Don't feed the British K-pop fans

It creates flash mobs all over the world, it crashes ticket websites, it has snubbed Britney Spears of an EMA award and it has sold out Madison Square Garden in minutes.

In just a few years, Korean pop music (K-pop for short), with its upbeat-dance-friendly tunes, colourful fashion, dynamic dancing and a ridiculous amount of group members, has seen a great surge in popularity all over the Western world – not least in the UK.

Last night's 'MBC Korean Culture Festival' at the Indigo2 (smaller venue at O2) in London, which featured both traditional and modern Korean acts, saw no exception in the British fans' enthusiasm for everything Korean.

All eyes on the Koreans Photo: Me

The concert, which is a part of 'All Eyes On Korea', a 100 day event promoting and honouring South Korea and its culture, saw 2000 plus Korean culture enthusiasts cheer and scream (mostly the latter) for traditional Korean music acts as well K-pop groups.

While the traditional cultural acts included performances with drums and traditional instruments, dancing and a fashion show of 'Hanbok', traditional Korean dress received loud cheers and woo's, it was obvious that the K-pop performance was the concert's main attraction.

Volume Up: Hyuna from 4Minute Photo:Mine

The first taste of the crowds' excitement came when an introduction video of the first K-pop act, girl group 4Minute, came on the big screen. It could have been a video of one of the One Direction boys getting undressed and the reaction would have been about the same.

Not deterred by the fact that the songs are entirely in Korean (except for the occasional oh yeah's and other nonsensical words) the fans sang heartedly - and loudly - along.

Contrasting the sensual  performance by the five-member girl group, were the comedic duo Norazo - combining funny dancing with humorous singing about everything from Curry to Supermen (I could only assume).

EXO-K performing their title song 'MAMA' Photo: Mine

However loud and excited the audience might have been during these acts (not to mention the dance performances of popular K-pop songs by international dance crews), it was nothing compared to the hysteria that exploded in the venue when 6-piece boy group EXO-K took to the stage. The group, which debuted less than three months ago, performed the most elaborate and energetic dances of the evening to ear-deafening cheers and screams - all worthy the likes of Take That and The Wanted.

The concert is the latest evidence that the British K-pop fans' are not to be underestimated.

Because I'm a sh*t blogger

And in pain, I'll just post a few hipster photos for you. Please love me.

I have a dissertation to write but I made this instead.

10 ways to spot a tourist in London

People go to London. I get that.  We got Big Ben. I get that. We got a K-pop section at HMV. I get that. Still, the sheer volume of tourists that are walking down these already-crammed London streets is mind boggling. In fact tourists have become so common in my daily life that I've learnt how to spot them miles away (I take boring tube rides).

So why won't I share some of that tourist spotting knowledge of mine to anyone who may want to avoid them for any weird reason - especially this summer.

A person is probably a tourist if he or she is:

1. Carrying around a (any kind of) book that says London in the front (or Londres, Londra, ロンドン etc)

2. Travelling in a pack of more than 4 people in the same age (teenagers and pensioners are dead give aways - except for Chinese people because they might just some rich men off spring studying at UCL)

3. Carrying a plastic/paper bag from any of these places: Natural History Museum (or any museum except for the artsy ones because half of them might just be hipsters), Disney store or M&M world

4. Overdressed, especially those with a down jacket, scarves and gloves. (I tell you no real Londoner owns a down jacket)

5. Carrying a London tube map

6. Having their picture taken (together with someone else is a give away) in a place where they're clearly obstructing other pedestrians.

7. Carrying a paper travel ticket and isn't wearing a suit or any other formal clothing.

8. Carrying a large plastic/paper bag from any of these places: Primark, HMV or Whittard of Chelsea.

9. Walking down Oxford Street slowly.

10. Within 5 metre radius of Buckingham Palace

(NB: These applies to any location in London, except for Oxford Street where there's a 80% chance that a person is a tourist)

Happy tourist spotting!

Destinations

Gröna Lund in Stockholm, Sweden

Fiskehamnen in Malmö, Sweden

Household cavalry museum, London

One Day More

Click for more ;)

Daaang. but I'm allowed to look at you right.?

Not so miserable anymore

Hey, it's been a while.
As I've been recovering from the horrible fact that the Sweden Democrats made parliament, other stuff have been happening as well.

Firstly, I'd like to announce that I'm going to see Nick Jonas sing Empty Chairs in. real. freaking. life. Yup, I've got tickets to the Les Misérables Concert at the O2 arena next Sunday. I'm beyond excited! You know (you do?) I've been trying to get tickets to the concert since the tickets were released but with no luck (unless I wanted to pay £110) on top of that I was terribly depressed that I couldn't see Nick in the musical.

