Housewarming!

We’ve been in our new home for almost a month now, and everything is finally here! Washing machine, refridgerator, tv, internet, microwave, bedding… phew.

The day the movers came was nothing short of mayhem. The time bracket they gave was 8 to 10 am so I left Fraser early in the morning and waited in the EMPTY apartment. No chairs, no food, no tv, no radio – NADA. Was sooo tired I fell asleep on the floor!

Finally at 9.45am the truck arrived! I rushed down to meet them, introduced myself and hurried them into the elevator.

Me: Hi! So glad you guys are finally here!
Them: Oh yeah, we’ll get started right now. We just need to take a look at the apartment and take some measurements so that we can make sure things get out.
Me: (thinking “get out”?) Oh okay. Let’s get started!
Burly dude: Where are the stuff?
Me: What stuff? You guys are supposed to BRING the stuff riiiiight…?
Perplexed lady: UH. Aren’t you moving out? I thought we’re here to move stuff away??
Me: OHH.

(Busy checking of addresses).

D’OH! I DRAGGED IN THE WRONG MOVERS!!! So there we were, just standing there staring at each other in the empty room. It was hilarious. The burly dudes were chuckling all the way out. Geez.

ANYWAY. By 10.30am, MY movers still hadn’t arrived, I made the call and apparently one of their tires busted and they can only arrive at 11am!

The RIGHT truck arrives!!

It was boxes after boxes after boxes…

Just the tip of the iceberg

Running out of room

The movers were really really quick, and VERY VERY STRONG! They were just carrying ginormous boxes up the stairs, ripping open boxes and setting up the big pieces of furniture really quickly! I think I would have passed out if I was left to assemble everything. There were hunks of papers EVERYWHERE. Relocating is terrible for the environment. So much paper used in the wrapping! I’d find this huge package bundled up and after unwrapping the 1,256th layer of papering, it’s a plate. A PLATE. They need to find a more efficient way.

The mayhem

The mess

Cars

Cars!!

They showed the Pixar movie “Cars” on Aussie tv last night, and it’s such a cute show! I loove all things anthropomorphic. I’ve heard so much about it but somehow never got down to watching it. I thought it was better than “The Incredibles”, but comes up short against “Finding Nemo” and “Ratatouille”.

And it was really sad reading the news today that Paul Newman, who was the voice of Doc Hudson, passed away this weekend. He did a wonderful job with the little guy.

To Paul Newman

Soup diet!

Haha no, I haven’t been dieting for the wedding at all. I wish I were!!

We (read: me) do a lot of cooking here, pretty much every weekday dinner, saving a night out for the weekends or when friends visit. I loove cooking, and I spend HOURS at the grocery shop or farmer’s market staring at the different veggies and meat. Sydney has such an abundance of fresh produce, I wish I had a better repertoire to use them!

Because he comes home (unpredictably) late, it is easier to make soup which can be re-heated when he returns. Plus, I just have to chop things up and dump everything into a pot.

And the best things about soup is that it is SOOO tasty AND HEALTHY!! (gosh, I sound like those spastic television ads). You can’t really go wrong with soup, because it’s just all this natural flavours from the fresh produce, and you can make all sorts of combinations for surprising tastes. It is so healthy because I don’t have to use a single drop of oil (we have barely used our 500ml bottle of vegetable oil!) and I usually remove the skin and use only lean meat.

So here’s something really simple, that looks like it just came out of a Chinese restaurant. Heh!

Looks pretty decent eh?

Lotus Pork Ribs Soup

500g Chinese Pork Ribs
Small section of lotus roots, sliced
2 sweet corns, halved
2 carrots, sliced or cubed
Small section of radish, cubed
4-5 shiitake mushrooms
1 tbsp wolfberries (for bright eyes!)
500ml chicken stock (I use Campbell’s)
3 cups of water

Other veggies you can use: Swedes, parsnips, celery (eech).

1. Boil the pork ribs once to ‘flush out’ the fatty goopey things.
2. Throw in everything and boil for a couple of hours.
3. Serve!

Wedding Preparation

We haven’t really been on the ball with the whole wedding preparation thing, but getting involved with Cheer’s wedding has really gotten myself excited! It’s soooo fun being the bridesmaid because you get to do all the bridal fun stuff, without the actual stress (sorry girl, ). I only wish I could be in Singapore right now in the thick of the action!!

