Bad calls

Well, it looks like they've cut some of the bad referees from the World Cup with 3 yellow card Graham Poll, Japan vs Australia's Essam Abd el Fatah and yellow/red card happy Valentin Ivanov not selected as possible referees for the remaining game:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world-cup-2006/kewells-nemesis-survives-ref-cut/2006/06/29/1151174312801.html

About bloody time they did something about the shocking referees. The Eygptian referee wasn't THAT bad in comparison with the rest. If he's not selected, I don't see why Merk is selected. Merk and his obvious biased towards Brazil is just as bad, if not worse than the Egyptian referee. Yes he made a bad call, but Merk DELIBERATELY made MUTLIPLE bad calls throughout the whole game. Lets hope the standard picks up now that alot of the bad blood is taken out......but what are the chances of that happening?

*SigH*

Lets hope theres no more teams denied of a chance at World Cup glory because of some STUPID STUPID decision.

A picture says a thousand words....

Size matters

And here is my newest addition to the family. My baby Pearl.

The packaging

Wuuu...small!

Presenting......the Asus U5A!

I've been after a laptop every since I started working, but I never got around to it. I originally wanted the Acer 4074 since it had such funky ass specs for a drop dead gorgeous price, but I know myself, and I would never carry a 15" laptop around. Especially when it weights a good 3kgs. My new baby is a cool 12" (Yes, size matters, and in this case, the smaller the better!) and weighs a mere 1.34kg! Perfect to take travelling! It even comes with a bluetooth mouse and bag which is nice and slim line, perfect for the laptop! The best bit? I got the laptop for $45 above their cost price! MAuahUAhaUah

I could've saved $20 if I ordered it online, but if I had issues, I'd rather have an actual shop to go to for my trantrum throwing.

Ahhhhhh.....what better way to get rid of the smell of defeat, than a brand new baby toy!

The end of a dream...

Well, its all over. We didn't make it to the next round, but I'm definately proud at the Socceroo's performance. It was a horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE way to lose. 5 seconds was all that was remaining on the clock, and then it was all over. I don't agree that it was a penalty and I don't think we should've lost like that. No team deserves to lose like that. In retrospect, if it was us at the Goal, the Roos might have done the same, but we wouldn't have gotten away with it. No, we just don't fake it as well as the Italians.

It was a great game, and both teams earned their spot in the World Cup. Italy for defending so well despite one man down for the second half, but then they did have the worlds most expensive goalie on their side. And the Roos? Hell, we made it into the knock out phase, and held out against Italy for 93mins! Too bad for the last 5 seconds.... I don't blame Neill, but I feel sorry for him. He must be racked with guilt, but hopefully the guilt has worn off and he feels the other side now. Pride. Pride that Australia got so far in the World Cup. Melbourne is hoping to hold the ticketape parade, but I'm hoping it'll be in Sydney, because this is one parade I will definately go to.

Hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight. I'm an absolute wreck right now. I tried to sleep early last night, but I couldn't because I was so excited. When the game was over, I couldn't sleep again. It was the mixture of anger, disbelieve, disappointment and feeling robbed so unfairly that kept me up all night. To make matters worse, last week in Italian class, we learnt some Italian chants and songs to prepare us for the Italy match and one of the songs was about Francesco Totti. The song kept looping in my head again and again, like it was taunting me and rubbing salt in the wound. My teacher is going to have a field day tomorrow rubbing it in again. *SiGH*

On another note, I get my new baby today. Will update later when I get home :D

Go the Roos!!!!!!!!

The euphoria is just starting to wear off after a heart stopping morning. How bloody awesome was that game? Australia has finally made it into the next round and I couldn't be more prouder! Although we were really close to being eliminated after the shit arse performance of the goal keeper and the referee! I mean what the hell was that? Lets list a few things that happened:

Goalie:

1. Fumbled and almost dropped the ball into his own goal despite no pressure from the other team
2. Making a "block" after a piss weak attempt at scoring a goal, have the ball bounce off his hands, roll over his body and lazily roll into the goal
3. Last 10mins was complete shambles. If it wasn't for the Australian defence, it would've been a different outcome

Referee:

1. Not issuing a penalty after Viduka was locked in a full body hug rugby style. My half asleep brain was thinking this was one weird twisted gay porn the way the guy has his arms around Viduka
2. Not issuing a penalty after a CLEAR handball by Croatia
3. Sending Emerton off with 2 yellow cards after he took a block causing a handball. Errr.....refer to the point 3????
   
