There are so many things I wanted to do for our anniversary, but there are so many constraints... Sometimes we're just at the mercy of our work schedules... Calvin's on course now and hence he can't take leave tomorrow (the actual day of our anniversary). So the things that I wanted to do for him will have to be spread across a few days...

First on the list, I wanna make him a yummy breakfast. Inspired by the pancake I tasted in Melbourne, I decided to make pancake for breakfast on this beautiful Sunday morning.


I didn't succeed in making those fluffy pancakes. And for some reason, the colour of my pancakes is ugly!! How did you guys get the even light brown colour on your pancakes?? Mine turned out like "prata" colour... hahaha...

Oh and of cos, I had to try out what Nicole did with her pancakes... heartshaped ones!! Got the shape, but the colour... is just wrong... :p

Well, but my man said they tasted yummy!! YEAH!! I used the Basic Pancake recipe I found on Martha Stewart's website.

We had grapes, willow mushrooms and veal sausages to go with the pancakes. And not forgetting our Nespressos! He had double mega shot of Roma and I had my regular Latte...

I love mornings like that... I hope to be able to prepare breakfast for us more often from now on.

Happy Anniversary, my love.

This is meant to be our anniversary trip. We've been married for almost a year now. Bliss still surrounds us and fills our days. (^_^)

[Day 1: 13 Sep 2008, Sat]
Arrival | Melbourne City
We arrived in Melbourne at 7am. Both of us were stoned... We didn't get much sleep on the flight. The Qantas plane was scheduled to take off from Changi at 7.45pm the previous evening but it was delayed for 2 long hours. *faint At about 8pm, we were told that we're waiting for 9 more passengers to board the plane... gosh! So we waited... Then, at about 9.15pm, we were told that 2 more passengers were missing even though their luggage have been checked in. So, we had to wait for them to unload the luggage before we can take off.

As if there's not enough delay, the captain had to come on and say that the engine has to be re-started. Can't really make out what the explanation was. If it had been a pre-requisite for doctors to have illegible handwriting, then it would have been a pre-requisite for pilots to speak inaudibly. Anyway, the air-conditioning had to be turned off for the engine to be re-started. Man... everyone was up from their seats, fanning themselves, stretching themselves and trying make themselves feel as comfortable as possible. Finally, just before 10pm, the plane took off with the passengers clapping in celebration.

At Melbourne airport, we had the first taste of "racism". We were sent off for a "random passport check". The officer started off pretty politely, telling us that it's just a random check and that she's just gonna ask us a few questions. Then, when she started her questioning, I felt it sounded more like interrogation. How long will you be here? Where will you be staying? Why are you here? Have you booked any tours? etc etc... Calvin and I decided to take it with a pinch of salt and refused to allow it to spoil our holiday. So off we went in a cab to Charlene's apartment. Our holiday has just started! Yippee!!


The cab ride took us slightly over half an hour. We loved her apartment. It's a one bedroom apartment, very cosy, very homely. Thank you Lene, for so willingly offering us a roof in Melbourne. Can't thank you enough for it.

We were both starving and decided to dump our luggage and head out straight to look for fuel for our bodies. It was about 8.30am then and we had a bit of a challenge trying to look for food. You see, Charlene stays in the CBD area and it's a Sat. So shops and restaurants aren't opened that early. The weather's cold and the wind's blowing and we're famished. Freezing... but quite shiok. Haha.. Finally, we found a restaurant along Yarra River and there are guests having breakfast there already. It's just like Boat Quay in S'pore, only much longer with many many many restaurants.


Though tired, we had a hearty, enjoyable breakfast and till now, we still reminisce the moment when we had our first breakfast in Melbourne. The start of a "just you and me, without a care in the world" week.


We strolled along the banks of Yarra River and found our way back to the apartment. Once back, we showered and crashed into bed! Sleep deprived... By the time we woke up, it was already almost 2pm and we decided to buy some instant noodles from the korean grocery shop downstairs for a quick lunch fix.

Initially, we had planned to head off to Sunny Ridge for strawberry picking and the strawberry ice-cream that Charlene raved about. But after checking out the website, we realised that they'd be closed at 4pm and that we wouldn't be able to pick our own strawberries as it's not the season. So, we decided not to go all the way there just for the ice-cream. So, we headed off to Melbourne city for a walk instead. Melbourne's CBD area is laid out in a grid format, so navigating around was really an ease. Our first day in Melbourne was basically a leisure exploratory walk around the city.

