I kind of have a relatively new tradition of treating myself to lots of goodies during the birthday month of July. This year, on top of all the showers of love from friends, family and colleagues, I bought myself the below shoes, bags and clothes without much hesitation during the ASOS clearance sale. Half of the goods have arrived and they all look exactly as shown on the website and fit me perfectly. I am quite hooked onto shopping at ASOS now.
I still have several Karen Millens, Ted Bakers, Vero Modas and Kookais in my 'Saved Items' that I am seriously considering getting while the sale is still on even though they are still quite pricey after the discount. I am trying to convince myself that I really do not need that many dresses or shoes since I end up wearing the same old crappy stuff all the time anyway.
Shoes and Bags
Clockwise from top left:
- ASOS Princess peeptoe court show in taupe
- ASOS suede court shoes in blue
- ASOS suede court shoes in pale yellow
- Suzy Smith party clutch bag in light gold
- ASOS pointed ballet pumps in light grey
- ASOS pointed ballet pumps in black
Work Dresses
Left to right:
- ASOS ponti fit and flare dress with boat neck in navy
- ASOS pencil dress in black and white
- Warehouse block print shift dress
Pretty Party Dresses
Left to right:
- Lipsy embellished waist asymmetric drape dress in deep purple
- Lipsy cutwork back drape chiffon dress in kiss pink
- Lipsy Laura dress in lilac pink
Casual Spring/Summer Dresses
Left to right:
- ASOS belted tea dress with orange and white heart prints
- Vero Moda tie back dress with bird prints
- A Wear belted dress with white chiffon top and floral printed skirt
Retro-looking Dresses
Left to right:
- Vero Moda 50's swing shirt dress in burnt ochre
- Pearl colour block maxi dress
- ASOS dress with cherry print dress
Thankfully, the great discounts made the burn in the pocket bearable.
pressies from myself
the heavenly tim tam experience
I rediscovered my love for Tim Tams - specifically the Dark Chocolate ones - recently when a corporate guest from the Middle East taught me a new way to eat them with a good cup of strong latte.
In the absence of gourmet coffee, I have been making my own hot chocolate at home for this Tim Tam experience. Some warm fresh milk (I put mine in the microwave for 1.15min)...
... and drinking chocolate - I highly recommend the Vittoria DARK Drinking Chocolate - gives you a great beverage for cold and rainy days. I add a teaspoon of sugar too cos I like mine to be a little sweet.
Now's the time to unwrap the pack of Tim Tams.
Bite off the diagonal corners of the biscuit as seen on the left below. Then dip one bitten-off corner into your preferred hot/warm beverage - coffee/hot chocolate - as seen in the right pic below and suck the beverage through the other bitten-off corner with your mouth.
This allows the hot/warm liquid to melt the wafer and chocolate from the inside out. Without waiting too long for the whole biscuit to disintegrate, remove the Tim Tam from the hot chocolate and bite into it.
This is one step up from my previous way of dunking the entire Tim Tam into the coffee - which is my own personal beverage preference for the perfect Tim Tam experience - because instead of having the warm liquid just melting the outer coat of chocolate leaving the biscuit hard and dry as usual, you are now biting into a moist and slightly softened biscuit with the subtle taste of coffee infused in the wafer inside and the spread of the exterior about-to-melt chocolate coat hitting your taste buds at the same time which is just heavenly.
july celebrations
I was invited to a birthday celebration that took place just three days after my own hatchday, and seeing how there are several other girls from within my office all being July babies, we all took the chance to let our hair down for a mega celebration at Sapphire Lounge.
Here's the official birthday girl of the night trying to finish a humongous fishbowl of cocktail all the other girls bought her.
All the pretty ladies in the house.
I was on medication and hence stuck to mocktails most of the night although I got naughty for a short while and had two jaegerbombs. ;p
Ya. We all like to pose for pics with the big fishbowls.
And a last group pic before we left. It was one of those rare parties I went to that saw me consume the least amount of alcohol amongst all in the group and it made me feel great that I could gloat over their hangovers the next day. LOL.
it's all about jackets
Last winter, I was obsessed with buying boots - ankle boots, mid calf boots, knee high boots, thigh high boots (although I had no luck finding a pair that I liked), flat ones, heeled ones, black ones, brown ones, leather ones, suede ones, felt ones etc etc...
