House progress

Met another neighbour from a nearby estate yesterday. A 60+ year old guy of Dutch origin. He came up to us to say hi and wanted to know what we thought of the builder we are using, as he too is considering the same builder for a new house he will be building at a different estate. We'll be seeing him and his wife next March as he has already invited himself to our new home, haha.

After that, we went to one of our favourite mall near Macquarie Uni, for some last minute Christmas gift shopping. It was crowded alright. Can't wait to be able to put up a Christmas tree at our own home in Dec 2006 :)

Some photos...
Roof tiling has been completed almost two weeks ago.
View from the main entrance door.


Looking into our lounge area from the main door entrance


Our love nest - the master bedroom


View of the meal and rumpus area

News

Could it get any worse? NZ posters call for 'white power'

Get the latest scoop at Sydney Morning Herald

Racial tension :(

The recent and ongoing racial riots & violence in Cronulla, South Sydney is sickening. It's not the first racial tension that's happened in Sydney for the past few years. Earlier, there was the riot with the Aborigines and not so long ago, Vietnamese were rallying for a local politician to step down for making racist remarks. Never in my life have I seen so much racial tension and violence, first hand.

Cousin sis

I got a surprise phone call from my cousin sis this afternoon. We were and still are very close, like sisters. I miss her soooo much!!

Chicken

Skinning chicken is gross, well at least for me it is. I often use chicken drumsticks (I don't eat pork or beef) as a soup base and would skin them to reduce the amount of fats in the soup. Sometimes I use chicken back bones too and I skin them also. Aiyeeeeeee very gross but I have no choice. I admire the generations of our mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers who must have gathered so much courage to slaughter live chickens by the neck ... I still remember how my mom did it, blood splattering everywhere, yucks! I am sure if they had a choice like how we do now, they would not have done it. The things that mothers would do to cook yummy meals for their children. Aren't we all lucky these days? By the way, I only know how to make three different kinds of soup, ie lotus root + peanut, ABC and watercress soup - how embarassing.

Anyway, I usually buy chicken meat from this particular Red Lea Chickens outlet at Westfield Hornsby shopping mall, located just about 5 minutes walk from our apartment. One could get almost anything from this mall.

House progress III

The weather has finally been good, bright and sunny but a tad too hot, I got sunburn standing in the open space observing the progress of our house! Summer has just begun on Dec 1st.

Brickworks for the garage completed. Front view of the double garage. Braces have been attached to the roof in preparation for roof tiling which we hope will take place this week.

Close up view of the double bay window looking into the kitchen and rumpus areas

Yesterday, we bought 110m² of 500mm x 500mm (approx. 20" x 20") polished porcelain floor tiles for our rumpus, family, kitchen and lounge areas.

We're not going to have the decorative feature piece like in this photo below as that piece alone costs AU$499 on sale (normal price AU$799)


We are going to have laminated timber floorings for all bedrooms as tile floorings would feel like ice during winter. No pictures of the laminated timber floorings as we have yet to buy them but we've already seen and decided where to get it from.

JVC Everio G series

This is what we've been waiting for ... a 30 GB hard disk camcorder! JVC Everio G series looks tempting but we've blown our budget this year. It'll have to wait till some time next year *wishing hard* It'll come in handy when we make home movies on DVDs to send to family and friends especially with the coming new addition to the family.

Nasi Lemak :(

I wish I can just walk out and ta-pau nasi lemak for breakfast. How sad, I have to make my own if I want to have nasi lemak for breakfast (the problem is, I am a horrible, terrible cook). We can get nasi lemak here but only during lunch/dinner at Malaysian restaurants & food courts and they don't always taste good even with a AU$7.50 - AU$8.00 price tag per plate! Boo-hoo! Nothing beats buying nasi lemak from makcik where I can pick my dishes ... yumm ... *dreams + drools*

House Progress II

Brickworks on the left side of the house completed

Brickworks at the back of the house almost complete.

House progress

Brickworks on the right side of the house completed.

G&G Junior

I tend to get extremely lazy to blog whenever I stop for a week or two. I think it is perhaps I find myself having to repeat everything to my other close friends in emails - they don't surf the web and only use emails from work.

We had to scrap our plans to travel on our wedding anniversary when we found out that we're expecting G&G junior. It's funny how my parents, nieces, friends and cousins kept asking every year, when will we have a baby. But by the fourth and fifth year, they gave up asking and some were concerned if we had infertility issues. I guess it's rare for a couple to start a family only at their fifth year of marriage.

We had purposely taken every precaution not to have a baby until recently because we enjoyed each other's company so much and the freedom to travel and do whatever we want (a family man once told me that the reason most people need to have kids is because otherwise their marriage would be so boring - I find that so not true). Couple that with the fact that none of our immediate families live in Sydney - as we all know, if we're in trouble, family members are the ones who will be there for you at any time of the day.

Well, long story cut short, we thank the Lord for blessing us with this baby. G&G junior is 12 weeks old. We were ecstatic seeing it on ultrasound two days ago. The little heart beat, the little hands, feet and body - the joy only parents would know.

