Choux de Bruxelles

Digging

2012-02-08T03:35:00.000-08:00

I feel like I'm digging some really cool "things" at the moment. I'm going to list the ones I'm enjoying this week. And then you can tell me what you're currently digging.

Books

Pride and Prejudice
I've been reading this one for a few weeks because I'm a really slow reader and I only read when I'm on the bus. I finished this one yesterday. I have to say, I was under the impression that Jane Austen is really difficult to read, but this one was relatively easy. I have to say that while I enjoyed the general plot of Pride and Prejudice, I don't find Jane Austen's prose all that "agreeable". I think I prefer Charlotte Bronte, eventhough I haven't really finished reading Jane Eyre because it's a fucking brick. But when I do have to sift through certain passages in Jane Eyre, some of the dialogue between Jane and Rochester are the most beautiful and heartbreaking words I've ever read. Anyway, back to Pride and Prejudice: I really enjoyed it and I'm keen on watching the 1995 TV show with Colin Firth as Darcy. The only thing that confuses me is the whole issue with Lydia and Wickham. I still don't quite get why they got hitched other than that they might have banged heaps before they got married. In general I find it quite awful that she's been "tarnished" in the eyes of society because of something like this, however she's so annoying part of me thinks she deserves this.

Tumblrs

My colleague Eirene and I have debated about our attitudes towards Tumblrs and we've come to the same conclusions: we generally despise the ones that gain popularity by reblogging awesome photos. Why should they be this "popular" entity on the internet when they put no effort into making this photo awesome.

With that said, I do have Tumblrs I love. Most of them feature awesome animals.

Dear Girls Above Me
So there's this guy in the United States called Charlie who lives in an apartment with his awesome pug. There are two girls called Cathy and Claire that live in the apartment above him. And Charlie can hear EVERYTHING they do and say. And it's fucking hilarious. I literally finished reading every entry on this site. My friend Hadders and I were quoting our favourite ones on each other's facebook walls. It was an epic day.

Animals Talking in Caps
There's this guy on the internet who finds awesome animal photos and adds captions to them. Here is one of my recent favourites:

Hey Girl!
Teaching is Hard. You're doing a great job. Someone has finished the internet by finding every imaginable photo of Ryan Gosling and adding captions that tell teachers they're doing a great job. They've started adding other celebrities into the mix. It's really funny. My boyfriend is a teacher so I like to remind him that Ryan Gosling is there for him.

TV Shows

I watch so much TV. This is only a smidge of what I actually watch.

Luther
My boyfriend and his housemates have been hooked on this show. I decided to watch it too and I finished it in two days. Yes, I'll admit, there are only ten episodes all together, but each episode is like over an hour long so it's a big deal. Luther is about British detective John Luther who will do anything to catch the bad guys . There's a bit of profiling going on, and some fucked up murders. Holy shit there are some fucked up murders on that show. And he befriends a psychotic red head that looks a bit like Emma Stone. I found the show a little difficult to get into at first because there was so much happening that in first episode: you find out about Luther's personal life, what he did a month ago, who's out to get him etc. It was really overwhelming but it gets better.

Portlandia
If you are an avid Saturday Night Live patron, you might recognise Fred Armisen. If you like Sleater-Kinney, you might recognise Carrie Brownstein. These two have teamed up together to create sketch show about the many people that live in Portland. It's really quite funny and weird. They make fun of feminist book store owners, hipsters and dumpster divers. I just love it. This is one of my favourite sketches.

Pretty Little Liars
OK so this isn't the best show in world. In fact if I was at a job interview and I was being judged on what kind of show I watched, I probably wouldn't admit that I even know this show exists. This is a pure guilty pleasure. Four best friends are being blackmailed by the mysterious "A", straight after their friend's death. They try to juggle school, boys, family and death threats all while looking absolutely gorgeous. It's a bit like Gossip Girl meets a crime show, but without all the glamor. But at least these four look like they might be 17.

OK so this is probably the worst trailer ever made, especially with that over the top voice over. But I swear the show is a lot better than what this trailer offers. Plus, their clothes are WAAAAY cooler now. Just watch it so I have a friend to talk to about it.

So what are y'all digging at the moment?

Yoyos

2012-01-31T03:19:00.000-08:00

When my dad was in hospital, I ate almost a whole bucket of these mini yoyos I bought from Rebecca's Cafe in Port Fairy. There were five of them left when my dad came home from hospital and he polished off four when he woke up for a midnight gobble. My dad told me they were delicious. I decided to make him some as a Welcome Home/Sorry I ate the last yoyo gift.

They turned out surprisingly well and my dad even said they were better than the ones from Port Fairy, which was very nice of him. They are also super easy to make. I followed the recipe from Planning with Kids. I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract and since my yoyos were pretty big, I had to leave them in the oven for 20 minutes.

Elipsis

2012-01-25T17:12:00.000-08:00

This week feels like a hazy swarm of hospitals and vet clinics. Monday night, my father badly sliced his hand between his thumb and finger with a power tool. It was so deep he needed to see a plastics surgeon to make sure there was no tendon/nerve damage. There weren’t enough beds for him so he stayed overnight in the emergency ward and was transferred to another hospital the next morning as soon as a bed was free. He was meant to have his operation that afternoon but there was no space/doctors were too busy. It was awful.

He finally had his hand surgery on yesterday in the late afternoon. My mum was a terrible, hyper-anxious mess. We were in his ward for ages, waiting and waiting. Mum noticed all these brochures on the wall were about bones and she freaked out because she thought my dad had damaged the bone in his hand. I had to tell her several times that dad was staying in the “bone department” but he had to go to another floor to have his operation. He’s home now, but he needs to keep his arm elevated and dry. I’ll be taking him back to the hospital on Monday so the surgeon can take another look at his hand.

As well as this, my dog Tiffany has been to vet to get her health checked out. She has a grade 4 heart murmur and I got the vets to do a general exam on her, in case there is something else wrong with her. She has mild bronchitis and a UTI. We’re sorting out the UTI problem and when she gets better, she’ll be on medication for bronchitis. That vet bill cost me $852.05. When I told my dad about it at the hospital, he was scolding me for wasting my money on an old dog. My dad grew rather existential and gave me the spiel that old sick pets are like old sick people and that sometimes it’s just not worth spending so much money on their health when they won’t get better.

Anyway, in happier news, I had a great time in Port Fairy. I’ll be posting up some pictures this week. I hope everyone has a good day!

Mortality Angle

2012-01-19T04:40:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling ridiculously emotional this week. I was reading a tweet on Twitter about 200 sheep being kill in a truck accident and I just broke down in uncontrollable sobs. I suppose I've been thinking about mortality a lot, and thinking about the many ways our lives can end very suddenly. It's a terrible thing to think about and I don't know why I do that to myself.
I think I'm scared of dying.

I suppose there is no better motivation than the fear of dying to stop feeling sorry for myself and start doing something. My biggest problem is inactivity. I'm going away tomorrow for a few days. I'm going to treat it like a wonderful, fun-filled detox and when I come back, I will be refreshed, energised, positive and most importantly, be pro-active. I will apply for jobs, start writing my screen plays and start writing my Mission Impossible/Ethan Hunt/Tom Cruise review.

Have a good weekend! Here are some cupcakes.

I'm so bored

2012-01-16T01:38:00.000-08:00

Gah. It's Monday again. I feel so bored with my life. I bought some t shirts from Threadless before Christmas and this one is my favourite. I think it's very clever! I also bought this magenta felt hat from work. I was tossing up between this one and the black one. I chose this one because I wear a lot of black during winter, and this is probably more of a winter hat than a summer one. I MEAN, WHO THE HELL WEARS FELT IN THIS HEAT?

Actually, I probably will.

I hope tomorrow is less depressing.

My thoughts this week in dot points

2012-01-12T16:42:00.000-08:00

Went to Longrain. The bartender there was very attractive. The beef peanut curry and deep-fried baby snapper were standouts. It cost us $54 each. I thought it was really expensive considering an expensive meal to me is $20 each. I think my friends generally like to do fine dining often. I have no idea how they get the money to eat at these expensive restaurants.
I've been getting writing anxiety that's really paralysing. I basically can't write anything serious because I feel like whatever I type will be shit and people will judge my worth on my words. I haven't felt happy about my writing for about 2 and a half years. I think I'm scared to try. I feel very focused on how I write rather than the content and it really eats at me.
I really need a haircut, but I really want long hair. I think I should at least get a fringe, and maybe dye my hair brassy blonde or something
I had pho yesterday at Saigon Pho on Lygon st. It was one of the best pho noodle soups I've had in ages. I usually eat at Rice Papers on Swanston Street but their food I feel is slowly worsening. They no longer give their patrons lemon and chilli for their pho anymore! That's mandatory.
There's a new hot dog place in the city called Pink Cafe Hot Dog. Even though their hot dogs don't look as nice as the ones at Snag Stand, I really want to try these, especially since their mini chilli dog is only $2
I did a cheese quiz and failed miserably because I don't eat goat's cheese.
I need to get a real job.
I sometimes wish I was fashion blogger, but I don't think what I wear warrants a photograph on my blog.
Going through my Kanye West phase. Like a boss.
Early last year I met a camera assistant on set and he introduced me to this band called The Baseballs. They are this German band who do 50's renditions of top 40 songs. This one is pretty legit. Also who else thinks German is a very sexy language? It's very masculine, like a lumberjack and beards. And Michael Fassbender.
My dad found an abandoned wild turtle in a house he was working at one day so we are now looking after this very shy wild turtle until my dad can take the turtle to a freshwater creek. I've been digging up worms in the garden. I love watching him eat worm. I let him go for a walk in the backyard. My shih tzu saw him and started shaking vigorously. I think she's scared of turtles.
I'm going away with Liam next Friday to Port Fairy. I'm really excited about it.
I saw Mission Impossible last weekend. It was fantastic. I really enjoyed it, partly because Simon Pegg offered great comedic relief, but mostly because Tom Cruise's hair was the perfect length and the teal silk suit he wears in Dubai is perfectly tailored. Plus, he's so buff.
I think I should be less ashamed of my Cruise love.
I can't wait for Rock of Ages
I think I'm watching Mission Impossible 4 again tonight.

How was your week?

WAKE UP MR. WEST!

2012-01-05T02:13:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to lie: I'm going through a massive Kanye West phase. I don't go through phases half-heartedly, as Susie pointed out to me once. Once I'm hooked, I'm there for WEEKS/MONTHS. I'm one of those people who can listen to one song on repeat for several days/weeks/months.

My top three most listened to songs on iTunes are:

Feel it in my Bones by Tiesto ft. Tegan and Sara (352 plays)

Tommorow by Sean Lennon (273 plays)

On Directing by Tegan and Sara (252 plays).

I don't know if that's a lot or whatever – maybe you've listened to one song more than 352 times – but I think it's quite a bit.

My Kanye West phase is only very recent. I had the urge to crank up some Kanye one night and Gold Digger has always been my favourite song of his because of Jamie Foxx's sweet, sweet vocals being repeated throughout the song. I actually thought it was some big heavy jazz musician (who probably plays the saxophone) singing those bits until I saw the video. I've already trawled YouTube for live performances of Gold Digger. I prefer the performances with Jamie Foxx. What a babe that man is.

I actually don't like the official video very much. I rarely like rap videos because of their unnecessary use of beautiful gyrating women in their underwear. This was no different, and you couldn't see Kanye rapping at all. Despite the somewhat sexist lyrics, Gold Digger is just genius. It makes me want to krump like a boss and pretend I have the co-ordination of Usher (which is what I aim for when "dancing" in public).

I really want to write a serious review of all his albums but I don't know how to start it. I also feel like I'm not worthy of reviewing his musical genius since I'm not a rap aficionado. In fact, I don't really know what he's rapping about. I think when I listen to Kanye's music, it's like I tune out the weight/depth of the lyrics and just appreciate them as an instrument. I don't even know how to explain this.

What music is everyone else listening to these days? Who are you super into right now?

Daiso Candy Review

2012-01-03T02:45:00.000-08:00

We all know Japanese fruit-flavoured sweets taste fucking amazing and are addictive as. We also know the Japanese love interesting, sometimes questionable flavour combinations. Anyone who watches Iron Chef knows fish ice cream exists to win brownie points.

Here, I review some of the weirder candies stocked at Daiso. This is only part one. I hope you enjoy it!

BUTTER AND SALT CANDY

Nothing says “EAT ME NOW” like this butter and salt candy. Declaring “I am sorry that I cannot tell this deliciousness in a single word”, I was really excited to try this one.

When I rip open the wrapper, instead of a shiny pebble of pastel yellow, the candy resembles a streaky, hard-boiled lolly, possibly lemon in flavour.

This one smells amazingly like microwave popcorn. I was expecting explosions of cream, salt and sugar in unusual ratios. I was expecting a goddamn revelation in my mouth, but it was underwhelming.

It tastes more like a sweet candy with a hint of saltiness than actual butter. It also leaves an artificial aftertaste.

It’s weird what butter flavour tastes like. This one has notes of coconut, which the salt helps brings out. If I wasn’t told this was butter flavoured, I would have assumes it was coconut flavoured.

SEA SALT CANDY

After the disappointment of the previous one, I wanted this one to seduce me. I’m an avid fan of the whole salty/sweet combination (HELLO SALTED CARAMEL). Its bright packaging was screaming at my eyes. Daiso’s sign helpfully informs me that this candy uses sea salt from a Japanese town that’s famous for its sea salt.

It has cloudy/milky appearance, hinting it might be a lemonade-flavour. At first it tastes just like sugar. Then it starts to become saltier, but not in an interesting way.

It reminds me of the salty, preserved plums and olives my mother used to buy from the Asian grocers. However this candy lacks the sour/salty kick that makes the preserved plums simultaneously so foul and addictive.

I do like this one though. It's just I was expecting to suck on pellets of ... salt.

I am a salt fiend, so this candy might taste quite salty to someone who doesn't eat much salt.

BEKKO CANDY

Bekko seduced me at Daiso. It had me at “pure caramel”. Its packaging is a lot more modest than the other ones, contained in a clear pouch. Each candy resembles an amber crystal wrapped in plastic with the words ‘CANDY’ stamped across it in red.

Made from 87% super fine sugar, 10% coarse sugar and starch syrup, I could hear my pancreas threatening to cease insulin production.

Obviously not for excessive consumption, Bekko tastes exactly like the crunchy, caramelised lid on a creme brulee. Other than plain old caramelised sugar, Bekko also has hints of maize, which I’m going to assume is from the starch syrup.

Bekko is sweeter than the other ones, probably not one you'd like to OD on for your pancreas' sake.

There you go.

Now excuse me while I go brush and floss my teeth three times.

The wrong side of the bed

2011-12-31T04:11:00.001-08:00

Last night I went out to dinner with my friend Rachael. We went to a lovely little Thai restaurant in Springvale called Mee Dee Thai and it was wonderful. I didn't take any photos or order anything too exciting. However, I will be back there on Friday with Liam because I know he will love it and they do sticky rice with mango and that's a huge win.

I was talking to Rachael and she said to me when it is the new year, she likes to spend the whole day doing things she loves because she believes what she does on the first day of the new year will dictate how that year goes.

I was hoping that today would be a very chilled day at work. Chill customers, chill shopping centre. But my whole day was just disappointing and reaffirmed my "I hate new year's" mentality.

Work was agonisingly slow. There was nothing to do. No one felt like doing anything except make "5318008" stickers with the pricing gun. Then thirty minutes before we were about to close, swarms of customers kept coming in and messing up our tables and racks. Where were they at 10am this morning? I was incredibly annoyed, especially when those customers kept sifting through our racks after we had told them we were closed.

I also had the worst lunch break ever. I know, I know – first world problem. I was really looking forward to it because Liam came and surprised me at work right before I was due to go on my break. I thought today would be the best lunch break ever. But I ended up spending the majority of my time literally waiting for my food to be made. The shopping centre I work in was so damn quiet but the food court was still extremely busy. We got some Hanaichi (my current Maccas substitute) and our food took about 20 minutes to arrive. I had to shovel my lunch in my mouth like they do in anime shows!

Afterwards, I wanted to go to Daiso and buy some weird candy, but they were shut. I WAS SO BUMMED ABOUT THIS. I decided to go to Chatime to get the special grapefruit QQ because my co-worker got it for lunch it tasted nice PLUS it had tapioca pearls (I LOVE DAT STUFF). However, when they started to make my drink, they had run out of pearls! GAH. So I ended up getting "rainbow jelly". It also took them another 10 minutes to make it too!

Sigh.

In other news, I've decided to start reviewing food from Daiso. I had this idea back when Susie had her radio show on SYN. I thought it would be the best thing if we reviewed Daiso candy, but Susie is in London at the moment and so I thought I'd do this solo-style on the blog. I've decided to buy the weirder flavours. I've got Butter and Salt candy, Sea Salt Candy and Bekko, which is apparently pure caramel. That one isn't weird; it just sounds delicious. I also saw a Salt and Peanut Butter one, Raw Sugar Candy, and others I can't remember. There are also other butter and salt flavoured ones. I just thought it might be a bit of fun.

I'm also thinking of reviewing Daiso's range of canned drinks and biscuits too. It's very exciting. I guess I'm just happy I've got a project happening! This can extend to podcasts, have friends "guest star" and give their 2 cents on whatever products I'm sampling. Hell! We can review all kinds of cider if we want to (which we/I will).

YAY FOR PROJECTS!

The leftovers

2011-12-27T04:33:00.000-08:00

I talked to my grandfather yesterday morning. Once we got back from New York, I developed a thick wad of photographs for my grandfather and had them sent over to him. He adores photography and has several photo albums close by his bed. I think he went out to buy a new photo album just for these photos because I developed a good 100+ photos. I included some of the ones I took from Thailand. He really liked them. I think the photos are really good to help him take his mind off the cancer. I don't like asking him too much about it, so on the phone we just talked about how nice Thailand was. He said the photos looked really good and that Thailand had amazing scenery.

After that conversation, I've realised that I haven't really talked about the rest of my New York/Flushing trip. I'm just going to post up all the remaining photos I've neglected. They're mostly of food and snow and me looking dorky.

I hope you enjoy these.

My uncle took my father and I to West New York to get a good view of the city. My photos do not do the view any justice. It was amazing and vast!

My uncle then took us to this Japanese Shopping Mall/Food court for lunch. It was a very quiet shopping centre but the place was really clean and there was a very interesting Japanese supermarket. For lunch, I ordered some kind of udon soup noodle. I was still in my "no appetite" phase so I wasn't in the mood for an intense meal. I got the noodles and a piece of prawn tempura.

My dad ordered some kind of Japanese-esque cordon bleu type set meal. See that giant deep fried prawn? No, it's not a massive prawn. It's actually made out of "crab meat"!

My uncle ordered the deep fried pork cutlet meal set. It was all very good value. Huge meals!

After a few days, my other uncle had me and my dad over for a few days. My dad's cousin and his wife also came to stay. My uncle owns a motel in Virginia so my dad and I stayed in one of the rooms. It was awesome to have cable. I think it was around this time where started to get my appetite back. My uncle made that yummy platter of sushi. He was a trained sushi chef when he was younger. He says his skills are little rusty because he hasn't made sushi in a while. He wasn't happy with how it turned out. I think it was because the knife he was using wasn't sharp enough. Regardless, it was yummy as!

That morning, my aunt went to Popeye's to buy me some deep fried chicken because I told her the previous night that I was super into deep fried chicken. It was so good! She also showed me her collection of knitted and crocheted scarves and beanies. She's really talented!

It also snowed that afternoon! It was a big deal for me and my dad. We were pretty excited. My relatives thought we were silly. I was overjoyed! I look like a 12-year old boy in that photo! I'm such a dork.

I'm at Times Square with my dad on my right talking to someone on the phone and my uncle. I hear it's prettier at night. We went on a bus field trip around New York. Probably not the best way to explore the city (we spent 5 minutes outside Central Park). We kept driving past all the awesome food places like Shake Shack etc. I was bummed I didn't get to do all those things.

We ended up going to the Empire State Building. It was all right. The view was fun but the novelty wears off, especially when the process of getting to the roof top was like going through customs at the airport.

This guy somehow managed to sneak his cat into the Empire State Building! Even a security guard was stunned. He asked him how he smuggled the cat in. However, we were in the same queue as him when we were leaving the Empire State Building AND WE COULDN'T SEE THE CAT ANYWHERE! I hope the cat is all right.

