C'est LA viE

Happy Chinese New Year everyone, Gong xi fatt chai!!

Here are some updates about my CNY activities during the past few days...

To me, CNY mean a lot to me, not because i am able to get a lot of red packet (ang pao), but because I love the celebration with meeting relatives, frens and also able to renew stuffs: ie clothes, shoes, some new items at home...haha, in summary: SHOPPING!

LOL.

Well of cz not because of just shopping, but i do enjoy the concept by renewing yr belongings as well as your mood for the new year.

I could miss out the 1st January New Year day celebration, but I definitely would not be happy if I was not able to share the joyful moment with my beloved family and fren during lunar new year.

So what happened during the past few days was mainly visiting relatives and catching up with frens which was not much different as compared with past few years.

To summarize, we had a good family reunion dinner on CNY eve. My family have this culture of having special add-ons for reunion dinner, I remembered we always ordered 'Ayamas' many years ago. Then, the roasted chicken was substituted with a local restaurant's roasted duck along with roasted pork during these few years.

This year, we had roasted duck and pork as well, but they were really tasteless and badly roasted. I guess the chef must be paying more attention to the quantity rather than quality because he actually took the wrong order for us. Apparently my brother ordered for 'char siu' (marinated BBQ pork) rather than roasted pork. The chef explained he was busy with the number of orders he took prior to CNY.

I suggested we should continue our old yearly routine, stick with Ayamas! =) (because i really like ayamas lol)

First day of CNY was very joyful with visiting relatives' house, and my aunt and cousins also paid us a visit all the way from PJ. We finally had ayamas with my aunt and cousins during dinner. Ayamas still very tasty hehe =)

We neither visited someone nor got visited on the following CNY holidays after the first day. However, I did have my high school reunion at a restaurant.

There were 31 of us, and we occupied 3 big tables in the restaurant. The meal was ordinary, nothing special, but indeed very expensive. I guess nothing is cheap during CNY....

I got to catch up with many frens who had long time no see, i even couldnt recognized some familiar faces who looked like strangers to me.

Basically I dint really have chance to talk to every single person in the reunion, we did continue our gathering at a fren's house but there were still like 15 of us. I felt sorry to the parents who is so generous to give eveyone of us a red packet. =P

Then, my brother brought a special person to us during CNY too! We had been waiting for long, alright perhaps just me. Well, I knew that he had a girl fren since last year because he wasnt hiding his lover anyways. However, this girl still stay as a mysterious women to us because none of us saw the girl (even photos) at all!

So, she came to have dinner with us and i must admit that she is quite pretty. Now I just found out, just like other males, my brother also love slimmy and fair girl with long silky hair....hmmm....

Should I be that way in order to get a boyfren, nah, I like the way I am, yes I am stubborn and I believe I will meet a guy who love the way i am! =)

By the way, it was a good dinner with her, and she seems polite and kind.

Oh she bought us souvenier too:

apparently this is a Johor famous branded chinese jerky (bakkwa) but this is a healthy one. Different from original bakkwa, it contained almond pieces and it was roasted by my bro's gf so it is less oily and not over-roasted. Mum kept on emphasized that she never eat bakkwa for long time but she ate this special version. Well, I still prefer the original crispy and meaty bakkwa <3

She also bought this Japanese mochi for us, lovely =) LOL just because I am so obsessed with Japanese stuffs.

I do like the soft and chewy texture of this mochi, but i dont like the filling because it was too sweet. One of the flavour even tasted like chemicals =S

But i appreciated her present after all. =)

I also met up with huey yee at One Utama. My family joined me for lunch then I met huey yee after lunch while my family continued their shopping at One U.

We picked Japanese cuisine - Dontaku for lunch, I could tell my dad really loving Japanese meals nw! Yeah!

I had this soba and tempura set which come with sushi and temaki. It was considered luxurious to me for the price which cost RM22.

Dad had salmon teppanyaki again, because he usually ordered this dish everytime we had japanese meal. He actually very against salmon initially because he always complained salmon is tasteless unless u cooked it very well. That's why he dont appreciate sashimi at all. Well, but he was impressed after I recommended him to try out salmon teppanyaki. Since then, he just sticked with salmon teppanyaki all time =)

Bro had ramen and a tiny don set while mum had teriyaki chicken set.

In general, the price is quite reasonable with the generous portion sizes of the meal. Though the taste not considered very great but it still have the standard and I did enjoy their pleasant dining environment and friendly services.

However, I do think having japanese set lunch/dinner is an expensive dining option to people in Malaysia because u had to spend at least RM20 including the 16% taxes. I dont see how the implementation of GST next year could lower our burden on spending for a simple japanese meal.=S

I met up with huey yee at Delicious cafe for afternoon tea. I was stuffed with filling japanese lunch otherwise I will go for the high tea!

We shared a strawberry cheese cake, and both of us had the ice blened. Mine was frosty lemon grass and longan. =)

The cheese cake was not bad, quite rich and not too sweet. Huey yee was saying the cafe served nice spaghetti as well. I guess i will visit next time for brunch after I got paid because generally the cost of the meal/dessert was pricy though I accidentally heard ppl at next table saying the price was reasonable. =S Now I knew how bankruptcy rate of teenagers bloated nowadays.

