Grow old

Parents-in-law moved into a retirement village close by three weeks ago. They have been contemplating such a move for some time as they found it harder and harder to keep their old house clean and tidy. No doubt they are also thinking ahead into the future. The move was smooth and we ended up with some of their furniture!

They are the 'young' ones in this retiremet village - average age of residents is 86. As family of the residents, we get to use some of the facilities. Lara swam a couple of times with Grand-dad in the indoor heated swimming pool. We had a meal in the dining hall and Simon played snooker.

It was a little depressing to see very old people with sticks walking around or on wheelchairs. It was also strange finding a nurse distributing drugs to the residents at dinnig tables. When I made this comment to Simon, he shrugged and said how lucky these people are to live to this old age. Indeed! Especially after the bad news we heard about next-door's son. Next door's 23-year-old son was diagnosed of stomach cancer 18 months ago. After unsuccessful chemo, his stomach was taken out a few months ago. His mum told us it's like looking after a new-born again as he needs intravenous feeding and help with everything but 'every day he remains with us is a blessing' she added.

It is not sad to get lots of wrinkles and walk with sticks if you put things into perspective. Some people never get the chance. It is indeed lucky to be able to grow old!

Lara's drawings

Family.
The latest drawings have eyebrows too!


Words.
Lara recognises all the numbers. She writes them mostly left-to-write or up-side-down. (ie number "9" can look like letter "b" or "p") She recogises and can write some leters (A, W, S, O, E, L etc). We started playing 'eye-spy' in the car after reading an 'eye-spy' book. She knows "L" for Lara and lion, "B" for blanket, "C" for cat etc.


Monsters. (The figure that looked like a "2" on the left top corner is how Lara writes a 'S")

Books - first half of 2010

My life in France - by Julia Child, Alex Prud'Homme
Julia Child was a very likable person in this book with lovely photos and insights to the makings of her cook books (the first one took years to publish!, the good life (wine and rich food all day but stomach ulcers at the end of their first year in France!) and the setbacks. Very interesting read.

Final exam - by Pauline Chen
A surgeon's reflections on mortality. The author described how doctors were trained (or not trained really) to handle mortality and how that impact the patients. A lot of interesting facts and food for thoughts. For example, both surgeons and hairdressers hold their scissors with the thumb and the forth finger - apparently it gives better control. Or shocking revealation when the author asked for advices just before the end of her internship and received the most useful one - to prepare for "the day she kills one of her patients" because all doctors do(or surgeons) sometime in their life. There are many life lessons in this book. It's good to know some doctors do care.

Reading:
Men's search for meaning - by Viktor E. Frankl
Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix - by J. K. Rowling

Monday night dinner

Chicken pie. I added leek, carrot, beans, sweet potato and peas to the chicken pieces. A good way to use up left-over veggies.

Sambal and Tamasek

I currently have a craving for spicy (Malaysian) food. I love having laksa or stir fried noodles with lots of chilli for work lunches. We seek out Maylaysian restaurants to go on the weekend. We went to two in the last couple of months.

Sambal (North Ryde)
Sambal was close to where we live but hard to find. We missed the entry(via MacDonald's) and had to make two equivalent U-turns on big busy roads to get there. We didn't book and waited sometime for a table. Food also took sometime to arrive. We had salt and pepper squid, prawn laksa and Hainanese chicken rice for Lara. The laksa was very ordinary. I liked the chicken rice but Simon preferrd the squid. The food was quite alright but not memorable.

Tamasek (Parramatta)
Still has the best laksa we know. We went on a Sunday and luckily found a parking almost outside the restaurant. We took a walk along Parramatta river first and arrived at the restaurant around midday. It was not overly busy, we sat down, ordered and food arrived only a few minutes later. We had Hainanes chicken and char kway teow (with chilli on the side) in addition to the prawn laksa. It was a good combination of food with different flavours. Char kway teow was quite sweet and Laksa frequent and spicy. The only complaint was the cold chicken pieces (I would preferred them warm). We also took away two frozen containers of beef rendeng and had one mid-week. Oh it was the most delicious rendeng we have ever had! And we have more in the freezer!

