To Sir Phillip, With Love

Sir Phillip had lost his wife and when he was sorting through his mail, a letter of condolences came from his wife's distant cousin Eloise. Phillip thought it was appropriate to return some words and unexpectedly they corresponded for a year. From the letters, Phillip found out that Eloise was a spinster and she was not young anymore which is at the age of 28. Since Phillip needed a mother for his children and a wife to take care of the house he decided that it was a good idea to ask for Eloise hand in marriage if suitable.

When Eloise heard of the news of her cousin passing, she wrote to send her condolences and little did she know that one year in the future Sir Phillip had invited her to visit and if they suit they should marry. It was a marriage proposal through a letter and Eloise thought that she couldn't marry a man she never knew. Eloise wanted love like how she saw her elder siblings have gotten it so she wanted to wait for that spark to happen to her too. It was ridiculous to accept that offer but after her best friend Penelope who declared to spend spinsterhood with Eloise gotten married to her brother Colin, she felt lonely. She didn't know what to do and then without any hesitation she left London and headed to Gloucestershire. Eloise did not tell anyone and she left in the middle of the ball when Anthony was going to make an announcement.

Phillip was in a good mood because the weather was lovely and it would be a nice day to work in his greenhouse. While he was changing he could hear noise from upstairs and he knew his children were up to no good again. Just as he left his room, the butler was there telling him that a visitor arrived at his house. Phillip could not have imagined who would come at this time and went down where he saw a person who was young and quite pretty. Phillip thought he could drown in those beautiful eyes of hers. When she opened her mouth she couldn't stop talking and it slightly annoyed him, also the children were making much more noise upstairs. Eloise was talking and talking because she was nervous, she apologized for showing up without any word but it seems like Sir Phillip was lost in her words and it made her angry.

 To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn is about the fifth child of the Bridgerton family Eloise. As usual, the character of the book is unique, different on her own from the family yet still having some traits that is telling you that she is a Bridgerton. After three books about the men of the family, it's refreshing to read about the daughters. I like how Eloise is and she has this trait that remind me of myself which is a person who cannot sit around and do nothing. Not to say these people can't relax, but more like people who when they have time they would like to do something meaningful and fun.  The male character of the book is definitely different in ways such as his background, his current situation and most of all his personality. About his personality he is not a typical guy that you will find from the ton. I think that's because of how he grew up and also where he is living in.

This book was okay for me, it wasn't like the others that made me kept reading. There wasn't the type of romance spark that you find in previous books. It is still funny but not as much as others. For me the time spent between the characters was a bit too short and things happened too fast. I do enjoy the climax in the middle of the book and it suddenly made things more interesting. Before that it was just okay for me, not much excitement. I'm slightly disappointed with this book since it's previous books has been dreamy and wonderful but this one is just normal to me. It's doesn't have the type of romance that made me excited or dream about. Unfortunately, this is not a book that I will read again in future if I wanted a dreamy romance story.

Mega mall story combos part 1

This is another Kairosoft game that caught my attention previously before Cafeteria Nipponica because personally I love games like these. Games are require you to build, manage and slowly earn money to rise among ranks. You could say that this game is like Sim Tower but minus out the resident and office lots. Of course it also has cute graphics, cute shops and cute customers. Throughout the game you unlock shops by either purchasing them or when you impressed a customer of yours they will offer it to you. This game is definitely easier than Cafe Nippon in terms of earning and unlock items but nonetheless it's still a fun game. I've manage to unlock 23 combos before the game records my high score and as I know there are 30 combos. If you're wondering what are combos, there are plans to help with your placements of shops to boost the stats of the store. I have yet to start a new game because I'm playing Cafe Nippon but soon I will start a new game to make sure I've unlock all the stores and combo available. For now, I've attached all 23 combos that I've come across in my game.

Cafeteria Nipponica part 2

I have managed to unlock more recipes but it requires ingredients that I have yet to find so some I manage to make and some not. It's been tough getting recipes since the ingredient hunting places have all been visited and the treasures available all collected. You can only rely on impressing your customer and hoping they will give you a recipe. Hopefully with the recipes I show here, you can develop the new dish.

