what my sister reminded me before in the past, and it's come out again now. I should count my blessings and happiness! =D

Don't know why, felt happy for the whole of yesterday, it was strange. Think it was a combination of many things- both interesting or just plain positive, which I shall list out, and remind myself each day that... life isn't just about being busy or sad. (oh no, i'm not being emo, and I certainly hope i'm not sounding emo either, but honestly, sometimes it's good to just sit down and reflect, you know, just appreciate life)

1) After having lunch with a friend at oportos, I was nearly late for my train to work. Made it on time, which was a major relief~
2) Lunch was good (albeit embarrassing, but no need for details) and I took the burger with me to work for dinner because I couldn't finish it
3) When I went to get a train ticket, the person behind the counter asked me, "Why so sad today?" Confused, I replied, "I'm not sad", then he pointed to my bottle of water which I was carrying and asked again, "Why so sad today?" to which I just laughed.

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

It's a sticker that ppl were handing out at uni and I stuck it on my bottle...

Amazing how strangers can be so caring. =) Really put a smile to my face.
4) Caught the train to work and.. man, work was such a bludge, it was great! Spent most of the time packing on aisle 5, face fronting, and making all the shelves look great, which is always a delight to see. One customer randomly came up to me while I was packing and talked about his trip to Vietnam. Random, but friendly~
5) Had the oportos burger for dinner. Haven't had fast food in months! Ok, so it's unhealthy, but nice. Better than microwaving canned spaghetti from Franklins for dinner (not recommended)
6) Had the ultimate team working that night, so everything was done really quickly, efficiently, and got out on time! No difficult customers today either!
7) Long-time-no-chat friends are exchanging emails and planning to meet up~
8) Long-time-no-chat/see friend is taking big steps forward into the future and moving on~ had a nice chat together on msn, and it was really nice to catch up, after so many years.
9) The new Guylian chocolate cafe is open in Sydney!! =D Will be visiting there with a friend next week~ can't wait! XD Really glad to be living in Sydney, with all the chocolate cafes! (read NQN if you don't know about it)

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

From 2008-15-10-0150-2

My brother just went today and he said it was ok... hm... this is their card.

10) Got my portfolio and essay back for a unit of study. Initially thought I failed (it was something like... 24%??) but the teacher clarified in an email that it was out of a possible 30% which makes it not so bad I guess... It's the whole scary thought of failing, and then realising you really didn't...
11) I'm watching Star Wars movies on my computer. That's always good =D
12) Two more weeks of uni!!!
13) Japan trip is fast approaching!
14) Had a painful blister-like thing on my finger two days ago, healing up really nicely =)
15) Re-found my passion for making desserts after watching Nigella videos on youtube

From 2008-08-10-1116-4

Blueberry pie, anyone?

From 2008-08-10-1116-4

Slice of artery-clogging pie with cream~

16) Had a nice, long chat with my mum late last night at about 1am~ shared many laughters and jokes, gossips, one of those typical daughter-mum light conversations~
17) Have another essay to do and was initially lost about where to start, but then I fell asleep and had a dream about it, and gave me a good idea on how to do it, which was extremely useful, haha
18) Received a parcel from my sister in America~ thank you!!

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

19) Made passionfruit pudding a while ago and it turned out nice =D Even though I didn't add enough sugar (I thought it's be sweet enough...) and it was on the sour side.

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

=D

20) Still trying out new places~ haven't had anything bad recently, so it's good. Latest one being Madono, somewhere in the city. Small but nicely decorated interior, it was a cosy place with nice food~

From 2008-15-10-0150-2

Interior

From 2008-15-10-0150-2

Menu

From 2008-15-10-0150-2

Deep fried tofu! Nice idea~ and it was really great too.

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

From 2008-15-10-0150-2

Their set lunches~

21) Ten Ren opened a branch in city (yes, I know, this is old news, but still!) and it is really nice to just go in there, sit down, have a refreshingly cool glass of tea (I'm pretty sure it's healthy..(-ier than Easyway at least!) and just relax~ especially if the weather outside is hot... even better if you're with a friend and you can just sit there forever and chat.

From 2008-08-10-1116-4

Their "Eternal Love" drink XD corny name, I know. Had a good laugh about it too~

From 2008-08-10-1116-42

Grass Jelly Milk Tea~

From 2008-08-10-1116-42

They had food there too, all tea-flavoured, and this was their zhong (dumpling) with chilli sauce. My friend and I were staring at it when it came to our table, wondering if they were trying to fuse western with eastern by adding ketchup to the zhong.. ^^''

22) It's spring, and still no sign of my usual hay fever... D= could it have disappeared?!
23) More chocolate, junk food, sweet stuff!

From 2008-08-10-1116-42

Yum~

(this is a really belated photo)

From 2008-08-10-1116-42

Father's Day from before...

