==== tattY teddY's taLe ====

Saturday, April 24, 2004

Departure from Sydney

We left Sydney today, with me feeling a bit hesitant to do so. :(

On another hand, I managed to buy some stuffs from both the duty-free shops in Randwick Airport and KLIA. *nyek nyek nyek* Let's see.. I bought a few miniature liquor bottles, Toohey's, a carton of Dunhill Lights, a L'oreal make-up palette and loads of Hersheys and Toblerone (the mega huge ones). Muahaha.. These are all to be distributed to friends, kay. :)

From L-R : Jack Daniel's, Absolut Vodka, Chivas Regal and Bailey's Irish Cream. Cute eh?

Sighz... I'm already missing Sydney... Looking forward to going back there some time soon!

Friday, April 23, 2004

Meeting Joey & Seeing Allianz

Final & another relaxing day before we fly back to Malaysia.. Took a short walk to Franklins for some grocery shopping and then took a train down to Central to meet Joey at Delifrance, George St.

Joey is uhm.. One of sayang's dad's good friend's son who had been in Sydney for a couple of months now to further his studies. So his dad, being the worried one, asked if sayang could go visit him or something, see how is he doing. So, yeah, we met Joey and sayang recorded a very short movie of him saying Hi to his family and all. Hehe.. He then brought us to Schmuck Pub to try Toohey's and Victoria's Bitter, and walked around Pavillion and Market City.

Joey had to leave for classes after that, so sayang & I walked to Market St to see the Allianz building. We even went in to enquire if they have any internal transfer for staff in Malaysia. We did thought of sayang requesting for a transfer, and maybe can apply for PRship there. Imagine, the life there is so laidback, who wouldn't want this kind of life, right? ;)

We walked back to Market City to meet up with my family at the Second Cup Coffee House and did some last minute souvenir shopping at Paddy's Market. Daddy, Mummy & Bel had dinner with Uncle Logan & his family again, so sayang, Auntie Amy & I took a bus down to Circular Quay to look at the night lights over at Sydney Opera House. It was really lovely. I think I'm gonna miss Sydney a lot...

Thursday, April 22, 2004

Warehouse Shopping

As the title goes, we went for warehouse shopping today. Took a train down to Auburn and had a super long walk to Paramatta Road. When I said long, it's like, 15-20 mins walk under the hot sun.

There were soooo many warehouses along that stretch of road!! We actually didn't know where to start. Hehe.. We finally decided to start with Nike. The merchandise there was soooo cheap but I only bought a pair of drawstring pants. We then stopped at McD's for lunch before continuing our hunt for more factory outlets which included Adidas, Kathmandu, Converse, Puma and Rebel. By the time we were done and walking all the way back to Auburn station, we were dead tired.

Mummy in front of the Adidas Factory Outlet

We took the train back to Central, and then Daddy, Mummy, Bel & Auntie Amy went back coz they were going out for dinner with Daddy's childhood friend, Uncle Logan and his family. So sayang & I decided to do some walking around on our own. Bought loads of nougats from Paddy's Market, went to Kinokuniya, QVB, Allans Music (I wanted to check on music sheets.. Hehe..), a couple of record stores, clothing stores and many more.

Since Auntie Amy took us to Darling Harbour last night, we thought, why not we go there ourselves and have dinner there. So we did. Took a slow walk along the Harbour Bridge down to Darling Harbour and had dinner at Passello where we both shared a Penne Bolognaise, a Ham & Pineapple Pizza and a Vanilla milkshake. It came up to AUS$42. *Gasp* Then we went back to Passion Flower for some ice-creams and just "lepakked" at the harbourside, watching the world pass by.

It's amazing how the Australians are so laidback with their lives, and dine and wine whenever they feel like it. Heaven, I tell you..

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Hard Rock Cafe, Manly Beach & Darling Harbour

Today, we concentrated on these 3 places, and we got to wake up later than usual! Woo hoo!! See how tired we were??

Anyway, we went to Hard Rock Cafe first. Coz, we needed to get something from there to add to our present HRC collection. Kiasu lar tu.. Hehe.. Notice the car on top of the ceiling? That's a Cadillac. Well, actually, it was a hearse! Yeah, you read it right. It was supposedly to be a real Cadillac up there, but the place got burnt down about 5 years ago. Instead of getting another Cadillac, which definitely required a very long wait to get it from The States, they got a hearse (Unused one larrr...) and then modified it into a Cadillac. Cool eh? Can't really see that it was actually a hearse. Hehehe...


