Redtonic's Blog: new year's eve

quarta-feira, 2 de janeiro de 2013

Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013!

Hello everyone.
How were your holidays?

This year Christmas was different. First it was the first time i spent christmas in my house. We've been living here for 2 years now and last christmas we went to Japan so I didn't even get a tree.
My inlaws also are visiting Portugal for the first time (even if my husband has been here for several years now) and its also the first time my mother in law ever left Japan. That was exciting too!

I wasn't really in the spirit because my favorite part is buying presents for everyone and there was a delay with my last two salaries but finally i got the money and i got to buy presents for everyone so I was pretty happy about that.

Christmas tree, the first one!

Before Christmas, on the 23rd there was a meetup and I had already picked out what to wear (which is very rare) but because i only got the money then i had to let the girls i couldn't go and go shopping for Christmas presents instead. I promised the girls i'd still take photos of myself in the outfit for them to make up for missing the meeting and this is the result. I'm sorry about the light, it was getting dark. I'm not managing time very well lately, with the baby and my inlaws etc.

The colorful decorating balls are chocolate!

I went for the old school classic x macabre doll look.

We ate the traditional portuguese meal for Christmas, codfish and vegetables. The next day we had stuffed turkey.

Typical Portuguese Christmas Eve dinner.

There were a ton of cakes and sweets and I honestly ate too much, i gained a ton of weight and I'm a bit down because of that at the moment.

Typical Portuguese Christmas desserts and treats.
I do not have a Bolo Rei (king cake) because i'm not a fan.

What about presents you ask? Well...

I got:
an antique plate (mom)
antique tiny tea sets for my dolls (mom)
set of bath towels (mom)
lace teal tights (husband)
sewing machine (husband)
Jean Paul Gaultier classique (husband)
foundation + setting cream (inlaws)
japanese traditional fabric coi purse (inlaws)
necklace / bracelet gold (inlaws)
necklace silver with pearls (inlaws)
musix box with chocolates (older brother)
red bracelet + black flower ring (adriana , local lolita)
pocket money (inlaws)

But the winner of "most christmas presents" was of course Mari. Look at this haul!

Just a ton of clothes, toys and everything else one could think of.

On new years eve we decided to take a trip and go visit my husband's workplace and some of the local tourist attractions. Unfortunately the weather was terrible so we barely made it out of the car and it was also kind of scary on the road with the fog etc. :| Not the best weather to go out in.
Anyway we got to Braga at lunch time and we decided to have lunch in a place my husband knows who's owners speak japanese and where the food is delicious and very inexpensive.

My favorite wine is vinho verde

I had a "steak" with vegetables and it was fantastic.

We also chatted a bit and met the familly who owned the restaurant, talked a bit about backgrounds and whatnot and then finally left.

We then headed over to my husbands work place, the local university. He wanted to show his parents where he works which is understandable.

It was raining, it rained almost all day!

What my outfit looked like with decent shoes and without the coat.

We then headed over for a famous spot called Bom Jesus where we managed to take some really nice shots of the monument. The weather was terrible but we also had a view over the city.

It's gorgeous there!

We then got back in the car and tried visiting the Sameiro Sanctuary but it was so foggy up there that we couldn't even see the road. It got very very scary and everyont agreed it was a better idea to try to head back down. We finally did and everyone was super relieved.

I took Kaneko with me but it was raining so she never
made it out of the car.

We then slowly headed back and as we got closer and closer to my city the weather started clearing up!

Christmas decorations

We started getting some snacks ready for the New Years eve dinner. Instead of eating something heavy we decided on getting a bunch of different things and just eating a bit of this and that.

Shrimp, salmon, mushrooms, salad, melon, mango, ham etc

For dessert we had coffee of course and pocky, but not just any pocky,
what my inlaws call "premium pocky".
My father in law waited 40minutes in line to get this for us.

Me, my father in law and my husband all left the house at midnight to watch the firework. I love fireworks but this year it was kind of disappoiting i must say. I still liked it anyway, any is always better than none, right?

HAPPY NEW YEAR
Fireworks at the main avenue in Porto

We then went back home and went straight to bed we were all beat!

Did you have fun too? I hope so. Happy New Year everyone!

Thing I achieved in 2012

Became a mom (part of my 2012 resolutions)
Stopped biting my nails
Lost some weight (part of my 2012 resolutions)
Smoked a lot less
Sold a lot of my collection and didn't buy a ton more things to replace them
Significantly improved my house
Did a couple of lolita photoshoots which was a lot of fun (part of my 2012 resolutions)
Managed to keep our local community going as usual (not dead yet!)
Wore something close to ott sweet for the first time
Attended two lolita meetings outside of the country
Sold almost all of my gothic and punk clothes and kept lolita and work clothes only
Visited Japan for the 3rd time
Got my first BJD (part of my 2012 resolutions)
Got my first brand new Blythe dolls
Met with my university best friend in person again!
Had my first xmas at our place ever

New year resolutions for 2013

Lose weight (part of my 2012 resolutions)
Improve my language skills (part of my 2012 resolutions)
Get a drivers licence
Travel more with my husband (part of my 2012 resolutions)
Be more sociable
Go out more
Become a better lolita (part of my 2012 resolutions)
Wear lolita more often as casual daily wear again
Have more money/ be more financially independant
Be more positive
Get in a sewing course, hairstyle course, cooking course... whatever! Learn a new skill.
Improve my self asteem!

