the long overdue posts...

hey guys, sorry for the absence this past few weeks. Been out busy partying, celebrating and planning for my leave for the end of the year. Brace yourself cuz' this is probably one of the longest post i've ever did. Three events will be included on this post and that is my birthday, the halloween party and my recent visit to Newcastle. First things first...

(click on pics to enlarge)

My birthday...
started out with a lot of messages from friends, despite it being my birthday and how i always look forward to celebrating it, this year is a little opposite of that as i woke up with the thought that i'm a little older. It's funny how when we are younger we always wish that we can be older and having the lack of patience to grow up but when we are older we would wish that the world will stop in proclaiming your age and you would wish that you are 17 or even sweet 16. *sigh* But i guess that'll never happen but regardless of the fact i am grateful of the wonderful things & people that God has placed in my life like friends and family. Some people don't even have either one of this. It was time to sit back a lil' while to reflect on the accomplishment and how much i've grown in this 24 years of my life. There were moments that are good and there were some of bad but lesson learnt from both. Anyway just thought i go out with a friend(huei weun) from church to buy a pressie to reward meself and i ended up like buying 3 things. Thanks for the company huei weun.

After a whole day of shopping i got home to prepare to go out for dinner with another friend from church(juliette). And as i got ready she surprised me with a CAKE. Why did i say that? I said CAKE because it's not any ordinary cake and unlike the usual this one's savory. 6-8 blocks of deepfried agedashi tofu made up a sort of rectangular shape with candles stuck into it and with a dash of pickled ginger on the side with a light sweet teriyaki-like sauce just swimming around a countainer greeted me as i came downstairs with the sound of her and my housemate jonny singing happy birthday in the background.



Headed down to Vlado's on Bridge Road after the surprise and was unimaginably stuffed with steak and different grilled parts of the cow. It was an awesome dinner as i've never been stuffed so much since i've been here to melbourne and after losing a fair bit of weight over the weeks my stomach shrunk so you can roughly imagine how much an entree will look like a main dish. Thanks for dinner juliette.



Soon after being back home my dad asked me to come online and turn on the webcam and to my surprise the whole family was there the moment i got online and everyone started singing happy birthday again to me and beautiful little Amara sang a solo for me and blew the candle on my behalf. Btw Amara is a little girl who's the daughter of my father's friend who is staying with us. She is half cambodian and half aussie/irish mix and she has the most beautiful eyes.

Amara and my mother on the webcam

To be honest i'm very humbled to have such good friends and family who remembers me. Despite it being a special day, i felt special, thanks ya'll for the messages, the cake, the pressies, the company, the care and the love. My birthday wish? Seriously, i don't think if i say it out loud i would then jinx it. But honestly, i wish that i can live another day each day to be a blessing to those around me.

The Halloween party...
was the bomb this year as zombies, the crow, pirates, tranvestites and even a coke bottle showed up. As it IS the last year for me and my classmates to come together and celebrate we decided to go all out on this one. So everyone was on the edge with their costumes and enthusiasm. Me? As special the occassion was i decided to construct my own mask. Wanted to come as the phantom of the opera but it turned out otherwise and i look like some scary but cool and dark superhero like the crow. I called it phantom of the chinese opera, because i'm chinese. hahahaha



Anyway, stayed back after the party to help clean up till 6 am in the morning and then went for breakfast in Victoria Market with some of my classmates that stayed back to help. It's funny how a whole group of zombified party animals that haven't slept thruout the night can look while walking thru the market. Soon after everyone departed their own ways and me and pirate carissa went on to go treasure hunting for stuff for me to bring back to malaysia for my ex-office colleagues (we figured why not since it's still early and we have no where to go and nothing to do). Golden Nougats was the great catch of the day, had a great deal for two packs of nougats and a free can of abalone flavoured macadamia nuts. Sounds a lil' sick but trust me, those things are dangerous, once popped open you just can't stop. Went home to take a nap for 20-30 minutes and then woke up to pack and prepared for my flight to newcastle to see my best buddy.

