choieevon♡

Dinner on me :)

2012-01-08T00:29:00.000+11:00

Was looking at my meal planner when I was surprised by this:

Went out for a haircut today. Really liked it! I asked for side-swept fringe and a trim. Hair feels so much lighter and looks healthier! Although while my hairstylist was combing through my hair, he casually mentioned that I need some serious treatment because my hair's so tangled -.- After a wash, he was struggling with combing my hair he had to ask another stylist for help hahaha! And I had to sit there and endure 10 minutes of hair-yanking. Aiya no money do treatment la not that it'll last. Once my stupid bleached ends are gone it'll be healthy no need waste money on whatever treatment. Have to wait about... 2 years la I think hahaha!

Wk took a picture of me while we were waiting for our train and told me I'll look better without my specs. So I took it off and he said I look 10 years younger without the specs. But I'm blind without my specs @.@ Actually kind of cheating one la. The angle in the second picture made me look so much better than the angle in the first. If he took a picture of me from the front without my specs, I'll still look like a grandma wtf.

Remember I said I will never complain about the cold? I take that back. We had to walk home under the rain today because we forgot our umbrella. Omfg so cold. Wk laughed and asked me "Would you walk under the rain in the sun or in the cold?" I said "In the sun" wtf.

A Smoky New Year's Day

2012-01-07T00:44:00.001+11:00

On New Year's Day we invited Maggie and Kai Mun over for dinner. Dinner was almost served when I took out my chicken from the oven and Wk was quickly stir-frying the round beans. And then all of a sudden the smoke alarm went off! We thought it was due to all the heavy cooking eventhough really, there was no smoke to begin with.

Wk tried to turn it off but for unknown reason it couldn't be stopped. After beeping for a good 5-10 minutes, suddenly there's an automated announcement asking us to evacuate the apartment! And it wasn't just announcing in our apartment, it was annouuncing even in the walkway and we guessed it was announcing in other apartments too! At that point everyone panicked. If a smoke alarm is triggered, sometimes it automatically calls the fire brigade and they will come once they get the news. And even if there is no fire, they will charge depending on whose apartment the alarm was triggered!

While Wk was trying hard (but in vain) to dismantle the alarm to turn it off, we were busy looking for numbers to call through the apartment manual eventhough we know on New Years Day, it is highly unlikely for us to get anyone. Called, no one picked up. At the same time, the freaking alarm was beeping, the automated announcement was announcing, everyone was frantic.

And then suddenly after about 10 minutes the announcement and the alarm stopped. We waited for a while but nothing happened. And then Maggie said "What if it's another person's apartment?" which could possibly explain why we couldn't turn it off in the first place because smoke alarm comes with a button for you to turn off when you need to. But we couldn't understand how could our alarm have went off when it's another apartment that's triggered their alarm. We were so confused but there was nothing we could do so then we proceeded to have our dinner which was already cold by then lol.

Until today, we still couldn't figure out what happened. One thing we were glad for sure, the fire brigade didn't come or else the dinner would have cost a fortune! If it actually WAS another apartment who triggered it... damn we must have looked freaking silly panicking and running around trying to turn it off hahaah. What a day to start our new year.

My brother taught me how to make 烧肉 (Siu Yok) or Roasted Pork Belly so I decided to try making it. It was pretty good except the crackling wasn't good enough. Which was why I asked Wk to try 'torching' it lol! Torching didn't solve the problem, the heat comes out too strong that it charred the skin very quickly. I kinda figured why the crackling wasn't as good so I shall try making this again.

Oh I almost forgot. On New Year's Day, it was 38 degrees. 38 freaking degrees! The temperature went lower at night. And the next day, it went up to 40!!!!!! I couldn't even sleep properly for that 2 days.

It's my first time going through this in Melbourne and I swear it's not fun at all. Seriously thank goodness the temperature has dropped now. I will never ever complain about the cold again. Ever! It's so much better to be cold than hot! And the heat here is crazy. It's hot, the wind is hot, with fan you're only circulating hot air within the apartment, and the air is sooooo dry that it dries your skin out like crazy.

And you know what I saw on the 40 degrees day? A man sunbathing in the park!

%^$!@&%$!!! Seriously??! At 40 degrees?! I couldn't even stand it inside the apartment and that man was out under the sun without clothes. The sun can do so much of damage to the skin, it was like watching a person committing suicide.

Twenty Eleven Reflection

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000+11:00

Achievements:

1. Embarked on a new journey

I'm talking about moving over to Melbourne. Not sure if it's necessary to call this an achievement. At least I know I've escaped from doing things I'm not happy about and I decided to give my life a change for the price of familiarity.

Thank you all who came for the gatherings/to send me off ♡ That includes you too Cathy Moo! You must be hiding behind someone in one of those pictures hahaha.

2. Ended long distance relationship

This would most probably be one of the best things achieved this year. It may not seem like a huge accomplishment to others but for Wk and I, we've never been happier.

3. 9 years

On Christmas this year, it's been 9 and half years since we started dating. Gosh... we're so old! :P Hitting the decade omg. I'm so grateful to have met someone I can proudly say I can spend the rest of my life with. Someone who helped and will still help me grow (mentally, not sideways wtf...) and be better, someone who will always be there for me in any situation :)

4. Dyed my hair red

It's one of the 'must do before I die' which I can now happily tick off!

5. Distinctions

3 of my former violin students achieved Distinction in their violin exams! Well technically the credit goes to their new teacher but as their former teacher, I should be proud of them!

6. Topped Scores in Vege Samurai and Fruit Ninja!

I've never been able to top Wk's score in anything because well, he's a gamer and I'm not so it's only normal that he's better with games. But not these 2 apparently :P

I do realise that all these are actually not that substantial at all to be called achievements :P This post is not meant to be super serious anyway. So what if I haven't really achieved anything great? Life's too short to be whining over achievements.

I've learned to:

1. Cook better

I started being active in the kitchen when I was 15, it was more of a hobby thing but as the years passed, I got lazy and the skills just got rusty. Coming here, I don't have my grandma to cook for me anymore. Eating out is just too expensive. And I'm picky with food in terms of taste so in order to keep up to my standards, I'll have to cook and just learn to cook better. It gives a great sense of satisfaction once you hit the right taste and knowing you cooked it from scratch.

2. Appreciate food

When I was home, I used to not eat whenever I think my grandma's cooking is not tasty and I would choose to eat out even when the food's prepared. I feel so terrible for being such an ungrateful grandaughter :( Having cooked for the past few months myself, I learned to appreciate how valuable everything is not just the food, but the effort to have something served up during dinner.

3. Eat healthy

It probably has to do with being the one cooking. I cook almost everyday that over time, I become more and more conscious about the things I put in my body. But I'm not a hardcore healthy eater. I'm just more aware and I would not find it time wasting to google on information about nutrition of specific foods. Afterall, you are what you eat. That being said, I still eat junk. In moderation of course.

4. Swim

I've always been afraid of water, never known how to swim and always wanted to learn. Fortunately, Wk used to swim when he was a kid and he is a confident swimmer. We go to a community centre 5 minutes walk away from our place to swim every 1-3 weeks depending on our schedule and so far, I'm able to do breaststroke and a little bit of freestyle already!

5. Have self discipline in spending

Don't think there's much to say about this as I constantly mention how things are so expensive here in Melbourne. I used to be so frivolous in spending only because I've never had any serious commitments hahahah. Coming here, there's rent, there's monthly transportation fares, groceries, household, there's the money you need to save up for rainy days, there's bills... of course, there's that irresistable occasional shopping or eating out but I've learned to be more aware of what I actually need, what I only desire and NOT need, and to watch my expenditure closely. Speaking of eating out...

A collage of most of the food I've tired this year. Seems like a lot but most of it are from one same place. Told ya everything's expensive. If I were to eat out so often... pokai man.

6. Listen to Kpop

and swoon over cute Korean boys lol.

7. Keep in touch

... with my favourite people back in Malaysia. You know who you guys are :)

8. Be vain (as always), capture funny moments and have fun :D

Lol I was trying to depuff my eyes by pressing cold spoon on it.

You never regret the things you do but often, the things you didn't. There are so many things I wish I would have done or done better but I think there's no use living in regret. For the new year, I shall:

1. Get. A. Freaking. Job!
I have no excuse for this honestly. I procrastinate and I'm terribly good at it. Yes I am studying and I am aware that it is not an excuse at all because there's plenty of time for a part time job. Need. To. Get. Resume. Done!

2. Still keep in touch
... with my favourite people of course :)

3. Go home...
... during the holidays hopefully?

4. If I ever get to go home
I will eat and finish my grandma's cooking and never ever say no, I will help her cook, and I will cook for her. I miss my grandma so much :'(

5. Decide
Life has been full of uncertainties ever since I came here. First, it was visa issues. Now... something I don't wish to talk about so publicly. This year, I shall decide.

6. Still have self discipline in spending!
Definitely a must!

7. Blog more!
While looking through my archives, I realise in year 2009 and 2010, I have an average of 100 posts respectively. In 2011, THERE'S LESS THAN 50 HOMG! Oh what has age turned me into T_T Hopefully I'll get back into my blogging mojo and start publishing 10 posts a day hahahah! Of course not. But seriously, I should blog more. There's something about it that relaxes me. It's a good way to reflect on your past or yourself too.

8. Get a haircut, period.

Happy New Year 2012 everyone!

*This post was inspired by a blogger. But I'm pretty sure lots of bloggers would do a year end recap/self reflecting post so... if it sounds familiar, that's why :)

Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T20:44:00.000+11:00

Christmas this year was fun! :D

Last year around Christmas I was at Gold Coast with Wk and his family. Didn't get to do much because weather was horrible there. It kept raining, sky was gloomy, the beach was windy and cold all the time. And we had sucky, overpriced Chinese food as well wtf. On Boxing Day we were at the amusement parks. Was fun but it wasn't really a true Boxing Day activity which supposedly is a shopping holiday where shops will have huge sales and will be crowded with people hunting for bargains.

Made pancakes for brunch because we wanted to use up our milk which was expiring. But guess what... the pancake mix was expired wtf. I knew it's expired before cooking but it's printed as "Best Before" not "Use Before" so I assumed it's fine to consume. Wasn't bad but didn't taste as good as it should be. Oh well. That's exactly why you should toss expired food away. Don't be a cheapo smartass like me. Anyway, to prove that it's fine to consume food that has passed the "Best Before" date... we didn't laosai.

Lazed in the house for a while before heading out to Maggie and Kai Mun's place to cook up our own 'Christmas dinner'. We bought 2 meats from the market the other day; pork and stuffed, rolled turkey intending to roast them. It turned out to be a little bit disastrous because after roasting the pork for a while, we realized the oven was smoking up which was quite an unusual thing for us to see so we panicked. We figured it was the oil so we had to reduce the heat. And we weren't sure about roasting stuff so the meat ended up way overcooked. But the baked veges were awesome! We placed it right underneath the meats to collect their 'juices'. Also, the pork crackling was super crunchy and nice!

The brown thing at the bottom left which looks quite shitty (pun unintended) is our homemade mushroom gravy. Tasted alright, made it just because every dish was dry.

After dinner, Kung Fu Hustle was playing on tv lol. And then a Christmas-related episode of Southpark which as all Southpark episodes are, is twisted, gory and disturbing. We stayed over her place because we've planned to get up early and hunt for bargains during Boxing Day sale. Woke up at 5.30am, got ready and went out to shop at about 6.30am. This is my first time doing such a thing... waking up early just to go shopping. Gotta say it's pretty exciting :P

We could have gone later but I'm so glad we had the determination and went out early. The crowd towards mid-morning was crazy! If I was there when the crowd was massive, I wouldn't even have the mood to browse and shop. We went into Zara with lots of people inside without needing to queue but by the time we walked out (probably 15 minutes after), there was a long queue already.

Quite a 'fruitful' shopping!

The item we bought which I'm most excited about is this Kenwood stick blender.

Doesn't it look so handsome? :D

I've been contemplating for a while whether to get a blender or a food processor. A blender is good for pureeing which is quite impossible for a food processor to do. But a food processor can chop, dice, and mince/ground which is impossible for a blender to do. Solution? A stick blender which comes with a mini food processor! With this, I can mince, chop, dice, shred, slice, ground, whisk, whip, mix, blend and puree! Best part is it's not too expensive and it doesn't take up too much space. It's 20% cheaper than retail and there's a $30 cash back on top of that so it was really worth it. It's only a little bit more expensive than all the other stick blenders out there but it has so much more useful functions to offer.

We did all the homeware/kitchenware browsing and shopping before going to clothes. Clothing wise there wasn't anything impressively cheap in my opinion. I wasn't in the mood to shop for clothes anyway because by the time we get to seeing clothes, the crowd was already creeping in and to look at things with 16123761 other people and looking at the line in changing room, it's just a turn off. Wk got a casual blazer from his favourite brand which he has been eyeing on for some time.

After dim sum brunch, we headed to Chapel Street because we wanted to look at Topshop. Before getting to Topshop we were browsing at Country Road. There was nothing in the store which I wanted and I was standing at a corner waiting for Maggie to pay for her stuff when I saw this bunch of clothes of mixed styles all hanged randomly. It probably was the bunch of clothes which people tried and the store assistant didn't put them back to where they should be yet. I casually flipped and saw this blazer of a size I thought would fit me. Tried it on... and I regretted trying.

Its a soft blazer with drooping pockets, it was perfect fit and I loved it T_T and I could use but I don't need another blazer. It was selling at half its original price which was still expensive even with an additional 25% members discount IMO. I love how versatile it looks as you can wear it in both formal or casual ways. Then Wk decided to get it for me T____T virtual tears of joy hahaha.

Along with some bath mats and bowls, that pretty much sums up our Boxing Day. Technically, we went out at 6.30am, had brunch at 11, went back to shop and dropped the shopping bags at Maggie's apartment, chilled for about 30 minutes, then went to Chapel Street. Went back and chilled for about 2 hours then went for dinner before coming back home. We were sooo tired that as soon as we got home, we went to bed straight. Did all the unpacking today. Initially we wanted to put Maggie's idea into use by chopping up a whole bunch of garlic using my brand new blender and use it today as well as store it in the freezer for future use but that didn't happen cos we had to finish up some leftover food before they go bad lol.

How was everyone's Christmas?

On turning 20 something

2011-12-19T22:24:00.000+11:00

Do I look like a Korean? =D I thought they look quite cute so I asked for a pair of powerless geeky glasses from Korea when Maggie travelled.

So we went to Squires Loft Steakhouse on my birthday. But we didn't have steak cos we wanted to eat their lamb scotch fillet which I ate once and really liked, and their pork spare ribs which Maggie recommended. Both were really good! If you wanna have some nicely done red meat, Squires Loft will not disappoint. However, I think Meat & Wine Co. makes better chips so I'd say if you were to pick either baked potato or chips, get baked potato. The chips are forgettable. Their meats are good enough on their own so you can do with our without their sauce, which you'll have to pay for anyway. Also tried the baked mushroom and feta, quite similar to gratin. Quite nice but quite salty.

I wore this Topshop Fit & Flare Tunic, it's black but it has multicoloured metallic fibre all over which is not visible in this picture. And wore my new heels which almost killed my feet. We boarded on the wrong tram which went the wrong way so we had to get down to catch another tram. But we waited really long and there wasn't any tram and we were running late for our reservation so we decided to walk there. Freaking 1 kilometre. IN THOSE 4 INCHES HEELS. I was cursing and cursing and cursing, and then Wk decided to buy me bag to shut me up lmao.

Got some presents from some amazing friends! =D

When I was at Kit with my friends I was telling them how good this body scrub smelled and I was about to get it but because it was kinda pricey for a body scrub, I decided to put it in my wishlist. One of them got it for me! Aaaaaah it smells so good! Smells like caramel + maple syrup!

Yes an apron! One day my friend asked me if I wear an apron when I cook. I told her I wanted to get an apron but because aprons here are not cheap, I have to put it on hold. (I know, nothing is cheap in Melbourne) And they got one for me! And this apron is so freaking cute ok! It comes with a hand towel with velcro loop, and there's a velcro hook on the apron. So you can actually attach/detach the hand towel to/from the apron. How handy! You can't see it in the picture, but the piece of cloth I'm holding out, that's the hand towel. So when your hand's filthy, just wipe it on the hand towel. No need to dirty the entire apron. I don't know what you can put in an apron pocket... a mobile phone maybe hahahaha.

Another awesome gift from some of my friends - kitchen organisers from kikki.k! More about it later. I always keep recipes, plan my meals and have a shopping list whenever I do grocery shopping. And they got me a recipe organizer, magnetic meal planner and magnetic shopping list! My friends know me inside out ♡♡♡ I used to print a schedule to plan my meals and stick it on the fridge with scotch tape. I also have a regular shopping list pad but it's not magnetic. Now not only do I not need to print, I don't even need to stick. It's magnetic, and the shopping list is right next to it. Handy maximus!

I was looking for a new pencil case so about 2 weeks ago I decided to pop into kikki.k and have a look, and I fell in love with these 2 items. The charcoal felt pencil case and the 2012 Botaniska planner. Which then Wk decided to buy them for me for my birthday! =D Look at the emoticons which indicate mood and weather of the day, how cute!

kikki.k is a Swedish lable which designs stationaries and home/office objects. Think ikea design (Swedish too) but in stationary forms. Er... no flat-packing though lol. Their designs are basically simple, elegant and thoughtful. It's one of my favourite places to go to whenever I need stationaries or organisers.

On the same day after our dinner, my parents called me and wished me too. My dad said, "all the best blessing. happy birthday . sour 1st sweet later.owe u a present" lol =')

If any contributor of the presents are reading this, once again thank you! xoxo

Quarter of a century

2011-12-15T23:31:00.000+11:00

Does anyone absolutely hate it when you get uneven eyelids? I do. Check out my regrowths. It's as though I dip-dyed/ombre-d my hair. Mine's better. It's FREE! But takes almsot one year for 'results' to show lol.

Hahahahah this picture. I was cooking while Wk was playing Plants VS Zombies. It was kinda chilly that day so he wrapped himself with the throw, which looked really funny so I took a picture. I literally squtted and laughed really hard when I looked at this picture. Oh yeah if anyone's wondering, that's a TV slash PC monitor screen.

Fruit Ninja is dabombdiggity! It's a game in iPhone, super addictive at first but I got bored when nobody could beat my highscore, except myself *proud*.

Another one which I really like (and am really good at *proud*) is Vege Samurai. This was my last best score, before they supposedly 'upgraded' the game, screwed up the audio and the control system.

***

I've been through birthdays for so many years I think I'm too old to be excited over it already hahah. Tomorrow I'm turning a year older. My usual friends and my family are not with me this year but I'm still grateful that I won't have to be alone. Wk's taking me to a steakhouse for dinner tomorrow. Perfect timing to wear my newly bought Topshop dress.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Hey there smexy

2011-12-15T02:38:00.000+11:00

Omgggggg this GIF is making me crazy. This hot thing is not only cute, when he sings... *melts*.

I don't know what I was looking at in Youtube yesterday but I found a video of a young Charice belting out big songs like a boss. Then one video led to another... and I found one where she was in Korea singing the Aladdin song with this Korean guy who has crazy platinum blonde hair. And I thought "Heh. Some Kpop guy. Let's hope he doesn't embarass himself singing with Charice" but then...

I was in awe because well, I know I shouldn't be thinking this way but I can't help but to think that he wouldn't be able to even pronounce properly! When he sang, I thought this guy must be an American born Korean or something but no. He's pure Korean, who just happens to love learning and picks up language really fast. He can even speak a little bit of Mandarin.

