greetings from monaco

I received a postcard from my dearest Bamboohorse. Check out the postage stamp. Woo... BH sent me his heart along with the postcard... :)

I am reminded of the dear friend we lost to a sailing accident. He was a Formula 1 fanatic and was particularly crazy over Kimi Raikkonen; this earned him his nickname Kimi Vin. BH was introduced to the exciting world of F1 racing by Kimi Vin and we used to discuss about the race results over dinner or supper the next day. This was the start of BH's fascination with the Grand Prix which finally brought him to the race track in Monaco. I'm sure wherever Kimi Vin is currently resting, he must be smiling now.

business is good

Here's my restaurant at level 12 almost 13 now. Look how busy it is! Full house ok! You see my four chefs - Joyce, Hye-Won, Beakee and Tudi - and two waiters Bamboohorse and Keeng working very hard to keep my customers satisfied. Restaurant popularity is at my all time high at 37.3 woohoo!



And here's what's on the menu:



Bon appetite.

IT wasn't me

As part of our (Beh Kee and I) ongoing 'host dinner for all those who haven't been to our place' project, we invited the Tan family over this time. (You can also read about the times we hosted dinner for the Patersons and the Lees



The menu was:
- grilled flat mushrooms (couldn't get portobellas again!) with garlic
- boiled broccoli
- veal tortellinis with bacon in cream sauce
- apple pie



The pasta and mushrooms were cooked by yours truly while the broccoli was boiled by the housemate.



Apple pie made from scratch by the housemate. The food was great and we got several thumbs up from the guests.



And the star of the night was hyper little Ryan. He is an intelligent three year-old with a vocabulary base that will stump you. Upon entering my apartment, the first thing he asked for was to inspect my laundry room. He then proceeded to report to his parents that Auntie Jacqueline and Auntie Rebecca (I subsequently convinced him to call me Jiejie Jacqueline instead phew) have a top loader washing machine and a front loader dryer. He also did an inspection of our balcony in which he heard a 'woo-woo' noise and confirmed that it must have been the ventilator. (?!?!) Here you see Little Ryan in the cutest tee (incidentally IT is his Dad's initials) and moulding his playdoh into a bus - he loves aeroplanes, trains and buses - where he's obssessed with making ventilation holes in his bus.



Having been shown previously by IT Daddy on the joys of rolling down a grass slope, Little Ryan tried to roll on our furry carpet in our living room, much to our amusement and to Mummy's wrath as Little Ryan has a super allergic nose to anything furry.



When we noticed Little Ryan not running around and talking as much, we knew he was exhausted from his adventures in Jiejie Jacqueline's and Auntie Rebecca's wonderland so we shooed the Tans home. We got an email from Mr Tan the next day informing us that Little Ryan liked playing in our humble pad so much that he's been pestering to visit us again. I think we can start a childcare facility here already... I provide the food and toys while Beh Kee does the babysitting.

the colours of coogee

Having cooped myself up at home for a day and a half due to illness, I brought my spinning head and heavy feet to Coogee Beach for some caffeine+sun+oceanbreeze therapy. And it was here, at the below Cafe-Ristorante that I consumed an alcohol-infused coffee - Bailey's Long Latte that confused the hell outta my brain and body. I think they (the brain cells) couldn't decide if they should be sending the 'sleepy' or the 'hyper' signals to the body and as a result, I felt edgy and was in a weird antisocial-leave-me-alone mood the entire evening.



I did, however, enjoy a great but poignant read on the early life of mass murderer Martin Bryant who was involved in the Port Authur Massacre that was featured in the SMH Good Weekend section as well as the beginning chapters of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman while savouring the colours of Coogee amidst the setting sun.





Then it was back to churning the three work reports that were outstanding due to my absence from work on Friday. Two down, one more to go.

restaurant city

Because Beakee and Tudi were going on and on about Restaurant City in Plurk, I logged on to Facebook to have a peep, and now I'm hooked. Here's showing off my newly set up restaurant. When I took this screenshot, I was only at level 4 and as you can see, I have not earned enough money yet to decorate my shop front, so it was just a boring looking shack.



