Sooooo cute!

Hanging over the sofa 

This is a pic of Bobbi perched over the sofa cushions a couple of weeks back. She was sort of just sitting there with her arms over the top. It didn't look extremely comfortable but it was really funny. Luckily we managed to catch this on Johnny's mobile before she moved away. There appears to be loads of Bobbi pics on my blog but then again, isn't she the cutest? :D

With a 1-to-1 ratio of digital cameras in our house, not to mention phone cameras, there are always lots of chances to get more photos! The lucky bunny!

She loves head rubs these days. She will stop anything she is doing to get a head rub and then you can see her lifting her head up with eyes partially closed enjoying all the attention. Oh boy...the joy pets bring :)

Bobbi & bunny

Bobbi & bunny 

Hehehe! Two bunnies together! :)

Strong winds & funny charts

Hear the wind in the stairwell again today. This means that it is blowing rather strongly outside again...:S Hope it dies down somewhat when I am going home.

On the topic of strong winds since I was looking the wind conditions here, I saw this Catastrophic Calamity Chart on the Accuweather website, which is my source of weather information whenever I wonder how it is doing outside, while I am snug & safe indoors. I thought it was rather funny. Take a look!

Thought for the day

Winston Churchill: We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Floppy Bobbi

Floppy Bobbi 

Taking a break while on one of her exciting forays on the sofa :D

Happy Anniversary to us!

It was our 6th Anniversary being together today and Tuesday will be our 4th Anniversary since our ROM. Gee...we really have come a long way together :P. Anyway, we "celebrated" with a buffet lunch at Crown and did tons of walking around in the city. We also went to take a look at some glam apartments along Southbank...and came out with all sorts of dreams of living in high places...literally.


We were on the way to the 23rd floor at this time 

We went up to the 41st floor to see one of the apartments on Eureka Tower (as you can see is touted as Australia's tallest building and is also the world's tallest residential building). When it is completed, the highest storey will be the 92nd floor! Fantastic views all around!

I also got one of the cute vege thieves from the Wallace & Gromit movie today. Hooray!


Isn't this cute? 

A comparison with Singapore

Since I was on the topic of weather, I took a look at how Singapore is doing and I wonder how I will survive there now. Went out at lunch time today. It was about 20 degrees here and I felt a little hot already (maybe because of my jacket)...but look at this!

OOoohh! Nice weather!

OOOooh!  

Was just checking the weather forecast for tomorrow (actually it is already today!). Thought it was nice to see that it actually says "Beautiful" right there for the weather for the day :). This means that it is not just a normal sunny or cloudy day...it is going to be a beeeyooteeefool day.

My "garden"

Look at the first blooms coming out from the seeds I planted some time back in June (look here for the picture back then)! This little bunch together with another smaller bunch are the only surviving lots of these seeds that I planted. The rest didn't seem to make it through the cold weather. In any case, they are even flowering! How nice :) Darlink has been helping me to water them everyday so some credit (actually most) go to him.


My first flowers! 

Here are also pots of parsley and coriander that I bought from the supermarket (they sell some herbs in pots here so that you can "harvest" them for use right in the kitchen) so if these grow successfully, I might not have to buy anymore bunches from the market in future. The first lot dried up but as you can see, there are new ones growing out! :D


Parsley & Coriander 

Another terrible storm!

Heard on the news this morning that Hurricane Rita has been classified as a Category 5 storm! That is one level higher than Katrina was! Now Rita has become the third strongest hurricane ever recorded with sustained winds of 265 kph with gusts to 297 kph! I really cannot imagine how scary that is. Luckily with all the advanced warnings and lessons from Katrina, people are all evacuating the potential disaster areas already before the hurricane reaches land.

There are people in our company who come from Houston and now some are going back to help their families move away. What an awful time it must be...


Nasa pic of the eye of Rita

Read here to find out how hurricanes are formed.

Wallace & Gromit - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

The Curse of the Were-Rabbit 

We went to watch the new Wallace & Gromit movie today at the new cinemas in Melbourne Central. The cinema was nice and new with lots of legs space but the movie was even better! In fact before the actual Wallace & Gromit movie, there was an animation short featuring the penguins from Madagascar. The short was like a Christmas trailer or something but in any case, it was really funny. I didn't manage to watch Madagascar although now I do want to try to watch it.

The Wallace & Gromit movie was fantastic too! I was laughing through most of it :D. The scary bits were a little scary but of course being a Wallace & Gromit show, everything in the show is actually all nice and humane and no one or no animals are harmed in the process.

The show has loads of cute rabbits around since it is about rabbits terrorizing the townspeople's vege patches. There are so many scenes that are my favourite, can't list them all but generally anything with the cute bunnies are tops :OB OOhhh...I would really want to get the DVD once that is available, could watch it another time!

Rating: *****

New organic food store!