What about you? What do you hope for next year?

Love always,

quinta-feira, 9 de fevereiro de 2012

Japan trip - Day 15

Day 15 is a special day, one to be spent indoors usually. It is no other than new years eve day.

I woke up feeling a lot better and this only improved when mom brought us breakfast. It was something i had never eaten before, pre-made buns with my favorite sausages, lettuce, ketchup and wasabi.

Green tea cappuccino and the buns.

After cleaning the room very carefully, I usually clean the room before new year (regular and chinese as well), mom invited us to go food shopping.
We got in the car and I was very surprised to see most stores and businesses were completely closed. It felt like a ghost area.
Mom wanted to buy some special meat that is supposed to be ultra delicious. She had intended to shop at the most famous store in the region and kept saying how fabulous the meat was and how famous the store was so I was somewhat excited.
When we arrived there I could not believe my eyes! The place was completely packed! They had a parking service and the parking was a vacant lot in front of the building. I have to remind you all that this thing is in the middle of nowhere, not in the center of some amazingly famous and populated city.

Kawai meat. Look at the people waiting in line!

They also had a side stall with different products for sale but people only wanted the meat. I was getting really curious at this point.

Outside stall.

After a while mom came back carrying a bag with some meat. I wanted to take a peak but i would get my chance in the car. They even had a vending machine so we all got something for the ride.

Vending machine.

And this is the parking lot, isn't this crazy? o.o

Kawai butcher parking lot.

So finally after much anticipation i could see what was bought. It looked delicious sure but also... normal japanese meat. I suppose i know nothing about japanese cuisine and meat in general (I don't cook very often at home because i'm not that good at it, my husband is much better than I am) but it did look like teir typical style of meat that can be bough at any supermarket.

Kawai bought beef.

We also went to the supermarket to get some other necessary items and also to my favorite chinese restaurant in Oji to get a special new years eve obento box. It was huge and made me curious. They also included some sake. <3

When we got home mom wanted to show me that it was delicious so she prepared a bit of meat. It was super tender but very fatty. I remember thinking that my brother would probably want to destroy its yummyness by cutting off all the fat as he always has been doing since we were kids. I think mom would be very sad. haha not only because in her eyes this is what delicious meat means but also because this meat costs a ton a kg. I am thinking 100 euros. I'll ask and then correct this info. But anyway ridiculously expensive!

Cooked Kawai meat treat.

We had not had lunch so we ate some delicious tempura soba and salad. Yummy yum yum!

My mother in law really is a great cook!

After lunch we always watch a bit of tv and play around with the fattest and one of the cutest cats ever to set foot on eart, Mi-chan. He wasn't very cooperative so we just pet him and took a shot. He is huge, he is so huge that when we came back out two cats (who are not tat small) looked tiny! They always look tiny when we return from Japan.

Mi-chan's size when compared to a pack of smokes.

In the afternoon my mother in law always takes a nap for health related reasons so we move to the other side of the house and just chill out a bit. We take naps, we browse the internet, i chat with some of you, i post on facebook etc... and we fold clothes and do all those very interesting daily life things.
Basically on new years eve it becomes even more ridiculous since all one does is literally wait for dinner time.
That time came and we went back to the living room.
Mom had already set the table and the tv was on. Someone checked the newspaper and we could clearly see who was performing this year. (every year there are several live shows where bands and singers perform; j-pop, j-rock, traditional music, etc)
I found out that (due to the tv series on NHK having an intro song by her) that shiina ringo was performing so i was waiting for that. Mom likes her too so we both waited.

Japanese beer. This one was a gift from my husband's friend, it is made by Kanagawa university. Interesting.

Finally, shiina was on. She appeared in a very 50's looking coat with baloon sleeves, completely in crimson red. She sounded like the angel she is.

Shiina ringo performing carnation

Under the coat was this ballerina looking tutu dress, she looked stunning and was very energetic as usual.

After a couple of performances and a bit of joking around in familly the time was finally there! People usually go to temples for good luck but due to my mother in laws health we can't go so we watch on tv instead.
After hitting the bells people are allowed in the temples and they are packed. It was very interesting to see that a foreign couple was among the ones that got to the temple first. Let me remind you that it was freezing cold.

People entering the temple for good luck.

It was finally time to dig in! I could finally see what was in the obento!

Chinese food obento for new year. A bit of everything

Level 2 of the obento

Level 3 - nobody ate the pidan eggs XD

New Year's Eve table view, very colorful a lot of fun!

And that was my day, after that we just went to bed and fell asleep once more. Not a very interesting day to read about but i really enjoyed myself.

Anyway because clearly that's what some people want to hear about, i'll leave you with photos of the things I got during my Tokyo trip. I got less prints than I wanted but that got to second plan when i found my all time dream bag. Expensive but i was happy and i actually used it there already. Haven't used it ever since which is sad, though. Anyway enjoy.