ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Yes, my fiance and I did the Ice bucket challenge!

The first ever Ice bucket challenge that I've seen is Bill Gates. I thought, hmm? What is ALS?
I googled it and read it.

It is often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease," is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body.

Famous victim is Stephen Hawking.

Then day by day, I've watched more and more people doing it and now, basically almost everyone knows about this disease!

Of course, you will see so many challenges that did it for the sake of doing it, some did it for fun but majority, I believe, did it so that this awareness can be continued for quite a while so that every part of the world knows about it.

Did you see the most recent video that the ALS victim himself did the challenge?
Here is the link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d77TzcndRzU

He is brave, he is strong and I hope his move will change what people think about this Ice Bucket Challenge is all about.

I have heard negative thoughts about this challenge but I believe this challenge created for a reason!
If you support this awareness, but didn't want to do the ice bucket challenge, I think it is time to be creative! :)

Now, think of why, a bucket of water and ice? It is icy cold, it is easy to prepare and this makes your muscle feels "shrink"! Is this how you call it?

Although we won't feel exactly on how they feel, but I think it should be at least 5% of how they feel, which is not much really.

If you think Ice Bucket is not what you wanted to do, be creative! If you are at countries that have 4 seasons, why not try going for a swim at 6am in winter season to replace the ice bucket challenge?

Honestly I have tried that once, and I am struggling in the water. It was my first time and I can honestly say it will be my last time trying that I guess.. I just don't dare to swim in the icy cold pool.

What I wanted to say is.. please pass on this awareness, I know this challenge will died down one day, but at the moment, try your best, pass on, tag people and donate to ALS.
http://www.alsa.org/donate/

Thank you to the person who successfully make this ALS awareness known nearly the whole world ( I hope)

Here is our part and we are so happy that 4 people that we have nominated have done it and pass on the message. Thank you!
Have you done it? :)

 

PS: This post is for myself and I am not disagreeing anyone of you who are against the challenge. Just want to thank people who support this awareness.   

My Surprise Hens/Girls Trip Part 1

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I had a wonderful Hens / Girls trip 2 weeks ago!
I thought I am a girl who can guess everything (well most of the time I spoil my own surprise haha)
But this time, my friend Cecile did an awesome job messing around with my head!
She lied so many times I think she is going nuts! hahaha
But I am really thankful to my friends who came to this trip eventhough they have a busy schedule.

 

On the 9th of May Friday, Cecile and her hubby picked me up from home at 4am in the morning and head to the airport. We checked in and had coffee at Dome. At that time, I know where I am heading because Cecile have told me weeks before that I will be in KL for a night and asked me to plan for it as I am familiar with KL. So I was looking forward for my 1 day in KL!


Air Asia Nasi Lemak not as good as last time anymore...??

I have planned for a shopping spree in Sunway, then Steamboat at Fat One, then go to my friend's grand opening of her cafe!

Oh so excited! 1 day in KL and I don't know where I'm going after that! Woohoo!!

Okay back to the airport.
After coffee, me and Cecile go through custom and bla bla bla.. normal process.. then we met a Japanese woman struggling with filling up her passenger form. She can't speak or understand English. So I thought I can help her a bit. As a Japan Fanatic me... I try so hard to speak to her but fail so badddddd... I have forgotten every single thing that I learned from Japanese Class!!! OMG kidd you not.. I can't communicate with her at all.. and I have to use google translate. What a shame.

After filling up the forms, we asked her to follow us since we are going to take the same flight.
Fast forward .. Touched down at the spanking new KLIA2.  YES.. very NEW very CLEAN very HUGEEEEE.. because of our speed of walking (slow and talking to the japanese woman), we took nearly 30 to 40 minutes to get to the luggage area.

After getting our luggage, we asked the Japanese woman what time is her next flight to Nagoya. She showed us the time.. 12am the next morning. I was shocked! That time when we were with her was 1.30pm and where is she going to go and wait? The new airport lounge is not ready, not many place for people to rest and she can't speak english! I was hell worry.

We ended up asking for help from the people who carry the "ASK ME" sign.
Explained the situation to the ASK ME girl, she guided us to information counter. Explained the situation again to the lady at the counter, she asked her to go to luggage locker area. Go to Luggage locker area, they ask me to go to the X counter upstairs. Honestly.. they are not helping us at all.. I was frustrated. I find no answer from them.

I feel so bad for the Japanese woman, don't know whats going on, lugging such big luggage, going round and round. I did explained to her everything but I think she was just confused.

So we finally went upstairs and look for the X counter. Before I got there, I found a Air Asia guy chatting with 3 aunties! I try my luck, and thought, this guy looks helpful! I interrupted them (this is like after 1 and half hours running around in the airport. I am sweaty and panting!
I asked the guy if he can help us. Explained to him the situation and he ask nothing and confidently said: Don't worry, leave her to me. I will bring her to the X counter and settle it.

Honestly I was shocked and relieved at the same time! I finally found a person who can help the woman!  I double checked with him if he can speak Japanese because she can't speak English. He assure me that he will find a air hostess who can speak Japanese to help her.

