Sha Niu's Story

Style Diary : Chinese New Year 2012!

Melissa — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:24:06 +0000

WHAT A BREAK!!! It’s been a month and a half long that I’ve been working my ass off in Zara so there wasn’t much time that I could use to spend my time with my beloved family and friends. I’ll leave my horrible stories from work on another post, that is if I would want to relive those moments! Also, I realised I’ve been sporadically blogging over the past few years which really shows how shallow my level of determination is wtf.

Every year, I’m always anticipating to start the Chinese New Year with a BIG BANG and this dress was just perfect in each and every way to welcome the Year of the Dragon!! Oriental print and lycra – just what I need to flatter the body well! I really love the outburst of colours on it and the quirky sleeves! I toned it down with a dusty pink heels with gold trimmings so it won’t steal the spotlight of my dress!

A few days before Chinese New Year, I’ve finally done one of the things which have always been lingering in my to-do list: Green hair!! Dyed my hair tips green and got a shaved side head again!! Hence, the punkster look I’m spotting now. I must say this was the happiest moment I’ve ever had after a haircut because usually I will be filled with regrets on my hair decisions.

On a side note, I’m glad that I’m spending my Chinese New Year in KL again this year and more importantly, I’m having my reunion dinner back in my maternal grandmother’s house for the first time for homecooked food instead. THE JOYYY!!!! Nothing beats the fuzzy feeling whenever I have homecooked food instead of chomping down the ordinary food in Chinese restaurants.

My dad and I have been putting up fake flowers onto our flowerless plants HAHAHAHHAHAHA which is rather damn sad if you think about it. Nonetheless, it looks pretty good from far and it definitely feels like it’s sakura season in my house now!

I don’t know why but my family will visit the whole family on the first day so there’s usually a change of outfit by late afternoon as it gets to hot during the festive season. Without fail, I’ll always go for something casual yet comfortable. I’ve been head over heels my high waisted black skinnies from Cheap Monday’s as these are the best jeans I’ve ever worn! I paired it with a scalloped top which reminds me of Flintstones along with my favourite and also my first Balenciaga bag that I’ve gotten when I was in Paris last year!

It’s gonna be my last week in KL for now!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Twenty One in 2011

Melissa — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:21:45 +0000

Whenever the year end creeps into everyone’s lives slowly, I will cringe slightly at the thought of my birthday as I really didn’t like the number that tells how I should behave but I guess it all depends on an individual’s judgement! Buttttt I guess 21 isn’t such a bad thing, since all your presents will be tripled or quadrupled *wishful thinking!*.

For this year, I’m really grateful that my parents took the initiative to plan out a birthday party for me and even going the extra mile by giving me a key pendant necklace for my birthday present. Though it might seem cliché to some, it represents something more special than anything that anyone could ask for and for me, it is just so amazing and lucky that my parents got me this. I hadn’t had a party since I was 12 so could you imagine how nervous I was?!

On another thought, how did you like my pink lipstick? I used to hate the thought of having lipstick on my lips as I think it was suffocating in some ways but as I got older, I’m starting to appreciate the colours. Pfffttt so much for swearing that I will never ever buy lipsticks when I was younger. Look whose collecting now hahahahahha wtf!! Signs of growing up to be a young lady hey!?

It was finally time to wear the dress that I’ve bought for myself a year ago for my 21st Birthday party!! It’s the first ever designer collaboration piece that I’ve gotten for myself and the ruffles as well as the details of playfulness spells Lanvin in this dress perfectly. As a bonus, it goes perfectly well with my bright pink lipstick yummy!

For convenience sake, my parents opted for food catering with quite a good spread of food!! How I miss Malaysian food so badly especially the kuih-muihs!!!

As I’m on a budget and I really would want to have great photos to remember the night, I bought a roll of wrapping paper making ’21′ cut outs and paste it to the wall assuring to my mum that the paint will not be ripped off. Surprise surprise!! That’s the first thing that went when I peeled off the 21 HAHAHHAHAHA!!! I even suggested of leaving the cut outs on the wall like a Wall of Fame, as a reminder to them that I’ve turned 21.

Though I hadn’t seen each and everyone for quite some time, it was definitely great seeing everyone again and reminisce about the things we do from the past such as Dinosaur Game!! Goshh we’re such retards when we were young hahahhaha!!

My two favourite pair of heels! Makes everyone so tall after putting them on and I kid you not when I said it doesn’t hurt a bit!

