Category: Life

I Started Learning Korean (Again)

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Last month, my friend Jasmine decided to sign up for Duolingo because we had discussed going on a girls’ trip to South Korea in a few years for everyone’s 30th. So she thought she’d better get a head start on learning some Korean for the trip lol. So naturally because she had posted about doing Duolingo, I thought it might be fun to pick up again.

A few years ago, I was using Duolingo to try to learn Korean and I had posted about it here. My plan was to work through the Duolingo courses and then go on to do some more independent learning through a textbook I had picked up. Needless to say I fell off learning with Duolingo lol.

To be fair, I lasted about a year and 3 months, I think my streak got to about 430 something before I stopped. Once you get busy and lose your streak it’s hard to keep up motivation for Duolingo. So I laid it to rest, plus, at the end of the day, I do not think that’s the way I was going to learn Korean.

But fast forward to now and I thought I might as well pick it up again because it’s more fun with friends. Because why not have your friends pinging you to do your Duolingo every day on top of a psycho killer owl?

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Junk Journaling

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I have started doing a little bit of junk journaling in my regular journal. I tried to do this before in previous years’ journals but it always felt like such a chore. But this year? Something has unlocked in my brain and I am finding it fun. Not sure what has changed between the past and now, but I have been enjoying adding some creativity to my journal.

So, what is junk journaling? It’s a kind of scrapbooking where you just use junk. Did you go shopping today? Do you have a receipt or a shopping bag? Perfect, if you stick it in a notebook, then you are on your way to junk journaling.

My junk journaling isn’t the traditional sense of junk journaling because I don’t really use junk. But I suppose I haven’t really been doing things where I have accumulated “junk”. Junk doesn’t necessarily mean rubbish; it can be anything you have from that day that you think would fit in your journal. I mostly print photos from my phone and then use decorative stickers and things to pad out my pages.

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I’m Making YouTube Shorts Now

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

This seems like a weird thing to advertise but I’m doing it anyway.

A couple of months ago, I had an idea for an Instagram Reel and decided to make it. But I am not really a short-form content kind of girlie. Like I don’t watch Shorts/Reels/TikToks unless someone sends them to me. And usually if I am posting an Instagram Reel, it’s a pole or aerial video which I wouldn’t count as a Reel because to me it’s just a video.

But in February I sat down to film a proper Reel and I didn’t hate it. Now, when I say I made a Reel, it’s not me doing any dancing or memes or anything – it’s literally me colouring lol. But I thought it would be a fun video to make and it was shorter than a YouTube video so a YouTube Short it will be.

Now I know you’re confused because I said it was an Instagram Reel idea but I just said I made it a YouTube Short lol. Well, they’re all the same thing, and yes this initially was just for my Instagram but because I have a YouTube channel, I thought why not put it there too?

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Thursday 27th March 2025

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday when getting out of the shower I randomly got hit with nostalgia of 2012 Tumblr vibes. I have a really strong memory of sitting in my room at like 2am and starting my Tumblr blog.

It reminded me of when I used to blog a lot and just write whatever I felt like writing. Usually it was just about my day. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that time.

Now, with my blog I am either really in the mood to post or never in the mood to post and I wish I could just get back to just posting whatever, whenever.

It’s weird because I’ve started a few posts in the past and been really set on finishing them but as soon as I’ve stopped writing it for the day I never pick it up again or want to post it. I suppose it’s just another form of writer’s block but the worst kind. Like why can’t I pick up these posts again that I once felt so passionate about?

I think sometimes it’s a timing thing. For example, I started writing a post about my trip to Marrakech but I never finished it and so much time has passed since the trip so I feel like it doesn’t matter or isn’t relevant anymore. Which doesn’t make sense when this is a personal blog and I don’t have a deadline or anything.

Other times it’s that I felt really strong about something at the time and now I just don’t. Which is fine, I can’t say I still feel passionate about all the things I’ve ever posted on my blog. But still I wish I had at least finished the thought to put it out in the world.

So that kind of leaves me where I am now trying to figure out what to do. Ideally I want to be out of this slump and get back to just blogging. I’ll admit I’ll probably not recapture the magic I once had with it. But I’d like to get back to posting again.