From 2008-08-10-1116-42

Mars bars cheesecake

From 2008-08-10-1116-42

Berry cheesecake

From 2008-08-10-1116-42

Cheese pizza! actually, I think this was the garlic bread pizza from M.S's 21st party.

From 2008-08-10-1116-42

Try counting the calories in that! =P Or just dig in, enjoy and.. exercise later~

24) 2 of my friends found jobs~! One at EB games, and one at Dymocks~ =D Looking forward to some work stories, which is always fun to hear.
25) Another good friend has found his significant other~ XD
26) Saw someone with an awesome Obi-Wan tshirt, and the interesting thing is that the person wearing it looks almost exactly like Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor)

27) Seeing a lot of cute nature stuff, look at this:

From 2008-08-10-1116-42

Victoria Park. Our uni park pond's ducks have ducklings! They are the cutest things ever~ just watching them swim and dunk underwater with their butts in the air is just so entertaining.

From 2008-08-10-1116-42

Always time for the nice blue sky that Sydney has~

From 2008-08-10-1116-42

Duck or swan?

28) Coffee- yes, caffeine does make one feel slightly happier than normal. Feel the love.

From 2008-08-10-1116-42

Breadtop coffee- love #1

From 2008-08-10-1116-42

The bright sunflower~

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

Love from BB's cafe

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

More love from Penno's corner cafe~


yabai! I could keep going forever, but I have to get ready for work ><, bus is coming soon.



EDIT: Just came back from work, and hm... huge difference from yesterday. Let's see, I went to work 15min late (haha, that's the first time actually..) I thought it was Saturday today! So I went in at 2, when I really was meant to start at 1:45... And then we got flooded. Absolutely, horrifyingly flooded with people. The queues were long, and we weren't even understaffed today... everyone who was meant to turn up turned up, I was on registers more than half the time and because of that, the office work piled up and was in a huge mess when I finally got off registers. Did paperwork, postings, office-related stuff till late, so even though I started 15 minutes late, I ended up working overtime so that really makes it up anyway. Must have ran around the whole store at least 100 times today... but had pure junk food (ie, a snickers bar, and ice cream) during my break to keep happy~ was starting to get cranky because of my impatience (something which I really really really need to fix...

From 2008-15-10-0150-22

My sugar fix

I think I'm still feeling quite happy actually. Shall go make a cup of tea now, and insert some photos into this entry... and then publish it.

Alright, quick blog entry. I've been saying I'd blog 4 nights ago, but then, due to the immense amount of uni work this week, and our internet being capped.. it's so frustrating waiting for a page to load, and then after several minutes, you realize it's not going to load afterall. Anyway, internet is no longer capped, so... time to blog.

Good thing it's Friday today. Yesterday after dinner, I slept from... 10pm till this morning, 9:30... haha... think I just made up for all the hours I missed out on sleeping this week.

My sister's gone back to Singapore already.. =( so, about her last full day in Australia (Sunday), we'll start from the morning.

This was at Strathfield, some korean restaurant that was open at 10:15... not many restaurants are open that early because... I assume they go to church in the morning and do business in the afternoon/night. This one was open, so we went in.

Good thing about korean meals: their side dishes. Seaweed, pickled radish, beansprouts, tofu, cabbage salad, potato (which is always the best side dish!) kimchi, and others.

Ack, blurry picture. My brother's cold noodles. It had ice in it to keep it cold, and I think my brother said there were pear slices in there..? Interesting... but could work I guess. They put apple into curry, why not pear into cold noodles?

My sister's miso stock seafood noodles. Came with rice. For some reason, she said it was spicy... but then again, my sister's taste for spiciness is very very very mild. And she's from Singapore =|

Dumpling and rice cake soup. Was meant to be shared between everyone, but it ended up being eaten by my brother only because we were full...

My spicy beef and combination soup.. came with rice too. It wasn't actually that spicy, but when it was hot (temperature wise), it felt hotter than it really is. Lots of mushrooms =|

In between then and dinner time, I went to work while my sister and brother went to other places. Look at my sister's blog for more pictures there~~

Dinner!! I was so looking forward to getting out of work for dinner.. took the train from penno to townhall and walked to world square from there, to Din Tai Fung. My brother called and gave directions of "go up the wooden block of stairs and it's that chinese restaurant there". Actually, all I had to do was go up and look towards the place crowded with people standing outside waiting to go in. It was THAT popular. Having only been open for 2, 3 weeks, their business is incredibly good.