Then today, I just come back from my second high school reunion. Well, it was organized for some people who couldnt present at the first reunion few days ago and most of them are close frens to me.

We had our lunch at a japanese restaurant at Bkt Tinggi, and there were 12 of us.

Food was quite good, and again, with generous portion size! =) No needs to mention how pricy is Japanese cuisine in Malaysia but the joyful time I spent with them was worth while.

Initially some of us planned to go for a movie after lunch, guess what? The air conditioner system of the cinema was completely down! So we got our refund and ended up continued chit-chatting at Secret Recipe.

I really enjoyed meeting up with different people and exchanging our happy or sad stories together. Communication and people-interaction absolutely is an important element in life.

I am grateful I have such a good bunch of awesome frens around me, let's move forward in 2014 and enjoy the happiness and joyful moments in life!

Last day in GC was very relaxing, basically we just spared our time at the Pacific fair shopping mall during day time.

Look how my bro was enjoying his coffee at the mall....

Then we went to the Gold Coast beach for the last time in the evening =)

Dad was walking bare foot for the first time on GC beach, he dint really go to the beach since he arrived GC.

All of us were enjoying our time on the beautiful sandy beach

You could tell how excited we were, because the wave was very strong, and the water for sure was very chilling, and weather was windy too.

It could be dangerous if small kid went to swim without surveillance.

Mum was our photographer all time!

Look what we found ! A small crab ~

As we thought the wave was very strong to swim, there were a group of old guy went for kayaking!

We did have a good time at the beach, we spent almost 2 hrs there.

Dinning option was picked by dad at the GC Coolangatta surfs club restaurant, apparently it is opened to public. More convenient was it is just located right opposite our hotel.

Well, we had to join as temporary member which only last for a day, but no member fees was charged lol.

Apparently they served a variety of menu, and we could tell the food supposed to be good as the restaurant was crowded and the portion size was amazingly huge with its considerable price.

All of us ordered for different meal, I guess we were very happy with the last supper celebrated with this big feast in western style.

Dad ordered T-bone steak, very huge portion size!

It was cooked in medium rare, so the steak was succulent and juicy, yummy!

Bro changed his mind, he dint order steak this time but called for fish of the day

I dont understand why this fish is popular then, it was not very nice.

My cousin ordered rump steak which was medium cooked.

Though it was not as juicy as my dad's medium rare cooked t-bone, but the taste was very good as well.

Mum sticked with fish again, she ordered tasmanian salmon with asparagus.

Just as what I thought, the salmon fillet was overcooked. The taste was mild, the only thing i liked on the plate was the mashed peas.

For myself, I chose lamb fillet this time:

There were nearly 6 big pieces of small fillet, very tender and chewy. Yummy was the summary. =)

We were greatly satisfied with our meal, and had some photos in the restaurant.

Cow indeed is a huge animal!

Dad and mum were having fun playing Elvis and Marilyn...Lol...

It was a fun night!

GC trip come to the sixth day, we went to Brisbane!

It is very convenient to visit Brisbane from GC,  just one hour train trip then u can travel from a beach paradise to a busy big city.

The train itself was very clean and long =)

We arrived Brisbane around 12pm...and the central train station just located at the CBD centre, from the station we were able to access the shopping malls, and main streets etc.

Christmas decorations were spotted almost everywhere, we could feel the xmas atmosphere was stronger than in GC.

We dint really explore the city of Brisbane because it was so hot and humid!

The only historic building I saw is this:

May I send a postcard to Santa and ask for a big present? hehe =P

Well, lunch time then:

we went to this Jojo's kitchen located on 2nd floor of a shop along main street and have steak:

Dad was saying his frens recommended him to try out Aussie steak, so we actually were looking at all the displayed menus around to find a good deal.

We had this sirloin steak at Jojo's, as the price was reasonable though i think the steak was just normal.

Mum skipped steak again and ordered fish n chips, but her meal was very late served and I was telling the restaurant manager about that during check-out

He was very nice, he apologized for the bad service and offered us 20% discount of total bill.

We were actually very surprised, well it is actually very normal and a must-do thing to keep good reputation. I also used to getting such good services in NZ, just I had left NZ for half a year so had been no longer being treated nicely. This only could be considered as good service!

We dint do much thing in Brisbane, just window shopping and stayed indoor most of time.

Oh we did go to the market nearby, and bought some fruits.

Look what I found, apparently the banana was waxed in red color at its tip, and from yahoo answer, it is a mark to be classified as Pacific Coast Eco bananas (an Australian family owned banana farmers)...

Anyways, dinner on day 6 was back to the Japanese restaurant again, haha u really could tell how passion we were into that restaurant.

I had fresh salmon toro (fat belly) on rice....hmmm I prefer salmon fillet more =) (The toro was very mashy, though it was good when combined with wasabi, marinated ginger and japanese soy sauce)

Yes shopping is the must-do activity during travel, and the local shopping mall is the destination not to be missed!

