Christmas 2017

I think we should be reminded on Christmas that the greatest gift has already been given to us-Jesus (typical Sunday school answer, but it's true). Didn't wake up in time for the xmas service. I feel like I say this every year, but I don't like how Christmas is so heavily commercialised. Like giving and receiving gifts are nice and I still do give gifts (only to a minimal extent), but that's not the real meaning. With some exceptions, I hate getting gifted chocolates, and our family has once again received boxes of your typical chocolates. Also doesn't help that's it's summer in Christmas here, so things probably melt before you even open them. Thank goodness it was a cooler Christmas this year. I'm glad in Australia Christmas is a public holiday, unlike some other countries in the world.

We don't have any family traditions, and have long given up setting my the xmas trip since we would always be on holidays or overseas during high school, so the tree hasn't gone up since primary...and  during uni years I have work, and no one at home is bothered to set it up. One day maybe we'll set up a real fragrant tree once we have time to maintain that sort of stuff. Ended up going to 2 people's places for lunch and dinner. Thankful for people's hospitality, even if I don't really know them.

food spread

Korean sushi and japchae

I still don't really get why people buy prawn's for Christmas, apart from it being an Aussie thing...yday was the first time ever the seafood place had a massive line of people at our local shops. Previous years wasn't as crazy...The jokes inside the xmas crackers are so lame that they are actually funny.

This person's house is massive, like 6 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 3 garages house, and around 3 living rooms. Kids are so lucky to have the space to run around and drive their toy cars. They used to be neighbours on a house 3 doors up, but I hardly talked to them. The houses on this side of my suburb are a lot bigger, and you can tell more people drove to houses in this area for Christmas, cause bigger houses are easier to host more people, whereas our street for empty-ish since the houses are small, so I think people drove to other people's houses for the day...

Toys are so creative these days. It's a chain saw with a moving chain thing.

They have so many toys. In hindsight, my bro and I also had a lot of toys, but almost all of them were hand-me-downs, or accumulated over 15 or so years. The older kid is only 5 and all the living rooms have toys...but I guess they have the space.

Off to the second person's house for late lunch/dinner. I knew some of the people, but majority I didn't know. Even the host son didn't know majority of the people. It's so weird, around 40+ people and you know like less than 10...As one of the adults said, whoever made it inside the property is a friend, even if you have no idea who they are...

someone made gingerbread cookies

One year I will make them...These didn't have enough spice/ginger to it, but they were soft and luckily not too sweet. Those icing piping details are so cute. I have the cutters to make cookies, but you guys know I'm pretty lazy when it comes to these things.

xmas ham

food spread-alfresco buffet style

When the host owns a butcher shop, you're never short of meat or those metal trays to serve food on...I actually didn't stuff myself this year. That bloated feeling isn't a good feeling, so I actually didn't eat a lot. Wine on the other hand...so many good wines and probs had one too many. Good wines are actually so delicious, it just goes down so smoothly, and more flavour. Not like the cheap wines you normally get at uni functions where it's acidic or watered down and you sort of screw your face, but still drink it because it's free/included in your ticket price.

This host has a whole wall of wines. You know people are wine enthusiasts when they buy wines to also earn a lot of bonus Qantas ff points. Other wine enthusiasts have special fridges which are set at wine temperature (8 deg from memory...). Also you would expect about 20 wine glasses at their house for when they invite people over, and can't forget multiple decanters for when you open multiple wines at once. Then normally wine enthusiasts also store other expensive sake/rums/whiskeys on some fancy looking cabinet with their corresponding glassware/cups. Damn, those alcohols all together are so expensive...I love my food and don't mind spending crazy amounts once a year for fine dining, but wine for me is still considered a 'rich persons thing,' and I'm still learning to appreciate it more and learn more about it, so for me it's still not worth opting to have those 'wine pairing' options or even a glass of wine when I dine outside. Even a 'cheap' glass isn't cheap, but the quality is cheap, if that makes sense. Where as if you tag along to go to wine loving people's houses, you try it for free and the quality is better than the cheap quality house wines at restaurants (but not cheap in price). Ok, I should stop rambling on about wine...

