Meeting friends

The past few days have been somewhat a blur. We've anticipated this trip for a while and now, where do we begin? It's like being in front of a buffet table and wondering which dish to start with.

We've had quite a number of good food - japanese food at tamako (casuarina road), mee rebus, carrot cake....yum!

And we watched a movie, Merry Christmas, which I liked and Phill did too. Except he said it was a half-truth in that it showed as if it was only that particular German, English and French unit who had a ceasefire and celebrated together. In fact, there were many units down the line who celebrated because the war was so unreal to them having only entered it several months prior. The following year though, their superiors made sure there was no ceasefire by keeping up with the bombing raids.

One of the things I really look forward to in this trip was catching up with friends and tonight, we did. Xiujuan, Christina, Shir Ee and I met and ate at the hawker centre at the Youth Park in Orchard. The quality of food was okay but the conversations were great. I realised, sitting there, that I miss having friends when I'm in Australia. Friends who know you, your bad and good side, and love you anyway. Friends whom you can be yourself. We talked/ gossiped quite abit about our lives, our opinions the state of art in Singapore (erm, very intellectual, yah), and our future plans. Then it was time to head home and it was almost midnight...

Heading Home

Phill and I were fairly early at the Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne waiting for our flight to Singapore. As we passed through customs, suddenly, the lights all went off. So instead of walking through the shops like I'd like to, we ended up sitting at some seats waiting for the lights to come on. Perhaps, it was more me than Phill since he was happy just sitting and reading. In the meantime, a lady came up to me to ask for my comments about the airport. Phill had the same experience when we were in Hongkong and someone asked for his feedback on Hongkong and the airport. We gave good reviews. For Melbourne, I thought of good things to say about the airport which was abit difficult when I was tempted to say how could a blackout happened for so long, that I've never experienced such an incident when I'm at Changi Airport.

About 45 mins-1 hour later, the power came back on and Phill and I went to browse the books at the only bookshop there. When we boarded the flight, we were pleased to see that we were leaving 5 mins earlier than scheduled. That's the difference between SIA and other airlines, at least there's a chance of arriving earlier. For most other airlines I've been on, its only fortunate if they're not too late by 20-30 minutes.

However, I'm not sure if its the plane or the weather, once we took off, the plane was shaking pretty hard and I had to grip Phill's hands fairly tightly. I sure was glad he was on the flight with me. I was worried cos I've never experienced turbulence that bad. It made everything shake from side to side instead of up and down, which would have made me want to throw up. That took place for about an hour or more.

Finally, it settled and we watched some movies, tried to sleep and the last 4 hours went by slowly for me. I think I get restless after about 3 hours of being in the air. Finally, we were on Singapore soil and it was good to see my parents again. I even noticed my mum lost weight!

Phill's Christmas Party

Phill and I attended his school's Christmas party earlier this evening at one of his colleague's house in Glenrowan (around the Wangaratta area). We got lost though cos Phill forgot to bring the map. He thought he did but I searched his bag and didn't find it. He almost wanted to give up and head home (after driving from home for 75 mins) when he decided to try a certain route and we finally found the place - phew!

When we arrived, we realised there was not going to be a bbq. Phill thought it was going to be one and we had brought sausages but fortunately, we brought KFC coleslaw and a teacake too. It was actually sort of potluck and everyone brought either a main dish, appetiser or dessert. Everyone made something though, except us. We brought take away....hahaha!

Initially, I was feeling a little out of place cos I didn't really know many of his colleagues but 2 of them made the effort to talk to me, Rebecca and Steve, and his wife, Tania. After we had our meal, a few of us sat around and talked and that was good. And we had a tour of the one-acre block of garden the house sat on and then an internal house tour later on. The house is in an odd-shape but unusual and nice. The garden was huge and I told Phill later on there was no way I could manage such a big space. We laughed about it and admitted we had problems tidying up our little house at the moment, much less a garden!

We finally left the place at about 10.15pm, all full and happy, but tired. Towards the end of the car trip, I was getting really sleepy. And it was cold. Suppose to be summer but it was freezing. And then by the time we arrived home, I was real grumpy. As soon as I hit the pillow, I was dead to the world.

Hail?!

I know its supposed to be summer here but boy, the spate of rain and hail for about 15 minutes at 12.45pm today made me feel like it was winter.

Just look at the pictures here of what happened:
















Now, I have an idea of what it must be like to have a white Christmas!!!!

COLD!!! brrrrrr....... =O)

What?!

I bought some Santa hats from a local shop today and at the end of the transaction, wished the lady a Merry Christmas. Instead, she waved her hand and said, "I'm not going to say anything about that". Reason being, some people in Australia don't celebrate Christmas. However, even if you don't celebrate, others do, so what's wrong with wishing someone Merry Christmas? As my friend says, she makes enough money from Christmas products even though she doesn't celebrate it.

This behaviour has gone crazy to the point that some people don't celebrate it cos they are afraid it will offend others. And as it has been in successive years, Christmas is no longer remembered as a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, Our Savior and Redeemer who loved us so much, he came to earth to forgive our sins, die for us, rise again and in turn, give us hope and eternal life.

Even some Christians are afraid of celebrating Christmas, it seems. People are more cautious about wishing each other Merry Christmas, preferring to wish each other happy holidays and calling the Christmas tree a holiday tree. That's fine but it'll be no different than wishing each other happy holidays when its some other public holidays or when they go off on a vacation. So if you only wish each other happy holidays during Christmas, why can't you say Merry Christmas instead? Why not call a spade a spade?

Violet Town Market

My in-laws, phill and I went to the Violet Town market today. It's the last one for this year and supposedly, the best. There were definitely more stalls there than usual but most were of the same thing. The only difference were the variety of food stalls there.

Phill and I had a banana smoothie and a sausage and we were quite satisfied. We bought some garden tools for my dad in law and also a bed for my brother's dog whom we love, altho I think Phill loves her more than I do. We spent about an hour there - there were so many people! - and made the trip back home.

Aaaah! A fulfilling day! =O)

Company's Christmas Party

Phill and I went for my company's Christmas Party at Wangaratta earlier. We arrived at 7pm, thinking we were really late. However, the speeches that were supposed to kick off at 7pm didn't happen til about 7.45pm. In the meantime, we kept ourselves busy with appetisers such as oysters (didn't eat them), prawns, salad, and bread. It was yum!

I didn't know very many people there since they were all from head office although the few I knew did come over to my table and say hi. And I sat with some of them I've worked with previously so that was nice.

I saw Steve and his girlfriend there too and we ended spending the rest of the evening talking to each other. His girlfriend is really nice.

Our dinner was a buffet one of roast beef, pork, salads, spaghetti salad, more bread, and all you can drink beer, soft drink and wine. Dessert was a fruity cheesecake and the food was yum, yum, yum!

Phill said at least my company provides a nice Christmas meal for their staff cos his school's Christmas party which we're going to next Saturday is BYO (bring your own). But I guess being a country school, they don't have a budget for such activities.

Phill and I finally left at 10pm and we arrived home at about 11.10pm, exhausted. I didn't have to drive though but Phill has done quite abit of driving today - to school, from school, to party and back home.

Trip to the doctor's

I had to see the doctor today and was reading in the waiting room when my doctor came out to call for the next patient. When she called out my name, a little gal that had just walked into the clinic, raised her hand, jumping up and down and said "me, me". I had to laugh. The doctor told her gently that it was someone else she was calling out for as I had walked towards the doctor by then. Anyway, it was the little gal's mother that was seeing the doc, not her.

BBQ at the in-laws

We had a BBQ dinner at my in laws place today. It was fun, especially when someone else does the cooking, and in this case, it was Phill. My in laws' old bbq worked well and we had a yummy and hot dinner. One thing I love about cooking steaks or meat over the bbq in Australia is that you don't need sauces to draw out some taste in the meat. They generally have a good taste on its own unless you've got a tomato sauce addiction like I do. =P
















And yes, we had the bbq at the shed but then we were civilised and actually did our eating indoors, in the dining room.... =P

Nguyen

Van Thuong Nguyen was hanged today.

When I first knew of this case, I didn't pay very much attention to it, thinking it was another foolish act by another Australian. I only felt for his mother who sacrificed and worked so hard to bring him up.

In the weeks leading up to his execution date, the Australia media bombarded us with so much news of him.

At the end of it, I am still supportive of the death penalty and am disappointed with some very public critical comments by some people who I suspect don't know Singapore very well at all. Some people held the opinion that the death penalty does not lower the rates of drug trafficking. One conclusion that may be drawn from it is that there are still people willing to take the risk. It is difficult to collate statistics whether the penalty does deter or does not. No one is going to publicly say, for statistical purposes, that they initially thought of drug trafficking and then decided not to, cos of the death penalty. What we know is that drug trafficking still exists but the conclusions that can be drawn from there, are many.

