HK Drama-陪著你走

I haven’t done a post like this in ages, so I will start by writing about the drama I have been watching for the past week.

TVB have released a new drama called 陪著你走 (Every Step You Take) and the first episode was aired on Monday 31st August 2015 at 8:30pm HK time. It’s plot revolves around the female lead 宋天從 (Played by Myolie Wu 胡杏兒), who was involved in a vehicle accident and became blind. Together with her boyfriend and guide dog, she recreates her life and starts adjusting to the world without sight. Obviously, TV drama shows are never that simple, where her boyfriend actually has another woman behind her back, and she secretly guesses that something is up. On the other hand, the male lead, 甘言重 (Played by Moses Chan 陳豪) is a creative director, who has created the infamous advert for a jewellery brand with the motto 愛是無所不能. However, due to his busy lifestyle, his friendship circle almost ceases to exist, and none of his colleagues want to spend time with him outside of work.

This all changes when he decides to take his holidays and have a long break. During his break, he meets Wu’s character due to both wanting to watch the famous Korean drama on their tablets. They start to become friends but have to part ways when the guide dog that 宋天從 owns starts getting close to 甘言重, who has a fear of dogs. As the episodes are yet to air, I believe that both characters will begin to understand each other more, especially when 宋天從 realises that the advert that has been getting her through life is created by the man she has learnt to like and love.

I think this drama is really good, where Wu’s acting is incredible. She is really convincing, where her acting makes the audience thinks that she is actually blind and cannot see. The drama may seem soppy at first, but it has funny elements combined into it. The cast surrounding both the main leads have their own emotional stories, as well as integrating the comedy aspects of the drama with the main leads.

It is upsetting that Myolie Wu will not be renewing her contract with TVB, meaning this could potentially be her last drama at TVB (and others that may have been recorded but not released yet). Her acting has really improved in the years and she has won awards for being the best actress. I think this is a decent drama for her to be involved in, where it shows her acting skills on a different level. She also sings the theme song for the drama called “天使”, and I find the melody of the song really sweet. Her voice is very soft and suits the song very well, which makes the drama even more emotional than it was before.

The link to listen to the song is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GtfEsxu_e0

I think the whole plot of the drama is unique, and expresses the difficult situations that could arise in society well. There is always love in this world, and no matter what happens to you, there is always a guardian angel by your side.

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Manchester United are looking doubtful…

The transfer window for United has been very interesting. A lot of money have been spent on players to strengthen the team, where Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin are proving to be some of the best buys. The midfield does look stronger, but with news that David De Gea is leaving, United were bound to be hit and suffer. The purchase of Romero to replace DDG has been a valiant effort, but I feel Van Gaal isn’t giving De Gea a chance to show off his skills. There was always speculation that DDG would want to move to Real Madrid, but you never know how the individual feel about it themselves. But it’s obvious- if you’re dropped from the line up several times, you are almost definitely likely to want to leave the squad.

So when the news broke out that Real bought De Gea for £29 million, most of the fans weren’t surprised. However things took a turn when Real didn’t hand the paperwork in on time, and missed the transfer deadline. This means that De Gea cannot move to Real, and has to wait until his contract expires or when the next transfer window comes alone. This seems like a joke, but it actually happened. So what does De Gea do now? I’m pretty certain that Van Gaal will still leave him on the bench, which will be torture to a footballer. In my opinion, I still don’t think we should let De Gea go. He is one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League and if he leaves, United will suffer majorly. De Gea is still young and has a lot of time to improve, so why not give him the opportunity here?

Another news that has hit the headlines is that Manchester United bought Martial for £36 million. Question is: is a 19 year old worth that much? Why has this signing taken place? I’m confused as to what Van Gaal is trying to do here, because quite a lot of people haven’t heard of this youngster, so is he really worth the price?

What really annoyed me was the selling of the players. With Januzaj on loan to Borussia Dortmund for a year and Chicharito on a permanent move to Bayer Leverkusen for £12 million, I don’t really know what Van Gaal wants to achieve. They were decent forwards and played greatly, but they were never give enough opportunities to show their skills. Earlier on in the year, big players such as Robin van Persie were sold, and we needed these players to stay with us to make a better team than before. This is not happening now, and I had hopes that United were going to win the title. Now it looks unlikely they will even be in the top three.

Many are saying “LVG out”, and to be honest, I agree. He has revolutionised Manchester United, and yes, he may have bought good players, but it is completely out of the context of what Sir Alex Ferguson was doing. I know that each manager would have different managing skills and techniques, but I just do not understand LVG. I will continue to support United, but it looks like they might struggle this season.

