Back to Baking

Happy birthday everyone. It's the seventh day of Chinese New Year today, also known as everybody's birthday (birthday of humans). I must say it's one of my favourite days of the CNY celebrations as it's the day that we feast on yu sang which is a raw fish salad. The raw fish is eaten to bring sucess through the year Aside from my love of sashimi I love this dish because it's a lot of fun to to eat. Before the salad is eaten everyone gets their chopsticks and tosses the salad together. The aim of this is to toss the salad the highest as it's meant to be luckier the higher you manage to toss it. This can get a little messy but most of the salad usually ends up back in the bowl! You're also supposed to eat noodles for longevity.

It's been a good day today. I've made progress on the sock that I started from the funky sock yarn that Gene bought me in Norway.

Sadly I am out of form with my knitting so my hand started to ache after a mere 24 rows of sock knitting.

Having been inspired by the cookie baking that occurred in Stranger Than Fiction, which we watched with Matt on Thursday, I started baking again. Gosh it's good to have an oven again!

Pleasant Day

I've been in home for almost a week now and it feels like I never left.

The job hunt has slowed down a bit but I'm happy just making my way through the laundry and unpacking. I've also started going through old clothes and my wardrobe is already looking much more reasonable.

Sleep patterns are better than normal (ie. I'm awake when most people are and haven't turned nocturnal yet). I think sleeping with the curtains open is helping. It's hard to sleep when the sun is streaming down on your face.

Today Gene's dad, John, came to visit and spent the afternoon chatting with us (Mum, Gene & I) before we headed into town to meet Cathy, Gene's mum, and Dad for dinner. I think we may have ordered a little much which is likely to be my fault as I was keen to catch up on favourite Chinese dishes but it was an excellent meal!

It's looking to be a pleasantly quiet weekend. I think I'll finish reading The Amber Spyglass tomorrow. I'm not particularly far into it but it's been an easy and engaging read for the last two books.

I think I'll spend most of the weekend trawling through the photos from the last six months and posting the ones that aren't too terrible on my Zoto site. When I get bored of that I'll return to my sock knitting which is currently driving me a little crazy. I seem to have lost the ability to count.

I'm actually looking forward to going to rehearsals on Sunday to help Naomi out with her show. It's a show that I wanted to see while I was up in Brisbane last year but failed miserably to make it. So it should be good. Always happy to help. Especially since I'm not doing much at the moment. It'll be good to be back in a rehearsal space. It's been a while!

All Home

We're all home now. Gene & Nick arrived safe and sound at about 02:39 which was only an hour and twenty four minutes after they were meant to.

I think they were both happy to be back on Australian soil. As we drove back from Tullamarine the boys marvelled at the changes to the Melbourne skyline - largely to do with the Docklands and Eureka Tower. We dropped Nick off at about 04:30 and arrived home ourselves at about 05:00.

After a quick snack of kueh lapis we all trundled off to bed.

Today was spent picking up bits and pieces like Gene's license, but mostly just lounging at home. The job hunt went less well today. I did get to spend most of my day reading and I'm now on to the second book of His Dark Materials and I'm really enjoying the books. I sense that tomorrow isn't going to be particularly productive given that I've still got one and a half books to go...

Day 1 in Melbourne

I achieved most of what I wanted to do today. Admittedly I wasn't aiming very high and my to-do list was questionable but it's a start.

I'm eternally grateful that I'm not suffering too badly from jet lag. Ended up going to bed at 22:30 and getting up at a respectable 08:45. The day started well with a couple of bits of toast and the long awaited vegemite. This was followed by a delicious cup of chai tea. Mmmmmm.

I spent the morning starting my Doha gallery at Zoto but I've only got 16 pictures up so far and the rest will have to wait until Wednesday when I pick Gene, Nick and the laptop up from the airport. I thought I had all the pictures on my hard drive but I was wrong. Ended up posting some pictures that I took in Brisbane as well because I figured I might as well store them online.

