Gold is back, it just ain't rosey

Impromptu photo

Watch: Triwa Black and Gold Chrono (limited edition)

Pants: Cameo Hybrid Pants (they came in the mail today so I just had to wear them)

Shoes: Marc Jacobs

So this week the Triwa watch that I ordered came, and I was so excited upon receiving it. I don't think I will retire my Michael Kors rose gold watch just yet but it was getting heavy and I see too many rose gold watches around nowadays so I wanted a change. Gold is undisputedly classic, its advantage over rose gold is that it can be worn with silver accessories whereas rose gold just clashes with it. Initially I was really surprised with this watch because the seconds hand isn't really a second hands but rather the seconds timer for the stopwatch. And what you thought was the stopwatch second timer is actually your second hand (see the smaller bottom circle).... If that was all too confusing then put simply, what I meant to say is that your expectations about the seconds hand is reverse. Maybe this will take some getting used to but I rarely rely on the seconds hand so I'm not complaining. 

As a tip for anyone who has bought or is going to buy a Triwa watch and is having difficulty with crown that is used to adjust the time/date, Triwa again works a bit differently. You need to first turn the crown anti-clockwise (i.e. towards you) and then you can pull out the crown to adjust the time and date. So just some preliminary photos from me today but because this shall be my new staple watch, you will see it around more in my outfit posts.

Red Spoon Top Ryde Review

Short post from me today, can you believe that this post has been sitting on my to-write list for around 2 months now. My back-blogging has become quite severe hasn't it? As a food-blogger, a lot of my friends come to me for suggestions on places to dine at but at times even I am lost for ideas for new places to dine at, especially when I am geographically challenged. By that I mean, I'm in one side of Sydney and all the places that I want to eat at are on the other side of Sydney. So I was contemplating dinner options, tossing between the stock standard Chinese at Eastwood or something a bit different and I chose that something different by going to Red Spoon, a place that two of my close friends recommended to me back in high school (yes I have a terrific memory when it comes to food which is why I am still able to write this post, too bad it doesn't work for my law exams).

As a franchise the ones in Castle Hill and Gladesville have fared much better when it comes to their Urbanspoon score and whilst I cannot say that I disagree, I do feel that the feedback may be a tad harsh in light of my experience. Overall the food wasn't bad but it wasn't special nor could it rival the famed Thai restaurants of Newtown.

Fashion Weekend Sydney 2014

So last weekend, I had the opportunity to go to Fashion Weekend Sydney; apart from the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, this is the next premiere fashion event for Sydney. Whilst Fashion Week has traditionally been strictly reserved for industry so they can preview collections that they wish to purchase for their boutiques and shops, it has in recent years also adapted to the social media bonanza with the rise of bloggers. Fashion Weekend Sydney takes the catwalk of Fashion Week but instead targets a very different audience, it works on a ticket system where the general public- i.e. those more concerned with fashion can purchase tickets to view the runway show and also shop from a variety of designers at discount prices. 

Also, my outfit post for the day is up as well (click here)

First of all, I want to thank Triwa for their invitation, they are a Swedish brand that specialises in sunglasses and watches. And speaking of watches, I recently ordered a watch from them so I can't wait to show you guys it but more details in the next few days because it hasn't arrived yet in the mail. But be sure to have a look at their website, looking back at these photos that I took, I feel as though I'm growing fonder and fonder of their sunglasses each day, there are those pops of colour without aren't too overt and in your face for those feeling playfully and happy or for the more reserved, the are your staple tortoise and black.  

My other notables from the day:

Waiting impatiently for the day that I can call a Celine Trapeze my own

If there was one thing that caught my eye it would be the amount of labels hoping joining Mary Katrantzou's eponymous digital prints (read about the original itself here). I'm still holding onto the dream that I will own one of her signature pieces one day but for now I suppose I will have to suffice with a new label on my to-buy list which is 'We are Handsome'. Their brightly coloured leggings instantly captivated me but to be frank they could only hold a flame to the wonder that is Mary Katrantzou. Perhaps, it was the peculiar (or at least to me) inclusion of animals but nonetheless I am excited to hear that these prints will soon be seen on pants. I've never really been a fan of printed leggings especially those eye-catchy ones probable because the concept of a statement legging seeming unfathomable to me. 

Still waiting out on a good sale to get this watercolour Maurie & Eve print in the jumper form instead.

How could I overlook the staple 'Bec & Bridge' after all I do and continue to adore my Falling Poppies print.

