Homesick on CNY

Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone!

I think I can safely say that all of you who are reading this blog will be having much more fun than I am during this time of festivities. Can’t believe I missed celebrating CNY in Singapore two years in a row. There is zilch atmosphere here in Brisbane – well maybe there is a little bit but I avoided Sunnybank and Fortitude Valley altogether last weekend. But CNY to me is not just about the lion dances, pineapple tarts and mandarins. It’s more about spending time with the family and close friends, be it sitting around the table eating ‘gua zi’s or sharing a joke or two over the much anticipated reunion dinner.

Having said that, I must admit I had a relaxing long weekend with Pen’s family and my good friend Izaeel. What can I say? Thank God for friends who are in the same boat as you? Haha.

Izaeel and I caught the much talked-about Twilight on Friday night at Garden City. After two hours, it was not difficult to see just why so many teenage girls had fallen for the made-believe perfection that is Edward Cullen. Even us ‘oldies’ were smitten for a moment but were quickly pulled back to reality upon seeing the ring on our finger.

Come Sunday evening, Mummy Luciana once again made us daughters-in-law feel at home by preparing a feast for ‘reunion dinner’.

On the first day of CNY which also happened to be Australia Day (Yay for me coz’ it’s a holiday!), I joined Izaeel, Ranger and their Indo friends for Yum Cha at Shangri-La. That was probably the most ‘Chinese’ thing I did all weekend, apart from giving ang baos to Xiao Xiao and Qi Qi.

So…I don’t suppose you had a more exciting CNY than I did? Humour me.

It's Wicked!

I’m finally going to watch this – on March 14! I’m so excited! Since its launch in August last year, I’ve eagerly wanted to watch it. Problem was, the Broadway musical was only staging at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne and I haven’t managed to steal any time away.

But now I have! They’ve just announced new dates for the musical this year so I’ve tempted Pen to go on a weekend getaway with me to Melbourne! He agreed in a heartbeat and has even booked our air tickets.

Best thing is, the air tickets and hotel stay will be freeeeeee! All thanks to the husband’s job and frequent flyer/credit card points.

Oooh, can’t wait. I’ve always wanted to fly into a city JUST to watch a show/musical. Sounds like something out of Pretty Woman. Haha. :p

Recession shock

Someone whispered in my ear on Friday night at Changi Airport before I left - “Remember, we live vicariously through your blog!” And I remember nodding my head in amusement. So yes, I’m keeping my promise.

Here’s a piece of news for you – I received a rude shock when I stepped into the office early on Monday morning. Apart from finding myself ‘chair-less’, I was also alarmed to find out that…(and I quote my colleague Nicole)

“Oh my gosh! When you were away, Mandy and Tracy got made redundant!”

At this point, I almost fell off my chair (after I dragged it back from Nicole’s little corner). Mandy’s in my team and she only recently joined the company a couple of months ago. She’s a really likeable girl and I’d grown to enjoy working with her. She also used to give me rides to the Homemakers’ Centre (where Pen sometimes parks Shadow) after work every now and then. On the other hand, Tracy our trusty Office Manager, had been with the company for ages. She was our administrative arm who painstakingly took care of our needs. I don’t know what they were thinking retrenching her.

Long story short, apparently the higher powers have decided to streamline all the teams and only keep the managers and ONE senior staff per team. The retrenchment was done while I was away in Singapore but I’m sure they would have planned this way before. This was when I started thanking God profusely for His blessing and protection upon me. In the midst of the current economic downturn, I should be thankful I still have a job. Although I must admit I’m still a bit nervous about the whole episode because this means extra workload for me on top of the fact that I’d have to work extra hard to ‘recession-proof’ myself.

Please pray for me!

Old times

I took a trip down memory lane this afternoon while going through Ally’s Flickr photos. How I miss the girls back home and the laughter we used to share every time we got together. I don’t think there ever was a dull moment with them. Sometimes I wished I were still living in Singapore…

Me & Dia at my hen's party at Ritz

Hui, Ally & me at Shirhaini's wedding

The 'yearly' transfer of our infamous Makan Parade cup. Who has it now? Is it you Dia?

The girls at one of our board game nights

Strolling along the bridge after one of our annual Christmas dinners

Over the years, we've become so accustomed to sleeping together

Looking forward to catching up with the girls this December!

A hiking we will go...

Work has been a madhouse lately and the weeks seemed to have flashed past so quickly. I had lots to blog about but just couldn’t find the time to and it’s probably old news by now.

But, busy as we may be, Pen and I still managed to steal time away for our sixth year anniversary! Has it only been six years? Seems way longer to me…

We (or me rather, seeing I was the one who organised the trip) decided to do something a little different this year. Instead of our usual nice dinners, we chose to ‘rough’ it out with nature, hike one and a half hours, risk being attacked by wild animals (I was, in fact, attacked by a bird who wanted a piece of my egg and lettuce sandwich) and have picnic on the rocks.

We set out at 9am on a Saturday morning for our two-hour drive to Lamington National Park. I must say though, we were delayed for about 45 mins because half an hour into our trip, we realised somebody forgot to put the backpack with our food, water, insect repellent, sun screen and first aid kit in the car! Hehe.

Didn’t let that dampen our spirits though! After driving up the mountain’s long and winding road for 50 mins, we finally arrived at the park. I’d already planned beforehand to go on the Picnic Rock and Elabana Falls trail (a three-hour return hike), hence the picnic. We wasted no time – after arming ourselves with a map, spraying ourselves with insect repellent and a final check that we’ve got all our food supplies, we were off!

