| FML |
[19 Jan 2010|10:06pm] |
in seven months of home ownership I have paid almost $11,000 in interest and a mere $4,000ish against my actual homeloan.
FML no wonder this shit goes forever.
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| 2010 |
[02 Dec 2009|08:11pm] |
2009 has been pretty crazy.
Copious amounts of money was saved, and saved, and dropped on a house.
Significant emotions and sadness were devoted to my job and my (ex) boss and how my choices had put me on a backwards treadmill.
New friends were made, and old friends even closer.
But despite it all, it is finally looking up. Everything has come together really well with our house, and our dog, and most importantly our kitchen. I am doing my best to keep it clean and tidy because there is certainly the sense of ownership and attachment. Work, after almost 12 months, is finally looking up, and I feel like after a bumpy ride I finally work inside a cohesive team with distinct personalities that all mesh together. I am also starting to develop some amazing relationships with fee earners and really trying to take it all to the next level.
I have booked 6 weeks in Europe and it will be the longest trip of my working life. I have so little time to get over 10 countries out of the way, and I am over the moon it has given me something to plan and look forward to.
euuuuropeeeee
*squeal*
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| dru hill |
[18 Oct 2009|04:03pm] |
are still, to me, one of the greatest r&b groups ever. I was reminded yesterday, and today, of their greatness, and I hope their songs will be as good to me for the next 15 years as the last.
These are the times
Real Freak
I'll be the one
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| eat my words |
[03 Oct 2009|10:25pm] |
sticky pecan pie slice
I usually stick to baking cakes, cupcakes and desserts, with the odd foray into devilish baked goods. I received a fantastic cook book as a housewarming gift and so I am determined to branch out more and start baking tarts (mostly I'm going to concentrate on making pastry from scratch...and then perfecting it), cookies, biscuits, slices and other such wonderous goodies.
Tonight, instead of making a caramel slice or a brownie, I thought I'd try a pecan pie slice as I've never had one before. I'm officially converted, and this has only encouraged me to start baking outside my very comfortable box (ie my springform pan).
Best served warm with blue ribbon vanilla ice cream, this slice has a perfect combination of crisp biscuit base and soft, sweet, eggy pecan filling with a slight toffee crunch from the pecans.
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| WTFL |
[01 Oct 2009|10:11pm] |
"I am king kong fong"
okay, seriously. hilaaaarious.
I have discovered a new name and it is called FUCK CHOP. what is a fuck chop? I think it could be king kong fong. muahahaha
I also have a new face. And I give it to Andrew and tell him that when it is inappropriate to flip him two fingers, I will just make the face at him and he will know that I am flipping him two fingers. It is a comical face, I must photograph...
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| around the world in 80 days (or more realistically 35) |
[21 Sep 2009|09:43pm] |
HAI!
So today i visited a travel agent and got a quote on a round the world trip for next july/aug. Looking at travelling from 16 july to 22 august... but think realistically i should arrive on a friday or saturday to cure the jet lag.
Because it's still quite early tickets aren't too bad, I haven't bargained it down but am so far quite happy with the general price for a trip to Hong Kong, London, New York and home again. Depending on the airline I can also stop over in germany (and on to amsterdam for a few days) or switzerland. And after NY I can do LA for a day.
I'm so excited. Boss gets back from Japan next week and I think I'll hit her up while she's happy for the leave which I don't have. Shame our work isn't as flexible, I don't think they let you go into the red like my old job.... I also don't believe they do free travel insurance for employees & family. BIG BUM.
On the plus, I may just have a ticket in my pretty little hand in the coming weeks!!!
On the minus, big minus, I'm looking at a comfortable/budget trip of about $17,000 including spending money, air fare, accomm and mortgage. eeeek. At least I'll get free accomm for a weekish in london (saves me big big cashish) and potentially a free 3 or 4 day stay in HK (if my family has space and will take me...)
5 weeks. I'm so so excited. I'll miss dog so so much...
I'm hoping mum and/or Andrew can come along for HK, potentially london given we stay with family. And I'll have a few friends in london/europe around that time and hopefully a few girlfriends along for the experience.... start saving :)
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| i am a head. and a cake. |
[18 Sep 2009|09:32pm] |
so the weather is definitely heating up and with the sun comes the mojo! I can feel my mojo slowly being awakened (usually peaks in Jan around birthday time which is perfect) and I can't wait to be bothered enough to go out. For the moment I'm settling with drinking at home... ha
However, with mojo comes pretty clothes and with pretty clothes comes the annual stop eating competition. Usually in colder months I find it quite fun to see just how much I can stretch my stomach and thus increase the amount of food I consume at each meal. Usually I am very good at this. Usually it kills me and puts me out by about 3 or 4 kilos, and usually I scare myself so much that I'll never be able to drop back down that I somehow manage to drop back down. It does mean that less needs to be consumed at each meal, with each cake, on each bourke st trip, on each trip to meet friends and at each dinner function and bbq. It also means I need to start ordering the small instead of the large. And no more KFC dinners and midnight cakes. boo.