Singapore is a very safe place. I can still walk on the streets after a midnight movie and still feel safe. I can't say the same here in Australia. Usually in the cities, the advice is not to go out when it's dark or after 8pm. Tough laws in Singapore keep the streets safe. The same can't be said about Australia when certain rulings made in murder/ rape/ violent cases makes one wonder if life is so cheap. Becos the convicted can only be jailed for a couple of years for murdering someone.

The only issue I have from this case is the ban on physical contact between Nguyen and his family. They were eventually allowed to hold hands. But Shamugan's mother didn't even get that chance. At least, give the family and the convicted person a day or a few days to spend a good part of the day to embrace. They will not be seeing each other for a long time. I think that's the least that can be done. Those on death row should be treated differently than those imprisoned because for the latter, there is an expiry date and a chance to see and hug family members at a future date.

As I sat and watched the evening news, I couldn't help but cry a little. Nguyen sounds like a pretty decent bloke who made one serious mistake that cost him his life. He was only 25 years old.

A wonderful day!

I received a call this morning from a recently retired local doctor whom I had interview several weeks ago about the spread of noxious weeds, Paterson's Curse, in our area. She said it showed through my article that I had done research on the subject and it was a well-written article. I was glowing from that call. But that was not the end of it.

Later in the morning, Steve showed me a letter written by the chairperson of Mansfield's Relay for Life event which I covered recently. She had addressed the letter to my group editor and said that my articles were well-written, timely, and accurate, something not seen in the local papers for the past few years. She also said I always had a smile wherever I went. What a letter!

And I asked Steve if I could photocopy that letter so I could pull it out to encourage myself on a bad day. He laughed and said I could have the original letter after he faxed it to my group editor.

Later that day, I also realised I hadn't thank Steve for his good feedback on my work that prompted my bosses to move me up to 2nd year cadet. His reply was that I should take 100% credit for it because of my approach to work and quality articles. I thought that was very nice of him!

What a wonderful and encouraging day! I was on a high for the entire day!

Singapore!!!

As Phill was sitting on the sofa this evening after dinner, he suddenly said, "are you excited about going to Singapore? I am!" That made me laugh. I was too tired to think about it today but yes, it's something we think about constantly and we've been discussing what our first meal in Singapore will be.

My 1st meal will have to be real spicy so either laksa or mee siam but Phill prefers carrot cake or hokkien mee or char kway teow. I'm thinking of eating the minute I touch down in Singapore but he thinks he'll be too full from the inflight meal.

What I do know is that both of us will definitely put on weight, a couple of kgs, by the time we return to Melbourne. Ahhhh....the joys of eating the food in Singapore! =O)

BBQ

After coming back from church today, Phill and I went to my church friend's (Iain and Linda)property about 15 mins drive from where we are, for a bbq. Surprisingly, nearly all my church members were there too. I say, surprisingly, cos most of them live in Benalla and beyond so it'll take them at least an hour to reach the place.

We had a great time and Iain and Linda's property is beautiful. They have a huge dam and a little jetty and many fruit trees - nectarine, lemons, apricot, apples, and many different type of flowers and also a huge area for their cows cos both of them are cattle farmers.

I couldn't get over how fast time went and though we were there at about 1.15pm, we left at 4pm. We had such a good time!



Look at the bag of lemons we plucked from Iain and Linda's lemon tree that was bulging from the weight and size of the lemons. They were HUGE!It was unbelievable and so unreal! They were nice enough to let us pluck them. Linda said for us to help ourselves.... =O)

Crash - the Movie

I rented the movie Crash last evening and we needed to watch it by today so we could return it in time. After Phill's afternoon nap and as we were eating our dinner, we watched the movie.

It was a very good movie, one that I felt has alot more depth than most Hollywood movies. Focusing on racial discrimination, it leads the viewer to what sometimes appear to be black and white scenarios but then turn out to be really grey areas. And that a person can be really racist but then show his true self when it really matters. Very compelling and worth watching more than once!

p.s. there are more than one Crash movies around so just ask for the one that stars Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Thandie Newton, Don Cheadle.

Lunch on a Saturday!

I cooked ginger chicken porridge for Phill for lunch today and he loved it! So did I! Yum! =O)

Entrance to our rented house

I feel funny calling the house we're living in, "our house", since its not really our house. We don't own it. We rent it.

But anyway, I realised I haven't posted pics of the place so here goes, just one pic of the entrance to the house, and my car (red) can be seen towards the right of the pic. The house, I think, doesn't look that flash from the outside. But we both love it on the inside. Its well laid out and organised.















I can't post pics of how the house looks like inside cos its quite messy. We've got papers strewn all around. I told Phill judging by the amt of newspapers we have lying around, we look like an intellectual couple.

Maybe I will post more pics after this weekend, when Phill and I have tidied it up.

Erm....abt the car

Phill brought my car into the smash repairs at Benalla to have them take a look at it. At the end of the day, they had the car hoisted up and the guy, Chris, pointed to Phill where the damage was. Apparently, it's more to do with the little screws that fell out and although external damage is not bad, it's the internal that's affected. And Chris said that fortunately, the ground which I ran into was wet. Had it been dry, my car would have flipped.

When Phill told me that, I froze for abit and really thank God for what I thought was an awful outcome. Now that I know its indeed a good outcome that I failed to see earlier, I'm glad I'm alright, especially since I've not signed up to Medicare (government medical program for all residents) yet.

Strike!!!

Phill went on strike today, by not going to work/ school. It's the national day of protest against the federal government's industrial reforms which amongst other things will also take away my cherished privilege of not needing an MC for sick leave that's not more than 2 days. He tried to arrange to go to Melbourne for the protest but there is no-one arranging for that and basically, each individual make their own arrangements.

But cos he was on camp last week, he only knew about it when he returned to work on Friday and he had to quickly get everything organised but by then, it was too late to hitch a ride on anyone's car to go to Melbourne.

He stayed at home and relax instead. However, he lost a day's pay. But as we discussed abt it last week, I said its worth standing up for it cos its a matter of principle.

Japanese Curry....yum!

One of the things that we've enjoyed having, although we only had it once before is japanese curry made from a sauce packet we bought in Melbourne the last time we were there. There were only medium hot and hot flavours so I got 2 each.

The first time we had the hot japanese curry and today, we had medium hot together with chicken, potatoes and carrots and Phill loves it! He says the next time we go to Melbourne, we gotta buy more, more! I've surprised how similar the taste is to when I eat them at the better restaurants. For all I know, they may use the same sauce packet too....hahaha!

I've liked japanese curry for some time now but recommend the restaurant at Causurina Road called Tamako. I enjoy the curry there the most. I've tasted some bad japanese curry in other restaurants *bleah*.

Princess and the Pea

Our king-size mattress was delivered today. It was HUGE! I don't think I've ever seen a bed that HUGE! And cos I gotta run off to cover an event, phill offered to fix up our bed. When I came home, I saw it and had to laugh. The bed was not only huge, it was very high, which made me think of the story of Princess and the Pea.

Phill said I probably need a step ladder to get up and a parachute to get out of it...haha! very funny! =P

And poor him, after fixing the bed, he had quite alot of cuts to his fingers, and they were pretty deep.

What a way to look at it...

I told my friend, Derek, abt my accident 2 days ago. And his question was, "how come? The fence was moving too fast for you?" And he said the same thing happened to his sister too. And I asked what happened. He said, "the pillar in the underground carpark was moving too fast for her".

hahahahah! That made me laugh and eased the tension I've felt since that accident. Thank God for funny friends!

Amy

Amy from the head office at Wangaratta came over since yesterday to help me with the work here. I first knew her in April when I was at HQ working for 2 weeks.

She's heading back home in the afternoon today after helping me over 2 days and she's been great. We talked and laughed quite abit and she was funny, committeed and dedicated. There was an emergency exercise yesterday and she stayed til abt 7pm to make sure she got photos of the "victims" wheeled into the hospital. Fantastic!

And I told her yesterday how I accidentally hit a duck cos it was flying across my car and suddenly, slowed down and slammed against my windscreen and prior to seeing that duck, I had seen 6 little ducklings at the side of the road. So when she had to go to the vet for a story, she told him I hit a duck! hahaha! He said during this season, alot of magpies and some ducks and birds get hit. Amy said I don't see why anyone will care magpies are hit cos they're notorious for causing injuries to humans during their hatching season in September. Some have died because of those injuries.

Another accident

It pains me to write this post but I had another accident this evening when I was driving to an unfamiliar place to cover an emergency exercise. I nearly became an emergency case myself.

I knew I had to turn left to a country road but didn't know where, so in a 100km/h road, I slowed down to 80km/h, looking for the left turn the whole time. And then I saw what looked like the correct road to turn to, braked and turn my steering wheel but cos I didn't slow down fast enough, my car did make the turn but then swerve to the right of that road. As I was in the car, I felt like the world was spinning around me and after my car scrapped the fence and stopped, it went into a ditch and was covered with mud and manure. Yucks! And the cows on the other side of the fence was moo-ing their heads off. Anyway, I imagined the worse, that my car was smashed in on the right side when I came out of the car. Fortunately, it was not.

