Boss got back from their Christmas trip to Hong Kong last week and gave us our belated Christmas presents today. What an awesome way to kick our Monday blues away! Thank you bosses! I heart you both! *Big wet eyes*

First awesome gift from boss is…

A FREAKIN’ FUJIFILM INSTAX MINI! I actually have an old retro Polaroid camera, y’know, those black, squarish-funny-looking thingy that develops almost squarish films instantly? Yeah, I have one of those. Unfortunately, it uses Type 600 films and Polaroid have stopped producing these films. There is this new instant film created by the very amazing Impossible though. They call it The Impossible Project. If you love me, please buy me some of these films so I can use my old polaroid again, thank you very much!

Meanwhile, I shall have a fling with my new Fujifilm Instax Mini, hehehehehehe. It came just in time for my trip back home to Miri as well so I’m gonna go on a secret rendezvous with him it! Oh, I’m excited already!

It comes complete with a photo album and instant films so we’re now ready to snap photos! Come to momma!

Woooohh, check out that pearly white and smooth body. I’m in love already. <3

Next gift is an iPhone case. A Hello Kitty phone case. HAHAHA! Never in my life have I thought that I would end up owning a Hello Kitty phone case.

Well it was either this or a hot pink polka dot phone case. I guess I’d rather go all cutesy using this childish phone case than to use a hot pink one.

Last gift of the day is a surprise gift from Apple Inc.!!! Last month, I sent in my iPod Nano 1st generation for replacement as Apple announced there was something faulty with the battery. I did a quick search online and it appeared that we would be getting the same 1st generation’s iPod Nano. I was a tad bit disappointed ‘cos I thought the old one would be replaced with the newest iPod Nano instead but oh well, the 1st generation was fine with me as well since my boss already gave me a newer iPod Nano during Christmas two years back.

The parcel from Apple came in today and I opened it, saw some squarish thingy in a plastic wrapping and nothing else. I looked frantically for a rectangular iPod Nano and found none!

“OMG. I think someone stole my iPod,” I told my colleague. She panicked a little as well as I continued searching. I then looked at the squarish thingy in my hand and thought to myself, you’re kidding me right? You’re sending me a replacement battery for my iPod? But my iPod is with you! How am I supposed to use this friggin’ thing without the iPod!

Wait a minute…… This can’t be it. Is this… IS THIS THE NEW IPOD NANO?!?!!

Okay, it really is!!! Thank you, Apple! I love your awesome post-sale service! Muah muah muah!

You know, if 2012 is gonna be as good as today for the rest of the year, I think I’m gonna be an extremely happy girl! HAHA!

Actually, I would very much prefer to have an awesome bowl of seafood chowder right now. Mmmmm…… Seafood chowder…… May I please also have a big bowl of homemade French fries and plenty of homemade aioli. But it’s 12:15 a.m. right now. ARGGGHHH!! SO. HUNGRY. I should just sleep it off. But I can’t sleep when I’m hungry!

On a side note, I’m flying back to Miri in a few more days! I’m so darn excited! Amazing Malaysian food, here I come! Can’t believe a year zoomed past just like that! I’d say I had a pretty good year (2011). We moved to a new place with a vintage touch, got ourselves a little puppy (Koko) and cut my hair short for a change! Let’s hope 2012 will be an even better one!

Packing starts tonight by the way. I have a bad feeling my luggage will be overweight because I’m bringing lots of clothes I’m not wearing anymore back home for my mum and sister or to give away wtf, lol! Believe it or not, I actually packed three bagfuls of clothes tonight to give away! I’m so proud of myself! *Sniff* Well, if the old ones don’t go, there won’t be any room for the new ones, HAHAHAHA!!!

While I was clearing my closet, I found this lace dress my mum bought 15 years ago.

Mum, do you remember this dress?

I remember trying it on when I hadn’t even reached puberty hahahahaha!!! I couldn’t fill up the dress at all ‘cos I was very skinny was I was young. My mum then told me to keep the dress until it becomes a perfect fit. And so I did. Trying it on today shows that I’m filling the dress up quite nicely, now that I have put on some weight, hehe.

Alrighty, I think it’s time for me to log off. I think I’ll go hunt for some food to satiate my crazy appetite, muahahahaha! Goodnight, peeps!

I did a quick search online for banana cake recipes since I bought way too many bananas the other day (whoopsie!). This cake‘s very easy to make and doesn’t require too many ingredients, so it works great for me since I’m just a newbie in baking, hehe.

Ingredients:

• 4 oz butter (110 grams)
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• ¼ cup milk
• 1½ cup self-raising flour (sifted)
• ¾ cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate soda
• 3 medium bananas, well-mashed

Method:

Please excuse the very Asian-looking bowl with the mashed bananas here, hahahahahah!!!

