Nearly Christmas!

Hey people!

Since it's less than 2 hours till Christmas, I thought I'd put up a little post to shout out to all my friends out there :)

I hope you all have wonderful Christmases filled with lots of laughter, happiness, fun and love!

May all your dreams come true and everyday be filled with laughter. After all, laughter is the best medicine!

I don't think I've ever really celebrated Christmas, so I hope that you will have a great one. So then, in some twisted way, I'll have a great one knowing that you had a great one...yeah...

To raerae, I hope that you're first Christmas in Canada will be filled with lots of fun and excitement. Promise me to embrace the Christmas spirit and go out there and have fun! As much as I would love for your first Christmas to be a white Christmas, it doesn't really seem like it's going to happen. But I cross my fingers for you! Make sure you enjoy your Christmas and don't stop smiling!

To Mishy, I hope you have a brilliant Christmas in HK (i think that's where you are). I'm sure you've bought all your Christmas presents for yourself since stuff over there is so cheap as you've fully stressed over your blog. I hope you've had a wonderful time over there and that you have an exciting Christmas Day. :)

To Carmen, i know you are going to go overseas on Christmas Day. So I wish you a safe and fun-filled Christmas Day flying to New Zealand...I think. May you have heaps and heaps of fun and enjoy your well deserved holiday.

To Lucy, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. I can't remember if you said you were going to a Christmas party with your family or if you were staying home alone. But whichever it is, I hope it will be a fun filled day that won't be just another day. If you want to have someone to talk to, feel free to ring me. And we'll nag about how dull our Christmas days are and plan our future gigantic Christmas parties :D

To Thuy, I wish you a magnificant Christmas. May laughter fill your household and you enjoy the day with your family. I know that you and your family are always laughing, so I rest assure knowing your Christmas Day will not be a dull one :)

To Jenny, I hope you have a lovely Christmas with your family. May your wishes come true and you recieve all the presents that you wanted.

And finally, to Karin (even though she probably won't read this), I wish you a beautiful Christmas in Japan. You are so lucky! I hope you fully take in your wonderful surrounding on Christmas day. Ahh...a White Christmas. How truly gorgeous that would be!

Anyways, I hope everyone has an absolutely brilliant day tomorrow filled with joy, laughter and loooveeee!

Tata
~Aurora

P.S. I can't believe I took the time to alternate colours...I am truly insane...

DVDs i want to watch

Hey people :)

Under the suggestion of Lucy, I have decided to compile a list of movies that I would love to watch. And because Lucy has also been on my case of not writing on my blog, I've decided to write up my list on my blog. So I'm killing two bird with one stone...(i think that's how the saying goes...meh...whatever)

So here it is:

• The Ugly Truth
• Coraline (because of Lucy)
• Mao's Last Dancer
• Four Holidays
• Alvin and the Chipmunks
• Madagascar 1 & 2 (I watched parts of the first one)
• Confessions of a Shopaholic
• The Duchess
• My Sister's Keeper (maybe)
• The Other Boleyn Girl
• Forrest Gump
• Make It Happen
• A Good Man is Hard To Find
• Virgin Territory
• Feast of Love
• Picture Perfect
• Stomp the Yard
• Closer
• Up
• Sliding Doors
• Fame
• Did You Hear About the Morgans?
• Juno
• Step Brothers
• What Happens in Vegas
• I Hate Valentine's Day
• Wedding Daze
• Another Cinderella Story
• My Best Friend's Girl
• House Bunny
• My Super Ex-Girlfriend
• Made of Honour
• I Love You, Man
• Over Her Dead Body
• John Tucker Must Die
• The Holiday
• Failure to Launch
• Bewitched
• Sleepless In Seattle
• Raising Helen

I'd like to say that that is it but it's far from it. There are still more than 200 pages on the Video Ezy website for me to go through...I don't even know why I bother. But I do :)

I dunno...after looking at all these movies, I've realised how much I've missed and how much I need to watch. I think it will be a really exciting journey for me!