Macro Wholefoods 

We went to Bridge Road today and I got to visit the new organic food store there - Macro Wholefoods. This is quite a nice big organic food store, probably one of the best I have seen here. I got me an organic Apricot & Lemon Myrtle jam and Zest, a lemongrass, lemon thyme, lemon balm, calendula and orange peel tea from SIP. I just find it so fun to be in these stores because you get to see all the healthy and wholesome alternatives to the regular stuff you see elsewhere and know that you can still enjoy for example, organic dark chocolates that are good for you, rather than those that don't really do much for you but just give you a big sugar fix, or chicken meat that is antibiotic & chemical-free.

Although these things may cost more than the usual, I always feel that it is worth paying a little more to get food you can eat with peace of mind knowing that it does not contain all sorts of preservatives, lots of sugar or chemicals.

Peek-a-boo bunny

Peek-a-boo bunny 

Here is a pic of Bobbi looking around over the top of her box on her evening run out.

Today was somewhat an odd day for me. The Department was having a big half day lunch to celebrate the end of the year-end "suffering" they went through - which I didn't due to the nature of my job. Which thus made it weird for me to be celebrating anything. The whole year-end process has sort of made me stick out like a sore thumb in the whole department (at least I feel this way even if no one else notices). I felt totally left out so I didn't go for the lunch :( On the other hand, I had the half day off since it didn't make sense for me to be the only person at work right? Got to get home at 1pm and do whatever I wanted to. Still feel a little crappy at the whole situation though...

Baked again today

Baked again today 

Couldn't decide what to get for breakfast tomorrow so I decided to bake something quick. Got a pre-mix from the supermarket and baked some muffins. These turned out looking a little like scones though. But as long as they taste good, it doesn't matter :) These are triple chocolate muffins and I added raisins, cherries and some more chocolate chips!

On another note, I spotted Bobbi bunny relaxing on the sofa while we were away clearing up after dinner. Thought she looked so cute! She was in a happy mood today doing little binkys all over the sofa.


Cutie bunny 

Happy Birthday to You!

Today is my sister's birthday. I am of course not able to celebrate it with her being over here...:( But anyway, I sent her a package of stuff to make up for my absence. Many things have changed for her recently - it's odd how when things change they all seem to come at once. It was the same for me something like a year ago. In any case, I always believe that everything happens for the best. So, here is wishing her another fantastic year ahead with all the new and good things that are to come! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MATHILDA! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! :D

Absolutely fabulous

I have got one of my Pet Shop Boys CDs at work today (PopArt) and now I am listening to Disc 2. Oh boy! They are fabulous! I sometimes forget I have them and when I do unearth them to listen to, they always make my day (see earlier post below). PSB are great - almost every song they come up with is nice. I just don't like mixes of the originals. I was just trying figure which was my favourite song of all time and every one that comes up seems to be the one. Hmmmm...I think on the whole, my favourite album of all is Behaviour.

Things that make me happy

I realised that wherever you are, there are some things that can light up your day (even if you don't have mooncakes to eat). Thought I would list some of them.

* Seeing a baby or cute kid smile back at you when you smile at him/her
* Hearing from someone you have not heard from in a while
* Finding a great bargain
* Baking cookies that turn out great
* Buying new teas
* Being complimented
* Listening to my favourite songs (Almost anything Pet Shop Boys!)
* Making something pretty
* Seeing a rainbow
* Beautiful weather

What are some of yours?

186 days!

Did a count of the number of days I have been here - as of today, it is 186! Wow! I have passed half a year already! Quite a lot of things I am missing already. Now being the mooncake festival period, I can only dream of tasting one of my favourite "festival foods". Sigh! Used to look forward to this even when I was in Singapore - tasting all the new mooncake flavours coming out from the hotels trying to beat each other at creativity. Every year, I have to have my share of the Raffles Hotel snowskin champagne truffle mooncake but not this time! Wish they could be sent here but I really doubt it.

Cold weather again!

A few days of warmer weather last week and we were all thinking that it was time to ditch the thick jackets and start getting back to "normal" clothes (especially the guys) since winter is over but today was a surprise.

It was already quite cold in the morning but as the day progressed it was getting colder and colder.

Significant event of the day: Darlink, Charli and me signed up on the 3G network and got new Sony Ericsson phones! With the new plan, I will be able to send SMSes to Singapore more often! :)

We had dinner and watched Australian Idol at Charli's place and when we were going home, it was raining and freezing! The temperature now is 7 degrees but feels like 0!

Another Bobbi pic

Bobbi bunny with her friends 

Just another pic of Bobbi in one of her favourite spots (if not on Tom Ato). I realised I have so many Bobbi pics...:)

A new recipe

Today I tried out this recipe I saw on Jamie Oliver's cooking show. I have no idea what it is named, but it's a Thai style baked fish recipe. His shows are all very inspiring since now I usually cook dinner and sometimes I run out of ideas.

Steps
Put garlic, ginger, chilli, coriander and lemongrass in a food processor and blend it all together (he actually used a mortar and pestle which I don't have, hence, the food processor, since it does get somewhat to the end product). The result is a fabulous smelling mix! Add coconut milk and some soy sauce and mix all together. Dollop the mix over fish fillet, wrap it up in aluminium foil (he actually used banana leaves which I don't think I can find here) and bake at 200 degrees for 15-20 mins until cooked.

