SKM-RTIOEP Xmas function

Attended Chin Fei's company Xmas dinner in Frasers, Kings Park; where one of the CHOGM gatherings was held. The theme was Hollywood and there were "paparazzis" standing at the red carpet at the entrance to the venue, all carrying cameras and one even had a microphone, on a pretext of swarming all the attendees. It was indeed hilarious. LOL.

There was a professional photographer hired during the event. Because we were walking around, mingling with everyone in the party, we were always caught by the photographer who asked us to posed for her. Obviously, she couldn't remember us and thought we were just one of the many people in the crowd, and I think we had one of the highest number of shots in that event. Hehe. :)

With Chin Fei's colleagues

Our new place

As mentioned in the previous post, I will be busy shifting this Christmas. It was a crazy and havoc week. We had to managed two places - the previous rental property and the current place that we purchased. We had to pack our 3 years of belongings into boxes and prepare for inspection for the prospective tenants, clean the rented property upon vacating, as well unpacking some things in this new place. For those who were following me on Facebook, would have known that I was very annoyed at one of the carpet cleaners here, for making me wait for 2 hours before they finally arrived and demanded us to find a parking spot for them; which wasn't what they requested in the phone conversation when I booked them a week earlier!

Thank God for this "trolley wardrobe" that we have so we can transport our things to the new place

Now that finally we have shifted in, we still can't unpack our things as we are planning to change the carpet which will be coming in on the 30th December. So far, we have been just painting the whole place and make do with sleeping on the floor because we have put the furniture delivery on hold until New Year's eve, after our new carpet has been installed.

Our new place! :)

This is a sneak peek of what our place looks like now. :)

The ugly green wall before being painted

Chin Fei painting our yellow room! :)

Chin Fei pulling away the masking tape after finish painting the walls

It's nice to shift in with your loved one and then think about the colours of the wall, the type of sofa, how we are going to decorate this place etc. Like what I said on Facebook; you can't call your house your home until you are involved with in, including painting the walls yourself. :)

It's Christmas today and we're busy painting the walls. At least, we have a home to live in. :)

Suang's visit to Perth

Last week, Suang Suang came to visit me!! :) She flew from Melbourne for a 4-day conference but we only met up for two mornings and one night because she was busy at the conference and I was busy at work. Unfortunately, she couldn't stay longer over the weekends because she had some experiments to do or else I would have brought her to Fremantle and Cottlesloe. If she reads this, she will again be mad. LOL.

Suang Suang's arrival in Perth was a funny one. Early that morning, when she was in Melbourne Airport waiting to depart, I whatsapp her, telling her that the weather in Perth wouldn't be good that day. It was very cloudy and there was a forecast thunderstorm and hailstorm later in the afternoon. Well, the weather forecast was right. By noon, a very heavy thunderstorm hit Perth that all of us were stuck indoors. I didn't know what time Suang Suang was arriving then, but I got a whatsapp message from her at about half past 3 telling me that she was stuck in the plane on the airport tarmac and that she had already touched down an hour and a half earlier but the passengers weren't allowed to disembark the plane yet because it was unsafe for the airport ground staff to work. Fair enough. We exchanged numerous whatsapp messages while she was on the plane; I thought I should keep her company since she was travelling all alone. Haha.

Hours pass and the thunderstorms cleared and I went home. She had already had 2 movies showed on the plane since she touched down and there was no news of when she was getting out!!! Apparently, there were many flights delayed/cancelled and so there were no parking bays for incoming planes to park and disembark their passengers. Ahead of her were 6-7 planes and she said that two planes that touched down later than hers managed to disembark earlier because there were emergency cases - an anxious pregnant lady and another anxious man. It had already been 4 hours since she landed on Perth soil but have not touched it nor smell the air yet. We were supposed to meet up for dinner that day so I told her to message me when she left the airport.

Came 7 pm; 5 hours after she touched down and there was no news of her yet!! I texted her asking if she was still on the plane and yes she was! What seemed funny initially became frustrating. I couldn't imagine how she could ever tolerate that! Thanks to her laptop and her wireless USB, she could go online and happily chat and update her Facebook statuses; so at least that kept her sane throughout that whole waiting period. Haha. And I thought that once she left the plane, she was all good to go and we could meet up slightly later than planned.

