Eventful week

A lot happened in the last week and a half ....

The week didn't start too well. Our (only) oil-filled radiator broke suddenly mid-week. It was extremetly cold living in this house with no heating. We considered holding off the purchase of heaters as our future house might have under-floor or ducted heating. At the end, we decided that comfort, even if only for a short period of time, is important so that weekend we spent over a thousand dollars and bought 2 heaters (Rinnai convection gas heater and Delonghi oil heater) in 1/2 hour.

At the same time, Zeb was limping. She had limped and got better before, but this time it looked bad-Zeb not putting any weight on the leg. We decided to bring forward the operation (was going to wait until we find a house fisrt but as it turned out Zeb would be recovering in the new house anyway). We booked the vet hospital on Friday, dropped Zeb off for surgery on Monday morning. Vet called at 11am to say Zeb just woke up, surgery was successful and Zeb doing well. We picked her up on Wednesday night and need to take her back to remove the stitches a forthnight later. The surgery cost nearly $2000. Our second big expense that week.

In the midst of these, we suddenly got a call from the real estate agent about the house we made an offer on some time ago. She said the vendor decided to sell and wanted us to put in a best offer. To make a long story short, after lots of phone calls, waiting, thinking and speculating, we got the hosue! The vendor wanted a short settlement because he bought elsewhere so we will be moving soon! Finally!

I had an one-hour massage, my 2nd one this year, at the first chance I got to recover from all that had happened. We had a busy week but all is good.

Craft show 12-June-2009

It was a last-minute decision to go to the craft show. You know how it is when you contemplate going somewhere different with a little one - your head is swamped with reasons why you might not enjoy it so you stop yourself going before you even leave. Well, I'm glad that Sarah asked and we went. I got to have a quick look at what was on offer at the show and Lara had fun at the park afterwards all on such a beautiful sunny winter day.

The train rides were hassle-free. The walk from Town Hall station (via Town Hall square, Bathurst st and the pedestrian overpass) to Darling Harbour was extremely flat and easy thanks to the excellent direction given by a helpful postie. The worst part, unexpectedly, turned out to be pushing the pram inside the exhibition centre. Our 3-wheeled pram is not the easiest to maneuver around people in tight places. I hurt my left wrist and couldn't use it at all that weekend. The situation improved slowly before going back to work on Tuesday. But all these typing at work made it worst again. It has been 2 weeks now and I still feel pain in my wrist if I turn it at certain angles or use it too quickly.

Both Sarah and I have inspirations of making our very own patchwork quilts one day. We are starting with something small - pin cushions (I just started tracing the patterns) & Easter wall hangings before we move on to bigger, more exciting projects.


There wasn't a lot of time to look at all these beautiful quilts. I quite like the red pattern on this quilt.

I got an idea

Lara likes to raise her index finger and says "I got an idea" recently - her phrase of the day. When I enquire, there is usually no idea following but she looks very cute doing it.

We walked to the car after coming back on the train from Darling Harbour on Friday. Lara said "I got an idea" after we passed a pizza place. I asked Lara what the idea was and was quite surprised when she said "Pizza is yummy. I love pizza". And that gave me an idea.

Thanks to Lara, we had Crust Gourmat pizzas that night. Garlic prawn pizza is pictured below.

Resolutions and old friends

Over 10 years ago, in what I would imagine a regular get-together of four high school friends, they wrote down their new year resolutions on a piece of paper. And this is what they wrote: (Names removed to protect the innocent but you know who you are!!)

Rresolutions 1995:
(1) Prepare for paino grade 8 exams.
(2) Go overseas. Pass all papers.
(3) Go to gym twice a week. Be more flirtatious. Be more tolerant and easy going. Learn stained glass.
(4) Decrease swearing. Think before speaking. Lost weight and look good in a pink dress. Be sweeter. Go overseas. Learn to drive.

These four friends finished uni and found jobs. They live in different parts of the world so they don't see one another very often. They try to keep in touch via email but they are all so busy. Then one day 10 years later(2007), one friend was tidying up her room and found the old piece of paper on which the original resolutions were written and emailed it to share with the other friends (otherwise who would remember such a trivial thing that happened so long ago?)

They decided to do this resolution thing again. This time they wrote their dreams and hopes via exchanges of emails.

Resoultions 2007:
(1)Publish at least one paper at work. Visit friend overseas. Buy a hosue. Pick up piano again.
(2) Buy a house(at a good price). Learn to cook and be a good housewife(no nagging. Work in another country. Travel(eg Europe/Beijing). Make CV look more marketable. Maybe kids. Save more.
(3) Learn to paint. More travelling locally and overseas. Keep a diary. Sell a house. Kids next year. Live in another city/country for a year.
(4) (not written down)

These email exchanges were discovered again recently. I am writting them down here for safe-keeping. How sweet are these old memories with dear old friends?

Long weekend

It was Steve's birhtday on the long weekend. We bought a nice chocolate mud cake for the occasion. We wanted to cheer him up a little as he is going through some major changes in life at the moment. Lara insisted that it was her birthday. We did slot in a quiet '...and lara' when we sang 'happy birthday to Uncle Steve'.

My amazon books arrived just before the long weekend for me to try the bread in 'Artisan bread in five minutes a day' after reading so much about it. We took a nice long walk in the morning while the dough rested. It came out of the oven smelling great and looking like a shop-bought bread. The crust got a little softer when the bread cooled. I think it was a little undercooked so I did a second loaf that afternoon. (You make up enough dough for 4 or 5 loaves in the fridge and just rest and cook one loaf every time - that's why it only takes 5 minues (of active efforts) a day thus the name of the book)

We had the second loaf as lunch on Tuesday. It was much nicer. I still need to improve on the crust at the bottom(a little hard). Maybe I'm just a little too ambitious trying to bake bread in this basic oven where the temperature at the bottom is a lot higher than that at the top of the oven. I'm trying a bread with a softer crust next and am definitly going to get an oven themometer to work out the real temperature of this oven!


(First loaf - I like this simple 3-line pattern better)


(Second loaf - trying a different pattern)