Note that there doesn't seem to be any measurements for the ingredients. Jamie Oliver sort of just throws everything together so it is just based on gut feel and estimation there :)

Mine didn't turn out too badly :) Felt like something you would order in a Thai restaurant (don't play play ok)...

Biscuit ramblings

Our pantry has a biscuit jar of Arnotts cream biscuits everyday. The biscuit mix has the following (descriptions are from the Arnotts website, I didn't come up with them myself :P).

*Delta Cream - a sweet vanilla cream filling sandwiching two rich chocolate biscuits

*Orange Slice - two vanilla biscuits and a layer of orange cream, which has a sherbert tang

*Monte Carlo - two home-style honey and coconut biscuits and a layer of vanilla cream, wrapped in a delicate layer of raspberry jam

*Kingston - biscuits made of rolled oats, desiccated coconut and golden syrup, with luxury chocolate cream filling

*Shortbread Cream - buttery shortbread biscuit with a creamy vanilla filling

Over time, I noted that the biscuits disappear in the following order: Kingston, Monte Carlo, Shortbread Cream, Orange Slice & Delta Cream (can't really tell between the two). I personally like them in that order as well. Apparently so does everyone. Would be fun if I could set up a voting system here but I don't know how.

Anyway, I noticed a lot of the last two biscuits left over from yesterday. Today they are all on top of the jar so it is really difficult to get to the rest below. There is a lesson to be learnt in this observation...don't leave the things you don't like to the last - they will all pile up and it won't be fun anymore. Hehehe! What nonsense...:P

Heard on radio

Just heard this silly clip on radio. Someone won a contest for a trip to Mauritius.

DJ: Congratulations! You have won the trip to Mauritius!
Caller: OMG! I don't even know where Mauritius is but I wanna go!

Like some people might say, so ES (extremely silly)!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 

We went to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today with Charli (hehehe!). I quite enjoyed the show. Johnny Depp was really fun to watch but I can't really say the same about the disturbingly un-cute Oompa Loompas (which were all the same person!!). I had the impression that the Oompa Loompas were cute little things but they turned out to be little, that's all. I have always liked imagining the factory and the fabulous rooms that are in it, sort of always wished that such a place existed in real life - especially the elevator with the many many buttons. The show helped to put into pictures what I could only imagine when reading the book. Read more about it here. Watch this show even if just for Johnny Depp, I can't think of anyone else who would have done this better.

Some nice flower pics

Brought my camera out today which explains the number of posts and photos this time. Hehehhe! Spotted some nice flowers while we were out today. It may just be the start of spring but there are really some beautiful blooms already!


I don't know what this is, but it looks great! 


So do these! (they were sticking out from someone's backyard) 

An awesome dog

We saw this beautiful Husky at Queen Victoria market on Saturday when we were doing our grocery shopping. I actually saw her the week before also but this time we found out her name is Anouk and we even got to take pictures with her! :)

Her owner must be really used to people stopping to say hi to his beautiful doggy. She is so huge but so tame. After we took photos, she was shaking paws with another guy who stopped to admire her as well. Awwww!!!


Anouk the beautiful Husky! 

Spot the bunny

Spot the bunny 

Somebunny was trying to hide...

Camberwell Sunday Market

We went to the Camberwell Sunday Market today. I think it was great fun! It was a flea market of sorts, where there were lots of second-hand & vintage clothes, toys, books, homeware etc. The fun bit is that everywhere you look, there is something interesting to see.

I got a nice japanese kimono style top for $5 and a Muppet Show book for $2. Darlink got a bunch of collectible pins for $20 but the shopping winner was Charli with a $3 Kermit the Frog (under my influence :) Hey I wanted that for myself but I have too many toys), $5 book, $5 glass plate and $40 worth of cushions (2 large ones and they were new). I could go there every week to rummage through stuff. I know some people who will definitely love it...too bad you are not here!


Market views 

Katrina aftermath

I am looking at some of the pictures of the aftermath of Katrina and the state of the people remaining. It is awful. I wonder how they will ever fix up these devastated places and with so many homeless people now, where will they all be housed? There are just so many problems stretching far and wide as the devastation. There are so many things to worry about - diseases, looting, violence, relief, cleanup...It is just so difficult to attend to everything at the same time. It is all just very tragic and I think we could just pray that things do start to look better for everyone somehow.

Another terrible thing is how almost all the people who are suffering through this are the poor black people who were unable to leave because they have no means to do so when they could. It's like the whole place only had black people from the photos you see...doesn't even look like America.

The lounging bunny

Lounging bunny 

Got this pic of Bobbi lying down contentedly after having her breakfast this morning. She's been spotted in these relaxed positions recently...hehehe! That is a good sign. But I still think she might be lonely (I wonder what she does when we are at work). She loves to hang out with us on the sofa in the evening when we have dinner. In fact, after this picture was taken, she leapt out of the top of the cage onto the sofa and was trying to run around but I had to go to work - no running around for Bobbi there. I suffered some scratches trying to get her to go home. :S