New Experiences

Today, for the first time, I use the msn video call to talk to my brother. Bro still look the same.. Parents are so excited to see brother on the laptop screen. Mom even went to comb her hair neat neat when bro commented that her hair was messy! The funny part was when we still continued typing when we could actually converse over the PC. Haha!! It's such a wonder what technology can do. I told parents to go learn how to use PC so we can communicate this way when they return home. Hehe!

Today is also Halloween. There were two kids who came by and knocked on the door asking "Trick or Treat". I gave them some chocolates as treat. Mom kept asking why they came and asked for food, so pathetic and even said its not safe for kids to do this as they could be abducted when they go house to house visit. Beng!

Embracing Helplessness

I have just finished reading a book named "TAO of POO" by Vivian Elisabeth Glyck. It talks about parenting as one of life's most rewarding adventures. One of the paragraph was very well-written.

It does not only apply to parenting but also to life in general. It made me understand the concept of embracing helplessness and not be a control freak by letting go of tight gripes that I've been holding on to.

Here's the abstract:

I'm often reminded of the story of the little boy who sees a butterly beating its wings wildy as it tries to emerge from its cocoon. The butterfly appears as though it will die in its furious attempt to break free. Desperate to help, the little boy pushes the cocoon apart and frees the butterfly. Although the butterfly springs out, it immediately falls to the ground and dies. The only way that a butterfly can strengthen its wings is by beating them against the cocoon. In his attempts to help, the boy prevented the butterfly from developing the strength it would need to survive.

Sanity Saver:
Everyone has a specific way in which they want a job done. For one whole week, you are not allowed to correct anyone; they simply need to get the job done. At the end of the week, notice how it feels to have let go of control. Look for other areas in your life where you could do the same thing. If you get good at this, you're notice more time and much less stress in your day.

This morning, I was awaken at 6am by baby hiccuping inside! I would giggle whenever she has hiccups.. its seems like she has eaten too full. Can feel her hiccup again as I'm posting this now. Tried to do a search on the net - Pregnant women often mention feeling their baby having hiccups while in the womb and wonder what causes this. The exact cause of your baby's hiccups is unknown. Some experts think that hiccups in utero is a response to fetal drinking or fetal breathing, which causes the flow of amniotic fluid in and out of the lungs, stimulating the diaphragm to contract. Many specialists believe that your baby's hiccups may be helping to strengthen the diaphragm muscle in order to help the baby breathe both in the womb and once they are born. Only the more mature fetuses will hiccup, as hiccups rely on the development of the central nervous system.

Daylight Savings

On Monday (29 Oct), we adjusted our time forward e.g. 9am becomes 10am. This meant that when we went to bed on Sunday at 11pm, waking up at 7am on Mon morning only constitued 7h of rest instead of 8h. Some of our techno gadgets (Laptop, PPC) had intelligently adjusted to the daylight savings time automatically. Feels more 'adjusted' now as the sun only rises at 7am instead of 6am and sets at 8pm instead of 7pm.

Melbourne is now 3h difference from Singapore e.g. Singapore Time 7pm = Melbourne Time 10pm. So hopefully friends and relatives in Singapore won't call us in the middle of our sweet dreams!!

Mornington Peninsula

On Sat, we went to Mornington Peninsula. There are a couple of scenic lookouts with nice beaches. It was a really hot day and I was sweating a lot! So we went Hungry Jacks for lunch and had cold soft serve ice-cream too! As we walked along Schnapper Point, there were a lot of small insects (midgets) sticking to our clothes. I felt so itchy as the insects seemed to stick to our skin as well as we were sweating a lot. We should have worn T-shirts, shorts & tongs there as it was hot & humid! And we should also have brought our swimsuit along too!

(Breathtaking view of the beach)

(At Schnapper Point where there was a wedding reception)

(At one of the Scenic Outlook spot overlooking the nice beach)

(Check out the dove on the left that happened to fly past while this picture was taken)

(Taking a rest here with the boats parking bay)

(Nice view of the sails in the sea. How many months 'pregnant' is dad? Hee!)

