A Tale of 2 Butter Cakes

Creole or Oreo?

As he ate my Earl Grey Chiffon Cake, Hubby commented that now that I'm baking better, when am I going to make some butter cake. See where all my inspirations for baking come from? So I looked around and found this butter cake recipe which has Oreo inside. KK loves chocolate, so adding Oreos will make this butter cake sounds like a chocolate cake! I hope to fool KK into eating it by its great sounding name. The recipe I used is from this blog: My Kitchen, My Laboratory (click here). This is the first time I have made a cake that involves using yoghurt. I was wondering if the cake will turn out having the sour taste of yoghurt but it didn't.

Talking of yoghurt, I have been using a lot of yoghurt recently as a marinade for my Indian cooking. My old impression of yoghurt is those low-fat ones you eat at breakfast for calcium, with bits of strawberry, blueberry fruits. I'm just starting to learn that yoghurt can have other uses in cooking and now most recently, baking too. I'm beginning to like this ingredient.... :-)

Creole Butter Cake

I have baked 2 Oreo Butter Cakes already - ok, actually the first one was Creole Butter Cake instead as I couldn't find anymore Oreo biscuits in the supermarket. There was a sale and it was all sold out at that particular Coles that I went to. I settled for some Creole cream biscuits which looked like imitation Oreos - chocolate biscuits with cream in between.

The 2 cakes followed the same recipe except for the following 3 differences:

1. Cake #1 uses Creole biscuits (Coles house brand) and Cake #2 uses Oreo biscuits.
2. Cake #2 had only 180g of yoghurt (25% less) in it. Not that there was anything wrong with Cake#1 that warrants my change. I simply found out that I had not enough yoghurt left when I made the cake....hee, 'pai-sey'.
3. Cake#1 uses all plain white flour instead of the cake flour in the recipe. Cake#2 had 2 tablespoons of flour replaced with cornflour. Read that this will substitute for the cake flour.

Here's how they turn out:

Cake #1 with Creole biscuits

Cake #2 with Oreo biscuits

The difference in taste and texture?

• Both cakes are very soft and taste great. KK and XX ate a lot of it.


• Cake #1 is more moist because of the yoghurt and also more dense.


• Cake #2 is lighter due to the cornflour addition but also slightly drier. Guess the yoghurt really makes a difference.


• The Oreo cookies in Cake#2 are more obvious due to its darker colour. Also, the Oreo biscuits didn't crumble into powder, thus the pieces were bigger in the cake. The Creole became like Milo powder when I pounded them. Taste-wise, other than the psychological advantage of its branded name, I cannot honestly say the Oreo biscuits made any significant difference to the taste.

I would declare Cake#1 the better cake but Hubby likes Cake #2 better. He prefers the crunchier Oreo bits and the harder crust. So both are winners!

The 'Not So Great' Ocean Road Drive

Ah Gong and Ah Ma (Hubby's parents) arrived last Monday from Singapore and since then, we've been showing them around our usual haunts, where we shop for Asian groceries, yum cha etc.





Unfortunately, due to the limited capacity of our car, we couldn't venture too far with everybody squashed in and KK sitting on my lap. The furthest we went was to the Open Range Zoo in Werribe. There, a bus took us around and we got really upclose to some animals but I still felt that it was a little fake. The zebras, rhinos and giraffes looked a little 'unnatural'. They appeared to be 'placed' there for us tourists to drive pass and see them. You know, I was kind of expecting the 'Kruger National Park' kind of experience where animals really roam freely and you have to spot them but I guess I need to go to South Africa for that.





Anyway, last Sunday, Hubby rented an MPV for one day and we had plans to show Ah Gong and Ah Ma The Twelve Apostles along the Great Ocean Road. I wished I can show you some great photos of us posing with those famous rocks but our road trip was quite a disaster.



We had grossly underestimated the travel time needed to get there. We thought that it would take around 1 to 2 hours to drive there but in actual fact, it would take about 6 hours. In the morning, we took our time to tour the city and in the afternoon, we even went up north to the suburb of Cragieburn, looking at the new land release, showing Ah Gong Ah Ma some display homes, before setting off to The Great Ocean Road.



Not realising that we cannot reach our destination before sunset, we enthusiastically went ahead down the winding path of The Great Ocean Road. After many bends and turns, I felt a little car sick. I tried to control it by not moving around too much and looking outside at the views. Then XX started crying a little. Initially I thought that maybe he's sleepy and tried to pat him to sleep. Then I suspected that he might be feeling a little uncomfortable too. Since my backside is already aching from sitting for so many hours in the car, I asked Hubby to stop somewhere for everyone to get down and stretch our legs a little. It was a good decision. By then, we sort of realised that we might not make it to our destination before dark but we have no choice but to drive on as we're at the point of no turning back.




