Lions and Dragon in the City

Gaz and I were in the city last weekend to meet up with my friends for yum cha. While walking on the street, we suddenly heard the loud noise of cymbals clanging, and drums. It was lion dance!!! I love to see lion dance, and I love the din the musicians make in the background.

The occasion for the lion and dragon dance is to publicise an upcoming ballet performed by the Chinese Ballet Theatre called Raise the Red Lantern. This is based on the very old move by the same name.

We followed the dancers for 3 blocks then let them clatter away noisily towards the Arts Centre.

The musicians

Please give me green light, green light!!

Don't look at me, I'm just a walking lion...

Hurry up, let's make the crossing!

No Showers, Please

'AN ELECTRICITY retailer has warned that Victorians will have up to $150 added to their bills when the state moves to Smart Meters. A spokesperson of the company says retailers, burdened with millions of dollars in extra costs, have no choice but to increase prices. "The average bill is about $950 a year and it has to go up to recover all of that cost by $100 to $150".

That rise would be on top of any higher electricity charges coming from the Federal Government's carbon pollution reduction scheme.According to the Government's green paper, electricity charges would jump 16 per cent and gas prices 9 per cent under measures to tackle climate change.'

Excerpt from The Age www.theage.com.au

Not only do I now have to save water (because of a 13 year long drought in Australia), I have to save electricity too. Victorians are bombarded with tough messages on the streets, in the newspapers, on the telly to save water and electricity. Once when my parents were visiting, they asked me why all the houses along the streets are so dark and quiet. Unlike Malaysia, all lights in the house are switched on till about 11 or 12am. The streets will be so bright there's no need for street lights. Here, there is hardly any movement in the houses. That's because everyone in the family will be huddled together in one room so that only one set of lights will be switched on the house, and that consumption of gas for the heater will be minimal coz they won't need to heat up other parts of the house, only that one room. If they're lucky, all the body heat in the room will be enough to keep them warm.

And when Victorians take showers, we are encouraged to keep it to 3 mins max. No washing the car (lucky people here got no maids, what are they gonna do if they can't use water to wash the 3 cars in the house and mop the floor every day?), watering the gardens can only be done on certain days in the week, depending on what your house number is. My water bill gives me a summary of how Gaz and I have passed, or failed our water consumption target of 155 litres per day.

Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a third world country!

What the Pork?

'An allegedly stolen pig was among $1 million worth of drugs and assets seized during a series of police raids on the Mornington Peninsula that ended today.

Nine people, aged between 19 and 71, have been charged after police raided seven homes this week at the end of a seven-month operation into cannabis and amphetamine trafficking.

Homes in Mornington, Mount Martha, Rye, Rosebud, Frankston and the Gippsland town of Drouin were searched and an excavator, also allegedly stolen, was seized along with the pig, 75 kilograms of cannabis worth about $450,000, steroids and more than half a million in assets.'

Excerpt from The Age (www.theage.com.au)

A PIG??? Are they Chinese or something??

Masterchef

Poh Ling didn't win... Julie, mother of 3 became the first Masterchef Australia winner. She did very well throughout the final challenges, put to use all the knowledge she'd gained during the competition and outdid Poh Ling in every one of the three challenges. I was disappointed at Poh Ling actually. It seemed that her nerves got the better of her, and diminished her thinking capabilities. In the final challenge where both of them were given a recipe for a chocolate dessert, she deliberately chose not to follow the recipe. WHYY??

Whose Cuisine Will Reign Supreme?

I've been religiously watching Masterchef Australia from the time it started about 3 mths ago. I'll come home, watch it while cooking dinner and then eat miserably in front of the telly because my food doesn't look as good.

There were only 2 Asian contestants who made the initial cut. One was a buck toothed man from HK who didn't really talk much. He was eliminated in one of the initial rounds. Another is a female painter Poh Ling Yeow who spent the first 9 years of her life in KL, M'sia (whom the judges keep calling Poh - the name's Poh Ling!!). Being an artist, she's really creative with her cooking but sometimes serve up disasters. She's one of my fave contestants.

Tonight is the finals, and Poh Ling will be going head to head against Julie, a mom of three who cooks home style food. Both of them have an equal chance of winning tonight... and it'll be definitely the episode that draws unprecedented number of viewers to the channel.

I can't wait... who will win the finals? Whose cuisine will reign supreme??


Who will win??

New Work

I've been at my new work for one week now. I love it that:
- it takes me only 15 mins drive to work
- I'm doing a more challenging work
- my colleagues are helpful and friendly

But there are some cons as well:
- I miss the hustle and bustle of the city
- sometimes I can't be bothered to drive (I just thought of the solution. Gaz can do chauffeur duty on the days he doesn't work!! yipee!)

Overall, I've been very blessed to get this job. It affords me to fulfil the most important thing to me right now, which is spending more time with family.

The Little Big Kid

The older generation say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. In my husband's case, there is another way to capture his heart and soul. Give him a collectible comic, or toy and he'll be your best friend. I can attest to this, because for our second Christmas together, I gave him a $200 Robocop collectible. To me, it's just a stiff looking Robocop replica that spews out 'Dead or alive, you're coming with me' etc. To him, it's marvelous!! And look where we are now - best friends and more.

His obsession with comics and collectible toys (based on comic characters) is something I do not fully understand. I do not indulge him in his hobby which means that if there are any toys he would like to get, he has to drag me with him to Toys'r'Us or the mall kicking and screaming. This weekend, we stopped by Big W just so he can have a look at a $200 light saber. He was very sly about it. We had just finished shopping for groceries, and he said to me in the car, "Since we'll pass by the mall on the way home, I'm just going to stop by Big W for a little while for something." Yeah... 'something' for the little big kid.

This time though, it backfired on him. Not only did he not see the light saber, but he had to buy me a lego set which I purposely wanted to get just for fun. In the car, he scratched his head, "Why do I feel cheated today? I was the one who came here wanting to look at toys, but you're the one who ended up with a toy!". Tough luck, mister!

My Lego set. Mister beach patrolman. He's no David Hasselhoff but he still looks cute with his helmet and a visor that can open and close.

Me playing with Gaz's Batman and Joker lego collectible. Although he has plenty of other lego figurines, the rest of the boxes are unopened. I was under strict orders not to open them so as not to diminish their value. Batman's borrowed Mister Patrolman's car to pursue the Joker.

Realising his chances of escaping is slim, Joker finally offers a truce, which Batman accepts.

Here they are pictured standing together akwardly, much like the heads of nations in the G8 summits.

Wedding Dress

Who would have thought that this dress is made entirely of toilet paper, tape and glue huh? This is the winning entry by Ann Kagawa Lee of Hawaii in Cheap Chic Wedding Contest 2009 where the contestants must use only the three resources to create a wedding dress. She'd gone the extra length to create a hat as well!

There's a video as well on this link showing how she made her dress, how it came together piece by piece. It's amazing!! http://www.cheap-chic-weddings.com/wedding-contest-2009.html