Good old memories penned down

Reading through my blog of previous posts: Amsterdam, London etc. Read out some excerpts of what I wrote to Chin Fei and we both have a jolly good laughter. Ah, good old memories. Lucky I penned them down because now I get to see the pictures and also read the things that happen at that time. It's good to blog. As I grow older, I will have many more cherished memories to share with my family and friends. :)

New Year's resolution

I am not the person who makes New Year's resolution because I don't think I'll be able to achieve them. LOL. So I prefer to just live life to the fullest and not adhere to the strict guidelines I set on myself. 

But this year is different. 

Many people have many New Year's resolutions, a list of them, that is. 

But I am different.

I only have one resolution this year.

That is to lose at least 5 kg by March 2013 and to stay that way at least till the end of the year when I get married. :P

I really hope that I can achieve that goal! It's just 3 more months for me and I'm trying to shed some kilos off but my weight is just fluctuating around the 55's range. Aargh.

Better put more effort in doing this. The wedding pictures are once in a lifetime and it will be long-lasting for future generations to see. I don't want it to be an everlasting regret that I look fat in the pictures.

Good luck to me! Gee. :D 


And oh, Happy New Year 2013 to everyone! :D

The end of the world

Today is Winter Solstice Day.

Today is also supposedly the end of the world. That is if the Mayan calendar prediction is right and apocalypse will occur.

But if we survive today, one year from now will be our wedding day. Looking forward to it! :D

Initially, it's predicted that the end of the world will occur at 12:01 am on 21st Dec 2012. But since we survive that, another said that it will only occur at 11:11 pm. How precise the time is, I don't know. So let's see how accurate the Mayans are.

Won a Westfield gift card!!

Ooh, so happy! Westfield has been organising a Christmas sorta treasure hunt thingy on Facebook this whole month. Every day, Westfield will send out clues to a shop where you can find the gift card after telling the person the code word. I attempted once on a Thursday, but missed out because I was too late. The clues are pretty easy and everytime I log onto Facebook to read the clues, I get mad at myself for not going to Westfield to grab that chance.

So last Sunday, Chin Fei decided to go to Westfield Carousel just for a treat because the coming weekend onwards, we'll be busy with the arrival of his family to Perth. He knows that we won't be spending time with each other for 2 weeks until his family leaves so he decided to take some hours off from work (although it was a Sunday) just to accompany me. Loves. :) He decided to use the La Premier tickets given by Justine and Jonathan during the Christmas dinner at our place to watch Skyfall at Hotys.

By the time when we arrived Westfield Carousel, the clues were not given out yet. I was active on my Facebook the entire time - thanks to my smartphone. Hehe. I kept on refreshing the page, and thank God, Vodafone was working fine at that time in that area. LOL. You know it makes me mad that the Vodafone coverage is so bad??

By the time I refreshed the page, I saw that the clues were posted up 11 minutes ago and that there were 3 people who liked it. All hopes were dashed but yet we still attempted to try our luck. The clue was "This store is an organisers dream! And no matter who you still have to buy for you are guaranteed to find something in here… a diary, travel wallet, journal or the best secret santa gift ever! PLUS! Today is the last day to get 20% off storewide! Be the first to say the code word ‘CAROLS’ to win today’s gift card!" 

Staying in the city, we enjoy the privilege of being able to visit each store and got to know them better. Now, this thing happened a while back when Chin Fei and I wanted to do our routine grocery shopping in Woolworths in Ennex 100. We walked past Kikki.K and saw a brochure that was advertising for a workshop on "Organising skills". I remember the time when I asked Chin Fei who would pay hundreds of dollars to attend a workshop on how to better organise your schedule??

So when this clue came up, the first thing that flashed in my mind was Kikki.K because of the word "Organisers"! Hehe. Even though we've been to Carousel so many times, we didn't know where Kikki.K was located. We rushed to the directory and being the anxious me, I saw that it was near Myer, and ran towards the entrance of Myer to look around for Kikki.K. Well, that really wasn't a good idea because we still didn't know where it was. LOL. Thank God there was an information centre nearby and Chin Fei rushed to ask the lady at the information centre and she was beaming with joy. Haha. I think she knew that we were after the gift card! LOL.

