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