Resolutions Time AGAIN!

Can you believe it? 2009 is officially over. Sigh, time really does fly and even more so the older you get.

My 2009's resolutions were:
1. Be more active. Being over 30 meant I can no longer stuff my body full of lollies and not suffer the consequences for it (although I do try!) and before I left NZ, I started getting into my weekly hike with Viv. Ok, I made it sound hardcore but the so-called hike is really just a walk somewhere in the Waitakere Ranges for an hour heheh. Hey, maybe I can do that famous 8 hour hike by Christmas 2009. Shuddup.
2. Try new things. I really want to try para gliding!!
3. Buy a house.... maybe... or more shoes heheh.

How did I do, you ask? Pretty miserably actually..... I'm still stuffing myself full 24/7. Although I guess I should be grateful that I'm not the size of a house considering I eat a scary amount of food daily with zero exercise. But then I do pound the pavement when I shop so that's intensive cardio! I did buy 3 exercise dvds recently in a bid to get fit. Does sitting on the couch while watching the guy say stuff like "Give me five more. You are looking good." count as exercise?

I did try para gliding in Thailand so that was pretty cool. Went to lots of new places with the parents in the first half of the year so that was tres cool. Started a new job in a new industry so i guess that counts as trying something new too.

Didn't buy a house but definitely bought lots of shoes!!

Time to make some new ones for 2010 so here goes~!!

2010 is the year to:
1. Reconnect with friends. I want to take trips down to Wellington and Christchurch to have a reunion with friends. Also, hopefully meet up with one of the earliest friends I met when I first came to NZ somewhere. She lives in Taiwan so we are gonna have to meet halfway somewhere.

2. Reconnect with my faith. I do feel like I've been a lazy Christian for the last few years so time to buckle down and get serious about it.

3. Reconnect with myself. I spend way too much time online shopping!! Gotta cut back and do something more beneficial.

There you have it. Here's to a new decade right in front of us. May we all live each day as if it is our last.

Happy 2010!

An Education

Watched An Education with Viv on my laptop tonight. Well, i watched it. She played Cafe World on her laptop which was right next to mine. I have been wanting to watch this ever since it came out but none of the people around me wanted to. Sigh.. so I waited till i can download it. I pay a monthly membership fee so don't give me that judgemental look!

An Education has an arthouse feel to it, ie not your typical blockbuster. It has had great reviews from everyone and Carey Mulligan who played the lead role was excellent. The movie is based on the early life of a journalist, Lynn Barber.

She was a 16 year old student bound for Oxford when she met a mysterious suave older gentleman. He swept her off-course and managed to win the approval of her silly strict parents. He exposed her to exciting adult things (to her naive 16 year old self) such as clubs, art auctions, slightly dodgy property deals, etc. Basically he brought color to her previously dull life. She was going to abandon her previously well-structured life and marry him when she found out that he was in fact already married. So she turned her back on him and went back to Oxford. Anyway, I really liked the story and Carey really was perfect for this role.

By the way this is the real Lynn Barber. Hmmm yupp, i can definitely see the striking resemblance to Carey. By that logic, I guess Angelina Jolie would be playing me in my life story. Heheh....

Alright alright, that wasn't very fair. This was Lynn back in her Oxford days.

PS Hope everyone had a great Christmas. Was Santa good to you? He was excellent to me!

Night Out At Kermadec

I've been working unsociable hours while getting used to the new job so decided to make a bit of an effort and go out for dinner at Kermadec last Friday. By effort, I meant dinner at 6.30 and home in time to play Cafe World on facebook with the sisters by 8.30. I know, I need to slow down and curb my crazy partying lifestyle.

The viaduct was real busy as it was a Friday night and office Christmas party season.. or as I like to call it, prowling season.

View from my window seat... great for people watching!!

I booked out the restaurant for the night as you can see...... either that or no one else eats at that time except farmers who go to bed at 7 pm. What can I say? I get hungry early!!

Anyways, on with the food shots.........

Entree (looks funny without that little stroke above the second to last e)

Seared scallops with parsnip skordalia, soft poached quail eggs, crisp pancetta, hazelnut crumbs and truffled beurre bosc pears. The scallops were gynormous. Is it just me or does it look like someone accidentally gargled and spat all over the plate?? Suffice to say, Top Chef won't be ringing me anytime soon to be a judge... heheheh.