Oh god, everytime I look at this picture, it reminds me of my sad Birthday Cake story hahahha! My parents gave me the choice of choosing my very own birthday cake so I thought I might have order the cake and collect it myself since after all, it’s my duty. On the day of collection, I was waiting for the man to bring out my cake so religiously, till when he looked at my receipt, take a look at me and asked ‘You ordered and bought the cake yourself, and you’re here to collect it yourself?’ AND HE SAID IT WITH A NASTY SMIRK!! OHMYGOD HOW DARED HE, I didn’t know how to respond as I was much in a disbelief that what he said was true and I didn’t even realized it till he pointed it out! I had to convinced myself that I was just being strictly independent!

After all those worries about how the party would go, I’m really thankful that it turned out great towards the end! I love how the the special moments are captured into polaroids and I’ve read all the mini messages that I forced most of you to write hahahhaa and it made me smile every single time I take a look at it.

Special thanks to my cousins for helping me throughout the entire night from being my very own ‘bartender’ to photographer and everything else!! I’ve got the most amazing friends as well as family whom gave me an amazing time!!

PS : Now that I’m back for another two months, it’s tough getting the jobs that I want for experience sake but that should not stop me from getting what I want. Patience, determination, and passion will keep me going on chasing the things I want in life no matter what. Whenever life brings me, I must not turn down knowledge no matter how irrelevant it may seem but who knows what that could bring you to because after all, life is full of surprises!

Holland

Melissa — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 13:59:00 +0000

After getting a good night rest from the night before, it was a full day out in Holland visiting cities such as Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

We headed to a diamond factory for the first thing in the morning because nothing wakes you up better than having diamonds in your hands!

The Gassan Diamond Factory is made up of a few floors. Each room I walk past in the factory, they looked like laboratory rooms meant for chemical scientists that you would commonly find in the movies! But of course, it’s filled with diamond experts instead.

Doesn’t this just looked like a scene stripped right off a milk advertisement?! I would always think that I could only see this in New Zealand but apparently that’s not the case because there are more sheeps there! So, really this is such a bizarre thing to see and not long after, we saw a cow grazing on grass and shitting simultaneously yuckkk!

For women, after diamonds, then comes shoes. Headed to a tiny hut by the country where they make wooden clogs and we were given a demonstration on how clogs are made. Technology and machines do play a big transition as a pair of wooden clogs could be made in seconds using machine whereas if he were to carve himself, it would probably take a week to complete a pair if I’m not wrong! (he said this in June!! so I’m trying my very best to remember )

Helllloooo pretty little pony!! =DDDDDD

WHY ARE YOU NOT SMILING BACK?!?!

Just right across, it was a hut making cheese!!! Before I could even enter the building, there’s a lingering aroma of the pungent cheese. Having tried all their cheeses, it was no surprise that the smoky cheese was everyone’s favourite!

The lady welcoming us was dressed in their traditional costume and by now, you could really tell that I’m really dressed for the occasion HAHHAHAHAHAA!!! Heyyy, I’m just blending in with the locals. Another reason would be that I really wanted to play around with long pleated skirts back in June so what do you think of this combination?

Right after, we then went off for Rotterdam, a place where it’s 7 metres below sea level so it’s reallly prone to flood! As you could see from the first picture, the sea is actually right behind that grassy hill!! Freaking saw a shark-like fin and I have no idea if it’s real or not as it was just floating around WTF!!!

The roads heading towards the small town were really narrow that it could only fit one vehicle at a time, so there was a bit of a traffic slow down from there when I was starving like an elephant!!

Finger food stalls were everywhere, and it seems that fish and chips are really common here. Okay, more like almost every stall is selling fried fish fillets, seafood and chips AND ICE-CREAM.(to which I’m not complaining considering I had two scoops after lunch hohoho!)

I know the picture of my lunch doesn’t look the least bit appetising but it was alright and when you’re hungry, every taste bud in your mouth definitely died a little.

Even on a weekday, the town seems to be filled with a parade all day long!! There were little girls all being dressed up in pretty frocks for a competition and a group of men playing a set of instruments repetitively till there are countless times of moments of deafness as nobody can hear what the other person is talking no matter how loud you shout wth!!

Aside from the crowded streets, the streets are filled with souvenir stalls, pubs and finger food stalls. We decided to sit by the dock and watch the locals interacting with their pet dogs in their boats which is rather amusing, really.

