Stephen, Lily & Zoe

Christmas eve party 2010

2010-12-29T23:05:00.001+11:00

It was that time of the year again, all of us put our busy schedule aside and get together to celebrate Christmas. It was a big crowd, 20 of us and everyone bought a plate and a present for Kris Kringle. We sure were the noisiest bunch in the whole area. How did I know? I could hear them laughing miles away when I brought Ace for his night walk.

This embrace the spirit of Christmas, all of us decided to wear either green or red. It should look very nice in a photo.

It was really good fun, had plenty of laughter, good catch up with everyone, food was sensational and Ace had plenty to socialize with Jeeme and Tarzy as well.

Kris Kringle was exciting as well, not knowing what presents everyone will be getting. We are very happy with our presents, especially my egg timer. :D Now I can make perfect hard boiled eggs every time!

The photos below were taken by our reliable friends, Carrie and Hennley. We thought that we should leave the photo taking to the pros and we were right! They were much better at it than us.

Our delicious Christmas eve dinner - plenty of selections

Lily's champagne salad

Mine a-tad-spicy chicken wings

Aries's very-delicious roast lamb (worth mentioning as he is a vegetarian)

Lily tossing her champagne salad - making sure every leaf was well coated with the dressing

Devin's very-crunchy popcorn chicken & Carmen's delicious fried rice noodle

"Feeding time"

Kris Kringle presents

Kris Kringle - each of us pick a random number and match it with a pre-numbered present

My turn to get my present

Ace & Jeeme in santa suit - 1

Ace & Jeeme in santa suit - 2

Ace & Jeeme in santa suit - 3

Ace & Jeeme in santa suit -4

Jeeme giving Ace a kiss

Jeeme: "the night is still young, hehehe..."

A very tired Ace sleeping in the background when Jeeme was still filled with energy

Ace was knocked out

The people that made this fun party a reality!

Melbourne photoshoot

2010-11-30T16:48:00.001+11:00

We always wanted to have some really nice casual photos of ourselves. We all know too well that nice photo comes with a huge price tag.

Jon Low was in town, early November, together with his brother, Yit Chuan, they did us a massive massive favor to be our photographer for the day.Well, we were just happy to be their puppet. We admire his work very much and by looking at the photos below, you'll understand why. We were amazed by his vision through his lens and an eye for details.

It was a sensational day to shoot, it was fun, relaxed, the sun was out and towards the end of the shoot, it rained a little. We were able to have some nice shots in the rain.

Thank you Jon for the beautiful photos. We love it!

Ace - addition to our family

2010-08-08T14:35:00.002+10:00

The last 2 months have gone by really quickly - that's because we were enjoying every minute of it with Ace. He's a Schnoodle breed, a cross between Schnauzer and Poodle. My mom thinks it sounds more like a dish and a breed. Hehe...

We were looking around for a companion for a while and when we met him, we both fall in love with him. We went back the very next day to bring him back home.

It has been a joy since!

He was only 7 weeks old at approximately 1.5kg when we brought him home. Now he's almost 4kg at 15 weeks. He's definitely growing fast! He was very shy at first, after bringing him to puppy social class esand mix around with puppies, he developed a lot of confidence and able to stand tall among other adult dogs. Good job Ace!

Ace at 7 weeks old

Very tiny - his food bowl look extra big

"what's happening??"

Ace wondering around the backyard in his jumper

Got too adventurous and stuck behind the door

Biting his rubber duckie

Enjoying World Cup 2010

After plenty of run at the Brighton beach

Taking a breather and enjoying the sceneries

Enjoying the sunset after plenty of run at a local park

Practicing his cute puppy charm

The many sleeping poses of Ace.

Some of the videos of Ace running around in Ruffey Lake Park.

Our backyard had a makeover!

2010-05-17T23:29:00.001+10:00

Ever since we bought our lovely home, we have enjoyed every inch of the house. We can't say the same for our little backyard though. It was filled with weeds and that has deterred us from enjoying the beautiful Melbourne weather at the back. It just makes no sense to mow the weed every month. It's just horrible especially during spring & summer. Its dying for our personal touch!

We have been looking around on ideas how to give it a little makeover. Our initial plan was to lay a layer of golf grass but the price tag put us off. It seems that we need to recondition our soil before laying the grass, which I have to get someone in to get it sorted (labour cost too expensive) and we still need to maintain it every month or so. I am a little discouraged in that!

We then started looking into decking and turned out to be something we can manage without much effort. We can either do it ourselves or get someone in to get it all nicely done up. Good old friend of ours, Devin was looking into decking for his love nest as well and found a bargain on deck tiles at a local furniture shop. It was a bargain too good to refuse, we ended up saving a couple of hundred bucks! Sweet!

It's not fixed in the ground, so we can take it with us if we decide to move to a bigger place 10 years down the line. Double Sweet!!

To be honest, it was a leap of faith. In theory the preparation and fixing the deck tiles seem easy but once we get into it, it quickly proved otherwise.

We bought the deck tiles end of April, we had to wait for 4 weeks before we can start to rock and roll. Weeds need to be killed, make sure they are stone dead before putting anything on top. Didn't realize it would take 1 month for the darn weed to die! A slight bump in our plan. That's ok.

Last weekend was the 4th week since poison was sprayed. Weather was beautiful, the sun was out, occasionally getting some cool breeze from the south with a maximum temperature of 20 degrees, it was the perfect condition for the makeover to happen.

It took us the whole weekend, the first day (Saturday) spent more on re-planning and "discussion". :D The second day was a much better and it went by fairly quickly. We knew what we had to do and we had a firmer picture what's the end result we want it to be.

When we finished laying the deck tiles, we were quite satisfied with our great job. Once we filled in the gaps with pebbles, we were just blown away with the effect. It's much prettier than we first thought and it looks better at night when the pebbles reflect the moonlight. It illuminates our backyard! Triple Sweet!

We are really happy with our backyard project. Though my back still hurts from the constant lifting of the deck tiles the whole weekend, it was well worth it!

REALLY HAPPY!

Our horrible weed garden at the back

The horrible weeds up close

The savior - deck tiles. 12 packs in total (1 pack = 4 tiles)

Horrible weeds exterminated

The casualty from all the stone-dead weed digging

Laying the deck tiles on top of the weed mat (1)

Laying the deck tiles on top of the weed mat (2)

All deck tiles joined up (1)

All deck tiles joined up (2)

White pebbles in, adds a new dimension to the whole area

Next... BBQ.

Lily's Birthday - Surprise "Party"

2010-03-07T21:09:00.001+11:00

I had this crazy idea of giving Lily a surprise party, filled the rooms with balloons, banners, streamers, etc to celebrate her birthday. I was procrastinating simply because we didn't have the space for such in our tiny apartment.

Now that we have a little more space to play around in our house, I told myself, this IS the year. If I don't do it now, I'll never do it.

Invitations were sent out early to our friends to join in the fun. I was expecting a number of couples to be not available as Lily's birthday fell within the CNY period. We were quite lucky that we still have enough headcount for the surprise.

That was back in January. From then till the second week of February, I was tossing with a number of ideas on things I can do on top of the surprise "party". I couldn't decide and ended up using most of it for the whole weekend (saving some for next year).

It didn't take me too long too arrange the plans leading up to the surprise "party", as I knew exactly what I need to do. It started off with sending her a bouquet of lilies & roses on Friday morning to her workplace. She was shocked when her receptionist passed it to her. She was pleasantly surprised through the phone and embarrassed from all the attentions from her colleagues. :D Plan accomplished!

We took it nice and easy the next day, enjoying ourselves our well deserved weekend after a hectic working week. She was expecting us to go our for dinner and that was it. What she wasn't expecting was that we were going for one of the well acclaimed restaurant in Australia - Cutler & Co. We had a really good time, one of the best dinners we had.

Sunday was THE day. The day that she needed to be pampered. From the very beginning, I was giving her the impression that I didn't have anything planned, mistaken her birthday to be on Saturday. We then went out for our usual Sunday brunch, not realizing I found another great cafe to dine. - Cafe Vue at Heide. Went there early, savored their menu and was very impressed with the quality of food. We then took a stroll along the park next to the cafe, enjoying the sunny, cool Sunday morning. She was happy!

On our way back home after our brunch, I dropped her off at the local beauty therapy for 3 hours of pampering. She was really shocked as I had already made the payment, there was no backing out. Left her there, while I took the next 3 hours to decorate our house with banners, balloons, streamers and gathering all our friends.

When I picked her up shortly after 3 hours, she was going on and on about how much she enjoyed her pampering and dying to show me her pedicure.

I was saying quietly to myself that the bigger surprise is yet to come. hehe :D We reached home, she opened the door and all our friends that were waiting quietly in the house shouted "SURPRISE" and started singing the birthday song. :D Plan accomplished!

She was speechless for the first 10 minutes, trying to digest what has happened! hehe... slowly, she warmed up and back to her usual self. Occasionally, she would give me the "you are so dead" stare, for once I didn't mind at all.

Living room filled with balloons

Happy Birthday balloon filled with helium

The gang waiting for the big moment

A very surprised birthday girl

Still very surprised birthday girl

Giving her a birthday kiss

Everyone that made it a success!

Lily with the girls

Lily with the boys

Lily's birthday cake

Happy Birthday Lily!

