Bestie = soulmate

'Nuff said. <3

http://elitedaily.com/women/your-bff-your-soulmate/1008949/

-D-

Warner Brother's Studio - The Making of Harry Potter

So, recently, I went to the Warner Brother's Studio in London with two of my middle/high school friends - Jacelyn & Maya - both of which are studying in England as well.

I had taken a lot of pictures on this tour, and I did not post all of them as you guys would be scrolling through this post for ages xD

For those who are Harry Potter fans - THIS PLACE IS MAGICAL. 

We spent a few hours at the tour, marvelling at how amazing everything is. We saw many of the real props and costumes that were used in the movies. 

 Harry Potter's bedroom under the cupboard

The dining hall 

 Recognise these costumes?? :D 

 The wands.. 

 Dumblerdore's gargoyle 

 Hagrid's bike 

Umbridge's sickening pink office xD 

Behold! The beautiful Hogwarts express at platform 9 3/4 <3 This is their newest attraction, and has only been added a few weeks ago :) 

Inside the train, on our way to Hogwarts! ;) 

After that, we took a short break and had some delicious butterbeer :D 

 We then proceeded outdoors for a short while, where it was beautifully sunny when we arrived at Privet Drive xD 

The Knight Bus~

We also took some pictures with Hagrid's motorbike and the Weasley's car :D  

Dobby :( 

The basilisk.. Rawr!  

Tiny Voldemort 

Buckbeak! It could bow his head and all that :D

Diagon Alley~ 

I want a wand from Ollivander's! 

Last but not least, this is the sight that took my breath away.. 

This is a massive model of the Hogwarts castle.. 

This model has been used as the close up shots in the movies

It is so detailed, and just so beautiful...

The night view, with tiny sparkling lights :) 

Ah yes, the souvenir shop is quite spectacular as well! 

Yes, they had a Hedwig plushie..  I was so tempted to buy that, but it was insanely expensive :( 



In overall, my experience at the Warner Brother's Studio was AMAZING. It was everything that I had expected, and even more! I would definitely recommend any and all Harry Potter fans to go there. Whilst it is a bit pricey, it is definitely worth it! Plus, it's one of those things that you probably won't go again (unless you're wealthy). Anyway, they let you stay until their closing time, so if you go there early in the morning (the earliest tour starts at 9am, I think), you can stay there for hours and hours! Apparently, the longest that people have stayed there for is for 13 hours!!

In case people want to know, the best way to get there is to take the train (London Midlands) or tube to Watford Junction. From there, there's a bus right outside the train station that will take you directly to the place, for £2 (to and fro), or £1.50 for a one-way trip.

Be prepared to bring extra money, as you should definitely try the butterbeer, and you would mostly likely splurge a bit at their gift store :P just saying. However, no matter whether you are on a tight budget (as we were) or not, definitely save a few pounds to buy their butterbeer! This is one of the three places that sells butterbeer!

-D-

Home - The Movie

(Note: a bit of a spoiler alert here..)

So, a friend of ours who used to go to our international school, Jacelyn, is staying over at my place for a few days. She's also studying in England, but in the North. Anyway, we decided to watch 'Home' yesterday - and it was a really adorable movie!!

For those who watch 'The Big Bang Theory', the actor that plays Sheldon Cooper voices the main character of the movie, 'Oh' (an alien). Rihanna voices the other main character, 'Tip' (a human). Oh and Tip did not get off on a very good start, but after some time, they became good friends. Tip taught Oh about family and friendship, and the value of things that are important to you. In the end, not only did Oh witness the beautiful act of a daughter trying to be reunited with her mother (and vice versa), he had also learnt the importance of not leaving your friend behind. As the Boovs (the alien race) have learnt to run away from..everything, it is not surprising that Oh is used to running away too. However, after he had ran away to save himself, he came back for Tip. With this valuable lesson, Oh has also gained a friend that would not run away and leave him behind as well.

This movie portrays the theme of friendship and family (oh god, my English Literature mindset is surfacing o.0), and I believe that it is so important and precious for people to know about it. Not to say that every teenager is guilty of this, but there are many youngsters that do not truly understand the importance of friendship, or even of their families. Guys, this is important. Value your family - they are the only people that will stick by you no matter what, and will always be by your side! Value your friends - as the ones that you truly care about, and the ones that are your true friends, will be your non-biological family.

