Married for Life (in Melbourne West)

Chinese New Year & Australia Day in Melbourne

2012-01-30T01:40:00.000+11:00

I haven't been inspired to write any new entry recently. Just posting a few photos taken from the Chinese New Year and Australia Day celebrations in Melbourne city.

Chinese New Year Greeting from little Rafa (and one of his cousins).

Plenty to keep a 2 year old amused on Australia Day.

Excursion to Lake Daylesford

2012-01-10T22:07:00.008+11:00

Wenty was meant to have a 2-hour spa and massage session at Daylesford (Spa capital of Victoria) on the weekend, courtesy of a discounted voucher I bought off one of those group buying daily deal web sites.

I planned to bring little Rafa out on an excursion to lake Daylesford while his mom was enjoying her massage but I received a phone call as we were about to leave home. As it happened, one of the therapists called in sick so they asked if we could reschedule to later in the day. We ended up postponing the massage to a different day altogether but drove to Daylesford anyway as it's one of our favourite day trip destinations.

The planned father and son excursion became a family of three excursion in Lake Daylesford. It was a beautiful day at Lake Daylesford and Rafa wanted to ride the boat in the lake so we hired a paddle boat. It's a reasonable $10 for 20 minutes hire. Just make sure you apply plenty of sunscreen as the sun can be quite strong.

We also took a little walk around the lake.

And Rafa got to check out the water in the stream (with constant supervision).

He even got to pump some natural mineral water out of the well (with our help), and we filled up his water bottle and let him have a little sip. Natural mineral water is supposed to be good for you. We don't appreciate the taste though, it tastes very metallic.

Oh and as usual, there's a playground next to the lake, and Rafa had some fun there as well.

It turned out to be a nice little family excursion and our little adventurer had lots of fun.

The only disappointing part of Lake Daylesford was the food at the Boathouse Cafe at the lake. We had lunch there and the food was very very ordinary. I wished I had read the Urbanspoon reviews before we went. 1 star out of 5 and only 17% of people voted like would have warned us off.

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/346/1493625/restaurant/Victoria/Boathouse-Cafe-Daylesford

The Hippy Part of Melbourne

2012-01-08T22:21:00.006+11:00

Inner northern suburbs like Fitzroy, Collingwood, and Brunswick East are starting to become Wenty's favourite places to visit these days. Their charismatic streetscape, cool alternative shops and nice cafes are major draw points.

One of her favourite shops is The Lost & Found Market, where they sell vintage second hand stuffs. They also have vintage arcade game, which help to keep Rafa occupied during our visits.

The East Brunswick shop has the above racing car game which you can play for free. The Collingwood shop has a much older b & w game that you can play for just 20c a pop. Not that he knows how to play them yet, but hey a steering wheel and some visual and sound effects are always amusing to a 2 year old.

As for cafes, places like Little Creatures are always interesting to visit and child friendly. The food is nice too.

Those toy cars and the little golden books belong to the cafe, very handy to keep Rafa happy on a slightly longer lunch.

I am not a hippie/leftie/artistic type myself but even for someone like me, it's good to visit this side of Melbourne every now and then.

Our New Zealand Itinerary: North Island in 7 Days 6 Nights

2012-01-03T13:44:00.002+11:00

Happy New Year! It hasn't been a fun New Year long weekend for me. I had our customers call me (I was on call) on each of the 3 days long weekend so I had to log in remotely and do some work.

On the plus side, the overtime payment will subsidise our upcoming NZ trip. I had finalised the hotel bookings and made tentative itinerary for our 1 week trip to North Island. Those who know me know that I love researching and planning for our holidays, it's half the fun!

Day 1:
Arrive at Auckland in the afternoon. Pick up our rental car from the airport and check into our hotel in Auckland Central. Explore Auckland CBD and visit the local attractions such as the Sky Tower and Viaduct Harbour. Have dinner somewhere in the harbour.

Day 2:
Take a morning drive to my old stomping ground at Henderson in Auckland west. Show Wenty and Rafa my old school and the places that I used to frequent in the area. Drive to Parnell for lunch and take a walk around Parnell to see if there is anything worth buying. Drive to Hamilton (1.75 hours drive, Rafa can nap here), check in to hotel and then explore Hamilton Garden in the afternoon and dinner somewhere in the city in the evening.

http://www.hamiltongardens.co.nz/

Day 3:
Take a 1 hour morning drive to Matamata (what a name), have breakfast there and then pay a visit the Lord of The Ring (Did I ever mention I am a fan of the movie?) Hobbiton set there. Lunch at Matamata again and then 1.5 hours drive (nap for Rafa) to Taupo. Enjoy a relaxing afternoon at the beautiful Taupo at our hotel, venturing out to the town for dinner.

http://www.hobbitontours.com/
http://www.greatlaketaupo.com/

Day 4:
Enjoy more around Lake Taupo (Huka Falls, Riverside Market etc) until lunch and then drive down to Napier (another 1.5 hour drive and nap for Rafa). Visit a winery or two perhaps and then enjoy what Napier has to offer (Art Deco architecture and waterfront).

http://www.hukafalls.com/
http://www.artdeconapier.com/

Day 5:
Start driving to Wellington (just over 4 hours, longest drive in this trip), stopping in one of the towns for lunch (perhaps Featherson) and then for another break at Kaitoke Regional Park to enjoy the beautiful rainforest and river. Check into hotel in Wellington and return the rental car and have a relaxing evening after the lengthy drive.

Day 6
Catch the Wellington cable car up to the botanical garden and then walk down the botanical garden. Explore the rest of Wellington CBD, or at least the part that are easily accessible on foot and on public transport. Visit the cable car museum if time permits.

http://www.wellingtoncablecar.co.nz/

Day 7
Visit Tepapa Museum of NZ, have lunch and then head to the airport for our 3pm flight home.

http://www.tepapa.govt.nz

That's the plan anyway. I am sure there will be some deviation from it but it's better to go with some plan. If any of you have recommendations on places to visit along the above route, please do let me know.

Btw, I purposely skipped Rotorua as I had visited it before on a school excursion trip during my High School time in Auckland. It was a great fun place (for a teenager anyway) but with only 7 days 6 nights our time is really quite limited so I prefer to see more of the parts I haven't seen before. In fact I would have preferred visiting the South Island but the mrs is worried of the earthquakes there so we compromised on the North.

