Last post of 2010

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

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

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.

:)

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!

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!

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!

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?

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

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

*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...

Chartreuse

I'm so touched T_T a few people actually have personally asked me to update my blog. Thank you  lovely readers so much for still wanting to keep up with this boring blog! :) I will try my best to update!

Check out my super cantikkk top I got (but didn't pay for tee hee) from ASOS.com!

Its a beautiful chartreuse kaaarer! Unfortunately because it's an online shopping site, I had to guess my size. I ended up buying one size bigger than what I should be getting :( But it's ok, can be layered.

The coolest part is...

 ... the back! I don't know how to describe the back. Can anyone? Haha.

Omg check this out!

WTF AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I was waiting for Cat one day and I was doing my makeup in the car using the rear view mirror. When we were ready to go, I adjusted the mirror and the head of the koala fell off WTF LMAO!

Aww poor thing... wtf. Lol we couldn't stopped laughing after that.

Skittle toe nails!!! I was decluttering and reorganizing my nail polishes when I saw this colour (2nd toe from big, left leg) which is my sis' and I've never actually worn it so I applied it just to see how it looks. And then another... and another... and that's how everything's painted lol.

My modest collection!! I know to some ppl it might seem like a lot but I say mine's modest cos as a self-proclaimed beauty junkie, my collection is not that great if compared to many I've seen. Not all but about 80% here are my favourites. Blues, purples, greens and yellows. I'm a fun, bright colours person! Don't like pinks and reds on my nails, surprise surprise. I know a lot of ppl think my favourite colour is pink, it's not true. I only like pink on certain things and nails are certainly not one of it.

Here're some conversation between me and Wk I find kind of amusing. If you follow my Twitter or are a friend in my Facebook, you've probably seen this already.

1. I've recently watched Eat, Pray, Love and got even more interested in Rome (I've been wanting to go ever since I read about Liz's adventure in Eat, Pray, Love the book) so I said this excitedly to Wk in Skype while he was busy doing his assignment:

"OMGGG I wanna go to Rome one day and stay there a month or two. It's beautifull!!!"

And he, replied me in an indifferent manner, with an indifferent face:

"Earn money first"

*punch sound effect plays

2. This one also during Skype.

Wk: You know the indomie got bad stuff in it. Some preservative too much. Omg I always eat!

Me: All instant noodles are the same one la. How you know?

Wk: Maggie post on Facebook.

Me: Maggie? Indomie and Maggie are different companies of cos Maggie will say bad stuffs to try to bring Indomie down lah.

Wk: Er... Maggie Tan Lay Khon.

*silence... followed by a sudden burst of hysterical laughter not forgetting the "WTF"s

Seriously, why didn't I wonder, Maggi has a Facebook account?? Wtf. I mean the food company. Notice it's Maggi without the 'e'.

Ok gotta take a shower and start decluttering and reorganizing my makeup stash. It's so messy to a point where I can't find my sharpener! My eyebrow pencil's starting to hurt my skin :(