I have moved!

Hello to everyone that has stumbled onto my blog!

I have recently moved my blog to http://madebypensuke.wordpress.com

I decided to move because I was finding it frustrating to change the layout of my blog and I wasn't sure if all these wonderful page views I was getting were bots or people actually checking out some of my projects.

If you are interested in seeing more craft, food and general hobby posts, please come visit me at my new home.

My axololt , Sebastian, giving you a big smile enticing you to visit us =)

Whats my next craze?

Something on my mind of late has been my sense of indecisiveness. I've probably been aware of it subconsciously for a long time but I only started thinking about it when a friend of mind said "I cant wait for your next craze!". He meant it in a good way because he was so excited about it but it got me thinking...

So before my hobby switching stint, which I suppose it still ongoing, I used to learn Kung Fu. I started off learning traditional lion dancing ( the ones you see at Chinese New Year celebrations and new asian shop openings sometimes) and after a short while, probably after the second lesson I started kung fu training and I was hooked. That lasted for about 5 years and ranged from training 1-2 times a week, up to 5 days a week. They only had 5 days a week so if they had more I probably would have trained everyday if they had a class. I would train with my friends before and after classes as well but its different just training one on one with a mate.

One time I was training with my friend and he was teaching me how to spar, which I'm really crap at, and I ended up kneeing him in the knee and giving myself a bruised knee! It was so painful.

There are heaps of injury stores. When my best friend and I were learning a metal fan sparring set she dropped the fan on my face right near my eye and we were so freaked out that she had blinded me. It was scary at the time but now its a funny story because we went out of the training hall when it happened and when we came back in, I was fine and my best friend was in tears because she had been so freaked out that she could've been seriously injured. That set took ages to master after that because we didn't want to get too close together =p. There are quite a few injury stories which kind really does remind me of why I stopped even though I loved it so much.

Training it was the best carefree years of my life. It helped that this was just after high school and I was becoming independent getting to go out and meet new people and go out whenever I wanted. I met my two best friends at training as well, bonding over bruises =).

So after I stopped kung fu I didn't really pick up another hobby. I'd always done some craft stuff but not often, I'd probably just make a card here and there when I needed one.

I'm actually not sure how many hobbies I've run through in the last few years so I'm going to number them:

1. Sewing - I've always liked to sew and I love buttons and fabrics, they're so pretty! I made some wallet pouches for my sisters and mum ( It's so then you can have your wallet on a rope around your wrist when you go to the shops to pick up something quickly and it stops your keys from scratching your nice leather wallet.
2. I picked up playing guitar again when my friend said she wanted to start playing. I'd borrowed a guitar a long time ago and taught myself one or two songs before returning it. This time a different friend lent me his guitar for a couple of months before I bought my own semi acoustic guitar =). Its beautiful Yamaha with it a inbuilt tuner =). I've since taught myself more songs gotten obsessed with fingerstyle picking, finally learnt how to sing while playing and tried to wrap my head around some music theory. Actually tonight a friend from my hubbys work gave me a classical guitar and lent me a electric to muck around with. I've set the guitar aside for about 6 months now so I think it's time i get back into it.
3. I created this blog just as something to document what I had been up to because I have a bad memory and as a guide to reference stuff like restaurants we'd been to and recipes I've tried (even though I've been pretty slack for ages now). Starting to blog also helped my to get my thoughts in order so I should make time to write more.
4. I've always liked to cook and try new recipes. A friend of mine started coming over on my girls night and she taught me how to make Macarons, so we started baking something new and trying out a new dish every week. After about 2 months we noticed some pudge happening so we cut back on the baking. This coincided with getting busier at work and then having the next craze start.
5. My fish craze! This started in March 2012 (I think) when my yabby (Hermione) , which I'd had for about 1.5 years was accidentally killed by my hubby ( >.< ). I wanted a replacement pet but not another yabby because I'd had a yabby before Hermione (Herman - haha i know.. my sister named Hermione because Herman was a escape artist and I was very upset that he had died on his exploration attempt!). So I did my research and decided I wanted either a fighting fish or an axolotl. Now I have both and heaps of other fish. Its calmed down a bit now so I've got it stable at 3 tanks atm =). It was a super craze! there was fish stuff everywhere! I think I got up to 8 tanks around the house at one stage.
6. Knitting and crocheting came after the fish. My eldest sister knits and even though we all used to knit as kids I never knitted anything more then a scarf (lots of them for my toys until my mum told me to stop haha) and I never knew how to finish it off. So my sister taught me how to start the stitches on the needed, to do a knit and a purl. Out of these 3 I got 2 wrong "(@.@). So one and a half balls of yarn later, I saw a crocheted octopus in a shop window and I thought it was so cute! The next day, out of the blue my best friend gave me a amigurumi crochet book! I hadn't even mentioned to her that I saw it. So I bought a crochet hook and started crocheting with the help of the book, websites and youtube! I've since made a 20cm high minion toy, an assortment of other cute toys and a couple of beanies. Yarn everywhere!
7. This one is more of a project rather then hobby. After the Avengers came out a while ago my hubby has been mentioning that it would be cool to make an Ironman suit. Sure I'd wear it to a convention as well but there's a particular nook at our place that I think would be awesome to have a full suit displayed =). So we decided we are going to make a Mark XII Ironman suit. We had a crazy of ebay, getting all the materials and now I've just got to find the time to make the parts. We're using the pepakura method.
8. Youtube addiction! and iPhone games! so these aren't really hobbies but they are HUGE time wasters. I'm currently spending heaps of my time playing TribeZ.. it's just a build and expand kinda game, simple, cute graphics and I'm playing right now!! On Youtube I've discovered a few web series I like. I watched The Guild ages ago so I was subscribed to the Geek and Sundry channel which is how I discovered the show TableTop hosted by Will Wheaton. Damn it's reminded me how much I love to play board games! Then many related links later I came across nerdy nummies - a cooking show with nerdy themed foods, Coffeh time with Dodger - a daily vlog and whatever related link that looks interesting.

