Venticinque: The joy of Achieving

What makes happiness? We are constantly trying to find that elusive multi-dimensional entity. Back when I was at uni, I took up a philosophy unit on Happiness. First lecture in and the lecturer was already disclaiming that we're not going to be any happier doing this course, nor will it bring us any closer to finding it. Needless to say, I stopped attending lectures but still managed to do rather well.

For me, one of the answers is to work hard towards something and to finally achieve... that sense of accomplishment and gratefulness combined is happiness. Self-entitlement is therefore the antagonistic interference of that kind of happiness. Normalcy, at times, can be happiness too, in which case unexpected events can cause major upsets. There's plenty more, but  nothing beats...

Climbing into bed at the end of a tiring day and burying my entire face into my pillows, indescribable.

From fooood

Back to Saturday after our run.

I guess another form of happiness is the feeling you get when your needs are met. After taking a run for an hour, when your mouth is parched and you need a drink. The moment when you feel the cool liquid slipping down your dry throat. That was exactly what we needed. By the way, check out their menu- every single one of them was painstakingly hand-written with cut-and-pasted pictures and photos. Talk about effort! TW and B were comparing the menus and finding little differences, like the font sizes.

From fooood

So Burwood has this interesting Taiwanese tea cafe that serves really special milk tea. Those who think it's just a gimmick of crushed chocolate biscuits on top of normal milk tea will be forgiven, because that's what I originally thought this would be. The specialty lies in the froth itself, which is salty. Combine salty airy froth with creamy milk tea  and a dense crunchy edible soil, you get a pretty interesting drink. While the menu writes not to drink this through a straw, we were all given straws. The concept is to sip through the froth to get the milk tea so the salt blends with the sweet.

Honestly, ever tried sipping a milo dinosaur or a cappucino with chocolate powder all over the top without stirring it through first? You end up with a blocked esophagus and the people sitting opposite you might be quite displeased at having spittle all over their faces. I ended up just mixing my taro milk tea with the froth and the soil before sipping through the straw. Worked well.

From fooood

They do food too, but since we've already eaten, we just ordered some small sides like renkon chips and fried chicken. They do set meals as well as Taiwanese beef noodles, rice dishes etc. I think it'll be worth checking out again.

On a completely different note, it's definitely gotten cold in Sydney. Motivation to do anything dips to record low when it's this cold. You just want to cuddle with a heater and try your best to get as warm as possible without catching on fire. At least that's what I do, but instead I spent the day making bao. Next entry.