Lily's Birthday - Cutler & Co

2010-02-27T16:34:00.005+11:00

Staying true to our "tradition" (which I happily obliged) that whenever we have a occasion to celebrate, we'll put our budget aside and spend on some good food. Last week being Lily's birthday, I brought her to dine at one of local's well acclaimed restaurant, i.e. Cutler & Co. This is one of the few restaurants to received plenty of reviews, mostly positive.

That was good enough for us to celebrate Lily's birthday! :D

The service throughout was friendly and professional. We were made very welcomed and comfortable from the very moment we stepped into Cutler & Co. A very important point seems to be missing from Tetsuya's. The attentive staffs made sure every bite and sip was made in a relaxed company and pleasurable ambiance.

We didn't take too long to decide what to have as the menu is not extensive. We both ordered a 3 course meal and each one tasted better than the other! We sent each plate back to the kitchen squeaky clean. I wished there was more.

Lily's 3 course meal

Entree: Pressed quail terrine, foie gras cigar, orange and pistachio

Main: Pan roast leather jacket, fennel pollen and cuttlefish braise

Dessert: Chocolate ice-cream sandwich, vanilla parfait & salted caramel

Stephen's 3 course meal

Entree: "Salad Lyonnaise" frisee salad with crisp pancetta, garlic sausage, smoked tongue, confit gizzards & poached egg yolk

Main: Suckling pig, sweet and sour onion and prune vinegar

Dessert: Violet ice cream, chocolate ganache & sour cherry

We both like the casual vibe cum reasonably priced fine food. It was a very good evening, great food, attentive & professional staffs, we were relaxed as we were never pressured to leave after our desserts. Surely, one of the best dinners we had.

p/s - Due to my 'superior' photography skills and the lights were rather dimmed, the photos didn't turn out right. Had to search around other blogger for their photos.

Good flight experience

2010-01-12T23:15:00.004+11:00

After years of accumulating enrich points... we finally saved enough to upgrade ourselves to the front. It was a good experience from the start and got our 5 minutes of fame!

When we checked in at KLIA, there were a couple of stares from the economy check-in counter. I didn't mind at all! Check in was a breeze, no long queues we were accustomed to. Heck, there was no queue at all! We then went straight to the lounge for some brekkie. I was quite disappointed with the selection of food though. They were serving nasi lemak with curry chicken, scramble eggs and sausages, fried/soup noodles, fruits and breads. Buffet yes, but there's no variety!

We got to our seats early, settled down and ready to enjoy the pampering. :D Shortly after take off, we were given a welcome pack - hand sanitizer, moisturizer, toiletries, etc. Nice!

Welcome pack

While watching the movies, the air steward came around asking us what we would like to have for our 3 course brunch. I chose sirloin steak and Lily chose cheese omelet with salmon. Before our meal arrive, we were given "starters", very fresh and the bread was still warm! Once finished, came our meal we chose. We were quite surprise how well cooked and tasty it was! Finished our meal with the very tasty chocolate blackberry dessert. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal!

"Starters" - Fruit yogurt, seasonal fruits, bread, etc

Minute tenderloin steak with boursin butter, baked potato with cheese, grilled tomato and sauteed mushrooms

Cheese omelet with lamb croquette, salmon fillet, cherry tomato, asparagus, sauteed mushrooms & baked potato slices

Chocolate blackberry cake with mango sauce

About 2 hours before we reach Melbourne, we were served with another round of delicious food! This time it started off with chicken and beef satay and then followed by lobster and crab salad. The satay was really good... better than those we had back in KL and the peanut sauce was just out of this world! We had the choice of having more and it was too good to resist for another plate!

Then came the lobster and crab salad, which Lily thought it was a little salty. I loved it!

Our second meal ended with blueberry cheesecake which was comparable to the ones you'll get from a really good restaurant.

Very tasty - Satay (all lean)

Lobster medallion and crab meat salad

Blueberry cheesecake with tropical fruit salsa

For the first time, we both felt that our flight ended too soon. Food was really good... service was attentive, the tv screen was bigger and clearer as well...

This is something we both don't mind getting used to.

Tetsuya's

2009-12-11T19:49:00.003+11:00

When I called back in Jan 09 to make a booking, there wasn't any dates available. I was told the next available date was in mid July. That's 7 months of waiting?? Even then the weekends were all taken up! I was telling quietly to myself, this business is never going to go out of business, unless they themselves stuff it up.

This is echoed by the long list of awards they have won:-

3 chef's hat from Good Food Guide
Restaurant of the Year
Best Fine Dining, and
most important of all, 5th place in the world's top 50 restaurant.

We threw a few preferred dates to the floor manager and we finally got the date that we wanted, i.e. November and we were the 7th to place a booking. GFC?? what GFC?? We were quite ecstatic and at the same time very unsure if we will still be interested in it after 11 months! We sought of forgotten about it after a month and had to call a couple of times every now and then to check on our booking time.

We were getting excited all over again by the end of October and got even more excited when the floor manager gave us a call to re-confirm our booking. We obviously played it cool! We were like young kids given all kinds of lollies!

When the day arrived, we were seated at the far corner next to the window, looking out at the well maintained Japanese garden. It was a nice spot! Gave us the space and privacy, away from all the noises from other tables.

A waitress in charge of our table asked if we would like to try the degustation menu. It didn't take us too long to go for it. It's not a restaurant where you can go every once a month (at least not yet). We weren't sure how many dishes we will get or even the type of food. Some might think otherwise, we prefer that way, keep us guessing and looking forward to the next dish!

Our 13 courses for the night

Chilled Corn Soup with Saffron & Vanilla Ice-cream

Smoked Ocean Trout & Avruga Caviar

Marinated Crystal Bay Prawns with Soy Caramel

Confit of Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Konbu, Apple, Daikon & Wasabi

Terrine of Queensland Spanner Crab with Avacado

Grilled Fillet of Barramundi with Braised Baby Fennel

Twice-cooked De-boned Spatchcock with Foie Gras & Red Wine Jus

Beef Fillet with Nameko, Shimeji & Enoki Mushroom

Comte with Lentils

Green Apple Sorbet with Sauternes Jelly

Strawberry Shortcakes

Lemon Scented Floating Island with Vanilla Bean Anglaise

Petit Four

DIY for the house

2009-10-20T19:41:00.012+11:00

We are slowly getting the hang of doing things ourselves. One of our latest addition to our list of DIY is the tv shelf. We were shopping around looking for a tv shelf as the old one is bit low. After a long search around furniture shops, we decided to stick back to Ikea. At least we can mix and match the way that we want and it is also one of the cheapest around.

It took us 2 trips and a long discussion on which layout to get. Finally we settled on having one tall shelf for mags, one shelf for the tv and one small shelf on the other side for miscellaneous. When we were at the collection area, we were surprised with the number of items needed to fix up the whole 3 piece shelves. It got us worried in how were we going to fit all the boxes in the car????

Good thing about Ikea is that all the boxes are flat but still it took us a while at the loading bay to fit everything in the car. It is really like doing a box puzzle, interesting if you can solve, if not it is frustrating. Not only we had to put the back seat down, we also move forward the front passenger seat to the max! I can tell you that the going back home was like sitting in an Airasia flight. Normally its comfortable and spacious like MAS business class. =)

There were 16 boxes in total - managed to squeeze everything in!

All 16 boxes ready to be assembled

Wanted to take the whole process but the we got carried away to finish up the shelf. Only managed to take the process of the big shelf.

The frame of the shelf

Shelf with legs and glass door.

Shelf with legs, glass doors and lower drawers.

Completion of the shelf no 1.

The whole complete 3 piece shelves took us around 5hrs and the final product!

We are really pleased with the result, now it fills up the room and it also makes our small tv looks bigger!!! Even Stephen say so... looks like he does not have any reason to get a bigger one!! =P

Housewarming

2009-10-14T13:54:00.001+11:00

Last Sunday 3.Oct.09, we had our first housewarming party. We decided to do steamboat without much hesitant. We both are not great cooks and we don't have a barbeque. Potluck? We thought that since it's our housewarming, we don't feel right asking our friends to bring food for this occasion.

It turned out to be a good choice, some of them came later than the rest, so we ate and chat while waiting for other rest to arrive, and not cooking too much each time. There were 19 of us that day? We created a lot of "noise" which is really good to warm up our house. haha! We were busy entertaining our friends that we forgot to take photos on our own! Bugger!

We didn't realise that the day we had our housewarming was the day Chinese all over the world celebrated mooncake festival. Double celebration!! Our friends bought mooncakes and lanterns over for everyone to enjoy... It was very good... comparable to those we usually get back in KL.

Wii time after heavy lunch

Mooncake time!

Mooncake imported from Hong Kong (I think)

Group photo

When the sun was down, we lit up the lanterns at our backyard and one of us came up with the idea of walking around the neighbourhood with our lanterns. We thought "why not??!!". This is old school and gold! We did just that but to a nearby park. We would not want to cause any concerns with the locals which are not accustomed with this sort of festival.

It was good fun... raised a few eyebrows from the locals passed by, heads turned, cars stopped wondering what we were up to, we made ourselves noticed! haha!

