The End of Year 2010

Less than twenty four hours to mark an end for Year 2010 and I reckon that I should pen down an entry or at least something to mark the end of this year. Who knows if I might google search my blog ten years later and re-read all my archives? ;)

Anyway, 2010 is definitely another year to take note of and to think about it, I'm glad I've actually made full use of my "2010 Diary" that daddy has given me at the start of this year! :D For a second thought, I've never been this consistent with diaries and flipping through it makes me proud as I've put this year to ultimate use and satisfaction.

This is the year that I've decided to further pursue my studies (apart from just having a Bachelor of Business and Commerce) or maybe I was not quite ready to enter the working force :P! Anyway, I have never regretted making this choice and truth be told, I have learned a whole lot of new things as compared to what I've learned in my degree :) Life during my Honours days wasn't easy but I'm glad I've managed to pull through smoothly. Quotes Mom and Sis, "During your Bachelor days, you'd be happy enough if you have attained a Pass and now, you'll get all upset if you didn't manage to get a High Distinction for a particular unit -_-" Indeed, I couldn't agree more!

This is also the year I've decided to work while I am studying. I finally understood the stress, anxiety and everything put together of those who were working and studying. Imagine having to do countless of research, studying, analysing and then getting your bum off to work early next day. It is definitely not an easy task. I am more than happy to have gotten a High Distinction for my 20,000 words research thesis that I have written from scratch and at the same time supporting myself financially :)

My family kept asking if I was doing alright, if I could cope and the favourite questions were "do you need money? (as I haven't been asking my parents for money for quite awhile now)" and "do you have enough to spend" Lol! As much as I want to say "no, I never have enough to spend! Lol" but I know I had to do this by myself!

Aside from that, I have had an eventful year with the company of closest friends, working with mates who love me more than ever and always having my family and boyfriend supporting me throughout the year.

I do hope that everything will turn out as smoothly or even better in 2011 and hopefully I can achieve what I've been dreaming of. To think of it, it is about time to pen down my plans for the coming five years! Here is to wishing everyone a Happy New Year and for a better year ahead! :D

Dinner at Hogs Breath Cafe

It was one of the weekend nights when my tummy was craving for juicy meat and the moment I suggested it to Kel, we both nodded to Hogs Breath Cafe. My first attempt to Hogs Breath was in Canberra and my oh my, I never would have expected to feast on such good quality meat (considering the price that we paid!) in a cafe. Three words; affordable, delicious, tender!

So this time around, in order to satisfy my cravings, we've decided to pay a visit to Hogs Breath again and we were surprised by the amount of customers they had at 6pm.. Yes, we thought we were early but we were definitely proven wrong. As expected, my expectation on a medium-rare beef with sides was definitely met and I walked out with a satisfied tummy by the end of the night! Enjoy the pictures, dear readers!

While waiting by the bar =)

The boyfriend was starving! Hence, the expression ;)

Head on over and give it a try already! :)

Lol, love the interior of the cafe!

My cute chubby boyfriend! Love you!

Excuse my face, I woke up not too long ago from my daily nap.

Loving the creative setting!

We decided to give this cocktail a go but it was just mediocre. Besides it being green, there's nothing to be amazed about.

Hers: Medium-rare beef with additional calamaris and two side dishes. Spell Y-U-M-M-Y already, can you?

His: Medium-rare as well with mushroom toppings and two side dishes. Without doubt, it was delicious as well!

While we were digging in, we suddenly received an sms and boy, it was our housemates seated a few tables away from us! Talking about coincidental already!

The housemates!



Hogs Breath Cafe Chadstone
699 Warrigal Road
Chadstone VIC 3148
+613 9568 8322

The Boyfriend's 26th Birthday (Part 2)

Most of you would have known that I have started working (on a casual) basis for a food company nearby Clayton. My role involves everything and anything in the office ranging from MYOB to telemarketing. I am glad to have started working as I can now shamelessly say that whatever expenses I am incurring are of my own hard-earned money. Never liked being called a spoilt brat, mind me :)

Anyhow, let's continue with the second part of the boyfriend's birthday! We had a small birthday dinner/ get-together at New Quay Buffet, Docklands. The restaurant boast a wide variety of international cuisine and I must say the price was pretty daymn worth for the amount of food they offer. However, the downside was the quality of service offered was beyond atrocious. I really do hope they will take note of this comment and actually try to improvise their service. Enjoy the (human) pictures!

Birthday boy, Evelyn and Jeffrey =)

Birthday boy and the girls =)

Birthday boy with the boys!

Birthday boy with Bo Bo and her boo =)

And, yours truly with the birthday boy!

After dinner, it was time for karaoke session at Chi Lounge. The boyfriend definitely had a good night as he was pissed drunk and had a terrible hangover the day after! Lol, I bet the boys' mission to make the birthday boy drunk has been accomplished!

