It's the Lunar New Year, so Gong Xi Fa Cai, but I have some unhappy ramblings

Happy Lunar New Year everyone, it's day 9 of the Lunar New Year, which is also known as "Chu1 Jiu3" in mandarin. This year was a quiet celebration as most of our friends are all back home in Singapore/Malaysia. Darling was supposed to go back on the eve as well, but because the company needed him during the Australian Open, he postponed his flight to a week later. And so as I'm typing now, he's about 7000kms away from me.

My dear chaboh Joewiz's younger brother came down from Leongatha to join us for a mini reunion dinner at aunty's - Wah Kee restaurant in Clayton. There were just four of us including Ammie. It was a small gathering but we ate to our hearts delight, just couldn't be bothered taking photos though. Prior to the dinner in the afternoon, darling and I made our way to Springvale - the vietnamese/chinese area in Melbourne for beef noodles. Being CNY eve that day, there was a carnival going on with lots of rides for kids and stalls selling food. And not to forget Lion Dance - a popular thing during the festive season.

I was pretty happy as I love my "Bak Kua" during CNY and we found a stall selling it. They call them Honey Pork/Beef Jerky over here and boy are they expensive at $2.50 a piece! Yeah they don't go by $ per kg, they go by per piece! In the end I bought 10 pieces just to satisfy my cravings. Of course they naturally didn't taste as good as those back home. :p

And that was sort of all of the CNY "celebration" we had. When you're not back in your home country, it just doesn't really feel the same. Mum sent me photos of my brother, sis-in-law, cousins, grand dad, nephews and nieces and updating me all about what was going on with the family back there. And then of course it doesn't fail to get to the point of my parents hinting when are they gonna be grand-parents as they sort of get all jealous about everyone else around them being grandpas and grandmas already, which brings me to the next topic - about why I don't think it's gonna happen anytime soon.

As those who follow my blog would know, the boyfriend's parents and I never got along. Especially after the "show-down" his mum and I had back in Dec 2007, we never communicated since. In short she sort of lectured us like we were a bunch of 10 year olds caught kissing or something and doesn't really want her son to have a girlfriend. Over-possessive or controlling? I won't stoop down to her level to mention the mean things she said. Basically the boyfriend's parents just want their son to achieve well for his future but without a better half - unless of course maybe they want his better half to be one they hand-pick.

4 years of us being in the relationship together, yet they still always talk about matters/plans that revolve around him alone and not around us. It's like somehow they hope that I'm just a passing phase in their son's live and will leave him in the near future. To them, he will always be their little perfect baby son of which no one is good enough for him. From their obvious attitudes and behaviours, the "M" word is out of the question (at least for some time) as they will probably go nuts even hearing it. Is this God's way of testing our love for each other? A perfect relationship - too perfect till there must be some who want to destroy it?

Jay Chou's new album, poster, 2008 calendar and Melbourne Trip

This came from the postman yesterday, I'm super happy! His songs got me hooked as usual. You HAVE to go and listen. My Jay is still the same cutie, though now MORE talented, venturing into movies and directing, but I wished he can put on a little bit more weight. :P I've got nothing much to update lately. Was down in Melbourne last Sunday for a Transformer's fan meet. Some of the guys came from Sydney or Brisbane, it was kinda awkward at first and funny too cause everyone was sitting around the table in the food court and there were transformers toys all over the table. :P We had introductions, chatted around for a bit, then went around to the toy stores for a look.

I didn't stay for long cause poor Tubby was waiting for me at Crown, plus I had a large bag full of transformers toys, some of which I got a friend to bring over from Sydney for me. Then one of them gave me two free toys as well as sold me a book for a bargain price. I also bought one more pack of figures from Myer and also my Clinique facial stuff. So yeah it was really heavy. After I met up back with Tubby, we just went to get Asian groceries and made our way back cause we missed Jasper. Might post a pic of the forum guys if I can get the photo from them. Till then, tata for now...

* Ooohhh and for the first time in 6 weeks, our team won the Tennis match against Moe last Saturday. It was also the second time I won all my 3 sets. Yippie! Hope we can keep the good team effort going! :)

Someone got me Bumblebee, Ying's belated birthday dinner and melbourne trip.

At last, some photos to go with the post, thank God cause I too tired to write much. Had to attend a marketing seminar with my colleague at 7am yesterday and I'm still feeling sleepy now. On a happy note, I met some great guy fans from the OZformers forum and they were out on the search for my Bumblebee 08 for me. And you know what? One of them got me my Bumblebee 08 for me!!! SWEET... Will be meeting him down Melbourne next week to collect it. *Yippie* These guys are so awesome and nice! ;) You know who you are!

