fuchsia fragments

I've had the worst allergies these couple of days and whilst I keep reiterating that I am not sick, everyone sort of tip toes around it and asks if I'm okay. My eyes are watery and my nose is red and dripping like a tab. It's actually quite irritating but it is so sweet that everyone cares.

One of the AEs from Brisbane came down on a day off and took me to lunch yesterday. I felt a bit guilty considering we haven't had the best relationship with a lot of the Qld people. But it was excellent to catch up over lunch and talk about things without eyes and ears around the office. Not to mention the gossip!

We certainly not spoilt for choice are North Sydney. There's probably 3 or 4 really nice places to go if you wanted to splurge a little for lunch. So I picked the Treehouse. Thank goodness I booked cause it was absolutely packed. They do some good dishes coupled with an adequate wine and drink menu and the service is very decent so it turned out to be a good meal. Too bad I had to rush (by rush I mean that I couldn't stay longer than  2 hours) back to the office for a meeting and an urgent approval.

Then the evening, it was Sarah's birthday! Ah... what an interesting event it was! I really made an effort to be on time to this one as I feel bad that every catch up we have, I am chronically late (work...). Anyways, my darling work hubby gave me a lift to the restaurant (oh bless him, he's really sweet when he wants to be) and so I arrived right on time! And.... I was the first person there. Um, awks. At one stage I actually thought I was in the wrong restaurant and freaking out. But all good!

Then the other people started to arrive (I didn't know very many of them and those that I did know, they were really more acquaintances than anything else) so it was a bit of small talk and boring stuff like that. Also, the crowd last night was probably mid-30s as a lot of the invitees were her BF's friends. Some had kids, one of the ladies was pregnant. A few of them were real estate agents so lots of house and property talk. And I picked up three new potential customers... yeah!

So needless to say, my cake was amaze... but that's not what I learnt from last night.

It was really refreshing to see that adults with lives probably very different to mine act just like how my friends and I act today. Even with kids and other responsibilities (they were all school friends), they manage to giggle like girls, gossip and just rehash memories like we do now. It was kind of ... soothing for me to see. I've always wondered what I'd be like in 10 years...

Anyways, I got a pick up last night as was so tired so my sister and Alberto came along. Thanks guys! Saved me a shitload in cab fare! Slept the night away and woke up to a blocked nose. urgh yuck.

Had a cake pick up (they are always late!!!) - need to post about that. And did some grocery shopping - westfield is a bit of a shithouse at the moment but the renos look promising.

Baked some bread. It turned out okay actually but I'm always so dejected that its not super high and round but more 'freeform'. Tasted delish but just looked... homely. Am I expecting too much of myself?

Off to steamboat (the fancy word for hot pot) and the movies now.

And it looks like a few of my friends are going to reconcile.

This is turning out to be a fabulous weekend.

#fulfilled

Ah... what a blessing to have little rays of sunshine, ambient temperatures and an awesome caterer (i.e. me!). Oh and each other, friends and family, etc etc. ;)

Here's a lovely shot of my sis, my cheekiest nephew and myself at the ceremony.


The hills is a long drive from St George. Add a car accident and weekend traffic and it's pretty horrendous. In both directions. Nonetheless, we were prepared and left with enough time to get there early enough to help set up the stuff I'd helped make - macarons, biscotti, cookies, cake pops and cupcakes.

All I am going to say is that their helpers weren't as helpful as required. So my sister and I stepped in like the amazing cousins that we are.

Did not expect the food to go so quickly. I made double what they asked. And I'm so bummed that I completely forgot to take a photo. Oh wells. There may be another wedding, another time, another couple (of course). A lot of people lingered so the food didn't. There was hot catering too, that went like hot cakes.

Have to say, there were so teary moments and some rather funny ones.

Reception for us was like... yep, okay, we'll babysit the kids! HAHAHA Carmen's bouquet throwing was such an anti-climax. We had full prepared (as a joke to liven things up) to jump on the other girls AFL-style and full make a hilarious scene... only for her to throw the bouquet... into the lights above and fall at the feet of the girl who most desperately and I mean desperately wanted the bouquet. Too funny! Maybe we should have tackled her? Carmen wanted to re-do it and said girl was like 'No! It's mine!'. I guess she wants to get married... like really really soon???

Otherwise, it was a lovely night as you'd expect.

Oh and cake you ask?

AMAZEBALLS. . .

Busted my ass off at work yesterday in prep for the long weekend and being the only one in my team actually at work. So I stayed back pretty late and had 2 cakes due that night for the weekend.

Things were actually going really well. I got home, had a bit of dinner and started baking. Was done with my Ombre cake and the dirty ice for my big Saturday order and had these on the drying bench. Called it a night just after midnight.

What could go wrong?

So Maxxie was making a shitload of noise randomly in the middle of the night. And he was let in while mum quickly went to shower. In the 10 or 15 minutes of doing so, my cake was destroyed. He had taken a massive chunk out of it.

What a Saturday... it was the annual pilgrimage to the hills for the one and only ms D's birthday. it was epic. it was cold. it was amazing. and it had all the elements of a adult kid's party down to the old school candy, party bags and screaming. Thrown in with a healthy dose of delicious food cooked by donna's mum, scones (made by me of course), meringue clouds (cherry's efforts), the DIY photo booth with very carefully crafted props and 2 rounds of epic epic Scattergories.