We got back into the car and took more turns and bends along the coast. Gosh, I cannot imagine living here. Though the view is scenic, the drive home everyday would be a nightmare! XX was very happy when he got off the car to run around and was in a cheery mood back in the car. But after a while, he started fussing again. I tried to carry him but this made me quite car sick. So I put him back into his carseat and tried to comfort him as best as I could. I suspected he had motion sickness as well but he just couldn't express it. My suspicions were confirmed when all of a sudden, he threw up all over himself.



Hubby stopped the car and everybody tried to help - get him out of the carseat, grab tissues etc. KK exclaimed 'get me out of this place!' and promptly moved to the back row. Thankfully he didn't add on to the mess by throwing up as well from the smell. The carseat, XX's blanket, jacket, shirt, pants and even my sleeves were stained. And I don't have a spare set of clothes for him too! Luckily, I'd brought along extra woolly jacket for him so we changed his shirt and a new diaper for him. After his vomitting, he seemed to feel better and appeared happier. But the stench lingers....!



It was dark by the time we stopped for dinner at Otway Junction Bristol. I didn't dare to feed XX anymore food unless he asked for it, in case history repeats itself later. XX was walking around in his diapers in the restaurant but we wrapped his legs up in Hubby's jacket when we went outside. After we got back into the car, he fell asleep in his stinko, semi-wet carseat. KK too fell asleep when he realised that there's still another 2 more hours of driving to go before we reach home. I couldn't sleep. All I wanted is to quickly reach home so I can get off the car and take off my stinko jacket. Strange, I think I have been used to standing and walking over the last few months. Now sitting still in an enclosed space over an extended period of time is tough for me. Ah Gong and Ah Ma did very well though. No car sickness nor numb legs throughout this journey. KK has declared this journey as 'the longest journey of my life'. He kept asking me (every 5 mins) how many more minutes to go before we reach home.



When we reached home, everyone spilled out of the car, happy like a bird being released. Of course, there's the post-vomitting administrative stuff and loads of extra food to take care of. But there's no place like home sweet home.... :-)

Milk Loaf

Homemade Milk Loaf

After my first failed attempt at making bread following an internet recipe (see here), I have mainly stuck to the basic bread mix formula (flour + yeast + water), varying only by adding some chocolate to the core of the bread.

Can see the twirl in the loaf?

Encouraged by Happy Home Baker's milk loaf recipe and tempted by my own weakness for sweet, soft bread, I'd bravely ventured out of my comfort zone to make a milk loaf last week.

The cottony soft texture

As usual, the proofing takes very long, no thanks to the climate here, plus the fact that I made this during the evening when it's colder. I started around 5pm and by the time the bread was ready, it was already 10 plus. Just nice for supper... :-p Towards the end, I'd actually put the dough into the oven and turned on the heat to 'defrost' to proof it, otherwise, I think I'll have to wait till mid-night for my bread!

I was kind of worried that history will repeat itself as I'm using the same bread mix flour and adding all kinds of things (milk, butter, sugar etc) into it instead of sticking to its formula. Phew, the bread turned out really well. I thought the dough was a little small when I first put it into the pan. It couldn't even fill up the base. But thankfully, it expanded and when it was baking, it rises over the top of the pan. I was delighted!

The scale that makes a difference

I must also credit some of the success to my newly acquired digital kitchen weighing scale. Now I can measure very precisely 4 grams of yeast :-). It is so convenient, you can use just one bowl and it just measures that weight of the ingredients as you add it and it can even convert to 'oz' for those U.S. recipes.

Fresh and Soft

The aroma of the fresh bread filled the whole house and my MIL commented that it smelled like a bakery! The texture of the bread was soft and cottony. Even after 2 days, the bread is still soft. My MIL gave a feedback that it will be better with less salt. I agree, then you'll taste the sweetness of the bread better.

The Great Australian Lifestyle

I'm trying to define what is the "Australian Lifestyle". What are some things that people living here do that are uniquely Australian? Perhaps I should do a survey of any friends who is or was an Australian resident.

The survey will have only one simple question.

Q) Fill in the blank:

"You are NOT living the Australian lifestyle until you ________."

