Christmas Eve's BBQ Lunch

The past two weeks have been restless and sleepless for me, even Holidays. I had to get out of bed early on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to attend gathering lunches, catching up with friends. Well, this was the outdoor barbecue I went to with the family, warm and breezy under the sun.

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Christmas Day Celebration: Turkey Lunch

It's the Christmas Day today!!! How excited! I woke up early to do what I was meant to do. Make-up, dress-up, then headed straight to Kevin and Veny's house. They were kind enough to host a Christmas potluck lunch this year (instead of dinner) and invited us and few of their friends over.

We've prepared tiger prawns, tartare sauce and a little Christmas pressie for baby Preston which we got about a month ago, when doing routine grocery shopping in Grand Central. The Super Mario plush bag is simply too cute that I wanted our chubby little buddy to have it!

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Friend's Visit: Toowoomba Day Tour

As mentioned, our friend, William came to visit us last weekend. He stayed for 3 days. And throughout that very 3 days, we've made plans for him, from food and drinks to exploring and touring the Garden City - Toowoomba.

I had to work on Friday and Saturday, hence, could only managed to carve out most of my Sunday, which was also his last day here for a mini day tour.

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Toowoomba's Christmas Wonderland 2012

We had a special guest visiting and staying with us over the weekend. On Saturday, after 6 hours of work in the afternoon, we went downtown to grab some Asian groceries and the fresh ingredients needed to prepare dinner that night.

I made them glorious home-cooked food! *victory pose*

Thinking back, it has been a long while since I last cooked so many dishes for my favorite meal of the day. We later drove William to the upper part of Queens Park (where Toowoomba's Christmas Wonderland is) for an eye-opening sight-seeing and photo-shooting experience.

Ho~Ho~Ho~ Merry Christmas in advance to my dearest family, friends and readers out there!!!

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Brisbane Day Trip: Hakataya Ramen, Hanaichi and Sakuraya

We went down to Brissie last Sunday, mainly to eat and shop and to escape ourselves from this boring little inland of Queensland. Plus, I really needed it, so badly! Working life is just plain exhausting!

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First Australian Christmas Potluck Party

My first Australian Christmas party. It was held at one of my supervisor's place out in Highfields last Saturday. I spent almost two hours to dress up, put on make-up, slightly curled my plain and boring black hair a little bit (which turned out looking so flat here *facepalm*) before hitting the road with Maps on on my iPhone. The Apple app works fine as long as there is 3G coverage, provided if you're subscribed to a reliable local telco provider.

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A Moment of Softness in Your Busy Day

My belated Product Talk by Nuffnang. I found this new Dettol Touch of Foam Hand Wash in rose and cherry bloom scent sitting on top of my mailbox about same day last week. It was a really warm day that day, I came home late after work, opened the envelope and saw what you're seeing here right now - a lovely pink bottle. Apparently, the bottle is a bit crooked after staying under the hot sun for too long, but other than that, the product was in good hands.

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North Stradbroke Island: Gorge Walk at Point Lookout

December, the jolly month of Christmas walks in, head held high and an easy smile without me noticing how rough the past 11 months have been. Not easy. Going through all the ups and downs, highs and lows, the so-called rollercoaster of life. I plead for a good last month of 2012, so will you have a little mercy on me, December?

Before I spend my spare time putting up and decorating the Christmas tree, I'd like to put a closure on this North Stradbroke Island trip which I've dragged for months, since July.

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Baby Preston's 1st Birthday Bash

13th of October was Baby Preston's 1st birthday. The party was indeed flawlessly planned and put together from decorations to food. A big round of applause to the loving daddy, mummy and family. Thank you so, so much for having us there and I'm sorry for taking more a month's time to post all these up.

Speaking of whom, I bumped into the mummy yesterday pushing the one-year-old in pram together with the in-laws while shopping for Christmas gift ideas (for Mr. Choo) in the Grand Central. The weather was so warm but it felt warmer when I saw Baby Preston walking like a roly-poly for the first time. Hooray!!! Baby Preston can finally walk!!!

