Horng-yUh Life

Kiwi Trip 2008 - part 1

2008-08-10T15:22:00.014+08:00

Hi all, finally got down to blogging about the 20-day NZ trip that Haz and I had gone on starting from 1 Jul 08... Overall, it was an awesome and wonderfully scenic self-drive trip, covering in excess of 3,500km on a Ford Mondeo starting from Christchurch and ending in Auckland... Will be blogging in parts and here I go...

Day 1: 1/7 (Sydney – Christchurch)

Haz and I brought with us contrasting feelings to the airport for our morning flight to Christchurch; sad and heavy hearts – about leaving Sydney after 2 years and; excited – as we embark on our longest holiday trip ever. Expectedly, we packed too much (>50kg) and had to be charged for 2 extra kgs (@ AU$20/kg!) after the flight staff had given us a 'discount' – expensive start!

Before we landed at Christchurch, we were treated to amazing sights of the Southern Alps!

Picked up our car from Yourway (cheap rental rates..) and checked into Hotel Ibis at Christchurch CBD. Nice cozy room at affordable rates. Went straight out to check out the city area, fully utilizing the ‘Eyewitness Travel Guide – NZ’ given to me by Nasa as a farewell gift. It is definitely a great and useful gift as many of the attractions planned for the tour are based on recommendations in the book.

in front of the Christ Church Cathedral

The Bridge of Remembrance

We then bought grocery (ie. instant noodles, fruits, snacks, etc) from ‘New World’ supermarket; equivalent of Woolies/Coles/NTUC, to prepare for our 20-day trip on the road before retiring for the night. Cold and frosty weather forecasted for the next few days… Fingers crossed...

Day 2: 2/7 (Christchurch – Lake Tekapo)
We departed Christchurch early around 8:30am, stopping at Rakaia, a small farming settlement which claims to be ‘the salmon capital of NZ’, for a photo with a large fiberglass fish.

We drove down further, turning off at Geraldine for a coffee break, before traveling inland to reach the stunning Lake Tekapo at around 1:30pm. The remarkably blue and clear waters of the lake greeted us as we entered the town. We visited the Church of the Good Shepherd and took photos with the Collie Dog statue. It appeared that a storm would be descending on us as we wandered closer to the lake to take more photos as the wind just got stronger. The raindrops from the drizzle hit us hard on our faces – very painful!

We wanted to take an Air Safari’s flight over Mount Cook and the many glaciers of the Southern Alps but the bad weather denied us the opportunity! We checked into our hotel room at The Godley Hotel which overlooked the lake and basically called it an early day! After an hour of nap, the weather cleared and the mountains and lake looked totally different an hour ago! Check out the photos!

@ 2pm

@ 3pm

@ 4pm

Back in Singapore on 30th July 2008

2008-07-19T16:39:00.002+08:00

Hi all, since my last post (since very long ago..), I have been inactive with my blogging and updates - Lots to update definitely (in due time) but just a quick update of my current whereabouts... Currently at Auckland (after spending the last 19 days in NZ) and will be flying off to Cairns (4 days) then Ayers Rock (3 days) before ending my month-long tour with Haz at Perth (4 days).

Will then be flying into Singapore on the 30th July night... for good for now... Till then, take good care everyone and will definitely be looking forward to catching with everyone real soon!

Finally a CA!

2008-05-02T15:45:00.002+08:00

Results for my last CA module is out and finally, after 2 years of intensive work and studying, I'm done with the paper chase for now! A qualified Australian Chartered Accountant!
Had done better than expected! 3 merits out of the 5 papers.

Wanna make special mention of my dear wifey, Haz, who had supported me all this while and being ever so patient with me when I was busy juggling work and studies.. cooking for me, taking good care of me during these 2 years... With the conclusion of my CA studies, so is my secondment to PwC Syd... 2 more months to go... Will enjoy each day to the maximum as it comes... =)

2 years of eternity..

2008-04-13T18:47:00.012+08:00

Our 2nd year anniversary was celebrated in some style and it will be etched in our memory for years to come. We spent a great weekend over at the Blue Mountains chilling, bush-walking and spent quality time together...

We drove to Blue Mountains on Friday night and we were greeted with 2 very warm hosts of Windradyne Boutique Bed & Breakfast located just in front of Echo Point which overlooks the Three Sisters! Our room is called the Wimlah Suite which provides an expansive view of the 3 Sisters right in front of us! Wow... We were so impressed with the authentic Australiana home setting! You have to see it to believe it....

Our huge and comfortable four-poster bed

Part of the huge living room

Dining room where we have our breakfast daily

The main part of the living room with a huge fireplace

There was even a small fireplace (that works!) inside the huge bedroom and we did not miss the chance to relax in the claw bath in the ensuite of the room. Any wow! Haha..

We woke up not too late on Sat as the latest breakfast timing was at 8:30am... Home-cooked Australian style breakfast by our nice hosts... Delicious and filling! Before we left for our bush-walk, we couldn't resist to take a photo of how it look from our bedroom windows...

We went hiking at Wentworth Falls, a 15 drive from Katoomba. We took approximately 3 hrs to finish our route. We actually deviated from our originally planned route (which should take less than 2 hrs) and went on a hard route which brought us to the bottom of the waterfall! The steps were so steep at certain part of the route. Not planned but we got great photos to show, which is just awesome! Haha..

Proving that we made it there! Haha..

After the hike, we went to the town of Leura Mall and had our lunch and a bit of window shopping.. And entered the famous The Candy Store which sells lots of unique and unusual candies, choc, toffee, etc... We had nice Thai cusine for dinner at Katoomba and did a bit of star gazing outside Windradyne before we retired into the house for the night.

We made our way back to Sydney the following morning after another hearty breakfast. Great experience and definitely a romantic place for couples who wish to spend the weekend at Blue Mountains!

Promise my dear that we will spend many many happy days till the day we die... Love you Haz....

Sydney Royal Easter Show

2008-04-13T18:09:00.008+08:00

One of the biggest event in Sydney - Sydney Royal Easter Show 2008 - took place during the 2 weeks around Easter. Haz and I attended this annual event, which comprises of agricultural show, amusement fair and park and lots of shows for visitors, on the Easter Monday public holiday after our Mel-Adel trip.

As expected, there were lots of fun-goers and many many kids who were mostly attracted to the funfair games and amusement rides. Both Haz and I were similarly attracted by the games galore and of course the huge softtoys available for grab by the luckiest and most skilful participants!
Livestocks (chicken, cattle, cows, pigs, sheep, etc) were exhibited and definitely a great educational tour for young kids! Do not think that you will see something of such scale in SG for the young... which fully showcase Australia as an agricultural country.

It was a great outing definitely! And of course, we did not leave the grounds empty handed. See below for what we left the event with! Haha.. Soft toys and showbags full of goodies packed and sold at great prices!

Hard won prizes from the games... Haha..

Both of us were on Sunday Telegraph! Nah.. Just a free shoot...

Mel - Adel Trip 2008 (5)

2008-03-30T14:16:00.010+08:00

22 Mar 08 (Sat) - Kangaroo Island

Another day tour - this time round with Sealink, apparently the monopoly in guided tour around Kangaroo Island. Price for this day trip is pricier than the other 2 we went on but it is a different location and with a whole different experience!

Got picked up at Adelaide Travellers' Inn (very near Angela's place) at 6am and then were transported to the Adelaide Central Bus Station where the big groups of us were transported to Cape Jervis for the ferry to Kangaroo Island (1 1/2 hr drive). The ferry is a huge one, able to transport vehicles across the waters too! The sea journey took an hr and it was a vomit-invoking one for me, with the ferry crossing the waters perpendicular to the direction fo the waves... I felt sick and did not drink more than a sip of the hot chocolate I bought on board... Haha..

I felt better once on stable land! And the cool sea breeze! We hit the road straight away with a 1 1/2 hr drive inland Kangaroo Island to the Flinders Chase National Park for lunch and some wild koala sighting. The lunch was at a Caravan Park and it was a 2 course authentic Aussie BBQ meat! Delicious I must say!

3 BBQ meat; chicken, beef and a mysterious tasting meat..

Straight after lunch, we took a short walk around the nearby park and sighted sleepy koalas... Nothing very exciting as we had spotted kangaroos/wallabies/koalas in Mel and even in Syd... Good way to exercise off our lunch though.

Remarkable Rocks is our next stop where huge naturally formed rocks were the main attractions.. Nothing very exciting but the sheer view of the brilliant seashores from the rocks was spectacular... Great photos and videos were taken for our memo!

Admiral's Arch broadwalk took us down a rugged cliff to an awesome rock arch, which is a nursery haven for New Zealand fur seals. We watched in awe as the numerous seals sun-tanned, dived and played around the rocks and water. Seeing them this close is a first for both Haz and I!

We got closer to the seals at our next stop, which is the main highlight of the trip. A guided Seal Bay tour, which brought us up close (within metres) of live seals on the beach... Apparently, Seal Bay is the spot where many seals rested after their diving and hunting trips (lasting up to 72 hours!) and we saw lots of sleeping seals.

sleepy seals

We even witnessed a mother seal who got back from her hunting trip and called out to her kids! What a way to experience kinship in wildlife up close! We got even luckier when we saw a bubbly baby seal moving around the beach trying to get other sleeping seals' attention.. It was so funny as these sleeping seals were obviously annoyed at this baby seal but it just kept going one seal after another.. Haha.. We caught it all in video; something for our future viewing...

A returning mother seal with its kid

The day on Kangaroo Island ended with that tour and we grabbed a quick bite before boarding the 7pm ferry back to Cape Jervis. The return trip was calm... Good for me as I had a full stomach... Slept most of the way back to Adelaide but still not enough.. After bathing and freshening up, it was already close to 11pm. Chatted with Angela over tea and Easter choc we bought yday at Glenelg before turning in close to 1am.

Took the 9am flight back to Syd and it was officially the end of our Mel-Adel trip! A very memorable trip and we were blessed with great weather and as a result, a huge majority of our 550 photos taken were GREAT!

Wanna thank Mich, Angela again for the kind hospitality and accommodation! Yishan for lending us her set of house keys! Timo and Soo for bringing us around when we were in Adel!

Stay tuned for more regular updates - Sydney Royal Easter Show, 2nd year wedding anniversary celebration at Blue Mountains and many many more...

Take good care all! 3 months to go before the end of my secondment and 4 months to gg back to SG!

Mel - Adel Trip 2008 (4)

2008-03-30T13:18:00.008+08:00

21 Mar 08 (Friday) - Adelaide
Touched down at Adelaide airport just after 1030am - Adelaide is half an hr slower than Mel and Syd. Long time no see Angela! Haha.. She definitely looks more toned and tanned, working hard in gym in preparation for her wedding in Sep! Haha.. Our first stop was her shared rented townhouse with a Chinese couple who were away back home in China for the week.

We took a short break and headed off to the city centre and Chinatown. Alas! It was Good Friday and not many shops were open at all... including the famous Central Market (equivalent of Paddy Market). Oops, no place to buy the souvenirs that Max had requested us to get for him!!! Haha..

Can't go it, thus just take a photo outside lo.. haha..

Some other landmarks around Adelaide CBD before we drove to a nearby suburb for a Vietnamese lunch with Angela's 2 Malaysian born friends, Timo and Soo. Fun-loving couple and immediately was able to connect with both of them!

Thanks to Angela for helping us take the photos!

We actually had a long lunch from 1230 - 3-ish before both of them kindly led the way for us to a nearby beach and then to Glenelg beach - the most famous Adelaide beach, for a cuppa before we parted ways for the moment... The 3 of us then walked around the beachfront and enjoy the nice scenery before we drove back to Angela's place for a short rest.

The Skycity casino was on our itinerary but it was closed for Good Friday and only opens from 12mn that night! Haha.. We gave it a miss as we had to wake up very early the next morning for our Kangaroo Island day trip. We then met up Kent (a fren's brother whom I gave tuition to back in 2005) and his gf at Chinatown for a nice Chinese dinner. Great catching up with him!

After dinner @ around 1030pm, we thought it would be the end of our day sightseeing around Adelaide but Angela got a call from Timo and Soo and they suggested driving us up the Windy Point which overlooks the whole of Adelaide city... We took the chance with both hands and off we went! It was an awesome sight and making full use of the camera's night mode and tripod stand, we managed to get a number of great shots (and of coz a couple of unbelievably funny shots of myself)... Just going to show the picture in which all of us look good... Haha..

Forgot to mention that it was very chilly up there! Haha.. After that, we got back to Angela's place and turn in almost immediately! It was already after 12mn already.. Less than 5 1/2 hr of sleep left...

Mel - Adel trip 2008 (3)

2008-03-25T16:26:00.011+08:00

20 Mar 08 (Thursday) - Great Ocean Road

A Tour With A Difference - remember this family owned and operated travel company which transport its travelers in a 10 seater convertible Mercedes Benz small bus with an unique see-through roof.. Definitely one of its kind!

We went for this package even though it costs $25 more expensive than the usual packages as we wanted to make the most of the day trip and would love to hav personalised services. Indeed, we were not disappointed! Before I go into details of where we went, the additional perks of this package included a morning tea, delicious lunch at a nice restaurant and a warm evening snacks at a homely cafe...

We got picked up at Crown Towers at 715am and it was a 1.5 hr drive to our first stop for morning tea at Torquay beach... It was a great spot for some hot drinks and lamington cakes as it was soo cold that morning!

One of our very 1st picture for the day! Another great Aussie beach

Before we made our way to a number of beaches along the Great Ocean Road, we stopped at the Memorial Arch - which signal the start of the Great Ocean Road!

@ the Memorial Arch... Great picture point

We stopped by Lorne, Kennet River (to look for koalas which laze around the ecuplaytus trees!), Cape Patton Lookout and had our lunch at Apollo Bay (nice nice lunch!). After which, it was time for some exercise as we embarked on a bit of hike to view the 'Big Tree' at Lavers Hill.. It poured for a while when we went for lunch and thus it was a wet and slippery hike... But the air was so refreshing!

Dwarfed by the 'Big Tree'

A candid shot taken by our lovely tour guide - Grace

After working off our lunch, we stopped over at the highlight of the day tour - The 12 Apostles! No words can describe how marvellous these limestone stacks looked!

A picture tells a thousand words

After making a relatively short stop, we took numerous more pictures and videos of the majestic natural structures.. @ Loch Ard Gorge which we heard about the track shipwreck history, @ Razorback and the London Bridge which had a part of it collapsed just in recent years! Amazed with the art in which Mother Nature created for us to marvel...

Lord Ard Gorge - spectacular view

London Bridge where a part of it collapsed..

The London Bridge was our last full stop and before we made our way back to Mel at 530pm, we stopped by a quaint Port Campbell fishing village for a light evening snack. It was delicious quiche/salad/soup, etc... Really great food to fill our stomach before the 3 hours journey back to Mel city...

Din manage to have dinner with Mich that night as she drove Joey to the airport for her flight back to SG. But she kindly got up early the next morning to drive Haz and I to the airport for breakfast before our 9am flight to Adelaide for the 2nd leg of our trip! Can't thank Mich enough for housing us and taking good care of us when we are in Mel! Stay in tune for our Adelaide trip! Haha..

Mel - Adel trip 2008 (2)

2008-03-24T19:47:00.008+08:00

19 Mar 08 (Wednesday) - Grampians

Highly recommended to be visited when in Mel as the Grampians are one of the world's oldest and most spectacular mountain ranges, rich in Aboriginal history and an abundance of wildlife...

Pick-up was at the Immigration Musuem at 740am. It was a full 3 hrs drive from Mel city to the heart of Grampians. Our first stop was at the Visitor Centre and we wandered off to the nearby bushland for close-up looks with the wild kangaroos and also taking great pictures with the mountains as our background.

Kangaroos behind us.. if you can spot them..

Nice pict taken with our newly bought tripod stand

As we walked through the grass patches, there were loads of kangaroo poo.. we were careful not to step on too many of them.. but after a while, you just give up.. just too much to not step on any.. haha.. Before we head off to our next stop, we stopped for lunch at Halls Gap (small town in the Grampians). We had kangaroo meat and it was cooked just nice! Apparently, if kangaroo meat is fully cooked, you can throw it away as it is not edible (too tough). Haha, has the texture of beef but not much smell... Tasty actually.. Maybe I was hungry..

MacKenzie Falls was our very next stop. The walk down to the waterfall approximated 700m and it was spectacular view... But of course, the climb back up was quite siongz.. Haha..

Other stops we had were at lookouts with great view of the greenery of the mountaineous areas. Weather is good and cool breeze kept the sunshine bearable. To get to the lookouts like Jaw of Death and Balconies Lookout, we need to hike for about a km but relatively flat land. Think that the key attraction of this trip is the sight-seeing and our objectives were achieved with lots of great photos and videos taken!

Nice and relaxed trip with lots of traveling on the road. Glad that I did not opt to do the self-drive as it would have been so tiring! Rested pretty much on the coach to and fro for the the whole trip! Haha.. Ready for the next day trip to the Great Ocean Road! It turned out to the best 1 day tour that both Haz and I had gone onto! Highly recommended as it was really a Tour with a Difference!

Mel - Adel trip 2008

2008-03-24T18:23:00.006+08:00

It has been a long long time since I last blogged ya.... Lots had happened since my Aust Open blog. Haz's bday was celebrated and my family came over for the CNY period! Lots of golf during the weekends and then work and EBA (final CA module) project was completed and submitted on 15 Mar 08!

Before I go into details on those stuff that took place during the last 2 months which I did not have the luxury of time to blog, I will jump straight into the week that just passed.... The start of my post-secondment trip around Australia..... Bearing in mind that come July (proposed start of the post-secondment travels), it will be winter and knowing that weather will be cold, miserably and unpredictable then, we decided to travel to the southern parts of Australia first... So, we took the opportunity of the extra-long weekend of the Good Friday and Easter Monday holidays and traveled around Melbourne and Adelaide from 16 Mar - 23 Mar 08.

