MSN contacts all disappeared

Seeing as so many people on my MSN list have lost ALL their contacts and could only wait until someone talked to them in order for them to retrieve the details, I thought I’d share this:

1) Open your msn and login…even though you have no contacts
2) Open your Windows task manager
3) Go to process and find msnmessenger…or something similar to that and click on it then select end process
4) Restart the msnmessnger and your contacts will be there

No, as shocking as it is, I’m not that awesome. I know its hard to believe but trust me here. I give credit where credit is due. I found it online while helping a friend trying to recover her contacts list but I keep forgetting where I got it from so I figured, I’d just share it with everyone in a place I always know to find things.
Hope it helped you.

Wedding games and other mischief

I previously mentioned my friend’s wedding, I thought I’d share a funny event about the day.

Firstly, I should point out why this wedding was so frustrating and time consuming. She had a mixed tradition wedding. Her family is Chinese, his family is Burmese, both grew up in Australia. When they first got engaged, they went to Burma so that he could introduce her to the rest of his family as they do not live in Australia. While there, they decided that it would be the best time for them to complete a traditional Burmese/Buddhist ceremony. So when it came to getting it all official and in writing, the groom graciously told the bride and us bridesmaids that he will happily do what ever ceremony and traditions that she wanted.

With Chinese weddings, traditionally the wedding was arranged by the families and the match makers, which meant that the bridal couple did not get a say in proceedings and more than likely, had never even met up until that fateful day. During the ceremony, the bride would wear an elaborate headpiece with a red veil covering her face, so that no one can see her face. Someone once told me that was so that no one tried to make away with the bride upon seeing her beauty, LOL! But because the bride and groom do not get a say, there is no part in the Chinese ceremony where there is an actual exchanging of vows as in western culture, which made it a little easier for us to amalgamate the two traditions. On the day of the wedding, in Chinese culture, the groom has to come to the bride’s house for the bride. To show that the family are not merely selling their daughter or trying to “get rid” of her, the bridesmaids and other unmarried females play the door game with the groom and the groomsmen who have come to collect the bride. The groom is then only permitted to enter and retrieve the bride, once the bridesmaids have decided that he has completed the tasks that they have set out for him, and he pays them with the “lucky money”. Lucky money must contain nines as in Chinese, nine is a homonym for “long time”, which is why the number is considered very lucky for weddings. The red packet money can be anything from 99c to $9,999,999.99, it is not about how much is given, but rather the symbolic gesture that the groom and bride will be together for a long long time. Door games are any games that can be played, to test the groom’s and his groomsmans’ patience, but as a general rule, should not be malicious or dangerous.They are also allowed to decline to complete the task, but then it will be up to the discreation of the bridesmaid as to whether they do something else.The other purpose of the door game is to distract the groom and his friends allowign the bride more time to prepare herself.

At the wedding, we chose not to tell them about being able to decline the games, instead we explain to them that the games were just for fun and should not be taken too seriously. Luckily for us, the groomsmen all had a fantastic sense of humour. With the games, there are many games you can play, or you can make up your own game as we did. We started off easy and lightly for the groomsmen, as neither of them had ever been to a Chinese wedding before and we wanted to help them relax, and let the final task hit them. On the day, when they arrived and knocked on the front door, Tc’s brother made them sing love songs until Dz and I got our props ready. We then proceeded with the first game; Charades. Dz and I made them act out three words, giving all three a chance to guess the words. They had fun completing that task and made them think that the next task was just this simple. Then we hit them with the main task that we had planned for them. At BnT, we happened across some candy g-strings. I pulled them out and explained that LilR had to wear it. The red-faced groom grudgingly did so, while the groomsmen doubled over howling with laughter, and trying to help the groom put on the g-string. Once he had it on and had gotten back his humour he started prancing around showing off his new underpants like a typical male, much to the laughter of his groomsmen. That’s when I jumped in with: “Now you two have the eat  the candy off him.” To which the laughter from those three stopped, and everyone else started up even louder. The three stood in disbelief staring at me and then at Dz who was nodding her head and then at the Tc’s Gigantor brother who’s only reply was: “If you want my sister, do it.” Now I considered telling them one had to eat it from the front and the other from the back,but thought that would just be mean, and they might get upset. Better not to. How ever I couldn’t believe my luck when the best man say to the other groomsmen, “I’ll take the back if you take the front.” ROFLMFAO!!!!!!!!! The photographer got photos of the event, and they turned to him and said he can’t show it to anyone else but Tc, to which the photographer’s reply was “Oh what a shame, I missed that, can you guys do it again?” LOL!!!!

