Goodbye 2011

2012 will be upon us in about 40minutes.

As I sit and frantically try to throw in one more post before the new year, Ant is giggling like a lunatic while watching Jackass.  Because he's immature like that.

We are spending new year's eve in; we both decided we would rather stay home with a pizza and hang out with the newest member of our family, Cherry B.

Cherry B is a gorgeous fawn pug x cavalier and we purchased her today at the Vic Market pet shop.  She is 9 months.  We also racked up about $400 worth of pet necessities such as a bed, shampoo, chew toys, food etc.  (Later I realized the Reject Shop stock the same things at a fraction of the price - damn the sales girl for being so efficient and literally throwing products into our basket.  Talk about taking advantage of our 'I own a puppy' happy bubble!

Technically her name is Genki (like Yankee) - courtesy of Ant.  I much prefer Cherry B as in Cherry Blossom.  My bro says peepee because she tinkles a lot of course!

She wore herself out by tearing around like mad in the front yard this arvo.  Puppy kept everyone entertained and Oy and Paul came to visit her too!

Poor white chicken is terrified of her which is unfortunate, but we'll try to change that by making sure they spend a lot of time together.  Until puppy is toilet trained, she will stay in the laundry while white chicken rules the kitchen.

Goodbye to a big 2011.  I'll always remember it for being the year that;



I got married in Fiji

   

An amazing overseas honeymoon in Hong Kong and Singapore

Ant finally moving to Melbourne



• My gorgeous Flitter passing



Christmas-day hail storms

And getting a puppy!

Happy 2012!

Tribute to Flitter

Flitter

October 2008 - December 24th, 2011

My gorgeous girl was admitted to Lort Smith Animal Hospital for her hernia on the 23rd.  The surgery was a success but poor Flitter had trouble breathing and had to be put into a special incubator with oxygen being pumped in.

Her surgery was meant to be routine and We hoped she could come home but the next day, the 24th, the vet rang to say Flitter started spasm-ing and they tried to stabilize her but couldn't so the decision was easy for them to put her down.

Hernia's seem to happen often with poultry; my online research tells me a chicken is either born with it or develops a hernia when they first start to lay.  Flitter has always laid big eggs so I suspect that is the reason.  

I always thought I would have her for years and years.

 

Read about how I got Flitter in my old posts here

Night Market Wednesdays

And true to our Wednesday tradition, today And and I will be going to the Night Market after work.

We go because

1. It's conveniently close
2. Parking is cheap ($2 per hour or $10 whole day)
3. Plentiful food stalls mean I don't need to cook
4. Early dinner = we can go running/ walking afterwards

Our aim is to sample every type of food sold.  With Night Market running every Wednesday night until February, it should be an easy task.

If I back-date, these are the foods we've tried so far;

23rd November - Spanish Gozleme and Dutch poffertjes



30th November - Spanish seafood paella





7th December - Nepalese Chicken Sekuwa

- Chicken, Cheese, Mushroom and white wine sauce crepe

14th December - Korean tornado potato sticks

                                                             
I wonder what we'll have today?



Happy Birthday to me

It's that time of year again!!

A work tradition in my department is that we all put in a gold coin donation to buy a cake.  [The cake is pre-requested].  The birthday boy/ girl is obligated to pretend they are unaware this is happening and then act all surprised when they are presented with the cake and a chorus of 'happy birthday to you...'.

One of the advertising campaigns of a major bank says, "We don't pretend it's our xth birthday five times in a row"  How apt!


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Because deep down, we really do want a big fuss don't we?


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This is how work celebrates for me;

This is what my some of my crazier friends have said.  Emphasis on the crazy;

This is what it looks like on the husband-front


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Better than this right?

Beep Beep

And as the title of the post suggests....we have bought a car!!

Ok technically we have only put down a $200 deposit to secure it, but it is pretty much ours as of tomorrow evening potentially.

The sale is directly with the owner via car sales who unfortunatly lives 1 hour away from the city on public transport.  Poor Ant had to trek his way to Burnside on the bus and walk 7 minutes before getting to the house.

Being a girly girl, my decision on which car I liked was mainly based on the colour.  It drove Ant nuts, so he set about educating me on the different types of cars, the different brands and the stupid engines.

So I can say this and know what I'm talking about now - We've bought a Holden Captiva.  It's a 5 door diesel SUV.  And most importantly, is a gorgeous dark blue. 

Pick up is tomorrow after work.  We'll have to endure a 1 hour bus ride to get there, but we shall be driving back home in our brand new car which I own 1/4 of.


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Living Together

It has been quite full on these last two weeks. The ‘Ant Invasion’ began the day after he arrived – I got home after work on Monday 21st to four large Williams & Gosling air freighted boxes full of his crap things.

