First Christmas away from home

Merry Christmas!!

This is the first time in my life that I am spending Christmas away from home... not that great to be exact.. though Christmas back home isn't that fun too, but I must say its still more enjoyable to spend this day with family members... but now, its only Nic and I... but we will be having a Christmas BBQ at Amar's place again... having seafood and some steak... awww... feel so full.. have been eating for the past two days... and hopefully all the massive eating won't cause any weight gain for me..

Anyway, we will be heading to Lakes this coming Sunday, and might spend a period of 1 week there. No concrete plans as to what we will be doing there, but I suppose its just fishing all day long... so pray for some good catches... ;)

Its less than a month before we head back to Singapore. Still in the midst of selling away our stuff.. we have just managed to sell off our fridge last Sunday, so now the items left are just the bed, the sofa bed and washing machine... and also the car.. so hopefully we can sell them away shortly after we get back from Lakes.... looking forward to go back too...

As for today, we did a bit of shopping at Chadstone and had dinner at Amar's place. Now we are back at home, going to bed soon. Gotta wake up for Christmas mass tomorrow morning...

BBQ at Amar's

Just got back from Amar's place and had a nice hot shower. It is a cold summer night. We had BBQ dinner over at Amar's place, to try out his new BBQ. Nic had prepared lamb and beef for the dinner. They taste great and everyone at the table was praising his dishes. :) He did put in quite a bit effort in marinating those meat I must say... for the lambs, he used a lamb leg, red wine, italian herbs and garlic, and marinated them for 2 days; as for the beef, he used rump steak and T-bone steak, garlic, HB sauce, oyster sauce and Johnny Walker to marinate the meat.

Anyway it was a nice dinner, and its also sort of a dinner to send Reuben off for his trip back to Columbia, and it might also be the last few times we will be meeting him since he will only be back to Melbourne on the 27th Jan, and by then we would be back in Singapore.

Its really sad to have to bid farewell to these people. They are really nice and sincere people, and they treated us really well too... They have been encouraging Nic and I to look for a job here so that we can stay on, and they are rather sad that we have got to go back. But well... Nothing much we can do especially since we have yet to get a job here. Hopefully they will come and visit us in Singapore, or that we might be able to get a PR here after applying it from Singapore. Anyway, I am not going to fret over it as I believe that whatever God has arranged for us, will be the best path.

Nic is drunk tonight, so he has gone to bed. I am going to watch one more episode of the HKG drama online before going to bed!

Just a quick one...

Thought of dropping a few lines while waiting for the drama to load.

I have received my results last Thursday, and did pretty well for the two papers. Better than what I expected. Well at least I have managed to complete my Bachelor studies with a HD/D average, and did not let my parents or Nic's parents down. :)

Its almost mid-December now, and we are only left with less than 2 months in Melbourne. Thinking of this brings about a mixture of feelings.. Happy and yet worried. Happy that I can get to see my parents, sister and Rico soon, worried about the outlook of my future. Wondering if it will be easy for me to get a job in Singapore. At the same time, I do feel a little upset at the thought having to say goodbye to my friends here. Hopefully in future, there will still be a chance for us to come back here, or for them to visit us in Singapore. It will really be a pity to lose contact with all the friends here.

Anyway, we shall see how it goes. We might probably come back next year to attend Tim & Michelle's wedding. Hopefully Nic will be willing to come back. Arghhhhh..... I am goonnnnaaa miss Melbourne!!! Melbourne is really the best place to live! Nice people, nice environment. I have never regretted choosing Melbourne as a place to study, and I am really glad that Nic made the decision to come here instead of going to Perth. :) Oh well.... no matter how good things are, there will still be a time to say goodbye....

We have also started to sell all our stuff now... furnitures, fridge, washing machine, car, etc... hopefully we can managed to sell them off before we go back. We haven't really started our packing yet, but will probably do so soon... its so frustrating to see the house in a mess...