Updated a complete recipe list post here : Complete recipes
NEW: http://www.anythingbuteverything.com/2012/05/cafeteria-nipponica-short-guide.html

Romancing Mister Bridgerton

Penelope has always loved her best friend's brother Colin and it's been a long time. She has always watched him from afar knowing that she would never have the chance to be his. So Penelope was determined that she would be a spinster with Eloise who had the same mind set. Colin had travel far most of his years because he loved it and also to avoid the season where ambitious mamas will aim for the Bridgerton man. It had been long but Colin was finally home from Cyprus and the season has just started.

There was a ball that Penelope attended and Colin was also there. He asked her to dance out of politeness and also because it was usually what he did when his mother ask for him to dance with the ladies. Penelope was sort of a friend to him too and the only Featherington he liked. After their dance, they both were intercepted by Lady Danbury and after some conversation, Lady Danbury announced to the crowd that whoever who can unveil Lady Whistledown's identity will be rewarded one thousand pounds.

It was a challenge that everyone accepted and many started their speculation. One afternoon when Penelope was visiting the Bridgerton house as usual she found Colin's secret and then she saw him as a different person. Colin was furious with what she found out and it have gotten into an argument. They were arguing really bad and an accident happen where Colin and cut his hand. The atmosphere changed because Penelope was worried and helped to wrap the wound. She expressed that she like what Colin was doing and thought it would be nice to share with the world.  

Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn is about the third son of the family Colin and the wonderful person Penelope Featherington. My favourite of the Bridgerton family series is the first book and this is the next book that I loved. Colin has always been the character that I'm quite interested in. As for Penelope, she's always just mentioned in most of the books until she became best friends with Eloise. You would have read her name last time where her mother always dresses her in every ball where it does not flatter her at all. It's just wonderful to finally read about these two people because they are not who you think they are. They both have secrets and this book is about how they find out and how they deal with it.

I was surprised in the storyline somewhere pass midway of the book and it really excited me more to read continuously.  I truly enjoy the interactions between Colin and Penelope, it's really funny. This book is really wonderful because of the characters, I love what the author write about how they are as a person by the thoughts they have and the conversations spoken. I really ran out of words to praise this book because it's just good. I just want to say that this is the type of romance that is dreamy, funny and dramatic as well. I definitely will read it again in the future to relive the enjoyment I have reading the book.

Japanese Word of the Day - 51 to 55

Oh gosh when I did some counting on my calendar, I realized that I'm suppose to learn my 100th word today. But unfortunately for me I did not catch up at all. I'm so disappointed with myself in my progress and here this post I'm only at halfway point. I should not drag this so long so I'm going straight to the point here but before that I really love to associate my daily life if I could with the words that I learn. I really want to put more than just words to a post. Instead I want to put life into things that I learn and hopefully you enjoy reading, learning and knowing a bit about me too.

1. Pacifist - heiwashugisha, 平和主義者
2. Quake - jishin, 地震
3. Race - minzoku, 民族
4. Sacrifice - ikenie, 生け贄
5. Tablespoon - ōsaji, 大さじ

Quake and race is easy to remember since it's kanji again, especially race because the way to pronounce is so close to mandarin. Happy Learning as always.

Japanese Word of the Day - 46 to 50

Another 5 words in this post, I try my best to learn them but honestly katakana is a bit harder because I have even learned the basics but it is soon to be one of the things that I will learn once I believe I am familiar enough with hiragana. As for words that are kanji, it's easier because of my Chinese education background. Apart from learning this, I actually have an idea of a post on how I learn Hiragana but I haven't started on the draft yet but maybe sometime this month or May.

1. Keen - surudoi , 鋭い
2. Laborer -  rōdōsha,  労働者
3. Machine - kikai, 機械
4. Nail polish - manikyua, マニキュア
5. Oasis - oashisu, オアシス

The first word is a mixture of kanji and hiragana. I was happy when I look through the dictionary on laborer and machine and found out it's written in kanji and it also sounds like mandarin. As for nail polish and oasis, it's in katakana.