[Day 2: 14 Sep 2008, Sun]
Queen Victoria Market | Lygon Street
Not wanting to be hunting for food early in the chilly morning with hungry tummies, we prepared our own breakfast.


Weather looked great and we decided to dress "down". I was in berms and T-shirt... brave hor? Haha... We went to Queen Victoria Market (QVM) via the City Tourist Shuttle (free bus ride) and took a huge detour around the city area, even though we could have walked there from the apartment. QVM is their touristy version of a wet market. On weekends, there'd be more stalls selling general merchandise like household wares, clothes and accessories. We thought it's just like our pasar malam, just that they close really early. And it's much much smaller than Bangkok's Chatuchak.



We took a little beer and coffee break before heading off to Lygon Street, which is more than an hour's stroll away from QVM. It's amazing how much I can walk without feeling tired... I attribute it to the weather. Walk and walk and won't feel tired. hehe... Lygon St is like their little Italy. There's a whole stretch of Italian restaurants along this street. We strolled from QVM to Lygon Street, the stroll took us slightly more than an hour. Stopped by a neighbourhood park to take a rest and wanted to have some gelato in the cold afternoon, but the gelato had just been sold out.. :(


We were still a little early for dinner when we got to Lygon St so we window-shopped along the whole street. We already knew which restaurant to go to: Tiamo, as recommended by Charlene. We were a little cautious about the portions they serve, so we decided not to order any appetizers and only ordered a regular pizza and a plate of pasta to share.


We had a bit of an adventure on our way home... we were supposed to take the tram back to the city. Looked at the map, found the tram stop that we need to go to and then went there to wait for our tram. Happily, the both of us just boarded the tram when it came. Chatting away in the tram, we suddenly realised that the tram is taking us away from the city into the suburbs, instead of bringing us back to the city! We asked some chinese girls (they could be S'poreans) sitting behind us and confirmed that we took the wrong direction! We simply took for granted that we're at the right stop, without even checking. Haha... So we waited for a good 20mins at a deserted tram stop in the dark cold evening (in my berms!) for our tram ride home. We laughed at our own sotong experience.

[Day 3: 15 Sep 2008, Mon]
Chapel St | Bridge Road | Brunswick St
Made our own breakfast again... French toast with ham and eggs on the side (notice they're all the same ingredients from yesterday.. :p)


It's shopping day today. The places we planned to explore today happens to be all shopping streets. Charlene and Corinna told us about Bridge Road and Smith Street. Bridge Road is where you can find all the factory outlets (ladies apparels mainly) and Smith Street is where the sports wear (Nike, Adidas, etc) factory outlets can be found. Chapel Street is similar to Bridge Road, but just that it's more expensive as they're not factory outlets. Since we're planning to hop around the different streets, we bought a day tram ticket with unlimited rides in Zone 1 (within the city area).


I was quite disappointed with the shopping... At the end of the day, I only bought stuff at the Country Road factory outlet. There's nothing much else, really... Oh, and we bought something for 小B... hehe... a pretty little bodysuit from Country Road.

We decided to skip Smith Street as we were running out of time. So, we headed straight to Brunswick St for dinner. Charlene recommended this restaurant called Red Tongue. As we were making our way there in a tram, it started raining. We were caught in the heavy drizzle and when we found Red Tongue, it was closed!! :( All the way there, and no chance to try it. Got caught in the rain some more... So we back-tracked and decided to go to the Chinese steamboat restaurant near our apartment to warm up in the cold, wet evening. Bad choice... expensive and not fantastic. Run by Chinese from China, patronised by Chinese from China too.

[Day 4: 16 Sep 2008, Tue]
Yarra Valley Winery Tour
This is the start of our 3 days of touristy itinerary. Even though I can't drink now, I'm very keen on this tour. Plus, my darling hubs lurves wine!! We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and Nick, our guide had been really nice and funny. We liked him. He kept us entertained and he made sure we felt comfortable.

There are lots and lots of winery in Yarra Valley. Our day tour included 4 wineries and a lunch at one of them. I shall let the wine enthusiast take over now...