I definitely did not nom the whole slice by myself.

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A Peep Through iPhone

A quick update from me on a dont-feel-like-doing-anything Friday afternoon. Photos shot using iPhone, probably one or two weeks old the oldest. Sorry peeps, my social life is almost zero (sounds horrible I know) since I started working on Saturdays. 

Caught myself red-handed!!! Oh dear KFC, I hate that you made me love you and break my promise, over and over again =/

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Phat Burgers aka Phatburgers

I was asked by one of my blog readers some time ago to do a review on Phat Burgers, a popular gourmet burger shop here in Toowoomba. At first, I did not keep it in mind (as I'm really not a burger person) until last week or two, a friend brought this up and we decided to give it a go. I knocked off from work around dinner time yesterday, drove home to get dressed and picked Mr. Choo up before paying the burger place a visit.

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Sudden Trip to Brisbane: Sunnybank and Chinatown

We were shopping in Grand Central yesterday when J.C whatsapp-ed me asking us to join him dinner in Brissie. I demanded a little afternoon treat before dinner as I was in desperate of something sweet like "tong sui" to keep me happy these few days. He suggested Just Soy Cafe (福泉豆花美食), the sweet dessert shop he mentioned to me last time when we were in Sunnybank. It was drizzling along the way down, no heavy rain, and we felt very much thankful for that.

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My Only Free Day

It's the weekend, the end of a weekend to be precise. I spent my only free day shopping, cooking, did laundry and whatever things that I needed to do today.

Working life is pretty much filled with dullness and boredom, don't you think? Especially when you contribute most of your time, even Saturdays, working like a mad cow just for the sake of "kaching" – Yes, the evil dollars!

I haven't taken much photos lately, none with a decent camera. So for the time being, here's what I could offer you best. A bunch of random images from my iPhone, with love ♥

Went shopping this afternoon, tried on a couple of outfits. Outfit #1.⌧

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Weekends Come, Weekdays Go

It's hard to believe that we came to the Coffee Club twice in a row within just this week! First was to catch-up with a good buddy, second was for last night's dinner. Tired. I tried hard to rest myself but my tiredness doesn't seem to want to go away these days *sighs helplessly* I guess, after all, there's really no escape from getting older and being reminded of it, is there? =\

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Sat.ur.day, Start Your Day...

"Warm" was no longer the word to describe the weather condition in the past two days, "hot" sounded more like it! The temperature peaked at almost 34 degrees yesterday's afternoon when we went down to Brisbane. I'm glad, really glad that Australia doesn't get Malaysia's humidity here during spring and summer.

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Breakfast-Turned-Brunch at Shingle Inn

My early breakfast plan failed miserably. Was supposed to get my lazy ass up but my sleepiness seemed to overpower me this morning. Imaging a peaceful and chilly Sunday morning with less traffic and no buses stopping by every one hour and so, simply the most perfect time of the week to snuggle in the bed just a little bit longer.

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Firefly Cafe: Sunday Morning Breakfast

Another long and hectic work week has gone by so slowly. It's Sunday again, people! I woke up with an exceptionally good appetite, perfect weather, perfect mood, perfect morning... Oh well, shall I say almost perfect? 'Cause someone actually forgot to do what I told him to. We ended up not having a memory card in the DSLR camera that we carried along, and under such circumstance, my iPhone's camera couldn't be any more convenient than it is today.

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Long Weekend Getaway: Seafood and Chocolate Overdosed

These few days, I have so many things going on in my mind (good and bad) that I wanted to share with you, but as soon as I got home and turned on my lappie, I just no longer feel like doing it somehow. I know, I change my mind like I change clothes *smirk*

We came to Max Brenner Broadbeach for high tea last Sunday. I was still quite full to be honest after having some Malaysian food for lunch in the Sunnybank. However, Mr. Choo insisted we should get ourselves a drink and waffle for two, apart from the chocolate souffle which I've been drooling over.
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Long Weekend Getaway: Little Taipei Food Court Sunnybank

Good morning, October! It's Monday today, I'm feeling no Monday blues but enjoying a long weekend celebrating Mid-Autumn / Mooncake / Latern Festival and the Queen's Birthday here down under. So... did any of yas go for the Brisbane Riverfire Fireworks last Saturday? It saddens me to say that we actually missed out on that one due to some reasons. Oh yeah, we did. Work has been keeping us busy and we deserve a nice, relaxing getaway, pamper ourselves with lots and lots of good food whenever possible.