In continuing with my oriental/exotic print obsession, I introduce to you guys 'Gingham and Heels'.

My unapologetic love for lace

Top: Vintage taken from my mother's wardrobe

Skirt: Laura Ashley

Bag: Mulberry Alexa

Shoes: Vintage Bally

Autumn is almost over and that means that the deciduous trees in my garden are shedding if not already shedded. I couldn't help but share the lovely red-orange leaf colour of my persimmon tree (we have a lot of fruit trees at home so I wasn't kidding when I said call me Farmer Song- it kinda has a ring to it). Last weekend was Fashion Weekend Sydney which I will blog about either tomorrow or the day after, I'm so excited to show you some of the great finds that I found and the new labels on my radar. This post is pretty much about what I wore that day, since I had to go to work in the morning, I still kept my corporate/office vibe but added some colour and detail with my vintage lace top. I absolutely love lace, I prefer it when is it done subtly or in really unique way so that's why this post will be the first of three 'My unapologetic love for lace' stories.

National Burger Day celebrations at Chur Burger

For those free on Wednesday next week, make the trip to Surry Hills because the famed Chur Burgers is celebrating National Burger Day!!!! Pick up your free burger, salad, AND chips from 11 a.m. till 4p.m. by simply using your social media accounts as leverage- share it on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter using #ZOOSHfoods #NationalBurgerDay .

Don't forget to follow me on Instagram and Facebook to receive prompt reminders about events happening around Sydney, including those Dimmi 50% off flash sales. Also, if you haven't heard of Chur Burgers (I shudder to think of that possibility) then read my post here and next Thursday will be my 3 third time going to Chur, I guess it really is true in that third time's the charm.

Recipe: How to conquer that pesky cold

I guarantee that this is going to be the most useful recipe ever!!!

As my first recipe post (hopefully the first of many), I really wanted it to be something that you guys can try out at home and actually want to as well. Sure most recipe blogs are filled with foodporn but how often do you go about replicating it, for one there is no real motivation other than the fact that it looks nice but seems like too much effort. 

I'm currently sick at the moment and whenever I feel sick, I guess you can call me a bit of a bitch because I just shut off and act like a walking zombie because that's how terrible I feel. Since we all have different reactions to being sick, I'm sure we can agree that getting better fast is the important thing so because of that I wanted to share some tricks that I swear by.

Warning: I apologise in advance because some of the 'ingredients' I use are the most readily available.

So being Chinese, whenever someone gets sick in my family we turn to Chinese medicine recipes, sure Western medicine is effective but for sore throats and coughs I personally don't see any benefit in using those sore throat lozenges or cough syrups because they only offer temporary relief but masking the irritation. Your throat will love the recipes that I'm about to show you because it actually helps to fix the problem.

Note these are really only designed for when you have a sore throat and or cough.

Ingredients:

Packet of dried almonds (as featured below)

Rock Sugar or normal sugar (best though if you use rock sugar)

Papayas or if they are not in season try nashi pears which are peel and cut in decent sized chunks/slices

Water

Steps:

1. Put all the ingredients stated above into a small pot
2. Boil it and let reduce
3. Take it off stove, and enjoy eating the papaya/pear with the sugar liquid

P.S There is not fixed quantity for the amount of water you use or the amount of sugar. You should make sure that you have enough water to cover all the ingredients + a little bit extra because you want it to reduce and be more concentrated. Also for the sugar, this is the one time that 'the more the better' applies.

Okay so the papaya trick is something that is pretty accessible right? Well for the next two, you might think I'm some mad woman that goes around picking strange leaves- call me Farmer Song!

So back when my grandma was in Australia and when I was sick, she would find these plants that were known to be good for curing the same sore throats and coughs. The problem though is that I have no idea what their name is or where you can even find them besides my own backyard. I just want to flag to you guys that these exist, don't be skeptical because I'm a living example of how effective they are (just picked the ones below today as well and that photo was taken 2 weeks ago). If you are also in Sydney and want to try these out for yourself then just pop me an email and I'll try my best to see if I can pass on one of these plants from my garden so you can grow them yourself.

Look out for these leaves, you want to pick the older ones because they are the most bitter and so are the most effective.

