No Shortage Of Asian Groceries

One of the main concerns of many Malaysians who are about to move to Australia is the possibility of not being able to get their usual supply of groceries. Well, if anything, there are more varieties of Asian groceries here than back in Malaysia – at least this is the case in Melbourne.

Melbourne is truly cosmopolitan. Asians are everywhere and there are suburbs that are predominantly Asian. Box Hill, which is 5 minutes from my house, is a typically Chinese area. Then there are places such as Richmond, Footscray and Springvale occupied mostly by Vietnamese.

Since Box Hill is so near me I usually do my grocery shopping there. You can find virtually everything you need to do your usual Asian cooking here. And there’s more. Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese ingredients that you don’t normally see in KL are aplenty here. Very often, you can find things that are actually imported from Malaysia too!

You want to cook Assam fish or beef rendang? No problem. You can find tamarind, lemon grass, curry leaves, chili, onion, garlic, ginger, shallots and whatnot easily. If you’re lazy, ready-to-cook paste is also available. And you’ll be spoilt for choice.

In addition to spices, other dried ingredients are also easy to find. Herbal soup mix, ikan bilis, dried shrimp, salted fish, salted eggs, instant noodles and all the beans that we use for making desserts are also displayed prominently on the shelves of most Asian grocers.

And the greens – they are much bigger, plumper, juicier and tastier than their Malaysian cousins, courtesy of the temperate climate here, although I heard that the continued drought and water shortage may result in a drop of harvest and an increase in the prices of greens soon.

Well, remember how our parents used to say that we’d have to eat bread everyday if we moved abroad (ie to Western countries)? Those days are certainly gone, especially in Melbourne.

By Appointment Only

You know how you can easily walk into a clinic in Malaysia anytime you wish? You don’t have to call in and make an appointment first. You only do that if you are seeing a specialist for a very serious ailment.

Well, it’s a different story here in Australia. Here, you have to make appointments for almost everything. If you want to see doctor, a dentist, a veterinarian, get a hair cut or have your car serviced, always call to fix an appointment first. Otherwise, you may be turned away or have to wait for eons before you get to do what you mean to do.

And an appointment doesn’t always mean that you get to see the person you want to see at the time you’ve booked. It only means you are assured that you’ll get to see him/her. In many cases, you still have to wait for a while.

This is something that many Malaysians can’t get used to. We are so used to the first-come-first-serve exercise. Not surprisingly, each time I bring the kids to see a doctor, I would inevitably overhear people, especially older people from Malaysia or Singapore, complaining that they still have to wait despite making an appointment to see the doctor first.

Well, at least the services provided are usually satisfactory. Otherwise, I think people would have revolted a long time ago!

Car Wash

In Malaysia, you'll often see domestic maids washing their employers' cars in the morning or evening, sometimes on a daily basis. So it's not unusal to see many shiny clean cars, especially the luxury types, on the road.

It's a different story here in Melbourne. Very rarely do you see a truly clean car on the road. Most are covered with dust and mud and some look as if they have taken part in a motor rally or had a mud bath.

There's one simple explanatin for this - water shortage. Water restriction is in place across the state and that means you can't wash your car the conventional way - with a garden hose and splashing water here and there. It's an offence here. And your neighbours will report you to the water authority and you'll be labelled a water rat, a pariah within the community. (And there are other water-related crimes to, such as watering plants as you wish but that's another story).

You can wipe your car window clean with a piece of wet cloth but that's about all you can do. So everyone drives their car to the car wash facility to give their car a bath. There are 2 types - hand car wash where some workers will tend to your car washing needs and self-service car wash where you wash your car using what's provided at the facility.

Most people opt for the latter because it's cheaper. You put some money in the coin slot and you'll be given a specific period of time to do your washing. If you haven't finished washing your car and your time is up, just feed the thing more coins. So the faster you wash, the more money you save.

I was totally entralled the first few times I went with Alex to wash his car. You have to queue up, of course. But it usually doesnt' take long because nobody wants to spend more than they need to at the car wash. You'll also see some people washing in very kiasu manner - they are so fast they need only AUD2 to wash the entire car! It takes a lot of speed and skills, though!

