eclectic62442

So I received this email a day ago from bculturemedia.

Hi Amanda!

My name is Courtney Byrd and I am PR of www.bculturemedia.com. We were recently named agency of record for www.tourneau.com and www.colehaan.com .

Our goal is to be the most powerful digital media agency in the USA and I have an awesome idea that I believe will help us do it at a fast rate and in the process make bloggers like you some good and consistent money for providing a channel through your blog where we can provide pay for stories that feature our clients fashion brands and our accomplishments on your blog.

In short, we want to combine fashion blogs like yours in a very close inner circle of fashion-blog platforms where we can make our fashion label clients extremely happy to be covered and featured in a string of blogs like yours at a fast speed of placement.

Aside from creating connections with top luxury brands and fellow fashion bloggers, this is an opportunity to leverage your brand. You will have direct access to the brands, at the core, through us. We can also assist in making your site "GooglePanda-friendly" by offering SEO management, site design or any other element that will enhance your blog and content.

I would really love and appreciate it if you would consider this opportunity and add me on Skype as : courtbyrd3 to vibe more about this and connect on multiple levels to strengthen our bond beyond business. Please reply soon so we can get to know each other and move forward!

Courtney Byrd - PR
courtneyb@bculturemedia.com

Naturally, I was a bit bemused considering that I'm not a fashion blogger. For some perspective, my last five entries filed under "Style" were:

1. May 18: An entry about my decision to re-heel my boots
2. April 20: An entry about what I packed to go to China (no photos)
3. December 27: An entry pondering dressing for your body, rather than dressing in your preferred style
4. December 18: An entry about a pair of earrings I got as a Secret Santa present
5. December 13: An entry asking people to decide what I should wear to my work's Christmas party

I'm hardly a prolific 'fashion blogger', so I replied:

Hi Courtney,

If you had taken the time to actually visit my blog and do your research properly, you will have realised that I don't actually run a fashion-related blog, and as such your offer has no relevance to me.

Thank you for your generic email no doubt forwarded to any random blogger, but I'm not interested.

Cheers,
Amanda

End of the matter? Shut down? Apparently not.

Amanda,
You definitely do not have a fashion-based blog but I must have been mislead for by your style section. It's underdeveloped - and this would be a great chance to enhance your brand and join a network. After proper research, I was inclined to contact you so we could connect and establish some form of partnership. But thanks for your time and speedy response.

OH NO YOU DIDN'T.

My 'brand' is Amanda Chan. My 'brand' is not made up of paid stories for your clients that have nothing to do with me, my interests, or my life. I am insulted that you think you have done 'proper research' (if you had, you would know that I'm against paid advertising) and decided that my Style section of this blog was 'underdeveloped'. If I wanted it to be the focus of my blog, it would be. It is not up to you to suggest that I need to develop the Style section, when nothing on my About page suggests that I even want to become a fashion blogger.

So a word of warning to all brands considering bculturemedia as their PR agency. They clearly don't do their research - and you will probably be charged for 'PR' for articles on blogs that are totally unrelated to your brand, and whose audience aren't interested in the content. There are bloggers out there less scrupulous than I who will accept their offer and take your money with no discernible return in your favour. You have been warned.

I am 3000 words away from completing my Masters, and saying goodbye to university forever. Or you know, until I decide I want to get another qualification while working, because working full time hours (plus unpaid overtime) while studying a challenging postgraduate degree is absolutely the best decision anyone can make to retain their sanity.

Why is it that these last 3000 words are the hardest 3000 words I've ever had to write? I've gotten a week's extension on this assignment and even now that I'm in extra time, I'm still finding every possible excuse to procrastinate. (Oh what, Spotify has launched in Australia? MUST CREATE PLAYLISTS.)

I am unmotivated. I cannot bring myself to write these final few thousand words, even though I've written hundreds of thousands over the course of this degree. While I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I am convinced that all I need to do to reach it is an absolute last ditch effort that need receive no more than the barest passing mark. I'll already be graduating with a Distinction/High Distinction average. What difference will a single Pass make?