Fortunately holding a newborn, changing nappies, making milk, feeding toddlers, lullabies will not be a whole new experience for me. Not that I was a nurse, I wish I was, for I have great respect for nurses and I think that is such a noble profession ... meagre wage and hard work!

My mom used to babysit and I had the privilege to help out with everything since I was 8 years old until late teens (yes, including wiping poo poo off babies' bums). Once my best friend challenged me to fold a nappy as she didn't believe I had folded nappies thousands of times in my life (she was a first time mom at the time and had only learned how to fold a nappy with the birth of her son at age 27). Thanks for doubting me, best friend, hehe.

But alas, those experiences will never be the same as caring for my own little precious baby and I truly look forward to it. For Kiwi G, it will be his first time ever, caring and living with a newborn.

Well, like all first time parents, we are just so happy to be able to sow the seed of our love. We are really thankful for that. We just hope that we'll be able to carry this pregnancy to full term without complications and welcome G&G junior into the world in June 2006.

Happy 5th Wed Anni

Happy 5th Wedding Anniversary
to my best friend, my boyfriend, my lover, my soul mate, my bedmate (haha), my darling hubby

Electrical System

We've almost finalised the electrical system for our home - the usual upgrading of single power points to double, extra light points, security sensor light unit, bathroom heat lights, etc. We've decided to have ducted air cond throughout the house and ducted vacuum system. We figured having ducted air cond is more cost effective than having separate units of split air system installed in each room. We're also getting wiring done for surround sound system - Kiwi G truly deserves it, to be able to enjoy watching his Sci-Fi DVDs with more oomph (it's a guy thing). Now, these are all pretty standard options that people go for, in a new home. We're not doing anything out of the ordinary. But of course, unfortunately it costs a bomb - you wouldn't want to know.

Cheap Domain Names

Until Oct 31, Yahoo is offering an incredibly low USD2.99/year up to USD14.95 for a total of 5 years domain names. Dirt cheap!

Emails

*Headache* I am such a lazy bum, never got around to completely clear my Inbox. These 412 emails were accumulated over the past few months. Wish I am rich enough to employ someone to attend to email enquiries so I can concentrate on other stuff. I hope by talking about this here, I might push myself to clear at least half of them.

Chiffon roses

My artificial chiffon roses arrived yesterday

I used to preserve all rose bouquets and other flowers Kiwi G gave me over the years but had to throw most of them away after a long time. The last of the bouquet I have is pictured here ... this bouquet must be at least 3 years old. I have requested Kiwi G not to buy me bouquets anymore as they are very expensive and I get sad when I had to throw them away. So I told him that if he really wanna buy me flowers still, he can just buy a cheap bouquet that's priced AU$15 and below (crazy wife, huh?). Anyway, below are pics of the preserved real roses & the new artificial flowers I just bought - whole new bunch for only AU$12

Lights & Chocs

Bought 14 oyster lights off eBay a fortnight ago. Am pleased with the purchase, the lights are in excellent condition, the seller even threw in the fluorescent light bulbs for free. I paid only AU$4.30 each (oyster shell + light bulbs) - what a steal! A new oyster light without bulbs would cost at least AU$20 and a new light bulb itself costs AU$8.

Here are photos of the chocolates I bought Kiwi G for his b'day last month
He finished the boxed chocs in record time but the monkey choc is still in the fridge
He says it is too precious to be eaten

Land

Went to inspect the land last evening. First sign of work done ... levelled and filled the land with additional 100 tonnes of soil. The next step is the concrete work.

Dealing with the builder prior to everything almost gave us high blood pressure (but then again, people we know, experienced the same thing with other more reputable builders ... so perhaps it's the norm).

We've got an appointment with the electricians in a fortnight ... that'll incur another few grands to do additional power points and wiring.

We have yet to find a contractor for our floorings ... we still have about 3-4 months to do that as the floorings can only be done after the house handover (note, most new houses here do not come with marble or parquet floorings yeah, except cement floors).

From now on, our money only goes one way - OUT. Nevertheless, we're very excited. Having been renting for almost 5 years now (I hate living in apartments although I must say the current apartment we live in is superb with first class security and caretaker - I'll talk more about this apartment and show piccies later), I can't wait to have a little nest we can finally call home ... our very own home where we can have a cute doggie (you've to obtain permission from the landlord and the building committee if you intend to keep a dog or cat in most newish apartments), hang pictures on the wall (have to obtain landlord's permission to put nails on the wall) and our own backyard for sunbaking & BBQ!

My eye candies

I used to collect Me to You, Forever Friends (FF) teddies and Precious Moments (PM) figurines in the past few years but decided to stop as I didn't have room for them and it's a rather pricey obsession too. These are my precious eye candies. Looking at them makes me extremely happy and go awwwwww.

Most of these teddies were gifts from Kiwi G, the rest were given by friends
Though I still have some cute FF bears not pictured here (these are old photos).
I don't recall seeing original FF bears being sold in KL but they're everywhere here in Sydney, a myriad of variety too.

