a recap of my first week 2013

just a recap of my week because i clearly didn't manage a daily post. this year i didn't take any extra holidays for the festive season. there wasn't really a point since it would be quiet at work and i would get to clear up all i needed to do which included clearing my table. unfortunately the latter didn't happen o_O so my table is still a mess.

the inLaws are in town, all we've really been doing is eat and eat and eat. we've had our christmas turkey feast, bacon & eggs feast, our my favourite wagyu beef pho, lots and lots of char siu, siu yok, hainanese chicken rice, seafood.... and the list goes on. i don't even know whether to drool or just feel fat when i think of the amounts of food i've eaten.

since i've been pretty free-ish at work, i decided to learn mandarin (read & write) online on my own. no guarantees i'll keep it up but at least i'm trying right? at the moment, i can write super ugly 'nǐ, hǎo, zài and jiàn'. again no guarantees i'll actually remember how to write it after a while but maybe, just maybe i'll be able to read it.*fingers crossed*

we've started a new home project - landscaping. as per a previous post, we went plant shopping and came home with heaps. the weather has been too hot (30-40 degrees!!! %^&*%) to actually start much but we have planted a tree. we are changing over a whole bunch of stuff and adding brighter flowers into the garden. i can't wait till we see the finish product. oh and i have also told the hubby that i'm happy to help pretty-ing our garden but he it will be his job to maintain it *grin*

it's been a while is MiL got to celebrate her birthday with her kids so she was very happy to be able to do so this week. however, because we already pre-celebrated her birthday when we invited their friends over for another feast, we didn't actually get her another cake. actually, i think we forgot. opps. luckily enough while shopping, the hubby came across his favourite pandan cake and bought one so we added a candle on it for her. it's the thought that counts right?

i started playing an iphone game which i can't seem to put down called okey 101. i'm bad when i start a game, i pretty much play non-stop.

the perks of having a photographer friend that he was happy to take a handful of shots for us as a family. it was fun and as usual wished my face wasn't quite so round but with all that food i obviously didn't do anything about it. our first theme was to make it really bright and colourful and we all ended up with a ralph lauren polo tees. '_' it looked like we were doing an advertising for them. maybe we should propose to sell it too them...  tees for all ages! hehehehe anyways, we then did some dressed semi casually. Gizmo got a little feature too with me. can't wait to see the pictures but in the meantime, some selfies...  ^_^

then we sent the inLaws off to the airport and it was the end of a week. if the rest of the year is anything like this week has been, this year is not only going to be awesome but we're going to fly through it!

the year 2012

almost a year since i was last here and a lot has happened since then. here's a recap to the year 2012 in random order.

i assisted in cooking my first turkey ever.. of course with chef father-in-law and i have to say it turned out mighty fine. defrosting that 5 kilo bird was painful. it took 24 hours to defrost, marinated overnight, about 2 hours prep and another 3 hours and 45 minutes to cook. but it was definitely worth it. the meat was juicy and tasty and of course we had heaps of food. it's may not be my first home cooked christmas but it's a first traditional one with turkey and all.

after much travelling back and fro home to kl, the hubby and i managed to end up in new york this year; all in 2 weeks planning and luckily enough flew out a couple of days just before hurricane sandy hit. as expected, loved the city and everything about it - the lights, the late nights, the atmosphere... everything. i manage to catch up with friends i haven't seen in a decade and now everytime i watch a movie shot in new york, i scream "new york!!". someone's gonna get sick of me eventually >_<

the beginning of the year was a bit of a whirlwind. started with ups and downs. some downs too private to share and some downs turning into ups. there was the difficulty in selling our apartment but yet we were able to buy the house we wanted and surprisingly it all worked out. the hubby and i always grateful that although we may not be the rich, but we're lucky in what matters and that we do live comfortable lives.

i turned the big 3-0 this year with no major parties since the hubby was overseas. i did however get a very belated surprise giant birthday cupcake when he came back. and when i say surprise i mean surprise considering i starting singing along to the birthday song not realising that it was for me.

became the proud housewife when i made tong yuen (glutinous rice balls) from scratch for the winter solstice. not that i wasn't the proud housewife before ... but seeing it was so pretty and something different from the everyday house cooked dinners i couldn't help but beam in happiness. one step closer to being a stepford wife. hahahahaha .. that's never gonna happen!

i got the chance to overcome my slight fear of go-karting and now go full throttle without that thought stuck in my head that i will overturn at corners. now i just need to learn to cut the corners right. *evil grin*

dyed my hair purple... then pink. welcomed a few cute adorable babies into the world, non of which are mine of course and built more lego this year than i have ever built in my life. this year flew by so quickly i didn't even have time to blog about it. now to bring on the new year!

happy new year!

tv shoots are fun

shotss our new mother's day tv shoot. this time something different - a cool roller track to move the video camera! it makes the clip look sooooo awesome and of course, have gorgeous girls makes it all so simple.

four years ago...

D took me to the cliffs at coogee and pushed me off. no i'm kidding ... hahaha >_< ... he proposed. yes, it all happened on april fools day which made it just a little more difficult to have my friends believe me when i told them. it was simple, sweet and suited just for me. when we think back about it, it's hard to believe that we've only been married for such a short time coz it seems like life without each other was a long long time ago.

unlike all our other sundays where we sleep in till noon, today we woke up really really early; and i mean really early. we were up around eight am to go for what was apparently the best buffet breakfast at the hilton hotel. before you think it's some fancy wancy romantic breakfast, it was with our whole bunch of friends and because we have a 2-for-1 voucher ^_^ waking up so early definitely makes the day a whole lot longer. after breakfast, we went shopping in the city and almost... just almost came home with the chanel wallet that i really liked. instead i came home with a new pair of boots. happy proposal anniversary sayang... you made this date sooooo much easier to remember *grin*

dumplings dumplings ... and more dumplings

after spending the whole afternoon in the city shopping and coming home with lots of goodies we headed to shanghai town for dinner. ashfield is known to be a little shanghainese community so when you're on the main road through the town, you'll come across quite a number of shanghainese restaurants. we got to new shanghai and oh great, there was a queue. good thing we didn't wait long. our dinner consists mainly of dumplings - steamed pork & chive dumplings, pan fried pork dumplings and siu long baus. all of which were really tasty. the funniest thing was when the fried rice arrived. everyone was dissapointed coz it looked pretty pale until D took a bite and his eye lit up and went "wah, damn good". that was when everyone else dug in ^_^ it was only a pity that the food took a while to arrive. the dishes come out one at a time and by the time the porridge i ordered came i was full. oh and they gave our siu long baus to the wrong table so we had to wait somemore; not only that i didn't think the skin was thin enough -_- something must have been happening in the kitchen coz it wasn't alex's first time and he had no problems last time.  maybe next time we won't go on a saturday night. hmmmm thinking about the dumplings are making my mouth water.

273 liverpool road, ashfield nsw 2131
look for the bright red and white signage

peking duck

what is a birthday without your friends... we finally celebrated D's birthday over the weekend with our friends at a place we use to frequent when family was in town, someone graduated or when something special happening. i remember graduation season and the many times we went there with friends and their family. those were uni days... we thought since it's been a while, why not. we always enjoyed the peking duck there, sang choi pao and all. this time there was no screaming surprise but a mouth watering chocolate mud cake which our waiter eyed bringing it out and jokingly asked if he could have a slice in return for for helping us take a group shot. haha that was really quite funny but i happily gave him a slice at the end of the night. we ate and we merry and ended up in mackers for supper later that night. it's always about food.