Let's me do a day-to-day summary of stuff we did! Haha.. It was fun stuff...

16 Mar 08 (Sunday) - F1 Grand Prix (Albert Park)

Flew in from Syd the previous night after submitting my EBA project 2 days in advance... Picked up at the Mel airport by xiao mei, Mich, and off we went to her place where she and Yishan (who flew off to NZ with her family on Sat morning) kindly housed both Haz and I!

Before we made our way to the Grand Prix on Sunday, both of us went to the Mel Visitor Centre to book our day trips to the Great Ocean Road (Thu) and Grampians (Wed). Mon and Tue will be our free and easy days to sightsee and shop around the Melbourne city...

Now to the ING Australian F1 Grand Prix.... Hot hot day! Apparently it was 38 degrees! And the heatwave was unbelievable at the trackside... Applied sunscreen for numerous times and still no help for our burning skin! Our General Admission tix allowed us to walk around the trackside but there were so few sheltered areas! No grandstand seats for us.. And the 'grass' patches are simply just dust! And as you would expected, drinks are sold at a premium.. $5 for a bottle! Counted ourselves lucky that we did not spend x times more on the grandstand tixs as most of them had no shelters too and to sit under that heat, I can't imagine enjoying the race...

Ready to be burnt for the day!

Map of the track-side

Matching colors... It was very stuffy in the covered tent actually!

Nothing beats the actual experience of watching the F1 cars zoomed past you at unbelievably quick speed and deafening sound! The ear plugs we bought came in useful! The safety car was out the very first lap of the race and it came out several more times and in the end, only 7 cars finished the race and considering the temperature on the track, it came as no surprise that the engines and parts of the cars blew up... Scary heat...

The heat got to dear and she nearly had a sunstroke and was so exhausted before the race was over... We ended up going off early so as to beat the crowd and it felt so good to escape the heat! Both of us must have lost quite a bit of weight that day given the amount of perspiration that we had! We got back to Mich's place and had a good wash up (whole body was covered with layers of sunscreen and dirt... imagine..).. Looking forward to the night race in SG in Sep 08!

Think this will be our only time catching a F1 race live (unless we get the most expensive tix) as watching on TV in the comfort of our home is definitely much more exciting! Haha..

Jap cusine for dinner before we went back for Mich to finish up her project while Haz and I visited Crown for some fun..

17 & 18 Mar 08 (Monday & Tuesday)

Shopping and sightseeing days... Free and easy... After hearing about the huge amount of money spent by Max and co when they were in Mel for the Aust Open, both Haz and I were filled with hope that we too could bag ourselves great bargains. We searched through DFO, the various factory outlets along Smith St (Nike, Adidas, Converse, etc..), Queen's Victoria Market, Melbourne Central, the various Arcades and laneway shops in Mel city and bought nothing much... Haha.. maybe we din go to the shops with really good discounts or unlucky to miss out any promotional deals...

But still, we spent about 1+day walking around Melbourne city for shopping and sightseeing activities. Great fun as the weather turned for the better on Tue... Cool breeze and healthy sunshine accompanied our walks. Korean food with Mich on Monday night and special thanks to Joey and Jovi for joining us for dinner on Tue night at a nice Chinese restaurant...

More spacious and tidy than Syd Paddy Market. A must visit shopping place!

Our real traveling starts the very next day.. Haha... Look out for my next post.. Surely will be full of pictures as the weather was great for the rest of our trip in Mel and Adel!

Australian Open

2008-02-02T07:43:00.000+08:00

Flew to Melbourne for the very time in my life with Haz, Max, Eug, Wanyi, Lizi and Gin Jing for the Australian Open weekend on 18th Jan (Fri). My very first of the 4 tennis grand slams that I'm aiming to attending in my life... Missed the one last year due to work and this time round, die die must go as my secondment is ending soon... haha..

Had initially gotten the General Admission Pass for Sat ($29) through our hosts Mich and Yish... But, after my trip back to SG and after further considerations, Haz and I decided to get the Vodafone Arena tix as it is more likely that we would be able to catch top seeds in action... And since it may be our only time at the Australian Open, it sounds only right that we try to maximise our trip as both Haz and I are tennis fans (Haz only got hooked at the start of the tournament).. So, we got the Vodafone tix ($56)! It proved to be a great decision as the skies on Sat was greyish and rained the whole day. Vodafone Arena (one of the 2 sheltered courts along with Rod Laver - Centre Court) played on while the other outdoor matches were cancelled...

For the rest who thought of gg for the experience, their day was nearly ruined but luckily for them, they managed to exchanged their tixs for the next day and even upgraded to the Vodafone Arena tixs. So, all went well... It was particularly impt for Haz and I to catch the actions on Sat itself as both of us flew back Sun afternoon as I have a flight to Gold Coast at night for work....

Photos time....

the gang...

PwC Mel at our back... Nice building...

Both of us at the entrance! FINALLY we are here! Live!

Haz got into the groove of things and decided to have lots of fun and she patriotly face-painted a SG flag! Looks great ya... Haha... She din manage to convince me to even paint a small SG flag.. Haha.. I'm just shy... Haha..

Lots of tennis-related activities can be found around the Melbourne Park. Like Wii Tennis, face-painting, etc... Festive atmosphere! Great stuff! Just the weather did not do it justice.. But it did not affect both us as we sat in the comfort of the air-conditioned Vodafone Arena (usually Vodafone and Rod Laver are opened at the top as it is the trademark of Australian Open - hot, sunny outdoor tennis)

We caught top seeds indeed... and great matchups for the 4 matches, especially the thrilling 5 setters between James Blake (12) and Sebastien Grosjean (my old time Virtua Tennis favourite), a great upset of the women's 2nd seed Svetlana Kuznetsova by 29th seed Agnieszka Radwanska... And of coz the whitewash of unseeded players by the new tennis goddess Ana Ivanovic (4th seed) and eventual champion Novak Djokovic!

And for bonus, we watched the last set of the titanic challenge of Roger Federer by Janko Tipsarevic at the big screen at the Garden in Melbourne Park with huge crowd totalling 10,000!!! Awesome atmosphere!!!

Din do much travelling around Mel this time round but Haz and I will be back in Mar for Formula 1 and sightseeing! Special thanks for Mich and Yish for putting us up at their place and we will return the favour come March when they are both here for the Mardi Gras parade!

Rushing off to watch Cinderella now at the Sydney Opera House.. Will keep you guys posted! Take good care all!

Family coming over soon on Tue (5 Feb)... Can't wait! =)

First blog for 2008

2008-01-27T20:54:00.000+08:00

Hey all! It is nearly 1 month into the new year 2008 and I finally am able to blog! Sorry for the long wait ya...

Had a great 3 weeks back in SG. After all, it had been a full 1 year since both Haz and I had been on Singapore soil. Spent alot of quality time with family and caught up with many friends... Can't believe that we wil be back for good in slightly more than half a year! Time had indeed flew past! A few nice photos taken back home....

Dinner with both our families at a restaurant in Liang Court.

Christmas present shopping @ Jurong Point with all my cousins from M'sia...

A small surprise for dearz at Magical Kingdom on top of Mt Faber on Xmas day

Sentosa day out with my cousins...

Once back in Sydney on the 5th Jan, had been occupied full-time by work and CA proj first draft submission. AND on the 3rd weekend of Jan 08, we flew to Mel for the first weekend of Australian Open 2008! Stay tuned for the next update ya... We caught the eventual winner, Novak Djokovic, in action that day! Haha..

Man Utd 4 - 1 Derby

2007-12-09T04:41:00.000+08:00

Routine win once again but the first goal came only after 40 long minutes - from Giggs who celebrated his 100 goals for MU! Amazing record for a winger... Tevez grabbed 2 (could have been 3 if Ronaldo had not taken the penalty that he won himself..). Good win, good warm-up for the trip to Anfield next Sunday against arch rival, Liverpool!

By the way, Liverpool did itself no favours by losing to Reading away (1-3!) and they have a do-or-die match away to Marsille during the week. Hopefully they will be exhausted on Sunday and allow MU to stroll through the park BUT caution will be in the air if they beat Marsille and qualify for 2nd round of Champions' League (they will be on a high)... Will be a great match once again! This time round, I will be able to catch it live in SG! I will be back in SG, touching down at Changi at 130pm on 15th Dec 07... Seriously, can't wait to go home.. It has been a long 1 year since I last return home..

In the very short-term, CA exam on Tue will be priority first. After that paper on Tue, I can start thinking about home... Wish me luck frens! See highlights from the MU match below..

Manchester united 4:1 derby county
Uploaded by crazylf2

Man United 2 - 0 Fulham

2007-12-04T12:14:00.000+08:00

Man Utd shook off the shock loss against Bolton and recorded an easy 2-0 home win against Fulham.. Still can't accept the loss to Bolton as Liverpool thrashed them 4-0 easily. Man Utd regained 2nd spot, 3 points behind Arsenal, playing 1 game more. 2 more points ahead of Chelsea and 3 ahead of Liverpool, who played 1 game lesser.

Good to see Rooney back in action. Tevez looked a different player alongside Rooney. Ronaldo's brace today is the highlight. Expertly volleyed first goal and a long overdue header for the 2nd (never seem to understand why he scored so few headers for MU as his jumping ability is second to none in the MU squad, see how he always hang in the air). Strong case to be voted world's best player for the last year... But most likely to be Kaka's title...

December - an important month for the EPL as a long stretch of un-disrupted EPL games will take centrestage. The true challengers of the EPL title for 07/08 will be clearer after Dec. Likely to be the usual suspects - MU, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool (hopefully in this order at the end of Dec)...

Attached is the goal highlights of the game:

Am on study leave till next Tue for my final CA paper for this calendar year. Can't wait for it to be over as home beckons after the paper. Have been away from home for 1 FULL year and is missing my family and frens very much.. Not to mention the food too.. Haha..

Take good care all!

Man Utd 2 - 1 Sporting Lisbon

2007-11-28T11:55:00.000+08:00

Spluttering win for MU. It confirmed their top placing in the group. Chance for Sir Alex to rest his key players for the trip to Rome as Liverpool match comes after that meaningless Champions League match...

A win is a win. Ronaldo's superb freekick - powerful and swerving all the way into the net during injury time. Tevez got onto the scoresheet and looked lively... Rooney should be back for the game against Fulham next.. Hopefully the defeat to Bolton is just a temporary blip...

Video highlights from the match is attached below...

Arsenal lost 3-1 to Seville away; first defeat after an unbeaten start to the year. First of many defeats to come? Hopefully! =)

Bolton 1 - 0 Man Utd

2007-11-27T15:59:00.001+08:00

Man Utd loss to Bolton was greeted with shock and surprise.

Definitely games away to Reebok Stadium had never been a big problem... Maybe it's the absence of Rooney (who likes to play against Bolton becoz he always scores against them!) or Ronaldo or Vidic? And the loss came at a bad time as all Man Utd rivals (Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool) won... 3 points behind undefeated Arsenal, playing a game more... Still early days in the long season and hopefully points will be dropped by the lucky Gunners.. Since it was not a pretty game, no highlight will be posted.. Haha..

Hopefully, wil get to blog more victories by the Red Devils! =)

Study week starts next week... Wrapping up outstanding work before I disappear..

Wii....

2007-11-21T16:15:00.000+08:00

Just in case my frens are wondering what is with my nick on my msn... Haz and I got ourselves a Wii console!! We played it for the first just the day before we bought it at Chris' house. Haz got hooked and it is a great party game console to own... Still researching on what games are good on this console and will be purchasing games from ebay as it is such a great place to get good deals for anything..

The only thing that made us thought twice was the fact that this console only plays PAL games - different from the NTSC format games that are sold in SG. We decided to go ahead and buy it as we will still be here for another 9 months and who knows whether if we will still be so onz about this game console.. =p

Will be bringing it back to SG during our 3 weeks break and let our families have a go at the amazing technology that this console had brought to video-gaming.. Great stuff...

Another amazing stuff to boast about is the fact that we are becoming experts in picking up soft toys from the soft toys grabbing machines in arcade.. We spent $8 and caught 5 soft toys during one night out at the movies... Real nice soft toys.. haha..

Will be having my 4th CA paper (Financial Reporting - tough paper) on the 11th Dec and so will be going on study leave the week after next.. Busy wrapping up outstanding work and thus nothing interesting to update you guys... Will do my best to keep you all posted of any interesting stuff that is happening around me...

Take good care all!

Am gg to be back in SG real soon! 15th Dec 07 - 5th Jan 08..

Man Utd 2 - 0 Blackburn

2007-11-12T19:42:00.000+08:00

Man Utd chalked up another important victory against one of the form sides in the EPL at OT. Blackburn's good start had seen them took points off Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. Furthermore with Rooney missing out due to a freak injury in training (for a month), this is a test to see if Man Utd's recent great form will be disrupted.

No chance after a quick brace from Ronaldo and 2nd half sending off of David Dunn. Shaky moments for MU defence in the opening exchanges but MU came out comfortable winner on a night when Chelsea lost 2 points against Everton as a result of a great overhead kick by Tim Cahill on the 90th min. Hopefully, Arsenal will drop point today... *Fingers crossed*..

Enjoy the highlights from the match.... Hard to find good ones for this match... =)

Manchester United 4 - 0 Dynamo Kiev

2007-11-08T13:49:00.001+08:00

Another win for MU in the Champions' League! Comfortable 4-0 win against Dynamo Kiev.

Man United vs Dynamo from dong on Vimeo.

As a service to my friends who are Man Utd fans (may not be many.. oops), I will post quality highlight clips of any Man Utd matches on my blog. Kudos to internet and short highlight clips easily available online, else I will really be starved of Man Utd matches! Enjoy the highlights...

Halloween 2007

2007-11-05T19:44:00.000+08:00

Celebrated Halloween for the first time in my life so far.. Not on the day itself (31 Oct) but 3 days later on a Sat... It was celebrated together with a late birthday celebration for Eug (long overdue actually). We were each supposed to be sporting enough to either get a wig/ mask/ accessories/ whatever and dress up! Initially, doubts surfaced among us whether if the plan will crystallise. It turned out to be an awesome night! Everyone (virtually..) plays their part and it was a great halloween celebrations!

Let me name some of the characters played out by us all as pictures of them are not to be showed to public (out of courtesy to protect their privacy). Spider-max, Phantom of the Opera, witch, devil, policeman in shorts, etc... Great fun! Haha.. Some pictures to share of me and Haz... =)

Oh ya, another thing to blog is that we had started our weekly sporting activity! The past 2 Sunday mornings, we had started playing basketball as a group! It is start of our long overdue healthy lifestyle - not just food and karaoke... hehe...

Special mention: Wanyi was the kind photographer. Max and Eug joined us in the 1st week but due to unforeseen circumstances, failed to wake up in time the last week. Joan, Cherrie, Darren, Lil and frens joined us for the game after we had taken this photo.. =p

Till my next post, take care all! =)

Miss Saigon

2007-11-02T06:02:00.000+08:00

Watched Miss Saigon yesterday and witnessed a musical with tragic and tear-jerking plot that had entralled millions of people around the world. Colorful musical with a great mix of fun and emotional moments... To all my frens in Sydney, catch it before its run at the Lyric Theatre, Star City ends in Dec. Next musical to catch - Phantom of the Opera in May 08. Will hope to catch an opera at the Sydney Opera House soon.

Will keep you guys posted! Haha..

3 down.. 2 to go!

2007-10-23T20:53:00.000+08:00

3rd technical module - Management Accounting & Analysis is out of the way and left with 2 more.. Financial Accounting & Reporting module is the last technical module that I'm taking now and a last integrative module to be taken next year. AND I will be done with my Aust CA.. Pretty happy with the results and wanna thank my dear wife for supporting me always whether I'm busy juggling work and studies.. Really appreciate it dear!

Busy last 2 weeks with work and of coz catching up on studies.. But still, we did have a couple of great group makan outings... One of which was organised by one of my CIP-TICE colleague, Albert, 2 Fridays ago. We had Jap BBQ buffet at Suminoya. Great experience and food but just a tad too smokey.. haha.. After the dinner, we had Sugar Hit @ Swissotel. Good food and great company that night!

The other one was a farewell yum cha for our dear Aaron, Aileen and their son, Ethan... Returning back home (SG) end of Oct, concluding his Aust CA secondment with PwC Syd Tax. We had a sumptuous yum cha feast at Zilver, one of the top notch yum cha restaurant around Sydney. Do try if you are in Sydney and crave for authentic and delicious yum cha!

Cute cute Ethan.. Haha..

2 less familiar faces in Syd.. Kinda sad but we, ourselves, will be returning back home in less than a year's time. Soo, the more we should enjoy our precious time here! Will definitely keep you posted of the fun things that both Haz and I will be doing before our secondment in Syd comes to an end... Time do flies.. BUT memories (beautiful) ones will stay with us!

Take good care all and Great job to my dad, bro, sis, Ah Yong and Peisen for getting their golf provisional certificate! Awesome man! Haha.. I have lots of catching up to do! =)

The Entrance and Jacky Cheung

2007-10-06T06:48:00.000+08:00

A quick update from me! Last weekend was a long one as Monday (1 Oct) was Labour Day in NSW. Apparently Labour Day is different around Australian states. Weird.. but nonetheless, it was a great chance for both Haz and me to go on a getaway up north of NSW, to The Entrance. It is a quiet place with nice coastline and also its famous daily Pelican feeding! Most importantly, it is away from the hustle and bustle of city life and both of us can sit back and relax and chill.. Haha..

Before getting to The Entrance, we stopped by a beautiful beach at Terrigal and was awed by the nice sea view... Basicially Australia boast one of the world best coastal view as it is surrounded by water...

