When rain dawns on you, dance

Three and a half weeks of dancing with 2 more weeks to go. When it's debutante season, more like when your friends decide to have their debutante balls 18 days apart, it's cotillion practice here, cotillion practice there, people are stressed and the rain's not helping.

It is officially T minus 12 hours until I find out whether I get into University or not. So here I am, with my fingers crossed, wondering whether or not I'll be getting any sleep at all tonight. There's this sinking feeling in my gut; a mixture of excitement, nervousness and nausea.

Meanwhile, I hope I'll be able to make those long overdue Snickerdoodles next week. Make them Vhie! Don't be a lazy bum!

I've also got to remember I always have my digital camera with me at all times. So why not take some photos? Forgive my last few posts for being so...uncolourful.

Good Samaritans do exist

You wanna know what can kill a person? PANIC!

Especially if you're someone who's lost a wallet one time too many before. That's exactly what happened to me yesterday. I happily made my way to cotillion practise early afternoon and about an hour later, I reach into my bag to find it EMPTIER than usual.

My wallet was MISSING!

Panic strikes. I'm those kind of people who put EVERYTHING in their wallet; ID card, Octopus card, discount cards, Membership cards, cash, spare change, receipts - a whole lot of if I may add, pictures. Basically, my entire LIFE is contained in that 6" x 3" black Nine West pouch. I had everyone search high and low and all around but still, my wallet was nowhere to be found with some of my friends trying to figure out how you can lose such a large wallet without noticing.

So I start to break down in fear of what my mother would say, not to mention the cost of having my ID card replaced, when suddenly my brother calls and asks if I had lost my wallet.

Turns out a guy found my wallet in the minibus and found my student card, called the school who then called my brother who gave me the number the guy left to contact him.

In addition to my relief, I was ever so thankful that good samaritans do exist in Hong Kong.

- Messer Girl

Excuses, excuses, excuses

I deeply apologize for my short absence and lack of new posts for the past 2 weeks or so. I've been very preoccupied lately, with 2 debutante balls coming up, it's cotiliion practises left, right and dead centre 8 hours a day 3 - 4 times a week. Talk about an intense workout.

I can actually imagine my blog pulling a Molly Weasley on me, "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"

But I will update soon. Look forward to Snickerdoodles this friday because Abercio Isip begged me to make something for the last day of cotillion practises, plus he probably just misses my baking. I remember the first time I brought Snickerdoodles to one of our Youth gatherings; the boys went crazy for them. That means I've gotta make double on friday.

A Knight and Day movie review might be coming up, quite a little overdue, I know, but it'll be up =)

Plus a very special dedication post to Jeselle Christinne Isip after her extravagant party this Saturday.

So 'til then, toodles.

- Messer Girl

Here's to a rainy weekend...

I absolutely hate it when it rains in Hong Kong, especially during the weekend. I don't particularly like staying home on Sundays and neither does my brother, so we've made it a mission every weekend to go out to venture of to places of the undecided, i.e. to wherever our feet take us. And today, we ended up taking refuge in Dragon Centre in Sham Shui Po. And like most malls in Hong Kong, it has the same stores, selling the same stock, at the same prices - items which I can find for 10% less elsewhere. Although, where Dragon Centre is concerned, two things come to mind, a roller coaster INSIDE the mall, and escalator land. There're three times more escalators than floors in that building.

We did, in fact, stumble upon a very peculiar store. Peculiar in the sense that it stuck out like a sore thumb. Whilst the rest were of shoes, clothes and whatnot, this one had a bit of everything. From clothes to bags to belts, stickers, toys - including little $5 puzzle boxes my brother and I couldn't resist buying - pranks, mangas, books, stationery, you name it. Chances are they'll have it. They got plush toys too, of Mario, the little mushroom guys in the Mario game - I always forget what they're called. We even found Barney.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the highlight of my day. This was:

"What're those"? you may ask. Well, those, my friend, are rows of A1 sized POSTERS! They had Kurt Cobain, Nirvana, Sid Vicious, Sex Pistols, The Clash - I'm killing myself here. They had GREEN-FUCKING-DAY!

However, I am one of those people who are ever so unfortunate to have lost a little bit of their love for music, ever since I accidentally wrote over my entire playlist. I do hope it comes back, I miss it so. The blaring music echoing from my room, me trying to learn every single one on the guitar. Hmmm, maybe it'll come back this summer. If I find time to rebuild my playlist that is. Oh that's one very long playlist.

Meanwhile...

1. No new recipe today. We still have Cake Pops from last week so I guess I'll be putting up that Brownie recipe next week.
2. I haven't reviewed a movie lately. Damn you Hong Kong for releasing Toy Story 3 so late! I've watched it already, but I still wanna see it on the big screen. I'll be doing one in a while though, tonight maybe. Still looking for a template for them, so that my opinions aren't all over the place.
3. I just heard the sound of breaking china. That'll be me cleaning that up...
4. Off too rebuild my playlist!
5. Here's to a rainy weekend Hong Kong, #^$% *@^!!

- Messer Girl

P.S Kudos to RamORawr for getting a review offer.

We're not the type to throw parties

My brother turned 11 yesterday and instead of throwing a party, he attended someone else's birthday party. He hasn't thrown a party since his 1st birthday. I myself haven't throw a birthday party since my 7th. The family just had dinner, a truffle cake and 2 tubs of Dreyers icecream along with some close family friends so I decided to take him out today. Swimming in the morning then off to the Science Museum in the afternoon - yes, we're geeky that way.

I missed swimming, I don't even remember the last time I went swimming, be it at the beach or at the pool so I think it'll be a part of my summer weight loss regime. I've got to re-lose the 4lbs I had initally lost in January. Meanwhile, I had to teach my brother how to swim all over again. He not afraid to float all right, but he'll be floating in one place all day if I didn't remind him how.

As for the Science Musuem, I have nary a clue how we ended up there, but he had a marvelous time. We passed by most of the exhibitions but lingered at the puzzle challenges. We're both puzzle freaks.

 The Hall of Mirrors was also hilarious. We both burst into laughter when we came across the convex mirrors with me laughing even harder when Glenn said, "Hey, my ankles disappeared!"

He also experienced the difficult life of a lab rat, I mean hamster XD.

 All in all he and I had quite a blast.

- Messer Girl

Prom Schmom

A year ago, a bunch of 2nd years were asking me if I could talk the Students' Association committee into convincing the higher authority to allow students to have a prom. Pfft, not in a lifetime will that happen.

When you're a graduate at a local secondary school in Hong Kong, you don't go to prom. You go to a Graduation Dinner instead, where you sit, eat, be merry, take pictures, post 'em on the web where they'll start to collect virtual dust and consequently you get your very own virtual dustbunny collection. Too bland for my taste really, but I can never turn down the opportunity to get all fancy. So typical me immeditely rummaged through my closet for something to wear. I didn't wanna go in black. WOAH! Breaking news people, Vhie Fabilla didn't want to wear black. So all I had choice between red or white. I picked the white.

I was also thinking of going in a white and green ensemble cause not many people would think of that combination. Unfortunately I couldn't find the "right" green. I searched high and low yet all I could find was either apple green or olive green or seaweed green. Not the vibrant green with a tinge of elegance that I wanted, so I had to settle for navy blue while mother found a clutch in the back of her closet which matched my black and silver peep toes. And, *drumroll*

 

 Thank you Kuya Ricky for my hair and makeup.

The buffet dinner was exquisite. I especially liked the Italian station where you pick a pasta and other ingredients and a sauce and condiments of your choice and the chef will whip it up in 5 minutes for you. It was very entertaining to watch. And Disneyland Hotel has the nicest staff I've met. One waiter was even sweet enough to hold my chair for me after almost crashing into one another amidst the traffic of hungry people.

And being the obsessive compulsive pastry chef that I am, of course I won't forget the dessert bar where I went back for a luscious 2nd helping of their Apple Pie with Whipped Cream.

The sweet taste of apples with pine nut streusel topping topped with whipped cream. Boy was that one delicious slice of heaven. I haven't gone round to making pies yet. Right now I'm on cakes =D. Cream Cheese Pound Cake coming up next week, since it's my brother's birthday tomorrow I've got to wrap tons of stuff plus my student is coming over to learn Edelweiss, leaving me with ZERO time to bake.

Now, off to wash all this gel off my hair.

- Messer Girl

How come the bike still moves even when I'm not pedalling?

It is frustrating to look for something as small as a card reader. It is even more frustrating when you're trying to look for it in the middle of the night with your phone as a flashlight, hoping you won't wake up the entire house while you're dying to just turn the place upsidedown.

So we'll be going pictureless today. I figured I can just edit this later.

I gave up on trying to find that card reader and just bought another one for merely $30. It's got a Micro SD slot too. Double benefit. My brother and don't have to bicker at each other about who used the Micro SD adapter last since he uses it for his NDS while I use it for Quinn.

Finally went cycling with the family today. Hong Kong's weather agreed with us for once - the sun was up with a mild breeze, perfect for cycling. When you live in Hong Kong, it's hard to find things to do. Period. So when my dad and I thought of going cycling, we just had to do it. We've never done it before as a family, plus we could all kick off a few calories along the way.

My brother and I got singles while my parents got a tandem because my mother doesn't know how to ride a bicycle and the thought of renting a single with training wheels, "Ano ako? Bata!" (What am I? A Kid!") she retorted. I personally thought it was really sweet. I myself didn't know how to ride a bike until 4 years ago. One of my bestfriends had to teach me. Even then, I was such a chicken when it came to turning. It was only when I studied AL Physics I understood I had to tilt with the bike. Oy!

We also stopped for a while so my dad could change my gears because he noticed I was pedalling so much yet I was moving too slow. And there I was, gawking with so much interest when he was shifting it - not that I had the slightest idea about bicycle gears to begin with.

Moving on. Although cycling on a sunday was not the best idea - too much traffic on the lanes - we found a lane which was rather deserted where speeding up was neither too suicidal nor homicidal.

Speaking of speeding up, my brother asked one of the most adorable questions he's ever asked me after catching up to me, "How come the bike still moves even when I'm not pedalling?". It made me smile. I never dealt with curiosity the way he does. I was more of the "find out on your own" kinda kid - still am actually.

I think I might fall in love with cycling. Will probably scout for bikes now. Anybody know anyplace good and affordable? I wonder how much the foldable ones are...

 Oh there was also this mini fountain walkway that I simply couldn't resist taking a photo of.

- Messer Girl

For lack of a better post title

This was supposed to be a stolen shot of how my friends just can't put their phones down for one minute, but the first snapshot failed so they were ready for this one.

My dad came home for my graduation. I am officially outta high school. Unfortunately, I've been better so I'm afraid this post would be...lifeless would be a perfect word.

With that said, I won't drone on forever. Coming up would hopefully be a recipe, a movie review - 2 if I happen to be chirpier next week - plus a book review if I manage to finish one. It's been very difficult for me to start reading a new novel recently, let alone finish one. The last book I read was Breaking Dawn - oh! Well what'dya know, there's your culprit.

- Messer Girl

I have my room all to myself again

I've never seen the train this empty at 6:30AM. I'm used to the cramped environment that greeted me every morning at 7:31AM on my way to school. I like looking at the back of the train when it hits a rather sharp turn, seeing the way the tail weaves left and right like a caterpillar, then you see the actual butt of the train.

The train was so empty that sitting across the car from my uncle and I was nobody else but this lone, abandonned newspaper. And when you didn't sleep through the night just to make sure you get up early enough, like myself, you may start hearing things. I almost thought the newspaper was talking to me. Turns out I was talking to myself. XD

So after I helped my uncle through check-in - we managed to avoid getting caught up in line at check-in - I saw him through to departures hall then I roamed around for a bit, pretending I was actually going to go into departures hall myself. I stumbled upon a bookstore to find Seventeen magazine on the racks for $40.00. I start talking to myself again. $40?! I thought these cost at most twice of that. But then again, the last time I bought magazines was around 5 years ago, back when the posters inside Bop! Magazine were of Simple Plan, Good Charlotte and New Found Glory, so how would I know.

My brother's moving back to his room. YES!!
It may have been possible for the two of us to share a twin bed 2 years ago but not anymore. WE BARELY FIT! We fight over pillows, over the blanket, over space, you name it. So I got my room back. *chants* Waddup?

 I stocked up on what I need for Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting - I sense Kristine Sage getting excited already. I'll probably put up the recipe.

 I watched half of The Last Song last night. Half because I was sidetracked to CSI: Miami, which I almost forgot to watch because I was dreading the finale of CSI: New York too much so I guess I'll watch the remaining half tonight and maybe do a review on it. It's not too shabby, I can tell you that, but I'll tap into that a little later.

 Speaking of CSI: New York. Excuse me while I succumb into fits of giggles and squeal like an obsessed fangirl....I always say that if cliffhangers could kill, I would've been dead a long time ago, but I think this one might just do the job. I watch previews, unlike Kristine Sage, because I'm impatient like that. I just gotta say. Lucy Messer is so adorable. Her father's dreamy....Mmmm. If I survive the finale, you get a movie review plus a recipe, so wish me luck.

- Messer Girl