Starbucks

When was the last time that I had coffee? Let’s see, that will probably be 3 months ago? When was the last time that I had Starbucks coffee? That would be 1 year ago…

I have never been a fan of Starbucks, preferring the small cafes around Sydney. Coffee costs cheaper and I think the quality is better.

However, feeling really sleepy today, I decided to try Starbucks once again as there was 1 near where I was working. I ordered a white chocolate mocha (must have my chocolate with the bitterness of the coffee).

The barista was quite cute! Ha~ but all eyes are on my cup of coffee.

20 minutes later, after I have finished my coffee, I still feel drowsy!!!

The coffee was really weak and I paid heaps more for it that if I were to have gone down the street to a café. Not only was it more expensive, it was soo weak that I still felt sleepy and it didn’t keep me awake.

Arrgghh…lesson learnt again…I am not going back to Starbucks!

Godzilla bride

One of my good friend's brother had his wedding this weekend. Weddings are meant to be a good day of celebration and unity. I always believe that when you marry someone, you don't just marry 1 person, you marry the entire family.

That is what happens and you can't just say "No, not interested in getting to know your parents, siblings, cousins etc..."

Apparently there were some tensions between the family and the bride. I was appalled at the audacity of the bride and the disrespect that she is showing.

1. Your in-laws went to all the trouble of selecting the fabric and made a wedding dress and prepared all the jewellery to go with it. Bride says that she won't wear the jewellery but will wear the dress. The day came and she did not wear it. Considering that she probably needed to only wear it for like 10 minutes even if she didn't really like it, that was really inconsiderate. I mean, a lot of effort was put into that dress.

2. Wedding cards were printed with the bridegroom's name before the bride. She went and got all the cards reprinted again. Now, I don't know if it is the male or female's name that is meant to be written first according to tradition. But if it has already been printed, do you really need to spend more $$$ on this? Weddings are not cheap!

I'm wondering...

Can you as one of the families actually make a fuss at the wedding?
What do you do with a Godzilla bride?

When what seems to be natural might not be

My heart goes out to those parents who lost their children to the earthquake that crumbled Xinjian Primary School. This is what happens when there is corruption.

How do you explain when your school building was the only one that was extremely affected while other buildings right next to it have just a crack or two.

Cronulla

I was recently working at Cronulla. Wasn't exactly too enthusiastic about having to travel for 4 hours everyday (with the train ride itself being at least 1 hour).

Was feeling a little uneasy after the big incident that shocked Australia a few years ago at Cronulla as well. Being Asian, I was definitely hoping that my safety would not be an issue.

After the first few days, my views changed as the people there are really friendly and they have an amazing beach and huge houses on the South. Some of this houses are above $5 million. It never ceases to amaze me how houses that are so far away can still cost so much. Fair enough you get a water view but if I had to spend that much. I might as well can one closer to the CBD.

I was rushing to finish my work during the week and had little chance of enjoying the water views when I was there. On the last day, I found this nice little area which had the best view ever. Considering that the spot I found was on private property and was on heritage land, I felt quite privileged to have been able to have my lunch and take in the fresh breeze for a few minutes.

Of course I had to take some pictures. =P

The bench where I had my lunch. It was freezing cold that day but was worth it!

Panoramic view of what I was staring at.

21

Has anyone seen the new movie '21'? Fantastic movie, I definitely enjoyed it and wouldn't mind going back to watch it again. There is always something about gambling and cards that gets my blood ticking (although I swear that I don't have an addiction to gambling!).

Well, this week was the movie's premiere week and I decided to make good use of my free movie ticket and watch it. After all, my free movie ticket expires this month!

I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the cinema. As you know, I am not a frequent visitor of the cinemas. If not, my free ticket would have been used sooner.

Firstly, they now issue tickets with seat numbers. So you better just seat in your allocated seat or bargain with the ticket issuer to let you choose your seat when you buy it. Previously, it was "first come first serve" and "the early bird gets the worm" kinda thing.

They must also have done some renovations. Check out the seats.

All plush and ergonomic for your back. There is even a side table thing for the ladies to put their handbags. No more having to rest in on your lap. How cool is that!

Something else that impressed me were the side rest. Now those couples would be rejoicing. Low enough that you don't have to twist your hands at awkward angles to hold hands and a nice plushy cushion-ish arm rest so that it is comfortable for 2 hours!

Great seats (did I mention that I manage to curl my legs in my seat? It was just like watching a movie at home) and a good movie. The asian dude in the movie was really funny too...what's with him trying to always just get as much freebies as possible from hotel rooms and even at a night club! There are definitely people like that in the world. That's why hotels have calculated that into our room rates, towels, bathrobes, shampoos etc...