To all my dearest blog readers, don't be too shocked to see my "new look" in this post. It's just temporary and I wasn't really meant to have my hair curled *gasp* Truth is, there was a miscommunication going on in this Color Rain hair salon where Mr. Choo and I got our haircut.

My hairdresser that day was a Korean, I believe all of them are. The skeptic me tried to explain to her not to cut my hair thin as I don't want to decrease the weight and add more curls on my straight hair. I didn't expect her to misinterpreted what I said to wanting to curl my hair after haircut *poker face* Thus, the story of Auntie Christina getting curly hair and grumbling about it for the rest of the day.

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Monday Blues and Exy Dinner at the Cube Hotel

The Monday blues seem to strike me down pretty hard today. I was struggling and having these mixed feelings in my heart and mind (not gonna elaborate much about it here, sorry). "Like the marathon, life can sometimes be difficult, challenging and present obstacles, however if you believe in your dreams and never ever give up, things will turn out for the best." So, here's a little reminder to myself – DON'T SETTLE, CHRISTINA! You know you'll make it, someday...

Last Saturday, we dined out with our good buddy at the Cube Hotel downtown after coming back from the Sideshow Alley. Mr. Choo opted for Fitzy's at first, but unfortunately the restaurant has already been booked out, not surprise, since it's the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers that brought in a massive huge crowd and traffic to the Garden City.

Everything was fine (in spite of the still-bearable loud music in the background and the overly priced menu) until I carried on with my main which close enough to killing my taste buds.

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Carnival of Flowers: Sideshow Alley in Queens Park

Instead of going for the "routine" Floral Parade of the Carnival of Flowers like the past few years, we skipped it and brought ourselves to the Sideshow Alley at the lower Queens Park yesterday. I supposed it would be nice strolling and shooting under the bright sunny weather and it indeed was! Despite a little bit of spring heat which made us sweat like summer, I was not hating it at all.

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North Stradbroke Island: The Headland and Wild Kangaroos

I'm writing this as if my nose was literally detached from my body right now. Since the past few days, I had to depend on either my mouth or saline and medicated nasal sprays to breathe through my nose. The most horrible thing is, the burning sensation in my nostrils each time after use, it's killing me! *teary eyes* Anyways, back to the topic, we left our footprints on the headland a couple of months ago, overlooking the 32 kilometres beautiful Main Beach of Stradbroke Island.

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Sushi and Movie Date Night

I came home feeling unwell after work yesterday. Constant sneezing, runny nose, and mild fever all attacked me at once, which nevertheless can be considered as good timing since I'm having a day off today. I spent the whole morning and afternoon sleeping and resting myself until around dinner time, Mr. Choo took me out for sushi (apparently I was sick of having porridge) then followed by a movie date watching Resident Evil: Retribution in 3D.

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Stay Healthy with Golden Circle Healthy Life Probiotic Fruit Juice

I've been so caught up with work and engaging myself with all sort of gatherings and events lately that I haven't really had the time to write up for this Product Talk by Nuffnang, my sincere apology. All these while, I was unaware that Golden Circle is actually a subsidiary of the US-based Heinz Corporation until I came across Golden Circle Healthy Life Fruit Juice, the only probiotic juice of its kind made available in-store on 14th May 2012 (my birthday coincidentally, hehe) in Australia.

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Friends' Graduation Ceremony at the Empire Theatre

Woke up on the right side of the bed. What's up with this Prince song inside my head? Hands up if you're down to get down tonight, 'cuz it's always a good time... I've been waking up with this Owl City's song playing in my head over and over again since the arrival of first day of spring.

