Drama llamas My Kitchen Rules 2013

Spice Girls?

OR 

Drama llamas?

Ok I watch enough reality TV shows. The formulation goes like this. There is usually one you really hate or the "Villain" and then there are couple of heros and some that sorta blend in. Yeah I get that, but seriously surely there were enough wannabe foodies that applied who fit the villain criteria? I have been watching Masterchef Professionals as I cannot.. repeat CANNOT tolerate the ridiculous I don't eat this. I don't eat that. I don't like that. Like ZOMG! I was half paying attention to last night's episode as Masterchef was not on and even then it annoyed me. I am not a fan of capsicum.. I barely want to even look at it, much less taste it. But c'mon Drama Illamas, is the bloody vegetable attacking you physically? Like is it peeling your fake eyelashes out of your sockets? You see.. you see the resemblance now? Excuse me while I go find a faux Chanel interwoven bag strap to stick to mah forehead.

Repeat after me. Drama llamas. MKR you have lost me... I'm gonna go activate mah almonds at the same time.

Picture source: News.com.au

Stalk my Weekend: Chocolate Gateau, Lego and Girls Arvo

Chocolate Gateau with Candied Orange Peel
Pic by Nee

We had Vita and family come over on Saturday for a BBQ. On Thursday I posted on Facebook that the husband had baked a chocolate cake. Nee from Sew Me Love - my dumpring lunch friend from Twitter said she would come over to my end of the world. Don't you just love it? So of course the invite was extended to come for lunch. I stupidly did not take any pictures of Saturday as my phone was not with me. I had to ask Nee to send it to me. Nee sews her own fantastic and beautiful dresses so of course we all asked if she was wearing one of her creations. She picked the wrong day to not wear one. 

We had burgers with bacon and chicken kebabs with capsicum. Chicken was marinated using McCormick's marinade in a bag. Seriously how easy is this marinade in a bag! My normal go to marinade is Soya Sauce, Cornflour, Sugar, Pepper. Fish, Pork, Chicken, Beef.. This is how I marinade it. That's how Grandma did it, so I have done it too. But gotta say that the Honey Soy in the bag marinade was really tasty.

The chocolate Gateau recipe is from a book called Everything Chocolate I think.. 

200g Dark chocolate

200g Butter

250g Sugar

5 eggs

1 Tbsp Flour 

Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Melt chocolate and butter in microwave or over bain marie. Add sugar and leave to cool slightly. Beat in your eggs one at a time with a wooden spoon. Add in the flour. Transfer to a baking tin (used a 20inch Springform pan that was lined) and bake for 22mins. The cake should not have set in the middle. Remove from oven, turn out quickly (just remove the springform ring) and rest. Best left overnight before serving. The cake was stored in the fridge overnight in a tupperware box. 

PS Chocolate Ice cream was made using the lovely Aldi $25 machine. Score.

Train Selfie

On Saturday I trooped off to the CBD on the train. Yeah like I totally took public transport on a weekend. After missing one train and waiting 20minutes for a train that didn't loop in the end, little wonder why I do not take public transport on weekends! But anyway, I went to the city to do a girly hangout with skincare/make work BFF. Now I am missing Foxtel. Say Yes to the Dress? Come Dine with Me? Oh yes please.

Little Pickle with little Star Wars Lego detached

Big D with his big Lego

While I was out, the boys assembled their Lego Star Wars toy. Thankfully it had two parts to this. There is a little what they call spaceship that can be detached. So they took turns playing with the big one and little one. D actually did a lot of the assembling himself from what I heard and saw on videos. He had been asking for ages about this one actually. And they even have a green R2 in there. It's uber cool. On Monday when they showed me this, they were making flying noises as they swooshed it around in the air. CUTEEEEE... 