Stayed overnight at The Entrance for 2 nights and caught the Pelican feeding, AFL and NRL finals, caught up lots of sleep... Haha.. And a bit of golf...

Pelicans queuing up for the food.. smart birds as they know roughly when the feeding is starting..
See the fish thrown in the air? Each pelican which caught one will bring it back to the waters to eat it and leave the rest for others. Not greedy at all..

It is actually a golf driving range where pple just hit off the real grass and not mats. Good experience for Haz especially as she now knows how it feels hitting off grass.. Fun! but with no shelter, we got ourselves a good tan.. =)

Meant to be a holiday with no fixed itinerary and just let our minds 2 days off! Best timing for me as my CA is going to get into full gear from next weekend onwards with focus sessions, projects to prepare... and another busy planning/interim audit season is here before the Dec break...

The Friday (5 Oct) coming off the long weekend, Max, Joan, Haz and I attended the Jacky Cheung World Tour 2007 concert held at Sydney Entertainment Centre! Can't believe that I would be able to catch his concert even over here in Down Under! Believe that it is gg to be his swan-song world tour before he retires.. So glad to be able to get the tixs!

Great performance put up by him! Mixing fast songs and his famous love songs! He tried to inject fresh ideas into his concert by performing a short musical (a.k.a Xue Lan Hu and Ru Kuo Ai)... But nothing beats him belting out his classic hits.. 10 songs encore is the highlight of the whole concert i muz say. The true 'king' of the 4 Heavenly Kings... Haha..

Till my next update! Cheers!

Mid-autumn Festival celebrations

2007-09-23T16:26:00.001+08:00

Date: 22 Sep 07 (Fri)

Venue: Blackwattle Bay Park

Got together with friends to celebrate the Mid-autumn festival before the actual day next week. Thanks to my mum for making great tasting choc/coffee/red bean paste mooncakes and Haz' mum for kindly bringing them over when she came here for visit last week!

The choc mooncakes proved to be the most popular! Haha.. Haz bought lanterns for each who attended and we stuck to the tradition of carrying lanterns and eating mooncakes to celebrate the festival. What was lacking was just hot flask of chinese tea! We replaced it with beer/lime bitters/water/ribena... Haha..

All of us had great fun catching up, especially after another game of murderer!

Pictures are as below:

This is another way to feel like we are at home in SG... Thanks to great friends we made over here! =)

Trip to Canberra

2007-09-23T13:16:00.000+08:00

Drove a total of more than 625km in a day yesterday (23 Sep) to and fro Canberra- a record! To put things in perspective, it shd be equivalent to a return trip to and fro KL. Canberra is about 290km from Sydney whilst Melbourne is about 850km from Sydney.

Haz and I had not planned to spend just 1 day in Canberra. We had planned to spend the night at Chee Kim's place in Wagga Wagga but had decided against it after dinner in Canberra @ around 2030 as Wagga is 2 1/2 hours away (based on traveling at 110km/h). It was further than I had thought - 1 1/2 hr. We made the decision based on the fact that we had driven our 10 year-old Kia and was not sure whether if it can take the long journey to Wagga and then the next day's drive back to Sydney. Haha.. So, Haz and I decided to stay for the night at Canberra instead to continue our visit the next day.

What happened next surprised us! All hotels/motels/hostels were fully booked! Nothing within the radius of Canberra had any room available. What did we decide to do? We decided to drive back as it was just past 9pm and we had visited most of the places to interest in Canberra after all. And so, we made the long drive back to Sydney in our trusted Kia Mentor.. Haha.. All in all, >625km were driven and we got home at 1am (Sun) after starting the trip at 530am (Sat). Amazing!

Let me bring you through where we visited in our first trip to the Capital of Australia, Canberra!

Lake George is in the background (some distance away) - a lookout on the way to Canberra on the Federal Highway about 30 km away from Canberra.

The Visitors Centre should always be the first stop. Buy a $2 map of Canberra and allow the friendly staff tell you where go and what to do.

First stop after breakfast is Floriade 2007 - a spring time festival of flowers in full bloom. Virtually a huge park of colourful flowers in full bloom starting during mid Sep. It was the very first weekend of the festival and there were lots of flower lovers and tourists.

Awesome festival to go to if you are in Canberra during spring time!

Australia National Museum is our next stop. The futuristic museum is really impressive with lots of information and innovative exhibits on show. Both Haz and I were starting to suffer the lethargy of waking up early such that we did not spend much time at the museum. Off to our next stop!

Australia's Parliament House. Very impressive design once again! Just amazed me how rich Australia is! Its vast base of natural resources definitely allows it to splurge! It replaces the next attraction we visited down the road - The Old Parliament House. Interestingly, it is the only place where we had to pay admission - $2.

National Gallery of Australia was our last stop for the day as everything closes @ 5pm! It is a gallery showing creative and artistic exhibits. Pretty abstract art pieces and both Haz and I couldn't appreciate much.. Haha..

After that, we drove around Canberra, stopping by all the embassies around the area. More than 50 embassies are situated in the whole of Canberra. How can we miss the chance to pose outside the Singapore High Commission aka Embassy. The other embassies were designed to reflect its distinct architecture/culture/history.

Chee Kim and his girlfriend, Yuzhu, met up with us after Haz and I tried Koko Black! This newly opened chocolate cafe was highly recommended by Darren! It opens in Melbourne too. Chocolate lovers, this is a must try! It is quite hard as it is located in the newly opened wing of the Canberra Centre. But once you taste its specialities, anything with chocolate, you will definitely be addicted and want to try more! Haha..

I tried Iced Chocolate and Haz tried Belgian Chocolate Mousse Martini. Unbelivably rich!

We then met up Chee Kim and Yuzhu for dinner at Abell's Kopitiam, ordering its Malaysian speciality dishes. Apparently, it was highly recommended in 8 Days - as per Yuzhu. Not bad not bad! The spicy dishes we ordered did not disappoint; Seafood laksa, Curry Ayam Pedas and Assam Prawns. The nonya coconut pancake dessert was my favourite! Price is reasonable and thanks Chee Kim for the treat!

After dinner, Haz and I went on a futile search for available hotel/motel rooms and we undertook a challenging drive back in pitch black darkness on most parts of the highway. Thanks to Haz for keeping me company throughout the 3+hrs drive (with a stopover for coffee and short breaks) and we safely made it home! We will be back in Canberra to finish up our proposed itinerary - Australian Royal Mint, Telstra Tower and Old Bus Depot Sunday market!

Another trip with Haz is planned for next week as it would be a long weekend with Australia Labour Day (1 Oct) falling on the Monday. Till our next road trip, stay tune!

Golf updates..

2007-09-06T21:45:00.000+08:00

Within the space of the past week, I had gone onto a real course (although considered a short course with par 60) twice with Max @ Hudson Public Golf Course near Homebush. Both of us were on study leave to prepare for our MAA exam next Tuesday. It was truly a humbling experience actually as it just revealed the shortcomings of my game and how much more efforts and time I need to put in so as to do some justice to my game of golf. Haha..

Hit 101 on my very first time playing 18 holes - bad putting (sometimes averaging 4 putts a hole!)

2nd game saw improvements in my putting but bad iron plays at the back nine destroyed my reasonably good front nine.. Improved my overall score to 95 but still lots of improvements needed!

Tee-shot consistency with woods, fairway play with irons, chipping, bunker plays, consistency in direction of shots played, and plenty more! Will hit the driving range with ample knowledge of what to work on.. Haha.. With 10 months left, I know that I will have enough time and opportunities to work on my game and hopefully I will not ended feeling more and more frustrated with the game as it is a game of 'zero tolerance' and 'perfection'. *Fingers crossed*

Some pictures I took on my 2nd trip to the public golf course. By the way, for comparison purposes, we paid $18 course fees to play 18 holes. Cheap by Singapore standards...

Driving range

First hole

Random photos on hole 7 of course

Till my next updates on golf or any other significant happenings in my adventure in Australia, take good care all!

New rented apartment

2007-09-06T16:50:00.000+08:00

Finally, pictures of my new rented apartment unit, still in Pyrmont. Roughly the same size as the Watermark unit but layout is pretty different. Feels and looks more spacious! There is even a small study area which is frankly too small an area to fit someone like me (who likes to roll the chair around and spread all my stuff out on the table, which is far too narrow). So, that becomes a temporary 'storage area'. There is bath-tub in the toilet so, the toilet is bigger now. Finishings of the cupboards and kitchen top are pretty new and the carpet looks clean and new.

In short, all is good. We had fully moved in, relocated all fixed phone line, ADSL, etc.. This will be our home for the next 10 months until my secondment ends.

Bedroom

Kitchen

Living area

Looks good ya. Drop me an email if you are coming to Sydney for a visit. My place should be large enough to accomodate you for a couple of nights. It is in the middle of Pyrmont, the suburb nearest to Sydney CBD. Convenient!

Moving house aGAin!

2007-08-21T19:12:00.000+08:00

3rd rented place within the last 1 yr +! Both Haz and I will be moving again this Friday; still in Pyrmont though. The landlord of my current place had put it up for sale and we had no choice but to search for a new place 2 months ago. Glad that we got 1 relatively quickly as the current rental market is just too hot! Queues of 20 people are not a common sight at any open house. And of coz, with huge demand and limited supply, the rental costs skyrocketed, averaging $380 (very average place) to $550 (more quiet parts of Pyrmont and newer establishment) PER WEEK.

We got this new place at the same rate as our current place, about the same size and pretty new and sleek finishings. Will post pictures of it after we had settled in.

What had Haz and I be up to in the past month? Hiding at home from the cold... Haha.. I had been pretty busy at work (busy period now) but of coz, we did spend quality time together, exploring new places to makan and practised quite a bit of golf together. Haz is getting the hang while I seem to have 'de-proved'... Hope to hit the course again soon.

Michelle flew to Syd for work last weekend and we caught up for seafood at the Fish Market (Sat).

On the next day (Sun), she joined us all for City2Surf 2007! Haz and I set off with a goal in mind; To beat last year's result of completing the 14km event in under 3 hours. We had jogged, walked and taken photos during the event last year. So, for this year, we tried to jog more and walk less (even though we had not trained properly for this!). We finished below 2 hr 30 mins! Great feat considering that we started the race after it had started 35mins ago! So, in effect, we finished within 2 hrs (with a toilet break in between and walking the last kilometer!). Well done dear for the perserverance!

The photo is missing Mr Tay once again. Apparently he is nursing a knee injury.. Haha..

On the Sunday night itself, after the City2Surfy, we had our very first Sydney secondee dinner, all thanks to PwC SG for providing us an all expense paid dinner at Golden Century (one of the best Chinese seafood restaurant in Sydney). It is both to celebrate SG National Day and also a great chance for all secondees in Sydney to have a formal get-together and know each other better. We had lots of fun, although it took Aileen's (Aaron's wife) Q&A session to break the ice for the new secondees (who are a tad too shy initially).. Haha..

Disclaimer: I'm red-faced due to the sunburn not alcohol. The 2 beers on the table is Aaron's..

That's the latest updates I have for you. Will have more updates on my new place soon, i hope. MAA (3rd technical module) exam is on 11th Sep and study break is here soon.

Take good care all! Cheers!

First time...

2007-08-05T17:47:00.000+08:00

4th Aug 07 (Sat): Hit a golf course and played nine holes for the very first time! Hudson Park Golf Course is where I played... Aaron kindly jio-ed me and gave me an on-the-course coaching lessons from golf course etiquette to tips on other speciality shots like bunker/chip shots. We teed off at around 8am - one of the few early birds. Hazel was unfortunately not able to join us on the course as the course is off-limits to non-golfers (defined as not owning own set of clubs and playing). She kept herself occupied by practising her golf swings and hitting a number of balls at the driving range. Haha.. Maybe soooooon, Hazel wil be my golf kaki on the course owning her own set of clubs. Signs are good.. =)

Back to the golf.. Haha.. $22 flat rate on weekend for 18 holes. Lots of aspects to improve on as nothing beats going down to the course and hitting the balls. Precision is the rule of the game with minimal margin for errors. My first time on the course was exciting and anxiety-filled (becoz I do not want to hold up anyone behind us.. haha..)

Hopefully, I will not get frustrated as there are pple who would hit a brick wall in terms of improving their games no matter how long they had played it. Will keep my and Haz's interest in the game going strong definitely! No picture this time round but will try to take some the next time...

Busy weeks ahead! But I will hang on tight and enjoy my time in Sydney with dear Haz... =)

Busy Busy

2007-07-31T20:50:00.000+08:00

Busy busy... it is really an understatement for the last 2 weeks. Auditing in Gold Coast just SOUNDS fun and enjoyable ONLY.. haha.. not when you are in my current role - the only senior on the job squeezed between 2 managers and 3 juniors. Need to multi-task during the day, answering queries from all angles or providing coaching as and when called upon.. All these on top of taking charge of the whole P/L for the Group with 6 hubs at 45 locations around Australia and owning 86 radio stations.

My CA extension project was due last Sunday and had focus sessions for 2 units last Sunday too. So, you can imagine how packed my days and nights had been... Still hanging on though..

Just a short and quick updates for all visiting my blog for new posts. Apologies for not updating as much as I like to.. Am fine and hopefully have more interesting things to blog about in the weeks/months to come.. Gotta to run for now.

Till my next post, take good care all!

Updates

2007-07-15T20:18:00.000+08:00

It has been 2 weeks since my last update. I'm fine, still coping with the cold Sydney weather.. Better the past 2 weeks, with ample sunlight in the day but the nights are still hard to get used to, especially the chilly wind. *Grrr*

Still into golf... getting more consistent in my swings and irons. Woods is next on my learning agenda. Found kakis to hit the golf course soon, i hope.. My uncle Bernard who is just back from Guangzhou after spendin the last 2 years there with his wife, Maggie.

A few recent photos to show u all wat we were up to recently...

Hitting the golf driving range in pouring rain.. Crazy u must think.. haha..

Shrek 3 screening during PwC Family Day 2007 @ Moore Park Entertainment Quarter

Birthday celebrations for our dear pals in Sydney on the 3rd and 4th July!

One of the biggest soft toy i ever won for Haz @ Luna Park one night.. Haha.. at a cost of $12! Not a big price to pay at an amusement park.

That's all for now folks! Will be away in Gold Coast for work for 3 whole weeks starting the following weekend (23rd Jul).. Believe that it will be just work and studies as my focus session will be on 29th July and Extension Project due on the same day! Hectic hectic.. My peak over here is starting..

Transformers - Awesome!

2007-06-30T08:09:00.000+08:00

Great movie based on a comic! Other than Spider-man... But this definitely impress me more as the 'Transformers' are as real as it can get! When I first heard that the movie-makers are making 'Transformers' into a movie, the first thought is that it is gg along the line of 'Shrek' kinda animation. But this movie really blows me and Haz away especially when the cars/tanks/planes transform into robots! They look so real!

Maybe if I come across nice metallic transformer toys/collectibles, I may just become a 'Transformers' collector.. Look around my new house next time to see if I really become one... A call to all frens who are from the 'Transformers' era to catch it and believe u wil definitely be impressed..

Love

2007-06-21T06:48:00.000+08:00

Before I start on my new post, wanna congratulate Hansin for his successful proposal to Aiwei . Congrats to Tim for tying the knot back home in SG last week too. And also to all my frens who had tied the knot this yr and last yr. Sorry for missing all your big day. Several more weddings are on the line the later half of this year and early next year. Sad to say, I have to miss most of them too..

I sincerely wish all of you a blissful marriage and reiterate that 'Marriage is not the graveyard for love'... At least not for mine...

Believe that everyone has heard about this phrase and may think that it may somewhat be true given that married life definitely do not sound as exciting as courtship days. On the contrary, I feel that married life is actually more eventful and blissful, especially given that you are in the company of each other everyday, you can choose to do whatever both of you like together, live and grow together.

Love is a special thing, not something that words can easily describe. It's the feeling you have when you are awake and see the person that your heart lies with eternally. And it is something that you should never neglect as it is such fate that both your heart magically connect out of the millions/billions people in this world.

So, will love mellow once you get married? During courtship, lovers adore each other; they can't wait to meet and talk. They pour their hearts out using the sweetest words they can find. They are like the brightest stars shining in each other's night sky; like the oasis in the desert satisfying each other's thirst. Their whole being feel fulfilled because of each other.

Is it any difference after you have gotten married and started living together? YES and NO. Married couples stil adore each other, now they can talk anytime as they live under the same roof (provided that you take the effort to communicate and share). Married couples can still pour their hearts out using the sweetest words they can find (if they still bother). They are still going to be each other's brightest stars and oasis if they do not allow work/money/kids to pre-occupy their conscious minds too much and neglect the deep love that they have for each other when they decide to wed. All it takes is for each to make an EFFORT. It's the effort to consciously remind each other that it takes both parties to make a relationship work. No matter in what relationship.

There is a misconception by some that once married, their love is sealed and presumed and so there is no need for romance or to express it, and so saying "Thank you", "You are fantastic" and "I love you" aloud are superfluous. It is not. By expressing your love, it keeps the intimacy you had enjoyed during your courtship (when you use these words in abundance) alive in your married life. In my opinion, it is just a status change (when you get married) and nothing else regarding your love for each other has changed.

This is just one way to ensure that 'Marriage is a dream come true' from turning into 'Marriage is the graveyard for love'...

Think it has been a long post (without pict). Hopefully I make sense.. Haha.. but it's just something I wish to share/remind everyone in love that you do not find genuine love easily. It takes more than chance to bring 2 persons together and finding love; true love.

Congrats to all who had found true love! Treasure it! Good luck to all still finding it. Your love will come one day and once you found it, do not let go of it easily.

Take care all and cheers!

2 down.. 3 to go!

