Frozen in the Australian Heat

A while ago I told myself that movies were a waste of my money, and that renting from civic video was a much better option - namely because of the price difference. I had always come out of movies thinking to myself, "that was not worth $13" or "I wish I had just had the patience to wait for it to come out on dvd so I could've just rented it instead". There came a point where I could not take this horrible feeling of regret any longer. I was not going to watch another movie in the cinemas. Little did I know, that Frozen would be an exception to this. 

Let me explain myself. When I first heard of Frozen, next to nobody had. I watched the trailer on YouTube, it looked alright - wasn't that keen. Just another movie that tries to copy Tangled. After its release when more and more people started watching it, I heard pretty good things about it. People posted the songs on their Facebook, and YouTubers started doing covers of the songs - not bad. A few people asked if I would watch it with them, but I told them I wouldn't (due to my informal oath). I was determined to persist with this one. Under no circumstances, for no movie would I pay a bucketload of money to watch. Until Borthi asked me to... I kind of said yes because (let me explain, I'm innocent here!!!!) this would be my last opportunity to see her before she leaves to Townsville. She really wanted to watch it, and I guess I did too. So, I gave in and crumbled. Right at the last minute. :( We managed to get $5.50 tickets, which is pretty good (inclusive of free parking). 

Here we are, sitting in anticipation.

**** SPOILER ALERT****

Some memorable scenes of the movie!

Yes - I cried. The plot was okay, but I loved the music. That's as much reviewing I'll do. We did quite a bit of walking to the CBD and back, but we took a polaroid on the way. I'll miss this girl :)

At small group that night, we played three rounds of MAFIA! I was policeman in the first two rounds and mafia in the last round. It was so fun! First time, mafia won (I think) because no-one suspected Charlene as mafia because she was so quiet and innocent! I did my best and killed off Kwany the mafia before I died. Second round, similar jist. People were getting the hang of the game, so at the end it was left to a few of us still standing. I suspected Wells to be the last mafia, but I wasn't sure whether to listen to him or to Charles. I was the police, so in my sleep I checked if it was Wells. It was. We voted him out/I killed him (can't remember). WOOOOO!!! 

Last round was the most fun! Alex, Charles and I were mafia this round. I tried my best to remain my vocal self and placed my civilian façade on as best as possible. I acted clueless as to who the mafia were, verbally ruling out possibilities and voicing out my speculations. Charles and I had no idea Alex was mafia because at the beginning Kwany was waving his arms around so we thought it was him. We actively and unintentionally voted him out to be killed. This turned out to work in our favour. People didn't suspect us because we didn't hesitate to vote Alex out. No-one had any major accusations against Charles and I during the whole game. I guess we acted well. Everybody believed me when I said I was innocent because I said the same thing in the previous games and I ended up to be the police. I guess consistency works. Charles did a great job at communication. We were sitting directly across from each other, which made things easier I suppose. He would use the dolphin soft toy to point to people and do particular actions unique to different members of the group. In a previous game, I had suspected Melody of being the mafia because she was stroking her hair as if nervous. In this game, Charles stroked his hair so as to indicate for me to choose her to kill. He also pretended to read a book (I don't know how nobody saw that). I didn't get that one at the start, but I figured it was Kwany, since he's a teacher. Anyways, job well done. I can't believe we won. Ace of hearts and Ace of clubs man. gg

I was going to bring a mango turd tart with toasted coconut crust to small group, but turned out it needed to be refrigerated overnight. Oh well. Here is the completed version. 

What's been going on these days?

These couple of weeks have been fairly eventful, with things to do and places to go (as compared to other holidays where I get bored). I was scrolling through Facebook and found a page called Rik Lee Illustration. This person is an amazing artist who features realistic drawings of females, tattoos, animals. Taking a particular linking towards the style, I decided to see if I could replicate one of the simpler pictures. 

I hadn't picked up a pencil to do a proper drawing in years, so it was a hit/miss kind of thing. It turned out alright - I didn't need to use a rubber yay! If I had, I would've fixed up the eyes instead of drawing on top of my mistakes haha it looks like she has really thick eyeliner! Nonetheless, I enjoyed this activity and decided to do more these holidays. 

The next day I woke up and just started drawing!

