Farewell Granddad

I got a text from Dad in the morning at work on 19th July saying that my Paternal Grandfather had passed away last night. It wasn't that unexpected since I know that he had already been hospitalised a few days ago. But you know that feeling of denial and how you just get caught in a time frame?

I wasn't close to him since young as I brought my mostly by my Maternal Grandparents. But then again, he is still my grandpa and was the only living grand parents at that time whom I thought was able to attend my wedding dinner in Jan 7 next year.

But I guess it's good that he has stopped suffering and has gone to the other world to join my grandma. Dad's parents were staunch Taoist and so they didn't believe in Jesus/God. Though I still believe of course, everyone went to heaven because God loves us all. Here's a lighted candle - RIP dear grandpa.

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.

First Asian to win a Tennis Grand Slam!

I literally cried over the weekend watching the Women's Ladies French Open Finals. On Saturday, 4 Jun 2011, Li Na from China made history by being the first Asian ever in history to win a grand slam in the singles match. She beat Francesca Schiavone in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 in quite an emotional and mentally straining match.

We watched her as she seemed to have let the emotions get the better of her when she started making unforced errors in the second set. And I was like "Oh no, Li Na not again! Come on!". And we saw her fight the emotions, get herself right back on track and beat Schiavone at the tie-break to win her precious trophy and most ultimately the title of French Open Ladies Champion for 2011.

Well done Li Na! What a way to show that Asians are able to succeed in Sports too and we'll always support you! Let's hope you go the way and win all the other Grand Slams as well. :)