I haven't tried using the car wash myself. I suppsoe I'll end up using a lot of coins. That being the case, I might as well just drive to a hand car wash centre to get the job done!

Covered Up

There was a mention of Malaysia on MSN news yesterday and it was for a very silly reason. The coverage was about Gwen Stefani being compelled to "cover up" during her concert there.

Well, to begin with, I was surprised that she was allowed to perform "live" there. Quite a vixen, she's used to showing lots of skin, even during her pregnancy. She looks great, of course. And at least she doesn't have the habit of driving with a suspended license, or drink driving or checking in and out of rehab centres like some celebrities we know.

Apparently, she appeared before her cheering fans on stage donning a black leotard under a white short-sleeved shirt and black-and-white striped hot pants suit, with black gloves up to her elbows. Pretty modest, huh? Stefani described the wardrobe modification as a "major sacrifice"! Ha ha. Well, at least she had the grace to do it.

She was in Melbourne as part of her tour recently. Naturally, there were no such silly restrictions on her stage costumes. Fans were just thrilled she was here.

Pressure to cover up is not a new issue in Malaysia. It's so overdone and doesn't really serve any purpose. Well, people reading the news flash online must think Malaysia a most backward and strange country. And who am I to say it isn't?

Swimming

Most kids would jump with joy at the thought of going to the swimming pool. Well, not Joshua. He is just weird.

You see, the school has a swimming programme for all the Prepies before this term ends. They are to attend swimming lessons stretched over 9 days at the end of the term. And it's only 45 minutes each session.

But our friend was (and probably still is) horrified by the prospect of going to the pool. It's not that he had had some traumatic near-drowning experience before. He's just too scared to swallow water and have water in his eye, ear and nose. Sissy. Too over-protected when he was back in KL under the care of his grandparents.

Well, he's going, whether he likes it or not. He actually burst into tears earlier because I insisted that he go. I tried convincing him that it would be fun and that he would regret it if he decided to give it a miss. I told him that he should be so lucky. Most kids in Malaysia won't have such an opportunity. I certainly didn't when I was schooling in Malaysia.

We'll see how it goes. He'll probably have so much fun that he forgets to be worried. Which is actually nothing to worry about in the first place! Sigh ...

Parking Blunder

Driving is so easy. I don't know why it took me so long to realise this. I was one of those nuts who passed their driving test eons ago and then never really took up driving. I just kept renewing my license every 3 years. The truth was, I was too scared to drive. Plus, there were too many road bullies in KL.

I never drove in KL, until last year when Alex had to come to Melbourne first, leaving his spanking all new Honda Accord behind. So I had little choice but to drive. It was an automatic car, so getting reacquainted with the art of driving came easily.

However, parking was and still is a big problem. I knew I was in for a hard time when I first arrived in Melbourne. Taking another driving test proved to be a nightmare. Subsequently, I had to sit for the practical driving test 5 times before passing. Strangely, it wasn't the parking part of the tests that failed me.

Anyway, I eventually passed. But my parking skills, or rather the lack of it, are horrendous. It doesn't help that Alex seems to have a deep affinity with big cars. I suppose I should be so grateful and lucky to be driving a Mazda CX-7 but it's really huge for me. Worse, the gate of our garage is so narrow that I'm not allowed to drive in and out of the garage. So Alex has to drive the car out in the morning before he leaves for work and then drive it back in when he comes home in the evening.

And parking at Joshua's school is quite a challenge too. So I try to be early when sending him to or picking him up from school. Half the time I can't park straight and have to get out of the car, take a look at the car's position and then re-park. Quite embarrassing.

And the other day, at the car park of the nearby shopping mall, I nearly couldn't get the car into the parking bay. Actually, I almost hit the pillar next to me. Thankfully, 2 good Samaritans came to my aid and directed me. They must be laughing their heads off after that. Most embarrassing.

But last week, I witnessed something near Joshua's school that made me feel better. Another mum who just passed her driving test was doing what I was doing. She got out of the car and re-parked her car. Heh heh. I'm not alone after all.