4. Issuing THREE yellow cards to the ONE player! Excuse me? 2 Yellow cards = 1 red card = getting sent off! Its a VERY simple equation!
5. I don't know if this is his fault or not, but there was no indication of injury time until almost 2mins into injury time! Some notification would be good!
6. Not controlling the game so there was 2 balls on the field
7. Allowing the game to play beyond the injury time (I didn't hear any fulltime whistle go off AT ALL)
8. Since he allowed play after point 6, the game was obviously not over. Australia scores and suddenly he disallows it because it was "fulltime". Excuse me? You SUDDENLY decide that its fulltime just as Australia was attacking? Correct me if I'm wrong, YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO DO THAT! And I STILL didn't hear the fulltime whistle! You were blowing the whistle left right and centre!

The refereeing was a complete mess! We're just lucky that because of his shonky refereeing, Kewell was able to score the equalising goal (even though he was just a TAD) offside. Usually with 10mins to go in a game, you can feel fairly confident that the score wouldn't change that much. But this match......omg.....Croatia was outside of Australia's goal dancing around for the last 10mins, we had a shitty goal keeper and an even shittier referee, every few seconds my heart will skip a beat. My heart was in my throat and I thought I was going to throw up if they didn't blow the fulltime whistle soon. I was watching with my dad saying:

"Omg! we've only got 9mins 30secs left! 9mins left! OMG! 8mins 45secs left! 8mins 30secs left! OMG OMG 8mins left!"

I couldn't sit for the last 5mins of the game. And when the game finally ended, and we were into the next round, I was ecstatic! Both of us were yelling and cheering, running around the livingroom. My dog started going nuts because he's never seen us run around yelling like that before! We're finally into the next round! GO ROOS! Guus for PM!

A few things about myself (LONGGGGG)

I have a few close friends who know everything about me, or do they? I guess I don't try to deliberately hide any aspect of my personality from anyone (except my deep dark secrets), but maybe they haven't had a chance to get to see that side of me yet. So here are a few things about me and/or annoy me that you may or may not know.

* I hate people being late. I absolutely hate it. It ANNOYS me beyond belief. If I can be on time, why can't you? Oh yes, you had "other stuff on". What makes you think that your previous plans are more important than mines? What makes you think I didn't give up something to keep a promise to meet up with you......ON TIME? Everyone is busy with work/family/traffic etc and I understand that. But if you are constantly late, or worse, constantly changing plans or even never giving me a firm answer as to whether to include you in my plans or not, you can expect my invited to do you drop. You can't make a commitment because of work or whatever else, thats fine. JUST LET ME KNOW instead of giving me the "Oh yeh, I'll try to be there" or the "Yeh I should be there, but I'll let you know" but then you don't. If you are able to always prioritise your work before meeting up with me, why should I continue to make an effort to ask you out or organise a catch up? If you are able to prioritise work, why can't you prioritise your friends for a change? Not all the time, but once in a while will be nice. I mean, is it that hard to come out and meet up once a month let alone show up on time?

If I make a commitment to meet up, I always try to keep it, and always try to be ontime. Some people I know are always late, so I try to MAKE myself be late but I'm still always earlier. What annoys me more is that some people are late cos they choose too. They were busy sitting at a cafe reading a newspaper rather than meeting up on time, or they always expect me to be early to get the table etc etc. Well guess what? I will leave. For those friends, if you are not ontime within 15mins, I WILL GO HOME. I would rather go home and call it at night then wait around for you to rock up at your own sweet time. My time is just as precious as yours. And calling me up telling me you're "just 5mins" away and then rocking up 30mins later, you also fall into that category.

* I can be such a girl. Seriously! I can! I have surprised some people because they see me as some ball busting career woman who will stand up for myself without a problem. That I am an "assertive" (read bitch) person who knows what I want. Yes, I am. But at times, I am also a girly girl. I like pretty things and sparkly things. I love my jewellery and I love anything butterfly-ish or flower-ish. Just like any other girl, I want to be treated and pampered like a princess. Ok, maybe not a princess, but I do want to be treated like any other girl! The occassional flowers, romantic dinners, walks by the beach and so forth. I love my fireplaces and sunsets (and sunrise as well if I could be bothered getting up). I would watch the occassional romantic movie so I could have a good cry or a good laugh. And sometimes, I would even blush and giggle *gasp*. I am terrified of creepy crawlies and I am one of those types who will grip onto your arm with a vice like grip and possibly draw blood with my nails during a horror flick. Maybe its because I am a Libra, where we're supposed to be the ultimate romantic type, hence girly, but we also believe in justice, hence my ball busting attitude. But yes, I can be such a girl, you might just need to pay more attention.