Newcastle...
often thought of as a lil'surf town turned out to be a lie. It's huge!!! For me it was a place of miracle filled with breath-taking sights. My favourite place in the whole wide world for now, not only because me bestfriend is there but the beaches are filled with the most awesome waves and powdery sand and almost scented breezy winds. The moment i saw it, i literally said to myself with relief that i can die now, right here right now on this beach. hahaha I love beaches and anyone that knows me, i would always take a 3-4 day holiday to the islands in malaysia every mid-year. Except since i came to melbourne last year, i started to miss it. But i guess this was the icing on an almost perfect cake of my awesome weekend.

Day one, took the afternoon 4 o'clock flight down to newcastle. Still tired from the Halloween party the night before where i rarely slept, i thought it'd be good to catch up on some sleep on the plane. Finally after bout' an hour plus i arrived in sweet sweet Newcastle, where expectations that were made are soon to be met. Can you believe it? Newcastle's airport is tiny, it's just in this big shack of steal like a big barn house made of steel. I can walk from one end of the building to the other side in less than 2 minutes.



This was an amazing picture i took as i sat impatiently at the airport gate waiting for my departure from Melbourne airport. Amazing how you can find God's miracle in the places you do not realise it would be.



Gracia came to pick me up, it was great seeing her again as we haven't seen each other since i left for Melbourne a year an a half ago. And i'm proud as ever of how well she is doing career wise and also spiritually. We've always talk on the phone whenever we're in different countries, as much as our friendship have been tested thru the tough times, we sorta know each other inside out. We pray for each other, we cry with each other and we watch out for each other whenever we can. Anyway back to the story, she brought me to this place before dinner and guess what? It's THE BEACH. Was so excited that i just wanted to jump out of the car, run on the sand and take a dive into it. THE BEACH (calling it THE BEACH because i forgot it's name), was neverendless as it stretches for miles till it fades off in the end. It was crazy, of all the picture that God paints this is like the Mona Lisa of all Mona Lisas. The breeze was refreshing and the sand is so fine that it melts thru your toes like knife thru butter. It was crazy my mind has never had so much stimulation in just a moment like this. Either it's that awesome or i was just really stressed out for some time now and i really needed a real holiday. Anyway, there were some kite surfers showing off their skills to each other with the 'let's see who can do the most somersaults in the air' attitude. It was cool though and for those of you who don't know what kite surfing is, it's a person with a strap on mini surf board on his/her feet and holding on to a handle with some strings attached to a parachute-like thing that they use to steer with. It was cool seeing them get lift off from the waves and flying in the air for awhile. Oh and the beach had a big light house on the edge as you can only see most the time in postcards.



Little while after that we decided to take a nice evening walk to see the sunset on the other side of the beach and the view was just mind blowing. A great view of the city as the sun sets, it's almost as if the sky was exploding with these crazy colours. This was the moment that i wanted to be left alone and just look and admire in awe. To me it was a living proof that God is real, cuz' no man or science can possibly create such an awesome spectacle.



I thought that what i experienced earlier was enough of a reward for me that day and it really did satisfied me until she surprised me with a birthday dinner at Scratchey's or Scratchly's. Affogato(i-forgot-to) again. hahaha A little joke i did when she introduce Affogato to me (ice-cream served with hot expresso shots). L-A-M-E! We had wonderful Antipasto (a dish that consist of different dips served along with some nice warm bread) as the entree for the night and a massive seafood platter for the main dish as you can see. Fresh oysters were my favourite as i slurped it down, crabs reminded me of chilli crabs back home, the mantis prawn tasted just like a big prawn and the fresh prawns as well. The grilled seafood on the side was awesome as well. After that went to Goldberg's(a cafe) in the town had coffees and shortbread with one of her doctor friends and chatted the whole night till' past midnight. This sums up the my first day in Newcastle.