We also celebrated Ying's belated birthday party a couple of Sunday's ago. Poor girl had to pick her candles from her cake and get her face smashed with cream. Don't have the photos here, think Sookie has them. Jason got a video or it as well.

Next is the City trip last Saturday. Tubbs gave in to his craving for Yum Cha for the usual Imperial Kingdom at Blackburn. It was awesome as usual, but we had to wait ages for his chicken legs again. Dinner was at a Korean restaurant along Latrobe Street which Cynthia recommended us to try. Food was not too bad (though of course not as authentic as those I had in Korea) and the prices were reasonable as well. Would definitely go back to eat again.

I had to say I didn't shop much this time because I was on the search for my Transformers. :P And even though we went to Chadstone, I didn't buy one item of clothing or shoes at all. Disappointing isn't it? At least I got a pair of white boots and some skincare stuff. So I updated my shoppaholic blog with whatever (non transformers stuff) I bought in the last few weeks, which is pretty little actually.

Dinner Gathering @ Lyells', shoppaholic at it again, wishes for end of semester.

Finally the updates from Dinner at Lyell's and Nancy's 2 Sundays(20 May) ago. I know chaboh loo's gonna "kill" me when she sees this cause she's gonna get "oh-so-jealous" about the food. Yup, there were 15 of us in total, heaps of delicious food to go with rice or bread, and awesome desserts for the sweet-toothed. After dinner, we went on to the hilarious game of taboo, where all the shouting and excitement didn't even cause the sleeping Dom to twitch one bit... :D

Then just last Saturday was the long-awaited City shopping trip. I've gotta say I've been deprived of the city for almost 2 months already. And when that happens, it just doesn't bod well because I spent a freaking few hundred plus in total! Ah well, twas to make up for all the "lost" time, or maybe it's just self consolation for the burn in my pocket. :P But anyway, here's the shopping! For a precise item description, please check out my Shoppaholic Blog.

Last week was also the last week of badminton. It was good meeting some new friends over the past couple of weeks of playing. And so, someone came up with the idea of "round-the-court" badminton on the last 2 days. You line up and each person hits the shuttlecock once and run to the queue and the next person has to hit to the next person on the other side of the court and so forth. Whoever misses needs to run around the whole of Binishell. We had a pretty fun time! :)

So it's end of the semester again. Darn, time sure passes really fast. It seemed like just yesterday Mum came back to Gippy with me, and then I met Eileen and Dom and got to know Ying, Ammie and their Dalpura 4 housemates better, started playing tennis with Kal, and got to know 2 cute guys (Don't worry, just lookin!) Ah Hao and Wangwei. All this happened in a time span of 6 months that have just gone by in a flash! Well I'm glad for meeting the new friends to keep me sane (while I miss my chabohs & pooh gang), thanks! Meantime, best of luck for those who have exams coming along! ;)

Mum's Farewell Dinner, Airport Sendoff and Dinner with Lenny

It's nearly a week since Mum went home and I'm missing her. :( Had a pretty emotional week, apart from missing mum, I was also thrown into the dilemma of having to make a decision which will yet again affect my life; the decision to return to SG sometime mid year, continue working for awhile and renew my SG PR, leave my darling tubbs and Jasper here OR to remain here in Aust, FxxK the SG PR and risk getting my loved ones into trouble because I'm bound to the "beloved" SG govt. by certain conditions. Oh I so "love" the govt. in all countries! :O And as the day keeps going, I get more frustrated, and all I can hope is that God will lead the way when the time comes. Meantime, here are more pics from Mum's farewell dinner, airport sendoff and dinner with tubb's super-irritating buddy aka Monkey Boy.

Drool at the yummy food we had during mum's farewell dinner. Jason and Alex also made Bak Kut Teh, but the photo didn't do the delicious food justice, so I decided not to put it here.

The wonderful people who made the night and mum's day. And yes my arms look chubby as always, so is my face I know, who cares la. haha. :)

The sweeties who accompanied us for a night's stay in Melbourne and to send mum off at the airport the next day. And yes, $200 over bucks was spent on shopping. *Ima soo ashamed of myself, or am I?* :P

Later that night we met lenny for dinner. He brought us to a Greek restaurant near his place. Food was good; marinated calamari, seafood platter and meat platter, and for that, a pretty costly bill too. And I think lenny has obssesive hyper behaviour, i.e. he can't stop being a pest! He just has to irritate me. And poor Jasper fell into the pond too, because the poodles at his house weren't too happy about having him around. And noo, it's not funny. My poor darling was stuck in the cold pond for God knows how long, before we saved him when we got back.