Pickles chillaxing in Doncaster

Managed to catch up with someone that I did not meet on the Interwebs! Can you believe it? We met when Pickles and D were learning to swim at a place that I thought was rather yuck. It was also much further than the one we are currently going to. So we stopped when we could. She was about to have her 2nd child and we swapped numbers at the last class we were having together. I thought that was the end of it and one day I would look at my phone book and think who is that? But she SMSed me last week and we met up on Monday and sat outside Hugo Boss while the kids played together. More like jump up and down on the couch (shame) and tried to hide behind the couch as well. I was also spotted by someone while I was there.. and coincidentally saw Vita and Family AGAIN walking past. Seriously.. everyone and everything happens in Doncaster! 

Happy Australia Day and BBQ away!

McCormick Marinade in a bag was given to me to try but this is not a paid post. 

The message is loud and clear

Ya know the universe is trying to tell you something when all of a sudden you have an influx of one thing. Well for me, it was anti-aging products. When you cannot think of anything worse on a weekend night than going out to some club where you pay $20 just to enter. You rather sit on your couch with a cup of tea instead and watch 1) bad reality TV 2) SATC for the 2000th time 3) some cooking show that you are catching up on 4) anything is better than standing around at an overpriced club with 18 year olds. Boom... the universe told me. You need anti-aging products Ling. No longer will normal range cut it.

La Clinica Anti-Aging range

First to land on the door step was the La Clinica Anti-Aging range. I am very excited about this because the cleansing oil and milk cleanser smells amazing. I would describe the smell as sweet-ish and floral but not overpowering. It doesn't give you a OMGAWD what is that overwhelming smell type of feeling. But I am my Mother's daughter. I cannot open a new thing if I do not finish the old one. This was kindly provided by Rita-Marie from La Clinica.

Antipodes NZ AntiAging kit

I had read about Antipodes NZ from several beauty blogs. It is featured as empties in a lot of their blogs and I thought oh wow... they have a RT competition on Twitter. So I RT and I fell off my chair in excitement as I won this pack. But.. I forgot that it was also an Anti-Aging pack that they were giving away. Oopss.. By this stage, I thought c'mon I am not aging right?? And proceeds to stare at myself in the mirror. Asian genetics and lack of eyelining plus eyeshadow use means I still look like a bit of alright?? Don't I?? Thanks to Antipodes NZ for this kit!

The final reality check... 

The final reality check came in the form of this freebie they were handing out at David Jones. I was out with Emma and Norlin at David Jones. Of all of us, the SA handed this to me first when we were walking towards the escalator. Ok I am not sure if this was because I am a purebred Singaporean Chinese and I gravitate towards anyone handing out freebies. Plus genetically I can smell a freebie being handed out from metres away. I looked down at the little tube after she gave it to me. Time Zone. Anti-Line/Wrinkle Eye cream. Ok seriously. The message is loud and clear.

Sold my Wedding Gown and New Lemming

So ... I finally sold my wedding gown. There is an extremely funny story with this that I will not talk about because one day the person who bought the gown might find this and might not find it funny. Maybe email me if you want to know about it. It was sold on the spot and I knew that she would buy it. I should have been a personal shopper in another lifetime because I could just tell. She had that OMGAWD THAT is MY dress look.

I will go back to telling you about the story of my gown but everyone is yelling out LING IT WAS 5 YEARS AGO YOU BOUGHT IT, GIVE IT A REST! But this blog didn't exist when I was going through my non-Bridezilla Bride days. So you will sit and read.

I can say without a doubt that wedding gown shopping was just the most horrifying experience in my life. Yes in my life! The sad looks of pity I received from girls and assistants when I went in alone. Followed by, "awwww you poor thing, you're alone" they would cry out in unison. Then you are forced to come out of the change room as the gowns are never in my size and falling off me. They would then all join in with uninvited comments of yeah that other dress was better.
You are also greeted with big piles of meringues, most of them you just want to laugh at, not try on.

