As 2010 comes to an end, I've been looking back at all my Facebook postings for the past year and counting my blessings.

The first post was about the NYE pictures I took from the roof top.

Since then, it's been non stop adventure.

JAN

Sold the Honda, which I bought about 3 years ago.

Explored Newport during Australia Day. Beautiful place.

FEB

Got the keys to the new property we bought. Check out the view!

Caught a romantic movie with Eliss at the outdoor cinema in the rain.

Attended and helped out at the Transformation Conference where Ps Kong was the speaker.

Eliss surprised me with a Valentine's Day present.

Celebrated CNY with fellow orphans at Chinatown.

MAR

Achieved #6 ranking for Telstra league ladder for overall performance.

Received a free iPhone 3GS as company phone. Bye bye BlackBerry Bold 9000!

Loved my surprise birthday party, organised by Eliss of course.

APR

Road trip to Berry & Kangaroo Valley.

Love the city view of Bradleys Head.

Met Darlene Zschech at the Presence Conference organised by C3 Church.

Climbed #2 ranking for Telstra league ladder for overall performance.

First proper dinner thrown by the company at the Observatory Hotel.

MAY

Chatted with Mum on Skype on Mother's Day.

Won a pair of Dendy tickets from Channel 10 to watch Food Inc.

Emi's sore eyes got much better after applying eye cream.

Achieved 138% of sales target.

JUN

Late nights thanks for the FIFA World Cup

Drove hard in the VW GTI at the Eastern Creek Raceway.

Bought my dream car.

Achieved 200% of monthly sales target and over 100% for YTD target.

JUL

Company lunch at Hunter Valley

Celebrated 5th wedding anniversary at Sake.

Got a new TomTom as current Nokia one dying.

AUG

Received the Pride Award.

Watched S'pore NDP live streaming at home with friends.

SEPT

US holiday (San Francisco)!

Explored the nearby beaches around my apartment.

Brought Emi to Cronulla Beach.

OCT

Team Day on the boat at Brooklyn.

Watched my first NBL game.

Epic Halloween bento set made by Eliss.

NOV

Sunday Service with Ps O'Neal.

Tried Peruvian food for the first time.

DEC

Sold the Skyline finally.

Climbed #1 ranking for Telstra league ladder for overall performance.

Road trip to Wollongong.

Christmas harbour cruise.

Played cricket for the first time at Balmoral Beach.

Road trip to Melbourne with Emi and friends.

Eliss gave me an Apple TV!

Saw cherries and raspberries trees for the very first time in my life.

Thank God for 2010!

Has micro blogging killed errr... blogging?

Ever since I jumped onto the Twitter and Facebook bandwagon, I felt that real blogging became just a chore.

With just a few click on the iPhone, I can tell people where I've been via Foursquare and what I'm seeing using the picture uploaded from camera phone.

But with just 120 characters, there is really a limit of what I can share. True that it is clear and concise, I believe there should still be a place where I can document my thoughts to look back in the years to come.

Exactly the same day 5 years ago, Eliss and I walked down the aisle, promised to be with each other till eternity.

We have certainly gone through a lot, especially the first couple of years in Sydney. It was a test of faith and we almost gave up. Thank God we held on and are still here today.



Eliss got me a very beautiful ring from Gucci made of 18k white gold and black synthetic corundum.

What touched me even more was the thought behind the gift. Eliss has learned that the silver Tiffany & Co wedding band tarnishes very easily on my fingers, so that's why she got this one made from a mineral which never does.

And by the way, corundum is the second hardest mineral next to diamond.

Time flies when you are having fun, doesn't it?

And it's certainly a lot of fun driving the brand new Volkswagen Golf GTI!

It's been a dream to own one since arriving here in Sydney in 2006. Due to the constraints then, the dream was finally fulfilled at the end of last month.

Delay is certainly not denial.

Prior of the acquisition, Eliss and I went to their Advanced Driver Training at Eastern Creek Raceway, conducted by Volkswagen.



All fully decked and ready to go!

I pushed the GTI to the limit, with the instructor beside coaching me how to tackle the corners.

Unlike driving on the PS3, it will be a disaster is the car went out of control. Thankfully the ESP made the car cling on the road no matter what I did.

It made me feel like a pro, even though I'm obviously not.

The experience was simply exhilarating. It really showed me what the car can do without a speed limit.




That's Eliss at the passenger seat in the brand new Golf R.

The professional driver showed us how to drive a car like this to its full potential. He was doing 190km/h on a straight road.

The experience cemented the idea that we definitely need to get the GTI.

As I do not need 2 cars at this stage, I'm selling off the Skyline after having it for 2 years.

Nowadays I just take the bus to work, and Eliss has been driving it for the past year and a bit.

