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Posts Tagged shopping

Shenzhen

Apr 17

Posted by Louise in Hong Kong | 5 Comments

I am majorly behind in blogging! About three weeks ago I went to Shenzhen because I got a multi-entry visa and wanted to get my money’s worth worked really hard during the week and deserved a break. Getting there from Hong Kong is quite easy, as the MTR goes directly to the HK-China border. From HKU it took about two hours. There are two border crossings, and we went through Lok Ma Chau, as it’s newer and is less crowded.

We met up with our friend from Shenzhen and she took us to dim sum, shopping, then dropped us off at Window of the World (she is too nice!). Dim sum was really good and relatively cheap, except certain starving kids got carried away with ordering food, and we had way too much leftovers.

This is like maybe 1/3 of what we had

The Shenzhen Metro is a lot like the ones in many other large metropolitan areas. Declining-balance card, or single journey tickets. Only stupid TTC runs on prehistoric non-electronic ticketing/tokens. I realize I bash on Canada/Toronto a lot, so I will say that the one thing TTC does right is having the ‘next stop’ announcements on their buses. Buses in HK all have crazy windy routes, so knowing when it’s your stop without knowing the area is extremely difficult and non-intuitive. I’ve under/overshot my stop countless times.

Shenzhen shopping was super cheap. I got a couple items including A&F (probably fake but look pretty legit) flipflops for around CAD 2 and they are the most comfortable flipflops ever! I need to go back and buy more pairs in other colours.

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Girlish indulgence

Oct 10

Posted by Louise in Girly, Life | 5 Comments

I recently made a quick trip back to Waterloo for an on-campus interview and got to see some of my beloved Loo homies. After the morning interview, I rushed back to Toronto on greyhound, slipped into the office for a couple hours of work, went back downtown for a CFA study session, and then finally home. It was a tiring day but I realized how much I love the rush and pressure of keeping busy. I get a lot more done in a day, and there is really nothing better than the feeling of accomplishment. It sounds unorthodox, but I need the hustle-bustle of a big city and busy life, at least for now. Preferences are liable to change with age…

While in Loo with Jin and Lily, it occurred to all of us that we are sort of going through a very girly phase. Or maybe it’s not just a phase… I still don’t know. Apparel shopping hasn’t appealed to me in a long time. I find it tediously dull to comb through racks upon racks of clothing to maybe find that one holy grail of an item. Bargain-hunting and claustrophobic changerooms make me feel like I’m just wasting my time. In fact I now shop like a guy – on a needs basis, and no meaningless browsing.

Galleries Lafayette in Paris. Be still, my beating heart.

Galeries Lafayette in Paris. Be still, my beating heart.

Once upon a time I was a hater. I thought painted faces and fragrances were for either super-glam people/events or fakes/uglies. Hell, I had no idea what pressed powder was. BUT. Throw me in Sephora right now and my eyes will sparkle more than an otaku in Akihabara. It may have been imminent, but I developed a deep attraction to cosmetics and skincare products. The colours, the shimmer, the gloss, the scents, the snazzy packaging – draw me in like bugs to a bulb. Unfortunately, this obsession does not ring cheap. (Once you shell out $40 for a lip gloss, there’s no turning back.) I’m happy to have oozed some of this infection to Lily, getting her hooked on beauty-related blogs. I am still blown away by the devotion some of these bloggerettes have towards cosmetics. The vast array of products they try, the depth into which they conduct their reviews, the breadth of comparisons and “looks” they are inspired to create, the amount of judgment they cast upon the difference between a coral pink and a nude pink… Let’s just say that I have vastly expanded my colour and texture vocabulary to a degree I never knew existed. I still don’t really wear much make-up, and I’m nowhere close to matching the level of passion these people pour out for the beauty industry, but love the aspects of it. For now, I will just lust over pretty Dior compacts, swap product recommendations, and worship skincare regimes with mah girliez.

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Shopping fix

Feb 20

Posted by Louise in Life | No Comments

Cant live without em

Can't live without 'em

Yesterday I went downtown to have lunch with a couple of friends who were co-oping in the area. I met up with Yuan, and we went up to the 8th floor of the Bay (flagship store on Queen St). I had never even noticed the Bay had 8 floors, much less gone up there, so I blindly followed. The elevator doors opened to reveal the elegant and classy Arcadian Court restaurant. Tucked away behind it was Cityview Cafe, which was our destination. It’s a self-serve cafeteria-style eatery, and I got a veal lunch complete with sides, drink and dessert for less than $9. In keeping with its namesake, the view was pretty awesome, if you were lucky enough to get a window seat. Wei joined us a bit later and snapped random shots with his new camera. In conclusion, that place is a winner in my book.

