Versatile Blogger Award

Thank you to the lovely Sophie for tagging me for this! Her blog is my new favorite to read when I'm having my downtime (AKA procrastinating instead of working on a 50% Moral Problems essay) so definitely check it out because it is so refreshingly good to read!

Seven Things About Me

1. I love food and I cannot wait to cook in my own kitchen one day, perusing recipes online is my favorite way of relaxing after a particularly long day.

2. This is becoming a bigger and more obvious aspect of my life: I am an animal lover and big tree hugger. I do run around hugging trees routinely in fact...provided they have no spiders on them.

3. I own a hermit crab (I used to have two, one passed away earlier this year ): ) and apparently this is amusing and unusual for people to hear. They make wonderful and adorable pets and I am being honest, this is coming from a person who has severe arachnophobia.

4. A recent revelation and apparently makes me "legendary": I drink Guinness and I love it. My drink of choice also happens to be scotch and coke. However that said, I do not drink all the time and see no point in getting drunk.

5. I used to be a law student until I broke up with it last year because we had no more passion in our relationship. We are still close though and may get back together next year but are taking it slow.

6. Being a true Japanese (half anyway), I can eat noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner and still want more. Ramen or udon, I will not complain. Pasta works too. My parents think I am a bit of a freak.

7. I have been a model for four years now and I still do not have an inkling of how to even use basic make up. I know basic basics but I horrify a lot of people with even the little knowledge I do possess. Hence why I am trying to learn. Also, I am preparing for when old age kicks in and I lose my youthful looks and will need make up to bejazzle my face.


Now, I tag...Susan of Darling Girl Cosmetics because she is amazing and Darling Girl is amazing so you should check both blog and store out; Wendi of Makeup Zombie who does spectacular looks and is just a wonderful person; and Stacey of Pop! Makeup whom I just met in person and love all the more - she has such wonderful blog posts that are a great read.

So smooth it made me squeal

Scantily clad I throw my legs in front of me bringing them to a slight bend as I lean back against the desk and plug in the almost offending device. It is small but daunting, silently mocking me and daring me to give it life, the promise of better tomorrows hanging in the air between us as I assess it warily for a moment before taking a deep breath. Trembling in anticipation, I flick the switch and instantly the silence of my room is filled with a roar that resembles a lawnmower on a Sunday...

A lawnmower on a Sunday?!
Oh dear readers, if your lovely minds thought I was recalling a juicy dirty tale of lonesome antics then you are quite mistaken although I admit I was striving to lead you in the wrong direction! Forgive me but let me explain and you will understand how my introduction came to be.

The offending device in question is not quite a pleasure toy (there, I said it out loud now let us all stop being awkward and exhale for a minute) but rather the opposite: one that makes me tear briefly and sniffle while it tortures me.

Gentlemen, I do not expect you to understand. Ladies, sympathize collectively now - it was the dreaded epilator! (For reference, the one I use is one by Braun but I am unsure of the model type since I swiped this from Mummy.)

The best way to get rid of excess hair without taking a shower or visiting a specialist but the one method that requires a lot of courage and determination, epilating is possibly the best way to attain hairless limbs without running the risk of cutting ones self or bawling at a stranger while howling in pain (or the awkwardness of having someone else do your dirty work for you).

The convenient size of it does little to mask the horrific - as I see them - blades, waiting to clamp onto hairs and tug them out. There are a scattered amount of these stunted tweezers but an effective amount, calculated for the task at hand.

With a flick of a switch it does give a startling roar and trust me on this but the first time I tried it I gulped, looked at it for a good while before tentatively running the menacing device up my leg. It was excruciating! I perspired, I cried, I bit down on my lip and wished for it to be over...only to peek at it and find it barely removing any hairs.

There is no way around epilating except to suck it up and get to it. I do have to agree it does a beautiful job - gentlemen, do not vomit but if you are still reading then bravo! We do this for your benefit after all - only being able to semi-complete one leg my first time and resorting to shaving the other, I found regrowth results were astounding! My shaved leg had an angry regrowth (oh shush, I let it grow out seeing as Scott was not around for me to have to be presentable!) while my other leg boasted hardly any regrowth at all. I marveled at the results and swore I would do nothing but epilate from then on.

