of birthdays, high tea, housewarming, wedding, and graduation!

Last Friday saw us celebrating Sean’s 24th birthday at Bar 333 and Subha’s 23rd birthday at Tank.

Sean was soooooooo drunk! XD Hugging everyone and telling them that he loves them lol I got slightly tipsy on ONE cranberry and vodka =.= I *know* it’s utterly lame

Tank, at first, was like… meh. We were trying to find Subha, but it was like looking for a puppy in a litter of kittens. =_= Duy and I was like… wait! I think that’s her!!! …. oh no.. wait.. that’s just an Indian chick =P About an hour and a bit later, we found her.. yay!

Ram got really annoyed at the almost all Indian crowd (bit ironic really) and so didn’t have that much fun… Duy and I started getting into it (well, tbh, *he* got me into it… i was a bit meh because ram was meh). We were having fun grooving to the tunes (most of which I didn’t know! lol i’m so out of touch with today’s music), but Ram, mindful of his 10am work meeting in Toogabbie, was like.. i wanna go hooooooome, i’m tired. I’m serious! I wanna go home!

Gah. Such a baby.

When we were about to leave, some jerk walking through the crowd deliberately bumped into me, then into Ram… Ram gave him the biggest dirty and the dude just evenly stared back at him… and my spidy-senses told me that if I didn’t do anything, Ram’s gonna be in trouble… (alright I don’t have any… but ANYONE could have sensed this) So I broke their eye contact with my hand, placing it against Ram’s face and turning it away from jerk-man… brightly chatting to him as if nothing was going to happen. >_<

Once we got outside, Ram ranted and raved on about shitty RnB crowds.. so much so that Duy interjected, "Dude! Even I don't wanna go back inside! *killjoy*" =.=

In the end, Duy drove us home *hugs* thanks! =D We owe u lots =P and big time!!

Here's something you don't see every day.. night.. whatever...

A car going onto the Anzac Bridge at a pretty sedated pace... A face sticking out of the back passenger door, chin resting in the corner (window wound down of course)... looking like he's going to blow at any second XD I know it's mean to laugh... but man, it was just too funny XD

Saturday…. ah nuts… it’s been too long and I’ve forgotten already T____T noooooo

OH! =D

Ruby and I went to Campbelltown to watch Stardust for 6 bucks…. SIX BUCKS!!!!! XD Anywho, movie’s great! Check out my review in the movie reviews section =)

Picked up Myle, got caught up in traffic, fretted that we were going to be late for our High Tea booking at The Victoria Room.

High Tea was grrrreat. While the tea selection ain’t as extensive as at The Tea Room, the food was much better – The Tea Room use to be soooo good! But value for money it is not, and neither is the food any more, since the renovations.

Because it was a set menu, we all had pretty much one of everything… which meant we were entirely stuffed when we finished.

Darjeeling is now one of my favourite teas! =D Myle had the Prince of Wales, which suspiciously tasted like a lighter Early Grey, and Ruby had the China Arram, which was pretty much green tea. “Nothing special” they both said. Hmm… So really the tea’s better @ The Tea Room… just not the servings of food! lol We weren’t never full there… but we have a theory ’bout that lol

More photos (well 3 more hahaha) here and here.

Ruby dropped me off at Minh’s place, where after getting some dinner, leeched some tv shows and movies and watched a bit of Xman. Man, Xman is sooooo funny!

Yay! Thanks minh! ^_^ You’re the bestest!!!! *huggles*

She had a house dinner to go to, so we kinda escorted her to her friend’s place, and then headed off to Glebe for RJ’s house warming =)

Had a *really* good night @ RJ’s. Chatted to Mark, then Liz… a bit to Shane, Jason, and Ricky… it was all round fun! =D

Some silly photos here and here.

Vic’s and Swati’s wedding ceremony on Sunday in Helensburg was blessed with sunny blue skies tempered by the tiniest breeze that cooled and raised goosebumps.

It’s my first full Indian wedding (the absolute first was Joy’s … we came late *and* we were seated at the back, so nfi what was going on)… and it was pretty cool =D Took loads of photos… but this is pretty much my favourite photo of the day:

More photos here and here.

Lunch was spicy lol no surprise there… but it was good.

Took some random photos of Ram’s neighbour’s blossoming/blossomed peach tree… shots here and here.

Collapse on bed @ 4pm and didn’t wake up til 7.30am the next day lol

So yesterday was my graduation.. YAY! FINALLY!!!

