Out & about for the last few days

I've been out & about during the last few days:

Friday 29/5/2009

I had a dinner with a few friends in the Brisbane CBD. The occasion: one of my friends resigned & Friday was her last day at work. She called a few people (about 7-8 people including myself) to have dinner somewhere in the city to "celebrate" the end of what she considers a miserable job (she was only there for a few months & had enough of it).

I wore my Barcelona t-shirt proudly, to commemorate their Champions League success. I saw 1-2 people on Queen St Mall wearing their Barca jerseys, & they smiled at me when they saw my t-shirt (presumably, they were just as happy as I was with Barca's triumph). When my close friend Ivan C (who supports the beaten finalist Manchester Utd) saw my t-shirt, he groaned & poked me a little. I kept smiling & rubbed it in a little: "Have they played the final already?? Really?? So who won?". I reminded Ivan C of his pre-match confidence in a Man Utd victory, but on the whole I think I let Ivan C off pretty lightly. Ivan C didn't say much, but he was ok about it - Barcelona so happens to be his second favourite team.

I forgot the name of the place we had dinner, but I was there for the first time. I ordered a steak, as did a few others. It was quite good (then again, I'm easy to please with steaks), & not too expensive. It was raining very heavily, & I thanked my lucky stars that I remembered to bring my umbrella. So we soldiered onto a dessert place in Mary St (again, my first time there), & continued our conversations over dessert. By the time I got on the bus to head back home, it was not far from midnight.

Saturday 30/5/2009, Sunday 31/5/2009

Pastor Ben had a "thank you party" at his place on Saturday evening, to thank all those who recently helped him move/relocate houses & the cleaning & painting his Indooroopilly house. I was really impressed with how the Indooroopilly house turned out. It was superb! I was really happy for Pastor Ben, his wife Faith & the 2 little daughters.

We had a BBQ at the back, just in front of the swimming pool (but no one swam). As someone who likes meat, I took the BBQ pretty well. There was quite a turnout, too - more than 20 people, mostly from our church, but there were some old friends of Ben & myself from other churches like Shail, his wife Eunice & their 2 little kids. It was fun to see their kids play with Ben & Faith's 2 kids!

After chatting to a few people & having dessert, it was time for me to depart because I had to pick up my brother BT & Ivan C on the way to Nigel's place to watch the FA Cup final between Chelsea & Everton, whom Nigel supports. Before I left Ben's house, Shail (who supports Chelsea) had told me he's very confident of a Chelsea victory. Shail was gracious with my Barcelona's Champions League win even though Barcelona eliminated Chelsea in the semi-finals. I didn't blame him for confidently predicting a win over Everton, as I tipped Chelsea to win, too.

Nigel decorated the TV area with his Everton scarves. It was like a shrine. Me, BT & Ivan C just laughed. I told Nigel of Shail's prediction, to which Nigel expressed confidence that Everton would win. Phuong invited Tim, her Welsh colleague, along. Everyone was neutral, apart from Nigel & BT who was going for Chelsea in this match (partly to stir Nigel). The FA Cup final kicked off at midnight. Everton got off to a great start, with their French striker Louis Saha scoring after just 25 seconds, the fastest goal in FA Cup final history. And how Nigel celebrated!! He went mad! But Chelsea gradually worked their way into the match & Ivory Coast forward Didier Drogba headed in the equaliser in the 21nd minute. Chelsea then proceeded to control most of the rest of the match, & it was no surprise that England midfielder Frank Lampard scored the winner with a well-struck shot in the 72nd minute. Chelsea could have scored another goal, but Malouda's shot was wrongly disallowed, despite replays showing his shot bounced over the goalline after crashing the bar. So Chelsea wins 2-1, & their outgoing coach Guus Hiddink (who was in charge of Chelsea temporarily, for part of this season) sign off with a trophy. Chelsea have the better players & they were able to make this count. And also (much to Nigel's agreement), some of the Everton players were not at their best, & so were not able to pose Chelsea too much problems.

We laughed when Tim (Phuong's Welsh colleague) called Lampard "yer English twit" during the match - we knew there is a rivalry between the English & the Welsh when it comes to sports. What I didn't find so amusing was the SBS panel who were far too focused on Tim Cahill (who plays for Everton) during their pre-match & half-time analysis. It's almost as if Cahill was the only footballer who exist at Everton. It's really sad to see the way some of the SBS panel talked about Cahill & nothing else.

Anyway, Nigel was obviously disappointed with the final result (but undoubtedly Shail watching at his home would have been happy). Wee commiserated with Nigel before we left. By the time I got home, it was almost 3am! Late, but it was well worth it!

Monday 1/6/2009

Alison & I had a catch-up lunch with Davin & Irene at Little Hong Kong, in Market Square, Sunnybank. Davin & Irene were in Brisbane for a visit before they head back to London. They brought along their 2 little daughters, whom I met for the very first time. The elder daughter looks very much like Davin, while the second one resembles Irene. Hmmmm, isn't it interesting that the first born child of my friends all look like their fathers????

Anyway, it was great catching up with Davin & Irene over a meal, as I wasn't able to do this on their previous visit to Brisbane. The roast duck, char siu (BBQ pork) & siu yoke (crispy skin pork) were absolutely superb!! With delicious meat dishes like these, who would want to be a vegetarian?? Haha. We talked about lots of stuff. From the sounds of it, Davin & family enjoy London, but they would come back in Brisbane eventually. I do miss them - Davin is someone I consider/look up to as an older brother & I may have built up a close friendship with him had he remained in Brisbane all these years.

We managed to bump into Stella & her family at the car park just outside 7-Eleven at Market Square. By the time I headed home, the greasy lunch was starting to take an effect on me, such that I decided to skip the Clay Bible study in the evening. That worked out well, because it means I could join my family for the family dinner to celebrate dad's birthday. We had steamboat - truly delicious & not greasy like the lunch I had. Andrew & Val were here, & the dinner allowed us to reminisce about that wonderful steamboat dinner we all had in Malaysia back in December 2008 with Uncle Paul & Aunty Daisy & my dad's cousins. Ahhh, memories!