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Mine mine by Jay Chou from his upcoming new 2011 album

Totally in love with it and have been repeating it for the whole day! Can't wait for his album to come out on 11/11/2011; special date that he chose.

最重要的決定 - My most important decision

我常在想应该再 也找不到
I always wonder that I might never find

任何人像你对 我那么好
someone like you that's so good to me

好到我的家人也被照料
So good that my family members are charmed by you

我的朋友还为你撑腰
and even all my friends support you

你还是有一堆毛病改不掉
You still have some short-comings that you can't change

拗起来气得仙女都跳脚
In a quarrel when you get angry, even the fairies jump anxiously

可是人生完美的事太少
But there are hardly any perfect things in life

我们不能什么都想要
we can't demand for everything

你是我最重要的决定
You are my most important decision

我愿意每天在你身边苏醒
I want to wake up next to you each day

就连吵架也很过瘾不会冷冰
Even quarrels are satisfying; the relationship won't become cold

因为真爱没有输赢只有亲密
because there's no win or loss in true love, only closeness & Intimacy

我愿意打破对未知的恐惧
I'm willing to break the fear of what our future holds

就算流泪也能放晴将心比心
even if I cry, I'll cheer up; looking from your point of view and your heart

因为幸福没有捷径只有经营
Because there is no short-cut to happiness, it's an on-going process

The Birthdays of Many Others this Month

August seems to be the month of Birthdays. Could it be it coincides with 8 being a lucky number in Chinese culture and so everyone seems to be born in that month. Or it could be that I just happen to have too many friends and family who are LEOs. :D Did I mention all 3 serious ex boyfriends were LEOs and had their birthdays in August too? And so it the hubby-to-be! Let's list all that I know below:

1 Aug: Jayden (Cousin's Son)
3 Aug: First BF
6 Aug: Christine
11 Aug: Gabriel (A Singaporean friend)
17 Aug: Second Ex
18 Aug: The hubby-to-be
19 Aug: Diana
21 Aug: Cousin Janice

That's already 8 birthdays of people I can think of in Aug and that's not including those that I will remember as the time comes closer - am sure there is more! In any case here are a couple of pics from the hubby's birthday:

Surprised him with a tower of macaroons as his 'birthday cake'

The presents that he got. Boots from himself and the rest from me.

 Happy Birthday to the hubby-to-be. Hoped you had enjoyed your last birthday as a bachelor. From next year onwards, its single status no more! Haha!

Christine's Fancy Dress Birthday Party

We went for Christine's Fancy Dress Birthday Dinner party last Saturday. The hubby-to-be wasn't game in to such things and so kind Brendan picked Ammie and myself up from my place. He had Wai together with him already and they form the scrawny green hulk and karate kid respectively. The plan was to drive back to Brendan's place in Richmond and then tram down to the city. But it was raining and getting a taxi was just not easy and so Brendan ended up having to drive there reluctantly as it was getting late.

The venue was at Bluestone Restaurant Bar in Flinders Lane. Thank Goodness Christine chose that place because it was dimly lighted and you sort of have to walk down the basement. And we certainly didn't want to grab too much attention with our fancy outfits! Though we did still get a few stares and giggling from other customers there.

Sailormoon, School Girl, Police Woman and Snow White	Scrawny Hulky, Police Woman and Karate Kid
Police Woman caught the School Girl playing Truant	Birthday girl with her presents and uni mates
Group pic with all the gals	Group pic with all the guys

I've gotta say though some of Christine's uni mates weren't as gung-ho as us and didn't really dress up in full - though we certainly found a friend in Velma and 'The Witch'. ;) Some only came in a mask or hat but I guess at least they tried. Not everyone's willing to be as crazy as us I suppose! :p The food there wasn't too bad though we only ate pizzas and salads due to the large group. Certainly hope to try something else should we go back there in future.

We also heard the birthday girl was challenged to scare some guys on the way home and the whole thing was caught on video. The two guys weren't really shocked or impressed but they played the game anyway. Bet you enjoyed yourself Christine dear! Look forward to next year's party.

