Licensed to Drive....

9 Aug 2006, Wed - Guess what? After two attempts at the written road rules test, I've got my Queensland Driving License! haha... No more problems in proving my Queensland residency! Yeah!

FYI, there's no such thing as an identity card here in Australia. (The government is fighting to have it implemented but the residents are not very keen on the idea as they fear that the "gahmen" will peep in on them every now and then). So, for an adult, the only way to prove that you are a resident is via a driving license or a staff pass (given by your employer, but not every employer has this photo-id tag giving habit). So prior to today, I'm still considered a "visitor".

Fortunately for my Singaporean driving license, I didn't have to take the practical driving test. I just need to pass the theory. (Thank God!)

Now, I'm licensed to drive in 3 countries! haha....

p/s: Sorry, not posting any photos of my licenses for fear of potential identity theft. Apparently, it's quite a common thing here in Aussie-land. There's a woman who stole multiple women's identity and their bank cards. She managed to have financial institution issue her some credit cards based on her fake identity, on the pretext of losing her cards. This allowed her to "luk" card on her shopping spree... Thank goodnes, she has been apprehended.

Aussie's Favourite Pastime...

5 Aug 2006 ~ Another weekend, another activity. This time, we do as the Romans' do. When you are living in Aussie-land, you won't be a real Aussie bloke / sheila if you don't take pride and enjoy a good old barbeque! So, we did ~ BBQ with a view!

8 Adults and a baby drove up to Mt. Tamborine for some food grilling.










We travel in a convoy of 3 cars, equipped with a walkie talkie set for each car for communication and entertainment (the guys were singing on the walkie - haha!).










Mt. Tamborine is part of a national park named Witches Falls, which was proclaimed the first national park of Queensland on 28 March 1908!

When we arrived, it started drizzling. We thought that'd be the end of our 'smokin" attempt. But lady luck was smiling on our side and it was just a passing cloud. We found a spot, and started unloading real fast coz we were all starving (this includes the baby, who was soon wailing for her milk).

(Baby wasn't pleased with the view)












The Three Muskateers - trying to get the fire started and some food down everybody to wipe off the crankiness and hungry growls.





And after some food, everybody's happy, including baby.












Thanks to W and K, for the delicious salad and chicken satay!









And in the middle of our session, out trots this carriage. It's an interesting way to fetch the bride. At least it's something new and not the conventional Mercedes Bank tied with ribbon sashes.




Then the neighbour's dog decided to drop in. No, not to play ball but to get some food. He did a very good job in getting the grubs and he is a very persistent dog. He sits patiently and waits queitly for food to drop down from the sky.










After all the food, the sun decided that he's had enough for the day and started to set.






Though the day view wasn't anything great, but the sun set was definitely spectacular. We had a cloudy, windy day that day so it seemed as if heaven and earth was clearly divided by the great big band of puff.





And before the sun goes to sleep, it decided to throw some pretty
rays on the lazy clouds still floating about, unwilling to leave.


















And the group photo says it all. We had a great day.



Especially the guys, who are all very well-fed.







Reminiscing the good old army days.

Forward!!!!!

Have you ever walked to an island?

30 July 2006 - We did! At Wellington Point, close to Moreton Tourist Drive where people can ogle at migrating whales.

Can you see the island?

We originally wanted to have our picnic at Mt. Cotton. But on arrival, we found that we have to pay AU$4 per person in order to get to the top of the mountain. We decided that it wasn't worth AU$16, so we headed off to Wellington Point. However, we did find some pretty flowers.













We were greeted with stunning views of the bay on our arrival. We grabbed our goodies from the car and settled down on a table with a sea view but unfortunately, it didn't come with any shades.

Clear blue sky, clear blue sea.....







After lunch, Esmo and D caught some discs before we embarked on our llllloooooooooonnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggg walk to the island. No kidding, it took us more than half an hour to get there!










Along the way, we found some shells and some pi pis (a.k.a. la la(s))!












Finally, we arrived at the island only to find some cactuses amongst the plants, the setting sun and the incoming tide.












