Joy!

A few friends shared the same verse with me at different places, different time.
Psalm 37:4 - Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you your heart's desires.

I thought over this verse over and over again, and did some google search, shared with close friends. And one shared the below message to me.

I love it so much!

I got to memorize this!
And putting here so I can always come back to read it. :)

Working With Children Check

I got this in my mailbox when I came back from my home trip. :)

In Victoria, in order to do any work involving children, you'll need Working With Children Check. Basically, they just check if you have any crimical record before giving you the permit.

I recently put my name down to help out in Eunice's class as a parents helper, hence I needed this card. And I am planning to volunteer as helpers in more activities later. 

Since this is just a volunteer task, so it's free. :).. 

I am actually very happy to get this card. It looks very nice, don't you think so?
I think it's because of the color and the picture of children on it. :)

Love it!

More info @ http://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/.

2015 Home Trip

We decided to make a home trip during the first term holiday in 2015 - air tickets were cheaper during this time, probably because everyone is not traveling anymore after the Christmas break in December. 

I was very nervous for the trip (looks like I am always nervous for everything). Our previous home trip to my sister's wedding was quite a disaster in the airport. Thank goodness during then I had friends who traveled together to help us. So, this time, I have been brainwashing Eunice that I needed her help in the airport, and went through the "procedures" many times with her, like we'll go airport, have some nuggets, then we have to queue up, etc etc, until we board into the plane.

As usual, I think I overworried. Because my two cutie pies were angels throughout our long journey home! I was very pleased with Eunice. She's very independent now and could really hold herself together even though I know she's actually tired or sleepy. I was very very happy with her.

Our flight was at 1.30am, and we reached airport around 830pm (too early!). We waited for 2 hours before we could drop our luggage, went through the long queues for hand luggage scan check, custom immigration check, and to terminal to wait for an hour before boarding. After 8 hours flight, we arrived KLIA2 at 6.30am but our next flight was at 1.30pm (7 hours transit, YES!). So, we hung out at McD, walked around KLIA2, had expensive and lousy lunch until we flew to Penang. And, nope! We're not home yet! We then took a car from a friend, went to meet a friend to take 2 car seats, and drove 1 hour to Taiping. 

And yes, after almost 24 hours, we're finally home! We reached Taiping at about 4.30pm! So, how can I not be proud of my two little angels who behaved so well throughout the long trip? We were so happy and proud of them until EG said, it's time to plan for more travel trips! :)

@ the airport

@12.30am, both girls still wide awake. 
They were excitedly trying to spot aeroplanes in the dark.

Finally arrived @ KLIA2 after 8 hours flight! 

So what did we do at home? Honestly, nothing much. We were in Taiping most of the time and the main purpose of this home trip is to visit EG's family and get the children to spend more time with his parents, also to tell them about us in the new place. And we did. 

The girls were happy with the grandparents as the grandparents spoiled them! Ah well, it has been a year since the grandparents met them. Hopefully they will be willing to come over Aus to visit us in the year end.

We took a few pictures of some of the things that we did.

Having breakfast in my favorite kopitiam on the first day

The whole family went for a haircut @ our fav saloon. And I colored my hair.
This is the no.1 to do things in my list. :D

Met up with cousin from KL

Enjoyed those rides. RM1 / RM2 comparing to AUD1 / AUD2! :)

Went Penang and met up with friends and their juniors!

Breakfast with grandparents. They love toasted bread with butter & kaya.

Updated Natalie's passport photo.
Do the sisters look at like? Both pics taken when they were 2.5yo. :)

Ate roti canai a few times and EG decided to teach them to eat with hands.
They enjoyed it! Nat calls it Pizza. :D

Let them try ice kacang (I told Eunice it's icy "bowl" instead of icy poles here).
They didn't quite like it. Too bad. :P

After 2 weeks in Taiping, we drove back to Penang, returned car seats, met with a good friend before leaving to airport. We took a we-fie in McD in PG airport before we went into the terminal - just like what we did 14 months ago when we left Penang to Melbourne. :).. EG said we should do this everytime when we do our home trip. Good idea I thought. :)

All of us @ PG airport, stick together, as always!

Finally, dinner @ KLIA2 before leaving to Melbourne.