Now I wish I had fotos to reshare that moment with you all. I must say… GOLD!!!!!!!

“We do not remember the days, we remember the moments.” -Cesare Pavese

Another year has passed and with it so many memories.  Much has happened and changed in the past year that I wonder what the new year will bring.

For the past 7/8 years of my life, I have been honored to have been friends with two of the world’s most amazing people. In that time we have all grown and changed so much. We were there for all the heartaches and happiness, everything people experience in life.  For the past five of those years, we have been planning and anticipating for that special day of one of them.

Then in late October 2009, it finally happened. Five years of patiently waiting, and planning. My best friend, my co-birthday-er and my confidante, finally married the man that she has been in love with since she was 15. Myself with our other best friend, were given the privileged of being the bridesmaid. I spent the most part of the past year, running around researching and planning with the bride to be, where to have the ceremony, where to go for the reception, what music, what cake, which car. The planning took up all my free time, but it didn’t matter. My girl was finally marrying her man and we wanted it perfect.

The night before her wedding, after we had smoothed out the final details we finally had a moment to ourselves to think things over. At 1am on the day of her wedding, the three of us sat down on the mattress, and realized, this is the last sleepover that the three of us will have as we were. As in a few hours from now, one of us will be married, leaving behind her childhood. We finally fell asleep, and I don’t know if it was the excitement or what, but we woke up again at 5am, in order to get ready for the day. We ran around putting up the final decorations for the groom’s arrival, and at 5.30am, the make up artist got there and started working on first us bridesmaids’ hair and make up and then finally the bride’s, by 8am, we were ready to dress the bride, and do the final touches of her make up.

I can’t say that the day went without a hitch, because it did. So many things fell apart at the last-minute. That being said, as luck would have it, everything sorted itself out in the long run. When we finally got to the place of the ceremony, I had butterflies jumping all around in my stomach, and I wondered to myself, if I am this nervous, I can only imagine what the bride is going though right at this moment. The moment I walked out after Dz and saw everything that we have imagined and organised for the wedding become a reality, all my butterflies just flew away. I saw the groom nervously fidgeting while he was anticipating the arrival of the bride, and I saw his best man, give him a firm slap on the back for support. Then as I reached the end and turned around, I saw Tc standing there on her brother’s arm, who was looking quite proud and protective of her. I saw the groom look at her and just relaxed that little bit. Although the day was hot, it was beautiful. And the bride was gorgeous. After the ceremony, we spent some time in the area taking photos and relaxing with the wedding party and photographer joking around. We got some amazing photos.

At the reception, like the ceremony, things threatened to come undone at the last-minute but after giving the bride a quiet pep talk about accepting things as they come, the night was wonderful. Though I was starving, as we had practically eaten nothing since the breakfast in the morning, I was too nervous about doing my speech to really eat that much. The time came for me and Dz to do our speech, and as fate would have it, the speech we had prepared earlier was left behind at the hotel in my bag. >< Nevertheless, we persevered. Dz and I made up the speech on the spot, and despite my stumbling and trembling hands, no one noticed anything out-of-place. We got compliments later as the other guests came up to us and congratulated us on memorizing the speech by heart. =) That night as we got back to our hotel rooms and showered, I was so exhausted I fell asleep with my hair wet. When I woke up in the morning I was fully refreshed and excited about he events of the previous day.

That was one of the biggest events in my life. I was honored to be invited to be part of the day and words cannot describe how happy I was to see friend marry the man she has loved for so long.

But that was not the end of that. As a sign that life is an eternal circle, I can finally announce after months of my keeping quiet and almost bursting at the seams from keeping this secret until time…. My favourite married couple are expecting!!!!!!!!!! This time next year, we will be celebrating with a mini Tc/LilR!!!! I am so excited for her and I can hardly anticipate when the little bundle of joy will be here.  Being the traditional minded homely girl that she is, no one knows whether it will be a him/her as yet, but I know that they will be very much-loved by its mummy and daddy, not to mention us aunties and uncles who are eagerly awaiting for the arrival and not to mention a very excited and impatient Grand mummy.

There’s a saying, “Friends are the siblings that God forgot to give us.”  I now understand this, especially after all the fights and laughter we have been through. With other people, I will never forget how they have hurt me so, but with these two girls, the anger dissipates the moment we have calmed down, almost like it has never happened. Then if it is ever brought up again, we can always find the humour in those situations. 2009 in summary… the year that cemented our friendship and moved it to familiarity.