When you meet wedding gown couture people, you need to have a vision of what you want. This was my first mistake. I did not. And who knows what lace will be used? And how will it look all finished? Will it look like Oscar de la Renta or Oscar de la Wenta? - Quote from my friend Eva Wong.

What does a Melbourne girl do when beaten down by Bridezilla mania? I walked into Mariana Hardwick. Correction.. I walked into Mariana Hardwick discount outlet because I had no appointment on a Saturday. Seriously! If it wasn't for the awesome assistant making suggestions and insisting that I tried on the final gown... I had that OMG THAT is my DRESS look. Yes it was THE DRESS. I put a deposit down after they told me that I confirmed that they were no child slaves making their gowns... Ms Hardwick's daughter nearly threw me out the door for asking if their gowns are made in China. Yes, I did ask. I told you that I am shameless.

Now the fun part. What lemmings do I have now? And what should I do with the small sum that I now have? I want the YSL Saint Laurent Chyc clutch. As usual it's mostly sold out, so far I can only find the Nude. If anyone finds any in their online shopping travels. Please holler out.

YUMMIESSSSSSS

And please share you bridezilla gown horrors. Please indulge me... I love Bridezilla stories.

Macro Organic Meat Competition

This is a Sponsored Post

The only Macro Food item that I had been purchasing were the chicken drumsticks from Woolworth's supermarkets for chicken and vegetable soup. I thought that they only stocked free range chicken products! Well.. I was wrong! At the Social Mums blogger event on Saturday, we had a chance to sample some of the sausages that they have in stock for Australia Day. So get your grills fired up for the sausage fest of a post here.

The sausages available to sample on the day was Lamb, Lamb and Mint and Mini Micro Beef. They asked D what he wanted, he just kept yelling I WANT SAUSAGEEE. So I picked a lamb sausage for both him and Pickles. Before this I honestly did not know that they had a sausage range! I stopped at 2 sausages but check out the BBQ picture above. Hello Sausage Fest. ;) I can say that D chomped down the entire thing including the bread so it is a tick in his books. 

I had been buying Macro free range chickens all this while as I do believe that free range and organic meat taste better. All of Macro branded products are made from certified organic meat from an organic farm with no preservatives. The feed of the animals is also organic and most importantly is from a free range farm. 

Just for Australia Day, from 23rd January to 5th of February Macro is offering the multi-pack discounts in Woolworth's supermarkets.

Macro Beef Sausages - 2 Packs for $11
Macro Beef & Tomato Basil Sausages - 2 Packs for $11
Mini Macro Burgers - 2 Packs for $13
Mini Macro Meatballs - 2 Packs for $13

D and his lamb sausage

When you purchase your Macro Organic meat this week, do not forget about the competition that they are holding at the moment. Remember that you gotta be innit to winnit! Send in your proof of purchase to Level 24, 1 York Street, Sydney 2000.

Stalk my Weekend: Lego and Storm Troopers

My inner nerd came out last weekend. It was a REALLY great one. So get ready to stalk my weekend ... brace yourself and your own inner nerd. First of all, as you know I am a poker widow on Friday nights. And no I did not do any shopping! WOOHOO. Instead I discovered MOBWIVES. Can someone please tell me a better drama llama "reality" TV series. Because like right now, this pretty much is the Bees Knees. So not only was I introduced to Drita who will bring you down if she hits you! But it also meant I did no shopping at all! YAYYY.. then Mick came 2nd at his poker game. So it meant the kids and I have food for the week. ROFL. I joke ok, no need to call DOCS.

Birrarung Marr Playground

On Saturday, I was invited to Social Mums which is a Mummy Blogger event. So we all trooped off to Federation Square. As a bit of a breather at the event and for them to stretch their legs. The boys went to the park right next to the venue at Birrarung Marr playground. The place was alive with people walking to the tennis, people getting ferried in little tricycles sponsored by ANZ Bank. There were some great items that I received at this event. More posts to come on there. After the event, we went to our favourite dumpling place in the CBD for lunch. Woohoo! DUMPRINGS.