So 8ish hobbies within the last few years. Seems like too many, I thought that by the time I finished this post I'd have an idea of what I should do but I still don't really have a clue. I think the main thing is to try and keep up and definitely finish what I've already started.

The Ironman suit is probably the project that has me most excited (it the most recent too) so if we finish that I'll be so super excited.

Thanks for reading if anyone has read the whole thing. Sometimes its just really nice to write it all down and get it organized in my head.

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Moon series by Laurent Laveder

Moon Games is a series's of silhouettes featuring people interacting with the moon using props. The series was taken by French landscape astrophotographer and astronomy journalist Laurent Laveder. It's a simple concept but made for amazing photos.

There's heaps more in the series but here are a few of my favorites.

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Truly Random

Yesterday something happened that truly reflects the title of my blog. I was home in the afternoon and decided to take out the trash, the bins are only about 5-10 meters from my front gate. I threw out the trash and as I turned back there was an older Chinese lady walking towards me with some pieces of styrofoam to throw out. I smiled as you do and she started talking to me in mandarin ( my mandarin is not great, I usually resort to deciphering what they're asking through context and the few words I do understand).

It was a nice little chit chat but as I started heading into my place she asked to see the interior because the place she lives in with her daughter has the same layout except with only 2 levels instead of 3. I was shocked but I said yes because she seemed like a nice enough lady.

Here's where it begins to get more random. A few steps down the path she exclaims that she should go get her daughter to come over too and she started pulling on my arm insisting that I should come over and have a look at their place first. So with maybe a fleeting thought that I could possibly be in a Charlie the unicorn type situation I quickly locked up and head over to my neighbors.

The lady's daughter (Linny) was just as surprised about the situation and a little embarrassed I think because their place was very messy, my place is messy too I told her. So after making awkward introductions I chatted to Linny for a bit before her mother insisted on showing me their upstairs. The place was practically the same layout but without a hallway to upstairs and she had replaced the carpet with floorboards, it looked nice.

After a couple minutes Linny's mother proceeded to tell me about how she used to have a mole on her cheek in the same spot as mine and that she removed it herself by stabbing it multiple times with a needle and that it hurt for a month but after the scab fell off it never came back. @.@ it sounded pretty painful.

Anyway, we headed over to my place and my friend had been waiting for me outside. I quickly gave her a rundown of the situation which she found hilarious and let us all into the house. I showed them the garden and my plants, which I am quite proud of even though it is a little neglected. She was very interested in my vietnamese celery and shocked me again by asking for one of the babies that had started coming up around the base. So I dug up a baby plant and put it in a pot for her. Meanwhile jancypants is inside trying not to laugh.

