Beautiful days

The weather these days have been really nice. Sunny days but still rather cool. Sort of got in the mood for taking photos again. What with the nice blue skies and all that...Quite glad that I actually survived most of the winter already. I think I must be really lucky that it wasn't too harsh.


It's a beautiful day 


A fabulous winter sky - Collins St on a Sunday 

We went to a shirt shop and there were these beautiful cherry blossoms in the store. I actually didn't think that it was anything unusual because I thought they were the fake kinds you buy during Chinese New Year. Then when I heard the store staff admiring them, I realised that they were for real. OOooh! Now that was something because they looked so perfect and I had to get a picture of it. Actually the stems were in water but even that didn't make me think they were real...


Cherry blossoms - in winter?? Wonder where they came from 

The weekend is over again! :(

Another weekend quickly passes by. This one was a rather busy one. On Saturday, we went to the Olga Berg winter clearance and got some nice bags for presents and one for myself :) We also got Bobbi bunny a nice new home - two storeys for her to run around and play in!


Bobbi bunny's new house 

She really loves her new place and in no time she was exploring everywhere and hopping happily up and downstairs.


Bobbi eating in her new house 

Today Charli finally got to move to her more permanent place. We helped her move all her barang barang which she accumulated at Johnny's place down two storeys to her nice cosy little apartment over five trips! So fun to set up house. She must be quite excited and happy to have her own place at last. We got her a nice set of plates, cups and bowls for her housewarming present so now she has something nice to put her food in when we go over for dinner :)

Here is Johnny "promoting" a plate while Darlink ponders on what he wants to eat out of them.


Plate advertisement 

The weekend quickly flies by and we have to get back to work again in a few hours! :( Can't wait for the next weekend again...we have to try and get Bobbi a friend so that she doesn't get too lonely. Did not spot any cute friends for her this week.

Bonding with Bobbi Bunny

Today Darlink went for a company dinner so I am at home by myself which gives me some time to bond with Bobbi bunny :). Usually I am too busy cooking in the evening to play with her much.

After I had a quick dinner and Bobbi had her share of celery to munch, we watched Australian Idol together - Bobbi snuggled on my lap in a towel (in case she decides to wee-wee...you never know :P). She got to run around on the sofa a bit too.

She got her dessert of apple after that and in the pic below, you see a very satisfied bunny in the bunny hen position (i.e.: blob of bunny).


Pretty Bobbi 

When Darlink came home, she got to run around on the sofa some more and probably due to the lack of fun when no one is at home for most of the day, she was bursting with energy (and probably joy) at being able to come out again. After a while, she was dashing around madly & binkying all over. It was so funny to watch...and a little scary too :P

Gingerbread cookie day

Bought a nice gingerbread man from the market on Saturday and I got inspired to try and bake my own. Tried it out today...here are the results :)


Gingerbread cookies from the oven! 

Well they don't taste too bad..they got better towards the end - the first batch was a little overdone and were like biscuits. Pity they are not really gingerbread men because I don't have the correct cookie cutter. Since these didn't turn out too badly, I think I will go and get me some proper gingerbread man cutters so they will look better the next time.

Bobbi bunny

Bobbi bunny! 

After one week of thinking, we have decided to call her Bobbi bunny! :) We went to the market today to see if we could get her a companion bunny. There weren't any really cute ones that were suitable for her. Saw really cute puppies though. That would be a great companion (in my dreams)...This one here is a westie cross with some other breed I cannot remember but is it sooooooo cute! Can you imagine how cute they would look together?


So cute doggy! 

Turtles Can Fly

Just watched my first movie here in Melbourne and the first of my two (yes I have decided to just watch two movies out of the hundreds) in the Melbourne International Film Festival - Turtles Can Fly by Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi. You can read the synopsis and reviews at: http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/turtlescanfly

It is a great movie, beautifully shot and scripted. I came out feeling a little sad as you get to see the effects that war has on these children who are forced to grow up so fast in the hostile environment. The kids in the movie with their missing limbs are really children who have suffered the effects of the war and could probably be just re-enacting some part of their lives. Although the movie has a sad overtone, there are funny moments that make the movie beautiful too.

Together with other internationally acclaimed Iranian movies that I have watched (The Colour of Paradise and Children of Heaven), I feel that Iranian film directors have done a great job in conveying their message through the innocence of children which makes their message even more poignant.

