Hello there guys! Should’ve made this announcement sooner – I’m sorry! Anyway i’m here to let you guys know that I MOVED… to my very own website! You can find me now at www.nikkiinwanderland.com
Thank you so much for the last 2 years (or less? i’m not really sure, lol) of following me here! It has been an amazing blogging experience and I owe it all to you. If you still want to read my random ramblings about books and whatnots then please do subscribe to the new site, I would LOVE to see you there still!
LOVE YOU GUYS!
P.s. still unsure what i’ll do with this page in the next few days, but this should be gone soon </3
When a beautiful, aspiring writer strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe Goldberg works, he does what anyone would do: he Googles the name on her credit card.
There is only one Guinevere Beck in New York City. She has a public Facebook account and Tweets incessantly, telling Joe everything he needs to know: she is simply Beck to her friends, she went to Brown University, she lives on Bank Street, and she’ll be at a bar in Brooklyn tonight—the perfect place for a “chance” meeting.
As Joe invisibly and obsessively takes control of Beck’s life, he orchestrates a series of events to ensure Beck finds herself in his waiting arms. Moving from stalker to boyfriend, Joe transforms himself into Beck’s perfect man, all while quietly removing the obstacles that stand in their way—even if it means murder.
Credits to Goodreads.com
4/5 ⭐s
It’s been a while since I read something this fast and I missed it, the word “page-turner” was invented for the likes of this book. “You” is totally gripping, addicting and it really – REALLY sucks you in. IT IS creepy in its own way and let me tell you why…
First of all, I have to say – the narration is poisonous. The whole entire time you’re inside the mind of an obsessed stalker named Joe who is, well okay – obsessed with a beautiful aspiring writer named Guinevere Beck (or Beck for short) and surprisingly, you can’t help but sympathize with him, no matter how twisted, crazy and out of this world he is. He is that character that you can’t bring yourself to full-pledge hate even though he is obviously downright evil – and for me, that’s what makes this book even more creepy! Like who the f*ck roots for a sicko stalker! Like hell no! But yeah, I did and I am having that love-hate-disgusted relationship with Joe and myself, and it’s freaking crazy. And wait here you’ll hate me more: I f*cking hated everyone except Joe. B*TCH PLEASE, what the hell is happening to me, right?! (I cursed too much I know, and I’m sorry, forgive me)
Will not dive in too much with the list of all the twisted evil things Joe did, better to know and ‘witness’ those for yourself – but a point that this book planted in my mind and made me question all my life choices in the past, is the stalking. It was very easy for Joe to know all about Beck just because of a f*cking credit card, supplied with the fact that she was an open book in social media. So excuse me while I delete everything now on the internet *delete delete delete* Haha. Seriously though, it was legit scary.
I do recommend this to you guys who love a good suspenseful and creepy read that will keep you awake in the wee hours of the morning – because it definitely did to me. However, i’m not VERY crazy about the book, I mean I am crazy (just thinking about how it made me root for something evil) for it but not so much as I would’ve expected. Because although it is tagged as a thriller, for me well it’s not very thrilling (like on-the-edge-of-my-seat thrilling), there are some scenes that for me fell flat and a little predictable. Just a little and that’s just for me though.
Do give it a try if you want a book that will make you drop everything that you’re doing to finish it. This is definitely one of those!
Hello there guys! I didn’t forget it – I just haven’t got enough time to post it, but here it is, my spread from last week’s journal. 🙂
click photo to enlarge
We seem so ancient, lol – but it felt like just yesterday when we first met. Haha. We celebrated our 104th month on the 21st which happens to be his dad’s 62nd birthday too so we didn’t really spent the day on a “date”. We spent it with his family ❤
Me and my boyfriend, we love to eat. So when we stumbled upon a Facebook post that says “newly opened food park” we drove off real quick. HAHA. Of course the first thing we tried was Ramen. There are still a LOT of food stalls there though that we haven’t tried out so we’re definitely coming back 😀
I haven’t seen this two for like such a long time (they were both my high school close friends) so when they told me they wanted to meet me to talk about their broken hearts (lol) well, I agreed – uhm more like they FORCED me too. Hahaha. I had prior commitments that day but they were so good at bugging my conscience, and yeah I missed them lots too! We watched a movie called “I’m Drunk, I Love You” and then went to Starbucks to drown ourselves in coffee and heart to heart talks 😀 ❤
And that is it for a little glimpse of my life last week. Hope you had an amazing week!
Hey guys! It’s almost March, and although February has not been a very great month for me, it still deserves a run down of random things I loved about this month! Wanna know what they are? – then just keep reading!
First up on my list this month is my new found love for Poetry. ❤ I have never been a very big reader of poems ever since the history of me being a reader. I mean, yeah – I do appreciate them but I haven’t really developed an inkling interest, until now. The recent poetry books I got is Milk and Honey and Chasers of the Light – which I both LOVE.
