What I Got Up To

Hello!

In the past few months that I was away, I got up to a lot of things. One of these things was that I finally finished another book for this year. I finally finished “Me Before You” by Jojo Moyes. I have been reading and trying to finish this book for months but it took me so long to finish because I haven’t been consistently reading again. I’ve been trying my hardest to read more books because I do love reading but as you may know, I haven’t been doing a good job in allotting time for it in my life.

I actually bought this book after watching the movie for a couple of times. I didn’t immediately want to buy it because I just wasn’t interested in reading it. Watching the movie was actually enough for me. It wasn’t one of those movies that immediately made me want to go and purchase the book that it was adapted from. I actually bought this book impulsively because I was only supposed to buy a different book and on the way to the cashier, I spotted it. For some reason, at that time, I decided that I wanted to give the book a shot.

Now that I’ve read the book, I’m so happy that although it was an impulse buy, it wasn’t totally regrettable because I actually liked the story. Although, admittedly, there were times that I kind of grew bored of it because it was taking me too long to reach parts that I’ve seen in the movie. 

Anyways, I think that reading the book was good and it did let me get to know the characters more. I think I would have enjoyed it more had I read it before seeing the movie because I wouldn’t have been rushing to the parts that I knew and I think it would have left more room for my imagination to visualize everything instead of seeing what I saw in the movie while reading those parts.

Another thing that I got up to was buying Kpop albums. This is not my first time to buy albums because I used to buy Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, and Jonas Brothers albums years ago. I got my first Kpop albums recently during the Lazada 11.11 sale. I was able to purchase three albums at the price of one. I was super excited about this because I’ve been thinking of buying at least one for such a long time now ever since I started getting really into Kpop but the lack of nearby CD shops and the price of the albums stopped me from doing that. So when I came across this shop from Lazada and I saw that it was selling albums, I was super excited. And to top it off, they took part in the sale and slashed the prices to about 50% off. Since I wanted to buy Kpop albums so much, I decided to go for it as an early birthday present to myself. And since it became cheaper due to the slashing of the price, I decided to buy three since they would be equivalent to one normal priced album. I chose Blackpink’s “Kill This Love”, BTS’ “Love Yourself: Answer” and “Map of the Soul: Persona”. I wasn’t able to get a Got7 and Twice album because they run out before I was able to include them in my cart. I got lucky I got these three because as soon as I checked out and completed my transaction, they were also sold out. The delivery was great because it arrived within the time frame given and the packaging was in great condition.

When I finally got my hands on the albums, I was super excited and happy. It brought back those old feelings that I got whenever I used to buy albums. I’m a really sentimental person and buying these albums and having my collections help me document the times that I’ve loved these groups and the songs that I listen to.

I’ve also immediately went ahead and bought other albums in a physical store. I bought Astro’s “All Light” and Blacpink’s “Square Up” in a mall somewhat near our home. Unfortunately, I was unable to buy more because they didn’t sell a lot of albums that I was actually looking for.

And finally, I had my birthday last month and it was the first time that I felt like it was the new year. I don’t usually feel like it’s a new year during my birthdays but for some reason, this year,I felt really moved to improve my self-discipline and to be more confident in myself. I’ve been trying to do this for some time now but this is the first time that I’ve actually been trying to be more aware of what I’m doing and I’m being more experimental when it comes to what and who I really want to be.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I’m not going to include pictures in this post but I might post a year-end post that would include things that I’ve loved and made me happy this year. So stay tuned for that.

Bye!

While I was gone…

Hello!

I want to write about what I’ve been up to lately and during my hiatus.

Honestly, a lot of things happened while I was gone. 

Admittedly, the past few months have been really stressful for me mainly because of work-related things. I feel like I keep pushing myself to do my best but it doesn’t translate well in the output of my work. It really took a toll on my confidence and anxiety levels. I was so used to being good or at least average in doing my work and it was the first time that I truly felt lacking which made me feel bad because I know that I’m really doing my best. Until today, I still feel some of those negative feelings like the stress and negativity that came with not being good enough but I’ve also learned to cope and deal with it. I’m slowly trying to get better at not caring too much about what other people say, learning to delegate tasks, and asking for help. So far, I can already deal with things better and I’m starting to get my happy and positive self back which I’m truly grateful for.

Moving on a more positive note…

I was able to watch a lot of movies while I was away. I was able to watch “Aladdin” in the cinema and I watched a lot of movies and shows on Netflix. I found that this really helped me in de-stressing because it was able to really take my mind off of all my responsibilities, deadlines, and commitments. It also made me feel really happy because I was able to immerse myself in something other than work.

I also got more into Kpop which was a pleasant surprise considering that I never thought I’d love this much. As you know, I have watched and listened to Got7, Twice, Blackpink, and Itzy. But recently and during my hiatus, I got into BTS and Astro. This was so crazy to me because I was so into Got7 that I was hesitant to fangirl over other boy groups because I thought it would be difficult to follow so many groups. But I guess I belong to multiple fandoms now.

In terms of my reading progress, I feel like this was left behind although I’m trying to get myself back into reading by watching other people’s bookshelf tour. I don’t know why those videos motivate me to read but I love them.

I also got into online shopping. I was so afraid of it at first because I always want to see for myself what I would purchase but when I finally tried it, I was kind of hooked on it. For my first ever purchase, I bought a lot of things from Beauty MNL. Since then, I’ve been using all of the things I’ve purchased and I’ve controlled myself from buying unnecessary things so lately, I’m more thoughtful about it.

That’s about the gist of what happened to me while I was on hiatus.

Bye!