I was shocked, beyond belief that I had another accident??!!! What's wrong with me???

Cos the emergency exercise was taking place soon, I drove my car another 500m, parked it and then walked to the field about 200m away. After I finished covering the event, I quickly went home and tried to wash the mud and manure off my car. I was so heartbroken and devastated. It wasn't that clean but better than before.

Phill is away at a school camp tonight and he'll be back tomorrow. I dread to tell him the news.

Frantic Monday

Mondays are usually frantic for us here in the office, whether we're editorial, advertising or the production sections.

But today, the first working day that Steve is away, I feel like a headless chicken running around. It's crazily busy but with the stress and all, it gets my adrenalin pumping and I'm raring to go. Whoeeee!

What a weekend!

Steve is on leave for 7 days and so from this weekend, its just me on my own. I tried calling a part-time journalist to see if she could help me cover some weekend events but she couldn't and our photographer has a wedding to photograph too. So, I'm basically on my own.

Yesterday, I went to Barjarg (about 10 mins drive away), a jewellery store opening and took pics of a cricket match at the cricket ground, Lords Reserve, just behind where I'm living.

Today, I feel as if my cold and cough is returning and I feel lousy but there's heaps to do. I have a children's concert to cover and I drag my feet there. However, once I saw the cute kids, I didn't feel as sick anymore and I perked up. They're so cute!!! Some had really tight curls and others wore sunglasses! So cute! And I saw 2 chinese kids which I believe were adopted by 2 separate Aussie families. So sweet!

There was a lil gal, prob about 3-4 years old, who was dancing away as soon as the concert started. She was such a natural star that I asked her parents if I could take her pic. She froze when she saw me and didn't dance anymore but after a while, she was alright and went back to dancing.

I stayed only for first half of the show, spent the interval taking more pics of kids and then went home to have a rest and type out the rest of my articles.

This weekend doesn't feel like one. I feel like I've worked all 7 days. *breathless*

Simon Gerrans

Earlier this evening, I attended a talk by Simon Gerrans, he's a local guy, grew up in our district and is now part of a French cycling team, Ag2R Provoyance. He competed in this year's Tour de France and was 3rd in stage 17 and recently won the Herald Sun Tour. The talk went well and he was really funny too. Someone asked what his typical day was when he was competing in Tour de France and he said breakfast, then arriving at the site and then talk to the podium girls, get ready, compete and then talk to the podium girls. Funny!

Here's a pic of him although I did take other pics of him at the talk but cos its with children, I can't show it cos it was for work and the subjects didn't agree to it being on my blog. And the climate here is that strangers shouldn't take pics of children, otherwise you're a suspect paedophile, unless you ask their parents first.

Bye, Bye Di! *sob*

A couple of us at work went out to dinner with Di as a farewell meal for her last day with us....sob!

We went to eat at an old style Aussie pub called the Maindample pub. And being thursdays, its seafood night! Yum!

Turned out each of our girlfriend/ husbands had something on (Phill had an after-work meeting with the school committee) so it was just 6 of us.

I had fisherman's basket which had squid, fish, prawns, scallops, chips and salad. It was yum! And I ordered a basket of garlic bread and herb bread too for appetiser.

We had a good time chatting about anything and everything.

Our photographer, Ken, was also there and one of the things we talked about which I thought was rather poignant was the amount of work wives did. Ken said that it was only after his wife died that he realised how much work she did for him and how he should have appreciated her more. Di said the same thing too about how her dad felt when her mum died. Ken mentioned that some husbands return home after a day's work and say to their wives, "So, what've you been doing the whole time" but in a tone that suggested they didn't do much. Ken said if only husbands knew. Well the same can be said of wives, it can also be said of husbands who do alot. I know how in some households husbands do as much or more than wives, but unfortunately, that tends to be the exception rather than the norm. Averagely, wives still do far more.

At the end of the dinner, we left at about 10.15pm, we literally had to be kicked out, or almost anyway, we agreed we'll do regular meals together at least once in 2 months. I really enjoyed the conversations.

Melbourne/ Mansfield Cup Day

It's the Melbourne Cup Day as well as the Mansfield Cup Day today. Cos I've moved from an editorial assistant to a 2nd year cadet, my annual leave is increased from 4 weeks to 6 weeks but that means I have to work on public holidays. However, I found out yesterday that it means my pay was going to decrease by $100 a week!!! I've written to my group editor to request that the company pay me at my current rate rather than to follow the government's recommended base rate. As it is, my group editor commented to last Friday when he gave me the contract that my current pay wasn't really much at all when I asked if my pay will be reduced with the new position.

So I came to work today prepared that I'll have to work the entire day and cover the Mansfield Cup races. But after working for 2 hours, my chief editor told us to take the rest of the day off by claiming our time-in-lieu and if we were to go to the races, we can take some pics (on our own time) for the paper. Steve was going to the races so I said I wasn't going to go.

I was really glad about how it all worked out! Phill has been on a 4-day Melbourne Cup holiday since Sat and I was hoping I could spend today with him. Now I can!

At mid-day, we went to my in laws place to bring more stuff over and spent the afternoon watching the Melbourne Cup with them.

Makybe Diva won anyway, making it her third Melbourne Cup in a row - a history breaking event! And her owner announced she'll be retired so she can live in a lap of luxury although I wonder how true since she'll have to now focus on breeding winners!

Mansfield Mount Buller High Country Festival

Its the high country festival this weekend which actually began on Friday with fireworks, opening of an art exhibition and a torchlight parade around town. Phill and I stayed home on Friday night and watched the fireworks in the backyard of our new place. That was fun. It also gave me a chance to rest from my cold and flu.

Today, however, it was my day to work cos Steve worked on Friday evening and Saturday. I went to take pics of a floral festival at a local church, open gardens around town (people opened their gardens for public viewing for a nominal fee that goes towards the maintenance of a nursing home's garden). One of the beautiful gardens below.




















I was also meant to go and cover an event, "Story of Horse and High Country". However, when Phill and I drove up, a few people were speaking to cars in front of us and they were turning away. When it came to our turn, a lady apologised and said the event has been cancelled because of the soft ground due to the wet weather. There was going to be stunts on horseback, some whip-cracking stuff and some other fantastic action.

So what was going to be a long afternoon ended up with us heading home, giving me even more time to rest my head.

And we confirmed purchasing the more expensive mattress which we hope will last us more than 20 years when the Sleepmaker one we had originally decided on may only last us 10 years. Yeah!!! =O) Now, waiting for the mattress to arrive.

Bush Market, Parade and Mattress

We went to the bush market and the town parade this morning. It was fun! There were quite a few stalls and good variety too. Phill and I got a sausage sandwich cooked by the local rotary club which was yummy. I also had a cappuccino which smelt really good but didn't taste that great. It was too bitter for me.

Phill and I also went to a local furniture shop to speak to a sales representative from Sealy (brand name) about what to look out for when we buy a mattress. We had initially set our eyes on a Sleepmaker branded mattress but after listening to the sales representative and cos we want our mattress to last as long as possible, we decided to go home and do our sums on a more expensive mattress than we had planned to buy.

In the afternoon, we went back to my in laws place to retrieve more stuff and met our family friends, Joan and George, there too. We only stayed for a while cos we had to head home before 3pm.

My colleague, Lynn, and her husband, Steve, were lending us their lounge suite. They moved it in and boy, did it make a difference to the place. It looked so much more homely and decent where previously, it looked quite pitiful. We were very grateful. And we did the tour of the house for them. They thought the house was well set out and the location was good and quiet.

Later, Joan and George also came with the coffee table which they helped us move from my in-laws' place. And they stayed and talked to us for abit, which was nice. We did the grand tour with them too and they liked our place.

My in-laws came later and we had a fish and chips dinner. It was yum!

What a busy day it's been and I was still sick, snuffly and a sore throat - yikes!

And Phill and I still feel like we're staying in a strange house, like as if it belonged to someone else. Well, it does since we're renting from the owners but I suppose it takes time to make it our own place.
















Look at our empty fridge - haha!

Moving house!!!! =O)

Phill and I moved into our new house at Parwanoff Street today. I brought quite alot of things over in the morning when I drove to my workplace. And then throughout the day, I was running in and out the office doing my interviews, covering events, and arranging the delivery of our fridge, washing machine, toaster, rice cooker and microwave oven. I was also sorting out the time when I could collect the key from the real estate agent cos she did the house inspection yesterday and was not happy with it so she arranged for a major clean-up. So, it was abit of a chaotic morning for me.

And finally, evening came and after Phill's karate class (he did karate for most of his teenage years but the classes stopped and I think classes have now resumed), he moved the rest of the stuff he brought over and we settled in abit. The house feels strange, like we've moved into someone else's house. It's abit bare too. But my colleague, Lyn and her husband, Stephen, are lending us their old lounge suite so there will be somewhere to sit on tomorrow. For now, we are just lying on our stomachs on small square cushions we got from my in-laws and watching tv.

Group Editor spoke to me

My group editor came to our Mansfield office today and spoke to me. He also asked me if I'm still interested in journalism. When I replied in the affirmative, he passed me a contract which basically moved me upwards from an editorial assistant post to a 2nd year cadet journalist post. He then went on to tell me what I needed to look out for in my work, as well as how the head office work and for me to send over my articles asap rather than hang onto it for too long. It was a really good meeting and one which helped me understand the company's style of working better. I was grateful and happy too that they appreciated my work. I was on a high for the rest of the day.

On Sick Leave

I was really sick today with a sore throat, headache, and bad flu and took a day off work. I spent last night not sleeping but blowing my nose. I think I used up nearly an entire box of tissues. =P

On Tuesday, I took 0.5 day off work. It was then I realised, on Tuesday, that in Australia, the sick leave system works differently. I can take days off for sick leave without having to produce a medical certificate as long as its not more than 2 days and if its not taken on Monday or Friday. I didn't know about it prior to taking sick leave on Tues, until my colleagues told me and seeing how sick I was, told me to go home. How nice! I prefer this system, cos sometimes all I need is a good rest and not spend more money seeing the doctor for something he/ she can't really help me.

Our day at a winery

As part of work, I had to take photos of several artists who had set up their easels and were painting at one of the wineries in our district (part of Spring Arts event). Coincidentally, the winery is just next door to where we are living right now, my in-laws place.

So, after a trip this morning to Mansfield to pick up my spectacles I had accidentally left at my office, take a few pics of an open day at Rudolf Steiner school, put a deposit on a dining table we were thinking about for a while, we proceeded to the winery.

Once there, I took a couple of pics, then settled down to my cappucino & chocolate mud cake while Phill had iced chocolate and tiramisu. The bill came to $22!!! heehee....talk about indulgence! =P

Our office window art display

Tonight is the Opening of a 10-day art event called Spring Arts. To open the event, everyone is invited to an arts walk this evening around several venues in town that are showcasing various artworks that are also for sale.

One of the events that take place during Spring Arts is the window art display and every local business in town could decorate their window display and be part of the competition. So, my 2 colleagues, Di and Carmel, worked at home for about 2-3 weeks and came out with this artpiece! I love it! Especially seeing the faces of people who walk past and when they notice our window display, they break out in smiles. It's classic and wonderful to know it brings joy to their hearts!
















And yes, that's real vegemite toast..... ;O)

p.s. vegemite - in Singapore, the equivalent will be Bovril though I prefer Bovril over vegemite. =P

Colleague Leaving....sob! sob!

I came to work this morning and my colleague, D, was telling us about a confrontation that happened to her at the supermarket over the weekend.

It was a confrontation by the mother of one of our colleagues and apparently, quite an agressive one.

This upsetted D so much, she tendered her resignation this morning........sob! sob! She's not withdrawing it because she is tired of having to deal with this, among other things.

I'm sad to see her go.

We won a bid!

Phill and I won a bid for a photographic print of the Mansfield Balloon Festival that takes place in March every year. This was one of 2 prints I was initially interested in. The other was one of cattlemen and I knew it was going to be expensive. Turned out, the person who successfully bidded for that cattlemen print paid $500 for it.

This balloon festival print is gorgeous and I can't believe we were successful! This was also the lowest priced print out of the 23 prints in the auction that was organised to raise funds for cancer research.

We're going to hang it at our new place when we move in on Friday, 28 October. Yippeeee!

Major Break in Mystery?

My colleague, Lynn, came into the office this morning and told Steve and I that she heard on the radio that the state government is offering a $2 million reward for information on who murdered two people in our area.

Out of the two, one was a young mother, Jennifer Tanner, who was found dead in 1984 with a rifle in her hand and at the 1st inquest in 1985, it was concluded that she had committed suicide. At the 2nd inquest in 1998, the state coroner found that her brother-in-law (her husband's brother), Denis Tanner, was the murderer. Apparently, he had gone to his brother's house the night before Jennifer was killed to borrow the rifle and said something to her that made her worried enough to confide in a friend. It was reported in the papers that the subsequent police investigation bungled up alot of the evidence. The suicide theory also fell flat later on when it was revealed that Jennifer was shot twice and had bullet wounds to her hands (supposedly defending herself while the killer was shooting her).

Denis has always maintained his innocence and has not been charged with the murder because the law here is such that if he's charged and found not guilty, he would not be able to be charged in future.

Anyway, I needed to chase up the story and had to speak to Jennifer's mother. I find that quite a difficult part of the job. If I was the mother, all these media hounding whenever new developments happen must be very tiring. But I had to do it so I called her and fortunately, she was nice enough but declined to do any interviews, only willing to say a few words.

I am now trying to get in touch with Denis Tanner, and abit worried about having to speak to a murder suspect, especially reading on news that a witness in the 2nd inquest was sent daggers, and things to stop her from talking. Not that I think I'll get any of that but its the first time in my job I have to speak to people like that and it un-nerves me abit.

Surprisingly Painless

Phill and I went to see his accountant today to file our tax returns. Considering the deadline is 31 October, we were really late. Most of our friends and colleagues had already done theirs in August, when they received their group certificate (a summary of your year's salary and tax payments issued by your company).

When I saw her, the accountant, I liked her. She was very bubbly and very efficient. She asked Phill and I alot of questions so she could help us claim as much tax reliefs as we are entitled. And she gave very good advice in terms of buying our first home. She said to try and buy a reasonably priced one and not to buy one beyond our means cos we'll have a tough time servicing our loan, which is true. In all, the appointment went better than I thought cos I'm unsure about the tax system here and was quite overwhelmed by it. I sure am glad we have an accountant to deal with it (the fee we pay the accountant could also be claimed under our tax return!).

One thing different about Australia, as compared to Singapore, is we don't have the CPF system here so everything is paid by cash. If we want to buy a house, we have to cough up at least a 20% cash deposit to the value of the house and take out a commercial bank loan. So everything is basically dealt in cash. Our superannuation, similar to CPF except its handled by private companies not the government, is not like the CPF, where if you don't touch it, it'll at least increase because of the interest earned. In superannuation, our money can decrease because of the annual fee, and many other charges that deplete the total amount.

I had a total amount of $80 in one superannuation account that a part-time company I worked for had applied for me. I just received the statement and it shrunk down to $50!!! Arrgghhh! Makes me angry!

Helicopter Experience

No, unfortunately, the experience did not involve me getting into a helicopter but interviewing the boss of a business that does aerial spraying over rural properties to help farmers get rid of weeds. And after interviewing him, he was going to spread some fertilisers over his property so I had the chance to take a few photos of him chugging his helicopter up.

What I did not expect was how dirty I was going to be from the sand, dust and dirt the helicopter kicked up. I have never been near a helicopter so I was unprepared for that as well as the noise. Fortunately, one of his staff kindly lent me a muffler to wear and with my sunnies, I was suitably protected. It was definitely a new experience for me and even with sand in my clothes and all, I'll say its worth it!

It also solved the myth I held that standing too close to a helicopter will suck you into it...hahahaha! How silly I was. One of the staff there had to help rig the fertiliser to the helicopter and he was very near to the helicopter and was not sucked in. I knew then the myth was busted (quoted from one of my fav shows: Mythbusters)!

Shopping...for the house!!!

Both Phill and I woke up really early today...about 7.30am cos we wanted to be in time for the garage sale. Even though I am a Singaporean and can be fairly kiasu (worried about losing out) on things I love and care for (Camper shoes, Aldo shoes, etc), I was quite blase about wanting to be on time for one of 2 garage sales happening this morning. One was at 9am and the other at 10am.

But Phill educated me on the finer points of how important it was to be on time so we don't miss out on any good buys that may be snapped up....hahaha.....how disappointed we were going to be.

After a quick breakfast and my attempt at being fast in the bathroom but I still made it in 30 mins which includes skincare routine and drying my hair and picking up my hair on the bathroom floor, we made it to the first garage sale in Mansfield.

It was quite a run-down, simple sort of house and looking through the stuff, there wasn't very much that we wanted from there. But then I saw it! And I wondered if that's what it was used for..... A marble chopping board! It was only selling for $3. Apparently, that's the best type of material for a chopping board. I told Phill I wanted it and he carried it to the owner of the house which was an older lady, older than us, who gave us a toothy grin and accepted our money.

After that, we went to Retravision to look at electrical appliances and decided to strike a deal but when we looked at our watches, it was 10am! So we hopped into the car and raced to the 2nd destination!

This was a garage sale of items from an old man's estate after his recent passing. When we entered the house, we overheard some old folks saying the deceased, a Mr Cummins, was a nice man. We were not spooked by it but rather sad at the fact we were rummaging what many people might think is junk but was once an old man's treasure. The things were nicer at this house which was simple but look really well-kept from the outside. The things on sale was displayed in the garage and the area outside it. It was nicer than the previous house but then again, nothing that we wanted, except for a set of butter plates and dinner plates that were selling for $10. It had nice rose patterns on it and I wanted to buy it but Phill said no.

