Singapore / Malaysia Trip and the other 3 Weddings!

The trip back home to Singapore / Malaysia this time round was definitely a more eventful one and I was sure happy to be able to spend Christmas with my family. Christmas was always a significant celebration in our household since I was young and mum was certainly elated that I was able to go to church with her.

The main purpose of the trip back this time was for the 'other 3 weddings', well sort of. The in-laws didn't want to hold anything in Singapore, but we did have a meal to meet the families of both sides. The hubby's mum and dad's sides apparently are too huge to consolidate into one event, so we had two separate luncheons in Singapore. And I'll be blogging about our Malaysia wedding on our wedding blog.

Christmas dinner with the family at New York Hotel	Meet-up with some of the Gippslanders at Ma Maison
Elephant statues outside the LV shop at Orchard Road	T-Shirt Printing shop at Holiday Plaza, Johor Bahru
Cousin Terrance's wedding at the Orna Golf and Country Club in Malacca.	Mum and Dad swinging away at the tunes while we celebrated the countdown to New Year's 2012.
Favourite niece Felicia with my cousin Adeline's newborn daughter Mabel.	Meet-up with my Pooh-gang gals and Pal S.K. This was coffee in Prive at Keppel Bay.

And for the first time in our relationship, I finally stayed at the hubby's place. I mean of course that should be the norm since we are officially married now. But it was really weird at first because in the past I have never stepped foot in their house. In the end it turned out alright and the parents-in-law were really nice and accommodating. And so was his old grandmother who had dementia, but she was ever so happy to see us.

Even though we are married now, I still do go away for a few days during the trip to stay with my parents. I am my parent's only daughter and they also only get to see me like once a year or so. That's why I treasure the time with them every time I go back back home. Of course we do miss the other family and friends too. Till the next time we return, hopefully we'll be bringing our little bundle of joy with us then.

The Birthdays of Many Others this Month

August seems to be the month of Birthdays. Could it be it coincides with 8 being a lucky number in Chinese culture and so everyone seems to be born in that month. Or it could be that I just happen to have too many friends and family who are LEOs. :D Did I mention all 3 serious ex boyfriends were LEOs and had their birthdays in August too? And so it the hubby-to-be! Let's list all that I know below:

1 Aug: Jayden (Cousin's Son)
3 Aug: First BF
6 Aug: Christine
11 Aug: Gabriel (A Singaporean friend)
17 Aug: Second Ex
18 Aug: The hubby-to-be
19 Aug: Diana
21 Aug: Cousin Janice

That's already 8 birthdays of people I can think of in Aug and that's not including those that I will remember as the time comes closer - am sure there is more! In any case here are a couple of pics from the hubby's birthday:

Surprised him with a tower of macaroons as his 'birthday cake'

The presents that he got. Boots from himself and the rest from me.

 Happy Birthday to the hubby-to-be. Hoped you had enjoyed your last birthday as a bachelor. From next year onwards, its single status no more! Haha!

Christine's Fancy Dress Birthday Party

We went for Christine's Fancy Dress Birthday Dinner party last Saturday. The hubby-to-be wasn't game in to such things and so kind Brendan picked Ammie and myself up from my place. He had Wai together with him already and they form the scrawny green hulk and karate kid respectively. The plan was to drive back to Brendan's place in Richmond and then tram down to the city. But it was raining and getting a taxi was just not easy and so Brendan ended up having to drive there reluctantly as it was getting late.

The venue was at Bluestone Restaurant Bar in Flinders Lane. Thank Goodness Christine chose that place because it was dimly lighted and you sort of have to walk down the basement. And we certainly didn't want to grab too much attention with our fancy outfits! Though we did still get a few stares and giggling from other customers there.

Sailormoon, School Girl, Police Woman and Snow White	Scrawny Hulky, Police Woman and Karate Kid
Police Woman caught the School Girl playing Truant	Birthday girl with her presents and uni mates
Group pic with all the gals	Group pic with all the guys

I've gotta say though some of Christine's uni mates weren't as gung-ho as us and didn't really dress up in full - though we certainly found a friend in Velma and 'The Witch'. ;) Some only came in a mask or hat but I guess at least they tried. Not everyone's willing to be as crazy as us I suppose! :p The food there wasn't too bad though we only ate pizzas and salads due to the large group. Certainly hope to try something else should we go back there in future.

We also heard the birthday girl was challenged to scare some guys on the way home and the whole thing was caught on video. The two guys weren't really shocked or impressed but they played the game anyway. Bet you enjoyed yourself Christine dear! Look forward to next year's party.

King Tuthankhamun's Exhibition

We went for King Tutankhamun's Exhibition a couple of weeks ago at Melbourne Musuem. It was the Museum's Winter Masterpieces for this year. This will be the last stop before the exhibition returns to Cairo to be displayed at the Grand Museum of Egypt, which is being built next to the Pyramids.