To my girls, to my sisters who I never had, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!! May 2010 be as joyous and wonderfully full of memories as the years that filled up from the time we met.

Then

October 2009

Just a little bit of history repeating…..

Just saw on my the FB page of a friend from high school, that she’s won full custody of her daughter. But its quite bittersweet this victory. I guess most victories are like that. What you win may never compensate for what it is you have lost. I can’t help though, but look at her life and wonder, if history repeats itself. Let me tell you why…..

I met her through another friend in high school. At first I immensely disliked her. She was loud, obnoxious, rude, tacky and absolutely rowdy. Half way through high school, she moved to a house around the corner from me with her mum and dad. We’d both ride to school at the same time, we had the same friends, and we had a couple of classes together. It wasn’t long before we started chatting to each other on our way to school, and shortly after that, we would wait to go to school together. We started hanging out more together as well and I grew to realise, that although she was a little rough on the outside, she had a really nice side to her as well. It was just unfortunate that her loud obnoxious side usually dominated her personality. Overall, she was a great friend. When she wanted to be. She stood up to the bullies who tried to pick on me, and would be the one who made me realise, that I didn’t always have to be the one to stand down in an argument. She taught me that when I was right, I should fight to be heard over the other idiot who is trying so desperately to bring me down. I think during the time I knew her, she introduced me to many things that I would never have thought of doing. Hehehe!

She had a way with the adults. She knew to be polite around them and how to talk to them so that she had them in the palm of her hand, probably from the training of being the only child. =) But there was always a sadness to her. A sense of loneliness. Something I could never understand, because she had to me,everything. She was confident, had heaps of friends, and parents who loved her. Then one day, during a conversation about family structures and long lost relatives, with a mutual friend, the girl let slip that this girl and her father had different surnames, but wasn’t sure why. On the way home that day, I bought it up with her, and she just told me as-a-matter-of-factly tone that it was because her parents never got married. Being the innocent, naive girl-child that I was, I was surprised but I just accepted it.

During this time, she was starting to get in trouble with teachers and she was fighting a lot with her parents. Mostly her mother. Being 15 at the time, I just accepted it as the norm as all my other friends, and myself included were testing our limits with our parent too. One day, I was waiting for her on my bike outside her house as I always did, and she came storming out of the house. It was clearly evident she had been crying, as her eyes were swollen and red. We rode to school in silence. I didn’t talk to her for the rest of the day, but when I did see her, I could still see what ever it was, she was still upset about it. After school, she waited for me and the others, at the bike racks to ride back home. We were halfway back when she told us she didn’t want to go home yet, so we went to the local deli and bought soft drinks and junk food and headed off to the nearby park. She didn’t say anything at first, so us other girls just joked and ate the junk food amongst ourselves.

Suddenly she told us she wanted to tell us something. It was then that she revealed to us, that the night before she found a photo of her as a baby, being held by another man that was not her dad. She asked her mum about it, who refused to tell her who it was. But the conversation escalated into a fight, and her mother finally revealed to her that her, that the man in the photo was her biological father. A man her mother was once married to.  She wasn’t too sure of the details at the time, but I got the impression from her that he was a violent man, and that was why her mother took her and ran. She later got full custody of her and met the man who she would come to know as her dad. I didn’t know what to say, and neither did the others. We all sat there in silence. This was something we saw at the movies, on TV, read in the papers, but when it was happening to someone that close to you, what do you say?

After that revelation, things were never the same again. She fully rebelled against her mother, as she saw her as the person who lied to her, her entire life. Things with her father/step-father as he turned out to be got better though. He told her it didn’t matter to him, and that he would always be her father, but shortly after that his relationship with her mother began to fall apart too. A few months later, they had broken up and she was devastated that because he was not her biological father, and never formally adopted her, her mother still had full time custody of her, and she could only stay with him on the weekends.  Things didn’t get any better when he started a new relationship either. She would purposely do things that bordered on illegal. After pulling a stunt that nearly got myself and a few of my other friends in trouble for (even though we did not know about it happening until we were told to run), I saw less and less of her. Over time I only ever saw her at school and at friend’s birthdays.

In the last year of high school, it was clear that our lives were heading down different paths. I was determined to get into uni, and she was determined to just get out of school. After high school, I didn’t see her for several years. In fact, I still haven’t seen her. She found me on FB one day last year and added me, and we had a bit of a conversation about our lives. I now only get updated on her status mutual friends who she still catches up with and every now and then, her FB page has a few hints on her life. Seeing what she has gone through recently with the break-up of her relationship with her partner and the custody battle of their daughter, its quite sad. I think she thought that with her partner, she could provide a home and environment for their daughter which she always wanted. I can’t help but to wonder, is history repeating itself?

