Surprise, surprise!!! ~~ 4


15 Sept 2007, Saturday - Once in a lifetime....


A big conspiracy was going on in the background without the knowledge of the lead actress.... Emails were flying back and forth between 4 parties. So much planning and scheming going on behind the scenes, plots and scenarios set out only for 1 motive....


Mastermind - Rynaldo
The "victim" - Jennifer Ma

Accomplices - Haw & Yan Er, Heng Yi Ting & Phoebe, Esmond & Rachel

Decoy - Surprise party setup by Heng Yi Ting to celebrate his & Phoebe's anniversary


6.30pm - Black Forest German Restaurant at Highgate Hill

Delicious food, HUGE portions (even Esmond and Haw had trouble finishing it....). We had pork hock, roast duck and last but not least, sausages....

Unbeknownst to Jennifer, Heng "suggested" to go for a karaoke session which she accepted without any tinge of suspicions.

Rynaldo had already made prior bookings with the Neway Karaoke but still had to pretend to go outside to make a call and enquire if theyhave the room for us. (which of course they did...)

So at 8.40pm, we made our way to the Sunnybank for Neway Karaoke... we happily settled down and go about putting in our selection of songs, one of which is to be sung by the mastermind - Rynaldo, who does not include Mandarin as his spoken language since he's from Indonesia. This song was originally sung by Emil Chau and is titled “我是真的付出我的爱”.

So how can someone who doesn't know Mandarin sing the song? Easy, use "han yu pin yin" i.e. phonetics for Mandarin! Haw has kindly provided Rey with the "translation" who had less than 2 days to practice at home without Jennifer's knowledge.

When the proposal song comes to the queue, Rey sent Jennifer out to get the flowers from the car. He had lied earlier that the flowers were for Phoebe and Heng had requested for Rey to buy it on his behalf so that he can present it to Phoebe as a surprise.

So imagine how confuse Jennifer must be when she came in with the flowers and Heng didn't want to take it from her and Rey was serenading her with the song.












Jennifer couldn't think of what to make of the situation... At the end of the song, Rey went down on one knee, presented the ring and pop the BIG question....




Rey: Jennifer Ma, will you marry me?










And the answer is....



Jennifer Ma: Yes I will.










Presenting the newly engaged Mr & Mrs Rynaldo Wahyudi....

Looking forward to your solemnization at 8am on 08.08.2008!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Happy Birthday!!!!

Happy Birthday to Christina and Heng Onn!!!

The happy couple celebrated their respective birthdays in August and September with friends over dinner and a nice chat.

Christina making a wish....

Could not get a good shot of Christina coz Esmond's spiky hair was always in the way!

Oi Hung even personally baked a very delicious cake for Heng Onn!

See how happy Mr Yeong is to be kissed by his beautiful Christina....

Many happy returns to both of you and may all your wishes come true....

Goodbye and take care.....

This year, one of the most frequent places that we've been to is the Brisbane International Airport. It's not because we've been going on holidays... It's because we've sent off quite a number of friends....

Roger was the first to go in April 07. He left Bris Vegas for cold, wet and gloomy Birmingham... He had the grandest send off.... look at the number of people at the airport seeing him off! (His face really very big! ha ha...)

Then came my sis, who had completed her studies and had gone back to MY / SG.... My sis and her friend had a little drama coz of their very over-weight / excess luggage....

Yenki, our cute housemate who had returned to HK.

Last but not least Pei, who had gone back to MY to join her fiance - "Tze Tze", and begin a new chapter in life.

Our social circle is shrinking!!! HELP!!!

P/s: Take care and keep in touch! Come back when you've had enough outside~~~!

MontVille.....


01 Sept 2007, Saturday - First day of spring....

We tagged along Heng Onn who had friends visiting from Malaysia on their trip up to MontVille, a small town up north on the way toward Sunshine Coast, past the famous Australia Zoo.

As usual, we started of bright and early.



We travelled in a convoy of 4 cars.







But we've got some new "followers" apart from Heng Onn's friends. This time, Esmond and I brought along 3 of my sister's friends from uni.

The drive took more than an hour. First stop, Gerrard's Point.













The scenery up north is so much different from those down south. At least, everything here appears green (not brown). And there are rolls after rolls of hills and valleys.



Mr Yong and Mr Yeong.









We then proceeded on to the proper Gallery Walk of MontVille, which is another 15 minutes drive away.

People who like arts and craft should come here. They have shops that sells exquisite items from cuckoo clocks, grandfather's clock, masquerade masks, life like dolls, carvings, miniature models, toys, puzzles, clothings, household decorations etc etc!!!

Finger puppets for entertainment!








The Golliwogs....
(anybody remember the story?)









Esmond, with Garfield....
Both are born in the year 1978....










For car junkies....








For the cheeky fellas.....







They even have a shop that only sells Christmas Decorations!
(too bad this nutcracker isn't for sale....)








Fruits anyone?
(these are actually candles.....)

40% alcohol content liquors...?

Pei Xuan was doing her impression of Puss from Shrek.

After much walking and window shopping, we got thirsty and tired so we headed for....


Ice creams!!!
Esmond had a ginger flavoured ice cream. Not too bad, but not everyone can accept it.





And males being males, they soon got bored with the window shopping. However, not to fret, wives can drop off their husbands and continue with their spree....



Mr. Yong....








Mr. Yeong....

The most interesting thing that we saw on MontVille is.... Candy making - Live demonstration. Do you know that you can have personalised candy? (i.e. you can put in Tim love Mel) All these in 7kg worth of sugar and AU$176.....










First, they shape the names and heart shapes. Covered and roll them in another sheet of white sugar dough. Poke some holes in both ends so that external coloured cover will adhere to the names.













Roll and stretch the sugar dough. Stretch the dough until it resembles a hose and cut them into strips of about 1 feet.

Roll them on the metal table to cool and solidify them. Once they are cool, chop them up into bite site pieces....

If anybody is looking for unique wedding favours, this would be one of them.... (shucks! Why didn't we think of this!!!)

Nice trip to mark the first day of spring!

Moving on.....


Been wondering why there's been no updates for a while? Well, we were busy moving house...

We've moved from a townhouse to a house that's closer to the train station...

This time, it's a single storey (or lowset as they call it here), 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom (including ensuite) and 1 lockup garage. It's a corner unit with a little grounds / grass.... (woe to us city dwellers who never had gardens to tend to...)










What you see from the front ....










The side (yes, it's a corner lot) and our paved backyard....

It took us two whole days to shift from the townhouse to the house. We even rented a truck to move our stuff and still we had to make quite a number of rounds back and forth! The day (11 Aug 2007) started from 7.30am and doesn't end until past 10pm... We rewarded ourselves to Yum Cha (dim sum) supper at The Manors....

Tired movers....

Esmond and David crashed on the sofa...







Special thanks to Heng Onn and Christina (for lending Heng Onn to us...) in helping us move.










And because of the small, small garden, Esmond bought himself some new toys... a blower cum mulcher and a hedge trimmer.... Gardening is a truly back breaking job.... took us a good part of the day to finish trimming the 4 plants outside....

More toys to come - lawn mower + line trimmer (akan datang.....)