Birthday boy and Eve!

Birthday boy and Ju!

Birthday boy and E!

Birthday boy and Ben

Birthday boy and Homei!

The boyfriend with Eve and Jay!

With Jit, who dropped by ;P

And lastly, with yours truly :)

I am really happy that you've enjoyed every single bit of your birthday this year and being said as the best birthday ever was definitely one of my greatest happiness thus far. Love you boyfriend!

The Boyfriend's 26th Birthday (Part 1)

August is indeed one of the many eventful months throughout the year. I am already worn out by now with the boyfriend's birthday, friends' birthdays, clubbing events (coming up) and etc. As the boyfriend's official birthday fall on the 19th of August, we had a continuous birthday celebration for three consecutive days! It was also my first time celebrating his birthday and boy, listening to him saying "Thank you bi, this is definitely the best birthday ever!" definitely made me smile from ear to ear :)

The first part of his birthday celebration was at Ibuki, Flinders Lane for dinner. As it was a working Thursday, I patiently waited for him to come get me for dinner and also managed to schedule dinner at 830pm as I was pretty worried if we might be late. I like having my plans to be perfectly executed (I'm a perfectionist like that, sigh).

I have heard, or rather read aplenty of reviews on Ibuki and since the boyfriend insisted to give it a try, we managed to book a table for two at its new branch in Flinders Lane. Ibuki serves a standard menu of 5 course meal for only $50 and 10 course meal for $100 (both deals are priced for each person) to its customers. We were starving as hell when we reached and without a doubt, we went for the $100, 10 course meal. *gulps.

To be honest, by the 7th or 8th dish, we were already stuffed to brim and our tummies were crying for help already. The quality of food was pretty mediocre and unfortunately, it doesn't make me long for it like how I long for Nobu :( However, the prices in Nobu is definitely incomparable to Ibuki as Nobu's prices are way far-fetched to Ibuki's. Besides, the catch to dining in Ibuki is to dine with a big group of people (10 or more) as the servings will worth more. Enjoy the pictures! So that was my preference, what's yours?

Please excuse the self-absorbed pictures! I was bored to death waiting for the boyfriend to come pick me up and the only thing that caught my attention was my camera left unattended. Hence, the pictures! :)

Quotes the sister "Going for the Japanese look eyh?" P/s: it was my first time curling my hair (by myself!). Hope it looked alright.

The birthday boy! :D

..who was starving.

And yours truly with her (temporary) new look!

Some Japanese sake, which I obviously do not know how to read.

The table setting :)

The first dish: Sashimi platter which was yummy! =)

Second dish: Beef Tataki which was pretty unique (my first attempt to this style of serving).

Third dish: Baked oysters, mussels and scallops of different style. This was just mediocre, nothing to shout about.

Fourth dish: Chawanmushi which was really good! By far the smoothest chawanmushi I've ever eaten! As expected, we licked the tiny cup clean! :)

Fifth dish: Sushi platter which was delicious too!

The setting for remaining dishes.

Sixth dish: Tempura platter which was EXCELLENT! Loved its variety ranging from lobsters to cauliflowers! Lol, yup, ever eaten cauliflower and other sort of vegetables' tempura before? ;)

Seventh dish (which was said to be a combination of the 8th dish as well): Japanese Noodle soup which was extremely normal, quite a disappointment, to be exact.

9th and 10th dishes (all put together): Fruits and Japanese dessert on the top left which were pretty good!

The happy couple :)

The stuffed couple :P

Ibuki

Grand Mercure Flinders Lane Apartments

321 Flinders Lane

Flinders, Melbourne

+613 9614 2311

Seeing that the initial plan whereby to host the cake-cutting session in the restaurants itself would have completely failed as we really couldn't take in any food anymore, we headed to The Centurion (Sup and E's place) which is located in Southbank and shared the mouth-watering ice-cream cake with everyone :)

Ice-cream cake by Wendy's :)


Wait for it..

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TADAAAAA! Mouth-watering honeycomb crunch ice-cream cake! :D

The fat couple and for the countless time, I'm NOT pregnant. Kthanksbye.

Birthday boy cutting his birthday cake!

Time to dig in!

Wheee, all getting excited to dig in already! (the girls insisted not to have their pictures taken as they were all in their cute PJs already! Lol!)

Except for Nong, who was properly dressed! :)

And this was his birthday gift from me. Hope you like the birthday gift as this will be my motivation to work harder and earn more money! (I never believe in using my parents money to buy expensive gifts for the boyfriend as it isn't them who are dating the boyfriend!) :P



Second part of the boyfriend's birthday will be coming right up (in a few days!), so stay tuned! :D