Downunder Day 4

As usual the day started slow due to gathering of the people together and then decide where to go etc..so today we took off to DFO, something like the factory outlets in US but only smaller…it’s located at Homebush, not accessible via public transport so both my cousins drove us there. Cousin Wai is not working and Cousin Yin took off to actually take us around! So sweet of them huh!!

I had Sheridan bedding & towels in mind and went on the prowl….but first stop was Pumpkin Patch, just a leather belt and socks for Kylie. Bought bathroom floor mats, hand towel & face towel as it was like unbelievably cheap even after conversion, like RM3 for the face towel, Sheridan wor…Bought also comforter cover and bedsheets for mom.

Went to the closest shopping centre from this DFO (but I can’t remember the name leow!) and guess what? There was Ikea in that shopping centre! The moment we got off the carpark and started walking in the centre, I could smell the same ol’ familiar wood smell from Ikea!! Amazing, the smell is universal!

 

Amah siow siow just went up there to take pictures only la..didn’t buy anything there of course! We had dim sum yum cha for lunch, it was as usual, YUMMIE and FULLFILLING! 2nd Aunt had problems with her feet so she didn’t join us and sat downstairs! After lunch was the time the group went haywire. Too many people making too many comments and suggestions ended up in Cousin Wai getting kinda agitated, especially with Mr.D! Who’s this Mr D??? Well he’s a supplier cum friend of many years and he tagged along this trip, much to my and my cousin’s dismay! He was just occasionally useful as a porter otherwise, a nuisance and a BUM! We were all so annoyed with him, my apologies to my dear cousins that I brought him along! Never knew he could be so iiiiirrriitating!

Check out the salad bar of a deli in the shopping centre..so many choices!

Nevertheless, we sent the older folks back while the younger and more happening gang decided to go to the Fish Market to taste the succulent and fresh fleshy oysters!! By the way, we took the tram from Central Station. It cost AUD4 one way to Fish Market but the tram conductor didn’t inform us that we should get the return ticket at only AUD1 extra! So bad lor…we ended up paying AUD8 each two ways!

 

We had to rush back as Cousin Yin’s wife had actually prepared food for dinner like 2 days ago which we couldn’t make it the past 2 days, so today was like absolutely the last night and we MUST be there to eat the loot if not……..and we must be early too in order to show that we were committed to go there for dinner!!! It was a feast alright, and we sang karaoke after that! Errr,,,the karaoke songs were kinda like OLDIES…not exactly my era but this will not stop Amah from singing lor! muahahahahahhahhaha! Thanks to Cousin Yin and wife for their hospitality and their new house was simply awesome! The last time I visited it was just like wooden frames and the finished product was great!

Now it’s homework…tag la what else?

Well, since I didn’t get to meet Sweetpea so I will “quai quai” do the tag…

It’s a very simple tag. When this is passed on to you, copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (Check out especially the * starred ones.) Write your own blogging tip for other bloggers. Try to make your tip general. Tag as many people as you want.

1. Look, read, and learn. http://www.neonscent.com/****
2. Be, EXCELLENT to each other. http://www.bushmackel.com/****
3. Don’t let money change ya! http://www.therandomforest.info/*******
4. Always reply to your comments. http://chattiekat.com/******
5. Blog about what you know & love. http://sugar-queens-dream.blogspot.com/******
6. Don’t use filthy language-buy a dictionary. http://shinade.blogspot.com/****
7. Blog about something educational http://climateofourfuture.org/***
8. Be yourself; others will follow http://sfgirl-thealiennextdoor.blogspot.com/ ***
9. Don’t have too many blogs that will become a chore to maintain http://cubicledenizen.blogspot.com/***
10. Keep it simple, user-friendly, interesting and organised! http://erishaling.blogspot.com/ **
11. Keep the blog simple and sweet!! http://www.leslieho.com/ ***
12. Share with others your thoughts and don’t be shy! http://groovy-olives.com/blog****
13. Never ask for link exchange. Blog hop to increase traffic. http://www.jessieling.com/**
14. Don’t clutter your blog with ads all over the place. IT’S IRRITATING. http://oliviasy.blogspot.com/
15. Don’t comment for the sake of commenting. Some looked too fake and its a big turn off! http://sashablablabla.blogspot.com/***
16. Share something interesting and you will gain more readers. http://judychow.blogspot.com/***
17. Blog real and true story and never copy others posts. http://mylovelymummy.com/
18. Always remember the main reason you blog. http://sweetpeamy.blogspot.com/
19. Have fun and don’t get too serious when you blog! http://laundryamah.wordpress.com

Downunder Day 3

Ayo I can’t remember what I did also…err Oh ya, I was staying with my 80 year old aunt who lives alone in Sydney. We were so grateful to her for letting us mess up her place n then she even loaded her fridge with food so that we don’t go hungry.

