Day 326 - Cookie face, even more ice cream, I passed!

1. Sir there's a face in my cookie?


2. Had 3 more ice creams today like a real Asian.


3. 38/40, 95%.. I passed!!

Day 325 - Snowflake stretching on me, more ice cream and a face

1. I was woken up by this at 7am. What the heck Snowflake!?

Bit hard to see from this dark photo, but I think she was walking over me to get to the other side of the bed when she got lazy/tired and decided to lie down for a rest and a stretch!


2. Ice cream #1.



3. Ice cream #2.



4. Aaaaaand ice cream #3! Loving it!!!



5. I wouldn't be very happy if I had moistened tissues coming out of my mouth all the time either.

Day 297 - My hungry rice cooker

I don't know how I've never noticed this until today, but my rice cooker has a face?! And it looks hungry!

Day 289 - "I'm going home now" and smiling cucumber and bag

1. Felix Baumgartner, Austrian skydiver and BASE jumper, broke several world records today by free falling from an altitude of about 39 kilometres. It takes a certain kind of crazy, stubborn and brave character to achieve this incredible feat - I love that he said "I'm going home now" right before leaping off the capsule. As he said, "When you stand up there on top of the world, you become so humble. It’s not about breaking records any more. It’s not about getting scientific data. It’s all about coming home." Watch the video of the jump and read more about it on Gizmodo.


2. This is really silly, but my friend Becky posted this photo with the caption "THE CUCUMBER IS SMILING" on Facebook and it just about made my day.
   
   Then I saw this in an email.
   
   THE BAG IS SMILING.

Day 278 - Melbourne's quirkiness

Jon and I got another amazing coffee this morning from our now favourite haunt (yes we are coffee whores), The League of Honest Coffee. Generally, these guys make pretty awesome coffee. But when they have a really good coffee day like Tuesday and today, one sip and my knees goes weak! Oh my!

Steps away from The League's doorstep, we spotted a face. Yay!

But then a few more steps away from there, we came across this. No-yay! This is some sick shit right here. It's hard to see from this photo, but dangling off each handle bar is a baby doll's arm. Seriously disturbingly creepy. It looks possessed. And why are there cushions?!

But today was a lovely sunny day that reached a top of 29 degrees. We haven't had such warm weather for as long as I can remember, and when the weather's this nice it's easy to forget about disturbing bicycles with dismembered doll parts sticking out, but embrace it as part of Melbourne's quirkiness, along with its great coffee, many hidden faces in places, and bipolar weather that draws throngs of girls out in short shorts when it decides to shower us with some sunshine.

Day 276 - Kitten lost in a husky and gadgets with faces

I started my day right when Soon Yang sent me this keyuuuuute picture:

Source: 9GAG

Then Brett sent me the article of 19 Gadgets With Happy and Sad Faces that just made my day!! My favourite is:

Source: plindberg

I love that there are so many crazies out there that derive so much joy from faces in places!

Day 267 - New beginnings, tiny humans, a face and shared flowers

Today I'm smiling because...

...of new beginnings. Helped my brother Pe Khai move as he bid farewell to his humble abode for greener pastures (literally).

...tiny humans are so darn funny.


...I see faces.

...of the way Pe Khai's new neighbour's beautiful wisteria flowers spill over onto his side of the fence and fill the air with the most wonderful fragrance.

Day 161 - Eating frenzy in Hobart

Woke up at an ungodly hour of 4 or 4:30 or something like that. A couple of hours later, found myself marvelling at this sunrise as we glided above the clouds, right before touching down in Hobart, Tasmania.


I had a faces in places sighting pretty quickly!

I fed it some moolah to buy a bottle of tasty Tasmanian water, but it regurgitated almost all the money I gave it bar 50 cents! The water in Melbourne is very palatable, but the water in Tasmania is something else... the description on my bottle of water read, "Collected from a spring in the Tasmanian highlands, on the edge of the world's last great temperate wilderness. Contains water that gathered in rain clouds over the untamed Southern Ocean, falling as rain and snow on the island of Tasmania thousands of years ago and hasn't seen the light of day since." Wow.

We headed straight to the Salamanca market (which I loved, so many interesting sights, sounds and smells)...

...where I got a GINORMOUS stick of fairy floss for breakfast! (The dude behind me is jealous, fairy floss > that bratwurst he's having)

The fairy floss spinner spent several loooong minutes spinning... every time I looked over at him, the size of the fairy floss just got bigger, and bigger, and bigger! When he finally handed it to me, he almost looked apologetic and embarrassed. Oh I was so giddy with excitement, I almost reached over to give him a big hug as I yelped, "OHMYGODTHATISHUGETHANKYOU!!" It was about 3 times the size of my head! I skipped along stalls chirping, "This is the best day ever!!!" while stuffing handfuls of pink sugar into my mouth, but the ginormous ball of fairy floss was surprisingly quick to disappear and before I knew it there was none left.... boo.

Ok, this was my real breakfast. Mushrooms with avocado, lemon and pepper on sourdough toast.


What I really love about Tasmania is the abundance of fresh produce. There's something about this island, where the climate is cool, the water is pure, and the air is crisp and unpolluted.. the combination of these factors and more does something magical to the local produce. So we took advantage of this by eating lots of it!

Lunch was at Meadowbank Estate, where the dining room overlooked the vineyards and rolling hills.


And then there was soufflé. THE perfect soufflé. Oh my gosh. Soufflés reinstate my faith in mankind. Soufflés make me believe there is a god. And that god wants us to be happy. And that life is wonderful and amazing and so beautiful. Soufflé makes me exclaim, "This is the best day ever!!!!!" while Brett sniggers at me, "But you always say that...."


Dinner was at the very trendy hotspot Garagistes. There was a 2 hour wait before we could be seated - that's so Melbourne to have a no booking policy - so by the time we tore into these char-grilled fatty lamb ribs that were glazed in a lemon and coriander seed dressing, we were famished and in awe of how amazing these ribs were.... we were rendered speechless and could only nod in unison between gasps of "oh wow". They were chin-and-hands-drippingly juicy, so flavoursome yet so balanced! I was impressed with how the lemon in the glaze was never too sour no matter how much of it you wiped up with your rib.

It was so dark that I didn't bother with anymore photos after the crappy one above. Some of the other dishes we had for the rest of the evening were spectacular (the very flavoursome hanger steak), but there were misses too (the chawan mushi with poached spanner crab and sea urchin mousse almost had me gagging). The food style here was clear though - courageous, confident and surprising. Not surprising I suppose since head chef Luke Burgess had trained with Tetsuya in Sydney before his two year stint at Noma in Copenhagen.

With full bellies from a day filled with so much delicious eating, it was the end of our first day in Hobart.

Day 130 - Two-faced heater

I LOVE spotting faces in places. LOVE. I love that these unintentional faces are all around us, just waiting around and sitting tight for someone to notice them. It's almost like there's another little world out there! If only everyone would not only look, but see.

I laugh every time I see my two-faced heater.



Speaking of faces in places, one of my photos was featured on the Faces in Places website!


Glad to know there are people out there who are just as easily amused as I am!

Day 87 - Waking up with Snowflake above my head, a face and Lululemon's Stuff Your Bra

It takes 3 legs to make a tripod or to make a table stand, and it takes 3 wheels to make a vehicle called a tricycle, and every triangle has 3 corners, every triangle has 3 sides, no more, no less, you don't have to guess that it's 3, can't you see? It's a magic number:

1. When I was jolted awake by my alarm this morning, I swore I could hear Snowflake purring but I couldn't see her anywhere. She's usually curled up in a furball somewhere on top or next to me, but not this morning. Then I felt a paw slap my forehead.
   
   She was sleeping on the top of my pillow, right above my head! Ha!



2. I had a faces in places spotting at work hehehehe 



3. I literally laughed out loud when I saw these new arrivals on Lululemon's website. 

Both have not 0, or 1, but 7 pockets to carry your stuff, and the spiel on the website reads, "We made this so we could have a place to easily access all our marathon paraphernalia on long runs. Seven pockets were specifically articulated to store your gels, keys and other items that are useful during training (and less embarrassing than tissue, rest assured)." 

I really love Lululemon, but this is freakin' hilarious!

Day 73 - Meerkat Snowflake, another birthday dinner and a face

Three, oh, it's the magic number:

1. Snowflake looking like a stunned mullet meerkat after my iMac emitted a sharp beep with a software update. Is it wrong for me to derive so much enjoyment from my cat looking funny/silly??



2. I love how a month later, I'm STILL having birthday dinners and receiving birthday presents! This time it was Korean BBQ with Jon, who also got me a shoe mug and a novel "Unicorn being a Jerk" book to illustrate his point that horses are evil. 



3. Spotted a face on the doughnut truck!

Day 24 - Yet another face, Gaymers and comfort food

So today I spotted yet another face in a place - that's 4 days in a row, I've never been so lucky!


We went shopping at Cold Storage supermarket, where I was hoping to pick up some cider.. but this was all I could find. Sad face. Whilst I was disappointed in their range of cider (or lack of), the name made me giggle ('cause I'm real mature).


My brother however struck gold when he found Crown lager. Finally some decent Aussie beer!


Later at night, Dad cooked for us his infamous preserved salted vegetables duck soup (咸菜鸭汤). I'm hit with cravings for this dish from time to time when I'm in Melbourne, as this dish has the flavours and comfort of home written all over it.

Day 23 - Chinese New Year, another face and Brother James Brown

Today I spotted yet another face - that's 3 days in a row!!


With today being the first day of Chinese New Year, we spent the day eating, and eating, and eating...


... taking awkward family photos...


... and visiting and catching up with old friends.




My brother and I love laughing over that fact that Brother James Road and Brown Road are perpendicular to each other.


I found myself thinking I was very lucky to be able to celebrate the new year twice each year, first the new year of the Gregorian calendar, second the lunar calendar. It's been a few years since I've been back in Penang to celebrate Chinese New Year with my family, and being able to do so this year has been very special.


I hope the Year of the Dragon brings great things for everyone I love.

Day 22 - Simple village life

On the eve of Chinese New Year, we always go back to Dad's old hometown where all the relatives get together for the whole afternoon to catch up, eat, and wish each other well wishes for the new year.

On the way there, I had a faces in places spotting. That's two days in a row!


It was actually quite refreshing to get away from the city and into the relaxing and peaceful surroundings at Dad's hometown. We met 4 very adorable, identical puppies...


We watched some cows walk around us, with this scary big cow below being the leader of the herd...

Aren't cows cute! They look like they're permanently smiling!


Then we came across some poo trading. Good to know they import and export!