Improved Eyesight

2011-12-29T23:20:00.004+11:00

I started developing myopia/nearsightedness a couple of years ago. Since Medicare allows for a free eye check every two years, I went back for another check recently.

Guess what? My eyesight has improved. Yes I am still a bit myopic, but there has been slight improvement. They were -1.25 (right) and -1.75 (left) two years ago and the last check showed -1 (right) and -1.25 (left). Awesome news for me :), I just ordered a new pair of corrective glasses as the current pair is over what I need. Let's hope the next check in a couple of years show even more improvement.

In the meantime, I better look for my pinhole glasses again. It has disappeared since we moved house. Failing that, I should just order another pair off ebay, they are very cheap anyway.

Yes I am of those people who would rather try alternative/natural methods rather than just rely on corrective lens. The only time I wear my corrective glasses so far are when I am either driving or sitting at the back of a lecture hall trying to see what is on the screen/board in front.

Rafa's First Dental Visit @ 27 Months

2011-12-28T21:48:00.007+11:00

Wenty needed to visit a dentist so we booked both her and Rafa in for an appointment today. She decided to give the local dentist near our new place a try as her clinic is less than 5 minutes walk from home and I had to work today (shortest Christmas break I have had in 6 years).

It proved to be an excellent choice. The dentist and her assistant were very friendly and they put Rafa at ease so that he behaved himself while waiting for his mom to have a tooth extracted. The assistant even took Rafa out for a while as the dentist gave Wenty a dental x ray scan.

They then gave Rafa his very first dental check up. He obliged without complaints. He still needs two more teeth to complete his baby teeth set. As expected at his age, his teeth are all still in excellent shapes as they are still pretty new and he is not into sweets and sugary stuffs yet. Let's hope his future dental visits are as smooth as this one. He got a new set of kiddo toothbrush and toothpaste from the dentist too.

Their services were very reasonably priced and the dentist gave Wenty some discount on the final out of pocket bill. It ended up only costing us $20 out of pocket (and $200+ for the health insurance). That was for general check up for both Wenty and Rafa and a premolar extraction and an x ray scan for Wenty.

Anyway, the dentist is Dr Hong Vo at Edge Maribyrnong Dental and we highly recommend her for anyone in the inner west who needs a dentist, be it for adults or kiddos.

Queen Victoria Night Market

2011-12-22T23:07:00.005+11:00

It had been a long time since our last visit to the Queen Victoria Market. We went there last night and it was a buzzling place thanks to the Suzuki night market that runs on Wednesdays from mid November to February (except Christmas week). The multicultural food and drink stalls were full of people lining up to order. The Spanish paella was always a popular choice.

It's also very hard to find free table spaces so many groups of people just sit on the ground in the outdoor area, enjoying their food and company and the free entertainment in the beautiful summer weather.

If you happen to visit Melbourne in summer, the night market is surely worth a visit. They also have art & craft stalls as well at the night market.

Strategy for Raising Bi-lingual Child?

2011-12-19T22:50:00.007+11:00

Like many first generation migrant parents, we would like to raise our son to speak both English and our own mother tongue fluently. I believe that language is an important part of one's cultural heritage and Chinese is a very useful language to know these days. He also needs it to communicate with his grandparents who don't speak much English.

A quick research showed that the two main methods used by parents are the One Parent One Language (OPOL) and Minority Language at Home (ML@H) methods. Both are quite successful.

We have been using the partial application of minority language at home method, where both of us speak Mandarin to him. Our own mandarin is flawed so we speak around 80% mandarin to him, with the remaining 20% a mixture of English, Indonesian and Hokkien. Wenty and I also speak Hokkien to each other so that probably confuses the little boy a bit more.

He is picking up Mandarin well despite mixing it up a bit with words from the other three languages so the minority language is not my concern at the moment. I will be very happy if he grows up with just our level of Mandarin. I am more concerned with his lack of English at the moment.

The minority language at home strategy seems to work well if the kid is also attending regular child care or something like that where the majority (English) language is used. Considering it's still a year and a bit before he starts kinder/preschool I think we'll need a change of strategy here or he'll be starting kinder without sufficient language skills to communicate with his teachers and peers.

I know he will pick English up just fine once he starts kinder. I have seen how quickly young kids learn languages. Other parents tell me that in a few years time, he will only want to speak English even to me. It's just quite embarrassing to have to explain to others that he doesn't understand English and I think it's quite disrespectful to his country of birth for us not to attempt to teach him English as well prior to school. We are now Australians after all, not just some temporary visitors here.

We'll give this One Parent One Language strategy a try and see how he responds. Wenty is switching to English with him and I'll persist with Mandarin and try to stay disciplined enough to not throw any Hokkien and Indonesian in our conversations.

Postgrad Degree, After Years of Night Classes and Assignments

2011-12-13T21:58:00.007+11:00

Got my uni results on the weekend. This was the last subject of my Masters course so that's it, I have earned it. No more night classes and group assignments to worry about. Not in the near future anyway, I don't rule out going back for even more postgrad studies when Rafa hits primary school age. Yes I am a glutton for punishment.

Despite my frequent complaints about dropping university standards here, I did learn a lot from my course and got to make a few more contacts in the industry. You don't spend many hundreds of hours studying without learning something.

Thankfully my employer increased the subsidy from half the fee to nearly all of it so I ended up paying just around $1k of my own money out of the $15k total fees. The time I invested cost much more than the fees though so in the end I still paid a lot in term of opportunity cost to get this qualification.

If anyone thinking about doing postgrad straight after undergrad, I would strongly suggest finding a job first and do it part time if possible. Employer fees subsidy is one helpful benefit, but the biggest cost of full time postgrad study is the lack of proper income while you study and the fact that you are missing out on valuable work experience that your peers are getting. I also found that many of my classmates who came straight fresh from their undergrad degrees struggle to put proper context around what we are learning and do not get the full benefits of the non technical subjects.

That advice is obviously not universal and there are some fields where it makes more sense to jump straight into Masters or even PhD as a bachelor degree won't get you anywhere in those fields.

