schmap melbourne

see de picture on the right? guess what? it made it to schmap melbourne!!!! my tiny little fame in de internet world :)

ohhh de picture was taken at laurent patissere at little collins street, melbourne.

its alright ... and i am back

i am back people!! miss me?? this trip was good. v v good. and i think i really needed it. i did things that i dun do normally and totally surprised me.

- day one. i was beat (thanks to red eye flight) and my room was not ready. i ended walking around st kilda at 8am in de morning. went back to de hotel and took a nap before i meet jo for late lunch.

- my hotel was divine. though de room was small, it seriously is good (esp for de price i paid ... not easy to find hotel below $100).

- went off to brunswick on a rainy day. my polka dot umbrella was blown away. a man saw what happended and greeted me. sweet. despite i was cold and wet, i feel warm inside. thanks dude.

- brunswick was abit poser for me. i didnt enjoy that much. but did found a fantastic teashop and a cafe!

- and then it was off to sunday market. first stop st kilda market. errr nothing much. i jus cun bear to buy stuff that i know how to make. but i did find this cool stall run by an elderly couple who recycled old spoons and forks, and make de most wonderful bangle, rings and necklace. i bought a bangle and a ring. LOVING THEM!!!

- then its off to de arts centre sunday market. bigger but not necessary better. i enjoyed de basker act.

- lunch was at this place called chocolate buddha. pretty cool. for once, i actually like eating udon noodles.

- ian potter centre was my next stop. it was free but i wanted to see the sidney nolan exhibition so i paid for it. i cun believe de place is free for all. it doesnt have de typical monet, picasso, pollack (compared to moma, mets); it still have pretty impressive local (australian) collection. i heart!!

- the australian centre of moving images was rather confusing for me in terms of ticketing. i ended up only at de gift shop and bought tons of postcards. muahahhaah.

- as i have a bit of time left, i toured de city abit. errr dun like. too sparse ...

- de following day was chapel street day. i went there on my first day but i was too tired to appreciate it.

- i really like chapel. actually love. country road was having sales. i almost wipe out de whole store. ohhh did i mentioned i found salvos??!! they rock. i love. i really wanna buy that dresser. i want i want!!! i also like dinosaur design but too much for my pocket.

- de low of chapel was i went to this talk-about italian place - caffe e cucina. errmmm dun bothered. my pasta was oversalted and de lobster was overcooked. only good thing was de latte at de end of my meal.

- i also went to queen victoria market. so happy there as i bought most of my pressies to friends from there. hehehehehe.

- next was lygon street for lunch. i waited 10 years to eat de chicken spinach pasta at papa gino. i made de silly mistake of ordering a main course. i only managed to finish half de plate and tabao de rest. it was alright for me.

- after lunch, it was gelato time!! i ordered my usual mango and passionfruit. it was v sweet for me. then i saw de blood orange flavour. darn.

- melbourne experienced de worst wind ever. car got banged. people got injured. i was glad i was indoor.

- i was at the national gallery of victoria. once again de entry was free. its good. i managed to catch the myer fashion gallery where i fall in love w a gown by dior.

- of course, i needed to visit at least a garden in melbourne. thanks to de wind storm - the melbourne international flower show was cancelled de day i wanted to go. so i off to fitzroy gardens. love it there. i took really cool pictures there too. i actually so-so w de flowers. i was more fascinated w de gardener who was pruning de conservatory. kinda stalkin him. hahahhaha.

- i ended my trip w a shop around de city. i really dun fancy de city. and most important i was grossed out by koko black. its used to have really good hot chocolate. now i think its mediocre. its cheap chocolate. why why why??

de trip was really amazing. i actually chatted w strangers. i am friendly in emails but when u see me in real person - i am not that nice. hahahhaha. i chat w pple at de supermarket. met a swiss guy whom i bonded. and of course hanging around this aussie mother and daughter.

now i jus hope that it dun take another 10 years for me to go back to melbourne.


p/s: ohhh for pictures ... please click here.

oink is goin for a holiday ... soon

i have finally booked a holiday!! destination - melbourne!! i havent been there since uni times. so i am super duper lookin forward to re-visit this city.

de whole bookin thing for this holiday is rather traumatising for me. a certain airline really pissed me off. in de end, i still went ahead w them coz they are de only decent priced airline. moi cannot withstand an 8 hours journey on budget nor can i afford SQ flight. despite these, i am definitely looking forward to de hotel that i intend to stay. its frigin near de botanic gardens. woohoo!!

i cun wait for march to come ...

happy lunar new year

its that time of de year again ... happy lunar new year everyone and enjoy de break ...

this is how you should usher in de new year

dress up as heroic characters, make your friends laugh violently, and of course, create silly videos out of all these ...