And it is safe for me to say that Evon is my non-biological family :) 

-D-

Planning Well & Playing Safe?

For quite some time that I did not update anything on the blog.... ( Class started and I am busy)

Recently I came across a trailer about a story that sould be very well known to the group of peeps that like "The Fault in Our Stars". This story based on a novel written by John Green, "Paper Town".

Well I did some digging, Paper town... technically it means a place/town that does not exist but is put in maps as a way to protect each copy right. [ If you copy the maps completely, you ended up with the same paper town that obviously does not exist, thus prove that you COPY ]

Paper Town actually has quite a few concepts behind it...but the reason I write about this is not because of the love, the imagination of this perfect girl, the fake/real idea... I wanted to write about it because of a sentence I heard over the trailer: "Take a risk, stop planning so safe" 

It got me thinking, what adventerous things that I have done to tell others, to make my heart beat, to maky my life interesting? I realized not much.... We have been taught since we were young that we have to obey rules and regulations to fit in to any circles in the society; to maintain peace and harmony. I do agree that rules and regulations are necessary to keep the world in order, but however I also think we are so constructed in the box that we are starting to blend in too much and lose individuality. 

To be honest, things in real world are getting fake and we are actually happy about it! The actress and actors we adore so much, sometimes deep down we know that they are acting or pretending to be someone that we will like; but we just never want to admit that. The friends around us, we call them friends while actually they are just faking to be friendly and to like you. We do not want to be outcast so we try hard to ignore what's real and embrace what's fake. That is the underlying rule on the street, the 'Social Rule'. 

As individual, we  do not have the courage to stand out. We are obliged to the enactments made and to the social obligations. Looking from the big picture, this is actually the right situation to be in, because there cannot be peace and harmony when people are not working and tolerating each other due to strong individuality. 

But that is not my final conclusion. I believe that everyone deserve to go out of the frame a little once in a while. To feel like you actually live and you actually do something that make you feel... YOU. I am lucky I have Diana by my side; whenever I decide to do something crazy or inaproppriate, I know someone is going to be punished together with me. That make me feel better and more courageous. 

So my final thought is... we should find a buddy, and do something spontaneous without planning. 

TEEHEE...... just some random thoughts, sorry for wasting your precious time and living moements. =D

P.S: Diana, you are in a lot of troubles next time we meet. 

- E -

Things That Besties Do~

This blog is not only about our adventures (separately and together), but also about friendship :) And... food. C'mon, we all know that's super important xD Anyway, I've put together a few links about best friends. 

Now, whilst Evon and I do comply to a majority of these things, one size does not fit all! Even if you and your best friend do not do all of these things, it does not mean that your friendship is not real or is not strong enough! Every friendship is unique by its own standards - what's the fun if every friendship is exactly the same?! With that in mind, I hope that you guys will enjoy the following links :P 

- http://www.seventeen.com/life/friends-family/a29764/things-you-only-do-with-your-best-friend/?src=spr_FBPAGE&spr_id=1442_165753517 

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvZijyb51-w

- http://www.storypick.com/close-friend-things/

- http://www.seventeen.com/life/friends-family/a23979/best-friend-rules/?click=pp 

- https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=453970338113121

I will continue to post more of such links if I ever come across them :D 

- D - 

It's Time... :(

Once again, it is time for me to leave. I have to go back to England, as I have exams next month T T It seems like just yesterday that I was looking forward so eagerly to return to Asia. Time really does fly past when you are enjoying yourself! Like Evon, I am looking forward to the near future, the joyous occassion of when I once again return. Until then, I shall be writing about my adventures in England :) 

I shall miss the food so much haha and I will of course miss my family & relatives, and my dearest bestie <3 

I took this picture when I went to Melaka last week. This is the lovely sunset view from Evon's place :)

-D-

Bonding...Over Food :D

So, I actually haven't seen my dad in over a year. He's actually still working in China now. Before, the holidays that I have are different from his, so we never returned back to Singapore/Malaysia at the same time - until this holiday!

