Officially Not Young

Its my birthday week and we've been doing lots of eating!!

 

Yumm!!!

I really should stop these huge birthday dinners coz I'm sure their starting to affect my health.

But how can you say no to eating ?  :P

Had a lovely birthday this year.  Got some quality time with my families (plural now!) and we all had a good time.

Such a contrast from last years big 30th mexican birthday celebration.  That was a lot of work and preparation.  It was all good fun and well worth the effort but I don't think I could do another costume party this year.

What's amazing is how much can happen in a year.

In the last twelve months, I gotten married, gone on a honeymoon, got a puppy, been a groomsman, got a sandwich-melt-thing-that-makes-triangle-shaped-toasted-goodness, even got new a new phone contract.  And thats just me!  Family and friends have had kids, got married or engaged, bought houses, got new jobs.

Life certainly passes faster as you get older.

The best part of my birthday, and I guess every other day, is I get to spend it with Anh. :)  Coming home to her (and Lychi) always brings a smile to my face.

My birthday wish would be for people to cherish their time with their loved ones.  I'm seeing lots of friends and family work so hard that I feel like they've missed the point on why they're working so hard.

There is a global shortage of time which makes it so precious - which is why it should be spent with loved ones.

Octooober

Before I post the BIGGEST THING EVER TO HAPPEN TO ME! I thought I'd post the little things that made my month of October. Save the best for last. :P

*****************

Our house went from having nine people running around like lunatics (everything was frantic during my brother's wedding) to just three people now.

And its really quite shocking how quiet the house has become.

I blame it my little nephews. They're so loud, always running around screaming and crying. You kinda get used to it after a while, but it goes weird when they're not there.

***************

ICE CREAM!!!

For some weirdly reason, there's been a lot of ice cream eating around my household this month.

Its like every dinner someone would should out "Ice cream?!" Not that its a bad thing, just weird because ice cream was a contraband in our house for its high sugar and fat content. Now its like ice cream day every day!

My brother introduce us to this brand of ice cream - available from Fresh Provisions.

SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOODDDD!!!

Also available from Fresh Provisions is this - Hershey's Choco Syrup!!

SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOODDD!!

***************

First Aid

Anh and I did a first aid course together.

Learning what to do when people choke, how to tie up a bandage and sling, what to do in emergency - all good stuff!!

But I don't know about the take-home dummy to practice CPR though... that was a bit crappy. And the course itself was too rushed. It tried to cover a lot of theory and practical stuff in the one day. Thankfully we've both done some sort of training before so it didn't go over our head.

Now I just have to remember to order the first aid kits.

But what was really cute/cool/funny was us being in the same class together. We were like high school kids with little desks and paper and such. Then we had lunch together, we shared notes, compared test scores, then we both put each other in the recovery position.

:)

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I'm so happy today!! Lots of happy news.

BIG BIG HAPPY NEWS!! :P

Plus happy to have my room back.

Ecstatic to be re-united with my smelly bed!

Watch this space the next few days.

Looking to unload all these things off my head/phone/chest.

Disconnected

Must be karma!

Following my last post about being connected online, I find myself in a completely opposite position!

First off - I lost my room to my rely who's flown from overseas to join in my brother's wedding celebration. Good for them, but bad for me!!

My auntie is not even using my computer!

24" of high definition gaming wasted!!! I can't wait to play Assassin's Creed and the new Left 4 Dead campaign!

I miss my bed :(

And on the same day I lost my room, my phone died!! So I couldn't even check the interwebz through that!!

Its such a shame because I have so much to blog about.

Now its slowly leaking out of my head.

All this creativity now just puddling near my feet.

Countdown continues

Its almost here.

I better start doing some work.

Or I'll mess it up. :)

Countdown Begins

Counting down the days.

:)

Twiddle Dee Twiddle Dum

I have succumbed to popular pressure.

I am now on Twitter! Hehehe.