Sigh.... but nevertheless, I am still looking forward to spend CNY back home... lots of goodies to eat! ;p

Lakes Entrance Trip Nov 2008

Nic and I spent the past weekend at Lakes Entrance, with Lazz and Deanne. It was a great get-away from the 'busy' city life in Melbourne. We spent the weekend fishing and eating. :)

Day 1 (Sat - 29 Nov 2008):

We departed Melbourne at 7.30pm, and drove 3 hours to Lakes Entrance (the first long-distance drive in our Skyline)... We arrived at Lakes at about 10.40pm. Our initial plan for the night was to have BBQ, but when we reached there, the BBQ that Lazz has over at the Lakes was ruin by the the mud-slide which was probably due to the heavy rain some days ago. So we just prepared something simple as our dinner (or rather supper)...

(The holiday house!)

(feasting on our food after a long drive.. yummy!)

Day 2 (Sun - 30 Nov 2008):

We attended Mass at 9am. After which we went over to Lazz's aunt's place to drop off some stuff. In the noon, we went for a fishing trip at the Tambo River. Prior to the fishing trip, Nic & I had a quick 'course' with Lazz on how to prepare the rod and tie the hook to the fishing line. Apparently the weather was too windy to fish in the ocean, thus we got to settle ourselves at Tambo River which is the next best alternative to the ocean. We casted out fishing line and waited for quite some time. We almost wanted to give up and go to another spot when the other people who were fishing near us came to share with us their fishing achievements. They managed to catch a few big breams and a carp, which they had to discard it at the side as it is a pest fish and is illegal to keep the carp. Upon seeing their catch, we decided to stay on. After a while, we got our first bite - a small bream. :)
We caught a total of 3 breams for the day.

(learning to fix up the rod)

(attempting to tie the hook.. be careful not to hook your finger Nic!)

(my very first catch!)

(our catch for the day!)

After fishing, we returned back to the house and pick up the stuff for crabbing. We went to the pier and tried crabbing for an hour, but no catch. Seeing that the sky is turning dark, we decided to head back to prepare for the BBQ.

For dinner, we had pasta prepared by Deanne, BBQ sausages, beef, chicken and the fishes that we caught, and a bottle of red wine.

(setting up the Weber for BBQ)

(our sumptuous dinner for the night!)

After dinner, everyone else rested on the sofa and doze off, while I had an icy shower (cos the hot water has been used up), and watched the Bee Movie before going to sleep.

Day 3 (Mon - 1 Dec 2008):

The initial plan was to head back to Melbourne in the evening, but in the end we postponed our return to the next day instead.

As we still have some leftovers from the previous night's BBQ, we invited Lazz's aunt and uncle for lunch. After lunch, we decided to go for more fishing. This time round, we managed to catch 11 Breams and 5 eels. As no one knew how to prepare eels, we gave some to Lazz's uncle and released the rest. We spent a total of 5 hours fishing.

(team at work - cleaning the fishes)

We had pizza for dinner. That night, we planned to watch the horror movie - Dead Silence together, but end up I was the only one who was awake to finish the movie. Was a bit disturbed by some of the scenes, hence decided to play another movie to get those scary images away from my mind before going to bed.

Day 4 (Tue - 2 Dec 2008):

We woke up at about 5.30am and did our packing and cleaning, and left the house at 7am. Drove for another 3 hours before arriving at Melbourne. Lazz and Deanne got to head for work, while Nic and I came home to rest.

We might be going up again to spend the new year, hopefully by then the weather will be good and we can fish more and get some tan.. :)

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Last night, we went over to Lazz's place to feast on the fishes that we caught on Monday. Deanne prepared some using her style, and we prepared one fish using the sambal paste that was given to us by Tania.

Yummy...

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Few more hours before results are released. So anxious... pray that I can get satisfied results... :S

A wasted day..