Transit in KLIA2 to Melbourne was 4 hours so it wasn't too bad. Girls were easily occupied with some pens and books for them to draw or scribble (esp for Eunice). Had fast food in the airport (we reckoned that's the best food after getting disappointed with the hefty price and lousy quality food we paid in airports for several times) for dinner before going into terminal to wait for boarding.

So how did we like our home trip? It wasn't too bad. I thought since I have spent 30 years+ in Malaysia, the hot and humid weather in Malaysia is not a problem for me, but I was wrong. I was very reluctant to come out most of the time, and I only wanted to stay in air cond room. :P.. For girls, Eunice asked to bathe everytime we came back from outside. And Nat refused to sit on the kopitiam chairs, she said they're dirty! I had to find a better looking or cleaner chairs for her to sit. :P.. And for dinner, Eunice will ask to go to places which are "nice and fresh" - means air-conditioned.

For me, I think the thing I like the most, is the warm breakfast in Malaysia. Unlike in Melbourne, we normally just have bread/milk/cereal/eggs for breakfast.

Anyway, we're glad to be back safely. It's always nice to be home - no matter where the home is. And now after a break, it's time to gear up for the new year (a quarter has passed, I know!) with our new goals!

Early

@ Melbourne Central, 19 March 2015

Passed this this morning, after almost 4 months.

Doing what supercolossal did, took a pic, and blogged, except that I was early.

Busy start of 2015

It's a super busy start for 2015 for me - Eunice started primary school and with me getting stressed out with all the lunch boxes idea, as well as the "processes" in the school - which are all new to me, and a few information nights/meetings/assessments, and we decided to sign Eunice up for swimming lesson after all the read up & surveying around, later came February for Eunice's birthday, Chinese New Year, etc.

I thank God for His strength for me to have all these finally settled and over, especially for Eunice's school stuff - it's more into the routine now. Even she knows when is the PE class to wear the right shoes, and when is the library day to bring her library bag and library book.

So I've been pretty busy cooking especially for all these events.

For Eunice's birthday, I steamed a chocolate cake for her when we had a dinner in my aunt's house. So it was a early celebration for her with my cousins (her beloved playmates). It was really yummy. I got the recipe from: http://cakeonthebrain.blogspot.com, it's really easy and you don't even need a blender. The weather was rather warm on that day and we ate with vanilla ice cream, oh it was really very yummy!

Steam chocolate cake

And on Eunice's actual day of her birthday, I got a few of her little girl friends over just for a small party with the children. It's harder than I thought. Anyway I think they still had a good time (I hope!). I made an ice cream cake for the kids. And they loved it! A kid told me it's the best cake she's ever eaten - Wow! I believe kids don't lie. :)

For this cake, I got the recipe from: http://www.taste.com.au. But I didn't follow exactly. I only mixed a tub of vanilla ice cream with frozen raspberries and chocolate chips, and topped with Eunice's choice of favorite berries. I think it looked fabulous!

A week before Chinese New Year, I got some time off from office and I decided to try the bak kwa recipe that I saw from http://nasilemaklover.blogspot.com. It was so easy to make and it finished all in a day. However, I didn't make it again because cleaning up (the tray) is too much work. So, I only make it once. :D

Grilling in the oven

Looks pretty good after cutting up!

Chinese New Year is one culture that I'll surely want to keep and instill into my children. I made them say Gong Xi Fa Cai (ended up pretty hilarious with their aussie slang now), and cooked up a storm for our reunion dinner (or a storm was cooking instead). Nah, just being exaggerate. :P. I did cook up quite a bit for our reunion dinner, and we had it with two of our good friends from my hometown as this is their first CNY away from home. It was a good dinner. All the things that I cook are pretty easy - no, I didn't stay in the kitchen for 2 hours to cook all these. In fact, most of them are done quickly, and I still could run around for my errands and take a short power nap!

Roasted chicken. Recipe from: http://www.buzzfeed.com.
4 steps:
1) Thaw and dry the chicken
2) Season with salt & pepper (inside the cavity as well)
3) Truss the chicken
4) Into the oven for 200C for 1 hour 15 minutes.
Done!

My mum does this for every festive season or celebration.
Just lightly fry the hard boiled egg with oil.
We call them 炸蛋 (sounds like bombs in mandarin).

