As the year draws to an end (actually it's already drawn to an end because as usual, my posts are backdated uncountable months), it's time for my yearly Year in a Nutshell blog posts! Here's a wrap up of all the major-ish events this year and the corresponding links to the detailed post on them, if I've written one!
Buffets:
Like last year, lets begin this post by talking about food! And what better topic to start off than to highlight all the buffets I've been to in 2014? I'm a huge buffet fan! Over the course of the year I also attended many cheaper ones, like Japanese all-you-can-eats and hotpot all-you-can-eats, but I'm only going to count the major buffets, like the ones for a special occasion or the ones that took place in a nice environment. There was the super expensive (but very average) buffet at the Royal Garden Hotel which I treated my whole Bao to (that's six people in total!), then a last-minute all-you-can-eat shabu shabu at Gyujin for Valentine's Day with Jason, followed by the sinful afternoon tea buffet at Cova for Maisie's 21st. Those came monthly, but the list doesn't stop in March. In April, I had two buffets in celebration of my 21st. How I found the time to leave the studio during this crucial finals period is beyond me now. Both buffets took place in the JW Marriott Hotel - the first was a full lunch buffet with my parents and the second was a salad buffet with the N's Girls. And if I'm not mistaken, no breather was taken because in May I went for another full lunch buffet at Island Shangri-la with my family again, this time to celebrate the completion of my Architecture degree. Oh fuck, and I've just remembered all the little buffets like that one during my day trip in Macau, not to mention the multiple ones when I went to Japan. But since I could go on forever, lets round this post off with an honorary mention to my family's annual Christmas Eve buffets, this year's at the Renaissance Harbour View Hotel. (And then another all-you-can-eat shabu shabu with Jason to celebrate Christmas)
High tea:
In 2014 I had a whole list of high teas I had, so I'm really surprised that after writing this entry, I realised that I only had one high tea this year! What's more - it took place back in the very first days of January so I've basically forgotten all about it. But never mind, since high teas are such y'know, delicate, royal events, I'll let C'est la B's afternoon tea set with the N's Girls have a section all on its own in this wrap up.
More cooking craze:
The cookery queens (and kings) are back! I didn't include the BBQs we also prepped for, even though they included cooking as well (appetisers, anyone?), but this year, there were three major cook outs. Again, a sad comparison to last year. I suppose we'd just been busy with our finals, as we should've been, because I realised all of these cooking days came after the completion of our degree. Anyway, there was the farewell cooking day at Maisie's before we all left for our graduation trips different countries, then the huge Korean feast at Ting's, and lastly, the belated Christmas feast at Llywelyn's. If you want to see more posts on cooking, check out this blog label!
Picnics:
Picnics have always been a 'tradition' of the N's Girls, but this year Jason and I began to eat outdoors as well! I'd been trapped in the studio for far too long during my finals and during the summer, I constantly craved for time in the sun. I know, what a surprise for someone who'd always avoided the outdoors! The one picnic I had with the N's Girls was after our third-quarter review, appropriately named the post-review picnic day. During fall, I had two with Jason. One was in Tamar Park and the second was in celebration for his birthday (I prepared the finger foods!) in Cyberport.
SNAP HK photoshoots:
Introducing something new this year, photoshoots! At the end of 2013, a lot of studios for teenyboppers to have 'professional' photoshoots began to pop up with the Instagram and selfie craze catching on. SNAP HK is just one of the many studios in Hong Kong. I think it was one the first that was heavily marketed, and is probably the most successful now, with branches all across the city. Anyway, these photoshoot studios offer you themed rooms with themed backgrounds, costumes and props. They set up everything for you, including professional lighting and a DSLR camera, and you basically snap as many pictures as you want with a clicker in the time allowed. We decided to make it a yearly ritual, but both shoots took place this year, ha ha. Well it still counts because one was at the very beginning and one was at the very end of 2014!
Yunnan:
My first overseas trip this year was actually a studio field trip, to simplify. For our final projects, our site was in Lijiang, so during the semester break in January, our studio group flew to Lijiang and Dali of Yunnan to do some primary research. Even though I live in Hong Kong, I rarely go on trips in China, and the views in the countryside were really, really beautiful. But because I get cold very easily so I wasn't comfortable physically (and it was zero degrees!), the whole thing wasn't really enjoyable for me. :( Other than the discomfort, it was super fun, especially as our whole group, including our tutor, were such good friends. And I know I should never say never but it probably would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me because I'm such a city girl and would not voluntarily go on trips that aren't set in properly civilised places.
