Wheaties

Happy Easter

2009-04-06T10:03:00.001+10:00

GO AND BUY THIS {SHAMELESS PLUG}

2008-10-12T08:42:00.000+11:00

2008-10-01T17:30:00.000+10:00

I need a potplant like this!

2008-08-28T15:08:00.002+10:00

Back to uni

2008-08-13T17:14:00.002+10:00

Back to uni this week. This is my final semester. The first task is to introduce ourselves to our new lecturers. I have prepared a page that captures some of my work from uni, but it's awfully hard to put something together that does justice to any of the projects I worked on.

2008-06-11T09:08:00.000+10:00

Phil's Deb Ball

2008-06-09T02:57:00.001+10:00

Sleepy

2008-05-15T08:39:00.000+10:00

Goodbye Grandpa

2008-04-04T15:07:00.002+11:00

Short Update

2008-03-27T23:09:00.001+11:00

Just a short update with two major events. The first is that I had my first day of working at IKEA today! It was great fun, and I really like the team I'm working with. (More on this later)
My second item of news is not so great. My Grandpa passed away this morning. He was living in a nursing home, and had compromised quality of life, so I feel kind of relieved that he's in a better place. Keep praying for Dad and Mum and Grandma over the next couple of days as they make arrangements for the funeral. I'm planning to make a tribute video / presentation, so I'll put that up here when I can.

Peace, Hope, Love, Joy.

2008-03-06T11:52:00.000+11:00

Back to Uni

2008-02-26T18:33:00.001+11:00

Yesterday was a big day. I returned to uni classes at Hawthorn campus. I'm in the final year, so graduation is close, and the pressure is on. Yesterday's class was "engineering management 2". The class seems manageable, although it's very broad. We received our first group task for the year, and were asked to select groups within 5 minutes of the tutorial starting.
In other news, most of you would be aware that Chris and I have been asked to leave our house at Nymph St. The owner wants to renovate I think. We have spent the last couple of weeks searching for a new place, mainly looking at apartments closer to the city. Yesterday, Shae (one of the agent's we applied for a new place with) called Chris with some good news. She had found a great apartment for us in Collingwood!
It's part of "The Islington" apartment development, where the apartment block was converted from an old warehouse / factory. The new fit-out is only about 2 years old (it was completed in 2006). Our apartment has a balcony, and access to a shared outdoor space. It's a lovely one bedroom place, which should suit Chris and I down to a tee. :) I'm pretty excited about it.

2008-01-28T21:24:00.001+11:00

2008-01-28T21:15:00.001+11:00

2008-01-28T21:13:00.000+11:00

24 January 2008: Bye-Bye Hong Kong

2008-01-28T21:12:00.000+11:00

Well, today is our last day. We spent the morning packing and weighing, then packing and weighing again. I managed to get my suitcase right on the limit of 32kg. Chris's was just under, weighing in at 29kg. We checked in our luggage at the train station (which I was very impressed with) because our flight didn't leave until later at night, but we didn't want to haul around our luggage all day.
We spent the day shopping, because the weather was rainy outside. There was an ice skating rink in the shopping centre, but I was the only one who wanted to play, so we didn't end up going on it.
We made our way to the airport via train, and tried to fit all our shopping into our hand luggage! It only just all fit!
The plane journey home was long, and uneventful. Once we landed at Sydney, we had to take our bags through customs, and get onto a connecting flight to Melbourne. Our baggage took ages to come out, so we missed the plane. The next available flight was 2 hours later, so we flew home on that one.
Ryan's parents were at the airport waiting for Ryan and Brent. They had just flown in from the Gold Coast for the Australia Day long weekend and had hired a car for them to share on the ride back to Glen Waverley.
Peter picked Chris and I up from the airport, and dropped us off at home. :) By that stage, I was pretty tired, and didn't really feel like doing anything except sleep. I think Chris felt the same.

2008-01-28T21:08:00.000+11:00

23 January 2008: Think BIG

2008-01-28T20:45:00.000+11:00

This morning, Brent and Ryan decided that they wanted to take it easy in the morning, so they went back to their hotel room after breakfast. Chris and I were off to see the Big Buddah, which is a giant sculpture / temple situated on the opposite side of Hong Kong island to where the city is. Getting there was most of the fun.
We took the subway to the furthest station from the city, then we had to catch a chairlift the rest of the way. The chairlift traveled up past the airport, over huge expanses of water, and over very mountainous areas. The trip in the chairlift took about 25 minutes each way.
Perhaps chairlift is not quite the right term, because the lift was not open to the air. You had to climb inside a glass capsule which you shared with 9 other people, and the capsule was moved in the same way a chairlift would operate.
Once we arrived at the Big Buddah, we took our time walking up to the Buddah. We stopped to watch some educational films about the origins of the Buddist faith, and stopped to do a little tourist shopping. When we did reach the Buddah, which is set atop a hill, we had a quick look around, and discovered that perhaps the statue is best experienced from afar. From the base of the statue, all that you could see was some giant brass leaves which he was "sitting" on.
On the way back I took some more photos from the chairlift, which was the highlight of today's trip for me. When we got home, I went to sleep for a couple hours.
Chris awoke me around 7.15pm. There was a laser light show on every night along the river at 8pm which we had planned to go to, so I had to get up and get ready.
We caught a double-decker bus down to the river, and caught all of the laser show. It was pretty cool. They had set up lots of the buildings along the river and through the city with lasers on top of the building, and they had many of the building's lights connected so that they could be turned on and off in time to the music. It was pretty cool. I think I have a short video somewhere... It was a little eerie, because you could see the path cast by the lasers through the heavy smog.
Following the light show, Brent, Ryan, Chris and I went to find some food. We found a nice little place that was on one of the smaller side streets near the park. They had one English menu, but other than that, didn't seem to be too westernised. The girl working there didn't have very good English, so we figured the food was going to be pretty good. When the food did arrive, it was really good! I would even say it was one of the best meals we had during the trip. (and, it was surprisingly cheap!)
To cap off the day, we revisited some night markets on the way home, and bought some more gifts for people at home.

