Fooooooodddddddddd!!!!!!

I love eating FOOOOODDDDD....here's a few pics to tantalise the taste buds...

Soft Shell Crab

Crazy Banana/Chocolate/Red Bean Dessert

Giant Burger

Pork Belly & Scallops

Surprises....

Before Gav left for the UK, I said that I would go and visit him and Chris while they were living/working there. So this year being Gav's 30th gave me an excuse to take time off work to go there. So anyway, Gav recently asked me about what date I'd be arriving there so that he could start planning travels whilst I'm there, so I've colluded together with Chris in saying that I'd be there 2 days AFTER his birthday with the excuse that I couldn't get time off work any earlier and that I'm a bit 'bummed' about not being there on his actual bday, BUT in reality I'll be there 3 days BEFORE his birthday =).

Co-ordinating this hasn't been as easy, as Gav has had to tell his house mates the 'unofficial dates' I'd be staying with them and then me getting Chris to tell the same house mates my 'official dates'..hehe. Also, I'm hoping *fingers crossed* that the house mates will be able to run with this until I get there without Gav knowing the plan...ahaha

As for the surprise element, I'm hoping that I'll be able to make it back to the house from the airport before Gav gets home from work. So, I'm still thinking of a quirky/smart ass one liner I can use when I see him as part of the surprise...hahaha...*suggestions welcomed*

.......

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'll be heading over to the UK for my best mate's 30th birthday...our friendship has been described as being quite 'peculiar' by all our mutual friends. No....not that type of peculiar....you see every normal friendship is built on talking to each other so that you get to know each other better but our friendship is different....our friendship has primarily been based on spending time with each other in silence...YES...SILENCE.

In our younger days we'd hang out at either my house or his house and we'd sit there infront of the tv either playing games or watching tv in total silence..only the usual grunt/laugh would ensue if something on the tv would cause us to expel such a noise. This silence baffled quite alot of ppl especially Chris, Gav's gf at the time and now wife. There was one time where I went over to Gav's place to hang out and Chris was there too. I walked in, sat down to watch tv and then 2hrs later after watching enough tv I would say that I'm going and say my goodbyes. I later found out from Gav that Chris had asked him after that instance if we do this all the time and if we ever talk. Gav's reply was that 'yeah it happens most of the time' and 'we do sometimes talk'. You're probably thinking that 'how are these two even friends let alone best friends??'...don't worry we've had many bonding moments over the past 12 years or so of friendship like being taxi drivers, burning a trailer load of fire wood in albany, creating waterfalls with a piece of tarpaulin in busselton, playing chor di dee till the early hours of the morning and many many other things.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to catching up with Gav *in silence* when I go to visit him soon to surprise him for his 30th.

They don't make things like they used to.....

If you've known our family for long enough or even come to our house you'd have noticed that we haven't embraced all the new fangled technology in terms of tv. Our trusty ol' tv wasn't a plasma/LED or even a LCD it was a crt tv built in a box with four legs, rollers attached with speakers attached to it. It definitely was something built in the early 80's, so when dvd players and xbox came out I would rejoice that we would NEED to get a new tv so that we could use these new pieces of technology, BUT after some fiddling around with the settings I found out that our trusty ol' tv could play all these things and more!!!! Then one night not long ago, our ol' tv beamed its last picture into our family room. There was to be no resurrection like the few times before where the picture waned, the box had indeed moved on.

28 years of entertainment...yes 28 years!!!!

Don't worry we're not without a tv, we've obviously embraced new technology now and replaced the above with this.....

Shortlived.....

Since March this year, Yel, Chris and I decided to embark on a 'coffee crawl' to test out and critique all the supposed 'best of' lists for coffees at cafes in Perth. We started off strong like a long mac meeting weekly having breakfasts and trying out our favourite coffees. We became "coffee snobs" but also enjoyed each others company talking about travels and the like. Here's some of the food we've had over the weeks.....sorry no pics of the coffees we've had....hehe...oh the irony :\

Last night we had our 2nd last catch up meal before we all disband for holidays and overseas work. Our coffee crawl has ended, it has been fun times but it was definitely shortlived...

Year of the Travel

Being of asian background this year is the Year of the Tiger....but I've decided to change it to be the Year of the Travel....why do you ask?? cos everyone that I know...myself included has some sort of travel plans this year. Here's a brief recap of where I've been in the last 7 months Dec/Jan, the last few days of '09 and pretty much the whole of Jan '10 was spent overseas in Thailand/Malaysia/Hong Kong. Thailand was an amazing experience and something I'll never forget and hope to be able to do again in the future. The people we met, the stories we heard and the things we did will be something that I'll remember for a long time. On reflection, I was kinda annoyed at myself as to why I never joined the previous teams in going to Thailand earlier and being able to experience what missions is all about. Don't get me wrong the team I went with were an awesome group of people and I'm soo glad that I was able to experience what I did with them. I think the Thailand trip has stirred something up within me and this most likely explains this 'unsettledness' that is in me ever since I've got back from my trip. Going back to Malaysia always means R&R for me, where I can really relax since my extended family look after me really good there and there is an ABUNDANCE of awesome food to eat that you're always discovering new favourites to try each time. Hong Kong was my first trip back to my birth place. It was such a fun time seeing the sights and sounds of my 'home' country and eating all the foods that my parents always talk about. Also the shopping was great there too. During July, I went to Cambodia, which was a first for me. Learning about the country's history, was a real eye opener. Visiting places like the Genocide mueseum, the Killing Fields and Angkor Wat are things I'll never forget and for different reasons. The Genocide mueseum and Killing Fields were such 'heavy' places to visit. To hear about how one man could decide on wiping out his own people based on intellect alone is something incomprehensible and then to see the actual final resting places of these people drew so many emotions that it's really hard to describe. On the other side, Angkor Wat was truly an awesome sight. Built back in the 12th century, this temple took 37 years to build, ~4 million ppl and 40,000 elephants constructed it and to be honest what was accomplished was AMAZING!!!!!! The architecture and attention to detail on the murals on the walls blew me away. Besides sight seeing we visited quite a few organisations who are providing education or aid to Cambodians who are less fortunate. Hearing what these organisations are doing and meeting some of the ppl who are benefiting from these services really brought home how blessed I am with what I have. In August, I'll be heading off to the UK to visit my best friend for his 30th and we'll be organising some travel too namely to places like Greece, France, Italy and wherever else we can think of. On top of all that, quite a number of my friends have been or will be travelling to places like Japan, Bali, New Zealand, Sydney, Melbourne, USA, Canada, Thailand and UK. So yeah looks like we're all stocking up on frequent flyer miles....hahahaaha