(Mornington Star Winery - with mom in nicely manicured garden)

Smart Sean

(Smart Sean & Pinky Sally)

A special day as Sean's company's Board of Directors were visiting the company. Everyone in the company had obviously spent some quality time with 'self-packaging'. Sean is smartly-dressed with a blue-vertical striped shirt, black pants and shoes. Thanks to his fashion advisor-cum-wife! Haha! As my feet have started to swell and hurt esp at night, am proud that he ironed the shirt himself the night before!

Thanks to Dad and Sean for mowing the lawn last week. We just had to take a picture at the the neat garden with a nice fragrance of freshly-cut grass.

Art of Mowing Lawn

(Dad, so serious in mowing the lawn)

(Sean, using "gu-luk" & having fun mowing the lawn)

Unbearable to see our front garden turning into a jungle, our kind neighbours actually offered to lend us their lawn mower on Tuesday night even before we asked for it! Haha! Dad was so eager to mow the lawn that mom told us that he continued working on it even though there was slight drizzle on Thu.

Dad and Sean were busy mowing the lawn at the front and back yards so that the gadget can be returned to our neighbours as they normally do gardening on Sat. In return, we collated all the weeds into a big garden bin for them to make fertilizer for their garden. OK, one new knowledge gained. One more level up!

Arrivals

Parents finally arrived on Sat at 6am. This picture was taken at the Melbourne airport at 6.15am. Sunrise now is at 5.15am or so. Have to adjust the time backwards for daylight savings on 29 Oct e.g. 10am will be 11am. So this will make the time difference between Spore and Melbourne to be 3h instead of 2h (Spore time 7pm will be 10pm in Melbourne).

Sunday was so hot, it reached 30 degrees! It was the hottest day since we arrived in Melbourne! Even at night, the temperature was about 28 degrees. Parents also felt that it was very warm. I told them that normally its quite cooling since its only Spring now. But because of their arrival, the weather adjusted for them since Spore is very hot too! Haha! I'm not sure what they are going to do for entertainment but I guess they will find something to do!!

Unexpectedly, parents also brought over some gifts from home. Thanks to Bro and Elin (Minnie); Elin's mom (pink wrapper) and Aijie (bear bear wrapper) for the wonderful gifts!! We haven't open the Minnie gift yet. The packaging is so nice, I reckon must be Elin's artistic work cos I don't think the Wong Family inherits any fantastic packaging skills!

Thu Night Out

Last night, we went to see ASIMO live performance at the Chadstone Shopping Centre.

We had asked Thomas and Joanna to go to the show as well. When we reached the exhibition area, Thomas told us that we couldn’t go in anymore as the seats were full and the ‘bouncer’ did not allow us to enter and insisted that we return another day. We were so disappointed as we had driven half an hour just to see the show. Sean and I decided to loiter around the entrance, preparing to sneak in when the unfriendly blocker walked away. When the opportunity came, Thomas, Sean and I quickly sneaked in, thanks to another guy who let us in but told us that we had to stand. No problems at all! After all, the show was only a brief 20-30 mins. I felt tired just by walking from carpark to the exhibition tent and if we had to come back again, it would really put me off.

ASIMO is a robot invented by HONDA, after 20 years of research and 10 prototypes. It is able to communicate with humans, run and dance too! The way that it runs is really comical (see video), I can’t help but stop laughing!! And its dancing was so robotic with such poor hand and body coordination; it really looked like someone dancing with no rhythm whatsoever! Sean definitely enjoyed the show and was frantically taking video shots and pictures of ASIMO on stage.

