Tiring Festive Period

Lately there is hardly time to catch a breath!
So many things to attend to, mainly fun of course. :)
Let's see if I can recall what I have been doing...

Ricky, my KL mate from Perth, came down to Kuching, and lived with me for 10 days. So from the 14th of Dec until the 24th of Dec, I brought him around chucking at him all the local delicacies he could handle. You name it, he's tried it (and a little bit more!). On and off, Lionel, Lawrence, Kenny and Jerry joined us... like going up to Ching San Yuen (Lawrence, Kenny), Cultural Village (Kenny) etc. I managed to squeeze in meetings with Ying Ying, Jia Yiing, Eugenie and a couple of others. Met Jing, Cassie and Yee Wei before that.

(Above) @ Ching San Yuen

(Above) @ Cultural Village

I also went to Mulu during that time, from the 18th of Dec until the 20th of Dec. This Mulu trip was by far the most random trip I have ever taken. Ricky was keen on going to Mulu so despite it being the wet season, we decided at 4.00pm on the 17th of Dec to go to Mulu against all advice. We went straight to Sak Soon Travel Agency and got ourselves flights at 7.00am the next day - absolute nutcase. Mulu trip was good.

(Above) Day 2 of Mulu - Do ignore the expression.

(Above) @ Deer Cave, the largest cave passage in the world

Ricky left at 11am of the 24th. Sent him off, caught up with some overdue sleep before I went to Lawrence's house for the afternoon. Went to Bella Italia for Christmas Eve dinner with, let me see, Chien, San, Yee, Rence, Kenny, Wei, Siang, Shyang, Laura, Kshih and Maomao :). I introduced a few of them to Bella before and they all loved it so since we failed to book a table for 12 at Bla Bla Bla, Bella was the next best place.

After that, we went for a few drinks (perhaps a few too many for some lol) at Lounge 2 at BDC. Shu Wei treated us all to a bottle of Jack Daniel's. Thanks man. It was a decent night-out, made better by me rubbing our lucky draw ticket on Kenny's shaved head. It was to prove fruitful as we won the prize 10 seconds after that!

(Above) @ Lounge 2

Went home at around 2am, slept at around 3am, and was picked up by Lawrence at 7am on Christmas Day to go to Lionel's St Faith's Church's Christmas Day Service. Had breakfast with Lionel's Dad, bro and Kenny before that though. After Church we headed to Lawrence's house for a few rounds of FIFA 2008.

Had lunch with Hsiao Siang, headed home for an hour, before we played football. Harry and Jerry joined us. After football, we had Christmas Day dinner (or was it Ivan's Birthday dinner?) at Siang's place. Curry was great, Kachama was intoxicating and prawns were fresh. Oh and I won 1 coin too many...

Next day? Back to work after 6 days off!

Good Ol' Perth

2nd December today. I have been back for 6 days - reached Kuching afternoon of 26th November. I am not missing Perth, even though I spent 5 long years there. Maybe it's because I know I would be back there one day.

What I do miss, is the many people I got to know and love over the years. I was doing a clean-up of my computer, and came across a lot of pictures taken in Perth. Below are some in chronological order.

Warning: Dramatic change in body fat up ahead.

The people from Murdoch College. I started my 5-year stint in Perth doing Year 12 - the Australian version of Malaysia's STPM. As you can see from the picture, I was so bloated. In Lionel's words when he saw me in Kuching at the end of 2003... "a ball".

A group of friends I grew very close to over the years. From left to right, Rick, Kai Lin, Matt, Ru, Jeff, Raine, Myself and Karn. The picture was taken at Analakshmi, an Indian vegetarian restaurant situated near the Perth Bell Tower in 2004. This is memorable because of all the open tables IN the restaurant, I booked a table OUTSIDE the restaurant out on the balcony. It was at night, it was close to winter, and it was by the river... All night I was greeted with "Thanks Charles!". Haha, nuts.

This is my surprise birthday party of 2005. So much effort from everyone to make it a memorable one. As you guys can see I was all dressed up, because "initial" plan was to go the Burswood Casino. So Jeff picked me up, and said he forgot his wallet. Fishy, fishy. Went to his house and voila, walaoeh. Joelle's cake was so good.

This is the Mooncake Festival of 2006 at Su Qin and Ann's place. I lived with a homestay family for 3.5 years, but moved out in the middle of 2006 to live by myself at Johanson Promenade. How lucky was I to get to know Edward? He was like a brother figure, and helped me heaps in adapting to the new environment. With him around, dinner was never a problem!

This was taken April 2007. Went Down South with 3 Kuching friends and a Greek/Aussie. From left to right, Tung, Chuan How, Myself, Sin Joo and Paulie. We covered a lot of places in just 3 days. It was the first time I actually drove in Australia, and it was quite an introduction as well, driving over a thousand kilometres all up. Very sleep-deprived, but very fun.

Shared the best Thai food in Perth @ Saowanee's Place, North Perth, with Ricky, Nicole, Cherie, Jeff, Rick, Kai Lin, Raine and Karn. This was initially meant to be a farewell dinner, but then we decided to have another one at Joy Garden!

These are most certainly people I am going to miss heaps. We played indoor soccer everyweek at UWA's Recreation Centre. Quite a few Kuching lads in there, like Heng Teck, Asrul, Xin Long, Brandon and Wui Hao. Sure, I will have a lot more futsal sessions in Kuching... but it's just, well, different. The compact play in Perth (when playing 1 bay) calls for a different approach when playing, and my understanding with Bryan bears striking resemblance to my understanding with Lionel... maybe even better.

This was taken 3 weeks ago. Nicole was behind the camera (how nice of me huh, dragging her to take picture). I truly love and appreciate Mr and Mrs Leong. They took fantastic care of me for over 3 years when I lived with them, and I will never forget how Mrs Leong cried when I left. I have grown to know them so well, along with their sons and grandchildren.

Tina, Lisa, Melanie, Myself and Ricky. This was taken 2 weeks ago after Aeroboxing class - me and Ricky's final Aeroboxing class before heading home to Malaysia. I am a true veteran, being the only person having attended 4 years of Aeroboxing - beating even our instructor Lisa. Our class usually goes up to 7 or 8 people... with a few regulars like myself.

This was taken last week @ Joy Garden, with just a few of my closest friends. Someone not in previous photos but in this one is Gianni. Gianni came to live with me in Kuching for a week 2 years ago. We then went to Bangkok and Pattaya together, and then spent a few days in Kuala Lumpur. He does Law, like myself.

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These are just some of the many pictures. Never got to take one with Diana, who I came to know better near the end of my stay in Perth. The chabo hates taking pictures! Anyhoo, been great fun over 5 years... should have got to know a few people better as well - people like Nicole my housemate who, despite having seen her sleepy eyes and bad hair in the morning, I feel has more sides to her. No one to walk you home from University anymore, bratty! Oh Matt if you are reading this... sorry we never got to catch up during the busy period.

Ricky will be coming down to Kuching in less than 2 weeks. Close buddy from Perth, and I shall unleash upon him all the great food Kuching has to offer... like caterpillars and crickets.

Qi