And perhaps the odd sit up or 300. Seriously.
And for some reason all the weight goes to my head and my arms. I hate how big my head gets as my weight goes up. HATE IT.
So to celebrate... I give you....
cake.
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| girls |
[05 Sep 2009|01:01am] |
are really fickle creatures. I was watching insight a few weeks ago on teenage girls and the pressures that exist growing up, most of which never go away, and it all too quickly brought back memories of a childhood I'd much rather forget.
Why do girls feel the need to come out on top at the expense of all around them? Why the constant need for validation? And why, after knowing who they are and what they're capable of, do we always end up forgiving?
Going back many, many years ago, I remember finishing primary school with a real sense of satisfaction. Summer holidays finally arrived and we would all be best friends forever and ever and see eachother every day.
And then, completely out of the blue, I lost everyone. I can only liken it to the three way call on Mean Girls. Cunning, unexplainable, and completely devastating. What had started out as a normal conversation about whose house to sleepover at, it took a downward spiral into why A didn't like B, and what B had done to A, and why I should also not like B. Then came those awful, awful words: don't you agree? What does one say, to want to remain valid and want to remain the trusted friend? There were three people in on the call that brought me to tears for weeks. How can a group of girls as young as 12 and 13 be so completely evil?
Of course I forgave the instigator (albeit 1.5 years later) and of course it proved to be the worst mistake of the next five years of highschool life. The lies, the drugs, the sex, the money. Finding out she dealt drugs from my house whilst trying to get me physically injured at the hands of someone else and having house parties and blaming the drugs on me. WHY? What drives these thoughts?
I don't think I really came to terms with who I was until very late in life. I didn't realise until probably 19 or 20 that it was alright to have an opinion that didn't coincide with group concensus. I didn't realise that even though you weren't the skinniest, it didn't make you fat. That if you didn't have the nicest hair, or the most boyfriends, or the most disposable money, it didn't make you unattractive.
I really wish my epiphany happened at a much younger age, but if it did - would it really have been as hard or eye opening? Would I be the same person with strong ideals, an almost excessive amount of selfishness and self awareness, with the same levels of drive and motivation?
Growing up around girls is so hard to do, and what makes me sick is that these stories aren't even unique. They happen to so many people - some end up much worse - and we all just seem to accept it. I really hope one day society will be different... and the female race much more than what it can be.
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| oxfam |
[28 Aug 2009|10:17pm] |
So my company sponsors an entire checkpoint at the oxfam trailwalker and I've spent the entire day there. We have red carpet and I was taking photos when the professional photographers show up. As he walks away over the gravel, his camera bag spills open and his telescopic lens falls out. My heart is falling.
As he turns around to pick everything up another lens falls out, and then he drops his camera. He's still in the process of bending down, almost in tears, and yet more gear comes falling horridly to the ground.
I cried a little bit inside, knowing how much it must hurt him, knowing how heartbreaking it is to break your craft, knowing that everyone was looking but no one was close enough to do anything about it.
His lenses (plural) are cracked and filled with gravel and dirt.
I spent the entire ten hours at oxfam eating everything in sight - pulverising it like a bulldozer. my stomach is really heavy now and i k now I shouldn't have done that but I was so bored... all I could do was eat.. and eat... i'm paying for it. i've been trying to eat really well all week and that just serves me right. I'm even thinking now about going into the cheezel box... uh oh.
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| tonight |
[27 Aug 2009|10:14pm] |
I made fluffy, sticky, sweet cinnamon scrolls. I have been looking for a really good recipe ever since the Baker's delight around town stopped being good at it. And now it seems I'm better.
I went a little crazy on the "sticky cinnamon" and added extra, although I think next time I'm going to try a mixture of caster, brown and icing sugar. the current recipe called for just cinnamon, caster sugar and butter and whilst it's sweet enough it doesn't have that smooth, jam-like consistency.
I finished with a drizzle of icing sugar but I also think a cream cheese icing drizzle would work out nicely. I might even add apples to half the batch, and drizzle it in cream cheese icing AND dark chocolate.
Hello, waistline. how grows you?
WTFL #2:
I also caught Andrew wearing my ribbon head band... but he wouldn't pose. dick.
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| WTFL |
[25 Aug 2009|10:06pm] |
|
welcome to a new section i call "what the fong lim?!?!?!" in which i induct you into but moments of my life.
Shared moment #1, andrew caught with a borrowed video camera and about ten videos of him working out and posing. In dance sequence (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. and repeat....)
....after he tells me what an idiot his friend was when he caught him doing the same thing.
oh, no you diii-ent.
