Holiday insigts

February 3, 2017February 1, 2017Leave a comment

For the past 2 weeks we’ve been back in South Africa. We’ve been soaking up the sun and visiting our families. It feels like the time have been flying at lightning speed.

At least we got to spend some quality time with our families. I feel sad because I miss them, but they all seem to be doing fine.

I also had the opportunity to spend some time with my stepmom. It took me some time to get use to her as my dad married her barely 6 months after my mother’s passing. After my mom died I didn’t really want to form any new connections in my life. It was so painful losing someone so close to me, and I had a lot of regrets. I remember telling my husband that I wanted to visit my mom on the weekend because I’m worried about her, by then she was already bedridden and didn’t really open her eyes or speak, but I use to talk to her in any case and sometimes, just sometimes she would open her eyes and faintly smile at me. But that Thursday, my dad phoned me and told me that she had passed away.

Since then I stayed away from new people and new relationships, but after this weekend I feel that I can start allowing people back into my life.

My outfit this week is my little Korean style dress. I like wearing it because it reminds me of Korea. It also has a loose fit and allows you to move around in it. I got it form Teeny Weeny in Seoul, Korea.

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My frustration with so-called fashion bloggers.

October 24, 2016October 23, 20167 Comments

I understand the fact that everyone, eventually, wants to make some money out of their blogs. But that doesn’t mean that you should only try and link things from the affiliate programs that you are part of.

I recently saw a gorgeous dress on Pinterest. I clicked on the link and it took me to the Asos website. Stupidly, I bought the dress without properly checking that it is the same dress because I was sooooo excited to get this lovely dress. It was only when I opened the package that I realized that this was not the dress I wanted. It was however, the dress I ordered.

The Dress I saw…

The dress I got…

I realize that it’s my own fault for not looking at the details, but at that moment it looked like the same dress. I am just annoyed that someone would link something totally unrelated and say that this is what they bought from a particular shop. This is just one example. The other day I also saw a blogger wearing a lovely jersey but none of the products that she linked was the jersey she was wearing.

So please don’t just link stuff to get sales. There is a reason we follow these bloggers and it’s because they have great style and typically, if we like something that they are wearing we would like to buy the SAME thing. Not something similar….

Here is what the dress looks like.

Monochromatic Dreams

July 27, 2016July 26, 20162 Comments

I’ve always loved brown. It is a warm yet earthy colour. It is the colour of earth, wood and chocolate . Here are a few of my favourite pics from the net this week.

Korea will change you

May 26, 2016May 27, 2016Leave a comment

Coming to Korea, we didn’t quite know what to expect. Luckily my younger brother has been living here on and off for around 6 years. He gave me some tips on what to expect but it didn’t nearly prepare me for Korea.

Before I came to Korea I lived a completely different life. Our whole lives revolved around our jobs. We travelled 2 hours a day to and from work. We had to wake up at 4 am just to miss most of the traffic so that we could be at work by 8 am. At night we would get home eat and sleep. Tomorrow the whole thing would start all over again.

So how did Korea change me?

Firstly, travelling. Korea has an amazing public transport system. We live in a small city in the middle of nowhere but within an hour and a half I could be in Seoul or Dajeon. I can even be in Busan in 3 hours. Furthermore I don’t have to travel hours and hours to get to work. It takes us only 7 minutes (walking) to get to work. Therefore having a car is an expense that one can live without.

Busses

You can travel all over Korea in a matter of minutes on the KTX express trains

From meat eater to weed-eater

In South Africa we ate meat at almost every meal. Firstly because meat is so inexpensive and secondly because we lived on a high protein low carb diet. Here in Korea, meat is extremely expensive. If you eat meat the way we ate it back home we would not be able to save money at all. We will then just live to eat instead of eating to live. In addition its just easier to eat Korean food. Most of the foods staple is rice and veggies. Even eating out is much cheaper

Home made food in Korea

Traditional South African Braai

Some comparison on prices

Beef – South Africa; $8/Kg South Korea; $25/Kg

Chicken – South Africa; $3 – $6/Kg South Korea; $12/Kg

Clothing

Clothing standards are completely different in Korea than in western countries. In western countries we would rather wear longer dresses and skirts and show a bit of boob whereas in Korea, showing your back, boobs or shoulders is considered sexy and is therefore off limits, but short skirts and shorts are a complete go. I have to admit that recently I’ve seen more and more people baring bare shoulders and even some midriff but this is mostly in Seoul and not in the smaller towns. It does seem that people are experimenting more and more with western fashion styles.

Another issue in Korea related to clothing is that if you are either tall, big boned or big breasted you will find it difficult to find clothes your size. I have been told that you can find clothes that fit in Myeong-dong, but when it comes to pants I haven’t found pants long enough to fit me. T-shirts and tops are mostly OK, as long as you buy them in Seoul, smaller cities will not have clothes that fit everyone. I have also taken up shopping for underwear on-line. I mostly buy Victoria’s Secret because I know that the sizes that fit me. I have recently also bought some Agent Provocateur undies from Nasty Gal and they fit perfectly. I am always scared to buy on-line because I’ve bought some dresses on-line here in Korea and the one was to big and the other fitted like a shirt instead of a dress. Therefore buying clothes from the US and other western countries would be the best bet.

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Korea has changed me in more ways than one, clothing style, diet and even some beliefs about life but as far as I know it has made me a happier person to experience life here in Korea.