fuchsia fragments

So to recap... it was the week that you wind down to christmas and the holiday season.

Unless you get a massive order in one week out. and then put another two on top plus your own stuff to do.

It was a huge learning experience. Lots of hours, hard work and perserverance but so worth it. and i cannot thank my parents enough for their tireless efforts over the past week. feel so loved.

Over 2000 cookies, 4 massive fruit cakes, 100 macarons, 4 dozen cupcakes, 20 gingerbread trees, fondant for all the cookies, macaron fillings, cupcake toppers AND 2 macaron trees.

All done in the hours after my 8-6 job. Yes, there were quite a few late nights (early mornings).

But we got there... despite Murphy's Law trying to come into play! We beat it down good!

And I am relieved, tired, happy, broken but still here. Still me.

Can't wait for the break.

i passed all my exams... INCLUDING ADVANCED TAXATION. WHOOOOO

TIME TO CELEBRATE!~~

Settlement next week.
CPA done.

It's the holiday / party season!!

HAPPY HAPPY ME!!!

It's december!!! Who can believe it!

It's been a very very busy week for me.

Baking baking baking, sorting out  some real estate issues, work, catching up with friends... oh how life gets in the way! ;)

Been my busiest week yet in the kitchen. 4 days straight of pretty much non-stop baking. Not to mention 37 degree heat on the first day of December. CRAZY!

And we were even crazier baking from sun up till sun down... and then some.

It's that time of the year when I usually reflect on what I've done (and a lot of the time, what I haven't). I'll get around to it... soon. Just need to take a breather!

So many things have happened, are happening or hopefully will happen. Some good, some bad, some necessary.

foodie week.

kicked off with ultimate skyfail. read here... mumbrella: skyfail @ event cinemas

had dinner at miss chu tuck shop which is in the same building as chef's gallery. but downstairs. then got gloria jeans and cha time in preparation for skyfall.

it was supposed to be good. full cinema, good atmosphere, supposedly awesome movie.

randomly discussing relationships, game theory and matrices (all interrelated topics of course...).

and movie starts. and about an hour in... it all goes downhill. W T F !!!

but hey, we smart girls - so we got our free movie voucher, but we WANTED TO SEE THE END OF SKYFALL. so we snuck into vmax. and probably watched the first hour or so again.

which meant it was late when we finished. so we were like embarassing ourselves running through the cinemas and down the stairs (maybe a bit like cinderella if you want to be poetic) to make it to our respective bus, bus, bus or train.

and i WIN!!! even though i live the second furthest from the city. express train trumps buses!!!

today...

met two of my favourite contractors. was gooooooooood meeting. very easy going and laid back. of course, i'm their fav person at my company ;)

then randomly bumped into jan after work. so we went froyo.

then i went to bevo to catch up to catherine and hear about her americas trip and what to do and what not to do. and tab was randomly on the table behind us.

food was awesome. mushrooms and haloumi, ink spaghetti with crab and fresh chilli and mediocre tiramisu. but such good value even though couldn't use entertainment card with weekday special. but still really really good for a local restaurant!

now need to catch up on some zzzzz time!

Picked a real estate agent for tenancy.

I feel like I went through a break up with the other one. And I won't return their calls.

LOL!

Normalcy has resumed!

I summon and my coffee arrives (actually, I lie - I have to remind him but he's been paying for it a lot but mostly because i always win our bets =D). We bicker. A lot. People laugh at us. We get work done. We argue. We get more work done. We curse the new accounting system. We whisper. We talk about the sydney office and gossip. He gets up. Me and the girls play pranks. etc etc.

What was a very ordinary Friday turned out so good.

He's got a new line since returning from Singapore: "Pamela would have just done it" or "Pamela's great, she's so easy to get along with" blah blah blah. New way to wind me up.

Pam, who is our finance person there is apparently perfect. She takes him out to lunch. It's always yes and of course when he asks. There's no arguing. No comebacks. No back chat. Just perfect little Pam. Hahaha. It all started cause I sent an email saying she spoilt him over there. And she came back and said he worked "extremely hard". Oh come on..... ;)

Anyway, I think the reason we had fun this afternoon was because it was me, Nick and my two other friendlies on our bank of desks. And i had to use his computer cause mine wasn't working. And i was like "WTF is wrong with his mouse? It's so laggy". And it was because we had stuck sticky tape to the sensor light bit to make it go slower.