Went drinking last night after the poker session, mainly to have a chat with Keith and see if there's anything we can do to 'save' his marriage with Karmna. Apparently, they are now facing a possibility of divorce, which is due to problems such as Karmna restricting Keith's drinking and poker sessions. From my point of view, I can understand what they are going through now. I truly believe that for 2 person to be together, they must learn to compromise and respect each other, and of course, Love. I believe that what is lack in their marriage is the level of compromise. I must say that I am in no position to give any advise or influence any of their decisions, but if what we as friends said can help to salvage their marriage, and so that they don't simply give up the relationship just because of some personal nonacceptance, I suppose that will be the ideal. Its simply not easy to maintain a relationship, let alone a marriage. But since the promise to love and care till death is given, this promise shall be kept as far as possible. Marrying someone is definitely not a child's play. It is a form of responsibility for both parties, therefore it is not permissible to just divorce because of matters which are within control.

Obviously, I do not agree that in a relationship, one party should try and change the living habits of the other so long whatever he/she does will not bring harm to the relationship. I have came across couples breaking up due to issues such as smoking, drinking, etc.. What I feel is that as long as those things doesn't 'harm' the relationship, why make it a big deal?? Is it worth to lose the person you love or you have promised to love just because of such immaterial issues?? I believe the restriction is imposed out of concern, but to end up quarreling is definitely not worthwhile. So this is where compromising plays a part. If each party in the relationship is able to let go and don't be so persistent on things like that, I am sure everything can be worked out.

Anyway that's my personal views, and that is what I have always been doing in my own relationship with Nic. I must say that both Nic and I are very different in many ways, and also very stubborn. But one party must definitely give in and not be so obstinate, so if the situation is such that Nic cannot give in, I will give in. If the situation is that I cannot give in, Nic will give in. I must say that somehow this year has been pretty good so far. We haven't had major quarrels as often, and we are somewhat more loving. And of course, I am happy for what I have.

In a nutshell, being together requires alot of effort by both parties. The relationship will never work out if only one party is giving in while the other is not.

Ok... Back to today.. The reason why it is a wasted day is because I was so pissed last night. Had too much to drink.. and I had such a bad hangover that I puked the whole morning and spent the whole day lying down... Today is suppose to be my gym day, but since I am so drunk, I can only go to the gym tomorrow... :( So in the end, I made a vow not to drink anymore!!! Nic said that I will never be able to achieve that.. But I am so going to do it.. Hate getting drunk.. its no fun!!!

One more week before exam results are released.. Pray hard that I can do really well... though I am quite certain that I will do pretty badly this semester... sigh!!! Regrets... Regrets.... Should have studied harder.....

First time 1st in NPL

Alright, now its my turn to boast about my poker achievement...

Just won 1st at a NPL poker tournament. But of course that's mainly due to two good reasons:
1. There were only 10 other players competing with me.
2. I had really good luck tonight.

Here's a picture of me with my first NPL Trophy (just nice to replace the one that Lucas broke the other time):


So clearly, poker to me is a lot about luck. Though many may not agree with me, but I am definitely not a reckless nor aggressive player who would keep raising preflop or betting hard when the cards did not hit. There are many theories when come to the technique of playing good poker, but who dares to say that poker is 100% about skill and 0% about luck?? No one player on a poker table will be able to last without lady luck smiling on him/her. But of course, there are skills involved too.

In terms of skill, I am not as skillful as Nic or other of our poker friends, but I must say that I can be lucky and win at times too.. lolx!!

Nic 的 爱心烤鸡

This post was suppose to up done during my exam period, but was delayed till now.

Anyway, here I present..... Nic's creation: 爱心烤鸡 a.k.a Lovey-Dovey Roast Chicken !

As the name suggests, this chicken was prepared by Nic, for me, with lots of love! This was in fact one of my dinner during my exam week. So I really enjoyed it! Hopefully he will prepare it more often for me then.

Alrighty.. here's the picture of the chicken, before and after:

Before roasting but after preparing:

(can you see that heart-shaped BBQ sauce?)

When its ready to eat:


The recipe of this chicken is as follows:

- Chicken drumstick x 4
- Oyster sauce
- Chopped Garlic
- Chopped Onion
- BBQ sauce
- Sesame oil (a little)

Its really not bad... tasted good but one word of advice is to marinate it longer so that the chicken can fully absorb the taste.

He definitely scored 100 for his effort!