a great catch up

tapas... missing the wine coz we were all driving. it was so great to catch up with the girls i use to work with. you forget how much fun you have with each other until you meet up again. it's steph's birthday this sunday and sadly all i could give her was a hug and a 'iou' since i hadn't had time to get her a present. we have to meet up a little more often..... not once a blue moon. >_< oh and i would like to add the chocolate empanadas are absolutely delish!

not so lonely weekend

my first weekend without D was pretty busy except for sunday. on friday night coz i was craving porridge in cold and wet winter, the substitute boys were happy to accomodate me and we drove to the city for dinner which doesn't happen very often. after dinner we tapau-ed (takeaway) curry fishballs, chatime and a variety of takoyaki and it was back to my place for a movie. we watched 'wu shia' with donnie yen and takeshi kaneshiro and i thought it was a pretty good movie even though i didn't understand the subtitles. whoever translated it did it from malay subtitles and for words he didn't know how to translate, left the malay word there. ie - kungfumu, keadaanmu ... oh and because in malay they don't differentiate he and shes, in one sentence he could be talking about the same person and referring to him as he and she! good thing alex understands mandarin or we would have been completely lost!

saturday was my first ever badminton competition (no i'm not all that good) and i thought it was fun. good experience too. and of course i now ache in random places. what better way to re-energize than with a giant chicken snitchzel for dinner. the cooks are crazy. and as if we didn't use enough energy for the day.. we played cranium and charades till two in the morning. it was crazy funny!

sunday was a very lazy one where i stuck myself to the couch moving only for dinner. i'm not very lucky eating japanese in the north shore. the last time i was there, the place they wanted to take me had changed management, the other had closed and we settle in an OK restaurant. this time, the ramen place decided to close early but the food at ginger and spice was delish. and that was my weekend.

in true love the smallest distance is too great

it's the first weekend D's in nyc and i've had a rather busy one - details in another post. i miss having D around and as much i am so excited for him to be there i just wish he was closer. of course it would have been even better if i could be there with him >_< it's funny how you never realize what you'd miss so much. we spend our days together doing our own things in the comfort of our living room and now that's he's away it's just so empty. it's just knowing he's near me for a cuddle and a snuggle; and that i can just feel him closeby. maybe i'm just clingy like that. actually i know i am.... *grin*

it's not me in nyc

dress from ASOS; shoes from Freelance

this was the dress i wore to a special day for my dad. he made me wake up really early and had me wait for him for 2 hours after i had a very tiring day. on another note, the hubby has gone to NYC for work. so i'm left alone for a while :( funny for the first night i was alone, i had two substitute boys for dinner at home. hahaha i'm already missing the hugs and cuddles; and the bed is taking forever to warm up.

sydney winter festival

we may not have picked the best day to go for the sydney winter festival but we did end up having fun. it was wet, cold and the rain didn't want to stop. everyone was running late, the big giant slide was close, the ice skating ring looked like a swimming pool and it was still raining. we had booked to skate at 8pm but didn't make it in time, luckily enough the next session wasn't full and we got into that slot. and at 9pm.... the rain stopped! we got to skate without getting drenched - one fell, one or two never let go of the sides, one being cacat with her twisted ankle had to stop before the session ended, some were hoping the girls in the short skirts would fall and many were just trying to balance and hey... i just realised alex is missing from the group shot -_- i wonder where he went?

homemade popcorn

for the past few days, we have been craving sweet stuff and since i had already bought the corn to make popcorn a long time ago i decided to try. it's actually quite simple really and fun too.


all you need is:
popcorn kernels, oil, sugar, honey and butter

how to:

1. heat oil in pan till hot, you can drop a corn kernel in and let it pop before you put the rest of the kernes in.  only put a layer on the saucepan or you will end up with burnt popcorn like i did -_-
2. cover with tight fitting lid, when you start hearing the corn pop shake saucepan lightly. once everything has finished popping, remove from heat and transfer into container.
3. now the best part - the caramel. combine butter, sugar and honey over medium heat and keep stirring until it boils. boil without stirring until light golden.
4. pour caramel over popcorn and mix till coated and tah dah!!

sweet cravings satisfied!

in pain

while everyone was glad it was friday, i was in complete pain! i had twisted my ankle playing badminton the night before and hearing or feeling the two cracks completely freaked me out. D had to piggy back me around because he was more paranoid that i would fall hopping around >_< yes, i'm that clumsy. it was pretty bad, i couldn't walk without any support and everytime i moved it i wanted to cry. rented crutches, got an x-ray and thank goodness nothing broken or fractured. i was also lucky enough to have clara rub and pull my ankle which made it recover much faster. now i can walk, just randomly limping when i put weight on it wrongly and hopefully recover in time for the badminton comps coming up.

angry birds

james ordered some angry birds (tulan jiao as some call it in hokkien - please excuse my vulgarness) soft toys online and G thinks it's new toys for him -_- we clearly spoil him too much. after hanging it up, he kept going to it and whinning.....looking at us to give them to him. tsk tsk tsk he thinks anything soft, bright and cuddly are his.

when the whales came out to play

not so lucky with food but apparently pretty lucky with wildlife. the dolphins came to greet us while going out to sea and the whales were happily showing off their flips and belly flops. we started really early in the morning, met up at heathcote and had breakkie at mackers (some of them had pork rolls) then we started our journey to jervis bay. no stops, no breaks ... it was go all the way. we got there with extra time to try their "world famous fish & chips" which wasn't any good. they made us wait 45 minutes for our food knowing we had to be on a boat shortly so we gobbled everything down and rushed to the boat. the prawn was prawny, the fish fishy and the batter soggy. so anyways... not long after we had started our journey, the dolphins pop by to say hi and swam by the boat. after moving out to the open sea, far far away we could see the whales blowing water out of their blowholes and thought to myself... is that all we're gonna see?? as we moved closer to them, they moved closer to us and then they were just 50m away. i took over 200 shots and still missed out plenty when i put my hands down coz they were tired. you know how there is nothing there while you're ready and then when you decide to rest it jumps out right in front of you -_- the whales are so huge, so beautiful, so calm.... *happy*happy*