monkey bar...sequal

since the big step up to completing the monkey bar a month back, fagan shows how much she improved today. we spent some time at eastern park today while on a day trip to geelong and once again; i was summoned to watch her in action....

fagan's new milestone

late october, we were @ jells park for picnic when fagan excitedly summoned me over to the playground. she told me that she can now successfully navigate through the monkey bars which eluded her previously. it was a big moment for her.

being a `monkey' girl, it is not the least unexpected ;-)

spring's here...

canterbury garden

...in fact, springs been here for a couple of weeks. it is only of late that the weather becomes a tad warmer, firmly leaving the cold days behind. that said, it's not wise to second guess melbourne's weather.

the last couple of weeks has been busy-fun for all of us. firstly, the kid's having their spring break and my parents visiting us here kept us all up and about. my mum's is especially excited since her daughter-in-law is expecting her new bundle of joy anytime now*. That's grandchild #5 for her.

the improving weather is a great excuse for us to all go out and have a little bit of the fun and sun. in the past 10 days, we have been to st. kilda, south melbourne market, camberwell sunday market, canterbury garden and just yesterday, picnic @ jells park. some haunts are old favourites while others were our first visits.

today is significant in some ways because we are exactly 2 months short of 2 years moving to down under. in many ways, we can be called true melbournians now. for a start, i am no longer shock at the prices of eggs here. i also don't bat an eyelid paying a$4.50 for a piece of roti telur/roti canai. `how issit going, mate?' becomes my conversation starter when i talk to fellow colleagues. i need my cuppa now (make it a skinny latte) to start my day and when we yearn for junk food, we head for the mackers....i could go on but you get the picture....

St. Kilda

Canterbury Garden

Picnic @ Jells Park with Tommy and Christine

*No, not Cecilia but our sister-in-law Zoe in Sydney.

our first ride

after a few false starts this month, cecilia and i managed to squeeze time for a short ride today during lunch time.

it was slightly overcast but i was eager to get her up the saddle and enjoy the ride, what with the cool weather perfect for a workout and the scenic eastlink trail. (ok, make that cold weather)

we drove to koomba park as our starting point. with our matching blues, we were soon were up and riding towards bayswater park. the pace is relax. there were few cyclists on a weekday so that adds to her confidence. the `flexible' dahon serve cecilia well.

i enjoyed the ride with her and hopefully, (her) sore bum aside, she will join me for future rides.

spelling `help'; spelling help

the littlest one came to me 3 days ago and said, "papa, i know how to spell `help'."

clearly impressed, i said, "great, how do you spell `help'?"

`SOS', she replied.

i was dumbfounded. it is not wrong but not quite right either.

i wonder who taught her that.

wasp sting

fagan had the unfortunate experience of being stung by a wasp on saturday during her chinese class. it happened outside her class during her lunch break. we brought her to the clinic just to be sure.

we found out later wasps are commonly found during this time of the year. its' stings are pretty harmless. one just have to endure the pain and the swell for a few hours before it subsides.

pic: fagan at the clinic still distressed by the sting. she refuses to have a picture taken of her swollen finger on her left hand.

visit

the kid's grandfather 3 weeks' visit to melbourne is reaching the end this tuesday. time flies. hopefully, it will give him some peace of mind that our rather boring, but predictable lifestyle here is a good thing.

(picture taken at skyhigh mount dandenong)

first try

paisley and shankly took part in their first kids' triathlon today, aptly titled `the weet-bix kids TRYathlon'. we thought it will be a good opportunity to expose them to a more active lifestyle in australia.

the distance is manageable; shankly did a 200m open sea swim, 6km cycling and 1km run. paisley who's in the 10years old age group did left than that. both survived and enjoyed the experience.

we trained a fair bit for the event. we cycled and run around our neighborhood a couple of times a week and also swim once a week for about 4 weeks leading up to today. since it is their first try at triathlon, we didn't take any chances and it is also good to inculcate the habit of preparing for something.

the event is held at st. kilda. the sun was out in force, the crowd is great (more than 2000 registered kids triathletes) and the atmosphere were really good. shankly and paisley were joined by the children of some of our family friends, so it was a good sunday outing for us overall.

shankly at the finishing line with his finisher's medal

paisley getting ready for her race

...kids at the event

soccer player showing his juggling skills in one of the many fringe events there.

caught out....

it was just another saturday today until we are completely caught out by the weather. we had just finished the children's classes at about 3pm when the weather suddenly turned belly up. like a boxer caught completely unaware of an oncoming punch, we were ko'd by a torrent of hailstones. some were as big as golf balls. luckily we just got into the car just in time but the poor car was pelted non-stop for about 5 minutes. we drove to seek shelter under a tree but it was scant consolation. the car bore the brunt of the weather's fury.

it was a terrifying experience as we have never experienced something as bad. i was hoping that the car's windows can withstand the hailstones as some of them were pretty big and nasty. luckily it held out. however, we didn't have much hope for the car body though. when things settled and i got out to look at the damage, i counted no less than a dozen dents all over the car.

when i check the websites on this freak weather, i realized we did escape the worst of it. many others weren't as lucky. some sustained injuries and others have their cars with worse damage.

we hope it is something we do not have to go thru' again.

below are some pictures that the press posted.