Anyway, at this stage of my life, a postgraduate qualification is a rather minor achievement. I won't even bother taking time off and paying for gown hire and tickets to attend the graduation ceremony in March. It's a very different feeling compared to when I completed my first degree twelve years ago.

Whether or not the postgrad degree will translate into more money for me in the near term, we'll have to wait and see. I plan to list it as one of the justifications (along with a few others) during the next review mid next year.

Have Family, Can't Travel

2011-12-09T04:09:00.006+11:00

I posted back in July that I was starting to look for a better job. I applied for two and then stopped for a while after not hearing anything back from those two and not seeing any interesting ones since then.

I then saw a role I am really interested in a couple of weeks ago. It's a Senior Consultant role for a major ETRM (Energy Trading and Risk Management) software vendor. So I contacted the boss of their Asia Pacific operations (an Aussie expat in Singapore) and sent him my CV and application letter.

He called a few days after to set up phone interviews. After two short informal phone chats and one lengthy formal phone interview, I learned more about the role and their company and managed to impress him enough to go to the next stage. The next stage is the technical test and the previous calls were more the experience, behavioural, and communication questions. I normally do better on technical than the soft side during interviews and they are hiring 4 consultants here so I was feeling very confident about this role.

Before we proceed though, let's step back and analyse the opportunity a bit more.

Pros:
A lot more new things to learn, both on technical side and on commodity trading business.
Trading risk management experience will open many doors in future.
Consultancy experience will allow me to establish myself and my reputation with many organisations, which is required if I do decide to go solo one day.
More potential to climb up the tree as their Australian operation expands.

Cons:
Lots of interstate travels and occasional overseas travels.
Didn't see an offer yet but from the general conversations, best I could expect is a package that's on par to what I am on at the moment. No pay rise in the move.

Whether the pros outweigh the cons or the other way around really depends on where you are in life. A single young person will probably take the learning opportunities and the experiences it offers. I was very keen too during the interview and conveniently overlooked the inconvenience of frequent travels.

A lengthy discussion with the mrs about the logistics of how we would cope with that quickly changed all that. For someone with a young family, the frequent travels simply don't work. The mrs summed it up best when she said it's just a job and even the most exciting job means nothing if you go back to an empty hotel room at the end of it. She is right, I'll rather come home to see a happy wife and kiddo and still have enough time to bring the kid out to the local playground and play before dinner time.

She hit the nail on the head when she said it's not even worth it if they offer double my current pay, let alone similar amount. At the end of the day, family is much more important than career and money for us. It's the same logic that we applied when she quit her job to look after Rafa full time.

Anyway, I just emailed the guy to advise him that I don't wish to pursue it any further with a brief explanation and an apology for having wasted his time so far. Looking at the current situation I won't even bother looking for the next two years. Just make the best of what my current employer has to offer until my long service is due and we'll reevaluate my career situation at that time. The slow and steady mule is proving to be a suitable ride for this ~~old~~ family man.

4am now, wrote this because I had been thinking too much and couldn't sleep. Hopefully now that I have emailed the interviewer and cleared my mind by writing out my thoughts loud I can sleep like a baby. Otherwise there will be one tired and grumpy old man at work later today.

Toddlerhood: The 'What's This?' Stage

2011-12-04T23:39:00.007+11:00

Rafa is getting to the stage where he frequently asks me 這個什麼來 (What's this)? I guess it's the stage before the neverending 'Why?' questions come in. He asked that quite often today while playing outside and looking at his book inside, and I managed to record some of it during the book session.

That Hide and Seek First Words book is one of his favourite two 'books' at the moment. The other is our 'photobook' album lol. Common themes between the two? They are picture books. He is not really into story books so I rarely read to him anymore these days. We speak to him regularly though and try to engage in conversations with him.

As you could see from the video, we speak mostly Mandarin with him with English words, Hokkien and Indonesian thrown in here and there. Poor little fella is gonna be really frustrated initially when he starts kinder as he will struggle to understand what's being said and get confused why others don't understand him. May be we should speak to him mostly in English instead? Or just let him be and let the children's early age sponge brain pick it up naturally when he starts school.

I just love kids and their inquisitive little (but not small) minds. You'll be surprised at how much they actually absorb. I am constantly surprised. Take today for example, was walking with the little fella to the local playground and he suddenly blurted out 'Wiggle', and I looked around and saw a van parked nearby with a small sticker of the Wiggles logo on it.

Btw he likes the Wiggles (which toddlers don't?), so Wenty is thinking of bringing him to their concert next time (apparently there was one at Flemington Showground today, missed it!). Anyone interested? Just whatsapp her.

He also has a habit of saying '要到家了' (nearly home) whenever we are driving on the main road at the intersection a few turns away from home, he actually recognises the landmark and know whenever we see that, we are nearly home. He also has a habit of saying '要到了' (nearly there) if he sees us turning into parking lots (or very small streets with many parked cars) after a long drive on the main roads.

Anyway, it's midnight now, better call it a night.

Which Vacuum Cleaner?

2011-11-29T22:58:00.005+11:00

Our vacuum cleaner just died on us last weekend, motor burned out. We normally bought cheap ones (~$100) and they tended to last only 3-4 years before they went kaput. We are thinking of getting a better one this time, something that has better suction and lasts longer. Sometime cheap economy is false economy. Having said that I am only prepared to spend up to around $400, so we are not looking at the very high end models.

Reading online, apparently Electrolux, Dyson, Hoover, and Miele are quite highly regarded here in Australia. The two models I am considering in particular are Dyson DC29 Multifloor Radix Cyclone and Miele S5211 Family Caretaker Barrel Vacuum.

Both have very positive reviews from many owners. DC29 is a bagless vacuum with HEPA filter, cheapest I can find is $469 at good guys at the moment, it can come down to under $400 during sales (hhhmm wonder if we can survive with our small handheld vacuum til boxing day?). S5211 is more traditional and uses bag and HEPA filter needs to be purchased separately, but looking at the reviews these miele machines seem very durable and efficient. It's just over $300, plus another $40 for the HEPA filter.

Anyone long time vacuum users have any opinions on bag vs bagless, HEPA filter, and their experience with the different manufacturers? Or anyone know of any good deals going on at the moment?

