the other day i finally put earrings in after about 6 months (can't have jewellery for dance comps, and i'm too lazy to continually take them out/put them in), since that night i had a sudden freak out that my holes were closed, and i was partly right. i had to force the earring through the back part, and then there was blood. and my antiseptic stuff expired a while ago. i'm so paranoid with earrings, even though it's been over 6 years now. i never wear cheap earrings to sleep, and i only wear cheap earrings on occasions. most of the time i wear the "safe" ones where they're super hard to put in and take out, the ones which you can showers/go swimming and won't rust etc. never had an infection, but i want to prevent it from happening. anyways, it's still hurting today, and i took the earrings out, and then i think i scraped of this layer, and moreee blood. you see, i'm use to blood from my super long nose bleeds, but blood from places like your ear, yeah i'm paranoid. hope it doesn't get infected.

the english congregation is having a masquerade themed night, but it's during finals. (why is everything masquerade these days?) and the person asked me if i could help out to teach dancing. lool. i only learn, and the dancing i learn is not the party type of partner type.

someone's home made cake. solid effort.

it was really good. it had eddible glitter as well (: inside was a strawberry and vanilla layer. frosting was a bit sweet, but still good (: this guy came up from melbourne where he's studying post-grad med just to celebrate his bday back in syd, and someone made this cake for him, and since he's going back to melb tmr, he decided to bring the cake to church. yay cake (: still have some zumbo cake in the fridge (; ahh, so good.

Birthdays with Zumbo Take 3

right now i am waiting for my cousin in Canada to wake up. they're 15 hours behind us...why can't australia have any decent clothing! so annoyed #firstworldproblems. btw, didn't now this until today, but a&f websites are so exclusive! they want to prevent import from other countries, eg, if you live in canada and they have sales, you must have a canadian credit card, use a canadian address and canadian computer. if they detect that you're from else where, you just get directed to the us site. like, i can't go on the hk site to see their prices. fingers crossed the stuff i want is in stock.

ahh, exam in exactly 3 weeks.

brother's bday today, so i decided to get stuff (just for the record, with my parents money. i never buy presents for my bro, and he never buys stuff for me since we don't have money).

happy mix box actually closed this time.

not as full this time, well we ate a few already, but last time we ate some so that it could fit in the jar, and this time some parts of the jar is empty. oh wells, 636g is pretty good. last time i must've had over 650g.

i made sure that before i went, i washed my hands, since i arranged the lollies when they went in. this time there were no jelly beans (apart form liquorice), last time there were about 10 flavours, and jelly beans are expensive, they're small and you can also fit a lot. also, they didn't have a variety of nuts or raisins w/chocolate. last time they did, but obviously those stuff cost more than normal gummy lollies. this time there was less variety...the guy was there serving me, and i know from experience he was more lenient (one time i didn't even buy $20, and he still have me 2 hole punches). it was a bit over the brim, but i could just close the lid (: when i asked for samples of popcorn, he gave me 4 at once, the woman last time only gave one. i ended up trying about 4 flavours, so that's well over 10 free popcorn (: the cookies and creme and salted caramel is as good as they say (:

used my 2nd group on voucher (: 

the salted caramel almond nuts were the only dark choc options, most of the others were white choc (which is fat), and normal choc. if the discover a white chocolate cocoa bean, then i will look at it differently, but white choc is cheaper than normal choc and filled with heaps more fat/super sweet. the salted caramel here is not too over powering (: i regret buying the moustache lollipop, not because of it's novelty factor wearing out, but because it's made in china. the almonds were made in france, and probably some of the happy mix, but not the lollipop ):

moreeee zumbo!

how could i resist the new flavours?! apple pie, yogurt and passionfruit, blueberry pancake, pandan sticky rice.

the blueberry pancake was sweeter than i would've liked, but the colour was spot on, like a bluberry (: the pandan sticky rice was so good! pandan could've been a bit stronger, but there was real sticky rice in it, gave it a nice sticky, chewy texture. apparently this macaron takes more effort, since making the rice is annoying (according to my mum). apple pie was niceee, just like an apple pie should be. there was cinnamon/sugar sprinkled on top, but it actually didn't taste too sugary. a stronger apple taste would've been better, but a lot of apple pies these days don't even have enough apples....yogurt and passionfruit was surprisingly good. it tastes like yogurt! kind of like original flavoured froyo, but with a lot more acidity. it was yogurt in macaron form! it wasn't sour though, it was acidic like yogurt should be, and the passionfruit was good as well, in the centre was a passionfruit creamy dollop. this one had the most "crunch".

