Lychi and Me

"A dog doesn't care if you're rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he'll give you his. How many people can you say that about? How many people can make you feel rare and pure and special? How many people can make you feel extraordinary?" - John Grogan

Anh and I watched Marley and Me last night.

Its a pretty old movie (2008?) which stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston and tells the story of a young couple and their life after marriage with their dog Marley.

I've been wanting to watch this movie since I read that it makes grown men cry.

I guess I wanted to test my mettle..... see how manly I am.

And oh how the mighty fall :(

I failed miserably!  OMG! By the end of the movie, I've been reduced to a puddle of tears.  Anh and I were a complete mess with tears streaming down our faces.   It WAS SO SAD!!   I don't think I've been this sad in a movie EVER!!!

In my defence, I was crying because Anh started crying.  Seeing her sad makes me sad. I guess watching the movie with Lychi between us didn't help either.  I'm a sucker for sad dog movies now (talking dogs weird me out though).

Over the past few months, Anh and I have become very attached to Lychi.

She's just such a great dog.  Always happy to see us and always wanting to cuddle with us.  Regardless of the mess she creates (and time of morning she wakes us) we're so happy she's a part of us.  

Marley and Me wasn't all about the dog though.  It was also about growing up and decisions, the life after marriage. It was like a preview of life for Anh and myself.  Moving houses, changing jobs, children, a taste of things to come.  It struck me that many of these things will happen to us too, its all just a matter of when.

And whether it be happy or sad,  Lychi will be there, barking, gnawing, slobbering..
and growing with us.

Good Friday

This year's Good Friday was especially sad because Anh's granddad passed away.

Edgar's been battling cancer for a long time and the damage to his liver has taken its toll.

We visited Nana this afternoon and she's coping well.  She said she's already missing him but she's happy that he's not suffering anymore and he's gone to a better place.

I admire Nana's courage and strength but I feel so sad for her.  She has her kids and grand kids, but I just can't imagine what it would be like to lose someone you've loved for over 50 years.

Nana says shes going to have to learn how to be by herself now.  :(

I'm again reminded how precious life is and how we shouldn't take for granted the time we have with our loved ones.

Married

I'm officially married!

Wow, what a ride.

Phew!

Again, what a ride  :)

It was almost a year ago when I proposed and I can't believe how much has happened!

It's been a tremendous experience, one that's too big for words.  So many ups and downs and things that go sideways!?  Its something I wouldn't do again that's for sure!  But if I had a chance to change anything,


I would keep everything the same.

Engagement
A while back, I was driving home after I saw Anh and I was listening to one of my old CD's.

Ronan Keating's Bring you Home album.  Track 2 - "This I promise You" played.

I've heard the song many times before, but this time, it sounded like the song was for Anh.
That's when I realised she was the one for me, the one I'll be dancing the song with.

I know thats corny and all, but its true.  :)












A few months later I bought the engagement ring :)

Preparation
I think preparing for a wedding is the ultimate test for couples.

Its the biggest day of your life as a couple and everyone's got a different idea of how the day should pan out.

Then you're told that you should do this and that and you've got time, finance, and every man and his dog bearing down on you.  Its a mammoth of a task!

You try your best to satisfy everyone but you risk losing what you set out to do in the first place, having  you're own wedding!

But somehow, we managed. :)

Anh and I put a lot of hard work to our wedding and when we hear how much our guests enjoyed our day, little bubbles of happiness burst inside us.

Tea Ceremony

Our big day started with the tea ceremony at the bride's house.

Its Vietnamese tradition for families to offer gifts to each other.

My family brought gifts of fruits, alcohol, sweets and a roast pig for the bride's family.

The bridal couple then offered prayers to ancestors and tea to family for their blessings.

When I think about it, a few trays of food, alcohol and a roast pig got me the hand of a lovely girl :P

Bargain!


Church Ceremony

Our wedding ceremony was in St Michael the Archangel, a beautiful chapel in Leederville.  The church was really beautiful that day with the sun rays passing through the yellow glass windows giving us a golden tinge inside.