Chinese new year:
Chinese New Year in February wasn't anything different from the other years, nor was it more special in any way, but I decided to give it a section on its own because the time spent with my family really holds a place in my heart. Like all teenagers, I did not truly start appreciating my parents until I was forced to see them less when I began university, and I came to appreciate them further because they've been so understanding when dealing with my health problems. In fact, my extended family has been too - I've been very lucky in this department, and I am more and more grateful everyday because I understand that not everyone receives this love from their family. Chinese New Year break this year allowed me to take a short breather from my finals to really spend days at a time just hanging out with members of the family I might not often see!
Wisdom teeth removal surgery:
Unfortunately, my family time was cut short at the end of my Chinese New Year break because I had to get all four of my wisdom teeth removed at once in a surgery. I won't go much into detail about it, because I already wrote a loooong blog post on it. Go read it if you're interested!
My 21st birthday:
It's April once again, another year of
Finishing my architecture degree:
I think my biggest achievement of 2014 would be completing my Architecture degree. Never mind graduating with First Class Honours and Dean's Honours, which I unexpectedly did, I was grateful for even passing. I know it sounds far-fetched and like I'm exaggerating when in actual fact I did so well, but ask all my close friends and family and they'll confirm that I was a wreck physically and emotionally during the finals period. I honestly would've been satisfied to just survive through the degree at that point in time. But after many sleepless nights and binge-eating episodes - I stopped eating proper meals and resorted to living on junk food entirely for the final two weeks - I made it!
Japan 2014:
At the end of June, I travelled to Japan for nine days with my parents. The last time I went on vacation was a year ago (also to Japan), so I was anticipating this much needed rest from school! It was actually one of the things that motivated me to finish my final. During this week, we travelled through Kobe, Toyooka, Wakayama, Okayama, Kagoshima and ended our journey in Fukuoka. My parents fly to Japan four times a year, but I usually never join them, so this trip was very special for all three of us! I've made two posts documenting the trip, so if you're interested, here's the link for part one!
A summer of freedom:
If you want to see detailed posts of what I'd been up to during the summer, go back in my archives to July, August and September! I seriously have way too many mini-but-significant events to list in this post, and I do want to keep this short and sweet. Asides from the stress from trying to find a job, this really was a long needed break. Jason and I started going out a lot more now that both of us were on school break, and it was really a breather! We even went hiking (yes, you heard right)! Some of the more special occasions were our picnics, which I've already mentioned in the beginning of this wrap up, but lets not forget all the little here-and-there dates we went on. I'll delve more into those later. Of course, summer couldn't be complete without visiting the Hong Kong Book Fair every year with Clar - though honestly, I still haven't finished my books!
Reunions:
You know what summer freedom means? It means the holidays, and it means people returning to Hong Kong from their overseas universities, which means... reunions! Though I've been meeting up with friends from time to time, like with Jeremy in January (and then again in June and December) and Erica in April (and then again in December), big reunions came through! Originally, Janet, Jacklyn, Vikki and I were going to go on our second graduation trip to Phuket (our first was in Korea after high school), but that was cancelled last minute because of the red alert in Thailand. So we settled for having little meet ups here and there and a Macau day trip, which I will go into more detail about if you read on! Anyway, I was reunited after the graduation trips with my N's Girls, met up with Jeremy again and guess what - my most significant reunion would probably be the one with Nadia, who I hadn't seen for eight whole years! She was my best friend throughout late primary school and early secondary school, and it was so nice to catch up!
Macau day trip:
Originally, Janet, Jacklyn, Vikki and I were going to go to Phuket. We'd planned out everything - and by everything I mean everything. Meaning... we'd set the dates, we'd bought the plane tickets, we'd booked our hotel, we'd written the itinerary. Then for some reason that I can't remember now (oh dear, my memory), there was some sort of danger in Phuket and it became a red-alert spot. Sooo... we cancelled everything less than a week before the supposed trip. We got full refund, but still... what a killjoy. But in the end we got to include Sarah and Vikki, who were unavailable for the original overseas trip, to a day trip to Macau! It was a sort of mini-getaway in replacement of Thailand!
