Living in the past

es I know.....more recapping. I guess I have nothing better to blog about, or maybe I'm seriously needing a dose of oversea-ness right now. Staying in Sydney this year is killing me! So let me indulge myself by reliving in past....So where was I up to? Oh thats right, meeting the weeded woman at Marmaris. Well, the next stage of our travel was Greece. First stop was Rhodes where:

• I almost had my suitcase with all my belongings dropped into the sea
• I burned my leg with boiling hot coffee in my process of stealing sugar that we didn't need for the rest of the trip
• We bought ended up carrying 3 bottles of Vodka to the Greek Islands with us
• A women cuts herself and starts bleeding all over Moishii's Greek bracelet cursing the rest of the trip
• Pretending that I was buying a bracelet for Moishii's "birthday" when I was really bargaining with the woman on behalf of Moishii only to have her practically call me a cheapskate in my face
• We spent 8 hours walking around the Rhodes old town, get blisters on our feet, get lost on our way back to the hotel, arrive to find that the aircon in our room only works if we leave the lights on and then proceeded to have one of the worst laughing fits in the whole trip over a "weeded woman" on tv.

To read more, go to:
Day 6 - Arriving in Rhodes

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• Stealing hotel food at the buffet breakfast to prepare for our trip to the Butterfly valley.
• Going complete NUTS over postcards
• Holding in a laughing fit whilst trapped in a lift with a Hagrid look alike

To read more, go to:
Day 7 - Rhodes

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• Stealing more tea, sugar and honey at breakfast
• Getting stranded at Santorini Airport with no transfer and no way to get to the accomodation. Frantic negotiations, calls back to Australia, arguing with the reception guy at the WRONG accomodation, getting taken to the wrong accomodation by some cowboy taxi driver and the fiasco ends with me slamming the door in a 60y.o. guys face after he kindly helped me lug my 30kg suitcase up the stairs
• More prank calling
• Moishii claiming that I used up all the water so he couldn't shower and then him chucking a fit about it when it was him turning the water off by mistake

To read more, go to:
Day 8 - Going to Santorini

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• Sight seeing around Thira with many postcards and souveniers and also catching the cable car down the cliffside.
• The psychopathic donkey ride where my donkey attacks other donkeys that tries to overtake, almost pushes a woman off the cliff and ends up ramming me against a wall.
• Me losing my panties in Santorini
• Getting told off by the cleaning lady......so NOT my fault.

To read more, go to:
Day 9 - Exploring Santorini

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• Our tour bus forgetting to pick us up
• Climbing the volcano
• Another donkey ride with a psychopathic herder, the annoying honkie chick who wants a "beautiful donkey"
• The 3rd and final donkey ride with a psychopathic FAMILY where the people refuse to pay, and when they pay, they refuse to ride the donkey, and when they finally get on the donkey, they scream, cry and yell all the way to the top of the cliff.
• Me getting trapped in a toilet during the worlds most beautiful sunset where I had to climb over a 2.5m high wall and into the men's toilet almost breaking 2 plastic cisterns whilst I was at it.

To read more, go to:
Day 10 - Santorini all day tour

More Recapping

During our Anniversary dinner, I printed out previous entries from my blog so we could recap and laugh about it during dinner. God so much happened that we've forgotten! Good thing I carried a diary around with me and blogged about it! Heres some more highlights:

• We found a "New" Grand Bazaar near the "Old" Grand Bazaar and started shopping, got death stares from all the shop keepers only to realise we've stumbled into a wholesale district where they only sell in bulk and we were going in buying single items! To make it worse, the whole "New Grand Bazaar" was actually a Russian district and no one understood a word we spoke! They didn't speak any Turkish at all!
• The Transfer from HELL. I can't relive the transfer.....you will just need to read about it from here. Reading about it, let alone watching the tape, gives me goosebumps, I start sweating and shaking and I'm only a few heartbeats away from a heart attack.....
• Trying to find a boarding gate for our flight from Istanbul to Denizli only to have it changed without notification, no service desk and then me getting into a death stare competition with a woman who looked like she was going to rip my chest off and slap me around with it.
• Us trying to save money on a transfer from the airport to the hotel only to get stranded in the middle of a freeway at 9pm at night, had no way of contacting the hotel, got ripped off by a security guard and his taxi friend and then paying almost twice the price if we had taken the easy "expensive" offer at the airport.
• Finally getting to the hotel after dragging my 30kg suitcase down a freeway and through a rocky hill only to find out our room is so far from the lobby, it almost had its own postcode. Then trekking BACK to reception after dumping our stuff, ran to the restaurant and argue over what we were eating based on price only to find out that the buffet is included in our room rates. This is when we throw ourselves at the buffet and eat like we haven't eaten in 3 days.
• Wake up the next morning and was told by reception that we were supposed to checkout when we booked for 2 days and me practically leaping over the counter and strangling her.
• Me getting screamed at outside a public toilet by 2 Turkish women for no apparent reason.
• Me getting into an argument with a shop keeper over a ring
• Having a bellydancer come up to our table, dance to us whilst waiting for a tip. We had no wallet to tip him and he just kept dancing until he went red in the face, thats when he realised he wasn't getting a cent out of us.
• Me getting into a fight with a kid at the bus stop over his insistence to SHINE OUR THONGS.
• Our bus transfer for overbooked so we had 3 people sitting in 2 seats, the assistant bus driver standing for the entire 4hr ride, meeting the Weeded woman who became one of the highlights of the trip
• Our hotel room got upgraded, and then downgraded back and then downgraded further.
• Of all the places we could've gone to, we rocked up at the "Turkish Travel Agency" only to get served by someone who doesn't speak Turkish.....at all.

Day 3 - Transfer to Pamukkale
Day 4 - Pamukkale
Day 5 - Marmaris

Greek Islands Anniversary

So we had our anniversary dinner tonight. We thought since we're not going to be overseas doing our Turkey and Greece thing, we're gonna go to Greek and Turkish restaurants to make up for it. Originally we had planned to go to Santorini, the restaurant on Oxford St on our Santorini anniversary and Mykonos on Crown on our Mykonos anniversary. But Mykonos on Crown is one of the shittiest restaurants we have ever been to, and around the same time, all these reviews for Greek Restaurants popped up on SMH. One of which, was Greek Islands Taverna at Earlwood. (360 Homer st)

We thought this would be perfect, it'll cover our Rhodes, Santorini and Mykonos Anniversary. So we rocked up tonight only to be greeted at the door by 2 asian waitresses. First thought in my mind was "Oh my god its an asian run greek joint!!". Luckily a quick look around showed that this isn't one of those dodgy joints. So we squeeze into our table, which was unfortunately against the wall meaning once we were seated, we were trapped for the whole night.

We were handed the menus and quickly started arguing about what we were going to order. We finally decided to go with more Mezes and just one main whilst reserving some room for dessert. Now I didn't get many photos because one, I was hungry, and secondly, it was too dark to take any decent photos without blinding half of the people sitting around me.

We started with a generous serving of taramosalata, which is a blended red caviar dip. It was slightly smokey and slightly salty and heaps oh-yummy! I wish I hadn't ordered this to be honest, I couldn't stop eating it and ended up eating a whole breadroll before all the food came out! Which was such a shame because their Spanakaopites (Spinch and cheese pies) were delicious! I was a bit apprehensive when ordering this because of my bad experience with cheese anything in Greece.

But these were completely different. Instead of salty cheese wrapped in oily filo pastry and then deep fried, the "pie" looked like little fried dumplings. The pastry was cripsy and light, and the filling was a perfect balance of spinach and soft creamy cheese without being overly salted. I could eat half a dozen of these things without getting sick.