Movie Night

Tuesday. My favourite day. Why? Because of cheap video rentals on Tuesdays. Yep, it's my movie day.

Going to the cinema is an expensive affair here. When we watched Transformers a couple of months back, it cost us a bomb - AU$16 per adult ticket! Renting DVDs is a much cheaper alternative. And there are quite a few options too.

At Video Buster, you can rent a DVD for only AU$1 on Tuesdays and have it for a week. Of course for new releases, the rental period may be limited. Another good place to go is Video EZY. Gosh, they have everything and a lot of new movies. They even sell ex-rental DVDs at crazy prices. Its rental charges are higher than Video Buster's. Still, it's a lot cheaper than going to the cinema.

Renting DVD is really worth it. The kids truly make the best of it, watching their kiddie shows at least 7 times before returning the DVDs!

And another plus - all DVDs are original and uncensored. If you don't like something, don't watch it. The movie rating is clearly printed on the cover. Read carefully before renting.

Well, gotta go. Have to catch my Ocean's Twelve now. I know it's an old movie but I didn't get to see it when it was first released. So it's a treat for me tonight.

Saved By The Ring

I've always known everything happens for a reason. And what happened last night at my parents' house in my hometown in Bukit Mertajam bore testimony to that.

I usually make my weekly phone call to my parents on Sunday evening. And for some reason, I delayed my call for half an hour last night. And that turned out to be a good thing. My 2 sisters were there too and were just leaving when I called. They were already at the gate, getting ready to get in the car. But they went back into the house when they heard that it was me on the phone because they too wanted to have a chat with me.

My youngest sister Wei Wei promptly left her handbag for her husband CP to hold. As he hung around outside the gate, he noticed a motorbike approaching him. As it got nearer the pillion rider stood up, trying to snatch the bag from CP! Good thing he was alert and managed to foil the snatch theft attempt.

I shudder to think if it was Wei Wei standing out there with her handbag. So waif-like, she would have been pushed to the ground and probably got hurt when the 2 goons made their move. Fortunately it was CP, who's bulit like a truck (meant to be a compliment), was standing there instead.

My mother got a little overwhelmed by the incident. Who wouldn't? Our conversation was mostly about the foiled attempt. I couldn't help feeling how fortunate that I am here in Melbourne where such crimes are rare. At the same timeI feel bad for my family in Malaysia who have to face this threat regularly.

I also like to think that I saved the day. But I know deep down my late call happened for a reason. After all, God works his miracles through people and incidents. So this must be one of them.

Seeing Melbourne

I have to admit this. Despite having arrived here eight months ago, I haven't seen much of Melbourne. I go to the same places week after week - Box Hill (for Asian grocery shopping), Knox City (supposedly the largest shopping mall in Australia), Victoria Gardens (because IKEA is there), the city itself, Joshua's school, the local parks and playgrounds and the libraries.

Sad but true. There are so many places in, around and near Melbourne that I haven't set foot on. We've only been to St Kilda Beach once and Crown a couple of times.

So it was quite an experience for us when we ventured a little "further" today. We drove to Docklands. Well, it's very near the city. We just never found the time to go there until today. It's quite a nice setting. Lots of nice yatchs there, buildings shaped like boats and ships as well as a number of fancy restaurants. But it was chilly today and there was a bit of a shower. So we didn't hang around long. Still, it was fun and quite a departure from our normal weekend routine.

I think we should make it a point to go to other "near" places every weekend. Then I will get to see all of Melbourne eventually.

Advance Australia Fair

I've been seriously thinking about applying for an Australian citizenship. Well, all Australian PRs are eligible to apply for it after a 2-year stint here. And since I quite like it here, I might as well go for it once I'm eligible.

So I figure it would be a good idea to start by learning the Australian national anthem. The first time I really heard it sung was at Joshua's first school assembly. Yes, parents are invited to join in the weekly assembly. Cool huh?

Anyway, I attended it a few times and kind of managed to get the anthem's tune in my head. But I still didn't know most of the lyrics. So last week, I did a search on the Australian national anthem and discovered quite a few interesting facts.