There is no right or wrong answer, it's just basically what you think. Through my own observations and experience, I have my personal top 3 answers for it. (Disclaimer: Subject to changes over time.)

Here it is:

Q) "You are not living the Australian lifestyle until you....."

A1) ".... use colour printed toilet paper."

I've noticed this when I travelled to Australia previously and stayed at rental apartments. And also when I visit the homes of Australians. The toilet paper provided are so beautiful! It is colour printed with designs such as seashells or flowers. Some even feels embossed. It's almost a waste to use it...you know, to clean waste. Wow, it's strange, but when I finally had these nice toilet paper in my house, I felt very "Australian".

A2) "... dine at Nandos."

Nandos is big in Australia. It's everywhere. Almost every major shopping center has an outlet, I believed. In Victoria alone, they have 88 outlets. Nandos serve Portugese-style flame grilled chicken. Since it's so popular, I believed there must be something about it that we don't know. So one day when I don't know what to cook, we brought the kids out to the nearest shopping center for Nandos. Now we know why. Their chicken is really delicious! We had the lemon herb one and it was well-marinated and juicy. Can't say much about their service though. The outlet we went to, we were served by a group of young girls. They had skin tight t-shirts that says 'Chicks Rule' with no manners. Nonetheless, this didn't stop us from going back there last Saturday again....for the real chicks.

A3) "... own a BBQ pit."

Every decent Australian home I've been to owns their own BBQ pit. There are public pits at parks (free of charge) but no one uses them. Now we know why. Nothing beats having your own private BBQ in the comfort of your own backyard. The last few weeks, BBQ pits and outdoor dining sets have been drawing my attention when I go shopping. We're planning to have our own BBQ set since we've such a big yard and the weather is turning good. It's time for some outdoor activities! A lot of people own the gas burner kind where you basically turn on the gas and it heats up a hot plate. To me, that's really no different from cooking your meat on the grill pan on the stove, except that it's outdoors and you can grill a lot at the same time. I still prefer the traditional charcoal kind. The flavour is better. So finally, we decided our first BBQ pit will be a 55cm "charcoal kettle".

Today, we tested it by having a mini-BBQ at home for lunch. The weather forecast was very good and indeed, the sky was cloudless and the sun was out for the whole day. KK was super excited about it and had specifically requested us to buy him marshmellows.

The menu is relatively simple but requires some advance preparation. I marinaded some chicken wings with tumeric and chicken thigh fillets Tandoori-style the night before. I also did another marinade for Chicken Tikka Masala and put in more thigh fillets cut into cubes. These, I'll skewer and BBQ them, to be put into the sauce for dinner on Monday night, when my parents-in-law will be here. For KK, we have chipolata sausages and some bread rolls. There's also red capsicum, portabello mushrooms and enoki mushrooms rolled in pancetta ham (couldn't find streaky bacon).

It took a while for the fire to get started. This is the disadvantage of the charcoal style. You need to start up the fire and wait for the coal to get hot. For the gas stove type, you basically just turn on the gas and go. Still, the wait was worth it, just make sure you start earlier when you're not too hungry. It's really nice to be able to eat outside without sweating profusely. But one thing's consistent, the smell of BBQ on your clothes and hair after everything..:-P

We wrapped up by 3pm and after putting XX to his nap, I still had the energy to bake a cake! I made an Earl Grey Chiffon cake using the recipe from Happy Home Baker. For my first attempt, I think it was a success. Hubby's comment when he took his first bite was good texture and the aroma of earl grey tea is nice. The cake wasn't too tall, partly because my tube pan was bigger - 21cm while in the recipe, HHB uses an 18cm one. I must thank my sister for helping me buy the tube pan from Singapore. I can't seem to find it here, maybe I don't know where to look. I sure wish Phoon Huat can set up a branch here :)

The cake was completed just as we finished dinner (leftover BBQ meat and instant noodles). A sweet ending for a beautiful Australian Sunday.

Spring's here?

Spring is here. Or so I'm told. From all the catalogs, mailers and brochures.

Since a month ago, Target, Big W and K-mart have been showcasing models wearing short-sleeved, thin blouses and short pants. The guys wear polo tees and bermudas and the kids are in flowery summer dresses and swimming costumes. A lot of emphasis of their ads are also on the gardening and outdoor activities. Gardening tools, planting mixes, BBQ pits, outdoor furnitures, gazebos - these are the stuff that's been bombarding our brains (and tempting our wallets) these days. It sure looks like people are gearing up for the warmer weather and great fun ahead.

