Things You Gotta Do For Your Sisters

As I've mentioned time and time again, the Hii girls are easily distracted by bright and shiny things and develop obsessions very very easily. Mel and Monica have a thing for Sid Dicken tiles and it's a giant pain in my backside as it usually means I have to lug the damn things across the ditch for Monica. Anyhoo, a little birdie at Smith & Caughey told Mel that there's going to be 50% off everything in the furniture department today. Mel and I went to scope the place out last week and earmarked every tile worth purchasing as she would be in Malaysia by then. Monica being Monica, told me to buy her anything and everything. Umm no, VETO!

So bright and early today, me and Viv rocked up to S&C, armed with colour photocopies of each tile the 2 sisters are interested in. There were maybe 40 other people waiting for the doors to open too. The minute the doors open, Viv and I legged it up three flights of stairs and made a beeline for the tiles. We were like mad women grabbing tiles off the wall and taking turns guarding them while the other go off to forage some more. As it turned out, no one else cared about these tiles as 99% of the tiles we wanted were still there. I culled the list down as Monica's tastes during sale times are pretty dubious. There was a long line of people behind us and I imagined my back being the target of many death stares while the tiles were boxed up. Sorry, people. You gotta do what you gotta do. THEN we lugged the stuff back to our car. And all this before 10.30 am. Wohoo not bad for an hour's work.

Lin, there was only one cookbook holder left and it was the pewter one. If you don't want it, I'll take it. Otherwise, I got it for you. The crazy 1000000000 threadcount sheets aren't on sale. I thought they were and pulled everything out excitedly. But turned out it was something else that had 25% off.

Tiles lined up dominos-style.

Nine tiles in total - 2 for Mel (the King was cracked so no go), 2 for Viv the sheep and 5 for Monica the loser.

Viv's first foray into Sid Dicken tiles.

Mel only wanted 3 and I got her 2 as one of the ones on her list had a crack. All sounds very self-controlled and sensible until you hear the true story behind it all. When we went to check the tiles out, she saw one she really wanted. Being kia-su, she raced off and bought that one full-priced in case she missed out. Tsk tsk tsk.

Monica's medieval tiles, floral tiles and Ha tile. Ummm what's with the Ha!

I have 11 tiles to lug over to Melbourne at some stage. Can. Not. Wait.

Ho ho ho...............

All my beloveds (well apart from one but she's in la la land) have or are going back home for the holidays so I'm feeling a tad melancholic. Oh alright, more like bitter and twisted that I don't get to go home for a holiday but instead, have to toil for my sins in boring o Kiwiland. But that's ok because we are all going to be together for the next Christmas. Only 365 days to go... ho ho ho. Hope Santa has been kind to you all this year and that you left out some nice snacks for the poor overworked fat bastard.

This is how I feel 24/7 at the moment..

Don't ask.

Merry Christmas, you filthy animal.... and a Happy New Year.

Guess where that quote is from?
Hint: My favourite Christmas movie.

I Heart You, Mammoth Supply Co.

There's a new food company here in NZ and their gimmick is that their products are man-sized. So their yoghurt are filled with seeds, grains and fruit. So basically, it's for people who aren't counting calories, aka men. Some feminists are getting their knickers in a twist about it though.. bla bla bla sexist, bla bla bla stereotypical. Ah shuddup you silly old birds.

They just brought out their ice cream range and I'm in lurve. I bought the peanut butter ice cream because Viv has a real weakness for peanut butter and I enjoy tormenting her. I tried some and I kid you not, even my toes curled with pleasure. So so so so G.O.O.D!!! I want to take a bath in the stuff. Run to your supermarket and get one NOW.

I will have to try the cookie dough obviously. It's worth getting fat over. Yes, you heard me right.

Aotearoha Comedy Carnival

Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a comedy show freak. I lurve lurve lurrrrve them. Anyway one of my favourite comedian duos at the moment is Sammy J and Randy the puppet and they were performing at the show so I bough tickets ages ago and forced Vivien to go with me.