Sleeveless skater dress in turquoise, half-sleeve short coat and open-toe pumps in black, embellished by a gold with pastel colors necklace. Pastel and fluorine seem to be the new color trends of spring and summer 2012, I did not fall behind on adding a small dose of them in my outfit today.

So what's the special occasion? Friends' graduation ceremony at the Empire Theatre! You don't get to see me with make-up everyday, it's rare, like once in a blue moon, and I actually forgot to put mascara on *facepalm*

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Park House Cafe Restaurant Toowoomba

I had a rough morning yesterday, food poisoning, again!!! I felt nauseous not long after I started working, abdominal cramping, then diarrhea... I hated it every time it happened ='( Fortunately it wasn't that critical until I have to be rushed to the hospital or something (thank goodness!!!), so I just stayed back and finished whatever I was supposed to do that day.

Around afternoon, I took a cat nap with world war 3 going on in my stomach still, woke up feeling way much better afterwards and decided to join this dinner outing with our friend at the Park House Cafe.

As we walked into the restaurant, our noses picked up a very strong fertilizer (or was it body sweats) smell. Most of the "ideal spots" were either taken or reserved by others, we sat down to a corner table, waited a while before Frank actually showed up with a bouquet of flowers.

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Outdoor Barbecue at Picnic Point Park

We had a joyful outdoor barbecue with friends on last sunny Sunday at the Picnic Point Park. It was quite a last minute invitation and we just rocked up both empty handed. Oh well, we did bring our big bulky camera and some toys for the kids along with us.

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First Day of Spring in Brisbane & Sunnybank: Meet Fresh and Tobaki

Annyeong haseyo, September! Hello spring, goodbye winter. September is finally upon us, bringing lots and lots of warmness to the Sunshine State of Queensland. I feel blessed waking up to a gloriously sunny day with an abundance of beautiful scenery every morning, so sweet and loving. If you notice, not only my mood has been greatly elevated, our weekend trips to Brissie have also multiplied.

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Lawn Bowls at the Toowoomba Bowls Club

I'm familiar with tenpin bowling, but lawn bowling? Not even a single clue! It was my first time trying out this new sport today. Around noon, I drove myself to the Toowoomba Bowls Club to meet up with the rest, since Mr. Choo was doing his voluntary work that time. Thank you, Jeff for the invitation and hosting such a fun outdoor event for us to make some lovely new friends.

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Nice and Warm Weekend

First off, I got to sleep in yesterday (on a Friday morning) which is pretty awesome. Being well rested and refreshed, I drove myself to the city to settle a few things once and for all. I made a trip to the bank, the Queensland Transport, then picked up some ice-cream from my work place before visiting a friend's house. It felt incredibly awesome driving around in my new car (oops, my fingers just slipped, hahaha!!!) especially recently, the weather turns so nice and warm, so does my mood.

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Sunday the Open Day

USQ Toowoomba Open Day!!! Been there, done that, several times, yet we convinced ourselves to go for another round this year. I wasn't really looking forward to anything particularly fun or exciting, but just a relaxing outdoor activity to kick-start our Sunday morning. It was a very productive day that day. We finally had the time to shop for my body lotion, some groceries and car accessories. I've got myself a 300ml bottle of Jurlique Rose Body Care Lotion and it's addictively moisturizing ♥ Then we spent the rest of the afternoon scouring and pouring love over our new baby boy (whatever you're thinking, that's not it).

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Food Trip to Brisbane: Glamorous Wok and Trang

A new day breaks with a bright sun shining. I couldn't help making a sudden food trip to Brissie (thanks to the beautiful weather) when I was supposed to just stay home and rest myself after a long, tired day of work 'til midnight. Six hours of sleep, sounds brutal, I know, and I really thought I can get by with it but the fact is, I kind of overestimated my body's ability. I felt exhausted as soon as we left Sunnybank with a bag of Japanese Tokyo Pancakes.