We also ordered a serve of their BBQ octopus. Ever since the first meal I had in Santorini last year, I've fallen in love with all Greek seafood. I was hoping for a repeat of the gorgeous meal we had but I was quite disappointed. Maybe it was because we weren't actually at Santorini, a stones throw away from a volcano seated on the edge of a cliff, or maybe it was just because the BBQ Octopus was quite dry and burnt. I know they described it as Chargrilled, but I would classify parts of it burnt. They also forgot to give us a wedge of lemon to lighten the dish up. I wish I had ordered their lightly floured and panfried calamari or white bait, maybe next time.

Of course, no greek anniversary dinner will be complete without the compulsory Greek Salad. I never liked greek salads until I actually went to Greece. The problem with most greek salads in Australia is that they use a dry hard fetta cheese that is either overly bland or overly salty. Luckily, the fetta they used were soft and creamy and oh so drool worthy! It was almost as good as the ones we had in Greece. ALMOST. For a moment there I actually thought we were back in Greece. Maybe that was the 1/2L of wine we were consuming.

After stuffing my face with all the meze, our lamb finally came out. After our last trip, one of my favourite lamb dishes is the Greek Lamb Casserole with Kritharaki (Little pasta).

The lamb was served in a mini clay pot. It was a bit dry and less saucy than the one I had at Mykonos, but the lamb was meltingly tender until it was falling off the bone and the pasta was a bit softer than al dente, but I think it was perfect that way. Infact, I liked the pasta much more than the lamb itself and proceeded to consume copious amounts of kritharaki until I was about to explode.

We decided to have a rest before hitting the dessert, but that didn't last long. Not long after our table was cleared, we ordered our mandatory Galaktoboureko, which is basically like a custard filled filo pastry that is drenched in rosewater sugar syrup. I actually haven't made this in ages and it was good to be able to consume it without custard exploding in my face. The pastry was light and not too sweet, and the firm cold custard was nice and refreshing. Of course we washed this down with greek coffee. Double for me.

So its about 10pm by the time we leave the restaurant. Just like last time, we felt it was too early to go home. So we hop into the car and start driving randomly. We ended up following a car for about 10mins without a clue as to where we were going. We somehow ended up at Redfern and started doings lap around the city. Now let me explain our last outing. It was 10pm at night and we were driving to Crows Nest and on the radio, Nutbush started playing. We cranked up the stereo and winded down the window letting the music blare out of the windows. This is when I start having a laughing fit about how most people will be blaring Techno or RnB out of their subwoofers, and we're blaring Nutbush! So what did I do? I made a complilation of the cheesiest 80s music including Nutbush, Walk like an Egyptian, Hey Mickey etc.

So here we were, driving around the city blaring Nutbush out of the car, we decided to do a lap around Leichardt and stop outside Mythos so we can pump Nutbush out of the car. After a good 20mins of driving around making a racket, we headed off to Haberfield for coffee. Neither of us could actually put anything into our mouths without being sick, but somehow, we ended up getting a coffee each and a ricotta canoli to share. We pick at the canoli and slowly sip the coffee wasting time hoping for the hour hand to get to midnight soon. We were both tired and started yawning despite the coffee.

We sit there watching the waiters pack up for the night to pass the time. All of a sudden, I see Moishii's face change and he started going "Oh my god...oh my GOD oh my god!". I slowly turn my head to the right just as a bunch of people were leaving and yelled "HOLY FUCK!" and proceeded to burst out laughing. I laughed til I cried and then laughed til I couldn't breath. Basically there was a woman walking around dressed like a duster. I'm not talking about people with furry jackets. I'm talking about someone talking 20m of the fluffy toilet seat cover material and turning it into a jacket. This woman looked like she could lie on her side and become one of those car wash rollers. She looked like Big Bird turned white!!

This woman was probably a size 10, 12 max. But with her jacket on, she looked like a size 28!! She was seriously 3 times the normal size with that jacket on!!! I couldn't stop laughing. I couldn't HIDE my laughing! Neither of us could stop laughing! After a good 5mins and many tears, we finally calmed down and paid our bill. Stuffing ourselves with that last coffee was worth it for the laughing fit we had. Who the hell walks around dressed like Big Bird dipped into a vat of bleach????? We tried to get a photo, but with all the furniture stacked infront of us, we failed in that mission.......until next time Big Bird.