As there were a lot of places to be seen, we quickly departed to our next destination – The Windmills of Holland. From a distance away, you could probably already spot the row of windmills.

It was quite a huge place to walk around in as it’s not just windmills alone, there was another cheese and chocolate factory in it and a small farm too!

As for our last destination, we did a little small boat tour around Amsterdam seeing how most people live in boathouses. It’s really nice to see how people would turn these small boats into a small cosy home for themselves and how each boat would be different from each other in their sense of style alone.

Then it was the famous Red Light District!! OMFG there’s even an old woman and when the curtain’s closed, you can’t help but to imagine nasty things hahahahha wtf!!! But everything is just so surreal as I wouldn’t have imagined that I would see real pimp daddy on the streets yoooo!

For my outfit I was wearing:
Lace Cropped Top from Topshop
Midi Pleated Skirt from Azorias
Longchamp Bag borrowed from Mummy
Leather Strap Belt from Forever New
Accessories from Lovisa and Diva
Chanel inspired Flats from Vincci

Wedding Bells

Melissa — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:07:34 +0000

One of the reasons why I flew back to Malaysia in such a hurry right after my finals was partly due to my lovely cousin’s brother wedding! It has been a long time since a wedding took place in my family and I hadn’t been to a wedding ceremony for a long time!

It was held on the morning after the day I arrived so technically I only had a few hours of sleep so hopefully I didn’t look too tired!! There wasn’t much to do so I was basically there to eat all the lovely buffet spread prepared by my aunt. I felt like I had gone up to food heaven because I was Malaysian-food deprived for so long so it was gobbling non-stop and chomping madness like it was an eating competition WTF!

All the decorations down to every single detail was done by the groom’s sister/my cousin sister! I really liked the christmas tree concept but it’s hanged with wedding/love related ornaments instead such as salt and pepper bottles! Being cousins, we shamelessly took this back when she casually said that we could take some things on the tree back. Who would have known that everyone in the family would at least take a single thing! I admit that I even took a hanger!! HAHAHAHAH WHAT? It’s printed with pink polka dots all over it! HAHAHHA FAMILY -nobody knows any shame when it comes to the family.

Seeing how it’s going to be such a hot and humid like any other day in Malaysia, I opted for something casual yet airy to maximise comfort without sacrificing on the stylish factor. I’ve gotten this neon yellow pleated mermaid skirt from Azorias long ago and I thought, this could be just the perfect occasion to wear it along with my cotton ‘denim’ shirt!

Knowing I’m such an accessories kind of girl, I’m pretty obsessed with sharp and spiky things lately so it’s no surprise that you’re seeing me in this spiky necklace. Gives me a new level of attitude along with my latest haircut that I got myself right before the wedding dinner itself!

I really liked Sandy’s wedding dress that night as it really reminds me of 20s! The feather head clip to crystals and beads dangling from her sleeves, everything including the wedding was absolutely beautiful.

The dinner was held on the next day instead so there was plenty of time to get ready hahaha! Being cousins, we were given tasks to help decorate the place with balloons and leading the guests to their respective tables.

What do you think of this dress that I’ve designed myself? You could tell that I’m really liking the asymmetry trend and I really love how this dress conveys a hint of mystery from the see through chiffon.

Felt like Katy Perry that night with my new partly shaved head, blue streaks of hair ends, a soft gradient green dress along with a pair of high platform heels with a pink plastic heel at the back!

I really enjoy weddings, especially the ones from my close family ties because it’s such an amazing joy to be able to meet everyone all in one night. For years, all of us cousins hadn’t been together as everyone’s very well all over the world so I’m really glad we could sit down together and enjoy a lovely meal together!

For my first outfit I was wearing:
Cotton Denim Top from Dotti
Neon Yellow Pleated Mermaid Skirt from Azorias
Balenciaga Clutch
Spiky Necklace from Lovisa
Neon Green Watch from Swatch
Black Chiffon Wedges from Topshop

As for my second outfit I was wearing:
Gradient Green Chiffon Dress designed by me
Gold Collar Necklace from Lovisa
Platform Heels from Topshop

Day 5 around Germany

Melissa — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:52:17 +0000

I hadn’t been blogging for a month and this makes me feel like a sluggg!! I’ve actually had this post lying in my drafts for a really long time because I’ve been ~~working REALLY HARD on my studies~~ enjoying my trip back home too much with food showers.

