It's been quite a while since I've last posted anything. I do have a very reasonable and valid explanation.  Reason being, fashion design, regardless of whether it is a first year course, takes up your entire life, social lie, everything from cutting your dinner down to a 20 minute munch to a 6 hour sleep cycle every night. But anyway, friday marked the last day of my first year at university. And saturday was the start of my 4 month summer vacation! Well, not exactly a vacation but nonetheless, a much better 4 months than what I have been having the past 8 months. 

There is work assigned for summer, of course. Why would there not be? Research for the next tailoring project for the first project of second year. And on top of that, probably some job if I can find any work in Hong Kong. All the spendings on shopping the last few months have been quite shocking. To ease that guilt, I think I should start earning some extra money over the 4 month break. 

But yes, this pretty much marks the end of my first year at university and boy did it fly by quick. It's odd because as much as I am excited to go home, it does not feel like I had been living here for a year but rather just a few months. Here I am now, the room pretty much bare with everything packed into the new house for next year. I will be hopping onto the plane on monday afternoon and on tuesday afternoon, I will be home. With my Seven. 

It's scary how quick a year has flown by. What's even scarier on top of that is actually how much I have done (each project and in total) as well as how much I have learnt. How much that has all changed me. I started off the year with the typical tank tops, sneakers, skinnies or shorts type of thing but here I am now, a year from then, buying fancy trousers, dresses, interesting draped tops, it's odd. What's even funnier is when I look back at what I used to wear, or what I brought with me from home, here I am sitting here thinking, "what on earth was I thinking wearing all these things?!" They aren't god awful, they are just so normal compared to everything else I've recently bought. Already, the course is changing my outlook on my dress sense and style each day. One thing I am hoping that has stayed the same, is my ego. I do not intend to allow fashion to turn me into one of the typical, shallow, egotistical people. I do judge some individuals on what their wearing, as my roomie and I would call it, people watching. But that is as far as I will allow myself to go, whatever that I wish to say can stay inside my head, especially if it's not exactly the nicest thing in the world to say. 

So yeah, I would say this year's been a blast. Despite all the pain, stress, lack of sleep and whatever else you can fit in here because the list is endless, I am glad I have survived it. I have successfully finished the first year with grades that I am very pleased and to be honest, shocked about. Considering everyone took an extra year before the degree, I thought I was going to end up a snail playing catch up. But the end results are, I am at a lost for words. 

And a little extra on top of it all, some work ended up on display and my Warehouse garment was featured in the first/second year fashion show. I am pleased with my results, especially considering the amount of effort that was put in. All the blood (literally, from all the pinning and sewing), sweat and tears. Times when I actually was about to mentally crack which of course happened with this last project where I just walked out of that sewing room and took the entire afternoon off and never came back. Or that other morning where I was so close to breaking every machine in that room and storming out. 

Perseverance. Patience. The other two important things I have picked up from this year. I'll admit, I'm still a shit sewer, I can't sew to save my life but at least I am trying and still hanging in there, by a thread. I wouldn't say I've gotten any more patient but I think at least now I have found a way to deal with times when I am about to snap. Step away from the machine and mannequin, deep breaths for a few minutes, and then go back to it. We'll see how it goes with next year's added workload and stress. I might just have to take even more desperate and serious measures. For those out thinking fashion's easy, I won't lie it is a lot of hard work but the results will show if you genuinely work hard for it. 

So that's it for my little rant for now because it's 1:04 in the morning and I would like to snuggle into bed and have a good night's sleep.

And with that, I end this post with a goodnight to you all. Expect to see another rant again, in a couple months time when I finally am in the mood or have the time to get to it.


Something I nearly forgot, I've recently uploaded all my work onto my tumblr so if you haven't already or if you're feeling a little bored and wish to do something nice, do drop by the blog.

Now seriously, goodnight.

just a new blog I've started to showcase my work and hopefully to get it out there to all the fashion people :) 

And so, ttfn.

After 10 long weeks, tomorrow will mark the end of the first project. 

