First time roast pork with crackling

Zac, Lizzie and Cheelim came to our place to try my first attempt in roasting pork with crackling.

Backyard Project - Part 2

This is a picture of my backyard at night. With the help of 2 sets of solar spotlights, it brings out the bamboo from the fence at night. Each set comes with 2 lights with 9 led and a remote solar panel. You can also see my Christmas lightings.

Backyard Project - Part 1

Havent been posting my blog of ages...sorry about that. I have been busy with work and house. Office is having a paint job and change of carpet, thus for the last 3 weeks been busy helping to setup PC, packing and moving stuffs every Friday and Monday. At least I got time on weekend to do my backyard for summer. Trying to design my backyard in Japanese theme, but due to budget and change of ideas, I do not know what the outcome will be. I will try to post the set by step project pictures.


Bought some bamboo edging and bamboo sticks from Bunnings to create my so call Japanese fence .....Got them tie up using wires but I have too use string to tie on the joints for authentic look...coming soon..


As the fence colour is old and fading, we decided to paint in Watermelon pink and with white bamboo outline...Here is the end of project this week. Still to coming, string, clip on timber decking and pebbles.

Are we there yet...

Have been staying in our new home for about more than a month. Still have boxes lying around in the house..trying to figure out ways to store our collection of items. Did manage to paint 3 feature walls in the house. Pink colour at the living and master bedroom and lime colour at the dinning area. I think we will end up with a colourful house.

Now, I have to take public transport to work with takes about 45mins including to and from the station. The ride was alright as I manage to get seats all the time to work. I will try to post a video of our renovation for the floor and also our bathroom.

Settlement Day

Finally, we get the keys to our new home.

Big thanks to Peter Davies

We got to know a very professional and well presented, Peter Davies from chilli realty from our house hunting. Although we didn't buy the property from him, he was kind enough to recommend his lawyer contacts to us. My wife thinks he look like 007 agent with his salt and pepper hair.





chilli realty Red Hot Service in Real Estate

www.chillirealty.com.au

Folks went back home after 2 cold weeks in Melbourne

They went back home yesterday after spending 2 weeks of cold and wet winter here. Below is a picture they have taken with our "Wine Uncle" from Victoria Market (Devereaux Wines). Just look at the empty wine bottles they have accumulate just 2 weeks.

Windy, cold and wet day

Finally get to met up with Marcus from St George bank to settle the deposit bond after spoken with him on the phone for so many times. We have to pay about $400 to get our deposit bond and pass to our real estate agent Sean today. Anyway, the next step of buying a place is to wait for the settlement date which we would like to push for an earlier day. As you know Chinese believe, never move house during the 7th month of the lunar calander which is around mid of august thus we try to settle and move in before 13 August. Well, at the moment, we have to contact builders to get quote as we want to change the carpet at the living area to wooden floor boards and also change the shower area at the bathroom. That's all folks.

Bank loan approved!

Drunken old lady after one glass of red wine

Birthday cake

Dad's 61st birthday lunch at Pacific house

Lobster noodle with ginger and shallots

Chinese vegies stir fry with garlic

Pacific house famous roast duck

Happy man.

House at glenroy

We saw a 2 bedroom unit town house on Saturday and put an offer in the afternoon. In the evening we got a call from the agent that the vendor is happy with our offer and they will sign the contract. Therefore, we are now letting the lawyers to check the section 32 and wait for the bank loan application provided the agent will fax them a copy of the signed documents. Anyway, I will keep you guys posted.

Parents Trip - Day 1

They just arrived this morning and the first place they go for lunch after their nap is at Rose Garden. I think they had combination rice noodle and fried noodle but forgot to tell them not to add any beef. We had italian food this evening at la porchetta :- hot bread rolls, 1 bottle of red wine, 1 large "The Lot" Pizza, Cesar salad and 2 pasta. Yum Yum..These are the pics taken by Dad.

So near but yet so far...

Our offer for the brand new 2 bedroom unit villa property in Glenroy was put off again. The property own by builder and his "buddy". Builder was happy with the price we offer and sign the contract note but his "buddy" after coming back from holidays decided not to sell. So there have been talks between the builder and his mate lawyers to separate the 4 units. But we have decided to void the contract as it has expired and time to move on. More house hunting and cleaning my current place as my parents will be in town next weekend. Will keep everyone posted on our house hunting and maybe on my parents trip. Cheers!

Buying a house.......

Have been busy looking at property in Melbourne every weekend for weeks. Nearly bought a house in Oak Park as we put an offer but the unprofessional agent from Melbourne real estate didn't come back to us after the vendor is back from overseas. The few days later we found out the house has been advertised as sold on a real estate website. But luckily there are more nice agents from Raine&Horne, Barry Plant, Hocking Stuart, Chilli Reality and Nelson Alexander.


Anyway, we put in an offer for a brand new 2 bedroom unit villa property in Glenroy. Lawyer has seen the paperwork and now we are just waiting for the vendor to sign the contract before we proceed to the next step.

I will keep you guys posted the outcome.

