Random Night Out...

Initial plans saw us celebrating a colleague who was soon to become a first time mum...and that she was taking a few months off for maternity leave...she may also never come back to work. Well, turns out she got admitted into hospital with pains and cramps, to which the doc prescribed bed rest under obs. in hospital. So, in the last minute we made a few phone calls. Made reservations for dinner in town and a session of karaoke. We dined at Fujiya, a Korean/Japanese Fusion Restaurant and ordered a variety of side dishes and a huge hot pot with ramen. We had time to kill after dinner as the vocal exercising session was booked at 11pm, so we roamed the streets, topped up our caffine levels and ended up in a gaming arcade "Galaxy".

Gold Coast

Sick as a dawg all weekend (Sorry Spencer and Amanda for ruining initial plans)...thought i'd tough it out come Monday and braved work plus an extra half an hour...but i got punished for it didn't i?

All hell broke loose that evening when i started burning up, eyes were straining, muscular aches all over plus sensitive nerves, ouch! So i've contained myself today....at home.

This nasty cold and flu like sickness just won't go away...and it probably stemed from last weekend's trip away.

We were trying to pack all activities and then a conference into a frame of 3 days. We did and it became an unrelaxing trip - plus having to start work Monday morning. The suitcase didn't get unpacked till 7 days later! I didn't even wanna think about laundry...eek!

Having touched down in Coolangatta Airport (parallel to the coastline) ~40 mins from Surfer's Paradise, we headed straight to the Royal Woods Villa, checked in and unloaded.

Then made our way to Warner Brother's Movie World.

Reached there at about 11.30am, so we really only spent half a day there. However we did mangaed to get on alllll the rides, and then some. First up, The Lethal Weapon Ride (our big mistake to have made this the first ride...big mistake indeed). Our feet were just dangling in the air!

Hanging outside the Scooby-Doo Ride...i think the pictures speak for themselves...

We then trekked up to the Wild Wild West part of the park

YesSs, we were soaked...

Ok, the Superman ride we left till last. We'd gwak at it every time we stood infront of it...contemplating, working up the courage to ride that thing!

Imagine 0-100km/hr in a space of 2 seconds! (from A to B). It was something like 2G force, for all you rocket scientist out there.

Boy, was it thrilling...i woulda hopped back on it again, if i had the time.

We also got on the Batman Space Shot, and that was even more impressive - 4.5G force, vertically. Though it didn't last as long as the Superman ride. That night we roamed the streets, found food for dinner, and strolled into a night market by the beach.

- Sand sculpture : a fire-breathing dragon -

- some sculpted statue by the beach -

- Throne in the middle of the street -

- Surfboard in the middle of the street -

- Lifesaver's Surfboard -

It got too cold on the last day to do any water activities...

Play! A Video Game Symphony

Gosh...this takes me back to the good old days of lazying around, no fuss, no worries, play as i'm pleased....
ahhh the good old days...I can't say that i'm a gaming freak, but i've had my fair share of ass parking on the couch for hours on end eyes glued to the TV, thinking "i'll clear just one more stage" or "just....gotta...pass...this...stage............"

The Play! symphony was fantastic..
Hypnotising me through the harmonising sounds of music from various video games. The scores, written by many talented composers, were matched with visual candies of the games themselves.

It began with tunes from The Super Mario Bros/World, and ended appropriately with Final Fantasy - One Winged Angel. Others include Sonic the HedgeHog, Halo, Silent Hill, Kingdom of Hearts 1 & 2, Warcraft, Legend of Zelda and Chrono Cross and Trigger to name a few.
Fully enjoyed it even though i have never played some of the games...at those times i would sit and tentatively listen and try to pick out what instrument was making a particular sound.

Makes me wanna bring back the old gaming consoles and indulge till i get eye sores.

Cure For A Twitch?

Has anyone got a cure for twitching?

And i don't mean conscious twitching...i mean the sleeping kind, the unconscious or the sub-conscious type.

Seems i've been poked and proded and woken up from deep sleep by Fang's twitching every now and then. And it only happens when he's fallen asleep. When he twitches, that's when i know he's completely zonked out. (Sorry to bag on you, hun)

The previous night...i was elbow-jabed in the ribs....not once, not twice but three times...
He was in such a deep sleep that he didn't hear me complain the first time (i sort of pushed him to wake him up and told him that he was hitting me - though i didn't notice that he hadn't woken up). Same thing the second time. (i thought i was a little louder)
But the third time, that was it...i woke him up real good...ahaha
Think i shocked him into waking up. He did the usual head shake thing...looked left and looked right and then left again - muttering "what's going on? what's going on?"
He said the morning after, all he heard was "you're hitting me, stop it!" Didn't know what that was all about, so went straight back to sleep. Typical

Anyways, so how 'bout that cure eh? Anyone?

i Said...!

Preparation for a lumbar spine and pelvic x-rays are as follows...

Me: I'll get you to pop into this change room and get changed.

Patient: Yep, ok

Me: I need you to change out of your top and your bra as well as your pants, but leave your underpants on. Then put a blue gown on (refer to blog "..hospital gowns for dummies 101").

Patient: Er...i don't think so. (As if to say "i don't want to, make me" with a look of disgust). Aren't i only having my hips x-rayed?