2007-06-08T06:31:00.000+08:00

Tax CA results were out yesterday at 4pm Sydney time. 'Pass with merit' is my result. A great one! Haha.. All my fellow secondees passed too! Max aced it once again! Kudos to all who worked their arses off to get through this 'relatively irrelevant module for auditors'..

Management Accounting and Analysis ('MAA') next! Exams in Sep. Have to start cracking. Work has been pretty good, not too much on my plate at the moment but peak is coming soon. Weather in Sydney is getting colder by each day. Time for us to bring out our heater!

Golf is currently the SPORT that i'm working hard to get the hang of before winter sets in... Improving with each 'driving range' session. Targeting to hit the course 1 weekend during early July! Will keep you guys posted!

Cheers!

To win in Poker - Bluff or Luck?

2007-06-03T20:57:00.000+08:00

Luck!
At least for the 1st poker game held on Sat at my place.
Players: Max, Eug, me, Chiang, Aiwei, Joan and Haz
Losers: The 1st 3 names (in descending amount - ie. 1st lost the most)
Winners: The last 4 names (in ascending amount)

Fun-filled, action packed 4 hr poker game (Texas Hold'em) after a feast at the Sydney Fish Mkt. First timers include 3 of the winners (all girls).. And the key to their handsome win (biggest winner won ard $35): Luck and plain honesty! Only bet when u have a good hand. Haha..

The rules are simple and conservative. Buy-in is just $10 (unlimited depends on ur risk appetite). Small / Big blind is 10c/20c. Maximum bet for first 4 cards before the river card is $2 and for the last hand, max is $10. Sounds like the $10 worth of chips would be finished very quickly ya. But the truth is that it is seldom that 'All in' will be called early in the game! It actually took about an hr before the 1st 'All in' or max $10 bet was called. Everyone was keeping it simple and conservative.. Haha..

It was all good fun ultimately.. Definitely another game coming up soon.. The losers will want to recoup! Till the next update, it seems that LUCK plays a bigger part than Skills aka Bluff.. Haha..
Interest in GOLF is still strong. Haz had started feeling the attractiveness of golf and she will join me in the future golf sessions! Cooolz.. Take care all!

New chip set and more golf!

2007-05-30T20:18:00.000+08:00

Got my 1000 chip set for only $70 (plus shipping cost). Each chip weighs 11.5g (as heavy as casino chips, thus feeling better in hand). You will ask, what's the use of so many chips? Haha.. Poker game! Yeah! Poker - Texas Hold'em; a game that had Australia enthralled after an Aussie won millions in the World Poker Tour a couple of years back.

Simple game of luck and 'trick' / 'bluff'... But a highly entertaining game that all can take part. Easy to pick up and thus, a poker game will be a nice way to gather at someone's house @ a relatively low cost (more of income distribution among frens than to another external party...).

Will be organising my first poker game this coming Sat night. Till then, take a good loook at the chip set that I had so much trouble carrying it home from office - 15kg!

After my first golf lesson on Sunday, I tried searching the internet for tips and video clips on how to improve golf swing and basics about golf. Got my hands really 'itchy'.. Haha.. Can't wait till Sat for my next golf session.

Today (on a Wed!), I jio Aaron to Moore Park Driving Range for some golf! He is more expert and steady of coz, picking up golf abt 4 yrs ago. My focus was on my swing and to be more consistent. Improved slightly but it is very very cold and windy tonight! Poor Haz, who tagged along, she had to brave the cold wind. At least both Aaron and I had the swing-ing exercise to warm our body up. Thanks dear for the photos, so that I can blog providing you all with some visual treat.. Haha.. Still not consistent but as long as I improve with every session, I'm more than contented! Still long way to go before I can go down to a golf course with confidence, but I'm getting nearer with each session!

Take good care all!

Golf!

2007-05-27T20:59:00.000+08:00

Got my first formal golf lesson today at Moore Park Driving Range with Max, Eug and Chiang. Learnt how to grip, swing a golf club, using a 6 irons. Great weather for learning as the weather is cool and not too sunny! All of us had great fun, just that we all need to warm up better before hitting the balls next time.. haha.. especially our backs!

It is fun and all of us ended the session feeling pretty positive and would definitely be gg back for some driving and maybe further lessons to improve our game before we hit the golf course! haha.. A great weekend spent visiting relatives in Blacktown, dinners with frens on both nights of the weekends. Feels good! Both Hazel and I had started our gym regime, need to get back in shape!! Haha..

Weather is turning colder each day and day is getting shorter. Haha.. Hibernation time... =p

Gold Coast May 07 (Day 6 & 7)

2007-05-19T21:00:00.000+08:00

Day 6 - Shopping @ Harbour Town

Pure shopping day as we are done with the tourist-y parts of our holidays. Haz, Chris and me went shopping, hoping to get some great deals at the Direct Factory Outlets at Harbour Town. Max and Eug rested at home, meeting us again at 3+pm. Plenty of shops to window shop but after a while, most of the stuff look pretty similar to what we can get in Syd (namely the DFO).

Pretty tired out after the long shopping day.. Haha.. and rested at the hotel before heading out at night to Broadbeach for a Jap cusine feast - Shabu Shabu Eat-all-you-can @$23.60 per person. Ate to our stomach's content.. Amazing Race was our post-dinner activity back in the hotel.

Day 7 - King Tut Putt Putt

Our last day in Gold Coast. Main activity for the day - a round of 18-hole mini golf @ King Tut Putt Putt ($11 per head).

Winner of the session is......... Eug! Brilliant aim and touch. Chris tried her best with a number of hole-in-one but lost out on consistency and accuracy! Haha..

Great fun but it only occupied us for less than 2 hrs till 1130am and we were off to Surfers' Paradise for the rest of our time in Gold Coast (planned to leave for Brisbane at 5pm - 8pm flight back to Syd). We virtually 'chilled' there...

Played ten-pin bowling and some arcade games, drank coffee, Boost Juice, ate sushi rolls, hungry jack and lots of 'tu-ang-ing'... Haha.. But time passed us by and despite a minor flight delay at the Brisbane airport, we got home feeling good.

Time to save up for our next Australia trip again! Hope you enjoyed my posts. Hope that it had not been too draggy ya! Haha.. Any comments are welcomed!

Till my next post, take good care everyone!

Gold Coast Trip May 07 (Day 5)

2007-05-19T19:53:00.000+08:00

Day 5 - Dreamworld + Australian Outback Spectacular (dinner)

The last theme park for our Gold Coast trip - Dreamworld; a park with so many worlds in one. We started early once again and the theme park hopping had taken its toll on all of us, except Chris (who recovered from her flu and sore throat)..

First ride (and last for Eug for the day): The CLAW - the latest attraction in Dreamworld. It is scary to the outside spectators and especially so for the participants! Scarryy.. Both Haz and I sat out. Too thrilling for us, for the start at least. The 3 brave souls took the challenge and survived! Kudos to them but the ride brought abt dizziness and spinning headaches for Eug and Max (momentarily). The ride cost Eug $54 (admission tix).

My first ride was the Cyclone - a roller coaster that made me dizzy too (aptly labeled).. Haha.. Made Max's headache worse though. End of rides for him for the day too.. Tiredness seeped in..

For a break, we watched a show titled 'Australia' at the IMAX theatre - nice show and also a good chance for Max, Chris and Eug to catch a nap... After that, Haz took her first ride of the day - The Thunder River Rapids Ride; with Chris and me. We took it twice! And Chris was always the one who got the wett-est... Fun ride & not very scary; Haz likes it..

We also went through a walk on the dark side; direct from the USA - Nightmares which showcase 2 live scare attractions that sent shivers down our spines. We went through the 'Freezer', missing out on the 'Angoscia'... Screams from Haz were plentiful and laughter from Eug.. Great attraction though.. Innovative but the scare factor should go up a couple more notches.. We also visited the 'Big Brother' studio @ Dreamworld. For those who do not know, the Big Brother house is in Dreamworld itself.

Tiger Island is where we caught the awesome 'Tiger show' (not the ones you catch in Thailand.. haha..). Taming a ferocious animal like tigers - amazing. Feared for the trainers that they can become meal for the tigers should anyone goes crazy. Though tigers are fierce and beastly, we do need to be more pro-active in ensuring that they do not go extinct. Another conservation msg.

All of us were pretty tired out as the sun was pretty scorching and energy sapping. Chris had wanted to try the scary and thrilling Tower of Terror and The Giant Drop but garang Max was too tired to accompany her and these rides are just too much for me... Haha.. Do try them ya... Out of this world (as far as I had traveled...)

We finished the day pretty early at 4pm and headed for Harbour Town (Sydney equivalent of DFO) for some pre-shopping outing to see what's there on offer. Great shopping place! We made our way to the Australian Outback Spectacular site (near Movie World) at 530pm for the show-cum-dinner spectacular showcase.

The dinner-cum-show is a must-watch as it is filled with music, drama and lots of outback actions. A bit costly ($95 retail; $81 if use entertainment guide) but to Haz and me, it is worth it - for the experience and the show.

End of Day 5; Last 2 days in Gold Coast... to be continued...

Gold Coast Trip May 07 (Day 4)

2007-05-19T18:25:00.000+08:00

Day 4 - Sea World

Another Warner Bros. theme park. Sea World, a theme park showcasing sea animals and rides that make u wet...

Relatively small one with less exciting stuff to do. Had changed little from the last time I visited; the only new attraction is the Sea World Eye - Australia's 1st Giant Observation Wheel. Nothing spectacular actually - more like a giant ferris wheel. =)

We started early at 945am (opens at 10am) and did a slow and leisure tour of the theme park.

The main attractions are the shows which include

1) the Dolphin show which educate the public how dolphins are being threatened by irresponsible acts of human. Great show with a moving message to all.

2) Quest for the Golden Seals (cut short due to closure of the seal stadium)

3) Waterski Wipeout (watersking tricks with comedic twist)

4) Planet SOS in 4D

The other blog-worthy attractions are the Shark Bay and the Polar Bear Shores. Definitely not a fun filled theme park in my opinion. There are thrill rides though in the park like the Corkscrew (rollercoaster), Pirate Ship, Bermuda Triangle ride, etc. We din try as we had tried the best and more thrilling in Superman ya... haha..

We ended our tour of this park earlier than expected once again; around 330pm and headed back our serviced apartment to rest.

For dinner, we headed to Surfers' Paradise for Jap food, similar cusine to our dinner the previous night at Broadbeach. We do like Jap food. Haha.. After dinner, we headed for the arcade centre @ Centro (Timezone). A picture that shows that 27-year-olds can be young at heart too... Haha...

Dream World tomorrow... to be continued...

Gold Coast Trip May 07 (Day 3)

2007-05-19T16:20:00.000+08:00

Day 3 - Movie World

Warner Bros. Movie World - a theme park full of familiar cartoon characters and thrill rides! Definitely the best theme park out of the 5 in Gold Coast (including 2 water theme parks which we din go to during this trip), thus the more lengthy post and also many more interesting photos! Haha..

First time to the parks for Haz, Max and Eug. Both Chris and I had visited the park like 10 years ago. Nothing much had changed other than a couple of new rides and Shrek 4D movie...

First ride for the day: NEW! Superman ESCAPE ride - Southern Hemisphere #1 rollercoaster; 0 - 100km/h in just 2 seconds ~ SUPERMAN fast!

As we were one of the first to enter the park, we went for the Superman ride first (under the encouragement of Eug), even before seeing how the ride is gg to be. We were already inside waiting for our turns when the 1st ride started. Haz is the only one who sat out as such ride is not her cup of tea. It turned out to be a good thing that we did not see how the ride is like as Eug and I may think twice even before suggesting to go onto this ride.

Thrilling ride it is; freakingly fast! U have to experience it to understand. Rated 6-stars among all the other rides. Try it!

Other rides we attempted include the Wild West Falls Adventure Ride and Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster. We also watched the Police Academy Stunt Show, Dreamworks Shrek 4D Adventure and also the much awaited Street Parade of all the Warner Bros cartoon characters! A picture speaks a thousand words and presenting you all the nice photos taken!

Photos taken with Warner Bros cartoon characters..

Street Parade - cool

Special mention: Max Tay! Garang boy who attempted the Lethal Weapon and the Batwing Spaceshot alone... Haha.. No one is brave/well enough to accompany him on the day itself.. Haha.. And he gamely attempted them and getting his admission tix worth! Proof of his garang adventure...

We finished most of the rides before 4pm and made our exit.

Tips:

1) Go on weekdays

2) Check out the upgrade deals. Upgrade e tix to Seaworld for $41 instead of buying it at Seaworld at $64 (or $54 with entertainment book) - Valid for us becoz it is part of the Summer Deal. Check ya..

Next park: Seaworld - to be continued...

Gold Coast Trip May 07 (Day 2)

2007-05-19T12:06:00.000+08:00

Day 2 - Fraser Island

Noosa Heads is about 1 1/2 hr bus ride to Rainbow Beach where the 4WD bus/coach will drive us to Inskip Point for us to cross over to Fraser Island. We got picked up from Anchor Motel Noosaville (where we stayed for the night) @6am and we board the 4WD bus to commence our 1 day tour at 830am. It was a fine day and just right for a guided tour around the 120km x 5-25km island. Fraser island is famous for its long stretch of huge sandblows, lakes and rainforests.
It is an island made up entirely of sand!

The 1 day tour took us to various key attractions on the island with interesting commentaries by the guide-cum-driver. Key attractions like the following:

Maheno shipwreck

Colored sands of the pinnacles

Eli Creek
Both Haz and I felt adventurous enuff to take a stroll through the knee to thigh deep creek which stays around 15-18 degree throughout the year. As the base is sand, there are certain parts which are deeper and poor Haz, her pulled up 3/4 jeans got wet despite her best efforts! 'Becoz I'm short..' That's what she said.. haha.. She is definitely not! It's just that the knee-to-thigh deep estimation is based on the Aussie's average height.. haha..

Lake McKenzie and rainforests

Great place to relax and enjoy the wonderful Mother Nature. It is amazing how the island had evolved from just a huge chunk of sand... Fortunately, the island is being protected so that we can continue to marvel at the great works of Mother Nature.

Included in the package is high tea and buffet lunch. Good deal at $135 per head.

It was a mad rush though for us when we were on the return leg as our airport shuttle service ($40 each pax) back to Brisbane was scheduled at 7pm from our motel and we only got back to Rainbow beach at 530pm. You can imagine our anxiety as we would have to stayed at Noosa Heads for another night if we couldn't catch the last shuttle service back. We were lucky as the shuttle service waited 10 mins for us (even though it is supposed to be on a tight schedule) and the coach driver rushed back to Noosa Heads for our sake and dropped us first. Kudos to the kind acts of both drivers as it is not obligatory of them to do all these for us.

We made it back safely and met up with Max, Chris and Eug... Gold Coast next...

to be continued...

Gold Coast Trip May 07 (Day 1)

2007-05-19T10:29:00.000+08:00

Hi all!
I'm just back from a week long break in QLD, Aust - traveling around Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast with Haz, Max, Chris and Eug. After a week's break from blogging, I will blog about the fun bits of this long awaited trip over the next few posts. Frens planning a visit to Australia can use the info as reference for your itinerary planning! Haha..

Day 1 - Sydney - Brisbane - Sunshine Coast

First stop after collecting our rented car from Brisbane Domestic Airport: Australia Zoo - Home of the Croc Hunter (Steve Irwin).

The Zoo was opened as a private zoo in 1970 by Steve Irwin's parents, called the Beerwah Reptile Park. In 1992, Steve Irwin and wife took over mgt of the Zoo and they had undertaken huge efforts in promoting the conservation of precious wildlife through exciting education of the public.

Compared to the Singapore Zoo, it definitely pale in comparison but given that it houses quite a number of Australian wildilfe, it is definitely worth a visit as you can get up close with animals like kangaroos, koalas, wombats, tasmania devils and even Crocs during the wildlife show held in the 'world famous Animal Planet Crocoseum'...

Photos below...

After touring the Zoo, Max drove Haz and I to Noosa Heads as both of us will be going on a 1 day tour of Fraser Island the next day. Both of us will meet up with the others late tomorrow after our tour of the very popular tourism destination in Australia off the south of QLD coast.

To be continued....

Man Utd Rulez!

2007-05-08T21:07:00.000+08:00

Glory Glory Man Utd!!! EPL champions for the 2006/07 season!

What a sensational season for Man Utd!

What a great performance by the whole team during the course of the gruelling season in which MU had displayed great consistency while maintaining their thrilling attacking football which had been a joy to watch! Kudos to Sir Alex Ferguson for masterminding the dethroning of proud Chelsea which had bought its way to the title for the past 2 seasons. But, Jose 'Moron' (as my bro tactlessly labelled) had upped the standards of EPL champions, as MU had exhibited this season. Given Chelsea's form this season, the title would have been theirs for the third consecutive time BUT MU comes out tops, by outlasting the ex-champions, leading the league from the start (albeit 2 weekends when Portsmouth and Chelsea momentarily led).

Am proud of the team that I had supported from 1992. Giggs, Scholes, Van der Sar and Ole had done great jobs whenever they played and their experience really shone throughout the long season. The defence had been solid (other than the last 6 weeks when MU was jinxed with its defenders, one by one, queued up for treatment, thus resulting in a shaky ECL semi-finals loss to steady Milan).

What stood out are the young blood - 2Rs (Rooney and Ronaldo) who had exceeded expectations in terms of their goal contributions; 20+ goals and still counting... Hopefully they will grow from strength to strength, building on the momentum of this season to the end of this decade! 2 more games to the official end of the EPL season and there is still the FA Cup final against Chelsea. Will the game at Stamford Bridge a dress rehearsal for the Final @ the new Wembly? May the best team win! And if that's the case, MU will (I hoPe.. haha...)

Man Utd Rulez!