Oh yeah, I am begining to believe that the number "3" is our lucky number. A lot of occasion/event occurred have some connection with "3":

We got our first house in our 3rd year back in Australia
I was wearing a shirt bearing the number 3 on my right arm while bidding for our house
If we add our house settlement price, it comes back to number 3
Our house number is 3
Our first house warming was held on 3rd Oct 2009
It took us 3 weeks to decide the type of furniture we want to buy and how to place them in our house

Bear in mind, none of these were planned! Maybe I should start buying lottery with the number 3 only. Haha!

Dragonboat 2009/10 race schedule

2009-10-13T21:42:00.006+11:00

As soon as the daylight saving kicked in, we have been training harder, twice weekly to prepare ourselves for the upcoming races starting from early November to April. Last Saturday, I have committed myself to a number of races, as listed below. It's going to be a full on season.

Nagambie Sunday 8th November 2009
Docklands Sunday 6th December 2009
Falls Creek Sat/Sun 23th/24th January 2010
Yarra Sunday 7th February 2010
Sale Fri/Sat 26th/27th February 2010
Wodonga/Albury Sunday 7th March 2010
Docklands Sunday 21st March 2010
Adelaide Thurs - Sun 22nd-25th April 2010

Hail, rain or shine... bring it on!!!

Don't laugh in classroom!!!

2009-10-13T12:47:00.001+11:00

Tulip farm, Sky High and Cuckoo Restaurant

2009-10-11T11:36:00.013+11:00

It was a full on day yesterday. It started with dragon boating training for the upcoming races in the morning, then in the arvo, we head off to Tesselaar Tulip Festival to meet up with our friends. Late afternoon, all of us went up to Sky High for some spectacular view of Melbourne from Mt Dandenong and finished it off with very good buffet dinner at Cuckoo Restaurant at Olinda.

Tulip Festival
The last time both Lily and myself went to Tesselaar Tulip Festival was when we were back at university. Time time around, it was different, there were more tulips and Irish festival was going on as well to bring more crowd. The whole place was buzzing. The weather was perfect! Sun was out, clear blue skies, 20 degrees temperature, can't ask for a better day.

It has been going on for a month and it was still very well maintained! Even thought the whole place was filled with people at the tulip farm on one side, Irish festival on the other, it was very neat and clean. The people were friendly, attentive and helpful. My hats off to them! Entrance fee well paid!

Sky High Mt Dandenong

We had 2 hours to spare before our dinner booked at 7pm. We headed on to a cafe in the Dandenong mountain for good coffee with spectacular view of Melbourne. It was recommended by our friend. We followed along and when we reached up in the mountain, we could not believe how beautiful the scenery was. As it was a clear day with blue skies, the view was sensational!!!

Enjoying our favourite cuppa with such a superb view and good company, the best tea break we had by far!

We could not take a good photo as the sun was setting and right in front of us. You have to be here to see it for yourself.

If you look at the photo carefully, you'll be able to spot Melbourne city.

The shot we took at Sky High

Took this from Sky High's website - day shot

Took this shot again from Sky High's website - sunset shot

Cuckoo Restaurant

We left Sky High shortly after 7pm. When we reached Cuckoo Restaurant, it was about 7.25pm and the place was almost full. There was a wedding reception and from outside, it appears to be empty but once we went in, it was so alive!

Cuckoo is the smorgasbord restaurant started in 1958. Owned by Willi, a German chef serving swedish food. As you would expect, the restaurant is filled with cuckoo clocks which all are still working. The building is designed in the Bavarian Chalet style boasting staggered gabled roofs with decorative window shutters.

The food spread was really good... lots of fresh seafood, the roasts are really good - tender and moist, plenty of grill meats and sausages, traditional Bavarian dishes, cold meat platters, really delicious made to order pancakes and tasty European delicacies.

The owner was telling us that they managed to get the largest mechanical working cuckoo clock after years of searching for it. They were searching for it all over the world and it happened to be in South Australia. Sometimes you don't have to look far to get the best of things.

There was a show towards the end of the dinner as well... which was really entertaining and funny. This is the sort of dinner that we love to go, end it with some good laugh!

Outside Cuckoo Restaurant

Cuckoo Restaurant

Very talented live band

Inside the restaurant

World largest mechanical cuckoo clock - that is still working

Black Eye Peas E.N.D Tour

2009-10-11T09:05:00.008+11:00

When the news came out that Black Eye Peas (BEP) was going to include Australia as part of their E.N.D tour, the public got really excited, we included. They had 2 shows in Melbourne and the first show's tickets were sold out within days. We got ours for the second day.

Last Wednesday, we finally get to enjoyed their show. We got the standing floor tickets, we got there nice and early and we were a couple of feet away from the stage! Then we realised that we weren't tall enough to get a good view, the people in front of us were blocking some of our view and when they started to dance, we would not be able to see anything. We had to move back a little and it was a good call! :D

It was very entertaining! Fergie did most of the singing and screaming... as usual, Will.I.Am played it cool, Alp.de.ap and Taboo danced the most - from one end to the other and played the role in getting the crowd on their feet.

The show lasted for 2 hours and we were dancing the whole time, haven't done it for a very long, I was running out of breath towards the end. Need to go for more concerts! We were trying to contain ourselves from screaming too much, still need to work the next day.

Somewhere in the middle of their show, each of them did a solo gig and Will.I.Am's gig was the best! He is a club DJ and his performance got the whole arena jumping non-stop and everyone was screaming for more!

The only thing I was a little disappointed - I didn't get the "wow" factor from them. They were entertaining, the songs were good, their dance was good... nothing you would not expect from BEP. Unfortunately, there was no flow between songs and their script was disorganised. For a group that has been around for 10 years, maybe I was expecting bit too much.

When we went for Justin Timberlake's, we were amazed with his whole show, from stage set up to his singing, dancing to how well organised his performance was. We also got the "wow" factor from Jacky Cheung's concert and even from Josh Groban's.

On the plus side, we did have fun and get to see BEP in person rather than through a screen!

We took a couple of videos that turned out to be alright. Check it out.

Anniversary dinner at Nobu

2009-09-10T19:11:00.007+10:00

Last night, we finally had the opportunity to dine at Nobu, an experience I have been looking forward for some time. Being our 3 years anniversary gave us enough reason to enjoy ourselves at this highly successful international chain.

It's been opened for 2 years now and it was still a buzz with plenty of guests arriving and settling in. Upon arrival, we were immediately escorted to the bar for drinks while waiting for our table to be ready. We were told that the previous diners were still at our table. Something tells me that its just one of their tactics to get us spend more $$$. My reasoning? We sat at the bar for a good 45 mins!

Thanks goodness our meal was SUPERB!

Our drinks - Emporio Martini (left) and Passion Crush (right)

We took a quite a while to decide what to order. We were both hungry and everything on the menu seems extra delicious. We took the easy way out, chose 8 course degustation menu on their signature dishes. :D

Each dishes lived up to 2 very hungry diners' expectations. It's Japanese food with western touch and they did it quite well... from mixing Mexican ingredients with sashimi to improving salmon sashimi.

The highlight of our dinner was when the black cod with miso melt in our mouth. It was so tender and moist that we looked silly trying to eat it with our chopsticks. It kept slipping off. Apparently the black cod was marinated in a good deal of sake-miso marinade for 2-3 days.

Dish 1: Yellowtail sashimi with jalapeno

Dish 2: (top to bottom) Shiromi usuzukuri whitefish sashimi, salmon sashimi with dried miso and new style scallop sashimi

Dish 3: New style salmon sashimi (highly recommended)

Dish 4: Tuna tataki with tosazu (highly recommended)

Dish 5: Black cod with miso (highly recommended)

Dish 6: Beef toban yaki (highly recommended)

Dish 7: Sushi platter

Dish 8: Warm chocolate satandagi with almond ice cream

We had loads of fun salivating all these amazing dishes that we don't mind coming back again to try other the rest of the menu. Their wagyu 9+ received good reviews as well. Already looking forward to our next trip to Nobu, but not before Tetsuya's!

"F.I.S.K.A.L"

2009-09-08T22:36:00.003+10:00

Just when you think you have seen it all... you'll be hit with another surprise!

Steve Fielding, Victoria's senator and Federal parliamentary leader of the Family First Party made a huge blunder when speaking to journalists outside parliament this morning. He referred to "physical and monetary policy". The journo asked if he meant "fiscal", he then went all gung-ho and spell it out, F I S K A L.

What an embarrassment for a high profile public figure!

The take away point? Think before you speak. A simple logic ministers all over the world don't seem to understand.

Relaxing lunch at Rochford

2009-08-20T19:21:00.008+10:00

We always wanted to spend the weekend afternoon indulging ourselves with some good tasty gourmet meals, wines (though I am not very good at it) in a nice peaceful surrounding.

A couple of weeks back, we did just that! :D The weather was good, the sun was out, we didn't have anything planned, we drove to Rochford Winery for a good lunch. Its in Yarra Valley and not too far from where we live, i.e. 30 minutes drive.

The food was very good... at least a standard we would expect from a winery. Wine was ok... probably we didn't choose the right one to match with our meals.

Venison carpaccio served with raspberry vinaigrette

Steamed mussels and pipis in shellfish volute

Braised Yarra Valley lamb shank served with minted peas and truffled potato mash

Rib eye steak served with pommes anna, green peppercorn and lime butter

Creme brulee

Looking out from the restaurant - vineyard

Rochford is also opened for breakfast. Very tempted to try them out!