We also went on a boat/ferry trip to see the statue of liberty. It's not a great photo but you get my drift. I have so many more photos but I don't think anyone wants to see photos of me and my family posing in front of various monuments.

I think by the end of my trip, it was mainly positive albeit incredibly emotion. I was shocked at how vulnerable my father was and it reminded me that we are all the same on the inside.

I don't mind Christmas. I just hate Boxing Day

2011-12-26T18:18:00.000-08:00

I think most people in retail would agree that working on Boxing Day is the worst day ever. I've been working Boxing Days for the past four years, the fourth year being yesterday, and no matter how well you prepare yourself for it, you really don't know what to expect.

Yesterday was particularly bad, I suppose. I've never had to work a 12 hour shift before and it was made worse because it was so busy. It took 5 minutes to get to opposite end of the store. I was lucky I was in charge of the change rooms and was doing stock so I didn't cop much abuse. The poor girls at the counter had some nasty mums yell at them because they wanted something for cheaper because they found it in the $10 pile. What do people expect on Boxing Day? People put things in the wrong places because they can't be bothered putting it back in the right place. And then there are those customers that treat the store like a bin. I'm not talking about leaving their stupid coffee cups all over the store. I'm talking about spitting in the change rooms. Ick!

I feel like I haven't had much of a break these holidays. Christmas was technically a day off but it was stressful in a different way. It was the first time my parents met Liam's parents. I was really nervous about it because I feared my parents would be rude and not talk to anyone, but they really made an effort, so it turned out super well! I was really happy and we were all stuffed with food by the end of the evening. I had 5 glasses of champagne!

Liam's parents got me a lovely box full of face creams and make up, which I've already started using. I can really feel the difference on my face. Liam's siblings all chipped in and bought us a little voucher to a bed and breakfast so we could spend a few days relaxing in Port Fairy. Liam's parents also got my parents a huge hamper of wines and crackers, which was really nice, and got my brother a $20 iTunes voucher, which I know he was super chuffed about. I got Liam season 1 and season 2 of Community and he got me this portable emergency battery charger.

All in all, a good Christmas!

What did everyone get for Christmas?

Toodouri Korean BBQ

2011-12-13T03:11:00.000-08:00

My friend Liane and I have been friends since 2008, after we met at Uni. She is one of my closest friends. I feel like we have fun together but we can also have really serious talks too. Our friendship can sometimes centralise around food (what good friendship isn't?). One of our best times together was spent eating Korean friend chicken and drinking beer on a hot day with my other very close friend Susie.

In 2009, Liane developed a really expensive addiction to Korean BBQ. When Susie or I asked her what she was doing that night or what she did last night, her reply was 95% "Korean BBQ". Liane nudged us to come with her, but being poor uni students that thought Korean BBQ was $50 a head, we always declined.

Fast forward to 2011, I experienced Korean BBQ. Only two weeks ago, Liane, her boyfriend Shimpei and I went to Toodouri. It was goddamn tasty but I did not take any photos. Second time around, I decided to bring my boyfriend and my camera along.

Toodouri is situated opposite Queen Victoria Market. Apparently that street is pretty full of Korean BBQs, but Liane likes Toodouri the best because the food is decently priced and the service and atmosphere is great. That night, we chose to get a set meal. We got pork belly, bulgogi (we changed it to chicken bulgogi), LA spare ribs and Korean Kimchi soup for a cheap $49.50.

Plus, what's great about Toodouri is their ban chan (the three little dishes that you nibble on) are constantly refilled.

For free.

I particularly like the ban chan at Toodouri because they all taste so different and act as a palette cleanser to the BBQ meats. The creamy macaroni salad is totally westernised and delicious. It's overcooked pasta in a heavy and sweet mayonnaise. It sounds awful but it's actually just really good. Kind of like when you eat spinach dip. The kimchi was amazing: spicy and very acidic. The bean shoots were lightly seasoned and doused in a mild sesame oil. All really different flavours.

They first brought out the pork belly. I don't eat pork so I don't know how that tastes but I'm going to assume it tastes pretty goddamn delicious.

While they were munching on the pork belly, I helped myself to some kimchi soup. It came out of the kitchen all hot and bubbling, spraying Liam's glasses with kimchi soup. It was just what I hoped for: hot and acidic. The soup was bright red with kimchi, onion and tofu. It was just a really nice wholesome soup that went well with the rice.

Once the pork was done, we started on the chicken and the beef. It was so good! The chicken was lightly marinated and super juicy! It went so well with the sauces. The red sauce is made out of soybeans and red pepper (so good and not really all that spicy). The second one is my favourite. It's salt, pepper and sesame oil. Very delicate flavours. The beef was also amazing. Tender and beefy, and the ribs were pretty fun to gnaw on.

They even gave us little trays of garlic that's been soaked in sesame oil. Liam is a garlic fiend. He eats that stuff raw sometimes. I thought I'd give it a go with the beef and it's very interesting. I have to say, I can only eat raw garlic in small doses since it's so potent.

However, we put that little tray of garlic on the BBQ and the sesame basically deep fried the garlic, mellowing out its astringency and turning them into crunchy chips. It was so good with the chicken and the beef.

If you are ever in need of a Korean BBQ fix, Toodouri is a great place. The atmosphere is fantastic and the service is speedy and friendly. I'm already thinking about what to order the next time I come here!

Tooduori
260 Victoria St
North Melbourne, VIC 3003

PS~ Liam's housemates got a new kitten after their cat died. This cutie pie is Yiggy. He's so cute and naughty!

worms and avocado

2011-12-07T18:58:00.001-08:00

creepy worms from choux choux on Vimeo.

My dad keeps these giant buckets in the back yard and they've accumulated water and worms from the rain. They were so gross and interesting so I filmed some of it. Here's the video. If anyone knows what kind of insect these are, please let me know.

Also, say hello to our little avocado. Dad's a whiz in the garden and we've got some avocados growing in our backyard. It's really cool. I can't wait for them to grow bigger.

Political limbo

2011-12-06T01:30:00.001-08:00

I remember telling my English tutor when I was 13 that I thought politics was boring. I had never taken a real interest in politics until my late teens, but even then it was all so basic and summarised. As I grow older, I realise that politics is something that we can’t avoid as every institution has their own political battle.

In Year Ten, our Science teacher moved our Science test the day before we were supposed to sit it. We were so outraged and my friend demanded that no one put their names on their tests as a way of protesting this unfair move by our teacher. I wholly supported this. However, I was also the only one that left their name off their test so the teacher knew it was mine. I was kinda let down by my own comrades.

In Year Eleven my Chemistry teacher said it was compulsory that we all sit a Science competition. It cost two dollars. I didn’t see how it was compulsory if we all had to pay to participate in this science competition. The way I saw it, if I didn’t cough up my $2, I was choosing not to sit this stupid test. But she insisted that it was compulsory. I ended up giving in to her, considering it was only $2.

At the last federal election, I followed it so closely. I stayed up late, watching them come to some non-decision because the votes were so close. It was interesting. We still functioned as a society despite the government being in some kind of limbo. My theory has always been that people were voting below the line because Labor and Liberal had become so similar it was like choosing between which two staplers to use.

As I grow older, I feel that I am quite left-wing, and people seem to think of it as a bad thing. I think being left wing feels right to me. What is wrong with wanting equality for everyone, wanting the world and society to stop exploiting the poor? What is wrong with harmony? What is wrong with despising violence?

Sometimes, it’s unfathomable how narrow-minded our country’s “leaders” are. Take same-sex marriage for example. They go on about the sanctity of marriage being between a man and a woman. I hate that argument. Two words: Kim Kardashian. The fact is that giving people the same rights as everyone else is a basic necessity. You can’t call your country a progressive and diverse country when same-sex couples aren’t allowed to marry.

It’s the same thing with refugees. Since when was it equal and humane to lock up a bunch of people who have done nothing but seek refuge in what they thought was a compassionate country? It makes me so sick that our government is just carting refugees from country to country just like cattle.

Sometimes I feel like it’s just not enough to just believe in these things. Sometimes you need to actively show that you are in support of these issues. It could be through donation, or through protests and rallies. I don’t think I do enough of that.

Perhaps that’s my New Year’s Resolution?

Don't nobody call me a tonkle

2011-12-01T21:39:00.001-08:00

I feel like making a list. It might be interesting to you. But it probably won't be. But if it is then hooray! Here's an awesome video of a French bull dog teaching a baby how to crawl. If you don't instantly love this then you are as cold as ice.

Shoes

You know, I'm getting really irritated with flat shoes at the moment. I can't stand them for some reason. Moccasins are OK, as are loafers and sandals. But your genuine flat shoe that you wear with everything because it's so damn comfortable and versatile? I don't want to wear them ever again.

I realised this when I came back from America. I was searching for my flat shoes to wear in general but I couldn't find them anywhere so I opted for my brown Kurt Geiger boots, my Sportsgirl sandals and whatever else is left in between. I started thinking about the humble flat shoe and I've officially become a hater.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy comfort and I have worn flats these couple of days due to taking too long getting ready for work and finding flats are the easiest and quickest to put on (no laces).

But they're so tame. They're like this nothing shoe that's probably not even that good for your feet if you think about it. Some flats could be considered too flat. I know my foot has a high arch. I'm sure wearing shoes that are too flat can be bad for my feet. Plus the blisters, not to mention the dislodged cartilage at the back of your foot. And the sweat and smell from not wearing socks.

Perhaps I'm just sifting for things to hate about flats. I just think boots, brogues, sandals, heels and everything in between looks so much cooler and some of these shoes are also tolerable for everyday wear. My Kurt Geiger boots are actually a good height, as are my Aldo boots.

Hair

I've been pretty fascinated with the whole tie dye hair trend that seems to be captivating some trendy blonde lasses. There's even a wonderful tutorial by Geneva over at A Pair and a Spare for brunettes wanting some blonde ends (BTW Geneva does some really funky DIY projects on her blog. Totally worth checking out). I used to have purple ends on my hair but it was me going through my faux punk phase. This time around, the whole bleached ends thing looks a lot more rustic. Kinda like just dipping your hair in some bleach. The fancier kids make it look like their hair is gradually becoming lighter.

Here are some photos for inspiration. I'm seriously considering doing this and then dying the ends purple. I think I need to think about this for a few days.

- From Bianca of Kastor & Pollux

- From Dani of Kastor & Pollux

Here's also a really cute video on dip dying hair. The comments are just rude.

Christmas Presents

I often find Christmas time to be the most expensive time of the year because you all of a sudden have about a gazillion friends you need to buy a present for. If you have 10 friends to buy gifts for, even just spending $20 on each friend will set you back $200. Then there's the issue of boyfriends/girlfriends, parents, siblings, the inlaws, cousins, colleagues – whatever – and you could be spending about $500+.

Not many people I know have that kind of money. I think it's great when families do the Kris Kringle thing. I should totally get my family to do this to save some money but I don't know. Last year, I basically got all my friends the same thing: soap. It seemed like a good thing at the time because everything smells amazing. I might do the same thing this year except with necklaces. I saw these gorgeous necklaces shaped like a macaron. I think I'm gonna get all my girlfriends one of those but I don't know about all my guy pals.

What are everyone's plans for Christmas this year? What would be the best gift ever? For me, I'd like a giant wheel of Jarlsberg cheese. Or at least 1kg's worth.

I love Jarlsberg cheese.

SO MUCH.

My week in review

2011-12-01T16:26:00.001-08:00

Monday: Went to Vegie Bar with my friend Liane. I ordered a delicious seitan burger and Liane had the Mexican burrito. The weather was perfect. Yes, it was very hot, but by the time it was evening, it felt really refreshing to be able to sit by a window, chowing down our food with a bottle of Gypsy pear cider. Just bliss. Then we shared a sticky date pudding with cream. Win.

Tuesday: Another hot day. At work, I went to Hungry Jack's to get myself a soft serve. As I was leaving HJ's, my soft serve started melting. Then the wind was blowing dirt and hair into my soft serve. It was awful and sad. I felt like I was the kid that dropped their ice cream, I had to throw it out. After work, I went to Liam's place. We watched the newest episode of Misfits (really good) and had dinner at the Fitzroy Pinnacle. It was great. I had a pint of Gypsy pear cider and a delicious $12 porterhouse steak. I had mine medium rare, which is something I've only started getting into. I'm usually wary of bloody steaks but this one tasted great.

Wednesday: Went to a corporate event. Got super drunk. Had cigarettes and burnt my arm. I don't ever want to drink again. Or at least, not at corporate events.

Thursday: Went to "Wilderness Adventures for the Palate" with Liane and Shimpei at the Melbourne Museum. It was a very interesting event, dubbed "A travelling cocktail party". It's really hard to explain what the event was. We were taken through different parts of the museum while we nibbled and sipped on some very interesting drinks and nibbles. Then we went to Toodouri for some Korean BBQ. Tasty!

Friday: That's today! So far I've just spent my day watching 3rd Rock From the Sun and Bones. It's a pretty chill day.

My plethora of printed dresses and skirts. Below are the jewelry my mum and I bought from ASOS. We have a thing for animal/insect jewelry.

This is my dog Momo. She's so cute!

Tigers love pepper. They hate cinnamon.

2011-11-24T02:18:00.001-08:00

Yeah, so I don't actually look like that first image. I had my hair in a bun all day and when I unleashed my flat hair, it looked lucious and I just HAD TO pose. I look like an 80s Hong Kong pop star. FYI, I had a perm when I was 2. It's technically a very dangerous thing to do to a devoloping brain, but my mum was only 24 and she thought it would look goddamn cute. And I did look very cute. I digress. I bought two dresses, a pair of earrings and a sick bangle on ASOS on the weekend and they finally rocked up on my door step today. Mum rummaged through the package first because she also got some really cool jewelry too. I'll take actual photos of them when I've got some time.

I've been so busy these days. I've got a marketing internship with a crowdfunding website and I work there 3 days a week. Then working on the weekend, I work at my retail job for money. I feel a bit uneasy about my lack of income around Christmas time. I guess I just need to stop going on ASOS! Next week is going to be an intense week. Aside from all the work, I'll be attending two events as a part of this company I'm interning for. People who follow me on twitter probably know where I'm interning. One of these events is an awards events, while the other is the Wilderness Adventure For the Palate event at Melbourne Museum. The website says it's a "traveling cocktail party" so I'm in! Tickets re $45 or $35 if you are in a group of 5+. I'm pretty excited about this. I wonder what I should wear. Maybe I need to buy something new for it....

So these gold earrings are something I'm really into right now. I love gold jewelry and I think these giant door knockers are just fabulous. They're a little heavy though, so they're not really good for every day wear. The dress I'm wearing was kind of a risky buy. I was concerned that the high neckline would give me droopy boobs, but they seem ok at the moment. Maybe I will invest in a necklace or something to detract from the droopiness. I'm also crazy about this bangle. It's got, what looks like cave drawings of camels on it, but the website insists that it is a llama. Whatever it is, it is awesome.

So who else has indulged in online shopping?

pins and needles

2011-11-17T14:05:00.001-08:00

Last night I made last-minute plans to go see a film with Liam. It is not the best time to go see a film because most films want to open either on Boxing Day or a week before it to make money during the Christmas rush. There were only 4 films being screened at my local Village Cinemas, which is a decent cinema complex, and they were all released a good three weeks ago (except for Twilight but no one should have to endure that). What I found annoying was that I couldn't find a synopsis of the films anywhere. Brad Pitt was in something called 'Moneyball' and judging by the poster, it looked like a baseball film. Ick.
We eventually settled on 'In Time'.

I remember seeing the trailer for 'In Time' and thinking that it looked interesting, sans the Cillian Murphy connection. I received a $40 Village gift card on my birthday so I used it. Let me just say, going to the pictures nowadays is so expensive. We got 2 concession tickets, 2 choc tops and 1 small coke for $45. It's crazy expensive. I was lucky I had my voucher.

The film is set in the future where money is replaced with time. Each person stops aging at 25 and to survive, they need more time. Justin Timberlake plays Will Salas who lives in the ghettos and lives each day as it comes. He usually only has a couple of hours left before he heads to work to get some more. Long story short, a man with a century left wants to die so he gives Will all his time. Will goes into New Greenwich, the rich part of town, to win some more money. The Timekeepers (the police officers) think that Will killed the man who gave him all these hours and arrest him. It just gets crazy from there.

I really enjoyed the film. I thought the idea was fantastic that tied in well with all the Occupy stuff happening around the world. Cillian Murphy was in it which is usually a plus for me because I adore that man but he wore this long leather trench coat the WHOLE TIME and it was disgusting. Amanda Seyfried on the other hand looked amazing. Costume really had fun with her character. It was very minimalist. Nipped waists and very short hemlines accentuated Seyfried's stunning pins, paired with GORGEOUS heels: from black Louboutin-esque pumps, to heeled ankle boots. It was perfect. My favourite outfit was this crushed velvet dress, and I don't usually like velvet because they are unforgiving, like lycra and viscose.

Images from: refinery 29 and AmandaSeyfried.net

I also really liked the wig, but I did find it a little disconcerting at first because I'm so used to her as a luscious blonde. I want that hair. I think they could do no wrong with her outfits although I did wonder logistically how a) she could run so fast in those heels and how b) she pulled out these clothes out of thin air when on the run.

Oh man I totally saw the poster for Mission Impossible 4. I have to see that film, and watch all the other Mission Impossible films beforehand. It's just my excuse to fuel my, er, Tom Cruise "thing". Oh, and has anyone seen the third one? Because I have issues with how Phillip Seymour Hoffman dies in that one. He's this incredible villain/badass and dies he from a gunshot wound? He's such an epic character and deserves to be blown up in a helicopter or something. Also the third one sucked because it didn't make ANY sense. I just watched it for the, er, "candy".

God I am so wrong.

Wishful thinking

2011-11-16T14:55:00.001-08:00

The other day, I had the weirdest and probably the coolest dream in the world. I haven't had one this awesome yet and if I have, I've totally forgotten all about it. I was in the midst of a Saw-esque blood bath and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (wearing a GODDAMN NAVY SUIT and pale blue shirt) was in charge of this gang that tortured and shot all these people stealing drugs or something. I was being chased and I was terrified. Then I found out that everything was staged. I watched someone get shot, fall to the ground, laugh hysterically, then get back up. It was fake blood, fake torture and fake guns. Somehow we proceeded back to JGL's awesome apartment, taking turns to shower, wearing JGL's many white, oversized shirts, standing around being awesome in his dimly-lit apartment. JGL apologised for scaring us. I told him it was OK and that he was a really good actor. I may have touched/gripped/squeezd/stroked his arm appreciatively. Then we made out, but it was terrible because he kept sucking on my chin, leaving weird bite marks everywhere.

Now I just want to draw pictures of him.

Who has made awesome guest stars in your dreams? Haha ;)

Gluttony

2011-11-12T01:02:00.001-08:00

If I was to be punished for committing a sin, it would be gluttony. I eat so much even when I'm not hungry. If something looks delicious and tastes amazing, I will keep eating it until I can't eat anymore. I'm like Homer when he went to hell and Satan makes him eat donuts as a punishment for being a glutton. I think I'm no different.

I went to a wonderful bar called Kelly's in Olinda today to celebrate my friend's 23rd birthday. It was really casual and the weather was beautiful so we sat outside having beers and burgers. They have wonderful beers on tap and they change beers once the keg finishes so you're always able to sample new beers every time you visit.

The interior of the bar looks like a cosy wood cabin. There's even a fire place and cushy couches for your comfort. I had the pleasure of going to Kelly's in winter so we got to sit by the fire, eating amazing dessert and sipping on chocolate ale. Yes, they had chocolate ale on tap. $4 a pot, baby!

Speaking of the food, their wagyu beef burger is amazing. I sadly don't have any photos, but the portions are huge. A fat patty of wagyu beef with melted cheese and fried egg is perched on top of a toasted bun smothered in chipotle aioli. It comes with bacon but I didn't get bacon with my burger. It also comes with a big serve of fries. Yum. It does cost $19.50, but it's really worth it.

Then there's the dessert.

Oh. My. God.

