Happy Birthday Husband!

To the Love of My Life,

I hope you enjoyed your day spent with the Koalas and Kangaroos...

and I hope you loved your time spent with me!!!

We spent the whole day together and had lunch at Hog's Breath Cafe. Last night, we had our birthday date, just us, at Charcoal Mine Korean BBQ Restaurant in Parramatta.

and I hope you liked my gift too. :)

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

May your 29th year be more spectacular than ever and may all your dreams come true because you deserve it.

Please know that I'm grateful to be blessed by your presence in my life...thank you for being the kind, generous, loving and funny husband and bestfriend that you are.

With all my heart...your Wifey,

Cafe: Blue Mountains Chocolate

If you ever pass by Blue Mountains or you're there to explore one of the most scenic spots in New South Wales, pay a visit to the Blue Mountains Chocolate for a wonderful and delicious chocolatey experience.

How to Enjoy Blue Mountains Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Hot Chocolate:

Upon entrance to the cafe, you will find three bowls on top of the counter. Three bowls for the three kinds of chocolate they make: (1) milk chocolate; (2) white chocolate and (3) dark chocolate. Taste each chocolate and decide which you like best.

Order at the counter and pay. The cafe only serves handmade chocolates, hot chocolate, coffee, tea, ice cream and cakes. We asked if they serve sandwiches and they said no.

Chris and I each ordered a Hot Chocolate. When our orders arrived, it looked like this....

It was a four-piece set of glasswares and you're supposed to mix your hot chocolate yourself. The tallest one is your fondue-looking glass. The small pitcher contains your milk while the small bowl contains your preferred chocolate. Mine was Milk Chocolate.

The chocolate looks yummy and tastes even yummier...sweetness is just right. It can be quite addicting as I somehow never noticed that I've been popping some into my mouth. So before I eat all my milk chocolate, I started mixing my hot chocolate.

Start with the milk, pour it in your fondue-looking glass. If you want to pour all your milk, that's fine. If you want more, you can ask for a second serving of milk.

Drop in your chocolates.

Stir it, blend it and smell the chocolate aroma.

My favorite part is the spoon. Theirs is no ordinary spoon...

Because it has a hole on the other end.

So you can sip your hot chocolate with the use of your spoon. Very cool! :) But be careful. Be sure that when you're about to sip your hot chocolate, the other end of your spoon is not touching the surface of your glass, as it is very hot.

I enjoyed my hot chocolate and I really love the concept of do-it-yourself when it comes to food :)

Inside the cafe, you can also watch them make their chocolates. While we were about to leave, one of the staff [she was a Filipina :)] was cutting and packing the chocolates.

They have a huge selection of handmade chocolates to choose from. You can order them at the counter and eat inside the cafe...

or you can bring them home or put them in pretty boxes and give away to loved ones.

The also sell chocolate bars. They have a chocolate bar called Girth Control which says "the chocolate that will make you forget "IT" for 15 minutes." hehehe.

Blue Mountans Chocolate is located 176 Lurline Street, Katoomba, Blue Mountains. You can also come here for chocolate making demonstrations, chocolate making courses and free chocolate tasting.

-o0o0o-

All photos by Chris and Ivy Sanchez. Visited Blue Mountains Cafe on 23 August 2008.

Related posts:

http://ibyangbabe.multiply.com/photos/album/197/17_August_2008_-_Blue_Mountains

False Alarm.

So that's how it feels to wait.

So that's how it feels to get a little bit excited.

So that's how it feels to ask "What if...?"

So that's how it feels to say "I could be..."

So that's how it feels to see just one blue line instead of two.

So that's how it feels to be a bit disappointed (and made me realized "what more those who are really trying for years???).

After being delayed for three weeks and two pregnancy tests (which were negative) and a plan to go to the doctor tomorrow for a blood test, I got my period last night. I was just very stressed after all, which was my first hunch from the start due to the many ongoings of our lives since August.