(all pictures from the age and herald sun websites)

ballarat

on sunday (28/feb/2010), we drove to ballarat. the kid's grandfather has come over to visit us in melbourne and we thought it will be a good opportunity to drive to ballarat and see the place.

ballarat is situated in the western part of victoria and the drive from our place is just under 2 hours. the heritage of ballarat is clearly in its heydays as a gold mining haven for those who wanted to strike it rich. as it was a prosperous town in the 19th century due to its gold finds, the ballarat of today consists of buildings of great architectural heritage and a rich resource to the history of victoria/australia in those days. sprawling parks and gardens too dominated the city area.

our first stop is the ballarat botanical gardens. it is a large area surrounded with nicely manicured plants and flowers amidst the trees. i had looked forward to visit the acclaimed observatory as well after watching it on television not long ago. the visit to the botanical garden however weren't the best of trip unfortunately because the strong wind condition marred an otherwise good weather for a picnic outdoor. it became dusty and we couldn't stay for long. the observatory was also closed as it is being prepared for the begonia festival which happens on the 6th march.

at noon, we proceeded to sovereign hill, which is listed as an outdoor museum which captures the life and times of the miners in the area. workers were dressed in their period costumes to lend authenticity to the exhibits, which is essentially a recreated township(thank goodness the toilet facilities are modern!) i had my initial reservations about the place. i had envisioned it to be no more than a theme park to cater to the tourists like me. i was wrong. there are a lot of educational elements at sovereign hill that provide great insights on how minings are conducted in those areas. we went to a few shows, including gold pouring, lollies making the traditional way, tried 19th century bowling and even visited two mines underground. we ended up spending more than 4 hours at sovereign hill. the kids enjoyed themselves thoroughly. same for me.

alas, we had to leave since paisley needs to call it an early night as she has her school camp the next day, but not before we stopped over at my cousin's place for dinner in syndenham.

the teacher making sure the kids do their homework properly.

posing outside the school at sovereign hill.

panning for gold. no, they didn't get lucky.

botanical gardens with the observatory as background.

fagan

prep class picnic (26 feb 10)

last friday, fagan's school hosted a friday evening picnic at the school compound.

the objective is for the parents to meet their teachers and also get to know the parents of their classmates.

we arrived at just past 6pm and it was already crowded. the weather was pleasant for an outdoor picnic. we met with 2 of fagan's classmates parents and we had a good chatting session. the kids were busy playing in between meals while us adults were busy with the food while getting to know one another well. we got acquainted by 2 nice families; a singaporean/malaysian couple and a burmese couple. we also met the teachers in the prep class.

the picnic in the school is a great idea.

this is our picnic spot.

fagan who's on her way to look for her form teacher, mrs parents to pass her the home-made curry-puffs cecilia baked.

the rest of the prep students' parent who're at the vermont primary school compound having a great time.

school starts...

feb 2010 marks another milestone for the kids.

starting with the baby of the family, fagan; she starts prep school (k2 equivalent in singapore) @ vermont primary school. hopefully she will be forging lifelong friendship, learn and experience the joy of school for the next 7 years.

paisley too attends level 5(primary 5) @ vermont primary school. she a bit of a student vagabond, as this is her 4th primary in 5 years. however, being easy going and someone who mix around easily, she will do fine and hopefully will be able to see out her primary education in this school.

shankly starts his level 7(equivalent to sec 1 in singapore) @ vermont secondary college. may he continue to learn and be more independent & inquisitive in this school. hopefully, he will also forge lifelong friendship and have a truly good experience schooling here.

Christmas Outing

By Shankly Chiew

During the Christmas break, my family took a 3 day trip to Albury-Wodonga, the twin cities bordering Victoria and NSW. The trip is about 300km from where we live. We set off on the 27^th December.

We did a stopover in a smallish town called Glenrowan. Glenrowan is now a tourist attraction, no less due to the infamous Ned Kelly, who made the place his last stand. We had a great lunch there with a Ned Kelly themed cafe. The cafe had friendly service with good seats and most importantly, great food. I had a beef with gravy roll while Paisley had nuggets and chips. My parents and Shi Mun shared a zucchini slice thingy which I tried which was delicious! We also had a look at Ned Kelly museum.

Our arrival at Wodonga pleased many of us especially me after that long and hard ride. We had a look around at the vicinity then went for a little shopping and retired to our cabin for the rest of the sweltering afternoon. Soon, it was time for our dinner and being tired, our mum didn’t want to cook. We drove out to Albury and ate at a Chinese restaurant.

The next day, we woke up early and got ready for our trip to the Wonga Wetlands. Unfortunately, it was closed! So our trip up there had resulted in nothing. Next, we were supposed to go to the Albury Art Gallery but guess what? It was closed too! So we moved our schedule up and watch a movie. We decided to split up with my father, my sister and I watching Avatar in 3D. My baby sister and my mum watched Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakel. After that, we went to a park and played around and went home for our second night sleep.

On the last day, we packed up our things and checked out, but not before we made a few other stops, like the visiting a bakery with the world’s biggest rolling pin, spending time at the Albury Library, visiting Lake Hume and its dam, and a memorial for WW1 called Monument Hill Reserve.

The trip was really pleasant for me and I really hope I can go again, but this time more relaxing and less bustling about going to different places.