True Colours

Labels: , , - Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Holloween everyone!! Although in Australia we don't really celebrate it. My dad thinks there'll be kids this year so he's stocked up on chocolate (I think it's for himself..he's not meant to be eating sweets so uses any excuse to buy chocolates :P) 


Zomg! Tonight is Dayglow!! I can not wait! But it's gloomy and rainy here in Melbourne, I hope by tonight it'll clear up..but seems unlikely :( Oh well. I can't wait! 


Im loving Glee's version of True colours.. 

"Show me a smile then 
don't be unhappy, can't remember 
when I last saw you laughing 
if this world makes you crazy 
and you've taken all you can bear 
you call me up 
because you know I'll be there"

Gold Leaf. The Follow Up. And Birthday Presents

Labels: , , , , - Sunday, October 24, 2010

Following on from my little rant about meeting my ex best friend, L, at Gold Leaf Restaurant on saturday, I had in a way forced my other 2 friends E and S to come keep me company. I figured the more people the less awkward it would be. Right? Well I was right in a way.

First of we were all meant to meet at the restaurant at 11.30am, (well it was actually 11am, but by 10am L had messaged me to push it back). Anyway I show up at the restaurant, and my first thought was mmmm back on the asian scene. Haha. When the waiter finally attends to me, I'm immediately informed that I'm the first one, which was quite unusual cos L has a reputation for being punctual and hating other people for being late, it was quite ironical i thought. So I'm seated in this gloriously decked out restaurant with a million chandeliers on a mirrored ceiling and I'm basically minding a table of 6 for 5 people that are late! I get a call from S asking for directions, I call E up and she's says shes still on the freeway. I'm still waiting, about 10 minutes have gone down, I'm very close to mastering the trial version of Pacman on my phone (the challenge is to complete the track in 45 seconds :P) Then who arrives, S does (yay!), we're talking about work, she had baked for me (which by the way I forgot to grab of her :( oh well). E arrives shortly after. They sit either side of me, I feel like I'm being flanked by my girls :) Then the duo arrives (about half an hour late!) The table is round (thank god) so theres no such thing as sitting directly opposite me, but L was pretty close to being in that position. We make eye contact when she walks in, we both say hello, I greet H.

It's a yum cha restaurant and waitress' circle all the tables and we're meant to grab whatever we want from their trays, we start off with some friend stuff. (Not my choice, Ive been trying to avoid fried food). From the next tray we grab some steamed prawn dumplings, mmmm they were good. Everyones talking, I did spend most of the time talking to S and E. I barely asked L anything, and even when we all started talking about L and S's recent China trip, I made a point of directing all my questions to S. So there, call me childish, but I couldn't be bothered pretending that everything was ok when I knew she had a birthday party and didn't invite me!

On a more positive note, the girls, S, H and E gave me my birthday present! Yay! I got Dayglow tickets!!! O.M.G I am so excited!!! I don't know what to wear!!! ahh!! I know we have to wear white! but what!!!
Oh and they got me a virginblue voucher for $100. woahhh. Now where should I go with this??? I really need a travel buddy or a bf. Haha but i have to say it's exactly what I had asked for. Lol, the girls were struggling with my present this year, and asked me for clues...lol so it's not like I ordered them to get anything! But I'm so happy they got these!!

Who brought the drama this time.

