Malvern Collectibles Fair and Darling's Birthday Celebration.

Darling and I went to a collectibles, hobby and memorabilia fair at the Malvern Town Hall a couple of weeks ago. As usual he was keeping me company as this was another event organised by the guys from the OZ Transformers forum. Even then, it was not all boring for him as it's the first we ever went to such a fair, there were some pretty fascinating old stuff that people were selling there. I took quite a few photos on my phone, but it was accidentally deleted because of some technical fault with the Nokia PC Suite, so I'm left with only one below and the other two were taken from Events Vic website.

The interior of the town hall looked something like a small version of Melbourne's Regent Theatre. It also had a 2nd level platform with seats for people to watch, I'm guessing musicals or performances in the past. Now I think they use it for community use. Found some old school McDonald's snoopy stuff that was sold in the 1990s!

And yet more stalls! There were about 50 or 60 over stalls I would say and other stuff you can find include lots of old and new Star Wars comic books, figures, Lego sets, video tapes, CDs and more! Seemed like people are pretty crazy about Star Wars. There were also signature products and old collector's item like Antique dolls, Beanie Baby toys, model cars from the 1980s and so much more! Also saw old porcelain tea sets, old board games, heaps of old movies and comics, toys and also other quaint elegant stuff.

And of course there were a couple of stalls selling a little bit of Transformers stuff (and were way overpriced for selling fake reissues). I found a nice little design coin purse from Russ for mum. It was made of silk-like material and had the drawings of 2 ladies on it and was brand new, paid $10 for it. And for myself, an old R2-D2 robot because he and C3PO are probably the only characters I like in Star Wars! I just have a thing for robots and that's that! :p And now I'm into Wall-E as well! (But that's another story for another day!)

We also celebrated the birthday's of darling, weichao and a belated one for Lex on 16th August. It was a birthday luncheon at Shark Fin's house in Melbourne. I thought the food was alright, for some funny reason, it didn't taste quite the same as before.

Group photo taken by one of the "irritated" waiters as they were all waiting for us to get over and done with so they can clear up and go home. But the manager said we could stay as long as we want, and so we sort of dilly dally with the cake cutting. (Okay no lar, we didn't deliberately take our own sweet time lar!) :p

Then in the evening, darling decided to give everyone (who could make it), a treat at Wah Kee, a Malaysian Chinese restaurant that we love to go and eat at Clayton. Usually we get our food in about 15-20mins, but because that was a Saturday night and we eat ordered individual stuff like Prawn noodles, Curry Laksa, Hokkien Noodles, Beef Hor Fun (I know I'm making you hungry! :D), the food took about 1 hour 30 minutes to come.

Auntie was pretty apologetic about it because we frequent there very often and usually it's good service. But I'm glad everyone was happy with their food when it finally came. And to make up for that plus it was darling's birthday, she gave us a free banana fritter with 2 scoops of ice-cream. Yum, it was a food overdose day! :p

Congratulations to my cousin, my new gadget and Shisha - the first and last time (I think!)

Firstly CONGRATS to my dear cousin kristie (and her hubby James) who gave birth to a baby boy on 1 Aug. Can't wait for her to upload photos of that little prince. :) Really happy for you guys!

Well lots of people around me have been either getting married(one of my besties got married in June, another one later in Dec and the ex BF in Nov), getting pregnant(one poly friend and my colleague at work 4 and 3 months respectively) or giving birth(my cousin) to cute little babies this year and man it sure makes you feel like you should be getting on to that next phase as well. But then again things don't usually work a certain way, it doesn't mean that you MUST settle down and have babies at a certain time because it's the right; there's no point if the feeling and timing isn't right. I remember when I was back in SG in Feb, I went out with a best girl pal and she was single and happy and she said she was sick of all her other friends having talking about applying for houses to get married etc. and funnily in a certain way, I think I would have felt the same.

I mean don't get me wrong, I am happy for the people who are getting married, pregnant and having babies, but I guess it's just not the right time for Tubbs and me yet, at least not in a year or so and it's pretty annoying when people ask me when it's our turn to get hitched and stuff. Come on, we pretty much just started working and settling down in Melbourne not long and we would prefer to enjoy the life of just the two of us (& Jasper) for the moment and going on to the next phase seems too soon because usually after marriages means pregnancy and huge responsibilities and I guess we are just not ready to go into that yet. Childish or not, for the moment we're enjoying the outings, buying new gadgets and going for trips etc. I think we will be ready when the time is right and when the finances are more stable.

Meantime, my latest new gadget: :p

God of War PSP Bundle: $299 from JB Hifi Mid Year Sale!

