HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUMMY (And mother's day gift ideas!)

Hello lovely people! (SCROLL DOWN FOR MOTHER'S DAY GIFT IDEAS - second half of post!)

Dress from Zimmermann (similar here)

I've been a baddddd bad girl with the blogging haven't I? AND NOW I'M LEFT WITH SO MUCH TO UPDATE YOU GUYS WITH HOW DO I EVEN START!? I got a macbook air thinking 'this is great! I can blog everyday and it's so convenient!'. Did it happen? No. Doh!

I had a free 5 day break during work in Singapore so decided to fly out to see my family in Australia and my cousin's adorable little baby boy! I missed her wedding due to work and definitely didn't want to miss seeing her baby boy being, well, a baby! And of course this was definitely an excuse for mum and I to go crazy baby shopping for gifts (we are crazy people and we know it). OKAY SO THIS IS WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN.

1. I'll post a huge amount of photos and write some stuff about Australia (next few days)
2. I'll post another huge amount of photos about my time in singapore and write some stuff (errm, a few days after..)
3. Will update you with current happenings (ermm.. this weekend..?)
4. Will start updating weekly about TAIWAN AND MY MANDARIN COURSE AHHMAGAAD! But you can keep up to date with everything via my twitter @mingbridges (click here).

LETS DO THIS!

Day 1 in Sydney (where I was born and where some of my family reside) was Mum's birthday! So of course we did what our family does best (eat) and splashed out on a beautiful restaurant for her!

But first things first, mum and I hit the high street!

So tempted by the 'M' cutlery but AHH LOOK HOW CUTE DAT LWIDDLE BWABY OUTFWIT IS!!! 

Dad, the romancer! He's done it again! Got back home (to my grandmas) to find this lovely bouquet waiting for Mum! He was all upset about it though cause apparently it wasn't how it looked like online (rookie mistake) but we thought they were gorgeous!

Mum and I snap chatting on the way to dinner

 I had a dream I was snap chatting last night. Think this may be a sign to cut back.

The Dining Room - Waterfront restaurant at the Hyatt recommended by my cousin's family in Sydney. SO BEAUTIFUL!

They apologised for giving us this table but to be honest I thought it was the best table in the whole restaurant!

HUGE!

Natasha (cousin) and I

We'd have been crazy not to get some photos in on such a beautiful day. Look at that view!

The Birthday Girl and I!

Dress from Bec&Bridge

SO in love with the back detail on this dress. I just love love love Australian fashion, they have some of the most amazing designers. I literally always save up my money to shop here - It's so SO expensive but the quality and cut of the clothing is just out of this world. And its always so colourful and agh I love love love <3.

Ok I know my family all hate being featured on my blog but …

Mummy and Daddy

Natasha and I with Grandma (isn't she the most elegant grandma ever!?)

My Aunt and Uncle in Aus!

Stuart (cousin) and Grandma - Faulty GIF :(

The GIF site has gone all weird but this is still very cute! I love how they changed smiles at the same time!

PRESENT TIME! Mum = excited.

Dad = not so much. I LOVE this photo, hah!

CAKE!

So adorable! I love fancy restaurant birthday cake!

Dad = suddenly interested. HAH!

Hazelnut dacquoise, milk chocolate ganache

Hello, gorgeous! I love asking for the waiter's suggestion with desserts (they must be sneaking tasters all day - who wouldn't!?) and when he recommended this little fella you could just see that 'YOU MUST HAVE IT' look in his eye. Oh my gosh, I'd return just for this.

HOME WE GO!

MORE PRESENTS! AND ALL THESE ARE FROM HER DARLING DAUGHTERS (poor Bianca couldn't be here as she's living the life up at uni in England). Went a little crazy buying gifts this year. Now that I'm working I wanted to get mum lots of things she'd love to show her how much I appreciate everything she does. What women doesn't love surprises and lots of things to open!

YAYYYY! Anyway, as it's close to mothers day I thought I'd share with you what I got her incase you needed some mother's day inspiration! (Click on caption if you want to find out where to buy online!)

1. Pajama's 

Victoria's Secret Pajama's

You can never go wrong with pajama's. Ever. Everyone always needs new pajamas cause they wear out so easily and theres nothing better than waking up feeling beautiful in new pajamas (please tell me its not just me).

2. Iphone/Ipad Stylus

Wacom Bamboo Solo Stylus

My mum is a gadget geek - loves all this practical machinery to help make life that little bit easier! I first saw one of these at a manicure place to let clients continue to use their phones while getting their nails done. For a mum obsessed with Candy Crush this was the ultimate dream!

3. Iphone Camera

BELKIN LiveAction Camera Grip for the iPhone

Love taking photos? Shakey hands? Perfect gift! Mum gets so frustrated when her photos turn out blurry on her iPhone but this bad boy is so convenient! When its photo time you can literally whip it out and pop it into your phone; it even goes on top of your iPhone case! Perfecto! 

