What makes a good coffee

I have no idea what really makes a good coffee. For me, it's all about the texture of the milk, the foam, the coffee beans and of cause the chocolate and marshmallow or even better some cafes serve it with chocolate fish!

At the moment from memory I know that the cafe downstairs at 277 n columbus cafe Sylvia Park serves it with chocolate fishes!

I also like the way the top of the coffee is designed. I wonder how they do all those patterns! I know they use a spoon or toothpick but I just wonder how they do it.

Chilling out

Had lunch at Columbus Cafe in Sylvia Park. Columbus cafe has very nice cabinet food and mum's fav is lamb shanks with roasted potatoes at the side. I tried this thai pumpkin soup with toasted bread at the side. It was very creamy and nice but was not very hot as in it was still cold. I'm pretty impressed with the picture taken by my phone.



Drinking soup makes winter seems more real...made me think about the time this guy came into work at Euroasia and shared with us how he helps put together cook books and how for winter it's mainly about soups and winter food. I'm still in awe at how many different ideas and recipies can people come up with! Inspired.

Tonight friends are coming over for dinner and for dessert since it's cold I felt like baking apple crumble topped with ice cream for dessert.

I found this recipie online but altered the recipie a little. We had it with vanilla ice cream while the pie was still warm and it tasted divine!

Ingredients
250 g very soft butter (but not melted)
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
grated rind of one orange (I used a lil Lemon rind instead)
2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsps baking powder
400g can Diced apples (I used sliced apples)
icing sugar to serve with

Method

1. In a bowl or food processor beat together the butter, castor sugar, egg, vanilla essence and orange rind until creamy and well mixed.
2. Add the flour and baking powder and stir or pulse to mix well.
3. Spread 2/3rds into the base of a well greased and floured 23cm loose bottom cake tin.
4. Spread over the Diced Apple.
5. With floured hands dot the remaining dough over the top.
6. Bake at 190oC for 40 minutes.



There are many apple desserts to try but it's best served warm with ice cream/cream on top for a nice winter's dessert!

Bon A petit!

Beautiful

I just thought of spending time this morning admiring the beautiful things that is around us. God is so beautiful, simple and everything about him is about beauty!One of my favourite books Captivating shares about how we as females are created to show off his beauty and how we should be treated as his daughters!

The picture of the fallen leaves was taken while walking to church one Sunday and it was such a beautiful day with the peaceful slience around me. I walked through the leaves kicking them as I stepped on them admiring the beautiful colours and how it contrasted with the road, the houses, the trees.



As I'm writing this, a very old but good song popped into my head :

Something beautiful,
Something good.
All my confusion he understood
All I have to offer him was brokennes and strive
But he made something
Beautiful of my life

This song reminds me of how God does not look at our brokenness and how weak we are. In fact he uses our weaknesses and mould us into his image - Beauty. How awesome is he that even though we as humans are not worthy he loves us so much that he wants us to become something he intended us to be!

Kingdom Heaven Keys

Today was my last day of work before I go for my 3 weeks holiday to Hong Kong and Malaysia. I am so looking forward to it.

I went for a foot reflexology at Sante Spa today because I needed a massage so badly. The lady who massaged me spent more time on my shoulders and neck because she could feel lots of tension there and told me I should have done a body massage instead! After that massage I honestly felt like I could do with so much more!

After massage went home and prepared mee rebus for dinner. I just used one of those prima premade sauces and bought fresh noodles and bean spouts. It was a quick and delicious meal just before going to life group.

Life group...didn't feel like going at all but after praying for a friend of mine on the phone prior to preparing dinner I felt so much better. I was reminded of how Satan wants to STEAL KILL AND DESTROY us and rob us of our joy, our future and our relationships! Satan always uses the same old tricks in his book and we always fall for it. It's so true though how Satan uses the things that we are weak in and we know in our spirit that it's not right but we still fall into it. It is definately a choice that we have to make to step into the spirit man and flee from temptation!

So...I went to life group and there were only a few of us - the smallest in numbers I've ever been to. It was good - small and intimate. We talked about Pastor Paul's sermon on the key of commitment to multiplication.