I'm not sure what the point of this entry is. I'm not asking for motivation tips - I'm past that point. I'm not asking for sympathy - I chose to study while working. I'm not asking for emotional support either - I'm the only person who can make this happen. I suppose that I really just wanted another reason to procrastinate - blogging is as good a way as any!

I just finished re-reading Alexandre Dumas's d'Artagnan Romances again - The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years Later, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne. It's possibly the fifth time I've read these novels?

I'm actually a chronic re-reader of my favourite novels (hello, Harry Potter, read about 20 times), as I find that I discover new interesting tidbits in each novel. The more I re-read, the more I discover, and the more complete the world of the novel becomes. It's like catching up with an old friend who you haven't encountered in a few years, but with whom you always feel comfortable sharing the most intimate secrets of your heart - secrets you don't even share with a lover or partner.

Anyway. I digress. My question was going to be: Who's your favourite musketeer?

Everyone I know who's read these novels tends towards a preference for d'Artagnan - young, passionate, a born leader. My personal preference is for Athos, the Comte de la Fere. Noble, handsome, intelligent, cultured (although with a penchance for Spanish wine), he's attractive to me in a way that the others couldn't hope to be. Aramis? Porthos? Not a shade on Athos.

Yes, I do tend to have crushes on fictional characters. That's just what I do.

I think I'm going to need a short holiday in October.

Jetstar had a special sale of $19AUD flights between Sydney and Gold Coast. 300 seats only...I managed to nab some tickets! Love a good cheap flight, and I have to say that I have a bit of knack for finding them!

I just got my winter boots re-soled and re-heeled.

It cost me $69.95AUD at the cobbler's, and I have to say, I hesitated when they told me how much it would cost. Reason being - I bought these boots (real leather) on extreme sale two years ago for around $120AUD. Did I really want to pay half as much again to get them fixed? In the end, a few things swayed me towards paying to get them fixed:

1. The cost of new boots at this time of the year. Going into winter, I was unlikely to find a decent new pair of black leather knee-high boots for any less than $250-$300AUD. I certainly wasn't going to find any for $120AUD until the turn of the season in late September.


2. The size of my calves. At the best of times, finding knee-high boots that actually fit my calves is a challenging exercise. At the worst of times, I end up throwing a tantrum and crying in stores because I'm convinced that I have man legs. I'm not ready for that.


3. There's nothing else wrong with the boots. There's no massive scuff marks, nor anything wrong with the actual top of the boot because I've taken relatively good care of them. It's just a heel base that's broken off, and a hole in the sole.


4. I love these boots. I wear them three or four times a week in winter, if not more. They're just a pair of nice basic black boots that go with most dress/skirt outfits I wear.

Also, there's also the self-important greenie urbanite in me who's feeling smug because I am recycling and reusing, rather than being a consumerist whore. MUST FEED INNER GREEN URBANITE.
 

Okay, this just makes me really angry.

A former student who is suing Geelong Grammar School says she decided to seek damages after she failed to qualify for her preferred university course.

Rose Ashton-Weir, 18, alleges Geelong Grammar gave her inadequate academic support, particularly in maths.

Seeking compensation in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, she said her final secondary school score was too low to study law at the University of Sydney.

Of her time at Geelong Grammar, she said: ''I didn't ever feel I was getting the support I needed to really excel.''

Read more

Whatever happened to taking some personal responsibility for the fact that you simply weren't smart or dedicated enough to get into a course at a prestigious university? A conscientious student would have requested and sought more academic support if they cared about their marks. The fact that you didn't reflects on yourself, not on the school. School records show that you failed to complete school work, was placed on internal suspension, and were frequently absent from class. Your own disregard for the education you could have received led to your inability to get into the course.

What a self-entitled idiot.

Just a handful of the many dining experiences I've had in Sydney since the start of this year. And by "a handful" I mean I've dined out 44 times since the start of January according to my Urbanspoon timeline (with some overlap in restaurants). If you take out the time I spent interstate and overseas, in 2012 I have dined out for at least one meal every 2.6 days, or around three times a week.

