…and I also got a thank you card and a box of chocolates.

These all came from one of the groups I take care of in training and today was their last day. They mispelled my name on the card but i think it’s because of the accent hehehe. They asked me to come up and join them for lunch and when I entered the room, they immediately surprised me with their gifts of appreciation. I could only sincerely thank them for being so thoughtful.

I officially started Christmas shopping today and the first two special people I bought gifts to was for my Daddy and Mommy. I’m very satisfied with the gifts I got them. Will show photos as soon as they got them. It’s gonna be an early present to them as my cuzins will be handing them over on the day they arrive in Manila (Nov 14). I’m so excited!!! I know they’re gonna like it. 🙂

I also got Christmas cards for my Mother-in-law and Brother-in-law. Will just enclose cash so they can buy what they want. Nahihiya rin naman din kasi ako sa mga pinsan ko na magpadala ng madami, baka mapabigat ang dala nila.

At least, for our immediate family in the Phils, we have gifts for them already.

Other than shopping for Christmas presents, I finally had the chance to drop by Officeworks today and got myself a 320 GB External Hardrive. I’ve back-up all our files in DVDs but I still can’t erase it on my PC and laptop so to give me peace of mind, I just got an external hardrive. Which is also in preparation for more captured photographs and videos.

Oh and I got myself a 1 GB Sony USB too, for only $22.++. Good deal!!! 🙂

My last buy for the day was a hairdryer and hair straightener. It comes as a package deal and it’s on sale so I bought it. May hairdryer na, may hair straightener pa. I know technically I don’t need a hair straightener but sometimes when going to special events, I do need it. The hairdryer on the other hand is in preparation for my moving out of this place I’m staying at later when Chris is here in Sydney. For two years, nabuhay ako na nanghihiram lang ng hairdryer sa pinsan ko. Bigla kong na-realize na dapat meron na rin pala akong sariling hairdryer dahil lilipat ako ng bahay.

What about you? Have you started you Christmas shopping already? Have you bought something for yourself too?

Crumbed Prawns with Side Salad

Salmon with Avocado and Cheese (yum, yum, yum!!!)

Eel with Avocado (my first time to eat this, not bad though)

This is a mini-sushi and it’s probably Salmon too

There’s chicken inside and is topped with creamy cheese!

I had more photos of food than of people last night! My cuzins know me so well that before they eat their food, they’d say “Alright, take a photo now before I eat them.” We love eating out and taking photos of what we eat and drink. We really are a family who loves photographs, I guess it’s really in the genes hehehe.

There were only two photos of people last night, one was of Stooge….

Then of course, we had to have an official Cuzins Catch-up photo:

The Cuzins Crew has a very special bond that even if we have different cultural orientations (I’m from the Phils, two were from America and the rest came from Aussie) we get along really really well, it also amazes us. Everytime we have holidays together, we cherish them and just have tons of fun. We share each others’ secrets that only we know, we are protective of each other and we love each other to bits. There’s 10 of us (mother’s side) and everytime our holidays/reunions end, we cry heaps. How we wish to be in one country, but we are happy where we are now even if we miss each other terribly. For now, we just plan and look forward to visiting each others’ countries.

After dinner, we walked around the city looking for this ice cream resto only to find it freakin’ closed, so we ended up having coffee at Gloria Jeans. It was a fun, happy night as usual with my cuzins.