Main -

Grilled local snapper and Cloudy Bay clams with aubergine caviar, roasted artichokes, toasted pine nut and shallot sauce vierge. The fish was beautiful. The rest was a bit too fancy smancy pancy for my tastes... what's wrong with veges that you can actually pronounce???? Hehhh i'm all class.

Main -

Slow cooked Perendale lamb shoulder with lamb cutlet, crisp goats cheese sandwich, fennel purée, candied garlic, shelled broad beans, fresh mint and muscatel dressing.

The presentation deserved a close up... fresh flowers on top of a wafer sandwich. I forgot this was goats cheese so in my excitement to "eat the pretty flowers", I took a huge mouthful of the "cream" and nearly died. Yuck.. me no likey goats cheese.

Also got a side order of handcut chips. So good... but what's with the artful yet sneakily stingy arrangement?? I prefer my chips plentiful and messy, thank you.

Arty attempt of a photo that I took while waiting for the main attraction of night aka dessert!!!

Behold !!!! This was called The Workshop something or other... stupid website didn't have the dessert menu listed. Seriously, don't they know that's the most important part of any meal???? Anyway, back to the love of my life. Everything was made of cherries which I luuuuurrrve. The presentation was so pretty I almost couldn't bear to touch it. But I did the next best thing and wiped the plate clean instead. Yum yum!!

The white blob on the right was a delectably smooth ice cream made of cherry pits (!!!). It tasted kinda vaguely like almond and looked like vanilla bean. The middle red blob was a pitless cherry marinated with chamomile tea. The toadstool on the left was a cherry meringue on top with a white chocolate mousse as the stalk.

More cherries marinated in chamomile tea and cherry toadstools. The thin scroll running across the bottom of the pic is cherry paper!! It tasted like brittle licorice... Ingenius huh??

I saved the best for last... the middle bit is the balloon. It's a thin layer of cherry sorbet shaped like a balloon resting on a smear of sticky white chocolate/toffee. I felt like I was cracking an alien's egg (kinda like a scene out of Alien 2 hehe).

It was sweet and tart and yummilicious!! More please! This was only $17!! Worth every penny.

Kermadec does a dessert tasting menu where you get 5 different desserts for $55 per person. Anyone wants to go with me??

Look!! The World Does Revolve Around Me!!!

Snapped this pic of a random number plate that reminded me of myself while driving to work. Well, it is illegal to drive while talking on the cell phone now. But they said nothing about a camera!!!

Oh relax, Mother! I took this at the red lights.

Latest Hii Girls Obsession

For those who don't know the Hii girls that well, we are all a tad obsessive compulsive. Number 1 with her house, Alannah Hill outfits and Sid Dicken tiles, Number 2 with Alannah Hill outfits, Sid Dicken tiles and anything else that everyone else is into at the moment (*cough* sheep *cough), Number 3 with her food, shoes, food, Alannah Hill outfits, food, blogs, Number 4 with Alannah Hill outfits and anything babies related, Number 5 with gym, rabbit food, Alannah Hill outfits and Number 6 with anything related to her face, Alannah Hill not so much. See a pattern here?

Anyway we are now all mad crazy about Cafe World on Facebook. So much so that it interferes with real life. Examples:

Fiona: Gavin is cooking me dinner in real life while I cook on Cafe World.

Monica: Logan is helping me with decisions on Cafe World. We are saving our pennies to buy the 12,000 dungeon door.

Mel: I googled for Cafe World tips and do you know you can retain your ratings if you take the door out at night so no one can come in?

Me: I can't go out to dinner yet because my kebabs (on Cafe World) are nearly ready and i need to serve them!!

Facebook is banned at work too for some of us so it was killing some people throughout the day not knowing how their cafes are faring.

I can't make these things up, people! It's the crazy world of the Hii girls!! I prefer to think of it as quirky, rather than sad and pathetic. Heheh!

So Wrong Yet So Good

ahhhh deep fried Mars Bars... this yummy artery-clogging can be had at your local friendly fish and chips shop for $2.50! I judged myself for eating this but I'll live with that judgement. In my defense, I only ate half. It is so crispy, so crunchy, so chewy, so good!!

Ok I actually saved the other half for after dinner - I ate it just before my dinner (fish and chips) because I couldn't wait. By the time I got to the other half, it was cold and gross. So make sure you eat ALL of it when it is still piping hot.

One Year Ago....

I would have been sitting on Dad's massage chair, surfing the net while watching news with Mum on the big tv...

and my typical tucker would have been this...