And here's the rather empty interior at level 4.



I explored the street a bit and saw Beakee's awesome restuarant Spuntini and Hanzi's Kopitiam right next to Spuntini! I was really motivated to spruce up my restaurant then.



I hired two chefs Beakee and Hye-Won and Tudi as my waiter for a start. Tudi got overworked and I hired Sunshine23 to take over waiting tables while Tudi got a rest.



I left the restaurant running while I had dinner and when I checked back afterwards, I found all my staff collapsed on the floor with big red exclamation balloons over them screaming at me: "We need food or rest!". It was hilarious. In my panic to revive my staff, I forgot to take a screenshot of it! But as I was taking a walk along Restaurant Street, I saw this in Beakee's restaurant and took a shot to show here. Hehe.



And right now, as I type this entry, I am at level 7 and have named my restaurant Jac's Bistro. Check out my newly renovated bistro! If you are on Facebook too, do join the Restaurant City club and come visit my Bistro!





I realise while running Jac's Bistro how much I miss playing Theme Hospital and Sim City. Perhaps I should go get the games and start playing them all over again... that's if I have the time.

cardio and complete grooming package

Hit the gym today to do some cardio and to slowly condition the body to get used to exercising again after years of inactivity.

Completed the following:

1) 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer with average spm (strides per min) of 120. This was an improvement over the last session where I did 15 minutes of average 100 spm on the trainer. Out of the 30 minutes, I spent 25 minutes doing the 'Pull' for the upper body workout and the remaining 5 minutes on the 'Push'. The exercise handles, when set to the 'Pull' position, work the shoulders and biceps, and when set to the 'Push' position, work the chest and triceps. I find it more taxing to do the 'Push' hence the 25min-5min 'Pull' to 'Push' ratio, but I intend to slowly even out the ratio to equal durations. Here's how an elliptical trainer looks like with the various parts labelled.



2) 10 minutes of brisk walking on the treadmill at a speed of 6.5km/h.

3) 5 minutes of jogging on the treadmill at a speed of 8.5km/h. I had wanted to do 2 sets of 10 minutes of jogging at this speed separated by 5 minutes of brisk walking, but decided to stop at 1 set of 5 minutes because I was starving to the point of getting gastric cramps and I didn't want to risk fainting on the machine.

4) 12 minutes of brisk walking at a speed of 6.5km/h until I hit a total distance of 3km on the treadmill. Ended the treadmill session with an additional 3-minute cool down slow walk where the speed decreased gradually from 6.5km/h to 3km/h.

5) Finished off the gym session with about 10 minutes of cool down stretching (plus I threw in about 15 crunches too) with the housemate.

Got home after gym (and a quick dinner) and declared the rest of the night personal grooming and beautifying time.

With the Pure Revive essential oil blend of white grapefruit, fennel, bergamot, cypress and tangerine in the burner, I enjoyed a detoxing hot bath in a mixture of Epsom salts, Amazonian clay and ricegrass extracts while giving my hair a water matrix moisture treatment and doing an apricot seed powder and antioxidant pomegranate body scrub.

After the bath, I gave my face a full facial - cleanse, exfoliate, (I skipped the facial massage bit), deep cleanse (with a 15min mask), tone and moisturise. I trimmed the nails, shaved the bits of monkey fur off the shin areas and moisturised the entire body while doing the 15min deep cleansing mask.

Finally, I applied the newly bought bottle of tea tree oil to the pimples on the back. I experienced a sudden outbreak of pimples on the back and they turned into a bloody mess when I couldn't stop scratching them (this is quite a unique monkey trait of mine - the scratching - especially during stressful times). I dug out my tube of 5% benzoyl peroxide I usually use in such pimple outbreaks and it gave me a rash on the neck and shoulder areas. Tudi recommended I use tea tree oil instead. The housemate also suggested I use tea tree oil many months ago in a previous outbreak and even offered her bottle to me, which I didn't use much as I didn't think it was a nice thing to do to use up her stuff. So I went and got myself a bottle last weekend and it's working really well - one extremely huge and pus-ly pimple is starting to dry up after only two applications. And I shall stop using that tube of rash-inducing peroxide.