Brickvenetion Royal Exhibition Building

We trooped to Brickvention on Sunday for our 9.30am ticket booking. My brother gives me a heads up every single year for the last 2 or 3 events and I have not managed to go to one. So this year I booked tickets as D has been asking about Lego for a long time. The good thing about Sunday is that parking on Victoria Parade opposite the venue is actually free as I found out! Score or score? We were going to park on a side street off Nicholson across the road but we did not have 2 x $3.50 in coin. Which is ridiculous expecting people to have $10+ in coin really as it is 4P parking. Went to Victoria Parade as the machines there took credit card payments. But the machine said read street signs. I was so excited - free parking plus Lego! Even Pickles who was in a pram was pushing the pram forward in the queue and D had an extra spring in his step.

Lego tower demolition

There were a quite a few standard sets especially in the Star Wars range of Lego. But where else would you see all these expensive Lego displays all in one place? There was a 11,000 piece Sydney Harbour Bridge and a massive huge Love Boat including cabins on the other side. It was amazing! The one above is a tower demolition in the works with a crane. It's pretty awesome but the boys preferred Star Wars and trains that moved.

Storm troopers plus one upset child

Storm Troopers! Quick go get a picture! Mick was looking at me like HUH? What? Who are you? There's Luke deciding that he was scared and wanted to be put down on the ground. So it turns out I am a convention nerd. OMGAWD look X-wing fighters! OMG LOOK DEATH STARRRR. I have a ton of pictures but I shall spare you from them.

Hiding from Storm Troopers

And when I tried to get D into the picture.. it was pretty much no go. This is him hiding behind Mick because he was scared. I managed to get him to high five one of the storm troopers. But that's pretty much as far as it went. Oh well.. storm troopers are pretty scary.

After the convention, we met up with etailqueen, KikiChaos and Miss Directions at Little Creatures. The boys played together with TLP and were so tired. I think Pickles was flopping and pretending to fall asleep on D at one stage. Unfortunately I had my phone hijacked by the boys and did not manage to take a picture. SIGH. Etailqueen was in Melbourne for the Tennis but I am sure that she will be back soon! So glad to finally meet up with these Voguettes! Ladies, we did not tie the mint green ribbon! :) Do you remember that one? Old skool Voguettes will :)

Christmas break meant Shopping Overload

Shu Uemura Boxing Day Sale Goodies

One of problems with being on leave over the Christmas break was the Boxing Day sales. Online, Instore, You name it.. I was there (mostly online)! So here are some of my shopping haul. I have to admit I am declaring myself now on shopping ban ... for like 2 months minimum. This is insane. I did send a lot of stuff (one of which is lost in the mail, thanks Australia Post) back for returns as they were not suitable. First up there was the Shu Uemura purchases. I bought the Soft Coral cream blusher and the Karl Lagerfeld eye palette. I think I have mentioned this before on the blog so I will fast forward. But the good thing about being shameless is, I asked for samples. I said give me any samples that you have. So I got this ... the powder foundation. Now Iris the MUA is smart because now I want this as well. 

OMG NEW LEMMING

Then someone on Twitter said ZOMG 50% off Forever New Sale items. Girlfriend was so there! I bought these embellished flats and a pair of white shorts at $15 each. Yes white shorts. I also underestimated what size I needed to be. Ok, so I could zip them up but they were a little too snug. Returns are allowed in the store and there was nothing that I wanted off the sale rack so I asked for a return to my credit card. Ok win for $15 into credit card. I also thought it was artsy to take a pic in the sunlight but it also meant that there were shadows. Forgive those shadows please.