And LOLOL, he hasn't even realised its slower. So i told Alex when he got up. And she was like HAHAHA stick another piece on it!!! And so i did. And here we were thinking Shell wanted no part in it. And she's like OMG you guys are hilarious. And i'm like... okay, everyone has to keep a straight face!!!

And he comes back and tries to use his mouse and he's like WTF did you do?

And i'm like nothing!! I have my own computer issues today and i couldn't even look at him so had my head turned slightly towards the girls. And we're all like snickering. And he's like bashing his mouse and trying to make it work and it still doesn't.

And then we told him. HAHAHAHAHAHA he was like, yeah that was a good prank. And then Shell's like emailing me and Alex about all this other stuff we should do. And i think he saw when it popped up in my inbox so he tried to grab my keyboard and see. And i was like NOOOOOO!!!!!!

So apparently he saw "Nick's desk" and "poo". =D =D =D

Just when you think you know somebody....... it was funny when it happened.

And very glad to see that its not just me who has an issue with certain people in the office!

Bored and indecisive at the moment.

Kind of funny that everytime Nick has called me whilst overseas today and last week, I have never picked up the phone directly on my line. It has always been transferred back to me.

Initially, I said to him, do you even know my direct number? Because the second time, he called his own number - sneaky!!

And cause I was always also on the phone, it went to overflow.

Which let him to ask if I was screening my calls. Lol.

Yes, if only ... ? Would rather take a call from him that a lot of others!

All 4 times, it was because I was really busy and sorting out issues with other people!!! hahaha we should prob stick to Whatsapp. I always respond readily there!

Started my day with a cake delivery. For a second, I thought I had the wrong house. But it went well. Cat's aunt looks just like her!!! And their floors were so polished and shiny. Mine aren't...

 I would technically count the bit where I lay in bed not wanting to get up and whatapping the girls as the start to my day. But unimportant.

Then drove to central to pick up Donna. Her bus was late so I listened to Guy Sebastian in the car park and didn't want to get out of the car for a bathroom break cause I was too cheap to put coins into the ticket machine. LoL.

Drove to Surry Hills for brunch@Bills. It was an easy half-hour wait. Had to find a couple of spots cause my car too big for some spots. Donna was like "Oh, really??". YES!!! IM SORRY MY CAR ISN'T A LITTLE VW! It was only like $1.10 per hour anyways so no dramas. And I'm pretty good at parallel parking these days ^^

Then we helped Cherry move her car as she was in a 1P spot. So I pretty much stood in the middle of the spot as it was a pretty awesome spot right outside Bills. And it was pretty unrecognisable as a spot. Awesome teamwork.

We were seated not long after that. And even though our order took ages to arrive (I am pretty sure they gave our order to the people who came in after us as they had the exact same thing), the food was really good. So was the coffee. Was itching to get a second but didn't succumb. Maybe should have gone for the large. We had Corn Fritters with bacon and fried tomato, Hot Cakes with banana and maple and Vivi had dairy-free scrambled eggs, gluten-free toast and avocado salsa (hmm, maybe the special order made our whole order slower?). Looked really yummy. And she couldn't figure out the salt. Hahaha.

 Decided to leave Cherry's car in her free spot and drove my car to cinemas. $10 parking so easy. And had just enough time to organise our tickets, drinks and bathroom break.

Breaking Dawn Part 2. Pretty good!! Even Vivi said so... after my not-so-informative answers to all her questions during the movie. There were some pretty funny bits!

 After that, had to take Cherry back to her car. After Donna stopped to pick up a cool (not cold) iced Viet coffee from Miss Chu Tuck Shop. Intense Coffee. Not enough ice. Five whole dollars.

 Dropped Cherry off and the rest of us impulsively decide to go to Messina for gelato. Always end up getting Hazelnut and we tried Salted Coconut and Mango. Pretty unique, a little bit too sweet. Had a D&M in the park across the road and watched kids on swings and one toddler fall off the slide (do I sound creepy saying this?). And little dogs run up to us. I am beginning to love this area (as I should, may be my neighbourhood in the not-so-distant-future!)

Donna and I decided to go to this pretty awesome ramen place in Eastwood on the way to dropped her off home (oh yeah and I left Vivi on the road somewhere in Broadway XD). Ichiraku. Had ramen and soft-shell crab salad. The ramen was really really good, especially my egg.

