The Grounds of Alexandria Take 2

my mum said that when my grandparents would came over we would take them here. i said i'll go when they open up their new venue, but this place is just too good to not go again. i don't normally "repeat" places i go to eat, but this is an exception. i still have to come here for breakfast one time, or on a market day.

there wasn't as much "vibe" today. maybe because it's a thursday and the lemonade stand doesn't open. well, it kinda does but they don't display it as nice as they normally would on a friday/weekend. we went there at around 2.30 with only 10mins to order. still had to wait around 10mins for a table, but we got this massive round table we could easily first 10 even though we had 5 people. the smaller tables were still occupied. the positive was that we missed the crazy parking. there was a street spot right outside. i didn't bother going into the car park. 

                                   

The Potting Shed. they had some award function in there today. not open to the public yet.

apple, pear and mint juice-$7.50 

it was so hot today, so i avoided ordering coffee. ordered this juice that my mum had last time. refreshing as always (: i still have yet to try the takeaway mango smoothie. last time i was full since i already had two drinks so taking it away was pointless. this time i was full from last night, and not really hungry so one drink is enough.

regular cap-$3.30

clockwise: The Grounds Schnitty-$18, Blistered Tomato Salad-$17, Salmon Salad-$17, Lamb Shank-$19, and of course chips w/ chilli mayo and salt-$6

the plan was to order stuff which mum and i didn't have last time. the schnitzel actually felt healthy, it wasn't downed in a lot of oil and it was a good solid piece of chicken breast. not dry and over cooked, and the crumb wasn't burnt either. heaps of aioli, and i loved the little currants in the salad.

the tomato salad was ordered since it was new and it's vegetarian. it has witlof, roman beans, buffalo mozzarella and green olives. the salad kind of tasted like shallots, but it was very refreshing and again tasted very healthy. lots of olive oil, but that's healthy stuff. 

the salmon salad is new on the menu as well, but this was the most disappointing dish i've had so far at the grounds. it was just some 3 pieces of cured salmon, cucumber, beetroot w/ dill, creme fresh and crosstini. should've ordered the NZ kind salmon for $2 more. couldn't really taste anything special with the salmon. i still prefer smoked salmon in salads.

the lamb shanks were to die for. beautifully braised and fell off the bone like it should. i normally don't order lamb shanks at cafes, but i think this one is really worth it. massive serving, with heaps of rice which was cooked quite nicely (usually white people rice is very hard) and the spices and herbs just lifted the dish, and it wasn't spicy (the menu said "Middle Eastern" infused stuff). don't normally have greek yogurt with rice, but this is surprisingly nice in this dish. salad was nice and herby (like the herb salad yday, but yday one was better).

mixed berry tart-$6.50, apple toffee tart-$6.00

nooo, they didn't have the creme brûlée tart. i don't think they made it today, but hopefully they continue making it like they do with their strawberry tarts. quite a lot of new tarts compared to last year. i love berries, so when i saw that i thought why not? the berries are slightly sour, but the tart is coated with a think layer of chocolate inside so it was really nice to eat. for my grandma who has a massive sweet tooth, this was way too sour for her. the 

3 for $5-mango and coconut muffin, blueberry pastry, frangipani sugar coated bread/bun thing.

my cousin was right (again). at the end of the day, they have "specials" since they want to get rid of their baked goods/pastries as they won't be fresh to sell the next morning. these baked goods aren't the most hygienic since they've been outside and possible a flea or two may have landed on them, but who can resist a good bargain? i think they're normally at least $5 each, so 3 for $5 is cheap! 

i'm not going to lie, but these baked goods are no where near healthy. we ran out of mangoes at home, but yay that the muffin had mangoes in it! the muffin is very buttery and big. the pastry with blueberries had a good "crunch" outside, but inside was very buttery and soft, and not toow sweet either. i'm not even sure what the third baked thing is, the guy just said frangipani and i missed out the last part. this one i think is the most butteriest, even though it was the whitest (if that makes sense). it smelt good though. 

