65\\ Peanut Butter and Banana Overnight Oats

Didn't sleep for the whole night due to major headache and it's killing me right now. The weather has been rather cold this past week, was supposed to go to Bristol after first assignment due, but it's too damn cold, I don't even wanna leave my room. Anyhoo, here's a simple recipe for overnight oatmeal. Most of the recipes online are mainly berries, but I decided to use banana and peanut butter instead, so here's my version of overnight oatmeal. As for choice of milk, you can either use soy milk, almond milk or even hazelnut milk, they taste just as good. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter and Banana Overnight Oatmeal

Ingredients:

1 banana, mashed

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup soy milk

1 tbs chia seeds

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp honey

Toppings: 

Sliced banana/ cinnamon/ choc shavings

Method::

:: In a bowl, mash banana with fork.

:: Add remaining ingredients to bowl and mix until well combined.

:: Pour mixture into container and refrigerate overnight.

:: Stir oats, add toppings and dig in! (:

x, jo

64\\ Paris Love

If this does not shout Paris, what does right?

Paris was beyond amazing. Kudos to Joann who planned the wonderful trip for us.

I did not expect much from Paris. In fact, I expected the worst, after being warned about the pick pockets, unfriendly people around. The last time my sister was there, she even told me Paris was a rather stressful trip because she has to take care of her belongings all the time. 

But no, all these did not happen to us. We met friendly people asking if we are alright when they see us holding a map  on the street, trying their best to explain to us in English, and even warned me about my unzip bag when I was running after Christmas countdown. 

That's the kind of impressions I have towards Paris. Of courses, we have to be extra alert in a metro, especially a crowded one. We have to worry about our passports, phones and cash. 5 days 4 nights isn't short, but none of our pockets have been picked. All 5 of us. 

Counting down at Eiffel Tower with mulled wine, hot chocolate, churros and crepes on Christmas eve. We did not expect the light show when we were there, so imagine the cheers we made when we saw the dazzling lights, twice in one night. 

Paris was so much love. I know we are going back, for even more adventures. 

xx, Shan

#63. Paris Photo Diary

#1. Tour Eiffel Carousel. 
#2. Best friends beanies (from prettylittlething) on best friends. (:
#3. Jo and Arc de Triomphe
#4. Cakes. Laduree
#5. L A D U R E E
#6. P I E R R E H E R M E 
#7. Macarons, macarons and more macarons. Sweetness overload.
#8. Cheese fondue! Take a tour around Saint Mitchel, you will find all kind of nice and affordable restaurants here. More on that soon.
#9. Tour guide of the day, yours truly. x
#10. Pont des Arts a.k.a love locks bridge
#11. Candid. Trust me, you will never regret carrying tripod around for awesome group photos. Memories yo!
#12. Musée du Louvre. Never have the chance to enter the museum, the queue to enter was too damn long, we never bother to even line up for tickets. TBH, guess all we know is only Mona Lisa, and we already know how she looks like, so yeah.... #cheapskate.
#13. Group shot. It was pretty cold that night, and I remember we were taking tourist shots rushing-ly, as the gentlemen need to rush to the toilet. And there's almost no public toilet anywhere.
#14. Eiffel tower's night view. Don't miss the light show!
#15. Amorino. It is cheaper than London's, give a try on their hot chocolate
#16. L'Eclair de Génie. Instagramable but nothing special.
#17. Tower of applessssss
#18. Things we bought from Paris. Perfumes (Mont Blanc x2, Daisy Dream x2), snow globe (x2), hand made soaps (x2), S. Pellegrino Sparkling Mineral Water (less than 1Euro, so much cheaper in France.), Madeleine. And also meringue that are not in the photos (from Maison Georges LARNICOL), macarons (from both Laduree and Pierre Herme) in our stomach, eclairs and cream puffs too. (:

Paris, the city of love. I've heard so much about Paris, pastries, macarons, wine and cheese. But I've never expect to love it, cause it gave me bad impressions like pick pockets, dirty and smelly undergrounds. Sometimes you have to experience things for yourself in order to find the beauty of a foreign places, Paris is indeed a beautiful city, I fell in love with it instantly. Everywhere is so artsy, strike a pose and you will be the model of the day, haha. So stop listening to all the negative comments people give. Start exploring and experiencd the beauty of travel, not only Paris, anywhere everywhere. Create your own story.
We plan the itinerary by ourselves, thus I often feel contented when we found the destination by our own effort. My favourite moments were having hot chocolate while watching Eiffel tower's light show, and also counting down for Christmas, climbing up the staircase to Montmarte.
However, the trip wasn't as smooth. Most of the shops were closed due to Christmas week, didn't get to try any of the cafes that we planned to go to, thus no cafe hopping! Sobs. It's either Christmas is a really big thing or Parisians are lazy, hmm. And we were supposed to visit Disneyland on Christmas eve, but sigh... It's okay, I will be back!
It's really convenient to travel around the city by Metro. Download the RATP app and it will guide you to wherever you're looking for.

 “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover” – Mark Twain

p/s: i'm in love with paris (: 

x,jo.

62\\ bits of paris

Back from Paris for almost two weeks. Gosh, where did all the time goes? It's a brand new year again, but this time it's different, I'm here in UK and is really glad to be here. Days in Paris were so goooood, I instantly fell in love with it, and really wouldn't mind to be a hobo to stay longer. Lol.