This time last year

This time last year I was in Istanbul.
This time last year I would be on our "closure trip".
This time last year I would have been kidnapped by crazed Turkish men
This time last year I would be shopping at the Grand Bazaar
This time last year I would be drinking Cay that the shop keepers buy me whilst convincing me what a great bargain they're giving me
This time last year I'll be screaming in their face and practically grabbing them by the nuts demanding a better discount
This time last year I'm stuffing my face with fresh Kofte, pide, gozleme and stuffed cabbage
This time last year I would be making prank calls at 3am in the morning and leaving abusive voicemails for everyone I know
This time last year I would be freaking out thinking about meeting Johnny again
This time last year I would be getting screwed over left right and centre.

Instead, this year I'm in Sydney, thinking about work and volleyball.
There is no Grand Bazaar.
There is no men walking around selling $1 Cays in 30degree heat.
There is no Johnny, and
There is no overseas trip.

Its depressing. And its all Moishii's fault! I used to be content with my 2-3 week trip to Singapore, Hong Kong or China every year. Seeing relatives, shopping and great food. Thats not enough now. I want Turkey, I want Mykonos, and I want incidents. Family holidays are no longer fun. Theres no near death experiences. Theres no getting into fights with locals. Theres no 3am prank calls and most of all, there are no laughing fits. I miss our laughing fits. I miss doing our recaps and thinking where the hell did we go wrong for all the crap to happen to us, only to realise its because of us. Things happen because me and Moishii are together in the equation. There is no external influences. Put us 2 together, shit happens.

I miss the fact that shit happens. Which is why we've decided to celebrate our anniversary. Over the next month, I'll be reliving our favourite overseas moments. Heres a snippet as to what happened last year:

• Waiting in line at customs trying to get into the country, a kid pukes right infront of me.
• Moishii got me a hotel transfer to a hotel I wasn't staying at
• Transfer guy tried to take me sight seeing at a museum at 7am in the morning with all of my luggage after flying for 12 hours.
• Bellboy tries to kidnap me and my belongings to their hotel when I haven't booked with them!!!
• We rescue my belongings and check in to Erboy only to find out they freakin overbooked us AGAIN. TWO YEARS IN A ROW!!
• The body soap in my suitcase exploded all over my belongings. I had no clothes to change into.
• Meeting with Scarf guy again, throwing a tantrum about him ripping me off and walking away with a bag of goodies only to find out I got ripped off anyway.
• Went to my first Turkish Night only to almost get kidnapped by some dude at the end of the show.
• Visiting Ortakoy to for a rabbit to tell my fortune
• Going to Pierre Loti and almost getting killed by a psychotic Taxi driver who got caught in the middle of a road rage incident.
• Going clubbing only to have a woman flash us her punani and then having the ENTIRE CITY blackout on us.
• Catching a cab home only for our taxi stall, pushed over a hill and almost crashing into a stationary car!

For the full account:
Day 1 - Istanbul
Day 2 - Istanbul

Busy Xmas period

Its a bit early to be thinking about Xmas, but I can't help it! My sister and the kids are visiting this year and they'll be here for Xmas! The first time ever! Every year for the past 12 years, my sister has spent their Xmas at their in-laws in Malaysia. Understandable since they live in Singapore. But this year, this year will be the first time their whole family will be in Sydney for Xmas. Last year my brother and sister in law came back for Xmas, and it was a big deal. I have never spent a xmas like that before.

I LOVE xmas. I love the whole presents thing. I like searching and hunting for presents, doing all the gift wrapping, masking the true gift in gift boxes and creative wrapping so when the person opens it, they get a nice surprise. I like the big lead up to xmas with the food prep and the alcohol buying, the xmas decorations and the taunting of the kids. "Nup! I didn't buy you ANYTHING AT ALL THIS XMAS" only to whip out bucket-loads of presents a few days before xmas. Partly to surprise the kids, but to also stop them trying to open any of the presents beforehand!

