New Year Resolutions...

I've been observing people and thinking for quite some time..
I think it's time for me to change to be a better person.
Changing my attitude.
Put away negative thoughts.
It's just making me a sad and worry person. Life is short. No time for those, right! No matter what, who, where, when & how, I must train myself to be a patient and understanding person.

Anyway! My 2009 Resolution will start really soon..

1. Be Tolerant
2. Be Patient
3. Be Nice
4. Be Positive
5. Be Generous
6. Be Forgiving
7. Be Smart
8. Be Quiet in the right time.

I think that's it atm... hehehe..

Happy New Year to you!!!

Christmas Dinner @ Home

We had a big seafood feast at home on Christmas day.
We bought the crayfish from the seafood shop. It weights about 900gm each crayfish. It's huge!

We had the crayfish cooked in a different ways. Stephen & frances's ones were boiled.

For Joe & mine were baked with garlic butter and mozzarella cheese. yum....

We had some grilled scallops too.

Creamy mash potato with caramelized bacon

and steamed prawns with rice wine, soya sauce with ginger & garlic.
We couldn't finish everything because of the crayfish.. it was too huge~! It was a satisfying christmas dinner!!!

My Xmas Gifts

Christmas Day 25th Dec 2008
Remember the 60x50cm present that I got under the christmas tree??
Finally...I get to open this mystery present after a who-win-mahjong-who-can-open-the-present-game(3hours game). I'm actually given chances to win by Frances, Stephen and Joe because I'm a lousy-beginner mahjong player. I was so stress and sweating while playing the bloody mahjong.
Oh, forgot to show you what's in it hey!

It's a lomography camera!!!! Diana F+ the Deluxe Pack!

Isn't it awesome??
Look how many kind of lenses I got!! I'm sooooo excited when I got this. I didn't expect him to buy such a big one! I haven't started playing it yet, but I will one day.. very soon :)

What other gifts that I've got?

Two fluffy hippos from Joe too :)
This is actually a pre xmas gifts. he gave me on the 22nd Dec.
He was too lazy to wrap this up. thats why :P hehe


I got lotsa things from Frances and Stephen!
A Traveling pack - Sleeping Mask, gorgeous Toiletries bag & facial mask.
A MAC make-up classes worth $120! I can be professional make up artist for myself very soon hahahah
A Estee Lauder Gift Pack. I don't really know how to use yet, but I know I will huv beautiful skin very soon :P

Boxing Day 26th Dec 2008
As for my secret santa...

I got this! My santa must be thinking I'm a very "kayu" girl...hehehe
Kayu meaning wood in Malay language. It means Uptight.


Hippo paper clips!
This one is a very unexpected gift. I never thought that paper clips can be made into a hippo shape! This is a very nice and special gift Alice. Thanks alot! It will be kept nicely with my other Hippo collections.


I got more!
Cupcake lookalike packaging-Bikini from Jean. I love the packaging alot. Very unique!
Headband with different styles from Cecile. This is a very cool headband. I can have different kinda styles just buy twisting and changing the things around. Good for summer ;)
A beautiful silver Bookmark from Mira. I think I will put it on my head instead cuz it's too pretty to be bookmark. Kidding :P

I think that is it! A lot of presents! I hope I didn't miss out any of the presents!
I love all my presents and thank you so much! I know you guys love me! hehehe

Merry Christmas !!

Merry Christmas to my Family & Friends. I miss you guys so much.
Have a happy christmas everyone.

Chilli Christmas Tree

I was helping Joe doing gardening yesterday and I saw this dried hopeless skinny chilli tree branch lying on the ground.

I picked it up and I told the stick "Don't worry skinny branch! You will be pretty in no time!"
The skinny stick looked at me and with tears saying "Thank you master~you are very kind~"

So I went to Red Dot, found a glass and some white stones. I thought to myself, they will be very happy if they know the branch, stones and glass are going to be together. They are perfect match!

After putting them together, I digged out some old decorations to beautify the skinny branch.

With bells, stars, rudolph and snowman, skinny Chilli tree branch is now A Beautiful White Christmas Tree.

60cm x 50cm

What can this possibly be???

Sleepy

Wilder Bunch @ Northbridge

Alice & I went for a stroll in northbridge after lunch last week.
This shop caught our attention.

A beautiful looking shop with beautiful looking things.

We went in and found out that they had loads of things in store.
Accessories, home decorations, games, flowers, body care product and so much more.

I met the owner of the shop and we chatted abit. Her name is Nina. She is very friendly and nice lady. Coincidently she's half malaysian! Awww.. makes me feels like home~~~


Wilder Bunch opened approx 1 year ago.
Wilder bunch is a boutique florist, selling gifts and flowers even does worldwide delivery too! Visit the website. http://wilderbunch.com.au/
I love the things that she got in there, very artistic, classic and a lil quirky.

The thing I love the most is the black and white "wooden-bird" clock.
It brings back the memories of the actual size similar-looking clock back home in malaysia.
It used to chirps every hour. I really missed that clock.
It is reasonable price as well. Too bad, I only owned a room but not a house, or else i will definitely buy it!

