Happy Birthday!

生日快乐！

A very Happy Birthday to Jennifer and Leo!

Celebrating Jennifer's birthday at a Szechuan restaurant in Sunnybank.

Yummy....

Celebrating Leo's birthday with Kian, Kuku, Ku Cheong and Ming at a fusion restaurant at Auchenflower - Food & Soul... nice food!

Bon Voyage!

25 Jan 2007, Thursday - See you in the year of the Golden Pig!

Christina, Heng Onn, Roger are heading back to MY and SG respectively to celebrate the CNY with their families.

Christina left for MY the week before. And to send Heng Onn and Roger off on 25 and 26 Jan 2007, we went to Uncle George for dinner. It's a chinese take-away eatery, but it has space for 1 - 2 small tables of eat-in guests.

It's a very unique eating experience at Uncle George. You don't have to "order" your food / dishes. Just go up to him, tell him how many of you are having the dinner, sit down and wait.... The beautiful delicious dishes will come to you...

For $12, you can eat to your heart's content!

After dinner, Roger, Ian and Pei sent Heng Onn to the airport. Esmond and I sent Haw back to Indooroopilly.

After that, we went to Brisbane's new cruise centre near Bretts Wharf. It looks like the ex -WTC in SG. The only difference is it is a lot quieter...not as much crowds...

Night view of Brisbane river from Bretts Wharf

And they've luxurious apartments by the water front... which "richie" would want to buy a unit beside a port? You can hear the cranes lifting and setting the containers down onto ships....

We walked around the area in search of ice cream, but we couldn't find any! So we headed to South Bank in search of Cold Rock ice cream... but they were closed too! Since we've got the camera with us, we took some night shots of South Bank and the city.

South bank - artificial beach...

Brisbane City from across the river, South Bank...

Bar-be-que!!!!

21 Jan 2007, Sunday - BBQ on the balcony!

Our second barbie session of 2007! This time we have it indoors - on Heng Onn's balcony!

The occasion? Heng Onn bought the bbq pit at just $10!















So we set up the pit and started the fire.....















and it took us bloody 1.5 hours to get the fire started.... (stupid heat bead....) In the end, we had to have the fan blowing directly onto the pit, "fanning" the heat beads to keep the fire going....












But we had great fun, great food, great company....

Thanks peeps...

Mary! I miss you!!!!

19 Jan 2007, Friday - How I wish you were here!!!!

Went for my first facial here in Brisbane. Though the price is similar, but the way they do it and how Mary does it is so different. I don’t know if I’m being sceptical or biased but I felt that the local beautician’s main purpose is to sell me their product. There weren’t much facial massage and all were for too short a period of time. And she didn’t really put effort into extracting the black heads and pimples. Just squeeze squeeze here, squeeze squeeze there, no strength some more…

With Mary, she will “attack” the whole face, squeeze and squeeze until you “cry” but at least the face is clean and without “impurities”… And Mary does it systematically, section by section, so nothing gets left out… When she’s done, she gives the face another once over, to check if she has missed some spots….

So make appointments for me… I’m going back for Mary!

It’s a joke….

Somebody up there finds it funny….

People in SG / MY must all be singing…..

Rain, rain go away,
Go to Aussie any day,
They everyday pray and pray,
Hope you dump your water there….

While Roo-Land is praying very very very hard for the very very very much needed rainfall to fill their very very very low dam levels (now at 21% in BNE!), people in Lion city and Kancil-Land are praying very very very very hard for the very very very torrential rain to stop pouring so that their very very very wet and submerged town (some parts of Kota Tinggi is under 3m of water!) will not end up like Atlantis – under the water….

Brisbane's Wivenhoe Dam is down to 21% and is only touted to last another 18 months if no substantial rainfall happens there....

Useless sign.... believe it or not, what used to be filled with water is now the grassy patch of green that you see behind the sign. People used to be able to do water sports here, but now, people could probably bring their picnic basket and camp there...

Kota Tinggi submerged under 3m of water, only the roof tops are visible. When will the water recede? Already about 100,000 households have been misplaced....

Maybe they are thinking, let’s see what humans will do if:
1) they have too much water?
2) they have too little water?
3) we submerge the towns under water?
4) we dry out their dams until no water?
5) they are fast enough to think of a solution?
6) they are creative enough to solve the problem? (unfortunately no... but somebody was creative enough to make this into a money earning opportunity. Some "creative" people hired boats to take "tourist" around Kota Tinggi to "sight see" the submerged town and witness first hand the destruction caused by mother nature. They are charging SGD$2.20 per tourist now...)
7) their neighbours will take the initiative to help?
8) their neighbours will just sit back and see the show?

Maybe there’s a round of betting going on somewhere?

Now we all very very very seriously praying, that before something very very very serious happens (e.g. no water leading to shutting down of power lines leading to no power leading to failed industry leading to collapsed economy leading to unemployment leading to civil unrest leading to …… vs too much water leading to homeless people in crowded areas leading to contagious diseases leading to health crisis leading to collapsed economy leading to unemployment leading to civil unrest leading to ……) you decided to call it a day and let the very very very poor thing humans on earth have some very very very long yearned peace and normality in life…..

You were not the only one…

Stingers attack!!!

Dear Roger,

Take heart… you are not the only one… another 700+ swimmers have shared your experience of being “kissed” by the boneless buggers….

Lifesavers were busy handing out ice packs and calling ambulances for people who had allergic reactions to the stings. They were totally maxed out…

The buggers were “blown” to our beaches by the north-easterly winds and invaded beaches from The Spit to Coolangatta. Surprisingly, there were no cases reported on the Sunshine Coast!