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Toowoomba Languages and Cultures (TLC) Festival 2012

I was such a sleepyhead this morning, woke up at 10 something realizing I needed to wash and blow-dry my hair today. There goes my precious two hours to dress up, breakfast and all. We drove to the city facing massive traffic on the roads, car parks were full everywhere as everyone was making their ways to the Toowoomba Languages and Cultures (TLC) Festival held at Queens Park.

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Sofra Turkish Cuisine in Toowoomba

If there were any new restaurants in town other than Indian and Thai cuisines, I would be more than keen and happy to try out. You know, finally, we got Turkish!!! I've heard both good and bad feedback from friends, but I'm not judging, not until I really experience the food, service, and restaurant myself.
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Meeting with New Friends

We were invited to a new friend's house over the weekend. It was kind of a last minute decision, we showed up with a box of my favorite Lindth Lindor chocolate truffles. The atmosphere was a bit awkward at first since it was our first time meeting up with someone I just said hi once or more than once (couldn't really remember). We introduce ourselves, got to know each other, talked about fishing and he actually gave us a whole golden perch aka yellowbelly which turned out to be our dinner that night.
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Seorabeol Korean Restaurant: BBQ Dinner

Throughout our 3D2N trip over the weekend, we've tasted all sort of cuisines: Japanese at Hanaichi, Singaporean at the Little Singapore, Australian at the Fishes Cafe, Italian at the Toscani's, Chinese at the King of Kings and eventually had BBQ dinner at the Seorabeol Korean Restaurant on Surfers Paradise. It was all random. We were strolling on the streets and were in the middle of hunting a good restaurant, then this restaurant's sign so happened to come into our sights. We dug up the stairs, flipped though their menus a little bit and decided, "Well yeah, let's try this one out!".  

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North Stradbroke Island: Fishes Cafe and the Point Lookout

Another week has come and gone and it's Friday again! I hope it was a good one for you and that you've got a wonderful weekend ahead planned. Mine was restless and I'm really looking forward to have a relaxing weekend just staying at home, arranging a catch-up or two with friends and sharing some of these photos taken on the Stradbroke Island with you perhaps? Point Lookout was the place we stopped by for lunch after a quick tour around the Main Beach and Headland. There wasn't much choice for us to choose from actually, either the bakery - Loaves at the Point or the cafe - Fishes at the Point.
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Chinese Noodle Magic (兰州拉面): Food Tasting on the Opening

While everyone's getting all intrigued and excited about the newly opened Chinese restaurant in Toowoomba, Noodle Magic, we paid a surprise visit there on their first trading day yesterday. The red roofed building is noticeably located on the corner of Hume and South Streets, opposite Salem Lutheran Aged Care Facility.
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Yumcha at King of Kings Chinatown Brisbane

Around 10.30 am on Sunday, we checked out from Hotel George William, drove to Fortitude Valley to yumcha with our two friends at King of Kings (皇上皇) Chinatown, prior going to Calamvale to collect the feather badminton shuttlecocks. It was our first visit to the seafood restaurant, since we are quite the regular customers of the Landmark Restaurant in Sunnybank.
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North Stradbroke Island: Amity Point and Art Gallery

Visiting Amity Point, the sand bar between Straddie and Moreton Islands, really brought back a lot of good memories we shared at the Urangan Pier, Hervey Bay a couple of years ago. It was the second destination on our itinerary after Brown Lake that day. Sunny blue skies, puffy white clouds, golden yellow sand, emerald sea with calm waters, the setting couldn't be any more perfect for a fishing sight-seeing trip or a beautiful walking tour.

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North Stradbroke Island: Brown Lake and the Red Big Cat

Here comes the full-day guided Stradbroke Island tour which I had been yearning for!!! It was 7 a.m. that morning (around 10 degrees or probably lower) when we walked up to the Roma Street bus stop no.125. Short jeans, bikinis, flip flops... The combination sounded ideal for sunshine and beaches, but certainly not at this time of the year. I nearly got myself frozen to death by the cold wind!