Next morning went to church with her and had a lovely and can i say it again? AWESOME time of worship. There's this worship leader who did a solo and everyone was just mesmerized and drawn into His presence with her voice. The other thing that i remembered about the church was that they had cool shutters on their windows that would rise upwards like a garage door sliding vertically up and down. Anyway, after church we had fellowship with some coffees and cakes downstairs of the hall with the other church members and i met this cool guitarist guy called peter and we just hit it off the moment we started talking bout' the worship ministry. Soon after it wasn't too close to lunch time yet so gracia decided to do some grocery shopping as we will be catching up with her friends for lunch. Got to the pier early and it's something like the Docklands here in Melbourne but it was less posh but still good enough for me. hahaha An awesome raggae band was on that day playing live outdoors at the Brewery and we just decided to sit and enjoy the music while we wait. I manage to get up close to the guys and they're a great band, the guy sounded like Bob Marley. Not knowing much bout raggae music but they did play some of my favourite classics, like one love one life, no woman no cry and buffalo soldier. There's something bout raggae music that makes you move. So i started to dance, probably the only chinese fellow in newcastle that day tryin' to be jamaican. Gracia tried to steal a few shot but i manage to have caught her so we just took normal pictures. Met up with her friends for lunch after that, spent the whole day there chatting, eating and having drinks till evening. When we got back we had wine and cheese for dinner. Doesn't really fill you up but after the large pizza i ate for lunch it was just nice. Sleep was good that nite.



The third day was an exceptionally great day cuz' we drove down to Hunter Valley and went for wine tasting. Countless lands filled with vineyards from different wine companies compete here at who has the best wine around and apparently there are world renowned awards for this. Like who has the best Merlot for the year 2000 or Chardonnay, Semillon, Treminer, Verdelho and etc. Tyrrel's wines was our first choice on the map so we drove there and had some free tasting, it was an experience for me when i pick something i wanted to try and didn't like it and felt wasted if i don't finish it but the sales person just told me to throw it away. They had a barrel that they have prepared at the counter where apparently people throw wine they test away. Being chinese i am one who rarely throws away anything easily like when i was a kid i was taught not to waste my food and that i should always finish everything on my plate. Wine is expensive and having to throw it away was ridiculous so i thought bout it. I thought that out of the hundred wine companies that are in that valley that gives free wine tasting we still have a lot to go considering that this is only our first stop. So i threw it away and after that i was on the roll one after another trying most of what they have on the shelf. hahahaha Wasn't drunk at the end of the day, in fact i wasn't even tipsy cuz' i kept drinking water throughout the journey. Why? Cuz' i'm a responsible adult, that's why. The one that stood out for me and gracia was this company called Piggs Peake not only a funny name that stands out along other competitors but it lives up to its expectation in the market and apparently they're quite famous. They also have different blends in funny names like i got a bottle of red dessert wine called pig brusco and gracia got one called mother's milk. After that whole thing we decided to try the cheese factory and what can i say? i'm speechless. Ate most of the free samples there(being asian, can't waste food can we? and it's free as well). Then it was lunch time at the Magnum cafe. Amazing how most of the structures here look like villas and 5 star hotels in the middle of a cottage farm. Just one huge building in the midst of big spacious land filled with vineyards. On the way back we were planning where to go for dinner and i figured since she's been out with me the whole day and she needs to study for her exams, so i decided to cook her a feast while she takes a lil' time off to rest and study. Went to bed soon after that.



The last day we decided to take it easy and give her more time to study for the big exam, so we got our gear and drove out to the beach just outside her place. While she sunbathes and study, i was busy admiring God's nature, playing with water and poking dead sea animals that got washed up at sea. Perfect way to end the day. hahaha Went for lunch after she started to burn and become well done and me exploring the sea collecting shells and half-eaten dead crustaceans. Had awesome fusion food at the Longbench or Longback, Affogato again!!! Being true to my birthday wish i decided to offer myself to wash her car considering that she's a doctor on call day and night every hour with very little time for little things like washing her car i decided why not. Soon after that we just chilled out as i watch telly and she studied until it came the time i had to leave on the journey back to Melbourne. Goodbyes and hugs were exchanged with a grateful farewell to the once-dreamt-of-awesome-weekend.

On top of Melbourne as the plane was landing.

The journey back home was a rather quick one as soon as i boarded the plane i knocked out hoping to dream that i would wake up at home once again. Home... Where is home? Melbourne? Newcastle? Malaysia? Torn between all three as i stay clueless as to what i want to hope for.

Six days, one after the other, truly it's been a great weekend. Mainly AWESOME. Thank you God for all the colourful and wonderful people that you have laid in my life. Friends and family, as much beauty as You've shown me thru nature, i see the same in every person i meet. That as much of a purpose you have for every living thing you created, truly there's one for every being including me.