新年快乐！

Happy Chinese New Year! Haven't been celebrating this festival since I studied abroad. I miss those flashing red decor by the street side when the CNY was around the corner. I also miss the hilarious yet meaning CNY advertistment/public annoucements on television. Not to mention the feast before CNY was always scrumptous.

Undeniably disheartening when the memory is getting distant and you gotta try hard to recall those happy moments.

It was nice to hear from my family who's enjoying their time back in hometown. My little brother couldn't stop showing off those festive food that I like when we facetime-d. Irritating indeed. After all it's me who did not plan out holiday well and missed this important day. Lesson learned.

Got a greeting from chang yuan all the way from Japan today. Very touching. I shall keep in touch with all the good old friends like him. *check your email by the way*

Last month I went to the wind farm here in Palmmy. Breath taking scenery. When I first moved here I always admire the pretty windmill twirling on top of the hills. I'm glad I visited the farm. Will definitely go up there again.

Super windy!

Reminiscing 2012

This is a long overdue post that i should have written few weeks ago. Well it's always better late than never.

2012 had been a great year. I gained more than i lost (not weight particularly, though it's trending towards that direction as well haha!). More laughter and happiness. Sometimes i do feel that my life is in a musical like this:
   Yea life's a happy song! Everything is great, everything is grand, i've got the whole wide world in the palm of my hand!

It's sad to see a good year had gone by. But that's ok, the world has not ended like the prophecy said. It will just getting better!

Bye 2012!

Chapter closed. Chapter opened.

What a way to start a holiday cruising on the interislander...

Not exactly embarking on a holiday when I found a cafe spot at the atrium in this Cock Strait ferry (cant't help with the catchy TV advertisment song running in my head). The final glimpse of the South Island scenary overlooking Picton jetty was epiphanic.

Enough of the reminiscence, it's time to create new and beautiful memories.

Coldplay Is Awesome

Just came back from Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto concert. It was so cool! 

Have you seen my Willy?

Got my first car in NZ! It's Will VS, a product of Toyota but you can't find any sign of the brand untill you lift the bonnet up. That makes it so cool and mysterious. It is a 1.5L hatch, still running smoothly despite being second hand. So who's keen for a joy ride now?   

August Holiday

Skydiving at Taopo! Jumped out from the plane at the height of 15,000ft / 4.5km. Awesome!  

Deja Vu

I don't like this feeling, but it keeps coming back to me. Hurdles after hurdles, it ain't no easy life!

Mid Winter Break

Had a short but enjoyable mid winter getaway

Snow

Winter is finally here! Cold and wet, not the most ideal weather that we hope for. Strangely everybody still gets really excited over the rare white, fluffy substance that only came by during winter known as snow. It makes the city look different and prettier. It also makes emergency or orthopedic department busier than usual.

Excuse

Another unexpected aftershock hit Christchurch again. Apparently if it's more than 5.0 the school has to evacuate all students from vulnerable buildings. Fair enough.

Yea weekend starts now! 

Update

Wow, it's been such a long time since I write a blog post properly. Life has been relatively busier but ain't too bad. Now I understand why so many friends of mine are slowly abandoning their blogs. There's always not enough time to sit down and compose something decent on the blog. Not to mention the existence of social networking to take over the job of story-sharing. I'll try to stick with this conventional method to keep my friends and family of what I've been up to.

Where to begin? Schooling has been going well so far. Fingers crossed. Next big thing to happen would be job application. Therefore my current task is to write impressive cv and cover letters. Hopefully there are some job vacancies left for me. I would have rant about the frustration of international students being treated like second class and below but I shall not be whinny anymore unless I could do something about it. Wanna know about the weather? Well it's a common topic to talk about around here especially among strangers. All you need to know it's getting colder. Not looking forward to winter for sure.

Last week my whole house was treated with scabies medication because Ah Hui was the suspected culprit. So we had been doing massive laundry(including bed sheets and soft toys) and lotion applying. Fortunately none of us has any symptoms. Oh Ah Hui has started calling me 'uncle Mui How'. That's really sweet and cute. Can't wait for my own nephew/niece to call me that. To both of my sisters, gambate!

 Flew to Invercagil (tip of south island) in this small jet plane to pick up a patient. It was great fun.

 Spent my Easter weekend in Auckland. Went to Davenport for the first time. A very nice and posh place. Would love to have brunch again there overlooking the awesome scenery. 

 Can't stop eating these sinful food. Well I need to prepare my body for the winter *ahem excuses*

Easter

Last year Easter my family came over to NZ and we spent a week together travelling around south island. Can't believe a year had passed us by.

This year Easter something eventful is happening in my family too. Life is just getting better, isn't it?

Erjie's Wedding

二姐和姐夫，新婚快乐！

Beer Festival

Christchurch may have been scarred by the earthquake, but she never stop trying to bring back its vibrance. Just couple of weeks ago, Busker Festival was a huge success with great turn ups. Today another public event was held in Hagley Park attracting hundreds of Canterbrians enjoyed a good sunny day out.

