Dinner Leftovers.

As promised, I'm going to jumble all the left behind posts of yesteryear into one whole big post.


Be warned. Extreme word counts' arise...and I thought I hated word counts after all my bloody assignments.


First up, MY 20th Birthday!


It was a really very, very busy month and as procrastination would have it, I delayed and delayed this post till, well, now... I must say, I'm not one to fret about aging. Its a natural process. Yet, thank god we have so many anti-aging miracles in the market these days...so much so that people might still mistake me for a 30 year old when I'm 40. -__- Its an ongoing joke. I swear, with each birthday, I seem to look more childish.


Egad. Sexy 20 year old I am not.


To quote Chen: "Qing, you will always be the sweetest!"


Okay...So I'm stuck to the 'sweet, cute, cuddly' tags for the rest of my life. Tell me please, should I feel traumatized? Or absolutely bushed that somehow, my aging hormones haven't kicked into action yet? Let's look at this in a positive way- at least I can still get away with wearing kiddy clothes! Errrmmm, not that I actually own kiddy clothes...

Its time I actually posted a picture of him.
AERON WONG WAI LEONG!
Can you believe it?
After 4 whole semesters together,
there ain't one picture of you in my blog?
You, who cheated me on my birthday!
You owe me loads of movies, my friend!

Basically, all I felt on my birthday,
was a gratifying sense of being loved.
From the closest family members and friends to friendly acquaintances,
it seemed that everyone was there on that special day!
Thank you!

Erm, sadly, it wasn't any sexy lingerie in that La Senza bag.
Again, I emphasize sadly. Hahahah!

:-:-:-:


Moving on...Part 2 of my Brisbane Trip! For a refresher course: Here's Part 1.

Brisbane City has so many alleys that one needs a whole 2 days of relentless walking to cover the whole city! Hmm... maybe 2 days isn't even enough, especially if you really want to take in the whole city 'feel'.


I only spent a day in the City since we were short on time. It was amazing! Like I said in the earlier post, Brisbane's City reminds me of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam because of all the alleyways that lead to wonderful surprises. HCM's whole city is much alike Bris in the sense that all the shop houses are sandwiched together but there will always be little crooks and alleys that lead to a whole new section that you wouldn't have known existed unless you'd walked trough the narrow little road!


Little loves I discovered along the way:

Dreamy Donuts.
Hands down, the best tasting donuts to me!
This yummy fella beats Krispy Kreme, which is a little too sweet for my liking!
Plus factor: Dreamy uses Lindt chocolate for their coating and fillings.
Lindt, people. It doesn't get better than that!

The picture above is from my aunt's suburb. In Australia, a suburb is a housing estate. Equivalent to Pujut in Miri or Bandar Utama in KL. There's this little town square in the middle of her suburb where people do shopping or just gather around for a drink. The gem in this town square is this whole row of artists' warehouse! The snapshot above is a cute little window from one of the display warehouses! Basically, one can find painting/ pottery making/ any type of creative classes in that whole row! There are even knitting classes for the interested.


I was wont to take picture of these people attending classes because it seemed like I was intruding upon some great creative scheme that was ongoing. Seriously, it felt as if they were pouring their heart and their soul into their paintings...


Flowers that we (my aunt, my Mama and I) picked up while grocery shopping:

Fresh Lavender from the garden!

My beautiful Mama and the flowers!
These bougainvilleas have quite a story:
Its a known fact that Australia is very strict with any food items
you want to bring into their country. Plants are a no-no.
But my aunt managed to smuggle in these bougainvilleas,
(don't ask me how-I really don't want to know!)
taken from my Mama's garden in Miri!

I LoveLove my aunt's patio. Her whole house exudes a modern-ish cum country style feel.
Her patio really plays up the wonderful slope behind her house that leads to the local river.
You can sit there in the morning and take in the breeze
and it gifts you with breath-taking sunsets in the evenings.
The little joys of life.

The other side of her patio.
When my whole family visited in 2004, we used to love breakfasting there.
But in winter-time, I am glad for central heating!
Brrr!

Taking advantage of the one sunny day we had in one whole week,
to sunbath on the patio.

The back view of my aunt's place. These are the first steps that lead down to the riverside.
Its a really interesting climb/ walk from the top to the bottom,
then from the bottom back up to the top.
It gives you a workout and you get to see so many wild turkeys/ other wildlife around you.
Seriously, those turkeys are like chickens.
They wake you up in the morning.
-_-

Arrows to guide you along the path!
This shot was taken from the Patio.
See how amazing a view it gives you?
You can see if there are any thieves coming to get you!

A wider view.
Its a pity that its was winter when I was there,
because all the flowers weren't in bloom.
In spring and summer, instead of only green,
you see a rainbow of colors!



The Bird of Paradise.
Along with the bougainvilleas, these were the other flowers in bloom.
I think due to the fact that both are tropical flowers,
they don't follow the 4 season routine!



I have no idea what these tree is called-
I just like patterns along its trunk!



Majestic Gum Trees dotting the sidelines of my aunt's home.
These giants are actually a pest, according to my aunt,
because when they start to die/ rot,
they die from the inside.
So you don't know which are the danger spots...
even worse, you can't tell when they are going to fall...
So my aunt had tree-lobbers come and chop them down.
Luckily, I managed to snap this picture before they got to them!



Cobwebs dotting the sky.
The beginnings of a beautiful sunset.



Lovely Mama says 'Till next time!'