Brisabne lions beat Carlton blues

Last night, we went to Telstra Dome to watch the AFL game between Brisbane lions and Carlton blues. The crowd capacity was about 33 thousands which I would say 90% are blues supporter. It was a close match till the last quarter lions manage to out score the blues 136 to 124. It was a chance for my wife to wave the lions flag in style which is our first game for the season. Maybe the next sporting event that I should go for will be NRL or cricket game...haha don't think I can last a 5 day test series cricket game...maybe can consider a one day game.
** As for the photo, I was trying to take a shot with my mobile phone with panorama view but it's a bit mis-alignment.

ANZAC Day parade

Live blog at swanston street: Just finish my haircut in the city and had a look at the ANZAC parade. They do all their drills in english and their commands are not loud enough as I think the fruits and meat sellers at Vic market are so much louder when they shout out their specials of the day. I still think Singapore marching is still on of the best compare to all countries except countries like Korea and China as way much better. Tributes to all war veterans.

Small gathering at Lizzie's place with delicious Singapore food

Last night, went to a friend's place for dinner as their parents are in town. Lizzie's mum cooked some wicked preserve vegetables with pork belly, nonya chicken with potato, assam chili fish head curry with lady's finger and eggplant. The food was fantastic but we couldn't finish it as there was way too much. This is about Singapore gathering...the guest must never feel hungry after a gathering. Should have taken some pics.....darn.

But the best entertainment of the night was a real story encounter by one of the girls...... that goes like that (Maybe I have modify it a little bit) :

Mr Vac: Ohh....ahhh....hmmm...
Missi: Yes Sir, how can I help you?
Mr Vac: Ahhhh...hmmm...(panting)
Missi: What's wrong?
Mr Vac: Ohhh...(panting) I got.... ahhh...I got....my penis...Hmmm.(still panting) stuck in the vacuum cleaner..
Missi: Arrhh.....what brand is your vacuum cleaner?
Mr Vac: Ahh..oohh...(Still panting....).???????
Missi: Is it turn on as suck or blow...
Mr Vac: ?????

WHAT THE?

Road trip to Melbourne by P.I.L.

What is P.I.L.??? Parents in-laws have finally make their trip to Melbourne. They were here for only 8 days but the amount of food they had eaten would normally take them 2 weeks to finish it. The weather was nice and cool but for them..it's freezing cold...but the weather becomes warm again once they board the plane.

They arrived on a Saturday morning which we head straight to Victoria market for coffee and did some shopping after they drop of their luggage at our place. We then have some wood fired pizza (Smoked salmon and lamb). As for dinner, I cooked for them mussels pasta (2Kgs of mussel) and oyster. Look at the pics...





















In summary, here are the places we went for food...

• Yum Cha & Dinner at Dragon Boat on Yarra
• Pizza, pasta and salad at La porchetta
• Vietnamese beef noodles and coffee at Victoria street
  
• Chicken parma, Wedges, fish & chips and beer at James Squire Brewhouse
• Gelato at docklands
• Chinese food at rose garden
• Korean food at oriental spoon

But on the last night we have a good dinner at home. We have alot of nibbles such as cheese, olives, sun dried tomatoes, octopus, smoked trout, wine and fruits. Last but not least the seafood hor fun which I have cook for them.

Shanghai Trip (The Bund)

On the 2nd night, I went to Shanghai Bund with a few colleague from China. We cross the river at Shanghai Bund via a underground ride which showcase light shows about traveling through time. A return trip cost about $40RMB whereby each way is about 3mins. I have taken a video of the ride with my digital camera as shown below.

Wat a pose!

My best friend SM Teo's son Jonathon. Isn't he cute with that pose. This is just a trial using my Sony Ericsson W850i to create this post.

Big breakfast

This is what I call "Big Breakfast" which most cafe in Melbourne will sell. This particular big breaky you get 2 thick toast, 2 eggs, 2 sausages, 3 rashes of bacon, tomato and mushrooms is at Victoria market (Corner of William Street & Franklin street). The sausages they give you at this place is not the cheap thin sausages but it is thick and long. Usually, I will just make my own big breakfast with toast, egg, sausage, baked beans and mushrooms (depend on season). Mushroom and tomato are not in season now, mushroom is about $7/kg and tomato about $5/kg.

Shanghai Trip (Eating trip)

(Taken at KTV with Shanghai agent (left to right) - Javen, Alex, Me, Allen, Cher)

I was in Shanghai during mid-March on a business trip to give my china agents training on my company in-house program. There are also agents from Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Ningbo attending the training. But most of all, I finally get to meet up with my shanghai agent that I have been working with for a couple of years.

During the whole trip, I have eaten so much chinese food which most of them are spicy food. The most interesting restaurant that I went was the porridge steam boat which we cook all the raw food in a stock like porridge water without the rice but when we finish the food, they put back the porridge which by then had so much flavor.

The other place that we went was a popular eating place for Shanghai girls as all you eat in the restaurant is crabs and little crayfish. Everyone was wearing plastic gloves and apron when eating and on that night 9 of us actually eaten 12Kgs of crabs and crayfish.

Just spending one week in shanghai, I miss my western food so much that when I ‘m back in Melbourne, went straight to my regular pub ((Royal Standard Hotel @ Walsh Street) to have chicken schnitzel roll with chips for $6.50.

Left: Cher & Javen having porridge steam boat






Right: Eating little crayfish and crabs