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.