Chitchat: Everything Far Eastern~

*clears the cobwebs off of her blog and sidles in awkwardly*

...ohai guyz. 

Aaaaaghhh. I'm sorry for falling off the blogging bandwagon again. It's just that.. life and uni have been taking up almost all of my time these past few weeks, and any spare time I have I've started to spend it with my friends, and venturing outside and trying out new things instead of being a hermit and just spending my free time on the laptop.

I even tried Japanese food the other day! I went to Leeds Trinity with a friend (to meet up with yet another friend xD) and we ended up eating at Wagamama's. Even though I'm not a fan of the way they make the rice, I really liked it over all. I'm going to try a soup next time~

I'm going to hunt down a Japanese restaurant in my own city now (^__^) I really want to try Chinese food too!

Errrrmmm...what else is there.. hmm. Oh, I've started learning two new languages! :D Korean and Mandarin to be precise. I've only just gotten into learning Mandarin relatively recently if I'm honest, I made a couple of Chinese friends and one of my close friends has actually gone to China for a couple of weeks too! So when she gets back she'll be teaching me what she has learnt aswell! ^^

But I have to say.. I love the Korean language just that teensy bit more. My love for their music, culture, and now the Korean friends I've made, has spurred me on to learning it properly - I've even bought a dictionary >.< haha

I like to sit around in university reading through it in public when I have free time. I've made so many friends that way, people I would never have been able to speak to and fangirl about things with if it weren't for the language barrier - I didn't realize there were so many benefits to learning a new language until I actually started learning one! :-)

I think instead of buying a new lipstick I might pick up a copy of the Mandarin version of this dictionary instead :P They actually are the same price, I got my dictionary for about £7/8 at Waterstones I think! I wholeheartedly recommend you pick one up in any language you're vaguely interested in (^__^) You won't regret it hehe~

*grins* Wellllllll that's all I can think of that has been taking up my time at the moment (apart from my studies).. I might do another chitchat post like this sometime soon, I really like talking about things other than beauty/skincare/fashion! 

Okay well then.. *clears throat awkwardly* bye. :D

(*..walks off, rubbing her forehead*)

Ethnicity Tag

I was looking around for some tags to do, and this one caught my eye! It's six questions about your ethnicity, and when I read the questions, a couple of times I had to look up the origins of stuff - didn't realise I was so rusty on my culture :O 
Anyhoo, lets get started shall we? :D

1. What is your ethnicity?

I am a British born Pakistani :o) I tend to get mistaken for other ethnicities a lot though, which is always funny because it's usually foreign students who come upto me and speak to me in their own language and I never know what to say! O.o poor kids, I feel bad that I can't help you! lol

[source]

2. When was the last time you visited your country?

Oof. Seven, eight years ago? It was for one of my aunty's wedding. Haven't been since. I think I've been about five or six times in my whole life haha. I'd show you a picture of me at the wedding but I hadn't donned my hijaab yet so.. :P

3. Name one ethnic food you enjoy the most?

Samosa chaat! A meat (and/or veggie) filled pastry, that is fried till golden brown, with chick peas in a spicy mix of yoghurt, onions, chillis, and boiled potatoes various other ingredients. NOM!

[source]

Wait.. I just realised that that dish originated in India.. Hmm. Okay well how about this: Pakistani style chickpea pilau. *tries not to drool* I very rarely have this because in my house, everyone favours having chicken or meat in the pilau rather than chickpeas. Hmph. (And yes.. I'm sure you've realised by now.. I love my chick peas! :D)

(Side note: ...why can I never find food pics that look appetising enough? Sigh. Just trust me, they look good when my mum makes them lol)

4. Name one household item that best represents your culture.

Just one? That's kind of hard. Can I have a collective one? If so it'd probably be our ground spices drawer. It's all about the spices bby~
If not, then I'd say a thawa! I have no idea what it's called in English, but we make chapattis on it. :D

[source]

5. What part of your country are you from?

I'd rather not answer this.. tis a bit too private for my liking!

