i couldn't do anything properly yesterday. even at night, i thought i could still smell ammonia. dealt with 15M NH3 yday, probably to high concentrated thing i will ever deal with in my life.

last day of winter, nooo. i had a berry fruit lipton pyramid tea. it's ok, but kind of cheap. it says to put 200ml of water, less than your standard latte glass/cup. last time i had over 250ml, so it was kind of tastless. this time i had about 200ml, so the flavour was there, but i don't feel like i got my money's worth out of the tea bag. if i did put more water in, then it won't taste as good. had a piece of toast with butter, peanut butter and jam. twas so good! probs because i haven't had peanut butter and jelly for so long (: only have time to drink tea on weekends. as if i have the time to wait for the water to boil and the tea to infuse during the weekday. i can get dressed/ready and eat a breakfast in 15min before leaving the house (:

really impressed with MAC lipstick. sah good (: good make-up/brushes are also worth investing in. some people just have absolutely perfect make-up each time, then again, they already have flawless skin to begin with. i cannot find any youtube vids on how to use a quiff comb! i know you just stick it in, but how!? also sucks sometimes how my hair is so thin, it's hard to make it "poof"

eisteddfod today-so many troupes. the judges were like "the scores are going to be low as we are comparing you to worldwide dance troupes" and "you need to do blahblahblah, or else you will not have a career in dance" calm your farm, haha, i bet 90% of the people there won't do dance as a full time international career.

Dulce Luna Viennoiserie

i actually woke up at 7 to get free food, since i had a 9-6 day today,  and they started it at 8, so i had to go early and avoid the crowds.

never had sweet artisan pastries mixed with french and argentine styles, so i decided definitely go. so glad i got there early, only about 3 people in front of me, and by the time i got my coffee, the line already had 10+ people.

some of the sweet selections. 

when i first went into the store, my first thought: so small! then i looked at the prices, and the sweet ones were $3, and it's artisan pastry, so i guess for stuff like that, it was ok.

original luna-$2.50.

obviously they give the cheapest one for free. yep, really small, but it was one of he softest pastries i've had/ slightly sticky to touch, but not too sweet. i still think i like my traditional savoury crossaints with flaky patiserrie. i was going to buy other flavours, but then i thought it was get squished in my bag by the time i got home at night. then i thought i would go again at night to see if they had anymore free ones left, but then ceebs. also, i just saw the Dulce Luna on York St the other day. passed it everyday, but only noticed it recently. it's soo small compared to the Pitt St one.

small cappuccino-$2, normally $3.

it felt lighter than normal in my hand. i guess i would have like a bit more milk and foam. the coffee was alright, but it was a tad liquidy since imo, there wasn't enough milk. also, the lid thing is harder to drink from, since the brim is more flat compared to other places.

matt's MC bread is soooo easy to make! will make it in the summer break, and hopefully strong flour isn't too expensive. yay for Matt and his cheat's recipes. i have quite a few things on my mental to-bake list (: 

usually on wednesday's, i catch the 8.45am bus to the city for a 10am start. theoretically, it means i would be late, since the bus diverts to lane cove and isn't an express. depending on how fast the bus driver drives, when i get to my bus stop, i make a mad dash to the station. martin places station is quite "in", so there's a tunnel from the entrance, and in the morning, they have these barriers to assist with people coming into the station, so out of about 20 gates, only 1 gate goes in, and once you go in, you have to go to the further escalator to go down to the platform.

so i ran down today, and normally when the voice goes "door's closing, please stand clear" then the doors start to slowly close. but no, the doors started to close once the voice went off, and it wasn't a normal close, it was literally slam in my face. usually if the voice goes, and you still have 10m to the train, you can slip in the doors, but today those doors closed sooo quickly, and i was only 5m in front. then i looked at the time and it closed 30s earlier than it should. but in that half a second, the trains door re-opened just for me, so that made my day (: thanks kind train guard/station person!

but then when i got to central, the lines were longer than normal (by normal, i mean i had to wait over 5min). don't usually go this way to uni, but i start in upper campus, so catching uni buses from central means i don't have to take 10+min to walk from main entrance up the stairs. and i made it to the lecture on time since they started late (:

building my chilli tolerance, ate some home-made sri lankan curry from a friend's friend. legit spices and all.

i could have gotten another free big mac, but then i thought, even though it's free, it's soooo unhealthy, and i don't want to aste 5mins of my life for something that's not really worth it's $5 value. also walked past a bbq today with a relatively short line, but i've had heaps of fattening foods/sausages last week's bbq.

going through different styles of bible studies is interesting (:

i've actually eaten A LOT of good food this semester. i guess birthday month is over.

i'm finally up to date with my blog posts.

let me just back track a bit....on my parents and cousin+gf went to Reubin Hills on Sunday! i shall go sometime. they said it was good.

so they left today. they came over for 10 days, but some nights they slept somewhere else. i cannot stand living with them! WHO TAKES TWO SHOWERS IN ONE DAY! they both do. it's crazy. IT'S AUSTRALIA! it's still winter, and it's not humid like thailand/hong kong, and it's not dirty like china where you can actually see dust particles/smog/smoke etcetc. the air is fresher here, and even if they don't go out, they still shower in the morning and at night. what's worse is that they have 1 hour showers, so 4 hours all up. what a waste of water. and then they leave the expensive heater light on, and you can tell they use more than necessary shampoo. also, they use 1 toilet role day! they don't wipe their hands on hand towels, but on tissues. what a waste! they also leave lights on. i cannot live with them. if i ever date someone who has those stuff, well i cannot imagine together. another thing, THEY ARE SOOO SLOW. i mean common, it's not your house so please show a little courtesy of not wasting things. i know they're "little things" but all up it costs money. i think they're perfectly matched. they make like 10 things to do, and only does one thing. soooo slow paced. they only finished packing/using the vacuum thing at 12.30am. dude! the vacuum is loud and i'm trying to sleep to get to my 9am lec in the morning.