As I entered the shop, I asked the person attending the counter whether the gift card had been given out yet and to my greatest joy, she asked for the code word! Hehe. And just like that, I won the $200 Westfield gift card! OMG!! I was so excited that I was shaking throughout my body and couldn't fill in my particulars properly on the form!! Haha. Thank you Westfield for doing this! I love you so much! Now, what am I going to spend it on? Hehe. I'm thinking of popping in to Westfield again to try my luck again although I don't want to sound too greedy. Hehe. Aih, if only I have a car. It's troublesome to take the public transport all the way there and wait for the clue to be given out. There's no particular time and you just gotta wait, even if it means at 5 pm if the shops close at 9 pm. Aargh.

See, I couldn't stop smiling as I filled in the form!! LOL.

Still smiling when we were watching Skyfall in La Premier later. Tee hee hee.

Nevermind, I still won something (although someone won a $500 gift card!! Whoa!!!). I'm so so happy!! :D :D :D

Christmas is coming!

After being in Australia for almost 8 years now, I'm still the person who looks forward to Chinese New Year but not Christmas. I guess it's because we don't celebrate it at all. We don't give presents to anyone and we don't have any kids to lie to tell them about Santa. Yes, if we plan to stay on in Australia, we have to celebrate it and join the rest of the people tricking their kids in believing that Santa is real or else we'll face trouble at school if our kids tell his/her classmates about the nonexistence of Santa. LOL. Nevertheless, Christmas is something I have to like because that is the only big celebration here where everyone talks about. The holidays are something which I look forward to because that would mean that I get to spend quality time with Chin Fei. And Christmas is something I love because that is the time where the city is lit up and filled with colourful lights and the atmosphere is so good with carols and music happening everywhere. And I love boxing day sales because it is shopping time for me!! Although I would prefer to do that in Melbourne because the trading hours are longer than in Perth. LOL.Next year onwards, we will always look forward to Christmas because that will be our wedding day anniversary. Hehe. Yay.

Anyway, here are the Christmas lights in the city taken from my iPhone so mind the bluriness.

A very good singing by an Elvis Presley impersonator

Playing in the water fountain

Have a very good Christmas and shopping everyone!

A big commitment

Exciting days ahead! Chin Fei and I made another big commitment that will hopefully bring a better and brighter future for us. Looking forward to get everything finalised. :)

Kelvin Chong Photography

I bought a coupon from Scoopon to enjoy the celebrity treatment from Kelvin Chong and his team from Image Style Studio. The coupon entitles me to a 1 hour makeover by his makeup artist, 1 hour photoshoot, a 8 x 12" photo print, a disc of 20 images and a 3 hour makeup workshop.

We initially wanted to book for a photoshoot on a weekend but apparently, Kelvin is occupied in all of the weekends and Chin Fei had to take 3 hours off from his work just to travel to Cannington to have our pictures taken. My first impression of Kelvin's team was very poor because the receptionist whoever that was, who answered my call to take my booking, was a bit rude to me, when she told me how I left it until the last minute to book for a photoshoot before the coupon expired. Yes, it may be my fault because we wanted to try to lose some weight first before taking pictures, but she need to have the courtesy to talk more politely to the customers!

Since I was left with that appalling first impression of Image Style Studio, I did not have any high expections of the treatment I was going to get on the photoshoot day. We were supposed to bring at least 2 attires and some props for the photoshoot but Chin Fei and I wanted to make it a simple pre-wedding picture that we can take. We were asked to be early, for failing to do so, will have the coupon revoked. And guess what, we were at the studio before it was opened, and waited around right in front of the studio (it was pretty desserted at 9 am!!) and grew pretty impatient because the team was late instead! When we called, the make up artist (can't remember her name) answered and said that they were on the way. Yep, the typical answer you would hear when someone's late.