After the show, Thomas & Jo brought us to a Malaysian restaurant (Wah Kee) at Clayton that has very good hawker food such as Hokkien Mee, Mee Goreng, Lor Mee. They even serve ice kachang! It was fantastic! Sean had craving for Cha Kuay Tiao while I ordered the Mee Goreng! The food did not have the exact taste compared to what we have back home but it was simply delicious. Either because we were famished or the food really tasted good! We treated Thomas and Jo for dinner as the couple has been so helpful and previously invited us to their house for home-cooked dinner. Jo even shared her ‘secret’ recipes with me! Although AUD45 for hawker food was quite expensive, the delicious food serves as a mental boost to our mind, providing a sense of nostalgic & homely feel! Will whack all the hawker food when we return home next year. Satays, Ketupat, Cha Kuay Tiao, Carrot Cake and You Ji Fan, wait for me!!

Parents will be arriving this Sat. There goes our “二人世界”. Jo asked us how long will that be (as in duration of parents stay with us). Comically, Sean replied that it’d be forever because after that, our baby will arrive and we won’t have much privacy anyway, at least for the next 20 years! I guessed they nearly chocked on hearing his answer. Haha! Sean did suggest a special night out on Friday to celebrate our “二人世界”, or rather to bid farewell to “二人世界”. I guess preparing and having warm self-cooked meals at our cozy little home is a celebration in a way.

After a sumptuous dinner, Sean and I went to the Borders bookstore at Chadstone. We wanted to grab some kids storybooks for our little one! There was an overwhelming selection of storybooks for babies, toddlers and older kids! After an hour or so, we loaded our hands with a fairytale book containing 3 different short stories, a Nursery Rhymes book with music CD and 2 sets of Sesame Street Flash Cards (Numbers & Pets)!

Except for the Nursery Rhymes, the rest are more suitable for toddlers (age 3 and above). Hmm, we are definitely convinced that there are some benefits to early teaching and interaction. Keke! Before bedtime, Sean began to entertain the little one by reading the Once-Upon-A-Time fairytale of ‘The Little Red Riding Hood’! Despite Sean’s interesting narration, mimicking voices of the Big Bad Wolf, the Nanny and Little Red Riding Hood, I was feeling rather sleepy already. But our little precious princess seems to enjoy Daddy’s story and is more awake than ever!! Undoubtedly, there is definitely a strong connection between the two of them! Haha!!

R U Smarter?

Recently, there is a new TV game show "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader". We happened to watch the show last night and its really entertaining. Not to mention the adorable primary school kids, who all seem so enthustiatic and eager to answer all the questions!

The rules are somewhat similar to the show 'Who wants to be a millionaire". The more correct answers you give, the more money you win. But if you provided one wrong answer along the way, you will get nothing. If you answer all correctly, you could win up to AUD$500k. You can choose not to proceed further if you were not sure of your answer and just take away the winnings so far. But you have to admit on National TV that you're not smarter than a 5th grader, which can be somewhat embarrasing to blurt that out. Of course, there are also "life lines" or helplines which consist of 5 bright, end lively ten-year old kids in the show. If you're not sure of your answer, you can either 'Peep' or 'Copy' one of the kid's answers. In addition, there is the 'Save' helpline whereby if you gave a wrong answer, one of the kids can 'save' you if he/she has the correct answer. All the questions are of primary school standard. But they can be quite tricky.


Here are some of the interesting questions:

1) What is an animal without backbones called?
2) What is the colour of the medal that a contestant will get if he won second in the Olympic Fencing?
3) When the three primary colours are combined, what colour is derived that starts with 'T'.
4) Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Which day has the most number of different vowels?

(see below for answers-no peeping!)

Can you answer the above questions? I have to admit that I do not know all the answers but amazingly, the kids are so smart as most of them got almost all the answers correctly. Perhaps our 'CPU' memory is running out of space.. time to upgrade together with some anti-virus programs too. Haha! Sean & I find the kid, Callum, (1st kid from the right) very cute with a cheeky smile and bright eyes. Moya, the Asian-looking girl, is extremely intelligent. She is so adamant of her answers and unbelievably, she always got them right!

