Day 366 - Hope

So 365 days have somehow whizzed by since I wrote my very first blog entry for Day 1, here we are at New Year's Eve again. What a year 2012 has been! I mean, come on, I finally achieved my lifelong dream of meeting my childhood heroes Hanson (twice, even!!) for chrissake... any year that THAT takes place is pretty hard to top!

When I was writing up my first blog post on the 1st of January, in the back of my mind I was already getting ahead of myself and was trying to imagine what this day would feel like - how it would be like to be writing my 366th post on the last day of the year. (Ok technically this is not my 366th post because as I'm typing this it's the 2nd of January 2013 and I have 83 unpublished backdated posts to complete!! But my rule is that a post will be done for every day of the year about what made me smile on that particular day, but it may not necessarily be done on the actual day itself (ha nice save Sammie).)

At that time, what this little project would look like by the end of 2012 was a massive unknown for me. Honestly, I was kinda nervous about it. I wasn't sure whether I'd have enough determination or motivation to keep writing everyday, and for all I knew then my blog could have ended up containing just 5 sad posts. Heck, I'm pretty sure Jon put money on me giving up after a month while Brett was kinder and said I'd probably sustain it for 3 months. They probably knew that I loooove proving people wrong (bless them), and knew that I would take their cynicism on as a challenge.

Day 288 - Special delivery of macarons

Joanne dropped by unexpectedly tonight with some macarons from Adelaide's The Mac Factory.

My friends make me fat, but I love them for it!

Day 261 - Sushipedia randomness, special orders and sweet boyfriends

Here are 3 things that put a smile on my face today:

1. Randomness - While catching up with Keng over dinner, at the mention of sushi he swiftly whips out his iPhone and launches his Sushipedia app to my wild bemusement. He had downloaded it a while ago in preparation of Japan. (I downloaded it straight away)


2. Special orders - We got some delicious tiramisu from the restaurant next door!



3. Sweet boyfriends - who say sweet things like "I don't think I tell you enough, but you are beautiful." Aww!

Day 260 - 4 things I love about Sydney

1. Sydney is where you can find the world's tastiest dumpling.

Mmm mmmmm. I could never get sick of these babies!


2. Sydney is also where you can find the first Australian Ladurée store. It's so pretty!


Having just opened a couple of weeks ago, there was a huge queue to purchase these exquisite, delicate little morsels. The salted caramel and lemon lime marshmallow blew me away - so divine, I hate so say this but they were well worth the 45 minutes wait!
3. Sydney is where I get to catch up with high school friends I haven't seen for over 10 years!


4. And Sydney is where I can get delicious grilled scallops for $3. Yum! 

Day 256 - Catching up with Jo and chawanmushi

I can't remember exactly how long it's been, but it's been many weeks, if not months, since I've been able to catch up properly with Joanne with zero interruptions.

So today's smile is simple - spending hours tonight idly chatting away with my best friend, laughing over quips that we share, and swapping travel stories and updates.

Oh there were also two helpings of chawanmushi (which is a rare find in Melbourne) mmmmm.

Day 252 - My cute niece and homecooked dinner at Keng's

My niece likes to do this thing that I find incredibly adorable. I've tried capturing it on camera a few times but failed - she becomes conscious of the camera that's staring right at her and begins desperately wanting to play with it (she's been exploring different textures recently). Basically what it is is every time I put her in her high chair and pop into the kitchen to prepare her food, when I look up at her over the counter she always waves gleefully at me. It's such a silly little thing, but I find it sooo cute!

Today, with Brett there to do all the waving, I managed to get a couple of quick snaps.


After a full day of babysitting, we headed over to Keng's for a homecooked meal.




And with all the wonderful food and equally (if not even more) wonderful wine, surrounded by amazing views of twinkling lights and free flowing conversation till 3am in the morning, I couldn't help but think to myself - life is pretty darn good.

I also fell in love with a "fruity notorious black tea"!

Day 249 - Mom's ok, old friends and surprised Snowflake

Today's smiles are from:

1. Finding out that Mom is ok and unscathed after she got into a car accident. More like a big smile of relief. Kids, always wear your seatbelt. 


2. Catching up with an old friend like Wang Wei just like old times, and laughing over his endless supply of hilarious stories over beer and cheap and cheerful Thai takeaway. There were tales about funny, undecipherable colleagues, to a human-hating ragdoll cat named Sunshine who took a massive dump in Wang Wei's bed (under the comforter!), then left an even bigger pile of crap in the middle of the walkway in front of the door after Wang Wei caused her great distress while attempting to communicate using this Human-to-Cat-Translator app! 


3. This!

Day 248 - A good dinner is made of...

Lovely company and dining companions? - Yup. Wang Wei the brilliant storyteller, the eclectic and whimsical Kerry, and fun-times Aaron.

Good food? - Oh yes, dinner was at Chin Chin. Pork roll ups, spanner crab with chilli jam resting on a betel leaf, the insanely spicy duck liver salad...

