BLOG MOVED!!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE NEW BLOG

(or remove www. from the address)

:)

summa summa summa-time!

I. Love. The. Sun.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those sun-loving types that like to get so baked that their skin changes to a different race. Rather, I like to feel the hot rays warming up my skin, absorbing the vitamin D that's so rare during long Canadian winter months..

My building has a patio on the mezzanine floor with BBQ machines, lawn chairs, picnic tables etc., so I've been coming out here quite a bit lately. Sometimes with a book or two in hand, sometimes with my sketchbook, sometimes just to do my nails... today I'm sitting out here doing work *thumbs down* on the computer.

One thing I can't handle about summer though... is the MOSQUITOES.

No joke, I'm severely allergic to them. Not like I'm going to die if I get bit kind of severely allergic, but you know, pretty bad. On most other people, mosquito bites are just annoying and itchy. When those little fckers bite me though, they go haaaaaard!! Each bite swells up to like 3 inch wide and an inch high, itch to the point of where I want to cut my skin open and scratch the inside of my skin, then they turn purple and into a hard lump before scarring.

Yeah, not pretty!!

See photo exhibit A and B, from last summer. I went to a friend's backyard BBQ party. Obviously I put extra strength bug repellent on, but as we walked through the tall grass, it must've wiped off most of the repellent from the tops of my feet and ankles. The vampire-wannabes must've smelled me from miles away and brought all their friends and family to feast on my feet.

 

Sorry if those made you puke a little bit in your mouth. Trust  me, they itched way worse than they look. I had to bandage up my feet and ankles before going to work so I don't scare people ("OMFG what the hell is wrong with your feet? Do you have a disease?!!!").

Anyway, so yeah as much as I would love to be at one with the nature and go to the cottage and explore the wilderness or whatever... I just can't. When a friend asks me "Hey do you want to go camping with us this weekend?", my response is always "Hell to the no. Aaaaabsolutely not". Then they take it personally and get all mad... lol but they don't understand that I actually can't be outdoors with this kind of allergy!

Le sigh. Anyway, that's my rant for the day. The sun's great, though. As long as the bugs keep their distance. 

xo

koko

30 hour vacay @ Pearson airport, london bound, other life updates

I'm going to hold this sauce pan in front of my face to block you from yelling at me. Why are you yelling? Because I haven't blogged for so long! Why the sauce pan? *shrug* It was the first thing I could grab within reach.

Jokes aside, I've been super busy! Not quite busy enough to have gone this long without posting.... anyway, we're past that topic.

Does my blog title make you curious? I'm not joking, I spent 30 hours at Pearson airport! And yes, I'm London (England, not Canada) bound. =)

The airport thing... it might merit its own blog post soon. The circumstances behind why I was spending 2 days at the airport, the people I met, the stories we shared, the horrors of competing for the best sleeping spots inside the airport (on cardboard mattresses right by the Starbucks), the tears of joy when some of us got called to board the plane (then got kicked out... ha!)... might make for a really interesting blog post lol. Stay tuned!

As for the London thing...
I've been really bored with my life lately. I don't mean that there's nothing going in my life and I'm bored, but just kind of tired of Toronto, the same people and the same drama and just the familiar views, I guess. I was thinking about where I would go if I were to leave Toronto, and Vancouver was easily the first choice I thought of. (actually it was the only choice I thought of at the time)

I've lived in Vancouver for a bit, my mom and brother still live there, I have friends there, and know the areas, streets, shops, etc. It would make for a comfortable move... So being the project manager that I am, I made a pros and cons list. Let's start with the Cons.

Cons of moving to Vancouver:
- leave my dear friends in Toronto (but visit all the time)
- break the lease on my apartment building, where I had to be on a wait list to move into
- rain. rain. rain. rain. rain.
- a potential downgrade in my career, as 604 doesn't have nearly as many advertising agencies as 416

Pros of moving to Vancouver:
- make a ton of new friends (yay! but not too many Asians. i still need my multicultural circle)
- move into a brand new city where things are a little unfamiliar, but absolutely beautiful with breathtaking views of the mountains and ocean
- cute rain boots and trench coats
- a potential upgrade in my career, as coming from 416 will automatically boost my paygrade (ups of coming from a "big city")


I really thought about it. I was in Vancouver for my birthday a couple weeks ago, and my friends purposely drove me around to the best views and restaurants to sway my decision.

Then, while at dinner one night with some coworkers back in Toronto, my friend Cherie said: "if you're going to move out of Toronto and go somewhere new, why not go somewhere big? like London"

Bing.

Cherie's originally from Australia and moved to London, ENG for a few years and didn't want to leave. She was kind of kicked out of england and into canada lol... but anyway.

