Brick by Brick

Hello dears, here I am taking a break between assignments because I'm just that lazy!

Haven't done anything exciting really. Had a few days of pure work and uni just started this past Monday. The only semi exciting thing that's happened would have been last Friday when Freak came over to visit!

Well, actually she went to a dental check up in Onehunga as she purchased a deal for $69 (usual price was $200 some) which included a check up, cleaning and two xrays. Since I live close by, we hung out! Unfortunately for her, she discovered that she's going to need six or so fillings and she's having her wisdom teeth removed (although, I can't be sure if it's 1 or two...). Her last check up was about two years ago and there was no problem. My last check up was way back in intermediate school which was 8 or 9 years ago? I should probably go have a check up too then haha.

To take her mind off the impending doom, I took her to a nearby cafe called Brick by Brick. I really love this cafe FOR REASONS THAT NO ONE NEEDS TO KNOW because of the name. Before it opened, I already decided I liked it because it's got such a cute name and the decoration is also appealing. The first time I went was with Sc. To be completely honest, I don't really remember how the taste was since I was completely absorbed in everything Sc was saying. I did learn though that the cafe is owned and run by Japanese people - probably explains the beautiful presentations and slight culture confusion.

Oh I'm sorry, you'll need an explanation for that. In NZ (if it's the same overseas, inform my uneducated soul), cafe food is really expensive and you could almost categorize the food as rabbit food. It is usually served as a small portion on a big plate.

I was determined to go to Brick by Brick again, so my second time was with Freak.

Our order number! Boring, like every cafe in NZ.

This time, I was going to eat there and remember the food! No Sc to fascinate me. We ordered drinks and food - we both hadn't eaten breakfast and it was already past noon. So excuse us for wanting to stuff ourselves with food.

My iced mocha. The chocolate sauce tasted a bit weird - it was delicious but I think there was a hint of caramel flavour?

Freak ordered a latte

We waited a while for our food, Freak told me about her family and how she got a Longchamp bag. I've never really been into this brand as it never caught my eye. But when she showed me, the zip of the bag instantly caught my attention. So much so, I am considering getting one just for the zip.

It's gorgeous! Well, at least I like it. I don't know why either.

I've recently been looking at the tag whatsinmybag on Instagram. I'm a really nosy person so seeing pictures of what everyone lugs around in their bag really fascinates me. I want a bag that I can throw most things in and not worry about it breaking. My current bag makes me worry a bit, and it's pretty shinny. I currently use a black bag by Agnes B. To be completely honest with you, I only bought the bag because of the adorable charm it came with. I'll do a post on that bag one day. I bought that bag while I was in Japan. If I had passed any Samantha Thavasa stores, I would probably have gone crazy with that brand. Thank god I didn't know about it till later and didn't look at their products till recently.

So recently, I've been looking for a bag that doesn't stand out as much as these brands (so yes, that means no big brands like LV or bags that have really well known brands). Something cheap that I won't be afraid to destroy. Longchamp doesn't fit these criteria, so I'll put off getting that bag for a while. =) I went to Yesstyle and looked through their catalogue and I was instantly reminded of Chinatown in Botany. Chinatown is a miserable excuse for a mall and it's probably nearly all closed down or are closing down. I'll have to go check if they have any cheap sales before work tomorrow. Otherwise, I'm going to just use a plastic bag. JOKING.

I think this is option E on the menu at Brick by Brick...

Right, back to the topic. That meal was huge. Two pieces of toast, two gigantic pieces of hashbrowns, scrambled egg, mushrooms, tomato (you can't see it), bacon and sausages. Ok so technically that was one sausage split down the middle. For the toast, we had a choice between garlic, vogel and white. I chose garlic and Freak chose vogel. I had vogel last time with Sc, and I think I prefer that one. We both had trouble finishing that meal! The hashbrowns were probably too crispy, but I LIKE IT CRISPY! The sausage is the one with cheese in it. Omfggggggggggggg I almost died and went to heaven. /fatnis.

After lunch, Freak had one filling done and then we went to the outlet mall. Everything sucks there. But I did have a picture taken!

These were heart shaped shades for $5.

Of course, I didn't buy them! Deep down I may have wanted to have them, but when I put them on, I noticed that it didn't actually shade anything... I was disappointed and thirsty so I left and bought a bottle of water (I know, shocking) and Freak bought a pair of gym shorts before we headed back home. I gave her her presents (some of the stuff I got from The Body Shop post a while back) and then we decided to go to Momo Tea for dinner. (OK, many hours already passed! After lunch, we spent nearly two hours at the dentist, and then another two at the mall and then over an hour at home!) Still, we were not particularly hungry. We picked up Ace (who lives in the middle of no where in South Auckland) and headed over to Momo Tea for drinks and snacks. Spent so much money that day...

