French Crepes with Salted Caramel and Almonds

I was really craving some crepes the other night (salted caramel and almonds in particular - BEST coombination everrrr) and passed by Le Petit Creperie. There was a long queue there and that can only mean one thing: Long queue + stressed French girl trying to churn out crepes = lousy crepes. True story. To be honest, sometimes even if it's not busy, their crepes can taste pretty shitty. It really depends on the person making it/the batter that day.

Then I had a lightbulb moment. Why not make my own crepes at home? That way I can have as much as I want, and if it's not perfect at least I didn't pay for shitty crepes and I won't complain my ass off. Off we went to Coles to get some butter, cream and milk.

For the salted caramel, I used Browneyedbaker's. She's my go-to whenever I needed my sweet fix and I can't be bothered paying for shitty ones but I can be bothered making myself. Her recipes so far have never failed to impress.

For the crepe recipe, I used Allrecipe's. It was a random find, but a pretty good one I'd say. The recipe said to use a hand mixer. I wasn't bothered to take them out and plug them in, so I whisked it with a kitchen whisk. The mixture was lumpy as hell so I had to strain it once to get a smooth batter. I tried making this again with a hand mixer and wth, there were still lumps when I strained it. My French colleague Lisa made crepes and brought to work once and they were delicious. She suggested letting the batter rest, which I did the second time round but I don't know what difference it actually made. With the melted butter, I also used vegetable oil the second time round as a substitute and it worked the same. Which is great because then you can save the trouble of meting the butter.

I like my almonds slightly over toasted/browned.  

Bowl and spoonful of goodness mmm... I can eat this with ANYTHING.

We asked our European housemates how are crepes normally sold in Europe. And this was what they did! 

Before this I used to fold them into quarters (or one eights) like 'kueh kapit', but a very soft one haha. 

By the way crepe in Europe is pronounced like CRAP, not CRAY-P.

This is super easy to prepare and super delicious! Salted caramel + almond = Match made in heaven!

Next time I'll try wrapping ham, cheese and tomato in it. These thin pancakes are so versatile!

The pink hurr

So while I was back in Malaysia I decided to colour my hair. I didn't know what I wanted to do with it when I went there but I knew I HAD to do something cos I was getting really sick of it.

Actually when I saw this picture yesterday I suddenly miss my hair  HAHAHA.

So I was basically bored of the length and colour. Before I went back to Malaysia I kept telling Wk "The next time I dye my hair it's going to be black!"

Well I'm such a big fat lying bitch lol. Can't help it ok, I'm just a very normal woman who cannot make up her mind.

I have this tendency to not make decisions until the very last minute. Ok maybe not even minute, the very last second. If we're out eating and everyone has decided what they would order and I haven't, I'll say yes I'm ready and only decide right when the waitress asks me what I want lol. Terror leh.

So there I was in the chair with Hikky beside me at Number 76 Style in Mont Kiara. I knew I wanted to cut and colour, but I dunno what. While I was flipping the colour chart, I decided I wanted to highlight it. Not only that, I decided to highlight it PINK. Dunno where that came from. And to match the pink highlights, I went with a pinky brown base for the rest of the hair.

I didn't know how short I wanted it to be, I saw her hair and it's about up to her shoulders so I told her "Cut like your length lah". And then she looked at it, she asked me you want about here (*points) or shorter? I looked at it, didn't seem like there's any difference to me lol so I say "Just make it short lah".

After 3 gruelling hours of sitting down and reading the same magazine 271854 times....



(Picture taken at home not in the salon cos I shy hehe)

I LOVED IT!!!

Such a great change to what I'm used to! I've never walked out of a salon feeling so damn confident ok? To me my fringe is the ultimate most important part of my hair - it makes or breaks my confidence. This time I told her I want to grow my fringe so she didn't really touch it. And she didn't cut my hair too short either, it's the perfect length! It's shorter than what I expected but I actually liked it! And the colour... just wow hahaha.

I was actually expecting light, pastel pink because I was really concerned that I couldn't go to work with pink hair. I even ask her many many times, like maaaaaaaany times "Its not going to be bright right?" x 8387625 times. When the guy painted the pink (which was really bright) I panicked a little and asked "It's not going to be this bright right???" lol.

So yes it's not bright but it's definitely not light! You can so see the pink and I was thinking to myself, "Shit. How to go to work??" Pink hair in a 5 star hotel? Sure, if you're staying in there not working there wtf.

But at the same time I really liked it! Otherwise I wouldn't have taken a gazillion pictures of it LOL.