And then after some ahem 'research', I found out he's from this Korean band called Super Junior (famous for their notorious "Sorry Sorry" song). I do not care for Kpop boys mainly because I do not understand a word they sing, their music isn't my cup of tea and I do not find them attractive AT FIRST. But I have heard of Super Junior even before discovering this guy. What I didn't know is how good some Korean guys can sing. And they have these 'charm' that works slowly. The more you look at them, the more charming they get lol.

I'm not sure if this is an unfortunate thing or not because I don't really give a shit, but this guy has had double eyelid surgery done before. I've seen his before surgery picture. Omg cannot make it at all ahahahahahah. But it's ok. Now he's all cute and charming and when he sings I just cannot stop smiling.

Ok enough of this silly fangirl post.

Hello December

2011-12-02T13:57:00.001+11:00

Feels unreal looking at how time passed so quickly. Feels like it was just yesterday when I first came to Melbourne, feels like it was just yesterday when I cried and bid everyone goodbye, leaving my family and my closest friends behind in the airport as I took the steps to be here. Hey, it has been 9 months now.

It was my mom's birthday on the 30th last month. I called home with Skype and unfortunately the webcam in the other side could not work so it was a 1 way video but we did manage to have a chat. Yesterday, the 1st of December was my sister's birthday. I wished her on Facebook and we laughed about how my dad actually sent her a Happy Birthday SMS in the midnight. It was funny because my dad is not an SMS type of person, neither is he the type who wishes people during birthdays lol.

Been doing nothing much lately except for fully utilizing the internet and the kitchen - what I do best hahaha.

Asian Style Lamb Cutlets

In my previous post I talked about buying these cutlets and how expensive they were. The recipe I used was actually good, really loved the marinade and sauce except that I could not figure out how to cook the lamb well enough. I did not want it overcooked but it ended up being very undercooked. I followed the instructions really carefully especially the cooking time but maybe my pan was not heating up properly. What a shame. The sauce was mainly dark soy sauce, vinegar, Szechuan peppercorn and others which I do not remember. I shall try making it again but no way am I buying 16 pieces of lamb cutlets the next time.

Steamed Toothfish

I also talked about buying these fish cutlets which resembled codfish very much. It actually tasted exactly like codfish too! So our initial guessing was correct, this could most probably be codfish with another name here. I steamed the fish then drizzled soy sauce over the top but I have discovered another way to make the sauce a lot more tasty. Will talk about that next time. The fish tasted obviously good but the only let down was I slightly overcooked it and I did not check if the scales were properly removed before steaming it. Not that I am a fan of eating fish skin anyway but it is really annoying to find fish scale in your mouth. I did not see this fish in the market last weekend so I am guessing it is a seasonal/catch of the day thing.

Bah Kut Teh

Not sure if anyone remembers me saying this but I have never been a fan of Bah Kut Teh and this is coming from someone who grew up in Klang hahaha. I've never eaten so many times of BKT in a year until I came to Melbourne, frankly. The only time I would eat BKT in Malaysia is after visiting my grandfather's grave during Cheng Meng cos my uncles and aunties would come down to Klang from Subang and having BKT is like a tradition already. It is actually not a very healthy choice of meal but I cannot deny how easy it is to prepare it. Just get the BKT packed herbs, boil water and throw everything in it. One pot wonder.

Son In Law Eggs

When I first saw this on Masterchef, I was intrigued. How does an egg have a hard-boiled white but soft-boiled, runny yolk?! Whatmore, the egg was deep-fried! I personally dislike eating hard-boiled eggs except for the tea leaf, herbal ones. Even with that, I always throw the yolk away because I absolutely detest that powdery texture and that weird taste (sulfur) in my mouth. After a few tries and finally succeeding in getting my eggs cooked just the way I like (hard whites, soft yolk), I attempted to make this Thai dish and can I proudly say it was delish?? =D I might make a whole post about this cos there's so many things I discovered while making this.

Pineapple Fried Rice

Hooray for making my own pineapple boat =D But it's so freaking difficult to eat from it so we ended up transferring the rice into a proper plate hahahaha. Using fresh pineapples to cook tastes so much better than using the canned ones. Fresh ones have that tanginess to it, canned ones are just full of sugar syrup.

Lamb Shank

This one is not a new thing. I have cooked this so many times but this time, I am most happy with the outcome. I used my shallow, non-stick pan to slow cook the shanks. This gives a much more even heating instead of stacking the shanks on top of each other in a deep pot. They usually come out not the texture I like (so soft it falls off its bone) but this time, it was perfect. Also made some garlic mash which turned out pretty good too.

Tonight I will be making Katsudon, a Japanese rice bowl dish with deep fried pork cutlet, egg and sauce.

It is the weekend! I will be off planning for next week's meals as well as what to get from the market. I have learned that it really helps me to save more money as well as eating healthy when I plan my meals ahead. At least I keep track of how many times in a week I eat my red meats, seafood, etc. And I also get to make sure I use up all the things I buy instead of leaving them to go bad. Planning last minute is like impulsive shopping. It always result in getting ingredients I use that one time and never end up finish using it before it turns bad. When you plan ahead of what to cook, you take into consideration of what you still have in your kitchen and that helps you to spend your money more wisely. Buying produce from the market is usually cheaper and fresher. You also get to plan and pack your lunch. Eating out in the city ALWAYS cost a bomb. Always. We usually only do it once every 1 or 2 weekends. My friend suggested me something which I found to be really insightful in terms of eating healthy: keep at least one day in the week free of meat, in other words go vegetarian because that allows the liver to not work as hard, processesing all the protein we consume.

Tomorrow night we will be heading to this place called Ibuki for Japanese dining with Wk's friends. Hopefully we will get to go swimming this weekend, did not do it last weekend because we woke up late and after running errands, it was getting late. Wk was saying that he might have to work this weekend... which means we might not be able to swim and I might have to go to the market alone =( not fun lugging groceries ok.

Anyway. How is everyone spending their weekend? =)

Freestyler

2011-11-13T11:36:00.001+11:00

I'm not being obsessed with my weight here but can I just say, swimming is freaking awesome? This has not happened once so I'm pretty sure it's not a coincidence. Yesterday before we went swimming, I weighed myself. After swimming, I weighed again and I lost 700gms! And it's not just water weight that I lost, I lost that 700gms for real! I weighed myself again some time through out the day yesterday and that 700gms came back. But then I weighed again this morning and that 700gms is gone. Isn't it amazing?? We were damn sure about swimming again today but sadly that didn't happen because we were loitering in the city for too long and it was getting late when we came back.

Talking about swimming, I've been making good progress! =D I can now do freestyle yay! It's not completely perfect though... I still feel like I'm not doing it right somehow. Oh well maybe it's just me. Whenever I do things, I rather not do it than to get it done half-arsed. Which is why I am quite determined to fix and perfect it. I remember the first day I went swimming here in the community centre, I couldn't even do half a lap. Yesterday was our 5th time and I'm doing laps already =) Well half the credit goes to my determination and the will to learn, half goes to my swimming instructor who's been very motivating and really patient with me hehe.

Today I had to accompany Wk to his project's site in Moreland. He had to take some pictures for his work stuff.

Nah this is Moreland lol. While he was doing his thing, I was reading up recipes and see if there's anything special to make for the week. So aunty ahhaha.

There's nothing much in the place we were at. Houses, a hospital, parks and more houses. It's so quiet. The thing I really like about the houses here is the very low fences, or sometimes none and you can see into the compound. It just gives a very sociable, friendly vibe. Some houses have really beautiful gardens. There was one house with light pink walls, and there's white roses planted around the fence. When we were walking towards the train station, an old man with a walker in one of the houses said hello to us. I think he wanted to have a chat but we just kept walking and smiled and said have a nice day cos we had to get to the market before it closes. Sorry old man =(

The houses in Malaysia have walls and gates at least 5 feet tall - otherwise it's like inviting robbers into your house. Sometimes taller or made of complete concrete if the neighbours don't like each other lol. Gardening is possible but with the humid weather and sun all year round, flowers don't really survive well. And if you say hello to a stranger, they'll look at you all weird and walk away. Or if there're some crazy dogs in the compound, it'll bark at you so hard as though it's going to kill you if it ever comes out of that gate.

Bought 16 pieces of lamb cutlets. So freaking expensive man... and the french trimming is not even clean. The dish that I'm planning to cook better be good. Found something really similar to codfish - steamed codfish is my favourite! We found this fish called toothfish which we suspect might just be codfish but with a different name here. It's so expensive, more expensive than a yellow fin, sushi grade tuna. But it's always good to have fish once a week. It better be good as well.

Okie. Time to make tomorrow's lunch! Thinking of maybe a fruit salad... since I bought some mangoes and strawberries. Oooh cherries are in season now! Time for a good Black Forest attempt =)

Since this post is full of random things Imma add one more randomness. When I was younger, I was a huge fan of this song - Freestyler by Bombfunk MC.

Still am a fan!

Recipe please

2011-11-10T14:27:00.003+11:00

Here comes some food pictures again! If you get hungry while looking at the pictures, I hold no responsibility.

Hokkien Mee

This was the second time I cooked Hokkien Mee. I tried making 猪油炸 (I hope I got the chinese characters right... if not, you may laugh away) or “zhu yao zhar” which is deep fried lard, but it didn't turn out right. If you've eaten Klang Hokkien Mee, it is NOTHING without zhu yao zhar. In fact, zhu yao zhar is in almost every 大炒 “tai chao” dish. I trimmed some fats (or possibly skin?) off some pork loin chops, cut them into pieces and deep fried them only to realise it's actually not lard hahah. Anywaaaaay. The Hokkien Mee sauce is actually SOOOOO simple: water, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and light soy sauce. Sugar, salt and pepper to taste but I hardly use any because the sauces are already quite salty. It definitely didn't taste like what you can get from tai chao (some more no zhu yao zhar T_T) but it's good enough to satisfy some craving for this cheap and tasty Klang food. I don't remember where I got the recipe from but I googled and referred to multiple recipes.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Maggie and I baked this during the weekend along with some Peanut Butter Cups you'll see below. Sooooo good! Except that we think the frosting is too sweet to our likings and we didn't even use the recommended amount of sugar, we used lesser! Gosh I can't imagine how sweet it would be if we were to follow the recipe. And we would have preferred it to be more 'cheesy'. Apart from the frosting, the cake is actually really good. I highly recommend this recipe. She (the recipe girl) made it into trifle but it can definitely be in a cake form, which was what she intended to do initially. Maggie and I didn't have enough round or square cake tins so we decided to bake it in 2 loaf tins and it worked! So we got to keep 1 loaf each which is more than enough for 2-3 people in the house.

Peanut Butter Cups

Peanut butter is my weakness, good ones that is. We used the recipe from the same girl which we got our carrot cake recipe from. Again, it turned out to be too sweet to our likings. And also we experienced a bit of difficulties here and there while trying to 'assemble' it. It's too long to explain here so I might just make a separate post when I make these peanut butter cups again. Don't get me wrong, it is a very good recipe, but when things don't work out the way you like, you need to improvise and innovate.

 Instant Noodle But Better

Lol at the name. Boil soup with salt, sugar or some chicken stock powder, pepper and sesame oil. Cut some spam (luncheon meat) and carrots and throw them in. If you have some extra vege lying around in your fridge waiting to rot, cut some and throw them in. Grab some noodle and throw it in. We used this instant Asian wheat noodle called Kan-To noodle which resembles spaghetti + mee sua, which we randomly bought. It's actually quite good! It doesn't turn the soup all starchy like mee sua does, and it doesn't have as much resistance as spaghetti and it cooks faster. Drop in an egg, cook to how you like it, and serve with some green decorative leaf (coriander, parsley, spring onion), a dash of sesame oil and pepper, if you want it to look all nice and fancy in pictures hahaha.

Stuffed Baby Bell Peppers and Shiitake

I learned this from one of my favourite Youtube cooking channels, cookingwithdog. I know wtf with the name but it's a very good channel to learn Japanese cooking! I've never liked to eat capsicum/bell peppers except when it's in pizza but lately I've been enjoying it! And besides these baby bell peppers are so cute, the size is perfect for stuffing. Imagine stuffing a normal size pepper... walao. I would have love it even more if I could cook with all 3 colours of baby bell peppers (green, red, yellow).

Ok that's it so far. Time for lunch. I made some salad yesterday for today's lunch at school. And................................. I'm at home now because I skipped school HAHAHA. Anyway. The salad didn't look very appetizing =.= how can a salad be appetizing anyway, right? Blehhhh.

A lil' eating and shopping

2011-11-04T14:17:00.002+11:00

Sea Salt | Fish and Sushi Bar

If you're looking for awesome sushi or fish and chips for awesome price, Sea Salt is the place. I first discovered this place when Lenny, one of my classmates brought me there to get some sushi rolls. They're awesome because not only do they taste good, they're affordable. I especially love their inari (beancurd pockets), so huge! I ordered this Sea Salt Fish Burger the other day and omg it was massive. I swear there was like 3 pieces of fish bites in the burger along with vege, cheese and a fresh sesame seed bun. For healthier option, they even have grilled tuna or salmon burger, which are only a dollar more than their normal, battered fish burger. Those taste really good as well.

Ramen-Ya | Melbourne's Best Japanese Ramen Noodle Restaurant

I haven't tried enough of ramen in Melbourne to know if they are really the best, but their ramen is indeed good. Not cheap but still affordable. Apart from ramen they have bento boxes but I've only tried the Tonkatsu Charsu and Shoyu Gyoza Ramen. I'd say if you were to try, go for their specialty which is the Tonkatsu Charsu. I'm not a huge fan of ramen and these definitely didn't blew me off my mind but they're decent-tasting and the warm soup's great for a cold day.

Kenzan @ GPO

I can't seem to find the website for this restaurant but doesn't matter because I don't quite like the fact that their food does not justify the price at all. The dish in the picture for example, is their Sake Teriyaki which is basically grilled salmon with teriyaki sauce, served with vege, mashed potato and steamed rice. That cost $22! Ok for salmon, maybe that's alright but seriously, $22 for a single serve, don't you think it's too much? We ordered this entree of 4 shitake mushrooms with minced prawn filling, and it cost us S16! That's like $4 for 1 freaking mushroom! And their Agedashi Tofu is S10. Will I go back and give it a second chance? Hrm... not keen. I can see that there's a lot of attention to details put into the preparation of each dish, and ingredients are fresh but I can't help to think that they are a little overpriced for something that tasted 'good' and not 'omg I want more'.

***

Online shopping is my bestfriend now. With Ebay and Asos and a friend to onlineshop with to save on shipping, who steps out of the house to shop anymore? Hahah.

Colour contact lenses

I can't seem to find the info page to these contacts from the website I got it from, maybe they don't sell them anymore :/ but look how cute the packaging is! They even gave free gifts which were a pair of lenses (which was crap, naturally) and a cute animal lens case. The colour of the free lenses were slightly different when worn so I threw those away already. My animal lens case are pig faces! ^@^ <--- obligatory lala emoticon to go with the pig face lens case hahahah!

Ardell false lashes

Can I just say putting on individual false lashes is a bitch? They are so tiny and flimsy and it's so difficult to put them in the right position. That being said, they look so much more natural than the strip (full) ones.

Asos.com

Currently waiting impatiently for these few items to arrive at my doorstep! 2 dresses, a top and a slip.

MAC Morange & Ruby Woo Lipsticks

I didn't buy these online, never buy MAC online unless you know the seller sells genuine stuff. MAC counterfeits are everywhere and they look real. Anyhow, I would never get lip products online cos you never know how long they've been kept. Lip products are essentially liquid/cream so they generally don't have long shelf lives.

I've always been afraid of loud, bright colours but recently got the urge to try so when I got to pick 2 lippies for B2M (Back 2 MAC), I decided to go crazy. I knew I wanted Ruby Woo (as the name suggests, it's a red) for the first, for the second one I decided on an orange. I went to 3 MAC counters to finally find Morange, and I'm so glad I tried searching for it instead of settling for something else.

These pictures are obviously edited, it doesn't really show how bold the colour is. It is truly bright and I luff it =D

云吞

2011-10-28T00:05:00.001+11:00

With food/recipe magazines everywhere, anyone can cook! =P

Today I attempted to make wontons which turned out pretty good. The recipe said to use chicken mince but since chicken meat here is so expensive, I decided to go with pork mince. I mean come on, who makes/eats wonton with chicken meat anyway? At least I don't, for all I remember wontons are always filled with pork. I think it would be a completely different texture if it was chicken meat, possibly not as 'soft'? Which defeats the purpose of making wontons cos literally wonton or 云吞 means 'swallowing cloud' which indicates the wonton being so soft it's like swallowing clouds.

My version is probably a cross between Cantonese and Shanghainese. Cantonese serves it with noodles, Shanghainese uses only pork and wombok (no prawn) and wraps it the way I did. The first time I tried to wrap it, I didn't know how to do it as the instructions weren't clear in the recipe. It turned out looking really ugly and weird so I looked up Youtube and found the right way to wrap them. Seriously, the internet has just about anything you're looking for it's not even funny.

By the way, I just finished watching Lord of the Rings (all 3) yesterday. I know, so freaking late. It was out when I was 15, at that time I probably still didn't have that much freedom to hang out with my friends and watch movies so when the 2nd or 3rd movie came out, I didn't watch it cos what's the point of watching when I didn't watch the first movie, right? Can I just exaggerate how freaking long the movie is? 3.5-4 hours for one movie, are you serious? Lol. Nevertheless, it was good. Next, The Matrix. Yes I haven't watched that either, because the name sounded boring hahaahh.

My Mexican Cousin

2011-10-26T18:28:00.000+11:00

On Sunday we went over to St. Ali for brunch. It's said to be famous for their cofee but I don't know much about coffee so gimme a cuppa macchiato and I'm good to go.

Wk had a latte (1) and the Daffy's Whole Egg (3) which has roasted assorted mushrooms with soft boiled duck egg, sauteed spinach and smoked sea salt. I of course had a long macchiato, and for my brunch I went with My Mexican Cousin (2) which is their secret recipe corn fritters, baby spinach, haloumi and kasundi with poached eggs. Maggie had the Napoleon Complex which is their french toast, you can see it in the second picture.

Loved the corn fritters! Corn fritters instantly reminded me of my Form 5 English literature subject where we had to read a book called The Pearl. Anyone remember that? Anyone? I really enjoyed the book so maybe that's why I can still remember the details. By the way corn fritters is not 'jagung goreng' ok... it's similar to pancakes but with corn in them. I guess traditionally people deep fry the mixture so maybe that's why it's called fritters but I'm pretty sure mine's not deep fried, it didn't taste oily at all.

I'm don't know much about coffee but I did enjoy my long macc. Food and service was good too but I heard they're always crowded and you can't book for a place though. They have quite an extensive menu, would love to go back and try other stuffs.

When we were on the way back to the city we passed by the Convention Centre and noticed there lots of people and some people with costumes so we decided to get down and have a look. I still don't know what was going on that day cos I was too busy looking at all the different costumes haha.

The Star Wars characters were all getting their photos taken (4). Then we grabbed a Stormtrooper for a picture (5). I did take pictures with them but... gosh I look so fat if I put it up it'll break the screen wtf.

By the way, speaking of Stormtrooper, I never knew they were called that until Wk and Kai Mun mentioned! All these while I've always referred them as "the white soldiers" or "the clones" haahahah. Even my brother calls them clones lol.