Leisure ladies lunch

23/04/2010 - Lunch at Jenny's

Jenny called to see if Lara and I would like to go over there for lunch, as she felt like doing something especial on a Friday. We arrived to baked trout, baked potato and salad! I took some pasta for Lara but she had and liked the trout too. Oh I like Fridays.

Trying different bread

I usually bake two small loaves of bread a week for breakfast and weekend lunches. My normal recipe is the traditional white bread recipe from my breadmaker book. It uses 3 & 1/4 cups of flour with yeast, sugar, salt, water and a little margarine. Just put all ingredients in breadmaker, let it knead and rise once (around 2 hours). Divid dough in two and let them rise for another 1/2 hour (more if cold) in tins (they don't shape well otherwise). Bake in 200C oven for 1/2 hour and voila it's ready!

I tried some new recipes in the last few weeks. Firstly, the 'soft American-style white bread' (pg 204 from 'Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day'). In addition to the usual ingredients, it had 100g of unsalted butter. This bread requied no kneading and it was baked in 180C oven for 45 minutes. The resulting bread had softer crust. I also tried the Challah dough (pg 180 from the same book) with 4 eggs and 1/2 cup of honey(for 4 loaves) in addition to the usual ingredients.



With the leftover Challah dough, I made spinach and marinated fetta bread for lunch- details here. I didn't add pine nuts and used flake almond instead of black sesame (improvised based on what I had in the pantry). The braiding was easy, it came out of the oven looking nice and tasted delicious. Nice cold too. I'm keen to try again following the recipe properly and also try other fillings. Time to make another batch of dough!

I wish I could do that

There are two things that impress Lara: being able to surf and play drums.
Lara loves watching the surfers at the beach. She repeatedly told me "I wish I could do that Mummy" while she held out her hands and pretended she was balancing on a surf board. She wanted to take her floaty board every time we went to a beach. She stood on it and pretened to be surfing.

Looking for a better surf elsewhere.


She also seemed very interested with drums. We had lunch at 'Lagoons' a few weeks ago for Parents-in-law's 50th wedding anniversay. Lara spent a long time at the lounge area at the front watching the band performing. She was particularly impressed with the drummer. She told me again and again "Mummy I wish I could play drums like that". Now she frequently uses two pens and whatever is lying around as her drum kit and practises her 'drumming'.

Umm...surfing and drums... I wonder what Lara will be when she grows up!


'Surfing' at Collaroy

Dee Why beach

We drove to Narrabeen and Collaroy beach on Easter Friday. The weather forcast was rain and it felt cold when we left so we didnt' take any change of clothes with us. When we arrived however, it was warm and sunny, not a cloud in sight. All we could do was a walk on the beach due to lack of spare clothes. The only consolation was the nice fish, chips and burger we had at the beach. Last weekend, we thought we would check out Dee Why beach, a little futher along. Somehow, we made the same mistake and didn't have the full set of gear we needed or a towel. Simon and Lara managed a small play (about an hour) at the shallow end of the sea.



We haven't been to Dee Why for ages and didn't realise the beach was lined up with cafes along one side. A late breakfast would be nice, but it felt too nice to leave the beach so we had burgers, chips and sushi sitting on the sand. Simon also had a little nap after lunch. We promised each other to always have change of clothes and towels in the car so we don't make the same mistake of not being able to fully enjoy the beach again! And we should also come back and try breakfast here.

Lost rings found

I lost my engagement+wedding rings some time ago. The thought that I threw them away accidently while packing to move made me feel sick in my stomach. We half-expected them to turn up when we were unpacking and thought they were lost forever when they didn't show up.

I got a unexpected phone call from Carrie on Easter Friday saying that she found my rings in their holiday home in Lake Macquarie. I must have left them there last time we were there 2 years ago!!

Carrie & family came over on the weekend to return the rings and have a look at our house and we had a very lovely afternoon together. I was Carrie's bridesmaid but somehow we seemed to lose in touch with each other after the last Lake Macquarie weekend. Her son Michael and Lara spent a long time jumping on the trampoline while we chatted sitting on the grass. I feel like I have found more than the lost rings!!