I got the very fresh banana prawns from the supermaket here. Cleaning them up was most probably the task that took up most of my time. And I used the recipe from my favorite cooking website: http://rasamalaysia.com/. Easy peasy and yummy yummy!

This was the first time I bought a whole fish ever since I came Aus. But I was very impressed that the fish from the fish pier outside my house is very very fresh, and it's not expensive too. Well, I just got a barramundi. The girls have not had steamed fish for a looooong time and surely ate a lot of them. Guess this dish will be a frequent dish on my dining table from now on.
5 easy steps:
1) Clean & dry the fish. Julienned the ginger and put on the fish & in the cavity.
2) Steam for 10 minutes (I poured away the water from the fish after steaming to avoid soil smell)
3) Put on fried garlic & garlic oil (pre-made)
4) Mix 1 tbsp soy sauce,  1 tbsp oyster sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and hot water. Pour over the fish.
5) Garnish with chopped spring onions and chili.

Spring rolls! My friend made this so I have no recipe for this.

Lotus root soup with pork ribs by me. Just boil pork ribs (cleaned), lotus root (I bought frozen ones from Asian grocery) and red dates (seeds removed) for 1 hour. Yummy-licious!

Standard stir fried vegetables with scallops by friend.

Our Reunion Dinner

Dishes on our reunion dinner - I was pretty proud of myself!

EG was a happy happy man on the CNY eve. Food was very good and he was full until the next day (yeap, no kidding!). But I didn't put up any decoration or made any CNY cookies this year. I'll surely improve myself next year though he told me it's already very good this year. :). And of course we gave red packets to the children. And I am also impressed with Eunice's school - they have a 1 hour mandarin class on Monday and she told me, "Mummy, it's the year of Goat this year!". :)

So now my major cooking for this year is done - for now! Until the next event comes up. In the meantime, introducing my new member on my kitchen counter!

Introducing - PHILIP AIR FYER!

I am so excited! My friend's mum decided to let go of hers as she hardly used it, so I got it at a big discount. And now, I am looking for recipes to see how this beautiful baby can help me with my cooking, to serve more delicious food for my precious family. :)

Till then,

2014 Reflections

2014 is probably the craziest, the messiest, but also one of the most blessed year that both EG and I had.

Even since we're married, all the good things happened to us - we bought a terrace house in Penang (when everyone said we're crazy), I got pregnant, and we had our first child after 2 years of marriage, and our girl grew up beautifully while I braced through the journey of breastfeeding, and we marched through the journey of parenthood together, and then we had our second princess after 2 more years. We changed our car, we got promoted in our work, we very much enjoyed our family time within our small little family, and then we made probably the biggest & the craziest decision in our life - we let go of all the beautiful things that we had, and our whole family migrated to Australia together in Feb 2014.

As I wrote in my previous entry, we have been settling very well in this new place. Today, on the last day of 2014, I recall how we have gone through our year this year, there's only one word to describe it - MESSY. 2014 is truly the messiest year that I have had in my life. But of course, it's messy in a good way - in the past 10 mths, we got a car, settled all the children schooling, childcare, banking, settled in a church, moved in our place, started new jobs, setting out routine, made new friends, joined small (cell) group, etc.

It really amazed me that how on earth we could do so many things in just 10 months.


Now, my company closes for 3 weeks for Christmas/New Year holiday. Many were shocked that we're closed for so long (not a good sign for business, plus it's forced leaves). But for me, I have been waiting for this break for a really long time. Now, 50% of my holiday has passed, and I feel very much rested, especially mentally. I do not need to wake up early to pack Eunice's lunch box/water bottle/ fruits & snack box, I do not need to rush in and out to fetch children to childcare and rush to work, I do not need to think what to prepare for lunch a day ahead, and I can relax and spend time with my children, driving and bringing them around the suburbs to check out new things or new places, and I can tidy up my messy home after living here for 6 months! I have time to plan out the kids' schooling next year. And the thing that I enjoy the most is, I can spend time with my hubby everyday for 3 weeks!

Though 2014 has been a great year for us, but it's also a sad year. There're three airline disasters in Malaysia in this year alone, the flood in east coast Malaysia, a friend's neighbor whose child used to be Eunice's classmate in Penang passed away, leaving behind her hubby and 2 children who's the same age as mine, and another good friend's nephew passed away.

