I drove to Centennial Park and promptly got lost finding the right picnic spot for a good ten minutes, before finally making some kind of a U Turn and heading in the right direction. Fortunately I found a good park pretty soon after spotting what I hoped was the Sydney Food Bloggers Picnic group. Grabbing my camera and ziplock (couldn’t find a container!) bag of brownies, I headed nervously headed towards the group, holding my handbag in a bit of a death grip. I don’t really go out to big groups of people who I don’t really know so it was definitely a couple of firsts for me in one day!

Everyone laid out masses of delicious looking food and pinned on their name tags (my name and blog name on a tag, yay!!).

Everyone got to mingle and put faces to blogs and twitter accounts

Finally, lunch was announced by chocolatesuze!

A congregation of food bloggers – everyone got to snapping before we started eating!

Beautiful looking paella from Lex from iheartsaturdays.com

More gorgeous looking paella from Ramen Raff

Gorgeous berry marshmallows – not sure who made these but they were scrumptious!!!

Delicious meatballs with feta and a tzaziki dipping sauce by spoonfulsofgoodness

Gorgeously green mini pandan cupcakes by Lay from www.layskitchenexplorations.blogspot.com

Muppy’s absolutely delicious salted caramel tarts with gorgeous piping

coconut and pandan maracons

sugar puffi’s fairy bread!

Some more delicious tidbits

The brownies i brought

Everyone got to nibbling and some chatting!

Gaby from lateraleating and Muppy.

Me and Muppy

Me and Chanel from Cats Love Cooking

Wendy from obesebaby, Lay from layskitchenexplorations, Lucy from beyondbourkestreet and me

Food got eaten!


I went back to get some of these, but they were gone

Lucy from beyondbourkestreet‘s browned butter apple pound cake with maple cream cheese frosting

I snapped a couple more pictures before the big main group pic by Simon from theheartoffood.com

The lovely Tim and Christina from thewayitcrumbles

Wendy (obesebaby), Lucy (beyondbourkestreet) and me

Me and the talented Simon from theheartoffood

Me and April from polkadotsandchopsticks

Me and Suze (chocolatesuze)

Me and Betty (sugarpuffi)

Group pic from Simon from theheartoffood

It was so lovely to meet everyone and finally get to put some faces to blogs as well as sample some of everyone’s scrumptious treats. Looking forward to the next one!

Special thanks again to chocolatesuze and grabyourfork for organising everything

You can check out all the rest of the pictures I took (yes, there are more! hehe) on my Facebook page by clicking here.

You can also check out the recipe/method for my favorite brownie recipe I took to the picnic by clicking here .

Hope you are all having a fab week!
xoxo
Christine

Do you guys have a family favorite Chinese restaurant? I think everyone has one. Its kind of a tradition, isn’t it?

I’ve been going to the Golden Singapura since I was knee high to a grass hopper. A family fave, we still occasionally frequent this place, although I have to admit, less frequently in the recent years, mostly because my Mum is less of a fan of takeaway foods these days. (She’s become a staunch vegan in the last year or so.)

Ever since I started dating my fiance, we discovered a new place close to his family’s home which has quickly become a favorite. Even though it’s not close to his place or mine, whenever we visit his family, we love visiting this place!

I still remember the first time I ever visited Eastern City Chinese restaurant – we were with some friends from Mike’s church who frequently there and after that first time, we were hooked. We had many Sunday night dinners which quickly through the years turned into countless family and birthday dinners.

Oh Eastern City Chinese restaurant, I heart you!

Here are some recent pics of a yummy dinner there recently Pics are a teensy bit dark, sorry bout that peeps!

Honey chicken

Peking Style Beef Strips – Amazing! We order this every time we come..

Mike’s brother’s fave, Mongolian Lamb

Salt and pepper tofu

The chef always makes these amazing little carrot carvings with the dishes – so much detail!!

Who could forget dessert?
Deep fried ice cream with caramel sauce

Vanilla Ice Cream with Lychees

My absolute fave dishes have to be:
Peking style beef strips
Sweet and sour fish
Pan fried snake beans (we generally ask for these without pork, but they do come with them by default)

Eastern City Chinese restaurant is located at:
7 Hillcrest Road
Pennant Hills NSW 2120
Phone number: (02) 9875 1411

They’re also a stone’s throw from the Pennant Hills Train Station if you’re traveling by public transport and as a side note, they also do takeaway!

If you’re in the area, definitely give this one a try!

xoxo
Christine

so not much time for blogging i’m afraid! but that doesn’t mean i’ve taken an absence from food or food photography so I thought i’d do another pic-post of some of the things i’ve been whipping up lately (although i mostly do not have the energy to do an entire post for each item!)

thank you for watching.

Choc chip cookies (yes, you may notice some of these foods aren’t exactly in my ‘diet’ category… cough.)
these were great straight out of the oven but i apparently messed up the amount of flour in them resulting in 1 hour later, rock hard cookies…. whoops. back to the drawing board! couldn’t resist posting this pic tho because they still look good here! hehe.

Vanilla cupcakes decorated with a cream cheese frosting swirl, fondant cut outs and sprinkles. man i love how fun decorating is!

A chocolate mudcake frosted with milk chocolate ganache and decorated with white fondant heart cut outs and strawberries. i love how easy it is to put together pretty designs without very much effort at all.

Lemon cupcakes with a lemon zesty glaze – my first somewhat failed attempt at food styling, lol.

We had Dyan’s first birthday without us on September 19, so a couple of our friends got together. I made this white chocolate (her favorite) cake for it.

You can check out the rest of the cake pics here.

Hope everyone’s having a great week!

Loooove and hugs!
xoxo
Christine

I absolutely love getting snake bean dishes at Chinese restaurants, but often find it difficult to find places that make it without pork mince (since I don’t eat pork;) so I thought I’d have a whack at trying my own version. I love the sweetness of the sauce with the beans and the added tofu is a lovely combination and adds some protein. Try this one as a side dish, or throw in some noodles at the end for a lip smacking taste sensation It would also be great with some rice and works well for leftovers the next day. This recipe also works well for some vegetarians or even vegans who are looking for a super yummy easy weeknight meal to throw together.

Tofu and Bean Stir Fry
serves 2.
prep time about 5 minutes
cook time about 10 minutes

Ingredients
1 bunch of snake beans
1 package of tofu (in this instance I’m using the Soyco Asian honey soy pre-marinated package you can buy from the supermarket, e.g. Coles, etc. However if you can’t find this, you can still use firm tofu plain or marinate it yourself in some soy, honey and garlic.)
1 clove of garlic
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce or regular soy will do just fine (the dark soy adds a nice sweetness.)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

If marinating the plain tofu, dice the firm tofu into small cubes and marinate in a small bowl in the fridge overnight (1 teaspoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of honey + 1 clove of grated garlic).

If using the Soyco brand, dice into small cubes and set aside. Wash and cut snake beans into segments, grate/crush/dice ginger and garlic. Heat vegetable oil in a non stick fry pan over high heat and add the garlic and ginger. Allow it to sizzle and release that delicious scent. If using plain/marinated tofu, add to the pan now and fry for about 5-10 minutes to brown (the Soyco brand doesn’t need this since it’s already cooked – just needs to warm through.) Add snake beans to the pan and fry for another 5 minutes until their skins start to look a little shriveled and puckered (you want this! that means deliciousness!)

If using Soyco tofu, fry ginger and garlic and add beans straight to the pan until cooked as above. Add Soyco tofu and cook for a further 5 minutes or until tofu is hot. If you want to add some noodles, add them now! You can also add some extra vegies, cashew nuts, serve it on some rice or whatever else takes your fancy, but it is just lovely as is.

 
I tried these beans with some sticky hoisin marinated salmon and steamed corn and it was juuust lovely

Check out more pics of this dish on my Facebook page by clicking here. Hit the like button and I’ll be your friend foreeever!

xoxoxo

Hope you are having a fab week!
Christine

Those who haven’t been to Phuket, its a great place to getaway from all the hustle and bustle of Sydney for awhile – lots of gorgeous warm sunny beaches with white sand and clear water, lots of Paddy’s-esque shopping (and the fun of bartering – which I took to like a duck to water) and plenty of great activities in the heart of Patong (which is where we stayed.) Plenty of cheap accommodation is available (we got a Spreets.com.au deal but you can find plenty of great deals on wotif.com).

For a week my friend and I went snorkeling in Phi Phi islands, rode on elephants, got some clothes tailor made (there is a tailor practically every ten metres in Patong), cable riding in the jungle, saw a magic show, visited Phantasea and of course indulged in $7 hour long massages and a $10 facials, pure bliss! Even though I was just there for one week, we were able to fit in quite a lot of activities but there was still plenty more to do for those who want to stay a bit longer.

Since the cooking classes were so cheap and Pum’s was close by to our accommodation, it was an easy choice to book in for one of the classes. I’ve actually never really done a ‘formal’ cooking class before (unless you count food tech in high school) and I’ve always wanted to do one, but the Sydney cooking classes seem to be very expensive, so I was glad to finally have a good option in Phuket at Pum’s

Pum’s also doubles as a restaurant during the day. My friend Ghilaine and I decided to visit them a few times before our class to come up with a good idea of what to cook. This turned out well as it was a short walk from our hotel as well as being a cheap and delicious option for some of our lunches and dinners.

Pum’s runs cooking classes daily but it’s a good idea to book in advance as it can book out. Instead of booking the classes at the actual restaurant, I’d recommend booking at a tour vendor as they can sometimes give you discounts. Opposite Pum’s restaurant in Patong (on the other side of the road) is a tour vendor named “Oy” who we booked the majority of discounts with and I’d highly recommend her, she speaks excellent English and gave us plenty of great discounts on all the tours we booked, even cheaper than any of the other masses of vendors we passed by.

We chose to do the “Pum’s little shoes” class which seemed to be the best option for money and time – it’s a 3 hour class where you choose to make 3 Thai dishes of your choice for about 14-1500 baht or cheaper if you book with the right tour vendor. We paid about $40 AUD for the class. You also get to eat your dishes (of course!) so it includes lunch. You also get to keep a book of Pum’s Thai recipes to take home with you – handy for later on!

We arrived at Pum’s on a Sunday and began by writing down the recipes we wanted to make. We were also encouraged to write down additional recipes for Thai pastes and jams from Pum’s other cookbook (available for sale in the restaurant) which were also used in the recipes. I made it a bit easier by just taking photos of the recipes, hehe. I chose to make vegetarian fried rice, chicken cashew nut stir fry (my fave Thai recipe which I’ve never learned how to make!) and pad si ew (another fave.)

The class began with our teacher arrived at our table with a plate full of ingredients commonly used to flavour Thai cuisine which she began to explain.

garlic, thai holy basil, lemon grass, chilli, lime, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, Thai shallots

Chopping the lemon grass for a smell. Looove the smell of lemon grass!

ingredients prepped for cooking!

ready to cook!

Our teacher explained that they preferred making the curry paste by mortar and pestle instead of a food processor, however you have to be careful that you don’t accidentally shoot chilli into your eyes when crushing away! We all got to have a go at crushing the chilli paste, while our teacher encouraged us to sing and dance while doing so, lol.

Finished red curry paste!

We then got to have a go at making some of our recipes. Everything was carefully chopped and prepared for us plus we didn’t have to do any washing up which made everything all the more enjoyable! Oh if only it were like that at home!

Ingredients for chicken green curry

Prepping my rice with some crushed garlic in vegetable oil, soy sauce and sugar.

ingredients for chicken cashew nut stir fry.
chicken breast strips, toasted cashew nuts, onion and thai shallots (PS! if anyone aaanyone! knows where to find these in Sydney Pleeeeease drop me a line! they’re totally different from the shallots we normally get in the supermarket and i also think they’re different from garlic shoots… and i’m dying to find where i can lay my hands on these babies… thank you!!)

Finished chicken cashew nut.. it was delicious!

Satay chicken – chicken breast was lightly marinated before it was pan fried and then served with a delicious satay sauce made from crushed peanuts and coconut milk and a sweet vinegar sauce with cucumber and chilli

Time for lunch! We broke about halfway through to eat a bunch of our dishes before resuming cooking. it was a good chance to meet with the rest of the people in the cooking class as well as share some of our yummy dishes

After lunch, our teacher went through some of the sauces used in Thai cooking.

Tomato sauce, chilli jam, soy sauce, fish sauce, fermented bean paste, oyster sauce, pickled galangal, fried garlic, chilli sauce. We were encouraged to taste them all and I have to say some of them were……..interesting!

We also went through some of the vegies most commonly used in Thai cooking.
Cucumber, Chinese broccoli (or gai lum), baby corn, tomato, cabbage, onion, snake beans. I’m happy to say that you can find pretty much everything here in Sydney!

Then it was on to more cooking!

Finely chopped kaffir lime leaves, snake beans, red curry paste and minced fish for fish cakes – which Pum passed by saying were her favorite!

shaped fish cakes ready to be fried

Finished fish cakes, served with cucumber, chilli, thai shallots and a sweetened vinegary sauce

Thai noodle soup ingredients

looks like it would be perfect for a cold wintery day!

Ingredients for Pad Si Ew (my final dish.) Blanch vegies and rice noodles in hot water separately and place on a plate.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of dark soy, 1 teaspoon of crushed garlic in vegie oil, 1 tablespoon of white sugar on to the noodles.

Stir fry chicken breast in vegetable oil and then add noodles and blanched vegies to the hot pan.

Dust lightly with some pepper to serve. pad si ew!

Ingredients for sticky rice with mango.
Coconut milk is warmed with the sugar until it melts. Add the sticky rice and mix through the sweetened coconut mixture. Serve with freshly sliced mango and garnish with kaffir lime leaves.

et voila!

We finished the class by sampling the rest of our dishes with the rest of the class before we were sent home with our cookbooks and a cute little Pum keyring

Of course I couldn’t resist a photo with Pum herself (who jokingly asked to charge us 10 bht for the photo, hehe.)

All in all, I had a wonderful time at Pum’s and would highly recommend it. It was a truly excellent experience for my first cooking class and I look forward to whipping up lots of yummy Thai recipes armed with my new cookbook in the near future. If you’re ever in Patong, definitely drop by Pum’s at least for a meal or one of her great classes

Pum’s is currently rated 9 out of 101 activities to do in Phuket. Check out the Pum’s tripadvisor link below.
Click here to visit Pum’s cooking school website for more info.
Click here to visit the tripadvisor reviews for Pum’s Cooking School.

You can also check out a bunch more pics from my experience at Pum’s Cooking School by clicking here on my Facebook Page.

xoxo
Christine

I made Vanilla Cupcakes from Taste.com.au, a recipe that I am loving soo much right now. I frosted them with cream cheese frosting from Glorious Treats which is quickly becoming a staple frosting for my baking. To finish, I added some chocolate sprinkles and half a strawberry. Simple and yummy

Vanilla Cupcakes (adapted) from Taste.com.au Makes 24-30 cupcakes
200 g butter, left out to soften (or zapped with the microwave – just be careful not to melt it like i did!!.. then you have to start over :()
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1 good slosh of vanilla essence
4 eggs, room temperature
2 + 3/4 cups of self raising flour
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180. I usually turn it up higher to heat it faster, but bake at about 160.
Cream butter and sugar with the vanilla essence. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Switch to wooden spoon and add milk and flour in alternating batches. Using two tablespoons, spoon batter into a muffin tray lined with cupcake liners. Turn oven to 160 and bake cupcakes for about 15-20 minutes until they spring back lightly when touched in the centre. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before frosting (sometimes to speed this up I stick them in the freezer for about 20 minutes.)

Cream Cheese Frosting (adapted) from Glorious Treats – loving this blog at the moment!
1/2 a cup of softened butter
1 cup of softened cream cheese (I use the Coles low fat version that comes in the round plastic containers – I just use the whole thing). To soften, chop into chunks and microwave for about 10 sec on high.
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3-4 cups icing sugar
(optional) 1-2 T cream or milk

Beat together butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer until fully combined. Slowly add sifted powdered sugar cup by cup. I tend to just use a bit less sugar so that the frosting is less stiff generally, but you can experiment by adding the full four cups and adding cream / milk to adjust the frosting consistency – I find this is something you can be fairly relaxed about and just adjust it until you get what is perfect for you

Assembly:
Insert large star tip into a pastry bag and fill with frosting. Pipe frosting in a circular motion starting in the centre of the cupcakes and moving outwards until you have piped to the end of the cupcake. Sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles and pop on a halved strawberry (I like to leave the leaves on for a bit of added colour but you can remove those if you like.) Voila!

Enjoy
xx
Christine

note:
I’m still learning my way around my camera (esp. eight months ago!) so pls. forgive me for the less than stellar pics

We arrived at Bilson’s on a Saturday night that we had booked in advance. After we were seated, it wasn’t long before the magic began

We started with some fancy cheese sticks to start;

Then came sourdough with salted butter

Honestly is there anything better than fresh bread (especially sourdough) with butter? mmm.

My alternate amuse bouche (cos of the no eating shellfish/pork thing)

The regular amuse bouche, pea and ham soup

Gazpacho soup that was separated and reintegrated at the table. haha. reintegrated. whenever i see that word, it makes me think of a sci fi for some reason..

One of the best dishes of the night, olive oil cured salmon with goats’ cheese, basil seeds and volcanic salt. the salmon was meltingly tender and the sauces had a wonderful flavour. my friends and i agreed that the sauces were what made the food at Bilsons so special.


Another winner – crispy skinned fish with the most amazing buttery sauce in the world + lobster foam

Mine came without the lobster foam. My friends and I (somewhat) shamefully (are you meant to do this at fancy restaurants?) mopped up the amazing sauce with the sourdough… It was so good that there was no room for regret.

Then came the lamb.. anyone who knows me probably realises that i have a love affair with all things lamb related.. this was the deboned rack of lamb with pureed garlic, aubergine parmiggiana, hollowed out cucumber with a tomato salad and a red wine reduction. getting so full at this point, but the lamb was velvety tender, mm.

A quick shot of a mint/peach palate cleanser that was fruity and refreshing before dessert

Our dessert, the petit sucre (“little sugar” in French) was peach themed.
Dessert was chocolate sauce with pureed peach, with a grilled peach slice, dehydrated peach slice, lavender marshmallow, chocolate mousse and a crispy chocolate square. This was lovely with the peach flavors. The mousse tasted almost like a brownie; it was quite dense and very chocolatey. The crispy chocolate square was amazing – i have no idea how they made it but it tasted wonderfully caramelised so that it was almost smokey.. and the lavender marshmallow also gave this dessert a hint of freshness, just lovely

The petit fours, little almond cakes and chocolate orange macarons (which reminded me strongly of jaffas. but in a really really delicious way!)

I was excited cos I got to wear my new dress for the first time

Summary:
Bilsons was a lovely night out for dinner. Gorgeous food, beautiful service lovely setting – what more can you ask for? (Well, except maybe for a discount. Haha.) I would definitely recommend it for a romantic dinner or out with some friends for a special occasion. I really enjoyed my time here and would love to go again sometime soon.

You can grab three different kinds of degustation at Bilsons;
Petit menu (7 courses) @ $145 AUD per person [$215 AUD with matching wines]
Grand menu (9 courses) @ $195 AUD per person [$290 AUD with matching wines]
These both come with vegetarian degustation as an option as well. Also, my friends shared the matching wines between them and each got a half glass of wine (which was a pretty decent amount) with each course. Bilsons were more than happy to accomodate them for this.
Ultimate degustation menu (15 courses!!) @ $280 AUD per person [or $395 AUD with matching wines]

Hope y’all are surviving this weather!

Peace and love!!
xx
Christine

Bilsons: 27 O’Connell Street Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 8214 0496
Open Tue-Thu,Sat 6pm-10pm; Fri 12pm-2:30pm, 6pm-10pm
Click here for the Bilsons website
Click here for the Bilsons eatability link

It’s been awhile.. as usual!

I’ve finally gotten myself one of those facebook-fan-style-thingymajiggy pages, so if you feel so inclined, give me a like by clicking here. It’s totally cool because I will be posting up some better quality pics, more info on posts / pics, and you comment, say hi, and all that bizzo fun stuff

Now that’s out of the way, here’s a great weeknight meal to whip up for your loved ones.

It’s corned beef with lemon garlic potatoes, broccolini and sesame honey dutch carrots – good for a weekend dinner and great for leftovers.

Corned Beef
1 kg corned beef cut
2 T brown sugar
2 T apple cider vinegar
6 cloves
1 bayleaf
6 peppercorns
1 cut up onion
(optional: 1 carrot, 1 celery stick).

Place corned beef in a big pot and cover with cold water. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil and simmer on medium for about 3 hours or until corned beef is tender. Slice and serve. Great cold, for leftovers, or on buttered bread! Mmm.

Lemon/Garlic Potatoes
1/8 cup melted butter
juice of two lemons
teaspoon garlic powder
teaspoon dried parsley flakes
seasoning
1/2 kilo – 1 kilo of washed potatoes, diced

Blend together melted butter and lemon juice. Add garlic powder, dried parsley flakes and seasoning. Place diced potatoes into a lined baking dish and pour over lemon/butter mixture and toss to coat potatoes. Bake in a hot oven (180 degs) for about 1-1.5 hours until potatoes are cooked through. Serve.

Honey Sesame Carrot recipe from Taste.com
1 bunch of baby dutch carrots
1 T sesame seeds
2 T honey

Rinse and trim carrots, place in a saucepan with cold water and bring to the boil until cooked. In a separate saucepan, toast sesame seeds until lightly browned and add honey. Pour over cooked carrots to serve.

Assembly:
Slice corned beef (serve with seeded mustard if desired). Add potatoes, carrots and steamed/blanched broccolini. Serve

xoxox
Christine

A birthday cake made for a friend who requested a black forest yellow ruffle cake.

I used Pioneer Woman’s choc sheet cake (and promptly forgot to add baking powder, derr.. This resulted in a super dense cake that did not rise) and filled it with this chocolate mousse, by the way if you haven’t tried that mousse yet, DO it. It is ambrosially amazing. I am counting the days to make it again! Also soo easy. I also added some frozen cherries to the mousse. Piped the ruffles with swiss meringue buttercream. For a final touch, I grated some dark chocolate and tried to make a heart shape using a heart shaped cutout of baking paper as a rough guide.

xoxox
Christine

dear readers

it has been awhile since i posted. sadly, not long after my last blog post, i got the terrible news that one of my most loved and precious friends had very sadly passed away. she was going to be one of my bridesmaids.

i first met Dyan when we were 12 at our church. we shared a common link – i was half Filipino and she was the only other Filipino girl. the more i knew her, the more i liked her. we shared tents at camps, weekly lunches at church, Filipino family angst and a common love for Xena. it was Dy that introduced me to my addiction of Archie comics that we would read together. she taught me how to pout and do ‘sexy’ photos.. lol. she was lovely, sweet and kind. throughout the years we grew closer. she became one of my best friends and i loved her very, very much. i am proud to have been able to be there to watch her blossom into the woman that she became – one of the most beautiful women i have ever known. people use the phrase ‘she was beautiful, inside and out’. well i can’t think of a truer way to describe our dear Dy. that’s exactly what she was.

for about 8 months she was even my fiance’s housemate. i still have memories of her potting around his house in the inner west, cooking apricot chicken or mushrooms or ordering pizza with her boyfriend and brother whom she was so close to and was often at the house. i miss that time. i wish so much that i had made more of an effort to spend more time with her then.

out of all our group of friends at church, she was the purest, sweetest, kindest of us all. she was truly a living angel. she had so many traits to be admired.

at just the young age of 20 she became head elder at our church (a high privilege that is reserved for much older members of church. that she became an elder at that age is essentially unheard of in the Seventh day Adventist church). she was talented at sports, succeeded academically (about a thousand times better than me), not to mention she was drop dead gorgeous. she was always so beautifully and stylishly dressed – one of the best presented ladies i ever had the pleasure to know. she blogged. she designed photo shoots with her cousins. she spent so much of her time trying to help others – she was always there to help and give her time, to listen or to help out with other people’s projects. she was always there helping to raise money for the poor, door knocking for charities, helping to look after kids at church or volunteering for other good causes.

i have so many memories of her. i miss her so much. i know it’s probably wrong but i still can’t but help that i wish i had picked up the damn phone and called her last week. it had been a couple of weeks since i had seen her and right now i would do anything to hear her voice or see her again or that it was all just a bad dream and we could all wake up. it can’t be that i didn’t see her for a few weeks and she can just be gone. words could never fully describe how much we miss her.

I had the privilege of reading the following at her funeral, yesterday.

Dyan was one of the most special girls I have ever known and she was one of my best friends — and one of the most lovely people I ever knew. Anyone who ever met Dyan knew she was the sweetest, kindest, most down to earth person. Friends of mine that only met her once or twice have commented to me that they always remembered her presence and how much they had liked meeting her if only for a short time. That was the kind of person she was — so memorable. She had an impact on everyone she met. She was such a rare person, so determined to please others and to do her best to help other people. I have not seen such kindness and generosity of spirit like Dy’s in any other person.

I knew how much she loved Jesus. I know with an absolute certainty and from personal experience that God loved Dyan very, very much. It was almost unfair how wonderful Dy was — almost like she made any other girl look bad! Not only was she a stunningly gorgeous girl, she was so clever, talented at her hobbies and had the love of a great guy — something that I know brought her much joy.

I never knew her to fight with anyone, speak a single unkind word about anyone or speak selfishly. She was never petty or held grudges. I wish I could be more like her. She inspires me now, every day, to be a better person.

The loss of her is crippling and breaks our hearts. It will take us a long time to be able to function without her here — without her sitting next to me in the pew every week, without our weekly talks at the lunch table, or hearing that beautiful laugh of hers… or even the simple pleasure of a hug. In a way, I don’t want to ‘get over this’ or ‘move on’ because it means that she won’t be here any more, and that thought is so hard.

One thing that gets me by every day is the thought that the next thing Dy sees when she opens her eyes is our Lord. What a magnificent sight that will be. God promises that we get to spend eternity together – and that is something that I am looking forward to (as are we all) very much. Until then, I will cherish our precious memories together. I pray that each and every one of them will never fade.

Dyan — see ya soon.

Poem to finish: God’s Garden
God looked around his garden And He found an empty place. And then He looked down upon the earth, And saw your tired face. He put His arms around you, And lifted you to rest. God’s garden must be beautiful, He always takes the best. He knew that you were suffering, He knew you were in pain, He knew that you would never Get well on earth again. He saw the road was getting rough, And the hills were hard to climb, So He closed your weary eyelids, And whispered “Peace be thine.” It broke our hearts to lose you. But you didn’t go alone, For part of us went with you, The day God called you home.

A video tribute to Dy:

So i guess this kind of almost an apology. This blog is going on hiatus for awhile. I’m not sure when I will write next. Right now I don’t feel like doing much of anything for a long time. i’ve definitely lost the wedding mojo. i don’t feel like being there on my wedding day without Dy. I can barely imagine even being happy on that day.
 

I want to ask you a favour though, before I go for now. Please make sure you call your loved ones. Tell them that you love them. Make an effort to catch up with them more often. I cannot tell you how much I and we all wish that we could have had more memories with our sweet Dy. Don’t ever wait until it’s too late and never lose sight of what is truly important to you.
 

Love you all xx

Christine.

our last photo together on may 1 2011 at our engagement party. two short weeks before she passed.