Eating out Moscow : Waffle Story

Waffle Story is a small cafe located in Arbat Street. Like its name, it specializes in waffles. In its menu, one can find a variety of waffles, crepes, soups and quiches.

Savoury waffle with bacon, cheese and egg and Quiche Lorraine

The savoury waffle was pretty nice and probably the best from what we have ordered. It's simple but everything with goes well together. Guess you can't make much of a mistake with bacon, cheese and egg together. However, the quiche is a little tad dry, the sides are so hard. This is not how I expected a quiche to turned out to be. So, it's very disappointing.

Cream of pumpkin soup

This soup was okay. I can't comment much on it since I only a sip from my friend's bowl.

Waffle with caramelized pear, chocolate and ice-cream

This waffle is lacking somnething. The waffle is too bland and the chocolate wasn't generous enough to cover up the blandness.

The service was pretty slow, they food took awhile to get prepared and there was only one staff running around doing the ordering and serving. Thank goodness there wasn't too many people, imagine the havoc. Poor waiter.
Overall, I will not return to this cafe despite its beautiful and cute ambiance. The food did not turned out great as I wanted it to be, it falls flat despite looking so good in photos. It was quite a disappointing visit to this cafe. 

FOTD : simple and clean

I do not usually take pictures under natural light because of the lack of natural light during the winter months but this month I managed to take my FOTD under natural light which is pretty nice because natural light does not wash out the colours on my face as much as artificial lighting.

Face :
Etude House Face Conditioning Cream
Rimmel True Match Foundation
Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Concealer
Catrice All Matt Plus Powder
Flormar Terracotta Powder in Dual Gold
Daiso Pink Blush

Face :
Essence Mono Eyeshadow in Apricotta
Catrice Absolute Nude Palette
Rimmel Scandaleyes Microeyeliner
Maybelline Big Eyes Mascara
Rimmel Wonder'full Mascara
Maybelline Brow Satin
Kiss Me Eyebrow Mascara

Lips :
Rimmel Long Lasting Lipsick in Asia

I have ended my university life

13.05.2016 marks my last day as a student. I am officially done Medical school life.

The journey has been long and winding, up and downs. Lots of bittersweet memory. 

The first time I set foot in Moscow is 2010. First time being somewhere so far without my parents, a foreign land which I do not know a single bit about the language. With a group of comrades like me, who does not know much about this foreign land, we were together at this. So afraid and yet excited, excited to see what this mysterious land could offer us. 

It was emotional day before in the airport, leaving my parents behind, going somewhere so faraway for the first time. Fear, excitement, freedom, lots of emotion was in the mix. I tried so hard not to cry, psyching myself that it will fine, I am not going alone, it is my first time going abroad. I had my friends who made an effort to rush to the airport to send me off, they were my emotional support. Going into the passport control, seeing my mum and sister crying while I leave, it was heartbreaking, but, I had to move on, I had to go. 

Fast forward 24 hours, we are already in Moscow. We were threw into our hostel rooms and we were so shocked with our hostel room condition, it was far from ideal but I still manage to make it home for 5 years until I moved out into the apartment this year.

I still remembered the first time getting food in a small grocer just below the hostels, not being able to speak a single Russian, the seniors helped us and all we did was just pointing at the products we wanted. 

The first year was tough, I thought I started out strong when till mid of the school year, I realize how much I have been missing home. When you are overseas, you will realize how important your parents were. It's true, that they say, you will start appreciating things when you don't have them. 

Experiencing my first winter was actually fun. I came from a country with no four seasons. It was definitely amazing but I grew to quite hating winter at the end of school years. I guess I just can't stand the extreme cold in Moscow. 

The winter during my first year was the coldest winter. It hit -30 degree Celcius and we still had to go to class. This photo was taken on the 25th of December. It was snowing heavily on that day and decided to go to the park. If you think about it now, it was a crazy move but so memorable. 

We went on a frozen lake for the first time of our life and we ran for our lives when we heard it crack and I still remembered how I could not climb up the hill and my friends had to pull me up. 

Through the years, I have learned a lot in Moscow. I have became stronger and tougher. It has taught me a lot about how the society works.

The first few years was definitely hard with lots of homesick moments but as the years goes by, I have started to adapt better. I still miss my family though.
Same goes with the life here. It was hard. Not able to speak Russian, everything seems so foreign and I have to depend on people on a lot of things. As the years went by , we got hold of the language better, we started to do be able to do things by ourselves. Able to understand locals around us.

I am glad that I am not alone in this journey, I had friends, a group of friends originating from the same country, who understands each other's problems and pain because we were experiencing the same things. We were able to help each other out. Stand strong together.

Six years has passed, I would not that it is short or a blink of an eye, Six years is long. Life has changed a lot for me. I want to thank the people who have supported me through my journey here.

Eating out Moscow : Mir Pizza

Mir Pizza is a chain pizza house located in Moscow.
They have a very wide selection of pizza. Price range wise, they are really affordable and on weekdays from 12pm till 3pm, they have a 50% off the whole menu.

The branch we visited was near the Smolenskaya metro station which is right behind the New Arbat Street.

The shop is really spacious with lots of tables and ample of sunlight shinning through its glass windows.

For three, we ordered two pizza.
One unagi pizza and one four season pizza.

This is the recommended pizza by my friends.
the pizza base is really thin. The unagi and unagi sauce is nicely spreaded across the pizza.
It is flavourful. It is worth a try.

The four season pizza that comes with four different flavours.

Overall, it is a not bad restaurant if you have a big accompany with you who needs a place to hang out. The food is average but with 50% on weekdays from 12pm till 3pm, it's a great deal. There's lots of savings there.

Around Moscow : Spring is here

This year Moscow held a spring event to welcome spring at the same time celebrating Orthodox Easter and they decorated the busy and popular streets in Central Moscow with spring decorations till the 9th of May.
I really like the decorations, it adds a very aesthetic touch and feel to the streets with all sorts of flower themed decorations and easter decorations. It brings up the mood. Makes me want to visit the city more often for a good photo session.

Handpainted easter egg infront of Manezhnaya Square.
I really like the painting of Kremlin on the egg.

Flower arch.
Very beautiful, looks like it came out from a wedding photoshoot set because of the mainly white theme. They used a mix of fake and real flowers to create this flower arch.

A very Easter theme setting infront of the famous Bolshoi Theater.
I am just guessing the main theme behind this setting is Jerusalem.

A sand sculpture.

This is my favourite decoration of all. A flower frame.
I give props to whoever who came up with this idea because, isn't it lovely.

This won't be the end of the Spring Festival photos, I will have more coming up. 

FOTD : A little more glam

It has been a long time since I have done such a glam look with false eyelashes. Of late, I just prefer a natural look instead of a look with false eyelashes which can look slightly overdone.

Face : Etude House Face Conditioning Cream, Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation, MAC Mineralized Skin Finish Natural, Daiso Blush in Pink, Flormar Terracotta Powder in Dual Gold, Essence Mono Eyeshadow in Apricotta
Eyes : Maybelline Brow Satin in Dark Brown, Kiss Me Eyebrow Mascara, Catrice Absolute Nude Palette, Maybelline Big Eyes Mascara, Taiwanese handmade false eyelashes, Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Concealer
Lips : Essence Satin Mauve Lip pencil, Rimmel Vinyl Gloss in Fall in Love

L'oreal haul

Just picked up a few items from L'oreal from the beauty store

I swear L'oreal makes the best drugstore eyeshadows. I have been loving their l'ombre pure eyeshadows and I also love their Infalliable eyeshadows but I can't seem to find them here anymore, I do not know if they stopped taking them in. Since, I love their eyeshadows so much and I was already at the L'oreal stand, I thought that I would just pick up couple of shades that I do not own. 

I picked up two eyeshadows and a mascara.

I like the Volume Million Lashes by L'oreal. I have a few of the other versions and I like them. This one was on sale and it is the Noir Feline which I do not own. So, picking that up to try it out.
Hope it performs as good as the rest. 

Let's take a moment to admire the beauty of these eyeshadows. 

The design imprinted on the eyeshadow is just so gorgeous. I really love it. It makes the eyeshadows look much more luxurious that it actually is. 

The two shades I got it from left:  Quartz Fume and Topaz Rose. 

Quartz Fume is a dark taupe grey shade. The shade is just so intense. 

Topaz Rose is a rose gold shade.

These eyeshadows are the under the "Lumiere" finish . From what I can see, they have a light reflective satin finish to them.Lovely finish.