Also...on another note, I think my dad thinks I like to watch nude stuff. Hahaha...well, I think it was because of the movie marathon I had yesterday.

My second movie marathon consisted of:
- The Proposal
- The Ghost of Girlfriends Past
- Good Luck Chuck
- The Women

And well, the thing with me is that I don't usually look at the ratings of the movies. So it turned out that Good Luck Chuck was MA+15. Let me just say, there was a lot of nudity and sex scenes in the front bit...which was really disturbing for me and my little sister...And well, my dad happened to come around the wrong times, even a little in the Ghost of Girlfriends Past, except without the nudity, just very hot makeout sessions. And yeah...he thinks I watch inappropriate stuff now...so embarrassing!

Hahaha...well, I'll keep you updated on all the movies I have watched and all the movies that I want to watch.

Tata for now. And if I don't post on Christmas, have an absolutely wonderful Christmas this year :)

~Aurora

It's been 49 days since my grandmother passed away. Saying it out loud, it's sorta scary.

As we knelt in front of the monks as they sang hymns, I prayed that my grandmother could finally be happy. I hope that she can finally rest in peace and reunite with my grandfather.

While kneeling, I also thought about my own life. And i somehow realised that I'd slowly crawled back into my own little shell again. For a while, I'd actually opened up a little to the world, being a little more daring and out there. But after work experience and the start of the holidays, I've slowly entered back into my little shell. The laziness in me has slowly but surely reappeared and the motivation that I had began to obtain, all but disappeared in the blink of an eye.

I'd been so sure that I'd be offered a job at the Cafe that I didn't think it wouldn't happen. When it didn't happen, I didn't lose hope just yet, reassuring myself that as long as I asked, I would be sure to get myself the job. However, as the days dragged on, I slowly lost faith in myself and my ability to waltz up there and ask for a job. And now I sit here on my lazy ass, no faith at all whatsoever that I'll get the job I once fantasized getting.

The fact that I get so discouraged and lose motivation so easily scares the hell out of me. Why am I so lazy? I know that I should try harder, but I just get so tired all the time that it's hard to summon up the energy to do so.

I've actually been very happy lately. And that's a good thing. But my lack of goals and actual point in life depresses the hell out of me. All I wanna do is crawl into my bed and never come out.

I need someone or something to pull me out of this state. To get me to do actual worthwhile things. I need to do something practical and not just sit on my lazy ass, passing time by sitting in front of the computer. But what exactly is it?

Until I figure out what the hell I need to do, I'm just gonna be wasting my time doing nothing at all. Maybe I'll venture out to the park tomorrow armed with a book. Hmmm...but maybe not. I often say I'll do things but when the time comes, I always dismiss it. It's an awful habit of mine, but something that I can't help but do.

Anyways, I'm off to snuggle up in bed with a book.

~Aurora

To our sweet loving Rae Rae!

Hey sweetie!

Just wanna wish you a very happy happy Birthday!!! You are now 16, unofficially allowed to drive, as you said.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RAERAE!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUU!

Haha...i hope today will be an absolutely brilliant day for you, filled with lots of love and kisses :D

16 only comes around once, so make sure you make the most of it. Flaunt it my dear!

I hope you receive lots of lovely, beautiful presents and a gigantic cake!

May all you wishes come true and you always be the smiling, beautiful and bubbly girl :)

I love you sweetie :):)

~Aurora

Baking for Christmas

Heya all!

Today, I had a fun day :)

It all started at Hurstville, where i met up with my good good friend Katharine :D We wondered around for a bit...not really knowing where to go first. But in the end we figured it out and got to work to buy ingredients. An hour or so later, we finally got on the bus, on our way back to my place, packed with: butter, icing decorating pens, mince beef, 1kg chat potatoes, milk and a dozen of eggs.

