Dorcas.com

birth story part 2

2011-12-31T19:08:00.002+11:00

Matthew-3days old

With ceasarean, the recovery is always a concern. And different people had told me different experiance about their post op recovery. Anyway, this is my account.
I have very limited pain threshold, so, my advice will be, to take everything you're given to cope with pain. They won't give you something that will affect the baby, so just take this pills!
Right after the operation, i was placed in the recovery room for 30 mins to check my vital signs and so on. I was given a shot of something ( which i was told, is to help me cope with the pain while the spinal block was wearing off ). after that, I was being wheeled to my ward to be reunited with baby, and was given 1 Endone ( a type of morphine in pill form). When the spinal block finally wear off, my tummy felt a bit like period pain, as in, dull ache kind of pain. It wasn't hard to cope because i was too occupied with baby and breastfeeding and my body was still full of adrenaline. At about 8pm, the midwives came and give me a scrub down. Panadol and voltaren were given as pain relief for the night. I remember i rate my pain score as 3. so not too bad at all. All ceaser mum get a good night sleep while baby was being cared for in the nursery for the first night.
The next day, the nurse came and remove my pressure bandage, and catheter, and i was again given Endone to help me get out of bed. The scariest part is the first out of bed experience. Actually, it wasn't really that painful at all, it felt like those muscle ache after you did 100 sit up.
I took a shower right after that with the help of the nurse, and feel so good and refreshed. No more sexy hospital gown, and i'm allowed to wear my own clothes. I was told to walk around for 10 mins before returning to my bed. By that afternoon, I can get out of my bed without the help of anyone, and walk around slowly, and caring and nursing my baby. My choice of pain relief are still panadol and voltaren. My OB came and see me and asked me how long do i wish to stay in the hospital because if i wish to, i could leave the next day. But I've asked to stay for the entire 6 days so i could learn how to properly breastfeed and looking after my newborn. He agreed, and asked for my dressing to be taken out on the 5th day. When the dressing is out, i was left with a very very faint line. Not much of a scar and no bruising.
that's pretty much sum it all up. overall, i had a very wonderful and enjoyable birthing experience.
Motherhood however, it's another story for another time. Right now, I'm just taking it slowly one day at a time.

Happy new year to all my fellow readers. Tomorrow is a brand new year for me, and my entire world have gotten a lot smaller. I can hardly see or remember anything other than what time i feed, what time he sleep, pee and poo. There will be lots of things to learn and lots of mistakes to make, but that's ok. Matthew Emmanuel is here now, and we will take baby steps together.
i hope.

Birth Story Part 1

2011-12-26T18:16:00.004+11:00

my birth plan was an elective caesarean. Given my small size, i think it is the safest option for me and bub and i dun want a traumatic birthing experience.

So, one week before my actual due date, I was booked into my hospital ( Hurstville Private ) for the elective caesarean. My OB told me he had 3 caesarean to do on that day, and i am the first one- at 730am. I was told to be there by 6am for some prep works, but really, they just make you change into a very sexy hospital gown, and lie me down to wait for everyone else to arrive. The anesthetist only arrived at about 7, forget his last name, but everyone's calling him John! So, John talked to me about various options of anesthetic, and pain relief for recovery, and he suggested that i use a spinal block instead of an epidural. It will be administered exactly the same as epidural, but there won't be any catheter attached to my spine, it's a one shot drugs, good for 3 hours max. After that, it's waiting for the potter to come and wheel me into the theater. My husband was asked to prep himself with those CSI gown outside the theater while I was wheeled in the theater.
I was very nervous and i remember my OB came and say hi. I told him i was very nervous and he reassured me again that it will be alright! And the lovely John ask me to curl up like a ball, and he inject some local anesthetic before he gave me the spinal block. I felt a warm sensation from waist down, and strangely, this warm sensation seems to calm me down and may be i was numb i can't even feel nervous anymore!! I could feel my legs the entire time, pins and needles, but i was unable to move them. it's a very strange feeling. I remember i kept on asking John what if I need a "top up"?? he just laugh and say i won't need it!! He have 2 scrub nurse with him, while my OB have 1 scrub nurse on the other side. A screen was then put up between me and my OB, and i again reminded him that I want to see my baby coming out!!
My husband then join me, with camera and video cam! Everyone on my end ( John, nurses and midwives ) were pretty relax, and we were joking about things such as if i'm not having a baby now what will i be doing? I told them i'll be busy trying to make one!!
I didn't even know when my OB did the first cut, but suddenly, one of the nurses ask my husband to hand her the camera so she could take photos of us, and the screen in front of me was drop. are you ready for the most amazing moment?!

bubby was born! the Nurse is a star! she should be a part time photographer or something!!

and my lovely OB Dr.Lau showing off my baby to me!!

right after that, baby was checked by midwife, cleaned, and wrapped up tight.

and was place on my chest for some cuddle.

He was perfect, and a spitting image of me.

my husband videoed the whole thing and every time i watched it, i thank god for He is gracious and we're so unworthy.

After that, my husband and the midwife took the baby to nursery for health check, whole i was being sutured up. It felt so long honestly!! and i was then taken to recovery room for 30 mins to "recover". I was shaking pretty badly, but the nurse say it's normal and it means the spinal block is wearing off. I was given some water to drink, and they pump hot air into my blanket to keep me warm.

In the nursery, buba was given a vitamin K shot and some other stuff and of course, weighing.
2.940kilo and 48cm.

After my recover period, i was again reunited with my husband and baby in the ward, and it was such an amazing time. We did some skin to skin and the midwife say i should try to breast feed now.

and he took on my breast like a champ. and haven't been wanting to stop since. and that's another story for next time.

and i think this is the photos we show the world on fb.
Matthew Emmanuel Ting.
Matthew meaning-God's gift.
Emmanuel meaning - God is with us.
Ting - NO CHOICE! haha.

Thank you lord for this little gift. Help us to know you more and be a better parent.

a blessed 39 weeks of journey

2011-12-20T22:19:00.003+11:00

It's hard to believe that tomorrow morning, before a lot you start your day, i will be holding my little guy in my arm. God have been so gracious, so gracious to us. I still remember last year around this time, we were back home with my parents, trying to avoid "THE questions", asked by people we know, people we dun know, people who care, and people who dun... and after many months of trying to conceive, i honestly dunno if i will ever be a mommy. But i know God alone satisfy, and i trust that what He had in store for us, will be for our joy. It's a season of waiting, and it's not a good season to be in. But looking back now, it was the season that force us to taste, and see His goodness. It's a bitter sweet season. I'm very grateful that God make me wait for a while, and that when the time is right, my joy was indescribable!
It was 5 days before Easter when the stick shows 2 lines. and it will be 5 days before Christmas when bub is born. The Lord is with us, every step, every day for the past 39 weeks. And I know i can trust that He will be there with us tomorrow when we hold His tiny little gift in my arm.
thank you Lord. you are gracious.

" what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?"
May your name be glorified.

and for those who are very curious about bub's name? if you read between the lines, you'll know!

time to sleep. at least, try to sleep.

good night y'll.

38 weeks begin and let's start the counting...

2011-12-07T12:44:00.006+11:00

14 more days to go.. or anytime now!!

all the excitement is building up, so is the nerve and anxiety.
i wasn't really nervous until lately, sometime i will wake up in the middle of the night worrying. will bub be healthy? will bub get jaundice? will he be as cute as we anticipated? will i be ok? will i be able to breast feed? what will casper's reaction be? will my parents' visit and stay be a pleasure or a pain? how should we raise him up?etc etc. so many uncertainties, and so many things that kept me from enjoying and trusting the lord.

It's a good thing to keep a blog.

Looking back, God reminded me again and again, that it was HE, who formed bub's inward parts, it was HE, who knitted bub together in my womb, and bub is fearfully and wonderfully made, and it was HE who will carry bub from the womb. even to bub's old age, and to gray hairs HE will carry him, It is HE who made and HE will bear, HE will carry and HE will save. Psalm 139:13-14; Isaish 46:3-4.

what a great assurance it is, to know that, no matter what, bub first belongs to God and He cared and loved bub more than we ever can.

and even though it's not easy, i'm gonna learn to cast my anxiety and worry to god. One good way to do is to look back, and count the blessings along this 10 months.

Firstly, i have a relatively easy and joyful pregnancy. Even the vomiting and sickness in first trimester brings me great joy because the stronger your body's reaction to pregnancy hormone, the better the implantation, and assurance that bub is growing strongly and well. Second trimester is a breeze and i enjoyed my third trimester the most. In fact, i am a little sad that it's almost over. I enjoyed all the twisting,turning, kicking and hiccuping. I'm bless with no odema ( no water retention of the feet of face or any parts!! ), and i love my big big super huge tummy!! Overall, i had a "textbook" pregnancy, no bleeding, felt baby movements at exactly 18-19 weeks, all blood works is good, and no major complication.

Secondly, i'm surrounded by lots of friends ( from all over the world!! ) who are very supportive and they all have been an angel listening to my endless topics about bubs, dr's visit etc etc even those who are not yet mommy! It was wonderful having you guys around.

Thirdly, my aunty is a midwife and that really really is a huge huge blessing to me. I never have to call dr's office when i have an emergency situation, or in doubt, or anything really. She gave me a lot of inside information about child birth, recommended me about which hospital and obstetrician that i should choose, explain to me how the medicare thing works..etc etc.. and i can freely ask her anything no matter how silly!

Fourth, I dun have to work for the entire time of my pregnancy! It's like a dream come true really. I guess a big part of me being so happy all the time is no need to go to work :) that really free me up to do a lot of readings on pregnancy and babies, and gives me a lot of time read and listen to good sermons. I dun think i'll have time like these next year..

many many more and typing them out, put a smile on my face. God have been good and gracious to us, and He is faithful, and will continue to take care and look after us.

And...how can i forget to include this: My diabetic days are over!! Yeah! Blood work from last Monday shows that my glucose level are very well controlled and back to normal. Bub is on the normal, but small size range, right now is 2.7kilo, at the most, he will be 3.2kilo at birth. all is well. and 2 more visit to the dr, 2 more Christmas celebration, and 1 Christmas dinner with my fellow colleagues, I'm ready to pop.

Lastly, these are the latest and probably the last edition of baby stuff...for now.

1. PegPerego baby capsule, need to go to RTA either this weekend or next to get it fixed in our car or else bub are not allowed to leave the hospital!!!

2. Storksak unisex nappy bag- husband bought this a few weeks ago, and we've agree that he'll be doing the nappy change when we're out. let see how well it will play out! I'll be using this as my hospital bag for now...so far, i only packed a maternity pad and some breast pad...any ideas what else I'll need?!

3. Baby Ink-less Print kit!! This will definitely goes into the hospital bag with me as i'm very keen to freeze those tiny newborn sized footprints!

That's all for now, hopefully i'll be able to squeeze in some more stories before bub's arrival. Been having a lot of branxton hicks, aka, false contraction lately, and my Dr always gives me an impression that baby could be early, right now, he is 50% engaged already! So hopefully, i'll make it to the 21st of Dec without any drama!

Have a nice weekend ahead y'll! It's cold and wet here!!

Baby Shower

2011-12-02T14:47:00.003+11:00

Last weekend my best friend kath organized a baby shower for me.
I told her in advance i do not want too much of a fuss, just a meal gathering with our fellow girl friends and may be a relaxation day spa will do. And she is such a darl and give me everything i wanted, and more!
It was the last weekend of spring, and it was raining and pretty windy. we use a taxi to go to the city and enjoyed an hour or so of blissful facial and massage at my fav day spa Endota. The massage was so relaxing that i completely dozed off in the middle of it!

Looking fresh and relax after the day spa...

Having high tea with all my lovely girls at my baby shower was always a dream of mine. Alas, my gestational diabetics means i cannot enjoy almost everything they serve in high tea. So Kath booked in a yumcha at the newly established Phoenix at Westfield CBD.

I think i was too hungry and having too much of a fun and forgotten to took pictures!!
Kath was very good at organizing everyone to wear pale/ pastel colour clothes, I am the special one!! I think our table was the loudest one, we're having so much fun converting possible baby names into various Chinese dialect especially foo chow!!

All these lovely ladies are very very naughty!! I told them just the day spa and yum cha is enough because the baby and i have everything i need and more, but no, they have to give me a special endota sleeping packaged complete with pj, essential oil, and eye pad!!

and not enough...today i receive a surprise from all the girls, a voucher for two to go to high tea at the swisshotel after the baby is born! how lovely!

and what a lovely card!!

35 weeks and completion of nursery..

2011-11-23T15:39:00.005+11:00

it's hard to believe that by next month today, at this very hour and by god's grace, I'll be holding my little darling in my arm!

everyone have been asking me am i nervous? i dun think so...i'm very excited that's for sure.
excited about the unknown future. our life will changed forever, and i've never felt so grown up until now. in my mind, i've always felt that i'm still 21.

Last week our church celebrated 20th anniversary, and husband was in charged of doing the church history, when we dug up all the old photos, make me realized i've been here for almost 10 years! and my husband and I have been together for 9 years!!! gosh! 9 years, and finally a bun in the oven! i hope we make good parents.

My nesting instinct is quite strong lately, i have the strong urge to vacuum every little corner of the house, mop the floor almost every 2 - 3 days, sent Casper to bath more regular than ever, changed my fitted sheets, pillow cases, to a point even i myself felt frustrated. And my scent have been more sensitive than ever, so i avoid cooking strong smelling stuff, and wipe down the kitchen bench like a mad cow! And the weather have been so bad lately, wet wet wet, i missed the hot and dry Sydney summer! It it ever gonna arrived?! So far it's been so damn humid! But all that 3rd trimester hormones also result in a complete nursery! It's a shame the weather hasn't been nice so i dun get enough lighting for nicer pics. Anyway, i hope to take better ones with bub in it soon. very soon.

both my mum and my mother inlaw have contributed quite a lot to the nursery as well. my mum bought quite a lot of baby clothes and children CDs and my mother inlaw made these beautiful baby buntings which i hang them above the window! and guess who spent 3 nights to paint the whole nursery?! His daddy!!

yes bubby, we love you so much, even before you're born.
please continue to kick, twist, hiccups like you do everyday now, mommy enjoyed your every movements even if you have kept mommy awake most night, as this is the only time that you're mine and only mine :)

34 weeks

2011-11-14T13:00:00.004+11:00

6 more weeks to go...

My latest cravings would have to be fish and chips!
and the best in Sydney would have to be in the Sydney Fish Market. So when my uncle was here 2 weeks ago, we brought him there for a good feast.

my uncle is the taller looking guy on the right. He came with his boss and business partner, the guy in black on the left.

depends on which stall you order your chips, the quality of the chips varied. but i always go where the seagulls choose to accumulate- Doyles! I recons they serve the best of the best chips! not that i can have many! I need to watch my glucose!!

we order some super huge squid, one lobster mornay, a few scallops, softshell crabs, singapore chilli crab ( guai low style!! ), and of course, beer battered fish and chips.

It was finger lickin' good!

tomorrow will be the last session of our prenatal class.
Last week we have the chance to watch a caesarean video, and we were also given a tour to the maternity ward. the most interesting session being able to learn to bath a new born. the real one not the freaking doll. In fact, that brand new baby Tom only just arrived that morning, and he was soooo cute and small, and newborn looking. One of the couple were absent from the class and we were later being told the lady actually went into labour the night before at 35 weeks! Mother and child were both fine. So we were reminded to pack our hospital bag and get everything ready because you just never know!!

and so suddenly the idea of baby could arrive early became very real to me. and i sort of panicked a little. As much as i wanted to see bub now, I dun want to missed my maternity photo session, or my baby shower...

and finally, i had my photo session last Thursday. It was fun. the last time i did a proper photo shootings in the studio was for my wedding donkey years ago! The lady makes me feels very comfortable, and make me feel very at home. unfortunately, the photos will only be ready to view on the 25th of Nov. But she have posted 5 photos for me to preview.

There are here, enjoy!

Baby shower is next week. So bubby, please stay in the womb until you are fully baked!!

32 weeks

2011-10-31T16:45:00.003+11:00

super duper huge tummy eh! ( and a tiny sneak peak of the almost completed nursery! )
I had a wonderful but very busy weekend.
Where should i start? Tuesday prenatal class?!
Well, we did watch a natural birth videos, and no, it does not freak us out like i thought it would!
The only thing that makes my hair stand up was seeing a fully naked and very VERY pregnant women in various positions to ease her contraction pain! really..it's not a beautiful sight although pregnant women was meant to be in the most beautiful time of her life. ( perhaps, in a well taken Photoshoped picture it may be different!! ). The actual birth only took about 5 mins. so it does looks very easy peasy. That's a general idea of natural child birth. We will be looking at various complications tomorrow. so expect more fun!

and then it's time to see my OB again before weekend began, and i was told the most wonderful news.. which was not to religiously monitored my blood glucose anymore!! Yeah! Bub now weight an estimate of 1.53kg, another 1.5 to go before he is well "baked"!! everything else looks fine and cheery! thank god.

And finally, my uncle came and visit me all the way from M'sia. We had lot's of fun eating and walking and touring!! I will post some food pictures when i get organized. I haven't stop entertaining since Thursday and gosh i didn't realized how tired i was until last night! I was asleep the moment i hit the pillow even though bub keeps on kicking! and i didn't woke up until 11am this morning!! But it's so nice to have him visiting us before bub arrived. Not many of my family seen me in the state of preggo ( even my parent will missed the chance! ), so it was really nice to show off the bump to my uncle!!

husband took these photos yesterday, 32 weeks and everyone say to expect another big growth sprout! Oh dear, i cannot imagine tummy getting any bigger!

until then, see you all next week. Have a nice week ahead!

an unwelcome hiccup and Prenatal class 1

2011-10-24T11:26:00.003+11:00

9 more weeks to go.

Last Thursday i got a phone call from my Dr's office. never a good thing when they call you. So i was told to come in before the weekend to discuss about my diabetic test result. Bummer. I was a bit disappointed to be honest, as even though i let myself go a bit more, i did not over indulged in anything at all. 3 liters of Connoisseur and 1 Krispy Creme in 30 weeks. and that is all i needed for my stupid diabetic genes to be triggered!!

So i drag my aunty ( who is a midwife and work with my OB ) to go with me the next day to see what my Dr have to say. Actually, i think my Dr may have over-reacted a little ( or being very , extra, super careful !! ). As i mention in my previous post, they took my blood 3 times for the test. First one is for fasting glucose level, and i done well in that one--4.6 ( desired range is below 5.5 ). The second one is one hour after 75g of gluclose , and i done OK in that one too ---9 ( desired range is below 10 ). The last one is two hours after 75g of glucose, and i failed this one ---8.2 ( desired range is below 8 ). So i was less worried after i saw the result. My Dr was very patient to go through and explain how i should control my diet. Because i am only a little over the edges, he dun see the need to sent me to see a dietician, nor do i need any insulin injection. In fact, he say i can eat everything i want, in moderation and in small portion every 2-3 hours. White, fragrance, jasmine rice however, need to be reduced or avoid if it's possible. Instead, i am asked to try brown rice or basmati rice. I was also given a sugar monitoring kit to test myself 2 hours after every meal to make sure my glucose level stay below 7. I became quite obsess with monitoring myself and I must admit i have quite a bit of fun pricking myself every few hours before and after eating. So far all the readings have been great and I am still eating what i normally ate before being diagnosed, including my fav fruit toast with butter, and sweet summer fruit such as rock melons and mangoes!! Great!

Anyway, that's the story of an unwelcome hiccup, but not all that bad. I remember i was quite upset in the OB office when he told me i have gestational diabetics and he say of all the complications during pregnancy, if he have a choice, he would rather choose gestational diabetics!! Come to think of it now, he does have a point. It's not that bad really, and i think i can bounce back to my sized more easily now because of GD!!

For those who are interested, welcome to read on what is Gestational Diabetes here.

Back to my Prenatal class that we attended last week.