This was taken a day after.

Basically what they did was (in the exact order):

1. Cut. I took about 6-7 inches off.

2. Highlights. Using a rat tail comb, the hair is carefully sectioned into a few small, thin pieces and then bleached. They are then wrapped in foil and left on while they colour the rest of the hair. This is probably the most laborious step out of the entire process. And by the end of it you'll look extra fabulous with all the pieces of foil sticking out of your head.

3. Colour. The rest of the hair that's not bleached is then coloured with the base colour I chose, which was a pinky brown.

4. Rinse and coloured highlights. After all the dye is being washed out, the pink is then applied to the bleached sections of the hair. I believe a special dye is used as it only adheres to the bleached hair and not the unbleached ones.

5. Rinse, touch up and blowdry.


This was definitely not cheap, but it was worth it for me because I loved it. If you've had your hair done and EVERYONE can see it (and not forgetting that few compliments you managed to fish), that's thumbs up, job well done and you've gotten your money's worth already.

The only thing I regretted was not doing a treatment. My hair was quite dry from all that bleaching. But the thought of sitting through another half to an hour scares me already. At the end of it I was starving and couldn't wait to get the hell out of that chair lol.

Now. I did my hair on the 8th of January. Here's how it looked like on 31st of January:

You can still see a few strands of pink (there's more in the insides) but almost 80% is faded already especially those that are more exposed to the sun.

To me it's a relief because that means I was able to go to work without any problems. But no more pink hair liao :(

Here's how it looks like now, just brown with highlights which I still like.

If you're thinking of highlighting your hair with colour (not blonde highlights), you need to know one thing.

Anything on bleached hair will NEVER last. Ever.

You can probably get a way with 1-2 weeks max with whatever colour you put on top of your bleached hair. After that, it will fade into your original bleached colour which is blonde (with many variations depending on hair type). And this is even if you're using colour-protective shampoo/conditioner.

Eventhough it didn't last long, I loved it while it lasted.

Now... gotta grow out this hair cos Wk insisted I have longer and darker hair for our wedding wtf. Look who's the demanding one in a wedding now, it's not even him in a dress. Groomzilla wtf.

wkev #1: At Tiffany & Co.

Yesterday we went to Tiffany to get my ring resized. Sorry to sound a bit jakun since it's my first time there. Can I say how amazing the customer service at Tiffany is? Every sales person is so attentive, polite and professional. They are in no way intimidating or judgmental at all. I don't know if they bitch about customers behind their backs but to be able to make the customers feel absolutely at ease in store is job well done already. After providing their services there's a (very handsome ahem) butler who serves you drinks (water, coffee, tea or even champagne if they're extra nice). I couldn't stop checking him out LOL!

According to Wk, the people at Cartier couldn't compare at all. They were less approachable and helpful. The resizing policy is zero. Wtf? How can they expect everyone to know the precise finger size? These are not situations where you can just secretly steal a girl's cheap ring (usually in size S, M or L wtf) and use it to find out her size, you need something absolutely precise because 1. it's for life. 2. it's SO. MUCH. MONEY to be spending on a wrong size!

While we were there we looked at some possibilities for our wedding bands. Initially I wanted Cartier because their ring box super atas looking LOL. Yes I know damn ridiculous but it's my wedding so I can be as ridiculous as I want. But Genie (the lady from Tiffany who happens to be a Malaysian who also happens to be the one Maggie and Kai Mun dealt with!) was really nice and we really don't need shitty treatments from Cartier so we decided to just stick with Tiffany.

I decided on mine almost immediately because the Novo has a matching wedding band and it's really the perfect one to go with. All of the men's wedding bands look so boring hahahah. Anyway, it's still way too early for a wedding band, no need to decide yet.

So far nothing has been decided/concluded yet. Date, guest list, venue, theme, budget... It's really hard planning something to happen in Malaysia without being in Malaysia. We might consider getting a wedding planner.

Our initial intention was to have a small, intimate wedding of possibly 200 people at the most. I was skyping with my mom one day while my dad was away. I asked her how many people will he potentially invite excluding our family, so purely his friends. She said maybe 50. The next day when I got to speak to dad personally, guess what? Yup, it's not 50. It's 3 times more. And possibly more than that.

*faints

I was looking at venues which are supposed to only accommodate 200ish people. Now that's all just a waste of time because they can't be used at all. So many things to consider when it comes to venue. Parking, food, cost, service yadda yadda yadda. So many people to please.

So far, stress level is fortunately still at a healthy level. Hahahah. Let's hope it stays that way.