The man with all our supplies - at the entrance of our trail

Venturing deeper into the jungle, i mean, forest

Finally made it to Picnic Rock after a 1.5-hour hike

After stuffing ourselves with sandwiches, we continued our hike to the waterfalls

Our final destination - the gorgeous natural Elabana Falls

Picturesque beauty

Here's a slide-show with more pictures!

Have you seen my shadow?

I’m officially the proud owner of a cute little Toyota Yaris! Meet Shadow, my one-year-old greyish blue, 5 door YRS hatchback. I bought her two weeks ago – wasted no time after getting my licence.

She’s such a joy to drive and I love how easily she zips everywhere. I love my car!

Here's Shadow, sharing her new home with Pen's Corolla!

Show Me What's Your Flickr

Spotted this on Ally’s blog this morning and thought it’d be fun to do.

All you have to do is type your answer to the following questions into flickr search:

What is your first name?
What is your favorite food?
What high school did you go to?
What is your favorite color?
Who is your celebrity crush?
What is your favorite drink?
What is your dream vacation?
What is your favorite dessert?
What do you want to do when you grow up?
Who/what do you love most in life?
Choose one word that describes you?
What is your Flickr name?

- Using only the first page, pick an image
- Copy and paste each of the URLs into the Mosaic Maker
- Post your mosaic!

Here’s my mosaic.

Updated - Meeting Mr A-Z

I've finally managed to upload all 5mins of Life is Wonderful. Here you go...

Meeting Mr A-Z

I kicked up quite a fuss when I missed his gig earlier this year in March coz’ of my trip back to Singapore. Ever since, I had been crossing my fingers (and toes) and hoping Jason Mraz would return to Brisbane for another concert. And come back he did, and so soon too!

Izaeel and I eagerly made our way to the Tivoli last night to see the wordsmith play. It was my second time seeing him “live” and I was soooo excited. He was absolutely fabulous at the 2006 Mosaic Music Festival. I was quite certain he would work up another mind blowing performance so we bought tickets regardless of the fact that it was a free-standing concert.

We were so glad we were allowed to bring our cameras in!

Me and Izaeel, thrilled that we scored ourselves second row spots!

Opening act by Melanie Horsnell

Oh my gosh, it was the longest opening act I've ever witnessed. I personally thought she had a beautiful voice but she failed to engage the crowd. After the third song, everyone got really restless. We had to endure almost 45 mins of her monotonous singing. We suspected she probably sang her entire album at that rate.

After she finally got off the stage, we had to wait another half an hour. Good grief, our legs and back were so sore by then. Nonetheless, all was forgotten by the time Jason finally came on at 9:30pm! Yipee!

Jason opens with an oldie but goodie - The Remedy

Jamming it with Toca Rivera

Finishing off with my favourite song - Life is Wonderful

Here's a clip I took at the start - Jason warming up the crowd. I've got another one of him singing Life is Wonderful but it's taking me ages to upload to Youtube. :( Hopefully I'll get that up soon so you can see it.

My verdict? Jason wowed the crowd as expected but I personally felt his overall performance was a bit "rushed". He mingled with his audience but he did it much better at the Mosaic Festival in Singapore. I think the long opening act coupled with my aching legs and back played a big part in making the experience less than perfect.

But being the fan that I am, I'm so happy I went! Thanks Izaeel for going with me - and Ally, we missed you heaps! This post is for you. Wish you were here...

A country drive

It was the EkkA public holiday yesterday for Brisbane – the perfect opportunity to drag Pen with me away from our house. (We’ve moved by the way!) We’ve been burying ourselves in house stuff for the past month or so ever since our move and I was getting really sick of it.

We decided to take a country drive to Boonah, a small, old town in Southeast Queensland with stunning mountain scenery. We felt a bit iffy on our way there as the surroundings looked really deserted. When we eventually arrived at the “heart” of Boonah city, we felt like we had ventured into a ghost town. It wasn’t a public holiday there and yet you could count the number of people walking around town with your fingers.

It was fascinating when we walked into the local Lions club for lunch. It was like being taken back into time. The diner was buzzing with 70s tunes, the furniture was old and the lady in charge was the waitress, chef and cashier all at once. Funny enough, I personally thought WE were the tourist attraction instead of the town itself. It was probably not everyday the locals see Asians in the community.

How strange, I thought – how do people live here? On the surface, there doesn't seem like there's much to do. There’s no traffic lights and no street lamps anywhere, so I’m guessing people don’t really go out at night. Surely we didn’t drive all the way from Brisbane just to see a deserted town? We had to hold back from asking the locals where the famous Scenic Rim was for fear they might tell us we were staring right at it!

Our patience paid off after we finally found the visitors centre. And no, the Scenic Rim wasn’t that sleepy town we had lunch in – it is actually an arc of spectacular mountains lying on the boundaries of Boonah. We didn’t have time to see all the mountains and certainly didn’t have the right attire to bushwalk our way to the top. So we opted for a simple trail at Mount French and a drive to Lake Moogerah.

It was then that we realised just how beautifully untouched the place is. Pen and I thoroughly enjoyed our time off there. It was so good to escape from the bustling city and spend some quality time with each other in a true “return to nature” style. We’ll be back with our trackies and hiking shoes!

It's Hollywood! (almost)

Boonah City - parked cars aplenty, but where are the people?

A local diner

Boonah's petrol kiosk with only one pump

Local fruit shop

Pen considers moving to Boonah - I don't think so darling.

Setting out on our trail walk

Made it to the top of Mount French!

Considering there's not a single soul in sight, we had to take our own photo.

Do the Japanese thing, he said...

Which way back?

On the bush trail

Made it to Lake Moogerah

Pen attempting to indicate the water level in the dam