started on 11% battery since i forgot to charge my phone last night., and it lasted long enough to make phone calls, snapchat and take photos from until i got home. (i did turn of 3g, location services etc when i didn't need them). slept in so didn't have time to charge it, and then went to my local GP, turns out he closed because CNY, then went cherrybrook shops and went to the doctor there who i think personally took more time than necessary. also, turns out the in car system doesn't have a usb port. it's times like these i want a car charger for my phone, but not bad my dear iPhone battery.

glass brasserie

most of last week my dad went on a business trip even though my grandparents are here, so long story short, his boss felt bad and decided to pay for dinner within a certain budget (without him being there). so i thought-why not go to a hatted restaurant?! i have a thing with hatted restaurants, hotel restaurants and celebrity chefs.

glass brasserie at the Hilton Hotel is Luke Mangan's restaurant, the guy who does Virgin Australia airplane/lounge food (btw, i love airplane food). i think this was a super good choice for us. not too over priced compared to other restaurants at this level, lots of variety in terms of food and good location.

first things first, the service was amazing. when we got there the waiter asked if we wanted sparkling or still water. i accidentally said still since he didn't give the option of tap water! so once he came he started poring water from bottles i.e. i knew immediately it would cost a few dollars per bottle. so my mum asked if it costed money and pretended we didn't know much about fine dining, like not many people go out with their parents and kids on a thursday night. so after he poured out 2 bottles, he just said he wouldn't charge for them. also, my grandma is vegetarian and my grandfather only eats soft stuff and only certain types of protein, and they both hardly eat much, so there wasn't any point in getting a dish each-and it's not cheap either. so we asked the french waiter if it's ok to share. like seriously, who normally shares at high class/non asian restaurants? but the guy was like after a pause "it would be a bit awkward to eat, but it should be ok". that's the difference between one hats and two hats like places at Aria, they definitely won't allow you to share, you can feel the vibe (as well as dress codes are stricter higher up). and he gave new plates to us after entree, main, second main and dessert (even though there wasn't any need). 24 extra plates for the dishwasher, normally you just have one plate for each course. there would be another person or two coming with the food, and our main waiter would kind of have to explain that we are sharing. oh, also hot water (for grandparents)-no charge. it came in a cute teapot as well. i've found places at the rocks charge for hot water at restaurants/cafes etc, i have yet to be proven wrong...

ok, on to the food (which is worth uploading from my camera, which i'm usually can't be bothered since it takes forever to upload onto blogger).

each night they would have some sort of special (not in terms of price, but the dishes they make)

13m high ceiling. felt quite grand yet modern (:

wall of wine. their wine book is 44 pages. when we finished ordering, the waiter had to ask if we would like to order wine even though we were two "kids" and had 2 elderly people. then again, they earn so much on wine. i only saw two other tables with kids (as in primary). the rest were mostly business people having drinks. there were also just people eating by themselves.

the ceiling

i wanted a table by the window, but they could only fit max 5, and definitely no space to share. they have round tables as well which was good for us since they were so big and good for sharing. if we got a normal table for 6, then there wouldn't be enough room to share food, if that makes sense...

fruit bread and white bread. yum (: they took away our second bowl to make room for the entrees, but being asian, we asked for it back.

the entrees came so fast! good to see they have efficient mis en place with everything coming at the same time. only waited about 10-15min.

Signature dish-Organic egg omelette of blue swimmer crab meat, enoki mushroom & herb salad, miso mustard broth 29

the most expensive egg i've had so far, but it was just so yum. you'd think it's weird to have soupy egg, but the miso broth just complemented to crab inside so nicely. the herby salad was definitely herby. i'm normally not an omelette fan since i think they're rip off, but even though this dish was expensive, it was worth it.