So all we’ve done so far is inquire about a couple of dates at the hotel (which have all been “tentatively booked out”… horror), come our with a rough guestlist and bought ONE wedding magazine. Hmm. Yeah.

But we did sign up for a wedding preparation course, which is something we really wanted to do. For those of you who didn’t know, that was the one big reason we decided not to ROM before coming over to Sydney. I guess there are two camps: the first camp finds the idea of going over to Sydney as an engaged couple only a wee bit too wild, while the other camp thinks that pausing for a moment and going through a wedding preparation course will serve to be useful in the long run. And that’s really what we went with, and we’re really happy with the decision. We know what we’re doing in Sydney, and we’re not going to mess up a lifetime of wedded bliss for a moment of happiness, to say the least.

Anyway, we have made Hillsong Church our home church and we LOVE it. Love love love it. They have a marriage prep course, which started in early Sept, and we have just finished our third session.

A little about the wedding preparation course. We signed up for the Engagement Package ($250 for a couple), which includes a 160-question questionnaire (that doesn’t sound right), 10 weekly group sessions lasting about 1.5 hours each, and 5 one-on-one session with a senior pastor. So far we’ve only done the weekly group sessions, and it has been really interesting! We start off with a 30-40 minute video, and spend the rest of the time in a small group (5-6 couples) sharing on the session and our relationship. I think what really works is that every person in the group is very honest and open about sharing, and not having to worry about being judged or embarrassed because we all signed up for the course with the same goal in mind – to better our relationship. There are engaged couples, couples who just got married, couples who have been married for 25 years with 21-year-old kids, so you get a variety of people who bring with them different views and lessons at different points in life.

I love that we get to spend time actually ‘focusing’ on our relationship. Of course we do this on a daily basis, but to take a couple of hours each week and devote ourselves to sharing and listening to what makes marriages better, we find ourselves learning a lot of new things we never really knew about each other! I know this might sound like a mish-mash of psychotherapy session or emotional counselling to some of you, but it is really a lot of fun and very refreshing!

I can’t exactly divulge the discussions at these sessions because we signed an agreement that whatever is shared during the session, stays in the session, but all I can say is that it is very enriching and I would definitely recommend it to everyone!

Review: La Renaissance Patisserie

Ah, finally. Internet. Get ready for a flood of backdated posts!

So more than a month ago, on the 24th of August, we headed to La Renaissance Patisserie at The Rocks, waiting to meet up with Jasper and family who have come Down Under for a visit.

It is an exquisite little shop, very quaint, very intimate.

Counter display

We were really spoilt for choice, everything was so pretty!

Cake prices approximately $6.50 a piece

WE HAVE INTERNET AT HOME!!!!!

After 4 freaking weeks.

Quick update

Ok so I have not posted for WEEKS and I can see that my traffic has fallen to zero-status!!!

I have finally gotten my arse into a wi-fi cafe (serving lovely lovely coffee and toasted banana bread… mmmmmmm) and am finally connected to the rest of the world!!! Yay!!

But I only have an hour to clear my emails, reply to facebook messages, settle my banking needs etc. because Fujitsu battery life is just that. Short.

Quick update in case anyone thinks we’ve fallen off the face of the earth:

- Gerald and Mel came to visit for a week and it was just wonderful hanging out!
- My birthday!!!
- We’ve moved out of Fraser Suites (which has awful AWFUL service for the 2 months that we were there – more on that later).
- We’ve moved into our new home!
- We were without TV for 3 days (and have just found out that our building is NOT cable-enabled).
- We were without washing machine, refrigerator, microwave and vacuuum cleaner for two-and-a-half weeks. They’ve finally arrived and we can finally have fresh milk now.
- We are STILL without internet after 3 weeks!!!
- We are STILL without a car.
- I am STILL without a job Not that I’m complaining of course.

He’s been really busy at work the last couple of weeks, finishing work only at 1 or 2am, and at one point, 5 in the morning (!!!). So yes, TV has been my best friend for weeks, since our internet connection was not up yet. SO miserable. Seriously, imagine your life without TV, washing machine, internet and a fridge for week. Sucks eh?

So my laptop has just flashed blinking lights now which is a sign it’s gonna shut down on me any minute. So guys, hang on! We’ll be replying to your messages soon!!