It was only at home that i realised we forgot to buy puff pastry, but luckily my grandma was out and could buy it for me on her way home :)

So, we fooled around for a little bit. Eating some snacks and baking some chips and smileys before getting to work. Firstly we have to gather all the ingredients we needed. Then we started to measure things and put them in bowls. Haha...somehow, we read the recipe wrong and accidently put the sugar with the flour. It was a bitch separately the two, but thankfully we had not yet mixed them together so it wasn't too bad. The salt ended up with the sugar but that was okay too :D

Oh...we also nearly made the mistake of cracking the egg into the sugar, when we were suppose to beat the butter with the sugar first. Thankfully, we realised before we put the egg in but it was a close call. However, we accidently already put the vanilla extract in (imitation vanilla extract to be exact). It didn't really matter though. Hehe..

After that, we managed to do everything correctly, always reading and re-reading the recipe to make sure we were doing the right things. The dough turned out really well. We even made a face out of the dough. (katharine took pictures of that :D). We called him Butterboy.

Eventually we had to cut Butterboy in half and wrap it in cling wrap before placing them in the refrigerator to harden. We then proceeded to go upstairs to see if we could find some clothes i could wear tomorrow. However, we only succeeded in separating the nice shirts from the ugly ones before having to leave.

We went to Kingsgrove Public School, our old primary school to visit Ms K, our yr 6 teacher. However, she wasn't around. We were able to write her a note, before forwarding out of our old class room, away from our dearly missed primary school and on our trek back to my house.

By the time we got home and set up to cut the cookie into shapes, the dough had hardened and Katharine had a fun time, bashing the dough into the table to loosen it up. We then got to work, rolling out the dough and cutting out pieces, lining it up on baking paper before putting it into the fridge to keep its shape. Then we started on the next one. The same process, except this time, Katharine insisted on rolling the dough over and over again to cut out shapes as not to waste the dough.

Our cookies turned out pretty well...except for it being a little too crunchy. Hehe..sorry Thuy.

We then proceeded to make our icing. At first when we finished beating two egg whites, 3 cups of icing sugar and lemon juice, it turned into a huge clomp of what i cannot even begin to explain. But after placing another egg white into the mixture, it turned out into a nice thick icing. We then split the mixture into half and put green and red food colouring in. Unfortunately, the colouring didn't turn out according to plan and we ended up with pink and very light green icing.

Then came the spreading part. For some reason, i just couldn't get my icing to spread evenly across the cookie and while Katharine had no problems spreading hers perfectly, mine came out like sand paper surfaces :P We then used the decorating pens to decorate the cookies, one at a time, each with a bit of love and heaps of patience :D

And finally, it's done!

There you have it people :):)

Aiya..i realised i'm such a ditz. I bought pork mince instead of beef mince...I hope you guys don't mind..it won't make that much of a difference would it??

Anyways, i better fly. I still have heaps of things to do. I gotta get off my ass and do them :)

Cya,

~Aurora

It has been a wonderful adventure, this past week. When I first went to look for a place to do work experience, I had been aiming to work at a bakery, where I could learn how to bake beautiful cakes. However, it didn't go according to plan and I ended up working at Miami Ice instead. At first, I dreaded it. I was so afraid I would break something or do something wrong or that they would find me a nusiance.

The first day: I was absolutely frightened. I wasn't exaggerating when I said I was hardly able to breathe. The butterflies in my stomach were unbearable and I was shell-shocked. Walking towards the cafe was so scary. But once I got there, everything sort of patted out. I met Mark, the bigger boss of the partnership and Aaron, my supervisor (and the manager of Miami Ice?). Both were nice and I was shown the ropes by Mark. I had come extremely early and my first job for the day was folding napkins. A little later, I met Kirsty, a really nice girl who was a few weeks pregnant, and Bert, the cook, who was also nice. I also met Rachel later on, who was new to Miami but had worked at one of the other cafes. Mark showed us the Dock and the storage area for Miami in Colonnade, in case we were sent there. My day consisted of folding napkins, washing, cleaning and serving. By the end of the day, I was extremely tired and fell straight to sleep as soon as I got home.

Oh before I head on to the next day, I should probably mention that I was a little intimidated by Aaron. He wasn't mean or anything, he was actually really nice. But I don't know why, I was a little scared of him. Lucy thinks that I maybe like him but I'm not too sure. Ever since Lucy put that idea in my mind, I've been constantly contemplating about it and maybe even tricked myself into believing I did but I really don't think I do.