I've always loved ancient history and this one was definitely another one not too be missed. I've read about ancient Pharoah's and stuff and mummies always fascinated me. The most famous of course from ancient egyption history was Cleopatra for me. Anyway back to the exhibition, we couldn't decide which date to go and it was too late to book online. Luckily the museum reserved tickets for people who walk in and purchase over the counter. But you still had to be early and lucky a mate of ours, Wai went with a friend to line up and get tickets for us before 9.00am.

And as expected, photography and videography is not permitted, but they had this smart idea of taking photos for groups of people before we enter and then super-imposing us with a picture of an artefact.

The group of us who went for King Tut's Exhibition. Taken with the King Tut's Tomb.

The large poster display of King Tut Exhibition

Official Companion Book to the Exhibition

The exhibition was truly enjoyable and extraordinary. We took about about 1-2 hours inside as I wanted to scrutinize every artefact and object and read everything about it. From it, we learnt the lives of King Tut and how ancient egyptions lived in those days. It was really amazing how some of the artefacts were so well preserved up to this day.

We also learnt about a lot of the incest that happened in the family, which sort of led to how King Tut was born. Even though his tomb was uncovered, King Tut's death was still a real nystery. He wasn't even listed as a Pharoah in ancient egyption compilations and rules only for 9 years from early teens. The main reason he got famous was only because his tomb was uncovered in an almost perfect condition in 1922.

We got a little disappointed though, because we were hoping to see a real mummy. But they only had his golden tomb on display and at the last part of the exhibition they projected video images onto a live size stand to show how his mummy looked like. The projection was quite clear, but nothing beats seeing the real thing.

Joshua's Baptism

We welcome cutie Joshua Chan to the house of Christ last Sun 19 Jun. He was baptised together with a few other babies and kids after Sunday mass at about 12.30pm. There were lots of other friends and family members who came to attend the baptism and it was just sweet to see babies getting baptised.

Joshua was sounds asleep in his pram when Michelle had to carry him out for the ceremony. But he was a good boy and didn't cry one bit at all. Fr. Michael was doing the baptism that day. Each of the babies/toddlers took turns to get their heads washed by the holy water and anointed by Father, their parents and God parents with the sign of the cross.

Wearing his baptism clothing bought by Sue and Julius, his God parents.

The really pretty and delicious tower of cupcakes that Sue made.

Joshua with his parents on the right and God parents on the left.

The ceremony lasted for an hour or so and then everyone headed to Michelle and Jason's place for a celebratory luncheon. Darling went there earlier in the morning to help with the food preparation which he usually likes to do. So there was quite a lot of food, including the pretty cupcakes that Sue made and we probably ate too much as usual.

It was such a small world that I indirectly know one of Michelle's colleague's. I found Ingrid really familiar and went to talk to her and found out that we went to the same gym - Fitness First Chadstone TAFE. We both complained about getting a bit ripped off and realised that we both quit at around the same time too. She was telling me about the new Fitness & Aquatic Centre that was opening on East Boundary road early next year and how it should be good to join.

I think we stayed on till about 4pm-ish before we left, still feeling really full and bloated. But all for good reasons; the celebration of another brother in Christ. :)

The Art of the Brick Exhibition

If you haven't already know how much of a LEGO fan I am, well now you know - I collect LEGO and I can't miss any LEGO exhibition of sorts; Even if it meant lining up for an hour plus to get in, just like Brickvention 2011. :p So when I heard about the Art of the Brick Exhibition at Federation Square, I just couldn't miss it and so did my fellow LEGO fan friends Khim and Ellen.

The artist is called Nathan Sawaya. And he builds incredible large-scale LEGO sculptures, which have broken gallery records around the world. We went for the Sat 11 June, 1.30pm session. And here are some of my favourite picks from the exhibition.

Entrance with large LEGO bricks	His version of Victoria Market
Life-size T-Rex, well not exactly	Some Greek Building - forgot its name
4 colourful different skulls	The blue swimmer (life size)
Favourite: tearing your chest	Mosaic of Flinders St. Station

There weren't as many displays as compared to Brickvention. But then again, its different because you had so many exhibitors at Brickvention while here the only builder was Nathan himself. There were videos showing how he built a scpture from scratch with tubs of LEGO bricks. Plus this was more of like an Art Exhibition rather than a convention which was what Brickvention really was.

Tubbs seemed to enjoy himself more and wasn't as disappointed as I was with the exhibition. Maybe he's into the less is more concept and original creativity as well. Because lots of the exhibits at Brickvention were just normal LEGO sets that people build from instructions whereas Nathan came up with all these creations himself. But there was so much more to see at Brickvention; 4 hours there compared to the 1 hour here.