Waaaaay too many photos were taken of me… but YAY to silly photos that ensued…. Love this photo:

More photos here (Dat’s), here, and here. lol

Made a new friend, Lydia, who graduated from Eng. Science and sat next to me… and Damien, who sat on my other side, turned out to be Lisa Heppel’s ex! O_O But he was nice… i kept sitting on his robe though lol

My robe, when i was walking out of the hall, kept on getting caught on the chairs!! =.= My hat… ugh my head is inbetween sizes and stupid me chose the smaller one =.= i had a red line running across my forehead afterwards. lol that’ll learn me.

This weekend is shaping up to be a pretty busy weekend too.. lol oh boy…

of a … semi-brief recap

Friday: Because on Thursday night I got caught up in reading Silent in the Grave and was up until 3.30am, I opted to go to bed at an early 20.40 XD

Saturday: Woke up at 10:30 … lol yes I slept that entire time, save when ram called me up at 12:30 to say g’night. Anywho, woke up to go with mum to Cabra to do my taxes and to the doctor. After all that, we went shopping for a dress for Vic’s and Swati’s wedding…. after only 2 stores and about 4 dresses had me beat. The last dress I tried on was gorgeous… and so outrageously priced. T_T

Trying to justify spending soooo much money on a dress (as well as alterations) was difficult, made even more so when 5 guys pretty much said “meh it’s not that great, why are you spending so much again?” lol

So yeah, pretty as it may be to me, regretfully I said no to it. (which surprisingly made me really upset lol such a girl)

Watched Kenny! Pretty good movie, actually we loved it ^_^ so funny and heart warming heheh

Sunday: All you can eat buffet yumcha in Canley! Surprise guests were Kelly, Sharina, and Cong. Great to see them though =)Afterwards I went to liverpool westfields, dfo, and myle’s place to try out dresses for the wedding. Got a couple of potentials, which is good… but I guess I’m looking for something that makes me feel like that gorgeous dress did lol

So I was pretty tired after that.

Monday: New furniture arrived at the office! So that was pretty exciting. Shara being the perfectionist she is, seeing the (wrong) colour of the new chairs, incomplete installation of desks because someone packed the wrong screws, and wrong table leg/stand thing (instead of round, it was 4 “legs”/prongs thingy), she got soooooo mad at the custom furniture place. Hopefully everything can be fixed by tomorrow morning (they’re coming in again to finish the installation with the right screws, dunno what’s happening with the table legs and chairs).

Oddly enough, Claudie and I remembered that the issue with the round table stand vs 4 prong-legs was sorted ages ago and that she grudgingly accepted the 4 prong-legs cuz the round table stand was discontinued (or something akin to that). Must have forgotten hehehe.

The furniture people couldn’t believe that Shara wanted to move the existing tables on one wall over to the other side, installing the new ones on one wall – basically rearranging the whole office. But this was done because the woodgrain finish to the drawers were discontinued (she was so mad at that as well, cuz the dude had told her that it would be still in production if she were to order new drawers), so it was a different finish, and basically to minimize the “glaring” differences between the two types of drawers.

Kinda crazy perfectionist hey? But I guess it would be worth it in the end to have things look mostly uniform and “pretty”. =)

of after the bbq

I forgot about this…

On the way home from Will’s bbq, I missed a turn and ended up near the rocks… where all the fences and police were. Ram already had his camera out and was taking heaps of photos and when he pulled his camera back in, the lens was covered with raindrops.

The Lowepro Slingshot 100AW has a nifty lens cleaner, so I told him to use that… only i couldn’t explain where it was and I was driving. After some digging around in the compartment I directed him to, there was a slight pause before him asking, “Is this it?” holding out something small, squarish and white.

I looked at and a rush of embarrassment filled me, flushing my cheeks – I was glad for the darkness.

Snatching it away, I meant to quietly murmur (as I was also driving Leon and Duy), but ended up exclaiming, “It’s a pantyliner!” >_<

Gah.

of the apec long weekend

Ah APEC week…

My building is right opposite the Radisson and on the same street as Sofitel, where some diplomats/dignitries were staying, so there were a lot of police roaming around the area.

While most of the week was relatively normal (save for the security guard loitering around the lobby areas), Thursday saw us getting our bags and id checked… though it was really such a half-hearted attempt. It was kind of amusing and exciting – in the way that breaks the monotony of same-old-same-old.

