And i'll try to remember...

The last week back home:

Friday

Met up with Daphne and Caryn. We hung out at Bangsar this time around. Had lunch at La Bodega. I had the "roast chicken with mash" and although the gravy was a tad salty, it was rather delicious. However, the drinks were slightly overpriced and the service wasn't up to standard. Somehow, the topic for lunch that day was about the "supernatural". How weird was that? Walked around Telawi and Bangsar Village 2. Stuff in BV2 are so overpriced!! Even their Vincci shoes and bags there are priced at absurd prices. Who pays RM489.90 for a Vincci bag, even if it has pig-skin lining?? Geez.





Saturday

Had lunch at Little Penang Cafe @ MV with aunty, May Cze and May Yie. In the evening, went down to KLCC to do some shopping (stuff to bring back to Melbourne) before going off for dinner at Mandarin Oriental. According to mum, it was my pre-birthday celebration, since I won't be around on my birthday (*ahem*August 12*ahem*). I must admit, although variety is lacking in MO as compared to Shangri-La's Lemon Garden, or even Jogoya, it's still good because the food they serve are seriously fresh... and top class. The ambience is good as well... so I never fail to enjoy myself there (gorging myself silly with food more like it). I especially like their dessert counter - they used to have this fried fruits thingy but they've gotten rid of it now. I remember when i was ummm 14? I sulked at the pastry chef because he told me the fried fruits "finished already" in which he then had to go into the kitchen to prepare a bowl for me just so that I would stop sulking and complaining. Aha, a brat I am indeed. Anyhow, it was an enjoyable affair - just a simple dinner with my close family. It's sad to think that I won't be able to celebrate my birthday with my family for this year and the next. Sigh.





Sunday

Met up with Alex and Nick for ais kacang at Chong Kee. Haven't been there for ages! The last I've been there was sometime last year! The ais kacang still tastes the same and albeit very simple, I've always enjoyed eating it - especially when I was in school. Makes me reminiscent about the times back in high school - having lunch there with my friends before tuition. Speaking of which, I haven't met these guys for the longest time ever (Alex ok la, but Nick?!) so we spent the one hour or so just catching up and talking random random stuff. After lunch, dropped them off at their "destinations" before heading home. Then, had to get ready for hi-tea at Marriott. Went there with my siblings. Seriously, what were they thinking? A freaking *clown* as an entertainer?? Boooo. They might not have watched "IT" (the Stephen King novel turned book is that so?). It was soo freaky. The stupidd clown even attempted some lame jokes at us and what did we do? We chose to ignore. Hmmmph. Props to him for being able to make creative stuff with his bag of balloons but I'd say, it's best he just left us alone. Anyhow, since it was only hi-tea, the food choices were rather limited... nevertheless, we still stuffed ourselves silly before heading home. Dad was away in Shanghai so we ate out that nice, a very very simple dinner at a restaurent near our house.

Monday

Got up early to visit my aunt who resides at Sri Kembangan. Haven't seen her since I got home because she needs to care for her daughter-in-law @ my cousin brother's wife because she recently gave birth to a baby boy. Hehe the baby boy (Hang Hang, or baby Edmund) sooooo cute! They dropped by at my grandma's place later in the afternoon too (en route to the doctor's place) and I played "dancing-dancing" with the small boy... which left him so exhausted he fell asleep within seconds! CUTE!



Tuesday

Got up early (again!!) to go for my haircut with my sister at KLCC. My stylist told me that my hair was uber dry so I was forced to do some hair treatment (yup, I'm not a hair junkie so it was *really* my first time) but boy, it did feel so much better after the treatment! I guess pampering yourself once in awhile ain't too bad! Had lunch after that at Little Penang Cafe (we couldn't decide where to eat) before doing some shopping. I've got some layered bangs now so I really look like a small kid, and since I can't be bothered to style it when I get up... I really look weird now.