And I mean things that aren’t just reposts of YouTube videos. I want to be making more content like this. Things where I just talk about life. And I suppose nothing has really been stopping me except me lol.

So now I think I’ll challenge myself to get back to my “roots” for blogging. Just posting random thoughts and feelings about the day and things I’m doing. But also trying to put more paragraphs in it, because as it is I am still technically micro-blogging on a regular basis on Bluesky/Twitter. But I’ve always liked having a place for my long-form thoughts.

As always I’ll not put too much pressure on myself but I think it was good for me to have this reflective chat with myself via blogging. Not sure how long this mood will last considering I’m 90% sure it’s hormonal but we’ll see.

At the very least I’d like to continue on and eventually post some of the drafts I’ve started here and not finished. No matter how much time has passed after the fact. Sometimes the thoughts are still relevant.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Not sure how helpful this was for others but I found this blog post very therapeutic to make. These are just thoughts I’ve had for a while about my blog and it feels good to share them. So maybe someone can relate.

My 2024 Wrapped!

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Since Spotify Wrapped became a huge thing and companies realised that people like stats, I have quite a lot of year-end stats things and so I thought I would put them all here in one place! When I started physical journalling, I have also been printing these out and putting them in my journal to mark the end of the year, so I thought why not also put them on my blog? I shared them on Twitter and Bluesky too but I think it’s kind of nice to have them all in one place. So here its, my 2024 wrapped:

Spotify

Starting off with Spotify you can see my top artist is Taylor Swift. This is a surprise to no one because Taylor has been my top Spotify artist every year since 2018 lol. That being said she did have some competition this year from Sabrina Carpenter, I just love Taylor’s music. She is a constant go-to for me and I went to see the Eras tour this year so of course I was going to be listening to her non-stop.

Other top artists are usually a surprise to me because I don’t know anyone I listen to more than Taylor lol. Sabrina Carpenter kind of creeped up on me because I started listening to her heavily in the second half of the year. Don’t think she’ll take the top spot from Taylor though. But we’ll see how 2025 plays out.

As for top songs, I really thought Espresso would be there as it was for so many people but I suppose it didn’t grab me quite as much as I thought. I’m not surprised that 3 of the songs are Taylor’s because I’m obsessed. It seems I enjoy You’re On Your Own Kid as much as Taylor did on the Eras tour (she played it as a surprise song A LOT). And I really loved Not my Fault which was released as part of the Mean Girls movie soundtrack. When I first heard it in January I knew I’d be listening to it non-stop and there it is on the stats lol.

The only prediction I have for 2025 is Taylor will still be top and I will continue to listen to all the same artists, I always challenge myself to try to find new songs to listen to but I like my staples, which include Taylor, some KPop and usually the Glee or Nashville casts lol. Less so Glee over the years but I can’t deny the Gleek phase I had all those years ago.

Nintendo

Next up, we have Nintendo Switch! I never know with Nintendo what my stats are going to be because I feel like I don’t play my Switch that often. I mean I go through phases, which is what you can see from my hours played by months but I don’t consistently play it. If this was the pandemic, it was a different story lol but this year was very hit or miss.

I started the year playing a lot because I had gotten new games at Christmas, Fashion Dreamer and Super Mario Wonder. Though I have to admit I have not played Wonder since the first few months of the year, I think I felt like I was making too much progress so just stopped instead of slowing down lol. And then I have played Fashion Dreamer here and there, though the game doesn’t actually have much to it and initially I wasn’t sure I liked it, I have enjoyed occasionally playing and dressing up.

But overall, most of my time has been spent in Animal Crossing, I picked it up again towards the second half of the year and have been enjoying it. Animal Crossing will always be a staple for me when it comes to gaming. And even though I was experiencing some burnout from the game in recent years, I like to pick it up every now and then because there’s nothing more calming than walking around the island and doing daily tasks and having routine. That being said, I would love to see my island in the daytime every now and then, considering the only time I get to play is in the evening lol.