So last year when my brother came back, he stopped by Singapore on his way over and picked up a suitcase full of presents from my Sister to bring to Australia. Last year, our xmas tree looked like this:

Looks can be deceiving......but there was a total of 74 presents under that tree. SEVENTY-FOUR. Holy Bejeezus we had more presents than we had tree! So I've told my dad this year that we need a new tree. we've had that xmas tree for about 18 years now and most of the plastic bits have broken off. Each year the tree grows smaller. Not too much of an issue since we didn't have that much presents. But based on last years performance, we need a BIG TREE. Not only will my sister be over bearing gifts for my nephews here (Which made up most of rht 74 presents), but we will need to get presents my other nephews and neice. And since my neice is in the picture, this is my chance to buy something OTHER THAN ACTION FIGURES. Its time to whip out the girlie stuff. Mermaid costumes, dress-up heels and sequences, barbie dolls, my little ponies! I'm estimating the presents to hit about 100 this year. I'm going to have to start shopping early this year. I can't wait!!!

Now I just have to convince my brother to come back to Sydney for Xmas. Its going to be a bit hard with the new baby and all, but it'll be an opportunity for the entire family to get together and so we can actually see the baby! Its either going to be a Lachlan or an Ashlee......or maybe both!! (Highly unlikely though) and if they're back, there will be more present buying. Its going to be a VERY busy xmas period coming up, and I'm not talking about work!

Pwrettyyyyyy colours.........

Pwretty pwretty colours.......the pills or what I'm seeing? Who knows.....LUCKILY, I'm only down to 2 types of pretty colours now! (And NO the blue one is NOT viagra.....) I did a quick count in my head, in the past week, I've spent about $80 on pills alone......god it sucks being sick.

A turn for the worse...

This has been a miserable week. Not only did we have such a close call in the Volleyball game, I also managed to injure myself. I would usually dive about 5-6 time a game, this week I ended up diving on the ground every few minutes trying to save the ball (I think I lost count around 20...). Even with my knee pads, I ended up with 2 big bruises on my knees. Partly because of the nonstop impact, but also "carpet burn" from the constant friction from the knee pads. Ontop of that, I managed to skin and bruise both my elbows and every part of me was hurt/bruised from the game.

To make things worse, my injuries haven't gotten better and its only gotten worse. I'm now on so much pills and painkillers, I feel like a walking drug lab. I'll be missing out on training this week and the game, but I'm still going to go cheer the team on. I'll be happy if they do well, but I'll also be disappointed because maybe they play better without me? Selfish yes, but I guess in the end I still want the team to do well! Would've been a good week to play because we would have the entire team show up for a change. *SiGH* I might even take Monday off work is things don't get better.....

Doing it Da Vinci style

9 1-13 7-15-9-14-7 20-15 20-8-5 7-15-12-4 3-15-1-19-20 6-15-18 20-8-5 12-15-14-7 23-5-5-11-5-14-4!!!!

Random Rants

Last night I gave up my Italian class and tickets to the ACO to attend the Socceroos vs Kuwait match. The match was good in the sense that we won.....but we also played like a bunch of amateurs compared to the World Cup Socceroos squad. There was no direction or focus in their play. I knew the team will be different, but not that different. Still, I jumped and cheered until I almost passed out when they scored their 2 goals. Lets just hope they find a good coach soon and build up a squad like we had at the World Cup.

On another note, they had 3 Black Hawk helicopters going through the city for training yesterday. Apparently it also happened on Monday, but I was out during lunch time and somehow missed it. I just remembered sitting at my desk, totally absorbed in a document I was reading, when all of a sudden I head a "fump fump fump" type sound, everything in our office started vibrating. I look out the window to see HUGE shadows fall onto the buildings around me and I started panicking. I didn't run around screaming or anything, but my initial reaction was that we were under attack. That its 9/11 in Australia. My heart was going 3 times the normal speed and the blood drained from my face. I run to the window only to see military helicopters fly within a few meters from our building. They were so close I could see the identification numbers on them! Apparently they had warned some people (I think in the morning news or something) about the training exercise, but as I didn't know about it, I thought it was the end for us.