I found out that its title is Advance Australian Fair and that it only became the national anthem in 1984. Gee, our Negaraku is even older. You see, the Australians shared the Brits' God Save The Queen before that. That's hardly surprising. The Queen is, after all, still the head of state in Australia.

I also found out that the other contender for the national anthem was Waltzing Matilda. Interesting, no?

My friend Bala insisted that Men At Work's Land Down Under was considered at one point. I chose not to believe him. Waltzing Matilda maybe. But Land Down Under? As cool as it is, I seriously doubt it.

Dried Up

When my Malaysian friends and I talk, we frequently talk about the strange weather in Melbourne - drought, oven hot days, 4 seasons in one day, unexpected cold snaps, winds that howl eerily, etc.

But there's something related that's not that often talked about - the dry air. Malaysians are used to humid conditions. So it's a big change here. Good and bad, of course. Dried food such as biscuits, cereals and crackers stay crisp even after being exposed to the air for long periods of times. And of course, clothes dry super fast, especially in summer. And because we don't sweat as much as we do back in Malaysia, we don't mind taking long walks. These are the plus points.

The downside of having dry air is that you tend to have dry skin too. And that's bad news for people with sensitive skin, like Joanne. So we have to opt for soap-free products and use lots of moisturisers and lip balms. No wonder these products are rather cheap here. There certainly is a big demand for them.

We try our best to apply them religiously. Otherwise, we will sport permanent flaky, itchy skin and cracks on our lips. Not a good feeling I can assure you. Alex got lazy a few days ago and couldn't stop scratcing his back. And now his back looks as though he's been whipped mercilessly. Yeah, awful scratch marks made by himself (Don't get silly ideas. I know some of you have twisted minds). Quite a feat. It must have been ultra itchy!

My hands have been spared much of the dryness-related agony, thanks to my daily routine of moisturising the kids' skin. Now, if I can just remember to moisturise other parts of myself, I will be spared entirely.

The Signs

Driving in Melbourne can be both easy and hard. Let me elaborate.

The demerit system for traffic offences is fully carried out. If pulled over by the traffic policeman, you can't "settle" it by the roadside. No way. Try that and you'll end up in jail. So almost everyone drives within the speed limit, uses signals when turning or changing lanes, gives way to pedestrians and cyclists and best of all, nobody cuts queues here! Road rage is a rarety here.

And the cops mean business. Half the time they are in unmarked cars. So you don't know where they are. So that means you'd better be on your best behaviour while on the road. And therefore, it's easy to go around when everybody obeys the road rules and drives the same way.

Now the hard part. You really, really have to pay attention to the road signs. Trust me, they can be so different. A stretch of road of less than 1km in distance may have varying speed limits - 20km/hr, 30km/hr, 40km/hr, 45km/hr, 50km/hr and 60km/hr. Then you have to watch out for bicycle lanes, merging lanes, parking signs with different information, horses on the road (in the City).

You may also need to share the road with trams. I hate this. The markings confuse me half the time! Then of course, there is the tricky hook turns in the city where you need to temporarily park your car on the left of a junction before you can turn right! That spooks me all the time.

Well, you win some, you lose some. Enough said.

Are You OK, Mate?

Those were the four words that Alex heard from a kind stranger as he was slumped over the steering wheel of his car, completely inebriated and not able to do much except waving back to indicate he was fine.


That's what happened when you had too much to drink. Alex would later pass out in the car for six hours before waking up and driving home.

That took place in a car park in the city last night. Now, if that had happened somewhere in KL, Alex would have been robbed of all his belongings while he was out and perhaps even thrown out of the car and had his car stolen too.

He was fortunate that Melbournians are much less likely to commit crime than fellows in KL. In fact, many are always ready to give a helping hand, like the stranger who asked Alex if he was okay. This is not to say that it's crime-free here. There are the ocassional break-ins, car thefts, murders and arson attacks.

But the frequency and extent of these crimes are much, much lower than in KL. You don't feel scared walking down the street at night. You need not worry that someone might break into your house if you've properly secured your doors and windows. Your kids are not likely to get snatched and pushed into a passing car while on their way to school.

