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!