Christmas and the days after

A lot of australian companies close for business from 25th Dec to 1 Jan.. much like many family businesses in Spore during the CNY period. So Ed had to take leave for the remaining working days after christmas till New Year.

On Christmas Day, everything was closed.. so we decided to go to the beach.. As usual, Ben had lotsa fun ( don't you envy his lifestyle? Eat sleep play and throw tantrum!). We went the the usual spot, cause the playground was just beside it! haaha. Here are some photos.

On Boxing Day, we did the Singaporean's most preferred exercise - shopping. Got some work shirts for Ed and took the opportunity to get new kitchen ware(steeply discounted)! heh heh. Don't we all love bargains!

Today we went to take the Puffing Billy train. Getting there was an adventure of sorts.. Our 'driver' (I shant name him) didnt check the map and assumed it was near the trout farm. And so we ended up at the Emerald stop for Puffing Billy instead of the Belgrave station. (where the train ride starts) And so we only took the Puffing Billy train one way for 15mins to the Emerald Lakeside stop haaha. And that our only trip on Puffing Billy -all but only 15 mins! Luckily it was quite full so the conductor didnt bother to come to collect payment.. and we had a free ride! We got off at the Lakside and had our picnic lunch there.

From Emerald, we drove to Frankston Beach. Cos we heard that the sand sculpting exhibition was there.. we saw it on tv. Wanted to go there to take pictures of it with the new polarizing filter that we bought for the camera over the weekend... Figured that since we already drove to Danedongs, might as well go to Frankston from there. So we went! And well worth it. The beach was really nice. And there were lots of people there enjoying the beautiful conditions.. Some pictures of the beach :

The dinosaur sand sculptures :

They look nice... but the entry fee was $10 per adult! Kar-lang hor? haha. Somemore Ben was quite restless, can see cannot touch. So we ended up going in and taking all the photos we could and then getting out. Didnt have the luxury of stopping and reading the descriptions of the different dinos.. Anyhow.. thankfully we managed to get some nice photos. And the most important thing - test and see the colours of the photos when taken with the filter. haha. The silly things we do for photos! :O

We left the sand sculpting area and let Ben run along the open areas and play. Then we ate at the restaurant right on the beach. Its name was Sofia Restaurant. They have the most GINORMOUS portions! We ordered an entree sized garlic prawn and a large pizza. And ended up having to ta-bau half of the pizza home! haha. This restaurant was also featured in the news recently about their enormous sized portions... haha.

December Happenings-Visit From Lee Family

We have been falling back on the blog updates... haha. Due to events and happenings..

First, I'd have to say it was the visit from the Lee family, good friends of ours from Singapore.

We had great fun! Went to Yarra Valley and stayed 2 nights at the Yering Gorge Cottages. But the weekend that we were there sightseeing - "tian bu zuo mei". (the weather did not smile on us) It was the wettest weekend in Melbourne for the entire 2008!! (and as far as I could remember since we set foot in Melbourne). Here are some pics from the Yarra Valley time..

BBQ Dinner:

Ben enjoying the spa tub :

Sammy and Ben playing at the vineyard :

For meals we ate out mostly... and we feasted! Had the usual burger (at Gr'lled), Japanese(Izakaya Chuji), viet pho (Huong Vuong), pasta(La Porchetta), and dined at vineyards (Balgownie & Helen's Hill) too. We also went to the trout farm... Caught a 4.5kg salmon! and some trout of course... Had a sashimi overload the next 2 days! Here's a pic of the salmon with Sammy..

Last pic at the airport:

It was nice to have them visit! We could talk our 'Singlish' and our "la-s" and mixes of chinese, hokkien and malay slangs. Feels good la. Reminded us of home. Come again, Jon Kelly and Sam! See you soon in Singapore!

Would you install these bathroom vanities for your NEW house?

Today we will share with you something we saw that horrified us.

Look at these pics.. Guess what are these?

Ans : They are our bathroom vanties for our new house!. .. ..

Us : mouthopen n shocked.

