When Jun and i landed in Melbourne, Uncle & Aunty Wong came to pick us up from the airport and immediately brought us home to stuff us with dim sum made in their own factory. One couldn’t ask for a more comforting breakfast after a red-eye flight!
They heated up so many dim sum like drunken prawns, and a petai variation (which was really good!) that i veered to overeating as opposed to being impolite. #chineselikethat
That afternoon Kanch came to grab Jun and i to spend the weekend at hers.
Those two got to polishing off half a bottle of Jinzu while i napped cos i couldn’t take it anymore.
We went to Movida for tapas dinner of lamb cutlets, air dried wagyu with poached egg and truffle foam, beetroot with buratta, duck liver pate, and zucchini flower. Then Garden State Hotel for coffee martinis, followed by The Collins Quarter for white wine.
On Sat morn, us three optimistically planned to get some exercise (a jog or run) and brunch, so we all wore our gym clothes out. We headed for a very delicious brunch of avocado smash, and beetroot waffle with hot smoked salmon, creme fraiche and poached egg at Fourth Chapter. That beetroot waffle still sits lovingly in my mind’s mouth! After brunch we walked down the street and Kanch decided to show off her favourite bottle store to Jun. So much for taking a jog. End up window shopping alcohol.
30 minutes later, the sun was out and it was turning out to be such a beautiful Saturday! Kanch and i looked down at ourselves and just weren’t feeling this workout attire, so we headed home to change into our pretty weekend outfits. Jun was a little exasperated but he knew better than so stand in the way of two women with their minds made up. It was too hot to run! I told him to please go ahead, but Kanch and i were gonna take a stroll and catch up instead.
And stroll we did, in Queen Victoria Park for almost an hour! We found a lost phone, called the person back, a guy answered, Kanch fantasized it was a cute man, but when he came to claim it he turned out the opposite and not very polite at all cos he didn’t even thank us for returning his phone. Ah well.
My fave pointer finger ring from Thomas Sabo.
I’m reallyyyy loving this top from Aria The Label, i even wore it on my birthday in blogpost before this :p
I wasn’t really sure what i wanted to do for my birthday, because i was gonna be in Australia for so many weeks beforehand, and felt i might want to just decompress after the trip.
Also, 34 isn’t a particularly spectacular figure. 33 is kinda cool cos it’s a double digit, 35 is the half mark into the 3rd decade, but 34 is neither here nor there. I was open to the idea of just going with the flow and having a really quiet one. 3-4 days before my bday, which fell on a Friday, i decided to text a bunch of people to have dinner at Ad Hog cos i thought i’d really like to get lots of hugs from friends that day 😀
Jun insisted on making dinner for my birthday eve, and i opted for Chinese food where we also had Mama, Uncle Mark and Aunt G over.
He cooked spicy assam fish (his mum’s recipe, sowh damn good), veggies, braised mushrooms, soup, and his grannie’s recipe of fatty pork + egg.
Mama taking a break after eating.
I kept catching 11:11 and 1:11 when checking the time only every few hours. I took it as a good sign the angels are with me.
On my actual birthday, it auspiciously fell on the same day as Malayalee New Year / Vishu, Baisakhi, Tamil New Year, AND Good Friday. Dhanya invited me to her family home to sample her mum’s annual vegetarian feast. I couldn’t think of a better meal i’d have loved to have for lunch and immediately said YES. The memory of her mum’s mango chutney rings in my mind months after it’s passed through my mouth, and she only cooks it once a year! And that is, if i’m lucky enough to be invited cos each of her 3 daughters only invites a few friends.
My banana leaf on the right. I continuously topped up on various dishes and rice as i went along… and slowly ate what must have been two helpings of everything and was SO satisfied and stuffed after.
KBF has been running some digital projects for Sasa Malaysia, and we’ve been loving it cos the team there are lovely (and all girls woohoo) and i find them so easy to work with. It’s pushed us to work with influencers out of the usual bunch we engage for other brands, from teenagers to hijab KOLs. Peeps totally out of the circles i see at events. Very interesting.
I digressed. The point of this blogpost (as title suggests) is this make up collection Sasa sent to me. Dahlah i’m happy enough we work on things with them, and they send me more make up too!?
