C'est LA viE

Actually was not just a day off, I stayed at Welly for the weekend and yes I took a day off on Friday...

well, Welly was not that attractive until I could take a leave for going there....

This day off was mainly because i was forced to take leaves as I mentioned in my last blog before, check here

So that's the reason I visited Welly today! It felt so great as I not need to work on Friday...

even it was just a day, I still felt magnificient!

Thanks to Paya, she come to meet me even she needed to finish her thesis asap...we went for lunch straight away~

Since I just recovered from food poisoned, we had vegetarian meals for lunch....I didnt take any photos, since the portion size was really tiny and it dint taste great...=(

Then, I basically just killed remain time at Massey while Paya gone back to her office continued her freaking annoying thesis =P

Actually, I should have gone to Botanical garden to view the blooming tulips....*regret*....=(

Then the Friday night market at Cuba!! That's the reason to stay at Welly on Friday!

I finally bought this famous Hungarian Chimney cake!!!

This was highly recommended by ChyiMei....she was like kept on telling me how great it is...

It was a long queue when we arrived, and since we started lining up, the line behind us was even longer!

here come our turn, some snapshots of the baking process....

basically, they putting a thin pastry on a cylinder shaped baking stick, and put it in the oven...

finally I got it!!

It was real yummy~~  it just like helix-shaped pastry taper towards the end...

Is best to consume it while hot! If u would like to know more, see here (wikipedia is always a good resource!)

I also bought these 2 japanese roll cakes, it was not cheap tho, NZD4.50 for 1. I bought it because, yep is baked by Japanese....

Paya was speechless about that~ But actually they did taste good, good portion and with good filling! ^^

Then, we met up with Paya's fren, Jeanie...she is a taiwanese who moved to Welly from Auckland this year

She is so abdorable, regardless of her age, she is very straight forward and has a 'young-heart'

we had pizzas for dinner, I couldnt believe that Hells pizza had upgraded their vegetarian pizza selection, there are so many varieties to be chosen!

Even sides also provide may options!

See what we had!! We ordered 2 regular pizzas (I really forgot what we ordered), and 2 sides....the corn fritters were so yummy!

yep, I couldnt consume too much greasy food (at this stage), so i just had 2 slices of pizza, and full~==

we chat so long, until 2am on Friday night! Love this feeling, just like girl's night, had a very sincere, deep talk...

This time, despite of staying at Paya's place at town, all of us stayed over Jeanie's place, at Seatoun.

Time flies, on Saturday, weather was amazing!

We went to lower hutt like lunch time, since we woke up so late...haha

This was my lunch, teochew style vegetarian steamed fish....it was yummy even tho I cant taste the real fish. (U might wonder why I had so many vegetarian meals, this is because Jeanie and Paya are both vegetarians)

then was planning to go beach, but the weather suddenly turned bad, typical Wellington weather!!

We end up just staying at home....back to Seatoun

At night, I actually met up Chyimei at town, in a Vietnamese restaurant!

Paya and Jeanie was really nice, they purposely dropped me at town. (Seatoun is far far away from town...)

Anyways, the vietnamese meal was quite pleasant, but i still miss the Saigon's meal at Dunedin.

I had 'Bun cha gio thit nuong', which is a Saigon style combination vermicelli, lettuce, mint with spring rolls and grilled pork.

Unfortunately I forgot to take photos, it must be because Chyimei and I had a good chat and was starving lol

We had such a good conversation, and we continued it in another bubble tea cafe. =P

So that's was basically my Saturday~ ^^

While on Sunday, actually I also spending time with Chyimei because Paya and Jeanie had other stuffs to do.

Chyimei and I went to Regal for dim sum, finally found a good place for dim sum!

Then, we gone to the Sunday market! That's the most favourite place I like in Welly!

Weather was real good, I bought another chimney cake again =P, but this time with extra cherries!!

We had a good afternoon before I departed back to Palmy with naked bus....(is just the bus company, dont be misleaded)

Besides, I finally received the snow skin moon cake (冰皮月饼), yes it is called as snow skin moon cake (try type on wikipedia)

Chyimei bought me one as I harrassing her before when I saw her posting the famous HK brand, MeiXim snow moon cake photos at retail shop at Porirua, where she is working.

So nice of Chyimei, she bought the most popular mango flavor moon cake for me!