And now I feel healthy, clean and pretty. Yay!

les mills bodybalance™ class

I rarely wake up before noon on weekends as sleeping is my #1 hobby. But today, I woke at 9am to attend a Les Mills BODYBALANCE™ class at 10am at the InShape Health Club where I just signed up to be a member. The picture on the left was taken from the official Les Mills website where you can read up more on the various fitness programs you can sign up for.

From the website:

Les Mills BODYBALANCE™ is the Yoga, Tai Chi and Pilates workout that leaves you feeling long, strong, centered and calm. It’s your personal time out from the stress and strains of daily life – a 55-minute group exercise-to-music class that enhances your physical and mental well-being.

BODYBALANCE™ Benefits
- Improve your joint flexibility and range of movement
- Increase your core strength
- Improve your cardio-vascular function
- Burn calories
- Reduce your stress levels
- Provide a lasting sense of well-being and calm
- Focus your mind and raise your level of consciousness through controlled breathing

The Hokkien Aeroplane Housemate (HAH) and I were early so she went on the treadmill while I went on the elliptical trainer for 15min while waiting for the class to start. At 10am sharp, about 12-15 people including HAH and myself went into the exercise room and got ready. I had no previous experience in attending any such classes, never did yoga or pilates in my life, and had only recently started exercising again after years of lazing around, hence I was understandably quite nervous and afraid I wouldn't be able to keep up with the instructor.

We first started with some Tai Chi warm up. It was a breeze.

Then we did some simple yoga poses but I didn't really pay attention to the names of these poses. I was focusing more on keeping up with what the instructor was doing although I do remember a pose called the Shiva Salutation mainly because Shiva is one of the recurring summons in the Final Fantasy (VII I think?) game, hehe. I had a bit of difficulty with some of the poses on balances and twists. Once I lost balance and kinda hopped around a bit to regain my balance, which was really embarrassing as all the others in the class seemed to know what they were doing and were all coping very well.

After about 20min or so, it just got tougher and tougher. The swan pose nearly killed me. I swear I could hear my old rusty bones crack and I probably looked more like a fat clumsy duck instead of a graceful swan.

The pilates moves afterwards really placed a great deal of emphasis on the abdominals. This part was manageable and I kept picturing myself regaining my fabulously flat and toned abs while enduring through the moves.

We ended the session with about 5-10min of meditation where all of us laid flat on our yoga mats (HAH and I used my two camping mats instead as we didn't want to invest in proper yoga mats - they are expensive here! - until we are sure we'll be doing this frequently) with our eyes closed and simply rested and did deep controlled breathing against the soothing music in the background.

Controlled, deep and coordinated breathing was an essential part of the entire session. Although some of the difficult moves left me panting a bit (mostly due to the nervousness at trying to keep up), I actually felt relaxed at the end of the class after the meditation. So did HAH. It did take me a while though to stop my mind from wandering to random thoughts like "what should I have for breakfast later?" and "why was my dream last night so bizzare?" and really focus on the breathing.

We enjoyed the session and are likely to attend it regularly from now on. So we will be on the lookout for affordable yoga mats now. Btw, I felt so refreshed after the class today that I went totally crazily hyper during our karaoke session afterwards. Looks like resuming my exercise regime is really energising me eh?

these people are big bullies

See what I mean by the bananas? Wouldn't you feel sorry for yourself too if you were the one being banana-bullied?



This is humiliating... aarrrrgggghhhhhh.........

i can't get over the bananas

I first started Twittering in Feb 2008. Then when Tudi highly recommended Plurk to me, I signed up for a free Plurk account in July 2008. However, I only did a grand total of O-N-E Plurk in my entire nine months of Plurk life which went like this: monkeycrab feels nauseous (this was in Aug 2008). I resurfaced in Plurk today after going MIA for eight months and looking back at my last and only Plurk entry, people must have thought I got pregnant and disappeared for eight months to give birth or something.

