Happy Mother's Day 2012

It's so different this year, as I am away from the family 1st time in my life for such a long time, and YES I m still surviving, haha....
Every year, we will normally go out for dinner to celebrate this day but not this year, since I m not around, so I thought of sending them (the mother group? haha) cards, boring right?

SO, something different this time, I have opt to send flowers to them, surprising them with my LOVE.
Did research online, checking many different flower shops online and ended up choosing the best of the best ----> www.love.com.my.

The prices were the cheapest. Though it's my first time using their service, it's fairly simple to choose the item and conclude the order. Chose 3 different kinds of packages, Mum and 2 Aunties. There isn't any delivery charges for KL address and thought it would have some extra delivery charges for another aunt of mine who is living in Kota Kinabalu. No problem on that, once in a blue moon I am doing this, a little charges will be just fine.

1 Day before Mother's Day and I got a call on my OZ number, they called and saying that the delivery charges for KK will be a whooping RM100+, even more than the flowers I have chosen. No way I m going to pay that. They called to ask for permission to charge that to my credit card and I said NO. Order was cancelled, and the other 2 orders were good. I m liking this love.com.my a lot.

The day arrived, and I was rather excited to know what my mum and aunt will react.

Flowers and Chocs for my mum (actually choc for my dad, he loves choc, haha)

Flowers and Wine for my aunt (those are real flowers though they look fake)

Went out for brunch on that day, and was lepaking around in the city with a friend of mine.
Mum whatapps me "Von, I got your flowers, so surprise and they are really nice!", my heart melted, love.com.my did a great job. Sending my love from OZ to KL, amazing. She was very surprised to receive the flowers and was very happy to know that it's from me. What? Am I not caring enough during the normal days? Haha...

Then, I got a missed call from my aunt! Returned her call using Skype, cheaper neh.
She said she was also damn happy to see the gift and didn't think that it's me. What? Again?
Am I loving enough? Anyway, spoke to her for awhile and she is really surprise, my uncle was proud of me too (WTH) saying that the thoughts never came thru, seeing that I m so far away from them.....

But what? I miss my family a lot one, OK?
Love.com.my really did a great job, I will definitely use them again next time.

Happy Mother's Day to the world greatest mum (which is my mum) and the world greatest aunt.

Oh, I got my cuz to buy a bottle of wine for my aunt in KK too, easy measy....haha

Weekend Trip to Wollongong

It's weekend and the plan was, I tag'd along with a colleague to Wollongong (where the sun is).

We took less than 3 hours to arrive safely at Sam's and GuangHui's apartment, with steamboat dinner waiting for us...

It's been like 3 months ago I had steamboat in the cold cold OZ land, and it gets interesting on the way steamboat is eaten in China.

After dinner, we were too full of the food, decided to take a walk at the beachside and lighthouse, the sky was full of stars, super amazing. Took a less than 5 minutes drive and it's the beach!!! How come the job that I m at can't be at a place like this? Why?

The Gong was amazing enough at night, having to live in Canbie for 3 months with that kind of cold weather, here is Heaven to me!

Next morning, we drove to 南天寺 / Nan Tien Temple, was early and there weren't many cars and the crowd is ZERO, was good. Did some walking around the temple, was a huge one. I felt fulfilled and at home since I have got chance to do some prayers and say Hi to the Gods.

The temple is really big and nice, I believe they checked on the FengShui before building it too, haha, it's facing a lake and right behind is a tiny hill. Walked up the hill and here it is the bell that I rang to send regards and love to my parents back in KL.....Mummy and Pa, I miss u both lots, just tahan a bit, time will go real fast and I will be back with you soon.

The pagoda is the place where many ancestors are living there, we are not allowed to speak loud when we entered.

There were many cute kiddo 小和尚around, very very cute and they are doing all kinds of action, like exercising, reading, sleeping, etc...one of the attractions in the temple, as there were many people stopping to take photo with them rather than the temple itself.

Amazing View from Kiama Lookout Point

Headed to the market at Kiama but unfortunately it wasn't open that day, Sam got the wrong info. Anyhow we stopped by to look at BlowHole which is famous, was rather interesting to see the waves beating onto the rocks and it formed a fountain like the whale splashing water, nice. Manage to capture this tiny little one it did, good enough.

 No market to visit, we headed to another town named Gerringong where there is a tiny market only on every 3rd Sunday of the month. Small booths were selling food, vegetables, books, clothes. It seems that Oz is famous to have these kinda weekend markets every now and then. Nothing much at the weekend market though, and we settled down to have lunch at Deli & Cafe.

The food portion are huge but very delicious indeed.
We ordered one dish each, regretting after the food arrived.
I didn't even finish half of my nachos and have them tapao'd, they are still in the fridge, gonna throw it away, since it's 2 days back, hahhhh...

There was this fabulous view of a rock pool that we stopped by to take some photos too. So wanted to just jump in to feel the water, it's like swimming in the sea but there weren't any waves, it's a new thing for me. Didn't do that, didn't have clothes to change into.

It's like a swimming pool just next to the sea and it's surrounded by the sea rocks. In the pool, it's like the ocean, there's sea life there, algae, small fishes, etc. Really something new to me.

Went by some stores in town to grab some groceries, surprisingly there were more asians than in Canbie, and of course there is asian stores... 

Had dinner at Outback Steakhouse which was really popular in the Gong, we waited for 1 hour to get our seats though we called to make reservation earlier. I love the Sangria, the food was ok too, but the crowd was crazy, restaurant was packed.

The next morning, Sam and GuangHui brought me to Sea Cliff Bridge, which took us about 30min drive there from the city. The view again was amazing, the wind was stronger that day, but still it's not as cold and strong like Canbie.

 After seeing the best view of the Gong, the next best thing happened, Barbeque by the beach!!!!! We went to this supermarket to get the meat and stuff, and off we went to the beach to have them all cooked. Was a bit cold that day, hence I m wearing the long sleeve. The food was amazing, the view was amazing, the friend was amazing, everything was amazing.
It's also my first time to have BBQ right in front of a clear blur sea and sky! I hope many more to come, hehe.......


The next thing I wanna do!!!

Yes, I manage to dip my fatty kaki in...finally...

 My both new friends did an amazing job, preparing dumplings for dinner, they were so juicy and delicious, how I wish I could make them too. Unfortunately, my cookings sucks....haha...
Check this out ------>        Before And After.......

The Gong was really an amazing place to be, I really would love to stay at such a place. It's actually Winter now and the weather is darn cold in Canbie, and it's like Summer there, the Sun was shining, I was just wearing a baby T and jeans on the first day. Though the next day was a bit chilling, but it's not as cold as Canbie. Thanks to the amazing host (Sam and GuangHui), so nice to get to know them, we clicked well too. I LOVE THE GONG!!! I will be back again, wait for me plz...