Which leads me to conclude that if I had to recommend it I would do so with my life, it is the best option especially for those of us who are quite dark-haired - you know what I mean, the "stubble" is visible much to our chagrin a mere day later.

I just suggest either encouraging yourself with the thought of 'if I were a Victoria's Secret model I would have to do this anyway' as I do or if you really need motivation then just imagine choosing between epilating or a Brazilian wax. There! It is a shot of courage, no? I am assuming you are choosing the former of course, if you choose the latter then...I have no words for you.

And to explain how my dirty mind seemed to relate an epilator to a sex toy, well considering I live in a residential college (albeit hardly filled up at the moment but due to fill up with over one hundred people soon), I can only imagine I might get questioning looks from my neighbors because I am sure they would hardly guess I am using an epilator, I would assume otherwise too if I heard something roar from someones room...

Get your mowers ready Readers and best of luck!

My 2011 resolutions

Happy New Year - officially! It is 2011 and we are all probably very sleep deprived and keen to sleep away the first day of the year but here in Sri Lanka we believe in starting work on the very first day of the year because that paves the way for a productive year. Or so the people here try to convince themselves anyway!

Still, I thought I would be consistent with The Suki Chronicles this year and post regularly so what better post to start off with than my 2011 resolutions?
As I said in my 31st night post, resolutions should not be unrealistic - we can make noble and aspiring goals for the year but what is the point of disappointing ourselves when we are unable to fulfill these goals? I do not want to look back at the end of the year and realize I have not stuck by my resolutions so for this year I have made a few that I know I will most definitely follow through with.

Most importantly, I want to be a better girlfriend (to Scott of course!), daughter and friend. I want to be able to balance everyone I love in my life and not neglect any person. Life is too short to brush aside relationships with the intention of getting in touch "later", what is wrong with "now"? So this year I am going to put more than 100% into my relationships, albeit Scott will probably get a teensy bit more than everyone else just because he can and I want to give him that much more.

Suprisingly I have lowered education on my list of priorities and now it comes second place after Scott, family and friends! This is one way in which I have changed from the person I was in 2009 and 2010. I was ruthless when it came to prioritizing education or work and I placed it above everything and everyone else. I wanted to become a lawyer and I willingly sold my soul to pursuing a successful path towards it. However that all changed last year and now I feel that there is more in life to prioritize than education. That said, this is still important for me to maintain and therefore my education goal for this year is to get grades within a certain range in all my subjects. Not unrealistic as the range I have set for myself is attainable but still a range I will be proud to show off!

Lastly, one important resolution for myself is to improve myself. Work out consistently, eat healthily, read more literature, be more active in society (animal charity is the way I roll), learn more about the things I am fascinated by and just overall be happy. With myself, with life - with everything.

What are your resolutions, dear Bloggers?

Merry Christmas Bloggers!

Wishing you and your families a very Merry Christmas!

(Photo taken from Jacqueline's blog)

No matter your religion (I'm Buddhist) or how you feel about the holiday season (I for one can be a grinch some years) I hope you all will still have a great Christmas celebration or even just a relaxing, love-filled day. It's Christmas Eve and I hope everyone remembers the most important part of this time of the year:

Family and Giving.

Loads of love,
xoxxx
Suki.

In Between: More Photos Than Text

Just a little filler, just whiling away my days

How I'm going to spend my final two weeks in Sri Lanka will be hard to plan - there is so much I want to do but so little time, literally. I have two family road trips (one is our new years trip), a friend coming in for a day next week whom I need to see, another friend to harass so I can see him before I leave, time with my grandmother and most importantly time with my parents as I'm probably not returning home during my mid-year break next year. Oh! And how can I forget my fantabulous boys - Sydney and Prince? Since losing Pebbles I've only become more determined in cherishing the little time I have with my pets, I won't see my cats for a very long time and who knows how big they'll be when I see them next?

Speaking of pets, our tortoise came out for a bit of a wander today.

She's such a cute critter, I love it when she peeps into the house as though checking to see if we're still alive!