I've been moping around for the past 3 days since I've finished my project a little early so really this entire week till next Monday is pretty much a little much deserved and needed break for myself from everything that has happened the past 10 weeks. Ooh it's been crazy, hectic, madness, stressful, times where I felt like ripping the machine and toiles apart but alas, it will all be over tomorrow. And to add to that little joyous feeling, I'm satisfied with what I've done. I've made three toiles and considering I have no knowledge in pattern or using the sewing machine, it is amazing I've kept up. Loving what I've done for my final illustration of the line ups as well. I suppose the only downside to tomorrow is having to drag myself out of bed at 7:30 in the morning. Ouch that's going to be painful, especially since I've been sleeping from 2am every night till at least 11am the next morning.

So here I am now, cuddled up in my blankets in the corner of my bed with the mac sitting on my lap, typing away while listening to my newly downloaded music. It's starting to freeze around here so as of right now, I'm feeling like a lazy bum, but feeling great with my blankets and comfy bed. And staying on the bed keeps me away from all the night snacks that I might grab from under my desk. 

15 more days till I head home for the Christmas break (feeling a little like being chucked into hogwarts for some boarding school and then going home for the first time) and boy can't I wait to see everyone, especially my little poochie. All the decent food I can eat back home, not having to worry about laundry, work, "what should I eat today?", food shopping for the next 3 weeks that will be absolutely amazing. Mainly the laundry and dinner I think :) And I'll have the car again, the fast and convenient trains and buses, cheap shopping. I'm ready to leave. Heck, I should just pack my baggage now. Not that I would even have to pack much considering I'm not bringing anything back except all the Christmas gifts and orders. Afterall, the more clothes I bring back there (which quite honestly would no longer be needed since it's going to feel like summer back home), the less I can bring back with me and trust me, there is so much I have to bring back with me it's a little crazy.

It's scary how time flies.

It felt like only yesterday that I've moved into the halls, started uni and my first project yet it felt like I've been here for forever. And now, it's already been 10 weeks and I'm 2 weeks away from heading home. Before I know it, it's going to be right into the second project, easter and after easter, just 3 weeks till I'm off for summer. Of course in between those breaks there's my 19th which oh gosh, do I feel old. I don't feel like I'm 19. I don't want to feel 19 because that would mean I'm pretty much a grown up. I hate being a grown up. All the responsibilities, I mean bloody hell, only last week did I learn to cut my first apple and only 2 weeks ago did I finally, *exhale* decided to give my bathroom a big clean up and hoover the room. The things I miss back home. All the chores I have to do here.

Apparently it's supposed to start snowing around here, next week too. Well, all I'm hoping is for some decent, walkable, weather on the day I leave because I'd be dragging a massive baggage and it wouldn't be great if I had to tread in the snow. Oh it's going to be hilarious, me in the London underground, plane and in the Singapore airport, in my woolly snow shoes. And we're talking proper, snow shoes here. The things I do to have as much baggage space as I can for the trip back. Just blogging about this is getting me so excited and ready to bolt out of here back home. All the goodies and things waiting for me back home, especially my poochie which I haven't seen in 2 months.

So anyway, that's it for the little update for now. I might even have an early night tonight to prepare myself for tomorrow's 7:30am wake up call.

Just a little rant tonight since I've got nothing to do. Well, not nothing but rather just feeling like chilling on a tuesday night especially since I've got my day off from university tomorrow so I can sleep in. 

A couple things happened the past few days, I wouldn't call them drastic but it's definitely a change. First off, I've got a terrible eye sty which is just fantastic, even had to cancel my London trip that was supposedly tomorrow because of this damn swollen monstrosity. So that's no fun at all and pleaseee sakeessss make this horrid thing go away soon. Going to class in glasses without any make up on these past few days made me feel like I literally just woke out of bed and ran to class. 