Gold Coast holiday

We didn't get to go to the beach much this summer so we decided to make this holiday a pure "beach" holiday. Gold Coast was our destination and Splendido apartment our home for 5 days. Weather-wise it was just right with maximum temperature at around 27-30C. We spent every day at a different beach - Monday: Mermaid beach. Tuesday: Broadbeach. Wednesday:Burleigh Heads. Thursday: Surfer's Paradise. We didn't rent a car but it was very convenient travelling around by bus (two section off-peak unlimited travel ticket $5.90 per person).



Mermaid beach was two blocks away from where we stayed but we had the worst experience, probably because it was a very windy day. We felt very cold, rushed back after less an hour there and ended up at the swimming pool/spa. Both Burleigh Heads and Broadbeach have park facilities and very family friendly. We particularly like Broadbeach, it was not as commercialised as Surfer's Paradise but with many choices of cafes and eateries around.



This was Lara's first airplane trip, she was absolutely amazed when the plane took off! The taxi rides and bus rides were also exciting for her. The food on offer was quite disappointing(especially dinners at Nobby Beach) but we all enjoyed the beach very much. Every afternoon when we went back to the apartment, we were all exhausted, but when we were at the beach we felt like time had stopped and we could be there forever. Watching the waves crashing into the shore was very soothing and great at emptying our minds.



Thanks to Parents-in-law who stayed here while we were away and looked after Zeb for us. And it was very nice coming home to a lovely home-cooked meal! Lara really missed her toys and spent a long time playing with toys that were uninterested to her previously. It's good to be back!

Tokyo Ramen

Lunch today was at Tokyo Ramen in Hornsby shopping centre. We had take-away sushi from here often but this is the first time we eat in. The shop was tiny with limited sitting and it was very busy when we arrived just after mid-day on Monday.

We had Agedashi Tofu (deep fried tofu with a sweet gingery sauce),Gyo-za, Tempura Udon and Negi Shoyu Ramen. The tofu was hot and silken, with very tasty sauce - extremely good value at $4. The tempuras was piled up high on top of the noodles. Many Japanese places' tempura eggplants were bland and under-done but here it was soft on the inside and very tasty. I didn't try other tempuras but from the number of orders on other tables, it was definitly a very popular dish. The Nigi Shoyu Ramen (with a dark soup) was not what I expecxted, but nice nonetheless (quite hot).



The food though not gourmet, was good quality homestyle food. We are keen to try other dishes there.

Terrigal beach

We decided on Saturday morning over breakfast to go to 'a beach' because the day looked lovely. We took out the map book and somehow settled on 'Forrester beach' because it looked big and long and not too far away. We packed and set-off at 10:30am.



Unfortunately we found Forrester beach to be a little 'wild' when we arrived. There was no shade, greenery or shops close-by. It took us some time to find a small take-away and got some burgers for lunch (by then we were extremely hungry). It took us even longer to find a 'park' (any place with grass and trees) to eat our lunch. We decided to head down to Terrigal after lunch.



We were very lucky to find a car space right in front of the beach. The day was probably too warm to stay outdoor but at the beach with the cool water and breeze, it was beautiful. Lara spent a long time in the water even though she had a chest cold and we didn't plan to stay for that long. The beach was patrolled with lots of cafes and shops nearby, very differnt to Forrester beach. Note to self: buy a beach umbrella so we can leave things at the beach.



We finished the day with icy poles and got home just before 5pm. Hopefully we get a few more fine days like these before winter!

Pet rocks

Lara's daycare craft. She painted the face and glued the eyes and hair herself.
What a clever idea!

Monday night dinner

Mushroom risotto with baby spinach leaves and cherry tomatoes.

Family Funday - Botanical Garden

We took the train into the city on Sunday, our destination the Botanical Garden. To save time, we walked there from Wynyard station, rather than waiting for another train. We admired the size of Queen Mary II docked at Circular Quay on the day before, but didn't stop to check out the arts/crafts stalls outside the Opera House steps (because I had to find a toilet quickly!).

Lara with QM II in the background.


We thought Lara would like to walk around in the Botanical Garden more. However, being such a warm day, she just wanted to be pushed around in the pram or sit on the grass. We saw lots of bats hanging up-side-down on trees trying to get some sleep despite the noises around.