2008-01-28T19:54:00.001+11:00

2008-01-28T19:48:00.001+11:00

22 January 2008: Happy Birthday Brent!

2008-01-28T19:24:00.001+11:00

Today we went to sample some of Hong Kong's famous shopping. First stop was Mon Kok to peruse the electronics market. Ryan found a new shaver, and Brent found a case, spare battery, and a memory card for his camera. I was looking for a new USB hard disk to put all my digital photos onto, but had no luck.
Many of the stores were selling electronics at slightly cheaper prices than we could achieve in Australia, but it was not as cheap as I had thought it would be.
After looking through the electronics market, we moved through the fish market. These fish were not for eating, but for use as pets. There were heaps of pet shops with bags of fish hanging out the front. I felt a little sorry for the fish! They were not able to swim around in the tank, just staying in their own bag. I'm sure some of the ones sitting in the sun would have struggled with the temperature change in the water.
Brent and Ryan showed us around the main island of Hong Kong. This is the district where most of the major international banks have their headquarters. The buildings are taller than in Kowloon, which is the district where our hotel is situated.
The island of Hong Kong was quite steep, which surprised me. There were stairs through all of the streets, and one street even had an escalator going from the water's edge to the top-side of the CBD area. After looking around the CBD area for a while, we decided to head up the mountain on the cable car which runs every 12 minutes. The cable car goes up the mountain at an unbelievable angle, and is drawn from the top, where there is also a shopping centre and observatory. This is supposed to be the highest point in Hong Kong.
The sun was still up when we first arrived to the summit. as we were there, the sun slowly began to sink below the mountains, casting a shadow over the city of Hong Kong. We had a look around the shopping centres, and stopped for a drink in one of the cafe's overlooking the other side of the island.
Once the sun had gone down, we took some more photos of the city skyline at night, before heading back down to the bottom in the cable car again.
Brent had made dinner reservations to celebrate his birthday at the only revolving restaurant in Hong Kong. "Happy Birthday Brent" The meal was a buffet, and we were able to walk around the entire restaurant, taking in the beautiful views of Hong Kong at night.

2008-01-28T13:39:00.000+11:00

2008-01-28T13:37:00.001+11:00

2008-01-28T13:35:00.001+11:00

2008-01-28T13:32:00.000+11:00

2008-01-28T13:28:00.000+11:00

21 January 2008: Bye-Bye Shanghai!

2008-01-28T12:49:00.001+11:00

Today we awoke early, and finished packing our things for Hong Kong. The plane was due to leave around 12.30 int the afternoon, but we had to be there just as early as an international flight. Even though Hong Kong is technically part of China, it's still regarded as an international journey. Hong Kong is managed by a special governing council, who try to keep Hong Kong the same as it was when the British left in 1997.
Chris and I caught a taxi to the Maglev station. The Maglev is a magnetic levitation train. It was designed for super-fast travel between Shanghai and the Pudong international airport. The train reaches speeds of about 470kmph.
I don't think the train has been terribly successful, because the city terminus is too far from the centre of the city. It would have been cheaper for Chris and I to catch the taxi the entire way to the airport instead of going on the train!
When we reached the airport, we checked through immigration, and waited by the gate. I was pretty excited to be going to a new place. Shanghai was fun, but I think I had seen enough.
When we arrived in Hong Kong, we took another train from the airport to the city center. Then we took a bus to the hotel. The bus also dropped passengers at other locations around Kowloon, so we got to see a little of the city before we even arrived at our hotel.
When we got to the hotel, we were unable to check-in because Ryan had booked the rooms using his credit card. We left our bags at the hotel, and roamed around the city for a few hours, until Brent and Ryan arrived from Japan.
My first impressions of the city was that it was big and glamorous. It was all the good parts of China (cheap clothes, cheap food) but without all the dirty parts of China. People also didn't hassle you on the streets as much as in China, and most people could speak English very well.
From our hotel, Chris and I walked down Nathan Rd, which is the main shopping strip in Kowloon. we wandered through shopping malls into the botanic gardens, which were quite spacious, given how compact everything else in Hong Kong is!
We strolled through some night markets, which sold everything. I was surprised to see some of the stalls selling adult toys! We stopped to buy some CK watches, and also some little trinkets as gifts.
When Brent and Ryan arrived, we checked into the hotel. Our rooms were very nice, although small. The entire hotel room that Chris and I had could have fit into our living room at home!
Brent and Ryan showed us part of the harbor which we had not seen during our wanderings earlier in the day. It was beautiful. (But there was smog haze everywhere!)
We stopped on the way home for some cocktails at the Hard Rock Cafe. I tried a long island ice tea, and discovered that the cafe also had root beer, so I tried some of that too.

2008-01-28T12:39:00.001+11:00

2008-01-28T12:36:00.000+11:00

2008-01-28T12:34:00.001+11:00

20 January 2008: Bowling

2008-01-28T12:18:00.001+11:00

Today we manged to get our last minute shopping out of the way. We revisited Qipu Lu market (the copy market) to empty our wallets of Chinese RMB. We ventured up a little further than level 2 this time, and found out some of the real prices for copied goods. The levels above level 2 were just like a regular shopping mall! Nobody hassling you to buy their goods, and nobody being too pushy! I liked it. I bought a pair of jeans from a small shop where the lady said "This price. No argue! You want argue, go level 2!" The price was only about AU$20, so I didn't argue. I found a pair I liked, and bought them.
I also went downstairs and bought a new bag to put my laptop in. When we got back to the hotel, I was tired. I started packing everything we had bought into our suitcases. Tomorrow morning we leave for Hong Kong, so I wanted to be all packed.
Chris and I went to the "Sports Bar" in the basement of the hotel later that night. We discovered that they had a pool table, a foosball table, and a bowling alley to play on. We asked how much it was to play some bowling, and the bartender said we just have to buy some drinks. Chris and I bought two drinks and played two games of bowling! it was really fun.
The bowling alley was fun, but not that well maintained. The balls had chips out of them, and the surface of the alley had not been polished. I guess it's a classic example of "you get what you pay for".

2008-01-28T12:10:00.000+11:00

2008-01-28T11:45:00.001+11:00

19 January 2008: Back to Shanghai

2008-01-28T11:40:00.000+11:00

Today it was raining in Hangzhou. We didn't mind, as we had planned to catch the train back to Shanghai today. After packing everything into our bags, we headed down to the train station. There were heaps of people lingering outside the train station. They all had packed bags like they were about to head somewhere, but none seemed too interested in entering the train station. I found this very curious. I'm not sure weather they planned to enter the station later, or if they hadn't bought tickets, or what.
Chris and I had no problems getting to the train station and finding where to board our train. We had to wait in a little waiting room, which was very similar to the boarding lounge at the airport. Chris and I were almost the only westerns on the train.
Once we boarded the train, the trip was fairly quick. It took two hours to travel from Hungzhou to Shanghai with one stop in Jiaxing.
When we reached Shanghai, we took the subway to our hotel, which was located right near the main Shanghai railway station. It was rainy and wet and cold outside, so Chris and I checked into the hotel and decided we should stay in tonight and watch some DVDs. We went to try and find some drinks and snacks, but didn't have much luck finding the drinks that Chris was looking for. We ventured out again later that night for some dinner.
We watched some of the copy DVDs we had bought when we were with Ryan. The quality seemed pretty good, so with any luck, the others will be ok too.