After a few hours Mum came home and kindly drove me to VicRoads where I was able to replace my driver's license. Yay for having a license again. Now I just need to replace my fork & EWP licenses, a couple of bank cards, health insurance card... *sigh* Stupid wallet.

Naturally, having no work until March, we headed to the shops for a quick browse (my bad. I wanted to get some cocoa butter to help soothe my skin). We both came back with woolen skirts that we'll have to wait until Winter to wear (but they're pretty!) and a random collection of cosmetics (Mum wanted to get some mascara so it wasn't entirely my fault). It was a fun afternoon but highlights my need to get a job.

Looking forward to Wednesday night where not only will I get to pick up the boys from the airport but Dad will be picking up my laptop. Yay for shiny new toys. I'm looking forward to setting it all up. I'm having laptop withdrawals, sad I know.

As we no long have Gram (Gene's car) I'm without transport. I don't count public transport here. So it could be a while before I'm out and about again (except for job hunting purposes). I am strongly considering trying to make it to Kew for swing dancing though. It's been awhile and I do miss it. I should get as much in as I can as it's looking more and more like I'll have to move away for work.

It's been great getting text messages welcoming me home. I feel very loved :)

Tomorrow I'm aiming to get some more of my random lost cards replaced and sort out some other paperwork. If I'm really good I'll start going through my old clothes because most of them don't fit me any more.

We'll see how I go.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

I've been in Melbourne for less than twelve hours and I've already settled back into relative normality. It's almost like I never left. Except the part where we drove down the Tullamarine Freeway and I noticed that they'd added bits. Or even when we were landing and the city skyline looked just that little bit different.

The flight was a little late but otherwise uneventful. I was grateful to have slept most of the trip home because the people sitting behind were being really obnoxious to the flight staff and it was starting to really get to me. It would seem that immigration has gotten a teensy bit scarier. I don't remember the second officer asking you lots of questions after you'd made it past the first officer. It's not particularly fun trying to explain why you've been in Qatar for four and a half months, what the Asian Games were and what a production asssitant did at 2am. I had trouble remembering what countries I'd visited in Europe too... Wasn't expecting an interview!

Anyhow, made it through immigration and for a brief moment didn't think my bags were ever going to appear on the carousel. They did and I headed to customs and declared my kueh lapis, Indonesian layer cake, then it was out the gates to see my parents for the first time in six months. It was great to see them and when I did I knew that I was home.

Upon arrival home there was a small exchange of random items that I'd picked up on my travels, the ones I could find anyhow then Dad brought out the long awaited char siew. Mmm BBQ roast pork. It was good. We started watching a bit of the Opening Ceremony before realising that it was 4am and clearly bed time for all.

I headed to my room, spilled open my baggage and then made the unwise decision to start reading the first book in His Dark Materials. After three chapters I forced myself to put it down and closed my eyes. A couple of hours later the sun was rising and I woke up and watched it through the bedroom window. There's something nice about coming home and watching the sunrise. It's not something that I'm usually up for!

More reading followed that and I eventually got out of bed at 9am to say good morning to my folks before they headed out. Now up I'm in the study with two snoring pugs behind me and all is well.

Tomorrow is likely to be a big day of getting paperwork sorted and applying for jobs but today is going to be a quiet one I think. Just settling in and enjoying being in one place before I disappear off again.

Oh and before I forget, gong xi fa cai to you all. It's my year this year and I'm hoping it's going to be a good one!

Homeward Bound

I'm on my way home at last. By the time I arrive in Melbourne on the 18th February I'll have been away for exactly 6 months.

Our travel arrangements of late have been rather interesting. We were hoping to be able to depart on the 18th February but were doubtful of getting seats. As a result we've been calling Emirates on a daily basis to see how we were doing. Today Gene called up and was advised that we'd all been kicked off the waiting list as it was too long and that the first day it reopened was the 20th Feb. They also mentioned that I should fly soon as the ticket that I was under the impression (due to the printed words at the top of my old ticket) was valid for a year from issue was only valid for six months according to their system. Not wanting to have to buy a new ticket to argue this later we took the one ticket back to Australia that they had. The only catch is I'd have to leave tomorrow.