It's such a sad news to hear about the terrorists attack happened in Paris. #jesuischarlie #staystrongparis

More about it next, below is a short video of our trip. Enjoy. ;)

x, jo

61\\ no longer (half) blonde

Courage is contagious. Especially when you are with your best friend. That being said, you tend to do stupid things when you're being encouraged by your best friend. In our case, I don't know if this is stupid but it took a bit more than courage to be done.

We cut our hair ourselves. Just like that.

Jo woke up this morning and said

"I don't know if I should cut my fringe." She walked into the bathroom with a pair of scissors.

Then she came out with a strand of hair in her hand. So I got up and shouted

"I want to cut my hair too!"

And the pictures tell you the rest of the stories.

I love my (half) blond hair. I love how people compliment them when I curl them up or tie them into fishtail. But the split ends are getting on my nerves. They are really frizzy and dry I don't like that the way they are anyway. I always thought I should wait for them to grow ass long then chop them off only after I get back to Malaysia. You can certainly see how happy my mum is when I tell her about my hair. But yeah, I like how it is now, shoulder length, no more frizzy half dead hair.

Anyway, Happy new year! Off to London now with Jo for our new year eve celebration

xx, Shan

60\\ Why couldn't it be Christmas everyday?

Here comes the end of our first semester. Visited numerous Christmas market throughout this whole festive season and I love all of them although they are all pretty similar. The food, the fairy lights, the atmosphere.

Just when I thought Christmas could not have been better, I spent my first magical Christmas in Paris. It might not be perfect, but it was indeed a wonderful trip. It makes me wonder, why couldn't it be Christmas everyday?

Merry Christmas everyone! Although it is a late one.

xx, Shan 

59\\ being okay

I didn’t write the previous post to show how pitiful or depressed I get. I had the weeks that came from hell, experiencing major heart breaks and negativity overflows. I was feeling lost and emotionally unstable, then I finally gathered up myself and wrote that. I felt much better then. It has been a month, I think I’m doing better.

I remember someone told me not to give too much in love. Don’t get too suffocated when things come to an end. I clearly understand that, and I thought even if it’s gonna happen, I’ll be fine, but I never realize how much it will affect me till it happens.I felt helpless. I wanted to see him and it’s hard to stay angry at him. I keep telling myself not to give in, I must stand firm, and it’s just too damn hard.

One of the most frustrating fact of life is that sometimes relationships just end, often without reason. I always wonder how couples break up when falling out of love was not the reason. When we broke up, it was really hard to reach a conclusion as how our future relationship should be like. I faltered between saying stupid things to hate him to make myself feel better, to saying nice things about him (which made it harder, really), and to staying cool (oh lets be friends), to crying nonstop because it pained me so fucking much to let it go. I’ve gone through stages feeling sad, mourning the relationship and then feel relieved and then feel sad and everything all over again. I was filled with sadness, thinking that it was such a pity to have this relationship end. I suffered (and still suffering) insomnia, feeling down, yet still acting all normal and good when I talk to my family. Kept thinking to myself what I’ve done wrong to let this love slipped. I blame myself for almost everything that happened, and also have the thought of ‘what if I’ve never agree to the break up’, and there goes all the ‘what ifs’.

I don’t know how to feel, I didn’t know how to deal with it. I don’t think break up is something you can learn how to do. There isn’t proper way to do it. You can grow up and stop yelling at each other stupid and immature stuff, but you cannot learn how to not make yourself sad. When I fell into this, I don’t remember waking up without looking like a zombie, the cycle of heartache is terrible, and it takes more than just ego to break it, it takes courage too. Not sure if I’m ready to move on now, all I want to do now is to stay single to clear my mind. But I don’t wanna forget a single piece of those memory we shared. There’s ups and downs, but those were what made it beautiful. I hope that he feels the same too. Despite the fact that I was really upset by this break up.

I gained a lot throughout this break up, having my friends and my family to stand by me. I’m really grateful for having them. I know I will feel better as time goes by, and I want my family to know that I will be alright, But just at this point right now, I can’t move on yet, I don’t want to. Letting go of a 4 years relationship is really hard, it’s like experiencing a death, of sorts. I want to have more time to mourn this break up.

I’m not trying to fake a mature break up. I have failed to fight for this relationship, but at least I wanna be true to myself. To be honest, we still talk to each other whenever we can, about minor things, sing to each other, talk like how we used to, but this time knowing that we are only friends, best friends. Knowing that my family and friends wouldn’t be pleased by this idea. Friends were telling me not to talk to him, block him, ignore him and all that. I wanted to, but I can’t. Mainly because I still love him, and I thought that it would be such a pity to lose such a friend. He knows me best, he knows things my friends and family don’t know, we loved and we even cried together. Even we can’t be couple, I still cherish the friendship we have. When I tell my friends that we still keep in touch, e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e  show me that ‘Are you fucking kidding me’ face. I understand why, and I would probably feel the same if my friend did so, but throughout this, I realized 我真的没有那么潇洒. I know it hurts me to talk to him, but it hurts me even more to fake it like I don’t want to talk to him. I’ve been too rational during the break up, and now I want to follow my heart, giving my heart what it wants.

I know I’ve been acting really cool throughout this, and my friends were quite concerned about me being too okay, when I’m actually not. I just don’t feel good to express my sadness towards other people (told you I’m an introvert). I still cry, but only to myself, and him.  So don't worry about me, I love myself a lot to not hurt/starve myself. I’m fine. I still eat, I still attend classes, still drink and not getting drunk. To everyone I love and everyone who loves me, I’m okay, and I love you all too. :)

x, jo