Their costume was really, REALLY cool btw. When they talk the voice goes through something in their headgears that digitizes it and make it sound semirobotic, exactly like in the movies. When Maggie and I was about to take a picture with one of them, we dropped our shopping bags ith the boys and the Stormtrooper asked us "Have you been shopping today" in that digital voice hahahaha it was so freaking funny. That day was a really warm, sunny day. I cannot imagine how hot it would be for those people wearing those costumes. Especially Darth Vader hahaha. I was kinda disappointed to not see Chewbacca though.

***

Teaching went pretty well last week! :) It was a piano distributing company, which is the sole distributor of Steinway & Sons in.. I don't know if it's Victoria or the whole of Oz but omg... a huge lot full of pianos! Steinway & Sons some more! I would choose to get a Steinway over a car... since Wk can buy a car hahaahah!

Ok time to go.

-

2011-10-21T00:27:00.000+11:00

Life isn't as easy as it used to be but I am constantly grateful that I am always very well taken care of. If I feel like it, I'll cook. If I don't feel like it, someone is always there to make my meal for me.

***

Michelle, my former boss in a music school I used to teach at in Malaysia who migrated to Melbourne, asked me to help her relief her piano classes because she is back in Malaysia for the moment. A temporary opportunity to have a job but I think it's going to be a great experience, to know how it's like in the music schools here.

School on the other hand is getting interesting. I'm now thinking of what I really should do. Initially I wanted to change to another course but I couldn't do it because it wasn't offered to international students, it still isn't offered now. I'm stuck with this current course I'm doing because I'm supposed to change only when it is approved by the government and offered to international students. I was convinced that it'll happen in August. Then September. Then October and the list goes on. The last I heard, it's not going to happen till next February. Which will make it 8 months from when I started this course I'm currently doing! Which makes completely no sense if I were to switch after being in it for so long.

I honestly don't mind continuing to do what I've been doing since I'm doing well and I do see some career prospect in it. The thing is I don't feel excited whenever I go to school. I'm only doing it for the sake of the fees I've paid, not for the love or interest of it. But to change after 8 freaking months? I don't know how's that going to happen without needing to pay some extra moolah, which obviously I'm not willing to. I can only blame the institution for tricking me into agreeing to do this course while I wait... oh wait. Maybe I should blame myself for being so stupid. Haihhh.

2011-10-02T23:37:00.000+11:00

So today we went swimming again. It was our 4th time if I remember it right. We've been going swimming pretty much every weekend and Wk teaches me how to swim. My dad taught my how to breaststroke when I was younger but it's not quite right... the technique. I'm guessing he learned it informally/self-taught which explains the wrong technique. I've always wanted to know how to swim... just because. It's a great cardio workout because in the water the exhaustion is somewhat disguised... if you know what I mean. I can never get the motivation to jog. So freaking tiring and boring.

I'm almost getting there with my breaststroke! Even did laps today. Not many but compared to the previous times, today felt very rewarding. Before this I had to break my swimming into 'sections' to complete 1 lap ok, it was that exhausting for me as well as demotivating looking at everyone swimming like a fish wtf. Even kids! Then again, I was most probably swimming wrongly so that's why.

And each time I was approaching the deeper end, I panicked when I looked at the base getting deeper and deeper, and then I'll stop swimming and turn around as though there's a monster in front waiting for me wtf. Today, it felt so much more in control! There was still a few panicky moments but I tried to be as calm as possible and it really did work - to stay calm.

Once I get my breaststroke right, Wk will teach me freestyle. Looking forward to that! Slowly I shall overcome my fear of the water and swim like a fish too! =D

This was my second attempt at coffee cake, after a pretty disappointing first. This time the cake turned out much better - much lighter in texture and more moist. Finally satisfied.

Thinking of what I should bake next...

I've finally finished reading Kafka on the Shore. And honestly I have absolutely no idea what it's all about. So I Wikipedia-ed it like a loser... and found out that's exactly how the author wanted it to be. Like a riddle. So I'm supposed to read it a few more times to figure out more which I can not be bothered. It was a good read though... very mysterious and strange which kept me going on only because I was as curious as a cat. Ha! What a coincidence for using that idiom cos the book talks about cats as well.

Today marks the start of daylight saving aka the clock has to be adjusted to an hour faster than before aka we just lost 1 hour of the day in this Sunday. Oooooh well.

A cookie within a cookie

2011-09-16T22:40:00.001+10:00

Happy belated Mid-Autumn Festival everyone! I wanted to grab a traditional mooncake just to feel close to home but unfortunately, the mooncakes here cost a bomb and I've asked a couple of people and everyone said they're not good. So we decided to try these dessert-stype, snow skin mooncakes and they turned out pretty good. Maggie and I both shared a big box so that we get to try out all the flavours they have. My favourite so far's the black sesame and durian.

Speaking of mooncakes, a couple of weeks ago one of my classmates/good friend from school gave me a mooncake from Starbucks! Of course you can't buy mooncakes from Starbucks here, that would be bizarre hahah. Her boyfriend's parents came to visit and they're Malaysian and they brought mooncakes over. She had a few so she gave one to me. It feels really good to be surrounded by nice people :)

And since I'm talking about sweets, let me just talk about a couple (literally 2) of things I've made ever since I came to Melbourne. People who know me know I love to bake. Unfortunately, everything here is so expensive that I can't just decide to bake with a snap of my fingers. I can't afford to buy ingredients which I might only end up using once, or ingredients which are not even cheap to begin with.

First attempt was this Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies. Yes, a cookie within a cookie. Wait Oreo is not a cookie is it? More like a sandwich...

Anyway, I got the reccipe from here. Unfortunately, because I was *ahem* trying to be smart *ahem* the cookies ended being overly baked. The recipe asked to bake for 9-13 minutes. At the 15 minutes mark, the cookies were still pale and looked 'raw', so I left it on longer. Probably 20-25? I only took them out when they turned slightly brown. More appetising mah...

The cookies ended up being really, and I mean REALLY hard for cookies. Plus, they were humongous so they felt like rocks. They look like scones, only rock hard.

Which was utterly disappointing considering ingredients were not cheap (at least for me) :(

And in the pictures from the recipe, the icing in the Oreo along with the chocolate chips actually melted when baked! Mine didn't :( I think maybe if I ever try to bake this again, Imma use a higher temperature.

The second thing I attempted was this Retro Coffee Cake which I first saw in Masterchef 2011. It was one of the dishes made by the winner of this year's competition. Recipe found here.

Everything was perfect... except for the cake.

Seriously this is so demotivating. 2 times baking and both didn't turn out well aka waste. of. money! :(

The recipe asked to bake in 2 x 20cm baking tins. Honestly, I didn't know what's that supposed to mean because I've never seen such instructions. It would have made a lot more sense if they say "bake in two 20cm baking tins", don't you think? So anyway, I only used a 20cm baking tin to bake which means, my cake was super thick. Naturally, it wouldn't cook in the suggested time.

Instead of 30 minutes, I think I had to bake it for about an hour (or more) to finally have it perfectly cooked. By then, the edges around the cake was already rock hard and the insides a little dry. It's edible, but far from my expectation :(

The coffee butter cream was great. With espresso added, it wasn't too sweet. The cake... blehhhh.

I shall make the cake again since I still have some leftover coffee butter cream.

---

Ok food stuff aside, yesterday one of my students twittered me that he scored distinction in his recent violin exam. Btw, yes I have 3 of my students following me on Twitter. I was so happy to hear that! And then it gets better. Another 2 of them scored distinction as well! I was soooooooo proud of them. The news just made my day, seriously.

Nothing is more rewarding for a teacher than to see their students enjoy what they learn and excel. Exams are not everything but it doesn't hurt to try and know your abilities. Clearly they've done themselves, their parents, their new teacher and their former teacher (meeeee) proud.

Congratulations Nikki, Michelle and Seng Zhao!

Never thought I would say this if it was me a few years ago but I miss teaching :( I'm glad I did my part to guide them. Through the 6 years of teaching, I learnt so much more than I did in uni. They were experience no money could buy. Not saying I've never had students who failed under me, frankly, I have had 2. Which was also invaluable experience for me. Teaching became so much more than just earning money for a living, it became a part of me which I grew to love.

Now let me have my moment of glory... =D

Shooooooes

2011-09-06T20:43:00.000+10:00

Aaaaaaah yet another sporadic update. Guess what I'm doing now? Procrastinating of course.

Why do I always have the urge to blog whenever I need to (but don't feel like I want to) study/do assignments?!!

Seems like I haven't talked about shopping in a while. Well everything is crazily overpriced here so nobody should be surprised. Asos.com (ONLY when there's sale) is now my best friend. And recently Maggie told me about this warehouse/outlet kinda thingie having a promotion of get 2 for $100 for Tony Bianco shoes!

I love Zara for their clothes because I know if I walk into a Zara I would definitely find something I like and would wear for years. And I love Tony Bianco for the same reason, if only shoes can last. 2 for $100 for Tony Bianco is a pretty damn good deal. And you can pick ANY 2 pairs except for boots, talk about flexibility! All you have to do is pray they have your size.

And I secretly went berserk when I saw this:

Love at first sight! Although a little painful to wear since it's half a size smaller than what I should wear, I decided to be a bitch and grab it still because I am kiasu like that hahaaha scared another girl take it when I'm contemplating.

I've been looking for a pair of Mary Jane-ish shoes for some time already. I love pumps but because my feet are not the same size, finding a pair which I can comfortably walk in, is a bitch. The pump on my smaller foot always end up sliding off my heels when I walk, which is super annoying. So I figured a strap-on like Mary Jane would be perfect. Also it's not easy to come by shoe stores which have half sizes between 5 and 6 ok! I should be wearing 6. 5.5 is a little snug, but it's ok because I definitely wouldn't be able to walk in size 5 which is actually what I wear normally. And the best part is it's black suede, super versatile and elegant.

Aaaah love <3

Next pair, I was thinking of something not so crazy high but not completely flat on the floor. So I decided on this.

Yes black suede again. Love this cos it's super comfortable without compromising the 'look' hahaha. Perfect for school or a day out shopping. Who wears 5 inch heels to go shopping?? Siao.

That was initially my only 2 purchase but then Maggie tempted me to get another pair, telling me we could share. And I gave in. Maggie you're such a bad influence! :P

Naaah. I quote Esther, "A girl can never have too many shoes" :) And anyhow, I rarely ever purchase shoes at one go like this. Gotta make good use of the deal whenever possible.

Besides Tony Bianco, they also have a few other brands. Unfortunately, they only sell female shoes. The guys (bfs) initially didn't want to come with us but after much persuassion, they said yes and ended up having coffee at Gloria Jeans while we shopped AHHAHAH. At the end of the day they of course did their job for coming out with us: carry shopping bags haahahha!

I know I said pumps never fit me right but this pair is different! It was snug! I would love it higher but the higher pair didn't fit me. Same problem, sliding off my foot when I walk. I figured this would be great for casual outings since it's not too high. Yes. Black suede AGAIN. Pumps-like AGAIN. Wtf is wrong with me?

Ok that is it. Felt like I typed 2000 words talking only about some new shoes I bought. How boring lol. Nah it was only 600++ words. I checked on Microsoft Word haha..

Ok time to return to my studies/assignment.

Home in Kensington

2011-08-17T15:23:00.000+10:00

If I don't skip school, I'm not Ee Von. Hahah.

Yes currently at home because I skipped class today. Today I feel like talking about our (Wk and I) apartment. To make it fair, it's HIS apartment because obviously I can't afford to pay any rent now since I'm studying and I don't have a job in hand. I think it's only right to clarify that he pays for everything from rent to household. For that, no words can describe how grateful I am to have him.

We moved to this place about a week after I touched down. It's a little away from the city, 15 minutes train ride. Obviously it isn't as convenient as when we used to live in the city but the cost cannot be compromised at all. It's too much and not worth it - about AUD 2.4-2.7K for a 2 bedroom apartment.

And besides we both know ourselves too well that we're not the type of people who can live with others easily. Not to say we're not easy going and difficult to please, but it's certainly not easy to find people who you can click with in an instant when it comes to cleanliness, taste (homewares and furnitures) and money issues. If we were to live in city, it's impossible to afford anything without having housemates. Trust me, the amount of stories I've heard from friends who live with others is enough to put my guards up when it comes to searching for housemates.

Sorry, I digressed. So about 4-5 months upon moving in, the apartment was then fully furnished.

The dining area went from this

to this

At the beginning we had to use the moving boxes as our dining table.

The living area went from this

to this

The bedroom went from this

to this

Did anyone notice how boring the colour scheme is? Hahahah no prize for guessing whose idea it's from. Apart from the red couch, everything's kept very black and white-ish. Actually they're not black, they're dark brown/timber finishes. So when we were deciding on the couch colour, I (kinda) insisted on red because there HAS to be at least one colour in the apartment. At least an accent.

I am definitely glad to call this place home. I miss my home in Malaysia a lot but at least knowing I'm safe and warm, and the apartment is pretty good for a start, I'm thankful. Its an unfurnished 2 bed with built in robes + 2 bathroom apartment with an ensuite. Big living area, dining area and a good kitchen size (there's never 'too big' for a kitchen =P) which comes with a dishwasher and an oven. There's also a spacious balcony, which we 'decorated' with a barbecue pit. Hahah. I say decorate because we haven't been using it much. It's cold and I certainly won't like the idea of standing outdoors barbecueing. I don't understand how people do it in the winter.

All of the furnitures are from IKEA except for our room's bedside chair, which Wk bought from an online store that sells replica designer furnitures. Everything's from IKEA because that is the only place we could afford. But it was quite fun assembling everything :)

---

Everything else has been alright. Still waiting for answers regarding our PR application. School has been ok. I definitely am on track and with my experience and qualification, I hate to sound like a bragger but I think I'm over-qualified so it's been pretty boring honestly hence, today decided to stay in and do something productive like cleaning the apartment.

I hope everyone's doing fine.

Till next time.

I like to post food pictures

2011-08-05T22:54:00.000+10:00

because I can.

The tallest slice of cake I have ever eaten, the french vanilla slice at the front. Had this at a random pastry shop near Saint Kilda. At the first few spoons it tasted good and almost satisfying because you get to eat that beautiful looking thing you had always looked through the glass at... and then there's a little bit of resistance in your tummy... and a little bit more... until it becomes unbearable. It was worth the try anyway, such a pristine looking thing.

Maggie returned from her trip in Sydney with a little souvenir for me. If you don't know Adriano Zumbo, go watch Masterchef. Anyway, she brought back a box of macarons of different flavours from his patisserie. My favourite's the one with white bits around it, Salted Popcorn. So nice! And she even knew I would like it she popped 2 in. Thank you Maggie! :D

Just because myeyelasheslooksuperfakebutIputsomucheffortputtingitsoIhavetoincludethispicture. Korean food here is awesome. Back in Malaysia seriously nothing compares. Or maybe I didn't try enough...

---

Wanna talk about something totally random. I was in class and the teacher was doing revision with us. Our class has quite high ceilings and these tall windows and you can totally see another building on the outside separated by an alley. We were copying stuff from the board and then suddenly one of the students said she heard something. And the whole class went silent... and then... WE HEARD A WOMAN MOANING.

Not moaning in pain, it's the sexual kind and we knew it because it was ongoing and it sounded damn 'hiao'. One of the girls ran towards the window and looked through it and turned around, face horrified and said she saw a man's bum at the window on the opposite building.

And then the whole class went berserk for a while and then quickly settled down, continued with what's on the board. It was silent... and peaceful... UNTIL SHE MOANED ONCE AGAIN. And the whole class went berserk again lol.

Seriously! All you horny people. Shut the damn windows and pull the blinds down! For goodness' sake you're living right in the heart of CBD, right next to an alley, right next to a school!

---

Ok that's it. School has been boring but ok. Made some friends and I'm glad this whole starting again isn't as bad as what I initially thought it would be.

Oooh I just downloaded WhatsApp and omg why didn't I get it earlier! It's so freaking convenient and worth it especially when I need to catch up with my whole bunch of friends in Malaysia! So... any of you who has my number and has Whatsapp, whatsapp me!

Burch & Purchese: It's a sweet revolution.

2011-08-01T23:20:00.000+10:00

I don't think I have ever seen so much of effort, techniques and thoughts laid out in a slice of cake until I visited Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio. Well of course the ones on TV doesn't count. I get to see AND taste! :D Darren Purchese appeared in Masterchef in an episode and through that we got to know about his sweet studio and naturally of course Maggie and I decided to have a look since it is located in Melbourne and not too far away.

The pictures obviously do no justice to his actual cake since we only got slices of it. The assembly of the whole cake looks more impressive. His cakes are like works of art. It's as though they're fine art in the form of cakes; you buy them and you don't just look at and appreciate them, you get to consume them!

Unlike the usual desserts, their cakes have very straightforward names. They're named after what they are made of, which I think is kind of hard to remember lol.

This cake here has a total of 8 freaking layers of elements. I certainly applaud the techniques and thoughts put into this, but the taste... I'm on the fence. Not a fan of that aniseed there. It's strong and overpowers everything else instead of complimenting them, IMO.

Smoked White Chocolate, Coffee, Aniseed, Lemon

Smoked white chocolate cream, crunchy almond meringue, coffee buttercream, coffee sponge, aniseed syrup, brownie sponge, lemon curd, dehydrated choc rock.

This one's pretty good. The flavours come together quite well.

Vanilla, Pistachio, Lemon, Green Tea

White chocolate & vanilla mousse, pistachio cream, crunchy green tea meringue, lemon cream, pistachio cake, green tea macaron, brilliant white chocolate spray

Unfortunately I don't remember what these are called exactly. If I'm not wrong, it could be Lemon, Blackcurrant and Raspberry Lego. I do remember they're basically fruit flavoured mousse on the inside, chocolate velvet spray on the outside to achieve that velvet-y texture. Tastes really delicate and quite tangy, a good one in between all the sweet cakes. And doesn't the shape look absolutely adorable you can't wait to tuck in?

This one... I'm not sure but I think this is the name of it. I'm typically not a fan of any desserts which has alcohol (e.g. rum and raisin ice cream) but I was ok with this one, the rum isn't very out there which I like.

Banana, Caramel, Rum

Caramelised white chocolate & vanilla mousse, macadamia spiced speculaas, caramelised banana cream, passionfruit jelly, ascorbic rum jelly, caramelised milk solids, passionfruit curd, chocolate velvet spray

Visit the Burch & Purchese Blog to gawp at some unreal looking cakes.

By the way, if you're thinking of dropping by the studio to grab a cake and maybe chill and have a cuppa, forget about it. Maggie and I first thought it's a dessert place where you can sit down and slowly nibble on your cake but it isn't. It's a small shop where you can only buy or customize cakes/sweets, and that's it.

-

2011-07-15T23:53:00.000+10:00

Super excited about something tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111@@

But cannot share sorry kthxbai.

Anyway, yesterday I went to the doctor's intending to get my urine tested as referred by the visa medical doctor. Turned out that not only did they need to get my urine tested, they had to do another blood test on me! I tell you the moment he said that my expression was literally O_O And I had to pay AUD 60 just to urinate and have my blood sucked what kind of life is this T___T

Ok that's it just wanted to rant a bit.

Oven 'fried' chicken wings

2011-07-14T23:08:00.000+10:00

Here's the video/recipe I promised to put up, Yin Xian!

The guy speaking in the video, Chef John, he is really funny! Not so much in this video but some of his videos are very entertaining to learn from and I've tried a couple of his recipes and they're all really good.