Predictions for 2025 include me just playing more Animal Crossing probably. Though I did get MySims at Christmas so could see that peeking up – moreso MySims Kingdom I think lol. Oh and the Hello Kitty Adventure game is coming to Switch which I absolutely will be getting as well. So maybe the Switch will have some interesting stats – we’ll see.

Steam

Most of the time my Steam recap is nothing to write home about because I don’t really PC game. But this year we actually had some interesting stats!

One of the other reasons why my Nintendo Switch gaming fell off after February was because Stardew Valley had a massive update on PC. I do own Stardew Valley on Switch as well, but the update did not get ported to Switch until like November or something so I was playing Stardew on PC. I hadn’t played in a couple years so I forgot how addicting it can be just to be on the farm. Plus, I remember work being very stressful during March/April time and Stardew Valley was a perfect escape lol.

Along with Stardew, I was playing Coral Island at the start of the year, it also got tossed to the side for Stardew because I like to only play one farming sim at a time. Though I would like to revisit Coral Island because it’s had a lot of updates this year so must check it out.

I know Two Point Campus is here but I do not remember playing it very much and then I had a short-lived PlateUp stint with my brother and niece. Even though I enjoy PlateUp it will not compete with Overcooked in my eyes. And Virtual Cottage was a game I downloaded in December to help me focus on tasks – which was cute but I only got it because I didn’t want to pay for Spirit City: Lofi Sessions. But then I got Spirit City in a humble bundle at the end of December so expect to be seeing that on my Steam replay next year for sure lol.

Not sure what my Steam replay will be next year to be honest, like I said I’m not really a PC gamer and Sims doesn’t count, because it’s on EA and EA do not do a year-end stats thing. Though I would love to know about how much I actually play the Sims throughout the year because I go through phases with it as I do with everything else haha.

StoryGraph

This year I had a goal of 35 books, which I thought would be doable because I read 35 books last year. What I did not account for was that last year I wasn’t driving, so I was always on public transport and reading then but when I’m driving I can’t read lol. And I know people listen to audiobooks when driving but I can’t do that, I need to focus on the road so yeah a lot of my reading time went out the window.

That being said I did make the goal, but only because I forced myself to really stay on-task and read 5 books in December. No easy feat but thanks to a couple of audiobooks I did reach the goal. That being said, I have said a smaller goal for 2025 lol. Reading isn’t supposed to be stressful so I need to reset my expectations.

Feel like there’s not a lot to say about my reading stats, if you’ve been following my blog then you know Cecily von Ziegesar is my top author because I was reading the It Girl series. And typically, when you read a book series that author is going to be the top lol.

My hope for 2025 is to clear out some more reads I picked from Amazon Prime monthly freebies because I have so many of them. But also just finding more books I enjoy in general. Also I think I need to remember to stop reading books if I don’t enjoy them, like did I really need to read the It Girl series to completion if I wasn’t enjoying it? Probably not. So yeah definitely don’t waste time reading something if I don’t like it, even if I am trying to reach a reading goal lol.

Serializd

This is a new one to add to the stats so I started tracking my TV shows on Serializd in 2024. I started tracking movies/TV shows on Trakt forever ago but they only do a recap if you pay for premium which I do not. But Serializd is more like Letterboxd just for TV shows and I enjoy it because it lets me leave reviews and see other people’s.

So this is interesting to me, it says Gossip Girl is my most watched show but I feel like I watched way more Below Deck than Gossip Girl. When I started logging Gossip Girl I was already halfway through my rewatch, so I’m not sure how they worked this out. Like you’re telling me the last 3 seasons of Gossip Girl has more episodes than all of Lucifer? Because I watched that whole series this year…

Yeah not sure how accurate the stats are with this, and if it counts episodes you’ve marked as watched vs ones you actually review or what. But the point is, I have watched a lot of TV this year lol.

Highlights of TV this year that I remember include: a lot of Below Deck and Below Deck: Med – it is very easy to binge so I enjoy it a lot. That being said I’m almost caught up on it so I’ll be sad when there’s nothing to binge. I also did try a Nashville rewatch but dropped it because it’s a lot more depressing than I remember and I couldn’t handle it with all the stress going on in my real life lol. I watched a lot of one-off random things as well which I think I will make a recently watched post about – if I remember.