i didn't bother with the other chocolate flavours. i think i like his new melbourne store, a really spacious patisserie/good display. the only patisserie he has is rozelle or balmain, and from photos, it doesn't look as big.

decorated fondant cake for brother and dad's birthday (:

everything is all online, like la renaissance. i love how i get to choose my family's birthday cakes! the boz was a vibrant yellow. (la renaissance was a vibrant pink). the cake is so good! it is so smooth, and it goes down your throat so nicely (seriously, those dry/bad cakes, you have to chug it down with something). since it's a fondant you expect it to be super sweet, but it was alright. the cake is small in size, but it's quite heavy since it's dense. you get filled up on it with a small-ish slice, about 1.5cm and i personally think that's a decent serve after dinner, with just the right amount of chocolate and sweetness. 

meringues are so good (: decorative chocolate, very pretty. love how they curve randomly. the macarons on the cake i think were pineapple w/ salted butter cream and raspberry w/ salted caramel (not chocolate like the bake at home boxes). the salted caramel was sooo sweet, even for my brother's standards. both the flavours weren't as prominent, maybe because it's been stored in the fridge...

apparently at school, some of his friends baked him a cake, and also banana bread. then at tyf (youth group), the girls in his year bought him a WHOLE WATERMELON CAKE from black star pastry! jelly, and he got a massive slice. my brother said that it  was super nice (and he usually doesn't care about food). when he said he he had a super nice cake at youth group with watermelon, i knew exactly what he meant, and since bitter gave me some earlier this year, i had a pick, and showed him and he confirmed it (: the problem with that cake is that it's hard to take home, and once you do, you have to eat it all at once, or else the water/juices from the watermelon start leaking/soaking through the cake. that's the same with fresh mousse cakes, best to eat it on the day. i've never had someone bake a cake for me the day of my birthday ): maybe sometimes after...but macarons this year were more than enough (:

dad's bday in a few days time, but recently, we combined it with bro's bday, or else we would be continuously eating cake for 2 weeks, and it's really unhealthy and waste of money.

haven't done anything today, spent it buying sweets, taking photos and eating =D going to regret this...

Bushfires in Spring

nothing has been going into my head. yeah, freaking out. i guess what sucks is that i have my first exam during stu-vac. also dance concert during finals=whole saturday gone.

i have no idea how i am going to survive in summer. trying to wear minimal stuff already. and also bushfires =/ already houses lost and it's not even summer yet! yeah, definitely hate summer. summer=nosebleeds, sweat, humidity 50%+, grossness, insects everywhere, crickets/insects chirping at night=sleepness nights, no energy to do anything. the only positive is that when i wake up, it's so hot (if i don't have the air con on) and i am forced to get out of bed.

just some snapshots from my camera. i didn't take many pics on that "dust" day a few years ago, so decided to take more "smoke" phots today. so glad i tied my hair up/didn't wash my hair yday. felt so gross after being at uni the whole day with smoke/dust/dirt and strong winds everywhere.

library level 9

i think i got the redness.

on the bus at about 7. didn't take any purple/pink, or fierce red/blue sunsets w/ smoke, wasn't possible ):

at night, the moon was orange. bad pic since the spot light behind me turned on, so couldn't focus properly (and i really wanted to go inside and shower)

weather app as accurate as ever. the smoke moved in the background!

i probably had more to say, but i forgot. spent well over an hour on a stupid quiz which doesn't count towards anything but it's a hurdle ie compulsory. i hate them. waste of time, but if we don't do them, we fail. 

Turn-It-In

the dreaded turn it in which baulko was thinking of getting since the year before us had a few people plagiarising.

for those of you who have yet to experience it:
ONLY SUBMIT IT A MAXIMUM OF TWO TIMES.

we could submit ours unlimited number of times, so i submitted around 3 times, each time changing stuff so my similarity percentage would go down. on the 4th time, gg. it goes "pending" and you won't get your report back until around 24 hours later, and we were supposed to print out a copy of our turn-it-in report.

so basically half the year didn't have a copy, and then they ended up saying put a note to say it's still "pending" in the system. i downloaded an old copy and printed that off, since my final submission was still in limbo until this afternoon, well after the due in time...

worst assignment ever. around 50 printed pages. it breaks my heart. for those who don't know me, i almost never print notes, and in my exercise books, i squish. so 50 pages is just way too much for one thing which we will probably never see again.