* To follow on with the girly point, I LOVE cooking. And I also love all my crafty stuff. Lets start will cooking. I love cooking. Its most probably heriditary. My mum is an AWESOME cook and so is my grandpa. Up until about 10 years ago (He's over 80 now), the government officials will ask him to cook and cater for big events etc. My mum can go out, eat a dish, come home and replicate it. All of my brother and sisters love to cook and are great at it. I love to cook, I just don't like to clean. I would LOVE to do one of those crazy meals where you need 3 days and 15 different pots to make one gorgeous sauce to go with some gormet meal. But I just can't be bothered doing the washing. Maybe when I get a dishwasher. I never follow recipes unless its baking a cake. I buy heaps of cookbooks, but I use them for inspiration. If you asked me for a recipe for a dish I made, I won't be able to tell you. I can tell you the ingredients, but I can't tell you how much and how long, everything I do is spur of the moment. I like to pick recipes I've never tried, make it and then move on to another dish.

Much like cooking, I take a similar approach to my craft making. Once I've mastered one, or atleast finished a piece of work that I find is good, I'll move onto something else. I've done my sketching and painting, my huge origami project and then I moved on to knitting. I spent a good year knitting enough things to wrap me from head to toe and created my ultimate scarf, a checkered scarf. Then there was the quilling. God there was the quilling......I spent over $200 on supplies alone. $200 on PAPER! I quilled heaps of things, cards, gift tags, gift boxes, photo frames and I stopped when I made a huge complex photo frame for my parents 61st birthday/41 yr anniversary. It took me a week of nonstop quilling, 4-6hrs a night to create that photo frame that had photos of our whole family. That then was put aside because I had "conquered" quilling.

Then there was the fabric flower making. Again, another $100 or so in material so I could make fabric frangipanis, butterflies and huge violets so I could give them out. That period lasted about a month. The latest would have to be crocheting. I started that last year and its continued on to this year. I thought I had reached the end of my crochet phase, but after our trip to the blue mountains where I saw this gorgeous crochet blanket, I'm tempted to keep it going.

* I don't have a sweet tooth. I have a fatty salty tooth. I can give up chocolate and lollies for a year if I want to, but put a bowl of piping hot chips sprinkled with chicken salt and I'm all gaga-googoo. Infact, give me any form of potatoe thats been fried and I'll behave that way.

* I get sugar rushes. And I mean I GET SUGAR RUSHES. Maybe because I don't eat much sweets, when I do, and I overdose, I have an attack. E.g. during Australia's biggest morning tea one year, I had 3-4 KK donuts. When I went back to sit at my desk, my head started spinning like I was drunk. Another example, we had Italian class the other week where we had a quiz, the winner will score a big block of chocolate. It was a tie so we decided to crack it open and eat in all during our break. I had ONE piece, 5mins later I was sitting at my desk laughing to myself for no reason. But then that could have been the caffiene in it. Oh, I also get bad caffiene rushes. ESPECIALLY if I have a Gloria Jeans Iced Mocha. I don't know what it is with that drink, maybe its the chocolate or maybe its the caffiene, but when I have that, I have a laughing fit! We went to Starbucks once during our fugitive hunting days, and Moishii ordered me an Iced Mocha with triple shots of coffee....I laughed until I cried for a FULL HOUR. But then so did Moishii, he had an Iced chocolate with "extra extra extra chocolate". In the car on the way home, I passed out, practically comatose cos the caffiene and sugar had worn off.

* I have an overactive sense of imagination. This is not a good thing when combined with the sugar/caffiene thing. We usually do our H.I. scripting over coffee, simply because Moishii knows thats when I get the best ideas. But then it can also act against me. E.g. Blue mountains and how I freaked out thinking the mannequine was moving behind the door.

* If you lose my trust, have a good time trying to earn it back. I take my friendships seriously, and I only surround myself with close friends I can trust. If you breach that trust, you may never get it back again.

