please stop at 48!

it was reported that melbourne will experience her hottest week in over 100 years this week. in the last few days, we had to endure temperature of over 40 degrees celcius.

today it (literally) reached a new high. at about 3.30pm, it shows 48 on the car temperature gauge. kinda makes you wonder, what on earth were we doing outside in a car with this scorcher on us?

no grapevine stuff

we found out not too long ago that there is actually a grape tree on our very own yard. and multiple bunches of young fruits started to appear.
we covered them with paper bags to prevent the birds from having a go at them.
what a pleasant surprise!
it should be a few weeks before they fully ripe, so....watch this space!

australia is abba-country with a capital A

i have been to australia for work and leisure probably a dozen times before. i can recall in most times, when i had the telly on, there will be some kind of music program on abba or musical tributes to them. it was after a colleague told me that aussies are massive abba fans that i came to appreciate australians devotion to this swedish band. if they could be anyone other than australian, they would be swede.
little wonder when i switched on the telly on new year's eve, there was yet another abba tribute program showing during the prime time hour. as a closet abba fan, it was my best ever new year's eve in aussieland.
i proudly told my children about how abba was the biggest band in the universe during their heyday. only the bee gees rival them in cassette sales. none of them were impressed, not especially when i `robbed' them of their viewing of `spiderman 3' in a competing channel.
my eldest daughther was slightly bemused by my teen-like enthusiasm. when the program showed Björn Kristian Ulvaeus in a white space jumpsuit with his 6 inch high white platform boots gyrating and lip-synching to the song 'does your mother know?', she turned to me and asked, "are you seriously a big abba fan?" my curt reply was, "yes, and jonas brothers is crap!"
......now i can't wait for 2009 new year's eve to come.

home dining: an evolution

(13 december 2008)

(14 december 2008)

(23 december 2008)

christmas day picnic at the dandenong ranges national park

on christmas day, we spent some time at the dandenong park range. our first stop was the fern tree gully picnic area, which is at the base of the scenic drive up to the range.

we spent about an hour there just enjoying the great sunshine. in between munching on the food we prepared beforehand, the kids all had a good run around the ground, playing throw ball and other games.

being the christmas holiday, the park was crowded. however, everyone was gracious enough to let one another enjoy the facilities there. and lots of barbie (aus slang for BBQ) going around.

thereafter, we drove up leisurely along the scenic route to enjoy the spectacular east-bound view of the range. we made a couple of stops to just soak in the relax atmosphere and enjoy the view.

as this park is only 20 odd km from our place, we decided to make it a point to come more often. a different picnic area perhaps.

(laying the mat over the table to get some munch going)

(grilled chicken sandwich and er.......crackers)

(the sibling pose)

(plenty of woods everywhere)

(spectacular view of the Dandenong range from Kalorama Park)

(getting a vantage view of the range)

melbourne is not for little miss muffet

the one thing we need to be really comfortable living where we are now with is to co-exist with bugs and crawlies here, especially spiders. as eastern melbourne is sited on fertile ground, these mostly harmless little creatures are found everywhere amidst plants and flowers. often times, they `got lost' and found their way into unfamiliar surroundings like our home. so far, i have told everyone that instead of instinctively squashing them, we should just lure them on a piece of paper, take them out of the house and let them go back to familiar territory.

sometimes when i hear an occasional shriek (not necessarily my kids), i will just put on my superhero outfit and `rescue' these bugs from extinction around our place by releasing them back into our garden.

so far, i have not problem with them all, except for this one in the picture that got me taken slightly aback. i found this in the gardening shed where this `little' spider measures about 4-5cm in length. this one, i hope will never find its way to our home.

take a load of this....

i wrote previously how we constantly `traumatize' our freight forwarder with daily call to inquire about the delivery status of our container of stuff from singapore. we have lived for 10 days on borrowed pillows, water jug and pots and pans when the container finally stopped right outside our front yard on the 23 dec 08.

my initial relief of getting our belongings was quickly reduced to utter dismay and horror when the last of the 158 cartons were unloaded; mostly in our backyard.

how and where to we start?

the sheer thought of unpacking ALL* the boxes seemed a little too much to bear for me. for a split second, i wished the ship had sunk in the ocean instead so i can just claim insurance and buy anew. that would have been easier. however, that thought perished quickly upon seeing my 2 road bikes arriving safely as they are priceless** to me.

from having nothing much to do for 10 days since we moved in, suddenly i have my work cut out for me for the next 10.

finished we did***; like it or not. now we are comfortably settled in, this is one of the last pieces of jigsaw of settling down in melbourne that we pieced without too much fuss.

(13 dec 08, 2.00pm. boxes galore. care to lend a hand?)

(13 dec 08, 8.30pm. mostly gone, but not quite done yet)

(safe and sound. the most important items in the container)

* i never did unpack all boxes. about 25 boxes are stored in the shed, mainly my books/collectibles. i have a sneaky feeling we might move (again) in 12 months so i need to be `smart' here.

** priceless because i never did tell my wife how much these bikes cost. she might never talk to me again if she knew.

*** we were more or less done putting all the pieces in place by 30 december. my mum will be visiting on the 31st so we need to show her that we are `quite settled'. i think we pulled it off quite admirably. she couldn't tell, or she's not saying. we also took a breather on christmas day and had a picnic instead.

`love story' for a 4 year old?

`love story' by taylor swift was on heavy rotation on aussie radio during the past month. we had the radio on a lot during our drive outs; and not long after, we noticed the baby in our family, shimun can sing along for most part of the song. i doubt she understand the words she's singing to nor the meaning of the song, but the emotion she puts into the song is mind-boggling to me.

here's the video of the song by taylor swift.

whatever happened to her rites of passage; `london bridge is falling down...' or any of the barney songs? hi-5 is passe to her....

i want my 4 years old girl back to being 4!!! stop growing up so fast!