So I'll be leaving Gene & Nick (again) and heading home first to pave the way for them. With any luck they may be able to get a flight on the 25th Feb but if not they're confirmed for the 28th February.

After recovering from the shock of having to leave tomorrow instead of in a few days or a week my first instinct was to pack everything that I wanted to do into my one day here.

First port of call after a fine breakfast of currypuffs was to take Nick down to Far East Plaza and Orchard Road to see the main shopping strip of Singapore.

We were briefly distracted at Takashimaya where we had a Korean lunch and I bought traditional snacks like mwah chee which is a rice flour dough dipped in crushed peanuts (taste better than it looks and sounds) and some Japanese sweet pancakes (again with peanuts).

Once at Far East Plaza we took him to our favourite ever bookshop, Sunny, where Gene and I proceeded to purchase new libraries.

Reading List for early 2007
- His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
- The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers
- The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy: and Other Stories by Tim Burton
- The Science of Discworld II: The Globe by Terry Pratchett
- Wicked by Gregory Maguire (Gene bought this one)

Nick left with nothing which was very restraint of him.

Having only just eaten less than an hour ago we trooped upstairs to have Hainanese Chicken Rice at the shop that I've gone to since I was a wee lass. You don't even have to order now. You just let them know how many people need a seat and as you sit down they roll out the rice, chicken, broth and off you go! Two serves for $5.60. Now that's what I love about eating in Singapore.

Next stop was Pan Photo to visit Doris where Nick made up for his lack of shopping at Sunny Bookstore. We walked out of there with one 80GB iPod (Nick), a set of in-ear headphones and iPod Nano case (Gene) and an iPod remote (mine). After that it was time for the boys to stop for a beer if only to interrupt our shopping.

We decided we'd spent enough money but should get some clothes for Chinese New Year's day (you're meant to wear new clothes). We hunted for red shirts for the boys but were unsuccessful. It's red t-shirts instead. I managed to find a lovely red skirt which is about a million miles too long for me but I like the hem (well bottom 20cm) of my skirt dragging on the ground... ahem.

If you think that's the end of the shopping then (to quote Captain Jack Sparrows), clearly you haven't been to Singapore. We headed to Bedok to find some shorts for the boys so they didn't melt. This was a successful trip where they found shorts and I found the world's most comfortable bra. Win win situation for all.

Finally it was time to head home for a rest before heading out for a meal of more local foods...

Tonight's Menu
- BBQ Stingray - Gene's favourite
- Sambal Prawns
- Sambal Sotong (calimari)
- Fried Oyster with egg
- oyster omelette
- 10 x otah (fish cooked in coconut leaf)
- 30 x satay sticks (10 x beef, 10 x chicken, 10 x lamb)
- char kway teow
- another squid & veggie dish that I don't know the name of
- 1 x fresh coconut
- 4 x lime juice slushies
- 1 x fresh sugar cane juice
- 1 x grass jelly drink
- 1 x long neck of tiger beer

We're in the process of trying to introduce Nick to as many of the local foods that we love and crave when we're in Singapore. Needless to say we're all rather full.

So tomorrow I'll have some bak-kwa slices of marinated pork and whatever else that catches my eye before I run off to catch a plane back to reality. It's going to be a big day!

Doha Sweet Doha

We've finally made it back to Doha. It's been just under two months but it feels like an eternity!

Our flight from Paris to Dubai was delayed by 40 minutes last night while technicians changed the oil filter on our plane. This made us a little nervous as we had just under an hour to make our connecting flight to Doha. Luckily we caught a tail wind so we landed five minutes before we were supposed to board our connecting flight. Naturally the gate was at the opposite end of the terminal so we made our way up there at speed to find that there was "debris on the runway" resulting in what was to be a 45 minute delay. Once we finally took off the flight went smoothly and we had a great time chatting to the flight attendant who turned out to be a Melbourne girl too.

