Today we joined many others to celebrate David and Penny’s Engagement – Vietnamese style! They even had a huge lamb spit going in the backyard! David is one of Steph’s colleagues from ANZ. He proposed to Penny up in a hot-air balloon! Congratulations!
Posted by: sammerz | 19 January, 2008
David and Penny’s Engagement
Posted in Celebrations, Food, Friends, Photos
Posted by: sammerz | 16 January, 2008
13 Months!
One of the things I am still continually amazed in our relationship is how we can be both fully organised and yet fully random. Organised in that we celebrate our relationship every month (or at least we try our best to!) and random in that every time I’ve told my friends/colleagues about our monthly dates they seem quite surprised!
Well, it doesn’t matter what others say, but I believe a relationship is something worth celebrating – every day even! But we like to spoil each other every month. =)
This time our 13 Month “Anniversary” date took place at Ayame Japanese Restaurant in Malvern. This is the sister-restaurant to Glen Waverley’s Shira Nui. We also had the Omakase here. Compared with Shira Nui, Ayame’s Omakase has less varieties, but you can eat as much of it at the same price. Shira Nui charges per sushi. We can’t prefer one over the other – both are great, however we’ve favourited Shira Nui as our “celebrations spot”.
Posted in Celebrations, Food, Photos, Random
Posted by: sammerz | 13 January, 2008
Garry’s Housewarming
First post for 2008! Woo!
Today saw the celebration of Garry’s new apartment in Southbank. We missed the BBQ lunch, however we were in time for some Pictionary games and then a dinner in South Yarra.
Posted in Celebrations, Food, Friends, Photos
Posted by: sammerz | 31 December, 2007
NYE at Steph’s
Originally, we planned to have a picnic out at the Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens. We even had a spot chosen where we would be able to see the fireworks and some of the Melbourne city lights. However the day was a sweltering high-30s and being outdoors was an impossibility. So we resorted to hanging out at Steph’s for a night of food and games. Goodbye 2007, and hello 2008!
Posted by: sammerz | 29 December, 2007
Karaoke @ Red Box
A bunch of Asian young adults with nothing better to do than to sing – in tune or not!
Posted by: sammerz | 26 December, 2007
Tong Christmas Lunch 2007
The Tongs celebrated Christmas with a Yum Cha lunch at Gold Leaf Restaurant. After lunch we watched the romantic and surreal movie P.S I Love You.
Posted by: sammerz | 25 December, 2007
Leong Christmas Dinner 2007
It has, in recent years, become a family tradition to have some kind of roast for Christmas. Yes, more so an Aussie tradition, rather than an Asian one! Merry Christmas!
Posted by: sammerz | 24 December, 2007
Perth Trip 2007
SGS and a dear friend Adele travelled to Perth for the pre-Christmas weekend. Steph and I were there to attend Eugene and Leah’s wedding, and Adele was there to accompany us and to visit some of her uni friends. Being an organisational freak, I also “excelled-up” a timetable here.
On the day we arrived, we went on a cruise along the Swan River. Our destination was Fremantle, where we visited the markets and had a fresh and scrumptious seafood lunch. On the cruise back to Perth, we had some wine-tasting. That evening, we dined at Hanami Japanese Restaurant. Kings Park was the last stop for the day, and we took in the night lights of Perth CBD.
On Saturday, SGS attended the wedding and Adele spent some time in the city with her friends. What struck me as a first was that the father of the bride stood there between Eugene and Leah for an extended time – right before the exchanging of vows. I’m not sure if it’s a common practice, just thought it was rather interesting: “No, Eugene, she’s not yours yet!” Haha… In the afternoon, we met up with Adele again and relaxed by the beach at Scarborough. Then we did the most random things: kicking shoes at each other, doing Toyota jumps and high-fives. Adele also took a shot of me piggy-backing Steph, and the angle made the 20cm jump appear 2m! Okky organised a dinner with her friends from Aflame Community Church, and we were taken to Mundaring to enjoy some award-winning pizza. The winner was the Eskimo Joe dessert pizza.