Just wanted to say THANK YOU for the effort, don't think I'd ever do something like it. But its good to get the Stgghs peeps together to chat (as usual, we boycotted the movie and sat in the kitchen). It brought out our competitiveness. And it meant we all ate way too much... again. The wine was amazing though :P


Had to run around in the morning dropping Ari off at tutoring and then going to the cake décor shop to pick up essentials since I won't be here next weekend. To drive down to the south and then stop by home and then all the way north feels like a mini roadtrip. The traffic was uncool yesterday: one breakdown on the m4 and an accident as well. Made for slow driving.

I think sometimes I'm not that great a driver... cue: I drive like an Asian, young female...? But I only notice this when I'm transporting cake because I'm always terrified something will happen like the cake will fall or collapse or something. Just remember breaking hard a few times and holding my breath to make sure the bunch of balloons sticking out of the cake didn't fall. It didn't... p h e w. Oh yeah, and I should probs be looking more at the road, not the cake.

Lingered a bit last night, dropped Anita off at her place but its always a quick drive in the middle of the night. Felt a little bit intimidated / out of place / spooked when driving through Punchbowl though. Was driving down this one street and it was almost 1 a.m. and there were guys hanging around their cars outside... like what the? :\

I'm such a good cook! Nailed it... delicious. No sauce left and definitely no crab left last night. We all thoroughly enjoyed dinner. Singapore Chilli Crab with fried mantou and a hundred dollar bottle of wine. Salted Caramel cake. nomnomnom. Love nights like these.

And Dad got everything he loves from his foodie daughters and co. Toby's Estate Coffee. Balnaves wine. Cheese making kit. Prosciutto and Pate. Whoop whoop.

Although Wendie and I are probs the most last-min daughters ever. All morning on email we were like... what are we getting? Oh Sht, where do we get it from? Did you call up, are they in stock? Don't forget the card. HAHAHA lucky for us, Victoria's Basement had the cheese kit we want albeit not our first choice. It should keep him entertained for now. We'll work on the blue cheese and hard cheese one down the track.

Beats getting a thousand dollar robo-copter/drone thing!

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

<3 p="p">

slept in a little cause was a bit crook. but still got to work on time. and my desk wasn't trashed (YAY!.. no need to pick up confetti from the ground)

and people start coming in and saying happy birthday =D =D =D

and our RM saunters over sometime around 9. wishes me and colleague a happy birthday... and

"happy 50th birthday girls!!!"

..... SO clever. =D

got wine, lindt voucher, bracelet, flowers and a crown!!! teeheehehehe. super duper awesome.

and got shouted lunch at the belgian beer cafe. hoegaarden and a pot of mussels. hilarious thing is, its belgian weekend and they had this game that was going around all the tables. 3 dice - 2 chances - you have to roll 4-2-1 combination.

and i did.

YAYYYY!!!!! go me!!!

super awesome. we all cheered =D but it didnt make a difference since my lovely TL was paying. ;) better for her budget i suppose. hehehe.

yummy food. yummy beer. even with a bit of a sniffle it was still sooo good.

and funniest thing was, we turned into stalkers. lol. see him when we come out... see him when we go back.. see him at the station.. see him at the met centre... see hit at the gym... =D =D =D HILARIOUS.

cause we full played a prank on our TL about it too. we r so clever.

moving along, had cupcakes in the afternoon. more yummyness. i forgot to mention the cheezels we had for morning tea. and burger rings.

yes, we're pigs.

drinks at the establishment after work.

and dinner at small, cosy korean restaurant with my favouritist tarjay ppl and associates in the world. so awesome.. we ordered like. the whole menu. slow and pretty poor service. poor guy. we were hounding him and hounding him. lol. some pretty schnazzy food. and opened my bottle of sparkling i got today.

and they surprised me with a cake. nom nom nom.

and theeennnn we fronted vbar. walked in. and straight back out. lol. didn't even stop for one.

and went karaoke for like 3 hours. i think i may have lost my voice. SCREAMING at the top of our lungs. most awesomest songs too. (LOVE STORY, living on a prayer, eye of the tiger, my heard will go on, BAD ROMANCE...) lots and lots of cops around tonight. k-clubs are being targeted.

we even got to discuss the finer points of picking dates. fantastic. progress.

i loved how everything just fell into place. and that we all had such a goooooooooooooooooooooood time. haven't laughed so much in one night nor screamed so loudly nor enjoyed myself like i did. so excited for the next friday night!!! sans alcohol. who said u needed alcohol to have fun. come to think of it... our outings have been only mildly assisted by the concoctions.

good times.

and it turned out perfect.

and stupid me had to ruin it by trying to transfer it upside down whilst still extremely hot onto wire rack.

and it just collapsed.

yes. i was swearing. a lot.

because it was a gluten-free cake. with almond meal and gluten-free flour. and white chocolate

very expensive.

!!!

bugger.

i think i hm.. over-wowed a few people. lol i made my RM speechless and according to my team leader, that never happens. at least we all had a good laugh.

kept having all these seniors come up to me and expressing their amazement, etc. got to the point where i started getting embarrassed. hahaha but like in the good way.

and im glad i didn't kill it on the train. and that they liked it. =D =D makes me so happy to make others happy.

there there donna, i'll make u a uber-mega-awesome one for your birthday.

its just, i feel like i should treat every opportunity as a change for me to improve. so, its not about what others think, its about hitting my own standards.

and lol - yes, there were comments like

why dont u open a cake shop
and you should take orders
and start charging
and we'll wow our customers with ur cakes. -_-" i'm not sure if that's saying our customer service needs work or what.. LOL