Big kickstart to 2013 with great friends, food, fun and plenty of resolutions

Hi Anna!

Happy New Year to you, friends, readers and the blog!

What a great read of  your Bali holiday! I felt like I was on a holiday with your family and Kev and I loved all the photos that you posted. Such gorgeous photos of you and your beautiful family. They were funny especially Kev and Scott's synchronised swimming. Looks like quality Olympic stuff to me.

I really miss diving and reading about your experience was a little nudge to  use my frequent flyers for a trip to Phuket. I find cuttlefish a little creepy though. I've seen a couple when diving and also a documentary on them and the more cuttlefish that flashed across the screen, the more alien like they appeared to me (an alien head without a body. EW!) and it started making me nervous watching them swim and change colours. Moray eels are a little scary too. In my experience, they hide in their holes and come out and bare their nasty tiny teeth at you. They always look very angry to me :( Jee I'm sounding like a big wimp here.

I have been to Bali twice but never to Rock Bar. Everyone who has been to Bali seems to have but not me :( Views are spectacular too. How did this slip by me. Hrm... Well the next time I have a handsome gentleman by my side, I will be sure to visit this scenic place for a cocktail or two.

You should also try and make your own kite like the one you liked. Well maybe a simple version? I haven't flown a kite since I was a kid and Perth would be the perfect place to do it since there is usually an afternoon breeze.

What have I been doing?  Definitely been doing a lot of eating and not enough exercising. It has  come to my attention that my friends can COOK. And better than I can! For years I've secretly thought I was THE culinary expert but now I've been proven wrong and I'm more than happy to throw that thought out the window. These skills have just been revealed to me and I certainly hope it's not the last I experience them :p

On Christmas day I had a scrumptious lunch made by HW. There were other food too but let's focus on her roast pork and vegetables :p They were so wholesome and full of flavour and I think I ate most of the parsnip. Yummo! This meal really meant a lot to me because I've known HW since we were kids and to watch her grow into this domesticated young lady and prepare such a lovely spread melted me away.

I love the cultural integration of this Christmas lunch

Roast pork. Even if it was a 40C day, it went down very well.

I came home and calculated that I ate about 800 calories worth of those rochers. Good thing it was difficult to calculate the calories of her homemade trifle. Heavenlyyyy!

I've also upped the Chia-craziness in the form of dressing.I did not have any Santa hats or reindeer ears so I decided to pin and adorn myself with Christmas decorations that I purchased with HW during our white Christmas last year.

Outrageous colours and decorations. Just because I can!

More eating was done on NYE at Christina's. She's right, she does make a mean potato salad and for the first time I tried chicken and pistachio terrine and couldn't believe that she made it herself. Astounding. There is something about home made food that makes me feel so.... content and lovvvvvved!

This is what I wore to NYE at Christina's. My inspiration was fun colour combinations. Christina also had a similar outfit and it was fun that we almost matched. I can't wait to channel more colour combinations. I have a few more up my sleeve for that special occasion requiring some craziness. I've had interesting/ hilarious experiences with NYE (last year was in bed watching Mr Bean whilst HW was fast asleep in Munich!!!!)  but this year it was great food, company and  board games! Who would've thought? I would've loved to party it with you and I've never done a big NYE out in Perth, but I guess this was not the year.

Healthy too! Oh and I marinated those kebabs.

The strangest and worst board game ever. Team Females couldn't even get one question right :/ What a laugh!

This makes me laugh too. Maybe it's the thought of having 4 of me. combined with my duh expression top right. This is the first time I've tried green make up and wow, I am deeeelighted, which is why it felt necessary to bombard you with my face. Last minutely I decided against wearing the earrings to Christina's and opted for subtle green studs instead. Sometimes you just need to know how to tone it down a notch. Haha!

I've been getting plenty of beach too! Bless those that are unemployed/ on leave to keep me company. Very much appreciated :D Mind you, I enjoyed solitude on the last day of 2012 with a good book and beautiful beach weather and calm waters. Is it much of a surprise that I spent the first day of 2013 at the beach too?

