o v e r f l u o

Refreshing little weekend trips. Mm mm. This time, it was Bendigo! It's about a 2 hour drive, north west from Melbourne. The trip was pretty random in that we just made short detours to little towns along the way, before checking in at Quality Inn Colonial . Apparently, Bendigo is a very kid-friendly town, with quite a few attractions for kids such as taking the "Talking Tram" and a cave mining experience. Here are some things we did, just in case you think of visiting one day:  ^ If you are going by Bendigo, I would really recommend The Woodhouse , especially if you love woodfired pizza. If you go on a Friday or Saturday night, it would be a good idea to book because the place was almost packed, and the waiter told us that it was "slow"for a Saturday night. ^ ^ The pizza was ~A$21 which is reasonable for a nice place. The meat mains are more expensive. ^ ^ The Food and Wine Expo happened to be in Bendigo that weekend, so. ^ ...

At lifegroup we've been doing a series based on the book "Sacred Marriage" by Gary Thomas. It puts forward the idea of: What if marriage was more to make us holy than happy? It's not that marriage will not have happiness – we  will  experience that. But rather, it's that the primary aim of marriage is to grow us as Christians towards holiness.  Personally I think parts of the book apply to anyone in a committed romantic relationship. Christian or not, marriage can  make us better people if we choose to let it. (Friendships too, but perhaps to a different extent). Marriage is a "circumstance" where we live in such close proximity with almost every part of our lives involved with the other, that that will test us and in turn, shape us. Here are a few quotes from Chapter 3 of the book. • • • S A C R E D  M A R R I A G E One of the cruelest and  most self-condemning remarks I've ever heard is the one that men often use when they ...

Flowers were never quite my thing. It was a – you spend so much then they die so um why? But when it was time to consider flowers for my wedding, my interest and liking for flowers grew (though in the end I just went with the "usual" roses). Spring has probably sparked something too, probably because they are such a refreshing sight after winter and a sign of good weather to come. Two weeks back, Ian bought lilies for my birthday, enough to fill two vases, and the house has been smelling lovely since then. Sometimes I light a scented candle for the fragrance, but the fragrance this time is natural and quite full. Every time we enter the house, a whiff gets into our noses. They are waning now, but they've lasted quite awhile in decently cool weather. And they brighten up the house with their pop of colour. Mm mm. ^ Afternoon sunlight streaming in through the kitchen blinds. ^  After trimming the stem ends, some leaves wouldn't fit in the v...

The weather has been back to being cold the past few days. It's been raining all morning.  It was after I moved here and experienced cold weather than I realised why some people like the sun so much.  In Singapore when we saw people sitting out in our crazy sun in humid weather, we would say "siao ang moh!" As in, crazy caucasians, because it was usually caucasians who did that. Don't worry, it's nothing mean. It's like how if our friends wore just a t-shirt in zero degree weather, we'd say they are crazy or siao. And "ang moh" means "red haired" in Hokkien. Though yes not all caucasians are red haired, but y'know, it's just a generic term.  So yep, we used to think people would be crazy to sit out in the sun because after all, Singaporeans get sun ALL the time. But now that I'm here in Melbourne, and three out of four seasons are colder than not, I get  it. Because now I check the weather forecast ...

Birthdays: Celebrating people, reasons to have a nicer-than-usual dinner (ha ha), occasions to make loved ones feel special, and at times for some, time to panic that our age has gone a number up.  But really, we don't quite grow in "years". Rather, we grow daily, moment by moment. In that sense, age is more of: Day 1, day 2, day 3... day 31... day 365... day 9490. Or, XXXXX moments. Perhaps birthdays, other than times of celebrations, are times of reflection. -- Last night we had a cosy dinner celebration at Guhng with D&D. It's a Korean charcoal BBQ restaurant – my favourite in Melbourne. It's in the Melbourne CBD, so it's easy to access if you're visiting Melbourne.   Here goes part of our super filling and yummy meal: ^ We got the Premium set and added Yuk-Hwei, which is light-seasoned beef sashimi, sliced raw tenderloin with egg yolk, pear, cucumber, sesame oil and gal-sal dressing, which was yums. Considering that I don...

^ Happy mail is on its way! ^ 6 months later, we will be having round 2. Yes, round 2 of a wedding. Not the actual saying of vows because once you say those, it's a promise for life. Rather, a wedding dinner.  Don't be too surprised. It's actually quite common when people from two different countries marry, at least for Chinese. I know of someone who had 3 wedding dinners – one in their current place of residence, one in the groom's country of origin, and one in the bride's – spaced out in two years. Reasons for the time lag include budget, and not being able to take so much leave off work at a time. Anyway, we're happy to be having a second wedding dinner because our celebrations in Australia were small (by Chinese standards), so we're glad to be able to have more family and friends celebrate with us this time round.

^ Glad Chrome has a sense of humour to put that dino there to amuse me a little. But why a dinosaur? Because its hands are too short to link arms with other dinos? So cannot connect? But anyway, it was cute. ^ Speaking of animals, I ran over a mouse yesterday! I was driving at night and the road was pretty empty and suddenly I saw a mouse run across the road in front of my car and it was too late to stop plus it would have been dangerous to stop in the middle of the road. So I heard "thud" (actually it was a double sound but I don't know how to describe it) and Ian said he heard a squeak and I just let out very loudly, "I JUST RAN OVER A MOUSE. I JUST NEED TO LET IT OUT. I JUST RAN OVER A MOUSE." Then it was a red light, so I could stop and go omg in my head and get over it. Apparently I should stop when it's a wombat or kangaroo because my car would be the one to get flipped or damaged because those animals are that  hardy.

Walking around South Yarra, we chanced upon Zumbo!  Apparently it's a big thing, and since it wasn't crowded, we went in. ^ Zumbo in Melbourne, by  Adriano Zumbo . Very shiny shimmery. ^ ^ L and me!  And a clean concrete floor to balance out the shiny-ness of the place. ^ ^ There are no tables, but there are a few funky sofas in the place. ^ They aren't super pretty, but it's more of a fun thing.  ^ The bits are stretchy! I think it's foam inside. ^ Don't worry – I didn't pull too hard.  ^ So. The main point: The sweet stuff. ^ ^ I got Secret Carrot's Business because the description sounded yum. ^  It was: Carrot cake, cheese cake, cream cheese mousse, semi dried carrots, caramelised pecans. Does that not sound good? It had a tinge of ginger too. ^ However, the packaging was... a bit disappointing. ^ I wasn't consciously expecting anything fancy. But when I saw this...