I thought I was late, having arrived at 7:45, but my brother and sister said they were waiting outside anyway, coz they booked for 7:30. Yeah, if you're smart, book beforehand, or be prepared to wait about an hour in line. Not too bad though, you get hot tea to drink while waiting outside as you watch the ppl inside happily eating xiao long baos. The interior... very creatively decorated, with lights almost resembling the bamboo steamers, and walls mounted with the steamers itself of various sizes. Not only steamers, but they have walls of spoons, large-sized chopsticks, sauce bowls and mini soup bowls too. Unfortunately, my pictures of those didn't turn out too well.

My brother came outside to take me inside to where my parents and sister were already waiting at the table. Upon entering, waitresses bowed and welcomed us, and proceeded to pour us tea. Very efficient service, which was really quite abnormal in a Chinese restaurant. They did have many staffs working though, and they really seem to know what they're doing, so not only did the food come quickly, it was also cleared away quickly, leaving your table free for more to come.

Our first dish- also their signature dish. Their xiao long bao are no doubt the best I've ever had. Compared to the frozen ones which I steam at home, these were at least 10 times better. The skin is thin, but firm, and not a single one burst, even when picked up. At first, being all cautious because xiao long bao are such delicate dumplings, we were slowly and carefully picking them up with chopsticks and spoons, hoping against hope that it wouldn't break. And then we realise that it wasn't even necessary- it doesn't break!

Look, I picked it up with my chopsticks and took like a minute or two to get my camera out and take a photo. It was still hole-free when I was done with it too. My sister was scared and put a spoon underneath just in case, but that was not needed. Just looking at it makes me want to go there again =|

Second dish to come was a seafood (crab filled) xiao long bao. It looked exactly the same as the normal xiao long bao, and was just as nice too. This is the third- I forgot what this was called, but it was quite spicy, with pork filling. Almost like a wonton. Shaped like a handbag, it was easy to pick up, and in no time at all, this dish was emptied out too and the bowl carried away within seconds by a nearby waitress.

Fourth- this is braised beef soup I think? Noodles hidden by the dark soup, my dad thoroughly enjoyed this one =)

Fifth- Peanut soup noodle. Upon its arrival, the waitress tells us to put various sauces and mix it for a better taste. This was really nice, one of the best dan dan noodles. My dad used to make this for us at home- with crunchy peanut butter. Maybe he'll learn how to make it like this =D

Sixth- Vegetable and pork wonton soup. For some reason, I couldn't really remember the tate of this one... And I think it was around here when I accidentally smashed a toothpick holder onto the hard ground while trying to put the vinegar back onto the tray. It was a mistake!! The toothpick holder was behind the soysauce bottle and I didn't see it, so I pushed the soysauce bottle to make room for the vinegar and.. it dropped. The din brought about 3 waitresses with dustpans and swept up the mess, followed by apologies. But... it was my fault right?? Why did they have to apologise? =| Felt bad... but seriously, they got rid of the mess so fast, it was as if it has never happened after a minute or two.

Seventh- Their fried wonton which came with mayonnaise. It didn't even feel oily at all, and came to our table crispy and hot (another good point of very efficient service- you can tell the food only just came out and has not been sitting at a counter waiting to be put out for a long time).

Eighth- Hot and sour soup. This was awesome. It was seriously nice. The spiciness did not just come from adding half a packet of powdered pepper, it was actually from the spices they add in, along with chilli flakes and some pepper.

Ninth- (wow, how many dishes did we try out!!) dan dan noodle. With beans and minced meat sitting on top, the waitress recommended chilli oil to be mixed with the noodles before eating. Did so, and indeed, it tastes much better that way.

Tenth- another kind of soup dumpling... getting old and after 5 days, I don't remember what this one was.

Eleventh- poor lonesome bao! We actually ordered 4 I think, but a waitress ran up to us and told us they ran out... and had all but one. We decided to take it anyway, and ordered something else instead... dessert!

I would go back again and try their desserts... they were out of taro and black sesame was unavailable, so, we had the red bean xiao long bao. The filling was piping hot red bean paste~ it was so nice!! =D Never thought there would be a dessert xiao long bao.

Closeup- such a fine piece of work.

For those interested, I've also uploaded their menu. I think it was a little sus for me to take so many photos, and at one stage, a manager-like person came up to our table and asked us many questions, it felt like a polite interrogation ^^'' My brother told him of how we came to know of the place- through NQN, and even wrote down the site for him to visit. He was very nice, fluent in mandarin, cantonese and English, as was all the other staff there. I went to the bathroom and there, a waitress was applying lipbalm. She started talking to me like we were old friends =) Very friendly ppl.

I didn't take photos of the whole menu- my parents were nagging me to eat before everything got cold...

Click on them to enlarge.

As we were leaving, I took a photo of the chefs busily making xiao long baos and baos in a kitchen stacked high with bamboo steamers~ One of them looked at me and feeling a bit awkward, I waved and he waved back =D

Din Tai Fung- 9/10. Upstairs of World Square. Remember to book before you go. And bring your credit card (and me!) along.