Right now, these poor bears are kept in a big box on the shelf.
Can't wait to free them and let them live in my new bedroom next year - Kiwi G will have to get used to the audience, haha

My super soft fluffy bears



A few of my PM figurines

I also love small artificial flowers in a basket (especially daisies). I've ordered some chiffon roses. Will post a pic when they arrive.

New layout

My itchy hands decided to change the layout a bit again. Added stone age photos to the header and footer.

Thin walls

Weekends flew past too quickly! Last Saturday, I got wokened up at about 8.00am by Kiwi G just to prove to me that he wasn't hearing things a few weeks ago - he heard some wall or floor banging followed by "some bedroom noises* ahem ... you know what I mean. I doubted him as I thought it was quite impossible to hear such a thing behind brick walls. So I told him to wake me up if he hears it again next time, haha! True enough, last Saturday was an ear opener for me! I tell you, it was LOUD! First, I heard banging noises to our bedroom wall which wasn't the first time, I thought the neighbours were doing DIY works on their unit again. Then it was followed by ... *xxx* noises! I couldn't believe my ears! I could hear it through the walls! It was annoying because we also heard it at night while we were watching TV in our bedroom!! I wonder what kind of bricks this apartment block is made of! Someone told me that he finds Meriton apartments have thin walls and I think having lived in one for 2 years now, I can testify to that as I could sometimes hear the neighbours talk while I am in the study room, very annoying!! Sometimes in our ensuite, I could hear *shi shi* ("O-liu") sound as well! So, remember to enquire about the walls if you intend to buy an apartment built by Meriton, yeah?

A success story

Every now and then I would type in my ex-school mates' names in Google out of curiosity. Two days ago, I found an article from The Star dated Nov 2004 about one of my ex-school mate's new clothing line launch. Let me tell you a little bit about her.

She was known as "Sun Poh" (Godly Woman) in secondary school because she was a disciplined Christian girl. We all looked up to her as a role model. She used to write me notes of encouragement and handed them to me at school, of which I would reply with gratitude. She was also known to dress very modestly (well to be honest, at that time, we thought her dressing was a bit outdated and too old fashioned) and was the super "gwai lui" (good girl/mommy's girl) compared to the rest of us. After finishing secondary school, she worked at a bank while taking up some banking courses.

Somewhere down the road, she became interested in fashion and started selling women's clothing (mainly working attire and quality casuals) privately at friends' homes by word of mouth. Through her contacts in the fashion industry, she landed a supervisory job for a new local fashion line in Sungei Wang. In no time, she was promoted to a Manager. I didn't see her for a few years after that. So one day when I met her at church, man, was I surprised by her change in appearance and dressing - puts us all to shame, haha. From a humble, modest, old fashioned girl to the most up todate, sexy and beautiful model-like lady!

Things continued to get better for her. Last I heard, she was still attending church regularly, has 3 beautiful daughters and a loving husband. She is now the General Manager of the same fashion company which has expanded to 5 outlets in KL (Mid Valley Megamall, Sungei Wang Plaza, 1 Utama Shopping Centre, Sunway Pyramid, Cheras Leisure Mall) and 1 in JB (City Square).

We all thought she would serve full time in the Christian ministry ... but little did we know how things took a surprising turn. Hard to believe she was once nicknamed "Sun Poh"!

Some people have all the luck you say? I think in her case, it was sheer hardwork and determination. Coming from a single parent family (wonderful mother she has) and being the eldest, she sacrificed higher education (she could have easily made it to uni) to ease her mom's burden of supporting the family. How many people would be willing to quit a 9-5 stable bank job to go sell clothes in private homes? She truly deserves every bit of success she has today.

My only hope if I get to meet her again someday, is that she remains her modest and sweet self on the inside ... and perhaps ask one VERY IMPORTANT question ... "Can gimme discount on your clothes or not ah?" hahaha.

There are of course other stories of ex-schoolmates who turned completely nasty and changed from Ms Sweet to Ms Witch but I don't think I will talk about them now.

Summary

Celebrated Kiwi G's b'day last week, I think I managed to give him a few surprises, sneaky me! Bought him a Chocolate Monkey, haha (piccy later).

Went Yum Cha last Sunday (I wonder why it is called "yum cha" here and not "eat dim sum") at a restaurant called "Taxim" near our place. Reached there at 10.30am and waited till 12.00 noon for our favourites to appear ie "ham sui kok" and "lobak kou". In between we had the usual buns, siew mai, mango custard, etc just to kill time. Man, we were stuffed for the rest of the day! The prices starts from AU$4.00 per plate of anything. The two of us ate about AU$35-AU$40 worth - I know, pigs eh!

Watched Charlie & The Chocolate Factory too. I think watching the original on TV, two days prior might have spoiled it for me :P

Ewww

Beauty takes a deadly turn
September 14, 2005
Source: Sydney Morning Herald

London: A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation has discovered. Click here for link to full story


Gross.

