Month: July 2016

Comic Con Prep Time

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Any ideas on how to prepare for Comic Con?

Re-using this pic from a previous post >_<"

I’ve been to two Comic Cons this year. So here’s my top tips on what to do!
  • Buy your ticket online whether it’s the cheapest one or expensive one, it’s easiest just to buy it without having to queue at Comic Con
  • Check the start and finishing time of the event
  • Plan your travels days or weeks before – so make sure you have the right train, bus, coach or plane ticket!
  • Eat breakfast before you go – it’s going to be a long day!
  • If travelling with children and babies make sure to bring loads of drinks and snacks in case they get hungry ^_^
  • Take a compact camera with a zoom lens to see your favourite actor/ actress from a distance
  • Dressing up in your fave cosplay outfit to the event is a must! (Although I don’t dress up I usually wear something simple) … but if you feel uncomfortable or the costume is too big, it’s best to dress up at the event
  • Take cash with you… not all the stands accept card
  • Make sure you’re in comfortable shoes/ trainers to walk around in, it can be a long day of carrying children or doing unusual things like chasing your favourite character to take a picture – yep, I’ve done that before.
  • Be prepared to queue for anything!
  • And finally, know your surroundings – where to enter, where to exit, finding stands and know where all the loos are!!! ^_^
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/l/conferences/ – a great resource for finding and planning conferences and conventions.

Hyper Japan 2016 – London Olympia

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Wooooo. Continuing with my London holiday with Hyper Japan of Summer 2016!!
It’s been so hot, I haven’t had the energy to blog.
But finally, it’ cooled down… and I have a cold at the same time… runny noses… ugh.
Two weekends ago, Hyper Japan, the summer version happened. I think I miss Japan. I really want to go again! Think I might have to do a trip on my own… maybe during one of the spring seasons and check out the cherry blossoms. ^_^ One day… Must improve my Japanese first then take another trip. Heheh. This year Hyper Japan was in Olympia West. I wonder why. Last year it was in The O2 and the queues were horrrendous… this year, it was managed fairly well. I even took the bus to get there! Wow!!

This was the queue around 8.40am on Saturday morning… the queues got bigger and longer. People were joking around about Pokemon Go. During that week, I really didn’t want to play Pokemon Go… it looked boring… but now thanks to Mr Games, Mr Sensible and Miss Money (who all by the way were on holiday at the time), I started replaying a week after the release date. Humph. Go Pokemon Go.

Just after 9am I got in. ^_^

I walked around like a headless chicken trying to find all the cool stuff. It actually looked a bit meek from the bottom.

Then I went to the top… The top view it looks so colourful and fun!

So much Pokemon!!!  I found you all without having to play the game at the time. Wahahahah!!!

I took the liberty of buying a Pikachu cooking spatula… the one second to the left. I’ve yet to use it.

Wow…!! Knitted Pokemon.

Awwwww, I so wanted this!!!!! Maybe next year. ¬_¬””

These were so expensive… think a lot of people wanted them but they were defo out of my budget. 😦

Took a picture with Domokun!! By the way the Gudetama t-shirt I’m wearing below was bought on eBay. ^_^

Bought one of these grilled pork and cheese buns. It was alright. Nothing special. Wish it was a little hot…

Had a green matcha bubble tea at the same time…

I found you big Pikachu!!! ^_^

Every year Akari Mochizuki appears at this event. She always sings the same songs. And every time I listen to it I practically sing along!

As well as Mochi, Hibiki Ichikawa always shows up with his students.

As soon as the music ended, I headed straight to this event. I think my brother Mr Stingy knows this guy… it’s one of his ex-colleague’s partner/ relative… I didn’t ask. But Mr Stingy came on the Friday so didn’t turn up on the Sunday as he would usually do. He missed out on a lot…

Afterwards I walked around a bit looking for things to do… and in the end I bought this cuddly Gudetama for £30. ¬_¬””” Yep, I spent my money on a big plushie. I will never do that again, I swear!!
As I was walking around, I heard someone singing the Totoro song… who was singing it?? It was 

Azumi Inoue!!! :O wOooOoooow Really?! The original singer to some of the most popular Studio Ghibli animes?! Yes!! It was her!!

