30

I must say as I age, I care less about birthday celebration or having very big parties or social gathering. I've slowly grown into a more private and introverted person. Funny, I still use blog and write my own stories for the world to see. I mean it's different, if you know what I mean. 

By the time I was 30, I had done a lot, but at the same time I felt like I haven't done enough. I was married, we bought a house, moved to Melbourne, moving out of Melbourne, rented our place, learning towards another diploma training and made full time income. 

I grew to understand my parents despite all the negative qualities and terrible things they've done to me when I was younger. I somehow grew more sympathy and even felt sorry for the way they were and how they were brought up and how they are living their lives. I probably am not the one to say anything about how they live, as I am still actively trying to figure it out. 

It is really funny, how I trying to mold myself into this societal expectation of what a 30-year-old should look like. I was trying to be like a 30-year-old, then I realised, there is no guidebook on what a 30-year-old should look like. I should and might as do what I please. So this year, I didn't want a lavish 'dirty thirty' kind of party, I just wanted companies and good times. And that's what I had. 

I was back home in Brisbane, thanks to work, allowed me to work remotely for 2 months, I was deeply grateful. Mum was at the time going through chemotherapy for her Breast Cancer treatment. I didn't quite know what to feel about it then tbh. Mum was really good in the beginning, when she realised that it had spread to her lymph nodes, she needed to start her treatment immediately. She panicked and called me crying saying she desperately needed to go back to China to see my grandpa. It took a lot of convincing to get her to start her treatment as soon as possible. She did, she was so strong. I was not there all time, thankful for my brother's girlfriend who accompanied my mum a lot during her treatments. I decided it was time for me to be back for longer and be with her and go to treatments with her. 

I am glad that I did, because now I am in Germany. I had a little realisation of how lucky I am with my mum. A friend of my husband, who recently lost his mum due to cancer. His mum was not so lucky, the cancer progressed so fast, even though she went through and completed her chemo treatment, she still lost to cancer sadly.  That really made me realised that I was lucky that my mum was still here today. 

Anyways, some photos of my 30th. 

That night was all about Spicy Marg because I never had a spicy marg before that !! I was 30 years old when I had my first spicy marg! 

I was obsessed with PopMart, probably the whole world is right now. So I decided to give people a little gift for my 30th, a bit of surprise for everyone, guess which one is mine? 

A groupie :) 

Celebration number two with my two special friends from Pandora era. 

 

Quick selfie, with my blue contact lens. It really unnatural because it is. I was curious to try it out. Something different for my 30th. 

When I booked the restaurant, I specified the occasion but was not expecting birthday and a little birthday dessert with the whole restaurant looking at me when they sang the happy birthday song. It was lovely, but the introvert in me was screaming. 

Sunny Brisbane is always Sunny 

Cooper's new raincoat, I had to slide this in, he is the cutest dog I know. 

Hubby send his love from Germany. Too bad this year he lost to my friend to the size of the bouquet hahah 

I was surprised when I received another flower delivery that day, I thought who would this be? And of course, it the sweetheart Anne, she always spoil me. 

 

 

I had to make sure I had good selfies with it, I loved it, she also bought hydrangea for me for my graduation. There is a theme going on and guess what? My wedding bouquet was also hydrangea. There is something you probably didn't know about Hydrangea. They are incredibly resilient, if yours started to wilt due to heat, dunk them upside down into cold water and soak it fully, watch them come back to life. I am not kidding. 

God was fair, my family was not the best in providing the emotional support, but my mother-in-law is. I am happy she remembers my birthday and wanted to make sure I had a cake. 

Say hello to capitalism, but I like it. Swarvoski of course sent me a birthday email with birthday discount. I must say I did enjoy this, a lot. 

 

  

Deutschland-ING: Cologne & Düsseldorf

19-21 October 2018

It definitely is a crime to be writing blog posts about my trip that I made in 2018. However, I am determined to have them all documented here. 

The friend I met let's call him GuoGuo in Germany through Airbnb, he offered to drive me to Cologne and Düsseldorf together since he would also want to visit some of his friends. I was fortunate, he was super sweet and not a psycho or a murder. I am alive today and made a friend. Okay, I just did a quick calculation, I was 23 years old, I am 30 now. Let that sink in. Where has the time gone ? 

I liked Cologne and Düsseldorf, they are different to Frankfurt, much nicer in fact, Cologne felt a lot busier and Düsseldorf is the opposite, I felt a lot of peace and pace feels a lot slower too in the city.  

Autumn in Germany is beautiful, no matter where you are in Germany, the city would be painted in golden leaves.  

 

Photos below were taken in Düsseldorf. 

It's been a minute

oh.my.god. I've got so much to update. I feel like that's such a me thing to do at the moment, just dump updates here.  

I've got to be honest, I genuinely enjoy reading my old posts and peep into my old, young and dumb shelves. I am hoping I am wiser. But I suppose time will tell. 