Oliver Brown

it's so weird when you first meet new people, and they tell you their life story.

spontaneous trip to Oliver Brown today in my own suburb! first time, and went with parents, bro isn't interested in this type of stuff. i said yday that i won't go out to eat, but today i went out to drink...so i'll say here i won't go out to eat or drink from now till end of finals.

iced milk chocolate-$7.50, iced dark mocha-$7.80, dark hot choc-$6

there were around 10 people working there, and it wasn't super busy, but we still had to wait for someone at the counter to come. more than half the people there were just talking/chilling, and you could tell most of them were new. who doesn't greet customers? and the drinks didn't come at the same time. also, the girl held the hot chocolate with 2 hands like how i would hold it-afriad that it will spill.

i had the iced milk choc. didn't come with a scoop of ice cream. it actually wasn't sweet, probs because they added a lot of ice. it was ok. nothing spectacular. the mocha was definitely more on the coffee side, and the dark choc was subtle. it suited my dad since he just wanted some coffee, but i told him when you go to a chocolate cafe, you have to at least order something with chocolate. the dark hot choc was the sweetest by far, we weren't sure if they accidentally gave us milk choc or not. you could taste some dark choc in it, but it was pretty sweet for dark choc.

last eisteddfod of the year today! came 2nd and 3rd. didn't bother waiting for the ribbons. was sooo stuffy in there.

did nothing today ):

Ramen Burger and Shangri-la Hotel Lobby Lounge

going back to Happy Apple's survey, for the best place to drive, i would say the Great Ocean Road. i personally didn't drive on it, but when we road tripped down to melbourne, we also went on it and wow, it's such a scenic drive! soooo beautiful. the seas, the view, the landscape. apart from food, i think  blue scenic ocean views make me happy. the road is actually pretty dangerous, some parts are soooo narrow, and super winded and steep, and from memory, it takes skills to drive on some parts of the road. i remember we were only about a 3 hour drive until we reached south australia. so close yet so far...but if you ever head down to victoria, great ocean road is the best for a scenic drive.

didn't have brekkie, slept in =/ for lunch i had an avocado sandwich and an apple. eating minimal since i know that at night, i would consume a lot of fat and sugar. skipped uni today. no lab today, so skipped 1 hour of phys lec, and 1 hour of problem solving, which i have't been since like week 4. went to night markets again. decided to get something since i already trekked it to the city. so nice meeting up with Bitter and Tracy.

original beef ramen burger-$12.50

nothing is worth it in the noodle markets, and everything is smaller, but i saw quite a lot of people lining up/saw people eating it before, and it's the first ramen burger i've seen, so i had to give it a try. the bottom is pretty black, but i guess they had to make it more black for extra crunch. it's a pretty interesting concept. the sweet chilli was more on the chilli side, but i could handle it. it had like red onion, corn, mayo stuff. not fully filling, but the oil in it fills you up.

let's do dessert at shangri-la lobby lounge: milk chocolate delice, passionfruit curd, grue cacao crunch, salted caramel, roast hazelnut, honey thyme pear strawberries ‘n’ crème graffiti lollipop and Brown Brothers dessert wine-$20

yum (: not the best dessert i've ever had, but it's decent. so glad i started from left to right. chocolate delice wasn't too sweet, the glass thing had interesting stuff in it (guys, i think the salted caramel was incorporated into the mousse, since that was on top of the hazelnuts...). the mousse in there was pretty sweet....the lollipop was quite cute. mine was missing a piece of white chocolate ): feeling ripped off, nah, it was ok in the end, since the white chocolate was super sweet. pretty interesting strawberries and cream filling with more rice bubble like mini ball inside for texture. couldn't taste any thyme. i think the pear was super subtle. dessert wine is good, nice and sweet and still taste the wine, but not overly sweet like a sugary drink (:

less than a month till exams, and haven't started studying. oh dear. going out to eat way too much. for one of my courses, they have an accumulated mark, and i am close to failing the course, so there is no room for error in the finals. i don't even know if i can get a credit average this sem, and it's only first year D= i've been following/doing stuff, but nothing is sinking in. ok, if i say this here, i will commit to it: i won't go out for anymore food or watch tv shows online. they did their tribute episode of glee today for cory montieth. it was just everyone crying and singing, but i do feel for them. i guess this is a good time to stop and focus on study, since no advancement has made in terms of plot lines, so i won't be side tracked thinking about stupid things whilst i study (:

so the past 2 days i've spent over $50 on food. i keep telling myself i will pay my parents back. i probably won't, but i will definitely shout them something with my own money sometime. i think there's more satisfaction in spending and consuming stuff that you've earned.

Hyde Park Barracks Cafe and Night Noodle Markets

i like buildings with history, and since i've never had eggs benedict before, i decided to go the hyde park today (:

service was so slow. they had quite a long coffee line, even at 9.30ish. pairs of people got there food before me, even though i arrived earlier than them. i guess they would rather one person be annoyed then 2 people.

tissane tea, normally $6.50

i had my mind set on a chai latte (5.50, which was under the tea category), but the person said only normal stuff. so i saw some teas at 6.50, and chose the tissane one. didn't know what it was until i googled it. it's just healthy tea. defs tastes healthy. tea pot is so cute (:

fruit salad with yogurt and manuka honey, normally 9ish.

wish there was more yogurt and honey.

eggs benedict with salmon and avocado! normally 17.50

chose this one over the bacon (16) and vegatarian (15ish), since it's healtheir and more expensive. i would have liked more sauce, but looking at other people's photos, some people's sauce didn't even cover their whole egg even though they probs pair full price. smoked salmon wasn't too smoked, but for once i liked it less smoked, since it balanced the hollandaise sauce. again, first time having cafe/outside hollandaise. i've had other people's home made, not that great, and i remember Masterchef said it was hard to perfect. kinda hard to cut the crust, but it was so crunchy (: bread was a bit too oily for my liking. overall, $20, pretty satisfied.

perfectly poached egg, something i can't do.

the night noodle markets aren't cheap. average around $13 for a cardboard bowl of noodles, and it's not a big portion. i think i would rather trek to the store and get a bigger portion on a plate and pay about the same price. basically i would rather spend 20 on cafe food than 15 for stir fried in a box food. the novelty of the markets imo is that there's so much variety in one location. that only happens overseas, like in hk, food everywhere. in aus, you have to drive to places (unless you live in the city, even then, stuff aren't that close together). the cheapest was thai riffic's pad thai, at $10. i went at 5, and when i left, it still wasn't opened. other stuff like those shangainese buns etc are like 4 for $8, and viet rolls are about 4 for $10, so not cheap. the desserts aren't worth it imo. coconuts are $6. there was this icy drink for $5, and with other sugar syrup/coconut milk etc, but i thought if i got it, i would be even more thirstier. i want to try some stuff, but it's best to go with other people. i don't want the whole thing, but a bit of everything, if that makes sense. there's variety, but at a cost.

i got a free box a prawn crackers from taste of shanghai (been there once, way too oily, but shang stuff is oilier...), and free newspaper from smh. first time holding the "tablet" sized paper. 

feel sorry for the people working there in this heat. i didn't get anything was that it was too hot to eat stir fried stuff. i was still full form the breakfast. the only reason why i like summer is that when it gets hot, i don't eat much. today i had the above, then a mandarin, and water. dinner i had two pieces of meat and just heaps of veggies, and a tiny bit of rice. for summer, i think i can survive on just water, fruit, cold drinks, veggies, ice cream and dessert.

i love instagram. well, it's really good since if you want to know what a dish looks like, it's on there. eg, some desserts for good food month don't have a photo, so just search it up, and someone's been there yday/few days ago so you know what it looks like. photos on urbanspoon are hard to navigate, and for temporary stuff during good food month, ig is the way to go. btw, the quay's degustation for 165 is actually pretty cheap. too bad i can't eat spicy stuff. a day out with gilmore and another guy from Noma, (previous no.1 restaurant in the world) was 595. that's pretty cool, but with that money, that's about 3 degustations of hatted restaurants.