On Friday, Mummy and I went to the usual flower exhibition that's held in our local park and I came across this flower - a passion fruit flower but instead of being yellow it is purple and does not yield fruit as the normal plant does. How beautiful and how in love I fell! Unfortunately the full grown plant was a bit too expensive to gamble with and we wanted a baby plant as it's a creeper and would be easier to "mould" if it's young.

Unfortunately though when we went everything was sold out! I'm pretty disappointed but at least the high demand for them means that at the next flower exhibition they'll surely be stocked up and waiting! So until Mummy hunts one of our own down I'll be patient...

As our driver had today off, we went by tri-shaw to the exhibition. I love going around in these! The breeze is lovely and the ride is always exhilarating.

My Uncle gave me this book recently and I plan on doing a post on it sometime when I'm back in Adelaide, I'm planning on saving this to read on the plane!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Pebbles ♥

Thank you everyone for all the love and support for Pebbles, you are so amazing and I love you all and appreciate all the kinds words you have provided me with.

I just wanted to let you all know that Pebbles passed away on the 9th around 9pm. She went peacefully and she had us with her until the very end. My parents and I are coping okay, after all we can't be selfish as we had Pebbles for a great 14 years, but we of course feel a great loss and it's devastating.

She was beautiful even in her last days, her golden-green eyes still bright and purring as best she can even when she had absolutely no strength. With her, my childhood is gone in a way but I'm glad we had her for as long as we did.

Happy Birthday To...ME!

 

That's right Readers, I'm another year older today! Just how old I am I will never tell - not because I'm concerned over getting older or people judging me I simply believe it's unladylike to discuss your age or weight, numbers are so not conversation material once you reach your 20s! (:

 

 

A blue dress, Fyrinnae's Herbivore as a lid color and Meerkat as a waterline color and then M.A.C's Smolder eyeliner and a dash of Revlon's mineral brown lipstick (which I cannot for the life of me remember what it's called nor do I particularly care for specifics!) as well as M.A.C's mineralize blush in Love Thing and this is my birthday look...even though the only place I've been thus far is to the vets in the morning for Pebbles' saline/glucose drips. Oh well, better to dress up than to look frumpy on one's birthday.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!
xoxxx
Suki.

In Between: My Final Night In Adelaide (Yay For No Rotation Photos!)

Just a little filler, just whiling away my days

My last night in Adelaide was also the day I finished exams and I thought I would do a typical night out at a pub with a friend but instead Scott claimed it from 6pm onwards. I had no idea what he had planned especially when he said we had to drive there. Exhausted, after a grueling exam and then a whole day of packing and moving my stuff down to storage, I sincerely hoped he wasn't taking us paint balling or something...

As it turned out, he took me to see the first part of the final Harry Potter! That was pretty neat, although admittedly my favorite part was us playing in the arcade before the movie...

...Somehow the movie didn't live up to my expectations (as usual) so I'm not going to rant or rave about it or risk spoiling it for others who have yet to see it. I'm a tricky customer to begin with when it comes to movies based off books so it wasn't surprisingly that I found it slightly offensive that they changed the way Hedwig died...

Wait, what? I said no spoilers. Oops...

Afterward, we headed back to college (only to encounter a disgusting cream colored spider on the college wall outside of the car park, eugh what a nightmare!) where Scott said he had another thing planned! Curious, I followed him down the street for quite a way before we came along to...

...A lovely little nook called 'Elephant Walk'. This place is renowned for it's pricey desserts but worthwhile cozy atmosphere so I was pretty excited to be able to try it out and with Scott no less.

We got ourselves an lemon iced tea, an iced chocolate and strawberry waffles. Boy was I glad I stuck with a light beverage because those waffles were pretty spectacular!

Overall the place was quite nice but I felt there could have been massive improvements on certain aspects of it but that's just me nitpicking. Definitely a great date place and I hope they expand in time to come.

So that was my final night (in very brief detail) in Adelaide. Scott drove me to the airport the day after and now here I am in Sri Lanka! Overall? The best final date of the year and I'm giving my boyfriend extra points for being so sweet and thoughtful!