The dessert menu has changed since the last time I went to Kelly's. Last time I got a rhubarb crumble. It wasn't that good because the crumble just wasn't baked and caramelised for my liking. The crumble was missing from the menu today. In place, they had a Bailey's cheese cake with a Bailey's sauce. Apparently that's amazing. I ended up getting the Devonshire tea set: Three soft, freshly baked scones served with home made strawberry jam, whipped cream and a cup of tea. So wonderful, but it ended up getting too much for me. Lucky my friends helped me out so no food was wasted.

I wanted to talk about my conversation with my friends Matt and Elga, but I think this post should end about here. I'll save that story for another day. Right now, if you're ever in Olinda and on Mount Dandenong Tourist Road, please please please visit Kelly's Bar. It's such a chilled place and the staff are really friendly.

Kelly's Bar and Kitchen

1510 Mount Dandenong Tourist Road,
Olinda, VIC, 3788

Bubbles

2011-11-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to get back to my old sleeping patterns. Ever since I got back from overseas, I pass out before 11pm and wake up around 6am. This current sleeping arrangement is actually more productive than my old "sleep at 2am, wake up at 6am, snooze till 7am" thing. It's just really different and I don't bode well with change, regardless of how miniscule it is.

Being on a plane for a total for 2.5 days means that I've seen A LOT of films. I wouldn't normally watch that many because I get depressed, but when you're on a plane, what else can you do? So here is the list of films I saw on the plane, including a mini review. Go!

- Midnight in Paris: I was reluctant to see this one because the plot sounded a little "eh" but when I found out that Adrien Brody was in it, I couldn't not see it (yes, that is how I make my movie-watching decisions. I'm so shallow). It turned out to be quite good, and probably really fitting with my current disillusioned state. It's basically about this guy called Gil who is having trouble writing and trouble showing people his writing. He's in Paris with his fiancé, who hates it there, but he's mesmerized and in love with the city. He goes on these little walks at midnight and some awesome adventures ensue. It's a nice film, makes me think about how similar I can be to Gil.

- The Help: I saw this because I thought Ryan Gosling was in it. I remember Emma Stone was in a film where she gets to make out with Ryan Gosling so I thought this was the film. He wasn't in the film, but the film is amazing. Set in the 60s, it's about this young woman named Skeeter who is writing a book about the help in a Mississippi, who have to raise white children while their own children are stuck at home. There's a lot of racial tension between the rich white women and their maids, and Bryce Dallas Howard is amazing in it as the bigoted Hilly Hollbrook. It's funny and moving (spurs a range of emotions within you). Also, anyone else think Emma Stone and Chris Colfer look similar, like brother and sister similar?

- Monte Carlo: This is one of those Disney life swap films starring the latest tween hottie and in this case it is Selena Gomez, paired with Katie Cassidy and Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl reunion). It's not a very good film, but Selena Gomez does all right donning a posh British accent. It seems like one of those films either made for TV or should go straight to DVD.

- Friends with Benefits: This one was enjoyable, probably because Justin Timberlake is just so damn fine. But that was not why I watched it. I wanted something light after watching 'The Help' so I watched this. It's entertaining and Justin Timberlake is a pretty decent actor. It's about two friends who decide to have sex, no strings attached, and they end up falling for each other. I didn't catch the end of the film because I had to get off the plane so if anyone wants to spoil the ending for me, please do.

- Horrible Bosses: Again, goofy comedy to take my mind off things. It is actually really good. I really enjoyed this one. I suppose it's kind of like Superbad, except it's not really about getting laid before college. Basically, three friends are really sick of how badly their bosses treat them so they decide to kill their bosses. Except things obviously don't go as planned and it is goddamn HILARIOUS. Also Jennifer Aniston is in it and she's brilliant. I've never seen her as a non-Rachel before, so I enjoyed her performance.

- Scream 4: I was thinking "Was filming this film weird for Courtney Cox and David Arquette?" the whole time I was watching this. Although, they've been divorced for a couple of years so maybe they're just good friends now. Anyway, it was VERY Wes Craven and very much like all the Screams. It starred a very husky Hayden Panettiere and Emma Roberts, who I adore. I thought Emma Roberts was ace in it. It also had Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars), Shenae Grimes (Degrassi!), Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell, but they were only in it for like 5 seconds. It's not the best horror film I've ever seen. I still think the first Scream was the best one. I think it should be watched with the other three Screams at a slumber party or something. Also, anyone know what Neve Campbell has been up to? She was like the darling of the mid to late 90s.

- Bridesmaids: I was expecting this to be heaps funnier than what it was, which is my fault. I had one of those epiphany moments watching this one. I realised that I can be exactly like Annie when things are bad. I end up feeling sorry for myself and pitying myself which isn't productive. I think I should watch this film every time I have one of my "moods". Other than that, it is a very good film. Kristin Wiig and Chris O'Dowd are in it so that's a win. Plus I think everyone can relate to what Annie is going through since we all have friends who we grow apart from.

- The Hangover II: I didn't know what to expect with this one but it was very entertaining. I haven't seen the first one and I've been told that I should see the sequel as a film on its own, rather than a sequel. Everything made sense, and was funny. Zach Galifianakis is adorable and hilarious and everyone loves the psychosis that comes bottled in one of Ken Jeong's alter egos.

I also saw X Men: First Class and Transformers 3. Everyone probably knows how I feel about XM3 (what's not to love about James McAvoy?). I saw Transformers 3 in cinemas the day I got back from Thailand so I fell asleep half way through the film. I tried to watch it again on the plane but I feel asleep again so that might actually say something about the film.

The disillusionment charm

2011-11-07T17:29:00.000-08:00

I've been back from New York for about 4 days. I always go through one of those "What am I doing with my life?" crises every time I come back from holiday. It's mainly because when I am away, it's like I've put my life momentarily on pause. I'm a procrastinator so this kind of lifestyle suits me but when I have moments of D and M, it makes me hate myself. I suppose I'm just very un-confrontational through and through and it weaves its way into my thought process and way of living. Got bills to pay? Do it later when I'm not going through a solo Bones marathon. Yeah, see, television is the best way to avoid your life entirely. You watch characters live their lives and in a twisted way, your mind makes you think that you're doing something with purpose.

My issue is that I recognise these things and hate myself for feeding my 'life-threatening' procrastination. I'm entirely to blame. Why beat myself up and whinge that I have a shit time when I don't actively change it? I shouldn't feel sorry for myself. It's pathetic and very unproductive. Life doesn't hand stuff to you, you have to make it happen. I suppose that's why I hate Serena Van Der Woodsen more than Blair Waldorf (although, believe me, I don't like Blair either). Serena is handed everything and has it pretty cruisy.

This trip to New York has been very disillusioning in a couple of ways. Yes, the city itself is entirely disappointing, but so is this happy family portrait I've conceived of my extended family. Perhaps my family situation has soured my perception of the city, although I believe my feelings towards New York are fairly warranted. I really wanted to like New York, and perhaps if I come back I will. But that city has its issues. I guess that's why Occupy Wall Street is such a big deal.

I don't think you can be financially struggling and live happily in New York City. Sure, food is damn cheap, but rent isn't and pay is low. If you think you can intern your way to the top (which is probably doable), you've gotta make sure you've got some money there to get you by because I've heard New York companies exploit free-labouring interns. All these TV shows and films like Sex and the City and Gossip Girl paint New York as this amazing place where dreams come true and everyone looks gorgeous. But Carrie and her girlfriends are already established in their careers and buy Manolo Blahniks. Serena and Blair come from super rich families. Even lonely boy Dan Humphrey has a rich dad and a hip, rustic Brooklyn apartment.

My dad's aunty lives in the city. She has a stomach or intestinal cancer and her stomach is very swollen. It hurts to eat. Her apartment couldn't be more tragic. Broken floor tiles are taped together. Uncomfortably dim lights. Everything looks dirty, but it's not; it's just the apartment. It's dingy because it's old. It's expensive because it's old.

My own grandparents are squished into this tiny apartment in Flushing. My aunt and uncle have to rent out some of the rooms because rent is so high. There are seven people living in this one apartment. My aunt and uncle share a room with their two children.

Sitting outside a luxury store was a recently homeless woman. She was sleeping in thick jackets with two little dogs in tow, all bundled up in jumpers. Next to her were three back packs. She was carrying a sign that said she was pregnant and her boyfriend kicked her and her dogs out. She has no money or anywhere else to go so she's begging for money.

How can such poverty exist in a city where hotels can charge almost $10000 a night?

I'm just angry and when I post this I'll regret that I did it. I just feel like I've been lied to. People can be really attached to the city they live in and I apologise if my observations offend you. If I had gone to New York for reasons other than visiting sick family members, then maybe my opinion of the city would be very different.

Right now, I feel thoroughly disillusioned.

You're worth the whole damn bunch put together!

2011-10-26T15:17:00.000-07:00

It was probably a bad idea to visit Chinatown. It’s just a busier version on Flushing. There’s nothing to do there. And people are goddamn rude. It’s like every man for himself. Don’t mind the woman pushing a pram, walk right in front of her. And there are very few public toilets. I found some dingy Chinese shopping centre in Chinatown and while their toilets were very clean, they had no toilet paper. I had to ask around for paper. One lady was kind enough to give me some. Sigh.

This whole trip has been a bit of a let down considering it feels like we travelled so far just to go to Box Hill. But whatever – this trip is to visit my sick grandfather, not really about going shopping and eating burgers.

The highlight so far has been visiting Katz’ Delicatessen.

It’s famous for not only making the best pastrami sandwiches EVER, but you know that scene in When Harry Met Sally where Meg Ryan fakes an orgasm? Yeah, that was shot at Katz’s. We sat right next to where Sally sat.

Here I am, being all touristy. Y'all say hello to mah leopard coat! My dad and I hailed a 'cab' to get to Katz's. We were that keen. When we got out of the cab, there was a small queue running outside the deli. It was super packed inside. You have to grab a ticket to order food, and if you lose that ticket, you have to pay a $30 fee. Basically, you go up to the different sections to order your food. There's a grill, sandwich, sides and desserts sections where you order what you want. Once that's all made, you hand your ticket over and the chefs scribble on it. Once you finish eating, you queue up for the counter and hand over your ticket, even if you haven't used your ticket. The guys there will calculate how much your food costs and you pay.

So much meat. That is some good pastrami. When you order, the chefs carve up some meat for you to nibble on while they make your tasty, tasty meat sandwich. This is the pastrami sandwich: soft, delicious pastrami slapped between two pieces of fresh rye bread. Add some mustard and pickles and you've got yourself a fucking sweet meal. It was so big that dad and I shared one sandwich.

My dad also wanted something sweet so we got two slices of New York Cheesecake. What was interesting with the cheesecake that although it wasn't very wet like some cheesecakes, it wasn't too dry and crumbly. It also didn't tasty overwhelmingly cheesy like some of the drier cheesecakes. It was sweet, and had just the right amount of cheese flavour. The fruit glaze was sweet, and again, what was interesting was that there was no biscuit base like some of the cheesecakes I'm familiar with. I really liked it, although dad thought it was too dry.

I was dropping Katz trivia, telling my dad about when this place was established and their whole salami delivery service when lo and behold, the owner/manger of Katz emerged from somewhere. He's a big guy, super tall and he's in all the pictures on the Katz's wall of fame. He was really friendly too. He didn't talk to me but he totes smiled at dad (I was jealous as) while he walked past us. It was awesome.

The next day we had breakfast at the same Fu Zhou eatery. We ordered these awesome savoury donut things that I ate when I was a kid visiting family in China.

I also ordered some soy milk, and a plate of these noodles in a soy and peanut butter sauce. My mum makes this at home and I always just thought she invented this dish when she came to Australia. It's actually super popular, although the one I had wasn't as tasty as the ones I or my mum make. It's so super easy too!

We went back into Chinatown to meet up with my dad's cousin. It was a really emotional day, actually. I don't really want to talk too much about it, but it was one of those trips where you learn more about the people you are related to. I had this moment when I got home where I just had to cry a lot. I felt like I was Nick Caraway and my dad was Jay Gatsby and everyone else were the Toms, Daisies and Jordans. Things felt kinda fucked up and unfair.

Anyway, here are some photographs of what we ate. We had so much food, but my fingers got too sticky to fiddle with the camera. I'm gonna say this again, though: food in NY is so cheap. This banquet we had cost $198 altogether.

Pseudo - Fukkien

2011-10-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

So day two of Flushing. I have to admit, I’m already bored. I feel like there’s really not much to do in Flushing and it’s just made worse when you know you are actually in New York, and an hour’s train ride to New York City. Unless you’re out eating heaps, there’s not much to do here. My uncle showed my dad and me where some of the shopping centres are. I thought Flushing Mall would be awesome, but it’s super empty there. We ended up going to Macy’s to buy my grandfather a North Face jacket because his one is ripped. Macy's is kinda like a Myer. It's essentially a department store.

I’ve been making a few observations about Flushing. The first one is that the majority of the Chinese population here speak the same dialect my parents speak. My mum says it’s called Fukkien, but I think it’s a bit different. Anyway, it’s really rare to find anyone who speaks this pseudo-Fukkien dialect, so it really felt like I was in China when every Chinese person I encountered was speaking this dialect.

So I guess it was fitting when my dad suggest we eat at a fu zhou eatery. I had a bowl of soy milk and a wedge of taro that’s been deep fried. I think what they did was cook some taro, grate it, lightly season with either salt or light soy, a bit of sugar and some allspice. So good.

Dad also ordered some dumplings. I didn't eat any because I don't eat pork, but he said it was awesome, way better than anything in Melbourne. Afterwards, and I mean straight after breakfast, we went to yum cha. It was all right – decently tasty.

I’ve also noticed that my appetite has diminished drastically. I don’t know if it’s because of the nature of my trip or the plane ride where we were fed every three hours, but I’m not hungry. My dad says it’s because I haven’t done a lot of exercise so my body’s not burning up as much energy. I don’t know if that’s altogether true. I hope not, because there’s so much I could be eating. They have a Popeye’s around here, plus this place called Barone’s Pizza where everyone flocked towards at about 1pm, forming huge lines up the road.

Actually, what’s interesting is that all the eateries declare their health inspection grade and put up huge posters about choking. I wonder if they’ve made it mandatory for eateries and restaurants to do that. Maybe shop owners are liable for chocking customers so therefore they have these posters up as a precaution. It’s like that McDonald’s ‘urban legend’ where someone sued McDonald’s because they burnt their tongue with their coffee.

Anyway, here are some photos of flowers. they're not very good. My little cousin kept throwing tantrums because I was hogging the camera and he wanted to take photos. It was really frustrating:

PURPLE BEANS!

SQUIRREL

2011-10-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

Goddamn that last post was a terrible blog post. I reread it and it was just awful. So hopefully, I can make up for it right now.

So today was day one in Flushing. It wasn't the most exciting of days considering all we did was hang around my uncle's place with the grandparents, and while that's all nice and lovely, you can only do so much without internet or a TV (yes, their TV doesn't work *sobs*). My grandma, dad and I went to the main street (also called Main Street) in Flushing to buy some groceries. It was pretty cool, but it did remind me of Box Hill a lot. But get this: FOOD IS SO CHEAP. It's unbelievable, and that's even with tax! We had breakfast this morning in a restaurant. We had some soy milk, you tiaos (fried dough) and onion pancakes – very Beijing, apparently. It cost us fucking $5.50. NO SHIT.

Oh and we bought 6 lobsters today for $57. YES FOOD IS THAT CHEAP. And I got some goober peanut butter and grape jelly because it was FUCKING $2.98.

But in all seriousness though, I got to hang out with my grandparents. I think my grandfather really wants to go back to China. I think he hates it here. I was showing him pictures of our house in Australia and he started talking about the house he lived in in China. He had some pictures of the house and it was a beautiful place, HEAPS nicer than my aunt and uncle's. I know my aunt and uncle are doing their best to have everyone feel comfortable, but the house is TINY and they even have a housemate who, I reckon, probably feels really weird living with this family. He probably doesn't feel like it's even his home. I don't think it's the best place for my grandparents, and they also have to take care of my little cousins while my aunt and uncle are at work. It's not ideal at their age and situation.

My grandma showed me all the letters from my grandpa's doctor. Let's just say I've learned more about cancer today. It only just dawned on me that this cancer treatment is probably costing my aunt and uncle a lot of money, considering America's healthcare system is actually shocking. I'll be giving my grandparents $1000 soon, so hopefully, if they wish to use it that way, that money can go towards any medical bills.

I have to say, I really don't like one of my cousins. I'm psychoanalysing him and I really shouldn't because he's only 7 years old, but I just get the feeling he's going to grow up to be a bit nasty shit when he gets older. General selfishness and dissatisfaction with losing is very evident, and I know these are traits that are common with children, because they don't get "the bigger picture", but I really don't know any children who are like him. I should give him the benefit of the doubt though.

Anyway, here are some pics of Flushing.

Flushed Away!

2011-10-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

Hello all! I'm actually in America right now! It's so weird, it actually feels like I'm in China, probably because of all the relatives. I thought we were going to be staying with my Uncle but my god their little apartment is goddamn tiny, so my grandma has gotten us to stay at this house. It's kinda like a hostel, I suppose. It's basically a house with 3 rooms and where a bunch of people can stay at for $100 a night. I'm currently sharing a room with my dad. He's snoring away while I type all this in the dark. I don't know what we have planned tomorrow but we really need to buy some basic toiletries and power adapters.

The flight over to NY has been super long. We flew to LA and then to NY. The good thing was that we had a really good selection of films and TV shows to watch. I suppose I'm not used to that because I fly with Jet Star a lot and they don't give you shit. I saw this really 'eh' film called Monte Carlo which stars Selena Gomez, Katie Cassidy and Leighton Meester. It's one of those Lizzy McGuire-esque films. I watched it because I wanted to see how Leighton Meester could perform as a not-Blair. She was all right. I think her character wasn't terribly great. She was like a toned down version of Blair Waldorf, and heaps nicer.

Anyway, I'm feeling myself drift to sleep so I shall write some more later!

Adieu!

um...

2011-10-19T05:31:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK!

That's all I have to say.

food list

2011-10-16T05:13:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I'm actually going to New York on Thursday. I really hope everything goes well. I've never been on such a long flight before. I'm gearing up my laptop with all kinds of TV shows, and my iPod too, in case I need a TV fix when my laptop battery is used up. I've got a pretty NY travel guide book but I'm on the look out for a nice novel to read. Nothing too deep or difficult, but entertaining enough to finish. And nothing too heavy either. I might just end up bringing Brave New World or The Great Gatsby with me.

I've started packing today, but I fell asleep while doing so. I've got a cold and hayfever at the moment, so things suck a bit. My parents want me to get better ASAP so that I don't get quarantined in the US. Plus, it would just be the worst thing ever to have to be on a plane for almost 24 hours with a cold. I've packed a few things, but my mum is telling me that there is no point for me to bring any dresses to the US since it's going to be super cold. I am, however, bringing my awesome ASOS leopard print coat. It's going to moult so I'll have to keep it encased in a plastic bag or something, but I'm glad I can get some extra wear from it.

I've also been researching awesome food places to eat at. I'm going to write a list. It's gonna be fun!

Katz's Deli - I've been super keen on this place ever since Sun visited that place on Masterchef. I've been getting into pastrami these days, since it's the only red deli meat I can eat since I don't eat pork. I've already told my dad that we're going to split a pastrami sandwich there. I can't wait.
Shake Shack - I came across this place after reading a blog post from Blushing Ambition. Annabel went there when she was in NY and her photos look awesome. Since I'm such a huge fan of burgers, I've been hankering for one of their cheeseburgers.
Pomme Frites Inc. - I think this is NY's version of Lord of the Fries. They basically have real poutine there, plus something called Irish Curry. Sounds intriguing!
Papaya King - I found out about this place through How I Met Your Mother. It's basically the most famous hot dog place ever. Their hot dog combo meals include TWO hotdogs. Awesome much?!

My body is a zombie for you

2011-10-01T05:52:00.000-07:00

I've been dousing my body with gin and tonics. They are literally the most refreshing alcoholic drinks ever. Plus you don't feel bloated like when you have too much beer or champagne. No heartburn.

I've just submitted my second review for the Fringe Festival. I hope it's OK. I'm concerned that it is too much like a crappy what-not-to-do Year 12 art essay. I pondered out loud on Twitter if I should submit it online and I was told me to trust myself and just do it. So I did. I guess even if the review is terrible, maybe someone will tell me and give me some constructive feedback.