If you don't want to watch the video, the recipe is here but I highly recommend watching the video. It's easier to learn to do!

One thing I find the need to change is the temperature. He said to bake it at 400 Farenheit (about 200 Celcius) for 30 minutes each side of the chicken (an hour in total). I did that and found my chicken to be overcooked and dry. I'm not sure if its the temperature or my oven's problem. Afterall, every oven's heat setting is different. I think next time I might try 180 Celcius. Also, I didn't have any hot sauce or sambal so I used my good old Linggam Chilli (best chilli evaaah). You don't need a lot of the glaze, because it's supposed to be glaze, not sauce. Don't be tempted to throw your chicken into the pan while you're cooking the glaze cos it'll only soften the crispy textures of the chicken. Drizzle and toss, just like how Chef John does it. And don't bother tasting the glaze cos when the vinegar is heated, the 'smell' is very piercing. You would think there's too much vinegar but once it's cooled down and tossed with the chicken, it's all good.

Have fun trying!

Osso Bucco

2011-07-14T01:02:00.001+10:00

Anyone still reading? Hahah.

Sorry for the sporadic posts. All I've been doing was go to school, come home and cook, TV, assignments, sometimes have a little bit of fun over the weekend (movie, brunch, chocolates) and that's it. We've been working on our PR visa and trying to get everything sorted out as soon as we can.

Speaking of cooking... I've been watching Masterchef a lot lately. Hrm... 'a lot' might be an understatement. Maybe I should say I watch Masterchef religiously? Hahah. I watch every single episode I can and I've been watching the previous season whenever I'm free. They have it in their website and everyone can watch for free! And it even has all the recipes of the dishes shown in the show! How nice right! These days you can find just about ANYTHING in the internet.

Ok anyway. I've been cooking a lot and venturing a lot as well. The thing I really like about cooking here is that you can find almost any ingredient you need. There are so many things available, there are so many things one can make!

I found this cooking method on Youtube that shows how fried chicken can be done using an oven! How freaking convenient! No need to use up cups of oil and not knowing what to do with it afterwards. And as well as the sauce... or I would rather call it the glaze. So easy to make yet so tasty.

Tried making chicken schnitzels, with sides of supposingly spaghetti Aglio Olio but I went a little heavy handed with the parsley so it turned out looking weirdly green. We didn't have enough breadcrumbs so we used some of our expired, frozen bread. If you're wondering, the breads here expire in about 2-4 days, so to keep it edible we freeze it. To eat, just toast it and eat it immediately, prefectly fine. In our case, chop/blend it up, season it and use it as breadcrumbs! Worked out alright.

Tried this recipe I saw in Youtube, Curry Carbonara. Not too bad but tasted funny. Probably because I went overboard with the curry powder... it tasted a little powdery.

This was just a simple spaghetti with chilli tuna. I tried twirling the pasta like how chefs do (as seen in Masterchef, of course) to give it a better presentation. Quite fun playing and decorating with food :)

Today, I tried making Osso Bucco (modern version). It's just like lamb shank but instead, this one uses veal shank. Braised with stock, herbs and vegetables until the meat is tender. Garnished with gremolata; made of parsley, garlic and lemon zest. We prepared sides of mash potatoes and baby spinach. Have to say, the gravy was really good but some of the veal shins weren't tender enough. And in my opinion, I personally prefer the texture of lamb shanks but this was worth the try.

Finally you know what Osso Bucco is! Hahah. I talked about it in my Facebook and Twitter and a couple of people came asking me what that is lol. I would be too. I've seen this cut of meat in the market and have been wondering what it is until it's introduced and cooked in Masterchef. It's a popular winter, slow cooked meal.

Lastly, I made these:

Pretty little cupcakes!

Naah. Joking. Bought this earlier this afternoon when I saw it in the shop. There's this cupcake shop at QV, The Cupcake Family which makes amazing cupcakes. I like to eat cupcakes but honestly, not many I've tried were good. The cakes were either too dry or bland in taste, or the frosting wasn't smooth and not sickly sweet. Maggie first introduced me to The Cupcake Family and I've been hooked since!

Their cupcakes may not look the prettiest but its taste will make you go back for more. It's not like you'll be blown away, but it's addictive. Especially when they make new flavours, it makes you wanna go back and see what new stuff they have and you wanna try them all.

Recently they released some deluxe flavours for this winter which after getting these 2 I've officially tried them all; Chocolate Peanut Butter which omg is to die for, Raspberry White which is the white one above, Sticky Date and Chocolate Orange which is the dark one in above. All taste super good, especially when the cupcakes are warm.

They also have mini cupcakes which are cheaper and smaller, which is a good way to test out different flavours. And also macarons, which I found out recently they tasted a lot better than before. And they increased the price of the macarons! Probably because it was selling well...

We were on the way to get groceries when we passed by the shop and I was staring at the cupcakes on display for 10 minutes with that "aww" face and Wk decided to buy me one. And I got another, hee hee. And while waiting for my Osso Bucco to cook I couldn't resist it, I ate both. In the end I was feeling so full I couldn't finish my plate of Osso Bucco lol.

Alright enough about food. Time to sleep. By the way, please don't ask me what I'm studying because I don't feel like revealing yet. Thanks for understanding. And those of you who know, you know I told you because I trust you.

Forgot to mention what we did today. This blog is not my blog if I am not ranting, is it?

We went to Medibank for our visa medical check up, which basically is a health check required from immigration when we applied for our visa. Basically you'll have to do a health check when you apply for whatever visa in Australia... except for traveling visa. Anyway, we had to do blood test and omfg I almost fell off my chair when the nurse took the needle out. I've never done a blood test in my life (except for the one where they use something to prick your finger and get a drop of blood) and today just scared the crap out of me.

So there's also another urine test, which if there's things like blood in it, you're required to redo the test. Naturally, they detected blood and they told me to go see another doctor and have my urine tested (cultured and blablabla) and have the doctor send a report to them. Which means I'll have to pay an additional AUD 60 for consultation and another sum for the pathologists who will be testing my urine. And for the medical check up I already had to spend almost AUD 400! And not forgetting how I had to do another x-ray even when I've already done it a month ago when I applied for my student visa. Which I paid freaking AUD 200+ for it.

SO. DAMN. RIDICULOUS.

I paid so much I would think I have the rights to keep a copy of my x-ray results, no? With that, I can use it and not have to do it again for another health check (for another visa application)! And why the hell can't they let me do the urine test again in the place? Why the hell should I go elsewhere and have it checked, and have to pay more for it??!

In total I would be spending a minimum of AUD 500 (RM 1500) for a very basic health check of urine test, blood test and x-ray. In Malaysia, I would certainly not need to pay RM 1500 for all that. Which makes me even more furious thinking about it. But oh well. Life sucks.

MoVida Next Door: A Beautiful little corner bar in Melbourne

2011-06-11T20:31:00.000+10:00

Finally had the chance to visit this frequently talked about Spanish tapas bar. There's a total of 4 MoVida in the city, we went to MoVida Next Door which is next to the original MoVida, in Hosier Lane. It's hard to miss the lane cos the walls are covered with overwhelming graffiti. I heard to dine at MoVida (original) you need to book weeks (some said months) ahead! MoVida Next Door does not take reservation, only walk in. So if you try your luck you most probably will get the chance to eat there.

I wasn't (still am not) into alcoholic drinks so I had a cranberry juice. Aileen and Wk had Sangria (Spanish wine punch) and they both loved it.

Right after we ordered, we were served complimentary bread and olive oil, and a slice of tortilla de patatas, which is a Spanish tortilla or omelette, made of eggs and potatoes. That bread and olive oil is one to be remembered cos the olive oil actually tasted like GOOD olive oil! Which reminded me how I've never actually enjoyed having bread and olive oil this much, most of the time I eat it only because it's on the table and meant to be eaten.

The 3 tapas we ordered:

Queso Idiazabal - Smoked sheep's milk cheese. I love to eat cheese but I won't say I know a thing about them. I just enjoy the flavour. This one to me tasted a lot like parmesan. It's served with some dried fruit but I don't know what it's called. I know I used to eat this when I was a kid and I quite liked them.

Bomba - Chorizo-filled Catalan Potato Bomb with a spicy sauce. It's the ones which look like boobies in the picture. I first saw this on Masterchef Australia 2010 and I had to try it. Honestly, quite disappointed. It's nothing fantastic although I quite liked the spicy sauce that goes with it.

Croqueta - Fried Croqueta with wild mushrooms. THIS. IS. TO. DIE. FOR! It looks boring and not appetizing but once you bite into it, you'll be blown away by the rich, creamy taste of mushrooms. It's like eating deep fried cream of mushroom, a really good bowl of cream of mushroom. Every one of us had this surprised expression on our faces when we bite into the Croqueta. It was unexpectedly delicious.

Dig in!

Anoter tapas we had was this fried whitebait served with a lemon wedge and dip. I can't remember what it's called cos it's not on the menu, it was one of the specials on that day. Very nice!

Raciones are basically a larger portion of tapas, meant to be shared. We ordered the Lengua, which is ox tongue, chargrilled with chorizo and chickpeas. I didn't know what to expect but I can say I quite like it but it's not something mind-blowingly good that I will want to eat it again.

I saw the table behind us ordered this and I got really curious and wanted to try it as well. It's called Alcachofas, fried globe artichoke with almonds and lemon. Very very salty and dry. I always see artichokes when I shop for groceries but never knew how it taste like. It's a vegetable by the way, looks like a flower. It was alright, not a fan.

Lastly, of course we had to try some churros, Spanish doughnuts dipped in hot chocolate. You may say we had it as dessert but actually churros are usually eaten for breakfast in Spain. I can't help but to compare this with 'yao zhar guai', or 'you tiao', Chinese doughnuts. They're both made of flour, deep fried, and eaten for breakfast. Mmm I miss eating yao zhar guai. The ones here in Melbourne sucks. Anyway, the churros tasted alright, I think I prefer the ones in San Churro. The hot chocolate wasn't smooth and thick, which is how I prefer it to be.

It was an enjoyable dining experience, in my humble opinion I think this is a great place to get the taste of authentic Spanish stuff.

Betty

2011-06-10T18:10:00.000+10:00

Quite pissed.

I've started class since this Monday. Slowly getting used to waking up early in the morning in the winter. Trust me, it is a huge pain to not be able to sleep in underneath that warm duvet in such cold. Tomorrow is a Saturday and nobody is allowed to wake me up before it's 10am.

Not pissed at the school, so far it has been alright though kinda boring. I'm pissed with the lady who is in charge of our attendance swipe cards. Why does she have to be so bitchy? She didn't even make it clear in the first place of how the system works and I'm considered absent because I didn't swipe my card this morning, when I was actually in the school the whole frickin day. I asked her about my card nicely, and she replied me quite rudely. What the hell? Maybe she didn't mean to be rude, but the way she talked, it's definitely not pleasing. I know she's trying to be strict and all that cos there are so many girls and there are also so many naughty girls, come on. It's my first time. Everyone has had their first times and blowing it up. Ok that didn't sound quite right... but you get what I mean.

Fuck your life lady, seriously. Fuck your life for screwing my mood this beginning of a long weekend.

Anyway, I really can't bothered with this whole attendance thing. It's sophisticated, but at the same time too sophisticated that it's stupid. I'm serious with what I want to achieve in the school, that is all that matters. I want to learn some skills and I want to get the hell out.

It's Queen's Birthday next Monday. I can't wait to do something exciting like baking using my very newly purchased hand mixer! Or maybe just something lazy like sit on the couch and watch Supernatural the whole day... hmm...

Last weekend we made Hainanese Chicken Rice, with sides of bean sprouts, chicken soup, cucumber and steamed fish. It was surprisingly not too bad! We kinda overcooked the chicken so the skin and parts of the chicken were falling apart but the taste was acceptable. Who wants recipe hands up! =D Haha, there are plenty in the internet, not difficult to get hold of a good one. I'm not sure if poaching or steaming is the right way but we poached cos we didn't have a wok big enough to steam the chicken. Poaching's good cos then you get the stock/chicken soup which you can use for the rice as well as serving it as plain chicken soup later. You can also use it to blanch vegetables.

Yesterday we made curry laksa. Well, it was more like Maggie made them cos she prepared all the ingredients and cooked, I was there helping out. TASTED SO GOOD. We did eat laksa in this place in Melbourne which is famous for it but I heard they use HEAPS of msg. Ours had NO msg at all, the chicken stock was fresh, home made, real chicken stock with no additives/preservatives. I'm surprised how easy it actually is to make curry laksa.

Ok, gotta go get ready to go out for dinner tonight.

Btw, if you're wondering what's with the title, it's the name of the damn lady I was pissed with.

Luxbite: Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.

2011-06-01T01:59:00.001+10:00

What an apt tagline I must say!

Visited LuxBite which is this cafe at South Yarra very well known for its desserts and macarons. It was lunchtime and we were starving. Fortunately they serve breakfast/brunch/lunch too. I had the Toastie, which is this toast with super damn a lot of kuaci... er I mean.. pumpkin seeds omg the crunch. With bacon (mmm so smoky), eggs, gruyere and tomato relish which was really really good.

For drinks I saw this tea thingie in some website and thought it was really cute so I ordered one because I wanted to see how it looks like. The tea bag is so cute!

If you think it's not cute you are lying!

I also very smartly remember the person who blogged about the tea, she didn't know the tea bag served in the cup is supposed to be transferred into the teapot of hot water and instead she had it in her cup all the time. So of course I transferred mine into the pot ;-)

And then of course we had to have their desserts and macarons.

This one is called the Monster Meringue. Not a pretty name but it sure does look a little horn-y. Tasted pretty good. I love the mix of slightly sweet meringue and slightly sour berries mousse inside.

We had 3 macarons: Vanilla Creme Brulee which tasted VERY buttery but quite awesome, Salted Caramel which was a letdown and Kaya Toast... yes Kaya Toast I'm serious. It actually tasted like Kaya but not my cup of tea, too sweet.

Then we decided to order another because we a lot of people ordering it too lol. This... I actually can't remember what it's called. But it has coconut macarons, caramelised banana, pandan cream and... one more thing but I can't remember. This one's really sweet too but I really like it especially the bottom layer of macaron which has that thin layer of banana caramel. When mixed with the coconut macaron, it created this awesome almost sweet, nutty taste. I couldn't care for the pandan cream... tasted quite odd.

They also have this tea set for 2 where you're served with 2 desserts of your choice, 4 macarons, 4 assorted finger sandwiches and coffee or tea each for AUD 21. That's a pretty good deal! Will definitely go there to try the other flavours of macarons and other desserts.

I really love the Toastie for a start. It's a good portion and the taste was just satisfying. I want to learn to make toast like that! Judging from what we had, the desserts and macarons were pretty and good. I wouldn't exactly say they're mind blowing good, but they did taste and look good. It's like being a kid in a little candy shop with so many different candies and you want to try each and every colour because they all look yummy and you're curious.

Making Bak Chang in Melbourne

2011-05-31T14:03:00.000+10:00

A week ago Maggie suggested that we make some bak chang. A week later we did it! It was surprisingly not as difficult as we, or at least I, thought it would be. The fact that she has learned the wrapping steps from her mom helped a lot but anyhow, it was our first time and we didn't have any experienced bak chang maker with us so we definitely deserve that pat on our backs for what we accomplished at the end of the day :)

I know the rice isn't dark or looking appetising enough but it tasted ok. We could have stirred in more dark soy sauce.

Guys being the typical guys... lol

Ok lah, they did help out. We needed loads of chopped garlic and shallots and let me tell you, on top of cleaning up after cooking, I absolutely hate chopping garlic/shallots/onions. It's messy, it's boring and it's not fun at all. So, no prize for guessing who ended up with the job :P

From this experience, I can say it isn't exactly difficult to make these savoury dumplings but it is very time consuming to prepare both the ingredients and the dumplings. You need to soak the ingredients a few hours and days before cooking and also, it's not easy to estimate how much we're able to produce at the end because it all depends on how you assemble the filling and how big are your bamboo leaves.

Since a friend asked me for the recipe, I'm going to share it here. This is how we did it and I don't claim this to be MY recipe. We grabbed ideas from recipes online as well as the recipes from everyone's mothers and grandmothers, and some basic cooking instincts. This isn't baking so there is no need to be extremely precise with the measurements.

I'll divide it into 4 parts: Leaves, pork, extra filling and rice.

---

Leaves

For dry leaves, soak it for 2-3 days so that the leaves softens. Change the water once (or twice if you're really anal about it) and clean the leaves in between. Put some weight to make sure all the leaves are covered in water. I read online that you can boil it to soften it which is actually faster but I didn't have a wok or pot big enough to fit the leaves so I just soaked them. You will need about 50-75, depending on the quality of your leaves. This recipe produces about 25 small dumplings, 2 leaves for each so technically 50 should be enough but prepare extra just incase some of them are damaged or there is extra fillings.

Pork

-Cut about 500gm of pork belly (the ones used in siu yok, sam zhan bak) into strips and marinade them overnight in some dark soy sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil and five spice powder (we didn't use it cos we didn't have it but it tasted ok, use it for extra awesomeness I guess..).

-Soak about 100gm of dried shrimps (har mai, or heh bi) in hot water for a couple of minutes, then drain and dry them.

-Soak about 13 medium sized dried shitake mushrooms (25 if small) in hot water for a couple of minutes until soft, drain, cut the stalks off and squeeze the excess water out of it.

-Heat oil and fry 1 bulb of chopped garlic and about 2-3 thinly sliced shallots until slightly brown, then throw in the dried shrimps and stir for about a minute or two. Then add the pork and mushrooms and a star anise. It's not necessary to fully cook the pork but if you want to taste it and adjust the seasoning, yes please make sure the pork is fully cooked first.

-At this point if you think your filling is not looking dark enough, you can add more dark soy sauce. You can also shake in some pepper if you like the peppery taste. If you think it's not salty enough, add some salt of course.

-When done, remove star anise and set the pork aside.

Extra filling

There are lots of extra fillings you can put, the ones I'm more familiar with and love are salted egg yolk and dried chestnuts. The more premium and expensive stuff are dried oysters (oh gua, or in Canto hou see) and dried scallops. They basically give more flavour and taste. I've never realised how premium and expensive they are cos I've been eating dumplings made with love from my grandmother for years T_T

-Crack some uncooked salted duck eggs and separate the whites and yolks. You can use the whites for anything you can think of. Depending on how many eggs you can afford (It's AUD1.40 each here far king hell), we used a quarter of the yolk for each dumpling, about 7 yolks for this recipe. If you have extra you can use half. Or if you want extra cholestrol, you can use one whole yolk.

-Soak the dried chestnuts in hot water for a couple of minutes, dig out the brown stuff and wash it, then boil them till they are tender. I know not many people like to eat dried chestnuts so you can adjust the amount yourself.

Rice

-Soak the glutinous rice for about 2-3 hours then drain it.

-Heat oil and fry 2 bulbs of chopped garlic and 2-3 thinly sliced shallots until golden brown.

-Add about a tablespoon of salt, stir, then add the rice and stir until it is coated evenly with oil.

-Add a tablespoon of dark soy sauce, soy sauce and some pepper. If you like it darker, add more dark soy sauce.

-When the rice gets slightly sticky, stop cooking and set aside.

Here's a video to show how it's wrapped:

So it's rice, filling, rice. If you've eaten one you'll get the idea, just make sure there's a pork, mushroom, dried shrimp and the additional filling. You need to watch a few more different videos and practice. Maggie told me her mom learned the wrapping with sand, which I think is a good way.

