Breaking the fasting

The weather has been driving me absolutely nuts lately. The entire February and beginning of March has been sunny and hot like a griddle ready to cook a piece of steak. There has been a day or two of cool-down but that's about it. A DAY OR TWO. WHY! It's like waving cotton candy at a little kid, enticing him, let him have one bite, and then throw the cotton candy away (and stamp on it to make the scene look more terrible). How can anyone tolerate such cruelty you tell me la.

Ok enough about weather ranting. 

I love breakfast. I can never skip it. Every morning I wake up, it's the thing I look forward to because I'm freaking starving. 8 hours of empty stomach, how to not stave? My standard, simplest form of breakfast would be peanut butter toast (no other spreads, PB is a must) or cereal with coffee. When I have more time, creative juice, ingredients and most importantly the will, these are examples of what I came up with.

Toast with banana scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and baby kale. Banana scrambled eggs is something I saw in a friend's Instagram and got really curious about. The combination of smoked salmon (salty) and banana gives a savoury sweet flavour, quite interesting.

Cereal bowl of blueberries, shredded coconut, flax meal, black chia seeds, honey, macadamia nuts, oat clusters, bran straws, puffed wheat, crunchy flakes and organic low fat milk. I've concluded that adding shredded coconut, blueberries and honey to any cereal will instantly make it extra tasty! I personally think this is a powerhouse of nutrients cos it's filled with superfoods such as blueberries, flax meal, chia seeds and coconut.

This took inspiration from a couple of healthy living/food aficionados I follow on Instagram. Cinnamon and banana oatmeal pancakes with a glorious amount of fruits (strawberries, banana and black grapes), drizzled with homemade chocolate sauce, topped with toasted almond and black chia seeds. I basically used up whatever fruits I had in the fridge. The sauce is cocoa powder mixed with a bit of hot water and sugar to sweeten. Nuts and seeds are for the extra nutrients and crunch. It tasted pretty good, could do with more chocolate sauce :D

This is pretty self explanatory? Toast with (horribly) scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, truss tomatoes and rockets. Those tomatoes are DA BOMB. Drizzled with olive oil, cook on low heat with the truss on until the skin starts to split. That's it! It's bigger than cherry, but smaller than regular tomatoes. The scrambled eggs was a shame... I still need to master the technique of making good scrambled eggs. Oh, was having this while watching an episode (which lead to another 3) of The Walking Dead. Damn show, so much of suspense.

Wk however, makes the perfect scrambled eggs! Surprise, surprise. Its creamy and fluffy, exactly how scrambled eggs taste like. Here are toast served 2 ways, first with scrambled eggs, another with peanut butter and apricot jam, both equally a favourite. If we had smoked salmon and some chives, this plate would be absolutely perfect.

Ok need to end this and take a cold shower. This freaking heat is stimulating my sweat glands too much its disgusting.

Chinese New Year 2013

The things I miss the most about Chinese New year is definitely the overplayed CNY music in the radio and shopping malls, CNY decorations everywhere, cookies and CNY treats (kuih kapit, beehive biscuit, pineapple tarts, mandarin oranges, nian gao, bahkua, Anglia shandy drink omg I can go on and on with this...), family gatherings and dinners, rounds and rounds of tossing Yee Sang, last but not least the Ang Pows. 

Oh well, at least I'm not celebrating it all alone. That, I'm grateful for. Hopefully next year I'll be enjoying it back at home :)

Cookies wise, no problemo. If you don't know I bake, you must be new here.

The first batch of pineapple tarts. It was good, but I wasn't quite satisfied. It had that melt-in-the-mouth wow factor, but not 'melty' enough IMO. 

Made my own jam too. Not that I can get pre-made pineapple jam anyway.

Then I found another recipe.

THEY WERE TO DIE FOR DOT COM!!! I'm so glad I found that recipe. This one is so much more crumbly and melty.

As far as CNY vibe, we managed to see it in a Vietnamese market.

Bought a pomelo just because we wanted to bath with the pomelo skin for good luck. Haha. No la kidding, I wanted to use pomelo in a dish I was about to make.