* I love a sense of adventure. As much as I hate to admit it, despite all the crap that happens when I'm overseas with Moishii, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I think the reason I love going on holidays with him is because we never know what to expect. But isn't that the case when travelling anyway? Yes, but for us, nothing ever goes right. I'm not talking about adventures like taking a bush walk and seeing a multiple monkeys swinging in the trees. I'm talking about taking a bushwalk, seeing a monkey swing in the trees, onto another tree only to fall onto another monkey where they get on with some monkey business only for the monkey to fall off the other monkey and onto our heads who will then try to scratch our eyes out whilst the other monkey in the tree swings around throwing poop at us. THAT is the type of adventure I am talking about, and is most probably going to happen to us when we go on holidays together. Its one of those love hate relationships where we end up coming back from the holiday laughing about it because everything we didn't expect to happen, did happen, only 10 times worse.

* I think I thrive under stress and pressure.....or I'm a procrastinator. If it comes to crunch time, I always get my work done. But if there is no deadline, or its not a do or die situation, I feel like I am not contributing and I don't feel like working.

* I chop and change topics. ALL THE TIME. I was once chatting to a friend who mentioned that I'm forever jumping from one topic to another. As he was explaining this to me, I a thought suddenly came to me and we started talking about it, this is when he goes "Look! you just did it again!". I don't deliberately change the topic, but maybe its just the way my warped brain works. Maybe I'm some type of psycho genuis with all these ideas and thoughts bottled into me and I need some form of outlet. Or maybe I just can't concentrate on one thing long enough......Any of you who have read one of ranting and raving posts would probably have realised that. The very beginning of the post would have probably related to the topic, by the time you get to the bottom, you might go "WTF is she on about?". I seriously think its the way my convuluted brain works. One small thing can trigger a thought that would trigger another through that triggers another idea and so forth. So you're one simple sentence can trigger and ENTIRELY different seemingly unrelated topic in my screwed up brain. So anyway, thats why I love to go to the beach during summer.

KEWELLLL!!

Yes! He's been cleared! This should make Friday's match hella good! I did expect him to be suspended for the next match for his stupidity, but on the other hand, I do understand where he is coming from. The referee was a complete dick. But what would his tantie have achieved? The scores are final and he should've just accepted it like a man. Either way, he's cleared to play against Croatia, and their best defender has been suspended the next match making our chances of qualifying oh so greater. Come Socceroos! Stuff History! (BTW, the ads are brilliant!)

A game well played

For those who watched the Australia vs Brazil match, most of you would agree that Australia played well. We didn't win, but we played well. Considering Australia is ranked like, what? 42? Against Brazil, the number 1 team in the world, with the number 1 player in the world. We managed to hold them off for the first half and even had a *few* close calls for Brazil. The world is taking notice of Australia, and we're all proud of the Socceroos for their effort (Despite me wanting to strangle Kewell and Viduka for missing the few shots in the 2nd half, and Kewell's tantie). But is is necessary to show reruns of that match NON STOP?

I've changed my daily ritual of getting a 3pm coffee to 3:30pm because the place I get my coffee has a plasma that is forever tuned into SBS. This way, I can watch "The Journal" where they show last nights goals in the first 5mins of the show. I rocked up yesterday at 3:30 only for SBS to be showing a rerun of the Australia Vs Brazil game. Well.....not totally unexpected, but a bit of a disappointment that I didn't get to see the highlights from the other games. I rock home at 6:15pm and they're STILL showing Australia vs Brazil! WTF? Ok...fine....I wait for the 7pm show which is dedicated to showing last nights highlights. Again, they start off with Australia vs Brazil and that went on for a good 15-20mins.

Today, I seriously needed a coffee at 2pm. Way before my usual 3:30pm timeslot. I rock on down to my coffee shop only to see SBS showing the Australia vs Brazil match AGAIN! Come on! I know we played well! I know we're proud of the socceroos! But this is getting out of hand! God forbid if we actually WON against Brazil! We'll be having that match on looping 24/7! I don't even know if I can be bothered tuning into SBS tonight if they keep showing Australia vs Brazil. I actually had my first night of uninterrupted sleep last night. No late nights, no broken sleeping, no getting up early, and it feels great!

Right now I'm contemplating coming into the city to watch the Australia vs Croatia game on Friday morning. The only problem is I'll need to be in the city around 4am to get a good seat......and it'll be COLD.....and theres the whole transport issue. But then it could be Australia's last game. I hope not, I want to see them go into the next round. Oh, and I'm also taking my Brazil shirt out of the cupboard. They haven't gotten to the stage where I would wear the shirt yet, but I'm getting it prepared......any day now.....

So I found my ring again. Well, I didn't FIND it, I just forgot about it in my draw. I got the ring when I was in Turkey last year, and I wore it every single day I was on holiday. So much in fact, I had a sunburn mark on my finger where the ring was. I stopped wearing it when I got back so I could get rid of the horrible white mark on my finger and hence, forgot all about it. It was only recently that I remembered the ring and dug it out again. This bought me to thinking about how I bought the ring when I was in Pamukkale.

