Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year to one and all! May this year bring you your heart's desires, good health, sanity (haha!), peace, fun, love, joy, and God's blessings!

I miss my mum's pineapple tarts and gathering with family members (some I only see once a year), especially the little kids....sniff! sniff!

I think Phill miss (misses??) his bak kwa.

I hope we have an opportunity to celebrate Chinese New Year next year in Singapore!

Our Dining Table!

When we came back home after the Singapore trip, Phill and I went and made arrangements to have our dining table delivered. However, its a ready to assemble piece and Phill spent a few hours every day, for the past 2 days, fixing it up. Some of the chairs seem more difficult and some of them took more than an hour each to assemble. The table, Phill said, was easier.

Some pics of Phill hard at work, for evidence:
















And so we had our first meal - dinner of japanese curry - at our new dining table. Divine! I love the table and can envisage our family (kids) having dinner together.


















As we were eating, I told Phill, "I can imagine our kids will dirty this dining table in future."
P: "No, we'll just put plastic wrap over it."
V: "Ok." (actually, i was thinking "what??!!!" so ugly!)

Pancakes!!!

I made Phill pancakes for breakfast. We slept in and only woke up at like 10am and by the time I got things ready, set the mixture aside for 20mins as recommended in the recipe, we had our pancakes at like 11am. We both enjoyed it.....yum!

I like mine with maple syrup, Phill likes it with sugar and lemon.
I told him he has a weird taste. I tried some of his with sugar and lemon and still take mine with maple syrup anyday!

Australia Day and Mini Grand Prix in town

There was an Australia Day ceremony in the morning which I covered, for work. Very poignant and there were speeches of what it means to be Australian. I feel like an outsider cos I feel more Singaporean than anything.

As 2 residents took the pledge to become Australia citizens, I was thinking how I probably will never take that step cos I still want my Singapore citizenship. The day Singapore allows dual citizenship, I'll take up Aussie citizenship. Unless my kids in future are affected in any way, I can't forsee myself giving up my Singapore citizenship.

Later in the afternoon, there was a classic cars sprint, a local cycling race and then the qualifying race for the Porsche Mount Buller Sprint. Phill met me at 12.45pm at work and we made our way to the grandstands (cost: a min of $50 each, which my company paid for) to "chope" seats for the race.

When we were there, we found no-one else. I turned to Phill and said," eh, Aussies not very kiasu hor". He replied,"nope, but we're Singaporeans....heehee!".....hahaha! How true....our Singaporean kiasu-ness came out.

It was scorching hot though....over 40 degrees but we applied sunblock so we're well-protected from the heat. But I didn't have a hat and after 30 mins of sitting in the heat, I told Phill I needed to get a hat so I went off wanting to look for the merchandise shop but couldn't find it and got myself a red hat from one of the shops in the main street instead. I quite like it although with my glasses and all, I look like I'm a Mainland Chinese gal... =P

Some pics from that day:

Mum-in-law's birthday

Phill and I celebrated my mum-in-law's birthday today. She is 67.

For dinner, we brought my parents-in-law to a steak restaurant in town, called Mingo's. Both Phill and I had an eye fillet each and my parents-in-law had lamb chops. Yum!!!

And we gave my mum-in-law a photo frame with 6 little slots of our wedding photos. She loved it. She looked really happy.

We then proceeded back to our place for some ice-cream....slurp! slurp!

I was so glad both Phill and I pulled it off and made it a great day for her.

Becoming an actress

Before I left for Singapore about a month ago, I sms-d a lady, Cathie, from the local theatre group to say I was interested in being a part of the productions they will stage this year.

Anyway, when I came back from work after my Christmas holidays, I saw a script on my desk and asked Steve about it. He said Cathie dropped it off while I was away for me to take a look. Apparently, she has suggested I take the role of Jackie, a country cop in her 20s, very fiesty. But.....the thing is, Steve was also offered a part, that of my boyfriend!!!! Another country cop! hahahahaha! What a laugh! I reckon it'll be quite awkward but fun though! Fortunately, we don't have to kiss, hug or whatever. The script is funny and serious but has a good ending. And it also has me arguing with Steve most of the time, so that's good, rather than intimate scenes.

The difference though was that Steve was offered the part but I had to audition. So I was still quite nervous about whether I'll get the part.

Anyway, Cathie came in today and asked if I liked the script and I said "yes" and she said "okay, just come for rehearsals next week". And that was it. I got the part! Smooth....=O)

Now, I'm nervous and excited!!! Yiippeeee! I hope I remember all my lines. Nothing like forgetting your lines on stage......arrrgghhhh!

Hotel Rwanda

Phill and I watched it over the weekend. Loved it. So sad though. Cried and angry at the injustice of it all. The western countries only help poorer countries when there's something in it for them, like oil. Otherwise, they're happy for the people to slash each other to death.

I highly recommend watching Hotel Rwanda. Made me sit up and notice that we can make a difference by getting our governments to do something to help the poorer nations and their people, rather than switch a channel and continue eating my dinner. Made me want to be an activist and carry placards and go on strike.....

Started Work

I started work today and sure wasn't in the mood.

I couldn't sleep too even though I tried and fell into a light sleep only at about 4am.

There wasn't too much work except for 2 interviews which kept me occupied but not so busy I feel I'm going insane. Thank God!

p.s. And everyone at work commented positively about my dyed hair. Red!!!! lalalalala! Happy! =P

Back home in Australia

Our last day in Singapore was quite frenzy, as it usually is. I managed to drop by at the arts council to say hi to friends who were still there but every time I'm there, there are fewer people I know. And got some CDs which I wanted - INXS, Nickelback, Rene Liu, Lisa Ono, Shakira, Robbie Williams, Foo Fighters.

When we arrived home in the late afternoon, I had a short nap which I really needed. I was starting not to sound coherent cos I was so tired and I wondered why since I had a really good sleep the night before.

When I woke up, it was 5pm and Phill and I started packing until past 7pm. We were exasperated, worried, and abit tense cos we were trying our best to fit our shopping in our luggage and hopefully, not exceed the limit.

I had a chance to take a break from the packing and have some durian my mum bought for me. Yum! My first taste of durian since I was back.

And then we were off to the airport at about 8pm. Our 2 luggages weighed 52kg so it went through without a problem. Phew!

After that, I was trying to locate the kopitiam which had nice kaya toast the last time I was there. I couldn't believe how many changes the airport has made since I was last there 6 months ago. I wanted my kaya toast! Then I realised, after settling for Polar (not as nice), that it was at Terminal 1. Duh! No time to go there now.

When it was time to say goodbye, I couldn't help but shed tears. My mum and I had our fair share of disagreements and arguing even though i was at home for only abt 3 weeks but I accept that its a normal mother-daughter relationship, and we do love each other very much. As I was leaving, I couldn't believe how little I see of my parents. Just 2-3 weeks a year. That kept my tears flowing...

There were also many friends and family I hadn't seen on this trip. Maybe I wasn't organised enough...I hope I'm more organised in my next trip.

The drive back from the airport to our home in Mansfield took about 2.5 hours. I slept for 40 mins mid-way through the trip and tried to stay awake the rest of the way so that I could help keep Phill awake by chatting to him. I remembered my dad told me the role of the front passenger is not to fall asleep but help to keep the driver awake. I must admit I was successful only sometime.

Today, Phill looked real tired as he was driving us home...

We arrived home at about 12.30pm. It was nice to be home but I still miss Singapore!

A day I love

Nearing the end of our trip in Singapore, one of the things I love on this trip was an opportunity to have lunch with my brother. I hadn't really seen much of him so far in this trip. Today, for lunch, he brought Phill and I went to have wan tan mee (a noodle dish) at Peace Centre. It was yum, especially the fried dumplings which had a special sweet sauce. Then Phill went to his tank modelling shop at Sunshine Plaza and then we did abit of last minute shopping.

For dinner, Phill and I took my parents and Gary to have seafood at Melben (at Ang Mo Kio Ave 3, the coffeeshop opposite Ai Tong Primary School). We arrived there at 8pm and after taking our order (surprisingly, we got a table really quick cos a family in front of us vacated their table just as we started standing there), she said we'll have to wait 1 hour.

I was already very hungry and didn't think I could wait that long. So, we had some chicken wings and in 20 minutes, the first dish arrived. Happy, happy, joy, joy! I asked why did they say it was 1 hour when it was only 20 mins and Gary said they wanted to under-promise and over-deliver to make their customers happy.

We had chilli and butter crabs, vegetables (dou miao), yam and vegetables dish, fried buns, cereal prawns....in all, about 7 dishes! There were so many of them, we had trouble fitting them on the table. And we loved every bit of them, especially Phill and I since we don't eat seafood in Australia cos its expensive, except for the usual fish and chips.















After that, we went to ah yi's house at past 10pm and talked to her friends, sang karaoke, ate, drank, and had coconut jelly which was yum! Even Phill who normally doesn't like coconut liked it. It was great to hang out!

Any day with family and friends is a wonderful one!

Our Muar trip

For the past 3 days, since Jan 31, we have been in Mt Ophir and Muar on a short holiday trip together with my parents. We went with a choir group from Singapore and were invited to join them because having more people on the trip drives down the costs.

The waterfall at Mt Ophir was interesting but the part where we walked up to, took us about 35 minutes, it wasn't that impressive. And there was lots of rubbish around even though there were plenty of bins. Don't look like anyone was using them. When we returned to Singapore, we read a report that 3.5 tonnes or 3,500kg of rubbish are collected everyday at Mt Ophir! WOW!

Yesterday, we went to a palm plantation near the Mt Ophir resort we were staying at. And that was interesting seeing how the leaves from a palm tree were cut down, how the buffalo transports them and all. We went to an orchard too and a mini zoo but the animals look abit sad and not very well-kept, like the ostriches who had pulled their own feathers out.

To ring in the new year, we attended a party organised by the resort owner. But we spent 2 hours from 9pm listening to this rock band who unfortunately looked like they were caught up in a jamming session than a performance because intially, they were facing the audience and playing their music but as it got on, they were just facing each other and jamming away. That was when it got boring. By 11pm, Phill and I were tired and went to the room to watch tv (which mostly had channels broadcasting Malay programs). Come midnight, there were fireworks which went on for a while and we just looked at it from our room.

Last night, we went to Muar (which is about an hour's trip) to listen to the choir performance by the Singapore group and one from Muar. We were put on this very old bus which was quite dirty and the seats reclined to 70degrees when the bus was moving. Everything looked like it was falling apart. Even we could see parts of the road cos the floorboards moved. I was abit concerned we were going to be on the ground anytime. The performance was interesting and Phill was interviewed by a Muar newspaper reporter who wondered why there was a Caucasian audience member. He basically asked why Phill was there and if he enjoyed the performance (Phill said yes).

In all, it was a good trip although I had to keep in mind it was really a economical and budget trip and though I was disappointed with the resort room cos it was perhaps better described as a chalet style room, the food at the resort was good. I enjoyed it even though an ex-colleague had warned me it wasn't good. What I couldn't put up with, unfortunately, was the state of the toilets in the entire trip (except the ones in the resort). Some were enough to make me lose my appetite but I'm sure there's worse, like the ones in China.....*shudder*