Christmas Dinner and Gift exchange

Christmas was a simple but sweet affair. The evening started with a grand dinner at Leen's place with some games and turkey, ham, roast.. all the works! Thanks to Leen and Soon Tek for being such great hosts! Gie has also been influenced by the Leen's art of hosting and is on the look-out for a nice tea-pot set, china plates and unique (oriental) ornaments to add to her tiny home!

After dinner, we headed off to St Patrick's Cathedral for carols and mass. The church was packed with people and we were fortunate (and slim) enough to squeeze four of us - Maddy, Kelvin, Jem and Gie - on half an aisle!

At around 2am, we headed off to Desmond's place for Kris Kringle aka Secret Santa gift exchange. Desmond and Edwin had just moved into their new place. Anyway, it was abit quiet when we got there simply because our friends got tired (and tipsy) waiting for us but things livened up again at the gift exchange! Everyone had presents so that was pleasant and cosy.

Unfortunately we were so distracted with the spread at Leen's place that we forgot about taking photos. And the pictures (secretly taken at the Cathedral) did not turn out too well.. so we leave you with pics from Desmond's place =)


Hot choc set from Bee and Freddy

The ladies (from left) - Sharon, Gie, Bee and Maddy

The LOT (from left) - Kez, Gie, Des, Edwin, Kelvin, Maddy, Jem, Kelvin aka Sai-b, Sharon, Bee and Freddy

Kez from Japan and our hosts for the evening

A small token of our appreciation

A Wet Mornington Weekend

The highly anticipated trip was literally dampened by Melbourne's unpredictable weather.. Unpredictable becoz no one expects a stormy, gloomy weekend in December but we all sort of saw it coming nearer the date and when the weather reports became fairly accurate. For some strange reason, we still chose to believe that Melbourne's unpredictable weather would turn in our favour and we (thinking extremely postively) did not prepare adequately for a wet weekend. Jem even left his sweater at home!

And so it begins, the rain started beating down on us the moment we hit the holiday house. The car ride to Mornington made us hopeful for OK weather but Mother Nature's twisted humour drowned out our hopes of a fun weekend outside. We spent that first evening indoors eating Kentucky Fried Chicken and playing Cranium (which, by the way, the girls (and Desmond)won all four rounds... woohoo!!) and other games.

The next morning, Jem made his famous pancakes for breakfast for us all and we prepared to go horse-riding that afternoon. Again, the rains gave us not a chance. Horse-riding was cancelled and we spent that afternoon shopping at Target.. or was it Kmart? SIGH. And after the shops closed, it was more rain, more games at home and La Porchetta dinner.

Fishing was still on for the last morning (thank goodness) and we headed off pretty excited. However, again the cold winds and rains made our trip less pleasant and we were all left shivering - this made it quite tricky to determine if there was a bite or not! Haha! Poor Gie had the misfortune of being biten by a flathead that got away from the couple-next-to-her's basket. %$#@^&!! It stung like a bee (I'd imagine) and swelled abit. But nothing's gonna stop Gie from catching more of 'em! Just that she would dodge them quickly whenever someone caught one! Everyone did pretty well that trip with SaiBee catching the biggest flathead and Gie's proud of the salmon she got! At least the fish we caught made it worth our while!


The crazy bunch


Fish to take back home.


Nice shot from the pier.

Christmas Dinner and the Phantom of the Opera

20th December was the choosen date for our Christmas dinner celebration. At 4.45pm, it started storming in Melbourne and the weather looked ready to ruin Jem's dinner surprise! Luckily the rain started easing up around 6pm and our evening officially started...

It was a nice dinner surprise at the Point! Dinner was fab and although the portions looked tiny, it was surprisingly filling! After dinner was a rush to catch Phantom of the Opera.. another surprise planned by Jem! Yayy! We finally get to watch Phantom together and the play was just stunning! Everything was pitch perfect and the settings were really impressive. Jem enjoyed it so much, we bought the CD and it is now currently playing on our stereo.

Now Jem understands why Carol-Ann (Gie's cousin) can watch it 15 times! In fact, he is planning for number 2 and better seats! hee..


Enjoying the nice view from The Point Restaurant at Albert Lake


Gie enjoying the entree.


Jem having the different types of beef.


Gie having the snapper


Capping of the night at the theaters with the Phantom of the Opera.


Nice shot at the Princess theater.

The one with Maddy.

Maddy's here!! So happy to have another familiar face in Melbourne! This was taken at Pacific House, our 1st dinner together in Melbourne. Also in the photo, Kelvin and Rachel, Maddy's housemates! Pity we only took a few photos here but there will be more to come so stay tuned!

Xmas parties

It's that time of year which calls for bubblies & dancing! Here are some pictures of Gie at PwC 2007 Christmas party at Docklands!


Start of the Big Night with Louisa!


Black tie boys


Sexy Gina, Buddy Lauren & Gie!


Renate from Canada!


The Bus Stop - Sychronised dancing!


Lauren, Meera & Gie - free flow of Heinies*~

Partners were welcomed at Mitsubishi's cosy Christmas dinner at 87 Colins Street. Dinner was fab with crayfish, roast & prawns! And of coz, after dessert, there was dancing...


Getting ready for the big night out.


Gie enjoying the spread of crayfish and prawns.


Jem & Gie with the Christmas tree.


Jem and his colleague Keiko in kimono.


Bee, Leen and husband Soon Teck and Gie.


Posing with MD Taki San.


Getting ready for desserts.


Winning numbers! Gie won a nice black folder from Olga Berg and Jem won 2nd prize! $500 voucher for Pepper Springs resort! Woohoo!!


At the lobby of our apartment.

Cheery CHERRY Cheer @ Redhill, Mornington

Highlight of this weekend was cherry picking at Mornington! We set off early in the morning and arrived bright and cheery, ready for some serious pickin' and eating'! The cherry farm we were at was pretty good... $5 entry fee for as much cherries as you can eat and pay for what you pick (ard $14/kg). For one bucketful, you get $5 off and a free bucket!

We gorged ourselves with so many cherries that we got scared of cherries - didn't feel like taking too many home with us!! The rest of our friends still got home with buckets full but not us.. we had our fill and brought a humble pack home to share with other friends. But enough of the talking, we'll let the pictures tell the story.. enjoy!