If you know me (well not all of you do obviously, haha) you’ll see that I am always inside the four corners of my room being the introvert gal that I am. I rarely go out these days which is something that I am trying to change. So my few escapades this month really made me want to see more of the world, lol. Seriously though, life is too short to spend in bed. (but bed days are great too of course 😁)
Well if you’ve been a frequent visitor of my blog you probably noticed that I regularly post and update weekly spreads. I’m quite proud that i’ve been keeping up with this so crossing my fingers that I continue to do so until this year ends. Love love love journaling.
OMG I love my bluetooth earphones like SO MUCH. I use this every single day. Music is my daily dose of vitamins so this gift from Sudio Sweden is just perfect – perfect for my iPhone which for some reason does not have an audio jack, like wth. But seriously, this earphone is life. Check out their products here.
Speaking of music, well this song is on repeat for the nth time most of this month! It’s not a new song, but I just recently appreciated it so..
Anyway, I just love it so much. And yes, my playlist’s name is “PlauUntilIHateIt” – lol, because that’s what I do. I play a song a gazillion times until I realize i’m hating it already. I am so weird, I know.
Okay. Can I just say that I literally do not know what to do with my life after i’ve finished all the seasons of Game of Thrones. I mean I literally cannot function as a human being. I swear this show took over my life. I just love it! I cannot believe I waited this long to watch it – but yeah, better late than never because Jon Snow is bae.
I am not a big mobile gamer (is that a thing? lol) but as I said, I need to divert my attention to something after my GoT addiction so I asked my friends from Instagram to suggest to me a game I can play and one of them suggested this one. I have downloaded a bunch of games that they suggested but this one made me really hooked. I loved it! Won’t be too long now until I abandon it and look for something else though, haha. My attention span is short. Btw, you can download this from the App store for free. I think Android has this game too 🙂
And there goes my February Favorites! None super exciting so far but still it has been a pretty good month to me, and I hope you had a lovely one too!
Hello guys! Another one of my journal spreads – I hope you’re not tired of it yet. It does seem a little personal since you get to see a “little” of me but I enjoy sharing it with you guys so… let’s get to it!
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Haha what better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than to eat Ramen! Lol. We also went on a “Bookstore Date” as I call it, lol. We went to I think 5 bookstores, and I only bought one poetry book – well HE bought it. Hehe, he insists so who am I to resist. But let’s go back to ramen talk, seriously, if you are here in the Philippines and haven’t tried yet Hanamaruken Ramen YOU ARE MISSING HALF OF YOUR LIFE. Go there now! My personal favorite is Spareribs ramen and if you’re not a big noodle eater then try the Drunkman Rice Bowl. So YUMMMMMMY! (This is not sponsored, whattheheck – it just sound like it but no :D)
Sundays are walk days – I just imposed it, haha. We took Gidget to a freaking 4km walk and I. am. exhausted – and injured, lol. But she was such a good girl, always looking after me. When bf is trying to walk her when I’m already too tired to keep up, she’ll look at me from behind and wait for me – such a sweetie, she really loves me. Haha. People are terrified of her though, can’t blame them, she really looks intimidating. Not even a year old (only 7 months) and she’s already so big. Love her! ❤ (oh, if you’re wondering, she’s a Black German Shepherd).
That is it! Hope you all had an amazing week! Lovelots!
Told you i’m making it up for you for being late in my journal spread posts, so two in a week it is! 😀
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You know my life isn’t that exciting when you realize one of the highlights of my week is finishing all the available seasons of Game of Thrones. Haha. Whatever, I was so happy to finally dive into this show, I’ve resisted for so long (because I wanted tor read the books first – but ain’t happening soon, so). I am freaking obsessed with Jon Snow. 😍
Well at least something exciting did happened this week, haha. Escaping my boring life and in to the mountain! Check out my adventure blog here.
Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone.
When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake but who still can’t keep his eyes off Louise.
And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend, but she also just happens to be married to David. David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife, but then why is David so controlling, and why is Adele so scared of him?
As Louise is drawn into David and Adele’s orbit, she uncovers more puzzling questions than answers. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong, but Louise can’t guess how wrong―and how far a person might go to protect their marriage’s secrets.
Credits to Goodreads.com
4.5/5 ⭐s
So the first thing that caught my attention about this book is EVERY REVIEW I FREAKING READ says the ending is “totally” unexpected. Okay, I’m actually nervous about that because in the back of my mind, I fear that this book might be a little overrated. So I didn’t set my expectations too high, I don’t want to be overly disappointed too in the end BUT boy oh boy – this book! I live for this!