My first golf set - Brosnan

2007-05-06T21:04:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone! Tax exam was over last Tue (1 May 07)! Although I was down with flu from the Fri before, I think that I managed to scrap thru and hopefully pass the paper. Stay tuned for the results sometime in Jun..

Finally had the time to unwind and re-energise for the audit peak coming up in Jun. Nothing much happened in the past week but alot will be happening in the coming weeks with the Gold Coast-Brisbane-Fraser Island-Sunshine Coast trip coming up - for a whole week in Queensland. More of that will come in the next few posts.

Bought my first ever golf set (complete set - brand new) this afternoon. Brosnan - an Australian brand. Price is reasonable but most importantly, the clubs are 1 inch longer than the standard length ones, which is going to make a difference to a tall guy like me. Also, the clubs are novice-friendly, according to the salesman (choose to believe becoz I know nuts about golf yet!).. Haz also chipped in as part of my birthday present. Thanks dear!

Will kick start my golfing lessons soon as picking up golf in Aust is definitely cheaper than back home in SG. My target is to get down to the greens and play at least a full 18 hole game before the end of my secondment in Syd. Time to find a good golf coach!

It's May already and both Haz and I had been here in Syd for slightly more than 10 months! Time flies and so far, our adventure in Syd has been great and it will only gets better as we get more accustomed to the Aussie way of life. It is going to a memorable 2 yrs of our life and we are not going to let it pass by without trying to enjoy everyday to the fullest! Will thus blog more when I have time and keep these beautiful memories in words and pictures AND share with you all! =)

A picture says a thousand words

2007-04-29T19:46:00.000+08:00

Hi all, chanced upon a very cute blog and crediting this entry to auditorsinwhite (http://auditorsinwhite.blogspot.com/)

The following picture says a thousand words. Is it true?

Hi there! Greetings!

2007-04-24T06:26:00.000+08:00

Hi everybody, sorry for the no-post so far this month. Am busy mugging for my Tax exam on the 1 May 07 (Labour Day in SG but not in Syd/Aust). Will want to pass it and proceed smoothly with my CA program. Pray for me ya.. Thanks in advance!

Had done a bit of traveling this month to Jervis Bay and Wollonggong over the Easter long weekend. Will put up pictures and some blogging after my exams! Other than, it is just work and books, pretty boring but it wil be spiced up after the exams with a long holiday break to Gold Coast, Brisbane, Fraser Island and Sunshine Coast in the middle of May! Will keep you all posted!

Signning off with a nice, interesting website below.. =)

Just for fun! Celebrity Look-alikes website. It's fun! Try it ya! Judge for urself whether if I do look like the celebrity matched.. Or any celebrity in particular you think that they had missed out? Haha.. Just for fun! =)

http://www.myheritage.com

Try this test..

2007-04-04T05:44:00.001+08:00

Quite fun, testing your visual.. works for me as I'm a truly visual person.. =)

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

AFL match 30 Mar 2007

2007-04-01T16:30:00.000+08:00

Sydney Swans vs West Coast Eagles (Perth)... a modern day AFL rivarly. AFL = Australian Football League for an Australian footie game - 'Australian Rules' where there are 18 players per team compete on a huge field. For more information about this unique game, check it out here: http://afl.com.au/

It is both Haz and my first time watching a 'live' game in Australia @ the Telstra Stadium at the Sydney Olympic Park, seating more than 60,000 fans. It was electrifying to say the least and Aussies there are obviously there for good fun and hoping to see the home team (2005 AFL champ) beat their fiercest rivals (2006 AFL champs who beat the Swans by just 1 point).

Great game it turned out to be as an initial thrashing by the Eagles (who led by more than 30 points after 2 quarters) evolved into a nail biting 1 point victory by the away team!

Great experience it was, all thanks to Eagles fan, Darren Q, who very 'garang-ly' sat in the home fan section with us and wearing the Eagles jersey! Omg.. We thot that we would be beaten up if Sydney lose! Haha.. It turned out that the Sydney fans sitting around us are gracious losers and we 'escaped' unscathed... Haha..

28 March 2007

2007-03-29T18:31:00.000+08:00

In the Straits Times @ 28th March 2007...

PS: Just for my own memo.. Not hao lian ok... Haha..

1st year of eternal love...

2007-03-25T21:58:00.000+08:00

Time flies. It has been 1 year. A wonderful 1 year of married life! Love at first sight it was. Eternal love it is. From the day I said 'I love you', I know that you are the one for me. Through wealth and woe, hardship or joy, I know that you will always be by my side. For that lifelong commitment, I promise to stay true to you and dote you forever!

As a 1st year anniversary gift, we built a bear, 'BeAr BeaR', with birthday on the 26th Mar 2007. Nothing material but love the smile that it brings to Haz's face. I'm blessed.

Happy 1st year anniversary dear!

Awesome CNY "holidays"

2007-03-24T07:19:00.000+08:00

CNY celebrations in Sydney...

My whole family flew down to Sydney on the 16th Feb to spend their first CNY in a foreign land with me and Haz. And since they had made such a huge effort to come all the way here to spend quality time with us, how can we let them down with a bad, uninteresting itinerary during their stay here? Haha.. Planning of where to bring them, what to do, where to eat had started since both Haz and I were back in Sydney in early Jan 07. Had been looking forward to their arrival and in a flash, they are here!

Let's recap what we had done during their short 6 days trip to Syd (lots of pict as promised!). They reached on the Friday and all thanks to my uncle, he fetched my family from the office while I was at work. Haz and I picked up the SUV (8 seaters) that we rented after work and we met them at my uncle's house in Glenwood. We had a pre-reunion dinner at a Chinese restaurant at Blacktown (with Bernard and his wife Maggie too!)

It is really a great get-together as Bernard has been away in Wuhan/Guangzhou for work (teaching English) for the past 1-2 years and it has been such a long since all of us had met! It's back to my place after that and let's look at the photos!

Breakfast @ Pancakes

Believe it or not, my dear sis ended up feeling disgusted upon the sight of pancakes after the very sumptuous breakfast! haha.. it was sooo funny as the sight / mention of pancakes just made my sis' face turn pale.. Haha..

Shopping at the Rocks Flea market/Nike/Addidas factory outlet & DFO

It is shop galore after breakfast. A very hectic day of shopping and more shopping as the next 2 days would be spent in Port Stephens and Hunter Valley. We shopped at the Rocks Flea market, Nike & Addidas factory outlets and the massive DFO. DFO is such a huge shopping centre with so many brands and it required at least a day to really go into each shop and try out the clothes. We had only abt 3 hours on the Saturday and it was not enough for them obviously! They went back on the Tuesday (before they flew back on the Wed).. haha..

Reunion dinner @ Lotus Pond restaurant

All of us wore red.. haha.. but the service there suxs.. Enough said.. but it was really a memorable experience having reunion dinner at a foreign land though.. =)

REAL FUN STARTS... Sydney - Port Stephens - Hunter Valley - Sydney

The trip to Port Stephens and Hunter Valley was planned specially for my family to see the other side of Sydney. From the photos below you would know that everyone had lots of fun! Did Quad biking, sand boarding, camel riding and a sumptuous Indian cusine dinner. Great fun at Port Stephens...

Quad biking.. great fun for my dad, uncle, bro, sis and me.. as you can see from the photos, I'm the photographer.. capturing more than 50 shots of them all having a wild ride up and down the sand dunes.... Awesome and fun experience!

Sand boarding - an added bonus (FOC!).. We were lucky enuff to get this activity free of charge! Bro, sis, dad and uncle had the opportunity of trying out their skiing cum skating skills on sand! Cool ya.. Great fun!

Last but not least, the fun-filled day at Port Stephens is capped by the camel ride - aka Egypt style.. haha.. Great great fun once again! A first for both Haz and me AND all that tried.. Haz nearly regretted her decision to want to try this ride as she was scared stiff when the camel was standing up and she nearly freaked out! haha.. she was gripping the rope and her legs were squeezing the camel sooo tightly.. haha.. but she got used to it after a while.. luckily.. haha..
But one thing to note: The camels do smell abit.. =)

Last activity for the night... a delicious and very authentic Indian cusine for dinner... Nice! We tried basically all the types of curry (abt 7 types in all..) and naan (something like roti prata). A very filling dinner.. Thumbs up!

The next morning, we set off for Hunter Valley.. an hr's drive. Wine were tasted and bottles bought! But not many pictures taken.. After slightly 4 hrs there, it was back to Sydney city. My family's trip to Sydney was coming to an end and very quickly, they boarded the plane on Wed (21 Feb) and it was once again a relatively emotional farewell to them for another period of time. Hope to be back in Singapore soon.. planning my schedule as I would be taking 3 CA papers this year and work is hectic with me being promoting to Senior.. and thus, you will see that blog updates will be less regular.. but remember that i will not short-change you guys in terms of updating my life over here in Down Under!

Till my next update, take care! and stay tuned to this blog for updates.. haha... cheers!

Interesting test taken

2007-03-09T03:38:00.000+08:00

No real updates yet as a detailed updates would take me quite a while and no photos yet becoz it takes time to upload photos via the wireless card that the firm provides us. So many excuses ya. but just wanna tell all that I'm fine, just a tad bit busy (something really not expected before I come here... i'm not really having an easier time in Syd.. haha..)

Chanced upon this website regarding tarot card thingy. Just took a short test and guess my results? Haha.. do take a quick one and for those with a blog, just post your results ya.. haha.. interesting test... just for fun! =)

You are The Emperor

Stability, power, protection, realization; a great person.

The Emperor is the great authority figure of the Tarot, so it represents
fathers, father-figures and employers. There is a lot of aggression and violence
too.

The Emperor naturally follows the Empress. Like an infant, he is filled with enthuiasm, energy, aggression. He is direct, guileless and all too often irresistible. Unfortunately, like a baby he can also be a tyrant. Impatient, demanding, controlling. In the best of circumstances, he signifies the leader that everyone wants to follow, sitting on a throne that indicates the solid foundation of an Empire he created, loves and rules with intelligence and enthusiasm. But that throne can also be a trap, a responsibility that has the Emperor feeling restless, bored and discontent.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Hi all! Sorry for the infrequent updates...

2007-02-27T18:01:00.000+08:00

GONG XI FAI CAI! It's still the CHINESE NEW YEAR!!

Long time never update the blog liao.. paiseh everyone. Had a great CNY celebrations in Syd with my family who traveled all the way from SG to spend the festival with me and Haz. Of coz, I muz make it a memorable trip for them and us! More on that when I'm more free to download the picts and also the interesting bits about the trip. Currently, busy with preparing for my TAX CA focus sessions this Sat and also my jobs which seems to take quite a bit of my time. Please bear with me ya.. =p

Here's an update on the case that we had held with our SG firm HR when we were back in SG for home leave ard end Dec.... good news...

The long awaited preliminary calculations of what we would be getting from the SG HR for the 'inequalities' that we had to endure for the last 8 months was finally revealed to me yesterday. I was supposed to be the sounding board of the HR to determine whether if the sum to be offered is 'reasonable' or not. Fair. Glad that HR really did consider the reasonableness of the amount instead of just throwing a number at us and say, 'Take it or leave it'.

Overall, the amount is reasonable, by my standards and also relatively our general expectations (majority of us at least). For practical reasons, it is not appropriate to disclose anything more than what I had just mentioned.

Overall, it looks like a sweet success against an 'establishment' as Max had appropriately put it (in the Aussie Seven blog). But, it was never a baseless fight. It was based on valid arguments put forth by us. Kudos to all who stood by it and united we stand. Sweet victory it is!

Glad that we made a difference, both to our seniors (who may be remunerated accordingly), our fellow UK secondees and also our juniors coming on this program!

Also very glad that SG HR is receptive instead of being overly defensive. The fact that they digested our reasons positively and proactively (by reviewing PwC policies AND also the current standard of living differential AND also its ultimate HR policy on EQUITY towards its staff, particularly those of the same grade) shows that this firm is still worth our commitment.

Hopefully, this chapter would close soon with everyone happy. Time to look forward.... TAX CA focus session, Tasmania trip, TAX EP submission, more TAX, more worK... hmm.. sounds interesting? Haha.. it's up to us to make it more interesting... Cheers!

1 down 4 to go!

2007-02-10T19:28:00.000+08:00

Good news! Passed my first CA module, Audit and Assurance (my bread and butter). Things wil be get tougher as Tax is next! Oh gosh.. haha.. but hopefully i wil stay disciplined during this activity packed half year to at least scrap through this killer.

Congrats to Max and Darrel for meriting their CA paper! An awesome feat with our busy audit work! All 7 of us on Aust CA program passed and it's great news! Really hope that all of us will keep passing all the papers and we can smoothly go back SG in the shortest amount of time possible (2 years).

Another good news to share is that Haz had officially been offered a perm position in my firm, no more contract worker with no add-on benefits like paid MC, paid annual leave, etc.. Kudos to her for impressing her bosses with her 100% work attitude. Never see such a dedicated and eagle-eyed expense clerk! Poor PwC staff who ever trys to squeeze extra $ from the firm... Haha.. Well done dear!

Celebrated Haz's first birthday abroad at Watsons Bay and it was a romantic dinner at the beach. The famous Doyle's seafood by the waters with cool breeze and nice view of the waters. Perfect night out in her eyes and of coz, she loves my specially chosen birthday gift. Hehe.. Love you dear and forever I will. =)

CNY is coming and my family will be here this coming Friday. Looking forward to their arrival. Had planned a nice long weekend trip to Port Stephens and Hunter Valley, to spend quality time together. Will post the photos in due time.

Till then, take good care everyone and just in case I do not make another post before CNY, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR and GONG XI FA CAI!

Steamboat dinner at my place

2007-02-04T21:04:00.000+08:00

2nd post in the same night (trying to catch up on updating of my blog as I have been getting comments about the fact that my blog is getting less interesting coz there is fewer photos!)

Another blog entry using photos to tell the story. Haz and I invited frens over to our new rented apartment for a gathering-cum-steamboat dinner. Chris and Max kindly helped us in the purchase of the food items we used for the steamboat (meat balls, fish balls, veg, meat, prawns, etc) and the mee hoon (home cooked by Chris - thanks!). Haz then prepared and get ready most of the other stuff, including cooking a delicious pot of curry!

Frens came over from 5pm and it was a great success, judging from the photos below.. haha.. We played cards after the dinner and Haz won $60+ in 1 hand as a banker for BlackJack (even though our bets were $2 each!) She had 2 Aces... and each of us lost 3 times our bet! Unbelievably good luck ya. Think our frens would think twice (hmm.. maybe thrice) when we next invite them over for dinner.. Haha..

That's it for now everyone! I will do my best to continue blogging interesting stuff.. The next blog would be on the happening Australia Day long weekend an also something on Haz's birthday celebrations on the 4th Feb.. hehe..

If you are curious about the happening Australia Day long weekend activities, you can read the interesting entry posted by our dear fren, Darren, at the following link: http://hardkor3.blogspot.com/ - Look out for the 'Australia Day 2007' entry

Take care everyone! Cheers!

Blog on my new rented apartment (finally)

2007-02-04T20:43:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

Just wanna apologise for the infrequent posting nowadays! Really was 'flat out' at work since the start of the new year (refer to my previous blog entry). Just got back from Gold Coast for 2 weeks audit assignment and a big job is starting next week! (Lenovo.... a 'sh*t' job back home in Sg... and a highly 'challenging' job here in Syd.. haha..)

Ok, the photos below are the ones taken of my new place when we first moved in Dec 06. The whole place is more personalised now but till we take new photos of it, these would be the best pict we have of of our new rented apartment (which both Haz and I like so much - nice and cosy).

Marvel at the view from the balcony of our apartment! It is windy too!

(Bedroom)

(Living room with my own personal workdesk behind)

(Kitchen where Haz will whip up great meals)

As you can see, the whole 1 bedroom apartment may not be too spacious but it is just nice for both Haz and me. It can sure fit many pple! Tested and proven by our dear frens from Mel and Adelaide who spent the Australian Day long weekend over at my place! Read more about it from my blog ya soon..

Crazy start to the new year!

2007-01-21T22:56:00.000+08:00

3 weeks into the new year! 2 weeks of real work. If this is the prelude to wat is gg to come, it would be nightmarish! worked till past midnights on most of the weekday nights over here in Syd! Unbelieveable ya.. Yes.. totally unbelieveable! That's not the reason why I chose to come on this program! Haha.. Can be quite demoralising at times and feel so bad as Hazel would not be able to get my full attention & company at home. Hopefully things will get better! Thanks Haz for being so patient and understanding! =)

A quick summary of the nicer things that had happened so far in the new year .. (photos and more details will come later, i promise)... Started playing tennis (with Aaron who is also trying to get back his fitness and tennis), just had the long-overdue, much touted steamboat dinner at my house with my fellow secondees and several frens yesterday (Sat)... A small scale one coz my 1 bedroom apartment is a tad too small for too many pple.. But it is small and cozy.. Haz had such good luck wiping $60+ of winnings in 1 hand as a banker!

Currently at Gold Coast for 2 weeks of audit. Flew Virgin Blue but staying at 5 star hotel at Conrad Jupiter. This week would be short as Australia Day is on Friday and thus a long weekend! Will fly back to Syd on Thu and back to Gold Coast again on Sunday. Could have flown Hazel over for the long weekend for free, apparently. But, frens in Mel and Adelaide are coming over to Syd and we as hosts in Syd, can't miss it! Lots of fun I believe it will be! Max had come up with a 'first-class' itinerary (befitting of his qualification).. Haha..

Tat's all for now. Will update soon I hope with all the pict! Cheers! To fellow auditor frens, hang on tight! Do your best! Stay happy! =)

Back from Home Leave..