And our priest, Father Hong was the best!

He's been coaching us for a few weeks already in preparation for the wedding but his service was most entertaining.  He got his beautiful wedding message of communication and forgiveness with magic tricks and great humor.

I cried laughing when his wallet caught on fire!

Reception
After an afternoon of taking photos - we had our wedding reception in the Perth Exhibition and Convention Centre.

The room looked fantastic and Anh did a great job making up our centrepieces. We all enjoyed a generous banquet with the beautiful views of Perth city.

There's the beautiful cake my sister decorated.

And I really enjoyed the speeches.

There was crying everywhere!  The maid of honour had my bride bawling her eyes out halfway through her speech.  My brothers had me bawling my eyes out of laughter in their speech.  And I think we had a few tables bawling their eyes after our speech too!

We finished off the formalities with our bridal dance.

I'm not really sure how we did. In my head, I imagined we'd be waltzing like the pros, gliding across the foggy dance floor with spotlights following us.  Instead, I felt super clumsy, tripping a few times on Anh's dress.  I guess its karma for all the times I laughed at groom's tripping on their bridal dance.  :)

It was nicer than what I imagined because this time Anh was laughing with me.

All the small things that were not expected made for one memorable day.

After the reception we crashed into our hotel room and literally melted into our bed.  We were just so tired and the beds were super duper soft. Months of work, preparation and stress faded away.

It was the best feeling.

Season Ender - Flying Solo

August has flown and I have no doubt that September will fly even faster.

I'm getting married in September.  :)

So lots of activities and maybe another slow month blog-wise.

Its a really nice warm fuzzy feeling knowing that I'll be spending the rest of my life with someone I love and cherish.  because I really love being with Anh.

I look forward to having our puppies and walking them and going on trips and eating burgers and sleeping late.  We're really looking forward to the marriage - and not so much the wedding - yeeckz!

The wedding prep has gone relatively okay.  Some minor hiccups, but Anh and I seem to find a way.  Actually Anh's been a tower of power with the wedding stuff.  She's ploughing through most of the work, where I seem to be dragging my feet.  I do help - but I'd like to think I give more creative and inspirational help.  Whether or not its actually helping, thats another story :P

I'm just a boy, in front of a girl.. 

In the end I'm sure it will all work out just fine.

It always does.

Susan and Sunnie

Its been a sad week for Anh and myself for our friend's lives have tragically changed.
Our hearts and prayers are with you.

Video Capture

We reached a momentous milestone today.  One that I would liken to the moonlanding.  Lolz


We got Skype going.

As the techspert in the house, I kinda have final say in all things technological and I've been avoiding webcams for years because I think of them as gimmicky.


But after months of nagging (from other Skype users) I finally caved in and bought a web cam.


I was pleasantly surprised when we got our first video call streaming clearly to my brother in Albany, about 600km's away.  


Its like watching YouTube, only that it's live and interactive and doesn't have Jessica Chobot.


My parents and I were very amused by LifeCam Dashboard effects like making our heads big and wearing hats :P


My bro took his laptop around the house and gave us a virtual tour of his place.  
He even showed us his pots of baby corns.  


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

I was busy last week putting together my Dad's birthday video presentation.  


Thank you Windows Movie Maker for once again saving my life. :P


My dad turned 65 early this month and we thought playing a dedication would be a great idea for his birthday celebration.  We put together a chronological slideshow with his baby pictures right through to his most recent Christmas photo with all the major events of his life in between:  high school, university, wedding, kid, second kid, third most awesome kid, another kid, kids growing up and getting married and grand kids.

Thats me pulling on my brother's leg

Even though my dad got a bit teary, he really liked it and thanked us for it.


Now even though I saw the video about sixty gazillion times whilst making it, it was only when I saw it played on the big screen did it hit me that what I had, photos of my dad's life, was something that was 65 years in the making.


I'm less than halfway through his journey and I can see that there's still so much to look forward to.