I don’t want to dive in so well into details because that defeats the purpose of me recommending this book to you so we just go into basic ones. First the characters, haha I’m already smiling like an idiot while typing this – here’s the thing: I’m a very easily annoyed person, haha, I don’t show it as much but I get VERY easily irritated by lead characters. Hahaha I swear, even for books that I end up loving, I can’t help being annoyed by the main characters at some point. I am a notorious MC hater. LOL. Anyway, this book is NO exception. One of the characters here annoyed me so much my head hurts. But I guess if it weren’t for this character’s stupidity, then we won’t have an amazing plot here so I was quite okay with that. It didn’t bother so much as how The Girl on the Train did (God I hated it – the MC anyway, I gave away my copy. lol)
Next, exchanging POVs – I adore this kind of style. I love it that I get to see sides other than one continuous telling of stories. This actually helped me calm down when I am so irritated with one of the characters. Which is disturbing at some point, like – I can’t be rooting for someone who is ‘obviously’ the bad guy, but f*% it, i’m weird like that.
My only issue while reading this book that made me give it less than half a star is because it took a little while before I am fully absorbed in the story. I read it like a few days ago and wasn’t very enthusiastic as it didn’t leave a POW effect on me. Turns out I just had to have patience – it all went crazy (good crazy) just a few chapters in. I also had a VERY slight impression that this is Gone Girl all over again – but I guess you have to see for yourself. 🙂
All in all, this is a very compulsive, absorbing, exciting and chilling read! I can’t recommend it enough for people who loves a good shock – because this one DEFINITELY has that! I was literally speechless after reading that ending. TOTALLY SHOOK. 😳 I do have a bit of a worry though for people who gets irked by a certain kind of genre – which was unexpected here. I don’t want to reveal though, I just hope you keep reading, it’s worth it!
Thank you again to Book of the Month for sending me this! It’s one of their February selections and I almost always end up loving their picks. 👍 You can still get Feb selections (this book included) on their website!
I haven’t forgotten! I’m sorry I was just preoccupied with other things and I forgot to post this last LAST week’s spread but here it is! I may have to post last week’s spread too tomorrow to make it up with you. 😀
click photo to enlarge
I may have ran out of tips to share so I will now just be sharing the highlight of this week. Some of them are:
So I sort of hosted a read-along on my Instagram of Sherlock novels and our first read is A Study in Scarlet (which I still haven’t reviewed – I will soon!)
My books from Book of the Month club for February arrived and I am sooooo excited to dive into all of them!
We spent our weekend south at Tagaytay and it was amazing! Missed fresh air! ❤
And that is it! Talk to you soon for my next journal spread ❤
Hey guys! So here I am nursing a sore body and taking a break from my nerdy self and showing off my inner adventurer self. Lol. So yeah, I went to climb a legit mountain last weekend! This is my second time and I failed to blog about my first 😦 (maybe i’ll try to when I gather all the pictures – for now let’s settle for this).
This will probably be helpful to my friends here in the Philippines who also wanted to try a little adventure this year, and who knows – my foreigner friends could find this post useful too should you decide to fly here 😀
Anyway, let’s get to it!
It is already our 2nd time to climb (me and my bf) so we know roughly by now what essentials to bring when we go on a hike! Here are the things you need to bring with you, but remember PACK LIGHT, you don’t want your bag to be holding you back:
WATER (sooooo important, we brought at least 1.5 liters and 1 liter of Gatorade)
FOOD (you may eat lunch before or after reaching the summit, you need energy so bring baon!)
JELLIES/SOUR CANDYS (I thought this was a joke but it really helps! It energizes you instantly when you’re already too exhausted to go on)
PLASTIC BAG (for your trash! never litter in the mountains please!)
CLOTHES (to change, by the end of the climb you’ll be sweaty and dirty, make sure you have clothes to change into.)
FIRST AID (like band-aids, betadine, alcohol, etc. – accidents may happen)
WET WIPES (for cleaning hand when it’s time to eat)
Optional:
Mosquito repellant (if you’re like me that mosquito loves to kiss, then you need this in the wilderness)
Slippers (if you’re not to confident that your shoes will survive the wild, go ahead and bring light slippers)
Gloves (I will consider this a must though since some rocks are sharp! but not everyone needs it so…)
Walking stick (it helps if you’re super tired but not really needed)
So I live in Manila, and Rizal is one of our provinces in the South so it will still be a few hours travel to get there. We traveled to Shaw Boulevard to meet up with my bf’s officemates who will be our companion in this hike. Luckily, one of them was able to rent a van that could transport us straight to Tanay. We paid 450 pesos/person which is cheap to be honest. I heard the commute from the town proper of Tanay to the actual registration area for hikers is excruciating so renting a van (especially if you are a large group like us) is definitely recommended. If not, you will travel by a Tricycle (and it’s a LOOOOOOONG uncomfortable ride). We traveled from Shaw Blvd. to Tanay, Rizal in about 2 1/2 hours.