This car drive beautifully and whoever that bought this will enjoy the car thoroughly.

Click on the picture for more detail.

Went swimming for the first time in at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre this morning with some friends.

The place is huge! It even features a water playground for the kids, including a rapid river ride, bubbling beach fountains and spurting volcanoes.

The 50m Olympic size pool seems like a long way to go as I've not swim for ages. 2 laps was more that enough for me for the day. Just spent the rest of the time soaking in the jacuzzi.



Got a few friends to our place for a gathering and they end up helping me to fix up the Ikea bookcase, which was still in the box since I bought it last month.

Thanks for your help! Seems that Emi likes it too!

Check this out! A cat which loves swimming in the pool! http://bit.ly/9FcCIQ

I'm very happy to announce that I'm a proud owner of a new iPhone 3GS.

I know it's not the latest handset, and some of you might be even be looking forward to the new iPhone 4G rumored to be launched some time in June this year.

Well, I've been aiming for an Iphone since it was first launched last year. I've been bugging my ex boss to to give me one as a corporate phone, but nothing happened.

So I left. Nah, that's not the real reason.

Anyway, when I joined Telstra last Mar, I was a little disappointed that when they gave me a BlackBerry Bold 9000 to use. It's no doubt a great corporate phone, but I reckon the iPhone is a much "funner" phone.

I was ecstatic when my manager recently handed a brand new 16GB model to everyone in the team last Thurs.

Finally! And we all got a Mobile Me account and a $20 iTunes Gift Card too!



Spent the weekend hanging out with a few new friends at the Fish Market for a nice seafood brunch.

Click here to view more pictures.

Since we have reached the first quarter of the year, I thought maybe I should do a quick recap on some of the highlights that has happened.



We headed to Newport during the Australia Day holiday. Been thinking about it for a while, but kept postponing the trip.



This place has the most beautiful water front pub, Newport Arms Hotel. Great for watching the rich and famous playing with their expensive toys.



Some kids jumping off the pier.



My church hosted the first Transformation Conference at the Wesley Conference Centre.

Pst Kong from City Harvest Singapore was invited to share the Word with us for the 2 nights.



Eliss organised a beautiful seafood buffet Valentine's Day dinner at a restaurant at Windsor.



The spread was really good, as you can see from here.



We got the keys to our new place on 1/2 and started our renovation work. The body corporate gave us a hard time before finally approving our request.



The place was initially carpeted.



We got them ripped out, and replaced it with timber.



This is the master bedroom now, with views of the city and the SCG.



We did the same thing for the kitchen, replacing the concrete slab with timber.



Don't you think it looks much sleeker now?


This is the view from the balcony. Thank God for this beautiful place!

The first week of 2010 has been a blur. Time just flies past so quickly.

Most people are still on leave, so it was pretty quiet everywhere. Even in the city.

The best part is that the bus ride to office was just 30mins, instead of the usual 40mins.



We welcome 2010 on our rooftop. Pretty amazing to be able to capture such a nice shot at the stroke of midnight.

Come countdown 2011, we'll be watching the fireworks from our new property. But before that, we have to sort out our renovation and to do a pre-settlement inspection to ensure all the minor repair works are done properly by the strata company.

Full settlement will on the the 1/2/10, or 3 weeks away. Very exciting!



Emi has grown quite a lot in the past 2.5mths. She was just a tiny kitten, and now she is a little lady.

I've been advised by a vet friend that when she bites, I must ignore her instead of giving her more attention by scolding her.

I just hope she leaves my ankle alone.



Wouldn't it be cool to have a personalised car plate like this? Yeah, this is the sample I created at the RTA website. The price of a one off order fee of $600, and annual fee of $440 put me off though.



Looking forward to see Pst Kong again next month at the Wesley Conference Centre. He preached just a great message last year, and I'm sure it will be ever better this year.

Wow, I nearly choked clearing out the cobwebs from my blog. It's been a long time since it got updated. All the Twittering aka micro blogging has made me pretty lazy.

It's that time of the year to look back how far we've come and things to look forward to 2010.

I want to thank God for many things for 2009.




1) Great marriage with Eliss, who has always been by my side even when times were bad. I wouldn't be where I am today without her support for the past few years.



2) Blessing me with a job at Telstra. It was a long and difficult process, but it was the ending that counts. Great to work in the city office with a bunch of great people.



3) An opportunity to have my parents here in Australia. I've dreamt since uni days that I'll be able to hang out with them or have a meal with them in a restaurant here, and it finally happened after 8 years.



4) Being the cell leader to a group of uni students. Being able to learn and impart has been a great privilege.



5) Bought a unit at Kensington, a place we can call home after Feb 2010. That's the view from the balcony, by the way. This will mark the end of helping pay off some stranger's mortgage.