It felt quite like back in Malaysia, but they didn't have CNY music playing :( 

Saw these for the first time. So cool! The apples are 'tattooed', so it's actually part of the skin. It's not a sticker or anything. It was done by sticking the stencil on the apple before they turn red. With the sticker on, it is unable to get sun exposure and so won't turn red.

Although we don't have family members here, we have friends! Sam very kindly invited us to join her family for a reunion dinner on CNY eve. Her awesome dad cooked up a yummy feast for all of us!

Picture stolen from her Facebook hehe.


There were fireworks going on across the river and we were so fortunate to be able to see it from her strategically situated apartment.

I was lucky to not have to work on the day of CNY. Was asked to cover a shift but thank goodness someone else was willing to take over :) We started that morning with some apartment inspection in Collingwood, decided to have brunch around the corner after that. I've heard lots about Proud Mary so we headed there without much deliberation.

Yes, deliberate because I'm extremely picky with my food. If I'm gonna spend money eating in Melbourne (5th most expensive city to live in) it HAS to be good. Not only do I despise wasting my money on average food, it's wasting my stomach space too and that is a big no no. If I'm having all these calories, it had better be good.

My usual cappuccino to start with.

Potato Hash - Grilled bacon, spinach, a poached egg, bagna cauda (traditional Italian sauce of anchovies, garlic and cream). The hash looked more like a rosti to me, it was delicious regardless. I was expecting the sauce to have more anchovies and garlic flavour but it didn't. It was really subtle, but not bad.

Crispy Pork Belly Sandwich - Smoked paprika relish and aioli. I LOVED IT. It's crispy, fatty and so good. I suspect they've fried the bread with some kind of fat, pork flavoured maybe. There is absolutely no way a plain toasted slice of bread can taste that good unless it is cooked with some fatty goodness. The relish and aioli and the pork all went so well together. And that salad with a minty, refreshing dressing was just appropriate to cut through the heavy sandwich. I would have liked more salad though.

After brunch, more inspection at South Yarra. For dinner, we tried our luck at Chin Chin. It's always packed with people, as long as they're opened for business. So crazy. We managed to get a place at the kitchen bar. Not the best seats, but better than none.

Pad Seuw of Six Hour Braised Wagyu and Kailan - I'm not sure but I think Pad Seuw's Thai. It's basically rolled flat rice noodle, like Chee Cheong Fun, cooked with some Wagyu beef slices and Kailan in this savoury sweet, sticky, caramel-like sauce. At some point, I did find it to be too sweet but apart form that I really liked the taste of  the silky and tender Pad Seuw.

Coconut Crush - If I remember the name of that drink correctly... It's basically coconut water with some crushed ice, mint and coconut flesh. I love coconut - water, milk, cream, flesh, you name it. Having had coconut trees grown at home back in Malaysia, we always had fresh coconut water at home in the fridge. The coconut's from our coconut tree, we collect it, hack it, extract it, it doesn't get any fresher than that. This   drink unfortunately, was a major disappointment. It was a refreshing drink for that hot day, but that's about it. We've never tried any of their drinks before so we thought we wanted to give this a go. I've had bottled/canned coconut water before and hated them. I've had coconut water served in coconuts here in Melbourne, they're alright, not as good as what I used to have at home. I thought maybe it will be different and taste better if served in a restaurant, but no. I guess if you've never had coconut water before you won't be disappointed and can give it a try. For me, I'd rather have plain water.

Caramelized Sticky Pork with Sour Herb Salad and Chilli Vinegar - Had this before, loved it, that's why we had it again. Sweet caramel and pork are just meant to be together. Would have loved it more if there were some pork crackle :D

Palm Sugar Ice Cream Sundae with Salted Honeycomb and Lime Syrup - Yeummmmm. Sweet, salty, sour all in one.

That sums up our dinner for CNY! Not at all traditionally what I would do for CNY but at least we had a good time with good food.

CNY will not be complete without Yee Sang. I don't think most people realize how overpriced it is in restaurants for a dish which only consists of mainly shredded vegetables, some fried noodles and crackers, and some raw fish. Also, some of the components are artificially coloured so it's not exactly healthy either.