From there, we walked to Circular Quay and took the ferry to Manly. The beach was absolutely nice. There were a lot of people sunbathing there. The sands were so golden and soft. Bel and I actually took out our shoes and ran towards the sea. Hehe.. We were reliving our childhood days of playing with the seawater and scribbling our names on the sand. ;) Had a lovely walk along Manly and tried out the beef tortellini there. Not bad... Would love to eat that again. Hehe..


And this is taken in the ferry on the way back to Circular Quay.


We came back home early this time, had spaghetti for dinner. Rested well and managed to watch some TV. Later at night by about 8 plus, Auntie Amy took sayang & I out to QVB and walked along Harbour Bridge to Darling Harbour. The scenery there was absolutely awesome! Wished I had brought my camera along then. :( We went to Passion Flower for some ice-cream. I had Cookies & Cream and White Chocolate flavours. Yum yum! We practically sat there for an hour or so, just enjoying our ice-creams, feeling the cool breeze by the harbour. Oh gosh.. I just wanted to sit there the whole night. Quite reluctant to leave actually. Hehe..

And that made me wonder, why is it that we don't have such places in Malaysia? At least a nice cafe with breezy wind...

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Bel Graduates Today

Bel officially graduated today! I don't have to give her monthly allowance anymore!! Muahahhaa.... We started off early since it's a very big day today. Bought her a bouquet of lilies while we were waiting for the bus to take us to the Uni. Took lots of photos before the Convo started.


Bel only managed to get 3 seats for Convo, so Daddy, Mummy and Auntie Amy attended the session. Sayang and I decided to take the bus down to Westfield Eastgarden, a nearby shopping mall. Walked around, looked at shoes and tried out the ravioli and spaghetti at Pasta Naturale. Not bad... After about 3 hours or so, we took the bus back to the Uni, met up with the rest of them and snapped more photos!

By then, it was already near 2pm. Sayang and I hurriedly took the bus down to Circular Quay and managed to catch the ferry to Taronga Zoo. Hhhm.. Looks like we've been to Circular Quay everyday! The Zoo was pretty interesting. We managed to walk around the Zoo within 2 and 1/2 hours! What animals did we see...

Kangaroos! I was so excited to finally see one in front of my own eyes. Hehe... It was just too bad none of the kangaroos there were carrying any Joeys.. It must have been really fuzzy and comfy sleeping in the mum's pouch while she hops here and there. Hehe..
Oohh.. Koala Bear... Soooooo cutee... Ok.. This koala was happily sleeping on the tree, curled up around the tree branch. It just didn't want to budge! Can you see where is its head?

Ahh.. This is better... Clearer view of a very wide awake and hungry koala bear

This is how a Tazmanian Devil look like... So odd.. I had always thought that it would look exactly like the Tazzie in Looney Tunes. Yeah, the crazy one. Hehehe...

Before you think of anything else, the Kodomo Dragon is fake. But the baby is real. Haha.. The baby's mum was snapping pictures of him in front of the statue. I thought it looked very cute, so I snapped a pic too. ;)

Taronga Zoo closes at 5pm, so we managed to walk back to the jetty on time and took the ferry back to Circular Quay. Took a bus to Paddy's Market and did some shopping there. It's like a Flea Market, so you can practically get a lot of cheap stuffs there, even nougats. Then we met up with the rest of them and walked to Marigold for dinner with Michelle and her family. Michelle's dad is actually Daddy's client, and her husband runs the family restaurant in Sydney. So happens Bel frequents the restaurant. Small world.. Her baby daughter, Chloe is sooo cute and chubby. She could practically eat on her own, and she loves abalone. Wow..


We left by 9pm or so, and came back home. Ooohhh.... So exhausting.....

Monday, April 19, 2004

Bel's Pre-Convocation

Tomorrow is Bel's Convocation Day, so she had to go to the uni to collect her robe.. And the whole flock followed. Hehe.. It was the first time that I had stepped onto the UNSW grounds. Ooh.. It was a lovely, modern campus. It looks exactly how a uni campus should be, with all the departmental buildings all on the same ground, lovely gardens to rest and relax on.. It's so different from Uni. of Sheffield, where the buildings are all scattered around. We took the opportunity to snap a number of family photos all over the campus. Hehe...