Therefore, while my brain is on a long break, I’m just going to use every ounce of energy I have left in me to write up on my Europe trip! So I was still around in Germany in Day 5 and it was tiring because we’re moving from one country to another everyday! I certainly felt like a Nomad!

Nothing spells a good breakfast without a warm cup of english breakfast tea on a cold and gloomy day! We were taken to a tiny town to catch the ferry to Cologne, Germany. But there was an hour till the ferry came, so we walked briefly around the town to check out the quaint little shops.

It was kind of freaky as I were taking pictures of these houses as I’m not too sure if the residents are watching me as I take or is the building being occupied because it’s REALLY REALLY quiet around there!! If i were to stay inside, I’m pretty sure you could hear me talking from miles away man!

I bursted out laughing when I set my eyes on these. Clearly depicts everyone in the society hey and it seems like something I could get off 9gag! OHMYGOD, did I tell you that is my latest obsession? I used to

The walls were filled with graffiti and paint sprays, though some might find it annoying and call it vandalism, and though it looked a tad bit messy here, I kinda liked how it looked when I was in the tunnel with the dim light coming in from the end of the tunnel!

FOR THE ENTIRE DAY, SHE’S BEEN POPPING OUT FROM BEHIND if you hadn’t noticed this already!!

It was a very serene place indeed as there was nothing around besides the small boat stop and a few houses lined up along the river! Hopped onto the boat once it has arrived and it was a 30 minute long boat ride with nothing but great views of the natural landscapes on both sides.

Another castle in sight and it sure was one hell of a windy day that time! I couldn’t even take a proper self shot without having hair on my face pfft!

So many ducklings by the river! I was obviously sighing in awe till my dad expressed how yummy they will taste like! Yummmmehhh.

Oh yeah. We’re bad.

The tiled picture clearly shows the river that we’ve travelled along on our boat ride. Now everywhere that I headed to, there’s always a small fridge selling those mini tubs of Ben & Jerry’s and for my entire trip, I promised to myself that I would at least taste one of these little devils but time and time and again I’ll always end up being too bloated to stuff another toothpick down my throat. Hence, there goes my chance of eating it at a halved price compared to the ones selling in Malaysia!

Now now, there wasn’t many pictures taken while I was in Cologne as I was deprived from shopping excursions for the first few days of my Europe trip when honestly(truly!), my entire existence was focused solely on shopping itself. I was spending an hour of my given two hours in the cathedral thinking yuppp, the tourguide gave us two hours to walk around this snapping pictures. Could you have imagined the moment when my eyes laid onto a girl’s shopping bag labelled with ‘H&M’ across it? I went bananas because at that time, I was really hoping to get my hands onto a banana collection swimwear. It was a tough hour juggling between holding an umbrella to protect myself from the heavy drizzle and another hand balanced with shopping bags. Not to mention, there were an army of people on the streets! Ahhhh such memories.

Didn’t do much that night besides having supper in our hotel bar. The hot chocolate was simply delicious and there was an additional small block of chocolate for me to add in when the drink itself is chocolatey enough on its own already! It wasn’t a really long day filled with many activities so there wasn’t really any outfit pictures as it was a day just in comfortable clothes. I just can’t wait to write on my next few posts!

Perth Fashion Festival 2011

Melissa — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 12:52:41 +0000

Recently, I’ve got the chance to partake in the Perth Fashion Festival as a Style Envoy! I’ve been wanting to join since last year but it was too late for me to sign up last year so I didn’t waste a minute of time when I got to know the registration for volunteers are open! As I trembled my way through the interview, I was lucky to be picked out as the Back-Of-House Dresser for a few shows so it was absolutely great fun for the whole week!

For my first night, I was scheduled to work for WA Designers and Ae’lkemi shows. Being my very first time and apparently the biggest show so far for Perth Fashion Festival Week, I could literally pee in my pants as I’m so worried that I’ll mess up and not being able to get the models out in time!! True to my expectation, I did screw up for one second when the dress was put on the other way round! Mind you, they were REALLYYY tall as well! However, as I didn’t know pictures were allowed backstage, I only managed to take pictures on my second and third day shift.

I’d say the best experience for me was Hyogu Banshu where 6 designers were being sent all the way to Japan to manufacture their own fabrics and the collections from each of them was to die for! My favourite was the Origami dress! Thankfully, my model for that night was the friendliest I’ve met and the designer was awfully nice to us as well!