Steps:

1. Pick the said leaves above, you want a good handful
2. Wash them
3. Put them into a small pot and fill it up with water, this time enough to cover the leaves plus a lot more because the whole point is to reduce it so the water become incredibly concentrated and bitter
4. Boil and then remove from stove once the colour of the water become golden-brown but remember the more bitter the better so don't remove it too early if you notice that the colour is just golden.
5. Drink the water and discard the leaves

For this one follow the same steps as above but for a different plant this time and specific to this one is the use of the roots which are the most useful part. You can ignore the leaves, you want the roots or  you can also use both if you fancy. 

Bitter's London Calling

Hello, sorry for my slight hiatus. I suppose taking 5 days to write up a new post may not be out of the norm for most people but for those that have been visiting lately, you would know that I was approximately uploading a new post once every 2 days. I just wanted to let you know that the reason why I was out of the blogosphere was because I had to do a group project that was due at midnight yesterday and I felt so drained after we submitted it. Unfortunately that is just the tip of the iceberg as my final exams for the semester are looming and I'm so behind on my law readings and notes so I'm going to resume my posting schedule of roughly twice a week.

Guys thank you so much for visiting, don't forget to say hello- I'm very good at replying to comments when they are on topic which brings me to the point of this post and that is SPAM. We all get it, no one is immune to it, and in fact in the past two days I have received the same text message from two different numbers saying that I've won some lottery. The title 'Bitter's London Calling' refers to this spam email that I received in my blog inbox. Story is, one day I suddenly received a lot of views from the UK, and I was like OMG yay more exposure outside of Australia. Then I checked my blog email inbox and noted that I received some junk mail, it reads:

Extremely Urgent,

I am David Brown from the United Kingdom.  I am the principal attorney of Abbey Law Firm in Bristol.

I have this privilege to contact after making some diligent profile search in your area in connection with late Mr.Ivan a client of our firm, a national of your country who died with the family in the terrorist bombing attack at Tavistock Square London on 7 July 2005.

Our client died in the tragic bombing attack with the wife and their two children. In 2004, he intended to buy a telecommunication company outside the United Kingdom but due to some problem with the communication company and the government of that country, the project was withheld for the issue to be settled. Under my advice as his lawyer, the investment capital was deposited for a 12 month Term deposit with a bank there. Due to the death of my client in 2005, the project was not executed.

Since 2005, we have been making every effort to locate our client`s extended relatives for the claim of the legacy but all to no avail.

To be brief, the bank is about to confiscate the legacy of our client, since there has not been any beneficiary presented following the termination of the term deposit since 2005. In other to prevent the legacy from being confiscated by the bank, we decided to make a family name profile search in your country and in the process of that we came across your contact with the same family name of our client, hence we contact you to have your consent to present you to the bank as heir to our client.

Kindly get back to us as soon as you receive this letter as the need is extremely urgent.

With Regards,

David Brown, Esq.

Abbey Law Firms Solicitors

25 THE COURTYARD, WOODLANDS, BRADLEY STOKE

BRISTOL, BS32 4NH , DX 124893 ALMONDSBURY 3.

Tel: +44 11723 07033

E-mail: office@abbeylawfirmsolicitors.co.uk

www. abbeylawfirmsolicitors.co.uk

First of all, Mr David Brown, you wrote to my blog email which is not really a company as such but more importantly it is not a natural person meaning it cannot be the heir to whatever bogus project you're trying to scam me into joining.

Kind Regards,

Bitter

Btw I still appreciate all the views I get from the UK!!!!

Ripples Sydney Wharf- Pyrmont Review

This meal was another one of my Eatability Specials or to be more precise it is a Dimmi special that you can take advantage of through the more well known platform, Eatability. So basically Dimmi is a booking application that a lot of restaurants use and they have this amazing rewards program- basically for every meal you book and obviously attend, you are rewarded with 1000 points and if you review that place you get another 1000 points. Once you reach 8000 points you can redeem them for a $50 gift voucher to spend at one of the selected restaurants and the list is quite impressive with my notable picks such as Baroque (still waiting on a chance to eat here, maybe for Vivid this year) and Claire's Kitchen at Le Salon which I dined there for 50% off (read review here). What makes this even better is the fact that you can dine out at fine dining locations for 50% and still be rewarded. 

If you haven't already done so, please like my Facebook page especially if you want to be updated about 50% off locations because I will be posting the restaurants that are offering this ridiculous deal. Also don't feel like you're missing out if you don't reside in Sydney because Dimmi is used all around Australia and I will be including all states with this offer when I provide these updates on my Facebook page. 

