CNY Down Under

I'm back! .... to reality >___<

How was your CNY? I had too much fun and had to drag myself back.. so, where have i been?

Just like all our previous CNY, my parents made last minute decision on the country where we will be celebrating CNY. This year, they picked Perth. Golden CNY... Hmm...

I thought airfare to Perth would be cheap since it's summer at the moment and everyone would want to escape from the heat instead of flying there to be baked... haha, i was wrong. Flights were quite full and as usual, we ended up with expensive airfare... well, it's alright because spending time with all my loved ones during CNY is gonna be priceless!

I took a midnight flight to Perth this time... I was planning to fall asleep and wake up in Perth but... my plan didn't happen because I was surrounded by babies and toddlers who didn't need to sleep for 5.5 hours T___T You see, half way thru my sweet dreams, I got woken up by their cries.. or them knocking into me when playing at the aisle, or they accidentally pulled my hair while trying to stand up.. or they kept screaming for their parents to play with them... Good that I only need to deal with them for 5.5 hours.. I can't imagine how their parents do it everyday! Well, i guess if they were my kids, i would put up with their naughtiness too... but with limits :P

Then I decided to hide myself under my shawl, blocking myself from all the insanity... Then in my little sanctuary, i fell asleep... BUT not for long because I got woken up again... Darn! This time by the captain's announcement! Seriously, I don't really care how you fly your plane. I don't need to know details of how far I've flown, how many metres I'm above the ground, how fast the plane is travelling at.. I just want to SLEEP and reach my destination safely and on time.. haha, i can see you nodding your head in agreement. I don't usually complain because I am grateful that the pilots take me to where I need to be but it's midnight.. we want to sleep... You know what? It would be great if their announcements could be made in writing so I could read when I want to and best of all, if things don't turn out the way they say, at least I have black and white as evidence buahahhaha... Ok, i was just kidding. I think I am still insane after the 5.5 hours of torture....

I arrived Perth at the crack of dawn. 5.20am to be exact. The rising sun created layers of colours in the sky. It was beautiful! While waiting for Jane who would only arrive at 645am, I stood outside the airport feeling Perth, the place I used to call home...

Fooling around at 530am

Everything felt so familiar. The heat, the summer breeze, the smell of air and the scenery are just the way I remembered... The air is fresh and smells of dried grass.. The sun was so bright that I could hardly open my eyes... The wind was a bit warm and dry and I felt my skin started to tighten up... Nothing has changed, even the toilet smells just the way I remembered, in a good way la hahaha... Well, I don't know how to describe it to u.. I can show u pictures of things/ places I remember but not the smell, taste and the feeling.. I guess there are certain things that just cannot be substituted by technologies.. you see, we can take pictures and videos to remind us on wonderful or not-so wonderful events.... but not the smell, taste and our feelings.. Hmmm... there, this is an idea to the inventors out there...

Memories of my teenage years flooded back.. This airport used to be my happiest and saddest place... Happiest when I came to pick my parents and saddest when I sent them off....

Clear blue sky

Our family reunion was super duber great! We had dim sum and dinners together... these were the craziest times because getting a place for 25 people is almost impossible. With such big crowds, we were the noisiest in the restaurants because to talk and to be heard, we practically had to scream haha... We totally disregarded others in the restaurants.. Yup, we lived in a world of our own. A few times, I felt envious eyes on us.. I bet people wish they had a big family like ours too.. We could throw a party without having to worry that it would be a boring and quiet one haha... Don't believe me? Just take a look below...

p/s: no reunion is complete without good food :P it's cny so naturally, red is the theme!

I really love that there are so many of us in the family.. Although I didn't enjoy the heat (42 degree celsius), I really enjoyed spending time with my loved ones.... so many of us but too little time!

The colour of happiness

The unfortunate has happened.... I know it will happen one day but i didn't expect it to happen so soon... oh well, there is nothing I could do to stop it anyway... but I know i could have been nicer to lengthen its life... 

Guess what? am now typing with a laptop which i borrowed to use.. my trusty old friend was sicked 2 weeks ago.. Initially, i didn't think it was gonna be anything serious coz i only had problem connecting to the internet. So i called Dr. Network to help. He spent a few minutes clicking here and there and doing a whole lot of tests which i had no idea what they were... then he said "there, u can now connect to internet...But......" great, i love and hate that word! "...but, i think u should send it to the workshop for more checking coz there is something weird about your laptop." huh? serious? something weird about my laptop? well, at least i wasn't the only weird one! ha! Like user, like laptop i guess :P

So i obediently sent my laptop to the workshop for diagnosis... 2 days later, i got a phone call... Dr. Workshop asked me if i have backed up my stuff. Yes, i have! Countless of time... on countless HD to be exact so in case one fails, i still have other back-up... Everyone must have a plan B right? 

