What’s inside this very cute polkadot bag?

Oh my… Rebecca Minkoff!

Ta-da!

Bright sexy red!

Oooh la la!

I just love this bag.

It’s small yet I can fit all my essentials in perfectly.

Love the soft leather.

Love the hot red.

Love everything about this bag.

Love you Rebecca Minkoff.

On my trip to San Francisco I decided to treat myself.

So here’s my latest Louis Vuitton purchase!

The Speedy 30 in Damier!

I also bought the scarf because it’s so pretty and shoulder strap as well because it’s really practical to wear it on my shoulders.

I’ve been using it everyday since. I absolutely love it!

Prices

Speedy 30 $890
Shoulder Strap $210
Scarf $150

I am in love with my new Prada shoes. They are made of a beautiful satin and is so soft to touch! They retail for $790 and I got these at Prada Soho NYC. As soon as I got home I couldn’t stop touching them.

Sure, they are a classic black but how can you go wrong with black? I can’t get enough of satin and silk and BOWS! I LOVE BOWS! This shoe is so ME. Loveeeeeee <3

I recently wore them out to dinner at the CN Tower in Toronto.

Last month I decided to invest in a zoom lens (18-200mm) because I like to travel a lot and I hate changing lenses. I decided on a Sigma lens as it’s significantly cheaper than a Canon but just as good.

Before this lens, I had the 18-55, and while I could get a wide range at 18mm, I couldn’t get up close at things at 55mm. I’m really happy with my 18-200mm lens so far!

Here’s some example shots I took with the lens.. They’re not great shots since it was a horribly cloudy day, so just disregard the image quality for the moment and check out the zoooooooooooooooom.. Professional photographers are probably rolling their eyes at me right now thinking “amateur……” Hahahaha.

Here’s the lens at 18mm. See how it’s really zoomed out.

This is my lens at 55mm (the closest my old lens could get)

This is my new lens at 200mm. See the difference!

I had one of those moments where I was absolutely starving and I had no idea what to eat! I opened up the freezer and saw that I’ve had a packet of udon which has been sitting there for a long time now because I had no idea what to do with it. I knew I had to use this up soon (especially since it’s taking up precious freezer space) so I googled some udon recipes and tried to throw something together with the ingredients I had!

I started off by boiling the udon in a saucepan. Cook this until it expands a little and is nice and firm, yet smooth and a bit soft.

While that’s cooking up, I fried some onions, spring onions (green onions), shitake mushroom and beensprout in a frying pan.

Add some soy sauce and seaweed and mixed this up. Cook this for about 2-5 minutes.

Once the  udon is done, add this to the pan and mix. I also added some black pepper (because I love pepper so much)

Then serve! :)

This was actually surprisingly more tasty that I expected! Must be the flavour from the shitake mushrooms and the seaweed! When I ate this, I added some Shichimi Togarashi (Japanese spice) and it was amazing. Yum yum.

In light of ANZAC Day, I decided to make ANZAC biscuits (or biccies!). I’ve grown up loving ANZAC biscuits (and not just because ANZAC Day is my birthday) but because they are truly delicious!

They are popular in Australia and New Zealand, being made out of rolled oats, flour, coconut, sugar, butter, golden syrup, bicarbonate of soda and boiling water.

I’ve been asked numerous amount of times why these biscuits are called ANZAC Biscuits and I have to be honest, I did not know. I did know however that ANZAC stands for the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps and ANZAC Day is a national day that we hold in honourary memory of them.

Upon some internet research, I found that the biscuits were sent by wives to soldiers abroad because they were worried about the nutrition of their husbands, and also the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation. These biccies can stand up to months unrefrigerated!

What I love even more about these biccies is that they are extremely easy to make with very little ingredients. I used this recipe I found online. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar
125g (4oz) butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 300F (150C)

Mix oats, flour, sugar and coconut together.
Melt syrup and butter together.
Mix soda with boiling water and add to melted butter and syrup.
Add to dry ingredients.
Place 1 tablespoonfuls of mixture on greased tray (allow room for spreading).
Bake for 20 minutes.
Loosen while warm, cool on trays.

So the other day I got back home from work absolutely starving! I needed to cook something QUICKLY. I searched my fridge and I had some left over beef, onion and green peppers. I then searched my cupboard and I found a brand new jar of Black Pepper Sauce.

Perfect! I can make Black Pepper Beef, but one thing was that I had never cooked it before. But because it’s one of my most loved dishes (and also because I was so starving) I thought I would attempt to make something up. So here we go…

So in went the beef on the pan with some oil. Sizzle sizzle.

This is my Black Pepper Sauce I bought from T&T.

Once the beef is done, add 3 tablespoons of the sauce and 3 tablespoons of water.

Add chopped up onion and green peppers. (By the way, I wish I also had red peppers which would’ve been nice but at this time I was too hungry to care)

And mix it up!

And then serve!

Looking pretty tasty for such a simple dish, right?

I was pretty ready to gobble this up right from the bowl as seen above, but I try to keep my rule consistent: one meat dish and one vegetable dish to eat with rice. So I added some bok choy and some oil to the wok.

Add some soya sauce.

And then serve!

YUM.

I love easy simple meals… Let me tell you – this was soooooo good. I was a very happy girl after this. Hahaha.

So we’re just one month away until the Youth Festival: “Your Victory is My Victory”, which is taking place on May 15, 2010 at Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto, Canada. SGI Canada youth members from all over Canada will be performing at this event.

The SGI youth in Toronto will be performing the following:

• Hip-hop
• Latin
• Youth Chorus
• Youth Band

I know that the SGI youth in Vancouver will be dancing alongside with us Toronto-nians in the hip-hop dance, but I am unsure what else may be in store! I’m excited to find out! I’m sure it all will be amazing.

