A week of Wednesdays

Ok... I know this is a little belated but I was busy enjoying popularity and then shortly after illness came a-calling so, I'm sorry. Especially because a certain someone had to read 'yo yo' of the previous post everyday whilst waiting for this.


So, the night before my birthday (Day -1), I had dinner with Joyce, NHT & Minh, and Nhi. We went to the Boathouse and had SO MUCH FUN! I don't even remember what we talked about...I just remember laughing a lot.
Minh and NHT even got me this L'Occitane hand and nail cream set!

And then....and then...I got home and fell asleep before midnight so had to open Mummy's present in the morning. AND WHAT A PRESENT!!!!!!!WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There was a gold Furla bag (the real McCoy mummy says), a red leather purse and diamond earrings!! So nice. The nicest present this year!!! I really like them. Thanks mummy.
At work, we made rice paper rolls (kinda like a pot luck where everyone provides different ingredients) and fruit flan. The picture is the after shot cause we were hungry and ate really fast. Well, I was hungry :)

From work, I shot off to Old Kingdom which is a famous peking duck place in Melbourne. My cell group took me there for my first peking duck experience ever and boy, do I like it! Each duck comes with 12 pancakes, 12 pieces of cucumber and 12 pieces of spring roll. Only 12, no more no less. And if you overuse any one ingredient, you don't get to ask for more. Fortunately this rule is not one globally enforced by all peking duck places (so I was told)

These are the pieces of duck for the actual peking duck. The rest of the duck is made into soup and fried with tau geh.

Someone at my table calculated that everyone had exactly 4 pieces. I didn't hear that. And because I was concentrating so hard on the way the man cut the duck, I also didn't hear the bit about there only being EXACTLY 12 pieces of everything. So, there I was happily eating my ducks and not keeping count when someone pipes up and counts the number of pancakes left and asks the inevitable 'Why don't we have enough? How much did you eat? And you..? And you..? Hmmm...who ate more than their share". Just at that very moment, I was actually about to bite into peking duck #6. I had to fess up and of course everyone said it was ok because it was my birthday and my first experience. But I knew better...I was just greedy. hahahaha...

Cell members- L-R Sharon, Joanne, Vivienne.

The rest of the week was not as exciting but still consisted of a lot of food.

Thursday night was an EXCITING NIGHT with Japanese food, chocolate pizza's, cotton bud earphones and cereal box mp3 players. Thanks SN and Hsu. It was really nice though. I enjoyed it a lot (See Hsu's previous post for full details and more pictures)

I also saw Joyce off on Thursday night and that made me sad. I miss her a lot.

Friday was my day of rest

Saturday I had dinner with my colleagues to celebrate a few of our birthdays. I'm glad I'm beginning to be friends with them. They're nice.

Even on Sunday, Ka Faii and Jason bought me yum cha breakfast.

(See...I look visibly chubbier already)

On Monday, the week of Birthday Wednesdays ended with a nice pair of earrings from my colleagues.

I am blessed. Not so much in the things itself but by how much I learn from people God's love for me and then learning to reciprocate that. Feels like it's been a long 27 years but I know that with God's grace and all your love I will be able to go another 27 more.

Thanks guys.

I'm baa-aack...

Yoyo! Miss me?

Guest blogger is back! This time with goodies for a PARTY!

The unsuspecting birthday girl minutes before the grand opening. For those not in the know, I'm really just the messenger. The real genius behind this is foggy eyed mafily from Canada! (hooorah for her dedication - it's 5am there you see). You can't see it from the photos but she's actually watching the action from the comp webcam.

WOW! It's a Sansa Clip 4GB MP3 Player!!
Thanks all!! I love it!!

Fancy headphones and all!
"The audio is so good the music sounds almost...LIVE!!"
*guest blogger serenading from behind*

Lala and Pokie testing out the sound quality.

Now here's the real surprise.

"Dear cheche, We regret to inform you that your birthday present will be...delayed. It's not in stock in Australia at present time. Thank you for your patience. Nevertheless, happy birthday from the bottom of our hearts!"

Still love us?

No ah?

We anticipated you being a bit overwhelmed so we brought you this...

and this...

...for back up cheer :)

ENJOY!

The party of 3 is great...a lot of weeweewah-ing over continents.

OK...My turn to give thanks.


Thank you God for giving me family in Canada and Australia
...and for graciously growing them one more year :)

Happy Birthday!

Could it be..

Is it she??
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

May your beauty not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes but be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. (1 Peter 3:3-4)

Love you cheche!

Strangers no more..

So, the story behind Sook Ning's SUPER DUPER birthday present is a nice lady blogger in Canada called Liliana of http://cookbookaddiction.blogspot.com/...

It all started when Mummy said I shouldn't send SN presents from Australia cause postage is too expensive. Also, I already bought her a present when we were back home in Malaysia. But, it's her 25th Birthday!!!!! A quarter of a century. It's downhill from here onwards! Of course there has to be more presents.... *grin*

My thoughts naturally turned to food especially cause SN's place doesn't have an oven. I had no idea where to start, so I contacted Ivonne from http://www.creampuffsinvenice.ca/. She didn't know either but suggested that her friend Liliana who "provides baked goods" (I'm not really sure what she meant by that). I emailed Liliana and she didn't really know either but offered to do it for me instead!!!! I was stoked! Secretly, I was hoping that she would offer but that she really did still surprised me a little. I promised her that I am a real person and gave her this blog address so she could 'verify' my identity :)

Liliana came up with really good ideas for biscotti, tea, gourmet chocolates and then even a china cup & saucer and the prettiest box to go with it. She emailed regularly, apologised when she couldn't. Didn't ask for a fee but said she'll scan the receipts and send it to me. The part that shows what an amazing person she is is that her father-in-law passed away during this time and she had been getting really bad migraines as well.