Anyways, Day 2: As usual, I was having a mini-hyperventilating in the morning. I was relieved to see Steph and we ended up having a little chat before we went off in opposite directions. I met Steph, another really nice girl and Jonathan, a work experience person like me, except he had been there for quite some time. It was the same as usual. Oohh..i got to learn how to make a milkshake though...(it was either day 2 or day 3).

I was sent to Sul Ponte on Day 2 as well. it was there that I met Sevy, the funny, kind and lovely manager of Sul Ponte, Nicole, a really cool, sweet girl with the nicest blue eyes that I have ever seen and Matt, the funny, quirky cook who sings as he cooks in the back. It was here that I actually began to like my work experience a whole lot more. The environment was great and I really felt as if I was a part of something. And though there were a few cons such as the fact that it was mostly a smoking area and there were teenage customers ( i can't handle them well), it was thoroughly enjoyable. I secretly rejoiced everytime Aaron sent me off to Sul Ponte. Hehe. I finished Day 2 at Sul Ponte before heading home and falling asleep.

Day 3: I met Sam, a nice guy..though i didn't really talk to him much (i don't think he really liked me much..just thought of me as a helper..but that's just my assumption) and Todd, another barista who is actually pretty nice behind a scary looking exterior. It was another hectic day, filled with lots of washing and cleaning and serving.

At Sul Ponte, I met Donny, a really nice guy and Nathan, a cool dude who played nice R&B and hip-hop music in the kitchen area. Haha..i was so tempted to start swaying to the music when no one was around as I was washing up inside, but I refrained myself. I ended a little late on Day 3 as I was helping Steph and Aaron clean up at Miami but that was alright.

Day 4: I met Chole today. Coincidentally, she is the same girl I knew from primary school. And she remembered me! Haha..it was interesting. Thursday was a surprisingly busy day and there were so many dishes to wash. It was so so hectic! I think it may have had something to do with the little staff but maybe not. Bert, Nikki ( a girl who goes to my school) and this other girl came at around 4, which made me assume that on Thursdays the cafe opens later.

I didn't think I was going to Sul Ponte that day, but Aaron surprised me by telling me I was going there to work for my last hour. At Sul Ponte, I met Sarah, a girl who had really big eyes and Tracy, a really friendly girl who I was able to hold a fun conversation with.

Day 5: The last day didn't really feel like the last day at all. I did the normal rountine. Surprisingly, it wasn't as busy as I thought it would be. And we ended up preparing to close a little earlier than usual. I gave Steph the present and thanked her for having me. I then went up to Sul Ponte. It was really close to closing but I ignored that and went under the half closed door :P. I gave Sevy the present. He thanked me for all my help and said they would cherish the present (inside i was wondering how they could cherish chocolate...). He mentioned speaking to Anthony about maybe hiring me but I wasn't too sure if he was serious.

All in all, work experience has been an absolutely thrilling journey and has really opened up my eyes to the big big world out there. I had heaps of fun and learned a lot about work and the hardships and troubles that came with it.

It only hit me today that it was truly over. I think secretly, i was hoping that when i came back today to ask Anthony to help me fill out the report, that he would ask me to work part time. But that didn't happen and while I am going back on Monday to get back the report, I don't think i'm gonna get my hopes up and believe that he may ask me.

I dunno, half of me wants to work. I wanna go work there, especially at Sul Ponte. It has been an absolute pleasure and I seriously wouldn't mind working there. Although i could only probably work in the holidays. But then half of me doesn't want to work coz working signifies the start of independence and I don't know if i'm ready to start being independent. But i think the bigger part of me really wants them to ask me. I do want to work.

I'm sorta sad now after realising that it's all over. While working there, I felt like I really belonged, I was a part of something. I was floating on a cloud above everything and was so extremely happy. But when I realised that it was over, I cam crashing straight down to the ground. I feel lost once more and it is absolutely depressing.

What is it that I want exactly???

~Aurora