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.

Cherries & Strawberries

It's raining cats and dogs now. After a long week of hot, dry days, this refreshing downpour is very much welcomed by my household, not to mention our plants which are almost dying of thirst. Thursday had been one of the hottest day, with temperatures of 34 degrees but the weather forecast for this weekend has turned around drastically, it's almost unbelievable. Now I'm kind of worried if the rain would affect our picnic tomorrow.

Today, it was an overcast sky that greeted us in the morning. The weather was cool but there was no rain as we set off to the countryside of Bacchus Marsh, just 35km away. Bacchus Marsh is having the Cherries & Strawberries Weekend and we're hoping to do some cherry-picking. As it turned out, we were too early and too late. It is still early in the cherry season, so there were not that much cherries for picking as most cherries are still ripening. And we'd reached there too late so whatever ripe cherries there were had all been plucked. Thankfully, there will be plenty more opportunities in the coming 3 weeks. The farm had peaches and nectarines too but we were not too interested in those. The cherries looked so bright, fresh and cheery on the trees. Hubby and I has agreed that we should plant some cherry trees in our garden next time, in addition to lemon and apple trees. KK was rather disappointed that he couldn't pick anything there but the weather was nice so we took a stroll around the orchard nonetheless.

After a delicious lunch at the town center, we returned to the Avenue of Honour and stopped by the Naturipe farm. They also had cherries, peaches and nectarines but only the strawberries were ready for picking. It's the 3rd time we're doing this, so honestly, the novelty for me is no longer there. I can buy strawberries anytime at the market and the prices are very reasonable. No longer a tourist, I'm not willing to pay for strawberries that cost double its usual price. We found out that they charge $9/kg and there's no minimum quantity. You pick as much and as little as you like. I think the price is rather reasonable so in we went for some exercise.

Inside, the bright red strawberries looked so delicious and everyone of them seem to be telling me "pluck me, pluck me". I felt like picking everything home. In the midst of teaching him how to pick good strawberries, KK received a valuable, albeit premature, lesson on 'cherry picking' his future partner. He tends to pick the first red strawberry he sees, usually those most visible and hanging outside. But really, many of the good ones are actually hidden inside the bush, where most people would not bother to push the leaves apart to find. Also before picking, we should turn the strawberry around and examine it properly. Some appear perfect facing you but the other side is still yellow and not ripe. Some have blemishes and worms hidden from our view. Not every red strawberry is worth picking. Hopefully he'll understand the deeper meaning next time but at the moment he sure needs to make better selections, many of the strawberries he picks cannot pass the 'QC' of mummy.

We didn't have to walk very far down two rows of plants to find our 2 kg box almost full. Rationale must prevail! We cannot possibly finish 2 kg of strawberries in a short time. Besides we can always come back again to get more anytime. I had to stop my sons and myself from our 'plucking frenzy'. At the end, we brought home 1.4kg of beautiful strawberries and a satisfied KK, who finally got to pluck something!

Spongebrain

I've heard that the young child's brain, especially between 2 - 6 years old, is like a super absorbant sponge. They form the most connections and absorb new information at a rate that will not be duplicated again for the rest of their life. It's amazing.

XX is at this age and I can see it happening. The way he picks up language, music, psycho motor skills and behaviour from KK, movies, books and us. He's very curious and will ask me what is this and what is that. He'll also repeat everything that you teach him. Everything is so interesting to him that he refuses to take naps anymore, even when he's very tired.

When I was in Singapore, I bought him 2 little cardboard books. One of them teaches the alphabets and the other has some basic chinese characters. He was very interested in them and will ask me to read through the whole book to him everyday. Every time I'll point to the characters and say the word, he'll repeat after me. We do this even after we came back to Melbourne. With repeated exposure, XX has learnt to recognise the shapes of the different alphabets and chinese characters and associate them with its pronunciation. Within days, he started to recognise some of the most repeated characters. About 3 - 4 weeks later, he can identify almost all the alphabets and read all the chinese characters of 1 to 10, including many other chinese characters like 海, 火, 水, 石, 土 and 山 that even KK does not know.

Based on this method (thanks to the suggestion from Christina), I've purchased some chinese character cards and pasted some of the more common everyday words (starting with food) on the wall. I got KK to stick pictures next to the matching words. It works. After looking at them and repeating them for a few days, XX and KK has already learnt to recognise those words.