For my thoughts…high school….

Recent events have made me realized, that I’ve changed a lot since my high school days. I know that. I like to think for the better. I remember clearly the days where all around me, the girls would judge each other on their looks. Names like Looser, Geek, Slut, Skank and Whore were thrown around by just about every girl in the change rooms after PE. It was almost like a female bonding session. To say that only the popular girls mocked and ridiculed those beneath them is not fair. For every name they called another girl, the other girl would have just as many to give back to her tormentor, if not more. Everyone had their own “clique”. From as far as I know, there always has been, and always will be. It’s a part of growing up. You have the popular girls; pretty, charismatic, and  more often than not the biggest bitches in the school, because they can be. Other girls live in awe of them. Some want to be them, some loathed them, but we all knew of them.  Then you had the next level. The still pretty and charismatic ones, but these girls, are often not as bitchy as the first lot. These girls have their own group of friends and they don’t go out of their way to make fun of the other girls, but at the same time they don’t try to be any nicer than they have to….unless they need something from the other girl. Then there’s the rest of us. The ones who don’t really belong in either group. There’s the girls who do so well in sports, other girls mock them for being such a “tomboy”, but come PE class, they all hope they get these girls on their team so they can win. The artistic, who rather spend their days dreaming and discussing their next piece of work rather than waste their time talking about make up and boys with the rest of the popular girls. Then you have the intellects. They were smart, and they studied hard. So hard, so many of them have very limited social skills, but when ever you needed to find partner for a science project or another group member, they were the first ones you would go to. Where did I find myself? I hid among all these characters.

My friends from primary school, they were very smart, pretty and charming, so it wasn’t long after we started high school that they soon assimilated into the popular crowd. I was never the best at anything. In fact I was pretty average. The only thing that I excelled at was being shy. I hated being the centre of attention. When ever attention was given to me, I’d freak out and don’t know what to do. In primary school, it was fine. I hid among my friends. They were always prettier and more outgoing, so no one really really noticed me. But when you get to high school, everyone changes. We came from several different schools. Once our class year was only 60 people, now we had close to 200. No one knows each other anymore. Over the summer holidays, friendship dynamic change.  Girls who were best friends from the age of five suddenly find that their best friend had changed so much, they no longer get along the way they use to. A few weeks into the school year, and you realized that just about everyone has a new group of friends. It wasn’t long before I found myself with a new group of friends. Looking back now, I don’t know what attracted me to this group or them to me. But through out my time at high school, it was through them that I learned about the trials and tribulations of friendship, as well as seeing the very best, and the very worse of the female mind. Like I said, I always hid. I was the girl who no one noticed. I didn’t really excel at anything, and I never tried to get myself noticed. I had my friends and I was happy with that. My parents were strict with me when I was growing up. No sleepovers, no unchaperoned parties, no friends who they never met the parents to before. Being me, I was too scared to incur their wrath, so I would find my frustrated friends asking me for the hundredth time to come to their house this weekend for a sleepover while their parents were away, while I feared my parent’s reaction to it all.

Needless to say, hiding from all the attention can only work for so long. Before long, we were changing again. Us girls were slowly growing into women, and that is where it all gets worse. There were the girls who developed early, it wasn’t long before they realize that they could use this to their advantage and manipulate the boys into doing what they wanted. They dress and acted in a way that they wanted people to know that they are now a woman. But mentally, they were still children. The did what they did so they can get their own way. Those who did not fall for their tricks, they would mock relentlessly. I unfortunately was the target for a lot of this. I can still recall a time when we were left in a class on our own. It wasn’t a regular class, so the majority of the others in that class were people I didn’t really  talk to. I think I had one friend there. I listened quietly in the back of the class as they discussed their weekend antics, and all of a sudden one of the girls noticed my friend and me in the back. They turned the entire class’ attention to us while they quizzed us to humiliate us. Luckily, this only last for a few minutes before the teacher came back in. But that was all it took. It wasn’t long before they had picked us as their new targets, and unashamedly tried to make our lives a living hell. It was probably because of this that I met one of my friends. She was new. From South Africa. The popular girls were very curious about her. Like them, she developed early, but like us, she didn’t’ care what she looked like, and she never tried to use her looks to manipulate anyone. She hung out with the popular girls for awhile, and it was during one of those times when she saw them attempt to pick on us that she noticed me. She stood up for me, and during class one day asked why I took their crap. Before long, we started talking to each other a bit more.  Soon we were friends, and she stopped spending time with the other girls, and they found it odd. The teasing relented abit, and it wasn’t long before things went back to the way it was before. They left me and my friend alone, while they went to look for  a new target.