I really admire her for who she is and how she can take care of herself and she still makes curry puffs to sell! She’s also very understanding lady, despite her age, she would prefer to buy her own groceries (not in bulk, just bits here n there as she has to climb one flight of stairs to her apartment and also walk to the train station) and she chooses Chinese doctors so she can talk to them in Chinese without having to trouble her children to accompany her to translate. I feel sad for her too as her grandchildren (eh hemmm lousy Auuuusssiie) are not able to communicate with her as they don’t speak a word of Chinese. That’s what I fear most if I consider to migrate to Australia, so I thought it will not be a good idea for me. I am quite traditional in this sense and that’s the primary reason why I sent Kieran to Chinese school.

My Aunt was so sweet, woke up early to prepare breakfast for us and I had the below, juicy, red, huge & sweet strawberries (thanks to my eldest cousin sister who bought them from the airport!) and bacon with eggs! I had to run and hide in the room while she cooked as the aroma of the bacon could become stench in my hair…and I didn’t plan to wash my hair for a few days more..yeah vain me..didn’t want to wash the curls away!! Bad girl me bad girl! Anyway, I always enjoyed catching up with Aunt, she always took care of me when I went to Sydney for my holidays during my years in Australia. She used to give me pocket money too!

We went to my cousin’s cousin’s place..yes kinda complicating, well that cousin is not related to me ma…she cooked up a storm to feed 10 people! She actually runs a restaurant in a hotel in Sydney so her cooking was kinda professional la! Her signature dish was the “Kwai Fah Kai” ala Steam chicken which was really smooth and tender, steamed fish, prawn salad, boiled Kai Lan (really juicy and sweet!) and many more….

 

After lunch we went to the city. It began to stop raining…YEAHHH!!!! So what did we do? Camwhore in Circular Quay. You can see from the photos I was really enjoying myself despite the fact that I’ve been there like a million times! Must be the company!

Downunder-Day 2

The weather was a bummer as it rained the day we arrived. The rain continued till the day we left Sydney!! Nevertheless, we still managed to do at least half of what we planned to do there. My main priority was to catch up with my cousins and 80 year old aunt. I think I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve been to Sydney but I still did not manage to see most of the tourist spots there!

On the first night, after my cousins picked me from the airport and of course my request for dinner was naturally Vietnamese Beef Noodles! It’s like the best I had and I reckon is better than the ones in Melbourne! It’s seriously good lor…they have a branch in Paramatta (next to Westfield Shopping Centre) and one in Blacktown I think… I slurpped all the soup up and the pho (noodles) were so smooth that you can actually accidently slurp it in without having the chance to actually chew it!!! The beef was fresh and so tender!

Me and Mr D went to visit the Hillsongs Church which happens to be quite near to where I stayed and one of my cousins was gracious to send me there as there are no public transport available. We were really impressed with the church. It was huge and the equipment they used were state of the art and the music was of course EXCELLENT!

 

After church I die die oso want to go to the city eventhough it was like raining non stop lor…That’s when I sms’ed  Moz and Lil Miss May to meet up for lunch. Moz was reluctant to come out due to the heavy rain but I managed to convinced him to come out at the end and we had a good time catching up and of course feasting!! I will definitely not be able to forget the food I had! It was simply amazing and the view from the harbour was so “lomantik” lor!

 

 

More to come!!!!

G’day Mate!

Greetings from DownUnder! How r ya to-die? (How are u today) kakakakaka!

Touched down on Saturday morning, didn’t catch much sleep on flight, although it was pretty much a smooth flight. Arrived on time (wow..so impressed!! ) and we even passed customs without much hassle despite the goodies I had in my luggage!!! Yes we can still bring in the anchovies, dried shrimps curry powder, moon cakes etc as long as there’s no fresh fruits & vege and wood content.

My buddy picked me up from the airport and we stopped over the university which I hung around studied more than 10 years ago!! It really brought back fond memories…I’m so glad I went back!! 

That’s the main building

 

Used to hang around here checking out cute guys waiting for lectures.

We dropped our luggage and then suddenly another buddy gave me a surprise and crept behind me n made me scream of course! I was soooooo happy to see her!! Thanks Wendy for dropping by! We went out for lunch and it was like the most amazing yum cha session I ever had!

Giant sized dim sums & Lobster Noodles!

My saliva dripping leow..couldn’t wait to dig in!

After lunch we loaded off some stuff before my buddy sent me to the airport again to fly to Sydney. You can read about what I did on Sunday here but I will give u my version soon…err no lar…maybe when I come back la…

Till then, see ya lai-tre (see u later) alligai-terr (alligator!)

Super Busy Day

Today is my absolute last day for my last minute shopping for stuff to bring over to Downunder. I’m famous for this, always last minute packing! But I have to get everything in order as I plan to check in earlier at Sentral. But I started the day still with my usual routine, gardening and then I saw this! Basket! I absolutely cannot tahan this, rubbish everywhere. We have quite a nice little park next to us but some inconsiderate, no read book mia people must throw their rubbish in the public area instead of their own rubbish compartment! They also have more dogs than the allowed number and thus attracted 2 stray dogs to our area. So whenever they throw their rubbish out the stray dogs will help themselves tearing the garbage bag apart and left rubbish everywhere, which includes disgusting sanitary pads and baby diapers, SOILED OF COURSE!

Both me and another neighbour have seen them throw the rubbish before but we didn’t manage to catch them on film! We have filed a complain with the local council and lets see when they will take action.

I polished the wooden panel flooring as I got it tailor made by the hardware store since Ikea don’t stock this anymore. (Weyo? I bought 3 pieces of this from Ikea some years ago during one of the sales so now not enuf lor…) Have to do this in stages as I made 15 pieces!! To be continued when I get back but hopefully when I get it’s like miraculously been polished by some kind soul leh…and painted too I hope!

Then called Mto2Angels to meet for lunch as I wanna get a pressie for my good ol’ pal from Melbourne who’s offering me his home to stay while I’m there. We had the yummie beef noodle at this coffee shop near Central Market/China Town. Hot environment but worth it la… What pressie is that until have to go to China town leh? Some fishing tackle thingy la!

After that I went to One Utama to continue my hunt for more gifts for my cousins in Sydney. And I still have a few more persons whom I haven’t got anything yet lor..HELP!!!! Nevermind..I still have Friday afternoon….I HOPE!

When I reached Apoh’s place, Kylie was still sleeping but she woke up shortly. So I decided to bring her to the park, just to spend a bit of time with her before I go..sobz…I will miss her and of course Kieran too la but he’s still not back from school ma..

She had a good time as always. She loves to run and climb ma!

Then I had to finish my gluey birdsnest that mom made, or rather asked the maid to make so it ended up liddis! So geli as there were still a lot of small feather fragments in them and it was so thick as my mom didn’t monitor how much the maid took! So careless lor…so I told her, I will prepare it the next time! (wei I had to buy all the way from HK one leh…)

Anyway…I know I always complain how the kids drive me nuts but I will definitely miss them like crazy…

I LOVE U KIDS & WILL MISS U SOOOO MUCH!!!!

Another year has passed by so quickly..

It’s the time of the year again…the time I dread but I still have to go through it, yes my yearly check up at my OB&G. I can’t remember if I collected my report from my check up last year but I know the test was normal la..

I remember too that my Gynae reminded me to have my Hepatitis B shot last year as my blood test shows that I didn’t have the immunity during a blood test while I was pregnant with Kylie. See la, Amah so lau hei (dilly dally) till now, Kylie also past 2 years old leow! So this time I knew the Gynae will say something about this. She said if I don’t get it done, by the time I turn 40 nobody will give me the shot…she said this last year, “What are you waiting for? Want to wait till u become a patient??” Garang (fierce) leh my Gynae..

Anyway, the pap smear test swab was a quick one but the scan took a longer time as she couldn’t locate my other ovary and can you imagine how uncomfortable it got? (NO guys you will NEVER understand how it feels! LUCKY U!)

So after that visit I told myself, I MUST get the Hep B shot and I did yesterday. In fact I wanted to get the flu vaccine shot too as my cousins warned me that she also caught the flu in Sydney. But the doctor said that it takes at least 1 week for the flu vaccine to take effect and since I’m travelling in a few days time, it’s pointless that I get the flu shot. According to the doctor, the flu vaccine is created based on information from the WHO, meaning, the vaccine can be different every year depending on the nature/strain of the flu virus. But the vaccine should last for 1 – 2 years. So I just took the Hep B shot….OUCH!