18 January 2008: Haircut

2008-01-28T11:26:00.001+11:00

Today is a little warmer than yesterday. There is not snow all over the ground anymore. Chris and I only just made it downstairs in time for the last 5 minutes of breakfast! The food options were not that exciting though, with mostly Chinese style foods available for breakfast. I get the feeling that Hangzhou must be a destination for many domestic tourists, but not so many international travelers.
Chris and I desided to take advantage of the weather, and go for a walk to the "silk market". It turned out that the market was pretty much just a strip of shops that all claimed to be selling 100% real silk. It seemed that if we were going to buy anything that was silk, we should have bought it here. The shops didn't seem touristy at all, and many of the shopkeepers were busy filling orders, packing stock into boxes for shipping.
We stumbled upon Mau's old holiday house (I think). It was fairly large, and was set inside a walled compound. The buildings had now been converted into shops, but the external parts still remained in the original style.
My hair was getting long and a little out of control, so Chris suggested I get a haircut. We found what looked like a busy hair salon near the silk market, and asked for a haircut. Nobody in the salon spoke English, so it was impossible to tell them how I wanted my hair cut. In the end, they washed my hair, massaged my head, rinsed my hair, cut my hair, rinsed it again, then blow dried it. They put a big parting line down my left side... I don't think they understood that comb-overs are for old people in western culture. No matter, I managed to put some gel through it when we got back to the hotel room.
Chris and I wandered down to the West Lake for the afternoon. We stumbled upon an outlet shopping mall, which seemed to be good value, but Chris and I couldn't find anything we particularly liked. When we reached the West Lake, I could hear music, and there was a large group of people gathered in the distance. We made our way along the shoreline to where the music was, and discovered that there was a musical fountain show running near the edge of the lake.
We stayed to watch the fountains for a while. They were quite mesmerizing, moving in time with the music and making shapes in the air with the falling water. I can only imagine how impressive it would have looked if the day had been sunny. The day we were there it was quite grey and overcast. Sometimes the fountains of water looked like they blended in with the sky colour.
Near the fountains, Chris spotted a squirrel. We watched it playing in the trees for a little while, and I managed to get some photographs. We don't see squirrels in Australia, so it was pretty cool to be able to see one.
That evening, we went to the movies. We wanted to see if they had any English movies. The only one showing was "The Pursuit of Happiness". When we got into the theater, the movie had already begun. I guess they don't show advertisements at the beginning of the film like we do in Australia.
At the end of the film, the credits hadn't even began to roll, and they flicked on the lights! No dimming up of the lights like in an Australian cinema, but just hit the switch, and the fluros come on all at once! I was shocked. It was like watching the movies at someone's house, and someone just hit the wrong switch!
Outside the cinema, there were people trying to sell you the DVD of the movie you had just paid to watch. The cinema operators didn't seem to care.

2008-01-21T01:14:00.001+11:00

2008-01-21T01:01:00.001+11:00

2008-01-21T00:49:00.001+11:00

2008-01-21T00:42:00.001+11:00

17 January 2008: Snow!

2008-01-21T00:41:00.001+11:00

After getting so excited about the sunshine in Shanghai, one should note than I also got very excited about the snow in Jiaxing and Hangzhou.
Chris and I awoke a little later than we had planned, and started the day off with a brisk walk around part of the South Lake. We saw a couple of people practicing Tai-Chi by the water's edge, which was very surprising, given how cold the morning air was. While we were walking, a light dusting of snow began to fall. We started making our way back to the hotel to pack our things and eat some breakfast.
By the time Fion and Elane came to pick us up, the snow was coming down quite heavily, and some parts of the snow were starting to stick to buildings and plants. Elane was very excited about the snow, saying that it doesn't often snow in Jiaxing.
Fion and Elane took us to a mountain near Hangzhou, which was home to a Tibetan Buddhist Temple. The mountain was riddled with stone carvings in every possible nook and cranny. The carvings were very old and surrounded by legend. The legend claims that the entire mountain was flown to it's current location from India! I think it's more likely that the monks living in the temple thousands of years ago carved these out using rudimentary tools. It's hard to tell though, because the line between myth, legend, and truth in Chinese culture seems a little blurred.
The mountain was spectacular! It was like something out of a fairytale, with a light dusting of snow just for added special effect. I could have spent all day wandering in and out of the mountain paths, except that it was quite cold, and we were under a strict time limit.
After making our way through a couple of the winding tracks, Fion pointed out where the temple was. The temple was so big that I couldn't see all of it at once. Fion led us through a courtyard and into the first pavilion, which housed some gold plated statues. I was impressed at their size, being about 10m high (that's just an estimate).
We moved through several pavilions, all with beautiful gold statues, and huge inscents burning pots. Fion and Elane explained that there is a pavilion for each of the main gods, and that smaller (related) gods line the edges of the pavilion.
One pavilion was right at the rear of the compound, and overlooked the mountains and all the other buildings. Inside, was a giant gold Buddah. Again, I marveled at the scale of the statue; it was so big that I struggled to fit it into my camera's view. It almost felt like the pavilion was too small for this idol, and that the roof should be made higher, or that the Buddah was going to get cramped up in this small space.
On the way back to the car, Chris started a snow-ball fight, and managed to throw a big wad of snow down my neck!! It was very cold. Fion and Elane thought it was very funny, and started making snow-balls to throw at each other and at Chris. It was a lot of fun.
Fion and Elane stopped at one of the street vendors to buy some Chinese name charms. They gave me Chinese surnames, Chris' surname was to hard for them so they used his first name. My surname is "Whey" meaning hansom and strong. It's pronounced the same way as "Hello" when you answer the phone in Chinese, but Fion assures me that it's a different word. :)
We went to lunch at the most famous hotel in Hangzhou, It's right on the edge of the West Lake, and is over 100 years old. Following lunch, Fion took us out on a small boat to see the islands in the middle of the lake. It was very cold. After that we started heading to our Hotel, we took the scenic route around the lake, it was much warmer in the car! We did stop on the way to have one last quick look around the lake. We found some goldfish swimming in the lake, and a lady selling popcorn to feed them, I never knew goldfish ate pop-corn, but these ones did. It was great fun. We then continued heading to our hotel where we said goodbye to our new friends from Jiaxing Jackson.
Chris and I spent a couple hours getting settled into the hotel, and thawing out. Then we set out to explore Hangzhou by foot. I got us lost, and we managed to stumble upon the train station, then a night-market. The night market was good, and didn't seem like as much of a rip off as the markets in Shanghai. Chris saw a couple things he liked, so we bought them. Then we headed back to the hotel.

