2004.

2004 passed quickly for me. not to say that it went by without much happening tho. all those things happening in the world around us, both good and bad, and to those close to us. writing on the last day of the year and thinking back, i do think i've some things that i've left uncompleted, but thats alright i spose. soon enough this year will end and hopefully it brings renewed hope for a better year ahead. the unfortunate incident of the tsunami that devastated asia, the death of the little girl huang na, the collapse of the nicoll highway site, and all the other things that brought out the best and worst in all of us. experiences will always teach us something, provided we are willing to learn from it. to let all these pass without gaining in some way a lesson from it would have made the lives lost unjustified. i will live a better life for that. but i will always be me. :)

messages to some that i know who read/will read this blog..

my group. you guys (..and girls) have been a constant in my life so far and i am grateful for that. as it is the group is already meeting up less due to each being busy with their own lives but it will take more than that to break us up. we might not see each other as often now but all's but a call away. never forget that. a reunion dinner coming up soon after tonight's gathering! :)

wen. u are fuLL of rubbishh, but i thank you anyway just for being there. more jap in 2005 k?

minmin. thanks for being the rational voice. all the best and always believe in yourself. have faith!

ju. we've yet to have that gathering(that you were to plan for) but its been good knowing alls well! have a great year ahead. ;P

wxy+jo+val+all from your batch. you are all growing up too fast for me and the other externals to keep track of, but you're all turning out fine la, wonder if we had a part in that. lol. :P

lastly..

happy holidays all and never give up on hope!!!!!

gtg. just realised i'm running late!!! so i gotta cut it short, sorry!...

my cheeky niece.

lilin's bday...the kinda thing we've stopped doing

us on xmas.. :)

the last week of the year.

a year that has been good by my measure.

this was the year that i spent the longest time every away from home. that i caught the most beautiful of sunsets. that i learnt more about myself. that i made frens that i will keep for years to come. that i believe i've grown a little... in more ways than one. most of all, it is a year that if i were to live again, there wouldnt be too many changes to it. :)

i look foward to next year, in more ways than one. but i'll have more to say before the year is up. tmorrow is the last day at motorimage! so its off to bed i go before i fall sick again... :s i can already feel the fever... heh ;)

christmas came and went.

christmas week.

the frantic rush at work.

the nights out in the city.

the half day off i took to go shopping.

feeling the christmassy mood.

it was all good.

the company party on christmas eve saw the people in my dept working non-stop still. poor peeps. its like that all because of the sales target that has to be met by year end and the incomplete paperwork submitted by the sales people, thus requiring constant checking and re-submitting. but 11am came and it was time for some fun. there was good food and a lucky draw where everyone got something. heh. not forgetting the carolling(sp?) that each dept had to do, with the winners getting some trip prize. (or so i've heard) tha admin dept that i work in was totally unprepared. but we had to do it in the end and even i wasnt spared. if not for the boss joining in, i would have been the only guy. :s lucky. then came the xmas gathering at home with my family. but i stayed only a while cos i had to get to the group gathering at julius' place.

that was the major letdown. sigh.

i had thought the xmas that i spent at a karaoke was bad enough, this was a lil worse imho. at the stroke of twelve, some peeps were still playing mahjong. i didnt really feel the mood of christmas even though we were together as a group. ohwells. it cannot get any worse i spose. so in a way its good. the next time i wanna enjoy myself, i'll make it possible. it just isnt worth leaving it to chance. well, i do appreciate the fact that julius and ken took the effort to plan the whole gatherin and all (after years of planning my us! :P), and the idea was definitely there, ut it just didnt turn out right. i think la. :)

so come nye i will try my very best to make sure i have fun. wish me luck! ;)

update!

i know i havent been bogging. but my reason is valid i think! after being back for almost a month, i am still trying to get my bearings and i still havent met up with everyone i wanna meet. why so? probs all cos of poor planning of the little available time i have for myself. the past three weeks of work at motorimage have been good. busy but good. of the few nights that i had the energy to go out after work, i met up with some frens that i miss the company of so much. falling sick from over-exhaustion (lack of sleep on my part! :P) was bad. i was bedridden for a day or two. it was time wasted indeed. that was also the week were my closest grp of frens had our gathering at yiwen's place. (that was the blog entry that got deleted) it was also the week where i had my frst vball game since i last played almost ten months back. i still love it so. :)

anyways hello isnt cooperating so thre wont be any pictures anytme soon. i will try but it aint looking good. :P

back!

i typed a post and it got deleted. :(

i will post again soon. but i basically was sick the past few days... feeling really terrible!

messed up.

i think i messed up again. ohwells.

life goes on still doesnt it. ;)

sisters.

a new addition to the family! :)

it came and went.