 

Do you spot the turkey? (i.e. our xmas turkey for dinner hehe)

I may of appeared a bit savage on my snapchat haha, but nah, I wouldn't have the guts to shoot that down if it was even legal.

homemade hk egg waffle

They had one of those egg waffle machines, and this was actually really nice, slight crisp on the outside, soft on the inside.

Risk

My pink troops died after 3 rounds. Obviously did not think properly on how to place them initially. This board game is so old school that I'm pretty sure the last time I checked (10 years ago lol) that they stopped selling it. I guess this remind me of Settlers of Catan, but Catan is more fun. 

And that was my Christmas for this year. I still hope to experience a white Christmas one year, or even just going back to HK to feast with relatives.

Good Times Artisan Ice Cream

I've been meaning to come here for ages, because they do fancy ice creams, and I love my ice creams.   This year has also been a year of eating a variety of soft serves, from prices to flavours throughout the world. Was in the area so decided to come here for dessert. There's a few bench top seats inside, but generally it's quite a small shop.

Ziggy Star Dust: peach iced tea, almond strawberry praline, meringue, choc white star-$10

 

my ice cream is telling me Christmas is near

The flavour wasn't as peachy or iced tea like aqua s, it sort of reminded me of yoghurt flavoured ice cream but with a soft serve texture. The praline and meringue gave it a good crunch, and loved the freeze dried strawberries. The cups are a bigger quantity, but it does look a prettier in a cone. 

Was too full to try the macaron ice cream sandwiches (which are essentially 2 of my favourite things combined together), but getting older means stomach space becomes more limited...

I figured that today and yesterday are my only chill days at home, and pretty much working/going out every day for the next 2 weeks up until I start uni. Finally got my hair cut today, after booking in a last min appointment and had to be 'squeezed' in. Funny how during exam times I would often look at my split ends, because I'm looking down but not at my notes, but after exams I'm trying to catch up on tv etc, and don't care about my hair. I already look at least 5 years younger than my age, so with short hair, I can probs even pass at least 8 years younger, esp compared to Caucasians...

Managed to finally get the other 2 cars air bag changed this week. It's such a time consuming process, like how do people with full time jobs manage to have the time? You need to drop it off in the morning, then wait for them to drop you off either at the shops or your home, then wait until another 8 hours after for them to come pick you up. It's also ironic how Subaru used a Toyota car as their 'courtesy bus', but I guess it's cause that's the only spacious 8 seater left and it's not on the market anymore...Standard classic convo when you're with someone, and then the driver asks what do you do and you always start with 'I look younger than I actually am.'

Also apparently the Japanese company which did the airbags faked some reports on the safety, hence the start of the worldwide recall in 2009. It was only in some car models from some years, but all 3 of our cars we have are diff models from 2 diff brands from different years and fell into the recall group. We had a letter advising us of it in 2015, but only this month we finally got our official letter. So if they didn't fudge reports, then we wouldn't have to waste our time, and they wouldn't have needed to waste extra money. German cars also used those airbags form the same company, but their testing was more stringent, which makes sense cause you have Audi, BMW, Mercs, Porsche etc etc. Really, you pay for the quality and craftsmanship. I don't have anything against Japanese made cars, but they are cheaper compared to German manufacturers, which are cheaper than Italian made cars. Cheaper isn't the right word since even Japanese made cars can be expensive, and German cars are already super expensive, and Italian cars are just what incredibly rich people like Lamborghini, Maserati, Ferrari etc etc...Ok, I digress...Passenger air bags fixed finally in all our cars.

I still can't believe it's almost the end of the year. It's gone by so slow yet fast at the same time. Still have a bag of almond flour which hopefully hasn't expired, but now I know I won't have time to make macarons from scratch by myself...one day maybe before I get a full time job...

My brother's work gifted all their employees a massive leg of ham, plus a box of goodies filled with food, quite a massive box, and also a gift card, whilst my dad brought home a bottle of wine, nothing expensive, but that's not the point. While the company I work at is a global company, but what do I get? Nothing. Sometimes I think why are some big companies so stingy, and then I remember there are shareholders, and the CEOs need to earn more, like not that they don't earn enough already...Reminds me the other day of an article I read, and even Australian CEOs average $90k a week, that's way more than what I'll ever get as an annual salary. Pretty sure the stuff my bro brought back cost more than his one day worth of pay lol.  