There were 10 couple, and we are the only Asian couple. My tummy look so small in comparison, and i definitely look like a teen mum although I'm very sure I'm not the youngest one among them. The midwife that will guide us through the whole courses ( all 5 of them ) happens to be the midwife that cared for me when i was admitted for food poisoning back in week 20! The first lesson is more or less about changes that can occur during pregnancy, and what are the signs to go to hospital. There were quite a few interesting facts that i learn and not too grotesque to share!
1. All fetuses have the same growth/development up to 20 weeks before genetic factor kicks in. that is why we do a detail scan at 20 weeks cos it doesn't matter the race and sex the baby growth would be similar.
2. a pregnant women should gain at least 10-12 kilo, which made up of the weight of the baby, placenta, uterus, body fluids, blood, and 3.5kg of fat. If you gain more than that, which means you gain extra fat. haha. quite interesting!

overall, it's quite a relaxing and fun class. Tomorrow we will watch video though. Ha! It would be interesting!

last stretch of the race!

2011-10-18T13:49:00.005+11:00

Went to see OB last Friday. A few good things and one not so good.
Good thing is that i'm now on my last 10 weeks, and baby is growing well, 1.4kg. If i fit into the growth chart, by 40 weeks, bub will weight about 3.4kg! Good weight, but i just cannot imagine my tummy grow double in sized anymore! I'm now 54kg, all in all i have already put on 8kg in the 7 month! Oh dear! all other blood work is fine except for my glucose level. which i have been quite worry about for the past few weeks cos i know I'm up for no good in the sugar test. First of all, we Asian have 10% increase chances of getting gestational diabetes, and with family history, that set me back to a 40% chances of getting GD. So i have always been worried about it since the beginning and that is why i did a glucose test back when i was 12 week. And the result then were great, 4.6. And now at 29 week, my glucose level have increase to 8!! The cut off level is 7.7, which means i need to do a proper diabetes testing.
Diabetes testing is no fun.
First, you have to eat a lot of carb for 3 days.
and then you need to fast for 12 hours before you went to the pathology lab for testing.
I did not know i need to book for this test, so after 3 days of carb and fasting since last night, i went this morning, and was initially told i was not booked in so need to come back! What?!! But thank god that they only have one other person doing that test this morning, so they can squeeze me in.
Before they do anything to you, you need to pee in a little plastic thingy and they will dip the test stick in to see if there were sugar in the urine or not. negative for me, so it's OK to do the test.
Firstly, they took your blood
Then, they give you a super duper sweet drink and you have to finish the drink within 5 mins. It is a 75g glucose drink, and taste a bit like a very bad quality lemonade. and i was told to sit there and read or spaced out and not to walk around. toilet trip is OK. Baby was having a party inside cos sugar sugar you know?! anyway, not so fun for mama though.
After an hour, they will take your blood again.
and after another hour, they will take your blood again.
3 times all together from the same hand, or vein i guess. so looking fwd to a bruise now.
anyway, i hope this test would turn up OK, and i can escape my genetic make up to enjoy the rest of my pregnancy. I'll definitely keep posting when result return.

Last friday after OB appointment though, we went to this once in a year time Sydney noodle night market. Since i was put on a high carb diet so noodle it is! There were SOOO many people, and this stall is soooo misleading! Mamak Village, i thought it was THE Mamak!! ( a famous malaysian restaurant in sydney). Anyway, we even queue in and bought a roti canai ( AUD6!!! ) and a roti telur ( AUD8 !!!!).

Expensive canai -- but what to do?! Cravings!

Anyway, right after we bought the canai, we discover the line for THE Mamak! Long eh! It gets longer later on. SO i quickly join the queue and order a mee goreng. And i am quite pissed because the roti telur is only AUD 7 !!! Honestly, how can Mamak village and Mamak selling the same kind of stuff??!! Miss-leading man!!

So this is what we end up having--the best mee goreng, japanese okonomiyaki ( OK lar ), and not very nice Gozleme.

Tonight is an excited one. We're going to our first of the 5 prenatal class in the hospital. Hopefully, i'll get some good stories to blog about later.

Free ticket Pregnancy Babies N children Expo

2011-10-13T15:13:00.003+11:00

Got this e-mail today.
This is for Melbourne only!
Click the link below to get your free ticket
Enjoy.

Free Ticket

September Part 4 - Sydney Baby and Toddler Show

2011-10-10T16:11:00.002+11:00

What is the best gift for a shopaholic mommy? A Baby and Toddler show ticket! That is exactly what husband get for me for my bday present. He got us a VIP tickets, basically, it's just an early bird ticket, that cost a bit less than buying at the door, and you get a lot more freebies, as well as you can enter the show 30 mins earlier than normal ticket holder. We got there quite early and there was already a queue!! Tell you "ang mo" can be really kiasu!!

And boy that was a hell of a show! Everything that i have been looking at online is now popping up on the show!! There were quite a few activities and competition as well. We participate in the pram testing activities. It's pretty cool especially if you are not sure which pram/stroller you want to buy as you can test various pram on various surfaces. The one i'm playing with is Stokke. Actually, we already bought a pram, but just for fun and by participating in the pram trial thingy, you could win yourself a pram!! ( no winning e-mail for me so far, guess we didn't cut it! )

and i get to try on the most comfortable maternity pillow ever. It was SOOO comfortable, and sooo expensive!! Cost nearly $300 for that snake like shit! If i plan to have 5 babies than it's worth getting or else.. !! and Blackmoore stand offer free back massage and i do love a good massage!

We spent almost a full day at the show, and it was really a very productive ones. These are some of the freebies..the Bio Oil is the most value one i guess. Since we've got 2 ticket, so I've earn myself 2 bottle of the oil. Not sure how effective it is for stretch marks, but freebies is always good for me :) other stuff includes : Huggies nappies for newborn, Huggies wipes, Kleenex Wipes, some bath products from Curash and Johnson's, Breast pad samples, as well as a pack of nappy sacks. There were also some free pregnancy magazines, target vouchers, etc etc not the pic! The entry ticket cost about $20, so i guess with the bio oil and all these freebies, is quite good value! And every things that were sold in the show were at least 20% off compare to the retail price!!

I love shoes and so bought some for bub, how cute is the little Paul Frank ones?!

and bought some bath products for bub as well. Bath products is harder for me to decide online because you really need to see it, smell it, taste it to like it!

Bath tub from Mother's care stall.

One of the products i really like is the Australian made goat milk soap - billie baby
They are all natural and organic. We get some free sample of the soap and use it for ourselves already, and i really like it!!

another products that i like is the mambino organics
I bought the baby pack, which includes diaper balm, diaper area spray, body wash and shampoo, as well as baby massage oil! it sounded great, well see how i like ( or more importantly bub likes it ). I also bought a nursing balm from the mambino range, to prevent mastitis, or cracked nipples when breast feeding next time. It's completely food grade stuff, and fragrance free so won't affect the baby latching.

we spent a lot of time on different stall selling different brand of re-usable nappies. I've always wanted to buy this online but really not sure how they work, so I'm glad i can be there physically examine these little clothes nappy. There were a lot of different brand ones and after much "shopping" we decided to go with Pea Pods.

Each "pods" come with a water resistant nappy..

with a lot of "buttons" so, almost one size fit all. There there were S size and M size as well. For S size, it will be suitable from newborn until 9 months or so and the M size will be suitable from 9 months until toilet training.

I love Pea Pods cos the insert is made entirely of bamboo! As i've mention in my previous shopaholic post that bamboo material is more absorbent than cotton. With the insert, one cloth nappy can stay dry up to 4 hours! and for night time, you can insert a "booster" and that the nappy will stay dry for up to 10 hours!

If you want, you can also put a liner on the nappy to catch the poo poo. This liner is made of bamboo as well, and you can flush it down the loo. very easy and very eco friendly!

we bought a starter pack of 10 to try. It cost $16 dollar a pod, but in the long run, you'll save a lot of money and nappy rash. and yes, the downside is you need to wash them, but since my husband is also the laundry man and if he's not complaining, i am not going to start!!

We also bought a steam sterilizer for less than $50!! Very cheap i guess.
Most of the stuff from the show were cheap. I think the best bargain we made is the car capsule from Peg Perego. It's a savings of $100 !! Unfortunately i'm still waiting for the mail man. So no picture. next time.

Another place we love to go for baby products is Minimee in Crows Nest. 90 percent of bub's stuff come from Minimee. Loved that store!!
Bought the Angelcare baby monitor the other day, and it includes a full colour video and sound monitor as well as a breathing/movement pad. We have tried it on Casper and it's great!! But since Casper snored so loud i have to switch it off! LOL.

Another products that i love is this Kiekaboo HiLo chair!!
I know it's still too early for a high chair, but I'm so in-love with it i cannot not buy it NOW!! It's a Canadian design high chair and it's very innovative, and although it's a little bit expensive, it can last a child from 6 months to about 7-8 years old.

As the name suggest, it can be a baby high chair, or a low chair!! For a high chair, bub can enjoy his meal with us on our kitchen bench!

Hi version of the chair on our dinner table

Lo version of the chair on our dinner table.

and when bub is old enough the tray can be removed so the HiLo chair will become a toddler chair!! It's good and i think it looks great in my house:)

while i'm inlove with the chair, my husband is obsess with Bugaboo pram! In fact, we bought this when i was just 12 weeks pregnant!! It's a 2 in one pram, the picture above is set up from new born to about 4 months, and when the baby prefer to sit up, you can convert it into the sitting stroller! Actually, Bugaboo just release a new pram called the Donkey, and it's great for those who is with twins, or who are planning to have 2 kids within 2 years of age gap! It will be available for retail from next year.

I know a lot of my friends are currently pregnant ( or planning!! ) So hopefully you'll enjoy this post and may it be helpful and useful to y'll!!

September part 2-a murder, a day spa, and lot's of good food!!

2011-10-04T15:36:00.008+11:00

not too long ago, there was an old man, who were ( in his own word) constantly being bullied by his wife of 47 years!! one day, when the country music is playing in the living room, and after a few drinks, the nagging wife start to nag and nag and nag and just could not stop. He snap, and in the heat of the moment, beat his wife to death! So, everyone deserve to have their side of the story being told. Yes, even the murderer have his side of the story to tell, and husband happens to represent him. The only problem is that his trial will be held in Newcastle- a beautiful coastal town about 2 hours drive from Sydney. It's a pretty straight fwd trial as it is no doubt that the man killed his wife, so really it's just a case to decide if it's a case of manslaughter or murder. So, they estimate the whole trial would take at the most one week! Initially, my husband was really reluctant to go because he dun want to leave his pregnant wife behind, but his boss suggested that the wife should tag along, and they arranged a good hotel for us. Even Casper get to stay in his doggie hotel for that few days, and i did not hesitate at all to say yes!!
It was the weekend before my bday, and in fact, i was so excited to go and immediately looked it up online to see what actives i can do by myself. Day spa pop up a few times, so i booked one immediately! I'm quick to pamper myself :p

The trial start on Monday, so we drove up on Sunday afternoon. After dropping Casper off at Hanrob, we continue to drive and drive and drive..and i became very very hungry. It doesn't look like I can hold my hunger until Newcastle, so we stop half way to have dinner. I can't even remember what town we stop by but it was pretty quiet!! It was sunday night, 7pm at the most, but most shop/restaurant were closed!!! And after making a few rounds, we found this bistro and I'm very glad! I order a pasta and husband opt for the wagyu on stone grilled. It was good. not fantastic, but i'm happy.

We reached Newcastle at about 9pm. The office booked us in a super duper HUGE room in the Sebel Newcaslte. I LOooove the room. Poor husband immediately set up his working desk complete with laptop and printer! Oh dear! While i get ready for bed!!

Husband was long gone when i woke up the next day. I do not like to dine alone so i order a breakfast from the hotel restaurant Darby downstairs. Oh boy was it huge?! and good!!
I must admit i enjoy the room service the most during my stay at the Sebel!

After my huge breakfast, I took a stroll around the famous shopping district in Newcastle, Darby street, and do some shopping. And then it's time for my day spa appointment just down the road from the hotel.

I opt for the mommy package, which includes a 15 mins foot soak and massage,45 mins massage and 30 mins facial. Except the foot soak ( which i think it's a bit unnecessary ), the rest is pretty relaxing, especially the 45 mins massage. This is the first time since pregnancy that i went for a massage, and i wonder why i didn't book myself in for a massage session sooner!! Baby was kicking too during the massage, quite funny! And I fall inlove with the Endota products after my facial. I bought the whole shebang-cleanser, moisturizer and eye cream!! and i'm glad there are a few Endota spa in Sydney as well. So, If i'm not going to my hair coloring appointment during the pregnancy, i think it is justified to for for a day spa instead! The cost is the same ( or even lower ) Hehe!!

At night we went for Mexican food and the restaurant was so full and loud and dark!! Apparently, every Monday they have a promotion where all the meal cost AUD10!! Very good value and i totally enjoyed my chilli con carne.

Because of the lack of lighting, i only manage to take one good photos ---nachos! hehe.

Room service for breakfast again on Tuesday morning. This time i skip the bake beans and opt for sunny side up. It was yum. And then i went to another shopping join called the Junction. Bought quite a lot of stuff for bub.

and i went to a saloon to get my hair a good treatment and layer, and a good blow dry! We were suppose to meet up with our friends Roger and Celeste that night, but unfortunately Celeste was sick, so we hunt for food around the Honeysuckle bay area.

Poor husband was trying to finalized his job while i wait for him to go to dinner..

Oh, and i bought a nice summer dress as well! I love it!

getting too bored waiting for husband i took photos of bub! ( need a big of imagination if you can't see him! )

and finally, we're out the door and we stroll around the beach before dinner.

Isn't it lovely?!

We drove up a hill and enjoy a good sunset view

I love Newcastle! Really do!

We dine in Isobar that night. And another blessing--it's Tuesday, and they ran a 10 dollar tapas every tuesday! Yipee!!

view from Isobar

We order quite a lot of tapas, but the bar was again dimly lit, so only manage to produce 2 good photos!

Seafood platter tapas

Duck fettucine

and while i was having my hair done, my hair dresser tell me that i MUST try the Grilled in Newcastle as they have the BEST burger in town. So, just before we drive down to Sydney on Wednesday, we have lunch at Grilled. And it was awesome!!

I'm a bit sad that my trip was over. Although husband was so glad that his trial was over!
I was too tired to cook so we went to Hurstville and have dinner. Like a good Chinese, after 3 days of not eating rice, we order rice dishes.

this is the "Mui Choi" 3 layer pork! OMgoodness it's so good. although no way near as good as the one my grandma used to make though! ( but it was good enough and so far, we have this dish 3 times already!! )

Casper was completely wasted. I bet he have a fantastic time in Hanrob!
After our sunny little holiday in Newcastle, Sydney have been raining non stop for almost a week. Welcome to Spring!

P/S for those interested to know: The man get murder. So the moral of the story is
1. dun mix alcohol with country music, drives one crazy!
2. got a nagging wife? -not a good enough reason to lost your temper , learn to live with it.

September Part 3-food food and more food!!

2011-09-28T15:00:00.003+10:00

I know i skip September part 2, for now because i still have problem retrieving photos from my camera!! So i'll fast fwd it to Part 3- Bday!!!

bump is getting bigger and bigger, and pretty much one week after my bday celebration i will be entering the 3rd and final trimester! Yeah!!

It was a sunny day, and we decided to head off to Bill for brunch.

and tried the zucchinis fries for the first time! Not too bad, a bit bland which is expected as zucchinis dun have much taste anyway! But paired it with the lemon it's good nevertheless.

I have the corn fritters again! I think Bill does the best corn fritters in town!
Husband have the big Aussie breakfast with velvety smooth scramble eggs!

We give Bill famous ricotta hotcake a miss and head of to masterchef Zumbo land!

of course you buy his macaroons! Adriano macaroons is always flavour first, sweetness second! and i like it a lot, in particular the salted caramel pop corn one!! YUM!

unfortunately, most of the cakes ran out by the time we reach there, so i bought myself a piece of his to die for chocolate brownies and sing myself a bday song!!

you think i'm done for the day?! NO.
We went to a tapas bar at night for some Oh too yummy spanish tapas...

Like this salt and pepper squid

and this crispy gnocchi with cream sauce

and lastly....Spanish seafood Paella! YUM!
I'm so looking fwd to embrace my big 30 next year!

September part 1

2011-09-23T15:10:00.004+10:00

I love September! Love, love love...especially this year.
Almost the moment we enter September, the weather changed from chilly to breezy. Flowers pops up everywhere, and you can really smell spring in the air. Lots of wedding, in this beautiful season. and my beautiful friend kath, choose the first week of this season to wed her beloved sweetheart Justin, in a beautiful, traditional church, situated in the leafy suburb of Hunters Hill.

( nervous last min practice before all guest arrived!! )

After watching Prince William and Princess Kath wedding back in April, and the beautiful song that their choir present, I have this strong urge to organize a choir group to sing at the wedding. I really dunno who it will play out as we have our limitation :p, regardless, I try anyway. and I kept it a secret from Kath initially because i really am not sure if we will end up embarrassing her on her big day?! So i went and select a few of her friends and initially, they all protest that the song i choose for them was too hard, but i push on, and we all end up falling in love with the song. ( i guess!! ). Anyway, long story short, I was very very nervous on that day, but i guess singing in an old church helps tremendously and we did well. I think the bride and groom enjoyed it as well. May the Lord bless you two and keep you, always.

and because of the choir, i ended up not able to sit at the aisle!!! damn it!
So when the bride came in while the groom sang, ( yeah, very very romantic!! ), i and my huge bump climb up the pew to catch a glimpse of the bride!!! She is so pretty and watching her walking down and aisle is quite something!

It was a very beautiful ceremony. The bride and groom have a lot of guest to entertain, so we only ended up with this one photos!! I can't wait for the professional one to be ready though!!

Reception followed shortly after the ceremony, and i just fall in love with the table setting!! Lots and lots of personal touch. For example, both my friend kath and justin are scientist, so they personally made these little test tube gifts for all their guest, and for those who help out with the wedding, hand written thank you note with personal choice of chocolate :) ( mine was a dark one, and husband got a milk one!! You truly know us well, hahaha!! ).

Entree 1: Prawn with mango salad

Entree 2: Duck with potato cake

and i completely forget to take a pic of the main before i dig in, please excuse this hungry pregnant women!! I have the biggest piece of salmon and husband have sirloin steak. yum. but the best is yet to come!!!

DESSERT!!

OMG, yummy! to this day i still crave for this.
It's rich, dark chocolate souffle with ice cream. If anything, the ice-cream is not enough!!!!

Our table seat us Tings, my brother inlaw Tom, sisters inlaw kath and sly.

aren't husband look great with his new bowtie!! Haha!!

Congratulation again Mr and Mrs Wong. Hope you have a great time in Europe!!!

I love September!!!!!!

Nesting Phase

2011-09-14T14:16:00.002+10:00

So many things to blog about, but so little time!!

Spring have begun and my nesting instinct have started and growing stronger and stronger each day. Around the later stage of second trimester, nesting instinct would set it. According to Wikipedia, it's an uncontrollable strong urge to clean one's house, get organize to prepare for the baby. It is called nesting because it is the primal instinct for the female of the animal kingdom, for example, you see birds making their nest in preparing for the eggs. This nesting instinct will last until the end of the pregnancy and strongest just prior to birth. Women reportedly have a sudden rush of energy to clean, iron, or organize things around the house. And it's very true for my case. Since the beginning of this week, upon waking up, i have the strong urge and burst of energy to clear up the stuff accumulated in the guest room to convert it into a nursery. So far, I have manage to clear up the wardrobe for bub, and move all the mattress and winter blankets into the cabinet in the laundry. I even manage to squeeze in a trip to Ikea during weekdays to pick up extra shelf and storage system!!

There were lots and lots of things to do today, and I really wanted to get started now!!
But there were also lots and lots of incredible things over the past few weeks that i really wanted to blog, I promise I'll come back soon and blog about the Engage Conference with John Piper, The beautiful spring wedding of my best friend kath, and my 25th week 700gram bub!

Now, it's cleaning time. tata.

For a fun read about nesting, click here.

shopaholic mommy in action!