We are engaged!

I have way more important/productive things to do (such as unpacking my luggage and clearing up the mess in my room) than to blog but if I don't do this now I think I will definitely forget the details. 

So Wk and I were back in Malaysia for 2 weeks early January. The main reason I was back was to attend Maggie's wedding. 

Will post more pictures of the wedding when the professional pictures are up for stealing in her Facebook heheh. 

So the wedding was on Saturday. On Sunday, Wk decided to drop by and visit our old secondary school.

Don't know if I've mentioned this but Wk and I were both from the same secondary school. During Form 3 we were actually in the same class, but we only got to know each other more in Form 4 through ICQ (if you know what this is, ^5).

Anyway, it wasn't like a random spur of the moment thing that he wanted to go back to the school. He was driving his younger brother to/from school one day (the same school we went to)  and he casually mentioned  that he'd like to go back and have a look when we both are free. At that time the idea didn't sound weird to me because it seemed quite normal to want to go back to your old school and reminisce the old days.

I only started to smell something fishy when one day we were on the phone, he was being very firm that we would go back to school in the morning of Sunday, go shopping after and then Troika at night. I asked him what's Troika. He told me what it was but I forgot wtf lol. I think it was something to do with architecture or whatever. All I know is it's a commercial building with restaurants/bars and whatnot and he said he wanted to go have a look and even mentioned "There's fine dining there". 

Here's the thing, I'm not really a fine dining type of person unless there's a special occasion, no other person would know this better but him. Plus he was being quite determined about going back to school when I on the other hand was a little not keen because I wasn't bothered to hahaha. Haiyah school only maaaa.

Usually he would go with however I feel about a plan. If I was not interested, he would not press me into it and if he really wanted to do it, he'd do it by himself. In short, I'm da boss wtf. This time he was really firm that he wanted to go back to school and he wanted ME to go with him.

Damn fishy lor!

I was taking a shower that morning and was thinking to myself, is he gonna freaking propose to me in school? Wtf. I brushed the thought away eventually because I couldn't figure out when he actually had time to buy the ring. We're together almost every single day, every single time... or so I thought.

So anyway when he came to pick me, I told him we sure cannot get into the school wan even though it's a Sunday and there's no students there. The guards sure won't let us in. When we arrived, he spoke to the guards and surprise surprise, they let us in. LOL. 

Oh when he came to pick me and I got into the car, I saw his brother's dslr camera bag. Previously he specifically reminded me to bring my dslr (I don't have a bag for it), a few times some more! I asked him what the bag was for and he said it's to keep the camera inside in case the guards won't let us in when they see us holding a dslr (like media or something). I didn't think of anything and said oh ok. Now thinking back, isn't it Captain Obvious that it's a dslr in a dslr bag??? LOL.

So we walked around everywhere, looked for our classrooms. We tried to get inside but most of them were locked. Luckily there was one block that wasn't locked, so we managed to get inside our old Form 3 class. He asked me where I sat last time and told me to sit down, and started talking about the past for about 10 minutes. 

I got bored and stood up when he said "SIT DOWN" Hahahahahahaha.

Ok... so I sat down. Fishy level x10000000 can.

And then he started asking me, "It's been more than 11 years now. Have you regretted ah?" and etc.

Yes, more than 11 years. I sometimes, ok maybe many many times... tell him "I'm going to be a 'lou gu po' (spinster) already". Yes I know sounds like I damn 'han gah' (eager to be married) but isn't it about damn time already?? Lol. Everytime I say that he will tell me I won't be and to be patient if I want to be surprised. What can I say, right??

Ok so back to the classroom. He was talking about how long it has been and yadda yadda and how he would look at me from his seat like a secret admirer and all that geli stuff hahahaha. In my mind I was like "Haha yah whatever" LOL cos I was bored wtf. At that point I completely forgot about the fishiness of the situation and was actually thinking of what I needed to buy when we go shopping later wtf.

And I don't know when, he took out and presented me a dark blue box, opened, with a diamond ring sitting inside and said to me,

"Don't be lou gu po la, be my lou po (wife) la"

And my first reaction was "Are you seriously doing this here???" 

I know it's quite a stupid reaction but my mind still couldn't register what was happening. After it did, I said "Ok!" wtf lol.

THE END!

When we were in the class just moments before he took the ring out a Malay lady who works in the school actually came into the class to check who we were and why we were there. Imagine she come up when he was in the middle of proposing! Damn awkward maximus!!!

