100 days challenge - Gives Thanks day 73 - The Proposal

Cairns where two world heritage sites meet and a place where I found a diamond ring.

On 13 June 2013, the most unromantic boyfriend decided to do something special; to propose at Shangri-La Cairns.

I have nothing to suspect about as it is very common for us to travel together for his race. Something different was that I were extremely busy at work that I hardly have the time to plan any itinerary, so Aaron decided to take over this opportunity to give me a surprise.

What a wonderful joke it is.

It was 4 days after his race; we were adventurous on that day that we decided to go for white water rafting at the Barron River. The day ended pretty fun, tiring and with lots of bruises. It was a rare occasion that he suggested to have a nice dinner to end the day and gave me time to dress up (though I were too tired to dress nicely. *Regretted*).

At North Food and Wines with Sea view

Suspicion arise when the restaurant and bar manager of the North food and Wines, Illy Toloa-Suaniu, brought a bottle of wine, calming that it was the restaurant “lucky draw” and we were the lucky ones. I thought I were over sensitive about things and were embarrassed about myself but I soon put this aside when the seafood tower that we ordered were presented to us. 

Good wine, Good view and a Good ambience

Seafood Tower

 We took our time enjoying the dinner, but I bet Aaron was struggling internally throughout this meal. I reckon it is always a tough mission for any man to pop the question. As for the wine I mentioned earlier, I felt bad not to drink it since it was a gift by the restaurant, so started to drink a few sips while enjoying the lobster, smoked salmon, crayfish and shrimps. It is the best combination I would say. Unknowingly, I drank half the glass and it was more than I could handle. I was feeling sleepy and requested to head back to the hotel to rest.

Before I could stand up from the dining table, the manager has stepped in saying that she has prepared a dessert for us. This was when I knew it is “the moment”.

The specially customized dessert with the ring setting on top with the strawberry 

I saw the ring on top of the customized ice crystal ball and that brought me to tear. Overwhelmed with joy! Aaron was caught off guard too, because North Food and Wines were so kind to help organize this occasion that Aaron only has to do the bare minimum of handling them the ring.

“What am I supposed to do next?” That was his respond, bringing about laughter within my tears.  No fancy speech like he did while emceeing, no animated actions like he did in Sunday school but just a simple “Will you marry me?” and at the same time trying to kneel down with his sore legs. However, all these melt my heart, how could I reject? *blush*

Though no fanciful speech, he jotted down our dating journey in his personalize drawing album. It wasn’t easy to have an endurance dating of 6 years but it definitely taught us how to love and understand each other; and that how we like it, we are endurance athletes.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Thanks to all the friends that contributed the ideas, suggestions and/or simply keeping the cat in the bag. Thank you Illy and North Food and wines for the months of coordination and the surprise. Thank you my fiancé for loving me. Thank God for the angels He places in my life.

The wonderful lady behind the occasion

A special thank you for North food and wines for sponsoring the wine and customized dessert for our special occasion. If you would like to hold a special occasion there:

Shangri-La Hotel, The Marina, Cairns Pierpoint Road, Cairns, Queensland, 4870 Australia
Tel: (617) 4052 7670 Fax:(617) 4031 2815 Email:illy.suaniu@shangri-la.com Website:www.shangri-la.com

To end off, I’m engaged!

Run To See The World

Recently Aaron and I have been traveling to countries for races and this is addictive. We are inspired by some of our friends who often fly to overseas for races. We are neither rich nor elite, holiday trips are an indulgence and our race timings aren’t good enough to be sponsored. This doesn’t stop us from seeing the world and the passion to run. So, don’t know since when we started having this laborious and expensive hobby of taking every overseas race as a holiday. Tiring but this how we like it! We run to see the world. Much from the unspoken truth is the Love from our God that allows us to be able to see His marvelous creations with every breath we take.

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. – Matthew 6:33

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord – Psalm 150:6

Cingjing Nantou, Taiwan - 2013

Taipei, Taiwan - 2013

Often I will throw nasty comment at Aaron for not having normal couple relationship of having dinner date or just spending time talking sweet things. No anniversary, no Valentine day!  Ironically, I repeatedly have to shut myself up with all my nonsense because as an athlete, I understand it all. Most of the time, we get to see our partner ugly worn-out face that is rather unappealing. We see each other very frequent, like 4-5 times a week, many it maybe seems but none is romantic. Trainings and ministry works are the time that bonded us together.  Now that we have this expensive hobby (I hope this will last for as long as it can *praying hard*), it helps spice our relationship a little and motivate us to train harder. I treasure every trainings, ministering and overseas trips and am really thankful for that. Thank God for His provision to our endurance dating relationship.