never really liked this cousins slowness/wastefulness. i'm pretty sure he's been engaged for at least a year, and they are going to get married NEXT november, even my other cousin who got engaged a few months ago is getting married middle of next year. even slow to getting married. i think people take max a year.

today has been ): it's just those tiny little things. like people wasting time (oh, on sunday, when my cousin finally finished showering, her gf was about to shower, and i immediately sprang out of bed to get to the bathroom, or else i wouldn't be able to brush my teeth until past midday).

wow, i don't understand anything now in optics. it's only week 5, and the lec notes they put up confuses me more than the notes they write up in lec (which are already confusing).

so much more to say but i need to do work. don't even have time to watch MC online.

i really wanted to do the colour run on sunday! i saw people do it earlier in jan, the penciled it in for aug, but i was scared i had exams or something. yeah what a joke, my running 5km, but it seems so fun! anyone up for it next year?

noo dance eisteddfod this sat and next sun. there goes my study time ):

woke up so late today. past 11.. about holiday time =/

i had Jarrah's chai latte packet mix. DO NOT BUY IT, EVEN IF IT'S HALF PRICE. usually packet mix will tell you to add 250ml water. this one tells you 170ml. my mum tried it before, and said it was very, very bland, so i put in half a normal cup of water. IT WAS STILL TASTELESS. there was only colour, and almost no spices. yday i tried lipton's peach and mango pyramid tea. it smells amazing, but the taste wasn't that prominent. the tea bag is cool though (: oh, i also found a box of wedgewood tea at home. nicee.

did not do anything today.

i watched the masterchef weekly wrap up since i missed the whole week. and i'll missed most of finals week until the last episode since mon and tues=dance, wed=plus, thurs=6pm finish.

they have heaps less celebrity chefs this season. so glad i live in sydney where most of the pro-er chefs are. like one of my interstate friends didn't know there was a Masterchef Food and Dining Bar! also, another of my friends went!!! so jelly. i hope samira doesn't win. an exact replica of julie, who cooked raw food a few times (and they physically look the same). a lot of the options on the menu are inspired by Julie's dishes, and i hate julie, so i guess i can/will wait for next year's food.

also got a free big mac today. the person didn't even look at the voucher thing, and just chucked it asap. yay for photocopying it, so i can get a free burger until the 28th, as if they'll be bothered to type in the code. they are sooo small! and it feels so gross having maccas since all i can think of is white unhealthy bread, fake meat and cheese. the lettuce is fresh though. so even if it is free, it's not really worth getting multiple ones. also, they cost $4.95 just for a burger. i would much rather a $10 gourmet burger, or another $5 oyster. i was looking at other fine dining restaurants, and they also charge around $5 an oyster. i forgot to do the whole pinching you nose/listening to sea music when eating an oyster thing taughts by Heston! oh wells, do it when i next have an oyster.

week 5 hits me, and now i feel super screwed. have. not. studied. for anything.

two weeks to cram three subjects.

Magnum Pleasure Store

i've actually walked past the Magnum Pleasure Store a few times during the 6 weeks, but everytime i thought it wasn't worth buying. most of the time the lines weren't that long, but when i wanted the magnum yday, the line was horrendous.

then came friday evening and i suddenly had a massive urge for a custom made magnum. you see, if i don't have a particular type of food, i can't study. (like during the hsc, i saw zumbo's packet mix first hitting the shelves, and saw the sale in the catalogue, and i just had to get my mum to buy it, or else all i could think about were his packet mix macarons and not what i was supposed to be studying).

so i woke up early today (before 9am on a saturday) to go out to the city just for ice cream. ice cream for breakfast! i've never gone out to the city just for one thing. i hope this doesn't happen again. it wasn't a massive waste of time since i got home before 11am. 

so good getting there at 9.30ish, when the store just opened. there was a line, but it was super short, about 10 people ie, you could stand behind the counter. originally there was only one person making it, and one person at the cashier, but in 10mins of the store opening, they got another guy. 

dipping of the magnum.

drizzle

vanilla magnum with dark chocolate coating, rose petals, rose praline, pistachio, crumbled meringue and white chocolate drizzle-$7

look how colourful it is! i wanted to contrast the different colours (:

yummm

the side. you can also the bottom. when they sprinkled the toppings, they sprinkled most of the meringue to act as as base to place the magnum on top.

it was sooooo good! it surprisingly wasn't sweet. maybe it was because i got dark choc, but the ice cream itself wasn't as sweet as normal (maybe they're cutting the cost of sugar), but i liked it that way to accentuate the flavour of the toppings. so why did i choose those toppings? not because of the colour, because they're one of the most expensive option. definitely needed to choose at least a type of nuts, and pitachios are my favourite out of the options (: and the green complements the pink. i love rose petals! i love any edible flower tbh. i've never had rose praline before, so i chose that. you could taste the rose and the nuts, and i think this was sweeter than the ice cream itself, but it was sooo good. also added some crunch (the pistachios were finely crushed so didn't have a big crunch). i also love meringue! and this was another interesting texture, since some of the white choc melted on it, and it gave a pleasant chewy texture.

i don't understand why people put choc sprinkles/more chocolate stuff and they already coated it with milk choc, and also a milk choc drizzle. it's just the same flavour throughout, and also it doesn't even look nice in a photo if everything is brown. i should've asked for a milk choc button, so i could have tried all three flavours, but the white looks nice. i have so many photos of it on my phone, don't know which ones to delete lol.

the coating did set, but it wasn't hard, and was slightly chewy. it didn't have the crack a normal magnum have. whenever i eat a normal magnum, it's hard to eat it without dropping some of the coating. i guess it's ok here because a cracked coating with toppings would be too awkward to eat. since i went in the morning, i managed to get a magnum chair and chilled there for quite a while (: surprisingly, a lot of people also went buy themselves.

i finally caught a double decker bus today in sydney! i was surprised to see one in off-peak weekend time. i saw the front seat was empty and literally ran to it.

