6/13/2012

End of War !

I'm happy to say that the strategic marketing exam went well. 
Luckily most of the topics that my friend and I suspect will be on the exam did come up. 
It's not a really good way to prepare yourself for an exam, it's too risky and I'm not planning to do that again.
yea right

so anyway,
THE WAR IS OVER.
(That's me walking out of the exam room)

Went to the city straight afterwards and met up with my friend Pinka to get our hair done. 
I was planning to perm my hair but then I cancelled because my hair is not in a really good condition right now and I'm running out of money. lol.
We usually go to "Good Morning" on Swanston Street, sadly the manager (who always do our hair) is not there anymore. ARGHH. 
I'm not sure if he quits, or went back to Korea for some reason. 
Me and Pinka were devastated at first. 
We simply hate changing hairdresser. 
It's like stepping out of your comfort zone.

We decided to try another salon next door. 
The place was ok, a typical Asian hair salon. 
But somehow it felt quiet empty and silent (even though music was playing there)
Good thing the staff were nice.

Pinka went for a dramatic transformation and got her hair chopped really short and it looks really good on her. 
She looks 10x more mature (in a good way!)

While I just trimmed my hair and guess what?
I have bangs now!!
It's SO WEIRD looking at myself with bangs. 
The last time I had bangs was when I was still in high school, which was almost 2 years ago. 
Not sure if it's good or not but I feel like.. super ROUND and chubby with this hairstyle T_T
It's time to diet again, woman.

But before we start with the diet, ladies and gentlemen..
Me, Pinka and Michelle had Korean for dinner at HangGukGuan 
(this was before Pinka and I went to the salon by the way..)
We had blackbean noodle (probably my favourite dish here), kimchi pancake (Pinka and Michelle said it was so-so compared to the one they had at Oriental Spoon), and sweet & sour pork (forgot to take a picture of it..not really great though since the meat itself is rather bland)


Not long after, Pinka and I went to Dessert Story for some dessert ('duh)
It was my first time there but I've heard of this place several times before.
 It's quiet famous I suppose.
We went to their newest store on Swanston Street, it used to be China Bar where Pinka and I usually go whenever we're too lazy to decide where to eat. 
I had watermelon sago and Pinka got the mango one. 
They're both very refreshing! 


.....

wohooo. no more exam !
I can get my normal sleep pattern back and pamper myself. YEAY.
So bye-bye for now!


6/12/2012

...

4 journal articles,
4 case studies,
on top of 14 chapters of theories
MUST BE CRAMMED INSIDE MY HEAD
TONIGHT.
I must say, strategic marketing is my least favourite subject this semester. 


I just want to flip everything in front of me right now. 

6/08/2012

Down River

I'm going to annoy you all with this rather unattractive picture of myself sipping mug of coffee at 10pm
. Ha.
This is basically me, during the last 2 weeks.
Been staying at my brother's crib 
(and yes, that couch behind me is where I sleep) 
for a week.
There is no way I can study at my house because my room is too disgustingly messy
and studying at the library gives me too much distraction. 
Oh, I don't need to worry about not eating well on this exam period because there's always food here !
That's like a huge plus for staying at his house. 
wott woott
*ps. I gained tons of weight already. ppfftt..


I'm already half way through my exam period. 
Business on the Internet and Organisational Behaviour exam went well 
and I feel quiet content about my performance.
However, the biggest obstacles are yet to come.. 
Strategic Human Resource Management and Strategic Marketing. 
Oh boy, oh boy oh boy..
I skipped a lot of their tutorials and lectures. 
Which is bad, I know.
But whenever I attend the lecture I always fall asleep so there is no point of going anyway 
(such an overused-lame excuse)

-------
Just like my exam subjects, 
I'm going to try and cram all the things happened in the last 3 weeks in this post..

HIGHLIGHTS

3 weeks ago, was the Jayesslee concert in Melbourne and I was one of the volunteer.
I volunteered as a photographer for the event. 
The twins were so pretty and their voice are amazingly soft and angelic. 
The story about their mom was very touching too:')
I love how they are such proud Christians !
Unfortunately I won't be able to post the photos just yet because they're still on tour and as a photographer I can't publish their photos without authorized permission. 
So be patient , I'll post the photos later !

---------

(I forgot when but I went to this restaurant with Pinka)
Palm Sugar Ice Cream Sundae at ChinChin Restaurant was delicious!
I'll go there again just for this beauty anytime!
So that's a layer of palm sugar ice cream, with a kind of caramel-ish substance on the bottom (a bit bitter when eaten on its own),a splash of lime juice (POWW!), and a generous sprinkle of honeycomb crumbs. nomnomnom. 

---------

2 weeks ago I went to see The Temper Trap live with my friends. 
IT WAS AWESOME !!
I personally love Temper Trap. 
Their music is so good, and I dig their style too. 
Me and 4 of my friends were literally standing at the very first row, 
It was a cool experience. I've never been that close to a stage before. 
My friend even got the song list at the end of the concert. haha
I only have one picture from the concert since my friend who brought a camera haven't uploaded the pictures on facebook yet. 
I bet she's busy with her exams too, so I don't want to rush her. 

