89\\ Brussels, Belgium

currently playing: CosmosPeople宇宙人- 10,000 Hours一萬小時

I regretted not knowing this band earlier, I only came to notice them when I decided to hit on the autoplay button on my YouTube and they start playing random songs and BOOM! this band gives me eargasm. I've always liked 盧廣仲, quote JM '他的歌好听到你不舍得睡觉‘, true enough, except I still falls asleep very easily. And this band, plays just the right thing I love. I know nothing about good music, all I know is whether I like it, or not.

So here's my part of the summer vacay, I went to a few places before joining Shan in Italy. First stop, BRUSSELS. Took a night coach from London to Brussels alone to meet up with Sharon, Mel and Esther (flew from Greece). It was a seven hours ride, reached Brussels at six in the morning and will only meet them girls in the afternoon. Been wondering what can I do for that few hours, as it was sorta solo travel for me for the first time, so I was pretty excited, but was also too sleepy to feel anything at that moment.

Unlike my previous experience of taking coach to Paris(by eurolines), I have to be extra careful with my own belongings as I was travelling alone, and also this time(by megabus) it's a lil different because we have to go by a ferry, everyone has to get down from the coach and take a rest in the ferry.

Victoria Coach Station (London) - Canterbury Dover Ferry Port - Brussels

Explored the ferry for a moment as I have not been in one this big, and it's mostly food hall and nothing much. Then I realized that I shouldn't have took my own sweet time walking around. Everyone, literally everyone found themselves a spot to take a nap, and lucky me, I've got an arm chair. Trust me, it wasn't a pleasant journey, as it was all about getting sleep and switching places (from coach to ferry and back to coach). It's torturing, not everyone can do that, but I just have to as I was on a budget (it cost me less than £15 for a single trip).

∆ Brussels, Belgium.

Grand Place, Brussels

Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert

The Manneken Pis

Brussels is a city famous of chocolate, beers, waffles and the peeing boy (Manneken Pis). The story of this peeing boy, although seems a lil ridiculous to me, is that this boy has actually saved the city by urinating on explosives that was gonna bomb the city. But it make more sense than the second version of the story which tells of a tourist father who lost his son in the city and after receiving help from the locals to find the boy(who was found happily peeing in a small garden!!), he gifted this statue to them. But I don't understand! As much as the westerners love statues, why would anyone wants a statue of a peeing boy that brings them trouble? And this statue has been repeatedly stolen, what?! Trust me, I've rolled my eyes countless times listening to this. At least the first version is more heroic.

 According to reviews, Maison Dandoy serves the best waffles in Brussels. It is only steps away from the Grand Place. We ordered a homemade ice cream and strawberry waffle. There are two types of waffles, Belgian-style or Lèige-style. We picked the latter, thicker and denser in texture.

The Belgium Fries (2€), served in paper cones, with a dollop of andalouse sauce (0.6€). Yeap, you gotta pay for the sauce. 


The city centre is pretty small, everything is in walking distance, and also pretty safe to walk alone, let alone the terrorist attack. It's still safe, I guess? I remember when I was waiting in line to hop on the coach, the driver asked the man in front of me where's he heading to, and he said Brussels. The drivier told him good luck, because it's small and dead boring. Lol. I couldn't agree more, except chocolates and waffles made it a little better.

updated 2:05am. 7 July 2016.
signing off.


x,jo

88\\ my hair dye adventures

When I was younger, my mom would bring me to the family saloon and I'll leave the place with mushroom haircut. I hated it. Towards the end of my primary school time, I told my mom I want to be like a girl, I want to keep my hair long. I have always had loved me in long hair and had my hair cut short only twice for the past 12 years and regretted them immediately. 

I remember when I was 13/14, my mom was utterly unsatisfied with my unkempt hair because I always leave my hair wet after shower. I simply slung a towel over my shoulder and walk around the house in damp hair. She brought me to the saloon out of annoyance and told the hairdresser to cut my hair short. I was crying the whole time at the saloon and the kindhearted hairdresser couldn't stand watching me crying like it's the end of the world, she trimmed my hair to make it more manageable instead of following my mom's order. Still, I remember I cried the 1st time I wash my hair after the haircut because they're no longer the length it used to be.

2 years back, before I leave to UK, I dip dyed my hair grey because I thought, if not now, when? I'd never go for a haircut/trim when I was in UK because the prices for haircut is fairly expensive, which makes my damaged bleached hair even more rusty. You'd see me sitting in the kitchen, go through my hair and bite off all the split ends while talking to them. That's a bad habit I know. New year's eve of the same year, I chopped them, all by myself. Say bye bye to dead, splitting ends.