2011-08-29T16:31:00.005+10:00

I know I've been quiet and MIA in the blog world. Life have been pretty busy lately.
Firstly, my best friend is getting married in 2 weeks time, which means, shopping for dresses, and helping her with some wedding stuff, and secondly, we'll be off to our yearly Katoomba Engaged Conference this weekend, and i'm again, in charged of food, so more shopping. Thirdly, we're trying to getting serious about decorating the nursery, so, MORE shopping.

I found myself enjoying online shopping more than before. Almost 90% of the baby stuff were bought online, and if it's local, we go and pick them up. If not local, the joy of waiting for your parcel to arrive is quite something! Below are some of the stuff that just arrived today! So excited to share it with y'll!!

1. Bath time

Green towel for green baby! I love these Eco-friendly Little bamboo range of towel and muslin clothes. The muslin clothes are made of 100% bamboo fiber, so it's softer and more absorbance than cotton. and mommy get a bit crazy with these little ducklings...

2. Sleep time

Looove these Eco-friendly BaBu cot-sheet. I have a hard time shopping for cot-sheet because most of what were in the shop were very colorful and very loud "look at me" kinda bedsheets ( i think it will be too much of a stimulation for baby!!! ). i really wanted something plain, neutral, comfortable, and if possible, organic. So, i was really happy when I found these, and they are so soft, so comfortable, and best of all, organic! I felt sleepy and snoozy just by feeling the texture of these!! and i also went a little crazy and bought a set of white one, a set of grey one, and other stuff such as the burp clothes, face clothes, and bibs!!

3. Comfort time

For blanket, i love this donkey - David Fussenegger Organic Cot Blanket. I also bought a cream colour crochet blanket from Cute and Cuddly. I love it, it has a very vintage feel to it!!!
You get both from Urban baby.

4. For colic baby

i learn about this Baby wedge product when i was doing some readings about colic baby. A lot of mother from those mothering website swear by this little wedge thing. Basically, by putting baby to sleep on this wedge, the gravity will help pull gastric juice down, and prevent acid reflux, hence, baby will feel more comfortable, and prevent vomiting while sleeping and SIDS. I dunno how useful this will be, but I think sleeping on a slightly sloppy foam will be more comfortable than sleeping on your back on a full tummy,and baby do spent a lot of time on their back, so i think i'll try this. I will let y'll know how well this work next time!

5. anti flat head pillow

this cute little memory foam pillow will prevent baby flat head syndrome. Will see how effective it is too!

6. Feeding time

I would love to be able to breastfeed. In fact, i pray everyday that breast feeling will come naturally to me. But if not, i'm not going to be stressful and depress about it. But regardless, I recons i will still need bottle. And this Yoomi Bottle is a revolutionary!! Because the nipple resembled a real mommy's breast, breast feeding baby can make the switch very easily. Yoomi bottle is best for midnight feeding, or when out and about, as it is self heating!! Yeah! pretty awesome. So, my plan is to express and keep the bottle in the fridge, so when the baby cry asking for a midnight feed, dear husband can wake up and took the milk out, and at the press of a button, can warm the milk into a perfect 37 degree in 60 sec. Mummy can sleep! Perfect perfect perfect!!! Apart from the self warming, the nipple is also BPA free, anti colic etc etc. just like real breast feeding! Revolutionary! Now, I'll have to review it when i really use it next time. for now, i like it a lot.

another bottle i LOVE is these funky glass baby bottle from Life Factory, They are really awesome because they can be turn into a sippy bottle when the baby turn toddler. The nipple came in 2 stages, 0-3 months, and 3-6 monthes. After which, you can buy the sippy cap and walah, a sippy bottle for kiddo to use until 4 or 5. Everything is dishwasher safe, and pretty light weight, perfect for little hand.

7. Cleaning time

I also bought this dishwasher rack for putting baby bottles, teethes, pacifier or even some plastic toys etc etc. pretty handy i think, and of course, the bottle washer and nipple brush.

FYI- when Nipple is mention in this post, please dun think about the porn stuff. It's the plastic stuff I'm talking about!!

8. Fashion time

Now, my baby will due in December. That will be a very very hot time in Sydney. Sometime the temperature can hit 40 degree. But my dear Asian mother INSIST newborn need to be wrap up tight, so as a good, obedient Asian daughter, i bought some to wrap up my poor baby! I choose very lite, cotton stuff, hopefully baby will not be over heating!!

Lastly, Ralph Lauren US is onsale at the moment. So, again, mommy get a little crazy.

I mostly bought bigger sized one so at least can get a bit more wear out of it!! Super super cheap at the moment. Cheaper than Bonds from Big W !!

Cute little first pair of shoes for those kicking legs!!! and daddy gets a little crazy too!

More stuff to come. Now is nap time, and eat time, and Weekend away time... see y'll next time!

L is for Lobster and Lots of celebration

2011-08-15T14:05:00.003+10:00

The weekend that I was admit to the hospital, was actually husband bday. Needless to say, we celebrated with dry toast with sweet tea because of my diarrhea. So last Saturday, I decided to treat him at a local seafood restaurant just 10 mins drive down the road. I am now 21 week, half way through this wonderful journey. no more sickness, and less fatigue, and tummy is still in a nice shape, I have not gain too much weight, and not puffy yet, and feeling so good all the time. No wonder they called this the honeymoon second trimester! So, we think this called for a celebration for me too. It's truly been a while since we put on something nice and went out for a nice dinner. The last time we did that, was back in April when we celebrate our fifth anniversary.

I've recently cut my long lock short, mummy hairstyle, my hairdresser called it. I love it though, now if only i'm daring enough to colour it as my hair is in 2 shades of tones at the moment...any ideas anyone? Safe to colour ?!

Pretty big tummy huh! Loving it!

I drag my brother Thomas along as although my tummy is way way bigger than before, my appetite became smaller. what an oxymoron. I can only eat a very small amount at a time, and if i dun stop, i'll bloat to no end. And so that's how Thomas came into the picture, to eat. We order the famous seafood platter for 2, AUD130, with extra half lobster mornay AUD39. It's a very very HUGE platter, and the chef was very kind to grilled the oysters for us knowing that I'm pregnant ( and raw seafood is a no No no ), and he dun want me to missed out on his very fresh pacific oysters!! Tell you i'm like a queen these days!! We all think it was a very good portion for a seafood platter. In the hot section, there were grilled butter king prawns, Balmain bugs mornay, BBQ octopus, grilled oyster with bacon ( these normally serve raw and chilled ), deep fried calamari, deepfried fish fillet and chips. The half lobster mornay is optional at additional cost, but it's of very good value, just look at the size, it's HUGE. In the chilled section ( top layer ), consist of chilled king prawns, blue swimmer crab , pile of smoke salmon and selection of seasonal fruits.

my brother inlaw Thomas cannot stop smiling when he saw this huge seafood platter!
We had a good night. although i am a bit too full and bloated, and the active baby kept me awake for the rest of the night! what a joy!

i've been to the delivery room!!!

2011-08-11T11:03:00.005+10:00

Yeap! 2 days after this T-shirt arrived, and 2 days after i posted this photos on my fb, i was in the delivery room, but not for delivering (thank you lord ), nor having early contraction, nor any pregnancy related issue, rather, a case of tummy bug- aka, mild food poisoning! ( thank you Mr.Subway, eat fresh my ass! ). Anyway, after 4 vomits, 17 diarrhea, 1 day of heartburn, 4 batches of IV drips, and 1 night stay in the hospital, i have a lot of blessing to count.

Firstly, I felt the baby move since last Wednesday, at 4am, and i was 19 weeks plus plus.
It was a very very strange, but wonderful feeling. Nothing like butterfly to me ( all the books say so ), but to me, it felt like a big fat worm moving underneath my tummy. It was very subtle at first, and then i prayed for a really obvious movement so i can be sure it's the baby movement instead of fart of something, and miraculously, I felt it. Very obvious and very strong one. I remember staying awake at 4am, caressing my tummy, talk to the baby...it was a blissful moment.

Secondly, I think I have the BEST Obstetrician, and nurses are not bitches.
I was very bloated on the Thursday night, and i woke up on Friday feeling really unwell. Vomiting and diarrhea followed and almost immediately, I've experience the worst heartburn and abdominal pain. And the abdominal pain makes me really worry, so i called up my OB office. He was not in!! I panicked a little, and then I called up the hospital that i was gonna deliver in Dec, Hurstville Private. I told the nurse that i was one of Philips's patients, and explain my situation and the nurse was very reassuring. She assured me that tummy bug will not affect the baby at all, and that all my pain, was bowel pain, not contraction. But i was really worried because my vomiting and diarrhea continued and i can't seems to hold down any fluid. So, she ask me to come in. Hurstville Private is only 5 mins from my house, very convenient for me, but it's a very small, boutique hospital, and they do not have emergency services. So, they put me in a delivery room! It's not as scary like those in the movies actually. It's a very big room, with a big bed in the middle, sofa in the corner, a big toilet, a baby bassinet, big flat screen TV and a big clock. Anyway, the nurse was quick to perform a Doppler for me, and re-assure me again and again that the baby is not affected in anyway. Baby heartbeat is 140, strong and deep. very healthy baby. But I'm worried by nature, and shortly after that, i was surprise to see my OB came and visit. He came in, sit by the bed and reassure me again that the baby is fine, abdominal pain is due to bowel movement and all shall be well after 24 hours. He wanted to admit me, and wanted me to have continuous IV drips until my diarrhea stop. He want me to relax, and enjoyed the hospital stay!! No medication unless my situation worsen. He also ordered for my "lentil stew" to be collected and sent to the lab for both Friday and Saturday. And then he left. All together, there were 5 nurses that looked after me, and they were all very friendly, very caring and very patient. I was admit at 11am on Friday, and i pretty much produce a "lentil stew" once or twice every hour, and then i got a bit better so they transfer me to the ward upstairs. I got a room by myself, and watch a lame movie by Sandra bullock. Before i went to sleep, the nurse came in again to check my blood pressure, and baby heart beat, still the same 140 bpm. Which is good, cos it means the baby was completely oblivious of what's going on with mommy. Poor thing, must be wondering inside why there's no pizza today!! Hehe.
Another nurse did another Doppler for me when i wake up the next day, again, it was 140bpm, and my abdominal pain were no more. I was very happy although i still produce lentil stew. My OB came and see me again very early on the Saturday, I must be his only patient there cos it's his off day, and he was not in his working attire. But it was so kind for him to pop in and say Hi, and personally discharged me. Just before i went home, the nurse did another Doppler for me just to give me a peace of mind. I'm very grateful for all the nurses. growing up in Malaysia, i'm used to patients being scold by nurses, aka "mee C ", but all my nurses are so kind and so caring. A big thank you to the staff at Hurstville Private. But that said, i really dun want to see you'll again until December time. thank you very much.

Last but not least, I was due for my 20 weeks morphology scan.
The timing of my tummy bug came just before the scan, which is a really good thing because any worry or concern i have, would be answered by this detail scan of the baby. Normally this scan will marked the beginning of honeymoon period of pregnancy, as all the organs and physical features of the baby will be checked in detail. It took 40 mins and the sonographer took 72 pictures of bub, and also 5 4D ultrasound to show the face/profile of the bub. A report will be sent to my OB which we're going to see next week, but the sonographer told us everything looks good. Praise the Lord.
I've select a few funny ones to share:
The baby flexes his toes, how cute!

1o little toes, perfect

we tried for sometime to get a nice clear face with the 4D ultrasound, but my baby got personality. At such a young age, he knows how to face "paparazzi", yeah, by covering up!! Good one bud! a little bit fat can be seen on his arm too. he now weigh an estimate of 327g. very good sized for a 20weeks old.

and finally, a glimpse of bub's feature, cute little nose, and 5 little fingers.

The Lord is good, He bless me with wonderful men in my life.
yes, I've a sweet little man twisting and turning like a worm inside.
Thank you lord.

for my friend Ong Su Ming!!

2011-07-29T15:19:00.004+10:00

do you still remember this song?
Happy 10 years ago singing in Sg. Tapang!! I haven't listen to it since. Can't believe we sang this!

many many changes ( updated version with pics! )

2011-07-27T13:22:00.005+10:00

They say everything change when baby arrives.
I say, everything change the moment we were pregnant.
The first and foremost is that I am not working anymore.
In the very beginning, my GP thought it would be a good idea if I could rest more because working in the lab require quite a lot of heavy lifting and long hour of standing. So i took all of my accumulated sick leaves, all together 60 days and enjoyed 3 months of fatigue and vomiting, all in the comfort of my bed. At the end of my first trimester, my OB thought me being constantly expose to organic chemical, and heavy metal like lead, is not a very good idea. So after some praying I called up my boss and express my concern. To my relief, she say I am entitled to 1 year of maternity. Out of which 14 weeks will be paid, and I can take the leave now and return July next year. We were so thrilled, and it was amazing to see the providence of God, so wonderful, and so perfect.
So I am now officially, a lady of leisure. True leisure as i don't cook, don't clean, and no housework. on my dear husband's order.
Another big changes is food.
I love food, i love to cook, i love to bake, i am very adventures about food, i love cooking channels , but the moment i fall pregnant, everything about food is out of the window. I can't stand raw meat, and the smell of cooking, i can't even watch food channel, to this day i still cannot stand Chinese cooking such as stir fries. The only food that is comforting to my stomach during day time is supreme pizza from Dominos. Later i discover that, not just any Dominos, it has to be that particular Dominos near my place. oh yeah, I am very VERY sensitive towards changes of my pizza and the particular crust. Now the weird thing is, I never eat pizza. Not a fan at all, especially those American franchise such as Dominos or Pizza hut. I make gourmet pizza sometime, but i will never order a supreme pizza. I mean, who put pineapple on the pizza?! But now, i order extra pineapple for mine! I am clearly not myself!! For dinner, Japanese food is the most comforting to me. My mouth is almost constantly have a bitter tinge, and that is why i lost a lot of appetite. Unlike most pregnant women who nimble crackers or lollies etc throughout the day, I dun. This constant bitterness in my mouth makes me crave for something very savory like miso soup. Oh i love miso, and i love pork. I have Pork Katsu bento for dinner almost every night. The box came with agedashi tofu, tempura prawns, pumpkin and sweet potatoes, and I ask them to replace the raw salmon with avocado. ( I should take a picture tonight, that would be fun! ). And if i dun have this katsu bento, I will go to a sushi place 5 mins from my house, own by a couple in our church, and i would special order my sushi with soft shell crab. Dinner time is a bliss. I am a bit hungry now, damn.

Pork Katsu Box with the lot

OB say softshell crab is good source of calcium, YEAH!!

and i'll have this salmon don the moment bub is out! Sent it to the hospital!!!

Another changes is my personality.
I am not a stay at home person. I love to go out. But now I am a very stay at home person. I prefer not to go out even during weekends. For 5 years of our marriage, we never stay home after church on Sunday. But now, I can't wait to go home and take a nap after Sunday service. And since I am on my year long maternity leave, i look fwd to Monday, where everything is back on track, you know, pizza delivery when i woke up, write some e-mail, read some blog, do some reading, devotion, and then it's nap time, and then pork katsu time. Bliss. Come weekend, my husband is so sick of my "boring routine", he likes to introduce me to "new" food, bring me to shopping, or friends would have party , church would have extra activities etc, and I am always feeling sick on weekends. And i almost always vomit on weekends. Again, I am not myself.
There are many other changes sometime I dun recognize myself anymore. But one thing is constant, I am always happy. Always in a good, uplifting mood. It doesn't' matter if i have that hormonal related headache, or insomnia, or blotted tummy after too many pizza, or vomiting etc. I am not worried about getting fat, or scratch marks, in fact i love to look at my growing tummy in the mirror, and i love to show off instead of hide my tummy. I think it's a beautiful thing to have this little life with God's image inside. It's amazing.
and of course, i worry.
Now that i have a lot of time in my hand, I like to remember God's providence in my life. In every stages of my life, He's always there, and his grace is enough. and then i would turn my worry into worship.
There can be many many changes, but the God of our fathers is the same, yesterday today, and tomorrow. and that, is comforting to my tummy.

to my love

2011-07-15T13:40:00.002+10:00

Dear baby
Mommy and daddy went to see you again yesterday.
Oh you've almost double in size than the last month didn't you?!
The Dr say your physical body have been well formed. We saw your arms and legs, and mommy know you are excited too as you just cannot stay still! you like to twist around, wiggle your tiny bum, suck your tiny finger, and kick around mommy's tummy dun you?! Such a busy life you have in there huh!! We also notice that you love to open your tiny mouth and gallop down the amniotic fluid surround you. Taste like pizza?! Hm? you are curious what have mommy been eating dun you? The Dr say the taste of mommy's food will actually leak into the amniotic fluid that protect you, so you know what mommy love to eat. You must love pizza as this is what mommy have been eating for 3 weeks now!! Naughty thing.
You love to play hide and seek with mommy and daddy too don't you? We want to see what is that between your tiny legs but you are just too shy to show us huh? Or you are just being secretive and want to keep us guessing about your gender huh? Boy or girl we will love you all the same, sweetheart.
Dr say at this stage, you would have found your favorite sleeping place in mommy's womb. As a healthy baby like you, you will spent most of the day 'exploring' and busy yourself with kicking, sucking, you will even use your tiny hand to feel your face so you have an idea what you look like! Haha, cute! But at the end of the day, you will return to your favorite sleeping place and dream.
Oh how marvelous is God's creation huh! You're his precious work of art. He love you way more than mommy and daddy ever could.
Mommy have been dreaming about you after the Dr's visit. Your tiny, but strong kicking legs. Mommy can't feel you yet, a few more weeks the Dr say, and you will make your kicking known.
bye now sweetheart, have fun exploring and keeping yourself busy. Mommy and daddy will see you again in 3 weeks time. But you're not alone, rest assured, you're in God's hand.
We love you very much.

TV review

2011-07-05T13:56:00.002+10:00

For me, lying down is the best remedy for morning sickness ( which lasted the whole day rather than just morning ). so,for someone who are not working and lie on the bed a lot , naturally, watches a lot of TV.From my favorite to the least, the list goes:
1. The Closer ( Tuesday 930, Gem)
The Closer is a crime solving drama but with a wicked sense of humor. I love the female lead Kyra Sedgwick, and her whole crew. In fact, i love it so much I went to the video store and rent the previous whole 5 series of The Closer. Totally entertaining.

2. The Amazing Race Australia ( Monday 830, Channel7)
I watch this race from the very beginning and I have never been so looking fwd to Monday. From Indonesia to Hongkong to South Africa to Europe, I truly enjoyed every race. my favorite couple would have to the the cowboys, they are so cool and calm, and they seem to enjoy themselves a lot. I hope they win but i think the surfer boys will have more chance instead.

3. The mentalist
Since my brother was so crazy about this Patrick Jane, I thought may be i should give him a chance, and so i rent the entire series of Mentalist on DVD. It was not bad at all. A bit like Sherlock Holmes and Dr.Watson, in this case, Dr.Watson would be Lisbon. At first i found her really annoying but now I am starting to enjoy their partnership. and i love the smile of Patrick. very sunny and very warm.

4. Big Bang Theory ( Gem, Channel99 )
Love Love Love. not much of a story line. It's about 4 geeks and a girl. very entertaining and a good time killer.

5. Two and a half men ( Gem, Channel 99 )
As much as I dislike Charlie Sheen, I love Charlie Harper. And i dun think he can be replaced. ( which sadly, he will be replace by Mr.Demi Moore!! Yuck). So i am watching every re-run of the old series before the new one come out and i'll kiss 2 and a 1/2 men goodbye forever.

6. Master Chef Australia ( Channel 10 )
And my least favorite of all would have to be master chef. It's all about talking and not much about cooking. It's just talk, talk, talk and talk. BORING!!
and some of the dishes, make me want to vomit. I dun watch this very often at all.

what about you? what's your favorite TV?!

