A.A.- Appealing Aroma

Hi everyone!

I brought half of the cake I baked yesterday to school today and shared it with some special people :) Seems like I have not lost my touch- this encouraged me to bake again. :D  And atm, I have 12 cupcakes sitting on the kitchen table, waiting to be iced. Mmm.  Yesternight, I had a bit of leftover ganache, and I spent the rest of the night eating that stuff. Lol. I need to exercise. SKIPPING!  Yus. So I opted for butter icing instead of ganache on these cupcake babies. Hopefully they'll be just as good.

Photos later.

Not much to blog about today, except :O --> Baker's Delight? INDEEDY xD Delightful.

Humdiho.

Today when I was fblog (hehe food blog) surfing, I found Betty's Bites which was EXTREMELY interesting to me; esp her latest post about high tea at the Swissotel.  Those of you who have been following for a while will know I've wanted to go to a dessert buffet/high tea restaurant or any kind of dessert restaurant for a very long time, and I've considered the Swissotel and many others before.

To see her post on the Swissotel, click here!

During the next few years I'll be spending my weekends doing fun fun things like eating my way around Sydney. Since I probably won't make many friends while attending university during the evening ==; I'll probably have no one to eat with, so those who are interested, volunteer! TELL ME YOU WANT TO EAT WITH ME! And I'll try to organise something throughout the year. 

SPEAKING OF ORGANISED EVENTS~ Blackmore's Sydney Running Festival is going on this SUNDAY, 20th September.  I got a call from a lady asking if I had any queries, and I said "YES I DO" and asked her about public transport.

Apparently, the light rail is supposed to operate during special occasions such as these, but I am waiting for her to call back confirming that.  It has been about 2 hours since she called, so now I am a bit ermy about the "facts" she gave me. Will check up later- if I remember. Someone double check. I'm really bad at reading/comprehending things (as reflected in my Advanced English Paper One exam XD)

LETS GO EATING AFTERWARDS IN OUR FUNKY VOLUNTEER TSHIRTS AND CAPS!

The question is.. where? And what type?

During the past years of my life, my family and I have always gone to eat Japanese and Chinese, Vietnamese- Asian cuisine.  We never go to fancy Western restaurants where they serve plates with gazillions of spoons and forks on the side.  Infact, the time Shaun took us to Catalonia was the first time I had ever walked into some kind of Western alfresco dining.

Pause. My sister finished yesterday's cake. LOL! In less than 10 minutes, she finished about 1/3 of the cake which was leftover from this morning. Holy crap. HAHA She's worse than me. :( The future looks grim. It's bad enough that we like the same types of food- but now I have to compete with a super fast eater? NO WAY!  Unpause.

My dad's actually quite an anti-western cuisine person.  He doesn't even like japanese all that much.  "Chinese is the best" is something he says alot- but I have to disagree. Although the portions may be generous and the flavours strong, IT'S JUST SO DIFFERENT from Western stuff I don't think it should be compared!  This is why I'm quite eager to eat at restaurants which serve fusion foods (lol sounds funky).  Like Tetsuya's. 

Hm. I don't know what to say now.  Once I click "Publish Post" I know I'll have a whole crapload of stuff to say.  ==;  I'm just so distracted by the smell of cupcakes and thinking about The Tea Room :D:D:D

Oh yes- for all those who are like me and own NO make up (leading up to formal) I'd like to present to you a really horrible fact. I asked my cousin when I was on the phone with her earlier, about how much in total her set of face painting gear costs and she said some number with three digits.

HOLY GUACAMOLE.

If I rock up looking plain and normal you'll know why ;)

ZZZ. Single ladies ;) I am dancing.. again- even though I said I'd never do that again. Ohmygosh It looks so hard. :(

Banana Co

I was losing concentration about 15 minutes ago because some idiot decided to bounce a basketball right outside my house. :@! Luckily for me, D's car sped into the street and the dude had to run away to prevent being run over.

ANYWAY. I decided to net surf for a bit and found BANANACO. For the second time today, I wished I could read/understand korean. (hehe injoke).

:O IF I COULD READ KOREAN, I would be able to find out whether this place ships overseas!!!  They have some terribly cute stuff I think would make great gifts you know :)

Hehehehe.