We started off today by going to the temple for the tomb sweeping festival - to pray for a family member and our ancestors. Then we spent the whole day eating haha and looking around for furniture. My dad is considering moving back to Singapore this summer onwards, and wants to re-furnish the house, which is why we were looking at furniture. That means, new TV, new sofa, and a completely new room for me! The room that I had as a kid is actually completely empty now, which is.. kind of sad :P So I get to redecorate my room, and add in whatever furniture I want! (Any and all ideas are welcome :) hehe)

The fruit juice that I had was the watermelon + grapes + honeydew fruit juice. My dad had the starfruit juice.

Tu tu kueh is a traditional Singaporean delicacy. It is rapidly steamed, and is made out of rice flour, with different types of fillings inside. We had the coconut and peanut fillings. There are some stalls that sell those with sugar, and even chocolate fillings! Or you can order the original ones, which is without any fillings. 

We then went to 'Din Tai Fung', a Taiwanese restaurant. We had the delicious 'Xiao Long Bao' (小笼包）- one of my favourite dim sums! 

We also tried the chilli crab + pork buns, which did not taste as good as it sounds... It was not as spicy as I hoped it would be.

I also had Earl Grey Lemon Tea (Earl Grey, how British haha). And it was served with this gigantic ball of ice in it - which I thought was quite interesting. This ice ball contains some ice tea, so that as it melts, it does not dilute the drink. 

Posting about food reminds me of the times when Evon and I would eat delicious foods, and of course, take pictures of it AND with it! :D 

Green tea (Evon's fav) and cookies & cream (my fav) ice creams. With some chocolate sauce and rainbow sprinkles on top..pretty much just to make it pretty! Haha 

- D - 

Who is thy Bestfriend? 6 signs!

Today I woke up with the knowledge of "Neighbour Test" running through my mind. It's weird as I have study this a fair amount period of time ago ( I am not the typical student that always study and have the knowledge lock in), so I took it as universe giving me sign for something to write about.

The Neighbour Test is a test/rule to find out who has the duty of care towards your physical injury or property damage. It is a topic to be covered on the negligence field in the legal world. But for today, since my joined blog with Diana mainly focused on friendship, it inspired me to write about Best Friend Test. (Which is similar to the neighbour in Neighbour Test, your Best Friend should have the duty of care over your pain and scars)

We often speak of someone as our Best Friend but I realized that not everyone has a clear perspective and idea of the definiton, Best Friend/Bestie. A very clear example from my life is that a playmate of mine ( They are like friends, but not in need, instead exist for fun and play time) told me that she and some other girls are best friend, always hanging out. On the other hand, the girls told a different story saying that they just went out a few times, not even close friend. 

So how should we know exactly who is our Best Friend? For today, I shall write from my experiences (Duh). The most basic 5 signs she must pass. 

Best Friend Test: (Applicable for Girls only, sorry guys...)

1. She buy you food.

A friend is never a friend if she never once buy you food. Best Friends always offer their food to you.

2. She always nail it when buying presents for you. 

Your Best Friend should know either what you need or what you  like. She will buy you the gifts you or you will like the gift because of her. (Best Friend Power!)

3. She has strong influence over you, vice versa.

I like hello kitty and she is starting to dig it too. I like pink and she think pink is pretty. She like owl and I am starting to dig owl. She like purple, I think is pretty. She call someone a B*tch, I will think so too (vice versa). 

4. She can change in front of you. 

You in your birthday suit should be a very intimate and private experience ( It should......emmhmm). But it seems like your best friend is such a huge part of your life, she have invaded your space so you kinda just flash it even if she is there. (vice versa)

5.  Her Friends and Family know your existance as her bestie. 

Friendship sometimes stretch across the globe, you guys not necessarily live in the same city or study/work within the same institution. So she must have peeps out of your circle, but that do not stop those peeps from knowing you. If she is truly your best friend, she must have mentioned quite often to others (either silly stories/ awesome things/ random stuffs of you.) This is actually the most important principle, if she does not tell others or recognize you in front of others as her bestie, most probably you guys are not true friends.  

- E -

To add on:
6. You ask each other for advice and opinions

Your bestie's advice and opinions are one of the most important things in your life! If it is not, or if you think that your bestie does not give good advice, then.. hmm... that's not a good sign! To think about it, I pretty much always ask Evon for her advice and opinions. I have asked her about important things: FASHION :P and about other things, such as dating and feelings, and food, etc etc. 

 - D -