The Weekly Lowdown #4

Hi guys wow how is it the last week of October already? Sorry I didn't do a wrap up last week I was recovering from the BIGBANG concert last week haha!

BIGBANG 2015 World Tour [MADE] in Sydney
Which means the first thing I'll talk about is the concert! Y'all know I'm a massive K-pop fan and have been for the past 9 years. The first K-pop song I ever fell in love with and actually got me into K-pop was BIGBANG's Lies. You don't even know how excited I was when it was announced they'd added an Australian leg to their MADE tour! There was a point when it seemed it wasn't going to happen and then BAM I was sitting in Allphones Arena with workmates and we were screaming for TOP BIGBANG. They went all out and it was beyond fabulous. We gave them a yellow ocean of VIPs. It was the first K-pop concert since the 2011 K-pop Fest in Sydney that we were allowed to take photos so I certainly took my fair share. I was actually quite devastated they didn't sing Lies though. No Lies and no Let's Not Fall in Love which is one of their newest songs I love. I haven't loved BIGBANG as much in recent years to be honest. Their style has changed into more hip-hop/rap so their songs haven't really grabbed my attention lately. Let's Not Fall in Love was the first in years (probably since Haru Haru in 2008) so it was really sad they didn't sing it. But they did sing Haru Haru and we basically sang the song for them. Otherwise a stellar concert AND MY TOP AHAHAHA OF COURSE I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT TOP.  I had to try and minimise my screaming because people around me were recording and I didn't want my voice to be in people's vids but oh holy sweet baby Jesus T O P. I have so much love for this man. He is sexy beyond words.

The Imperial Russian Ballet Swan Lake

I went to watch the Imperial Russian Ballet Company perform Swan Lake at the State Theatre yesterday and OH. MY. GOODNESS. I was blown away. Best ballet I've seen yet. It trumped Sleeping Beauty (Moscow Ballet) earlier this year by far. I love watching ballet and I had high hopes for the most performed ballet in history. My expectations were exceeded. I remember I just wasn't that impressed by Sleeping Beauty (I'm one for fancy/complicated sequences with lots of pirouettes, fouettes etc.) but Swan Lake wow. The dancing was amazing. I love it when the corps de ballet are in sync and the four little swans bit was so beautiful. Then the dark swan's 32 fouettes was STUNNING. She kept spinning and spinning and the whole audience was applauding. I probably don't even make sense but basically it was danced so beautifully I was pretty emotional and nearly moved to tears. They're coming back next year for The Nutcracker which I might be even more excited about.

Stitch Bar
Colleagues took me to this hole in the ground (it's literally underground) bar last week and I had the most delicious cheeseburger. The bar was heaps dark but had this really cool vintage vibe with old photographs framed all over their walls and dripping candelabras. The cheeseburger is a must try you guys. They used a sauce that gives Maccas Big Mac sauce a run for their money. I also got some cocktail that had grapefruit sorbet which tasted refreshing and was just on point. Overall, a really fantastic meal and I'd go back again to try the rest of their menu.

Sakuratei
I was extremely impressed by this Jap restaurant. I ordered the chicken katsu udon which is fried chicken and it was so yummy yummy yummy. And for $12.50 it was a good sized portion (not too small and not gigantic) that filled me up. Would go again.

Other joints I re-visited were Vapiano and David Jones Food Hall (pasta bar). The DJ's pasta bar is a must to sate my pasta cravings.

Interview with Lyla Payne

I was extremely lucky to be given the opportunity to interview Lyla Payne at the Bloomsbury Sydney office. Joy @ Thoughts by J and I went over on Tuesday to interview Lyla who's visiting Australia. Lyla is so nice and funny and I'll have my interview up in November along with my review of her Christmas book Mistletoe and Mr. Right/Sleigh Bells and Second Chances - which I might add is SO swoony and sweet and I adored it. Lyla's answers made me really want to read more of her NA books which means I must go buy her Whitman University series now! Thank you SO much to the Bloomsbury Sydney team, especially Sonia and Genevieve for organising and facilitating. And thank you THANK YOU for the amazing goody bag <3

Illuminae Sydney Launch

Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff's much anticipated Illuminae (The Illuminae Files) was released this week and they came to Dymocks Sydney for their launch. I'm so happy to have a personalised copy! I accidentally whacked Jay in the head for Joy's photo but the pose was worth it (;

I finally finished What We Left Behind by Robin Talley and reviewed it here. Was not impressed sadly.