Again I went to the beach today with Christina. First time in Scarbs and my goodness, not the best conditions. We were dumped wave after wave. Nothing like an excuse to frolic in the sand and 'make love to the camera' in the words of Christina. 

More coral colours and fixing my wind strewn hair.

I know, I know.. I'm getting carried away with instant editing.

Let's get down to more serious business now.

This was my 2012 resolution copied and pasted from last year's post:

1.Get fit and join the gym and classes
2. Keep in touch with my aunty, grandma and family more often
3. Send snail mail frequently
4. Draw and paint more, take up an art class
5. Read more
6. Try anything unfamiliar or new

How I went:

1. I did join the gym in London, did not join any classes though. Coincidentally chocolate consumption and baking increased too.
2. Definitely did not keep in touch with my aunty and grandma enough. But I did organise and had an amazing time in Portugal and Italy with my parents.
3. This did not happen to the degree I expected. It stretched as far as sending Christmas cards.
4. I certainly started drawing more. Very pleased with the effort but I did not find an art class to sign up with.
5. Definitely accomplished this one.
6. This have got me into trouble at times. Otherwise online dating and most recently, nude beach and frisbee-ing is good testament to this.

Time the world knew about my hot pink flying disc.

I would like to carry on my 2012 resolutions and add another 6 for 2013:
(A bit ambitious I hear you say! Don't worry, some of these goals I have already set the wheels in motion.)

1. Get a full time teaching job and move out
2. Spend more time with family and friends that mean a lot to me
3. Get outdoor and explore Perth
4. Enter a drawing/ painting competition
5. Take up contemporary dance class
 6. Blog more often, even if it's just a short paragraph and pic

It is exciting to set these resolutions. I was telling Weng the other day that if I put them in print or tell someone about things I want to do, immediately there is some accountability for it. Here you have it, written in pixels or dots or whatever you call it.

Now I was saying that the wheels are already in motion for number 3.  If plans go accordingly, next week we will be on a little mini adventure to Lancelin :) More annaandchia adventures to be had. Picture this: a dinky battered camper VW, windows that cannot be rolled up, wind blowing through, tussled hair, me-driving, you- ukele in hand belting out Taylor Swift tunes, me- rolling my eyes but singing along with you (out of tune) and loving it, and all of this recorded on video. Ibiza take two? Yes? Shame it's only a short drive. Haha!

And so I would like to end this post by saying
Life is too short, have fun and do what makes you HAPPY!!!

 I am looking forward to the adventures that awaits annaandchia.blogspot.com.

Bring on 2013!

Happy New Year!

Hi Chia!

Welcome to the year 2013!

Can you believe how fast time as flown by? We started this blog in 2011 and we are still blogging!

I still love your Europe Christmas photos! It really does look magical, and it reminds me that I too want to experience a White Christmas one day.

I never knew that Christmas wasn't such a big thing for you. That was a bit of surprise given that you make such lovely Christmas gifts such as your Christmas Muesli!

For me, Christmas has always been a big thing. I didn't realise how much I loved Christmas until I was away from my family when I was studying in China in 2007. China of all places, did not celebrate Christmas and it felt quite lonely for me even though I had such wonderful friends who had opened their hearts and home to share their Christmas dinner and merry cheer with me.

I usually get so excited about thinking of what presents to get people and wrapping them up to put them under our Christmas tree. I then get all excited about what I will be cooking for the day.  However, this year,   I've been a little distracted with things, especially with me and my family and Kev going to Bali for Christmas.  We didn't have gifts this year, but we did spend a lot of time with each other, which was nice.

Christmas in Bali

Group shot of Me, Kev, and Scott with Dad and Mom in the back on the plane to Bali

In Bali, I was able to practice my Bahasa Indonesia. I didn't realise how much I had remembered over the years and it was a lot of fun speaking to taxi drivers and bar men. The Balinese are so lovely, and so willing to help you learn Bahasa Indonesia. It was such a refreshing experience compared to other countries where some people do not seem to have the patience to allow you to learn their language.