And cause one can froyo any time, we went across to the other side of the station for Yogoberry. It's different in that you can DIY everything but definitely not as good as Moochi or Noggi.

It was about time to call it a day then so drove to Donna's place where we went through old photos. And lol lol lol... enough said. Although loved seeing the ones when Val was still in Sydney. Hahaha so much awesomeness and epicness. Memory lane sometimes not so bad!

I would post photos but that's D's job! Probs FB.

Nice little placement win for me! Net loss of 60 cents... Haha and the $5 office sweeps... All in the name of fun.

I love early days... It means I can go and visit my old work and see all the people I use to work with! Love Maureen... She was always so supportive about studying and working and like a fairy godmother at work... With attitude too!!! Hehehe

And got my fourth cake order! Wouldn't exactly say business is booming ... Lol. But could not have asked for a better start!

Tomorrow will be a super long day.
Unfortunate and a little frustrating. Timing in finance is just never right.

Every year, something happens in November. Probably because November is the first month after exams and a huge weight feels lifted off one's shoulders.

This year wasn't much different... High Tea!!!!

Albeit a number of last minute / late no-comers, still had a nice little gathering. Just with less food! Still had epic taboo and cranium rounds as well. . .




And this year...

Donna, Cherry, Vivi and I decided to go karaoke afterwards! For 3 hours. It was tiring. Then had korean as late late dinner. Where Donna tried to run away with my super comfy green sweater!!! I was like 'Noooooo come back with my sweater!!!!!' (this was on George St...)

I can also happily say that I have my first two orders for cupcakes! So a little excited about that :) :) :)

I wasn't actually going to blog but the girls and I spoke briefly about it over dinner tonight and I can't sleep due to too much sugar from sugar hit at the Sofitel!

*insert picture of a girl opening the door to sunlight and rays of light*

Today I feel like a weight has lifted off my shoulders. I feel like that door that
I will one day open is getting closer or easier to crack open. I feel that my dreams are within reach. I feel that I am ready for my next challenge!

It was pretty black and white until today. Pretty much there was a massive road block stopping me from doing a lot of things. And now that that has been removed I feel as free as a butterfly and don't quite know what to do with my time!!!

Going into work today opened a can of worms. Not something I expected to be so bad but I guess things eventually get better one way or another. Usually it's the other where yours truly cleans up and makes other peoples mistAkes and stuff ups go away. Something that I will definitely not miss in my next job!!

Had dinner with cherry and Donna tonight at this place my sister had a
Scoupon voucher to! Was a hit!!! And free too :-)

Then finally went to sugar hit!! So much chocolate!! Decaf coffee is not as bad
aa one may think......

It's hard to describe but it always happens.

those last 3 days of work before you go on leave and you get smashed with work like never before. all of a sudden everyone wants your help, needs you to do this and what not. . . this needs to be set up, need to write procedures, need to pay this, need to follow up this person, need to dig through archived shit because you didnt bother asking me when i did have time, need to reconcile accounts.

blah blah blah blah blah.

drowning but staying afloat at the same time?

I have been so tired lately and feel like its all spiralling down.

It was a massive relief to have lunch yesterday with anna and just sit in the shade at Hyde Park. love love.

so much to do... so little time!

thinking positive and good things will happen.

And then i can get massively drunk!

Team drinks/dinner on Friday turned out to be pretty damn awesome. Probs cause the person we all hate left at 7... =D

My current pattern of study:

1 hour study / 2 hour break

hahahaha

could have been life changing.

i'm not yet kicking myself up the butt but have i let an opportunity pass me by?!?!! guess we will have to wait and see.

for a short week, it was epicly hard work. :(

another person left and heaps of stuff piling up and up and up.

this weather is supposed to be study weather and what happens?

i get a stomach bug.

wtf?

Yay made it back to Sydney alive! Trip was almost over before it began....

Very happy that Tuesday is over also :):):)

and gets better!!! tehehehehehehhe.

we justify by saying that he would be disappointed if we didn't do anything....... AND he always goes away for an extra long weekend. so payback.

HAHAHA

Yay, it's finally here!!! Shame that the lovely weather yesterday couldn't continue. had a lovely lunch with jan and tarn. wanted to go to fratelli's but packed as usual. so ended up at wagamamas which was okay. nice salad! but very slow service . . . . . . . was good and went straight home. gym and study.

itching to go out last night though. but the storm deterred me. thank you mother nature.