Every time before the show starts, I’ll get very jitty and nervous because trust me, backstage is as intense as everyone perceives. On normal days, girls take at least 10 minutes to get ready but we have to dress this models in one COMPLICATED outfit within 2 minutes most. All in all, it was definitely a great peek into the fashion industry.

PS: I’m dying for those pair of ankle boots in the last picture!!!

Day 4 at Heidelberg

Melissa — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:50:19 +0000

Helloooo! So I hadn’t been blogging cause ~~I’m so addicted to Sims on Facebook that I’ve neglected~~ my blog has been undergoing some system upgrade and changing of servers.

Anyways, it’ll be my first shift participating in the Perth Fashion Festival tomorrow so wish me luck! If i may, I will take some backstage photos for you guys to see. I’m just too excited being able to work as a dresser for prestigious designers in this coming week!!!

Plus, multicultural week is kicking off on this coming Monday so it’s going to be a busy week!

I’ve still got much to talk about my Europe trip and I’m only halfway through Day 4!! Continuing my trip from Lucerne, we departed on bus to Germany. On the way to Germany itself, we stopped by a scenic spot which overlooks one of the longest rivers in Europe, Rhine River. I was greeted with the most spectacular view of the river itself. It was definitely cloudy alright, but thankfully there wasn’t any rain pouring down when we were there.

I opted for a day dress as I know that I would be doing a lot of walking throughout the entire day. But in order to keep it casual, I took my leather belt which came with a fur vest and tied a little bow at the back instead to give my outfit a cute surprise when I take down my jacket.

We then travelled across the vast fields and passing by the Black Forest to arrive at a little small town in Germany. It was definitely a quaint and lovely town with quite a number of people in it. Our German lunch of pork knuckle and pork sausages was served in a restaurant located in Drubba, a cuckoo clock factory shop! On a side note, you can probably tell that I’m currently obsessed with dalmation and their lovely dalmation prints! One dalmation fur coat away and I’m straight to Cruella DeVil.

Of course, certainly we would be able to experience a German lunch consisting for pork sausages, pork knuckles, sauerkraut and some fries. It was weird though that there was rice on it! The waitress who served us sure have some great strength on her pair of arms as she managed to hold onto so many pints of beer at one go as though they are as light as feathers!! And since Blackforest cake originated from this part of Europe, we’ve got the chance to taste a piece of cake each! In my opinion, there was too much alcohol in it though so much so that it’s overpowering which completely destroy the cake as a whole for me.

Just right after our hearty lunch, we then proceeded to a demonstration on how cuckoo clocks are made!! I know how cuckoo clocks are made of wood traditionally but I couldn’t help it but to fall in love with that plastic one! Simply just too unique on its own!

There were definitely lots of families walking around, bringing their dogs with them as well. Almost everyone has a dog walking with them in this town and how I just wish that I could do the same in Malaysia as well. Anyway, on that day itself, there was a massive band and stalls set up like as though there was a festival going on so it was truly an amazing experience. Not to forget the wonderful lake overlooking the Black Forest (if I’m not mistaken that should be it!). We didn’t stay here for long though as we were supposed to continue our journey to Heidelberg.

My Judas Dance Crew baby!

I just love how the rays are passing through the clouds in this particular picture.

It irks me that we are having so many Chinese dinners in this trip alone when we can try what the locals have to offer!! So we had our meal at this Chinese restaurant and please don’t laugh at the monkey’s butt and it’s toot. Just didn’t expected the person who made this to go into such detail! It wasn’t intentional!!

I love how there’s palace in the most random places. I’ve seen so many palaces in this trip it’s not even funny! They all remind me of the Super Mario’s palace naturally.

There wasn’t much to buy in Heidelberg but I dare say that there were definitely many interesting things to see. The atmosphere in the small town market area was very relaxing with many alfresco cafes and mostly all of them are being almost full! And of course, it wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t visit the Hard Rock cafe in Heidelberg itself.

That day I was wearing:
Pink Ruffled Dress from Ying & Yang
Neon Green Watch from Swatch
Fringed Boots from a random shoe shop in Perth
Accessories from Lovisa

PS : On a side note, I’ve been watching this video every night without fail because I personally think it’s so funny!! Lanvin campaign ads always get me hooked!! SHUSHH I know mostly everyone has watched it but I just couldn’t help posting it!

Day 3 in Lucerne

Melissa — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:23:33 +0000

For our third day, woke up to a beautiful morning sunshine which I’m eternally grateful for because it has been raining for the past two days! In my entire trip, I must say that Lucerne is one city that I came to love a lot. It’s so pretty in terms of scenery and I would want to live here when I’m old!!!