Yuyu, her daughter also performed with her… and I think she’s famous in Japan too, Amazing!

After listening to them both, I had to watch Totoro when I went home.

Walked more. Round and round I go. Bought a cute t-shirt for Miss Vegan – trying to find a bargain for her was hard… she’s never been to one of these events! Took some leaflets (and got a free fan after filling out a questionnaire) for Mr Iron Man who’s going to Japan soon, but only for a week – so look after him people of Japan ^_^. Bought some girlie things for Miss Pinky, Baby B and my French family. Rested at some point but kept going towards the end of the session. Talked to a Chinese guy in Cantonese, it was his first time going to one of these events… He was on holiday. Hahahaha. 

The ice cream had to be eaten this year again. It was so hot because there was so much sun that day.

These two are Charisma.com… when I was eating my ice cream I swear I was hearing the most awful song ever. But when I went to see who was singing, it was lot of disco music being played… hence a lot of standing fans.

The final part of the day I had to go to was the fashion show… Sorry for bad collage,,, so many models!

And the final act of the Saturday first session was Yukari Inada. She’s cool.

Well, how much did I spend? Maybe around £100… I didn’t count to be honest. I blame Gudetama for making me spend!!!

Hope to continue to go… Might be skipping the Christmas one this year.

Website: http://hyperjapan.co.uk/

p.s. I didn’t take many pictures of people in their costumes this year… seemed bleak…

RHS Hampton Court Flower Show 2016

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The Geek’s rant: Oh PM Theresa May! What have you done to your cabinet??!! They’re all a bunch of fools. ¬_¬! The worst part is Jeremy Hunt who kept his job (hope he rots in hell) and Boris Johnson… who by the way is a prick and does not deserve the world’s trust. Foreign Secretary my ARSE! Another 4 years of Conservative BS… Another General Election NEEDED please!
Besides stupid London politics, my holiday this summer will be in London 😦 … so sad… everyone has gone on holiday and left me behind but London does hold some good events. I’m a tourist all over again… 
Last weekend I went to the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show, which was held in the back gardens of Hampton Court ¬_¬” (and it’s still in the boundaries of London).
Managed to get there between 10.30 to 11am. There was a mass of people and luckily I’m a fast walker (plus I needed the loo). It was a longish walk to get to the entrance of the show, but I guess I needed the exercise.

I love flowers a lot – get that from the mother’s end, and seeing strange plants and arrangements was amazing. ^_^ 

Took lots of pictures so scroll along for a little while.

At the tent there were more displays and people selling their plants.

This reminds me that I need to feed my cacti at work!! Just bought cacti drips on Amazon. ^_^ One of my cacti’s hasn’t flowered since I bought it. So sad, it must hate me.

I love these pots where the owner has labeled each type of flower. Idiot and Succeed are my favourites. Heheh.

I bought a bonsai tree from this stand – a small inexpensive indoor one. My bonsai tree is called an “elephant bush”. It’s on the kitchen window sill enjoying the sunlight. I can see leaves popping out after only having it for a week. So happy. I have always wanted one since watching Karate Kid the film. I’m hoping my tree will grow – but not too quickly. 

I headed out to the outside displays… there was just loads to see at the other end of the gardens.

I think I love water displays. One day if I ever own a home with a garden it’ll definitely have a water feature of some sort. Maybe just a pond with some goldfish or tadpoles.

Am I in Hobbit land?

What’s happening in Virtual Reality land?

I have no idea what this is supposed to be.

This display caught my attention!! Winnie The Pooh…

And Alice in Wonderland…

From where I was looking it looked as if the Queen of Hearts was telling of Christopher Robin and co. ^_^

What’s on the ground? Bullet shells… Don’t ask me why…

And what the heck is this?! Prison camp garden?!