Going to Floriade
Going to Floriade
Going to Floriade
Going to Floriade
Going to Floriade

And looking forward to my first road trip where i'm not driving, didn't organise, dont need to cook, dont need to bring anything but myself and my belongs. pleasant change! WHOOP!!

hopefully wont be too cold. . .

=)

Missing two auctions and family dinner tonight for this. a little disappointing but oh wells. should be good!

caught up with catherine lo during the week. what better way than a degustation?

not as good as Sepia or the very first time i went with Val, Donna and Cherry but still very very good nonetheless!

Home cooked meal, wine, movies, macarons and black forest.

<3 p="p">

pretty standard to do yum cha or lunch with grandma on Saturdays.

Then spent the afternoon with mama and papa cheung!

so we went to see open houses... went to an auction and checked out another place n darlinghurst.

then arvo-teaed it at IKEA and bumped into my favourite niece and her parents :)

saturdays are clearly too short and sundays come around way too quickly.

boo!

joyce and i had went to bay vista just because today. it was good. pretty busy as usual! and yummy yummy desserts.

had the banana butterscotch waffles with crumbed pecans.

then walked along the beach for a little bit.

For the past few weekends, it has been pretty hectic catching up with people and lunches and dinners etc and i have been hanging on for a quiet weekend.

and now that i have that one quiet weekend, i want to go out!!!

why why why???

it's not like i don't have anything to do at home. the list is growing by the minute...

i am pretty sure it all comes down to procrastination. since it is time to get serious about tax, it is also the perfect opportunity for me to use any excuse i can not to sit down and hit the books. damn it!

driving without a phone!!

But not so many interesting things have happened!

study. bake. gym. work. sleep.

that has pretty much been my life for the past 2 or 3 weeks...

But that's not to say there's absolutely nothing to report...

another work day, another resignation. lol i think thats 5 in the last 3 months?

and if i fail my last module, its because of Cake Boss!

Check out wynwyn's place for my latest creation!!!

where'd the weekend go?!

Lovely lovely saturday.

a mini stgghs reunion at bicentennial park for mandy's birthday. lots of sun and not too much wind although it did get fresh as the afternoon went by.

highlights:
- taking 2 hours to get the hot coals going to cook the food
- donna and i hiking around the grass and finding no waterhole
- not being allowed to go to the bathroom because cake time was in 5 minutes... turned out to be in 20
- wanting to roll down the grassy hill
- parking mine and cherry's car in one and a half spaces. completely boxed myself in!
- really bad coffee from the cafe
- seeing green and not recognising nature...
- being epicly asian and squatting, washing our hands with spring water, scrubbing the bbq with leaves ?!

after we said goodbye, donna and i had planned to go out for dinner. cherry and vivian decided to join so it became a 3-car tag into the city. i am an awesome anchor driver (not my usual place and i'm usually the one in front!)

apparently had my bitchface on. so donna said as she looked at me in the rear view mirror.

anyway, did the two a massive favour since traffic was pretty heavy and me having the balls to cut lanes and let them through and stop all the cars behind us. hahahahaha female asian drivers FTW! (although i still stand by the fact that i am not that much of an asian driver)

we ended up at surry hills:
- cocktails and pork belly meat balls at Mr. Fox. yummmmmmmy and they gave us free popcorn so we stayed a little longer (ok, i lie, we just stayed).
- took some fail instax [cherry]
- and then cherry left
- visited the new kurtosh which is famous for a hungarian style chimney cake. really really good coffee. and they sell their slabs of cakes by weight. interesting concept and i loved the ambience. i even took photos because i want my cafe to one day be similar to this!!!
- stayed there until donna had to go pick up her dad
- came home, was pretty tired...

we decided to plan more events as some will see from fb! good times coming up. <3 p="p">
i made choc chip cookies today. zero effort.

and then procrastinated the rest of my afternoon away thinking about business cards and website designs. wish it was just all done for me...

and then sister got me addicted to the show Cake Boss.

where/when am i supposed to find the time to study?!

started out as a pretty well planned day which turned random but epicly awesome.

mandy's little get together for her birthday at bicentennial park today followed by randon 3 car tag along to surry hills for cocktails, meatballs and kurtosh.

will post details after i get some shut eye.

so much to plan for the upcoming months!

Good ... so good. but so tired afterwards -_-

too old for two epicly late weeknights!