Model Doggy

Photos of Lilo, my bro's Basset Hound doing the catwalk *LOL*some time last year at Mid Valley. We finally have a *model* in the family hahaha

Lilo (right) relaxing at home with fellow good buddy, Bobby (left) after a hard day's work.

Cute Puppies

I am so in love with cute puppies! Just looking at their photos makes me so happy. I particularly like small breeds such as:

Maltese (click to view photos from puppy.com.my forum)

Shih Tzu (click to view photos from puppy.com.my forum)

However, we will most likely get a Maltese x Shih Tzu cross breed some time next year. I want so many things next year, I can't wait, I feel so greedy.

I will show some photos of my brother's supermodel Basset Hound ie the "Hush Puppy" type dog back in KL doing the runway in Mid Valley megamall, some other day (have to dig through my DVDs).

Spring has Sprung

Spring has sprung from Sept 1st. My favourite season, warmer temps and lovely flowers. The funny thing I learned about flowers is that they can be tricked into thinking it is spring season and blossoms even in the middle of winter when the temp is just right. When winter temp returns to normal on the next day, the flowers go back to playing half dead again, haha, too cute. I just can't wait to have my own garden.

Merdeka Day

Selamat Hari Kebangsaan
Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

Flag image from: www.fg-a.com/flags18.shtml

Millionhair, not Millionaire

Mingling with millionaire relatives is very demoralising for me especially so when it's a whole group of them. It often sends my already low self esteem spiralling downhill. It made me feel that personal ambitions of mine are unattainable. I don't like the feeling. I prefer my "millionhair" friends, we've got more in common; it makes me feel comfortable with who I am and puts me back in reality.

Single guy + married woman

Someone told me that he met somebody special. He even showed me a photo of her, a very beautiful young Thai lady. I felt happy for him and congratulated him. Then he told me that she is a married woman! I tried not to act shocked but my mind was saying "Doh!!!??!?!??!" He saw my heartshaped pendant and asked where I bought it from because he wanted to buy one for the lady. He told the lady what if her husband asks where she got the pendant from? She replied that she'll just say she bought it herself. Doh!!???!?!?!? I was stumped.

Cajun Nuggets

I tried Macca's new Cajun Nuggets last Sunday and boy it's certainly got oommphhh ... spicy and tasty, I'm LOVIN it. As with any spicy promo including KFC's spicy chicken, it is only available for a short period of time. So, what to do eh? It simply means that Mr & Mrs Oink Oink here are getting some again tonight before it's GONE.

<---- Photo © 2005 McDonald's Corporation, Australia

The Rich Gets Richer

I don't know what to think of the rich who earn millions of $$ a year ... yet pockets welfare! Below is an excerpt from www.smh.com.au

I also want to thank all you who have given suggestions on the door locks :) - much appreciated.

-----------------------------------------
Source: Sydney Morning Herald <-- link to full story
Wealthy parents grab $65 handout
By David Humphries
August 12, 2005

MILLIONAIRE WELFARE

- Family Tax Benefit part B introduced in 2000 for sole parents and stay-home mums

- No means test for a maximum benefit of $65 a week.

- In 2003-04, 31 recipient families each earned more than $1 million.

.Last year, million-dollar families numbered 76; the benefit was paid to 38,500 families earning more than $100,000

The Government has promised to review its non-means-tested family payment after figures revealed that more top-income Australians, including millionaires, were lining up for the maximum benefit of $65 a week.

Last year, 76 single-income families who earned at least $1 million a year received Family Tax Benefit part B, introduced in 2000 by the Howard Government to assist sole parents and stay-at-home mums. A year earlier, only 31 recipients earned at least $1 million.

The benefit, paid to the stay-home parent regardless of the working spouse's income, also went to 352 families who earned more than $500,000 last year.

The welfare lobby said the annual distribution of up to $130 million among 38,500 families earning more than $100,000 a year "could be much better spent on low-income families".

The director of the Institute for Private Enterprise, Des Moore, a former senior Treasury official, sees it as part of politics-inspired "welfare creep".

"Contrary to the idea that social security is supposed to be for people in greatest need," Dr Moore said, "it has been expanded under this Government to the point where social security as a percentage of GDP has grown by 3 percentage points since Whitlam."

The distribution of Family Tax Benefit B payments was revealed by the Family and Community Services Department in answers this week to Opposition questions.

Labor's welfare spokesman, Chris Evans, said yesterday that battling families faced "savage cuts to their incomes under the Howard Government's so-called welfare-to-work policies" while millionaires' row was "sucking even harder on the welfare teat".

Need to keep fit :(

I need to get fit again like in these stone age photos :(

Kingsford (previous apartment), Sydney 2001

Coronet Peak, Queenstown, New Zealand 2002

Where are my current photos? Alamak, too embarassed to show! I hope I get a little incentive to keep fit by reminding myself I used to weigh less, doh! For the record, I have put on 10kg since the above photos were taken ... *sob sob* No one's to blame, I had been overeating and lazy. So if I could pull myself together again and keep fit ... maybe I could fit into all my spring/summer dresses once more, hahaha, wishful thinking again ... great dreamer I am!!