Its quite sad that because of what is happening around us, we automatically think the worse is going to happen. I remember as a kid, I would be so happy and excited to see a helicopter in the sky. To see any sort of jet zoom through the air. Somewhere along the line, I guess it was 9/11, I lost that part of me. Its been replaced with fear. If I see any sort of military aircraft or helicopter floating around, my first reaction is that there is a threat to the country and something is going to go *Kaboom* around me. Maybe I used to be naive and think we were all safe.....maybe we WERE all safe back then.....I just wished things could go back to the way they used to be. But then maybe I'm being naive now for even thinking that.....

A nice weekend had by all

Saturday was spent lazing about at home followed by the usual grocery shopping/lunch outing with my parents. After enjoying a bit of Saturday Kitchen (One of the many reasons why I'm usually home on a Saturday arvo), I headed off to Coach-bait's place to celebrate his Birthday. Captain-bait had laid out an impressive feast including spring rolls, chicken satay, bbqed meats of various sorts, cheese, dips, and most importantly, a lick smacking punch. I swear there was no alcohol in the punch. Not that I could taste anyway. As I had double booked myself, I rocked up, sculled about 8 glasses of punch, took a swig out of my cough medicine bottle and was on my way with Moishii to watch "The Emperor of Sydney" featuring Alex Dimitriades.

The play was at the Griffin Theatre at Kings Cross. It is the 3rd chapter in the trilogy, and despite the fact that I haven't seen the first 2 plays, I still enjoyed it and it wasn't like I was missing out on any of the story as they did a good job on filling people in who have missed the first 2 plays. The Theatre itself is tiny but intimate. I ended up in the first row because I didn't want to have to shuffle over for people who came in late and ended up against a wall. The only problem was that we were sitting too close to the front. It was a bit like sitting in the front row at the movies that was showing a tennis match. I had my head craned up at an uncomfortable angle and continuously turned my head left and right to see all the characters. The play starts and within the first 30seconds I wanted to turn around and throttle Moishii whilst yelling "WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU GOTTEN ME INTO???" followed by a laughing fit. But by the end of the show, I was glad that Moishii had invited me along. I truely enjoyed the show even though Alex Dimitriades almost threw a guy onto me.

By the time the show ended, it was around 10:30 and we were both complaining that we were tired. How pathetic is that? Its barely 10:30 on a Saturday night and both of us wanted to go home and sleep! Life could NOT go on like this. So we decided we had to go have coffee, and we're not allowed to go home before midnight. So off we went to our favourite New Orleans cafe at Crows Nest. After downing 2 coffees each, multiple beighnets and some banana cake, we sat around waiting for the time to tick by. Midnight! It was finally time for home! I couldn't believe how relieved we were.....this is truely pathetic. But atleast we had a great night out! We realised that the 2 of us haven't been "out" out for quite awhile. Usually its the movies, or friday night drinks, maybe a bit of shopping on a Sunday afternoon. But we couldn't remember when was the last time we had a night out. Must do it again some time soon!!

Despite my lack of sleeping from having 2 coffees before midnight, I was still up fairly early to prepare for our Volleyball/picnic day. I packed my offerings of Shaved italian salami, home made roasted marinated capsicums, cheese, pate, dips and various other things, grabbed a really fresh cob of Vienna bread and off I was to Wentworth park. We picked a nice picnic area away from the swarm of fish market goers accompanied by the swarm of sqwarking sea gulls and pulled all the food out. We ate, and we ate, and we ate some more. By the time the food was almost gone, we thought it was time to do a bit of Volleyball training.....only we were all too full. So we did some half arsed attempt to hit the ball.....well I did anyway. 4pm came by and I would happily crawl under a blanket and sleep outdoors.....but we decided to head on over to Coach-bait and Captain-bait's place to watch a DVD Moishii had so kindly put together. It was a DVD of our last game.........

