Christmas 2010 and New Year 2011 Celebrations

Firstly Happy New Year 2011 everyone! This year was another Christmas spent overseas away from family and home. But we're blessed to have friends and other family members here to celebrate with us. We held a Christmas Eve Party at our place on Fri 24th Dec.

Tubbs was initially pretty controlling of the number of people I was to invite for the party as our little hut was really small. But being the softie self (and hypocrite in the end!), he himself invited another few friends over as he just felt bad, plus it was the festive season.

Christmas Tree and Decos inside	The Chef cutting the leg of ham
Time for some Wii action after dinner	Then dessert was chocolate fondue
Xmas tree chock full of pressies!	Time for the naughty/funny gift exchange
Han and his Licquorice whip!	Aims with her sexy undies purse

Group pic! From L-R Top: Weichao, Troy, Ellen, Khim, Han (almost hidden), Jason, Michelle, Tubbs. L-R Bottom: Audrey, Ann, me and Ammie. Also present were James, Andy, Wai and his two siblings. At that point of time when everyone was present, can you imagine how squishy the house would have been! OMG.

In any case, we all still had fun! Two rounds of Xmas gift exchange, rounds of Wii and some pretty mess to clean up afterwards, but it was all good. Michelle, Audrey, Aims and I also went for midnight mass because we anticipated not being able to get up early the next day! haha!

On Christmas day, we were invited by dear Diana to a BBQ with the usual Karaoke gang. I've gotten to know them from D's birthday last year and they are a funny and fun bunch! The BBQ was at Albert Park and boy was it a pretty chilly Christmas day!

Diggin in to yummy prawns and chicken wings	Girlies pic: Linghui, me, Aims and D
The pple in charge of the cooking. hehe! While the rest of us just ate only	Ok crazy Christine came up with this funny Marilyn Monroe pose
Beer ad. - another idea from Christine.	With D and her Xmas pressie for me! :)

So it seemed like that was a good day for BBQs! Later that night, we were invited to my uncle and aunty's place for a BBQ dinner. He had a few other family friends over as well. And boy did our stomachs take the full blow from that day and the night before - with all the food!

Uncle and his only "ang-moh" friend(whom they boldly called him guai-loi and he's fine with it) doing the cooking	The hungry guests enjoying the food at the outdoor area. There was drinking but not for some under-age ones around!
The "gamblers" upstairs playing Texas Poker	The "Kiddies" and I downstairs playing Wii
Cutie Jasper posing at the Xmas Tree	Coussy Kayla and I at the chrismas tree

For the new years celebration, Michelle and Jason invited us to their house for another BBQ plus fun and games for the night! It was a really great and enjoyable festive season throughout! It's friends and extended family members that help ease the sadness of being away from your family during the holiday period. But I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world to spend Xmas with my parents, brother and sis-in-law again next year. :D

Christmas shopping and/for coming trip back home...

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? I managed to start mine a couple of weeks ago during the weekends and a couple of week nights this week where the shopping centres are finally starting to open late! Chadstone especially is opened from 9am to 10am this Monday to Wednesday and till 12 midnight on Thursday and Friday! They even have free shuttle buses to shuffle shoppers from the nearby tafe! Gosh you should see the crowds at shopping centres when it's near Christmas, it's almost impossible to find a car-park!

Lucky I have already managed to tick off most of the names on my pressie list except a couple more to finish this weekend. And since I have to send my car in for service, we'll be there early and can always leave the car parked at the Kmart parking slot after the service, so it kinda saves us from having to find one. :p

Oh and Tubby and I kinda need to do shopping for our mums as well. I think my mum's got a much longer list than his! lol! Mum's spoilt anyway, she asked for an iPod Nano for Christmas and so she's getting a purple one. :D With that, she's also got quite a few other things that I bought for her over the year as well!

And shucks, this time round during our trip back to Singapore / Malaysia, we also have to attend a few weddings! It's that time of the year isn't it? Everyone seems to be getting hitched! And yeah it's kinda that kind of "age" too I guess! :p

Anyway for my sec school best friend's wedding, I bought a black Audrey Hepburn like dress. Decision was made after the other two besties decided they were going in black as well. :P I guess people aren't so superstitious about black colour these days. I can't believed that it was bought in a jiffy during my 1-hour lunch break last week. I wasn't particularly looking for one that day and just happened to come across it. It's similar to the one pictured except that mine has thinner shoulder straps and is a little shorter.