The event was known as Great Kiwi Beer Festival.

On arrival we saw the queue was shockingly long. Lots of people were lining up ranging from small kids to frail senior citizens. Of course youngsters were the main crowd of the day. There were approximately 30 brewery outlets and equivalents numbers of food stalls in the whole venue. A main stage was set up at the corner with live bands performing throughout the whole event.

Here comes the embarassing part. I just realized I have really poor alcohol tolerance. The effect kicked in as soon as I had my probably third or fourth drink. Like my head was getting lighter, the noise around me was getting softer, as if i was gonna float anytime soon. On the other hand, Jane was still well composed until she had couple more drinks.

Nevertheless it was fun!

The Entrance. Got a sweet deal from TreatMe.



First drink. Still sober.

The crowd

Great Saturday!

One Year Later...

I can't believe it's been a year since Christchurch was hit by the merciless earthquake. Yesterday a memorial service was held at city centre attended by community leaders, survivors and friends and families of the deceased. Extensive TV and radio coverage of the service since early morning until evening news as if we were reliving the unfortunate event again.

At 12.51pm, the whole Canterbury remained silent for 2 minutes. Buses pulled over at the road side, supermarket stopped checking out customers' goods, canteen halted serving up food, friends ended gossiping and etc. The world literally stopped functioning for the whole 2 minutes. I have been blessed as I was not badly affected by the quakes. But witnessing the city that I have been living in for the past 3 years crumbling down does ache my heart to certain extent.

It was really depressing to recall such tragedy even though it's been a year. But i guess it's time to stand strong and move on. What doesn't kill you make you stronger. Christchurch will regain its beauty in no time.

Busker Festival

This festival happens once every year in Christchurch. Before the earthquake, it used to be held at Cathedral Square. As you might already know, the square is an utter rubble at the moment and hence the festival shifts to Hagley Park instead.

Nevertheless, it was a well organized public event for the people in Christchurch. Jane and I visited the festival last Saturday and we did enjoyed our time there except the scorching sun above us. Great humour, crazy stunts and ice creams, what a terrific way to spend the weekend!

21.1.12

21.1.12, mirror image of a date?

Today I celebrate my existence in this world for quarter of a century. I've been blessed to witness and appreciate the wonder of life from birth till now. Millions thanks to my dearest parents who brought me here.

It's a relaxing and sunny weekend. I got to sleep in. Spent some time with my loved ones. Chocolate apricot torte as birthday cake. Amazing presents. I couldn't ask for more.

Recently I'm addicted to a song by Six60 entitled 'Only To Be', the chorus goes like this:

Yeah yea, I'll live just turning pages

Yeah, well I know it's worth the ride

Ain't it good to be alive?

I Want CNY!

I really miss Chinese New Year, sob...

Farewell 2011

2011, what a year!

Have I become a better person over this year? Hmmm.. I don't know. But I'm pretty sure I've gained heaps from all the things that I've been through. Regardless of the nature of all the outcomes, I believe everything happens for a reason and there's always something good masquerading at the side.

2011, it's a very challenging year. Stresses were clouding most of my time and occasionally causing some unnecessary emotional outburst. I sincerely apologize to all my beloved friends and family whom I may have victimized.

Another year has gone, have I grown more mature? Hmmm... You be the judge. There were so many things happened this year. Highs and lows, I could barely remember all the details. Good times and bad times, I wish only good memories would stay on.

2011, how shall I describe you? Puzzle in venture, that's it.

A Month in North Island

Back in Christchurch after spending a month in North Island. It was supposed to be a formal attachment for the curriculum but i felt like i was on vacation most of the time. Maybe that's why i didn' realize time had passed me through so quickly.

GP attachment in Cambridge was enjoyable. All the staffs were very friendly and made me feel very comfortable working there. The town was lovely. Lots of small cafes along the main street with local business outlets. Perfect place for retirement if you want to escape the hustle and bustle of cities.

Almost every weekend Swarna and I would plan for short excursion to places around Hamilton, unless we were too worn out and wanting a sleep in. Road trips are always fun and I'm really glad that we've covered so many places.

Cambridge Medical Centre, a big practice in this small town. It has its own lab and radiology.

Sushi in Cambridge. It was freaking cheap, the whole set cost less than $10. Yummy...

Home of L&P, Paeroa. We purposely bought a bottle and posed in front of this landmark.


My socialite host for the past one month. Always busy talking on the phone or messaging people. And she is a closeted alcoholic, haha!





Hot water beach. Like its name suggested, if you go there at the right time and find the right spot, you could dig a hole at the beach and hot water would gush out from beneath. Not exactly understand how it works, but it did happened when we were there. We spent almost 4 hours dipping our body inside this natural hot spa. Great fun!


Thank you so much for your warmest hospitality, Swarna.