2008-01-19T14:15:00.001+11:00

2008-01-19T14:12:00.001+11:00

16th January 2008: Jiaxing Jackson

2008-01-19T14:08:00.001+11:00

At 9am this morning, Helen and a driver from Jiaxing Jackson came to collect Chris and me from the hotel. After a 2 hour drive from Shanghai to Jiaxing, we finally reached the factory. Ray was there, so we stopped for a short chat over lunch. Ray had to get going to Yinshan, so he had to leave straight after lunch.
Following lunch, Fion and Elane took Chris and I to a small historic village. The village was the same spot they filmed parts of Mission Impossible 3. All the residents in the village try to live in the traditional way, as much as possible. The town had many rivers and canals, which could be used as transport of goods and people, however it was more common to walk along the banks of the canal instead, because the village was only small.
We stopped in a small museum with some more silk, calligraphy, and pottery. Most of the captions were in Chinese, so Fion and Elaine had fun trying to interperate some of the signs for Chris and I. We stopped for some traditional Chinese Toffee, and some smelly tofu. I had never tried smelly tofu before, but had been told about it by Ray, Peter and Mauris. I was very brave, and tried eating a piece. It wasn't as bad as everyone had made me think it would be!
Once we were sufficiently chilled to the bone, we jumped back into the boss' BMW, and headed back to the factory.
Fion took me on a tour around the factory, showing me where the Oates products were made. I got to see the handle rolling/welding machine, and the powder coating line. They also showed me a giant injection moulding warehouse that puts Oates to shame! They had so many dies and so many machines! I was very surprised by how large their operation was. Fion then showed me the assembly area. They assemble everything by hand, and have a big conveyor that carries all the products down through the crowd of assembly staff. I was a little disappointed that they were not assembling any Oates products while I was there, but I guess that's just luck of the draw.
Fion introduced me to Jiaqing, the engineer who I usually deal with for drawing approvals and such. He was surprised at how young I was, which made me a little flattered. He was very nice, and agreed to come to dinner with us.
Over dinner, Jiaqing taught me a couple Chinese words, and helped me figure out the correct way to eat some of the more exotic Chinese dishes. I tried eating duck's tongue, but passed on the chicken feet.
After dinner, Chris and I were dropped at the hotel. The hotel was really nice, and was situated on the main tourist attraction in Jiaxing, South Lake.
Chris and I said goodbye to our friends from Jiaxing Jackson, and took our things to our room. Then we headed out again, searching for a Starbucks. We knew there was one somewhere in the city, because we had driven past it. However, after wandering around for a couple hours, we had no luck finding Starbucks, and headed home to our hotel. The one good thing about our fruitless search was that we were able to catch a rick-shaw through the city streets while we searched for Starbucks.

2008-01-19T14:05:00.000+11:00

15 January 2008: Shanghai Museum

2008-01-19T02:28:00.000+11:00

Early this morning, Brent and Ryan flew out to Tokyo. They are visiting a friend there, and we will meet back with them in Hong Kong.
Chris and I started the day having a look through the Shanghai Museum. It's quite large, and the locals are very proud of their world-class museum. There were many displays of ancient sculpture, ancient silk artworks, wooden masks, lots of pottery / ceramics, and a curious display documenting the history of currency in China.
The museum was quite well presented, with many displays. There were possibly too many displays to look at in one day. I felt quite drained after looking though the displays, but was glad we spent most of the morning looking through the museum.
We grabbed a bite to eat, at Megabite, which is a food court. You have to buy a smartcard, and pay for food from the food court using the card! It was a little strange. The food we chose was very good, and was cooked right in front of us! I was very impressed. I even managed to try some sweet black rice pudding, which I was surprised I liked!
We then headed over to the markets, buying some more scrolls. We have so many now, that I can't remember what they all mean. I am going to have to get Ryan or Marita to translate them for me when I get back to Australia. Chris and I also bought a ceramic bull, which has some characters on it, but we have no idea what it means. Perhaps "good luck"? Everything around here seems to mean good luck!
Chris and I headed home, and had a quiet evening, packing our things. Tomorrow we are going to visit Jiaxing. One of our suppliers from work agreed to show us around the factory while we are visiting, so I wanted to make sure we were packed and ready to go in the morning.

14 January 2008: Sunny Days!

2008-01-19T02:26:00.001+11:00

When I woke up this morning, it was sunny outside! Shanghai had a particular buzz about it as everyone was drying their washing in the glimpse of sunlight. People were suddenly out in the streets, playing games in the parks, and everyone seemed to be generally a bit more cheery. There was only one thing we could possibly do on such a day.....
Visit the Oriental Pearl Tower!
It's the most iconic building in Shanghai, you would have seen it in some of my photos. It's used as a tourist attraction, and as a TV/radio tower. There are some small museums, a revolving restaurant, and an observation deck. We caught the ferry across "The Bund", and spent a good part of an hour and a half on the observation deck, before the clouds started to roll in, making the city view overcast.
After going up the Pearl Tower, we spent some time shopping in one of Shanghai's biggest shopping malls. It was very much like any other western mall, except that it had about 9 levels! The prices appeared to be about what we would pay at home. They did have different brands though, mainly H&M (which I had not seen since my trip to Germany!) and Sketchers shoes.
Brent suggested we eat lunch at a Thai restaurant, which turned out to be very nice. Following lunch, Chris and I went to the airline's office to book tickets for our flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong. The airlines here are very strange; they only accept credit card payments at their head office, and don't let you buy over the internet or via the telephone. They do offer a COD service, where you can pay cash when a courier brings the ticket to your home or workplace. It seemed very strange to me.
In the evening, we decided we should have a nice dinner, at the top of the Jin Mau Tower. It's right next to the pearl tower, but is taller! It's home to the world's highest hotel, the Grand Hyatt Shanghai.
We went to the observation deck before dinner, and took lots of photos. Then we rushed down the tower, and headed over to the entrance for the Grand Hyatt. After reaching the 86th floor of the hotel, we ate a beautiful meal, and watched the lights along the bund get turned off at 10.30pm. :)
I had never eaten at a restaurant with such a beautiful view, so it was quite an experience.

