Visitors

Time rolls by like a roller coaster, some days fast, some days slow. School has started for KK, so it's back to the school-day routine for us: waking him up and trying to get him to school on time; fixing up lunch; picking him up from school; fixing up dinner; dinner; bath; getting them to bed early, with neccesary short trips to the grocer.







What is not too usual over the last two weeks is that, on some days, we have my cousin and her family, here on a two and a half week holiday, staying over at our place. With an additional 2 adults and another toddler, our house became suddenly brimming with activities and sounds, not to mention the constant splatter of toys around the living area. Luckily, XX has been very generous with his toys as he allowed his cousin free access to all his cars, robots and tanks.







There were some fun things we did together: like having outdoor alfresco dining at our backyard, followed by cheesecake, wine and tea under the stars (when the kids were all in bed). Thanks to their quest for gastronomical delights around Melbourne, we visited 'Little Italy' in Lygon Street where we had authentic Italian gelato (durian flavour!!) and pasta. We also discovered a nice Greek cafe at Altona Beach where they served Greek coffee and dessert. Vietnamese food was also on their agenda, so we brought them to Footscray and St. Albans for pho and Vietnamese coffee.




There are other things that we tried at home, like drinking coffee made from a mocha pot, eating Harvati cheese, sliced with a cheese slicer and making guacomole - an avocado based relish. My cousin is a good cook, so when we make dinner at home, I've been learning from her how to turn okara into soy patties and also making fajitas. Personally, I like the concept and taste of fajitas. It's easy to make and a convenient all-in-one meal as there's meat and vegetables wrapped inside the tortilla. Unfortunately, my 2 sons did not like them very much. XX, especially, won't even eat the tortilla skin, so I guess I can't make them again for the time being.

The minced meat, stir-fried capsicum, onions, zucchini, guacomole, sour cream, parmesan cheese and tortillas.

On top of the tortilla.

All wrapped up!

I still made time to do some quilting, my latest hobby, but bread baking and blogging took a back seat. In any case, I found some really nice fresh bread at the supermarkets. And when you go there at about 8pm, the prices are reduced, so there's really no incentive for me to bake recently when I can get a big crusty loaf for as little as 79 cents.

They're leaving today, so I guess life will go back to normal finally. But not for long, cos come next week, I welcome my parents to our humble home in Australia. And I can't wait! I'm harbouring some dreams of catching a movie or two at the cinema and perhaps a romantic dinner with the kids taken care of by their grandparents. But first things first. Time to wash the bedsheets and vacuum the house.

Roller Coaster Weather

The crazy weather in Melbourne continues....

After last week, I thought the worse of the summer heat is over. I was happily enjoying life back to normal again, until Hubby told me it's gonna be 43 degrees again this Saturday! BUT...the good news is, the weather man says the peak temperature will be between 3 to 6pm, afterwhich, the temperature is supposed to fall quickly so the night will be ok.

With the experience of last week, I know it is not worth going outside at all, even to an air-conditioned place. The journey there, getting out and back again into the car, is enough to kill any temporary joy derived from the air-conditioned time spent in the shopping center.

The morning started rather nicely, but once we finished breakfast around 10.30am, the heat started coming in. Beep! On comes the air-conditioner to the rescue and I never left the living room area for more than 5 mins after that. Well, it was a slow and lazy day, with nothing much accomplished.

Today's peak temperature of 46 degrees at 3.04pm broke records of the hottest day ever in Melbourne. The weather report stated that the cool front will reach Melbourne around 6pm and sure enough, 5 mins to 6 o'clock, suddenly there was rain! We couldn't believe it. It was a short shower but it must be God's reward to all the poor plants outside for bearing with the extreme conditions. One minute it was scorching hot and the next, instant relieve. I went out to the garden about 6.05pm and it's not hot anymore! Crazy but amazing!

Simmering Summer

I haven't been blogging the past week, partly because I've been VERY HOT, literally. In fact, I don't want to do anything else, except think about how to keep cool.

The heatwave struck Melbourne last Wednesday and we've been sweltering under maximum temperatures of 38- 43 degrees celcius in the day. We tried to escape to the shopping center but so did everyone else. The air-con inside wasn't particularly strong that day, I think partly due to the crowd and the heat outside. Anyway how long can you window shop? And with no sheltered parking at most places, your car literally turned into an oven sitting under the hot sun.

To make things worse, we discovered the air-con in our car doesn't work well just when we needed it most. We sat like buns in a steamer on the way there (with the windows up) and on the way back (with the windows down), we were roast chicken in a convection fan oven. Thankfully, the air-con is fixed now.

At home, we had our air-conditioner on the whole day and night. Our bedroom was upstairs but unfortunately had no air-conditioner. In addition, upstairs has always been warmer than the ground floor. So in winter, it's a great place to go up to at night but during times like these, a few minutes there would get you perspiring and feeling agitated.

The first stuffy, warm and restless night, we couldn't sleep well at all. XX woke up a few times crying, probably feeling warm. He was already stripped down to his diapers, so we just gave him a wet wipe and some water in a bottle. He finished 2 bottles that night. After that night, we decided to move some mattresses downstairs and spend the night in the living room. The kids slept much better after that.

Going topless, outdoor dining on a warm summer evening

Everyone else who has fans or air-con must have switched them on those nights. All the fans in Big W were sold out. The power consumption was so huge that some power stations couldn't handle the demand and were shut down in many parts of Melbourne. We experienced power outage on Friday evening. Luckily the power came back after about an hour.

The weather has improved alot since and Saturday and Sunday feels like heaven when temperatures came down to about 31 deg.