I took the chance to snap a picture of me standing in front of the Electronic & Electrical Engineering building. You know, 8 years ago after SPM, Mummy and her siblings had been telling me to take SAM and then "go to UNSW. It's a good uni". Almost all of them graduated from there. In other words, kind of like, keep the family tradition >> "Graduate from UNSW". So I spent the entire year in SAM with the pressure that I must go there. I applied for the E&E Eng course in UNSW, and I got it. I was so nearly there to arranging my next 4 years living in Sydney, if it wasn't for the news from BDP that they were collaborating with Uni of Melbourne. After calculating all the costs, I decided to stay back a year, take up the BDP course, and then go to Melbourne. Twist of fate again, somehow I ended up going to Sheffield when I found out that it's E&E Eng course is the #1 course in UK. Looking back at those years, I would probably have graduated in front of the building where I stood. I wonder how would my life have been..


Anyway, we spent most of the day in the Uni grounds before heading to the Circular Quay, coz Bel wanted to snap some photos over there in her graduation robe. How odd.. Hehe.. Oh by the way, did I mention that ithe Graduation Owl soft toy Bel was holding costed me AUS $44?? It came with the matching sash colour and robe as well... *Tsk tsk* All for the love for my sister...


After the whole photo-snapping session, we took a bus down to Bondi Beach and enjoyed the windy breeze... Soooo relaxing... Too bad we reached there a bit too late to watch the sunset. *Sighz* I would just love to watch the sunset for once at a lovely beach.. Watching it at PD don't count. We spent the evening having fish and chips, and eating ice-creams at Royal Copenhagen before we decided to leave Bondi Beach. Auntie Amy suggested that we go take a walk along Kings Cross to see the nightlife. So Auntie Amy, sayang and I took the train to Kings Cross and walked around. It's the same as how Soho, London is. People inviting you to go in and see striptease or ask if you want to have some *fun*. Hehhee... Pretty funny. But I think the nightlife in Amsterdam is even worse, sex is too public over there, what's more the *window shopping*. Quite dangerous for a single girl to roam around the streets in Amsterdam.

The night was still young when we were there. We didn't want to linger around the area until midnight to see the 'actions', so we took the train back home and spent the rest of the night eating tiramisu cake and watching the telly. Tomorrow's gonna be a very busy day...........

Sunday, April 18, 2004

Sydney, Here I Come

Am finally at Sydney for a week's break. Woo hoo!! Bear in mind that this is the first time I've landed onto Auzzie, so yeah, I might feel 'ulu' occasionally. So here I am, with my family & sayang. We're bunking in Aunt Amy's place in Rockdale. We're gonna do some exporing and well, the main reason is to attend Bel's convo. ;)

The first place we went to was the Queen Victoria Building, a.k.a QVB. Definitely English-influenced. Reminds me of England. Ahhh... The few things I like about QVB is the antique lift and ooh.. The toilet. Hehe... Damn high tech, man. When you go into the cubicle, there's a sensor for you to touch to close the door. Once you've done your business, you touch the sensor again to open the door. The basin's very unique too. It's very shallow and made of marble. Was very impressed with the clock in the center of the building. There's an Aborigine model moving around the clock in seconds, and there are models arranged according to the Australian history. Very nice..


Went to Hyde Park, just like the Hyde Park in London. People reading, feeding birds, and there were people playing with the human-sized chess set (like the one in Amsterdam, I think!). Took a picture of a bird ( I don't know what species is this) flying. Take a guess where is it in the picture. ;D Later, we took the ferry along Darling Harbour and snapped photos of the Sydney Opera House. Gee... If only they had some performance going on then, I wouldn't mind going in and take a look of the Opera House. Hehe..


After much walking around the City Centre, we were very, very exhausted by the end of the day and it's the only first day!

Friday, April 09, 2004

This Week's FridayFive

1. What do you do for a living?
I wash toilets.. Haha.. Not really.. I sit in front of the PC and bang on the keyboard for 9 hours a day.. Ok ok.. Serious side, I am a Software Engineer. I write softwares for integrated security access management systems, that including door access, alarm monitoring, guard patrol, visitor management, cctv, time attendance, etc.. Bored yet?

