C'est LA viE

2 friends graduating today, one is Michelle, and another is my colleague, Ping. They both were having the ceremony today. Unfortunately, the weather was very crabby, rains on and off. Too bad for them, but I am pretty sure their mood were not ruined by the rains.

I was invited for both of their celebration events tonight. Ping was having her grad dinner at De Coree and Michelle hold a dessert party at Massey’s hunter centre. Tonight’s dinner was good, all of us have a good conversation, and we were happy for ping’s big day. I actually had a very bad impression to this restaurant, as their Korean stew is expensive and tastes bad. But ping was suggesting me to try other food instead of the stew. Well, I would say probably she hasn’t tried out other nice Korean meal, or she doesn’t really know how good Korean meals taste like is. I still not recommend this restaurant.

 这次去奥克兰买了好多吃的。。。哈哈哈，单单糕点，就一箩箩。。。

这个其实也没很好吃，但挺特别，我第一次看到这种面包，就是蛋皮包面包再包肉松

这个是刚好特价买的，就是果干，不错的snack

最近还真的迷上了这个，恩如果不叫开心棒还真的不知叫什么。。能量棒？哈哈，反正好吃！

这个草饼很便宜，不过是台湾的，唉，为何都找不到日本的？？

我是干物女！所以我爱鱿鱼丝~右边那个中间还夹带黑芝麻，不过我还是喜欢原创，可惜啊，在奥克兰也还是找不到大发鳕鱼香丝！

还有日本，真的是日本的，巧克力粒！哈哈哈，最喜欢那个像雨伞的~

其实这次的收获不只是物质上的，还真的很庆幸有卓识这个朋友

我们昨天在我上飞机前聊了好多，发现其实他真的是个好女孩，是个真的值得深交的朋友

即使我们很少见面，但是却很多话聊，大家很投契。。。

谢谢你，卓识。我们一起好好加油，为梦想前进！

Today is the day! So looking forward, and also is about the plan to come up Auckland for.

I met Sze Ying today finally, after 1 years and 4 months! She came to Auckland with her parents for her graduation trip. All of us (8 of us) had dim sum at the Harbour restaurant. Well, the lunch was very rushing, as is Mother’s day today as well, we only allowed to have the table for an hour, this is Auckland~

Well, food was good actually, price is reasonable as well, probably because we dint order much. I dint able to take photos, as most of us spending time chit-chatting and eating. However, glad to meet everyone, including Jamie and Tina who had settled down at Auckland.

just able to catch a photo with sze and her mum.

I just spent time on walking around Auckland city with ZhuoShi after the lunch. It was so nice to have her for company, we walked around high st, which is the street that I apparently not noticing when I was at Auckland for 3 months last year. High street is more like a fashionable street, many special designer’s unique shops, and selling expensive goods.

We were very lucky to find this bakery shop: La Couranne Bakery boutique

Zhuoshi ordered this dessert which is very good and huge! Is like a mochi wrapping cream and a huge strawberry inside.

They sell awesome cakes, bread and pastries =D

Finally fly up to Auckland! Well I used to hop on the bus, but for sure not this time, or the next time in the future, unless I really broke….

my boarding pass, and my brand new nail color....

Taking a flight is definitely much better than bus-ing up. Save time, and save the effort fighting for sleepless period and also the cold…Well, spent more but is still worth.

I woke up at 4.15am today, can u imagine. I dunno why super-shuttle (the shuttle that sends me to airport) demanded to be outside my house at 5.30am, and I am slow, so I woke up 1 hr in advance.

Anyways, I made it, and arrived airport around 5.40am. My flight was 6.50am, and the driver was like, “oh u are early, why are u going so early? Do u know the airport check-in desk is not open til 6?” ….== hell do I know? U are the one who told me to be there at 5.30am…oh probably not u, I mean yr company…

Luckily the airport itself was opened, just not the check-in counter. I got my boarding pass from the self-check-in machine, but still have to wait the counter to be opened at 6am, as in Palmy airport, we have to pay extra 5 dollars for the airport development fees while taking plane departed from Palmy (but not charging on plane arriving Palmy).

Meanwhile waiting for boarding, I whatsapp with Bean using free wireless at the airport. First time accessing the wireless in this small city, it was actually quite fast. =D.

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I arrived Auckland around 8am, and zhuo shi come to fetch me. She nearly lost while finding the route to airport, really appreciated that she picked me up from the airport all the way from Northshore (took her probably 40 minutes) and she is not familiar with the road.  And she also brought me some breakies…so lovely of her.

I had long time dint see her, nearly one year I guess! Glad to see her doing fine, and actually zhuo shi is the only of us that got into dietician. Thumbs up!

Actually this time, this trip to Auckland is for the gathering with Sze Ying on tomorrow morning. She was having her graduation trip with her parents since last week. She asked me to meet her at Auckland instead of heading down to the south (Dunedin) to attend her grad ceremony which is a good option. So basically I just left myself open to any plans, and today zhuoshi had discussed with wann zhen, and we went to her house straight away after I arrived.

There’s a new family member in Wann Zhen house now, a puppy! Is a Japanese spitz, it is superb cute!

I played with him for a while, and he seems like me tho =P.

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Wann Zhen brought me to brunch at a Chinese restaurant near her house. We ordered so many dishes, and they were delicious! I think as we have long time dint hang out together, this made the meal even better!

Then, I also bought some asian snacks and bakeries as there are heaps of these kind of shop beside that restaurant. Oh my, I am really excited while seeing these food that couldn’t be found at Palmy, even Welly….^^ Auckland really the best!