Anyway, everything was pretty okay until the part where I was to get my free makeover. The makeup artist was not a professional make up artist who has any skills in make up. Nevermind about the fact that she has a degree in accounting, she was using make up brands that I have never heard of which she gotten online (I was really fearful of the chemical contents of the make up she was using). She was quite chatty, in fact, a bit too talkative for me to handle on a morning and she kept on commenting about my skin, which I wasn't really comfortable about, on the pretext of trying to sell her make up kits too. Honestly, I prefer talking to a dermatologist or at least a proper beauty aesthetician about my skin rather than her, really. In fact, her concealing skills weren't all too great. I have quite a bad dark eye circles and the concealer she used made my dark circles look grey!! OMG. Horrors! I really could do better than that! I am always pleased with my own make up skills, not that I'm fantastic at it, but at least I could conceal my dark circles pretty well, or at least not making it turning grey! Something just ain't right! Even Chin Fei was horrified to see me!! I had to tell her to use another colour to conceal it better. The hairstyle wasn't anything spectacular either. She merely curled my hair, after commenting about how oily it was.

Then, we were brought to the photoshoot studio where Kelvin was waiting for us. He was a pretty nice person actually; quite humble and friendly. He had some good ideas on how to pose, although not that many. Anyway, there's not much that you can do in an indoor photoshoot. There's nothing about playing with the angles or lights that you can do. 

After the photoshoot, we were then brought into a theater where we were able to view the pictures taken. The make up artist was quite persistent on us upgrading our voucher to have a bigger size photo printed instead of the 8 x 12" print. She was also adamant in us spending a few hundred dollars to buy the digital copies of the pictures taken. But seriously, we don't need them. All we want is just everything that was stated in the coupon. That was the reason that we bought the coupon. We didn't want something more than that. I mean I get the idea that that is the only chance for her to sell their products, but really, when a customer says no, then they should just accept it. Well, she wasn't happy about that and she left the room and Kelvin attended to us instead. He wasn't persuasive and was happy that we just took what we bought. The pictures were emailed to us with his watermark logo in thumbnails so we couldn't get a clear unpixelated picture when we print, unless we print with them. So we chose the best picture of them all. Here are some of them:

When we collected the printed picture a few weeks later, the same make up artist was there to give it to us. She did not welcome us into the studio at all. Even though she may have forgotten us (which I doubt so), she should have still put on a smile because we were still the clients. Taking the picture, we just left and vowed never to come back again. Kelvin may be great, but really, the team isn't.

Luck is coming our way!!

You know the old Chinese superstitions that when a pot has never had any flowers before, and suddenly there's one blooming, it means that luck is coming?? Well, after 9 months of caring for this plant, here is finally a flower!! Hehehe. Does this mean that I will win the $90 million OZ lotto jackpot?? Hehe. Hopefully! LOL.

 

Dylan, the Dulux Old English Sheepdog

Who has watched the Dulux paint advertorial? Where they add the Old English sheepdog in it as the mascot for Dulux?

Well, I was lucky enough to bump into a real dog, advertising for Dulux in a stall during the Architecture Week! His name is Dylan! Oh so cute! I miss Dino now. :(

Day 2 of Great Ocean Road Trip

This post continues on from the previous post.

The next morning, we drove from our hotel in Port Campbell to London Arch and Loch Ard Gorge. London Arch used to be a London Bridge but back in 1990, the bridge collapsed, leaving two tourists stranded on the arch out on the coast. They were then rescued by a helicopter. What a holiday! 

The view of Port Campbell town

The Arch, not to be confused with the London Arch

At The Arch lookout point

Chin Fei at The Arch

London Bridge, which is now London Arch

At London Arch

The steps leading towards The Grotto

Chin Fei down at The Grotto

The Grotto, a beautiful attraction at Great Ocean Road

Stopping at Bay of Islands, where there were more apostles here

This particular apostle looks like a Chinese pagoda

Loch Ard Gorge

See how tiny I am compared to the massive rocks!

From Great Ocean Road, we drove back to Melbourne Tullamarine Airport where we boarded Tiger Airways back to Perth. It was indeed a short break but we thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a good holiday for Chin Fei to relax from his hectic schedule and for me to enjoy after my PhD studies. Gee... :D