gastronomia!

one can't simply deny my attraction for food. i am currently placed in one of the best cities in the food where it is hard to get to "shitty" food. produce here are so fresh and cheap. everyone talks about food. in fact, everyone loves food here (or most of the people i meet). well i think melbourne is home to some of the best cuisines around - all thanks to its diverse multicultural society. somehow i find it really hard to keep in shape here.. visits to the gym does not involve a goal in achieving a perfect "pec-ed out" body, but an excuse for me to taste even more dishes during my short stay here every semester.

this semester have been rather "eventful".. realising that i will be going on a year-long exchange and leaving melbourne behind (definitely glad to be leaving the faculty), i was determined that i will embark on a quest to conquer the many gastronomic spots in melbourne that i have yet uncovered. of course this would not have been possible without the help with some friends with the one thing that affects the execution of the whole operation - THEIR CARS! i guess with the temperature dipping as we approach winter and with the whole MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA craze going on right now, our appetitie kinda grew as well (for that, i'm not complaining at all..)

well it's definitely going to be hard leaving melbourne for a year, but i am definitely looking forward to more food adventures in montreal (coffee of course!).. having said that, would like to share with you guys some of the best that i have tasted in melbourne, which have definitely made their contribution to my battle in curbing my (slightly)expanding waistline.. :)

A.

well and so I have reminded by one of my readers that I have been neglecting my blog (which is totally true) and here I am back in business!

so many things happened since my last post and I really have no idea where should I start from. perhaps I'll do a quick chronological list of events that took place since 29th Jan 2010..

1. went to Hong Kong with sis and grace
2. came back to Melbourne for new semester!
3. got a job at a cafe (not the cool ones that I will recommend anyone to go to)
4. tonnes of school work and feeling super uber stressed
5. went to lady gaga concert! (which was totally awesome)
6. celebrated my 23rd birthday!
7. got accepted for my exchange at McGill University (that means montreal in fall 2010 here I come!)
8. busy sorting out stuffs before I head back to Singapore after my exams!

not exactly an extensive list of stuff but I guess that's because nothing really significant have been going on with my life in Melbourne. well but I'm really excited with my upcoming travel plans though! here it goes...

24 June - Last paper
24 June - 29 June (Perth)
18 July (Singapore)
6 - 10 August (Hong Kong, again!)
10 August - 16 August (Shanghai)
22 August (tentative) - Montreal, Quebec, Canada!

feels like a really exciting year ahead of me and I really can't wait to go for exchange. I'm really planning to spend christmas and new years at NYC! travel planning can be quite a chore and a pain in the ass but I guess at the end of the day its all worth it. there's just so much of logistics that I would have to settle before I leave Melbourne.. and sadly I will definitely miss Melbourne!!!

so I guess before I sign off on this post it'll be nice to share with you guys what have been happening so far.. :)

grace and I in one of our favourite dessert spots in HK!

the girls with their supper.

our awesome hotel with the view of happy valley.

all the shopping are in their massive bags!

goose liver sausages bun from YUNG KEE to die for!

baking back in Melbourne! signature sticky date pudding. :)

birthday dinner at Allegro Westin Melbourne.

with the ex housemates from cmc :)

birthday present to myself. :)

my favourite past-time in Melbourne.. cafe hopping!

eggs benedict on toasted poppy seed bagels @ LAS CHICAS.

awesome pancakes at FANDANGO.

the STUDded affair.

maybe i'm abit tad late in blogging about this but may i say that i'm currently very much IN LOVE with these new creations for men by christian louboutin. most of my close pals will know that i'm personally quite a shoe-holic and i should probably check into rehab for my obsession with shoes. but aren't these shoes simply to-die-for? like seriously.. i can't stop ogling at the beauty of these masterpieces.

well in fact the other day i saw one of my friends wearing a pair of these and i was just stud-struck. i kept staring at his shoes and must i say that i was really amazed by the studs. c'mon don't they look awesome?

apparently one of the designers, phillip lim, used these shoes for one of his runway shows. i'll probably check and see how he manages to match these awesome statement pieces against his clothes.

