Moving in

There is something so homey about the act of putting up a painting. Finding a special spot on the wall for the painting almost signifies that you have also found home at the same place. Just like Rose puts the artwork of "something Picasso" around her first class suite on Titanic, I decorated my wall with Chanel, Burberry, Valentino, Prada and Hermes. I put Rome, Milan, Florence, Berlin, Morroca and Malaysia around my dressing table. Second day after moving in, with my things scattered on my study desk, I feel slightly more at home.


Simple lunch with Karen: Salami, semi-sun dried tomatoes and olives on pita bread pizza
Thank you so much for the present - I can't wait to try out the recipes!!!

My Nearly-Death Experience & Cinnamon-choc chip sour cream cake (with recipe)

So according to my workmates, I almost got run over by a car yesterday.
Indeed that is a bit of an exaggeration. So there I was, crossing the road at the pedestrian crossing. 3 cars were coming down the hill on my right. The first one stopped while I was walking across the road. The second car was going down the slope so fast that it could not stop in time. SQUEAK! BANG! It crashed into the first car and created a huge dent at its rear. The impact made the first car moved a few metres forward. By then I was already at the traffic island. As I looked back I thought "Oh no I think it was me who caused the accident?!" But I was five minutes away from being late to work so I just kept walking. A colleague of mine and a couple of other people happened to be standing around in the car park located slightly above the road, which made it a perfect platform for watching this little event. It wasn't until their graphic description of accident when I realized I could've been hit by a car for real if I was two seconds slower! So I said a little prayer to thank God for protecting me every second of my life. And I ate one of the double choc chip muffins that Susie bought. Yum.
And yes, I took extra care when I crossed the road today.

Considering I had the morning free today I wasn't gonna waste it on packing (that will be tomorrow morning's work). I made the cinnamon-chocolate chip sour cream cake from the recipe on smittenkitchen. And it was AMAZING. So delicious. I brought some to work and people were asking me for the recipe. And someone reckoned it tasted like some sort of French cakes. Any food from France has gotta taste good right?
The cake turned out extremely dense and moist. It was so chocolatey and cinnamonie. Perfect for a sweet tooth like moi!

A slightly modified version:

50g unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup pack brown sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
300 mL sour cream
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
Splash of milk

Chocolate chips - as much as you like
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to175°C.

In a large bowl, cream butter and 3/4 cup sugar, then mix in the egg yolks and vanilla. Sift flour and baking powder together into a separate bowl. Alternately add sour cream and then dry ingredients into butter mixture. Beat eggs whites until stiff, then fold into batter. Add splash of milk. Mix the remaining sugar and cinnamon together in a separate, small dish.

In square baking pan lined with baking paper, pour in half of the cake batter. Sprinkle the top with half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture and half of the chocolate chips. Pour remaining batter on top, sprinkling the top with the remaining cinnamon-sugar and chocolate chips.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

Special treat for breakfast: homemade 豆漿！

Train in Brisbane

Taking the train can seem like such a routine. The same people, wearing the same clothes, carrying the same backpack, getting on and off the train at the same station at the same time each day. But every now and then it gets a little unexpected. You bump into people from uni that you haven't spoken to since graduation. You start sharing stories about weird customers, whinging about work, reminiscing about life before responsibilities. And there was that girl who carried a snake around her neck like a necklace and sat right in front of me and the snake looked almost as thick as my forearm. And then there were those that you haven't thought of for a while, and you don't even know whether you want to see them again.
Don't ever underestimate the effect of your presence and your behaviours on the people around you. Just by being yourself, you can make all the difference in the world for somebody. To borrow my dad's words, 生命影響生命.

I ♥ yoga!