And here's the final photo of this post:

OMG GUAVA!!!

Firstly, I've never seen guava that small. Secondly, it's my first time seeing guava in New Zealand. I ate heaps of guava when I was in HK but they were all bigger than apples! But in NZ they are really expensive - around $10 per kilo. =( 

Right, back to doing my assignments.

Birthday dindin at Haru no Yume and a bit of D3 speak

In my last post, I mentioned that I bought the game and installed it. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I didn't manage to play it right away but I have managed to get a few hours into it. ("I'll just do this one quest..." *three hours later...* FML).

Actually, give me a sec. I'll just create a Tui inspired ad about that.

Yeah well I don't care what kind of gamer you are: pro, semi-pro, "serious" gamer, gamer's gf significant other who occasionally likes to game... but let's face it. It's NEVER just one quest. Now I don't remember whether I mentioned it before, and I can't be bothered checking my post... but the laptop I am using doesn't even reach the minimum requirements that's written in small font on the box. What I've learnt so far? THAT ONE SECOND LAG IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH. FML. I've never died so fast and so often while playing Diablo. Well ok, so it's D3 and considering there's like a decade gap between D2 and D3, harder gameplay should be expected. But seriously, I DIED AT LEVEL 8. God, I'm getting old. It's so embarrassing, I can't even carry on blogging about this.

So I'm moving on. To the dinner I went to last night! I aimed to get this post up when I returned home, but that didn't happen. Excuse my lazy.

It's Freak's birthday soon but since it's really difficult getting people together to celebrate we just decided to do something small, just the (important) girls and have dinner (and to top it off, it's just her 22nd birthday so it's not like a gigantic milestone. Ok I'm sorry, EVERY BIRTHDAY IS A GIGANTIC MILESTONE, congratulations, you're one year closer to death.) We went to a Japanese restaurant situated in the heart of Mt Eden Village. 

Haru no Yume

To be honest with you, I think the food is average and overpriced. If they're charging me $12 for a plate of deep fried chicken, it better be a freaking huge plate of chicken. The thing you're paying for is really the location. Of course, if you're rich and like dining in the heart of Mt Eden, go for it. The food is nice, and so is the setting (if you like dark restaurants - which I don't, but if I think it's acceptable then it should be ok right?)

Due to how dark it was, I didn't feel like putting in so much effort to take and edit pictures. Sorry for the crap photos. I ordered a green salad (which came with some sort of sesame dressing), a plate of spicy chicken karaage (deep fried pieces of chicken) and a bowl of miso soup.

Cup of dressing! It's actually a tiny cup!

That's how tiny it was! It was so cute!

At first, I didn't realise how bad I am at taking pictures. After I took it, I realised oh gee, no one's gonna know how small it is so I made Ace pick it up and pose with it. Then her order of yakisoba (stir fried noodles) came and it came in a gigantic bowl/plate/thing. It was so gigantic, we were silent for about 30 seconds before voicing a reaction.

At this point, I thought to myself "stop being so lazy and get out your camera". I should have listened to myself.

While waiting for food, we took a few pictures. They didn't turn out that well, some were taken with my iPhone, and others were taken by Freak's tablet.

Birthday girl Freak and I.

Top: Jenjen's sashimi set meal ($36). Bottom left: tamago yaki (egg) and bottom right: seaweed salad.

The last two pics were taken and edited by Freak. Following our dinner, the four of us went to have dessert across the road at Casa del Gelato. I've only been there once, but it's delicious! The first time I went, I think I bought Rocher (Ferrero Rocher taste) and some coffee flavour. This time, I picked Rocher and Crunchie. The crunchie didn't really taste like anything so I was mildly disappointed. I gobbled it up so I could start enjoying the Rocher.

DELICIOUS!!!

Wow! It was really delicious. Only Freak and I bought some and the other two just sat and watched us eat. After we finished, they decided to get some. Freak and I wanted some more (which is why you must always takeaway or leave as soon as you finish!!!) and for the second round, I bought Rocher for both the scoops and swore that I'd only ever pay for Rocher. That's how good it is.

Ace's attempt to get a picture of Jenjen... she made us move and stand there.