it will absolutely make my day if i were to receive ONE OF THESE PAIRS as a present. nevermind the occasion of course. i will gladly receive them with open arms. and oh just if you're wondering, i'm a UK7, Euro 41, US 8! :)

my friend had this on the other night. my favourite of the lot!

does this remind you of a porcupine?

leopard preeeeeeeenssssss!!!!

erm my least favourite of the lot. these are men's shoes mind you! ha ha.

exotic snake skin. I LIKE.

wouldn't mind these too!

haven't been really a fan of high tops but these looks amazing!

if only i have longer (and slimmer) legs..

iPad?

yup and so they did it again. part of their plan to take over the world. ha ha. APPLE launched the iPad yesterday and from the looks of it, i'm not exactly impressed nor excited.

WHY?

well after visiting apple's website, i realised that the iPad lacks in several different areas for me as a consumer..

1. they do not have an isight camera!!! what can be more important than that?! ha ha well that means no photobooth (extremely important if you want to camwhore with your friends). plus one wouldn't be able to skype on the go, which would be a pull factor for me!

2. no SD card slot. well that means i can't upload my pictures to facebook and my blog on the go, which sucks. i can only transfer data through a dock where i sync the iPad with.

3. no flash component. well according to one of the reviews i read online, apparently the absence of flash component mean that one can't play facebook games! how sad is that. hrm.

4. maximum storage 64GB. that's just simply downright miserable. if they can squeeze so much storage into the iphone, why can't they do the same for the iPad?

well i guess in a way, like what my boss said at work, that they are capturing the early adopters in the market who would definitely hop onto the iPad bandwagon. as for myself, right now i think the time is not right to get myself one of these swanky looking gadgets. including the ipod nano that i've always wanted (it comes with a video camera instead of a still camera).

maybe APPLE will come out with an improved version of the iPad soon with the attributes that i've mentioned above, or maybe they will come out with an iPhone the size of the nano - that will be really interesting. but till then. i'm pretty happy with my macbook, blackberry and samsung mp3 player. :)

revamped.

well its a brand new year and i've decided to make some changes to my blog. pretty drastic ones actually. so basically what i did was to strip my blogskin bare and start from scratch, and here it is - my brand new blog (hey, i'm pretty proud of myself since i'm pretty much of a computer idiot, so give me some credit ya)

i'm loving the new blog very much. it's clean and it's easy to navigate. and i guess having a white background will make my upcoming shots of FOOD look much better?

so just some updates after this long hiatus.. i'm back in singapore for the summer holidays and i'll be back to melbourne in another month's time or so? right now i'm interning at a local branding company called Immortal (you can check us out at www.immortal.com.sg), pretty cool stuff we do here and i'm totally enjoying it. well i can't wait for chinese new year because i missed it last year! plus i'll be heading to HONG KONG after cny, which makes february a pretty exciting month for me.

ALSO! i did pretty alright for my papers last semesters so that also means that the commerce faculty is endorsing me for my application for a year-long exchange to the states! which is totally awesome! all i have to do now is to wait for them to get back to me, as to which college i will be nominated to for my exchange. NYU doesn't seem too promising with only 2 slots up for grabs. but i'm hoping that at least i will be offered a place in boston. hrm.

till then. xoxo.

CIRCUS.

awesome stage. awesome set. awesome performance.

the one and only BRITNEY SPEARS!!!!

heatwave.

so for the past few days melbourne has been experiencing some sort of heatwave in the middle of spring.. doesn't seem too bad for me though, but too bad for me, no chance of playing under the sun.

and so i'm done with my first paper - macroeconomics. didn't exactly turn out the way i would want it to be but i guess i did try my best afterall. me hope that i'll do just fine this semester to be eligible for exchange!

tonight's ms spear's circus tour here in melbourne and YES - I AM GOING! well i'm not as hyped up as when i was going for beyonce's concert though. guess partly because you pay so much for a concert and you pretty much hope that they do sing live and not mime? well i guess i'm just gonna try enjoy myself today and enjoy the stage effects, dances and of cos ms spears herself.

oh and i just realised that when i enrol in Le Cordon Bleu come 2012, London will be hosting the Olympics so here's to eurostar! ha ha.