Hello World! I'm off again! & A Meme

Hello! You must be sick off hearing me apologise (again) for the lack of food related content here lately. We've had Alv's mum visiting the last two weeks (she leaves today) and with me playing tour guide and our weekend traveling, there has barely been anytime for me to bake let alone blog. I'm off to Salzburg today, I really should be sleeping since I'll need to be awake in less than 3 hours to catch the bus to Stanstead Airport for a 6:30am flight. I promise to be up and baking again next week and have some fruits of my baking on by the start of next week. For now, I will have to leave you with this meme that Cooksister, Jeanne tagged me for a few weeks ago.

Oh, before I forget, today's trip breakfast is Banana and Nut bread from Epicurious. I'll have to blog about that another day =) Meanwhile, the above photo are some daffodils photographed earlier in March on a stroll through St James Park in London.

Have a good weekend everyone :)


What were you doing 10 years ago?

10 years ago, I was repeating my final year of high school. *pause*

Ah Hah....I bet you thought I was a high school drop out!

Actually no, I don't think my parents would've let me live through til now if I had dropped out of high school. I had just finished high school in Malaysia at the end of '96, but since we emigrated to Australia straight after that, I had to start high school again (boo!). I was in the final year of completing my Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) which is an essential University entrance exam in Melbourne, Victoria.


What were you doing 1 year ago?

A year ago today, I was in Tokyo on the last leg of my whirlwind trip through Japan. For the 18 days that we were there, we crammed in visits to some of the top visitor attractions in Japan: Nara, Himeji, Kyoto, Kobe, Hiroshima, Osaka, Fukushima (just outside of Tokyo) and Tokyo. We savoured as much japanese cuisine we could and overdosed on onigiri because we could not get the little buggers back home. My only regret was that I didn't spend more time in Tokyo and we weren't able to fit in Kyuushu into our schedule. I suspect falling ill in Japan contributed the shortened schedule. We lost 2 days from me being sick in bed with some nasty flu. I was so sick (coughing repeatedly) that upon arriving back at Melbourne I went straight to the doctors who pronounced that I had picked up a chest and throat infection and placed me on the antibiotics straight away. Nevertheless, it was the best trip ever and with now being spring and all, I am reminded of the time we spent in Japan every time I see a tree blossoming, getting ready for summer. sigh.....


Five snacks you enjoy

1. Strawberries
2. Chocolate - especially truffles!
   
3. Potato chips/crisps
4. KFC chips & gravy
5. Magnum almond ice cream

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire

1. Buy a nice house with a nice and fully equipped kitchen for me :)
2. Renovate my mum's kitchen because she desperately needs a new one.
   
3. Buy a dishwasher - my current one (Alv) sucks!
   
4. Support the Australian Cancer Research Program and Oxfam. - It's easy to say that I want to support a charity and I'd like to think that my little yearly donation counts towards something but sometimes I do wish that I am little less selfish and careless with my spending and have a little more to give.
   
5. Invest the rest and go on a holiday every year with what I earn from the interest.

Five bad habits

1. "I'll do it later"
2. Snoozing for 40minutes.
3. Sleeping in the shower in the mornings - one of the main reasons why I am always late!
4. Over eating - I have a habit of finishing everything on my plate because I don't want it to go to waste. This always leads me to feeling sick after a meal because I've over stuffed my stomach.
   
5. Pretending to 'still' be asleep when Alv is trying to wake me up.
   

Five things you like doing

1. Sleeping. =)
   
2. Playing netball - I miss netball =(
3. Going on walks with my camera.
   
4. Cooking. (I like cooking more than baking)
   
5. Reading whilst listening to my favourite tunes on my ipod.
   

Five things you would never wear again

1. Bike shorts*
2. Mini skirts
3. 3/4 skinny jeans
4. Black tights with an oversized top - 80's flashdance style
5. White pants*
   

*because they make my butt look huuugee!





Five favorite toys

1. My Nikon D80
2. 2nd generation mini ipod
3. Asus W7 notebook
4. My Fossil watch
5. My Panasonic lumix DMC-LX2
   

And, finally, five bloggers to tag for this:

1. Kat, Our Adventures in Japan
   
2. Patricia, Technicolor Kitchen
3. Ellie, Kitchen Wench
4. Manggy, No Special Effects
5. Dhanggit, Dhanggit's Kitchen

I woke up to..

I opened my eyes this morning to large a storm of snow flakes peering through the venetian blinds in our bedroom. I was so shocked that I got out of bed and checked the time - it was only 8:30am and it was snowing. I quickly whipped out my camera and snapped a few shots and then went to our living area which faces a garden and stuck my head out the window for more shots. I sat by the window, completely mesmerised, taking in as much of the scenery as I could.

(a sudden drop in snow!)

(a little squirrel in the neighbour's backyard)

40 minutes later I found myself snuggling back into bed at 10 past 9 because the shock of seeing snow had dissipated and the drowsiness from waking up so early had crept up and taken over my body.

I'm just finishing off my breakfast by the window and I still can't believe it's snowing/ed. I was hoping it would snow all day but I doubt this will happen as the snow is starting to melt. (Golf) balls of snow drop are starting to drop off the branches. The snow storm stopped 1/2hr ago and the snow piles on the fence has all but disappeared.

I guess all good things must come to and end.

Incidentally, breakfast was Baked egg on toast and Greek Yoghurt with strawberries drizzled with honey. No egg on toast photo here as I had already scoffed it all before I decided to take a photo to share my experience.

(snowflakes)