Another Vine Mixer was not to be missed! This time the theme was Old World food – France, Spain, Italy and Wales – versus New Zealand wines. The food was definitely much more to my liking, though the wines did not quite live up to their fame. I’ve had a lot more pleasant wines from New Zealand, but they chose a different area than I usually buy from.
All that aside, we had a lovely time, of course!
-T π
A while back, P and I went to a Korean restaurant in the Cristal Salam Hotel after getting massages. It is a new Korean restaurant and, of course, I wanted to try it out. It is good, perhaps the best in the city at the moment, but still not the real deal. It’s close, though.
Anyway, while there, they also were advertising their new wine bar – Vertical Wine Bar. We weren’t interested at the time, but I found their FB page and liked it. So, a few weeks ago, they started a competition of naming their tapas to win a free Spanish dinner. Thanks to Google, I won the first week. However, they only give you dinner for one…. Seemed like a strange way to do a competition because who goes out to eat by themselves and why would I want to split my winnings with a date? π
The following week was another competition, so what did I do? I signed up P and got my other friends to enter as well. They won! So, we all went out together the other night to claim our winnings. π
It was a fun night out. The tapas were pretty tasty, but the rest of the meal wasn’t much to write about. The pics will tell the rest of the tale. π
-T
It’s been a rather long week and thankfully today is the end of it. I cannot pinpoint what exactly has made it a long week as I imagine, like with most things, it’s a culmination of many things. So, to give myself a bit of a release, here are the various things that passed –
*R hurt his back on Monday and has been out sick all week. This means that although he does get up and about now and then, I basically have to take care of most things around the house – including making dinner. We don’t really eat dinner during the week because we eat big lunches at work. However, since he has been at home and can’t do too much, he needs dinner. It is just out of my routine, so it takes a small toll. Add to that the other things I normally do like the laundry, growing my plants on the balcony, and picking up the house…I guess that would make me feel a bit more tired… π
*I have crazily decided to take a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) via Coursera.org through Vanderbilt University on Leading Innovation. It was announced through work and though I told myself I should just focus on the literature review, something else told me that I should do it and use it as a guiding motivation to push me through the lit review as well. So, during the breaks for the past couple of days I have been watching videos and starting this new course. After I finish the doctorate, I am going to continue with courses as you can basically earn another degree for free and each course provides you with a certificate should you do well.
*Friends are great to have, but they keep you busy in trying to make plans to hang out or whatnot. As I am a scheduled kind of person, it is hard for me to be flexible with my time. Therefore, trying to adapt my schedule to hang out with others is actually a little bit stressful for me. Not in a necessarily bad way, but just another source of energy-taking activity for me.
So…those are the top three at the moment. Time to get to work and finish off this week!
-T π
_Real World_ by Natsuo Kirino
Last summer I was plowing through books like the world was going to end and so I put out a call on FB for some book recommendations. My high school Japanese teacher recommended _Out_ by Kirino, but as there was no Kindle version, I opted for _Real World_. As a side, I am all about the ebooks these days since moving around so much makes it difficult to carry books around. So, if I can’t get it digitally, I generally don’t read it.
So, as you may or may not recall, I’m not much of a fan of contemporary literature and it is even more rare that I can get into a Japanese contemporary piece of work. However, I have to say this one was very interesting. The story revolves around a high school girl whose neighbor kills his mother. Somehow the girl and her friends help him to escape, but then bad things happen to them. The story progresses with changing viewpoints of each of the young adults involved.
It was an engaging story and made a realistic picture of people. I sometimes wonder if my own emotions and mental state have not truly evolved much beyond my high school / teenage years as I do identify well with young minds. So, the story was one I could put myself into and feel the characters’ emotions and share their thoughts. It was suspenseful and very honest/direct in its topics, so I enjoyed it a great deal. π
-T
The other night I was having a moan about stuff I swirl around in my head related to others in my life and my friend said how it must be a lot of pressure on me. I realized that she was totally right and that I don’t often recognize the toll all the swirling takes on me. I know there is a reason why I need a massage every week, but I am not necessarily 100% conscience of the source(s). Inside of me I carry a lot of ‘issues’: Β PhD, work/career, bipolar disorder I (aka ups and downs), adoption, abandonment, and the list goes on. Don’t we all have our own issues, though? The difference for me is that I am constantly trying to read other people and to adapt accordingly so as not to make them uncomfortable or unhappy. This is a survival mechanism I learned at a very young age to ensure people liked me or to avoid getting noticed too much. However, this constant reading makes me really tired because while I do it to make others’ lives easier, they do not necessarily do it in return for my benefit. Now, it’s not to say that I do it for the return purpose, but it is the reality of the truth of the situation. So, as I try to balance being me with all my issues and being a daughter, being a sister, being a friend, being a girlfriend, etc it is no wonder that there are times when I just feel really t.i.r.e.d. If I spent half as much time thinking about myself as I do about everyone else, I might not need so many massages. Yet, this is who I am. It is good for me to know who I am and what I do. I recognize it. I accept it. At the same time, I accept that I will also have those moments when the pressure becomes too much and I will have to find a way to release the pressure or just know my wallet might burn holes from all those massages! ;D
– Β T
I didn’t have time yesterday to post…. It was a long day. Work started at 8 and it being the first day of the week, it was hard to get started. Then, we had a meeting late in the day rather than coming home early as we usually do with early starts. The meeting was really great. After getting home, I quickly changed and then went to pottery. We left pottery early to be able to grab a quick bite, which was nice. I got home, did my prep for the next day and then stayed up far too late watching “Panic Room” on TV. π
R threw out his back and so the poor thing was on his back all evening. Not sure how he is this morning, but am hoping he takes the day off for his own sake. That’s my day yesterday. Nothing interesting in this post per se, but posted anyway. π
-T
_The Casual Vacancy_ by J.K. Rowling
After the last Harry Potter book came out, it was always a question as to whether or not J.K. Rowling could write another successful novel. With the Harry Potter books I was never convinced that the quality of writing was good, but the storytelling aspect was always effective. Therefore, I had hope that she would be able to publish a good novel.
I saw an interview with J.K. Rowling about this adult fiction novel when it was first published. So, I thought I would try out the book.
I have to admit that it took me a while to get into it. The story is interesting and the last 1/3 of the book was entertaining as the plot thickened and came to a realistic end. Still, I am impressed that the author was able to move out of the young adult fiction genre and be fairly successful in the adult side. There was a lot of realistic elements throughout the story, which I appreciate in a writer.
So, my general opinion is that it was a good read and I look forward to the next one as a true determiner of her place in the adult fiction realm.
-T
First, there are only 11 more days of my BFF’s 37th year…uwahahahah…. π (Love you! hehehe)
Second, I need to be making more of a concerted effort to get this literature review chapter done, which means focusing – does writing this blog post count? π I think of my blog posts as warm up to my actual writing. π
Seriously, though, where is the time going? It seems that the break of winter makes time speed up, though I know that’s just part of my imagination.
Anyway, I have a number of posts planned with books that I’ve read and things I’ve been doing, but today’s will stay simple and short. π
Maybe I’ll check iTunes for some new tunes before truly focusing…hahah – this ends my complete random thoughts post for today!
π -T