By some weird force I clicked into Ticketmaster last Friday and just like Harry can fly a broom I found tickets (i.e ones I could afford)! Mixed with overjoy and nervousness I bought the tickets, resulting with me both selecting the wrong delivery method and buying a freakin' insurance I didn't want. Epic win, I know. After an hour of outrage I realized I just had to live with it and learn from my mistakes how stupid they might be.

A friend of mine from Malmö has came to London to start her studies at my Uni. She's living with me for a couple of days until she can move into her student halls. We've been out and about in London as much as we could while the weather has been so great. For example this afternoon was spent in the lovely Hyde Park.


Otherwise I've been trying to go through the huge pile of course books I've borrowed last week. I will not make that mistake to come completely unprepared to a new course again. No siree.

Cheers,
Tiffany

..and then I saw Zac Efron

Me: I saw Zac today.
Sis: WAS HE WONDERFUL?!

There goes my movie premiere virginity to Charlie St. Cloud. I went to Leicester square around 3 o'clock (the actual thing starts around 6) and full preparation for the premiere were at large. As I walked around to figure out the best places I was really surpised to see so many old people (26 plus) , people who have camped (yup, sleeping bag and everything) and so many....men.

Since there were still some good places on the other side I decided to take a turn around Chinatown. I returned with some snacks and were ready to wait those 2 hours for Mr Efron. I chose a place vertically overlooking the red (but blue) carpet.


I sat down against the barricades and started reading a book I'd brought. People started to fill up as the clock drew nearer to 6. I was half frozen when the "celebrities" finally arrived. Lucky me, we stood right were their car pulled up, so we were the first ones to see who it was in the cars. A few kids who apparently were really famous British TV stars were the first to come. After a few nobodies Anna freaking Popplewell came out of a cab a half meter from where I stood. It was my Narnia period all voer again, my heart was pounding so fast.

Not long there after comes Mr Efron himself and the crowd goes nuts. They were all "Zaaaa--aaahhhhh--ac!!!!"
Rather than screaming "We want Zac!" (Yup, he's a piece of meat alright) every other minute I was really jealous of the random people that were invited to the premiere. And I decided that one day, one day I'm going to be one of those having a ticket and walk down the red carpet. You know, you gotta have dreams. ;)

Toodles,
Tiffany

Mourning and Moving on [edited]

I would never believed if you told me 3 years ago that in on the 10th September 2010 21:08 I would be laying in a double bed with a brand freakin' new laptop while watching Brittish TV in my own room in LONDON. I would seriously laughed my head off, yeah right. But I am actually and I it feels a little bit unreal. It's a little bit too good.

So let's recap the last 2 days I've been away. Wednesday morning I started with the moving. Packed as much as I could and started my lord-of-the-rings-long journey to the new house, a journey which I would do not less than 4 times that day. Luckily one of my friends could help me. It was absolutely exhausting, dragging and lifitng the suitcase and bags. By the end of the day I had moved practically all of my stuff except the guitar and a few things.

It felt absolutely great to move into the house, into the huge room, into a place with people I knew. The world was a happy place until in the evening I wanted to talk to my family to tell them everything was fine and stuff. I plug in the laptop push the start button. Nothing. Pushes it again. Nothing. WHAAT?!

As I've mourned and moved on (herk, even bought a new laptop), the circumstances are still too weird not to think about them. The night before I was using the computer as normal (for example watching the first episode of Sherlock, which is awesome btw) and I turned it off. The next day I moved it here to the house. What is wrong?! My friend and I brainstormed numerous theories from different electricity to broken adapter. The next thing I was all over Argos website and reserved a new laptop.

I bought a new freaking laptop today and I feel so freaking guilty. I feel like that slutty widow who hooks up with her late husband's best friend at his funeral, you know.

My new lover.

Yours sincerely,
Tiffany

Attention, moving out!

So I'm back in London and I'm doing my best to move all of my things to the new house as soon as possible (my UNITE contract runs out on Friday).

As I've have whined about on my Twitter (I'm completely against it, I'm like DUDE give the workers more money, you cheap basterds!), there was a tube strike today with minimal trains running (my station, caledonian rd, was even closed) and buses jammed with people. I stayed on the safe side and didn't take any kind of transportation today. Instead I packed all of my things, went ot the bank and etc.

Don't be fooled by my relaxed behaviour though, I was freakishly stressed out two days before coming here , dead afraid I wouldn't make it fromt he airport into the city. And I thank the heavens the strike was today and not yesterday. The tube didn't go to heathrow today, not a single train. I can't even begin to explain what kind of disaster it would have been for me to come back during a tube strike.

Anyway, so I'm going to start moving my things tomorrow. It's not going to be pretty, 2 tube changes, a bus ride and hell a lot of stairs. Though I can't be more excited to move the heck out of here.

Cheers,
Tiffany

I know who dunnit

Saw Mousetrap tonight. WHOOP WHOOP! (Sry, have to say that everytime) It's the world longest-running stage production, I do understand why. It's brilliant. :)