An illness doesn’t bring you down easily…

A long term illness/condition can be devastating to individuals, where they may suffer a particular illness for the rest of their lives. It can come in many forms, where it could be life threatening, or not harmful but still affect your daily activities.

Earlier this year I started to experience joint pains in my fingers and my wrists started to swell. In the mornings my joints were so painful I couldn’t move them, and I thought it was probably a small thing where I accidentally strained my hands or hurt them. However, it started to get worst, and by early February I couldn’t even open a water bottle properly.

I went to the doctors and went for quite a few blood tests, before being referred to the rheumatology department in the hospital. I asked my parents what that department was and they explained that it was the department for treating arthritis. I was thinking, how could it be possible that an 18 year old girl can have arthritis, especially when both of my parents do not have it. It was a hard time for me, especially with my A2 exams upcoming in May, I had to make sure I was able to write essays in two hours.

I often experienced breakdowns in school, crying in front of my friends and teachers, (it was pretty bad), but after a while the fact had sunk in and I knew that the arthritis was going to be a part of my life forever. I kept on going to the hospital where they gave a steroid injection and tablets to make sure I was able to do my exams, and afterwards I was put on methotrexate which is going to be a long term medication. I have to take it for at least two years before being checked to see if the dosage needs to go up or not.

It’s also been a difficult time because my eczema has started again due to my arthritis. My face and arms suffer the most, where I get red patches from where my skin has been itchy and sensitive. This has made my self confidence go completely, where I don’t go out in the public as often, and if I do, I feel like people are looking at me because of it. Having eczema isn’t nice, and when it happens on your face, it can really demotivate you.

So, why am I writing this? To get people to to sympathise with me? To let everyone know about my life? No. I really don’t like talking about myself, but a long term illness is a serious matter. Like me, I know many others are suffering from illnesses and problems, but you are not alone. You have everyone supporting you; your friends, family, colleagues, loved ones and more. Don’t think that this is the end, because it isn’t. You have people walking this path with you, and I know we can all get through this together. University life is going to be difficult for me, but hopefully my new hall mates and course friends will help me out.

A long term illness can be damaging, where your confidence and motivation can almost cease to exist. But please don’t give up. ANYTHING is possible. I have been on medication for nearly two months and I don’t feel that much different, but I am going to continue to take it and believe that it can lead to an improvement. I am trying to not let the arthritis take over my life, where I have still been participating in sports such as badminton. Not only does this allow me to do exercise for my joints, but it makes me feel so much better; it can vent out all of your stress.

For everyone out there who is in the same situation as me, a different situation that is worst or better, you are not alone. Please don’t put yourself down, because it is the worst thing to do. For a lot of this year I’ve been thinking about how rubbish I am, because I can’t even do simple tasks such as opening cans. It’s a horrible feeling, but slowly I’ve learnt my ways around it. I always thought that those around me would find me annoying, always asking them to do things for me, but they are gladly able to help. I’ve not let my arthritis affect my life, where I am working in the catering industry and often have to lift heavy products and make products. I have been coping alright, and I hope that it will stay that way and not get worst.

I hope everyone out there can know that there is always someone there to support them, no matter what happens. Please don’t have any negative thoughts, because to not let the long term condition affect you as much, you need to be positive and fight it. If you are feeling down, speak to someone. Don’t keep it to yourself because it is the worst feeling ever. We’re in this together, and we can fight this together.

It’s been a year already…

Well, I’m pretty sure I haven’t updated this blog in ages, and I have been thinking lately that I should start coming on here more often. Writing can be difficult to keep up with, especially when you have things to do in your daily life, but seeing people read your posts and commenting on them is a pretty good feeling. So I have decided to write more often, especially with reviews and maybe some random posts about me (bet you love that).

So what has happened in the past year or so? Well, after the drama that happened in sixth form, I managed to finish the school year in a pleasant way, and actually ended up with some pretty decent A level results which got me into the University of Southampton. So this year has definitely been stressful, which is another main reason why I haven’t been on as much.

It’s probably not the best time to start writing blogs again because university life is going to be manic, but I’ve always loved the idea of doing journalism and allowing others to read what I write (even though I am not doing that at university). I still hope to pursue a career in the media industry in the future, but we’ll see what happens.

