' i wish i was a punk rocker...'

'... with flowers in my hair'.... Jatin has taken a liking to the local jasmine bush... prior to our advetnures that took like 3 hours to get past 'sackville' to head to PAINTBALL!!!

After discussing the effects of 'too many chiefs not enough indians theory' hahahahaha (see jatin's family pic below).. (no one knowing how to get past windsor, and no, paintball is NOT in the middle of baulkham hills/ castle hill guys!) hahaha... we made it c/- jatin's random family relatives/ friends and the minority of whitey's in the group... namely fi and artem! hahah.. there were even a couple of other chongs in the pic below in our group!) it was fun!

 

MiniMerino Megavan!!

OK, i promised to post embarassing pics of me outside of the MegaMerino... and here tis!

funnily enough, i was trying not to make it obvious i was taking pictures of myself in front of this, but a couple of guys pulled in and was driving out of the parking lot and offered to take a photo of me! i quickly mumbled, no thanks... and kept walking into the souvenir store!!
how embarassment!!
Yes, my new cork hat will be my latest summer accessory!!! WOOOHOO!!!

minivan megaLONGWEEKEND! WOOHOO!

BY GEORGE! its LAKE GEORGE!
do you guys see any water? for those that have driven to canberra, you'll know what i mean... is this just a drought stricken massive 'body of land' haha, or what is it? i have never seen water in this lake... just cows... but heck- i'm not complaining!

As you can guess, its been another month, and another drive to visit my favourite 'nation's capital'... canberra... and i get to see Margie! YAY!





So aside from listening to my ipod- MJ blaring! ...driving along the beautiful NSW countryside... (how can we have roadtrips now without pics in the car! haha LFC 06!) what does one do when one visits canberra? The floriade is on for one... but dont worry, i'll savour that for the 'real' grannies... remember, i'm just a wannabe granma that crochets! i think i'd prefer to go with my mum or margie or someone! but the reason for the name of this blog is because i got to drive to canberra on a 'thursday'... and well, usually i'd come down on a friday and stay for the weekend, but as margie has a full schedule and well, im SO popular, i'm going paintballing on the weekend... i want to be back in SYDNEY for the long weekend!

ok. so i'm here mooching off margie in her apartment on a friday morning- she's gone to work to work in an important job at parliament house (serious!) and most likely for the Queen one day--- (serious!!!!)--
I on the other hand have one more Tandy store to visit and well.... what are my plans considering this is really just my excuse to take friday off/ drive home to sydney from canberra? haha such is the life of a travelling salesman!! (the important stuff in life!! wireless internet!)

well, for one as in my last canberra blog , its a perfect day to stop by goulburn to visit my old mate 'BIG Merino'... but as with all this van-ified, i will re-name him MEgaFunMerino! dont worry, i WILL take embarassing photos of myself infront of the statue when i get there!

Aside from that, Margie and i enjoyed a fantastic Turkish meal from a cool turkish (duh) restaurant that is LITERALLY across the street from her place- sweet!!!!
Here are some pics of the AWESOME freshly baked Turkish bread-- only $3 bucks!!! that we (even the van) could barely make a dent in that loaf! TASTY. (* note, pictures are of actual people with real bread-- not to scale!)

Aussie Idols- Vote #1 for DAMO

Ok, its only because Lou knows Damo wife Eileen (and i have met Eils- shes way cool) that i am posting this call! That and she sent me the jpg...
i have honestly never voted for anyone in the history of idol- id rather leave the voting to the unbeknownst suckers ( i mean..) ...young teens to determine the fate of the talented aussie idol finalists!!
that, and now that i have vodafone prepaid, i cant sms premium txt anyways! so-ree! but Vote DAMO anyways... GO!

btw- im in canberra tonite! such is the life of the travelling salesman.... ( hopefully i'll get a pic with the big merino tomorrow... so look out!) haha

4 days, 4 flights & a Gold Car!

Guys, can you spot the similarities between the above two pictures?

And me and ronald aint got Chicken mcnuggets in common! hahaha (thats me and my 'fancy' {joke} GOLD nissan Tiida :D beats a ketchup red hyundai excel anyday!! - hire cars are so classy!!)

I drove a GOLD car on the GC (Gold Coast) how CHEESY! Day 1 & 2 (Tuesday & Wednesday last week GC/ Brisvegas)

Who can go to Brisvegas and not go past the '4 X' beer factory! Go Queenslanders!