If you look at the video, you'll see how they hooked a couple of strings onto something and tie it so the dumplings are tied together in a bunch. Besides being more organized, it's easier to tie when the string is suspended, otherwise you need someone to hold the dumpling and another to do the tying.

Usually people use those straw kinda grass thingie to tie but we couldn't find that. We used hemp strings cos we didn't like the fact that raffia is plastic and it's going to be boiled.

Once everything's done, boil a big pot of water and dump all the dumplings in and let it boil for 1.5-2 hours. Make sure there's enough water to cover the dumplings.

You can find most of the ingredients including the bamboo leaves and strings in Asian grocers, preferably one that stocks up on more Chinese ingredients than Korean, Japanese or Indonesian. As for salted eggs, remember to check if it's uncooked. We mistakenly bought a dozen of salted eggs only to find out it's actually cooked when we cracked it. Uncooked salted eggs are not as common as cooked salted eggs so keep an eye on that.

Next, I think I wanna try making the 'alkaline' dumplings, gan sui zhong, the yellow one with red bean filling.

LDR once more

2011-05-23T02:52:00.000+10:00

I spoke to my mom on Skype earlier and I feel so relieved now.

To cut the long story short, I have her blessing to do whatever I'm going to do and we talked like never before. I told her things I would not have told her if I was still living with her in M'sia, and vice versa. It's somewhat awkward and weird but it felt really good. I think I've mentioned before but you know how some people at some point in their lives they just stop communicating with their parents in the house, I'm one of them. I notice the situation changes once we're far away from each other; we start missing each other and we start communicating.

I've ended LDR with Wk, but I've started LDR with my family hahah! Bet you didn't get what the title of this post meant at first.

Also spoke to Esther on Skype and Wk was tossing and turning on the bed trying to sleep while we both were talking and laughing at silly things lol.

Aaah. Feels really nice to be able to talk to some of your favourite people.

This is just my blog, not my mind.

2011-05-20T15:25:00.003+10:00

Oh. My. God.

First, I was shocked to see an unusual high amount of hits in my blog for yesterday. Then I checked on the referals and found this link to this forum thingie. It all started with this:

And then someone replied:

If you're curious, it's this post he's talking about.

Seriously, when I saw the word "break up with her instead" I went "WTF?" straight.

But everyone is entitled to their own opinion so of course I will STFU.

This dude, or maybe girl, talked as if he/she knows me when clearly he/she doesn't.

It is definitely true, I miss home. Come on, who will not?? Do I enjoy missing home? Of course not. But do I enjoy being here? Well when I don't face shits like financial issues or uncertainties, of course I do! Isn't that the same for everyone?

All our years spent apart, Wk and I, we were looking forward to this day. We were planning and planning and planning. We have been together for almost 9 years now, we were in LDR for about 4 years before I came here. LDR is difficult but it's not impossible and it's not a complete pain in the butt if you and your partner stay strong. LDR to me wasn't a trouble, but a challenge. Trust me, when you can pull it through, it is the most rewarding feeling ever.

I don't think anybody knows what exactly I am going through, how exactly I feel, but myself. And of course, Wk. If there's one thing I need to say, it'd be I am happy to be here and yes, sometimes I do question myself if coming here was the right choice. If I'm happy, I'd say yes, it is the right choice. Not to say I wasn't happy being in M'sia but in life, you need to have some kind of objective, some kind of goals you want to achieve. I don't know what's my goal in the future yet but just 1 or 2 years ago, it's to end LDR and not live life like a routine. Today, I'm glad I've achieved it.

Seriously I'm amused, or rather amazed how people can just come up with their own conclusion or judgement about another person by only reading their blog. Do you really think I share/talk about every single bit of my life here in my blog? I wish people can understand the fact that they can read my blog, but they can't read my mind.

I know that dude didn't mean anything by linking my blog post and thinking that way about me but I still feel the need to clear things up. Coming here wasn't a rushed decision, it was planned for years. We knew it's going to happen this year. I didn't want to mention it in my blog because everytime I break a news about a future plan I'm excited about, it always never happen. It sounds crazy and ridiculous but I do believe it'll jinx it so I kept quiet.

alla Carbonara

2011-05-20T11:38:00.000+10:00

19/5/11 - Bacon and Cheese Pasta

I would love to call this Carbonara but really, an authentic Italian Carbonara sauce isn't made this way. If you do not already know, I LOVE my plate of Carbonara. Everywhere I go, if I see a Carbonara in the menu I would give it a go. So far, the one served in Delicious has been my favourite. That being said, it probably isn't the authentic Italian Carbonara cos it tastes uber creamy/milky and there're oyster mushrooms in it.

After researching for the best Carbonara recipe for the past few weeks, I've learned that the authentic Italian Carbonara doesn't have mushrooms or cream AT ALL in its pasta. Its basically just eggs and guanciale, which is something like bacon but isn't smoked like bacon. Wanna know which part of a pig a guanciale is made of? The cheeks, I'm serious. But apparently it tastes really good. So anyway, the Carbonara that most people know including you and I, is basically an Americanized version with the addition of mushrooms and cream be it pure cream, heavy cream, thickened cream, cream cheese or mascarpone cheese. Some even have milk.

So for the authentic Italian Carbonara sauce, the sauce is basically only made of uncooked beaten eggs (more often, just the yolks) mixed with pecorino romano (no, this is not parmesan although it could look and smell like one) and black pepper. You basically cook your pasta and meat first, then mix both together and while it's still hot, you pour in the eggs and cheese mixture and quickly stir to prevent the eggs from curdling. The heat will cook up the eggs so it is edible.

For years I've been eating one of my favourite plate of pasta without knowing how ridiculously easy and it is to make it. I've made Carbonara 3 times now and I will still continue making to find out the best combination of cheese and cream. I've never tried making the authentic version of the Italian Carbonara cos I don't think I will like it. I love my Carbonara super creamy, cheesey and you might as well say fattening. Its all those things which conquer my appetite.

---

No news from the immigration yet regarding my application. I hope I can get an answer latest by next week. I'm starting school in less than 3 weeks together with local Australians. Nervous? Hell yeah. I hate starting again. Whatmore, this time there won't be Malaysians or even Asians around. And I'm doing something I have absolutely no clue about.

Future school

2011-05-20T01:37:00.000+10:00

18/4/11 - Baked fish and vege with potato salad

There was this cafe my family used to really love going, Danny and Partners. Its a very small cafe serving good old Malaysian-ised western food like Fish n' Chips and Chicken Chops which tasted quite good at a reasonably cheap price. When my parents discovered it we would go there almost every weekend and I remember I loved their potato salad the most. I'm not sure but I think it was during one of the school holidays, one of my classmates back in secondary school worked there as a kitchen helper and that was how I got the recipe to their potato salad which I've been holding on to and making all these while.

Shameful as it may sound but honestly, lots of people love it :) I'll share the recipe if anyone's interested, or to make things more interesting I may just make a video tutorial of it one day! Haha, we'll see.

Of course, all the credits go to the guys in Danny and Partners who invented this delightful salad, and my former classmate Ian Kirk who shared this recipe with me. Well technically if I remember correctly I was quite persistent and it would have been really awkward to refuse me hahah. Unfortunately, I don't think Danny and Partners still exist. The last time I went there, the food wasn't as good (even the potato salad, yes, sadly) for the price. The last I heard, they were gone already.

---

Now cooking aside, I've been busy with applications. I'm enrolled in a school and I'm in the process of applying for my student visa. I don't feel like spilling more info so this would be it.

I'm not studying anything related to music. Not yet. This is just a transition period which I need to go through. I still love music but now is not the time and I don't want to push it because I don't think it'll turn out right if I push it.

As for what I'm going to study, it'll remain unknown for now because I know some people are going to judge. Everybody judges, I judge, you judge, admit it. I know people will tell me don't care about what others think but in my opinion that's complete bullshit. There certainly is a part of me which does mind what people think and I don't need those negativity right now. Those who know, I told them because I know they won't judge me.

This definitely isn't something I've expected or planned to do so I'm definitely scared.

---

I've been watching Supernatural and omg Dean is so hawt. And Masterchef is DA BOMB. And Glee... is still annoying as ever.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

2011-05-06T09:47:00.000+10:00

When I was in Form 4, I was introduced to English Literature where I learned one of my first few poems.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
and looked down one as far as I could
to where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim
because it was grassy and wanted wear;
though as for that, the passing there
had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
in leaves no feet had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Right now, there's nothing else I can relate to better than this poem.

Hoku hoku

2011-04-30T11:59:00.002+10:00

Curling my hair with a straightener is fun! Aaand, it saves money cos I can curl and straighten with it, no need to buy a curling iron.

Hello! Anyone still reading? Haha.

Did anyone watch The Royal Wedding yesterday? I must say it was quite an entertainment. I didn't give a damn about it and found all the hoo haa quite ridiculous at first. I mean, it's just a wedding why all the excitement? In the TV there were like swarms of people (like ants, when viewed from the top) around the church, it looked almost like a celebration. Well, it is a celebration cos to them it is THE wedding, not a wedding. And I was joking and telling Wk wow if any terrorist wanted to attack the country, this would be the time to do it lol. Just saying.

Honestly, it was beautiful. Not just Princess William's (Kate Middleton) dress, the whole ceremony was, albeit very overwhelming. If it was me I would be so damn stressed and nervous to know that billions of people are watching me and my wedding.

Something funny to share - someone in my twitter mentioned that while everyone's singing God Save The Queen, it was cute that the Queen just stood there while everyone's singing about her. It would have been funny if the Queen sang "God save me" LOL!

24 April 2011 - Japanese Night!

Easter was last weekend and Maggie and Kai Mun came over. We joined forces and cooked up a storm! Haha. We decided to call it "Japanese Night" and cooked Japanese dishes. Everyone had a role, or I should assigned to a dish to prepare!

Me - Hoku hoku croquette. Croquette is a type of deep friend ball rolled in breadcrumbs, and the ball is made of mashed potato and minced meat. Very interesting! My recipe is from this really funny Youtube cooking video, there he also explains the meaning of Hoku Hoku which is hillarious, I cannot stop laughing everytime I watch it! We also found the Bulldog Sauce in an asian grocery store! It's posing in the picture as well, can you spot it? :D

Maggie - Tempura and curry chicken. The tempura powder we both love is by Nissin. It's the only tempura powder I'll use! So good. The curry mix is actually a Japanese instant curry paste, so easy to make and tastes good too!

Kai Mun - Garlic fried rice. Very easy to make as well. Just fry it with lots of garlic, add some egg and spring onion and seasoning, kao tim.

Wei Kiat - Grilled beef-rolled enoki. This one tastes really good but very tricky to prepare, not forgetting it's also very costly. The marinade and sauce is premade but the rolling step is difficult cos the raw beef is really thin and fragile. Also, you need to have a really sharp knife to cut the cooked rolled beef into bite size because it is almost impossible to bite the enoki off... if anyone gets what I mean. Go to Sushi Zanmai and order one and try it.

Wei Guan - He's the kitchen helper of the day!

It was quite a fun day. Esther I wish you were there :(

As for life, as usual, it sucks. Like I've mentioned, things aren't as simple as I thought they would be. I will strive, of course. Just like how I'm striving to play well on the violin. Wk and I created this little 'game', where I will have to achieve 24 hours of practice in a week to earn $50, if I don't I'll be fined $50. It's a little motivation to make me practice. So far, I've lost $50. And I've yet to earn back or earn additional $50 cos... I have my ways to not pay haha. But I know that's definitely not the whole point of this game. 24 hours honestly is not a lot considering I am free all the time. Gotta work harder!

Oh one more thing. Thank you to everyone who has been supporting and cheering me up whenever I feel like crap :) You guys are amazing!

2011-04-15T12:25:00.000+10:00

Omurice - 14/2/11

I want to be happy being here but honestly, I'm not truly happy. Not because I'm homesick but the endless uncertainties of what lies ahead, of my future. I can't say I don't appreciate the opportunity to be able to be here, to be safe from all the terrible disasters happening to the world, to have someone to hold on to when I crumble and fall, to experience a whole new different way of living and gain new knowledge. But the waiting is slowly killing me already. And my practice progress hasn't been very rewarding. I practise frequently, setting targets which I managed to achieve, some of it, but I find myself constantly getting frustrated and demotivated to a point where I would break down and cry. Life isn't as simple, things don't work out as easy. If I want to, I could just call back and ask my dad to send me some money so that I can enrol into schools and study. But the last thing I want to do is to give my parents more burden. There are so many casual jobs waiting to be grabbed, I'm even fortunate enough to have one reader of blog who stays here offer me job opportunities but the thing is I can't take any, yet. I'll have to wait. Not wait for the day to come, that would have been so damn easy. But wait for someone important to say yes. Many people think it's a good thing to be able to go to another country and work and live. They don't know what I had to give up to come here, and in the end not get what I first expected. Many people think my life is so easy because I basically don't have to do a single thing like waking up at 7am and go to work, or pay bills. They don't know how I'm feeling inside, they don't. They don't know the things I sacrificed back at home just to come here, and have absolutely nothing but hope. They don't know about the fear and the tears I cry. When I hear people tell me "I want to have your life" all I can do is smile and feel like crap inside.

Yesterday I made Omurice, which is a Japanese version of Malaysia's Nasi Goreng Pattaya. Omurice = Omelette + Rice. The difference is, Omurice has Tomato Ketchup drizzle and tomato fried chicken rice, while Nasi Pattaya has chilli sauce drizzle and regular fried rice with crappy mixed vegetables and sometimes a little bit of chicken. Everything turned out great until the egg wrapping part and transferring it onto a plate. It was so difficult because my pan was flat and not big enough to make an omelette big enough to wrap the rice completely. Nevertheless, I'm quite happy with the result.

What's for dinner?

2011-04-11T14:11:00.000+10:00

At almost the end of yesterday I had the most excruciating backache ever. The kind where you just want to squat down, burry your face in between your knees and curl yourself like a ball. Or prawn, as how I usually like to say it.

I figured it's because the day before I was practising for about 6 hours or more and I was standing all the time. Not that I practised 6 hours continuously without breaks cos I can never do that, but for what I remember I was standing all the time. And then yesterday we went to DFO which required quite some walking. While inside DFO of course we walked again. When we were walking towards Ying Thai for dinner the pain was slowly building already and the cold weather only made the pain 10 times worse.

Lesson learnt. Don't ever practise for such long hours without sitting down eventhough I wasn't tired. It'll only strain my back and I'll have to pay for it later.

Thankfully I had someone to give me free back massage ♡ Not pro but better than nothing! :)

I feel a little 'crippled' without having a camera around :( Thought of purchasing a charger from Sony out of desperation but it's AUD 89 dammit so expensive. Now I'll have to ask someone to send it to me and I guess the worst part of it is waiting haihh. Meanwhile, I'll have to abuse Wk's iPhone since my phone's camera sucks.

Here are pictures of some of the meals I cooked. I don't claim to be or in anyway think I'm a good cook but I just find them picture worthy. So that someday in the future I can read and look back at old posts and say "Wow I actually cooked that crap!" Lol. Joking.

This was actually really simple to do. Wk found the lamb shank recipe online and all I had to do was to follow the recipe. Wk did the mash which was really creamy and buttery mmm... There's no specific recipe to it. Just cook some potatoes, mash it, add butter, salt, pepper and milk until you like the taste. I think he added some rosemary to it... which he adds to most things he cooks wtf I don't know why.

It was one of the first few meals we cooked so at that time, we didn't have a dining table so we had to sit around these boxes to eat hahahah!

My favourite thing to cook is my own version of cheese omelette! Super easy as well. And the meatballs are actually my 2nd time making them. They didn't taste as good at first but after keeping them in the fridge for a few days and reheating them, they somehow tasted a lot better! Which is weird.

Salmons sold here are really fresh.

This was our brunch one day. Ok I just noticed my 'pancakes' has a typo haha. The pancake mix we got is from The Pancake Parlour which some of you by now may already know that it's one of my favouritest place to eat at lol. The mix is really easy to use and tastes really good as well!

Instead of Marmite, we have something called Vegemite over here which I assume is the exact same thing. I heard Australians eat Vegemite with bread for breakfast. Wtf I can't imagine the taste but I'm curious, I might try it one day.

We made Bah Kut Teh one Friday night and invited Maggie and Kai Mun over for dinner. It was pretty good but we forgot to add fu zhuk and tau pok. And fish maw. and abalone wtf I'm joking. I made a REALLY huge pot of the soup cos I used 2 packets of the herbs and it asked for 3 litres of water for each. Lol. In the end we kept the extra soup in the fridge but after 2 days it turned into this brownish black jelly consistency hahaah. I know technically it still can be consumed by just reheating but blehhhh. We threw it away already.

Ok that's all the pictures I have so far. Need to grab some stuff out from the freezer for dinner tonight. Byeee.

Farewells and such

2011-04-07T10:36:00.000+10:00

As some of you may have already know, (in ascending volume as you say it) the internet conNECTION FINALLY CAME IN!

It took the company almost a freaking month to come and fix it I tell you, it's so frustrating and they only decided to send someone after we started calling them every. single. day. litereally. Pfffft.

Today I just wanna put up a few pictures of meetups and gatherings before I left! I miss everyone badly :(

This was at The Bee, Jaya One. Aaaah Jaya One, our third home during days in UM. Midvalley being the second haha. These are some of my most favourite people whom I have very fortunately met when I was studying at UM. We all come from different backgrounds, studied different courses but we share the same passion for art, and we talk about and laugh at the same crap!

A group shot with everyone! All pictures were taken using Adelle's iPhone and here I was trying not to laugh too hard because in our first shot we all stared into the Apple logo instead of the camera lens! LMAO. And then someone pointed out "WHO STARED AT THE APPLE!" and all of us were like "Er..... fuck hahahahahahaha!" And decided to retake.

Cat was supposed to be there but she couldn't make it in the end cos she had to work on her Masters thesis =( Cat if you're reading this I didn't forget you ok!

During Chinese New Year my dad decided to hold his company dinner as always. I remember how last year he told me to invite any one of my friends cos one person couldn't make it at the very last minute but the dinner would still be charged since it was reserved so in the end Esther went haha. This time he told me to invite a few of my friends and I can do it together with his dinner as my farewell.

And he told me to invite my 'good' friends and not 猪朋狗友 which directly translates to 'pig and dog friends' LOL.

When I told Esther who else I invited -the guys particularly- she said "I don't feel that special anymore" Hahahah! Don't be silly Esther! Your status cannot be compared to them ok! ♡

Thank you so much everyone for coming! It meant a lot to me. Would you look at Wai Tuck and his wine bottle? *shakes head*

Oh. This one isn't exactly a farewell-ish type of picture but I'll include it anyway since we three look so cantik ♡♡♡

This year's Valentine's Day Maggie was back so we decided meet up and have a threesome! Ok probably not your typical threesome. We dined at Chilis in Empire Shopping Gallery right after I finished working. The night was short but fun as always ;)

Do you want some aiskrim potong jagung? This is straight up from the corn itself ahahahahhahah!

And then here's a picture of one of my violin students. She wanted to take a picture with me in our last class (T_T) so I took one for myself too. And then she gave me this letter she wrote in fancy paper, nicely rolled up and tied with fancy strings. I read it after she left eventhough she told me to read it when I get home haha. I was bored cos the next student was absent and I was really curious. And then I couldn't stop crying for a while T_T

She told me when she first started learning under me she was 'afraid' of me cos my hair was blonde and I look really strict hahahaha.