6. Can you speak the language of your ethnicity?
Jee haan! Bilkul bhol sakti hoon. Lekin Pakistan ki bas aik hi zubaan - Urdu - nahi hai, meray pyaaray readers;  humaaray deis main khoob zubaanai hai! Urdu aur English Pakistan ki official zubaanai hain, lekin Punjabi, Potwari, Pushto, Balochi aur Sindhi bhi hamaarai behn bhaiyyo bolte hain! Aur bhi hongi, lekin mukhe maloom nahi hai.. heh.

[translation]

Yes! Ofcourse, I can definitely speak it. But Pakistan does not have just one language - Urdu - my lovely readers; our country has many languages! Urdu and English are Pakistans official languages, but Punjabi, Potwari, Pushto, Balochi, and Sindhi is also spoken by our fellow brothers and sisters! I'm pretty sure there are more, but I don't know them.. heh.

Well there you go my dears! Hope you enjoyed todays post (^__^) I tag everyone who reads this to do it, it's always fun learning about your background and culture, and it's always fun learning about others' too!

Graze Box Review

I came across a brilliant subscription box a few weeks ago - and no it's not a beauty box, it's something far better IMHO, mainly because it's got food in it!

Graze delivers healthy, tasty snacks by post to either your home, or workplace. 

First you choose what type of box you would like - a NibbleBox or a NutritionBox; the former includes a great variety of snacks, whilst the latter is specially designed by the nutrition team including only the healthiest of snacks they offer.

Next, you choose how often you would like it and when. Mine is a fortnightly delivery on Mondays. :-)

Then you go through their huge product range and you rate them with either Love, Like, Try, or Bin. 

You can even collectively bin loads of products that contain a certain ingredient - this is particularly useful for people with allergies! The snacks you then receive are hand picked to suit your tastes using the ratings you gave them. Once you've done all that, you just sit and wait until your box is delivered! 

Easy peasy!

I've already had a couple of boxes before but haven't reviewed them because a) I wanted to try out a few before I wrote up a review, and b) well.. by the time I had time to take any photos, someone or another had opened them up and gobbled up the best ones..

Anywho.. down to business!

Sticky Chocolate Pudding

 Ingredients: Belgian Milk chocolate pieces, with green and jumbo raisins.

This tasted like a Cadbury's Fruit and Nut chocolate, but BETTER! I loved this!

It's also counted as a portion of fruit too - how awesome is that?

 Fruity Ploughmans

Ingredients: Poppy seed flatbread, with apple and pear chutney.

*wrinkles nose* I did not like this. At all. The flatbread was okay (got sick of it after a couple of sticks though), but I really disliked the chutney. The smell made my head spin..

Americas Nut Mix

Ingredients: Almonds, brazil nuts, and pecan nuts.

Likes the almonds and the brazil nuts, but I LOVED the pecan nuts! It's up there with cashew nuts for me - and this is the first time me having them, which is saying something, because I adore cashew nuts.

Fruit and seed flapjack

Ingredients: rolled oats, margarine [vegetable oil, water, salt], demerara sugar, apricots, dates, currants, sultanas, raisins, sunflower seeds, golden syrup, pumpkin seeds (contains gluten)

OH. MY. GOODNESS. This has got to be the tastiest flapjack I have ever had in my entire life. Not too sweet, had a good texture, smelled amazing, and was healthier than most flapjacks to boot.

Other awesome things about Grazebox:

 - The packaging is all either recyclable and/or biodegradable, and are from sustainable sources.

- They give you a handy little tissue - which is also 100% recycled!

- All the important nutritional information for your punnet boxes are included in a little leaflet, along with it's ingredients

- The box is designed so it is smaller than A4 and can fit through your letter box, so you don't have to wait around to receive and sign for it - genius!

- The price: £3.79! Well worth it!

If you want to try a free box, go ahead to Graze.com and enter this code to get one: VWH5NLBD.

No obligation whatsoever, you can cancel any time. Not that you will, once you get addicted to it, haha!

I came across it via Muslimah In Reverie's review - so thankyou sis for introducing me to this wonderful box!

Let me know what you think if you do try it out! ☺

Disclaimer: All products were bought with my own money unless stated otherwise. All opinions are my own.