left to right, top row: claire (heroes), monk (from any martial art movies), chunli (streetfighters), justice bao (justice bao)

left to right, bottom row: (old) ming zhen hao (da chang jin), wonder woman (wonder woman), spiderman (spiderman), martha stewart (the martha stewart show), ji gong (ji gong)

happy new year

happy new year everyone!!!!!!

it has been a wonderful 2007. it has not been super easy for me. but i survived and made lotsa frens here and there. hey you win some and you lose some.

good things do come at the end. i met a hungarian on de net (hi betti), got a better caretaker for grandma, met long-lost poly-mates - courtesy of sweeling, and most important had de most hilarious NY party ever. gosh i cun wait for the video to come out. its SCANDALOUS!! not kidding you. i laugh so much, tears jus keep flowing.

and not forgetting my best achievements for the year are my christmas lunch kit for all my frens and my canjun salmon which i prepared for NY dinner (thanks masterfood).

once again, thank you all de silly billies for your love, support, patience and kindness. keep up de good work ok. hahahhahhaaa.

p/s: you may notice that i use de above 2 kiddos (esp de girl) in some of my entries. they are NOT my kids. and yes sadly they are related to me. ;p they lived in a faraway land and i have not seen them for 2 years plus. sob.

merry christmas

please note that oink will be closed till 6 jan 2008. happy holidays!!!

so not inspired

this is friggin no good. i am not motivated nor inspired w my xmas gifts for de gang. i mean i know what i wanna give. but execution is another story. de colors, de fonts ... de motif ... sigh. i need to get things done by THIS WEEK!!!!!

de shop will be slowly updated once i can take some decent pics (de weather is not helping). and its obvious me not really care abt xmas buyer. muahhahahahah. the thing is i am not v happy w my photos. i am slowly trying to figure my lighting and composition. arghhhh. i need santa elves!!!!!

p/s: on a happier note, i "met" a new friend - betti - via flickr. she is actually a friend of lynda. she is really nice and sweeeeeet. hi babe!!! *wave*

back from bangkok

yes i am back. its a hectic four days three nights. our schedule was v v tight. hahahhaa. so tight we decided to cancel our massage.

what scare me and my fren kat de most was de hotel. de hotel was abit too cheap. so cheap its frightening. its at least 1000 baht cheaper than most hotels in bkk. imagine our relieved faces when we saw our hotel was decent. nice beds. even got free mineral water!! next time, you wanna go bkk, book ibis siam. only 850 baht!!!!!!

we ate lotsa steamboat. do check out the sushi and steamboat buffet at centralworld. cheap and good. and their ice green tea is v yummy. hhahahaa. we have a bit of everything. lotsa shopping in de mall means we were not sticky and yucky. hahahah.

our highlight was definitely when we scored free jap melon (which costs S$30 per slice) at tsu-nami at jw marriot. we were waiting for one of the dishes we ordered. we got quite full and decided to cancel it. think de kitchen forgot and they tot we were pissed and offered us fruit platter. i seriously tot they will give us papaya/watermelon. they presented us w 600 baht melon!!! kat who is not a fan of fruits, ate everything up. sweeet.

of course how can any trip to bkk without dropping by chatuchak! as usual its hot and a sauna there. we stopped twice for drinks.

all in all de trip was good. it was pure shopping and eating. fat fat now!!

back from taiwan

yo all. i am back!! taiwan was good. it was better than i expected. lotsa of walking and eating and shopping. i bought four pairs of shoes. two of them are keds which designs i absolutely love. if you have de time, check out my pics on flickr.

i have been really slackin w de whole blog thing. i will try to upload some of de superoverdue pic soon. really overdue. hahahhaha.

i am also workin on new creations for oink. am also starting a new adventure too. more to tell later.

ok. i wanna get back to my tv now (live earth).

off to taiwan

come thursday, i will be off to taiwan. its our annual co trip (so far so good).

i will be sharin de room w ms pinkability aka vera. hope my eardrums can endure her high-pitched voice (mandy ah mandy). and hopefully my nose can endure certain BB too. better pack lotsa mints. hahahahaha.

i will be back on sun. in de meantime dun miss me (not that i update my blog v often ;p).

ps: its been awhile since i bought her world. now it comes in a more bag-friendly size. anyway its still a bring-and-throw mag for me. hahahahaha.

happy lunar new year!

happy lunar year!! its de year of de piggy!! my fav animal!! hehehhehehe :)

i have been piggin out on bak kwa, cashew nut, pineapple tarts, kueh banggit ... now i am really as fat as a piggy.

my cousins jus came earlier. gosh my nieces and nephews are so much taller than me!! they made me feel so small. kinda weird to see people who are taller than you call you yee yee. got a call in de morning from my aunty and cousin (kristen mummy!!) in canada. all is well and my cousin complained that kristen is really evil ;p

we got two more days to go before goin back to work. so enjoy people!!