The Journey

One and a half hour stopover in Brisbane and had time to connect to the net to let our love ones know where we were...we couldn't connect in Sydney airport WIFI.

Reached KLIA 8 hours later and a stopover for 5 hours.

Saw this in a kopitiam wall and think it's nice... especially the year. Malaysia Day.

Finally reached London Sunday 13th at 4:30pm London time or midnight Sydney time.

The beautiful Partridge family are waiting for our arrival. June is Eric's eldest sister and that is James the son. We'll be staying with them during our stay in London.

Trip to UK

Bags are packed and ready to go...it's going to be a long journey.

It had been a very busy week and as usual I don't handle stress very well which normally stopped my brain from working productively. I have a brochure print project for a client to complete before leaving and at the same time had to go to work everyday because the owner of the company was going to a conference the whole week. Adding to that I had to lodge my documents for the tax department which fortunatly can be done online. And then making a will which I should have done a long time ago but thinking there is actually almost nothing to be inherited I postponed it. Now that I am going on a holiday to another part of the world and anything could happen so I think I should go and do that...not that something bad will happen.



As we were putting our bags in the car, we found out the seams of my bag was coming off and we need to decide whether to get a string or get a new bag. One hour before going to the station we decided to get a new bag and off we ran to the plaza. Now I am rushing transfering all contents of bags to the new one and making sure everything that need to be done are done.

Main power off- checked, main water off - checked, windows locked-checked and off we go. We planned to leave for the train station at 2:30pm train so we have ample time if somethings goes wrong and it was very handy. We didn't catch the train and also missed the next train by two seconds... we aren't panicking that much though.. heee. We reached Sydney airport with lots of time to spare so everything went well.

It's Been A While...

I'm back... I looked at my last post and couldn't believed that it was dated April. Wow.. that's how long I've not posted anything on my blog. Actually I did log in a few times and started something... but nothing eventuate... all in draft forms and not interesting enough to finish them off. I will get back to them in due course.


Anyway, I went to a Pilates introductory class yesterday...planning to join a fitness programme. It was a free introductory which I think was quite good as it enables me to decide whether it is what I want for my exercise. I never heard of Pilates before but when I joined a Yoga class with a friend last year, I started googling on similar fitness programmes. Pilates is similar to Yoga without the meditation or mental exercise. While Pilates focuses on strengthening core part of the body and lengthening the spine, I personally like Yoga for it's physical and mental exercise... the breathing and relaxation technique is a very effective stress relieve. I read something about Yoga banned by some for it's spiritual teaching... I don't know about that one but I think it all depends on who the instructor is and how you take it. I didn't see any religious teachings involved.

I have not decided to take up the Pilates class yet which supposedly starts on Tuesday... luckily I have not paid anything. I might start my own pilates or yoga thingy on my own at home... booring.

Photos here and there

Taken from my potted garden

Herb - Oregano

Chilli... and it is hot.. very hot

Calamondin aka Limau Kasturi


Pumpkin..

from this pot...? overcrowding the palm plant

grapes from the market

brought this from kk

... almost died and came back to life after putting some compost from the worm container

just testing glass shot

taken on the way from the golf course

.... i'm pleased with my purchase

A day trip to Canberra

It's a 3-hour drive to Canberra and we planned to start our journey before the traffic builds in...that is about 6am. That gives us ample time to do some sight seeing or other things along the way. It turned up us leaving almost 7am and about 7km away ES realised he forgot his passport which was what the trip was all about, to renew his British passport. So we had to turn back...and a loong way away to find a junction to turn back.

The traffic was not as bad as I thought it would be because we didn't have to go through the city. We reached our destination around noon and were redirected to another location which is at Canberra Airport...about 10 minutes from the address we thought the consulate would be.

The airport was undergoing construction and we had difficulty finding our way so we end up parking our car at the airport car park and a long walk to the British Consulate Building.

After another drive to get passport photo we were ready to go back. huh..? going back already...what about lunch?.. that's me always thinking of food. Ok don't worry about food.

Instead we went to Cockington Green Gardens where miniature buildings of the world are displayed. Beautiful gardens and little buildings. I got myself a nice mug and a beer mug for ES... and we were on our way. Hey.. what about lunch.? I went all the way to Canberra.. 300km from home and I only had green tea..? :-) Anyway, it was a nice day out.

where has the time gone...

It felt like 2008 was only yesterday and it's already coming to middle of 2009... and I haven't done anything different? Where has the time gone?

Started house hunting in December hoping to find something suitable physically & economically to purchase. But because of the economic crisis and the uncertainty of the future we postponed our house hunting. Not confident in getting a mortgage and we need the savings for rainy days. I personally was confident that we will not be directly affected by the economic downturn because buildings, manufacturing and the likes will not stop and many new small businesses will come up which I think will give us business opportunity. But ES think it is better to wait and not rush...we are not renting and because we will be spending a lot to go oversea this year. Well... ok (disappointed) it's not a big deal, I just wanted to grab the opportunity while the interest rate is low and also want a bigger house to what we have now so that we have some space for relatives and friends to stay when they come over..:-).That's what I thought.

It's fun house hunting though,... looking at other people's houses. Experience going to a very nice modern tidy new house to a classic traditional ozzie house and to a very messy, untidy... really messy house. We actually saw a nice house that both of us like and we actually put a price on it but other people put a better price...not meant to be. We are still looking and will buy only when we see a really good deal.

Bush fire in southern...flood in the northern....

It was a devastating day for some towns in Central Victoria yesterday where 25 people..maybe more were killed in a bush fire. It had been very hot...dry reaching up to 47 degrees and strong wind that made it worse.

I watched the news last night and it was very scarey .. imagine the people surrounded by huge fire and nowhere to go. Some people tried to escape in their cars but too late. Animals, farms, properties...everything destroyed.

We are lucky we are not affected...touch wood. It did reached up to more that 40 degrees yesterday... up to 45 degrees today... very hot.

In Northern Queensland is the opposite where lives & properties were destroyed by flood & cylone.

Summer or Winter ....

Everybody was complaining about the weather being so hot the last couple of weeks which was 41 to 45 degrees in some places and reached up to 30 degrees in the mountains where I work. It's hot & sticky with only fans to cool us down at my workplace. I'd rather work from home where I can have the airconditioning on. Swimming pools & beaches are the popular place to be but not for me. I'd rather stay indoor except Sundays.

Lots of properties lost due to fire...fire men & voluntary workers working around the clock putting off bush fire.

In a few weeks time it will be cool again but the humidity will also be lower which is still vulnerable to bush fire. I like autumn though... and when winter arrives we'll be complaining of being too cold. Someone asked me once, which one do I prefer, winter or summer. For me both hot or cold climate don't really give me any big problems other than being a little bit hot or cold. I don't mind both because it's only 3 months or so... there's always something to look forward to.

If it's too hot I go under the shade or use umbrella..that is when I'm outdoor. If it's too cold, put few layers of clothing... that will do me.

Today it's predicted to be 35 degrees.

It's the New Year

My New Year's resolution... one and foremost is buy a property (home) which hopefully will happen early part of the year. And then to save and concentrate on paying my mortgage.This might mean I have to forgo some of the things I normally do. I hope everything works well for us especially when the economic problem is expected to get worse this year. People are selling their houses and mortgage interest rates are getting low and hopefully reduce more, so we thought this is a good time to buy with careful planning of course.

The others... brought forward from last year.