It was through this friend that I went through my changes.  She showed me how to stand up for myself, and I learnt that I didn’t always have to hide. She introduced me to her friends from outside of school, and would invite me to her house after school. Around my parents she was sweet and polite, and as a result, my parents liked her. So when she invited me to her house for a party one night, my parents agreed. Having met her mum before they were fine with it all. So on the night they dropped me off at her house. Her mum greeted us at the door, but a bout half an hour later, she went to work. I wasn’t aware that her mother was going to work (She was a nurse). The moment her mother left, she went to the kitchen pantry and pulled out the bottle of sherry her mum had put aside for cooking and we drank all of it. By the time my parents came to pick me up, we had drunk the sherry (which was full) and another bottle of JD, that she had somehow gotten. One thing I knew about this girl was that I don’t ask questions. She had her way with people, and she ended up getting what she wanted though one of her many connections. Because she knew what my parents were like, and the others were staying over, she made all the drunken girls stay in her room and keep quiet while she walked me out. My parents decided, seeing as we were so well behaved, decided it was OK if I went to her parties more often, and they were fine with my other friend’s dad driving us rather than them having to do it all the time.

The thing I liked most about this girl, was that she was the first person that I had met, who never cared what others thought. She’d do what she herself felt was right. She never judged anyone by the way they dressed, looked, or what the rumours going around about them. She judged them as they were. If they were nice, she was friends with them. If they were mean. She ignored them. The people and things she introduced me to, some people might be shocked, but it made me realize, that even though some people have a “dodgy” side to them, they weren’t all bad. They could be decent people too. Yes she dabbled in a lot of “substances” but as a person, she was one of the most decent people I know. The friends that she introduced me to, were the type of people that sometimes you don’t talk to because they seem dangerous or scary.

The last time we hung out together, she was going through a dark phase, and wasn’t getting along with her mother. She shut herself off from the rest of us. And before long we had lost touch with each other. But I ran into her last year. She’s since had a baby, and she seemed much happier. She was also out shopping with her mum. So whatever happened during that time, I think she’s happy now. I hope she is. I know I can honestly say, she was one of the few people that had influenced me a lot. =)

Hussell and Bussell

With the huge increase in activities in my life so much… something had gotta give. Unfortunately… that something has been this blog. =( (Yes time for people to in insert your “Awwwww” )

But yeah, life at the moment has been one big commotion and it has been one thing after another that I’ve barely had time to remember when I last blog. >< So I thought… hmm…. let’s do it like the soap operas and do a recap! =D

On the last blog I mentioned that I now catch the train to work. The train. Its a funny place. It’s perfect for people watching, its just rather unfortunate the only time I’m on it is during peak hour. Which was why today on my lunch break I caught the train to East Perth to meet a friend seeing as I shop to much on my lunch break. There was  a little kid, would have been about two I’d say. He was having a tantrum, so grandma who he was with, gave him a piece of bread to eat. He went quiet as he happily munched away on his bread. That is until he started coughing and turning red. Grandma freaked out and tried to pull the bread out of his mouth and exchange it with the water bottle. The lil guy decided , hell no, he wants his bread. He had another tantrum. His face was red at this point, and you could tell grandma was really worried, but he fought her off real good. He then realised that the couldn’t keep fighting grandma from getting to his bread and promptly shoved the whole thing into his mouth. LOL!  He amused me greatly as he sat there with a smug look on his face like he had won…. his red face… still coughing. ROFL!

The previous blog I mentioned Valentine’s Day. My gift to MB, was tickets to go watch the Sugar Blue Burlesques.  We got there about half an hour before the show, and already there was a huge line. I thought they were the people who didn’t buy tickets and were getting them at the door. Turned out, most of us had tickets, and they sold out. It was the “Best of” show, so they showed the highlights from over the past year. The show was really good. The hosts were really entertaining, and the costumes were really interesting. Some parts of the show, you feel like it was really amateurish… but it was still entertaining overall, and when they start performing again, I’d tell people they really should go. Had heaps of fun that night.