Still busy, won't write much.

Door Locks & Bed

DOOR LOCKS

I notice that houses in gwai loh countries generally do not have door locks installed to the bedrooms. I can understand the logic but having been brought up in a country where door locks is a necessity to any home, I don't feel safe sleeping at night without being able to lock the bedroom door.

Since it is not standard practice to install door locks to bedroom doors here, our new home will not come installed with them. I am considering paying extra to have at least our master bedroom door fixed with the door lock. Will it be a good idea to install door locks to the rest of the bedrooms? Suggestions are most welcome, thank you very much.

BED

Thank you Papi & MrsT for your opinions, King size bed it shall be! As for the bed, maybe I should just settle for a more typical bed such as this ... a little bit of country style ...

or should I get an ensemble instead? Doh ... decisions, decisions ... too many choices = headaches.


I am taking a time out from blogging for now ... busy with some artwork. However, I'll be popping by my favourite blogs now and then.

TRACTOR PIC

I almost forgot, this is for MrsT ... me on the tractor ... New Zealand 2001.

4 Poster Bed

Been rather busy the past few days running to the bank and solicitors for our land settlement. Also went to see my Accountant for my tax return. All done!

We went window shopping for household furniture yesterday. I don't know what got into me but I fell in love with a four poster bed that was on display at the mall. It looked something like the photo to the left.

The posts are detachable and may be replaced with a nice knob if preferred. It's not that expensive, much to my surprise. It costs about AU$350-AU$450 excluding the mattress and curtains (is that what it's called?).

But I am undecided. I know I am a fickle minded person. So we'll have to see how I feel once our home is completed. Kiwi G is such a good sport, he doesn't mind me having a four poster bed.

We're also thinking of getting a King size bed but is that a norm?

By the way, Council has approved our house plans but we have to finalize some changes to the facade with the builder before we approve commencement of construction.

More boring stuff

HTML SPECIAL CHARACTERS

See the tiny green hearts next to my post titles? They're merely symbols, not images.
Here are two sites with tables of special html symbols: here and here
It comes in handy when you wish to type characters such as
¢  £  ©   ¿   °   ½   ¼   ¾   ♣  ♥  ♠


WEBHOSTING & DOMAIN NAME

Web hosting - I have been using www.tera-byte.com web hosting service since year 2002 until now. Their technical support is first class! Support emails are usually replied within half an hour or sooner. These guys are located in Alberta, Canada.

Domain Name - I have one with Network Solutions (USA) which used to be a bit pricey (when I first bought my domain name from them 5 years ago, it was about US$37/year but the price has gone down so much since);

I also bought several domain names with Name Cheap (USA) at US$8.88 each per year. There are cheaper ones around but since Name Cheap accepts payment via Paypal which makes it very much easier for me, I decided to go for it. They also threw in one year free WhoisGuard for every new subscription or transfer.

One can easily look up the owner of the domain and his/her address (I use my PO Box address for confidentiality purpose but all my domains with Name Cheap have WhoisGuard, therefore none of my information, not even my name will show up).

A small note about domain names: I always place a registrar lock on my domains. This will lock my domain records at the registry level and prevent them from being transferred, modified, deleted by a third party or prevent against unauthorized transfers and hijacking.

Since a 'registrar lock' can also make it more difficult to transfer away from a registrar, it might be a good idea to look for a registrar that allows the ability to automatically unlock your domain names at any time without having to call or email them.

But alas, these days, some webhosting companies even throw in a free domain registration for you when you sign up with any of their webhosting packages.

*Yawn* I am feeling sleepy and bored with all this talk already ... zzzZZZZZ *snore snore*

Mailwasher

I usually don't talk about tech stuff in real life nor online simply because I lack the knowledge. However, from now on, I'll just write a little about some cool links that might be useful to others.

I receive many emails a day, junk mail, blank emails, junk fwd exe file attachments, hate mails, virus attachments, you name it, I got it! I used to dread downloading my emails until I found Mailwasher. It allows me to preview all emails; blacklist or delete spams, virus & junk exe file attachments, without having to actually download them first onto my Microsoft Outlook email programme.

Unfortunately the free version has less features but works just as good and may be downloaded at PCWorld.com - Mailwasher

Meet the neighbours

Met the neighbours to our soon to exist new house yesterday. This is a photo of the back of their house, located behind our house, not directly but to the left.

We were looking into their kitchen and admiring the finishings except for the floorings which have yet to be done, when they happened to drop by.

We had a small chat, introduced ourselves as their future neighbours and the lady invited us in to have a tour of their new home. We were in awe of the size of the home of course *salivating*

They're a lovely couple from India, migrated here 17 years ago, have three children, aged 27, 25 and prolly 10 respectively. Lucky children!