Motivation to study properly is dying. I know I should but then technically it's holidays and all I want to do is play. Much yolo come beginning of Jan. Not looking forward to work either, going to be super busy since end of year. 

Buffalo Dining Club

I've been wanting to come here ever since I saw the pasta in a cheese wheel, but this place isn't on the way to uni and outside of the city, so not super convenient to get to. Decided to come here to celebrate end of exams (since I had time to trek to food places outside the CBD). Most of the items on the menu are vegetarian, so this would make a good place for vegetarians who find there aren't many restaurants out there.

food spread

Cheese w/ 2 sides-$22

Sheep milk cheese, zucchini fritters, roast pumpkin w/ candied walnuts

The one time I forgot to take a photo of the menu but I need it...I forgot the technical name for the sheep's milk cheese since it was a special that week. It's a massive chunk of cheese, and if you do order a cheese I would suggest to only order one pasta. The cheese had a harder texture but still strong in flavour, like a cheddar cheese but not as 'sharp' tasting. I'm no cheese connoisseur, but this cheese was quite nice. The zucchini fritters were surprisingly good as well. They were fried well without being oily and inside was filled with a good balance of zucchini and stuffing. I was expecting the pumpkin to be a bit bigger, but the candied walnuts gave s nice crunch and added sweetness without being too sweet.

cheese wheel!

 

Cacio e Pepe: salt, pepper, olive oil and parsley in a pecorino cheese wheel-$20

Love how there's a whole cheese wheel where the pasta is swirled, so there's even more cheese from the cheese wheel in the pasta. It's got a nice cheesiness in it without being overly creamy. Pasta was cooked al dente and very simple to let the flavours of the cheese come through.

Gnocchi buffalo ricotta gnocchi with a napolitana sauce-$20

This gnocchi was more dense, I would've preferred it to be more fluffy. The ricotta helped give it a slight creaminess. The same wasn't too tomatoey or acidic. Again, clean and simple flavours. We couldn't finish the pasta or gnocchi since the dishes look small but the cheese fills you up really quickly.

 

downstairs looks small and crowded but there's more seating upstairs

Reasons to hate summer

I realised I don't think I've ever done a post on why I hate summer (sorry Happy Apple and Tracy! I know you both love the heat)