Went to Metros and met more randoms again. I realised I hadn’t drunk in two months after I got majorly drunk on a lot less drinks than normal. But then just the other day, I realised, that it was also the same night they were giving away shots. The chick was standing with her back to me, tray to her side. My self and a friend saw this, and we gulped down half the tray before she turned around to wonder why the tray was suddenly so light. We both stood there smiling at her, and she had no idea what happened and asked if we would like to try another shot. ROFL! Needless to say, met heaps of people that night….don’t remember their names. ><

Weird Week

This week has been extremely strange to say the least. I’m starting to get the hang of my work, and I know what, how and when to do the things I get asked to now, but it doesn’t mean its all good. For a start. I noticed that the people I work with, although they aren’t mean, they aren’t exactly the friendliest bunch of people around. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the fact the majority are engineers, and stereotypically they tend to be bookish quite type. There’s one guy who is a little more outgoing than the rest, but he is more extroverted in the sense that he thinks very highly of himself and comes off as a little bit arrogant at times… kinda like this other guy I know, who is coincidentally an engineer himself. No one likes him much, as he’s always correcting us, and when he talks I want to punch him. The guy at work is not that bad though… or maybe because I don’t talk to him as much. That being said, MB is an engineer. He is also one of the most extroverted people I know, and he doesn’t seem the type to make people feel bad bout themselves. *phew!* =)

I catch the train to work now, and it has made me realised that it brings out the worse in people. Today as I was coming home, I managed to get a seat, which is a rare happening, and so I sat down. Then shortly after, this guy comes along and stands next to me. I look up and I saw that it was a guy in his 50s. He didn’t look disabled, sick, or anything so I went back to staring out the window. Then I hear him clear his throat. I look up again, and his face was staring at me expecting me to get up for him. So I looked at him again, and I saw that he was wearing quite a nice looking suit. By this stage I was getting angry at him. I’ll give up the seat to a pregnant lady or someone with disabilities, but I’m not standing up so a rude prick like him gets to sit down! He realised I wasn’t going to budge so he went to stand something else. He stood there staring at me. I stared back at him. Eventually someone else left, and he scrambled for their seat. Then when I was getting off at my stop, there’s was a guy in the seat in front of me. As I was in the middle, when the train stopped, I stood and looked around and wen to the door behind me as there were less people. The guy that was sitting in front of me saw me turn to go that way, and then promptly pulled me back so he could get in front of me, and then pushed people who were also leaving. Needless to say, we were all pretty angry at him.

I also catch the CAT bus as it goes past my work place, and on my lunch break, it saves me having to walk half of the way. Yesterday, I got on the bus, and there was a really bad odour. I looked around for a seat and saw this homeless guy sitting towards the back. I pretty much figured where the smell was coming from, so I stayed away from that area as there were no windows. But then these British tourists got on the bus, and sat down right behind the homeless guy.  Then one of them said in a really loud voice. “My god what is that smell?!” Then he looked in front of him and realised where it was coming from. Most people would just move away but stay quiet, but not this lot. They sat there cracking jokes about the homeless and the guy’s smell. I could see from where I was sitting that he was getting more and more uncomfortable. This kind of behaviour you’d think would come from some young backpackers, but no, this was not the case. The woman and one of the men was in their late fourties and the one cracking most of the jokes was in either his late thirties or early fourties. They were dressed really nicely as well. And just to make sure people know who it was they were referring to, when another person got on the bus and her face crinkled from the smell, the younger guy stood up pointing down at the guy in front of him and started giggling.

I don’t know about you, but I think that public transport brings out the rudeness in a lot of people.

Busy lil bee!! That’s me!

Since the last time I was on here, I’ve started a new job. After all those years running away from accounting, its come back to bite me in the arse. I’m now an accounts assistant. Its not too bad. I’m getting the hang of it, and I’m more efficient than when I first started. But damn there is a lot of scanning of invoices. ><

Valentines day was also on the weekend. Original plans were that we would go on the Ferris wheel and then take the ferry across to have lunch in South Perth, but the deary weather meant that we canceled that and I chose to do something else. After much thinking, I settled for a late night picnic on the South Perth foreshore. But as the weather still didn’t look that great I organized for the picnic to take place in my car.

How, you may ask. Well basically I pushed down the back seat so that it was flat in the back, and lined it with my picnic mat. Then to make it more comfortable I also put in a giant cushion. Food wise, I made a chicken and leek pie that my friend’s mother taught me to make the last time I went over for lunch and a simple salad. I also got some cheesecake and fruit flans from Michel’s patisserie. Being in the car meant that we could have the music on and as it was South Perth, the mosquitoes couldn’t get to us, and it was very secluded and private.

