Second Anniversary in Melbourne

Yep, I've been living in Melbourne for two full years. And now, I can easily apply for my Resident Return Visa (RRV) and go in and out of the country easily. Not that I couldn't before. But I would have to produce lots of certified documents and supporting letters if I were to fly out and fly back into Australia. Lots of paperwork. Troublesome.

Time really flies. It doesn't even feel like it's been two years - more life half a year. The kids and I have adjusted well. In facr, too well I don't think we can fit into our old Malaysian lifestyle anymore.

For one thing, the cool weather here is very nice. You can take long walks and not sweat at all! Of course, in summer you do sweat.

Not much problem with food here. You can get virtually all sorts of Asian food at the Asian shops. They even have petai, salted fish and belacan here, much to my delight. Unfortunately, the kids do not share my passion for them. So when I had petai and some salted fish last week (two different occasions), they just went "EEWW! What's that smell???" and pinched their nose and gagged. Wait till I present them with durian. They'll probably pass out.

To be honest, the past two years have been pretty much the same to me. But I did make some very good friends this year and that has certainly improved my social life, although I still don't get to go out much at night, thanks to a husband with a terrible phobia of taking care of kids and doing housework.

I've also started doing some freelance writing with an online magazine called Suite101.com. The returns are really peanuts. It runs on a shared revenue basis. I only get paid if someone clicks on the links that appear on my pages. But it's for long term and if I keep writing, I'll have a body of work that will be able to generate income even after I've stopped writing. At the time of writing, I've published 73 articles. Not bad for a 3-month tenure. If I keep at this rite, I should have hundreds of articles by this time next year. Hopefully, there will be some real returns by then.

For now, I'm pretty contented. Not much money but I'm not complaining. As long as the kids are enjoying their childhood and learning things the fun way, I'll be happy to do all the other donkey work at home - as long as I don't have to work full-time outside the home. That means my significant other will have to work harder if he wants to live in a five-bedroom house and drive an Audi TT soon!

We'll see what our third year will bring us.

Banged Again!

Okay, I'll admit it. On a scale of 0 to 10, I probably score -1 when it comes to my driving skill. Yes, you've guessed it. I had a little accident with the car again recently (21 Nov 2008). It wasn't as bad as driving through the garage door last year. This time, I reversed the car into a little pillar outside the clinic. So there is big dent on the right bumper and broken real light cover.

I could blame being sick (that's why I was at the clinic!) and therefore not being able to concentrate while backing the car. I was also pretty sure the rear sensor didn't pick up any signal as the tiang was too thin (which could be it since it was at an odd angle with the rear sensors and I really didn't hear any beeping, I swear). But the fact was, I was careless. My blood pressure shot up, literally. The doctor was perplexed to find my blood pressure so much higher than usual during my visit with him. When he asked if I was under a lot of stress lately, I told him I just had a minor accident outside his clinic!

He was sympathetic. Apparently, he backed into their bloody tiang before too!

I was worried that Alex would really chew my head off for real this time. I SMSed my good friend Lina and she immediately offered to take me home, thinking I had really CRASHED the car.

Then, Lina and another friend, Sze Nam, decided to cheer me up (they know how much Alex treasures his car). They bought lunch and came over my house with their kids. They don't live next door to me but something like 10 minutes away and they would have to come out of the way to get to my house during morning school rush hours but they quickly offered to send my kids to school and fetch them home if the car needed to be fixed at the workshop. So thoughtful of them!

Yes, I was distressed but at least, this time around I had moral support from friends. They even shared with me their own spouses' weird behaviours just to make me feel better. And then, two other friends - Aunty Lilian and Aunty Stella - called and came along with more food! They too consoled me, assuring me my husband wouldn't have my head.

Time passed quicky with those four ladies in the house. I was mad with worry about Alex's reaction but for that 2 hours or so, I had friends to keep me company. Gosh, I never thought it would be so great to have such comfort. When I crashed the car the first time, I was all alone. So sad and pathetic.

And you know what? The next day, Aunty Lilian actually offered me the use of her husband's car! Uncle Alvin is another wonderful person. I was so touched I nearly cried!

I must have made Alex sound like a real monster! My friends were so concerned. Come to think of it, they probably thought Alex is an abusive spouse! Well, let's set the record straight. My husband is not a monster, just overly obsessed with his car.

Thankfully, he was calmer this time. Yes, he was upset, but only for a short while. He didn't shout and rave. He's probably resigned to the fact that his wife is a hopeless driver. Maybe he won't buy big and flasy cars for me to drive anymore. Not that I'm ungrateful for having that very nice Mazda CX-7. It's a fabulous car. It's just a tad stressful for me to drive sometimes. I'll be happy with any car, as long as it comes with automatic gears!