Dogs need makeover too



After some pampering (a bath and a stylist hair-do) time...this dog finally got adopted from the Nth Melbourne Lost Dog's Home. I think he's called Roger.....Apparently he's been waiting for someone to adopt him for 27 days...and his time will run out if no one picks him up on the 28th day.......because they will have to send him to doggy heaven........OH NOOOooo

Then the Herald Sun ran a news on him after his beatification process compliments of grooming saloon, and immediately the phone rang like crazy with people wanting to adopt him...

Aint he a little handsome dog (Muffin is MORE HANDSOME!!!!!)

Therefore I urge people to go to the Lost Dog's Home (2 Gracie St, Nth melbourne) to adopt a dog instead of spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars at the pet shop.....give these dogs another chance to live....

Soup time on cold cold Melbourne winter nights



Chinese herbal chicken soup this time....trying to get some 'good stuff' into my body....

I didn't take a picture of the soup because it looks like any ordinary chicken soup...

I had chicken soup the past two nights...with rice....and thick ABC soya sauce to dip my chicken pieces...yumm

Oh...and chinese pickled cabbages too..... double yummm

New kitchen gadget (borrowed!!!!)

Introducing the newest addition to my kitchen.....da KITCHEN AID MIXER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aint it the bestest looking thing ever? It whips up the best egg whites....solid....and everything is so even..so pro.....

This cool gadget belongs to one of my bestie...Yi...she has decided to let her mixer stay at my house......(obviously I don't charge the mixer any rent! hehhee)......

Now that I've seen the wonders it can do....I want one too......

We baked Yi's famous Orange/Chocolate Flourless cake (recipe tried and tried and tried and edited 30 times to perfection)...and guess what? We were probably too distracted by the handsome-ness of the mixer that we forgot to double the butter............but the cake turned out pretty good too..a little spongier than usual....but it was still BLISSFUL eating it... (i forgot to take the picture of the finished product!!!!)

Checkout the amount of eggs we used.....(12!!!!!)

With this in my kitchen, I have to make good use of it....so be prepared to see more coming out of Van's Kitchen......

Tea places....

I have a thing for Tea Shops...Just walking into a tea shop and smelling that wonderful aroma is heavenly....

My favourite tea places...to buy tea leaves are:

1) Mariage Freres (BEST TEA SHOP IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!)
Sorry we can't get it in Australia...But u can shop online...but the freight cost is too much...maybe next time when I'm in Paris again I'll buy more for my girls...(i think there's a franchise in Japan....hmmm that would be much much closer)

2) l'epicier (QV)
Nice Japanese tea...but i think the packaging is nicer..hhahaa...most of the Japanese products are packaged very well..I'm a sucker for pretty things..(can't find a nice photo of that place...but u can google it)

3) Tea Leaves (Sassafras)

Haven't been up to Sassafras since 2006 April...and I absolutely adore that Tea Leaves shop...was tempted to buy some more French Earl Grey but guess what? I didn't.....No more unnecessary spending!!!!! There's a whole bag of Mariage Freres French Blue Earl Grey sitting in the pantry.

Have you ever?



Seen such a big Chariot of cheese???? I was gobsmacked when the lady pushed out those cheeses....i didn't know what to pick. There were so so so many types of cheese....i got CHEEZED over...(thank goodness i wasn't the one that ate the one that tasted like 'crap') hehehhee

oh...how i miss the warm weather of Bordeaux...and its touristy town of St Emilion where we stayed for 2 nights..





The day we went hot air ballooning....over the beautiful vineyards.....chateaus.....what a life....

To delete or not to delete....


(a pic taken by Joe...on the way back from Colac.....beautiful canolas)

Dear blog readers....(especially to my train/tram buddy Kevin)....I've been thinking lately should i just get rid of this blog. This is due to my lack of commmitment of updating it....and I shoudn't just leave it as it is...

I'll see if I'm motivated the next few weeks to snap away....and upload pics....

Lemme see....actually I did do something pretty exciting last week which I could have taken a photo of...damn..i should've taken the photo of my first EXO!!!!! The first tooth.....mmmMmmmMmm......

(image from www.mrcad.com)

Breathtakingly beautiful France....

A few pictures taken from our recent trip to Paris..

 

Notre-Dame is French for Our Lady, referring to the Virgin Mary   

 

Portrait of Lisa Gherardini (Mona Lisa) in the Musee du Louvre

(It was really hard to get a picture of it.....all those tourists!!!!!)

Monet's Water Lilies as displayed in the oval rooms of the Musee de l'Orangerie