I had to blog about it cos this collection is slick.
As you know, i cannot bear taking more than 15 mins to apply make up. I swear this was the result. The eyeshadows are really smooth and easy to blend!
Unrelated – when i posted the pic above, someone commented my fingers are really long. Hell yeah, i could reach an octave when i was a kid. Unfortch i haven’t touched the piano for years now.
Please admire the earrings in the pic. They’re a piece of pride in my accessory collection, crafted by metal smiths in Bali. I never wore them for years and just kept them in a box. Bought them back when i didn’t have property bills x1033984 to nurse. And nowadays, i just USE all my prized possessions. What’s the point of them sitting in a box for nobody to see?
The sunset that day killed it with my make up. #casafairy ftw
I tasked myself with booking the accommodation for Sydney when my family and i went there for my cousin’s wedding.
In true Joyce-last-minute-travel style, i booked them rather hurriedly one Sunday afternoon i blocked JUST FOR searching for Airbnbs. There are so many to choose from, and i was a little stressed if the place turned out crap (cos it’s not just ME staying, it’s my parents!) so i read through reviews and went through neighbourhoods that we would have a nice experience living in.
Every time i stay in a location for a week or more, i always book two diff airbnbs in diff neighbourhoods, just cos i think it’s nice to get a feel of diff grids in the same city!
In Berlin, i stayed in classy Mitte, before moving to artsy party Kreuzberg.
In Las Vegas, Yishyene and i tried staying in the city, as well as the old side of Vegas.
In Porto i stayed in a beautiful modern city flat right above the bars, before moving to a more rustic one by the water.
In Tokyo, we tried quaint neighbourhood Nakameguro, before moving to Shinjuku for the weekend.
Maybe one day if i get to it, i’ll do a blogpost on all my favourites i’ve stayed in!
This time round, my prioritized filter was to have a parking space for the rental car we’d be having with us the whole time, and i wanted there to be shops and restaurants around for easy exploring.
Found this airbnb in Marrickville that caught my eye mainly cos there was some comment about the number of birds in the garden, and my mum LOVES birds. She photographs birds almost every day and the types of birds she sends to our family group chat astounds me cos i never would have guessed they existed in Malaysia. She has this way of talking to them, and i heard her conversing with them that trip 😀
It was a very cosy place with a coffee machine, our preferred milk set out for us, some fruits, and a very interesting library i had great fun going through. I read a sad book about a boy and a tree (where the tree gave the boy everything till he grew into an old man and the tree was but a stump).
These were shot in 5 minutes right outside the salon cos they had Ikwan Hamid over to take some photos.
Eyeshadow from Dior. Lip colour my own.
The combination of pink, peach and purple tresses were a dream.
I caught myself sitting on the sofa after work, twirling my hair between my fingers and simply admiring it. It was like i was my own little pony! I didn’t need to play with their hair anymore cos… mine was even BETTER.
You should have seen how it faded over the weeks, it changed slightly every time i washed my hair, and still looked magical.
In the first week, i had a few days i went ‘all the way or no way’ by throwing on lots of pink clothes and make up. I looked like i was visiting from a pink planet. On days i had meetings and had to look more serious about work, i’d tie everything into a bun (less colour shouting at everyone) and wear black.
One thing i didn’t think i’d get for having pink hair, was the amount of attention i got from little girls. Throughout the many variations of hues i’ve sported, none has enamoured more girls than this one.
I noticed girls tugging on their parents sleeves, or stop walking altogether, with mouths hanging open.
In the lift one day, i found myself standing with a Malay lady and two little girls around 4 and 7 yrs old. The auntie said, “My cucu said they like your hair. They want to have pink hair too.”
My hair was tied up in a ponytail, so i entertained the situation by going, “You mean like this?” and dramatically pulled my hair tie off to let the pink waves loose. Both girls stared up at me with shy smiles and big shining eyes, as the lift doors opened to their floor.
Their grannie shoo-ed them out, but the youngest girl continue staring at me and walked out right into the wall!
So cute, i would have pink hair errday if it could entice someone with the possibility of magic.