Of course, you still have to be careful. That is a given. All I can say is that Alex was lucky he didn't pull that stunt while in KL. That would have been disastrous!

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 ...

Footy Season

I'll be the first to admit I know next to nothing about Australian Football, or Footy as the locals call it. It looks a bit like rugby and American Football, nothing like the Association Football or Soccer that we Malaysians are more familiar with.

But people do go nuts over Footy here. Football players are big celebrities here. I know none of them except for this fellow called Ben Cousins and all for the wrong reason. He was suspended or something like that for drug abuse and it was a big hoo-haa. The news coverage on him earlier this year made it impossible for me not to notice him. That was months ago. I don't know whether he's playing now in the league.

Personally, I think the game is rather rough. Not very good for Asians with smaller built. If Joshua starts playing Footy, I'm sure he'll end up with bruises all over his already skinny body! Thank goodness he seems more keen on drawing than holding the olive-shaped ball.

But apparently, there has been a slight rift between him and his school buddies who are fans of Footy. During lunch at school, those Ben Cousins wannabes will take to the field and try to emulate their footy heroes. Joshua probably feels a little left out.

Fear not, though. Joshua's teacher says there's no cause for concern. Once Footy Season is over, the boys will be back to their "usual" selves again. Tag will probably be in again.

Neighbours Bad For English?

Question: Why can't the Brits speak English properly anymore?

Answer: Because they watch too much Neighbours!

Hey, don't laugh. That pretty much sums up a news report entitled Neighbours Blamed For UK Accent Change I read today over National 9 News .

Who would have thought that a soap opera would have such an impact on the British population? The middle and upper classes in Britain are apparently worried about this trend. The younger generation is speaking with a mixture of Australian and British accents.

It doesn't concern me. After all, I don't speak with either accent. While I prefer listening to the "proper" Queen's English (I am, after all, a sucker for Historical Romance novels and constantly "read" the dialogues in Queen's English), I think the Aussie flavour is pretty cool too.

Well, I initially wasn't that big a fan of the Australian accent - not if everyone sounded like the late Steve Irwin. I mean he was a great guy and all that but his thick accent was quite, err, something. But having lived Down Under for the past 8 months or so, the Aussie accent has grown on me. I kind of like it now - as long as it's not too thick!

Well, Joshua is already speaking with an Australian accent. Joanne is sure to follow suit when she starts Prep next year. So yeah, Australian accent is cool to me. So what's the big deal about speaking English Neighbours-style?

Choked

Today, I nearly choked to death. Well, maybe not to death but it was quite scary.

I was in a hurry to pop my flu capsules - thanks to the kids I've caught the flu bug too - and didn't pay attention to the small piece of foil stuck to one of the capsules. You know, it's one of those things where you break the foil to pop the capsule out.

Anyway, I took 2 capsules, popped them in my mouth and washed them down my throat with water in one single gulp. And immediately, I felt something nasty lodged in my throat! I gulped down more water but the thing was still stuck. It was the most uncomfortable feeling.

I tried to cough that darn thing out but it wouldn't budge. And I could feel something beginning to block something in my throat. What if my windpipe was blocked?? Would I pass out and the kids wouldn't even notice?? I started to panic.

I rushed to the toilet and forced myself to throw up. What if I couldn't get it out? A vision of me being rushed to the hospital flashed before me. Then it struck me - if I passed out first no one would know my predicament. The kids were oblivious to what was happening to me. And they didn't know how to call for help.

After retching for a few seconds, the miserable piece of foil dropped into the toilet bowl with the name of the brand still on it! It was about the size of a thumbnail. Instant relief.

After that, I told Joshua I almost choked. He just nonchalantly said, "why?"

I don't want a repeat of the incident. So I'll make sure I look carefully before swallowing anything. Also, I taught Joshua how to make an emergency call. Just get the phone and press 000 and press "talk". Of course, I made him memorise the house address too. You never know when you need that kind of help.

Nasi Lemak, Anyone?

Food and I - we go hand in hand. I go nuts when the buffet table is covered with an assortment of food. Trust me, I'll be one of those who makes at least 5 trips to the buffet table. And each trip features me with a HUGE pile of food on my plate and an equally HUGE grin on my face.