This then led to me thinking back at all the great times I had bargaining. One of the first rules in bargaining, is showing the lack of interest in something. The more you show you want it, the harder it is for the price to go down. This is when I realised why I was always getting bargains. I really DON'T like all the things I've bought THAT much. Take for instance, my Pamukkale ring. I had walked into the shop and was browsing around. I walked towards the very first tray of jewellery I see, and pick up a ring that I think would fit me (I have big fingers) and try it on. It fits and it was ok. I take the ring off and put it back and continue browsing, before I could even take a step, the bargaining began. Now all bargaining usually goes in the following format:

Person A: How much?

Person B: $xx

Person A: Nah.....its ok (Pretending they don't like it/not worth the money)

Person B: Ok ok, I give you discount. JUST FOR YOU. $yy

Person A: No...its too expensive (Again, pretending they don't like it)
And so forth.

Now the problem with me was, I really didn't like it THAT much. But I was never one to turn down a bargain, and I was never one to lose an argument either. It's like I am possessed, and the words coming out of my mouth isn't really from me. Because if it really was me, I would've realised that I didn't like it THAT much and just say a firm NO and move on. But all the sales people are quick to jump on you, the minute you even LOOK at something, let alone touch it, they start the bargaining. Of course, if I REALLY DON'T LIKE something, I would walk away, but how many chicks don't like jewellery. I liked the ring, but I wasn't desperate for it. If I was browsing in a shop in Australia, the chances are I wouldn't have bought it. But they took my slight interest as a part of the bargaining process, as opposed to me really not being interested.

Thinking back, I don't remember even seeing the rest of the store. They shop had trays and trays of jewellery, but I barely had to chance to glance at what they had because I was too busy bargaining and making my purchases. I remember sitting in the hotel room afterwards looking at the ring asking myself if it was worth the $20 I paid. I don't know if I talked myself into liking it or it really grew on me. But everytime I look at that ring now, I remember the great time I had overseas, and it was definately worth the $20 I paid. I guess the same could be said about everything else I got overseas. Yes alot of it is useless crap, but when I look at it, it brings back the fond memories and the horrors of getting screwed over on our holiday! Looks like I'm going to have to save heaps of money for shopping on my next trip!

Karma

What goes around comes around. Below is a story of how someone left their "sidekick" (which is like a PDA/blackberry that uploads data onto a server) in a Taxi. A girl found the sidekick, and refused to return it when contacted by the owner, and was stupid enough to take photos of herself and her family which gets uploaded into the owners account. The link is a public shaming of them and I hope the word spreads so stupid people like them can never get away with shit like that

http://www.evanwashere.com/StolenSidekick/

Late nights + World Cup

I while back I posted an entry about how much I spend on Coffee a year with my one cup a day. Well, I went off coffee for awhile, relying on tea, that went well.....for about 2 weeks. Then my overtime period hit and I was on to 2 coffees a day. The late nights and weekend work has ended...but my 2 coffee a day habit hasn't. Suddenly its world cup time and I'm on 3 coffees a day now. This is getting out of hand! The money I'm saving by bringing lunch to work is all going towards coffee! It wouldn't be such a bad thing if the world cup was worth it.

Staying up late to watch Australia kick Japan's ass after their horrible horrible cheat of a goal was well worth the $6 for coffee. Hell, I'd pay $20 for coffee just to see Australia win their first game ever and score 3 goals in 8 minutes! HOW ABSOLUTELY FANTABULOUSLY AWESOMELY INSANE WAS THAT!? Watching the Socceroos make the world cup last year made me proud of Australia. Watching the Socceroos perform like that makes me proud to BE an Australian! This puts me in a real dilemma. I want the Socceroos to win because I am an Australian, but I love Brazil. Which is why I woke up at 4:30am this morning after just a few hours sleep to watch them play Croatia.

Its been 4 long years since I saw Brazil in action. I know theres been alot of flak about Ronaldo lately and how people think Brazil's time as world champions could be over, but to me, Brazil and Ronaldo is what makes the World Cup worth watching. That's what I thought until this mornings match. What the FUCK was that? No way did that match look like the World Cup. It looked more like a bunch of old lazy guys in yellow and blue having a practice session and aimlessly kick the ball around. Where the hell was Ronaldo? I didn't see him AT ALL until some time in the second half for a split second. How could Brazil only score ONE goal against Croatia? What the hell is going on? I know they can do better than that! Yes, the players are getting old, and Ronaldo does have a slight gut, but even with that, they're still supposed to better than most of the other teams!