 Tea smoked quail, almond cream, prunes, grains, grilled shallot, woodland sorrel 29

 i couldn't get a decent picture of the quail since my brother was complaining about how hungry he was and a waste of time coming to the city for dinner and he had a lot of "work" to do (did not see hims study at all during the holidays), and the quail was too far across the table for me to take a proper photo...this quail smelt so good and it was pink inside! nice and tender, nothing like the fully cooked/overcooked ones i have at home. i don't like prunes, and my brother definitely hates them, but the combination of blended up prunes with grains and herbs tasted so good! kind of reminded me of a sweet mustard, but heaps better. i still think the plate is way to big for those few pieces of quail, but that's the thing with most places like these-massive plate, small servings.

 Crisp zucchini flower with goat’s cheese, corn, preserved lemon, salsa verde 8

my first ever zucchini flower! part of the "tapas" menu. i always see on masterchef how people delicately pipe stuff into them. the goats cheese inside just melted in your mouth, and was balanced well with the sweetness from the corn. couldn't really taste the lemon, but i didn't mind. it was deep fried in a way that it wasn't oily (:

 Pumpkin ravioli, parsley cream, Roquefort, walnuts, sage & fig balsamic, burnt butter 27

i'm not a big fan of pumpkin, but the sweetness of the pumpkin ravioli balanced the rest of the dish so well and cooked so well. the green-pasto like stuff was to die for, i mopped of the rest with my bread (: and yay for croutons. the burnt butter definitely didn't feel fattening/heavy (even though it is fattening).

Waterslide-Muddled watermelon and strawberries, shaken with apple & cranberry juice and topped with ginger beer 10

my bro and i got one each. i could make this at home, but why not try it outside? so glad it only had a little bit of sweetness and refreshing.

mains came out shortly after we finished entrees. ah, i love the timing of food at restaurants like these (: 

Signature dish-Pan fried potato gnocchi, corn, asparagus, zucchini, Parmesan, lemon thyme 37

this was definitely the most appropriate dish for my grandparents- it's vegetarian and it's soft. i have to say, this is probably the best gnocchi i've had so far. the cheese isn't too over powering, and the gnocchi is still quite light and good balance on the potato and flour. i also like edible flowers (: this dish smelt so good. 

 Confit then roasted duck, spinach, grilled mango & fennel, marsala sauce 47

 i think this was the most average dish. ordered this because i love my duck. the duck was cooked beautifully pink, but i think the mangos were way too sweet and overpowered the dish. luckily we were sharing it or else i would have to drink lots of water to finish the big serving of grilled mango.

Mains to share-Meat for two 140

the meat is pink! ceebs typing again what this came with. was thinking or ordering a 250g angus steak, but i've already had some really good angus melt-in-your-mouth steak before, so it was interesting to see how they cooked a cheaper cut of meat. it came with 2 sauces, salad, and garlic mushrooms. only four of us ate this, but we were so full. i would have loved to just eat the sauces on its own since they were that good-not overly salty and still flavourful, but i was just so full. the mushrooms were way too overly seasoned. even my grandma said they were salty. after a few small spoons, i couldn't have anymore. the beef was nice, not chewy. there were little bacon pieces in there which were salty (i guess that's normal for bacon), but they added some nice crunch. 

also ordered a side of truffled mash 13 and rocket, pair, blue cheese, walnut salad entree size 15

the mash smelt and tasted so good with the truffle oil, but there side wasn't as big as aria's if i remember correctly, which didn't really matter since we couldn't finish it. the mash wasn't overly buttery either. the rocket salad was good, but i thought there wasn't enough cheese. i guess it's because blue cheese is quite strong and if you had a lot, it wouldn't feel as refreshing.

restaurant was quite full for a thursday night. i'd say over 80% full. still heaps of seating behind our table and on the other side of the wine glass wall. there were some tables around us who had people leave and different people come. 

dessert was a slightly longer wait since i wanted to have soufflé. they said it was 20mins, but it didn't really feel like it. they prepare the soufflé outside where there are 2 chefs who plate dessert. so full, but always room for dessert!

it's baking! every time a soufflé is ordered, a chef would just stand by the oven door since it's usually seconds before you overcook a soufflé and it flops.

