fuchsia fragments

welcomed some interstate and singapore colleagues this week for training... which inevitably meant that a bunch of us girls went out one night on the drink. fun times. although probably not the best idea to have a bottle of wine plus each on a wednesday night. struggled a little through a very shitty thursday!! well worth it i think!

jan and i went to watch The Hunger Games last night.

it was good but i felt like it was one of those movies you come out of and just analyze and analyze and analyze. like Bladerunner.

and children killing children? why?!

domestic duties today = washing nessie and getting soaked and cleaning the fish tank.

then i shall study :)

these days are so treasured as they are so rare. :)

got up nice and early for a bit of a roadtrip to richmond and beyond! BILPIN!!! apple picking!

not what i expected!


it was still a bit wet and the drive on the motorways was very boring. going up the mountain was cool though. very very windy road.

the orchard itself? well, if we (okay, maybe i) weren't such city chicks, probably would have found it normal. but it smelt cause of all the apples on the ground and the grass was quite long. so glad i was wearing joggers and not flats. good judgement. gum boots would probably have been even better.

it was lots of fun though.

there is nothing like picking an apple of a tree and eating it. SO GOOD.


one of life's must-dos, taken off my list. =)

lovely that our little niece and cousin came along too. fun fun oh and and we went to el jannah for chicken lunch. good but enough of that for a while. won't be back anytime soon!

i even came home and baked fresh apple pie (went down a treat at work today, so i was told) and even managed to do some work. like actual work for work...

busy busy me. <3

lol that sis and i are studying sort of the same stuff at the moment.

intellectual property!

lunch with baby justin!!! poor lil man slept in so they were running late to pancakes @ nth stratty. no matter since we were a little late ourselves. adorable and the happiest baby ever... until he got bored of sitting around and watching us all eat. so he proceeded to pinch my face and pull my hair. its love!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 so rare that we get to spend time like this with my cousins so it was greatly appreciated.


we got home and chloe was over. 2 babies (niece and nephew in one day!!!) WOOT!!!! and we have a date with her tomorrow. =D =D =D


and then... 

it was mons birthday tonight and we did something different!... after being stuck in traffic on the pyrmont bridge for an hour... we eventually got into the city for yum cha dinner at nine dragon in chinatown. . . where we ordered so o o o o o o o o o much food. O_O (and it was rather strange because the whole restaurant was white ppl and the waiters spoke in english, served water not tea, they had pictures on the menu and it was in english!)

you know how the chinese like to order heaps to look like they can afford it, cause it gives them face, etc etc?? well, when we had finished eating till our stomachs were about to pop, the table looked like what the chinese would order. . . lol.

great to catch up as always =) another year already. so fast!

jan and i decided not to proceed onwards to star bar. . .

so we went and checked out the new cafe literally downstairs from her place. its pretty good. very packed tonight. needs work - we were almost thinking about giving the owner constructive criticism (sort of... haha) but decided against it. phew.

a little chocolate-dessert cafe. good concept. execution needs works - namely the customer service, the cleanliness and i would rethink the self-serve style (they do not wait on tables).

worth going back especially when i get VIP visitors parking in the basement ^^ - never have to look for parking again! wyn-wyn!!!

someone at work who understands. and speaks up for you. and helps you.

one day at a time, one battle at a time.

getting there :-)

happy me

catch up tonight at d2ds! yay! a fav hangout and some pretty cool peeps :)

made the train nightmare - aka, signal failure @ martin place during peak hour - a small hump in an otherwise pretty good day!

this makes it 3 full weeks since i've been back. europe feels so long ago.

got my official hard copy and very cool invite to donna's birthday. thank you!

I am extremely lucky.

I am extremely privileged.

I shouldn't take things for granted.

I shouldn't think so one-sidedly.

There are always people who are a lot worse off than you, so be humble.

You can't have everything you want.

You can't control the world, but you can control your world - so focus on the things that you can change, and make the most of what you can't.

There is always a different way to do something.

Things are never as simple as black and white.

Okay, so you get the gist. I basically learnt a whole lot about myself, and the world. And it has changed my perspective on quite a few things. At the moment, one of the most important of those being my job. I guess I am staying put for now...

Our european home away from home.

We stayed in Windsor with a family friend who had two daughters pretty much the same age and sis and I. Pretty cool huh. But they no longer live at home. So we got to have their room.

SO artistic. Some pretty amazing stuff!!

London itself? Dirty. Lots of roadwork in prep for the Olympics. Crowded. WET. Rude. Arrogant.

But London was my last stop shop!

Monkey lost her shit in a couple of shops. It was seizure material. Bright lights, multiple levels, loud music. All a bit too much for two Sydney girls not use to all the glamour. And new season fashion. And affordable prices.

