skyblue Perspectives
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5
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moon
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sky
Welcome.
Please give me your blog links, esp. if they have previously been on this blog. Thank you.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The last two weeks I have been spending way over my budget, and it looks like I am going to this week. Within two days, my expenses are already over a hundred bucks. This includes one driving lesson, one shopping spree, and one monthly handphone bill. The rest goes mostly to eating out - which actually only happened today. It could have been avoided except that I was consecutively bombarded by invitations to go out. Oh did I forget to mention? I'm having my hols now.
This is the 4th day of my Spring Break - when flowers bloom, studies are forgetten, and winter is no longer in sight (except for the occasional wind and rain which usually happens at night but have been occuring too frequently in the day for comfort).
After my driving lesson yesterday, I went to Bridge Rd with Julius to meet Yanfen for shopping, which I haven't done ever since I came back to melb. Bridge Rd has many small shops with lots of cheap stuff and factory outlets for the branded goods. I bought 2 jackets and 1 top, for A$15 each (~S$20). By the end of that 4hr trip, I was exhausted. Never knew that shopping could be so tiring. $45 is quite a large portion of my budget, but I think the money was well spent considering what I bought back (even though they weren't what I had in mind to buy.. but isn't that usually the case for shopping...).
This morning Jansen and I went to the market and grocery stores, bought what we needed, had lunch at my place, and he went home after that. We were done by 2pm, and I thought I had the whole afternoon to myself, until Ana called me and asked if I wanted to watch the Rat movie. I wasn't interested in the show, so I told her I would meet her and the others for shopping in melb central before the movie instead, which was at 4pm. At 3pm, I left home and met up with her, adelene and celina. Ana was craving for ice cream, so she went to buy, and somehow the topic drifted to Krispy Kremes. There was an outlet there, and since adelene hadn't tried it before, we went to buy one each. There's a new 'limited' edition of Chocolate Glazed so we all got that. Seriously sinful.
While eating our donuts, Yanfen called and asked me if I was free from 4pm onwards. She and Jian Sheng had cycled to Brighton Beach and met Hobart there, and now they were done and wanting to go to Brunswick St. for dessert. I had nothing from the time their movie started till dinner at 7pm, so I agreed. Well done. Met hob at melb central, walked to brunswick st, and walked around that area until the other two cycled from brighton. Brunswick St. is seriously beautiful. It's full of art shops and cafes with gardens, flower boutiques, clothes shops, and all other kinds of shops you would expect to find in a small town in Europe. Moreover it was approaching sunset, so even though the place was bustling with traffic and trams, it was still lovely just walking past those shops. It's a must for me to go back there to explore.
When yanfen and jiansheng arrived, we went into a cafe selling homemade cakes. That place was not very well-lit, and the counters displayed a whole galore of cakes, ranging from the chocolate ones, cheescakes, to the more fruity ones and small muffins. And, it's much cheaper than those found along lygon or in the city. We ordered a Vanilla Slice, Blueberry Cheesecake, and a Carrot Cake. The vanilla slice was a light eggy cream sandwiched between two layers of puff pastry. Hob described it as eating a cloud. I think it's just impossible to get sick of eating it. The blueberry cheesecake in comparison was much heavier and richer, but the cheese was strong. It's almost as good as eating philidelphia cream cheese on its own, with lemon and blueberries added to it. You get the idea. It's also one of the few slices of blueberry cheesecake that actually contains whole blueberries in abundance in it. The carrot cake was nice as well, but it had more fruits than a carrot taste, and the cream cheese on top of it tasted a little weird. For 3 slices of cake for the 4 of us, we spent $3.10 each (KK was $2.25 for one).
One of the famous shops of Brunswick St. is a chocolatier called San Churros. Churros is a kind of spanish donut that's long and thin in shape, and dusted in sugar. They used to sell it at a stall outside the Marche in Heeren, and it was dusted in cinnamon sugar instead. So far, I still prefer the one at heeren. All those here are extremely deep fried and only coated in icing, which takes away much of the pleasure of eating Churros. As we stepped out of the cake shop, the evening wind blew and chilled us all. So, someone suggested warming up by means of hot chocolate, and along Brunswick St., which other better place than San Churros? The two guys ordered a hot choc drink called Buddha Baci, which is literally pure molten chocoloate infused with hazelnut. It's so rich lah. I dunno how hob can finish it on his own. Jiansheng couldn't take all that richness so yanfen and I helped him to finish it (hehe). We girls shared a plate of Classic Churros, which is just the donuts and a dip (white, milk or dark choc) of milk choc. That cost us $3.50 each.
So in all, I spent close to $9 on dessert today. Having it in Beautiful Brunswick made it seem less sinful though. It's a lifestyle unique to countries with European descent (whatever happened to spore...), and an experience on its own.
That leaves the KK unaccounted for. Sinful.
Moreover, tmr we'll be going to Lionel's hse to make oreo cheesecake, and after that, dinner at Boxhill. Boxhill has many Chinese migrants, so the Chinese food is supposedly better and cheaper there. We shall see... and that means more spending. On thursday, our comm meeting is over dinner at La Porchetta (think Pasta Mania) - more money spent.
Call me a cheapskate, but... how not to exceed budget like that?
(oh and I exceeded my cap for handphone bills for last month too. $14 extra on top of my monthly plan.)
I need to work.
5.moon.sky
7:34 pm
This picture was taken at a CSS 2006 Trivarsity Retreat at The Church of St. Teresa, by a fellow retreat cum CSS member.
Besides its bluish hue, I love how the shot was taken: from the church looking out to the city. We are often attracted by
the excitement that this world has to offer, but we should often be reminded that as Catholics, it is important
to look back at our selves to reflect, and to turn to God as often as it possible. For we are, afterall, children of God.
I thought of replacing this picture when I lost my template, but I could not find another so full of meaning and beauty to me.
It reminds me of my identities and roles - my spirituality, my God, my home, the people who read this blog, and of my own beauty.
Nicole
13 October 1987
(what do people usually say?)
a person of few words
unless you know me really well
but since you're reading this blog most likely you do
so whatever you don't already know about me you should be able to find it out here
anything else, just ask me
ninjaturtle87@hotmail.com
oh and don't bother asking me out
unless you want to go Down Under
mood: resigned
song in her head: wants to give you up. she knows you're not the one. not the one who understands her. not the one who wants to support her and love her for all her imperfections.
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