Wow. This shows how long have I been off blogging and literally the face of the earth. Skipps tagging me on a meme?!?! Oops. The problem with getting off blogging is that it is just so much harder to get back on it – but once I’ve actually completed two paragraphs, I started to remember why I blogged in the first place.

And besides, it’s been ageeeees since I did a meme!!

So here goes, my response to Skipps‘ meme :

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1. How many countries have you traveled to? ( Travel to means at least an overnight stay. Does not have to be exact.)
I had been through many countries and not stayed overnight, and stayed on border towns on a couple of others, so my list is probably wrong-ish. I stayed overnight in Japan, but probably saw more in Mexico even though I stayed in San Diego. And is China = Hong Kong? My list should be about 20 – 25-ish countries?

2. What is the best place you ever visited?
It depends. I sort of half-moved to San Francisco, and would love to move there permanently. Or Hong Kong. Or Sydney.

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3. What was the worst place you have ever been-and would you go back?
Egypt. Extremely rude, leering men, horrendous food, rip-off culture (even the coppers ask for money and offer camel rides) and total disrespect for the underwater world. I never thought I would ever on earth hate somewhere as much as I hate Egypt. The endless sunshine and rainless weather did not even help at all, I much rather had been stuck in the UK in the cold rain. Hated it so much so that I never even blogged about it – I took two weeks after that just recovering.

4. If you could change one thing, and only one thing, in the world to make it a better place, what would it be?
This is a hard one and oddly resembles a Miss Universe question. I don’t really know, but I would say more greenery to help combat the global warming thingy.

5. Who would you rather sleep with? Men: Tonya Harding or Nancy Kerrigan? (When they were in their figure skating battle). Women: Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert? Explain.
I don’t know either one, and I have a sneaky suspicion that I probably got myself off the hook lightly on this by not knowing!

6. What is the worst thing to happen to the country you hold a passport for in the last 50 years?
Political turnmoil, affimitive bloody action and blatant disrespect for natural resources.

7. Do you view someone that you know, or know of as a “hero”? If so, what makes this individual so special?
Not really. If we’re talking make-believe then I would say Edward from Twilight just based on his endless need to save the world and himself. Yes you can start laughing now.

8. If you could be born again would choose to be a different sex to what you are?
Hmm. Another hard one. I would probably want to be born male just for the heck of it.

9. What is your favorite alcoholic drink? If you say, ”I don’t drink”-STOP NOW. Just hang your head in shame.
I DONT DRINK. Hahaha . I’m a whiskey sort of girl – I can drink it neat, dilluted with water, with green tea or diet coke. I’m also partial to champagne and a good cool glass of Semillion. Yums.

10. What is your favorite magazine?
I don’t particularly read magazines, I find the mindless chatter annoying and much prefer to spend on a good book. And in terms of book, my answer to no.7 would probably give it away – I am addicted to the phenomenan that is Stephenie Meyer.

Wow, that was much harder than I thought it would be!

….its been so unbelievably busy the past few weeks – I am sorting out my AU posting in bulk (having MAJOR issues uploading pictures to flickr without doing it singly!!) , but thought this cross-posting from my other blog would explain why have I been so busy…

Plus the fact that I’m off to NYC this weekend of course..

Heehee

*crossposted from http://notabrownbag.wordpress.com

I’ve been slacking off the bento making front (edit: and most definately blogging front too!) , only producing super-quick bentos that consists of slopped together leftovers with some pieces of fruit. Work have been snowing me under mindlessly and I’ve been doing long hours = tiredness setting in = no brainpower left for creative endevours. However, last Friday I did it at last … I QUIT!!

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It was exhillirating to say it out loud. I’ve been plotting my departure since before Easter, and last Friday I did it at last. I rang my boss (she was working from home) to inform her that I was leaving, and she asked for something officially written. Fair enough. I had never written a resignation letter before, having always just sat down with my ex bosses and told them that I was leaving. So I initially wrote her an email, but it strike me that she would probably want something in a proper letter because *she is just like that*. So I started again, and googled for a resignation letter – seeing that the last one I wrote was in uni during Business Communications 110. Sigh. So yeah, there I go, ripping off a template from google and filling it in with all my details…including her full name and business address…everything. I sent it off as an attachment in an email, and then went to the washroom.

