What a jam-packed weekend!

I just had a fun-filled, jam-packed weekend catching up with 2 of my closest friends & buddies visiting from Sydney (Ivan) & Melbourne (Dennis). I also caught up with Ben Ho who was here with his wife & daughter. The weekend started actually with Friday nite:

Friday nite (15/2/08)

Dennis had come up mainly to say goodbye to Jay & Melina, who are heading overseas for about 1.5 years. He flew up from Melbourne on Friday afternoon. Just a few hours after he arrived, I had dinner with him & a bunch of other guys at Shiok, Eight Mile Plains. I ordered the char kuay teow, which was ok. Dennis had the nasi lemak, & he pronounced it as "nazii lemak", much to my amusement!

Thereafter, most of us headed over to Nigel's place & played some Wii, & had some beers & donuts (Krispy Kreme or something?) which Dennis had brought all the way from Melbourne (he thought Brisbane didn't have them, until he saw the same donuts selling at Brisbane Airport!). Then, some of us left Nigel's place & headed to play LAN just next to McDonalds at Sunnybank. We played Counter Strike, & I proved to be absolutely hopeless, as I was usually among the first to be killed. Nevertheless, it was fun. We played till about 2am!

Saturday (16/2/08)

I headed down to Broadbeach, Gold Coast with a few people for Ivan's surprise birthday, organised by Maria. We arrived at the beach, & Maria drove past a few minutes later with Ivan, who did not seem as surprised as I expected him to be. But he said he was surprised. We then walked to the beach, & were joined by Jay, Melina & Dennis. We sat at the beach for a while, & then Dennis dragged myself & BT over to a nearby pub for some drinks, & to chit chat & reminisce on the past. There was lots of laughs & I lost the number of times we said "those were the days" as we looked back at the funny things in years gone by. We toasted a number of times for a good future for ourselves.

Come dinner time, I wasn't in a state to drive, so we left the car at the beachside & walked to Chiangmai Thai restaurant along Gold Coast Highway. We had some trouble finding the place, mainly because there's also another Thai restaurant along the same road. But thankfully we arrived safely for dinner. We didn't miss anything, as half the table were running late. The food was tasty, but not spicy enough for my liking. After dinner, we got back near the beachside & hung out near the new shops & units. Then me & my passengers headed back to Brisbane.

My one regret was that I didn't get to spend as much time with Ivan as I would have liked, & I "blame" Dennis' presence for that (he dragged me from the beach to the pub). But then again, Ivan already came up to Brisbane a couple of times during the past couple of months & I did catch up with him during those times, whereas Dennis' visit was his first in a year. So, I guess it's all good.....

Sunday (17/2/08)

Sermon was delivered by yet another visiting friend, Ben Ho from Sydney (he's here with his wife & little daughter). It was a superb & encouraging sermon, actually, & I hope I get to blog it sometime soon. Anyway, after church, I & BT attended a "thank you" lunch organised by Jennifer at Oishii, Sunnybank. "Thank you" because we attended her birthday party last month, & she didn't think there was enough food at the party, so she wanted to make it up to us with this lunch.....so sweet & kind). Wong & Jeannie were also there, as was Jeannie's brother William. Lost count of the number of times I've been to Oishii (at least 5-6 times already). The food was nice.

After the lunch, me & BT headed to Mikey's place for a BBQ held in honour of Dennis. That's 3 days in a row I spent time with my Melbourne buddy - I think by the end of the weekend, I'm "Dennis Wang-ed" out. Haha. In the event, I didn't eat any of the BBQ meat. Instead, I had another couple of beers. Goodness gracious, it seems beer consumption goes up whenever Dennis is around. Anyways, Ben Ho & his family were also there. I did say goodbye to them, before a few of us went along with Dennis & Jay to Sunnybank for coffee. When it was time to leave, I farewelled Dennis & Jay. Then, I headed home, & caught the second half of the A-League preliminary final between Newcastle Jets & Qld Roar, which the Jets won 3-2 after extra-time.

Anyways, yeah, I was out of the house for much of the weekend. Though tiring, it was great & I thank God for that. I thank God for blessing me with brothers such as Ivan, Dennis & Ben Ho, & for being able to catch up with them while they were up in Brisbane. I trust that God will continue to bless them & take care of them. Though distance keeps me away from them, we are united as brothers in Christ!

PS: I will put up photos on my Multiply blog in due course.