This looked intriguing… I think I have no sense of understanding what this is… contemporary gardening does not suit me.

Now it was time to head back and look at the other stuff…

This was my favourite scarecrow!!

Finally… I made my way home. It was forever exhausting going around the area. How did King Henry VIII cope? I guess he rode his horses back and forth.
Seeing a mother swan and her duckling on the way home was amaaaaazing! 

This ugly duckling will become a beautiful swan!

Next year, I want to go to the Chelsea Flower Show. I’ll make sure to book a ticket in time.

Website: https://www.rhs.org.uk/

2Cellos Concert – London Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich

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Oh dear we have Theresa May as our PM. ¬_¬” Another Margaret Thatcher? Maybe, maybe not. Margaret Thatcher is actually one of my idols on leadership… but not her priorities though.
Did you know that the 2Cellos came to London? They’ve performed in London many times, but this is the first time I’ve been to see them play!!
I booked my ticket quite late as I thought I would on a holiday with Miss Pinky, but that isn’t happening this summer… Think I should stay home and save lots and lots of money before this government decides to kill the economy. There’s this bad feeling atmosphere around London, majority wanting to stay in the EU, ah well, now we just know our politics is just rubbish.
Didn’t realise that this concert was an open door concert!! I was soooo happy because it was very sunny that day. I think the heavens had opened for me that day. ^_^

My only problem was the seating… I think they should have considered a platform for the people at the back because it was hard to see even with the big screens showing us what was happening.

The Tootsie Rollers were the first to sing. They sang some old numbers buuuut I wasn’t interested in their music.

Next up was this jazz singer AJ…. hmmmm… I think jazz music makes me sleepy… the slow sort…

Taking a random pic of the sunset and the guy setting up the cameras…

And finally, the moment the majority of the crowd was waiting for were the 2Cellos!!!!! Awwwwwwwwwww, I love these guys. And you know what, it didn’t matter if I couldn’t see them up close (because I had my camera) was because their music is “so beautiful” as Hauser kept saying!! LOL!! I’ve been their fan for a few years now. Think it might have been their version of Smooth Criminal that might have caught my attention… that’s a good three years of being their fan! ^_^


The 2Cellos are like a couple of rebel cellists set to rule the modern classics. And I love it!

The clock struck twice. Once at 9pm and once at 10pm. We were all giggling away when the music was playing or about to start. 😀

It was a brilliant evening that night. I got my vitamin D top up, although may have had a little sunburnt face the next day… it was all red and patchy. 
The guys played some great tunes and people just loved it, although some looked a bit stiff with their dancing moves. ¬_¬” (not me of course).
Hope to see these guys again… but maybe in a concert hall. ^_^

Caravaggio’s Italian Restaurant – London Camberwell

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Before my Japanese exam (I had already had enough revision at this point – fed up of re-learning… didn’t do enough though methinks). I went out with a couple of colleagues to eat Italian food in Camberwell… I thought it was supposed to be a team get together (a different admin team I work with), but it ended up just being three of us. ¬_¬” I could have been revising….!!!!
The supposedly team building exercise was at Caravaggio’s. It’s a really famous local Italian restaurant in Camberwell. Everyone talks about it! But what’s so special about it? For one thing, it looks small from the front but really big at the bag. It’s a really retro restaurant and I’m sure lots of parties have been held in this place.

I was the early bird and was waiting for this team to show up… I didn’t even see them come but they sat quietly near the front – that’s when I spotted them whilst ordering their food! … I made them move to where I sat. :p
So starters first… My colleagues both ordered the sausage. Interesting presentation.

I chose the goat cheese, the Caprini forno. The sauce was sweet with the pears. It kind of tasted like a weird combo. But I love the presentation!!

One of my colleagues ordered the chicken… Can’t really comment…

And the other colleague and myself had the meat lasagne. I had that Garfield craving. ^_^

Parmesan cheese and black pepper on top. Tasty! Nice and hot. Very meaty filling. And very filling to the stomach. 