Have you ever guys been torn on what to have for breakfast because the spread is soo mouth tantalizing!! So that explains the cereal (OH.MY.GOD, the best cereals I’ve taken because I’ve added walnuts and honey nuts inside!!) and the other plate meh hehe. I’m supposed to eat like a king for breakfast right!?

What I love about travelling is that we cover a whole lot of distance by foot so that’s definitely some great exercise! We walked from our hotel to the iconic wooden Chapel Bridge for about 10 minutes. The view was absolutely breathtaking after crossing the bridge as we’ve managed to catch a glimpse of the mountain and the lake was filled with pretty swans and ducks! Okay, I know that you can only see ONE swan in this picture but I swear that there was at least 15 of them!

I swear to God I’m addicted to all the pedestrian traffic buttons because I seem to have a picture of each in every country I go to wth! And don’t you think this particular one looked like it’s taken over by human-eating robots or something. I’ve managed to buy two watches while I was in Switzerland and they were spectacular! I’ve always wanted a black one but I guess my skin doesn’t go with black watches so I got a white one instead along with a Fluorescent Neon Green watch with silicon strap(not pictured)! It was such a delight to touch the silicon material. So nice to smell too!

Even though it’s freezing, that doesn’t stop me from getting a cone of ice-cream from the famous Ice-cream store! They sell macarons with ice-cream fillings too! Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get them though cause I still hadn’t finish my box of macarons from the day before. Camwhore Fail!

We then proceeded to the Lion Monument and to manage to get some cuckoo clocks magnets from a quaint little corner store. But I guess the shopaholic character got the better of me because I ended up buying mouse pads with cows on them too LOL!

After spending a wonderful time on sight-seeing and getting some souvenirs, we went up to Mount Titlis by taking a cable car. It was approximately an hour just being inside the cable car. Throughout the entire time, we could hear the bells hanging on the cows’ neck jingling dingling doo! We had cheese fondue for lunch along with other dishes as well but I didn’t want to stuff myself silly as we knew that we were going to take a stroll along the snow covered mountain!

Just as the moment we stepped out, it was snowing heavily for a few minutes! DURING SUMMER! It definitely was one hell of a magical moment at the top of that mountain. My family and I held our hands together to walk because we were so not equipped with clothes that are meant for snow! I fell halfway and all they did was take continuous shots of me while laughing and nobody even bothered to help me up!!! The most amusing thing I saw while walking was that an Indian lady was walking in her SAREE while it’s snowing!!! To think that I’m already freezing in my winter coat!! But that’s not it, there was another couple who were pushing their baby pram on the snow. ON THE SNOW! It didn’t move an inch of course cause the wheel was rolling at the same spot.

Everyone went back into the cafe in less than 10 minutes and you could tell that I wasn’t very happy and satisfied with that as we still have an hour or so more before we could get back down! So i waited for my dad to have his ice-cream (look whose the kiddy one now ) before he could take me out to play in the snow again!

‘TYRA DID I MAKE YOUUUU PROUD? I’M SMIZING!’

As soon as we got down, we spotted two local kids selling fresh cherries by the roadside. The small boy kept cycling back and forth from his house to pluck more cherries when a swarm of Chinese tourist surrounded them! While waiting for them to buy their cherries, there was an exchange of conversation between the girl and a Chinese woman who doesn’t know how to converse in English, and so she turned to me. That’s when all the monkey signs came out. Knowing how I’m a complete idiot in Mandarin, I just waved my hand around leaning back and forth, rolling my eyes mumbling ‘I don’t know what is she talking about!’ because I can’t translate anything at all! But we did get our hands on two bags of cherries and they the sweetest ones that I’ve ever tasted!

That’s one thing when you played in the snow, you’ll definitely get gross and tangled hair soon after! Spending the afternoon surrounded by snow was more than I could ever ask for. We went back to the city after that to have a walk around CLOSED SHOPS because it was a Catholic holiday!!!! SO YES, two days in Lucerne and STILL NO SHOPPING FOR ME YET! There I was, sulking in front of stores when their display windows are filled with pretty clothes.

I love walking around the streets in Lucerne, the shops, the cafes tucked in the middle of the roads, random painting of a banana on the wall and the swans swaying idly to the water currents in the lake. Everything was just picture perfect with the amazing view of the mountain under the blue sky. I could live here thinking to myself as it’s one of the cities that I love so much.