but not without incident! :)

saturday. finally had the chance to sleep in and it was good. very good in fact. slacked most of the day away and met up with wen, cai, ric for dinner at soup restaurant @ suntec. it was then followed by catching the match between liverpool v everton (not that i am keen abt it, its just the company) at paulaner. since val was working there and we've neva been there, i thought why not? they all tried the lager but i had the dark one which i thought wasnt too bad. only complain were the not too comfy seats. :) anyways the night ended early for the lack of any plans after the match. i shall not waste my next weekend so, not to say it was wasted la. just that i would pack more in! :P

sunday. yet another chance to sleep in and one i took happily. it was da-jie's bday and by the time i got down she was gone! apparently she was about to go into labour and so she was at the hospital by then. the 'request' she made to her daughter got through and out came the baby at ard 255 in the afternoon! :) i was sposed to go visit but i had a prior appointment with huisze so i told my sis i would visit tomorrow. :( was i wrong and bad to do that? hmm... wells, i reasoned that it had been so long since i've seen her and that its hard to meetup cos of the differring work schedules that i would do it. =
more of that later. meanwhile, live life with no regrets! :)

a whole new week awaits! with many visits to the hospital for sure... woots!

looooking foward.

the weekend is coming!!! i have so gotta live life the way i like. with close frens and good food. i've yet to have my game of vball tho. grrrr. ohwells.

why is work so busy? its the end of the year. there are sales figures to meet and there is a push to sell cars! subaru wrx's. sti's. legacys. foresters. imprezas anyone? :P with increased sales comes increased paperwork for the admin dept. invoices. purchase orders. coe bids. registrations. brrrrrr. add that to tons of crap to shred and its work never-ending.

weekend. weekend. weekend!

motorimage.

admin work is tiring. so much so that i get headaches by midday. :s
i feel so sapped by knockoff time that i havent been doin much since monday. gone is my game playing. book reading. meeting up with friends. the only thing i did was to visit some frens at a leadership camp that they are running after work. maybe when i get used to it i spose. then will i go out after work. but then again its only for less than a month. hmm.

i need sleep! :)

one week.

its been one week since i've come home. i've been doing what i call 'acclimatising' which i described to someone. being home feels good. there's a warm feeling (in many ways, some not too enjoyable). and i am in a way enjoying it.

the cheaper phone rates plus the need to get back in touch with people have gotten me using my phone alot. the bill will kill. but it is to be expected. it is technically impossible to meet everyone immediately. that i have accepted. what i will do now is just to take things as they come. my planned one month of freedom is officially gone. as of tomorrow i will start my part-time admin work. so sorry min. lol. :P i think it will be work all the way till the end of the year. followed by the most-likely-confirmed internship at e&y in jan. that leaves just the evenings and the weekends. and there are so many more people i wanna meet up with! :s

an attempt to blog more consistantly will be made. for it will help me sort things out and also remind me who i've yet to catch. everyone is soooo busy now. but then again. it is expected. :)

i have met. eric. da. toh. cong. sheeling. gan. yiwen. lilin. terry. cai. val. jo. min. i need to get organised. right.

*i have to sleep now. else i will NOT wake up by 745 tml. damn.*

wed.

did NOT get into zouk because of the crowd. grrr..

wells. it wasnt a good night to be there as it was the night right after the exams. it also didnt help that we arrived at ard 1130 because of the movie. tsk tsk ms. kaly. wad a recommendation. ( i see its cos u had comp tics! double tsk. ) but it was good just being there and feeling how old i am. relatively that is. kiddos 4 years our junior are already up n clubbing. has it been that long already? :P yesh jo. u and val are still relatively kiddos. enjoy it while you can. it was i think the last night of midweek clubbing i were to have for the year. but i think i am slowly growing out of it already. just sitting around just chatting with friends would content me now. hmm.. old i say.

home.

a long delay. but mainly cos i was lazy and busy with other stuff! :)

the first sign of home. thesundaytimes on the flight home. ms.kaly managed to get on the same flight and she is a terrible flight companion. :P tsk tsk. why? cos i lost my window seat that would have enabled me to view the sunset inflight. grrrr...

dinner was alrite. views were great.

company was..... erm... look at the sunset! :0

dusk. can you tell now why i love takin pictures?

after touching down it was a busy few days. getting workwear. meeting frens. eating. so much more to be done tho. meanwhile i've been feeling a little tired and all. geneve's knocking at 10am waking me up and jumping on my bed didnt help. :s

you know you're home when you see squeaky clean train stations and very killer easylink *beeps*.

honjin ala carte buffet! me with silly wen.

sashimi. and the very good food platter.

jap buffet.one of the two i will be having back home that features all you can eat sashimi. :) yiwen was telling me about this and tho we couldnt get anyone else to come along, we went ahead. it was good like she described. definitely worth the price. btw. dont worry ms. prataphile. mirama awaits when you return. lets just hope my funds hold till then. :P

the past few days have done damages of just a little under $400. oh no.... =\

last transmission.

my last night here for 2004. not many were left. anyways ms.prataphile accompanied me for dinner. beri nice (dinner). :P

@ bellarama for chilli mussels. this i will miss.

goodbye to the beach and sunsets. this i will miss alot!

tea + pastry @ merchant.

will be back in 2005. perth out....

***end of transmission***

late night.

when there wasnt school the next day. when people were leaving perth one after another. the few that remained hadnt much to do. sitting around doing nothing became the order of the day.

at makan makan. the twin devils. in conversation.

smug` caleb wif a C. fast eddys @ carousel. oriels in subi.

yet another hot choc. jeen-joedi-eelin. yumm.

caught the movie taxi and gisele bundchen is beri hott. *drools* :P

thanks to ms. prataphile for the loan of "hong che" vroooms :)

gone.

on the morning sq flight they went.

jon. julian. dom. mark.

jon without his oranges.

dom without ms.kaly. julian without ms.prataphile.

only for a while tho.

*unsure abt the oranges , which might be in cheryl's and xiaomei's stomachs already*

packing.

i opened my yet unpacked suitcase. and closed it again. :)

meeetup.

after dinner drinks at a place called makan makan. my first time actually going 'into the place. the previous time it was closed by the time i got there. :P it was good to meetup with the two lil terribles and jay, dom+1, and other fren's of theirs. chatted about anything and everything and all the time sipping our teh tariks`. it was followed by after after dinner drinks at oriel's in subiaco. cos it was one of the few places that stay open after 1am. just got home and all set for bed. at least its cooler tonight, or rather, this morning. they still wanna go shopping in the city at 11am. mad i tell you. all of them! :s

dawn is breaking.

a lazy day.

the heat is becoming unbearable. even at night. which probably explains why i woke up earlier than usual. headed out with jon. to supercheapautos. to bunnings. to kingsway for nougats . to lunch at red roosters. to city for a walk. to subi for dvds. i feel sleepy. maybe i'll nap. :P

the e&y ppl sent the contract to my aussie addy! makes me wonder what happens if i had gone back on an earlier flight?! tsk. i've to get back to them by the 10th. think i'll get back before i send it in. to sign or not to. :s

i better start packing soon too. hmm..

tomorrow.

i think i wont be working tomorrow. anthea hasnt gotten back to me. ohwells. i shall commence some form of packing and maybe plan a trip to the city. let tomorrow be cooler... that'd be soooo niCe. absolutely.

woodman point.

the heat is on. for summer that is. temperature is not where near that when i arrived in feb but its bad enough for some. its just different from back home. here, the heat is dry scorching. very much unlike the hot and humid discriptor that is often used for home.

which probably explains.

why i feel so lethargic. cos i spent the day sleeping and such.

nite came and it became more bearable and tonight the finals for australian idols was on. i didnt get to catch all of it cos i had to do some moving of furniture and go fishing. but had a feeling that casey might win. which she did. :P

this time round is my second time to woodman point with jon n domlee and it started slow. dom was mostly doing his 'get the fishes bunched up and hook'em' routine and i joined him for a while. it was surprising that he managed to get two and i would not have thought it possible on my own. i however failed miserably. it was almost 1am then and we were there for 2+hrs alr. then it happened.

this australian mate' came along and started to fishing. reeling in one after another just beside us! we were like.. wtf?! then jon went over for a chat and came back with a fish for bait. the guy was being nice. we were motivated. lol. BUT. we didnt have floats like the guy did, so i took a little walk to the (dust)bins in search of bottle caps for my impromptu rig. i somehow managed to fix it up and without weights i managed to slow the sinking of my baited hook. a nibble. more nibbles. up snapped my rod and i had the fish. and i hadnt even sat down after casting by line. :)
slowly but surely it was working and the converted dom got a few too. jon experienced equipment failure but managed to get one. which left us all pretty satisfied. friendly fisherman. starry night. beautiful setting moon. a few fishes. experienced gained. smelly fishy everything. not too bad at all. fishing's not THAT bad, if one actually manages to get fish of course.

put the stuff you spent good money on to use. do not leave it lying around. ;)

dinner @ doms.

after the exams. slowly but surely in a holiday mood. yesterday the barge boys` had dinner at our boss' place. yupps, all who were there worked on the barge before, cept for cheryl of course. tsk tsk. :P

this grill looks familiar. food looks great? it was.


after which was a flurry of flashes as the picture taking commenced. i saved my batt by turning off my flash. the result. :)