Hauls from LOVE Sample Sale

Posted this on my instagram last week but I thought I would do a post on them! I was lucky to have caught both their sample sales in May despite having exams and all. Their sample sales usually last 2 days and their showroom is on Great Portland Street which is relatively close to school and all, so it was quite convenient for me to get there. Everything costs either £5 or £10, which is a super good deal because most of their stuff retails at £30+ on their site or Topshop. Sample pieces which are one-off and some of the newer pieces are usually priced at £10, but the rest including their past season or even some current pieces if you're lucky go at £5!

The first one was the morning right before and the actual day of my French lit paper (last paper), so I went on both days. Bought the lime skorts, the keyhole double layer chiffon dress in lemon and a tartan skirt on the first day. The lime skorts came from a separate rack and had no size tagged on them so I suppose it was a sample. All the sample pieces don't have size tags, but I asked and the size is a S/UK10. It fitted alright except the waist was too big, but it was really unique and I've always liked neon / yellow so I decided to get it.

LOVE White Tartan Pleated Skirt

I thought the tartan skirt was a good basic 'cause it always comes back in trend in winter. I have quite a few tartan skirts already so that's one more to add to the collection!

I still remember how C and I rushed over on the second day, because our papers ended at 4 and it was at the same location so we decided to rush and see if we could still make it. We reached past 5 and turned out that they were still running the sale and seemed to have no intention of closing at 5 as stated so lucky us! I spotted this other shopper holding a gorgeous rainbow dress so I went to check the rack and thank goodness there was one last piece! It was a size XS and I was initially afraid that it would be too small, but it fitted perfectly. There's a cross back design and it comes with a back zip. Didn't buy anything else except this slit sleeve top, which I initially wanted to pair with my Zara pleated shorts but I returned it in the end so I haven't thought of how else to match it yet. The only thing I didn't like so much about the top was that it's really sheer and the chiffon seems to tear quite easily, but it was the last piece so I decided to just get it (and then they restocked it in the next sample sale and I regretted buying ugh).

The said rainbow dress: LOVE Pastel Print Cross Back Dress

LOVE Ivory Flute Sleeve Tie Back Top

Total no. of items bought: 5

Total damage: £30 (= £6!!! per piece on average)

The second sample sale happened apparently because it was back by popular demand, but oh well all the better for us! It was during the first week of my summer school, and I went on both days (again). The first day (Thursday) I went during lunch break with Steph. Bought 2 chiffon dresses and this pale blue dress which I'd seen the last time but the price went down so I got it. It's also a sample piece and features a wrap front in this super pretty shade of powder blue. It also has adjustable straps which was good because it was too big on me, but I figured I could probably get it altered. The other 2 pieces were the keyhole double layer chiffon dress again but in navy, as well as a drape open back dress in oxblood. The navy dress was a M/L but I have it in lemon already and the cutting is really nice so I bought it anyway. I don't think the two sizes differ very much and anyway it's supposed to be a loose fitting swing dress! The drape back dress came terribly big but there's many layers so it's not sheer at all. The quality feels pretty good too.

LOVE Navy Key Hole Double Layer Shift Dress

LOVE Ox Blood Drape Back Dress

On the second day (Friday) I went back again by myself after summer school. Was pleased to see that they restocked the drape back dress in other colours and they had more of the S/M ones (it only came in S/M and M/L). Ended up buying it in 3 more colours haha. Really wanted to get it in cerise but there was only M/L left and it was way too big :( But I bought like every colour available except this dusty raspberry pink cause I've worn stuff in that colour before and it looks terrible on me. Initially I only intended on buying the black and the blush because the mint looked a bit funny on me, but the store owner convinced me that it was definitely in at the moment and that I should got it so I did ... Hahaha. Also chatted a bit and he said there were other Singaporeans who came in the morning (LOL I know who) and that he wasn't actually the owner but an old friend of the boss. Satisfied with my purchases and went home to discover that all 3 colours are still on the website selling for £32. Score!

LOVE Black Drape Back Dress

LOVE Blush Drape Back Sleeveless Dress

LOVE Mint Sleeveless Drape Back Dress

So in all I bought 11 items from their 2 sample sales. Only brought back 10 as I left the tartan skirt in London, but the chiffon was really heavy and I think the whole bag weighed about 5kg (it was my heaviest bag of clothes haha). Really pleased with my purchases and can't wait to wear them soon!

First 2 weeks in Singapore

Been a really hectic 2 weeks since I came back 15 days ago! Went out almost everyday + met up with people + shopping and selling my stuff + randomly meeting people in town LOL. I swear Singapore is so small haha I literally meet at least one person by coincidence every single time I go out. Like today when I rushed to Vivo thinking I'd just spend 5 min to check if they had my dress there I met Sherman with his friend LOL. Got caught in the act shopping when I wasn't even supposed to be out today D;

Anyway a short summary of the past 2 weeks by day/date because I'm meticulous like that (more for my own reference so that I can keep records of my spendings and whatever) :

1/14: Stayed at home

2/15: Met up with Pan at JEM / checked out Westgate / met Chuanling there LOL

3/16: Met up with the bro PJ for lunch / IKEA meatballs / library (need to remember to return my books, or actually start reading them)

4/17: Met up with Sun!! Orchard Gateway / shopping along Orchard

5/18: Met up with Ellis at Vivo / bought Topshop jellies woohoo / saw Rachel there hahaha

6/19: Stayed at home to unpack and attempted sorting out my clothes (unsuccessfully)

7/20: Home day again I think! Went out with fam in the evening to buy my portable chargers etc and binged on KFC for dinner / first time eating KFC in about a year or so HAHA I really hated the oil it was literally dripping ugh ...