Day 3-4 Melbourne (yes, i flew home on wednesday nite late and got up super duper early to almost passing out to fly out to melbourne on thursday/ friday) WHO IS THIS CRAZY??!!

WHO IS THIS FAMILY?! haha I am a WANNABE TANSTER :D

Hi SALLY! Im hanging with yo homies'!!! I MISS YA, so i have to hang out with your family instead!

Van-nee enjoying Anne's homecooked lasagne! and AT taking another drink to soothe the pain of the 'foreign exchange student' guest. (haha) that, and vanny has an easy laugh at SFT's jokes re; Godson's family and the brother with a 'square head'... i could NOT stop laughing imagining a tv style cubed head for a poor kid who had to wear a helmet to keep his head together! ok. thats enough from the chongy from china...
love yas!

weddings, parties, anything!

These are happy snaps of my cousins' & I at my cuz's wedding!.... do you think i look 16? (that is the average age of the people's in this pic!!) hhaahah :D they're so cute! Kesh, Kristen, me and Daniel
Kesh and Cilla
Stef & Simon -- the happy couple! (stef is my cuz)
Sharon (my eldest sis) and our cuz' Brad& Kelly's little bub!

 

Eskimos,haircuts and Dr Karl

Hi Guys... just wanted to post 2 of my favourite friends on my blog... FI & JATIN. hope you guys dont mind! :D
speaking of which, Jatin took some funny photos of me and the gang at his place a few weeks back-- apparently i looked like an eskimo... now,this is NOT my family below!

haha, but if you want to see more pics, head to Jatin's link Here

This is my new haircut (i needed one desperately, i hadnt had a cut since April1/06! ---but not a new facial expression as most of you know!)

This is my 5mins of fame with Dr Karl Kruzelniscki or whatever/ however you spell his name! he was at the dse conference... i have no idea why he was there or what he was doing... but i didnt care! in case you dont know... the guy on the right is my manager, jt-- i wont spell the name to protect the innocent... and dont worry, i know we both look like -- we are NOT dr karl's adopted kids from china!! hahahaa

ok. will post more random happenings from the last couple of weeks...

Mondee Nite Menue

Ok folks, to make it up to LouPLou-- her presence on the Monday nite dinner was well worth the meal as she cooked us NACHOS-- sor-ree for referring to you as the 'filler innera' in 'whats your personality'.
You have outdone yourself with the Re-fried Beans Pure VEGO 100%-- and no meat side meal!!! (ok, as mentioned before, pictures inset are not actual pictures (courtesy of google images) again....

so... it was a FANTASTIC meal during aussie idol... and that blonde curly haired girl was good, but the song she sang absolutely sucked. I always note that the sting in the tail for aussie idols is that the reason in the first place they get voted out usually is becaue their song performance/ choice was BAD... but to add pure sting to the wound, they make them sing it AGAIN when they have told them they have been voted out!! Or are the 'loser' out of the 'bottom 3'. WHY PUT US THROUGH THE HORRIBLE SONG AGAIN!?! ARGH!!! But 'Damo'/ Damien is still in. Lou is friend's with this dude's wife... i've met her once--- does that make me famous too???? jokes...

ok, thats my gripe for the day.

Thanks for sharing your Personalities... my eNFj-ness is coming out! beware!!

love yas!
xoxo

FSA (Full Steam Ahead!)

Now, thats a saying the JD and i coined anytime (most of the time) our lives are busy/ hectic, and we find it hard to catch up!

now... my life couldnt get more FSA than this week!
its been JAM packed for the minivanmegafuncrazies!

review:

last week:

DSE conference (yes, we all gathered-- hundreds of DSE management/ staff/ vendors, chilli, optus, telstra, dodo, jedi etc etc etc) decended on the convention/ exhibition centre at Darling harbour for a 'vendors' expo.
lets just say i stood in booth '41'... and loooked chirpy amongst a massive pile of creatively placed 'chilli' demo boxes for our modems... " HI! im from Chilli!"
highlight: i met dr KARL kruzelniscki! (will post proof soon)
lowlight: snuck/ knicked (ahem) a certain 'toy' from a certain vendor (odod)

on the weekend:

Saturday
highlight: i went to my cousin's wedding! it was LOVELY. i havent looked forward to a wedding in years (dont get me wrong, no offence if you recently got married and you're reading this blog ...im sure i liked your wedding too?!!) but this was seriously the nicest ... :D they looked really happy :D
lowlight: knowing i either had to be in bed by 7pm if i wanted 8hours sleep or risk having only a few hours of sleep before...

