Ski-ing is so much fun

I'm back from my first ever skiing trip to Mt Buller with Keith. It was sooooooo much fun! I can't wait to do it again. Minus the bruises, sore muscles, stiff body, it was a definite plus. I'm glad I persevered and didn't chicken out. I also had to swallow my pride watching 3 year olds skiing around me and then turning backwards down the slope without falling. How demoralising!

Keith was such a gem, he was so patient with my whinging, anxiety and trepidations. Realising that I needed professional help, Keith paid for me to get an hour of lesson while he went seeking cheap thrills on the steep slopes. Mike the instructor was most patient and taught me the basics. During the lesson, he only had to help me up twice so I guess I wasn't too difficult a student. It went by too quickly though. Of course, the lesson wasn't enough for me to go gallivanting on the slopes but I somehow did. This obviously resulted in me taking a hard fall on the steep slope. Thankfully one of the ski instructors, Dan came to my rescue. I was so grateful to him for helping me, a total stranger, up.

Next day, I went back for my second round of 2 hour ski lesson. This time I got the very helpful Dan as my instructor. Dan hails all the way from Aspen, Colorado, US. I was surprised to find a whole heap of mixed nationalities in one ski resort. Some of the workers were from England, New Zealand, USA, Taiwan while holiday makers were from Africa, Mauritius, France, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada etc. Anyway I got better on the second day. I was basically on the ski slopes from 9am to 5:30pm!

Third day was just as fun. However, we had to check out early from the Arlberg Hotel so we skiied for just 3 hours. By the end of it, I was starting to enjoy the whole skiing experience. Even the instructors were proud of me. They gave me the thumbs up when they saw me whizzing by with no dramas. I love the adrenaline rush and the white beautiful winter wonderland scenery. Keith and I are now hungry for more skiing, so we may visit Mt Hotham next month. Yipee yay yay!

So thanks, Keith, for having faith in my skiing abilities, encouraging me all the way and giving me such a fantastic holiday!

Queen's Birthday

It's a public holiday today being the Queen's birthday. Woke up about 9-ish, did the many dishes from yesterday's hifi get together. There were total of 12 adults and 4 kids. Keith decided to cater from Scorched instead of cooking. The food was great but the portions could have been more. After doing the dishes, had to also do the vacumming and mopping. The house looks clean and in order once again.

Decided to catch a movie at 2:30pm. Believe it or not, it's my first time watching a movie in Geelong. Spiderman 3 was alright, entertaining but not as good as the previous two. There weren't enough fighting scenes. Spidey looked good in his black costume though. In a way, it was good to spend the afternoon in the cinema as the weather was pretty crappy ie. windy and wet. Oh yeah, I also spotted a cute photo on the internet today of two kids in spidey costumes helping with the clean up effort in Hunter Valley/Newcastle after the floods.

It's only just 10:30pm but I'm starting to feel sleepy so I might as well retire to bed. Back to work again tomorrow. *Sigh*.

Can't wait to skiiii

I had yum cha in Melbourne Chinatown today as I'm never one to turn down yum chas. Must be the chinese blood in me :)

After brunch did some shopping. Bought some ski items like a jacket, pants, goggles and gloves since Keith has promised to take me skiing in the coming week. Am eagerly looking forward to the trip as I've never experienced snow before. Part of me is excited while part of me is wary about the bruises I'm going to get. I've never skiied in my life and I can't roller skate or ice skate either. So balancing will certainly be a problem. Keith has offered to give me lessons, hopefully he'll have lots of patience! Wish me luck... and if you've got any tips to share please do so.

PM of Malaysia to wed

Just read The Star online that Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia will be getting married Saturday, 9th June.

It's June already *gasp*

Time flies. It's almost middle of the year and winter's here. Mum's birthday is coming up too but I won't be able to celebrate it with her. Times like this I get homesick. My friend just sms'ed me this morning to tell me that Jetstar's having a sale. Sydney to KL just $199 one way. So tempting yet I don't have enough leave and I have to fulfil my visa length of stay in Oz land. Oh well...

Mum recently got a shih tzu dog named Lucky. She tells me how loving, adorable, smart and well behaved the dog is. I wish I could be home to play with it. Lucky has white fur with black streaks on its ears. I wanna get a doggy toooo but I guess time does not permit me to do so for now.

I've finally finished playing Final Fantasy XII on the ps3 with about 130 hours wasted on it. Bought a new game, Oblivion last week but it's not capturing my fancy. Have shelved it aside after an hour of gameplay. I wish there were more ps3 games available in the market.

Finally got the Audi back and drove my solo maiden trip back and forth to Melbourne last weekend. Usually I'm a passenger or there'll be someone around when I drive. It was a fun experience although the GPS refused to work. Thankfully I had studied the map on the internet before starting my journey else I might have gotten quite lost. A new GPS shall go on to the shopping list.

Went to Bridge Road, Richmond for some shopping. It houses brands like Country Road, Esprit, Nine West, Portmans, Charlie Brown, Sisley, UCB, Quick Brown Fox, Garfunkle etc at factory outlet prices. So you can always find good bargains. If only shops in Melbourne stay open till 10pm I'd have happily continued shopping at other venues.