Having said that, XX is also at this age where he's a total blind follower. He's totally non-discriminating about the things he learns. So we really got to watch what he's exposed to. The most 'dangerous' person around him at the moment, yet also the most fun and inspiring, is elder brother KK, who often sprouts nonsense and influences his little brother to do funny things, like dipping fish fingers into the chocolate spread and playing "street fighter 4" totally naked. Many a times, I've got to do damage control (and lecture the instigator) but trying to squeeze out stuff absorbed into XX's spongebrain is not easy.

Hot Spring

I'm having a Hot Spring....And I don't mean the 'onsen' in Japan.

Temperatures this Spring has been warmer and drier than last year. I very clearly remembered on XX's birthday last December, it was pouring cats and dogs. It was one of the wettest day ever. That was my first Spring in Melbourne and I recalled thinking then, how come Spring feels like Winter? Is Melbourne ever gonna be warm? Of course, then came Summer and the heatwave.

It is still early days however, for Summer now but already temperatures go up to 35 degrees celsius in the day. For the past few days, I haven't seen a drop of rain. Thus I'm not sure what to expect when it becomes Summer Summer. The worst part is, our house is not built for hot weather. So staying indoors can be just as miserable as going outside. Thanks very much to global warming and the El Nino.

Since moving to Australia, we realised that we're now much more sensitive to the weather and its changes. Effects of climate changes can be felt more acutely and has a larger impact on our daily lives. Generally, the kind of activities people engage in changes as the weather changes. Previously (in S'pore), I don't care much about weather reports. It's either raining in the east or west and day temperatures always ranges between 30 - 32 degrees. But over here, I cannot ignore it at all. The weather determines how we dress KK for school, whether it's gonna be a picnic at the park or shopping in air-conditioned places this weekend, whether I can start keeping our fleece clothing and start taking out the shorts and singlets. Obviously this year, I am not at all prepared to be wearing Summer clothing now.

Just one month ago, when we first came back from our holiday in S'pore, everywhere was green and luscious, even our neglected backyard. It was what Spring should be. Flowers were blooming, weeds as well. Our lavenders were in top form, our tulips at their peak. All because there was sufficient rainfall. But the good times didn't last. Now, the green landscape is starting to turn yellowish green and if this hot and dry spell continues, it will be totally golden brown before long, like dried chrysanthemum flowers. Speaking of which, I have been making tons of the drink these few days, to cool and hydrate the heaty body, if nose bleeding is a symptom.

Because of what we have experienced here, my dear readers from Singapore, never complain again that you have to avoid puddles and carry an umbrella when it rains. Just think of us dehydrated and half-baked folks down here.

Surprise Menu

Ever had those days where your fridge is full of food but you just don't know what to cook?

Well, today was just that. Up till the time I was preparing dinner, my head was still swirling around several ideas about the menu. I had so many ideas, yet no concrete action plan. I had just returned from the supermarket and added to my fridge lamb cutlets, scotch fillet steaks, whole fresh chicken, chicken thigh fillets, italian pork sausages, bacon, salami, mushrooms and many other yummy ingredients. There're so many possibilities that I can't decide. Should I make an improvised bacon and salami pizza? Or chicken rice? Maybe a creamy pasta? What's more, waiting in my fridge were some pre-softened shitake mushrooms, a quarter cauliflower that's more than 2 weeks old and a slab of defrosted salmon fillet. Sometimes, too many choices is bad....heheh.

Common sense prevailed and I decided that I should use up the 'older' ingredients that cannot be kept first. But how? As I was preparing the ingredients, KK asked me what's for dinner. My answer? "Actually, I don't know. Surprise!" I wonder what he thinks of mummy then. Mysterious, creative or clueless?

At the last minute, I adapted a Shitake Teriyaki Tuna recipe, using salmon instead and adding cauliflowers to the teriyaki mushroom sauce. I also grilled some Italian Pork Sausages wrapped in bacon as a side and made a Spaghetti Alio Olio as the staple.

Ta-da! Dinner is served. Phew, I'd manage to pull it off!

The Fried Stuff

My journey in the kitchen continues with adventures in making local kuehs.