Overall, a pretty good night. Probably ate and spent way too much for my liking! That's ok though, I didn't spend any money today and don't plan on spending any tomorrow. But what I should have done and what I should do is do some study and finish some of my assignments which I haven't even looked at.

Uni, birthday and Batman

NOTE: I'm on Instagram! Follow me? Username is essenity. Duh.




It's been a month since I've come back from Melbourne. A few things have happened since then.

• Destroyed a friendship (possibly, or at least we're both not talking to each other. But whatever, I've done my bit, he needs to step up if he wants to be a part of my life otherwise, I'll hold the door open and help him walk out of it).
• FINALLY sent in my application for the 360 Abroad. My three choices are HKU, CUHK and Melbourne University. Except as soon as I hit send, I felt like my choices weren't "exotic" enough. I had briefly toyed with the idea of Sweden.
• Went out with dinner.
• Got a credit card and then spent too much money.
• Had dinner with a few friends.
• My birthday!
• Worked too much.
• Got sick.
• Started semester 2 of uni! Which has so far been AWESOME.
• Also, watched two seasons of Vampire Diaries and developed a celebrity crush on Damon. *drools*

I'm not going to talk about every point... but where should I start? Dinner with friends perhaps! I went to dinner at my favourite Japanese restaurant in town with three of my friends. More of a dinner than a catch up, I felt. It was a pretty good feast. I would have taken pictures if the environment wasn't so dark and we weren't so starved. We had a lot of sashimi, a plate of beef tataki and the rest, I can't remember!

We did take a few pictures though so here they are!

I sat next to Yumi so here's a pic of us! The flash was so bright! I had to fight to keep my tiny eyes open.

First group shot after dinner!

My chosen dessert! I think they had about three flavours. This one is green tea. It was delicious, but not as delicious as the passion fruit panna cotta in Botany.

 

Didn't quite know what to do after dinner so kinda lounged around outside the restaurant, took another self group shot then left.

We drove down to Aotea Square where they put up the winter ice rink so we could have a look. Prices are ridiculous, I imagined it to be a much bigger rink but there was a lot of space that wasn't utilised. Didn't stop us from taking pictures though. =)

Suki and I

From left to right, Yumi, me and Suki. It turns out Aotea Square at night is a pretty place to take pictures... should have tried harder!

We wandered around and saw a carousel. We got a little bit excited and took pictures. Except, we were too into ourselves to realise that we pretty much cut out the whole carousel.

Here's me in front of the ponies, having my picture taken with the ultimate flash.

Left to right, Yumi, me and Shu in front of the carousel. You can hardly tell it's a carousel.

Then, being the fatties that we are, we went to Yoghurt Story for round two of dessert! I used to be an ice cream girl, but now, I've developed a love for yoghurt! It's pretty expensive though. =S

Watermelon flavoured yoghurt with fruit loops, mango and pineapple pieces!

I feel like that was the highlight of the night though. I love the yoghurt from that shop. There's also a lot of hype going around another yoghurt shop that also recently opened, called Easy Yo or something. I have never been there since it's so far away from me and such a pain to go to (all the way in Mission Bay) but I heard there's a branch opening soon in Botany so here's hoping it's good because then I don't always have to go to the city for Yoghurt. Excuse my fatness, I'll endeavour to lose a ton of weight.

I recently got a credit card again and went shopping a few times. In New Zealand, when you join a rewards programme, many shops send you a gift voucher during your birthday month. Since I joined Platinum (Nike), they sent me a $30 voucher which I used to buy some track pants. I wouldn't have bought it without the $30 voucher so guess free money does draw in customers.

But my biggest spend was at the Body Shop. To be honest with you, I haven't actually used my gift (which is 20% off total bill) but they did give free gift packs with my purchases.

Entire Body Shop haul It's so pretty... *_*

First up, here's some body lotion. From left to right, Shea Whip, Coconut Milk, Mango Whip and Strawberry Puree.

I'm currently using the Mango Whip. It smells delicious! The only other one I've used before is the Strawberry Puree. I can't remember how nice it is, so I can't say which I prefer.

Here is a collection of body care. From left to right, Coconut Shower Cream, Peppermint Cooling Foot Lotion, White Musk Shower Gel, Cocoa Butter hand and body lotion, and Love Etc Body Wash.

Those bottles came for free on the condition that you bought a something from the vanilla line, make up line or the sunshine line (ok, not sure about the sunshine part, I forgot if that's what it's called). I bought the vanilla body mist so I was given them. 