The review is of this wonderful art installation called "Dining with Cordyceps" by artist Jodie Goldring. I strongly urge you all to see it because it is actually amazing. Gosh, I am hyperbolic this evening. It must be the gin. But seriously, please go visit it. It's absolutely amazing and it will really make you think about your own buying habits and attitudes towards waste.

In other wonderful news, I have the day off tomorrow! It's been a crazy week at work with all the VM I had to do and also all the crazy influx of school kids on their school holidays. Gah. I really don't know why the hell I'm in retail because I find some customers just abhorrent. I just can't wait for the day where I get to quit my job.

But until then, here's an amazing video:

un momento

2011-09-27T05:23:00.000-07:00

I was asking my mum what we would be doing in New York. I wasn't sure if we would be at the hospital or my uncle's house the majority of the time since we aren't in New York for a holiday or anything. But it seems like I must have more relatives than I knew because mum mentioned all these people on my dad's side of the family who we will be visiting a lot. Plus, my dad's cousin will be in New York. He lives in Canada and when he heard that my dad was coming to New York, he decided to come as well. I think he and my dad are really close, which makes me feel relieved. I get the impression that my father was a bit of a loner as a child. I'm glad he and his cousin were close. I remember his cousin and his wife came to stay with us back in '96 when they were visiting. My brother was just born and I think I was stunned that someone in my family could speak some basic English.

I also asked if we would be eating out much and if we would be doing all the touristy stuff like visiting the statue of liberty and Central Park. She said we should be, which is kinda nice. I'm getting increasingly excited about this trip, but at the same time, I do feel like I shouldn't be. I keep seeing things online like, say, Bobbi Brown make up, and think to myself, "I'm gonna buy shit loads of that in NY" and then remind myself that I'm there to see my grandpa. I think it's just me placing unnecessary pressure on myself to feel sadder than I am.

Anyway, I don't really have much to say other than that. I was looking online at Forever 21 and Liam suggested that I could possibly start buying stuff online and have it shipped to my uncle's place so I save on shipping. It's not a bad idea, I think. I'm not sure if I "need" anything from Forever 21 (ha ha), but I asked my mum about it and she said it should be fine as long as we give my uncle the heads up about an incoming package.

I hope you're all having a good week! The Fringe Festival started last week and my review is totally published on the buzzcuts website. Go check out all the reviews and support local arts!

procrastinating

2011-09-24T04:36:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to my first Fringe Festival gig. It was a really good show and now I need to write a review about it but I'm feeling writer's block at the moment and I need to have it all done by tomorrow. I'm having trouble, mostly because of self-doubt. I'm just scared I'll write a shit review. I've been reading all the reviews on the buzz cuts website and they've all been really good so I'm feeling a bit nervous, but I really shouldn't since it's only a 350 word review and I really enjoyed the show.

Actually, last night I had to go to the show alone, which is something I rarely do because I'm scared of being independent or something. So when I rocked up to the venue early, I basically made a beeline for the bar and ordered myself a pint of Lithuanian beer. I thought we weren't allowed to bring drinks with us to the performances so I basically tried to drink a pint of beer in 7 minutes, which I'm clearly not able to do. Then, when I decided to abandon my beer, I realise that drinks were allowed into shows, so I ran back into the bar and grabbed my beer (hoping that no one has spiked the damn thing) and dashed back in line.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IN SOCIAL SITUATIONS!

Seriously, this is why people get drunk at mingling events. It quells your anxiety. Dulls out your perception that other people know that you are here alone. It's like texting someone or using your smartphone between bands at music concerts. Because the idea of people knowing you are alone is worse than actually being alone.

Is this the same for everyone, or is it just me?

I need to write this review.

blooming

2011-09-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

That's the pile of clothes in my room. I have a keyboard but I don't know how to play it so it spends its days holding my clothes. My mum gets extremely frustrated by this. She says my room is so messy that no one will be willing to be my future housemate. I just don't think keeping my room neat is anyone's business. It's not like my room is the public space that everyone hangs out at. But I have since cleared up the mess.

That's my sweet dog Momo. My wonderful ASOS purchases came in the mail the other day, and I was so happy. I had a really tiring day at work so to come home to a huge parcel really made my day. I bought the red suede loafers and the floral dress. I love them all to bits and I can't wait to wear them!

Are you guys ready for some camwhoring? Basically, it's just me standing in front of a mirror. I've never been good at doing those outfit post things. I don't have a tripod and I always feel silly taking pictures of myself. But this dress is awesome so it roughly makes up for my embarrassment.

They're not very good photos, but you get the drift of things. It actually looks a lot nice in person than in the photo. It makes my shoulders look small! I bought it a size too big so it's very roomy. I think that's great, but I guess I have to avoid wearing this dress on a windy day.

A mortal combat

2011-09-22T01:26:00.000-07:00

This week has been long and rife with emotions. I can't help but think "so many people have died this week". Perhaps all this talk about mortality is really plummeting my spirits.

Liam's housemate's cat died this week. She was bitten by a snake. It's awful news and I really liked that cat. She was so affectionate and playful. His housemate is overseas at the moment and I don't know if they've told her yet or not, but it's just devastating.

No doubt anyone who uses the internet will know that Troy Davis was executed today for the alleged murder of a security guard.

There are so many things wrong with this, namely that:

They're not actually 100% that he was the one who killed the security guard because 7 out of 9 witnesses retracted their statements. Davis has vehemently denied it, and claimed innocence.

I strongly disagree with capital punishment. I don't think any government or body of power has any right to decide if a person should live or die. I don't think it's any different to murdering a person. The system itself becomes what it is punishing.

Even if Davis was guilty of murdering that security guard, the fact remains that a lot of others who have committed similar acts have been locked up in jail, rather than face the lethal injection. What makes this particular crime so different that it warrants the death penalty?

There are so many questions surrounding it and we will probably never know the answer. A lot of people think it might be because he is a black man and was trialed differently. It just really upsets me that something as inhumane exists as part of law. It makes me sick.

Then there was the suicide of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, who was taunted by bullies for being bisexual. What's upsetting is that he's tried so hard to be strong and ignore the nasty gay slurs, but I guess it got to him in the end, which upsets me greatly. He posted a video on youtube as a part of the "It Gets Better" campaign to help and give hope to other gay/bisexual teens out there who are having a hard time coming out or dealing with all that homophobic crap.

Here is Jamey's video. It's very sweet and honest.

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I'm so upset and saddened by this. If anyone is going through something similiar, or if you know someone who might be depressed, please seek help.

Beyond Blue call 1300 22 4636
The Kids' Helpline call 1800 55 1800

The bath salts – they're starting to effervesce

2011-09-18T21:15:00.000-07:00

Oh what glorious weather! I'm so used to cold weather that I was still wearing my thick robe over my flannel PJs this morning. I decided to get dressed and felt a bit scared that I was only wearing a t shirt and shorts. I haven't worn single layers since Thailand. I have the day off again (thank you!) and I've found myself in a bit of a slump but I think getting dressed certainly helped things.

I think my problem is that I watch way too much TV. I'm onto the last season of Friends. I don't know what I'll be watching next, although I'm very pleased that all my favourite shows are coming back on air this week! That's the thing with TV: it's a bit of a weird relationship. You get sucked in and you rarely want to do anything else. However, I do think I have something to write about today that relates to the TV I watch. Like I said before, I've been watching a lot of Friends. As a show, it's funny. It's good background fodder, really, and sometimes you need that. You rarely get massive LOLs but it's not unfunny enough to make you not watch it.

Anyway, I've realised that I have a few issues with Friends when it comes to their portrayal of masculinity. It actually does bother me quite a bit. One of my favourite characters is Chandler and I've noticed that he gets panned a lot, and usually the insults are directed at his lack of masculinity, perhaps more at how he doesn't reach the general standards of masculinity. And usually, that just means he's possessing feminine qualities.

One example that springs to mind is when Chandler takes his first bath. He enjoys it very much but he needs a toy ship in the bath with him to assert to himself that it's OK for him to do a seemingly "girly" activity. Apparently the toy boat cancels out all the candles and bubbles.

I suppose it just annoys me that TV’s way of showing what isn’t masculine is by being feminine, and it shits me a lot. There’s nothing wrong with being feminine and I don’t see why it should be a problem for a man to possess feminine qualities. And in fact, these ‘feminine qualities’ aren’t exclusively female if you think about it. Wanting to be clean and odourless (or, just pleasant smelling) is a pretty standard thing for men and women, so why is there a problem with a man having a bubble bath? Hygiene and being hygienic shouldn’t be exclusive to one gender.

Anyway, that’s my mini rant. I should probably look into some academic papers on Friends. I think it would be interesting.

A bad space

2011-09-16T22:40:00.000-07:00

My mum was telling me about how my grandfather's cancer is going. Apparently it is actually terminal and he probably has a couple of months left. However my dad's clinging onto some slither of hope that he's going to be OK. Mum said he's going through chemo this week and doctors are yet to say if the cancer has spread to other parts of his body.

I don't know if it's appropriate to write about it in a very public arena. The truth is, I don't want to talk about it in person with anyone. It's not that it makes me terribly sad so much as I don't see how it's really relevant to bring something like this up in conversation. I remember bringing this up during a session at the gym with my friend Karmen. I think at the time I just needed to tell someone about it.

Sometimes it strikes me how normal everything is. Eating dinner and going about our usual dinner routines seems absurdly normal, and it alarms me that we are able to be so normal. It alarms me more when we can laugh. My mum's being very 'real' about it. Or existential about it. I think it's good. I know she's sad about it, but, like me, I think we're sad for my dad more than anything else. Maybe that's how we cope with this kind of news.

Anyway, that's it. I hope the weekend cheers everyone up.

Defaming Reviews

2011-09-15T17:50:00.000-07:00

Last week at the Buzz Cuts reviewing workshop, they handed out a defamation guideline written by Mary Kozlovski that discussed defamation law. It's made me feel a little uneasy because it seems like anything you write can be defamation if you aren't careful.

What definitely enters my mind is a little incident on the blogosphere, probably about 6 months ago where a blogger visited The Hardware Societe and implied that the restaurant's terrine wasn't very good and made a comment that it might not have been well refrigerated. Someone from the actual restaurant wrote a comment on the blog, very upset because she believed that the blog defamed the integrity of the restaurant and the hard work of the chefs and wait staff. Anyway, my point is, I suppose something as little as "so and so's chicken soup was a tepid temperature" implies a lot of things, although situations do vary. I read many food blogs that honestly say certain dishes at a restaurant lack crunch or say the meat was too sinewy etc, and I don't think that it would be considered to be defamation. I guess when they actively say "don't come here again" or imply food poisoning, that's probably where they cross the line.

At the workshop, the professional reviews said that if a show was morally challenging and perhaps racist/homophobic/sexist, then we should make a point of it in our reviews. But what if you're not too sure if they were being racist/homophobic/sexist? I suppose the reason why defamation happens is when one party accuses another of something, and that something is not entirely backed up with evidence. For example, if you imply someone's work is plagiarised and you don't back it up, you'd get into a lot of legal crap.

Then there's also the issue of a show that's just awful. What do you do? I think a lot of reviewers probably grapple what that ethical pickle, especially when you review a show where you know that the makers have put a lot of effort and heart into it. Do you be that scathing reviewer, or do you try to find a positive? It's pretty hard, I would assume. I remember writing a review on Katy Perry's first mainstream album and I basically hated it a lot, and when I think about it now, it wasn't a very good review.

I suppose this is just something I should eventually work out on my own, and I'm glad there's a defamation seminar on Monday. Hopefully all my concerns will be eased and if not, at least I get the chance to speak to someone about it.

So far...

2011-09-14T02:37:00.000-07:00

I have the day off tomorrow. I am so stoked about that. I've been working what feels like a full time load, but I'm only casual. But it's OK. The money should be good and it's only until the new 2IC starts. I'm actually very terrible at my job but I'm the only one with full availability so my manager has had no choice but to have me work every day.

I'm really excited about tomorrow. I'll be having some food with Susie after she finishes class and then I'm gonna meet up with Liam after he finishes work and we're going to suss out some more food. He recently bought one of those Entertainment coupon books and he hasn't used a single coupon so I think tomorrow is time to do that. With that said, anyone recommend any places for us to eat at?

Anyway, so right now I'm enjoying my evening with a bag of Doritos (The 'Hot Mexican Salsa' flavour is Uh-Mazing) and a bag of sour gummy worms. I'm really letting loose tonight. I'm probably gonna make myself several gin and tonics to celebrate my day off tomorrow. Man, I wish I had some of that Swedish cider. I hate how bars char $13 a bottle. Just ridiculous.

On a different topic, I've been really into big earrings, especially art deco style earrings. Well, I don't know if they are "art deco" but they're what I think of when someone says "art deco". Anyway, ASOS have some amazing ones at the moment! Oh and I also bought some shoes and a dress from ASOS last night.

Here are some of the earrings I want to buy.

How do you react?

2011-09-11T05:14:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to New York at the end of October. Well, I technically won't be in New York City, but New Jersey, which, in a way, is kind of disappointing. However, the reason I am going to New York is because my grandfather has lung cancer and my dad wants to visit him. I think originally he wanted to go with my mum but I have a feeling he'd rather go with me because my english is better. Mum jokes it's because my grandfather likes me the best. That's probably partially true considering I am his fist grandchild.

All that aside though, I'm pretty OK with everything at the moment. I had my cry. I'm fine. I'm more worried about my dad. He hasn't seen his dad for years and I when I think about him being upset, I end up feeling very upset too. I think my crying has been 30% concerned about my grandfather and 70% concerned about my dad. I wonder if that's the wrong way to feel. I'm concerned about my grandfather - there is no question about that - but I'm closer with my father. I rarely see him vulnerable and I guess, it's alarming when strong people are vulnerable.

Even though the reason for this trip is awful, I can't help but think about all the touristy things I might get to do. For example, visit Harlem and eat at a legit diner like the one that was featured on Masterchef (If you remember what that place was called, please let me know in the comment section). Plus pastrami sandwiches. And general closeness to things like Forever 21, H&M etc.

God, am I an awful person to be thinking about these things when my grandfather is very sick? I feel like I shouldn't be thinking about shopping and food. I feel like I should be openly weeping or something, but I can't. I suppose I should just feel what I feel, not what I am supposed to feel. It's like when you don't react to the way society wants you to react, it makes you a bad person. I think that's unfair.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. I hope everyone has a good week. I'll be posting more frequently (hopefully) to practice for the Fringe Festival. The Buzz Cuts workshop was really good. Speakers were Richard Watts, John Bailey and Mel Campbell. They were all great and encouraged us to start and keep writing. I think I'll be writing 2 reviews a week just for practice. Suggestions for things to review are welcomed.

Have a good week.

Wasting good pastrami

2011-09-09T05:46:00.000-07:00

I've been living at work this week. It's been utterly terrible and it's my first day off tomorrow (although I was rostered to work but I had to take the day off for the buzz cuts workshop). I'm pretty goddamn excited, mostly because I get to have a day off. I'll be at the buzz cuts workshop for most of the day and then I get to meet up with Liam for food and hangs. I haven't seen him all week so I'm glad we're hanging.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out what to wear tomorrow. What do people wear to these workshops? I don't want to look too casual but I don't want to seem like I've actively made an effort to look nice, whatever that is. Plus it's going to be crazy cold tomorrow. Sometimes, you just have no choice. I'm thinking high-waisted shorts with stockings, a shirt, then my knitted jumper over the top.

But jeans are also amazing.

Anyway, I have nothing more to say. Have a great weekend! Here's an awesome video of a pug.

Levels of Inebriation

2011-09-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

I had a discussion with my friend about the levels of inebriation a person could reach. He said that sometimes when he got drunk, it felt like he could never get un-drunk. My experiences are less intense, but basically for me, there are two paths I can go down. The first being that I just fall asleep and feel dehydrated the next morning. The other path is where I mentally pass out but my body and mind keep partying on, which leads to a very horrible morning after where your mind tries to clutch on and piece together the very few fragments of "what happened last night" while very hungover.

When I think about it now, I suppose every drunken incident leads to one falling asleep/passing out. I would say that the difference is that you just don't regret as much. When you fall asleep, you can't have random sex with a stranger (I suppose that's debatable depending on where you fall asleep), get escorted/carried out of a bar by security, lose your wallet, break several wine glasses, try to pick up your friend, actually pick up a womaniser, forget to go home, cry a lot, sing songs from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, booty call someone, drunk text your friends, scream in a car, throw up all over the $150 vodka you just paid for AND THE LIST GOES ON. I haven't done all those things. It's merely a collection of things my friends and I have done when severely drunk. I'm sure you can add your tale to the list.

Or not.

Ages ago, back in first year of uni, my friends and I were really into Thursday nights at Cho Gao. At the time, they did free champagne for ladies and boy did we take advantage of that. It was a ritual for us. We'd get decently tipsy at Cho Gao and we'd sometimes move on to other bars like Workshop. It was so much fun because I just really loved the people I got to do this with, and I still do. I've had some intense D and M moments at Cho Gao, all before 10:30 pm (last bus home). That's probably why I like Thursdays so much.

I'm feeling nostalgic now.

Do you have any drunken stories you'd like to share?

Froghurt

2011-08-31T18:40:00.000-07:00

SPRING TIME!

I'm actually feeling rather queasy today. Perhaps it's the fact that I have so much cleaning to do, paired with the fact that my hyperactive dog has somehow lost the ability to jump on chairs. It's actually freaking me out because I'm scared there's something wrong with her arms/legs. I've been feeling around her arms and I can't feel anything, but if this keeps up I'll take her to the vet tomorrow. She seems fine though. She can jump off chairs so I don't know what the deal is.

So to keep my mind off things, I've just been watching a lot of TV. I just finished watching the latest of ep of Pretty Little Liars and ZOMG! Intense. I really need the next episode STAT. I'm also enjoying Friends and Party Down.

I'm heading into the city to meet Liam for dinner but I'm thinking I might head there earlier for some frozen yoghurt. Cacao Green do probably the best frozen yoghurt in the city. I tried out the frozen yoghurt at Tutti Fruitti at QV, but it's no Cacao Green. It's way too expensive because you pay according to weight and you just never know how much you put in your cup. Although they do have taro flavoured yoghurt and it's really tasty, but it still doesn't beat Cacao Green.

On a totally different topic, I've just discovered the photography of Carli Davidson who does a lot of animal photography, and she's doing one on disabled pets and it is just the most touching photos I've ever seen. It would warm the coldest of hearts. I'm not going to post any of her photos on my blog, but go visit her website. It's wonderful!

Show of the week: Parks and Recreation

2011-08-31T04:26:00.001-07:00

The first time I watched this show was about a year ago, or maybe early this year. I didn't know what was going on but I really enjoyed it. Fast forward a couple of months and I've finished the whole show thus far. It's HILARIOUS. I know a lot of people are Tina Fey fans, but I have to say, out of the Fey-Poehler partnership, I'm a Poehler girl through and through. She's awesome as Leslie Knope (and let's face it, we all have a little bit of Leslie inside us), and her small but powerful performance in Mean Girls as Regina's mum is probably the most quoted character in my social group. And yes, I know Tina Fey basically created the character. Ahem.

Another reason why I love Amy Poehler is that she is married to Will Arnett, who plays Gob Bluth from Arrested Development (and those who haven't seen Arrested Development should do so immediately). They're always guest starring in each others' shows, and it's just really hilarious. Will Arnett does a cameo in Parks and Recreation and it is HILARIOUS. They also starred in Blades of Glory playing a brother and sister skating duo. Weird.

For those who don't know anything about the show, it's basically about the ins and outs of the Parks and Recreation department of a fictional town's - Pawnee's - local government. It's a pretty disposable department, but protagonist Leslie Knope is just so proud of her job that it's adorable. I don't think I'm really selling it that well, but it's awesome and I think everyone should go watch it. The show also stars Rashida Jones, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt and Aziz Ansari.

Go watch it. You know you want to.

No Touching!

2011-08-28T06:14:00.001-07:00

Liam: Dude, what's wrong? What's with the frown?
Me: That's what my face looks like when I drive!

I went driving again and it was not as awesome as it was last time, probably because parking was harder, giant roundabouts freak me out and arseholes on the road make me swear more than a sailor. I had a bit of a cry in the car because I was feeling a bit disappointed in myself. I'm OK though. I find crying to be very cathartic.