- It's hot, and scorching hot
- Hot weather makes me sleepy, and hence unproductive
- Can't think clearly when it's hot
- Can't study in the heat
- Energy runs out fast in summer
- Get tanned easily, and tans for me are irreversible
- More chance of getting skin cancer
- Sun just ages the skin, and ageing of anything isn't ideal
- Can get burned
- My skin doesn't like summer, and neither does my hair. Only good thing is hair dries faster in summer
- Get all sweaty, sticky and gross
- Walk outside for a minute and you're already sweating
- Actually even sitting at home doing nothing, closed blinds so less light/heat goes through and I'm still sweating even after 5min
- Can't breathe properly (well compared to crisp cool winter air)
- Mosquitoes are everywhere. This is one of the main reasons. Even just waiting for the bus at night for 5min I can get around 4 bites.
- Have to spend more money on sunscreen and aeroguard, which sometimes become part of my handbag essentials. Although I don't feel like insect repellent actually works...
- I learnt the other day that insect repellent and sunscreen cancel each other out, so it's one or the other, but I need both #fwp
- Black clothing absorbs heat
- Also mosquitoes are attracted to black clothing, but I like wearing black clothing rather than white which will get dirty easily. Usually it's not you but someone else makes it dirty accidentally
- Bushfires and smoke, houses destroyed
- Uncontrollable bushfires or arsonist who know fires are already hard to control in summer but make bushfires anyway
- Ants are also everywhere (doesn't help living next to a forest)
- Insects outside making a sound esp at night, making it hard to sleep
- It's already hard to sleep with the summer heat, but too cheap to turn on air con and it still makes a sound
- If someone turns on the aircon, I can hear the air con uni from outside the house since my room is next to the wall with the air con units outside. So the noise is louder when I open my window, but if I don't open my window, it becomes stuffy.
- Even touching electronics, like putting my laptop on my lap or holding my phone sometimes becomes too hot, not unbearable, but I feel like the heat ain't good for my MacBook or iPhone
- Fit Bit isn't as comfortable to wear in summer, tends to mark the skin more...
- Ice cream melts too fast, and also makes photo taking hard
- Chocolate and lollies also melt at home, and putting it in the fridge changes the intended texture
- Appetite becomes smaller since it's too hot to eat
- Always wanting water in summer
- Taking cold showers still doesn't really refresh you
- Even cold tap water isn't even cold because of the heat making the pipes warmer
- Too hot to do anything so waste time watching tv
- Too stingy to turn on the air con so sort of suffocate in the heat
- On the off chance I do turn on the aircon, it's not good for the environment
- There are fans, but they blow things, esp paper everywhere
- Too hot to bake or make anything. Summer is during hols so should have time to bake stuff but it's just too hot, and it's counter intuitive turning on the air con to bake
- I love leather car seats, but they burn in the sun once you want to sit on it, and the sun/heat ages them faster than it should
- The steering wheel is also too hot to touch, but you do master how to drive with two fingers (not that I recommend anyone to do...but when you're skin is sensitive to heat and you need to drive well...)
- Takes forever for the heat to escape the car in summer and feel bad for the car when I need to blast the air con initially
- I also feel bad for the car being parked outside with no shade in 40deg heats
- Everything is too hot to touch
- Too hot to exercise since already sweating to begin with
- There is more light during the day, but then the neighbour thinks they can drum during sunset i.e. after 8pm, and trust me, you do not want to live next to a drummer, but too poor to move houses...
- Can never experience a white Christmas down here
- Going to the shops for the free air con rather than actually shopping, but internally I'm just like I'm wasting time because I could at least have non dodgy free wifi at home and choose to watch random stuff on tv
- Winter clothes are nicer. You can easily layer in winter, but there's a limit on how much you can take off in summer...
- Summer thunderstorms are very inconvenient since weather proof clothing is normally long sleeved/winter clothing, but there isn't really any waterproof summer clothing available
- Maybe biased towards winter, cause I'm already hating the summer heat and the first month of Summer isn't over yet. Yes, I'm melting...

Switch

All members of the G8s that were in the Southern Hemisphere met up tonight, as Jo correctly put it. I think 6/8 is an achievement, really don't remember when we had 8/8...at least 3 years ago though. 

I played the Nintendo Switch last week but only on Mario Kart, which is a go to classic. Didn't realise how portable the Switch is, with super cute tiny controllers! Didn't realise consoles still cost a fair bit, but $500 now is worth a lot less than $500 13 years ago when we got our first big console...Love how the multiplayer games are team games, rather than versing each other. Overcooking is hilariously fun, a stressful fun if that makes sense. Half the time I couldn't see where I was, but I like how it's relatively realistic, like if the kitchen catches fire then you need a fire extinguisher before you can keep cooking. Thanks Tess and fam for having us over and the delicious home made food!

Vegetarian rice paper rolls

Those wrapping skills which I don't have. Love how it's filled with so many veggies, and don't need vermicelli noodles to fill up the space. Peanut sauce with it is so good. I hardly ever have this stuff, and just walking past places at the shops they're pretty pricey compared to buying the ingredients and making it yourself. Just a whole lot of prep to chop up the veggies etc.

Vegetarian peking duck

First time having vegetarian duck, didn't even know it existed. It taste just a tiny, tiny bit like duck. It's still nice for fake meat though. Loved the cute coriander poking out in the presentation. We also had a 'third course' of the typical Chinese beef and bean sprouts stir fried flat rice noodles. Dessert featured Happy Apple and Dandelion's cookies and an ice cream cake we got Nancy last week lol. 

So good seeing everyone. Once again, we didn't end up playing boardgames but just ended up chatting and talking about random stuff. I think the best catch ups are not what you do, but just talking with people and the company. So great to see Happy Apple!

Didn't realise you don't have to do any more tests to get your full licence...I also never experienced the 'paper' temporary licence, and you just get the licence immediately after you pay for it...how times have changed since I got my fulls over 3 years ago...