such a nice and different view (: so empty compared to weekdays.

it got too sunny, so i ended up sitting in the 2nd row, haha. 

went to friend's house in the inner city for bbq later at night. ate soooo much meat. actually, i could've eaten more, but if you scrolled down at what i've eaten the past week. i'm trying to eat less. my dad kept asking me if i had my licence, so he could drink. of course,  always carry it around with me. when i was going to pick my bro up from rice (since friend's house is just 10min from city), turns out there were no green P plates in the car! so someone else picked him up, while my dad drew two green P's with a marker and wrapped it around L plates (they only had L's in their house).

my parents and cousin who has an international licence all drank at least 5 glasses of wine, so i guess i had to drive. ended up leaving at 12am. only did about 3 hours of work, and those hours they were "slow paced" trying to work out stuff. a super unproductive day ):

Masterchef kind of Day

today has been a disappointing/interesting day.

was going to watch a movie, but my friend forgot the free movie tickets. i haven't bought a full priced ticket for a long time, and i'm not desperate to watch that movie, so i decided to not watch it. went to magnum, but the line was soooo long! at the end of one side, there was a security guard, and he was like, "if you want to line up, the line continues around the corner", and wow, a second line just as long was forming at the other side, around the corner. defs a 2 hour wait, so i didn't go.

went to circular quay to go Masterchef Food Truck. i was surprised to see no lines there (went at 5ish).

Emma and Daniel's Mezze inspired crispy skin chicken with sumac, ginger and honey cous cous-$12

as expected, it was tiny. i was actually very disappointed in this. first, there was no crispy skin, the chicken was luke warm, same as the cous cous. the sprinkle of stuff tasted like this Japanese seasoning thing one of my host people gave me in yr 9, didn't taste middle eastern. not worth the money.

then the main part of the day. i ate about three pieces, gave one to my friend, nek minnit, a seagle swipes two pieces from me! took a piece and another piece dropped. then heaps of seagulls around fighting. so sad. i'm sad that this was so expensive and eaten by a bird. i kept on eating it, and hoped that the bird didn't touch the other parts. there were at least 15 birds zooming in on me with their sharp peaks after the first attacked. luckily i didn't drop any. first time this has happened. usually i see it happen at darling harbour, not circular quay. when i came home, my mum's like "aren't you scared of getting bird flu?" that did not occur to me, i just hope australian birds are cleaner. well, i'm still feeling fine atm, so hopefully my food wasn't contaminated too much.

Masterchef Food and Dining Bar!

the entrance/dome isn't that grand, but the inside was heaps better than i imagined!

mise en place! they have a copy of the MC clock on the right, except it's not an exact replica.

in the top left corner, about 20 waiters were being given a pep talk. some chefs outside.

decor matched the dome feel (: view from the bar area.

i only watched people eat the $115+ four course meal. heaps of people just came into the dome to take photo then walked out.

bar menu, which is not on the website.

most expensive oyster i've ever eaten. second item on the menu-$5

i was so stupid. since the lighting there is really dim, like all high class places to create an ambience, i dug a bit into that white stuff which the oyster was placed on. woahhhhh, spat it out straight away. it was the saltiest of salt (still could feel the salt in my mouth after eating some desserts and macarons after dinner at night).  the use of the french champagne had a very interesting taste. you could still taste the oyster flavour, and the cavier gave some texture. i wouldn't say it was the best oyster ever, but definitely my most interesting oyster ever.

top-1st item on the menu, bottom-third item.

the buffalo thing was really soft/melt in your mouth. the braised beef was very tender as well since you could pull it apart with your fork. also, these were very small.

the forks weren't branded, but i guess there's no point having branded stuff for a pop-up restaurant. food took longer to come out than expected, since they were very small portions. also cocktails are 15bucks, but you can kinda make them yourselves, since i saw some people just reading off the bar menu and making them. obviously since my bday (when they first opened) they have yet to get used to the menu, 

these photos aren't worth fb/instagram, since the lighting was pretty bad inside. fyi, if you go to a hatted/high class restaurant, it's best not to go at dinner because 1. it's more expensive for the same amount of food 2. lighting is dim ie bad for taking good photos with a phone/snap and shoot camera. even a dslr with flash on food doesn't look that good. when i went Aria, i went for pre-theatre, same food as dinner but cheaper, and it was still light.

if you guys have time, it is definitely worth paying a visit and looking at the inside!

i have not done anything the whole week. must start studying soon.

Penne Alla Elisa

skipped chem lec today because i was super tired, skipped yday one for food =/

stupid field of vision eye test. it's quite tiring, and i have to get re-tested for a third time again. another hour of my life gone. i just keep clicking the button, must do it properly next time. it made me miss out on three places w/ free food, one of which had free food on ceramic plates-"high class"

visual illusions are so cool.

had dinner out at an italian restaurant, and a dish had my name!

the one on the left is called Penne Alla Elisa. and they actually pronounced it my way! it had prawns, avocado, pesto, garlic in a pink sauce w/penne pasta.

they now have a website, and you can order online. yay for 2nd free dinner this week since it was "work dinner" and my dad's boss paid. it's actually quite taxing on your body to eat out for dinner more than once a week. sometimes i'm glad i don't go out for weekly lunches/dinners since eating out continuously is sooo unhealthy.