Farewell Granddad

I got a text from Dad in the morning at work on 19th July saying that my Paternal Grandfather had passed away last night. It wasn't that unexpected since I know that he had already been hospitalised a few days ago. But you know that feeling of denial and how you just get caught in a time frame?

I wasn't close to him since young as I brought my mostly by my Maternal Grandparents. But then again, he is still my grandpa and was the only living grand parents at that time whom I thought was able to attend my wedding dinner in Jan 7 next year.

But I guess it's good that he has stopped suffering and has gone to the other world to join my grandma. Dad's parents were staunch Taoist and so they didn't believe in Jesus/God. Though I still believe of course, everyone went to heaven because God loves us all. Here's a lighted candle - RIP dear grandpa.

King Tuthankhamun's Exhibition

We went for King Tutankhamun's Exhibition a couple of weeks ago at Melbourne Musuem. It was the Museum's Winter Masterpieces for this year. This will be the last stop before the exhibition returns to Cairo to be displayed at the Grand Museum of Egypt, which is being built next to the Pyramids.

I've always loved ancient history and this one was definitely another one not too be missed. I've read about ancient Pharoah's and stuff and mummies always fascinated me. The most famous of course from ancient egyption history was Cleopatra for me. Anyway back to the exhibition, we couldn't decide which date to go and it was too late to book online. Luckily the museum reserved tickets for people who walk in and purchase over the counter. But you still had to be early and lucky a mate of ours, Wai went with a friend to line up and get tickets for us before 9.00am.

And as expected, photography and videography is not permitted, but they had this smart idea of taking photos for groups of people before we enter and then super-imposing us with a picture of an artefact.

The group of us who went for King Tut's Exhibition. Taken with the King Tut's Tomb.

The large poster display of King Tut Exhibition

Official Companion Book to the Exhibition

The exhibition was truly enjoyable and extraordinary. We took about about 1-2 hours inside as I wanted to scrutinize every artefact and object and read everything about it. From it, we learnt the lives of King Tut and how ancient egyptions lived in those days. It was really amazing how some of the artefacts were so well preserved up to this day.

We also learnt about a lot of the incest that happened in the family, which sort of led to how King Tut was born. Even though his tomb was uncovered, King Tut's death was still a real nystery. He wasn't even listed as a Pharoah in ancient egyption compilations and rules only for 9 years from early teens. The main reason he got famous was only because his tomb was uncovered in an almost perfect condition in 1922.

We got a little disappointed though, because we were hoping to see a real mummy. But they only had his golden tomb on display and at the last part of the exhibition they projected video images onto a live size stand to show how his mummy looked like. The projection was quite clear, but nothing beats seeing the real thing.

Joshua's Baptism

We welcome cutie Joshua Chan to the house of Christ last Sun 19 Jun. He was baptised together with a few other babies and kids after Sunday mass at about 12.30pm. There were lots of other friends and family members who came to attend the baptism and it was just sweet to see babies getting baptised.

Joshua was sounds asleep in his pram when Michelle had to carry him out for the ceremony. But he was a good boy and didn't cry one bit at all. Fr. Michael was doing the baptism that day. Each of the babies/toddlers took turns to get their heads washed by the holy water and anointed by Father, their parents and God parents with the sign of the cross.

Wearing his baptism clothing bought by Sue and Julius, his God parents.

The really pretty and delicious tower of cupcakes that Sue made.

Joshua with his parents on the right and God parents on the left.

The ceremony lasted for an hour or so and then everyone headed to Michelle and Jason's place for a celebratory luncheon. Darling went there earlier in the morning to help with the food preparation which he usually likes to do. So there was quite a lot of food, including the pretty cupcakes that Sue made and we probably ate too much as usual.

It was such a small world that I indirectly know one of Michelle's colleague's. I found Ingrid really familiar and went to talk to her and found out that we went to the same gym - Fitness First Chadstone TAFE. We both complained about getting a bit ripped off and realised that we both quit at around the same time too. She was telling me about the new Fitness & Aquatic Centre that was opening on East Boundary road early next year and how it should be good to join.