I also bought 1 whole roast duck, 1/2 soya chicken and 250g of siew yok for my bachelorette meals from Victoria St, Richmond. Pacific BBQ House does the best roast duck in Melbourne. There's always a long queue for takeaways.

There'll be a long weekend next week as Monday is the Queen's birthday. Keith's coming back from Mt Isa this Friday so I'll be fetching him from the airport after work. Yipee for that :)

Anyway, I'd like to welcome aboard my buddy KatKat for joining blogger space. Hope to see more postings from you! Also, welcome back sleepiekoala, hope you have settled into your new home.

What a Bargain!

Went shopping at Myer's today. You wouldn't believe what I paid for 3 pairs of shoes. Just THREE dollars! A dollar a pair. Amazing. And they were reduced from $100 per pair. Of course, there was a mad rush of women shoppers :P Fortunately, not too many people knew about it as it was in the basement section. I'm definitely one VERY happy shopper.

Updates

I admit I have been slack in updating my blog. Didn't realise my last entry is more than a month old! Time flies. It's coming to middle of 2007. Let's see what I've missed out on.

My mum has gone back to Malaysia but I still have some frozen food cooked by her to keep me from starving during one of those lazy days I don't feel like cooking.

I also went to Sydney for 5 days in the second week of April with Keith. Enjoyed my trip as we did the usual touristy stuff, lots of walking, photo snapping, some shopping, eating and auditioning of speakers as Keith is planning to upgrade the home speakers. The weather in Sydney was great too. Nice, sunny, cool and not too windy. Something I miss as Melbourne's weather is cold most of the time.

We ate at SuperBowl in Chinatown couple of times as it was close to our hotel. They're quick in serving, well priced and taste good too. There's always a crowd so you have to be prepared to wait. Also had an awesome lunch at Ocean Room along Darling Harbour. It was Japanese/Western style influenced. And oh yeah, managed to go to Lindt cafe on Cockle Wharf Bay. The ice chocolate drink was divine. They also have chocolate ice cream which looked very tempting but I couldn't manage it and didn't want to spoil my appetite for dinner.

Met up with my long time Sydney pals, Mykool and Andrew together with their lovely spouses for dinner. Was a good catch up.

Other than the Sydney trip, I've been busying myself with work, cleaning and indulging in the PS3. Yeah, I've wasted too many hours killing monsters but I'm not about to give it up yet ;) Yesterday at work, I was given the Top Agent Award for March so I'm proud of myself. I've won 4 various awards since commencing work and am looking forward to getting more.

Ok, signing off for now but will post some photos for your viewing pleasure.

PS3... YAyyyy!!!

Keith bought me a PS3. Woohooooooooooooo!!! :) (Thanks dear!!!!)

I came home from work Friday, 23rd March not suspecting anything. Greeted my mum and Keith then went to shower. Was getting my clothes left on the bed when I saw a black controller that read SONY hidden underneath. I let out a small cry of delight and immediately suspected that Keith had gotten the PS3.

I quickly ran out of the bedroom to the TV entertainment unit to look for the PS3. Sure enough it was sitting there, all fixed up waiting for me to turn the power button on. Keith then gave me two new games, Final Fantasy XII and Tennis Sportsgame. We played the Tennis game for 30 minutes which I sadly lost. By then, I was itching to play Final Fantasy. The familiar Final Fantasy tune came on and I stayed glued watching the opening trailer. Before long, I was busy killing monsters and increasing my health power. Went to bed at 3am. Guess I'll be back to sleeping late again for the next few weeks. But at least, I will gain an extra hour when daylight saving ends Sunday, 3am.

P/S: Unfortunately, while I was rejoicing in my new game console, I heard on the news that there was a 4 semi-trailer and 3 car pile up accident in Burnley tunnel, Melbourne. Three people were killed and there was a huge explosion and fire with temperature soaring up to 1000 degrees Celcius inside. :(

MH129 flight

Mum woke me up at 6am, March 12th to catch our 9:55am MAS flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne. We left Melaka at 6:40am and arrived at the airport at 8am. I was surprised to be told by the check in counter that there were no window or aisle seats left. Only middle seats were available so mum sat in front of me while I sat at the back.

Italians were sitting on my left and right. They were friendly and started chatting with me. Much to my delight they were the Ferrari F1 mechanics for Kimi Raikkonen and previously for my favourite F1 driver, Michael Schumacher. There were 40 of them on the flight from Italy to Melbourne with stopover in Kuala Lumpur. There were another 40 on the previous day's flight.

Anyway we had a safe and smooth touch down in Melbourne airport at 9pm local time. I had to wind my watch forward by 3 hours. Caught a coach from the airport to Geelong Railway Station for $25 per person. Thereafter took a cab to Torquay for $40. Made it home close to midnight. I was tired out. The weather was nice, cool and windy at 14 degrees celcius. I was a bit sad that my holiday had come to an end but am also rejuvenated and looking forward to going back to work.

Bubblegum-pink PS2 is coming!!

Oooohhhh I want this.....don't you think it looks cool?
On second thoughts.....I think the PS3 is better *hint*hint*