The White Rabbit Trail

A week before my birthday, I received gift from 'White Rabbit committee' member no. 1



What was odd, was the enclosing card had a enigma message... follow the white rabbit???

I (and my mum) spent some time pondering this. Sure there was a white rabbit on the front cover of the rabbit, but it certainly doesn't look like it is going anywhere.

Sure enough, two weeks later, a white rabbit showed up at my letterbox.

and what does the white rabbit tell me to do?? Have ramen with Dan... well.... not often I have the pleasure of following instructions given by a white rabbit, when such opportunity present to oneself, what does one do?


Here's Dan, eating ramen, (p.s. thank you so much for agreeing to have this photo taken). and as so happens, he presented me with....


A lovely (and stylish) card written by all four members of the 'White Rabbit committee". There were the usual encouraging words such as repetition of the words 'old', 'wise' and 'wrinkles'. There were also very heart warming birthday wishes.

The White Rabbit Trail crosses 2 countries, 3 cities and exchanged hands with 4 people (5 including mine). that is no easy feat.


Thank you so much for all the people involved. It was mysterious, fun, thoughtful and frankly pure genius! I had so much fun guessing what was coming next. Thank you so much for these wonderful gifts, I feel grateful to have friends like you. :)

Wedding Photos

Me being me (slack as usual) have been putting off writing a photoblog until now. so enjoy Emily's wedding photos.

Me walking down the scary isle

Here comes the bride.

They are signing their life away. :P

Beautiful table settings.

The main table. I have been conveniently cut off :D

Me giving the speech.

Wedding cake!! yum!!!

Mr and Mrs. Leung are currently living 'happily' in Hong Kong.

Graduation, Finally

9th May 2008, I Lucy finally graduated, thus drawing an end to my academic life. I received my Massey graduation certificate a few days before my ceremony, which makes my graduation day a proper finale to my university life.

If I am totally honest, having deferred my graduation for a year makes me feel less excited about it all. Almost felt as if I was attending someone else's graduation. Most of the ppl who I studied with weren't there, but I am still grateful that ppl went in lengths to make it a special day for me. Like my mum convinced me that we should get a professional photos taken. Daddy who shouted us a family dinner afterwards. Emily who took half day off work so she can attend my graduation. Simon who had to rush from Downtown to Townhall to catch me before my ceremony, and many friends who couldn't be there with me, but had express their congradulations through calls/txts/emails. I really appreciate them all! Thank you so much. Then there is Danny who volunteeringly became my stuff carrier and camera man for the day, and trust me! he had a hard job. There were times where he had to juggle 2 huge cameras, 3 bags whilst taking photos (which he had to held using 2 hands).

So here's my round of applause to my darling camera man/luggage bag for the day.

The day started with a march, which due to the rain I was almost were not going to attend at the last minute. But Candy convinced me otherwise. Had a pleasant walk from Albert park to Queen street catching up with a few ppl. The rain hold out for most of the walk and only started to spit towards the end of the walk.

Candy and I at the front of Aotea centre.

Whilst dispersing at the end of the march, I had a little catch up session with few ppl from the "chemistry group".

Then it was almost time for brunch, but before that I made a desperate call to go to Hannahs and got a party feet for my poor feet that was already suffering in Emily's shoes.

I first made a visit to the BSc brunch at the marquee, and on the way there I saw Pam, who told me that the Chemistry brunch is at the Science Centre... make sense I just totally forgot to check the finer detail on my brunch invitation. But walked to the marquee regardless to pick up my grad bear (thanks Danny) (which according to the Food sci director when I was taking a photo with him, is the "most important thing") Anyway, from the walk to science centre, I bumped into 2 of my college mates whom I have not spoken to since well.. college. It was a pleasant surprise and great to see they are both doing well.

Gemma, me and Grant outside of the marquee.

Whilst outside Thomas building, I coincidently got a txt from Dan and said he'll catch up with me if I have time. So I promptly called him... and there he is. World knows how..er... camera phobic (ok maybe that's an exaggeration) Dan is, but he took a photo with me anyway.

But Dan wouldn't be Dan without... while.. I think the photo speaks for itself.

