One more piece of furniture

We bought a futon couch yesterday for $10 at a garage sale... a real steal!

Our connect group leader helped us to transport it home.

Great feature: It converts into a bed which we can use when guests come to stay.

So that's one more piece of furniture added to our living room... we're getting there slowly...

Happy News!!!

Irene Tsen is engaged!!!

Hans proposed on her Birthday, Saturday 15th October.

They plan to be married by next fall.

The world keeps getting smaller...

We attended our FIRST CONNECT GROUP MEETING on Wednesday night. It's not too far away from our house - only 3 stops away by train (less than 10 minutes journey). We were the first to arrive at the connect group leader's house even though it was already 7.25pm (the meeting was supposed to begin at 7.30pm).

So we chatted with the connect group leader. She's a young working adult, 29 years old, Australian-born Chinese. Her parents were first generation migrants from Mainland China. But she's lived in Australia all her life and is already very "aussie-fied".

Finally at 7.45pm, the doorbell rang and a young married couple walked in the door. The moment our eyes met, there was a flash of recognition between MH and the other man. Ahah! They new each other from Taylor's College in KL! They immediately talked about a common friend they had in college. We can't seem to avoid bumping into people we know everywhere we go.

The connect group is run in a fairly unstructured manner... quite different from what we are used to from other churches. There was no praise & worship. The members just chatted with each other until the leader said it was time to go through the bible study material prepared. Every week, all the connect group go through a standard bible study material prepared by the senior pastor. This week, the topic was Opinion vs. Counsel.

After an opening prayer, the leader divided us into groups and assigned sub-topics for us to discuss. After about 20 minutes, we came back together again and shared what we discussed. The the leader invited members to share any "Praise Reports" or "Prayer Requests". After the closing prayer, there was the usual fellowship and chit chat. We had a good time chatting with MH's acquantaince from KL, and his wife who was from JB. They were married only recently in March and had migrated to Australia just a few months before us.

After the meeting, one of the members offered to send us home. It seems that all the members of the group stay in the same vicinity, so our driver insisted that our house was just on the way home for her.

All in all, it felt good to be out sharing and talking with other people of similar age and background as us.

Poor hubby

MH is on sickie today...
He took 2 panadols and slept all morning.
We had a simple lunch of tuna sandwiches.
But we'll be out tonight to attend our first church connect group.
Tell you more about it soon.

It's a small world...

On Sunday I bumped into an old friend from my Pre-U days. He has in Sydney studying his Masters and his parents were with him to witness his convocation. He invited us to have lunch with him and his parents. We ate at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. As usual when bumping into KK people, we naturally talked about KK.

Well, you probably know that KK is so small but somehow you will always manage to bump into one no matter which part of the world you are at. And chances are, you will either know that person, or at least know someone who knows that person.

We discovered that the father is an aircraft & aviation consulting engineer in KK. And he knows uncle Rev Lee through the counseling training course they organised with the pastor they invited from Singapore who was conducting this course.

Once a connection is made, a bond is forged and the parents invited us to look them up in KK and offered their help if we want to pass anything to our parents or vice versa as their son will be going back to KK this Nov.

P.S. We also met Tan Soon Tee from BCCM. He's in Sydney studying Pharmacy.

Fees everywhere!!!

We received our bank statement recently and spotted a $6.30 set-up fee and a $0.30 transaction fee (charged 4 times) for every time there was a direct debit out of our account to pay our rent. Can you believe it? Our agent was charging us a fee for us to pay them rent! This was ridiculous!

When we first signed our lease, our agent told us that it was compulsory for us to use this special direct debit system to pay our rent. It was supposed to be easier and we would not suffer any loss for using this wonderful system. Our tragic mistake was that we trusted her too easily and did not scrutinise the fine print as we usually did.

When I called the agent about the $0.30 fees charged to our account, she insisted that she had made sure we were fully aware of all these extra cost. Then she told us that we were not obligated to use this system... it was mandatory but we were not forced to use the system. I could hardly get a word it edgewise... our sweet and kind agent was now putting up a highly defensive front... it was not her fault... it was our own mistake...

Frustration... I feel so betrayed by our agent...