This year, it has all been about jackets and coats. In addition to whatever I have already accumulated from previous years, this season saw me buying these jackets - cropped leather biker jacket, suede military jacket and a boyfriend blazer - and getting this current favourite - another military jacket - as a birthday present. And not forgetting this faux snow leopard fur coat I got in Orlando earlier this year too.
Here are some pics of me modelling my biker jacket and the fur coat. I was so excited at finally being able to wear my fur coat out (my first time ever putting on a fur coat in my life!) that I couldn't stop taking pics in it. LOL. And wow it really keeps you extremely warm.
Even though we're now almost at the end of winter, I still can't stop shopping for jackets. I have added all the below to my wishlist knowing that some are just too flashy and impractical for normal daily wear.
Light grey vintage jacket with bronze heart-shaped buttons by Laura Galic on Etsy.
Boyfriend blazer from ASOS - I prefer the raspberry coloured one on the left.
Tamara jacket from Laura Galic on Etsy - I love it for the flattering cut, the discreetly shiny material and the rarely seen colour.
Her Splendid Death velvet dinner jacket by Alannah Hill.
Another one by Laura Galic on Etsy - Ilinca black velvet jacket.
I promise this is the last from Laura Galic again - the Maia jacket.
I've also been looking for a cream/tan/camel-coloured jacket/trench. This one is from ASOS. However I saw another one in a shop in Newtown just recently which is really tempting me to splurge that $250.
I'm never going to have enough money to satisfy all my wants.
more pressies!
More to add to the birthday loot previously reported! I got this cool looking Kikki.K laptop bag which I've had my eye on for a while now.
An elegant looking jewellery box for my precious blings.
And a cute little guitar charm!
roadtrip to the gong to catch the sso
Ya I'm playing catch up here on my blog... here's another outdated post on a road trip that happened in the first week of June which is part work part leisure. The girls from the Corporate Communications department got a few free tickets to watch the Sydney Symphony Orchestra perform as well as attend the post concert dinner in Wollongong because our company is a long standing sponsor for the SSO. They were kind enough to invite me along and in need of a break from work, I went with them on the 1.5 hour drive down the coast!
Here we had our first pit stop at Stanwell Park. It was freezing cold and extremely windy.
They just had to do the jumps and I must say, this is a fantastic shot of the jumping action at its best.
We took the scenic route along the Grand Pacific Drive and had a second pitstop to take a walk along the famous Sea Cliff Bridge. I never saw these padlocks of love declarations on my numerous trips there before so this must be a relatively new phenomenon.
While most of the locks had engravings of wedding proposals and celebrations of love, there were also some cute ones like this below.
This was us camwhoring in the bathroom while waiting for the remaining party girlie to finish dressing up for the event.
That's all of us girls after a few complimentary glasses of champagne prior to the start of the concert.
Eagerly awaiting the start of the concert.
And a little ensemble during the post event dinner that was really good.
As far as I can remember, I think this was the first proper road trip I've gone on with the girls. It was actually really relaxing compared to the other strictly business only fly-in-fly-out work trips we've been on together.
we had crabs again
I hosted another crabby dinner at my place around late June in return for a previous dinner treat by my dinner guests. This time, it was a rather stressful affair because I couldn't get the necessary ingredients for the dishes I intended to cook and had to tweak the menu at the last minute. The worst of it was I couldn't find a single pack of the Prima Taste chilli crab mix even after combing through all the asian grocery stores in all the nearby suburbs! I ended up having to improvise using some dodgy Indonesian paste and whatever I could find in the kitchen.
Well, fortunately it all still turned out good enough for the guests to pay me some compliments although I wasn't fully satisfied with the taste of the chilli gravy. Here are the guests with the spread: chilli crabs, deep fried buns for dipping into the crab gravy, beef rendang, handmade wanton soup and Mama's special cabbage rice.
reporting the birthday loot
Besides the birthday treat, I was showered with pressies which made my turning 31 a lot more bearable - it's the first time in my life I actually really started to feel old zomg *gasps*.