Forever New Embellished Flats

Then again.. I was on Neiman Marcus (I told you what I do when I am alone on Friday nights) .. I put Miu Miu glitter booties in size 37 into my basket and removed them. They were about $350 AUD. Yes.. you read that right. But I removed them. I went the practical route and bought a Rachel Zoe Navy Hutton Jacket. I also bought 7 for All Mankind jeans for Mick - I told him he had to model for me but he has not altered them yet in length to fit him. So we shall leave this aside for now. A few people asked to see the jacket on me. So look at me! I put the jacket on and took pictures for once!

D wanted to be in the picture

Rachel Zoe Hutton Jacket & Target Top

The sleeves were a little long for me so I folded them up instead. Do you remember the Queer Eye days where you were suppose to tjuze up the sleeves of your blazers? Do people still do that? I went back to the model of the jacket and it looks like it was cut a little long on them too. So I am not just the weird one with short arms. I can confirm after looking at these pictures that I need a colour stat, I has regrowth like you won't believe! Hence I cropped my face out! 

Grace Hill Ezibuy Dress

Then there was the Ezibuy.com purchases. I don't know why I purchased Next Direct through Ezibuy it just took epic long to get to me. I bought a pair of boys jeans for Pickles but it appears D has claimed them. Anyway, I also bought two dresses during the Ezibuy supposed one day sale. I did go back a week later and prices had gone upwards, so maybe it was a one day sale. I kept this dress but returned the other one. This is the package that is now missing with Australia Post. I have started an investigation but lord knows what would happen. There's $70 right there ...

So there were other boring purchases like ya know Priceline concealer and bits and bobs. I also returned 95% of my purchase to Bonds. Sorry Bonds, the trackies looked cheap and terrible and I erm stupidly bought the wrong item (5 of them!). That was returned via reply paid label. But lord knows if they will receive it. I wait for my credit to come through! Then there were also 2 MAC lipsticks.. Ooopsss.. Now if anyone wants a Nicki Minaj Viva Glam, please let me know as I don't know why I bought it!

Giveaway: Sunraysia Organic Juice Pack

Juice Galore! 

I was invited to the Sunraysia Organic Juice brunch event at The Greengrocer recently to find out more about Sunraysia’s latest organic product. Boy was I glad I attended! It was a very hot day, one of the first 30-something degrees day that we had. And I cracked into one of these yummies straight away. The juice is individually packed and comes in 4 flavours: Tropical, Apple, Orange and Apple & Blackcurrant. Organic food products is not a new thing but what is new is these come in individual 200ml sized BPA-free packaging with its own straw.

BPA-free products were common when D was a little baby. BPA-Free bottles, drink cups and food containers were advertised widely and I started to look for the BPA-Free labels when I was purchasing new bottles for him. The scary part is that plastic is everywhere and we are not sure what it can do to our body. Yes, I am no saint either and do not check everything strictly. I purchased Thomas water bottles for them because of the licensed design and it was not BPA-free. But while at the brunch, I started thinking what exactly is getting into the boy’s diet through packaging, chemicals, GM foods and how it would affect them.  

Tropical flavour Juice pack slushie in action

The idea that organic was good for the boys and that was where it ended. It did not enter my head that toxic chemicals were everywhere in their food packaging. I put a few of them in the freezer as ice blocks for our 1 and a half hour trip to a picnic during Christmas. You can see D and Pickles look tired here. LOL! If you need an ice block in summer for you or your kids’ lunches, this is ace! The good thing about size of the product is that you can still purchase these packs if you live alone and do not want to purchase a 2litre bottle for yourself.

Sunraysia is 100% Australian owned if you are supporting Australian companies. During the product development of the juices, I was told that they spent many trips worldwide to search for a packaging company that could manufacture BPA-free. They also visited many fruit farms to ensure that the farmers were indeed strictly organic and could produce the quantities required for this. RRP for the juice packs are 5 for $5 or $1.49 each, and they are available from supermarkets nationally.

Sunraysia has kindly offered a prize pack worth $70 including 40 samples of the juices and an eco-shopper bag. Actually I now want another one of these packs! What you need to do to enter is email me porkchopsnest (at) gmail dot com the flavour of the Sunraysia juice that you most want to try and why. 