It was here that i got my Burberry! FINALLY!!!!! So happy.

And my new charm from Tiffany's.

Ah... i was so content.

We did High Tea at the Langham. You can get really really really full on sandwiches, scones, dessert and tea. And i mean really full. But it was so relaxing. :)

We did Buckingham Palace. A long wait for a lot of pomp and fanfare really. The police on horses were cool though. Because the horse was cool.

We did the London Eye. Okay, so it was expensive to go up. But we had to go up at least one attraction! And you have to admit the view was pretty amazing.

We did Chinatown. Even had lunch there. It felt like Sydney's chinatown.

We did Bond St, Oxford Circus and the Piccadilly shopping area. Self explanatory.

We did Hyde Park. There was so much wildlife. There were squirrels!!! And they weren't afraid of humans!!!

We ate Japanese. Again, like Sydney.

And we saw the Big Ben, and London Bridge and Windsor Castle and Trafalgar Square. We even got stopped by the police as passngers in a car! At least the police there do their job i.e., check your vehicle is registered to you rather than book you for speeding.

London was okay. I wouldn't want to live there long term. Just not my thing. . .

So we decided to be foodies for a day did a day trip from Paris to the home of waffles, fries, beer, mussels, chocolate and...

BABY SCOUT!!!

It was literally like scout, but a baby version. He even acted like Scout. So adorable!

We did some research and found out that the Chez Leon was heaps famous for their mussels and fries. We were not disappointed! SO GOOD. So worth the trip.

It was pretty much a nice little train ride, walk around the city centre, lunch, walk back to station.

The TGL superfast train even had wifi. Impressive.

Oh Paris... the city of love... and letdowns.

It's not that the sight's that we visited weren't amazing, it was the number of people everywhere that was downright touristy. Lines everywhere!

We did one of the hop-on/hop-off tours which was pretty cool. Got to see the Eiffel Tower light up at night, fresh nutella crepes and fairy floss! No complaints there.

We also had Paris' most famous macarons - the line was so long it was out the door. And we made it just in time! Yum Yum Yum.

And the shopping on Champ-Elysees... so moreish. But so crowded. And relatively more expensive.

On the second day, we found a nice little area near Notre-Dame. Great food and little shops to wander around which was lots of fun. Except for when all the head waiters stand outside and try to pull you into their restaurant!!! haha

Another experience would have been Galeries Lafayette - 3 buildings and 7 levels of pure shopping. Too expensive for us though :( Just came away with Longchamp bags which was modest.

The smallest country in the world. Walkable from Rome Centre.

Pretty much caught a metro there, had a look around, noticed they were getting ready for Easter and headed back to the City.

I am not a religious person... soz.

You are supposed to get lost in Venice!!! And we did, mega-uber-super-duper lost. With our luggage (mistake!). Suggestion to future travellers: Put your suitcase in the lockers at the station and pack a light bag with what you need. This is basically where our awesome Country Road bags would have been super handy!

We went at a great time since it was their annual Carnivale (with an e). Music, dancing, dress up, costumes, food, you name it. Some pretty amazing scenes!

Only stayed a night so we didn't experience heaps of Venice but it is definitely a fun trip for a group of friends especially just to wander aimlessly and get lost!!!

Zurich is one of the most peaceful and prettiest places you will ever go to. It is rich, modern and so tranquil. However, be warned, it is expensive! We had fun exploring their super duper sized supermarkets that had everything - soup bar, hot bar, sushi bar, scan your own fruit market, a gazillion drinks, fresh bread, flowers, you name it. The tobacco draw was the coolest - its like automated and drops down and you just pick!

And then there's strolling along Lake Zurich. So pretty and so much wildlife, even in the dead of winter. Okay, I admit, we were mean and we threw a piece of ice into the water and the birds thought it was food. Soz.

Checking out the Manor Department Store was awesome. There is a self-serve restaurant on the top level with pretty much all the different kinds of food you can imagine. Then there's the fashion, homewares, electricals, souvenirs, make up, beauty products, gourmet food...should i go on? Yeah, it was great fun.

So was the main shopping street, Bahnhofstrasse - made up of all the rich and designed brands you can think of. We bought 200 g of expensive-as chocolate here to try. I can't even recall the name of the chocolatier (not lindt). It was nice, but over priced. I guess I'm just not a connoisseur. Did pick up my (supposedly) hand-carrier-able swiss knife - my must-have souvenir!

And we did the Swiss thing and had fondue at the Alder Hotel Restaurant. The stench kind of reeks in the beginning but you sort of settle in and get use to it. It is pretty much bread and cheese. But glorified and boozed up! Pretty good until you get to about half way and its just all too much... worth trying!