Another wonder of nature

Fowl with "fur" coats!

Had this pic for a while but didn't get to put it up until now. I saw these funny looking birds at the chicken and duck stall at Queen Victoria Market a few weeks back with feathers that give the impression they are wearing stylish coats :)

Really hard to imagine eating something that dresses up like that as well. They look so proud and uppity.

Massive nature

Watched a documentary on TV last night called Massive Nature, charting the perilous journey of African sardines to warmer waters to feed and the gigantic proportions of food chain activity that arises from that migration. It was so fascinating! Hundreds of millions of sardines swimming in a giant shoal, giving rise to thousands of dolphins tracking them down, and thousands of sharks tracking the dolphins down. Also thousands of some sea birds following the dolphins looking for the sardines too and thousands of sea lions waiting for the sea birds. In any case, when they all find the sardines, everyone goes for sardines instead of each other (whichever the prey-predator combination usually) and everyone has a feast of sardines. Poor sardines! I don't really feel like eating sardines any more after all that stress they go through.

But anyway, there are so many of them to go around, many still make it back home finally to do that crazy journey again the following year.

It's so amazing how nature orchestrates all that!

Left-Handers Day

Just found out that yesterday was International Left-Handers Day, meant to promote awareness of the inconveniences facing left-handers in a predominantly right-handed world. I have always been rather proud of the fact that I am left-handed and that sometimes I can actually cut using the scissors with all four fingers (or less than that) stuffed in the smaller hole for the right-handed person's thumb. Hey and I can cut in a straight line quite well at that!

The Official Left-Handers Day 2005 Website provides lots of interesting facts on being a part of this group that forms appromixately 13-15% of the population.

Bored to tears

Work is currently going at snail's pace as people are not replying as fast as they should. I am literally bored to tears because of all the yawning :S

Have 3 hours more to go before the weekend starts!! I can hardly wait - counting down by the minutes...

Many bunnies

Many bunnies!

Here is a pic of Bobbi on her evening out on the sofa, surrounded by more bunnies, quite unlike herself :)

It's a big ad

Saw this on TV recently and I thought it was fabulous! In the style of the unforgettable long ago British Airways ad.

See it here! http://www.bigad.com.au

Lists - Singers I do not like

Since we usually list the singers that we like to listen to, I thought I might do one for those that I don't. These are those that make me turn off the radio when I hear them (so sorry, but that is just how it irritates me). I sometimes wonder why though...it is the voice or the style of music or the key they compose their tunes in? It doesn't help that the radio here plays Missy Higgins and Anastasia every hour!

* Missy Higgins (and I had to wake up to the one song I cannot stand the most this morning - The Special Two - AAARRGGH!)
* Anastasia
* Britney Spears
* Faith Hill
* Taylor Dane

Chance of snow in the city!

Just heard the weather forecast on the radio which said that there is a 40% chance of snow in the city today!! There hasn't been any for 20 years! Yikes! This morning was really quite cold at 5 degrees! My eyes teared at the cold wind while walking to work. Apparently there might be hail as well...:S Stay tuned! But at this point, everything looks fine - the sky is blue and sunny. So hard to imagine but very exciting!

On the note of lemon myrtle bread which I am going to have for lunch today, I really like the lemongrass smell! Darlink thinks it tastes like dishwashing liquid....:( To each his own...

Weather update 1:
It is now 12noon and I can see big clouds rolling in. But I still don't see any snow. Apparently it might melt before reaching the ground (aww!) but up here on the 25th floor, I might be able to see something.

Weather update 2:
It is now 1.50pm. The sky looks bright and sunny. How could there be any snow? Hmph!

Weather update 3
It is now 6.15pm. I am at home now. The wind outside is biting cold but luckily not too strong so I made it home with all fingers attached. No sign of snow in the city today. Apparently people gathered on the observation deck on top of one of the tall buildings in the CBD hoping to spot some but there were none. Some suburbs around seriously did get snow though but there are also warnings as the roads become slippery and dangerous.

The temperature now is 3 degrees but feels like -4 degrees!

Look what I found!

Just when I was talking about irresistible food words, I found lemon myrtle bread in the supermarket! Per the description, this has a hint of lemon, lime and lemongrass!!! Just perfect for me! :)


Lemon Myrtle bread! 

Lists - Favourite food words

Was talking to Charli last night about favourite food words that never fail to catch my attention when spotted in any food/ menu description. Thought I would list them here. Feel free to leave your lists too!

* Lemongrass
* Lemon
* Lime
* Garlic
* Rose
* Vanilla
* Irish cream
* Cherries

Oooh...feel like having Tom Yum soup and a nice dessert already!

Another new week!

Another weekend quickly passes and it is Monday again! Pity we won't be celebrating National Day tomorrow over here :(

Had some fun this weekend playing Taboo with Charli & Johnny. It was really funny seeing how different people are wired up when it comes to associations they have with words. We were still laughing about some weird ideas Charli has as of yesterday night involving fat bears, grizzly bears, brooms and mops.

We also had fun watching Bobbi bunny "go crazy" running on the sofa. She binkies a lot and when she gets all soaked up in the moment, she sort of forgets where she actually is and "flew" off the sofa in a giant leap twice in an airport runway take-off style.

Cannot wait for the next weekend when we will probably go to the Olga Berg warehouse again for the last chance to get any nice handbags! :)

Said too soon

Oh dear...I think I might have said too soon that I was surviving the cold weather well. Sort of caught a cold recently :(...and the weather these days are quite chilly again.

More pets

We actually got goldfish two weeks back, one week after we got Bobbi bunny but I sort of forgot to post some pictures on that because Bobbi bunny was getting all the screen time, being the cutie that she is (she is getting cuter every day :)). Yes, we also have 2 goldfish now in a giant round fishbowl. Our pet status is beginning to look like it used to before. But fish here are expensive, so I don't think we will be getting as many as we used to have. Sort of miss the fish farm visits we used to have when we were in Singapore. Nothing like that here.


Fish tank number one 

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