My my... how the mighty have fallen.... sniff sniff.... Not fair!!

Melbourne - The Kids Post

One of the attractions in Melbourne is the kids of course. As Logan is in school now, I got to spend more time with Lauren these days. I gotta tell you, it's good being the only Ee Ee around. Usually there are 5 other Ee Ees vying for their attention. This time around, i got the kids all to myself and Lauren would casually climb onto my lap for a cuddle as if it's the most natural thing in the world. Bliss!

Lauren loves making monkey faces whenever a camera is aimed her way.. it's her big brother's influence.


This was taken early in the morning.. her lazy parents were still in bed and she was up raising a ruckus. We had a romp in my bed (hehe) where we took turns telling stories. Then, I got up and made her breakkie - warm milk with a scoop of milo and toast with Vegemite. She's a real Aussie in that sense. Logan on the other hand, expects a traditional cooked taiwanese breakkie every morning..... I got an angelic smile out of the brat for my efforts.

Child labour..

Weekend activities mostly revolve around the kids... we took them to a park where there were train rides on offer.... check out all the loving (read sucker) parents going on endless rides with their offsprings.

Haz's turn to take them for a spin....

At Lauren's day care... the kids having a play. They are now at an age where they can play ball together which is very cute to watch.

I brought over a painting kit for the kids this time around in an effort to inject some culture into their barbaric lives. It worked a treat!! The kids loved it and wanted to do it every night. Only problem is they are messy!!

Lauren the rule breaker would just do whatever she pleases and puts her dirty paintbrushes into every paint slot and messes up all the colours which would then frustrates the heck out of Logan who is a real stickler for rules. Invariably, this leads to a huge tanty. Evil Ee Ee would then have to scream at the top of her lungs to get them to cut it out. Repeat for the next 5 nights. Fun times.

Lauren, wearing the Paul Junior tee I got her on a clear sunny day. Check out the picture. It's the monkey but with fangs. Very fitting as she turns into Monster Baby at the drop of a hat. Looking very butter-won't-melt-in-her-mouth here.

Monica somehow tracked down this old coin-operated ride in a dusty corner of the local shopping block. It's only twenty cents compared to the usual two bucks so the cheapskate would bring her kids here for a cheap thrill. Literally. Lauren didn't look too impressed.

We were looking through Lauren's wardrobe and decided to have an impromptu fashion show. The little minx only wears pink from head to toe so we had to bribe her into trying this green dress that Popo bought her from the Phillipines.

She looks so sweet..... pity, she only wears pink! Ps: Note her too-short fringe that her mother cut for her... poor kid!

This was a $5 dress Monica picked up somewhere... according to Lauren, this is pink so it passed muster. Crazy gal!

This was an outfit Popo and I picked up for her in Vietnam two years ago. She looks sooooooooo adorable... I want to bite her applep-red cheeks.

In case you are starting to think I am playing favourites, here's a cool pic of Logan posing in his Tigger pajamas.

Logan's school had a bbq after school so we went to pick him up. Lauren was hungry too and wanted a sausage. So Logan played big brother and queued up with her for one. Awwwww!

So tell me, did you go Awwwww at least once while reading this? If you didn't, then you are dead inside!!! D E A D!!!

Melbourne - The Food Post

I just had a light bulb moment... brace yourself as this is gonna shock you!!

I am a glutton!!

I know! Shocking, right?

Anyway this is all about food... and in my defense, I ate these over a course of 10 days.... but i probably could have fitted it all into my tummy in one day.

First day in Melbourne and I headed off to David Jones's foodhall first thing in the morning.. I swear I felt a frisson of excitement down my spine when I jumped on the escalator going down to the basement and i saw the "Foodhall" sign. Sad, I know.

Fresh fruits stall..

Cookies stall...

The patisserie area:

Nuts stall and the meat section..

Me favourite stall... greek yoghurt... can someone please open one up in Auckland? I would be your best friend forever!! Chocolate-based yoghurt....

Luscious fruit based yoghurt...

I ate a large pottle of fruit salad with sunshine berries yoghurt... SO GOOD!!! Didn't have any space for the ham and cheese bread thing I also bought... Lauren ended up gnawing her way through most of this..

I then met up with Monica and Haz for lunch at a szechuan restaurant... $10 per set from memory???

Haz's steamed fish in a chilli gravy...

Monica's pork stir fried with beans....

My eggplant and mince casserole...

