Health Hopes

The days have begun to turn longer. No longer sunset at 5 o'clock. Yipee! I think the coldest is finally over though it's still not time to head to the beaches yet. Although we have been heading to the swimming pools quite often. Strangely, swimming pools are good places to go for a weekend outing in Winter. Thanks so much to the heated indoor pools that we have. Our favourite is at Melton, where there's a lap pool to exercise, wave pool for the kids (and adults) to have fun and a steamy bubbly jacuzzi to relax in. We go with some friends and food and it's a party! 


The other thing we've been busy doing recently is exercising. Even I have joined in the regime. Lazy me, who hates exercising and sweating and loves watching TV, have signed up for a health club membership for the first time in my life. I'm not turning into a health freak overnight, but I do hope not to turn into an unhealthy freak when I'm older. Hubby has been gently nudging me to keep fit ever since he's got into Tae Kwon Do. Now, he gets to exercise at least twice a week and he feels good about it. 


It so happened that there were some promotions going on and I started by signing up free trial memberships at 2 health clubs with some girl friends who wanted to keep healthy as well. The health clubs are located nearby and we get access to all their facilities and classes. So far. I've tried Body Balance, Pilates, Boxing and Zumba classes in the evenings. And guess what, I'm even doing time on the threadmill! I've never liked threadmills, I find them so boring. You stare at the same scenery all the time when running. I have a small gym at the condo where I lived in Singapore but I seldom use them even though they face the swimming pool. But at the gyms here, they face a row of television screens or have built-in personal TV touchscreens. How wonderful can that be for a couch potato like me? You bring your own headphones, plug it in and hey, you're entertained while keeping fit! I usually go on the threadmill while waiting for KK in his "kids fitz" class (free for kids of members). I don't watch television programs at home cos the TV is always hogged by the kids so ironically at the gym, I get to catch up on a bit of news and advertisements. Then for the sake of watching more TV, I also do some cycling while waiting for KK to shower. I find this a good arrangement.


Knowing myself, I'm a bag of lazy bones. When it's dark and cold outside, I find it hard to put on my track shoes and leave the comforts of home. But if I have a friend going together, I'll have no excuse. And actually, it's nice to leave the kids' bedtime routine to Hubby and have an hour or two of time on my own. 


At the end of the day, I think no matter what exercise I do, as long as it gets my heart thumping harder and my muscles working, I'm taking a step closer to health. So with my full membership for the next year and hopefully with my friends' company, I will keep up this exercising routine at least twice a week. 

Events & Milestones

It's been 2 weeks since my last post and there's plenty to update.

Reading Pleasure

Personally, I have been spending a lot of my time reading. I cannot remember a time since my teenage years when I can afford to sit down to really enjoy a book during working hours and even read late into the night. For many years, the only thing I could find time to read was The Straits Times and in recent years, it wasn't even the printed version. But the other day, I took my book outside, sat on our newly acquired foldable camping chairs and had a good 30 minutes of reading in the sunshine, while XX busied himself piling rocks in the backyard. It was a great feeling.

XX and his improvised garden gloves

All my readings have been books borrowed from the local library. It is interesting to note that we have never made as good a use of libraries as now. I must credit the city council here for stocking up their libraries well. Each library card entitles you up to 20 books and 5 DVDs. We will get the children 10 - 15 books each time we visit the library. Their children's books are mostly hard covered, very recent and in very good condition. The book that caught my eye and started me on my reading spree was "Dance of 17 lives: The incredible true story of Tibet's 17th Karmapa" by Mick Brown. From there, it got me interested in Tibet's history and culture, so my next book was "Seven Years in Tibet" by Heinrich Harrer. I seem to have changed my usual liking for fiction and am discovering that biographies and true stories of real live people can be very educational and intriguing as well. Currently I'm reading about "Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne" by Ben Hills.





Cycling Fun

Look mum! I can balance!