Sunday
(lowlight) 3am wake, 4am start at RBG (royal botanic gardens) recovery venue.. Sydney Marathon (aka Sydney Running Festival) fun day, busy, managing volunteers to make sure the 18000 people coming through the venue knew where they needed to go...***
highlight: free drinks courtesy of ex boss wanting to have a wind down after the event around 3pm

evening (highlight): going fsa, but enjoying church with mum visiting and hanging out with friends havent seen in a while!

Monday
at work, prepping for a big week

Tuesday (today)
5:30 wake, 6:30am taxi pickup to Sydney Domestic Airport to head to Coolangatta airport (aka GC/ Gold Coast)
Hire car: embarrassingly GOLD NISSAN TIIDA
Random: Paul Beutel from TAHOE lives in Brissy, and i caught up with him for a drink!! any Tahoe-ans reading the blog (only Sal and Fi!) will remember?!
Current: 'grand chancellor' hotel, Brisbane--- passing out

*** unrelated/ related story: Im chatting to si-mon on the msn, he notes his bro Jack was driving up to sydney for a band gig-- their car breaks down, so they go and hire a car to drive up... but they leave their car somewhere and it gets towed.... because of .... the sydney marathon!!!!!! hahah (yes, thats what happens peeps, special event clearways....)

ok. i got sick of talking about highlight/ lowlights.
im tired.
nite peeps

whats your personality?

Hi peeps,
I was going to begin a regular 'menu' ala 'monday nite dinners' courtesy of meals created by rotation with friends previously with the sal-lee but now the filler innera... lou and of course jatin and i!
i cooked a stir fry (as most chongy's should be able to do) ala vegetarian with a 'meat' side as lou and i couldnt live without eating chicken for the evening! all was well, except i stuffed the rice up... it was rice ala 'chewy' .... not good! i hadnt cooked rice in the microwave in a while... i think i've lost my touch!!! maybe if i could be bothered, i'll start taking 'menu' pictures... and posting them on my blog..... IF! (photo courtesy of google images!)

however... the point of this blogaholic entry was to take note (ala fi's obsession) with Kiersey personality test/ ... now, i dont think its definitive in any way... (some may disagree!) however, i think the tests are helpful in identifying certain personality types and combinations. either way, it sounds like 'clever' acronyms... if you're feeling like you're an 'eNFj or a 'AbCD'... you'll know what i mean... here is a quick 10minute test to give you a glimpse into what this test thinks you're about!! you'll be talking in 'letters' in no time! (btw, I am an eNFj (so is lou) and jatin is an eSfP.. now... you'll just have to complete this thing to find out! Here ---lemme know what personalities you have peeps!

'Blogaholics Anonymous'...

dudes,
i think i have a problem.

'Hi, My name is Minivan, and im a BlogaHolic'

i found this picture sent to me from sal-lee via si-mon on msn on my desktop and i had to find an excuse to post it on my blog! although i've already had a posting today! (ok, so it was a crap entry about fiddy cent, but still!)

and the worse thing about it is, the picture is of me! (you cant tell) ala LFC 06 trip... but its van passed out after our 'nite out on the town falls creek style' aka a glass of red wine (i know, toucan/sam... red asian syndrome, just say it! shh!!)... heck! i had seriously hit that freakin 'jake wall!'!!!

and i thought this was a support group... wait a minute.. its my blogaholicism!! ARGH!!!!

fiddy Cent gets arrested...

Ok peeps,
now, this is pretty funny... im attempting at making a joke of 50Cent... the rapper you know homes?
he got arrested today in NYC. now, do you think his fine will be worth his weight..?? 50C?
ok, maybe not, but its pretty serious! Reuters has posted this VIDEO about his arrest... i mean, c'mon, he;s just cruisin NYC which i take he was just thinking he is like the coolest dude... driving round who knows where in his lambourghini, why would he think speeding in such an awesome machine would make him devoid of any penalties? maybe in LA! haha...
anyhoo... i just think this guy is funny, not just because he's undervaluing his worth and marketing it to millions (fiddy cent) but also because those muscles are so fake in the pic!

ok. enough distraction for now!