Vanilla Body Mist and the Peach Body Lotion

As I was looking around the store, I saw the Peach Body Lotion sitting on the discounted corner. New Zealand hardly ever has this in store! It smells slightly like the peach hand cream from Canmake's Make me Happy series and since I love that smell, I snapped this up right away.

Vitamin E Illuminating Moisture Cream

The reason I bought this was due to how it made me smile. I was in the store one weekend and I tried the tester. When you apply this, the cream turns a pretty shade of pink. It disappears as you rub it into our skin. I haven't used it a lot but when I used the tester, I felt like the it didn't give a greasy finish so I allowed myself to buy it because this product made me smile so much.

Here was my pathetic attempt at showing you how it changes colour, but it's not very clear on camera. Maybe I should have photoshopped to make it more obvious...

It's been two weeks since uni has started and so far 2012 semester 2 is my favourite semester! There's this geography paper I'm taking that's about disasters and how it impacts on society. There's no exam for this paper and the assignments are whack! One major assignment is an Amazing Race themed treasure hunt around Auckland!!! During the introductory lecture, I was so excited about it all, the girl next to me kept shooting me side way glances.

We got into groups and selected our topic - age and gender. We're supposed to think about how disasters affect society, especially those who fall in vulnerable groups within age and gender. So far, we've only passed one clue... the second clue proved to be much harder - we figured it out, but we have to do an interview and the dude hasn't given us a time yet! Other teams have nearly finished. =(

Thankfully, the marks aren't given based on how fast we figure out the clues.

Another one of my exciting papers is a stage one computer science paper. These two papers have PRETTY GOOD LOOKING LECTURERS! My goodness. I can't usually pay attention for more than twenty minutes on a good day, but I find that I hang on to every word my comp sci lecturer says. Don't know if it's his good looks or because the topic actually interests me.

I have another geography paper about GIS that I'm taking. I know it's not the subject, the lecturer bores me to death. But during labs, I am pretty into the topic.

Last Sunday, I went to the movies with Shu to watch Batman. WHY ON EARTH IS HOYTS SO EXPENSIVE?!!!!! Popcorn and coke is crazily overpriced. We've stopped buying food from the cinemas. We went to Pak n Save to buy snacks to bring into the cinema. We bought Mammoth Yoghurt lemon passion flavour because we thought it was pretty funny (it's advertised as a manly yoghurt). During the movie, we started eating it and instantly regretted it. My god. It had gigantic chunks of GOD KNOWS WHAT. Shu reckons there were lemon rinds in it, I thought there were some sort of seeds as well. The yoghurt itself didn't taste bad. Not very sweet but the stuff inside the yoghurt really put us off. It was also really thick. I think we would have enjoyed it more if we weren't eating it in the dark. I'm not in a hurry to give this so called manly yoghurt another try, I'll stick to the girly yoghurt for now.

Excuse me, Batman was awesome. I had tears in my eyes at the end of the movie. I actually hope there will be another one. And can anyone tell me why Google doesn't recognise "movie" or "movies" as a word?

It was my birthday on Friday. Since Shu was working Friday night, we had dinner at our favourite Japanese restaurant in Botany on Thursday. She bought me cake, which we shared with staff. Before I met Shu, I hung out with my other friend, Yun (we've been good friends for ten years!). We went to Cafe Melba in Ellerslie... I usually hate cafe food, but after this experience, it's growing on me. It was pretty good food, and at a cheap price too. Perhaps it's due to location?

Chocolates and letter were from Yun and the cake was Shu. She bought Gold Caramel from the Cheesecake Shop. I thought it would be very sweet, but surprisingly, there was no strong, overly sweet aftertaste.

Spending my birthday with Rachel! Strawberry earrings, sponge cake and tiramisu cake.

On my actual birthday, I had classes for everything! I thought it would be draining but it was actually quite enjoyable. Rachel bought me strawberry earrings from Pascoes and they are honestly the most bling things I own right now. She gave them to me during class and I opened them during class. I wasn't expecting them to be so pretty so I gasped pretty loudly. Pretty fly. =) After my classes, I met up with her again and we went to have cake! I think her one was white chocolate cake or something. It had oranges inside. =/ My one was the Tiramisu.

Since this post is probably as long or even longer than my last post, I'm going to try to blog a bit more frequently. My posts are way too long. Excuse me while I go check over my lab exercises that's due tomorrow. =O should have handed it in last week but cbb.