Books I got

• Captive Prince (Captive Prince #1) by CS Pacat - I've heard amazing things about this!
• Fahrenheit 451 by Rad Bradbury - Been meaning to read this for ages and this gorgeous edition was on sale
• Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff - THIS BOOK. THE INSIDE OMG

From Bloomsbury Sydney:

• Tote bag for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Illustrated edition
• Inherit Midnight by Kate Kae Myers - omg it's hardback
• Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George - this sounds so good and the cover wow and HARDBACK
• When We Collided by Emery Lord - !!! IT'S EMERY LORD. HEAVY BREATHING.
• Queen of Shadows signed bookplate - I'll be giving this away at some point :D

Thank you so much Sonia/Bloomsbury Sydney for these beautiful goodies.

Recently Finished: Mistletoe and Mr. Right/Sleigh Bells and Second Chances by Lyla Payne

Currently Reading: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Tunes: Let's Not Fall in Love by BIGBANG

The Weekly Lowdown #3

Hello October and let's take a short trip back to Hogwarts.

Firstly, how is it October already?! Where has the time gone? It's October 2015 (well duh you must be thinking) but the date holds significance for me. 5 years ago I sat my HSC exams. 5 years ago I was one of many students in NSW stressing about a series of exams that I thought would ultimately define my future. Looking back, maybe I could have studied a little harder and gamed a little less - button mashing is a great stress reliever. I think I tried too hard in Years 7-10 and by Year 11 and 12 I was just burnt out and gave up lol. What's done is done and I'm in a pretty decent place now. I wish I could go back to my 17 year old self and tell her not to worry so much, that the HSC is not the "be all and end all" as my maths teacher used to try to tell us, and that everything would be ok. But then if I hadn't tried so hard would I be where I am today? Either way, I want to wish all the students sitting their HSC/VCE (OWL/NEWTs?) the best of luck. Don't stress, just do your best and it'll be all right!

This week's wrap-up is a short one from me. Sadly no new food places because I had so many meetings this week, I was running between them and stuffing in a short 10min Maccas/Subway lunch.

• The Girl With All the Gifts by MR Carey - I was bumming around in Kino on Friday and ran into one my favourite sales assistants there and he recommended this to me. It looks so intriguing so I was like yup I'm going to pick this up
• Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #1) by Rick Riordan - I was contemplating buying the US hardcover (I still might) when I got this in the mail on Friday! Thank you so much Penguin Teen Aus for sending me this finished copy. You can read my gushing review here.
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Illustrated Edition - YEWWWWWWWWWWWW HOGWARTS. It's beautiful inside. BEAUTIFUL I SAY. Expect the page with all the spiders. That one isn't beautiful. Nope.

Currently Reading: What We Left Behind by Robin Talley - I am struggling so hard with this book I started another - Angel by LA Weatherly. I still haven't finished In the Afterlight either ;____;

Tunes: My trance favourite this week is Restless Hearts by Mark Sixma & Emma Hewitt // Reset by Tiger JK feat. Jinsil my friend introduced to me and is the OST for a drama which I decided to look up and just started watching

Watching: Quantico is an addictive new American TV show. Seriously go check it out // Who Are You: School 2015 a K-drama mystery about high school life

The Weekly Lowdown #2

How has a week gone by so quickly? How is it nearly October? My gosh, we're already on the second edition of the Weekly Lowdown!

I didn't think I'd have anything worth writing about in the space of a week, but I managed.

In my everlasting love for Throne of Glass, I made a thing. There's an A4 print along with wallpapers for the iPhone. The one size is compatible for iPhone 5s//iPhone 6s (which I guess inadvertently means compatible with iPhone 5/iPhone 6 too?).

A4 print

 

iPhone lock screen | home screen

One of my favourite savoury foods is pasta, and working in the city I've been trying to find good pasta places. It's been sort of hard. One of my colleagues took us to Vapiano the other day and I loved it. It felt very authentic and you got to watch them make it in front of you as you ordered. I told someone else of this place and they said it was horrible LOL. Everybody has different tastes so yeh.

I went brunching at Orto Trading Co. yesterday and to be honest, wasn't that impressed. I liked the hipster vibe and the service was pretty decent but what I ordered didn't taste that great. It was called the Hash 2.0 and had potato, ham, rocket, avocado, asparagus and poached egg. There was WAY too much rocket and it overpowered the taste of the avocado... which can I add was presented like green poop. The asparagus would have tasted much better grilled as well. I'd give the dish a 2/5 if I had to rate. Without the hash and ham it would have been bland as well - everything was just raw veggies just chucked together.

The first Aussie YA book subscription box, the YA Chronicles, arrived and I was really happy but also slightly disappointed: I already own a copy of The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness and the necklace that came with it also had a broken chain. I do love the little superhero USB (I got Captain America) that came with it though, and bookmarks YAY! The badge is adorable and there was also a free download for an e-novella (Untouchable by SA Starcevic). I'm thinking I might sign up for the October subscription box but there's always the risk that I will already own the book - they don't ship out until the 20th of the month which means you're essentially getting the release at the end of the month as opposed to in the beginning.