He said "good, coz your laptop needs to be retired...." @___@ I was devastated! I really love my laptop! Because it hasn't given me any trouble at all for the past 3 years! Sigh, life is strange.. one second you are strong and healthy, another second you are pronounced dead! :S

Okie, it's CNY soon,  let's  talk about something cheerful and ... RED like....

Big and sweet strawbies my friend bought for us.... And also fresh strawberry milk! yummo!

They scream "EAT ME!" haha

Strawbies milk~~ Must try!

These are very yummy...! Some people said red colour will immediately brighten up your day... I didn't know that eating and drinking something red can also cheer u up! 

Also, i bought myself a pair of pink shoes for CNY! Aren't they charming?

Do u like my new shoes?

Even Tiger gets something red!!

Be happy everybody! ^^

Ready to say I'm ready!

I'm so ready for CNY!

I must give all the credit to mum this year. She is the one who decorates the house with red lanterns, ang pows, new curtains, cushions, new flowers by the corner of our living room, new door mats for the main and side entrances, new table clothes... ow, my dad and i did lend a hand too... like cleaned the car porch with super water gun and washed the balcony... 

Mum is very very efficient... one day 3 weeks before CNY, when i came home from work, i found a cupboard full of CNY titbits. I gotta admit, mum is a super woman.. how did she manage to get so many things done in so little time? 

it's a torture to see them everyday and not allowed to eat!

Last year, my mum made me a cute bed sheet... Guess what I get this year? 

In the year of snake, my mum decided that my bedsheet should be more romantic...  like a Secret Garden! 

Like Like! Got CNY Feel~~

Gong Xi Fa Cai! 

May you stay healthy and happy forever!

CNY preparation



It's that time of the year again! CNY is in 3 weeks time!! yaye~~ And the China Town is already nicely decorated with red lanterns.. How i love to look at the street especially at night!

The fun thing about preparing for CNY is all the cakes and cookies tasting. What's more, it's the only time we can buy lots of new clothes without feeling guilty! Love it! How i wish it was CNY EVERYDAY! hehe... And we get to buy lots of unhealthy junk food and fizzy drinks! Love that there is no need to feel bad! Although i will sure feel bad when i receive my credit card bills at the end of the month but let's worry about that later~~ don't spoil the CNY mood hey?

It's Chinese custom to also do house cleaning to welcome Money God and good luck in the new year... Duh, cleaning is the thing i absolute don't enjoy but  can't escape from T___T Yesterday, it was gloomy and raining the whole day. I decided that it was a good day to wash the balcony. As soon as i came back from work, still in my work attire, I pulled out the buckets and broom from the store room and started to sweep, wet, brush the tiles ... To make cleaning fun, i decided to make lots of bubbles... oo la la, how fun was it to be standing in a pool of bubble water! in just 30 mins, I cleaned the windows and the balcony. The place is sparkling clean now! Love how efficient I am! haha... 

Jenn in action

What's my next task? I think for now, i deserve to sit back, relax and eat my newly bought pickles (acar) with prawn crackers :P

Dare to try?

Visiting a new country has never been easier these days... Just a few clicks, u could read almost anything about the place.... CooL!

When Jane i first visited Taipei in 2000 for a 1.5 months study course,  all we knew about Taipei is that they have many funny TV shows, famous celebrities, which we learned from the TV programs rented from the video shop in China Town.... now you know which dinosaur age i came from haha...

We were very lucky to live near to the infamous Shilin Night Market. Everyday after our class, we would visit the night market with our course mates. To me, Shilin is a totally new world... i had never seen sooOoo many people and so many stalls selling things beyond my imagination in my life! And the colourful signboards sticking out and overlapping each other made my head spun... Gosh! this is so vibrant! I love this place! 

Everytime we went to Shilin, we discovered something new! AMAZING! I remember our first night there, we discovered smelly tofu. The smell (fragrant?) was new to my nose... When the smell hit me, I thought one of us had accidentally stepped on wet dog poo! All of us stopped in the middle of the street and started checking our shoes... to find nothing... so we concluded that, the smell must be from the blocked and dirty drain or rubbish bins nearby and we cursed the inconsiderate people for polluting the world.... 