Anyways, it was fun fun fun re-discovering Plurk! The only reason I didn't Plurk much previously was because I mostly Twitter on the go via my mobile phone but I couldn't do that on Plurk. Blame it on myself for making zero effort to find ways to feed my Twitters to Plurk. Now that I'm getting quite hooked onto Plurk, I need to go research on how I can do this so I can Plurk on the move too. Anyone who already has the solution to this, can share please please please?

For the sua ku (literally mountain tortoise! means ignorant) people out there, this is a print screen of how a Plurk page looks like:



If you click to enlarge, you'll see that there's a horizontal timeline and whenever you, your friend or someone you're following on Plurk posts an update, it will appear on the timeline. Plurk allows you, your friends or the general public (up to you to set your privacy settings) to comment and discuss on the entries. The box on the left of the above pic shows the discussion thread when you click on someone's entry. You can even share photos, links and videos in a Plurk entry which you can't do in Twitter. Essentially, it's like a microblogging platform and discussion forum all in one. You can even add a widget and feed your Plurks to your blog like I've done on the left sidebar here. Very cool right?

Now I come to the objective of this entry... if you look at my Plurk profile below...



Do you see this word (in the largest font in white) 'Karma'? It's like a point system of measuring a Plurker's activity and popularity and I've only got a pathetic 7.30 for Karma. To give you an idea of how embarrassingly low my Karma is, Tudi's is 97.08 and Bamboohorse's is 70.47. For my Karma range, I am 'in the state of creation', while Tudi 'has reached Plurk Nirvana'!

So you may wonder what good does it do you if you have a high Karma score? You get Karma rewards! ie. the higher my Karma, the more functions I get to play with on my Plurk! Today, I had Bamboohorse, Tudi and Beakee all flaunting their dancing banana emoticons on one of my Plurks, which irked me cos I had nothing to show off to them!

This list of Karma rewards below includes a lot of exclusive emoticons while I only have a pathetic basic emoticon set of 12.



Being 'in the state of creation', I cannot even give a title/name to my Plurk timeline! And you would have also noticed I only have five friends (inclusive of one dummy: the default Plurk Buddy that comes with every new account) and three fans on Plurk. How sad that is. So, if you're interested in experiencing the Plurk highlife, please go to http://plurk.com/monkeycrab/invite (right now!) and sign up from there and you'll be helping me increase my Karma. Remember what comes around goes around. It's Karma! Arigatoh in advance and I hope you enjoy Plurking as I am now.

ps: I am going to drown you peeps in dancing bananas! Roars!

getting in-shape again

I signed up for a gym membership at the InShape Health Club at Alexandria, which is located just a street away from where I live. Searching through my old blog for my exercise records, I reckon the last time I did any proper exercise was in August 2006. That is so unhealthy! OMG. How did I live until now?

Anyways, I went for a workout at InShape Alexandria for the first time today. Made an appointment with a personal trainer to utilise my complimentary 'Gold Session' that comes with every new member registration. Scott, a rather cute hunk, spent about 30min with me, taking my height and weight measurements, recording down my sleeping, eating, exercising, lifestyle habits and history, drawing up a tailored exercise program for achieving my fitness goals which by the way is purely to improve my general fitness (I've been feeling tired all the time lately, which is very worrying) and not much to do with any weight-loss related motivation in order to look good although that will be one of the by-products of attending regular gym workout sessions, and then running me through one set of the program he drew up for me. The complete routine he did for me is made up of:

- 3 sets of lunges to the entrance and back (one round trip is approx. 30m)
- 3 sets of 15 squats with a fitness ball
- 3 sets of 15 hip thrusts on a fitness ball
- 3 sets of 15 push ups
- 3 sets of 15 crunches
- 3 sets of 15 oblique crunches (elbow to opposite knee)
- 3 sets of 15seconds bridges
- 3 sets of 15 roll-outs on fitness ball
- 15min on the treadmill
- 15min on the rower