It needs to be a crime that I still haven't finish my Deutschland-ING series that I started for my 2018 exchange. Guess what, I am back in Germany. I am not joking, except that this time I am with my husband. Not on my own choice. (and Yes I am married now.) We have not had our wedding just yet, unsure at this stage what our concrete plan is. 

  

  Our pre-wedding mini photoshoot

I promise, I will update more often here since I am currently unemployed, frankly speaking, more so like actively searching and vigorously studying German. 

Sadly, we couldn't take our dog Cooper just yet with us, but he is coming soon. (Fingers crossed).

Currently is autumn in Germany, it really is the most magical time of the year. (Maybe not, now I think about the upcoming Christmas markets. I guess I am biased when it comes to Christmas Markets.)

 I also have so many more travel photos I need to add to my Europe series too, that will be coming too. 

Anyways, I am definitely holding myself accountable and provide us with more updates :). 

Chat soon  

29

My partner and I, both of our birthdays are in April, so this year we wanted to do something together for both of our birthday. Also our anniversary is in May which is also very close to April. April this year was so busy with a major wedding. 

29 marks the third year I have been living in Melbourne and also my partner and I's 3rd year together. We wanted to do something nice for ourselves. So we indulged with a head to toe Japanese massage finished with a facial. It was two and half hours of pampering and massage. 

We ate a lot of food as well. I didn't take photo of all of the foods we ate because after the entry was served, when the main was on we were both too eager to start. 

We had a staycation in Dorsett Melbourne for one night, we did some swimming and sauna. It was really good for the weather, it has been a while since I last swum. I discovered that I can actually float on my back, that was cool. (I think?). At least now I know I won't die if I just keep calm and focus on floating. 

On the way back home, I've noticed those beautiful yellow trees. Those yellow happy colours to battle Melbourne Winter.

We booked, the Diva Garden room with Dorsett, which is right outside of the art installation by artist Marta Figueiredo. I wanted to take a photo of when it's all lit up but I was too late when I got back to the hotel room, the lights for the installation was off.

 

Little boogie never hurts no body 

 

This was the Entree from Frejya in Melbourne. 

28

How the time has changed! Probably no one is still keeping or reading blogs, hence, I slacked off on checking in with my blog. 

Here is very late what I did for my 28th birthday. I can't believe I am saying that. In fact, as I write, I am actually 29 now. Don't worry, I promise that post is also coming. 

28 marks the second year of living in Melbourne. Things go so slowly but so fast. I felt lonely, happy and sad. I guess the older I get the more I felt about things and people around me. Looking back I thought I know about myself, I didn't. I still probably don't understand fully about myself. I know I will constantly change and that's probably the most certain thing I know about myself. 

For my 28th birthday, I went to Melbourne's Luna park. Not being born nor raised in Melbourne, I've always wanted to visit the Luna park. People have told me they are mainly for children not adults. I didn't care, I just want to visit it for at once. Probably not the best theme park but I am not disappointed. 

 

 

Honestly, I didn't know why I wanted a photo with this flower? 

 

Fresh set of sparkling SNS nails 

27

2022 was a mix of feelings. It was the best first year living in Melbourne, and it was the first year I lived with my partner. Things were going fast and I had so much different feelings throughout the years. I was at one stage so overwhelmed and stressed about life. But at the same time, I've had the most relaxing and care-free year. I loved 2022. We created a home for us and Coopey. 

I was introduced to all of his friends and things got a little bit overwhelming for me. I felt small, lost and hard to fit in.  I felt socially awkward and under achieved. I had all sorts of feelings about myself, I was extremely conscious. For a little moment, I didn't know why I was feeling this way. Then I realised it was all part of growth and changes I am going through. 

2022 was amazing, I was loved and looked after. My partner's family took me and really too care of me as if I am already their daughter in law. This made me realised why my partner was the warmest person I've ever met, that is all because of the way he was brought up. I appreciate a lot about him. 

I am going to keep this short and sweet, because it is not a year in review post. In 2022, I turned 27 and it was the first year I celebrated my birthday with a partner. He surprised me with a big bouquet of flowers, I woke up to it the next day and got my favorite pair of Swarvorski earrings. We also went Paint and Sip as our fortnightly date night idea. 

I have to say I really enjoy having a partner and doing things together. He allows me to be myself in this relationship completely and he comforts me when I cry like a child. In the first time in forever, I felt like I can cry like a child. 

Here are some photos until April 2022. I have a terrible memory so it will much easier for me to recall and tell you what happened during April 2022. 

 

I was strolling after my birthday waiting for my partner to pick me up

We had a group of us who all have one thing in common that is we all lived in Brisbane and moved to Melbourne. It was such a cosy night we had.

27 never looked better.

R and I also went to Sip and Paint, guess which one is mine?

Chandon for the important occasions such as my Birthday :)

My lovely friends got me this for my birthday.

I felt so spoiled with my bouquet from R <3

This was during the night noodle market

Random street mirror photo with Coop near where I live.

An afternoon moment

Wedding Shenanigans

A splash of colour

Chandon Trip with smokey eyes, accidentally got too heavy handed again

Teppanyaki visit

Yarra Valley Delish