Didn't realise how much Castle Towers has changed, since nowadays I don't go shopping, and if I do, it's normally in the city since it's on the way home from uni. Or it's overseas since I feel spending money in Aus isn't as worth compared to spending overseas. So many shops have moved around, I feel like at least a quarter of the shops. You can tell which stores are profiting. Pandora is finally in a larger space, cause the Towers one was always in relatively small shop but always packed with people. I have to say, whoever did the marketing for this year's promo, the green is quite an ugly green. Not as ugly as Baulko olive green, but it's like a dark Christmas green which doesn't really match their sort of stuff. I don't mind the green, but seeing people hold multiple bags of that stuff feels like that green doesn't match it. Nespresso also moved into a much larger space since they used to only have a tiny store which sold the pods, but now they demonstrate machines like the store in the city.

Other shops moved into an old bank fit out which is weird, cause they took out the glass windows, but there's still metal poles in between what used to be the service desk and the actual bank behind it...And what happened to the 3rd floor of Myer...they added an extra floor a few years ago and then took it away..? What a waste of money...Apparently Wendy's ice cream got rebranded...There's also more 'hipster' stores like a place that does men hair cuts, and super spacious with a pool table inside, and selling just a few other guys products. Like I'm pretty sure rent ain't cheap, how do they afford such empty/spacious spaces place have room to put in a pool table?

Other photos from the past week and don't know where to put them. Neighbours from across the road made us cute pot plant cheesecakes as an xmas present. 

 

love the whole pot plant and spade spoon

There was too much soil on top, and had to dig a bit before you get to the cheesecake. It's a more lighter Japanese style cheesecake, rather than your usual cream cheese cheesecake. 

Also, fresh xmas trees were on sale for $20 day at our local Woolies. We would have bought one, if not for the fact that you need a proper xmas tree stand so you can continue to water the tree and it'll actually stand up. We also don't have the space at home, and it's a lot of maintenance since you'll need to keep vacuuming and watering daily. We don't even have time to vacuum weekly to begin with...$20 is pretty good price to have fresh pine smells at home, cheaper than flowers and the tree lasts longer as well.

Someone gave us this to try, and I don't like Vegemite, but here it's only a tiny bit salty to flavour it. It's made of bread 'bagels' instead of potatoes, and a lot harder than normal. Also, Tyrell veggie chips are really good.

Internal placements are finally up for the first 6 or so weeks. Always takes a while to figure out how to read optom timetables, esp with each week changing. Like what if I miss a clinic lol.

It's surprising how when you have a time limit or extra pressure, how much you can actually get done.

Exhibit A: madly wrapping 4 xmas presents for colleagues whilst eating breakfast this morning, all within 5 minutes. Yes I could have wrapped then over a week ago but never got around doing it, and could've woken up a bit earlier to wrap it, but you guys know I love my extra sleep. I love wrapping presents, but those presents were probs the ugliest presents I've wrapped to date. At least it's the thought that counts right?

Exhibit B: got my hopes up that I wouldn't have to start in early Jan, but I'm in the group which starts internals on Jan 8th. Ideally that isn't the best since I don't get a chance to practice contact techniques, and get chucked into the deep end, whereas some external placements are more chilled...Have less than 2 weeks to study since pretty much working full time in the week leading up to pre clinic exam, but I still ceebs to study properly since for once, if you fail the quiz you don't fail the course, you just do a massive time consuming assignment. Without the whole fail exam fail subject pressure, it does make motivating yourself to study harder. Especially when research only finished on Dec 1 and working in between so you don't really have a properly holiday.

Again, not complaining, since I sort of had an extended sem 1 holiday this year. It does mean I should stop planning stuff/meeting up with friends, but still slowly learning exams isn't the only priority, and meeting up with people is defs worth my time. Although starting early but my concession Opal probs won't be activated until uni officially starts, or when concession roll over thing starts again in April...One thing I've missed this year is defs my concession card.

I can sort of see the appeal of people working part time, since you're working but then you're off for half of the week, and can use that time to run errands, chores or just chill. It's ironic how I'm not even working full time, but just thinking of working everyday 5+ days a week for x number of years, how draining that would be with only 4 weeks or less of holidays a year. I guess I experience working 'full time' a few weeks a year, especially with the end of the year/xmas, and when colleagues go on holidays. Maybe I'm just really lazy and ceebs working during uni holidays, which is making me think sometimes full time work is going to be so, so tiring, but hopefully rewarding at the same time.