Chicken Pie

Pie is one of the food item I wish to try ages ago but I find it's a bit troublesome making the pastry. Plus there are a few different types: shortcrust, puff, sweetcrust, filo etc. What's the different??? Honestly I have no bloody idea at all because pie if not 1 of the food I eat often while I grew up.

I did asked Sue(my colleague) for advise on pastry and she recommanded me to buy off the shelves pastry from the supermarket. They are nice and it save so much time!

Two weeks ago, I went to Victoria Garden. Bought a Maxwell & Williams baking dish from House and a packet of Pampas puff pastry from Coles. Got home and started to make Chicken Pie.

Nice???

The recipe is quick and easy. Most important it taste delicious and Hubby loves the pastry!

Hmmm I still have 4 sheets of pastry in my freeze. What should I try next???

Pet-Sitting

I'm currently pet sitting as Stan and Elsie are away for 2 weeks. Their kids are temporary my kids..hehe.

They have being staying with us for 5 days now.Picked them up on Sunday evening. The initially 2 days are orientation days. We starting to know Hana and Poo Poo character and behaviour. While they, especially Hana start to know our time schedule and character.

Hana definitly likes Hubby a lot! Both of them go crazy once they start to play. Hana is afraid of me more than Hubby. Think I'm more strict and fierce compared to Hubby. She doesn't dare to go beyond the limit when she is with me.

Poo Poo was initially pretty noisy at night. But we notice the amount of noise he made decreases a lot for the past 2 nights. We even had our room door open last night as Hana want to come into the room to check on us.

Taking care of them is a breeze! They are so well trained! We are enjoying their company. :) Except we have to clear their shit everyday. Sometimes twice a day for Poo Poo. Hubby will say when he is clearing their tray "At work I need to clear patient's shit. Come home need to clear your shit". But I can see that he is enjoying it. HAHA

OMG I think Hana is snoring!! Took her to the park for a long walk and she asked me to play fetch with her when we got home. She made me chase after her round and round in the house.

Hana loves being in the sun. We tends to lift the blinds up when we aren't at home so that she can enjoy the sunlight.

She looks so tired after a long walk.

Hanging Rock

21-03-2008 Good Friday

Although it's a a super long weekend (4days) in Australia, we didn't manage to plan a weekend getaway as Hubby was scheduled to work 2 days out of the 4.

We woke up, made ourselves a nice hot breakfast and was lazing around in the house thinking whether should we go out. If yes, WHERE? Shops are all closed for business. Traffic must be bad as lots of cars heading outbound of Melbourne to start their long weekend away. Weather is not fantastic so it's not a good time to go to the beach. Finally, destination is set. We are driving to Hanging Rock.

We haven't being there at all. Heard about it and it's only going to be an hour drive. We will be able to reach there and get back before sky turn dark.


Traffic was rather smooth. There isn't much cars heading in the same direction. Within an hour, we are there! There are lots of family having pinic/bbq at the park in front of the Hanging Rock. We decided to go for the Summit Walk before grabbing a bite to eat.
We had a really nice slow walk. Took us about an hour return. The view was fantastic but could be even better if the weather was sunny. At the end of it, I felt it was a pretty good workout.


Totally no idea where should we head for food after that. We though maybe we could drive to the town nearby and see what is available. But before that, we went into the Hanging Rock Cafe to statisfy our caffine craving. We ended up eating there after checking the menu.

Hanging Rock Cafe
This little cafe really surprise us! We initially though food will be pretty expensive but it wasn't!!! Plus the food was delicious!!!!


My Homemade Scone and Berry Muffin. I'm can't resist ordering scone when I see them after having scone at Miss Maple.


Hubby's Eye Fillet Steak with Bacon and Cherry Tomatoes. Both of us loves the sauce! Don't ask me what it is. Honestly, I don't remember. Hehe

Backpacking Boots

I'm really lazy this weekend therefore didn't achieve much. Shopping for both days! Saturday was shopping with Lynn at City DFO. I didn't buy anything on that day. On Sunday hubby had the craving to Yum Cha. He's afraid of me being bored at home so decided to bring me shopping!!!

Hubby >> YES! I admit you pamper me (i won't complain if you do it more often...hehe) but you must admit I pamper you even MORE!!!

Few hours shopping = burning one big hole in hubby's pocket. He bought a pair of walking pant, a cleaning kit for his water bag and me a backpacking boots which is long over due.

A good pair of walking boots was on my thing to buy list since last year. I kept postponing shopping for it as I know it will be costly. Trip to Lakes Entrance made me realised I can't delay much longer. Therefore I decided to buy it now and season it for my road trip in June.


Nice???

I tried on 2 pairs of boots.

Boot A:
- Feel a bit too tight at the side.
- Support at the ankle is better.
- It $100 cheaper than Boot B.

Boot B:
- Better fit for the side.
- Don't really feel the support at the ankle.
- Have to tie it really really tight to prevent friction when walking on slope.
- Right boot is much bigger than the left. (My left foot is bigger).