We were in that 2nd garage sale out in less than 5 mins and then we returned to Retravision. We spoke to a sales assistant and asked for a good deal for the Simpson 390L fridge, 5.5kg Simpson washing machine, toaster, Sharp microwave oven, and rice cooker. Ended up we only got less than a $100 discount but that was cos the original price was like $200 more than they were advertising and the fridge was the last one they had so it was very much reduced. We had intended to get a slightly smaller fridge initially, about 250L but after much discussion, agreed that as fridges last longer, when we do have a baby in the short term (abt 2-3 years time), we would need a bigger fridge and should get one now. Rather than buy a small one and then in 2-3 years time, have to buy another small one.

We went to 2 furniture shops and saw a lounge suit we like (cost $1999 though so we'll get it much, much later) and a dining table which was about the same price too (at the 2nd furniture shop we went to, we saw a similar type dining table for $999 so we may get that instead). And we saw the bed we wanted, a Sleepmaker Chiropractic range, but we'll be shopping around for a good price before we decide whom we want to buy it from.

After the morning's shopping in Mansfield, we drove about 1 hour away to Wangaratta, had McDonalds for lunch. Phill had a Big Mac which was yummy and I had a chilli quarter pounder that wasn't as good, fresh but not as tasty as the Big Mac. We managed to get 3 short sleeve work shirts for Phill at Rivers. One blue and 2 red. I like Phill in red, my fav colour! =O)

In all, a rather exhausting but fun and exhilarating day.

Snippets of Opera

Phill and I went to watch an opera performance today. We weren't too enthusiastic initially cos it was the end of the week and we were quite tired but I had to cover it, for work.

There weren't that many people around, probably about 50 in a performing arts centre that holds almost 200.

When I read the programme, I was glad that I knew at least some of the songs or the musicals the songs were from. The organiser had arranged this concert performed by 2 sopranos from the Melbourne opera company to raise funds for the Cancer Council of Victoria. They are one of the many relay for life teams in town.

When the concert began and the 2 sopranos sang "The Flower Duet" from Lakme by Leo Delibes, I think I was sitting there gobsmacked cos they had such beautiful and strong voices. And I didn't recognise the song from its title but when they sang it, I knew it was a popular and dramatic one, a tune I heard used in ads, etc. And from then on, it was a great concert and one which I was glad we did not miss.

On the drive home, I told Phill that one of the things I was concerned about was that living in the country would not give me access to wonderful art performances such as the one we saw tonight. But now that I've been to one, I'm glad its a possibility and w/o the high cost cos the ticket was $20 per person although I was given one complimentary one, sort of like a media pass, I suppose.

Learning about moving out...

Ever since I received the confirmation from the real estate agency that our application to rent the 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house not far from my workplace (and previously occupied by Steve) was approved, Phill and I have been thinking about the things we'll need for the place.

One was the purchase of furniture - washing machine, microwave oven, fridge, etc - and what we do not need at present and probably could obtain over time - a dryer, dining table and chairs, etc.

Also, the amount of little things we need such as plugs for the sink, towels, mop, pail, cleaning cloths...

I've also been very touched by the many gestures of help from friends at my workplace.

Phill and I are going to 2 garage sales tomorrow at Mansfield and I was asking Lyn yesterday how she moved the stuff she bought from a garage sale previously and if it fitted in her car and she said it did. But she also said if we needed her help to move stuff, we could call her on her mobile because she has a trailer. And today, she said she'll lend us a lounge suite that has been sitting in her shed because she has just bought a new one. How sweet! I was so touched!

And my other colleague, Di, offered to help me purchase a mattress through her because she owns an accommodation place and can obtain better prices from shops.

Right now, we have a guy at our workplace working on creating a window for our office and he overheard our conversation about me needing to purchase a fridge and washing machine. He suggested that if I found a better price, I should just go to the shop in Mansfield and tell them about it and see if they'll counter offer. He said he got a good deal doing that in Mansfield and even received a further $100 off the price! What a great tip!

I'm going to tell Phill!

All these ways of negotiating and stuff - so much more we need to learn.

One of those days

Today is one of those days when I don't feel like doing anything but recovering from a week's worth of work. Yesterday, in the morning, I reckon I was running around like a headless chicken trying to get my work sorted out and my articles written. I don't think I've felt more stressed than I was yesterday.

Last Friday, I only had very few articles written up and worried about filling up the newspaper this week. But yesterday, suddenly, I had quite a few new appointments/ requests for more stuff to be included in the papers so I ended up writing about 5 new articles in a day!

I counted and I had about 9 articles written for this week's paper which I thought was an achievement. Whether they're good is quite another matter. Some days I just feel like getting them out of my hands while others, I'll hold on til the possible last minute so I could revise, revise, revise. Probably more of the former than the latter. =P

Attached is a pic of a beautiful rainbow which Carmel spotted last week and that made me run out to the back of the office to take a pic of it for our paper's Mansfield Moments (which captures offbeat moments around town).

5 Pups!

Okay, they're not my pups but my cousin, Nick, called me earlier to say his dog, Wawa, has given birth to 5 puppies!!! Yeah!!! I'm so happy for him and Wawa sure gave birth much earlier than we thought. Some of Nick's friends said she was 4 weeks away from giving birth while others said 2 weeks away when Phill and I were there. But Wawa ended up giving birth a mere 6 days later.

Nick held his mobile close to the puppies so I could hear their voices and oohhhh, they're so cute even over the phone. Anyway, Nick will be taking 3 puppies with him when he goes to Singapore next, one for his parents, one for our aunt (whom I didn't remember had a dog before but Nick said she did have an Alsatian cross) and another for Nick's friend. I'm so excited for them and glad I can still visit the puppies/ dogs when I visit my aunts, uncle and grandma! =O)

Reeling from Bali

This morning, one of the topics we talked about in the office was about Bali. It began when Steve said he got a call from our chief editor wanting him to do a story on the Bali bombings. But Steve said he didn't know anything about it cos he was playing playstation the entire weekend and didn't tune in to the news. I smiled and replied that it wasn't a bad way to spend the weekend seeing how addicted guys can be about such games and how it helps to destress.

Then Lyn said she had called one of her close girlfriends whose son is in Bali now. Her girlfriend said the son called and said he was okay yesterday and as soon as the friend said that, she broke down over the phone cos of what could have happened.

I was so shocked when I came out of the shower yesterday and Phill said Bali was bombed AGAIN. I asked him if he was kidding and he said not.

When I went to church that morning, I felt compelled to pray for the people, for their livelihood and that they will not give up hope.

The Sound of Music!

I got to watch my favourite movie of all time, The Sound of Music, today. It was a surprise screening at 8.30pm cos it wasn't reflected in the TV guide. I wouldn't have seen it if not for Phill and his channel surfing.

I had a good time singing to the songs and knowing what comes next although the ads interrupt the flow of the movie somewhat. I also realised how good-looking both Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer are, much more so than I remembered when I first watched this movie.

And no, Phill didn't watch it with me. I went to our room to watch it instead and he watched a boring comedy movie in the living room which he said wasn't that good anyway.

Good Conversations

Even though Phill said to me not to call up the panel beaters cos I've called them since Wednesday to ask if my car is ready (they told me to call them wednesday and day after). He said it'll sound like I'm harassing them. But today, I had to know. I called them at about 1pm.

And the wife picked up and was very nice and said she'll check with her husband. She said it'll be ready in 45 mins time and then said "men don't know that you need abit of a lead time to drive up here" and we giggled about it. So anyway, Phill came and picked me up and we were there at 5.05pm. Saw my beautiful car in its original shape!!! Yipppeee! I was told not to park under trees too cos the sap spoils the paint on my car.

After collecting my car, I told phill I'll park it behind the police station cos we had a dinner appointment anytime from 6.30-7pm. We walked around the newsagents and supermarket and then drove to my church member's house where we were going to have dinner. My church member and her family, Kathy, Pete, Hannah and Harry, are heading to Singapore next Wednesday for a holiday and wanted to find out more about Singapore and where they could get certain stuff.

We arrived at the road her property is on at 6.30pm but decided not to go to their place til 6.45pm.

They had a nice, cosy house which I noticed wasn't that neat and tidy but that made me feel really welcomed. It's just that homes that are too immaculate makes me very uncomfortable and I feel I can't be myself. Clean is another matter altogether and their house was clean.

We settled down to dinner some time later to gnochi (think its spelt this way) and spaghetti sauce. The sauce was yummy but I wasn't used to the taste of gnochi. I thought it was very doughy. =P

The chocolate cake dessert they served afterwards was very yummy! Very delicious and sinful! Looks fit to be in a restaurant. Really divine!

All through dinner, our conversation just flowed easily. We talked about a whole range of things, from each of our holidays - we to Hongkong, Taipei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Kathy and Pete to Italy and Greece.

