Fairy Penguins

We arrived in Sale, Victoria after 4 1/2 hours drive from Torquay. The drive was pretty relaxing as it was on a freeway all the way through. The scenery was quite pretty and I got to see lots of small towns on the way. We stopped at Maccas and I had the new "Name It" burger which was quite nice. They are running a competition for the public to name it.

We spent the afternoon and evening with Simon, Sanchia and their three beautiful kids in Sale. Next morning, we took the long coastal drive which took us to Yarram, Wilsons Promontory, Wonthaggi and Phillip Island. Wilsons Prom was beautiful but we didn't have enough time to explore as we had to get to Phillip Island before dusk to watch the march of the fairy penguins. Arrived at Phillip Island at 5pm and waited for an hour before the first batch of penguins appeared. They look so cute walking along the beach into their burrows. They are amazingly small and walk with great speed. Too bad there were only about 200-300 of them due to the cold climate. Summer and spring is the best time to go with estimate of about 1500-2000. No photography was allowed, thus no photos of the cute little things.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

During lunch break today, I went to Myers to get a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books so I'm in no hurry to finish it. Have watched all the Harry Potter movies though. It's just nice to know I've got a copy sitting around to be read whenever I feel like it. Am currently reading "Since I Was A Princess" by Jacqueline Pascarl so it'll be a while before I get to Harry Potter.

There's so many things I want to do but so little time. I still have my scarf to crochet, thankfully I finished watching Grey's Anatomy Season 2 last night. My favourite character is Izzie Stevens played by Katherine Heigl. Waiting for Season 3 to be released in Australia.

Keith and I will be heading to Sale tomorrow for the weekend which is 4 1/2 hours drive from Torquay. First time there so hopefully the drive and scenery will be pretty.

Penang Har Mee

I've been craving for Penang har mee for a while now. I used to eat it at the hawker stall next door to where I worked in UOB. I miss the aroma of the prawn soup that would creep up to the second floor of my workplace.

Having told Kar Mun my craving, she bought me the newly made in Malaysia Ibumie Penang Har Mee instant noodles. I've heard Malaysians raving about it so I'm happy to have finally tried it tonight. It's not bad for an instant noodle, the flavour is quite close to the real deal. I'd recommend boiling the soup longer with prawn shells, then adding hard boiled egg, bean sprouts, dried shallots, shredded pork and of course peeled prawns when ready to serve. Then voila, no more har mee cravings! :)

Lazy Sunday

We went to New Royal Garden Restaurant in Glen Waverley for dim sum with Jess and Andrew. First time there, food was good but I prefer Imperial Kingdom. After a full lunch we headed back to Jess and Andrew's to look at their new home and to listen to Andrew's sound system. It sounded a lot better with the new setup.

Jess made us sweet potato and taro with ginger soup dessert which was delicious. Reminds me of what my mum would make us back home. Left the lovely couple's place at 6pm and arrived home at 8pm. Took a quick snooze and then went to Clare and Richard's place for dinner. Clare cooked us a marvellous lamb shank with cous cous and finished it off with sticky date pudding.

Came home at 11pm in time to watch the F1. It started raining heavily just after the race started and cars started spinning everywhere. They stopped the race till the conditions got safer. Unfortunately the race didn't end with Ferrari winning. Massa got overtaken by Alonso in the last 5 remaining laps so it was a downer :(

Alannah Hill... Harry Potter...

Got out of bed at 11am today, been a long time since I slept in so late. Quickly showered and headed down to Melbourne. Had a quick bite at Dragon Boat Noodle House. My shredded duck noodle soup wasn't that good but the side dish of roast pork we ordered was.

We went to Melbourne Central to get our movie tickets for Harry Potter The Order of the Phoenix. We had 2 hours to waste before the movie started so we wandered into the shops. I tried on a gorgeous Alannah Hill coat which I liked. Told the shop assistant that I'd think about it. Keith and I went our own ways, he to his favourite CD shop Discurio, while me to David Jones, Myers and the GPO. At 5pm Keith called me on my mobile to meet him at the top level of Myers. We then crossed over to Melbourne Central and he then brought me into the Alannah Hill shop again. He had put the coat on hold as it was the last piece. Got me to try it on once more and bought it for me! Isn't he a sweety? Walked out of the shop wearing the brand new coat with a big, big smile on my face. It's still not a beige/cream coat though, but the colour is quite unique. Mixture of brown, maroon, white, cream with a hooded top that's got dyed brown/maroon rabbit fur on it. Hmm... hope the rabbits won't hate me for it.