Of course I joined purely out of curiosity. Seems like a lot of companies are now on Twitter and I'd like to know what kind of promotions they have and stuff.....

Ok fine. I really just wanted to follow what the celebs are up to. I'm following Ne-Yo and Mariah Carey. More to be added soon :P

I just love how the interwebz provides us with so many things to waste our time on.

3Willings
1) Ginuwine - "Last Chance" Hahaha this song is awesome. Only a genius could use lyrics like "If I only got one shot to win you, Then call me Jordan fourth quarter in 92"

2) My Nikes! They're so comfy. And I'm liking the red and black and high-cut look. So retro-ish. Bringin' the game back!
3) Loving my new air fresheners. They smell quite nice. Its like "apples" everywhere I go. Plus they look very cute. Pull chicks I reckon'

Pictures by Birthday

I think I've contacted a really bad strain of Swine Flu.  

The type that makes you pig out a lot  :P

Courtesy of all these mini birthday celebrations I've been having. 

I have to say many thanks to my family and friends.  I'm not used to being spoiled so much.  But everyone's been really great.  

I get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about how really lucky I am for having such wonderful people around me.

****

I greeted my birthday watching Koreans!  I really should sleep early.  Just one more episode... 

I actually ironed my work clothes!

My eggplant and keyboard at work

I brought a box of Granny's giant muffins to work!!  So much better than the usual Cheesecake Shop stuff that everyone brings or the muffins from this place. And can get them cheap cheap from their factory!  

I actually did work on my birthday! Scary stuff.

If you don't like Honey Chicken @ Chilliz, there's something seriously wrong with you.

Peter gave me a Persimmon for my birthday. Hopefully it gives me luck :P

Pub #1 - Bobby Dazzlers.  The girls left us and went to the Guess Sale.  Typical!

Pub #2 - Moon and Sixpence.  Tania and Mikeal dropped by. Shame someone farted whilst I was talking to them. That and the alcohol made conversations very difficult.

Pub #3 - Belgian.  Wooaw! Nice!

Pub #4 - Carnegie's. We didn't stop to drink here coz the guards were being picky with our shoes. 

Pub # 5 - Dirty Nelly.  There's only so much Guinness I could take!

Pub break - Takas! We discovered you can order Jap mayo for 50cents!! Oh yeah!  

Pub # 6 - Tiger Lils.  Packed!  All was alright until the drink below...

After these shots (Chatruz?! and Marilyn Manson), I lost sense of taking photos. 

Or why I'm a Spartan.

Legs went numb 20 minutes later.

+Hang over.

End of my Financial Will

3Willings

1) Guildwars
2) Kung-Fu Panda
3) Red Herring

aka as no shopping at all

Browsing through the junkmail cluttering the diner table, my mouth salivates as I read the words "HD LCD TV Sale - get free PS3".

Its that time of the year and there's no denying the endless advertisements to get rid of stock.

"All must clear"

But dreams of shiny toys are just that, dreams.

For me anyways.

I don't' know why, but the rising fuel cost seem to had an effect on me.

Back when I was young , when the peso slipped down from the US dollar, petrol prices went up.

Which in turn cause the price of meat, vegetables and all food to go up.

Which in turn causes services to go up.

And therefore everything goes up.

I think its starting to happen here in Australia. You'll know what I mean when the Big Mac price index goes up.

So maybe thats why I've been a bit cautious with the recent record breaking price rise of petrol.

But not only that, I've been burnt too many times of buying stuff that I don't need. Blame holidays, blame depression, blame it on the rain, blame it on ebay.

But most importantly, one reason to stop spending this time of the year is the evilness that's the taxman.

This phantom menace comes only once a year. But even with the constant barrage of 'tax time' on tv and bus stands, I always seem to fail to save up (because I always get a stupid tax deficit).

But not this year.

I've been waiting for you Mr taxman.

When that bill comes around, I'll be ready. I will whip out my wallet and...

and..

and..

and..

realise that I've done the same thing again this year.