Or may be we should just get one of those robots one that moves around by itself? That will free some time and Rafa will surely be amazed by it ;). Do they last?

2 dec update: got the miele s5211 for under $300 from good guys in the end. Will worry about hepa filter when it's time to change filter.

Mrs' Birthday & Final Exam

2011-11-25T22:34:00.001+11:00

It was Wenty's birthday last week. We didn't really do much in term of celebration, heck we didn't even dine out. Fine dining with a 2 year old along is more stressful than enjoyable, may be next time if my parents are around to babysit this little cowboy.

Wenty is really into macarons these days and there is this cute little macaron shop in Hardware lane that she really likes so I got her macarons from there instead of a cake this year.

Little troublemaker likes his macarons too.

Wenty's birthday aside, I just sat my final uni exam yesterday. That was the last subject of my Masters course so that's it, no more night classes and assignments and exams to worry about. Freedom!!

3 1/2 Weeks Gone, In Laws Gone Back

2011-11-12T22:31:00.004+11:00

My in laws flew back to Medan yesterday, it's back to just the three of us at home. Rafa must be thinking where is this 'Medan' place, how come everyone is going there? First it was his visiting cousin, then the other two cousins and paternal grandparents, and now his maternal grandparents whom he has grown so used to having around. All went to Medan.

We can tell that my parents in law enjoyed their visit this time a lot more than their previous visits. I guess Rafa is at a much more interesting and entertaining age to them now.

Having a bigger kitchen also helped as they spent quite a bit of time preparing food. I got to enjoy noodles like this for breakfast regularly while they were here.

It was great while it lasted. It will be back to our usual bread for breakfast once the supply of Indonesian risolles they made run out.

Anyway 3 1/2 weeks visit feels really really short. Wenty already missed them and Rafa looked for them a few times too. Hope they'll come back for a longer visit next year :).

Toddler Diarrhea, 2 Year Old Check Up, and Milk

2011-11-10T22:15:00.008+11:00

Poor little bugger has been having diarrhea since the last night of our Tassie trip. It's been 12 days and it still hasn't gone away yet. About 3-4 times a day but he is behaving and eating normally apart from that.

He had his 2 years old check up last week so Wenty asked the nurse and the nurse thought it was nothing to worry about and asked us to give him lactose free milk for now. Nurse asked Wenty a few questions and made a few measurements and observations as usual. No vaccination at this stage. He is is still tall (75 percentile) and light (25 percentile) as usual, nothing new there.

Wenty also brought him to a GP earlier this week and the GP asked for stool sample to be taken and analysed in lab. Result came back and doctor said there was no virus, bacterial, infection etc, it's all clear. Let's hope it just a common toddler's diarrhea and will go away by itself soon eh.

In the meantime I read up on lactose intolerance and apparently most Asians have lactose intolerance post infanthood, it's just not in our genes. I suppose dairies are not common staple for our ancestors, kinda make sense. I also read up on milk, geez there are so many types, full fat vs low fat, a1 vs a2, fresh vs uht long life, permeate vs no permeate, unhomogenised vs homogenised, etc etc, can I just have 'milk that tastes like real milk'? ;P

The one that caught my eyes especially was A2 milk and the numerous anecdotal accounts of its benefits against things like diarrhea to eczema etc. We tried it briefly but not long enough to tell the difference as we thought it's better to listen to the advice and use lactose free instead for now. Any of you tried A2 and believed in the A2 protein or do you think it's just a scam from the A2 corporation? It's quite a premium compared to the cheap non A2 certified milk.

Airport Parking & Holiday Car Rental

2011-11-07T22:47:00.003+11:00

Parking is notoriously expensive at Melbourne Tullamarine Airport. I preferred to catch a taxi for short (3 days - 1 week) domestic holidays as we live quite near the airport and the return taxi trip cost about the same as the long term parking at Melbourne airport. That's for the outdoor parking where you have to catch a shuttle bus, forget about the indoor parking within walking distance as that will easily set you back $100+ for just a few days.

This time we decided to try a different parking provider so I went with A1 Airport Parking as they are quite cheap, outdoor parking cost us under $40 for our 4 days trip with RACV discount. We arrived there about 1 hour before our flight and thankfully their paperwork processing was very quick and we only have to drop the car near the entrance and we were on to the complimentary shuttle bus in just a few minutes.

Coming back was just as easy. Rang them after our plane arrived and then waited a bit and boarded their bus at the airport bus area and our car was there waiting for us. It's definitely a cheap and good option for short holidays, or even for longer holidays for those of you who live far from the airport.

The other thing I learned is the upgrade to the highest insurance cover available when renting a car is well worth it. The standard car rental damage excess is in the thousands of dollars. You can reduce the excess to either a few hundred dollars or to $0, depending on how much extra you are willing to pay per day.

You may be a careful and good driver but you have little controls over the other drivers on the road. If you are driving on country roads here in Australia, you would occasionally get loose stones from trucks coming in the opposite direction too. I have had a couple small stones on the windscreen before and this time I actually had a rather big one that dented the roof just above the windscreen. Luckily I paid for the ultimate protection so there was no excess fees whatsoever, just had to fill in an incident report when I returned the car.

This time we went with Thrifty due to RACV discount again and the free child car seat. They gave us a rather new car (only 1500km on it when we picked it up) so it's a shame that I dented their car.

Tasmania Day 3 & 4: Salamanca, Kate's Berry Farm & Evandale

2011-11-04T22:13:00.007+11:00

The third day was even wetter than our second day there. We braved the rain to visit Salamanca market in Hobart in the morning. It's a nice market that's on every Saturday along this street that is full of old colonial era buildings.

A quick lunch nearby and we headed for the road again back north to Launceston. This time I took the slightly longer drive via east coast for a change of sight. Unfortunately the wet weather meant we couldn't really make a decent stop in the coastal towns.

Thankfully it stopped raining when we reached Swansea as Kate's berry farm in Swansea was on the list of the places that I had planned to stop at. It's a nice little shop in the middle of nowhere (plenty of people visiting despite that too) with very yummy desserts made of their own berries. They also sell jams and hand made chocolate there.

Back at Launceston and more running, playing and exploring for the kiddo.