After the personal training session, I went on the treadmill and did 15min of brisk walking at a speed of 6.5 (this should be in km/h?) followed by another 15min on the elliptical trainer. That's enough for someone who hasn't exercised in years. I have to slowly condition my body for such workouts and not overexert myself or I may end up not able to get out of bed the next day. I didn't feel the least bit tired when I left the gym. But as I type this entry now, I am starting to feel a slight ache in my butt and thigh areas. Wow. I am going to get such toned butts, I'm sure.

This Health Club at Alexandria also has an Olympic sized pool and rooftop tennis courts. The Swimways Swim School conducts swimming lessons for all abilities and ages from 6 month old infants to adults. Although I can swim, I am embarrassed to say that I only know the breaststroke and have always been a very weak swimmer. One lap is enough to make me totally breathless and unable to continue swimming. Hence, I am extremely keen to take up swimming lessons at this club to properly learn the various swimming strokes. As for the tennis courts, I have heard that the view from the rooftop is great, but I am not as keen on tennis as I am on swimming for now.

I have planned my next visit to the gym to be on Saturday morning. I will be attending the 60min Les Mills Body Balance class. The description provided on the website explains that this is a dynamic stretch class that leaves you feeling relaxed and renewed. Balance combines the principles of Yoga, Pilates and Tai chi, such as breathing, flexibility & strength. Sounds like a great class to attend. I am so looking forward to it.

i got a mms!

I received a text message on the phone at 10.20pm that read:

"You've got a MMS from 65 9xxx xxxx. View your MMS at mms.ideas.singtel.com/mms on the web using the password xxxxxxx within 48 hours."

Yay! I got a MMS! I was so excited. As I wondered who could have sent me that MMS and what could have been the content in it, I skipped to my lappy to retrieve the MMS on the net - okay I am still using an old fashioned phone that's like a thousand years old that doesn't support MMS, so what, I don't care. I rarely receive MMSes okay!

"This must be a surprise from an old friend... but I wonder who it is..." I thought.

Before I could even log in at the singtel site with the password provided, my phone rang. Private number, it showed. "Wah wah wah, this person is so impatient, can't even wait for me to retrieve it, must be something really interesting," I said to myself.

"Hello," I chirped.

"Hi Jac, did you get my MMS?"
(Uhhhh.... the voice sounded familiar... where did I just hear that voice, like, just a few hours ago?)

"It was a concept I tried explaining to you a few days ago for that project abc, remember? I saw it and took a pic to show you, can you see it?"

"Oh... ya... I got it..."

It was my boss, calling me from SG. *Sigh* And I thought someone out there was thinking of me and decided to send me something nice. ZZZzzz... Somebody! Anybody! Please send me a nice MMS because you are thinking of me, can? I am very deprived of MMSes!

she was there for me, like how i was there for him

I had a long dream on Sunday morning just before I woke. My Dad was trying to tell me something very very very important in the dream. But I couldn't remember what it was at all after I woke. It bothered me for a while as I vaguely remembered that he was trying to warn me of something bad that was about to happen.

Later in the afternoon that same day, I got a long distance call from my Bro. He had encountered some difficulty and needed $XXXX cash urgently.

But I had a problem. He needed the money latest by the next day which was Monday. No matter how, telegraphic transfer or SG local bank transfer, I couldn't get the money to him by his deadline. This problem was exacerbated by the fact that Monday was a public holiday here in OZ and a telegraphic transfer from my OZ bank account here will take at least 24 hours (business days only) to reach the designated account in SG. The quickest way was for someone in SG to personally draw the cash from his/her account via the ATM and hand it to my Bro, while I pay him/her via electronic transfer which will only reach his/her account on Wednesday earliest. My Fav Tudi helped solve my problem eventually.