   This sketch turned into a watercolour artwork! I went to get watercolour pencils to colour it in and paint over it. I think it turned out quite well! :) 

I can identify with 'the hermit' - enjoying staying at home, chilling, reading with
a cup of hot chocolate/tea :)

Jeffy and I replicated the same picture as a competition haha. We clearly have different artistic styles, so it was
interesting to see how the picture would turn out. 

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It was also CNY a couple of days ago, so J and I decided to head off to have yumcha and visit our Chinese roots. There weren't many people there (as children have gone back to school), so it was a stress-free situation!

My favourite egg tart - crispy and buttery :D

The arrival of February brought about a sense of excitement as my mum's birthday approaches. I suggested to organise a celebration with her friends, and she happily agreed. She's always been a fan of Hong Kong style BBQ, so we decided to have a test run in our backyard. We borrowed the BBQ from our friend and got some firestarters going. It actually went really well, as we could test things out and get a great meal out of it. The menu consisted of sausages, meat + cuttlefish balls, crab sticks, chicken wings + drumsticks, prawns, pork, steak topped off with honey + lemon lime bitters. We had a lot of fun!

Charles came along after his own dinner and we had a nice time :) He was matching clothes with Jeffy
(on accident haha)

Jeffy is looking for a new car to buy and found a potential car online. Today we went to the seller's home to check out the car. It was a very good drive performance-wise, but in terms as aesthetics, not as nice as the Type R. We decided to use this trip as an opportunity to visit the beach and get some sunshine!

This week... continued!

Today (wednesday), our family friends decided to go to go-karting. Not my thing - plus it's a waste to pay $70 for a few 10 minute rounds when I can already drive. My mum and brother shared the same opinion, so we just chilled at home. I read my book and when it was time for lunch, we went to Kingsfood. 

Here is my drink. I have developed a new liking to milk tea with grass jelly. The texture is so unique! I think I will buy it every week on Sunday now.

That day family friends from our old church cell group came over for a reunion. I couldn't stay for very long because I had to go to small group at Kwany's. We combined groups with Mel and Jason's for a summer series of Ecclesiastes. I was a happily surprised at the turnout. I'm glad to be mixing with another group and having more people participating rather than like 2:2 ratio (leader:member) haha. 

After SG, I went to visit Jeffy on his close. I took some photos (which I haven't uploaded) to remember his time here. He says more management is taking over his store, so they have priority in terms of hours. Looks like it's time to find a FT job! :) 

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On Thursday, we went to up to the mountains for a gallery walk. I love this place because there are lots of unique shops and buildings around. Here is a breakfast in bed hotel. 

This was parked outside one of the shops - I'm sure motorcycle enthusiasts would love to see one of these :D So strong and steady.. and well... ducati! :) 

Up here in the mountains, it's much cooler (I had a cardi but it was still freezing!) so the roses grow better. How beautiful is God's creation!

I thought this bookstore was pretty cute. It had lots of different books - novels, cookbooks, fairytale books, diaries, books to express appreciation to a sister/mother etc., travel books. Not the conventional books you find in a bookstore I have to say. I found a macaron book which I was tempted to buy but didn't (it was $25).

It was getting late and we were all pretty hungry by the time we started looking for a place to eat. The restaurant where our family usually goes to happened to be closed on Thursdays. We had a look at another place but it was ridiculously priced for the mediocre food that they served. We were left with George's Paragon (not complaining!). Our guests hadn't heard of this place before, so it was interesting to try it out. I had always wanted to go there since everybody keeps on raving about their amazing seafood. 

The food did not disappoint! I ordered a garlic prawn - all the elements were cooked to perfection! The prawns were flavoursome, tender and most importantly gutless. The chips were not too thick or thin and crispy as, and the rice was complimented well by the spinach and creamy white wine sauce. It's safe to say that everyone enjoyed their meal. :)  

Next, we went to the Natural Bridge. When we arrived, I recognised it immediately because two years ago after Refresh, a group of us BCACers visited this place. As I got out of the car, I was immediately greeted with a freshness in the air. YAY :) 

Hello Mr Turkey.

We travelled home, and I went to worship rehearsal. It was very brief (alex style) and we sat down for some ice-cream afterwards. It was nice having Harry and Rizzo around. Mikey lent me some Wii games for tomorrow, and when I left, I found that my shoe was missing. When we found it, a piece of it was chewed off.. I wonder who it was (Rizzo has a particular liking for women's shoes haha). Becki was so nice and gave me a pair of thongs to go home :)