#19 : taco night.

here's the second part to my birthday post!

my mum and i had been struggling to plan my birthday dinner as we preferred the cosiness of home but didn't like so much preparation. after a quick scroll through pinterest, i came across the idea of a taco bar! we jumped onto tesco online and ordered our taco ingredients for the next day.

with little prep, all i did was place the ribs, pulled pork and chicken (which we then shredded) in the oven, prepared some guacamole, my dad made a quick rice and chopped up some salad leaves. the rest were just sides including cheese (lots), taco beans, dips and tortillas.

we had a fun evening of pretending to be vloggers with a selfie stick, sharing jokes and taking silly pictures.

cake time consisted of many pictures as per every birthday. ^ this one here is my fave from the night. it somehow conveys all our personalities so perfectly.

i was lucky to have kelly and her b-e-a-utiful camera with us - she managed to snap some dashing shots such as this:

^kelly the cutie pie

my cakes were hand-bought from patisserie valerie by my parents - a cute way to incorporate a variety of flavours to suit different people's tastes.

now let's roll the family pics:

^mummy and daddy

^sis

^daddy

'

and a good ole family pic to tie the day up.

it's official - i'm 19.

regen 2016.

a few months ago, i had signed up to attend an easter camp in milton keynes called regen.

it is a 3 nights-4 days camp directed at university students and young adults.

i took the train with loksze to milton keynes and snapped this picture of him mid-sneezing before we headed out to fetch a taxi. it was a smooth ride to the conference centre and when we arrived, we were welcomed with the overwhelming sight of chinese people in snapbacks.

it felt so good to be embraced in a chinese community again after attending an english church in southampton for the past few months. we worshiped together, listened to the word together and feasted together.

in the mornings, we started off the day with some personal time and devotion with God before getting into small groups and sharing our testimonies.

my group in particular played a game amongst ourselves where we would blow 'darts' at each other. being 'shot' meant we had to lie on the floor and await for someone nice to help pull the dart out so we could get up.

late night mahjong

photoshoot for loklok

in the evenings we would get together for group games such as cards, saboteur and the mighty mahjong - oh yes. the game became such an addiction that we would end up playing till 4am.

camp food was great and all, but one afternoon loksze and i decided to get away from the rice for a bit and decided to walk down to mcdonalds for some cheeky mozzarella sticks. if you're a true cheese fan, you'll know these are amazing.

at church camps with chinese people, a time slot is always reserved for taking pictures. we didn't get t-shirts this year, but instead we copped these '100% fresh' snapbacks to remind us to water our relationship with God daily.

^ and here's my group 'foo yue', a chinese cheese! 

refreshed, renewed and regenerated, we all left being hydrated in our faith, especially as being uni students it is up to ourselves to keep this relationship with God and be active in going to church and reading His word amongst our freedom.

after a stop at costa and returning home, i managed to sleep for 14 hours to catch on all my missed hours during camp.

#19 : borough market.

life has been so busy lately that i've only got time now to post about my birthday 2 weeks ago!

18 has been an amazing year and in particular, i have found myself to have really grown up and mature as an individual, as well as learning to take hold of my independence starting uni. my experiences from this year has been the most fruitful, and of course i can't forget that this is the year i met my loklok.

for my birthday, i decided to keep it quite simple by visiting borough market in london bridge for lunch and then returning home for a simple birthday dinner with my closest family and friends.

the weather wasn't perfect, but that didn't stop us from having fun!

as per usual, borough market was stocked up with some of the finest (and expensive) fruit and veg, with unusual produce such as purple corn, watermelon radish and blue potatoes.

the overwhelming sight of a healthy rainbows got us getting some fruity smoothies - mango and orange, and grapefruit.

the front of the market was filled with desserts too yummy to resist, however we were determined to get a proper meal first before delighting in the sweets so we walked past it. unfortunately, we didn't return as we became far too full afterwards! :(

for starters, we grabbed some calamari - and lemme tell you, these were FRESH, FLAVOURFUL, and CRISPY. oh yeah. and the sweet chilli sauce was also perfect. we both approved with nodding heads.

the same man that sold us the calamari kept giving us samples of his different curries and rice, so we couldn't resist but get one of his paellas! he was such a bubbly, fun guy and loved getting his photo taken.

after this snap, he gave us a larger box filled to the brim with seafood paella!

despite the paella, we were still on the run for more funky food in the market.

we didn't hesitate to grab a burger, especially when encouraged by this quote:

we stopped by a cute stall which sold burgers at quite a good price, and they also had a nice seating area for you to relax your feet after pondering around the market for an hour.

we got a kangaroo burger to try something exotic, and mannnn did it taste awesome.

tasters are always a must at the market. and after trying some cheese, ice cream, pates and relish, our tummies were satisfied and we took the train home.

man did i conk out from that food coma.

my little nugget also got me these roses. cute.

the second part of my birthday post to come! and here's a hint: avocados are involved!!!!