Birthday Saved by the Chicken

3Willings
1) Curry Fish Heads
2) Devil May Cry
3) Sony Walkman

Work today was pretty bleh.

Sadly work does not discriminate if it's your birthday or not.

And some people will be difficult, regardless of how many profiteroles you bring in.

That's why I've decided to dedicate my birthday wish to making less 'bleh' days.
If people would just stop making other people's lives more miserable, then we can all be happy chappies.

So my wish is for that everyone to follow the golden rule.

Thankfully today allowed for my traditional birthday dinner of KFC and Rice.

Nothing like the Sanders to perk things up again.

The Elephant monkey

3Willings:
1) Jelly in a cup
2) All you can eat prawn cocktails
3) Miss Philippines 2008

"How does one eat an elephant.?
One bite at a time."

That's what I always tell myself when embarking on something new and gigantamous(TM).

And today I took a big bite into that elephant I call home building.

I signed about ten million paper documents and contracts to finally complete my home construction pre-start.

Pre-start is the final meeting you have with the building company before they begin the construction of your house.

Its kinda like a really really really really long conversation with a mobile phone salesman. They explain to you the different plans and the different networks and the rates and such.

The difference is that you're buying the construction of a house rather than a phone plan.
And home construction doesn't come with a hands free kit or a leather case.

It's a pretty hairy experience.

We are talking about the second most biggest investment you'll make in your life. Biggest would be getting a girlfriend->wife. That's a lifelong contract :P

But I guess if you know what you want, then everything would be straight forward. It's very easy to get lost in the endless permutations of paint schemes, home designs, brickwork, laminates, roof colour, tiles, knob fittings and door colour.

There was a point where I nearly went nuts choosing from eight different types of white tiles. I mean geeze! How many shades of white tiles could one have?!

Anyways, that's a big monkey off my back.

I'm did my best so I'm sure it will turn into a nice little abode.

Shame no one I know like artificial grass. And it's a shame they wouldn't let me put a spa in the living room. That would've been neat.

The site

2007 Season Ender

Wow. Can you imagine that. 2007 is almost over!

Its gone turbo fast I reckon!

So many different things have happened. And I wish I could have captured all of them in this blog. That way I can look back and say 'hey, I did that didn't I? hmm that was fun'.

But I guess I didn't want to bore everyone with anecdotes on how my Final Fantasy characters were leveling up (which I think is a blog worthy achievement)

But for now, lemme do a recap on some of the things that was 2007.

January

2007 actually started a few weeks early for me. Around December 06, when my girlfriend told me that she'll be be working far far away from me. Well.. i dunno if its that far. 420 kilometres is closer than being inter-state or overseas. But its not close enough for bootie calls me to visit her at frequently.

So my year started off with an emotional roller coaster of not knowing what will happen between us. Everything had that bitter sweet taste. Happy she's moving on to the next chapter in her professional life and sad and worried of what was to happen to us.

Mr Strong and girlfriend - Margaret River

January was also the month I moved in with my brother. It was a temporary arrangement because bro was planning to rent out the house later this year. So I only did a partial move.

It was hard not knowing where home was.

It was a difficult month (especially when it was the month I started the 'no fast food diet').

February

So now there's 400km separating me and my girl.

And I guess guys, when left alone, end up playing around.

Long distance relationship

This is how my affair started.

With Sasha.

My shiny black Nintendo DS :P
Hehehe. I'm such a kid.

Sasha was suppose to keep me occupied for the long bus rides to Geraldton.

The look anyone would make if forced to watch VHS during bus rides

What my girlfriend didn't anticipate was for me to get so attached to Sasha.

When my girlfriend is not around, Sasha lies next to me when I sleep.

And I know Sasha loves me.

She says I have very good hands.

March

Beginning of the footy tipping season. Nice to know for the second year running, I got 1 point again for the first round of games.

March was a month spent mostly catching up with friends.

Looking back in my Inbox, I find a large chunk of emails debating on where to eat.

It's the month I first organised the Man Dinners TM.

The purpose was to save myself from my own cooking without the expense of fancy restaurants (which girls are akin to). Luckily for me, the man dinners turned out to be a good bonding sesh. We were exchanging stories about cars and massages with happy endings.

My sis and me after my bro's graduation. I still don't get what's so good about Oxford 130

April

My parents left for manila and Japan leaving the big house for me to take care of.

Party!! Right?!

Wrong.

It was pretty much cooking and cleaning and walking the dog everyday. It got creepy when I heard noises outside and the dog started barking. Maybe watching those horror movies was not a good idea after all.

My girl and the girls.

Upside was a few pizza nights where I got to pig out. And no one knew about it.

Ben & Ivy's engagement. I didn't have any pics of the newly engaged!

This month also saw a very messy night at Kim's birthday party. There was a moment when all the girls were synchronised vomiting in the toilet. Nice.

May

Went to Dunsborough and enjoyed time with my sister and family. Caught a salmon!

Yay! Up to now I'm still beaming happy with this catch.

My mom is still upset because I'm still keeping the bait in the freezer.
No way I'm throwing out the magic bait!

Lost in Kalbarri

June

My birthday month! Yay!

Had a great time going go-karting with friends. At first I was really worried because it was an early Saturday morning thing. But i think everyone had a good time.

The barbecue afterwards was a bit of a downer though. The grills didn't' get hot enough so the sausages and the chicken I spent hours removing the fat were 'simmered' rather than scorched.

Really happy with my presents too. The guitars are awesome. I have them in my room and jam on it when i find chords to songs that I like.

Right now I'm working on mastering the guitar bit in Justin's - Like I love you. Its only three chords, but the strumming is tricky for me.

Highlight would have to be the KFC and rice dinner on my birthday. It was a fitting end to the no-fast food diet.

July

Yay to Tiger airways! And yay to Singapore!!

It was the great Singapore sale! We ate so much! The free crabs were da bomb!

One of many drinks

Clubbing was a blast with Alvin and Joe. Haahah. Alvin was so wasted he was still drunk at dim sum the next day.

Other highlights were hotel made Lychee beer and DS In-flight entertainment.

August

Young grasshopper needs to work on his horse stance

I had a Kung-fu demonstration dinner. I seriously practiced this year, but I still messed it up on the day. Hopefully I can do better next year. I think my knee is giving out though.

This stuff didn't' do jack to my car

Also upgraded the sound insulation in my car. Took ages to do, but i did it! The result is hardly noticeable and probably not worth it. But I'm just happy that I did it myself.

September
Oh September.

The dreaded September.

Such a heavy birthday month.

It's the month of my mom's, my girlfriend's, girlfriend's mom and girlfriend's sister birthday.

I impulse-bought the present I got my girlfriend.

Still, feeling guilty that I didn't get her the best present. Although technically, i already got her a present in Singapore. But that just sounds like I'm just convincing myself here.

Hopefully something nicer next year.

High School Reunion. These guys are now in a band.

October

October was filled with lots of random stuff.

Metros - the only RnB club in Perth... seriously..

Jeff came to visit and we partied like the good old days. Although there was a special twist on one of the nights! Jeff and I were both promoted to be Alvin's best men. Good stuff!

I think best men duties include drinking and taking lap dances on behalf of the groom. Happy days!! hehehehe.

Speaking of weddings, my cousin Berts got married! I really enjoyed the ceremony. Nice and simple.

This month also saw me cook my first ever Japanese curry. It was so good! Tasted like the ones served in cheap Japanese restaurants. Yummy trans-fat. :P

I also tried boxercising with Ajay on Thursday nights. It's good fun, I'd continue it if I could, but all the jogging and jumping was really messing up my knees.

November
One word.

SexyBack.
(or is that two words?)

Justin Justin! Justin! (have babies with me)!

Yay! There was a whole weekend when radio stations played nothing but Justin. The concert was awesome and I had a great time even though nauseated by something I ate and all the screaming I was doing.

Our love was deep

Me and Somnang took part in singing during Leelis's wedding. I think Somnang was drunk. I, on the other hand, was inspired by Justin! Hopefully we didn't take away too much thunder from the newly weds.

The month was finished off with the Movember Pub crawl. Our group went from pub to pub harassing the locals with our fake moustaches. The aim of the crawl was to visit at least six pubs. We stopped after three. Nobody wanted to buy rounds at the more expensive pubs!

December

December has just been a big blur of Christmas dinners and lunches. It seems like all I've been doing is eat all of this month.

Sooo good, yet sooo bad

I'm glad I got my shopping all sorted out nice and early this year (unlike my brother who was still shopping Christmas eve) That way things didn't get too hectic (except during the wrapping)

I'm really thankful for all my presents. I love it all. :)

Also thankful to the person who invented air conditioning! Damn its been hot! 44C!!! My car recorded 47C on Boxing day!

Well thats about all of it. A brief glance of the year thats been.

What's in store for 2008? :P

We'll find out soon enough. :)

Happy New year everyone.
God bless.

Boxed

Probably the heaviest barbecue chicken in the world.

Its like made of lead or something.

It was super heavy.

And I'm already using two hands and I can feel my muscles straining and aching.

Geeeze!! I felt I was gonna get hemorrhoids just by carrying it!
And this was just at the warm food section at Woolies!!

Phew!!

Relief after I got the chicken into the trolley.

*sigh*

This was gonna be a very long shopping experience.

***** Three hours earlier *****

"RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!!!
KEEEP THOSE WEIGHTS CHEST HIGH!!
MOVE IT! MOVE IT MOVEEEEE IT!!!!" screamed the overly muscled Michelin-man of a gym instructor.

"YOU DIDN'T COME HERE TO WALK SO MOOOOOOVE YYOOOUR LAZY ASSES!!!
YOU CALL THAT A PUNCH??!!!
YOU CALL THAT A PUNCH?!!
SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT!
MOOOOVE IT!!!"

I swear he could get a stroke screaming like that.

But it didn't matter how much he screamed.

I couldn't do anything anymore. My arms were dead.
The 3kg dumbbells have sapped strength out of my arms and no amount of motivational screaming could change that.
(maybe if he shaved his chest and didn't wear the gold chain, I could also take him a bit more seriously)

"How much more of this do I have to do?" I asked AJ.
"Well.. we've just started.. maybe 45 more minutes..."
"Ohh... great..."

The next hour consisted of more sprinting, jogging, frog-jumps, jabbing, uppercuts, hooks. Then when Michelin man decided to 'wind it down' we did 100 push ups, 100 sit-ups and 100 crunches.

Evil bastard.

Maybe the roids got to his brain or something.

***** Two days earlier *****

"Man, I'm sooooo sore. I've been doing this boxing class in Stirling. Its soooo hard!!" complained AJ.

"AJ?! Come on man!! Those exercise classes are easy!!
I think my girlfriend did a few of them last week!!"

And if my girlfriend who could barely do four push-ups can do it, I'm pretty sure everyone can do it.

So I took AJ's offer to join his boxing exercise class.

I mean, how hard could it be?

Plus I've been doing some exercise.... a few months ago I think... maybe...

But I also have a secret weapon!

I've seen the whole series of Hajime No Ippo!

Hajime is a japanese anime series about boxing. In the show you learn about hooks and jabs and shadow punches and dempsey rolls and training and all things boxing. (Btw, this series is the best anime series out there... if you don't believe me - look up the reviews on it).


And from the show, I've learnt that as long as you have 'the Will' and determination, anything is possible.

***** Recent phone conversation with girlfriend*****

"Hey, didn't you do a boxing class a week ago?" I asked.
"No. I did an aerobics and pump class....... "
"ohh.."