I really wanted to eat Yee Sang but wasn't excited about having to pay an exorbitant price for just a plate of salad. Solution? Make my own. Remember the pomelo? This was what it's for. It's so easy to make! And because it's homemade, I can decide what I want or don't want in it. I hate pickled shallots (kiu tao) that you usually find in Yee Sang in restaurants. Raw radish tastes awful. Coloured food? Nope. All of that can stay away from MY Yee Sang. I love me lots of coriander, peanuts, crackers, and sesame :)

Trying to take a picture with one hand while the other tossing the Yee Sang as you can see, is not an easy task.

The aftermath.

By the way, 2 people tossing 1 Yee Sang proved to be quite a lot of work to do lol. It was really hard to get everything mixed evenly with only 2 pairs of chopsticks! But I was quite happy with the 'mess' we created. Yee Sang is not a Yee Sang if it's not messy.

The taste? I don't want to blow my own trumpet but it was delicious. Maybe because it doesn't have the crappy ingredients I don't fancy in the typical Yee Sang. The only thing that I would pick on is the lack of red colour in the whole dish. I think capsicum or red chilli would complete the picture.

That was pretty much it, as far as CNY-ish events went this year. May this be the year of better happenings for us! :) Lots of good food, good vibe, good opportunities.

Shoya Nouvelle Wafu Cuisine

A week ago it was a certain special day for Wk and I so we decided to have a more fancy dinner. I wasn't bothered to go anywhere far and we weren't bothered to go anywhere popular cos it will most likely be crowded, so we picked Shoya. We initially already decided to have the Chef's course meal which is like a set meal, but after looking through the a la carte menu I wanted to try everything! Lol.

For appetisers, we had the Unitama - scrambled egg with sea urchin, topped with fresh salmon caviar. Never had sea urchin before. It was delicious, but don't think there's a lot of sea urchin in there? I don't know. Maybe I was expecting a more significant unfamiliar taste of the sea urchin, which wasn't present. The salmon caviar was good! I've had it once in Malaysia and let me tell you, it sucked. I think maybe because it wasn't fresh, it tasted so 'fishy' that it made me want to puke.

My fancy drink of the night, Shochu Lime Bitters, like Lemon Lime & Bitters but with Shochu. I'm not a fan of alcohol but I love Lemon Lime & Bitters. I like it, it's a little sweet and the alcohol was not overpowering.

For entree we had the Deluxe Entree - premium sashimi cuts served in an ice bowl. How cool looking is that ice bowl?! It was entirely made of ice! And the sashimi was so good too! The cut was excellent, the fish was fresh. You know it's good when it doesn't make you feel sick after eating a few of it, which can be the case for lousy sashimi.

Another entree, good old Chawan Mushi because Wk loves this kind of steamed goodness. Nothing fancy, the egg custard was really soft and smooth. I found it to be a little bland though.

One of the mains we had was Maguro Steak - tuna fillet steak sprinkled with thinly sliced seaweed with special home made sauce. Delicious.

Tempura Moriawase - assorted tempura with prawns and variety of vegetables. Pretty self-explanatory.

Kurobuta Rosu Katsu - breaded black hair (Berkshire) pork loin with sweet red miso and Japanese BBQ sauce. It's delicious but it's not that I can tell the difference in taste between a normal pork and a Berkshire. It's very juicy though, probably because there's a lot of fats in it haha.

Lastly, Dessert Platter of Sea Urchin Cheesecake, Kurogoma Panacotta (sic), and Umeshu Chocolate Cake. This is easily my favourite part of the entire night. Look at the magic in the plate! How can anyone not like desserts?? I especially like how each dessert is accompanied with summer/autumn fruits or nuts.

Umeshu Chocolate Cake with walnuts, almonds, and (I think) chocolate sauce. The chocolate ganache (or mousse?) layer was so smooth and rich. So good!

I was a little hesitant but curious at the same time at the Sea Urchin Cheesecake but the waiter said he likes it so I decided to give it a go. It's served with a variety of berries and a drizzle of cream. So pretty! If you're wondering how it tasted like, well, it tasted just like any cheesecakes. Although I'm still unsure how sea urchin tastes like, I'm sure I didn't taste anything significantly unfamiliar in the cake.