So the camera bag was there to hide the ring box :) I think even if I were to carry that bag that day I wouldn't know the ring box was inside hahahahah.

If there's an award for being blur, I think there would only be one nominee and one winner wtf.

He actually got the ring on the Monday we flew back to Malaysia!!! That morning we both went out to the city to run errands of our own so we were doing our own thing. He said he needed to get back to office to get some things done (it happens all the time, having to go back to office even on a holiday/weekend) so obviously I didn't suspect anything, and that was when he went and got the ring. When we met before going back home together he was carrying a shopping bag and I did ask him what was that and he said some office documents, which again, I did not suspect! The ring was of course inside. 

When we got home after packing our luggage, we had some free time so I wanted to go out for a run. He said he can't run as long as I can so he'd join me 15 minutes later. I knew he's memang lousy like that so again I didn't suspect anything and said ok. While I was running, he packed the ring into a little pouch so he could carry it in his pocket so when we were out to the airport, in the plane, on the way to our homes in Malaysia, the ring was in his pocket ALL THE TIME. 

The ring box was in a white paper bag, which was in one of his carry-on luggage, which I OPENED ONCE to put my perfume inside but I completely overlooked it. Even I'm amazed by my ignorance.

What surprised me most was how he has planned to get this ring since early 2013, and he has been to the jeweler many many times and has all these catalogs, quotations and booklets of engagement ring designs sitting inside his bedside table's drawer ALL THESE WHILE and I had absolutely no clue about it.

In December I started looking at engagement rings (yes to mildly pressure him lol) and told him what I like and even tried to 'educate' him about engagement rings from my brief research. By then he was actually secretly an engagement ring expert already from all the visits he's paid to the jeweler and researches he's done! Once, I even unknowingly mispronounced the term "Paved" which he knew my pronunciation was wrong but he couldn't correct me at that time because he had to act like an engagement ring idiot hahahaha. FYI, it's pronounced as PAH-VAY. Not PEI-VD.

So I was the engagement ring idiot!

Anyway, if you've read up until here, COME I CLAP FOR YOU!

Seriously you must have nothing better to do to read through the entire thing. But thank you for reading :D

Ok now here is the ring for all you kaypoh people. A proposal post wouldn't be a proposal post without a picture of the ring, ok? If I was reading someone's proposal post for the past 10 minutes I would be damn pissed off la if there's no pictures. 

So the plan to go to Troika was a back up plan just in case we couldn't get into the school haha. I'm glad we did get into the school because personally I very much preferred it happening in school than in some fine dining restaurant. It's where I grew up, it's where I met some of the most important people in my life including the one I'm going to be spending my life with. I can't think of a better place for it to happen.

It wasn't a romantic proposal or anything. No flowers or balloons, he didn't even get down on one knee! But I really like how intimately it happened. There was no one else but us, back where we first started. No awkward stares or hoo haa from strangers. Just an old place which holds lots of memories. It was quiet and peaceful, as though the time stood still for us.

And you know what's the funniest moment? On Saturday (the day before) when Maggie did her bouquet toss, I GOT IT!!!

I hope in her pictures I won't look like some crazy woman trying to snatch the bouquet from all the other ladies lol. Apparently I literally RAN for the bouquet hahahah. To be honest I have no intention of 'running' after it wan lor, when the bouquet was in the air in that split second moment I could see all the other girls just stood still like a tree and somehow I had this feeling that the bouquet will land on the floor if they continued to stand still! So I stepped up and tried to reach for it lah you know, make the first move so the others will follow ma.

See see it landed in my hands =.= 

My first and most precious Tiffany, not just the ring but the gift box as well. So pretty! But this wasn't the ring's box, this was the box for the ring's box wtf do I make sense. The ring box is a dark blue velvet material, and it's packed in their Tiffany Blue box. Actually quite mafan la so many boxes, I understand la this blue gift box is sort of their signature but they should have made the ring box in the Tiffany Blue colour. Who the hell gives engagement ring in a gift box right??

I look like crap here but never mind because I was/still am over the moon :D

So yes, we are finally engaged after over 11.5 years. To all of you who congratulated us, a very heartfelt thank you. Now, let's plan a wedding!

   

The Birthday Post

Hd selfie ftw! Lol. 

I haven't actually worn eyeshadow in months! The last time I had eyeshadow was probably in June when we were out for a fancy dinner for our anniversary. Mmm not bad I haven't forgotten my skills wtf.

So on the day before my birthday I booked for a night's stay at the Langham Hotel, the hotel where the spa I work at is located. I got a complimentary night+breakfast as a reward for working hard :) 

Upon checking in we were greeted with this:

A welcoming message on the tv, how appropriate!