Our first trip together was 5 years back. First destination - Bangkok; a trip that we truly understand what “Venus vs Mars” is.  Aaron’s intolerant to wait was immediately surfaced during that trip while I shopped. Back in those honeymoon dating days, he was always the enthusiastic party wanting to shop with me but I guess 1 year was his threshold. This trip unveils our differences and similarities; running shoe is always the item on the packing list. Since then, running shoe is a “Must bring” item for every trip.  Till date, we have run in Melbourne, Japan, Cambodia, London, Paris, Busselton and Taiwan.

Western Australia Ironman, Busselton - 2012

Western Australia Ironman, Busselton - 2012



Tokyo Marathon, Japan - 2012



 

Tokyo Marathon, Japan - 2012



Tokyo Marathon, Japan - 2012





Stonehenge, London - 2011





The Louvre, Paris - 2011

Dandenong Melbourne, Australia - 2009

If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? - 1 Corinthians 12:17

I thank God for providing me a partner and a best friend. Though we may be different in many ways but we learn to grow together in Christ.



Dating - Garden by the bay and J's swim outing

I have been always complaining about my boyfriend training hard for his first Ironman race that will be held in December 2012, and has not has much time for us (me & the dog). Though I complain alot (one of the privilege that girls get to do to their boyfriend), I am completely understanding and supportive because I myself loves sport too.

One a side note: We spent most of our time together (dating time) while we are training or doing sport ministry... and once in awhile we will catch a mid night movie.

I totally understand that once we tied the knot and have all the family commitments rolling in, we will have lesser time to do the things we like; so his goal is to do a few ironman races before he commit himself to be a family men. Nonetheless, we still hope to be sportive; using sport as a tool to impact the young lives among us as well as our kids... *blush*.

Let's not digress further... So this wonderful man of my life was so sweet that he managed his training schedule in order to accommodate our dating...

He woke up earlier (4am) on one of the Saturday as well as on the Deepavali holiday to cycle so that he could make time for me. Feel so loved.

Garden by the bay

My friend bought a ticket for us, which allows access to the Cooled Conservatories and the OCBC Skyway.He initially forgot about this outing but he still make time for this. I was quite touched when he accommodated to me. Thank you for loving me.

 Here are the photos [To be uploaded soon].

J's swim outing
I think he will make a great dad next time. =) Though he has hectic amount of work and squeezes his time to train, he still make the effort to spend time with his family.
J is his dog; totally pampered by his dad and treats it like a daughter. It favourite hobby is swimming, so his dad suggested to bring the dog out for a swim since we have not done it for months.

Impatient look

Thank you for bring me for a swim.. Love U look

Can we go into the water now?



Denched J (Left) with her fluffy friend Tommy (Right)

 

BJ having Monday Blues

Having Monday's blues? BJ having that too, because everyone is heading to work and she will be home alone again.

BJ is a very active female sheltie. Having an athlete owner, she is also inspired to be a tri-dog. Her favourite hobbies are swimming, running and sleeping. Among the 3, she loves swimming the most (she becomes very impatient when she knows she is going for a swim), she will do her 3km run as and when the owner has no training. Days that she doesn't do her workouts (when everyone is busy), she spend most her time having her beauty sleep.

Oh~ It's Monday again!

1 More Minute Please....

 Have a great weekdays ahead, with loves from the sheltie that doesn't like Monday too.

New Hair Cut

Was sick for a while. Physically and Emotionally. Had a very bad food poisoning and the experience was horrible.



Anyway... I had a new hair cut!

Bye to my precious hair. Feel lighter physically and emotionally. I'm letting go the burden that I have been carrying for years and start a new again. Committing all to God (I hope). It is so human to depend on self understanding and strength but God is the answer to all queries.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.  - Matthew 11:28-20

By the way, I hope to post a review on the dove hair fall treatment soon.

Ice Cream Excursion

As the title has said it all... Yes it will be a fun post with overwhelming joy.

