Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year!

Hi Chia!

Welcome to the year 2013!

Can you believe how fast time as flown by? We started this blog in 2011 and we are still blogging!

I still love your Europe Christmas photos! It really does look magical, and it reminds me that I too want to experience a White Christmas one day.

I never knew that Christmas wasn't such a big thing for you. That was a bit of surprise given that you make such lovely Christmas gifts such as your Christmas Muesli!

For me, Christmas has always been a big thing. I didn't realise how much I loved Christmas until I was away from my family when I was studying in China in 2007. China of all places, did not celebrate Christmas and it felt quite lonely for me even though I had such wonderful friends who had opened their hearts and home to share their Christmas dinner and merry cheer with me.

I usually get so excited about thinking of what presents to get people and wrapping them up to put them under our Christmas tree. I then get all excited about what I will be cooking for the day.  However, this year,   I've been a little distracted with things, especially with me and my family and Kev going to Bali for Christmas.  We didn't have gifts this year, but we did spend a lot of time with each other, which was nice.

Christmas in Bali

Group shot of Me, Kev, and Scott with Dad and Mom in the back on the plane to Bali

In Bali, I was able to practice my Bahasa Indonesia. I didn't realise how much I had remembered over the years and it was a lot of fun speaking to taxi drivers and bar men. The Balinese are so lovely, and so willing to help you learn Bahasa Indonesia. It was such a refreshing experience compared to other countries where some people do not seem to have the patience to allow you to learn their language.

We all had a low key time in Bali. Just ate, slept, walked around Kuta, swam in the pool and got lots of massages. Kev and I vowed to get a massage a day, which we achieved.  Here are some pics of our time in Bali:


Walking on the beach, we tried to avoid stepping on these guys. This one bumped into Kev's toe.

The boys fooling around.

LOL at Scott's face



So Asian


Rainbow ship sailing into the clouds. I loved this kite! I wanted to bring it back, but it was made of untreated wood =(


Family dinner on Christmas Eve

Rock Bar @ Ayana on Christmas Day

At Rock Bar

Enjoying the Sunset

So magical!

Came out of the toilets to find Kev here.



Kev running away from the Tsunami




I love the patterns and colours on the Batik!



Besides walking around, eating and resting, Kev and I also went diving at Padang Bay.

Diving was awesome, and unfortunately I didn't get any photos that day as we went down to 24 metres, which was too deep for my underwater camera. When we looked at the recreational dive planner, we realised that we actually dived outside the recreational limits, which would explain why we felt exhausted afterwards.

Despite that, it was such an awesome dive. We didn't see any turtles, but we saw moray eels (one was yellow and the other was brown), we saw stingrays, octopi (both were hiding in the rocks) and the coolest thing ever; a cuttlefish.

Seeing cuttlefish in person was so unreal! Especially because Kev and I had watched a documentary on them a few weeks prior! It was swimming away initially, but then it saw that Kev and I were watching it so it stopped to have a look at us. It was changing colours; this blue and white. However, as Kev and I got closer, and a yellow and brown fish swam next to it, it dramatically changed into a yellow and brown colour and started raising its tentacles and started swimming towards us. This was quite scary for me, because from the documentary, I knew that this meant that the cuttlefish was feeling threatened and wanted to scare us off. So I swam to the side but Kev stayed put and I watched in intrigue and in fear of what that cuttlefish may do to Kev. However, as it approached Kev, the colours of the cuttlefish reduced in intensity and it swam past Kev onto the reef. We then left it alone and continued exploring. I wish I had a video to share, but I don't. Instead, I'll share with you a video from YouTube. It looked exactly like this!



New Year's Eve

We all returned back to Perth on the 30th which gave us a day to recover before New Year's Eve celebrations. Little did we know how hot Perth was! Admittedly, I wasn't feeling 100% from Bali, let alone felt up to wearing a nice dress out in 40 degree heat. But, eventually I got myself into the mood for the celebrations.

We ended up going to Lost Society on Hay Street for their New Year's Eve 'Sex and the City' function.  Here's some pics from the night.


Group Pic from early in the night
Ann and I

Shaz and I


Having a great night out. LOL at Joyce's face.

Kev and I being very squinty. LOL at Shaz and Chinny's photobomb,

With this event, the theme was 'Hits from the 90s'. However, the music was very contemporary and the 90s music only started playing after the count down! It didn't matter anyways, because we all were having a great time. The only downer was that it was difficult to order a drink. But with cocktails at $10, I guess that was the reason!

Anywho. That didn't spoil our night. Kev and I partied on and hung around a little after the count down but were in bed by 1.30am as we were tired and hot.

New Year's Resolutions

2013 I know will be better! I've been thinking of resolutions, but realised that I am working on resolutions all the time.  However, for this post these are the things I hope to achieve this year:

1. Better posture (this is an ongoing one);
2. Travel;
3. Learning to listen to myself (and understand what I want) as opposed to external expectations and opinions;
4. Sleep more; and
5. To be truly happy.

What are your New Year's Resolutions?




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