More pictures of the room later. We dropped our stuff and headed straight to Nobu for dinner. 

For drinks I had a mocktail which is so insignificant it's not in their website menu haha. 

I don't like alcohol but for the sake of something fancy to celebrate the night I ordered this. Can't remember the name, it's the first one on the mocktail list and it's got lime, lychee and... that's all I remember. Tastes pretty good.

We started off with 3 cold dishes.

Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeno

 Scallop Tiradito

The name of this scampi dish isn't the one that's in their website and I don't remember what it's called but this was really delicious. It's our favourite out of all 3 cold dishes but generally, all cold dishes were really good. The seafood were really fresh, presentation and flavour were spot on.

Then came the 2 hot dishes.

 Black Cod Miso

This is one of Nobu's signature dish and it is SO. GODDAMN. GOOD period. Oh that spear thingie is pickled ginger shoot I believe. 

The moment we took our first bite we literally looked up at each other in complete awe I'm not joking. Hahah ok I may have exaggerated but this was easily our favourite dish. We kind of regretted not ordering 1 each, instead of sharing. I would definitely go back to Nobu for this. 

Again, this isn't in their website's menu. It's a dish with duck breast. It was alright, nothing to shout about.

Towards the end we thought since they're pretty well-known for their sushi we might as well try it too. This was their maki with spicy toro filling. Quite delicious. The maki is rolled with a thin sheet of daikon, talk about crazy knife skills. 

Then it was time for dessert.

 Nobu tasting plate

These were basically miniature versions of the desserts they had on that day. We were told to start eating from the bun (far right) and move our way towards the palate cleanser (far left). I found it odd at first to be actually directed the way to eat a dessert platter (usually people just dig in!) but it totally made sense! You start with the heavy chocolatey goodness, followed by a light cake, slowly move your way to a more refreshing fruity mix and finish with a palate cleanser (in a spoon) to end the meal. So clever! 

Oops sorry I forgot to rotate this photo. I saw there was a white sesame panna cotta in the menu and I was hoping that it would be included in the tasting plate (I love sesame if you didn't already know) but it wasn't. So of course I had to order it.

Let's just say if I could turn back time I wouldn't have done it lol. The tasting plate itself was a really good end to the meal and this panna cotta isn't the best thing in the world so it sort of ruined the experience a little. 

Haih who ask me so tamjiak lol.

Ok now back to the hotel.

Hee :)

OPI Langham Pink  

I was forbidden to post his handsome face lol. He was checking his teeth in the mirror and was sort of cleaning it and umm... it's not the most attractive expression hahahaha. 

The bathroom/toilet is probably my favourite part of the room, so lavish! The entire area has marble finish, feels so atas man lol. 

If I knew there was going to be a bathtub I would have bought some bath bombs T_T such a waste! 

MASSIVE mirror by the sink.

 MASSIVE mirror by the bath tub. 

Full length mirror by the door.

Mirrors everywhere! Every girl's best toilet seriously. 

There's also a mirror by the mini bar area (left). And the mini bar is so damn well stocked. There's more alcohol than anything. They even have condoms and tampons wtf.

 We got upgraded to a river-view room because it wasn't really busy.

 "Melbourne is renowned for experiencing four seasons in one day. Delight in our city of surprises."

Word.

 Can you tell I was trying really hard not to laugh while I posed for this photo?? Hahahaha

To be honest I was really pleasantly surprised. I didn't expect to get such a nice room since it's complimentary. And maybe I haven't stayed in a 5 star hotel for a long time that's why so suaku lol.

There's a pretty good selection of food for the breakfast spread. Not shown here are the cereal, muesli, dried fruits and nuts, juice, milk, toast and spreads. There's also bacon, baked eggs, baked tomatoes, croissant, yogurt etc.

You can ask for your eggs to be cooked however you like. I saw some hollandaise sauce and decided to make eggs Benedict!

Natural honey, anyone? The honey from this supposedly natural honeycomb is sweet (duh), super thick and sticky. The honeycomb tastes like wax wtf.

While this may seem really fancy, who on earth has chocolate fondue and ice cream for breakfast?? NO, no kids should be allowed all these for breakfast because they go freaking crazy from all the sugar.

Last picture before we headed to the spa!

So we went to the spa (where I work at) for a massage for myself (from my lovely colleague) and a facial for Wk. Hahahaha I know, facial for Wk, sounds silly but he'd rather have that than massage.