the first 75 days....

come on, victoria!

picture source: john woudstra, the age

we are saddened by the tragic consequence of the bush fire in our beloved adopted state earlier this week. we hope the worst is over and affected victorians will find strength and courage to rebuild their lives and emerge stronger.

be strong, victoria!

australia open 2009

on 25th jan 09, we were at melbourne park to catch the action of the first tennis grand slam of the year. we were all there except my better half as she prefers the comfort of the home. (it turns out to be a good decision on her part as the sun sizzled that afternoon)

as parking in town would be a pain during the aussie open, we took the connex from boxhill and 25mins later, flinders street station beckoned.

we decided to walk along the yarra river to the venue. it was a busy late sunday morning at the riverbank with runners, bladers, canoeists and tourists all added to a bustling morning. by 11am, the crowd were steadily building already. a pack schedule awaits tennis fans all over the world.

as newbies, we weren't sure what to expect and spent the first 30 minutes wandering and just soaking up the atmosphere. we went to the canon photo booth to have our `official' photo taken (see 1st pic）.

we decided to park ourselves at the margaret court arena as there are a few meaningful matches in the line-up. first-up was the sania mirza/mahesh bhupathi (india) mixed doubles match. we thought we would support our fellow asian. and on the 3rd match on the schedule were the pairing of the awesome williams' sister, due to take on an australian pair. little did we realized that sania/mahesh and venus/serena will go on to win their finals and crowned mixed doubles and women's doubles finals respectively. apparently our `first timer' luck rubbed on to them!

it was really hot by noon time and we kept cool with lots of water and ice cream. even that, it became too much to bear for us. we decided to call it quits by 3pm. we caught a tram back to flinders street station to catch a train back to blackburn south.

for a first timer, it was a great experience for all of us. we could have been better prepared, especially for the heat and also `gunning' for the matches we wanted to catch, but i guess there is always the 2010 australia open. also, experiencing australia open is a childhood dream come true for me. to be able to spend it with my kids is priceless.

video: the wiliams sisters getting a warm reception from the crowd in their doubles match.

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)