Bondi Pizza Review Take 2

I know that nowadays we all have developed an aversion towards giving out our details because the only thing we are certain to get in return is a inbox flooded by spam emails. Loyalty or VIP programs really aren't what they're cracked up to be (most of the time) because to benefit from them you need to spend money and that's where the problem lies. Alas, I like many others, am reluctant to leave my details liberally to companies however if I were to recommend a loyalty program then Bondi Pizza is one of my picks. The best thing so far about their rewards program is that the pizza that I got (shown below) was completely FREE and your inbox doesn't get spammed. As Coco Chanel once said (and she was a very wise woman for many reasons), the best things in life are first free and secondly expensive. If you want to read about my previous Bondi Pizza experience read here where I took advantage of my $20 off voucher.

Sicilian- Traditional Italian pepperoni, chorizo, Wagu meatballs, Spanish onion, pancetta (bacon), kalamata olives, bocconcini & rocket with a drizzle of chilli oil (NB: Meatballs contain 50% Wagu beef & pork) $24.95

So the deal was for either a free pizza from their selected signature range or their carbonara pasta, and since I wasn't in the mood for something creamy I opted for their Sicilian signature pizza. I personally would have rather more greens rather than just some rocket on top and in a bunch for that matter. I also find that rocket is of those foods that really opposes people you really either like it or hate it, at first my mum was like what is with this weird taste but I think she's acquired an appreciation for rocket which may explain why we happen to have a giant box of rocket in our fridge- not quite on par with Costco/Walmart sizing but it is massive in its own right.

As for the pizza, if we didn't factor in the rocket it would have been really salty, I mean looking at the ingredients and then the photo you can gather that it is like meat paradise, not that I'm complaining, I secretly ordered this because I was craving meat. But it was because it was so salty - the meat and the olives, that made me appreciate the buffalo mozzarella there because unlike most cheeses used in pizzas, it is really light in the sense that it's not a heavy cheese and taste wise it's quite subtly which was good.

Tomato and Mozzarella Bruschetta- Baby roma tomato, Italian buffalo mozzarella, Spanish onion & basil served on toasted organic ciabatta bread with Italian balsamic glaze $9.95

Okay first of all, excuse my terrible photo. I don't know how it ended up like this but I just want to set the record that it tastes much better than what it looks. I think bruschetta is a great starter, it's healthy, simple, everyone likes it or at least doesn't hate it and usually doesn't hurt your wallet. Beautiful, ripe, juicy tomatoes, great buffalo mozzarella chunks, what more can I ask for?

Oven-baked Banana & Chocolate Pizzette- banana, honeyed ricotta & warm hazelnut chocolate pizzette served with vanilla ice cream & drizzled with warm melted Belgian chocolate $9.95

I saved the best for last! Unfortunately my ice-cream had already started melting by the time I took this photo but that didn't affect how much I loved this dessert. But seriously, one cannot go wrong with chocolate and bananas and the pizzette was a lovely way to tie all the elements together. The pizzette can be described as like sweet dough that looks like lebanese bread but isn't so crumbly as lebanese bread in that it's not as dry. Anyway this was the highlight for me, and I cannot wait for the next Bondi Pizza special to arrive in my inbox, I'm anticipating the next one to be a birthday deal (: So, what to take away from this, if you like me want to benefit from this rewards program then sign up, you won't regret it. 

Autumn Crisp

Trench Coat: Ralph Lauren

Cardigan: BCBG Max Azria

Shirt: Ralph Lauren

Dress Pants: Mastina

 Even though it's May now, I wouldn't blame you for mistaking it for Winter given all the crazy weather that we Sydney-siders have become accustomed to, as of late. A great staple for any wardrobe (gents included) is a basic trench coat- what makes it so versatile is the fact that even though you may buy a size up, you can make small edits to it so that it 'fits'. A good way to do so is by playing around with the belting at the back to make it tighter and the buttons all along the trench to create your desired structure. If you're small in stature like me, then you'll probably find that the sleeves are too long, in which case simply fold them up; it works wonders and since it's practically Winter you have the perfect excuse to layer up without looking as though you've been dressed by your parents. Simply fold up your sleeves so create peek-a-boo layers, a suggestion may be contrasting colours, prints or textures.

Another photo of me. It was really this random impromptu selfie that spurred this post because I was like hey I don't look that bad today, why not take some photos for the blog.

Hope you like this post and don't forget to layer up, the worst thing you can do is look good but freeze to death- that ain't cool.