At the moment I'm sitting in our room at the Four Seasons. It's stunning. We got upgraded to an ocean view room and while there is a big dome blocking a third of the view it is still lovely overlooking the bay and the poolside bar.

Still no news on the flights back to Melbourne. Nick & I are going to head down to the Emirates office when it opens again at 1600 to see if there's anything we can do and also to double check we haven't missed anything important.

The weather is perfect here. It's 22˚C and sunny. A fine change from France. I have a feeling that we're going to melt when we land in Singapore though. It's going to hurt. Still there will be plenty of distractions like Chinese New Year so I'm sure we'll cope. Plus nothing could top the Doha summer.

It's funny being back in Doha. Most people think we're doing a visa run from Dubai. The city has changed ever so slightly. More of it seems to have been built which can only be good for it.

Same same but different.

Last Night In France

It's 01:15 and I really should be tucked up in bed asleep but having had three days of solid sleep care of the Arctic Measles I've found I'm back to my usual insomnia. I like to think it's a sign I'm getting better.

We leave for Qatar tomorrow, some would say to tempt fate in Doha, which I'm sure will be fine. Gene & I are looking forward to catching up with our favourite limo driver while we're there. The whole day spa thing is a little out of the question in light of recent events. A pity because we'd been looking forward to it for most of the trip.

Am feeling much better and made contact with the world again today (ie. started looking for work and called family & friends). That was lovely. It's nice to be back in the world even though the world is currently still a little sore. The paracetamol's looking after that though.

In answer to Nick's comment on my previous post I must admit I didn't feel particularly medieval during the chicken pox although I did spend some brief moments gazing wistfully out the window at the happy people outside before hiding behind the curtains incase they saw me. More fairytale trapped in a tower due to being a disfigured, misunderstood creature than medieval but an interesting description of the experience of chicken pox from your family. I'll have to ask other Nick how he felt about it... He did go sledding though so I doubt it was medieval. Sorry Rami I don't think the story will be illustrated any time soon. You'll have to use your imagination.

So here we are. We've made it to the end of our whirlwind tour of Europe. It's hard to believe that we've been here since Christmas Eve. Time seems to flow differently when you're on holiday. It's been great fun having gone through a variety of countries where we've all spoken the language, not spoken it at all, or had one or two members of the party speak the language. Norweigan was a tough one to pick up. We've come away with only one word takk which means "thank you". Still it was a good experience for us to muddle our way across borders with our phrasebooks and we're looking forward to doing it again.

Tomorrow we start the journey home navigating our way back through Asia. We're still on the waiting list to get back to Australia so we're making plans to show Nick around Singapore for a few days. This largely revolves around all the great places and foods to eat as well as a tour of the Esplanade. We're theatre geeks at heart, how could we not?

We've already started discussions of the first things that we want to consume upon our eventual return home.
Gene - large Aussie with garlic and chilli
Nick - Boags draught

Me? I just want some vegemite on toast. Some biltong too (although it's South African so not particularly patriotic and I had some in the UK anyway).

Having been away for a few months now I'm expecting the city to be, as they would say in Doha, same same but different. My Dad posted some pictures he'd taken around Melbourne and it was good to see the city sights again. It's not something that I've really taken much notice of until we went away. While we were flying to Paris from Oslo I was reading the inflight magazine and there was an article on Melbourne. The photo accompanying the article was an old photo though. The old Gas & Fuel buildings were still standing opposite Flinders Street Station with St Paul's peeping out from behind them. No Fed Square in sight.

While it will be good to see the city again it really is the people I'm most looking forward to seeing.

Almost home but not quite. No ticket back yet and our house in storage. It's a little odd but strangely liberating.