She's right. If I'm going to sell all my furniture and make such a drastic move, why not do it up! Go big or go home!! Plus, I'm 24 now. If not now, then when? I don't have a husband or kids, my family's all over the world anyway so it wouldn't matter where I go, I don't really have anything holding me to a city... Sure London's got its share of rain, but come on, it can't be worse than Vancouver lol.

And yes, before you say it, I know London's crazy expensive. But that's only if you're earning dollars... If you're earning pounds, you'll be fine! Apparently the advertising agency industry over there pays out the ass.. I wouldn't like ass money, but more money's great news!

So I started looking into it. Being Canadian, it shouldn't be too hard to get a visa or work permit for London since we're all under the British constitution or whatever. (we wave to the Queen when she visits, yeah?) I just need to save up some capital to use there when I get there. I've been in talks with some recruitment agencies over there about potential jobs so I wouldn't have to go hunting on my own...

Although I've never been, I've seen enough Meg Ryan movies to have a good sense of what London's like lol. My sister's been there 6+ times, my godsister's been there, my friends have been there... How hard can it be? Buy an Oyster card (their metropass for the "tube") and be a tourist for the first couple months, then meet a cute guy or two to show me around.....

Oh and did I mention that all the guys in London would have an English accent?

Sold.

Snow in april...

Yup, no lies. It snows in april here in Toronto!

It's not unheard of.. but still, a girl can complain!!

I remember in grade 9, it snowed on April 21st. Why do I remember this? Because 2 days earlier, April 19th, was the day of some dance or another at school and I wore these stretchy denim open-slit-at-the-sides cropped pants to school with a white graffiti tanktop (remember when those were popular??) and it was 27 degrees outside.

2 days later, BAM! Snow.

We've only had some flurries here and there, but this is following some nice ass weather in march (briefly, we had some 18+ degree weather) and in april (also very briefly, we had some 21+ degree weather). The winter we had this year wasn't terrible, but goddanggggg it's been long! Dragging on like some depressed girl in hindsight.

Le sigh. Here's to hoping april flurries bring may flowers.

....wait that doesn't rhyme!

Ambition can't ever be too high...

I'm retiring at 40.

Whenever I say this to someone, they say (after letting out a howling laughter) "Yeah, so do I, so do I...." (followed by rolling of the eyes)

Now, I don't mean that I'm going to be sprawling on a yacht in the Mediterranian sipping on a mojito... I mean that by the time I'm 40, I won't have to dedicate majority of my time to work anymore. I want to be able to spend half the year taking care of business (flying around the world, etc etc), and with the other half, be able to take my family on a tour of Europe, help build schools in developing countries, that kind of stuff.

How am I going to do it?

Who knows.

What I do know.. is that by the time I'm 30, I'm going to own my own company of some sort. Whether it be a production company in media/television/film/IT/construction/music/advertising/whatever, or maybe a pimping agency... I know it's going to happen.
Then by the time I'm 35, I'll have expanded. Probably to another big city like New York, or maybe in Korea. Wherever the right opportunity at the time takes me, really.

With that, I'm going to develop the company to a point so that when I'm 40, it's standing alone with me watching over it. In a sense, I'll have made my money make money. Then that money will go out and make more money, which will make more money...

You never want to be the actual worker for the rest of your life. How will you ever have the time/energy/resource to get out there and expand?

Think of it like this. Ma and Pa own a restaurant. They, for the reasons of saving money or not trusting others or whatever, work at the restaurant night and day. The restaurant is very successful, best in town. But they can't make the restaurant bigger or get a second location because they're at the restaurant all day.

I've always been an entrepreneur. When I was 5, my brother was born. At that time, not a lot of kids in my kindergarten class had little siblings. So I would entice my classmates to take the schoolbus to my house after school, charge them 10 cents entrance fee into my house so they can observe my brother. (freak of a brother he was, since he was crawling on his stomach across the floor at 40km/h) I then took that money (all of $2.60), go out and buy a box of individually wrapped chocolates. Next day, sell the individual chocolate pieces for 20 cents each to my classmates, and double my money!

I got in trouble for it after a while... but alas, it was worth it. My entrepreneurial spirit was awakened.

Even now, I'm the youngest I know that is doing what I'm doing (in any of my jobs), with the amount of experience I have. I got here not because of school (never finished), not because of connections (not in the traditional sense), and not simply because of luck or hard work. It was smart work. While everybody else is out there working 12 hard hours, I'd rather be working 6 smart hours, then dedicate the other 6 into conjuring up other ways to make/invest money.

"Reach for the stars, so when you fall, you can land on the moon".

Naw... I'd rather reach for the outer universe -- so that when I have a setback, I can chill with the stars.


xoxo
koko

magazine article: are you straightening or flattening your hair?

Another article written by me, published on AdornedMagazine.com

http://www.adornedmagazine.com/are-your-straightening-or-flattening-your-hair/

[VIDEO] Tutorial: DIY Manicure