Thank youuuuuuuuuu whoever you are!!! I forgot to get his name!!! If you see my blog (which I doubt hahahaha) please let me know! I wanna send an email to Tony Fernandez and praise you!

By the time I get out of the building and waiting for the taxi is already 3.30pm. Me and Cecile felt like we gone through a freaking marathon! Tired and waited taxi for 30 minutes. :(



But finally.. we got to the hotel, wash up, rest a bit and ready for 1hour shopping! LOL
Not bad.. we managed to go to Daiso (bought quite a bit) and Cecile found nice clothes in Zara and bought tea from TWG. haha Shopping Marathon

Then we rushed to the entrance and my friend Cindy came to pick us up. Feel sorry for her because it was heavy rain that day and have a terrible traffic jam! She was stuck for an hour!
Not only that, my friend Wun went to the steamboat restaurant earlier to get a table for us too.
Ahhhhhh Thank you so much my friendssssss




Coincidently, my friend Chelmen opened a cafe it was her opening day when I arrived! I was really happy that I can go there and support them and visit their cafe! So happy for her!  I was tempted to stay in KL and ask her to hire me to work there as a pastry chef LOL!!!



If you lived in KL, please go and try it out! Here is their facebook page :) Witty and Oaky
Cute cafe and good coffee! They sometimes hold some DIY event too! Go check it out!

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Ops!! I have actually stopped writing here and gotten lazy!!! Okay.. today is actually July 30th and I will continue to write this. I'm going to write whatever I can remember so that I can look back at this trip when I'm old hahaha


Now, next day morning, we woke up at 8am to walk across the road to Ming Thien to have breakky. I miss this place!! It used to be my hang out place with my college mates! Zhap fan, Gai Si Hor fun oh mai gowd so yummy!!

Unfortunately I can't have any of those because it's too early! haha so we had a little dimsum instead.

After breakfast, we head back to the hotel and have the same taxi guy that we took yesterday to bring us back to KLIA2 to go to our next destination which I don't know. 

When we got there, Cecile and I was standing in front of the Departure and Arrival Board. I was like thinking we are sure going somewhere beachy like Phuket or Krabi, or even Penang because one of our friend was there that time.

So she told me, look at 1.20pm flight. I was screening through the departure time and I was like.. BRUNEI?????? My eyes are quite small but I'm pretty sure that time my eyes open like 10x bigger! We are going to see our friend Mira!!! OMG it's been so long since we last see each other! 4-5 years I think. I am excited! Normally I can guess surprises quite easily but this one, she did well! ahhahaah Good job Cecile!! You not only surprised me but you shocked me as well!

 

    

My AA burger

 We excitedly arrived Brunei Airport with a bottle of Teq. This is for us to drink while we have our girly chat at night haha

If any of you going to Brunei, make sure these few things. If you bringing alcohol in, you need to fill up 3 forms instead of 2. I think is blue, pink and green? yellow? I can't remember. It's so confusing hahaha I had to run back and forth to fill up the form.  

If you are using you Aussie passport, you will need to pay 30 Brunei dollars for your visa at the counter. Don't panic if you don't have, they have money changer after the counter. You just need to pass the immigration, change the money and run back to give them 30 dollars. If you have singapore dollar, that will do too :) So go with Malaysia passport, Hong Kong passport etc you don't have to pay.

We finally came out of the immigration and got our luggage! Phew! 

Now, meet our long time no see friend! We definitely missed her.

Fast forward the story. 

Cecile and Mira definitely have discuss the trip way before I knew. 

So they have booked everything and plan everything for me. I am truly grateful!

They have booked the nicest hotel in Brunei. 5 star? 6 star? It is really the nicest! At least 5-6 restaurant in there, 1 cinema, 3-4 pools, tennis court, squash court, 3 cinema, bowling alley, golf course.. it's insanely huge that hotel! 

It is called the Empire Hotel.

This is our room. Mira and her son got another room next to us.

The toilet is so big I can roll in there. 

The cart that bring us around the hotel. Lazy people aren't we hahahah

Day time at the pool

 Sunset at the pool

Oh there's indoor pool too! Swimming 3 days in a row when we were there. 

This place is a luxury..

Us eating and bowling at the same time

Us with same headbands hehe

Mira took us to a steakhouse for dinner. I miss Asian style Western food. haha 

This is what I have when I was young! Sizzling Chicken, some Prawns, corns and carrots and chips! and gravy of course hehe usually I pick mushroom.

 After dinner, we went to shops and bought some snacks and head back to hotel and rest. 

In those 5 days, we spend so much time together, we had fun teasing each other, we had deep talk and stupid talk haha We ate all different kind of food and we love it all!

Food court Malay Economy Rice

 

Hotel Restuarant- I can't remember what Pasta and on the right is Laksa.

Shabulicious

Individual shabu shabu

Dessert from the hotel. mmm... looks good but not very nice. 

 

Something that we have never tried before. Embuyat. 

It's cooked sago (I guess), You twirl it with wooden stick, then you dip it in sauce, put in your mouth and you swallow it. No Chewing. 