I'm actually looking forward to warmer days. I can't wait to declare that I don't need to switch on the gas heating anymore and can walk around the house with just one layer of clothing. I would like to get out there and see the flowers in my garden a bit more. And not feel my pores contract the moment I turn off the hot water in the shower. If possible, I'm planning to have a nice BBQ at NOON. How cool is that! That is something I've never done in Singapore. But it looks like I may have to wait a little more.

The weather these few days have been terrible. After 2 warm nights over the weekend, Monday was a day of rain and strong winds. Hubby said it reminded him of when we first moved here. We heard howling winds and the shaking of our garage door the whole night. The temperature went down to 8 degrees in the evening. And the sun? Nowhere to be seen.

Tuesday was just as windy with slight rain. We turned on our gas heating in the evening. In climates like these, when I looked at all those 'sunny' catalogs, I was thinking: 'Are you crazy? No way I'm gonna dress like this and go out'. In fact, when I looked around the playground last Sunday, a lot of people are still dressed in their fleece and woolies. Open-toed slippers? Only a few brave souls attempted it.

Today's weather seemed much better. At least for now, the sun is shining. Slowly but surely, Spring is on its way. And that's the beauty of the seasons. With each new season comes fresh changes, be it the natural environment or at home. A fresh wardrobe, new activities, different shoes. That's Life.

XX The Curious

I'm not lying when I say "I can't take my eyes off XX". The boy turned 21 months 3 days ago but seemed to have entered into the 'Terrible Twos' phase prematurely. He's extremely curious, increasingly expressive and has developed an opinion. Make no mistake, I'm pretty proud of his progress and many of his antics have brought smiles to our faces. But it does gets on your nerves sometimes, especially if you are at the same time trying to debate with the 6-year old brother why too much computer is bad for the eyes AND make dinner.

Over the past weeks, on mulitple occasions, I've turned my back on him for seconds, only to turn back and see him up to some mischiefs. He had either pulled out 60 pieces of tissue from the box (yes, I'd counted as I patiently fold them back) or unrolled the whole roll of toilet paper from the holder, while sitting on the toilet bowl. He had also dropped his toy cars into the potty and his lunch - on purpose - just to see his mother's reaction. He'd tapped on my laptop's keyboard repeatedly until it hanged and plucked out the "{ [" key. And most recently, I caught him blowing on the recorder. Which was sweet, until I see his saliva flowing out from the other end - onto the keyboard of my laptop!!

XX loves cars. His favourite bib is one that has a car print on it. His second favourite is the one with a truck print. When he sees it hanging on the rack, he'll pull it out and come to you, asking you to change to this bib - when it's still wet!

XX and his favourite 'car' bib

Yesterday, I took a pair of socks and made the mistake of saying, "Mummy wear this for you, ok?" He said, "No." Then he chose another pair that he'll allow me to put on. When we go shopping, he'll look at things and make expressions like "wow!" if he sees something he likes. When he sees me wearing a new pyjamas with floral prints, he pointed at the flowers and said approvingly: 'nice'. After getting off from the toilet seat, he likes to take a look at his own messy poop, and he'll say "whoa".

In supermarkets, XX will always insist on pushing the trolley, even when I want to stop and browse. I've learnt the art of grabbing what I want as the trolley moves past and got to be very careful not to leave the trolley alone because he'll continue to push it forward and ram into something or someone. And I must be alert when the trolley suddenly stops moving too. This means he's distracted by something else and is probably touching it. I've had a few heart stopping moments when I just managed to stop him from lifting a couple of glass jars from the shelves. There have been occasions when I wanted to move on and he wants to stay. He actually squatted down and later laid on the floor, refusing to budge. Just like those spoilt brats we see, I'm embarrassed to say. He's also very good at making his displeasure known. When he's upset, he'll say 'No' to everything you say. Recently, he'll vent his frustrations by throwing punches or throwing things. I'm not sure if he'd learnt it or is it an instinctive reaction since he can't verbalise his feelings. But we're trying to teach him that he can't throw things and hit people when he's angry. He's pretty afraid of the cane though. He knows he can get it if he's naughty. Once I asked him 'who's naughty?' with the cane in my hand, he pointed to his brother immediately and said 'gor gor' (and sometimes 'papa').