Cheeky Czech, Newtown

We ate here last week on our weekly Tuesday date night (yes we have a date night. We both get really busy, so we try to set at least one night aside each week just for each other). I'd never really tried Czech food before, nor food from that region of Europe in general. It wasn't bad. I had a pork belly main, and Kieran got the duck main - both came with the same sides of cooked red cabbage (delicious - not sure what they marinated it with, but it was sweet but sour at the same time) and dumplings (not as awesome as Chinese dumplings). Both the meats were a bit overdone and dry, but I like the concept of that type of food in general - a meat, some vegetables, and some carbs.

Sushi Tei, Sydney

I first ate here about three or four years ago when I was visiting Sydney on holiday. We went again with Kieran's aunt, uncle and grandparents, who ordered an amazing range of foods, and I took my parents here as well when they visited over Easter. It's one of my favourite Japanese restaurants in Sydney, as they do quite innovative food - eel and soft shell crab handrolls are two of my favourites, and their baby octopus dish is amazing as well.

Sambal, Ryde

While I've always obviously had some knowledge of Malaysian food (it happens when your parents only ever eat in Asian restaurants), dating Kieran has really meant that I've learned a lot more about Malaysian cuisine. He's quite family-oriented, so we'll go out for a meal at least once a week with his extended family - aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. Often, this means that we'll have Malaysian food, and his whole family seem to take great pleasure in making sure that I try a bit of every single dish. I'm loving the cendol dessert in particular. Sambal as a restaurant was quite good - family-oriented, and the owners even come out and speak to you

Cafe Ish, Surry Hills

I know Carmen raves about Cafe Ish, but truthfully? I didn't find it all that different from any other all-day-breakfast cafe. The Japo-Australian fusion style was interesting, but not amazing. It also seemed a bit gratuitous...I mean, crocodile sausages? Surely that's for a talking point, not for actual taste value? The local Japanese community seems to embrace the cafe anyway - when we were there, a number of the patrons were Japanese, so it must be authentic enough. Points for the large portions (value for money!) and banana bread though, which was quite tasty.

Pizza Moncur, Woollahra

We got two takeaway pizzas from Pizza Moncur when we went to the Moonlight Cinema for a screening of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (for the record, I preferred the Swedish film as being more true to the novel, but Kieran didn't mind the American film as a standalone as he hadn't read the novel nor seen the Swedish film). It was really quite busy when we were there even though we were only getting takeaway and not dining in. I had the pumpkin pizza, and Kieran ordered a meat pizza (can't remember which one)...combined, the two were actually quite complementary in flavours. Thumbs up for a gourmet takeaway pizza experience for when you're heading to an outdoors event at Centennial Park.

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, I made the decision to leave my beloved Fitzwilliam Darcy at Aragon Cattery when I went on a two and a half week holiday. The decision was not made lightly - and I toured a number of catteries to make sure I was choosing the best. A number of factors attracted me to Aragon Cattery on my visit:

1. The size of the cattery - while the individual rooms were large, the cattery itself was relatively small with only about twenty rooms. There were up to three cats in a room, but doubling/tripling was only provided for existing cat families, and solo cats always had their own room.
2. The individual space provided was large - measuring 2m x 6.5m with both indoor and outdoor areas. They each included a lounge for the cat to sleep on, climbing frames for exercise, and toys and tunnels to keep them active and interested.
3. Hygiene - litter trays were cleaned regularly, and the rooms too were clean and free of nasty smells
4. Quality of food - the cattery stocked a wide range of different foods to cater to all possible diets
5. Personal attention - the owner, Prue Sibley, is one of the warmest people I've met. She has a genuine love of animals, and her demonstration of in-depth knowledge of the habits and personalities of each of the cats in her care was extremely reassuring.