The Kurogoma Panacotta (sic) - black sesame panna cotta covered with soy bean and green tea powder was my fayyyyy-vourite (must accent this word to show my excitement) dessert in the platter. Poeple who know me will know my love for sesame, black or white, I'm not racist HAHA ok not funny. I love panna cotta for a start, I love how bouncy the pudding is with a light, smooth texture. Black sesame panna cotta? GENIUS. And it goes so damn well with the soy bean and matcha powder too, drizzled with caramel and served with autumn fruits such as grapefruit and orange segments, grapes and kiwi.

By the time the dessert platter was served, we were quite stuffed. But we managed to finish everything on the dessert platter because it was that good.

This place is pretty expensive, but for the ambience, service and food quality, it's definitely worth going for a celebratory meal.

NYE 2012

I finally got to know how it feels like working 5 consecutive days in a week. I have only one word for it, EXHAUSTING. I know to most people they'd go, "Pffft work 5 days only complain so much. I work 6 days since forever!" If you come and be in my shoes I bet you won't laugh at me the same way. 

I stand almost all day at work, and not only that, for most of the day I use my entire body strength to give massages, lift heavy towels, brisk walk around (because running looks silly) trying to get everything done on time (one of the most crucial requirements in this field), in short it's very physically demanding to say the least. Some days I don't even have time for toilet breaks, a sip of water or even lunch. On top of that my brain has to constantly be thinking of retailing and rebooking opportunities, how long I can spend on each component of the treatments, what I've got to prepare for my next treatment. And of course not forgetting this is a customer/client-based business, some days you will have to face shitty people and all you can do is give them a punch in your imaginery world but in reality, smile and just suck it in and pray that time goes by as quickly as possible. 

All in all, its both mentally and physically draining. I'm not complaining, I do prefer myself to be constantly moving around rather than sit by a desk all day, just want to point out that doing it 5 days consecutively is really quite a task.

Ok work aside, since the last post was seriously lacking in pictures, here's a post to make up for it. And what's Ee Von's blog without some tantalizing food pictures? :p

On New Year's Eve Maggie and I together with the blokes whipped up a feast! After both disasterous roasts on Christmas Day 2011 and New Years Day 2012, we came to a unanimous decision of NO ROASTS this year lol, just be practical and do some simple dishes. Pipis, snapper, chicken and kailan (Chinese broccoli). 

For those of you who don't know what pipis are, they're basically clams (lala) but slightly bigger and with thicker shells. Quite easy to prepare. It's done when the shells open, just like cooking any other marine molluscs.

Pipis in XO sauce. XO sauce is very flavourful by itself. All we need to do is just saute with some garlic and ginger, add some condiments, then lids on to steam the pipis till they're opened.

Teochew style steamed snapper. The 'fish liquid' is flavoured with the ingredients used in the dish resulting a savoury and sour sauce, not 'fishy' at all. Probably because our fish was fresh. Really easy to prepare too. Spring onion, ginger, fried garlic with garlic oil, pickled mustard, sliced Chinese mushrooms, tomatoes, silken tofu, a dash of soy sauce and sesame oil. Steamed for approximately 10-15 minutes.

This was something I looked forward the most to it tasting really good but in my opinion it tasted the least impressive compared to the others. We were trying to make Clams with Chinese Wine and Ginger but the soup turned out really salty, plus lacking in the wine and ginger aroma. The strange thing is we didn't even season with any salt, but we did use quite a bit of Chinese rice wine and after skimming through the ingredients list, it's predominantly made of rice and salt. Not sure if we're not supposed to cook the wine and instead splash it at the very end of cooking, or not use so much of wine.

San Bei Ji or 3 Cups Chicken, one of my favourite chicken dishes and it's made of whole chicken breasts. I've never liked chicken breasts except for this dish. So tender! I came across this Youtube recipe and it's the best everrrr.

