Oh Really?: Chanel

Since this paris trip looks like it'll prolly happen, instead of attempting my usual overly ambitious and arduous itinerary, i have been, instead, researching which freaking BAD ASS FANCY PURSE i'm gonna finally buy. Carbon copy azn girl here i come! My initial plan was to get a louis. But after watching the movie coco before chanel, i've been fascinated with the fashion house of chanel. I loved the way she dressed in the movie. She was so unique and did her own thing. I didn't really consider getting a chanel purse until i saw the way it looked on some girls in several fashion blogs. I loved it! The gold hardware. The way it sat right below the hip with the chain-straps across the chest. Oh i want! I only wish i had jumped on it sooner. The prices for chanel bags have literally doubled from just a couple of years ago. And it's been predicted to continue to increase making this purse an actual investment! The things girls will say to rationalize spending the bucks for material things. Maybe it'll be something i can pass on to my future daughter some day. NAH! I'm keeping this sucker for myself! Haha. I'm mos def leaning towards the classic chanel flap bag. Either mini or small in black quilted caviar. The price difference between the two is about $1500! So expensive! My second choice would be the chanel classic wallet on a chain. It's prolly more practical and can function as a wallet or a purse. And it's slightly cheaper than the mini. Ugh. Dare i go vintage?

*photo courtesy of thefashioner.com*

Sydney: Pancakes On The Rocks

It's not called ketchup. Or catsup. It's called tomato sauce. You want coffee with milk? Or is it espresso with milk? Then you need ask for a flat white. The milk is steamed and foamy. I really dig aussie slang. It makes everything sound more fun. Baby sistar suggested we go get some brekkie over in the rocks, the area of town where the city of sydney was first established. You can see the sydney opera house from across the harbor. The restaurant is called pancakes on the rocks. I really wanted to see if there was a noticeable difference in taste and looks. I guess everything tasted some what the same? At this point it really is all a blur. This old lady can't remember anything anymore. I do however recall a big group of people have some sort of michael jackson themed party.

Birthday: My-Linh

It's within the first couple of years of your life that a whole year makes the biggest difference. Looking through these pics and comparing them to My-Linh's first birthday pics, man, she's growing up so fast! I brought my cousin jamie to the party hoping she would have fun playing with grace and my-linh but she seemed to prefer playing by herself. They were all about one year apart so i wonder if that had anything to do with it. I hope this isn't always the case. Can't have anyone be anti-social now! I think that after watching after jamie at this party, big poppa were sorta on the same page with kids. NOT READY! We had to constantly watch after her. So much work! Kudos to the moms and dads out there for taking this job on. Big poppa and i are still a little selfish to produce any offspring right now. Big poppa and i made animal cakepops for the birthday and the kids seemed to really like them! I think it's time for break from these cakepops. I get overly ambitious and want to do way more that i'm capable of which means i pull all nighters making these things. Ugh. But then seeing the kids enjoy them kinda makes up for it. KIND OF.

Trippin': Sydney - Gumshara Ramen

The sydney leg did not start off on a very good note. I had booked a shuttle with airport connect for us to go from the airport to the hotel. When we got there, we waited somewhere between 30 minutes to an hour for the stupid shuttle. It finally came and it drove to another terminal where we had to wait for another 30 minutes for the van to fill up with people. It felt so SHADY. It was a bunch of asian drivers. Ugh. Their shadyness is a worldwide epidemic. This shuttle company never even made it to our hotel to pick us up at the end of our syndey leg to go to the airport. We had to pay for another shuttle and when i got back to the states, i sent them several e-mails demanding my money back and i basically said they conned me of my money and that they were shady. At first they offered me CREDIT. I said eff that shizzz. Who knows when i will ever get a chance to go back and if i do, there is NO WAY IN HELL that i would use airport connect EVER AGAIN. I eventually got half of my money back. So yeah. My opinion of aussies were not so good. I should have read reviews on them and sydney's shuttle system in general but it was challenging trying to get everything organized, planned and booked for 4.5 cities. So STRESSFUL! Since this was such a big trip, i was all about cutting costs wherever i could. Taking a taxi is more efficient but since i was all about cutting costs, i opted to do the shuttle since it was so much cheaper. I mean, splitting the fare between friends is one thing. I'm basically paying for everything involving my sisters so it sucked having to cover 75% of everything. Freaking 8 year age gap. Once at the hotel, we make our way to chinatown. It's not very big but it's PACKED with azns. And most of these azns are exports from neighboring asian countries and so many of them do not speak english. Bubble people who temporarily leave their country only to surround themselves with what they're familiar with instead of stepping outside their comfort zone. We found some food in this food court area. I had ramen from gumshara ramen that was just okay. I just don't think i like regular tonkatsu ramen. I want that miso ramen from ippudo. So i want to say that i'm done with trying different ramen places. DONE. At one point, some random guy sat down next to me and smelled really bad. Like nasty. But i don't tend to focus on things around me and later when the guy left, my sister said it was a homeless guy who sat down to eat someone else's leftovers that were on the table. Great. I'm in a foreign country. I should be more alert. Haha.

Restaurant: E-Tao

By now, most people have either already been to E-Tao or have at least heard of it. Since the longwins and the doos have a tradition of having dinner together for each other's bdays, i picked e-tao for my bday dinner. Back then, it was one of the new places offering up soup dumplings. They're actually not that bad here. Since it is located in the galleria mall, expect to pay higher prices for the food. Overall, the food is really pretty decent and there are some items pretty spot on chinese food wise but for the price, i would make the drive out to chinatown for cheaper and ever better food.