Posted by: sammerz | 30 November, 2007

Christmas Parties

This afternoon I followed Steph to an ANZ family-day out at the Melbourne Zoo.  The organisers erected a massive marquee and even had a merry-go-round set up for the kids!  It was a hot afternoon, and we spent the better part of it strolling through the zoo.  I believe this was my 2nd time to the Zoo, the 1st being when I was too young to remember…

In the evening we went to the Aker Kvaerner Dinner Dance, which was located in a warehouse/industrial district (Flemington).  However the interior was decked out with Phantom of the Opera-esque theme and at the entrance a lady with an oversized dress handed out masquerade masks for the guests.  The food was rather appalling, I must admit I have no idea why I bothered taking food shots, however the dessert was really good.   I also introduced Steph to the Managing Director who was a pretty down-to-earth and good-natured fellow.

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Posted in Events, Food, Friends, Photos

Posted by: sammerz | 25 November, 2007

Corporate Games 2007

Both of us were involved in Badminton for the Annual Corporate Games.  I organised three groups of doubles for Aker Kvaerner and we played on Saturday.  Unfortunately, Eugene and I (“The Leongs”) came 2nd in the round-robin stage and did not progress any further.  On Sunday, Steph played in the singles matches and managed to overcome an older-aged Chinese lady in the round-robin stage (losing the first set and winning the next two).  She went on to win a silver, losing only to a national-level badminton player.  Congratulations on the great effort, my dear!

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Posted in Events, Photos

Posted by: sammerz | 13 November, 2007

11 Months!

It will be our 11 months this Friday, but because Steph’s Dad is visiting for just over a week, we had our date tonight. She took me to Colombo’s – a restaurant near her house and is similar to Sofia’s. The spaghetti marinara and the pizza were pretty tasty! Also, CityLife Church is doing a 14-day prayer…one of the prayers was for God to bring opportunities to share about Him. Steph talked about how she was praying with her Mum in the car this morning, and at the Tong family dinner on Saturday evening we had the privilege of sharing our thoughts about eternity with Justin her bro. Indeed, God is bringing opportunities.

I can’t seem to comprehend how much I’ve grown to love Stephberry; everyday, more and more. She is so, so sweet! =)

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Growing

Posted by: sammerz | 11 November, 2007

“Model Couples?”

In the afternoon, Epic and Oxygen had their final combined “Leadership Community” meeting for the year. Most of this meeting was taken up by testimonials, where people took the microphone and thanked God for His work in people’s lives. Many leaders were also honoured, and when Ken Yi shared a testimony, he also honoured Steph and I as “model couples.” I praise God that our relationship can be a blessing to others, but it is an encouragement to press on and to stay focused on God, because I know that our relationship is far from perfect. Only with God will it be perfect. That is our journey… to pursue God.

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Posted in Blessings, Friends, Growing

Posted by: sammerz | 06 November, 2007

Melbourne Cup Day 2007

Melbourne Cup Day – a public holiday. Eggs and I joined Steph’s family to visit her 3rd uncle (Denis) at the St Vincent’s Private Hospital. He had had his thyroid gland removed yesterday and will stay one more night to take some tests.

Eddie, James, Aaron, Justin, Eggz, Steph and I went for a round of mini-golf. With 7 of us, it took us about 1.5 hours to complete the 18holes. I somehow managed to finish with 58 strokes off a par of 56. Some memorable moments was when, at TWO holes, Justin scored a hole-in-one. During each time, his ball narrowly missed the hole, only to bounce back from a wall and then finally sink. Also, Stephberry somehow completed one of the holes in 2 strokes while others took at least four. Her ball jumped off course, bounced off some rocks and walls, and landed a mere 2 feet from the hole. This mini-golf was located near my place in Chirnside Park and the course we did was all indoors. It had two storeys, so there were holes where the ball was sucked up by pump and travelled along rails and wall-cavities. Even the last hole had a smart retrieval system where the ball was sucked through a vacuum and simply taken back to the kiosk some 10m away and dumped into a basket.

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Posted in Events, Family, Friends

Posted by: sammerz | 28 October, 2007

3rd Celebration for Stephberry

At 5:30pm, we attended the 3 session of LifeTrax this term. The topic was Passionate Marriage. The other course running concurrently was for singles. Ben convinced us to attend the marriage one, so we found ourselves amongst a sea of married and engaged couples. Nice!

Following LifeTrax, we quickly rushed home to her place (picking up Peter Luu along the way) where we had prepared a hotpot meal. Half an hour later and the place was filled with some 20 guests. Celebration #3 – happy birth-week, Stephberry TongTong!

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Friends, Photos

Posted by: sammerz | 27 October, 2007

Quadruple Birthdays!

In the evening we drove to the city for yet another Stephberry birthday celebration. However this time, it was a joint celebration including 3 of her colleagues who also shared the same birthday. It was a night of Karaoke, which lasted till 3am in the morning! Being the start of daylight saving, this time then turned out to be 4am!

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Posted in Celebrations, Friends, Photos

Posted by: sammerz | 26 October, 2007

Stephberry’s 24th!

At 11:00am today I get a phone call from Stephberry. When I asked, “How’s my dear?”, she responded with a “Very sad.” I asked, “Why?”, and she replied, “Because my BB is not in the flowers!” A week ago, I had ordered the flowers to be sent to her office – she had been bugging me all week to reveal to her what my present was!

Evening time and when I got to Stephberry’s house I gave her the actual present: a Swarovski bear holding a heart. “Like Ah Boo”, I said. (Boo’s this polar-bear soft toy that hangs around at home.) She’s happy. =) She also got quite a few presents, including a 24″ iMac from her parents (so cool!) as well as a Stitch wristband from Betsy in Hong Kong. After taking some snaps, we went to Orita’s, a Japanese restaurant in Toorak that was recommended by one of Steph’s colleagues. Steph’s family, her grandparents and my brother (8 in all) came along to celebrate. The meal was pretty good – we opted for the 7-course signature banquet. Interesting things in the set course was a tiny shot-glass of corn (prepared by melting actual corn for “a day and a half”) as well as 2 juicy pieces of herb-oil-injected tomatoes (left to mature for 3 days!) The service was fantastic, the hostess also placed the cake we brought along into a large dish, complete with extra chocolate decorations and a sparkling candle. The only lowlight: my camera died at the start of the meal – so no food shots! Aiya!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Photos, Surprises

Posted by: sammerz | 20 October, 2007

10 Months!

It was a beautiful Saturday and my dear Stephberry organised a belated 10 Months celebration.  We spent the day in Daylesford’s picturesque landscapes.  We also dined at a restaurant which was embraced by a lavender field in its early stages of blooming.

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Photos, Trips

Posted by: sammerz | 13 October, 2007

Prophetic Gathering – Part 2

This morning was another Prophetic Gathering session and I was helping out with recording. At the same time, I was also in this particular session to listen to Tiff’s prophecy. Steph was also in church for the day, but she was in another room listening to Ken Yi’s prophecy. Apparently he was 2nd to be called up, so Steph came to my room to help place stickers to the CDs and to listen to Stephen Yap’s prophecy. The amazing thing was that Steph and I were given an impromptu prophecy by Christie Buckingham (wife of Rob Buckingham – together pastoring Bayside Church).

CLC Prophetic Gathering Transcription – Part 2

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Posted in Growing, Prayer

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