Left: a bouquet turned up at my office that was the surprise of the day as I received the warmest wishes from someone dear all the way from faraway Hong Kong.
Right: A nice hanging lantern for my scented candles and a blingey long necklace.
Contained in this above pic are:
- Books 2 and 3 of the Inheritance series to add to the Eragon I recently finished reading
- An Oroton purse
- A bottle of bird's nest concentrate
- A cute little doggie bookmark all the way from Singapore
- A quirky eye mask also from Singapore
- A pair of heart-shaped earrings
- A scarf filled with cute little umbrellas
- Some sexy lingerie from a sexy babe
And a Lulu & Rose green military jacket - which is my current favourite jacket - that I'm modelling in the pics below.
And of course not forgetting the hundreds of FB/Whatsapp/SMS/Email wishes from all corners of the globe that kept pouring in at all times of the day. Thanks for all the love!!! I'm glad I'm still loved by many even though I'm turning into an old hag!
birthday dinner - degustation at assiette
Pawpaw gave me a birthday treat at Assiette - a modern French restaurant - in Surry Hills where he indulged me in a three-hour ten-course degustation menu with wine pairing (we only got the wine pairing for one set to share between us as I was on medication and could only restrict myself to one sip per glass).
I managed to take some decent shots, albeit some turned out a bit blurry, with my phone without the flash. Below are nine out of the ten courses as I somehow forgot to snap the third last dish.
Left: Seasonal oyster with Vietnamese dressing and baby coriander (wine pair: Sugii Shuzo 'Shizen Jozo' Junmai Yamahai Muroka Shizuoka, Japan)
Right: Cured Hiramasa kingfish with dashi jelly, pickled octopus and blood lime (wine pair: 2007 Bernard Moureau Bourgogne - Aligote Burgundy, France)
Left: Creamed polenta with sauteed mushrooms and Tasmanian truffle (wine pair: 2008 Pegasus Bay Chardonnay Waipara, New Zealand)
Right: Pan fried boudin noir (black pudding! I like very much!!) with marmalade prawn, pickled heirloom carrots and crackling powder (wine pair: 2009 Albert Mann Pinot Blanc Auxerrois Alsace, France)
Left: Caramelised chicken wings and veal sweetbreads with bacon, pea mousse and mushroom puree (wine pair: 2009 Hautes Cotes de Nuits, Dominique Guyon 'Dames de Vergy' Burgundy, France)
Right: Crispy-skinned mulloway with celeriac puree, curried mussels and lentil fritters - this is the only dish I didn't like at all due to the strong curry taste that totally overpowered the fish and I've also never been a fan of lentils - (wine pair: 2007 Greenstone Monastrell Heathcote, Victoria)
Miso-braised Wagyu brisket with parmesan gnocchi, cauliflower puree and pencil leeks (wine pair: 2009 Chinon, Pascal Lambert 'Tradition Graves' Cabernet Franc Loire Valley, France)
Right here after the Wagyu, we had the Brillat-Savarin cheese cake with honeyed walnuts and pear puree paired with 2009 Seresin Pinot Gris Marlborough, New Zealand. I couldn't stand the strong smelling cheese (just slightly less pungent than the blue cheese) and donated the whole of my share to Pawpaw who loved it.
Left: They call this the 'Pre Dessert' which is lychee jelly topped with some coconut flavoured cream mousse
Right: Olive oil cake with lemon curd, creme fraiche sorbet and raspberry marshmallow (wine pair: 2009 Escarpment 'Hinemoa' Riesling Martinborough, New Zealand)
Because we had a 25% discount voucher, the total bill only came up to only about $200 which was totally worth it as every dish was enjoyable except for the curry fish and the smelly cheese. Although the portions were all about bite sized, I was sufficiently full after the tenth course but Pawpaw was only about 80% full and 110% drunk (LOL). It's his first experience trying a degustation menu with wine pairing so he definitely cleaned every single glass down to the last drop. The service was impeccable and being a Wednesday night, the restaurant was only half full and so we got a really nice quiet table at one corner.
I felt thoroughly spoilt for the duration of the dinner and thought it was a nice end to the special day when I got home at just slightly before midnight.
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