Foodwise, I'm getting mixed signals from him about what he likes. Somedays he'll take noodles but the next day, he'll spit it out. Same for bread, except his favourite strawberry jam sandwich. I mentioned he took burgers before, but recently, the same burgers have failed to be accepted. Pizza too, depends on his mood. Strange, he can chew on very hard stuff like pizza crust but spits out when he bites on a beansprout in his noodles. So I'm still cooking porridge for him on alternate days. At least he doesn't spit it out (not yet) and I can make him finish it. On the other days, I try to introduce him to what we eat so he can at least develop his chewing skills.

中秋节

I just realised, with about 3 hours left to the day, that today is 中秋节 (Mid-Auturm Festival aka Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival). I had thought so but was confused by Hubby who told me it was next Sunday. Not that there's any real meaning in celebrating it anyway.

Traditionally, this is a day for 团圆 (reunion) and the family to gather. Back in Singapore, we'll meet at my parents place, probably just eat some mooncakes and have some chinese tea. Last year, I remembered KK went downstairs to the void deck to play with fire, I mean the lanterns, that Yiyi bought, burning down a few and torching some leaves in the process.

Well today, while others are eating slices of mooncakes, we had slices of Hawaiian pizza. And we did light a candle, for the chocolate fondue. I guess that's close enough. XX did play with his Winnie The Pooh lantern, all the way from dear Popo in Singapore, for about 1 minute tonight. But we'll leave the fire playing till tomorrow night I guess, weather permits.

On a brighter note, I did meet up with my family in S'pore - online. Managed to have webcam video sessions with my sister, brother and parents. At least the night had a 圆满结束 (happy ending).

Indian Tonight

I've been wanting to blog about my Indian cooking adventure but either I didn't have time or I didn't have access to the computer as KK was hogging it to watch cartoons at this newly found website.


It all started when I read about my cousin making aloo goobi in her blog. Aloo goobi is Hubby's favourite Indian dish and we always order it whenever we eat at Indian restaurants. I asked my cousin for the recipe and got some potatoes and cauliflower to try it out. Of course, there is also this process of acquiring all the indian spices required by the recipe, many of which I've not even heard of. See how new to cooking I am?


At the same time, I was visiting the supermarkets and checking out the Indian groceries they carry. I found a lot of ready-to-eat Indian curries and sauces. All you need to do is add the meat. There's even instant Basmati rice and pre-baked naan! I bought 2 jars of sauces to try - Tikka Masala and Butter Chicken. (Butter Chicken is my personal favourite!)


So it was Aloo Goobi and Chicken Tikka Masala with basmati rice for dinner. First time cooking all these for me. Verdict?


The Chicken Tikka Masala was a huge success. The sauce tasted very authentic, just like those we had in restaurants. Aloo Goobi was also not bad but slightly on the bland side. I think I may have misinterpreted the amount of spices and I also did not add any salt. The basmati rice was too wet. The next time I cooked it again, I reduced the amount of water and washed it more thoroughly and it turned out better.

Aloo goobi

The success of the Tikka Masala led me to surf for the recipe online. I chanced upon this website: http://www.recipezaar.com/ which has quite a lot of recipes with comments from people who has made them. There's even a nutritional information box accompanying the recipe so you know how much cholestrol you are eating...keke.



I made one of their recipe (http://www.recipezaar.com/38203) - Tandoori Chicken on another day. For this dish, I added another 2 more types of spices to my larder. Looks like I'll be cooking indian food more with all the spices I'm accumulating!


The Tandoori Chicken was fantastic. The chicken meat was flavourful and tender. It goes very well on a bed of lettuce, tomato and onion accompaniments. In fact, I think it will go well with bread too, like a Tandoori Chicken Sandwich? I'll try it and let you know :-)


I marinaded the 2 fillets of chicken thighs and 1 fillet of chicken breast with the lemon juice, spices and yogurt the night before. The next day, I fried one of the chicken thighs on the grill pan. The recipe actually said to bake it first before grilling but I found it very troublesome. I found out that grilling it direct gives you a better colour, just like on a bbq. However, because of the thickness of the meat, you got to watch out that the center is cooked thoroughly. Of course, there's also the fume and the chicken is slightly drier.


For the other 2 pieces, I baked them in the oven for 30 mins. There were some oil+juice of chicken on the pan which I kept aside. Then I put the meat on the grill pan for a while. You can see the difference in colour in the photo. The chicken breast on the right is baked/grilled while the thigh on the right is grilled only.

