Yummm

A couple of nights ago, Saturday I believe, BF and I went out to dinner at Tusk Thai Restaurant on Dominion Road with a voucher I had bought. It was amazing and totally worth the $39 I paid for the four-course meal! I ordered a type of chicken soup and Yellow Curry while BF ordered the hot and spicy soup and some main fish dish that I forgot the name of. Forgot to take a pic of the menu and by the time I remembered, it was too late. Oh well. BF enjoyed it and though it was nice. I thought the same. Photos to follow...

Starters: spring rolls, chicken and chicken, I think again with peanut sauce (loved it all!!) and the soups: my chicken one (left) and BF's hot and spicy.

Mains: (from top) Pad thai noodles, fish main and vegetables and (right) yellow curry

Dessert: Deep fried bananas with a real nice rapsberry-swirled icecream and apples!

And, other random things... painted my nails again but only had it on for less than 24 hours due to having to remove it for work :(  It took me forever to test out nail polishes and find the right one... for some reason, I wasn't "feeling" or liking almost all of them, till this one. It's Katy Perry's OPI collections - The One That Got Away with Teenage Dream on top. I want to get the Katy Perry collection now or those ones....

So, one thing that I mastered with photography is the "ghostly" people/making people disappear trick. I was sitting at the traffic lights on Queen Street when I decided to pull my camera out and the photography lesson homework that I have been on since.... a very long time and mastered that... I now know how to do this! Evidence below. I'm sure there's a name to this technique but yes, I need to get moving with my photography course.. only got about another 8-9 months to get all 13 lessons completed! My course is with ProudPhotography, btw.. I think it has the same course content as The Photography Institute and there was a deal making it significantly cheaper than TPI.. it was about $90. Signed up about a year and a half ago.

 

 Mastered, I think. :)

Oh yes, and lastly HIGH TEA AT STAMFORD WITH Pamela tomorrow! (or today...) Can't wait! Definitely will take photos! ^^

there ain't no reason why you and me should be alone tonight

I admit I have been incredibly lazy.... quite a lot of stuff has happened since last time I updated... not getting jobs... working too much/taking on too much >_< and just general social-ness. And, just the sheer overwhelmingness of sorting through the photos and "screening" them and deciding which ones I want to upload here.. not sure if I do want to upload group pics or pics with my friends in them soo yeah, that doesn't really leave much. But I have found some. Most of them are up on Facebook if you're friends with me there. It was quite an amazing trip even though I've already been there... I guess I didn't really do much the last time that I was there... cos of being poor. :\ Taupo pics will come sometime this week! Below is what I've been up to the past few weeks...

Oh yes! I have been watching Glee! OMG! I didn't know what I've been missing! My favourite song so far that I have been listening to for quite a few times a day is this (It's My Life/Confessions mashup by the guys -- haha love the video, they're like so hyped up and happy,  love it! <3) and this (Halo/Walking on Sunshine mashup by the guys... they all look soo sunny, I love their outfits! Esp the headbands haha), the second one's not the best quality but it's alright. I need to find a discussion forum on Glee! Quite a few things I wanna discuss! >_<

Anyways, the past week or two (or three?) in photos....

Pop Tarts! I got them at Sweet As in Taupo :) || Dress I got for a 70's party that I attended last Friday... it fits me ! I ♥ Pagani! 

 

Katy Perry Shatter nail polish! I bought it, but this was done with my friend's (P) one... || Another dress I bought, this time at Glassons. I like glassons at times. When they have size 6's! ♥

Little projects I worked on for an upcoming site (that's just a secondary reason) and also because they're great little innovative solutions! A earring holder (studs and stuff... gotta work out a way for dangling ones....) and headband holder. This is my second attempt at the headband holder.. you really gotta find the thickest one to ensure that all headbands will stay where they're meant to stay and not slide down although that makes me wonder, will it stretch it and permanently stay that way...?

 

Movenpick Pear and Ginger Pudding! ♥ Sooo GOOOD!! Went there after my friend, Tanya's "see you later" dinner ||  and the toy I got in my Kinder Surprise today. Finally got what I want! ^^ 

Stories from the Week

I had an amazing and busy week.