An Offer from A Gentleman

Sophie Beckett has always known who she was as a child, a bastard child, though every servant did not talk about it, they all knew. Sophie looked like her grandmother which proves that she is related to the earl but the earl just said she was an orphaned daughter of an old friend. Sophie had lessons alone and was delighted when the earl was getting married and the lady had two daughters. She thought she would have sisters to play with at last. She thought wrong because the woman Araminta did not like her and did not allow her children to play with her. All things changed when the earl died and Sophie was since then treated as a servant.

Benedict was the second child of eight and often people only recognized him as the second or the tallest among the brothers. People of the society definitely know him as a Bridgerton but not as himself because Anthony is the viscount and Colin is the charming, witty one.Benedict was forced the attend the masquerade ball that his mother Victoria hosted. People would walk by him and knew he was the second child of Bridgerton family. His mother spotted him and requested him to dance with the debutantes but he was quite reluctant and then he saw Penelope Featherington all alone so helped her by asking her to dance with him because her costume was not a flattering one.

Just when Benedict was about to go ask for a dance from Penelope, the room was filled with low mumbling and he turned. Benedict saw the most breathtaking woman he had ever seen and he made his way to her to ask for a dance. She did not know how to dance and so he brought her elsewhere to teach her. Sophie was excited because she had never been to a ball and with the costume she was able to hide her identity. Since she was in a disguise, she felt there was no wrong in following this man which she knew to be Benedict Bridgerton from what she read in Lady Whistledown's papers. It was like a dream come true for the both of them but Sophie could not stay long and so she fled the ball early and Benedict chased after her. Unfortunately he could not catch up and lost sight of her.

Araminta found out of Sophie's betrayal and locked her down. Sophie could not take it anymore and left the place to find her place in the world but she did something bad so there was no turning back. A few years later, Sophie was working for a family but the son of the family decided to throw a party when the parents were not around. A lot of men was around and along with the man they assaulted Sophie. Fortunately for her, Benedict was invited to the party and he himself did not enjoy and fled early. That was when he saw the poor servant being harassed and he stepped in to save her. Sophie was shocked to find him there but also relieved that she was save. Benedict could not recognize her and she was somewhat disappointed, but what could she hope for since she was a servant. Since she had no place to go, Benedict offered to guarantee a job at his mother's home. Sophie was afraid to go back to London but she had no choice since Benedict insisted.

An Offer from a Gentleman by Julia Quinn is the third book to the Bridgerton family series and it's about Benedict the second son of the family. If you loved the first two books, you'll love this too. The characters are different where Benedict has a crisis on who he is in the society, it's not really a crisis but more towards a conflict for himself. The heroine is also a person of mystery, not to the readers but to Benedict. The excitement you get from the book is will he ever find out? You'll also love how you to get to read more about who Benedict is and also the heroine and how she struggled with life. 

The thing I love about this book is you get to know the characters well, you read about their endeavors especially the heroine. Sophie is definitely a different kinda girl from those that you read because of her background. I love that the story where characters have conflict with themselves whether to make the decisions they have to make. Lastly, I love that this book gave a little twist at the back and I enjoyed it. Overall, the flow of the story is well written, I liked every bit of it. For me I liked the first two book more, I guess it's because I like the two main characters more in those books than these two. But still a good book because I love reading more about this family.

Japanese Word of the Day - 41 to 45

In my last post I had A to E, so this post will have the following alphabets F,G,H,I and J. I have been trying to keep myself busy with writing my blog post instead of watching YouTube videos or TV series, I guess in two weeks time I would be able to catch up with my Japanese word a day learning process again. So without wasting any more words below is my following learning words for today:

1. Fabrication - detchiage, でつちあげ 
2. Gaiety - yōkisa, 陽気さ
3. Habitation -  Jūkyo, 住居
4. Ice Cream -  Aisukurīmu, アイスクリーム
5. Jackass - baka, 馬鹿

Never thought I would find the word jackass in a dictionary, so funny. For the first word, it's all in hiragana, the second one is kanji with hiragana at the end. Third word is in kanji, fourth in katakana and last word is in kanji. Kanji is actually quite hard to learn but for me it's okay because I  have a chinese background and I've learn these words before but usually kanji is written in traditional Chinese.