I bought myself a Brazil soccer shirt a few world cups back and I used to always wear it when they were playing (Yes I'm a geek alright), this morning, at 4:30am, it was just too cold and too dark to search for my shirt. I'm glad I didn't wear it, cos I'll be ashamed to be wearing that shirt with the way Brazil was performing! I am now refusing to wear the shirt until they pick up their game! I'm still looking forward to the Australia vs Brazil match, but my expectations has changed. I always expected Brazil to totally slaughter our ass, but I would've been happy just to see them play. Now, I want the Socceroos to kick their ass. BAD. And we have a chance. Ok, maybe not, but we have more of a chance now than we did 4 years ago. If Brazil plays Australia the way they did today, we could walk away with a draw. If we're REALLY lucky, and I mean REALLY REALLY REALLY lucky, we could win. And I want us to win. I want Brazil to get their ass kicked by Australia who is ranked at 48 and wake up and smell the roses. Maybe then they'll pick up their game and show the world how the game should be played. But right now, I'm disgusted by Brazil's performance.

Weekend away

My long weekend started on Friday where I took a well deserved day off after all my overtime. The accomodation was booked, the heater was packed, along with about 40 DVDs between us. Those of you who know me and Moishii know that we never have a "normal" get away. Booking the accomodation was a nightmare since every place we tried to book was taken an hour before we called. We finally settled on the only accomodation still available for the whole of Katoomba and made our booking. I booked online, sent a follow up email afterwards to try and confirm our booking. Called the woman's mobile numerous times and sent her multiple smses. Worried the place would get booked out, I eventually got through to her mobile. I basically said:

"Hi, my name is Lily and I tried to make a booking last night....."
"Oh! You're the one who sent me the SMS?"
"Yes I..."

*Hangs up*

"Wot da......"

I called back multiple times, each time getting her voicemail. That bitch hung up on me! I was ready to call it quits and cancel the whole weekend when she finally called me back after a few hours. Apparently her phone is dodgy and she doesn't know how to send an SMS. Whatever. FREAK. I booked and paid for the accomodation only to get multiple emails from her confirming and reconfirming and triple confirming the details I've given her about 5 times. We wanted to meet this woman. She could be the next $40 woman. But it wasn't to be. She refused to see us and basically left the key on the balcony for us to dig up.

We walk into the house and it looks like an antique shop. There were things EVERYWHERE. Moishii's room was covered from head to toe with hats. Thats right. HATS. My room was filled with teddy bears and dolls. Not cutesy ones, but hand made dolls with evil x eyes staring at you at night. The whole house was like the Big Brother room. There was room after room after rooms. Each room had like 2-3 doors opening into other places which had doors that opened to other places!

The Sunroom

Garden #1

Moishii's room

My Room

The Kitchen

We started panicking trying to find the living room because we were getting lost in the house. We finally found a livingroom that had a fireplace that was blocked off, this is when I start having a fit since the only reason we booked the place was because there was supposed to be a fireplace. Then the second panic attack began. WHERES THE TV? We scan the room trying to find a TV only to find this:

Spot anything? How about a close up?

Who the HELL puts a mannequin in the room? This was a bloody freaky mannequin as well since it didn't have any hair! Most people know what an overactive imagination me and Moishii has. This is when all the scenes in horror movies like "House of wax" and "Chucky" where things come to life start popping into our head. We freak out and run out of the room only to accidently leave the lights on. Both of us refuse to go back in to turn the lights off and I started freaking about how I can see shadows moving through the gap in the door. We locked the door and stuffed up all the gaps so we didn't have to see the light or the mannequin. We panic thinking we don't have a TV and the room is possessed with an evil mannequin. That is until we discovered ANOTHER livingroom which had a fireplace and a TV. We're saved!!!

We unload all our crap (Half of which was DVDs) in the pouring rain into the freezing cold house before we made a run for the car. We were staying fairly close to the Katoomba shops, so off we were to grab some food and do some exploring.

Roasted pumpkin and pancetta risotto

Potato Rosti with a Lemon Dill Creme Fraiche

You'd think that we would learn to relax and enjoy the mountains. No. We found ourselves at Flight Centre within an hour of arriving so we can grab brochures on Italy, Greece and Turkey. Yes I know we have about 50 of those brochures, and we know exactly what we want to do in Greece (More specifically Mykonos) and Turkey, but thats not the point! The brochures could be kindling for our fireplace!