Pictures of little bunny

Here are some pictures of the little bunny lounging around :) She still does not have an official name yet. Any suggestions?


Watching TV 


Bunny with ball 

Colder and colder

It has gotten rather cold these days. Mornings are usually 4-5 degrees and nights are about there as well. Luckily it is just a quick walk to work and I am back in the normal temperatures of the office for most of the day. Funnily when we went to the US in November I think I bundled up more even though the temperatures were usually not less than 10 degrees. Been missing a bit of warmth for now. The cold is nice but it isn't when you can't feel the end of your fingers.

Fat little bunny

Fat little bunny 

Oooh she is a greedy little thing! I think she eats a lot for a tiny bunny. Every time my back is turned she is back at the food bowl guzzling. Boy will she be growing fast!

A new addition!

A new addition!  


Looky looky! 

Look what we got at the market today! A new family member! Hehhehehe! It's a baby dwarf lop bunny (but its ears have not drooped yet)! The colour I think is Sooty Fawn. It hasn't got a name yet (it's a she). She is so cute and tiny...have to cuddle as much as I can now before she grows fast really quickly. She was quite quiet when we brought her home because understandably she was scared. By evening she is warming up and becoming quite greedy for a little bunny :) Tentatively, she might be called Rabbitty bunny after dear Rabbitto bunny.

More thoughts

Apparently I have been thinking a lot these days. It has probably come to the time where I subconsciously step back and take a look at my life. It saddens me somewhat. I wonder what exactly are my goals or aim in life? I don't feel like I have any. Every day is a replica of the previous one. Wake up, get breakfast, go to work, come home, eat dinner (now cook dinner as well), do some stuff on the computer and sleep. I have no idea what that is achieving. I have not made more friends in my time here. In fact I feel lonelier than ever. I think I could probably count the number of words I say in a day now.

Two months have passed in my work place and I have given up on trying to foster any sort of friendships with the people around me. It is just too difficult. The environment is just not the best place for making friends I guess. Everyone just does their own thing. I just float in and out every day like a speck of dust.

Given my demoralised state at this point in time, I also thought I would read up on some motivational quotes to try and find some meaning to my life. But all I conclude that they generally tell you that life is what you make out of it. The problem is I don't even know what exactly I am trying to achieve to try and make anything out of it. Whatever I hope and wish for just doesn't happen no matter how hard I try. Even the phrase "kindness begets kindness" doesn't turn out for me.

A thought has been hanging around in my head after I read about the real life trials that Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios) has gone through. In any case, more than one person has also said that you should live everyday like it is your last. I have been wondering how do you do that? From the looks of it, I am certainly wasting a lot of good time by not achieving anything. Have to think about that some more (yeah right and waste more time).


Sad doggy - but still cute 

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is God's gift, that's why we call it the present." ~ Joan Rivers (American humorist, b.1935)

Thoughts

Nothing much to say these past few days except that I think this quotation does make a lot of sense.

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." ~ Dr Seuss

I hate the TV programming here!

It is so irritating how the TV programming here just changes without warning week-to-week. I am here ranting away now because there is no Desperate Housewives to watch today! They just decided this week that they wanted to show a season premier of 24, so they just stop showing the only show I watch in a week for this week! The season here is already 3 weeks behind Singapore because some time back, they decided to show some other show for 3 weeks in that time-slot and so just stopped the season for 3 weeks. Can you beat that? Now we are back by a month! It is supposed to be back on next week. I really cannot get what these people are thinking! Why would you show a season premiere of another show for just one week so that when you finally start the series, the first episode was shown 1 month ago? In the meantime, you irritate the people who are watching the existing series and don't really care if you dangle a new program carrot in front of them because all they want to do is get on with what they were watching!

When I first got here, they were showing Joey (the spin off from Friends) and I was quite happy because they hadn't even started showing it in Singapore yet. Anyway, after 3-4 episodes, the show suddenly disappeared. Either they stopped showing it or moved it to some other time-slot or swapped it for some other show the programmer preferred to watch at that time. But I lost track of that one since it was showing at dinner time during that period anyway.

How can these people program shows like that? Why can't they just let these series run their course without interrupting with whatever new shows they suddenly get their hands on? So fed up.

