48 hours

martin martini at Ding Dong Lounge

always happy with some alcohol in hand



this series was hilarious, choreographed none other by the italian stallion

ardent supporters of the martin martini merchandise make shift shop

after a late night out, sunday is best spent slow and chill :)

en route to our sunday brunch venue



MART 130 ("tram" spelt backwards, stop number 130) in an old station master's building on the platform of the no. 96 light rail to st kilda. vintage pieces adorn a chalk white interior with charcoal timber floors, and an enclosed deck overlooks albert park.

easily one of melbourne's most charming cafe :)

the usual: a nice warm cafe latte for the missus and a long black for the mr



the breakfast menu is to die for. voted best breakfast place 2008. i can totally see/taste why. so so so so good!

best brunch ever :) it's going to be our regular brunch hunt now :)))

was supposed to shop for a present for mummy after brunch with mothers' day coming up and all. went back with nothing for her (for now) and 2 new pairs of shoes for myself. lovin my nine west distressed leather booties-sneaks and aldo peep toes, as much as i hate myself for buyin them.

me heart my martin martini evil clown tee too!! so sinister & mobid. i like :)

it's the weekend again

weekend is here again and i'm grateful for that :) gives me time to take a breather, sleep in a lill and catch up on some work. the past week has been busy. was waking up at 7+am every morning to go to school for laboratory work with flavio before lectures or work and would only get home late in the evening dead beat and zombed out. rodney says get used to it cause it's gonna be that way for quite a while :/ well, rodney is the phd student i'm working with/under for my project. he's kinda like my second supervisor cause my research work is a subset of his phd research. yea..he's cool though. very nice dude from mauritius who came here since he was 5. anyways, am going to be hectic till semester ends, juggling btw research, assignments, exams and work. it's gonna be hell of a ride!

sneak peak of my flavio under ESEM :) pretty cool huh? haha

and so, it is 12 noon on saturday now. will spend the afternoon finishing up on an assignment for Liz then it's chill-out time for the night! dinner with rehan before heading down to ding dong lounge to meet the rest for a martin martini gig and some booze. gonna be wild, gonna be rockin, gonna be awesome!

for now, i just have to be a good girl and get my work done :)

my love.. (continued)

of cause, i have plenty of loveee to spare :) abercrombie & fitch jackets..

whee. and these are just the jackets. i can probably cover myself from head to toe, inside out with A&F. Haha...i think i go a lil nuts with things i like. as with adidas originals, junk food and watches. not really a good habit. oh wells. speaking of which, my latest addition to my junk food collection:

:)

my love for..

Adidas Originals Jackets

red cropped with logo vinyl printed on back.
charcoal black cropped with logo vinyl printed on back.
black Respect M.E. by Missy Elliote with crown embossed on back.
cream yellow hoodie with plum stripes down sleeves.

oooh..love love love! am on the lookout for these now:





can't find them :(

risotto & tiramisu

presenting the strawberry and cream risotto and sausage with saffron risotto. much as i was apprehensive about the strawberry and cream risotto (sounds more like a sweet dessert to me) initially, it was actually really good! an interesting combination of tastes in the mouth as you slowly chew through :) the sausage and saffron risotto was without a doubt yummy to the max. i so heart risotto. will cook for ya guys back home when i get back :)

Sweets was housemate's famous tiramisu. bani was happy with it as always :) and i get extras left for today :))))

it's been a while

ended the hateful week with a nice cold beer with vaughan. thursday-friday was insane. ok, thats because i was procrastinating writing the project outline draft and project budget due on friday. i'm ashamed :( spent the entire night doing the f. draft (amongst surfing webbies, blogs and online shopping) and finally went to bed at 8am friday morning. set the alarm at 11.30am and wondered why i woke up so early for..since submission is due before 5pm in school. ah wells. fine-tuned the draft a lill more and finally off to school. vaughan calls the beer a celebratory drink to the end of the assignment. couldn't agree more haha except there are so many more to come. the place we were at was charmy..in a dodgey way. it was tucked away in a lill back alley filled with huge dustbins. real nice though on the inside, even has free wireless :) chatting over beer was a nice way to while the afternoon away :)

and so, weekend is here again. dinner is on at the st kilda pad tonight. anyone who sees this is cordially invited :D risotto's on the menu and we are going to do 2 varieties to serve. going to be great! :) for now, housemate and i have to do our one month worth of dirty laundry + housekeeping + grocery shopping. yoks.