Baroque Macarons

thanks sabina and ophelia! 

yay, baroque macarons, late birthday present, but as i always say, it's the thought that counts. this completes the three places of macarons i wanted to try the most (:

jasmine and white choc, pistachio and sour cherry, strawberry and poppy seed, rosewater and buttercream, passionfruit and milk choc, dark chocolate, salted caramel

strawberry-i would have liked more strawberry flavour. very subtle. poppy seeds were cute. the ganache inside was kind of transparent, but not like a jelly centre.

passionfruit-you could taste the passionfruit, but it wasn't as strong as zumbo's packet mix. the milk choc was surprisingly not sweet, just good quality milk choc.

pistachio-i love that purple glitter on top! just like a real pistachio, the outside skin is purple, then green, and when you bite into it it's yellow-ish. couldn't taste the sour cherry, and a quarter of one shell was hollow.

jasmine-subtle flavour again. you could taste the white choc. most disappointed with this since both shells were half hollow. this one wasn't evenly sandwich with ganache, so it toppled a bit inside the box.

rosewater-i think this was the best overall. good flavour, strong fragance. i think the butter cream was a bit heavy on the butter, but at least it had good flavour. 

salted caramel-really loved this flavour. not as salted as other places, but the caramel was good. this would've been my overall flavour if not a quarter of one shell wasn't hollow.

tbh, it was ok. the texture wasn't as nice as laduree, and the flavour is not intense enough, especially compared to zumbo's. sweetness and flavour intensity are two different things, something can be flavourful without being super sweet. for something so small, i like it to be more flavourful and perhaps a tad sweeter.

the most annoying thing is the box, especially compared to the other places. zumbo's 6 macarons fitted PERFECTLY (i actually accidently squished one whilst pulling the box out, even the box was a tight fit), laduree was also a good fit, not as tight so you could still pick one out of the box without trouble. the baroque 7 pack box is a bit awkward. there's this gap which you can fit only half a macaron if you squished the others, but not eight, so you could feel the macarons move a bit inside the box. the width of the box was also bigger than the macarons, and it was deeper, so taking nice photos was a bit trickier. i saw some bloggers post that they had macaron machines at baroque, hope that's not the case. each macaron did have perfect feet/height...

free tea came! just go oz bargain to find the link. i was a bit weary about putting in my address, but meh, free tea (: nek minnit it turns out my mum already bought two boxes of lipton pyramid tea...

went to Yummy Chinese BBQ for lunch with mum/cousin. it's normally 20bucks, but they did a promotion so now it's 12.80, and with the group on it was $10pp, so technically didn't save a lot. they said they were booked out on sat until sept, which is the end of the deal, but they probably only booked about 4 tables, and the other tables were for full priced customers. going to stay away from group on booking things for a long time. also, that's one of the main reasons i refuse to buy hatted restaurants group on because 1. it's going to be super hard to book a good time (ie weekends) 2. quality is going to be a bit worse 3. portions will be smaller (and hatted restaurants already have smaller portions)

i don't recommend this place. not all the food was hot enough, some skewers were luke warm, until half way through the guy put more effort in and they came out hot. it's supposed to be diy bbq, but since we went on a weekday, they did it. some chilli dishes i couldn't have. i ate sooo much though. over 12 skewers, and heaps of other stuff. their ice cream was horrible, so was their cake. actually, hardly anything was good, but it was cheap and filling, and i didn't even eat dinner/supper at PLUS (youth group) at night. i now fully understand why my dad hates buffets. what is the point of "abusing/stuffing" your body with so much food at one time? it doesn't feel good physically/mentally. unless you go high class buffets, which i've only been to about two in hk. feeling so unhealthy, since i went out to eat last night.

Cupcakes On Pitt

thanks so much Iced Trees for the surprise cupcakes! really made my day (:

milk chocolate, more chocolate, strawberry and chocolate, vanilla and chocolate.

according to their website, this one is the most popular, but according to their prizes, the lemon and meringue one is.

never had these before, i guess i just can't afford to buy these cute little things. they were a bit crumbly, but i have to commend that they weren't just full of sugar! which is really exciting since a lot of buttercream/icing these days is just sugar overload. too much sugar destroys the actual taste of the flavoured icing. the chocolate cupcake also wasn't too sweet! it looks sweet, but it's actually a nice sweetness. yes, the whole thing is buttery, but it's nice (: how do they make such nice flat top cupcakes to pipe on...? also, i love the edible silver dragees (: edible anything glittery is also good =D satisfied my disappointment of last week's tea cakes.

wow, those phys lab people are soo strict. telling people off for not centering an elastic band when packing up, and having not a tightly wound string. luckily we didn't get told off, haha. sucks no 10 this week, but it was the cart on inclined plane which everyone including lecturers said it was hard. meh, wrote random stuff, got a decent mark.

went out for dinner today. I KNOW RIGHT, ON A TUESDAY NIGHT! dad's work has a client, so we took him out for chinese. everything has gotten smaller/worse quality. we went to the one opposite our church, which has been popular over the years. the peking duck pancake/wrap things were sooooo small, you couldn't even wrap it/fold it in half. their table cloths are plastic, with this other plastic layer on top. so cheap. feels cheap as well. you know how sometimes chinese restaurants do those fancy napkin things? well they just give out normal serviettes now. i guess they're just cutting down the cost. the beef that we had was melt in the mouth, but apart from that, everything was worse than i remembered, but hey, free dinner out, can't complain.

my dad said i could take his boss's new car out for a test drive which his boss just bought on sat. i would have loved to! i just came back after dance and showered ): too bad he only gets a day with the new car. i have yet to be the first driver of a brand new car (it's actually impossible to, since whenever you buy a new car, someone had to drive it a bit to fill it up, so they probs have to drive at least a few hundred metres). did not realise that cars these days have no actual hand brakes, but "pedal hand breaks" coool.

if you thought today was cold, then your weak. i admit today's one of the colder days, but i was fine wearing a singlet top and a "jacket" which only came to above my elbows. all i'm thinking is how will i survive summer. i took out one of my thicker jackets once, but only worn it once. then there's at least 3 really nice and thick coats still in my wardrobe, but never worn, since max temp has still not been under 15 this winter (well the days i check the weather/need to go out). walking around uni keep me warm (:

really have done nothing tonight and yday night. i don't know what to do. well i do have stuff, i just don't know how to do that stuff. just sitting and waiting for answers since i'm trying but going nowhere.