They told us that their front doors were dismantled & stolen and the glass sliding door at the kitchen, damaged by thieves! No wonder they are moving in this Friday to guard the house despite the floorings not being done yet.

It's nice to have befriended one neighbour already.
Hopefully the rest of the neighbours are friendly too, we'll see.

Born from a rock?

Had been sick the past few days but am a 100% now. When I was a little girl, I often asked my parents and older siblings how I came into existence. The answer would always be the same (they must have made a pact to give me a standard answer) ie "I was a result of a rock explosion". Nice! And I actually believed them. For years I tried very hard to imagine myself coming out of that rock. I can't remember at what age did I realize it was all a joke (prolly 10 onwards? slow, I know *LOL*). Perhaps the picture below holds some truth to the rock explosion myth .. hmmmm now I have to rethink the theory ...

1998: Moreaki Boulders, South Island, New Zealand

Many gigantic round boulders lying along the shore, gave me a feeling of being in an alien inhibited place

Msian Food

Almost every other Malaysian blog I stumbled upon, has alluring salivating photos of Malaysian FOOOOOD! Thank you people, it reminds me of what I left behind. But honestly, thank you because I enjoyed looking and wishing upon those photos *LOL* Nothing can beat the atmosphere of eating at hawker stalls, kopitiam and best of all, mamak or "mak mak stall" (Kiwi G's vocab), haha. Please kidnap me out of Sydney!

New Zealand

Last night, I stumbled upon a blog about a family starting a new life in the land of the long white cloud ie New Zealand, oooh how envious and I wish them all the very best.

The mention of New Zealand makes me very happy. I am absolutely in love with that beautiful country. Everywhere is so scenic, peaceful and dreamy ... perfect for a great dreamer like me. I have always thought I wanted to live in New Zealand for good but now I am not so sure. Half of Kiwi G's uni mates and cousins have chosen Sydney over NZ; citing career opportunities as the main factor and secondly, probably the beautiful Sydney weather.

Anyway, I won't elaborate on this (my heart is torn between KL, NZ and Oz). If I am brave enough, I'll post a few photos of my happy times in New Zealand taken a stone age ago *LOL*.

Webcam

Plugged in my stone age dinosaur webcam this morning for fun. I hardly use webcam (mainly because my friends back home complained that it's so blur they can't even see my face, hahaha). It is so outdated (bought it about 5 years ago at AU$300+) and very grainy, thanks to older technology. As we know, webcams today cost a fraction of that price and transmit very clear images. So if anyone wants to know what kind of image resolution stone age dinosaur webcams produce, look at my piccies here, hehehe (sorry, they're dark, will turn on the lights and pull the blinds open next time). Nah, I won't be buying a new webcam, no use for it yet.

Skype

Rang home using Skype last Saturday. It's really cheap. 30 minutes call from my PC to land line phones in KL costs only GBP0.81 or USD1.41 or AUD1.89 or RM5.36. The sound quality is sooo clear, no echoes. PC to PC Skype calls are free and just as clear. Now I have no excuse not to ring my sis in the UK (she's always the one with initiative to phone me - she is computer illiterate eventhough her kids use the PC at home). Hard to teach an old dog new tricks I guess? Hehehehehe, sorry sis, I know you don't even know my blog exists.

Bewitched

Watched Bewitched last night. Light hearted comedy but nothing very special about it. Nicole Kidman is dainty and beautiful as always.

The trailer for King Kong was shown before the movie started. Wow, it looked great, the special effects were awesome!! There was a scene where King Kong was fighting off some gigantic dinosaurs to save Naomi Watts (another dainty and pretty actress). Great work Peter Jackson! Am definitely gonna watch this one. The storyline looked a bit different too from the previous King Kong movies, cool!

I'm no movie expert but my own verdict for the movies I have watched thus far are:

Batman Begins : 9/10 (I may be biased on this one)
War of the Worlds : 5/10
Bewitched : 6/10

My verdict on TV series:

24 : 9.5/10
Alias : 9/10
Smallville : 9/10
Desperate Housewives : 8.5/10

London attacks

My heart and thoughts goes out to those who are affected by the tragic bombings in London. I hope all their loved ones are safe and sound. It is such an anti climax to the earlier celebrations of the Brits winning the bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

Each time some horrible attacks like this happens in the world, it makes me very sad and hesitate to start a family. Sept 11, 2001 had a very deep impact on us (not that we have any loved ones directly affected by it) but somehow, it was very devastating to me especially when it was followed by constant news of possible attacks here. It made me and Kiwi G purposely delayed as well as contemplated not to start a family at all. As time passes, the wound began to heal. Just as we are now ready to produce a mini-me ... such horrible thing happened again.

I wish everyone safe and well. Let's all be happy and thankful, life is short.

War of the Worlds

Forgot to mention that we watched War of the Worlds on July 6th. I must say, it was below my expectation. Special effects were good just like any other Spielberg movies. But the story is a bit slow and not that great. It's all about running and hiding, not many interesting dialogues either.