2007-01-07T19:30:00.000+08:00

The last 2 weeks were spent at home in Singapore. Had missed home pretty much, family, friends and the food. Weather was wet in the first week and very humid in the 2nd. All in all, had managed to catch up and spent time with family and most of my friends (thanks for making time!). 2 weeks were indeed short to catch up with all my friends though... which is unfortunate and I feel paiseh. Sorry to all friends whom I had not managed to meet up. Will definitely try to meet up the next time back... (may be Jun, Oct or Nov 07).

Life back in Sydney would need to take some getting used once again this time back as I did not feel in any way 'dis-connected' from the Singapore way of life. Haha.. For eg. I had no problems switching back to using Sing-lish... which just made me feel soo at home. And definitely, the cheap prices of food is so easy to get used to. Haha.. Price of a simple meal in Sydney is always one of the most commonest topic I raised whenever I met up with my frens.

Anticipating BLUES to hit me hard tomorrow as intense work re-starts. Had not managed to rest much during the 2 weeks back as I had occupied myself with meeting up with friends and spending as much time as I can with my family. Will need to catch up on the sleep I believe.. haha..

Photos taken at the airport (thanking my family, my xiao yi and family and my da yi)

The coming 6 months would be a big challenge for me and I'm psyching myself to meet up to it and excel. The following are the keys challenges:
- Proving myself capable as a senior on jobs (investing lots of time to research and to catch up on any inefficiencies that I would incur)
- Passing the TAX CA paper ('killer paper for auditors') in early May
- Staying disciplined and ensuring good time management for studies given the heavier workload, harder CA paper and less time during the weekends (eg. parents coming for CNY mid Feb, Tasmania trip in early Mar, etc...)

Hard work would hav to start from today. I hope I will be disciplined.. haha.. I hope. That's all for now everyone. Time to be disciplined and prepare for work tomorrow! Haha.. Cheers!

7 days to home...

2006-12-16T19:26:00.000+08:00

7 more days and counting down to going home for 2 weeks!

Phew, just finished the CA paper (Audit and Assurance) last Tuesday. Not a tough paper for auditors but it is very difficult to answer according to what the Institute wants thus din feel very good or too bad after the paper. Will know how well I had done after the results is out in about 2 months' time.. Till then, it's off my mind at least for now....

My flight back home with Hazel will be at 1655 Sydney time on the 23rd Dec (Sat). Will be touching down in Singapore at 2155 Singapore time (7 hrs flight and also considering the 3 hrs time difference between Singapore and Sydney). Really looking forward to that!

But before that, Hazel and I would be moving into our new rented 1 bedroom apartment still in Pyrmont but nearer to the city @ The Watermark. It is newer and look posh-er than our current rented apartment and of coz more expensive! You will be surprised at how much we will be paying ($415per week working out to be $1,800 per month!)

Rent around Pyrmont had generally increased over the past year due to the overall shortage in supply of 1 bedroom apartments. But, both Haz and I believe that it will be worth it as we like the place alot, with a view of the harbour and most importantly, it is nice and cozy. At most, we would spend more time at home and spend less outside! Haha..

More on our new apartment after we had moved in this coming Wed (20th Dec)! Will take photos of how we had furnished the apartment to show you all! Had just shopped for most of the furniture at IKEA today. Very excited about the move! Stay up to date of my blog updates ya after I'm back from Singapore on the 7th Jan 07.

Singapore, my homeland, here I come (back!)... Our dear fren, Max, is already back home! 1 whole week earlier than us all! Lucky him... Can imagine him sipping kopi-o, eating nasi lemak for bfast, laksa for lunch, chilli crabs for dinner, roti prata and milo dinosaur for supper... Hmm.. =p

Australian Idol 2006

2006-12-04T20:01:00.000+08:00

Australian Idol 2006 (26 Nov 06)
Australian Idol 2006 was a great hit with the Australian public. Competition for this year's crown has been the most intense in the competition's 4 years' history. Participants are individually talented and vocal ranges diverse! Each of the top 8 are winners in their own sense. But as the competition intensified, the 2 grand-finalists are Jessica (a 16 yr old from Alice Spring who has the vocal powess of Whitney Houston) and Damien (an Irish who has the voice of an angel).

Both Haz and I are avid followers of the competition and of coz, it would be such an awesome experience to be able to catch it live at the cooooool location of Sydney Opera House! Through applications via the official website and tixs from frens, I managed to get 6 tixs to the outdoor party! No chance of getting the tixs into the Sydney Opera House though (maybe next year since Channel Ten is PwC's client).

As it is, Haz, me, Max, Kevan and Aiwei (Chris missed it as she was down with flu) were on the steps of the Sydney Opera House from 4pm! (too early as the outdoor concert started only at 730pm - thought was able to get tixs into the Opera House if we were early.. fat hope! haha..)

Luckily, the weather on the Sunday was fabulous! Not too sunny and as we are near the sea, the sea breeze was sooo nice. It got quite cold later in the night but fortunately, all of us were well prepared (except Max who was sooo strong that he survived the whole event in just a polo t!).

The outdoor event was activity filled (from 7pm onwards) with strong solo performances from past Australian idols like Guy Sebastian, past Idol finals like Shannon Noll, The Young Divas, etc.. The climax of the night occured at around 8pm where there were fireworks just above our heads! Watch the fireworks up close! (http://www.youtube.com/v/7Xp-SQf9xVQ) Pretty short becoz have to both capture the awesome moment on both video and photo (you can view the photo that was taken at the end of the clip on Max's blog).

Overall, it was a great experience and surprise surprise surprise, it was Damien, the overwhelming underdog who won the competition! Worthy winner! I actually met him in person the following week at a shopping mall and he said Hi to me too.. Great humble guy! By the way, we bought his singles and the song was well sung and definitely worth the money spent! Let's look at the photos taken that day...

The 5 of us on the hard stony steps (our seats for 4 hours). Pity our butts...
Behind me were the big screen and the outdoor stage where the performances took place
Ronald McDonald, the sponsor of the outdoor event, posing for the photo sportingly.

The excitable five of us, just before the concert was about to start...

The outdoor concert in full flow...

It's cold... Grghh... Haha.. Haz and I fully enjoying the moment!

WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE. NOTHING BEATS THE ATMOSPHERE WATCHING IT LIVE!

Till my next update, take good care everyone! Wish me luck in my first CA paper... on the 12th Dec.. =)

Updates from Oz

2006-12-03T21:54:00.000+08:00

It has been another month since my last update. Really updating my blog less frequently! Sorry for that ya! Details of the highlights for the past month is as follows:

Sumptuous lunch boxes and meals (continued)
With Haz starting work, she started to prepare lunch boxes for two instead of just one for me! Let your saliva drip with the following pict of the delicious looking lunch boxes whipped up by Haz!

Sydney Wildlife World

Haz and I visited the newly opened Sydney Wildlife World @ Darling Harbor. We had not visited any touris-ty attractions for quite some time already. Frankly, this attraction is a tad too small and the wildlife on display is quite disappointing in quantity, quality and variety. Maybe I had expected too much but given the admission price of $27 per adult, I expected more.

Hazel was particularly excited to see the large range of colorful butterflies at the first habitat near the entrance and other interesting animals/insects. Attached below are the nice photographs taken:

Butterfly Habitat:

Insects Habitat:

Reptile Habitat:

The cute koala (but lazy too):

Will go visit a wildlife park where we can get up close with the animals. I believe that it will be more fun and much more awesome experience touching them, feeding them. Keep a close lookout for such updates ya.. =)

Favorite sport

Bowling! Super expensive over here! 1 game cost about $10, 2 games $19 and 3 games cost nearly $25. On weekend nights after 9pm, 4 games cost $22 at certain bowling centres.

Main reason being that there is just 1 MAJOR player over here in NSW and that's AMF (Always Mean Fun). The other bowling centres are small fry and thus with a monopoly, you will never get cheap rates.

Games of bowling here really burn a hole in your pocket but it is actually quite a fun game to do together as a group at nights where you just wanna do something. Max and Chris are children of a national bowler, thus, they are good in this game (although I can stil beat Max in it some times...).

I really appreciate bowling in Singapore. What is $4 per game?!? Soo cheap! Haha..

Look out for my next post on the Australian Idol Grand Finals 2006 held at Sydney Opera House. I was there......

Updates finally!

2006-11-09T17:40:00.000+08:00

Good news to start off my latest entry on my blog... My wife has found a job! finally! Guess where? With PwC Sydney! All the hard work liasing with the various HR offices finally pay off after 3 long months.. Haha.. Very relieved and very happy! All the best to Hazel for her new role in my firm... We can go to work together.. have lunch together (if I'm in office) BUT not going home together though.. haha.. Why? Coz' I'm an auditor.. =)

Let's do a recap of what I had done in the last month or so... Basically, I had been busy juggling work and CA. Had 2 weekend focus sessions to attend for this Audit module. In between the Sat focus sessions, we have to submit our project. Hmm.. sounds busy ya.. Haha.. Quite tough doing readings for 2 units to prepare for the focus sessions (with quiz to do too) and spending the weekends catching up on the unfinished readings and activities. Thus, not much time to travel and do sightseeing like before. BUT still, we muz have a life. Coz, we are in Sydney! Haha..

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is based on the Oscar-winning film that blitzed the box office and caused a sensation around the world. It's fun, daring, over-the-top and unforgettable. It's an "on-stage" road movie with attitude and a busload of outrageous costumes and characters.

Hazel and I caught this musical at StarCity (the casino) and it was so enjoyable. Quite an experience and it is the first of many theatre productions that we would be attending during these 2+years. Next one should be in the world-famous Sydney Opera House! I promise that you will see and hear about our experience!

Arcade games
In between our limited free time in between the short weekends, Hazel, me and especially Max, got quite a bit of fun from playing arcade games... Haha.. like the basketball game (basically shooting hoops). Re-living our favourite pasttimes when young all over again.. A pict of me and Max competing intensely on the Virtual Tennis game.. I won la, but only after he 'gave water' in the 2nd set.. Haha..

Greyhound racing at Wentworth (near Glebe)

A totally new form of experience (gambling experience)! Haha.. It turned out to be very exciting.. Up to 8 greyhounds (dogs with long legs which like to chase after rabbits apparently) for each race and there are a total of 10 races per night held every Monday and Saturday. You bet the same way as horse racing (bet for WIN or PLACE). Not much luck on such betting once again.. haha.. but bets start from $1 so I din lose much la.. haha.. Good entertainment and the stadium is very near where I stay..

(a sample of the betting slip)

(Greyhounds led to the gate for the start of race.. They are huge dogs!)

(Chiang, our good fren from M'sia, Max, me and Kevan)

Hari Raya celebrations!

Believe it or not, we get to celebrate Hari Raya over here (except no holiday here)! All thanks to our dear fren, Wini! It was such a sumptuous treat! Chilli prawns, curry chicken, vegetables, cakes, etc..

Picture of the spread... Feels like home...

Mahjong sessions on Friday nights:

Believe it or not, we get to play mahjong too.. haha.. luckily there are 4 of us who play mahjong.. Max, Chris, Hazel and me! It was our late night Friday activity for the past 2 weeks at Chris' house before our weekend studying schedules.. Great fun even though each game took ages to finish.. Maybe it's e cold weather that slowed our responses.. My mahjong kakis, beware! I'm not gg to be easy meat as you would think when i go back in Dec..

Sydney Motor Show:

We paid $17 each to get into e Sydney Motor Show. Impressive range of brands n cars on display (like Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, etc...) but since this is my first motor show, I'm not sure what to expect. Hazel told me that the one she attended in Singapore was more impressive (especially the sexy female models that pose with the cars...) Haha.. Muz admit that it was definitely lacking in the show here. A pity.. haha..

Pictures for you all to view:

That's all for now folks! Do stay posted of my current happenings on this blog! I promise to make the updates more regular! Cheers!

2006-10-17T20:41:00.000+08:00

It has been a long time since I last updated my blog. No time to put a colorful blog with lots of photos yet.. as I had been bothered with stuff relating to the future of my career and my value to the firm and what do they treat me as by sending me to my current CA program AND of coz the issue of whether if the firm has done/provided enough to make the bond that I had signed worth it?

It may / may not be a mistake signing the contract. I muz have found more 'pros' than 'cons' before I willingly signed the contract (although had felt a bit coerced then) but still, it was signed by me w/o anyone pointing a gun at my head and I should honour it unless I buy out.

Came across this meaningful story and would like to share with my fellow secondees who do read my blog and also pple who are feeling down at the moment.

Remember: There is always a silver lining at the other side of the rainbow. Keep your belief and walk the journey as your heart tells you. You will never know until you try. You may be wrong at the time of decision but if you make full use of the opportunities that come along, you will come out of it stronger and better. Trust yourself!

Here's the story....

'Once upon a time, there was a king. The king liked one of his followers very much because he was very wise and always gave very useful advice. Therefore, the king took him along wherever he went. One day, a dog bit the king; his finger was injured and the wound was getting worse. He asked the follower if that was a bad sign.

The follower said:" Good or bad, it's hard to say". In the end, the wound on the finger was too bad that his finger had to be cut. The king asked the follower again if that was a bad sign. Again, the follower gave the same answer: "Good or bad, it's hard to say". The king became very angry and sent the follower to prison.

One day, the king went hunting in the jungle. He got excited when he was on the chase of a deer. Deeper and deeper he went inside the jungle. In the end, he found himself lost in the jungle. To make things worse, he got captured by the native people who lived inside the jungle. They wanted to sacrifice him to their god. But when they noticed that the king had one finger short, they released him immediately as he was not a perfect man anymore and was not suitable for sacrifice.

The king then managed to get back to his palace. And he finally understood the follower's wise quote :"Good or bad, hard to say". If he hadn’t lost one finger, the native people could have killed him. He ordered to release the follower and the king apologized to him. But to the king’s amazement, the follower was not mad at him at all.

Instead, the follower said: "It wasn't a bad thing that you locked me up. Because if the king hadn't locked me up, the king would have brought me along to the jungle. If the natives found that the king was not suitable, they would have used me as their sacrifice to their god."Again, the quote 'Good or bad, hard to say' stands.

The moral of the story:-There is no absolute good or bad for everything that happens in this world. Sometimes good things turned out to be bad things eventually, while bad things become a gain. Whatever good things happen to you, enjoys it, but don't have to hold too tight to it. Treat the good thing as a surprise in your life. Whatever bad things happen to you, you don't have to feel too sad or despair; In the end, it might not be a total bad thing after all. If one can understand this, he or she will find life much easier.'

-------

Till my next interesting post, stay positive ya! Cheers!

Weekly update: 1st day of Oct

2006-10-01T17:03:00.000+08:00

Updates of the week that passed:
Another long week had passed and Monday (2 Oct) is a holiday over here in Sydney. Finally an extra day to catch my breath.. Tough week, with work piling up and little time to clear all of them. Appraisals were provided by managers and Staff Development Managers (SDM) met up for their quarterly meeting to decide whether if there is any exceptional staff that deserve to be promoted in Dec.

Very satisfied with appraisals provided (over here, we have to self-appraise ourselves before the managers/seniors gave their opinions) but kept losing motivation to continue to work hard day by day. Enuff said on this, let's focus on the fun things that happen outside work. Haha.. the fun stuff that I would like to keep as fond memories and things that may mislead pple that life in Sydney is GREAT, FUN and WONDERFUL.. haha..

More fanciful, delicious lunch boxes courtesy of my beloved wife:
Look and let your saliva drools... =p

(Fried rice with fried chicken and shredded egg - both healthy and delicious!)

(fanciful lunch box that is good to see and eat!)

(my favourite tomato rice wrapped in egg and sweet corn sushi and fruits too!)

Hmm, envious once again ya.. haha.. but hor, I also did cook for my wife la. Simple breakfast on Sunday morning.. Should be quite healthy spread ya: Pancakes, hash brown, egg and bacon + milo..

Not much traveling done this weekend as I have to catch up on my CA sudies as the focus session is in less than 2 weeks and we have to do lots of self studies and 'homework' so as to participate during the sessions and earn points. Also have to start with the project that we have to finish in abt 4 weeks' time. Not easy ya. Believe that it is same for everyone working and studying. Will grind my teeth and get through it. Am conscious that it would be a waste if my life over here is all work and study. Traveling is on top of my agenda. Thus, lots of proper planning and discipline is needed. Let's hope that I can update this page with more traveling and sightseeing. =p

Haircut:

Old me: (long fringe a.k.a ah beng hairstyle)

New me: (after a $20 hair cut at a Korean salon) - pure Korean look.. haha..

(basically, i did not ask for this haircut. It was plain miscommunication as I asked to leave my fringe alone.. but in the end, I just let the hairdresser do what she feels it good lo.. after all, it's time for me to change my boring hairstyle)

Mooncake festival:
It is gg to mooncake festival pretty soon and to make ourselves feel more at home, we bought mooncakes. Lots of variety in a box - durian, lotus paste, sesame and pandan flavour.

Which one is good? I miss the ones made by my mum of coz.. haha.. also the icy skin ones... with chocolate flavour..

That's all for the updates this week... More pictures of the blooming flowers on display in Sydney in Spring - courtesy of the photography skill of Hazel.... Enjoy!

Finally, a new update!

2006-09-20T22:15:00.000+08:00

Hi all, it has been quite some time since my last blog update!
Has been very busy recently... with work and the starting of my CA program... Work over here in Sydney is really not a breeze as thought.

Expectations of Sydney audit in Singapore: good budget, good work life balance, professional client

Actual scenario in Sydney: budget can be tight too and WORSE, recoverability is viewed with such importance over here! Thus, pressure from managers and partners can be scary at times. Work life balance wise... nice stressfree weekends till now (except for a couple of weekends in which work stil need to be done at home) and finally, clients I have experienced so far here have been really not up to the mark. Really not as pro as thought. The financial statements drafts have to be modified more than 50% by us! Independence issue but what to do?

