More Updates from the past....

08 March 2008, Saturday - Seaworld, Southport - Gold Coast

One day before Heng Onn is due to leave for Malaysia, he still "dragged" us to accompany him to Seaworld. They were having a promotion - 50% off for locals!

So Heng Onn, Esmond and myself, invited Rey and Jennifer as well as Yenki to join us. So off we went in two cars. We started off with a full stomach after breakfast from Oriental.

First stop - the seal show....

Next stop - the new attraction - Shark bay....












The tank was huge! There were so many kinds of sharks in the tank, but they all seemed to be saying one thing ...... > "See what see? Never see a shark before ar? I bite you then you know..."

But we were lucky. We were there at the right time (12.30pm) coz we overheard a Seaworld employee telling someone else that there's going to be shark feeding then. So we waited and waited.... Finally.....












Once the cage came into the water, all the small fishes started to crowd around it. And when the tongs with the bait was out of the cage, the small fishes tried to get as many mouthful of food before the big guys came. The small fishes quickly darted away from the food when any sharks came close (probably afraid that it might end up as the shark's lunch accidently). In this case, it's "fish are food, not friends...."

It's hard to gauge the real size of the sharks when you are watching them from the tank. But it's a different story if you see it in this angle...

Compare its size against those of the smaller fishes.... scarry...











But if given a chance (and don't need to pay lots of money...) I'd love to be in their position and try feeding sharks....

Apart from seeing sea creatures, they (except Rey and me) were also there for the rides...

The rides at Seaworld didn't have enough "kicks" for these guys, who had promised to go to Dreamworld for more exhilarating rides when Heng Onn is back...

After that, we were all hungry so we headed for lunch within the theme park. We had some "distinguised guests" joining us for lunch too...











Last show of the day was the dolphin show. It was good because it had included some lucky audience for interaction with the dolphins. But the finale was the best....













The one thing we didn't manage to see at Seaworld was the polar bears. I only got to see its butt for a few seconds before it decided it was too hot to be outside so he went back into his enclosure. So we have to contend with taking photos at the Polar Bear exhibit sans the polar bear...











We also gave one show a miss. Why? Because we are not the target audience. Who is it then? They are for lucky persons who are treated like kings and queens....














That's right. The "screaming devils" a.k.a. kids.... look at the number of strollers! This is just 1/4 of it... Getting a whole family into a theme park is a very expensive affair. Normal price of adult entry cost $66, while kids go in at $33. If you are a family of 4, it would come up to close to $200 for entry alone! Then the merchandise?

The Sesame Street Beach is also another new addition to the theme park. All your favourite characters from the famous kids program were there. It's the one program that has kept me entertained for countless lunch / dinner when I was a screaming devil myself... (but it was probably my mom who was screaming then... screaming at me to start swallowing my food!)

The primary mode of transport within the theme park other than our own pair of legs is the cable car.... fortunately, the queue wasn't too long...













Esmond even caught up with an old friend of his.... and he was starting to get really chummy too...











Yes... the walrus is still there.... Yenki said it looked like a huge piece of s***... (it does, especially from the back... hahahah...)

We were there until the park closes at 5pm, after which we proceded to Ephraim Island at the architects' request.... It's an island with expensive housing.... It has a very beautiful sunset and there was a rainbow too...










Once we've satisfied the architect's "occupational obsessive behavious", we headed for dinner at Yahoo in Waterford.

It was a great day.

"Out of date" updates.... (amended)

Apologies for not updating for a fair bit since my last entry. There have just been too many events in the last quarter.

Since the two Christmas parties organised by each of our offices, we've got a couple more parties of our own.

A very special US family decided to make a visit down under and we were crazy enough to go see them!!! We had to jostle with other people and get in line to take our photos with this family family of four. Everybody in this world knows this family. Clue - they come from Springfield....

In the last week of Nov, Esmond and I had whipped ourselves a seafood dinner. Yes, Esmond ate fish - baked fish fillet no less... (for those who have known Esmond for some time, you'll know that he'll stay away from fish except when it's fishballs or fish & chips...). We have have a dozen baked oysters (all home made...)














We had also attended Christina's final year project exhibition at QUT's Garden Point campus. Congratulations to Christina for being awarded the Top Architectural Student of QUT.














And in order to tidy up the house for the new year (also because the root was messing with our pavement. One of them actually caused a big crack!), we engaged a tree lopping service to help us cut down the two trees on the front of our house, as well as trimmed most of the shrub we've got around the yard. This set us back a few hundred bucks....