..... and we did it!!!

2009-08-12T22:47:00.006+10:00

We bought a few cupboards for our new house and a wall shelf to match it. Some were quite challenging, especially the wall shelf, trying to make it sure its straight got us both going back and forth. :D

The fact that we needed to drill a couple of holes in the wall to hold the shelf got us both worked out already... This is something we couldn't screw it up and the holes had to be precise. And precise it is! Too bad we didn't capture the whole journey in photos...

Now with all the cupboards and wall shelf installed, it's getting nearer to where we want our home to be... We still need to get a coffee table and a tv cabinet. I will remember to take photos then.

It's all good fun... and a satisfying one if I might add.

Have I mentioned that I have yet to "renovate" our garden??!!

A new beginning

2009-07-29T22:34:00.009+10:00

We have finally moved into our new house. A big pat on our back!!!

Coming back home, driving up to our garage, still smelling the newly polished floor scent and leather sofas, it feels really good!! Makes me want to come home even more. :D

Even though a lot of hours spent in cleaning, unpacking the boxes and arranging our stuffs around the house, we were enjoying it and it turns out to be exactly how we visualized it to be. Guess it's easier now with a bit more room for us to play around.

The whole experience is a journey in itself. Get to learn things that I never thought of, from changing locks to realigning the cabinet door to solving simple electrical issues. The satisfaction from these is just sensational!!! I am beginning to appreciate DIY and understand why the locals love it so much.

At the moment, the walls are pretty empty. We are thinking of what photos and decors we should hang. Now we can make a few holes in the wall without having rental agents screaming their heads off. :D

I was exploring the surrounding last week and found out that our house is actually very strategically located. We knew its very close to the freeway and a supermarket is only 5 minutes walking distance, there's also a huge shopping districts about 5 minutes drive away. Not too far and not too close. Just perfect! To top it off, it's very near to a number of good dim sum place that I am very fond of.

We are proud of what we have achieved so far and I hope our parents will be as well when they see our humble home.

A colleague of mine asked me this morning how does it feel to finally going back to my own house after work. I told her it's the same feeling when she got married, no words can truly describe our feeling right now.

2 weeks to go!!!

2009-07-05T23:12:00.004+10:00

Shortly after my missus and myself came back in early 2007, we have been searching around for our first home. There were so many factors we were considering that after 1/2 year of research, we finally found a suburb that we can picture ourselves living in. Then it took us another year to finally secure the deal.

We are still counting our blessings that it only took us a year to find a place that both of us love. It was not an easy task and we came to know a number of couples that actually took more than 1 year or 2 to get their own joint. We are really lucky!

After all the research, going to house inspections, attending auctions, its now 2 weeks away before we move in to our new house. Getting more excited as THE day draws closer. Everything is going as planned, which is really comforting. The only thing left back now is to start packing our stuffs. Never realise we have so much items to pack until now.

It will be a tiring 2 weeks from now but for a good reason!

Melbourne's unpredictable weather

2009-06-10T22:33:00.005+10:00

Now this is something you don't see everyday in Melbourne.

Overnight, Melbourne was blanketed with hail, somewhat looking like snow. It was so heavy that it actually woke me up. Morning frost is the forecast until next Wednesday. One more reason for me to snack away!

Photos courtesy from Herald Sun.

It's getting really close now...

2009-06-10T21:52:00.006+10:00

It was the last weekend of March when we finally secured our house. We are still thrilled in owning our first home and getting really close now to settlement. Everything is being taken care of, bought almost everything that we need to buy, our plan is to get the necessities in first and if we still have any money left, maybe one or two luxuries. :)

Will be doing more house fixtures hunting this weekend. It is tiring and yet exciting... until I start adding all the cost together. :D

One thing for sure, we will be keeping our eye out for any good bargains in the market.

Las Chicas

2009-06-09T13:06:00.010+10:00

Since we didn't get to try Las Chicas on Sunday, both Lily and myself went back the very next day to have another go. When we reached, we saw a longer queue standing outside. I quietly said to myself, if there's going to be a long wait, we will be heading over to Wall 280 to try out other delicious pides.

Spoke to the waiter and surprisingly there's a seat for the two of us. Those waiting were in a group of 4/6 pax. We will just have to come back for the sensational pides across the street! :D

Sat down, glanced through the menu, not a clue and we thought rather than being gung-ho, we would stick by the review recommendations and if it's as good as it says, we will be more adventurous next trip.

I ordered Bikini Blowout Benedict (BBB). It's a variation of your traditional egg benedict. It's served with seasoned avocado, crispy bacon, poached eggs, creamy hollandaise sauce on a sesame seed bagel. It's very tasty, bold dish. Even though the bagel was hard (as it meant to be), I actually loved it! Using bagel is probably influenced by the Jewish community in Balaclava.

Bikini Blowout Benedict

Another recommendation was the well known french toast. It served with strawberry, banana, pistachio ricotta and maple syrup, to be exact. Unlike myself, Lily has sweet tooth and didn't hesitate when ordering this. The first thing she said after her first bite was "B, try this!!!" with heaps of excitement. She usually plays it cool and rarely get excited with tasty food, when she does, you know it's super delicious! The ricotta was very cool and creamy filled with heaps of pistachio. Have it together with the warm freshly fried french toast and banana, SENSATIONAL!

Las Chicas won Cheap Eats Breakfast Of The Year award back in 2006 with this dish and with Lily's excitement, I can appreciate it. Very yummy and sinful at the same time.

French toast with strawberry, banana, pistachio ricotta and maple syrup

In case you are wondering, Cheap Eats is a guide for best spot to grab a bite to eat without breaking the budget. The range varies from cafes to restaurants, bakeries to sushi bars. A guide for frugal and fervent foodie like ourselves. :D

My cup of latte with a very "funky" saucer

Our breakfast turned out to be very impressive feast indeed. Enormous... sinful... but very impressed!

If I have gone MIA, you know where to find me!

Wall 280

2009-06-07T15:18:00.005+10:00

Our initial plan this morning was to try out one of the best cafe in Melbourne, Las Chicas. We were told there's going to be 20 minutes wait to be seated and another 20 for the food to arrive. 40 minutes of waiting time feels like hours when you are really hungry!

We were waiting outside the cafe for our seat when Lily spotted a small interesting cafe just opposite Las Chicas. It's a very Melbourne like cafe, tables outside in the open air, few under the verandah, graffiti on the wall and minimal decor. The most important point was that it didn't look as full and went over to check it out. A quick fix to our hunger!

Sat down, ordered our meals and we were surprised how good our breakfast were! Lily ordered ham, cheese and tomato pide and I had bregenwurst sausage pide. It was nicely toasted, with friendly service, you can never complain! Ryan + Ivy had minestrone soup and vegetarian pide. They loved it as well!

We didn't get to try Las Chicas but found another great place, Wall 280. We were too hungry to take photos but I am sure we will be back again to try out other pides.

Outside Wall 280

Alfresco dining

Inside Wall 280

A wonderful trip

2009-05-26T18:23:00.012+10:00

May was another eventful month for us. One of our friends got married and our friends from Malaysia came down for a good holiday. With MAS fares selling at record low, our friends took advantage of it, Kenny+Carol and Jon Low. It was really enjoyable having them around, felt like back in KL all over again.

Victoria has many great beaches and breathtaking landscapes, just that we didn't have an excuse to go. With them around, it was a perfect one. We reckon Jon ,out of all of us were the most enthusiastic about the beautiful beaches and landscapes - he get to explore his new camera with his great shooting skills. Of course we were only too happy to be his "guinea pigs". :D

It turned out really good and we are already thinking where to place them in our new home. These photos were taken at Brighton Beach after a good breakkie at St Ali.

During one of the weekends when all of us were free, we made a trip to the 12 Apostles. It was one of the best trip both Lily and myself had. Good companies, enjoyable drive accompanied by great scenery. Enough said! We enjoyed it thoroughly!

Oh, did I mention that I had so much fun driving to 12 Apostles? The Great Ocean Road is very winding and every corner we hit, our car gripped it so well and handling was just sensational! Practically no cars, we had the road to ourselves! Now we know the car magazines weren't lying when they say our car has one of the best road handling system in the market.

Photos below to highlight our joyful trip.

Another nice photo by Jon Low at our friend's wedding reception.

Melbourne shrouded in fog

2009-04-25T12:06:00.006+10:00

When I woke up last Monday, I was shocked to find the whole botanical garden was covered in fog. The next thing that came to my mind was... "Quick! Call in sick and get more sleep!" :D I wish I had done that.

Anyway... if I remember correctly, every time when Melbourne approaches autumn/winter, we will be invited by a morning of thick fog. "Borrowed" a number of photos taken from Eureka by Herald Sun.

Winter... bring it on!

MIA... but plenty going on

2009-04-18T15:33:00.009+10:00

We have not been writing posts for the last number of weeks. As you would have guessed, work has been crazily busy for the both of us. It makes it even harder when everyone in the office work until 6pm latest. I am begining to "appreciate" Asia's crazy working hours. Well, the take away point is being busy is definitely better than not during this economic hard time.