We flew back at 2pm on day 4 so most of the half day we had in that final day was spent in Evandale, which is a nice little village less than 10 minutes from Launceston airport. They have a market there every Sunday too.

That was our 4 days in Tassie. It's actually a very similar trip to our last visit there 3 1/2 years ago, except that we have got a little bandit and my parents in law with us this time. Next time we go down there, we'll definitely skip the cities and see more of the beautiful mother nature down there.

Tasmania Day 2: Port Arthur Drive & 7 Mile Beach

2011-11-01T22:18:00.008+11:00

Day 2 started with a showery morning and we drove down from Hobart to Port Arthur. We didn't explore much into the Port Arthur ruins as it was quite wet, just took a quick look, the ferry cruise that came with the entry tickets, and lunch at their cafe. We were definitely not going to hang around til night to join their ghost tour!

It was still worth the drive though, I always enjoy road trips as it's a good way to see the country and beautiful scenery along the way.

The sun came out in the afternoon so we made a quick stop at the 7 mile beach near Hobart on the way back. Before we reached the beach though, Rafa just had to enjoy the playground (didn't I say they are everywhere) a bit first.

Oh and of course a father and son photo :).

Nice to see but it was really still too cold to go into Tasmanian water in October (it will probably be still too cold even in summer!).

That was basically day 2. Went back to Hobart for dinner and an early night. Nothing particularly exciting, just a lot of driving through nice scenery and curvy roads, lots of moo moo and baa baa (and the little kiddo at the back going eeya eeya yo when he noticed them) along the way.

Tasmania Day 1: Peacocks and Launceston - Hobart Drive

2011-10-30T22:47:00.006+11:00

Just got back from our Tasmania trip with my parents in law. I am glad we were too cheap to fly Qantas (flew Virgin instead), otherwise we might still be stuck there. Our February trip to NZ is with Qantas though, let's hope they have settled their dispute by then rather than escalate it further.

Back to the trip. We caught and early morning flight, got to Launceston airport at around 9.20am and picked up the rental car. First stop was Cataract Gorge at Launceston to strecth the legs a bit and for morning tea.

It's a nice natural feature right next to the town centre. We had been here before so we didn't expect to see anything new. But we were wrong. About half a dozen of the peacocks were showing off their feathers. They were fully open and the peacocks were rotating round and round. It's our first time seeing peacocks as beautiful as these.

One of my favourite things about domestic travel is there are always outdoor playgrounds around wherever we go. Cataract Gorge was no different.

We took off from Cataract Gorge to commence our drive down to Hobart. We took a little detour to Richmond which is a nice little village near Hobart.

Had some pizza and hand made pasta for lunch while we were there. The locals at Richmond sure know how to enjoy a relaxing life. This restaurant we went to only opened to 2.30pm on the day we were there, and it closed for two days during the week.

We eventually got to our hotel in Hobart (navigating their one way streets is a nightmare), rested a bit and went out on foot for dinner and a quick look around.

That was day 1. More to come.

2 Year Old Boy And Flower

2011-10-23T22:25:00.002+11:00

There is this little kids and gift shop in Daylesford that Wenty really wanted to visit, and since it was a nice sunny Sunday and the Sunday Daylesford market was also on we thought we would bring my in laws there.

Daylesford was nice as usual. Mrs had a great day visiting that store and looking for vintage stuffs at the market. I enjoyed the drive through the country area and the hills.

However, the highlight of my day was at the local playground after we got home. Rafa was playing as usual and there were a few other kids around. I then plucked a flower and gave it to him and told him to '給妹妹'. He then waited very patiently for the little girl above the slide to come down and handed her the flower. It was so cute. Luckily the little girl accepted the flower, otherwise he might be traumatised about giving flowers to girls. ;)

It's actually the second time he did this. He gave a flower to another little girl when he was at the playground with Wenty a couple of weeks ago. Our shy little boy isn't so shy when it comes to giving flowers to girls eh.

Parents In Law Are Here

2011-10-22T22:56:00.005+11:00

Been a crazy few days from Sunday to Wednesday. Worked on group uni assignment on Sunday til about midnight, then went to airport pick up my parents in law (they are here now! :)) the next morning, and then worked overtime til 1am on Monday night. By Tuesday evening I was exhausted and called it an early night. I sure am past the age where I can still expect my brain to function close to 100% after a couple of late intensive nights.

Wednesday wasn't much better with the usual uni after work. My in laws probably thought I was avoiding them by then. Luckily Rafa provided them with plenty of entertainment in the meantime and Wenty brought them to the usual local shops and mall. The modest home is a much more interesting place to be at with a lively and noisy 2 year old around.

Rafa was his usual shy self when we picked his grandparents up from the airport as he hasn't seen them for 10 months (which is a long time for a 2 yo). But he warmed up to them very quickly and the number of time he calls his 'Ah Kong' everyday in various playful tones is too many to count. 'Ah Kong morning', 'Ah Kong good night', 'Ah Kong 吃', and constantly dragging his 'Ah Kong' to his toys and books to play with him.

The later part of the week was much better though as I finally had time to bring them around. Anyway, as usual, took lots of photos of Rafa with his grandparents. Very precious memory as he only gets to see them may be a month or two every year.

Thankfully the weather in Geelong held up relatively well while we were there despite the rainy day in Melbourne.

Little Gardener

2011-10-15T23:25:00.002+11:00

Finally got my camera back from my sister after more than 3 weeks. Just had to take some new photos of Rafa. The little mess maker in action ;).

Leaves & Mini Trips

2011-10-10T22:58:00.001+11:00

I am clearing some of my annual leave early next year, have 4 weeks leave booked during Chinese new year. But nope, we are not planning to go back to Medan during CNY. The bulk of it will actually be time for me to look after Rafa so that Wenty can concentrate on doing whatever she needs to do for the initial set up of her planned business. I am also supposed to help her set up her web site etc.

We'll try to go for a short (1 week or so) trip during those four weeks though. The question is where? One week is too short to justify long flights and the thought of screwing up Rafa's routines like we did in last year's Asian trip do not appeal to us at all.

That pretty much leaves us with either a domestic trip or a NZ trip. Anyone with a kid friendly itinerary suggestion for a week or so in Jan/Feb?