today's been a sad day. well it's just the little things that go wrong which makes you ):

yesterday my cousin went to get balloons for the engagement shoot. so expensive, but soooo big.

round balloons are the best. didn't take of photo with them though.

the oval ones weren't as big which they bought from hk, they got it filled but then changed their mind, and bought the circle ones. 

don't normally take selfies...only got less than a quarter of the balloon in. it was THAT massive.

ok, onto the ): parts of the day.

woke up late. was supposed to take bro to the bus stop since my parents were going to leave early to drive them around for their photo shoot. didn't end up driving my bro, had to trouble my parents.

then since i was late anyways, i decided to get free maccas. the person gave out the mcmuffins to people who recently came, not people who ordered first, so i was pushed back behind 3 other people ):

then when i held it in my hand, it felt super light.

sausage and egg McMuffin. NO EGG!!! it was sooooo thin. i remember last time the patty thing inside was quite thick, so was the bun and the egg. this thing i'm holding is only about 2cm. last time they were about 4/5cm thickness. well, i guess it's free, but stilllll... i was craving egg and decided that i'll make a nicely poached egg for dinner. turns out my sandwich was jam packed with deliciousness and it had an egg in it as well, so my egg craving in the morning was satisfied (thanks mum!)

got so lost in optics and missed copying a diagram. then i drew this other diagram too small to see what was going on, and i already coloured some lines, so i couldn't re-do it ):

had dissection today. wasn't that great tbh. i sneaked in to the earlier lab, but i arrived late, so it was quite obvious i wasn't supposed to be there since it was 3 people per eye. so i didn't get as much "hands on" experience.

friend took this pic. it's a bull's eye. the inside is soo colourful, but humans don't have it since we don't need to allow so much light into our eyes, unlike cows who put there head down all day and it's "darker" than normal.

also, i feel so sorry for my cousin. my mum was holding the round circular balloon at central (since they wanted to take some pics at central station as hk MTR's are completely different to sydney's old train stations), and a freakin bogan comes up with a glass cup and pops the balloon. a balloon cost about $30 and they still didn't start taking photos with it yet! so my parents chased that dude, but he ran off, then my parents caught up to tell them off and were going to "report him to the police". well, my cousins photoshoot was on a tight schedule since they had to go to woollongong as well. to the lawyers out there, can you even file a complaint of damage of property? and since it's filled with helium, it made a super loud sound, and i guess if i had time/was there, i would complain that shock triggered/harmed some other medical conditions.

in MC, they showed the A2 milk to expire at 17 July. so we're at least a 1.5 months behind in reality (since A2 milk lasts long. no, woolies' macro milk can last for over a month. that one is the longest).

i recently discovered the UNSW free food facebook group. you know what? i'm kind of over free cheap, quality food. walked pass free fairy bread/cordial last week, and didn't bother with free tea/coffee this week. these days, when i have a free bbq, i cringe at the sugar/salt/energy loaded unhealthy white bread that comes with the sausage. i think it's also from today's free mcmuffin that i'm starting to lose interest in cheap quality free food.

group on had the $2 mothers crepes again, but it sold out in about a day. they have less flavours this time round, like no green tea/VB. i wonder if i use my voucher which were the first lot w/ a larger selection of flavour if they'll give it to me...i guess it doesn't really matter since i've tried the green tea already.

coming home, all these tute stuff which i try to attempt, but i can't do it. so i spend my night staring at it ): argh, phys, don't feel like i'm learning anything from the lecturer.

i remembered i had a dance lesson this morning! actually, i woke up 5mins before it started, so madly ate something and dashed out of the house. last week i missed out on half the dance, so i'll only be in it for half of it, oh wells, i guess less stress on my brain to memorise more things lol. the top for our new dance costume is from the shops, but it's pretty cool. something i wouldn't normally wear going out since it's a crop top, but i guess going to parties etc would be perfect.

everyoneee is getting married. my ex-youth leader got married today. she left our church about two years ago, since she broke up with another guy in church (going to do a post about people dating..lol, i have no experience), but long story short, she started dating again, and in less than two years she's married.

i think i have some idea on what i would like for my wedding after being to quite a lot now, and seeing so many people's wedding photos. you can easily see what you like/don't like. personally, i don't like pearls, beads, glittery stuff for wedding dresses. i don't like bling, but if you have nice crystals in small amounts and if it works with the dress then it looks good. i don't like lace, but wedding lace is a different story. i love wedding trains!

more and more young people are going away from the traditional asian dinner reception. i love my western food (: and now there are more babies/kids. one minute your someone's bridemaids, then you switch places and your the bride, nek minnit your kids are besties.

these marriage thoughts are also influenced by my cousin who's here for their engagement shoot. lol, thinking to far into the future.

The Gardener's Lodge Cafe

bought a deal from Group On since i wanted to try some "Aboriginal Flavours". it said it was high tea, but even reading the description i knew it wouldn't be like normal high tea.

this is the most disappointing group on deal that i've bought, so i'm not going to go into detail on the food. going to stay away from "booking" deals, and stick with the good old $10 and less no need to book deals with super good and nice food.

mocha.

normal cafes can do cafe art with mocha, but this was just lazily sprinkled with chocolate powder. it was alright, but parts of the coffee had come dark choc bits, not sure if that was on purpose.

next came the pancakes which i didn't take a pic with my phone. sooo small, about the diameter of the coffee. the berries were quite different but nice, and the macadamia honey wasn't too sweet.

"high tea"

this wasn't what the deal actually included, but i think the chefs thought we used a deal from another company. we were supposed to choose our own cakes, but we just got tea cakes, which i dout they made themselves/ also we weren't supposed to have those lamb skewers. they were a bit tough and chewy ): the salad had way too much vinegar dressing, the cheese tarts' pastry was a bit crumbly, the salmon wrap was ok.

the best thing was the chai tea. it was filled with heaps of spices. don't know what brand it was. this tea w/ milk wasn't just sugar and cinnamon, it was fully spiced up (: however the teapot was small and you could only get less than 2 cups of tea out of it. would have asked for a refill, but i bet that guy would've said no after i "argued" with him that we got the wrong deal, and he gave us three extra wraps.

first dry chem lab today. i love standing next to smart people, haha.