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| hello |
[22 Aug 2009|07:16pm] |
it has been some time since I last had an internet connection and an even longer time since my last post!! Andrew and I moved out of mum's place into our very own little free standing two-bedder in Sydenham. It is quite possibly everything I could have hoped for (apart from the random ducted air that just decides to switch itself on and off throughout the day... hello electricity bill). and maybe even just a little bit more.
I have spent the last 6ish weeks at home cooking and baking, and eating and cooking and baking... I've really missed this feeling and am getting a little more adventurous as time goes on. There will sometimes be an ideathat just flits into my head and fingers crossed I make it work - something I've never been game enough to do!!! The first time I was so nervous, especially after purchasing a 750g jar of nutella to whip up a nutella fondant cake.
Last night I had left over wonton wrappers so I made quasi ravioli filled with hand-minced chicken, roast pumpkin, walnut, cream, gorgonzola and oregano, served with a burnt butter cream sauce. Obviously, this new found whimsical talent is not sustainable (for one reason - it is incredibly expensive and for another - not very beltline friendly).
I really need more to fill up my time (more that is not in the cook & consume category) but I'm too lazy to go out and find hobbies. Life and work are a little listless at the moment and it has effect on everything else I do. I would love to get active and fit but I can't be bothered changing into appropriate clothing, only to have to work up a sweat and have a shower.
And so... I cook. And I'm wondering what to cook tonight. Any ideas?
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| lol at me |
[20 Apr 2009|07:32pm] |
some of those men I used to find utterly attractive...are so utterly.... NOT.
CASE AND POINT:
i cannot WAIT to see this movie. ETA 60 days. wetting my pants: now. I will be purchasing a book of 10 tickets and devote it purely to the fallen's pleasure.
OPTIMUUUUUUS!
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| bad boy street team |
[21 Mar 2009|02:01pm] |
Rap of today isn't like what I would like to classify the "golden era" of rappers, say 1993 - 1998.
Back when the days when bad boy reigned supreme, MTV threw up their west sides for california love and flip mode & no limit were the crazy fuckers with 100 guest rappers in their video clips.
I miss it. I would take bad boy & the lox over kanye & TI any day. TI? WHUT?
I think bad boy should make a street team come back. throw the money around, have the fans on high and dance in brightly coloured parachute pants. Bring back puffy, not diddy. bring back the lox, ma$e, junior mafia, lil kim, total, faith evans. mix in a little wu tang - inspectah, method, ghostface, raekwon. balance it out with busta, bone, fugees, nas. sail boats, swear words and hoochies. ice cube, snoop and dre.
why oh why can't we bring back rap?
we'll always love big poppa.
as soon as I find me a house, I'm having a rap party. ok done.
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| hello, colour |
[18 Mar 2009|09:47pm] |
it's been too long since any colour posting and so here I bring to you - colour.
Christian louboutin's Marie Antoinette range:
I haven't purchased shoes in the longest of times. I think by my count, I have only purchased one this year... This saddens me. Is this really the future of potential mortgage and no shoe shops on pitt st?
Although it's not like I've been inspired by anything much lately (shoe-related)
I have seen a lot of shoes I don't like, and it reminds me of the cabramatta heeled thongs, but with an ankle warmer attached? ala givenchy:
...which is bad enough, but even worse methinks when made by everyone's friend tony? (Bianco, der).
I've been in a piggy mood lately and have been trying to overcome but unfortunately I think I'm just going to have to feed the beast. Today I had dinner and then cake (sticky date and white chocolate cheesecake with cream & ice cream) and right now I'm so sick on sugar I think I will need to make a bag of popcorn to balance the savoury with the sweet.
I'm having a girls pyjama party on the weekend and a parisian girl is attending, complete with her Nutella cook book (hi, i like you, we're friends now). I am baking something outrageous, and bringing two bags of microwave popcorn (and SATC of course). I have a friend bringing my favourite cheese in all the world, truffled pecorino (mmmm). and someone has been charged with the cheezels; one box each if you please. Now I think we need grain waves, chips, more (affordable) cheese and coca cola. a pig out is never complete without coca cola!!!
emmy hearts popcorn... and shoes... and chocolate.
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| no, no-tooorious! |
[14 Mar 2009|12:20am] |
i have just seen this movie and loved it. Wanted to do my ghetto walk throughout the cinema (complete with swaggers and dips) but thought it best not to. Hated the fact we had to drive Andrew's car because HE DOESN'T REPRESENT THE RAP GAME LIKE I DO.
in other news, yesterday big w gave me the runaround and i ended up having to use the self-service check out. Scanner wasn't working, I was fed up, I let out my eff bomb expletive. Got rather strange looks from all around me as i swore at the machine. My partner may have been slightly embarrassed, but I was too angry to care.