What was in the box (theme: That Hero Nonsense):

• The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness with embossed The YA Chronicles stamp on the inside
• The YA Chronicles card
• The YA Chronicles bookmark designed for the month's theme
• TROUJLH badge
• A necklace with quote on pendant from Etsy
• Untouchable by SA Starcevic e-novella free download + bookmark
• Superhero USB 4GB

Overall, is it worth it? You're paying $40 ($29.99 + $9.99 postage) for a book, bookmark, and 2-3 extras. I would say yes if you don't go out to buy new releases immediately. but no if you tend to pre-order books and get them early in the mail/buy books as soon as they're out in the bookstore. The RRP of TROUJLH is $24.99 so you're paying $15 for everything else. I got TROUJLH for $19.99 so it felt like I paid $20 for a few extras which wasn't as worth it for me.If all the books are going to be hardcover then it's definitely more worth it because they go for $20+ here, usually $30. Paperbacks? Not so much. Paperbacks retail for $16.99 - $19.99 in bookstores and $12 in Aussie online bookstores.

I finished Uprooted by Naomi Novik and holy smokes you guys this was AMAZING. I don't usually give 5/5 but this one was standout. Some people said it was a Beauty and the Beast retelling but I likened it more to Howl's Moving Castle. It had notes of Polish folklore mixed in with lots of magic and had a high fantasy setting. I completely loved the protagonist Agnieszka. What was profound was the stunning and unbreakable, steadfast bond between Nieshka and her best friend Kasia. You don't read friendships like that in books often. The food and imagery were simply stunning and the Dragon was so enigmatic. I loved the story wao you should just go read it. Also, that cover is GORGEOUS.

I also got Erin Bowman's Vengeance Road in the mail and due to difficulty with my current read, I decided to start this. I am flying through it, the story just sucked me right in and I love the Wild West style language used which adds that extra touch to the story. It's a wild chase across Gold Rush America and our protagonist wants revenge. The cover is so beautiful and it actually matches the story so well.

That current read I'm struggling with? I'm extremely sad to say it's In the Afterlight. I've been reading this for ages and only just got past half way. I've always found this series to be a slow read but books 1 and 2 were so interesting. I'm finding In the Afterlight to REALLY drag on and it's just planning and running and more planning then more running. It's exhausting and getting boring and I just need everything to move on. If I wasn't so in love with the first 2 books and invested in the series I would probably DNF.

Dropping off The Here and Now this week as I've talked about my reads and I've had no new tunes.

The Weekly Lowdown

Ayeeee guys. Taking into account your feedback I'm going to do weekly wrap-ups of my life. Who knows these might be less frequent... Well to honest we both know this might happen. These wrap-ups will aim to have a bookish focus but also feature a bit of my personal life.

I'll do a monthly wrap-up with books I've read/reviewed, as well as other favourites I think but on a more higher level. These weekly posts will be where I get into some more detail - as I do best. Rambling ftw?

Since I didn't do a wrap-up for August I'll give a really brief rundown of what I did:

• I went to the Hachette YA Bloggers night hosted at the Hachette Sydney office. Debut author Sophie Hardcastle told us about her book Running Like China, which is a memoir about mental illness. We all got a copy of the book and had it signed by Sophie. Hachette also told us about their new upcoming releases (SIX OF CROWS and GLASS SWORD <3333). Then we had guest author Holly Black come out and do a talk which as fabulous. We got our books signed by Holly yay! Thanks so much Hachette for the great night + awesome goody bags. Excuse my face sorry guys.
• I finally had the time to update the walls in my room. I put up all the postcards my friends had sent me when they went on exchange or holidayed in Europe. Below these I put up a bunch of Polaroids of good times with friends. My wall is now a little less bare.
• Joy invited me to watch the movie adaption of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl which I really enjoyed... but thought ended a bit abruptly? Still a great movie though. She also gave me a copy of The Guy, the Girl, the Artist and His Ex which she got from her goody bag <3 

Now for the week!

I've gotten so much Queen of Shadows stuff in the past week or so. My hardback of QOS arrived in the mail and then my badge for the Maas Thirteen also arrived. This was a great idea on Rachel's part. Each of the Thirteen has a blog badge that Rachel made for us last year, but she made these into actual badges which Alexa sent out and it looks GREAT. Thank you lovely ladies. Then I got my TOG badges which was part of the QOS pre-order offer from Bloomsbury. I heart these badges so hard, my favourites are obviously Team Celaena and Team Chaol!

Working in the city means that I get to experience great things - one of those being one of my greatest loves - FOOD. If you follow my Instagram (@pixelski, shameless self-promotion) you'll know that I love posting pics of food (especially ice cream) almost as much as books. 

