Incredibly Long Post about MY BIRTHDAY!

Yesterday, the 24th July was my 19th birthday! I'm so incredibly blessed to have been able to celebrate almost all weekend with my family!

I spent Saturday night prematurely celebrating with my dad and my siblings.
I'll admit - I find it kind of awkward when people ask me what presents I received for my birthday, because I feel that by listing them all off it's 'bragging' in some way. But I feel that by not wanting to list everything sort of dishonours those who went to the effort to give me gifts, and what if they get offended and think I don't like them!? Argh! I'm not sure what to feel on this matter.
But I will mention that I was incredibly spoilt!! Upon arriving at my dad's house I received my first (and quite a few hours early) birthday present!!! :

Not too long ago, my dad's house was broken into and my bike that I had been meaning to pick up from around there was stolen (people can seriously suck!) So dad bought me a new one for my birthday!! I'm so in love with it - it's my favourite colour! AND! I got a matching helmet to go with it! I'm so excited to ride it...maybe I'll take it out tomorrow (Weather permitting!)

My sister said she wouldn't be seeing me on my actual birthday because unfortunately she had to work, so she decided to give me my gifts on Saturday night too! She gave me a beautiful ID bracelet with my name engraved on one side, and hers on the other - which is similar to a bracelet I gave her for her birthday which was later stolen (in the same incident as my bike grr!). She also bought me some fucking killer heels. They're so tall, I'm like a giant when I wear them! But so nice!

Anyway ! So that night, my dad took me, Jared and my siblings to Asahi Teppanyaki at Beverly Hills.
I'm sure I've blogged about visiting there before, the chefs are incredible.

Sometimes it can be a bit hit-and-miss though - we've been there and had chefs who aren't as chatty or personable, but the guy we had on Saturday was amazing. He was so funny - as he was cooking he was joking around with us; especially my younger sister who screwed her nose up at the fish! He seemed to be really enjoying himself, which made it lots of fun for all of us.

My dad had mentioned that the chef should pick on me because it was my birthday! Mean!

But at the end of the dinner, the chef wrote birthday wishes to me in salt:

and they gave me some chopsticks as we were leaving which I thought was such a nice thought!

My sister organised this amazing mud cake for me,

which we struggled to fit in after so much food!

Waiting in the cold for a taxi!

After dinner J and I waddled home, and at midnight I received my first gift from him - a brand new pair of Petey Alex pj's !! My old ones are starting to get old, and pyjamas are easily my favouritest clothing ever! I'm so in love with them - that boy is so good to me! 

The next morning I went and saw my Mummy who had bought me some gorgeous roses:

They're on the fireplace mantel in my living room, and seriously brighten everything up!

I love how fresh flowers can do that!

Mum, R, Jared, my brother and I all went to yum cha for lunch, at Canterbury Leagues. They have this amazing forest-y thing inside, which makes the air super fresh:

It's so serene! Hard to believe it's all indoors!

My little brother, looking happy as always!

We all ate so much food! It was a bit noisy, so we couldn't always hear what the dishes were when they came around. I think they must have realised how white we were! The owner of the restaurant came up to our table a few times, and asked us if there was anything that we wanted. Mum mentioned it was my birthday (honestly, my parents can be so embarrasing!) and that we were waiting for the pork buns. The owner went out of his way, and brought us some chicken buns, telling us the pork ones weren't cooked yet, but we could try these ones free of charge and that they were better than the pork ones!! Soon after he brought us out the pork ones too!
I think it's definitely necessary to compliment and mention good service when it's received - and I can highly recommend this restaurant for their service!!
J gave me more pressies at the restaurant, making me feel incredibly loved!

Ruby earrings - to match the necklace he bought me for my 17th when we first started dating! 

And from him and his parents - ticket stub diary! 

Amazing! Some of my older tickets are so faded and discoloured, I was so excited to receive this! 

When we got back to my place, I noticed my wallet wasn't in my bag, but thought maybe I'd left it at J's or at my mum's. Just before Jared and I were about to head out to dinner, mum called me and asked me if I was missing anything. Turns out my wallet had fallen out of my bag at the yum cha restaurant, and they had looked up my dad's number in the phone book (since it's on the front of my license) to let me know!!
I'm so incredibly thankful that it was returned safely to me - the wallet was given to me by my Nan just before she passed away and I would have been so upset if I had lost it!! It's so reassuring that there are good people in the world!

Last night, Jared took me to the Revolving Restaurant buffet at the Centrepoint Tower in Sydney:

We had our photo taken by them, which was lovely.
I can't even describe how incredible the view was from that high up. It's an entirely different way of seeing Sydney. The ambience of the restaurant is really nice too - dimly lit with soft music playing, and lots of cutlery at your table.
The food was pretty good too.

And then, to finish the night off we went and saw Harry Potter 7.2 finally in the V-Max cinema!

Like I said, I'm so incredibly lucky to have had such an amazing birthday - and to have been able to spend it with those closest to me.

Thank you everyone for such a lovely weekend - you all make me feel so loved!!

xxxx

Giveaway!

I've decided to do something different, and to celebrate the anniversary of a year of blogging, have decided to give away this recipe for all my readers! I briefly wrote about it in my last entry.
It's so simple and easy, and purrr-fect for winter!

