Fuzzy house shoes

Lookie what hubby bought for me over the weekend!



Now my footsies can stay warm and toasty all winter.



I was debating between pink and brown. In the end I chose brown for mostly practical reasons... but I'm suffering from shopper's regret... should I have gotten the pink instead? They were so kiuuuut... but then they would get smudge easily as I move around the house doing housework... but how smudge can it get??? Aiyaaaaaaa... you see the predicament I'm in!

Apparently there's more

Arrrgghhh... today I went to check out the Steven Curtis Chapman website and I just found out that I had actually missed a few of his other albums!


This is my current collection (not very big lar)

Listen to tracks from:

Speechless

Declaration

All about Love







And others I missed...




All Things New
The Abbey Road Sessions
All I Really Want for Christmas

Recently heard...

This recently came in my Facebook inbox from a girlfriend...
(couldn't help sharing)

Hey I was asking IL if any babies were coming from his side...

He said, "Pressure is on...but no yet. may be next year. Please don't tell me serene is pregnant, pressure will really be on then!"

Haha...thought nice to share...funny :)

That is soooooooooo like this guy ^_^ * roll eyes and LOL*

On my wish list

At Koorong today as I was browsing the music section of the store, I caught sight of the new Steven Curtis Chapman album.



Hubby gave me a knowing look and left me to enjoy listening to the audio samples for a few quiet moments on my own.

I really enjoy Steven Curtis Chapman's music. It's sometimes puzzling even to me because it's not my usual genre of music... I guess it's sorta pop-rock... but different somehow. You must listen to it and flow with the tune to really get it I suppose.

Perhaps it's simply the heartfelt lyrics in each song. I like taking time to peruse the little booklet in the album cover and read through the dedications, stories and verses that inspired each song.

So here are two tracks that really grabbed me in his new album...

Miracle of The Moment

It's time for letting go
All of our "if onlies"
Cause we don't have a time machine

And even if we did
Would we really want to use it
Would we really want to go change everything

Cause we are who and where and what we are for now
And this is the only moment we can do anything about

So breathe it in and breathe it out
And listen to your heartbeat
There's a wonder in the here and now
It's right there in front of you
And I don't want you to miss the miracle of the moment

There's only One who knows
What's really out there waiting
And all the moments yet to be
And all we need to know
Is He's out there waiting
To Him the future's history

And He has given us a treasure called right now
And this is the only moment we can do anything about

So breathe it in and breathe it out
And listen to your heartbeat
There's a wonder in the here and now
It's right there in front of you
And I don't want you to miss the miracle of the moment

And if it brings you tears
Then taste them as they fall
Let them soften your heart

And if it brings you laughter
Then throw your head back
And let it go
Let it go, yeah
You gotta let it go

And listen to your heartbeat

And breathe it in and breathe it out
And listen to your heartbeat
There's a wonder in the here and now
It's right there in front of you
And I don't want you to miss the miracle of the moment

And breathe it in and breathe it out
And listen to your heartbeat
There's a wonder in the here and now
It's right there in front of you
And I don't want you to miss the miracle of the moment


And this the other one... a touching daddy's little girl composition

Cinderella

She spins and she sways to whatever song plays,
Without a care in the world.
And I'm sittin' here wearin' the weight of the world on my shoulders.
It's been a long day and there's still work to do,
She's pulling at me saying "Dad I need you!
There's a ball at the castle and I've been invited and I need to practice my dancin'"
"Oh please, daddy, please!"

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh I will dance with Cinderella
I don't wanna miss even one song,
Cuz all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone

She says he's a nice guy and I'd be impressed
She wants to know if I'd approve of a dress
She says "Dad, the prom is just one week away,
And I need to practice my dancin'"
"Oh please, daddy, please!"

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Ohh-oh ohh-oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don't wanna miss even one song,
Cuz all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone
She will be gone.

Well, she came home today
With a ring on her hand
Just glowin' and tellin' us all they had planned
She says "Dad, the wedding's due six months away
And I need to practice my dancin'"
"Oh please, daddy please!"

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Ohh-oh ohh-oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don't wanna miss even one song,
(even one song)
Cuz all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone

What's next?

What is this?



Or this?



Looks very artistic eh?

And it belongs here...



Now it's really starting to look like a house!


(Rear view of house with roof frame)

Can really see things coming together!


(Inside view with roof frame on top)

Shouldn't be too long before they start laying the roof tiles. I am really crossing fingers and praying my colour choice turns out alright.