Thinking back, my Dad could have been trying to tell me in my dream that someone in the family needed help. That's my guardian angel attempting to forewarn me so I could prepare the necessary in advance.

When Bro called for help, I didn't ask him to explain why he needed money so urgently. There was no need to ask. No matter what the reason was, I would still have forked out the money to help him. I did not even query him on the repayment because I trust that he would repay me to the best of his ability. That's kinship.

I was embarrassed to have to ask Tudi for help, especially when it involved money, and not a small amount too. So I tried to explain to her as best as I could on why I needed it so urgently. But there wasn't any need to explain anything. Tudi would have helped me regardless of why I needed the money, without even one second of hesitation. That's true friendship.

Remembering back to something I said during a recent lunchtime chat with a few colleagues on friendship: you will know who your true friends (and family) are when you run into difficulties and need support. I am blessed to be reminded once again of the wonderful people I have around me who will always be there to hold me when I fall. I am no longer alone like I used to always think I was.

小红 goes to newtown

Hi! I am the little red bear my Mummy rescued from that dangerous game booth at the Coca Cola Carnival at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. I was squashed by hundreds of thousands of other bigger bears and weird animals in a huge basket until my beautiful Mummy fished me out. And now I can see the huge expanse of sky above! I used to only be able to see other bears' butts. Mummy has a housemate whom she calls 'aeroplane' in hokkien. And this hokkien aeroplane gave me my first name ever! So I am 小红. Nice to meet you all. Today I am a guest blogger on Mummy's blog because she thinks I am very deprived of the pleasures this world has to offer and one of these so-called pleasures is exploring the wonders of the internet.

Mummy promised to bring me out to see the world. I swear she is the nicest person in this universe. First she introduced me to her fiery red baby the Celica whose name is 老虎 as christened by Mummy's old friend Mr KT. Then she strapped me to the passenger door together with 小毛 - a monkey who's been Mummy's co-driver ever since she got the 老虎. I call 小毛 Korkor as per Mummy's instructions. I was told it means Big Brother.



We went to Newtown, one of Mummy's favourite suburbs near to where she lives. Then we started bumping into a lot of monkeys. Mummy said that was a sign. I did not understand what 'a sign' means. There was the monkey at the petrol kiosk waving to all humans who walked past, and there was this shy monkey peeping out a cafe window.



Mummy looked up and saw that the cafe has a funky monkey name which she immediately liked so we took a seat right beside the shy monkey by the window.



Monkeys everywhere. There was a mini one holding a tag that introduced the special of the day. I was confused. I thought human beings are the ones running the show on this planet? Mr Shy Monkey wanted a photo with Mummy so I became their photographer.





While Mummy busied herself studying the menu, I tried making conversation with Mr Shy Monkey. He is more than a hundred times my size but not scary at all.



Then the coffee came. The small cup was for me and the big one for Mummy.



My coffee has a heart shape on it, so nice. I read a book while enjoying my coffee with a heart. I never had coffee before this so I can't comment on the taste but Mummy said the coffee sucked big time. This lifestyle is very relaxing. Humans have such good lives, sip sip coffee la, read book la, talk to shy monkeys peeping out of cafe windows la... so unlike a carnival bear's life where we always have to struggle to get on top of the other bears in the games booth basket in order to see what's going on in the outside world. Because of my size, I only ever got to smell others' butts.



I saw a barber shop across the road and told Mummy it was about time I got a fur trim. My fur is getting quite messy.



The monkey cafe serves a lot of monkey related food such as: Funky Monkey Eggs, Mega Monkey Burger and Monkey Magic Juice. Mummy ordered the monkey egg dish and I tried a few bites of it using the fork for the first time in my life. EEeee I didn't like it. And I also think monkeys don't lay eggs so I can't understand why there is such a dish on the menu. Mummy hated the green leafy stuff underneath the eggs and took them all out. And look, we really did drop by the barber's after lunch. Alas, it was too packed and we didn't have time to wait. Next time then. Can you see that my right eye is almost totally covered by my fur? It's really difficult to see properly and I would need my perfect unobstructed vision for all the trips Mummy is going to bring me on. I want to go 看世界!