Things I think I will be watching in 2025 – Gilmore Girls, I started a rewatch so I have to finish it lol. Probably will rewatch something else at some point because you know I love a rewatch of a comfort show. There’s nothing new on the horizon I think I’m that interested in but me and my fiance have picked up the Mentalist again (after watching 3 seasons in 2023 and stopping) so we will be finishing that in 2025 for sure. If I find anything noteworthy I’m sure I’ll post about it online haha.

And this concludes my 2024 wrapped! Obviously this is just a small portion of what my year amounted to. 2024 was an incredible year for me with a lot of highs so I will probably make a highlights post in the coming days as well. I usually always have some sort of recap of the year on my blog so of course this year will not be an exception.

I am also feeling very inspired as I often do at the start of the year, so I am going to try to blog more here on top of the 20 other things I want to accomplish this year lol. Whether it happens or not we will see but I am hoping to be around here more. Even if it’s just a little check-in I think it would be good to keep updated. After all, can’t really call myself a blogger if I don’t blog right? Anyway, that’s all for now. Will be back with more soon!

Ten Years of YouTube! | Reflections, Life Updates & Plans for the Future

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I have been doing YouTube for TEN YEARS! And so I thought I would make a video to reflect on that and share what’s to come next. It’s crazy to think I’ve been doing this for ten years because it doesn’t feel like it, I honestly can’t even remember filming a majority of my videos it’s like I’ve blacked them out from memory lol but it’s okay because they’re online for me to look back on.

Anyway, I’m proud of myself for being so consistent with a hobby because I don’t think I’ve ever done something constant for ten years in my life so I’m taking it as an accomplishment. Whether there will be another ten years, who knows but I’m enjoying the journey for now, and if you have followed me on that journey at any point then thanks for watching and putting up with the accent lol

I’m Engaged!

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I feel like I haven’t blogged here with a real life update in forever but here’s a big one for you: I’m engaged!

It feels weird to blog about to be honest, but I have blogged on and off for years about things in life so why is this any different? I guess because it doesn’t just involve me, it involves my partner too. He is not a public guy whereas I am literally everywhere online so that’s maybe why. So I won’t be sharing too many details.

I still wanted to make a little post because it also felt weird not to post. So here we are lol.

This proposal came as a huge shock to me, I wasn’t expecting it at all. I mean I knew it was going to happen eventually, my partner and I have been together for 8 years and marriage has definitely come up in conversation. I just didn’t expect it to happen now.

I wasn’t in a rush to get in engaged or married, I suppose because we already live together and own a home and have plans to go travelling next year. I assumed the proposal would happen in maybe the next year or so? But I got caught off guard at the weekend when I came home to a mountain of rose petals and balloons.

Obviously I said yes and am over the moon!

I don’t know when wedding planning will begin so let’s not even go there with those questions lol. I think it could be fun to blog the wedding planning journey but at the same time stressful. I’ve never planned a wedding and I don’t know how much I’ll really want to share about it when the time comes but it could be fun to make wedding content.

All I know from other people getting married is that it’s stressful and there’s a lot to organise, but at the end it’s a beautiful day filled with love and friends and family.

So yes, that’s where we are now.. I’m a fiancee and am excited to enter the next chapter of my life with my partner. Like I said, not sure if I will start sharing information on wedding planning or what not so I guess you’ll have to wait and see. Until then, it’s back to the regular content about books and TV lol.

I Tried to “BeReal” for a Week

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I feel like I’m writing a Buzzfeed article lol. But anyway, this is not sponsored and I was just bored last weekend so I thought I’d give BeReal a real chance.

I downloaded it once when it first came out to see what the craic was but honestly, I knew I wasn’t going to use it because all my days are very similar and also, I look trash 99% of the time and I was not interested in documenting that. But a couple of years ago, I did a ‘1 second everyday’ video and was thinking of doing another one next year. And so I thought maybe I should try out BeReal because that’s a very similar concept, except instead of a video, it’s a photo and instead of me deciding when to take the video clip, my phone will notify me to do it.