A big disappointment of the day I guess was when walking into science centre and seeing... all the free food I been dreaming about is all GONE!!!! except for 4 tiny pieces of carrot cake. I crawl my way to devour 2 pieces of carrot cake, I was damn starving by then. I was hoping to see more of my classmates at the chemistry brunch, but to my disappointment, I didn't see ANY! Had a chat with my lecturers non-the-less and Sajith who was my ex-colleague/ex-demonstrator. Then, it was on the run to meet my family and get my photos taken at the Townhall.

Again, thanks to Simon for walking all this way to see me (and the flower which..... that was probabily the last I saw of it :P), Emily for taking the day off, and Danny whom finally had a chance to get a tiny break from the camera and all the stuff I was carrying.

The ceremony was.... probably what I expected. I have been in 2 ceremonies, and was fully aware of the long list of names to be called, and sore hands from all the clapping. But at least this time, I get to be applauded to, if only for a few second. I had a huge fear of tripping, or doing somethign embarrasing on stage, but I am glad to say it didn't happen. YAY~~~

After the ceremony, my day was drawing to an end except for one last mission. Take photos with Tina!!

and here it is! her parenst got her a huge spongebob! isn't that sweet. By then the weather had turned for worse, at least I was glad I could wear my trencher, which turned out to be quite water-proof.

That pretty much concluded my graduation. It ended with a very nice family meal, several more camera shots and...

What's more important in a special occasion like this, than spending quality time with the family.

Chinese New Year Feast

I know being in NZ, Chinese New Year never feel like much, life goes on as usual, ppl still have to work or go to school etc etc. But mum always try to make a festive atmosphere by making a table full of traditional yummy foods!!!

Seven dishes plus soup! not too bad ya?

Especially when dish like this is really many dishes in one.! (assorted of stewed goodies)

This is "lion head" meatballs, which is also called 4 fortune meatballs, as the name suggests very auspicious dish.

Then there's.. sharkfin soup, heheh it's our very last stock too~~ no more sharkfin next year :'(

And of course, CNY woudl not be complete without a fish course! Yummy whole fish drizzled with a sweet and sour sauce. ^^

And the evening would follow by red pockets from parents, and in the recent years, we'll play mah jong. I know in NZ, CNY will never be the same as those in Asian countries, we dotn' have fire crackers going off, big family reunions, and the food is not comparable as what you can get, but in my opinion, this is how I would like to spent mine. Good tradiational food made with love, and good family companiment. What else do you need. ^^

The beginning

The txt msg I received yesterday

"beautiful baby boy born 12:14, 8 pound 4."


^_____________^

My groupmate is officially a daddy~~~ so happy for him~~

Sakura Festival

Saturday was Sakura Festival at IPC (international pacific college). It was a huge event for a small town like palmerston, so I just had to check it out.

Please note, since the only camera I have in palmy is my er...fone... so all the nice pictures here were obtained from Hui using her super pro-looking camera.

IPC is really a pretty campus, it had a whole row of sakura just to accomadate the Japanese students. IPC is basically an institute that target largely Japanese oversea students. A lot of 'rich' Japanese students like to get some overseas exposure, so their parents send their kids to IPC.

I heard rumours that IPC is like party town everynight, which seems almost weird given how peaceful and 'country' like it looks.

There were displays of Japanese doll collection. I remember studyign about them in form 4 but never had the opportunity to see a real life one. Though I must say, the ones in the textbooks looks nicer.

Among the activities, there were the Japanese drum performance. It was awesome!!! really really awesome!!!! You wouldn't expect an institute team like this to be so professional. Every bean, every movement was so uniform! and the way they danced around the drum while keeping to the beat is nothing short of spectacular. I heard from someone that this drum team performed all over New Zealand professionally.

And what would be a festivale like this without the food stalls!! Although, the food isn't particularly special in any way, and I had.. the worse rice burger ever!! Though I did try this Indonesian thing called masabak or something. It was basically egg with peas and onions etc wrapped in some sort of pastry and fried. Not too bad, but definately greasy.