On a more positive note, we finally bought our own house! After months of heartaches and disappointments, we finally triumph this time! It was an auction, which is a norm in Australia, very intense during bidding. It started from the seller's reserve price, with every bid worth $10k and slowly it dropped to $5k and then $1k. There were approximately 100 people at the auction but only a handful that were into serious bidding. Maybe starting bid worth $10k filtered those fence sitters. It was a very good experience and the whole time, I was telling myself to remain calm, put up a poker face and stay within our ceiling price. It felt good when we secured our house, everyone clapped for us. It was always the other way round.

We were invited by Mr. Saw, my previous Melbourne boss to have dinner with his friends at Mabrown (Malaysia food) at Balwyn North last night. To our surprise, my ex-boss from KL and his wife are in Melbourne as well and joined us last night. Yeap, both my ex-bosses are old time friends. :)

Anyway, Mabrown have 2 signature dishes - spicy quail and roast duck noodle. We tried both and it was sensational! We could not get it that nice back in KL. Like what my mom always say "satu makan, dua mau". :D One of Mr. Saw's friend brought three types of wine to complement each meat we were having, i.e. one for quail, one for duck and one for the fish. It was just hilarious when the wives put a limit of 2 glasses of wine and how it was always the second glass from the husbands' response.

Great food, great wine, great companies and plenty of laughter, it was really a good evening. Makes it worthwhile going to work, putting all you have and have a good time at the end of it.

Later we will be heading to Devin+Hennley's place for BBQ. Hopefully we can get some nice shots and put it up later. The weather forecast is excellent, with light winds throughout the evening. It will be another good evening. :)

Dragon Boat End of Season Dinner

2009-03-21T23:23:00.028+11:00

After the Melbourne International Dragon Boat Race, the season has comes to an end with a dinner celebration on 14th March 2009.

The celebration was held in Pepper Chilli (85 Little Bourke St, corner of Exhibition and Little Bourke) with a great attendance of 41 people! When we first heard the name of the restaurant, we were hoping that not all the food served were spicy. It turn out to be a Sze Chuan Restaurant. Thank god that it was a set menu where we were given a choice of some of the dishes.

The Dragon Boaters on our table

Overall it was a great night with good company, speeches from the Captains and there was also award presentations.

It started off with the CERTIFICATE of achievements:

Best Race Day Performance Docklands Cup: Kevin Wong
Best Race Day Performance Falls Creek Mile High Championship: Miki Ishikawa
Best Race Day Performance Victorian Titles: Karsten Arnold
Best Drummer: Melissa Ong
Best Sweep: Chris Walters

Then followed by the 2008/09 TROPHIES:

Most Valuable Paddler: Joel Chua
Best Male Paddler: Jay Sadler
Best Female Paddler: Eva Bui
Best Rookie: Nadja Wiedemann
Best Team Spirit Male: Stephen Soo
Best Team Spirit Female: Hennley Sah

Stephen with his trophy!

Close up of Stephen's trophy

Stephen with me and his trophy

A very Happy Hennley with her trophy with me and Ivy

Both Stephen and I were very surprise that he would get an award, as we didn't know what the award categories were. Anyhow, it is an excellent idea to give out all these certificates and awards to give motivation as well as recognition of every one's hard work and determination to the team. Great Work CYSM!!!

Ryan and Stephen enjoying the night

St. Ali

2009-03-11T21:30:00.006+11:00

A day after our successful race at IMDBF, Devin and Hennley brought us and Ryan to a local coffee joint called St. Ali. My colleague told me before that this place serves excellent strong coffee but I never get the chance to try it and after a while, it sort of slipped my mind.

Finally tried it and am loving every bit of it. The coffee is strong, so good that I had to order another cup. The food is delicious as well, especially Lily's french toast. :)

A good morning dose of medication

Just by looking at it, you know this is one delicious coffee

Lily's brekkie - very tasty french toast topped with bacon and peach
(by far the best we have had)

My brekkie - scrambled eggs topped with smoked salmon with chili jam
(highly recommended)

St. Ali in South Melbourne

St. Ali - industrial interior

It was a relaxing way to start our day with tasty breakfast, delicious coffees, good companies and plenty of laughter. Our lives are truly blessed.

Melbourne International Dragon Boat Festival

2009-03-11T20:15:00.005+11:00

5 months of training to live for a single minute!

That's what my team's vice captain said before the race. last Sunday, i.e. 8 March 09. I could not agree more. All the sacrifices everyone made to attend tough trainings 3 times a week, enduring sore muscles the very next day, it all came down to this race.

We were up against the national and state champion and we were pushing them all the way. I must say, we did really well by coming third. There were a couple of races that we only lost by a fraction of a second!!!

Even the champions themselves were amazed how far we have come in 1 year. :D

Overall, it was a very good experience, the excitement and adrenaline burst before the race were just sensational and knowing we crossed the finish line far better than our training best time, it was pure "awesomeness". And to be in a team that shares the same commitment and determination to win, it's out of this world!

I am already looking forward to the next major race!

Below are some of the race videos (My team in red, in case you are wondering).

Heats - Open 20s

Heats - Men's Power 10

Finals - Mixed 20s

Finals - Men's Power 10

Lily and myself during race break

The 3 "stooges"

No idea what we were trying to do

Yuin was in town, was supposed to be our cheerleader but forgot her pom poms!

The whole team that made it all possible

Our rewards! :D

Transformer 2 Trailer

2009-03-05T22:33:00.009+11:00

It was raining so heavily this morning that while waiting for the rain to subside, was watching a couple of videos and came across this. Nice! :) Could not stop laughing after that.

Mei Lee found a couple funnier videos.

:D

Now the official Transformer 2 trailer.

Can't wait!

Short getaway

2009-03-01T20:05:00.013+11:00

Lily joined me at Sydney last week for a short getaway. We were both looking forward to it but the weather forecast was not too encouraging. Outer Sydney were flooding (ironically Melbourne is not getting a drop of rain), the city itself were supposedly having thunder storm. We were very cautious of the weather. I should know better the prediction is never accurate, there were only some light drizzles on Saturday morning!

Checked-in time usually at 2pm but when we drop off our luggage at the hotel, we were told that our room was not occupied and we could check in there and then, at 9am! SWEET! We were surprised as well the room number they gave us. - '1818.' Very "ong" :D A good start to our short getaway!

Our room number

View from our room

Walked around the city shortly afterward, looking for a place for some good breakfast. Exploring all the lanes along the way and we found this small restaurant selling good old Irish scones. It was not packed unlike other restaurants but we gave it a try, cautiously. When we sat down, we were instantly taken aback by the atmosphere, Irish songs with wonderful Irish decors all around. Could not set the "scene" any better. To top if off, our scones were fresh from oven, still warm and soft on the inside. All the carbs we needed to get us through the day! :)

Scones with Irish tea

Us at Harbor Bridge

Us at Circular Quay

Us with Opera House and Harbour Bridge

When I was at Sydney last time, a friend of ours brought me to this Japanese restaurant to try out their hotpot a.k.a steamboat. Instead of using normal broth, they use soy milk and sweet miso paste soup. It was sensational, especially the soup, with all the meat juices. Loved it last time and was dying to bring Lily to try it out. She loved it as well!

Dish 1 - Our starter

Dish 2 - Teriyaki wagyu beef

Dish 3 - Sapporo Hot Pot

After such a heavy meal, we needed some exercise to digest the food a little. :D Walked around the harbour and managed to capture some beautiful shots of it.

Sydney Harbour at night

Us with Sydney Harbour

Before we flew back to Melbourne on Sunday evening, we went to a french bakery at The Rocks to finish off our wonderful weekend with some good coffee and cakes. To rate the cakes as good is an understatement. It just melts in your mouth. I am not a cake person and I loved it! We will definitely come back for more when we visit Sydney next. :)

Food, Glorious Food

2009-02-17T21:38:00.012+11:00

Since the last couple of weeks, I've been flat out at work, no indication its going to end soon. That's "comforting". What is more comforting is that I still have my passion for good food! We have been lucky to savour delicious food once in a while, and to top it off, some are really quite affordable!

Big Brekkie @ Portobello Trattoria (South Melbourne) - heaps of eggs, bacon, hash browns, spinach, sausages, mushrooms and 2 huge slices of toast. (Just to show the size of this, compare the plate with the size of fork at the top right hand corner)

Chicken Parmigiana @ Skinny Dog Hotel (Hawthorn) - Chicken schnitzel covered with leg ham, red sicilian tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. Again, another huge and delicious meal.

Eggs in Hell @ Montague Park Food Store (South Melbourne) - Baked eggs covered in spicy tomato sauce, cheese and BBQ sauce. You just have to try this to appreciate it.

Beancurd skin entree @ Kansuiro (Hakone) - Lightly salted topped with black caviar. YUM!

Sashimi entree @ Kansuiro (Hakone) - Sweet, fresh and very nicely presented. Makes it even more delicious than it already was.

Crab shabu-shabu @ Seryna Restaurant (Tokyo) - Very fresh and tender! Too bad we could not find similar in Melbourne.

Fugu sashimi @ Seryna Restaurant (Tokyo) - "dangerously" fresh. :D

Kobe beef @ Seryna Restaurant (Tokyo) - words can't describe how good this piece of meat is. Just melts in your mouth. A must try!