Whoops. I just noticed the google translation toolbar. Okay. Everything's good. I understand what the stuff in the nav bar says now XD  If I wasn't afraid of getting my ears pierced, I'd purchase some shiny goods from this site, but alas, I'm a shet scared of pain... and infection.

How I found this site?  Through Yumeko. This lady seriously travels abroad alot, and well- I think it's really interesting seeing what places she visits, etc so I'm still following.  I was mainly interested in her HK trip and her $US4.50 Pho she found in HK ... mmm and the Maritime Shopping Square? I vaguely remember being there actually. She visited Sham Shui Po :D

At the moment she's in London, and from her pictures, it looks pretty nice :O  I thought London was cold, dark and dreary... ==; too much Oliver Twist eh.

:( I want to travel.

Hope all you Japanese extension people are studying hard right now :) Big day tomorrow. :D:D What happens after the exam is super exciting I think. PHOTOS. LOTS AND LOTS OF PHOTOS AVAILABLE.

@Chris Au if you're reading this and not studying; bring your camera tomorrow! It's nicer than mine :(

Still looking for a non dslr :( camera which is compact and sturdy enough for me. I've heard some pretty good stuff about Panasonic Lumix (GF1)- except it looks fug, and my dad hates panasonic... :/ (why?!)  Is the lens not good?! D:  I've heard they use the same lenses as Canon. But I'm not sure.  I don't know much about cameras- so those who do  :D please share your expertise!  Pricewise, I'm trying to keep it below $500. X)

THANKYOU. GOODLUCK. GOODBYE and if you see me online, tell me to gtfo pls ==;

OHMAGAD

As a few of you know, I've been reading.

OHMYGAD.
OH MY GAD.

JACOB IMPRINTS ON RENESMEE.

What kind of name is Renesmee.
What kind of imprint is this? Wolf + crossbred vamp.
WHAT KIND OF STORY TELLER IS STEPHANIE MEYER XD XD  Gosh, her books have given me many lol moments. My parents + sister think I'm watching some kind of stand up comedy show. 

I liked the story line in New Moon. Twilight triggered alot of "wtf" moments, but Breaking Dawn and Eclipse kinda sucked.  The story sucked when Bella Swan turned into a Vamp. No offence to any Twilight fans, but, seriously, she sucks, and so does Edward Cullen. XD  I was warming up to Jacob Black but wth imprinting on a BABY?!

/twilight saga rant. Crappy saga. Bahaha. Crappy love story, but interesting turn of events.

BACK TO READING THE CHRESTOMANCI SERIES. :D DIANA WYNNE JONES ROCKS MY SOCKS.

A couple of months ago, I found it a tad embarrassing to walk into a library and head to the youth fiction shelves to pick out the Chrestomanci/Roswell novels, but then I discovered E-books so. :] It's all great now.  I've never actually watched the Roswell series, but I've read EVERY single book and I am super impressed.  When I was a kid I read alot of the Sabrina and Buffy novels.  Now I can't force myself to pick up a Buffy book and read, because every now and then I just turn around to check if there's some kind of evil magicker standing behind me.  The same happens when I'm watching Ghost Whisperer. BUT IT'S SO GOOD! D:  Before that, I used to read the Baby Sitter's Club and something similar to that.

Girl Talk was the first novel series I owned. (Harry Potter being the second)  Both are incomplete because my mum doesn't believe in buying books because we can borrow them anytime at the library.  I don't agree with her. If I had it my way (and lots of money) I'd have my own personal library.  There's nothing more satisfying than sitting in a sofa reading a book, finishing it, walking to the shelf and fetching the sequel in the comfort of your own home.

I really like sequels.  Sometimes I feel really disappointed when a novel finishes because, well, it's the end- there is no more. No more drama, action, no more anything. So I love series. :)  Probably also explains why I liked watching Neighbours so much. Bahaha. Neighbours seems very real, because the people age with us (not like creepy muppets who look the same after a decade), but I guess after so many years the story/plot starts getting recycled and reused, it isn't much fun to watch anymore.