specially for the housemate

gift for the housemate.
because he's a bitch when stressed and i'm nice :)

to my first full-fledged-doctor friend sj :)

to hell with MBBS!! you did it!!!!!!!!
GRIN.

a lill corner we call home

one advantage of being a research student: you get a working corner with printing and photocopying services :) and that totally rocks cause we don't have to fight for a computer in the computer lab to print something and most importantly it's freeeeee :) *rubs hands in glee* printing hundreds of scientific journal papers on own account is no joke, it burns a mighty big hole in the pocket. the room might be shared by a few peeps, but it's still nice to have a corner to go to :) had the room to myself today, and it was awesome haha.

my italian housemate

note the hand gesture ;)

mind over body

early morning run to start off the day :) body is still not quite used to running after a night in bed. muscles went into anaerobic respiration a whole lot faster haha. but morning runs make me feel goooood and ready for the day :) clocked 7 runs so far since i started with my Nike+, totaling 42.69km. have been running all days that i could squeeze in a run so it's been awesome. i'm a happy girl :) alrighty, body has cooled down from the run. time for a shower then school! long day ahead with too many things to do. bleah :/

peace out x

i'm such a kid

just how cute is that? :) simply had to buy it when i was browsing in (the most popular stationary store in melb). i must say Smiggle is really good at marketing and packaging their products..i mean almost every kid in Kumon has a Smiggle product! i was particularly amused when a kid at Kumon fished out a lill plastic cartridge (looks like a correction tape) with this white stub sticking out and this stub actually vibrates! ok, somehow that just sounds kinda wrong hahaa..but yea it's a friggin battery operated eraser. you just kinda hold it at the spot you wanna erase and the rubber stub vibrates and erase off the pencil mark!! Check them out at http://www.smiggle.com.au/home.html :)

and so, mr onion-bulb-head is my latest cutsie toy. stamped it onto the front page of my organizer + my housemate's (yea we both own a moleskin because moleskin is legendary and cool hehe :)). he said mr onion-bulb-head is going to be like the mascot of our household now. lol. Brainstorm for a name for mr onion-bulb-head is currently in progress. We are open to suggestions ;)

P.S. in case you haven't figured out, mr onion-bulb-head is a rubber stamp.

Amused

read this from ms unpredictable's blog and i was highly amused :)

[haha part of my motivation to blog came from dear tingsijin who finally signed up for an account!!! so with that i'm thinking of turning this journal fully locked. the only reason why this entry is still public is cos kookykooks has forgotten her password so she cant login. pls get a new one!! also, she has been blogging v actively...so i must keep up with her...competitive!! hahah yes but keep the updates (and surprise phonecalls) coming...they perk up my day!]

amused because i thought it was the password that i couldn't rmbr but apparently it might have been the user name haa. cause after seeing my user name on her blog, i decided to just try my luck with a password that i always use, and tadaaah i'm back in business! so missy, you can lock your journal now as you please ;)

and just for you ms unpredictable-PYT.

miss ya!
love . love . hug . hug

a lazy saturday

saturday was spent prowling chapel street with housemate. ended up spending too much money but i simply couldnt resist the lure of adidas originals jackets. too pretty and too comfy. couldnt decide between 2 colours. both ended up in my shopping bag. i'm rather disgusted with myself :(

stopped by Amici Bakery Cafe for a coffee break. it looked really promising with their boutique range of sour doughs and sweets at the counter but i was sadly disappointed with the latte i had. coffee is a sensory experience and a good latte should have the finest foamed and textured milk. hot milk with coffee is just ok, maybe even bad in my opinion. it gets you somewhere but does not at all compare to the texture and full rich mouthfeel of properly steamed and foamed milk. and given that the quality of milk in australia is great, i'm expecting nothing but a good latte, provided the barista does a good job. alas, this barista failed me with his weak latte :( proportion of milk to coffee was wrong and coffee bean was slightly burnt. their bread was commendable though and the frutata i had was pretty good as well.

and so, after the day out, we went for our run down Devil. wind was crazy and i swear i was moving 2 steps forward and 1 step backward on the return. surprisingly though, Neil Armstrong congratulated me on my fastest mile recorded after the run.

ended the night with 2 movies over pasta with asparagus.


Rocky II was awesome to say the least and i could cry when he held his world heavyweight champion belt high (swollen bloody face and all) at the end. i was clapping rather frantically i think haha.

favourite quotes from the movie:

Interviewer: Do you have a criminal record?
Rocky Balboa: Nothin' worth braggin' about.