So have you

DIY Weekend

It’s DIY weekend like 2 episodes of Home Improvement sort of…thanks to Apah and of course I helped also la after I came back from the blogger gathering which you can read more from here & here.

So while Amah was out Apah put up this in the dining hall wall…

 

and this in our bedroom…

and this at the stairway..

 

and this outside..

 

and I stuck this on the kids bedroom wall…

and the drilling continues….pls don’t get this as it can only hold like 3 bunches of keys…

 

I continued banging nails on the wall and hung these…

 

while Apah continued drilling and put this up in the kids room

and this rack for garden stuff…

 

and this wooden plate which I found in my storage..

 

We had breakfast out in our new patio..and then lunch and then snack..(hahaha new “toilet”) ma..

 

When we were on the way back from church the kids were as usual fighting in the car…

then became loving for the camera…

 

 

Garden Chat with Kylie

Every morning I will go one round my garden admiring my plants but I have not gone to the extent of talking to the plant la! Well according to Moz his dad talks to the plants and the plants grow very well! I don’t want the aunties around the neighbourhood to think I’m out from a loony house!

While we were in the garden, I had this conversation with Kylie. She was pointing at my plant and said this…

K-Wa a dis? (What is this?)

Me-It’s a leave..

K- Wa a dis? (pointed at another plant)

Me-It’s a plant

K-Wa a dis?  (pointed at another plant)

Me-It’s a plant

K-Wa a dis?  (pointed at another plant)

Me-It’s also a plant

K-Nizze..(Nice)

Me-*Beaming with pride*

As I was leaving the house the neighbourhood gas delivery man was loading a gas tank for a neighbour, and to my shock he was actually smoking! Gosh! Crazy nut! So me as a blogger of course cannot let go opportunity to snap a picture and announce to the world la!

Hazard in the Office

Since Apoh’s house is being renovated due to oncoming wedding celebration for my youngest brother, I can’t send Kylie over. So she has to hang around my office. She can be quite a menace as she refuses to watch tv for longer than 1/2 hour or sleep upstairs. So we have to bring her mattress down to the office for her naps! She feels insecure sleeping on her own upstairs. But before she naps, she will just monkey around. We brought her toys and books etc but she doesn’t play with them. Instead she does this.

 

She dug all the stuff from my messy drawer and threw them all on the floor! When she got caught in the act, she covered her face with her comfort bolster!

When she feels like it she will open up the piano and start banging playing it!

 

Ayo…she needs company la…any nurseries around???

Another Eventful Weekend

On Friday nite I went galavanting for a bloggers meet and was rushing like mad thru the jam picking up Kieran from school (cos Apah also went out galavanting..) and dropped him at Apoh’s place. Wah each time we meet we go to a new place to eat, shiok! This time we went to this place called err..what ah? Ayo forgot ledi, some Italian restaurant and the food was quite good especially the dessert which was called Elvis Presley bla bla..it was banana and peanut butter on a slice of pizza. It was super yummie lor!

We had to go to the loo and it was past the shopping hours so we actually had to sign in with our IC in order to use the facilities! Since it was first time for us we didn’t know that the ground floor toilet was not ready for use despite the signs all over the place! See la, late ledi we all also berblinded! Then we went to another floor and I wanted to use the sitting toilet instead of the squatting one cos of a very obvious reason…don’t want my friends to hear me poot poot la! But damn, cannot use the sitting toilet cos of this! Liddis oso can!

Since we finished quite late, I didn’t want to lug the kids back so we slept at Apoh’s place but I didn’t bring change of clothes for the next day! So when I reached the office Angeline thot I didn’t go home at all, partying all nite long! hahaha..

Later in the afternoon I went with my sis in law to check out the studio photos we had taken last week. Wah we spent 3.5 hours there screwing choosing and re-negotiating the package as the photos didn’t turn out that well. Of course Amah very fierce with more experience was kinda intimidating la so they finally agreed to give us more free photos! Muahahahha..

Sunday was as usual, to church and this time Amah helped Kylie with her craft work but it was embarassing as I couldn’t even do it properly lor. At the end the Sunday School teacher had to help me correct it! LOL!

Then we went to Tesco to buy groceries and poor Kylie fell asleep in the trolley! She was very hyper and couldn’t sit still the whole time during lunch and was jumping up and down in the trolley but when I scolded her she sat very still and I didn’t even realise she was sleeping until other shoppers started to make remarks and were laughing at her!

I told myself this weekend I must bake something and yes I did, choc chip cookies! YUMZ!