Unfortunately, weather once again played a trick on us, and it got warmer gradually through the night, so after awhile it was quite hot int he car. We decided to go for a walk to walk off our food and to get some air. Only after a few minutes I gotten attacked by mosquitoes.

Whilst on our walk, we saw several interesting things. We went past some couples pashing on the lawns… a couple and their little daughter with some high powered-looking camera…. pashing as their daughter played in the area next to their mat… then a bit further up, I found someone panties in the middle of the footpath. Lil bit inconspicuous if you ask me. After awhile, it was becoming obvious that I was getting bitten a lot so we went home.
It was quite a a nice night.

Oh, and I got a new phone. The Samsung f480.

Surprise Surprise!

On Friday night, friends and I decided to throw Mr Capsicum a surprise birthday party among ourselves. I thought that I wouldn’t make it on time as I had a family dinner that night, but as it turned out, I managed to make it there before the birthday boy did. We didn’t do much. Just gathered at a friend’s house and went on-line and played Wii. It was quite nice to just hang out. We hadn’t done that in ages.

Then on Saturday night, I wasn’t in the mood to go out, but thought I’d go anyways to a friend’s farewell party. Ended up at Metros and bumped into MB who said he wasn’t going to go out. Had an early night either way. Got home about 2.30am.

Then this morning, MB was suppose to come  over when he woke up.  Only because he had a really late night last night, he didnt’ wake up until 11. He didn’t end up coming over til 2. >< I could have gone shopping had I known that he was going to be that late. Dammit!

He told me a few weeks ago that he had a surprise planned for me, an early Valentine’s Day gift. The past few weeks, I had been going insane trying to work out what this surprise was. At first I got scared because he told me he wasn’t telling me in case I didn’t want to go. It made me think that this “surprise” was actually a rouse to get me to go donate blood with him. He knows I am terrified of needles, and if I have to go, he’d have to knock me out first. But then he assured me that it wasn’t to donate blood, and I relaxed a bit.

As the date drew closer, I have been wondering more and more what it could be. I thought maybe it was the gondola ride thing that I was hinting to him about, but then I freaked out, because it’s quite expensive, and in the same position, I wouldn’t use that unless it was a proposal or a major milestone anniversary, and as the latter wasn’t possible yet, I got even more worried I wouldn’t have an answer for him should it happen now. Then I realised that I was being stupid, as we have discussed it before and we both agreed that there were other things we both wanted to accomplish before if it were to happen.

So two strikes out. Then it suddenly occurred to me that he said that he wasn’t telling me in case I didn’t want to go. So I started thinking again and thought… hmm… I think we are going skydiving! He has mentioned previously that he would do it should the situation arise. For a few days I was thinking that it was skydiving. I tried to get more info out of him by asking if I should dress a certain way etc, and he was like: “Nah where what ever you normally do. ” >< Back on went my thinking cap. I couldn’t think of anything else. Until later that night, I was thinking back through everything that was discussed between each other in order to get a hint or something. Then all of a sudden, I remembered that around the time we started going our and it was nearing his birthday, I considered getting him tickets to Cirque De Solei’s Dralion show. It suddenly occurred to me that this may actually be what it is!

It wasn’t until this morning, when he asked me which restaurant on the city side was open that I finally got the information to confirm that it was indeed the surprise. When he came to pick me up, he told me we were going sky diving. I looked at him, and I saw him smirk. I knew then we were NOT going skydiving, but I played along and asked him questions about it, until he admitted that we were indeed not.  I had a small bit of doubt left, but once we got to the city and parked the car, I was convinced that I knew what it was. We got out of the car, and I, forgetting that I wasn’t suppose to know where we were going, started walking off towards riverside drive. He glared at me and asked me where I thought I was going. I was like “Oh yeah. I don’t actually know.” So I kept playing along for awhile, chatting as we went. Then when we were pretty much across the street from the big top, I stopped and asked if this was where we were going. He grinned and told me yes, and how did I know. I told him my method of deduction. He laughed at me and said I should stop being so annoying.

The show was amazing! I loved every minute of it. But when it got to the ballet on the light bulbs act, one of the girls fell, causing the others to fall too. They all landed on one girl in particular, who got hurt pretty bad. They had to cancel that part of the show, which was a disappointment, but at least it didn’t appear that the girl was injured too badly. The show ended up finishing 15 minutes earlier than it was suppose to. Still it was a really good show.