Oh hellloooo goodie pack!

The fine print 

Deadline: Friday 25^th January 2013 midnight (Melbourne time)
Winner will be announced on this post and will be redrawn if they do not contact me within 5 days with their mailing address. Decision (mine) will be final and based on skill not luck. Care is taken for shipping the products to the winner but I am not responsible for damages that occur during shipping.

Winner Announced: Hannah C is the winner of this giveaway and I am waiting for her to provide her mailing address. 

So many flavours
Utterly delicious
Now which do I want to try?!
Really like the look of Tropical
All the fruits that I love in one handy pack
Yes, I think Tropical!
Samples galore, could I be so lucky?!!
I hope so!
Am excitedly awaiting the answer...

Outfit Hall of Shame explained

Stellllllaaaaaaaaaaaaa was responsible. Ok so we might have an explanation for the SEXY BOILER suit you guys! Remember your favourite Onesie series Outfit Hall of Shame?

Thanks to etailqueen who pointed this out to me on gofugyourself!!! http://gofugyourself.com/stella-mcfuggney-2-01-2013 Google tells me that Stella is a serial onesie wearer.

The Daily Mail UK calls this "an elegantly oversized tweed onesie". I am sure Anna Wintour was doing the Devil Wears Prada pursing of the lips with disapproving death stare. That smile was only for the camera. Check out the onesies Stella wears in the Dailymail article. I bet Stella's version is at least 1000GBP, making the ASOS one a bigger bargain. Run don't wok (walk).

Source: Dailymail UK www.dailymail.co.uk

Neiman Marcus + Target Haul

This is what happens every Friday evening. I rush the boys off to sleep at about 7.30pm. Mick has poker and he goes about 7.10pm or thereabouts. If the boys are not jumping and yelling at each other. I turn on my work computer .. for some reason I always seem to have one or two deadlines on a Friday. Anyway I send that off and boomtish, I start browsing stuff.

So I came across Aidan Mattox somewhere and I start browsing through eBay, google search... you know the usual. Tonight I ended up on the old faithful - Neiman Marcus. Thank you NM you have delivered again.
I always click "Sale" straight up -> who doesn't? And there was a section called "Target + Neiman Marcus". Ok wait what? It's on sale?

So my enablers on Twitter told me I had to buy them. This is what I got in the sale. I am blogging now because I know how bad/unreliable I am on outfit posts. Here they are!!

NM + Target Robert Rodriguez Dress
 

NM + Target Sequined Cape

NM + Target Watercolor Dress

I realise I have used American spelling in the captions, I am following NM's descriptions. Now don't fall off your chairs. The dresses were $30 each and the cape was $24. I do not know why I bought a cape. I mean.. really.. a cape. But I rationalised it as postage saving. Buying an additional item cost the same for shipping. I also wanted the Marc Jacobs scarf but they will not ship to Australia. There is also a Derek Lam skateboard that D would like. How dare they not ship that to Australia!

There you go.. this is what I do on Friday evenings. Yay or Nay? Also is that Watercolor (sic) dress an ugly mullet dress? For $30 + $7/8 shipping I will endure humiliation of wearing a mullet dress.

Stalk my Weekend: Cake, Cherries and Shopping

Woohoooo stalk my weekend. It felt like I had a 2 week weekend if you know what I mean. We had a staycation in the middle but all we did was sit in the hotel bed and watch TV. We also had a movie and the boys now know what is Kath and Kim.. look at moiiiii.. Last weekend we trooped down to Mornington Peninsula. I pretty much had enough of everyone IG-ing Red Hill Cheese pics and strawberries. Heck it, we are going. I haven't been since D was in the Orbit baby stroller. This meant he was less than a year old. I remember hoisting (well not me because I WAS PREGNANT THEN!) the Orbit baby up a few steps there and feeding him cheese. I have to declare that I am not going back to Mornington until they open that bypass. What on earth is up with the roundabouts? As we went further south, everyone was more tanned the further we went. LOL! My first stop was to Flinders Shed to visit Nat. I have been saying I would go down for like more than a year. And I finally did.