Labels: , - Thursday, October 21, 2010


So my ex best friend just invited me to a lunch at Gold Leaf on Saturday. Call me paranoid, but Im going to break down a number of reasons why I shouldn’t rehash things with her. Firstly, she sent a group message to me, and I’m not quite sure if she meant to invite me, but I’ll let her have the benefit of that doubt. Secondly, the fallout after my USA trip was very damaging, it made me realize that she just doesn’t let go of past things or in her eyes - mistakes that ive made. Also made me realize that if I’m not the way she wants me to be, then theres something wrong with me. But that’s not true, I was quiet in Cambodia because I didn’t want to clash with her, ive had issues with her in the past when we spent a week in qld, we couldnt handle each other for more than 5 days at most. And that fact was obviously on the back of my mind, so I chose to not be as verbal and basically chilled out. So she still thinks that was bad, but trust me it was for both our sakes. Thirdly, she knew just how much I liked him, yet she couldn’t accept the fact why I had to lie about the USA trip. All my other friends understood it when I explained the full story, but she knowing all the history behind my reasons chose to have a fall out just based on that one lie.
Fourthly, her birthday was last week and I was not invited, to me that was a very defining moment. That was a pinnacle moment in both our lives I reckon, she chose the path that led me away from her and I was fine with that, I had my friends at work to talk to and they made it ok for me <3
I moved on.

So they are all my cons for not wanting to be friends with her, not to mention the fact that Specs and Du-du hate her guts, im not even exaggerating. They both cant stand her. But since Specs is out of my life now, and Du-du is my brother, is it really important to consider his feelings? although he was very glad when I told him we were no longer friends.

Now for the reasons I should be friends with her.
We shared a lot of times/memories together, we did use to have a great time when we went out. I think it was actually me, that stopped enjoying our nights out, I cant really think of a good reason why, I just stopped enjoying it.
I need my old friends back, I lost too many friends this year to let the people that were once close to me let go. So maybe I should take this opportunity to rehash and maybe things will go back to the way they used to be.
I learnt never to hold grudges and by not taking her up on this offer would mean that I would be holding a grudge and im pretty sure shes testing me, so if I don’t show up to this lunch that would probably be the ‘official’ end.
Im losing my best friend at work, I need someone to talk to. I don’t know how I ended up on this side of the glass, its like a bad divorce where she got the kids and the house and I just ended up with the dog. Its just not the same.

In the end I have a feeling I'll be heading over to that lunch, I might be as vocal as they have ever seen me, I'm going to take a leaf out of my friends book and not go into hiding.

Beautiful

Labels: , - Wednesday, October 20, 2010



I haven't really ever shopped online. But I saw a story on Today Tonight last night encouraging Australians to take advantage of our strong dollar to buy some bargains....and I do love bargains.. and shopping.


I came across HopShopGo and they do say shop globally, however on their shipping options it only has two options and each are for US addresses. So im not quite sure how the shop globally part works. Now i got to sit and read up on their fine print. Great. ^o


Oh how great is Ugly by Sugarbabes. I love the old school stuff. 

"People made me feel like life was unfair 
And I did things that made me ashamed 
Cos I didn't know my body would change 
I grew taller than them in more ways 
But there will always be the one who will say 

Something bad to make them feel great"

Like it's her Birthday

Labels: , , , - Sunday, October 17, 2010

Go, go, go, go 
Go, go, go shawty 
It's your birthday 
We gon' party like it's yo birthday 
We gon' sip Bacardi like it's your birthday 
And you know we don't give a f***
Cos it's MY bday! Yeh! 


For someone who didn't want to celebrate or acknowledge that I had indeed hit the 24 mark and made no real progress in life, I wanted a mellow quiet one. But bam! What does mommy do, calls her friends so we can throw a part-ay. But today's my actual birthday, and it's a quiet one. All my siblings are out and my friends have just massaged me, since 12am this morning actually. Aww I was feeling special when I saw all the Facebook massages, I didn't even realise I had that many 'real' friends! <3 Awww 

My brothers birthday on the 14th was A-MAZING, we were out at Tokyo Teppanyaki on Chapel St. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Lol and probably the most expensive dinner to date. Catching bowls of rice, whilst the chef stopped traffic out on Chapel St to chuck the bowls over the power lines...need I say more!