For those who loves accessories, it's definitely worth looking at these beautiful ones she'd got.

She got lotsa funky things too. It's a good time to get these things as christmas is around the corner! Look at the black candle stand on the left! So beautiful~~~ Love it.

Nina has a good sense of design and taste. The things that she got is good quality and really good in design. The couch speaks for itself :)


Even the business card looks gorgeous!

I took a photo with her on a beautiful couch before I left the shop with pressies for my friends.
Happy!

Go have a look at the shop in Northbridge. It's at the alley way at William St.

APPARENTLY...

I went to gym yesterday to have personal training and a complimentary simplicity consultation.
After a long chat about what I should cut down and what I should eat, I did a check up for mass body fat in a Tanita Body Fat Analyzer and this is my result.
(Apparently Joe can't have these test done, because he had a metal screw in his knee)


According to the result, I'm consider quite healthy :)
I'm in the middle of everything. Not Obese, not Anorexic!
But to have a better looking body, I should lose 1.5kg. Then it will be perfect.
Thats what the machine said, but I think I need to lose more :P cuz I ate too much! Damn you yummy food.

Christmas lunch @ office

2 days ago, graphics team had a small christmas lunch together.

We had champagne~


cold meat-cheese-anti pasto platter (868 cafe) with turkish bread and salad (coles)~


and mudcake (cheesecake shop) pavlova (coles) ~

It was nice to have a small nibble lunch together when we were stressing about work which piled up like mountain that never stops!
The food was nice, i like it when I had the cheese and i-duno-what-kinda meat put together with the turkish bread. yum yum.

After eating, we all had secret santa~
Excited moment~~~~ we did a lucky dip for the names. So I think everybody must be wondering who get the pressie for them!
Well i am still guessing who is my secret santa, judging by the writing on my card :P

( writing this half way, Brooke & Christine asked "I was wondering who is my secret santa!" O_O After a 5mins discussion, we all know who was our secret santa now. -_- haha not a secret anymore!)


I got Italian recipe book from my secret santa! Now I can have pasta everyday and growing side ways everyday too!! hehe


It was a nice day altogether. I love christmas~

What I want for christmas...

A box full of $$$$$
.
.
.
.
.

jingle ling~ jingle ling~

wicked... :)

Lunch @ the PUBlican, East Vic Park

Last Friday, everybody in my department went to the Publican to have a christmas lunch.

We haven't try this place before so we thought we might give it a go since it's nearby.



The interior was nice, we all love the wall. It looked very classy.

The choices in the menu was very limited. We actually having trouble on what to order for ourselves. But they will change the menu every week, so i guess it's okay then.

For drinks, I ordered Lemon Lime and Bitters.

As for others, they all had white wine.

I can't have even a sip of wine, because I will feel sleepy after having it. Then I won't get any work done! So I had to be a child for few hours :)

Thai Beef Green Salad.
Annette ordered this because she doesn't want to have heavy lunch as she's not really hungry.

She said it was good.

Steak Sandwich
150g sirloin steak in a warm crusty roll with tomato, lettuce, cheese, caramelised
onion and aioli with Belgium fries

Brooke's lunch was huge! She's usually a small eater during lunch time. I can see she was struggling to finish her sandwich hahaha

Fish & Chips
Beer battered fish goujons with homemade chips traditional tartare sauce and fresh lemon wedges.

Tony's Fish & chips looks good and alot too!

Chicken Risotto

Christine's dish look so yum! Must be good, because she's the first one who finishes the food!

Lamb Shank

Judy was having trouble deciding what to have at 1st, then she saw this on the menu and ordered it.

Good choice Judy. Huge lamb you got there.



Seafood Risotto.

The flavour was excellent. But it was too much for lunch.

Everything was good. I hope that they will have a lunch menu instead of just having Mains as the portion is quite big and it was abit pricey.

Dinner @ Jackson's, Beaufort St, Highgate

Last Thursday, Frances brought Joe and I to a restaurant in Highgate.



Jacksons has won a number of awards in the food industry. I was looking through their website. http://jacksonsrestaurant.com.au/. It was very impressive.

When we got there, we were greeted by friendly waiters and professionally served. The waiters and waitresses had their gloves on all the time while they were serving. It was an exciting experience for me that night. I was served as if I was from rich family and a lazy ass who doesn't do any housework or cooking at home :P I felt like I was a "high-class" person that night hahaha..



The menu was excellent. There were a lot of choices and everything sounded so good. My mouth was drooling while I was looking at the menu.
One of the special things about this restaurant was the Dego Special. Which was the Tasting menu.

It was 7 different 'just-right & yummy' dishes that you get to have. Those 7 dishes are all from the normal Ala carte menu, but they were all cut down to a smaller portion, so you get to taste everything and you still feel full at the end of the dinner.

Its good for people like me who likes to try a lil bit of this and that, and not just 1 dish each time.