Anyway, I've been spending so much money lately on things that I really shouldn't spend on. I'm really terrible! I filled up my car for the first time yesterday and guess how much that cost? $78! What the hell? How do people do that? It was a stab in the gut. I also got all three seasons of Arrested Development on DVD. Plus, I bought one of these FM tuners that connect to your ipod/iphone so that when I go driving I can listen to whatever I want! We sang along to Fleetwood Mac's awesome 'Rumours' album. It was amazing.

I also tested out my new shoes from Sportsgirl. I got them for $34.97, on sale! I think they're going to be my staple shoe this summer. I bought this polka dot dress from Jay Jays the other week and I reckon these shoes will totally complement the dress. Win!

I also got these sweet sweet earrings from Colette for only $5.95. I swear, I could spend so much money there. Everything is crazy cheap! These earrings would probably cost $20 at Diva.

Also, in other exciting news, you are looking at a 'certified' Melbourne Fringe Festival reviewer! WOO! I've been making a list of shows I want to see. I really want to check out Anyone For Tennis? and Bullet: A Superhero Comedy. They're my top two picks. Also, there's an art show about cordyceps and I am darn excited about that. Check out the video.

Rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies

2011-08-21T03:01:00.001-07:00

Me: I bet they wrote Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds high on acid.
Liam: Dude, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds IS about LSD. Lucy... Sky... Diamonds...?
Me: Oh my god.

The idea of a Beatles tribute band sounded amazing and wonderfully tacky at the same time. It wasn’t until I was properly immersed in a crowd of hip middle-aged/ 30-something Fitzroy natives that I realised I had never heard a Beatles song played live.

Consisting of Scott McCarthy, Ben King, Michael Burke and Lee Dryden (John, Paul, George and Ringo respectively), The Melbeats claim themselves to be “quite possibly the best Beatles tribute band in Australia”. There is no question of their dedication: each musician donning The Beatles trademark bowl cut wig, playing the exact instruments their idols played, engaging in banter with the appropriate accents.

I had never been to a gig that actively engaged every single person in the venue. Every pair of eyes danced with the band, each pair of lips moved soundlessly in-sync with the songs. Clutching my drink and tapping my feet, I thought I was in the 60s, sneaking into a pub to check out this happening band. I had never felt so overwhelmed by music; I could feel tears push out of my eyes.

Out blasted the energetic “Twist and Shout”. An older couple with eccentric hair did the sensational jive, unwittingly coercing the younger and drunker to do the same. A young girl bopped with her mum and gran. Outside observers peeked inside the Lounge Pit to witness our nostalgic euphoria.

The Melbeats churned out more classics – “Help!”, “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, “Eight Days a Week”, “A Hard Day’s Night” and Ringo’s “Yellow Submarine”, which everyone unashamedly indulged in singing along to. I felt the urge to cry again at “All My Loving” and “Till There Was You”. I realised this wonderful band would be the closest thing I would ever get to seeing The Beatles live.

Productivity. Ish.

2011-08-19T04:26:00.001-07:00

I feel like today has been a decent day. I've found a couple of jobs and applied for them. Well, actually, I found two and one of them I actually found yesterday. There was this job advertised on the loop and it was just perfect for me. Something I could do with my eyes closed. The only problem was it was in Brisbane. I know I've mentioned that I am always willing to relocate somewhere for a job but I never thought of Brisbane. Nothing wrong with Brisbane but I just don't know what else is up there for me. But then again, I've never really been to Brisbane. I've only been to the museum so I guess it's not something I should write off. Hmm. I guess I should totally apply for it then.

Then there was this other job for SBS. They're looking for a Mandarin Part Time Producer, which I thought I could do all right in, although my Chinese is probably a bit shit but Liam's all game to help me somehow (he's learning Chinese at Uni but he's forgotten some of it. I guess we could be study buddies or something). Anyway, if anyone else is in need of a job, do go check it them out and apply.

My friend Susie is the most in the loop with the arts in Melbourne and she posted on twitter that buzzcuts were looking for volunteer reviewers for the Fringe Festival. As I've been quite keen to get back into writing and whatnot, I thought this was a great opportunity. Plus I've just watched 'Goodfellas' (AWESOME AWESOME FILM GO WATCH IT), so I might review 'Goodfellas' as part of my application (because they want you to submit a sample review). Seriously, any one out there who thinks this is awesome should totally apply!

I've also had my friend Stacey ask me to do some continuity work with a film she's producing which features a DANCING IRISH WOLFHOUND! I screamed when she told me. Even if I wasn't helping out on that shoot, I would have BEGGED her to let me hang out with the dog. I love dogs (in case you couldn't tell).

Oh and guess what else I did? I drove today. I don't know if I ever mentioned but I don't have my license. I'm still a wee ol' Learner and today was the first time in MONTHS that I've gone driving! It was a bit freaky at first because my dad isn't the best person to drive. He kept clutching onto the door handle/ledge. I would probably say that I'm getting better but my god changing lanes is the SCARIEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE. It was probably a bad idea to drive in peak hour traffic although it wasn't too bad.

I actually wanted to go to the park and take pictures of flowers or whatever but I just had so much cleaning to do! Plus I wanted to get dressed. I don't know about you but I don't get dressed on my days off. I just whip on my dressing gown and that's that. I do think that if I did get dressed, I would be more inclined to do things. Ah, I'll try that theory out tomorrow.

Anyway, this is one of those nothing blogs. I hope you all have a good weekend!

This is weighty

2011-08-18T01:18:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, I succumbed to the burgundy denim trend. One of the girls at work bought a pair, probably being half ironic or whatever, but damn they looked good on her, so naturally I had to try them out. They did indeed rock. Except, I had to get them in a size 14 because I couldn’t get my legs into the size 12s. I didn’t care: whatever fits, is my motto. And if things look terrible on, hey, I save money.

Fast forward about three months and I’ve started to exercise so I’d look nice in Thailand or something vain like that. Plus diabetes scares me and I didn’t like how my waist sat snugly at 80cm. So I managed to lose weight and blah blah blah, and my burgundy jeans didn’t fit any more. I went back to try on another pair of these jeans from the same store and dudes, I am proud to say, I fit into the size 10 burgundy jeans. HUZZUH!

The thing is though, when I look at myself in the mirror, I don’t think I look all that different. And then it baffles me that I can fit into, say, a size 10 pair of shorts.

Anyway, that’s enough talk about weight! My wonderful purchases from ASOS came in the mail ages ago. I love them both but lord that faux fur leopard print jacket moults like CRAZY. Liam and I went out to dinner for my friend’s birthday and his car and the arm of his jacket was covered in faux fur. As for the dress, it’s wonderful but I bought it a size too big so I had to wear it with a belt so I didn’t look preggers.

Speaking of preggers, I can’t believe Hilary Duff is pregnant! Congrats to her and her husband Mike. Ha, I’m talking like Hilary and I are tight friends. It’s always been a dream of mine. She just seems like a really nice person. I also wish Daniel Radcliffe and I were best friends. That would be the dream.

Anyway, because of all this online shopping, I’ve imposed a one-month ban on shopping altogether because I have to save up for a while, partly because they’ve cut my shifts at work due to a new 2IC, and I’m eyeing a particularly pretty pair of Jeffrey Campbells and I just need them, like, right now. I’ve decided to sell some of my clothes on ebay, just because I don’t wear them anymore. I should really list them soon, but my god the internet connection at my place has been absolute shit.

Ergh, anyway, enough talking. Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks.

I made macarons! But they didn't taste spectacular. They looked pretty though!

Me with my pals Karmen and Joanne. That's my ASOS dress. We stayed at Crown Towers one night. Has anyone EVER been there? Because they have some AMAZING rooms. They're bathrooms are so pimped out! There's a TV in there and everything. REALLY COOL.

Me being silly with Liam. We were at a cocktail party and my feet were hurting A LOT so I had to sit down. And then I had to take some silly pictures with Liam because we rarely get to be photographically lame together.

Actually, I have a funny story about the morning after but I don't know if it's something that should be writing about on my blog. But basically we - us three girls and their two boyfriends - stayed in the same room, and some of us shared the same bed. Well, the next morning, uh, one of my friend's boyfriends had mistaken me for their girlfriend and tried to wake me up in, er, an 'affectionate' manner.

Awkward.

Anything

2011-08-14T03:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a weird week for me. Kind of mentally dull and tiring. It's not like I did much but I guess my inactivity is what's driving me a bit insane. I'd go to work, and when I'm working, I'd feel really upset that this is how I'm making a living. Then when I'd have a day off, I'd feel angry and resentful that I can't muster up the motivation to do anything. And "anything" ranges from going to the gym to looking for a job, to cleaning the house, to writing a script.

I don't understand how I'm unable to do anything. There's certainly not anything hindering me physically. So why is it so hard? Why aren't I this go-getter? I want something so bad but it doesn't seem like I'm willing to do very much to get it. Honestly, it's not that hard. Just do something. But I just can't seem to.

I just can't do anything unless I've promised someone else that I would do it, be it a job, going to the gym etc. I seem to be OK with putting myself off and letting myself down. I don't know why that is because that's not the way to go. Why do I think it's OK to let myself down than to let someone else down?

Am I scared that if I try doing something that I might fail miserably? Maybe I have issues with criticism. Perhaps I'm scared I'm not good enough at whatever it is I want to do. Perhaps I don't know what I want to do. Maybe I feel too safe. Perhaps living at home is causing me to feel too safe.

This is the thing: I really want to move out. But I can't move out when I'm doing unpaid internships, so I have to look for a job, but I'm terrified that if I find some kind of full time retail job or equivalent, I will eventually throw my degree in the bin. I mean, there's nothing wrong with working in retail full time, but I don't think that's what I want. I suppose I should really think about which one of these has a priority over the other.

I think my problem is that I over think. I am what socialists hate about philosophy. It's just all talk. You don't change things unless you act and I really need to stop feeling super frustrated with myself and just do something.

Anything.

Online shopping roolz. Just saying.

2011-08-07T00:49:00.000-07:00

Online shopping is a god send. I don't think I would have as much of a good time on the internet if I couldn't actively buy things from it. Asos is my favourite at the moment, but I browse Etsy, Forever 21, H&M, Urban Outfitters and Topshop on a frequent basis. It's the best feeling when you go online and purchase something you probably can't buy here, or something amazing at a really low price. Shops like The Book Depository are great because they offer great discounts as well as free shipping. I think being in Australia, free or very cheap shipping makes buying online so much more appealing.

So recently, Premier Investments have decided to close down about 50 of their stores. They're the people who own Dotti, Peter Alexander, Smiggle, Portmans, Jay Jays and Just Jeans. They're closing these shops down because they are not making enough money and the chief executive of Premier Investments blames online shopping for the plummet in sales because consumers pay no tax when they spend under $1000 online.

All righty, then.

No one I know shops to avoid the tax. I didn't even know we weren't paying tax when we buy online. And why are the employees being sacked because retailers aren’t making eough money? Maybe retailers should have a hard look at WHY their business aren't making enough. The fact is, if you, as the CEO, aren't making enough, that's not the fault of the employees. Have a look at the appeal and quality of your products and the store conditions. The lowest of the rung shouldn't be the ones copping unemployment because someone on top is doing a crap job.

If online retailers are taking business away from "Brick-and-mortar" stores, the only possible solution is to join the ranks of other online retailers and offer customers an online experience as well as an offline one. That’s the only way to compete with them, and succeed.

David Jones and Myer are actually freaking out about the loss of customers in their department stores. Their solution is to offer a "money can't buy" experience: Myer wants to introduce dentist and weight loss clinics and free breast screenings. David Jones is planning on keeping their stores open for 24 hours because god forbid, I really need those Sass and Bide jeans at 3:47am and I have to know what that 24 hour in-store experience is like.

NO, DAVID JONES. JUST NO.

If they're really scared of losing business, instead of objecting point blank to having any kind of online presence, they should embrace the power of the internet and promote their brand online. And having a Facebook and Twitter account is just not enough any more. In store shopping experiences are important, yes, but so are online experiences. ASOS isn’t just any online store: They style shoots, have their own online magazine, get fashion editors to pick out their favourite must have items, and show consumers how to dress in season.

The reason why Sportsgirl is such a thriving business is because its online presence has been nurtured so well that it can compete with the likes of ASOS, Forever21 and Urban Outfitters. It uses lookbooks to style and sell their clothes. They constantly collaborate with bloggers and consumers by having giveaways, which are announced through their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Sportsgirl works because it becomes more than just another online store. Its collaborations and interactivity with consumers creates a platform that well exceeds a “money can’t buy” experience that stores like Myer and David Jones are trying to achieve. No one actually cares about launch parties where only Australia's very rich industry VIPs are invited to, but they do care about how to incorporate this season’s looks into their daily wardrobe.

In short, retailers need to stop being so elitist and old fashion. If you can’t beat them, join them. If you’re still adamant that you can beat online retail businesses without joining the virtual shopping revolution, then I’m sorry, you deserve to go bankrupt.

Platinum Fashion Mall and Jazzie's

2011-07-29T04:04:00.000-07:00

Day three was an interesting day. Sadly, I didn't actually take any photos. Sometimes it's really tedious having to lug your camera around. Sometimes I feel like I can't properly enjoy myself when I'm taking photos of everything. I just want to live it and enjoy it.

Anyway, I went to Platinum Fashion Mall with Liam, Biz, Chai and Yuthana. It's this shopping centre that's full of cheap cheap clothes and jewelry. We started our day with some food. We went to the food court at Platinum Fashion Mall. My weird meal of noodles and fishballs was weird and too oily, but Biz's som tum was tasty as. Damn. I always get food envy. We then shopped for a little bit but little yuthana got a bit cranky so Biz and Chai decided to go back to the hotel room. Liam had some work to do so he went back too. I found out later from Biz that he was concerned about me making my way back to the hotel room because I have a "bad sense of direction". Thanks dude.

I think I spent about 3 hours there. I bought so much stuff! What I noticed was that there were a lot of people who bought things in bulk, like you know, 50 of one item etc. I think they must sell them at the markets or online. That explained why touting at Platinum Fashion Mall never worked.

Should I post pictures of what I bought? I bought so much. A lot of it were tops. I found another pug t shirt so I had to have that. I also bought these tops that came in really cute prints. I reckon they'd be great for spring and summer especially with some high waisted shorts. One thing that annoyed me at Platinum Fashion Mall was that you weren't allowed to try anything on, not even something like a vest, which was super lame. Anyway, pretty much anything you bought was a bit of a gamble. That's why I didn't bother with skirts and shorts, which was a shame because there were some really cute ones.

Once I was all shopped out, I headed back to the hotel room. It was there that Liam and I decided to go find Forever 21. Well, actually, Liam wanted to find Kinokunya, this awesome book store, and I wanted to explore Forever 21. So we split up.

Let me tell you, Forever 21 was HUGE. It's the size of one floor in Myer! It was so big I was super overwhelmed. I didn't have time to try anything on, but I couldn't wait to explore it properly. Also, just a note, I went to Zara and Topshop the day before and I have to say it was kind of disappointing, especially Topshop. They were doing the whole bright colours thing which I have to say I'm not a huge fan of.

Dinner that night was great. We went to Biz's favourite place called Jazzie's. A really tiny lady runs the place and does all the cooking. She's immaculately made up as well, with her hair pinned up elegantly and make up applied skillfully. That night, we ate with Biz, Chai and Guillaume. It was the first time Guillaume would have proper Thai food (he said he had pizza for dinner last night). We wanted to blow his mind.

This was what we ordered. There's a chicken and pepper stir fry, som tum, a glass noodle salad, larb gai and some Thai fish cakes.

Chai ordered this. It's raw prawns with a spicy, tangy sauce. The lime juice in it cooks the prawns slightly. It was delicious, and very spicy.

We had such a good time. The food was great and the beer kept coming and we only paid 150 baht each, which is like... AU$5 each. Bargain!

Things I want

2011-07-27T05:58:00.001-07:00

I had a really bad day at work today. Liam tried to cheer me up with a joke.

Liam: "What's brown and sticky?"
Me: "Sticky date pudding."
Liam: "Nah. A stick."

Made me laugh. It's so simple it's weirdly hilarious. Anyway, I think I'm going to make some macarons to cheer me up tomorrow. I'm going to use a simple macaron recipe and adjust it accordingly to make coconut and salted caramel macarons. This could be disastrous, but I hope not. I can't wait!

On a different topic, I finally went and saw the new and final Harry Potter film. I am really sad! It's officially over! Makes me very sad, but hey, how hot does Daniel Radcliffe look? He's all buff and stuff. It's manly. I like manly. Actually, speaking of Daniel Radcliffe, how much does he look like Elijah Wood?

Elijah Wood is another one that I'm kinda enamored by because of the show 'Wilfred'. I had the BIGGEST crush on him when I was 13. I tried to watch every film he was in (it was kinda hard because I hadn't discovered the internet then). Good times.

SO! The Australian dollar is going well, ey? I'm so tempted to BUY HEAPS OF STUFF ON ASOS! They have this awesome leopard print jacket that I want.

Asos, US$137.91

It looks so cute but it's so bizarre. I'm waiting for it to go on sale. They also have this parka in a brown/rust colour. I think it's awesome. I should get it or something.

Asos, US$120.67

Asos, US$37.93

These shoes are also awesome. They would go with a lot of things and the thick heel is appealing to me. I want SO MANY THINGS from Asos, but I already bought a pair of jeans at Cotton On today. BTW, I bought one of those straight leg, distressed jeans in a SIZE 10! That's never happened to me before. I feel proud. But back to the question: WHAT DO I DO? Should I get them? I want to get them. I think I will get them.

I'm getting them. Thanks for listening.

Getting scammed. Kinda.

2011-07-23T02:40:00.000-07:00

Well, our second day in Bangkok was interesting. We were excited because Liam's best friend Guillaume was coming to Bangkok for work and so was Liam's sister Biz, her husband Chai and their 1 year old son Yuthana. We were just really excited to have a gang to hang out with. Plus Biz lived in Thailand for a long time and Chai is Thai so having locals with us gave us a bit of cred.

However, during the day we were alone. We were going to find Topshop but on our way there we bumped into this man. He thought we were looking for MBK and helpfully gestured for us to go a certain direction. He even thought I was Thai. A lot of people thought I was Thai. When he realised we were both foreigners, he started talking to us about our holiday and told us about this really good restaurant that he goes to with his family that does really good tom yum soup and this factory that sold cheap designer clothes. I'm not so into designer clothes, but my mum is and I figured I could find some nice scarves for her. This really nice man spoke to a tuk tuk for us so he didn't overcharge us.

I know what you are thinking. This is not going to end well. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

So the tuk tuk was taking us to some mysterious restaurant for amazing tom yum. As we were driving, I realised we were in Phaya Thai because we drove past the station. The tuk tuk began to slow down and head into a gigantic seafood restaurant setting up for lunch and dinner. We felt a bit weird because we were expecting some kind of small eatery, but we headed inside anyway. When we were seated, it was quite obvious that we were expected to order some kind of lobster or crab. As it was just lunch time, we opted for some Tom Kha Gai and a Pad Thai.

Sadly, I don't have any photos, but the food was very tasty. The only issue was that both dishes cost 300 baht. That's AU$10 and while that might be totally acceptable for a delicious Tom Kha Gai (FYI Tom Kha Gai is a coconut and galangal soup), but pad thai? Pad Thai is 40 baht from a street vendor. We didn't mind too much since that meal was still cheaper than what we could get in Australia. We paid and left.

When we went to find our tuk tuk, we noticed there was a Puey Thai sticker on the tuk tuk. Liam started talking to the tuk tuk driver about the Bangkok massacre last year where the Red Shirts were protesting their right to democracy and the millitary sent snipers on the sky walk to shoot the protestors. Our tuk tuk driver, who was probably about 60, rolled up the leg of his pants and showed us this massive scar on his leg. He said he was shot by the snipers. It was really moving. We shook hands. I think he was just really happy to have someone to talk to and to meet foreigners who knew what's going.

Afterwards, we went to this "factory" with the discounted designer clothing. Except it wasn't a factory but a tailor. When we went in, we were super confused. The tailors were super confused. There was no factory full of discounted goods so we just left. Our tuk tuk driver took us somewhere that sold legitimate duty free jewelry. I was so close to buying this gorgeous emerald and white gold ring when Liam received a phone call from Guillaume. We left abruptly and headed over to MBK for a drink with Guillaume.

