It's CNY and I am in Australia!!

boo hoo......no reunion dinner, no oranges, no he peow soup, no pineapple tarts, no ang paos & the top of the list....NO BA KWA!!!!

Apart from the food, I've always loved CNY and X'mas. It's the time where family members (and I mean the entire clan) will come together to eat and be merry. We've missed Christmas and Chinese New Year so far...so depressing. Oh and of course Andre and I miss the gambling...tee hee!

Mum cooked Chap Chai, He Peow Soup, Chicken Curry, Babi Pong Teh. yum yum! She'd most probably cook more if we were there.

Here in Perth, CNY came and it was like any other normal day of the year. All was quiet as usual. No half day for Andre or Zac. No excitement of getting up bright and early to get ready for visitations. No calls from friends to plan for the next earliest gambling session. Sigh...just another normal day.

Well anyways, here's wishing everyone back home Xing Nian Kuai Le, Wan Shi Ru Yi & Gong Xi Fa Cai!

First Day at School

The day we've been waiting for finally arrives. We all woke up bright and early to get ready (actually, I had to wake up earlier to prepare breakfast).

Surprisingly, Zac woke up excited. Brushed his teeth, had his shower, breakfast, did a poop and was all set to go. Not a sound of whining nor a drop of tear.

School is like a 5min drive from home. It was packed by the time we got there at 8.30am. School starts at 9am actually, but being Singaporean, the "KS" syndrome automatically kicked in and I wanted to be there early to check everything out and talk to his teacher. The first funny thing I noticed on the way in the carpark was that alot of parents were carrying tissue boxes and kitchen rolls. I realised later that they don't provide them for the children. Weird though...seeing how school fees are like $1.4k a year and we have to bring our own tissue paper.

School here is sooo different from Singapore. There is so much excitement in the air, no crying, wailing from the children or parents yelling at their kids. Everyone there looked so experienced. It's like this was kid #3 attending Primary 1 and Andre and I were the only newbies around. So like copycats, we looked around and followed what everyone else was doing.

Had a short chat with his nice, young teacher, Miss Maslin and she tried her utmost best to reassure us that Zac will be fine and she'll look after him just fine.

9am and the school bell rang. Andre and I noticed we were the last set of parents to be in the class. Quickly gave our hugs and kisses and walked out. Zac was looking around but I think Miss Maslin somehow mananged to get his attention. We rushed out of school and waited in the car park. 10mins went by and all was good. Phew!

Kan cheong me kept my mobile on me the whole day but wonderfully, there were no calls from the school.

Was outside his class at 2.50pm, so were the other mummies and daddies. It seemed like everybody knew everybody and were so happy to finally catch up as their children attended the same school. Me? nope..no one to gossip with yet.

School bell rings and out rushes all the children, happy to see their parents. All except Zac...waited for like 3mins but still no Zac. So I walked into his class and there he was talking to Miss Maslin. Waved at him and he wasn't even excited to see me...:( Only when he was done talking to Miss Maslin that he decides to give me a big hug.

We weren't even out of the school yard and already Zac was telling me how much fun school was. He even asked me how come I came to pick him up so early. Can't believe my ears!!!! Finally he likes school!!!!

Aaarrggghhh! What's Happening To My Tomato Plant?!

I give up! I've tried all ways to try to save my tomato plant but it's still dying (I think). Some websites say it's normal for the plant to shed leaves and that new ones will grow again. I'M STILL WAITING FOR THE NEW ONES TO GROW!!!!!!

So if anyone out there knows how to save my plants....PLEASE let me know!

The Maze

The Maze is one of Perth's tourist attraction. But and I stress BUT.....it is definately not an attraction you would make the effort to go to if you're here on holiday. Unless of course you happen to have some time to spare after you've visited Swan Valley (20mins away). This place is mainly for the locals who have absolutely nothing to do on the weekends and need to entertain their children. So like us, who can't find much to do on the weekends, have been there twice already.It's main attraction is The Maze. It's not very big but enough to get us lost and find our way out in like 15-20mins. But if at any time you decide to give up, you can just crawl your way out. You see, they didn't build the walls from the ground up. They left a gap big enough for a fat aussie bloke to climb out.

What we like to play is the Minigolf and the Discgolf. And though this place is more for Zac to enjoy himself, the real fun is watching Dre or myself kick each other's butt at the games.

Happy Birthday To Me

(sigh)...Yup...I'm 34 today. Another year and people will be saying, "oh, Ophe is now in her MID 30s"....arrrggghhhhh! Never thought I'd feel so crappy about growing older. Never mind! I'll just have to hang out more with G & Lor and I'll always feel better....tee hee!

Woke up bright and early....no different from any other Sunday. Quickly brushing my teeth then trying to wake Zac up, brush his teeth, not showering at all just so that we can make it on time for OLA's 9.30am mass.

Had a couple of sms-es birthday wishes. And more calls when we got back from mass. Skyped the Rodrigues family while they were having a Champagne brunch in my honour. And then I just lazed around and watched Desperate Housewives while my sweet husband prepared a scrumptous dinner for us in the evening.

On the menu, chilli crab, steamed fish, bean sprouts with salt fish, scallops and sambal water spinach (that's english for 'kangkong' btw). And after that, it was off to Baskins Robbins for ice cream. It was a wonderful evening!

But of course, when my husband was done preparing dinner, it was like a typhoon had just swept thru my kitchen.

Tho......like every year for the past 6yrs...I'm still wondering if my folks have totally forgotten about my birthday or will it be that only my offspring will get the calls or the presents from them. Must be some wierd chinese custom....oh well.

The Norfors Came to Visit

Our New Toys

With temperature's soaring to highs of 44degC, there was NO excuse not to buy this cute inflatable pool. As Andre said, it's his best idea ever.
Lucky Sarah....she gets the pool view! ;p

And of course, with the barbie set that we've always wanted to have, the afternoon was perfect!