Lara had a little sleep in the pram while we walked to World Square to have lunch (we also checked out some books in Dynmocks on the way there). We had lunch at 'Ding Tai Fung', a Taiwanese dumpling restaurant. My dad had been to one of the original branches in Taiwan and said it was great. It has great reviews and won lots of awards. The service was very attentive and kids friendly (Lara sat on high chair with her own kids plates and cutlery), however the food was not as tasty as we imagined. We had steamed pork dumpling, vegetable dumpling, pork and shrimp shu mai, shrimp and pork wonton soup, sweet and sour soup and fried crispy chicken.

We had coffee and ice chocolate before heading home. We did a lot of walking (I had blisters to show at the end of the day!) but felt great. We are planning to take Lara on the ferry next time.

Toilet training

Grandma decided to toilet train Lara one Sunday before Christmas. I didn't know the exact details(I was in bed), but I heard the score was 6 undies in two hours and crying and pleading at the end - "I don't like undies, I want to wear nappies!" We decided to leave it at that for a little while.

It was during the Austrlia Day long weekend when we decided to try again. I was still not feeling the best so Simon did most of the monitoring and reminding. There was only 2-3 accidents this time, mostly on the first day. Maybe the constant brain-wash (by telling her how good it is to wear undies) in between helped. Lara even did poo willingly in the toilet. We cheered every time something 'dropped' in the toilet and everything progressed well. Lara showed everyone her undies and had very few accidents in daycare(only a couple of times when she forgot or couldn't make it to the toilet in time).

Everything was well for two weeks, Simon even thought his ass-wiping days are over (at least for a few months). Then Lara started to refuse to poo in the toilet (wee is fine). We persevered/bribed/threatened but nothing worked. I was a little surprised that she could hold the poo(the longest for over 4 days!!) but Lara was determined. Once I sat with her on the toilet for 45 minutes because she looked like she might do one, but no, not coming.

Apparently this is very common. 'Be patient', we are telling ourselves. It will happen when she is ready!

Sunday lunch

After over two months of staying at home and not doing much, my energy level is slowly increasing. The mind is strange - when I was lying in bed feeling sick, my brain was busily thinking about all the things and places we would do and go when I get better. I couldn't eat anything, but I imagined all the food I am 'going to' eat when I get well .... We went out to eat for the first time in 2 months last weekend, and I made the first roast in 2 months yesterday. Today we had lunch at a little cafe in Terry Hills flowers market.

The place has a large enclosed play area so kids are well catered for. The service was quite slow (asked 3 times to get some water) and it was warm sitting outside (it would be better inside with air-con). The food was alright except FIL's lemon sole was over-cooked and MIL's steak sandwitch came with tomatoes and dressing (to their credit, they did re-make the whole dish). Despite these, I still felt that I had a good time. A little fresh air and a different environment do wonders sometimes.

Ballet class

Lara started ballet class three weeks ago. I took her to a 'trial' class before Christmas to see if she woule like to do ballet. Unfortunately, she wouldn't dance because she didn't have ballet shoes on and her ballet dress was different to the other girls'! (I didn't want to buy anything until AFTER the trial class). Anyway, she seems to enjoy it now. It's so nice watching these little girls dance, they are so cute!

Saturday

We like yum char. It's especially nice to have a variey of food when I haven't been cooking. We had the usual dumplings, white baits and sweets. We also managed to have coffee and done some shopping (alcohol for Christmas) all within 3 hours!

Lara's happiest at yum char.


We came back home just after 2pm and had to have all tricks out for Lara not to fall asleep in the car. We wanted her to have a good sleep in her bed as we were going to "Carols in the park' that night. I cooked 'duck confit' that day, and remebered to put the duck legs in duck fat to slow cook in the oven (100C for 7-8 hours) when we got home. I was really glad to leave the house as the fat didn't smell great cooking in the oven.

The park was crowded with people by the time we arrived. The carol singing didn't start until 7.30pm so we had time to see some farm animals and get face-painting done. It soon got dark and the kids enjoyed the cool night air and playing with the 'glow-in-the-dark' bracelets.

We had butterfly, princess and tiger at the park!