Fatty tuna, salmon roe and sea urchin @ Tsukiji fish market (Tokyo) - Just delicious and fresh. Have to try it to believe it. Can't get any fresher than here.

Frutti Trutti Waffle @ Max Brenner (South Melbourne) - The perfect snack on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Warm chocolate mixed with icy cold ice cream, you decide. :D

Goose pate crab @ Flower Drum (Melbourne) - Never tasted such deliciously baked crab. Meat was juicy and sauce was out of this world!

Mille Feuille de Chevreuil @ Vue De Monde (Melbourne) - One of the best dessert we have tasted. We were appreciating it for a while before eating.

Potato Skin @ Hoags Breath Cafe (Chadstone) - Baked potato skin filled with heaps of bacon and cheese. Enough said!

Seafood Fettucine @ Cerone's Cafe (Malvern East) - Served with huge prawns and calamari. Sauce was well coated and very "light". Just nice!

Seafood platter @ Richmond Seafood Tavern (Richmond) - The seafood was cooked to perfection. When served, scallops, mussells and tuna were still warm and oysters were still cold. Hard to come by even in good restaurants.

Melbourne is melting!!!

2009-01-31T00:33:00.008+11:00

Just when you think Melbourne's summer temperature should be in the low 30 degrees, think again!

Melbourne is officially in it's hottest-known heatwave since Tuesday after the temperature again broke through the 43 degrees mark. It was back in 1855 when Melbourne has had 3 consecutive days above 43 Celsius. Should I feel lucky to be part of this "memorable" occasion? :D

Because of the blistering heat, there were power failures across Victoria, local train network had to cancel at least 1,300 services to date, a number of highly seeded tennis players had to "retire" from the Australian Open, etc. The list goes on!

Just when you thought it can't get any worse, my car temperature was showing 50 degrees this afternoon. Lucky that I had all my windows well tinted, at least keeping some of the heat out.

At this scorching temperature, it should be made legal to go nude in public! :D

Credit crunch? Think again!

2009-01-21T20:27:00.008+11:00

For a number of months now, credit crisis, recession, massive cuts in jobs have been a hot topic in both local and international newspapers. They are painting a very bleak outlook for 09. I for one believe all of them got it very wrong!

I reckon we have more cash than ever to spend. Credit availability is overflowing in the market. No one is thinking twice in buying anything, not to mention if they need it in the first place.

Don't trust me? I have solid evidence!

Original price was $179.50, "reduced" to $901!

There is a new "sale" in town!

Parents' 40th Anniversary

2009-01-18T17:55:00.005+11:00

12th January 2009 marked my parents' 40th anniversary. Both my missus and myself made a short trip back to KL first week of Jan to celebrate their milestone. It was all meant to be a surprise and it turned out just that. :D We all did a really good job keeping the surprise dinner a secret. My dad's eyes were red and mom cried when they found out. That's GOLD!

We made a song length slide show to commemorate their 40 years as husband and wife and the family they have built. It took us a while to get the right song, when we came across a song entitled "Voyage" by John McDermott, we knew this was THE song for them. It basically sums it up what they had gone through the last 40 years. Very meaningful!

I've attached the video below, followed by the lyrics. Enjoy!

I am a sailor and you're my first mate
We signed on together, we coupled our fate
We hauled up our anchor determined not to fail
For the hearts treasure together we set sail

With no maps to guide us, we steered our own course
We rode out the storms when the winds were gale force
We sat out the doldrums in patience and hope
Working together we learned how to cope

Life is an ocean, love is a boat
In troubled waters it keeps us afloat
When we started the voyage
There was just me and you
Now gathered around us we have our own crew

Together we're in this relationship
We've built it with care to last the whole trip
Our true destination is not marked on any chart
We're navigating for the shores of the heart

Life is an ocean, love is a boat
In troubled waters it keeps us afloat
When we started the voyage
There was just me and you
Now gathered around us we have our own crew

Dockland Cup 2008

2008-12-28T02:25:00.007+11:00

This is a long overdue post... ;P I have been wanting to blog Stephen's first competitive dragon boat race held early December. So here it is. :D

On 7 December 2008 was our first competitive dragon boat race as compared to the one we had in Albert Park. We were all very excited the night before and tried our very best to have sufficient rest and carbs. Even thought I did not participate this time but I was there to cheer the team - it was just as tiring! =)

Luck was on our side that the weather was really good. Based on the weather forecast it was suppose to rain a bit in the morning, instead the sun was out the whole time. The race started at 9 in the morning and lasted till 4.30 in the evening. CYSM participated in over 20 races,, i.e. heats, quarter-final, semi-final and finals, winning some of it and came second for the rest. It was pretty good result and a massive improvement considering we only reached quarter-finals in prior year (i think) :D

Overall, CYSM came second and everyone in the team was thrilled! I think we were more ecstatic than the team that won!

Below are some of the photos to highlight the race event.

CYSM getting in position in the boat

All on board and moving out to the starting position

All paddling slowly to the start position

All in the starting position and ready for the horn to go off

This was one of our good heat. As you can see we won first position. It was a good start for our team. Great job guys!!!

Another series of photos showing we were giving all we've got in the race.

The tropes that we were racing for

Here is a video clip of one of the semi final races. (Of course it's showing CYSM winning. ;) )

CYSM 2008

Christmas lights in Melbourne

2008-12-27T20:23:00.016+11:00

Back in year 2001, my family's friend brought us to experience the spirit of Christmas in Melbourne. They brought us to a suburb where the houses along the entire road were fully decorated with fantastic moving displays, some even with musical.

From then on, every Christmas, I always wanted to relive the experiences again. And that's what we did 2 weeks back. We went to a few suburbs, some near and some an hour drive away just to get the best Christmas lights. We might seem enthusiastic but compared to some home owners that have been decorating their homes for years, we don't come close. :D

Some of the decorations were so good that there was a long queue of cars, all waiting their turn to drive up to the front of the house for a good view of the decorations. Some home owners even offered candy canes to all children.

Below are some of the photos that turn out alright.

Christmas lights - 1

Christmas lights - 2

Christmas lights - 3

Christmas lights - 4

Christmas lights - 5

Christmas lights - 6

Christmas lights - 7

Christmas lights - 8

There were 2 houses (Doncaster East & Frankston) that we both find most impressive, all the lights were synced to music. The lights were on every night and the music were broadcast on the local FM. There's over 20,000 lights, lots of colour and action! :) Our personal favourite is the Frankston house (photo #10). The music is more powerful and lively. We managed to capture the light presentations but it's not an award winning quality. :D

Christmas lights (Doncaster East) - 9

Doncaster East lights presentation (be sure to turn on the speakers)

Christmas lights (Frankston) - 10

Frankston lights presentation (be sure to turn on the speakers)

Luck or no luck??!!

2008-12-25T09:40:00.006+11:00

I was feeling rather ecstatic after I got a call from the marketing department that I have just won 2 tickets to the special screening of The Tale of Despereaux! That means we get to watch the movie 1 week before everyone else. Something both my missus and I have not tried before. I was brought back down to earth when I collected the tickets. The date of the screening coincides with my other commitments! :( A real bummer! No choice but to give away the tickets.

Few days later, another call from marketing department, I won another 2 tickets to the Australian Open! Something I would never guessed in a million years! Twice in a week!!! 2 tickets to the first of the 4 Grand Slams tennis tournament! Sensational!!! To top it off, its the main match of the day! We are over the moon again! :D

Christmas in Melbourne

2008-12-08T18:59:00.019+11:00

It's the time of the year again where individuals from various background get together to celebrate one festival, i.e. Christmas!

As usual Myer in Bourke Street will always have their yearly window display for Christmas. This year, it is based on a book by Alan Snow called "How Santa Really Works". It shows the process of how Santa gets his helpers and the different stages he has to go through in order for the presents to be delivered.

The first window start with "Who actually helps Santa?"

There are 3 parts to this window. The first part shows the elves has to study to do a specific job.

Then there is training for the specific job.

After the elves has gone through the training, they were graduated.

The 2nd window display goes on to: "How does Santa know what you want?"

It shows lots of speech bubble by the elves and letters from the children.

The 3rd window display shows "Where are all the toys made?"

This one you can see the stages of making toys. If you look closely, you can see how they make a teddy bear, starting with sowing the shape of the hand, leg and body. Then putting in the cotton, follow by sowing all the parts together. Lastly, sowing the head to the body.

The 4th window display shows "Where are all the toys kept?"

The 5th window display shows "Who organises all the presents?"

The last window display asked "Surely Santa can't get all the presents in his sleigh?"

Since we were in the city, we went for a walk down Swanson Street to see the Christmas Tree which was beautifully light up in red and green.

Japan - Day 8 (Disneyland)

2008-11-16T21:41:00.032+11:00

We woke up early on day 8, hoping that we could reach Disneyland early and beat the crowd. Got our good spread of hearty breakfast at Hilton and reached Disneyland approximately 9 in the morning. What we did not expect was the crowd was already there before us. Again, we were lucky to pre-purchase our Disneyland tickets and saved a lot of time queuing up at the ticket counter.

