Hey guys! I recently went to the new restaurant in Stanmore Bay, Auckland, called Paprika. My dad and I went there for dinner to try it out and overall, it's a good restaurant, in my opinion.

FOOD
We're cheap and always budget and spend as little as possible haha so we ordered:

• 'Meat lovers tasting platter' (my dad really wanted to try it and eat a bit 'fancier' instead of only ordering two mains.) - $26. To me, it was very average but I'm not a fan of meat and try to avoid it. However, regardless of that, it's not worth it due to the price. The different sauces/seasonings do taste good but for the price, there wasn't much on the platter. (About two of each delicacy.)
• 'Malai Kofta: mild' (a vegetarian main dish and I wanted to try it because I've never heard of it before.) - $15. There was around 3 or 4 little balls (size of a meatball) in a bowl of curry. I really enjoyed it and would order it again. The curry is quite sweet and the balls only taste good when they are fully covered in the sauce. For the garnish, there is also almonds and raisins which weren't bad, I liked the extra texture.
• Lamb curry: medium (I forgot the name of the dish that my dad ordered but it was some sort of curry with lamb) - $15. It's a good proportion but not sure if it was enough to make my dad full haha (maybe that's why he wanted to order the platter as a safety measure.) 

From top to bottom: Lamb curry, meat platter, malai kofta

SERVICE
All the waiters there are lovely and from what I experienced and saw, they do their jobs well. I've got no complaints at all. Their service is also very fast and efficient.

Food took around 15 minutes (If I recall correctly) and it wasn't a quiet night either, there were around 6+ tables there also.

AMBIENCE 
The music that they play are nice, and like all typical restaurants, they light candles on the table - which I'm glad are real candles and not fake battery operated ones haha

OVERALL
I would recommend this restaurant, it's cheap compared to the other restaurants around the area (since the price for two people is around $60) and the food tastes good! But if you wanted something more formal and fancy with a three-course meal, this probably isn't the perfect restaurant for that.


I hope this helped you make your decision on whether or not to go try this restaurant out! If you've been here before, what did you order and do you recommend it?


Love,
Elaine

Hey guys! I recently got my 3 wisdom teeth removed with the use of IV sedation so I figured I'd give my input and experiences for those who are deciding which procedure to pick.

COST:
For the surgeon that I went to, the IV sedation option was $2,400 (including the consultation) which is half the price of what the general anaesthesia procedure costs.

(For me, the price was the reason why I chose IV sedation because I don't have a phobia or anything like that, so nothing made me feel the need to be "fully asleep" with general anaesthesia.)

BEFORE THE PROCEDURE:
Prior to the surgery, they don't allow you to eat (6 hrs prior to surgery) and drink sips of water (2 hrs prior to surgery.)

For me, the last time I ate was 14 hours before the surgery and last drink of water was 2 hours before the surgery. (This is because my appointment was at 10am, so if I wanted to eat exactly 6 hrs prior, I would have had to get up past midnight just for it haha)

PROCEDURE:  
The only things I remember from the procedure is lying in the dentist chair, then getting two needles in my arm. One was in the bending part of the arm (I don't know the proper name for it but I suspect you know what I'm talking about) and after that was out, they kept one in on the side of my wrist. I'm unsure of what the liquids in each one are but just giving you a heads up that needles will be involved! However, in my opinion, if you don't have a phobia of needles, you should be fine. The needles are thin and you barely feel anything.

After the needles, they pressed a white band along my forehead and down one temple. (Again, not sure what it's for haha, just another heads up)

And I basically immediately fell asleep after that, or I have no memory of it at all. Possibly because I was originally tired or that the dose that they gave me was enough to knock me out. Although the procedure is said to put you "half asleep".

I woke up when a nurse came to me, and I think I fell back asleep or she got me up and took me to another room so she can call my mum to pick me up. (Again, my memory is fuzzy on that because I was in a dreamy state considering I just woke up.)

Also, the procedure took around 30-35 minutes, From the moment I went into the room, got the sedation and all the teeth extracted.

AFTER THE PROCEDURE:
When I woke up, I had a cotton gauze on the wounds already and my bottom lip and tongue was still numb from the procedure so I felt no pain at all.

When the numbness died down, the nurse actually suggested and told me to take Panadol before the numbness was set to die down, but I slept through it and it didn't hurt at all so I didn't (and still haven't) taken any Panadol since the pain is highly tolerable.

I was also warned that after the procedure, I may have nausea and vomit, but that didn't happen to me at all. Of course, it's just a helpful reminder that that might happen to you, so just be prepared and bring plastic bags with you, in case that does happen. But in my case, I just felt sleepy during the car ride home.

BLEEDING:
The bleeding continued for about 4 hours, but the cotton gauze was mainly filled with my saliva with tiny bits of blood. After that, I just rinsed my mouth with cold water and didn't use any more cotton gauzes because it was uncomfortable having to keep my mouth open and struggling with swallowing, which led to the build up of saliva.

On the second day, there have been minimal amounts of blood, even when there is blood, it is diluted with saliva. Barely noticeable and was only in the morning when I rinsed my mouth.

FOOD:
The first night I didn't have much of an appetite (until I started eating haha), mum made plain congee, where I then add half a spoonful of marmite and one cube of fermented bean curd (an Asian condiment). Surprisingly delicious when I haven't eaten anything for around 22 hours. Not that they didn't allow me to eat after the procedure, I just didn't have the appetite to eat when my mouth was still bleeding (although the amount of blood gradually lessened of course).

For breakfast and lunch, I had more congee and a bun, then for dinner, I made a vegan Shepard's pie (with lentils) so I'm still cautious and eating soft foods since they recommend eating softer foods for 5 days. And I've only been drinking cold water and rinsing my mouth with warm salt water.

RETAINER:
If you guys have read my previous posts, you'd know that I had braces and chose to get retainers. But I was worried that blood will get onto the retainers during the first night so I decided not to wear them. Because I looked into it and read that there are quite a lot of people that don't wear their retainers at night anymore.

On the second night, I put my retainers in, they don't touch the wounds and doesn't cause any pain either.

SWELLING:
The swelling only started 24 hours after the surgery, and the swelling I had was barely noticeable. It is only on one side/corner of my face and it's just a tiny bump. So it's only noticeable to myself and if I point it out to people.

OVERALL:
To conclude, I definitely recommend choosing IV Sedation, I personally didn't face any horrible side effects. The grossest part, in my opinion, is the blood (I feel sick over the thought/sight of blood) but that happens regardless of which procedure you choose anyways.

In my experience, the procedure is painless and side effects aren't bad either. :)

So whether you're trying to ease your mind for your surgery or you're trying to find ways to get out of the surgery, you shouldn't be too stressed about it. And even if your wisdom teeth aren't causing any pain, you should still get a check up because mine were fine and didn't hurt when they came out, but the x-ray scan showed that one of them were growing directly vertical and the other two were going to cause infections on my other back teeth.

Either way, I wish you luck and comment below your experience or worries regarding the surgery!


Love,
Elaine

Hey guys! So I'm going into the second year of university and I figured that I'll give you guys a few tips if you're starting university soon.

I know that not everyone learns/studies the same way but these are the things that I was the most useful for my learning. So feel free to use my techniques too and if they don't work, you'll soon find something that's helpful for yourself. Also, don't feel overwhelmed with univeristy, it's not that much different from high school but university does allow you to have more freedom, as opposed to being at school for the whole day, five days a week.

Hey guys! Earlier in 2015, I bought the new LG G4. Because coincidentally, my previous LG G2 phone fell onto concrete and a corner of the screen cracked. This all happened around the time that LG G4 came out so I figured that this would be the perfect opportunity to buy it.

Although the LG G4 was quite expensive (Around $900 NZD), it was still way cheaper than other high end smart phones like Samsung Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6. Since it's been available for almost a year now, the price of it is currently just under $700 NZD while Samsung Galaxy S6 is just under $900 NZD (with the exception of one company selling it for $999!)

I mainly use my phone to take photos/videos, text, write notes/reminders and to use apps like Facebook and also games for the long bus rides.

There are plenty of pros for the LG G4 but the two below are the main ones for me.


PROS

CAMERA:
The camera on the LG G4 is so good. I love both the rear and front camera because they really do take good photos! The camera captures the light really well and the sensor for the rear camera makes the images even more crisp (if that's the correct term for it..) It takes every photo well, no matter the circumstances, as shown below.

An example of a daylight photo using rear camera

An example of dark photo (only light source being the street lights and sky) using rear camera

An example of a photo that was taken while on a moving bus of moving vehicles with the rear camera

An example of a daylight photo using the front camera

SCREEN:
The screen is great, I'm mainly talking about the size of it haha, it's big enough to be able to do anything on there. Even though big screen sizes aren't a new thing on the latest smart phones, the LG G4's one just seems perfect. I love the fact that there aren't any buttons on the front of the phone so it feels like there's a big screen.

BATTERY LIFE:
The battery life is really good! However, I do usually have the brightness turned down or just to what ever brightness % needed. It's also super quick to charge. Even though the majority of smart phones (even my old LG G2) don't require a long charging time to get to 100%, it still amazes me how quick phones can charge nowadays haha. It takes me around 2 hours to fully charge the LG G4 and even if you're in a hurry, just plug it in for a bit and it would already have charged heaps.

BEAUTIFUL DESIGN:
The back of the phone so pretty. I bought the gold back one because I had no desire for the leather case and I loved the geometric pattern. It's not too in your face but you can definitely see it there as the light shows it nicely. I also love how the back is thin and a little curved because it makes it so much nicer to hold.

CONS

LAG:
Sometimes there's a slight delay when you unlock the phone. Like I'd enter the pin code and it just freezes there for a second then it unlocks. I don't really mind this small con since it doesn't happen every time.


Overall, I love my LG G4! I highly recommend this phone to everyone because there really isn't many cons to it at all. And so far, I haven't been faced with any problems with it apart from it lagging (rarely).


Love,
Elaine

Hey guys! So over the weekend, my parents and I drove up to Waipu, New Zealand to check out the Waipu Caves and walk the track right next to the caves. We originally didn't know about this until my dad read about it in the newspaper as they did a review on the caves and track.

The walking track that's next to the cave is pretty too. There are heaps of lime stones and in parts of the track, there are huge piles of lime stones that makes it look like a setting from a Disney movie like the Jungle Book where it's like ancient ruins. (You get the idea.) We didn't end up walking the entire route because we were more excited for the cave haha but we saw the main attraction which is the lime stone and overall topography.

The highest point that we got to. It probably doesn't look as high as it really was.

Now for the GLOW WORMS & CAVE!

That's the entrance (the entrance/cave on the right) but it's not that small, the hill is just blocking the majority of the entrance.

I had no idea what to expect because I didn't read anything about it and knew nothing about it. Since I didn't have any expectations, it was a pretty good way to spend the day. But let's be honest, it's pretty average. I mean, everything is beautiful, especially the glow worms shining bright as if they are stars in the sky. I say that it's average because it's a short walk. I expected it to take a bit longer. However, I don't remember how long exactly it took to walk to the end of the cave, it felt really quick. Even though that could also be due to the fact that it was fun so time just flew by.

We went to the deepest part of the cave that didn't require getting down on hands and knees. Since there are glow worms already anyways, we didn't see a point and it seemed too dangerous to even try.

--The cave is pitch black if you don't use a flashlight. And make sure you use a good flashlight! Mum used those lights that you put on your head but it wasn't useful because the light area wasn't big enough. So dad and I just used the flashlight on our phones. I held onto mine for dear life haha. Because there is water almost the entire way, I didn't want to risk dropping it in there.

TIP: Make sure your flashlight can brighten up a wide area.


--There is quite a lot of water in one part of the cave. The water went up to my knees (but I'm short so just expect water to drench your legs.) There's water along the entire cave and the parts that aren't knee high, will definitely get your shoes wet anyways. So overall, just prepare to have wet shoes and legs! The water is so cooling and fresh though. It looks really pretty because of the clear water (in the shallow parts). It's so clear that you can even see the pebble rocks.

TIP: Wear shorts or a spare change of pants so you can avoid having to sit in wet pants on the car ride home.

This is the super shallow parts of the cave (at the beginning)

--On our way back, from the end of the cave, we realized that glow worms were everywhere! We thought that it was only at the very end because we were so focused on walking and making sure every step is safe, we didn't even check. However, the end of the cave is where most of the glow worms are so you should still go to the end regardless.

TIP: Turn your flashlight off occasionally and just look up throughout the entire walk because the glow worms are everywhere!

OOTD: Singlet, denim shorts, jumper and orange sneakers with cross over bag for my phone and camera.

I definitely recommend going here because it's nature, and mother nature is always beautiful. And besides, it's free! You don't need to pay a crazy amount to see glow worms (Although I'm sure those paid attractions have more glow worms) and walking through the caves by yourself is way more fun and makes you feel so adventurous and daring haha!


Love,
Elaine