Sammy J and Randy were great but they performed stuff I've already seen before so meh. Here's a old clip of Sammy singing his Backward song.


But the real winner of the night was Sam Wills, aka the Boy with Tape on His Face. He just got back from sell out tours in the UK apparently and he was really good. The vibe was a lot more electric if you watch it live but this will give you an idea of his gig:

Taste of Auckland 2010

Taste of Auckland was on last month and I got Mel to go with me. We went to the 5 pm session on Friday and the weather was pretty yuck. Luckily it wasn't so bad that it got in the way of us stuffing our faces. Phew! It was on the rugby fields opposite Victoria Park so I had to sink my heels into the grounds as we navigated around all the stalls. The things I do for food.

Our tickets came with $30 crowns each. You use them to pay for food at the stalls. Basically, Taste of Auckland is a food festival where you can buy products from various stalls - usually products you find in specialty foodstores and you can also buy dishes from the top Auckland restaurants that took part. The restaurants that took opart were Bracu, Clooney, dine by Peter Gordon, Euro, The Grove, Harbourside, Monsoon Poon, Mudbrick, Prego, Soto and Toto.

Poor chef grilling chicken after chicken for the hungry mob.

How awesome does this coil of sausage look? Imagine re-enacting that scene from Lady and The Tramp with it? Hohoho I volunteer myself.

Kohu Road stall.. me favourite ice cream brand. They do sorbets now too.

The Malaysian stall that had the cheek to charge an entry fee (comes with some food but still!). Winner of Australian Masterchef, Adam, was in there cooking but since we were too cheapskate to pay and go in, I took a photo of Mel instead.

Mel looking all excited, trying to decide what to spend our precious $60 crowns on.

After circling all the stalls, we finally decided on the offerings from The Grove. Not because we thought it was the best restaurant in Auckland, but because the dishes looked to be the biggest out of all the other restaurants. Haha.

Mel queueing up to order.

Entree : Yellowfin Tuna Salad with Avocado, Corriander and Chilli; 12 Crowns. The tuna was fresh and succulent but it didn't rock my world. It was nice but nothing groundbreaking. Maybe because I'm not a fan of corriander.

Main: Crispy Wild Boar with Heirloom Beets, Apple and Hazelnuts; 12 Crowns. The crumbled snow-like looking topping was the apple. This dish was soooooooo good. The boar was so juicy and tender. Yum yum yum yum yum.

Dessert: Valrhona Chocolate Pave, Cookie Crumbs and Strawberry Cream; 8 crowns. This was crazy rich. The chocolate was headache-inducingly rich. Luckily the strawberry cream and strawberries balanced the richness out. *smack lips*

We then took a break from all the eating and watched Matt Moran do his thang at cooking arena. He was very smooth in his delivery - able to cook while telling the audience anecdotes about his career. This was glaringly obvious when the dude after him ummmed and aahhhed throughout his opening speech.

The MC was one of the contestants from NZ Masterchef. Kelly or something.

We still had $30 crowns left so we got the teriyaki chicken from Soto for 8 crowns. Again, our choice was dictated by how big the portion was. Mel then spent the rest on some cheese from Kapiti Cheese.

My stash : A free teatowel and some nougat.

Closeup of the nougat : They had raspberry liquorice inside!!! Yum.

I think I prefer Taste of Auckland to the Food Show even though it had less free samples. Less free samples = less cheapskate crazy crowds. I will be going again next year!

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Wellington Traffic Cam taken around 4 pm, Thursday Arvo at the Terrace (CBDish)...

Auckland Traffic Cam taken around the same time at Greenlane, about 15 minutes from CBD.

How is Wellington a happening town again?????????? And yes, I'm bored.

Movie : Easy A

Saw this the other day and it was very good for a coming-of-age high school movie. Basically, it's about a "good" girl who accidentally portrayed herself as "bad" and then kept doing it as she found herself becoming increasing popular. Kinda funny, plus Stanley Tucci is in it. He stole my heart (not in a he's-so-hot kinda way) as Richard in Murder One many many moons ago.

