What i have learnt today ...

-do not drink strong tea late at night....because you wont be able to sleep until 4 or 5 am.

-do not eat late night suppers - really screws your digestion.

sooo bloated...

retail therapy

lookie what i bought from strawberrynet!

i always buy my perfume on strawberrynet coz im such a cheapie. they have such an amazing range of perfumes and the prices are irresistible...especially when they send you an email that says... we miss you and you will get an extra 10% off your next order..... heeheee....

so i spent many minutes browsing to see what i could get....
unfortunately i didnt really order anything new and exciting... just the old familiar stuff i know i can depend on and enjoy.

first up is Burberry Weekend for men. love love this sweet mellow light perfume for everyday wear. its a very fresh and clean smell. just what i love. aud $56

next i bought something for my mum. shes been wanting to buy issey miyake for a long time but just hasnt got to it yet. this is a special treat for helping me out at school on sundays. i love you mum! im not too sure what it smells like, as it is a slight change from the usual - its a summer version of the the classic leau dissey, should be great. aud$72

last but not least is a great classic [i think] its cool water from davidoff. this perfume brings me back to my teenage yrs and i love it. it is another mens perfume, but i dont care. its fresh and light and my hubby uses it too :D. bargain at aud$65 for the set.

cant wait for my order to arrive!

goodbye...

I got some really sad news today.
My grandma or 'oma' died last night.
It's sad that she's gone, but at the same time i know that she has moved on to a much better place.
I have soooo many wonderful memories of my grandmother and i know i was very special to her because i was the first grandchild. :D.

Thank you oma for all the wonderful food you cooked for us, you always made our favourite food and put extra love into everything.
You were always there to help mum look after us.
Although it was difficult for us to communicate at times, it was like chickens and ducks, i know in a way we somehow understood each other.
I know life was hard for you, but you were strong for the whole family and carried us through no matter what.
I remember your famous homemade green bean and red bean icey poles you made, your little convenient store business that you ran. Everyone knew who you were and so well loved and respected.

There are so many memories and so many good times, i will miss you a lot and i hope you will find peace and happiness in heaven.

goodbye....

winter comfort foods

I have so many things to write about, but I really dont know what to write about.
I have taken lots of photos and I have lots of little ideas swimming in my head, but I dont know where to start. Anyways, I found a memory card full of random photos but full of food memories.

Starting off, I had a delicious chicken pie at a close friend's bday party and that totally inspired me to try making my own chicken pie. I realised it couldn't be too hard and I had a secret ingredient up my sleeve. This recipe was totally made up by me!

Miss Clio's easy chicken pie recipe

ingredients
-300 grams of chicken thigh pieces.
-butter
- frozen corn, peas and carrot mix.
-puff pastry
-onions
- can of campbell's cream of chicken soup [secret ingredient!]

Steps
- Chop chicken thigh pieces into small bite size pieces.
-Brown them with onions and butter in a pan
-Add corn, peas and carrot pieces, keep stirring.
-Add campbells cream of chicken soup.
-season to taste [salt, pepper, sugar, stock cubes etc]
- Pour pie mix into an oven proof baking dish.
-Roll puff pastry over and make small slits in the pastry to let some of the air/heat out.
- Brush generously with an egg wash and bake in the oven at 180C until pastry is fluffy and golden brown.

Enjoy!
Notes: My receipes and measurements are not exact, when i cook i dont really measure anything, i go according to taste. You can pretty much add any type of vegies to the pie, its great when you're trying to use up left over vegies. I like using campbells cream of chicken soup to get that creamy thick sauce for the chicken pie - yes i know its cheating, but i think its a good short cut :P.

The recipe above made this lovely chicken pie below, which was HUGE!! and we were eating it for next few days straight.

On the last day of Sydney we made our way to Balmain to try a very famous patisserie, Adriano Zumbo. The place was amazing and made us drool non stop looking at all the amazing cakes and sweet delights behind the glass counter. There was only 1 thing i was looking for - MACARONS!!! since my last macaron in hong kong and andrew's delightful desserts in jakarta, i cant get my mind off them. i HAD to HAVE some!! so i happily chose 12 macarons to bring back to perth and a few more other delightful desserts. hubby and i happily parted with our money to bring back to perth a mountain of delicious pasteries which unfortunately did not quite make it on the flight back. oh wells.... we ate them all none the less....

my delicious macarons.... yum! planning to make these during the school holidays - i cant wait!!

Hubby is obsessed with pork ribs, especially the delicious ones we tried in Naughty Nuris in Bali. This is his first attempt to recrate the famous dish and he did a really good job. Sweet, sticky, spicey and smoky - very nice indeed. Went down well with the corn cob. Once we have the recipe perfected, i'll share it with y'all! enjoy :D

nearly there...

i hate the 2nd half of term 2 and 4.
in the teaching world, this time of year means heads down, get cracking on school reports.
a school report is like a another uni assignment, but hardcore on the grammar and punctuation check.

oh wells... im nearly finished, absolutely exhausted and feel like i deserve something for completing it. but in ms.c's world... i have already bought many presents to myself ...even before i have finished writing my reports.

god i'm weak.

the calling of retaill therapy is too strong...

will share the goodies when i'm completely done... i hope...

miss clio

shanghai

we have finally settled and booked our tickets for our sept/oct 2010 holidays.

we have finally decided to settle on shanghai - which is something COMPLETELY different to what we have planned. i originally wanted to go to vietnam, but the lights and shopping delights of HK tempted me AGAIN... but really truly... i want to go somewhere different.

anyways. after lots of talking and negotiating and planning and umming and ahhing and price checking... we decided on SHANGHAI...

it had a lot to do with the business expo and world expo, but it is also quite exciting and something completely new for the both of us. i will miss all the good vietnamese food... but that could be for next yr right?

shanghai ended up being about double the cost of vietnam but hey.. when else are we going to do it, if not now? anwyays .. exciting times ahead... and lots to look and plan.

any travelling tips would be appreciated... where to shop, what to eat and where to go?

shanghai skyline

bad habits...

why oh why...??
do i always leave things to the last minute?
argh...
grrr...
stupid habit i haven't kicked from childhood years...

i have NEVER learnt from my stupid mistakes...

DOH DOH DOH!!!

[lots of head slapping]

sigh... got lots to do and soooo little time...

reports reports reports...

just get on with it....

ms.clio

ps: what are your bad habits?
anybody else leave things to the last minute?
always? like me?

what i learnt today...

There is no such thing as a free lunch...