On my return, my confidence in Aragon Cattery was reaffirmed. Darcy was happy and healthy. While he was happy to see me (he ran straight to me when I arrived to pick him up), he was also happy in the surroundings, and had grown as an individual in my absence. He was now comfortable in the presence of other cats - and had even developed a friendship with the cat in the room next door. He was comfortable with small children - and his amiable nature encouraged the attentions of Prue's three year old daughter every day, so that he got a bit of personal play time with a toddler.

I cannot speak highly enough of Aragon Cattery, and encourage any Sydney-siders searching for a cattery to consider them as the top choice.

Note: I didn't get paid to write this. I genuinely appreciate the experience that I and Darcy had at Aragon Cattery and want to write a review that will hopefully be picked up in future Google searches for "cattery sydney".

In the tradition of my travel wrap ups, I expect to be flamed for this entry. Have at it, indignant peoples.

Travelling As A Couple

This was always going to be a big thing about this holiday. It's the first time (realistically speaking) that I've been on a proper, long, holiday with a boyfriend. This holiday was a test of the relationship. There are unique challenges that come from spending 24 hours a day together for two and a half weeks that you simply don't get elsewhere. Even when you live together, you're not together with that level of intensity - there's work, education, family, and other social commitments that mean you spend at least some time away from your partner.

When you travel together in a country where one of you are unable to communicate with the locals and the other has to do all the translating, there's not much opportunity for being alone. All up, I think we only spent probably four hours apart for the whole two and a half weeks - largely when he had a sleep in and I went out early for an hour's walk in the morning.

I think we passed the test. We're still together, we didn't have any blazing rows, and we both learned to travel and to gracefully give way to each other's wishes. I'm a "must do everything" traveller - I get up early and stay up late, from an early breakfast at a street vendor, a day of sightseeing, and a full night at the night markets. Kieran is more of a "travel is about the holiday, not about the travel" traveller - he would prefer to stay up late reading and relaxing in bed, have a sleep in, and then leisurely pick one destination to explore each day. It's not the best combination, but we made it work, with concessions on both sides.

Language

This was a concern of mine before we left. I hadn't used Mandarin Chinese or Shanghainese regularly since the start of 2007, and I knew that I was rusty. (I do this thing where if I want to practice a language, I make myself think in that language and practice conversations in my head. It's really hard, but effective at determining your level of fluency.) My imaginary conversations proved to me that I wasn't ready to throw myself right back into China, where the average Chinese person knows only three phrases of English - "Hello", "cheap, cheap, you buy", and "you need taxi? I drive".

However, concerns aside, I did better translating for the both of us than I thought I would. There were never any issues getting from A to B, using both taxis, high-speed trains and subways. One incident aside where I ordered three dishes instead of two, we never had any issues with ordering delicious meals, three times a day. I even had lengthy nearly hour-long conversations with taxi drivers, masseuses, etc. and managed to hold my own.

Impressively, I was still able to speak to my family in our local dialect which is essentially a dirty bastardisation of both the Shanghai and Ningbo dialects. Any student of Mandarin Chinese could tell you how dissimilar the Shanghai dialect is to putonghua, or standardised Mandarin. Yet I still managed to understand and converse in the dialect. I'm impressed with myself, but still admit that while my verbal command of Chinese was more than adequate for two weeks of travel, I should have brushed up on my recognition of Chinese characters before I left.

Places

Our original plan for the trip was: Beijing-Xian-Shanghai-hometown-Nanjing-Beijing in the space of two weeks. Travel in-between cities would have been primarily high-speed train over long distances, and passenger coach to my hometown. What we didn't account for was the three-day May Labour Day holiday in China, which is second only to the Chinese New Year week-long holiday in sheer numbers of travellers using up all transport options. We were unable to buy train tickets to Xian on arrival in China (we couldn't buy in advance overseas as you need to provide your ID/passport), and thus had to rearrange our plans, and omit Xian from our travels (somewhere I still haven't been!). This allowed us to add a day to Beijing and a day to Shanghai.