I have decided(unlike the Nintendo DS) I'm not going into the "dark side", meaning I'm not gonna play bootleg games on my PSP because you can't do system updates once you go the direction of using the loaded to load the Pirated ISO game files. Not that the system updates really matter that much, but just cause I prefer going out to look for games to buy and bring them home and also because the ISO files are super big - like 500MB to 1-2GB for each game, so downloads wil be pretty heavy on Internet quota too. Anyway I'ma loving my PSP; wireless Internet browsing, storing music, photos and videos all in one, plus there's even Skype on it! So it's just awesome!

Last night, darling, wangwei and I went to try out smoking with the ShiSha. It was the first time for Wangwei and I and so we were pretty amazed at how the thing worked. We actually went to look for Ying earlier at Taco Bill, but the place was packed. And so we decided to go for a "threesome" somewhere else.. and thus landed up with the ShiSha idea... heehee.. :p

A ShiSha or hookah (Hindi: हुक़्क़ा, Urdu: حقّہ, hukkah) is a single or multi-stemmed (often glass-based) water pipe for smoking. Originating in India, it has gained popularity, especially in the Arab World. A hookah operates by water filtration and indirect heat. It can be used for smoking herbal fruits. Source: Wikipedia.

We did a GPRS search and found the Sahara Cafe along Lygon Street in East Brunswick. Mind you the place looked a bit dodgy and it was $10 per entry (for the so-called Belly dancers) which we didn't get to see because we didn't stay late as the people there seemed to be getting more rowdy as the night went by. There were flavours like strawberry, apple, banana and a couple more I can't remember. We chose the Apple one and darling said it wasn't as harmful as a cigeratte and so he thought (I found it to be otherwise when I googled it the next day!). But anyway it was just an experience and I don't think I'll do it again because I couldn't stand the strong smell and somehow there is a scratchy feeling down your throat when you inhale it in.

I was feeling and looking super sleepy cause the smoke was really hitting in and darling was saying it's been a long time since we've been in a sort of "clubbing-like" atmosphere, which made me think about the clubbing days we had with my chabohs. Wangwei in the next pic trying to pose and show the smoke coming out from the pipe. *boliao* haha..

Other than that, life's pretty much the same(still learning new things everyday on the job and more courses up later part of the year), though darling and I wanted to go watch Wicked -The Musical, but tickets for the Emerald class are all sold out from now till Sep, so hard luck I suppose since we didn't think of booking earlier. Alright gotta go now, we are so lazy we are actually going on google to find a restaurant we can order food online and have it delivered to us!

Hello and goodbye to Baxter, some work stuff and the new Batman movie.

I think it's about time I tell you about Baxter. It's was a mere few weeks before it was "hello" and "goodbye" to him. Don't worry, nothing bad has happened to him, it's just that he has gone off to another family who can love him for who he is. That was the main reason why we didn't want to tell people when we got him; cause we weren't sure if he was gonna remain ours.

Baxter's an 8 month old maltese / shih tzu. His owner listed him on trading post that she was selling him as she was going overseas. When we got to the house to see him, it didn't matter that the feeling didn't feel quite as "right" as when we picked Jasper up, but Tubbs and I were just excited that we were gonna to get a play pal for Jasper that we just decided to take him anyway. Now of course we did mention that our dogs are kept in-house and asked if he was house-trained and she said "yes", which we found to be totally otherwise in the next couple of weeks.

In the first few days, peeing and pooping everywhere was fine, we could understand; it was a new house and environment. But then when days turned into weeks and he got from bad to worse, we realised we just got ourselves a troubled mutt. He could pee and walk at the same time (totally oblivious that he's peeing), he shit at any corner/place in the house, even on our floor mats and carpets(once on our new doona and mattress!), totally refusing to do his business on the pee/poo soaked training mats. Those were the last straw, and we knew we didn't have the time to train him properly cause he was usually an outside dog and at that age, trying to re-train him to be an in-house dog was like trying to tame a bull. So he was up on trading post again and in a few days, another couple who had a maltese/shihtzu of their own adopted Baxter. And it was good cause they kept their dog outside as well. Anyway here some shots of Baxter, together with Jasper (below) as well.

We felt a little sad (especially tubbs) who is really sentimental about dogs, but it was better that Baxter had gone off to people who would love him more. This is especially true due to the fact that any other dog that comes is always compared to our smarty Jasper (which isn't fair we know), but like tubbs said, Jasper's sort of set a benchmark and we can't seem to accept any dog that falls below that benchmark. So we are always biased towards Jasper. So we have resigned to the fact that we either get Jasper a GF to mate and get his puppies or buy a puppy and train it from small. I guess adopting older dogs that are sort of used to their way of life and trying to re-train them again is not something we are actually prepared to do.

