Poly friend meet-up and LEGO Brickvention 2011

We had planned this meet-up since last year when Val told they were coming for holidays in VIC! Val and I had not yet for about 8 years! We got to know each other during the final year at Nanyang Polytechnic Singapore, when we chose our specialisations and did some modules and projects together. She and her hubby RX(as she usually calls him) met in poly as well. Their relationship blossomed into a wonderful love story as they are now married and have a cute daughter called Sheryl.

We met up with them last friday night for dinner and dessert. Tubbs treated them dinner at Pacific House restaurant along Chapel St. They were after all guests visiting from interstate. Val and RX studied in Queensland during their uni days and now RX is back to do his Master and of course Val and Sheryl followed too. They felt bad about us treating them and so we let them return the favour by buying us dessert. ;)

Val, Sheryl and I at Ganache Chocolate, Chapel Street.

Group pic of me, Tubbs, Val, Sheryl (sneeky little wave) and RX.

Over the weekend, Tubbs and I also went to Australia's Lego Convention, called Brickvention. We had planned to go together with Khim, Ellen (also LEGO fans) , Michelle and Jason, but when we drove past Russell St in the late morning, we saw a huge crowd and line around the building leading to the town hall where the convention was held, and so were in two minds now about it. Never did we expect it to be so popular and crazy!

Cindy (also a crazy Lego fan) said she drove past and saw the crowd as well and decided to give it a pass because they had to rush off for something else. While having lunch at Kopitiam in QV, The 4 of us had decided not to go except for Khim and Ellen who were adament about going. Luckily Han gave me a call and said he was lining up(already had been for an hour) and asked us to cut his queue. Michelle and Jason still decided not to join us as the queue was still quite long.
And so it was just Tubbs, Me, Khim, Ellen and Han. We still had to line up for another hour before we were let in, but it was well worth it! Above are some favourite picks of mine. Boy was it really crowded! It was a body-to-body push and shove around some of the stands to get a good look at the displays. Some of the proud Lego creators were explaining to people how long they took, the amount of bricks used and how they came about the idea of their creation.

A lot of the displays were Lego towns and city with some of the rarer and more exclusive ones like the Big Ben, Taj Mahal and London Bridge also spotted. Sets like those probably go for close to $1000! The last I checked, the Taj Mahal was around AUD$999! And so it was a great and rare opportunity to be able to see these magnificant sets in person. We spent quite a few hours there and only left at about 4pm-ish. It was a tiring but fun day!

Here's a link to the LEGO Brickvention 2011 photos on facebook if you want to check out more amazing display pics. Enjoy!

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

Picnic and movie night @ Moonlight Cinema - Royal Botanic Gardens.

It was thanks to Joan, one of our tennis mates that we even heard of the Moonlight Cinema at the Royal Botanic Gardens. She had organised for us to watch Toy Story 3 last friday. It was a movie night cum pre christmas kris kringle.

There was a "Gold Grass" area where bean bags are provided and there was free flow of snacks and drinks. For us, we had to bring along picnic mats and rented bean bags or blankets if needed. We did the gift exchanges before the movie while we were having dinner.

People chowing down KFC chicken - our dinner.

Check out the amount of junk food we had.

As it got nearer to show time, the inflatable screen by the lake was set up and advertisements were playing as usual before the movie.

Here's a shot of the beautiful evening sky at the back, halfway through the movie.

We weren't supposed to tell who we got for the kris kringle. But I think from the laughter and looks when we each got our presents, we could probably guess who it was. We all couldn't stop laughing when Andy opened his present - which was ceramic/glass egg plants!

Absolutely loved the movie we watched: Toy Story 3 - so much that I really want to get the blu-ray versions of all the movies from 1 to 3. I've also pretty much completed the Toy Story LEGO sets, some of which are on display at home! Just need more room for the rest arggh!

And though the forecast was cloudy and rain, we were lucky that the weather held up for the duration of the movie and droplets only started falling when we were leaving. But it was pretty cold for a summer night when the wind blew and so a thick blanket is definitely recommended for next time!