Tandoori Chicken

Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day. I've always thought Father's Day was celebrated universally around the world on the same day, apparantly I was wrong. S'pore had ours in June and for Australia, it was September. I wonder who decides on when is Mother's Day, Father's Day, Teacher's Day etc? No matter who decides, the people who MOST LOVED to celebrate these occasions must be the retailers. More than a month ago, all the mailers/catalogs we received from every major departmental store has been using Father's Day as their theme, featuring all kinds of products that you can buy as gifts for Dads and enticing you to spend more money. I should know, haha, I was one of these marketers back in S'pore long ago!


Well, even though we've already celebrated the occasion back in S'pore, I'm one of those 'sentimentalist' who couldn't resist making this day a little bit more special than usual. I decided not to buy anything for Hubby, since it will be coming from his pocket no matter what I buy. I decided to reward him for his efforts in being a good father by making some of his favourite food - Lor Mai Kai and spicy fried Chicken Wings.


I marinated the chicken wings and soaked the glutinous rice the night before. After breakfast, I fried the seasoned chicken mushroom rice and put it to steam. Actually I'd the Lor Mai Kai recipe some time ago. I couldn't make it as I couldn't find the right sized bowls for steaming. I finally found some suitable ones last week at an asian supermarket in St. Albans. The recipe can be found here. It made about 5 bowls. Hubby loves it. His only comment was the mushroom was chopped too small. He said those he saw had it in large slices placed at the bottom of the bowl. Alright, point noted.




The chicken wings were marinated with Seah's seasoning, so it couldn't go wrong. I used to hate frying chicken wings because it took so long and used so much oil. Well, surprisingly it didn't take too long this time, maybe because I used a big wok (which also means using more oil), so I could like fry 8 pieces at one time. I had 26 pieces. By the time I finished, it was almost 1pm. I packed the food into boxes and we took the children to a nearby park for a picnic.



It was a cloudy day and a little windy and chilly. But the park was quiet, peaceful and the view was beautiful. XX ate the Lo Mai Kai while KK attacked the chicken wings. After lunch, the kids went to the playground to play. There was a lot of big open spaces there for the kids to run around. There was also a lake (not sure if it's man-made or natural) with some ducks swimming around and a pathway for you to take a stroll around. Best of all, it's only like 5 mins from our place. This is indeed a nice neighbourhood. We had to leave when it started to rain.

Here are some pictures. I will post more pictures in Facebook.

KK eating his chicken drumlette and hiding from the wind under the table.

XX at the playground

KK trying out his skills at climbing

City Sights

When Hubby had some official business to do in the city today, XX and me took this opportunity to tag along and experience the bustling city life. Since coming to Melbourne, we've stayed away from the city during weekdays, largely due to its limited parking spaces, exorbitant parking rates and congested traffic. Besides, the surrounding suburbs have already fulfilled whatever we needed for our daily lives, so there's really no reason for us to go to the city at all. To circumvent the parking issue, we took a train there today. Yes, this is also the first time we use the public transportation system.

We drove to the station and parked there. The trains are very accurate in their timings. We ran to the station hoping to catch the 11.16am train but couldn't get on as Hubby was still buying the tickets. The next one was 11.36am. We got the daily full fare ticket, which means we can take unlimited travels within the zones for the whole day. It cost us A$10.10 each.





The train ride to Parliament station was smooth and pleasant. Took us less than 30 mins. We travelled in the Handicapped carriage as there was more space for our pram. The driver would get off and put a ramp if there are wheelchair passengers who wishes to get on or off. But no such service for prams. The height difference from the platform to the train was rather high, I thought. Speaking of the driver, I thought he looks like Tom Cruise, with his sunglasses...:-p



The city is full of people walking in all directions, probably also due to the lunch hour. It's bustling with activity, I guess that's the trademark of a vibrant city. People are busy grabbing a bite, talking to colleagues, having a smoke, talking business over coffee. At this nice cafe that lets you sit near the glass windows and look down at the street, I thought I saw the Hollywood actress Helen Hunt, or her lookalike.... :-0


I seem pretty out of place, with my baby stroller, haversack and jeans. But everyone is too busy to care. I didn't go very far, just hung around the building's shops and cafeterias, waiting for Hubby. At one point, I couldn't find a lift nor a ramp when I wanted to go down a flight of steps to the cafeterias. I asked XX if he wants to come down and walk, the boy said 'no'. Almost immediately a kind gentleman offered his help to carry the pram with me.





When Hubby is done, we walked down the streets and caught the train back from Flinders Station. The weather is cool and we stopped for a while opposite the station to take in the view. XX enjoyed the walk and looking at the pigeons. On the way back, he fell asleep on the train.



Flinders Station

Taking a break opposite Flinders Station