One thing that I really wish to thank God is that we always have faithful spiritual friends around us wherever we are - in Penang, and now in Melbourne. Their friendship and their sharing have encouraged and helped us a lot in going through this crazy 2014 year.

On the last day of 2014, as I reflect on this year that is going to pass, I thank you God for all the blessing that He has poured unto us, and my prayer is that everyone in my family, and all my friends whom I know will stay healthy and safe in everything that they do.

So, goodbye 2014, and Bring-it-on 2015!

Happy New Year from all of us :)

Mango Smoothies

I love mangoes.

It's now mango season in Australia. Yum yum! The price is getting cheaper and cheaper since it's at the peak of the season now - we can get $2 for 1 mango, or sometimes less if buying in bulk! So, I've been cutting mangoes for our fruits pretty often for the past week. Last week, my friend from church gave me another 3 mangoes! *Drool big time*!

I try not to give the girls mangoes too often - Chinese believes that mangoes are heaty and might cause cough (especially since Nat has been coughing occasionally), but I can't keep them for too long as they might get overripe. As I was wondering what else I can do with them, I then came across this super simple smoothies recipe in a magazine.

We're having simple pizza for lunch today and I decided to make this drink to make the lunch more complete (lazy mum - I know!). I didn't follow the original recipe 100% but tweaked by using whatever I have in my pantry. Result? Oh, it's very very yummy! And it's very refreshing. Eunice had 2 cups. I didn't have almond meals so I didn't put into my drink. Now I know what to do if I have more mangoes. :D

Mango Smoothies

Mango & Honey Smoothies
Ingredients:
1 mango
400ml of fresh milk
1/2 cup of Greek Yogurt
1 tbsp of honey

Method:
1. Peel and chop mango into small pieces and place into a blender with milk, yogurt and honey.
2. Blend until smooth.

As simple as that. Yum! I must go buy almond meal one day and try with it. It should add extra flavor to the drink. :)

A day in Melbourne City

In Penang, EG and I worked in the same company for the last 5 years. We spent a lot of time together when going to work, having lunch together almost everyday, and leaving office together to fetch kids. Ever since we moved here, we've been really busy with all our daily chores and spending time together is almost mission impossible - maybe only after kids are asleep at night, but by then, both of us will be exhausted too.

I actually miss those times that we can talk and chat with no distraction from the kids. EG works in the city and has been asking me to go with him one day just to tour around or see how he travels to work, and have a look at his work place.

So, we both took a day off from work, sent the girls for full day childcare, and I went to the city with him.

We spent a lot of time in Melbourne Uni, where he showed me around - things that he learnt from his orientation, had coffee at his favorite coffee house, walked around the gardens, etc. And we took the city loop tram a bit, and went for Vietnamese lunch, and off to QV and Emporium for some window shopping. Time passed very quickly and we needed to rush home to fetch our two girls from childcare.

It was a good time spending time together just between two of us. As usual we both enjoyed each other's company a lot. I guess it won't happen very often, but I believe now we really should make an effort to have some times for ourselves once a while. :)

Melbourne Central. Stopped for a while to watch the clock "sings" :)

Different corners of a part of Melbourne University

House of Cards Expresso in Melbourne Uni
EG insisted that we should have a cup of coffee at his favorite cafe in the uni.

Did a we-fie :P

Me @ different corners of the Uni

EG brought me to this place and asked me to guess what it is. It's a very special car park. Above the car park is a nice lawn where ppl will sit/lie down to read/rest/eat. In EG's orientation, he was told that each pillar in the car park is either the tree trunk or some drainage for the lawn/garden on top.

The very special car park :)

This is the South Lawn on top of the car park

We tried to be "artistic" and went for to the Ian Potter Museum Art for some art viewing. But sadly, we don't really know how to appreciate those art... :P

There's a story about this Leckie Window, since 1935.
Apparently it's from some hall that caught fire, this is the only piece that they could save.