Kailan with oyster sauce. I think these are baby kailan, not sure but these are the more expensive type of kailan compared to the bigger ones. It was soooooo fawesome! (no it's not a typo, the f is there on purpose) Basically the kailan is boiled in sugared water until just cooked (about 30 seconds), then the sauce is drizzled on it. Sauce is made of oyster sauce, light soy, chicken stock, sugar, pepper, fried garlic, sesame oil, Shao Xing wine, water and cornstarch mixture to thicken. They taste exactly like in Chinese restaurants!

And how can a feast be complete without some fancy drinks, right? None of us are into alcohol so we made this mix of ribena, soda water and canned lychees. Perfectly refreshing for summer time!

Ok a picture of myself to take a break from all the food wtf.

 

Fringe has finally grown and I no longer feel like I look stupid with it wtf. Can you see that massive pimple on my right chin near the corner of my mouth? That was one of the worst, angriest pimple I've ever gotten. Obviously I have makeup here so it doesn't look that horrible. It was so massive and red but it wouldn't erupt at all for 2 solid weeks. I've erm... taken care of matters and now the bump is cleared of nasty organisms leaving behind what looks like a scar, which has been there for a week. T_T Hate how these scars stay forever.

Ok last picture!

Maggie made some buns and gave me some. The top 2 are Japanese Coconut Custard Buns and the bottom is obviously Po Lor Bao (Pineapple Buns). If you've never had Po Lor Bao you're seriously missing out. So yummy! I mean both Po Lor Bao in general and her buns. We were both discussing about our woes of our Kitchenaid heating up whenever we knead bread doughs. Silai betul. And her breadmaking craze got me interested too! Made something yesterday but I think that's enough of food pictures for today, will blog about my bread in the next post.

Ok time to do some chores. How sad. Doing chores on my day off work T_T

Que Sera Sera, what ever will be, will be.

2012 Achievements:

1. Became a qualified beauty therapist.

As I have mentioned before, I did a Diploma of Beauty Therapy. I finished the course in August after a year and 2 months of ripping hair off people's vajayjay, armpits, legs, face, cleaning their faces, fingers and feet, and stroking their full body... no not in a sexual way. Its funny how as someone who has never stepped into a beauty salon or gotten a massage in her entire life, decided to pick up the course. Gotta say it's interesting and I didn't regret a single bit of it :)

2. Became a permanent resident.

And it happened on Valentine's Day! The timing just couldn't get anymore perfect. After years of planning, it finally happened. Nothing much changed, but it certainly opened a lot of doors for future planning.  

3.  We've hit one decade.

It's scary but amazing too how quickly time passes by. Looking back, who would have thought we would be here in a suburb in Melbourne, sitting next to each other in our little cosy apartment, relaxing after a hearty home-cooked dinner we whipped up together?

4. I am employed.

Yes, finally, as a beauty therapist. The search was frustrating and disheartening at times, but I'm glad it came to an end when my employment was confirmed. Really, seeking for a job is all about luck. You need the skills too, but probably only 30%, the rest is all luck. I'm sorry if it comes of as discouraging but that's just life. It's been only 2 months and I'm still in a probationary period though. I shall elaborate on it once I'm out of the period.

5. Goals

Out of 8 goals/resolution I've set last year, I'm super happy to report that I've achieved 7 out of them! I couldn't even remember all these goals I've set for myself until I looked back at my blog archives. Things tend to happen when you're not stressing over them don't they?

I've learned:

1. To have self control and save money.

Coming here and leaving all the convenience I had in Malaysia has definitely made me so much more disciplined when it comes to money. I'm not the best at it, like I don't think I can be a stingy arse or only shop in thrift stores or only buy reduced price groceries, but I'm so much more disciplined now. I go to Asos.com, I see so many things I like and saved them in my cart, at the end of the day I don't buy them because I know I don't need them. I call it window shopping at home, haha. Besides, I don't have the space to buy so many stuff anyway.

2. The art of selling.

Being a music teacher in the past, I have never had to sell a single item until I started helping out at my dad's shop. We do framing and glass work services and we sell paintings. I hated doing sales, SO. FREAKING. MUCH. And I stink at it. I hate it when I have to pretend to know the stuff and promote the product, or when people ask for discounts (MAJOR HATE, damn hagglers) or free delivery etc. Being a beauty therapist, we're required to retail the products. Its slightly different because with beauty, I know what I'm talking about and I know what to recommend, and you can't bargain for these sort of products (YES!). And when they actually buy something, oh gosh that sense of reward is priceless. Slowly but surely, I'm getting there.  