Were there drinks: - Plenty of wine. My head hurt afterwards.

Was there dessert? - But of course! Kerry and I shared grilled banana roti bread with sweetened condensed milk and cinnamon sugar. Mmmmm condensed milk, I don't think you know how much I love you!

Conversational topics? - All over the place, as usual! There were discussions of how the invention of soap marked the beginning of civilisation, monkey piss, MC DRS' "I don't usually like MC's, but...", countries where beer is cheaper than water, the Paralympics.... I can't remember what else, the wine erased the rest!

Day 205 - Chocolates

How nice is it to get a box of chocolates from a friend for no reason?!? Thanks Christean!

Day 192 - A guy and his cat reading and wine dinner

1. This picture is titled "Just my neighbour and his cat... reading" hahahaha

Source: Digg


2. Tonight was a combination of great company, several good drops and an abundance of glorious food! 

Day 182 - Sunny winter day with Tayfarers, brunch at Breakfast Thieves and Hairspray

On this unexpectedly sunny winter day, I...

...giggled wildly when I saw this in an email. Tayfarers!! Hanson have a hilarious sense of humour!

...had delicious brunch at Breakfast Thieves with lovely company.


...oohed and ahhed over this cute wrapper from Amsterdam (thanks for the goodies Li Jun).

...smiled non-stop throughout Hairspray on tv. It's such a great flick, I can't imagine anyone sitting through it without a perma-smile on their faces! It also covers just about every issue under the sun - integration in the 1960's, body image, social issues, racism, low self-esteem, inter-racial relationships... and of course James Marsden's charm doesn't hurt! Minute 2:08 below ALWAYS makes me weak in the knees!

Day 179 - A nice email and receiving Tiam & Audrey's wedding invitation

1. It's been an insanely manic week at work due to EOFY. Amongst all the chaos, madness and swearing, it was extremely nice to get this email:

It kept me smiling for the rest of the day!


2. Received the invitation to Tiam and Audrey's wedding in the mail today. 

How cute! They've chosen an "Up" themed wedding, should be fun!

Day 169 - Running in the rain, another bin identity crisis and wanting a vajayjay

Today, these made me laugh:

1. As we stepped outside after finishing lunch at Porgie + Mr Jones, it was pouring down with rain. We laughed wildly while making a mad dash to the car in the rain.


2. I saw another bin with an identity crisis.



3. At a party, my (male) friend exclaimed, "I wish I had a vagina! I'd be going 'come and get some'!" and we all burst into laughter. I cannot for the life of me recall why we were talking about vaginas. 

Day 168 - Melbourne laneway treasures and being Asian Buffy

1. Another reason why I love Melbourne is because of all the hidden laneway treasures she has tucked away in her folds, waiting for you to discover them. Today we sought one of them out - Dognation. It's a tiny blink-and-you'll-miss-it store along The Causeway off Bourke St selling gourmet hotdogs with ingredients inspired by the tastes of different nations.

There was the Tokyo Dog, which was a pork and beef sausage wrapped in seaweed, topped with miso-infused mushrooms, wasabi Japanese mayo, okonomiyaki sauce and seaweed flakes. Delish!

And there was the Melbourne Dog, comprised of an Aussie beef and tomato relish sausage with tomato sauce, mustard, onion, cheese and beetroot relish.

Other dogs available currently are the London 'Bangers & Mash' Dog, the Berlin Dog and the Mexico City Chilli Dog. There are talks of a Peking Dog in the works! Ps. Order the potato mash and gravy side OHMYGOD.

Then we stumbled across Chuckle Farm, which looks like this. What a magical little patch.



2. I found out today that I look absolutely HIDEOUS as a blonde!
   
   For Tram's Good vs Evil themed birthday party tonight, we had been toying with many costume ideas for weeks, ranging from yin and yang, naughty schoolteacher and jaded schoolboy, Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise, pedophile priest and sexy nun, child and pedophile priest, Jekyll and Hyde, angel and devil, wife and wifebeater, Kim Jong Il and err innocent citizen... at the final hour, we decided on going as Buffy the vampire slayer and a vampire. Now all we had to do was find a cape, a blonde wig and a stake!
    
Turns out blonde wigs with centre-parted straight hair weren't as easy to find as I thought (almost all wigs have fringes for some reason?!). After trawling through numerous costume and party shops, I finally found it! Upon putting it on and taking a look in the mirror, I burst into hysterics at my fugliness! Hello I'm a crossdresser who's not sure whether to be crazy Conan the Barbarian or a loony caveman!

WOW blonde is definitely not my colour. So freakin' hilarious! How can a wig make me instantly look so unattractive and repulsive?!?!

My new blonde locks got the chop, and I emerged as Buffy the vampire slayer...

...and Brett turned into a vampire!












Sadly, no, blondes don't have more fun. However it's a lot of fun when everyone around you looks just as silly as you do!