fuchsia fragments

Um.... whoever told me that the cinemas at my local were refurbished, I don't know what your definition of refurbished is but I definitely say it's still junk. I rate it 0/5 for comfort, value and ambience. Seats were so worn, felt funny and seriously my butt was hurting after the movie. Not again in another 5 years - oh by which time I will no longer be living in the area. We're going back to Burwood / Bondi / George St next time. Even Bevo would have done better.

But it was an impromptu night with my sister watching Pitch Perfect 2. Hilarious although I reckon the first one was better. I think we were laughing through the whole movie. Hehehe. Some of the jokes were like wtf?! They're allowed to say that?! The singing and mash ups were pretty cool though! Glad we got to see it last night, way too much going on to be able to fit a movie in in the next few weeks.

On another note, back to the ambience and comfort of Westfield and the shops within. Shocking. I mean I know the refit is going on but seriously could be better managed. Maybe I'm just now use to walking around the city (I literally haven't been to Westfield excl Coles in months and months). Maybe cause I've seen how posh Miranda is. Even the blenders at the boost store were old. So much so that I had a slushie and not a smoothie. Urgh that was pretty bad. Pretty much a waste of money. That could have been $7 towards my saving goal!!!

It's been another long week.....

We didn't see it coming at work but have been absolutely hammered with the amount of work that was required of us this week. Needless to say, this meant that there wasn't a day that I left the office before 7, if not close to. Considering a 8:30 start, it makes for a very long brain-power draining day.

I'm so so glad that I did manage to see the girls midweek and catch the new Xmen movie. A very welcome distraction and I feel like I hadn't caught up with some of them in a couple of months. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie too. I was never a big Xmen fan but this one had a stellar cast and well, it was just easy to follow although predictable.

What wasn't so fun was getting up way before dawn on Friday for a cake. Perhaps in hindsight, I should have said no. Embarrassingly spelt poor Jue's name wrong too. Oh dear... and it was only three letters. *sigh* But the cake was good.

Had yet another overdue catch up with my two non-Asians Madison & Sarah on Friday night. And as usual, we went Asian and went to Golden Century to be completely ripped off (well, to me as the token asian anyway). Sweet & Sour Pork @ $30 a dish??? And Chinese broccoli for $15? Come On!!!! Though the wine was very good - any sort of alcohol would have been fine at this stage! Was hilarious, they were completely disgusting by the fact that your live seafood was brought to your table in a bag for your approval before being taken into the kitchen. And then they saw lobster sashimi served with the head still on the platter taken to a table behind us. That didn't go down too well with them. But we thoroughly enjoyed our dishes, none of which contained live seafood :)

After, we went for a stroll along darling harbour and caught the 9 pm fireworks and a couple of bits of Vivid before heading to Cargo Bar for another drink before calling it a night. Had such a good time, i actually wouldn't have minded staying for another few despite probably being asleep on my feet! love the two girls... who knew that this dysfunctional and backwards workplace would give me so many unconditional friendships!

Had an excellent sleep last night! It does help when you are obliged to wake up super early on Saturday. So got up in my own time and then we went yum cha with grandma. Made my aunty sandy's surprise birthday cake (well planned team, well planned). She had no clue until after dinner when Justin made an excuse that he had to come by and pick up something from our place because he had forgotten. Hehehe. So well executed, I'm quite proud of us!

And one other thing that has made me feel special and loved this week is my mum. She's awesome always but this week we had a massive clean out of the house and my unofficial cake decorating area has never looked so neat, clean and ordered! AND... I love it when my mum goes shopping and buys me gifts! New clothes... just because. Ah.... working full time and still having things bought for me... gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling inside. :)

Local shopping centres just don't do it for me anymore. It feels rundown. The range isn't complete and things are always sold out. And with that, I have noticed my preference to move towards online shopping. And of course, shopping overseas. Although I think the latter has to do with the mindset that these things are easier done and money is easier to spend when one is on holidays.

Weekend has turned in to bit of a movie marathon!

Shadow Recruit

The Book Thief

American Hustle

Saving Mr Banks

Good way to spend some quiet time at home. But its ironic. The days I want to spend out, I am in. And the days I was quiet time, I'm out. . . ..

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!

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.

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

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Corporate team dinner on Friday. Tapas and Ivy!!!

It was a good night. I even survived the day with Nick winding me up all day about my exams results... i was more and more anxious by the hour. and he thought it was so funny...... results sent to me via sms just before dinner. All good!! YAY!!!!!!! more drinks!

we had wine and sangria (white wine sangria... best thing ever) to start and we headed on to the Ivy afterwards. it ended a bit premature due to a couple of things but still had a good time. shots and vodka. yum yum yum!! and the best thing is i didn't even spend any money. i guess that means its my turn next time!

and we are going to back it up this friday with our EOFY function. WOOOT!!!

ended up bumping into stephen from target on the train back. good to catch up. he's in a mid-tier firm so good to hear what's been going on with people life after target. and great to see so many people making the most of it.

Saturday... i got up so early considering. like 7. couldn't go back to sleep. slightly hungover. wanted to go run it off..... and it was raining?! so did some early shopping for a housewarming gift before going for a short gym session.

then went to kingsgrove for family friends housewarming. yummy authentic vietnamese food!!!

and that's when jan and donna called to say they were heading to my hood. best impromptu saturday arvo/evening ever!

- watched Prometheus. (don't bother, it was a waste of time, cringe-worthy)
- hung out at Michelle's place waiting for people to arrive
- waited outside Manmaruya Hurstville for like an hour to get a table for 8. during this time, we saw these street spots become available. so we hatched this not-so-elaborate plan to get the cars from the station to the street. LOL hilarious. first had to direct Donna in the lil VW (after watching an asian lady reverse into the pole at the carpark) and then i had to get out and direct Hui in her gigantic soccer mum car. HEHEHEHEE all the time whilst donna's lil red car hogged up in full asian style two spots!! excellent team effort!!! and by then, it was perfect timing cause table was available.
- had some pretty good japanese (i don't usually go to manmaruya if i had a choice. prefer kazuki on forest road) but it was good tonight. EXCELLENT SASHIMI and soft shell crab salad was really good too.
- and then... we headed on to brighton for Bay Vista. Didn't have to wait too long for a table. and oh... were our choices epic. gigantic ice cream, profiteroles and crepes drowned in maple syrup (i think there were berries at one stage). but the highlights? Tab's 'swiss hot chocolate' that solidified and Donna's peanut butter concrete. whoa. epic. like melted peanut butter ice cream..... in a tall glass.
- then we went back to michelles place and froze on the street whilst everyone said their goodbyes. :)

and then came home and had this massive heart 2 heart with my sister. <3

which meant that i woke up around 11 today. went for a 4k run... put no effort into it at all....

watched some netball. took nessie out. and a lil fat pug followed us home. so we played with it for a while...

and now winding down for another week!!!

One of the better movies in the past year..... with some extremely well-timed hilarious moments.

Love love love THOR!!!!!

kind of want to see Captain America now.

I feel so free... i don't know what to do with my time.......... lol

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 :)

got up toasty early (although it was freezing - yes, i was very cold last night) for a hair cut. only to have to wait because the hairdresser was running late.

so i shopped at myer. got my bang bang bin and some clearance clothing. nice~

came home, nessie's eye was weepy. so made a last min consultation at the RSPCA. poor baby. so scared. so she's somehow managed to damage the outer layer of her eye and amazingly not her cornea. the vet was perplexed and had no idea how that could have happened except to say that she's a super lucky dog! so we came home with some eye ointment. that's going to be fun...

and then...

more itinerary and europe research and planning. it goes slow but almost there in terms of what to DO. then i need to plan how much to SPEND (i.e., budget). easy part right?

anyhoo and i feel the need to share with all that i watched breaking dawn last night after awesome dinner with janpanny at chat thai.

hahaha yeah.. . needless to say, it was... . . . . . . as you'd expect. had its moments.

amazing how much you can do when you are up early!

Saturday:

• 8 a.m.: New IKEA at Tempe. Mum and I had brekkie and then we toured the new shopping complex. It was so awesome and I drove her mum saying "I want this and this and this in my own place one day". and she drove me mad by going "OMG, these kiddie toy sets and plushies and tea sets are SOOO CUTE. I WISH I HAD A GRANDKID SO I CAN BUY IT FOR THEM!!!" ...... *speechless* We only ended up buying a couple of replacement glasses, a random really nice serving bowl (at my insistence, it will be perfect for my Tea Party!! Woot woot!) and clothes line doobie. Boring.
• 10:45 a.m.: Back at shiatty Westfield for some grocery shopping. Not much fun, rather boring and crowded. Even braved those yucky asian grocery shops on the forest. Never again for a while. . .
• 12:30 p.m.: Head over to JYSs to meet the John. He's a nice fella. Almost comical. Very decisive!!! (Major plus +++++++) and he liked my melting moments. More brownie points for him. We went to Oatley's The Miulga Tree for lunch. Nice ambience and such a lovely day, so rather fun :)
• 4:00 p.m.: More shopping with the Mother. Checking out some of the sales in anticipating of buying clothes for my coz's wedding!!! Two weddings really. One coming up real soon and one just around the corner in the new year. Cannot be too prepared!!! And it's cheaper to buy when the price is right, rather than buying for the occasion.
• 6:00 p.m.: Head over to Jan's and Burwood for Sushi Train (where i watched the plates roll on by...) and movie and coffee time. we watched In Time - the new JT movie. it wasn't bad. I think i quite like JT movies... he can be rather funny. and kind of hot, but not my type. ngaw. movie ended up being free on cinebuzz... 2 tickets in VMAX for 100 points. SWEET!!!
• Midnight: Sleepy time :-) Twas a good day.