 Toffee soufflé with pecan butter ice-cream 22

i've had fondant souffles, frozen souffles, cake soufflés, eggy soufflés, but i've feel like i've waited my whole like for a proper soufflé! ok, not really, soufflé was on the menu at aria, and i really wanted to get that. i still remember the waiter there saying their chocolate dessert was very popular so i got that. not that i regret it since it was really nice and had this really cool airy foam with it, but i've been trying to find a proper dessert soufflé ever since, and i finally had my chance tonight! it was so light and fluffy and everything i imagines a soufflé to be. the toffee gave a subtle sweetness (no where as sweet as real toffee). i love how restaurants serve soufflés in those cute copper pots. the ice cream was creamy and had nice pecan bits. i think the ice cream had a good balance of butteriness and sweetness.

 Liquorice parfait “Signature” 20

yes, i do have to order the signature dessert. even if i was eating by myself, i would order the signature dessert over the soufflé. other places do have soufflés, but each restaurant always has a signature dessert that you can't get elsewhere. i hate black liquorice. the only liquorice i eat is darrel lea's flavoured ones. however, i would eat black liquorice any day if you gave me this dessert. the texture of the parfait was perfect-not too creamy and not too icy. it reminded me of this mint dessert i've had before which is meant to cleanse the palate, but this is 100 times better. the lime syrup balanced out the acidity of the lime segments (by themselves, they were super sour). the liquorice had a subtle flavour, so it was actually enjoyable eating black liquorice in this dessert. the piece of chocolate on top was tempered so well that it snapped like you see on tv and was crunchy (: it had a stronger liquorice flavour but definitely not gross and overpowering. yum (:

lovely night eating non asian food to celebrate the end of a lunar calendar. a rare oppurtunity eating as a family at a hatted restaurant in a hotel in Australia (:

first time parking in qvb car park. i think i'm a competent driver, and my dad has countless years of experience in driving, but wow, that car park is so tight! maybe because we drove out big car, but the poles and columns are so close together and the turns onto the ramps, especially the exit after the boom gate, you can see quite a lot of scratches on the walls. they have this hard plastic over the cement columns so that if you do scrape your car, the damage won't be as bad. you can see that plastic thing has also been scratched. even hk carparks aren't as "tight" (only their parking spaces are very small).

looks like he checks his hashtags because i certainly didn't tag him, haha.

and i would like to end this long post by saying free food always tastes better (:

Oliver Brown Take 2

since my grandparents like chocolate, i decided to take them to OB and experience an "aussie lifestyle" full of diabetes and fat since it's not everyday you eat and drink chocolate. and staff at the shops get a 15% discount so win-win (: saved a few bucks-better than nothing.

belgium waffles for two

they were alright. not the best waffles, but maybe because we left it for too long since i wanted to take a photo of all the food at once...

iced white chocolate mocha

the other day i asked the optom what's her regular drink at OB since she gets one every morning. it was a soy white chocolate mocha. interesting, so i decided to give the iced white choc mocha a go. white chocolates not even real chocolate, but this one was quite nice since it was only had a hint of sweetness, and wasn't bitter. i like how they serve there ice drinks without chunks of ice. 

 milk hot chocolate, mint dark hot chocolate, churros for one

had a bit of the mint hot choc. it's nice, i was worried that the mint would be too overpowering since i don't like really mint (i used to hate minties, but nowadays i still try to avoid them but they're edible). the mint has a nice subtle touch. 

the baked churros took forever to come out, and we were the only ones there. i guess it was nice and fresh. i like them since they're not as chewy as san churros, and slightly fluffier, and since they're not deep fried they're a tad healthier as well. so glad we only got one serving, since we were so full! none of us had lunch and we were full from all that sweetness. i got milk choc to dip since i was worried my grandma would think dark would be too bitter, but even she said milk choc was sweet and that's saying something since she loves chocolate. i only had veggies and fruit for dinner. i am not a chocolate person. so glad i had the mocha to cut back on the sweetness. oh, they also have lemon water there, so that acidity was good after all that chocolate. even though i get a discount form OB, i don't think i'll be going there for a while. 