Apart from that, work is usual for me and Tubbs though he was previously stressed by the company audit last week. Then the health dept in CFA held a pilates / health check session last week. People can go for a 1-2 hour pilates class during office hours, how cool is that! I missed out on the last session cause I didn't bring my sports outfit, but I will certainly try it out the next session. I'm also going for an IT certification course (also organised by the org.) in a few weeks which includes a mini exam after that, boy it's like going back to uni again.

We also went to watch Batman - The Dark Knight in IMAX Theatre last night. It was awesome, what with the huge screen and the acting of the "truly evil" Joker played by Heath Ledger. A pity though it didn't seemed right that Katie Holmes wasn't acting as the main "girl" this time. They got someone who looked like her. I shan't spoil the story for those who haven't watch it, but don't expect too much action. It's more about the plot and menacing conversations between Batman and the Joker. Go watch it !

Visit to the Cuckoo Restaurant and being part of CFA Green Office

Work has been pretty good so far; busy but it's all good because it means time passes faster and also my colleagues are a helpful and funny bunch, so thank God for that. Just a couple of weeks ago, tubby, wangwei, ying and I decided to treat ourselves out at the famous cuckoo restaurant in the Dandenong ranges.

It was a buffet luncheon costing about $35 per person which boasted a spread of prawns, mussels, fish, beef, chicken and sweet deserts. The restaurant was bevarian styled and during the course of our meal, we were also treated with entertainment like singing, instrumental music as well as yodeling. I actually recorded videos of it, but coming from my mobile, the quality wasn't that good. So I didn't upload it. It's a good experience and I certainly recommend it to anyone visiting melbourne.

We later took a walk along the quaint little shops there just cause we were so full. Finally bought a very belated birthday present for my dear tigger but I haven't had the time to post it yet. Also tubby and I got a set of teapot+cups for our home so we can enjoy a cup of tea sometimes, especially during the cold winter now. :p

Working in a large organisation also means there are lots of things going on, like I chose to be part of the Green Office team. We're working towards to help our planet earth and do things like recycling staff, switching off lights and thinking of ways to save energy. So just last week, we had the green office training and after that we were each given a goodie bag and it always feels exciting to get a pressie after a long and tiring session! haha.. :) The goodie bag had stuff like the bus/train timetables to encourage you to take public transport, green lifestyle magazine, postcards and we also got a t-shirt and mug each.

My new work place, the new "addition" to the family and netball & tennis craze.

Thanks to all who cared, we're pretty much settled on the move down to city. Just a few knick knacks and there left in Gippy, which we will endeavour to take the next time we visit. :P The first week of work went by quickly and I must say I really feel so blessed to get this job. It has a great working environment, you get training and courses to attend, the benefits are awesome and most of all, I can finally concentrate on my area of expertise and what I like doing; which is purely web design. Anyway, here's some snapshot of my workplace:

The first day was really overwhelming because I had so much to learn and the tour around the two buildings itself took about one and a half hours and I was introduced to so many people that I probably can't remember half of who I have met. It's so cool to walk into the SECC (State Emergency Control Centre), the room looks exactly like the scene from movies where they have the U.S Security of Defence giving commands in the control centre during am emergency. Also the 000 centre is also situated in the same building, so that's where all the 000 calls go to. :P My department is in the second building, which is on the right of the main building and there's also a snap of my little workplace. My colleague also took me to the fire stations in other regions for a visit and it was all truly an information overload week, but it was all good.

Then I'd also like to introduce my new "baby" to our family (apart from Jasper). It's nothing big or posh to be proud about, but still it's my first car which I financed from my own hard earned money, so it's just something I'm just really happy about. The mitsubishi colt is similar to the Honda Jazz, but it's just less common and I certainly like the red colour! It's much more secure buying from a dealer as you can a mind of peace as compared to private sellers. As you can see, I can finally "doll up" my own car with all the cutie girlie stuff. *hint hint* chaboh loo, time to get me that devil mirror cover already. heehee.. :D And to top it off, thanks to darling who bought me a GPS to go with it, now I know I won't get lost.

And so everything sort of ended about the same time, my tennis comps ended around mid may and so did the netball comps. Though we didn't win any game at all, we're still proud of ourselves cause we did our best and I'd say we're one of the more united teams who have the same players playing for most of the comps. *Alright we didn't win cause we needed more practice and the ang mohs are very tall okay!" :P I'm pretty glad for gaining some new friends throughout that period too and now it's time to find a new tennis club around my area to continue my tennis and hopefully a netball team to join as well?