TADA!!! Tasted quite alright I’d say

Ingredients:

• 2 bananas roughly chopped
• 2 cups skim milk
• 1 tablespoon original/vanilla yogurt or vanilla ice-cream
• 1 tablespoon honey
• ice cubes

There you go! A healthy glass of banana smoothie, which you can easily prepare at home!

I’m also probably the laziest person ever to do what I like doing, even if it’s my hobby. So my new year resolution for 2012 includes spending more time and putting more effort into this little hobby of mine!

Meanwhile, I’d also like to share my new photography site here. It’s nothing fancy. I’m hoping that I will fill the site up gradually with photo albums and stories to tell in the coming years, starting from 2012 onwards!

Today is yet another dramatic day for me. I was all excited since this morning ‘cos I was planning to bake some cookies in the afternoon. After lunch, I got Kin to accompany me to the store to get some baking goods. Once we reached home, I went to the nearby Coles to grab some ingredients for the cookies. I got home, unpacked the stuff that we bought and was ready to start!

I then placed the butter and sugar into my new mixing bowl – given to me as a Christmas present by Fiona (aww <3). I went to grab my electric hand mixer, only to realize that the box was missing the most important part of the mixer – the twin steel mixing beaters!!! ARGGGHHH!! What the hecccckkkk. I’m pretty sure I saw them when we moved house but we must’ve forgotten to bring them over and left them at the old apartment!!! At this point I got really frustrated because that means I’ll have to head back to Coles to get a new hand mixer and it’s bloody 38 degrees outside. Plus I think I’ve only used the previous mixer for less than five times. -_-

But what could I do, right? I had no choice but to head back to Coles and grab another hand mixer because man, I was REALLY in the mood to bake today! And so I did.

Fifteen minutes later, I got home. Hand mixer in my hand. All set now, all set now baby, it’s time to bake! I got all the other ingredients ready and now it’s time to sieve the flour. Now, okay, where is the sieve?

……

Okay, please, please tell me I bought the sieves this morning. *Checks plastic bag frantically* Nope. Nothing. You’ve got to be kidding me. THIS IS COMPLETE MADNESS!!!

I rang Kin up and asked him if I grabbed the sieves from the store this afternoon. It seems like I didn’t. But I thought I did! T_T Today is really just not my day!

Ah, eff this, Imma just go to the nearest IGA store and grab a sieve. That’s it! I ain’t driving back to Coles anymore, I’ve been there twice already today! So I took Koko and drove to IGA immediately. Rushed into the store, went to the baking section and looked for a sieve. Found one! You’ve got to be joking. IT WAS TINY! And selling for $8.17!!! The ones that I saw from Kitchen Warehouse this afternoon were selling for $15+, they were of good sizes and they came in TWO! For those of you who don’t already know, IGA REALLY DOES RIP YOU OFF! But I couldn’t complain because right then, I needed a sieve, and boy, I needed it baaadddddd……

The rest, is history! Fi dropped by after work to help me out. Thank you, if you’re reading this!!!

I think we made about three trays of cookies and they tasted quite alright, hehehehe. Not bad for a first attempt! *Grins*

And just ‘cos I was finally getting into a good mood, I got Fi to help me take a few photos from our little baking session.

Dough imprinted with heart shapes, haha!

Ready to be popped into the oven! (Okay, this was taken by me)

Voilà! Finally done!!! Our house smelt so good just then. In fact, it smelt like Chinese New Year, hahahaha!!! (This one was taken by me as well hehehe)

A whole day’s hard work finally paid off for me!

This morning, we were supposed to head to Kitchen Warehouse first thing in the morning to grab their Boxing Day bargain – a Baccarat Luke Nguyen mortar & pestle with bamboo board set discounted from $79.99 to $19.99!

Well, we did wake up early at 7 a.m. but we also dilly-dallied around the house for another 2.5 hours. So, by the time we reached the store in Melville, it was about 10 a.m. Only to find that the mortar & pestle sets have SOLD OUT COMPLETELY. Arggghhh!!! We were both pretty upset because I’ve wanted a mortar & pestle for ages already but I never got one. So, I decided to call up other stores to check if they still had any left. The Carousel store had sold out completely as well but the Osborne Park store had seven left.

“THEY HAVE SEVEN LEFT. LET’S GO NOW!” I told Kin then we rushed into the car and sped off. The shitty thing is, Melville now seems so far away from Osborne Park now that there are only seven sets left and the lights were red ALL the way there! I said a little prayer on the way there, hoping that we would reach in time to grab ourselves a set.

When we finally reached the store, I hopped out of the car and went right into the store and asked the lady at the entrance whether they still had any left. Lucky me, there was still one left! All the items on the Boxing Day sale pallet were gone. Boy, was I glad! I walked quickly towards the pallet, happy as can be because we’re finally getting one!