We asked the agent to remove us from the system and told her we would pay the rent in CASH from now on... no more of this automated electronic systems. It was so easy to use such systems in Singapore, but here in Australia's inefficient & uncompetitive market, any kind of service is so expensive. We have to get used to using more traditional manual systems now that we are away from Singapore.

Welcome to the rest of the world!

Noodles by the hubby!

Tonight's dinner was courtesy of MH, the hubby... fried noodles. Yummy... maybe could do with a little less salt, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sometimes it's nice to reverse roles and be the pig lounging around in front of the TV and sipping juice while waiting for dinner to be ready... nice...

Productive day...

What I have done so far...

07.00AM: Woke up and made breakfast for MH and myself.

07.30AM: MH left for work, I did a quick washing up and some final preparation for my meeting.

08.00AM: Got dressed and put on my make-up.

09.00AM: Left house to catch train to the city.

10.00AM: Arrived at my interviewee's office and we went out to a nearby cafe to talk. It was a very good interview and the chap was very helpful and willing to share (He's originally from Scotland but has been in Sydney for 18 years).

11.00AM: Ended meeting and caught train home.

12.00PM: Stopped by the bank to make some changes to our bank account options.

12.30PM: Arrived home to let in telephone technician to fix the phone line (yup, it was down again yesterday, although I couldn't see any reason why).

01.00PM: Went out to pay electricity bill, return a pair of shoes purchased by MH (it was the wrong design), and did some grocery shopping.

02.00PM: Logged onto internet to check and send some emails, made some phonecalls to phone company to close issue about house phone, and to a dance school to ask about taking social/ballroom dance classes.


What I will be doing for the rest of the day...

03.30PM: Eat lunch (salad and sandwich).

04.00PM: Type out notes for this morning's meeting and email to my project manager.

05.30PM: Start preparing dinner.

06.00PM: MH will arrive home. We will eat our dinner on the run because we have a church event tonight.

07.00PM: Catch shuttle bus to church.

07.30PM: Attend "Partners in Vision" course at church - it's to be an introduction to the church background and ministries, and how we can get connected.

10.30PM: Approximate time of arrival home.


And that should be my day, for today.

Bargain buy: internal modem

We finally have decent internet connection!

I've complaining about the lack of convenient connection for the past few weeks. The internal modem in MH's desktop computer had died. So we were unable to dial-up to our ISP.

In the meantime, I logged onto the internet using MH's office laptop via his company's remote internet connection... but it's very slow... only 21kbps, which is reeeaaally slooooow... I can almost doze off in front of the computer while waiting for a simple webpage to load.

MH initially wanted to get the modem from Singapore or Malaysia as it is usualy cheaper there. But MH felt sorry for me and announced today that we will get a new modem no matter what.

We stopped by a computer hardware shop near our place manned by a Chinese chap. He showed us an internal modem and quoted his price, $18. I nudged MH and whispered that we might be able to get a better price somewhere else. But MH was determined to but this modem on the spot.

So I decided to exercise the basic bargaining skills all Malaysians should be equipped with... I asked the Chinese chap, "Is this your best price?". And of course he said it was and that it was very low price already. Then I turned to MH and said, "I think I saw an internal modem for sale somewhere else for $15" (which was true). Then Chinese chap chimed it, "I can give it to you for $15 if you want". Of course we wanted it, so we exchanged the cash for the modem and went skipping home with our great bargain buy. And the first thing MH did went we arrived home was of course to set up the modem and connect to the internet... hooray! (Thanks, hon)

Fresh ideas

I need fresh ideas... our partner at our cafe in Singapore recently told us that business is stagnating slightly. Nothing alarming yet, but a small sign to keep us on our toes. I'm now trying to brainstorm new ideas for brisking up business in the next couple of months. School holidays are coming soon and Christmas and New Year season is around the corner.

I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of the customer to imagine what would grab their attention and draw them it... games competitions? new games? or just the classic discount vouchers? What do customers really want?

Before we left Singapore, we took a bold step and groomed a couple of our key staff members to take on supervisory roles so we could gradually off-load some of the shifts. These staff members are enthusiastic and reliable people... we just love them... But I was reflecting that we need to push them to the next level to go beyond serving food and teaching games... We need to encourage them to take greater ownership as 'Managers' (in essence they really are managers) and be a real Host to our customers. I think that's what really sets our cafe apart... the hospitality of the staff and managers. That was my inspiring thought today.