2008-01-15T19:59:00.001+11:00

2008-01-15T13:16:00.001+11:00

2008-01-15T13:14:00.001+11:00

2008-01-15T13:12:00.000+11:00

13 January 2008: The underground Mau museum and the copy market

2008-01-14T22:34:00.002+11:00

We kicked off the day today with breakfast at the hotel. I have found that the kitchen staff at the hotel don't seem to know what foods are supposed to be hot, and what's supposed to be chilled. Everything seems to come out rather warm. I find that I have to request that they make me "fresh hot black tea" just to get a half decent cup of tea. Maybe it's just me being too western?
Ryan took us to this really cool gallery / museum in the French concession. It was hidden in the basement of an apartment building, so we never would have found it without Ryan. The gallery featured a history of modern "New" China propaganda, and told the story of Mau through artworks.
Mau was the longest serving leader of China, and is credited with leading a "cultural revolution" which saw the modernization of Chinese culture, traditions and technology. Mau used posters as his main form of communication with the people, encouraging them to unite against the invading US forces, and for Chinese to support the Russians during the cold war. Mau also wrote a book of quotes and sayings, and encouraged the people to read it, and live by it.
I spent about 5 times as long as everyone else looking over the posters, so by the time I had finished looking, there was not much time to peruse the small gift shop.
We stopped for coffee on the way to Jin An Temple. Jin An Temple is a buddist temple which was built many years ago. It appeared to have been destroyed by fire or something, so they are re-building it. The new temple is very beautiful, and has a giant inscents burner in the center of the courtyard. I found it very curious that the interior of the worship space was not decorated. the walls were bare concrete, and no money had been invested on the most used space in the building. The outside of the buildings were very showy and grand, so I hope they have just not completed the worship space interior yet.
From the temple, we caught the subway to the copy market. The marketplace is called "Qipu Lu" market, which sounds strangely similar to "cheap-o-lou" in English. The rest of the day was spent shopping and being hassled by Chinese stall-holders. We started to get the hang of the bartering system, and managed to get some shirts for around 50RMB each. I wanted to get them for 40RMB, but the lady didn't want to accept that. Still, it's a small price to pay for faux Armarni. At one stage, we had about 16 people following us around the shopping complex, all wanting us to buy from their stall. It was unbelievable. It was really fun too!
When we left the market, we were trying to hail a taxi and I caught a man trying to pick-pocket things out of my backpack. He didn't take anything, and ran away straight away, so I was lucky.
That night, it snowed! The snow didn't gather on the ground, because it was too light, and it was too warm, but still, snow is snow! It has been unusually cold here in Shanghai according to the local press. The weather is hovering between about 2 degrees and 5 degrees every day.
We headed out, braving the cold weather for a walk along the Bund. I wanted to get some photos of the pretty lights of Shanghai. In retrospect, this was probably a stupid idea, not only because of the snow, but because I was so cold I couldn't hold the camera still. I left the mini-tripod in the apartment... :(
On the way home, we spotted some posters for the Australian Open, which we had to stop at and take some photos. :)

12 January 2008: Yu Gardens

2008-01-14T22:34:00.001+11:00

Well, today we visited the Yu Gardens and Bazaar. The Yu Gardens are the main attraction here, but a very large marketplace has sprung up around the tourist attraction hunting for the tourist dollar. No tourist marketplace is complete without a Starbucks nearby, so Chris, Ryan, Brent and I kicked off the morning with some shopping and coffee.
We escaped the hustle and bustle of the marketplace by entering the peaceful Yu Garden. This garden was built in the Ming Dynasty, but I'm not sure what it's intended use was. There is a temple nearby, so maybe it was made as a reflective space. It is now full of tourists and a couple small shops peddling Chinese calligraphy, and other bits and pieces.
Some of the lakes were full of the biggest gold-fish I have ever seen. They saw you walking over the bridge, and would gather around you if you stood still.
After wandering through the Yu Gardens, we made our way away from the touristy marketplace, to one that was a little less-so. The products looked to be of a little higher quality, and many of the shop keepers didn't speak English. I liked shopping in the markets, possibly because it's so different to shopping in Australia, but also because it's the thing that Shanghai is famous for.
That evening, Ryan took us to his Uni so we could see where he had been studying for the last 6 weeks. It seemed quite nice, and he could see the Pearl Tower from his room window. I was surprised at just how many apartment buildings there are in Shanghai, but also in the other places we have been in China.
Ryan took us to his favorite local restaurant, and we ate far too much delicious Shanghai food.
After a quick visit to the DVD shop, we headed home, carrying 4 shopping bags full of DVDs. (Let's hope we can get them through customs!)

Shanghai Sightseeing Tunnel

2008-01-14T21:09:00.000+11:00

2008-01-14T20:48:00.001+11:00

2008-01-14T20:46:00.001+11:00

2008-01-14T20:44:00.001+11:00

2008-01-14T20:42:00.001+11:00

Thre other Great Wall of China.

2008-01-12T19:55:00.001+11:00

I apologize if my posts seem a little sporadic. I have found that I can post to my blog, but I am not able to view it while I am in China. I guess it's the other "great wall" working it's magic. :)

2008-01-12T19:52:00.001+11:00

2008-01-12T19:50:00.001+11:00

2008-01-12T19:49:00.001+11:00

2008-01-12T19:47:00.001+11:00

11 January 2008: Waiting Room

2008-01-12T12:15:00.000+11:00

At 6.50am we were awoken by a phone call saying "Time to wake up!" The recorded message was short, sharp, and contained almost no helpful information. This was an indication of the day that was ahead of us.
Breakfast was a full buffet meal, with traditional Chinese dishes. Chris and I struggled to find food we liked, and settled for some kind of deep fried egg which we put on toast. The Chinese airline hostesses laughed at us as we ate our egg on toast. :) I didn't mind.
We went to our rooms after breakfast, and packed our things ready to catch the train to Shanghai. We discovered that internet access was available for free, so I checked a few emails, and tried to upload a few photos. Uploading photos was very slow, and I'm not sure that any of them got to their intended destination. I will have to check when we get to the next available internet access.
The fog appeared to be clearing, as some rain started to fall around the hotel. The airline thought that the rain will continue, and clear away much of the fog around Shanghai. They arranged for a coach to pick us up and take us back to the airport. There we waited, and waited, and waited. There were no planes flying anywhere because of the heavy fog.
Air China did not seem prepared to deal with such an event. It seemed that nobody on the ground had any power to do anything, or give any answers. Chris and I made friends with some fellow travelers who also spoke English. If we had not been with these people, I would have felt quite uncomfortable and worried. No announcements were made in English, so we relied on our new friends translating for us.
Around 2pm, the airline decided that we were clearly never going to fly into Shanghai, so everyone would have to bundle onto a coach, and travel 3 hours to reach Shanghai. I got a little annoyed that the airline delayed making this decision until far too late! I guess that on the bright side, Brent and Ryan were also stuck in heavy fog, so we were not holding anyone up.
Upon arriving in downtown Shanghai, we caught a taxi to the apartment we are staying at. The first taxi driver told us it would be 100RMB, which seemed very very expensive. I ssaid this is too expensive, and we found another taxi. The next taxi driver charged us 11RMB, which is less than AUD$2.
We caught up with Brent and Ryan, and went out to dinner, then wandered around the main tourist shopping district of Shanghai. The fog was still a little thick, so we couldn't get lots of good photos. We went through the Shanghai "Sight-seeing tunnel" which was a laugh! I took a video for anyone interested in seeing just how tacky the experience is. :) I'll try to upload it to YouTube, but no guarentees.