Obviously, I ordered the Dego, as for Joe and Frances, they ordered from the ala carte menu.


I had French Martini for myself.


French Martini

It was a excellent cocktail. The flavour was just right.
I've tried martinis from other places before and they were horrible.
I will definitely order this again. 2 Thumbs up to the person who made this drink.




We were served different flavoured buns, sesame crackers and cheese sticks before the entree.

No kidding, it was the-most-normal-looking-but-tasted-fantastic buns, crackers and cheese sticks!

(1) On the house: Tasmanian Salmon with Green Pea Sorbet served in a Wafer cone.

This came while Frances and Joe having their bread.


Below was one of the dishes from the Dego.

(2) Chicken liver parfait, drunken chicken & cherries.

This should be the first time in my life that I ate so much Chicken liver at one go.

When I was in Malaysia, I never even wanted to touch it! I just felt the texture was weird.

Fortunately, the way they made the liver was different and I couldn't feel the texture of it.

So, it was good.

While I was having my entree, Frances and Joe had theirs as well.

Frances' entree: Seared WA scallops, pea risotto & crackling.

Joe's entree: Tiger Prawns, macaroni cheese and cognac sauce.

(3) My second entree: Crab & avocado

This dish was well balanced. The crispiness of the soft-shell crab, the freshness of the crabmeat and the avocado was fantastic. Not too sure what other ingredients in it were, but I felt the crunchyness of the prawns in there too.

omg.. im craving for that now... -_-

Joe and Frances's 2nd entree: Alcoholic Orange Sorbet.

(4) Fish in pancetta, vanilla potato mash, squid & parsley salad
This was one of dishes from the Dego menu.

Little pieces of fresh chewy squid made the whole dish lively and fun. Very clever.

(5) On the House: Shredded Duck and Jelly fish.

This is a very oriental flavour kind of dish. Beautifully presented and professionally cooked.

(6) Roast pork belly, scallops & chorizo with saffron braised chick peas

I was laughing to myself when I saw the tiny lil piece of pork in the middle of the dish they served. I was thinking "wow.. that was the tiniest pork I've ever eaten in my life!" (I'm a greedy person, i know :P)

But I had to admit, It was actually the right size. You won't want to have a bigger piece when you actually have a few more dishes to eat!

Chick peas: nothing special about it I think.

Pork: Meat was tender, crackers was just nice but a little bit too salty.

Scallop: Excellent! It was well done! Freshness was sealed perfectly.

While I was having those yummy dishes, Frances and Joe's main dishes were served as well.

Fish in pancetta, vanilla potato mash, squid & parsley salad

Roast pork belly, scallops & chorizo with saffron braised chick peas

It was the same as mine from the Dego menu, but Frances and Joe ordered it from the ala carte menu, that is why the portion size was different from mine.

As for side dish, they ordered potato mash, truffle oil & bacon.

This is one @#$% nicest tasting mash potato in my life!

So creamy! So smooth!! So yummy!!! (Joe: "At least one block of butter in there man")

The restaurant was decorated with these beautiful Poinsettias.

It is my sister's favourite. I have no idea why she likes it so much.

Once I saw these, I just wanna take a photo of it and show it to my sister :)

(7)Main: Beef fillet, venison loin, crushed peas, béarnaise & gravy
I had no idea how to express myself after I had a bite of the beef fillet. It was the nicest beef that I've ever eaten in my life! I'm talking about the way they cooked the beef. I felt texture was different from the beef fillets from other restaurants.

If you are tasteless and blind, you will think that you are eating a nice big thick piece of salmon! It was so tender and just melts in your mouth!

I always thought it was funny whenever I watch the TV shows about food. They always said "it melts in your mouth" and give you this estacy looking face after they took a bite of the meat.

Well, now I understand! and I've tried it!

Finally it's time for dessert.

(8)Cropwell bishop stilton, cumquat & chocolate

I can't give any comment about this, because I'm not a fan of blue cheese.

But Joe ate all of it (as usual, I give all the food that I don't like or can't finish to him. He's just like a rubbish bin on the table, very useful I must say). So, I guess it was nice?

Joe had the Tea & things.
They served this cute lil tea set and cute tea leaf bag. How cute!
With below.



Alcoholic Chocolate sauce, Fruit mince pie, fruit trifle and a chocolate brownie.

I loved the fruit trifle. It was suitable for summer and tangy flavour. so yum!



(9) Earl grey ice cream parfait, orange salad & kahlua cream puffs

It was yum and nicely made. I think it will be better if the cream in the puffs were a little bit colder.

The presentation of this dish was excellent!

The cone actually had ice cream under the wafer.

It was the best dinner ever in my life! Come to think of it, I actually had 9 types of food instead of 7 from the menu. It was good.. :)

We were all so full after all that, we just wanted to go home and sleep!

Eat and sleep. Pig's Wey of life. eheheh

Do go to Jacksons' and sample their food if you get the chance, you won't be dissappointed.