Fingerprints of God

2011-06-24T12:36:00.005+10:00

We found out we were pregnant back in April. It was a wonderful surprise.
A lot of people ask us is this a planned one or an accident?! quite frankly, I do not believe in accident!! On the other hand, you can plan all you want and it can never happen. So, for us, it was a wonderful wonderful surprise, and I can't help but seeing God miraculous hand at work and that His timing, is perfect.
My GP advice me to stop working at least for the 1st trimester because of the nature of my job. I worked in a chem lab, long hour of standing and lots' of heavy lifting. So, I called up and ask and guess what? I have accumulated 60 days of paid sick leaves over the course of 5 years!! and I am welcome to take it all, which i did. And i was so bless to be able to stay at home and rest for the entire of my first trimester!
The whole pregnancy thing felt quite unreal until we went to our first appointment with our OB back when i was week 8 ( May ). I remember lying on the bed, and the OB put this cold jelly thing on my tummy and then he press lightly on my tummy with the ultrasound thingy. and he kept quiet for what seems like eternity!! silence...nothing...nada....then suddenly, he say, Flicker, can you see the flicker?? and that's the first time we saw the heart beat. It was awesome and i dunno, i just want to praise God. The baby was just like the size of a big grape, and already, it is alive. It was so fragile, it seems like any minute, it could have stop, but yet, it was so strong and continue to grow and grow. If it's not the hand of God that was and is at work, I dunno how this could happen. And i guess when you see life at the most beginning like this, it makes you tremble at God's work, and fall on your knee to worship.

"For you formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother's womb
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well
My frame was not hidden from you
When i was being made in secret, intricately woven in the dept of the earth
your eyes, saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them
the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. " Psalm-139

I give thanks to God, for I am perfectly planned, just like the little Flicker in my womb.
Everything about me, my height, my colour, my race, my eyes, my nose were knitted together 28 years ago, nothing was accidental. Everything about me was fearfully and wonderfully made. My mother do not have the luxury to stay at home and rest when she had me, at any time, my tiny flickering heart could have stop, but God has a plan for me, and it was wonderful.

When we went to see the OB again on my 12 week a couple of weeks ago, this tiny grape size flicker have grown into a 6cm baby! And if you look closely, you can see tiny eyes, nose and mouth, big tummy, and baby "Flicker"( that's what we call the baby for now ) even raised up both hands to say hi. Sweetie pie!! And I'm so grateful that my first trimester was a smooth one, although I am not trying to make light of the morning sickness which i still suffer till this day (week14), but I'm just so amazed at God's work that i can hardly find time to complain!

Never has there been and never again
Will there be another you
Fashioned by God's hand and perfectly planned
To be just who you are
And what He's been creating
Since the first beat of your heart
Is a living, breathing
Priceless work of art

And I can see the fingerprints of God
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of God
And I know it's true
You're a masterpiece that all creation
Quietly applauds
And you're covered with
The fingerprints of God

Enjoy the song, enjoy meeting baby Flicker, and most importantly, enjoy you, God's wonderful master piece!!
Have a wonderful blessed weekend.

wonderful news without any wordings!!!

2011-06-22T11:57:00.001+10:00

more picture on the river

2011-05-31T14:01:00.003+10:00

more pictures on Sg.Besar.
These were taken at the muddy river side, where some the fishing boats came to rest after a night of work. it's really quite muddy, and if you look closer, there were many little creatures crawling in and out of the mud. like little crabs, or...

if you look closer.....

something weird like this! Does anyone know what this is ???

another rainy and sunless day! enjoy!

A is for Apple, Apple is for Awesome!!!

2011-05-30T14:23:00.004+10:00

OK!! It's been a really long time since i blog.
I have good reason though.
One of them is that my lappy is dying, the screen is darker and darker, so it's almost impossible to edit photos. I think after 5 years, my humble lappy deserve some rest. So husband and I talked for a long time to get a desktop. I really wanted an Apple but he is not too sure. But suddenly last week, he came home with iMac!! OMG!!!!!! I loved it!!!!
problem with iMac is the Photoshop is very expensive and so he didn't get that for me. But it's OK. I'm still learning how to stitch photos together, so right now, only one photos from Sg. Besar- a peaceful small fishing village.
sign off for now. Hopefully when i'm more familiar with apple i would blog more.
Have a nice week ahead, all my dear readers, it's wet, cold, and miserable in Sydney. But i'm Happy!!

wonderful April

2011-05-05T09:57:00.003+10:00

OMG i haven't been blogging for a long time...
anyway, many wonderful things happen in April, and i enjoyed them very much, so much so that i didn't pause and take time to blog about them. but one of them, is this royal wedding. I really enjoyed watching it, not the kiss on the balcony, not even the dress etc, but the ceremony in the Abbey. I hope the Prince and the Princess appreciate it more than me. I hope they savour every minute in it, and not just can't wait for it to be over and party. because it indeed was a very beautiful ceremony, good sermon, short but very formal ceremony, with songs that made my goose bump grows. one of my favourites was this one - This is the day.
If you only focus on the dress, flowers and the bride, take time to enjoy this song, and the lyrics. just take a little bit of time to worship. after all, we dun know the bride and the prince, may never meet them, but we do know the Lord, who made the day.

This is the day which the Lord hath made: we will rejoice and be glad in it.
O praise the Lord of heav'n: praise him in the height.
Praise him, all ye angels of his: praise him, all his host.
Praise him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars and light.
Let them praise the Name of the Lord.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee: to keep thee in all thy ways.
The Lord himself is thy keeper: the Lord is thy defence upon thy right hand;
so that the sun shall not burn thee by day: neither the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: yea, it is even he that shall keep thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in: from this time forth for evermore.
He shall defend thee under his wings.
Be strong, and he shall comfort thine heart, and put thou thy trust in the Lord.

John Rutter
specially commissioned by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster for this service.

staying warm

2011-04-12T12:35:00.009+10:00

I knit, sew i'll stay warm. Pardon the pun :P anyway, i think the proudest thing i did over the weekend was learning to knit. It was completely out of nowhere, and out of my character. I continue to suprise myself sometime. and i am completely enjoying it. I learnt it from youtube. Not as difficult as i imagine it to be, quite easy and you get used to it after 3 or 4 rows. The only thing is that i can't take my eyes off them when i knit. so, no TV and Kdrama for me over the weekend. i know, unbelievable! i'm turning old, please dun remind me if you drop me a comment!!

my first project is this purple scarf in the picutre. I use the knit stich pattern for it. isn't it lovely? I'm half way through it now, starting on my second ball of yarn. can't wait to show it off in the camp that we will be going this weekend. i'm actually excited about winter. must be mad. do you have a good weekend?!

photos from last year

2011-04-07T10:23:00.004+10:00

Finally...some photos from last year taken @ my parent adopted home. A lot of people are clueless about Sungai Besar. So, here's a little intro: It's a small coastal town in the state of Selangor, about 120km north of KL. Normally, it took us 45 mins to drive up from KL. It's a very quiet and small town, and majority of the population are fishermen. It is our style to stay here for at least a week after all the shopping and socialising in Singapore and KL. Sleep, and eat. that's what you do in Sungai Besar. They are very famous for their seafood, especially crab and prawns. and cheap. For me, I enjoyed the company of my parent, taking photos, and I love the mamak stall there. I think Sungai Besar is a very good place for my parent to reside. It's quiet and peaceful, yet it's not too far from KL. Most importantly,there were a lot of lost soul among the people from these fishing villages, and my parent are pastoring a small and fast growing church among them. We always felt encouraged when we were there. They've got brothers and sisters who are very passionate and desperate about the salvation for their neighbours. They help each other, deeply involved in each other's life. I think it's something that we, living in the big, urban city lack. We're have a very individualistic culture here. If i have to be honest, everyone is quite happy to keep the distance!! So, it's always inspiring to be in their community.

you haven't seen any "sungai" yet from these batch of photos. Hopefully i'll be able to post them next week.

feast for a queen

2011-04-05T09:28:00.004+10:00

From mr.wiki, degustation is a culinary terms meaning: a careful, appreciative tasting of various foods" and focusing on the gustatory system, the senses, high culinary art and good company. fancy term no?
to be honest, for someone who love food like me, this is only my second time in 28 years, having a degustation!!! The first time, was way back to about 5 years ago when one of my husband's client treat his whole firm to Tetsuya. All the spouses, girl friends, fiance and daughters tag along, so do i. after all, it's Mr.Tetsuya Wakuda's restaurant! Unfortunately though, that was before blogging, facebooking, dslr etc etc, and i can't believe we didn't even took one photo!! thinking of it now, i wish i could turn back time and snap away! We even shake hand with the man himself at the end of the meal. it was a pretty awesome meal. unfortunately, this kind of generous client kinda vanished after the GFC, and the priced have gone up so much over the years and we can no longer afford a AUD250 per person fined dining experience at Tetsuya. ( back then, it was AUD 150 per person ).

Anyway...back to our more humble and affordable meal. my husband really REALLy wants to treat us something special. after all, for 2 people to be committed to each other for half a decade is really something to be celebrated. and he decided on Assiette, who won a consecutive 2 hat last year and this for their degustation. Like Tetsuya, you need to book in months before if you want to dine on Fridays and weekends, and of course, we 're not organised enough. so they can only squeeze us in on the wednesday, instead of the 1st of april-friday. and even on a weekday, it was full house. Almost everyone asked for their 10 course degustation, but there are some who opt for the a la carte as well. They changed their menu every now and then, and the one that we had, are not the same as the one they post on their website. So, i'll just give a rough idea of what we had.

we start with Oyster with Vietnamese dressing.
Entree #1-Cured salmon with cucumber jelly and avocado creamy stuff
Entree #2-Seared Scallop and prawns with white asparagus
Entree #3-Mille-feuille with goat cheese and beetroots ( really really yum! )
Main #1 - Ballontine of quail with proscuitto, smoked cron, and crispy quail's egg
Main #2 -Pan friend Barramundi and gnocchi with fennel, mussel and cream ( My no.1 )
Main #3- Lamb with potato and pan juices
Cheese course - selection of cheese with crips bread ( i forgot to take picture of this )
Complimentary pre-dessert/palate cleansing course- berry gelato with vanilla panacotta
Dessert- Chocolate lattice and mousse with burnt orange.
we make room for coffee and tea to finish off the good meal.

i wish every meal could be like this, and i would never have to worry about gaining weight, because unlike the Chinese 10 courses, each of these portions were rightly small, but upon finishing the whole courses you are satisfied. But with a price tag of 99 dollars per person without wine, and 150 with matching wine...i think it's best to leave these to special occasions.

May be , just may be if we made it to our 10th anniversary we could afford Tetsuya.

whatever...

2011-04-04T09:50:00.005+10:00

a lot of people asked me about our candle light dinner for our anniversary on Friday.

well. there is none.

in fact, i was planning to cook chicken rice with the 3 frozen chicken Maryland in my freezer. so i took it out for defrosting in the morning, and leave it in the kitchen sink. when i return from work, i found a very active Casper and an empty sink without my chicken! gluttonous dog!!!!

but we did have a very nice and relaxing tea light dinner at a fancy place on Wednesday though. a 10 course degustation at Assiette. tea light dinner and iPhone are no good friends so photos are a bit doggy but it was such an interesting 10 mini courses and i shall post them anyway tomorrow.

last week before my autumn break! Yeah!!!

A happy day

2011-04-01T08:43:00.003+11:00

Today it's a happy day.
Happy Bday
Happy Anniversary
Happy Friday
I married young. and i think if you married a young wife, you better make sure you looked at the fined prints that comes with it, ie: immature, childish, unrealistic, narcicist, vain etc etc. and i think my dear husband missed that, and so, have coped with a lot of my imperfections over the years. most of the time, he coped it, swallowed it, silently, patiently and lovingly, waiting for me to grow up. A quote from Matt Chandler: Husband and wife was never given to you so that they might complete you ( thank you Jerry Maguire), but rather they were given to you so you would see your own imperfections and remember and know you need a Savior. amen to that?! and thank you for never giving me up for the past 5 years. i luv you.

walking about

2011-03-29T13:51:00.012+11:00

we took a ride to Stanwell top on the weekend after the big breakfast. Stanwell top is about 45 mins from my place. It's half way between Sydney and Wollongong. Every year, our church ( Chinese Methodist Church ) will organise family camp at one of the campsite in Stanwell top. So it's a very familiar place for us. I like to come here, the scenery is superb, especially the sea cliff bridge, just magnificent. Stanwell top is also a very famous place for activities such as hang-gliding or paragliding. It was very windy last Saturday, and as you can see from the pic above, there were 2 hang-glider waiting to take off! It would be fun wouldn't it? not for us. we're too chicken!! After taking some photos at the Bald Hill lookout, we walk casper along the sea cliff bridge, and then down to the beach to complete our mini trip. enjoy these photos.
1. This is what infinity looks like - Bald Hill Lookout
2. Casper enjoy his seacliff bridge walk
3. Amazed at how pretty the scenery were
4. Enjoying the cool breeze
5. and we broke the law! Oops!!

who's the boss?!

2011-03-29T09:25:00.024+11:00

who do you think is the alpha of the pack?!

it's funny but i think the rank of our family goes like this:
1. lady
2. dog
3. man haha, enjoy your tuesday!!

windy but warmy

2011-03-28T13:42:00.016+11:00

every weekend should start off like this one. hot coffee and BIG breakfast! we start our must-not-stay-at-home deflea debomb Saturday @ the Boatshed cafe in La Perouse. It was very windy but strangely warm even though we had a table on the deck. more photos to come tomorrow. right now, it's Monday and it's shit.

TGI fleas free friday

2011-03-25T09:23:00.003+11:00

so the unavoidable has come.

casper was infested with fleas!

it didn't matter if he was sent for grooming every second Saturdays,

it didn't matter if he was being brushed and all his paws wiped down everyday

it didn't matter if he was given fleas and tick treatment every month

when it's wet, hot and humid like these days, we still cannot avoid the unavoidable!

I didn't even saw one flea on him, but i noticed that he was being quite restless and uncomfortable on Tuesday night, and i found some black dirt looking stuff on his bottom and tail. I really thought they were dirt/soil from the garden but just to make sure, i called the vet.

It's Flea dust, she goes

What?

Flea dust!!!

What's that?

Well, it means Casper must have had flea. Flea dust is the faeces of fleas!!

BUT, i didn't see any fleas on him!

Well, he must have had it, and you need to give him flea tabs and flea bomb his sleeping area.

Give him flea tabs that's easy, but Flea bomb my room? How?

Easy, just go to Coles and get one from Mortein. Dun worry, every dog get this every once in a while when the weather are like these.

Yeah, thanks mate!!! Thanks!!

so he was being given flea tabs, and we brougt him to the salon for an over the top flea bath, vacuum and re-vacuum all the rooms, surface sprayed with Mortein, and hot washed the bedsheets and doonas, and he's finally back to bed with us again last night. ( he spent the night sleeping on cold laundry floor before his treatment! God bless his sweet little soul! ). But just to make triple sure, we're going to flea bomb the room tomorrow. It's kidda cool thing to do and i'm looking fwd. What you do is, you buy this "bomb" from supermarket, and then you put it in the centre of your room, and then you press the "button" ( not the comical red button though, sorry)

and you leave the room. After 2 hours, you may return to the room, and open all the windows and doors to fully ventilate the room, and then vacuum. Dead simple. But just to be sure, i would not want to be in the house for at least half a day that's why we need to wait till weekend to ignite this bomb. So i kidda look fwd for tomorrow, the 3 of us, in a car, going somewhere. I always love to do that. not knowing where to go, but having all my love ones with me. The feeling of being lost but being safe and loved at the same time is a strange combination that i like! and i think to me, that's what marriage life is like. So much love, so secure, but sometime, we dunno where we're heading, but we just know, it's OK for God is with us every step of the way. His hands never leave our household, and so it's OK.

i love casper with or without fleas

i love the man who's gonna ignite the bomb tomorrow

and most of all, i love and trust the Hands that holds our future.

Have a great weekend y'll, hopefully fleas free!!

For your entertainment, body and soul

2011-03-23T09:46:00.007+11:00

It was pouring and nothing but pouring last weekend. I cannot help but accepted that my beloved summer is going to end soon. However, with everything else going on in the world, I promised myself not to ever, complain about the weather. So it was raining, and so it was wet, so it was a little humid, but i'm glad that was it. It was not even cold. yet.
It's hard, and i dun think i can ever ever fall in love with raining days, but i do hope i can find joy listening to them at night and dance in them in the morn.

2 more weeks to go before summer is officially over, and marked the beginning of my first term break. My plan is to sort out ALL of my photos from last year, and some of this year. I hope i follow my own plan. finger cross. that said, i'll also enjoy some Korean drama in between. Kdrama obsession is still hot and i must enjoy at least once Korean food per week, and that lovely husband of mine even surprise me with 2 set of Korean spoon and metal chopstick ( which, to be honest, so damn difficult to use! )

Another new obsession is visit the Village Church Sermon blog. To be honest, I myself prefer expository types of sermon, ie: unfolding, explaining, and applying a passage of Scripture from the bible. I find it very refreshing and i always come out wanting to know more and makes me very interested in reading the bible. Unfortunately, our minister prefers the Topical type of sermon, ie, sermon with a theme, with 1 or 2 verses and lot's of examples. it's not bad, and i must admit it's more suitable and interesting to our congregation, but for my personal preference, i prefer the expository style. And i really hope i can sneak out and join the English service next door but i can't. So i'm glad i can fly over to the US and join the village church, thanks to the Internet. Right now, i'm listening to the book of Colossians, by Matt Chandler. If you always find it hard to read the bible, and always have difficulty understanding the bible, i invite you to visit the blog with me. I mean, if you can never understand what Proverbs is about, or why Song of Songs is even in the bible, then you should really go find out. and for me i think, that is why i'm so hooked in expository types of sermon because we dun just take 1 or 2 verse from Song of songs to learnt about love and sex but rather we study the whole book to learnt the about the relationship between God and us, between Jesus and the Church. very interesting stuff.

After feeding your soul, you should also feed your mouth. and nothing does it better than this goat cheese clafoutis. Clafoutis is a french dessert, and is dead easy to make. Dun strain your eyes trying to read the recipe above, you can find it here. It has a very strong goat cheese flavour, i'm sure you can replace it with ricotta if you can't find any. But we loved the marriage between goat cheese and cherries. Perfect thing on a raining day!

it's sunny and cool now here, wish you all have a nice one too!

for you, in deep water

2011-03-14T09:33:00.005+11:00

Sometime in life, we fall into deep water, where it was so dark, so cold, so lost and so alone. We can have so many friends and surrounded by families, but if they are not in the water with you, they can never understand. In good time, they teach you how to swim, what to hold on to to keep you afloat. In bad time, they ask you why dun you put on life jacket before the boat sank, but in all time, they will never know your fear, your helplessness, and your doubts about why these things happens.

2011 begin with floods in Queensland, followed by tornado, and then earthquake in Christchurch, fallout in Libya, and now, Japan's earthquake, tsunami, and radiative leakage...each one bigger and stronger than the one before. I'm not in those places, i can saturate myself with the news, i can read about the death toll, the magnitude of the earth quake, the level of disaster, I can however, never know what they are going through, and how. Many questions were ask, why these things happens? Is God in control? and many christian/leader begin to answer these questions in a very judgemental way. Earth quake in Christchurch? Too many gays!!! Tsunami in Japan? Too many temple and Buddhist!!! And i felt ashamed to be a christian when i heard these. I really do. I still remember when the tsunami hit Aceh a few years back, one speaker even mention about how the people in Aceh were wicked and sinful, they bring these upon themselves!! People who said this kind of things, forget about the power of the cross. I believe that we, are all sinful, and wicked. gay, straight, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian all the same, sinful and wicked. But, I do not believe that disasters are punitive. It's already written in the bible, one day, this world will end. It will not become better, it will become worst and worst. It is written! One disaster will be bigger than the next. There are no element of surprise here. None. and it's not punitive. If God decide to punish us, He is fair and we are ALL going to down. Judgemental is also a sin.