Here are the correct answers:

1) Invertebrates are animals without a backbone (vertebrae). E.g. Jellyfish, squids, worms
2) Silver
3) Tertiary colour
4) Tuesday

Routine Checkup

Went for monthly routine gynae checkup last evening. In my previous monthly checkups, I've been consistently gaining 1kg each visit. Stepping onto the weighing scale last night, realised that I've gained 3kg since my previous visit. Well, I believe the increased fat goes to my baby! So far, I've put on additional 10kg.

The gynae is very 'sak'. Just by pressing the sides of my tummy, which seems like a bouncy water balloon, he told us that the baby is in a breech position. Meaning the baby's head is facing upwards, legs downwards. He also shared that preggies generally had to undergo C-section if babies remained breech during labour. Well, I shall not ponder too much on that. Will just let nature take its course.

We told the doctor that some friends have been commenting that I seem to carry low. He advised us not to care about such views as people always like to give irrational comments like 'baby looks big, looks small, looks low'. He is so right. I've a super long body so baby looks proportionately low. As long as she has plenty of free space to move around, don't really care if its high or low.

Have been coughing for few days, especially at night. Doc said there wasn't any infection so no medication required. Just need plenty of rest & water! But coughing keeps me awake. And baby seems to enjoy the rocking stomach, kicking happily with each cough! I can hardly catch my breath. Guess will have to get more rest during the day.

Love Chapter

Having read some of my friends’ blogs on their relationship issues that they are facing, have decided to give my two-cents worth on Love aka BGR. Having only experienced two relationships, I may not be the best person to seek for advice in the love department. But quality, not quantity, is what really matters, right? So here I go..

Ok, let me try and define what love is. Hmm, this is hard. Love is something that is really hard to explain. Lets take shoes shopping as an analogy. When I see a pair of heels, I may love it but I will not purchase it on the spot. Because at the back of my subconscious mind, I always think that there could be a better pair elsewhere. So my search for THE perfect pair of heels continues and at the end of the day, I may go home empty-handed. I’m NOT saying we should just buy the first pair of shoes that we lay our eyes on and not shop around. I’m trying to say that there is really no perfect pair of heels.

BGR is equivalent in that our partner may not be the perfect person after all. But we should always appreciate what we have. Like shoes, our partners will grow old and grumpy.. opps.. but there is still love as we can always remember how we met, fell in love and come together.

You may realise that once you are engaged in a serious loving relationship, all other potentials mates seem to disappear. If you’re a guy, you may wonder why a previously beauty-infested pub suddenly turned dull with only a handful of pretty ladies. Of course, guys will still look at gals but the huge sea seems to have turned into a pool instead! As for gals, you’ll view any other guy’s tending loving actions towards you as mediocre and wish that such actions are carried out by that special someone instead.

Here comes the dangerous section in any relationship. For simplicity, I would call it the “Comparison Chapter”. Never compare before and after engagement and never compare your partner with someone else’s partner. Occasionally, its fine to sound out and make hints but doing it too often might backfire. I believe that actions do not change overnight but minds can. Very often, a person may compare a partner’s actions before engagement and after engagement. Things like.. he used to make nice handmade cards on every special occasions or he used to fetch me home with only a phone call even in the middle of the night. But now he only gives me readily made cards occasionally or sends greetings via emails and asks me to take a cab home if I run late. Now, lets try and focus on the positive actions after the engagement. Well, at least he still gives you cards and remembers to send greetings via email. And seriously, who needs so many cards anyways, we just chuck them aside in our drawers/files! And taking a cab home at late hours is probably faster and definitely safer than dragging a dreamy person out of his bed just to drive you home.

Giving and taking is part of every relationship. If you give, you will take back. But don’t expect 100% reciprocal because it will never happen. How can one calculate to that extent anyway. So never expect to take back everything that you’ve given. Or better still, don’t expect anything in return and you will feel happier. Like when you make a donation to charity, you don’t expect to win a condo from your contribution, right? Maybe you hope but you don’t really place high hopes on that. Its great if you really won but if you didn’t, you wouldn’t feel disappointed at all because the expectations were not there in the first place. Managing expectations, be it self or others, is a high-level skill that every one of us needs.