But strangely, I'm not all that fussy about food. Sure, if the food looks and tastes great, it's a plus. Still, if it's not, I don't hang myself over it. Which is fine because where I am now, I'm also the chef of the household and I'm not known for my culinary skills. So no gourmet stuff, just ordinary meals that get the family going.

And I didn't seem to miss any of the Malaysian hawker stuff like nasi lemak, mee goreng, char koay teow, asam laksa, roti canai, rojak buah, pasembor, etc, until 2 friends brought them up in separate ocassions.

During one of our recent chats, Nani, my partner in crime since our reporter days back at The Sun, talked about the nasi campur with the spicy crab and prawns that we used to gobble down during our lunch break. I hadn't thought about that for nearly 2 years until she brought the subject up. And that night, I had the strangest dream - me and Nani on a weird mission to find our favourite rice stall and no matter what we did, we just couldn't find it. Gosh, what a sick dream.

Then Sangeeta, another ex-colleague who has also migrated to Melbourne, tempted me with talks of how she got some nice nasi lemak bungkus not far from her house. I begged her to give me the address. Alas, I haven't checked the place out yet.

Well, Malaysian food isn't all that hard to find here. But more often than not, it tastes a bit weird, even though the chef is really Malaysian. You can even find nasi lemak in some of the Asian grocery shops but I have yet to be tempted to give it a try. The look of it is enough to make me cringe. Maybe I should learn to make my own nasi lemak. The roti canai sold in the grocery shops, however, isn't too bad.

All this talk about food is making me hungry. Thank goodness I still have lots of potato chips in the house ...

Winter Time, Victorian Style

Most Malaysians identify winter with snow and icy weather. Well, in many European and North American countries, that's how winter is .

But not here in Victoria. Yes, it's still freezing cold, especially at night and early in the morning but the temperature hardly ever drops below zero degree. My cousin told me there were a few times when the temperature did dip that low but that happened 20 or 30 years ago.

Of course, there is snow in the mountains but you actually have to travel there to experience snow. So that doesn't really count.

Back to my first winter experience in Melbourne - I don't mind the cold all that much. It FEELS like winter but minus the hazards that come with snow. I can't imagine driving when it's snowing! My driving skills are not that up to mark and it's better to drive in more familiar conditions. Even the foggy windscreen in the morning is already proving to be a challenge to me. I shudder to think if I have to drive on slippery roads covered with snow! I'll probably end up doing time at the Box Hill hospital with broken limbs.

One more thing - a sunny day in winter maybe sunny but it can also be freezing at the same time. I mean, it looks awfully warm outside if you're looking out from the inside of your house but once you step outside, you feel as if you've stepped into a freezer!

No wonder I see people in the movies wearing such thick clothing with the sun shining brightly above them and they don't get sweaty at all. Back in Malaysia, you would've had a heat stroke dressed like that!

Having experienced much cooler temperatures here, I don't know if I can ever get used to the hot and humid weather back in Malaysia again.

Do It Yourself

If there is one thing that one must absolutely have in a household in Australia, it is the toolbox - with all the tools intact.

You see, we have to assemble furniture IKEA-style. Yep, unless you don't mind forking up lots of money getting someone to set up your furniture (labour is pricey here), you'd better learn to be handy with tools.

I'm lucky. Alex, being an engineer, is pretty good at reading manual instructions and putting the pieces together. If I were on my own here, I probably won't have any furniture in my house! Either that or I'll have to make sure I get so filthy rich that I can afford people to assemble my furniture for me.

The same goes with chunky electrical items. You know how confusing it can be when you see all those cables and wires with different colours and you just don't know what goes where? Yep, you have to figure all that out yourself too. The guys from the electrical shop will just drop your Plasma TV, fridge, washing machine, etc and then make their exit. They don't hang around plugging in the wires for you.

Well, Australia is a great country. But sometimes, certain things are still better in Malaysia. At least you don't have to worry about fixing the wrong leg onto your brand new chair. Guess you can't have it all!