I kinda fancy going to Tassie and visiting either the cradle mountain and the coastal areas. But then again, we'll be spending four days in Tassie very soon when my parents in law are here (they'll arrive next week! :)). Four days (3 1/2 really) won't cover much of Tasmania, especially with two old ones and a little one in tow so we'll only be covering the two main ~~cities~~ towns and the immediate areas surrounding them (Port Arthur, Richmond, etc).

So looking forward to the Tassie mini trip and the CNY break already!

Finally Done My Tax Return

2011-10-07T00:48:00.005+11:00

It's October and I have finally done our 2010-2011 tax return which are due end of this month. Spent nearly four hours filling the e-tax software and digging through my paperwork, need to be more organised.

I should have done this much earlier as I am getting thousands of dollars worth of tax refund back and it's only four hours of effort. I guess I had been lazy and using the house move etc as an excuse to delay it. The refund should come in handy to fund my in-laws visit here. Yes my parents in law will be visiting us in less than two weeks so Rafa will get to spend some time with his maternal grandparents :).

Now that we have moved though, my tax deduction will be much much lower starting next year, no more negative gearing. Ah well it's worth it. It's been a month since we moved and we are enjoying the extra space, the more convenient location and I save 20 minutes a day on travel time. That's an extra 20 minutes a day I can spend with my loved ones.

Getting Older, Altona Market, and Unhealthy Parenting?

2011-10-02T23:36:00.005+11:00

I became one year older this weekend. Weather was miserable and the grand final was on, so it gave us the perfect excuses to stay at home. Wenty baked a cake for my birthday but apart from that it was just like a normal lazy Saturday. 31 is not really a major milestone anyway.

The fun part was getting Rafa to wish/sing me happy birthday. He is too young to understand the concept of birthday but old enough to blurt out 'happy birthday to you' whenever he sees a cake with a candle.

You can see from the video that he is now very into the Talking Ben app. We have tried to be low tech parents and entertain him ourselves or with more old fashioned toys so that he stays more active but we caved in recently. The mobile phone just provides him with instant distraction when we want to do something else or when we need to bribe him.

Staring into these little screens closely and taping away don't look like a healthy toddler past time to me. I guess moderate low use should be ok eh? We also switch the phone to plane mode now when we hand it to him. Less radiation and less chance of him accidentally calling or sms-ing people (which have happened a couple of times before).

Anyway, the weather today was much better so we decided to head down to the Sunday Market at Cherry Lake at Altona.

Nice little spot and Wenty found a few vintage items for next to nothing. The basket and sugar and milk cups must be at least double our age but they were still in very good condition and Wenty is really really into vintage stuffs.

Rafa got himself a vintage sesame street car too.

We also stopped at nearby Newport for lunch at Leroy's cafe, a nice little cafe that is highly rated in term of child friendliness. Food was all right without being spectacular but it's good value for money and a good lunch place for people visiting the nearby Scienceworks.

Killiney Kopitiam Now Open @ Lygon St Melbourne

2011-09-25T21:01:00.004+10:00

Good news for those of you kaya (coconut jam) lovers in Melbourne, especially those from Singapore who are missing the Killiney kaya toasts. There is a newly opened Killiney franchise in Melbourne.

They also serve very good main dishes like curry laksa and hainan chicken rice on top from kaya toasts and coffee. I may be biased though as the local franchise is owned and run by very close family members of mine. Best to go and try it yourself :), it's located at 114 Lygon st (between Queensberry st and Pelham pl).

Unfortunately no photos of the place or the food yet as I don't have my camera with me at the moment.

Bye Bye Iinet, Hello TPG

2011-09-20T22:44:00.002+10:00

I had been a loyal customer for 6 1/2 years with iinet, both my home phone and adsl2 services were from them. They provided a reliable service so I initially thought I would just port them across to the new address.

I contacted them to ask if they can waive the connection fee if I do that and sign a new 2 year contract with them. Apparently nope they couldn't do that. I ended up shopping around and found tpg who offer similar services for cheaper price so it was good, saved me money in the end.

It's probably not a coincidence that tpg reported 40% increase in profit today while iinet profit this year went backward. They would rather lose a long time customer who spent $1k/yr with them than fork out <$100 to keep such a customer. Great logic, they then spend tens of millions buying the smaller ISPs to make them the 2nd biggest ISP in the country.

Rafa Turned Two

2011-09-14T23:30:00.000+10:00

Rafa turned two over the weekend. My whole family was here so we had a private little celebration at our home. It was simple but as long as the little boy was happy we were happy :). All the kids loved his birthday cake too.

I am still amazed of how fast the two years went and how quickly these little buggers grow, it felt like it was just yesterday when I first held him as a newborn in my arms. We are finding it easier at this age as it's easier to communicate and his immune system is getting a bit stronger (touch wood he is sick a lot less often and less severe than last winter, but then again this winter was quite mild). So far the dreaded terrible two hasn't really hit us yet, I may have a different opinion when that starts!

Family Reunion

2011-09-11T22:26:00.000+10:00

My brother and his family spent their two weeks Hari Raya holiday in Australia. It was their first visit to Australia and the first time we have met his nearly 5 years old son. Yeah we haven't visited Indonesia for more than 5 years already! Even my nephew was curious how come uncle Wills never went back to Medan. He asked me the question, and then proceeded to answer it himself with his own logic. 'I know why. Uncle Wills does not speak Bahasa Indonesia, that's why!'.

Gotta love kids and the way they think.Alas two weeks went by just like that, especially when we were so busy and they were spending one third of that short time in Gold Coast. At least we were able to squeeze a weekend getaway trip to San Remo on Father's Day weekend last week and they spent the last couple of night at our place (rather than my dad's). Rafa got along with his older cousin very well and he kept asking us 'koko leh?' (where is brother?) today after I dropped them at the airport this morning.

That's Rafa and all his first cousins on my side. He has another cousin from Wenty's side. Boy it was crowded and noisy when all four of them were in one room. It's going to be quiet on family side for a while after this as my parents will be heading back to Medan for a while to attend a few weddings and they'll bring my sister's kids back with them too.