We also talked about how some people in town never have a desire to travel overseas or out of town and think of people who have such a desire as weird. About people who depend so much on welfare, that their kids have never seen a day of their parents working, never know what hard work means.

About the Australian government, about kids and the support they need from their parents, of a boy in Phill's class whom Phill thinks is the smartest but gets no support from his single mother who cares more about her boyfriend whom she changes from time to time (I wondered where he gets his motivation from since children gets their most motivation from family, from the fact their family believe they can do it, they can do their best).

About so many other different things that it was so good to be on the same wavelength and share the excitement of their impending travels to Singapore as we talked about Singapore's Banana Leaf restaurant and the fish head curry, eating on banana leaves, the elephant rides at the zoo, the different kinds of yummy local food, durians which Pete eats (I always find it a thrill when a non-Southeast Asian likes durians), and us scratching our heads to tell Pete where they could get good laksa.

I always enjoy sharing experiences with people who truly want to experience another country's culture when they travel rather than those who ask where the western food places are or where the good Chinese food are (unless you're in China!). I can understand if we eat some of this for part of the trip but not the entire trip!!!! I once knew someone who would rather eat Chinese food no matter where he is, Paris, London, wherever??!!!

Anyway, we finally left their place at 11pm after several false starts cos the conversation was so good that everytime we tried to take our leave, we'll launch into another topic to talk about. I must say, I enjoyed the evening.

Handicapped without my car

I called the panel beater today and they said my car is still not ready. It was supposed to be ready yesterday. After fixing the new left rear door, they painted the car but was not happy cos it wasn't a good match of red. So he said he's going to try to do it again and match the colours up.
Its been difficult for me without my car. I've been limiting my interviews to those within walking distance. I feel so handicapped, so lethargic and sian.....I look forward to when I get my car back.

When?

Took a day off!

I took time-off today to spend some time with phill before his school holidays end. We went to Shepparton for a spot of shopping and lunch at Moroopna golf club which serves yummy chinese food. Phill had honey chicken and I had beef in black bean sauce.

We then went around the bookshops and he bought a few books on military tanks and aeroplanes but he was initially hesitant about it. Seeing that these books are usually what are considered specialist books, if you spot a good one, its best to buy it cos there have been instances when Phill couldn't find a book that he saw sometime ago. They're not that easy to find or re-order cos of the limited quantity printed or imported.

It was good to spend time with him and the hours just flew by.

Cute Babe!

Phill and I left Nick's place at 9.30am to make our way to Glen Waverly train station to meet Brad. Today was a day we were finally going to see Mariel and Brad and their new baby, Megan, after almost 3 years. Megan was born earlier this year and besides photos that were sent to us, we didn't have an opportunity to see her face-to-face.

When we finally arrived at Mariel and Brad's place (which is a really homely and beautiful home with a nice yard and pool too!!!), i went to Megan, smiled and she stretched out her arms to me. This was something Mariel said she did very rarely. Boy, was I smitten! She won my heart!

And for the rest of the afternoon, the four of us and Megan catched up with what we've been doing and all. As always with good friends and good company, the hours pass so quickly.

In our conversations, Mariel and Brad mentioned that Mariel's brother, Chris, had an apartment in the city center on the 22nd floor. Our eyes grew big! =P They offered to take us there and show us around the apartment. So we hopped into their new car, a Mazda (and a beautiful red like mine), and they took us to the asian grocery store in the city first so that I could buy my wok and then to Chris' apartment. We wouldn't have been able to do that if not for Mariel and Brad who generously asked us where we needed to be and took us there.

Chris' apartment is beautiful with nice views that stretched far and wide. Phill, who doesn't like apartment living, said that if we lived in the city, it'll be the apartment we'll stay in. The place has really good security, the apartment was a good size and just everything felt like one was on holiday.

All too soon, we had to say our goodbyes at Spencer St train station and we left hoping that the next time we see them would not be another 3 years. In the train on our trip back to Benalla, Phill and I couldn't stop talking about Megan, her half-smiles, her big smiles, her love for food, and how cute and adorable she is. I'm sure we'll miss her!

Melbourne Show!!!

We woke up fairly later than what we intended and for breakfast, Nick made us Mee Siam from the Prima Deli sauce packs created by a Singapore company. Boy, the taste was so similar that I think I'll go on a crazy buying spree the next time I go back home. I've read about these packs before but was not interested to buy cos usually these sauce packs taste nothing like the real thing. But this Prima Deli packs were very, very close to the real thing. Yum! Yum!

By the time we left Nick's place and arrived at the Melbourne Show, it was past 1pm. We walked around the entire place and it was packed full of people! Considering it was the 2nd last day of the Show, I thot there might be fewer people but too bad, it wasn't so.

After walking around trying to find some attractive showbags I could buy, nothing came up so we decided to sink our teeth into some yummy jam doughnuts that Nick recommended we try at the show.













That is greedy me with my hot chocolate in one hand and one of the 6 doughnuts we had in the other - yummy! Initially, I told Phill to buy just one to see if its any good and he said "no, we'll order half a dozen" and true enough it was yummy, extremely sensational! And we finished the 6 doughnuts - no probs at all! ;O)

We continued walking and definitely didn't appreciate the attitude of some people around, especially some parents with their strollers. They seem to have the attitude that cos they're parents with babies, they have the right of way, so they'll rush ahead of you, or hit your ankles with the prams or stop in the middle of road to look at the showbags, causing a human traffic jam without thinking about moving to the side of the path. It was highly irritating and it reminded me of how some people in Singapore walk. That's why I hate crowds.

Phill and I then decided to take a ride on the ferris wheel. Whooppeee! It was fun. It went really fast for some time then stop at different levels cos they were letting more people on. At one point, we were the highest car on the wheel and it was a little scary and windy....brrrrr! But it was fun!















Pics of Phill and I taken during our ferris wheel ride. It was fun and I was glad I could share it with him too! (the jacket I'm wearing in the pics is actually Phill's jacket which he gallantly offered to me to wear even though it was quite cold that afternoon. Thank God for a wonderful husband!)

Bird's Eye View - Other pics of the showgrounds taken when I was in the ferris wheel. Otherwise, if I've tried to take pics on the ground, it'll only be just bodies and faces of strangers, very difficult to get a pic with a perspective of the place.














We finally lef the show at 4.30pm and went back to Nick's place. We were just in time to watch the last 2 mins of the grand final match between Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles. And....Sydney won!!! Darn, we should have taken a pic with Paul Roos yesterday, the 2005 premiership coach!!!! =P

We also spent abit of time with Yoogie and Wa-wa. Interestingly enough, Phill kept calling Yoogie, Ooshi-don (sounds like another japanese dish). And I kept laughing, hitting him and correcting him. But I admit I'm a little scared of Yoogie, the beagle, cos he's big and fairly playful so he likes to jump on people. And cos I'm so short, his jumping up scares me. Wa-wa, the cocker spaniel, on the other hand, is gentle and very manja so I love to pet her and sayang her. She's very cute and very pregnant, due to give birth soon but she doesn't look as lethargic as most pregnant dogs I've seen.

When Nick came back home from an afternoon's work at his uni during their open day, we made our way to Squire's Loft to have a yummy steak dinner. It was one of the most beautiful steak dinners Phill and I ever had. Tantalising, yummy, unbelievably tender yet cooked! Definitely steaks worth salivating over. We enjoyed that meal and the Boost juices Nick treated us to later on. I had an all berry drink and Phill had banana rush or something like that. Yummy!

Shortly after arriving home, Phill and I went to bed, exhaused from a really fulfilling day!

Sports Celebrity spotted

Making our way to Melbourne, Phill and I took a 2.5 hour train ride from Benalla to Melbourne and arrived at 10.30am at Spencer St train station. After leaving our bags at one of the the station's lockers, we set off on the day's journey shopping! We wanted to go to the Melbourne Show today but decided we'll do it tomorrow instead cos Friday is late night shopping and it makes more sense to do our city shopping today.

However, our accidental celebrity spotting for the day begun when we first arrived in Melbourne and crossing the road from Spencer St train station, we saw Paul Roos who is the coach for the Sydney Swans footy team. He had just stepped out of Gloria Jean Coffee and was smsing on his mobile while standing outside Gloria Jean's. While we were walking past, Phill said, "Good Luck, Paul". And he replied "Yeah, thanks". I was really surprised how tall he was and slim too. On tv he looked abit short and plump. And I've always thot he was cute.... =P

The Sydney Swans will play the West Coast Eagles tomorrow in the grand final match. They have not won the premiership since 72 years ago so they are the sentimental favourites to take the trophy.



Coach of the Sydney Swans Footy Team, Paul Roos







After that bit of celebrity spotting, Phill and I had our first Mcdonalds meal in ages, we shared a quarter pounder meal cos we were going to have lunch later. It was yummy!!! After walking a few bookshops, we then decided to have katsu-don for lunch instead of dim sum. The katsu-don was delicious and reminded us of Tamako (Thomson Road) in Singapore. We were glad that the japanese place we went to served such good food cos it was more of a wild guess since we never ate japanese in melbourne before.