8/21: OC meeting in morning / met Pan again at Orchard hehe went to get the tote bag from Topshop!

9/22: Home!! Dk what I did but I probably slept the morning away so that's half the day gone

10/23: Interview in the morning / met up with Carissa in town hehe / shopped Cotton On and after she left met Chuanling again LOL we planned neither time HAHA

11/24: Lunch with JT at NUS / walked around the medical centre / went town

12/25: Cycling in the morning along the canal / lunch with Elissa at Bugis / Bugis street didn't buy anything / shameless ootd-taking HAHAHA I only had 4 though :P

13/26: Cycling again / napped in the afternoon cause I was SO TIRED from the cycling / dinner with Jiamin and Annabelle at Ippudo / Sephora + walked around until everywhere was closed

14/27: Cycling at ECP with the IHall gang (3rd consecutive day of cycling LOL my poor legs) / Kallang Wave Mall for F21's new store opening and we all bought stuff (hehe they gave earphones!!) / Jap food late lunch at 313 with FREE FLOW RICE (my favz) and Jun Sean treated us all to Koi yay / more F21 shopping after they left / hunted EVERYWHERE for that dress which I regretted not buying earlier seriously so annoyed why do I hesitate. Found it in the end at 313 but only in size L but still bought it in the end since I figured I could get it altered ... omg I bought 6 items in all LOLLOL

15/28: Slept in until lunch cause I was so tired HAHA / Vivo to check if they had the dress but no luck / went back to Ion and literally bought the LAST size S for my pink rose crop / also realised it was the exact piece I tried on ytd haha but OMG SO LUCKY it was still there cause they didn't have it at the other store / pink sunset nice sky colour woohoo

- - -

AFTER 2 HOURS I HAVE FINALLY SORTED OUT MY ACCOUNTS FOR THE PAST 2 WEEKS. I think London has made me somewhat OCD about my finances. BUT ALL IS GOOD NOW. 

UCL Global Citizenship Summer School and Bulgarian

Now that I've been back for a while it's time to sort out my posts! Busied myself with UCL's Global Citizenship Summer School in my last 2 weeks in London which included some very basic Bulgarian lessons. I have to admit that it was the language component which attracted me to sign up for it in the first place because I have some sort of obsession with European languages in general.

We started off last Monday with an introduction session and an un-conference (not UN conference) where we had to discuss aspects - basically characteristics and skills that a global citizen ought to have. I was in the same group as some people whom I already knew but anyway most of them were linguists, so we were very meticulous with the words used - for instance "tolerate" had a negative connotation so it was almost the very first word to be taken out. All the groups submitted their word lists afterwards and they made a really cool word cloud with it!

What my group came up with!

We also got a really cool map :D

After that we went for our first language sessions! I didn't specify any preferred language as I thought all of them sounded really cool and exotic - they offered German, Slovakian, Hungarian, Serbian, Romanian and Bulgarian - and I was allocated to Bulgarian, which was a good thing because I think I would've been exasperated at not knowing how to speak a single word in Romania the week before had I been allocated to Romanian. Also I've not been to Bulgaria yet, so there's a higher possibility of me visiting there in the near future as opposed to Hungary and Romania! So yes, I was happy with what I'd been given :D And everyone from my Bulgarian class were really nice and friendly! Even the tutors hehe. In our first lesson we learnt the Bulgarian alphabet which was the Cyrillic alphabet. I was glad that I finally got pushed to learn it properly because I'd been meaning to learn Russian since years ago but was always put off by the alphabet. It's quite difficult to remember because there are more letters than the latin alphabet, but generally easier to pronounce as it's a phonetic alphabet. We also did some simple greetings and phrases, and that was about it for the short one-hour class.

The rest of the days followed a schedule somewhat like this: lecture in the morning (10-11), academic tutorial / discussion on the lecture (11-12), lunch (12-1), skills lecture (1-2), language class (2.15-3.15) and project tutorial (3.30-4.30). For the project we basically had to come up with 2 "outputs" - a poster and a film. I really enjoyed all of the lectures because they covered aspects such as geography, anthropology, linguistics, politics, international relations and even the economy in relation to the Danube river. Prior to this the only thing I knew about the Danube was the Blue Danube Waltz lol :( And my favourite lecture was the one by the Hungarian lecturer Adam Nadasdy on language along the Danube! It was really inspiring and I was so tempted to study linguistics hahaha. Also went for a talk on Bulgarian writers in London in the same week and that was interesting too!