Well, one bad thing led to another. She was totally taken aback looking at the chaos in the domestic airport. There were thousands of people in the small airport, all waiting for their luggage. Now, this dear friend of mine, thought it was fun to check in a 7 kg bag. So well, she had "so much fun" just waiting for 1 and a half hours to get her luggage! By the time she arrived her hotel (after waiting for 30 minutes for the bus shuttle, that is), it was almost close to 9 pm!! Since her body clock was 3 hours ahead of Perth's time, we rescheduled our meet-up til the next morning at 7 am. So, well, I pitied Suang Suang a lot for having to face with this nightmare on her first visit to Perth. I'm glad that it didn't leave a bad impression of Perth to her and she said that she liked the place and want to come back again with her fiance! Ooh, can't wait for the next visit!! :) 

Suang Suang's paid accommodation at The New Esplanade Hotel

I can't believe that it has been almost 3 years since I last saw her. The very last time we saw each other was during my graduation day when she came and took a picture with me. :) Even though we hardly kept in touch with each other; just once a while on MSN and whatsapp, Chin Fei was still surprised at how much we could talk on and on, like there's no stopping at all. Haha. I think he kinda saw how much I really miss my friends in Melbourne and I think he was happy that Suang Suang came and accompany me. Haha. It's funny how this time when we met, it wasn't any awkward at all and we just clicked immediately as if we were just continuing a conversation from yesterday!! We talked about our PhDs (most of the times), our friends, families, our weight and exercise regimes and even each of our proposals!! Haha. :) 

Anyway, here are the pictures of us. I hope that it won't be another 3 years before we meet again. I'm looking forward to having another friend from Melbourne dropping by Perth. You know, Perth is really not that far. It's still in Australia, okay? :P

Northbridge Piazza #1

Northbridge Piazza #2

Northbridge Piazza #3: Where you can watch free movies on the screen with a free bean-bag provided

Near the State Library

Christmas decoration in Northbridge

Near the Art Gallery

The upside down man on Hay Street Mall

The ONE MILLION DOLLAR cactus statue in Forrest Chase. Waste of money, if you ask me

Bell Tower

A morning in Kings Park

Lunar eclipse

So from last night until the wee hours of the morning today, Australians and some parts of Asia stayed awake to watch the lunar eclipse. The last eclipse was on my birthday (oh, I feel so special! :P) and the next round will be in 4 years time.

At about 8 pm, we went on a mission to hunt for the moon. Staying in the CBD means that there will be many tall towering buildings that would be blocking our sight and we didn't know where to find the moon. So we walked down towards Swan River and funnily enough, bumped into the Esplanade Park where the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) was performing in the park, in conjunction for Christmas! Unfortunately, we missed the Star Wars song, but stayed for a while to enjoy the free symphony before hunting for the moon again. LOL.

When we found the moon, it was still full and bright so we went back home again and came out at about 10 pm to find the lunar eclipse has started. Although Chin Fei has a good 7D Canon camera, unfortunately, he doesn't have a telezoom lens so we used my digital compact camera, Canon Powershot SX210 IS, that can zoom until 14X to capture the lunar eclipse. Obviously, the shots aren't very spectacular compared to a SLR but most importantly, we had some shots! Hehe. Funnily enough, there were many ang mohs looking at us, puzzled at what we were doing and asked us why we were taking pictures of the sky! Adoi, I guess these ang mohs rather drink on Saturday night than to care seeing the lunar eclipse. Haha.

We didn't stay until the eclipse was over because it was quite boring and so we went back home to sleep before 11 pm. Haha.

Channel 7 Christmas Parade 2011

Went to watch the Channel 7 Christmas parade again. Last year, I went alone. This year, I had Chin Fei, Justine and her boyfriend, Jonathan tagging along. Gee.

But it was quite disappointing seeing that the parade was so similar to last year's that I told Chin Fei I wouldn't want to go next year anymore. Apparently, the parade was held at night with colourful lights years ago. Don't know why they decided to switch it to the mornings instead. It was so hot, I tell you!! I think I would prefer having it in the evenings.

Anyway, I didn't want to post the same old pictures, so you can have a look at last year's post if you want to see them. :)

Sealed the deal!

Sealed the deal! Yay. After looking around for months, comparing different suburbs, waiting for the right time to buy, negotiating the price, we have finally sealed the deal to buy a place in Perth!  Extremely happy! :)

Now the stress begins. With Christmas round the corner, we want to quicken the process so that we can shift in before Christmas and take Christmas the time to unpack and do the touch-ups, since we don't celebrate Christmas. :) We hope to have the whole place settled in before my parents come on Australia Day, i.e. before Chinese New Year!! 

Pictures to come later. But yeah, I'll be busy so not much of blogging until everything's settled!! :) :)

I hate travelling

With the many latest posts about travelling, you may think that I love travelling. Well, I quite like going on a holiday but I don't like the journey though. How I wish that there is a teleport available somewhere so I can just teleport myself to the destination immediately. And after each holiday, I just feel so tired and drained that I think I need another holiday to recover. LOL.

