Sunday Funday: October 12/14

Hi there! I guess it was Tuesday this past week that I made the decision to just not blog all week because it was just all getting too stressful. It was a good thing I did that because I really needed the breather to focus on school and all the other things I’ve decided to dedicate my time. This week, I realised that school really is super duper important. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those kids who slacks when it comes to school work and doesn’t value her education, but freshman year was a lot easier and more of a review of Grade 8 with some new information. I can’t get the same grades I did last year by putting in the same amount of effort because that’s just not going to happen.

Something big that like officially happened this week that I’ve been keeping from you for ages, well, like a month, is how I got a job! I went to a job fair early in September just when school was starting and somehow landed myself a job at 15 when most places were looking for 16 year olds. I had my orientation on Tuesday and did my first training session on the floor and working with customers Thursday until late and it was pretty cool. I’m working at Boathouse and I’m pretty darn excited.

In Canada, we have Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October, so we all got a day off. Thankfully for the students, some of us are lucky enough to have a day off on the Friday as well (aka me and my friends) so I took that chance to spend some time with two friends I’ve been wanting to see again for a while now.

But first, on Friday morning, I woke up to my brother calling me down for breakfast which never happens because a) I usually get up before him and b) I always make my own breakfast which is often 95% of the time oatmeal. After doing a super quick workout, brushing my teeth, and washing my face, I headed downstairs to find that he made me these banana granola almond balls that might not look like the most appetising thing, but I assure you tasted lovely. It just makes me really happy when he makes me food and this time especially because he took into consideration how I’m trying not to veer from my healthy eating habits.

W and I hung out for a bit at a park close to both of our houses because we’re lucky enough to live a walking distance away from each other, something that we clearly don’t take advance of often enough.

Then, my best friend B and I hung out downtown as per usual just strolling around and doing a bit of shopping even though we each only got one thing. Something that I’ve learned about myself/our friendship over the summer is that I just really spending time with her, especially downtown and it’s just great to be around each other. I tend to compare it to moving out of your parents’ house or something (or what I’d imagine it’d be like) because we used to be so comfortable seeing each other every day at school while we live a 30-minute drive away from each other and we don’t have that luxury anymore, so the time we do get to spend together is really, really precious to me.

After hanging out with W in the morning and B in the afternoon, I took the bus to meet my mom somewhere so we could go for dinner with my dad. I ended up stuffing myself with delicious Vietnamese food and it was just so good. I completely forgot to take pictures and my phone’s camera just doesn’t work anymore anyway, but it was just some rice with a Vietnamese fish sauce, some chicken, shredded pork, and a pitiful amount of lettuce. While I’m Asian, I don’t actually eat that much rice anymore because it’s just not that good for you and I noticed that I felt a lot better and my skin got better when I started replacing that extra bit of rice that I usually ate with some extra veggies so I stopped eating so much. I swear, the plate of food I got had about a week’s worth of my usual rice intake. Kind of insane, so evidently, I didn’t finish that.

Then on Saturday, my family went out again and we drove a bit farther out to pick up some fabric for some little projects. You’ll get a glimpse of one and a full tutorial for the other, so stay tuned. If you’ve read my October’s Big Five post, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Here’s a little sneak peek of the fabrics.

The fabric store close to my house closed down, so we had to go through the hassle of going to one a bit further away, but it turned out to be a happy, err, accident (?) since we went to a sushi place close to there and basically had the Asian equivalent of a Thanksgiving dinner that left you stuffed. Except we had it at lunch. Oops.

It was an all-you-can-eat buffet and oh my goodness was it good. I’ve been very disappointed with sushi the past few times I’ve been because it just wasn’t as good as I’d imagined it in my head, so sushi’s been a letdown since the summer. However, this buffet totally restored my faith in the Japanese food and I’ve fallen in love with it again. But after yesterday’s lunch, I’m not heading back here anytime soon.

You could also cook meet on the grill on the table and of course, my dad was the one manning the grill. 

Some beef spare ribs and pork belly 

The grill with some proteins cooking, cucumber and avocado roll, salmon, avocado and crisp roll, and some roll with cream cheese 

The most delicious of the meats - salmon 

Seaweed salad!

The "Yummy Yummy" roll with cream cheese, white tuna, salmon, and avocado all deep fried - so, so good. 

Spicy salmon sushi pizza

My new favourite - blaze salmon sushi 

Avocado and crab meat roll and mango and crisp roll

Green Dragon roll and Dynamite roll (I know, we got LOADS of food)

After eating, we decided to walk off the food by shopping. It was mostly window shopping as it was just my brother who got some things and me who got TRXYE (finally!). It’s kind of crazy to be holding it in my hands, but it makes me really, really happy. Troye Sivan just makes me really, really happy. I can’t wait to hear the music he’s been working on.

Speaking of music, ever since my friend C told me as I was busing to work for the “first” time that Taylor Swift covered “Riptide” by Vance Joy on BBC Radio 1, it’s been on repeat. Gosh, her cover is just so, so good. I’ve actually loved this song for about half a year now, she made me fall back in love with it. I’ll be honest, I was a bit worried that it wasn’t going to be that great, but C’s pretty critical of music in general, so I figured that there was a reason why she mentioned it to me with an excessive amount of exclamation points because those aren’t her thing. It was basically one of the best ways to get to work.

If you haven’t already listened to it, you should go do it NOW. It will make you so happy, I promise.

Recently, I’ve gotten really into Taylor Swift. Not necessarily her music, but her as a person. I think she’s just so genuine, lovely, and kind, and she just happens to be hilarious and really good to her fans. Her Tumblr just manages to crack me up like no other (but I think you need to be a Swiftie to really enjoy it like I do) and her interview with Graham Norton (I love the guy and have loved him since like 2013). You can check out my favourite clip of the interview down below.

The goals from last week didn’t quite work out I don’t think. I didn’t get eight hours any night last week, I worked out four times (which isn’t that bad, but still), and have already had to cheat meals. But you know what, it’s Thanksgiving so screw my rigid rules, I’m going to relax and enjoy myself (to a certain extent).

Goals for the week:

1) Spend more time on school and get it to a point where you feel happy about it.

2) Make sleep a priority. (This article from Blogilates totally convinced me.)

3) Bake pumpkin oatmeal cookies and make a big breakfast on Thanksgiving.

This week's goals should be a bit easier to tackle, aha. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

What are your goals for the week? If you're Canadian, what are you doing for Thanksgiving? What are your thoughts on Taylor's cover? Leave your comments and share your thoughts below!

Thank you so much for reading!

- J

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