Spring Beach Holiday

Okay, this is a way overdue piece. I should've posted this like 2 months ago, shortly after our fantastic one week holiday in Blairegowrie, a nice little beach town in the Mornington Peninsular and just minutes away from Sorrento, a bigger town with better amenities.

My cousin Pin Pin and her husband invited us along for the holiday. The bank they work for, ANZ Bank, has a stuff club that runs several holiday houses around Australia and this nice, charming house in Blairegowrie is one of them. Very cheap - only AUD600 for one whole week!

Our holidays started on 20 September to 27 September - what bliss. Everyday we went to a different beach, except one day when it rained all day. But six out of seven was pretty awesome. Of course, the kids had more fun. They built sand castles and collected seashells on all the beaches they went to. Each beach has its own personality - different types sand, landscape and seashells. One day, we even found a beach all to ourselves, sort of like our own private beach. Splendid!

We had lots of barbecue fun too. Instead of cooking, we just bought some some sausages, chicken wings and meat and took them to the park with BBQ pits to grill them. Easy, no need to clean up plates and cutlery after each meal. We just had to throw all those soiled paper plates and napkins in the bins provided.

It was a shame Alex couldn't be with us the entire week. He only drove us there and then came back to Melbourne to work for the next few days before driving to Blairgowrie the following weekend to pick us up again. But we may go there on our own one of these days. After all, the drive to the Mornington Peninsular is only about one and a half hours. Too bad we wouldn't have the luxury of staying an entire week the next time, unless of course we got invited by Cousin Pin and family again to another place.

Photos will be uploaded later.

Fun With The Bus

Frankly, taking the bus isn't so bad here. In fact, it can be quite an adventure. Besides, the buses are always on time and most bus drivers are helpful and friendly, particularly when you are travelling with young kids.

And today, I boarded a bus driven by a Malaysian. Chatty fellow. This uncle was a teacher back in Malaysia and has been living in Australia for 26 years. He's from Butterworth and actually knows some of my teachers in Jit Sin! Small world. I sat on the first passenger seat with Joanne (after we dropped Joshua off at school) and this uncle just kept talking and talking. Quite interesting. He related to me how some of the kids of his friends had helped Doncaster East High School become one of the top schools in East Melbourne. Apparently five out of six of them became doctors! It's hardly surprising. Most of the much sought-after schools here have very high Asian migrant population!

When we went to pick up Joshua from school, we took a bus to Box Hill and had some snacks and McDonald's there. Then instead of taking the usual bus home, we decided to take another bus that serviced another route. A change of scenery might be fun, I though. Well, new sights, of course, but it took us half an hour to reach Westfield Shoppingtown, which is about 2 minutes by car from my house.

The kids wanted to walk from Shoppingtown. So we did. It was quite a long walk but they had fun along the way. They picked flowers, saw a small bird picking a fight with a big black crow and best of all, played with a big fat fluffy friendly cat. After the little playtime with their new feline friend, the kids say they want to walk back from Shoppingtown again!

As for me, at least I don't have to worry about wrecking the car the next couple of weeks. And no parking woes! Life isn't so bad without a car.

The Reunion

Over the weekend, we met up with some old friends who had come for a visit in Melbourne. Our little get-together was held at another friend’s house in Balwyn North since only his fortress-like abode can fit all 30 of us!

It was so good to see some old familiar faces and to catch up with one another. And since each family had its own little army of little people, the house was filled with screaming and running kids as well.

A few years ago, such a reunion of friends would see us chatting, drinking, smoking, eating, drinking, reminiscing, drinking, playing cards, smoking, drinking – you get my drift. Later, we’d probably go somewhere else only to indulge in the same things. And this could go on till the wee hours of the next day.

But these days, we don’t all get to sit down together. Some of us, usually the mums, will have to attend to the kids first, making sure they eat their dinner and are not fighting among themselves before having the chance to sit down and enjoy the meal and conversation. And when we all finally sit down to play catch up, some of the kids will barge in and demand some attention. Quite a struggle holding up a conversation when you have cranky kids pulling at your clothes and hair!

Naturally, we all become like Cinderella. By midnight, it’s time to hit the road and go back to where we’ve crawled out from earlier. The night is still young but our priorities have shifted to the young ones. So we reluctantly bid each other goodnight.

That’s what happened that evening. There was so much to catch up on but so little time and too many distractions. Still, the “party” was a blast. Wish we could have a few more of that every now and then!