And lastly, pictures taken in the airport.

I really really really miss home :'(

No really, a smile detector is my camera. There really is a function like that. And you gotta smile quite widely for it to detect before it automatically captures.

Thank you guys for coming all the way to send me off! :)))

Aaand my sister is not looking.

Ok that is all for the people. When my hair was still in its full glory. Now it has turned into this ordinary, rusty copper shade. And I still see pink foam in my shower. Red hair seriously isn't for everyone especially when it comes to maintenance. But I really like it! If I get to go back to Malaysia I might wanna do it again.. haha.

We've gotten almost everything we need in the apartment besides small storage systems. I tell you we went to Ikea like 5 times in 5 weeks, I'm beginning to get sick of it. I'm glad all the bigger things are here for example our bed (amitabha!), dining table (no more dining at the coffee table) and a bookshelf to temporarily store all our junks.

Ok time to shower, make some coffee and do some research on stuffs.

It's 14 degrees tonight

2011-03-25T23:51:00.000+11:00

It's been three weeks since I had internet to use. Never thought I'd be able to survive this long haha. Sorry I'll reply all comments once I have Internet. The only time i get to come in touch with the internet is when Wk is back from work, i get to use his phone to get online but trust me it's not fun at all doing so much of typing using an iPhone... Or any phone actually.

We've gotten about 70% of our furnitures in. We got a really cozy couch with bright red covers, a dark brown timber finish coffee as well as dining table, a queen size mattress (which was really expensive btw, I never knew mattresses were that expensive but if it's something we're gonna sleep on everynight for the years to come it's obviously netter to invest on a good one) and a small desk cos our room can't fit a bigger one.

Just yesterday we got some new (really nice!) dinnerwares and towels. The apartment is starting to look and feel homely.

I made meatballs today. My second time. The first time I made them I had to tweak a little from the recipe cos I didn't have most of the ingredients. Turned out pretty good. I got curious and decided to make them again this time using what's asked for since the kitchen now is more well stocked than before. They're all nicely arranged in a tray kept in the fridge, waiting to be cooked! I just need one fine day to cook them...

Tomorrow we're going to the market to pick up some fresh vege and meats and whatnot. The fridge is still lacking on those.

Today's my dad's birthday and I really miss being home. Usually there'll be a cake and during the night everyone will gather and sing a birthday song and eat cake together. If it's our parents' birthday it'll be either one of my siblings or my job to get a cake. This time, my brother's in the UK, my sis's in Sabah, and I'm obviously here in Melbourne. My other sister obviously can't buy a cake by herself. I called back earlier and was told that they just had dinner and my parents and my sis were going out to get a cake.

Hearing that I don't know if I should be happy that at least they still have my sis around, or sad that nobody bought the cake for my dad.

Sorry this is getting emotional again. I'm of course glad that everyone's doing fine. I promise I will be fine too.

2011-03-13T13:56:00.000+11:00

It's been while hasn't it?

We've just moved away from the city to somewhere slightly off the city. It's a quiet place called Kensington. Not the most beautiful views around but it's peaceful and most importantly its affordable.

I haven't had access to the Internet ever since we came here except for Wk's phone which has a limit so I can only do quick browsing through my emails. Even right now I'm using his phone. It's a Sunday and we're pretty much lazing around so I felt like updating.

We were fridge-less and washing machine-less for a week but thank goodness it all came in yesterday so I now at least have a little more things to do for example cook. We got a pretty nice stainless steel fridge and a washing machine/dryer which dry cleans! Expensive but we figured in the long run it'll be useful anyway.

What's missing now are lots of furniture. The apartment still looks quite like a wreck with gigantic ripped boxes everywhere (fridge's and washer's) and unopened boxes cos there aren't proper spaces to store them yet.

I haven't been able to speak to anyone on Skype for a week now. I wonder how's everyone.

It's a public holiday tomorrow, Labour Day. We can only call the Internet company on Tuesday. I hope something will work out by then.

That's about it for now. Oh, which idiot moves to another country without bringing her camera's charger and transfer cables? That's right, me. I thought Wk has it so I was trying to cut down some weight (yeah like it's gonna be a lot of difference... I know) but he actually gave his camera and everything else to his parents cos he thought I was going to have it.

My camera's out of battery now and his laptop doesn't have a card reader. Nice.

Plans

2011-03-02T16:04:00.000+11:00

So a number of you have been asking me, or must be wondering what the heck am I going to do, leaving everything behind coming here to restart my life.

The main reason I decided to come here is of course to end my long distance relationship with Wk. It's been 4 years and enough is enough. There's only that much a girl can handle. It was difficult but of course I'm glad we made it. I'm glad we both had faith, had plans and were looking forward to that day to come. Let's put it this way; he got a job and it's either he stays here and work and I come, or he rejects the offer and goes back to Malaysia and I can stay within my comfort zone.

We had wanted to be together and of course had wanted a better future and here is where we imagined it to be. Shallow or childish, I don't care whatever anyone wants to say because your opinion doesn't matter. This is us and for us. Things happened, a golden opportunity was given to us, it's either we grab it now or never be offered again.

Also another reason is well... I needed a solution to being stuck at my dad's place. I've been wanting to stop working there but just couldn't figure out how. After graduating I was only working part time and it's because I wanted to have more time to practise and prepare for my Master studies application. I have to submit an audition CD which isn't something that can be done in a day or even a month. It's a long story but all in all, I just wanted more time to polish my skills and be better before I apply to study for Masters.

Of course wanted to come to Melbourne to study because why not? Wk is here. It's the only way (at that time) that I could think of to come here and let us be together, and at the same time do what I really want to do which is to learn to play the violin professionaly.

But my dad couldn't understand and insisted that I needed to have a full time job. And that was how I ended working for him. He didn't force me but he is my father and he needed help anyway with his business, since I was free I decided it's ok to spare a few days to help him eventhough I was reluctant to.

I know some of you would say "just say no if you didn't want to". I can only tell you, it's easier said than done.

And a few working days became all the days I'm not teaching. My plan to practise when I'm free was crashed. I was staying with him, there's no way I could sternly tell him I don't want to work for him. I wanted to move out, but its not practical and I couldn't afford to anyway. And I couldn't bring myself to do it cos even if I move out I'll be taking the car and he bought me that car so I feel like I owe it him. In fact I owe everything to him so I feel the responsibility to help him whenever I can.

That's when I slowly see the future I planned distancing away. If I continue to work at my dad's place, I can never ever be able to be better at playing the violin, I can never ever get to go back to studying. I will probably be in LDR for the next few years. It's depressing everytime I think about this.

Which is the ultimate reason I decided that I had to leave, if I had the opportunity to. I could stay, but I don't see myself doing what I want to do. I see myself chasing away my dreams, and I see myself crying everynight when I think of what the fuck I was doing to my life.

I'm not saying I wanted to leave because I couldn't stand my dad. It isn't. I feel that as long as I'm at home facing him, it's my responsibility to help him whenever I can eventhough I know I have my rights to say no. I know it's selfish to just leave, but I have my dreams too. And I'm immensely grateful that he didn't say no, he gave me his blessing to move to another country and offered to help me if I ever needed it. It breaks my heart but it's now or never, I had to make my decision. My dreams, or the responsibility which only exists in my conscience.

For the past few years my parents was seeing me staring at my laptop screen talking to Wk on Skype. Now it's as though I got sucked into the laptop, into the other side of the world and my parents now have to talk to me on Skype. But I guess it's just part and parcel of life. I'm glad I don't have to burden them with anything right now and I'm more glad that our relationship has gotten better if compared to the past. It's true, you never know what you have until it's gone. I never know how much I meant to them, as well as how much they meant to me until I left.

So as much as I want to come here, it also hurts me that much to leave my family but in life you just can't have it all. I really hope this is for the best.

So the question again, what am I going to do here.

For the first 3 months, because of the visa I'm holding now, I'm not allowed to work. I can't do much right now cos we're moving really soon (in a few days) and everything's all packed so I can't cook. I wanted to practise but there's too many people in the house and it'll be incosiderate to do so.

I still have plans to study which was why I was having violin lessons like crazy before I left. I want to come prepared before approaching violin tutors here.

I will of course get a part time job. What jobs would I do? I think it's not up to me anymore as this is not Malaysia, I don't have choices. I'll take whatever comes as long as it's not ridiculous in terms of working hours and pay.

I'm hoping to be able to afford violin lessons and maybe, apply to study Masters part time since it is what I really wanted to do - to study while I still can and want to. International students can only study full time, with a PR we're allowed to do part time. I'm hoping I can earn enough to support myself.

Right now in these 3 months, all I can do is practise whenever I can. And do chores of course lol.

Prelude

2011-02-28T17:24:00.000+11:00

As most of you have already known, I'm already here in Melbourne. I've quitted all my jobs, compressed my life and packed it into about 32kg, said goodbye to everyone, cried buckets of tears, sat in the plane for 8 hours and now, I'm here in a familiar new place with my other half.

I wanted to post pictures but everything in the apartment's all packed as we're preparing to move into another apartment, I can't find the cable to transfer pictures from my camera. Wk's at work right now and I don't want to bother him about this so this will be a picture-less post.

Yesterday on the way to the airport, my grandmother couldn't hold her tears and she was pouring for some time in the car. It seriously broke my heart to see her that way but there was nothing I could do to stop her from crying because she knows I'm leaving her.

At the airport, Esther, Wai Tuck and Sim Mei came to send me off.

I've never mentioned this but when I first went to STAR (my secondary school), Sim Mei was actually the very first friend I made. I went into the class not knowing where I should sit. I saw here and there was an empty seat next to her so naturally I walked over and politely asked if I could sit there and she said yes. I've previously heard about her as we were both from the same primary school (Simpang Lima) but we were at different classes so we didn't know each other. But I heard she was really smart, so I guess before I decided to be seated next to her I did put that into consideration, that I'm sitting next to someone smart and that could be beneficial to my studies somehow hahaha!

Esther was in a different class, but somehow got transfered to the same class as Sim Mei and I during secondary school. Esther again, was from the same primary school as me but we were not in the same class. In fact, I remember seeing her even since kindergarten. She and Sim Mei were from the same class in primary so when she got transfered, Sim Mei introduced her to me. I told her how I remember seeing her in kindergarten and then we just clicked from there.

Technically, I've known these two girls for 11 years already. And counting.

As for Wai Tuck, I don't remember how we got to know each other but we met during Form 6. And he's been my 'kaki' in Klang along with Esther for 6 years now. He's also my rap partner in karaoke :D

When I had to go into the terminal, I said goodbye to everyone. I first told my grandma to take care of herself. When I hugged her I couldn't control myself anymore and I broke down. Seeing this, I guess everyone else broke down too. I then hugged everyone else, including my parents.

I'm sure most of you know I have quite a weird relationship with my parents. Sometimes I bitch about them, sometimes I say how much I love them. We don't communicate much unless we need to talk about serious stuffs.

The last time I hug them was probably when I was really young. 5? 6 or 7 years old? I don't know. And now that I'm giving them a hug, it hit me that I'm hugging them because I'm leaving them already. And I cried even harder. My mom cried. I don't know if my dad did cos I was too emotional to see already.

I'm sorry I forgot to give Cerdwin (my future sister in law) and Wai Tuck a hug. I dunno why I didn't, I'm sorry. I appreciate your presence so much yesterday. And thank you so much for the gift Cerdwin, you really didn't have to. But since you insisted, I told you what I prefered :P Thank you so much! :)

When I was at the waiting gate, I broke down again and while crying, Dr. Nasir (my lecturer in UM) called me and wished me the best. He, as usual, was about to say something lame but when he found out I was crying he went all serious lol. Nikki (one of my violin students) called to wish me too.

When I was in the plane I broke down every once in a while when I had nothing to do and I couldn't sleep. And I took out all the letters and thank you cards I've received and read them. From my students Nikki, Huishan and Zhishan, from Sunwave Music Centre, from Alfa, from Esther. Wth I cried even more especially when I see the word "Teacher Ee Von" but it kept my heart warm knowing how much people loved me and my presence mattered was appreciated all these while. Thank you all of you who gave me all these lovely remembrance, you know who you are!

I held a meetup with my best uni friends - Jian, Chee Wei, Adelle, Michelle and Cheng Choo. Cat was supposed to come but she was busy with her thesis so she couldn't make it. It was really nice meeting everyone once again. We talked about silly things, laughed at silly things like how we stupidly looked at the Apple logo instead of the lens at the back of Adelle's iPhone when the guy was helping us to take a picture using it.

Jian was one of the first few friends I made when I went into UM. He was also my rumoured boyfriend haha! We were close enough for people to think we're actually a couple lol. Adelle was the first friend (apart from my roommates then) I made when I stayed in the hostel. Most of the people there conversed in Mandarin and I couldn't really fit in until I met her and we clicked instantly because we share pretty much the same opinion on everything! Cheng Choo and Chee Wei was from the dance department and I don't remember how we know each other but they too, got along with us super well. Michelle is Adelle sister and of course, was introduced to us through Adelle. She's friendly, nice and witty.

All of them are my favourite people in uni and nobody can take that away.

Then of course there's Cat whom I again, can't remember how we got to know each other and gotten close but I'm thankful and grateful to have her as my friend all these while. We've been through the ups and downs together, played gigs (cheating wan ahahahah), karaoke at the most ridiculous time of the semester, my most favourite times with her are of course in UMSO. It's not the best orchestra but its the people there that made it all worthwhile. People like her, Alfa (my FAVOURITE gay friend haha), and Amy.

Thank you for the earrings Chung Kiap, Yik Chuan (I still prefer to call you this than Albert, sorry! I first know you with that name!), Esther, Sim Mei and Wai Tuck. I wear them everyday now :) Well partly is because I don't own real stuff (as in gold or silver etc) and my ears can only take those so yeah hahaah. The Spongebob plush sleeps with me everyday! Er... it's just a sponge so it can't do much ya know what i mean wtf.

Of course, I wanna thank my parents and my grandma for all the support. Emotionally and financially! Hahah. My mom showered me with luxury again T__T this time she gave me 2 gold bracelets and a designer wallet T________T

Ok this post is going nowhere but I hope I didn't leave out anyone. I know it's not as though I won't see them anymore, but the fact is I don't know when I'll be seeing them again.

I'll be living a new chapter of my life here and I promise to be happy.

-

2011-02-16T18:46:00.000+11:00

Initially I didn't want to break this news in my blog but the stress level has been cummulating up to my neck now I feel really suffocated. I have too many things to do, but too little time.

As some of you may have already known, I'm leaving Malaysia in less than 2 weeks. It's a one way ticket this time. I am going to Melbourne but it's not a holiday and it's not for school. It's to stay there for a good few years until I get a Permanent Resident (PR) Visa from the Australian Government. Because Wei Kiat is putting my name with his, the lawyer said I have to be there before lodging the application, and thereafter while waiting we are required to stay. In other words, I have to leave everything behind. Everything I already have in my fingertips - jobs, car, familiarity, connections, friends and family.

No, I'm not blaming anyone. I just need a place to let a little bit of things out before I explode.

I currently have 5 main things to do: settle things in my dad's shop, settle things in music centres I teach at, have as many lessons as I can with my violin teacher and lastly, spend time with friends/family and lastly pack.

I know I complain about working at my dad's all the time and I should be happy now that I get to get the heck out of here but that doesn't change the fact that he's my dad and if I could I would help him any time. When I told him how soon I had to leave not only did he not sound me for being irresponsible, he showed his concern on what I'm going to do there, financial stability and all the things any dads would naturally do. And I feel really bad but there's nothing I can do about it but to get everything as organized as I can before I leave.

I currently teach at three different places but the good news is that I have already told them my plans of leaving a few years before this (with failed attempts of actually leaving wtf) thankfully all bosses are already prepared. I won't miss being irritated the crap out of myself by parents who complain a lot or students who don't practice, but I would most definitely miss my students. I would miss that rewarding feeling when a student does well whether in an exam or a regular lessons, and I would miss having kiddy conversations with the younger students. Yes, I might be able to live this part of my life again in Melbourne, but the students I would get in Melbourne are not Malaysian. That, is the difference.

Right now, I'm having violin lessons as regularly as I can afford to - as long as I have enough money, and time. I feel really happy that I've finally found a teacher who would help me out unconditionally, with dedication and as much as he can but it's also really sad that I'm tied up with so many other things, I really really really want to try my best to put practicing the violin as my no. 1 priority but I just can't. My teacher advised... or rather requested that I quit working at my dad's for this month and make sure I get myself really really prepared, before approaching educators over there in Melbourne. I agree, but sadly I cannot do it. I want to quit not because I hate working here (eventhough truth is I'm only working because I feel like I owe it to my dad) but because I really want to be prepared. I try my best to practice (I should be instead of blogging but damnit I really cannot stand the stress anymore) but work just takes up more time and there's nothing I can do. I feel really sorry for myself, I feel so guilty to my teacher.

According to my schedule, I'll be out every single night after work not because I'm going to have fun with friends but it's all more work-related things to be done, trying to settle everything until the very last minute. How the heck can I spend more time with my family/friends like this?!

Lastly, it just hit me that I won't have any time at all to pack unless I sleep lesser. If I do, I'll be too exhausted to even practice or work. So the only days I'm left to actually pack, are a Saturday and a Sunday. Notice how it's not plural. How does one pack up her entire life in just 2 days? Once I leave, I don't know when I'll be able to come back. My mind is like a warzone, I don't know where to start from. I don't know what I should and should not bring. I have too much of makeup, books, clothes emotions...

And today's sick tummy plus 4 trips to the toilet is not helping at all.

Just the other day my dad was telling me he might as well sell away my car since nobody is going to drive it anymore. It made total sense, but it also made me really really sad to hear what he had just said. I don't know why. It hit me hard that my parents raised me and gave me everything including that car and then I'm just going to leave them in less than 2 weeks.

I'm sorry this post is getting so fucking emotional and I'm crying right now.

♡ is in the air

2011-02-15T02:42:00.000+11:00

Girl: For this vday, go to cards section in the mall. Randomly pick one vday card and read. Then put back in the rack. There, that's my present. Practical n economical, yet still have the lovey dovey feel. Wtf.

Guy: WTF Hahahah. So sweet. Then as for u. Go online n read one la :)

After half a day...

Guy: Read a vday card. It says "see u in Melb on 28th!". I smile. Content. This is the day I've been waiting for

Girl: :) you make me smile like sohai. Just your assurance is enough to convince me tat going there n restart my life is ok :)

Guy: :) I dunno wat will happen. But i know we'll go through this together. I'm sleeping ady ya. Nite nite baby.

***

Happy Valentine's Day 2011

I spent Valentine's this year with 2 of my bestfriends. I wish we can do this every year.

Don't my nails look freaking awesome?

2011-02-10T16:28:00.000+11:00

I've been quite diligent in painting my nails so no more Wai Loon come asking me "Is this a trend? Why is there only a patch of colour at the centre of your nails?"

Pasta Zanmai

2011-02-08T16:03:00.000+11:00

Chinese New Year this year felt a little short but still fun nevertheless. Nobody truly enjoys a holiday until they start working. This year could be the last time I get to celebrate CNY with my family. Sad, but some things need to happen. Will reveal when everything is in my hands. Remember I said something exciting is going to happen? Well, it IS happening. Soon. Exciting, but scary at the same time.

And no, I'm not dying.