We went to Chadstone shopping centre one weekend and Monica was checking out birkenstocks in one of the stores where Mel bought her birkies years and years ago.. can't believe the shop is still there!! I got bored so I wandered off and got some krispy kreme donuts. There was a craze when these first got to Melbourne... as in lines that weave around buildings to buy these donuts.. I personally prefer Dunkin Donuts but that's just me.. Someone who shall remain nameless ate a dozen of these in one weekend..

I got Original (my favourite) and Blueberry (kinda too sickly sweet).

I bought an obscene amount of sweets this time around. I found a gem of a store in the city and went to town!! It sold all things english... yahoo!! Most of these are still in my fridge so wipe that disapproving look off your face! ;)

Viv has a thing for peanut butter so I am always on the lookout for interesting chocolate and peanut butter combos for her. Minstrels are like M&Ms except they are made of dark chocolate and are bigger. Yum!

I also bought a whole lot of tic tacs for my bag. I can't get these in NZ - cherry passion, cinnamon and apple sour. I love sour lollies... yum yum.

The skittles are different too - each one has two flavours, eg: mango on the inside and blueberry on the shell... you get the idea. The mentos are limited edition mango ones but they don't taste that nice. Multi fruit flavoured twizzlers are a waste of money... might as well chew cardboard.

I always buy some handmade lollies from Suga. Mel had these as her wedding favours and each one said Andrew <3 Mel (that's heart in case you are going Huh????).

Smiths had a create-your-own-flavour competition going on while I was there where 4 finalists had already been chosen. Obviously I had to hunt them all down and try them. Obviously!

I hope Vinnie and Lucas don't win because Vinnie's flavour was basically just bbq and Lucas's kebab flavour was just plain weird. But I have to hand it to him, it did taste like kebab, ie garlic mayonnaise.

Aline's caesar salad was pretty spot on so that's amazing but I'm not a fan of caesar. My hands-down favourite is the buttered popcorn so well done Steve... mmm my mouth is watering again.. Here, don't forget to buy me a few packets!!!

Monica discovered a small cake shop in Kew so she ordered us a cake to try.. mango mousse. Look how amazing the chocolate floral decorations are.

The kids had fun blowing out candles on the cake... and then proceeded to have a fight about who gets which flower....

Very light and very mango-ey but the sponge cake became stale the next day!!!

Monica took a day off and went into the city with me while Haz the chump worked. We headed to DJ's foodhall again because I wanted more yoghurt... I spied some portugese egg tarts for sale at the bakery so I nabbed one of them.

Nomnomnomnom pastry good.... nomnomnomnom custard goooooood.....

Passionfruit yoghurt with fruit salad.... the fruit salad was amazing!! We waited for ages for the girl to finish cutting everything up - blood oranges (because normal oranges are just not fancy enough, people), pineapple, mango, golden kiwifruit, grapes, raspberries, papaya (which monica hates and won't go near), watermelon, boysenberries, honeydew, rockmelon etc...

So stuffed but an hour later, we were ready for more punishment so we then headed off to a Japanese restaurant for their set lunch. Monica and I spent a very enjoyable hour stroking 2 Chanel bags at the Chanel boutique.... i walked out empty handed once again... everyone thinks I am mad for wanting to buy one... oh well, you shall be mine one day, my lovely!! We also walked into Miss Louise, a snotty shoe shop that sells only designer brands... I had a Julia Roberts Pretty Woman moment when the sales assistant checked us out from toe to head and then dismissed us mentally... "Big mistake. Big. Huge. I have to go shopping now."..... or not. (That's what Julia Roberts said when she returned to the shop the next day after she has been transformed. FYI)

I forgot how much it was per person but I think it was around AUD30! Dirt cheap for what we got.... We started off with the pickled appertiser which was ok, pretty much just chopped up mushroom and sprouts.

Next we had the steamed savoury egg custard. I know it sounds gross but it was very nice with soy sauce. I liked it. Very smooth and the last mouthful at the bottom of the bowl had a morsel of meat hiding in it. Yum!

Fresh sashimi was next.

Tempura

Haz ordered a different set and got something cooked with truffles or something instead of the tempura.

Grilled eel fillet with sweet soy sauce and some edameme beans

Star dish : Teriyaki diced wagyu beef steak. This had that melt-in-your-mouth texture and was soooo tender... but I think I prefer my steak with a bit more chew to it.

Miso soup and mixed steamed rice.

Green tea ice cream

So that was all! Pretty restrained, really.