Before attending the Aflame Sunday morning service, we had breakfast at Tarts Cafe, a quaint and popular spot. Aflame has about 70 members, most of which are indonesian and aged between 18-30. It was great to be in a small church for once, and one could really feel the homely, family atmosphere. The church does a lot for the community, with the Miracle Cafe program on Saturday afternoons to feed the homeless with both spiritual and physical food. Following the church happenings, we had lunch at Phi Yen, a Vietnamese Restaurant – apparently a frequent place for the “Aflamers”. In the evening, SGS attended the reception where there was food-a-plenty, in typical Chinese wedding banquet style! Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Leong! (No relation, btw!) Back in the hotel, I spotted an abandoned STOP/SLOW sign opposite the road on the sidewalk, 15 levels down. I quickly rushed out and retrieved the broken sign. Too much fun. Even Adele had fun holding the stop sign – can you guess who holds their bass guitar like that?
Monday – the final day. We drove to the north shore of the Swan River to take photos. It was a beautiful day…. unfortunately it wasn’t so for our friends and family back home as Melbourne experienced a horrid spell of storms over the weekend. Before long we had to return our rental car and we were on our way back to Melbourne, not to mention we also brought along some apple strudel from Corica Pastries.
Click the photo below for more:
Perth Trip 2007
Posted by: sammerz | 16 December, 2007
1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!
Today at 8:30am in the morning, SGS had finally turned 1!
I went to Stephberry’s house and to my surprise she had stayed up late the previous night to print out a super-sized photo-mural of one of our favourite photos!!! She also gave me a present which was a frame consisting of 5 photos, spelling out “FAITH!” In a couple of the photos Steph was looking up to me, and in another couple I was looking up to her. We’re leading each other on the faith walk God has set up for us! Our special day had only just begun…
I set up a little puzzle for my Stephberry! To prepare, in our 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 6th month celebrations (according to some, these are “milestones”), I gave her little puzzle pieces each providing an extra clue to a geographical location. Following the puzzle map, Steph made her way to “Checkpoint 1”. There I gave her a little note which said that the very place where she parked her car was where I had, a year ago, waited for her to leave our pastor’s place. This was during that “Time Alone With God” (or TAWG) period just before we became official. I was waiting for my turn to see our pastor and did not want to make eye contact, in case we drove past each other! At Checkpoint 1, we hopped out of the car (Steph was driving) and she made her way to the park according to the clues. There was only one tree that had “three trunks” and behind it was a non-descript box containing a Mumble HappyFeet toy which can dance to music. There I also gave her a little note reminding that this was our first movie together.
We next drove 1.5hrs to the Mornington Peninsula where we had brunch (scones and coffee) at Checkpoint 2: Heronswood Cafe. Shortly after, we went to the tip of the Peninsula, to London Bridge. Checkpoint 3. Here I gave Steph another note saying that it was during a beach trip where I first (and finally) found out she was interested in me. We drove all the way back to Steph’s place where we had some time to chill.
The 4th and final checkpoint for our adventurous day was dinner on board the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant (which required a 3-month advanced booking!) What an amazing day it was! The mouth-watering dinner was a great finale! I sent Steph home, hiding one more present and a note under her pillow (I had to wake her the next morning before she discovered it).
Perhaps, I’ll leave it to her if she wants to share a little more… =)
Happy one year, Stephberry!
Posted by: sammerz | 08 December, 2007
Wan Sze and Arthur’s Wedding
Wan Sze and Arthur were married by Pastor Joe Liow at the Crossway Chapel. We were involved in the organisation committee, headed by Chief Event Organiser (CEO) Pet! Steph helped out with the amazing decorations, while my part in the wedding was to lead the worship session and to tinkle on the piano during the signing of the registers. Congratulations to the great couple!
Here are some photos. I did ask someone (Fui) for some photos, but I guess he’s still busy….
Posted in Blessings, Celebrations, Friends, Photos
SGS 
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