Later that night, Liam and I went back to Phaya Thai and had dinner at this bar. I don't know what it's called but it was very busy. We sat outside. The atmosphere was great. One table was full of off duty business men, another table full of young adults.

Chicken and cashew stir fry

Squid Larb

The squid larb, for me, was a revelation. It was beyond delicious. We had a few more of these beers before we headed back to the hotel. While we were in the lobby using the internet, we received a call from Biz and Chai. They were in the hotel lobby as well! We found them and exchanged hugs and hellos. Yuthana was in a cranky mood, crying and all that. He was being carried by Noi, Chai's younger sister's bestfriend. She was so wonderful and friendly. We also met Bank, who is Chai's older sister's son. Noi and Bank left and we helped Biz and Chai up to their rooms. When they settled in, we started chatting and drinking beer and gin until pretty late.

Cheers!

Second First Day in Bangkok

2011-07-23T02:12:00.000-07:00

Bangkok started off a little shaky. My boyfriend was really upset actually because he expected something better. Pretty much, he wasn't pleased with the hotel room or the view (our view was the level 5 swimming pool) and the lack of internet and how much it cost. It was a bit crap. We could only access the internet at the lobby and we had to pay $20 for it too. But that aside, Bangkok was and is awesome. My boyfriend (I should call him by his name, I don't know why I do this), Liam, took me to Phaya Thai, which was close to where his sister, Biz, used to live when she was in Thailand. We stopped at this place and had some really yummy lunch to soothe our disappointment with our hotel room.

Tom Yum Soup

Chicken Larb

We then went to MBK for some shopping. Unfortunately I don't have any photos, but MBK is this shopping centre that has 6 floors of just stuff. Clothes, food, furniture - everything, and even things you don't need. There's also a floor just dedicated to tech stuff. Really crazy. I didn't really buy anything there, but it was a good place to hang at.

Later that night, we went across the road for some dinner.

We were meant to get friend prawns but something got lost in translation and we got fish instead. Still tasty though!

Mango Salad with Prawns. So good and spicy.

Last day in Ao Nang

2011-07-23T01:11:00.001-07:00

Our last day in Ao Nang was really interesting. We found this bit of unexplored road the night before and decided to walk down there and see what was happening. It seemed way more touristy with restaurant after restaurant more Western than the previous one. As we walked, we were approached by this bubbly young lady wearing a bright pink t shirt and jeans. She had a big smile on her face and she was holding yellow fliers in her hand. She started speaking to me in Thai. When she realised I wasn't Thai she started speaking in English and telling us about her family run massage parlour. We weren't really keen on getting any massages done, but we followed her anyway, just to suss it out. She gave us some really delicious pineapple, then offered us some seats near the beach. we were a bit confused about what was happening, but went with it. It was a good view.We sat there and watched a French family swimming at the beach. The breeze was also refreshing in the tropical heat.

I had a look at the flier. They listed all these kinds of massages and since I had a sore foot from exercising, I decided to get a foot scrub and a foot massage. The Thai lady came back with some watermelon and we told her what we wanted to do. She said it was an excellent choice and told me that we both could get free manicures and pedicures. I was pretty stoked about that.

It took me a long time to realise that this was probably some kind of massage spa resort thing. You know, the ones that feed you and stuff. I guess that's what all the free fruit was about. I've never been to one before because I have issues with people touching me. This place was a simple, big hut with straw mats on the ground for those keen on being pampered. It was surrounded by other very similar massage places. It must get competitive if all of them offer the same stuff.

We first got our feet scrubbed. We had to lie on our stomachs while our foot scrubbers applied some kind of liquid to our heels. After a few minutes, they used what looked like nail filers to scrape off the dead skin gathered on our heels. Let me tell you there is a lot of dead skin on our heels. They just peeled all that skin off. It was alarming.

After, we had our feet and legs massaged, which was really nice. We didn't really talk much so I just watched all the people on the beach. A young but tall girl came over to my masseuse and he gave her some money for soup noodles. He told me she was his daughter and that she was 11. I said she was very big for 11 and he nodded. He pointed to my boyfriend's masseuse and said he was his cousin and he was really small for a 27-year-old. I kept watching the family for a bit. There was a grandmother sitting at a table, talking to the lady in the pink t shirt, who was getting a 4 year old girl to eat her food. It was just really nice.

My boyfriend then pointed to a bunch of 60 year old men sitting at a nearby table. My boyfriend said he saw one of them place his hand on one of the staff's butt. I found it disgusting. It was weird because I've heard so much about the whole sex industry in Thailand and the old western men going there for sex, yet I hadn't seen any evidence of it. It kind of shocked me.

In fact, when we landed in Bangkok the next day, as we were collecting our luggage, there was a man maybe not quite 60, but getting there, in front of us and his girlfriend was probably my age. I say that because she looked quite young and I was admiring how cute her outfit was. It startled me a bit when I saw this, but I don't think I'm the one to judge.

Anyway, so that was the end of our trip to Ao Nang. It was really wonderful. If you are ever in the area, please go visit that massage spa place that we went to. I have no address or anything, but if you are approached by a friendly Thai lady with a big smile and long hair, smile back and get massage, because it was a great experience. When we left after our massage, the whole family said goodbye to us. If we ever come back to Ao Nang, we'd definitely go back for a massage and a foot scrub. The foot scrub is a must. We left with the softest feet ever.

Gym tales continued

2011-07-20T22:33:00.001-07:00

I've joined the gym ever since I got back from Thailand. It took a lot of hard work to lose about 8kgs so I'm really invested in keeping that off, even though I gained 3kg in Thailand. I figured, I'm not going to run in the cold during the dark, ungodly hour of 7am. I might as well join the gym. At least I'll be warm. I've joined with my friend Karmen so hopefully that's extra motivation for me. I hope we don't let each other down.

Yesterday, Karmen and I did our first class together. It was Body Combat. Here's a video:

It's pretty much air boxing. I had to kick and punch the air to a pulp while in rhythm to some adrenaline-charged top 40 songs. It's a lot more full on than you'd think, and requires a bit of coordination too. I mean, not even 5 minutes into the class, while I was "shuffling"/bouncing across the room sideways, I lost my footing and fell. I slid across the floor. Well, that's what it felt like. Some very kind ladies behind me helped me up. I was all right, but my dignity was bruised when Karmen started laughing.

It was pretty funny though.

But embarrassing in a soul-ripping kind of way.

THAT'S WHY I DON'T EXERCISE!

It was one of those "No one makes me bleed my own blood" moments, so I punched the air faster and harder. As a result of my anger and embarrassment, I am now in a world of pain. Yes, it's your usual too much lactic acid situation, but it's also much worse than that because parts of your body that shouldn't hurt are hurting. It makes any movement impossible.

Sometimes I don't know why we do this to ourselves. I had grand plans to use the hotel gym in Thailand. I even bought some new converse shoes just for the occasion. I never did it, of course. I just couldn't be bothered. Besides, who wants to waste their holidays exercising?

Ao Nang in pictures

2011-07-15T04:25:00.000-07:00

"Healthy" Breakfast

Sticky rice and mango

Tamarind prawns

Larb gai (Issan-style chicken salad)

Awesome dog that chills out at the local gold store

Dog chilling out at a bar

Som tum with prawns and squid

Steamed fish with coriander, lemon and chilli

I LOVE CONDIMENTS

Flat rice noodles in thick sauce

Awesome chicken rice soup

Chicken with garlic and pepper

Cheese stuffed chicken. Was very overcooked.

Malai kofta, my favourite Indian curry

Bloody amazing garlic chicken curry

GARLIC NAAN!

Grilled chicken

More chicken with garlic and pepper

Pad thai

Larb gai

Our last meal in Krabi

Visiting the Islands

2011-07-15T03:41:00.000-07:00

When my boyfriend suggested that we go on a boat to visit all the islands, I had to admit I was slightly uneasy about it. See, I can't swim, and water can make me super nervous. But you know what, I had so much fun that day! We went to Tub, Poda and Chicken Islands, all for 1700 Baht, which is like, AU$53! Can you imagine hiring a boat to take you around to Islands in Australia for only AU$53?

We started our day with banana roti. We got up a bit later than we should so we had to eat and walk.

Bloody delicious

We hopped in a tuk tuk and made our way to the docks to get on a boat. Yes, cue all the "I'm On a Boat" jokes.

Obligatory tourist shot

The view was amazing. Photos don't do the views and scenery any justice. Here are some shots:

These monkeys stole this bag of snacks from some tourists. Word of warning, don't take snacks to an island full of monkeys. They will rob you.

We got back on the boat and visited Chicken Island. It's called Chicken Island because it looks like a chicken's head!

Feeding the fishies

I don't know if you can see, but Tom Oliver, who plays Lou Carpenter was totally on the island when we visited. He gave me some bread to feed the fish and him and my boyfriend started talking and I lost my shit by blurting out, "ARE YOU TOM OLIVER?", But totally tried to redeem myself. He was a really lovely fella.

Anyway, after that very exciting afternoon, we were super hungry so we munched on a pad thai omlette and some chicken pad krapow. Check it:

A day in pictures

2011-07-15T03:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo blog entry.

Our towels made into an elephant. Yes it looks like a wang.

A necessary mirror shot

Our view from the balcony

Sick sunset from our balcony

Imagine having jackfruits growing in your backyard

We were walking along the beach and we found these tiny little white crabs running around the sand and hide in their little holes. It was very cute.

"Oh shit, I've been busted! Pretend to be sand..."

Awesome chicken, chilli and basil stir fry

Some kind of skewer

DEEP FRIED CHICKEN!

We went to a nice little place called Sabi Sabi for some food. The waiters there were really friendly.

Nerding out with my pina colada

Pad See Ew

Tom Kha Kai

Heart-shaped rice

We then went to a rock bar to hear some music. It was just the two of us and the drinks were so cheap that we got kinda drunk. The band there were really fun, and really eager to please us and play music. We got to request songs and it was just fun. I really wanted people to come in and chill out, because they were such nice guys, but no one would. Anyway, if you're ever in Ao Nang, go check out the Rock Bar. They're nice guys.

First day in Krabi

2011-07-15T01:51:00.000-07:00

So I'm finally home! It's been an awesome 2.5 weeks. I wish I was still back in Thailand, but what can you do? Anyway, I had grand plans to just blog every day about my day but that's not possible for two reasons: 1) I'm on holiday doing awesome things and 2) there was no internet. I will blog about a few bits and pieces but really, somethings don't need to be blogged about.

Anyway, to launch into things, after our stay in Bangkok, the very next day we headed out to the airport so we could get to Krabi. We didn’t have time to get any breakfast so we decided to get some at the airport. Again, bad luck reigned as we were checking in. TWO couples in front of us had too much luggage and neither were willing to pay an extra fee. It was so frustrating because they kept arguing with the lady checking people in and really, it’s not her fault they brought too much luggage. And because of this, my boyfriend and I almost didn’t get time to find food (but luckily we got some cheeseburgers from maccas and ate it all up while we were in line about to board the plane) didn’t get to sit next to each other on the plane. Actually, he ended up sitting with one of the couples that were refusing to pay a fine. He said they complained the whole flight about shoddy airport service. Whatever. Oh but guess what? That goth/emo couple that we saw in Melbourne was also on our flight! WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

When we finally settled down, we headed down to the streets to find food. One of the street vendors were selling these tiny coconut pancakes.

They were delicious! The man at the vendor instructed us to sprinkle in the sugar into them pancakes. The middle of the pancakes are still a bit running so when you bite into the pancakes, they squirt out hot batter into your mouth and down your chin. The batter is full of coconut flavour, enhanced with the added salt. That’s what I love about Thai food: that perfect balance.

A cool dog

The BF fishing for some coconut flesh

We kept walking and found a man selling coconut juice from the back of his ute. We drank it by the beach, admiring the view. It was amazing. He gave us some plastic spoons to spoon bits of coconut flesh out from inside the coconut. After we finished our coconuts, we kept exploring the street. There are a lot of stores that just sell the same things, like “I Heart Krabi” t shirts, and elephant print things. I really wanted to go into the shops and buy a pair of thongs but the idea of haggling freaked me out. I mean, I don’t want to be ripped off, but I felt too embarrassed to demand a lower price, even though I know it’s standard to negotiate a smaller fare.

Lunch was at a place called Jeanette’s. The majority of restaurants in Ao Nang try to appeal to Western palettes so they will present themselves as serving burgers, pizzas and whatnot, but they will always have a Thai menu. I think I was very wary of these places after reading so many food blogs that swear by street food, but eating at Jeanette’s was great because it broke that spell, I suppose. We ordered a green curry and som tum (papaya salad). It was delicious.

Green Chicken Curry

Som Tum Papaya Salad

Dinner was awesome. My boyfriend’s parents have been raving about this awesome seafood restaurant that overlooks the beach that does lobster a million ways. I think it’s called Ao Nang Seafood. We decided to get dressed up, or at least I did because it felt appropriate, and ordered some som tum, steamed fish with Thai herbs, and lobster with coconut cream and chilli paste. It was delicious. I also had a pina colada that looked this:

It was delicious, probably a lot more complicated than most pina coladas since there was pineapple juice, orange juice, coconut milk, and rum. Maybe even some Malibu. God I love Malibu with good pineapple juice.

Geeking out over my cocktail

Prawn Som Tum

Lobster with Coconut Cream and Chilli Paste

Steamed Fish with Thai Herbs

Day 1 in Bangkok

2011-06-30T22:27:00.000-07:00

I'm in Krabi now and I'm enjoying my time here. This is the first post that documents my trip to Thailand. It's very text heavy so apologies about that. If you'd like to read it, go for it.

My first night in Bangkok was a real cultural shock. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I felt severely overwhelmed by everything, most likely due to the 9 hour flight, where we only munched on cheese and crackers and nuts. And wine. I swear, it should be illegal to not feed people on such a long flight. Yeah OK technically we do get fed, but that’s only if we pay an additional fee for food and I think that’s so not fair, considering Pringles cost about $5 on Jetstar flights.

What we did do was share a burger at the airport. I actually wasn’t going to eat at the airport because I wanted to be ready for street food in Bangkok but considering our flight was a 9 hour one, it would have been a dumb move. So, this burger: we weren’t sure how good it would be but it surprised us by being super tasty! Sadly there are no photos but it was a beef burger with a thick and moist beef pattie, served on good quality buns, some rocket and sweet tomato relish. Delicious. I noticed that at the cafe there was a goth/emo-looking couple eating margarita pizzas. When we boarded our flight, that same couple was on the plane! Weird coincidences.

Anyway the 9 hour flight was slightly agonising. My boyfriend’s dad bought me the “Tattler” magazine. I thought the girl on the cover was Emma Roberts so I was like, “Awesome!” because I am a huge fan of Emma Roberts. Turns out it was someone from some rich British family. In fact the whole magazine was about rich people from rich British families, maybe loosely related to the Royal family. It’s so weird! It’s like... if the gossip girl website was in magazine form. I honestly don’t know why anyone in Australia would buy and read this magazine because it just seems so ... irrelevant.

Once we landed in Bangkok airport, it seemed like we had some bad luck getting out of the airport. We weren’t the problem, but the lady at the visa section took AGES processing someone’s visa and so we were in line for ages trying to have our visas processed. When we were done at the airport, we took a confusing train ride to our hotel. It’s actually lucky that our hotel is practically part of the train station so we managed to quickly dump our stuff in our room, and go out for some food.

As soon as we made it onto the street, this man was trying very hard to get us to ride in his tuk tuk. He was very persistent. He seemed very nice but we weren’t interested. There were these vendors right next to the hotel selling all kinds of food. I was, again, very overwhelmed by the options available that I just froze. I didn’t know what to order, so we ended up sharing some tom yum goong with rice. No photos, unfortunately, but it was super delicious. Afterwards, we went to a bar and had some gin and tonics, then we went back to our hotel room for some sleep.

less than one day to go...

2011-06-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

Hello hello! I'm off to Thailand tomorrow and I just wanted to say that blogging might halt, although I don't think many people read this blog anyway, so it's OK.

However, if you do read this blog, might I suggest that you head over to my food blog "Some kind of delicious biscuit" whilst I'm in Thailand as I will be posting up all my food reviews and food photographs over on that blog while leaving this one for, er, all of my "deep thoughts" or something.

Man, I'm gonna miss Masterchef. I hope the Masterchef website works in Thailand.

Untitled

2011-06-22T07:22:00.001-07:00

Untitled by chouxchoux featuring a lace hosiery

TopShop shirt tunic
$45 - topshop.com

Antipast lace hosiery
$35 - shopbird.com

Opening ceremony shoes
500 CAD - gravitypope.com

Mulberry satchel bag
£899 - farfetch.com

Retro jewelry
$38 - unique-vintage.com

Costume National metallic belt
$192 - costumenational.com

Rag Bone bow hat
$125 - net-a-porter.com

The Zombie Survival Guide
$14 - modcloth.com

Untitled

2011-06-22T06:42:00.001-07:00

Untitled by chouxchoux featuring high heels

Sonia by Sonia Rykiel pleated pants
$390 - net-a-porter.com

Jeffrey Campbell high heels
€105 - zalando.de

ALDO chain clutch
$35 - aldoshoes.com

Tagliamonte gold ring
$838 - forzieri.com

Amrita Singh metal necklace
$150 - amritasingh.com

Hat Attack floppy hat
$98 - intermixonline.com

Braided belt
$7.99 - tillys.com

GRYPHON - Star chain necklace T-shirt
£150 - glassworks-studios.com

5 days...

2011-06-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

I've spent the whole day cleaning my room. It took the whole fucking day because I was watching Sex and the City while cleaning (For those interested, I'm up to season 3 and Carrie is cheating on Aiden, which makes me really sad because he is the best thing in the world). It's taken hours. HOURS. The only plus side is that I've refrained myself from snacking aimlessly. I think I need to do something productive tomorrow. Maybe go the library or something. Oh, and yeah, jogging. I didn't go jogging today. Fucking hail. And my ankle is sore.

ANYWAY (sorry for the self-involved chat about my exercise routine), I'm repacking for Thailand. I can't fully pack for it just yet because there are still clothes I wear now that I want to take with me. This is the third time I've packed. The first time, I did it a month ago because I was insanely bored and way too excited about it. The second time I repacked because I wanted to see what the summer clothes looked like on because I had lost weight. I'm repacking again (and I'll do another final pack on Saturday) because I've been advised not to wear any red or yellow because of the election happening. I've removed some red sunnies, a red skirt and a red tank.

I don't want to bring too many clothes and last time I went overseas, I regret not buying enough stuff so this time around, if my bank account permits, I shall totally try to fill up my suitcase.

I'M SO EXCITED!

sombre

2011-06-19T22:35:00.000-07:00

Been feeling a bit sad this afternoon. There's no point in getting into any specifics, but I've been trying hard to abstain my mind frm thinking about it. I've so far mopped the floor, watched Sex and the City, eaten a shit load of almonds (which is terrible, I might add), and now I've gone to polyvore to seek some comfort and solace. Here's the result, although might I say I don't actually feel any better. Never mind then.

Untitled by chouxchoux featuring gold plated jewelry

Sordid attempts at creating the illusion of long hair

2011-06-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

I used to have some mighty long hair. Then I cut it because I wanted to look like Sara Quin from Tegan and Sara. Then I wanted my long hair back, but I couldn't stand the hair-growing-out-of-hair-style phase so I kept cutting it. Then I was adamant that my hair was to grow long because I wanted to do a top knot like all the pretty girls in Melbourne. So that's where I am now.

My hair presently looks like this:

It's short, and in a weird/bad shape style-wise. BUT I can finally tie it up! And so now, all I've been doing is creating the illusion that I actually have long hair.

Observe:

Ta-da!

Yes, my blue steel is AMAZING.

Ganache

2011-06-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

Last night, I made the conscious decision to sleep in this morning. I left my phone on all night to use up the rest of its battery life so I could charge it fresh in the morning. My body must have reacted to that because in a fit of panic, I got out of bed at 8:19am, freaking out that I did not know the time. What a waste of a "sleep in".