We all had a low key time in Bali. Just ate, slept, walked around Kuta, swam in the pool and got lots of massages. Kev and I vowed to get a massage a day, which we achieved.  Here are some pics of our time in Bali:

Walking on the beach, we tried to avoid stepping on these guys. This one bumped into Kev's toe.

The boys fooling around.

LOL at Scott's face

So Asian

Rainbow ship sailing into the clouds. I loved this kite! I wanted to bring it back, but it was made of untreated wood =(

Family dinner on Christmas Eve

Rock Bar @ Ayana on Christmas Day

At Rock Bar

Enjoying the Sunset

So magical!

Came out of the toilets to find Kev here.

Kev running away from the Tsunami

I love the patterns and colours on the Batik!

Besides walking around, eating and resting, Kev and I also went diving at Padang Bay.

Diving was awesome, and unfortunately I didn't get any photos that day as we went down to 24 metres, which was too deep for my underwater camera. When we looked at the recreational dive planner, we realised that we actually dived outside the recreational limits, which would explain why we felt exhausted afterwards.

Despite that, it was such an awesome dive. We didn't see any turtles, but we saw moray eels (one was yellow and the other was brown), we saw stingrays, octopi (both were hiding in the rocks) and the coolest thing ever; a cuttlefish.

Seeing cuttlefish in person was so unreal! Especially because Kev and I had watched a documentary on them a few weeks prior! It was swimming away initially, but then it saw that Kev and I were watching it so it stopped to have a look at us. It was changing colours; this blue and white. However, as Kev and I got closer, and a yellow and brown fish swam next to it, it dramatically changed into a yellow and brown colour and started raising its tentacles and started swimming towards us. This was quite scary for me, because from the documentary, I knew that this meant that the cuttlefish was feeling threatened and wanted to scare us off. So I swam to the side but Kev stayed put and I watched in intrigue and in fear of what that cuttlefish may do to Kev. However, as it approached Kev, the colours of the cuttlefish reduced in intensity and it swam past Kev onto the reef. We then left it alone and continued exploring. I wish I had a video to share, but I don't. Instead, I'll share with you a video from YouTube. It looked exactly like this!

New Year's Eve

We all returned back to Perth on the 30th which gave us a day to recover before New Year's Eve celebrations. Little did we know how hot Perth was! Admittedly, I wasn't feeling 100% from Bali, let alone felt up to wearing a nice dress out in 40 degree heat. But, eventually I got myself into the mood for the celebrations.

We ended up going to Lost Society on Hay Street for their New Year's Eve 'Sex and the City' function.  Here's some pics from the night.

Group Pic from early in the night

Ann and I

Shaz and I

Having a great night out. LOL at Joyce's face.

Kev and I being very squinty. LOL at Shaz and Chinny's photobomb,

With this event, the theme was 'Hits from the 90s'. However, the music was very contemporary and the 90s music only started playing after the count down! It didn't matter anyways, because we all were having a great time. The only downer was that it was difficult to order a drink. But with cocktails at $10, I guess that was the reason!

Anywho. That didn't spoil our night. Kev and I partied on and hung around a little after the count down but were in bed by 1.30am as we were tired and hot.

New Year's Resolutions

2013 I know will be better! I've been thinking of resolutions, but realised that I am working on resolutions all the time.  However, for this post these are the things I hope to achieve this year:

1. Better posture (this is an ongoing one);
2. Travel;
3. Learning to listen to myself (and understand what I want) as opposed to external expectations and opinions;
4. Sleep more; and
5. To be truly happy.

What are your New Year's Resolutions?

Happy holidays!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It's been four years since I've had a Christmas in Perth and it's the strangest feeling. What a contrasting one too, with temperature predicted to hit 40C where as last year it was a white Christmas in Nuremberg and Prague with HW stuffing our faces with gingerbread and lost in the Christmas markets. Allow me to use this post as an excuse to dig up favourite holiday pics.

