Sunday, September 24, 2006

I'M BACK!!! from the road trip that is. it was so fun and it was very tiring, and i think if i tell you about it, my words arent gonna do enough justice so i'm using the help of pictures to illustrate my wonderful two days in the countryside.

so we started off at 7am in the morning, driving up to daylesford to have breakfast at this restaurant which has "2 hats" according to THE AGE GOOD FOOD GUIDE 2007. like 3 hats is the maximum you can get, so this is pretty good plus it was voted country restaurant of the year. of cos having lunch or dinner there would have burnt a huge crevice in our pockets, but breakfast was somewhat affordable.

the first one is my ham and cheese omelette which doesnt look fantastic but trust me had the best texture i've ever eaten in an omelette. dan and weian had the eggs benedict on the left, which put me off cos of the spinach haha but was pretty awesome too.

the pretty damn nice view from the lake house! so after a warm and satisfying breakfast, we got on the road again. we then drove to this funny place which was like a natural springs sorta area. and then, we decided to walk this trail, which seemed fun enough but let me tell you it was no joke!!! the whole trail last at least two hours, just walking up and down in a freaking forest!! haha in retrospect it was an experience but when i was actually there i wanted to die. it looked never-ending! we were damn scared by the time we came out of the forest we'd realised that 50 years had passed.

it was damn tiring i had to use a walking stick, but it was ok cos i looked like yoda which was pretty cool. so eventually we made it to a pool which looked like a natural spring so like, if we had dared to drink the water there i'm sure it would have been fine. but nonetheless we didnt try.

after that, we went to see a waterfall which wasnt as good as the previous one when we went great ocean road but this was still damn nice!

after that, we went to what was undoubtedly the highlight of the trip! HANGING ROCK! its this supposed tourist attraction that involves many rock formations in rather gravity-defying positions. we had damn alot of fun, it was like NINJA TURTLES!

after this, we finally made our way to our accomodation for a lil r&r. which involved table tennis and swimming! hur hur damn fun la!

after that, we went for dinner at the bistro which was followed by a 6 pack of corona, a bottle of sparkling and sydney-fremantle preliminary final. after that, it was a much needed sleep.

planned to wake up early to swim again and maybe tennis but we woke up one hour before checkout time so that went out the window. we didnt do much really, went straight to this cafe/restauran, annie smithers' bistrot, which had ONE HAT! the food was super duper good, i had a duck and lentil soup, and we had scallops, and then me and weian had different lambs for main while dan had garlic mussels. lastly, weian and me shared a bread and butter pudding for dessert while dan had an omelette souffle which was really damn interesting. i'll let the pictures do the talking/drooling.

all this food bringing back mouthwatering memories haha. hope you enjoyed the show, gabriel out!

~~lights off, pyjamas on~~
2:38 PM

Thursday, September 21, 2006

i am very upset. that guy in the middle is spider everitt, and he plays ruck for hawthorn. he is a footballer i quite like, due to his ability as well as his very nice personality. he stands at 203cm and weigh 103 lbs.

i am very upset because today, while my darling nicole was waiting for her flight to sydney, she saw spider at the airport too. i definitely believe her because she watches footy with me and is perfectly capable of recognising him. moreover, he is unmistakable, with his height and tattoos. and my dear girlfriend wanted to take a photo with him for me but guess what. she was SHY!! aargh!!! it would have been a damn cool photo la, potential primary photo for friendster. if i was there, i would have almost immediately ran to him for a photograph. cause believe me, he is bloody tall.

preparing for road trip tomorrow, had garlic prawn pasta for dinner just now, i thought it wasnt that great but dan said it was nice so thats alrite i guess. gotta go now, gabriel out!

ps. aargh she didnt take a photo with him. i must emphasize how tall he is. look at him compared to the physio.

~~lights off, pyjamas on~~
9:13 PM

recent times have seen exciting prospects as we are planning a ROAD TRIP!! it's not the first but i'm still freaking excited bcos the last one to great ocean road was super duper fun. altho sant won't be with us this time because he is in fact a working man now haha, but with weian and all it should be great.

we're planning to go to daylesford which is like so-called "spa country"! which might be abit gay if the jacuzzis are littered with rose petals and all but hopefully not haha. and then we might just grab a bottle of wines at the vineyards before chilling at our accomodation. i think it will be very good indeed.

so if you don't see me online on friday to saturday, you know why. ROAD TRIP!!

haha ok i'm being semi-retarded, gabriel out!