Dougy ! Dougy ! Dougy !

It's crazy when I think about it again..
I went to two different concerts weeks before my exam. 
My results better be good or I will feel really bad . 

Alrighty then, I shall continue my study..
or should I say my 'cram-all-the-topics-in-one-night' session. 

xoxo! 

5/20/2012

Banana Pancake and Chicken Noodle Soup

Quick post today!
I still got to do my assignment or my team mates will kill me. 
joking. 
but seriously, 
I need to finish it a.s.a.p.

Today's breakfast 
Banana Pancakes with Honey
I have some left over bananas from my last grocery shopping, 
their skin are starting to get brown spots everywhere and they're getting a bit mushy so I decided to mash them up and mix it into my pancake batter.
Just like the recipes I found online, 
the banana makes the pancake slightly sweeter and give it a little more body. 
And it's more filling than normal pancakes, of course.
I had this with a cup of chai tea. Hhhmm..


should I buy maple syrup?
 honey is good enough though..


Lunch / early dinner for today is..
Chicken Noodle Soup
Been craving for this for a while. 
Melbourne is getting cold and a bowl of soup is what I need.
Made with 1 small carton of chicken stock, ate one bowl of this and I still have 2 servings left for tomorrow (and perhaps the day after tomorrow). 
Yeeeyyy for leftovers! 
Leftovers make my life easier. 
If only I have an oven, I would definitely roast the chicken first with some olive oil and seasoning,
it'll be 10x better than just having bland chicken pieces in the soup T_T
Good thing I seasoned the soup generously, it makes up to the bland chicken pieces. 


THAT'S IT FOR TONIGHT. 
BACK TO ASSIGNMENT !!! 
THANKS FOR READING 
XOXO

oh.. that yucky yellow colour on my drawings is pissing me off.


5/19/2012

Spanish Omelette and Drawings

Today was an unproductive day for me. 
Woke up at almost 9, which is quiet late in my dictionary since I usually wake up at 6 or 7. I didn't know why, but I think the weather is the main reason why.

I sat in front of my laptop almost the entire day, tried my best to come up with some words to put into my strategic marketing group-assignment, but nothing great came up. To be honest, I don't even know what I'm talking about in the report. 
Apart from that, I still have a prototype website to make. gaahh.
So to put it simply, it's 2 weeks prior to my exam period (which I have 4 subjects to tackle), but I still have 2 group assignments due in those two weeks and I haven't even started preparing myself for the actual exams. I am so screwed. 

So what do I do when I get all stressed out ?
I eat.

And what do I do when I get stressed out at home?
I cook.

I think of this as a 'defence mechanism' within me that always urges me to think about food whenever I'm stressed, or bored or slightly sad. Even though my kitchen is far from perfect nor clean (well, I share one kitchen with 5 other college students. What do you expect, ey?), I think of it as a sanctuary. 
At least I can get my mind off of those things for a good 30 minutes.

Today I didn't cook anything special. 
Since I haven't done my weekly shopping, I'm running out of ingredients. 
Good thing I still have a few staples in my pantry that I can make something out of..

For breakfast, I had Raspberry Oatmeal Swirl since I still have remaining raspberry mixture stacked in my fridge and I also want to finish my greek yogurt a.s.a.p..

Raspberry Oatmeal Swirls

For lunch, I made a filling, thick Spanish Omelette
It was an easy dish to pull off.
 It's just your typical omelette but with slices of potato and onions in it. 
I like to slice it as if I were slicing a pizza. Haha. nerd.
Didn't have any greens to go with it, so I just ate it with some tomato sauce 
(broke college student alert!)

BANANAAA ~~~ POTATONNNAAAAAA~~`
*I just gotta do it. 
Brown Onions
(pizza looking) Spanish Omelette !
Not a really good presentation though. haha

Lastly, I made pasta aglio e olio for dinner.
(which I totally forgot to take a picture of , dang)
I used my last drops of olive oil and garlic clove for this dish, so I better put them on my grocery list.
I've made this a lot of time, but I'm still not sure how to do it the right way. 
The recipes on the internet are different from one another,

some say use chopped / minced garlic, some say use sliced garlic..
some use a bit of cheese at the end, some say don't,
some say toss the pasta onto the pan with the garlic oil, some say just drizzle the oil onto the pasta,

I don't know. It's confusing.
It's sort of like a battle of authenticity.
I'm cool with any method, as long as it tastes good.
One thing that I always do for my aglio e olio: 
I put the garlic and chilli flakes with olive oil onto a cold pan, and then put them on low-medium heat and slooooowwly toast the garlic.
I used to heat the oil first and then put the garlic and chilli flakes afterwards,
 resulting in oil and garlic splatter extravaganza and I left with burnt - bitter garlic. 
uh oh. I've learnt the hard way.
anyone have their own method of making aglio e olio?


Oh, as you can see form the pictures above, I'm starting to draw food again!
I used to draw them on my scheduler a while ago but the creative process went away for a couple of months so yeah..
But since I cook a lot these days, I might as well just document my food through drawings too :)
Oh, what is that yellowish tint on the right side of the paper ?!