So whatever your deep water is/are, know that it's not punitive. For whatever rave that God have for us, is being paid on the cross, by the blood of Jesus Christ. Matt Chandler speak of his deep water as: It’s not punitive; it’s not random; and it has not been given to us by God to show us who’s boss,” “There’s a purpose in it; there’s a limit in it; and in the end, God is not going to give to us what He will not sustain us in. And I believe at that moment, the Holy Spirit gives you the power to stand. That’s exactly what we found out. And I’m rejoicing in what He’s doing in it.”

So when you're in deep water, know that God is there.
Know that you can raise your chin up high because you're in God's plan.
and it is my prayer that you experienced God's peace in time of trouble.

God bless Japan.

The tested Faith-Matt Chandler

Korean Drama Obsession

2011-03-09T13:00:00.004+11:00

Anyong Haseyo!!
So I've been watching a lot of Korean drama. Everyone have been asking me which one, so I think i'll blog about them here.
1. She's Beautiful (原来是美男啊！！）
This is the one drama that get me hooked on while i was in KL. To be honest, i really enjoyed this drama, although all the actors and actress are younger than my brother ( oh dear!!! ). It's a very light hearted drama, lots of laughter, nice OST, and most importantly, short ( only 16 episode ).
I'll give it a 9/10!! and btw, I watched it, and re-watched, and re-watched, 3 times. I must be sick, or being poison by the male lead- Jang Guen Suk.

2. Mary Stay out all night ( 玛丽外宿中）
and because of the Jang Guen Suk poison, i watched this one. None of my friends understand why i like him so much as he look so much like a girl. Well, all i can say is, if you never watched his film, you won't fall for him. If not because of him, Mary Stay out all night won't be interesting at all. In fact, sometime i got really angry with the story line, and i still cannot bring myself to watch the 15th episode!! But this drama have the best OST, I blog about it before. and it's also a very short drama, 16 episode. and i really like the female lead too, hence i go and get myself a bang! hehe! 6/10. I watched this a lot of time ( without the 15th episode ), and i sort of run out of Korean drama to watch for a while...and then

3. Oh! my lady
I discover that the actress whom i used to loved so much took up this drama. After 10 years, she still look the same, although in the drama, she did played an Ajumma!! I really like this drama, it's so silly, funny, and again, short. I finished the whole 16 episode in less than a week, although, i did not get poison by the male lead. I dun really like him! haha!! Can't even bother to remember his name. 8/10

4. Personal Preference ( 个人取向）
OMG i loved this drama! Again, it's funny, light, a bit sad sometime, and i think Lee Min Ho is so cute! But, i'm not being poison by him as i think outside of this story, he is quite immature!! I love LOVE Soon Ye Jin though, i think she is a really talented actress!! Story line is superb too, and again, short and sweet. 9/10 for this one.

5. Prosecutor princess ( 检察官公主）
At first, i find it hard to continue this drama because i do not like the styling of the female lead, and i think the male lead is so damn ugly ( i feel like i want to crack open his eyes a bit more, his eyes are too tiny!!! ), but slowly, i found myself enjoying it, a lot. The story line was very good and interesting. Again, it's funny, light, short and sweet. In fact, at the end, i enjoyed it so much i dun want it to end. and yes, totally being poison by this guy with super tiny eyes- Park Shin Hoo.
( i can't even remember who is Jang Guen Suk by now!! my bad! ). 9/10

6. Queen of Reversals (逆转女王)

and because of the Park Shin Hoo poison, i started to watch this Queen of Reversals. Unfortunately, I dun think I can continue watching it though. Not funny, so draggy, and frustrating! 1/10

7. Family's Honor (家门的荣光)

so, i watch another one with Park Shin Hoo in it. I dunno if i can continue yet, i just started to watch the 1st episode. This one is more family drama kind of theme, with a lot of characters and long! ...so, i will blog about it if it's good, or bad.

8. New Gisheng Story ( 新妓生传）

Now, this is the drama that i'm so hooked on at the moment. It's a very new one. PPS update a new episode every Sunday and Monday. Now, unlike my usual style ( which is funny, short, and sweet ), this one is quite different. I have a feeling it's going to be very sad...but the female lead is too pretty and i just can't stop watching her!! In fact, i love every characters in this drama. I think it's going to be a long one. We're already in the 14 episode and nothing much happens yet!! Please join me in this New Gisheng Story, and cry together. ( so far, no tears yet though! )

That's pretty much all the Korean drama that i have been watching.

In short, i prefer funny and happy drama over the sad, long and tear jerking one.

Everyone keep on asking me why Oh why do I like to watch Korean drama now? Only teenagers loved them. I dunno!!!! I spent the entire of my teen-hood without Korean drama! And why is it not to like? I think some of them can have very good story line and msg. and the OST are always always superb!! I wish i can read Korean because i think sometime the translation is a bit shit! Is there any Korean drama that you guys loved and would like to introduce to me? That would make my day!!

Kamsahamida!!

riding on time machine...

2011-02-24T10:11:00.004+11:00

...and back to the Chinese New Year time shall we?!
please excuse all these not too current picture and post. I am trying to clear all the pictures from my phone and found all these stories which i haven't shared it with you all.
A lot of people especially from home always ask me how was my Chinese New Year in a not so Chinese land...well, to be honest, they were normally not memorable, and I cannot remember how i celebrated last year. This year though...erm..very hot. I think we endure very bad heat wave during that few days. The mercury manage to rise up to 42 degree Celsius from as early as 9am, and i think even at night, there were still no sign of cooling down. We do not yet have air conditioning, one of those thing where we cannot decide if we should get a reverse circle one, or ducted one. Plus, our rumpus downstairs is a godsend, always 7 degree Celsius cooler so we generally spent a lot of time including sleeping in the rumpus on those too hot to bear day. Anyway, i dun like to complain too much about the heat, because i quite like the heat. It's the cold that i cannot stand. There were many things i loved to do during a heat wave, one being able to stroll the beaches at night. Have you done that before? It was amazing. We lie down on our beach towel, enjoying the cool breeze, and the sky during heat wave were normally clear so we could see a lot of stars. The beaches closest to home is the Botany Bay ( which is also very near to the airport ), so we could also enjoy the scene where the airplanes took off or landing, and i like to guess the countries of those airplanes. Ah....I love summer night!
Day time though...there are also plenty of fun thing to do, such as washing ans drying all the toys for mr.casper....

this picture make me laugh!!
i wish i could give him a bath and hang him dry like this too!!

On the Friday of Chinese New Year ( I think it was the 2nd day of CNY ), we meet up with a new friend of ours- Timothy Koh. We met Tim at my brother's church in Singapore, so he was about to migrate to Sydney at that time, so we leave our contact and he is now a brother in CMC!! I am yet to persuade him to join choir!! Anyway, I think it would be very sad for him to spent his first CNY in Sydney sans family so we took him out to dinner.

we went to eat Thai food, strange idea but may be because i haven't had enough in HatYai.

Because of the heat wave, we didn't order anything too heavy. We enjoyed:

1. Lychee Shaved Ice

2. Flying fish with papaya salad ( must have fish during CNY right? )

3. Thai Style Roast Duck ( I love duck )

4. Pineapple Fried Rice ( must have pineapple during CNY right? This is a very delicious dish )

5. Pork belly for the boys

6. Thai fried chicken

7. my pre-bang look.

It was such a good night. We enjoyed each other company. This is Timothy first summer in Sydney and he say he could feel his skin ballooning under the heat ( which is higher than body temperature) , and he think I'm an alien for enjoying this kind of feeling. I do, i love, bring me the heat, i am alien from Mars!!

Thanon Khao San

413 Pitt StreetHaymarket,

NSWAustralia, 2000

http://www.thanonkhaosan.com.au/

stories from eyephone part 1

2011-02-17T10:09:00.003+11:00

1. One Sunday we return home to discover bursting water pipe in front of our house. The first thing that hit me was OMG I'm gonna be hit with a huge water bill plus repair. But the water continue to burst like fountains in Rome even after we switch off the main water tap. So we give Sydney water a call and we were told they will be here within an hour to 3 hours! Just why they would allow the water to burst like this for hours i have no idea, so long as it dun shows up on my water bill. We waited for about 2 hours before anyone showed up. Quite ridiculous because the water have been bursting non stop even our neighbours drop by to see if we know about the bursting pipe! So embarrassing! But it's always great to be confirmed that it was not our pipe, but Sydney water's. and we're free to go out or get on with our life, just leave it to them to fix the pipe. Sure thing, only it was my front lawn they are talking about!!! One deep hole and 4 hours later, it was all fixed up. They assure us that they will patch up the yard and it will look like nothing happens before. Yeah right! It looks like I've killed someone and dug a shallow grave!! Unfortunately, after many phone calls, Sydney water cannot re-patch our lawn because even though it's in front of our house, it's actually just a little outside our land!! So we just have to be a little bit patience and wait for the grass to grow back!

Thank you Sydney water! Job well done!

2. I love ducks! Peking duck and roast duck are favourites!! So, we went to stuff our face with peking duck on valentines @ the most unusual and most unromantic place- Ashfield. What a suprise to find a lot ( A LOT ) of couple queuing up for soup dumplings in Ashfield. Quite a sight actually, ladies wearing pretty mini and heels queuing up at places such as New Shang Hai and Shang Hai Night etc ( If you've been there, you'll know they are not the sort of restaurant with romantic candle light decor, they look pretty run down although their food are honestly good ). we went to New Shang Hai, jam packed with couples and even have to share table. Well, things we do for food! We order the soup dumpling and 2 course Peking duck with the second course being a handmade noodle instead of sang choy bao. For AUD42, the duck worth every penny! The skin was so crispy and they give you more than enough pancakes. I was full after the 1st course, but the noodle was so tasty with chunks of duck meat i could not resist. Alas, we still left with doggie bag because of the big portion. husband have it for his lunch the next day, and it was still good, if not better. Go and try it for yourself if you're tempted!

New Shanghai Chinese Restaurant

273 Liverpool Rd, Ashfield, Sydney

Tel: +61 (02) 9797 7284

3 post in a week, i'm on fire!!

bleh...

2011-02-16T12:33:00.003+11:00

i'm not an anti facebooker, nor am i anti valentines, but i really dun see the need for people to write an open love letter to their bf, husband, gf, wife in facebook! come on! isn't it so much more romantic if you can whisper stuff like that into his/her ears? me, along with the rest of the world really REALLY do not need to know how lucky or inlove you people are. in my very personal opinion, one only need to tell the world once about their love and promises, and that is what wedding ceremony is for. After that, action always speak louder than words. spare a thought for my fellow unmarried and not in a relationship friends. Valentines day is a day for your valentines only, there is no need to share your love with the rest of us, although, i really dun mind if you want to sent me chocolates and roses though, but love letters that were not address to me?
No thanks!!

big BANG theory!

2011-02-14T12:20:00.003+11:00

Every morning when I was sipping coffee and net surfing before works begin, I'm always full of regrets for not taking the time out to sort out the rest of my holiday or weekend photos, and hence, left with nothing to blog about. But when i went home, I can't help but watched Korean Drama. I really have to thanks my dad for introducing me to this thing call PPS, and ever since i came back and installed it on my computer, we need to increase our monthly data from 25 gig ( which we could never used up before ) to 500 gig!! At first, I only watch the Korean drama that i picked up while i was in Malaysia called: She's beautiful or in Mandarin ( 原来是美男！), i watched that 2 times because I loved every character in it, and it's such a light and funny drama. And then, just when i was about have enough of that drama, my dear husband suggested that i should watch another one called : Mary Stay Out All Night as the same male lead character- Jang Kuen Suk, was in it too. And i really really REALLY loved his character in that drama. I loved all the songs, and I loved their sense of style throughout the movie. Make me longed for winter for once and I'm gonna wear some nice, comfortable beanie, big scarf, long cardi , and chic gloves!! The only unfortunate bits was that the story line was not always good, and the ending was a bit too sudden. As if the production company have run out of time and money and just simply tied up the loose bit. Quite disappointing in the end, nevertheless, I still watch it 3 times back to back, every time i wish i could changed how this story would end. Anyway, while i'm watching all these Korean Movie from PPS, my husband enjoyed his Three Kingdom DVD sets ( which, is not really my cup of tea! ). So, it's fair game for both of us!

Becoming a couch potato couple i hear? Far from it! In fact, so many real life drama happened when we were watching our individual drama.
one of them being Casper fall sick just one week after we return from holiday. So sick that he need to be hospitalised for 2 days, lot's of injection, blood test, urine test, stool test, X-rayed etc etc. Well, no one knows exactly what's wrong, but he is well again now so thank god!
also, i've decided to give my Jennifer Aniston Hairstyle a rest after so many years and i tell my stylist to do anything she want with me so that I'll not go out looking exactly the same anymore, BUT, i still want to keep the length. She rolled her eyes and give me a bang! One hell of a Bang!!

my stylist is ang mo and have no idea about my obsession with Korean drama, but coincidentally, she gave me the Korean look ( although, it was meant to be like Sandra Bullock at the Golden Globe!! )
anyway, I hope I'll stay like this for a while before i go back to the Jen An hairstyle. May be i will have the courage to cut it and my hairstylist just can't wait to do the honour!
my husband recons i look smashing hot and he took me to dinner after that. Who waits for valentines day to go out to dinner? SOooo Yesterday!!
Anyway, wish you all Happy Valentines, and hope you enjoyed this nice, romantic Korean song from my new love-Jang Kuen Suk.

2011 and 11 random facts

2011-01-31T12:05:00.004+11:00

Before my final holiday post on Sugai Besar, I would like to use this post to wish everyone Happy Chinese New Year!! Unfortunately, I can never have a chance to go back during this time as Feb is always the busiest time for us here. With the end of Australia Open last night, everyone is back to the full working mode. and i'm so busy busy busy here, but i still take time to blog! How i loved my readers!!! In fact, I was really blessed to have to opportunity to meet up with some of them during my trip back home!! Meeting people that I seems to know so much about but at the same time, is a complete stranger to me was very weird indeed. I met up with some of my brother's friends in Singapore on the sunday service ( which also read my blog and vice verse ), and it was so awesome to meet up with you all, see you all face to face, shake hands, say hello...and then in KL, we have the real blogger meeting thingy!! Although it have been more than a month ago, but it was still so surreal!! I actually didn't know it would happen because when i contacted my long suffering high school girlfriend Ms Atlantis, I told her i would like to meet up T, K, and S, and hopefully more of our high school friends who were in KL. However, Ms Atlantis, who was and is, and forever will be a workaholic, say she haven't seen T, K and S or anyone else for a long time and may be won't be able to meet up with them, but she so kindly give me a few hours of her very busy life to meet up with her and MR. Atlantis. So i grab my dear husband and went along to this 'double date"!! It was only when she came and pick us up that i realised almost everyone i want to meet will be coming, including K !! Now, K is a total, complete stranger, the only thing we share, is our blog post. So it was such a meaningful meeting!
We have so much fun catching up with the old friends, and so much fun getting to know new friends. and the most amazing thing was, we chat and chat like we've known each other for a long time and spent everyday together!! Blogging is an amazing stuff, it's a snapshots of our everyday life, and i really enjoy sharing bits and pieces of me here.....So, since new year resolution is SOOO past tense, and i'm sick of trying to remember what my new year resolution was as early as March, I'm not gonna do it. Since Chinese New Year is just around the corner, and we're well and truly into the year 2011 already, i'm gonna share with you all 11 random facts about me.

Every time when coffee were mention in this post, i actually meant mocha. In fact, i never enjoy latte, cappuccino, short/long black etc. So if you ever want to treat me breakfast, you should order : Soy mocha extra chocolate, and side facts, i really need a cup of this to function everyday, both physically and emotionally!
My body prefer to "do big business, aka, poo poo" in my office toilet. Hence, i'm always constipated on weekends, and super regulars on Mondays. and in my perfect world, i would hope my husband ( and my guest!! ) to develop the same practice so our toilet at home will always smell nicer.
i googled at least 5 times a day
i hate changes. Hence even though i colour and style my hair every 3 months, no one really notices any difference. I have never changed my nail colour since i decided to colour them, it will always either be dark and rich, or bright red or i'll just go without. I drink coffee ( read No.1 for real definition of coffee ) everyday except on Sunday where i drink original pearl milk tea for almost 2 years now. If i love a particular type of food, i will always go back to the same restaurant, ordering the same thing. I stay on the same job for as long as i can remember. etc etc.
When i was young, I have 8 dogs and 2 rabbits. Now ( I'm still young ), I have 1 dog and 8 fishes.
my waist/stomach can expand up to 10cm after dinner. this is no BS.
I wish i'm 10cm taller, have honey coloured skin and born with natural curl.
I hate surprises, especially badly done one. So please....leave the organizing stuff to me!!
I may behave like a very practical person, but deep down, i am a hopeless romantics and i'm very generous when it comes to shedding tears.
I'm very, super, seriously afraid of dental appointments. I hope i would never ever need to lie on the dental chair ever!!
one of my motto is: If it ain't broken, dun fixed it.

well, that's it for now.

A big thanks to Mr and Mrs Atlantis for open up her nice and cosy home for us, and appreciate old classmate S for coming, and special thanks to Kim for dropping by to see me! It's a great deal of travelling, so i really appreciate meeting you. Will you share your 11 random facts?! I hope!

Thailand, well, almost!!

2011-01-25T16:21:00.008+11:00

Today is my first official start of work! I know, I know...i should have finish up my holiday story well before but I'm often not organised during holiday time. Too lazy, too many Korean drama, and too busy doing other things are my reasons not to blog! But sitting here at my office desk, sipping coffee and looking at the pile of works that I have to do, suddenly, i felt like blogging, especially about my trip! So here it is!!

On the last few days of last year, we went to Thailand. If you're thinking Bangkok, Phuket etc, then, sorry to disappoint. We only went to the border of Thailand, a small city called Hatyai.

Hatyai is a city in the southern Thailand, a very business centred city. Therefore, being the economic centre of southern Thailand, Hatyai very often become a target for terrorist bombings. However, lately the situation have become more stable and because everything were so cheap, it has attracted a lot of tourists from Malaysia and Singapore. My mum alone have been there 4 times, mainly because it was quite easy to go, and only about 5 hours drive. To reduce the stress of driving, we hired a driver and a mini van to Hatyai a day after Christmas. The driver came and pick us up at 5am, and we stop by Tai Ping for a breakfast at about 7am. I pretty much slept throughout the journey and we arrived at the custom area at about noon time. It was another hour of driving before we reach the city centre of Hatyai, where we have our first, Thai food lunch!!

As they say, you can never have a bad Thai food, so very true. Everything we ate in Hatyai, were delicious. Most Hatyai people are Chinese and they speak 'Teo Chew'-a kind of Chinese dialect. Hence, the Thai food here were mostly Chinese fusion. that afternoon, we enjoyed pranws with mushroom, steam whole fish, steam chicken in soy, pork with yam, seaweed soup and my personal favourite- sour and spicy chicken feet! what a feast!

One thing we notice when we cross the border is that the electricity/power line were a mess in Hatyai. A MESS!! The photos above didn't really show much, but in reality, the power lines were all over the place, and so so low that even i ( short ) can get hold of it easily.

talk about shopping, if you're thinking about big shopping complex like Wesfield, Vivo city, or Mega mall, then, you're on the wrong again! I'll say, it's more like a huge huge Nu Ren Jie in Hong Kong. Everything is on the street, and you'll have to exercises your bargaining skill.

Therefore, I didn't actually enjoy the shopping part one bit. Firstly, I speak little Teo Chew while husband speak none, second, you can't really try on anything, there were no fitting rooms!!

So for once, this shopaholic took 3 days off from shopping and enjoy every other stuff other than shop! which was not too bad!

for example, we loved their street food! So cheap, and so delicious, and look at those prawns, so HUGE!!

and i also enjoy taking photos...
their taxi have such a cute name, called Tut tut, and it cost about RM3 per ride to anywhere in the city area.

There is a one hour difference between Malaysian time and Hatyai. On our second day, we messed up on the timing and our driver were already gone when we awoke. So we decide to explore Hatyai ourselves instead. We enjoyed a roadside breakfast, literally. I'm so close to the traffic it was unbelievable!

