Riverfire 2008

Brisbane's annual Riverfire took place on 30 Aug 2008.

Bee Yen and Robert had invited us over to their place at Kangaroo Point for dinner and rooftop viewing of the annual event.

After some nibblies, we had a short stroll along the river to see formation flying. This is one of the programs leading up to the fireworks display later on in the night.











All along the various points in the Brisbane river, there are barges carrying tonnes of "gunpowder" that will light up the sky for 20 - 30 minutes...












Lots of people, families, friends, were out in droves at different spots along the river and parks having their picnics. Kids entertained themselves by clambering in and out of trees...












As night falls, the city lit up and people move towards the river banks, windows and rooftops.












The Riverside Centre was packed full to the brim!











And talk about starting off with a big bang! The Riverfire have traditionally started with a "dump and burn" display by a fighter plane. What is dump and burn? Well, it's the fighter jet dumping petrol and using it's turbine to burn the petrol trail it dumped... Given the price of petrol, it's quite a costly exercise...












With the departure of the fighter jet, came the blistering bangs of multi coloured fireworks...

Even the Story Bridge came on 'fire'....

And of course, the show had to end with another round of dump and burn...

Thank you Bee Yen, Robert for having us. It was a wonderful evening....

08:08 on 08.08.08

After the surprise proposal in 2007, the day has come to finally cement their commitment to each other.

And what better day than 08.08.08? With 8 being an auspicious number for the Chinese community, Jennifer and Rey tied the knot at the Registry of Marriage in Brisbane.












The 'ceremony' begins at 08:08am on 08.08.08...












The ceremony was simple and sweet. Once everybody (the bride, the groom and the two witnesses) have put their signatures on the dotted line in the presence of the solemnizer, Rey and Jennifer were pronounced man and wife...















This date is so special (only occurs once in a century), that Channel 9's Today show came and did a recording and interview of the happy couple. (So we all had our 3 seconds of fame except the bride and groom of course, which had their few minutes of fame...)













Their special day was also published in the community papers (Brisbane Times) too!

So quite a number of people shared their joy....

All the best to the happy couple. May they havea blessed marriage for all eternity...

Heartiest congratulations to Mr and Mrs Rynaldo Wahyudi!!!

Happy 2nd Wedding Anniversary....

It was the 2nd anniversary of our customary wedding and after a day of shopping at Harbour Town, we proceeded to Railway Hotel, Beaudesert for dinner.














We came across this venue following one of Esmond's inspection. The owner had then, with much enthutiasm, brought Esmond to his restaurant and show case the panels of beef. The meat all originates from his farm nearby and he promised that it will be the best and cheapest premium cut beef he had ever tasted...

So with great expectations, we headed towards Beaudesert and ordered our prime cut beef...














First up, entrees.... Tomato & basil soup, Lobster mornay...
















The soup was nice and we wished we had more of the lobster!

Next up, our prime cut beef....

Esmond on the beef on bone while I had the fillet....

They were good... can't wait to go there for round 2 again....

Thanks for the treat hon....

Out with the old, in with the new....

After close to 3 years, we finally said goodbye to the 1994 Mazda Astina ....




and welcomed a 2005 Honda Accord Euro....

:)

Thanks for the last 3 years Mazda...

World Cup Qualifier - Australia vs Iraq!!!


There's no way Esmond would let this slip.... Live viewing of an international soccer match wor...

A few months before the "big event", Esmond had gone online to book "VIP seats" so he could be close to the action and witness some world class soccer playing...

So on the first day of June, together with Haw and Yan, we headed towards Suncorp Stadium at Milton. Esmond even bought a Socceroos' scarf to show support to the national Australian soccer team...











The stadium was packed full of supporters from both camp (of course, majority going for the Australian camp...)

Supporters of the Iraqi camp...

Before long, soccer players from both nations stride out from their dressing rooms onto the field and into the loud screams of supporters... then came the photo taking and the customary exchanging of "gifts" between the two captains before playing one game of two-ups to determine which side start first....

And with the shrill blow of the whistle by the chief referee, the action began....

The lines of cameramen propped up their lenses in preparation of capturing "the golden moment"...













And belong long, some action did come along...











Two Iraqi supporters had done a "streaker"... except with their clothes on and with the Iraqi flag on their backs... After about a minute of "fame", they were captured and escorted off the field... Then it started raining plastic cups (some still with beer in it...) and paraphenalias coupled with jeers from the Australian camp...












After the excitement, suddenly there were a whole stream of uniformed officers stationed all around the spectator stands to prevent any more "streaking" incidents from disrupting the competition... and in order not to obscure the vision of the supporters, the uniformed officers had to kneel before them.

And after a while of kneeling and facing the crowds, some officers were beginning to wonder how long more they've still got to be down on one knee...

They didn't have to wait too long ... shortly before the game ends, the Socceroos put one into the net... Australia 1 - Iraq 0..... Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi OI!!

Watch out for my golden haired leg kick! "whoo ah!!!"

New Addition to the Family....

Before you let your mind run wild with imagination, read on....

The new addition is not that of a two legged kind, but that with four legs and fur.

One day, Esmond was out doing some gardening and I brought him some chips and water. Then I saw a ball of orange fur, sunning himself at the neighbour's. I held out a piece of chip and the rest is history....