Today I got angry at the crowd of skinny teens crowding the bathroom exit. morons.
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| books |
[04 Mar 2009|08:42pm] |
- I followed the tango-line, hopped on that bus and started reading Eat, Pray, Love. Chapters 1-10 in Italy drew me in... But half way through Italy I got bored. Why was she just eating in Italy? Why doesn't she have wild sex with the italian stallion? When I started India I thought, no way can I survive while she just prays. I gave up. I tried.
- love in the time of cholera. I didn't like it at the beginning and couldn't devote enough time or energy into trying to follow Dr Juvenile Herbagina's story of his friend dying. It wasn't until someone told me that he wasn't the main character that I decided to give it a real go, and allow myself to be sucked into the life of Fermented Gaze. I'm really enjoying this piece of literature... half way through now.
- Birthday stories, Haruki Murakami. Started reading this concurrently with (2) because they're short stories and good for short trips... but - now I may not really be able to grasp the full literary impact of these stories - they're so short!!! Two stories encomapssed maybe 5 pages. I don't really like short stories, I don't think I'm considerate enough to understand whatever it is that is so insightful. And yes, the wind-up bird chronicle is owned by me but as yet to be opened. Maybe next... maybe not.
- twilight. oh, edward. Seen the movie. Loved the actor. I would have read it anyway but now... there is definite motivation. I'll get there. And also, yes, many people own the books and have offered to lend. Thank you.
- Legend series, David Gemmell. Read the first one and loved it. Will definitely purchase and read all of Gemmell's other works and he certainly filled my empty life post-Feist. I just can't figure out which book/series comes next?!?!?!
- A thousand splendid suns. Will definitely read this soon (quite likely within the next two-three books I pick up).
- A child called it, the lost boy, a man called dave, Dave Pelzer. I read it because it came as a three-in-one. I was not comfortable with the level of descript violence and hatred, but an intriguing read all the same. Reaffirmed my belief that I could never, would never, procreate.
- Perfume: story of a murderer. Own it, saw it, will read it. Looking forward to it
- Most of the penguin classics reprint. I'll get there...
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| train etiquette |
[04 Mar 2009|08:24pm] |
I am astounded by the lack of decent manners that most people possess. Mostly revolving around personal space, because 1) I am a big fan, 2) I don't like touching things without soap near by and 3) I don't like people touching me because I can't exactly soap my jacket sleeve every time something comes close.
OCD much? I'm okay with that but I like clean hands. It means they get very dry very fast but I also like solid hand moisturiser. A lot of the times I forget that part, but I digress.
- Get that chump change of yours ready while you're in that line waiting to buy that ticket. Sometimes your change is so offensive, not even Jesus is down with you.
- Don't push in front of me when you see me with coins in my hand and you have a service issue which you would like to debate!!! fucker!!!
- Whilst a people jungle, there is still a semblance of a queue when waiting on platform for train to arrive. Just because we aren't packed like sardines doesn't give you the right to squirm your way to the front.
- If you are the person sitting on the edge of a three seater and the person on the very end would like to get out, get up.
- Even when standing there is still a decent distance that should be kept at all times. You wouldn't be rubbing me like that on the street, don't rub me on the train.
- (my biggest gripe) Two decent size people can fit on a two-seater, and the same for three on a three-seater. On the back of most train chairs there is a LINE going down the middle implying MY SIDE | YOUR SIDE. I don't give a fuck if you're trying to read that broadsheet, or that MX, don't rub arms with me when you feel me shy away everytime you do, and stay on your fucking side.
I loathe the arm rub. My arm. Your rub.
This is why I am in full support of eating disorders. Even the average sized people armrub me. I hate the armrub. ew.
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| lift etiquette |
[02 Mar 2009|10:32pm] |
My new work has my underpants in vile knots because of their distinct lack of lift etiquette.
I don't even know if it's my particular colleagues, but I would rather much like to blame those Colonial <insert c* bomb here> or the plethora of other companies in said building.
However, that is not my rant for the day. This is:
- keep at least a 30 cm circumference around people at all times. No one wants to be shakin' their bootay all up on you.
- wait to the side of the lift door as it opens. It is highly likely the people inside would like to get OUT at the ground floor, not just ride it up and down for fucks fun.
- in peak hour, limit the number of people in the lift between 8-10. 15 people do NOT fit. refer clause 1. There are 6 lift wells - just fuck well wait.
- DON'T FUCKING WALK INTO THE LIFT BEFORE I GET OUT FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't know what it is about this particular building but they have serious, serious lift etiquette issues. It makes me mad every single day!!! Especially the cramping!!!
oh just fuck off already and get retrenched!
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[18 Feb 2009|08:36pm] |
Am I wrong in thinking this is a totally banging bod?
Look at her!!!
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