Tier 3 of my project cake never eventuated, basically because look at the two tiered cake, it was so tall. I couldn't even fit it into the fridge at first, I had to shift some of the shelving around, if I had made 3 tiers, I would have had to take shelves out of the fridge....plus I got lazy. 
The 'two' tiered cake Ive been making for a week!
 The fondant did NOT work. It was really frustrating trying to roll it. It was so so stiff, I tried a million things to get it to work. I left it out to adjust to room temperature, added some water to it, sprinkled icing sugar on the roller, but NOTHING would work!  Anyway I went with using cream cheese frosting on the outside, thus why it does't have that neat look on the outside. Oh well! It was yummy. I liked the love cake part which was Tier 1.

I'm back to baking today. The two tiered cake is almost over, can you believe it? I baked 6 cakes to make the big one...wow and we have just 2 slices left! Im glad I baked such a big cake now. I didn't even think we would be this close to finishing it. Now I'm making red velvet cupcakes to take to work tomorrow...haha...
 

Rihanna - Only Girl (In The World)

-

Working for the man

Labels: , , - Friday, October 15, 2010

We had our awards night on wednesday, and I actually won! It was a bit of a weird victory, as I just barely joined the Green Team (I think I joined sometime in July) so I've only been with them for 3 months and I got a certificate congratulating me. Lol, it was my most undeserved victory I thought. But oh well, I did push the Live Green, Work Green notions at work on our floor. So abit deserved I guess. 


Brrrr it's so cold in Melbourne today. I actually wore a maxi dress to my brothers birthday last night, and tonight, I can barely step out without an eskimo jacket! This is typical Melbourne! But what a day to sleep in. but grrrr work! And what a horrible day at work. 


This is what I have to deal with at work- indecisions, changes, and everything that is red tape about the coporate world! And always when things don’t go smoothly, as in why was the project delayed? Oh its not because you people couldn’t make up your minds about the little things, its because I didn’t finish the design. A big fat wtf! 

Its about a certain streetscape that should have gone to tender late August, but the conceptual design hasn't even been finalised. This is what takes about 90% of my time at work, but in the end, it all seems like a waste of time! 


Tier 2 of 3 (Red Velvet Cake)

Labels: , , , - Tuesday, October 12, 2010

What a day! Got shown how unfit I really am by my work friend - could barely be on the elliptical for 10 minutes, scratch that I gave up every 2 minutes because of the pain! I had him trying to motivate me the whole time. Thanks! (Then I came home and ate enough to cancel out all that hard work! bummer...really need to get my eating under control!)
So it was back to baking last night, managed to make 3 red velvet cakes for the birthday boy. God, I read some horror stories about topsy turvy cakes 'toppling' per say. Perhaps I shouldn't have attempted such an ambitious task for a 21st! Oh well, too late now. I already have 6 cakes ready. I decided to refrigerate the love cake that I had made previously. Hoping it'll still be fresh on thursday :)


I had a change of plans (Second one on project cake), I was feeling abit too lazy to make the final cake for the third tier so I'll have to do that after the awards ceremony tomorrow night. Speaking of which, I was nominated for being on the green team (lol I only joined up about 2 months ago, under pressure from by manager too haha) and now I seem to be reaping in the rewards. Oh well, I did do some work for them, I am actively trying to recruit people to take green modes of transport

Or if you're rich enough - environmentally friendly hybrid cars. It's all about doing our bit to save the planet. It's your choice.

Tier 1 of 3 (Love Cake)

Labels: , , , - Sunday, October 10, 2010

Knowing that my brother doesn't read my blog, I feel safe in saying that I have not literally bought him a present, and I have no plans to. Yet, when I told him that - I think he thought I was playing games and would rock up with some present on the 14th. Sorry bro, not happening, already gave you your present earlier in the year...too bad you dont remember it.
Anyway just quietly, I don't remember what I gave you either, but I know I did. 


I finished making Layer 1 of the 3 tier birthday cake I'm making. There was a change of plans (already!) and I ended up making a Love Cake as the base layer, this type of cake is more moist and heavier than the Red Velvet cake that I had originally planned. So I'm thinking of shifting the red velvet to the 2nd layer now..well that's the plan anyway. 