(at the ring)
Rocky Balboa: It's Apollo.
Mickey: Who were you expecting?
Rocky Balboa: I was hoping he wouldn't show

Gazo: How's about investing in condominiums? It's safe.
Rocky Balboa: Condominiums?
Gazo: Yeah, condominiums.
Rocky Balboa: I never use 'em.

Reporter: Rock, you got anything derogatory to say about the champ?
Rocky Balboa: Derogatory? Yeah. He's great.

second movie of the night was Match Point by Woody Allen. Brilliantly directed and written, as much as i hated the injustice of all that happened. housemate was quick to justify for his mankind about infidelity, lust and raging hormones. *rolls eyes* Slimebags.



The man who said "I'd rather be lucky than good" saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control. There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net and for a split second it can either go forward or fall back. With a little luck it goes forward and you win. Or maybe it doesn't and you lose.

i have to concur to that.

of early mornings and small goods

thursdays always start way too early in my opinion. i probably whinge about this before in my previous post but i'm untitled for another post of that (because this is my blog hah) so here's a run down (again) of our bright and early thurdays.

6.50am alarm rings.
6.56am finally crawls out of bed and into bathroom.
7.20am emerges from a steamy bathroom.
7.30am housemate zombed out of his room. knocks on my door & mumbles 'good morning'.
7.45am gather in kitchen and fumble around for breakfast and water.
7.48am dragged heavy feet out of apartment.
7.50am tram comes rolling.
7.51am en route to school.


yoghurt, breakfast on tram for early morning like this. music, essential for all tram rides. kinder bueno, added delight for this trip. housemate, usual companion.


early morning is not a good time for photo (as evidenced).

8.20am arrival in city.

and because we were early for some reasons this morning (tram must have been driving faster), coffee from Mr Tulk to wake us up.



8.30am meat, fish poultry technology lecture with Liz.


it so happen to be Ella's birthday (Liz's daughter) which she celebrated with all of us during break in lecture :) we got treated to cakes and all which in housemate's words: breakfast is settled.

10.30am lecture ends.

and that marks the end of thursday in school. all that drama in the morning just for a lecture. oh wells.

anyways, we had a small goods plant visit on Friday with Liz. small goods = manufactured meats, including sausages, frankfurters, bacon, hams, salamis etc. u get my drift. the factory was located in some distant industrial park that took us forever to get to but the visit was very interesting indeed. got to see the different stations and machinery they used to make the products though it would have been a whole lot exciting seeing them in action. imagine the boners attacking the cuts of carcass and trimming off the meat and flinging them into the vats. whee. we missed that unfortunately cause visit is done after working hours. however, the chiller was quite a highlight:

hee. the cuts of the carcasses hanging on the shackles, chilled and ready to be boned the next day. couldnt take more pictures as none was allowed. had to sneak those when the three of us went back into the chiller to check out the thickness of the pig's skin after everyone has gone out. haha. they have thick skin indeed..with a even huger layer of fats.

shudders.

:)

a female voice interrupted the song blasting in my ears (think it was She Wants To Move by N.E.R.D) and went "Congratulations! This is your longest workout distance ." oh wow, how encouraging is that? haha. nike+ rocks my socks. housemate and i had a fantastic run today on our usual route nicknamed Devil (see previous post). feelin goooood :) contrary to my skepticism about runnin after sun sets (i have this paranoia about tripping and falling flat on my face cuz i can't see well when it's dark..or so i believe), it actually went really great. clocked our best time to date and we were so pumped and pretty pleased with ourselves after the run. Beams.

anyways, school was awesome today. had a little intimacy time with Flavio in the afternoon and had some closeup shots of him taken (with and without his coat). oooooo watch out for them here ;) lunch was at Mr Tulk with some great peeps. vaughan is working at Mr Tulk now btw. if i hadnt mentioned, he is no longer our supervisor at Kumon. the post is now taken over by a Singaporean of which is another story by itself and since i'm a lil tired now with an impending assignment to do before bed, i shan't go into it. that bitching just gotta wait :) and why do i call it bitching? let's just say kumon life is a tad depressing now. and so, the man himself is now working part time at Mr Tulk, apart from his main job of managing Martin Martini & the Bone Palace Orchestra. works just great for us since Mr Tulk is our hangout place during breaks :) meat fish & poultry technology lecture after lunch with Liz was interesting as usual but the best part of today's lecture was this:

Liz likes to put quotes and lil comics to start off the lecture and i'm lovin this stick men conversation she shared today :) how brilliant is that? well, you might think you are too smart for this but if you ask me, i think you might just be too dumb to get this. Hah.

i should really get going on my assignment. have to be up bright and early tomorrow for lecture as well. eeks. but before i end, i just gotta say this: HOUSE was rock!n (as usual) tonight :)))

The running route

our usual running route from st kilda beach down to port melbourne and back :) glorious during the evening as the sun sets, casting a rosy glow on the sea. earphones plugged in ears, songs blasting, heart thumping, sweat dripping, muscles pounding, endorphines surging...i so heart runnin now.

dead beat

it's weird how with 8 hours of sleep, i'm still yawning the whole day like i've barely slept :(

anyways, having a date with Flavio tomorrow. i'm all psyched. (haha)

gonna go for a quick run in the morning before the date too. well, have to keep in tip-top condition ya know *winks*

me thinks i'm full of crap.

me thinks i should just shut up and pop into bed.

right. goodnight lovely world :)

his whole life was a one in million shot

we've just watched ROCKY and it was goooood :) can't wait to get started on ROCKY II.

[Rocky: Ah come on, Adrian, it's true. I was nobody. But that don't matter either, you know? 'Cause I was thinkin', it really don't matter if I lose this fight. It really don't matter if this guy opens my head, either. 'Cause all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody's ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I'm still standin', I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren't just another bum from the neighborhood.]

I'm addicted

loving this song. it's been on repeat on my playlist for a million times. sorry housemate :)

my power song for the runs. inspiring me to no ends. housemate and i are going to rent the whole series of Rocky for our weekend movie sessions too :) goooooo balboa!

i'm a junkie

[Founded in 1998 by designers Natalie Grof and Blaine Halvorson, Junk Food has garnered wide recognition as an influential brand of casual lifestyle clothing. It’s soft, weathered fabrications incorporate retro and contemporary pop culture images as well as original artwork. Junk Food, with its loyal celebrity following, has made waves in the image-savvy junior market, while attracting trend –conscious adults and aspirational members of the youth sector. In 2005, Junk Food was acquired by Delta Apparel Inc., creating a relationship that will enable the brand to expand into other exciting lifestyle categories.]

my love for junk food tees is disgusting. i mean, i have a real soft spot for them. the distressed vintage prints screams old school chic, which of cause appeals to me greatly. they are made of the softest and most comfortable fabric ever too. i likeeee :) nothing beats a great looking comfy tee, especially on days where nothing in the wardrobe looks right and it's time to leave the house for sch (happens to me frequently, which explains my expanding stash of junk food tees hah).

P.S. I abhore the spin-offs available in the market. Yucks.

Shout Out

Cheers and Yays from (retarded) yours truely.

Time to get those dancing shoes out doctor.
:)

my baby

Introducing the new man in my life...Flavio. He who shall be my baby for the next one year. He who is so smooth and fine to the touch but yet so tough to comprehend and grasp what makes him tick. On closer look, he's filled with voids and imperfections, just waiting for that special someone to come along to fill them up and make life perfect and whole. I have the special someone in mind..but in order to make them fall for each other will take much scheming and planning and right conditions. It's not going to be easy..who says success is easy anyway? Much failures and rejections will be encountered but perserverence will have the ultimate victory. My baby shall be whole and perfect, and I, will be very happy indeed :) To put in simple/ comprehensive/ non-ridiculous terms, Flavio is my microcapsule (formed from spray drying and looks and feels basically like fine powder) containing the ever vulnerable folic acid. Flavio's walls are made up of rice starch held together by pectin and alginate and he serves to protect the folic acid from the cruel world outside. However, his walls are punctuated with gaps that are undesirable to its protection function. These need to be filled and covered to ensure maximum protection for the folic acid. AND this is my responsibility towards my baby. To enpower his walls by playing with different compositions of wall and binding agents and coating with an extra layer to cover the gaps. It's going to be a rather strained relationship we will share i forsee. There will be times i feel like strangling and choking him (in this instance, dissolve him in a solution perhaps) and times where i might go crazy waiting for him to form in the spray dryer. Ah wells, it's a commitment i have sworn to. Just gotta hang in there till i can get a divorce, on mutual agreement of course :)