Facebook

2008-01-11T22:27:00.000+11:00

I just figured out how to upload photos to Facebook. Look me up on Facebook to have a look through the China Trip album.

10 January 2008: Bye Bye Beijing

2008-01-11T22:17:00.001+11:00

Today was our last day in Beijing. Our plane to Shanghai left at 8.20pm, and we had no tours booked. We had some time to kill.
I was interested to see more of the famous hutong houses and laneways, and was keen to wander through Tian'an Men square some more. Chris and I headed out in the morning, around 10am. We wandered though the laneways and slowly made our way to The Forbidden City. We opted to walk around the palace, instead of through it again. We saw many more locals by choosing to do this.
We stumbled upon the Chinese National Theatre, which is a giant glass dome, surrounded by a man made lake. The entrance to the dome is through an underground tunnel, with a glass roof. The building was quite spectacular, and looked like it would be even more so at night time. I wish we had seen it the day before so I could get some night photos of it, but I guess we lucked out!
Chris and I continued wandering, past the Chinese parliament, which was guarded by many army soldiers. We stopped for a few photos when we reached the vast open space of Tian'an Men Square. At one end of the square there is the entry to the Forbidden City, and a giant painting of Mau. (Mau is the guy who founded New China (PRC) I think...) In the center of the square is a large pillar memorial, which I think is supposed to commemorate everyone who has died for China or something along those lines. Lying behind this pillar there is the Moselum, where the body of Mau is kept. His body is on display some days of the week, at certain times, but Chris and I got there at the wrong time.
There were many people in the square, trying to hawk their wares. Most of the trashy goods seemed to be very poorly made imitation Beijing Olympic Games hats, gloves, and mobile phone accessories. We were also hassled by some sprukers who claimed to be "students of art". They offered to take us to their gallery, but I had read about such scams, and we politely declined.
Earier, along Wafujing Street, we had been hassled by a pair of girls who claimed to be "students of English". They asked us if we would help them practice English over some drinks, but that was another scam I had read about.
After walking around the square a little, and trying several strategies to avoid the hawkers, I was starting to get hungry. In search of food, we headed out of the square, and down one of the glamorous streets. I didn't see any food that looked appealing, so we took the back alley which headed back towards the square. Along the way, we saw some ducks, which looked like they might be wild ducks. I was amazed that they had not been eaten yet! There was also a couple very small and cheap little eateries along the hutong. I thought it was a bad idea to eat at one though, because they did not look very clean.
We stopped for lunch at a very clean and tidy restaurant, which we soon discovered was a Japanese restaurant. The staff were friendly, but had very little English, so Chris and I pointed at the pictures in the menu of what we wanted to eat. A 3 course lunch and some bottled water cost us about AUD$9 each. I like that value!
Following lunch, Chris and I were quite cold. We browsed through some souvineer shops, mainly because they were heated, but also to check out the junk that was being sold at inflated prices. I managed to find a Beijing plate and negotiated the price down from 130RMB to 80RMB. I got the feeling I could have gotten the price even lower, but it was only my first try, so I thought I had done OK.
Chris spotted some official Olympic pins he liked, and asked for a discount, but sadly they could not barter on the price of Olympic merchandise. (I think that's a sign that the pins are genuine!)
We made our way back to the hotel, and wondered through more allyways. We unwittingly wandered into the YWCA shelter, and had a brief encounter with some of the staff there. One spoke English, and appeared very friendly. She explained that they look after sheltered women, and we should not take photos. :( I had thought it looked more like a primary school until she explained what they used the building for.
I was now tired, and had done more than enough aimless wandering for one day. We headed back to the hotel, collected our luggage, and jumped into a taxi to the airport. The traffic was heavy, and the taxi ride took longer than I thought, but we made it to the airport with lots of time to spare.
The plane was very full, and there was no delay in taking off. However, about 20 minutes before landing, the airline staff informed us that there was very poor viability due to fog, and that the plane will land at Hangzhau, not Shanghai as planned.
After waiting on the plane for what seemed like longer than the flight time, we were ushered off the plane and onto a coach. There were two other Australians on the trip, so we talked with them. Some other nice people helped Chris and I translate the directions of airline staff.
The coach took us to a nice, but very "Asian" hotel, where we spent the night, waiting for the fog to clear.