Phill bought a few stuff for his tank modelling and at about 6pm, we met my cousin, Nicholas at South Yarra station. Together with his friend, Alvin, they were there with Nick's two dogs - Yoogie (think its spelt this way) and Wa-wa.

When we arrived at his apartment which was not too far from the train station and so very convenient, we sat around, talked and more of Nick's friends joined us later at the apartment. Alvin and Derek were Singaporeans. Seng was Australia-Vietnamese but Teochew like I am. Lynn is Malaysian. We went and had dinner at Ocean Pacific (I think that's the name), a Chinese restaurant at South Yarra, and the food we ate reminded me of Chinese food back home. We had chicken ribs, beef and asparagus, duck, char siew, spare ribs and vegetables. It all came up to $15 per person which was reasonable considering the exorbitant prices of Chinese food here.

The day thus ended pretty well, with quite a few good buys and yummy food! It feels good to be in the city for shopping and food once in a while.

Progress on renting our place

When we told Steve our interest in renting his place, he said he'll let us have it cos the builder who wanted it hadn't sent in an application for the place yet. So this morning, I sent in our application for the house and we're hoping we hear from the real estate agent soon. Just so we could begin preparations for the house. Yeah!!! We might soon have a place to call our own for a while!

Thinking...

Lying in bed last nite, I suddenly remembered how important it is to be literate because of what was said at the St Vincent de Paul meeting I had to cover last week.

The regional president talked about one elderly woman whom he spoke to who asked him why food companies couldn't put pictures like they used to, instead of words, on their cans and boxes because she couldn't read. I realise how much this must affect her not knowing what to buy, without even delving into the issue of choosing one brand over the other, and made me wonder why there wasn't a friend or a family member to help her.

Such a mundane activity like shopping in a supermarket must feel like a minefield to her.

Planting Strawberries...yummy!

I came back from church and found my husband busily preparing the bed to plant strawberries. I still am amazed at his interest in plants and in gardening cos that's a side I never knew existed before our marriage. I like this side of him and happy to help him out but still draw the line at putting my hands in the soil cos I'm afraid of the worms.....eek!

I believe its the thought of tasting our very own sweet strawberries that has made him eager to plant strawberries. And I'm happy and can't wait for them! Talk about a gardener's joy!

Pic below was taken before we put on the chicken wire fence around it to stop the multitude of rabbits we have on the land.













And above, my husband gamely posed for me while he was getting the fence around the plot of land where we'd planted our strawberries.

Houses for rent?

Phill and I looked at a couple of houses today cos we're thinking of moving out of my in laws place one day, which I suppose will be sooner once we find the right place. Its not good for us to impose on them for too long. =P

We saw 5 houses in all, including one house that Steve is trying to rent out. Of all the houses, we liked Steve's house the best and we'll probably look into moving in there if all things work out cos there is someone who was previously interested in Steve's house and he was going to get back to Steve soon.

*fingers crossed*

Sore

Boy, last evening's exercise session seems tough. I still can't balance at all on those big gym balls and need more training. But cos we do more floor work with the abs, back and butt, when it comes time for our circuit training, I feel more tired than when I first started.

I think our instructor has raised the difficulty level. But its fun and not competitive in the sense of "let's try and outdo each other" so I enjoy each lesson. But there's no classes for the next 2 weeks cos its school holidays and the instructor is going to Queensland. Lucky him!

In the meantime, I gotta try and put in more time to exercise..... =P

Yeah, its the weekend and I look forward to catching up on my sleep....zzzzz!

Attending A St Vinnies meeting

I attended a St Vinnies meeting at St Mary's Hall last night. St Vinnies is what Australia calls St Vincent de Paul. I had to cover the meeting cos the regional president wanted to help revive the local group which has not been active for about 18 months.

While sharing his experiences of working with single mothers, older folks and drug addicts among many others, he said something that struck me. He told those who attended that usually when people approach St Vinnies for help, it may seem that their needs are material but he says that as long as they keep talking, you'll find out what their real need is, whether it'll be help that a single mother needed or an old folk that wants some company. He said sometimes all they want is somebody to talk to.

He mentioned one particular lady who gets a bus ride to the grocery store every thursday from her home and was quite a talkative lady. But he said she was so talkative because she only gets to meet other people once a week when she is ferried to the supermarket but for the rest of the week, she is alone at home and don't have anyone else to talk to. This reminded me to be sensitive and patient even if someone seems overly talkative.

Suddenly I remember one particular church member who seems to talk on endlessly and I find it difficult most of the time to end the conversation. Maybe she doesn't have someone to talk to because even though she is a young married lady, she does not work and is alone at home when her husband is working. I will remember to try and spend more time listening to her.

Melbourne Show! Yipppeeee!

The Royal Melbourne Show begins on thursday and Phill and I are going next friday! We're heading to Melbourne and staying over at my cousin, Nick's place. We'll get to see his dogs which would be great. I miss having a dog and hope we'll get one soon.

I've been to the show twice - once was when I was at uni in Churchill and the other time was 2 years ago. The 2nd trip I had to persuade Phill to go cos he was not very keen. But we went and had a ball of a time!!!

We bought a game ticket and won a huge toy animal which drew stares from everyone cos they thot we won it the hard way. Actually, we just bought a card full of numbers and one of our numbers came up on a big board the stall had, so we could choose any toy we wanted. That was the only game in the entire show we played and we won! We were quite happy for the rest of the day.

That day, we also chanced upon a stall that sold alot of wigs, dress-up stuff and an afro wig caught phill's eye. He was hesitant about buying it but after walking away from that stall and then coming back to it again, I told him to buy it. He did and has gotten alot out of it, wearing it for concerts, disco parties at his school, and for a laugh. I believe he's on the hunt for other stuff he could buy to wear at his next school concert. His kids love the afro wig! =O)

DownFall

Phill and I watched the German movie "Downfall" today at 5pm at the Swanpool cinema. Its an old 1950's cinema but well-maintained. We read and heard alot about this movie and being the history, esp war history, buff that he is, phill was very keen to watch it and so was i.

Before the movie, I was apprehensive that the movie would paint a sympathetic picture of Hitler and it would be hard to hate him even after the atrocities he had done to so many Jews (interestingly enough, Hitler does have Jewish blood and not the pure Aryan, which is actually the bloodline the Indian race comes from, race he thot he was).

I love the movie and could watch it again and there were moments when I found myself sympathising with Hitler and the pressure he was under as the Fuhrer but the next moment, I couldn't believe some of the things he did and said. To him, his civilians were secondary to his victory and his plans did not include considering their welfare or their evacuation from Berlin which was increasingly becoming dangerous and un-livable. To him, the best men were dead and all that was left were not good enough.

One of his senior men, Joseph Goebbels, went to the extent of saying the German people had exercised their mandate and placed them in power, thereby justifying their callousness towards their own people. It made me think we should really be careful about who we vote in power. This man, Joseph and his wife, Magda, went on to poison their 6 children because they couldn't forsee them living in a world where there was no national socialism, as Berlin was set to crumble beneath the advancing Soviet forces. Later, they killed themselves too.






The Beautiful Goebbels Children who were poisoned.

At the end of the movie, they gave an update on all the major characters of the movie and some were executed after the Nuremburg trials, some survived the years of Soviet captivity while some died while in captivity.

I cried when I read that one SS doctor, Prof. Dr. Werner Haase, died 10 years after the war while still in Soviet captivity. He wasn't a combatant, just a doctor saving lives but still suffered the punishment for being part of the German army.

What I thot was also poignant was at the end, the actual secretary of Hitler, Frau Junge from whose eyes the movie was told, was interviewed. And she said that initially she thot that she was not to blame for the atrocities done to Jews cos she was not aware of it and did not order it but once she walked past a headstone and saw that a Jewish girl who was around her age had died in the war, she felt that one could find out such things if only we bother to do so. In essence, I believe what she was saying was if everyone of us is responsible for doing what is right when we see injustice being done.

An IMDB review of the movie:
"In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capitol of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his Generals and advisers to fight to the last man. "Downfall" explores these final days of the Reich, where senior German leaders (such as Himmler and Goring) began defecting from their beloved Fuhrer, in an effort to save their own lives, while still others (Joseph Goebbels) pledge to die with Hitler. Hitler, himself, degenerates into a paranoid shell of a man, full of optimism one moment and suicidal depression the next. When the end finally does comes, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender."

Cute Lab Pups!

We woke up unusually early this morning, no idea why since its a Saturday but I guess its all the early mornings we have in the week that when it comes to the weekend, your body nudges you awake, naturally.

At about 9.30am after having breakfast and helping phill stick some stickers on his kids homework so he could write comments and grade them for their work, we decided to go to the Violet Town market. Its a market most country towns have once a month and there are handicraft stalls, candy, ice-cream, 2nd-hand wares, socks, clothes, eggs, honey, sausage stands, and quite alot of stuff to see, eat and buy.

