My 21st Birthday: A Princessy Surprise!

Okay okay... this will be an exciting entry... if I do say so myself! Haha! Everything here happened on the 11th of April, one day before my actual birthday, and a Friday. And I totally wasn't expecting anything because prior to this day, the girls had kept asking me if I was going to be at school on my actual birthday (Saturday) and I told them I was, so I thought they were going to surprise me on the 12th.

But anyway, they must've decided that there was a huge chance I would not go to school on Saturday because they surprised me on Friday instead! Which was just as well because more people were in the studio (Fridays are crit days) to help us finish the humongous cake.

The only sad thing was that I didn't expect my surprise to be on Friday, so I hadn't washed my hair for three days and it was disgusting as fuck and I woke up early to go to CUHK (more on that later... in another blog entry when I'm bothered), so I didn't bother with "nice" make up as well. So I look really fugly in all the pictures we took. Oh well, can't have everything! Lol!

(And it turns out, on my actual birthday - and yes I did go to school you smart arse - I ended up only spending a few minutes in the studio because the lasercut machines at school broke. So there was no point for me to be at school...)

I ate so much of my wonderful cake :') It just tasted like a regular Hong Kong style fruit cake with shitloads of cream, if you were wondering. Not the best taste-wise but we didn't really expect much anyway? In any case (against better judgement) I ate a lot even though it was so sinful because my lovely girls got it specially for me.

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My 21st Birthday: Another Lunch Buffet at the JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong?

Another early birthday celebration! On the Wednesday before my birthday, my lovely N's Girls treated me to a salad lunch buffet at The Lounge at the JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong... yes, again! Well, it's the same hotel as the one I went to with my parents just a week ago but a different restaurant haha. Cos I went to the full buffet with my parents (my Dad needs his FOOD) but The Lounge just serves mini-buffets, like salad, noodle, dessert, etc etc.

Last year they treated me to a lunch buffet at MoMo Café but this year we've upgraded to the real Marriott! So grateful I met these lovely girls in university! ♡

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My 21st Birthday: Oolaa & Pierre Hermé with Jason!

Apart from with my parents, I celebrated my birthday early - one week early, to be exact - with Jason too! It wasn't really much of a celebration, more like just a dinner that he treated me to. Good enough for me I suppose! Though obviously a surprise would've been much nicer, but I really didn't expect anything haha. And I really couldn't muster up the enthusiasm for anything big because my third-quarter review was coming up... Anyway for my 21st, we went to have dinner at Oolaa and then we got yummy macarons at Pierre Hermé at my request!

The flavours we chose, from left to right:

Infiniment Praliné Noisette: Hazelnut Praliné & Praliné Crisp

Chuhao: Chocolate, Blackcurrant & Blackcurrant Berries

Infiniment Rose: Rose & Rose Petal

Chocolat & Foie Gras: Chocolate & Foie Gras

Infiniment Caramel: Salted-Butter Caramel

Infiniment Café Iapar Rouge du Brésil: Red Iapar Coffee from Brazil

Inifiment Chocolat Pérou: Pure Origin Peruvian Dark Chocolate, Morropon Province, Village of Asprobo

Erm... and no pics of the half eaten macarons because we consumed them too fast. All that selfcamming with them made us super desperate to try them that taking more pictures completely slipped my mind. I loved all the flavours though, except the Rose Petal and Chocolate & Foie Gras! The first, we only picked because of the pretty pink colour, so we expected it to not taste that great, but the latter was just too odd for me... haha. I mean, it tasted like foie gras, but it was sweet?! Maybe my taste buds just aren't adventurous enough!

I would say I'm pretty boring with flavours, my favourites were... okay fuck, I can't choose just one. I guess the purest flavours, like the Coffee, Chocolate and Hazelnut ones... wait that's all of them LOL. I just didn't really like the Salted Caramel one because caramel has always been too sweet for me, but I know Jason likes the flavour so we picked it!

Either way I think Pierre Hermé tops Ladurée a gazillion times. The flavours were thicker (more my thing!) and the macarons were bigger and they generally tasted better. But that's just my opinion, I know lots of girls who prefer the classic-ness of Ladurée! Try both and see which one you like best! :)

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My 21st Birthday: JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong

Hello hello! It's April again, which means... my birthday is coming up!

I think I've mentioned and explained and complained about how much I hate having my birthday in April despite the fact that I love being an Aries girl, haha, so I won't start on a rant again. My birthday falls three days before my third-quarter review this year so on the actual day, I'll probably be casting concrete... wowza what a lovely way to spend my big 21st!

Never mind, I am quite used to it. "It" being never being able to properly celebrate my April birthday because it's during exam period, and "it" also being slaving away in the studio for architecture 24/7.

So like last year, I celebrated my birthday with my parents... two weeks early! Haha! My actual birthday is the 12th of April but we went to have my birthday lunch ten days before. LOL.

Not much to write about in terms of the food, tbh... because almost exactly one year ago, we went for the same lunch buffet in JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong! Of course I wanted to try a new place, but we were strapped for time because a) I'm only free on Wednesdays thanks to architecture, b) I had a doctor's appointment at Queen Mary Hospital right after lunch time at 3PM so the place had to be in Admiralty and c) there are only three hotels in Admiralty: Island Shangri-la, JW Marriott, and Conrad.

Honestly between Shangri-la and Marriott, I prefer the Shangri-la buffet more. I mean, I think they both serve really good food but Shangri-la has more variety and MACARONS, which I really, really wanted to eat!!! But then we went for Shangri-la's lunch buffet just three months ago on Christmas Eve.... so the food selection wouldn't come as a surprise and lets admit it, the best part of a buffet is the anticipation beforehand. So bleh.

Initially we decided on eating at Conrad but the reviews about the buffet there weren't so great. And my Mum's friends all did not recommend it. And going through the pics on Openrice, I must say that Shangri-la and Marriott's pictures and reviews top Conrad's. Sigh. So after much, much, much consideration I decided on Marriott's buffet.

Wow shit I went off on a tangent again. Sort of. Wtf.

And sorry I didn't take pictures of the buffet stand because - FUCK I'M GONNA GO OFF ON A LONG RANT AGAIN SORRY - it was storming and raining and thundering all the way there, and we ended up being more than half an hour late?! By the time we reached the hotel, the buffet was in full swing and people were everywhere and it was soooo damn crowded even on a Wednesday afternoon that there was no way I would be able to get a nice photo anyway.

And plus I didn't want to delay eating any longer, haha.

I had four full plates of desserts! Not including the savoury dishes a.k.a. main course I had before and the birthday cake, which I ate all by myself because by the time we had the birthday cake, my parents were full. Buffets are where I allow myself to go all out. No guilt for binging! The opera cake, tiramisu and peanut butter cookies were my favourites. :) I tried to eat less for my savoury plates so I could spam desserts actually... my favourite! I ended up with a really bad stomachache after lunch though. :(

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