Koko Black - the Strand Arcade

I've heard people talk about this chocolate cafe for ages, and my colleagues go on about how it's even better than Lindt Cafe! They took me there one afternoon and I ordered the chocolate ice cream which was amazinggggggg. It was 2 scoops of Belgian chocolate ice cream and they also gave me hot molten chocolate on the side to pour over it. I was extremely impressed. The ice cream tasted really fresh (sometimes you get ice cream and you see the ice frozen on it which isn't as appealing) and it was so smooth! The consistency was quite thick, thicker than gelato and also didn't melt as quickly. And dayum that chocolate taste. Full on. The biscuit/wafer thing they added on top also tasted great - like caramel melted into a wafer/biscuit. Not for those without a sweet tooth though.

Sokyo Ramen Pop-up - the Star

Sokyo is a 2 hat restaurant in the Star and for a limited time, they've introduced a pop-up that sells ramen. I caught up with my high school friend Sam, yesterday and we went to give it a shot. Despite the massive line, it moved quickly and I got to admit, the ramen was totally worth the $16. I got the spicy option which was a tantan ramen (pork mince, spicy pork soup, some vegetables and slightly runny egg). The soup was quite spicy but tasted great - not too salty - and the vegetables complemented the thicker soup and spice nicely.

Outlet sale - Sheraton on Park

A workmate kindly told me about a Michael Kors/Kate Spade (and Jimmy Choo/Victoria's Secret) outlet sale that ran for like 3 days. I went after work yesterday and zomg it was packed with people. Not a fan of crowds so I was in and out of there as soon as possible. The sale was insane and I got a new MK tote, and I got my mum an MK wallet. I was so sad that most of the Kate Spade stuff had sold out :(

Cool story bro - not really

I had a lunch dilemma on Thursday after coming back from a lunch time meeting. For the first time in my life I thought I'd get a salad for lunch and be healthy. Sumo Salad were advertising their chargrilled meat + 2 salads option for $13 and I thought hey protein let's do it. BIGGEST RAGRET OF MY LIFE. The portion was insanely tiny, there were like 5 strips of chargrilled chicken in total and I ate the whole thing in like 3 bites. For $13. My stomach was still grumbling after and I ended up going to Maccas and getting a McNugget meal anyway. So I spent $20 instead of what could've been an $8 lunch if I'd just gone to Maccas in the first place. If refunds were an option, I'd have demanded one as soon as they handed me the box.

Lesson learnt: don't eat salads for lunch. They are a rip-off, don't fill you up and it don't even taste that great.

I did a little bookshelf re-organisation so I could see my Sarah J. Maas books on their own shelf!

Since I got my bonus (and pay rise woo) this week I decided to ditch the budgeting plans and go splurge on some books.

The latest volumes of Barajou no Kiss by Aya Shouoto (Kiss of the Rose Princess) came out and I just had to get as I'm collecting the series. I actually read the whole thing online so I know how the story pans out. The art is like no other and probably my favourite style. This is actually why I'll never really love a graphic novel/comic - I'm too in love with manga art style and compare them all to Aya Shouoto or Arina Tanemura's art.

I ordered this insanely beautiful edition of Peter Pan from Myer which arrived and it is SO beautiful on the inside.

From Kino I got Lair of Dreams, the sequel to The Diviners by Libba Bray. I adored The Diviners and the lush world-building. The Roaring Twenties. The luxury of the Jazz Age with flappers, speakeasies and Prohibition, Bray captured it all. I also picked up Kate Forsyth's The Beast's Garden which is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast in WWII. I love Beauty and the Beast retellings so I had to pick this one up. I read Briar Rose in Year 8 which is a similar premise and really liked that so I'm hoping this will be better. The latest volume of Saga by Fiona Staples and Brian Vaughan (volume 5) also came out and of course I needed that. I also got some of the Penguin Little Black Classics - Samuel Taylor Coleridge (another fact about me: I love Romanticism poetry) and Hans Christian Andersen.

Which is a bit weird because when I went to Dymocks I picked up the Barnes & Noble edition of Hans Christian Andersen's Classic Fairy Tales (what the shit Dymocks? I got this for $49.99 but it's $18 on B&N site). This is a new edition with the same stories inside as the purple cover edition but I love this cover so much more. Dymocks also had The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness for only $19.99. I've been wanting to get this for AGES because it's hardcover and beautiful and blue stained pages but also I've heard it's amazing. I still have no idea what it's about though.

Currently Reading: In the Afterlight (The Darkest Minds #3) by Alexandra Bracken

Recently Finished: After Daybreak (Darkness Before Dawn #3) by JA London

Listening To: Sun is Shining by Axwell & Ingrosso // Reality (and the Andromeda Remix) by Lost Frequencies feat. Janieck Devy
K-Pop: YeY by BEAST // and I've been listening to an old favourite, I Remember by Bang Yong Guk feat. Yoseob of BEAST