If you were ever stung by one of these buggers, the most effective treatment is to wash your skin with fresh water and apply an ice pack. Do not rub / scratch the area. You might just aggravate it further.

The culprit - bluebottle jellyfish.....

(Looks like something from a sci-fi movie right? Alien invasion? haha...)

The sand, sea and stinger.....

13 Jan 2007 - Maiden swim of 2007!

Summer's here and it's a waster if we don't follow the crowds to frolic at the beach and expose ourselves to the elements (sunburns, sandflies and other hazards... what were you thinking?!)

After my badminton session at UQ and Esmond's half day work at Garden City, we set off for the golden strip half and hour down south in 1 car (5 grown adults squeezed into 1 Mazda Astina).

When we arrived, we diligently "slipped, slopped and slapped" on copius amount of sunscreen to avoid the "ow, ow, ouch" of peeling skin under the relentless sun. We even went contrary to the locals and "hid" in the shadow of a building (sheltered from direct sunlight)!

The guys warmed up with a game of frisbee.

Took a breather, then set off bravely to confront the waves with their body boards.

Kudos goes to Heng On for body-boarding even though he doesn't know how to swim!

We girls decided to stay dry....

Suddenly, we heard an "ouch!" and saw Roger sitting on the sand grabbing onto his ankle. Something had bitten him and it was very painful. We looked around and saw nothing suspicious but the pain was intensifying by the minute. A kind man and his son came over to check if everything was alright. He said that it's likely the "Blue Bottle Jellyfish" that was the culprit, it's not life threatening (just very annoying), and the lifeguards will have something to ease the pain.

The aggressor - Blue Bottle jellyfish....

So we trudged forward some 500m (coz we were swimming away from the flags to avoid the crowds) in seach of the "cure" - a bag of ice.

Then we also found that the lifeguards had put up warning signs that there are "marine stingers" about and that swimmers are to keep at their own depth (whatever that means....)

Being stung sucks and certainly put a damper on swimming in the sea.

So we trudged back to our bags with the body boards in tow (literally...)

Stopping once in a while to let the "victim" nurse his wound.

When we got back, Esmond decided that he wanted to try out the "whites" age old liking of being buried in the sand. And the rest of the gang gamely acceded to his request. They even went as far as giving Esmond the "perfect" body (equipped with six packs and all....)

When they've got enough of the "body building" they reverted back to frisbee throwing until.....the frisbee flew too far out and dove into the sea....

The victim boldly trudged into the water again to seach for the missing disc... (all the while praying that he won't be "second time lucky"....

Despite the "search party's" effort in combing the area, the lost frisbee was never to be found... (maybe King Triton saw that the game was so fun, that he decided to keep it so that he could throw a few disc at King Neptune! haha...)

We packed up and left for dinner at a Thai restaurant opposite Jupiter Conrad Casino. They have very good business and the food was very very delicious.... (we cleared all our plates.... most of them cleared by Esmond....)

We had some bubblies to go along with our dinner...

After dinner, the guys were feeling lucky so we took the monorail to go across to the casino.

But alas, it was not to be, as we were in our shorts and thongs.... (i.e. not appropriately dressed for the now newly renovated casino....)

With nothing else to explore, we headed back to Brisbane and ended our half day trip to the Gold Coast.

Get out blood suckers!!!

Recently, there's been a lot more ruckus and complaints lodged by a certain party. No, not some political parties or some idealistic youth with communism / feminism / sexism agendas. But parents, specifically the baby boomers (those born in the 1940 - 1950s) who are now parents to grown up kids.

On one hand, there are groups of parents that faces the age of problem of kids running away from home, MIA and turning up either dead or converted into some strange religion. On the other hand, there are another group of parents who are increasingly getting more and more resentful of their grown kids. Why? Because they are living off them! The kids are spending their golden egg, their retirement funds!

Of course the kids don't want to move out. They don't need to pay rent, don't need to do any chores, don't even need to pay any bills for food and utilities! Who in their right mind would move?! Without having to pay for these "daily expenses", these youngsters get to enjoy / buy all the expensive, branded and most of the time unnecessary items in their life!

It's not entirely the kids' fault either. The parents never assert their "powers" to demand payment from their kids! To Asians, it's only natural that when you start working, you bring money back home to your aging parents, to repay and "compensate" for all the things that they've done to raise you, to provide them a comfortable retirement. And if you dare to defy them, you'll be sent to hell and back for your unfilialness.... And in the case of Singapore, the Government will step in and order the kid to pay monthly "alimony" to his / her parents.

So parents, assert your authority, demand payment from your working kids (please be reasonable lah...) or give them the boot! (and stop complaining!!!!)

So green!

After bouts of drizzling rain, cool weather and breeze spells, the whole world turned green. So green, that it wasn't like summer at all (coz usually, with the strong sun and little rain, green grass would have been fried a golden yellow).

It's as if the plants totally sucked up all the water that was rained from the sky and transferred them into energy to grow new shoots / branches / leaves / flowers, so much so that in a span of 2 weeks, the bush had grown to twice its height and looks like having a bad hair day.

But we're not complaining. It's always nicer to have green sceneries rather than brown dead grass and balding trees, not to mention the cool weather. So, instead of singing Rain Rain Go Away, we should be praying hard that they (the rain clouds and its cargo) are here to stay for the summer and consider taking a dump at Brisbane's much dried up dam.