January 21, 2009
The rest of the hohoholiday
HELLO I’M BACK IN PERTH.
I have not been abandoning this blog I promise, I just haven’t been able to properly go online. Considering that we had what was borderline dial-up speed connection, shared among 4 people. So that’s something like, 15 minutes to partially load a Facebook page, without the images.
Anyway, I’m just gonna do a quick update about the rest of the trip because the accumulated stories are a bit too much to write in one sitting. And I have to do all my unpacking, cleaning, laundry, grocery-shopping, cooking oh god holidays are over. T____T
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So quickly summarizing everything and cramming every bit of photos that I can.
1) Uncle Kerry x Cyril wedding ceremony on Boxing Day @ Skye’s place.
Locations, locations, locations: Skye's place at Lake Macquarie
When I grow up, I want a dock on my front yard too.
So that I can, you know, fish.
So does she.
Sparks, the pitifully (mis)shaven dog.
Joshie & Me. And beer.
Scamming everyone to believe he's an adorable little thing when he hardly ever is.
The couple arrives!
Nikki helping Cyril put on her... er, veil? Hair piece.
Happily ever after.
My favourite Watson uncle. 
I just thought this looked hilarious.
For my favourite zi mui. ^^
She throws, and she scores!
Beached and contented.
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2) Counting down to NYE with the Watsons at Crescent Head.
- I spent a terrifying few nights sleeping in the lower bunk of an old and creaky bed underneath Big Mike, who was on a coughing spell. So every time he goes on a coughing fit, the whole bed squeaked and shook violently I swore all 200 pounds was gonna come crashing on me in my sleep. T.T
- Yang fell off his bed.
- And then his bed fell on him HAHHAHAHAHAH.
- I spent so much time in the sun I’m now at least three shades darker.
- So.Much.Food.
- We went dancing with the Watson ladies (including my future mother-in-law ._.), of whom some of them got picked up by younger men.
- Counting down to the new year first, at a country club slash retirement holiday home; then at a pub with a makeshift dancefloor and plenty of sleaze.
- I won my very first game of Bingo!
And for that, I received a 10 dollar voucher to spend to my heart’s content. - We went on a Paddlepop fix, and were one stick away from winning a trip to Florida.
Us working it with the aunties. ^^ And yes I was wearing pants.
A stick away from an all-expense paid trip to US of A.
Bunk Bed of Horror.
Eat this, grumpy senior citizens.
Nobby's Point, I think? One of the beaches at Cres Head.
She's learnt the art of curling up into a ball pretty well.
NYE without the glitz, glam and noise I've known and loved for the past five years. But was it worth it? Definitely. xx
And Erin loves Aaron.
Uncle Sean was gone pretty early.
Kellianne & Nikki.
We the kindred spirit wtf.
I survived the Watsons! *pats self on back*
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3) The remaining of our time at NSW was spent at Grandma Mac’s @ Sydney.
- My first ever time visiting Sydney!
- Did the Harbour, Opera House and Botanical Gardens
Ahh it's been so long since we last had the chance to go pak thor.
Doing the Harbour (and a seemingly generic couple-on-holiday shot =.= )
All the posers with their SLRs snapping away like crazy tsk.
The majestic Opera House, one of the most recognizable icons of Australia I reckon. And I've finally breathed the same air as all the 10 bazillion tourists who's been there!
You pose.
I pose.
The most romantic park bench in the world.
Not the most romantic couple in the world (but we try).
Market place that sold most things at cutthroat tourist prices. +_+
But they also have cool stalls like this one.
Where I bought myself a glass slipper. <3
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4) Meeting the Melbourne peeps.
- What intended to be an overnight stay at Brent’s with Yang and Nikki so that we can meet up with our respective friends and somehow get everyone to go out dinnering/pubbing/clubbing …. well, evolved into just me taking the train into the city by myself for a quick day trip.
- One friend got married.
- One friend became quite an angry chap (wtf. those were his words not mine)
- Choon Wae has emo hair.
- Again, Choon Wae has emo hair Jill Shaun are you reading this?
- I had my guilty pleasures fix of chilli, rum crunch ice-cream and Max Brenner. Irina is a goddess of a supervisor.
- No piccies from Melb though. Don’t know why just didn’t feel like taking any photos that day.
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And my verdict after having visited both cities?
Melbourne still rox my sox any day la.
January 7, 2009
NSW Pt.1: Merikuri Baby
I’m still here!
I know I haven’t been updating for a while, nor have I been online very much at all (evidently by the lack of activities on fb and my non-presence on MSN which a few of you have noticedIloveyou) – but that’s only because I’ve been away from technology over the holidays.
And that includes no mobile phone reception. =.=
So here’s to wishing everyone whom I should have wished a lot earlier: Merry Christmas and Happee 2009 !
**
It has been a pretty crazy few weeks for me the past month. The long travelling hours (10-12 hour-drive from Longwarry to Newcastle), meeting 4 generations worth of relative members from both sides of the family – which totalled up to, oh I dunno, about 70-odd people?
Then there were the Christmas shoppings, the post-Christmas shoppings, more travelling, dealing with bratty lil kids whom you secretly wanna bash up but you can’t cos you’re the grown up and should be above that and also it’s not morally-acceptable to be beating up other people’s children just because they go out of their ways to drive you insane and then don’t get into trouble for it haaaawwwwwwwwwwwww
…. and with that out of the way, let’s move on to a quick overview of my spending Christmas and New Years with the McDonalds and the Watsons.
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Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with the McDonalds
Deck the halls
We drove up to Aunty Kate’s in Newcastle, from Grandma Watson’s place in Blacksmiths on the 23rd.
There we met Kate, her partner Scott and her kids: Acacia, Jasmine and Ben.
We met Grandma Mac and David.
We met Aunty Relle, Uncle Dean and their kids Tara and Nathan.
And we all spent Christmas eve in a happy haze of wine and/or beer.
Yeah baby, just keep it flowing.
Grandma Mac.
Mrs Macca is happy.
*
Then came Christmas morning!
And we all know what Christmas morning means.
A tree, a sister, and a flat screen teevee!
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But before that, a quick recap of a mini gift session the night before.
In Yang's family, they have a Secret Santa system among the kids. Here's Mikey with his Hawthorn (ptooi) bag from Yang.
Nikki with her HSM bag and a Carlton beach towel (not photographed here) from Kellianne.
KJ and her True Love EDT kit from Mike
And Yang with his Richmond top and Billabong cap from Nikki
Me, I had to wait like everyone else till the next morning.
*
Now, the McDonalds have two traditions they practise on Christmas mornings:
- Secret Santa
- Gift-looting
The first one is pretty self-explanatory – we each get assigned a name, and we’ll have to shop for that person within the budget fixed.
I got Danielle, daughter of a family-friend, who supposedly liked cute pretty things so I bought her jewellery case and accessories to go with it.
Then came Christmas morning and I discovered, along with everyone else, that she’s kinda gone emo-goth over the years; which of cos became a bit of a holy shit moment for me.
Fortunately though, I caught a smile on her face when she opened up her pressie and saw what it was. ^^ Guess somewhere beneath those dyed jet-black hair and sullen look, there’s still her old girly self.
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As for myself, I got Nathan (Aunty Relle’s 10 year old son) as my not-so-secret Santa.
This little bubble.
Which meant that Aunty Relle did all the shopping for him, and she’s one heck of a gift-shopper. I received an Esprit EDT set plus a silver necklace with a heart pendant. >3<
And I had her again during The Loot, whereby I picked up a gift from the pool of anonymous gifts, and had to defend my mocha/chocolate-making kit from the prying hands of other people who tried stealing it off me. Because we all have the option to either pick it off the pile, or off someone’s grasp.
It was vicious, and very very chaotic.
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And then there was our champagne breakie.
Aunty Relle cooking up a blueberry-and-vanilla-pancake storm to feed 30-odd starving mouths.
While David worked his way (through our arteries) straight to our hearts.
To sum it up, breakfast comprised of bacons, eggs, sausages (which never reached our end of the table ), crossaints and rolls, pancakes with whipped cream and maple syrup, fruit salad as consolation to our health, and lotsa lotsa bubblies!
Burning up those calories through singing.
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And a couple more snapshots from Aunty Kate’s:
Lovelies Tara, Nikki and Jasmine
Josh teaching Nikki teaching Josh how to operate the Omnitrix (aha look that up).
The Macca boys on Christmas morning.
Beanstalk Ben (he's like 6'3" at least)
All dressed up in our Christmas dresses (thankiew Mrs Macca!)
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Thank you for a memorable Christmas.
September 29, 2008
summer came early
Here in Perth, we love our beautiful transition-weather sunny days; as I’ve mentioned before I think, in one of my earlier entries.
So on a day like today, when the sun is out, the skies are blue and cloudless (and birds chirping, butterflies afluttering and all that jazz) we just had to put aside all our Malaysianness – AND BRING OUT THE DECK CHAIRS BAYBEH!
$5 deck chair. One of the many obscenely underpriced items Jen sourced from KMart.
I am aware of the fact that once I step foot into the working world, I’ll long for any opportunities to just lounge by the pool and do absolutely nothing apart from soaking in the sun and having girly chats.
I’ve seen so many friends get sucked into corporate hell one by one, and even some of the most carefree, happy-days ones are now getting bogged down by deadlines, evil clients/bosses, unpaid OTs and just general suckness.
So here’s to celebrating my very-soon-to-be, short-lived independence from stress and worries and all za grown up responsibilities. *clinks
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No dip, no tan. Damn Asian pigments.
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Ooo pretty pretty Pandora
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We sunbathed, we gorged on chocolates, we drank reconstituted fruit juices, and we even played kiddie board games!
Cheapo board games never looked so... cheap.
The excitement of snakes and ladders lasted all of 3 minutes for me. Then I just wanted to drown the piece of paper (PAPER! Not even cardboard!) board in the pool.
But I didn’t, because Jen seemed to enjoy herself so much I swear she hasn’t played the game before.
Seriously, who would turn around and ask you “eh am I supposed to move up the snake?” with a straight face?
NO ONE.
Poor chabs… *pat pat* Must have been difficult growing up with that empty hollow in her heart.
Teehee don't la I shy.
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And we went on baking for a couple of hours…
Bake ar...
... bake ar...
... BAKE AR! Yes la I just wanted to put up our faces but I still tried to keep it in context, can?
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until the wind started getting colder and we ran back indoors for warm, warm shelter.
September 27, 2008
hates
The Cats are behind by 5 goals as we speak.
There is less than 10 minutes to go.
Life has no more meaning.
September 23, 2008
brownlow 08 is the fail (+ retail love)
My internet’s back up, wheee! (/^ ^)/ Which means I can, once again, youtube all the Gruen Transfer and torrent all the Bourdain to my heart’s content.
***
On a less happy note though, the Brownlow’s last night was an utter disappointment, right from start til end.
Here’s a list of why I thought Brownlow 2008 was so supercaliflabbergasticextremedoucheebags-ly horrible.
- First we had the oh-so-shoddy production efforts, when it was supposed to be one of the most important events of the year where AFL is concerned. It’s not the first time channel 10 is broadcasting this event live, so things like having the music off cue after every single commercial break is not excusable under any circumstances. It’s like even ASTRO live production is better than that.
- The embarassing mistake on the speaker’s part at the start of the event. Instead of announcing the winners from Round 1, he skipped ahead of schedule and did Round 2 instead. And he went on for almost 3/4 of the list before someone from backstage told him off. O_o Again, dear production crew, where the hell were you, and what took you so long to pick up the mistake? If it was a matter of logistics, couldn’t you maybe have someone throw a stick at him from a distance so he didn’t start the night with such distaste?
And to make matters worse, the offender happened to be none other than the head of AFL. You would think, being in charge and all, that he would have some semblance of knowing what he’s doing.
Andrew Demetriou, CEO of AFL
Although to his credit, he has been known to read out the wrong names and whatnots throughout his run as announcer for Brownlow. (- -”)
But still, I reckon last night was the cherry topping la; and in a strange sorta way I did feel kind of privileged to have witnessed such a booboo. And it’s always nice to know that us Malaysians are not so behind in terms of our live telecast standards.
***
But yes, all the technical errors aside, I could at least hoped for the content of the show itself to live up to my/our/everyone’s expectations. But that did not happen either (except maybe for Bulldogs/Cooney supporters); and the lack of recognition of skills and performance was just.so.painful.to.watch. T.T
More so that I love Jimmy (Bartel, with all my heart) and had wanted him to win for the second year in a row, but if that not possible then at least give him points where he deserved. Such as in games where he clearly had the upperhand where it all mattered – good sportsmanship, owning the field, and scoring shitloads of goals
Case in point: Geelong VS Sydney. Adam Goodes from Sydney (one of the runner ups) scored two votes (maximum three) with only 14 possessions and no goals, and his team lost 6 goals to Geelong. And in that same game, Jimmy had 35 possessions, belonged to the winning team, yet received no votes at all (stats courtesy of yang yang).
Now, I’m not an expert. In fact, I’m no where near being an expert, and I’m aware of how vicious the hardcore supporters (of any sporting teams for that matter) can be towards anyone who tries to invade their inner sanctum and pretend to know these things. But seriously this is just ridiculous, even for me.
G.Ablett and J.Bartel
And it’s not just Jimmy who got shortchanged for his points. Fellow team mate Gary Ablett was the other favourite to win this year; and yet, he came third behind Cooney and Brisbane’s Simon Black. O.o I haven’t been watching every single game this season, and certainly not the ones of Brisbane and Bulldogs… but why have everyone tip Bartel and Ablett to be the ‘sure-wins’, then have one of them come third and the other not even in the top 10 medal vote count?
THAT’S JUST A LOAD OF CRAP.
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And seriously, on a purely superficial level, who would you rather win?
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Him?
Adam Cooney, Western Bulldogs, Brownlow medalist 2008
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Or him?
Jimmy Bartel, Geelong Cats, Brownlow medalist 2007
Bleaah, complete waste of time. +__+ The Cats better not disappoint at the grand finals this weekend.
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On a much happier note though, my online purchases arrived yesterday! It was supposed to have arrived before Uma’s birthday last Friday, but I managed to find something to wear on that night so it was all good.
Recyling my birthday's for her birthday
Anyway it was my way of getting back at him because he hasn’t been providing for us as he rightfully should. And over all the annoyance of having to ask for money every single month, and then getting only a small sum that’s hardly enough to pay for the basic expenses. This, after all the talks about ‘not enough just ask me’ and ‘don’t need work, I can send you $$’.
So I’m doing what I’ve always done back home – charge it to his CC. ^^ Which I’ve stopped doing since I got here because I tried paying for stuff on my own and cos he said the charges were extremely high so I should, as always, just ask him for $$. *fumes*
I felt a twinge of guilt initially, when I first clicked the ‘BUY NOW’ button. But hey at least I got nice stuffs out of it.
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Plug: I shopped at SUPRE