Girls Top Purchase from Flinders Shed

The good thing about not having boobs - yes I do not have any and have gone past the stage of caring - is you can shop easily online without worrying about cut or whether you will have gaping buttonhole HELLO BOYS syndrome. You can also fit into childrens' clothing without worrying about boobage allowance. So the top was what I bought from Flinders Shed. They have just received their order of Alessandra cashmere and the pictures Nat showed me were divineeee. I loveeeeeeeeee them!!

Ripe n' Ready Cherry Time LOL

From Flinders Shed we went to Red Hill Cheese.. Blogger fail as we chowed down on the cheese and didn't take any pictures. HAHAH We happened to drive past a sign that said Cherries here -> and did a U-turn to go back. Can I just giggle about the name of the business? It's called Ripe n' Ready Cherry Time. They have cherry picking if that takes your fancy. But for me, I have no issues with ready packed ones. Picked up blueberries, mulberries, blackberries, strawberries and half a kg of cherries to take home. They also sold ice cream so we shared a small tub there. If we were staying there for the night, I would have made Mick go trout fishing. Unfotunately we were not prepared for this.

Bestest popcorn ever

Sunday was omgawd we have no food in the house at all madness. We went to Doncaster for our Colonial food shop. D asked for popcorn once when we were there and usually I am the grinch that says no. I thought ok fine just get this packet. It says organic plus lightly salted and slightly sweet. I thought it sounded different to the microwave packets that I usually get, so I agreed to get it for him. But now seriously get yourself a packet. You will LOVE IT. I have seen them at Nutshack as well but I just googled for you -> Stockists.

Ok let's go!

So I have not baked in ages because someone.. not naming names here ..  complained that I bake and do not eat any of it. I would also give death stares when the cakes get stale and we have to throw it out. LOL! I am a feeder and not an eater of cakes. I saw this recipe in a magazine and I cannot remember which one now. I took a picture of the recipe as I did not want to search online for it and thought this would be quickest way of saving it. Here it is! It claims to be the only Vanilla Teacake recipe you will need.

Source: Unknown

D and I made this together, but we reduced the caster sugar to say about 3/4 cup. I had no vanilla bean paste so normal vanilla would do. I did not have lemons either.. bahhhh.. I bet it would taste better with lemon rind. He shifted the flour into the mixing bowl. I have to let my "OMG do not make mess of the flour everywhere issue that I have". I think this stems from my childhood where I would get in trouble if I left a mess behind while baking.

Vanilla Teacake

D poked the cake in the middle and it cracked. Oopss.. I baked it for only 25minutes, I am not sure why my oven never requires the stated baking time. I swear it is not on fan mode and I cannot work it out. I also used 20inch springform pan instead of 22inch cake tin. I preferred it as it has more height. Everything that says 22inch cake tin, I would use a 20inch. Well really..  because I don't want to buy a 22inch cake tin. :)

Outfit Hall of Shame: The Onesies Series

You know ASOS will never fail to disappoint on the Hall of Shame stakes. Just hop onto the sale items and the heavily discounted section. BOOM-TISH Bob's your Uncle.
I bring you.. the Jumpsuit edition.

SEXY? Boiler Jumpsuit

What in the living daylights is THIS? ASOS idea of a joke on Sexy Boiler outfits. Can someone Please Explain (in my best Aussie accent and a red wig on my head). What.is.this? Please note I also screen captured the glorious picture of someone carrying a handbag with this. Are they suggesting that you wear this OUT of the HOUSE? The only reason this would be sexy is if you are trying to seduce someone that bats on the same team as you. And he has a thing for painters and tradies that have to put on a boiler suit. If that's the case, someone is going to have to walk up and down a new housing estate with lots of building happening and test out this theory. Get in on this... do sweaty men working a trade arouse your man?