We all went for a dessert… cheesecake…

Chocolate fudge cake and ice cream…

And I had the creme caramel, which looked like the Japanese version of Purin… I wanted it!! I think the waiter even found my question kind of nonsense… what kind of pudding is it? ¬_¬”” … Just wanted to know if the Japanese stole the idea. Heheheheh. Delicious! I wish I could’ve slurped all that caramel. ^_^

Total cost came to around £67 including drinks. I think we were all surprised that the price was so cheap for the three of us!

Make sure you go early to get a seat… It gets really busy in there!

My geeky rating: 5/5

Good points:
Good service and somewhat cheeky
Food presentation is amazing!
Not expensive

Bad points:
Just watch out for the kids parties!!

Address: 47 Camberwell Church St, Camberwell, London SE5 8TR
Telephone: 020 7207 1612

When we were leaving it was already raining… But it suddenly stopped and we saw a rainbow… Awww… a rainbow in Camberwell. ^_^

When I got to Walworth Road, I was lucky to see another rainbow. I was hoping it was a good luck sign for my exams… Hmmmm, we’ll see if they were lucky in October!

Pimlico Car Boot Sale

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Blogging time! Getting back into regular blogging is going to be difficult – because I’m lazy. :p
One rainy weekend was spent going out to a car boot sale with MummyGeek for her birthday outing. Well, it was something to do. ^_^  Miss Vegan had told me about this a long time ago, and I thought I would give it a go. It’s on every Sunday.
We took the bus C10 in front of the Imperial War Museum and got off at Pimlico Academy. It was raining really heavily and we only saw a few cars which we thought – Is that it? No, that was not the end of it. MummyGeek saw people coming out from around the corner, so we decided to give it a go.
Didn’t realise it was a £1 entry (for the 11.30am entry) until the people in front said so. Oh well. Might as well give it a go.

Not much was going on… people sat in the rain selling their items and it was pretty much wet.

Thankfully there was an indoors section… some of the items were too pricey for a car boot sale. Miss Vegan told me later that I should be bargaining there… Woah. I’m allowed to bargain?!! Well if there’s no price, then bargain away…!!

There are lots of nice cheap things there but I decided to skip. Maybe next time when the sun is out and when there’s more sellers around.

Don’t forget, this car boot sale is in a school playground area.

In the end I bought this box for Miss Vegan for £1 to put her change in. ^_^ Pretty isn’t it?!

Address: Pimlico Academy, Lupus St, London SW1V 3AT
Phone: 0845 094 3871

Entry prices: £5 at 10.15am and £1 at 11.30am

The Coconut Collaborative Yogurt

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Japanese exam over! Think I failed the reading section (going over some of the questions in my head and realised I answered lots wrong)…. 😦 so saaaad, but I only did it for fun to see how much I can achieve. ^_^ Think positive Geek! Think positive! Awaiting for October to come for the results!!!

Started following The Coconut Collaborative on Twitter, and thought this is an interesting concept using coconut milk as yogurt.

Then when I went to a Sainsbury’s to buy it, it was practically the least touched yogurt in the fridge.

1. It’s expensive
2. They were in tiny pots

Although being so small and expensive, I bought them anyway.

They come in a tiny pot with a cardboard packaging. They are naturally dairy free, and so they’re good for those seeking a dairy free diet… probably ok for vegans too.

I think they could have done more with the pot and left out the cardboard… may have saved them a few pennies.

Tried the Natural flavour first. It’s creamy. You can tell they tried to add some natural sour flavours in. Could taste a lot of coconut milk in it… My least favourite of the three.

Next up the Blueberry flavour. This was a nicer flavour with some sweet blueberries at the bottom. This went well with the yogurt. My favourite of the three.

And finally the mango flavour. This wasn’t too sweet. I didn’t think it combined well with the yogurt. I could hardly taste the mango!

All finished! Blueberry wins!

If you’re rich, then go buy them. They’re £1.55 each!!! If you’re not into expensive yogurt, then go and buy big pots of natural yogurt – the dairy kind.