Stuff we learnt about during the lecture

Conjugaison in Bulgarian class, much to my delight (HAHA)

 

Bulgarian snacks that our tutor kindly brought for us!! - Bulgarian delight that was rose-flavoured (similar to Turkish delight) and this peanut biscuit sandwich. I love the Bulgarian delight because it leaves a burst of rose aroma as an aftertaste. :)

On Monday this week we also had a story-telling session by people who came from the region close to the Danube, followed by a food-tasting session! The only food I could recognise was the Hungarian noodles (only because I had those in Budapest).

Not a very good photo due to poor lighting and no filter, but photos won't do justice to the food!

Bulgarian class :D The only photo where everyone's face was inside haha

The rest of this week we worked mainly on our projects. Had to submit the poster by Wednesday so we stayed back on Tuesday to finish up! Really thankful for such a cooperative and efficient group ^_^ And here's the QR code for the Bulgarian quiz we made: (I never knew that coloured QR codes work too!!)

Couldn't attend on Thursday and Friday because my flight was on Thursday :( There was supposed to a be a guest lecture on Thursday but I had last minute things to settle so I had to give it a miss :( And Friday was the exhibition and party! Really sad that I missed the fun part but apparently our group won for the poster so well done to us!! It turned out really great:

Photo sent by Evangeline! It's quite pixelated because whatsapp reduced the quality :( But it looks good! We played with the words смел (pronounced as "smell" and means brave in Bulgarian) and "smell" because Bulgaria is famous for their rose oils! Rose petals from my bouquet hehehe they dried up but they still had some scent left I guess and glad they came in somewhat useful ... and incidentally also remembered that my favourite mask was Bulgarian Rose too hehe. But yeah I missed all the excitement, back here and sweating in this humid and sweltering weather :(

Anyway to conclude I felt that it was a well-spent two weeks! It was really intense though as compared to my usual school hours because in my last term I only had 10 hours of classes each week, but summer school was about 5 hours each day like 10-4. The lectures were very interesting and you can really tell that a lot of effort was put into the preparations for this, judging from all the materials we had and the people they invited just to speak to us. We're really lucky to have had the chance to attend everything and without having to pay :O And I'm so determined to continue with Bulgarian so that I can at least attempt to speak it when I visit Bulgaria! Would highly recommend this to all juniors, though I can't comment on the other schools hahaha. The only regret I had was that I couldn't commit to it as much as I had wanted to since my flight was on Thursday and I was busy with house-moving stuff so I missed quite a few sessions :( Nonetheless it was a still a great experience and I'm really glad to have met my fellow Bulgarian classmates and it was a good conclusion to my 9 months in London :)

Danube on Thames website: http://danubeonthames.wordpress.com/

Our group's Bulgarian documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PODoEDYwMY4

Home!

Finally back after about 9 months hehe :> Still getting adjusted to the weather and everything, but quite glad I didn't get a jet lag as I fell asleep at 10+ last night and managed to wake up at 8+ this morning without an alarm haha. Feels really weird to be back though, my house hasn't changed and it feels like I haven't been away at all, and London feels like a dream now looking back. No plans for the weekend because I don't want to go out LOL and I need to unpack!! Sadly I had to come back without my dresses and shorts because my luggage was overweight so I had to take out stuff at the airport T_T Heart literally broke when I had to give up my denims and dresses because they were too heavy T_T Will also have to clear some stuff out and sort out photos hahaha gonna do up a Romania post soon maybe!! And find employment in the mean time ...

Friday

Today is Friday and it's also my last Friday in London before going home next week :( Well until I come back the next academic year. Can't believe 9 months just went by so quickly, it feels like just yesterday when I first arrived in London and everything was so foreign but now I think being back in SG will feel surreal haha. Post-exams have been crazy, was in Romania last week (might do a post on it probably when I'm back in SG lol), came back to London on Saturday afternoon then spent a whole day in Brighton on Sunday (theme park!!!). This week I've been busy with school hahaha summer school ... it's actually UCL's Global Citizenship Programme and I'm doing the one on the Danube, which also includes Bulgarian lessons! Slightly thankful I didn't get allocated to Romanian if not I'd be so annoyed the week before at not knowing a single word in Romania, and Bulgaria has been pretty fun so far and I haven't been there so there's a higher chance of me travelling there rather than to Romania again! Finally got pushed to learn the Cyrillic alphabet properly haha I've been dragging it for years since wanting to pick up Russian a few years ago. I think the course has been rather intensive so far, like we have about 5-6 hours a day while my normal school hours was an average of 2 hours each day. Also have tons of admin stuff to settle and packing to do before going back and lots of appointments are clashing! I've missed some sessions already and I feel really bad because so much effort has been put into preparing this course for us. In all honesty I've really enjoyed all the lectures but it's a pity that I haven't got the time to be more committed to it, like how I went for half of a talk on Bulgarian writers in London just now but had to leave halfway even though it's so interesting and few people actually get the chance to hear close up accounts of these people ... argh too many things too little time.

It's strange how I've been wanting to go home for ages but now that the day is approaching I don't want to leave London somehow :( Also it doesn't help that the weather is getting nicer and SG is going to be terribly humid and I'm going to melt ...