That day I was wearing:
Pale Pink Belted Cape Coat from Forever New
Off-White Long Sleeve Top with half sheer sleeve from Kookai
Fringed Boots from a random shoe shop in Perth
Flower Garland and Cameo Bracelet with ‘Pearls’ from Diva
Accessories from Topshop and Thomas Sabo

Fur for Truffle Festival

Melissa — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 01:08:06 +0000

Just a week ago, I attended my very first food festival in Perth after all these years! For this one, it was all about truffles, truffles and more truffles!

Going with the rhyme, so I thought this would be a great time for me to wear my faux fur gilet! My precious precious fur vest. The desperate things I would do to get hold of this treasure of mine! I’ve always asked my friends if they have any desperate shopping stories to share just so I wouldn’t feel so alone hehe but it seems like I have too many it’s not even funny!

As soon as we got there, the rain was pouring so badly with strong cold winds, I was beyond freezing!! But as the weather tends to have its own PMS, it was all sunny minutes later. So Thank God for that. We were greeted by Jean Pierre Sancho’s tent and the first thing I couldn’t wait to get my hands on was their truffle macaron! Tastewise, it was okay but I didn’t really like the texture of it though as I find it a tad bit dry.

Walking deeper into the festival, there were a whole lot more stalls offering a variety of food. There was a long queue at the Truffle and Mushrooms stalls especially and the grilled mushrooms smelt soooooo good! It was definitely one of the juiciest and tastiest mushroom I’ve ever tasted! Boy they were big juicy juicy mushrooms! It was my first time eating mushrooms this way cause usually, I’m perfectly satisfied with a mushroom omelette!

Saw a bunch of old ladies in the middle of nowhere and thought it was funny to imitate them!

After awhile, we were on a street filled with food vendors and the aroma of food being cooked by each stall was just too good to ignore! So everyone bought different food so that everyone could have a taste out of everything! We’ve got Fish and Chips with Truffle Mayonnaise, Truffled Potato Croquettes, and Gnocchi Ravioli with Mushrooms and Truffle from Inconte. I love the truffle mayonnaise so much because I found myself constantly dipping away with it! We even shared a Truffled Moonmeat Burger from Mondo Butchers and Crispy RABBIT and Truffle spring rolls! YES, I ate a rabbit eeekkks!! It was soft and tender I have to say but I felt like as though I was eating a pet dog! But the weirdest bit of the day was the chicken and truffle flavoured Ice-cream! There wasn’t any taste of chicken in it though but it was definitely an amazing treat!

You can tell by the end that I was very, very truffle-fied.

As we started our day earlier in the day, we’ve noticed that there was a tent promoting Tourism Malaysia specifically and it was funny because there’s no other countries promoting themselves and I thought I was in a Truffle Festival! But then again, I’m glad it was there as I’ve got to attend Chef Wan’s cooking session hahahaha! Ohmygod he is one of the horniest man I’ve ever known because he constantly talks to us about dirty jokes! (not that I don’t enjoy *coughs coughs!* )

I loved the session so much because it was also my first time trying out the Malay’s porridge that is always being served during Hari Raya? Correct me if I’m wrong! Other than that, he even cooked lamb rendang? I don’t know what is it called in Malay gosh but the meat was so tender and well marinated!! *shyy*

That day, this was the outfit that got me freezing like a mad scrawny chicken! But hey, no pain no gain!

Faux Fur Gilet with a leather strap beltfrom Forever New
Navy Blue with White Stripes Tunic from Uniqlo
Red Loafers from Random Shop in Beaune
Accessories from Diva
Heart Pendant with Necklace from Dearest Mummy
Alexander Wang Rocco Bag

Beaune

Melissa — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:32:27 +0000

I’m having mixed emotions today because of my weird encounter with a stranger at the train station. So there I was minding my own business, with my earphones on playing the list of songs fro mmy phone while people watching, THIS MAN on my left raised his voice a few times to say hello to me.

Now of course, any sane person like me wouldn’t answer to the first few hellos because I’ve always smiled or waved at people whom I think was saying Hello to me, but really it was to the person behind me. Hence, I ignored him, thinking that he wasn’t calling out to me! Not giving up, he waved his hand over just inches away from my face, that I could literally feel the wind caused by his hand movements. We ended up talking about Angry Birds WTF because he assumed I was playing that game on my phone. So I wasn’t very keen on talking to him because I’m sorry, his pronunciation wasn’t very clear from the first place due to his Arabic accent so I tried to break off the conversation by putting my earphones back.