In the end, I purchase Boot A. What I love most is I'm allow to buy it home and wear it indoor to try it out longer. If I find that the boot does not mold to my feet shape, I can return for a full refund or change another pair. It's a huge plus point because one need time to really test the boots to see whether it fits. Plus it's not cheap.

I only start wearing it yesterday evening. I will need a few more wear to determine will it be mine forever.

What have I done?

I haven't being updating my blog lately. I'm so disorganise.*sob* Or I'm just purely lazy???

I, hubby and Lisette went to Lakes Entrance for a weekend getaway last week. I will try to blog about the trip on my next entry. :)

I have being pretty busy this week. Ended up working till 9.30pm on Tue because the freaking PLC and SCADA didn't want to communicate. Burn all my brain cells that day trying ways and means. Althought I manage to fix it the next morning but I still don't really know what went wrong.

Discover 2 things after that.
1st: Driving in dark is pretty scary. But it's something which I have to work on. It's my 1st time driving on the freeway at night after finishing work that evening. I find the freeway too dark. Freeway in Melbourne is unlike Singapore expressway. Singapore light up the whole expressway but Melbourne only light up the freeway entrance/exit section.
2nd: I'm either getting lazy or getting old. I used to work late in Singapore, almost every freaking work day. I still manage to stay up TV channel surfing till midnight or 1am and start the next day again at 7am. But I can't do it now! I'm pratically acting like a zombie on Wednesday after working 12hours the day before. Felt tired on Thursday and even Friday.How did I manage to do it when I'm in Singapore??? (Eizac, remember you used to asked me the same question?) Anyone know the answer????

Almost another day gone by, Monday blue is here again. But I have something to look forward to!!! Additional member in the house from Sunday!!! Bet they will keep me company. hehehe

2 Years

"Is it a joke?" a few friends questioned 2 years ago when they asked when I'm flying off to Melbourne. I instructed all my friends not to send me off at the airport and they thought I made up the departure date. LOL.

I boarded myself on a flight on April Fool Day 2006 to join hubby in Melbourne and start a new life together. Or should I say to start my marriage?? As some of you know, I got married in Melbourne in 2005. I flew to Melbourne for a 2 weeks vacation plus a wedding. In fact, I don't felt I'm married after the trip. I still label myself as single but not available. Haha.

2 years in Melbourne and I have achieved and learned a lot about the place, people, culture and falling in love with the place. Yes! I missed my family the most, friends and food. I can't have everything in the world. One gain some and lose some.

There isn't any huge change in our life even since I arrived (guess "living together" even before marriage helps a lot). Both of us are working hard and enjoying life at the same time. There are plans which we have installed for the next few years and working to achieve our goals.

I will always remember this day as a day I left Singapore and start from fresh.

Earth Hour

We participated in the Earth Hour last night. I had all the applicances turned off except the fridge and light the house with Bee Wax candle.

I was in the mid of cooking dinner and lighting up the candles when hubby stepped into the house after work. Didn't want to shower in the dark, he immediatly went to have a shower while I finished up the cooking.

Real candle light dinner! But not a 3-course dinner. We spent the whole hour eating and chatting. It was really nice in fact. We haven't done it for some time. It's always a 5 minutes dinner together and either of us doing the dishes.

The whole Earth Hour in fact reminded us what happened when we first shifted into the present house. We survived on candlelight for full 3 days as the electric company stuffed up the connection. Lucky we had plenty of candles to light up the house and gas stove to boil water for shower. Not possible to shower using cold water in the mid of winter right?

At the end of Earth Hour, we only switched whats necessary and keep to the minimum. It didn't last long before the whole house went into total darkness again.

Beach, Beach and more Beach

Beach, Beach, Beach!!!

We have being exploring Melbourne Beach for the whole of March.
1st weekend : Brighton Beach
2nd weekend: Torquay
3rd weekend: Philip Island and Elwood.

We actually felt SUMMER just started in March! That's why we are hitting the beach so often.

09-03-2008

Hubby woke up at noon and suggested to head to the beach. "Huh, aren't you tired? You just knock off from night shift" was my response. Apparently he is full of energy and was to go for a swim + sun tan.

Off we go to Torquay Beach after packing some food, swim wear, picnic mat etc. It took us 1.5hours drive to reach Torquay and we found a nice spot at Fisherman Beach.





1st mission is to hunt for toilet and follow by testing the water temperature. We went for a walk along the beach and we couldn't see any toilet around. I was quite puzzled and continue strolling. By the time we found it, we were pretty lazy to change into our swim wear + the water is so COLD!!! How did the kids manage to get themselves wet?????

So we found a nice spot (shady area) and rest & relax by the beach. Had a cold drink, some snack and a short nap.


The weather was fantastic!!! It wasn't too hot or cold!!! The view I enjoyed when hubby was napping.


On our way back home, we went pass Dockland and managed to took some photos.