After lunch I went shopping by myself. I managed to pick up almost everything I needed, including birthday presents and cleansers. Then I embraced my inner shopaholic and possibly went a bit too liberal with my purchases. After shopping, I met up with Evelyn, Joanne, Fred, Vincy, and HP and we had dinner at Korean Grill House. I had Korean ribs in kimchi noodle soup and OMG I’m salivating just thinking about it right now…

Today I had a dental appointment in the morning. Our family dentist is on the second floor of Pacific Mall. I avoid P-Mall at all costs, and left as soon as possible. It was really cold today, but the wind was blowing east, so I decided to walk home. I felt pretty gross for over-indulging myself and not hitting the gym at all this week. It took me around 30 minutes which wasn’t so bad.

A couple hours later, I met up with Char at Goldhawk Park library for no reason other than lack of good hang out spot. Unfortunately I think we both forgot that it was a school night, so around 4pm, all the kids started filtering in. But instead of the kids bothering us, it was more like vice versa. I’m pretty sure the girl sitting beside me doing her gr. 10 science homework didn’t really appreciate our incessant chattering and random shrieking.

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Void

Feb 10

Posted by Louise in Life, School | 2 Comments

She looks like she's having fun

She looks like she's having fun

Recently there has been a void in my life. It just felt like something was missing. After endless nights a few minutes of soul-searching, I realized it was shopping. I haven’t shopped since Boxing Day. It’s not like I really need to buy anything, but I miss the nonsensical indulgence of a little purchasing power. There are some birthdays coming up, so maybe I can satiate my retail needs over Reading Week.

School has been very shitty the past few weeks. I have a CO370 midterm on Thursday and I just can’t motivate myself to study because the course material is so damn perplexing. It’ll take me 30min and 10 re-reads to figure out a single constraint in a linear program. We started future income taxes in accounting, and I don’t understand it. Whoever the hell came up with all these rules and policies for accounting must have hated business students.

Last night I went out for dinner with Lis, Wes and Kelv. We went to Miju, a Korean restaurant in the plaza at King/University. As we walked in, I saw a guy carrying a bunch of menus. I thought he worked there, so I told him that we had 4 people. He didn’t say anything but walked straight to his table. Turns out he was a customer. Yes, sometimes I am just too awesome.

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Happy holidays indeed

Dec 27

Posted by Louise in Life | 1 Comment

I love Christmas for all its events, decorations, joyfulness, warmth, and crazy shopping. I love the atmosphere and spirit during the holiday season, and even the commercialism. I was never really one to partake in all of the celebrating, but I resolved to do as many Christmassy/wintery things as I could this year to make up for it.

I went skating at Nathan Phillips Square a couple weeks back. It got way too cold, so we only skated for about an hour. Important fact: I did not fall!  On Dec 18, RBC Capital Markets had its annual Christmas Reception. I had a couple drinks and hoarded the seafood table. It’s not as formal or glam as the accounting firm parties, but that was just as well because I had a certain concert to get to that night…

Jay Chou’s Canadian premiere was OMFG HYPERVENTILATE. There aren’t really any words I can use to describe it. The man was in all senses larger than life. The concert rocked my socks and Lily and I were non-stop screaming throughout the whole thing. Also, I was elated that Nan Quan Ma Ma was the special guest appearance. Lara looked great and Yu Hao stole the spotlight by performing his “piano battle” with Jay. After the concert was over, the Asian Invasion at Union Station was pretty funny to watch. The bewildered faces of people who had no idea what was going on were priceless, as they struggled through the massive Chinese army. Jay, Toronto loves you! Please come back :)

The next day, Friday, was my last day at work. My manager organized a little send-off for me, complete with yummy mini-cakes. After work, I met up with some other co-op friends for an end-of-term dinner at Baton Rouge, where we trash-talked and launched personal attacks upon each other. It was all in good fun, of course. After that I went home and did some last-minute packing in preparation for…

Ski trip! Saturday morning, bright and early, I set off for Horseshoe Valley with Charmaine, Tracy, Wesley, Kelvin, Daniel, and Kelv’s friend. We tried to get an eighth skiier but people kept “expressing interest” and then declining. In any case, I did not own ski/snow/track pants that fit me, so our carpool (consisting of Wes, Tracy, Dan and me) made a stop at STC so I could buy some. I found a pretty decent pair for $15 and we hit the road again. This detour still did not deter us from beating Kelv’s carpool to the destination. He got lost twice. I had never done downhill skiing before, but the guys (except Dan) wanted to take snowboarding lessons, which looked awesome, so I signed up for boarding too.