Yering Station
Calvin: This is the very 1st stop of our winery tour, I am so very excited..We had intended to visit some boutique winery which Min's colleague have recommended. However, the staff at the tourist center had discouraged us as it is less visited by the general population & if we really want to, we had to find our way there on our own wheels... I have really wanted to, but the only hesitation was getting lost, not very advisable when Min's preggy.

So, here we are at our 1st winery after a 45 minutes ride from city...this region is Nick's "office", there are many magnificent houses dotted along this picturesque landscape; wish we owned one that is sitting on top of a hill overlooking some chateau ;P...Dream on man!

All went well at our 1st stop, the wine were great to keep our bodies warm, invigorating our sense of taste & smell..I had committed an "embarassing bo-bo" when asked to commented about the wine we had tasted ;P We were challenged to spit into the pot while tasting... I didn't twitch a muscle after my "incident".



Rochford
We were famished by the time we got tho this stop, it was a sit down affair to wine-tasting. Our sommelier narrated the minute differences in the palette of wine from higher to lower altitude in the region of the same chateau. So subtle in the difference...that's the magic of wine. Food tasted great naturally...thank God my stomach did not growl too loud during the wine tasting presentation. The cafe was overlooking the neat rows of pruned vines...I was in awe with the splendor of God's creation..



Yering Farm
Yering farm is a very short drive from Rochford, very vastly different from the first 2 wineries we had visited. It was much smaller, rustic looking; didn't really like the wine here... I regretted not getting a bottle of the Sauvignon Blanc which we tried at Yering Station. It was the best I have tasted the entire day, I have never been a fan of white wine. That Sauvignon Blanc was really enticing on my palette, too bad!



Domain Chandon
If my mind is still lucid & can recollect clearly, some 20 years ago, the CEO of "Moet & Chandon" sat foot on Aussie soil..after some thorough explorations & deliberations, he decided to set out the 1st champagne factory outside France. He bestowed a Doctor/Professor to run & maintain the chateau under the name of Domain Chandon in accordance the the parent company, hence sparkling wine is born down-under!

Any sparkling wine may be termed "champagne" when it is produce within France, it's cousin has to be contended to be sparkling wine... Obnoxious snobs fiercely protective of their cultures & heritage...! Well, we had to get a bottle of something after visiting so many wineries...the cash register finally rang when we bought ourselves a bottle of champagne & red wine balsamic vinegar.

Nick remained chatty & high spirit sending us back to the city, I reckon all of us enjoyed ourselves during this day trip. Very informative..& a little tipsy for me **hick**hick**



[Day 5: 17 Sep 2008, Wed]
Great Ocean Road
This is like a must-go when you go to Melbourne. We had originally wanted to take it slow, drive up Great Ocean Road on our own and stay over for a night at Apollo Bay. But, we ended up taking a day tour instead. We opted for a small group tour instead of the standard 48-seater bus. In the end, we regretted our decision.. big time! The small group tour is full... the mini bus could take 21 passengers and there were 21 people in our "small group" tour. The driver cum tour guide is the WORST we've ever met in our entire life. *shake head*

He made the entire tour very unpleasant and made us feel like we need to rush through every single stop! Classic example: we made a stop at a rainforest and here's what he said, "We're stopping for a walk in this rainforest. It's just a loop and it'd take you about 25min to finish the trail. So, time check... I'll see you back in the bus, ready to go in 20min..." WTF???!!! Well, this didn't shock us as he had rushed us through every single stop we made... lunch was gobbled down in half an hour in a very beautiful serene cafe. Conclusion: don't ever take day tours for Great Ocean Road. Drive up there yourself, take your own time to appreciate the magnificent work of God.

I'll let the photos do the "talking" for this part of our holiday...














[Day 6: 18 Sep 2008, Thu]
Philip Island | Penguin Parade
After our bad experience with the tour guide yesterday, we prayed for a good one for today's tour. And as usual, God always answers our prayers. We had a fantastic, witty, kind, knowledgeable man to take us on our last day tour! :)

We went to Philip Island to witness an all-natural behaviour by the world's smallest penguins. These penguins are only 33cm tall. Everyday before dawn breaks, they leave their burrows to go into the sea to hunt for food. And then at the end of the day when the sun sets, they prepare themselves for the most dangerous part of their day. They had to brace themselves against the current surfs to come back to land.


