Dreaminess

Both Chloe and Jade at our beautiful villa in Seminyak, Bali. :)

CNY - Tien Gow

I'm back from a 2 week break and i have to say i feel absolutely refreshed and energised!! One word, greatness. :)

All the yummy delicious food that i have been devouring like there's no tomorrow, eating 6 meals a day, double of everything. The red packets with sweet smelling cash inside are always nice to have. This year the biggest ever received from Mom and Dad. Thanks guys!

This year is extra special because i flew from OZ, Chloe flew back from UK, and Jade flew back from KL, a complete family hanging out. Awesomeness!

One of the main events during my holiday. Chinese New Year. They have always been loud and merry. A western equivalent of Christmas time but a splendid 15 day celebration. Coming from a big family, we had the whole house full of people where there was no place else to sit or walk!

Fireworks go off at midnight and the sky is lit up with fireworks from everyone. Thousands of "Kong Ming" lanterns float into the sky lighting up the sky. These go on for two full nights. Dad and uncles have always played this game using Dominoes but played a complete different way. The game is called Tien Gow which means Heaven and Nine. We have always wondered how it worked and this year we finally got taught.


An example of Tien Gow, a male and female formation in sequence.

Dad gave us a 35 min lesson at 2.30 am, again, the complicated formations and names, worst of all in Cantonese (a chinese dialect) names and meanings to each tile, and ended it with "i will test you tomorrow morning". Dad style.

This ancient Chinese game came from the Dynasty era according to Dad as it was passed down from his dad, and his dad, and the ancestors. I felt privileged and felt guilty for not asking sooner. This game have complex rules and formations as there are males and females involved. To play this game, you have to memorise every sequence and formation, not forgetting differentiation between whether it is a male, female or mixed pair. Number of dots on the dominoes do not mean anything, only the formations, which is completely different from poker cards. The only thing similar to Poker is who has the upper hand gets to have the next go. Here's a Wiki link for Tien Gow.

Lastly, i'm proud to say me and my two sisters, also Samuel and Aaron, picked it up pretty much the next day and we even played a few games with dad and uncles! So good! Now we're ready for hard core advanced formations :)

Hollllliiiiiiddddaaayyyy

I am officially on annual leave and flying out today! See you guys in two weeks!!

Bok Choy Domestication

Something to share that is totally not me!! But i have to grown to love it. And i have to say living in Western Australia long enough does change you. According to my so-called DNA, plants will die under my care and I'm coming from own experience.

But after working with agribusiness and also in WA, i tend to learn what stuff makes it work for a dummy. Its like walking into a bookstore and buying a certain "Guide for Dummies". I was lucky and got it for free from talking and finding out.

So anyways, here's our home grown organic Bok Choy which i am so proud of!!!!!!
Under an A3 envelope.... :)

David = hard work 90%
Me = hard work 10%

I have to be honest. I put the theory in, but no physical which was poor. Nevertheless, please thank David for this attractive healthy organic bunch of Bok Choy that i could not have attempted better!

Yeah!!! Our stir fry was soooooooooo delicious that we ate it all before we realised that we were supposed to take a picture to share!!!

Have a good weekend and CHILLAX!

Much love..

Family getaway

Something to share, an old photo of both my sisters when we went away when we still kids. Joel my cousin in the background when he was a shortie! Many years later, we are all going away on a family trip as a complete family. I cant wait! :)

Duck Sauce - Barbara Streisand

I highly recommend this when you lack motivation in the mornings, turn this up and you will be ready to rock and roll! :)

This is the original beat, but the radio edited version is much better if you need extra oooomph!

Enjoy. And New York, i will go back and visit you hopefully soon!

Love of a mother

I took a photo of Jo, my Chilean friend who is a mom to Isabella. Happiness and love is just glowing!

Prawning

One of my favourite kind of food is seafood. If there was only one thing left that i could choose to eat, i would choose seafood. I can eat a kilo of prawns to myself. No kidding. When it comes to food i love, the word "portion control" doesnt exist. :)

Prawns are full of goodness and since Wiki and I have been close recently, i've added a Wiki link for prawns

Lately,

Finally, good to know i still remember my html codes..

Yay!!!

Diving Summer'11

I got my diving ticket back in Spring 07 with a bunch of friends, and summer was pretty much set out. Almost every week was a dive trip, and it was such good fun! We went a bit over the top, bought all our gears, the only thing missing was the BC and tank as it was way too expensive! We even even heading into advanced level until one of us got into a major accident where he got hit by a car riding to work.

Nevertheless, every year after that, we always included diving as a summer agenda. I have to say it's such an amazing feeling when you're in the water, it's so breathtaking and the best thing is, its sooooooo peaceful and serene. All you can hear is your breathing and quietness. :)

So here i am just a few weeks ago, all ready to get into the water. This was a real easy shore dive. As always, we always see something new. This time, we saw a gigantic weird looking snail (size of a cat) in it's glory, dark things hidden in deep seaweeds (didnt really get way into it as we didnt have a torch), and finally a 2M ++ stingray when we were least unexpected. I've had a few encounters with Stingrays and so far, haven't been unpleasant as they tend to be really inquisitive and want to get real close..

Something different besides marine life, an old school mask was found!

Some living organism that has call it home! :)

Finally, I still have trouble equalizing, especially after going past 10M which really shits me. But apparently its a girl thing. :P

Got to have a few more dives before summer ends! :)