Snowboards are very tricky, as I soon learned. You can’t walk properly since your feet feel like they’re glued together, and it takes forever to go down the slope because you have to unattach the board when you get to the bottom, and re-attach at the top. These complications are all independent of falling on your ass while you’re on the slope. As it turned out, I didn’t suck at boarding as much as I thought I would. My major problem was that I couldn’t stop, so I ended up falling either forwards or backwards, and letting gravity do its thing. This, unfortunately, is very painful. We purchased 8-hour tickets/rentals and by the end of 5hrs, allowing for ample breaks in between, my bottom was in so much pain, I couldn’t sit properly on a chair.

We called it a day around 6pm-ish, and headed towards our resort. Kelv got lost from the check-in place to our suite, which baffled us all, as it essentially consisted of a single left turn. To make up for it, the residence which he recommended turned out to be really really nice. It was amazingly clean, fully-equipped, and included a slew of modern amenities. Char and I, with renewed vigor, were rifling through cupboards like kids in a candy store, while the others assumed a palm-to-forehead disposition towards us.

We dumped our luggage in our rooms and drove to some restaurant in Orillia for a late dinner. At this point I was so tired I don’t even remember which restaurant it was. We got back to our place around 10, and just chilled for a couple hours. Char discovered her inner alcoholic, by becoming addicted to hot chocolate with Bailey’s.

I woke up the next morning and was sore beyond anything I had ever experienced. I could barely move my arms and legs and was pretty much whiny for the rest of the day. Others were relatively less handicapped, but we took it easy and just went for a little tubing. We bought tickets for 3-4 rides each, but after the first run, we knew we could do this all day. We went down forwards, backwards, in a circle, spinning, etc. We mentally shrunk to 5 years old and shrieked and laughed like morons every trip down the hill.

After tubing, we decided to avoid the iminent snowstorm and left for Toronto early. This turned out to be a very good idea, because as soon as we hit the city, Mother Nature unleashed her onslaught. We went to Fairview Mall for a while to do some last-minute Christmas shopping. I think it’s worth mentioning that Kelv got lost again driving home from Fairview. The next day Char, Wes, Tracy and I engaged in a little encore by going to Yorkdale for some more shopping.

The 24th and 25th were both devoted to spending time with family friends. The adults thoroughly enjoyed the company, but you could tell all their kids were bored to death. This was further made awkward by the massive age differences and lack of common interests.

Yesterday, I went boxing day shopping with Lis and her brother at Vaughan Mills. We arrived around 8 when the mall opened, and tried to get as much shopping done as humanly possible before invasion of the masses in the late morning/early afternoon. We got stuck in a few lines, but managed to finish our shopping by 1pm. I’m pretty happy with my purchases, as I managed to keep my total under $100. As we were leaving, there were 3 cars fighting for our parking spot. We made a pit stop at a FutureShop where I picked up a digital photo frame. I met up with Char and Wes for a really late lunch at some Chinese place where they majorly screwed up my order due to incompetence. Then we went to CanTi so Char could get some skates, but she left empty-handed.

When I got home, I found my dad and brother amidst a sea of wires and cables. They had bought a surround sound speaker system, a receiver, and an Xbox 360. I guess my dad decided he would single-handedly try to stimulate the economy. But I can now play zillions of amazing titles, OMG DROOL. The Xbox bundle came with 3 garbage games and Halo 3. I’m not an FPS person, but I will try my hand again at Halo. I swear, the gifts don’t come in on Christmas anymore – it’s all about boxing day.

That’s been my holidays so far and I’m lovin’ it. Today it’s our turn to host a dinner party, so we will be expecting guests in a few hours. I jammed this upcoming week with activities too so I think it’ll be a pretty awesome and memorable year. I wish you and yours all the best this season and a very Happy New Year!

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