I failed in eating this.. because I just wanna chew it. haha

 More Malay yummy food

My friend in Perth recommended me Thien Thien. They are famous with their chicken rice. I was greedy.. I had 2 types of chicken and ended up so darn full. 

Kuih Muih

It was Mother's day when we were there. Mira arranged the dinner for us and her family to have Buffet in the hotel for this special day. The buffet is pretty awesome! Their desserts are pretty yummy.

Cecile and I bought flowers for Mira, her sisters and her mom for Mothers day celebration. Yep they are all mothers already hehe Very big family!! 

 Baby girl so cute!

It was nice to get to know Mira's family. Her parents are so cool and friendly. 

We visited Mira's family home too. :)

and we had some snacks.. hehe om nom nom...

 On the last day of our trip in Brunei, 3 of us spend our night to the max. Eating delicious Japanese food, having mocktails.. (no cocktails in Brunei yo...)

Spending our night in the bathtub soaking our feet and taking turns drawing something about us, about our days together. haha while Mira's son sleeping soundly in the room hehe

and this is what we came out. I think it's quite cute! Although some of the stuff doesn't make sense hahaha but it totally make sense to us. 

We even played games! This game is fun. It is called 5 second rules. Go get it. haha

Early next morning.. we packed up and leave the hotel.. feeling a bit sad and we know we are going to miss each other. 

Mira drove us to the airport and we were a bit too early.. haha the counter hasn't even open yet. :P

So we camwhore a bit.

We say bye bye to Mira and Elyas.. Hope to see you soon in Nov!

Man with 1 leg.

Flying back to KLIA2 to our next destination.

To be continue...

Beau Est Mien, William St, Northbridge

Today, I found something really interesting in Northbridge! Well for me anyway haha

I passed by this shop while I was driving down William Street. It's a print and design shop named Beau Est Mien. As a ex graphic designer, my eyes instantly glued to the shop. I have to admit I am not a fantastic illustrator nor designer although I am a graphic designer lol.. like my mom said to me few days ago on the phone.. I have sent you to study graphic design for 5 years and now you are doing cakes!?  LOL.. yea mommy.. hehe... graphic design is not my thang anymoooooo...  

But!!! I am still in love with papers! I have a whole bucket of wrapping papers, stacks of coloured paper in my cupboard, photo paper, printing paper, crepe, glass whatever you name it! I have it all!! probably just not in every colour :P

I just think paper is the most versatile thing in the world! I can do so many things out of it. Good thing I studied design and I know how to use the software.. from that I can create basically everything! Especially for the parties that me and my friends have all these while.. paper and printer, I can make buntings, cards, menu, my takoyaki stall !

Anyway.. I wanted to let you know this shop that I found today!!



Just a few shops away from William Topp.

Shop name Beau Est Mien. Check out their website here.



Basically, Beau Est Mien is a print making studio and a shop selling Magali Dincher's designs.
Her stuff is quirky and creative, totally loving it! Go there and have a look!

They run workshops too and these are the workshops that are running now.

The one that I'm really interested in is the DIY Carved Stamp Workshop hehe

I will join this class one day..  :)

Go check it out if you are after some quirky design, DIY stamp pouch, invites or even just wrapping paper that I got one myself!

I've picked a cute and dreamy one.

Thought some of you might be interested to have a birthday party there!
I thought.. hens party would be great too if you are those who don't drink and party.  ;)

Click to have a bigger view.

Kitchen Warehouse Easter Cupcake Competition

Kitchen warehouse ran a Easter Cupcake Competition last week and I'm one of the contestant. 

I was pretty nervous for a few days, thinking of the ideas, the flavours, and the whole look for my cupcakes. I think I have put too much pressure on myself and made a little wrong judgement on the cupcake hehe ops!

Anyway, here are the contestants cupcake entries! They all look amazing!

Here are some of the cute cupcakes..

This is my creation for this competition. 

A little girl wearing bunny ears and holding a bunny toy, along with a basket of easter eggs, hot cross buns and chicks on cupcakes.

I've made smore's cupcakes! Smores is an American thing which is Graham Crackers sandwiched chocolate and marshmellow. So what i did was grinding up the graham crackers and baked it into cupcakes, put the ganache in the middle and made marshmellow cream to put on top then torched it. 

The wrong choice that I made was adding a small piece of the graham cracker before topping the marshmellow cream. I didn't think that the cracker would become soft.. hence no more crunch and made the cupcake a bit dry too. :(

Yep after saying all these, that means I didn't win.. hahahaha.. but i was really close! Missing by 0.5 points to the winner. 

Here is the winner! 

Sugar spun on top! I love sugar spun.. it just add the classiness to it. 

Congrats Clarrisa!

The popular Sandy from Sandy's Cake and her daughter was the judges and they were there to demonstrates cupcakes basket. This encourages everyone to bake something and be creative! 

My cupcakes were all gone in 20 minutes and I have no refills. ops!! 

It was good fun joining this competition. Giving myself pressure to think of something different and be creative. The most important thing is "Be yourself and have your own style".  ;)