Luckily my closet space remains mine; otherwise a tantrum would be in order!

He also bought new computer parts to build a fancy new computer. It sits in its glory in my room, on the built-in-desk.

In a desperate attempt to get away from the click click click of his mouse and tap tap tap of his keyboard, I have started sleeping in the spare room. Being a well kept man of leisure, he can be on his computer until whatever hour he chooses. The sounds drive me nuts because I need almost-absolute silence when I’m trying to fall asleep.

At first I absolutely resented being chased out of my own room, my own bed with my own sheets. But I’m quickly learning to love having the whole bed to myself again!

(We tried making him a house-husband but he is useless cannot do housework. I had to re-wash the clothes he machine-washed and re-hang the clothes he put out to dry).

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Cartoons Say it Best

Sometimes cartoons really do say it best!

Marriage: because I am recently married and though Anthony and I have dated for over 7 years, there are still things that I am discovering about him.  Some great, some ....

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Exercise: Because as I get older, I realise the value of health (and the odd bulge in places where it's supposed to be flat!).  At the start of this year I started walking to Puckle Street and back home again which is a good 20 minutes each way, in my fancy running shorts and runners! 



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Handbags: I can totally relate to this!  I don't know the number of handbags I've gone through and I'm happy not knowing!


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Work - I'm a big fan of making To Do lists and then rolling everything over to the next day!

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Online Shopping

Being so time poor and sitting infront of a computer all day, it's no wonder that I love online shopping so much!

 

My latest find is a mod website called Mod Cloth.  The site was started by a girl who would buy thrift store items and sell them online.  Now her she runs a successful business selling online vintage and new clothing sourced from overseas.

I particularly love the really quirky names of each outfit!

Night Market

Last night May, Lyn, Ant and I went to the Suzuki Night Market. The night markets run every Wednesday in Summer.

seafood paella

We had a yummy dinner of seafood paella, bbq sausages, and a savoury pancake which I have forgotten the name of.

Security is present because alcohol is served so that's quite reassuring.  Except for the really big crowds, it's fun thing to do on a Wednesday night. 



Loved I Am

To have all my friends and family apply for leave and fly all the way to Fiji to celebrate my wedding with me.

They were all there; whether they had to catch an international flight, domestic flight, or taxi;

Joanne Mar, Larri Kwang, Sue Fong, Margaret Chow, Pauline Yip, Angela Law, Celeste Cakau, Shahan P

Especially those who contributed their time and skills.  And all for free too!

Leny Lee; the best bridesmaid a bride could hope for
Michael Tan; the best man

Kevin Yuen - he put himself out there for us

Pic to follow: Joanne Mar; who gave us the song for our wedding waltz - 'The Way You Are' by Kina Granis and David Choi
And for helping with the favour boxes which were painstakingly constructed then filled

Soon

Ant and I don't have the most conventional relationship.

It's no secret that we started dating while I was at high school in Fiji and he was at University in QLD.

Later on it changed when he graduated and returned to Fiji for work while my family and I migrated to Melbourne for Uni.

Through 8 years of long distance and seeing each other perhaps three times a year at most, we still managed to decide we liked each other enough to get married.

Our recent marriage in September hasn't changed our long distance situation; he is still in Fiji and I am in Melbourne.

But soon this will change; on November 20th he will move to Melbourne and we will finally have a 'normal' relationship where we can can argue about how he never puts the toilet seat down!



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The Weekend through a lense

I love weekends.  Who doesn't?

• the luxury of hitting snooze and sleeping in and throwing on a robe for the rest of the day

 

• collecting fresh laid eggs from my girls
  

• taking time to look at the flowers

 

• organizing clutter!
  

S'pore Day 13

Saturday 8th October

Today morning we took it slow by sleeping in a little. I had my alarm set for 9:30am but was already itching to get up at 7:30am because I'm very conscious that I have work on Monday

We had brekkie downstairs at Rendezvous Food Court; I had the clear broth while Ant had the deep fried chicken wings. And of course we had the teh.

It was a humid day like the last three days before so we popped by Maccas to get a cold Milo for me and a Sprite for Ant.

Afterwards we walked to the Thieves Market which really was a waste of time. The Thieves Market is made up of dodgy stalls selling second hand goods. We saw lots of second hand clothes, shoes and other random knick knacks.

Ant saw a pair of headphones that retails at $400; the seller was asking for sg$250. Still too pricey.

Sim Lim Electronics Mall was our next stop. Sim Lim owns two buildings spanning 5 levels selling electronics.