Britney's Defender

Normally, I wouldn't bother wasting my time or blog space to talk about the likes of Britney Spears and those in the same league - Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, Lindsay Lohan, etc. But this time, I thought it might be fun to poke fun at her and one of her most loyal fans.

By now, most of us would have heard or seen Britney's disasterous live performance at the MTV Music Video Awards last Sunday. Though scantily clad, she failed to wow audiences worldwide. Well, naturally, people were dumbstruck by her appearance but unfortunately not the way she had anticipated.

Sporting a little pot belly, she was quite a joke to look at. I don't mean to be cruel but if you're a celebrity and you want to flaunt it in front of thousands of people, you should at least have the decency to make sure you don't repel those very same people. I am sure most people gawked at her during the performance not because she looked like a goddess, but more so because they couldn't believe the once svelte and toned Britney looked like she had just pigged out big time before taking to the stage.

Not surprisingly, harsh criticisms became her constant companions the few days that followed her performance. Some people said she should be put away somewhere safe for others! Seems like the whole world has abandoned her. In the midst of this however, one fan came to her defence.

Meet Chris Crocker, Britney's superfan who posted a video on YouTube pleading people to leave Britney alone! That is so hilarious. He seems genuinely upset and choking while making his infamous plea. I don't know if this kid is vying for some free publicity himself but he's quite well-known now. And his very emotional stunt has apparently generated other spoofs, including one supposedly from his own father!

After what Crocker did, I doubt people would leave Britney alone. Too priceless to be left alone, for the wrong reasons, of course!

Footy Fun Day

Today was one of those fun days at the school. It's Footy Fun Day. All the kids at Joshua's school were encouraged to come in colours of their favourite football team.

Now, that posed a problem. Apparently, Joshua had chosen a team called The Eagles. I had absolutely no clue what The Eagles wear. Miss Ellard, Joshua's teacher, kindly informed me they come in blue and yellow. I neglected to ask what shades of blue. Luckily, I had good old Google to find that out.

So I managed to find the right colours for Joshua today. Well, as expected, he was a little underdressed. The other kids, being real die-hard footy fans or future footy stars, were decked in jerseys, scarves, socks, shoes and hats of their favourite teams! Riots of colours everywhere. They even had time to show off their outfits in the school hall.

Gee, school is so much fun here! I wonder what fun day is next.

Trashy Trivia

Sometimes, I amaze myself with the amount of trash that I know.

Just the other day, I turned on the TV and there were flashes of well-known celebrity faces. And I could name EACH and EVERYONE of them. Nicole, Hugh, Cate, Keanu, Julia, Mischa, Matt, Brad, Uma, Kylie, Heath, Scarlett, Elijah, etc. If there were a test on "Spot The Celeb", I will pass with flying colours, unlike a certain driving test in which I had to sit for FIVE times before passing.

Alex, seated next to me, was impressed. He coulndn't name a single one of the stars. Can't blame him, though. He's into Cantonese movies, not Hollywood fares, although he seems to start developing an appetite for movies from the West. Well, living in Australia does that to you.

Anyway, it isn't just famous faces that I recognise and know. I have a knack of identifying a movie by seeing clips of it even though I've never seen that particular movie before. And when it comes to my favourite stars, what I know is even scarier.

I don't know why my brain is so darn good at absorbing nonsence info like that. But I have a sneaky suspicion I'm not in anyway unique. Millions of others are probably like me. Sad but true - our brains are not being put to good use. Sigh ...

Sticky Business

Kids love stickers. I don't know why. I loved them too when I was a kid. But back then, there weren't that many choices.

Fast forward 20 or 30 years later, you find a wide range of stickers to suit all ages and tastes. Just walk into any supermarket, stationery or book shop. They are everywhere, enticing kids to go nearer (and eventually bug their parents until the latter relent and buy them some).

Popular cartoon and superheroes characters are the bestsellers, naturally. I've had Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Ultraman, Pokemon, Hello Kitty, Barbie and the latest craze Transformers stuck on the furniture in the kids' playroom. Thankfully, Joshua and Joanne know that the walls are off limits.

I don't know if the teachers in Malaysia practise this but the teachers in Melbourne actually use stickers as rewards to kids who have done something well in school. Well, there are "official" stickers too! Joshua is a goody two shoe at school - hence the increasing number of stickers in his collection (he doesn't throw the stickers away, he peels them off his jacket or shirt and stick them on his toy box!).

Stickers are great fun, I suppose. I use them too to reward the kids when they behave. And they certainly are way cheaper than toys.