So off we went to download BeReal. Now I know the whole point of BeReal is to “be real” but from my experience people still will do the opposite. A couple of years ago when I was at comic con, there were some people who asked in Q&A sessions of the celebrities would be a part of their BeReal. And I imagine like other social media, people only want to post when they are actually doing something interesting.

So I can see why no one really talks about the app anymore. And also why no one I know in real life uses it lol. In the week I used it only one person was active. So this was disappointing. Only because there’s no point for me to go on the app everyday if no one else is uploading.

But I decided to give it a go and try my best to upload as soon as the notification went off and try to be my true authentic self. Disclaimer – I think I only ever made it on time once lol. To be fair, each time it was only a few minutes late rather than hours. It’s not that I am trying to stage anything, I just didn’t see the notification.

Though I was finding myself wondering everyday when the notification was going to go off. I didn’t know round what times of day it would go off or what I was going to be doing. Not that I was doing anything exciting. It was just interesting to see what sort of times you would be notified at.

I got a good mix of morning and evening though the morning ones were at the weekend and I was in bed lol. Other ones I was out and about or at work. Nothing crazy. I do wish my friends used it though because I would be interested to see what they would be doing. Part of the fun is seeing what everyone else is up to in the same moment you are but I didn’t have that so was definitely not getting the full experience. So this is why I’ll probably not be using BeReal long term.

I suppose I could just ask my friends to use it, but they probably won’t. They barely post on Instagram as it is and I’m supposed to convince them to do this? Highly unlikely lol.

But overall it was an amusing week with something new going on. I am still using BeReal at the minute, but the novelty is wearing off. I think I might try to use it for a year and see how it goes but after that I’ll probably delete it. If anything this app takes documenting your life a little too far, who needs a photo from every single day of their life? I know I don’t. Not everyday is that exciting lol.

Still, I’m glad I have it a go. And I applaud the developers for trying something new. I’m not sure what the next big social media thing will be or even if I want to be a part of it but I’m interested to see where it goes. But for now I’ll stick with my Facebook/Instagram/Twitter. And the occasional blog post (when I make an effort lol).

Jasmine’s Hen Party! | Marbella | 5th – 10th April 2023

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I finally got around to editing my Marbella vlog! I don’t even know what took me so long, I guess I just didn’t want to do it immediately after I got back from holiday lol so here it is a month later.

I had so much fun going away with the girls, and I’ve said it before but I’d love if we could make these holidays a tradition. We don’t always need to be celebrating something it’s just nice to have the gang together.

Here’s hoping we have more adventures together in the future!

Jasmine’s Hen Party! | Marbella Highlights

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I’ve just come back from Marbella after celebrating my friend Jasmine’s hen do and I thought I’d share some of the highlights of the trip!

Our AirBnb

The back of the house

The pool!

Because there were a lot of us going away on holiday, we decided to opt for an AirBnb, this way we could all be together rather than be separated in hotel rooms. As everyone knows, AirBnb can be hit or miss, we had settled on one before that did not have many reviews. But after a bit of mulling over we changed our minds and went with this villa.

I am so glad we trusted our guts and went with a place that had a few more reviews, because this place was stunning. There was room for everyone, with two to a room, each room had their own bathroom, there was a spacious living area which was great for us to eat at, get ready at and even play games.

I’d highly recommend looking into staying there if you are a large group in Marbella. It is just a 15 minute Uber/bus ride from the main town and a short walk to the marina at Puerto Banus. There is also a pool near the villa which we frequented and we usually had it to ourselves. Not sure if it’s due to being there in the off season or what but it was great.

The perfect place if you want a chill holiday, especially if you are planning nights in. It was also a reasonable price between 8 people for 5 nights so again, would recommend.

Jack’s Smokehouse

We stopped here for lunch on our second day and it was probably one of the better restaurants we went to. Maybe not in terms of food, the food was probably your average kind that you’d get in the area but the vibes there were great.