So we head back in and I showed them the rest of the place to many comments on use of space, how big our tv is and asking if we had a son when they saw Kens nerf collection ( which has grown since the initial post) haha.

Then as her daughter Linny was trying to shooe her out because she knew that I needed to go grocery shopping for dinner, she proceeded to check out my parsley plant for babies as well.

Haha truly a random event of the evening/ month. I'm glad a got to meet one of my neighbors and that they are friendly if not a little strange haha. Tis my life's randomness :)

 

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Strange sightings in Ocean terminal

Cartoons on clothes (adult sized), life sized statues and an abundant variety of products with cute cartoon characters on them are a common occurrence in Hong Kong and from what I remember, quite a few asian countries as well.

Even with this knowledge I was still surprised when I came across this in Ocean terminal shopping centre. A counter for Hello Kitty perfumes and jewellery?!

A few floors down in the main kids area we came across a barbie clothes store :) It was so pink!

Chocolate bunny seats in one section.

And eclair seats in another.

There were a few cool looking window displays. Interesting, if not a bit strange.

Something that looks familiar?..... It's mothers crepe but here they call it mazazu crepe. Smelt good but I didn't try it.

This one was the funniest of the day. It's a place called faces but they've spelt it on their signage with 3 Ses. It really wasn't that funny at first until my sister told me that her friend said it looks like it says feces. What is seen cannot be unseen @.@.

 

Hello Hong Kong!

A long awaited holiday, I'm in Hong Kong visiting my sister (and her babies of course! Bring on the chubba bubbas!).

She warned me it was hot here, so I was only semi surprised by the wall of heat that assaulted me as I walked out of the airport. Luckily I had acclimatized slightly in the airport while waiting for my luggage.

I received this message from 3 as I turned on my phone :). What a lovely message.

View from the airport. Hello smog, hello heat, hello Hong Kong! Oh how I've missed you :).

Passing a complex built on an island where you're not allowed to drive. All the apartment buildings looked the same @.@. The trees and mountain surrounding made it look less........... Borg. You know what I mean.

Can't wait to play with my niece and nephew, eat lots and getting in a bit of shopping.

 

So many things to write about so little time

Thanks to everyone that's been missing my posts last week. I've been a little caught up researching a new hobby and trying to get it setup. I've been taking lots of photos so updates are just a matter of time! :)

Happy mothers day to all you mothers out there.

I'll try to start posting again soon.

 

Brilliant dominos advertising Netherlands

Dominos Pizza in the Netherlands is making an effort to be more eco friendly by switching to 100% electric scooters. The only drawback is the they are completely silent which poses a safety hazard.

Dominos marketing team in the Netherlands, lead by manager Carolien ten Cate, came up with am ingenius way to improve road safety and incorporate road safety. The scooters are all fitted with speakers that play human made engine sounds as their delivery scooters whiz around the cities.

As you can probably make out the guy is making car noises and intermittently saying dominos! Pizza! and it also say lekker which is Dutch for nice/delicious/tasty. Great subliminal messaging.

 

Middle ear effusion

Special post to my doctor :)

I've had a blocked ear for about a week now and its been very irritating not only because I can't hear properly but because it feels unbalanced like one side of my head is underwater.

I went to see my doctor today and he had a cool gadget, a Welch Allyn digital otoscope. It's the instrument they use to look in your ear and it was hooked up to his computer. He took a couple of snaps for me and suggested I put them up on my blog.

Sorry to the rest of you that feel this is a little TMI. I couldn't refuse :).. And it is pretty cool.

Photos after the jump

Discovering Pinterest!

Reading around the web I discovered a photo sharing site called Pinterest. It's an online pinboard where you can "pin" photos you find on the web or on other peoples boards to your own boards. There are some really great photos on there and it's great for categorizing things that you might want to refer to later like home decor ideas, recipes, travel destinations or just some things that are really funny.
At the moment it's an invite only site but I was able to get an invite pretty much the next day. If anyone would like to follow my Pinterest boards it's http://pinterest.com/chibisuke8/
Below are a few of the cool things I found on there.

Hello!

I'd like to say hi to anyone that's stumbled onto my blog.

HI!

Welcome to my blog, I hope that there are other people out there that love a random assortment of hobbies and interests like me. I'd love to be introduced to the things that interest you as well.

Carmen! As I'm sure you'll be the only one reading this for a while I'd like to say hi and hope you enjoy reading up on the stuff we get up to :)