my brother's school sets out the weirdest timetables-it reminds me of uni =/ he has 3 morning classes, and getting to his school has 10 times the amount of traffic compared to going to baulko, yet they are about the same distance from my house. and he's still nowhere close to getting his P's unlike when i got mine in yr11. like seriously, at least wake up early if you need to still get driven to school. then some other guys have a 7.30-5pm day. i don't feel like they're "free periods" if you have morning and arvo classes. and they have a new principal. surprisingly last year their school came in top 20. it'll be interesting to see how my bro's year does this year.

my great uncle called late last night, like 1am. apparently he asked if i wanted to go HK and have chinese new year dinner with him.

if i asked nicely, i'm pretty sure he would send money over straight away and i could get on the next flight to HK, or i could go to HK with my grandparents later this week and help them with carrying luggage. they sell aussie mangoes for $10aud each! that's some crazy inflation and plane/boat trip for them mangoes. i could definitely help load our luggage with mangoes so they can distribute to relos and fam.

i do want to go HK, but i still have so much to do before uni starts. like dinners, parties, making stuff (won't have time for macarons now =/), road trip, catching up on movies, planning etc. and i know my parents won't give me spending money....unlike last time my great uncle gave me more than enough spending money for a months stay...don't have a lot of stuff i want to buy atm, like i don't need anything desperate. most of it came with my grandparents earlier this month (: i'll definitely rather save up money than spend it on stuff in hk that i don't really need. and how do you even tell your manager the day before that you'll going be going overseas?

cheat cake. haven't made packet mix in a while.

this one is actually quite nice. didn't bother adding icing since it'd be sweet overload. first time using butter in baking this year. totally goes against my whole "trying to be healthy" thing, but i was kinda craving some chocolate cake. surprisingly, the healthy mousse i made a few weeks ago is actually heaps more decadent (luckily i use the healthy cacao not cocoa). i still have cocoa for my unhealthy baking. this cake reminds me that i actually haven't proper swimming in ages, nor have i bothered to go out for a jog with those nikes i bought earlier in hk last year and still have yet to wear...

wow, our rice milk finished in a day-couldn't even get a sip out of that carton ):

TWP Granola

decided to make some granola from the whole pantry app for brekkie tomorrow (since i woke up too late today for brekkie...)

it's super healthy! it's just cracking open the walnuts from the actual shell took so long. my mum showed me a method and she opens the walnuts in about 2 secs, but it takes practice. the recipe said to use pecans, but i didn't have any so opted for walnuts.

granola: pepitas (pumpkin seeds), black sesame seeds, chia seeds, walnuts, coconut oil, cacao, cinnamon, honey, shredded coconut (didn't have any coconut flakes).

mix and bake/toast at a low heat. it smells delicious (: and it's healthy (:

mixed some goji berries in it

superfoods/health foods aren't cheap-they're actually pretty expensive, but i'm surprised how many my mum has. i guess i did help add to the pile, hehe. 

did MKR kick out TAS to put in ACT...?

i've said this before but will say it again, weirdest aus open ever. so glad i didn't go this year. the unexpected happening combined with the constant unexpected weather in melb...during a match, it suddenly thunder stormed, and the players had to sit out for over 2 hours. and did you know, this person in the first round started to play for 10mins, and then retired. what a waste of $30 000 entrance fee! these past two weeks, i think i got my grandfather interested in tennis, like he gets when a good shot has been made.

women's finals imo wasn't that exciting...i think Bouchard from canada might be the next sharapova. only 19 and made it into the semis and was seeded 30. and i think she's quite trendy, an outfit with a cutout at the back.