Suki Says: Love Yourself, Seriously, This Is Not A Cliché Statement

Don't judge me; I'm just a tsunami of a person

(Blogger still needs to find a way to rotate images, for reals)

Mustering up the courage to post up a picture of my gut should not be difficult but it is difficult, no matter what you look like. I am well aware that I have a decent shape/weight/etc. as it is - no, really, even if you may not think so I disagree with you and say that I do - but each person has things about themselves that they would love to tweak, you know? For me, I came to Adelaide and weighed (shock, horror! Yes I am doing what is forbidden and talking about weight! But this too should not be such a taboo topic) 45 kilograms. It sounds ideal for a person who is 5'3" but personally? I felt disgusting. I felt as though clothes hung on me instead of clinging to my shape and as for my shape (I used to be very, very, very curvey as I weighed about 65 kilograms and gaining, no lie) all that I had simply disappeared and I became this shapeless, pale and malnourished looking thing.


Then, cheesy enough as it is, I met my boyfriend - Scott - and he made me happier. He took me from the bad place I was in (you know, depression, feelings of failure, the like) and literally saved me. When I am happier, I tend to eat more. I have never been one to count calories or pick and choose what I should eat: I make sure I eat healthily. Inevitably, I put on about 10 kilograms (do the math) and now my body is starting to get more of a shape again and I could not be happier...the only issue is, I am conscious of how untoned I am. After being chubby, my arms have retained the flab and obviously I have a bit of a pouch where my stomach is concerned. Oh, and lets not forget the thighs: the thighs could do with some nice tightening up (arse too for that matter).

Toning up is hard, it takes time and commitment and you have to keep at it every single week. It is something I see myself doing but just not this year (truthfully, it really is a new years resolution that I intend on sticking by). This is a problem then for when I have photo shoots. Mind you, I started modeling when I was 18 and I was still very much chubby then, it was my agent at the time who told me that for an 18-year old I should not be over 60 kilograms, and true enough she was right - let me remind you, I'm 5'3", being over 60 kilograms was not at all ideal for me.

Being skinnier now, there is no excuse for me not to be toned up so it is definitely stressful when I have a shoot. I find myself close to starving myself and trying to do what exercises I can to "tone up" before the shoot. I live off the barest minimum and it stresses me out further because I love food, I get cranky when I skip meals. So why do I do it? Because I want to give the work I do the very best of me, and if I feel like my stomach should be a little smaller in order to get a better shot then I will work towards it. This is me being honest, yes I will do the bad thing and be the stereotype model who starves herself but at the same time it is not because I hate myself or hate how I look. I love myself, I love the way I am shaped but for just one day I feel the need to be "smaller". Is this a bad thing? I honestly feel as though it isn't. True, I should just get myself to a gym and get that toned body I keep dreaming about instead of going about it this way but in the time being can you blame me for missing out on lasagna for dinner (true story by the way) and opting for fruit?

This is me being truthful, I hope my readers appreciate that.

Photo Challenge - 26/30

A Photo Of Your Favorite Weekend

On a personal note, it is Scott and my anniversary today which made me think back two months ago when we went to the zoo to feed the sun bears (Akbar and Manji! For more information on them, go here) on our anniversary then. Definitely my favorite weekend this year I reckon.

Happy Anniversary Scooter, I love you (: ♥

Suki Says: A Little Bit Of Inspiration, Please.

Don't judge me; I'm just a tsunami of a person

Have you ever been in a rut of all sorts? Where your creativity, imagination, sense of self - everything, just seems completely blank? I feel as though recently I've come to that sort of rut due to the amount of personal emotional stress I've put myself through and I wish there were some way to jump start myself. I've heard of people getting into this sort of state and I've never understood but now I understand how frustrating it can be. The worst part is you simply sigh and acknowledge the fact that you're blank; admitting defeat is difficult for me.

I found a bit of solace in Katy Perry's newest song, I hope someone else does too.

Photo Challenge - 23/30

A Photo Of Your Friend As A Baby

I don't have a photo of any of my friends as a baby on me at the moment but does this count? It's my cousin, Tomohiro (he's the one who's looking at the camera; I'm in the background busying myself with the mega fascinating truck!).

