Pages

Friday, December 7, 2012

I'm back!

It seems I've been gone from here for a whole school term ><!! But the whole term passed by really quickly. I was taking 3 courses and working on the weekends. Can't imagine how it'd be like next term when I'm taking 4 courses and working 3 days a week!

So anyways this is gonna be a pretty heavy post. I have 3 things to blog about: Afternoon Tea, Online-shopping haul (Roxy & ASOS), and Shoe packing! Okay I've decided to leave my shoe-packing photos for a later post as right now I'm done with writing the ASOS haul section and it already seems like the post is overloaded.

Pardon for the bad-quality photos. They were all taken with my iPhone :X !






First up!

Afternoon Tea


Kevin and I went to Fairmont Hotel at Vancouver Airport for their afternoon tea this past Tuesday. I had bought a Teambuy voucher a long while ago and never had time to use it. Initially my girlfriends and I planned to use it together but it didn't happen cause we were all so busy ><. Anyway it expires on the 15th of this month so Kevin and I just went ahead and used it!


The Teambuy was a 2 for 1 voucher, so $36 for 2 peeps with this offer. Kevin picked the Berry Berry tea cause he wanted something fruity, while I got Fairmont YVR Airport's signature blend, the Jetsetter.



For our pastries, we got... okay I don't even remember the names of what we had lol but we first ate the scones (2 each), and then a smoked salmon with cucumber sandwich, some tuna on baguettes/french bread, ham-and-cheese sandwich (which I thought was very cheap lol...). We also had like a tiny croissant stuffed with egg salad, which was kinda disappointing because the croissant was cold and soggy!!

Our server told us there was egg nogg in one of the pastries but I couldn't exactly hear her clearly enough to know which one haha, but I'm guessing it's the tarts?? The tarts tasted like pumpkin but I didn't really like the texture—kinda rough and dry. The cheesecake was rich and tasted fine. Kevin liked it but I was already kinda filled by then to eat my share, so Kevin ate my share too.

The biscuits were STALE, which was a pity cause the gingerbread one tasted good—not too spicy. The other one was a chocolate-something.



Our tea was not bad. Kevin liked his Berry Berry—it was mostly raspberry tasting, I think. However I didn't like it, haha. It was probably too sour for me after I drank my Jetsetter. I liked my Jetsetter though it reminded me a lot of Chinese tea, the one we use for milk tea! I drank half of my first cup without milk, and then for my second and third cup I drank it with milk. Finished my fourth cup without milk since I was full :P .



Oh, did I mention the tea includes 2 small glasses of sparkling wine (apparently worth $26)? That brings the value of the entire afternoon tea to $96. Accordingly, one "must pay 12% tax on the purchase price of the ticket and 15% gratuity on the value of the ticket" if the value was over a certain amount... so we ended up paying $18+ of tax and tips at the restaurant.

We didn't even drink the sparkling wine; It was bad... sour and didn't really go with the tea / pastries. So that's like $26 wasted and caused us to pay more for our tax and tips. Hah.

Overall, I wouldn't say that our afternoon tea at Fairmont YVR Airport was a great experience. It was expensive, and didn't even compare to our experience at Meloty! I wonder if it's because we were using a voucher that we didn't get the quality of food, as well as service, that we would've had if we didn't use one? Speaking of service, we waited so long for a server to walk by to get us our bills, and then again when we had our credit card out that we just took all our stuff and our bill to the front. The hostess then had to take our card to the server to process.... blablabla. So in the end when the bill was finally settled, the server gave us two 2-for-1 "coupons" to use again in the future. Makes me wonder if they were trying to make up for the service/quality, or if they always did that anyways.



Roxy unboxing!


So some of you might know from my Twitter that I also went down to the States on Tuesday to collect some parcels. I had made online orders from Roxy and ASOS, both for the first time. Both websites ship for free to Canada (Roxy free to the U.S. & Canada, ASOS internationally), but I chose to ship to the U.S. for a custom-tax gamble. You see, if I ship them straight here, I would be charged custom tax for sure. But if I pick them up in the states, I might or might not be charged, depending if the border-guard is nice or not. And this time we got a nice border-guard ^^.

Anyway! I'm gonna start with Roxy in this section.

Although it's my first time getting Roxy items from their actual online website, I'm not new to the brand at all. Some of you who know me well would know that I had been "collecting" Roxy clothing/items for many years now. I had up to 20 Roxy T-shirts, some jackets, bags, caps, shoes, as well as a snowboarding goggle.

Anyways, for this order I got 2 pairs of colder-weather boot(ies), the Crosby and Dillon boots:


I was super excited while unboxing them!!...even though I just bought Roxy's Oregon boots a couple weeks prior x) L0L. I initially had a really difficult time deciding between the Crosby boots and the Cambridge boots (also Roxy), but in the end settled with Crosby because Kevin likes them better. Hahaha.



The first one I unboxed was the Crosby. The original laces are the orange ones, which had some fibre hooked out (you can sorta see in the picture, that dark brown tuft of fibre right at the knot) but I didn't like the orange laces when I saw them online anyways so I knew I was gonna switch to the alternate pair of brown laces. However, the defect also ensures that I would never use those orange laces in the future even if I grew to like it :X .

But the flaw doesn't stop there :( !!


As you can see, the "toe caps" of the boots aren't well-cut. The one of the right-shoe is sloping downwards (u) while the left-shoe's is sloping upwards (n). I don't know if it's supposed to be like that but... I highly doubt it. If you google "Roxy Crosby" for images, you would see that all those sample-photos of this pair of boots look like they were well-cut and well made. This is the flaw of this pair of boots that disappoints me the most. I now own 5 pairs of Roxy boots, so this is probably the most carelessly-cut ones I own.