Going to the Playboy Mansion anyone? 

I suppose one would really need something like this Bandeau Playsuit with Peplum if they were going to the Playboy Mansion. But last I heard, Hugh Hefner is married ... no chances left there for inheriting a fortune ladies. Time to go back to sugadaddy.com or something. Gosh darned it. I was hoping to put this on with playboy bunny ears. Also run.. do not walk. It is now reduced to 12 GBP! At least all you can see are those peplum flaps and not the flaps of the other variety I guess.

What is this? And why is is saggy at the hoochie?

I really don't know why ASOS thought it was a great idea to combine see-through mesh with high shine PU vinyl. Why? Did they not realise Matrix was done and dusted a long time ago? And why is it saggy at the hoochie? The PU vinyl is not even fitted. And there's a frigging keyhole at the back. I just cannot fathom why anyone thought let's make a see through mesh suit with PU high shine vinyl. Oh yeah yeah... the podium dancers, they love it sick.

There are no words

There are just ... Ok I get that jumpsuits are laze about gear. But what is this Oversized Jumpsuit? It's an old sheet sewn up at the crotch and sewn together with the doona cover as they ran out of sheet. I get that it is collaborated with a designerrrrr. But what is this? 120GBP? Really? I'm ripping up my old sheets to sew this up as we speak.

Stalk my Noms: New Years Day

Run.. quick there are Chinese lining up there!

The boys' childcare was open on New Years' Eve so we went around the city at 11am and helped Vita who is trapped in paradise Noosa with no DJs nearby pick up a Shu Uemura eyeshadow palette... I am such a bad enabler! I have to admit that I fell asleep before midnight. I am sad aren't I? You might as well click the X button on this window now. LOL

What does one do on New Years' Day when everything is shut? You find an Asian joint .. chances are they are open as us Chinese we need to eat. We also eat out. I generalise a lot don't I? Another big generalisation statement, where are all the Asian places in the northern-east? Box Hill of course. Turns out most of Box Hill Plaza was closed as well. BigW did a roaring trade as did the supermarkets as they were the only shops open. Nothing else!!?

Haven't seen D in a high chair for more than a year!

Thankfully I spotted a line forming outside Food Republik. Quick! Chinese people lining up.. let's go. We stood in the sun briefly but the line moved quite fast. Food Republik is like a glorified food court. You can get Dessert Story, Crystal Jade dumplings, Taiwan Cafe and Bento all in one place. I am not sure why they gave D a high chair. D said but I'm a good boy. Then said he wanted to sit in it.. so in he went.

Mick wanted a green tea ice cream and red bean drink. This thing is like a dessert! For $7.20 ... it was really yummy though. D said he wanted Noo Noos (noodles) in soup and chicken on rice. This is the standard response everywhere we go when he looks at the menu.

Taiwan Beef Noodles

I think there was a long order list of popcorn chicken. We had the taiwan beef noodles almost immediately. This sparked out a yelling fest. I WANT NOO NOOSSS.. Soupppp Mummy. Had to make sure 4 bowls of noodles in soup was divided out. D kept asking for seconds on this, he had about 3 little bowls.

Popcorn Chicken Bento

The little plate of popcorn chicken arrived, followed by the popcorn bento. YUMMYYYY.. It started a 3 way fight for popcorn chicken between myself, Mick and Pickles. D carried on with the noo noos so he was out of the race. I looked down and though omg I ordered too much again. Have to say that the popcorn chicken was eaten and most of the rice too! D also had a bowl of rice. What on earth!?

Yoghurt and Mango Icey Poles

Then he tells me he wants yoghurt and mango pops in the afternoon. I am starting to wonder where he puts everything in his little belly.