But of course we still need great promotional ideas... can't run away from that... so back to the drawing board I go...

I baked my own bread!!!

I'll say it again: I baked my own bread! I really did. Not from a box of quickie bread mix, but from scratch with flour, water, yeast and the works!
Click on the link above for other recipes I have uploaded onto the web.

Announcing: New pics finally up!!!

Finally managed to post up photos of our cafe in Singapore and of our new place in Burwood, Sydney. You can click on the link to 'My Photos' in the sidebar... or you can also click on the blog entry title which also links to the same URL... enjoy!

Telur Talk!

I just thought I'd say a few thoughts of one of the world's favourite and most versatile food... or at least in our own family anyway:

The Egg: A marvelous creation. It's neither a vegetable and not really an animal (Trivia Time: Actually an egg is really a single cell organism; so the ostrich egg is really the largest single cell organism in the world!). And to state the obvious: You can do amazing things with the egg simply by subjecting it to heat.

Eggs have been my life saver many times during our younger days. We used to have a maid who had horrible culinary skills. This was when me and my bros picked up our survival skills by learning to fry our own egg. (Remember, we were driven to do this... these were desperate times). Aaahhh... this was thhe ultimate skill a primary school kid could have... to be able to heat up oil in a frying pan, deftly crack an egg into the pan without making a mess, and (drum roll) flip the egg over while keeping the yolk perfectly intact. (Skill, man!)

We soon graduated from the basic egg-frying school and went on to the art of making omelette. We were very precise and meticulous in this art. A good omelette must have just the right combination of onions, mushrooms, chilli, capsicum, coriander, ham, and cheese. We also picked up the knack of beating an egg to frothy perfection. Those were yummy saturday mornings!

My own current culinary life saver is bacon omelette. I keep a box of bacon handy in the fridge. And whenever I'm short of a dish for dinner (or just plain lazy), I just chop up some bacon, beat up some eggs and throw it all together in the frying pan. Guaranteed to make the hubby happy. Nothing like eggs and bacon to make a man happy.

I am now learning to make the perfect steamed egg dish. The last one I made tasted a bit funky and was a wee bit chunky. More water next time perhaps...

So, lets hear it for The Egg. (Yeeeeeaaaaah!!!)

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

Memories of our Krispy Kreme feast in the park in Sydney city on Saturday afternoon: During our little outing to Darling Harbour and Circular Quay, Paul, MH and myself spotted a Krispy Kreme shop and literally rushed to eat and bought a dozen glazed and powdered doughnuts. They were absolutely YUMMY!!! Unfortunately, we have no photos of this moment because we forgot about capturing the moment while we were engrossed in shoving down the doughnuts down our mouths.

Australian tai-tai

My life has been revolving around work - gathering info and data on banking messaging systems... and housework - washing, cooking, cleaning and shopping (for groceries, not clothes!). I'm enjoying myself so far. Just need to be careful that I don't fall into the trap of becoming slack!

We're had a lovely time exploring our suburb. There are plenty of quaint little shops to look into. And it's pleasant to walk down Burwood Road and see people in the cafes and shops as we pass by. Plus, I am convinced that some of the best Chinese food is actually tucked away in our little subsurb... right under our very noses... mmm... I am tempted to rate one place as having the best Chinese BBQ pork ribs in the world! But I won't pass the final verdict just yet... still some more exploring to do...

Well, Paul is now enjoying himself in Sydney (in Burwood to be exact). Sleep, eat, watch TV, DVD & VCDs, play computer games, eat, sleep. It's nice having him around. I'll definitely miss his company when he goes back to Newcastle next week.

And I am also enjoying myself in the kitchen, recovering my (almost) lost culinary skills. We still don't have a rice cooker. So I have to cook rice by steaming it in a pot. I have to cook it too rounds because Paul has a big appetite!

Gasp... desperate for internet connection!!!

Maaan... it's already been too long that I've been disconnected from the rest of civilisation... It's a long story involving the inefficiency of the Australian telephone company and technical computer glitches. I won't go into that now.