Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Sunday Saver

Hari official jalan2 kat sini wud be on Sunday.. sebab hari lain Ihsan ada kelas.. and also sebab Sunday, all trains,trams and buses nyer ticket murah. Here, semua integrated.. you can buy one ticket to be used on all the public transportations regardless berapa kali turun naik pun for that particular day.. daily ticket wud cost $6.10 (lebih kurang rm18).

Sunday ada special price, they called it Sunday Saver. Ticket can be purchased for $2.50 only. So, until ada transportation sendiri.. our family outing would be on Sunday only lah.

Last Sunday we went to Ikea . Tak habis2 dengan Ikea.. kat Malaysia pun hujung minggu pegi situ..kat sini pun nak pegi situ jugak ..From my observation, SEMUA barang is more expensive than Ikea Malaysia. So kalau nak shopping barang2 Ikea.. shopping kat Mesia je.. same quality, but way cheaper. Having said that ..he..he.. aku beli jugak some stuffs kat situ .. yang mana perlu untuk rumah baru lah..like botol2 kaca nak letak bunga cengkih..lawang ,kulit kayu manis... tempat letak sudu garfu... So beraturla kat cashier.. dah bayar tu, nak bungkus barang..aik..mana plastic bag...? Then i just realized they don't provide plastic bag for the customer. Australian have this environmental safe campaign, where less usage of plastic is good. So everywhere you go for shopping, you have to bring your own shopping bag.. or you can purchace their environmental safe green bag for only 79 cent. Kat rumah dah banyak dah green bag tu..asyik2 lupa jer nak bawak shopping bag... Ok back to my Ikea story.. tengok around ada orang bawak plastic bag..hmm.. rupa2 nya kena purchase the plastic bag.So..beratur balik lah semata-mata to purcase a 10 cent plastic bag :)..
Moral is : beli jer kat Ikea Malaysia.. plastic bag bersepah..siap boleh ambik lebih bawak balik buat plastik sampah lagi ..:P

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Steak anyone?

My mum used to say that a woman will eventually be good in cooking regardless how little experience you have in the kitchen prior to marriage. And I think she is right.

I started out with almost zero cooking experience. Building up my skill along the way after I got married. But being a working mother and our habit of eating out somehow limited my skill to certain simple recipe only (real reason malas sebenarnye..he…he…). So, since now I am not working and eating out is not an option anymore due to to mahal giler satu meal (average nasik would be $6) .. I have to venture into more dangerous zone of cooking..he.he..

Yesterday adalah percubaan pertama to cook a western meal. My steak ended in a not as disastrous as I expected it would be. If minus the 'fire alarm went off incident' (due to excessive heat generated from the oven when I open its door), then the whole thing went pretty smoothly. Here’s how my dish looks like.

Though not a chef level yet (don’t think will reach that level anytime soon..), but I think Ihsan and my kids will not choke on a tasteless meal ever :)

Monday, February 20, 2006

Home sweet Home

This is our first week in our new house in Preston... full address would be : 3/6 Birdwood Street, 3073 Reservoir, Victoria. The house is a 2 bedrooms villa unit with it's own car garage. No car yet, only Ihsan's bicycle and Taufiq's stroller parked inside. (Oh.. Ihsan now cycled to University, good way to safe money and keep fit :) ..) My house is the one with yellow staircase.

Like any typical Australian house, it is fully carpeted. The venetian blind and day curtain are pre installed. All the furniture is second hand stuffs. If you read my previous post, we bought the furniture from someone at a very cheap price. The whole living room cost us just $95 . 2 white dining chair : $ 5 each. White table : $10. White drawer cabinet $ 5. White 1-seat sofa : $10. Coffee table : $5 . Green 1-seat sofa : $20. 2 blue table lamps: $5 . TV rack with drawer : $5. TV bought at 'cash converters' for just $25. Notice all the 'white' stuff? The idea was to furnish the house with white theme, but i guess a little bit green and blue wouldn't hurt.. eh there's also black and brown... oh well.. just scrap the whole white theme thing then...

Both bedrooms have build in wardrobe. The main bedroom is for our own use. The second one is for visitors. Take note, this is an open invitation to all of you .. he..he..

Ahh.. the kitchen.. my favourite part of the house..mainly because i spent most of the time there..
The fridge is also second hand stuff bought from a Vietnamese student for $100. I spent whole morning 'samak' and scrubbing the whole fridge.

Here, we don't have to pay for the water bill. It is all included in the monthly rent. So you can shower as many times as you want.. but err.. with the weather as cold as now... hmm..hardly 2 times per day.

Lastly, the backyard. Amirah's favourite place. It's a gated backyard, so it's quite safe for Amirah to play around while i was busy in the kitchen cooking. She also likes to help with the laundry. She would pass me the clothes to be hanged on the rail. Such a dear.

I guess the house is almost complete now. I can say, it's a home away from home.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Broadband at home

Internet is now available.. takdelah kebosanan kat rumah .. can chat and update blog anytime i want.. of course after preparing breakfast, mandikan taufiq & amirah, kemas rumah, basuh baju (mind you ..old fashion way okay.. takde machine basuh lagi..), sidai baju,preparing lunch, basuh dishes...in between that kena layan Amirah and Taufiq... .. fuh.. being a housewife is alot harder than expected. Maybe sebab baru lagi kot..lama2 nanti okay lah tu...

Ada Internet ni pun kena berebut ngan Mirah...she also wants to play games online...rolie olie polie lah... disney site lah..barbie lah... now both of them are sleeping, which give me a little bit time to myself... but i guess not for long .. dah dengar dah suara Taufiq... :P

laters...