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TGIF: Hotel George Williams and Hanaichi Japanese

Our weekend was adorned with ocean breezes and sunshine down to Brisbane, Stradbroke Island, and the Gold Coast last week. It's always fun when it comes to traveling, and yet pretty exhausting at the same time as it sucks up just too much of energy. We spent most of our time, apart from exploring the Straddie Island, meeting and catching up with friends, shopping, indulging our taste buds, then traveled through the loop of shopping and indulging our taste buds all over again. 

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Homemade Five-Spice Rolls (Penang Lobak)

I'm back kicking in the kitchen!!! It's been a while since I last came up with something "new", as in cooking recipes. Still remember the mouth-watering Malaysian Styled Chicken Satay Skewers I made about few weeks ago? I'll be sharing another famous Malaysian street food with you today — Penang Lobak aka Five-Spice Rolls. My first attempt and I pretty much nailed it! ^^v

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Cakes and Coffees at the Coffee Club

After a ravishing sushi feast at the Hana Japanese Restaurant, we dropped by the Coffee Club for something warm on a rainy winter night. Comfortably, we sat down to a table, ordered ourselves a coffee each (except Mr. Choo, he is no ordinary man and would always go for cold drinks, regardless how cold the weather is) and a couple of slices of cake. Sitting facing a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, I claimed to have the maximum night view of the surroundings (but most obscured by darkness anyway), the streets were unexceptionally peaceful as well, at this time of a Saturday.

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Dinner at Hana Japanese Sushi Restaurant

Can you tell what's on these two plates that I was holding? They are my most very much favorite ever caviar and flying fish roe!!! We returned to Hana Japanese Sushi Restaurant with Frank tonight for a little catch-up dinner. Our last visit here was about 5 months ago, when the restaurant first opened its doors in February this year. Oh my, how time flies! We've already came to the second half of 2012. According to the 12-21-2012 prophecy, we'll only get to live for another 5 more months before the world ends, or not =p

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Friday the 13th: The Amazing Spider-Man and More

It was a productive day today! I spent the whole morning writing my curriculum vitae (CV) just for this IT job I came across somewhere on the internet. Yes, I'm still hunting for full-time jobs, if that's what you're curious about. I have been sending out my resumes electronically, heaps of them, but only called in for few interviews so far *sigh with disappointment* So I thought maybe my resume and cover letter weren't good enough? I revamped my resume a little, sent out another batch of new applications, and finally, I received a call scheduling for a face-to-face interview next week =)

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It's Been a While

This winter has been giving me hard times forever . It's cold (not snowing cold but icy air cold), overly exaggerated in dryness which sucks up all the moisture in my skin, making every single inch of my body itches like crazy!!! *pulls hair and screams*

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My First Vegan Experience in Toowoomba

I had the itch to go vegetarian today. Knowing that there is this get-together dinner happening somewhere in the Pure Land Learning College (PLLC) on Saturdays, I earnestly begged Mr. Choo to take me along with him. I'm a Taoist, not considering myself a faithful follower or believer, but I do comply with certain taboos which have been handed down for generations in my family, such as eating vegetarian on an occasional basis.

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Frank's Belated Birthday Dinner at the Angel Cafe

It started with a comforting call I received from our badminton buddy, Frank about three days ago. I was so down and moody that day, actually I had been since last Saturday. Nobody noticed it, not even Mr. Choo... I score a perfect 10 when it comes to keeping a secret, oh well, unless my life was being threatened by a gun or the life of my loved one was being threatened, then I might consider taking back what I said earlier =P Anyways, it wasn't really an earth-shakingly big secret. What's done is done. The best I can do is to stay and think as positive as I can now.

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Homemade Malaysian-Style Chicken Satay Skewers

I have prepared something special for dinner tonight. It's one of the most popular street food of Malaysia, satay!!! *grin* There is a variety of satay made from lamb, beef, pork... and chicken satay is what was on my mind today. We hardly come by any Malaysian-style satay in this small town we're living in, most of them are Thai with rather sweet taste. For that reason, I spent almost two hours busying myself in the kitchen, just for you, Mr. Choo!

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