The scripture reference was based on the talents Mat 25:14-30 on how the ones that were given the talents went out to trade to gain more and the one that did not was lazy and did not use what was given to him to multiply.

Multiplication based on 4 keys:

1) Identifying and value the gifts that we have
- Need to stir up the gifts within us and be BOLD and use it to build God's kingdom.
2) Invest beyond self
- By focusing on what GOd wants, we will be fruitful and there will be discord and confusion
3) Need to empower and increase through hard work
- Need to put in the hard work and glorify God through our hands
- Bringing the Kingdom of Heaven down to Earth
4) Make decisions of completion
- Finishing what we begin, marriage, work, writing, and just being discipline in what God has called us to start.

Malaysian dinner at home

Today is Queen's birthday so no work today. Spent my day just at home watching dvd and being lazy. Having bad headaches lately which I am not sure why but it's been very uncomfortable. Walked to Charmaine's place and waited for Siaw Hui to come back to prepare all her specialities!!!

She made Kolo mee, Chicken rice and Laksa!!! She is so good in preparing all these being out the WHOLE afternoon!!! I honestly felt like I didn't have to go back to Malaysia if I get this everyday!

Not only was the food good, another good thing happened today.
Ken proposed today at Bastion Point! So sweet...at last! haha congrats to them ay and what was amazing was she had to worry about preparing the dishes for all of us tonight too!! Well done Siaw Hui!

I wanted to take some videos to show mum and dad but they were too shy so I didnt manage to take Ken's speech but it was definately very unexpected and I'm so happy for them and my to be sister in law!



It was a very full night with lots of cakes and conversations about different cultures and how different cultures had different traditions in marriage!!!

Ok about the food, I didnt manage to take the rest of the food but this picture of kolo mee really looks like the ones that are being made at the hawker where they pull the noodles to mix with the gravy!



And Voila! The perfect kolo mee home made! Yummmmm

Girls night

Girls night was fun. While Marc was away in Sydney we girls had a great time watching dvds, pizzas and Wine! (this was on Monday). Today I had girls over and we watched enchanted and had dessert night. We had so much dessert it was like a buffet! Oh yeah cant forget my wine!! I am so in love with this Brown Brothers dessert wine...it is really yummy! I had it Monday and tonight cuz it was just so yum. Thanks to Yu Hwee who introduced it to me! I recommend everyone to try it! It is just so sweet and delicious it is probably like drinking grape juice or something similar.

On Monday, tried making my own pizza dough but then it didnt rise enough due to time so thank God I bought pre made ones just in case and all I did was put the toppings on top and voila Pizzas! I think my fav was with the avocado, ham, mushrooms, topped off with cheese...yummmm

We were crazy that night, I think it is because of the dessert wine but we only had one sip and Miche was red as ever! It was funny and a good laughing session. I've never laughed for so long in ages! It was so good to just let our laughter out and not worry about what others think! There is something when a bunch of chicks hang out together and they can laugh all night without knowing why?

Off road biking

Today Marcus and I decided to go off road biking because ever since Marc got his new road bike I've always been hassling him on how I want to join him. So, we decided to do something we both haven't done before and went off road biking!!!

I've never done anything in my life that is so tiring except for a 3 day tramp a few years back! The cost was 25 bucks for the bike hire and for entry fee. Every hour we did after was another few bucks. Many people brought their own bikes so this was actually a very enjoyable cheap saturday adventure for anyone that has thier own bikes and want fun.

Ok, first of all I didn't know that I had to change gear everytime I go up the hill and down the hill so basically for the first part of the 10 km route I had to get off my bike everytime I went up the hill because the bike could not move! I had to get off the bike everytime a steep hill approaches me because I was a chicken and I didn't want to fall off the bike! Half way through the journey my confidence grew and Marc changed my gear so that I didnt have to touch it at all but go all the way! I enjoyed it so much after that but still hassling Marc how long till we reach the end! It took us about 2 hours to finish that route and poor Marc had to go slowly to make sure I was alright!














It was a fun and new experience for me, something I thought we should do because life is too short and we just need to get out there and do something new!Check out thier website http://www.bikepark.co.nz/
















After biking, we went to Muriwai Beach and had fish and chips watching the sunset in the car because it was too windy to sit outside!