Wednesday

Ahhh, my second last day? Woke up early (yes, again!) and headed off to OU with mum and sis. We had our "round two" at PHOP and after the longggg meal, we did some shopping before they left. I stayed on to meet up with Daph and Krys for lunch at Ms. Read. As usual, we had our longgggg lunch because we sat there chatting most of the time. I'm *so* going to miss these girls 'cause they'll be heading back to UK come September and chances are, they won't be coming back this year end... which means, less two "kaki" to hang out with!! Caryn, can you see how few people will there be this year end? At night, Mae came to pick me up and we went off to Metropoint's Starbucks for drinks and just sorta hung out. So much to talk about, so little time. This year end laa, ok?

Thursday

My last day and you would've thought that I'd stay back and packpackpack but no! I just *had* to drive off to Bangsar with my sister and somehow after walking around for a bit, we decided to settle for lunch at Ms. Read again! Seriously, it's not that I'm in l-o-v-e with their food but somehow we just end up eating there all the time (probably because it was one of the few shops that were opened already... unless we wanted banana leaf rice?). After "breakfast", we went on to take a detour to KLCC to do some really-really-really last minute shopping. Reached home, continue packing, before I had an "early" dinner. After that, my sister and brother sent me off to the airport (they just dropped me la wtf). Waited for Linda, and we left together. I think it's probably because of the fact that we were entering Australia, so the rules were *really* strict. We couldn't bring any water in (even though we bought them after we checked in) and we couldn't carry the liquor we bought in the duty free shop around, rather, they delivered them to our boarding gate moments before we boarded the plane. Geez.

And so, that was it. My one month holiday. Over. All in a blink of an eye.

*****
Last Saturday, Harry Potter was released. My plan was to wake up early and join the fun queue, and be one of the first to get the book. Sadly, we overslept and only woke up around 10 (book was out 9.01am?). By the time we reached Melbourne Central's Borders, it was already around 11 but lo and behold, there was still a queue! Pretty long one, in fact! So the staff were all dressed up, some as Dementors, some as wizards and one even dressed up as Professor Trelawney (she even had teacups with her to do the readings!). We waited for about 20 minutes before it was our turn to collect our pre-ordered books.

After the book, we dropped by Le Favourite cafe (just a few shoplots away) for brunch. Mmmmmm. (Random, but we saw the queue was still on even when it was already 1pm)

There! My book! My siblings bought the adult's cover back home, so I chose to children's copy.

Since we pre-ordered, they gave us an owl soft toy as a "complimentary" gift. How cute, right? Although the TY owl has a name... I think I'll name it "Snowy".

So ok, I started the book at around 5pm on Saturday itself and I finished it on Sunday (7+ in the morning!). Yup, it was *that* addictive that I was reading it the whole night (because I wanted to get to the ending) and I'd say that, I was pretty contented with the ending. Although, there were a few unnecessary deaths (I won't say who in case one out there hasn't read the book yet, or is still in the process of reading it), the book was awesome. The many many clues were answered, we found out who's good and who's not, there were scary and dark parts, there were hilarious moments as well, the moral of the story was evident... all in all, a good book. I've been waiting all my life for this and I'm pretty sad it's all over now! I mean, I started reading them when I was 11 or so? I remembered dad bringing books one, two and three home from London, and only my sister read them then. She kept telling me to read because it was very nice (somewhat enchanting) and finally, I gave in, only to find that what she said was true! And from then onwards, I got hooked and became a Harry Potter fan. I remembered we ordered book four from amazon.com, because at that time, it only garnered lukewarm response in Malaysia. However, by the time book five came out, it was well and truly a worldwide phenomenon and I was in Form Four (?) at the time... and dad dropped us off at Kinokuniya at the wee hours in the morning to pick up our books (in which we then sat on KL Sentral's floor reading it whilst waiting for the train to go home). When book six came out, I was in college (and old enough to drive there to pick them up myself) and now... it's book seven! OMG. Sis and bro went down to pick theirs up at around 6+ in the morning and according to them, the queue was insane. At least they got to meet the "fat lady". So yeah, all in all, I love love love Harry Potter!