I've finished my one week trial internship yesterday. I had the best 4 days in a professional working environment in a very long time. I learned so much and had so much fun. The only sad part was I wasn't given a job. Actually, it's not that sad because I understand that I am just not that experienced enough, and judging by how busy it was, it would have been unfair to the two people working there to have a noob work with them. I was told that to come back after my trip to Thailand to do more unpaid interning because they really saw that I could be a part of the company, so I'm definitely going to do that, as well as find other awesome post production companies and ask to intern with them.

In other world news, I am going to THAILAND in EIGHT days! That is crazy! And it's almost my birthday so I am 5 days closer to eating cheese. Goddamn I am going to have so much fun. ACtually, you know what? I had a bagel yesterday. And a mini chocolate cupcake with delicious chocolate icing. I KNOW. WHAT WOULD MY TRAINER SAY? Actually, it's OK. I'm going to "exercise" today and see how I go. I still can't run because my ankle/tendon in my foot is still sore, but I can walk so that's what I will do.

Oh and guess what? Pretty Little Liars is back on TV.... Um, HELLS YEAH!

Grilled Cheesus

2011-06-09T00:59:00.000-07:00

I start my internship next week and I am pretty excited to make an effort getting dressed in the morning. I've been wearing leggings and shit runners all the time (yes, I am ashamed of myself and should be fined by the fashion police). I'm keen to wear some nice things, or at least proper clothes and layers, and not shit t shirts and ugly, UGLY shoes.

I swear I think I have a mild phobia of ugly shoes. I feel anxiety when I have to wear runners in public. I feel like everyone is staring at me and judging me and I want to desperately yell out, "This is not me! I dress better than this!" Or something like that. I guess I feel like I'm in a bit of a frump. I hope that when I start my internship, things will get a bit more fun.

Also, I'm up to season two of Glee right now and I swear I'm really sad that Charice didn't get a more permanent role on the show because OMG that girl can sing! I remember there was huge controversy regarding her face and some rumours of plastic surgery. Whatever. I don't care, that girl has some serious pipes and I LOVED it when she and Rachel started doing "Telephone" (and it was even better when Sue Sylvester cut the mood with her "shut up!").

I have to say, I'm really glad that they did a Britney Spears episode. First of all, the character of Brittany is so funny. I love how this season they're really playing it up. Second of all, Brittany hasn't had any solos and while Heather Morris isn't the best singer out of the Glee cast, she is an exceptional dancer (I mean, you would be if you've danced with/for Beyoncé), and I'm glad Glee is highlighting this.

God I love Glee. I'm presently watching the episode where Finn discovers Jesus through a grilled sandwich and he has just prayed to "Grilled Cheesus" so he can touch Rachel's boobs. So funny.

You can't have your cake and eat it too

2011-06-07T16:46:00.000-07:00

It's funny how things "work out", if that's even what you would call it considering the circumstances. See, for the past month, I've been putting my life on hold to work on my appearance in the hopes that it will help me boost my confidence and eventually rub off in areas of my life that have been dormant since graduation ie. finding professional work.

I have been contacting this post-production house for a bit a few months ago and when they told me that they were too busy to take on a new intern, I sort of crumbled a bit inside. I mean, obviously that's not the only thing that has been a blow to me, but it certainly decreases my confidence.

So my life's been on hold and I wanted Thailand to be this epic time where I can escape "real life" for two weeks just so that I can reassess myself, I suppose. And I'm beyond excited about this. Thailand is all I think about these days.

Then I received a phone call from the post-production company, notifying me that they are ready to take on someone for a trial internship next week. I've obviously accepted. I'm obviously not sure how this will go, but if things go really well, I could be faced with the chance of a full time internship. But that will coincide with my trip to Thailand.

I know it might sound stupid that I'm not sure what decision to make, but this is what I'm thinking: I really want to go to Thailand. I've had these tickets booked for months. And really, I'm only going for 16 days. It's not like it's a permanent thing, you know? I mean, I suppose if they really want me to work with them, they can wait for me. But the problem is that my job starts at the bottom of the ladder. They could just see me as being very replaceable, and they might even be a bit angry at me for springing this on them? I don't know. But that's all hypothetical. However, I do think it's important for me to think about it anyway.

What would you do?

This is a nothing blog post. It's just gushing.

2011-05-31T16:21:00.000-07:00

I spent all of last night trawling the internet for Thai fashion blogs. I've been under the impression that Thais must just wear summer clothes ie. no pants/jeans/leggings/closed toe shoes etc. It was very naive of me to assume that. I mean, I remember going to Sydney for a few days and it was the hottest time ever and I wore boots with everything. But anyway, I finally found some Thai fashion blogs! I was pleasantly surprised that Bangkok street style is super alive and kicking with all kinds of sartorial layers.

I found a couple of blogs and dude, I just wanna be in Thailand so badly right now. I don't think I can express how much I want to be in Thailand already! It seriously does remind me of Singapore fashion, but it's different too (obviously). I suppose the similarities come from being in similar climates.

Actually, this morning, just for fun and because the heating was on, I totally tried on all the summer clothes I had packed for Thailand, to see what they looked like on. I'm glad I did that because I took out a few dresses and shorts because they don't fit me any more. It's sad, actually because I have no boobs now. It's the cruelest part of losing weight. BUT, it just means I get to buy new clothes! I'm so excited about it because I've been dying to go shopping. Lately all my money has been spent on buying bus tickets and medicine for my cough, food for my "diet" (HATE THAT WORD) and the odd phone bill. I suppose here is where I am grateful that I still live at home.

I've been told to just not bring any clothes to Thailand and I am seriously contemplating it. My partner's sister and her husband want to bring some clothes to Thailand to give to his relatives (because he is Thai), and asked us to take them to Thailand for them. Gosh, I'm so excited. This is all I think and talk about these days. It's like my life is presently on hold. Like I'm trying to use these weeks to get into shape and then when we leave for Thailand, it's like... being reborn, in a way. It's very exciting.

I am hoping that this will help me in the confidence department too, not with my looks or anything, but I've just had a lot of self-doubt about myself, and I feel like these doubts always hinder me from completing any projects or whatever. I hope if I can stick with this "diet" and reach some kind of goal... physique, perhaps it will emphasise to me that I can complete anything I start. It's weird, I always feel like I can't let other people down, but when it comes to myself, I don't mind letting myself down. I guess I'm trying to change that. I've got some great friends who are really helping me out and stuff so that's been really good.

Anyway, this blog post has digressed a bit too seriously. I'm hungry now.

Here are some Thai fashion blogs that I enjoyed reading, or at least, looking at the photos. I actually found them through lookbook and chictopia. I figured the chic peeps of Thailand would have a lookbook and maybe also a blog. My stratagem worked!

- PuddingBerry
- Fashion à la carte
- P.O. Box
- The Vintage Dolls

If you guys know of any more blogs, please send some links my way. Thanks!

The Hoop

2011-05-30T21:17:00.000-07:00

It is confirmed. I actually have whooping cough. How weird that it's making a scary comeback. I remember in primary school, there were posters in the sick bay about whooping cough, but I never properly investigated it. I mean, do you know what mumps and rubella are? I don't. In fact, if it wasn't for a really touching episode of 'Touched by an Angel', I wouldn't have known what polio was.

Anyway, I have whooping cough, but luckily it's a minor infection so my doctor has put me on some antibiotics. She has also done some swabs at the back of my throat to check if I have the infection at the back of my throat and if I do, well, I need to start stage two of medication. Eek! I wonder why this is happening all of a sudden. I suppose it's like one person passing it on to four people and they all pass it on to the people in their lives. It reminds me of facebook, but don't ask me to explain because I only see it in images.

I'm feeling goddamn miserable though. I'm aching all over, and constantly craving food I can't have. In fact, just to torture me, mum made my brother potato gems for dinner. And she like fried them in oil too. I whined, and mum looked apologetic, albeit amused. Oh, mother! It actually hurts to lift a cup. That's how bad it is. Although, to be fair, my fitness has improved. I'm pretty sure I can run 4 km without stopping BUT at my own pace. I do have moments where I have to stop and cough my guts out, but hey, it's a bloody big improvement from when I first started.

Digression: Who watches Glee? I've been watching the last couple of episodes and while I have no idea what's going on, I really enjoyed the Lady Gaga Born This Way and Fleetwood Mac episodes. Plus channel 10 aired Artie singing "Isn't She Lovely?" to Brittany and that warmed my heart. Oh and also this:

That's just really cool. I remember watching it for the first time and thinking it was amazing. Loves it! Oh and I also really loved the moment when Kurt was on the football team and he got the boys to dance to Beyonce's 'All the Single Ladies'. That was a lol moment.

Hmm, maybe I should just bite the bullet and start watching Glee. I suppose my only qualm is that it's a lot of episodes and I don't know how committed I will be to it when there are 24 episodes a season. Then again, I have nothing else to watch now that How I Met Your Mother, Archer, Gossip Girl, Big Bang Theory, Criminal Minds and Modern Family have finished. Although, what's exciting is that Pretty Little Liars is coming back on air in June and I am SO EXCITED FOR IT. Yes, guilty pleasure fo sho, but it's actually really good.

Day 7: Song that reminds you of an event

2011-05-30T05:14:00.000-07:00

When I was younger, I was (and am) a massive Michelle Branch fan. I remember watching the video to Everywhere and thinking that Michelle Branch was awesome and I wanted to be exactly like her. But it was when she released Game of Love that really had me hooked. I love that song so much: It's catchy, summery and absolutely wonderful.

I bought her albums with my pittance of an allowance at HMV, bought all her singles as well because I didn't want to miss out on any of the acoustic versions of songs or new songs. It was a really awesome period for me. My friends would rip out posters of Michelle Branch from magazines for me and I'd stick them on my folders. I even convinced my parents to buy me a guitar for my birthday because I wanted to teach myself the guitar like Michelle Branch did.

So in 2003, while my dad was taking me to tutoring classes, on the radio, they announced that Michelle Branch was going to be on the famous Fox Rooftop, performing all her songs and whatnot. I screamed. For days I would listen to the radio, and text my details, hoping the radio station would call me up and offer me two tickets to see Michelle Branch perform at the Fox Rooftop. I texted so much but no one called me. I was getting desperate and sad.

Until one day, my phone rang. Yup. I won tickets. And I was on the radio too. As soon as I hung up the phone, all my will power to stop me from screaming crumbled and I let out a loud shriek. I called my friend Joanne and told her to listen to the radio, and we both listened to me win tickets to see Michelle Branch.

Finally, the day had arrived. I took the day off school and asked my friend Aileen to come with me. I totally remember what I wore too. At the time I thought I looked awesome. I remember I bought these cord pants that we vertically striped, very similar to the pants Michelle Branch wore in the video to "Game of Love". I felt really cool.

When Michelle Branch finally rocked on stage, it was electric. Here, before me, was the woman I wanted to be like when I "grow up". She looked gorgeous. I remember she had really awesome purple eye make up. She started playing "Everywhere", then talked about the inspiration behind "Are you happy now?" and explained why her favourite song on the album "Hotel Paper" was "Empty Handed". I remember singing along with her and when I thought she was making eye contact with me, I smiled brightly, and I swear she smiled right back! That probably never happened as I was standing behind four giant dudes, but I'm going to pretend that Michelle Branch and I shared a profound moment of eye contact.

So now, anytime I hear Game of Love (or really, any song by Michelle Branch), my mind happily drifts back to the day I saw Michelle Branch perform on the Fox Rooftop.

CRISES

2011-05-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

I NEED TO DO SOMETHING WITH MYSELF, MY LIFE AND MY SKILLS! ARGH!

To ogle

2011-05-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

I went to the doctor to check out this cold. I don't know that much about whooping cough but I did expect to be prescribed antibiotics as soon as the doctor was done stethoscoping me. That obviously didn't happen. I ended up needing a blood test to see if the whooping was in my blood. I suppose it's necessary, but I've had this cough for ages, and I would really like it to go away.

I went out with my boyfriend for dinner one night and we ordered this spicy chicken salad for dinner and normally I could handle the spiciness, but lordy, that chilli tickled my throat so violently that I had a spasm-ing coughing fit in the restaurant. I was very uncomfortable. This freaked me out because what if I go to Thailand and I can't handle the chilli because my cough is so bad? That's not acceptable!

Anyway, here's a photo of James McAvoy. I can't wait for the new X-Men.

taken from here.

No one wants to hear about your diet

2011-05-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

I resumed "exercise" yesterday after a week of absence due to my cough. I don't know what's wrong with me. I still have this cough, and in fact, I believe it has gotten worse as sometimes when I cough (ie. when I wake up at 3:30am for a coughing fit), I can't breath and I really have to will myself to try breathing deeply. It's scary and I really hope I don't have something like asthma because that would be annoying. On top of this, my ankle is being a shit. It's very swollen, although oddly enough, when I go for a job it doesn't hurt in the slightest. Perhaps that's good for the ankle? Somehow I doubt that.

So far, I've lost almost 4 kg. I'm pretty proud but no one has noticed! I know, I know, who cares what people think. But you know, if I can tell that I've lost weight, surely someone else can too! But then again, I have been wearing a lot of layers because it's fucking freezing these days. At least my trainer has noticed. That's good. I've become really used to eating the foods I've been eating, and the portions and whatnot. I think when this is over, I will continue eating what I eat for lunch. It's always a tuna salad, but it's tasty, and it's going to save me a lot of money anyway so I'm going to keep that up.

I think on my birthday, I'm going to just eat anything I like. I'm keen on seeing the new X men film (I look forward to the James McAvoy overdose) that day and then off to bimbo's for some yummy pizza.

ARGH. How good is the trailer? Shivers. Everywhere. Maybe I should like... attempt a career in trailer editing. WHOA.

But honestly, I'm so keen for that movie. I only found out about it when my boyfriend and I were watching Source Code (also, that one's not too bad) and the trailers were shown. I think we're planning to watch the 3rd Transformers film in Bangkok. Apparently their cinemas are amazing, so that's pretty awesome.

I'M SO EXCITED!

thailaaaaaand...

2011-05-24T04:56:00.000-07:00

SO CLOSE TO THAILAND!

Today at work there was a really sweet customer. He bought a lot of stuff and he added that retail therapy felt amazing. I feel exactly the same and told him that I was going to Thailand and I am trying so hard at the moment to not buy any new clothes.

I've heard great things about Thailand's shopping, although a lot of what I hear about is the awesome designer rip offs etc. I'm not hugely into designer stuff, but I'm really looking forward to all the markets, especially Chatuchak. It's apparently the biggest market in the world. My boyfriend's sister found some kind of awesome introduction to chatuchak on some show and recorded it for me. We watched it all together and not only could you buy awesome designer stuff, but there are quite a few stalls that support up and coming designers still in design school, selling their stuff for a fraction more than some stalls. I think that's super exciting.

Here's a list of things I'm thinking of buying, if they happen to sell them:

- Knock off doc martens. I would like them in pink and yellow, and possibly a dark forest green.
- Knock off Mulberry/ Coach satchel or shoulder bag
- One portion sized pot (good for cooking quinoa. Or instant noodles)

That's it so far. I don't want to have too big of a list in case I don't find anything on my list. I'm trying to find Thai fashion blogs but I can't seem to find anything so if any one knows of any, please link me. I'd like to know what the kids in Thailand are wearing.

God I'm so excited. SO EXCITED.

And life goes on...

2011-05-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

I've been coughing heaps these last couple of days. I thought it was something that would go away, but then my friend told me her chest infection gave her pneumonia and now she's got asthma, which sucks balls! It's really scary, and so this morning, after a massive coughing fit and some nagging on my mother's behalf, I've skipped my usual 2 hour (and another 2 hours back home) bus ride to the trainer's house and exercise in the cold, and went to see a doctor instead. I managed to sleep in a bit today, which was super refreshing. It felt good, probably did some good to my coughing too.

I'm hoping this week will be better, mentally and physically. I felt really depressed last week, probably because I had nothing to look forward to when it came to exercising and food. Obviously, the exercise isn't exciting, and constantly floods my mind with dread. But the food part of it was exacerbated because I thought it would be a good idea to live off some kind of vegetable soup. It was a bad idea, and I don't ever want to do that again. I didn't finish it so I've just chucked it out.

Goddamn I can't wait to eat actual food in Thailand. It's the one thing that's giving me a some semblance of "motivation" and "hope".

I can't go to taco bell, I'm on an all-carb diet. God, Karen you're so stupid!

2011-05-10T16:28:00.000-07:00

photo taken from burgers by phone

I'm on a diet. Sigh. I never thought I'd say that. Somehow I feel like being on a diet is a symbol of defeat. I mean, it's not actually. But it feels like I've reached a point where I'm no longer accepting the way I look, or liking my so-called "lady lumps" and whatnot. Which is sad, because I've generally been all right with the way I looked. Sure, I'd have the odd shit day where I wished I was the size of Ellen Page. But generally, I never really cared all that much.

Of course, things change when you are going to Thailand. And being in a 3 year relationship sure adds kilos to the waist. I've probably gained about 7 kg since dating my partner because our relationship pretty much centralises on food and How I Met Your Mother (this is not even a joke). So when we decided to go to Thailand I thought I'd better get into shape, go back to the weight I was 3 years ago (not that I was extremely thin or anything, but I was definitely slimmer than I am now).

So to help me "get into shape", I've gotten a personal trainer. And sometimes, I think to myself "What have I gotten myself into" because it's pretty hard. I have to exercise a lot, something I'm not at all used to. And the diet! Lord. I can't eat so many of the things I used to eat. Cheese? Gone. Cake? Gone. Bread? One slice a day. Makes me weep. And I have to maintain this for two months! I don't know how I'm going to last.

I thought I'd be all right, but then I was introduced to long distance running, and now my whole being is filled with dread and pain and doubt. And now I've developed a disgusting cough, that makes my whole body tremble, aching my already sore abs. Everything hurts! I'm super miserable right now. I constantly wonder what is the point of being "healthy" when it takes so much joy out your life. What's the point of having awesome abs when you can't enjoy food? Maybe I'm just being extremely pessimistic. I do have a habit of doing that. They say the first two weeks is very hard.

Day 6: A song that reminds you of somewhere

2011-04-28T18:37:00.000-07:00

In 2010, my boyfriend and I went to Singapore together for a holiday. One of the best days/nights I had there was when I got to meet up with my friend Susie in Singapore. We munched on ice cream sandwiches and walked bare feet around this water fountain thing.

Then at night, I went out to dinner with my boyfriend and his friends to this Thai-German brewery. The food was delicious, the beer was awesome. There was even a live band playing all kinds of awesome music.

Then there was the drinking contest. About 7 incredibly lumberjack-esque men entered the contest. So did my boyfriend. Compared to the other men, he was tiny. So he totally surprised everyone by winning this masculine beer-drinking contest.

After a few more pints, the staff at the brewery were encouraged/forced to dance to The Wonder Girls' "Nobody", and that is why every time I hear "Nobody", I am instantly reminded of this awesome night.

Day 5: A song that reminds you of someone

2011-04-27T18:07:00.000-07:00

I've got two songs here that I couldn't pick between. I'm not going to go into it, but if you know me well enough, you can hazard a guess at who these songs remind me of.

Day 4: A song that makes you sad

2011-04-27T00:20:00.000-07:00

I watched the Last Samurai the other night and from then on I've been (and I feel ashamed to admit this) rather infatuated with Tom Cruise. Yes, it's weird, because he's kind of frightening and all of that. I'm so aware of this. But you know, all that stuff aside, he's a really good actor, and quite attractive, and so I'm just going to watch... all of his films. I call it a Cruise-athon! Well, actually, not all of his films. I mean, come on: Knight and Day? I watched "Interview with the Vampire" and it was amazing. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were both very convincing and handsome in this film.

Anyway, enough about that.

I think this song is self-explanatory. Every time I sing along with John Lennon, I feel myself welling up. I suppose the reason why I find this song sad is its connection with John Lennon. I feel upset that I've never been able to experience the Beatles live. If listening to the Beatles can make completely change your perspective on music, imagine what it would have been like to live in that era. I wish I knew.

What song makes you sad?

Day 3: Songs that make you happy

2011-04-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

I don't really understand what classifies as "making me happy", because some songs are just so amazing that its sheer awesomeness is enough to make someone happy. So do I respond to this relating to the content of the song or how the song makes me feel?

I've chosen this song probably because I am hopelessly missing my own boyfriend who I haven't seen in a bit as he's just very busy. I guess I just miss him terribly. This song is so wonderful, simple and pure that it literally makes me weep a bit (lame). But really, I adore this song, I adore Jason Mraz and the message in this song is just incredibly simple and pure. I have nothing more to say.