15 useless minivanmegafun Facts...

As a great blog entry- time filler on my 'PJ Saturday' (officially named, as a day of rest and relaxation at home in the pj's!), thanks ManoloBlahblah for including me on your 'tag' list! does that mean i'm officially part of this 'melbourne' crew? has Spate Mulochy just joined? is he cute? haha

1. Three things that scare me:

1. walking out of a public bathroom with toilet paper dragging behind me
2. women that have beards
3. i get heeby jeebies from slugs. they are seriously gr-oss!

2. Three people that make me laugh:

1. spate mulochy
2. 'gob' from arrested development
3. myself! (if i dont laugh at my own jokes.. who will?!)

3. Three things I hate the most:

1. stinge-iness/ lack of generosity
   
2. people that dont know how to park their cars
3. rude/mean people (im with you manoloblahblah!)

4. Three things I don't understand:

1. why people say they are 'allergic' to things they dont like to eat (not the same thing)
   
2. why the grass is green ( and no, dont tell me its chlorophyll, because i already know that!)
   
3. why chongie's all have black hair
   

5. Three things I'm doing right now:

1. If this answer is meant to be literal, i had scheduled a "PJ" day indoors.. and what a perfect way to spend a saturday! ( i havent been home for a weekend to do nothing in weeks! also first week i havent had to go intererstate in a 5 weeks!! phew!)
2. enjoying updating my blog, designing stuff, making bits... and attempts at creative kindness!
3. enjoying having the time of my life!!
   

6. Three things I want to do before I die:

1. scuba dive
2. go heli-skiing
3. make sure i tell all the people i know and love... that i love them!
   

7. Three things I can do:

1. reverse park ( im a prodigy)
   
2. touch type
   
3. breakdance (not really, but i did have lessons once!!)
   

8. Three ways to describe my personality

1. bubbly
   
2. loud
3. fun
   

9. Three things I can't do

1. reach the top shelf at the supermarket
   
2. eat dog (i will never do it!-- just cos other chongie's do!)
   
3. become a non-chongie white girl
   

10. Three things I think you should listen to:

1. michael franti
   
2. joyce meyer
   
3. michael jackson!
   

11. Three things you should never listen to:

1. people who sell you stuff on infomercials
   
2. travelling salesmen!! (haha)
   
3. aunty patty-- if she tells you, you have put on weight since last christmas!
   

12. Three things I'd like to learn:

1. capoeira
2. quilting ( im such a grandma!)
   
3. geeky animation programs
   

13. Three favourite foods:

1. thai
   
2. monday nite dinners (miss ya sal-lee!)
   
3. ice-cream!!! by far!
   

14. Three beverages I drink regularly:

1. tea
   
2. lime and soda (* occasionally with vodka)
   
3. OJ
   

15. Three shows I watched as a kid

1. Sesame Street
2. Benny Hill (serious... i didnt understand the sexist innuendo, i just love the theme tune!)
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!! (heroes in a half shell.. turtle power!)
   

16. Three people I'm *thinking of tagging to do this...

1. Frenchie (Jo)
2. Jatin
3. who is going to bother?? any takers?

nathan bathtime... (this is not my baby!- its my cute nephew!)

Hi, before you get too confused (ala manolo blah blah)... haha, this is my cute little nephew, not my baby!!!
aint he sooo cute!

Adventure with JO! - in pictures... (director's cut)

YAY! I didnt think i did JO and my adventure to Berry justice last time... also making a feature of the Kiama blowhole (see previous blog on this topic ADVENTURE with JO! ) was great... but i didnt have any pictures of us up there! so here tis :D





Just in case you're wondering, Jo appears to have hidden her long luscious blonde locks behind those mysteriously sexy blue eyes!! (and red bandanabanana-- she's just wearing a funky hair thing :)



Berry is a hip and happening town! (especially when we visited!)










I love these photos! such Happy da-lappily Snappy! :)





Donuts seem to be such a favourite theme in my life... Jo and i enjoyed the deep fried goodness!



okeeladokalee... jo cant stand the 'flash' while at the kiama blowhole... till next time folks! xoxo