Valentine's Day (in detail)

I can't believe I took so many pictures in just one day, especially when I was actually in Singapore and on the plane for the first 10 hours of Valentine's Day. The entire day was perfect - I rarely have days where I get awesome food for every meal (y'know some restaurants still disappoint despite having heaps of awards and positive reviews?!?) but THIS WAS THE DAY where everything tasted so damn good. Not only that, I was seriously blown away by so many amazing surprises. Felt like the luckiest girl on earth :)

Valentine's Day started with Ashley giving me a bouquet of pink roses & explaining that he tried to find champagne roses (my favourite roses) but the florist told them they have been extinct since ages ago LOL I never knew?! He also went out of Melbourne to buy me a SX70 polaroid camera from a vintage store. I was really surprised because I never ever once mentioned about getting any instant film cameras & even more surprised that he actually knew that it was vastly different from my polaroid instax mini :O

We went to Hardware Societe for lunch because Ashley had been researching on the best cafes in Melbourne and decided on it. He wanted to GPS the location & I was like I have been there before so let me just bring us there. A foreigner guiding a local, #epicfail. I went there last year and had a very bad experience - so awful that I told myself I'd never return. But boy I'm glad I gave it another shot. Thankfully, the cafe seemed a lot different from my nasty encounter. The service was excellent and the food (Duck Confit and Salmon) surpassed my expectations. Wiped them out completely hehe :P

It felt so damn surreal walking around Melbourne because I'd been away for 3 months. There are many new eateries! Will try them out soon. So glad to be back though I'd be starting uni in about 2 weeks time and I am a little too used to this unlimited freedom.

We went to No. 35 at Sofitel Hotel on Collins Street for dinner. The waiter recommended me 2009 Quealy Muscat Rouge East Mornington Peninsula so I decided to have a glass and wow, possibly one of the best dessert wines I ever had. The starter, Slow Cooked Egg with Ham & Peas was so delicious that I wanted to lick the plate clean. Going fine dining with Ashley is always very funny because his table manners will switch entirely from a monster's to a prince's. As for me, I'm an unglamorous monster 24/7.

Great view, great food, great music. I was very happy when the violinist started playing Pachelbel's Canon. This may seem very strange but I'd always been trying to find out the title of this melody since I was a kid. I've always heard of it but being a non-music person, I never had any clue. So one day I hummed it to Ashley and he solved the mystery. The reason why I love it so much is because I used to have this recurring dream of a beautiful cafe setting that had white drapes hanging, an elegant white piano and whatnot (I believe it was a cafe that I visited in Gold Coast when I was 3 years old). The dream had always been a blur but the music's crystal clear. 1 word to describe it: Bliss. It's such a wonderful dream, especially for someone like me who has nightmares on an almost daily basis. Nowadays 98% of my dreams are bizarre and scary while 2% are just neutral.
 

For mains, Ashley had a 24 hour braised lamb while I had dory fish. I am terribly afraid of the smell and taste of lamb. They are way too strong and for the record, I only had a teeny weeny bite of this meat thrice in my life. But of out all three attempts, I spitted them out almost immediately. According to Ashley, the lamb was extremely good but I refused to try it. My dory fish was fantastic but the king fish sashimi was even better. Last but not least, a meal is never complete without desserts. I'm not too sure what my dessert was called but the entire thing was actually ice cream and it was kinda overwhelmingly sweet. Left the restaurant happily with a bulging tummy and another rose.

I smelt something fishy when Ashley & Reece confined me to the living room for a few minutes. I walked up the stairs that were lit up by candles & it led me to this...

I don't really know what my reaction was but if I were to try to describe it, it would definitely be the moment where my jaws dropped and I thought to myself am I dreaming?!?

Ashley knows that I only fancy sparkling/dessert wines so he got Jacobs Creek Sparking Rose. He also knows that I have a thing for lights so he decorated the room with hanging lights and candles. I never knew that he knows me so well #touched. The most magical part was when the music started playing the second I stepped into the room. Seriously felt like I was in a movie. Actually every hour was so special. Apparently he made a personal mix cd of love songs together with Reece, so cute guys :') And you see the wooden board beside the bedside table? He bought pins so that I could display the films I'd have taken with my new polaroid camera. I can't believe he actually took care of every aspect...

The "poster" on the wall is actually a collage of 3000 pictures of me & him that formed into my face. There are actually only 300 pictures so the rest are duplicated but seriously, A for effort. It was so fun looking at all the pictures of me / him / us. Then we started playing the Find Wally game because there were 2 pictures that were neither me nor him. They were pictures of our friends. Hahaha. Never knew Ashley was so talented in the media, events and aesthetics field hahaha he should be taking my course instead.

This is the best surprise, ever. Thank you so much :') Just when I thought that the Valentine's Day surprises have finally ended he gave me another bouquet of roses and a box of my favourite macarons from La Belle. He's really thoughtful because the bouquets were actually arranged by himself. I just threw all the roses away because they are dead from the summer heat, so sad :( All the pictures above are taken by my DSLR and the two below are by iphone 5. I know the pictures' quality ain't perfect, pardon me for that.