and with the men's matches, the only "thriller" this year was stan's quarters. i remember when i was younger, finals would go past midnight, some years i couldn't stay up so late because school the next day. the finals wasn't a really fun match to watch with long intense rallies. why couldn't nadal have back injuries when he was against federer? then we could have a super intense all-swiss final! since they play doubles, and are friends and know each others tactics, it would have been cool to watch. i think the crowd was lost since there wasn't any fed, hole or murray in the finals, so they cheered for the underdog =/ you could tell just by looking that there weren't as many hyped up people, compared to the usual cheer squads for fed and djokovic. i don't like nadal. during his semis, i swear the camera focused on his drink bottles longer than necessary, and emphasising his OCD of needing the drink bottle labels facing the side he's playing on. and his touching the face ritual, it's quite annoying. i'm happy that wawrinka won, apart from the fact that he pushed down fed and broke his streak of being the no. 1 swiss. why are european countries so good at tennis? i wonder how long, if ever, would i see an aussie person in the top 10. but if there was, that person would be so full of himself, probably even more than tomic...

so many Australia Day activities everywhere compared to previous years.

Rhodes Phoenix and Bloo Moo

i don't like rhodes carpark. i was looking at the parking ticket and it stated that each car can only have 3 hours free parking per day, and sure enough, printed on the ticket is your car's number plate. some new technology thing where you can't go out and repark. that's why i love towers-free parking, no boom gates, unlimited time.

i've been rhodes phoenix a few times for dinner, but first time for yum cha. we went at around 1.30ish, so pretty late but still had to wait for a table, and if you've been there, the restaurant is pretty big. only problem was that most of the good stuff was "sold out". i think it's more that they want to save it for tomorrow since public holiday surcharge, so a lot of the stuff was deep fried =/ and i'm still not fully recovered and had to avoid heaps of stuff...rhodes phoenix is more expensive than parra, and parra is already expensive compared to normal places since they target non-asians business.

personally, i don't think ikea wows me anymore. i used to love that place and how they had the kids thing downstairs, but now it's furniture etc are just average imo. 

thanks nancy for overloading this! $5.80, normal around $10. original, chocolate, mango and coconut. twas quite jam packed with froyo (:

first time having bolo moo...it's ok, definitely not as sweet as the others. the flavours of the mango and coconut were really subtle. i liked how the original was a bit sour like real yogurt. chocolate was very chocolatey. but couldn't really enjoy it because of parking limit. made it out of the carpark with just 5mins left.

yayay! federer won! was so nervous throughout the match. it feels like fed vs nadal on friday is like the finals, since berdych and wawrinka were really unexpected. really hate murray, arrogant as ever. i still see him as a mumma's boy.

wow, last night's match. i thought it would be max 4 sets...well i thought wrong. it was such good tennis! both players played well, but i guess it came down to the unforced errors...

was reading some articles, and apparently the commentators kept picking on nadal's habits. i actually didn't realise the commentators saying those things, but i do notice nasal's OCD just like the article. how he touches his nose and ears before every single point-it's so annoying! how and he has to take off he shirts for a longer than necessary time.

i swear i always get sick in summer. i think i felt the effects after a week of taking care of kids last week on saturday, but i was fine to go to work. tonight i have definitely hit "peak". missing out on daily yum chas, but then again, it's one less mouth to feed, and i can help my parents save moneys, and I'm not dying to go either. it's just these cafes and places i was supposed to take my grandparents to, but now i can't. but i don't really care much about going to cafes atm, need to save money. right now i am really into making all those super healthy raw foods (: i don't even have time to get 2 free grill'd burgers or go out to Sydney festival or continue my list of things to make. now that i'm sick. there's still a month of holidays, but i know i won't have time to try and make macarons from scratch =/

ahh, so much random stuff to do, but ceebs...

