The Roger and Andy Show

Yeap and I am watching it live. How lucky am I!!
I bought tonight's tickets for Alex's birthday and thought ok, I wont be able to get him the men finals or the women finals but I can still get him the women semi finals.

But God is our side, we are going to be treated with one of the best matches. It's between 2 friends - Roger Federer and Andy Roddick.

Andy is known to have the best ace serves and Fed Express is super human. Fed can spin and curve the ball to go against the normal trajectory of the ball as it lands in the opponent's court.

Hopefully by the end of his career, he will have broken Martina Navratilova's record of being the world record with the most career titles - 177 (all time record for men or women).

We are very fortunate to be living in this century to witness great sportsmen and women like Fed and Tiger Woods.

Serving an ace

We got ourselves tickets to the Hisense Arena Day Session for the 3rd round in the Australian Open Grand Slam. With these tickets, we can watch the ground courts matches too - where there is no seat numbers so it's difficult to even get in for popular matches like the William sisters doubles match.

Anyways, we watched, at least Alex did (I went out for a snooze when the ladies are playing the 2nd match), 3 matches for the day session.

Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG) x Gilles Muller (LUX)
Alize Cornet (FRA) x Daniela Hantuchova (SVK)
Andy Roddick (USA) x Fabrice Santoro (FRA)

One thing I learnt is I have to watch a match played by people I know and care about. For example last year, I could only remember Nadal's match and for last Friday, the last match was the one that stayed on my mind.

Being there makes me want to find out a little more about the players. Fabrice Santoro is as old as me, been in the scene for more than 17 years. He's probably one of the few players who's a bit stauky, not lanky like most male players but he just doesnt give up fighting even though Andy Roddick was way too good for him.

Andy Roddick improved his game so well this Grand Slam and his serves are spectacular to watch. It's like watching a performance and keeps me on the edge of my seat. 22 aces - I kept looking at the IBM speed meter and the fastest serve was 217km/h - it was speed lightning across the opponent's court. Fabrice did not even know it's coming half of the time. I got on my binoculars to study what they were wearing -from their shoes, to the headband. That's the only way to keep me interested and awake.

Australian Open 2009

Time to get over my homesick blues. What better to do that by watching the world tennis players fight it out on the court for A$2 million.
This year we are going back for 2 sessions. Day 5 round 3 matches and the semi finals men single next thursday evening matches. I won't be as lucky as last year though when I was able to watch Rafael Nadal played live. I bought a humungous tennis ball that never got signed. Sigh. Now its an eye sore, totally out of place.
Will report more later...

Disorder Unorganised Chaos

Noise from cars honking or people all talking at the same time, spicey, fried food smell in the air, car cutting lanes without warning, stuffy air, oily food, thorny fruit, pungent burp, hundreds of food to choose from, pirated DVDs, security guards in the suburbs - ahhh it's the familiar chaos of Home Sweet Home.

Leaving on the jet plane

Yee Haa, we are sitting here waiting for our turn to get on the flight. It's my first flying long distance on Air Asia. It's the budget airline that makes it affordable so everyone can fly. We are prepared for a painful flight armed with beans neck pillows, blanket and sandwiches.

Oriental designs

I love LOVE oriental furnitures, when I was working in Hong Kong, I had the chance to purchase a couple of antique inspired pieces made out of camphor wood. I collected a wedding cabinet, 6 foot long side board, 3ft x 3ft coffee table, chinese treasure chest, 6 drawers tall boy and a few chinese lamps. When I moved to Singapore, I added to my collection a 6ft x 6ft 4 poster bed from Indonesia and an altar table. Being single, it's important to pamper oneself and live like a princess. The furnitures fitted the old apartment I was renting on 7th floor in Bayshore Park, it was airy with large wide windows and it was on big white tiles and white washed walls. It look like a retreat, so cozy to come home to after work and plant myself on my fabric sofas, stretched my legs on my big square coffee table and watch TV in the wedding cabinet. One day, I might post the image I have in my mind.

Over the years, after several moves when I got married and moved countries, I distributed my much loved furnitures due to space shortage. Hoping one day, I will make room for new ones. I sent my 4 poster bed and coffee table back to my parents and tall boy to my brother. I do miss them very much but at least they are within the family.

What I really wanted to talk about is this little desk organiser I bought from South Melbourne market for a bargain of $25. It's actually quite big, about 1ft length. It's skinned with dark brown leather, a drawer for my loose items and the open drawer has chinese script written all over it. The picture here doesnt do it any justice but it's really quite exquisite. Now I have to find a study table to go with it. Just a few things to get ready for our new home which we will be building really soon.

The present moment

Reverend Thich Nhat Hanh said:
Our true home is in the present moment. To live in the present moment is a miracle. The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now. Peace is all around us - in the world and in nature - and within us - in our bodies and our spirits. Once we learn this peace, we will be healed and transformed.

Although all I could think of our time at home with our families and old friends who know us from eons, I'm learning to enjoy the present moment. To focus on what I'm feeling and thinking- the anticipation, making a list of what to pack, people I will meet, stories that I want to tell them, finding presents for my family & thus thinking about their likes and fancies. The leading up to a holiday is just as wonderful.

Home run

Can't believe in 3 days I'll be home in Kuala Lumpur. We haven't been home since my brother's wedding last January. It happens when you live so far away in the southern hemisphere.
My friends have set up a meeting for us to enjoy our normal malaysian pulled tea at the local hawkers store, typical for late night social gatherings. I am also looking forward to mom's and dad's pampering and reunion with relatives, siblings and their halves. It will be an unforgettable time for the months ahead.

Happy New Year Everyone

What a busy NYE, almost did a full day's work. Rushed over to sister's BBQ and whilst my sister washed and changed the kids, I took my last nap of 2008. Boy, was I tired. Have been cycling everyday to keep the momentum so I would keep my resolution for 2009, exercise at least 4x a week and walk the dog.

Anyways, after a short nap, we all rushed in 4 cars convoy to the city. My brother-in-law spotted a open grassland across the waterfront city where the fireworks would be launching. We were there about 7-ish to make sure we secure a good viewing point and we laid our picnic mats on top of grass hill and waited. We took a short walk around the quay, everyone there was dressy, most of them in white following the theme of nautical white. It was cold unlike last NYE when it was more than 40C in Geelong.

The fireworks launched on time at 9.15pm. We were there for the 9.15pm so the kids could leave home to sleep. It was a real spectacle, it was certainly worth the wait, it went on for more than 15mins with a small pause. We went home and ate again coz we were hungry, in our own cozy home, we toast our champagne and watched the 12am fireworks on TV marking the beginning of another eventful year.

This year will be another milestone for us, hopefully our permanent visa will be approved shortly so we can start building our dream home. If God willing, next year this time, we will be able to invite relatives and friends over to enjoy our sweet home. Ooo...exciting times.