THEN TO MY ASTONISHMENT, he asked me ‘ARE YOU STRAIGHT?‘

WHAT.THE.HELL.

ANYWAYS, after a hectic schedule in Paris on the first day, all we did on the second day was just travelling across the country to Switzerland. I was a little down at first when I see itinerary list for the day as there was probably two things at most. But at the same time, I was quietly looking forward to Switzerland because my parents had always been telling me how wonderful it is whenever I ask them about their Europe trip decades ago.

But boy oh boy it sure was another gloomy day as it was drizzling for quite a bit during our whole journey.

It was pretty chilly and helll I was freezing in my sheer top! Of course I didn’t want to admit that in front of my family or they would reprimand me for wearing something so thin! I’ve always remembered seeing the newly advertised Kinder Bueno White in every magazines I read, so when I finally see it being sold at one of the snack stores, I stole my mummy’s money to pamper myself with Kinder Bueno. I have to say though that I still prefer the milk chocolate. Guess I’m just not used to eating white chocolate! Halfway through our journey, we spotted a castle on my left and doesn’t that just reminds you of the castle in Super Mario when we play as a kid?!?!

Midway through to Switzerland, we’ve made a short detour to a quaint town known as Beaune to spend a little bit of ~~my dad’s money LOL~~ time. As soon as we made our entrance, I could feel the peace radiating from the town already without even having to get down from the bus yet!

We were given the privilege to have our own lunch so relying on our ~~instincts~~ sense of smell, we went around sniffing and spotting for the cafe with the most patrons! While walking along the streets, there it was, the smell of grilled sandwiches and the sound of a busy restaurant serving its customers with a variety of mouth-watering food, we knew that restaurant would be THE ONE.

As everything was mostly written in French, thankfully the names were quiet similar to English and with the help of a pretty girl whom served our table that afternoon, we managed to pick our lunch without any problem and I dare say, this was one of the best meals I’ve ever had on my Europe trip. Though the simplicity, each dish was perfectly prepared!

As the saying goes, the way to a man’s heart is by filling up his tummy! So as cunning as I can be, seemingly that my Dad was happy, I went up to him and asked him if he could buy me a pair of red loafers from that a random shoe shop! One must not be afraid to take chances and go further! So there I was, pushing more buttons HAHAHAHHAA, I asked my dad if I could get a box of macarons!

I must say that not that I’ve tasted a lot of macarons but I could tell that these ones were good!! I was keen on buying more pastries because honestly, I’m a sucker for all things sweet but I sternly reminded myself that no, I wouldn’t be able to finish them! Although it’s just a small pastry store from a quaint town, Pâtisserie Wagner does wonders with their selection of pastries and desserts!

After spending a good two hours in Beaune, it’s non-stop travelling to Switzerland! As soon as we arrived, we were famished by then so we had dinner at one of the restaurants in the hotel called Penthouse. The meat was absolutely juicy and even more flavourful when it’s combined with creamy mushroom sauce! Funny thing was, it was already close to 9 and it was as bright as ever outside!!! So my parents and I took a brief walk outside the hotel just across the street to have a look at these colourful watches because they were so eye-catching from afar when I walked into the hotel earlier! Wished I could have a box of these beauties!!

Moving on to outfit pictures!

What I love about this top is it’s capelet collar because I guess somehow, having something over my shoulders makes me feel protected in a way hahaha! That’s why you see, superheroes have capes! And I’ve been buying these kind of tights because I love the idea of knee length socks but not so much of the socks itself because it tends to slide down as I walk, whereas these tights gives the illusion of you wearing a knee length socks and you need not have to worry of it sliding down your legs(!!) and having to pull it up over time and again. I’ve gotten so many questions whenever I wear these out because strangers would always come up to me and ask if those heart shapes were my tattoo! I think I’ll die if I put a tattoo on my thighs because as you all know, I’m highly intolerant to pain!!

Sheer Blouse with Pleated Capelet Collar from Topshop
Black Cuffed Shorts from Zara
Tights from Topshop
Accessories from random silver shop and Diva
Heart Pendant with Necklace from Dearest Mummy
Longchamp bag borrowed from Mummy

PS : Yes, I brought Minnie along with me for my entire Europe trip!!