navy

Never been too great a swimmer.

I could keep afloat, but to swim distances with any stroke other than the frog was beyond me.

when we were kids, Lee would regale me with tales of her olympian style butterfly strokes

while i would mentally picture myself doing the doggy paddle while gasping for breath.

Skipped the mandatory swimming lessons in secondary school

as they were clearly for losers haha

though many times since then i ve wished i tried a little harder.

what this brings me to of course,

is that miracles of miracles, i passed the surprise swim test on my Navy undergrad officer's course!

we were woken up with a fire drill at some ungodly hour, bundled us into a bus, and off we went.

dont have many photos, as it was neither the time nor place

but i do have one of the group.

because Creswell is a national park, and there were plenty of shrubbery (and kangaroos!) and therefore lots of pollen everywhere

had a bit of asthma and was hospitalised.

must say, this year's hayfever season seems particularly bad!

also attended the 2010 Naval Engineers Grad ball

held at San Remo Ballroom

i must say, the male uniform looks much better than the female equivalent

very pretty ceiling!

and this photo is for tracey, who wanted me to keep it because 'we look so white!' lol

been also trying my hand at picking up the chinese tea ceremony from mum

its smoothing and each movement flows from the next

sure beats popping a teabag in hot water!

dad bought some amazing tea back from China and Taiwan

so been using these.

everything you need for the tea ceremony. kind of hard to explain the procedure in detail, but its the kind of thing that needs constant practice and i only recently started trying in earnest

will blog more when i am back from queensland, made the christmas ham for dinner!

just tried to upload ham photos but blogger seems to be down.

splurged yesterday on the most amazing, fantastic, gorgeous bed sheets

i couldnt resist

1000 thread count of pure luxury

and i cant wait to hop into bed

night!

press club movida bacash

i have a little confession to make

the reason i can go for so long without updating, is that sometimes,

i blog in my head.

pictures, captions, the whole she-bang.

but of course, there's nothing like a little sms or email from friends to remind me its high time to blog again.

for real.

there was some drama with my camera before, but its all fixed now.

unfortunately that means that some of the images are corrupted (!)

so i ll blog what i have.

had an ahmazzzing dinner at Press Club with Nick, Helen and Viet.

been reluctant to try it as I am not a fan of greek food

but, every dish we had was oh-my-god delicious, and although we initially booked a 2 hr slot for dinner, upon choosing to have the degustation, the staff were most accomodating and extended the dinner to 3 hours.

i hate buying into hype but i have to give credit where its due, and Press Club is fantastic!

started off the night with some wow factor. dry ice, cheese (boccocini?) and moscato d' asti. yum. btw, i apologise in advance, but i know close to nothing about greek cuisine, and the menu was all, well, greek to me!

kingfish and calamari.

zuccini flowers.

beef. apologies for the brief descriptions! but ALL the dishes were exquistely prepared and well matched with the elements on the plate, and i was a fan of every single thing I ate. it was that good!

Aphrodite. i used to be a big fan of aphrodite when it was a black forest cake, but Press club changed it to this- panna cotta. liked the rose flavours and the marshmellow. a nice light dessert to finish off the huge meal! had a great photo of Helen and I with our dessert, but alas, that is lost to the technological abyss.

Can view the Press Club's menu here

The degustation should set you back about $150 per head, but worth every penny.

And book early!

i only have three measly photos left of our epic night out before B left Melbourne

dinner at Bacash. Great seafood restaurant! I had the warm rare roast ocean trout with fennel confit and an orange and beetroot salad. Nice generous slice, cooked just right, with that smoky flavour i love. Hen, in the above photo, has the scallops.

Had some Pieropan soave. Great wine, full but perhaps a bit acid heavy. Went well with my trout main though!

At Movida after. A crazy amount of desserts, the chef was impressed! Wont elaborate on the exact number of dishes hehe, but the Marquis, which is a chocolate dish with sea salt and oilve oil, is absolutely delish! Dishes pictured here are the strawberries in cava and the churros.

have a snapshot of my amex bill from last month. the ones underlined in yellow are restaurants. uh oh, somebody isnt going to dine out for a while!

:(

matteos

Was hanging out with B one day and talking about visiting the Met store on Collins to see if anything new has been released,

when I was hit with sudden random inspiration.

(that can sometimes happen when studies drive me crazier than a dingbat.)

We decided to have a dinner to celebrate Faberge's genius!

Wooo!

The idea became known as having an 'egg dinner'

and in my excitement, i retrieved all the Faberge jewellery i own

and made a booking for Matteos.

B looks exceptionally gleeful here, must be the bread and butter arriving! i, on the other hand, was grumpy as i had seriously overestimated the time taken to travel to Matteo's and had been waiting for a full half hour. No traffic to Brunswick, who would have thought?!

B's Faberge jewellery.

