What to do in Leeds: my favourite places

Hey guys ^^ having lived in Leeds for a year at uni, I thought I'd write a post on my favourite places to go in Leeds.

First, obviously, is the University of Leeds. I love it so much aaah. Studying Japanese here is a dream come true ^^

Sushi waka is my favourite Japanese restaurant in Leeds. It is fairly cheap, and there are often student discounts or special deals as well. The food here is really good though, and has the stamp of approval from our Japanese friends too. You can get a good meal for around £8, and then there's usually a discount on that sometimes. 

Sukhothai is a chain of Thai restaurants around Leeds. It is so good! A bit pricier than Waka, so I got my parents to take me when they visited, hehe. They did have a good set meal deal for Sunday lunch which was about £13.

Speaking of Sukhothai, there are a tonne of lovely restaurants in Headingley. I'm not made of money, so I haven't tried many, but Salvo's was a lovely Italian place I tried. 

Skipton is a really cute town outside Leeds. It has a canal, castle, market town... Such a cute day out ♡

Howarth is a little villiage near(ish) Leeds. It is adorable! But apparently it gets pretty busy in summer, so I went on a very rainy March Saturday ^^ 

The Royal armories is an awesome (free entry) museum in Leeds. So interesting! I wish I'd spent longer in here! 

Karaoke at Mix karaoke: (located above sushi waka) is a great laugh! They also do some good discounts sometimes! Only downside is the machine is a little difficult to work, but the staff are always friendly and show you how it works as many times as you need ^^

Bowling at Roxy Lanes: there's another bowling alley in Leeds, but Roxy lanes gets my vote. It is a cute tiny bowling alley near Trinity shopping centre, and played the most nostalgic pop punk songs the whole time me and my flat went. 

Leeds has a great nightlife, but I'm not the biggest party animal, so I can't really advise on clubs. Me and my friends usually ended up at the Leeds university union's Old Bar due to the cheapness of the drinks. However, I also loved Baa Bar, which served the most amazing (and massive) science-themed cocktails and drinks. Wednesday is also two for one on cocktails. Yes please! 

Carpe Diem, Santiagos and Strawbs were some cool rock-playing bars I went with rock soc.

Fab cafe was also great! It's like a geek themed bar, and had a dancefloor and played pretty decent music. Here's my post on last September's Zombie Prom at Fab. Anime doc used to go here after their weekly showing. 

^my outfit for zombie prom.

Finally, can't talk Leeds without mentioning how amazing it is for Shopping. Leeds trinity is the newest shopping centre, it's huge and has Primark, H&M and Topshop super close to each other. Heaven. 

Leeds is also a haven for cute vintage shops and independent shops. The arcades are also adorable. 

Phew, that was a wordy post.... Hope it was helpful/ interesting ^^ 

Lastly, check out Leeds list which has a tonne of posts about cool restaurants and things to do.

Thanks for reading *\(^o^)/* 

Have you ever been to Leeds? Got any recommendations? 

-Amy xoxo

Weekly outfits #6

Hi everyone!

Another weeks' worth of outfits to share today~

also as a bonus, here are some pictures of my outfit for the Japanese Society Summer Ball- which was aages ago but I forgot to post them >_<;;

And here's a pic with me and my boyfriend ^^ 

Thanks for reading (^O^)/

Cooking for yourself at uni: 24 tips to eating cheaply and healthily

Hey guys (^O^)/

Today, to kick off my uni tips series, I thought I'd talk about fending for yourself at uni. Let's get started ^^

1 Start learning how to cook before you leave for uni if possible: ask your parents for recipes/ find some simple stuff online and learn one or two meals

2 Shop at a bigger supermarket: they will have more 'basics' that will be cheaper

3 Buy online and club together with your flat to get free delivery or split the cost between you

4 Buying stuff in bulk can save a lot of money. 

5 Having said that, larger packets aren't always better value: compare price per 100g or 100ml etc to work out which is the best deal

6 Lidl and Aldi. Enough said really. 

7 Try shopping at your local market. One of my flat mates saved a lot of money that way. 

8 Frozen food is great value: a bag of frozen broccoli, edamame or mixed veg will be like £1-2, be pre prepared and easy to cook and lasts forever

9 Cook family sized meals and then portion it into takeaway tubs and freeze them: so convenient and easy to do

10 Mark the date when you put things in the freezer with whiteboard pen to keep your freezer organised 

11 Making your own lunch will save you a tonne of money over the year compared to buying a meal deal

12 Bring your own water too: bottled water is expensive

13 Have some healthy snacks on hand e.g fruit, popcorn

14 If you get on with your flat, sharing things like butter, milk and flour could be a good idea

15 Meal plan! This will save impulse buying of snacks 

16 Whenever you see a sale or a deal on something you know you use often (for me this was things like tuna and green tea) snap it up! This will save you money in the long term.

17 Join a supermarket reward scheme if you always shop in the same place- I didn't do this soon enough

18 Keep a loaf of bread in the freezer and you can defrost a few slices as and when you need it rather than having the whole thing go mouldy (and believe me, it wasn't a nice experience)

19 Slice some bananas up and freeze them: it's like homemade ice cream but healthier 

20 Don't keep junk food in your cupboard: this makes it easier to resist temptation if you have to go to the supermarket to buy something rather than just going to the kitchen and eating a spoonful of Nutella ^^;; 

21 Don't food shop when you are hungry as it makes you more likely to buy junk food. I've also heard that chewing mint avoided gum helps you resist impulse buys of unhealthy stuff.