Tennis 2014

finally got to see federer play on tv in an evening match! so graceful as always <3

personally, i think this year scheduling is the worst, it's times like these i wish i had cable. last time fed played in the evening, he was kicked out of RLA and into Hisense, since it was nadal vs an aussie rookie. it was such a boring match since nadal smashed the guy. i can't believe they managed to drag on the whole week and show aussies playing during prime time. like when fed was playing, they only showed the match point. whatever aussie was playing on RLA was having a break, they showed the other rookie aussie practicing or some random aussie double instead of federer at hisense. seriously! at least show some of federer during the breaks rather than replay the aussies moves. like last night when eugenie from canada vs dellacqua, someone held a sign for eugenie saying "From court 15 and now we're here". so true. if you verse an aussie, it's an express ticket to rod laver.

i was so satisfied with tonights match. actually, not really, since somehow they had really bad timing with the ads, and on a few times play had already resumed before the ads finished. this never happened when an aussie played.

my friend went to see Roger Federer and Friends charity match just over a week ago. it looked so fun (: heaps of funny moves from both fed and tsonga. such a different atmosphere tonight, you can definitely tell through the tv.

i think i saw more women matches than mens during 1st week prime time. maybe it was partly due to hot weather, and delays, then unpredictable thunderstorms and rain which pushed matches back, but seriously, it meant i could hardly see fed. and also hardly any hole. every 2nd night it's nasal-it's like they're trying to make up for the lost time when he didn't appear last year. it's quite boring just watching him.

so glad i went open last year and not this year, would not have been able to survive 40+ degrees on consecutive days. then again, i went to melb in the second week only for a few days, and now the 2nd week is heaps cooler.

homemade boost berry crush

1 banana, 1 cup berries, 1 cup ice, 1/2 cup apple juice. it tastes like the boost one, just not as sweet. probably because i didn't use much juice and their juice is more concentrated. this is a super easy recipe. the hardest thing is getting the ice out of the ice tray. it takes forever. that's why i try to avoid making smoothies with ice in it as it's too troublesome, and opt for frozen bananas/berries mixed with other stuff if i want a cold drink with a thicker texture.

KFD 2014: Sky

this week i could've made $1k or helped out at church for a kids program like i did for the last 3 years. i chose the latter. do i regret it? kind of, but then i think that you can make money all your life, but helping in kids ministry and helping kids learn about Christ is way more important.

helped out as a crew leader or "pilot" since this year the theme is sky. there's heaps less people helping out this year...my group was manageable, other groups had really disruptive kids. we had 3 leaders with around 7 kids. my team name was hot air balloons or HAB. we were light blue, which is a nice colour (: the purple was too dark for my liking... good thing helping out is that there is full blast zircon (: better than wasting home's electricity hehe. i remember last year, there was a record "hottest day for sydney" and it didn't feel that hot since i was in air con all day (:

entrance into main hall

main hall decoration

i didn't get a chance to take a photo of the pre-schoolers "treehouse". twas very cute and green.

food banquet today!

there was so much variety of food this year. there were more tables on the edges as well. last year it felt like there wasn't enough/not enough variety. food was so good! someone handmade macarons, and they weren't bad (: so much delicious sandwiches, fried rice, noodles. fish balls, 3 types of salads, deep fried pork cutlets, and other asian stuff. 

however, lunch this week was more simple. previous years you could choose options for lunch, this year most things were catered, and couldn't choose flavours etc, but the sushi was from a store and did you know i have been craving sushi for about 2 months now, so craving satisfied!

even the cupcakes are themed!

friday-last day of the program=dress up. fairy is my go-to costume for everything. 

a kids in my group as a bumblebee!

hot air balloon (: 

really cool hand made plane (: i think i was too big too fit inside it...

hand made cake pops! they are amazing. you probably can't see, but they have so much detail! like ladybirds, rockets, helicopters, bess, random animals and bugs.

i got a random bug, but they tasted quite nice (:

so, so dead looking after kids for 6 hour five days straight. 

the songs they sing are so catchy, and so are the Bible points each day. i hope the kids remember that everything is possible with God, and no matter who you are/how you feel/what people do/what happens/where you are...trust God!