tuesday night...

i took dad to eat all you can eat mussels @ bungalow 8 on tuesday night. my dad is the typical chinaman so you can only imagine my fear for bringing him to eat ONLY mussels for a meal. to begin with, we ordered 2 bowls of laksa, 2 bowls of tom yum, 1 bowl of white wine and 1 bowl of vegetable flavoured mussels (between 6 people) - turns out, my dad was quite the fan! we ordered round two... and mike and i proceeded with a final round three...

i found my next career...

Your Fashion Style is Trendy

You love fashion and live to shop And keeping up with the lastet trends is what you love best You know what's in, out, about to be in, and about to be out You love to dress your friends and would make a killer celebrity stylist

What's Your Fashion Style?

the happy couple

we celebrated chen and jessie's final wedding dinner last night at the manly phoenix chinese restaurant. chen and jessie had already celebrated their marriage 3 times prior to last night - once in margaret river, once in singapore and once in malaysia. last night's dinner was just for friends in sydney - 3 tables of loud young asians... i felt sorry for the couples who were dining at the restaurant for a romantic occasion.

i think my ultimate job would be to become a wedding planner (if anyone needs a wedding planner let me know!)... i love weddings. i'm sure i'm not the only one who enjoys attending weddings, the ambience, the happy couple celebrating their love for each other, the beginnings of their lives as one... it's so beautiful!

we started the evening at the cruise bar...

then we headed to the manly wharf hotel...

and finally settled ourselves at the manly phoenix for our delicious banquet...

and after a few drinks...

the infamous tequila train...

mr. and mrs. chen wei ng...

flashes from above...

i went out earlier this evening to get fuel and do some grocery shopping. i saw some bright flashes of light on the way driving there. i initially thought it was just some crazy dude high beaming someone so i didn't pay much attention to it. but the 'flashing' followed me for my the entire trip to the petrol station. i got out of the car to take a more attentive look at the flashing and realised that it was insane lightning.

i think a storm is coming in to sydney... let's just hope its not too rainy - i hate the rain.

weekend at the gold coast

amanda and i planned a surprise trip to the gold coast for our oldest sister liz over the weekend. we had to wake up EARLY to catch a 7:05am flight and this did not go down well at all. in fact, we almost missed out flight, only arriving at the airport at 6:45am, 20 minutes before our flight was due to depart! i actually recall seeing the flash 'boarding' for our flight as we were checking in!


we arrived at the gold coast at 8am, checked into our serviced apartment at main beach and headed off to have a nice long breakfast down the road. the food was great, but the waiting time was loooong. i almost chewed my own leg off waiting for our breakfast to arrive. but i have learnt that slow service is a gold coast thing. it's a a holiday city where everyone is relaxed and chilled - not highly strung like me, the sydney-sider.

we walked around the shops at main beach and decided we'd buy finger foods from a gourmet deli home for lunch, sit on our balcony and drink nice white wine. we went to the local blockbuster video store and rented a couple of dvd's too. walked back to the apartment and my sisters decided to sleep for the next two hours.

anyway, the two princesses *cougholdiescough* decided to wake up at 1:30pm. actually, i decided to wake them up... warmed up the gourmet foods and we sat on the balcony to eat and drink. it was great - peaceful, warm and the perfect opportunity to discuss sisterly things. after lunch we decided to watch one of the dvd's we had hired... like amanda hadn't slept enough - she fell alseep for virtually the entire movie.

we went out shopping in the late afternoon for a couple of hours. damage was quite bad considering i am broke and we really only shopped for an hour. one thing i learnt this trip - never leave a lee sister with a credit card in a shopping mall, the result is any but pretty for the bank account.

then we headed out to a great thai restaurant at main beach for dinner - lemongrass on teddy. we had rice dumplings with coconut and mince baskets for entree, and for mains we had duck and lychee fried rice, bbq chicken and a prawn and scallop stirfry. we also shared a bottle of moet & chandon... wonderful!
then i left the oldies to hang out with a couple of work colleagues i met in kl. we went to a bar lounge called central, then headed to a couple more clubs later in the night. my goal was to be home in bed by midnight so i could wake up early on sunday for a nice breakfast with my sisters. in the end, i didn't get home until 6am... *insane* sunday morning my sisters went to do more shopping in the morning while i nursed my hangover. in a way it was a blessing in disguise because the amount of shopping my sisters did in 2 hours was enough to even shock me! we headed out for lunch near by - nice little authentic italian place. i needed something fatty and greasy to soak up the alcohol left in my system so i ordered lasagne with beef, ham, salami AND feta.

we spent the rest of our afternoon at the paradise spa and bath house. it was devine... i had a 90 minute hot stone massage and then my sisters and i met up for a wind down of the weekend at a private bath.

the weekend was fantastic, so fantastic that we have decided to make this trip and annual event.

