Parmesan baked fish

My first time in making baked fish with bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Suprisingly yummy :)

A great change

It's been a while since we've been talking about opening our own business. We've gone to look at businesses for sale, taken their business plan, read it and put it aside. So it's always been a "look" & "talk" approach. It's been like that for the last few years.

We've finally taken the big step and put a deposit on a Cafe in North Sydney. It's a big change for my family as it's changed some of our plans which included buying a house. Our house will now need to wait for a little while :)

I can't believe i'm going to be a mum and a business owner at the same time. It's very very exciting!!

@ 22 weeks

For my friends that have been asking for a photo of what I look like at 22 weeks, here you go :)

Oyakodon for dinner tonight

Another idea from Alice, and suprisingly, my first go wasn't too bad :)

I've never been a cook at all, and I have absolutely no idea of what sauces I can and can't mix together. In the past, I've been very lucky that my mum cooks for us, and doesn't require our help except washing veges or cutting up mushrooms. When it gets to the cooking stage, she wants us ALL out of the kitchen, so the things I can cook are very limited. Thanks to food blogs and Alice's blog, i'm getting ideas :)

This is Rays bowl

and mine (smaller of course) :)

Duck & preserved veges rice noodles

Alice a & I have been sharing cooking & food ideas, as well as looking at different food recipes. I saw that she made this on her blog and I suddenly have a craving for it, so I asked Ray to get half a duck. I haven't made this for ages and it's the first time i've used duck bone to make a broth and using it to cook the rice noodles. It was really tasty andyum and we finished it in 1 day - plus packed lunch for the next day for both of us :)

Three months into married life

Many of my friends have asked me how married life is. I've asked my friends who have recently married, how they feel married life is. I got many of the same responses, which is: "Not much, just an extra piece of jewellery."

I don't feel that way, I feel alot more than that. I feel very very happy to be able to share the rest of my life with someone that I love. Someone that I care about and someone that cares about me.

I often feel quite spoilt, in that my husband will go and check my car to make sure I have enough petrol, and if i only have half or 1/4 left, he would take my car out and fill in petrol for me.

Every morning, I will see my 2 sets of keys (house & car) next to my mobile phone which he'll always put next to my handbag. Thinking about small little things like this make me smile and remind me how lucky I am. I know i'm being taken care of. We've been through alot to be where we are now, the ride hasn't been easy. It was very tough.

I love going home after work to hang out with him, even though we don't do much but cook and watch TV. Our unit is very small, yet cosy.

I've been learning how to cook to make different and yummy dinners for him. I get tired after work but I love cooking for my husband. Watching him eat 3 bowls of rice and 1 big bowl of soup makes me feel so happy. What makes me even happier is watching him pack his lunch for the next day :)

I giggle as I watch his waistline go a little wider. I giggle when he tries to do sit ups to get his sixpack back and I giggle when I see a small muffin top when he puts on his pants.

I'm loving every day we spend together. I love the laughs that we have. It's very special :)

Online shopping - Part 2

How I love online shopping. I received my items in 3 working days.

I love the suspense of waiting for my shopping delivery at work and checking EMS every day to see where my shipment is at.

The part I enjoy the most is unwrapping. Unwrapping a package with my new clothes, all individually wrapped with clear plastic. The feeling reminds me of when I was a little girl and waiting for the clock to tick past 12am on the 24th December so I can open my Christmas presents that sit very nicely under the Christmas tree. It reminds me of the feeling of happily waiting anxiously for good news to come my way :)

Yesterday, as soon as I got home, I rushed upstairs to my bedroom, made sure I had enough room space on the floor, picked up my pair of scissors and cut the package apart. Taking each piece by piece, trying them on and having them fit & look good, it's was such a happy feeling :)

Online shopping

Arrrggghhhh.. i've gone crazy doing online shopping!!!!
It's soooo addictive!!!
Can't wait to receive my new goodies :)

QQ

Yesterday marked a very important date for me. It was the day we found out that our baby is healthy. Everything is going to plan. It's height, kidneys, heart, lungs, brain & lips were all very good. To the expected delivery date it's only one day out. I'm getting very excited. I also asked to find out if it was a girl or boy. The doctor told me, and my baby was sooo co-operative. It's legs were just sitting wide apart, so it's genitals could be seen very very clearly. I'm glad I had a cup of milk tea before I went in for my ultrasound. It made QQ alot more active and I saw it smile :)

I asked the doctor whether the gender was just 80% accurate but it was so clear, that she said it was 100%. It doesn't matter whether it's a girl or a boy, as long as it's happy and healthy.

Now, it's made it even easier for Ray and I to do our baby shopping, and it's naming time!!!