Tomato Gnocchi Bake
Prep Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients (serves 6)

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 large brown onion, chopped. 
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 4 short-cut bacon rashers, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup white wine (I used a chardonnay)
• 400g can diced tomatoes
• 120g baby spinach leaves
• 500g gnocchi
• 200g bocconcini, drained, torn in half. 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius
2. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook the onion and garlic, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add bacon and cook until bacon is light golden. 
3. Add the wine. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until wine reduces by half. Stir in the tomato. 
4. Season with salt and pepper
5. Stir in the spinach until it just wilts.
6. Cook the gnocchi in a large saucepan of salted boiling water. (if using packet gnocchi follow the packet directions). Drain. Add to tomato mixture, stir to combine
7. Spoon mixture into a baking dish / casserole dish. Top with bocconcini.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the bocconcini melts

See! super easy, super delicious!

The tomato mixture becomes quite thick - I'm on a carb ban at the moment, so I just ate around the gnocchi, and it was still plenty substantial. 

Winter holidays are the best holidays

Although I worked full time for almost the entirety of my holidays, I did manage to escape to Canberra with J for a few days, to visit his parents and family.

Before we went down, I got a new hair cut. Although I like to keep my hair short, and generally in a bob, I have never gone so concave before:

It is refreshing trying new things and changing your appearance - even with something little like a slightly different haircut!

As you may already know, Canberra is a lot colder than Sydney. Apparently though we chose the right time to go down, because we managed to escape most of the torrential downpour that Sydney has been subject to the past week. Even though it was only 5 degrees Celsius on one of the days that we went into Civic, the sun was nice and shining. I generally don't mind the cold too much.
I like wearing layers:

Although this isn't that great of a photo. I really should ask other people to take photos of me...

Anyway, in this photo I'm wearing:

• Cotton ribbed tights
• Grey OTK socks
• Knee high Tony Bianco boots
• Mink Pink leather shorts
• Glassons skivvy
• Jumper from Sportsgirl. 

Nice and toasty!

I also love winter because:

You can snuggle up to kitty cats. 

This is Tosca. She's really old, but so friendly and lovely. I cuddle her so much, but I'm a bit allergic so I need to bring anti-histamines whenever we go down. 

Hot chocolates!

Would you believe this is the first hot chocolate I've had with a marshmallow in it!

Generally I don't like marshmallows, but I've decided they're okay in hot choccy!

Bed socks!

And good food!

(Pop Tarts don't REALLY count as "good" food...but they're nice for a treat!)

We mainly went down because it was J's mum's birthday on Wednesday!

Happy Birthday!

The whole family had gotten together, and we all helped cook a nice dinner for her for when she got home. J's sister, Tessa had done most of the cooking, and the food was absolutely delicious. But I was too excited on the day (or any day we were there - we ate lots of good food!) and I didn't photograph it. Boo!

So you can enjoy photos of my mediocre cooking instead:

This is my tomato, spinach, bacon and bocconcini bake! Right before it went in the oven. 

And served up all delicious:

The recipe called for some white wine. I'm not the greatest wine connoisseur, so had no idea what I was doing in the bottle shop. In my infinite wisdom I picked up this chardonnay because it had a picture of a cow on it:

 

Good choice.

And finally, I've had this photo sitting on my desktop for ages: 

I took it whilst drunk at our end of exams party at Unibar. I remember my friends paying me out whilst I was taking it. But I think it's pretty cool.
Ha!

Unfortunately I go back to Uni on Monday! :(
LAME!

Cue

J had his graduation ceremony on Friday. 

He completed his course last year, but for some reason AIM were really slow in organising the ceremony. So 6 months later, we trekked back to his school to celebrate. He wasn't very excited - I think the length of time between finishing and celebrating was a bit of a disillusionment. I was excited enough for the both of us though!

I had a look around Myer for a nice dress to wear, and ended up trying on a few from Cue. 

I ended up going with this one:

This picture does it hardly any justice. It's quite fitted, and (I think) flattering. 

I also really loved this dress:

and looking at this picture now, I'm sort of kicking myself I didn't get it. 

What put me off buying this one though was the fact that it's sleeveless. 

I wanted a classic black dress that I can use for any occasion - including job interviews. The notion that sleeveless clothes are inappropriate for a workplace is pretty drilled into me - even though I'm not even sure where I picked that up from. 

What do you think?

Food Porn

Eating lunch at work. Seriously, such a good sandwich. Ham, chicken, cheese, tomato, spinach leaves, honey mustard and mayonaise!

And you can sort of see in the background the book I'm reading at the moment - American Psycho. 

More on that later. 

Such a good breakfast - vegemite topped with avocado, and coffee! Yum!

My attempt at making a french apple tart:

 

 Stewing the apples...

In the oven...

Finished product!

It was pretty tasty! 

Disappointment

How can studying law make me feel so fucking stupid?

Weekends and X-Men

Last night J took me to see X-Men!
It was a pretty good movie, and I really enjoyed it considering I hadn't watched any of the other X-Mens. J said I missed a lot of the "in jokes" but I didn't know that I was missing them so it was all good. It's good when you understand a movie without needing to know the background to it all. Although this is a prequel, so that probably helped.

 

Overall it was pretty entertaining, which is just what you want from a movie. There were a few continuity errors we picked up on while we were watching it - I always find it so amusing when I spot them. 

J worked Saturday, and I refereed on Sunday - so unfortunately we hardly got much of a weekend together at all.
Holidays aren't much fun when you're pretty much working through them :(