What song makes you happy?

Day 2: Your least favourite song

2011-04-21T23:02:00.000-07:00

Yes. I know. It's been ages since my Day 1 post, which means I've failed this challenge. I'm gonna keep at it regardless because I'm crazy like that. Watch out, interwebs.

Choosing my least favourite song is just as hard as choosing my favourite song. What I've tried to do is separate my contempt for certain "musicians" (re: the Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black cohort), because that does affect my judgement on songs. I didn't like Avril Lavigne in high school because I thought she was a try hard, and that affected my judgement on her songs. In other words, I hated the songs because I hated the artist.

Not this time.

I fucking hate this song. I don't hate Guy Sebastian, but this song is enough to make me hate him. But I don't want to. I think Guy is cool. I'm pretty sure I was rooting for him during the first season of Australian Idol. He can sing, and he can write music. Normally, when I don't like a song, I don't listen to it. Too easy. But sadly, when you work in retail, you have to. Over and over again.

I don't even have the capacity to satisfactorily describe what is wrong with this song. The chorus? Who can't write that? The most un-musical person in the world could write a better chorus than this song. My diary from when I was 13 has better prose than this whole song.

I SHOULDN'T EVEN KNOW THE WORDS TO THIS SONG!

But I do. And I hate myself for it. But not as much as I hate this song.

And what is with Australian singers getting rappers in their songs? You're not gonna crack into the US market just because you've paid thousands to have Eve or in Jessica Mauboy's case, Snoop Dogg, in your song for a few bars. What happened to good music? Both Guy and Jessica possess the ability to "make it" in the US without these vapid songs. I wish they'd realise that, or at least, their record label does.

To reiterate, this song is crap. It shouldn't be a measure of what Guy Sebastian is capable of, because I genuinely think he's got what it takes to write actual good pop music. but who knows what is going on behind the scenes with his record company and manager.

What is your least favourite song?

Day 1: Your Favourite Song

2011-04-12T07:15:00.001-07:00

No one has ONE favourite song. How can anyone choose? What defines "favourite"? Is it something that you can listen to on repeat for ages, or a song that makes you want to sing at the top of your lungs every time you hear it anywhere? There are some songs that fit into one category, but not the other. Then there are songs that fit in both, but you're just not quite ready to call it your "favourite". I've had a good think about this, and I believe this is probably my favourite song (ever):

I first heard this beautiful song when I was 17. I was in literature class and we were doing film studies, comparing The Purple Rose of Cairo (Must watch if you haven't seen it) and Pleasantville. The Purple Rose of Cairo opened with Fred Astaire's dainty vocals and cheerful violins, making me feel nostalgic for the 20s, even though I didn't live it. It was wonderful, and while I also love Frank Sinatra's version of this song, it doesn't compare to Fred Astaire's original. The original is delicate, subtle, charming and a bit flirtatious. It's like being wooed (but in a classy way) by Alan Rickman in a 1920s New York setting, whatever that feels like. Or just being asked to dance. Frank Sinatra's version, while enjoyable, feels a bit too Las Vegas to me. What do you think?

What is your favourite song?

30 Day Song Challenge

2011-04-10T07:02:00.000-07:00

My zumba instructor has been posting status updates about songs and stuff and I had no idea what was going on. Then another facebook friend "liked" this 30 day song challenge group, my mind started to join the dots together. It's totally something I would participate in (gives me a different reason to indulge in music), but I don't want to do it on facebook. Or do it for 30 days in a row.

So I'm going to blog about it and post up reasons why I've chosen these songs, and maybe find a youtube link so that those who don't know what I'm talking about can sample and hopefully comment on it.

I'd suggest y'all do the same if you can be bothered, and if you do, link me! I'd like to broaden my musical horizons fo shizzle. I think I'm gonna start this on Tuesday. I'm way too exhausted to do it now. I've spent 8-9 hours at work, then 30 minutes waiting for my bus to take me home, then spent ages cooking, eating and cleaning. I am feeling beyond knackered, but not so knackered to deter me from posting things here.

In the meantime, have a good week!

Miso

2011-04-06T19:33:00.000-07:00

I'm at uni digitising tapes for a documentary. I've logged all of them and now they are capturing. I have to say, doing this today, I really do feel like tape is becoming )or perhaps it already is) obsolete. For the past couple of months, the majority of projects I've been involved in have recorded straight onto a hard drive or memory stick. It's just so fast. When I log and capture, everything is in real time. That's always frustrating, especially when you have 7 tapes that go for 35 minutes each. That's my whole day gone! But, whatever. It's good to know how to do it. Even transferring clips from a hard drive, it's good to appreciate good and clear labeling.

I used to do some transcribing for this documentary as well but the producer wants to do it herself so she can familiarize herself with the footage. That's fair enough. I'm not really a huge fan of transcribing. It's just so tedious sometimes. One 20 minute clip can take ages to transcribe, especially when the camera is following the subject as he or she is talking with people and whatnot. It gets pretty difficult, but someone's gotta do it. I don't mind it too much though because it means I can work from home.

Anyway, enough of this talk about editing and digitising. I wanted to look into something I discovered last night. I have twitter and one of the many people I follow has been using this site called Miso. And no, it is not something food related. I wish.

Miso seems to be this new kind of social networking platform that combines the best in facebook and twitter with film and television. I don't have an account yet (and I'll explain why later) but from what I browsed on the website and from what I watched on their videos, it seems to be a place for people to share what it is they are watching. For example, if I was watching How I Met Your Mother right now, I could go into my Miso account and "check-in" to watch a film. You pretty much post that you are watching a particular film. I suppose people who are your friends on the website can comment on it and you even write reviews for whatever it is you are watching. You can link your Miso account to your twitter and your facebook and that way, people know what you are watching.

The reason why I don't have an account (yet)is probably because I feel the purpose of Miso is really to tell your core group of friends what you are watching and within your little "tribe, you can have little discussions about films. I love all of that, however, I don't know if I can convince my friends to join and check-in every time they watch a film. I mean, it's really no different to posting a status update about what film you are watching. I mean, I would get an account just to test it out. I'm game to try new internet things. I mean, this is my guess from what I can observe on the website. I might trial it for a week and see what my thoughts are after.

Do you use Miso? What are your thoughts?

Mwah

2011-04-05T23:09:00.000-07:00

So... kissing. What's the fuss all about? Every generic romantic comedy is really leading up to a lip locking event – Lips touching, tongues dancing inside each other's mouths, then some groping and maybe a bit of sex (but being a generic romcom, we don't get to see the sex). It's such an odd concept when you detach yourself from it. Why is the touch of another person's lips upon yours a really big deal? I mean, I'm not saying that it isn't for me, because it is, but I'm just interested in why it is such a big deal for me sometimes.

I think movies have really contributed to this, but they also present a really simplistic view of the role kissing plays within our interactions with people. I mean, in all these romcoms, making out seems to be the signal for "HEY! LET'S GO OUT!". And that's really not the case in real life as that's not really how it works. It's so much more complicated than that and yet films have simplified it to mean that two parties are going to date exclusively or something like that.

Wikipedia says that kissing seemed to have originated in certain areas, for example Greece, Syria and India were way ahead with kissing, while the act of kissing in Japan and Africa seemed to only exist between a mother and her baby. It's interesting because kissing is like projecting feelings of "love" and wanting to be close to someone or acting out your attraction for someone. the kiss between mother and her baby is exactly just a projection of love. But how do we even know that kissing is meant to represent that? How do we know to kiss?

Sometimes you just want to kiss your boyfriend/girlfriend. But how do we know to kiss? Why has lip locking been the action to signify all of that love, passion and affection? Why do we want to be kissed? It's so puzzling and obvious at the same time.

What was your first kiss like?

Mine was when I was seven. It shouldn't even count because I was seven. I don't remember very much as I pretty much blocked a lot of my childhood from my mind. All I remember was it wasn't good or bad. It just was. Yeah.

Anyway, to end this awkward conversation:

food.

2011-04-04T23:57:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention to the world that I will be going to...

THAILAND!

Hells yeah. I'm so excited. My partner and I have planned a 16 day trip to Thailand. We're visiting Krabi for a week, and the remaining will be spent chilling out in busy Bangkok. I'm so excited about this! I'm actually really stoked about eating real Thai food. I've been scavenging the internet, trying to read up on cuisine and it's all super exciting. I'm pretty keen to check out some Thai desserts. Writer Richard Barrow did this awesome challenge where he had to eat different kinds of Thai street food for 30 days (no repeats of dishes) and some of the things he ate are so exciting. Really do check it out. I suppose the only downer with Thai food is that they use a lot of pork and I no longer eat pork. It makes me sad sometimes, because I really like the taste of pork. Hell, I can't even eat delicious chorizo anymore!

Anyway, I'm so excited (as you can probably tell). The only issue is definitely this thing people call a "bikini body". I think it's very safe to say that I've gained a lot of weight ever since I started going out with my partner. We've both become a little more rotund than we would like to be. I suppose we have a really really healthy relationship with food, and I always make room to eat in my belly. My point is, I think I need to start doing some kind of regimented exercise, probably do some more zumba lessons. Or just dance a lot. Or I could do those zumba DVDs my parents bought. Point is, exercise, and "healthy eating" should be, er, exercised (haha!). If we're going to be in tropical Thailand, wearing minimal clothing because it's super hot and possibly splashing about in some water (or if you're like me and can't swim, chase waves in its most literal sense), I wanna look goooooood. Day-mn.

Unlike my trip to Singapore and Malaysia, I am going to take my camera with me to Thailand and document all the awesome! Yeah, I'm excited. And I'll be going a few days after my birthday so this definitely calls for huge waves of psychetude.

WOO!

Anyway, here are some pictures. My dad bought a Nikon D7000 and we went crazy with photos!

These boots are made for walking

2011-04-04T03:11:00.001-07:00

Well it certainly has been an epically long time since I've written anything on here. I've been devoid of a laptop because my laptop charger had died on me and it took a week to get a replacement. I could have accessed the blog on my parents PC but it is so damn slow.

Not much has been happening, except I've been watching Hot Fuzz practically everyday (awesome), if not then at least some kind of Simon Pegg related thing. I just looked at my google reader account. 73 blog entries I have to read! That's crazy!

My parents are like so going to China in two days. WOO. I hope they bring me back a really good and fluffy bathrobe thing. That's all I want. And no, there will be no parties! I'm not the type to throw parties. I've got dogs. And a brother I have to feed for three weeks. It's not all that awesome. Plus, you know, don't like being a drunken slag in front of people I'm related to. It makes me feel naked.

One thing I do want to share with y'all is these new boots I just bought from asos. My friend from work introduced me to asos and it's literally awesome. I was lusting after a pair of Opening Ceremony clog boots for ages but obviously I can't afford or fathom spending so much money on shoes. I was browsing asos and I found these babies. Sure, they aren't exactly like the Opening Ceremony ones, but they sure are wonderful. They were also $100 cheaper so bonus! Check out my skillful leg work:

Boots by Kurt Geiger, bought from asos.com
Jeans by Cotton On

The only weird thing with these is the show laces. I don't have a photo, but the shoe laces are fucking long. I don't know why. I can't even tie them properly without looking like a clown so I've tucked the laces inside the shoes. That only works for photos though. I wore them out to dinner and the shoe laces started spilling out of the boots.

Regardless, I love them! I bought them a size bigger than what I normally wear since it really is better to have the shoe a bit bigger than a bit smaller when you're buying from the web. And with boots, you can chuck in some insoles and thick socks to balance things out.

Anyway, that's really all I want to say. I might write some more tomorrow. Who knows! In the meantime, have a good night!

A word, please...

2011-03-21T22:37:00.001-07:00

I've been out of action for a week. I've been working at LMFF, editing videos for the web and filming runways. It's been very hectic: from meeting deadlines to having the whole team struck down with a gastro-esque virus (which made me miss out the Sportsgirl and Jack London shows), I'm pretty relieved it's over. I've even lost about 2-3 kgs, which you would think I'd be pleased about, but not really since that weight has been taken directly from my breasts (and there's not much there to begin with).

One thing that has been on my mind is definitely this horrible earthquake in Japan. I've been watch youtube videos of this french bulldog called Mirco who lives in Japan. His owners have been filming videos of him ever since they brought him to their home as a sweet little puppy. You not only learn a lot about Mirco, but also about the couple who look after Mirco. From a distance, they're just cute videos of a french bulldog, but they're quite intimate when you watch several of their videos.

My thoughts are with this family and Mirco, along with everyone else engulfed in this shocking disaster. It's so horrible, and these nuclear explosions are just making things so much worse.

So, you had a bad day...

2011-03-08T23:07:00.000-08:00

So I've had a pretty terrible day today. I'm just sick and tired of the bureaucracy within companies and general boredom and restlessness from being stuck indoors for such a long time. I thought I'd bake some cupcakes/giant cupcakes/muffins to take my mind off things. I made these for my 21st. The recipe is from Radishes and Rhubarb. Here are some photos.

The sock out punch

2011-03-08T03:05:00.000-08:00

Image taken from The Image Builders

Knee high socks.

Looks like I'm not the only one who's noticed and embraced this trend. I started watching New Zealand's Next Top Model last month and I've noticed that the lovely contestants on the show have been rocking this trend. To be honest, it seems like Glassons in NZ is a lot nicer than Glassons in Australia. I think the models wear Glassons during their big deliberation with Sara. Maybe it's the way it's styled (or maybe they're not even wearing Glassons), but it looks like they're wearing Forever New more so than Glassons. If anyone has any info about this, let me know.

Anyway, so I've been wearing knee high socks of late and after watching the newest episode of Pretty Little Liars and noticing practically everyone wearing knee high socks with cute skirts and dresses, I felt compelled to point this out on the ol' blog. And I'm not the only one that's noticed this trend. My partner has also pointed out to me that he's noticed a lot of women have been wearing them too. I'm not surprised. It's easily one of the cheapest and most comfortable ways of staying "on trend" or whatever.

Image taken from Mama's a Rolling Stone Magazine

Image taken from Fashion Directory

What are your thoughts on knee high socks?

It's time to talk about religion...

2011-03-03T20:37:00.000-08:00

I sometimes find that I need to ask myself if I am religious or not. Truth is, I don't know. I don't think I am. I don't think there is a religion that speaks to me the way it may speak to others. I suppose I find so many problems with religion that contradict my own moral ethics and to devote myself to a religion that, say, forbids the union of same sex couples, or denies a woman the right to get an abortion, I just can't do that. And in any case, I want to believe that religion is more than just about self-discipline. I think it's constantly misrepresented and many religious fanatics take their beliefs out of context and create a situation that solely centres on one matter (ie. Westboro church), completely distancing themselves from what is meant to be a belief in a "god".

So if I am unable to devote myself to a religion or deity, perhaps I should look into Agnosticism. I think Agnosticism is the belief that there is a god or deity that exists, but it's unknown what that god/deity is, and it is impossible to know. I know many of my friends who can't accept religion have opened up to Agnosticism. I think for a period in high school I subconsciously believed that there was something out there that could make sense but I wouldn't know it until I died. Then I came up with the theory that once we die, we just relive everything over and over again, which, when I think about it now, could explain deja vu. I think I clung onto that for a few years. A lot of my friends see merits in different religions, and they've applied "no sex before marriage" rules to themselves. Again, I have no problems with it as it is their choice and it doesn't hurt anyone.

I've been thinking about death a lot recently (and not in a "I want to kill myself" way, mind you). I try to imagine what death would be like, and all I can think of is sleeping. When I sleep and dream, I don't realise I'm sleeping or dreaming. I don't realise I am breathing (or not breathing) either. If our organs shut down, would we notice it? Would it hurt? I don't know. But that's dying, not death, I suppose.

When I think about Atheism, I always feel like it's the mean bully in the play ground that tells religion and Agnosticism that they're stupid and dumb. I suppose my experiences in philosophy classes has made me think that Atheism can be really mean, or to be more precise, certain atheists can be really mean. There are some atheists who are just as bad as the religious fanatics, who condemn other beliefs, telling them they are ridiculous. What makes them better than a person who is religious? Sure, religious people don't have proof that their belief/religion is "real", but Atheists don't have proof that religion is not "real". There are some people who are so against religion and so pro Atheism that it seems like Atheism is their 'religion', and I don't see how that is "better". It's disrespectful and insulting.

But of course, not all atheists are so intensely against religion. I know so many atheists that see it just as their belief and not something to be pushed onto others. I have religious friends who don't care that their friends are atheists or practice other religions. I just think, if it doesn't hurt anyone then why is it another person's business that they are of a certain belief?

This is why I hated The Merchant of Venice so much. In the play, these Christian or Catholic characters force a Jewish man to convert to their religion after he loses a bet. Sure, this guy was a bit of an arse hole, but to force him to be Christian or Catholic? That's terrible! That is one of the worst things that I can think of at the moment. It's so insulting. I was very upset with the play.

Anyway, I'm not here to piss off religious people/Agnostics/Atheists. It's just my way of seeing things. These are my thoughts. I don't know what I am and to be honest I'm probably happier not being boxed into a definition. But I just want to say, whatever you practice or believe, it's your own choice and I respect that. We should all respect that.

What are your thoughts?

The MSG Story

2011-03-03T05:31:00.000-08:00

I was browsing Urbanspoon and I stumbled across this review that implied that the MSG in the restaurant's food gave him/her a headache. Well, that annoyed me. It made me realise that MSG was a result of racism and xenophobia.

You know, in Chinese and Thai cooking, MSG is simply called flavour. It's just some kind of powder that enhancers the flavour in your food. My mum sometimes uses it in her cooking, my partner's Thai brother in law does too. Everything you eat has MSG in it. Doritos? MSG-ed. Shapes? MSG-ed.

Here is my theory:

Years ago, when Asian migrants started to enter Western countries, and bringing their delicious cuisines with them, opening up their little take away shops and whatnot, the West freaked out.

"Oh, no!" they would moan. "These Asian folks make such good food, what if they steal our good old business? We must consult with the head of our state! Surely there is something they can do to save our businesses!"

So they would scramble to meet the Heads of State, begging them to do something about this crisis. "We can't lose our business to the foreign folk!" they cried.

The Heads of State listened, stroking their beards. They came up with a plan, but they needed their men to befriend these foreign folk, suss out their strategies, and report back to the Heads of State.

The business men agreed, so off they went, befriending these foreign restaurateurs. These foreign restaurateurs were more than happy to share their food with the Western folk. It felt like they were becoming part of the family, like the Western folk were welcoming them. They showed them their recipes, taught them their skills. Little did they know that the Western folk have been conversing with the Heads of State in secret.

"What is this powder they speak of?" asked the Heads of State.

"We don't know, sir. But it makes food taste bloody good!" piped the men.

"By golly, we can't have that! What if it's bad for you?" asked the Heads of State.

"That would be terrible! How do we stop our folk from eating this delicious but unknown flavour enhancer whilst saving our businesses?" asked the men.

The Heads of State stroked their beards some more, and held up their index finger.

"We propose that this substance be named MSG for Monosodium Glutamate," said the Heads of State.

"Oh, what a scary and scientific name! That must be terrible for us!" cried the men.

"Yes, and once word gets out about MSG, it will put folks off foreign food, and your business will increase two fold!" declared the Heads of State.

And word did get out about MSG. Decades later, TV Shows like A Current Affair and Today Tonight exposed how terrible MSG was, and how dangerous Asian cooking was because they used so much MSG.

The End.

OK, so that was a really terrible story and obviously not a historical account of MSG, even though it could be perfectly plausible. But do you see my point? My theory is that MSG was just another way the West bred xenophobia against the East. By calling flavour enhancers this terribly scary name, it's like someone put a litre of red food colouring into your soup.

I just want to say, yeah, MSG is bad for you if you eat too much of it; but it's no different to salt. Next time you freak out that there's MSG in Asian cooking, remember there's MSG in your potato chips and your cuppa soups and savoury biscuits and frozen goods.

To be unbored

2011-03-02T17:52:00.000-08:00

I AM SO BORED.

There is nothing to do. I'm sick of being online, I'm sick of sitting, sick of being in my house, sick of not having flour, sick of not being about to bake, sick of not being creative, sick of wanting to be creative, sick of typing, SICK OF BEING BORED.