Another weekend activity

Ronald invited us to join him and Diana to go cycling on Saturday. I think hubby was quite excited (he enjoys cycling) and straightaway he somehow convinced me to buy two bicycles + related accessories.

We also bought the bicycle mount to attach to the car that enables us to transport the bicyles around.

So at 3pm on sunny Saturday afternoon... we were off!

Distance: 12 km
Duration: Approx 1 hour, 45 minutes (including breaks)
Route: Round trip from under Mt Henry Bridge to Heathcote and back to Mt Henry Bridge

Although my butt hurts a little (still getting used to the feel of the bicycle seat) it was quite fun and I'm actually kinda looking forward to our next one.

Toothsome treats

I think with winter setting in, I seem to be more active in the kitchen. Cooking is a good way to keep warm. Staying near the stove and oven is an efficient way to stay warm.

Here is a sinful frosted white chocolate cake with mandarin orange filling



Yes I know, mum.... very sinful. If it's any consolation, I promise we didn't eat it all one sitting.




And I know this is not the proper time to prepare this delicacy... but I am very proud of the tang yuan I made this week.



I rolled the balls from glutinuous flour myself. As I meticulously rolled each ball, I couldn't help reminiscing a little on memories of sitting at the table rolling these cute little pink and white balls under mum's supervision. We kids tried to be creative to roll different shapes, like squares and triangles.... but the shapes always unmolded once it was boiled.



I used some leftover tau sar as filling for the white balls. It tastes okay although not as nice as the usual sesame or peanut filling.



Usually tang yuan is made during the winter solstice festival in December. But since it is winter now in Australia already, maybe it's also quite appropriate to enjoy it now as well.

Hmmm... I seem to be feeling very festive lately it seems.

Brickwork completed

So guess what? We received the second invoice from our building for payment of completion of brickwork!

Wow!!! Brickwork COMPLETED.

Wanna see??? Wanna see???


Front view of house



Rear view of house



Inside view from dining area



View of inside from lounge area



Hubby did a good job stitching the pictures together to get this panoramic views. You can click on each image to enlarge it and get a feel for the layout of the house.



What's next then. Well the timber has been delivered... so stay tuned for the next installment of building our home!

Whine and complain

This has been a very long week.

At the end of it, I just felt very exhausted and like hardly any energy left to even take on the weekend... and yet another week beginning the following Monday.

In a very short space of 5 days I have endured...

1. Waking up super early in uncomfortably cold winter mornings not once but TWICE this week to run a client conference call based on US time

2. Suffering a very sndiffy, snduffy, shdivery c-c-c-c-cold *kershoo... sniff*

3. Feeling the winter chill set in

4. Having to think what to wear every day that is warm enough but still looks nice. In the end I still have to wear a jacket or coat over anyway. *sigh*

5. Being late for work one morning because the bus was late (or maybe I mixed up the bus times trying to catch a different bus)

6. Finding our kettle broken, so now more ma-fan to make hot drinks

7. Trying to get as much done in my projects before end of financial year, but having to deal with delays, setbacks, changes or plain unresponsiveness

Of course there are some good things that happened to which I will share later. Now I just feel like complaining.

Bak Chang Journey: The Ingredients

While the excitement over my bak chang is still burning, I thought it might be interesting to go through a journey of showing the step by step process of how to make bak chang.

My partner in crime will be Diana whose whole family are still hungering for more succulent bak chang.

We’ll start with the ingredients:

Basics:
Glutinous rice
Bamboo leaves
Rafia string for wrapping

Filling:
Pork belly or chicken meat
Dried mushrooms
Dried chestnuts
Salted egg yolks
Dried prawns
Mung beans

Seasonings:
Chicken stock cubes
Chinese Five Spice powder
Dark soya sauce
Rice wine
Salt
Pepper
Sugar
Oil
Garlic
Shallots

Stay tuned for the next step!

First time making my own bak chang

Earlier this week I was on the phone with my mum and she mentioned that it was bak chang festival this week. Really??? Already??? Sigh... I always have trouble keeping track of the various Chinese festivals. So this time I was determined to make my own bak chang... every year I always say I would, but each time I'd miss the festival. Of course I can make bak chang any time of the year, but I always feel it would be more legitimate to cook particular food or delicacies during the appropriate occasion. Anyway, this year I would do it... albeit it would be a little late, but as they say "better late then never!"