I think we stayed on till about 4pm-ish before we left, still feeling really full and bloated. But all for good reasons; the celebration of another brother in Christ. :)

The Art of the Brick Exhibition

If you haven't already know how much of a LEGO fan I am, well now you know - I collect LEGO and I can't miss any LEGO exhibition of sorts; Even if it meant lining up for an hour plus to get in, just like Brickvention 2011. :p So when I heard about the Art of the Brick Exhibition at Federation Square, I just couldn't miss it and so did my fellow LEGO fan friends Khim and Ellen.

The artist is called Nathan Sawaya. And he builds incredible large-scale LEGO sculptures, which have broken gallery records around the world. We went for the Sat 11 June, 1.30pm session. And here are some of my favourite picks from the exhibition.

Entrance with large LEGO bricks	His version of Victoria Market
Life-size T-Rex, well not exactly	Some Greek Building - forgot its name
4 colourful different skulls	The blue swimmer (life size)
Favourite: tearing your chest	Mosaic of Flinders St. Station

There weren't as many displays as compared to Brickvention. But then again, its different because you had so many exhibitors at Brickvention while here the only builder was Nathan himself. There were videos showing how he built a scpture from scratch with tubs of LEGO bricks. Plus this was more of like an Art Exhibition rather than a convention which was what Brickvention really was.

Tubbs seemed to enjoy himself more and wasn't as disappointed as I was with the exhibition. Maybe he's into the less is more concept and original creativity as well. Because lots of the exhibits at Brickvention were just normal LEGO sets that people build from instructions whereas Nathan came up with all these creations himself. But there was so much more to see at Brickvention; 4 hours there compared to the 1 hour here.

But I guess it was all in the name of Art of in my case: LEGO. ;) And so if you're interested, you can view the  full album on facebook from the link below:
The Art of the Brick: Nathan Sawaya's LEGO Exhibition.

First Asian to win a Tennis Grand Slam!

I literally cried over the weekend watching the Women's Ladies French Open Finals. On Saturday, 4 Jun 2011, Li Na from China made history by being the first Asian ever in history to win a grand slam in the singles match. She beat Francesca Schiavone in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 in quite an emotional and mentally straining match.

We watched her as she seemed to have let the emotions get the better of her when she started making unforced errors in the second set. And I was like "Oh no, Li Na not again! Come on!". And we saw her fight the emotions, get herself right back on track and beat Schiavone at the tie-break to win her precious trophy and most ultimately the title of French Open Ladies Champion for 2011.

Well done Li Na! What a way to show that Asians are able to succeed in Sports too and we'll always support you! Let's hope you go the way and win all the other Grand Slams as well. :)

Jay Chou's 2010 ERA Concert

I just watched Jay Chou (周杰伦)'s - The Era concert over the weekend and I was totally blown over by it! The special effects they presented live in front of audiences these days is just fantastic! Thanks heaps to dear Pal who bought the set of DVD and Music CDs for me. It even came with a set nun-chucks imprinted with the concert title. Every concern is different and magical and the last one I watched was his 2007 one.

The special edition album with the set of nuchucks.

There were lots of elaborate stuff and and dancing as well as electronic animations going on throughout the show. Though I didn't like some of his lacy girly costumes, he's still the same great performer. He's so talented and plays quite a few different musical instruments as well. But of course the piano is still his forte. And he's now also a music producer / director, setting up the company called JVR Music. Here's a preview of his ERA 2010 concert:

The DVD also had special back-stage filming showing how he and his crew practiced so hard and organised everything so that the concert will go smoothly. He also has his parents and his beloved grandma who attends a lot of his concerts in the back-stage filming as well. And you can see how much his family means to him in the short clips, its just heart-warming.

I always dreamed of going to Jay Chou's concert live one day. And the closest he has been was in Sydney. He wasn't performing when I was working back in Singapore / Malaysia, though I know his first concert was in 2001. That time I probably wasn't so into him yet and by 2004 I was already here in Melbourne.