Some pictures of Wk and I at Pasta Zanmai. First time eating there. Verdict? Overpriced fusion food. Worth trying though cos some dishes taste interesting, but don't eat the typical Japanese dishes cos it's a lot more expensive than if you were to order it in Sushi Zanmai.

Spaghetti with Unagi and egg. Not bad but nothing to shout about. This is around RM 23 or 26.

Spaghetti with prawn tempura and sesame paste sauce. This one tastes really interesting. It's a mix of Japanese, Oriental and Western in a plate. I think this is around RM 26.

I shall end with a picture of me being my usual self (obsessed).

Hair colour's fading already huhuhu T_T

Tong tong tong chiang!

2011-01-31T17:23:00.002+11:00

Bored!

I shouldn't be cos I have a shitload of things to do but I have not felt bothered to get anything done so I shall blog now.

Major change in my life? What else... my hair of course. People who follow me on Twitter or are friends with me on Facebook will know that I have turned from brunette to...

... a redhead!

I posted this picture in my Facebook and Kin Wai asked, "why the lala pose" and I answered "lala hair colour of course must do lala pose"

No offence and please don't perasan, I'm not generalizing redheads as 'lala', it's just a joke. Everyone's definition of a 'lala' is different so don't get too sensitive.

When I first saw Mustardqueen's new hairdo it instantly made me want to go get my hair done. I've been wanting to dye my hair red since forever (no, I'm not saying this only to justify myself just incase anybody thinks I'm trying to 'copy' Mustardqueen, it's a fact) but everytime I'm in a salon deciding on what colour I should dye my hair, the hairstylist will persuade me to not go for red saying it will fade very very quickly and once it fades it won't look nice, the colour isn't versatile blablablaaaa.

Her pictures inspired me so much that I didn't want to give a shit anymore. Do it now or never, how many youths does a woman have, right? And if another hairstylist ever suggests me to do otherwise, to hell with it.

I went to the same place she did (Wenawave @ Times Square) and I'm glad I did, the stylist didn't comment on a single thing about my decision. Of course she did tell me it will fade quickly which I do not blame her because it's just how the dye and Asian hair work. Once I said "Ok, do it" she told me "You're gonna look like Rihanna".

They use L'oreal and I'm not sure which one I picked, it was either a shade from the Majirouge or the Majirouge Mix+ series. I didn't expect the colour to turn out soooo vibrant even without bleaching! Well honestly, I wanted something different, not just a burgundy or a mahogany but something... different. And this is exactly what I wanted! But for a day or two I was too afraid to show the big change to the world I wore a cap around -.-

By now, the colour has already faded slightly. It's still red, but not as vibrant. Each time I shampoo, the foam turns pink. I see water with red tint running down my hair. It stains my towel and when I'm not careful, my wet hair will stain my clothes! Well, I'm not complaining since this was what I wanted. I just wanna share a little bit of info just incase anyone out there wanna do this this, at least you're prepared.

I paid RM 220 for my length (it's over my boobies) and RM 95 for the treatment. The place is quite small and busy so I suggest making an appointment before going. The creative director (whom I consulted) is Yen but the one who did my hair was another stylist.

Now I need to scratch my head and think of what to do once my hair grows out. I can actually see a little bit of regrowth already :(

What's up doc?

2011-01-21T14:56:00.000+11:00

On the 3rd day we went to Wet & Wild which is a water theme park, like our Sunway Lagoon but with 9875341089 times more scary rides and nicer pools. Didn't manage to get pictures cos it was obviously et everywhere and it's not only because it's a water theme park, but the fact that it was raining that day :(

It was raining till around mid afternoon when the rain stopped but the sky was still gloomy. Then while we were queueing for a water slide, it started drizzling. We were queueing for about 30 mins? 45? I'm not sure but people there were that crazy. Despite the rain people still wanted to have fun and the amount of people was crazy by just looking at how long we had to queue for one slide.

When it was our turn to get on the slide, the rain became super heavy and there was thunder and they had to stop the operation.

MAHAI.

And we had to run over for shelter. It was pouring like cats and dogs and the wind was killing us. We waited for about an hour before the rain stopped completely, and everything was operating like normal again.

One of the wave pool where they have this outdoor cinema system called the Dive' n'Movies where you get to watch a movie while floating on the pool. They were showing The Grown Ups that day.

Overall, it was a really fun day and it would have been perfect if there was no rain. Absolutely worth visiting.

The next day which was also the last day we had in Gold Coast, we went to the Warner Brothers Movie World, which is a movie related theme park.

Upon entering, this is the first roller coaster ride you will see.

The Superman Escape

Freaking scary looking!

We wanted to ride it but the queue was guess what?

FREAKING 2 HOURS WTF.

They had a notice board placed outside the queue area of each ride, stating the estimated waiting hour. And almost all that we saw were 1-2 hours.

Major turn off :( In the end we didn't get to do any rides at all. There were too many people, I think December is a really bad time/month/season to visit Gold Coast.

Don't get to ride anything, so how? Pose and take pictures lah!

Batwing Spaceshot is like the Space Shot (I thought it was called Solero Shot but apparently not anymore) in the Genting Theme Park but Batwing goes up slightly higher than Space Shot.

Bugs Bunny and... girlfriend! Wtf. What's her name ah?

We also watched one of the shows in the 4D theatre, that day they had Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Then there's also the street entertainment.

That day it was the Justice League against The Joker and some guy I don't know.

And in the late afternoon there's the Star Parade, where the movie and cartoon characters parade along the streets.

The Green Lantern said hi to my readers! :)

Would you look at Fred? Even a fake one is as vain.

I'm gonna get killed for posting this picture but Ben & Jerry ice cream FTW!

There wasn't much to do since it was fully packed with people so we left the place early and chilled (literally) at the Surfers Paradise beach.

The wind was not as funny as how this picture may appear.

The wind was so strong it was blowing the sand up! When you walk towards the beach you'll feel as though your legs get pricked by some invisible needles. And if you're not carefull, you might even catch sand in your eyes. NOT FUNNY AT ALL.

Either it rains like crazy, or the wind gets crazy. And it's supposed to be a hot, sunny summer time when we were there. It was broadcasted that that December (2010) would be the wettest Christmas Gold Coast ever faced.

We were unlucky for such timing and plus, since it's December, everyone's on their holidays so everywhere was packed with people. And not to mention, rude people. Wasn't pleasant at all.

I guess the best time to go there would have to be January - April, where it's not the holiday seasons, and it's not too hot or cold.

We bought this ticket package to get into all 3 parks (Sea World, Wet & Wild and Move World). It's a VIP pass for about AUD 100, and not only is it cheaper than buying individual tickets for each park, the pass lasts for a year! Which means I can still go back there (any 3 parks) and enter without having to pay again! I'm not sure if the package is still available but just to let you know to watch out for packages and deals and not blindly go for the individual tickets.

Last picture of us at Gold Coast :)

We took LOTS and LOTS of footage through out this trip, I'll be compiling them soon.

By the way, Chinese New Year is coming soon! Less than 2 weeks! Have you done your shopping? Well, I have and now I'm left with my hair. I'm thinking of dyeing it red, eventhough Wk doesn't really like the idea. What are you doing? :)

Gold Coast! (urm... non-halal pictures ahead)

2011-01-19T16:54:00.000+11:00

My Australia trip post is coming to an end, finally.

If you ever visit Melbourne, don't forget to eat at The Meat & Wine Co. There's a few of the restaurant all around the world but I think the nearest to us would have to be Australia, Sydney in particular. And while you're there and while you're non-Muslim, please don't forget to eat the pork ribs.

No, not this one but this is really good too. It's their ribs platter which comes with small portions of lamb, beef and pork ribs.

THIS. is their full rack of pork ribs. It may look gigantic but it's not difficult for 1 person to eat it up since most of it consists of bones, or ribs for that matter.

That full rack of pork ribs costs around AUD50+, can't remember the exact amount. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Yes. Will I try it again? Absolutely. Why? Simply because I can never find something like this in Malaysia.

The last 4 days before heading back to Malaysia we went to Gold Coast, stayed at Surfers Paradise.

The Surfers Paradise beach, which is loooooooooong.

It's a beautiful place but I guess we were there at the wrong time. It was raining everyday, the sky was really gloomy, the weather was wet and cold. Everything was underwhelming :( Because the sky wasn't clear, so was the sea waters. And the rain just didn't help at all.

Upon reaching we strolled along the suburb. Because it's quite a hot tourist spot, the price of everything's marked up like crazy. My advice for anyone who's traveling to Gold Coast particularly Surfers Paradise is, stay in an apartment and cook whenever you can. The food isn't exactly amazing, or at least nothing we tried was. It's not worth it to spend on food there, not even groceries. Pack instant noodles if you have to.

We had dinner at this Taiwanese restaurant. Like I've said, food was not impressive. But I quite like their bubble tea. The milk tea was so so, but the pearls were good. The place is called Hazel Tea Shop.

The next day we went to Sea World which was quite fun but again, the rain was a major let down :(

My favourite part of the visit is seeing these King Penguins!!!!! I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I saw how huge they are and how fake they look! It's like seeing a Mumble (from Happy Feet) and the rest of the penguins! Except that they didn't sing and tap their feet and dance wtf.

There were also a few scheduled shows peformed by the marine animals.

Imagine, the dolphin show.

Fish Detectives, where the seals and sea lions all came out to act!!! So cute!!!

Looks like one of the seals is getting horny wtf.

First time seeing a polar bear!

For dinner, we decided to try Bavarian Haus because they (Wk and family) were very interested in the pork knuckle, which is a popular German dish.

Such a disappointmet.

It's my first time trying a pork knuckle and unfortunately I didn't like it. Ok... I did enjoy the crispy skin (I'm a sucker for zhu yao zhar which I think is deep fried pork lard and siew yok skin which is the skin of roasted pork) but the meat was well, quite tender but smells strongly of... I dunno. Pork which has been kept for too long I guess? Not forgetting it was looking quite bloody as well, not sure if it's cooked. But if it's that tender I'm pretty sure it has been cooked for long so I don't understand why it looks bloody in the inside. And the strong, unpleasant smell of pork, gosh.

We also had several other dishes like the Wursts (German sausages), chicken schnitzel, lamb shank, pretzels... everything was just mediocre. Nothing impressive.

Try it only if you cannot contain your curiosity on pork knuckle. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend that place at all. Environment is ok, but the food just doesn't justify the price.

Ok signing off. Will finish off the last 2 days tomorrow.

Selamat Hari Thaipusam semua!

Snow in a tumbler

2011-01-14T15:15:00.000+11:00

Thank goodness for Twitter or I'll never get to buy a Starbucks tumbler for so much lesser than if I were to get it here!

One of my violin students was tweeting about the Starbucks tumbler being cheaper in Macau and I asked her about it. Technically it is cheap only if you purchase a drink but it's still a good deal! I can't remember how much they cost over here... prolly RM 40? RM 45? Over there it's only RM 21 after converting! They had a catalogue so she sent me pictures of it so that I could choose which one I wanted. Since it was around Christmas they have quite a number of limited edition (I think), Christmas-y designs which I thought were really cute! And I think some of it weren't even available in Malaysia.

I didn't expect much when I chose this cos the pictures didn't look that promising but when I saw it in person I loved it instantly! It is everything I've wanted in a Starbucks tumbler. I quite like the one my sister's having but that's the ONLY one I like compared to all the other tumblers over here. I've been holding back and not purchase it only because it IS very expensive for just a tumbler. This one I'm having right now is just perfect :)

Thank you Nikki!

My favourite part of the design is the little holographic dots all over the bottle, which resembles glistening snow!

And random doodlings of cute desserts.

Also, I've finally gotten enough stamps to redeem the 2011 planner! I was left with about 7 stamps and it was 2 weeks to the deadline (15 Jan) and I was thinking oh crap how can I drink 7 Starbucks drinks in 2 weeks. Then one day I was on the way to uni and I casually asked Cat on the phone to ask around if anybody in uni wanna get some Starbucks and then she told me to get 5 for the orchestra assistants! Wheeeeeeeeee :D

Honestly, I'm a little bit disappointed. The exterior looks a lot better and is definitely of better quality but function wise, I still prefer last year's. I'll elaborate more on this another day.

After stopping violin lessons for about 3-4 months, I've finally resumed to learning again yesterday. Enjoyed it very much, feel all motivated once again! :)

The next few months are going to be rocky due to questions nobody can answer for now. Hopefully everything will go smooth sailing.

Ashcombe Maze & Lavender Gardens

2011-01-06T16:18:00.001+11:00

More pics from Melbourne!

On we drove to Ballarat and visited the Sovereign Hill, which is an outdoor museum where you get to see live presentation of how gold is found, processed blablabla in Ballarat. The admission fee isn't cheap but if you look at the entire recreation it's not difficult to understand how much maintenance is needed to keep the place running nicely.

I've visited the place in winter 2008. Honestly, for places like this, it's worthwile to see it once but not another time. We decided to go again because his family hasn't been there before.

Wearing a winter jacket during summer =.=

And exploring the museum took up pretty much the whole day. Can't remember what else we did.

The next day which was also the last day we had the car, we drove around the Mornington Peninsula. We didn't get to do much since we had only one day and most places close at 5.

We wanted to visit a strawberry picking farm but it was not opened due to bad weather conditions. So we visited the Ashcombe Maze and Lavender Gardens which was beautiful! It was quite fun too because once you get in you'll be given tasks and challenges. Of course it is completely up to you whether or not you choose to accept and do them. Honestly, it'll be a lot more interesting to do it than to only stroll along the entire place looking at trees and flowers.

The moment we entered we were asked to look for little gnomes and fairies in the place. If we could find all of it the reward was a lolly. The whole point is of course not to get a lolly but the fun of exploring every coop and corner, having an objective while enjoying the beauty of nature.

Yes, this is a maze, like the one you see in Harry Potter.

Apparently the Ashcombe Maze is one of the oldest existing maze in Australia.

Lavender! I've never seen a freshly grown lavender like this in my entire life!

There's this Rose Maze which is one of the oldest circular rose mazes in the world. The challenge here is to get to the centre of the maze.

Then we reached the most beautiful part of the garden, the Lavender Labyrinth!

I was too excited when I saw the lavender and couldn't wait to take a picture with the shrubs. And I accidentally tripped over the fencing =.= If you look at my hand you can see dirt. Wk quickly came over and took a picture before helping me up lol.

Speaking of falling down, I don't know why I always face misfortunes whenever I am in Melbourne.

The first time I was at Melbourne in 2007, I fell down from a chair in the public while laughing too hard. In 2008, I had ketchup splattered all over my face because I didn't know how to open that shit, yes in the public. In 2009, I slipped and almost landed with my butt in the public again but I was lucky that Wk was right next to me and I managed held on to him. But the public still saw me slip.

This time when I was there, I tripped and fell onto the floor hard when I was trying to chase some seagulls away while we were having a break at Seal Rocks. Oh how could I have forgotten about this?! Some fucking stupid/inconsiderate Chinese couple who were sitting near us fed them for their own amusement. They were throwing potato chips everywhere and laughing at the seagulls fighting for it.

It's totally fine if they want to be stupid but please do it far away without affecting others. When they fed the seagulls, more and more flew over and surrounded them and at the same time, surrounded us as well and I find it terribly irritating cos seagulls are not afraid of people, they will snatch your food and they are very noisy. That stupid couple then moved away to another table when the amount of seagulls became intimidating, but the seagulls won't leave just because the couple left. The seagulls knew we had food so they stayed and stayed irritating as everrrr. And that is why I got really annoyed and wanted to chase them off before landing on my elbow and knees, which of course still did the trick but in a more painful way T_T STUPID CHINESE COUPLE GROW SOME BRAINS LAH.

By the way everyone, PLEASE DON'T FEED THE SEAGULLS. If you want to do it, do it without affecting the people nearby. Your consideration is very much appreciated. Thank you.

Ok sorry I digressed. Then, fell another time at the Lavender Labyrinth.

=.=

We had lunch at the cafe inside the garden where of course, they serve lots of lavender infused dishes such as lavender scones... ... ok that's all I know wtf. There's also a home made lavender ice cream but we didn't try that. The lavender scones were alright, I still prefer their original unflavoured scones.

Before heading home we dropped by a random park :)

We had dinner at one of my favourite Korean restaurants there, Oriental Spoon :)

Seafood pancake, not very nice.

BBQ meat, best!

Crispy Chicken and Crispy Chilli Chicken, best!

Such...

2011-01-05T20:15:00.000+11:00

... is the wonders of Adobe Photoshop!

How's school?

2011-01-03T17:59:00.000+11:00

It has been... *counts with fingers*... half a decade since I last stepped into school to study. If any of you are still schooling, please appreciate it and have all the fun you can there because you will miss it when you're done with it I can promise you.

Be a rebel now or you'll never have the chance to because when you grow up, it's not the things you did which you often regret but the things that you didn't.

I didn't obey all school rules and I've never regretted one single bit doing so. As long as it doesn't hurt anyone, as long as it makes me happy, why not? I did all I can and I want so I'm proud to say I've had a happy school life :)

My best advice to school-goers is, choose who you befriend with wisely because they are the ones who will reflect most of your life. Real talk. Be yourself and never try to fit in. If they cannot take you for who you are, leave. Don't let others influence and affect your thinking. If you think it's wrong, do not be afraid to repel. If that costs you friendship, so be it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with having no friends, but it's absolutely wrong to let friends take control of your actions.

I've lived my life being a very reserved person most of the time, I don't and I can't anyway, talk much to people I'm not familiar with. So what? Nothing bad comes out of it... except for the awkward silent moments when you don't know what to say to the new friend.

Ok ok... suddenly become Doctor School Advice pulak lol.

***

On the 2nd day of our road trip we headed towards Philip Island and dropped by a couple of places before arriving at the Penguin Parade. During summer in Melbourne the sun sets at around 9pm, and that's usually the time when the penguins will come onto shores and march towards their burrows.

First stop was the Maru Koala Park.

It may look fun feeding the kangaroos but actually they're quite filthy. Almost every ground has their poop. You see that brown small 'balls' on the floor in the picture? Yup, that's it. And I don't know what's wrong with the kangaroos the way they eat it felt like they haven't eaten for years. Not just this time but every time. And they have 'claws' so I had to make sure my hand was at a suitable height so the kangaroos won't have to reach for it and have their claws scratch me. Eww.

Of course, there're koalas too but all they do is sleep sleep sleep eat and sleep. They're only active at night so nothing much too see during the day. Also because they are soooo fragile (and maybe endangered? I dunno) they're usually kept too far and high within human's reach. We couldn't even cuddle them :( I think need to pay to do so.

That's the bridge to get into Philip Island

@ Churchill Island Heritage Farm

The Seal Rocks, where you need to PAY AUD2 to use the binoculars to see the seals. Unfortunately there weren't any... or maybe there was but I was too kiamsiap to pay to see.

There were penguins even around the place we view the Seal Rocks!

A close shot of it.

Damn hard to get a picture of it ok.

And then we went to the Penguin Parade which there after, photography was disallowed so no pictures of the cute flightless birds parading onto the shores into their burrows.

This was my second time visiting the Penguin Parade. The first was during winter in 2007. We paid for a day tour and because it's winter the sun set at 5-6pm, everything was quite rushed. After the watching the penguins we had to rush back because otherwise it'll be too dark and too late.

I enjoyed it a lot more this time because it's not as cold and we get to do everything at our own pace. We left the house at about 9.30am and we managed to cover 5 places.