Then I'll have to get one especially for my brother's wedding as well! Yes, my late thirty-something year old brother (ssshhhh!) has finally tied the knot! He and my sis-in-law solemnized on 6 Dec. How coincidental as that is also the anniversary date for Tubby and I. Anyway their wedding dinner is on the 26th of Dec and so they say when you're out looking for something, somehow you just can't find it! I was out the last few times, tried on countless dresses and I couldn't find one that I like or suited me. :( I guess trying to stay away from black is kinda difficult, but let's hope I get better luck this weekend.

Then there's the wedding of our tennis coach and his wife as well which falls on the 3rd of Jan. We are still debating if we are attending because that's pretty close to the dates that we're going up to KL! Yes, planning a trip up north to visit my chabohs and also dear cousins and my new little "grand nephew"... Excited yet upset about the upcoming trip back, cause we'll be missing Jasper oh so much...

Christmas 2008 Celebration, a Walk on The Boulevard at Ivanhoe and Cuckoos Restaurant at Dandenong

Firstly a very Happy New Year people! Us lazy bums (meaning darling and I) were home during New Years Eve doing what? Playing the new xbox 360 which we just bought.

Anyway this year we had our first Christmas celebration in city itself. In the past, I was usually back in Malaysia or we celebrated it in Gippsland. And I've gotta say the mood was felt much more in the city that Gippy. I was happy that mum was here this year to help me put up the christmas tree and decorations. Darling also helped in the decos like hanging the wreath and the "Season's Greetings" banner.

It was good to be able to catch up with friends and having mum around this year. The company is almost different every year, not much but we had extra friends which made it all the more fun. Anyway the tree was packed with presents all over, we ate (alot), sang carols, and played a number picking game for the random gift exchange and of course everyone had their fair share of designated presents as well. Full album on facebook. :)

On christmas night, Darling and I took mum on the trip to The Boulevard on Ivanhoe to view the christmas lights and decorations. (Sorry I know the spelling on the image is wrong, but I'm too lazy to change, haha... :p) We brought Jasper along who was happy just to take a walk.

The Christmas lights and decorations is an annual thing which was started by George Whitelaw in the 1950s. Every year many residents in the street cover their homes and front gardens with lights and other colourful Christmas decorations, attracting many people from all over over Melbourne to the extraveganza. We've been there a couple of times but this year there just weren't as many houses that decorated as in the previous years. The bad economy maybe?

Before Mum flew back, we also brought her to the Cuckoo's Restaurant for her sort of "farewell" luncheaon. She had a great time there, enjoying the food and the performances. Prices were steep at $40 per head for a buffet lunch though and $60 a dinner. But it was well worth for the experiece. (though it's the second time for me there.) :p

They had nice christmas decorations up as well and mum and I also just had to take a photo with the pretty waitress dressed in belvarian costume (I think). After lunch we also took a walk along the street to try and burn all the food that we ate. Mum also bought a cute keychain clock shaped as a mobile phone from one of the gift shops there.

I'll be missing mum till the next time I see her again. Darling and I were so lost in the first week as we we so spoilt by her cooking for us everyday. And now it's back to junk food and take aways for us again. :(

A visit to waterfront city at Docklands and Crown Casino's christmas splendour

Mum, Ying and I went out to Docklands last friday to see The Southern Star observation wheel which is more easily nicknamed Melbourne eye just like the london eye. It's located at the Docklands and also houses new retail stores there which they call the Waterfront city.

It was disappointing though because mum and I actually wanted to take a ride on it. Tickets were about AUD$29 per person I think, but it wasn't opened yet. It was funny because they recently had an opening ceremony, so you would have thought that means it's open? :o Even then, most of the shops there weren't opened as well, so only a handful of shops to walk around. The "soon to be" opened stores had posters and funny things stuck on the shop front to indicate what kind of goods they sell.

A view of the Southern Star observation wheel from the Tram stop. Trams 48 and 86 from flinders street and bourke street respectively bring you there.

A white christmas tree outside the row of shops which kinda reminded me of Bugis for some reason, Ying also said the same thing. The weather was scorching hot that day lah, not at all a "snowy" christmasy feeling.

As mentioned the unopened shops had a display of images with a combination of things pasted on them to tell you what kind of shop it would be. For example this would probably be a hair dresser or a shop selling hair products. We also saw one that had lots of bowls and cups pasted on the wooden boards.

A snap shot on the second level. Note the shops at the back, most of them on this level are also not opened yet. The white building on the top right are apartments. Imagine staying at one there! You wake up every morning, walk out to the balcony and what a view you get! :D And also all the shopping temptations nearby!