Us with Suzie

Our waitress, Suzie, was a highlight, she was super friendly and made sure we had everything that we needed. She gave us recommendations for nights out and even took photos with us when we left haha. Honestly, just want to say that if I ever go back to Marbella, I’m intent on finding her and saying hi.

But yeah, aside from that, the music they played was great, the cocktails were amazing and all in all it was a great afternoon. If I had to describe summer vibes those were the ones. The restaurant wasn’t busy, we basically had the upstairs to ourselves, sun was shining, music blaring and good food, drinks and company. What else could you possibly want?

Someone on Google compared this place to a TGI’s and I’d have to agree. So if that’s the kind of thing you’re looking for, definitely stop here.

Arkham Escape Room

The team that escaped lol

I feel like it’s no secret that Jasmine loves an escape room, so obviously one of the things we had to do was book one for her hen party! And I think of all the things that could have gone wrong, the escape room was at the top of the list.

I remember looking up websites for the escape rooms and none of them were good. I’m not saying your website has to be amazing, but if you’ve put in minimal effort it doesn’t look good for your business. Plus, I don’t think a lot of the places had reviews which also made it difficult to find one we wanted to book.

Originally, we were going to go to Prison Island because it was a franchise and at least we knew it would be decent. Though Prison Island is actually in Malaga and not Marbella, so it would’ve been a lot of travel for us. So we decided to go with Arkham escape room because it was close by and to be honest, I think it had the best website/room description.

This escape room was really good, it’s hard to talk about escape rooms without giving anything away but this one was very well designed. The story is Hansel and Gretel themed and the backstory is strong and on top of solving the puzzles to escape the room there is an added challenge.

I will say the room is scary in that there is a live actor that can come in occasionally, this is not something stated on the website and so we were not prepared but I’m putting it here so you are warned. I think I would’ve done better without the possibility of someone coming into the room but I guess that adds to the experience lol.

Sadly because there were a lot of us we did have to do the room in two groups, one group made it out in time and one did not. Sadly mine was the one that got out after time ran out but we still completed it and that’s what counts.

Before going into the room the game master did say people find escape rooms in Spain harder than in other places and I’d have to agree. The ones I’ve done at home weren’t as difficult, though they aren’t super easy either. I really enjoyed the challenge of this one and would definitely recommend it if you are looking for an escape room in Marbella. Plus, we were able to do the room in English which is a big advantage lol otherwise we’d never have made it out.

Joy’s Live Bar

We went to Joy’s twice while we were away. The first night, we didn’t stay long because we had to get up for the escape room the next morning but we enjoyed it there, enough to come back anyway haha. It was their 9th anniversary the first night we were there though the celebrations were kind of tame? I mean you wouldn’t have really known it was an anniversary unless you saw the sign on the door. That or we weren’t there long enough to know. Though we did get our photo taken a lot that night, and we were only there for about an hour.

We went back the next night to stay a lot longer and there were no photographers this night, at least none that I saw. But the vibes were still good, the drinks were a standard price so nothing special but the music was good and the live singers/entertainers were also good.

I do wish there was more space to dance there though, since we were mainly there for dancing, we were kind of cramped into this one space that wasn’t really a dance space, more like a gap between the tables for people to walk through but was large enough to dance in. It’s a small venue which I think is a shame considering the performers all seem larger than life so I think if the space was bigger it would be better.

I also think we were the youngest people there by about 10 years, which isn’t the worst but it was definitely noticeable. On top of that, we definitely had to fend off some creepy men which I guess is to be expected anywhere, but it’s not great. Though the bouncers were on the lookout because I think they did speak to some of them which was nice. I don’t recall this, though the other girls did, so that’s something.

Aside from that though we did have a good time, despite the small dancing space we still made the most of it and were there til around half 3 in the morning. So it was definitely a fun night.

There are plenty of other places the girls and I went while we were away but these four were definitely the big highlights that I wanted to mention. I really enjoyed my time away with the girls and hope we will make this annual girls’ holiday a tradition because it was so much fun last year too.

In the meantime I will be resting up and preparing to go to Paris in May, it’s only for a couple of days but it should still be good! So if you have any recommendations, hit me up. I plan to be living my Emily in Paris life to the fullest while I’m there.