But enough of that eye, I don't suppose it's going to get any better with me ranting on about it. So moving on, second big change. I've got a new favourite colour. No it doesn't sound like a big deal but for a person like me who went through a couple of "phases", I suppose this is the stage where I would say I've moved onto the next phase. I remember I used to obsessed with purple as a 10 year old but hey, least it's not baby pink! Then I got stuck with green for quite awhile, even having my glasses frame in green. And then from green, blue and green started to grow on me and since I couldn't decide which I liked more, I ended up being mad obsessed with teal which is a nice little combination of the two. Don't get me wrong, I still love teal but I've also got a new favourite now. Using my art knowledge from IB and sounding just a tad bit geeky, plum, coincidentally enough it's the complementary colour of teal which just works out perfectly.  

Since I've got here, I've bought a plum or well, some would say maroon, knit top, plum acid washed denim shorts and a plum coloured pillow for my bed to go with my teal fleece blanket. But that's not all that's plum, the bottom half of my hair is now plum as well. That's right, I just did my first hair dying at home two days ago in the bathroom and well, though I would have loved to see the plum appear on my hair like shown on the box, I'm very happy with the outcome. You can't see the plum in a normal room because of my damn, dark brown hair but under the light, especially on a sunny day, there are just perfect tints of plum which are visible on the bottom half of my hair. I do love the colour and heck, the plan in a couple of weeks or months depending on how long the colour stays on, is to dye my entire head in that shade of plum. It's gorgeous, even if you can't tell a difference that I have dyed my hair. I'm absolutely in love with the colour. And I must say, not too bad for a first dip dye on my hair (Y). 

Of course I could always bleach it and then all colours would come out perfect but no way in hell do I intend to destroy half of my hair by bleaching it. I've seen too many examples where people's hair have literally, turned into hay texture due to the over dying and bleaching. And as much as I love dying my hair, I do not intend to have rough, almost fragile hay hair. I do like the soft, smooth texture of my healthy hair and I intend to keep it that way. Amazingly enough, my hair is adapting very well to the UK weather and environment, it's sort of brilliant how dry it gets because by the time I head to bed on most nights, my hair's already all dried. Back in Hong Kong, oh god if it were a humid wet day, it could sit there on my shoulders for 6 hours and by the time I head to bed, it would still be slightly damp which then I end up waking up the next morning most likely with eeky gross hair. 

Speaking of waking up, I slept at midnight last night thinking how amazing it would be that I could sleep in today since I didn't have any classes till two in the afternoon. And apparently, a big mistake because just when I was deep in sleep dreaming about I believe it was packing my clothes from Hong Kong back to here, all of a sudden, the bloody fire drill goes off. Ever had that moment before? When you're just so sound asleep it's like you're in heaven and then all of a sudden, an ear blasting ring that initially, sounded like my alarm clock. Literally, I jumped out of bed and the first thought that hit me was, "why is my bloody alarm ringing?" and then it took another couple of seconds before I realized oh, shit, it's the effing, fire drill. You have got to be kidding me. 

Never before had it happened but I had to walk down to the main entrance of the halls where everyone was gathered, in my pink and white stripped furry dress robe, flip flops, glasses and horrid bed hair. Oh my, boy is that never happening ever again. That was beyond, terrible. And to make matters worse, I couldn't go back to sleep after it was over because that bloody fire drill had woken me up completely. And let's be honest, it's never a good thing to head back to bed once you've woken up because a. you're just going to end up in a wayy deeper sleep and god knows if I would end up waking up late for my afternoon classes and b. it's close to impossible. 

So what did I do this morning? Moped around, made breakfast and watched all the current episodes of the latest season of Survivor and The Paradise. What. A. Morning. At least now with my london trip for tomorrow being cancelled, I suppose I could sleep in and then get some work done in the afternoon. And please oh please, let me wake up with a normal looking eye tomorrow. This bloody sty is killing me.

It's been 26 days since I've moved to UK and 20 days since I've moved into my university accommodation and here I am, at my desk, having some yoghurt and cereal for breakfast while doing a little update. I remember someone telling me, "don't worry after IB, university is going to be a breeze." Well, it's not happening. A shirt project consisting of inspiration, mood, colour boards, research, sketches, final line ups along with a fashion history essay all due in 7 weeks. Along with that are 3 fully packed days each week - Tuesday, Thursday and Friday where I would be pretty much spending my entire day at school with a 10 to 5 timetable. 