Oh gosh, I suddenly remembered! THE REDWALL SERIES. HAHA Gosh I remember the boys in primary school used to love the books about talking mice, and I didn't pick up a Redwall book until high school. Loved it.  Actually, in hindsight, I was a bit of a bookworm.  And I went through phases.

Primary school: Nancy Drew, Baby Sitter's Club, Goosebumps (yes there was a HUGE section of Goosebumps books at NRPS :D), Buffy, Chrestomanci etc.

Early high school- mainly series, ie the ones I talked about before.

Later high school- I started reading independent novels- Actually, I have no idea what to call these. Just novels without sequels, and Bryce Courtneyish books. I liked power of one, even though it took me like a quarter of a year to get through the first few chapters, and in yr 10- Chick literature. ITS SO WITTY AND FUNNY! It was also quite bitchy and the story moved quite quickly from one point to another. Kathy Lette, one of my favourite authors HAPPENS TO BE MARRIED TO GEOFFREY ROBERTSON.  I sort of understand why I like the humour in The Justice Game. 8)

Ahh. I'm rambling about books and tv. Yes. Didn't have an interesting day today.  Late last night I decided I'll stay at home today to study some japext because Wednesdays are pretty er uneventful for me.  I usually leave before/during recess- bludge day.

Anything interesting happening before Saturday?

Digressing, I WISH I WAS AS SMART AS THIS LADY. She set up her own online shop and I bet she earns lotsa $$$ doing something she likes.

I never knew these things came in so many different colours (Holy crap at Helios and Bermuda). :/  I saw Cheryl's impressive birthday present and I immediately recognised it was from Swarovski.  I feel so educated and learned. Teehee. I'm not sure whether I've blogged about DSK before, but I've been following her since I discovered her site in the very beginning and was thoroughly disappointed when I found out she didn't ship internationally!!! And then that changed, along with her style, and then came the pearls. Not a fan of pearls so :/ yeah. I think she's gone back to playing around with crystals, so those who like shiny stuff, it's a good place to choose something.  Her models all look kinda scary though. I wish I was a genius like her and thought of that idea first. Damnit. I do nothing productive except reading nowadays. T_T;

Another blog I read belongs to Tiffany.  I know some of you have clicked on the link posted on my blog, so you know what an interesting life she leads. WHAT THE HELL so much happens everyday in her life, and seriously, if you think I sleep little, you'd be shocked upon hearing what time she goes to bed. It's nuts.  She's a fashion student, leading a COMPLETELY different life to the rest of us, and I just find it interesting reading about the life of someone else who isn't obsessed with marks and reports and that yucky stuff of sorts.

Then come the food blogs. Over the past couple of months, I've discovered HEAPSand HEAPS and FREAKING heaps of food blogs; they're all really, really, REALLY interesting/colourful to visit, but I won't list them here.  Usually clicking on the names of commentors on Grabyourfork or Chocolatesuze will get you to a food appreciation blog. :] Life can be so convenient.

Another site I visit VERY OFTEN, is Ikea. It's just the epitome of great. I spend an unhealthy amount of time on Ikea and Ebay. Not that I ever buy anything! I can't trust myself to set up a Paypal account. I know impulse buying will hit the roof so :) no paypal for Belle. At least until my stable income commences to filter into my bank account.

Funnily enough, I don't really log into FB or MSN anymore.  That means no more bejeweled (thank goodness I got over that), Happy Farm and Restaurant City.  Hopefully I'll never start playing these games again.  With those out of my life, the days have started to feel a bit longer now. Which is a relief, because someone keeps telling me how many weeks I have until the HSC starts. Yes. Thanks. Thanks a whole lot.  And apparently we only have 3 weeks of high school left?

A part of me is really, REALLY looking forward to just being on the way towards becoming independent, but the other part is just :/ unwilling, I guess?  Once I turn 18, I don't really want to progress onto 19. Nineteen from eighteen feels alot more than seventeen from sixteen. =__=;  Once I grow older, I think I'll be afraid of fetching the mail.  I know my parents hate it. Bills and invoices. Lol. :) At the moment I usually get happy packages and the odd ugly bank statement.

All is well in the land of Belle.

Hope you are all fine, and STUDY HARD JAPPERS :)