And the public holiday.. long weekend!!!! =D Oh happy days ^__________^

Friday we congregated at will’s for a bbq and general lounging around. There was also Guitar Hero and various SingStar… and some napping on will’s comfy couches XD

Went to a nearby pizzeria that was pretty nice, where Mark was educating us on how tough a blacktown school actually was. Most memorable moment was the recount of what his dad said to him about going to school (roughly): “If someone teases you, keep hitting them until you see blood.”

Will wooed a few of us to come back to his place for ice cream and promptly put on The Pink Panther (the Steve Martin and Jean Reno one), which he was trying to get everyone to watch during the day. I most probably dragged ram away about halfway through the movie =P

Photos from Leon’s camera.

“Heeeey… we’re going to be a bit late… about 10 minutes?” I hesitantly told John.

“…Just be here before 11:30, that’s when the ferry leaves.”

John’s warning made me quite anxious and I had to wait another 5 minutes til Ram was able to leave his house >_< stress!

We were going for a hike at the Royal National Park, catching a ferry from Cronulla to Bundeena (it would have been most probably quicker if we drove straight there from Ram's place... but then we would have missed out on the ferry ride!). Our tardiness meant that we had to hustle ourselves to Cronulla Wharf and at one point I was driving at about 140km/h, over-taking a couple of cars =.= gah.

Funnily enough, as we made our way down to the wharf on foot, we met up with John, Rui, and Tony. =D Sean was waiting for us at the wharf and Ryan came running as he thought we were meeting at 12 and luckily came early to grab a bite to eat XD

The ferry was small and the seats uncomfortable, but it was kinda fun ^_^

We took a modified Coastal Walk track, where we encountered huuuuuge puddles of mud, water, and both, deer tracks, tiny blooming wildflowers, dense brush that impishly scratched any exposed bare skin, and lots of sand. Going uphill on sand is not a lot of fun =P Jumping across mud and puddles, on the other hand, proved to be quite fun, though slightly tiring and required a lot of balance.

We stopped to have lunch on a rocky ridge (?) that was made from eroded sandstone. Pretty! Lunch consisted of chicken sirloin strips with lettuce and mayo in a roll ^_^ mmmm simple but tasty.

John has all these funky cooking gear: titanium heat shield, burner, aluminium pot, plastic bowl that u assemble via what looks like origami... waterproof matches!!!! O_O

More walking, photo-taking, then took the 5 o'clock ferry back to Cronulla.

Rui is really sweet.. even though I just met him that day, he kept looking back to make sure I was doing okay with the puddles and rocks =)

John's photos are here, Ram’s photos should be up soon, and my photos are here, here, and my favourites.

As soon as I got home, I showered and got ready for Sopheany’s bday dinner at Indulgence in Parramatta.

“When the doctor gave me my shot, I could feel everything… the stuff running into my veins, the needle, and it really really hurt!”

This was Ruby talking as she reversed out of my driveway.

“Yeah!” agreed Han. “It hurt for 2 days for me! And I couldn’t sleep because I sleep on my left side. I gotta go again for another shot in 2 weeks.”

“Guys… that’s not very comforting to know,” Betty commented apprehensively.

It took me a while, but I figured out that they were talking about getting their cervical cancer injections. Ick. Something I gotta get as well =.= Totally forgot. Bah.

By the time we were inside the restaurant I realised that my legs were dully aching and walking was becoming more difficult without some sort of pain =_= bleeeeh

The food was pretty average to be honest, looked better than they tasted, which was a pity. A bit pricy for what it was as well. Le sigh. The cake was better though, with cute candles that spelt out “Happy Birthday”.

We had a live band! Very weddingish though lol but it was cool nonetheless, they sang “Happy Birthday” to Soph and the manager and the boss danced to a tune on the stage at one point =D

Photos here, here, and I guess my favourites out of the batch… tbh, I didn’t like the photos I took… they were pretty crap. Sorry Soph for not having better photos T_T I think I was waaay too tired and a bit cbf.

Sunday I was in bed until 4.30pm. Ah such a lazy Sunday XD

Got out of bed when mamma came over, ran over to Ruby’s house to borrow SingStar, and played it with my mother until 6.30 lol it was fun!

Attained SingStar with Celebrity Skin by Hole on easy!!! =D yay!