Then suddenly, we saw a yellow sign with 3 red Chinese characters - 臭豆腐(Smelly Tofu)…. People were actually queuing up for what smells like rotten food to me... Being curious and adventurous, we decided to try it... just to find out why people actually like it.. Why people are willing to handover their hard-earned money for something that smells awful! When we received the fried tofu in our hands, we took turns to smell it.. OMG, it smelled just like SHIT. What's more, we actually paid NT30 to eat shit! No way we were letting our money go down the drain! so we ate it! 

Hehe, i must say, smelly tofu is just like durian  ~ smells awful but tasty!

Fried Smelly Tofu

~ Look ordinary, smell awful but yummo!

So the moral of the story? Never judge a book by its cover.. Sometimes you will be surprised when u look "inside"... 

However, I absolutely cannot swallow Steamed smelly Tofu... it's 753904820495 times smellier and it tastes  53904820495 worse than the fried one... I couldn't even let it sit in my mouth for 1 second more. Yup, i spitted it out in disgust... Sorry to those who love steam smelly tofu... I tried my best.... And for that effort, it's OK for me to judge :P

Jungle durians

Not everyone's favourite but it's OK coz that means

We can have them all to ourselves! Yaye~  

Fruits we love

Bought a few local avocados from kakak. Mum loves avocados! When I went to the pantry to choose, i was amazed at how big there were!! The skin was dark purple in colour and from far, they kinda look like eggplant!

I want avocado milk.....

When I brought them home to show mum, mum was surprised at their size too! So how did we eat these babies? We made avocado milk every morning. It's fatty i know but in a good way, so never mind :P I remember, when i was in Hanoi in 2008 (has it been that long??), we found this place that serves many variety of fruit drinks. And one of our favourites is ice-blended avocado milk of course! We went there everyday for it!  It was pretty cheap too.. $4 for a big cup I think. 

Mum loves avocados so much that we even have an avocado tree in Aust home. When mum made sushi for us, she always put a lot of avocado slices... Do you know that avocado goes very very very well with Japanese mayo? Double the fat but it was yummmm... :P  Recently, mum managed to grow an avocado tree here.... from scratch. She brought many avocados back from Aust and decided that she wanted a tree here  so she could just pick her favourite fruit from the garden next time... so she planted the avocado seed and  it's growing fast! Hope I don't have to wait long to pick my own avocados!! hehe... 

I must say, mum has a green thumb. She can grow anything she wants. Of course she showers them with lots of love too... Just look at the fruit trees in our garden! 

Pameloes danggling on the tree!

Assorted tropical fruits in the garden!

We also have mango tree, passion fruits, coconut trees and just not long ago, mum planted durian tree! ha! this, i will have to wait a very long time before i can enjoy its fruits. I wonder if I would still be around by then... :S

Celebrations

Psk... It's my FIRST post for the Snake year! 

First of all, I would like to welcome LJ back... She was gone for 3 months and how i missed her dearly! Am grateful that she hasn't abandoned me even though she now has a little princess to feed.. errr i mean look after.... BIG flying kiss from me to u, LJ! Hope it didn't got hijacked half way :P

My cousin finally tied the knot with her British bf, well, now husband on the 2nd last day of 2012.... Many of my relatives came from all over the globe to attend the wedding and oo la la.. Did I have a lot of fun.... it was nice to have a big family reunion, but it would be much better if there were transportation arrangements made for them... Can you imagine that we managed to squeeze 14 adults + 4 big luggage bags in our 2 cars @_@ We almost had to send some people to sit on the top of the cars just like how it is done in Bangladesh liao.... 

A few times, my relatives drove me nuts... because all of them wanted to do different things and be driven to different places  I would if i could  T___T The problem is, there was only one Jenn~ My mum got a bit upset at my aunt because she left us to do all the hard work for her while she and her family partied at home with the in-laws T__T I was supposed to be somewhere partying too instead of slaving away maaannn....  T____________T

On a happier note, the wedding itself was an interesting one ~ there was Muslim prayer, traditional Chinese tea ceremony and an European-style wedding reception. We called it a 3-in-1 wedding haha... It is good that the far-away guests got to experience all 3 different cultures in one go! My cousin's British in-laws adapted pretty well and especially loved the tea drinking and ang pow giving session haha... BTW, my cousin looked gorgeous on her big day! 

Here are some of the funny pictures taken on the wedding night... 

Immature boys :P

When will they grow up?

Finally, a proper one...