Really just want to update you guys that I'm fine, Hazel is good too! Still trying her best to secure a job position over here. Hopefully would be able to relate good news to you all! Wish her luck k!

Hmm, enuff about work. Time for some updates on the fun stuff that we had done over the past 2-3 weekends!

KTV (again!): Fun and good for releasing stress and ensuring that our command of Chinese has not 'de-prove'.. haha.. This time round, Darren joined us! For your info, Darren had left PwC Singapore and is now working with Westpac in Sydney. Cool ya.. A photo for our photo album definitely!

6th year anniversary with Haz:

On the 15th Sep, it's officially the 6th year since Haz and I went steady.. haha.. it hav been eventful, wonderful, sweet, lovely 6 years together with Haz. She has always been so patient, caring, loving and sweet towards me, supporting me throughout the challenging Uni years and then now, the time-consuming, 'no day - no night' audit job. She has even given up her good job in Singapore to join me over here in Sydney. What more can you ask from a girl? hehe.. will dote her more and love her more..

This is her unbelievably delicious gift to me! A japanese teriyaki lunch bento! Look delicious, saliva dripping already? Tell you how it tastes, it is soo delicious and heart warming.. haha.. So sweet of her ya.

What did I get for her? Boring, kinda usual gift for a gal on such anniversary day... Din have time to do something one-of-a-kind like the previous years.. so, it's just a bouquet of roses hand-delivered to her hand in the evening.. She loves it and that's wat it matters to me!

We had a nice, cosy dinner at a famous and well-recommended Japanese restaurant (Asuka). Food is good and most importantly, its our company for each other that matters ya.. haha..

Sep - start of spring (from 1 Sep onwards):

What to do in spring? I'm not sure actually coz this is the first ever spring for me! I had just gone through the first winter... unscathed by the cold (which can be miserable at times when it just get 'un-tahan-able'... haha..)

Finally, we can enjoy the sun warming our skin when we are out (correction: not warming, but burning us as there is little or no clouds in the Sydney sky). On the Sat of 16th Sep, we went to The Rocks, Sydney Opera House and the Royal Botanic Gardens on foot. We set off early in the morning at around 9am and had a great day out!

The Rocks was our first destination and although we were disappointed not able to hav pancakes for breakfast at the Pancakes at the Rocks (closed for renovation), we grabbed a simple breakfast and walked around the weekend Rock market (sort of a flea market). Stuff sold there are soo nice and creatively made! After which, we walked by the Opera House, even more determined to catch our first opera/musical at the famous Opera House!

Royal Botanical Garden is next! We went on a guided tour around the Government House (ancient building built more than a century ago for NSW govenors).

After which, we spent more than an hour walking around the huge botanical gardens which must have stretched more than 2 km in length. We walked alot! But, seeing the beautiful flowers, Hazel just can't resist not taking good shots of them and also shots with them! Here are just some of the great shots of flowers in full bloom that we sighted over there... Nice right?

That's all for now folks. Will definitely update this blog whenever I can and whenever I traveled and visited new places... Next stop: Jenolan Caves... Cheers!

Port Stephens trip

2006-08-29T22:08:00.000+08:00

26 & 27 Aug 06
Finally, our first long distance trip to somewhere very far (further than Blue Mountains) - 200km from Sydney city. 7 of us made the trip. Hazel, me, Kevan, Max, Judy, Chris and Wini. Kevan and I had to rent a car to make the trip as there was not enuff space in Chris' Toyota. What a good car we got.. though it came at a price (abt $240 for 3 days incl. insurance). It's a relatively brand new Toyota Corolla and it feels good and safe to drive in.

We set off at 620am and reached Port Stephens (Nelson Bay) at around 10am. Our very first planned activity was the Quad Biking guided tour at one of the huge natural sand dunes at Willamtown (part of Port Stephens). What a great experience it was!

Heard of Quad Biking? Alien? It's basically riding a bike-like machine on sand. U would be amazed at the sight of the natural sand dune that stretches tens of kilometres...

We had great fun! An experience that I would highly everyone visiting NSW / Port Stephens to try... even though it may be a bit costly (AU$129 for a 2 hr session). Even though it rained slightly that day, nothing could spoil the experience. It was indeed a bumpy ride for some of us, riding over the uneven sand, free falling in the bike down a very steep sand slope and riding up full speed up the slope and speeding up to 65km/h on the sand. Phew! U will only understand until you have experienced it! Haha.. Here are some of the photos of our quad biking experience:

(below we get wet and 'sandy')

(posing in front of the shipwreck by the edge of the beach)

(who are they? Judy, Hazel and Chris)

(the 3 secondees, Max, me and Kevan)

(the daunting free-fall from the slope.. can you feel the anxiety we felt up there facing the slide down?)

After the exciting experience, we were all hungry and we set off on the road to find someplace to eat and to discuss our next place to explore. It was really not easy to find a simple eating place along the way back to Nelson Bay and we drove a further 20+km to Salmander Bay to makan the good ol' Mcdonalds.

It was nearly 3pm when we were done eating. Not many choices it seemed as the nearby Tobaggon Park was opened til 4pm and it seemed not very worthwhile to spend on the entrance fee to go in for 1 hr. We looked around the map of Port Stephens and decided to find the Gan Gan Lookout.

It was a great choice! Scenary was great on this hilltop lookout. We can see the bays around Port Stephens and the sight was just awesome! Check out the pictures we took. Just a couple... =)

(we had our quad biking at the sandy beach behind us!)

It was back to the serviced apartment after this as all of us were tired out. We had our dinner just slightly after 7pm at a NSW award winning Indian restaurant that served delicious curries and naan (roti). Just so finger-licking good! Haha..

We stayed up till 11pm playing Texas Hold 'em (a poker game that is very challenging and fun! - wil intro this game to you when I'm back).

Whale-watching morning! Such an exciting thought! Getting up close to the largest mammal on this planet! What a wonderful sight it would be! Such was our expectations as we reached the dock for boarding at around 945am Sunday morning for the 3 hr whale-watching cruise.

It was such a sunny and great day! Really sunny! See how Hazel was blocking the sun from her eyes when posing for the photo? Tat's why sunglasses are essential.. haha.. We were so expectant, so optimistic that we would be able to catch sight of whales and we had our cameras and video camera (me only) ready! We were thinking aloud that luckily we did not go on this cruise yday as it was raining.

The first 45mins into the cruise out, we were straining our eyes for potential whale-sighting! Fully focused. As the cruise went on, we got tired of coz but we stil pushed on. Until the 1hr 30min mark, hopes dwindled. And we ended up with nil sighting of whales and a sighting of lazy dolphins out on their daily swim. Nothing fascinating! Disappointed we were very! Whale watching season is from May - Nov every year. Most likely to spot them during Sept we heard. We would be back! Trust us! And keep a lookout on this blog and I promise to bring you photos of real whale sightings by Hazel and me!

Cheers! A great Port Stephens trip this is! More to come... =p

Happy Birthday 老姨丈!

2006-08-29T21:33:00.000+08:00

19 Aug 06 (Sat)
The weekend was spent at my 老姨 and 老姨丈's house at Glenwood, on the north-western side of NSW. The nearest train station is Blacktown. 老姨丈's birthday is on the 26th Aug 06 but since both Hazel and I would be going to Port Stephens for that weekend, we decided to celebrate his birthday 1 week earlier. We reached Blacktown at around 5pm Saturday evening to meet them for dinner. We had planned to get a cake before meeting them and alas, we forgot that we are in Sydney! All shops are closed by the time we reached. We searched franatically around the huge Westfield shopping mall but no luck!

We can only get a chocolate mud cake from Coles (equivalent of Giant/Seng Siong in S'pore). Not very fantastic or ideal but at least we managed to get 1 and hopefully it's the thots that count. 老姨丈 treated us to a sumptuous dinner at a Chinese restaurant before we made our way to their house.

We chatted, and showed them our ROM photos and most importantly, we celebrated 老姨丈's birthday before turning in. Hope that it had been a good celebration for him!

The next morning, we tagged along with them to their church service at Parramatta. It was a good experience. Both Hazel and I are receptive to all religions as we believe that religions that preaches followers to do good are good!

Here are some of the photos we had taken at our 老姨 and 老姨丈's house. Big, spacious bungalow type of house! Very cosy and very homely...

What a weekend (Sun)!

2006-08-15T21:59:00.000+08:00

Sunday 13 Aug 06
Today is the day that both Hazel and I walked the most in a continuous stretch of time. We walked and jogged a total of at least 14km (excluding the distance we walked to the starting point and from the starting point back home). The event that we participated is called 'City to Surf' - a huge event in Sydney in which pple in Sydney took part in a mass jog-cum-walk for charity! The route is from Sydney City (from Hyde Park) all the way to Bondi Beach!

More than 60,000 pple took part. Some are competitive runners while most are just looking for a workout and lots of fun! It was a great experience!

Can you imagine what would it look like to have more than 60,000 pple on the road? It looks like this!

It was such a fun race. Not a moment of boredom. Pple are dressed up in all sort of costumes. Gorillas, chicken & egg, robots, snakes, etc... Along the way, there are even entertainment lined up to keep us going, like 'live' bands, performances, etc... Refreshments were plentiful too!

Most significantly, we experienced the warmth of Australians... their sponstaneity.. As we walked through many housing estates, residents actually came out of their houses to cheer the participants on, to act as volunteers to hand out refreshments. Some even left their hose spray on to re-energise tired runners/walkers.

The view along the way was nice and refreshing.. Snapped quite a number of shots... Here's one with the robot.

The walk cum jog was tedious, energy sapping but luckily the weather was kind. Our feet were shouting for rest but we pressed on and finally reached bondi beach in under 3hrs.

It was another amazing sight of Bondi when we reached. It was packed with participants and beach-goers!

That's us crossing the finishing line... very proud of ourselves! haha..

We had our free lunch at the PwC marquees (firm sponsored) before we took an express bus back to the city. It was a tiring day.. but we felt great completing it! We will run next yr!

What a weekend (Sat)

2006-08-15T18:36:00.000+08:00

Sat 12 August 06
It's sightseeing day once again this Saturday! The long hours that I had been working for my last audit client for the past 3 weeks are officially over (not considering the need to follow up unofficially though). Can you believe it? Working past 11pm the whole of last week and even working at home on Sundays! I could not have believed it back in Singapore! But, I was 'educated'... It's the job/profession and not where you do this job/profession.

Enough said. Let's talk about Manly Beach! Another popular beach in Sydney. We need to take a ferry there and from the wharf at Circular Quay, you get to see great views of Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House!

The cruise to Manly Wharf was refreshing but very COLD b'coz of the wind... chilly... but we managed to stay on the deck for the whole 30 mins! Haha.. The view was great!

Manly Beach paled slightly in comparison to Bondi Beach in terms of development at the beachside BUT it is attractive in its own sense. The waters was so clear and the sand so fine.. The sun was sooo strong though.. We could imagine summer time (without the cool breeze)... Not very comforting given that it is just 3 months away...

You judge the beauty of Manly Beach yourself as its beauty is just not describable by words. You will never see something like this in Singapore.. (of coz...)

2006-08-05T22:06:00.000+08:00

Bed Bugs! I hate them!
It has been a long time since I last update my blog. Main reason being: Getting rid of a blood sucking bug called bed bugs. Heard of 'Sleep tight and dun let bed bugs bite'? In Singapore, in the comfort of our own beds, bed bugs are the last thing that we would expect to see, not to mention bitten!

Both Hazel and I were bitten badly.. We suffered bites for abt 1 week before the pest control company was called in by the agent and landlord to exterminate them! Take a look at the seriousness of our bites. The bites were soooooo irritatingly itchy. Itch that you would never expect to be tahan-able!

Face, hands, legs, feet, soles, even my ears were not spared!

Before the pest control company came down, both Hazel and I had to be the temporary bed bug killers so as to minimise the possibility of bites at night (3am is the time they are most active!). We covered the mattress with whatever plastic we could get hold of and scoured the carpet for bedbugs. It was torture! We would wake up in fear in the middle of night, sometimes in turns to see if we manage to catch any bugs on our bed.

We caught quite a number but these bugs procreate at an amazing speed and they are SMALL, FLAT and really have a thirst for blood. The ones we caught would spurt blood when we squeeze them. Scary right? Here is how the bugs look like and where they may be on mattress...

Really such a BAD experience we had. Such a bad start for our stay in Sydney, Australia.

First, a painting that missed our skulls and then BED BuGS!

At least, things can only get better and both of us just wanna get over it. Enuff said, it is officially over when I write this entry. The pest control company came a second time 2 days ago as Kevan's bed was infested with bed bugs too... The infestation of bed bugs in his room was worse but he was just only bitten 1 week after both Haz and I were bitten. But he was relatively unscathed, just few bites...

Okok.. enuff of bed bugs, made me itchy whenever i reviewed the photos and the marks on myself and Haz. Poor gal.. I'm so 心痛 lo..
BUT, despite our unlucky streak so far in the house, we did enjoy ourselves during the last 2 weekends. Just a quick summary...

- We went KTV! $10 per head for 3 hrs + 1 free drink, no GST, no tidbit charge, good sound system, new songs!
- Visited our grand-aunt and uncle again and they brought us to Cabramatta - a Vietnamese suburb.. Ate beef noodles which taste good! (but I still dun really like beef la... has a bit of taste which I just dun really like la.. haha.. BUT the 烧肉 that we were treated was wonderful! haha..)
- Lots of marketing! At Broadway, Paddy Market, Chinatown, Bankstown, etc... Is good fun doing marketing and trying to visualise how we are gg to whip up meals for the weekends and even weekdays...

Will update this blog again soon with more interesting stories of our travels within Sydney for the upcoming weeks.

BEfore I end off, work over here in Sydney is comparable to Singapore. NOT SLACK at all! Worked till 830pm daily and stil need to work at home at nights and even on weekends (Sunday afternooon and night...) Sianz la.. not much balance as thot we would have... hopefully things wil get better! Cheers!

2006-07-20T07:01:00.000+08:00

Escaped serious injury...

OMG, the painting hung above our bed came crashing down on us during the night when the hook holding it was dislodged from the wall! Both Hazel and I were sleeping soundly when I suddenly heard a snap sound and when I opened my eyes, i saw the painting hit the bed on its edge and bang, it was on the floor... I was stunned! If Hazel or I was sleeping near where its edge had landed, either our skulls or any part of our faces would be cracked! OMG! I am still reeling from the heart-wrecking sight and thots!

We are definitely blessed! Really counting our blessings... What if? What if something happened? I was really so afraid.. What if Hazel was injured? Lots of what ifs..

A BIG warning to all: Do not hang heavy object above your bed unless you are 100% sure that the thing/hook holding it is sturdy enough to hold it! Else, unfortunate things may happen.. *Touch wood*

PHEW...

2006-07-17T21:22:00.000+08:00

17 July 2006 – updates

More than a week since my last post. Simple reason being: Limited internet access over here at our new rented apartment. Only has internet access when using my office laptop and thus, not very proper to use it for personal use. Had started actual work for 1 week. Really need lots of adapting as the accounting and auditing standards over here is a complete new ball game compared to Singapore. Also, the auditing approach over here is so different and similar in different ways.

Enough said about work. Not gg to blog about work as it would turn visitors to this site off. Also, will not talk much about the new rented apartment that we had moved into yet as everything is still not very tidied and presentable yet. Give me time k… Haha…

Let’s talk about our after-work activities. Let me introduce you to the ‘Paragon’ of Sydney! It’s called Queen Victoria Building (left). A huge historical building boosting of branded names! Haha.. can’t be cheap definitely… din bother to check the prices of coz…

Watched our first and maybe last movie (Superman Returns) in Sydney on a Friday night (were thinking of what post-dinner activities we have but couldn’t find one, thus decided on movie!). Get ready to exclaim. 1 tix costs AUD15.50! To think that we Singaporeans are complaining of ‘expensive’ movie tickets @ S$9,50 on weekends and Friday nights! It is so expensive here in Sydney throughout the week, except on Tuesdays where 2 tix go for AUD17 (very much cheaper!). But, who would go watch movie on the 2nd day of the working week? I would try surely if there is a good movie to catch!

One great thing in Sydney is that there are free concerts once in a while and both Haz and I caught a performance on a Saturday evening at a floating stage at Darling Harbor (left). Cool right? It was an opera-type musical brought to Sydney pple FOC and with a short fireworks finale! Good chance for me to become more cultured in arts over here. Really feels so good to be able to sit by the waters, enjoying a performance with cool (very cold) wind blowing… Awesome!

Okie, now for our weekend sightseeing trip to the Blue Mountains! Hazel’s maiden visit of the wonderful must-visit tourist spot at the West of Sydney. Kudos to Max and his sister for driving us there and back! It was a full 2+ hours drive (1-way)!

We got there early at around 9am and it was such a fantastic sight! Look at how the Three Sisters look at that time and how it looked less than 2 hours later!

You are right if you guessed that it must be very cold. It was soo cold in the morning with strong winds AND also the fact that we are relatively high up in the mountains. We did the ‘Giant Stairway to Three Sisters’ trail – virtually crossing a suspension bridge to touch 1 of the Three Sisters.

We also ‘hiked’ along a couple of the nature trails, which are so refreshing given the cool weather. Highly recommended is the Scenic Walk, where we can choose to either to take the tram on rails that are virtually vertical when it makes its way down the mountain AND take the cable car up OR the other way round. To give a feel of the steepness of the rail, you can see from the following picture (our reactions are abit exaggerated..)

All thanks to the Tay sister and brother for making this trip possible! Trips to other tourist attractions around Sydney would be planned for this weekend but it’s back to work for now!

2006-07-10T21:10:00.000+08:00

Bondi Beach (8 Jun 06)
What a great beach!