3. That hard work pays off.

It's true and it applies in every single situation. I know I said looking for a job is all about luck, but without the effort to actually look for it, you'd end up with nothing anyway. When I was studying, eventhough it was only a diploma, I did and gave my best in everything. And I dare say that's exactly how I landed myself in this job. If I had not been serious in it, I wouldn't have gotten good testimonials from my instructors, I wouldn't have gotten recommendation from a friend who's working there.

4. That being a beauty therapist is not easy!

Honestly I've never thought that being a beauty therapist involves so much of knowledge as well as stamina. I don't know about Malaysia, but when I'm working an 8 hour shift, it's 7.25 hours of standing (unless it's a facial or mani/pedi), 45 minutes are all you get for break where you can sit down, eat and think about nothing. That being said, I'm not complaining as I prefer this over sitting by a desk for 8 hours for the rest of my life. Being in the industry myself has definitely changed my thoughts and views on beauty therapists.

5. To let go.

As much as I would love to continue living in the world of music, I know that I'm not young, I need to pay bills, I need a retirement fund, and I need to secure my future. And I don't see all of this happening if I were to teach music or do anything related to music (with my fading experience). It's funny how having learned and taught music all my life couldn't even get me a job but a little diploma course has managed to get me a job that gave me the capability of paying bills and supporting myself. In the past I've told myself and everyone else "music is my passion, I will do it in the future". Pfffft. How silly. Nobody knows the future. I'm letting the thought of doing music go for now, but the experience will always be a part of me that I'm proud of. Que sera sera, what ever will be will be, the future's not ours to see.

This year I shall:

1. Be positive.

So many times I've allowed myself to dwell in so much of negativity whether it's at school, searching for a job, or at work. Fortunately I have someone who's always there to pull me out of it and inject as much positivity into me as he can, and continuously reminds me of all the positive things that exist along with the negative.

2. Save more money.
Because everything is about money when you get older.

3. Buy a piano.

Eventhough I stopped learning to play the piano many many years ago, I still find myself going back to it and just casually playing some pieces. It's really therapeutic (if you don't play the virtuosic ones of course) and relaxing, something I tend to do when I feel stressed. I've never realised how important is its presence until I moved to Melbourne, leaving my good old companion behind back in Malaysia. I really do miss getting my fingers dancing on the keys of a piano.

4. Stay healthy.

Exercise, eat healthy, and get a health cover. Because nobody gets healthier as they get older.

5. BLOG MORE.
I really do miss the feeling of being able to type on and on about a simple day I've gone through, or a funny encounter, or just any kind of random events. Sad to say I'm slowly losing that ability. Probably because as you get older you just tend to not give a shit? Haha. I like how I have all these stories or thoughts saved in my archive and whenever I feel like I want to relive or remember what happened, I can just look back into my archives. I really want to be able to write like there's no tomorrow again.

***

Ooh I managed to do everything in 5... what a coincidence. No... totally planned it. Anyway, anyone's still reading this lousy blog? Haha. Share with me your resolution/goal/whatever. Would love to know what people like to say they'll do but never end up doing LOL. No just kidding. Have an awesome 2013.

Cafe Latte

Last Saturday after a long day at work Wk and I went for dinner with Maggie and Kai Mun at Rockwell & Sons. Food's great, had a good time. On the way back late that night, Wk was telling me about the next day (my birthday)'s plans. He said he's booked a table at Squires Loft for dinner, it's a place we went to on my birthday last year. He also bought movie tickets in this Rooftop Cinema place in the city. He hasn't planned for anytime before dinner so he said we could maybe have brunch then head out to the mall and I could 'pick' my present.

I knew he's busy with work and I should be happy that at least there's a plan but I'd be telling a lie if I say I wasn't a little disappointed. I was disappointed with the restaurant choice as I was hoping we could try some new place? Also I really didn't quite like the idea of 'picking' my present. That means no element of surprise. Well the entire plan has no surprise to it, I knew what we're doing, when and where we're going, and what I'm getting. 