"Being a Vision Scientist"

also another part of my course. 5th years need to do a research project and they need participants, so they make it compulsory for first years in order to pass the course. for future references, you are all welcome to be my future guinea pigs patients.

this research thing was super quick, they just used some machines to measure some stuff. forgot what they're purpose was, luckily i got a consent form so when it comes to writing about it, i'll be able to make up something. you can tell they're 5th years since they know what night contacts are ie ortho k. yday when i said i wore night contact lenses, the person asked her supervisor "but we haven't learnt about ortho k yet, how do i measure/account for x,y and z?" well, i guess they save the hard stuff to last, so whatever goes on in my eyes at night must be quite technical (if you knew nothing about optom, even hearing "night contact lenses" people always do a "double take")

today's lecturer for visn was sooo interesting! ok, to distinguish between my 2 visn courses, i'll call this visn where we do anatomy etc, and the other visn i'll call optics (which is its technical name, but on the timetable its visn). the asian guy doesn't have a hint of an asian accent, and his slides were filled with heaps of illusions/interesting stuff. and he told people that you should become an academic so you can travel everywhere for free. he's been to paris at least 5 times already.

the 2nd lecturer was really good as well! well we were supposed to have this other woman but she got bitten by a spider earlier that morning, so we just had a lecturer going over briefly what they do in clinic. again so interesting! saw some gruesome pictures, but hey, i don't mind gore etc.

cousin came to syd today! hellooo new make-up. i guess it can be a late bday present since my parents paid them back, and make-up these days ain't cheap (unless you buy the cheap stuff with possibly deadly chemicals). i don't need top notch stuff, but i still need good quality stuff which doesn't harm the skin as much/feels, looks and is more natural.

cousin came with gf from hk to take wedding photos, since they met in aus, and studied together for a while, and that girl also came from hk to aus to study. i can't believe they bothered to fly here just to take wedding photos. i'm pretty sure china can have stuff cheaper/photoshop, but then again, i guess you can't capture the nature beauty of aus with photoshop.

"Being a Clinic Patient"

as part of one of my visn courses, we have to get our eyes tested by 4th/5th years. 4th years take 3 hours, 5th years take 2, but my timetable only fitted in with the longer sesh. they make it compulsory to first years or else you can't pass the course, since they need more guinea pigs to play with (to do a proper eye examination).

we also have to write about our experience, so i'll blog about it, and when the time comes, i'll come back here to see what i thought about it while i still remember.

i think i was a bad patient. couldn't decide which one was clear, pretended i couldn't read the small letters. maybe her results may have not been as accurate. i was so scared she was going to slip and stab my eye or something. 

the whole test took sooooo long. they did everything. usually when you go for c check-up its about 30mins, but this one has other stuff they don't normally test. they dilated our pupils to see the back of our eye. so after i became long sighted and had to hold my phone out like an old person to read the text, and my eyes were so sensitive to sunlight, esp when the sun was setting.

you can tell she was a 4th year since she still needed to refer to charts on the wall. 

when her supervisor came in to check her measurements, actually got similar results. 

have to get re-tested for this periphery thing since my eyes were dilating and couldn't focus properly, another hour of my life gone ):

she did vision science, but managed to transfer into optom, and not fail a single subject. her year started with 120 people, now in 4th year, they have 55 people. also diseases is apparently the hardest subject as they pack everything into you. even more than anatomy-not sure how that works. all the 4th/5th years all look so professional. 

clinic seems super fun, getting to "play" with so much equipment. that being said, i was chatting to her, and she said on she has an 8am-10pm day with 1 hour break, 8am-9pm day with 1 hour break, and still uni on the other three days, and also they mark the roll so you can't skip those other days, even if they're "short" 5 hour days. what do they do until 10pm!? there aren't even any buses back. lel. (probs are, but i may as well find a comfy spot at uni to sleep). dayummmm, Happy Apple, teach me your ways of waking up early! haha

19. Birthday Free Food Haul (Elisa's Guide to Free Birthday Food)

19. i can't believe it's been a year already! today's date somewhat has a pattern (: i don't like the number 19. it's prime and ugly, 17 sounds and looks better, but 19 is =/ doesn't feel like it's my birthday. from primary to high school, i used to be like, guess what!? it's my birthday in two weeks! and then remind people. now i think i'm at the stage where i'm like meh, not as excited as i used to be/don't want people to know how old i am. i bet my face can still pass as a 14yo.

it's mostly because i didn't have a party that it felt like it was my birthday. it kind of feels good not organising any parties, although i would love one, i don't have the moneys. i have to pay for some of my 21st if i have one. then again, i would rather not have any parties and save it all for my wedding. yes, i'd rather go all out on my wedding than have a few parties here and there.

before uni, there wasn't a lot of chances to go to the city, but since uni started, i go city everyday. i figured this year is the year to go after free food, since next year uni will be super busy (more on this later). such nice sunny weather today (: i've always loved august (totes no bias here lol) since it starts to get warm, not a lot of rain, and not too hot (:

Lowenbrau Keller

first time having a proper German meal. originally we were only going to share a free meal, but that seemed to cheap, so we got two plates. everyone ordered a massive pork knuckle (signature dish), but the crumbed skin of the pork knuckle would make my face even worse...lol.

this place is a must to go on your birthday! just make sure you book. the restaurant is massive inside. you can choose any single plate on the menu.