We went to GC Harbour town on day 5, for those who familiar with Aussie knew that Harbour town is a shopping outlet centre gathered all favourite and well-known shops which selling the out-seasoned items or sales items.

All of us got our gadgets today, I got myself a Fossil branded watch and bag hehe =) Here's come my shoppaholic nature =P

While others got their wallet, their shirts, their foot wears, their swim suits....etc.

Lunch was inside the Harbour Town shopping centre too, we got this lunch special at "Fasta Pasta" (yea, we really cheap and sticked with special all time) at an Italian restaurant.

The special lunch family combo comes with 1 garlic bread:

2 pizzas (own chosen flavors):

We chose rimini pizza (something like Hawaiian pizza, with virginia ham, pineapple, tomato sauce and mozarella cheese) and cacciatore pizza (marinated chicken, sliced mushroom, onion, capsicum, tomato sauce and mozarrella cheese)

and 2 spagettis/pastas (with own chosen flavours):

we picked spaghetti bolognese (u can tell from the photo, it's sucks! =( )

and another pasta we went for fettucicne carbonara, I could cook better than the chef....=S their spaghetti are generally very bad, or perhaps the chef or us were having a bad day then.

My cousin was worried that we had eaten less vege, so she side ordered this:

a caesar salad which cost AUD14! U are kidding, there's not much bacon or vege in it!

For dinner, we back to the Japanese cuisine we had on day 2 after we had a disgusting meal at a thai cafe in previous night.

Dad seems to fall in love with Japanese meal! He kept on thumbed up with the japanese short grain rice and the crispy karaagae chicken.

He ordered the same meal again =D

(I agreed with him, the karaagae was good, and the number of karaagae given was really generous!

As for me, I finally got to try out the ramen I missed out on day 2 because it was all sold out.

their ramen was not too bad, but i still prefer the ramen I tried in Sydney, yes babe =)

GC trip comes to day 4 - in Warner's Brother Movie World!

We actually bought a theme parks combo ticket which can access 3 theme parks with AUD99 dollars, the first theme park we accessed was at SeaWorld which I reblogged few days ago (see here)

The only theme park we left out during this Aussie trip was Wet N Wild because none of us can swim =S LOL

Back to Movie World, the theme park isnt that big that I thought, but I do like how they designed the theme park.

We were welcomed by a lot of movie characters around:

They will suddenly appeared right beside you as well, and apparently if u wanna take photo with them (all characters come together), you have to pay 20 AUD tho.

Unless u rather just take photo with one or 2 characters standing beside the street and willing to line up.

There were not many shows in the movie world, mainly we watched the car stunt show:

The FMX overdrive (freestyle motorbike stunt show):

Batman Show - this was the worst show ever, I thought it must be cool as all of us knew how great the Night rider is, but it was not hold in a theater, it was hold at the main street in the park. All of us have to stand beside the border and it was so hard to watch the show as there were two tall European standing right in front of me.

The only scene i watched was the arrival of the batman car ==

While Batman only appeared less than 10mins, I totally couldnt see anything!

Perhaps this was the clearest photo of batman which I had taken......

The whole show perhaps last only 10mins the longest, and showed late!

We even stood for the lousy scooby doo show just to wait for the batman show =S

I really dunno what they were acting....and the costum was not good either.

Alright I seems to whin too much, may be I had been expecting too much.

At least I enjoyed the decorations in the park such as the main street:

Oh ya, we also watched the Ice Age 4D show in the theater!

This special xmas show last about 15mins and it was very funny and joyful. =)

Our lunch at Movie World was also worth to mention, we had burgers at Gotham city.

You were right, is the batman city! We come to a small batman world....

The lunch was alright, but it was better as compared with the tiny Domino's pizza at SeaWorld.

I also loved the time we spent at the looney tune world where is the children's paradise....

All the rides here are customized with looney tune cartoon characters~

Ooh so cute!

Took so many photos at here:

Haha, "bugstop" =P

Too bad none of us are adventourous or thrill lover, it was indeed a waste to come all the way here but not playing any rides.

Well, I admitted I am chicken and I do felt comfortable by not riding any of them..

There is one Wild West Fall adventure ride at the Wild West Area, the area is designed as the wild wild west movie set.

I dint take the photo of the ride itself, but caught this special tool:

As the ride is a water roller coaster, WET is unavoidable....so u can pay 5 AUD to get yrself dry! such an amazing making money way~

Oh that is also a small graveyard at the wild west zone named 'Boot Hill'

Alright check out other rides then u knew how chicken I was:

The Green Lantern Coaster:

Superman escape (roller coaster):

Batwing Spaceshot:

We are happy with just taking photo with the batcar:

Then, thrilled roller coaster at Arkham Asylum, it was also first featured in the world:

Lastly, the scooby doo ride, I nearly went for the ride, but u knew I am a chicken afterall....

In summary what I enjoyed the most in movie world? Ice Age 4...LOL