They are sooooo cute.... they would send a representative out of the sea to "test water" first before the rest of the herd follows. And they may come out and go back into the sea quite a few times. Only when they feel entirely safe will they hurry in their little penguin strides up the beach and head back home to their burrows. It's an amazing sight! We weren't allowed to take any photos or videos. But all that we witness, we kept them vivid in our memories. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Oh... and we witness a couple of penguins mate right before us! hehehe

Have you ever wondered why penguins are half black, half white? This is God's way of protecting them when they're out in the sea hunting for food. The dark blue/ black colour on their back camouflages them from their prey in the air and the white colour on their front camouflages them from their prey under them in the sea. God is amazing, isn't He?

Before we got to the penguin viewing area, we stopped by the Koala Conservation Centre in Philip Island to look at the cute little Koala Bears. There weren't many of them and most of them were "resting"... I managed to take a close-up shot of a very cute Koala as he was snuggling up the trunk for a good rest. He seems to be smiling... so sweet...

Look at what I found... a very skinny but cute koala bear sitting in the gift shop.. :p

[Day 7: 19 Sep 2008, Fri]
Gathering in Melbourne | Rockpool
Charlene reached her Melbourne home this morning. We had a very slow and easy day today with her. We went "yum cha" with her for lunch at this Cantonese restaurant along Southbank called Lucky Chan. The "dou hua" is VERY VERY yummy!! I'm thinking of it now as I'm typing...

Rick (Calvin's 2nd bro-in-law) is also here in Melbourne. He's here for work and he got here on Monday. The four of us arranged to meet up for dinner today and we decided to do it in a fine way... Rockpool is a very "atas" (meaning high-end) restaurant and it's known to serve one of the best steaks in Melbourne. We love the ambience but food-wise, Calvin and I thought they're good but not "to-die-for". In any case, it was great catching up with family in a foreign land. And we didn't take a proper group photo!


After dinner, Charlene brought us to have the BEST ice-cream in Melbourne! Trampoline is reeeally the BEST!! VERY YUMMY!!! If you're there, you HAVE to try their lychee & lime sorbet. I'm gonna ask my brother to try and concoct it... I'm like craving for it now man...


Oh, those fire pillars come on every hour at night on Southbank. The pillars line the bank of Yarra River and they're synchronised to spurt fire every hour every night.

[Day 8: 20 Sep 2008, Sat]
Home sweet home
Our final day in Melbourne! Charlene brought us to South Melbourne market for brunch before we head off to the airport. This is where she does her usual grocery shopping and we love this place! Not touristy at all and there are a lot of nice cafes in the neighbourhood. The one that Charlene wanted to bring us to was packed and we had to wait for a table. Since time is what we don't have, we settled for 2nd choice, which is not a bad choice at all. Nice cafe with nice food! Look at the pancakes... I've never seen nor tasted such yummy, fluffy pancakes! Made me wanna try making my own pancakes. :p



After brunch, we headed back to Charlene's apartment to get our luggage. Time flies! It's like we just got to Melbourne and now we're gonna go back already...


Charlene, thank you very much for accommodating us and making us feel so at home. We had a really good time and you had a big part to play in it. Thank you for letting us stay in your apartment even when you're not in town. Can't tell you how much we appreciate that.

Calvin: Thank you so very much Lene, for sacrificing your apartment to house our frozen hands & feet...this down under experience would not be complete without your warm hospitality & love. Thank you for the numerous recommendations for places to eat, drink & make merry...Thank you for imprinting this wonderful memories in our hearts ;)


We had a wonderful anniversary trip and I'm thinking of our next holiday already... (^_^)

WOW! I've been "missing" for almost a month now! Gosh! Time flies... I've been slogging my ass off so I can go for our much awaited trip with a peace of mind. Imagine working every day from 8am to 11pm, having all 3 meals in front of the laptop. I was really really drained... every ounce of energy is drained out of my body. But I tell myself, hang in there... we're gonna have a real good break!

Calvin had been really busy and stressed out at work as well. He had to take a series of tests in preparation for the course that he's attending right after our trip. The passing grade for each test is 80% and from the way he's mugging, I can tell it's much more difficult than the tests he had to take in his PTI course months back.