top: lunch special of haus-made sausage, mash potato, some special onion with some sauce-$14.50. bottom: Original Zwiebelrostbraten, Char-Grilled 300g Sirloin Steak with Cheese Spätzle, Apple Onion Confit & Red Wine Glaze

being asian, i tried to maximise my free meal, so i got the steak. it's $35 (on the website it says $38). i asked for medium, but the sides were a bit chewy. the apple things on top was quite interesting, so was the floury things. it reminded me of gnocchi, but more flavourless, so you needed to have some sauce with it. this flour was a bit dense-ish, but it was nice in its own way. i didn't actually hear the proper name for the lunch special, but for 14.50, that wasn't too bad. the sausage was sooo good! meaty, not overly flavoured, didn't feel like there was a skin on it, big, no fattening/oily feeling. no wonder why during aroma festival, hordes of people lined up to get a super duper long hot dog for $10. the mash here was pretty nice, onions had this sourness to it, and the sauce was good. i've had a lot of sausages from various butchers before (still have yet to go snag and stand), but this one is one of the best!

coffee was 3.50 and was decent (i had a chai for 3.50 at uni earlier, and it hardly had any spices and the cinnamon was just spooned on top of the milk-disappointed). btw, hot water here cost $1.50 (also at uni in that cafe i went to, hot water was 1.00. ridiculous).

walked past the Masterchef pop-up restaurant. literally pop up as it was a tent/marquee. probs heaps fancy inside. kinda like our exam centres, where it's actually nice inside. the place around the site smelt of fertiliser/sewage, i walked past at around 4-ish, and today is the opening night, so no idea how they would get rid of the smell on time. their bar wasn't opened yet, so couldn't see what the bar menu was ): no time to trek to the rocks again.

walked to darling harbour since free shuttle bus ended at 3.30. i guess that makes sense since if i was a paying customer, i would be so angry at those free shuttle buses causing even more congestion during school zone/peak hour. anyways, we were super full, so a good half hour walk was pretty good.

San Churros

person was nice and said she didn't have to check ID. she didn't even look at my voucher properly. i made two emails, so got two vouchers, so i could have gone the day before/after my bday.

churros for two: 6 churros w/ dark and milk chocolate dipping sauce-$15

dark was soo much better than milk. looking at other tables, most people finished more of their dark than milk. the dark choc had a more intense/not as sweet flavour, and a richer smell.

was looking forward to this since i've never had them before. tbh, they weren't that great. the centre of the churro was still a bit doughy, yet at the same time, the whole churro itself didn't have enough dough and was skinny. it didn't have the lightness of what a churro should be. maybe it's because it was free so they didn't cook it properly...MOVIE WORLD CHURROS ARE THE BEST! no jokes.

Baskin Robbins

 now this was a "waste of stomach space". you see. by now i'm quite full and full of sugar, but i signed up to the club. i've never seen a non-asian run baskin robbins before (if you do, please tell me). that asian lady didn't even care about customers. what if we were paying customers? would you still continue to look at your phone and ignore people who want to be served? sooooo stingy these people, even more than towers. when i tried the red velvet, the man only gave me a tiny bit ie a speck of rice. how do i frikken taste it? all i tasted was plastic. then i showed my voucher and id to the woman. she fully stared at the voucher and my licence, sructinising every single detail up close. literally. she put the paper close to her eyes, then scratched her head (which is super unhygenic, esp when you're serving food WITHOUT gloves). i felt like she memorised everything on my licence. after about a full 5min, she says "you can only choose the flavours was the spoon" ie the crap flavours. i didn't want anything chocolate/caramel after the churros. 

Candy Stripes.

i got candy stripes which was orange and white choc mousse. sooo flavourless. it was served in the smallest, cheapest soft serve cone, even maccas cones are better. the scoop of ice cream was the smallest scoop of ice cream ever! seriously, not worth your time going to the Harbourside one. such stingy people. and they were the only people who didn't say "Happy birthday". every other place said it at least once. their attitude is horrible. never ever going to this one again. no idea what this is worth, i think it's worthless because even for kids cones, they don't serve ice cream in it, only soft serve ice cream. i didn't bother to argue with them to get a waffle cone, after the first contact i made with them for the tasting, i just wanted to leave baskin robbins.

Boost

my all time favourite place to go! i love boost. just join their vibe club. boost has really good members discounts time to time, and you really do feel good after drinking it!

Skinny Dip-$6.40 (or 6.90, there was only a sign of this flavour, but no actual price). it had apple juice, strawberry sorbet, yogurt, raspberry, banana, and probably heaps of other stuff.

the guy was so nice, he's like "don't worry, you'll definitely get an original". the one in harbourside opened recently, and so far, they're the only store to still other 3 sizes, other places only have medium and original. he was also very generous with the sorbet, i counted 4 scoops. normally i think it's 2/3. so refreshing and a ncie way to finish all that food. (i actually didn't finish the boost, splitted it with my mum). not enough time to see if i could get a free boost at other stores, but i don't think i can since their card is electronic.

Nando's

never have a bought Nando's full price. what's good about this is that you can get a member club without purchasing anything (unlike sumo salad). got takeaway since it was getting late/i needed to go dance. they let you have a "birthday meal"-how generous of them! you can choose any regular item, any side and and drink. too much choice!

lemon and herb half chicken, peri peri chips and tropical juice-$17.45

i think this chicken wasn't as freshly grilled compared to my last experience. they probably half cooked it, then grilled it more to make it warm when someone ordered it, since we only waited 5min, and last time at towers it was a 10-15min wait (according to my mum). i guess it makes sense since you need to serve heaps of people quickly in the city. chicken was quite burnt on the other side. the peri peri chips actually weren't spicy (maybe they didn't put enough spice in it).

Subway

got this the day before since i knew i would be too full today.