Soaking in the culture:
The hypocrisy of humans: we complain about being too busy at school, but then we also complain about having too much free time in the summer. Naturally, it was easy to run out of things to do being out everyday. To combat this, I actually visited a lot of museums and built projects (naturally, being an Architecture
Hong Kong 3D Museum:
My cousin Cherie and I used to be super close when we were young, like she was literally my best friend... but as time went on and life got in the way yadda yadda, we began talking less and less. This summer, we connected more and we even went to the newly opened Hong Kong 3D Museum together! It was such a sudden date, I'd wanted to go to this place since I first heard about it because I'd never been to similar places overseas before (I'm usually too stingy to add extra money for museums when I'm overseas, ha ha), so I asked Cherie if she was available since it felt like we hadn't met up in a while and she said yes! It was such a fun day out taking photos, wandering around Tsim Sha Tsui and having dinner in Harbour City afterwards!
Sanrio addict:
Hong Kong is such a commercialised money-making city, and the trend of doing crossovers with characters in restaurants were catching on. Everywhere, random chains were popping up with Sanrio themed food. Before I left to Japan, I begged my friends to try Ramen Iroha's Hello Kitty themed ramen in celebration of the kitty cat's 40th anniversary! I actually felt really shy asking them because none of my friends are girly, camwhoring slash Sanrio-loving girls, but they were shocked that I wanted to go have ramen, so they agreed right away. I actually have never liked ramen... but y'know, just for the gimmick. Other character pop-ups I purposely detoured to visit included Kobito Dukan in Windsor House and Sanrio Star Chef Institute in Langham Place.
My first proper job:
Sadly, like all good things, my carefree summer vacation had to come to an end... for me to start my first proper job in an Architecture firm as an Architectural Assistant! You can check out my first proper post about it here, but I've also made several subsequent posts following my progress with my firm under the blog category work. I prefer to keep my professional life away from my personal life, so I won't write much about it, just that I really appreciate the opportunity to work in this company, everyone's so friendly and helpful and I've really learned a lot in the few months I've been here! I look forward to the next year with them! :)
Studying part-time:
One of the many things I've always been interested in is Nutrition. I really enjoyed Biology back in high school, and as you guys know, I actually took the subject for my IBs and ended up with a 7 (full points baby) for it. ;) But I knew I was headed in the arts direction despite being a well-rounder, so I didn't pursue my science subjects much. Since my Architecture degree was so demanding with irregular hours, studying part-time for a qualification was out of the question. Now that I'd graduated though, business wasn't an excuse anymore... though I still had to OT sometimes, at least my hours were more regular (at least my sleeping hours followed a schedule!). I really wanted an official course with an exam and coursework (yes, I'm such a studious freak lol) that gave me a y'know, official and recognised qualification and after some research, I decided to go for HKUSPACE's Advanced Certificate in Nutrition. My friends were all shocked that I was willing to sacrifice my Tuesday nights, Friday nights (!) and Saturday afternoons (!) to sit in a three-hour lecture, but I actually really enjoyed the classes! Granted, I missed out on a lot of gatherings and became even more anti-social than I already was, ha ha, but I do think the course is worth it in the end! Next year, I'm going to continue this course and join a further one in the field of Nutrition. :)
Outdoor time in autumn:
When the blazing heat starts to cool down and the humidity begins to drop... slightly... around the month of October in Hong Kong, large-scale festivals, handicraft markets, music events and sporting events start to pop up everywhere. This autumn, I was able to go to many events that I'd missed out on all the previous years because these few months are usually dedicated wholly to our semester one Architecture finals. I'll go into detail about the sporting events later but for the cultural and artsy-fartsy ones, I attended JCCAC's Big Draw, Miniflap, Arts in the Park Mardi Gras and Freespace Fest! I also visited many art exhibitions here and there, one of which that I photographed was at the Oil Street Art Space. Lastly, because it doesn't fit in anywhere but I think it deserves a mention here, we can't forget the world-famous Occupy Central (Umbrella Revolution) that took place in Admiralty...
Halloween 2014:
My Halloween celebrations every year get more and more boring - perhaps it's because I'm growing old. I'm not even sure why I'm leaving a section in this post to talk about it specifically. I guess it's because it's supposed to be one of the highlights of a young twenty year old girl's year! Like I've already said in my blog entry about Halloween 2015, I couldn't get in line to meet up with Maisie and Whitney in Lan Kwai Fong, so Clar and I ended up wandering around PMQ and Sheung Wan!