I think holidays are fun, if only the people you are going with and the people you meet are nice. Well, you can kinda choose the people you want to go on holiday with; but you can only hope and pray that the airport staff or the airlines staff are friendly and nice. And sorry, that's not really the case most of the times ... especially when you travel with budget airlines.

Although I can save so much more travelling using a budget airline, sometimes I feel why didn't I pay a little more to avoid confronting anal people who make the start of my holiday so miserable. Say for example, I particularly dislike travelling with Air Asia (but it has somehow been my primary airline - flying from Perth to Kuala Lumpur return, and even flying from Kuala Lumpur to London return!) because the staff aren't flexible enough to allow an additional kilogram of luggage being overweight. And I thought it was just in Malaysia; but when we were flying back from London to Kuala Lumpur, we had to face with the most annoying staff in Stansted airport. She said that my parents' shared check-in luggage was overweight (while my brother's luggage was underweight). So my dad wanted to transfer some of the belongings into my brother's luggage but she didn't allow because she said that it was against the law. Seriously, we are one family and we packed our luggage together to separate the weight evenly between bags and we wouldn't pack in illegal things into another family member's bag to betray that person, so why bother??!! After much argument, the staff still insisted that we couldn't do that, even though my brother himself told the staff that he himself permits it and will be responsible for anything. So fine, instead of having to travel light with most things checked in, dad wanted to take out the extra luggage that was kept inside my brother's underweight luggage to keep that extra kilos and use it as a cabin bag for mum (at that time, mum didn't have a cabin bag to carry).

And guess what, that lady again said "No"! Like what the hell, man?! Seriously. First, you didn't allow us to transfer some weight into an underweight bag and now we want to take out an extra bag that we carried from inside the underweight bag, you again didn't allow that? So how are we going to carry that extra kilos around then? With our hands? Seriously, some people just have to be more flexible and stop making people's holidays so miserable.

Also with Air Asia, I hate departing from the low cost carrier terminal of KLIA. Because each time I depart from LCCT, the airport staff at the gate would not only check my passport but will ask me stupid questions that I think is none of their business, but more of like the Australian custom's problem. Those questions are like "Why am I flying to Perth?" or "How long am I going to be in Perth for?" or "What am I doing in Perth?" or even "Where is my visa to Australia?" Why would they bother about all these? Shouldn't they just let the Australian customs do their job instead? Just let me into the gate!!! One very funny thing that happened to me was that the Air Asia staff at the gate looked at my passport picture and said that I don't look like the one in the picture. OMG. So what should I do? It's not my fault that I don't look like the person in the passport. It was the Malaysia immigration department's fault for stretching my photo sideways!!!! Funnily, this was what happened to me the recent trip back to Australia where this time, the Australian custom officer asked me to take out my spectacles and even smile like the one in the photo. Reminds me of the time Mr Bean was apprehended in the airport. I have been flying with this passport for numerous times, and this is the first time the Australian custom stop me!!! Aih. I can't wait to renew my passport and make sure my picture looks like me, or else I will have trouble when I arrive in the US next year!!!!!

Anyway, this is much of a rambling that any other. I just hope that sometimes airlines staff should be more lenient and at least smile to the travellers and wish "Have a safe journey and enjoy yourself" or something like that. Oh well, I am in a budget airline, so how can I complain? At least the plane brings me to my destination; I think I should just keep shut up and be patient with these customer service. Hehe. Hmm, maybe I shouldn't be complaining but instead just take the Business class and experience a whole new experience instead. Haha.

The 2 weeks break in Malaysia

Just got back from a 2-week break in Malaysia. It was short and quick but I'm glad that I spent each quality day wisely with my parents, relatives and my new dog, Dino! :)

The lazy dog, Dino

Dino, on his way to the vet for a jab

The main reason of returning to Malaysia was to attend Chin Fei's brother's wedding on the 11/11/11 in Kedah.

Bride's wedding dinner on 10/11/11

Bridegroom's wedding dinner on 11/11/11

And since I was already back at home, I stayed a little longer to celebrate my dad's birthday on the 15th. It has been 7 years since I last celebrated dad's birthday because during this time, I am always in Australia but dad always had my brother to celebrate with. This time, Alwin is in the US, and because I was already in Malaysia, I decided to stay on longer so that dad doesn't feel lonely on his special occasion. Hehe. We celebrated dad's birthday a day earlier because Chin Fei was still in Malaysia and he was flying back to Perth that night.

Dad is so happy! Hehe

I'm also grateful to have our Australian permanent residency granted during the time we were away. Now we return to Australia as Australian PRs. :)

Now I can't wait for Australia Day next year when dad and mum comes to Perth to celebrate Chinese New Year with us! Yay. Hehe. :)