If you know us, we're not the the kind of PDA couple ( Public Display of Affectionate ). But my shopaholic sickness prompt me to buy something, so we bought a couple T-shirt, and a couple flip flops. totally insane!

Husband were thrilled to find "Kolo Mee" in Hatyai!!

like a pair of lovey dopey teenager, we ride on a tut tut with our matching T-shirt and flip flops, and head out to the famous Hatyai Ice Dome to enjoy the spectacular and amazing ice-sculptors from china.

It cost about Rm30 per person to enter, personally, I would advice you to, NOT GO!!

The ice dome was really really small, and not over 10 sculptors. Nothing spectacular or amazing at all. It was an overall very disappointing experience.

we only spent about 20 mins in there! What a waste of money and time.

It begin to rain after that, so we headed back to our hotel, and enjoy the most unforgettable Thai massage in my life.

I love massage and every now and then, I would go for a relaxation aromatherapy massage. But Thai style massage, it's a first time to me! How should i put it? Let just say, you can't really fall asleep during the massage, a lot of pulling of joints were involved, and it's a bit like doing yoga with someone helping you to stretch!! I like it though, i felt really good after the massage session, and it was so dirt cheap, about RM30 for a two hour massage!!! that was money well spent!!

Our trip ended on the last day of 2010. Although, I think it is unlikely for me to return to Hatyai, but I do have a wonderful time there, being with my parent. At time there were arguments, at time there were laughter, at time there were heated discussion, at time, there were fun gossiping, isn't that family is all about?! Always, it is not "where" that matter, but "who" you're with, that make a difference. So, i refuse to rate my Hatyai trip.

We enjoy our dinner on the way back to Malaysia, just in time to farewell 2010.

In my next and last post of my trip, I will introduce to the world-Sungai Besar. Lot's of beautiful pictures, so please stay tuned.

Family Reunion and Pangkor Island Day trip

2011-01-18T17:04:00.008+11:00

Tangyuan, is a dessert make from glutinous rice flour. It also symbolized family reunion.
After my Singapore trip, we arrived in KL. On my first dinner back home with my family, my mum make these for us. It's a shame that my brother was not able to join us.

My mum and my aunt cooked up a storm to welcome us home. Among them, one of my favourite was these Butter Oats Prawns.

Beside,there were also steam whole Hai Nan Chicken

Steam Promfret from Sg Besar ( which is where my parent currently reside)

and my dear uncle who knew i love a good HK style roast duck queue for a long time for this famous roast duck, Yum!

What is a celebration without champagne?
We brought this Moet all the way from Sydney, to Singapore and then finally, make it to the dinner table with my families and relatives.

We have so much fun eating, talking and catching up with each other..

and this is my fav uncle, Pete.

This holiday is such a special time for our families, ever since the passing of my beloved grandma, this is the first time that all of us gather together. There were my aunt and my little cousin from Sydney as well, and my 3rd aunt from Brunei, as well as all my uncles and aunty in KL. My little cousin, who experienced a little culture shock and homesick, was very glad to see us ( as we're all in Sydney ), and always hold on to my ipad. We like to play google earth and show everyone where we stay, where we work/go to school, where we shop etc etc. so funny.

We spent about 2 days in Kl before all of us went to my parental place, Sg Besar for Christmas and New Year. Because a lot of people have no idea where Sg Besar is, I will post more about it in my upcoming post. Today's post however, will focus on Pangkor Island, it is about 2 hours drive from Sg.Besar. None of the family members have been there, so we are very keen to check it out.

First up, let's google earth/map take us to Pangkor...

You'll need to use a "boat" to cross over to Pangkor island. I cannot remember how much it cost though, i think its about RM20 for a return trip.

We waited for a while at the dock, until our boat to pangkor arrived.

L-R: My 2nd aunty, my mum, 4th aunty, and third aunty

me and my dad

It was a very fine and sunny day, and I was very excited so i decided to stand outside at the deck to enjoy the scenery.

I've almost forgotten this kind of ferry ( very different from Sydney ferry )

and even spotted a fishing boat

actually, Pangkor Island is a very tiny and peaceful fishing village. And beside the beautiful beaches, a lot of local came here for the fishing products, such as dried salted fish, seafood snack, fish and prawns crackers and etc.

I was amaze at how clear the water were. As in my perception, Malaysia's beaches are normally quite dirty and polluted, even the Langkawi one disappoints me. So Pangkor was full of surprises.

After the 30 mins or so boat ride, we arrived at Pangkor Island about 12 noon. Bright and sunny.

there were many taxi waiting for us. We hired a big one for 3 hours to tour the whole island. I think it cost about RM80.

It was scorching hot because the taxi was not air conditioned!! Instead, it was fixes with 2 mini useless fan!! Oh dear Lord!!

I can't wait to jump off the taxi as i felt like hell in there, and i missed out on the introduction about the place that he was dropping us off. This place does have a big garden with flowery concrete design.

Almost complete family portrait...

and because it was so warm, we decided to have coconut drink to cool ourselves down. Mine was really yum, but i think husband got a very old coconut, haha.

The next stop, is the most important stop for my mum and all my aunties. In fact, that was the reason they want to come to Pangkor Island- Fishing Produced Shop.

The shop ( again, not air conditioned and smell like cuttle fish and dried salted fish ), sell everything under the sun that were seafood related. Dried mini prawns, various type of dried fish, dried mussels, dried abalone, dried sea cucumber,etc etc....

even foo chow long life noodle!! What the?!!!

My Aussie cousin ( who was afraid of tummy bug and only eat chicken or egg with white rice ) tried his very first satay ( snack style ), very yummy but a bit hot was his comment.

At last, the taxi stop at a place which looks like Pangkor Island.
Beautiful beaches, and sorry for not taking more pictures because we can't wait to slip into our swimsuit and dip into the clear blue sea.

and i'll have to admit, even though it was 1pm something, and the sun was blazing, the sun in Malaysia was still pretty mild in comparison to the Australian one. I did not put on any sunscreen, i was in the water under the sun for at least an hour and not only was i not burnt, i wasn't even tanned ( to my satisfactory level ). 15 mins under the direct sunlight in Sydney, anyone will be burnt without any protection. Ozone layer really does make a HUGE difference!

Verdict:
I really really enjoy the swim in Pangkor Island. It was clear enough for me to see the bottom, and the water temperature was so nice. If we have more time, I would go snorkelling. I almost felt like I was back in Vanuatu again. I'll give it a 7/10. Next time, I would like to stay at a nice resort in Pangkor and who knows i might give it a 10/10.

many many "first" in Singapore!!

2011-01-12T15:17:00.006+11:00

This is not my first time to Singapore, but strangely, i felt like it was my first.
Firstly, I have never fly from KL to Singapore before, sometime i do wonder why MAS don't just fly direct to Singapore and then KL, instead, we have to land in KLIA and waited for 3 hours in the transit lounge before boarding the 45 mins flight to Singapore. It felt so short i dun even have time to finish my complimentary orange juice!!
Unlike Sydney, the check out custom in Changi airport was a piece of cake! and i like it!
We stayed in the Novotel at Clarke Quay. Like all Accor Hotels, it is a green hotel. Hotel stuff very kindly offer us an early check in at 10am ( normal check in time is 12 noon ) at no extra cost, and the room was big, comfortable and clean with wiFi throughout. and most importantly, very well priced at about AUD 150 per night. The last time we stayed in accor hotels was in London Novotel, and Paris Pullman Hotel, and I love love LOVE accor hotels, and would recommend anyone to any accor hotels in every part of the world. It's very modern, and it won't break your back, physically and financially.

view from our hotel

The first thing we did after a quick shower at the hotel was a visit to seven eleven just beside our hotel. Someone tell me that i can get a micro sim card for my ipad from 7/11! Yeah right! you can't!! Instead, i spotted these cute little Starbucks Frappuccino!! i thought Starbucks only does freshly brewed coffee?????

this is also the first time that i visit my brother in year 2010, and also the first time that he was no longer a poor uni student. so, he treated me for the first time at Crystal Jade Restaurant. And i drool over this saucy, crispy roast duck. So yum!

We also manage to visit Sentosa this time.
My brother tried to buy tickets for all of us to the Universal Studio 2 weeks before my arrival to no avail, it was all sold out. When we were there, all the ticket booth were closed! How Bazaar!! Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves walking around the compound. To be honest, we are not the kind of people who MUST visit the Universal Studio, so we're OK, but if you are, I'm sure you can pre- purchase these tickets from some tourism offices in Singapore or your country. Or, just come over to Gold coast Australia , tickets never get sold out there. unlikely!!

Hansel and Gretel and the Candy House.
I enjoyed the candy shop a lot, it was full of colourful, sweet lolly pop sans the witch of course.

After that, we decided to have some fun, ( mainly the boys! ). They wanted to experience the Luge and Skyride ( poor me and my miniskirt! ). Anyway, near the ticket booth, there were a lot of pretty artworks using recycled materials like metals from cans, or bottles and straws. They were very beautiful and creative, especially the Christmas Tree made of glass bottles!

Luge, is actually a non motorised 3 wheeled car, going down a steep hill. It's a bit like toboggan. I was quite nervous at first but they do teach you how to control it, which was really easy.

Skyride, is an open air cabin driven chairlift. I think it is exactly the same as Ski Lift, sans the ski gear and snow.

Luge and skyride

we were asked to wear helmet ( a bit yuck as everyone was sweaty!!! ), and will start with the luge first.

I drove really slow, while my brother and husband drove like they were competing for the formula 1 thingy. seriously people, chill!!!!!!

after the luge, we enjoyed a quiet moment sipping water at the Siloso beach before some " Si-Loso waiter came and tell us we could not enjoy the beach if we were just sipping water. Big deal!!! Like i want to pay 10 dollar for some french fries?!! So off we go.

and just before we leave the Siloso beach, i saw this super cute and funny thing. I think it will be more appropriate to call it the Postcasting Stone.

We use the skyride to go back up, the view were quite magnificent although i spent most of the time with my eyes shut as i am a little acrophobia.

Luge from Skyride

Siloso beach

This time round, I also enjoyed a lot of Singapore food. On my previous visit, i only eat the "Fish Fillet Soup"!! One of my favourite place to enjoy local dishes is the "Food Republic" in Singapore.
The food was nice, with lots of varieties, and the ambiance was superb.

Of course, we also visited the Marina Bay Sands. The shopping mall are full of designers brands, and weirdly, a man made river in the middle.

hm..very weird, remind me of " The Mines" in Kuala Lumpur.

We also manage to go up to the sky park, costing us 20 dollars per person. I listen to Mr Kenneth ( Tiny Strong ), he insist that i MUST go at late afternoon so i could enjoy the sunset. so i did.
the moment the lift door open, something was wrong. the sky were so dark there were no sun to set. and shortly after these 2 photos were taken, it pours!!!

Infinity swimming pool with the city skyline as backdrop

luckily, it was a quick pour. After a while, the sky start to clear again, although, we never get to enjoy the kind of golden sunset i have in mind. Later did i know that one cannot visit any skypark in late afternoon during December because it will almost definitely rain. yeah. thanks!!

floating field and floating balls...

Singapore eye

This is also my first time having the opportunity to visit a typical Singaporean flat!!
They have this urine detection device thing fitted in the lift! Hahaha! so funny!! I also never seen this before :P

AND, thanks to facebook, we also have the opportunity to meet up with our very very old, long time friends in Singapore. And they took us to dinner in the middle of a suburb!! How wonderful. true street food, hawker style!

oyster fried eggs aka, OJian. I love love love this dish!!

Po Piah

Chicken Wings

Chicken Satay

And another first time- Gong Gong (a kind of shell fish, with very delicate and sweet flavour)

and i think my favourite one will have to be this one- Peng hu ( BBQ Stingray)

our childhood friends from Kuching

On my last night in Singapore, my brother introduced me to his girlfriend, Grace, and also the super delicious Japanese buffet- Kuishin-Bo.
Food first, shall we?

Kuishin -Bo is famous for their Hokkaido crab and crab stick ( i mean the real one, not the seafood pretender crap ), and being a buffet, it means, you can eat all you can eat.

Most people took mountains of these crab sticks. But beside crab, there were a lot of other seafood such as mussels, prawns and even lobster.

and of course, sushi, sashimi,

assorted tempura....

i did mention assorted right?

yakitori, and they also do teppanyaki

or noodle dishes.

and every hour, they will ring the bell and everyone will queue up for the special of the day

and special of that day was------ Lobster Mornay Yeah!!!

Least not forget, dessert, complete with the "so hot right now" chocolate fountain

assorted cakes and mousse

fruits

and you can even make your own shaved ice!!
the ice-cream machine break down on my visit ( thank god for that or else!! ).

now the girlfriend-Grace, who was so sweet and always wear a big smile on her face! I was so glad to meet up with her and some of my brother's friend, who happens to read my blog too :P
this is also my frirst time visiting my brother's church and even enjoy a casual christmas luncheon together.

my brother with his puffy eyes, too much crab boy!!

do we look alike? Strangely ALL his friends say we looked so much alike, but NONE of my friends in sydney say we look alike. Hm...very weird.

Singapore style christmas luncheon

Beside all the foods, and friends, i did not forget to shop. I still love Vivo City, although this time round, i prefer Orchard road more. My favourite ones will have to be Charles and Keith and Pedro, where i bought a total of 10 pairs from them. I also enjoy MNG, Zara and Iora. In fact, we shop so much that every shop wants us to join member, and we even got 2 free umbrellas from Hush Puppies for spending. anyway, when we get to the airport, we discovered that our 45 mins flight to KL was delayed for a further 2 hours. pretty ridiculous. so what can you do? Shop lor. hehe.

overall, i think i'll rate my singapore holiday as 10/10 . 4 points for being with my brother and have dinner together every night, 3 points for the food, and 3 points for the shoppings. i really enjoyed it.

recovering from holiday mood

2011-01-11T13:32:00.002+11:00

Dear readers,
I'm back and alive.
very tired and still have trouble sleeping at night. I am still falling asleep only at dawn and woke at at noon. I dun normally believe in jet lag, i think it's all up in the mind, i dun have the jet lag problem when i landed in Singapore or Malaysia as too much fun are waiting for me. i think i'm just not used to the sudden peace and quiet here at my own home. i missed my family terribly, missed my brother, missed the "Restorant Sri Kassim" ( a mamak stall ), missed the Steven's Corner ( another mamak stall ), so much so i dun feel like eating anything here.... strangely i also missed the Astro programme i watch every night with my uncle Pete until midnight, when i was there, i was always being occupied with something fun, gossips among the relatives, shopping, jokes with my uncle, lots of eating, and i really enjoy staying with my parent, as if i have go back in time to be a teenager all over again. especially so this time round as i have the opportunity to meet up with a very old friend of mine in Singapore and 2 very dear girlfriends from secondary school days. It all still feels like yesterday and I thought i'm 18 again.
Anyway, life have to go on and i have to remind myself that i'm 28 not 18, and I'm glad I still have a week or so to recover before i go back to work. I will be fine. sometime that is why i hate going home. it's just so hard to come back. like what husband always say, i need another holiday to recover from my holiday. SO i will.

No photos yet in this post, but i plan to blog about my entire trip from Singapore-Malaysia all the way to the border of Thailand and back before Friday. As we might go for another mini holiday in Newcastle this weekend. So, stay tuned.

we fly out on the 15th of December last year. it was quite an eventful day.
at 6am, we drove casper to his holiday retreat in Berkshire park, about 2 hours drive from Sydney. i was full of guilt because this will be the longest ever that we will be leaving him there. Even though i know the centre will take very good care of him, and that he will enjoy a lot of fun activities such as swimming and playing with other dogs, i just feel sad i can't let him understand that we did not abandon him, and that we will come back for him. so i was quite heavy hearted when the staff took him away.
on the way home, my very busy and very important husband have to appear in the Campertown court and because he say it will be a very brief appearance with the judge, i accompany him to the courtroom. Boy and boy was i wrong. The judge insist that he proceed and finalised with his matter that day. anyway, to make the long story short, i sat in the boring court room with a bunch of criminals/innocents and their family for about one and a half hour. BORED to death!!!!
anyway, when the judge finally finalised with my husband's client's matter he told my husband 'you can go on now and enjoy your overseas trip " and then look towards my direction and say " that young lady must be very pleased to be able to get out of the court now" something along that line and laugh. what the?!!! He must have noticed that i yawn a lot!!!
anyway, when we reached the city, it was almost 1pm and my husband need to attend the Christmas luncheon with his boss so i went and do my last minute shopping. my husband plan to go home right after his luncheon, so i met him at 2pm at his office. however, things does not go according to plan. he receive a very urgent letter just before he left for the year and he need to sort things out before we could fly. i waited for him until almost 5pm. anyway, we're lucky to reach home at 6pm, do some last minute packing and rushed out to the airport at 7pm. our flight was 930pm. and the line to the check in counter was so long so long and i was so tired and hungry and thirsty. by the time we reached the gate, i only have a few minutes to buy a packet of chips before we board the plane. ( can't even buy a bottle of water because of the stupid, STUPID regulation! )
it must have been years since i last boarded MAS. It's not bad, it's quite comfortable. but the entertainment system really needed a bit of updating. The screen was so pixelated. may be i was too tired, or may be i am so used to HD movie, for once i was not interested in watching movie on the plane. The meal was great, i have the chicken byrani, and i fall deeply asleep after the meal. When i woke up, i felt like i wanted to throw up, so i immediately get up to go to the toilet, but as i stand up, i can feel the whole plane shaking, and before i even reached the toilet, i fainted, falling down on to the ground. strangely, i felt quite peaceful actually. i felt very comfortable. and then suddenly, i felt a very sharp and cold feelings and i immediately woke up. the air-stewardess was putting icy cold towel on my face!! and then immediately,my vision and hearing return to me and i heard the 3 cabin crew members were so relief that i have finally regain my senses. They were the BEST cabin crews, really. so professionals and so caring. they put the oxygen mask on me, ask me to breath deeply, ask me how i felt, etc etc, at that time, i was completely fine and that feeling of seasickness have completely gone. i think it was quite hilarious and would make such a good post actually. I was seated at the cabin crew seat at the back of the plane, and my dear husband, still have no idea about my fainting ordeal. so I ask one of the cabin crew to call my dear husband to inform him about his wife!!! anyway, he came looking so worried and when he saw me with the oxygen mask, he burst out laughing. if not because of those cabin crews, we would have taken a few pictures. but they were all so worried about me, so i also act like sick a bit to make their effort worth while but in actual fact, i was more than 100% recovered already. I think i was severely dehydrated as i can recall, i was so busy for the whole day before we board, i did not even have a sip of water.
so anyway, that was my most memorable MAS experience by far. and i wanted so much to thank all the cabin crews for being there for me.

we touched down at KLIA shortly after the mid air drama, and we slept a little on the airport until our next flight to Singapore at 7am. Reached Changi airport at 830am, and that mark my first day of holiday. No Jet lag, went straight to vivo city after hotel checked in and a brief rest.

Well, this is my first post in the year 2011, and many many more to follow.
Thanks for your readings and your kind comments. I hope i would continue to amuse you all with my post.

Brilliant one

2010-12-08T10:04:00.005+11:00

Finally, the Inception DVD was release in Australia yesterday, and we bought it at the first instance. And wow! What a good one. And i'm glad we waited for the DVD instead of going to the cinema because i NEED subtitle for this movie. Or else i would just be buried under 3 level of dreams and unable to make it out where is reality! Leonardo is great as usual, however, it is Joseph Gordon-Levitt that i enjoyed the most. I think he is really awesome particularly in the gravity free scene. The last time i enjoyed him was watching 500 days of summer. and btw, if you haven't watch that, please do so, as it is such a great film!

Back to Inception, we didn't think it would be a mind blowing film because there were a lot of mix review about the film. But i think all the loose end tied up pretty well and just leave you with a tiny doubt at the end. I kinda like it so we can choose to believe either way.

and i Thank God for this is only a movie. If one day we were able to live in a dream, I would not want to wake up, like Mal.

on another note, Oprah is coming to Sydney today, and "according to a close friend", she will be staying in Point Piper, ie, directly across my office. I have a camera ready and eyes open, finger cross i may have the chance to play paparazzi for a day! ( that is, the close friend really do exist )

Oprah is gonna host the show at you know it, the Opera house! talk about cliche!

last weekend from the eye of iphone

2010-12-02T11:57:00.004+11:00

1. took a day off last Friday to celebrate husband graduate from his master of Law in Sydney Uni.

i'm the only one there, as this is his third graduation.

this is my first time attends his graduation so it's quite special, to us.