9 January 2008: Forbidden City

2008-01-11T22:15:00.000+11:00

Today we awoke early again. We chose to skip breakfast at the hotel in favor of some fresh fruit and juice we had bought at the supermarket last night.
Our tour group was very small again. This time there were only 3 people in the group! Another man from Shanghai, and us. The tour guide was a different girl from yesterday, but the same man was driving the bus.
The tour began at Tian'an Men Square, and moved north, through The Forbidden City. Tian'an Men Square was very crowded when we passed by, but the tour guide pointed out the new parliament for "New China". She also pointedout the China National Museum, which is under renovations. She pointed out Mao's Mausoleum, which is where the body of Chairman Mau now rests.
I know Tian'an Men Square mostly because of the student massacre. I remember seeing video footage of tanks plowing down a sea of angry students. Our tour guide however, said there was a student protest, but she didn't know what happened. The Chinese media is controlled to prevent any Chinese from knowing what truly went on there.
Our tour group continued through The Forbidden City, which was constructed in the 14th century, during the Ming Dynasty. (Ming Dynasty was also responsible for The Great Wall). The Forbidden City is where the Emperor would reside. The entire complex was designed around a central axis, with no expense spared. There were several great halls, in witch the Emperor could conduct political business. These were all designed with the throne in the center.
At the rear of the forbidden city was where the Emperor's women lived. They had a beautiful garden area, and many rooms for sleeping, eating, and leisure activities. The garden area was decorated with stone sculptures from the bottom of a Chinese lake. Most of the women would not ever see the Emperor, but were kept there waiting, just in case. There were no men allowed in the complex.
We crossed a 55 meter wide mote as we left The Forbidden City, and the tour guide pointed out the 10m high walls and watch towers that were built for protection.
The next stop for our tour bus was the Summer Palace. This Palace was built after the Forbidden City. The palace seemed to be a little lower security, and was built at the edge of a man-made lake. It took 1000 men 4 years to dig out a huge lake, and piled up all the clay next to it, creating a mountain for worshiping the gods.
The summer palace had been beautifully restored for the upcoming Olympic Games, and is home to the longest oriental painted corridor in the world.
Our tour guide told us about one emperor who was too young to rule, so his mother used to make all the decisions on his behalf. When he was older, he wanted to rebel against his mother, so she locked him in a courtyard in the summer palace. She made him marry her niece, instead of his true love, and then poisoned him, so that a more obedient son could become emperor.
At The Summer Palace, they also had "the world's largest marble boat" which was really a dining room built from marble in the shape of a boat on the edge of the lake.
After stopping for some "top quality pearls at low prices" and a bite of lunch, we continued on our way to the Temple Of Heaven. This is the postcard of Beijing Tourism, and was the place where the Emperors would come to prey every year for good crops and good health.
The temple is in a circular shape, indicating that it is heavenly, in contrast to the square buildings at the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City. The temple is constructed using 3 levels of roof. The top level represents heaven, and is held up by 4 pillars, representing the 4 seasons. The second roof represents mankind, and is held by 12 pillars representing the 12 months. The lowest roof represents the earth, and is held by 12 pillars, representing the 12 hours of daylight each day.
Once we had our fill of the temple of heaven, we proceeded back to the bus. The corridors were crowded with people playing cards, playing musical instruments, eating, singing and dancing. These people were all retired. China has a forced retirement at 55/60. They have no health care, so I'm not sure how people are supposed to support themselves. I did notice that some of the ladies were sewing things to sell, perhaps this keeps them going just a bit longer?
When our tour guide dropped us off at the hotel, Chris and I went for a wander through the "Hutong" witch are the traditional houses built at the time of the Ming Dynasty. These houses are for the commoners, so only grey was allowed to be used for decoration. No colors. The hutong and now protected by law, so they are cheap to live in, but very expensive to buy.
Chris and I ventured into a shopping mall, where we discovered a couple car dealerships! There was also a food court, and lots of western brand shops.
We passed on the food, and ventured back to the night food market. Chris and I had some food from the carts, and we also had a candied fruit stick each. :) We will have to wait and see if either of us got food poisoning from it later! lol

2008-01-11T22:14:00.001+11:00

2008-01-11T22:13:00.001+11:00

2008-01-11T22:11:00.001+11:00

8 January 2008: Chris's Birthday at The Great Wall Of China

2008-01-11T22:09:00.000+11:00

We awoke this morning, excited about the prospect of our first day in China. We had arrived very late at night, and had gone straight to bed.
We decided to eat breakfast in the hotel's dining room, so that we would not have to brave the cold weather outside in search of breakfast food. The hotel's breakfast was very good, but clearly had been made for westerners.
Chris had organized a group tour of the Ming Tombs and The Great Wall of China before we left Melbourne, so we had to get ourselves down to the hotel lobby by 8am for the tour bus. Our tour was only small, with 7 in total. Another Australian couple were on the tour! (Tasmanians, but we will forgive them for that...)
The tour bus stopped at several "Government Friendship" stores along the way, where they offered "reasonable price, no argue". I'm sure it won't be the last time I will chuckle about English translations over here.
The first friendship store was selling Jade. Jade is a green stone that changes color as it ages. The Chinese think that Jade is a "living stone" because of this change in color. Many people buy Jade as jewelery, it is supposed to be a omen for good health.
The shop had a small display workshop where we were able to watch the jade being carved. Apparently, once you learn to carve jade, you are not allowed to work as anything else but a jade carver. There are no Tafe coursers or schools to learn this skill. It is passed on from generation to generation, father to son...
The other "government friendship store" we stopped in specialised in copper vases. They too had a small workshop which we were able to walk through and watch the process of enameling the copper vases. This was fascinating. I never realized just how much work goes into even the most simple vases.
Starting from a base copper vase, a design of very fine copper ribbon is glued on to the surface. This copper ribbon forms little compartments in the design. These compartments are then filled with glaze and fired. It sometimes takes up to 7 or 8 layers of glaze and fire to achieve the correct finish. The piece is complete when the colored sections are flush with the copper ribbon. No wonder the price of copper is so expensive, its all being used to make vases in China.
The Ming Tombs is basically the burial ground for the Ming Dynasty emperors. 13 tombs are buried in various locations of the park, but many are not restored. The tomb we visited had been restored. There was a large courtyard, a temple for worship, and a monument (tombstone) to mark the location. There was a big hill behind this monument, which was the actual location of burial. One of the most notable things from this tomb was that in the temple / palace, all the pillars were made from cedar trees that were at least 1000 years old. It's amazing to think that there were once 13 temples / palaces, all with many cedar trees holding them up!
The highlight of the day was visiting The Great Wall of China! We visited the most restored part of the wall, at Badaling. They have a "chairlift" to help get up to the top of the mountain that the wall sits on. I think something must have been lost in translation with "chairlift", because it was more like a roller coaster!
The view from the top of the wall was beautiful, although street vendors shouting at you to buy their wares did tarnish the moment. Luckily, the day we visited it was sunny and there were clear skies. I took lots of photos. The mountains looked so majestic from the top of the wall, it's a pity that there were so many people clamoring to take photos and buy souvenirs. I can imagine how much I would hate it in the summertime!
As we made our way back to the tour bus, we passed some black bears. They had been caught and were kept in captivity for the tourists.
The bus ride returning to the hotel passed by the location of the Olympic Village. Chris and I tried to take photos of the huge apartment buildings from the side of the bus. Also, they have built a huge stadium and water-sports complex which is very impressive. This is also where Chris received a phone call, he seems to always be on his phone. It was Ryan checking how we were doing in Beijing, they were traveling around Harbin, China, visiting the ice city and the -20C temperatures. They were recommending a restaurant for dinner that night. After Chris hung up the phone, one of the other passengers asked Chris if it was his birthday.... and I thought, crap!! I had remembered yesterday and with all that was going on today it had gone totally out of my mind. Now I had make up for lost birthday for the rest of the afternoon/evening. Chris being Chris had noticed that I had forgotten about it being his birthday and as he does did not say a word, and was just quietly waiting to see if he could get through the entire day without me realising.
As we contuined driving around, I noticed that many buildings are under construction at the moment. Our tour guide assured me that this is normal, but I'm not so sure if it's because of the Olympics or not.
When we returned to the hotel, Chris and I set off on foot to explore the city a little more, and find the duck restaurant that Ryan and Brent recommended. We discovered a giant new shopping mall complex, and the night food-market. At the food market they sold weird foods on skewers, such as scorpion, sea-horse, snake, octopus, and silk worm. I was not brave enough to buy anything, but I did manage to see some people try eating centipede, and another eating the scorpion. I must admit that made my stomach flutter.
Chris and I ate in the much more plush "Quanjude Duck Restaurant". We ordered peiking duck, which is the local delicacy. Chris ordered some rice wine to accompany the duck. The fun of ordering drinks in a foreign country is trying to work out exactly what they are selling you. They did not serve Sparkling, so we thought we would be adventurous and go for the rice wine. It's like a muscat, and you drink it in little glasses. Most probably been better if we had some other people to share the bottle with, but we managed to get through it.