 It has a chocolate skin, and with mango paste filling and shreded chocolate chips! YUMMY!

will definitely buy it next time if possible!<3

没想到25岁后的第一天，十月的一开始就给我这么大的‘礼物’。。。

昨晚睡觉时就一直觉得忽冷忽热，肚子一直都涨涨的，消化道整个就超级不舒服。。。辗转难眠。。。

一开始以为是水喝多了，上了厕所后依然还是浑身不对劲，过后还有恶心的感觉，整个脑海浮现晚上刚刚吃过的生日大餐的creme brulee，整个呕吐的感觉就来了

于是我还真的是呕个没完没了，身体超虚脱的，又累又想睡，但是可恶的闹钟还是定时响起叮嘱我起床准备上班

啊。。。即使我多么反抗，还是硬着头皮去了，只是完全没胃口，早餐都没吃，只啃了条香蕉。。。

原以为应该只是昨晚吃过多了导致消化不良，心想过一会儿应该没事，随知自己始终不是医生，上班后不止呕吐，还开始腹泻。。。

这个很明显是食物中毒了，我同事说道。。。还吩咐我回家休息，吃相关的药物

本来还想撑的我，终究不行，和aaron说明想回家原因，aaron 还想说载我回家，不过恰巧另外一位同事要去市中心就顺道跟车了。。。

服了同事推荐的药物，还没消化就又全都呕了出来。。。整个是。。。无奈

于是我昏睡了整个下午~直到我的同屋主过来敲门。。。觉得自己还算是幸福的，至少同屋主，韩姐她体贴的煮稀饭给我吃。。nicole也在放工后拿来葡萄糖水给我，避免我水分流失

现在算是在复苏中，谢谢大家的关心。。。我会好好修养的。。。这次教训是不要吃过多，分量要适量！！因为我还是很犹豫究竟我是否食物中毒，还是吃过多了？？

但是症状看来 （上吐下泻，还有肚子痛）。。。恩。。。不晓得。。。==

恩，说的好像很隆重似的，但今天太特别了，因为是我的生日，也竟然是中秋节！！这个也太厉害了吧！

哈哈，单纯这样的巧合，就让我觉得上天很眷顾我，给了我一个那么特别的日子

言不由衷，在这么特别的日子里，我无法否认我今天也特别孤单，多么希望今天可以在家和家人团圆~

独在异乡为异客，每逢佳节倍思亲。。我其实也不止今天因为中秋的缘故想家，无时无刻都在想家的

所以我其实很害怕今天一个人在家孤单的度过，习惯一个人的我突然没办法忍受在今天寂寞的吞噬

还好nicole这个朋友愿意舍弃繁忙的日程，来陪我这个寿星婆！

今天主要就是想方设法度过今天，哈哈，所以差不多中午时就和nicole去饮茶，也就是吃点心啦

你绝对不会相信，我在纽西兰吃点心的频率比在大马还多！而且吃的种类也是到了纽西兰才升华。。。奇怪吧，明明是在西方国家，反而接触的东方美食更多了~

这里的点心其实算是比较大陆的，毕竟是大陆人在经营。。。至于好不好吃乃见仁见智，只能说在北帕的我是没什么美食可选而言了~

但是我很知足，因为相比其他更荒山野岭的地区，可能连亚洲餐厅都找不着呢！

我就没拍什么点心照了，毕竟也没什么展示可言，哈哈

午饭后，我们去了逛街购物，我还买了3件连身裙和一副太阳眼镜，真的是大丰收~

还没吃晚餐前，也接收了nicole送我的生日礼物

又是烘培用具的说~因为去年她也送了我一个baking ware

不过这个measuring spoon上都刻画着友情~不错不错~他也很用心，知道我缺这个，谢谢啦~

晚餐时间到！

今晚去了Aqaba，餐厅氛围还不赖。。。。

这个是我的主菜，lamb shank，味道还不错，但肉太少了吧？(我真是肉食动物）

然后其实主菜后很饱了，但nicole一直说那个creme brulee很好吃，所以既来之，则‘吃’之

我也点了一份。。。真的很大，而且设计的很漂亮~ 我可没法吃完，是和nicole共享的，但主要好像还是我在吃的说~

好了，也应该庆祝中秋节的说，今年吃月饼的次数比去年多了~

上方那个传统月饼是自己买的，下方那2个‘心型’月饼则是小燕给的。。。

那大家中秋节过的如何呢？在此祝大家中秋节快乐~也祝今天摆酒出嫁的高三理爱新娘，欣艺新婚快乐，幸福健康哦！

I wonder why? I always have pre-celebration for my birthday, not just last night with my colleague, I had a wonderful celebration with my precious frens in Palmy too tonight!

Well, it was not a surprise party, and I was actually the organizer by the way. The last time I got surprised would be 2009, which was a very tiny one...and that was not held on my birthday too.

So this was what I mean, I used to celebrate pre- or belated birthday many times, but not on that day with my frens.

Anyways, i am not complaining, cause I still felt treasured as I had such celebration.

Being an organizer is tough, is troublesome, especially comes to asking ppl to come. U have to fixed a suitable time that fit everyone, make sure everyone is pleased with the plan too. Well, I guess this is depends on who are organizing it. I was told that being too worried by my guest, hmmmm....

However, glad that u guys turned out for my pre-birthday celebration, especially after the long day at the IPC spring festival and you guys still prepared so many yummy meals for me!

yen and shirley were busy preparing all meals in the kitchen....

