holidays start on the 25th of March and I have five weeks off. However, I do have two exams in the first week back in the summer term but with five weeks to revise, I am more than confident that I will be able to blog also!

13 Mar 2011

my handwriting

Laurie from Plannerisms did a post here about handwriting and I thought I would also give it a go! (Procrastination at it's finest as I have other pressing things to do...!)

Firstly, the pen I used:




It is just the bog standard Muji gel pen with a 0.5mm nib and in a blue colour. I love these gel pens and I use them in lectures as they glide so smoothly over paper!

And now, my handwriting:


10 Mar 2011

tempted by moleskine

Anyone else tempted by this?

This is a 'passion journal' from Moleskine. Quoting the Moleskine website, this is what it does. "Features include international size guide, care symbols key, downloadable fashion templates, a wardrobe organiser, wish list, gift list and much more."

I don't think words can describe how much I want this. After all, the number of times where I have added this to my basket on Amazon but not had the guts to checkout is.... probably close to the figure of 4,593,328. Or...a lot of times.

7 Mar 2011

capsule wardrobe: mission accomplished

After analysing the contents of my new formed capsule wardrobe (from existing items of clothing only), I decided to calculate the value (in terms of how much I paid for each article of clothing) of this wardrobe. Many of these items were bought in sales from before my shopping ban started. For some reason, my brain is very good at remembering useless pieces of information, including how much I paid for that pair of trousers and whatnot so this exercise became a fairly accurate estimate of the cost of this wardrobe.

Anyway, I shocked myself with the final figure. I estimated that it may be a few hundred pounds (including bags and shoes), however, that figure was a massive underestimation. Because of this, I'm definitely committing myself to a shopping ban that I will stick to. I won't disclose the figure, but I can tell you, it was large enough to shock me and is big enough to buy a car with. I won't say what type of car but you get the idea. The figure was huge. And for a student, I shouldn't have a wardrobe costing that much!

This is one ban I am pretty sure I won't break - even with the temptation of Westfield Shopping Centre, High Street Kensington, Kings Road and Knightsbridge nearby! All I have to do is remind myself of that figure if ever I felt the compulsive need to break the ban. Obviously, this goes without saying that I will be flogging a few items of clothing and shoes (that haven't been worn in a good while) on eBay and the like. Hopefully I can get a fair bit back as I'm now thinking about my finances for post graduate study. Graduate medicine is still on my mind as is the possibility of doing a MBA or an MSc. Either way, you need money for that - money that does not come in the form of that investment piece of Net-A-Porter or Matches.com!

If you fear that you, yourself are a shopaholic or even if you open your wardrobe every morning and say 'I have nothing to wear', all I can say is, seriously, sit down with a pad of paper and a pen/pencil and do a database of your wardrobe at the moment. Then, cross off the pieces you haven't touched for six months or more and now, figure out what pieces you need to complete the wardrobe - note, I said complete. This does not mean rushing out to buy another skirt when you already have five! This means buying that classic white shirt if you don't have that or a pair of skinny/flattering jeans if you don't have a pair. Now, work out how much your complete wardrobe has cost you and if that figure scares you; well, you know what you have to do. Stop shopping until you can justify that you really don't have any clothes to wear (due to holes and whatnot). Trust me, working out how much my clothes have cost has shocked me enough to attend my own controlled 'rehab' of being a shopaholic and I urge you to try this method - even if it seems unconventional.

Bear in mind that I did not get this idea from anywhere else; I was just curious about how much all my clothes have cost me and from there, I was shocked into not shopping!

3 Mar 2011

so, which one was a lie?

Trick question as there were four lies! This is the part where I reveal which one is actually true!

So, here are the five:
  1. I was selected for the U17s England netball team but chose not to go as it was too far from home!
  2. I have Chinese regal blood in me.
  3. My father is good friends to Jackie Chan and once had dinner with him.
  4. I once shared a twelve hour flight to Hong Kong with the England cricket team.
  5. My parents once bought so much Sunny Delight when we were younger, that my sister turned orange after drinking too much.
I'll go through each of them in a random order; just to keep you readers guessing!

So, number four. It's true, I do fly back and forth to Hong Kong and the London every year or so, and as much as I wish this one was true; it's not. However, I have once shared a flight to Hong Kong with Marco Fu - the Hong Kong snooker player.

Number one. Afraid this one is also a porky. I did represent my county and was put forward for the East Midland regional trials but declined this offer which meant that even if I had the potential to play for England, I wouldn't be able to as I declined the chance to attend the regional trials.

Next, number five. Although there was a phase where my dad was obsessed with Sunny Delight (heaven knows why), my sister and I never overdosed on it (per se) so no need to call Social Services if you were halfway through dialing their number. We only ever had it in moderation even so and only when it was on offer too! (We are the typical frugal Chinese family.)

This leaves number two and number three. Both seem improbable, yes? Let's have a reminder of these two.

Number two: I have Chinese regal blood in me. And number three: My father is good friends with Jackie Chan and once had dinner with him.

I'm a massive fan of Jackie Chan - and of his early films in particular. Project A and Project A II are two of my favourite films, ever. And it is true, my father has had dinner with him (two years ago now if memory serves correct); however, he isn't good friends with him unfortunately. This one was a red herring in that it was a half lie and half truth. Sneaky, huh? That's me, Sneaky is my middle name! Well, unfortunately, that's not true and moving on...

Yes, number two is the real one. My mum's side is the regal side. One of my great grandfathers (I'm not sure how many 'great's, but I'm sure it isn't more than three) was royalty but when the Communist regime powered into control, he and his brother lost all their riches - propelling my mum's side to live in poverty until this generation. Sad story, but true, I'm afraid. So Caribbean Princess may be Princess by name, but I am a princess by blood ;) (Sorry, corny line there and a slightly boastful one for which I am ashamed!).

So there you have it. You learnt something new about me! (So you can't say that you didn't learn something new today...even if it was from an egocentric blog post!)