The Ring

A recent conversation I had with a male friend was quite interesting. Well, I thought it was quite interesting.

He is currently living with his girlfriend of 4 years. They bought a house together and have been living there for about 1 year now. Since they bought the house, they have joint accounts. Both their income goes into the offset account and they just use money from the one account. It seems like these days that's the best way to save money and reduce the amount of interest you pay on your home loan. They both don't have any "secret" money of their own.

He is planning to propose to her in December this year. He is saving money to buy her ring. Now, here's the key part, he plans to use "their" savings from "their" offset account to buy the ring. Does that sound unfair or is that the norm nowadays? When he mentioned he was saving up for the ring, and a bell started ringing in my head.. huh? that sounds weird. I don't think I would like my boyfriend to propose to me with a ring bought with "our" money. Call me old fashion, but it just doesn't sound right.

So if that's the case, here's the next question, is it really simply better get engaged before you commit to buying a house with your partner? Obviously all the savings would go towards the deposit of the home. Would you point out to him to leave some savings for the ring?? But what if that 20% deposit you needed was everything you had? What would you do? What do people do? Or by that time, the ring doesn't matter that much anymore?

I'm truely old fashion. My boyfriend needs to buy me to ring, needs a romantic/sweet or at least "a thought put into" the proposal process and of course, last but not least, a bunch of roses. I think that is the way it should be. :)

Noodles with a smile

Tonight I made instant noodles with a smile for my hubby.

He's been working very hard lately and has been quite stressed, so I thought i'd make him smile by putting something different in his instant noodles hehehe :)

Failed attempt 1: Earl grey tea chiffon cake

I've finally gotten back into baking. I made a little change to Poh's Recipe for her Orange Chiffon Cake and used Earl Grey tea as substitute. I LOVE Pandan Chiffon cakes that you can get at Asian grocery stores so after seeing a friend make it with Earl Grey tea and saying it's very yummy, I decided to try making it myself. It gives a very nice tea aroma, but I think I could of made the tea abit more condensed. Will try that next time.

Unfortunately, my cake deflated :( - BUT even though it deflated, it's still very tasty and very yummy. I made my cake around 4pm and its 11.30pm now and there's only a 1/4 left!

Masterchef Dinner

Mike had a day off yesterday so he decided to cook up a 3 course meal - of course, being influenced my Masterchef Australia. After knowing his menu for the night, Ray and I volunteered ourselves to join the dinner :P
Since, I had already planned to make a risotto for dinner, I brought the ingredients along to my mums place and made it over there. It was a really really nice dinner :)

Entree: Avocado, Cherry Tomato and Red Onion with parsley and spinach puree bruschetta.

Main 1: My own mushroom and spinach risotto

Main 2: Roast lamb with Mint Pea Puree, Mash and Salad

Dessert: Peaches and Vanilla Icecream Mille Feuille

Malaysian Bee Hive Cake

I tried this cake when I was in Taiwan and I LOVED it!! It's a brown sugar version of our chinese "bart tong go". I found this recipe and it's a "must try"!!
The cake turned out very nice. I thought it would be abit thicker, but it's quite thin.
I think next time I make this cake, i'll try using honey and rock sugar. The flavour would be stronger than using brown sugar. mmh... I'm back into my baking mood.. la la laaala...

Siw bak at his 2nd home for the first time!!

On the weekend, we brought Siw bak over to Rays place for the first time. We want to try to bring him over on Friday afternoon so that he can stay with us for Saturday and Sunday and we'll bring him back to my mum's place on Sunday afternoon. That way, we can take him easily for a walk at the Olympic Park and I can spend more time with him.

Unfortunately, we haven't had very good weather on the weekends and sometimes we have plans for both Sat and Sun, so we don't want to bring him over and leave him at home alone because I don't know if he'll bark, wee and poo and I don't want to put him just outside on the balcony.

So this is the first time we brought him over. He was such a good boy and I was so happy. He stood and stared at the front door when he needed to go to the toilet (and he did it a few times!!) so we just put his leash back on and take him outside. That was one thing I was very worried about, that he wouldn't know where the front door is in the new environment. It's very different having a dog in a unit compared to a house.

I've never had a dog in a unit before because i've always felt it was slack to have a dog in such a small space (as well as i've never lived in a unit here in Sydney) - hence, we're only bringing him over during the weekends when we know we will be at home.

We took him for a tour around the house and upstairs into our bedroom. We brought his mat over so he was quite comfortable, however, he found Rays carpet more comfy so he marked his spot on Rays green carpet. He was so cute!! We spent the day watching DVDs and hugging Siw bak. It was soooo nice.

The bad thing is that when people walk down the hallway outside, Siw bak will start to bark. I'm abit worried because i'm not sure this is a pet friendly block of units, even though i've seen people bring dogs in and out of the building. I'll have to slowly train Siw bak to not bark.

I can't wait till I start my maternity leave! I can bring Siw bak over & we can go for walks together :)

Counting down

Less than 3 months to go now till i'm due, till there's a new addition in our family. It's a very exciting time for us, yet, last night I got scared.

Scared because I am not sure how I'm going to be as a mother.
Scared because I don't know if i can cope.
Scared because I want to give my child the best and teach it the best.
Scared because I can feel my patience level deteriorating.
Scared just because i'm scared.

Deep inside, I know that I'll be ok. I'll have the help of my hubby and my mum but it's the next stage of our lives we are about to step into.

I hope things will be ok.