I have also had some downsides this year, where I have been diagnosed with arthritis. At the age of 18, I didn’t really expect that sort of thing to happen, but I guess that’s life. I’ll probably expand on that later, but it’s been a difficult stage in my life and I am happy I have my friends and family supporting me.

So I hope the readers on here can continue reading my blog and attract a wider audience as well, because nothing would make me happier than that.

This is why I want to leave right now…

First of all, sorry for the break in posting blog posts, I’ve been really busy with school starting again and the work.

I just wanted to write this post tonight because I’m so angered and upset, mainly at myself (and some people I guess).

Why is it that I can never do one thing on my own “perfectly”? Is it even possible for people to be perfect to do things? Everything I say or do gets judged and I’m so fed up with it. Why do people get their own way when they act immature and childish, and those who act mature and tries to deal with issues are the ones that get treated like crap. It took less than a day for me to get comments like “you should let this person do that because they’re popular and their tweets are liked more”. Apparently this girl now “hates me” due to this one little issue (it’s literally for a twitter account) and told people that she should be in charge rather than me because “she’s more popular and gets more favourites”. I’m in no denial that she’s more popular, but why would you get everyone to say that to me, that’s what I don’t get.

I’m not a person who’s confident at doing things, and I’m really conscious of how people look at me. Getting a whole group of people saying that to me is literally like multiple stabs in my body. I understand that you may have health issues, school stress etc, but everyone has their own problems too. How do you know that I would be fine when people say all of those things to me. How do you know if I have depression or not? You don’t. I’ve literally had the worst day and cried so many times tonight because I feel I’m not worthy of being in this society anymore. If it’s all about popularity then I may as well just go and die, and not exist in this world.

I’ve decided to quit the committee and give up being in charge of the account, because if I spend one more minute with her I really don’t know what I would do to myself. She’s got everyone’s support so they would just be happy that I’m not doing it.

This society seriously has issues- maybe a “nerd” shouldn’t be in charge of something that requires popularity after all. Maybe I should just read books and do work instead rather than trying to contribute to something meaningful.

I can’t wait until I leave sixth form, so I don’t have to see those faces ever again. Every time I read the comments that people have written my tears just start to roll down my face. Everything’s my fault and it seems that way according to people. I just hope that the girl is actually happy now that she’s getting her so called popular account that she can control. For me, I’ll look out for her “funny tweets”, and maybe she will get more awareness, but it’ll be no use if she doesn’t know the dates and details of events.

I had to rant on here because it’s 11:30pm and I still feel like crap. I’ve spoken to two of my closest friends and they are both supportive of me, but I just feel like I shouldn’t even exist if I can’t even do something right.

If you have any problems, it’s probably my fault, you can just blame it on me like everyone else. I think my rant is over for now, and I know this blog post probably didn’t make much sense, but basically, I just wish schools didn’t see the whole popularity status issue so seriously, cause people like me who aren’t popular shouldn’t be doing anything basically.

British gymnasts impress home crowd in Commonwealth Games

British gymnasts competing in the artistic gymnastics have impressed the home nation in the Commonwealth Games, where both British men and women’s team won gold in the team finals.

The British men’s gymnastic team consisted of Kristian Thomas, Max Whitlock, Louis Smith, Sam Oldham and Nile Wilson, whilst the women’s team consisted of Rebecca Downie, Hannah Whelan, Ruby Harrold, Claudia Fragapane and Kelly Simm.

The women’s team won gold with a score of 167.555, followed by Australia and Wales, in second and third place respectively. Claudia Fragapane was the star out of the team, where she also won the all around individual final, with a score of 56.132. It was a clean sweep for England in the all around individual, where Ruby Harrold and Hannah Whelan won silver and bronze medal. Fragapane added to her medal collection by winning the gold medal in the vault final today, where her outstanding performance scored 14.633. Rebecca Downie won the uneven bars final with a score of 14.666, and Ruby Harrold took bronze with 14.366.

The men’s team performed superbly in the team final, with a total score of 266.804. Max Whitlock was the one to watch, where he was also qualifying for the men’s individual final alongside. His final score of 90.365 allowed him to sail through to the next round in first place. Sam Oldham was also competing for a place in the individual final, but due to an injury caused on the vault, he had to pull out of the competition. Nile Wilson, who won gold in the Junior European Championships, also qualified for the individual final with a score of 86.607, just four points under Whitlock. During the team finals, individual gymnasts also competed to qualify for the apparatus finals, and Louis Smith qualified comfortably with a score of 15.700, just 0.33 points short of first place qualifier Max Whitlock.