Come to think of it, it is actually a little daunting. What if there were some freak lunar activity that sped up the incoming tide, stranding us on the island with night falling and the cold winter winds.... sounds like "Survivor: Exile Island"... haha...

Fortunately, no such thing happened and we managed to get our sore legs back to mainland. But before we got to that, we admired the sun setting on the horizon.

It's beautiful and one could never get enough of it. It gave the sky some very beautiful colours and provided a sense of tranquility all around. If only the whole world is this peaceful, and everybody gets a chance to admire the scenery after a long hard day's work.

"Suay"....

Friday, 28 July 2006 - We came back from our shopping for our picnic at Mt. Cotton when Esmo realised that his tyres and car were splattered with white paint. Fortunately for his Kinder Surprise chocolate (which he forgot), he went back to the car after unloading the groceries and found the "art".

Immediately, we launched an emergency car washing session at 9pm on a winter night! It was cold and the water made it worse. Esmo and D did what they could to scrub out the paints. They managed to get it off the body but not the tyres. The back tyre on the right hand side got the brunt of it. It kinda looks great coz it resembles the aftermath of off-road drives on snow covered territory. But it looks weird since it's the only tyre that looks like it. The other three had little spots on it. So we are contemplating if we want to have the other three "painted" as well... haha...

The culprit? Well, we retraced our steps the next morning and found this.....

Some bugger had spilled a great big can of paint on the road and did not bother to clean up or even put up a sign warning drivers of the "compulsory art". Looks like we were not the only "suay" (a.k.a. unlucky) one....

Movie World!!!!!

We stepped foot in Warner Brother's Movie World last Saturday, 22 June 2006. It was good timing, we had friends, sister and cousin having fun in the theme park located in the Gold Coast!

First stop - Superman Escapes! Me and my sis chicken out, while the rest of the guys strut up to the queue. We had good reasons to back out. The ride reaches 100m in 2 seconds, on top of that there was a virtually 90 degree drop! And because of that, we girls became the "carer of bags" coz if not, it'll be raining bags, wallets, handphones, keys, sunglasses, specs, sweets, cash, coins etc etc...












The brave souls that survived the 90 degree free fall....





The bag carer and the boy who wished he was tall enough to experience the free fall and brag to his friends at school afterwards....

Theme parks can be cruel.....



There's also a new exhibit on Esmo's favourite movie - The Matrix... Too bad there isn't a ride whereby they can suck you into a roller coaster ride through a public telephone...












Then the guys went on another thrilling ride - Lethal Weapon, where your feet hangs loose and you go through a 360 degrees loop. Did we girls get on any roller coaster rides? Yes we did, Scooby Doo no less... Too bad we couldn't take any pictures coz it was in a building, dark, some drops and lots of sharp turns.













And after all these adrenalin rush, we all went cuckoo for a while....






























After an exhilarating day, we split and D, Esmo, Sis and I headed out for Surfer's Paradise for some dinner. But before we could get to our grubs, we stopped by to play a little mini golf.

We pitted it out at King Tut's and the losers had to treat everybody to dinner.













The food (Thai) was nice and we had a very fulfilling dinner.

Life in the Sunshine State....

Sunshine State a.k.a. Queensland. To be exact, I'm currently in Brisbane ~ the Great South East!


This is home, a 3 bedroom townhouse in a suburb called Runcorn, 30 minutes away from the Gold Coast.

We're sharing this with two other housemates, our friends from SG and HK.



We've even got our own pets! (it came with the house...)







Lizzy, is the blue tongue lizard who resides between the rocks in our backyard. It'll come out to bask itself in the sun when she's cold.

Peewee is the bird who is lonely and is always trying to "date" his friend in the rear view mirror.

Our room was recently furnished with our bedroom set which we bought from a furniture store. And in true blue Chinese fashion, we were both assembling our bed a la "an chuang".













Lucky it's not that hard to assemble!

And the end result is:









Pretty?

We liked it. It's a lot more sturdier (also a lot more heavier) and we hope it will last at least 10 years? haha..

And I've got a new toy! It's a gift from my hubby (as promised during on our big day.. haha).




A Nokia 6280 in burnt orange colour!