Perpetual Bliss ♥: 2010

Merry Christmas

Mummy made Christmas breakfast - mashed sweet and normal potatoes with egg.

Our special guests - Charlene and Benson, came over for Christmas lunch at our place. Our chef of the day was mummy (as usual) :) We were too hungry to even bother to take pictures.

Charlene's pudding.

Our new refrigerator! $1388 after discount (original price $1799).
We bought this on Thursday night at Harvey Norman, Browns Plains.
It was my first time seeing Rui so 爽快-ly buying something!!!
MORE TO COME! Hohoho, boxing day sales start tomorrow!

Charlene and Benson's Christmas pressie to us :)
Now we have a whole cupboard full of glasses.

Season Greetings

More Christmas pressies from colleagues :)

I made Oreo cheesecake (aka cookies and cream cake) just now!!!

Crushed Oreo cookies and butter as the base

Philly cheese!!!

Must follow the recipe in order to succeed

Not satisfied with the layout because Rui and mummy were like "??????"

Two more days until my 5-day weekend!!!!!!!!!!!

Ducted Air Conditioning

Turned on the ducted air conditioning in the house for the first time because it was so humid. Sigh, summer is really hitting Brisbane. Not looking forward to the next electricity bill :P but it definitely feels good to have air conditioning after so many years!

DFO Shopping

Took the day off to go shopping at DFO near Brisbane airport, and boy, was that a long drive - 55 minutes from home without going through toll roads.

Our day started at 6.50am when our neighbours started drilling/thumping/cutting/talking... which immediately gave us severe headaches. It seems that they are building a pool, I'm thinking a mini one, just beside their newly built Bali hut. The hut has thatch roofing, so when it's windy, the bits and pieces are blown onto our lawn -_-'' but you can't complain, can you? Thou shalt love thy neighbour.

Obviously, the noises got onto Rui's nerves and he kept cursing, wishing that it would rain. I suggested doing the rain dance but he just ignored me. After an hour of tossing and turning, he decided to wake up and do some house chores. Within 5 minutes, it rained cats and dogs. This guy suddenly had an evil broad smile on his face and jumped with joy - "KEEP IT COMING!!!", he said.

I should say that I was well behaved today, only going into shops which Rui wanted to. But my eyes were checking out clothes from afar :( IT'S ALL RIGHT. Better buys in Malaysia. Less than two months to go!!!

At the end of the day, we bought a set of stainless steel cutleries for 8 people (just in case we have guests... which is very unlikely :P) ...

..and CUTE measuring cups/spoons. I can't stop staring at these babies. I LOVE THEM.

We finally bought this monopoly set at Kmart yesterday :) Huhuhu, now everyone gets a credit card!

Stuff

Went to Sunnybank for lunch and shopped at the Asian grocer, hohoho, 明天开始有好料吃了！
After a 60-minute workout, I've regained 300 calories by having ice-cream :P
Boiled chicken soup, cooked chicken rice and stir fried celery for mummy.
Can't get enough of Modern Family, it is so hilarious.
Updating my play list so that I don't get bored on the bus.
Watching a new TVB drama with mummy and Rui!
Can't wait to start the new project :)

割草记

Mowed the lawn AGAIN. This time, our opposite neighbour jokingly said 'could you mow my lawn too? :) '

I think my arms and legs will definitely hurt tomorrow. 有成就感 :) Mummy's coming here on Saturday and she will be staying until end of January!!! We will have more time to do house chores and make full use of the treadmill. Yay!

1st Attempt at Making Aglio Olio

I didn't know aglio olio is so easy to cook!

Tomorrow's lunch :)
Added lots of cili padis and dried chilli to spice it up.

Half Price

We went to Garden City after work and bought ten bottles of Tresemme shampoos and conditioners. The guy at the checkout counter asked, "do you own a hair salon or something?", I replied, "no, they are all for me :)"

Only $5 for a 900ml bottle!!! I guess these will last me 6 months.

These eggplants are from the tree behind our house.
We had an eggplant feast for a week.

10.10.10

Happy 26th birthday to my one and only, Rui. If only you were ten, it will then be a once in a lifetime celebration.

We also wanted to get married on 10.10.10 because it symbolises binary digits, which is very 'us', since both are software programmers. My colleagues kept saying that it wasn't fair as it is also Rui's birthday, so he will never forget our anniversary -_-'' ... but that was so 'last year,' we're still as happy, and if he ever forgets our anniversary, I'm going to tear him into pieces. Just kidding!

We had this weekend all to ourselves, lazing around, doing nothing but watched tv and enjoyed each other's company. I woke up pretty early on Saturday morning as I was awaiting for the cupcakes to be delivered to the house. Opened the front door and made Rui suspicious because we never usually do that... so this smarty pants asked, 'are you waiting for something to be delivered? For me???' ... I'm not good at keeping surprises so I blurted it out. *Mission failed*

He pretended NOT to know about it.

Specially ordered peanut butter flavoured cupcakes for the birthday boy
from Luscious Cupcakes

Bought him quite a lot of gifts this year! Birthday cupcakes, a t-shirt, his long awaited breadmaker, a personalised music cd... but I haven't gotten him a lawn mower.

Not forgetting this huge coffee plunger.

Cooked Laksa for lunch and we're still full to the brim

The day is not over yet, it's time for me to cook dinner. Life is so beautiful when you are with your loved ones, in today's case, my other half. We're already as happy as any other day, hence, birthdays do not seem big anymore. Lots of love from you-know-who ;) I'm going to grow old with you.

Happy 26th

Went to work on Thursday (9/9/2010) and the first thing Michelle said wasn't "Good morning", it was "here you go, happy birthday!"...

This is very sweet :)

10/9/2010 Friday, took a flex day off. Had breakfast with mummy and Rui at Garden City shopping center at 6.30am because Rui had to go to work. Chatted with mummy over tea until 9.30am... that was when the shops started to open. Shopped the whole day and bought decorations for the house. It is ALWAYS fun shopping with your own mother! :) Oh yes, and it was Hari Raya. No lemang or whatsoever but it was a happy day.

911 Saturday, woke up at 6.45am because Rui couldn't sleep anymore -_-'' He went out of the room and I checked FB in bed. Saw Jake and Riley's raya pics which my sister-in-law tagged me in! A great start for a wonderful day.

Jake & Riley

These pictures melt my heart
The boys are so adorable, I can't believe Riley is walking now :P

Left the room feeling a bit hungry, looked for Rui but nobody in sight, mummy was still in her room as it was still early (again... 6.47am-ish)! Went to the kitchen and was stunned to see SOMETHING on the kitchen counter...

WOWZER!!!
*Jumped with joy for 5 whole minutes around the house*
... but could not scream to express my happiness!!!
Still, Rui was no where in sight!!!

Suddenly saw him walking out of the other toilet... the first thing he asked was "why are you up so early?! Are you happy?? Happy birthday!!! I think I heard you jump, could you reenact the scene again? :D"

I felt so complete.

I thought I had received my birthday present on Friday -- he gave me permission to spend $100 on clothes and a lottery ticket. THAT was gold because he doesn't let me buy unnecessary stuff, saying that I have way too many clothes... erm, hello?! It's never enough. So I bought a jumpsuit from Bardot and a lottery ticket for exactly one hundred dollars. *乖*

Received a text message from Tim, my colleague. So nice of him to remember my birthday every year! He printed out the birthday message and put it on my desk last year ;)

My two most important chefs were preparing the ingredients for the currypuffs and springrolls. The birthday girl helped out with the dough kneading and etcetera too :P

All home made ;) It's always good to have mummy around

Received a call from my brother and Jake was on the line...
Koko, "Jake, come here and say happy birthday to Mai Jas, or else you wouldn't get the Lego set"
Jake, "Hello, Mai Jas, happy birthday!"
Koko, "Ask Mai Jas what did she get for her birthday?"
Jake - *repeats his dad's question* and added "got Lego?"
Me, "no Lego, Jake. I got an iPad!"
Koko *in the background*, "huh!!!"
Jake *followed accordingly to his dad's tone*, "huh!!!"
He then paused for a few seconds and continued asking me "got Lego?" ... SO CUTE!!!

Just in time for high tea. It was a birthday party cum house warming celebration.

Jacqueline, her hubby and her brother-in-law gave us a pineapple (which means ong lai), a gold pumpkin (kam guai?) and lots of corns... very auspicious! :) Charlene and Benson gave us a coffee machine, a toaster and a bath and shower gel for me :)

HERE COMES THE CAKE!

My all time favourite - Three Monkeys' Cookies'n'Cream cake
Specially booked by Rui + Charlene + Benson
Not cheap too - $75 :(
Mummy's Brunetti's fruit tart didn't even cost THIS much and it was heavenly good!

We proceeded to dinner at a nearby (not so near) restaurant in Sunnybank Hills, my treat!

Birthdays are meant to be spent with loved ones. I haven't celebrated mine with mummy for more than 7 years, so this year was memorable because she was here with me. I miss daddy a lot, wished he was here too, but life goes on. Love everything that Rui and mummy did.

Chuang's coming to Brisbane in exactly one week's time!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!

The Day I Got My Virtual Life Back

After waiting for one whole month for our ADSL2+ connection, it finally got activated TODAY. I haven't turned my laptop on for a few weeks because there was no need to, kept going online with my iPhone and the 3G connection... imagine only having 150mb of data per month! I could finish that in a jiffy! Pfffffff.

Moved out from the apartment into the new house last month. I wasn't keen at first... thinking that I wouldn't have the comfort of sitting in the passenger seat, being sent to and picked up from the office every single working day... after staying here for a month - which is how long I've taken the bus to work - everything is turning out to be PERFECT.

On the 23rd of August 2010...

Had breakfast at the restaurant downstairs before we left New Farm.

Packed and said goodbye to the three years we've been here.

The movers were two hours late!!! Rui and I helped out so that we didn't have to pay that much - they charged AU$100 an hour, $25 more compared to the rate five years ago.

Hello, Hello!

My favourite room

The main bathroom

Master bedroom

Walk-in-robe :D

Front lawn

Main door

Study

Overlooking the main living area from the second living area.
I really love the door a lot.

Laundry room

Second bathroom

So-called powder room

The outdoor spa... have yet to try this too -_-''

It took me a few hours just to thoroughly vacuum the whole house - 5 rooms, two living areas, the laundry and the hallways. It felt as if it was equivalent to 6 months worth of housework in the apartment! Rui took a few hours to mop too. Luckily the previous owners left it in a good and pretty clean state, but still... :)

So, we bought Roomba to help us out with the vacuuming and since the day it came home with us, it has made our lives easier. Plus, it was on sale at Harvey Norman! They slashed the price from $500 to $390, so it was a bargain ;)

The other good thing about the house is that it is equipped with security alarms and sensor lights. Rui also bought an IP cam for extra security. We will be able to control it from wherever in the world as long as there is Internet connection. :D

Perpetual Bliss ♥