We met darling at Crown Casino when he finished work. After dinner as we were walking towards the hotel lobby to watch the Crown Christmas display, we passed by this seafood restaurant with such an ENORMOUS crab that we just had to take a photo.

In front of some of the christmas decorations with mum. See the glittering Crown logo on my right. heehee. :D That's like a super gigantic "glass" ball or bobble decorations that you hang on Xmas trees.

The choir which performed so many wonderful christmas tunes.

I probably took more video captures as compared to photos because it was better to capture the animated moving performance. It was Crown's annual christmas show where the tree "talks" and then puppets pop out from the tree and the carousal turns with dancing puppets and stuff. And then Santa Clause pops out from a carriage on the carousal.

Gosh it's just so much easier to show it on the video, which I hope (I will not be lazy and upload to youtube) so I can post it up here. Meantime enjoy the photos first... :)

Celebrating New Years 2008, Boxing Day, Christmas 2007 and more!

Time for photo explosion and updates to the past couple of weeks.

Let's start from the New Year celebrations on 31st Dec:

We had dinner at this Italian Bistro in Morwell by the recommendation of Wangwei. There was Ammie, John, Wangwei, Sookie, Weichao, Tubby, me and Ammie's friend from Clayton, Brandon. The food was not too bad, to name a few, there was Garlic Prawns, Pork Cutlet, Seafood Gnocchi, and I had Porter House steak with Tiger Prawns. Gotta say my steak wasn't that great at all, it was burnt a little too much for me. After dinner, we took a drive to Traralgon and walked the food off a bit at the Victory Park. Then we decided to head over to Kim and Ellen's place to say hi. But we landed up playing Monopoly for the next few hours till New Years, after which we all went out to light some sparklers. It was a great way to celebrate the new year. We chose to enjoy the fireworks at home instead of cramming with the 50,000 crowd at Federation Square.

Next was Boxing Day on 26th Dec

This is the first time I've ever went out for Boxing day in Melbourne. We headed down with Ammie, Jacky and Weichao in 2 cars. Oh boy were we in awe of the crowds at all the shopping centres! It was as if everything was FREE! We heard on the radio that some people lined up from 12am the night before to grab some good bargains! Check out the 2 aisles behind the Christmas tree at Northland, it's practically cramped with shoppers! I'm back to my normal clothes, bags and shoes craze(decide to halt on Transformers for awhile) and so I can say it's a happy shopping day! Tubbs and I were really tired by the time we got to Chadstone, and so we decided to have a cuppa at the David Jones Food Cafe. Ironically considering the times I've been to chaddy, it's the first time I actually went to that area. They sold heaps of exotic delicacies and food condiments. Dinner was at Rock Kung and it was really good to have a Hongkie around (Jack

Then there was the Christmas Eve party on 24th Dec

I was pretty sure I took a photo of the HUGE Leg of Ham that tubby bought, but somehow I can't find the pic. Tubby marinated it with Honey and spices and it was yummy but so huge that we ended up eating it for the next few days. We had a fusion of western and chinese food and the desserts were great as well! There was Beef with Radish, Vegetables with Bacon, Spicy Chicken, Christmas Pudding, Belgian Chocolates, Fairy Cupcakes etc. Anyway, those were the people(top pic) who attended. There were only 3 girls around that night and the males seem to dominate the house when they couldn't contain their excitement playing a soccer game on the PS2 throughout the night. Everyone brought along gifts for exchange and check out the happy faces of people with their prezzies. :P And Eileen if you're reading this, did u realize that the cap you bought for Yong was for "Infants & Kids"? It fits Jasper well though, hahaha... All in all, the party was all fun, we ate, we chatted, we opened pressies. And the next day, we went to church sleepily to celebrate the true meaning of christmas.

Dinner at Don Louis on 22nd Dec (Before Eileen flew off)

Yep, a usual snapshot of those who went above. It was a $9.99 buffet dinner and I've gotta say the food variety was much better than Pizza Huts'. But the desserts were awful though and if only we can bring Pizza Hut's dessert over to Don Louis, then it would be the perfect meal. For some reason after dinner, we all went crazy about this single toy picking machine at the far end of the restaurant. And after the first coin went in, it was nuts all the way! I swear you can hear Eileen screaming a mile away! We almost got a toy a few times, but it dropped at the last minute! So in the end we paid like almost $7-8 bucks just for for sweets! (Machine had another picker for sweets on the same play). And just a little note: Never stand behind Eileen when she's excited lest you wanna get "injure"... Muahahaha.. :P And that about rounds up the events for the last couple of weeks. Till then, have a great New Years 2008 everyone!