Oh god it was embarrassing.....I yell....alot. And its a scary "OMFG who is strangling the cat and using the dead cat to beat up an angry camel" type scream. And I'm loud. REALLY LOUD. And I had conciously lowered my voice that game.....despite that, you can hear my "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT" from the other side of the court as I make a run for a lost ball. Then there was the clapping. Moishii's right, our team claps...ALOT. We clap when we win a point, we clap when we lose a point, we clap when our team is going to serve, we clap when the other team is going to serve, we clap when theres a break. We clap to encourage ourselves but to also acknowledge that the team won a good point.....but it was getting a bit ridiculous! We've all decided that we're going to try and do less clapping at the next game. And I'm going to stop swearing.......or atleast do it softer. Lets see how we go hey?

Oh, BTW, another 2 MVP points! Only 3 more to go!

Things have been a bit random lately

I can't even be bothered writing a proper post. So here it is in point form:

• Had my Bank holiday on Monday. One of the many perks for working in a bank! Even if its an investment bank! hehehe

• The project that was on again and off again is now officially off until further notice.

• Just had my mid year review and got some great feedback. I'm now officially know as "Eagle eyes". Probably not a good thing because chances are I'll get roped into doing minute and tedious things because other people can't focus.

• Volleyball is getting better and better! We had a great game this week. Didn't win, but its always satisfying to walk away knowing you put up a great fight. Moishii rocked up to film the process....I'm expecting a commentry from him after his whole hooha about "sports commentators". God knows what to expect.....it's probably along the lines of "And they Serrrve! The ball goes over the net. XXX stood and scratched her butt whilst YYY Screamed like a lunatic running around the court. ZZZ goes in for a dive and knocks XXX unconcious who was still busy scratching her butt". I did manage to do an impressive Elvis impersonation during the game though. I dived to save a ball and ended up skidding on my knees half way across the court. BOOYA!

• I set myself a goal awhile back to get onto the MVP (Most Valuable Player) list...and I have! Woohoo!! 3 points! (3, 2 and 1 points are given out every match). And also a little birdy told me I might be on the list again this week...but its all TBC. I think it might have to do with the fact that I yell and scream and run ALOT and attract alot more attention than our other quieter members hence make more of an impression! hehehe Its all show! I'm now going to set myself a new goal of getting 8 MVP points by the end of the season (There is only 3 games left...)

• Other things are in motion that I will reveal at a later date.

Its been downhill....

My weeks usually always start on a high now days. I have Volleyball every Monday which always brings a cheer to my face, and Italian on Wednesdays to cheer me up midweek. Only this week has been going downhill since Monday....and its only Wednesday!

Work has been crazy, and the project I am working on has been a complete rollercoaster. I spent the first half of this week and a good part of last week trying to complete some work and get the system working. After all the fussing about, escalating issues and having a complete panic attack, I found out at 6:15pm last night that whatever I am working on, was never meant to work. Only no one told me. So the project went from "We're pulling the plug" to suddenly "We're still going ahead" in a day. However, today, we went through that cycle so many times I feel emotionally drained. The project was going in, its not going in, its going in again and now its getting pulled but it might still go in. Ontop of that, we have a bank holiday on Monday, but I need to work on the Sunday which just throws all my plans for a long weekend out the window. But the project has to go in...so I cancelled my plans to accomodate the project...if its even going in now.

I guess I could have finished the work......but I have tomorrow off. Not for a holiday......but to attend a funeral. I found out last week that one of our really close relative has passed away. She is basically considered our 3rd Grandma within our family. She looked after my dad when he moved from China to Hong Kong. And when she moved to Australia, she helped my Dad, and eventually our whole family move to Australia. She helped my Dad when we first set up the Restaurant, and she made sure that my Dad led a good life. She made him quit smoking, she made sure he never took up gambling. She ensured he was a good father to all the kids and she was like a grandmother for all of us. She had a feisty woman even at the age of 80+. She would be able to walk into any yum cha place in Chinatown and be greeted by everyone working there. She would go meet up with her old folkies, play the pokies at Star City, earn a few bucks and buy dinner for the night. She can tell what Mah Jong tile she has with a touch of her finegrs and she knows exactly what tile I need to win 5mins into a game.