SUNday

Nice sunny day 

Today started nice and sunny in the morning, no sign of rain like yesterday. When we came out of church, saw the beautiful blue sky and had to take a pic.

We went to Federation Square to take a look at the ReadyMadeMarket, which is a one-day designer market, part of the Melbourne Design Festival. Nothing was really cheap there since it is designer stuff and hence, mostly deemed unique and thus cannot be gotten too cheaply. Since we were near the Arts Centre Sunday Market just across the road, we decided to take a walk there as well.

Had lunch at the food court at Southgate with Johnny and Charli. The pancakes were fabulous!! I love pancakes!! Must try to make some pancakes from scratch one day instead of using pre-mixes, I think they will taste better.

We headed to South Melbourne market after lunch (Hooray! I got the nice turkey breast for the week's breakfast again!). I took a pic of Cafe Sweethearts - the one we went to a couple of Sundays back since I did not have my camera with me then.


Cafe Sweethearts - Coventry Street, South Melbourne 

By mid-afternoon, we didn't really have anywhere to go so we all decided to come back to our house for our favourite pastime - playing cards, munching on munchies and drinking tea. We haven't done that for a while, so it was really quite enjoyable to be working the brains again :)

Tea sale day - Hooray!

New tea! 

L'Epicier is having a 20% off storewide sale for 4 days! Hehehe! Naturally I had to pay a visit :). There were some teas that I already had in mind so today was a good day to go and get it.

I got 2 green teas - one is the Chestnut Green tea. This one has a fabulous chestnutty flavour when you smell it while drinking. One of the yummiest green teas I have ever drunk. The other is Yokorobi which is green tea, green rooibos, marigold, rose and mallow flowers. Very pretty looking and nice smelling too. I got a little pack of their Chai to try out as well and the afternoon tea was a free gift.

Ballerina Mouse is in the picture getting all over my new tea. She is another new "pet" I got in place of the live ones...Gee...sometimes I wonder if I am actually missing something in life to be getting toys at this age. Hmmm...

The weather today is rather dreary, for me at least. It has been raining the whole day and the temperature is about 7 degrees for most of the day which is not usually the case. Most afternoons have been about 15 degrees which is pleasant. Even with a North Face (mountain climbing type) jacket, I still feel cold. When the wind blows, it feels even worse than 7 degrees. Hopefully we don't see too many of days like this.

Melbourne International Film Festival

This is happening here from 20 July to 7 August! Hopefully I can get to watch some of the shows...maybe "some" might even be too much...how about one? :(

Movies here are not exactly cheap. One show in the MIFF costs $15. I could watch 2 shows with that in Singapore. For both of us to watch one movie, I could watch 4 in Singapore. But then again, I am not in Singapore so what to do? Have spent the last almost 2 hours going through the film festival guide trying to decide which is THE show to watch if it is going to only be one. So tough! There are tons of movies! I am not even done with reading all the synopses yet! Sort of have 4 or 5 movies on the to-watch list but have to do a detailed review again later to whittle them down.

I think the festival here must be much larger than compared to Singapore. I haven't really counted and compared the number of shows but there are so many features and focuses - Europe, Middle East, New Chinese cinema, Argentina, sports, documentaries. By gut feel, it is probably 3 times as large? No wonder I am taking so long to decide...

Nice things

On another note, let's talk about nice things like fabulous songs that we hear on radio (while at work or doing enjoyable stuff like surfing the net :P).

Discovered a really nice song recently by Tori Amos called Sleeps With Butterflies. It is beautiful! I am almost a fan of Tori Amos now...try and get hold of it! I also like Coldplay right now.

Just for the record, I am wearing my nice pink boots in office today...hehehe! :)

Evil people

I think the bombings in London are so tragic. Especially just when everyone was so happy celebrating their win to host the 2012 Olympics. We were watching TV while having dinner and discovered that this horrible thing happened. How evil can people be? We are all humans with families we just want to go back to everyday after work. How can people do this to each other? How do people who plan these things go home to their families each day, have dinner or play with their kids?

Chocolate is good for you

Remembering that I read somewhere that dark chocolate is actually good for you (it has antioxidant properties which are destroyed by milk, so milk chocolate is not good), I took a walk through the chocolate department at Big W today and looked at all the chocolate bars on the shelves. Some chocolate bars hardly have any cocoa in it - mostly just sugar. I finally saw this near the checkout. It has 85% cocoa!! The ingredients on this reads: cocoa, fat reduced cocoa powder, cocoa butter, brown sugar, natural flavour: vanilla. Wow! This has to be the healthiest chocolate bar I have ever seen. Sugar was actually 4th on the list of ingredients.