It was time for Harry Potter by then. We had gotten the Gold Class seats so it was all nice and comfy. The movie was a bit dissapointing though. Too much dialogue and some bits of the story left hanging. The final Harry Potter book was also released today. Myers was selling them at $29.95. Many people could be seen browsing the last few pages of the book, I may get one myself.

20072007

Yet another special date. It's a Friday night and I'm looking forward to the weekend after a long week at work. I've picked up a new hobby of crocheting. My colleague, Kim Malone was crocheting a scarf when I asked her to demonstrate the steps. She then told me to try it out as I told her I hadn't done it in years. My mum was very good at it and she made dresses, tops, table cloths etc. I still remember one of my favourite dresses she did for me. It was a red spaghetti strap mini dress which I used to wear to kindy sometimes. It made me feel special, pretty and very girly as everyone would heap praises. As I grew older, Mum taught me some of the basic patterns. I must have been 8 years old or so. Sadly, I don't remember creating anything noteworthy.

I was pretty delighted I could still do a chain after more than 15 years of not touching the crochet needle. Seeing my delight, Kim bought a bag of yarn and gave it to me to get me started. I then went to buy a size 4mm crochet needle from Lincraft. So now, I'm glued to crocheting my first scarf. Hopefully I'll finish it soon :)

Mt Hotham Trip

We started our journey on Sunday at 8am from Torquay and arrived in Bright at 1pm. It was quite a picturesque town with the mountaineous backdrop. It would be even prettier in autumn when the tree leaves turn into various hue of colours. The road, also known as Great Alpine Road was a beautiful drive.

Once in Bright, we stopped at JD Ski Hire shop to get our ski gears. We then headed to Harrietville, 35km from Bright to check into Harrietville Hotel/Motel for the night. The town is much smaller than Bright but is the closest town (approx 30km) to Mt Hotham. We had no choice as accommodation was 100% booked out in Mt Hotham being school holidays. In fact we very nearly had to cancel our ski holiday as all the ski resorts in Victoria and NSW were fully booked. The sacrifice was to stay at the foot of the hill and take the 30km winding drive up everyday. This I am grateful and thankful to Keith for being such a wonderful alert, careful driver. Have to also thank him for patiently putting on and removing the snow chains each time we drove up and down in freezing temperatures of minus 3 degrees Celcius or so.

Anyway that Sunday afternoon we decided to take a drive up to Mt Hotham and Dinner Plain to check out the place. We started at about 3:45pm and it took us an hour to get to Mt Hotham. We then proceeded on to Dinner Plain a further 20km from Mt Hotham. We got out of the car in Dinner Plain and took lots of photos. We had to leave at 5pm as it was getting dark and there was a blizzard. The drive back was quite challenging as it was very foggy, windy and difficult to see so at some stage we were travelling at 10km/h. Even then it was difficult. I was relieved when we made it back to Harrietville incident free. We headed to the Harrietville Hotel/Motel restaurant for dinner. The fries were excellent, couldn't stop pinching Keith's.

Monday morning we woke up at 6am and started our journey at 6:45am. Got to the top at 8am and bought our lift pass for the day. I bought a lesson for intermediate skiiers and guess what, the class was too advanced for me I was left behind! I kept tumbling on the blue slopes, my very first attempt at them too. After struggling on my own for 1 hour, Keith came to my rescue. The slopes were sooooo crowded, we had to wait 30 minutes just to get on to a chair lift to take us back to the top. By then it was lunch time. I spoke to the Ski School about being left behind by the instructor and they allowed me to take another class, one step lower than the one I took. This time I was more at ease and fitted in better with the new group. The lesson lasted 2 hours, and I learnt some new tricks too. We got back down to Harrietville about 7pm and drove to the Lavender Farm Cottage as it was where we were going to stay for the next 2 days. It was a beautiful little cottage made of timber. The owners were wonderful people and their lavender ginger cookie was simply yummy.