On the plus side that will give us time for overdue catch up with friends as we have been so busy with moving and family and my assignment recently that the friendship side got neglected.

Thumbs Up Mini Movers

2011-09-06T22:17:00.003+10:00

Second day in our new home. Still a lot of things to unpack and a lot of new furniture yet to arrive. Our broadband line hasn't even been connected yet, I am just using prepaid wireless broadband for now.

Just a quick post to give a big thumb up to the boys at Mini Movers for their very professional service.

We chose them because they were trained in piano moving, not just general furniture. Two big friendly blokes (easily 100+kg each) and a big truck came, and man they made the move look so easy. They were very careful not to break our furniture or hit/dent the walls too when they were moving, and big items get strapped properly to the walls of their trucks.

No time wasting too, very efficient and quick. I highly recommend them for anyone who needs a furniture removalist in Australia.

Risk Management, Killer Lecturer

2011-08-28T21:46:00.004+10:00

This semester I am doing the final subject for my master course. I pick Information System Risk and Security subject which focuses on the processes and best practices as I reckon it's a very good subject and the skills are transferable outside IT. Risk assessment/analysis is applicable to anything we do in day to day stuffs.

So far it seems to be the best subject I have taken as part of my course. Very knowledgeable lecturer who gets the students thinking, lots of reading and absorbing concepts. The lecturer is a 'killer' lecturer who expect a lot from the students and don't take BS.

That's actually positive because most lazy/bad students avoid the subject due to its reputation, and the few lazy ones who enrolled in it out of ignorance quickly disappeared (dropped the subject) after the first couple of weeks. It means better quality fellow students in group assignments :).

I wouldn't mind going back for more postgrad studies in a few years (when Rafa is school age at least) if all my subjects are as good as this. I am getting ahead of myself now, better finish this bloody course first! Just three more months to go! :)

Furniture Haggling & Tenant Hunting

2011-08-23T22:38:00.003+10:00

Counting down til D-Day for our move, it's still another two weeks away. Removalist has been booked and most new furniture ordered. It's been 'interesting' trying to haggle with the various furniture shops.

Wenty did most of the haggling as I am hopeless at it. We were surprised by the differences in prices (and service level) that you can get on the exact same product from the exact same chain (just different branches). I guess many of these stores are franchise owned so it depends on the franchise owners.

We were not in very strong bargaining position as the pieces we liked were from different shops so we ended up buying individual items from four different shops rather than buying bulk from a single store. It also means we have to pay delivery charges four times too.

Anyway, just sharing our experiences with some of the local furniture stores that we ended up ordering from. Plush @ Highpoint Homemaker was able to make us a much better deal than their sister store @ South Wharf. The Asian lady who sold to us was very flexible and keen on making a deal, and saved us about $500 on the sofa we wanted. We think she is the franchise owner (or family member) there as she seemed to be in charge and was able to make good deals without having to refer to anyone.

Provincial in Highpoint was the total opposite unfortunately. The salesperson was very inflexible, insisting they don't make deal on single item purchase (even though it was nearly $2k!), and that they had to go through head office people to make any deal bla bla bla and she couldn't be bothered even trying that. The Provincial shop in South Wharf was a bit better. However, the one we really recommend is the Essendon store (look for Helen!).

Wenty had a look at Provincial facebook page and there were a lot of positive feedback for Helen and their Essendon store so we went there and they didn't disappoint. Much better service. While she was only able to give us 10% off, it was much appreciated as Provincial happens to be one of those few stores that can afford to give very little haggling room due to their niche as their product range is very unique and different from the typical contemporary furniture stores.

Early Settler did not give us a single cent off but their prices were quite reasonable to start with and we couldn't be bothered checking their other sister stores (nearest one after Highpoint was Northland). Bed Shed was having a 40% off on a mattress we liked so no further haggling room as well there, apart from them halving the delivery cost.

That was our furniture hunting, we also went to a few other stores but we either didn't like their range or their prices. A few more small items to purchase but they can probably wait after we move in.

We also just gave the authority to our real estate agent to advertise our current 2br so it's on the various real estate sites as of today. If any of you readers happen to be looking for a place to rent in Melbourne, do let me know! It's a cheap ($330/week) 2 bedroom at a convenient location 9km North West of CBD. Near Highpoint Shopping Centre and Victoria University. It's available from the 7th September and I am quite flexible on lease terms and length.

No harm trying my luck asking. The last time we were looking for tenants, I actually got an inquiry from a new Singaporean migrant through this blog. We just happened to have new tenants signed up before they were meant to come and inspect so that didn't go through. But who knows eh.

Busy, Random Post

2011-08-13T23:05:00.004+10:00

Preparing to move is so tiring. So much packing to do, junks to throw out, cleaning and minor maintenance to do, oh and shopping for furniture. We are probably around half way done packing already. I am glad we very rarely move. Definitely staying put for at least 10 years after this move.

As for furniture, only the couch has been ordered (it will take 10-14 weeks too for them to make it!). Wenty has pretty much decided on which bed and dining table she wants already though, so it's just a matter of going down and negotiate the price a bit and place the order for those two. We'll keep looking for the rest.

Even little Rafa was busy shopping at the local hardware store ;). Mini me loves the mini trolley there. He insisted of pushing it himself.

One good thing (for us parents) about Bunnings is that they have an indoor playground in their store. Little fella had his well deserved break there.

Between all this moving activities, we had to make time for family as usual so that Rafa gets to spend time with his grandparents and cousins. Mom just learned how to make fresh noodle from scratch so she made it for us while we were there.

It took hours to make it but it was one of the yummiest noodle I have eaten.

Next few weeks are going to be busy like crazy. Finalising the move, my brother (and his wife and kid and a cousin) visiting Melbourne for the very first time, uni classes and assignments (damn I still have to read a few ISO standards for uni for this week!), and I can only take a couple of days off from work at most to cater for all that.

Time To Move, Furniture Hunting

2011-08-03T22:03:00.001+10:00

We'll be moving home early next month, 6 months earlier than originally planned. Halfway through their lease, our tenants just advised our property manager that they intend to vacate the property. They were happy to pay rent until we find new tenants as per the standard tenancy agreement here. But hey, we have wanted to move in for a long time anyway, we may as well do it now, win win for everyone.