Anyway, the test was how it tasted and if you like sweet chocolate, this is definitely not it. It was more bitter than any chocolate I have ever eaten and probably the nearest to eating a cocoa fruit. Hey but if it is good for health, why not? Better than the chocolates that do no good for you. I am not even a chocolate fan anyway, just have the occasional craving (which might be put off by a bite of this powerful chocolate).


Power chocolate

Just in case you are interested, if you’re going to eat chocolate there are three main things to know (as advised by Dr Mercola, some health food doctor):
* If you eat chocolate, only eat dark chocolate
* Only eat chocolate if you’re healthy
* Make sure you eat it in moderation

Another cute bunny

Watcha looking at? 

Took this pic when I went past the pet shop today. This is a dwarf lop baby bunny who kept on drinking water. So cute! He must have eaten salt or something :P. More cute pics for my blog...

Anniversary day!

Look at my pink boots! 

Enjoyed our day off today :) Went shopping in the city for my knee high boots. Hehehe! I think it looks nice with skirts so I wanted to get a brown pair since I have a pair of black ankle high boots already.

Anyway apparently leather is the traditional gift for a 3rd wedding anniversary so I thought we should go and get me my boots then :P

We went to the shoe department in Myer and I saw these fabulous pink suede knee high boots!! I think they must have been meant for me because there was only 1 and I could fit into them. The pink will probably be able to go with anything I intended brown boots to go with. Hehehe! So happy!

For the record, I gave Darlink a personally designed bookmark (with leather cords of course) since he is currently reading something and will not put "any oh how" paper in the book.

Happy 3rd Anniversary to us!

It's our 3rd wedding anniversary tomorrow! Oh boy 3 years we have been married...and it has all passed by so fast!

Looking back, we have done tons of stuff together, gone loads of places together (I didn't really go anywhere before Darlink came along), bought loads of things together in this time. It has all been really quite a fun ride. There will be many more adventures to go on from here.

Here is one of our rarer "family photos" :)


Our "family" photo - Small Bunny is wondering why Rabbitto is all folded over and smelling his tail

To celebrate, we have given ourselves a holiday tomorrow. Wonder what we will go out and get this time...

Thinking about Singapore

Recently while having dinner and watching CNN news, I realised that being in Australia really sort of alienates you from the world. It was from CNN that I realised that Singapore was hosting the 117th Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) - the biggest sports meeting in the world. Hooray for Singapore!!! If you cannot host the Olympics, just host the meeting that determines where the Olympics can be held. Way to go man!!! I feel quite proud already. So many famous people will be descending on Raffles City to pitch for their city and they will all get to see our fabulous country.

I haven't actually heard much about the IOC here. The news is simply quite local and world news is limited to the really big time stuff that happens elsewhere. At least watching CNN these few days gave me some news on what is happening on the rest of the planet. Not just knowing that some ridiculous person "felt cheated" being one of the 3 privileged people on earth witnessing one of the Twelve Apostles collapse when it did.


IOC happening at Raffles City - pic from news

Anyway, while I was reading Singapore-ified news on AsiaOne just now, I realised that I miss so many things about Singapore already. I miss The Straits Times (who ask them to charge for the website access!! It is also their fault I am cut-off from the world!), shopping on Orchard Road, great buses, taxis and MRTs, great food everywhere (to think I used to complain about having no idea what to eat), all my credit cards and shopping discount cards, masses with nice hymns to sing...so many things...except probably the blazing hot weather than I am hearing about now.

Will be looking forward to going back in November. There will be so many places I have to visit!

Newsflash! Another of the Twelve Apostles crumbles

Saw the news today that another of the Twelve Apostles (those we saw on the Great Ocean Road trip - http://rabbittobunny.blogspot.com/2005/06/our-great-ocean-road-trip.html) collapsed into the sea, leaving only eight standing rocks. Yes there already wasn't twelve to start with at this point in time of the gradual erosion of the limestone structures over the ages. Now there are less. So now photos like those we took are unobtainable, which makes them priceless! Hehehe! (Yeah right...)


One apostle less