So yeah, here's hoping that he will make Melbourne one of his concert destinations in future and there's already a facebook campaign that someone has set up to try and do that, of which I most definitely clicked "YES" on it. 永远周杰伦! :)

Easter trip back to Malaysia and Singapore

Tubbs and I decided to use the Easter holidays this year to make a trip back to Malaysia / Singapore. It was not the usual holiday back to only visit family and friends, but more for getting some wedding preps done as well as familiarizing and spending time with the future-in-laws.

I was also really happy this time to be able to get more acquainted with the future-in-laws. They even went with us to choose our wedding bands. And it was the first time I visited Tubb's home in SG even though we have been together for 6 years+ now. We also got our pre-wedding photo-shoot done, met up with my bridesmaids to sort out their dresses, and got my wedding and evening gown sorted out.

Crazy shopping day spent with mum and chaboh Len.	Chaboh Len and I at the bridal studio to pick out gowns.
Stoney, Aunty Margaret's dog - she's a friend of mum's.	Walking down Chinatown again in Singapore was nostalgic.
At Crazy World Cafe, Dan bro's sister and bro-in-law's restaurant	Yup that's the future-in-laws, a shot that I thought I would never have gotten

Much time was also spent catching up with friends whom I only get to see only once a year or two. It was the usual shuffle in between of Singapore and Malaysia. But I spent less time in SG this year as compared to the last due to the things that needed to get done, and so the schedule was really packed.

With high sch besties Wen and Ren	Tigger and Pooh! One of my Bridesmaids!
With mum and my beloved Niece and Nephew	With Chaboh Liliz on her birthday!
With Pal S.K, Thanks for the seafood treat!	Kitty and Pooh! One of my uni mates.

I organised meet-ups for lunch and dinner in one day with different friends just so we get to meet up, in however short an amount of time we had. I was also really happy to see my beloved niece and nephew, they just grow up so fast and time really flies! Also big thanks to my Pal who treated me to yummy seafood at East Coast.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel, newest attraction in SG	Dar and me inside the hotel cum shopping mall
My sister-in-law and me at Marina Bay Sands	Marina Ba Sands Hotel interior

And hehe, I think we acted like "tourists" back there as well, visiting the newly opened Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Shopping and Casino. There was a fee to pay to take a ride to the roof top viewing area with the swimming pool and stuff. But we decided we'll do that end year instead, when we go back again. And if time permits, I'd also like to make a trip to Universal Studios!

And so in that short amount of time and the things we did, I'd say it was quite a fruitful trip! :)

TVB International Talent Singing Competition 2011

Anna, a friend of Ammie's whom I met at a Karaoke session, loves to sing and participate in singing competitions. When we chatted more and she found out I used to perform during Uni days, she told me about this singing comp that TVB was organising. Anyway to cut a long story short, I decided to join for the fun of it and also for missing those days of performing in front of a live audience. Here was the video for the night: Tue 5th April, I sang - S.H.E's Never Mind.

It was the preliminary rounds and I didn't get through to the next round because I know myself. I can pull off some songs pretty well but my voice wasn't powerful enough nor was it able to hit some higher notes. Plus I felt I didn't put my 100% in that night as I did with all the performances for Uni days. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to join in the first place due to the age of the crowd which I knew were all gonna be youngsters. But I'm glad I did anyway, all for the joy of singing live again and the experience.

Group photo before all 16 of us started singing	All the supporters and audiences looking on
Thanks guys for coming to support	Girl power, ladies D & Aims who came to support
Mr. Self-Obsessed, past year's winner performing	The exciting moment announcing the 5 who get through
The lucky 5 who got through to the next round	One more final group photo of all 16 of us

It was good fun and I really felt happy being able to sing on stage and perform in front of an audience again. In the past during Uni days, I always had a friend singing beside me or friends performing acts beside. But this time was different. It was a competition and I was singing alone and you had all these eyes staring at you. It was honestly the first singing comp that I sang alone and thus was a little nervous.

But it wasn't the first one that I joined. An ex-friend and I actually came in third place in a singing comp during our Polytechnic days in Singapore. And I'm still happily holding on to our trophy till now. I would say there will be more singing days to come as it's just something that I love and hearing my favourite songs just make me wanna sing along naturally; even at work and especially in the car driving, I can sing as loud as I want! :p