To me, the best is the Violet Town market, which is about 50 minutes drive away.

And today, it got better when we saw 3 cute chocolate labrador pups. Apparently, chocolate lab pups are not as common as black and beige ones. They also had unusually blue eyes when most labradors have brown eyes. They were on sale, for $450 each, which is very expensive in Australia. Phill said owners of labradors are usually very picky about where their pups go because they want to make sure the dogs go to a good home. And cos this couple was selling their pups, it is most probably more for the money than anything else cos I was telling him maybe we could buy one pup and I could bargain with them....heehee! And I was thinking of paying them $1 just to pat the pups for a while but phill laughed and gave me the "I think you're silly" look.

I wish we could have 1 or maybe 2, or really, 3, just so they weren't all be so lonely but right now, we don't have the cash or the time to take care of them and it won't be fair.

But I sure can't stop thinking of them.

One of the most difficult interviews are...

...with people who have just lost a loved one.

I had to interview the wife of a man who passed away on September 2. He had suffered from motor neurone disease for 18 years and died at the age of 51.

After talking to her and learning more about the deceased, I could not help but feel abit teary myself.

One lesson I took away with me from that interview was to spend time talking with my hubby. She said that because of the disease that inflicted her husband, he spent alot of time sitting and they were able to just sit and chat 3-4 hours each day for the past 18 years. So she was thankful for that and she added that we don't always have to be right.

I am keeping that advice and learning to be more sensitive to phill and to look at him through "new eyes".

Benalla West School Concert

I left work about 45 mins earlier today to drive to Benalla and meet Phill to arrange the repairs for my dear car, have dinner and head to the Benalla Performing Arts Centre to watch his school concert which he is a part of too.

The concert performances were done by different classes and the little prep kids were so cute. In the first item, there was a front row of 4 little gals with their poms-poms and guess who they looked at to know what to do? The littlest gal of them all. She was so cute counting the beat and then moving her pom-poms out and then in.

In another item, kids talked about the virtues of eating vegetables and sang a song that went something like:
"eat your vegetables,
eat your vegetables,
they may be disgusting but
eat your vegetables,
crunch, crunch, crunch".

When it came to phill's item, he was "Alan Afro" a talkshow host interviewing a group, made up of all the kids in his class, about the 1970s food trends in Australia such as the barbi (bbq). He was quite funny and I couldn't be any prouder. *beaming*

A Lamb, Post-mortem

I was thinking perhaps I should try and include more of the interesting stories I have to write in the course of work. One of those happened this morning where I had to go to a farm, about 15 mins drive from where I live for an information session on Ovine Johne's Disease (OJD). Its a wasting disease that inflicts sheep, especially merino sheep.

Anyway, the "exciting" part of the event was a post-mortem on a lamb and the vet officer was telling all the farmers how they could tell their lambs was diseased cos the gut would be opaque and not translucent.








As the vet officer sliced open the lamb, I was surprised the smell wasn't too off-putting. It could be that I got used to it when I entered the sheep barn earlier for the talk on OJD.

After taking the pics I needed for my article, I moved onto another spot where a new vaccination device was being explained. That I found gruesome cos a farmer was explaining how sheep could be vaccinated and every time he jabbed the needle into a sheep, it will shrink its head. That poor thing. I couldn't bear to see too much of that, took my pics, and headed back to the office.

Searching for a place at night is no joke!

I had to cover a public meeting held at Bonnie Doon last night, about 15mins drive away. After my exercise class which I joined several weeks ago, I had a quick dinner of chicken souvlaki (yum!) and I proceeded to drive there.

But since I've never been to the town before or the recreation reserve where the meeting was held, I was quite nervous. I was given directions but not sure how to recognise what a cutting was (apparently a stretch of road carved into a hill). So, I turned into wrong sections of road and had to swerve sharply into one when I thot it was the right turning.

Turned out it was wrong.

Anyway, it was hellish but after asking for directions from 2 people, I finally managed to work out where it was but was 10 mins late. And I started off early leaving Mansfield at 7pm. Arrrgghh!

I hope over time, I would be more familiar with these areas and it'll not be quite so scary for me.

Happy Father's Day!

It is Father's Day today in Australia. In Singapore, its celebrated in June but I dun know why Australia celebrates it in Australia. I know it was Teacher's Day in Singapore too on 1 Sept but Australia has no Teacher's Day. Its only Christmas that Phill receives enough chocolates, biscuits and candy to last his entire 5 week holiday and comments from his colleagues about how much weight he has put on in the new school term - I can never tell.

We bought my dad-in-law a gift and Phill bot the card and wrote really nice things in the card and it was from my mum-in-law, phill and I.

No pavlova though cos it wasn't his birthday.....what a shame! =P

Disgraceful!

Disgraceful how the residents of New Orleans and Mississippi seemed to have been abandoned by their president who in a TV interview seem to be restraining a smile while answering a question about why help was not speedy enough to help his people.

Disgraceful how it seemed George Bush continued holidaying after visiting the people in New Orleans.

Disgraceful how there wasn't enough vehicles in the rescue efforts at New Orleans cos most were in Iraq.

Disgraceful how this was not planned and that it was a reactive effort rather than a standby plan that should have kicked in immediately after the devastation caused by the hurricane.

Another disgraceful racist act was by Associated Press who had the cheek to name the African-American youth who was carrying bread and water "a looter" but called a white couple, "residents" who found the items. Same actions, two different interpretations.

Were those in New Orleans and Mississippi forgotten? It looks like.

***
Afternote: Read this article and apparently the 2 photos are from 2 different wire agencies and my accusation of Associated Press (AP) is wrong cos a reader comment in this article says that AP names everyone, white, black or yellow, looters. The other photo of a white couple is from AFP/Getty Images and not AP as I had said earlier.

A wild goose chase

I had to drive about 15 mins out of my office to go to a resident's house to take a pic of her golden wattle tree. With her instructions, I made my way there but lost my way and tried calling her several times from my mobile phone but couldn't get through to her.

I called my colleagues at work andafter getting myself on the correct road, I stopped by what seemed like the right house but it was so quiet and 2 small dogs were staring at me. I tried calling the resident again to no avail.

Finally, she picked up about 30 mins after my 1st attempt earlier and halfway through putting me on the right road, my mobile was cut off. I had no more value in my prepaid SIM card. Deciding to try and find her house, I drove through pretty rough road, too rough for my nice little car and finally came to a path which had water running through it. It was then I decided to turn back and when I arrived back at the office, I still couldn't reach her.

I give up.

1st day of SPRING!

Its the first day of spring but by all counts, I still feel its winter which means its cold...brrrr! *shiver*

Storms on Phill's birthday

Raging from Tuesday night to this morning was severe storms with speeds between 150-170km/h. I'm told that the speed for Hurricane Katrina is about 200km/h.

The winds were howling the entire night and I was so frightened that the house was going to collapse. Phill and I hardly got any sleep.

But when we woke up, we realise there was no power and when Phill dialled an enquiry line, we found out 30 other areas in our district was also without electricity.

Without much of a hot breakfast, we had a yoghurt bar instead, we decided to head to work and see if we might be able to get a shower there.

With Phill driving ahead of me, he suddenly stopped his car and told me to reverse. What had happened was a huge tree fell on our driveway, cutting off our route to the highway. There was no way out.
















We went home and Phill called the local council to ask them to clear the trees. We called our colleagues and bosses to say we are not able to be at work cos we couldn't get out.

We then scrambled for batteries to see if we could listen to the news on the wireless (radio). We finally managed to find 4 batteries and a radio that only needed that many to get it working after an extensive search.

I spent the morning drifting to sleep cos without a hot breakfast, a hot shower or even a working TV, it was abit boring and I was recovering from the loss of sleep the night before.

Finally at 10.30am, power came back on and I woke up with an excitement! The first thing Phill and I did was to have toasted bread and jam and he teased me that the jam he was having was kaya jam. I told him excitedly we mite be able to get some in Melbourne....aahhhh! Kaya Jam!

Later at 11am, we went to see if the tree was removed by the council but it was not. Instead, our neighbours had started working on it and were using a chainsaw to cut parts of the huge tree to clear a path through for our cars to drive out. We helped them for abit too but they really did the majority of the work.

I called Steve to say that I could drive to work now and if power was restored in Mansfield but he said there was no power so not to worry about going to work.

Phill and I spent the rest of the afternoon watching shows we recorded the past weekend and shortly after, my parents-in-law came home from Alexandra where they were since yesterday staying over at our family friends' home. Lucky they avoided the storm cos Alexandra wasn't affected.

My mum-in-law made a pavlova with mint chocolate on top for Phill's birthday and it was yummy! That is something we both look forward to....heehee!

Quite an eventful day for Phill's birthday but I sure am glad we got to spend it together the entire day.

However, I'm sure a little boy in Phill's class will be disappointed. He shares the same birthdate as Phill and for weeks he has been telling Phill, "not long now, Mr Brown, til both our birthdays".

Cute kid.