Wontons for dinner

We were orgininally going to steam boat and then Ray decided to make his famous Wontons for dinner instead. It has ginger and bak choi. It's very tasty.
I also made chicken & melon soup for dinner to go along with his wontons and invited my mum and brother over for dinner. I think I ended up eating 20!!

Mini Chicken Pies

There's been alot of talk about the unhealthy-ness of frozen meat & chicken pies. Ray loves eating pies for breakfast - simply because it's convenient for him to microwave at work, so I decided to try out Addy's recipe for making mini chicken pies this Easter holiday. It didn't take as long as I expected, but it turned out very very yummy. They are freezable, so he can take them and microwave them at work for breakfast.
They are alot healthier without all the added preservatives :)

The End.

I never thought our friendship would of ended the way it did. I guess sometimes things are meant to be. As people always say.. " Everything happens for a reason."
What has happened in the last few days, has just re-confirmed my right decisions.
I have never met someone so stubborn, immature and selfish.
You said that you treat your friends with respect and expect the same (or something along those lines) but the things you did to me, did you think you respected me?
Do you know the hurt that you have put me through? I still don't think you do.
The last message to you, I mentioned Ray. I only put that in to see how you would act. And as expected, you blamed your own misbehaviours on him. That is even more childish & immature, especially for an over 30 year old.
Your definition of a friend is very different to mine.
But I think you have crossed the line.
You certainly don't know how to prioritise your friends and work out who are your true friends are, who are people you've met over the internet, or acquaintances. Being nosy and butting into other people's business is what you have done.

Because you don't know, i've copied the below from Wiki:

Some examples are as follows:
Best friend (or close friend): a person(s) with whom someone shares extremely strong interpersonal ties with as a friend.
Acquaintance: a friend, but sharing of emotional ties isn't present. An example would be a coworker with whom you enjoy eating lunch or having coffee, but would not look to for emotional support.
Soulmate: the name given to someone who is considered the ultimate, true, and eternal half of the other's soul, in which the two are now and forever meant to be together.
Pen pal: people who have a relationship via postal correspondence. They may or may not have met each other in person and may share either love, friendship, or simply an acquaintance between each other.
Internet friendship: a form of friendship or romance which takes place over the Internet.
Roommate: a person who shares a room or apartment (flat) with another person and do not share a familial or romantic relationship.

I didn't expect things to turn out the way it has, but our friendship has now ended.

I haven't felt the way I've felt in ages!!

After months of not exercising from injuring my arm and then preparing for my wedding. Today, I finally got to play a game of badminton for 1.5 hours with my hubby. It never felt so good to exercise and work out a sweat. I miss this feeling!! I love it :)

History: The Past

I've had many people come up to me in the last 2 weeks who have asked me a question which was asked by a dear friend of mine B, about 5 months ago. It didn't click to me that people were asking the same question until I sat and thought about it last night.** B, if you're reading this, yes, it's probably what you are thinking.** For the people who don't know, then you might want to stop reading here, as you might get bored. For those who think they know, you're free to read on.

When my friends see me and see how happy I am now, they wonder why I made certain decisions in the past. I was questioned, like "Are/Were you stupid? What were you doing back then?", and when I was questioned, I answered myself in my heart.

In a lifetime, you meet so many different types of people. You meet ones that come and go, ones that you have a relationship with, that don't work out, or that does work out. You also meet ones that stay your friends a lifetime, no matter where in the world they are, or as busy as they are with their lives right now, you know that when you pick up the phone to chat, you can chat like you've only seen each other yesterday, when in fact, you probably saw each other 6-8 months ago.

You can meet people that are boring, that are exciting *LEO's* or people that are totally opposite to the way you are. I've realised that boring people, or people who don't have much happiness or liveliness in them, the more reserved type, arn't remembered by people much. Some, their name can't even be remembered.

The moral of my babbling on today is: I know my reason, and I answered the question that was posed to me 5 months ago with a hand over my heart. Now, I can remove that hand and answer it with 100% confidence knowing that my answer is what my heart is telling me.

My 2010 resolutions

I have been so so busy from the end of last year, 2009 till now, that I've forgotten to think about my new year resolutions. It's something that I do every year, without fail.

From Jan 2010 till now, I seem to have fulfilled a few of my hearted wishes. One that also came up very unexpectedly too :P

I know that I won't be doing any exercise this year... so that's taken one of my usual NY resolutions of my list.

I've finally enrolled in my CFP 5 - the subject i've been dreading in the last 5 years. Unfortunately, this year is the last year I can complete it, otherwise I lose my CFP qualifications.
So.... the next 3 months will be assignment time and study for me.