One fine day near the end of November, KK finally learnt to ride a bicycle. Yes, without the trainer wheels! It happened unexpectedly. Sunday, my friend lent us an old bicycle for KK to practice. Monday after school, Hubby coached him in the backyard. Then they went out to the pavement outside our house for more road and one hour later, he reported that KK had gotten it and had cycled to his friend's house nearby. I was surprised. Previously, about 1-2 years ago, we had tried to teach him how to ride but he was quite afraid and later refused to try again. I guess this time he's ready, that's why it didn't take him too long to learn it. The next day, my boy started cycling to school and back. Hubby still accompany him as he may not be too good when crossing the roads. Luckily, his school is within the estate so they are not major junctions.




Arising from KK's cycling ability, Hubby began to seriously consider this a wonderful family hobby and started actively looking around to equip us all with bicycles. Yesterday, we bought 3 new bicycles, for KK, myself and Hubby. He also bought a rack that can hold up to four bikes behind the car and is now in the midst of geting a tow bar fixed to our car. We have the intention of bringing our bicycles to the great outdoors during the weekends for cycling on trails and having picnics.





Berries Picking







Bicycle hunting aside, we have been occupying our weekends going berries picking. The next weekend after our Bacchus Marsh outing, we drove 1.5 hours to Dandenong Ranges. Our original plan was cherry picking, but we found the entrance fee of $7 per person into the orchard too ridiculous. Last minute, we drove to Chappies farm (21 Parker Rd, Silvan) and found they had raspberries and blackberries for picking. It was our first time picking raspberries. In fact, it was our first time seeing the raspberries growing on trees. Most of the time, we see raspberries in plastic boxes or frozen in boxes, but now they're as fresh as can be. To pluck them, you gently hold the fruit between your fingers and pull. If they're ripe, they'll come off easily, leaving the stem and the core on the tree. Raspberries are incredibly fragile and almost as soon as they leave the tree, they start to degenerate (if that's the right word). Thus most of the time, the raspberries you see in supermarkets looks smashed and not at all fresh. I froze all my raspberries separately as soon as I reached home and only defrost how many I need every time.

Clowning around in a gigantic fruit basket




The next day, we went again to Bacchus Marsh, this time with some friends, to get more strawberries and try our luck at cherry picking again. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't so good and after the strawberries picking, just as we were about to go into the cherries orchard, it started drizzling. We decided to adjourn for lunch but by the time we returned to the orchard again, they had no more cherries left. KK was extremely disappointed.

Surrounded by raspberries

This weekend, we set off again, for the third time, to the cherries orchard at Bacchus Marsh. The weather was good but the orchard didn't have much cherries as the earlier rain had destroyed much of the crop. Nevertheless, knowing how disappointed KK will be if we walked away unsuccessful again, I insisted on going in to try our luck. It was indeed true that much of the cherries on the trees were half rotten. We tried very hard and could only collect about 200-300 grams. A Singaporean lady I met there told me they got a harvest of 6 kilos the last time they came. Regardless, this little adventure of peeping our heads into the cherry trees and novelty of plucking your own cherries was enough to satisfy KK.




Baking

With so much to do, sewing, blogging and baking took a backseat. However, I still managed to make a few batches of cupcakes. Thanks to the book "Tempt" by Betty Saw, which my friend lent me, I followed 3 of her recipes to much success. The chocolate cupcakes were a hit with the boys in my family. They were moist ,soft and chocolatey. And unlike western cupcakes, you don't need to pile on a topping of supersweet icing sugar to make them yummy. The other good thing about her recipes is the portions are quite small, churning out about 8 - 10 large cupcakes each batch. Though cupcakes can be frozen, there isn't such a neccesity cos they don't last for more than 2 days.

Chocolate Cupcakes topped with chocolate ganache and fresh handpicked strawberries and raspberries

I also baked some mini apple pies yesterday. The recipe was a tried and tested one but the mini tart presentation was something new for me. It was lots of work actually, making the shortcrust biscuit base, pressing out each disc for the tart base and then cutting thin strips of puff pastry to make a netted cover. Not to mention coring and cutting the apples and cooking them partially. Still the results were worth it. They look quite presentable and taste good too.