We left Shaw at around 5:30AM and arrived at the registration site at 7:30 to 8:00AM. You have to pay for your tour guides which costs 500 pesos (that you can split with the group) and an environmental fee which I think is 75 pesos. It was already raining by that time unfortunately so we were all a bit worried this climb might be hard for us. We started the hike at around 8:45AM.
The tour guide assigned by the Town officials will ask you which trail you prefer, the long or short trail. Different is this: Long trail is well OF COURSE longer but assaults isn’t that much compared to the Short trail that is 90% assault (meaning, majority of the path is steep). Almost all my companions are boys (in fact we are only 3 girls) and everyone chose the short trail..
photo grabbed from JD Ro (Facebook)
You see in this picture that our trail is CRAZY MUDDY! It was raining almost the entire time, which is thankfully not strong tho – just a drizzle, but still enough to make our path way wet and slippery. That was the biggest challenge: to climb without slipping and hitting your head in all those sharp rocks.
Path to the summit has only 3 stations, I think each station has at least a 45minutes to an hour gap away to each other.
Here we are at Station 2 (Photo grabbed from JD Ro Facebook)
After reaching Station 3, there will be another 15 to 20 minutes steep hike all the way towards the Summit.
And tadaaaaa! After 4 hours of that grueling, brutal climb – here I am at the top! We reached the summit at exactly 12 noon!
Photo is taken by the Tour Guide
Having to stand at that peak is incredibly nerve wracking! I ain’t afraid of heights – but man this made my knees go weak! Haha. That is why my standing position there is sooooo awkward! But boy oh boy that view is WORTH EVERY FREAKING KNEE WOBBLING THERE IS! It’s beyond gorgeous!
If you are not very brave to take a picture in this part of the Summit, there is another area that could make up for it. You just need to get the proper angle. Here’s a group pic of us in that place:
Or you can just simply take photos of the view. It’s too pretty not to snap. Instagram-worthy, I am telling you!
GORGEOUS! ❤This place looks like a straight crop out from an enchanted forest with magical creatures or something. I tried going to the farthest rock formation but the rocks i’m stepping in aren’t too stable and it will be a nasty fall if ever so… 😀
Okay this I have to be honest with you, if you think climbing up is hard – THINK AGAIN. Going down is WAAAAAAY harder – my exhaustion almost ate me alive. Haha.
The main reason it was harder is because it’s still raining and going down on slippery mud is not in the very least ideal – it’s brutal! Almost all of us slipped or near-slipped in some way but thank God none of us had any serious injuries, just minor cuts and bruises.
Despite feeling tired we just went ahead because we have no choice but to go down right? Unless we want to stay there in the mountains come night – uhm, NO.
Going down probably also took as 4 1/2 hours at the most. The longest 4 1/2 hours of my life so far! Haha, I literally cannot stand without support at about 30 minutes before we’re over – I am almost crawling for my life. lol
But alas, it ends, and here we are at this amazing river that we were viewing from the summit! We washed our mud-caked clothes and shoes there too!
Photo grabbed from JD Ro (Facebook)Isn’t she lovely….Isn’t she wonderful… 😀I couldn’t stay long in the water though because I am freezing cold! It’s still raining at this point and winds are so strong! Yikes!
There’s a store there near the river so we had hot Lomi first before heading back and bathed and changed our clothes there too. The walk to the tricycle bay is long too, it was dark when we already got there which is a bit scary but people there are nice so nothing to worry about.
We reached the registration site at around 6:30 and then we’re back to our rented van at about 7pM.
We arrived in Shaw Blvd. at around 9PM.
And that is it for my adventure blog! Hope you enjoyed the view as much as I did! My pictures don’t do it justice though, I wish I could bottle everything that I saw – it was just magnificent.
If you want to see more of something like this check out my travel blog post last year here.
Another one of my journal spreads! Enjoy! Blurred out a few parts though because I’m mysterious like that, lol no – I just got a little personal, that’s why haha.
In case you missed my first journal spread post, here’s the link to it.
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Updates on your journaling? Have you been doing it too? Isn’t it fun going back through your posts and seeing everything that has happened – sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago, other times it feels like it was just yesterday. The magic of writing down memories – whether it’s a good or a bad one, it happened and you’ve learned from it either way ❤
I thought I’d share another tip for journaling:
Give TITLES to your day. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just something that highlights your day – and you don’t have to do this everyday either, just on dates that you feel doing so.
Write QUOTES. This has always been a journal saver for me. There are times that I’m in a journaling slump and nothing in the entire day eve mattered so I just write a quote or bible passage instead. I do write at least something that still made sense in relation to how my day went.. 🙂
Okay this I have to be honest with you, if you think climbing up is hard – THINK AGAIN. Going down is WAAAAAAY harder – my exhaustion almost ate me alive. Haha.
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