When we were at the front courtyard, we found ourselves being a kid again. :D We were chasing the Mickey & Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, etc, trying to take a photo with them. After a while, we sort of gave up, there were just too many children surrounding them! Understandably, they are the most well-known Disney characters. Lily made a good call, in taking photographs with the lesser known Disney characters and spending more time in Disneyland rather than chasing after Mickey & Minnie Mouse, etc.

Disneyland crowd - 1

Disney crowd - 2

Disney crowd - 3

Jiminy cricket from Pinocchio

Panchito from Panchito Pistoles

Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh

Lily with Eeyore

Disneyland front courtyard - celebrating 25th anniversary

Us at the front courtyard

A happy couple in Disneyland

The first parade was Lets Go, Villains! and it runs once a day. There was no way we were going to miss it. We found the parade route and got ourselves a nice front spot along the route. Waited for a couple of minutes and when the music started playing, we parade was approaching!

Let's Go, Villains parade - 1

Let's Go, Villains parade - 2

Let's Go, Villains parade - 3

Let's Go, Villains parade - 4

Let's Go, Villains parade - 5

Let's Go, Villains parade - 6

The crowd leaving Let's Go, Villains parade

After Let's Go, Villains, we went off to a number of live outdoor theater entertainment and explore Disneyland by themed land. There are 7 different themed lands and each offers a very unique experience. We were having so much fun with all the entertainments and rides that time passed really quickly.

Disneyland castle

Us with Disneyland castle at the back

Halloween decoration

Us with Halloween decors - 1

Us with Halloween decors - 2

Lily with Halloween decors

Us with Mickey ghost

Us with Minnie ghost

Us with Halloween decors - 3

We both find this just amusing!

Us mimicking our pass holder (if you haven't realise that already!)

There was another parade in the afternoon entitled Jubilation. It's similar to Let's Go, Villains, it only runs once a day. It goes through the same route as Let's Go, Villains as well, around Disneyland and by the time we reached there, music has just started playing. We were just in time!

Jubilation Parade - 1

Jubilation Parade - 2

Jubilation Parade - 3

Jubilation Parade - 4

Jubilation Parade - 5

Jubilation Parade - 6

Jubilation Parade - 7

Jubilation Parade - 8

Jubilation Parade - 9

Jubilation Parade - 10

Jubilation Parade - 11

Jubilation Parade - 12

Jubilation Parade - 13

Jubilation Parade - 14

Jubilation Parade - 15

Jubilation Parade - 16

Jubilation Parade - 17

Jubilation Parade - 18

Not long after the Jubilation parade, it started raining! It was not heavy but good enough to get the whole place wet. Most of the live outdoor entertainments were canceled. We and the rest of the Disneyland enthusiasts were lining up for the rides. The queue was so long that each one takes approximately 45 minutes. Thank goodness the rides were all worth the wait!

It rained through the whole evening and into the night. Both of us were looking forward for the Dreamlights Parade, with millions of dazzling lights lighting up the night and the 25th anniversary fireworks. We were quite dissapointed that it was cancelled but understandably, there's nothing much can be done. That gives Lily another excuse to visit Japan for the second time. :D

The rain got a little bit heavier at night and most of the enthusiasts went indoor to do some shopping at World Bazaar. We didn't lose out and got outselves a couple of souvenirs. :)

Wet Disneyland - 1

Wet Disneyland - 2

Wet Toon Town - 1

Wet Disneyland - 4

Even Daisy Duck's fridge needs an umbrella

Wet Toon Town - 2

Lamp post in Toon Town - 1

Lamp post in Toon Town - 2

Wet Toon Town - 3

Chaotic World Bazaar - 1

Chaotic World Bazaar - 2

Before we headed back to our hotel, we wanted to take a good photo with Mickey Mouse. We were looking at the entertainment schedule and to our surprise, there was a Meet Mickey session in Mickey's House. We headed there without second thought! Thankfully, the queue was not very long but still, we waited almost 45 minutes. We didn't know why it took so long until we went into Mickey's House, we understood why. We were exploring his house and had a tour at Mickey's backyard Movie Barn. It was a showcase of Mickey's cartoon from when it first started up to now. We then asked to go into his studio where the Mickey himself was there waiting for us. We were DELIGHTED!

A very joyful Mickey welcoming us

A happy couple with a joyful Mickey!

Japan - Day 7 (Disneysea)

2008-11-09T11:41:00.044+11:00

We woke up on our 7th day looking forward to yet another delicious breakfast. While packing our luggage for our next destination, i.e. Disneysea, we were guessing what we were going to have for our breakkie. When it arrived, we were not dissapointed. Each dish was the right temperature. The cold cuts were very fresh, the grilled fish, chawanmushi and soup were still warm. It was good! Our personal favourite was the chawanmushi. There's lots of seafood and herbs which makes it packed with flavour that complements with the egg. Superb! I would ask for a couple more if I could.

Our 2nd breakkie

Orange pudding - breakfast's desert

We reached Hakone station nice and early, in time for us to catch the next shinkansen to Tokyo and change train to Disneysea in Chiba. When leaving Hakone, it was bitter sweet feeling for both of us, Hakone was not populated, excellent sceneries, filled with hot springs and both of us have not been to Disneysea before.

We managed to reach Disneysea around noon, which we had planned for. Took the Disney Resort Line monorail to Bayside Station where the hotel shuttle bus was waiting for us. You know you are in Disneysea/Disneyland where every corner you look, there's the famous Mickey Mouse logo.

Disney Resort Line monorail

Us inside the monorail

Our hotel stop - Stop No. 3

Hotel's shuttle bus

Even the handles were nicely decorated

After leaving all our luggage with the hotel reception, we were off to Disneysea! We were like a bunch of kids again going to meet our childhood superheroes. :D The theme was Halloween and it was their 25th anniversary in Tokyo. Alot of activities, parades, shows, decor around the whole area.

Our hotel from Bayside Station

It was Wednesday and it was packed with people, mostly locals. We could not imagine how it would be like during weekend/school holidays. Thank goodness we pre-purchased our tickets and not having to go wait in the long queue.

Front of Disneysea

Plenty of indication where Disneysea was for tourist like us

Massive crowd buying tickets on a weekday

Mickey Mouse welcoming us to Disneysea

Us with Mickey and Disneysea at our back

Us with "real" Mickey Mouse

Us with "real" Minnie Mouse

Disneysea - 1

Disneysea - 2

Lily with Pinocchio

Disneysea - 3

Disneysea - 4

Disneysea - 5

Tower of Terror

McDuck's souvenir shop

Disneysea - 6

Disneysea - 7

Disneysea - 8

One of the main attractions during our visit was water show called The Legend of Mythica. Its a show that tells the friendship and sorrow between humans and sea creatures. One thing for sure, we did not feel any sorrow vibe from the show. Everyone, especially the kids were dancing, singing, waving to the Disney characters that it was just a very enjoying place to be.

The Legends of Mythica - 1

The Legends of Mythica - 2

The Legends of Mythica - 3

The Legends of Mythica - 4

The Legends of Mythica - 5

The Legends of Mythica - 6

Dancers entertaining the kids - 1

Dancers entertaining the kids - 2

The Legends of Mythica - 7

The Legends of Mythica - 8

The Legends of Mythica - 9

The Legends of Mythica - 10

A very happy Lily in Disneysea :D

A happy couple in Disneysea - 1

A happy couple in Disneysea - 2

One of the many Halloween decor

Another Halloween decor

Over The Waves was another live outdoor entertainment that we managed to get a good spot. It was very good with various characters doing silly yet entertaining performances. As expected, Mickey Mouse was the captain of the ship, directing the perfomances.

Lumiere acting cool in his performance

Daisy Duck doing arabic dance

Goofy doing some Japanese dance

Mickey & Minnie Mouse

Mickey & Minnie Mouse joined by all characters involved

Mickey & Minnie Mouse and all characters thanking the crowd

Disneysea at late evening - 1

Disneysea at late evening - 2

It was almost 6pm and we went back to Hilton to check in and have our dinner before going back to Disneysea for another water show. Yes, dinner and breakfasts are complementary. Our room even came with PS3!

Our room with plenty of space to move around

Our room with blinds closed

Huge and fully equipped toilet

Our room facing the Disneysea theme park at night

Our room facing the Disneysea theme park in the morning

Disneyland theme park view from our room

Us at the front of the hotel

After our japanese & western buffet dinner, we headed straight back to Disneysea for BraviSEAmo. It's a story of spirit of water called Bellisea falling in love with the spirit of fire called Prometeo. It was quite spectacular with all the fire & water display and how both fire and water merged. Too good! We could not take many photo, the lights were just too bright.

Opening act from Mickey Mouse

Bellisea in action - 1

Bellisea in action - 2

Prometeo in action - 1

Prometeo in action - 2

Prometeo and Bellisea courting each other

Japan - Day 6 (Mt Fuji)

2008-11-08T23:16:00.025+11:00

After a warm and relaxing hot spring followed by a good night sleep last night, we woke up on day 6 feeling so energised and ready to do some outdoor sight seeings, i.e. Mt Fuji. Coupled with a good and healthy breakfast, we were ready!

