travel update - toronto part two

Besides the wedding, I was able to catch up with my friends from my dip ed course, and friends I have known from my HK days. It was so good to see them all, especially in their now hometowns. I was also able to try out the local food haunts and did lots of window shopping... okay so i was able to squish in a little retail therapy too. Ice hockey has always been a game i have wanted to watch and a friend managed to get me an in to get a pair of tickets, so Kel and I went and watched the Toronto Maple Leafs play again the Atlanta Thrashers... unfortunately the game wasn't too spectacular with the Thrashers winning but we did witness some fights! awesome!

Other highlights for me in Toronto:
- drooling at T&T the huge asian supermarket... it's got everything asian!
- trying Kelly's famous chocolate fudge chunks with dried cherries cookies... delicious!
- dropping my contact lens down the sink drain and having to wait a day before I got some help rescuing the lens... Dan and Veronica came over for a hot pot and Dan opened up the sink's u-tube and fished the lens out!

I've uploaded more pics from my trip: my uni reunion; toronto part one; and toronto part two.

My massive Toronto thankyou: Kwun-Ye and Kelly who helped with the playlist; Kwun-Ye for lending me her phone charger cuz mine decided to conk out; Dan who helped rescue my contact lens from the sink drain pipe; Kim who was a big instigator of retail therapy; Kevin who kindly agreed to help work her sister's shift so that she can take me to the airport; Pat and Kel and Gully for putting up with me for the past week... thank you to the Kans, Pat and Kwun-Ye for speaking chinglish with me... & thank you guys, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Toronto... hope to be back next year!

travel update - toronto part one

I have been in Toronto for the past week and a bit, spending my time with my high school best friend Kelly who got married last weekend. Her wedding last weekend was very much talked about, it was full of her close friends and was sooooo much fun. The wedding was at the Metropolitan Hotel and the reception was catered by the famous Lai Wah Heen restaurant in the hotel that served the most incredible Cantonese dishes... wow the food was amazing. There was another Chinese banquet the next evening but only for the relatives and a few others (like myself)... I was so full after it all.

There are plenty of stories to tell from all the festivities but here are some of the highlights from the wedding weekend:
- meeting the Aulis family
- hanging out with Kelly's Torontonian and Bostonian posse
- our own 'tea ceremony' serving the newlyweds the ABT aka Anything But Tea
- Kim, Michael C and I dedicating Jackie Cheung's Snow Wolf Lake and Leon Lai's My Love Ichiban to the newlyweds
- the newlyweds head banging to metal on the dance floor
- the newlyweds salsa-ing their first dance to Michael Buble's Save The Last Dance
- wedding crashers... simply hilarious
- post wedding drinks at the bridal suite... the biggest get together of the Kan and Aulis friends
- Sunday morning breakfast/brunch at Fire On The East Side... wow
- the hip flask containing ABT
- the photographers forgot about the wedding date and had to rush over for the appointment... Kelly and Pat did manage to get some pics taken around the city in the end!
- lots of dancing... even Mrs Kan was boogying!
- dessert buffet... I was so lucky to have been sitting right next to the dessert table

There was a heap of us that took pictures over the weekend... these are the ones from my camera: click here and also here.

travel update - melbourne

After spending my birthday packing and picnic-ing at the supreme court gardens with about 12,000 people (for the Church Together event), I got an airplane and began my seven-week round the world trip. My flight destinations: Melbourne - Toronto - London - Paris - Hong Kong - Singapore - Kuala Lumpur - Singapore - Perth.

Note to self: budget flights are really budget flights, remember to bring own pillow/neck rest etc and be prepared to get jabbed by the person in the seat behind you when they are trying to stretch out and totally cop the impact of the jab!

I spend most of my time in Melbourne catching up with friends from high school, uni and church. It was really great seeing everyone again... made me really miss being in Melbourne.

Anyway here's my list of some of the new things I saw/ did/ checked out this time in Melbourne:
- stayed at a hotel right on Bourke Street Mall which was very convenient
- checked out the newly redesigned GPO which now has fabulous shops inside
- Spicy Fish... a sichuan/shanghainese restaurant in chinatown... so yummy
- Max Brenner... I finally got to taste the chocolate waffles!
- breakfast at Asti's place complete with swedish creamed cod paste
- Kit Cosmetics Christmas VIP event at the Chapel Street store... how much fun did I have!
- I Like You... my friend Tina's shop which has got some amazing clothes and accessories
- an entire lap around the Albert Park lake with Michelle
- SatayStix... my cousins' restaurant on 600 Bourke Street
- Little Creatures has a dining hall on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
- discovering that there was Obama sauce at a hotdog stand
- having breakfast with Liz in the airport just before I left town for Toronto

click here for more pics