I love this part of the of the Uni - love those plants around the buildings

The best thing about this outing is that I didn't plan anything. :P... I let EG do all the planning by himself. Whatever he asked me what I wanna do or where I wanna go, my answer is, anything, up to you. Hehehe..! It's always nice to just relax and have someone to plan the trip for you. :)

My tour guide checking the itinerary :P

EG said this sun dial still works... Trying to figure out how to read the time :P

After we left the uni, we took the free City Loop Tram, and decided to stop by Parliament building to take some photos, and not going for the rest of the journey as we're running out of time

Exploring the city in the free City Loop tram - but completed maybe 20% only :P

Time passes very quickly as we walked around. We went the famous Lygon street for food hunting and decided to have Vietnamese food for our late lunch. Yum yum!

Went Lygon street for Vietnamese food. Ordered a big bowl and both of us share

Now, our adventure is over. And we're back to our usual routine, with our two lovely girls. :)

Picnic @ Tim Neville Arboretum

Our small group (cell group in Malaysia context) has family gathering about once a month (or maybe once in 2 months). Most of us have young children, and I love my small group leader as she's so detail in choosing a safe park for children to go.

A few things that she took into consideration including number of exits in the park (in case kids run out while parents are busy chit chatting?), the park landscape (any obstacle where kids can hide and we might miss them? like behind the tree? can we all watch the kids at a distance at a glance?), safety (river? stream? pond?), etc. I feel so "safe" for her to choose the place because I know all that I worry will surely be taken into her consideration - So I can relax. :)

The previous gathering we had it at Greythorn Park @ Bawlyn. I love that park (hope I can blog about it next time). And this round, for a difference, we decided to go Tim Neville Arboretum @ Ferntree Gully, Knox.

The park is quite a distance from where we live - about 30 minutes drive. Kids were very very excited (oh, they love parks!) and were behaving well in the car. I told them to take a rest or a short nap if they want, and they did sit down quietly in their car seats to take a rest throughout the short journey.

It's a nice park, with big trees with shade everywhere. My small group members and friends put the picnic mats on the grass under a big tree for shelter. The weather is good, sunny and windy. Park is amazing - so many things for children to play. Needless to say, my kids (*again*), hardly ate anything, they just snacked on crackers, potato chips (argh!), and fruits while they kept playing.

I didn't take much picture this round comparing to the first outing as the play area in this park is a distance away from where we sat - so I couldn't really stand or sit around eating while watching my kids (like the last round). I needed to bring them into the play area and watched and played with them.

We did have a great time. Thanks to friend's children who actually helped to watch over them. It was a public holiday yesterday in Melbourne hence the park was crowded. My kids didn't play with other children, but only with the familiar faces - my another migrant friends' children who were also invited for the outing.

Overall, it's a good outing. Girls were happy. And parents had a good time catching up and chit chatting with other parents. I just love going outdoor activity like this in Melbourne. Very relaxing with the good weather here!

It's supposed to be a bring-your-own-lunch event (quite common here apparently! :P).. But as Asians, it turned out to be a pot luck session! But some of the Caucasian friends really  just bring their own lunch for their own family. I actually love this idea - food is not the most important thing during the gathering, but it's more for the catch up.

Anyway, took some pics of the yummy food.

Gado gado by my Indonesian friend

Putting the nice crispy crackers yum yum!

Curry beef with hard boil eggs

Nasi lemak - Very very authentic!

Homemade Sambal! Been craving for this big time :D

And now, some pics of the children - Like I said, I didn't take much. And I actually let Eunice went around freely with another Eunice (friend's daughter) and she really likes her. So, she told me what she did later on while I was busying chit chatting with my friends with Natalie around me.

This swing is really cool! Like a car seat on a swing!

Don't be deceived by her sad face - She actually quite liked it!

All kids love swing!

Daniel bringing Natalie for flying fox!

Haha!

Eunice's turn!

She's actually quite terrified - hence the tension face :D

My fearless baby going for her 2nd ride!

Another side of the park - my kids haven't explored this yet!

Families around, with their children. Mostly fathers yea?

Enjoying the hammock..

I didn't know that there's a pond with ducks at the other side of the park.
Eunice actually took some bread from our picnic table and fed those ducks. She told us there's a mother duck, and some little ducklings around. Must be big Eunice che che told her this. :)

A small stream for the kids to play. My girls didn't play here (I quickly walked away) and I was too lazy to clean up wet children!

Location of the park: