The Mei you never knew...

I had my day off on Thurday this week. The beauty about having a day off on a weekday, is that everyone else looks busy... working, slogging off! Haha.

And you, you get to wake up late... and enjoy the sun :) I love it... I had an awesome day. A day spent with me, my inner self. A day without stress. A day where I could momentarily forget about all the things I haven't done, and just do the things I want to do.

I woke up at 9am, and went to the gym for a Bodyjam class. Yes, it's like dancing, but more "workout-ish". Had a blast, having bun and burning calories at the same time! :) I don't think I've told anyone yet... but I joined the local gym near my place. I have been to the gym 3 times this week already :) For classes mostly....

I feel so healthy!

Really, I just wanna build up my stamina and strength for snowboarding so I don't get too stuffed at the end of the day. Leg and core muscles are soooo important in snowboarding! Not to forget, arms too... to push myself up after having fallen on my butt! Hahahaha...

I know, most of you will think that I'm not the type that will do any exercise, what more join a gym!! I have never joined a gym in my life... I hardly used the gym at my old apartment when I was living in the city. But I suppose, when you have a goal, it makes things alot easier. It makes it alot more "purposeful" when you push yourself during a class. I don't do anything hardcore. I go and have fun for an hour, dancing to the music, push myself a little bit and that's it!

It just makes you feel so much more energetic for the rest of the day.

Anyways, I digress....

After class, I walked down Burke Road and went to Borders. Bought myself the new Jodi Picoult book "Handle with Care"

I'm halfway through it now, and I must say, it is pretty captivating! I almost didn't want to go to work of Friday, because I couldn't put it down on Thursday night.

I had sushi and some soup for lunch, while reading the book. I have never been a big fan of having lunch on my own, but having a bowl of hot soup, on a cold windy day... at the same time, soaking up some sun and reading a good book.... ahhh, heavenly! The silence, brings a sense of inner peace. Not having to strike conversation with someone, not having to make small talks.... is really quite nice sometimes.

I walked around and window shopped for a little before going to pick up my favourite little boy from the groomer's! The thing I love about Remy is that he is always soooo happy to see me! Wagging his tail, and jumping up to give me a "hug".

Photo taken a day after the boy was groomed! He is soooo puffed up now, he looks like a lamb! Please ignore my green scrubs. I just got home after a long day at work in labour ward, but like I mentioned before, this boy never fails to put a smile on my face!

It's been a good week for me, just to have some time to relax and unwind after a weekend at the snow. We went up to Hotham again last weekend, met up with some colleagues from work, and also bumped into Jon's old friend, Tracy~! Stayed at a beautiful 2 bedroom house in Bright with Tisha and Amira, who went skiing for the first time! Will blog more about that in a separate post.

We're looking at probably going up to Buller next weekend with some friends. It will probably be my last trip to the snow before Sydney, and then New Zealand.

This year has penned out to be quite alright so far :) Work's been really good, and I have managed to sneak in some travelling opportunities as well.

I dream of... Chanel...

I have been wanting one of these babies for a longgg time now! I just haven't been able to justify getting one. But these pretty pretty things just keep making their ways into my dreams. You know you really want something when you try to block them out, and yet they still make their way back into your life :P

My oh my....

Isn't it just beautiful? So elegantly classic, it'll last me a life time~!

Mei is dying for a Chanel.

This bag addiction is bad! It's taking over my life...

I'm just wondering whether I should buy it before I leave for New Zealand, so I can claim GST? But even then, it's wayyyy more than I wanna pay for a bag. I mean... I could get a Prada AND a Louis Vuitton with the price of getting a Chanel flap bag.

But this beauty is just.... timeless.... It's in a class of its own, unsurpassed.

SO, what do you think? Large, or Jumbo? :P hehehehe.

Wine and Dine and Have FUN!

I had a very interesting run of night shift last week. I had a lady that was bleeding post vaginal hysterectomy with Von Willebrand's Disease (we weren't sure whether it was a medical bleed, or a surgical bleed). She subsequently had a CT angio, and then embolisation of both her uterine arteries, which I got to see~! The interventional radiologist was kind enough to come in at 2 in the morning, AND teach me what he was doing! I was in awe.... :)

Then we had an undiagnosed breech in a primi, thanks to me!! *I didn't pick it up on abdo palp!* But then again, everyone screwed up I suppose.... Her obstetrician didn't pick it up antenatally, the midwife who saw her didn't either! And I didn't, when I did her admission! Geez~! It was until much later, when she was feeling pushy, that the midwife examined her and thought she felt digits (either hand, or foot!) and called me!

I was shocked~! I was not prepared to do a vaginal breech in labour ward, in the middle of the night, with no consultant support! We examined her again, and confirmed the breech as we could feel the baby's heels!!

"Damn it! I'm screwed!!" I thought to myself.

Anyways, things didn't stop there. We consented her for a caesarean section as per protocol, and called in the consultant on-call, who was stuck in a private hospital somewhere else with a complication as well! So we had to call the back-up consultant, who kindly agreed to come in. Phew~!!!

But that was not the end of the story... the anaesthetics reg could not put in the spinal anaesthetics after like 20 go's - and needed to get the anaesthetist, who couldn't get it in either, and then decided to put her to sleep under general anaesthetics....

By that time, we examined her again, and she was fully dilated, and crowning! So instead of putting her to sleep, we had to put her up in stirrups! And do a VAGINAL BREECH IN THEATRE.... in a primiparous lady!

Well, it all went well in the end. Baby came out and needed a little resuscitation, but nothing out of the ordinary.

"Phewwwww!" I breathed a sigh of relief.

The consultant kept telling me not to feel bad for missing the breech initially, as it happens all the time, and proceeded to say that doing a vaginal breech extraction is one of the most exciting things you can do, of course.... until the breech is stuck, then you're f*cked. Haha.

I came home, all satisfied for having such an eventful run of nights.... :) AND also because I knew I had an exciting weekend ahead of me.

Jon has booked accomodation in Bright, so we could go snowboarding at Falls Creek over the weekend! Woohoooo~!!!

The weather was looking rather gloomy in the morning! It was sooo cold in Bright! Only about 3 degrees... I was a little sceptical about having bad weather up in the mountains! :( I hate snow storms!!

Mr Sun then decided to show up a little later! Wheeeee~!!!

Jonny boy, the designated driver for the day... actually, over the whole weekend.

Just couldn't resist a self camwhoring shot. Kakaka.

The windy ride up the mountain made me feel a little sick, but seeing the snow, made me a whole lot better!! Well, technically, chucking made me feel a wholeeee heap better!

Yes, I spewed... so sue me! Nobody knew anyways, cause I buried it with the fresh, powdery snow that fell the night before! :) *sneaky huh?*

View from the carpark in front of Falls Creek Village.... Absolutely beautiful~! It would have looked sooo much better if taken from a proper camera, but stupid me forgot to bring the camera... hence crappy photos from my iPhone.

Hey, in my defence, it was a very rushed trip - we only decided to go like, the night before... and if you have been reading from the start, I was on night shift, hence no time to pack. I came home the next morning, napped for a little bit, and proceeded to pack my stuff for the snow, and off we went~!

We thought the place was going to be packed because of school holidays, but to our surprise, it wasn't! There weren't many cars heading up when we were going up, and upon reaching, the carpark in front of the village was still half-empty! How awesomeeeee....

Time to unload our snowboards, and hit the slopes~!!! Woohooo!!! I managed to cover all the green runs, and also did some blue runs at the end of the day. Pretty proud of my second day on a snowboard.

I gotta admit that I was pretty pessimistic about me being on a snowboard initially. I mean, it's just tough to start from the beginning again after having skied all these time. To finally be good at it, and then starting from scratch again... was not fun!

But hey, I'm really enjoying it now~! Sorry no photos of us on the slopes, cause I wasn't going to snap photos with the iPhone. I didn't want to have the phone in my pocket, in case I fell on my face or something... you know? :P hehe.

That night, we had a nice dinner @ Myrtleford, at this place called Range Restaurant. They gave us a complimentary bottle of bubbly too! MmMmM... More about wines later.

Jon was looking pretty fresh still, but I was pretty knackered at the end of the day.... even after taking a shower when we got back to the hotel.

It. was. hard. work.

I just wanted to laze by the fire, sip on my wine, and fall asleep....

Oh, I just realised that I haven't posted pics of our quaint little accomodation! I loveeee this place so much, we're heading back again in a fortnight! **yes, for another snowboarding trip!**

We stayed in a little cabin @ Chalet Lumineux in Bright. It's right next to the golf course, so the view was pretty fantastic. We also got to know to owners of this place, sat down with them by the fire, chatting and drinking scotch (well, Jon did. I didn't. More like, I couldn't).

They even offered us a discount when we return :) Hehehe. Such a lovely couple they are.

Our little self-contained studio accomodation.

Pretty nice place. I like that it's cosy :)

I didn't realise that I have broken the bar when I lifted the blinds for a photo. But I managed to fix it after that! Phew :)

Getting ready for the journey home... Loading our boards onto his roof rack.

We decided to drive through the gourmet food and wine region on the way home. We went pass Milawa, the home of Brown Brothers - infamous for the wine, all around the world.

We couldn't help but stop for some wine tasting.... *chuckles*

Jon snapping a photo of me, clad in checquered red - trying to stay with the "country" feel... you know?! Hehehe. It feels soooo good to be away from the big smog, the traffic jams and hustle and bustle when you can.

The old cellar.

Wine tasting...

Their large collection of reds, whites, and everything in between.

Brown Brothers is hugeeeee!

Thank you, darling... for the awesome trip. For planning, and booking, and driving.... Well, basically, for organising the whole getaway from A-Z. You're the best!

Satisfied, and finally heading home...

With 6 bottles of wines in total. Bubbly, red, and whites....

Yes, we've been having a glass of wine every night, after dinner. I'm slowly building some tolerance to it, but it still makes my heart beats really prominently, and then makes me very sleepy.

I suppose, the good thing is, I tend to go to sleep earlier the past few days. Wine induced, of course. Hehe. No complaints though, it's good for the heart :) and more sleep is good for my brains too! Haha.

We're heading to the snow again in two weeks' time. Anyone interested? I'm working this weekend, so no fun for me... sigh.

Cirque du Soleil - Dralion

I am a big fan of Cirque du Soleil. Anyone who has seen them live, or even on tele will agree with me, I'm sure! Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian based company that expanded rapidly in the 90's due to their numerous success and award winning performances.

It has been a recurrent thing for me to do since a few years ago, after watching my first show here in Melbourne - Quidam!

I was so mesmerised by their live music, acrobatic stunts, costumes, and their pure grace, that I have booked myself a ticket to see them everytime they come with a new production!

This year - it was Dralion.

You can't miss their blue and yellow tent~!! They were in Docklands this year, moving from their usual location at Melbourne Park. Both Quidam and Varekai were there, but I suppose it's better being at Docklands, because the parking at Melbourne Park was sort of a mess! And the traffic to Docklands is significantly less as well. Getting stuck around Punt Road / Swan Street while getting to Melbourne Park, was just not fun!

The official merchandise of the Cirque du Soleil - inside the tents. I get tempted to buy something everytime, but this year, I held back :) Hehehe... I'm so good! Save some money...

I think I've learnt my lessons after buying t-shirts that I hardly wear from the previous shows! Hehe.

Jon all dressed up cause he came straight from work. I took the train into Southern Cross station, and he met me there. Luckily, we also managed to grab some dinner before the show started.

The show, I thought was pretty mediocre this time around. It was good of course, but I sort of expected something to take my breath away. There wasn't anything too "WOW!!" in this production, I reckon.

I thought it was only me, but Jon thought the same too. Good, but not great! We both agreed that Varekai was way better! Hehe. We still thoroughly enjoyed it, none-the-less.

During intermission. The stage was draped with a hugeeee piece of fabric or something. It looks like a big aquarium, don't you think? Hehehe... The music was quite soothing for those who decided to stay in the circus tent.


We managed to cam-whore a little in the circus tent. Haha... We could only do it during intermission, cause no photographs / videos are allowed during the preformance for safety purposes.

We then headed out to the merchandise tent to browse through the souvenirs on sale, and bought some snacks as well. It was pretty much the same things on sale every time. Once you've been to a few shows, I don't suppose you'll buy much more than just the program.

I was quite close to getting a mask, but decided against in the end.... because I didn't have any masquerade to go to.. haha. It would just end up lying around at home, get dusty and old... and when I eventually have an event to wear it to, I'd want a new mask! Haha.

And it wasn't cheap too! Most of the nicer masks cost like >100 bucks! Almost the price of a ticket, hello~!!! So, no thanks.... I didn't get anything this time around :(

Oh btw, does anyone feel generous enough to sponsor me a ticket to Vegas? Heheheh... Cirque du Soleil's "O" is showing there! Otherwise, it looks like I have to wait for another year or two before the next production comes.... and we wouldn't miss it for the world!