2008-01-11T22:08:00.000+11:00

2008-01-11T22:06:00.000+11:00

2008-01-11T22:05:00.001+11:00

2008-01-11T11:33:00.000+11:00

7 January 2008: Getting There

2008-01-11T11:10:00.001+11:00

Chris and I flew out of Melbourne airport, heading for Beijing, with a short stop in Sydney. Flying time approximately 12 hours, 30 minutes. That was the plan at least.
When we arrived at Melbourne airport, we discovered that the Qantas baggage handling system was not operating correctly, and everyones details had to be manually entered into the computer. It was like a "DOS" system, every command needing to be entered using its shortcut code. There was a very long line of people waiting to check in, which we took a position at the back of. After waiting for about 45 minutes, the line seemed to only be moving very slowly. The airline staff were calling out urgent flight numbers to move to the front of the que for priority service.
Our flight to Sydney was called out as an urgent flight, about 45 minutes prior to it's scheduled departure. Almost every hand in the line went up! We were all waiting for the same flight! The look on the flight attendant's face was one of shock and disbelief. She quickly arranged for two more luggage counters to be opened just for people on our flight to Sydney.
Everyone was checked through very quickly after that.
When we got onto the plane, we sat on the tarmac for at least 30 minutes while all the last minute luggage was loaded onto the plane. We arrived in Sydney late.
Fortunately, our connecting flight was also running behind schedule, so we had no problem catching that flight.
Sydney to Beijing was fairly uneventful, except that the interactive VOD (Video On Demand) system was not working, so we were stuck with very little choice for entertainment. I did manage to watch Rattatouli, which was a really good movie. I also watched parts of Bourne Ultimatum, and some of a film called "Fracture".
The lack on entertainment, and the cramped seating began to wear about half way through the flight, with Chris declaring that he's "had enough now" and recommend we got an urgent upgrade to Business class!
Arrival in Beijing went smoothly, we were the last plane to land, the airport looked deserted. We were sitting in the 4th last row, so it took a little time for us to exit the plane. At least we had an airbridge, so there was only a small taste of the outside air temperature sneaking through the gap where it joins the plane. We made our way through customs, where a nice lady checked we had all the correct paperwork to enter China, and stamped our passports. Chris found our bags straight away on the carousel, so we were quickly off through security and ready to find our way to the Hotel. I withdrew some cash from a HSBC ATM, (for once it is good to bank with them, I'm in another country and its like being at home).
We then make our way to the taxi rank. There we had no problem finding a nice taxi driver to take us to our hotel. We had orgainsed for the address to be printed in Chinese characters before we left (thanks Ryan) as the Taxi drivers here don't speak English, it made it very easy for him to know where we needed to go. 80CNY ($12.50) (including 10CNY for the toll way) and we were there. We are staying at the Novotel Peace in Beijing, which is right near the center of town. I guess it would be like staying at the Langham hotel (location-wise) in Melbourne. It's only a short walk to many famous attractions, and colorful nightlife.

2007-12-31T13:18:00.001+11:00

2007-12-31T13:17:00.001+11:00

2007-12-31T13:14:00.001+11:00

2007-12-31T13:11:00.001+11:00

I painted it myself...

2007-12-31T13:08:00.001+11:00

Christmas Morning 2007

2007-12-31T13:04:00.001+11:00

Christmas Morning at my Mum and Dad's house

2007-12-31T12:48:00.000+11:00

Our First Christmas!

2007-12-31T12:47:00.001+11:00

Christmas Eve at Chris's parents' house

2007-12-31T12:44:00.001+11:00

Our First Christmas Tree! =)

2007-12-31T12:42:00.001+11:00

2007-12-26T10:38:00.001+11:00

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-26T10:36:00.001+11:00

Merry Christmas boys and girls! It's time to get festive! Now for my Christmas dance: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1774701880
Yesterday (Christmas Day), Chris and I started off the day with opening gifts at our house. Then we went to my parent's house to open more presents. Lunch was at Chris's Grandpa's house, which is where we spent most of the day.
In the evening, we proceeded to my Aunt Belinda's house for dinner. The food was great, and the company was even better. I got to catch up with all the cousins, which was lots of fun.
Shane topped off the evening with some exciting news: He's engaged! Emily seems like a great girl, and I'm very excited for them. Congratulations Shane and Emily.

Happy 21st Peter

2007-12-22T18:17:00.001+11:00

Happy 22nd Birthday Fiona

2007-12-22T18:15:00.000+11:00

Happy 22nd Birthday Nick

2007-12-22T18:07:00.000+11:00

Happy 25th Birthday Jeff

2007-12-22T18:01:00.000+11:00

My 22nd Birthday!

2007-12-03T23:04:00.001+11:00

Ferntree Gully Church Fete - Nativity Photos

2007-12-03T23:00:00.001+11:00

Ferntree Gully Church Fete - Nativity Photos

2007-12-03T22:51:00.001+11:00

Sneaky Sound System!

2007-11-23T00:04:00.001+11:00

2007-11-22T23:59:00.000+11:00

Sushi dinner before Sneaky Sound System

2007-11-22T23:56:00.001+11:00

Peter's 19th Birthday

2007-11-22T23:49:00.000+11:00

Making Fairy Floss at the GWUC Fete.

2007-10-20T21:18:00.000+10:00

Timezone / Peter and Alanee's birthdays

2007-10-20T21:08:00.001+10:00