Our breakfast. Very fresh and just nice

Energised Stephen & Lily

Breakfast - 1

Breakfast - 2

Breakfast - 3

Breakfast - 4

Breakfast - 5

Breakfast - 6

We took Hakone Tozan Railway from Odawara Station to Gora before changing to cable car towards Lake Ashi. The train took approximately 35 minutes to get to Gora. It's only 5km straight line distance but because the train was going uphill, it was moving so slowly that walking might just be faster, only if you have enough stamina. :D From Gora, we changed to Hakone Ropeway to get to the top of the hill. If the weather was good, can have a clear view of Mt. Fuji.

Lily in Hakone Tozan Railway

Views of Hakone mountains

Us in cable car from Gora

Mei Lee spotted the mountain with 'mountain' character, while waiting for Hakone Ropeway

Going up the hill via Hakone Ropeway

While on the ropeway, we passed by Owakudani, an area around a crater created in the last eruption Mount Hakone about 3000 years ago. You can see from the photos below, the sulfur still fumes and if walk around the area, there's plenty of hot springs and hot rivers.

Sulfurous fumes - 1

Sulfurous fumes - 2

Sulfurous fumes - 3

Because Owakudani has so much hot sulfur, natural hot springs and rivers, their famous food is non other than boiled eggs in natural hot water. Its called "famous black eggs". It is said that one egg will add seven years to your life. Somehow I got the impression that it will take 7 years off your life. :) None of these bother us and we bought a packet to try it out. It taste just like ordinary boiled eggs.

Even Hello Kitty is in Black Egg suit

Our packet of black eggs

The charcoal black eggs

The people here really like things to be in black. Even the ramen is black!

When we reached Lake Ashi, we could smell the freshness of the air and the scenery were just breathtaking. It was so peaceful, green, water was calm, not populated with tourist. Too good!

Lake Ashi was formed in the caldera of Mount Hakone after the volcano's last eruption 3000 years ago. Apparently, this lake is one of the symbols of Hakone and offers the best view of Mt. Fuji. Clouds and poor visibility often block the view of Mt. Fuji and that was what happened to us. A little bit disappointed but nonetheless the other scenery were just as good. At least we saw Mt. Fuji from the plane! :D

Lake Ashi - 1

Lake Ashi - 2

Lake Ashi - 3

Lake Ashi - 4

Lake Ashi - 5

Lake Ashi - 6

Mt Fuji in between of two mountains - blocked by thick clouds - 1

Mt Fuji in between of two mountains - blocked by thick clouds - 2

Mt. Fuji view from brochure

Sunburn Stephen & Lily :D

Lily in Lake Ashi town

Us in Lake Ashi town

Lily with her favourite cartoon character "Totoro"

Lake Ashi - 7

Lake Ashi - 8

Hear no evil, Speak no evin, See no evil

We spent a considerable amount of time in Lake Ashi, hoping we could get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji. We left the place empty handed. But there was another that we were looking forward to, dinner at our hotel. After our dinner last night and breakfast in the morning, we were expecting our dinner to be as authentic as it can get and it was!

We were rushing back for our 6pm dinner time. If we were late by 15 minutes, they would assume we were not coming back for dinner and all the cooked food will end up in the bin. No food should be in the bin, especially good food! When we reached Kansuiro, it was close to 6pm and the staffs were actually waiting for us at the front door, holding our in-door slippers. Once again, very good service.

Our starter

Tofu with bacon topped with salmon roe

Tamago topped with sweet & sour sauce

Fresh sashimi

Seafood platter

Seafood soup

Pan fried king fish with egg sauce

Sirloin steak

Our vegetable dish with lots of fish eggs

Vegetable tempura

Preserved carrots and cabbage

After our dinner, we started to wonder how long does it take the kitchen to prepare the food with such nice and detailed presentation. That's cooking with passion!

Shinkansen (Bullet Train)

2008-11-05T23:47:00.006+11:00

Managed to record some of shinkansen's speed. Watch it when its fully downloaded.

Shinkansen at maximum speed.
(Kodama 557 at maximum speed, passing another shinkansen at the end)

Shinkansen passing Odawara Station

Shinkansen arriving at Shinnagawa Station
(There are 4 types of bullet train, this is different to the one we took)

Japan - Day 5 (Tsukiji Market & Hakone)

2008-11-03T06:20:00.034+11:00

Our initial plan was to visit Tsukiji Fish Market (TFM) on Day 3. TFM is most famous for its tuna auction. The plan was to wake up 5am, take the early train to Tsukijishijo Station, reach there around 5.40 and be right in time for their early morning auction. Well... we overslept! Luckily we were still in Tokyo and made it on Monday morning, before we left to Hakone.

We set all the alarms we could think of, all at 3 minutes gap. :D We woke up, left the hotel as planned, all good. Reached Shinjuku Station 5 minutes early and we thought we were well covered to take the first train to TFM. We were so wrong! We were so early that our usual route were still closed! We had no choice but to take another route and since Shinjuku Station is so huge, we were lost in there. The guards on duty barely speak much English. It was a good morning exercise, asking and running around trying to find the right platform, going in circles... at one point we both felt that if there's a camera crew following us, we would fit into the Amazing Race picture perfectly!

We were still early when we reached TFM, approximately 6.30am but too late for the morning auction. Oh well... at least we were there and had some really fresh sushi breakfast. We did not managed to get a lot of photos of different type of seafood... TFM was getting more busier by the minute. It makes sense since they supply fresh seafood to restaurants daily.

Entrance of TFM. Very hectic!

Before TFM packed with people

The auction room - it would be filled with huge tuna during auction, stacking on top of one another

The unsold tuna in the auction room

The tuna is really huge. Some are about the same size of a human

Different type of squids - 1

Different type of squids - 2

Different type of squids - 3

Different type of squids - 4

Different type of squids - 5

The Process of Slicing Frozen Tuna

Tuna lined up ready to be sliced

Cutting the frozen tuna into smaller pieces

Axing the frozen bits of tuna

Tuna ready to eat - 1

Tuna ready to eat - 2

Tuna ready to eat - 3

Other types of seafood in TFM - 1

Other types of seafood in TFM - 2

Other types of seafood in TFM - 3

Other types of seafood in TFM - 4

It was so hectic in the market that there's a need for traffic controller

Eateries at Outer Fish Market

We had the freshest tuna, fatty tuna, salmon, salmon roe ans sea urchin for breakfast. It was so fresh and tasty that I had to order another plate of salmon sashimi. Too bad all the eateries does not allow us taking photos. Manged to find one in the net, similar to what we had.

Fatty tuna, salmon roe and sea urchin on rice.

Front of the shop we had breakfast. There's a long queue at each eateries

We left TFM around 8.30am, gave us plenty of time to check out from our hotel and still be in time for our shinkansen to Hakone. Both of us were quite excited leaving Shinjuku, not because we didn't like it there, we were about to try the world famous bullet train. :D

We took the shinkansen from Shinagawa to Odawara, catch a connecting train from Odawara to Hakone and then catch shuttle bus to our hotel for the next 2 days, Kansuiro.

Our ride at 1.04pm on Kodama 557

Time Schedule in English

Our shinkansen ticket to Hakone via Odawara

Us in shinkansen - 1

Us in shinkansen - 2

Our lunch in shinkansen, only 750yen! very cheap!

Sceneries of Tokyo from shinkansen - 1

Sceneries of Tokyo from shinkansen - 2

Our connecting ride at 1.16pm from Odawara to Hakone

Sceneries of Hakone - 1

Us in Odawara train (connecting train)

Us in the shuttle bus to Kansuiro

When we finally reached Kansuiro Ryokan, which was 5 minutes drive away from Hakone station, we were warmly greeted by the staffs. An man aged mid-forties at least came out and took our luggage to our room. We both felt sorry that he had to carry for us. We insisted to do it on our own but our room were not ready yet and they had to put it aside while waiting. Oh well... One of the staff gave us a tour around Kansuiro, showing us where the public bathrooms are, public and private hot springs and in-house rules.

When the room was ready, a lady brought us up. We were pleasantly surprised because it was much better than what we saw in the internet. Our luggage was all nicely placed in the room and the lady gave us a quick tour of our room. We didn't know what she was saying, we just pretended that we do. :D

We didn't go far, walked around the area, which was a very pleasant one. Dinner was served at 6pm so we had to get back in time for dinner. Yes... our accommodation provides breakfast and dinner. Really delicious and beautiful meals.

Us at Kansuiro

Kansuiro's garden

Our tatami room

Our huge toilet - by Japan's standard

Our in-room hot spring

Sceneries from our room balcony

Our welcoming desert

Our welcoming tea

Our room key

Us in our room

Kansuiro hidden by autumn leaves - 1

Kansuiro hidden by autumn leaves - 2

Stephen with Kansuiro at the back

Lily with Kansuiro at the back

Us at the front of Kansuiro

Our dinner - starters

Our appetizer

Our seafood soup - they managed to tie a knot out of a fish fillet

Our grilled fish - very flavorsome and tender

Our seafood noodle dish - FRESH!

Seafood + vegetable tempura. Not only at all!

Our desert - 1/2 of paw paw

We were so full at the end of our 10 dish, we could not move! Then few knocks on our door. It was one of Kansuiro staff came to make our beds. It was 7.30pm! We looked at each other wondering "Are they serious? Making our beds at 7.30pm?" Lucky we brought our notebook along and watched some animes and tried on the in-room and our door public hot spring. Very nice! Very very relaxing!

Our beds. Finally a comfortable huge bed. :D