I highly suggest renting a car and driving up there. Its far more relaxing and comfortable cos obviously you're traveling with lesser people and they are people you personally know. Of course, you'll miss having a tour guide telling you stories. With GPS and Google Maps, it's not difficult to navigate around by yourself. We bought the 3 parks pass which includes the Churchill Island Heritage Farm, Koala Conservation Centre and the Penguin Parade, it's obviously more worth it. Just be sure to find out when's the right time to be at the Penguin Parade because the earlier you are, the better seats you get to view the penguins.

Last post of 2010

2010-12-31T15:27:00.000+11:00

I am finally back from my 25 days vacation in Melbourne and Gold Coast, Australia. Feels both good and bad. The good? There's always nothing better than being home. Trust me, I miss home every single time I go away. The family, the friends, the convenience. The bad? Work, what else.

The flight home wasn't too good, wasn't quite well-piloted in my opinion.Wasn't too bad either cos I had my newly acquired Bugs Bunny cushion to rest my head and a shoulder to lean on :) Wk's back for a little more than a month before he goes back to Melbourne to start working.

Still not in the mood for work so I shall reminisce on days in Melbourne.

We rented a Toyota Tarago (8 seater van) for 4 days to drive around. On the first day we drove around the Yarra Valley. First stop was a cherry-picking farm. We paid about AUD7 for entrance and we get to eat and pick all we want! But at the end of the day the amount of cherries taken out will be charged, about AUD10 for a kg.

I like this picture :)

Then we visited the Domaine Chandon winery.

Swimming in champagne gloop gloop

We went out slightly late and by 5pm everything was closed already so we had to head home after that. We had a delicious dinner at Peko Peko.

Wantan Noodles and Pork Chop Peko Box. Noodle wasn't amazing, the rest of the Peko box meals were.

Crispy Honey Chicken and Pop Chicken Peko Box

Wasabi Mayo Prawn and Spring Rolls

Unagi Fried Rice

Serving's pretty small for the price but the taste was worth it.

***

The year is coming to an end tonight. I can't wait for 2011. If all goes well something amazing's going to happen. Don't wanna jinx it so I won't say anything yet but when the time comes, I promise I'll share. 2010 isn't the best year for me but I believe with enough perseverance, determination and all the positive attitude, things do fall into its right places.

Happy New Year everyone. Have fun but please be safe.

Howdy

2010-12-29T02:34:00.000+11:00

Blogging with an eepon(iPhone, wk n I calls it eepon cos it sounds cuter) hrm how do I skip a line like how we press 'enter'? Nvm, hopefully this'll be a short paragraph n the auto-correcting system won't change my words to some nonsense.

Ok, I just found out how to skip a line WTF...

We're leaving gold coast thru a super early flight tmr, this is a quick update cos I wanna see how it's like to blog using an eepon. Pretty cool :)

Ok was trying to upload pics but seems like eepon sucks in that department. So I shall sleep now. Be back soon!

Puffing Billy/Suzuki Night Market

2010-12-24T23:21:00.001+11:00

Busy busy busy! Tomorrow we'll be flying to Gold Coast. Yes I am aware that it's Christmas, sounds like a nice day to fly but apparently not in an angmoh country. Shops and most places will be closed, streets will be quite empty. Not sure what we should do when we arrive in the morning tomorrow.

Good news is I heard that there'll be great discounts on Boxing Day which is the day after Christmas? Hopefully.

Now let's go on with what's experienced so far.

Taking the Puffing Billy, which is a steam train or more fondly known to me as the 'choo choo' train :) Nothing to shout about but it was something worth experiencing. To date, I've never actually taken a steam train before.

We're allowed, or maybe I should say encouraged to sit with our legs hanging out of the window. While it's fun, it actually hurts the backside quite a bit after a while. And also, because the window's exposed, you'll get tiny flecks of burnt coal -burnt to generate the steam- flying into your clothes, face, eyes and basically everywhere. Not very serious but not very pleasant either.

With the super kind and nice conductor :)

There's this yearly thingie called the Suzuki Night Market which started since mid November. It'll be held every Wednesday at Queen Victoria Market till March. Basically you can shop, eat, drink, and be entertained there. There's a huge variety of cuisine from all over the world.

Mini Dutch Pancakes with butter, sugar and maple syrup.

Sangria

Korean twist potatoes which was such a big hit among the crowd! The queue was crazy.

'Code One' the Victoria Police Band rocking the crowd! Mind you, those are REAL policemen! Do I hear sibeh cool??? They weren't even singing oldies ok, one of the songs performed was Good Charlotte's Like It's Her Birthday and it was pretty good! From what I can tell the policemen are probably 30-50yo.

The crowd just gets more and more massive.

Alright, gotta hit the sack early. Leaving the house at 8 tomorrow.

Have a happy Christmas lovely readers!

And I thought this year would be the plainest.

2010-12-17T22:55:00.000+11:00

In case anyone didn't notice, my birthday was 2 days ago. It fell on the exact same day as Wk's convocation, which of course I already knew prior to coming here. I didn't think much before coming here. Like yeah its on the same day the highlight of the day is most likely him and not me and nobody (his family) is going to know it's my birthday, so be it.

Really? Not quite.

On that day, it started out all fine. By the end of the day, I started to feel a little... forgotten. Yes I have gotten lots of wishes on my FB wall, twitter and from 2 ppl personally which btw, thank you all so much for that, it was really lovely. I started to imagine stupid things. Things like if I were to be at home, my family would have bought me a birthday cake and we would all sing the birthday song. I started to think how this year it's going to be the plainest of all birthdays I have ever gone through. Plain and uncelebrated.

No, it's not that I WANTED a birthday cake and a birthday song and everyone wishing me in my face and throw me a party and presents (that would be nice actually :D) but the thought of going through a day without people paying attention to me when it's my birthday... is just weird. I know that sounded damn self-centered and I know people say birthday celebrations are overrated especially when one gets older... but isn't it nice to know that people remember? Isn't it nicer to be treated a little more special on such a day?

After the ceremony, everyone was tired and wanted to stay home and have Dominos delivery. On the way back I joked to Wk that we should put candles on the pizza. He dared me to sing a birthday song myself if he can find candles to do so which of course, I didn't agree to do cos I know that sucker WILL get candles. I can't say I was unhappy or upset or disappointed... but just that tad bit of negativity which I can't quite put my finger at.

During dinner, his dad suddenly wished me happy birthday and gave me a red packet. I was of course speechless and didn't want to accept it but you know how the older people would insist. And then his mom told me she knew about it this morning but almost forgot about it and only got reminded again when she saw 'it'. I asked her what is 'it' that she saw and she turned speechless and awkward lol. I looked at Wk and he smiled and didn't say anything, his dad told me something 'romantic'.

After dinner when I was about to do the dishes, he told me not to and said he'll get it done. And then he took out candles and a cake from the fridge which I did not even notice it being there when I opened the fridge a few times that day to grab stuff.

Brownie and Passionfruit Chocolate Gateau from Le Petit Gâteau

That morning when he went out for his hair appointment I was still asleep like a dead fish. When he got back he stuffed one macaroon into my mouth and told me it's good and he got it when he went to the city. I don't know why I didn't think much of it as in... why would he go all the way to the city just to get 2 macaroons? *shakes head and smile

And then his brother searched for some birthday song in Youtube, I blew the candle and cut the cakes for everyone. The cake was delectable. It's not the same as what I have imagined and how I have always had my birthdays celebrated, but it's definitely not the plainest :)

That night I was so touched I looked into Wk's eyes and cried.

Hello from Melbourne!

2010-12-14T01:04:00.000+11:00

Ok so everyone has been bugging me for updates so here it is!

Ok la not literally everyone but I know some of you lovely readers are missing me already right right riiiiiightt :P

So I'm currently in Melbourne right now and I've accumulated a few pictures of over a week since arriving.

Lunch @ Issus Cafe

The food took quite a while to arrive but atmosphere, service and food were ok. We had a risotto (which Wk's dad said looks like crap and refused to try lol), carbonara penne and some spaghetti which I forgot with what sauce. We wanted to have some French crepes but the place was full. I still haven't tried the said French crepes :(

Night scene along Yarra River @ Crown

Fire display/Gas brigades @ Crown

Greek dinner @ Stalactite

Stalactite opens for 24 hours and serves Greek food. It's famous for their dips and giros souvlakis. There were 6 of us so its not so practical to order too many souvlakis (serving's too big and you don't get to try much) so we had the mixed giro platter of lamb and chicken, Greek salad and mixed dips with pita bread. That way we get to roll our own souvlaki and at the same time try their dips.

@ Docklands

Seafood market @ Springvale

That stuff on the left's fresh and alive abalone! Eww. And yes, the lobsters too.

GYU TAN DON!!!!!!!!! :))))

Bought this super cute connector ring for AUD15. Expensive but I sibeh loike it :D

The bakeries over here are craaazy. Exaggerated but real!

Luna Park @ St. Kilda - a type of amusement park in Australia. Of course, it's a smaller scale one if compared to the ones in Gold Coast.

@ St. Kilda

I don't know what this place's called cos I know we were around the St. Kilda Beach but from this picture we're it looks more like we're on a pier... or some kinda harbour. But the waters connect to the beach so... I dunno.

Never, ever ever ever wear like this to the beach in Melbourne. If you must, remember to bring a pair of tights and extra sweater/jacket along.

I tell you the weather on the day we were there was a complete bitch. The morning was pretty chilly already I'd say about 15-18 degrees. Then it started to rain heavily when we were at Luna Park. We walked towards the pier area when the rain stopped. The sun came out for a while and it was nice and warm. Only FOR A WHILE. Then it was cold again. When we were walking on the piers the sea breeze was killing me already. And then it started to rain heavily AGAIN! And then after about 20 minutes it stopped but it was still cold. When we reached the end of the pier, the sun was out. It's warm. When we walked towards the beach, it rained AGAIN omfg. And then it stopped. And then the sun came out and it was really really warm where the sun hits, but chilly where it doesn't.

Summer in Melbourne = 4 freaking seasons wth

In the night when we were out for dinner, I wore tights underneath my shorts, and switched from sweater to a thick, winter jacket wtf.

Ok that's it for the adventure so far. I promise I'll update as often as possible! Love you if you're still reading ~x

11 more to go!

2010-11-20T02:22:00.000+11:00

I printed this out and stuck it on the wall in the shop's toilet today.

I hope it doesn't sound rude or mean, cos when I was typing it I was fuming inside thinking about what happened yesterday.

Today I bought my favourite vegetarian mee siam for lunch. Picked some vegetarian char siew too. Mmm...

During breaktime I went to Starbucks wanting to get their card to collect stamps. Last year I managed to collect enough to get their planner (for this year). Doesn't look like the most attractive planner you can find but the built and quality overall is great and the design is sleek so I quite like it. I also bought their planner last year, which I prefer cos it's leatherback.

Today, I saw a mock up of next year's planner (which you can get by collecting enough stamps aka buying enough drinks) and it looked pretty good, looks like it's going to be leather. I hope it's leather because I prefer it to be leather.

So you gotta collect 12 stamps altogether, 2 (or more) of which must be 2 of their Christmas exclusive drinks, the Toffee Nut Latte and Peppermint Mocha, either hot or frappucino, only Grande(regular) or Venti(large) gives you a stamp.

Actually I wanted to try the Peppermint Mocha Frappucino but I changed my mind immediately when I saw the Toffee Nut Latte Frappucino because I remembered exactly a year ago I had it and I loved it! How could I have forgotten how good it tasted!

This sucker is omfg so nice!!! It's too sweet for my own good but it's too good to resist! I wish they sell the toffee sprinkle, it's so damn addictive!

Why do they have to make something so nice only available around Christmas?! That's too cruel :(

I tell you, 1 stamp on my card is definitely going to be the Peppermint Mocha Frappucino but the 11 other stamps... don't need a rocket scientist to tell you what drinks they're going to be.

At first I was a little disappointed. I thought I wasn't going to make it to 12 stamps cos I thought the collection will end by the end of December and I'll be in Melbourne for almost one month during December so I'll be left with only 2 weeks here now how the heck can I get all 12 stamps in such a short time right.

Collection started since 9 November and ends on 15 January!

Now that I know it's 15 January that gives me about 4 weeks to fill it up!

Ok one week about... 3 drinks. WTF that's still alot... time to ring up some coffee buddies.

Where are your manners you stupid stupid man!

2010-11-18T18:57:00.000+11:00

Remember my cat poop story just a few posts below? Right so I swore to not step into that toilet again. I forgot to mention that there's actually 2 toilets in the shop so yes I still have one more toilet to use.

Today a mofo man who's a customer came to pick up his stuffs and I was busy attending to another customer so I told him to wait. Then he asked if there's a toilet he can use and I told him yes and directed him to it.

Fast forward - 1 hour later I felt the urge. I went into the toilet (not the cat poop one) and to my extreme horror and disgust (at this point you can imagine my face contorting to all kinds of shape), there's pee in the toilet bowl and the toilet seat was left down, and there were spots of 'liquid' here and there.

WHAT. THE. FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

Obviously that asshole did not flush after using the toilet. And not only that, he didn't lift up the seats before 'spraying' everywhere without aiming properly! He obviously lives alone because if you live with a woman you'll know women needs the seat down and if you fucking dirty the seat how the fuck are we going to dare to use it again!

Is he fucking uneducated or what??? This is not even a public toilet why can't he flush after using??!

OMG I'M SO ANGRY.

Mahogany?

2010-11-18T15:24:00.001+11:00

To push all the negative/angry/ranty post down, let me fill this with lots of pictures of my new hair. Ok not very new actually, about a month old already haha.

Before and after the big chop.

Doesn't look too different but trust me, it's A WHOLE LOT shorter than before. Before this it was long and super choppy - very short and long layers. The longest layer is ridiculously long, people often told me they thought it's extensions :( What's the point of having long hair when people don't think it's real, right? So I decided to get a blunt cut - chop them all off to the same length but still maintaining a few layers so it doesn't look to thick. I'm planning to grow it out again. I miss my hair when it was like this:

Left: Indoor, fluorescent lighting. Right: Facing the window with natural lighting.

Also coloured it. This time it's a mahogany-ish brown, not some atrocious looking gold/blonde which I know Esther hates and thinks it looks lala. Wk hates it too HAHAHA. Actually it's not THAT bad lor I don't understand why they hate it...

Ok maybe a little too light but I've never regretted it and never will. We only live once so if you wanna do something which doesn't harm yourself or anyone, go for it.

So now I'm between a redhead and brunette cos the colour kinda faded a little and it doesn't have that much of red tones anymore.

Ok gtg.

Shit happens

2010-11-17T03:07:00.002+11:00

Not sure if I've mentioned this but I'll be heading to Melbourne this December together with Wk's family to attend his graduation. We bought the tickets as early as 8 freaking months ago and I didn't tell my dad back then because I didn't know me working at his place would turn into something so serious. 4 months ago, we moved from Damansara Uptown to Putra Heights. 3 months ago, the other part time employee decided to quit because she found Putra Heights too far and inconvenient for her. I panicked, who's gonna take my place when I leave in December? 2 months ago, this woman came and started working full time. I was relieved.

Fast forward - 1 week ago, she decided to quit. Of all time, one month before I'm leaving, right when I was about to tell my dad, she quitted.

SERIOUSLY. 8 freaking months ago I didn't picture myself in a situation like this. I was planning to tell him a month before I leave but who knew that crazy woman decided to throw her tantrum at us and in the end decided to leave!

Agggh I don't know why I'm such a pussy. 4 years ago I feel this exact same nervousness when I was planning to ask for permission from my parents to fly to Melbourne for the first time. 4 years later, I am obviously much older and supposedly thinking more mature than before, I STILL FEEL NERVOUS. Wth.

I think if I am not working for him it would have been so much more easy for me. Yala yala excuses la I know I should have told him waaaaay earlier but who knew!!! Seriously who knew...

Ok done venting. Need to sleep because tomorrow is a public holiday but I still have to do some donkey job somewhere and I'm very unhappy about it. On top of that, I'm in charge of the company's website. My kiamsiap father refuses to pay other people to design a company logo, write and copyright the profile so I have to do it. And I dunno how to tell him about next month. Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh

Oh btw speaking of my title, let me share a very disgusting story.

I was as usual, at work this morning and I had to pull up the urm... 'railing' to open the shop. So when I was about to unlock the padlock, this stray cat came very near to me. There're usually a number of stray cats around. I don't know the exact number cos cats all look the same and I usually see a few diff 'colours'. Esther I think you'll have nightmare everynight if you come to my shop.

So anyway I squatted down to unlock the rail when this cat came super close to me and of course, naturally I stopped what I was doing just to make sure it doesn't come too close or rub itself on me (you know how cats like to do that...). Then I meowed at it wtf... just cos. Then I heard a responding meowing but holly crap it wasn't that cat I was facing cos it didn't even open its mouth!

The meowing became consistent and it was very very close as though there's an invisible cat around me. Then I realise the meowing came from... BEHIND THE RAILING, INSIDE THE SHOP WTF.

I quickly unlock and opened everything and true enough, a cat ran out once I pulled up the railing slightly.

I quickly went inside the shop and took a few sniffs cos you know how evil little thingies like these ruin things and pee and poop everywhere. For goodness sake the shop is full of paintings I can't imagine my dad's reaction if he finds out any of his paintings (especially the expensive, original artworks) get ruined. Thank goodness everything was fine.

Fast forward - I was in one of the two toilets in the shop putting back the ladder when I sniffed something super foul. I turned my head to the left and saw...

A. PILE. OF. SHIT. ON THE FLOOR BEHIND THE TOILET BOWL!

Do I hear ewww???? *major cringe

Knn in the end I had to clean the mess up! Don't ask me how but I sure as hell did not and will never touch shit with my bare hands. And I sure as hell will never use that toilet anymore.

I wish little pets like these only come with their cuteness, and only that.

Let me end this post with a funny picture.

This is my boyfriend trying to swat a fly with urm... an unwanted magazine? I dunno. And me being the supportive girlfriend, cheering for him wtf HAHAHHAHAH.

It's summer now in Australia, and it's the season full of flies. Yes, lalat. Gosh I hate flies.

This is how we roll

2010-10-30T04:02:00.001+11:00

*gangsta pose

wtf

Seriously, my friends and I talk the coolest.

J: hai kawan-kawanku, macam mane dengan Rendezvous malam Sabtu ini?! korang free mou?i free lepas pukul 7 malam.
kalau tak, sunday morning i juga free, but i doubt you guys want morning?! haaahhahaahaa
yes or no, rsvp.
sekian terima kasih
xoxo J

E: hai darlings

i free hari sabtu malam DAN juga ahad dan disebabkan darling kesayanganku jarang jarang drop by kl, takpelah i sekrifais satu ahad pagi tuu. tapi saturday the best lah kalo boleh so dat boleh tido mati sampai ahad petang hahahaahahah

C: wtf?...
erm...darlings...
apa macam ah? aku konfius ni....
so hari sabtu ke ahad?? apa kate kita meet sabtu malam?lepas 'kul tujuh? then kawan karibku J tu takyah la datang hari ahad,kan?
agree tak? pergi mana ni?
ok..

[wtf for E's 'sekrifais' wat spelling is tat??!! and J's 'korang free mou' waa....rojak betul!! but u 2 very talented and creative huh!]

E: hahahahaahah

satu malaysia mah!

i realize takde satu bahsa cheena pun in my mesej. ok lah sabtu wo men meet. WTF HAHAHAHAAHA

J: dil (deal) jadi kite jumpa malam Sabtu, kat mane?
见你！

***

I'm sure it doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess "E" is me...