2. extra hot day, nearly fainted inside the great hall without air conditioning, or fan, or window.

count myself lucky i'm not the one wearing gowns. Blue for justice.

3. because of the need to attend cell group on friday night, we didn't go out for dinner.

instead, i cook. Pan fried Salmon with pea puree, spring baby potates and glazed carrots. yum.

4. on saturday, Bill Granger ( in Surry Hills ) throw us a super nice breakfast.

the coffee is amazing.

5. and i have the best corn fritters yet.

6. and the cured trout make us feels like we're in Tetsuya.

7. but the most famous, of course, it's Bill's ricotta hotcakes with honeycomb butter.

8. it was such a beautiful day. we pay a visit to irene and richard with casper and tiny strong. They have 2 rabbits, 2 love birds, and a bunch of very very expensive and exotic goldfishes. Casper, of course, was the centre of attention. he love the 2 love birds. ( not in a gentle way though ).

9. we continue our animal visitation to the northern suburb where Joyce and Edwin welcome us with their 2 pups. We went to a doggie park in Chatswood and casper have a wonderful time off the leash, and play with a lot of dogs.

10. Congratulation again mr.ting. 4 years of endless essays finally came to an end. the next degree you take, please make sure it's from Yale, so i could go to New York for the graduation.

i still have tonnes of photos from my dslr that i haven't got the "muse" to sort. hopefully i will sit down and do it sometime soon. Cooking dash is such a distraction. and the weather have been really crap since saturday too. hopefully we'll have a sunny one this week.

Enjoy your weekend people! 22 days to Christmas!

Please enlighten me!

2010-11-24T09:04:00.003+11:00

Recently, one of my friend say she enjoyed one day without maid and feel so so good. Apparently, she have to constantly checked on her maid to see if she is lazy or etc. I'm sure, her case is pretty common back in Malaysia. So far, almost 90% of people i know, with maid, have never been happy. All day long, you'll hear them complain about the maid using telephone, the maid befriend with a stranger, the maid lazy, the maid this and the maid that. what puzzle me is that, why dun just get rid of her?!! I mean, really, if you're paying them peanut, you should expect monkey business right? if your boss only pay you an amount which you dun think is great BUT which he think you'll have more than enough, would you do your job willingly? duh!
and the second thing that puzzle me is that, how could people live with this maid that they so much disliked, and distrust? some even let her mind the children, good heaven i would never ever imagine myself doing that! i dun even let my inlaw mind my dog when i'm on holiday!! Really really strange!!
another quite strange thing is, these maid, however young or old, were all expected to make no friends at all when they are under the contract! what sort of thing is this?! Would you like to work in an environment where you cannot make friends with other people? other colleague? some hot delivery guy or office boy?! One of my relative always keep her main indoor because she dun want her to talk to the neighbour, especially the neighbour's maid etc. Of course, i understand it is a safety thing for the whole family, but it's quite inhumane you dun think? What? Your life is so important and yet theirs is so cheap that they have to be confined and work whole day without friends?
and then, they start to complain that the maid try to poison the children, the maid gone crazy, the maid purposely open the door that leads to burglary. WHAT do you expect?! Anyone would have gone crazy and bitter under this kind of working condition!! i know i would!
bottom line is, if you really dun like your maid, fired her, but treat her well if you decided to keep her. and dun comlain about her!!
also, it's not all that bad and impossible to live without one. here is the facts:
90% of people living in Australia do not have a maid. we're all still functional.
my husband may be a criminal defence lawyer and speak in front of the supreme court judge, when the tie is off, he is just a laundry men in charged of everything from washing, drying , ironing to sorting all the clothes and put them back in the appropriate place in the wardrobe. I've never wash any cloths ever since i got married. this is the chores that we've decided long before we tie the knot. You'll often find him in the laundry aisle in the grocery store ( that is, if he's not in the junk food aisle ), and he can openly bragged about what is the best washing powder, or liquid, or softeners, even to his colleague. because they too, would have to share house chores at home. In fact, his boss cook for the whole family every night. I never complain to people about what a slave i am at home doing this that that because it's quite evenly distributed. I cook, he clean up, i vacuum, he make the bed, i dust, he mowed the lawn. of course, you can argue that we dun have children, but when we do, i still dun see a time when i will need a maid! Many working families with young children are completely happy without a maid. in fact, more happy because they dun have to constantly worry that the maid are ripping them off behind their back!!
BUT, may be i got it all wrong, and nothing is what it seem? so, please, enlighten me!!!

models VS models

2010-11-22T11:29:00.004+11:00

After a gloomy and windy Friday, we have an absolutely gorgeous weekend. Bright sun but cool wind. I was immediately feeling so much better, so i decided to hold on to my promise and drop by Alexandria to visit this little man, which i nicknamed, "tiny strong', and it has nothing to do his physical strength or anything, just a direct translation of his Mandarin name.
Tiny Strong will be graduating with Master of Architecture end of this year, which is, now. and he will be going home, hopefully only for holiday in Dec. His final project for the course, was to re-construct/ re-model a train station in Sydney, and the below is his work. He need me to come and see his work, because he have missed out choir for a good 3 weeks so i need to come and see if this "master piece" really need so much time to complete!

so? what do you think? Pretty impressive i think, the poster and drawings blow my mind off, but the model, errr... :P

here are some of the works that i really really like, and it's quite impressive for someone so young and accomplish so much!

this is a BMW car show room, awesome huh!

and this is a mosque, also a work of another malaysian chinese students.

and i really like what they did with the court houses. there are a lot, and a lot. this is just one examples.

well, we also discovered that this exhibition centre is actually a photo studio! there were walls, with the sharp 90 degree corners removed, and painted white so light can be fully reflected and we took really really nice photos even with just normal camera, in my case, just iPhone.

ok, tiny strong with a HUGE ego!!! hehe!
and will i missed out on posing in front of this remarkable infinity wall???

of course not!

we have the greatest fun posing, in front of quite a handful of strangers looking at other models, the wood and paper ones.

after that, i'm quite thirsty and i was hoping may be tiny strong would treat me some coke or whatever, but bleh! nothing. so it's time for me to go home now!

and on Sunday we celebrated our church 19th bday, what a fun filled weekend.

what about yours?

this is what you do when you're bored

2010-11-19T22:19:00.004+11:00

1. go to Coles and buy 2 bunches of peonies @ 15 dollar each ( what a steal!! )
2. trim them and bundle them up.
3. take pretty picture of them.

or 4. day dreaming

OK, i dun want to always complain about the weather, but i really have enough of cold. Really!!!!

my first political experiance

2010-11-16T10:14:00.006+11:00

never in my wildest dream that i would have the chance to dine with someone whom i only know about from TV or the news, and so when the opportunity knock on our door, of course we say yes!

Our friend's dad, Uncle Daniel, a real democratic, is very passionate about the injustice treatment of ex-deputy PM, Mr. Anwar Ibrahim. A couple of years ago, when he went back to Malaysia, he signed up to become a non financial member of the opposition party, aka, the People Justice party ( Keadilan ). He is an active supporter of this party, and so when Anwar was being invited to speak in Australia National University this month, he stepped in and help organising all his activities in Sydney and Canberra. He ask husband if he would like to join Anwar for an intimate dinner of 100 people, we say yes, that that mark my very first political experience.

it really does feel quite unreal to be seated next to this very famous ( for all reasons ) leader.
and for my own selfish reason, i do hope he will become PM as this photo will become quite a picture!!

the evening consist of mainly Q&A session with Anwar. And i must say, he did talk like a true politician. seeing that we are majority Chinese, he wooed the crowd with stuff such as anak china-anak saya, anak malayu-anak saya etc. A lot of tough question were ask by the audience, whom like me, were born and raised in Malaysia. We want to know if he become the next PM, would all Malaysian be seen as one colour and one race? I personally would like to know if the education system that are so heavily sifted to help the Malay would change. I would like to see the little boxes that ask you to tick your races and religion being removed forever from exam papers, i would like to see equal chances of Malay, Chinese and Indian got into local universities etc etc. No one have ever ask me to tick away my races or religion in Australia, I've got the same right as everyone else even though i'm not an Australian. Why am i being treated so differently in my own country? That were my questions, although, asked by someone else. and which he give a very satisfying answer. No, he won't take away Malay language and replaced it with English, but he would encourage everyone to learnt as much language as possible, he even encourage his daughter to learnt Chinese because really, Chinese is a very important language to master if you want to success internationally. Of course, there were many issues that were raised as well, overall, i do think he is a very westernise and a very liberal person.
i feel sorry about the immaturity of the Malaysian government. I think it's still a long way to go before they will allowed equal competition between each party during election time. Right now, i guess we, from overseas got to hear a lot more about his policy than malaysian living in Malaysia because all the media coverage were heavily censored, and biased. It's really not the right way to run a democratic country.
Anyway, it's the food that i enjoy the most. My friend say that this is a very authentic malaysian restaurant, although not the high end stuff, they serve up 8 dishes that were very true malay food.

Entree consist of curry puff ( that taste a lot like those pasar malam one! )

then satay, beef and chicken, with ketupat! Now this is really really authentic. I think it's the best satay i've tried in sydney, with ketupat. Never had satay with ketupat here. Yum!

The fried chicken were heavily spiced with tumeric, and really do taste like the pasar malam one as well, sans the dark coloured,polluted oil ( i would like to think ).

and my favourite dish of the night, markarel curry with eggplant. this is the classic malay curry that can only get in KL. Remind me of Hary Raya time !

I didn't try this dish although the rest of the people from my table swear it's the best rendang ever. it's kambing rendang, and i do not eat kambing. ( although i do love lamb cutlet ;P )

This is quite mamak food, fried rice with sambal prawns. yum too.

and we finish our night with this malay dessert and teh tarik.

it was such an interesting night and i have great fun meeting the owner of the restaurant, Abang Sam @ Abang Sam Kensington.

oh, and if you're a true UMNO/ Najib supporter, dun bother about turning me in, or charged me with sodomy etc etc as i'm a soon to be Australian, and i won't be voting for both and are not intrested in joining politics etc etc, so please dun be bother and leave me alone, terima kasih.

crumbly entry

2010-11-04T12:05:00.003+11:00

yesterday was my sisters inlaw b'day. even though we celebrated at Temasik on Sunday, i didn't get them a cake, and they always get me one for mine. so i thought i should bake them one on the actual date. so i came home, with lots and lots of grocery shopping after work, only to discover that i've forgotten my keys!!! after some swearing and cursing, i figure i can't just stand here and wait for at least 2 hours before husband return. so, i took off my heels ( not the sunday one thank god! ), and climb through the fences into the backyard. Ok, i really wish my neighbour didn't saw that, but the most embarrassing one is still to come. My backdoor was locked, and Casper is not the super dog that would grab me my keys. what should i do to get in?! I put down my shopping bags, my bags, my shoes, and PRAY that no one was peeking as i was wearing quite a short little skirt, and climb in via the doggie door!! luckily, my ass did not get stuck or else it would be quite a story to tell. Casper was so surprise to see me coming through his door, and rush out from the bedroom to greet me with his wet nose and give me a big "tongue kiss" on my face before i have time to stand up!! Now, this is what you called 'Making an entrance!".
Now, back to the cake.
After i get my adrenaline to calm down, drink a glass of water, surf a few web pages, i've decide on a recipe that i want to use. I know i wanted to bake a blueberry crumble cake, but i just can't find any recipe that will fit my cake pan. At last, i saw one from my trusty old pal-www.taste.com.au. It was actually a blueberry yoghurt cake, and i added my own crumble topping to the cake to make it a blueberry crumble!
Here is what you need for the cake
125g butter
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 cup plain flour
1 cup self-raising flour
3/4 cup greek/natural yoghurt
1 cup frozen blueberries

and then, it's a pretty easy to make kinda cake:
Have the oven preheated to 160 degree Celsius, fan force. Grease and line a 20cm cake pan, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in eggs one at a time. After this stage, remove the batter from the beater, and gently sift in half the flour and folded in, add yoghurt, folded in, and the rest of the flour, folded in. Pour in the cake pan, and top it with blueberries. Push the blueberries into the batter.

here is the extra bits, the crumble. you'll need:
100g cold butter, cubed
100g brown sugar
100g plain flour
100g pecan
rub everything together until it resembled coarse sand, and pour this crumble mixture on top of the cake.

bake the cake in the oven for 1hour and 20 mins.

the smell was incredible when it was first out of the oven. we resist the temptation to try a piece, and brought it over to the inlaws for the bday girls.
The cake was still warm when i serve it, with very cold custard. Super yummy.
one thing though, i would use a bigger cake pan ( 22cm ) for next time to get a more even crumble to cake ratio.

Now, i did bring my keys today! No more drama.
Enjoy the rest of the week, and have a wonderful weekend. it's going to rain. again.

another weekend post

2010-11-02T10:11:00.006+11:00

did lots and lots of stuff this weekend. i really do enjoy my weekend, and it doesn't matter if it's raining or sunny, so far, it's have been always great. we have a very sunny and warm weekend. how surprising as the weather forecast say it would be thunder and storm, and it indeed was looking that way on Friday. I went and "spend" sometime "cheque" it out the new AUD1.2 billion Westfield after work, the wind was pretty wild, but the new Westfield is awesome. I got myself some nice stuff, and am so glad that a lot of London chain were there or will be coming, such as Zara, Guess, etc. It's good to see some foreign brand, quite sick of Portmans and Sportgirl really!! The only disappointment is that, like all Wesfield, they close at 6:30pm! One would have thought that since it's in the City, it should at the very least, open until 7pm. So we didn't get a chance to try the famous wagyu burger by Justin North. However, you can read all about the out of the world food court here- CLICK

husband have a church conference on Saturday morning, and i found myself waking up with a big bright sun. and i think to myself, what a wonderful day!! as always, the first thing i did upon waking up is vacuuming. Spring time is also a shedding time for Casper, so i took him to the backyard for a brush and some much needed dosage of Vitamin D, for the both of us. In the afternoon, we went for a mini bush walk in the doggie park around the corner. But because it have been raining the day before, there were still lots of puddle, and Casper look like a little mudpie. so we bring him to the mobile grooming service in Petbarn near another corner, of which no bookings are required. Dun i love my suburb? Everything is so convenient. and my iPhone craziness kick in and decided to take some video of Casper. here is it.

this is the first time i'm allowed to go this close.

a photos with a very handsome little man, just 15 months! Still got the puppy look in him.

another short nap later, we went to the inlaws to farewell the Hoo's. They are moving to Wagga Wagga- May god bless you guys!!
no picture on Sunday, doesn't mean no fun. we celebrated my sisters inlaw's bday at Temasik, a very famous Singapore Malaysian restaurant.
and then, the sun thought she have overworked, and decided to go on strike all of a sudden, so it pours until today! Although, the most comforting things one can do to itself during this kind of miserable day is a big hot bowl of Pho from An, oh so soothing.

in another news, the race that stop our nation will kick start at 3pm this afternoon. yeah, i brought a hat in ( not wear it since it's raining!!! @#$*#&), and will wear it at 3 when everyone from the office will gather at the tea room for the race. I even participate in the sweeps, hopefully, my horse won!

flickr fun

2010-10-28T12:25:00.004+11:00

Sydney weather was kinda weird lately, more and more like Melbourne.
Last weekend, it was summer on Saturday, and full on winter on Sunday.
When the sun still shines, we went to Bondi for a late breakfast and long stroll. despite working very near Bondi, I can actually count how many time have I been there. 3 to be exact. Once with my parent while they are here on holiday, another the year before last for the sculptor by the sea, and then last weekend. it's a bit too touristy for my taste, and unless you love to surf, Bondi beach is not quite the beach for swimming. I prefer Maroubra for swimming or even Clovelly, which have a natural salted pool. The other thing is that it's awfully hard to get a decent parking space, by that i mean, one that you can park for at least 1 hour. But it just so that last weekend we have something to do near Bondi junction, so we decided to go to Bondi. As expected, we drove for a long time before we found a space, and my bladder was just about to burst, so we hurried into the first cafe we saw ( which i am sure, will have a nice, decent toilet!! ).

later did i realised that this is actually a German Pub! Anyway, their breakfast seems quite tempting, and what is wrong with having a pint at 10am?

while we waited for our food to arrive, the street artist mr.Flickr decided to draw me a portrait.

i just found out how fun flickr can be!!

we have

1.fried eggs, fried onion , mushroom and roasted pork belly

2.scramble eggs, potato cakes, smoke salmon and avocado

it was not bad, only that the roasted pork belly was not what we have in mind, it's actually, thick bacon. when we ask the waiter, she say this is the pork belly. ( bacon = pork, and that bacon happens to be from the pork's belly!! what a ripped off!! ).

and the smoke salmon is at least 100g! too much and i feel a bit sick after eating half of it. husband though, very happily and willingly help me out with that one. though the potato cakes were really really nice.

after that we stroll around the famous beach, what a glorious glorious morning.

can you believe that shortly after this picture was taken and even before we arrived home the sky was covered with a thick, dark blanket of clouds. Rain followed shortly and into Sunday.

I wish the sun would work harder this weekend. i really like to stash away my jumper and heater already!

( another rare snap of us together, i think with iPhone we will have more snaps together)

what are you going to do this weekend? Have a happy ( and hopefully, sunny ) one!!

Sexy Sherlock

2010-10-25T13:55:00.004+11:00

Many of you know that I've develop a huge crush on Sherlock Holmes after watching the Guy Ritchie directed version. I went on and read all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes, and then i could not believe my luck when i discover that channel 9 will aired a modern day version of Sherlock Holmes series!!! It was awesome!! This modern 21st century Sherlock and the Dr was written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss ( also writer for Doctor Who ). In the modern day version, Sherlock have iPhone, sent a lot of text massages ( instead of passing notes here and there ) and replaced carriage with London cab, but like the original Sherlock, stay in the famous Baker St. Although i still prefer Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock, i think Benedict Cumberbatch did a fine job playing the famous detector. Matt Smith played Dr.John Watson, Sherlock good ( and only )pal and flat mate. Although in today's society, they are often being misunderstood as gay couple. Also, i notice that the modern Sherlock often address Dr.Watson as John, where as in the book he never did address Dr.Watson as John, but rather, just Watson. The story line were great and were very similar to the originals, with a bit of modern twist, eg: terrorist style suicide bomber etc. However, i do feel that this sexy Sherlock is quite cold and distance compare to the one from the book. and not quite as 'sharp' too!! overall, it's a very good TV series. There were only be 3 ( 2 hours ) episode this year, and another 3 will follow next year. Last night was the last episode for 2010, if you missed them all, you can watch it online for a limited time, here.

Actually, i would prefer to watch it online because there are simply too many advertisement in channel 9. This should be aired in the ABC or SBS, not the commercial channel!!

(I quite like the way they shown what the genius detective is thinking by putting text on the screen, as well as everything he googled on his phone. )

sneaking out like teenagers!!!

2010-10-21T14:38:00.004+11:00

My husband sneak out of work to have a mini lunch date with me! How sweet.

I'm so happy to see him, because he have iPhone with him and i'm crazy about the phone.

I love all the apps and games!! GAMES!!! I beg him to let me have it for the rest of the afternoon but he won't! How mean! We went down the road to the beer garden in double bay for lunch. as usual, he order the steak sandwiches, he really need to try something else!! The perino is fantastic but i'm afraid i'll come back drunk and do silly thing at work ( like blogging silly stuff right now! ). anyway, tomorrow is Friday and i dun think i'll blog anymore this week. Have a nice weekend Y'all!!