School


The latest thing to update is, XX officially started going to playschool today at a nearby child care center. It's only once a week and for half a day initially. I don't actually need the child care facility, though a few hours of personal time once a week is nice, and I'm not expecting the child care to teach him anything I haven't already taught. I'm just hoping that XX will get used to the idea of going to school, of being around people other than his immediate family and to be independent. It's a growing up process that every kid goes through and with compulsory kindergarten when he turns 4, I think it's time for him to move on to this stage. I had talked to him about school recently, to prep him and get him psychologically ready. He seemed very eager and showed no signs of protest, even when I told him that mummy will not be around. So how did he fare?





This morning, a mini-tantrum errupted that threatened to assasinate our attempts to create a happy, positive mood before going to school. Luckily, I managed to get him distracted and the 'crisis' did not escalate. He happily carried his Snoopy backpack and walked into the center. He hung his bag on a hook provided for him and goes into the room. One of our friends worked there and she immediately got XX to play with some dinosaurs. I know he will be in good hands. We said goodbye and left. No reaction from him. Everything so far so good. Hubby and I went home for breakfast and then went to K-mart to shop for our bicycle helmets. As we were about to walk into another shop, Hubby's phone rang. One hour after we had left XX at the child care center, we had to go back and bring him back. He had been crying to go home. When we got to see him, he was being carried by our friend and still sobbing. Nonetheless, we praised him for that one hour and hopefully he'll do better next week.

A New Year Already!

I really mean it when I say 'Time flies' nowadays. In a flash, our 3-day holiday to Ballarat was over, 2009 arrived and it's gonna be Chinese New Year in about 3 weeks.

Have you ever noticed that time moves faster as you get older? I remembered when I was a kid, I waited and waited for a the longest time ever for my next birthday to arrive. But this time, it was just like not too long ago that I celebrated my birthday in Melbourne when I came over for the house hunting trip and now, there's less than 5 months to go before I move one digit up in my age (again). Can you believe we're already stayed in Melbourne for more than 6 months?

2008 has been an extremely busy and significant year for us. It is indeed the year we 'reap the rewards of our decisions' (see my post last year). From the day we decided to make the move till now, it has a been an exciting journey of learning, adjusting and discovering. Of course, we miss all our love ones and friends back in Singapore, especially during festive seasons. Other than that, I'm glad we made that decision.

On a personal front, since I've stayed home with the kids doing 'home duties', I've learnt (about cooking and baking) and also discovered a lot about myself. I'm doing things that I've not previously thought I'm capable of doing. The kids still drive me crazy but overall, I think I'm happier.

Well, I've promised to write more about our holiday in Ballarat but I'll like to postpone it to the next post. I just want to end off here wishing everyone a Happy New Year and may 2009 be a peaceful and fulfilling year for all!

"So Long, Sucker!"

Today marks my first day as a SAHM (Stay At Home Mum) as I bid farewell to my FTJ (Full Time Job). But that's not what the title of this post is referring to....

This phrase came out of KK's mouth one evening at a restaurant. He said it to a friend that we met at the restaurant cheekily. When trying to do the 'corrective education' later on, we realised he had totally no idea what the word 'sucker' meant. He just picked it up from a computer game where the racing car said this when it overtook another player.

"Oh man!" (Said with a slang. Another favourite phrase learnt from the internet or TV - but this one's fine.) Another reason why I'm convinced I need to be around more.

The ending of the Final Chapter was actually rather sweet, not sad as I'd expected. I had no time to feel sad! I spent the whole morning trying to draft out the traditional 'thank you' emails - I had no idea it was so difficult to write such broadcast messages! After a nice farewell lunch, it was back to frantic packing and throwing as I discovered I'd missed out a drawer of stuff, before rushing down to HR to do clearance.

What made it so sweet were the nice words said to me by quite a number of my friends & colleagues, some face to face, some via emails or notes. Funny why such nice things are only said when one is about to leave? But I'm glad to hear them, not for my ego, but to know that I've made some difference to others' lives.

For now, the greatest beneficiary of my staying home must be my maid. When I'm around, Baby X refuses her, so she's retreated to do other less challenging stuff, like cleaning the soft toys.

Ok, time to take a short break before I go pick up KK from school.

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