Boom and Bloom Time

Do plants grow in the dark? Since when did that long branch grew out from the rose plant? Ah...Spring is here. Boom and bloom time for the plants not just in my garden but everywhere! 

It rained again last night and this morning. When I opened the window to take this photo, the air smelled and felt so good. It's cold but so refreshing! I never remembered breathing air like this in Singapore. That's one reason why I love staying in Melbourne. I love staying at home, looking outside at the plants and noticing the little changes in them. The grasses' gotten taller, that plant's got a lot more leaves now, hey look, rose buds are forming! and the fruit trees are starting to grow flowers! Small discoveries, little pleasures of life.

Korea

Our holidays over the last four years have mainly been within the country of Australia, except to Singapore, which I consider more of a 'home visit' than holiday. In fact, even before we moved to Australia, we have already started taking 'holidays' cum 'survey' trips to various states of Australia. If I'm not wrong, the last country we visited that is NOT Australia or Singapore was Canada, back in 2005. So when a visit back to Singapore became possible, we decided to extend the trip further to include a long overdue holiday to South Korea as well. 


Although I had visited Seoul before, I never went beyond Itewon and the hotel lobby then. That was how much time we had during the night stops as a cabin crew. My vague impression of Korea was 1) cheap and good imitation products;  2) a harsh place to be during winter; 3) rough people whose sense of personal space was very poor and 4) super sweet strawberries. What will my perception of Korea be, many years later? I'm pretty sure the harsh winter still holds. 



My first impression of Korea is one of a vibrant nation with a hardworking and creative workforce. I love watching Korean drama serials, one main reasons for my interest to visit the country that gave birth to Lee Min Ho and Kim Tae Hee. We love Korean food, often cooking them at home or visiting Korean restaurants in the city. We love using their inventions - LG washing machines, fridge, microwave oven, Samsung TV and my latest Samsung Nexus Galaxy smartphone. I think Koreans should be very proud of their country people for all they have achieved internationally.


Being in Seoul feels like being in Singapore sometimes, except for the weather and it being more chaotic. There are lots of people on the streets, in the malls and at the train stations, even late at night. The people work late and the shops are opened till late. Everyone is moving. Bright lights from the street hawkers light up the street and food tempt you every metre of the way.

Korea's cherry blossom of Spring

And the people are friendly. Mostly we have a problem communicating with them but when we do ask someone for help or directions, they always respond helpfully, despite spending a lot of effort trying to make us understand. Luckily, we have a picked up a few Korean lines to help us ask "where" and "how much" and the many English signs around the public areas helped considerably.


We spent a substantial amount of time in Korea feasting on their local cuisines. We loved to visit those shops operated by 'ahjummas' and have the traditional way of sitting on the floor. We have to take off our shoes and our feet get numb after about 1 hour but the experience is so authentic. I always look forward to see how many and what type of 'banchans' (side dishes) they will serve us. Sometimes, it can get as many as 20! And the food is spicy and delicious! Even my kids enjoyed it and they ate so much during that two weeks they both gained weight.


Shopping wise, there are no lack of Korean products to buy. The most common shops sell beauty products and clothing, targeting the young working female population. However I find their clothing not cheap although the Korean won is weak against AUD. I heard that the salary of the Koreans are not very high but looking at the prices of things, it doesn't tally. Many of the clothing are made locally in Korea and the vendors are proud to highlight that fact. Of course, the quality is better than some China made one. 


One of our favourite past time in the afternoon or night is to stop by one of those trendy donuts cafes to rest our legs, have a cup of cafe mocha while the kids have their donuts. This kind of lifestyle is very popular with the younger generation there but a cup of ice mocha can cost as much as A$5. 


The other thing I noticed about Koreans are how civic-minded they are. At food courts, they return their trays to the racks after eating. At fast food restaurants, they dispose of their trash AFTER seperating the food waste, liquids and containers. On the train, ahjhummas (aunties) will not hesitate to tell kids off when they put their feet on the upholstered chair. No wonder the trains are so clean and well-maintained. 


The Koreans are also very efficient and thoughtful in their services. At food courts, you are given a beeper so you can sit down to wait while your food is cooking. Water is always provided free and you collect the metal cups for water from sterilising cabinets. At one bank, there were even some nail polish for you to paint your nails and time away while waiting. When I bought a birthday cake from a mall, the candles were provided together with a knife and even 2 matchsticks! At the Haeundae beach, it even has wi-fi and internet stations set up. That, I think is a little carried away.


After 2 weeks in South Korea, I walked away with a deeper understanding of the Korean  culture, not to mention a few Korean words, and a renewed respect for its people. I will definitely want to revisit the country again. This time, I must remember to visit their public baths.   

Another Beautiful Day

I had thought that once both kids are at school for six hours a day, I would have a lot of time on my hands. Not true. I still feel like I'm very busy. and the week passes in a whoosh. 