Beijing: We were sick for the first few days/week of our holiday, a bug that we caught while in Sydney, incubated during our few days in Melbourne, then aggravated during the flight, with full effects for the first few days of our holiday. This severely impacted our ability to sightsee, and we ended up only going to the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the night markets, and the Xiamen and Wangfujing commercial areas.

Shanghai: I'm a Shanghai girl through and through, based on my previous stays in the city as a student. We walked the Bund and took in the views from the Huangpu river on a night cruise. We visited Yuyuan, the Old Town, the French Concession, and explored my old stomping grounds in the Hongkou district. We watched a movie at XinTianDi (Titanic 3D, yeah!) and went to Nanjing Lu.

Hometown: We had two days here, and aside from the eating, the main highlights was the deserted amusement park we went to, and the fact that I got my hair chemically straightened. Otherwise, it's really not all that exciting, though the industrial designer in Kieran was excited by our visit to the cigarette lighter factory that my aunt works in. He likes factories. What a boy.

Nanjing: We had one and a half days here, and managed to take in the sights of Hunan Lu, visited Xuan Wu park (and took an electric boat out on its many lakes), and went to the Confucius temple region and visited the Taiping Rebellion museum as well.

Singapore: We had a twelve hour stopover in Singapore on the way back from Beijing, and fortunately, it was at a reasonable time (9am - 9pm, as opposed to 9pm - 9am!). We took a shower at Changi airport (heavenly), then joined the free two-hour Colonial Tour that Changi airport offers. After the tour, we made our own way into the city to Orchard Rd where we wandered the massive malls for a while and had a very Malaysian/Singaporean meal (chicken rice, mmm), but then retreated to the cool air-conditioned space of a cinema and watched The Avengers.

Food

With few exceptions, we ate primarily in hole-in-the-wall mum-and-dad restaurants - lots of noodle soups, bowls of dumplings, etc. As a student in China a few years ago, that was always my go-to option as I could quite easily get a hearty home-cooked meal for around $1AUD. The only difference this time around is that with the rate of inflation and rising cost of living in China, my hearty home-cooked meal is now costing me around $1.50AUD.

We never once had a bad meal. The smaller street-side eateries never failed us the way they do so many other visitors from first-world countries - we never had upset stomachs, or anything that disagreed with us. When we went to larger restaurants (a famous Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing for example), that never failed us either, though it did reaffirm our preference for more authentic local eateries. We ate some strange food when we visited my family for two days - local specialities that included raw salted miniature crabs, tiny lobsters with purple meat, fruit that looked like mutated loganberries, tiny pipies, home made rice wine, and more. We saw stranger food at night markets that we weren't game enough to try (skewered deep fried scorpions, silkworms, barbecued sheep penises, and more).

Probably most impressively, we only caved once and had a single 'western-style' meal while we were away (an Italian meal) - and that one time was in the Shanghai French Concession which almost specialises in non-Chinese cuisine. It's very easy for travellers to China to get sick of Chinese food, three times a day, and to retreat to the ever-ubiquitous McDonald's or KFC for a comfort meal. We never did that, though we did get dessert twice from MacDonald's in the form of soft serves with strange flavours - taro soft serve and melon soft serve!

Shopping

Shopping is never really a main concern of mine when I go to China. Fact is, my feet are too big to buy their shoes (women's shoes generally only reach about a 39, whereas I need more of a 41) and my body is too large for their clothes (I'm never going to have a 26 inch waist, and don't even get me started on the size of my chest compared to the average Chinese woman). Anything else that I could purchase (handbags, accessories, etc.) generally don't appeal to me because of the overall general national female preference for glitz, sparkles, sequins and diamantes that don't fit my personal aesthetic for simple and classic.

Tourist souvenirs don't appeal to me as I grew up in a Chinese household with all the teapots, scrolls, and inkstones that one could wish for. Gadget purchases don't appeal either because of the fact that warranties purchased in China aren't valid in Australia. Most mid-to-high-end cosmetics and toiletries are generally on par for pricing, which doesn't offer an incentive to purchase in China and send back to Australia. In the end, the only purchases I made were for mid-range toiletry products - I bought some Biore pore packs and cleanser, and some Garnier products designed for acne prone skin. I only spent about $50AUD all up, but got around $90AUD value. Not a huge saving (I probably could have gotten similar savings had I waited for a supermarket sale), but enough to warrant the spending.