She was a part of our family. Infact, I used to get shunted off the family table at weddings to make room for her whilst I sat with the kids. She was also an amazing woman and I am glad that she was a part of our lives.

What's to come for the rest of the month?

Nothing simple ever happens in my life. Just the other day I was thinking that its almost August. This time the last 2 years, I would be packing ready for a trip overseas to Turkey and Mykonos. I was proud at myself for not booking...for not spending $10K on a trip overseas. That I might actually have an incident free, calm and normal August. So today, August 1st I get a call from Moishii. He wanted to call me last night only it was really late. At first I thought it was to see how our Volleyball game went, but it was actually about his Mum. Huh?? Basically his mum was having an attack.....and at the back of my mind I was going:

"Oh my god...what now??"

I've seen his mum have an attack......its funny in a scary sort of way. Flash back to 2004, we were sitting in the Istanbul airport waiting for our flight. I was travelling from Istanbul to Singapore with Moishii and his Mum and we'll part ways there. Suddenly all the lights go off. Theres a black out and his mum starts to freak. Then she sees the plane and reckons its small (Its a bloody Boeing 747) and freaks even more. So with that in mind, I was expecting some ridiculous story..... ESPECIALLY since Moishii started his story with "Flash back to 2004....."

Him: "Flash back to 2004....."

Me: "Yeeeeeeess......?"

Him: "Remember that taxi driver that took us to the airport?"

Me: "Yeeeeeeees.....?"

Him: "He was on the news last night. He was arrested."

Me:" ".....what.....da.....fark???"

Come on, to be arrested and splashed ALL OVER the Turkish news bulletine, it must've been something big! It wouldn't have been stealing candy from a baby......more like a serial killer! Maybe he kidnapped his passengers and dismember them before throwing them into the sea. Or maybe he takes the dismembered arms and slaps people who don't tip him! MAYBE.....he drove around the streets of Istanbul hurling body parts out of the taxi window??? We're not too sure exactly what happened since Moishii's mum was having an attack screaming and yelling at the TV!

You're probably asking how they remember the taxi driver? They actually met the guy when they first visited Istanbul, and he used to drive them around, and eventually they got his private mobile number and used him as a private chauffer. They booked him to take us to the airport the day we were leaving, and he ended up ripping us off as a final farewell. Now that we think of it...he was in a really pissy mood that day.....omg...if Moishii's mum (Who could be a bit scary) wasn't there.....we could be chopped up and stuffed into barrels and shoved into the sea!!!

WHY THE HELL ARE YOU AND YOUR MUM INVOLVING ME WITH CRIMINALS??? NOT ONLY ARE YOU TRYING TO SCREW ME OVER, YOUR MUM IS TRYING TO SCREW ME OVER!! YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY IS AGAINST ME!!!

*Ahem*

Meanwhile, we lost the game last night. But we still had great fun. I finally got to slam a ball straight into Cookiez face! Hey! If everyone on the team gets to do that, its about time that it was my turn! Oh another note......I think I may have caught the Cookiez disease. Last week I ran into a door.....this week I ran into a wall. Maybe next week I'll run into the pole.....ontop of that...I copped a flying ball as well! (Only not to the face) I've also developed this horrible habit of making noises when I play...almost like women's tennis style...just not as bad. And I'm alot more creative when it comes to the type of noises. I make a "HEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYA!!!!!" when I spike......and "OooOoOOooohhhhhhhh" when I run and dig, if I serve badly, I do a "CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!"....and the highlight from last night? A ball came flying full force at me, and it was too high to dig, and too low to set, and I freaked out. So I let out this bloodchilling "ARRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" threw my arms infront of me, the ball rebounded off me somehow, went over the net and scored a point!! Woohooo!! Atleast I know my "Noises" help to distract the other team since it scared the beejeezus out of everyone...including my own team mates!!! hehehe and the most important thing is that we're all having fun. Lets hope we do better next week! SHARKBAIT!! WUHAHA!