That was a good 2 hours spent!

Too much of a good thing?

I did something this week that I haven't done in yonkers. I actually went to the gym 6 days in a row. Wow!

I have to say that my poor muscles were screaming by Thursday though. So, on Friday I decided to take it easy and went for a yoga class. Ahem*, it wasn't as easy and breezy as I thought it was either. There was a lot of stretching and yes......

I even had to do this...and a few times too. Seriously, my muscles were working equally as hard and I even started getting a headache midway through which lasted another hour after the class. Must be all that deep breathing that the instructor made us do. My body must not have been used to that much oxygen!

Those fats in my body better start to melt away....ggrrr!


I won't be doing this pose anytime soon either...I think that I'll probably break my back trying to do this.

Appreciation

I received an unexpected email today. It was from a work mate who I've become really close to. She send out an email to a few of us and was telling each and everyone of us how appreciative she is.

That really made my day and was a nice surprise to finish the work day. Especially as I had to travel far to get to my client this week. A total travel time of 3.5 hours and my ipod battery died on me in the morning just when I left my house. I left the ipod on and it must have drained all its battery blasting music in the night. My bus arrived 10 minutes late which caused me to miss the train I need to catch as well. Amazing how when you need everything to run on time like clockwork and it doesn't.



Her email got me thinking...

1. Who says that you can't be good friends with people that you've met at work. Although they may not know anything about you or how you were like when you were a kid, but the ones who click and are of the same kindred spirits just seems to be the exception. I've met some people whom I'm glad that they have entered into my life.

2. We don't tell or show the friends and family we have how appreciated or loved they are. Yes, we tend to only say and pick on the bad stuff sometimes with our boyfriends/girlfriends, mom, dad, brothers and sisters. But we don't tell them equally how thankful we are for times when they just drop everything and help us or do little stuff or sometimes be our slaves for the day.

3. We don't catch up enough or tell our friends how important their friendship is. I have many friends overseas whom I treasure their friendship but with our busy lives and distance between us, I probably have not talked to some of them in months or years but they are still very important to me. More so sometimes than the friends I meet often. We lose out on what is happening in their lives and they in ours.

To the people who send me spam email or mass emails saying good things, I somehow don't think that that is as sincere though. I'm not sure if they just like reading and forwarding emails or do they really mean it. Especially if they do it on a regular basis like everyday. I suppose to other side of the coin is that they thought of you when they are forwarding those emails.



We all seem to be so time poor nowadays that even emails and texts are not helping us to stay in touch enough with people we love and treasure.

Why oh why??

Friday night is supposed to be a good night. The beginning of the weekend and the end of the work week.

And what am I doing at 11.45pm? Being very upset because one of my external hard disk decided to just end its life. i have 80G worth of stuff in there that I now have to remember and replace. =(

Not happy.



Can someone let me know what should I do when this happens?

Sammi Cheng's concert

It’s been a busy weekend for me. A wedding on Saturday and then attending Sammi Cheng’s concert last night.

I usually wouldn’t go to a concert on a Sunday with the next day being a workday. I do not have enough sleep as it is.

Since I’ve already bought the ticket, can’t say no and waste my money on the day itself, so off I went. Got there about half an hour early and the venue was still looking pretty empty. However, another 10 minutes past and suddenly, people were arriving in droves!

Got to our seats and we were all given complimentary "Pong Bong" sticks. We got great seats (thanks Michelle), near the centre and second row from the front at the first level.

I was wondering if the concert was going to start on time as concerts usually do not last for more than 2 hours and if she didn’t start at 8.15pm as stated, the concert might only be 90 minutes.

8.36pm and the lights in the hall dimmed and music started to boom from the speakers. I was getting excited. This was an artist that I grew up with in my teens and I haven’t attended a concert of hers before.

She was great, she sang a lot of her old songs that I definitely loved. The funniest thing was, I still remember the lyrics to some of them. Ha!

She really connected with the audience and talk a lot about what she went through and the experiences and lessons that she have learnt. She gave a lot of encouragement and support as well.

Mid concert and a fast song was finally introduced and the medley of fast songs lasted 20 minutes straight of crazy dancing that would have definitely taken a lot of energy. She is one crazy and funny lady.