So here's the recipe for the Love Cake that I made, it's something my mum gave me. 
250g butter
500g semolina(slightly roasted)
20 egg yolks
10 egg whites
1kg caster sugar
4 tablespoons rose water
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Cashew nuts, almonds, walnuts, dates (finely chopped as desired)


Instructions:
Beat the egg yolks and sugar together, then beat the butter and slightly roasted semolina in a separate container. Bring the semolina mixture with the sugar mixture and beat. Add the whisked egg whites and rosewater, cinnamon, nutmeg. Add nuts and spoon mix everything together. Bake for approximately 1 hour at 150 centigrade. 

I guess I lost concentration at one point and ended up putting in 500g of butter instead, so I had to add abit more semolina (we only had about 100g left) so I had to substitute with some self raising flour, but the cakes came out well. This yielded 4 round cakes (22cm pans), which is more than enough, so we dug into one..and mmm it was tasty!
So my brothers birthday is on this thursday and I still have 2 tiers to make, which means 6 cakes, I think I have enough time. I'm not going to make a cake tonight, cos I have a nasty feeling that red velvet cakes dry out faster than love cakes..so I'll hold that off. 

Birthday Cake

Labels: , - Thursday, October 7, 2010




Goal 1: Lose 8kgs by December

Goal 2: Stick to Goal 1
I've been going hard at it at the gym this week. I've gone everyday since Monday so far, which is pretty good by my standards. Had a 'fitness assessment' at our new gym recently, and turns out I have low blood pressure, sigh. It's probably because I only had yogurt for lunch that day (and most days), so I decided I would actually eat a proper meal at lunch now, so I'm resorting to eating more vegetables....not the best but seeing as December is less than 2 months away, should at least try. Oh but I've been cheating, sigh, been eating sweets...ahh i have a big sweet tooth. Plus it doesn't help that theres birthdays coming up next week which means cake!
Speaking of birthdays, I'm attempting to make a topsy turvy cake. Something like below. But mine would be in shades of blue instead because its for a guy. I'm so excited to see how this goes. 
Apparently theres a certain kind of cake you need to use, ie. you can't use lighter sponge cakes for the base as they wont have the strength to hold up the rest of the upper layers. Which makes sense. That is why I'm going to make the bottom layer out of red velvet. I'm looking at Oprah's site for the red velvet cake recipe, it looks dense enough for the base...
Mmmmm nom nom nom..what gym..:s
So the problem is..i still haven't decided on the second layer, I was thinking of a lemony kind of cake, but I'm not confident in how contrasting the taste would be between the red velvet and lemon...hmm..to me a rich chocolate cake seems the most obvious solution to the second layer..
But the birthday boy does not like rich chocolate cakes, so what if I make a white chocolate cake? I'll have that as Option 2. 
But I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up making a Coconut-Pineapple Cake for the top most layer..looks good doesn't it...
I've never made this cake before, so judging by the recipe I'm assuming it's abit light or less dense than a straight butter cake...let's hope it's a wise decision. 
Lol I can think of a few things that could go wrong in this project , 1. the cakes could all fall into each other..yikes leaving us with some kind of hard candy mix..which wouldn't be all that awful. 2. Since I haven't mastered or ever used fondant icing - it could potentially melt..ohh I can think of alot more things that can go wrong, but I think having a can-do attitude will help with this little venture. 
oh this Cake Journal has tons of great tutorials on cake decorating, so ill definitely be on this religiously. .
Edit: I ended up making the fondant today, just so I can tick something off. Now I can stop looking at fondant recipes obsessively :P Theres tons of recipes online, so it wasn't that hard. 
The birthday is on thursday, so i'll most probably start baking on sunday, just because my time is very limited on work days....

Going Places

Labels: , , - Sunday, October 3, 2010

What have I done today - not much tbh. Spent most of today watching Banged Up Abroad on Youtube. I liked the Cuzco story (Cuzco's actually in Peru...lol did not know that..). But gotta say most of these people are driven to these crimes by their financial state, feel sorry for them. But bad decisions have a way of catching up dont they.




oh well. I was blatantly watching one episode after another (well in total 2 episodes..haha) when I realised I should do something more productive. And since I spent this week finally managing to organise the junk from the USA trip, ie. clearing out all the receipts and brochures and inserting them into my photo albums, I thought Ill look into the next trip that I'm potentially going on. 