6-inch steak and cheese sub ($7.20) and coke (no idea how much bottled coke costs these days).

the unsw doens't participate in these deals/offers, so i had to walk outside. this wasn't toasted/warm enough and i think this 6-inch was more like 5 inch. oh wells, free lunch, can't complain. also, my bro came home with a $5 meatball subway w/ drink. it was supposed to be 6-inches, but the guy misheard, and gave him a footlong but he let my bro still pay $5.

birthday cake from zest patisserie-tiramisu.

this was a mousse and sponge cake, with super cute chocolate coffee mousse cups on top. it's not made on site, it's made in the other franchise in rozelle, but they deliver cakes to cherrybrook at around 6am in the morning. i've had over 10 cakes from here, so i've basically tried everything i've wanted. this tiramisu cake was good, except it wasn't as nice as the other cake there. i think the sponge may have been soaked in too much liquer, and i don't think our fridge is cold enough since the mousse isn't firm enough. this was a medium sized cake (didn't need a big one unlike pervious years), and i couldn't fit all 19 candles without all the candle conjoining together, BUT I LOVE MY CANDLES, so we lit 13, then blew them, then lit 6, then blew them. #firstworldproblems.

all in all, over $80 worth of free food. probably will do some place again next year, but other places are a no-go. i had at least 2 other places to go to, but not enough time.

my present of food has been satisfied. didn't have a proper birthday dinner since i was sooo full. what i really want for my birthday is one of those "money can't buy" things. ...

thank you Dandelion for the cake. it was good, and it survived in one piece after i walked around for the whole day!  as always, it's the thought that counts (:

Laduree Macarons

thank you so much my fellow optom friend Shirley! what a lovely surprise!

i know getting food for your birthday is only temporary, but i love my food (: i've walked by countless times, looking at their products/people buying/eating it, because i couldn't bring myself up to buying something so expensive. now i have finally had these most famous in France/branded $3.30+ macarons! these survived after taking them around uni and around the city! so happy not one of them broke when i was holding them for over 5 hours (:

box of 6. from what i tasted i received: raspberry, pistachio, salted caramel, praline, chocolate, coconut

praline: quite a nuttiful flavour. i think i tasted peanut butter flavour in it as well. 

coconut: strong coconut flavour, but not like artificial coconut in confectionary.

salted caramel: wasn't salted enough (compared to zumbo's salted caramel packet mix). it was quite sweet since the caramel was strong, more salt would have been a better balance.

raspberry: i think this flavour came out the clearest. it had a jelly like centre and raspberry seeds.

chocolate: the ganache wasn't your traditional butter/creamish ganache. it felt more like a truffle texture and a nice chocolate hit, but not overly sweet at the same time.

pistachio: i think this was one of the sweetest. the pistachio flavour was a bit subtle, but the green colour on the inside was so pretty!

in terms of texture, i have to say it was better than zumbo's. i was surprised since they have been imported and flown from Switzerland, but they still maintained their crisp of the macaron shell, and slightly chewy inside (i ate one3 days later and it was still perfect). that initial crunch was good (: even in their display, not all of the macarons are perfect. some of mine in the box varied in diameter, and some didn't have a perfect feet, but i guess the texture made up for it. 

i guess i like zumbo's better since they're fatter and have more exotic flavours. i think zumbo is more suited for "young" people, whilst ladueree is for more "posh" people who like their traditional flavours. although i would like to try their purple flavoured marshmallow one...

i love to collect things, and this bag and box is a defs must keep. ahhh, those colours are sooooo pretty and complement each other. both colours have a nice light shade and they're so elegant! love purple <3

if i ever go to france, i do plan on going to all the most famous places (and it's cheaper there as well).

my mum actually wanted to do city2surf this year, but i told her, do you really want to pay $80 to walk 14km? but now i kind of want to do it next year (well walk about 90% of it. hehe, this reminds me of x country). i think it's one of those items on a bucket lists, like duke of ed. i've never walked more than 5km at one time. i guess doing it during uni will be better than trying it out after uni where you'll start to work and be even more unifit. i guess our stairs help to keep people somewhat fit if you don't do any other sports.

looool, if you didn't know, today a part of the roof on our library fell off, so they suspended classes near the library. i snuck into the earlier tute today and was all yolo if they marked the roll. they ended up passing the role around, and since i'm in the later group, my name was at the back, i still signed it, but if the tutors checked the role immediately after, then my name is the only name signed on that page and it would look dodgy. boringest tute ever! learning about ethics in research, blurgh. if i didn't sneak in, then i would've had a 4 hour break, and i'd rather skip a tute than wait four hours.

my bible study group this sem is half filled with 2nd year optoms. i always end up with 2/3 other optoms in my study. i have a leader who has almost the same name as me. there's more people in this group. oh, there's this girl in my bible study who'd already engaged! studying, but engaged. only 3rd or fourth year. so young and quick...my last sem bible study was all first years, this time i'm the only first year.

bro had his trial today. he does accelerated geo, and after his exam, his went with his friends to go have a "cry" ie eat food. he says hardly anyone gets band 6, but that contradicts the whole purpose of an accelerated class! you're supposed to do well, and personally i don't think geo scales well, so i don't understand how most of those guys don't get band 6.

hillsbuses have  real time now!!! and they updated the timetables by minimising the m2 traffic it used to face, so most bus rides which used to take 60min during peak hour take less than 50min (: sah good. i don't think real time is that necessary for the buses i catch to the city. they're always on time/have heaps during peak hour so it's not necessary to look at tripview. anyway,s half the time, state transit buses real time isn't very accurate.

my multi ticket acting up. when you dip it into state transit buses it's supposed to print the date, but the one i have today, it didn't print anything onto the card =/

free orange juice from maccas today (: it costs over $3.

i guess it's not a big surprise that MC is going to dubai this week, since qantas recently partnered with emirates, so i guess they have more sponsorship things when they go dubai. when you say tourist place, i think of dubai, with all their man made islands and tallest buildings and super unique hotels. since i don't have time to watch the whole ep online after dance, i just skipped to the end, and hey, the judges aren't sharing a plate this time when they taste! yum...top quality restaurant foooood....

nooooooo, they related all the foods on the MC Dine and Bar menu back to the dishes shown before...now i really want some. they changed the names of the menu and it sounds so much more appealing than before (even though there's still choc w/ vegemite to finish...)