Nearing the end, she came down from the stage and started shaking hands with the fans and taking pictures. What I like about her is that when she sees a camera on her, she will stop and pose so that the fan will have a nice picture. That is really sweet of her. When the song ended and she was only a third of the way through the aisle of fans, she turned back and asks her band to play another song. It was very impromptu and even she had to figure out what song her band was going to play for her to sing. Other artist would have just stopped and went back on stage at the end of the first song.

It’s no surprise that she is definitely one of the top artists. Her voice is really strong and has power when you hear her sing live. Compared to some of the younger generations now where it’s more falsetto and soft (makes you wonder if a lot of technology had gone into it).

I came out of the concert really happy and enjoyed it very much (even though there was no encore). It lasted till 11pm, 2 and a half hours! I haven’t been listening to her songs in years but now I think I will start to again (that is the power of a good artist).

Congratulations Winnie & Peter

Congratulations once again to Winnie & Peter.

I attended my first friend's wedding today. Before, it was always attending wedding with my parents when I was still a wee kid!

It was the church service in the afternoon and we were greeted and given a nice little welcome book.

The church was a good size and not too big that you lose that intimate atmosphere & cosiness of friends and family all here for a joyous occasion. We were there pretty early and managed to gets seats 5th row from the front which gave us a good view.

We only waited a little while and the pastor said that the bride has arrived. You could see the anticipation in the groom's eyes. A while longer and the ceremony hasn't started, the pastor jokingly said that maybe the bride changed her mind. GULP, you could see the groom looking a little nervous.

It all went smoothly thereafter and the ceremony proceeded. Hearing the couple exchanging vows got me a tad emotional. The bride was looking absolutely gorgeous in her wedding dress.

We also came to the all important question where the pastor asks if anyone objects to this union to please speak now (like you see in the movies), it was a little surreal and trust someone to inadvertently give a cough!

After the ceremony and the registration, it was time for pictures. It has to be the family taking pictures first so the rest of us were ushered to the hall for some finger food. Check out the array and variety of food. Wow!

I saw this swan cream puff and it just looked really cute! It was really delicious too.

You then have the bride throwing the bouquet of flowers time and there was this 1 particular girl who just pushed past the crowd to get to the spot. She seriously push me and my friend away to get there and we weren't even where the area was! She even dived for the flowers when it was thrown, that was how MUCH she wanted it. Needless to say, she got it!

After the church ceremony, there was a few hours to spare to get some rest before the dinner. It was a full-on 12 course Chinese style dinner with the works. Shark's fin, chicken, duck, fish, scallop, rice, noodles, it was a LOT. The desserts were really succulent and was really good. I had yum cha at this restaurant before and they are definitely one of the better ones in town. I really couldn't eat anymore after that.

We all had a great time, catching up with people whom I've not seen for a while and witnessing the union of 2 people.

To the newlyweds: Have a great honeymoon! See you when you get back.

Buses, shoes & Ipod

There is this shoe shop that I have to pass everyday to get to work. It has tempted me for a week now as I saw a pair of shoe that I just fell in love with. However, the heels are super high! I may like heels but I've always been a more practical kinda person and my heels have always been like an inch or two.

For the fun of it, I tried the shoe on and goodness, the sole of my feet was really arched that I wasn't even sure if I could walk without breaking my ankle or something. I felt quite disappointed after that.

After a few days, I finally decided that I would buy it because I really like it and console myself by saying that I'll just change into it when I am in the office (at least that way, I don't have to walk around that much).

All excited, I rushed there after work and they were having a sale. Buy 2 get 1 free, now who can really resist that! Ha!

I literally spent ages looking for 2 other pair of shoes. It's amazing how common sense just runs out the window when I could have spend less for just 1 pair but for the sake of 2 more, I ended spending a lot more. Sigh.

After 40 freaking minutes, I ran out of the shop with 3 shoe boxes, my laptop bag, my gym bag and my own purse. OMG! I couldn't wait to get home. Went to catch the bus but I just missed it and had to wait another 20 minutes and it was raining so all the seats at the bus stand was wet. I was left standing and waiting. Finally, with 10 minutes to go, I decided to listen to my Ipod.

To my horror, I couldn't find it! I must have left it in the office. Oh no! someone could just easily take it. In the end, I ran back with all my luggage to see if it was still there. Luckily, the cleaner left it at the side of the table and I was relieved. All the while remembering that a fortune teller told me this year to be careful of my belongings. Ha!

Anyway, tried to get back to the bus stand in time only to see my bus just pull away. =(

It's going to be another 30 minutes wait (and I was getting hungry).

Oh well, here are the shoes I bought. The one that I fell in love with was the blue one with peep toes! Was it worth it?