Just when I thought I wont be bleaching my hair ever again after going through all these hassles of cutting my hair and waiting for them to grow long, I can't believe I did it again. Number76 hair saloon came out with the monthly promotion where the new members are entitled to 25% off the total bill. Being an adventurer myself, I made a booking with Lucas at Publika branch and showed him the color I wanted to have on my hair and let him work his magic.

Pink Violet Ombre...thanks @shannyabout for coming🤗 #Number76 #Number76MY #Number76publika #publika #solarisdutamas #Ombre #pink #violet #asiagirl #KL #Fashion

A photo posted by LucasTee (@76_lucas) on Mar 3, 2016 at 8:23pm PST

Outcome taken by Lucas, loved it.

Bleached the bottom of my hair for the violet color and darker shade on my root so it wont be too awkward when my root grows. It cost me around RM370 after 25% off.

I didn't like them merely because Number76 is famous but also their superb service. Lucas found out that the color was not showing at the top part of my dip dye after the whole process. He asked if I got time for him to redye them or I can always go back the next day just so he could fix it for me. I like how he pointed it out and fix it for me right away instead of telling me that it wasn't his problem my hair didn't take on the color. Or worse, he might not even tell me about it and let me find out myself few days later thinking, oh I bleached my hair so I should expect the color to fade in few washes. 

Photo taken a month later. Notice how the color of the top part faded into the brownish blonde?

It aches me to see the purple color water on my toilet tiles whenever I wash my hair. So I'd always make sure to rinse my hair with cold water. 

This was after 3 months. frizzy, dry, tangled end.

Eventually, I got tired of having to maintain such a long hair. Especially when they are no longer manageable. Showers took forever, took them even longer to dry before I go to sleep. Hairs everywhere be it in the bedroom, living room or the kitchen. I didn't like spending so much time  maintaining them. This time, I made my appointment with Calvin from Bangsar branch and told him I want my hair short. While cutting my hair, Calvin asked if I would miss my long hair. Looking at my hair on the floor, I told him no. It has been so long since I had my hair short, I'm more concerned about how I'd look like.

It has been so long since I last cut my hair short. I thought I'd leave the saloon in medium cut but no, Calvin didn't stop at the shoulder length. I was anxious, constantly turning to my side to look at Jo who's having her haircut at the same time to observe her reaction. If she freaked out, I know I would regret my decision. Every time Calvin made it shorter, I'd turn to Jo and she kept assuring me that I look good.

From waist to chin. lighter shade cost me Rm214 with 25% off
I go back to Number76 again for their promotion, where the new member (Jo) visits with a current member (me) and both will be able to enjoy 25% off our bills.


Bangs weren't part of the plan, I swear. Thou I secretly thought about it. 
Calvin asked if I want to get my fringe cut I was like okay, since I've already made up my mind about letting him to do whatever he thinks it's nice on me. Until I told Jo about it and she's like how short? Did you ask? He did told me this is how it would be, and I decided to get along with it. He's so nice he guided me on how to trim it myself when it gets long or I can always walk in anytime and he will help me to trim it, FOC. Anyhoo I think I'll pass that, bangs isn't really my thing.

Shorter hair, so much lighter.
and the world didn't end this time. 

xx, Shan

87\\ turned 24

my precious. ♡

I'm officially 24 now. Well, technically 2 weeks ago. The bunch decided to throw a not-a-surprise birthday party for me, and I insistently demanded to plan my own birthday celebration which of course, failed miserably. Loook, just last month, I told Joann she has no say in choosing her birthday cake because we paid for it and vice versa. Fair enough, I guess. 

We had our dinner at Greyhound Cafe, Bukit Bintang. We've heard a lot of good things mainly from the social media and the bloggers. When Jeff told me Joann's pick was Greyhound Cafe, I immediately said: 'Okay, I approve!'

check out the unique pattern.

they have different design on each plate

checking them food reviews.

 Famous fried chicken wings

smells good, tastes good. Joc normally does not take chicken wings and she did that night.

Japanese seaweed with Harusame glass noodle

It tastes funny. People who like this think it is fragrant, but for us who couldnt stand the smell of it, we didnt enjoy it.

Pad thai.

It is nice but I've to say we have tried better pad thai when we were in UK. 