On our way back to find 老虎, we saw these posters. Mummy taught me that I have to buy her lotto tickets every week cos if Mummy strikes the big prize, then Mummy can bring me to see the bigger world and not just around Sydney. And Mummy can also accompany me every second of the day and not have to go do the human thing called work.



*Yawns* I am tired from our first excursion out. Til my next blog entry. Tata.

sydney royal easter show

From the official website: The Sydney Royal Easter Show is Australia’s largest annual event, a nationally iconic showcase of Australian culture and heritage. The Show aims to recognise achievements in agriculture through competition, and promote awareness among city Showgoers, honouring Australia's agricultural heritage whilst providing a platform for the future. Live music, extreme action performances, entertainment, sideshow, food, rides, and shopping make up the rest of the Show, providing a dynamic entertainment experience for the whole family. The Sydney Royal Easter Show is a world-class event unique to the Australian culture. Around 900,000 visitors attend the Show each year making it one of the largest events of its kind in the world.

Beh Kee and I were two among the early birds who grabbed the discounted tickets online for the Show. After checking the weather forecast for the entire long Easter weekend, we decided the best day to go for the Show was on Saturday, and so we went. An entire row of showbag booths greeted us the moment we entered the Showground at about 12noon. We gawked and drooled at the many attractive showbags, extremely undecided as to which to purchase, and eventually decided to leave the showbag shopping til the end of the day.





After satisfying my craving for a cuppa, we studied the program sheet and map and planned our itinerary for the day. First stop was to catch the Yard Dog Demonstration presented by Purina Bonnie at The Overflow at 12.20pm. I got a seat on one of those haystacks and enjoyed my coffee while I watched the very impressive demonstration by the two working kelpie dogs, Rex and Ned. I saw this little girl wearing a very pretty tee with the words: 'I'm dreaming of another sunny day' and quickly took a snapshot of her.



Here's a snapshot of Rex the amazing kelpie prowling and staring at the sheep to make them back into the corner.



Here's a short video of the two hardworking dogs in action, helping their master organise the sheep.



We then took the Sunday Telegraph Animal Walk.



We passed this Sky View ferris wheel multiple times throughout the day. We weren't tempted to ride in it at all as it didn't look exciting at all. It was more of a slow family ride for an aerial view of the Showground.



Here's a view of the same ride from another angle. And as we walked, there were kids everywhere. Kids climbing trees...



Kids participating in sack races...



And kids carrying cool bags purchased from the showbag booths. I like the Wall-E showbag! But I won't have much use for the toys that come with the bag though and it would be quite a waste of money if I got one.



The entire Showground is really very family friendly. We saw designated pram parking areas everywhere we went.



We stopped by at The Barn for the Sheep Shearing Demonstration at 1pm but didn't get to see anything as it was overcrowded. We also just missed the Dairy Farmers Milking Session that took place at 12.30pm so we just hung around in The Barn taking pics of the baby calves napping against the fake landscape backdrops.



We then did a quick tour in the Fashion and Style Pavilion where there were lots of booths showcasing products made with local wool and natural fibres. Not our cup of tea so we quickly made our way to the next stop.



Next up was the poultry section. We were completely taken aback by the number of birds that greeted us as we stepped into the pavilion. The noise was migraine-inducing as all the humans, pigeons, roosters, hens, ducks, geese and turkeys tried to 'talk' at the same time. Another huge surprise was the rainbow-coloured pigeons we saw...



The chicks came in rainbow colours too...



Here's a close up of a blue chick. I tried to find some kind of literature at the Showground that explained these coloured birds but there was none. Beh Kee and I agreed that it's a really cruel thing to do (to modify these chicks) as wouldn't they be deemed as being different from the others and hence would possibly be treated as outcasts by their peers?



And check out this giant of a goose! Scary! Use that boy with a bandaged arm as a measuring gauge and you'll be able to appreciate the size of that bird. I also risked getting pecked to take a shot to show just how big that scary goose was.