4. The Portable Charger (SO ESSENTIAL IT'S A JOKE)

New Trent iCarrier 12000mph

55 HOURS of movie time - can charge two things at once, this thing is AMAZING! I wanted the best of the best for my mummy so I spent a lot of time searching. I currently have a 8000mph one that i bring with me everywhere (Damn those iPhone battery lives!) and she is constantly borrowing it so now she has something even better!

5. Electric Nut Butter Maker

Electric Nut Butter Maker

I mean, who DOESN'T want to make their own peanut butter! You can make any type of butter AHH HOW COOL IS THAT (ok, MAYBE an impulse buy but she got crazy excited too!).

6. Yoga Pants

Victoria's Secret Yoga Pants

Super comfy for everyday life or for a mum who wants to do some light exercise and wants something comfortable, stylish and fitting! Got mum a few pairs (she's my gal-pal yoga bud) in different styles. Their are a lot of amazing companies such as Gilly Hicks and the usual sports wear brands that have amazing styles! 

7. A book of places to eat

Where Chefs Eat: A Guide to Chefs' Favourite Restaurants

I am actually in love with this book. This was a 'bought to share' purchase. Actually I don't think it even made it into the gifts cause I was already reading it before we even got to Australia, hah! A list of restaurants around the world compiled by some of the top chefs in the world. LOVE IT! Had to include it on here cause it's such a good read. I'm crazy, I know.

8. Apple Peeler

Starfrit Pro-Apple Peeler with bonus core slicer

Sometimes it's the little things. In Taiwan (while mum was visiting) she went super crazy about peeling apples. "MUST REMEMBER", she'd say, and then go on to spending an hour trying to perfectly peel off the skin. Lets just say she was over the moon with this one…

9. Earphones

DVF Printed Lips Earbuds

Easy to put in your handbag and beautiful! Mum always wants to watch YouTube at the random-est of times and then complains that she can't hear properly or doesn't want others hearing. PROBLEM SOLVED MUMMY DEAREST. DVF is her favourite brand as well. The ones I got my mum are now ON SALE here!

Phew! And that's only the first day of 5! Will post more tomorrow - stay tuned!

Ming xx

GONG XI FA CAI - CNY '13

GONG XI GONG XI!

A few of you were asking how I spent my Chinese New Year on twitter so I thought I'd do a little post with some photos to give you all a tiny tiny insight into my CNY celebrations! They were pretty short this year as I only got given a few days off. Took the opportunity to spend a few days with my Chinese family to celebrate and then fly back with my sister to spend a few days with my British family while I had the time!

ANYWAY.

Here are a few (or maybe a little more than a few..) photos!

Tada! Chinese New Year outfit Day 1! Who else goes all out trying to wear everything absolutely new? My sister Bianca came back to Singapore with absolutely nothing new and managed to scrap together a whole brand spanking new outfit (with the help of her amazing sister, of course!). 

Off to visiting we go! She's going to kill me for this photo.

Wahoo!

First day of CNY is always spent at my Amah's house and as my Amah is praying she doesn't eat meat that day meaning we all have a little 'detox' vegetarian lunch with her. To be honest, my first few CNY's I didn't even realise I was eating fake meat until someone told me. I was like WHAT!? You really don't taste it until someone tells you and then its all you notice hahaha.

Lazing around in front of the TV waiting for the others to arrive..

What to do, what to do..

FOOD.

Food glorious fooooood..

Biggest bag of crisps/french fry things ever haha.

My cousin Daniel and I

To be honest it gets very boring sitting around watching TV and I'm always itching to do something. Normally we'd all go out and watch a movie but for some reason it didn't happen this year. FINALLY more of us arrived and it was time to get down to business..

Pow pow pow. My FAVOURITE time (a part from when we're eating, and stuff..). I'm amazing with cards. I love black jack. But there's always something about CNY - I never seem to be quite as lucky. Day 1 wasn't an exception except for the odd lucky pair here and there but day 2, oh boy day 2 (stay tuned..).

With my Boooooo..

I love my sister so much, isn't she gorgeous!? Everyone kept saying how cute it was that we got matching cheongsams BUT THEIR NOT MATCHING!! We ordered her's online and I found mine at the basement of an MRT station in Taiwan - worked out pretty well eh?

So we got bored and did what us girls do best - take lots of random photos.

But we did throw in some family ones too. Making more of an effort to get the family shots in so we can make super cringey calendars at the end of the year (we've been doing that for the past few years and it gets SO HARD to find nice photos of all of us!). Hah dad looks so serious here.

HONG BAOS. Lucky lucky meeee hehehe.

And now on to day 2!

Day 2's outfit

With all the shops being closed and a huge party of hungry relatives coming over we decided to do the only logical thing and CALL FOR PIZZA :D. It was a hard decision between Pizza Hut, a KFC CNY feast and a huge order of prosperity burgers from McDonalds (I'm still a little sad that no one took my option of ordering all three) but it worked out pretty well!

We also went across the street to get desserts.. but more on those later..

CHICKEN DRUMLETS. I FRIGGIN LOVE CHICKEN DRUMLETS. Their one of my favourite foods ever (as in one of my top three in those 'if-i-had-to-only-eat-three-foods-on-an-island-forever' type favourites) YUM YUM YUMMY.