Three months into my yoga practice and I am already addicted to it!!! I want to practise every day. I want to fit it in the morning when I have a late start at work, or in the evening if I am so lucky to come home early. Every time I practise it releases all my muscle tension and gets rid of all the aches and pains. I feel stronger, softer, longer, taller, lighter, steadier. My shoulders feel broader. My breathing feels deeper. My legs have more strength. My spine feels taller. And it's perfect for lazy people like me 'coz you don't even have to go outside of your house to do it. So go try it out. 'Coz I know you'll love it too!
I can't wait til Sunday again!

And I made Berry Buckle again - This time not over-baked and heaps more cinnamon! yum!

Ash Wednesday

I can't remember when was the last time I had a cross of ashes marked on my forehead. Probably before uni, or even Stuartholme. Fasting isn't something we do so much nowadays and it feels so strange unfamiliar. The stomach is completely empty, limbs starting to get weak. You feel it a bit more when you read the recipes from the magazine of the person sitting next to you on the train, feel it even more when you walk past Maccas, which smells exceptionally delicious of bacon and egg muffin. But after a while you sorta gets used to it. And all of a sudden it feels peaceful, calming. At the same time you become a bit more alert, more focused. Suddenly you are chewing over every word that the priest says in the mass. You are listening better, absorbing the surrounding with all other senses other than taste.
I got asked by at least half a dozen of people about the Cross on my forehead today. Some people knew vaguely about Ash Wednesday. One did not have a clue what Lent was. Even though it felt a bit uneasy, it was good to have a chance to share my faith with other people, people who did not know God. The feasts of Christmas and Easter are now so highly commercialised people don't seem to care about their true meanings anymore. Is it really that hard to see past all those presents and greetings cards and chocolates?

I hope to make this Lenten season a time of love and a time of change. Change to be more patient, change to be more understanding. As for giving up chocolates, um...... do i really have to??

The city looking a bit different with the morning rush.

the ashes

Be Italian

Thank God it is the weekend. It came just in time before I went out of breath after such a long week. And what would a weekend be without a delicious slice of chocolate cake?


It was such a simple recipe I managed to whip up the cake within an hour. Icing was recommended but, as lazy as I am, I skipped it and served the cake by itself. The recipe did not call for any chocolate and used only cocoa powder for the chocolate flavour, which makes it lighter than your ordinary chocolate mud cake. Good for anyone who isn't after a rich and heavy dessert but still want a treat. Also perfect as my afternoon tea tomorrow~!

At 2:50 we went to see NINE. I love movies based on musicals 'coz they are so full of music (duh!), full of life and full of entertainment. There are costumes, music, singing, dancing, make up, building one musical spectacles after another, bring you into the crazy and chaotic world of Guido Cortini.
Despite my expectations from watching its trailer, it seems to fall short of being another Chicago. Every cast member is fantastic but the film does not do them justice, esp some of the female characters. With the exception of Marion Cortillard and Penélope Cruz, who have the opposing roles of the wife and the mistress. Penélope is the sexy and seductive mistress blinded by love. Marion is the wife who struggles between staying and leaving her husband. She is so likeable on screen you just can't help but feel for her. And she has this captivating charm that seems to be unique to French women. So effortlessly chic. So classy and elegant in everything shes does.
(And I love her make up - flawless complexion, a flick in the eyeliner and matte lips!)



And then there is Fergie, who is soooo amazing in her musical number. As a professional singer, she really stood out with her musical performance. Love her voice, love her dancing, love her energy, love the tambourine. She sounds so good I want to be Italian!!! (However I did get a little chill when Judi Dench and Sophia Loren sing...)

Even though it's not a great film, it's still a good one. You would enjoy the great choreography, the music, the costumes and the old Italian set and their charming Italian accent (except from Nicole Kidman's, which ruined it a bit....) Still worth the visit to the cinema.

The one and only Alexander McQueen

As we get excited for the New York Fashion Week, as we wait impatiently for the coming McQueen show in Paris fashion week in March, came the most shocking news of all: the death of Lee Alexander McQueen at the age of 40.

A genius. An inventor. An icon. A dream. A pioneer. A master.