Other than that, I'm just going to enjoy happy married life and learn to be a better cook for my hubby :)

2010

A fresh new year brings me alot of happiness.

My lovely wedding celebrated with lots of loved family and friends from Sydney and across the world. I cannot express how happy and how lucky I feel to have these family and friends who have been part of my life. It brings tears and emotion to my eyes when I think of the many relatives and friends who came to my wedding from overseas. I thank them dearly from the bottom of my heart. And of course, my friends that attended my wedding from Sydney :)

My honeymoon to Hong Kong, Macau, Ju Hoi and Japan was one of the most enjoyable trips of my life. My first year giving red pockets felt weird. People calling my hubby my "husband" or my "sin san" felt weird. BUT, i'm getting used to it now :)

A very emotional and memoriable moment for me while we were on our honeymoon is when Ray and I was crossing the border from Ju Hoi to Macau one morning. There was lots of people in the queue we were lining up. There was more than 40 people in front of us.
An officer opened the counter next to us, and he looked at Ray and I and told us to walk forward to start a new queue. As we walked forward, a lady in front of me must have seen the officer wave his hand for us to walk forward, so she walked in front of me. Then a man with a big back pack walked in front of me and pushed me abit. Ray got really upset and grabbed the guys bag from behind and asked him what he was doing. The man (typical china man) said he was walking to start a new line and the lady that walked forward, was his wife. Ray said to the man that he pushed his wife (me) very loudly and the man politely apologised. I was touched, so touched that it bought a tear to my eye. I never thought that anyone would do that for me. Usually guys try to avoid trouble and don't say anything. I'm glad my man stood up for me!!

Now, i'm back from my honeymoon, have settled back in at my new home. I've heard some good news and a possible promotion from my boss who have left me a message to call him as soon as I land back in Sydney.

I'm looking forward to a great Tiger year!!

An inch closer

My new journey began a few months ago when he knelt down and proposed to me with a huge diamond ring. I was both shocked and suprised. I couldn't believe things can happen so quickly.

I'm now sitting here, watching Gossip Girl S2 ep 16, crossing off things that need to be done from my "To Do" list. As I inch closer to more lines across words, it's starting to hit me. A big bang.

Excitement slowly creeps to me as I inch closer, as my invitations are nearly ready to be distributed, thank you to my dear friend K. As we slowly hand one by one out, I realise that there's not long to go.

Our first set of photos turned out really well, and i'm looking forward to taking our next set next month. I'm also looking forward to our first counselling session tonight. I hope it will be a useful learning session for us :)

Azuma

The green tea rolled cake was the BEST :)

Azuma's at Chifley is a must go again !!!

Dodgy Asians

As much as I am an asian myself, I have to say, there's some very dodgy asians out there.

I'm so fustrated but i'm sticking to my principles and i'm not budging one bit.

I don't care what people think and what people say. I am not going to do things against my own principles.. especially dodgy stuff :(

I feel sad, annoyed and pressured ...

Animal Communication

On Wednesday, Siw Bak ran away from our new place. I had searched from 2pm till 6pm running along the streets, knocking on every door, asking every single person that I crossed paths with, whether they have seen a little white dog. No one saw him.

We drove around the area, screaming his name until my voice had gone coarse. While I was driving, I was also looking on the road. My heart throbbed just thinking he may of been run over :(

We called the Hornsby Council, Parramatta City Council, all the vets in the area and all the dog pounds. Lucky Siw Bak is chipped, but then I was worried someone may have seen how cute he was and kept him.

At 6pm, we decided to take a rest and I logged onto MSN and that's when my cousin in Hong Kong messaged me. She said she can help me find Siw Bak because she knows animal communication and can talk to animals by looking at their eye. I sent her a picture of Siw Bak straight away and she communicated with him straight away.

She told me Siw Bak is very happy and he just wants to play. When he is hungry, he will come home. She said he knows his way home.

This is a letter that Siw Bak wrote to me that made me cry...




He drew a map to tell me where he was. This is the map.



I looked at the above map and I couldn't figure where it was... so I told my cousin to ask him to draw a clearer map. She told him I wanted to go to play with him and draw a clearer map of his location. This is the final map he drew.

I'm amazed because it's the first time I've ever heard of Animal Communication.
It's facinated me and i'm looking into learning more about it.

Here is my cousins website and a few drawings she's had with her beautiful poodle:
http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/mk_tsemaggie/article?mid=35258

And here's a link to where you can read more about Animal Communication.
http://rosina.wordpress.com/

My first experience with it and it's an eye opener. Makes me want to learn it too :)

At around 7pm, we started to search again. We ended up finding Siw Bak at 11pm on Pennant Hills Road. I am so glad we found him. I don't know what I would do if I lost him.