My Jap seafood plate, with 1.Semi-cured Hiramasa kingfish, prawn remoulade, shiso Japanese basil sauce, 2.Teriyaki glazed smoked eel on rice crusted tofu, pickled plum & bonito mayonnaise

3. Petuna ocean trout tataki, oroshi grated daikon radish, Yarra Valley salmon roe.

the kingfish was my favourite, usually have it raw but curing it imparted the most extraordinary texture! To be honest this dish was packed chockful of ingredients, some palatable some not so much, it became sensory overload by the end! Was delicious though, and i enjoyed every bite.

My main was the wagyu beef. Slightly disappointing as it was served cold. Have had much better wagyu steaks and the pairing with the butternut pumpkin puree and 'red curry' seemed a tad disjointed. Silverbeet was good, but doesnt say much about the dish that the silverbeet was its saving grace! Also ordered the miso eggplant as a side, which i liked. Chef was heavy handed with the garlic and miso paste, but that made the dish very flavourful. Think i might have been the only eggplant fan on the table though!

Matteo's Cspot- dark chocolate ganache tartlet, which was great. Was so full by the end of dinner that this was all the dessert i managed to squeeze in, though i tried some of the other desserts. B's cherry & honeyed apple, custard crumble, and coconut gelato was really good! Coconut gelato in particular was so impactful it tasted like frozen coconut milk. Genius pairing with the tart crumble!

Had one of my favourite dessert wines that night, 2006 Partricia, almost finished 3 glasses by myself but boy, was it good.

Henny with her Golden Gaytime dessert.

Yay for Faberge! it rhymes! haha.

My DSLR has died, the SD card slot is broken.

Thankfully its 3 days before the warranty expires,

so will send it off to be repaired soon.

Finally retrieved the SD card and was looking through the photos and found a couple from Kat's birthday celebration last month

our valiant attempts at cake decorating

it only looks passable because i zoomed it all the way in!

hahah but its the thought that counts yes Kat? ;)

p.s you totally dont look impressed, i dont blame you!

spice temple

Had dinner at David's and Spice Temple a few days ago

A welcome relief after exams (though they re technically not over yet, i m kind of celebrating prematurely!)

Brought Mum to David's in Prahran to celebrate her birthday

not much to say about David's, yummy as usual!

Didnt have to foresight to remember my camera, and food reviews without photos are no fun,

so might skip talking about David's.

Went to Spice Temple the following night to celebrate the last of my written exams

I was completely taken aback from how different ST looked to Bistro Guillaume

where BG was cream walls and chandeliers and the like, ST was all dimly lit and oriental incense.

Was a tad early so had a drink in the bar while waiting

Ordered a Dragon from the zodiac themed cocktail list

(lemongrass and rose petal soda with gin)

Delicious, would have ordered another if i could stomach that much alcohol!

But i knew we were having wine so through heroic efforts, abstained.

The other (with the mint sprig) is a Monkey, which tasted of ginger so strongly i was sure all motion sickness would be kicked out of me forever.

Yeeuch. Not a ginger fan for sure.

The cocktail list can be viewed here

Definitely want to try the Rat next!

We then moved upstairs to start dinner.

Ordered quite a few dishes, but hey, i was hungry!

Can see the menu here

Started with tingling prawns and lamb and fennel dumplings

We are huge spicy buffs, i thought that the prawns, being bolded in red on the menu, would be spicier than it actually was, though the green chillies gave it an adequate kick.

The dumplings were good, nice skin! Couldnt really taste the fennel though. Was paired with a nice chilli sambal style sauce. Sommelier recommended a riesling (sat back and left wine decisions to him so not sure what we had), though i have to say, they went very nicely together!

my favourite dish of the night! Hot and numbing duck. Despite the name, this dish was not spicy, but the duck was succulent and tender, the skin ,fried to mouth watering perfection and the sauce, tangy with just the right amount of sweetness. This dish was good! Also had chinese broccoli and rice, but no photos, as really, you all know what that looks like!

This was a Guangxi style pork dish, and i was disappointed. Entirely too much coriander, and the pork was overly chewy. Crackling was alright but would have been better if the dish was sweeter to balance the bitterness of the coriander and spanish onion!

Funny story, while waiting for dessert, i looked up and because of how the restaurant was lit, i hallucinated that everyone was glowing, like angels! Was totally trippy, laid off the wine after that haha.
Had a orange cupcake with a jelly centre. Topped with persian fairy floss! More of a novelty dessert rather than anything else, but was pleasant none the less. Sponge was light and fluffy, and the texture of the jelly provided a nice contrast!

Chocolate and peanut parfait. With salted caramel! Is it sacrilege if i say that this is better than Il Fornanio's Snickers? Was looking forward to this all night, and was very happy with it, not too sweet, surface broke with a satisfying crunch, creamy, cold and altogether perfect! If i had to be picky about anything, it would probably be the presentation (as you can see above), but really, i could have finished this all by myself.