After that, before meeting up another friend, Louise, we went to the Chinese Pagoda nearby. Well, actually I am not considered a Buddhist, as I dint pray, but I do claim myself a Buddhist on my identity card in Malaysia. Moreover, I do pray if I need to. However, I found out that I rather admitted myself as a free thinker or neutral since I went abroad. This is because I actually is a free-thinker…. I have no clues about Buddhist, well, I have an idea, like a general one, but I do like Buddhists, and the Chinese Pagoda we went to actually made me felt peaceful. =)

  the budha are so cute....XD

Eventually we met Louise at Botany Down, and she was with her BF! What a shock! Wann Zhen was so surprised and told us she never tells! Lol, so Louise is not having many friends, she just has a boy friend. No more effort on helping her to bind up with people at work, she is good enough to get herself one. =) I guess Auckland still have more chances for love aye? Especially for people like me seeking for Asian guys….yes I am looking for someone. =) (LOL sounds so desperate..)

We spent sometimes at Robert Harris café then, and I realized the frappucino there was not pleasant.

the frappe is phewww...not nice, zhuoshi isenjoying her coffee....

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We headed back to Northshore, Zhuoshi’s home stay around 4pm. Norman and Daisy (Zhuoshi’s home dad and mum) were very welcoming me to stay for a night, and cooked me a nice thai chicken stir fry meal.

Had such a long time dint dine in this family atmosphere, since I was in Malaysia this year in February. Norman is a kind and humour person, really hope his health condition will recover. I haven’t eaten so large portion size of dinner since I started my diet, oh man, now I need work harder.

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I can’t wait until 7pm, is movie time! Finally I able to watch Tim Burton’s latest film, Dark Shadow, starring my favourite Jonny Depp.

Check out my next post for the movie review.

It was a great night, but my Saturday night did not end with a movie, well, not club either. Guess what, it was ended with sleepy eyes, after proof-reading and modifying Zhuoshi’s Master literature review until 3am in the morning following the movie. This recalled me the memory in 2009 when I was taking HUNT314 (nutrition and communication), and zhuoshi was my team member as well. Both of us working on the remains report from 11pm until 6am early morning, then rushed to our whole team meeting at 8am. That was a crazy project, (well not that crazy as FOSC311, which is food product development), because everyone was so deeply bound themselves to the project. The other 3 team members of mine weren’t joining us for rushing the report over-night due to some “reasons”.

Well, it had already passed, and our team was generally good, as all of us were equally kind and co-operative. At least, we scored very well done grade for that particular project.

I just missing those days in Uni, but seriously not willing to going back for study, assignments and exams anymore. I eventually also realized that I really cant sleep late anymore, my eyes were half closed when the clock pointed to 12…

Anyways, I am still impressed by what’s zhuoshi wrote, and can feel how stressed she is to trying writing this literature review.

Good night world.

Yeah, finally able to go to the Wellington Sunday market again, I really missed the “teppanyaki” cheese roti (this is how I called it) from the Indian stall since last time I ate it during last year October.

I guess freshness is the most important food ingredients, not meaning the freshness of the food, or I should say the feeling having the new food for the first time. I still felt that the same cheese roti I had last time in October was better. =P It  this the monotony effect?? Haha, but I still like it tho, and Paya immediately bought it after tasting mine. See!

Then, we went to the City Market nearby, and Macaroons again~ Well, surprised to see that Nikki actually made the mini macaroons as tasting samples, and I couldn’t deny that the mini ones tasted better. I do admit that her macaroons actually losing her standard, well guess it was really not easy to make them constantly good as I also made them before just not by myself only. I bought 4 macaroons and so did Paya, but still happy that Nikki made a new flavour – coffee cream.

I realized another symptom of mine signing I am ‘aging’, (=S), I am disliking sweet dessert now! Not that I am not taking dessert anymore, definitely I will still taking them cause I always a big fan of dessert. Just I am more emphasized on the natural sweetness, and original flavours. For an example: I will demand for a green tea flavoured dessert come with the strong green tea aroma and taste, even with a bit of bitterness, rather adding too much artificial sweetness in it which ruining the original green tea flavour, get me??

I am complicated right?? Well, that’s me. =P

Other food sold at the city market:

I also bought seafood paella! It comes with a tiny cute takeaway box (NZ 7 each), but it’s actually a lot! I am going to bring it for lunch tomorrowI actually had a tight schedule today as I am leaving at 3pm back to Palmy, so we went to Scopa to get the hot chocolate highly recommended by Paya.

It is a chocolate shot to me, so viscous! To be honest, I am not a fan of hot chocolate, or I should say, I just dislike hot beverage. But, chocolate fans definitely will like it.

We also ordered a pizza, is huge! Lucky I got to share it with Paya, love this pizza. This pizza named Gorgonzola Funghi, contains spinach, mushroom and gorgonzola which is a veined Italian blue cheese. Although I really hate the original blue cheese, but I agreed that Blue cheese always taste good after cooking/baking.

I had so much of this type of floury foods these 2 days in Welly, roti canai yesterday, cheese roti this morning and also a pizza for lunch…Wow….my diet….TT (and my poor knee still pain…=(…)

Okies, time flies, I said bye bye to Paya around 3pm, we actually sat at the harbour for a while before we walked to the bus stop. It was a sunny day, how lucky I am.. =)

Til the next time we met, take care Paya!!