St. Peter's Carols by Candlelight and Andy's Birthday

I joined one of St. Peter's Catholic Church choir around 2009, they are called the Contemporary Choir. We used to sing every 4th and 5th Sunday of the month, but being the Youth Choir and singing songs that were more upbeat and cheerful, parishioners have suggested that they would like to see us more and so we're singing on 2nd, 4th and 5th Sundays now.

Anyway around last year, a new Music Director Chris joined the church with his wife Chenade. They are really nice people and Chris decided to organise a Carols by Candlelight event. The event was called "Emmanuel - Carols by Candlelight, held on 11 Dec 2010. All the different choir groups took turns to sing christmas hymns and all were invited.

A group shot at the room back of the stage where everyone was warming up.	Can't really see, but this should be Patrice or Val's choir group doing their stint.
Us, the Contemporay Choir Group leaving the stage after finishing our songs. We did four songs in total.	When the sky turned darker, we lighted candles and continued into the night with the singing.
THe Korean Choir from Waverly church were also invited. They were really awesome and blew everyone away.	The finale where we performed the song "Emmanuel - God is with us" again. We did this at the start too.

The four songs that we sang:

1) Silver Bells	2) Go tell it on the Mountain
3) Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas	4) Joy to the World (All the boys and girls)

It was a great night and all of us really had fun celebrating the spirit of christmas. Thanks to Michelle and Tubby who were there to watch and support us as well. I'm definitely gonna join again next year. :)

We also celebrated Andy (one of our tennis mate's) birthday that same weekend. He turned 30 and so it was a pretty significant one. We had dinner at these Chinese/Malaysian Restaurant in Balwyn called Mabrown. They had really good grilled spicy quails and you had to make a booking otherwise you won't get a table on a Sat night.

And dinner we headed to our place for a fun night of wii and games. Joan decided to make the birthday surprise at 10pm+ so that Andy can enjoy the last couple of hours before he actually turned 30. LOL. The cake was a very yummy and elaborate one from Brunetti and present was a Lego Star Wars set as he's kinda of a Lego fan as well.

The birthday boy very happy to take his cake (from James I think).	Opening his present and already guessing what it was due to the sounds.
Usual group shot on our pretty big and comfortable couch.	Sexy shot of the two princesses "Troy and Andy" hugging.
And then we started on the Wii gaming - Mario Kart was first on the list.	Then Troy decided to make us try the wii fit board and these funny pose exercises.

It was a great weekend of fun and celebrations. And with christmas getting so close, it certainly brought more spirit and feel of the upcoming holiday mood. :)

Our 6th Anniversary - of being together. :)

Time surely flies! It felt like just yesteday uni mate Len and I volunteered for the Orientation in 2004 when we spotted Tubby during the registration. He was a lonely "banana" who only spoke english and didn't really mix much with the new group of students when they first came as they mostly conversed in mandarin.

And so the three of us hanged out together heaps, then soon become a crazy bunch when the rest of the students came back and from then they say, the rest is history. We only went official on 6 Dec 2004 and so it's been 6 years (of happiness, joy, ups and downs). This year on 6 Dec 2010, we decided to make this anniversary a little bit more significant as we'll be married by the next one.

It was nothing too elaborate, we both just took a day off to spend time together. Afternoon was pretty much bumming at home and we only went out in the evening for dinner at The Langham Hotel - Melba Restaurant. It was the first time I stepped foot into the Langham Hotel Melbourne. We have heard about it so much especially from Master Chef. The hotel was just beautifully designed and lighted and because it was near Christmas, they had a big christmas tree set up.

Dinner was the famous Melba buffet and boy did they really have a big spread! The highlight for me was the abundant sea of prawns, bugs, crabs and sashimi! I think I ate the moreton bay bugs and prawns the most! They also had a variety of desserts and the running chocolate fondue fountain which I didn't miss as well.

There was also chinese and indian food there and we tried the naan and curries. You can also order anything from the stir-fry section and ask the chef to make the dish to your liking. I don't think I ate much of the main courses, I just kept going back for the seafood. We really stuffed ourselves that night and for once Tubby actually felt he had eaten too much! :p