~~lights off, pyjamas on~~
4:10 AM

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

last night we went to clayton just dan, weian and me to go have korean BBQ with our clayton friend mr kevin!! and after having only 8 tiny tau sar piah the whole day, and going to to gym in the afternoon, i must say i was freaking hungry. and glad to say, the food did not disappoint our tummies!

we had combo set A which was alot of beef, ox tongue and pork belly, as well as another serve of spicy beef, and it was damn freaking good. seriously like the meat is damn good quality and its so damn tender it like trashes the beef seoul garden uses la.

after that, weian stayed over so we went to have drinks at the bar below. we had 2 pints each, before proceeding upstairs to play daidee and consume a small bottle of raspberry wine and a normal bottle of dessert wine.

understandably we were all abit over-happy haha after that. me and weian had alot of smokes over a very good chat. thanks an, appreciate it and its good to know i'm not alone in feeling certain emotions.

haha ok gabriel out!!

~~lights off, pyjamas on~~
8:51 AM

Sunday, September 17, 2006

just watched dodgeball on foxtel, it was damn freaking funny.

and it also gave me one friggin' reason why i wish i was ben stiller.

zzzz i want...

~~lights off, pyjamas on~~
7:13 PM

Saturday, September 16, 2006

to start off, i made my own wanton today haha and i have to say they were pretty good!

the last week has been pretty nice. two things made me smile and i just remembered to blog about them.

firstly, this was rather recent. although i was only the backup cause the previous call didnt get through, nonetheless picking up a private call and hearing mr lim jin li on the other end of the line was a good throwback to days in singapore. it was nice to chit chat and hear an ahbeng accent (haha JOKE la!) so i hope more of your overseas calls fail so then you can call me haha. now when was the last time CHEN TAT called me hmmm.

and then the other one happened exactly a week ago and it totally slipped my mind but i really wanted to blog about it. during footy training last saturday at carlton gardens, i was picking up a stray kick and this family walked past. and i was getting ready to continue kicking around but the boy from the family came particularly close to me so i stopped. he was carrying a footy ball of his own (DAMN CUTE LA) so i threw him mine to ask him to catch but i didnt realise my ball was half his size and he flinched away in fear haha.

so then he came up to me and said "excuse me but what team do you barrack for!" haha and he was like only 4 or 5 damn cute so i asked him back what team he barracked for. and he said very proudly "the HAWTHORN HAWKS!" and then i said i barrack for collingwood and then he said thank you oh so politely and walked away. and his dad was like "ooh collingwood, they have a big match coming up!".

it was damn nice la, it's just the culture here where you can actually see a dad encouraging their children to immerse themselves in sport even from such a young age. i was so amused seeing the little tyke bouncing his ball again and again. makes me think back to how kids back in singapore are only ever encouraged to learn the piano or ballet or sports deemed to have a future like swimming. i mean i'm not complaining being made to learn the piano seeing how much music plays a part in my life now, but i was just wondering when the last time any parent actively encouraged their kid to pursue something they were interested in.

food for thought i guess, gabriel out!

~~lights off, pyjamas on~~
12:11 AM

Friday, September 15, 2006

about 19 years ago last week, the most beautiful baby was born into this world. this baby would eventually into someone i would eventually grow to love, someone who has become an integral and irreplacable part of my life. this most amazing lovely person, whose birthday i so carelessly forgot. so this is a happy belated 19th birthday to... NIGEL BRENDAN BOEY!!!

hahaha. so yes, i cant believe i totally let nigey's birthday slip my mind, especially since ryan reminded me a couple of weeks back and i was like "of cos i remember what date it is!" it's just that since i've left secondary school i dont really have to write my name and date on every piece of foolscap paper i use so i often lose track of the dates.

so as part of the "MAKE-IT-UP-TO-BOEY scheme", i shall give him a blog tribute in addition to putting a handsome photo of him up on my friendster, and giving him an msn dedication for the next few days.

i already wrote boey a tribute leading up to the days before i first left back in 2004, so i guess if you read back you would have the main story. boey being the shy boy back in sec2, and me teaching him how to play tennis (HAHA). and we became good friends over the course of having recess together everyday, to going for movies as the 4a3 fab four haha (with lennard and ryan!).
but we were never super super close, so i always wondered if we would still stay in touch after secondary school.