Now I can't get this song from the movie out of my head:

Hilarious!

True Story

The Hii girls are fans of Alannah Hill's clothing. An obsession started by yours truly. Anyway, every time any of us are in Melbourne, we head to the outlet store to rummage for goodies. Monica and I were going through the racks, doing our thing when she said "Man, who would wear this clown outfit?", pointing to the dress shown here.

To which I replied, I have it!!!!!!!!! Cow.

Anyhoo, I'm wearing this today.

It's Moments Like These That I Wish My SuperHero Powers Aren't Shopping and Eating!!

This one? Not so much!

I Am Beyond Help....

Mel's Creme Brulee..

.... and she's oh-so-proud of herself. Don't encourage her.

How Hawt Are These?

Sure she is not MY kid???

Melbourne - October 2010 Trip

The week leading up to my October trip was hectic hectic hectic. We were putting next year's budget to bed at work and it meant 2 late nights which totally screwed up my sleeping patterns. I ended up not sleeping much at all the night before the early morning flight to Melbourne. I was meant to take Monica's LV bag and wallet with me as Mel bought them for her in Germany. I was preoccupied with making sure that I don't forget to take Logan's kompia with me that I totally forgot the bag UNTIL a minute before I was checking in at the airport. Man, did I break out in a cold sweat all over! I had to sheepishly ring Vivien up at 5.30 am and get her to drop the bag off. Luckily we only live 20 minutes away from the airport. Phew, disaster averted.

I had 2 free passes to the Koru Club Lounge so I didn't have my usual pre-flight Mackers breakkie. Instead, I had apple juice and freshly (machine) made pancakes with lashings of cream and jam. Yum yum.

I had my usual queasiness/stomach ache just before the plane landed in Melbourne. I asked the air-hostess for some ginger ale to settle my stomach and she asked if I am pregnant. Whaaaat! I know I've put on a few pounds and was wearing a loose maxi dress but come on! I denied the accusation vehemently. Haha.

Finally got out of customs after TWO hours. Delays on top of delays coupled with the place being packed with asian tourists bringing dodgy asian foods into the country meant I was ready to slit someone's throat by the time I got out of the airport. Got back to Monica's just as Haz pulled up with the kids who had just had their swimming lessons. I was smothered in kisses and hugs from Lauren while Logan acted staunch as per usual. We didn't do too much that day - went to Chadstone where I pawed a Chanel handbag for the millionth time. It was still not the colour I wanted so I passed. AUD$4290 for future reference.

We went to the zoo on Sunday as it was Children's day. Monica made sushi for the outing. I stuffed my face while the children busied themselves making artsy and crafty stuff.

Stolen off Monica. This was taken at the zoo while we were having homemade sushi for lunch.

Monday - Went with Monica and Haz into town and I had my usual DJ yoghurt with fresh fruit for breakfast. I then just shopped around town for 2 hours.

Met them for lunch at their usual Szechuan restaurant in Chinatown.

Everything came with an obligatory top layer of chilli oil. Steamed fish hotpot.

Pork with veges...

Beef with veges.....

Did more exploring after lunch. I hopped on a train to Bridge Road but it wasn't that exciting. Came back to the city and bought myself a snack from a roadside stall - Belgium waffles with nutella. Yum yum. I ate this while browsing the windows of a shoe shop. I totally had a Breakfast at Tiffany's moment.

After work, we went and picked up the kids from school and they had their usual play at the playground. They are both such monkeys and Lauren has amazing upper body strength for a 4 year old. I have amazing upper body strength for a 4 month old.

The kids didn't go to school on Tuesday as Logan had a specialist appointment and then they had dental appointments in the afternoon. We fitted in swimming as well as a trip to Mackers between these appointments.

