Author Archives: Valerie Leung

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About Valerie Leung

I ♥ Sydney Swans. Square-eyed from too much television. I don't read enough. You can find me blogging at LibraGirlRules.com, writing about TV, films and books at ArmchairParadise.wordpress.com and occasionally traveloguing at ThursdayHasAView.wordpress.com. I have been known to write fanfic at fanfiction.net (http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2660477/) and you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @valshopaholic.

It’s All In Your Head

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I am sure at some point in your life, someone has said to you “It’s all in your head!” It doesn’t matter what “it” may be, chances are that person is right.  What am I talking about?  Attitude.  Perspective. The Power of Positive Thinking.  Whatever it is that separates successful people from the rest of the pack.  I am not a psychologist but I’ve watched enough Oprah to know there is some truth to this.

When I started this blog, it felt like it was a long time coming.  I had loved reading and writing when I was in high school and always wished I could be a writer.  I was never that good – as my mother loved to remind me, many of my stories ended with the main character waking up from a dream because I had no idea how to wrap it up (but if you have ever seen the Keanu Reeves/Al Pacino movie Devil’s Advocate or the TV series Dallas, you will realise there are Hollywood writers who suffer the same ailment so I no longer beat myself up about it).  The final kick in the butt for me to start blogging came from my then 7-yr-old nephew who started his own blog (Kids’ Movie Guide).  And even more recently, friends of mine encouraged me to try my hand at fanfiction, and oh boy, once I started typing, I could not stop.  For a week, I spent every night writing for hours working on my story till I finally got it out…over 8500 words!

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A Time for Reflection

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This is that time of the year when people are suffering the post-Christmas blues (you know, complaining they ate too much or spent too much) and contemplating what resolutions they are going to make on New Year’s Eve, ideally ones that they might actually keep.  This is also the time of year when people say to themselves “where have the past 12 months gone?” or exclaim “I can’t believe it’s another year already!” as if it has taken them by surprise.

For me, new year’s resolutions have never been an issue.  I simply don’t make them.  What is it about that one day of the year that makes it different to any other day?  Oh, I am not a party-pooper by any means. I love the parties and the fireworks and the all-night music video shows that count down to midnight.  But I believe that if you are going to resolve to lose weight (which is likely the most common resolution on NYE, right next to “I’m going to find my perfect partner”) then eating and drinking copious amounts of caloric food and alcohol is probably not the best way to start off.

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In Loving Memory: For My Grandmother

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My Grandmother's visit to Sydney June 2004

To be honest, I am not really sure what my earliest memory of my Grandmother was.  To my sister, Stephanie, and I, she was “Po Po”, meaning “maternal grandmother” in Chinese.  She, and our Grandfather (known as “Gung Gung” – maternal grandfather) used to babysit us before or after school, depending on what grades we were in, until our parents got home from work.

They were the typical grandparents – they spoilt us and they indulged us, or rather, I should say, mostly me, in my bad behaviour.  Don’t get me wrong, I was not a bad child, just naughty.  I will be the first to admit I was one of those naughty children who liked to push the boundaries of tolerance to see how much I could get away with.  Everyone knows that my sister, just over 2 yrs my senior, was the poster child but as they say, if the first-born was a nightmare, there would never be a second one!

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The Kindness of Strangers & Friends

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The autographed picture of Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay for my birthday 2010

I have been espousing the positives of Twitter for the past several months to my non-Twitter friends. Some of them find it most bizarre of me to be so obsessed by it and that I could tweet the night away chatting to complete strangers I have never met. Yes, it does seem odd for someone who has grown up wary of the dangers of “talking to strangers”. But the generosity and kindnesses shown to me by my new Twitter friends have given me so much hope that there are still good people out there.

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The Addiction of Fandom & You Can Join in the Fun

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All my friends know by now that since I got my BlackBerry a few months ago, I have been almost joined at the hip with it. I never went anywhere without my old mobile anyway but now that I have all my emails, Twitter, Facebook, all more easily accessible and at a much cheaper cost than the old one, I am even more attached to it than before.  Recently, one of my friends called me anti-social because I was checking Twitter while she was driving instead of talking to her, but the ironic thing was that I was tweeting with someone on the other side of the world or the other side of the country, discussing our common bond: White Collar and its stars Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay.

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