We saw a lot of award winning pigeons too. They are really beautiful and come in so many different shapes, sizes and looks.



Those roosters were extremely big and fat!



And I found this hen that looked like a poodle very amusing. Apparently it's an Asian breed called Silkie.



I think they long to be freed out of those cramped cages. The more we walked along those rows upon rows of caged up birds, the more guilty we felt for us human's cruelty towards these poor birds.



There was also a display of the many types of eggs available, and their differences.



And a section on poultry art.



We were finally done with the poultry section and advanced towards the other livestocks sections. Along the way, I was really tempted to get a sweet corn to munch on. See how fresh they look? We saw people eating those corns everywhere, they must be damn good!



Mitch was playing live music to entertain the corn-eaters. One man, one guitar, one microphone, if you'd like to engage his entertainment services for parties and other whatnot events, feel free to call the number below.



Here's Beh Kee taking photos of the photogenic alpacas. I was quite scared they would spit at me, those notorious fellas.



Awww... what heartwarming family portraits... I wanna bring that baby alpaca home. As for the piglets... all they ever do is sleep!



On to the horses. There were hordes of helpers grooming these beauties either for the judging rounds, or the parades.



This handsome white horse just finished a round of judging. It was quite surreal seeing riders on horses all around us.



Such gentle eyes... and such cool snow-white eyebrows!



At about 1.30pm, we went to queue up for the Racing and Diving Pigs 2pm show but couldn't make it into the plaza due to the overwhelming crowd wanting to catch the pigs in action. So we went back again at 3pm to start queueing for the 4pm show. And yay we got in! Beh Kee saw a pig race in Brisbane before but never heard of diving pigs. As for me, I haven't seen a pig execute anything except for some continuous eating and sleeping stints. Hence, you could imagine our anticipation for this show.



I shall leave you with a video of the Racing and Diving Pigs for you to see for yourselves. You must watch the entire video as the best performance is towards the end.



After the very entertaining performance by the extremely clever pigs, we still had time to spare before the 5pm Royal Dog Show and the 6pm Woodchop, hence we charged to the Showbag Hall and was instantly flabbergasted by the vast selection of showbags available. If I were a parent with kids, I think I would go bankrupt buying showbags for the little ones. It was indeed a kid's paradise. Even I had to consciously tear myself away from the booths to prevent spending unnecessarily. I did get myself two showbags though. Heehee.





We got very distracted at the Showbag Hall and missed the Royal Dog Show altogether. Fortunately we still managed to catch the final few rounds of the Woodchop Contest. These guys are amazing! Beh Kee and I, watching this for the first time in our lives, were stunned beyond speech. Here's a short video of the contest that I managed to capture before my camera died on me.



As night fell, we made our way to the Coca Cola Carnival Grounds. OMG. The number of rides there! And all the games booths! As we had no more cash on us, we had to forego the rides. I was sorely disappointed! Beh Kee saw many people holding large husky dog plush toys (some were larger than life sized huskies!) earlier in the day and vowed to get one for herself no matter what. Hence, we went on an aggresive husky hunt at the games booths. We checked out each and every game booth that had the husky toy as a winning item.



Here's a spastic video of me trying to score at the basketball booth in order to win that husky plush toy. You can hear Beh Kee giving instructions in the background. (I must clarify I look 'wider' in the video than I actually am cos I rotated the video from a vertical clip to a horizontal one, hence the distortion!)



In the end, I spent $20 and Beh Kee spent $50 (or $40?) and we each only won a tiny plush toy. Mine is a little red bear that Beh Kee named 小红. I will write more on 小红's adventures next time. At 6.45pm, after grabbing a hot dog, we left for home with very sore feet.



I haven't had enough of the Easter Show! I wanna go again. If not this year, then next. And I will be sure to bring shitloads of cash to buy at least a dozen showbags, take every single ride there, play at every single game booth and to get at least one giant plush toy home!