These look like old chinese furniture.But they are new!!! And, upon opening, felt like those old furniture from china too.. no roller rails for the drawers! Faintz. It is soooooo ugly. How can any developer put these kind of furniture/fittings for new builds?!???!! Don't know how the other owners of the other units ( other 4 ) will react when they see it. . Faintz! We are so definitely not going to use these. And this is just one example of the funny ideas of the developer.. we have seen others, which we scratched our heads in bewilderment!

Now, these will be what we will be buying..

Fingers crossed, I hope we won't be looking at other ugly shocks from the developer..

At Home with us

Hello! Quite slack in the photo taking for the past couple of weeks, so I decided I will blog instead.. on our home life!

Haha, mmm.. as u will see in the photos, we are not very tidy! Especially when it comes to Benjamin and his toys! Mainly cos I'm SO tired of packing it all the time! He just likes to take out everything (including cards in the wallet) and doesn't put it back! I know, I know, I must teach him to put it back right? Unlike in SG, we have to do everything ourselves here, including cooking and washing.. EVERYDAY! omg. I could not imagine this kind of life when I was back home. Anyway, these days Ben likes to copy everything we do, including vaccum-ing the floor... as you can see from the pics.. haha.





Back to the copying bit.. It can be quite hilarious. For example, a couple of weeks back we were in church and during the service praise and worship time, everyone raised their hands and Ben followed suit. Ok, it was nice to see him do that ... I thought maybe he was touched by God also.

But then! later when we were at home, or in the car, whenever he hears music with drumming and singing, he would raise his hands also! Sometimes in front of the TV too.. hahaah Oh-uh. haaha


Ok now home life... Cooking n washing is an everyday affair now! Urrrrgh. No ta-baus like in SG cos they are too expensive. Here's a pic of fried rice we had on tuesday for dinner. (the decoration-garnishing is for the blogpic........hehe, of course I don't decorate the dishes everyday!)



Ok till next time!

Eeny 'Mini' Miney Moe

Pictures of our zippy little powerful car.....




Like eye candy for us! MmmmMmm.. Super duper pleasing! Nice to look at and great to drive. Turbocharged engine to zoom here n there! Lucky for us we are shorties so there's enough room for everyone haha.

Singapore Day Melbourne 2008

A "Singapore Day" event was held at the Sidney Meyer Bowl on the 4th OCT.
It was a gathering meant for all singaporeans in Melbourne.
Free food was one of the main highlights. Kiasu-ism was of course evident...oh well.. Some kiasu people were queuing for second helping while eating their first at the same time!!


..queuing for food...

We saw a skit from the cast of PCK..quite funny and the slang reminded us of Singapore. Hady Mirza and Tay Ping Hui sang. Mr Wong Kan Seng and Teo Ser Luck each gave a short speech . Many more celebrities were there(i think) but we were too busy queuing for food to notice them. haha

Ben had a swell time....




The Goodies bag was suprisingly very good. It has a $10 calling card, Vouchers, Kaya and Yeo's sauces....

Sweet September

September, a good month! First, the weather is finally starting to warm up..yeah. I love warm weather... And, Edward's had been offered permanent employment with more than satisfactory terms..he's happy.

Today we went to the Royal Melbourne Show. We thought Ben would love to see the live animals since he always laughs and points and wants to touch doggies/cats when he sees them.. sometimes the TV bears too haha. Here are some pics..

As you can see, there were heaps of people! And this was on a weekday!! Ben was more fascinated with the hay and climbing staircases than the cute little young animals that were freely roaming around in the animal nurseries.

Like nearly everyone, we didn't leave without.. Showbags!! We bought some sweet showbags, and a shrek ball/play plus a tomas the train showbag for Ben. He came home and ransacked the bag already haha.

Anyway, it was good fun, although the crowds sorta reminded of Singapore.. but its just angmoh faces thats the difference. But not as bad as Comex or chinatown on CNY. haha.

We'll update again.. cos we are looking forward to a next big purchase! (maybe it won't materialize also.. but stay tuned!)