Lunar Eclipse

I witnessed a spectacular lunar eclipse today from my own balcony. The first stage of the lunar eclipse was shadowed by clouds. However, it slowly cleared and what I saw was a beautiful sight. The moon was slowly diminishing and became golden to crimson red, what they call a blood moon. Here's some photos that Keith took tonight.

21st

Thursday night, August 23rd, I was invited to Sania's 21st birthday party. I know Sania from work and she's one of my closer friends in Australia. We click cos she's only just been in Geelong for 2 years or so having migrated from India with her family.

It's been a loooooooong time since I've been to a 21st. I can barely remember mine, forgivable I guess since it's more than a decade! I'm getting olddd *sniff*sniff*

*Think*Ponder*Think* If I'm not mistaken I had dinner at Hillarys Harbour with Kat Kat, Jo and Hung for my 21st. We then went to a karaoke in Perth where the rest of my friends turned up. Kat Kat ordered various shooters that contained banana midori for me to skull. There were about six in total I think. I'm not sure how I survived that night, I must have because we made it to Excapade after that for some clubbing. I still have photos stashed away in Malacca, at my parents place. Hmmm..... nice sweet memories.....it's all coming back to me now. Nice to have shared it with you Kat Kat, Jo and the rest *hugs* :) Wish you were there too SleepieKoala!

Anyway, here's some photos of the birthday girl and me.

Finish Deathly Hallows At Last

At last... I've finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It took me roughly 3 weeks I think. Now I'm going to start from the very beginning with The Philosopher's Stone. Missing the second and third series but it'll be a while before I finish the first one anyway. Will head to Borders on the weekend to get them.

Bak Kut Teh

Keith asked what I wanted to eat for dinner this morning and I told him Bak Kut Teh. So when I got home from work I found a pot of Bak Kut Teh boiling on the stove. It was so yummy eating it with yam rice in the cold weather. I had 2 serves of rice! Forgot to buy "tau foo pok" but still tasted delicious. Will be having Bak Kut Teh again tomorrow night :) Yummmmmm.

Watched "The Queen" on dvd tonight, acted by Helen Mirren. She did quite well in her role. With my current fascination for penguins I went to hire a documentary titled March of the Penguins as told by Morgan Freeman last night. It's worth a watch as the emperor penguins are still able to demonstrate love in the harshest place on earth.

Fairy Penguins

We arrived in Sale, Victoria after 4 1/2 hours drive from Torquay. The drive was pretty relaxing as it was on a freeway all the way through. The scenery was quite pretty and I got to see lots of small towns on the way. We stopped at Maccas and I had the new "Name It" burger which was quite nice. They are running a competition for the public to name it.

We spent the afternoon and evening with Simon, Sanchia and their three beautiful kids in Sale. Next morning, we took the long coastal drive which took us to Yarram, Wilsons Promontory, Wonthaggi and Phillip Island. Wilsons Prom was beautiful but we didn't have enough time to explore as we had to get to Phillip Island before dusk to watch the march of the fairy penguins. Arrived at Phillip Island at 5pm and waited for an hour before the first batch of penguins appeared. They look so cute walking along the beach into their burrows. They are amazingly small and walk with great speed. Too bad there were only about 200-300 of them due to the cold climate. Summer and spring is the best time to go with estimate of about 1500-2000. No photography was allowed, thus no photos of the cute little things.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

During lunch break today, I went to Myers to get a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books so I'm in no hurry to finish it. Have watched all the Harry Potter movies though. It's just nice to know I've got a copy sitting around to be read whenever I feel like it. Am currently reading "Since I Was A Princess" by Jacqueline Pascarl so it'll be a while before I get to Harry Potter.

There's so many things I want to do but so little time. I still have my scarf to crochet, thankfully I finished watching Grey's Anatomy Season 2 last night. My favourite character is Izzie Stevens played by Katherine Heigl. Waiting for Season 3 to be released in Australia.

Keith and I will be heading to Sale tomorrow for the weekend which is 4 1/2 hours drive from Torquay. First time there so hopefully the drive and scenery will be pretty.