This is a small footage of Casper during his usual dinner routine. We always ask him to sit and make him wait for a while before letting him enjoy his meal. He is very good and patience. sometime, we forgot to let him off and he just sat there, salivating! Cute!

day dreaming

2010-10-18T12:31:00.004+11:00

SIGH!!!!!!!!!! it's only Wednesday and yet i felt like it should be Friday already!
It's been such a long and tedious start of week, can't even run for the pass 2 days. too exhausted, mentally and physically. i wish i could just lay on the bed all day, read a book, or finish watching a movie ( I am so tired i found myself dozing off watching " The Closer" last night, one of my favourite ). on top of that, my dishwasher decided it's time to breakdown! @#&$*#&$. things dun make to last these days! REALLY!!!!
How i wish it could be Saturday already, and then i could enjoy a nice, long, breakfast under the sun ( strong wind!! ) like last weekend. playing with iPhone camera, which i think took quality picture in compare to others phone cam.
I'm really loving my suburb and surround, lot's of good, down to earth cafe.

we both have omelets, mine with mushroom, ham and cheese with extra spinach on the side while husband enjoys ricotta and mint.

my brother inlaw Tom, who spent the night before at our place, enjoy the mushroom risotto. not exactly breakfast, but they start to serve lunch at 10.

iPhone is very sharp no? i can even focus on the tiny bits of eggs on the nose!! hehe!

Anyway!! Sunday is a complete different story, always busy!
In my lifetime, if the world decided that we should only work 4 days and then enjoy a 3 day weekend, that would be so great. it's not just purely day dreaming, there are a lot of advantages.
you see, everyone except those who work in bank and post office should only work from Monday to Thursday, so that we have an extra off day, ie: Friday, to do shopping, banking, paying bills etc. children will have one extra day to spent with parent, and as for teachers, Friday can become a day for sport or extra activities ( instead of Saturday now ). For people who work in bank, post office and healthcare, staff should also be working 4 days, but instead of everyone taking Friday off, they can work on shift. ( ie: some take Monday off, some Tuesday etc ). if it work this way:

the economy will greatly improve because people will have one extra day to hit the shopping mall, take the kids out to the zoo or aquarium etc.
there will not be heavy traffic during public holidays etc because people dun have to wait for a "long weekend" to go camping, etc. and this will also help the economy in the country because people will go to the country more often.
sick leave will be greatly decrease in workplace because all the dental appointments, root canal etc can be schedule on Friday. ( we can all save time from queuing to see the dr on Saturday!! )
as mention before, parent will have an extra day to spent with their children, husband and wife have more time together, and this will greatly improve family, and social relationship.
much more people will attend the sunday service because really, if you have friday and saturday off, what excuse do you have for not coming to the church but plain lazy?

so much advantages and i can't even think of any disadvantages if we have a 4 days week!!

WHY DUN POLITICIAN SEE THIS?????

Being a good Samaritan

2010-10-18T10:57:00.003+11:00

Every year our church will organise this thing called: Operation Christmas Child.
It is a very great activities for Sunday school children to participate, as well as for adults.
It's very simple and easy, just go get yourself an empty shoe box ( i used this excuse to buy a pair of shoes!! ), and decide if you would want to give it to a boy or a girl ( or both ) , what age, and then you go on and buy things for this little child, filled the shoe box and sent it in.
These shoes boxes with gift will be sent to children in less fortunate places such as Papua New guinea, Solomon island, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Cambodia every Christmas.
I can only imagine the smile on these children faces when they open up each shoe boxes pack with gifts. It is also a great opportunity to get children to participate, get them to be a good Samaritan from young. Last year, we gave a boy and a girl each shoe boxes pack with goodies. This year we decided to give it to a girl, aged about 5-8. when we went shopping for the goodies, my inner child return, and i shop and shop until husband reminded me that we can only shop as much as it can be fitted into one shoebox!!

after putting some items back to the shelf, this is what we ended up with :

a fairy sticker book, a colouring book, box of colour pencils, pink ruler, flower hair clips, fairy pen, calculator, pencil case, packed of 3 pair of socks, little fairy barbie, and a Homer Simpson toothbrush. Toothbrush is quite an essential item to pack it in ( so we were told ), but not toothpaste.

basically, you can packed anything you think a 5 year old girl would like ( no food, so chocolate is out! ) For some reason mine turn out to me quite a pinkish and fairy theme one. so i go and and bought a roll of pink fairy wrapping paper to wrap the shoe box.

put everything in the shoe box and decorate the shoe box with wrapping paper.

my decoration is quite over the top but i think a 5 year old girl would be so happy to receive this as a Christmas present this year!

i hope i've inspired you to join me in this operation Christmas child project and bring a big smile on every child's face this Christmas. Please click here for more information.

p/s- you can also make donation if you think all these is a bit too much for you!

gloomy weekend ahead

2010-10-15T11:42:00.002+11:00

We have the most beautiful spring time yesterday. The sun is warm but not scorching hot, the air is dry and cool. It still feel like 2pm when we return home from work, and we even manage to bring Casper to his favourite doggie park and let him have a good time without leash running, sniffing and playing. Normally, 6pm would be too dark, but not yesterday. it was still bright at 7, and we decide to have dinner at the backyard. it was so perfect. I've been waiting for a long time for warm evening like this, and enjoy long alfresco dinner. and i woke up today and the sun is shinning brightly, and i think to myself, what a wonderful world.
but when i arrived at Edgecliff, i thought i've board a train to Melbourne or something instead. the sky were completely dark and gloomy, a cold, strong gusty wind embraced me, followed by a few drops of rain. The best thing is that i didn't wear any cardi, or bring any scarf.
Have spring been over already during my 40 mins train ride? it must have, because we're back to a wintery weekend. damn it.
summer summer where are thou?!!

Oh I see, so the iPhone is stupid!!

2010-10-12T23:23:00.003+11:00

Apparently, there is a thing called the iPhone Day light saving alarm bug!!! and all iPhone 4 got infected by this stupid little thing. that is why the alarm always goes off an hour early.
The article can be found in HERE: How to work around the iPhone 4 Day Light Saving Alarm Bug.
it's good to know I'm not the only one being "played" by iPhone, reading from the comments of the article, one really unlucky guy even went to work an hour earlier! Oops!!! haha.

Would like to hear your funny story if you're also infected by this stupid bug!!

Commuting

2010-10-12T11:05:00.003+11:00

This post is for my brother, so that he feel a bit better about his daily commuting!
Of course, Singapore cannot compare to Sydney. Our rail network looks complicated no?
not really if you compare it to London tube or the Japan subway ( which run out of all possible coloured lined!! ). Anyway, we still have a lot of coloured line to add. my line is the blue one. Quite convenient considering i dun have to change colour half way, so i can sleep, read, or just turn on my ipod and simply "spaced out" like everyone else. The song that i particulary think suited on the train is the " Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel.
it goes:
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one daredDisturb
the sound of silence

actually, if the train runs on time ( and me too ), i quite enjoy this 40 minutes journey.
coming home though, is another story. i came home with a lot of school kids, and boy are they noisy or ARE THEY NOISY!!!!!!!!!!

my daily routine: Journey to the East. 7.08am. So dun feel bad, boy!
Of course, i have the world famous Bondi beach as window view! hehe!!

enjoy working, enjoy commuting.
I rather enjoy peanut butter and jam on the train than stuck in traffic jam if driving!

not mobile without my mobile

2010-10-11T14:51:00.003+11:00

I lost my mobile phone!!! although those who knew me may not be surprised as I've lost it a lot of time, and even if i didn't my mobile spent most of the time out at home anyway. But this few days it have really starting to get on my nerve!!!
firstly, i can't even transfer money from my netbank to a new acc ( online shopping ), because for safety reason, my bank will always text me and ask for my confirmation before the transaction can go through.
and then there is the alarm clock issue. I've always use my mobile as an alarm clock. but since I'm still on holiday when i lost my mobile, i didn't realised how important an alarm clock is to me!! and then, since husband's long awaited iPhone arrived on Saturday, we decided to set the alarm with his iPhone so we can wake up early on Sunday morning. unfortunately, either husband is stupid or the phone is, the alarm was set at PM instead of AM!! We were so late for the church!!! and then, because i start work today i really do not want to be late on the first day back, so i make sure and make triple sure that the alarm will go off at 6AM and at the loudest and most annoying sound. so it does, goes off at 5am !!!! STUPID IPHONE!!!!!!!!!!! ( sorry to my dear neighbours, if you awoke from your sweet dream by this ridiculous alarm sound followed by a series of swearing!! ) apparently husband say it is a new application that will start to beep ONE HOUR EARLY so you will really get up at your desired time!! is there such a thing??? so i say, either the man is stupid or the phone. either way, I'm going to go home now, and dig everything out if i have to, for my trusty old pal!!! and sleep. so tired!! #$&$*%($*%&$*$(#*#&$(%)$

Floriade in Canberra on a not too spring day

2010-10-05T11:13:00.004+11:00

last Wednesday, my gf and i took a bus ride down to Canberra for the annual floriade celebration.
It was a very overcast day and we pray for sunshine. not a lot of sun but we count ourselves lucky that it did not rain ( and it have been raining ever since until yesterday! ). I've never been to the floriade and OMG it was breathtaking, even in the dreadful wintery day. we took a lot of picture, too much actually, and this is only my half of it. so i'll just let's the picture do all the talking.

it was great fun. and i will miss being on holiday. i should plan something else for this last week.

what i do today...

2010-10-01T20:47:00.003+10:00

my breakfast mug reads: what i do today, and i thought i shall blog about the same thing.
firstly, i woke up early today as I've spent the whole of yesterday sleeping. the, i drop casper off to his doggie saloon for a bath, and i went home and bake a bread. i bake the
blueberry yoghurt load from the same AWW baking book which i have used to bake the peanut butter cookies. it's really easy and i really love this book.

you'll need:
150 soft, sweet butter
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
11/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
11/4 cups plain flour
1/2 cup SR flour
2/3 cup greek yoghurt
150g frozen blueberries

1. preheat the oven to 150 degree Celsius, fan force. line and grease a 12cm x 22cm loaf pan.
2. cream butter, rind and sugar until smooth with electric mixer. add in eggs one at a time.
3. stir in sifted flour and yoghurt, in several batches, and then fold in the blueberries.
(my mixture at this stage is very dry and i thought i have left out something but i didn't. i add in about 2 to 3 tablespoons of milk to loosen it up a bit )
4. spread mixture into the pan and bake for 90minutes.
5. cool the cake in pan, before turning it out and cut.

i found the bread a tad too soft and crumbly when it was first out of the oven ( first pic ). but when i return at night, the bread have completely cool down, and it can be sliced easily, with a lot of blueberries in the middle. they smell heavenly and super moist and yummy! ( second pic ).

after i bake the cake, i rush out the door for my hair appointment. i went and get a tint, cut, treatment, shampoo, blow dry, you know, the lot. i luv the way my new hairdresser blow dry my hair, too bad it will not last. he also give me a new colour for summer. less copper this time, very natural, although i dun mind if it's a bit blonder. may be next time :p

did i mention i spent the whole of yesterday sleeping?
well, that's because i have a pretty fun time the day before. me and my gf went up to Canberra for the annual spring floriade, and took tonnes of photos. i am still sorting them out, and i will definitely post them up when I'm ready. but here is a sneak peek!!

mountains of tulips.
too beautiful.

a weekend of celebration

2010-09-27T14:31:00.007+10:00

to the Chinese, it means, a weekend of food indulgence.

Last night, my brother and sisters inlaw decided to take me out for dinner at Mamak.
I've never been there before because it don't take reservation, and it's Malaysian street food,
I'm not very keen to pay triple or more for something that is half as good as in KL.
plus, no reservation means, you need to queue and queue and queue.
Mamak is famous of the queue as we so often seen people queuing when we drove pass.

but there are so many great review about this little humble diner, and plus, they are going to treat me remember? so i have no objection whatsoever. plus i always love a good nasi lemak.
we arrived there at about 6:30pm. the queue was massive. husband drops all of us down while he drives around and looking for a carpark.

we actually queued for about 40 minutes but strangely, we dun felt that long at all.
may be because my brother and sisters inlaw, who was raised in sydney, have never seen the making of roti canai, and they found that really amusing. and i have to explain to them that mamak actually means Indian with Islam religion, and that roti canai is very different from Dosai, which is the staple food of Indian with Hindu religion. ( I'm not even sure! )
It's quite confusing to them you see because the Mamak here, all the roti canai were made by Chinese. i tell them you will never find Chinese open a mamak in Malaysia!!
and then there are the confusing question of why you can't find Penang char que tiow in Mamak!! well, because mamak dun serve Malaysian Chinese food!!!!!!
anyway, so you see, time pass real quick with these blind men teaches blind men discussion.

and then, we were almost being seated before i saw husband. we have spent a good 40 mins with our Malaysian food debate and he spent it with looking for a parking space!! driving in the city is dreadful!

we were quite hungry when we got our table, luckily, the service is really quick, and all our dishes arrived within 10 minutes of ordering!

Chicken satay, $8 for half a dozen

and i must say, Mamak is real authentic.
I've never eaten satay that taste so much like those in KL pasar malam. so good.
This is also the first time i tried roti canai in sydney, taste exactly like what i have in KL too. but of course, i think may be 300 times more expensive. we ordered the plain one and also roti with telur.

Roti Canai $5
Roti Telur $6

Nasi Lemak $7.5o with kari ayam plus $3

the Nasi Lemak unfortunately is a little bit of a let down. while the rice is fragrance and the sambal is superb, the kari ayam is cold and only 2 small pieces!! Next time i would order it without the kari.
the Nasi Goreng is good, but nothing too special about it. well priced though.

Nasi Goreng $10.50

Mee Goreng $10.50

the Mee Goreng is by far the best one that we've tried in Sydney. and my husband, who is a mee goreng fanatic, say it's better than what he had in KL. there you go! It's very well priced too.

Roti Tisu with ice cream on the side $9

for dessert, we opt for this glorious looking roti tisu. this is the reason my sister inlaw wanted to come to Mamak. they have never tried it before and it's been feature in our newspaper recently.
I like it alright, just like those in KL. very authentic. but i dun recall they serve in with ice-cream in KL.

we all have a great time in Mamak last night, and i am starting to have a little bit of cravings for the roti canai today!!
damn!

the day before, our youth celebrated the mooncake festival, aka mid autumn festival. and they invited all the young adults ( ie, people my age!!! ) to join them. I was down with headache and initially, i wanted to bail out. after all, our cell group have already celebrated it last week, but i know some of my close friends will be going, so after galloping 2 panadol, off we go. It's pot luck, so i bake some chicken wiglets, char siew pork, as well as about 2 litre of lemonade from my lemon trees.

the fun of pot luck is that you have the opportunity to taste lots' of home cooked specialties.
after that we also join in with all the youth for games.

and then, suddenly, a b'day cake appear!! gee they've thrown me a suprise b'day party at the end. i was so suprise, and touched! thanks guys. and i luv the yam cake. yum yum.

so, that lead us to the actual date of my b'day. the 24th.
i spent a lot of time with myself, shopping, enjoying a very relaxing massage, facial, and then hair treatment, before joining with husband for dinner.

he have made a reservation to a 1 hatted chef restaurant in Surry Hills, Bistrode.
It is a very humble and unassuming little place, serving British food.

The restaurant is a tad too dark for photography, so from here on, please excuse the quality of photos, and the photos may no show justice of the food, but trust me, they were delicious. It's really worth trying and i'm sure my husband would want to go back again for his main.

we ordered some Warm olives $6 and sourdough to start while we browse the menu.
I have the Zucchini Flowers, Goats Curd & Tomato Jam $18.50 for my entree.
It was heavenly. the zucchini flowers were filled with goats curd before being deep fried to golden. It's crispy, and oozing with the smooth creamy goat curd, it was so good, and i dun think it needed the tomato jam at all. although, the tomato jam was very good as well.

husband's Grilled Calamari with Green Marsala $17 was less impressing compare to mine, but the calamari are very tender and we loved the green marsala. The green apple salad although is good, dun seems to pair very well with the calamari.

I love duck and I'll always choose a duck if it were on the menu. So, for my mains, i opt for their Duck Leg with Beetroot & Lentils $34. I totally love it. the duck leg was cooked to perfection, fall apartly soft, and yet with a very crunchy exterior. and the beetroot lentils salad was simply dress with balsamic reduction, with pieces of ham and giblets. it was fantastic. i would like to re-create this salad at home.

and my husband choose the Jeremy's Corned Wagyu Beef, Mustard Sauce & Glazed Carrots $33.20, and he loved it so much he wanted to order another for to take away. We loved the sauce and it paired so well with the corned beef, and never in my life would i think that corned beef actually taste nice. it was out of the world.

for dessert, the men choose a very clean and refreshing one. The Roast Pineapple Jelly, Coconut Sorbet $16. again, it continue to delight us.

but i have to confess i was a little let down by my Rhubarb Crumble & Lavender Custard $16.
the lavender custard is very fancy and yum, but the rhubarb crumble is not what i expected.
but all in all, this is a very decent hatted restaurant, the portion was good, and were priced rightly, and the food, especially the main courses were awesome.

and then we came home and decided to take some picture with Casper. i've left him all alone at home for the whole day. very guilt ridden indeed.

and that is how i spent the whole weekend, celebrating getting older. very ironic.

and thanks everyone for your warm wishes and kind word. they all meant the world to me.

Peanut butter cookies

2010-09-22T15:55:00.004+10:00

sometime, when I'm the only one on holiday and the rest of the world aren't can be a bore.
so i figure i should bake something today.
i bought the AWW Easy Baking cook book recently and there are so many recipes that i've tagged and wanted to make.
one of them, is this peanut butter cookies. i'm a huge peanut butter fans, and i thank God that i'm do not have an allergic reaction to peanut as my usual toast for breakfast will always be peanut butter and honey. yum yum yum.
These cookies are very easy to bake. But i think they are bit rich, so one or two goes along way with my afternoon tea.

Peanut Butter Cookies
you'll need:
125g butter, soften
1/4 cup peanut butter ( crunchy will be better, but i only have smooth )
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1/2 cup roasted peanut ( optional, as i dun have and i've left out )

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degree Celsius fan force.
2. With an electric mixer, cream butter, peanut butter, sugar and egg until combine
3. Stir in flour and bicarb soda. ( if using nuts, stir in the nuts ).
4. Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls, place them on a cookie tray,
( about 3 cm apart ), flatted with a fork.
5. Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes. Place them on a wire rack to cool.

This recipe will give you about 32 cookies ( although the book say 30 ).
I think they are incredible just as it is.
But since it already have so much butter and sugar, what difference does it make to the calorie content by adding a bit of dark chocolate?!
plus, i know, for sure, my brother inlaw and husband would ask me why i didn't put chocolate chip in there anyway.
so, i melt some dark chocolate buttons, and dip half of the cooled biscuit into the chocolate.

walah...devilicious!!

Spring break

2010-09-20T14:09:00.003+10:00

My 3 weeks of holiday started off on Friday night, and i spent it with lots of Sherlock Holmes,
Casper spent it with lot's of sleep, and husband with lots of catalogues reading!!
even though it's the beginning of spring now but you can see that i can't really be parted with
my doonas and underneath it, column heater! i'm such a nanna.

On Saturday though, it's not as quiet as Friday night.
our cell group celebrated the mid Autumn festival, in Australia, you have to celebrate
the mid Autumn festival in the beginning of Spring time. very weird i know.

the more things change, the more they stay the same. remember how we used to prefer
the plastic, battery operated lantern to the paper ones? well, the paper ones is back, and
it is selling at about AUD1 dollar each. that is if you're lucky to find one. those that were
born in the year 2000 and above have never played with it before, and show very high
interest towards placing the candle inside the paper lantern and then lid it. i secretly
prayed they dun burnt down my house!!!

we also enjoyed some good fellowship time, with bible reading and the lot. and of course,
the supper complete with chocolate cake, mooncake, and popcorn.

pop corn is a big hit among the little ones, including the 4 legged ones. Little Anna is playing
with Casper and giving him pop corn as a treat if he let her pat him.

boy how they love each other. and everyone have a great time socialising.

we have about 15 people that night, half of them new comers. Praise the lord.