2 hours later and we were freezing our butt off. We go back to the house and get the fire going. Within an hour we had a roaring fireplace, food, wine and DVDs. There were candles all over the room, but not in a romantic way. More in a "lets do a seance and film" type way. Talking about filming, our home videos came out.

Immediately after I finished my undergrad, I started my postgrad degree in Design Computing and Moishii was doing Digital Design. We had similar subjects, but that wasn't enough. We decided to do the same electives. Knowing our history together, we picked the most perfect subject for us. "Film Production" and "Script Writing". Part of the classes involved writing and producing short films. For Film Production, neither of us could be bothered doing any of the work such as Makeup, lighting, camera etc. So we volunteered to be the actors instead thinking we would get it easy. The scene we had to film was from L.A. confidential. Now I've never seen the movie, and I shot the scene without knowing what the hell was going on. Basically it was along the lines of me having to seduce Moishii. Rewatching that clip had me cringeing and wanting to poke my own eyes out with a hot poker. But I lived through that clip.

Next up was all the filming we did for script writing. Basically every student had to write a short script, cast the script using our class mates and film it. This is where I did my infamous "Labour" scene where I had random strangers come up to me afterwards telling me how they watched my performance and absolutely loved it. Apparently my lecturer started showing my performances to other people. I was also cast as a "shy bank teller" and a student who stuttered. I can never watch myself on TV, let alone on a 3x5m lecture screen. I didn't show up for the final class where they did the screening of all the movies. According the Moishii, the lecture couldn't stop raving about my performances and got everyone into a discussion about ME for 40mins of the class, whilst blasting another girl's performance who had studied in an acting school in France and starred in multiple commercials etc.

Its been a good 4 years since I filmed the scenes and I felt that I was finally ready to face myself on TV. Before watching the DVD, me and Moishii discussed what happened and came to the conclusion that I had starred in 3 short films and was loved by the lecturer, and he was not picked for a single film. He was totally offended that no one had cast him in any of the movies, but he still wanted to watch it anyway.

First movie was my "Shy bank teller" scene where I am getting yelled at by a customer who is demanding to see my manager. I panic and tell him the Manager isn't here and he continues to scream at me. so I try to pacify him by saying "I'll go find the Manager". Suddenly Moishii storms onto the screen yelling he's the Bank Manager. WHAT DA FARK!?!?! A laughing fit started and lasted for a good 5 minutes. Neither of us ever remembering him being in a part of my movie. What the hell?? He wasn't supposed to be on anything!!!

We watched my Labour scene where my water breaks but no one would take me to the hospital, then there was my stuttering scene. Thinking it was all over, we played the next movie where suddenly Moishii finds himself on screen as a Police Chief!! What the hell??? WHY IS HE STARRING IN ANYTHING!! HE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE IN ANYTHING! We finally calm down and continue to watch him crack onto another character who we could barely see because the camera work was so shocking, then all of a sudden you hear me in the background interupting the scene because I was his secretary!! WHAT THE HELL?????? WHY AM I IN THIS SCENE?? I'M ONLY SUPPOSED TO BE IN 3 MOVIES!!!!! We had to stop the DVD because our laughing fits were getting so bad! This is scary!! I don't remember filming ANY of those scenes! Neither of us remember doing ANY of that!!!

Ontop of that, I found out that I was in HALF of the movies! I starred in 5 of the movies, and I was an extra in almost every single movie with the exception of 3! I was the new "Gym Instructor" and Moishii was a weight pumping horny guy who tried to hit on me only I ended up going out with his friend. Moishi found himself with a small cameo part in another movie whilst I was an extra roaming around in the rest of the films!! This is so scary! We don't remember doing ANY of that stuff!! Its like we had a 6months blackout of our lives and we're suddenly catching up! We dealt with this new knowledge the only way we knew how. Alcohol. Alcohol with more home videos of our last trip in 2005.

Waking up the next day with a sore throat from all the laughing, we tried to do some sight seeing only to see fog. There was jackall to see!





We rocked up to Echo Point and decided to climb down the stairs to the first sister for a few happy snaps and contemplated climbing down the rest of the 763 steps. That was until we saw a guy practically have a heart attack coming up. We gave up and cilmbed back to the top. It was less than 50 steps, but it was the most painful 50 steps ever! We were practically having a heart attack by the time we got to the top.