This was 2 weeks back. My week at work was horrible so my best friend suggested we go for an ice cream excursion since I do not have my boyfriend with me that weekend. Supposed to go to Port Dickson race with him but there was some last minute arrangement so I have to forgo the trip. How I wish I could be there nonetheless the ice creams were good too.

We have limited time so we were selective.

1st stop: Twelve Cupcakes
Venue - Millenia Walk

"Handmade with loves.." the motto does help to ease the disappointments. Feel so love with each bite I took. As an athlete, I often choose to avoid whip cream but the fattening feeling was good that day! I tried red valet and I would say the whip cream taste refreshing with a aftertaste of lemon.

See these cute litte things... So colourful and cheerful

2nd Stop: Francisca Dessert Parlour
Venue - Millenia Walk P2-35/36

This was an unintensional pit stop because the colours of the shop caught my eye.The cafe is decorated in pink and turquoise. "Dreamy" that was the word to describe the place and I scored a point for myself while I was talking to the boss. This cafe has not offically launch, so the boss happened to be there as it was their first week of opening and would like to check out the crowd. Had a nice chat with him but did not have a chance to sit down to have a nice cup of tea because it is too girlish for my guy friend. Will make a visit soon with my girl friends instead. They have bervage, chocolates, ice creams and cupcakes. Saw something unique so I tried a scoop of their sakura Ice cream. Sakura season is over by now so was curious but I guess there is some secret recipe that the boss is not sharing.. haha.


3rd Stop: Tom's Palette
Venue - Shaw Leisure Gallery #01-25


Used to visit there in my University days. If I did not remember wrongly, they have around 80 flavours.
With the 25 flavours display, we are spoilt for choice. Since we could not make up our mind, we were introduced to their new recipe. It is their belgium waffle. What's new you would ask? It comes with a blueberry blob with cream cheese frosting. And it comes with a free scoop of Ice cream.

Let me introduce you to the blob. It is a blueberry sauce covered by a thin layer of membrane coating. This is a fun way to eat my waffle because I get to cut the blob to induce the sauce out! I love their cream cheese frosting too, a taste of cheese in the whip cream, a combination of salty & sweet. We chose chocolate sorbet but it taste nothing like sorbet, I guess chocolate itself has a certain amount of creamy-ness. The waffle is not fantastic as well. Seem like it is been prepared a long time just waiting to be served. As we were talking about the waffle, "Tom" came out to check if we like their new creation.


By the way, the boss is not named Tom. Tom's Palette came about because it is a form of motivation that drive them to create more flavours for us.


He was honest with us that the waffle has to be done that way because of the ingridents they used, he mentioned it was the true belgium wheat waffle. Hmm.. I guess more research and development need to done.


4th Stop: Creamier Handcrafted Ice Cream and Coffee
Venue - 128 Lorong 1 Toa Payoh, #01-835


Dissatisfed with the waffle, "Tom" recommended us to Creamier which was our next stop. Here we were excited to taste a good waffle.

The choices of ice cream wasn't as many as Tom's but we are still spoilt for choice. Can make our mind we decided to go with the flow as most people were ordering roasted pistachio for our waffle.


With the limited understanding, I was told their waffle is a combination of belgium and Amercian waffle. The texture and freshly made waffle was good. The ice cream was a compliment with nutty taste. I love it.

Bought a pint of pistachio ice cream back home but it doesn't taste as good as the one I had there. I believe it was because the pistachios have been soaked long enough in the ice cream and lose it crunchiness. It is abit to sweet for me to it is alone by itself too.


That's all folk! Spread the happiness!

Happy food

Terrible mood and speechless... If only I could get this cute food to brighten my day or rather week

I ♥ this

Love this dress. Seldom will I be attracted to bright coloured dresses, but this make my skin tone look so healthy & tone. Reluctantly gave it up because it is too short for me. 

I received a strawberry rose today! Don't you think it look so alike? Some little things like this could just brighten up your day if you choose to be happy. My days maybe bad most of the time but I choose to believe that there is a sunshine after the rain.

I give thanks for the blessings & I choose to praise the Lord during the difficult times. Sound easy, but it is real tough coming to act in faith. I can complain like mad but ultimately I repent knowing that God has the best plan install for me. Will keep proclaiming until I finally get the joy that God has for me.

You have a choice too, God allows us to make the choice. I choose the narrow path that lead to heaven, hoping that I can finish the race, how about you? 

Manage to create that rose because the strawberry was so big!

Smile because I choose to.