fast forward three years and all my doubts have proven to be unfounded. if anything, nigey and i have gotten closer despite the obvious distance and nigel's initial reluctance to get msn messenger ha. but we meet every holiday (except this round where he said i didnt have enough time for him which i am extremely apologetic for nige!) and we do lots of shit together like going for meepok together, and i know we go clubbing together but i cant remember when the last time was!! maybe it was zouk awhile ago, nigey's not much of a party animal, more a RACER.

the only two times i met boey this hols were my last two days, the night before at my house, and the following day during the mass drinking session at balcony haha. both days were really fun altho boey didnt drink! haha but it should have been more.

so once again, a HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY to NIGEL BRENDAN ALOYSIUS BOEY XUN WEN!!! hope you had a great one, and when i get back you keep that bloody car at home so we can drink drank drunk ok?

gabriel out!

~~lights off, pyjamas on~~
12:49 AM

Sunday, September 10, 2006

tell me what you thought about when you were gone and so alone,
the worst is over, you can have the best of me,
we got older but we're still young,
we never grew out of this feeling that we won't give up.

~~lights off, pyjamas on~~
11:39 PM

Thursday, September 07, 2006

so today was the final group game of the tournament.

it wasnt the best of starts considering it was 10 degrees and it was pouring and everyone was freezing their nuts off. so today, we played against the champions of the last two semesters aka TURKISH DELIGHT. with nothing to play for and slightly just more than half our team present, we decided to go have abit of fun in the end. took the lead twice through goals by yours truly, but in the end we went down 2-4. wasnt a bad game, the rain and weather probably made it abit sloppy, but overall it was alright i guess.

came home and was so knackered i had a nap. so excluding next week's 3rd/4th playoff, i must say this tournament has been rather eventful on an individual note! scoring 6 goals in 4 games is a pretty good ratio i must say, added to the fact that the whole team scored 11 goals, which means i scored more than half of those! haha EGO.

but now that the tournament is almost over, it leaves me with the unwelcome prospect of having nothing to look forward to during the week! it used to be on monday i would look forward to soccer on wednesday, and after that i would target footie on the weekends to get me through those arduous school days. but now! the moment monday comes i only have a VERY distant friday to aim for. someone please help me get thru haha.

what else do i wanna say hmm. OH YES, my birthday list.

1) manu to buy torres
2) collingwood to win the grand final
3) moses to suddenly like punk and play bass for me
4) to get my license without having to go for lessons and sit the test

or if all those fail,
5) white gibson flying-v thanks! only A$2500!!! haha gabriel out!

~~lights off, pyjamas on~~
2:07 AM

Monday, September 04, 2006

i know i've never mentioned him ever before but today i was absolutely shocked and upset when i heard the news that steve irwin aka the crocodile hunter had died. because while i have hardly ever mentioned this to anyone, he was a person i really looked up to and respected.

even when i was a kid i always loved reptiles more than anything. i would go to the zoo just to look at snakes (shumin can testify to that haha) and when i was damn small, they had to reptile enclosure where the snakes were not in enclosures and u walk through the thing and you are actually close enought to touch the creatures (i'm sure you know what i'm talking about).

so even tho i was damn scared i always acted damn tough cos i was really fascinated by snakes. but when they got too close i was super super scared. haha and like stupid shows like "snakes on a plane" and "anaconda" give people a wrong impression about how potentially dangerous animals really behave.

but what i admired most about him was that he made a living out of something he loved. that's like me becoming a musician ie. more or less fulfilling your childhood dream. and i was watching an interview with him just now which was filmed a couple of years back. he was talking about how he wanted to be like his father when he grew up, and he was almost in tears when he was talking about his mum's death. it just struck a chord with me that while most of us grow up in sheltered homes and still complain and fight with our parents so much, someone like him could admire his parents so much, and be so public about it.

i shall not talk too much about him, but i absolutely loved watching his shows. i even used to choose animal planet over mtv haha.

rest in peace mister crocodile hunter.

~~lights off, pyjamas on~~
9:26 PM

Sunday, September 03, 2006

today was a good day. collingwood won the kangaroos by 70plus points, so we moved to fifth place on the ladder. so next week we're playing western bulldogs in the elimination final which hopefully we will get through!

last few days have been rather normal but still good. kevin's parents are in town so we've been having a few free dinners, which hopefully we have repaid by cooking and putting kevin up over the weekends heh.

having mental block now, i've used all my creativity on my other blog. until i get more inspiration, GABRIEL OUT!

~~lights off, pyjamas on~~
8:19 PM