How many more lessons does it take for you to learn?

How many more lessons does it take for you to learn? 

For you to realize your mother doesn't enjoy nagging at you, but does it repeatedly because she cares. 

For your friends to constantly remind you they love you, but somehow you always end up feeling bare. 

How many more opportunities do you want to back away from, before realizing every life experience helps you grow?

How many more body shaming Facebook posts do you want to be affected by?

And how many more nights will you prioritise everything else over family? 

When your mother finally washed her hands off you?

When your friends give up and take it as you don't give a damn how much they care about you? 

When you're on your last painful breath, and recall nothing exciting in your life?

When your body has become a living hell?

Or when your family's gone?

Stop and think. 

Love,

Xin Hui

MONTHLY FAVOURITES (AUGUST 2015)

Hi guys! Trying to squeeze in time to complete August's monthly favourites so here goes! August has been lovely and it really gave me lots of opportunities to grow as a person. Grateful.

Started August in Melbourne, which is a wonderful way to start any month! Haha, August also marked the start of school and coming back to school has been incredibly exciting yet daunting. It's hard to hit the books when you have taken such a long break but I am excited to jump at new activities to engage myself in! School has been pretty fun so far. I enjoy most of my lessons and I am starting to participate more actively (the result of thoroughly preparing for lessons). I joined 3 CCAs, namely Rock Climbing, Canoe Polo and Health and Fitness. Adding on that I give tuition, work part time as a waitress in a cafe, volunteer at SPCA as a dog walker, there is indeed a lot to juggle on my plate. I rely a lot on time management, to prioritise work over play and deciding what are things that needs to be done. Almost every night, I lay on my bed and think about my eventful day, and I sleep with no regrets. Tiring? Hell yes. But immensely enriching.

Since a year ago, I have wanted to watch Inside Out the movie! And I caught it with Faith recently. It's such a wonderful movie. Even though it was a cartoon movie, it managed to bring up so much emotions? I teared more than once, and left the theatre feeling very inspired. My greatest takeaway from the movie is that sadness is a strong and powerful emotion. Though it is often true that happiness is valued higher than sadness, the movie taught me that sadness is not a sign of weakness. It is through sadness that you sense care and concern from people, and being vulnerable once in a while can be a true blessing too. I love how the movie captured emotions and feelings in such an apt and intelligent way, and I definitely recommend everyone to check the movie out before it's over!

Started a new private playlist on Spotify - Soulfood. Filled with music that's, in my own words, rich. Rich in emotions and carrying lyrics able to intrigue my thoughts. I really appreciate talented songwriters who deliver their story through beautifully crafted lyrics. Here are some of my favourites this month.

Gentle Bones - Elusive
Troye Sivan - WILD ( His whole album is really worth listening to! Go check it out on Spotify)

Some products that I have found to be very useful for me this month definitely includes this Crabtree and Evelyn's hand ultra moisturising cream. I used it a lot in Melbourne, saving my hands from the dry cold. Back in Singapore, I use it every day after rock climbing training. Rock climbing inevitably cases your hands to be rough but I am doing as much as I can to prevent it hahah. Thank you Su Lynn for the wonderful present! Finally putting your gift to good use :-)

Madly in love with my headphones that I bought from Target in Melbourne. The sound quality is not top notch, but definitely better at drowning background noises compared to my Apple iPhone's earpiece. I secretly also think I look very cool in my headphones hahah. I bought one pair for Taeyong for her birthday and I am so glad she likes it too! :-)

My next favourties has to be my Taylor Swift fragrance I bought from Melbourne too! It's a slightly sweet smell and can I just talk about the packaging??? It's so cute!!!! Mega love

August was also the month of my mother's birthday and I flew back just in time to celebrate it with her. Brought my parents out to a cafe near our home called "Sunday Market". 

The mains were not bad (Beef Rendang Lasagne is really worth the try $15.90) but what I really loved was the dessert!! It's called Bangkok Toast ($10.90), a cinnamon thick toast served with Thai milk tea ice cream!! :-) Yum Yum. Sunday Market was suggested by my dad and I was surprised that he knew of cafe places hahah. #NeverUnderestimateDad

Alright, really happy to be done with this post hahaha. Just wanna apologize for the lack of updates, but as you know, I am really caught up with school these days hahah. Hope that I can meet some friends that I haven't met for a long time and spend some quality time with them! 

Heheh see you and have a great September!! :-)

Love,

Xin Hui

{Cafe Culture} Paddy Hills

Hello dear friends! Finally have some time to myself to go back to blogging so here's what I thought about Paddy Hills! 

Athena and I decided to try Paddy Hills since they are selling Berry Ricotta Hotcakes. We tried the Hotcakes in Melbourne and loved it to death, so this was an attempt to find a piece of Melbourne back in our sunny Singapore. 

The place was quite alright to get to - a short 5 minutes bus ride from Haw Par Villa MRT. We had the Berry Ricotta Hotcakes ($20), Hash Hash ($24/25) and Salted Caramel Cake ($7.50).

The cake was moist and I find the biscuits bits adding more texture to the whole cake, so I really liked it! 

This is Hash Hash which consists of beef cubes, potatoes and eggs. I was very meh about this one. The gravy was very greasy and maybe not something meant to be savoured on a late morning. The beef cubes lacked of flavor and the ingredients just didn't complement with each other well in my opinion. 

Here came the long awaited Berry Ricotta Hotcakes!! Can I just talk about the size of this first?? It's around the size of my whole hand outstretched and it's meant for sharing!! It's pretty filling so I recommend you to share this with a friend if you choose to order this! The sides of the Hotcakes were pretty hard and there wasn't enough maple syrup!! I did ask for more, but still wasn't enough HAHAH. Taking this as a comparison to the one I had in Melbourne would be a little unfair because MELBOURNE HELLO?! The size of the hotcake in Melbourne was HUGE. AND very very tasty. Okay, coming back to Paddy Hills's Hotcakes. The berries were sweet and so that's good! 

I would come back again for the Hotcakes because I don't know where else to go for berries Hotcakes hahaha and the ambience of the place was really nice. There were magazines to read and it wasn't too crowded even though we stayed till around lunch time. I would come back with more friends though cause Athena and I couldn't finish a single thing lewl we were way too stuffed.

The price of the food in Paddy Hills is slightly pricey and so, if you're intending to give this place a visit, give the Hash Hash a miss! :-) 

Okay, that's all for today! I'll try to find more time to do up my Monthly Favourites so check back soon! :-)

Love,

Xin Hui