Anyway, I didn't say much about it. He's made the effort to plan so I told myself that I should appreciate it. 

So back in our apartment, I was in the bathroom taking off my makeup and doing my skincare routine when the power suddenly went off. It was pitch black. I called out for Wk and he said he's coming. I didn't know what he was doing outside the room, but after about 2 minutes the power came back. So I continued with my moisturiser and stuff and 1 minute later, the power went off again! And again I called out for him and suddenly I heard him singing the birthday song, and I saw glimmering light approaching... it was Wk holding something with a lit candle stuck on it. As he approached me I could see it was a little macaron.

:')

So he turned off the power just so that he could surprise me with this! The first time he turned off the power, he was holding the candle but it went off before he could get to me. He tried to lit it back by using the fire on the stove but because there was no power, the stove wouldn't turn on LOL! So that's why he had to turn the power back on, lit the candle, and turn it off again.

And I thought that was it! But he told me it wasn't. He said initially there's a cake, but the cake 'collapsed'. I couldn't make sense of what he meant by 'collapsed', it sounded as though he baked a cake (*gasp* how bizarre!) and the cake collapsed. But anyway, because the cake failed him, he decided to get macarons.

He was trying to show me the 'collapsed' cake so I followed him out to the kitchen, when he said, "This is what the cake collapsed into", pointing at THIS

This was exactly how I looked like when I saw it, possibly bigger mouth and eyes.

I did mention a lot of times (a lot is probably an understatement...) that I'd love to have a Kitchenaid someday but I've never ever meant it as a hint because it's such an expensive appliance! I've even planned to get it next year once I've saved up for it. Looks like the money can be used on other things now ;)

This wasn't the only thing which shocked me. He actually HAND CARRIED the Kitchenaid home all the way from city! And we don't even have a car so it's train rides and walking!

This is not just A standmixer, it is a heavy duty stand mixer weighing almost 12kg. Sure you can easily lift it off the floor, but to carry it all the way home is just crazy! He told me his arms were aching and fingers all numb already. Poor guy :')

Anyway, there really was a cake which 'collapsed'.

So he went and bought this birthday cupcake for me from The Cupcake Family and on the way back, the cake toppled. He was so angry of what happened because it's not as though he knocked or dropped the box of cake anywhere, it wasn't placed in a car or bicycle. It was held in his hands all the way and he tried to be as careful as possible but the cake still inevitably toppled. Obviously the design of the packaging was just ridiculously bad. There wasn't anything strong enough to hold the base of the cake, and to sell something like that is just horrible. What's the use of it being all pretty but not being able to withstand a little bit of travelling?

Because this cake failed, he decided to get the macarons as a backup plan. He even bought them from one of my favourite places :)

Here's how the undamaged side of the cake looks like:



Anyway, when I knew he went all the way to get all these, I was speechless and too happy already. I couldn't be bothered with the smashed side of the cake. The cake looks beautiful, everything looks beautiful, life is beautiful :D

First, the macaron. Then Kitchenaid. Then this cake! Triple surprises!

Ok so this is what MY KITCHENAID (muahaha finally get to say this) looks like on the kitchen benchtop.



If you think the colour is white, oh no you're wrong. Hehe.

I initially did wanted either the White or Almond colour, until I saw THIS!

IT SHIMMERSSSSS!!!

The colour is called Cafe Latte which sounds pretty silly because it's NOTHING like a latte, unless they're trying to compare it to the colour of milk. I'd say it's more of a pearly, metallic-y white. And also, this doesn't come with the standard stainless steel bowl, this is part of a new collection which all come with this clear glass bowl. The only downside to the bowl is its weight in comparison to the stainless steel bowl but other than that, the best part is you can see right through it. You don't have to peek at your mixture from the top of the bowl. You can stand 5 feet away and still be able to see your mixture. Can you do that with stainless steel? ...Yes, if you're a mutant with xray eyes.

Ok enough bragging about my birthday hehe :P I'm still sooooo excited about it! Part of me can't wait to use it, but part of me just wants to keep it brand new and is just paranoid that I'll damage it if I start using it hahaha how stupid.