Wow, it feels like I’ve just written an essay topic about Love! Hope this long-winded chapter makes you feel better, my dear friends. If not, at least the cute OMG hamster might cheer you up!

Lazy Sunday

It was a lazy Sunday and we woke up pretty late. We had dinner at a friend's place the night before and by the time we settled down, its 1am already. Luckily we brought forward the dinner from Sun night to Sat night. If not, Monday will be very tiring and we won't be able to drag our feet out of our cozy bed!

We decided to make our own 'BIG MAC' for lunch. Stuffing as many ingredients as possible into the sesame-coated mega bun, there were bacon, cheese, lettuce, mushrooms, egg and tomatoes! The readily-made cuppa soup was delicious too with crunchy croutons.. yummy!! This is one of the easily-prepared & healthy meal other than the meatpie (just have to microwave 4 mins).

Well, the cooking and eating section is pretty good.. when it comes to the washing department, we all loathe it. So we 'lom jiam pass' to see who will do the dishes and of course, lady luck is with me.. or rather.. with us, me and baby!

We went to Fountain Gate Shopping Centre, supposedly the biggest shopping centre in Victoria. Bumped onto Bev, Lisa and her 2-yr old daugher Tanessha at Fountain Gate. Bev (behind in the pic), is Tanessha's nanna. She is such a kind and helpful soul. When we just came, she gave us a lot of furniture like dining table, chairs, coffee tables. During her off-weekdays, she even brought me out to shopping and showed me where to get the best deals in our neighbourhood. Her daughter, Lisa, is also about to have her 2nd baby due in Nov/Dec. They have been so generous and brought me to places like Nappy Land (cheapest nappy & baby stuff), DFO (Direct Factory Outlet to get value-for-money clothes), an ebay maternity store, Fountain Gate Shopping Centre and the Dandeonong Market etc.

Some friends are telling me that my tummy looks low and probably can pop anytime. Probably I'm tall and thus, my tummy looks lower in proportion to my long body? A normal birth is between 36 & 40 weeks. But they always say that the first kid is always late, stretching over 40 weeks to 42 weeks. I've 2 friends who delivered at 38 weeks but both had boys so their babies might be bigger. Will check with the doctor on my next visit. Having cough since last week.I wonder how it feels like to be inside and shaking with each cough. Earth quake? Or like sleeping on a rocking bassinet?! Haha!

Taste of Africa

Read from newspaper that there is an African restaurant nearby celebrating its first year anniversary on Wed. The owner had invited the city’s Mayor, councillors, police, business people and Sudanese community leaders and everyone in the community to celebrate the joyous occasion. It’s not just a typical restaurant. There is a very touching background to it. The owner is actually an African refugee who came to Australia seven years ago.

As we’ve never tried African food before, we decided to check it out. We went in the evening so as to avoid the crowd. When we reached the place, we saw a small crowd outside the restaurant and thought that the party was over. We’re not sure whether it was closed already as most restaurants in that area has closed by evening. So we checked with the people standing outside the restaurant and one tall man told us that it was still open. Upon entering the restaurant, we’re surprised to no food displayed at the counter. Little did we know that the party was only about to begin!! The staff and crowd was actually waiting for the VIPs to arrive where there would be food tasting. Wow! So much for trying to avoid the crowd!

With only minutes to the party, we decided to hang around the place for the food tasting. However, everyone looked so solemn and we wondered why. Through our conversation with one of the guests, we realised that the Sudanese community was moaning for an African teenager who was brutally murdered recently. Thus, there were no fanciful decorations nor loud music, just plain decorations and delicious Sudanese food to celebrate the restaurant’s first anniversary. The owner is very friendly and has a very humble smile. We can feel his sincerity and effort in trying to make the community a better place for everyone. The Mayor, a Vietnamese, was also a refugee! He mentioned that there are approx 150 nationalities in Aus, what a shocking figure! He also gave a meaningful brief speech, showing his support to this special minority community. This is so crucial as we should always show respect and support for each other in such a multi-cultured community.