Google Adsense update - I managed to make a small amount of USD5.51 within 24 hrs (for 7,800+ page impressions and 98 clicks). I'll report on this again at the end of the month.

Oops just realized that there is an inappropriate advert popping up on one of my website pages ie Witchcraft! I immediately added that URL to be filtered by my Adsense account. Unfortunately there might be a 24 hr lag for my account to be updated. So, I quickly removed the Adsense script from that particular page, just to be safe and see if that witchcraft ad still pops up when I reinstall the script back on tomorrow.

Google Adsense

What? Another Adsense money making wannabe?! *LOL* No worries, you won't see ads on this blog. I am trying out Adsense on my website (yes I have a website, hehehe). While I was pasting the scripts to some of the pages and uploading them to my server, Adsense managed to rake in US$0.23 via my website ... that was about an hour's time. Not bad at all for a modest website. I'll leave Adsense there for a month and will report on the progress.

Next, my nephew SMS me two nights ago informing that he is applying to hospitals here in Sydney for his medical elective posting next year. I sure hope with all my heart that he gets it. I would love to have him get some working experience at the hospitals here. He will make a great doctor ... all good hearted people will and he is one of them.

My mom just had a cataract eye surgery. She will be discharged today. Have to ring home later. No worries, it is a common surgery, I am sure she is well, otherwise my bros. would have rang me up if things didn't turn out too good.

Lastly, am going for a bit of late night shopping this evening. One thing I don't like is that the late night shopping here takes place on Thursdays. Why not Fridays? Thursday is pay day I suppose. For my dear friends back home who are wondering what "late night" shopping is; well over here, most malls and shops (except major supermarkets, pubs and some eateries) close by 5pm everyday and earlier on weekends (yes, that boring ahhhhhhhhh) except Thursdays when they are opened until 9pm - that is why we call it "late night".

Financial gift? Dream on ...

I sometimes wonder what it is like to receive financial assistance from parents or in laws. In my life, there is absolutely no such thing as being given a Sen (that's cent in Malaysian currency) as soon as I completed Form 5 (high school) ... well apart from the Ang Pow money of RM10 each year. Everything else after that was on my own. I have been fortunate enough to be able to honour my parents by giving them monthly allowances the day I got my first salary, working as a Sales Assistant while waiting for my SPM (high school) results; at the long gone Mun Loong departmental store. I have never stopped giving since.

Sometimes when my close friends told me they received hundreds to thousands of dollars in financial gift or assistance from their parents or in laws every once in awhile, I sinfully crave for that too. But alas, I do understand very well that if my parents and in laws could afford to do so, they would have loved to give generously.

So, do I think I am less fortunate in this case? Definitely not. Everyone's life is different. I am very thankful that we're happy and in good health. Anything else above that is a bonus.

Curtains

Blogger has finally come up with a simple photo adding feature - it's about time! Saves me a lot of trouble uploading to Photobucket.com then link it back here.

We decided to refrain from installing blinds in our "non existent yet, new home". We love the curtains at the display homes and I plan to sew my own ... big ambition for someone who doesn't even own a sewing machine like me.

Picture to the left is of a double bay window (some of my friends refer it as "French windows"? Not sure how accurate that is) which will be part of the family room of our house.

Yup that's lil ole frumpy looking me in the background. Click on piccy for larger view.

Picture to the right is of the main bathroom curtains.

Aren't they lovely? I plan to sew this myself too. But of course we will choose frosted glass for the bathroom windows and probably add pine vertical blinds behind these curtains.

I am not sure if I would be capable of sewing the frilly curtains like in the photos but I take chances when it comes to DIY, and I love it.

Time to do more window shopping this afternoon.
Have a good weekend everyone!

This 'n That

Decided to change my blog layout.
I have forgotten about some photos I snapped 3 weeks ago. Here they are:

PANDAN CAKE - This is different from the Pondan Cake in my previous post. I made this from a recipe book and is usually one of my edible cakes. However I added too much soda bicarbonate resulting in a bitter cake ... walaaaaa! Lesson learnt is: don't add too much soda bicarb.

CHEAP DONUTS - AU$4 a box from Donut King (when they are about to close for the day), how cheap is that?

CHOC from Toyota - Got a tiny little chocolate courtesy of Toyota when we sent our car for service; cute

HAIR BANDS - Bought these for my niece but decided to keep them for myself, too cute to resist. Me, bad Auntie! Cute hair bands are like candies to me

BATMAN - Forgot to mention that we watched Batman Begins when it opened in cinemas here. I never liked the previous Batman movies but this one blew me off. I totally love it! Christian Bale is great!

Tiles

We've been so absorbed with the progress of our house that I haven't been in the mood to experiment with baking ... which is good, means less fatty food to consume, haha. Hmm why do I always have to type "haha or hehe" ... well it's just me; Kiwi G and I laugh a lot everyday and kid each other all the time. As unprofessional and annoying as it may seem, I just have to express my laughter, even in the form of words.