2. What do you like most about your job?
Let's see... Flexible working hours.. I start by 8.30, and I leave at 6.10 on the dot. Actually I finish at 6, but I purposely linger in the office for another 10 mins. Hehe.. I don't stay back for OT or something. I don't bring my work back. What else.. Ooohh... Broadband internet access all day long.. Download stuffs and bring them back home with my handy drive.. Muahaha...

3. What do you like least about your job?
Perhaps the salary? It's considerably low if you compare with the market value. But what to do.. I'm fine with that, I guess... As long as I'm happy. The only problem is probably the management... Very messy and unorganized! And of course, benefits and all are much, much more into favour of the management ppl, and extremely little for the staff.

4. When you have a bad day at work it's usually because...
Irritating colleagues (at times only larr), or stubborn bugs that just don't want to be fixed, or management.. Hehe..

5. What other career(s) are you interested in?
Owner of a bookstore or a kids care centre, or a piano school. If all else fails, i.e. not financially stable enough to own a place to hold either of this, then a piano teacher will do. :D

Happy Good Friday

Today is one of the most important days for Christians all around the world. It was the day when Jesus Christ was crucified upon the cross. He died for our sins. He sacrificed His life for us. I think the movie Passion of the Christ came right on time for us to be reminded and to be grateful of His sacrifice. And so, tonight, I shall watch the movie.. Perhaps you can too. Have a great Easter weekend, everyone!

Above all powers
Above all things
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began

Above all kingdoms
Above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what You're worth

Crucified
Laid behind the stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all


~~ Michael W. Smith - Above All ~~

Monday, April 05, 2004

It's Hailing In Malaysia

Can you believe it, it actually hailed here early this evening?? And I thought that it only hails in other countries EXCEPT Malaysia!! Hhhm... Ok... That's seriously rare....

But yeah, it was at about 5.20pm or so over at Taman Mayang when it started raining really heavily... And hard. At first, my colleagues and I thought it was weird coz the rain were making funny noises as it hit the roof. Really sounded like someone was throwing small pebbles onto the roof. We just kept looking up onto the ceiling and looked at each other with a huge question mark above our heads. I mean, one would have never thought that it would ever hail in Malaysia, right. It was then only 10 minutes later, Mummy called and told me that the radio announced that it was hailing in Taman Mayang!


It was crazy! I peered out from the window and saw the extremely dark sky. It looked very windy out there, and the rain was just pouring like mad! And I could still hear the *tak* *tak* sound coming from the ceiling. I just felt like running out of the office and play with the hail!

Reminds me of those times when it hailed in Sheffield.. Gosh.. It was fun walking back home in the hail... And end up getting a headache. Hehehe..

Sunday, April 04, 2004

Sayang Graduates

Another mark in the history for sayang and his UOL coursemates! Definitely an exciting and memorable day for them!

The Convocation for UOL was held at Shangri-La, together with the rest of the courses like CSU, UEL, UWA, etc. The whole ballroom was practically swarmed with red ribbon sashed graduates! But UOL uses gold ribbon sash and there were, I think, less than 30 people in UOL, so kinda made sayang and his friends stood out like thorns among the roses. Hehe.. Very easy to spot them. :)

It was a hectic day. Met up with the rest at Lemon2Go Cafe which was at the lobby level. It was pretty amusing there, coz sayang was the only guy among the group, and the rest were busy putting on their make-up in front of the huge mirrored wall, putting on their robes, sashes and mortar boards. ;)

Well, yeah, went to the registration counter.. Sayang signed in his attendance.. Helped him out with the robe and all.. He went for group photography session.. Helped snap photos of him and his friends (see pic below) - Susan, Anushia, Delia, Alena, Angie and Wei Loo.. Met up with his family.. Sat for the whole convo procession.. Oh, Deputy PM's wife was there. Hehe.. Tea reception.. Snapped more photos.. Sayang returned his robe.. Said bye to his friends.. And then we left for dinner with his family.


(L-R) Anushia, Delia, ??, Sayang, Susan, Wei Loo, Alena

This is the day they will all remember that, after 2 years of slogging and making the trip to the college library a daily routine (not forgetting, a place to 'hang out' too. Hehe..), they have finally been rewarded with a degree to their names. And I'm very happy for them! :D

Although they have all completed their course almost a year ago and have already embarked on their respective careers, they are now officially graduates and degree holders! Here's wishing all of them the very best of luck in their future endeavours!! Congrats!!!