6) Adopted a little kitty, Emi into our household. We never really thought of having a pet, but somehow got into it. This might not really be parenthood, but it's a prelude to better things to come. She is just so adorable!



7) Great holiday back to Singapore to attend my sis's wedding and to revisit Tokyo. The 3 weeks break was just too short.

Moving forward, I've also set some goals to acheive by the end of 2010.



1) Do a postgraduate degree in UNSW. Will be a stone throw away from our new place.



2) Buy a new car. More specifically a Golf GTi Mk VI. Been a dream car since the test drive of the previous model.

3) Do more for the society. Mission, community work, whatever.

Couldn't sleep much due to the jet lag. I slept at 2am (5am EST Australian) and woke up at 8am. I continued to lie on the bed for about another hour later and enough is enough!

Had a quick shower and just headed to the coffee shop across the road for some local breakfast.

The fried bee hoon was so yummy! Even more beautiful when washed down with Ice Horlicks.

Eliss chose otah, fried chicken wings and cabbage for me.

Bon appétit! I find this even more satisfying that having a picnic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge where they closed it for a few hours to launch the month long Crave Sydney festival.

Eliss ordered bar chor mee, but substituted the starch for kway teow (rice noodles).

Why don't they have this in Sydney? I say abolish all the pseudo Singaporean noodles and replace with this stuff here. It's not that hard to cook this!

All you need is super awesome sambal chili, boil the ingredients and mix them all up.

We went to visit Eliss's mum at her you char kway (dough fritters) stall before we took the mrt to the city.

After hearing news that my current EZ Link card cannot be in used as it has passed the deadline to exchange it for a new format, I was quite concerned about the hassle to swop it over.

To my surprise, the counter person was kind enough to do it for me as we told her we just came back from overseas.

Phew!

This was the place where my dad used to bring me to buy second hand DC comics. They all come in boxes, and we need to sort through to find the goodies.

I still have some of them till today. Old school stuff, man.

This area housed many craft shops frequent by art students, so I guess shouldn't be too surprised to see eccentric characters here.

One of Eliss's good friend works at an Optometrist here, so I always get my eyes checked and buy new glasses if I have to.

I got my Oakley Gasket from her last year, so just come here to get it cleaned up professionally.

We walked down to Bugis Junction to escape from the heat. Feeling hungry again, we headed to the foodcourt and realised it was no longer there, and was replaced by food stalls with no places for us to sit.

I have to say Fei Siong fish cakes are super awesome. Coupled with their to die for chilli sauce, it is the perfect snack.

I try to abstain from drinking ang mo beverages and go all out local. Eliss bought ginseng tea and red sugar cane drink for me.

Casey and Dorothy joined us in a bit and took us to a famous chicken rice place near Raffles Hotel. It had got an old world charm, and it's like we are back in the 70's.

They serve their boiled chicken the traditional Hainanese way, sans the gravy as served by their Cantonese counterpart.

This combination stir fry is a made up of roughly cut meat and vegetables. No presentation, just simply no frills, down to earth good tasting food.

We headed for service on the MRT after that.

One thing I notice here, as compared to Taiwan for instance that people ignore priority sitting area. Despite the posters, different coloured chairs, people generally do not really pay attention to this or just sleep on the obvious.

After being squeezed in a tin all the way to Singapore Expo, we arrived at CHC.

It's great to be back in this great church and the sermon was really powerful about being a true worshipper. Pst Tan is awesome delivering the message in such a concise and humourous way.

Derek and Noni, our friends from Sydney came in to join us as well.

We met so many friends after service, you can almost say we were ambushed from all directions.

Good to see that everyone is doing well, and look forward to catch up with all of you!

With some time to spare before supper at Geylang, we went there earlier to explore.

This area is particularly dodgy as it's also the red light district. I don't why some of the best restaurants are in area like this. Think Juju at Kings Cross.

There are people peddling contraband cigarettes off plastic bags on the ground, street walkers standing on the pavement soliciting for business, as lewd old men and sweaty foreign workers size them up.

I wouldn't live here for sure.

This is the famous crab place that we are meeting up for supper. So glad to find a table at their air conditioned VIP area.

Noni was petrified that we actually eat venison here. We had to keep telling her that it's just pork. It was hilarious!

No bull, this is actually on their menu! I know people always get drunk on a Saturday night, I didn't know frogs were the same.

Well, at least the guys won't end up on a plate in a restaurant.

The piece de resistance, Singapore Chilli Crab! Live mud crab simmered in chilli gravy with eggs.

The guys got their hands on the biggest pincers.

Jess and Mark soaking up all the gravy, leaving nothing to waste.

Do I need to further explain how good the food was?