Back to the main subject, unfortunately the house to our left which already has its foundation built, is a double storey house. Bummer! Hope it doesn't block most of the sunshine from us. The house to our right and the house directly behind us will be single storeys, phew!

We had much fun last week, selecting wall and floor tiles for the wet areas ie kitchen splashback, laundry, bathroom and ensuite. Here are some blurry photos taken in a hurry as they were closing for the day and had most lights turned off.

The colours of the kitchen splashback and bathroom wall are supposed to be similar to the ensuite wall ie blue tone but somehow the photos turned out grey

We chose shell shaped soap holders and towel rail (photos not shown here) and this one:


This weekend we will probably visit another showroom to get quotations for tile and laminate floorings

First step to my dreams

Our house plans were completed much sooner than we expected. Picked it up last Saturday, the builder is now in the process of getting it submitted to Council ... another month and a bit more waiting.

Feeling very happy today! I feel like I got my career back. It's a whole new start ... I have to work on marketing my little stuff now.

I am very grateful and fortunate to have Kiwi G support me while I tried to chase my dreams for the last few years. The amount of daydreaming I did is finally beginning to pay off.

I have only managed to take a baby step now and I still have a long way to go. No worries, one can only move forward in time *think positive*

I am so sorry to whoever is reading this, that I do not feel comfortable revealing what it is I am embarking on. Just in case if things fell through, I don't have to hide under a rock in embarassment, hehe.

Alrighty, time to work ... but wait, maybe I should reward myself with some yummy food ... now let's see what's in the fridge, hehehe.

Updates

• PONDAN chiffon cake and goreng pisang mix: DISASTER! The caked turned out hard like all my other Chiffon attempts. As for the goreng pisang mix (PONDAN is an Indonesian brand), I don't know, it wasn't quite like the ones we have back in Malaysia ... I must have done something terribly wrong, as usual *LOL*. Guess I better stick to my own goreng pisang batter.

• HOME - it's all now a waiting game. Wait for plans to be drawn up; then wait for Council approval. We won't see any action until at least two months later. Meanwhile construction has begun on the land to our right *envy*

• TRADEMARK - it's been approved by IP Australia for advertising in the Trademarks Journal (it took 4 months for my application to be looked at, this is the standard time frame). If there is no opposition within 3 months from the advertised date, the trademark will officially be mine - subject to further payment of course *ouch*! I'll just have to sit back and wait patiently until early September. The Trademark is only valid within Australia ... if I wish to file an international trademark, I'd have to apply under the Madrid Protocol ... it means more waiting, more work and spend more money ... but what to do, with so much intellectual theft going on, the safest way to protect intellectual property rights (even if it's only a name) is to do it the legal way.

Okay enough of the boring stuff ... we'll be going for a BBQ tomorrow, superb!

Star Wars Episode III

Watched Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the Sith yesterday, I think I like this one best among all the episodes. Action scenes throughout.

Will have to catch the following movies coming soon:

• War of the Worlds - starring Tom Cruise and the very talented child actress, Dakota Fanning. Ooooh I love alien movies.

• Fantastic Four - Kiwi G and I used to love reading Fantastic Four comics when we were children, how cool is it to be able to watch it come to live on the big silver screen!

• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - Looks good!

I'm not much of a western chick flick fan (besides the Korean dramas which I surprisingly loved, loved, loved 'em), I'll probably watch them on TV or DVD but when it comes to cinemas, I prefer watching the kind of movies as listed above.

Time to buy another booklet of movie tickets.

Dream Home

We sure are glad to have cleared the first and most tedious hurdle of the home & land purchase (selecting the best house plan and altering it with the designer proved to be the most taxing process). Got our finances approved and paid a deposit to proceed with the plan drawings which takes about 8 weeks, followed by 4-6 weeks for Council approval before actual building works may begin. Unfortunately, the time frames are beyond our control.

The next step would be to select the type of bricks, colours, roofs, tiles, benchtops, kitchen cabinets, etc, etc which will be so fun.

Here's our small piece of Sydney - 450sqm
As you can see, there is already an almost completed double storey house built behind our block of land
Most of the blocks have been sold but because of Council delay,
we won't see many building works happening until later this year

This is the type of house we will be building (4 bedrooms + study, ensuite, family & rumpus, lounge, bathroom, laundry room, blah blah) Ours will be a more narrow version of the house in the photo below as our land frontage will not fit this original version

Nevertheless, we are very excited and happy ... couldn't have asked for more. If everything goes on schedule, it will be completed by early next year.

Just a note, it was quite a surprise to hear from the building designer that his other clients were mostly investors (building for the purpose of reselling the homes for immediate profit) or those building their second or 3rd homes, wow! He said we were his favourite people especially when it comes to winning the AU$20k competition that happened to end the day after we paid the deposit, phew! (not like we have any chance of winning anyway ... we have never won even a 5 cents prize money in our lives!). Too bad he is not the one who decides the winner. My guess is that he thinks we deserve to win because we are genuine first home buyers who just want a roof over our heads, unlike the already mega rich investors building for the sake of making quick profits.