Firstly, Queen's Birthday weekend getaway to Taupo. It was amazing!~ Loved every moment. And only (only...) spent about $250 which includes fuel, accomodation, food, alcohol and yeah, pretty much everything plus sightseeing and such. It was great.. :)

Secondly, I think I took on too much work =\ promo + transcribing (esp when it's on average about 1.5 hours long) + mystery shopping is not a good combination. I think maybe just the transcribing part. >_<

So yeah, busy-ness and fun-ness! Photos of the Taupo trip below the cut.

Happy June!

As I have mentioned before somewhere/time in my blog, I love new months. It's always a good opportunity to start anew cos it's not like you can always get a new year so often.. But yes. I think I have been neglecting those financial posts and goals. Well, I think it's time to start anew! I have spent so much just because I have gotten a lot of money... well, hopefully not this month. I am expecting about a grand from tax returns and tomorrow a nice big pay unlike my normal ones because I worked out of town and got petrol and accommodation pay too.

Though, after saying that, I am going to be going away in a couple of days (3 to be exact). It's going to be wonderful. I will also be the only attached friend there... that should be fun. But hopefully won't be spending too much, another friend, TS didn't really want to spend over $80. Could be done, accommodation split between us all is about $47, maybe cheaper if more people come. We'll see. Definitely keep you posted.

So. The goals:

June Goals

1. Read 2 books.
2. Watch 15(+) movies.
3. Work 15(+) hours/week.
4. Save 20%/$40 each week.
5. One "splurge"/purchase a week (if/when paid).
6. Weekly blogging (on both blogs) & (private) journaling.
7. Three meals a day/decent wake ups (to do this = food blog)

Spendings Round-up!

I find it so difficult to classify things. I'm not sure if it's the perfectionist/Virgo in me but I want the categories to be super detailed.... then I wonder does it really need to be that detailed? My current categories (that I have listed for June onwards) are:

• Dining+Bars (with friends)
• Dining BF (with boyfriend)
• Homewares
• Monthly (expenses such as mobile top up, magazine purchase and car insurance but that is filed under car costs... what do you think, should it be filed under monthly or car costs?)
• Car Costs (purchases retlated to my car such as most recently jump start cables, maintenance, WOF, registration etc)
• Clothes+Grooming (beauty, clothes and the like purchases)
• Gifts
• Savings
• Groceries (purchases from the supermarket to make dinner and other things such as snacks and such)
• Dairy buys (purchases from the dairy, usually when I require money for the bus.... or like recently water from the service station. Should this just be under a combined "food+groceries" category? Justification for this is that I want to target my spendings and know exactly where to cut back/where I am buying foods from.... hmm)
• Biscuit (purchases related to my pet guinea pig, usually just vegetables, pellets, hay, check ups etc)
• Transport (fuel purchases and bus/train tickets)
• Socializing (I contemplated having this under entertainment but in the past I have had magazine purchases and also book buys under the entertainment category... socialising is things like karaoke, pool etc. Hmm. Advice?)
• Holidays (thought I ought to have a 'holidays' category...)
• Meals Out (breakfast, lunch and dinners that are purchased/had outside of the home... or should that also go under a combined "food+groceries" category?)
• Debts (very unusual but yeah, self-explanatory)

So that is how things are categorized from now on for me and well, how I categorize.. May summary under the cut.

Transport: Filled up 5 times around $70 each time. I guess in accordance. There's 5 weeks in this month..

Miscellaneous: Bought a car phone charger (phone dies in a day if I txt constantly...), homewares such as blanket, pillows for when I forgot them when I went down to Hamilton as mentioned here and also coat hangers and hand towels for the house. Also, paid off a debt to FPA and had a new debit card fee.

Entertainment: A movie ($11) and half an hour internet time ($1.50)

Dining: Dined out with friends a couple of times and they averaged $10 each time so not too bad.

Dining BF: Dined out a few times more than usual this month with BF. One was $95 and another 2 $40ish.

Car Costs: Bought a jump start cable and also got a car check and changed ownership for my new car.

Clothes&Grooming: Way more than usual. Bought 5 lip glosses (lost one, I know a bit overboard!), a dress or two I think, a ring, pink flats, oh another 3 nailpolishes at $3.99 each, 2 x stockings and a set of small make up brushes all for $10. Yeah, spent a tad too much on myself this month! >_<

One gift, meals out averaging $5 - $10 each time, 2 semi- bigish grocery shop to make dinner which was about $20 each time..

I realized I didn't do April's so I will do that sometime.