So much happy memories to be made.

The Proposal

You just know

when you know.

And I know I love her

and

I can't wait for the rest of my life with her.

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

OMG!!!

HOW DO I DO THIS?!!

DO YOU GUYS KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO PROPOSE THESE DAYS?!!!

Do you know how much PRESSURE there is to make it really special?!!! IT'S INSANE!?!!

Everything has to be perfect. Like perfect - perfect!!!

The ring, how its done, the scene - ALL HAS TO BE SUPER DUPER SPECIAL!

Like Big Mac 'special sauce' special?

No. More like how-you-proposed-will-be-told-to-everyone-including-your-neighbour's-great-great-great grandchildren special.

So not only must it blow the socks off of her, but it needs to impress five generations thereafter! Talk about pressure!!

It needs to be sweet, romantic, sentimental and funny (all the typically girly requirements which of course is nearly impossible to do).

It's crazy!! This world has gone nuts I tell you.

Nuts.

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

Three.

Four.

One.

or

Twelve?!!! WTFBBQ?!!

These are the month's salary I've been told I needed to save up for the engagement ring. I was like *choke* THAT MUCH?!!!! for an engagement ring?!!!

HOLY $&1)#!

Hahahaha

*DEEP SIGH*

It's the first real test of your love :P

But I knew I couldn't propose without a ring. This was something I needed to do.

I also knew that buying diamonds is really tricky. You can get really burnt if you didn't know what you're doing.

So I made sure I did a lot of research. I googled diamonds and learnt about the four C's. But most helpful was reading pages and pages of the Vogue forums. To catch a fish you need to think like fish!! Hehehe.

I also went on James-Bond-espionage-spy mode. I spied on her jewelery box when she wasn't looking (it wasn't hard, I've raided her underwear drawer many times). I checked the

type of rings she had and measured her ring size (her ring size = my pinky finger size! yes!)

Taking these into consideration, I felt I had enough material to go into a ring store without feeling completely lost. Power through knowledge!!

One Friday afternoon, I went to Tiffany's, Hardy Brother's and Rosendorff in the city. I think I spent a good half an hour on each store talking to staff and having a good look at what they had on display.

What made it easy was I knew exactly what I wanted, a beautiful solitary ring (to symbolise my one love.... awwwww.......)

The guy at Tiffany's was really nice. Really helpful and was really professional. I saw a ring there that I liked (I swear I heard music when I saw the ring).

Hardy Brother's were expensive. Even more than Tiffany's for a similar ring. Plus they made me join their email list which was very evil of them. Not a fan of the all-black interior look either.

The lady who helped me in Rosendorff was the best. She was very excited about my engagement and was very pleased to hear what style of ring I was pursuing. I actually liked what she suggested but when she started offering discounts for it, alarm bells started ringing. Suddenly I

wasn't very sure if I was getting a good deal or not.

But I didn't decide straight away.

I sat on a decision for two more weeks and I passed the shops a few more times.

In the end it came down to what felt right.

It was simple, it was beautiful, it was perfect.

The song by Deep Blue Something was one of the first guitar songs I learnt.

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

Taylor Swift's song Love Story is the inspiration for my proposal.

Its a cute love song and I really like it! Its about love, its got Romeo and Juliet (for which my girlfriend has seen the movie a gazillion times, drooling all over Leonardo).

But the song's best part is the surprise proposal in the end! The music turns slow and melancholic.... which then builds pace and then BAM!!! HE KNELT TO THE GROUND AND PULLED OUT A RING!! Great finish!

I wanted to use this to spring my surprise proposal :P

I was contemplating singing the song and popping the question in the end.

Last time I sang for her on the guitar she was in tears, either she liked it or it was really bad. But to play the guitar and sing, knowing a proposal was to happen in the end sounded risky! She'd pick it from my voice that something was up.

Plus my Taylor Swift voice is VERY unromantic.