Where do I start? I love the uniqueness of each and every single one of his collections. He has ideas that come from the outer space. He has the confidence to be stand out from the crowd. His shows are never a mere display of clothes. They are a extravaganza. His catwalk is his theatre. His collections are stories. Fairy tales. Ghost Stories. Science fictions. Fantasies. From the make-up, the crazy hair-dos, to the setting of the runway, his shows are simply AMAZING.

Fall 2008

Spring 2008

A weightless, fragile Kate Moss dancing in thin air in Fall 2006

I adore him for his most imaginative use of colours and textures, the extreme silhouettes of his design and his perfect tailoring skills. I will definitely miss his creations and his talents.
Just to share a few of my favourites from McQueen's work:

Spring 2010

Fall 2009

Spring 2009

Fall 2008 - The collection that made me fall in love with Alexander McQueen

Spring 2008

Fall 2007

Spring 2007

Fall 2006

Spring 2006

Fall 2005

My Mixed Berry Buckle

Today was one of those days when the Sunshine state got a bit wet. The streets were wet. The cars were wet. My shoes were wet. I like the rain. It's soothing. It's dreamy. It smells amazing. It almost takes you to another world just by listening to it. (it also makes the weeds in my front yard grow like crazy. but i'm ignoring them) Great soundtrack for a day of study (or procrastination). And in queensland it's a rarity not having to worry about your SPF for one day.

So I was deciding between two recipes that both look delicious and doable (for a beginner baker like me). Sure, blueberry boy bait sounds more appealing. But blueberry buckle got so many good reviews and looks like a much "safer" recipe. So I went ahead and made my own version of the Blueberry Buckle. I've only got frozen mixed berries so that's what I've used. I've cut down the sugar by 2/3 'coz that other cake recipes from allrecipe.com that I have tried have been too sweet. I skipped the topping because of laziness. And also because I was a bit reluctant to add another 75g of butter into the recipe after watching that Heart Foundation ad this morning. After all I don't want to become one of those people who go on a statin at the age of 35. Instead I just put a few mixed berries on top of the batter and sprinkled a mixture of ground cinnamon and sugar on the top, which was suggested in the blueberry boy bait recipe.

(please forgive the amateur photography!)

Turns out that I should have pushed in the berries into the batter 'coz they came out of the oven BLACK. Well I didn't think about that then so just like that it stayed in the oven for 40 minutes. And this is, once again, a lesson for me to never to trust the recipe 100%. 40 minutes were apparently too long and it came out a bit burnt and not as moist as it could have been. Probably 30-35 minutes next time. And more cinnamon on the top!!

This is a buttery, rich, sweet cake with refreshing berries in every mouthful. Great for afternoon tea or anytime you feel like a lift. Another recipe for my collection~

PS And I'm sorry I forgot the cookies Anna!! So here they are. Buttery chewy cookies with the perfect balance between Hershey's choc chip and dried cranberry.

Frocking Up

Fashion is transformative. It can give you glamour. It can give you power. It can show vulnerability. It can create drama. It turns a girl-next-door to a diva. And today I went to see an exhibition that demonstrated one of the most theatrical type of fashion - costume.


Frocking Up: The Art of the Costume Maker has been on display at Tony Gould Gallery QPAC since last year and I finally found time to pay my visit on its last day of exhibition. And I'm glad I did. It just shows the amazing ability of clothes to transform a performer/dancer/opera singer. A high-collar Victorian-styled gown in deep purple and royal blue for a Parisian seductive mistress. A ballet dress with tiny bronze bells attached on the body made especially for Tinker Bell. The extravagant robe in bright red and gold prints lined with faux fur for the King. A coat printed with presents, Christmas trees and sugar canes for the spirits in A Christmas Carol, who litereally wore Christmas on them. The costumes have almost done half the acting for them.

And talk about someone who knows the power of fashion:





You've gotta give it to her. That girl knows how to dress. And she wears Alexander McQueen!