*meh* days...

i'm having a *meh* week. emotionally i feel drained, physically i am sick and socially i feel lost. i don't know what's happened... maybe i need a break away from everything. my sister asked me the other day if i was unhappy about something and i didn't know how to respond. in general it's not that i feel unhappy, but i do feel that something is preventing me from being the ordinarily free and carefree person that i have always been.

if you asked me right now what would make me happy, this would be my answer: i wouldn't be working in an office job. instead, i'd be travelling and leaving my mark in all cities and countries that i pass through. money would not be an issue, work would be an absolutely joke and alcohol could be consumed in truckloads without feeling any bad effects the next day. am i the only one who feels this way?

on a side note, maxi's eye operation has left him feeling pretty unhappy. he's having trouble opening his eye now, so being the good mama that i am, i'm foregoing drinks tonight to take him to the vet *pat on the back*.

i'm looking forward to the weekend, amanda i have something very special planned for our oldest sister liz... will post some pics up when i get the chance.

papa don't preach...

my dad flew into town last night to help us look after maxi. i have this love-hate (more love) relationship when it comes to being close in proximity to my parents. i love them for so many reasons that i don't really think words can explain. their unconditional, understanding and patient love for me is so amazing i feel like the luckiest daughter in the world that they dote over me like i'm a 3 year old child. they are also VERY cute... at the same time, i hate that i will never be seen as a fully independent adult in their eyes. last night i was watching tv and my dad INSISTED that i stopped watching tv to go to bed because it was getting too late - it was 11:30pm! *sigh*

last night my dad met maxi for the first time and the way he interacted with maxi just made me feel so happy. my dad isn't a warm and fuzzy man, but with maxi i saw a softer and playful side of my dad that i don't see very often.

i don't think that i'm one that takes things for granted, but i guess always having had my parents around me - i just expect that they will always be around. i realise now when i look at my parents (dad especially), they won't be around forever. i scares me to think that my parents may not meet their grandchildren from me - heck, they may not even live to see me get married (i have a LONG way to go). dad is 67 years old, mum is 56 in less than a months time...

i need to invent a time preservation machine.

*bleh*

i cannot believe i'm AGAIN. i've been sick way too regularly this year... new years resolution: stay healthy and limit sickness to once every six months, NOT once every six weeks! *cough*

on friday night i had a work function. it was organised by the client of my ex-project so i felt very privileged to be invited. the function was held on the pontoon, the theme was 'hawaiian' (not very original i know). it was spectacular (i will have to post some pics up when i get hold of some). we cruised around the harbour from 6pm onwards - watched the sun set over the harbour bridge, opera house and city skyline. cocktails were served, finger foods and good music to dance the night away...

unfortunately due to my stupid sickness, i wasn't able to get stuck into the free alcohol but i made sure that i danced as much as possible. the pontoon docked back at the harbour at 11pm, by then i had lost my voice so i went home.

i went over to ian's place last night for osso bucco... i had never heard of it before, but it was good. the way it was cooked reminded me of oxtail in tomato sauce - very nice indeed - thanks gonz!!

look what i found!

i couldn't sleep last night so i surfed around the net and found this amazing collage created by my friend back in the year 2001...

can you find me?

when life hands you lemons...

...grab the salt and pass the tequila baby!

spring cleaning

i'm proud to say that in the midst of all my crazy nights out, i've managed to set aside some time this afternoon to do some spring cleaning. it's always interesting when i go through things of the past.

some things funny, some things sad, some things doubtful, some things i just rather not relive or be reminded of. receipts of shopping sprees are never good for the system - some ridiculous purchases that even i can't say i'm proud of! photos are also funny to look back on. some questionable hair styles, some questionable outfits and some questionable facial expressions!

then there are the little things that remind me of perth. i don't miss the place but when i look back i can't help but think - 'what if i never left/what if i never broke up with my ex/what if i continued to work in human resources'...

hindsight is a wonderful thing.