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When I came back less than 5 mins later, there was a missed call on my phone. It was my boss, telling me that my resignation letter was “not good enough”. Then I checked my email. It was my boss again, telling me that my letter was not good enough, and I need to specify exactly how many days holidays would they need to pay me. All within the time it took for me to walk to the washroom and back. Seriously…like say what?? I’ve quit, and a good use of my time would be to get me to REWRITE my resignation letter?? So I googled some more, and came up with a better ‘example’….which passed her quality test.

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I’ve been thinking about that whole incident all weekend, and really wished that I could’ve resigned in style – and what better way to resign that via a bento!!! I would have loved to resign with this bento – can you imagine the boss’ face if I present her with this bento during lunch? Heehee…Today’s bento contain some mock-risotto made from orzo that I copied from Sheri - utterly delicious! I substituted the veggie stock with chicken, and popped in some peas once it’s cooked. Yum yum. I’ve used my two sectioned bento box so I can microwave it separately from the other half.

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Mock mushroom orzo risotto with cut-out cheese letters (I used alphabet cutters for the words and cut out the smiley face features freehand using the toothpick method) , strawberries and tomatoes on a bed of mixed salad leaves – strawberries eaten with rocket leaves is so beautiful! Padded out with snap peas. And a smiley quitting giraffe too; hiding in the forest of the peas

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Oh, and I found out something amazing…if you freeze cheese cut outs before placing them on the bento, it is just so much easier to handle! Well, most people probably already know this..hehe.

Oaky. I have had enough.

I have been running this blog for longer than I care to remember, and what I enjoy the most is the interaction with my readers, from real-life friends to blog readers turned friends. I am a comment-whore not for fame or fortune, but the engagement from my blog readers whom I consider my friends.

I had tried to put this off as long as I possibly can…but I will be moderating comments from now onwards. You will notice that there have been a stupidly huge amount of spam comments on this blog for the past year or two, which I had been actively combating by deleting them as and when I came across them. It had come to a point where this is no longer feasible; I am getting spam comments from bloody idiots that cannot spell to save their goddamed life a few times a day.

So yes. I am sorry. But I will NOT have spammers in my blog!

Leeds based readers,listen up and listen up good!! In conjunction with the fabulous culture vultures,I will be running a fantastic give away contest this thursday!!! If you’ve ever wanted me to cook for you,well,now’s the chance!

hints: its yummy,its tiny and its all about loving!!! Apologies to those not working/living in Leeds; Its restricted to Leeds only as its a)perishable and b)hand-delivered by ME!!

Having being affected by the norovirus (winter vomiting bug) the week before, you’d think it’ll be some time before I get infected again right? Well, ordinarily for ordinary people yes. As for me, I have seemingly caught a cold!! AARGH! Because I’ve been off two days the week before, it seems crazy for me to be off again, so I’ve been coming into work and not getting enough rest. Not only that, I have been skimping drastically on my excercise routine after having been so good for three months – being continuously sick does that to you, you know.

I have also been furiously planning for my trip down under in 3 weeks and counting! I have had to slash a few good many recommendations from people out, but basically it seemed to have turned into an eating trip rather than regular tourism. Weird. I still need to decide what I want to do in Gold Coast – it will be a trip of Melbourne-Gold Coast- Sydney. Unfortunately Perth proved to be too expensive for me to fly out and in again – with prices reaching about £200 – £300 each way. I would have had to fly into Sydney again, doubling the airtickets and effectively costing nearly as much as it would have if I were to just fly to Perth and back direct!

OH, by the way, do you like my new header? It looks more like a proper picture made for a header rather than my previously half-baked attempts. Thanks to moo who is always helping me sort out blog related stuff

So I thought I wouldn’t bother him any more than I already am as I start a new blog. WHAT?!? NEW BLOG? YOU HARDLY UPDATE THIS ONE AS IT IS!!

Erm, yes. Sorry. I thought it wouldn’t be fair to you my dear readers to have to put up with my new obsession with producing healthy lunch for myself and bacon. The only reason I blog about it is so I continue to be motivated under the watchful eyes of fellow bento-making crazies. If you think my lunches are crazy, you should REALLY click on some of the links that are on my new blog, not another brown bag lunch . Extremely impressive. For me, I just want to make sure I eat healthily, with a splash of cuteness when time and inspiration permits. I also eat far too much rice for my own good, so this allows me to strictly portion myself to 1 cup of cooked rice at any one time.

Okay, back to work before my boss arrives..shh…don’t tell her I’ve been secretly blogging…