I received this special gift, hand-make almond cookies from Anges, u would never believe tonight was actually only the fourth time I met her. I am so grateful there are so many wonderful people around me!

I bought this special ice-cream cake from Wendy's, it was not cheap, but did really wanna try out. The last time I had ice-cream cake would be during primary school, and then...never! However, I still capable to remember the unique texture and taste of the awesome ice-cream cake I had.

Good thing means to be shared, and thanks for all of u who come to share with me.

slowly, patiently taking out the ribbon surrounding the ice-cream cake

and then cutting the cake was seriously very difficult, cz we just removed the cake from the freezer, and I was cutting it using a spreading knife....the cake was so hard, and too fancy for me to cut it. U can see that, there were like 6 scoops of ice-cream on the top, with berries around. FYI, the base is also ice-cream....==

finally success separating the cake!

The ice-cream cake, hmmm, or I should describe it as an big chunk of ice-cream decorated in cake form. Unfortunately, there is no any sponge cake inside, its just basically ice-cream....every bites is ice-cream. I guess I shouldnt expect much in NZ aye?

Awesome night tho!

  I guess my follower of this blog should have realized i am a huge fan of Japan, in terms of not just drama and music, but everything!!

SO how could I miss the IPC spring festival this year!! Actually i nearly missed it, because the weather was not very frenly and i couldnt find a company until last minute yesterday night, thanks again Shirley! U made my day!! haha

Okay, perhaps I explained this before, IPC stands for Internation Pacific College, is a local international college offering mainly english and other course for oversea student who not using english as their first language. So every year, the college will hold the Spring festival (used to known as Sakura festival) during Spring as most of their students are Japanese. As we know, Japan are famous with their sakura, cherry blossom, and also 'hanami', means flower viewing. So IPC is just having a public festival to welcome everyone celebrating the arrival of spring.

Thanks god, I made it earlier this year, and the sakura are very good to me this year. Why did i say that? Well, I arrived nearly 3pm last year, just as soon as before the closing ceremony. Thus, the sakura were not blooming last year, and i missed all the good food and fun events there.

Luckily, i got a ride today, thanks to Shirley. Her Malays fren come and give us a ride, but took us nearly half an hour to find a car park because Summer hill (where the festival held) was so crowded.

Anyways, got there around 12 smthing, just right for lunch time! =P

Before that, i ran to the sakura trees beside the river, and yes, they were blooming beautifully! I was afraid to miss the great chance for photos, so i just had photo shot despite of having food first.

The weather this year was not great, it was drizzling while we arrived, but this didnt ruin our mood to explore the festival.

There were so many fun setting like

japanese games room?

japanese ghost house,

culture sharing hall exhibiting traditional Japanese toy like daruma

this toy, saw how arashi played with them in the variety shows...it called kendama, actually quite fun to play with!

and origami...

and totoro toy was displayed too, oh my can i have it??

the japanese traditional dolls, ningyo

and also many promotions of japanese posters and Japanese calligraphy around.

Well, actually there were also other exhibition for Korean, Chinese, Thai, Vietnam etc....however hehe, u bet it, i only paid attention to Japanese exhibition.

but did capture this korean display~

Okay, now what? FOOD!!!

There were also plenty of food stalls around, and those Japanese stalls sellers were dressed up in their Japanese kimono.

I bought this!! The japanese crepe! Finally, saw this so many times online and even with my eyes in Pavillion (Malaysia), now finally having it!

it contains chocolate and cream mainly, i ordered mix banana and strawberry in it, omg, tastes so delicious!!!

Of cause, desserts wouldnt satisfy us, we went to the other stalls where most international stalls located.

Nevertheless, Japan still caught my heart, we actually had a long queue for our vegetarian tempura don.

I was hesistated about to buy takoyaki or tempura-don initially, then found out they were actually just using those pre-packed frozen takoyaki balls which i can get in some Asian grocerries. So I made up my decision for tempura-don.

Then, i was rang by yen to go to take photos with her and Anges near the sakura trees. COOL!

I was surprised to meet yen and Anges too at the festival, without knowing they were actually going too.

I was patiently waiting for our turns to take photos with the famous sakura tree (it was the isolated sakura tree and well-blooming), while enjoying my tempura don.

SOon, it was our turn!

Actually did a few jumping shots too, but failed.....due to my camera, it dislikes jumping shoot by the way.

Yen and Anges did a good job! Because they just kept on jumping, lol.

This time, I didnt really got to see those performances which were at a few different spot around as there were so much fun things around! There were also maid cafe where all waitress were dressed up like maid servants, Japanese flower arrangement (Ikebana), carp streamer (koinobori), japanese tea house etc...

However, we had lack of time, and there were too many things around...haha...I must come back next yr if I am still here of cz. haha

Thumbs up for IPC spring festival!

ANd lastly before we left, we also watched the famous taiko performance, for me...AGAIN...haha