People

I don't know if I like the average Chinese person. There, I said it. I don't like the hacking, coughing, and spitting of phlegm on the footpath (yes this still happens despite the government's attempts to reeducate about hygiene). I don't like the fact that most people feel the need to talk at 100 decibels, no matter where they are. I don't like the fact that pushing and shoving in a crowd is de rigeur. I don't like the fact that people don't know how to line up in queues and will shove their way left right and centre. I don't like the culture of smoking (by kids as young as seven!) that means you smell like an ashtray because of second-hand smoke after a matter of hours. I don't like the blatant gawking I get from Chinese men because of the size of my chest and the very audible remarks they make to their companions when I walk past.

Having said that, I love China. I love the great pride that everyone holds in being Chinese and in both embracing and celebrating the millenia of culture and history, while working hard to create a brighter and more prosperous future. I love the 热闹 (hot and noisy) atmosphere of anywhere you go, and the hustle and bustle of a country of 1.3 billion people. I love the entrepreneurial nature of the Chinese people and the way they spot a business opportunity anywhere. I love the fact that when we were at the Forbidden City and having some issues with tickets, a Chinese couple came up to us and tried to give us some advice.

The difficult thing is, I love the liveliness of a country with 1.3 billion people, but dislike some of the natural behaviours that fall out of that - e.g. the pushiness in a crowd and inability to line up. Take the good with the bad?

Family

We spent two days with my mother's family in a place that I used to call "Bumfuck Nowhere" in old LiveJournal entries. It's about halfway between Shanghai and Ningbo in the mid south east of China on the coast. This is the type of place it used to be. These days, it's a bustling semi-urban area with an influx of migrant workers that's becoming industrialised and even has a KFC within a ten minute drive. My grandparents have moved from farmers to becoming landlords - building one room rentals on what used to be their farming land, and renting them out for a princely total of $2300RMB a month. It's not the rural China of my mother's childhood.

The visit was characterised by my being shown off to everyone in the village (I'm related in some way to pretty much all of the original locals, whether by blood or marriage), and consistently receiving the comments that I'm tall and pretty, but I would be a lot prettier if I lost some weight because I'm fatter than the last time I visited. Again. And again. And again. And just in case I didn't get it the first time - I'm tall and pretty, but need to lose some weight, x100000. And if this isn't a contradiction in itself - even though every second sentence was about my weight, every third sentence was then encouraging me to eat and drink more, because food is the only way my family know how to show their love.

Oh, and they approved of Kieran, even though they couldn't communicate at all. He showed himself willing to try a bit of every dish they served him, and that was enough to satisfy them! My grandma tried to give me $6000RMB when we left as a "wedding gift" because we might not get a chance to return for a visit before we get married. She was very disappointed when I refused the money and explained to her that we do things differently overseas - that we don't date one person and get married within a year like many Chinese couples, and that chances are, she can give me the wedding money in three years when marriage actually becomes a reality after we've trialled living together and a whole range of other life experiences together.

Overall

I had a great holiday, being sick not withstanding. Two weeks gave me: affirmation of the strength of this relationship, a few extra kilos due to delicious food, criticism about the few extra kilos (plus a few more), confirmation of the appeal of my regular features, confidence in my language skills, and most importantly, just a good break from work. I did come back to 3000 emails in my work inbox, and three resignation emails from colleagues which brought me back to down to Earth pretty quickly...it's really about time to start planning for another holiday I think. South America? I got an email promotion about some cheap flights in early December which are looking mighty tempting...

I know I've just come back from China and all, but this still baffles me. I'm pretty sure this website doesn't belong to Beijing Yongweichang Stationery Commodity Market Co., Ltd.?

More on the trip later...if I don't forget to update this blog, like I have been doing for the past few months.

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