But here's the catch. I'm actually enjoying this. I like being kept busy and always having some sort of work to do and trust me, the fact that I'm spending all that time and waking up early to get to that lecture on a monday morning, it's all worth it because I'm doing what I love at university. Everything taught is new to me and at the same time, exciting and interesting. Who knew I would love monday morning lectures so much? 

And then there's wednesday, what they call a "self directed day" which simply translates into a day off. That's when I have my sleep ins without the alarm clock ringing at 8 in the morning. Then I would probably take my time to get ready and maybe head out to Rochester for the afternoon, just a nice chilled afternoon at nice little, old fashioned Rochester. This odd little town which I was initially dreading, might just turn out to be one of my favourite places. Shocking aye? But honestly, there's just this odd calming vibe about it and when you're walking around such an old 18th century liked town with a beautiful cathedral and castle, while having some nice instrumental music plugged into your ears,  you really do tend to have this nice unusual feeling of being lost in time. Almost as if I could just forget about school and everything else for the day and just enjoy the afternoon alone, while admiring the amazing architecture of these old buildings. 

Chatham is where I do my shopping and let's just say I belong at Rochester, not a Chatham person. It's filled with shops, malls, one pound stores, lots of unusual, loud people dressed in pyjamas? See you wouldn't get that in Rochester. So after the few days and upon discovering Rochester, pretty much the only times I would head to Chatham is for university supplies and food shopping at Sainsbury's. And oddly enough, though I'm pretty sure the distances between these towns and to and back my halls are pretty close, I always get this funny feeling that Rochester is so much closer just because there's a long stretch of little vintage, antique shops along the way even if I have not arrived at my destination yet.

And here are just a few photos I took of my new found favourite place to be.
(In order from top to bottom: Rochester Castle (Front Entrance), Rochester High Street, Rochester Castle)

And what's even more amazing is that along with the tiny little vintage shops, there are tiny comfy little cafes where I could sit down and have tea, yes very English right there. I even visited this tiny little confectionaries store yesterday which was just adorable. Even store owners at the Rochester end seem just so much more friendlier and laidback. Speaking of shops, there also are these two amazing secondhand book stores at the far end of High Street and by amazing, I mean freaking amazing. Particular emphasis on Baggin's Book Bazaar because that book store is stunning. Not stunning in the amazing decor kind of way but stunning in the amount of books they have and how old the store is, which just adds onto that nice little feeling I have of time travelling back into the 19th century. The story literally has everything, with 1 pound National Geographic magazines from 1995 to 2010 (picked up a couple), books on cooking, astronomy, naval, military, art, fashion, textiles, crafts, history, etc. Anything. Literally, anything, the collection they have is simply massive. But that's not all, what makes me love this place even more is the fact that these books are very reasonably priced, or at least what I saw with the fashion books anyway which were only a couple pounds. 

Honestly, I think I could get used to this and I'm sure time would start flying by. 10 weeks till Christmas and that surely isn't too long a wait because once the work starts kicking in, all the sewing, pattern cutting and sketchbook work, time will past quickly. So as much as I miss home, my bed, the food, the cheap shopping (which I will splurrrgeeeee on when I get back), my darling Seven, I think it won't be too painful a wait before I get to see them again. And of course Christmas also means I'm finally getting my new phone that I can finally use to Whatsapp, browse the web, google maps (always handy for a lost soul like me). 

And after Christmas, there's still more to look forward to, March 1st 2013. Yes it's my big day but it's also the day where we fashion students are headed to Paris for the weekend! It's still quite awhile away but heck, I'm listing that down on my calendar just for a little surprise whenever I flip my iCal a few months ahead. Then after march, it's just a couple more weeks and it's Easter! After Easter, a couple more weeks and it's the end of the first year and soon enough in June, my summer holiday starts. I suppose listing it all out now, it really isn't that bad especially since I'm getting into the spirit of things now. 

I suppose I'll live. But as of right now, I've got to get changed and start getting ready because I need to leave 10 minutes earlier today for production classes and that hill, is one hell of a hike.