Me: (Well you tell me...! You don't think so? What the hell do you know? Maybe you should find out what examination you're having done (or what YOUR Doctor has requested) before coming in, at least!)

Your Doctor has requested a lumbar spine and pelvis x-ray. I'm betting money on the fact that you are wearing an underwire bra (METAL) and that bra has a METAL clip on the back. The jacket that you are wearing clearly has a METAL zip in the front and the pants that you've got on has a METAL zip and a METALlic buckle. So, yes i do think that you need to change out of your clothes.

(Unless you want to be x-rayed in your clothes, thats fine by me. You'll only get sent back again for more diagnostic x-rays - and i don't mind...it's not my eggs getting cooked. Inhale and exhale i say to myself. I should shutup before i give her a reason to bitch about me.)

Patient: .......... She gets changed

Me: Yea! Zip it bitch.

The Ultimate Relaxation

This Spa day was originally intended for my birthday...but seeing as we couldnt get a spot on the first of May, the next available was the nineth of June...I can see why its so popular

Located inside the Oberservatory Hotel in Sydney, this stylish pad has an english feel to it. Very old school luxury. But the Spa treatment level has a slightly different feel. Basically like a modern day spa retreat/resort.

We were informed of where the sauna/steam room/showers/spa/pool was and got given fluffy towels and robes. We were instructed to be in the waiting lounge 5 minutes before our treatment appointments...which meant we had some time to kill as our appointments were at 12.30 and we arrived at 11am.

Without wasting any more time, we quickly got changed....

and was greeted with......

The indoor pool is heated with a little spa on the right hand side.

Ayurvdedic Shirodhara was the name of my body treatment. Its a traditional Indian treatment which starts off with a body massage (absolutely incredible) from feet up to shoulders and neck. Then a treatment with a steady stream of warm black sesame seed oil trickles on the forehead. Was a foreign feeling at first, as i've never had such treatment on the forehead but was so relaxing. This technique is meant to open the third eye and expand the consciousness... Don't know about being more conscious afterwards, but i definately fell asleep during it. For some reason, a day at the spa always seem to make you go really hungry, even though you'd do nothing but soak and soak and soak. Maybe its the running in and out of the spas...and now come to think of it, it could be from lounging in the steam and sauna room. We had a Japanese feast at the Tomodachi restaurant in Broadway to fix that problem - and it was fixed in no time. :)

Soft Shell Crab Sushi

Result: safe to say that we were pretty satisfied

Licence Hassles and Dramas

Gosh this was such a trying task to do. So, my Western Australian driver's licence was about to expire...i had only a wk left. In WA, we were all able to renew our drivers licence at any post office branch, ya? Here i was, a dumb fool, thinking that all states are the same - so i could just pop in to a branch and renew it... I rocked up at a post office near my work place one lunch time and found out otherwise. "No, no. You gotta renew it at RTA (NSW's motor registry). You can't do it here..." So that day i did some asking around to see if there's an RTA near where i work..surely enough there was and it was within walking distance. A colleague at work said he happens to know a guy working at RTA and he rang up to explain my situation, that is, i needed to renew my WA licence or to obtain a NSW licence - he didnt mention anything about proof of residency etc. So the next day i managed to find my way to RTA, ripped the ticket off the ticket machine and sat and waited and waited...and waited...(this lunch over time was coming off my work hours' pay) Finally my number was called. i walked up to the counter and was met with disappointment. "No, i can't do it for you. I need to sight this and that and this...and you need to fill out this..." Allllrrriiiggghhtttyy then... i asked "Are you guys open on the weekends?" "oh yes, on saturdays and only till 12 noon" "thats's fantastic..." So basically i wasted my lunch time and then some... i planned to fill out everything and provide all the necessary documents as proof and then return on saturday - but this time to the city branch as its closer to home. Come saturday, i was kicking and pushing Fang to roll him out of bed at 9.30am...he lurvess his sleep in's too...it had to be early as we had a meeting with the home loan lender at 11am. So we drove into town and found a parking right infront of RTA...yay! (paid for it too) only to discover that it was closed. "Open Monday to Friday 9am-4pm" it says. D'oh...ok, no sweat...fine, next saturday we will drive down to a suburban RTA branch... On Tuesday i called in sick...i was sick...i really was, but then i thought "hey i got this one day off...i've got to go renew that damn licence..." So i rugged up in my warmest clothes and strolled into town. I was there early in the morning...to beat the lunch time rush. Armed with my documents and watever else...i took a ticket and sat down. Not 5 mins into sitting down (the seat didnt even get a chance to warm up!) the fire alarm sounded! Just my luck Ok, nobody stood up...for about 10 mins..so i continued sitting thinking that it cant be that bad....no one has left yet... Then the thick smell of smoke started to fill the room....this was when the office workers started shooing everyone out! We were all ushered across the road to safety. That's when we could see smoke pouring out from the adjacent train station Wynyard. Hmm, this looks bad i thought to myself. i waited for a bit, hoping that it wasnt that big of a deal and that it would be safe to go back in...but smoke keep pouring out and more and more Big Reds pulled up..and ambulances. I must have waited around for an hour and a half before calling Fang to meet him for lunch. By this stage i was thinking...why is life making it so hard for me to get a damn license?? In the end, i did get my licence renewed...i am now officially a legal NSW driver (not that i am driving - but its the only photo ID i've got in my wallet)...and i've got the mugshot to prove it :p