Happy Birthday Jesus! and Merry Christmas everybody!

I had a great Christmas. It was a day full of eating and eating and eating. After church, went with friends for Yum Cha. Then after that, went to my cousin’s place for dinner. I forgot to take pictures of the yum cha. So the following pictures are from the Christmas dinner. Very impressive I tell you! Please forgive me for the photo colours. I took it all with my new Samsung F480. As you can see, the colours are not vibrant enough.

The Banquet

Pumpkin Soup

Finger food – duck something. Very nice!

Root vegetables salad – consist of potato, carrot, beetroot, parsnip.

Crayfish salad, loved the salad dressing!

Leg of lamb, tender and succulent..mmm…

And, I forgot to take a picture of the dessert. It was mudcake with ice cream. There is another type of lamb, even more tender and juicy.

Apple lemon tea

Hope you all had a great Christmas as well!

Ya.. my title sounds very vain…  but I don’t care, cause it’s my BIRTHDAY!!! LOL!!!

Everybody, meet my new baby!

The Samsung F480, a Pink Samsung F480, to be exact, it’s Coral Pink!

It is also clothed with a Pink Leather casing!

and one of the best feature… My new baby has a camera to capture smiles … aww….

This is the first time I have such a fancy coloured mobile! (Not that I owned many mobile phones before)

And it even comes with Pink accessories!… <3…loves…

I never change my mobile unless it goes kaput.

For I think the last 5 years or so, my Samsung X430 has served me well.

No, it didn’t go kaput on me, it’s still very much alive. If I didn’t get this new F480, I would have gladly continue using it until it’s time is up.

So why did I get a new phone? Cause my awesome hubby gave it to me as by Bday present!… <3

Before you start thinking, “wah seh man, this phone so expensive…”.

He got this phone for free! His current contract with the provider is ending. So to renew, he can get a new mobile. So why not?

SMS message 3 days ago:

Mat: Honey, I got the Samsung F480 for you. It’s pink in colour. Black no more. (Funny he can’t wait until my birthday to surprise me)
Me: What?! Nice or not the pink colour?! Can’t wait for the next stock? (In my mind, I was imagining a shocking pink F480)
Mat: It’s not bright pink. Quite nice actually.
Me:… Waiting anxiously to get home to see it.

I LOVE IT!!!! GASP!!! I love the colour!!!!

You can customize the desktop! There’s no keypad. Fully touch screen.

Ya, got alot more phones out there which is touch screen (I know what you’re all thinking… especially the iPhone eh?)

FYI…. I’M A SAMSUNG FAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whee~!

Mat named our 4th alarm clock – Pidgin

There are 3 alarm clocks in the house. Don’t ask me why, ask Mathias. He is the one who sets it all. And the problem is, he wakes up even before all the 3 alarm clock rings. Sometimes he even leaves the house before the last alarm clock rings.

Lately, there has been a 4th alarm clock.

This alarm clock started mid spring, and we can’t just turn it off by hitting an off switch. No amount of shouting or swearing could turn this alarm clock off.

The only way to turn this alarm clock off is to scare it.

Everybody… meet our 4th alarm clock:

I think if it did not notice me coming so close, it would have gone on longer. It is always the same pigeon. Trust me, this is actually the 4th video attempt we took, and it’s always the same bird.

This rooster wannabe will come nearly every morning onto our window sill, and start “crowing” (actually the right word is cooing), non stop, even to the point of annoyance. There was one time I kept grumbling and shouting at the rooster wannabe to go away, go wake someone else up, and it will still be there taking it’s sweet time “crowing”.

Mathias thinks it’s a male. Reason: Only roosters crow.

I think it’s a male too. Reason: Trying to attract female pigeons.

After a minute or so of “crowing”, it will fly off to the next victim’s window sill, and start waking that person up.

Sometimes you feel like doing something to the bird, like this (right at the end of the video):

I think we played too much Monopoly, Mathias dreamt about it in his sleep. How did I know? He was sleep talking, and he said “It’s only 11K lah”….. =_=

We got ourselves a Christmas present, and we’ve already opened it and started playing it even before Christmas is here.

We were too excited.

This game is so highly recommended!

It’s a board game.

and the game is….

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MONOPOLY CITY!

I have always loved playing Monopoly since I was young.

This version of Monopoly is so awesome!

Rather than a useless space in the center of the board where you put the chance cards etc…, they’ve cleared it up, and build district spaces to build 3d buildings!

Biggest money value is in millions rather than thousands. The name of the districts is different, but still, recognizable.

And there are so many type of buildings you can build. You can even build hazard buildings to cut rent from your opponents district so you don’t have to pay as much. You can also build skyscrapers to double the rent of your districts.

And…. you can’t just build as many buildings as you want, because there’s an electronic device you have to press to determine the number of buildings for you to build.

For more information, you can visit http://monopolycity.wordpress.com/ for a review.

This game is now occupying our nights. It has been good, because it distracts us from watching tv and dramas, and to get away from the computer.

So if you’re a Monopoly lover, thinking what to get for yourself this Christmas, or wondering what to get for your kids… I highly recommend this version .. Monopoly City.

Yesterday we went on a cycling excursion to Dights Falls. It’s a 9km cycling trail to the place. The cycling path is really good. Well paved all the way.

There’s even one portion where we cycle along a creek. I couldn’t believe there is such a scenery in the city. It makes you think whether you are still in the city or not.

Very good cycling path all the way

The whole way was so peaceful and serene and occasionally you see joggers jogging by, birds chirping somewhere in the trees, wild flowers growing at the sides…

Any trolls under the bridge?

This is our destination:

Dights Falls. Took us about 45 minutes to reach the destination.

You see the rock carvings in the picture below? It’s the last rock formation from lava flows a long long time ago.

There were 2 “stunt” cyclist there practicing jumping from rock to rock. This guy here wasn’t as good as his friend. I couldn’t capture the other guy fast enough, because he was so fast, like some antelope.

On our way back, we kinda got lost a few times, partly because we were too adventurous. We wanted to try new trails, but ended up turning back and retracing the route.

It’s the middle of spring now in Melbourne. The weather is getting nicer and nicer to cycle in. Anybody interested to join us on our cycling excursions?

My hubby’s birthday yesterday! (He still looks young btw, doesn’t look his age *grinning with pride*… lol)

The celebration started a day early on Sunday. After church, I took him to a Lebanese restaurant called Mezza Lebanese Grill. Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures!!!!!! ARGH……. how could I forget! Could have used his hp camera to take >.< The food was satisfyingly good and interesting. From the name of the restaurant, “grill”, you would be expecting alot of meat. So ya, we ate alot of meat. Too much meat I think. Lots of lamb and chicken. Mathias noticed there wasn’t any beef in the menu.

After a very satisfying Lebanese lunch, went to get a triple scoop gelato, and happily licked it while walking home… hand in hand :”>. Took us 20 minutes to walk home.

And yesterday…. I made him Panna Cotta. This must be one of the easiest desserts ever! But it’s terribly fattening. It’s just a mixture of milk and cream, and add some gelatin to make it like jelly.

Panna Cotta

And, I also made him some scones. Dead easy!

Eat with strawberry jam and cream… YUM!

Scones

And for dinner… it’s almost like vege burger. Too much meat the day before, so better add in lots of greens and fiber! Mat loves beetroot in his burger… I think he’s turning oz.

Vege Burger… almost… because there was a little bit of minced meat.

So there! A very fattening BLESSED birthday to my hubby!

With Love…

Went cycling yesterday. Came back, not with sore leg muscles, but a sore butt!!!!! Bicycle chair too hard. Maybe I should get one of those gel cushions? hmm….

Daylight savings ended yesterday. We got 1 hour less of sleep yesterday. So we’re 3 hours different now, not 2.