Tuesday was another day spent on Mt Hotham. I was skiing very well and followed Keith to some of the blue slopes. In the afternoon after lunch, we got more adventurous and Keith took me down a blue slope I hadn't been on before. It was rather steep but I'm sure I've skiied on something similar to that sort of gradient before. However, I don't know what got into me, I must have freaked out and totally lost control and had a hard fall. I felt my left knee buckling and snapping. I knew I had sprained my knee as I could feel the muscle pulling/twisting. Thankfully, I still managed to get up and ski to the bottom. I decided to rest my knee as I didn't want to aggravate it further. So the rest of the afternoon was spent sitting while waiting for Keith and Kar Mun to finish their skiing. As the day wore on, my knee got more and more painful. It was all swollen and I had to walk with a limp.

The next morning I was in so much pain I could barely get out of bed. It was also the day we were to head home. Got my knee bandaged up, took some Panadeine and we were on our way home. Luckily for the Panadeine, I managed to enjoy the scenery on the way back. We stopped in Milawa to get their gourmet cheese and chocolate. Also stopped in Glenrowan a town where Ned Kelly, Australia's most famous bushranger got into a rampage 150 years ago. Our final stop before going home was Lygon St , Melbourne for some Italian dinner which Kar Mun bought us.

I enjoyed the short holiday very much even though my knee is still hurting from the incident. I am hoping it will heal quick so that I can head to the slopes again before the skiing season ends in late September. Maybe it'll be Falls Creek next :).

07-07-07

Today is 07-07-07. Lots of people tied the knot today as it's supposedly an auspicious date. I reckon 08-08-08 is luckier as it means triple "fatt" in Cantonese which means triple prosperity.

So what did we do today? Went to the airport early in the morning to get Kar Mun who's staying with us until Thursday. Kar Mun attended the Hillsong Tour conference in Sydney for a week which ended yesterday. Went to Queen Victoria Market as Kar Mun had to buy souvenirs and food stuff for her family, friends and colleagues in Malaysia. After that, we headed to a ski shop in the city. I bought a pair of gloves as my existing ones are too big, hard and bulky. After that did more window shopping and then went to Miyako Japanese Restaurant for lunch at Southbank. It started raining heavily so we decided to head home so here I am blogging. :)

I'm so looking forward to tomorrow. Kar Mun, Keith and I are heading to Mt Hotham until Wednesday for some skiing. According to the news report, 60cms of snow fell two days ago so it's very powdery up there. The total snow depth is now 1.2 metres and all the ski runs and chair lifts are fully operational. Conditions for skiing should be excellent. Signing off for now, 07-07-07.

My First Collette Dinnigan Piece

I gladfully didn't have to work today so Keith and I went to Chapel St, South Yarra. It was a promise Keith made last week to take me shopping. It rained all the way to Melbourne but surprisingly stopped when we arrived at our destination. We walked into boutique after boutique but couldn't find a suitable beige/cream winter jacket.

Of course, one of the shops we went to was Collette Dinnigan. Keith made me try on a cashmere coat in Pepper/Charcoal Green. The material felt so soft, luxurious and nice I didn't feel like taking it off. The better side of me told me to put it back on to the rack and to continue looking for the elusive beige jacket.

Anyway after browsing through several more shops and trying on several other jackets, Keith asked me which one I liked best. I told him Collette Dinnigan of course, yet too expensive to splurge. And what do I know, dear Keith drags me back into the boutique and gets me to put on the coat again and tells the shop attendant we're taking it. Walking out of the shop, I felt so happy yet guilty for the purchase. Keith was so sweet by saying I deserve to be spoilt. So there, I now have a Collete Dinnigan jacket hanging in my wardrobe :)

We also watched Transformers at the cinema which I would recommend. I loved the special effects, sound effects and action pack scenes. Okay, time to go to bed. Long day tomorrow.