Ok, here comes the food part. African food has lots of carbo food such as potatoes, baked beans, bread, and mashed eggplants. However, I particularly like their special meatballs “Kofta” with a sauce that tasted like tomato. There is also another finger food called “Falafel” that can be so addictive (like the infamous potato chips)! It looks like a round chocolate cookie but is actually fried vegetables; crispy and brown on the outside and light green inside. We also tried African chilli that looks like the Japanese wasabi. But unlike wasabi, it is fragrant and not hot at all. Here goes our verdict: African food tastes healthy, has a rich flavour and can be very filling. On our next visit, we would probably go during as it can be too hearty for dinner.

Website: http://www.tasteofafrica.com.au/

National Day Party

This image was taken in August 2007. Julian and Mabel (3rd and 4th in front row) were so kind to invite us to the party. We were celebrating the Singapore National Day in one of the gal's place. Although there were no colourful fireworks, we felt so homely as they had prepared Singapore food such as roti prata, noodles, curry etc. I had too much sweet cakes so much so that bb was active all night and I couldn't sleep. So, bb loves sweet stuff just like me!

For Gals Only

Gals, check this out! Lots of Wang Lee Hom MTVs inside! Hubby is afraid that I'll be bored, give me this website to explore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0smBvdklHVQ

I like it!! His songs are mostly R&B, quite light and he has very good groove too. But sometimes can't understand his pronounciation well, have to look at the MTV's lyrics. But well, I just listen and enjoy the "view"!!

Baby seems to enjoy it too, she is kicking me excitedly when I'm watching the MTV. Before that, I played Mozart & she was so quiet, probably boring & sleeping. Hahaa! She's extremely active all day yesterday, I thought that she will have a good night's sleep but she is awake all night! Kicked and woke me up several times last night!

Busy Week

Last week has been a very busy week. Not sure what kept me occupied... Time passes so fast when you’re busy, at least when you feel that you’re busy. Haaa!

With a craving for spicy food, I cooked chicken green curry for dinner last week. It turned out to be super hot! We were sweating & drinking loads of water while eating. It was a cold night anyway so having the hot curry was great. Thereafter I realised that I’ve used the entire paste when it’s actually meant for 4-6 pax. But it was so shiok. I just love spicy food although my endurance level for spices is pretty low. Few days later, I attempted yellow curry with lamb & chicken. But this time, it was so mild that it turned out to be soupy & creamy. I realise that cooking, like any other skills, takes times and also a couple of trial & errors to master.

Last week, we made 2 new Singaporean friends, Dave and Jovine, who just moved to Aus. Jovine’s request for an overseas transfer was approved and since they obtained their PR few years back, they decided to make the move. Before meeting them, I was joking with Sean that they could be his friends since his network of friends seem to be so wide that it was common to bump into his friends even while traveling/touring. Coincidentally, Jovine happened to be Sean’s primary school classmate!! Last Sat, the couple visited us and we gave them a ‘tour’ around our neighbourhood. We also brought them to the nearest shopping plaza & wet market. Dave and Jovine were just like us when we first arrived, often driving around on weekends and exploring new places.

Now, we prefer to spend weekends at home relaxing. Yesterday, I woke up for breakfast and jumped right back to my cozy bed after a spread! Unbelievable. But oversleeping gives me headaches at times. Have to do some exercise, so I started laundry washing and vacuumed the carpet while hubby went to the backyard to clean the baby items (bassinet/rocker/cot) including a pram/stroller which we bought via the eBay. Still feeling energetic after the household work, we decided to take a brief stroll to the nearby wetlands. It felt so peaceful watching the ducks & swans swimming around in the pond. We even saw a huge white pelican with a long yellow bead on a tall tree above our heads! It looked like a fake bird, as it remained stagnant on the tree branch. Beautiful!