A picture really says a thousand words. The two pictures above would have given you an impression of how good this beach is. There are definitely better beaches around BUT it is the best I have seen thus far... More beaches to visit in Australia definitely and surfing is 1 sport I would wish to pick up during the 2 years in Sydney... Manly beach next, Gold Coast too... haha..

It was such a nice morning at the beach. We were recommended to the fried Mars bar by Max... Costs AUD3.30... Not too expensive. Think it would have been sold for this price or more in Singapore... Really curious about how it will taste though I know that it is definitely very sinful and fattening! But hack! Shuhui and I will only be sharing 1 lo.. ok la.. Max had 1 for himself! Haha.. nice nice! Fried as if it is Goreng Pisang..

1st week at work

2006-07-07T22:57:00.000+08:00

3 July 2006 - 7 July 2006
First week at work @ PwC Sydney TICE-Financial Assurance Group. A daunting experience actually. A brand new fresh start for another phase of my young career. Have to know new pple, get use to a brand new system, adjust to work style of a new culture; basically starting afresh altogether!

Names are hard to remember especially with so many pple having the same first name; eg. Andrew, Sarah, etc... And the fact that some of their last names are sooo difficult to spell and pronounce.. But i believe that I would get the hang of it sooner or later.

Another difficulty i faced is mainly to guess the grades of the pple i meet.. Some of them look so young but they are actually managers or even directors (a grade before becoming partners). Unbelievable. The promotion structure over here is such that you can be promoted very quickly as there are fewer levels BUT promotion is not guaranteed from senior level. Even promotion to Senior needs lots of efforts and 'politic-ing'. Really need to adjust to the culture here... not blindly of coz as i do have my own principles... Hehe.. Actions speak louder than words (may not be applicable here.. you will need to be able to speak the right words at the right time to the right person and then follow up with good work). Hopefully it's for the better. =)

It was definitely not all work and no play over here. On Thursday, it was the TICE group End-Of-Year party. The theme was 'Jungle' and held at a restaurant at Tarango Zoo! Cool ya! Everyone was so onz! I'm glad that I did not go without dressed accordingly. Did some last min shopping at a costume shop in Glebe (bought a red scarf, hat and a toy gun) and da-dah....

Haha.. surprise surprise! Supposed to a hunter, if you can guess... Pass-able ya! For the last min dress-up.

Colleagues at the Sydney office are definitely very sporting and they really put in lots of efforts in dressing up. There are Winnie The Pooh, Scary gorilla, Robin Hood, Tree, Monkey, and army of soldiers. And even RAMBO! Haha.. Really an eye-opener and guessing this, how can i be a spoil-sport and go in smart casual? Lucky I dropped my inhibition and dress up.

It is a 'annual dinner' kind of event with us grouped in tables with staff of different grades from partners to accountant (A1 & A2). After which, there is the Best-Dressed contest and the giving away of TICE awards for the year! It is no normal award! 1 of the award is for the 'worse MC excuse of the year'; 'I couldn't go to work today becoz I pulled my shoulder muscles while pulling up my socks..' Can you believe it? All of us were laughing at the very 'innovative' MC excuse! Hahaha.. Here are some of the photos of the party.

(My buddy, Yin Yin, is on the left as the cat woman, Julie as the tree, Albert as Robin Hood)

(Ruswadi, on the extreme left, a great guy who is ever so helpful - dressed as a soldier.. and other TICE colleagues)

(Willy the Pooh!)

Great party overall. A good place to know more pple and I'm glad I was able to make it. But, frankly, it more of going for the sake of going lo.. coz in Australia, one has to take an active role to be known by others as you can actually go unnoticed in the office and basically nobody will know you exist unless you do something to get noticed. It's something I have to bear in mind and a constant advice from seniors who are/were on this secondment. Such is the Western culture. The survival of the fittest.

After-office hour activities for the week:

Pancake @ the rocks:
A 'must-visit' restaurant in Sydney which serves great pancakes. It is located very near to Sydney Opera House. Really impressed with the crepes & pancakes. But too much of it may be too fattening and sinful! Haha..

Game of pool:

No hourly pool charges. Instead, it is by per game basis. AUD$3 per game. Very steep price and thus we would not be able to play many games. But it's just for the experience of playing pool in Sydney.. HAha.. Next time it would be karaoke in Chinatown.

(Chris, Max's wonderful sis!)

Home cooked dinner at Chris' house in Bankstown:

It was Friday night (7th July) and Chris invited us all to her house for a home cooked feast! Really love her cosy 2 bedroom apartment unit in Bankstown! Lucky Max for having such a wonderful sister who really furnished his bedroom with all that he needs to live comfortably!

Chris cooked lamb chop, chilli beans, beef rendang and roasted chicken wings and a wonderfully brewed soup! REally missed such home cooked feast that we took for granted back at home in Singapore. Really missing the cooking at home and my family. But luckily, there are good frens here who really treat us very well.. and also the regular calls home to parents and siblings who really miss me as well.. Can't wait for them to visit me and hopefully I would have time to bring them around Sydney. Next week would let me hav a better idea of how heavy my workload will be as it would be work as usual then..

Before that, it is the weekend! Had activities planned! Look out for this space!

2 July 2006 - Last day of play before work starts tomorrow!

2006-07-02T20:28:00.000+08:00

2 July 2006
Slept only at 530am Sydney time catching the whole of England penalty loss to Portugal and more than half of the first half between victorious France and Brazil. Woke up only at 12 noon. It's seafood feast today! Sydney fish market is our very first stop for our breakfast-cum-lunch.

Sydney Fish Market is well known for the fresh seafood that one can buy and eat right here at the fish market. Fresh seafood can be bought raw or cooked. Rows of benches and tables are available for visitors to feast right at the market. See what the 8 of us ate! (8 including Max, Kevan, Hazel, me, Christina and her 3 frens)

We had 1kg of cooked king prawns, 4 boxes of fish and chips, 3 dozens of oysters, 1 seafood platter for 2 big ang mos AND 2 boxes of sashimi (Raw salmon, tuna and king fish)! And Christina was actually thinking of getting chilli crabs!?!? Luckily we stopped her! Haha..

A note for those visiting the market, do bring your own chilli sauce, wasabi, soy sauce as all these sauces cost $$. As the seafood is known to be super fresh, I took my first swallow of fresh, raw oyster! First ever oyster in my mouth and into my stomach with just lime juices over it! I had 2 in quick succession and decide that they are enuff for my first attempt. Hazel ate more than 6-8 easily. Her favourite! Haha..

After the heavy lunch, it was really so hard staying fully awake for all the 4 of us; even when walking! Haha.. we forced ourselves to take a short walk to Chinatown to see if there is any last min stuff to buy before we start work tomorrow. All of us were really fighting lethargy and sleepiness. At around 6pm, we bought stuff to cook our dinner and we cooked our first meal in Max's room. All thanks to Christina for the 3 boxes of dumplings she made for us! We simply cooked noodles with dumpling, fried an egg with luncheon meat and that's our dinner! See how proud we are! Haha..

Highlights from 29th June - 1st July 2006

2006-07-01T22:18:00.000+08:00

29th June 2006
It's house searching from our day 2 in Sydney. We went around the areas around the City - Ultimo, Pyrmont especially. Will be sharing our accomodation for the 1st 6mth or a yr with Kevan, thus a 2 bedder is our main focus. Security and assessability are my main concerns and the first day was pretty fruitless until our last stop at Goldboroughs (a cotton wool factory-turned serviced apartment). A fully furnished 2 bedroom will set us back a cool AUD560-590 per week depending on which unit we might take. The rooms are pretty huge though, with 2 storeys good serviced facilities and stuff. We thought it will be our home for the next 6-12 months at least as the other units we viewed in the day were unfurnished and cost quite expensive too.

The night was good as we met up with our seniors like Aaron, his wife Aileen and Meixuan. We had dinner at Superbowl, a more famous Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. Food is good and cost quite economically considering the high cost of cooked meals in Sydney! Haha. Got many tips from them regarding life in Sydney and also their experiences during their last 1 yr. Really a great gathering all in all as we feel not alone but part of a big family... haha... We met up at 730pm and chatted till around 10pm. Highly informative and it seems we will be having a great time ahead (except that things will no longer be as cheap as in Singapore... haha...)

30 June 2006
Another morning of home searching! But this time round, we seems to be getting closer to our rented home for the next 6-12 months! We viewed a fully furnished apartment at Saunders Street (see left). It is near the Sydney fish market and about 15-20 mins walk to the City. It is in Pyrmont area and is a nice residential area. Best thing is, it is gg only for AUD490 and it has a carspace! Good deal we think. Seriously considering it our rented apartment already! But it is still subject to competition from other interested parties. Really hope to get it!

Do stay updated whether if it really becomes my mailing address in Sydney for the next 6-12 months! Haha..

After the home search, Max's sis drove us to Birkenhead, a place with lots of factory outlets and cheap stuff. But, the lunch was EXPENSIVE as usual! Got the cheapest dish once again - fish and chips @ AUD5.5. Hazel had laksa which is not spicy at all for AUD7.50! Unbelievable ya? But it's true.

After some bargain buying, we made our way back to the hotel and the highlight of the night was trying the famous Krispy Kreme donuts! Lots of variety (like sour cream, blueberry, choc devil, apple, strawberry, etc..). But the best would have to be the ORIGINAL. Freshly baked and taste good but Hazel and I feel that the donuts are really too sweet. Seems that each donut has been coated completely with sugar.

Sydney is a great city but there seems to be little to do at night (after 8pm) other than clubbing or gambling at the Star City Casino. We did neither but went back to our room to play mahjong while watching the Germany v Argentina match. But it was not for long as I was too tired and kept dozing off.

1 July 2006
Day 4 in Sydney, 1 more day after today before I have to start work @ PwC Sydney. My mum's auntie and uncle came to pick us up @ 1030 to drive us to their house at Glenwood at the west of Sydney. We stopped by Parramatta for dim sum at 香满楼 and some sightseeing of the '2nd city to Sydney'.

Dim sum is good. After which, we took another 20 mins to reach their house. A single storey house with 4 bedrooms. Really nice decor and feels very home-ly. The house was actually a 'show-house'. We were then driven to a nearby market to look look see see. It happens to be one of the 3 big scale markets in Sydney, called 'Parkleas Markets'. The other which we had gone to is 'Paddy's Market' at Chinatown. As the Parkleas Market is in the suburbs, the prices of stuff there are generally cheaper but quality definitely differs slightly.

Our mode of transport back to hotel was train. We took the train from Blacktown station. It took just slightly under 45mins for us to reach Town Hall station and it's back to hotel after which. Tonight is another night which will see us being deprived of sleep again! Haha.. coz it's England v Portugal AND Brazil v France!!

2006-06-28T23:22:00.000+08:00

Touchdown at Sydney (28 June 2006)

27 June 2006 2200 - Arrived at Singapore Changi Airport with my family and Hazel's 2 brothers. Had mixed feelings - both of a '不舍得' and 'looking forward to a brand new life experience' kinda feelings. Before clearing the customs, took quite a number of photos, including the one below:

Bade a tearful farewell to my dear family. First time gg abroad for such a long period of time and think it's inevitable that there is plenty of 不舍得. Dad, Mum, brother and sister, you all have to take good care of yourselves k! Dun worry, technology has made staying in touch so much easier! And I'm just a 7-hr flight away! haha..

28 June 2006 1000 Sydney time
Touchdown! After an uncomfortable 7hr flight on SQ0231, we are at Down Under! A brand new kind of life awaits us all! Hazel, me, Kevan and Max @ Sydney, an Australian city most similar to Singapore (but still better in work-life balance for an auditor). Beginning of winter here; cool 14 degrees with warm sunlight. Able to wear thick, warm and very stylo winter clothings lo! haha.. Look at the jacket I'm wearing, guess how much? Only S$57!

Managed to check into our temporary accomodation (Pacific International) for the next 2 weeks in a hotel suite along Kent Street. Basically, it is a serviced apartment with all the required facilities and appliances (eg. washing machine, dryer, oven, fridge, tv, etc...) for our use. Really wished that we would be able to get a rented apartment like this for our secondment. It is really good. And it is just 1 street away from PwC Sydney (Sussex Street).

(does looks like PwC Singapore @ Cross Street ya?)

First task: Open bank accounts and deposit our '财产'. Opened a joint checking account (no interest) with ANZ and also a savings account which comes with a staggering 5.25% p.a interest rate. The only condition is not to have any withdrawal for the month and at least 1 deposit of more than $10 per month. Incentive for both Hazel and I to save and save!

All thanks to Max's elder sister, Christina's help, we are able to get this done in a short while and she brought us around to sightsee. We had lunch at a Korean restaurant and after which, we returned back to the hotel to rest till around 7pm Sydney time. Dropped by Star City Casino (only one in Sydney) for a while before we hit the road to Woolloomooloo for Harry's pies near Cowper Wharf. The pies are soo famous that they are always highly recommended!

The stall is actually by the roadside and when we arrived there, there were many bikers enjoying the great pies and hotdogs.

Left: Chicken and cheese 'Tiger'; Right: Curry Tiger

From the write-up and Kevan's explanations, adding a 'Tiger' to any pies means: 'Mashed peas + Mashed Potatos + Thick gravy' on top of the pies of your choice. In the cold weather, it is just soo shiok to feel the warm toppings & contents of the pies down your throat... Haha.. Delicious.. Mouth watering? Come visit me and I will make sure you try it! Haha..

Another recommendation: Harry's Hotdog de wheels (Hotdog sandwich with spicy beef and mashed peas and gravy). Couldn't resist trying it but encountered tough competition from Kevan when it comes to sinking the first bite into the huge hotdog sandwich. Haha..

Late night grocery shopping @ Woolsworth before we turn in for the day. Another packed day tomorrow.. Home searching tm with a housing agent. Hope to find one with a good location and good price!

Sydney, here I come..

2006-06-14T09:56:00.000+08:00

Sydney.. Australia's oldest city, the economic powerhouse of the nation and the most famous city.. people's perceived capital of Australia (but not.. Canberra is.. hee..)
This is the place in Down Under where I will be embarking my next phase of career and life with my pretty and loving wife, Hazel... It is going to be one of the most exciting phase of our lives! We will be virtually on our own, in a world of our own.. enjoying each other's companion, concerns and love whole day long! It will be great, we believe..

Our confirmed date of departure from Singapore is 28th June 2006, exactly 2 weeks from now. Leaving Singapore for the next 2+ years is both sad and unwilling at times as it would be saying good-bye to our dearest parents, siblings and close friends and colleagues here. It is kinda sad thinking about it but we believe that it is for the better! These two years would be the most appropriate and best time for us to go out to see the world, to experience a brand new way of life, to understand and expand our horizon of the real world.

Keeping in touch would not be difficult as the advancement in technology means that saying 'Hi' face-to-face is just 1 click away (using webcam). Furthermore, our parents would be visiting us over there now and then in between our annual leave back to Singapore. That would be then just be a gap of half yearly absence.. Not too bad huh (looking at things positively)...

Leaving a place we call our home is definitely hard BUT let's look ahead and both Haz and I are rubbing our hands in glee, anticipating the fun that we will have, how we will grow as a person, and most importantly, how we will enjoy the blissful life of just the two of us in a world of just the two of us! Envious? Haha.. I promise Hazel happiness and love, I will fulfill my promise to her no matter where we are. This i promise Hazel... Love you..

Lifelong Commitment to Haz - SiGnEd!

2006-03-27T23:46:00.000+08:00

Sunday 26 March 2006...
Finally, the day has arrived. The day where both Shuhui and I tie the knot and sign on the legal doc which made us legally husband and wife... Blissful is the most apt word to describe how I (we) feel... May our days ahead be full of loving and wonderful moments!

Life, relationships

2006-03-12T17:55:00.000+08:00

It got me thinking... what is the value of life?
Family, love ones, friends, work, money, food, fun, happiness, contentment, responsibilities, etc... pple would surely in one way or another associate value of life with these terms...

What say me? Good question.

To me, true value of life is to establish, maintain and strengthen treasured relationships with pple. Pple that matters to me. Pple that I love. These are relationships which I would do what I can to ensure that they do not fade into oblivion.

Do I expect these pple that I cherished to treasure the relationships I have with them as much as I do? Nope.

When you wish someone well, treat someone well, show concerns and care to the someone, the actions have to be from the bottom of your heart in order for it to be valuable, sincere and worthy. Else it would be no different from being in a buy-sell transaction.

Different pple have different expectations, different things matter to different pple. As such, different relationships would matter to different pple. What's impt is to know who you really care and which relationship(s) matter. Ask yourself. Self-reflect. Take a step back and reflect on who are the ones who make a difference to your life, who has been that 'key' person(s) that you can never do without. Who have been the one there for you during your bad times. Who has always been there for you. Or simply, who matters to you? Be nice to pple who love you is easy, but what brings much satisfaction to me would be to brighten the moment/day of the pple that I love/care with my action(s). Saying is easy, but action always speaks louder than words.

It's easy to take certain pple for granted just becoz you know that they will never fail to stand by your side and as a results, pple would tend to focus more on relationships that they hope to establish and build. It is not wrong! But you muz never forget and neglect these 'key' pple! Taking pple for granted, to me, is a no-no. Becoz it takes efforts and time to build and bring a relationship to a particular level.

All it takes to destroy a relationship is just simply- Neglect and Insensitivity.

First entry

2005-12-29T00:00:00.000+08:00

First blog entry:
Saw an ex-colleague's blogsite and think that it is a useful way of allowing others to peek into my daily life (esp when I'm about to leave Singapore for Sydney next May for 2 years of work secondment) and also a good way for me to keep an online diary detailing the memorable events that unfold daily... (hmm, maybe weekly would be easier to sustain my blogging interest)
It is late at the moment... Need to sleepz... New year is coming.. 2005 is going to be the past soon.. Hope for a better year ahead! For me and my love ones!