Looking down in Prague

Before Christmas in Nuremberg. Snow for the first time!

Overwhelmed by the Christmas decorations

 I don't really celebrate Christmas and never found it a big deal to be away from friends and family, but I do love a brightly lit Christmas tree. I will always remember the thrills I got from peering into windows as I walked home in London and seeing the extravagant trees on display.

 This year I'm wishing for happiness and health to all my dearest friends and family.  I'm thankful for all the people who have given me all that support even when I'm oceans away and all the support they continued to give me when I'm back home. I don't think any present could ever express how much it means to me.

Happiness = friends and a picnic!

My Christmas muesli in a jar. I've always wanted to make these and finally did! I used my clay gingery as a little decoration.

Amazing what mirrors, lights and pretty beads can create. Looking through my kaleidoscope I got for Christmas

I'm not complaining that this year I get all the sun and the beach I want. I suppose it is a 'white' sandy Christmas :)

Well you sure had a kick start to the festivities with your birthday surprise! It was delightful reading about all the animals you helped and fed. Not everyone can say they've fed a lion! I am sure the fun and merriment is continued in Bali with Kev and your family.

Happy holidays!!!!

An Aussie Christmas

Merry Christmas Chia and HW!

Your photos look so fun! What is it about the dancing building that made it special? It looks pretty cool but is it a bank or something?

Aw! Shortbread and gingerbread for breakfast! YUM!

It still so hard to believe how different Christmas is over there in the Northern Hemisphere, compared to here in Australia. Things do seem magical over there with the winter and the snow, and the rugging up! I watched Michael Buble's Christmas special on TV, and all the songs really just work for a white Christmas with warm food, and warm family and friends.

Australia is just. Well... hahaha sunny! =D

I am so glad that this has been your year to celebrate Christmas! I absolutely love Christmas, and spending it with my family. I love setting up the Christmas tree, and I love watching the presents grow over the month of December.

Our Christmas Tree decorated by Kev and I.

Christmas Day


On Christmas day, I woke up slightly later than usual (5.50am) so I was super stressed when I saw the clock. I jumped out of bed and scooted to the fridge- I had to get that bird into the oven by 6.

I was able to get Otto into the oven on time! Fewf! (Kev named him Otto... and I only realised why he suggested the name, when we started eating him). This is how Otto looked after 10 minutes in the oven:

Browning Otto

I took Otto out after 10-15 minutes and then placed bacon on the top, to prevent burning, and to keep the moisture in:

While Otto was roasting, Kev arrived with Christmas cheer! Otto stayed in the oven for approximately 3 hours and 20 minutes and was basted every so often.

Otto ready to be taken out!

 When Otto was taken out, we started to make the gravy.

Kev carefully skimming off the fat of the Otto's juices  that were in the oven pan.

Cooking the vegetables that were stuffed into Otto

Hrmm... gravy mix.

We ended up having lunch around 11.30am, and the turkey was delicious! It had a fresh lemon flavour infused throughout the meat, and the apple cider and walnut gravy really set it off!

Our Christmas lunch.

Mom was amazing, and prepared all the accompanying dishes within 1 hour! It's astonishing what Moms can do with so little time!

Our lunch was finished off with Pavlova and mixed berries. I just loveeeeed this!!! It was so light and so refreshing! 

Oooooh yea...

Boxing Day


The next day, Kev and I went to Ben's new apartment for a Christmas party.  Here are some pics from the day:

Lena's hundreds and thousands ninja fairybread! I loved this sooo much! Hiiiiyaaah!

The Christmas group

Sword play was unavoidable

Our Secret Santa

It was a great relaxing day. I just ate, drank cider and chilled. Ended up taking a quick nap at around 8pm just before heading to the movies to watch Tin Tin! OH! You were so right! It was a great movie!

Anywho, I'm going to head off now. I am going to go learn how to make Xiao Long Bao! =D

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you have a wonderful holiday and a fantastic new year!