For the frequent goers, the novelty of drums and the displays have faded. To them it was just a brillliant day to enjoy the picnic under sakura trees... like how it should be celebrated.


As for us.. what's a better excuse to take the day off and just relax...

Foodshow Wellington 2007

Went to Wellington on Saturday to attend the Foodshow, and man that was nice~~ All sorts of nice foods, free samples, free tasting. and you know what, we were there for like the entire time, from opening to the end, within which we were bloated all the way through cause of the nice foods :P There were heaps of wine, olive oils, dips, hummus, sauces, sausages, bacons, mushrooms (which i love), spices, teas, coffees, and the list goes on and on. And knowing me, of course i bought some stuff along the way. Bought 2 bottles of syrup, vanilla and hazelnut for dad's er... very professional espressos, bought snappers which are like things you tie end of the bags with? so instead of rubber bands, you can just clip it on! seriously useful. Also bought this morrocan tomato dip thing, and roasted chick peas.. which tasted not bad at all.

We also attended three shows, a cooking one which I found quite useless coz she used quite rare ingredients, a cocktail show, seeing a guy doign all sorts of awesome tricks with the bottles, then wine tasting one, were now i actually know the difference between few basic white wines... not that.. i drink... wine of course :P And here's another thing, coz during the wine tasting session they had free samples.. and well.. since it was free i took some.. LOL feel dizzy after 2 sips :P and so i missed out on er... all the red wines, and wait for the ice wine at the end to taste :P MAN i need to work on my alcohol tolerance. Was kinda... bummed that coz i was dizzy alreayd, didn't get to try the honey wine.. which looked REAL good. oh well

And as if we didnt' had enough food, afterwards we went and had sushi train... which i think wasn't very nice at all, and was expensive, we paid lke $12 each, and we didnt' even had that much food since we were still bloated from the Foodshow. Afterwards we took a walk around Wellington town, which was nice. I think that was the first time I did that, and there were quite a few nice cafes and stuff which looks really nice. Oooo and i foudn this ice cream place.. which had home made pistachio ice cream, but but, but, alreayd blown my budget so didn't had any. Also found this real nice pearl milk tea place which sells Taiwanese cuisines as well as nice looking desserts, hm..... really want to go there one day and pig out :P

All in all, the wellington trip was excellent. It's funny when living in Auckland, goign anywhere outside of Auckland is a big mission. But here, it's like.. Wellington is only 2 hr drive.. not that bad at all :P

Anyway.. enough of me blahing on and on.... Good luck for everyone's study ^^ and i'll be back.. soon-ish

Cultural festival~~

Today is the annual cultural festival at Palmy, so of course me went to check it out. In fact, went and check it out with Annie. So.... I guess it kinda reminds me of.. howick in the park.... there's a lot of food stalls, and a stage at front with ppl er... dancing/singing weird songs :P Oh~ and there were heaps of stalls that sell like.. necklace, clothes and things, but they are not particularly cheap, so didn't really had a good look. The food i guess is what you expect from an event such as this, satays, fried rice, won tons, spring rolls and the list goes on and on, and the best thign of all is NO SUPER LONG CUES!!! was great, i meant i only have to wait on average 2 or 3 ppl before i get served, so unlike the jap festivale in auckland that i went.... super super long cues... so anyway guess what did Lucy end up buying? HOT DOGS!!! you know.. the ones fried in batter (A) been craving for that for ages... so even at a ridiculous price of $2.50, i bought it. :P ok.. had a phillipino satay pork too which was nice. ^^

The suprise thing was i saw one of the lecturer from AU, Conrade Perara? ok.. somethign along that line. His family know Annie quite well, so they were chatting, and me, er.. being blur and blank was just thinking "wow, annie sure knows a lot of ppl" then she's like.. hey you know conrad right? *me looked up* OH YEAH~~~~~~ I KNOW HIM!!! :P had a chat with him, and was really glad when he said (whether he actulaly think so or not) that i made a good choice of coming here if i want to work with industry. Always good to have someone with his kind of background to er agree with my choice. ^_____^

Anyway.. off to read more on gurus... and not the indian ones :D