When Dec came, we convinced Heng Onn that the best present that he could give Christina was a something that wouldn't add to their luggage but would still be sufficient to give her a pleasant surprise - a more up to date hair style. So we got off work early one day, went to a hair salon and got him a spanking new haircut. (and Christina was indeed pleasantly surprised....)

Despite the haircut, Heng onn was still styling it the same way as his old one. Esmond felt sorry for their hair stylist who had painstakingly put in every snip on his head. So he imparted some hair styling techniques to him. (not just once too....)










After the styling session, we were all out on a trip to the northern suburbs. We stopped by Deagon to visit a big Taoist temple. However, we were a little too late as we reached there around 5pm.








After looking at the exterior of the temple, we proceeded to Portside to look at the Christmas tree that Heng onn insisted on visiting...













When we were with Portside, we went back to the Southern suburbs to see the Christmas decorations put up by the various households who were trying to compete to win the $5000 prize money. These people have put in a lot of effort and money to decorate their house for the Xmas spirit. The following entry won 2nd prize...











On the last working day before Christmas Eve, our office had a little Christmas lunch - potluck style. It was great to have everyone sitting down together, having lunch and opening up our presents from our secret santas.














Come Christmas Eve, we were all busy preparing for the big seafood dinner at home. Esmond and Heng Onn were enjoying themselves, gossipping away while peeling shells off 1kg of grey prawns...













As I had to work that day, Christina had to prepare bulk of the food. Look at our fridge! It's stuffed with food to the brim. Our friends had also cooked a few dishes to add to the range of food that we have...




















Look at the spread that we had on that night!!! There were a total of 21 of us and we fitted to the length of 3 tables... Shy had even gave Roger (who is in UK) a call on his mobile to "spite" him for leaving us behind. We even passed the mobile around to spread our Christmas cheer ... ;)

After dinner, it was time for gift exchange. Everyone has to come with a gift of about $10 in value or a couple gift of about $20 in value. We drew lots and will choose our presents in sequence. After selection, we will have to unwrap our present there and then. Those whose sequence come later has the ability / right to snatch other people's gift or choose to select one from the pile.











So there were people who liked their choice very much and tried to discourage people from taking theirs, while others (like Peter) tried very very hard to sell his... There were also people snatching gifts from each others... some who went for the biggest gift and others who went for the most practical gift (Rey snatched the toilet rolls from Ian to save him from having to buy it)and two (Kelvin and Esmond) who came to an "under table" agreement to snatch gifts for each other and exchange them at the end.














This game of gift exchange took about a couple of hours, before we break for dessert prepared by Oi Hung and Winnie.



















And our party went past midnight.....





















Though we were tired after the long day, we were very happy to have invited our friends to join us in celebrating Christmas together.

The next day, all four of us went down to Harbour Town and Surfer's Paradise for the very much anticipated Boxing Day Sale! Christina and I just went berserk! It was our retail therapy. But before we embarked on our retail therapy, we headed to Ikea for breakfast and brunch.

And Ikea gave Heng Onn a new inspiration for taking photos - through a mirror. This idea bring forth loads of silly shots throughout the day...

While I had to work in the week leading up to the new year, the two guys at home were fortunate enough to be given leave from work. So with time on their hands, they embarked on a little painting project. Being an architect, Heng Onn couldn't stand the gastly multiple colours on our wall, so he had "psychoed" Esmond into giving some of the walls a fresh coat of paint. Initially, it was just one / two walls in the living. This soon was expanded into almost the whole living room, kitchen and master bedroom.














In the next weekend, we went to 17 Mile Rock for a picnic cum BBQ.














On New Year's Eve, I managed to take time off and stayed home. We prepared Tempura Dinner with guidance from Tim - Esmond's ex-colleague from CBA. He had worked in a Japanese restaurant before and had loads of experience in culinary. For this, we drove to Portside to buy fresh prawns for the Tempura dinner. (and did a little detour for some ice creams....)












Esmond and Heng Onn tried their hands at making and frying tempura prawns and veges.














We had a very very sumptious tempura dinner. (Doesn't it look delicious?)



















Haw and Yan Er stayed over for the night. We played Texas hold'em poker till 4am. We didn't even realised that it was already that late, especially for Heng Onn because his usual bedtime is 930pm! By then, we could hear the birds chirping outside and the sun starting to rise. So had a "competition". The last one to wake up will need to treat all the rest to breakfast!

In the end, Rynaldo was the first one to wake up at 6++ (and he even went back to his home to take a bath and change his clothes). Next was Heng Onn, then me, Christina, Haw and a tie between Yan Er and Esmond.

There was no breakfast treat but we had all gone to meet up with Kelvin and Winnie for brunch at Neway.