Maybe I'd propose by YouTube? Pre-record a song then post it on YouTube? Then we watch the video and pop the question right in the end?! Awesome!!!! :P

Very nerdy though :(

But the idea of a video proposal did grow on me :)

I thought about it a lot more and after much brainstorming I decided to match the cute song with a cute cartoon clip that I'd make.

Now I've done some cartoon sketching a long long time ago, so I was really rusty with my drawings.

To make a whole video required a lot of work. The whole exercise took four nights of brainstorming, sketching and storyboard planning. And it took a full day to put it all together.

I made a total of 140 animation cells for the video

In the end I finished with a very cute proposal video clip.

I'm really quite pleased with how it turned out.

It was cute, romantic, sentimental and special.

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

We had breakfast at Monza that cloudy Sunday morning.

We both ordered dishes with eggs covered in Hollandaise sauce.

How come something so bad could be so good!

The big breakfast got us completely stuffed and so we went to Kings park to walk it off.

Kings park was beautiful that day.

All the flowers had bloom.

There were colours everywhere.

She was in a happy mood that morning (because I've fed her and she's had her coffee hehehe). and were sharing jokes and talking about random things.

Like what we always do.

After going down and up the Kokoda track, we found ourselves a tree to rest under.

We had a view overlooking the city.

The sun had come up and just being under the cool shade was really nice.

It was perfect.

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

On the 18th of October, 2009, under the shade of a tree,

I proposed to her.

After she wiped away the tears, she said yes.

Rest in peace Michael

I woke up to news today of Michael Jackson's death.

For a while I sat in bed blankly staring at the wall.

I'm shocked and saddened. Someone who's influenced me and so many fans with his good will and music is now gone.

Throughout my growing years, his songs were the soundtrack of so many little chapters.

The earliest I can remember was when I was eight. Before I went to sleep, I would listen to his cassette using my moms portable radio with orange headphones. Smooth criminal. I would play this song over and over again (I didn't know who Annie was or what the song was really about. I must have just really enjoyed the melody and rhythm of it all. Plus the alternative was the Phil Collins tape).

My first year in Australia was marked with MJ's song Black or White. My cousins and I even did a dance routine to it.

Fan highlight would be going to the HIStory concert.

What a show that was. It was everything I'd expect from a king.

And then some.

Even with all the weirdness that happened later in his life, there is no denying how great a humanitarian and performer he was.

Thank you for all that you have given us.

Friends and Frienemies

I learnt a new word the other day.

Frienemy - pronounced Fre-neh-me.

Pretty self-explanatory. Its a friend who you are superficially nicey-nicey and lovey-lovey with, but deep down, hold only the most malicious of intents for.

Think girls and stereotypical bitch-bashing.

Girl A and Girl B, all peachy and happy for each other. They would talk for hours about boys and go shopping together, complement each other's clothes and buy nice gifts for each other. They even share the names of their future kids together!! Waaaaw! BFFL!! *giggle* *giggle*

But behind each other's back, the razor claws await.

Girl A wants Girl B to grow fat and ugly.
Girl B wants A to get herpes.
Girl B secretly wants girl B's boyfriend to be gay, because he's too hot for her.
Girl A slept with Girl B's ex, who is Girl D's BFFL and are having a baby with.

And so on.

Thankfully, the competitive nature of frienemies feeds on each other so this wonderful symbiotic relationship thrives.

And because frienemies keep their frienemies close (to check on each other).

Though my opinion of a 'frienemy' is theoretical and based on half an episode of Gossip Girl I saw, I came up with a word that would better describe a person I knew in high school.

Friemesis - pronounced fre-meh-sis. A friend and nemesis. A nemesis being a rival whom cannot bested. Perhaps a guy version of a Frienemy.

Whilst frienemies are able to pull back the claws and call truces during shopping days, a friemesis doesn't offer such luxury.

In fact, when or if the friemesis and I cross paths, dark clouds form, petrol prices go up and a baby sea lion cries to mommy.

I had planned on bagging this Friemesis of mine in this post. (You should have seen my Photoshop work. Very scandalous).

Sadly, I'm too nice and I wouldn't do that.

Plus he added me to his Facebook account so he might find out about this post!

But as much as I'd like to write bad things about him, I realise that he is about as important to me as I am to him.

We are galactically opposite to each other. The black and the white. Ying and Yang. The good and the bad.

The water and the fat.

He has become the peg of someone I strive not to become.

And perhaps, I'm the same for him.

Do you have a frienemy or friemesis?

2008 Season Ender

3Willings

1) Wonder Girls!!!! (This dance is too cute)

2) Apollo Justice

3) Pineapple Fried Rice

So here we are again.  

End of another year.

Another crazy year.

Wow.  Well what can I say about 2008? Its been a pretty good year for me because I've accomplished so many things.  

I went to a lot of new places.  

I met new people, experienced new things.  

I was even on TV.

Im the guy in the middle with sunnies :)

And best of all, I enjoyed and shared it with friends and loved ones.

Japan with Anh was the highlight for 2008 though.  Everyday for two weeks was just pure joy.  

And a lot of eating.  

"Can I buy some Tokyo Bananas?" "Haaaaiii!" *Kawaii*

It wasn't all fun and games though.  I had my share of sad times and disappointments in 2008.

My chocolate wasabe chocolate dessert was a disappointment

And it wasn't just me.  A few people work had it very tough this year.  One guy got divorced,  another lost a nephew and another lost their dad.  

Today I found out my high school friend's partner was murdered.  It was really quite shocking news.  I didn't know how to react to something like that.  

I was just sad for him.  Something like that you don't really expect to happen to someone you know.  

But I'm a firm believer that from bad things, better brighter things will bloom.  

Wall-e is a fighter! Fighting!!

Like the financial crissis and the drop in fuel prices.  

The greedy people got punished and the normal people get cheaper fuel.  Hehehe.

Never take anything for granted was the Christmas message this year.  

My dad is the bestest.

I will take that message to heart.  

I hope to spend more quality time with those special to me.  

And that should make 2009 another good year.  

Thank you 2008.

Korean look for 2009?

World Apart

3Willings

1) Little Big Planet

2) Lisa Miskovsky - Still Alive

3) Fallout 3

A bit of hope doesn’t hurt anyone. But as much as we might like all men to be paragons of strength and honour and all women to be wise, patient and faithful; life is not a romance novel.

 

These lines from my daily read struck me quite hard.

 

Ok, maybe life isn't a romance novel, but surely people are striving to be the good right?

 

Am I in denial? Am I the only one working to make this statement untrue?

 

I go to bed thinking all the guys are doing their best to be paragons of strength and honour. Coz that's what I aim to be. 

And I hope the lasses out there are striving to be wise, patient and faithful.

 

But reality and the media are throwing my fairy tale world apart.  

I'm starting to think that it really is a lost cause. 

 

The blob

3Willings
1) Red Alert 3
2) Beck
3) Kings of Leon

After giving my girlfriend an earful last night for splurging on Sex and the City box set, I went ahead and bought games for myself.

I'm such a hypocrite.

I was going on about self control and instant gratifications (retail therapy). Good things are worth waiting for I said.

Then the first thing I do in the morning is go on an online shopping spree.

*warning - do not look up "Sex in the City" at work.. that's kinda like looking up porn. Its "Sex AND the City"


My self control is such a temperamental thing.

One day I'm like a samurai, able to withstand temptation and have utmost control of myself. Exercising, studying, working, saving up money.

Concentration is as sharp as a razor blade.


Then something happens and I turn in a blob.

A blob is kinda like an evil twin, only a lot more disgusting.
A blob who doesn't exercise. A blob who doesn't eat right or sleep right. I turn to someone who suddenly only care about whats happening in the next two hours.

Then after being a blob for a while, I cross a barrier.



A threshold for which I say "Damn Will! Look at yourself! What are you doing? This is not you!"

Then its back to samurai mode.

It's such an exhausting cycle.

The Dogs Who Have Shared Our Lives

The dogs who've shared our lives. 
In subtle ways they let us know 
their spirit still survives. 

Old habits still make us think we hear a barking at the door.
Or step back when we drop 
a tasty morsel on the floor.

Our feet still go around the place
the food dish used to be,
And, sometime, coming home at night,
we miss them terribly.
And although time may bring new friends
and a new food dish to fill,
That one place in our hearts
belongs to them...
and always will.
---Linda Barnes ---

Toffee, thank you for all wonderful happy memories.

Regrettably Evil

3Willings
1) Beauty and the Beast
2) Roast Chickens
3) 6 Cycle Mind

They say that you shouldn't regret things. I've heard people say:

I don't regret anything. Whatever I've done in the past makes me the way I am now

Ok. That may be true that it makes you the way you are now, but I think people who say they don't regret anything are full of bullocks.

I'm sure WE ALL had times when we go out and regret not wearing a jacket or bringing an umbrella. Or maybe you buy something on a holiday and regret it when you get back. Or eating a meat pie and regret not heating it well enough.

You may or may not learn from them, but life is definitely full of regrets.


One of the things I regret was buying a car by myself.

Would I would regret buying a A$80,000 Lancer MR - EVO X? Yes. Not enough cup holders.

See, I've did my homework (or so I thought).

I researched everything about the type of car I wanted.

I looked up models, accessories, efficiency, power, history, warranty, servicing, insurance, registration, paint choices. I wrote a comprehensive, weighted scoring criteria (based on price, looks, power) which narrowed my choice to two car models. Then I test-drove the two models before I made a final decision.

So the choice was clear. I knew the car that I wanted and I kinda knew the price. So I was protected from sales pitch yah?

Fail.

I messed it up and walked away spending much more than I should have.



Where did I go wrong?



The car accessory girl.

She was evilness on hot legs, skirt and an awesome smile.


What happened was, after a long negotiation with the evil and ugly mr car sales manager, I finally got the car in the right price range.

I was happy and so I relaxed a little.









THEN BAM!!

I was introduced to the car accessory girl!

She was friendly and smiley and everything the car manager was not.

Surely someone like her wouldn't try and screw me (I mean that in a financial sort of way... she was out of my league anyways).

A few minutes later, I bought scratch protection, paint protection, car tinting, rust protection, leather guard and plastic protection (?!) for my car.

I don't even know what half of them did, but I bought it anyways.

*Sigh*

Little did I know that this was a common strategy. After the awful negotiations, when your guard is down, they pass you on to the most vicious of sales agents, the accessory girl.

Its been three years now since I bought my car and I will admit that I regret buying all them accessories.

The car is in good condition because I look after it. Not because they applied some mysteriously invisible magic formula.

Oh XR5 - if you were only more fuel efficient..... and A$10,000 cheaper...

I tell this story to my close friends and family who buy cars in hope they don't fall for the accessory girl. But even with this story, they still fall for her.

My older brother bought a Corolla and the accessory girl sold him window tinting.

My parents recently bought a Honda Civic and even with my repeated warnings to say NO to the accessory girl, they bought car upholstery protection. Blame it on the the coffee-spill-on-the-demonstration-rag trick.

Now my youngest brother is in the market for a new car.

I pray that he too doesn't fall victim to the evil (but always hot) car accessory girl.

Doc Err Antenna

1) Nintendo Wii Fit
2) September - Cry for You
3) Guitar Hero - Aerosmith

I haven't seen my fiancee for a week now...
.. and yet we live together
Just eleven more years

- Doctor training to be surgeon

Both my brothers are doctors.

They come in very handy when you need medical advice in a jiffy (and can't be bothered googling for answers).

But if ask either of them if they would have picked another job, now knowing what its like to be a doctor, they would have to think about it for a while.

Salary is pathetic, the hours are long and the patients are always sick! Don't even get them started on the nurses (btw sexy nurses are mythical creatures like unicorns).

"But it must be nice having that doctor prefix?" I asked my brother.
"You can have my prefix if you want. I just want some sleep"

**********

To err is human, to forgive is divine.

I have qualms with this saying. One, why are people allowed to make mistakes and everyone are just to 'accept' it. That's a bit unfair. I think I haven't reached my quota of mistakes yet.

Two, to forgive is freaking hard!

**********

I had a problem getting the Wii to communicate with my wireless router. Blame it on the concrete walls and distance.

Lucky for me I stumbled on this website!

Do it yourself antenna!!

I surfed the pages and made myself a 2.4GHz directional antenna.

I had to remove the logo they put coz it was uncool

Yes, I know - you're thinking. OMGWTFBBQ!!! Mega g33koidness!!!

My green directional antenna!! hehehe

But there was a problem and I fixed it.
And it didn't cost me anything (only a bit of time)

If only life problems were as straight forward.

Sentimientos Potatos

3Willings
1) Flashpoint
2) ATB - Trilogy
3) McEurope

My family loves collecting things.

My grandmother loves collecting junk. Her house has mountains of newspapers, magazines, bottles and scraps of metals. She says she collects them for selling in recycling centers. She even collects orange and mandarin peelings. She says she can turn them to candies or air fresheners.

Eww.

This is not the kind of magazines my grandma collected. Although I wish she did.

What I'm not a fan of is how she collects cooking oil. Not wanting to throw it away, she re-uses it for yonkers. One time I was cooking and I reached out for this can labeled 'cooking oil' - ithad this thick black liquid that smelt awfully bad. I swear, the cooking oil denatured back to being crude oil. It was really gross.

More stuff that smells bad - fake cologne

My dad follows my grandmother's footsteps in that he collects small little things.

Pen caps, paper clips, blown light bulbs, dead batteries, 8mm screws, magnets from speakers. Small little things are everywhere. One time I was playing around my dad's room, I found a gold tooth! What a find that was.

My sister too is in the collecting business. She's very pro-active about minimising land fill, so she holds on to broken appliances so that she doesn't have to buy new ones (which she says is the cause of over-flowing land fills).

Me, I'm a hoarder of sentimental things.

My good ole mix tapes. Too bad I don't have anything to play this anymore.

If I found sentimental value on anything (which is quite often), I'd most probably keep it forever.

Like ticket stubs to Forrest Gump - coz I loved that movie.

Or an oddly shaped piece of plastic a classmate gave me back in high school - because I thought 'it was cool'.

My very first bank card, library card, gym card. I even have my ID badge from year 7 camp.

If I had the chance to keep my first used diaper - I think I would have.

One of hundreds of CDs I threw away. Where am I gonna go today?

My drawers were filled with all sorts of stuff I couldn't sentimentally throw them away.

I still have the first red packet ever given to me. Money still intact (in fact, all red packets given to me I never take the money out..... should take the money out?) I guess I'm a bigger fan of packet than whats inside.

I had in my drawers, star shaped straws that a friend taught me how to make. I had the very first one I ever made and one I made using Hungry Jacks straws (because Hungry Jacks straws have sentimental value to me).

I can go on and on and on about stuff I had.

Had, being the operative word.

Last weekend I had a moment of cleaning fervor and I decided to finally let go of such sentimental stuff.

Not all, but some.

I went drawer by drawer and cold heartedly grabbed stuff and threw them in the bin.

My year 10 drawing project which got me an A+ went in the bin. Travel brochures for Disneyland 2001 went in the bin. My 'TV Hits New kids on the block' stickers went in the bin.

I had so much stuff I filled half a green bin.

At the end I felt strange. The logic in me is saying 'well you haven't looked for it in years - why would you miss it now?'

I really hated throwing this away. But sadly, they don't make polaroid films anymore.

I was happy that I was moving on and clearing out space for new stuff. But I was partly sad coz I felt I was betraying those past happy moments by throwing them away.

I guess thats kinda part of growing up isn't it. Moving on and not living in the past.

This wasn't mine. I threw it away anyways.