But guess what. Another lady was there before me and she placed two items on top of the box. I didn’t think that the gesture meant that she wanted the mortar & pestle set so I reached down and tried to grab the box before anyone else did. Just when I bent down, she turned to look at me and we both paused. It was then that I knew we weren’t getting one today. SIGHHHH…… And almost everyone queuing up at the cashier’s line had a set on their hands/in their trolley. One lady even had TWO in her trolley, argggghhhh!!! How frustrating is that!

Kin then came into the store after he parked his car and I told him, “They had one left, but a lady took it before me. Right before my eyes.” He got quite upset and said we should go home there and then. But I told him to wait a little ‘cos who knows, someone might change their mind and put it back so we could grab it instead! Hehehehehe… He still insisted on going home so we had to.

BUT! Just outside the store, I saw something that caught my eye – a frying pan discounted from $119 to $30. Our current frying pan is in a very poor condition and we were planning to get a new one anyway so I showed him that and now we had to head back into the store to pay for it. Kin cooled down a little and started browsing around. We grabbed a another container set and a food chopper by Maxwell &  Williams. Next, queuing up time!

A few minutes into queuing up, I suddenly noticed one of the sales ladies holding a set, walking towards the bargain pallet. I stopped talking about whatever I was talking about immediately and told Kin what I saw. He then nudged me and told me to grab it right away and I did. In fact, I ran towards the lady, hahahaha! Just as she turned around after putting it down, I asked if I could grab it and she went, “Yeah, go for it!” YIPEE YAY!!!

You should’ve seen the grin on my face as I turned around. One of the guys lining up saw me (he was carrying one set as well) and he smiled at me – I must’ve looked ridiculously overjoyed, hahahaha!!!

So here it is, my very own Baccarat Luke Nguyen mortar & pestle set sitting on my kitchen worktop right now. I am a happy girl today.

My little story here today also shows that with a little prayer and a little patience, little miracles do happen!

]]> http://jessicablaise.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/a-little-miracle/feed/ 2 ahem` Mortar & Pestle http://jessicablaise.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/kokos-christmas-present/ http://jessicablaise.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/kokos-christmas-present/#comments Mon, 26 Dec 2011 02:44:58 +0000 ahem` http://jessicablaise.wordpress.com/?p=3851 ]]> Here’s a little something for you guys to watch today. We’re driving down to Mandurah today for lunch. We might head out for a little shopping after lunch since it’s Boxing Day!

Be safe everyone and enjoy your holiday!

How’s your Christmas been so far? I’ve been so very spoilt so far hehehehehe…

(Not all presents pictured here, there were actually more!)

I received lots and lots of gifts this year from the boyfriend, friends & colleagues so I was darn excited with the Christmas present opening session this morning, hahahaha! I received two gifts from my Christmas Wish List and all the other gifts were adorably cute & super thoughtful! I am sooo loved by everyone, thank you guys SO MUCH!

Fiona sent me this really, really cute e-card this Christmas morning and I just have to share it with you all! It’s extremely adorable and I couldn’t stop laughing watching it! Kin was busy cursing from his lagging PS3 network and I told him to spare me 2 minutes so I can show him a video. He snarled at me saying, “I don’t wanna look at some stupid chipmunks!” I then convinced him to watch it in the end and he turned from a grumpy old man to a laughing chipmunk as well HAHAHA!!!

Before you go, once again, Merry Christmas you guys and have a Jolly New Year!!!

Enjoy (watch it!), folks! This is SO how we are in real life

I recently took up kayaking. Okay, actually, I’ve only just kayaked once ever since we got the two-seater kayak hahahaha! Kin started kayaking months ago ‘cos he’s into yak-fishing. He’s always asking me if I wanna go kayaking with him or not but I always turn him down. This time around, he got a two-seater kayak so we could have “family outings” he said.

I love the both of them! <3

So last weekend, we went out on a little family outing – Kin, myself and Koko! It was a little tricky trying to get Koko to stay in the boat at first ‘cos it’s his first time. So I held unto him tightly when Kin pushed the kayak into the river. The next thing I know, water was getting into the kayak and my shorts got wet. Yup, my underwear did too. -_-

It was a beautiful Saturday morning blessed with a beautiful weather. I wasn’t supposed to but I took out my iPhone anyway to snap a few photos hahahaha.

Okay, I’m so sorry but I’m going to have to end this post abruptly as I’m going fishing now, hahaha! Caught three tailors the other night, so hopefully I’ll be as lucky tonight!

Until then, goodnight and here’s to wishing you all a very safe & Blessed Christmas! Will update soon on my upcoming Christmas parties!!!