Monica took Wednesday off work and we went to Richmond (a suburb which is known for its Vietnamese immigrants) to get some Vietnamese rolls.

Monica has been coming to this shop since the 1920s. Heheh.

Vietnamese rolls are kinda like subway rolls except they have coriander and Vietnamese hams in them.

My breakfast.....

The money shot! How awesome is this shot! So proud of it... haha.

We then went to Clear-It, the Alannah Hill outlet shop where we spent 2 happy hours rummaging through all the racks and bins. Then Monica's annoying client rang up wanting urgent work done so we went home. She worked while I stuffed my face with more food and then had a long nap. Such is life!

Picked up the kids and then we went to the nearby mall for a looksie. Monica did some grocery shopping and Lauren started whining about wanting a macaron. So we went to Jones the Grocer and bought 3 flavours. The macarons were huuuuge compared to the NZ ones.

Lemon flavoured macaron ....

Chocolate one...

The kids impatiently allowed me to take my time with the photos. By the time I gave them the go-ahead, they have whipped themselves up into a frenzy. Check out the look of ecstasy on Lauren's face as she bit into her macaron. haha.

Happy campers...

Innards shot of the Pistachio macaron.

Got home and did some baking that night. Lauren is now at an age where she can help and is eager is to help. We made rice bubbles crackles and cupcakes.

Last day in Melbourne and I decided to forgo the customary yoghurt in favour of a light hot chocolate at Koko Black. The hot chocolate was sublime... I didn't let myself finish it. Eeek.

Check out the richness of the hot chocolate. The nougat was delicious too. I did offer Monica the praline but she turned her nose up at it. Pfffft. Fine then.

Met Monica and Haz for lunch at Chilli Padi. Monica bought one of those daily deals where you pay $20 for a $45 banquet. Basically, you get to choose 1 entree and 5 mains from the menu to share between however many people.

Interior of Chilli Padi with Monica fondling her Iphone 4.

Got bored of waiting for Haz to turn up so I took advantage of our upstairs seating by taking a sneaky pic of the diners downstairs. I was bored, ok?

The menu:

The couple:

Me and Monica taken with her Iphone4. We kinda look like vampires here heheh.

The entree was the usual deep-fried stuff. Monica and Haz pooh poohed this and said they probably came from a box straight out of the freezer.

Dish #1 was the star - Chilli soft shell crab with mantau. The mantau was goooood - mildly sweet and crunchy. The crab was good too but slightly salty. We all preferred it without the sauce actually. But still good.

Dish #2: Singaporean sambal prawns with shrimp belachan. This dish was crawling with prawns and is the dream of all kia-su people out there. We couldn't finish it and asked for a takeaway box. But our request was rejected. Huh??? Apparently it is quite common in oz. Anyhoo we gotta do what we gotta do so we each stuffed the remaining prawns into our gobs.

Dish #3: Seafood Fried Kuay Teow with wok breath. There was no wok breath. Nada. The wok needs more experience methinks heheh.

Dish #4: Pan fried scallops with miso butter. The scallops looked fat and juicy. I didn't have any as I'm not a fan of scallops. I just don't like them, ok?

Dish #5 or the dud as Monica called it: Roast Duck Red Curry. I thought it was ok.

We were stuffed after lunch but an hour later I was ready to rock and roll again. I walked around Chinatown and came across a shop that was selling fresh bak kua!!!!!!!!!!! I HAD to buy some obviously. Man do I love my beef/pork jerky.

This was the low fat version. I think low fat somehow robbed it of some of the finger-licking goodness.

That was it. Monica and Haz dropped me off at the airport for my evening flight back to Auckland. It was a good trip.

My customary food purchases for Viv:

Bought this Sass and Bide long dress with Monica declaring it "Very you". Hmmm ...

Alannah Hill top - this earned another "very you" comment from Monica.

Alannah Hill dress that I had been eyeing for a long time. They had my size and it was the only one left. Wohooo.... not sure if it was my usual style though as it's very feminine..

That's all.