This one's between me and U (a friend from work), we haven't booked tickets yet, so we're not sure yet. But it's a getaway for my birthday! I was really excited about it, but then a week later when my other work friends started teasing me about going with U - I became abit sceptical about whether I should go with her. But then I realised those were just their opinions and I shouldn't be influenced  by their negativity just because they can't be good friends with her! right!

So if we do manage to getaway to the GOLD COAST late this October, I would have flown away every single month since July. (July = USA, Aug = Sydney, Sept = Adelaide, Oct = Gold Coast?), lol jet setter much:P And this is all after my 6 week trip across south east asia. Sigh. I could a bought a car with all this money! but then I would have missed out on >>


LA
LA
Sydney








LV


SF
Adelaide

Anyway it made me want to get a list together of places I'll like to visit before I hit 30 (yikes..its closer than it appears!). For now this is all I can think of...

1. Full Moon Party - Thailand, Ill like to do this before 25 actually, so perhaps next July, but finding someone who wants to go is proving abit difficult right now, especially since I'll been cut off from my 'friends' and all my work friends have already been! dayum!

2. New Zealand - I know I know - thats just across the Pacific - but wow I've been talking about going here since 2008, and still haven't been! And apparently its really pretty...

3. Miami - Florida - for obvious reasons! Oh and they have Harry Potter world (..word)..

You had me at cake

Labels: , - Friday, October 1, 2010


So its that time of the year again, where birthdays galore and you watch in ernest as your bank account dwindles down and your forced to take that devils route and use ur credit card (I hate using credit – for 1. I feel too invinscible when I do, knowing I have such a high limit 2. I feel like im earning points which will pay for something in the end – never does! 3. I freak out when I see the statements!)

Anyway birthdays usually mean one thing for us, cakes (+presents) ok two things. But this year, im abit too broke for presents (lol thank you mortgage!) Plus I signed myself up for a gold coast trip with my friend so now I need to honour that. So no presents from me this time. But instead how about a nice cake? Ive gotten into baking/dessert making recently. I may not be able to cook a meal, but I can sure whip up a mean dessert! I have a big sweet tooth!

Todays ‘experiment’ will this cupcake receipe I found at The Cake Mistress
But im going to edit some stuff.
  1. No dark chocolate, because I seem to always get a headache when I have dark chocolate. So im leaving this out completely.
  2. I don’t have sour cream at home, so instead get 1 cup milk and add a teaspoon of vinegar and just leave the mixture to sit out for about 10 minutes.
  3. Substitute the almond meal for semolina instead (lol im too lazy to go out right now)

makes one 22cm cake
125 g good quality unsalted butter, softened
150 g brown sugar (could also use white sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence (I noticed he used Vanilla bean paste in his video)
3 eggs
100 g dark chocolate, melted
100 g sour cream
2 tablespoons cocoa
100 g self-raising flour
125 g almond meal
One 22cm Springform Cake tin

It actually turned out quite nice. Although it’s not the sweetest thing ive eaten, but hey I don’t feel high on sugar with this, and I love the taste of the semolina oozing out of this cake. Yay success! Ill put some icing on it just to satisfay the sugar cravings in us.

My mum got me to make another cake for a family friend. But this had to follow her recipe. So it was 500g caster sugar, 500g butter/margarine, 500g self rising flour, 10 eggs. This cake is big! 






Lol it looks like a kid decorated it! It was late at night so maybe I slipped up a few times and ...was off centred..haha..oh well. I put in 3 layers - the bottom is chocolate, second is pinkish and top is blue-ish. When I took the cake out of the oven though, the layers had 'shifted' and I cant wait to see how it looks on the inside. 




the layers looked pretty neat!

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