So I’m part of the hip-hop dance group for this event. This is our second last practice until the dress rehearsal! I took a couple of snaps for all of you to take a sneak peak to this much anticipated event.

By the way, if you’re interested in coming – make sure you get your tickets quick! You can purchase tickets at Roy Thomson Hall online or you can simply purchase tickets at the box office. Please make sure you also visit the Youth Festival official website for more information!

1. What was the single best thing that happened this past year?
   I moved to Canada. It was scary, exciting and a extremely different lifestyle that I needed to get accustomed to quickly.

2. What was the single most challenging thing that happened?
   Trying to find a job in Canada! A lot of recruiters kept telling me that it would be difficult to find a job as I had no Canadian experience or Canadian credit history. It really dampened my spirits for a long time but I was able to find a job in the end!

3. What was an unexpected joy this past year?
   Haha isn’t “unexpected joy” usually in reference to a baby??? That is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN IN LIKE A BILLION YEARS. Anyway, I suppose it was when I was able to find a job in Canada.

4. What was an unexpected obstacle?
   I’m not really sure? I knew establishing a new life in Canada would be hard (finding a job, finding a place to live, finding new friends, familiarising myself with the city).

5. Pick three words to describe 2009.
   Different, cold, exciting.

6. Pick a theme song that describes 2009.
   Not sure about a particular song.. But for sure the Ministry of Sound Annual 2009 CD1!

7. What were the best books you read this year?
   RED DRESS WALKING – This book really made me think about the way relationships work. They definitely take two people, and miscommunication is so easy to let it get in the way of things.

   Marley & Me – such a cute book!

   The Pact is another book that stood out for me but I didn’t quite like the ending but I liked the issues that the author raised.
   

8. With whom were your most valuable relationships?
   My SGI family who really helped me in Toronto. My bf and his family for being there for me and also being my other family.

9. In what way did you grow emotionally?
   I have definitely matured a lot since I’ve left Australia and am now living on my own. I believe I am more independent and appreciative of what I already had. I grew to appreciate my parents, that money doesn’t come by so easily, and is very easy to spend. I finally realised how hard it must’ve been for my parents to move from Malaysia to Australia to start a brand new life. I also learned to be more considerate of others going through the same hardships. So many people had lost their jobs in the financial crisis and trying to live life without an income is extremely difficult.

10. In what way did you grow in your relationships with others?
    Having matured a lot, I learned to be a better daughter, sister, girlfriend, friend to everybody, while realising I still have a long way to go. I am appreciative of everybody’s support for me. It has helped me so much to grow as a person and I am who I am because of all the people around me.

11. What was the most enjoyable area of managing your home?
    Getting new furniture for my own bedroom was fun! I was Ikea shopping a lot.. Hahahaa.. But the kitchen too! I never knew how to cook before I moved to Canada so I am proud that I can now live quite comfortably with feeding myself. The first time I cooked for myself literally was in the first week I was alone in Canada… Thank you to my mummy for all her tips over Skype. Haha!

12. What was your most challenging area of home management?
    I am a spoilt child because my mother had always cleaned up after us at home. Moving away meant I had to do everything myself. So going from cleaning NOTHING to cleaning EVERYTHING was huge for me but it’s definitely becoming a good habit of mine. While I’m incredibly lazy, I don’t like to be dirty, cleaning hasn’t been too hard….. Except for getting myself to clean the toilet…. So gross!!! Everytime I think it’s time to clean it I definitely ponder whether I want to hire someone to do it for me. Hahahaha. So bad!

13. What was your single biggest time waster in your life this past year?
    Annoying people! For sure! People who only think of themselves. I’ve tried my best to not let them get to me. But they’re the biggest waste of my energy! I have a tendency to get easily frustrated with them. Haha.. Must change!
    
    I also realised how much time cooking takes! OMG! Sometimes I come home and I just want to eat RIGHT AWAY. I now know that that can’t happen. Hahaha… I also realised how much effort cleaning takes! OMG! Hahaha…. All my time just passes so quickly. Oh dear.
    
    
14. What was the best way you used your time this past year?
    I’ve caught up on a lot of tv shows! While you might think that’s a waste of time, I’ve been watching 30 Rock which makes me happy because it’s so hilarious and shows like FNL teach me a lot about people. So I don’t think they’re a waste of time at all! Haha!
    
    I also got to do a lot of reading. Books are fantastic.
    
    
15. Create a phrase or statement that describes 2009 for you.
    How about I pick two quotes that meant a lot to me for 2009? I’m not really creative enough to create a statement myself! Haha.

    “Everything depends on what is in our hearts. If we decide to ourselves that something is impossible, then, consistent with our minds in thinking so, even something that is possible for us will become impossible. On the other hand, if we have the confidence that we can definitely do something, then we are already one step closer to achieving it in reality.” – Daisaku Ikeda

    “The place where you are now is vital. Never avoid what you must face. Challenge your circumstances and steadily persevere. The path toward victory opens from where you stand.” – Daisaku Ikeda

    I read theses quotes a lot whenever I felt defeated. I visited http://www.ikedaquotes.org/ a lot for his wisdom which provided me a lot of inspiration and hope. In turn that motivated me to live my life to the fullest. Thank you so much to SGI. <3

On the way back from Atlantic City, James’ mom drove us to the New Jersey Premium Outlets. There was an additional 50% off the sale price! Crazy. I got myself the below heart pendant. It’s gorgeous.. And massive!

But if you think that’s massive, James’ mom got herself an even bigger crystal! I don’t have any pics of it, but it was pretty too.