Just for everyone's understanding, the husband and I are not "trying hard to conceive" and neither "trying hard to control". We are simply going with the flow with regards to this issue (coz everyone keeps asking). We are in no hurry but should God surprises us with a baby, we will welcome him/her with open arms. Time and time again, my say on this will always be: one can always plan a wedding, a marriage and a honeymoon, but having a baby is something you cannot pin on the calendar.

On My Love for Reading Books

I was tagged by Gneth to answer 10 random facts about me and since I've done several of this kind of tags already (all you have to do is click on one of my tags called ibyang memes and you'll find it all there) but I always try to find a way to be creative in giving random facts about me, this time, I will focus on my love for reading books.

Let me also take this opportunity to answer Dave's question on how I choose a book I plan to read next.

Fact #1

These are the books I have right now within my reach. It so happened that I did my forthnightly sorting-of-stuff-inside-our-room today and made an inventory of all the books lying around our room. The books include:

a. Modern Asian Living - the book that validated the design I want for our future home, this was also my first book on interior design.

b. Photography by Peter Cattrell - given by my husband, my quick reference before I do a shoot or when I'm needing to brush up on photography skills.

c. The Little Prince - one of my favorite books, it was hardbound so I bought it.

d. The Starbucks Experience - supplies me with Marketing and Customer Service ideas.

e. Pugad Baboy 18 and 19 - helps to uplift me when I'm in need of entertainment and humour.

f. We Are All Welcome Here - about a Mom-Daughter relationship.

g. Recipes for a Perfect Marriage - just one of those books on marriage, very funny and had a lot of insights.

h. Love In A Time of Cholera - they say this is one of the best love stories ever written.

i. Brida - I always seem to have one Paulo Coelho book within my reach all the time.

j. Wicked - the latest book I bought and is now the book I read before going to bed.

k. Book of Affirmations and It's Never Too Late - two books I that inspire me and help with the upkeep of my positive outlook in life.

Fact #2:

Those are just the books within my reach, I still have lots! Most of them are now in storage boxes waiting for a new home. Husband and I are currently looking for a new place to stay and most of our things are now in boxes, ready for transport. I'm also limiting my book acquisition at the moment because I don't want to do more packing than I should.

Fact #3:

My dream is to have a library inside the house or at least a study room that will house all my books---lots of it--arranged by author's surname! hehe.

Fact #4:

I read two to three books simultaneously sometimes. May pang-morning train, afternoon train and another one before I retire at night.

Fact #5:

I also read magazines but only because I want entertaining or I just need to be updated with medical breakthroughs, health issues or what's new in fashion, etc. But I seldom buy them...I just borrow from workmates or sometimes friends give them.

Fact #6:

I haven't read or finished reading all the books I bought...like two of the books in the photo above: Love in the Time of Cholera and We Are All Welcome Here. I'm finding them boring and both stories are slow for me, but I'd still finish them later.

Fact #7:

My favorite bookstores in the Phils would be: Powerbooks and National Bookstore.

My favorite bookstores in Australia would be: Borders and Kinokuniya.

Fact #8:

On how I choose my next book to read:

a. I don't judge the book by its cover BUT I sometimes judge the book by its first page: if I find what I'm looking for in the first page, I'd buy it! What do I look for in the first page??? The way an author makes an impact on the first parts of his/her story---I look for IMPACT, if it will make me think or feel something when I read the first page, then it must be good.

b. I crave for books the way I crave for food. With food, you sometimes crave for sweet or sour...with books, it's the same for me. There are days when I crave for humour, inspiration, marketing strategies, a love story, on marriage, etc. When I enter a bookshop, I sometimes have a feel of what I want and I follow my craving.

c. There are times that I enter a bookshop and have no idea on what book I want. I just let my feet lead the way when that happens.

d. I get recommendations from friends and the net.

Fact #9:

Some of my favorite authors include: Paulo Coelho, Elizabeth Gilbert, Victoria Morgan, Anne Rice, Marg Stark, Audrey Niffenegger and John Grisham.

Fact #10:

If you were to ask what my top 5 books are, these would be it:

1. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

2. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

3. Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice

4. The Zahir by Paulo Coelho

5. What No One Tells The Bride by Marg Stark (I've written something about it here)