22 Know what is worth spending money on

Things like meat. I also always like to buy free range eggs (only a few pence more anyway). However, branded goods are the same wherever so it is worth shopping around for a deal. Things like tinned kidney beans and chopped tomatoes can also be bought from the 'basics' range in my opinion ^^

23 Some good resources for learning to cook:

BBC Food

Delia Smith's website 

 24 Here is a list of how long different foods will keep in the freezer

Thanks for reading, I hope this was helpful ^^

Anyone at uni/ been at uni/ is living on your own: how did you get on? Do you have any tips of your own to share? 

-Amy xoxo

Uni tips series: Introduction

Howdy y'all ♡

It's summer and I have completed one year of studying Ba Japanese at the University of Leeds. 

I feel like I've learnt so much, both academically but also stuff about friends, being more independent, studying effectively etc. 

So I thought I'd share some of that with you guys, because I know that this time last year I was reading every 'uni advice' post I could get my hands on...

I'm going to split it up into a series, which will cover topics like:

• Cooking
• studying
• Making your dorm room feel a bit more like home
• Organisation/ time management tips
• A packing list for what to bring
• Friends and socialising 

And so on ^^ 

I hope it might be helpful for someone~ 

Please stay tuned (^O^)/ 

-Amy xoxo

Bring Me The Horizon releases official audio for 'Happy Song'

So I can safely say this has been on repeat since it was released on BMTH's youtube channel

I love BMTH and the fact that they are trying out new sounds since sempiternal is a good thing. (Although I'm sure some of the fans would have preferred them to release a carbon copy of suicide sessions again). I think that a lot of the negativity about BMTH's new sound is the fact that they have definitely got more popular and most of the hipsters are upset that BMTH isn't just 'theirs' anymore. Ok rant over ^^

Unpopular opinions aside, I think this track is so fun to listen to! It is very catchy and the riff is perfect ♡
The fact that BMTH and Crossfaith (another of my favourite bands) both released videos days apart was too much for my fangirl heart, hehe. (Read my post about Crossfaith's Xeno here)

Thanks for reading ^^

-Amy xoxo

CROSSFAITH xeno excitement ♡

So the official lyric video to Xeno is up on Crossfaith's Official Youtube Channel

From the first few bars, I knew this song was going to be a new favourite of mine. The intro and verses are fast and high energy, while the chorus is a little slower but catchy. I can't wait to shout along at a concert! And they have a new album coming out! But as it is out in September, I'm going to have to pick it up in Japan (Omg I'm not ready ahahah) 

Crossfaith are also playing a few dates in Japan in September (I'm hoping I can catch the boys at Zepp Osaka but I'm not sure if I'll be able to this time... Fingers crossed they tour a lot! (I will stalk them) 

Also check out my post about Crossfaith's gig at Manchester Academy 2 back in November

Thanks for reading!
-Amy xoxo

Summer Haul: Primark, Juju Jellies and Topshop

Hey guys ^^

Here are a few things I picked up from Leeds a while ago ^^ 

Firstly: Home ware! I wasn't allowed to have any candles in my Uni halls, so I got a couple of Watermelon and Citronella scented ones to take home. At £2 each, you can't really say no, can you?

I also bought this flower crown... because Summer :D it was £4 from Primark.
For me, a trip to Primark isn't complete without picking up a couple of pairs of tights.




I also picked up these shoes for the Japanese Society's summer ball. 10% student discount, baby~



Lastly, I picked up a new pair of Jellies, reduced from £28 to £9! And so much better than the other pair I'd bought (which were knock offs and fell apart in a few weeks) Sometimes it's worth paying for brand ^^

Thanks for reading, guys :D
-Amy xoxo

Weekly outfits 5

Hey guys~ 

I have another week's worth of outfits to share:

That's all for now, guys ^^
see you next post and thanks for reading~

-Amy xoxo

teenAge dream: SuG's new single

So we all know by now that I loooove SuG. Probably slightly more than is healthy. So any new single of theirs is met with squeals of anticipation, and their latest offering, 'TeenAge dream', doesn't disappoint! One reason I love SuG is that they always try so many different styles. 'TeenAge dream' is lighter and slower than some of their other songs like 'howling magic' but it is so addictive! I can't wait to see them next year~ (because you and I both know that I will stalk them as much as is humanly possible.... hehehe)

Their next single: teenAge dream/ luv it! will be released on 15th July~

Give teenAge dream a listen here

Or check out SuG's official YouTube channel

Thanks for reading! 

-Amy xoxo
(image is from jpopasia.com)

100th (!) post: my blogging goals

So hey, little ol' candyflossoverkill has just hit 100 posts! I'm happy that I've stuck to it, and thanks to you guys for sticking with me (^O^)

So to mark my 100th post, I thought I'd post my goals for the next 100~ I don't have any grand goals in terms of internet fame or high traffic, I'm blogging purely for fun ^^ but I still have a couple of goals for candyflossoverkill:

More regular posting schedule 

I've got better at this lately, but I'm aiming for 2-3 posts a week. Hopefully I'll do a round up of the weeks outfits, then another lifestyle/ music/ inspiration type post or two

Vary the content of my blog

Like I just said, I want to write about different topics. Music that I'm listening to, places I go to and also about uni and studying abroad. 

Take better photos

I'm not talking anything major here, as I'm not very tech savvy, so this will be a bit of a stretch. Still, I want to get better at composition and stuff like that. 

Write longer blog posts

I like writing, and I wanna make more posts that aren't just 'chuck a bunch of outfit photos and run away' kind of thing. Although, I'm still gonna do them too ^^

Make the blog look better

I want to work on things like layout and maybe make a header. But like I said before, I'm useless with technology ^^

And finally... make a blog that I'd want to read ♡
(and maybe a few of you lot want to read, too?) 

Thanks for sticking with me, guys~ 

*snuggles*

-Amy xoxo