A few days of the week, I live like a 'tai tai'. I help out with reading at XX's Prep class once a week, go to the gym, do an hour of exercise, shower and then meet up with some friends for lunch. We hang out until it's time to pick up the kids. Then I either come home or hang out some more on days when XX has Tae Kwon Do. When I don't do that, I take the chance to do some shopping and marketing. Then I make myself some lunch and enjoy some quiet time in front of the TV ususally. Today is a rare day where I decided I won't go out and I won't meet friends, even though someone did asked me to meet for coffee. I became a maid of the household today. Preparing jiaozi for the master and young masters and cleaning up the oven grills. Well, maybe a bit of blogging as well....


The other thing is I thought that I would have the chance to sleep more once the kids are in school. Also not true. I am usually the first to wake up in the morning, many times automatically and before the alarm clock rings. Even on days where Hubby takes them to school, I will still get up to make lunches and get them breakfast. Maybe now XX is also going to school and I want to make sure their lunches has some variety and are what I want them to eat. A little control freak. And I don't go back to bed after that. The problem is also I can't seem to sleep a lot these days. About 6 - 7 hours and I would find myself waking up easily. So on days when I go to bed early, like 10pm, I find myself waking up 4.30am, which is really frustrating. 


This is a sign of aging apparently. When you're older, you don't sleep as much. And that's the ironical part. When we were younger, we loved to sleep so much but can't seem to get enough. Often we have to force ourselves out of bed for school, work, whatever activities. Finally when we get older, we have all the time in the world to sleep, we can't sleep. So not fair...


Anyway, this is life. And I think mine is still good and I give thanks for that. I love my family. I live in a nice house, in a safe country. I have a good circle of friends to keep me sane and many interesting hobbies to keep me occupied. Most importantly, we still have health and the chance to look forward to another beautiful day tomorrow.

Year of Beginnings

As is expected, once the holidays ended and the new school year started, life for our family experienced more adjustments. Thanks to the school holidays, we have a lot of time to settle into our new home. In fact, we didn't do much during this school holiday except 'house stuff'. We did not take any overseas or interstate travel, not even local ones. The only 'holidayee' stuff we did was to take the kids to Philip Island to watch the penguin parade one night. I think the kids were pretty bored having to stay at home so much, worst when our TV chose to break down and they had to abstain from their favourite in-house past time - TV games. 


Once Chinese New Year and the holiday festivities ended, it was back to school time. This year is a big year of BEGINNINGS for XX. He started training in Tae Kwon Do, started formal schooling in Prep and he started Chinese school too. I was pretty worried how he would cope with so many introductions of new things. Surprisingly, he was really cool and handled these changes in his life with maturity and enthusiasm. 


He was the only new kid at TKD so he got a one-on-one personal training from his instructor, a black belt 2nd dan. He did really well, taking instructions and following the moves. His instructor said he's showing good potential but I was really more worried if he could last the whole hour, especially after a long day in school. His energy was totally sapped up though. For that Tues and Thurs after training, he fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept through till the next morning. I'm glad I stopped XX's swimming program for this year.

Now every morning, XX joins his elder brother to school. I have been waking up early to make their lunch boxes and get them ready, driving them to school when hubby can't. For the first week, I felt a bit lost after I dropped them off. I used to always have XX by my side, suddenly I have so much freedom on my own I felt a bit lonely and disorganised. 

With the changes to XX's routine, I realised my routine has to adapt too. I started going to the gym in the mornings instead of in the evenings since I have time and this way, I don't need to rush during dinner time. Luckily I managed to find some classes that I liked to replace those that I was doing at night. I think I should also start to explore the option of doing some part-time work but right now, I'm quite enjoying the luxury of a quiet lunch in front of the TV, watching Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott fight it out in parliamentary debates.



XX is enjoying his new 'big boy' lifestyle, doing almost everything that his older brother is doing. With the second one, it is much easier to introduce the concept of school. He kind of know what to expect and what to do. KK has been a good brother too, giving him tips on the first day (say 'please', 'thank you'...) and going to his classroom after school to fetch him. Knowing that he has an older brother there with him, there is no separation anxiety, no tears and no worries. I don't even have to convince XX to go the Chinese school on Saturdays. He stayed alone from the second week (didn't need me to sit beside him) during chinese class and he handled his homework without any fuss. Cool as a cucumber. I'm so proud of you, XX!!

Happy New Coffee Table

We made a new coffee table for the new year and I really like it! This is the first time that Hubby had made a piece of furniture and I'm very proud of him. To be exact, I conceptualised the design, Hubby made the wooden frame, I stained/varnished it and he fitted it together with a MDF board and liquid nails.Even though the workmanship is not excellent, he at least made my idea come true and it's standing excellently structurally. 