My legs had totally recovered by Sunday ^_^ double yay

of k-drama addictions, sleeplessness, and a housewarming

*mobile buzzes*

“Oh hey Phuong! Umm, are you guys going to eat? …. Ummm… Can I meet up with you guys later? It’s just…”

…It’s just that I’ve gotten so addicted to Coffee Prince that I can’t wait for it to download on the torrents or leech it from someone (re: Minh) so I’ve resorted to watching it on hoomie.com via streaming… at work. Of course, having high work ethics, I don’t bludge at work *cough cough* and watch it when I’m suppose to be doing work… I watched it after I had finished work =) I was about 3/4 of the way through when Phuong called me to let me know where they were going to be for dinner.

When I emerged from my building, I was busily sms’ing Minh about episode 16 and wasn’t really paying much attention to where I was walking. I saw the lower half of someone blocking my path, even when I had tried to sidestep them, I grunted and looked up… only to find that it was Alan, Mong, and Sparrow (her hotmail handle, forgotten her actual name T_T argh so bad)! How funny that we bumped into each other like that ^____^ Anywho, so they were on their way to dinner as well, and we walked together in the direction of Pepper Lunch.

Since they were going somewhere else to eat, we parted ways and I practically power-walked in heels to Pepper Lunch after realising how famished I was.

Pepper Lunch’s steak is the r0×0rs! XD It’s so tender and juicy… *drool* Every time I think about, I get hungry and I wanna go again lol. The servings is quite decent too… the side dishes weren’t that bad, but they weren’t that great either… though the steak really did make up for it XD hehehhe

Been craving desserts for a while now and while we were standing outside 85degrees (the cake store) waiting for Mong, I got Phuong to help me decide between Mango Panacotta and Strawberry Panacotta via rock, scissors, paper. She won, so I got the Mango Panacotta to eat on the train… only I realised when I went to eat it I needed a spoon. =_=

On the bright side, I had somehow managed to complete MX’s sudoku, rating 193 of Expert. O_O

Saturday was shopping day with my mamma at Chatswood. We were suppose to look for shoes, but seeing that I needed to find a present for the housewarming on Sunday and glass bottles for this photo snowglobe I’ve been meaning to make, it didn’t really happen.

On the upside, I found two awesome presents for Pinky and Henky… on the downside, no glass bottles T_T why are they so hard to find!?!??! Changing my tactics… gonna look in food store places. Gah.

Shopping really zonked me out, so I went to bed uber early, like at 8pm… only Ram woke me up twice and the second time really cinched it and I couldn’t get back to sleep. T_____T Ended up mucking around with the blog (trying to get Slimbox to work *shake fist*) and chatting on the net til about 5.30am.

I hate it when I’m sleeping peacefully and suddenly I jerk awake with a racing heart and a dreadful feeling that I am late for something. It’s even worse when I do it for no apparent reason or when I do it thinking that I’ve uber late for work but really I’m not.

I woke up like that today.

*jerks awake*

12:37pm

Nooooooooo… T_T We were suppose to catch the 11am advance screening of Ratatouille before we went to the housewarming… but we missed it!!!! Gah. So very annoyed and disappointed.

The housewarming was pretty cool. So much food!! XD Had heaps of cake. It was also great to see Pinky and Henky again and their place is pretty nice (shiny shiny floorboards!).

Took a couple of photos, well I think Ram took most of them lol, but I forgot I had my ISO at 100. So slowish shutter speed = blurry photo T_T gah. So inept.

But! I’ve dutifully uploaded them onto Flickr, Picasaweb, and the favs anyways.

Just found out that you could geotag photos via Picasa/Google Earth *slaps forehead* I am so slow, but also so ecstatic because automatic geotagging is le awesome. I was wishing that flickr’s geotagging wasn’t so heartbreakingly crap but when I uploaded the photos of the housewarming, found out that they also were automatically geotagged!!!! <3333! But this means that really, I’m only using Picasaweb to d/l albums. =T

of slimbox

I’m not too sure why slimbox is not rendering in IE properly and behaves quite perfectly in Firefox…

T_T

Someone let me know… it’s driving me nuts

(see of ski action ‘07 post for more)

[Edit 04-09-07: While it was pretty and seemed like a good idea at the time... slimbox just wasn't playing very nice with IE nor with other plugins so I decided to scratch it. (Lightbox I didn't quite take a fancy to, funnily enough)]

[Edit 18-12-07: Muhahhah... found a plugin that works relative well in IE6 and I think perfectly in IE7 and Firefox =D w00t! It's called Shutter Reloaded... 'tis tres awesome ^_^]