We weren't sure if he'd stay for the long run, so put him up in a box (lined with David's old fleece sweater and some T-shirts) for a few days...














We keep expecting not to see him when we came back from work... but he hung on... In the first few days, we fed him what we ate. So he'd share our pasta bolognaise, rice etc...















As time goes by, we started buying cat stuff, bit by bit.

First off, cat food. We got him Whiskas dry cat food... and he loves it. We bought him cat food from other brands and he didn't like any of them. We also got him some wet food (which we give as a weekly treat on Sundays and special days like Christmas / New Year etc). Even wet food he favours Whiskas... he's a loyal Whiskas supporter!!!

Maybe he fell for their commercials!!!
- Hip Hop Dancing Mouse
- Bagpipe Playing Mouse

I must admit that their commercials are quite funny...

The only thing that our cat doesn't like about Whiskas dry food are the Denta bits... the ones that are in the shape of a cross... he'll pick the others to eat and the last few bits that he leaves behind (if he's had enough) will be the crosses!














Next, we need to think of a name for the cat... There were a few, including Sargeant - because of the pattern on his head... Finally, we settled on Tiger because of the stripes on his body. However, he doesn't respond to the name Tiger, so in the end, his name is Mao Mao... (as in the chinese character & pronunciation of cat...) I know it's not original, but it's the only name that the cat responds to, so no choice loh... he chose the name what...

And how do we know it's a he? Well, a few days after he stayed with us, we noticed that it wasn't it usual self and was always tired and didn't have appetite for his food. So we made an appointment to bring him to the vet the next day. On the day that we were to bring him to the vet, he was well already! We still decided to bring him for a check just in case as well as to check if he's been tagged. The vet checked for microchips and tattoos but there were none so we couldn't trace it back to its original owner. The vet also told us that he was definitely owned by someone else because there was no sign of fleas on the cat (which is pretty impossible for a stray), its a "HE" and he looks healthy and well maintained, and he's been spayed (i.e. he's a eunuch!!)... So thanks to the previous owner, we have a spayed male cat.

So since April 08, we've had the cat (it's coming to a year now!!!)...

He's turning more manja by the day and has started to demand some attention when we come back from work in the evening.

So now, we have someone to greet us when we come back to work!

And how does he repay us?...... (Hint: Studio Ghibli's The Cat Returns)

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..

.

Yes, that's a rat... a baby one... I had to wrestle it away from him and 'buy' it off him with some food...

Apart from rats, he had come back with lizards and grasshoppers.... We saw him "fighting" with a praying mantis the other day too... One day, he left a bird for Esmond on floor next to the car, right at the driver's side...

Thanks for all your repayments Mao, but we prefer cash or gold bullion!

CNY in Lion city.....


We were back in Singapore to celebrate CNY with the family in Feb 2008, first time since we relocated to Brisbane. I must say the festive mood in Singapore is so much stronger. The mood in Brisbane is actually non-existent...

Of course, our other aim of coming back is to catch up with family ......... and food!!! (of course lah!)

Had Jap food (forgot name of restaurant) at Bugis with sis and bro and sis-in-law to be....

We also had a walk around Raffles Place, financial district of Singapore. This place has truly changed a lot. When we left in mid 2006, much of the district (especially those that face the sea) was under construction. There were road blocks everywhere. Now, there are about 3 new spanking buildings lining the water's edge (which had been pushed further out...)

One Raffles Link even has an underground "tunnel" to the Raffles Place MRT!! And we saw that staff had to actually swipe their access card into a gantry (much like the MRT's) to get into the lift lobbies! Talk about stringent security sia.... Gone are the days where you can just walk up to any offices in the building...

We also caught up with shopping and had been shopping till we drop (and burnt a bloody big hole in our pockets) right until CNY eve itself!

We had an earlier re-union dinner (around 4.30pm) because my FIL had to work that evening.

On the first day of CNY, we went to visit a few of Esmond's relatives. After the visits, we went to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in China Town.

They had a mini exhibition up on level 3 (?) about CNY... so we were horsing around a bit before we headed back to TPY and bought tickets to watch Ah Long Pte Ltd by Fann Wong and Mark Lee.

I must say it was pretty funny... but you'd have to know a fair bit of hokkien to understand the movie, hence probably only Malaysians and Singapeans understand it best. The Singapore movie also took quite a number of jibes and jokes on its next door neighbour too... for this, you'd have to know the recent political history to truly understand it's meaning...

One the morning of the 2nd day, Esmond and I proceeded to JB where we got picked up by my Dad, bro and sis, back to my hometown - BP....











It was good to go back to BP. Mom had cooked up a storm and Kuma was back from Sabah. Because there's not much attractions (or distractions) in BP, we spent most of our time at home, catching up. We not only caught up with each other, we also caught up with our hand held games, comic and hawker food too!

Though we would love to stay in BP forever, it was time for us to head back to SG after a few days.

Back in SG, we caught up with friends for dinner.












Went shopping at Vivo City again.... (even though Esmond caught a cold...)












And even celebrated both YY and Esmond's birthday.... their birth days are just 5 days apart.... Round 1 celebrations at home....














Round 2 celebrations at Swensens @ Orchard.

It was too short a stay, and before long, we were on the plane, back to Brisbane again....