I'm also very happy that my idea to recycle a piece of abandoned stone bench top (left by the builder after they got the sink cut-out wrong and had to make a new bench top for us) into something nice and useful became realised. It did cost us a couple of hundred dollars to get the stone mason to cut the stone into the shape of a circle though. But it's worth it as a stone table like this would probably cost more if we'd purchase it at some furniture store. Not to mention the stone is the exact match of our kitchen island bench. There several more pieces of stone which I'm planning to turn into a breakfast bar table for the alfresco area. I think Carpenter Hubby will have a busy year ahead!


Happy New Year Everyone!

XX turns 5

It's been another busy week. Christmas Day came by, accompanied by some hail and flooding. Luckily for us, we were affected by none. Only Hubby's hind wheels got stuck in the mud after he left it parked on the bare naturestrip outside our house during the storm. The interior of our house is more or less organised now and we were able to welcome and entertain some visitors over the holiday period. Only wish the dishwasher was working. After a failed attempt by us to install it ourselves and ended having to pay for an emergency plumbler in the middle of the night, it still won't work for some reason. I got a feeling we will have to wash more money down the drain before it can be used.


Speaking of money, we are right now feeling that a house is a big bottomless sinkhole in which you pour your money in. One of our friend commented that she will be a very rich woman if she had saved up all the money she'd spent on her house over the years. Probably she's right. There are so many expenses, large and small, which came up that we never had to think about previously. And now, our plasma tv is showing a yellowish screen, which I reckon is not an auspicious sign.


The year is slipping by so fast before I have a chance to report recent important events. I still owe XX a birthday cake. I feel so bad that this year, XX turned 5 one day after we moved in, I have no time to make him a birthday cake. I only used the oven for the first time to make some pre-mix whoopie pies for his kinder. At least he had his moment of fame in school with 28 of his kindy friends singing him a birthday song and I did get him a big Lego Creation set as a gift, but I still feel a gap. I have made the birthday cakes for both of them every year since we moved to Melbourne. This year, XX's cake was a $5 mud cake from Coles.


Cake or no cake, my little baby has grown up one more year. Come next year, he will be joining his older brother in primary school. Although it is just Prep (equivalent of K2 in Singapore), he will be donning official school uniform, packing a lunch and going to school 5 days a week for 6 hours a day. I'm so gonna miss him. Since we came to Melbourne 3.5 years ago, he has been my constant companion and I witnessed his amazing transformation from a baby to toddler to a young school going child. It is so amazing. I'm being made redundant at more and more tasks as he now takes over cleaning his bottoms and showering/shampooing himself. He puts on his own socks and shoes and knows how to put them into the laundry basket afterwards. And just one day before he turned 5, XX learnt to ride the 2-wheeled bicycle on his own! We were busy supervising the movers and he was paddling around the back with the bike. He found his balance for a few seconds and then he could balance longer and longer. Suddenly he's riding a few metres without falling!  


It's a natural progression for him and I'm proud of his accomplishments. I'm relieved also for more freedom but at the same time, I probably need a little more time adjusting and letting go. You know, I still like to carry him, cradle him (with his limbs hanging out) and smell his neck like a baby.


Here's XX's photo diary of his 5th birthday.

On my birthday, I went to the indoor playground with Brandon and Callum after my Prep orientation.

Hooray, I'm 5 finally!

Mom made whoopie pies for my kinder friends.

Me with my teacher blowing out the candles on a fake cake.

My birthday present which I constructed with help from Mama and KK.

   

We Moved In

So much has happened since my last post. We finally got our keys, gave notice to vacate the rental house and started organising the moving in. Appliances and curtains got installed, furniture delivered, we moved in officially, XX turned 5, Hubby and KK got their blue belts for Taekwondo, end of school year and it's Christmas tomorrow! 


In between all these major events, there were lots of unpacking, tidying and organising at our new home and the cleaning and handing back of the rental property that was our home for the last 21 months. There were also school orientations for XX as he gets ready for Prep next year and end of year Christmas concerts to attend (even XX's kinder had a mini one). Hubby and I were so tired these last few weeks that we basically just crashed into bed everynight. But there's the satisfaction of finally living in our own home which we've work hard to create and I think we're progressing well. Hubby has been very hard working especially, assembling furnitures and fixing up odd jobs around the house. He's even started working on some of the many home projects lined up, such as our timber deck and we even got the Christmas tree set up. 


Enough said, I'll let the pictures tell the story:

One of the first thing we had to do was to set up a post box.

Hob and Hood installed.

Blinds had to be in before we can move in. Here's the sliding panel blinds in our bedroom.

Bought some furniture pieces from Ikea which we had to assemble.

The plantation shutters in the Lounge room.

Panel blinds in the laundry room that we installed ourselves. Rails from Ikea, fabric from Spotlight. 

Yay, our first meal (Korean instant noodles) in our new home.

The timber arrive for our alfresco decking.

Hubby setting up the frame for the decking. Yes, we're going to try and DIY!

Looking homely and comfy for Christmas.

More pictures on XX and KK to come and as we settle in and tackle more home improvement projects. Meanwhile, have a Merry Christmas and Happy 2012!!