Thats NOT the steepest part of the stairs

View from the first Sister

We decided to stop by the local chocolate factory for a bit of warming up and went back home only to be greeted by a mouse in the livingroom causing me to tip boiling hot tea all over myself! Again, we had the fire roaring by 5pm and settled in for the night. We decided to go all out and cook a nice dinner:

Grilled Pepper Chicken with Mash potatoes and onion gravy and garden salad

To celebrate the wonderful meal and the effort we put in, we cracked open a bottle of red whilst watching DVDs. Within 10mins, the alcohol started hitting us, so we did what any other person would do. We opened a second bottle of Champagne (From Italy of course!). When that was gone, we went for our favourite Brown Brothers Moscato. Whilst we were on a roll, we opened our last bottle of wine whilst we called Cherry on the phone.


I'm not too sure exactly what happened, but it involved a phone call, a video camera, and somehow I got drenched from head to toe with a bottle of water. Moishii was screaming that we were out of wine whilst I was screaming that I was drenched and Cherry was screaming that we went on holiday without her. In the midst of all the screaming, there was alot of falling off the chair and laughing fits. We called it a night when Moishii passed out and Soccer was about to start.



The next day was basically a huge hangover with sleep deprivation thrown in. With the weather looking a bit better, we went for a drive around Leura and other lookouts only to end up at Echo Point again.



Atleast this time we could see the damn 3 sisters. The only problem was that it was 2degrees and the wind was killing us! You'd think people would dress in layers and layers of clothes to keep warm, well guess again. We saw 2 Korean chicks in mini skirts and little tops! WTF? I hope you freeze your ass off! We quickly duck into a coffee shop for some well deserved caffiene and fresh scones with cream and jam. mmmmmm After burning the insides of my throat with the coffee, we hop back into the car and race home to get the fire started. The weather was close to 2degrees with icy cold wind biting into us. By this stage I had fully mastered the art of building a fire, and I kinda went a tad nuts with the firewood. The owner had a huge, and I mean HUGE pile of wood saved in the backyard, and we went through 1/3 of it in the 3 days we were there. But I didn't care, we were cold!!!

Since it was our last night, we went all out to cook another wonderful meal:

Poached chicken Quesadillas, Minestrone soup, Garden and herb salad with pasta

To pass the time, we watched some DVDs whilst waiting for the soccer. Originally we had wanted to watch Candyman, but 5mins into the movie I started freakin out because the movie scared the bejeezus out of me as a kid, so we opted to watch Paycheck instead. After the movie, whilst I was making hot chocolate, Moishii suddenly felt inspired to film. We did a whole bunch of freaky horror shots that involved us going into the mannequin room IN THE DARK. Of course I freak out again and decide to camp out infront of the TV. During half time, they had a few commentators analyse the game. This is when Moishii noticed one of the guys was called an "Analyst" and reckons he could be an analyst. For anyone who watches the soccer on SBS, it is the old dude who can barely speak english. Everytime this guy spoke, Moishii had a laughing fit screaming he could be an analyst and say what the guy was saying. This went on for the entire time the guy was talking and I lost count of how many asthma attacks Moishii had. Basically the old guy had no idea what the hell he was on about, here are a few quotes from the Netherlands game:

"The difference between the two teams is Robben (The soccer player)"
"Its typical when you play 3 games, if you lose one, you're already 50% out of the game."

I don't know what it was, but those 2 lines set off a huge laughing fit in Moishii I've never seen before.

All in all, it was a good weekend with the exception of the freaky house owner and the multiple laughing fits! These laughing fits were worse than all of Greece, Turkey and the US thrown together!

Playing favourites

I know I shouldn't, but I do. My niece melts my heart all the time! Maybe its cos she's a girl, or maybe she is just the really affectionate type. I got a call from her tonight on my mobile. Basically she wanted to tell me that she loves me. Why? Yesterday she went to some festival where they had some bellydancers performing. In 2004 when I went to Turkey, I bought her a belly dancing costume. When she came to Sydney for a visit, I took her to my belly dancing class. Of course without me there, the costume got shoved to the back of the wardrobe. But after the performance she saw, she was so inspired, she went home and grabbed her costume out to dance.

She said to her mummy, and these are her exact words (In a thick Singaporean accent):

"Mummeeeee....I am so luckeeey to have an Aunteeeey that loves me so much that she buys me a beautiful costume so I can daaaaaaance."

When my sister told me that, I felt tears come to my eyes. Awwwwwwwww shes so cute!!!!!!!!!!!