The Melbourne Wheel The Melbourne City


15-03-2008

"Hmmm....which beach should we go today??" Hubby asked. I suggested why not we check out the beaches at Philip Island. We had been to Philip Island a number of time for the Peguin Parade but we never been to the beach. Destination decided!

Journey to Philip Island takes the same amount of time and same distance to Torquay. But it's a much enjoyable ride as the traffic to Geelong is always heavy.

Us arriving at the beach. The weather wasn't that great. It was pretty cloudy but temperature was quite high (30s).



Sorry for our attire, we were in our gym wear.

The beach is not crowded + wave is huge + it's a patrol beach. WE LOVE IT!!!
We manage to accomplish a lot that morning.
Victoria Market for marketing -> Gym training session -> House inspection at Box Hill -> Beach
That why Hubby can't skip his BEAUTY SLEEP!


This time we were pretty determined to get wet! But we didn't. It's not because we were lazy. The sea got pretty rough after 30mins and the life guards closed the beach. Flags came down and people start to pack and leave while we stayed. He has his nap while me reading my magazine and enjoyed the wind.
That's the only thing we did, getting our feets wet.

Just before we left Philip Island, we pop into the Philip Island Chocolate Factory.

16-03-2008

Beach again!!! We went to support some of my colleagues in a cricket match after breakfast. Both were prepared to head to the beach again to cool down as the weather going to hit 40degrees. Hubby was having 2nd thoughts as we are enjoying the performance putted up by Adrian, Chris and Sri. But as the heat kicked in, we desperatly need to cool down.

Planned was to Brighton Beach. We passed by Elwood on the way. Saw the beach, saw the carpark with empty slots. So we just drive in, bought parking tickets and park ourselves in front of Elwood Life Saving Club.

We desperatly need a dip and just went into the sea after setting up our area and dumped all the stuff. We even slapped thick layers of sun block on ourselves to protect our skin. In and out, in and out of the beach as we sun tanned ourselves.

It was a nice 2.5 hours by the beach reading magazine, sipping icy cold coke and water, occassionally dipping into the sea water. It really makes me feel it's summer instead of autumn.

** Sorry no photos taken at all on this day. We just can't be bothered other than cooling ourselves.

St Andrew Market

08-03-2008

This trip was planned at least 2 weeks ago. The gals (Robyn and Fiona) has being talking about going to St Andrew Market for ages!! (more than a year) Finally they got it organised and asked me along.

It was my 1st female engineers outing with them. :) Planned was to meet at Fiona's place and she will drive. I was in-charge of bringing Robyn to the 1st destination, Eltham. It was my 1st time driving outside my comfort zone (office, gym, vic market). Lucky I had Rodyn with me to direct me, calm me and guide me. It's a bit tricky to drive to Eltham but it was a very good experience for me.

I took Fiona 30minutes to drive us all to St Andrew Market. Opps btw, Fiona's Mum Diana joined us too. Roads by the side are mostly covered by parked cars when we arrived. Didn't know what to expect from the market, we had a lot of green bags with us and started shopping.

St Andrew Market


It's a nice market to stroll, look at interesting stuff. But there wasn't a lot of stalls or we expected too much? Robyn was the main shopper for the morning. Diana next, Fiona went home without spending a single cents. As for me, I went home with 3 corns, 1 sweet potato and 1 lemon. "Huh! Why did you buy such stuff" was my Mum reaction when she asked about our gals trip. It's a maket and they sell everything from cosmetics to clothing to fruits and vegetables.

We had our morning tea at a Chai Tent. It's really cool and their Chai tea smell so nice! I can't say about the taste as I didn't have any. But Robyn loves it and even bought a packet of Chai tea leaves from them.

The Chai Tent

If you do not have a cup, pay $1 as deposit and you will get the dollar back when you return the cup. I LOVE the idea! It cut down land-fill.

I spend the rest of the afternoon playing with Jeremy, Fiona's eldest son. I was amazed pretty amazed that he understand me. I still don't think I speak like a Aussie at all and my english sucks! Guess most important is all of them understand me.

Chocolate Biscuit

Chosen a really simple and easy recipe from the book named Crave a Passion for Chocolate. This book is a birthday gift from Lynn. We have been constantly saying wanting to try some recipes from the book but haven't got it going. Finally, I managed to last night after hubby went off to work and me finish chatting with Mummy on the phone.

I wasn't very sure how it will turn out. I just follow the instruction and not realising what I'm going to expect as not all recipes has a end result photo.

I will say it turn out really well. If fact I like the biscuits. It's so easy to do + it doesn't take up a lot of time either. I even pack some into a box and gave them to Fiona this morning when we went to the market (next entry).

The biscuits still hot from the oven.


I'm suppose to mix a chocolate icing and spread the icing in the middle of 2 biscuits. I gave it a miss as I felt the biscuits are sweet enough. In fact, I might even reduce the amount of sugar next time.