We then went to have dinner at Dusit Thai. We ordered the green papaya salad (Som tum), which made me remember a moment in Penang, where Tc, Dzoom and I ordered the same thing, and it came, but it was so hot, only Dzoom could eat it, and made me cry while Tc just gave up after one bite. The salad apart from being really hot was quite nice. We made sure the rest of our dinner was mild. LOL. We ordered the pha neang curry with beef and the mixed seafood pard mah-prow-on which was basically seafood stirfried with young coconut flesh. It was really good.

I had an amazing time and loved every minute of it. You did well babe! Thanks heaps! *MWAH!*

Next week…. its my turn to organise something.

It’s Chinese New Year!!

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone!!!

This year, CNY happened to fall on the same day as Australia Day, apparently the last time this happened was back in 1930. So while every other year CNY passes relatively quietly here in Perth, this year was full of noise and celebrations. =) As it is Australia Day, we had the annual fireworks happening, and because of CNY, all over the city, the lion dancers were doing their thing, and firecrackers were in abundance. Everywhere we went this year, everyone was celebrating either Aust Day, or CNY, or both.

I woke up on Monday, and laid there in bed, trying to decide what I whether or not to get out of bed yet, or roll over and sleep in a little bit more. Then I got a phone call from MB, as I didn’t get to see him the past two days before, as we both had other commitments. Him with his lion dance crew, and me for my friend’s hen’s night. After the expected greetings and wishings for the new year, we chatted for a bit, until I heard my dad muttering down the corridor. He stuck his head into my room and went: “HEY!!!! It’s Chinese New Year!!! Why aren’t you up and wishing me a Happy New Year?!” LOL! Then he realised I was on the phone, so he went back out muttering that I don’t even talk to him first anymore. LOL. Then mum stuck her head in and goes: “Your dad wants you to greet him.” Then she realised I was on the phone, so she just pulled her “Ooops, my bad!” face and left. We ended up having family breakfast, rather than lunch, after which they went to the temples. I didn’t go, as they didn’t tell me until a few minutes before leaving, and by then I had already made other plans.

After lunch, I made the potato salad that was for the BBQ later in the evening, and then played Singstar for a little bit before heading out to Lil’A’s place to meet up with her and Mr Capsicum. We then went to check out the Haviana Party up in Hilliary’s, but by the time we got there, the event was over, and people were leaving. =( We were bored, and had time to kill, so we went to Scarborough Beach to get some ice cream. The damn ice cream melted so fast. >< But how can I stay angry at ice cream? =D

After awhile, we went back to collect the salad, and then realised that we had to go get another salad. So we dropped by IGA, and got the ingriedinets, and went back to Lil’A’s place to cut up the salad. We then met up with Jj, Sunshine and Gn in East Perth. We got there just as they had finished cooking the sausages, and Jmy just arrived. once we finished the BBQ, we went to the top of the hill and attempted to slide down the hill in the cardboard boxes we found in Mr Capsicum’s car. After several hilarious attempts, we accepted that there was just way too many ditches in the grass, and sat on the hill chatting for a little bit, watching the helicopters and the planes for the sky show fly over head. Once it got too cold, and I was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, we headed off into NB to bum around for a bit as we were told by Sunshine that the fireworks weren’t until 9.30. I thought it was at 9, but she insisted it was at 9.30. At 8.50, we headed out to the building where we were going to watch it from, and we just happened to come across MB and his crew who were jsut about to start their performance. But as we were walking, we didn’t stop to  talk to him, instead we all walked past screaming his name. At 9pm, as we were crossing the road outside the bus station, we heard the first crack of fireworks. We all stopped to glare at Sunshine. Realising that the show starts at 9 and not 9.30, we ran for  it. Except VnT, Mr Capsicum, Jmy and Sc.  We made it in time to see most of the fireworks. Pretty good view point we got.

After the fireworks, we went to walk Vanni back to her car which was parked in NB. We came across MB and his crew again about to start another performance. So we stayed and watched. We also ran into other friends who are in a different dance troope, and were performing next door. In total, there was about three troopes in one area, and we got to watch them all.

It turned out to be a pretty good day. For Mr Capsicum, Lil’A and myself, we got to experience the whole day for what it was. Australia Day with our trip to the beach and BBQ dinner, and then CNY with the lion dance performances. The only thing that would have made it better was if I got to see more of MB over the long weekend. I only got to see him mostly on Friday night, when I went to pick him up for the birthday. But even then, I didn’t see him for a lot of the night, as I was at a friend’s going away before the party. It’s made the week seem longer. =(