Today, 21 Sep 2008, we're back in Singapore after 8 days in Melbourne, and the hectic work schedule is about to start again! Calvin has gone back to base to start packing up for his course that starts tomorrow, and as for me, I need to start cheong-ing again tomorrow and get ready for my mega presentation in KL on Tuesday!

Here's some flash back on what's been happening over the last couple of weeks:

August 25, Monday

At 18 weeks, I think I look more like fat than pregnant... Would you give up your seat for me if you see me in the MRT? Surprisingly, this is the week that I start getting seats from nice commuters. Well, there are still a lot of people who couldn't care less.

I think nowadays, these people don't even bother pretending to be asleep... They can look you in the eye, look at your bulging tummy and not give a heck. They probably think that it's their right to remain in their seat. No obligations at all to offer seats to people who needs it more. Well, if you look at it this way, it make sense too right? But then... whatever happened to our "gracious society"??

August 26, Tuesday

Calvin was on leave and decided to give all our soft toys a bath! And he even took pictures to show me... haha... So, Hammie, Tammie, Terror, Nuah-nuah, Hoops & Yoyo and the other little soft toys all went for a wet spin in the washing machine, coming out of it clean and smelling good. (^__^)

August 30, Saturday

This is the last day of Esther and Joeel's exhibition and we had to go there. We've been wanting to go but had been too strapped for time. So, we decided to get out of the house early and beat the crowd in town. We're so proud of them! They are really talented and I really admire them for their pursuit of their dreams. Way to go pals!

September 4, Thursday

As I was chatting to Calvin in bed, ready to sleep, I felt 小B move for the first time! It was amazing!!! Initially I wasn't sure... it felt like a little bubble "blurping" in my tummy... so cute... so amazing... too bad, 小B didn't move again and Calvin didn't get to feel it.

September 6, Saturday

Some weeks ago, my colleagues came back from a client briefing and started raving about this coffee machine. The client's even ready to give us some good discounts. It's really cool and I've always wanted to have a coffee machine at home. So I went home and told Calvin about it. He was totally not keen at all, he thinks the maintenance will be too much of a hassle. So, the conversation stopped there.

And then, some time later, I showed him the George Clooney Nespresso TVC and immediately he fell in love with the machine and asked me to go find out more about it and to check if we're able to get any discounts for it. Every other day since then, he'd ask me about the status of our Nespresso. hahaha... what kind of charm did George Clooney have on my husband??!!

Finally, all's been arranged and here's our Nespresso at work on the first day.

On Sunday, Calvin's sisters and cousins came over for lunch. Charlene (his cousin who works in Melbourne) was back for holidays and so we arranged for a gathering. We whipped up a few home cooked dishes especially for her. Calvin boiled lotus root with pork ribs soup and steamed fish. I stirfried some kailan and tried my hands at a new dish. Something that my parents and granny cooked on regular basis long time ago. It's basically stirfried sliced potatoes with sliced pork. I'm glad it turned out pretty ok.. :) I'd probably cook this dish again. Yum yum... (no pictures cos we're all famished).

Oh, and of course we served our guests Nespresso that day! (^__^)

September 10, Wednesday

Selina (Calvin's eldest sister) sms'd me on Tuesday and asked for my office address. She wanted to send me something. She's so sweet and thoughtful. I received this beautiful, sweet, romantic flower arrangement late this afternoon and my heart melted. So sweeeet..... Thank you Da Jie! Love the flowers, love the thoughts and love you!

Receiving the flowers that Da Jie sent was like marking the end of my busy stressful period and the start of the trip that we yearned for for so long.

September 11, Thursday

It's confirmed! 小B is a girl... our precious little girl... our darling princess... It's so funny. Most of our friends have guessed that we're having a boy. Even Dr Ho said during the last scan that there seemed to be some indication that it's a boy. So from then till now, we've kind of been in tuned with the idea of having a boy. Then today, during the detailed scan, Dr Ho said "guess the gender has changed... it's a girl..." hahaha.... it took us a bit of "adjustments" but we're very HAPPY!!! Now, we've gotta start deciding on a beautiful, meaningful name for our baby girl... (^__^)

September 12, Friday

We're off to Melbourne!!! Long awaited holiday... YEAH!!