Spice Temple was lovely, looking at neighbouring tables (they were closely placed)

i saw a positive plethora of dishes to try next time. except for the guangxi pork dish, the food were good, service was attentive and solictious, and i loved the concept of free flow of sparkling water. Think it was about $8 or $9 each for the endless San Pelligrino, very handy if the dishes are a tad spicy for your taste!

Going to vent a little now before going back to the books

oral medicine, sigh.

been on the hunt for tea lately

for Serendipitea's Passion and Envy

searched everywhere for it since their Prahran store has shut down

and neither Caffee Moravia nor Cafe Dior had them

Caffee Moravia was absolutely appalling

never returning if i can help it

ordered a foccacia and tea

both times, they brought out the wrong thing

and far from being apologetic,

the server was almost inclined to blame us for their error.

Terrible. never going back if i can help it.

Lettuce was wilted and brown (BROWN!)

And do be careful if you order tea

they might be careless and offer you a Twinings teabag in hotwater instead of the Serendipitea

which is really rather unacceptable considering the price.

Cafe Dior, on the other hand, was lovely

and are even ordering in the tea for us.

Really now, just thinking about Caffee Moravia is getting under my skin!

brisbane

Was lucky enough to be part of the Melbourne University team
who took part in the Health Fusion Health Care challenge 2 weeks ago up at the University of Queensland
the competition basically involved forming a interdisciplinary team
(we had neuropsych, social work, nursing, physio, med and of course, dent on board+ and invaluable team manager)
and presenting a management plan for a patient case.

really was a great learning experience, can honestly say i had never thought about a treatment plan out of a dental aspect before this. Kinda feels like filling in the blanks, you know?
And, to top it off, we had a fun time in Brisbane

Team iStorm, like the NRL Melbourne Storm. Get it, get it? Stands for interdisciplinary students taking on real management.

Meet and Greet

A summary of our case stem

Preparing to film our live interview with the 'patient'. Amazing actor btw, was taken aback by how realistic his performance was!

Presenting!

Griffith university won the competition, was really impressed with how well they answered the questions posed.

Went clubbing with the team after dinner at the nifty little club, it had 3 levels, live music, house music, and hip hop, and a TV screening the footy quarters. The name of this place has slipped my mind, but boy, that was fun!

The next day was time for some R and R, did a bit of shopping near the Brisbane Flyer at the Sunday Markets

Had breakfast and Denim and Co

And had cupcakes for our debrief. cupcakes!! from mysweetopia on Southbank Q. this was a turkish delight one, sponge wasnt great but the icing was yum. enough rosewater to be flavourful, but not overpowering.

then met up with godsis!

rest of team went back to Melbourne, but i extended my stay.

Jin drove down from sunny coast and we went to buy groceries so i could cook for her that night

not really very domestic, either of us, but we were craving some hot pot,

so rented a serviced apartment with a full kitchen.

stayed at the M on Mary, place was so big we had rooms to spare!

cute balcony with the floor to ceiling glass panels but shocking room service. had to wait over 2 hours, not impressed.

guess she s a little camera shy haha.

Hotpot was delish, though rather spicy. might have been a bit too heavy-handed with the chillies opps.

almost ashamed to blog this photo of the coffee table with our insane amount of snacks. Stayed up late watching horror movies and then shopped the next day away.

ahh this is life.

Jin, if you re reading this, i miss you!

my holiday was really too damn short. :(

dental ball

some photos from the recent Dental Ball!
was a fashion themed event,
and I took the opportunity to showcase a few things from my label, in conjunction with Sleep Couture, Precious Love and Karlina
great night, really hectic but everyone did an amazing job
might have gotten a parking ticket
(thanks Melbourne City Council)
but at the end of the day?
worth it!

venue was Maia in Docklands

rather pretty place wasnt it?

Josie and Kim for hair and make up did a fantastic job!

Esma, Corry and Steff



Emily is wearing the pink floral headpiece, which is one of my favourite pieces from the collection, took me ages to make as i wanted the blossoms to sit properly, but i love the end result!

another favourite, the yukata and onyx coral necklace

the neckpiece didnt quite stay on properly, but at least i know now what to do to fix it, a few more darts here and there and this should be ready to go! anyway Christian was good-looking ; he managed to pull it off!

<3 the models, they did a bang up job! was nervous as hell, since this is my first runway show for Limecraft, but was very happy indeed. :)

the photos brings back so many memories from the night!
Partying at Alumbra
throwing chocolates at Joe's car
and of course, struggling to put on stolen scrubs and having B videotape the whole damn thing, which went viral to Lee and Clare in 20 seconds flat.
ahhh, besties, what would you do without them.

really craving corncakes from Izakaya Den all of a sudden.
had the most lovely macaroons from zumbo this afternoon
which Kev and Jia brought back from Sydney
and now i am in the most peckish mood. might try my hand at making lavender custard

nom!