Penang Har Mee

I've been craving for Penang har mee for a while now. I used to eat it at the hawker stall next door to where I worked in UOB. I miss the aroma of the prawn soup that would creep up to the second floor of my workplace.

Having told Kar Mun my craving, she bought me the newly made in Malaysia Ibumie Penang Har Mee instant noodles. I've heard Malaysians raving about it so I'm happy to have finally tried it tonight. It's not bad for an instant noodle, the flavour is quite close to the real deal. I'd recommend boiling the soup longer with prawn shells, then adding hard boiled egg, bean sprouts, dried shallots, shredded pork and of course peeled prawns when ready to serve. Then voila, no more har mee cravings! :)

Lazy Sunday

We went to New Royal Garden Restaurant in Glen Waverley for dim sum with Jess and Andrew. First time there, food was good but I prefer Imperial Kingdom. After a full lunch we headed back to Jess and Andrew's to look at their new home and to listen to Andrew's sound system. It sounded a lot better with the new setup.

Jess made us sweet potato and taro with ginger soup dessert which was delicious. Reminds me of what my mum would make us back home. Left the lovely couple's place at 6pm and arrived home at 8pm. Took a quick snooze and then went to Clare and Richard's place for dinner. Clare cooked us a marvellous lamb shank with cous cous and finished it off with sticky date pudding.

Came home at 11pm in time to watch the F1. It started raining heavily just after the race started and cars started spinning everywhere. They stopped the race till the conditions got safer. Unfortunately the race didn't end with Ferrari winning. Massa got overtaken by Alonso in the last 5 remaining laps so it was a downer :(

Alannah Hill... Harry Potter...

Got out of bed at 11am today, been a long time since I slept in so late. Quickly showered and headed down to Melbourne. Had a quick bite at Dragon Boat Noodle House. My shredded duck noodle soup wasn't that good but the side dish of roast pork we ordered was.

We went to Melbourne Central to get our movie tickets for Harry Potter The Order of the Phoenix. We had 2 hours to waste before the movie started so we wandered into the shops. I tried on a gorgeous Alannah Hill coat which I liked. Told the shop assistant that I'd think about it. Keith and I went our own ways, he to his favourite CD shop Discurio, while me to David Jones, Myers and the GPO. At 5pm Keith called me on my mobile to meet him at the top level of Myers. We then crossed over to Melbourne Central and he then brought me into the Alannah Hill shop again. He had put the coat on hold as it was the last piece. Got me to try it on once more and bought it for me! Isn't he a sweety? Walked out of the shop wearing the brand new coat with a big, big smile on my face. It's still not a beige/cream coat though, but the colour is quite unique. Mixture of brown, maroon, white, cream with a hooded top that's got dyed brown/maroon rabbit fur on it. Hmm... hope the rabbits won't hate me for it.

It was time for Harry Potter by then. We had gotten the Gold Class seats so it was all nice and comfy. The movie was a bit dissapointing though. Too much dialogue and some bits of the story left hanging. The final Harry Potter book was also released today. Myers was selling them at $29.95. Many people could be seen browsing the last few pages of the book, I may get one myself.

20072007

Yet another special date. It's a Friday night and I'm looking forward to the weekend after a long week at work. I've picked up a new hobby of crocheting. My colleague, Kim Malone was crocheting a scarf when I asked her to demonstrate the steps. She then told me to try it out as I told her I hadn't done it in years. My mum was very good at it and she made dresses, tops, table cloths etc. I still remember one of my favourite dresses she did for me. It was a red spaghetti strap mini dress which I used to wear to kindy sometimes. It made me feel special, pretty and very girly as everyone would heap praises. As I grew older, Mum taught me some of the basic patterns. I must have been 8 years old or so. Sadly, I don't remember creating anything noteworthy.

I was pretty delighted I could still do a chain after more than 15 years of not touching the crochet needle. Seeing my delight, Kim bought a bag of yarn and gave it to me to get me started. I then went to buy a size 4mm crochet needle from Lincraft. So now, I'm glued to crocheting my first scarf. Hopefully I'll finish it soon :)