Mamma Mia:
Mamma Mia was so good that I jumped into detail about it when I originally began writing this short paragraph, but when I went back to the blog post I'd made about it in November, I realised I'd repeated everything, ha ha. Basically, it was the first and still only live musical I've been to my entire life, after missing out on the Lion King Broadway Musical even though I had free tickets for it back in high school (yeah, I was foolish, what can you say though?). If you're a first-timer wanting to jump into the world of musicals, Mamma Mia is actually a great starting point because it brings back a sense of childhood and nostalgia with a balance of plot and great songs throughout the show that you'll be singing along to!
Graduation:
Oh graduation, oh graduation... how I looked forward to getting my gown, walking the stage, taking photos in my hat (which ended up not happening because my head was - as usual - abnormally too small compared to other members of the Homo sapien species). Unexpectedly (and pardon me for boasting, I think I deserve to!), I graduated with First-class Honours and Dean's Honours! I did not expect it nor was I aiming for it, so it was a really pleasant surprise! I wrote four posts in total about my graduation, so for photos and details, check them out: The congregation ceremony at Hong Kong City Hall, the studio photos, the photos with my workmates, the official Class of 2014 Graduation Carnival, and the photoshoot at SNAP with my N's Girls!
Running events:
If you live in a hole, let me fill you up with information the new trend going on in Hong Kong: the "healthy lifestyle" trend, aka my worst nightmare because everyone just constantly raves about their overpriced spinning class or yoga sessions or pilates sessions or whatnot and their stupid juice cleanses... and subsequently makes me feel like a pig because I don't do sports of any kind and even more ironically, I am trying to gain weight. But then again, I suppose I'm just a bitter old hag because I don't have enough cash to spare to go to expensive classes and am just too lazy to begin running again like I did last year. However, there were new large-scale running events coming to Hong Kong, ones that involve more fun and less energy, y'know what I mean...? Further, they were events that already had names overseas but obviously I never had the opportunity to attend because... *whispers* plane tickets are expensive. This year, my friends and I went to two: the AIA Electric Run turned out to be a flop but the Color Run was awesome (and tiring)!
Joint-firm year-out BBQ:
When we were 包主s in 2013, my friends and I hosted a joint-bao BBQ. It was highly successful and this year, we decided we needed to broaden our social circles so we organised a joint-firm year-out BBQ at Maisie's! For pictures and details on it, feel free to check out the blog post! It turned out to be a great success once again, but personally, I preferred the joint-bao BBQ only because December is way too cold for me and I was literally freezing outdoors! I won't complain though because the company was on point and true to our aims, we did make new friends!
Celebrating Christmas:
Christmas is everyone's favourite time of the year, more so for me because I have a full-time job now, and you know what the end of the year brings... tons of public holidays! In addition to that, because my company is that awesome, we also had a complimentary extra day off! It may not sound like much but to a little ant worker (weird metaphor there), it means the world! I used that day for my family's annual Christmas Eve Lunch Buffet, this year at the Renaissance Harbour View Hotel! Other celebrations this year include the studio reunion at BBQ (sort of), Gyujin with Jason, a family potluck dinner on Boxing Day and a belated Christmas cooking feast at Llywelyn's!
Bringing in the new year:
Just like we did on New Year's Eve in 2013, this New Year's Eve my family had a Hotpot-and-Bingo Night! Last year was so successful, we decided to make it an annual thing (and plus, we didn't want to be like no-lifers on one of the mostly celebrated nights of the year). Since my health hasn't improved much, I found myself even colder this winter than last winter, and so even though I had plans to countdown with my friends in IFC, I ended up not going. But that was only part of the reason - the other reason was that our hotpot went on so long that it ended at nearly midnight. After counting down and watching the TV fireworks like a sad, sad family, my parents and I trudged home and we just went to bed, HA HA. I won't apologise for that though because I actually enjoy living the granny life!
And to conclude...
Time flies, and suddenly all that I'd been anticipating one year ago - graduating, getting a new job, gaining a social life have happened - wait, scrub the last one, that definitely didn't happen this year! This year was definitely a huge change in my life and one of the biggest challenges I've had to go through. The turmoil of the finals, and just a brand new lifestyle as a grown up. I definitely wouldn't say I'm a grown up though! I'm actually quite confused - I still think and act like a child, I look like a teenager but my habits are that of an old lady! Well, whatever.
In 2015, I wish to continue my journey to happiness and spend more time with my loved ones! And - here's one for you guys - catch up on all my backdated blog posts now that I'm not swamped with studio and school! ;)
