Showing posts with label Visitors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Visitors. Show all posts

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Yiyi's Visit

After 2 years, I finally welcome my dear sister and brother-in-law to our home in Melbourne. It was a sweet reunion, considering the last time we met was about 6 months ago. No one is more enthusiastic about her visit than my 2 boys. Since knowing his 'Yiyi' is coming by plane, XX who has no inclination about dates, has been asking on and off why she's not here yet and why the plane is taking so long. KK forked out his own pocket money to get Yiyi her favourite white chocolates as a belated birthday present.









You can imagine the two weeks that they were here, the kids had a ball of a time. More specifically, they went crazy over the games in her i-phone and with the new Wii, compliments of my family in S'pore. They even requested for her to sleep together and in the mornings, will go over to her room to wake her up.









As the weather was really cold and wet, unfortunately they couldn't manage to do much outdoors. But we had lots of time at home, watching World Cup matches and eating. In the wintertime, hot soups like "Ma la" hotpot and herbal chicken soups warms the body. They also made short trips to the city and Victoria Market and I brought them to our favourite food haunts for lunches.









When it was time for Yiyi to go back to S'pore, KK was extremely sad, though he adjusted back pretty fast. XX till now still thinks Yiyi is going to return. Apparantly he thinks she's just gone shopping.





Hope to see you back in Melbourne soon, Yiyi and Uncle James!!

Monday, February 16, 2009

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.