But I guess it was all in the name of Art of in my case: LEGO. ;) And so if you're interested, you can view the  full album on facebook from the link below:
The Art of the Brick: Nathan Sawaya's LEGO Exhibition.

TVB International Talent Singing Competition 2011

Anna, a friend of Ammie's whom I met at a Karaoke session, loves to sing and participate in singing competitions. When we chatted more and she found out I used to perform during Uni days, she told me about this singing comp that TVB was organising. Anyway to cut a long story short, I decided to join for the fun of it and also for missing those days of performing in front of a live audience. Here was the video for the night: Tue 5th April, I sang - S.H.E's Never Mind.

It was the preliminary rounds and I didn't get through to the next round because I know myself. I can pull off some songs pretty well but my voice wasn't powerful enough nor was it able to hit some higher notes. Plus I felt I didn't put my 100% in that night as I did with all the performances for Uni days. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to join in the first place due to the age of the crowd which I knew were all gonna be youngsters. But I'm glad I did anyway, all for the joy of singing live again and the experience.

Group photo before all 16 of us started singing	All the supporters and audiences looking on
Thanks guys for coming to support	Girl power, ladies D & Aims who came to support
Mr. Self-Obsessed, past year's winner performing	The exciting moment announcing the 5 who get through
The lucky 5 who got through to the next round	One more final group photo of all 16 of us

It was good fun and I really felt happy being able to sing on stage and perform in front of an audience again. In the past during Uni days, I always had a friend singing beside me or friends performing acts beside. But this time was different. It was a competition and I was singing alone and you had all these eyes staring at you. It was honestly the first singing comp that I sang alone and thus was a little nervous.

But it wasn't the first one that I joined. An ex-friend and I actually came in third place in a singing comp during our Polytechnic days in Singapore. And I'm still happily holding on to our trophy till now. I would say there will be more singing days to come as it's just something that I love and hearing my favourite songs just make me wanna sing along naturally; even at work and especially in the car driving, I can sing as loud as I want! :p

My Birthday Celebrations 2011

Last year's birthday was a special one because it was the day that Tubby and I got engaged, but this year's birthday is also special because it will be the last birthday as a "status single" lady as this time next year (fingers crossed everything goes right in Oct), I'll be a wedded woman. LOL.

Because of the different groups of friends, I decided to span out the celebrations, make it last a week like the last year as well. The week before I organised a karaoke session at Party World in the afternoon. We sang crazy new songs and oldies and laughed to our hearts content. Also thanks to the gals for getting me a cake. muaks!
After the karaoke session, we headed to Cookie Restaurant on Swanston Street for dinner. Weichao, Daisy and Ed only joined us later for the dinner as they are probably not singing fanatics like us. Well then again Tubby wasn't either as he was too shy to sing, but he didn't have any choice but to follow. hehe...


We needed to tables for the 15 odd people! From my side of the table, D and gang Ming Chu and Xiao Wei, Ed, Weichao, Daisy and darling.

The other side of the table to my left: continuation of D's gang Christine, then Aims and her gang, Anna, Laisa, Brendan and Han! Thanks to all of you who made my day! :)

On the night before, Tubby gave me with the first installment of the present: a Wii Fit. Not that he thinks I need more exercise, but wants me to quit the gym and exercise at home. And then on the 23rd, he surprised me with flowers delivered to my office as I didn't take leave this year. :p
Dinner was a nice yummy treat of Japanese Cusine at Shyun from him as well. And dear Michelle also baked us cupcakes and gave me a little camera keychain as she said that made her thought of me.

The following weekend, Tubby organised a buffet dinner a Chinabar Restaurant along Springvale Rd and Burwood Highway. We had wanted to try them out for awhile now and so this was a good chance. They had quite a variety of food and I especially love their different soups and the seafood section!

The lovely friends we all got to know from tennis and I always refer to them as the tennis group. LOL.

After that we returned back to our humble abode to open the pressies they got for me as well as for some chilling out and games. Thanks for all the cute gifts! Andy joined us later because he had something on earli and he came with this funny UFO gift which everyone wanted to try out. Apparently if you twist it properly, it floats in the air for awhile.
We also finally opened my LEGO Creationary and played it for awhile. It wasn't easy having a set time and building stuff from the limited amount of bricks. In the end, people were describing what the thing was instead of building it for people to guess! Also check out "Princess" a.k.a Troy trying out this new Hawaii Beach Sports game, one of the pressies they got for me. He was doing the Hula Dance! LOL.

And that it! My week of birthday celebrations! Don't worry next year there will be an even better excuse to make the celebration a big one again. And I won't tell you why yet! Haha!