I bought all the ingredients on Friday and started the preparation process of soaking the various ingredients... man, so much soaking to do... the mung beans, the rice, the dried chestnuts, and of course the bamboo leaves...



The next day, I rolled up my sleeves and proceeded the arduous process of preparing the various ingredients for the filling. Anyway I'll skip all the boring details and show all the fillings already prepared, ready for the wrapping process...




And next comes the fun part... wrapping the bak chang!

Actually I was a bit worried about this part. The last time I wrapped bak chang was under my mum's supervision probably 6-7 years ago! I tried to ring my mum to get some tips but unfortunately was unable to get hold of her. So I did some quick research on the internet and found some videos demonstrating the bak chang wrapping process.

After studying the videos and a few practice folds, I decided I was ready.

So here I goooooooo...............

Folding the leaves into a cone shape...


Adding the filling...


Then place in pot to boil for 1 hour...


Not bad eh? (actually I hid the not so nice early attempts behind... but subsequent attempts were much more improved)


Yummy!!!



The filling consists of pork, black mushroom, dried shrimp, mung beans, chestnuts, and two variations of either:

1. Salted duck egg yolk; or

2. Tau sar (red bean paste)


Phew!!! I did it!!! I really did it!!! This is the first time I made my bak chang on my own. Although it's not perfect (there are a few things I will try and do better next time) I hope you are very proud of me mummy :)

Home Alone

All alone in the house tonight.

All the men in the household are away.

BIL has gone back to Malaysia to settle some outstanding things. I just sent him to the airport just now.

Hubby is away on site in some unknown place called Southern Cross. It's so isolated that he doesn't even have mobile coverage there. I found out when I just tried to call him just now :(

Anyway he'll be back tomorrow (hubby). In the meantime I'll just cozy up under the covers with a nice fat book!

Nite Nite!

Can you spot the difference?

Well folks, it's that time of the month again... another update on Building our Home.

Monday was a public holiday for us here in WA. So we took the opportunity to take a leisurely drive down to inspect the progress of the house.

Sadly not a great deal has happened since the last time hubby went there two weeks ago.

Here's an image of the front of our house - master bedroom side:



Can you spot any difference with this:


(taken from previous update)

If you are observant enough, you will notice the new addition of our feature front entrance!



Cool ya? It's gonna look even more amazing once it's all done up nicely with the colours and all. Please be merciful and tell me my colour choice was right! *cross fingers*

And to finish off today's update, here's a view of the side alfresco area...

Thoughts on eternity

Yesterday's service at UWA was amazing! We had a guest speaker Ps Emmanuel Twagirimana who was a real life survivor from the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

Caught in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Ps Emmanuel was struck by shrapnel from a bomb that hit his neighbour's house. He died as a result of his untreated wounds. Ps Emmanuel was taken to heaven and hell during his death experience and was miraculously brought back to life. He began preaching the message of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Listen to Ps Emmanuel Twagirimana online at FGA Perth website | Part 1 | Part 2 |

It was an amazing time with such a great sense of eternity in that place.

As I was worshipping, just simply trying to grasp the full meaning of eternity was just so immense. Eternity. Life on earth almost seems meaningless against the vastness of eternity.

And then I thought... hey, one of the things we would be doing would be singing praises to the LORD throughout eternity. And as glorious as it seems, I started to wonder how many new tunes we would be able to sing... because a few weeks ago, hubby and I tried to work out what the total number of tunes could be ever written.

Based on the following assumptions:

Total of 7 major notes and 5 sharp notes in 1 octave
Assume a total of 8 octaves
(That would work out to be 96 notes)

And assume that each tune would comprise of combination of ten (10) notes

How many different combinations of tunes could be written?

Answer: 66 QUINTILLION!!! That's 66 and EIGHTEEN ZEROES!!!
(One trillion already has 12 zeroes)

Imagine 66,000,000,000,000,000,000.

If 100 tunes were written each day, it would still take 1.8 quadrillion (15 zeroes) YEARS to churn out all those tunes. Bearing in mind we're assuming that each tune only has ten notes.

As big as that number seems, it is still a finite number.

But then I thought, Hey! There's no way I could think of that in finite terms. There could thousands or millions of hidden frequencies and tones yet to be revealed. Our human ears can only detect frequencies between to 20 Hz to 20,000Hz. So our definition of octaves, notes and scales is already caveated by our human mental and physical capabilities.

So although I am unable to see or comprehend the fullness of eternity. Just knowing that I am already standing at the brink of it is just so so awesome.

How glorious is that!