While the previous creations have been mainly steamed stuff (发糕, 水淉 and 小龙包), my recent Singapore local kuehs required deep frying. Now, I usually try to avoid frying stuff, firstly because of the huge amount of oil needed which leads to the second reason that they're not so healthy. But there's no denying the fried crispy texture makes them extra tasty and appetising.

So I made recent exceptions by frying Kueh Kodok (Deep Fried Banana Balls) and Sesame Balls (煎堆), comforting myself it will be less sinful since I use 100% cholestrol free canola oil. In fact, both these kuehs uses healthy vegetarian ingredients. Kueh Kodok uses bananas and the Sesame Balls uses sweet potatoes and red beans. So oily-ness aside, we are consuming a good amount of fibre as well.

Kueh Kodoks

I love Kueh Kodoks. I remembered at my old work place, the Malay stall at the canteen would make these every afternoon about 3pm for tea. I will go downstairs to grab 3 for $1. The ones I made tasted quite similar, except it would be even better if I had waited a few more days for the bananas to get more ripe and sweet.

煎堆

I also love Sesame Balls and would always buy one or two when I pass by those Yum Cha (Dim Sum) restaurants. They usually cost about A$1.50 each. I like the crispy and chewy texture of sesame seed coated skin. The Sesame Balls I made turned out not too bad. I used red bean paste for the filling and it was nice too. However, next time, I'll increase the amount of glutinous rice flour to make the skin more chewy. I find mine not chewy enough compared to those sold outside as there was more sweet potatoes than flour.

Red Bean paste filling

Unfortunately, KK does not seem to like both the Kueh Kodoks nor the Sesame Balls. It has never been easy to get KK interested in food in general, and even more difficult to get him to try NEW food. To his credit, he is getting better now but there are still many food that he turns his nose up to. As a food-lover, I cannot understand this inhibition and can only shake my head and say "You don't know what you are missing, boy ." Luckily, I still have XX , who is more 'normal' and loves to eat (like me), to appreciate and help finish my kuehs.

Mini-Me

Besides our outward appearance, we also inherit a great part of our personality from our parents. And just like looks and values, we hope that our children will only inherit the best from us. But of course, genes are something totally beyond our control.

Many people have commented that XX takes after me in terms of looks. He's certainly got my fair skin, small nose and rounded cheeks. What many don't know and can't tell is that XX is a mini-me in certain aspects of personality as well. He's easygoing and sweet-natured like a cute puppy most of the time but recently, he's shown that he can be difficult and stubborn as bulldog when he's pissed off. Again, I'm not sure if it's just the "Terrible Twos/Threes" phase or his genetic setup but he has been exploding into tantrums over the slightest things, at the average rate of twice every three days.

Just yesterday, we had another episode. We had a good lunch yesterday at a cafe in Flemington. Before we left, I asked him if he still wanted the balance 1/4 cup of strawberry milk shake and I gathered no from his expression. After we left the cafe, we found out on the way to the car that he'd changed his mind and now wanted that milk shake back. Of course, it was too late. He insisted on going back and when we said no, started crying and refusing to get into the car. Another milk shake somewhere else just will not do. When he was forced to get into his car seat and threatened to be left along the street by Daddy, he turned his temper to me, insisting I stay on the street. And he got even more upset when we ignored his demand.

When his 'bomb' gets set off, nothing, NOTHING you do or say can soothe him. He's beyond reasoning and he pushes everyone who tries to comfort him away. He will stubbornly refuse any alternative. It's his way or no way. He will rather be caned and beaten than submit. For a tot that's not even a metre tall, that's a lot of nerves and grit. He can be very rebellious too. The more you don't want him to do it, the more he'll do it. I know from my own psychology that the hard approach just makes him harder and I can understand why he behaves the way he does. But yet he needs to learn that not everything in the world goes his way everytime. If he doesn't learn how to deal with it and change his rebellious and stubborn nature, I'm worried it will bring him and us more misery as he grows older.

Isn't it amazing what we can learn from our children? I am of this belief that God gives us children not just to bless us but also to teach us a lesson or two about life. Because we have become parents, we can better empathise with our parents and as a result, we become better children. Because we see ourselves in our children and because we want the best for them, we learn to be better people. With age and maturity, I don't 'explode so often nowadays but everytime XX goes into one of these tantrums, I'm reminded of myself and greatly humbled. While genes are not within our control, I'm hoping we can teach our children skills to understand and deal with their natural inner setup.