I am touched. That someone across the globe with whom I have never had any previous contact would care to do this.

I am blessed. That a God who is infinite in power and then some would care to make SN's birthday an extra special one.

So, thank you God and thank you Liliana.

WAHHHHH

ITS MY BIRTHDAY!!
hehhe :))

My b'day started Malaysian time because mommy had to leave. I got a journal and a coat from her. Very nice coat. :D
Thanks ma!
(I tried a couple of diff poses..but the "cool" pose ..lets just say it's not me lah!)

So I got my early morning call from da sis at 6.30am. :))
Class at 9.30am. I was told to "come hungry" and 2 of my classmates bought breakfast (croissants, chocolatines and something like a cinnamon pastry/roll)!

Went out for lunch with two of my lab mates

Came back home because I had to use my home pc and guess what I found??

A package from LAVAL?!
I don't know anyone who lives in Laval (which is just off the Island of Montreal). Well, D used to live there, but now she's in Miami.
And then opening it carefully (= ripping it!)
I found a box..

and the box contained treasures. hehehe.

Thanks sister!!!

K sent me a gift cert from amazon.ca. oooo!

Anyway, I had work to do today. Work that was beyond my scope of knowledge. Thanks W for trying to help but not having the time to do so. :)
By God's grace ,D is helping me do it now.
and thanks to J who suggested how I should do it.

Anyway, so what have I done to deserve such blessings? Absolutely nothing! Thank you God for your grace and mercy. You are absolutely amazing and so incredibly loving.

Thank you family for your love.
Thank you friends for more love!

And the rest of the trip...

We had cake and tea after the museum. Here is my chocolate mousse.

I don't know what V is doing..
The next day we went out for lunch. :)
and I pigged out..PIGGED out.
You see...it was a brunch menu. And scones were on the menu.
Now, how can I refuse a scone. But how can I have only one scone for lunch?
heheh.
scrambled eggs and 2 sausages wrapped in pancetta.
Anyway, yeah..needless to say I was very full.
:)

V, her parents and friends.

At the museum

The museum was a pretty cool place.
V's favourite bit is the kids section. It's crazy inside. So nice! Kids can explore the nations. They have different sections/nations so that you can learn about the culture.
V does Asian.

Inside the Pyramid.
In the Japan and nature section. V demonstrates how to fish.
hehe.
Then we went to see an IMAX show - the Wild Ocean.
Wah liao. I got sea sick! :(
In the Zen/Japanese garden
I decided to do jumping shots. hahaha.

che wah...! ahha.

Ottawa 2

At noon, V called and we met up. Had lunch and searched for entertainment after.
We stopped at the Museum of fine arts, but you had to pay to see.
it's a nice building..made out of glass.

So we walked to the Museum of Civilization - V's fav.
On the way...
I pretended I was some guy..apparently this guy saw Ottawa and said "ah hah!".
So ok lah. I also go ah hah!
And I went gangsta..
View from the top
Background: Parliament




V reading in french. and me contributing "tres bien! tres bien!"
haha. go me!
The Museum is located in Hull, Quebec. So to reach Hull, we had to cross a bridge
On one side is Hull, QC

And on the other is Ottawa, ON
It was a rickety bridge. Well, I say rickety but it was steel reinforced..but ..y'know..just walk quickly! :)
Some metal cap showing you the QC/ON border. I think that's the bridge we walked on with the museum on the right.
V showing her house in relation to where we were..Off the map.

ottawa 1

Hi hi!
Went to Ottawa on Thursday to do some stuff and visit V. Came back Sunday night.
So this is ottawa..
Surrounded by rivers and canals



Some of the places I visited

On Friday, I set off (while V was in class) to find the Malaysian high com to get my drivers license translated.

The high com is located on Botelier.
War memorial
So I turned right onto Botolier, and saw an embassy on my right. It was gigantic and it had Jawi on the sign. So I thought to myself, "Malaysia uses Jawi meh?" "wah, look at the size of the residence! living the good life".
then I walked on somemore, and found another sign which had more Jawi writing and palm trees. Then I thought "..eh..not Malaysia". haha.
So I kept on walking. Passed the Korean embassy and some other embassy and thought "where is the Malaysian flag?!", since I had reached the end of the road. So I turned back, and scanned the buildings one more time..and saw the Malaysian flag! I had missed it because it was opposite the big embassy building which I was paying so much attention to..
haiyoh.
See? I was there.
Proud to be Malaysian! haha. Couldn't find any Malaysians in the high com though!
The receptionist was gwai lo and the sr staff was philipino. hm..
anyway, I asked the receptionist to take a picture of me with the flag. haha.
and I registered to vote! yay!
Then I went to Byward market and explored the area.
V's class ended at noon.
I was excited when I found this bakery..
To test it out, I went for the cheapest item on the menu - a brioche.

..hm..meh. not great.
Stick to Montreal!
Pumpkin season!


What Ottawa is famous for..
It's fried flat dough with toppings..