(weird but they have very authentic and aromatic Thai food in UK)

Stir-fried spaghetti with Thai anchovies

Spicy spaghetti olio with bacon

We all agree that their spaghetti (both of them) were too salty for our liking. 

Noodle in Tom yum koong

What's Thai food without tom yum right. This came with 2 big prawns but tastes mediocre.

The portion was somewhat small even for a girl.  

Complicated noodle

It is so complicated we didnt know how should we eat it when this was served. 

Wrapping these flat noodle sheets, minced meat and coriander with lettuce which then topped with the sauce. We loved it!

Strawberry shortcake by Poco cafe. 

I love their cake. 

I kept asking Jeff and Joann to please ask the lady boss if we can book the cake for my birthday and tadaaaa, it tastes amazing. 

Mastermind of everything. love,love, love you.

Thank you, thank you. 

Thank you for making me loved.

xx, Shan

86\\ bristol international balloon fiesta

Hola everybody, it feels like I'm taking forever to update the rest of my summer vacay because I just have so much to write! Give me more time and I will have it done I promise.

Photo taken at Putrajaya balloon festival 13 March 2016

Before I get that done, here's the video taken by us back during Bristol international balloon fiesta last year. We happened to be in Bristol together and took a trip there and we definitely did not regret! Compare to the balloon fiesta in Putrajaya we visited few months back where we did not manage to watch the mass release of hot air balloons due to the rain (okay I know that's not something we or the organizer can control) and everything else were so unorganized. We were rather disappointed. 

enjoy. xx, Shan

85\\ 2015 summer vacay

Hola, I'm back for good. I always buy this Taiwanese life design magazine called 小日子 (c'est si bon) I came across this article about how accommodating her homestay host family is, and it certainly brings back all the memories of my experience I had with my airbnb host throughout my trip. Also, I happened to go though my last summer vacay photo album yesterday which reminds me that I did not really talk much about my awesome Europe trip.

Having lived in Malaysia all my life, I has never seen snow. That's why I put Switzerland as our first destination. I want to see snow. The view was breathtaking I must say! Seeing those flakes floating down when the wind blows was magical. We were freezing and my hands were numb, yet we couldn't resist going out to touch the snows. We had this cheese fondue for dinner, imagine cold weather and hot melted cheese with potatoes, such a heaven ain't it?



We headed to Prague after about a week stay in Switzerland. To be honest, I didn't enjoy Prague as much as I was in other countries. Not only the weather wasn't good, it was raining most of the time, there were too many tourists around you can't enjoy the city at peace. But that's where I had the famous ice-cream filled donuts - trdelník (sometimes I asked for strawberry whipped cream instead of ice-cream yums) Not to forget, the beer in Prague is cheaper than water and here is when we start ordering beer during meal time, instead of water.

  

Before I plan my trips, I would not have even put this city - Budapest my list. I know nothing about the city except the movie - The Grand Budapest Hotel. I didn't even watch the movie, merely heard about it.We came here with no expectations whatsoever, but it gave me more than what other places has to offer. The cost of living is lower than the previous countries we have been to. With little money spent, we get to feast. The rose gelato I'm holding cost me less than £2 which is absolutely a steal compared to Amerino we had in Paris. We bought the Budapest card which offer us not only free ride on most of the public transport, also their luxurious thermal baths. We were so exhausted we were about to give up the hike at night. Lucky thing we did not. Look at the night view, it is all worth while.

I'm gonna talk about Italy next, it that's where I meet up with Jo and travel to the dream island - Santorini.  Thanks for reading!

Shan

84\\ Last June

Time flies, I'm back from UK for half a year already, can you imagine that? Having dinner in the kitchen with that three men (dammit, too public to call them sohai) were just like yesterday. I do miss Alex's cooking, a lot! And our daily-'apa mau masak?'-conversation, or or Aldi/Asda anyone?

Well, if you think my life in UK is only about food... Yeap, you're right. 干！没志气的家伙 Okay la, not all, but most of the time its pretty dull. But it does get a lil more interesting when I took a vacay once in awhile to keep my brain functioning while making plans. The downside of not blogging things in time is that you will forget most of the things, and I still have not learned my lesson. LOL.

Anyhoo, visited Brussels, Cologne and Prague with Sharon, Mel and Esther last June (which is 9 months ago?????? holy lazy ass you joannloo, now only blog). Here's a vlog, you will see a lot of a very rounded-face me, and try to ignore that. I'm sorry, lol. More of the trips next time.

updated 2:35am. 18 March 2016.
signing off.


x,jo