Just For Kicks: Picture Of The Day

Randomness keeps us all a little sane

Photo Challenge - 20/30

A Photo Of You Doing Something You Enjoy

Enough said (:

Changing It Up A Little

Thinking about my chronicles and how I want them portrayed

As I slowly reenter the blogging world, I find myself wondering more and more these days why I'm not blogging the way I used to and where this systematic and restrictive method of blogging I've created for myself has come from. It's a great way to organize entries and easy for ideas but I feel it might be the reason why I'm slightly lax with doing regular entries as well. That is why I've decided to try randomizing my entries and seeing if that will solve the problem.

Come next year I plan to have a fresh start with Suki Chronicles anyway and as it is I'm working on a new layout so hopefully I'll get into the swing of things these last few months of 2010 and by the time 2011 rolls around I'll be consistent.

That said I may keep my Monday Meows, Tuesday Thinks, Wednesday WhatsIts, Thursday Turmoils, Friday Features and Saturday Squeezes but they just won't make a weekly appearance. I feel this will enable me to share more of my personal life with y'all as well and we know those are the fun entries to read!

Hope everyone is having a great week thus far. I'm working on a 40% essay due this Friday and have a whole lot of work due as well so it's a little hectic and stress-y for me but after Friday it'll be holidays so that will be a nice breather.

Photo Challenge - 17/30

A Drunk Photo Of You

I know this might not look like the drunkest picture in the world but I was pretty drunk in this nonetheless. For one thing, this photo? Taken in a bathroom stall! My friend Kelsey is sitting on the toilet (just sitting on it mind you!) so you can guess where I am - on the floor! I was pretty sick as I recall but still posing for photos! That's the proper way to be drunk in my opinion, still good to go for photos.

In Between: Yet Another Update

Just a little filler, just whiling away my days

Yet again I've been awful with updating my blog and for that I apologize! I know I won't get anywhere without a little dedication, a little motivation and lots of hard work but life has been so tough on me lately. I've been really sick for two weeks and only now I seem to be getting better but it's still very, very slow progress. I've got a lot of university work to catch up on and next week is going to be another one of those weeks but I'm doing entries from now itself so never fear!

Also since I have holidays coming up I might spend a little time revamping Suki Chronicles as well so just a heads up. What else is to come...quite a few reviews on Indie companies and possibly more lengthy entries on my personal life maybe, still on the fence with that.

Hope everyone has been well! I know a worldwide flu is spreading since every where in the world the seasons are shifting from one extreme to the next so everyone keep healthy and don't fall victim to this terrible flu!

In Between: An Update On Wonderland (That Is My Life)

Just a little filler, just whiling away my days

I've been M.I.A again! I'm so sorry and I promise you it is because of valid reasons. For one, I had my college ball on Saturday and boy was it pretty epic! I had a lot of assignments due before then too so I was rather stressed out last week (and unfortunately it's the same case this week too). The ball was well worth it though and a great way to relax in a way. Our ball theme was 'Alice in Wonderland' and so I dressed accordingly! Any ideas on which character I emulated? ;)

Scott looked amazing that night and I'm so proud he was my partner to the ball! Well, surely he would've been considering he's my boyfriend and all, sheesh! He asked me in the cutest way too, it was definitely a special night with him.

Other than that I have been drowning (not literally but close enough!) in university work and other work for the television show I am in (which I might talk about more later). I will hopefully get some posts up soon but until then please bear with me!

Tuesday Thinks: Guest Blogging

It's Tuesday and I'm looking for inspiration

I plead guilty to not doing a blog post for Suki Chronicles but instead doing a guest post for Dominique! She has a fun series where she and guest bloggers create 80's inspired looks and I decided to take up the challenge and did a look.

Talk about intimidating though, when you don't know much about makeup and you've got to come up with a look all on your own it can be quite overwhelming. I'm glad I puckered up the courage to submit my look though!

You can find my post over here, on the greener side of life that is Dominique's blog (:

Photo Challenge - 10/30

A Photo Of You As A Baby

Oh golly gee whiz (: