Buble Joy

We’re going to see Michael Buble! This morning, I logged on to the Mastercard Applause website to book tickets for Pen and myself. Took me almost half an hour to finally check out but it was all worth it because we scored ourselves some pretty good seats. And not to mention we’re buying them before tickets officially go on sale at Ticket Tek. Of course, there are probably hundreds of other people who also own a Mastercard.

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to this and hopefully we’ll have a nice romantic evening together because the day of the concert is also the day of our wedding anniversary! It’s almost seven months away - talk about planning well ahead.

Taking a Toll on Me

Last Saturday, I drove all the way from Runcorn to Forest Lake and went through my first toll gate. It was a disaster. And quite funny too actually. We were on our way home and Pen suggested I go via the motorway to “practice” my toll skills.

As we were approaching the toll gate, Pen gave me specific instructions on what to do...

PEN: Ok, I’ve got exactly $1.90 here. Do you want to go to the manual gate or auto?
ME: Huh?
PEN: Nevermind. Just go auto. Now remember, slow down, brake first. Make sure you stop and then throw in the coins. Brake first ok? Don’t miss.
ME: Yah yah ok.

*reaches gate, brakes and winds down window*

At this point, I was rather anxious because I didn’t want to hold up the cars behind me. So as soon as I’d wound down my window, I quickly threw the coins into the basket, as hard as I could. Nothing happens.

ME: Whaa? What’s happening? It’s not opening!
PEN: You must have missed!
ME: WHAT? No, I threw everything in!
PEN: I told you to brake first!
ME: I did! Oh no! How now?!
PEN: Quick quick! Do you have a $1 coin? *frantically searches my bag*
ME: PEN! Quick! Aaaaaahhhh! Pen! Aaaaahhhh! Oh no, oh no.
PEN: Go down and get it. It’s on the floor somewhere.
ME: WHAT?! How?

Seeing that I was in pure horror and glued to my seat, Pen then got out of the car and went around looking for the coin. Once he had found it, he took it back into the car and handed it to me.

ME: Why did you bring it back? Why didn’t you just throw it in?
PEN: Because you have to do it!
ME: WHAT? Aaaagrh!

I threw it in, gate finally opened and I quickly drove away dying of embarrassment.

PEN: Hahahahaha. Should have gone to the manual counter.
ME: PEN! It’s all your fault! Why did you give me so many coins!
PEN: What? What do you mean?
ME: Why couldn’t you just give me a $1 coin and a...and a..
PEN: Well I couldn’t give you a 90 cent coin darling coz they don’t make them like that! Anyway, look! I found 20 cents on the floor just then. At least we made some money out of that! Hahahaha.
ME: Aaaaaaaarggghhh! PEN!

So yeah, wasn’t too pleasant an experience but certainly one that got me laughing after that.

Bent Pinky Worth a Thousand Laughs

Shihui tagged me on a few of her lovely wedding photos on Facebook. I came across this one and almost fell off my chair. For the longest time since Pen broke his little pinky, I've been poking fun of him and imitating his "crooked" wave. (I usually do the signature wave when he picks me up from work or when I see him coming from a distance.) A bunch of you at church may have seen me demonstrating this to you.

Anyway, this photo captures the moment and pretty much says it all. And as you can see, Ally's gotten into the act as well! I'm gonna keep it forever because it makes me laugh.

A Weekend Well Spent

This post is long overdue, I know. I meant to write about my little weekend rendezvous last week but didn't get around to doing that. However, seeing that I had such a lovely time (and how I haven't blogged for a while), I just couldn't NOT write about it.

Since we couldn't go away for our honeymoon just as yet due to unforeseen circumstances, Pen and I decided to take short holidays from now till then to tide us over. For our first weekend getaway, we had decided to live it up at the Gold Coast. None of that country-side living or quiet hinterland resort for me because this time around, I wanted a holiday in the heart of a bustling city centre. And a choice well made I must add!

Our first stop at Surfers Paradise was at King Tutt's Putt Putt, where we challenged each other to two rounds of mini golf. It was good fun and although the place looked a whole lot bigger in the photos, we had a ball laughing and calling each other names. I tried to impress Pen with my hole-in-one skills but he beat me anyway. What's new?

For lunch, we stopped by Tedder Ave at Main Beach and ate at Café Aruba. It was then that the feeling of being on a vacation finally hit us! The palm trees along the streets helped too. We had a cup of flat white each, sat down and watched the flashy cars and rich mamas go by.

By 2pm, we checked into Watermark Hotel and Spa and were delighted when they gave us a room on their top floor. We had decided to go all out and book ourselves a club room, their top of the range rooms apparently. It also gave us excluuuusive excess to the club lounge with evening drinks and canapés and a hot breakfast in the morning. Pretty cool I must say - there was champagne in our room and we even had a pillow menu! Hardly able to contain my excitement, I was tempted to request for all the pillows on the menu. In the end, I settled for a long bean buddy pillow (which was actually just a really, really long bolster) that I soon discovered, was almost twice the length of me. Too bad we forgot to take a photo...

After a few games of mastermind, we decided to hit the streets and explore Surfers Paradise Boulevard. They've developed the area quite a bit with a couple of street mall boutiques. We went into Tiffany & Co, WB store, MNG and scared ourselves silly (actually, just me) when we entered Dracula's Haunted House. And of course, Pen had an ice cream in his hand the whole time.

For dinner, we drove to George's Paragon along the Gold Coast Highway. It was highly recommended by Steph so we decided to give it a try. We went absolutely crazy with the seafood and ordered an array of oysters, garlic prawns, Morton Bay bugs, scallops and barramundi. It was all half price too since we ordered before 6:30pm. The food was divine and the restaurant was classy. We even had our own waiter standing near us as we ate. We ended our evening with some drinks at the club lounge back at our hotel.

On Sunday morning after eggs ben and strawberry pancakes, we went to the Q1. Tried to look for Steph among the 80 levels but couldn't spot her for some reason. After checking out at noon, Pen drove me to Pacific Fair for shopping! Oh bless his little heart! I ended up buying a top from Myer which also doubles as a work shirt. Oh that's what I call value for money.

We headed for home slightly after 3pm, feeling relaxed, contented and rejuvenated. We had such a lovely weekend and it was certainly refreshing to get away from our weekly routine for a while. Hopefully our next stop will be Fiji when Pen's travel benefits kick in!

Here are some photos if you're interested.