There are toilets on every level as well so that worked out very well for me since I need to go every 2 seconds!

Bugis Market was our next stop and it worked out perfectly; we exited Sim Lim Mall and right infront of us was one of the entrance's to Bugis Market! I bought a dress for sg$20 - that meant I was down to sg$10.

Our plan was to catch a taxi from Bugis back to the Hotel so that we could then check out at 3pm (we decided to be extravagent and fork out the sg$10/hr for a late check out). But in the end it was much easier to just walk back to the Hotel in the sweltering heat because there's never a cab when you need one is there?

I had to have another cold Milo from the same Maccas on the way back.

Back in the room we quickly showered and changed into fresh clothes.  Alas that shower was wasted because we had to try flag down a cab in the hot Singaporean afternoon.  The Hotel said they could not call a cab for us so it was up to us to drag our suitcases along the road trying to flag one down.  10 minutes later by the time we figured out to just ring for one, I managed to flag one down.  The sun must have really affected him that day because as I was opening the door of our hard-won cab, he told me to let it go because he was booking one with the telephone operator at that moment.

Think I listened?  No!

S'pore Day 12 Botanical Gardens

Friday 7th October

This morning we snoozed again. I got up at 9:30am; an hour later than planned. Ant needed some extra convincing to wake up because he was online until 5am or some other crazy hour.

Off we went to City Square Mall for breakfast. They had stopped serving breakfast at Maccas so we settled for some congee. Ant had the century egg and shredded chicken, I was adventurous and had the frog legs. Both had a raw egg cracked into the clay bowl and then congee scooped over it. My frog legs tasted like fish, but that could be because it was served with anchovies. We ordered donuts too and they were cut up into bite sized pieces; like giant croutons!

Once done, we headed to Maccas for a cup of their yummy cold Milo SG$2.60. Then we had to race to catch the Red bus. Turns out we neededn't have hurried because it pulled up about 10minutes later. Unfortunately I had forgotten the route timetable at home or we would have strolled after that big brekkie.

First stop was the Botanical Gardens because Ant wanted to see their Orchids. The gradens have a rainforest area and another area dedicated to orchids. And why not, these floweres are gorgeous! We took lots of pictures for his dad. The humidity was stifling and soon it started to drizzle. By now it was about 3pm.

We hopped on to the Red bus again and rode a few stops to Funan Digital Centre. There, we got off and waited for the Original bus to interchange to Orchard Road. Orchard Road is a prime strip of shoppping with high end shops, malls and lots of food courts. The rain was really coming down by now so we took the opportunity to have lunch in one of the malls. I had the laksa set which included a teh. Ant had a combination of noodles, minced beef and mushroom with soup on the side. We weren't sure if he was meant to mix the soup with his noodles. Altogether our meal only cost sg$10 which was unbelievably cheap. My laksa even had about 5 blanched oysters.

After our very brief tour of Orchard Rd, we caught the City bus to Bugis Market. The market was full as usual.

We stopped by our fresh juice shop and bought a pineapple juice and a mango juice. We ended up with two pineapple juices so Ant was not amused. The drink got slimely about half way through so we threw them away. They cost sg$1 each. On the way out of the market, we bought a soursop juice for me and a lime juice for Ant - We got what we wanted because I ordered.  sg$2.50 and super delish.

Unfortunately we missed the 5:27pm bus so we had to walk back to the hotel. From Bugis to Lavender, it's a nice 20minute walk. Because it had rained a little, the temperature was tolerable too.

When we arrived at reception to get our keys for the room, the staff asked if we would be checking out. We said no, check out was tomororw (Saturday). According to their records, we had only paid up until tonight so they wanted us to pay an extra night or if we were checking out, we had to pay $5 for the cost of having the room made up. We told them we had to go to our room so that we could look through our own records on Hotel Club.

Luckily both Ant and I had printed out all our itinerary's and hotel bookings. I left my hotel booking in Melb, but Ant had a copy which clearly confirmed checking out on Saturday. The staff were apologetic after double checking it on their end.

After bumming around in the room and watching some tv, (Ant using the free wireless), we went downstairs to the Lavender Food Court. There are about 12 different food shops in the one complex and all decently priced. I had the chicken rice set which was simlar to hainanese chicken and a side dish of kai lan. Only sg$5. Ant had a huge meat platter which cost sg$16. His eyes were too big for him - his stall was one of the build-your-own dishes sort of shop where they put all the ingredients out and you choose everything you want in it.

We also bought takeaway teh to kai colo the plastic bag it comes in.  And we bought dessert.  Longan and lotus seed for me and grass jelly and red beans for Ant.  Meh.

Now we're nice and full and watching X Factor in our room!