The Scottish team set a new record, where they came second in the team finals. The men’s Scottish team consisted of Daniel Keatings, Frank Baines, Daniel Purvis, Adam Cox and Liam Davie. The team managed to score 257.603 points overall, five points ahead of third place Canada. Several Scottish gymnasts managed to qualify for the individual final, including Keatings, Baines and Purvis.

After winning a gold medal already, Max Whitlock and Nile Wilson were both looking to add another medal to their collection, and their performances were outstanding in the all around individual final. Daniel Keatings, Daniel Purvis and Frank Baines were looking to impress the home crowd even more if they could add to the medal tally for Scotland. Max Whitlock took the gold with a total score of 90.631, Keatings took silver with 88.298 and Nile Wilson settled for bronze with 87.965. Performances by these gymnasts were impressive, and a few scores were particularly close to the 16 mark, especially on the pommel horse, where Whitlock scored 15.866 and Keatings scored 15.533. Nile Wilson performed the best on parallel bars, with a score of 15.433. With scores like this, British gymnasts can go into the apparatus finals comfortably and confidently, knowing that they have won two medals already.

During the floor, pommel horse and rings final, Whitlock gave all he could in his performances and managed to scoop another two medals, winning the floor final and taking the silver in pommel horse. He performed well on the rings, but it wasn’t enough compared to the Canadians Scott Morgan and Kevin Lytwyn. Third place on the rings went to Daniel Purvis, with a score of 14.766. Daniel Keatings came close to a medal in the floor final, but his 0.1 deduction proved to be costly, where David Bishop of New Zealand took bronze with just 0.017 point difference. Keatings definitely stepped up his game in the pommel horse final, where his performance was perfect, and managed to score 16.058. His execution was clean and the difficulty of the routine proved to work out well, where he made no mistakes. Louis Smith took bronze with 14.966 after his performance had little flaws. Nile Wilson scored 14.466 on the rings, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to be in the top three rankings.

With the men’s vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar final to go, things are looking good for the British teams. Kristian Thomas will be competing in the vault final, along with Adam Cox and Frank Baines. Whitlock and Wilson are in action again in the parallel bars final alongside Baines and Purvis, and for the horizontal bar, we will see Thomas, Wilson, Keatings and Baines up against each other.

British gymnasts have had huge success over the last few years, and with Rio 2016 Olympics to come in two years time, they will have plenty of time to prepare for it. The Commonwealth Games and gymnastic championships can provide extra experience, but with their current form, gymnasts like Whitlock, Keatings and Wilson are looking to improve majorly. Their future is looking bright, and at a young age of 21, 24 and 18, They still have a lot to prove to the world. For now, let’s wish them luck in the finals in the Commonwealth Games, and hope they can add to their medal tally.

Song of the day- Gummy – Snow Flower 눈꽃

I’ve just finished watching k-drama That Winter, The Wind Blows, 그 겨울, 바람이 분다, and it was definitely one of the best melodramas I have seen. I’ll probably write a review of it later, but to sum it up, Oh Soo (Jo In Sung) pretends to be the elder brother of Oh Young (Song Hye Kyo) to get money from her to repay his debt. Young is blind, so she cannot she who Oh Soo is, and treats him as her elder brother as they warm up to each other. However, her feelings are not what they should be towards an elder brother, but more like a lover. Oh Soo finds himself falling for Oh Young, and both go through a lot of events in order to be with each other.

As usual, I listen to the k-drama OST because they are played in the drama, so it’s nice to know who sings the song and how they can make a scene so emotional. One of the most emotional songs I have heard in this OST would be Snow Flower by Gummy, where her soft vocals are so delicate, and can definitely make people have tears in their eyes. With many upsetting and joyful scenes in the drama, this song would be played in the background, and it definitely improves the scene 100% because it makes the audience more aware of what’s happening. I remember this song being played in one of the last scenes of the drama, where Oh Soo finally meets Oh Young and they share a kiss as Young can finally see. This scene was so emotional because it was a happy ending and they are so perfect for each other.

If you need a soft song to listen to, I would suggest this because it has to upsetting/happy side to it, and Gummy’s voice is so excpetional. Do check out the other songs in the OST, because they are all really good, but this one just stands out for me. I’ve heard her other songs aswell, such as Day and Night in Master’s Sun, and she is an amazing singer.  So give this a listen, and see what you think of it. Does it make you want to cry, smile, or experience any other emotions?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEElyCYmU2Q