Holy jamalama.

So beautiful it makes me want to cry (does that make me weird?).

Not the only ones happy with the dessert table! My gorgeous mother and sister. Look at all that red!

<3

Master chef going in.The precision, the skill! Its a hard job but somebody's got to do it.

Mummy and I

COUSINS SHOT. I have about 25 cousins on my mum's side but as the age gap is so big the 7 of us are pretty close as we're all around the same age. Its like we have 'generations' of cousins. I love having a big family.

Hello Bianca ;).

OK OK OK So I said my luck miraculously improved on the 2nd day of chinese new year but ohhhh my goshhh! 777!?!?! WHAT IS GOING ON!??! I'VE NEVER SEEN SOMEONE GET 777 THAT IS SO COOL! I literally was so over the moon! Round one and BOOM! I got two 7s and everyone was joking about how lucky I'd be this year if I got another AND THEN DID IT HAPPEN?? IT HAPPENED! LOOK AT THIS PICTURE! IS THAT THREE 7S OR WHAT!

So yeah cause I joined in the game a few rounds later my cousin next to me wasn't very happy (stole her luck, I'm still very sorry :( .. but.. happy… cause I GOT THREE 7S WOOOOO).

AND THEN TWO ACES?!! My draw literally dropped. I had to leave the game after for a bit before I got beaten up for being so lucky hahaha! So happy! Maybe this year will be my year ;).

Yeah yeah yeah I wasn't the only lucky one. Found this little baby on my phone - very cute Bianca but those ain't 7s! Let's just say that day there were a lot of cards making appearances on all our instagrams.. (follow me here and my sister Bianca here!)

Pow pow pow! Happy happy happy!

DESSERT TIME! Well, round 2 of the desserts! I love food photos aurghhhh what is wrong with meeeeee. After being so healthy from the summer I've kinda gotten a bit crazy now that all my music video filming and the main part of my Taiwan promotion is done. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am LOVING diet free life but I really need to get back into a gym routine and get back into being healthy the majority of the time.

iphone shot!

We do this every year, except in the past this usually involved us wearing matching outfits of some sort (cause we cool like dat). We love having our little selfie photoshoots! It's so nice cause we can then look back at our photos through the years and all our beautiful memorise. 

Errr....

<3

Sista sista!

As I missed my family's Yu Sheng on CNY Eve while being on set filming the Channel 8 countdown show we did another one so I could be included. So sweet of my family! You can never have too much luck I guess, hehehe! It's so weird - when I told the Taiwan media about this tradition they said they'd never heard of it? I had to whip up a YouTube video and they were so amused by it! Crazy! I thought everyone did it.. (they are missing out!).

ALLLL READY!

on your marks..

GOOOOO!

Someone obviously a bit too hungry on the right hahaha

Ok yeah maybe I should take that comment back (too attractive for my own good).

iPhone shot! do you guys like my hello kitty screen cover? hehehe.

Before and after photos are the bomb.

My aunt then taught Bianca and I how to make dumplings. Well, more like taught Bianca while I stood there and watched (then attempted to make one, failed miserably and resumed my position as a helpless bystander). I WILL BE ABLE TO COOK. One day. Not today.

Hello babies!

Eric (manager) and his lovely wife also dropped by with these! So sweet! You're not even supposed to give red packets on your first year of marriage (apparently) and they still did - what sweet hearts! But YAY HELLO KITTY CANDY :D:D.

And then it was unfortunately time to say goodbye and go to the airport. Bianca introduced me and the cousins to this seriously addictive iPhone APP called snap chat and it wasn't long until we were spending endless hours snapping photos of the ugliest faces we could pull and sending them to each other. Here's one of Bianca and I on the plane.

(I can't believe I'm showing you guys this but I actually love it so much hahaaha. Sent this one to the cousins :( )

BUT IT WASN'T ALL TOO BAD. Maybe it was my Chinese New Year luck or the fact that we looked so sad to be leaving but WE GOT UPGRADED WOOOOOOOOOO. AND SINGAPORE AIRLINES IS SO AMAZING. THE FOOD! Bianca and I made a pact that we would open the menu together (I'm being serious, we take this stuff seriously).

One, two, three!

CHINESE NEW YEAR MENU!? How cuteeeee!

My own personal mini Yu Sheng! hehehe.

I just had to go with the chinese new year options - how could you not!? 'prosperity' ribs for me please! This was followed by many a ferrero rocher and I managed to get a nut stuck in the back of my throat for a day (everyone found this hilarious of course). Har-har. Hmph. As most of you know, lounge/airplane food is my kryptonite, especially cause its free. It's like an endless buffet and it's not even a buffet. I'd probably be worse at a buffet which is probably the reason why I never really go to any. My mum says it's my dads fault cause I inherited his 'binge eating' genes. I guess it's not really binge eating, it's just .. it's hard to explain. I can either have no cookies and be fine or have the whole cookie jar - there is no in-between CAUSE WE ARE TOO GREEDY. 

And food is far too lovely to resist!

Next stop - England! How did you celebrate your Chinese New Year?

Love, Ming xx.