What I'm lastly concerned about is the tongue of the boots. They're carelessly-cut too... not straight, and careless stitching. While I was holding on to these boots and staring at them, I had for a little moment began to wonder if I should've gotten the Cambridge boots.

I really don't wanna be too picky about these but, coming straight from the company's online store / warehouse, I had in mind that their products would at least be on par with what I got at physical stores.



These Dillon boots have a cute winter / nordic style to them, and even Kevin's mom likes them a lot! This pair set me back at USD$79, which isn't cheap for a pair of short boots, but I always loved Roxy's solid rubber soles so I didn't mind paying for them at all.


Unfortunately there's a couple of flaws with this pair too, first one being the dark, seemingly scraped patch on the toe of the right-boot (as seen in the photo). I'm not too concerned about this, but I'm still disappointed by it. I generally wear my shoes well, and rarely do I scrape my shoes on any surfaces. Obviously wearing a new pair of boots that already has a scrape on them makes me a little sad inside.


And then the thing that bugged me more was this visible shiny white thread on the left-boot. I'm thinking I'm probably just gonna Sharpie it if I don't end up returning these boots :P .


After this experience, I might have to debate with myself if I would ever order Roxy merchandise from their website again. I also wonder if these are leftover stock that other retail stores didn't want to resell? A big question mark and I'm still thinking if I should return them or keep them. I really really hate the hassle of returning goods purchased online, especially if I had to go down to the States to pick up / return.

I'll end this section with a photo of my Roxy boots collection:


I can't remember what the 2 taller black boots are called unless I check their shoe boxes (which I admittedly still have :3...), and I had to stuff a pair of my unworn new flats (still in dust bags) in each side of the farthest-left pair to make them stand L0L.



ASOS Haul


I've known ASOS for awhile now, but finally decided to make a purchase when I was shopping for dresses for an upcoming Christmas formal dinner. The dress won't be revealed until after the event :P but for now I'll show you guys some of the accessories I got! [I didn't take photos of all the items ><]



First up is this pair of black tights that I thought it would be super cool to wear for the formal dinner as the theme for the dinner was "007". HOWEVER...



I was super disappointed when I tried them on!! They have no shape at all whatsoever, and the elasticity in the darker parts of the tights is pretty absurd.


I mean, look at them. I no longer had ankles, and I felt like a duck in them. I can't believe I posted these funnily embarrassing photos of my ankle-less / duck feet XD.

How is this product as I had seen on screen (ASOS = As Seen On Screen)? Truly disappointed. Now I'm in a dilemma: should I put them in a washer and see if they would shrink and somehow magically shape itself up, or should I return them -_-?



Next is this set of French Connection bangles. I like them. But it's just that there's a big chip on one of the bangles :\ . And then I felt kinda jipped.



Pardon my dull nails... they're not painted as so I can let them "breathe". I got this pair of "Lampshade" earrings to go with my dress. They are pretty, except there seems to be some sort of paint or oil spillage on the dangly parts of the earrings -_- which undoubtedly made its appeal go down on the scale. (Why am I getting so many defected products seriously...) The earrings also seem shorter than the pictures... but maybe it's just me...



And this earring and ring set is one of my favourites from the order! They're not cheap though :X...



The ring is unadjustable so you get to pick a size, but I would still have preferred an adjustable ring. I'm pretty sure the manufacturing cost of adjustable and non-adjustable rings are pretty much the same? Like... a cent each?? Lol.

Unphotographed but also in my order was a dress :P, a clutch...:

This one's exactly as the photo, so I'm pretty glad :D

...a pair of Cheap Monday shoes for Le Boyfie...:

This pair is also as seen in the photos. However I didn't like how stiff the material felt and also the spongy-foamy material used for the sole, but that isn't ASOS's fault.


...and 2 pairs of knee-high socks.

The total of my order for these 10 items would have been CAD$316.74 if not for the Cyber Monday promo code for 30% off. Shipping would have been free but I added express shipping for CAD$12.20 so I can collect the parcel in time for the event. Thus, my final total came to CAD$233.92 not accounting for currency conversion rates for my credit card.

Would I order from ASOS again? Well... not unless I needed a new dress XD and only if there is a promotion for at least a 30%-off. I do recommend them if you ladies need to get a dress, but be very careful of measurements! I ordered my dress in size 8 and the zipper almost couldn't zip up, but the next size up had seemed a bit too big when I was decided what size to get, and it it was, I wouldn't have time to alter it.



On an end note, have you had afternoon tea at Fairmont YVR before, or shopped online on Roxy or ASOS? Let me know about your experiences in the comments so I can compare / relate!

Tomorrow we're gonna go shopping for Kevin's bow tie and vest for the dinner. Stay tuned as I'm highly likely to blog about the dinner, which is on this coming Sunday :) !

2 comments:

  1. The sparkling wine looks like it would taste good! Pity it didn't go well with the afternoon tea!

    I love both the boots you got! I've recently bought 2 boots myself, one brown and the other black too!! :)

    As for ASOS, I've made 2 purchases from them before and everything was fine. I've also purchased tights from they and the "elasticity" was alright too. But I'm glad the other products you got weren't too much of a problem!

    Can't wait too see you in the mysterious dress ♡

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's too bad the afternoon tea didn't live up to your expectation. It's always such a huge let down when you go to a fancy place and it's utter crap, makes you wonder how they can get away with charging people so much.

    I love your boots! I finally found a pair of good winter boots but I won't be able to wear them until Christmas since my parents said they'd get it as a gift T_T I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't snow any time soon in Montreal!

    Your dinner sounds so exciting! I can't wait to see the picture :D

    ReplyDelete