Christmas 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

4.

 5.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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. 

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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