We need furniture. A new bed and mattress, sofa set, dining table and chairs, tv cabinet, etc etc. Pretty much everything, plus an outdoor cubby house for little Rafa. Wenty is starting to look for furniture now, I am sure the interior designer within her will have lots of fun picking furniture and decorating our new place. She seems to be more into vintage classic and country style furniture rather than modern contemporary at the moment. But we'll see, we'll have to compromise on style, quality and budget.

Anyway, anyone know any of furniture stores in Melbourne having a sale at the moment or in the near future? So far we have only checked the web sites of a few usual suspects and Wenty visited a few nearby furniture stores in Highpoint.

So excited, can't wait til September.

Driving Lesson & Wood Fired Pizza @ Williamstown

2011-07-31T20:49:00.003+10:00

We had a rare warm (18 degree!) & sunny winter day in Melbourne today so we decided to visit Williamstown again. Yeah it's our favourite local hangout on nice days like this.

What's different this time is the Mrs did the driving to Williamstown today. She has had 15 instructors led lessons here so far and probably another ten or so practice drives with me (with Rafa strapped to his car seat at the back as usual). But the ones with me were mostly restricted to trips to the nearby Coles in Showground via relatively quiet local streets, so driving on the main roads to Williamstown is a step up for her. Once she has had more practices and is comfortable of driving all the way to my parent's place in Clayton South and back then I reckon she'll be ready to sit the practical license exam.

Oh and we decided to try the food at Sam's Boatshed in Williamstown. First time there and Sam's seafood pizza was very very good. The risotto was good too but nowhere near the standard of the seafood pizza. Rafa agreed with me as he was happily eating the Risotto until I gave him a mouthful of the pizza and from that point on he refused the Risotto and only wanted the pizza. The boy has the same taste as me :P.

Sunny day, yummy seafood, plenty of running and playgrounds for the little boy and we managed to burn four hours in Williamstown. Rafa had too much fun and barely napped (it was like a 10 minutes nap in the car when we were nearing home) so he got very cranky at night (meltdown) and really needed to dummy to sleep tonight. Our first attempt of weaning him off the dummy only lasted 6 nights, we gave in on the 7th night. Hopefully we can slowly reduce his dependence on it to sleep and break it altogether by his 2nd birthday, which is just over a month away.

Wedding Reception, Thank Goodness for Grandma

2011-07-24T15:12:00.000+10:00

One of Wenty's friends got married on the weekend. Attending a long wedding reception with our 22 months old is simply asking for trouble and frustation. Luckily my mom is here now so both of us could attend the wedding while we left Rafa with his grandma and his cousin.

It's actually the very first time that we have left Rafa with anyone for an extended period of time, he always had at least of us with him. To our pleasant surprise, when I went back to my parents' place after the wedding, I found him just the way I left him five hours earlier. Happily playing in my parents' room with his grandma and cousin. He just gave me this big happy grin when he saw me back. He played, ate, and napped as per normal and didn't even cry or look for us.

I guess we shouldn't really be surprised as it's just a day with his own grandma at their house after all. We visit them regularly so it's familiar people and familiar place. Leaving him with strangers in child care will be a different ball game altogether and will most likely trigger different reaction. No immediate plan to do that yet at this stage.

Anyway, back to the wedding. It was a mostly Indonesian crowd at the International @ Brighton yesterday. Very nice venue apart from the lack of parking spaces. A few selected photos from the wedding reception.

Thinking About Contracting

2011-07-15T22:38:00.003+10:00

While browsing for the available jobs out there, I am also starting to ponder the option of switching to become an independent contractor. Most of the senior/lead developer permanent jobs currently advertised in Melbourne on seek do not look appealing at all.

The main benefits of becoming a contractor are the much higher hourly rate, the variety of the projects, and the additional tax deductions available. On the other side of the argument are the usual lack of job security, the unpaid down time and the constant need to find new contracts.

If I switch, my main motivation will be the ability to make more money while remaining technical. Going to all these meetings and writing all these plans and reports and being responsible for the delivery and quality of other people's work are not exactly something I find enjoyable. Things that are necessary evils which I unfortunately will have to do more and more to keep climbing the pay ladder as a permanent.

The question is how much hourly rate to make the switch worthwhile? And how do I convince the mrs who is super conservative when it comes to my job security that the benefits outweigh the risks.

And then there are the more practical questions like ABN and taxes and insurances. Talking to some of our contractors, it looks like there are many ways to go around it. Going through an umbrella company which handles the required insurances, the payroll/admin, and tax returns for a small fee of up to 5% of their rates is a relatively painless and inexpensive way to start. Some go through their own registered company and there are more administration burdens in that. Other are effectively PAYE employees through recruitment companies.

I am just thinking out loud here and am not planning to switch right now. I'll need to learn more about this option and if I haven't found a better permanent role by end of the year and things at my work do not improve to my likings then I'll probably start applying for contract roles as well.

Any IT contractors out there want to share their experience on this?

Riding Mule While Looking For Horse

2011-07-03T23:19:00.005+10:00

Strange title but those of you with Chinese background will be familiar with
騎驢找馬. After 4 1/2 years with my current employer, I am finally starting to think that perhaps it's time to move on. This has been my longest job by far, my 3 previous jobs all lasted around 2-2 1/2 years, so I am probably overdue for a change.

I don't know why... my senior manager is trusting me to lead a high profile strategic project and I am starting to get some visibility from his bosses too. I get along with my workmates and the compensation is decent. Perhaps I am just tired. So many deliveries and tight deadlines for the project, I have about 7 weeks worth of annual leave built up already but no time to take them. This despite cashing out some of my leave a couple of years ago.

Perhaps I am just angry of the way they changed the performance metric so that it's now nearly impossible to get very good performance based raise. Why bother working my backside off to produce quality work on time if the outcome is going to be the same?

Perhaps it's our ultra conservative approach to new technologies that if I stay too long I may become obsolete and will have to stay forever. May be it's just too long at the same place. Between all those factors, I finally got off my butt and started looking at Seek.com.au and started polishing my CV and cover letter again.

I am very selective these days so I only saw one role that looked like a good match and worth my time applying for this week. Ah well the best time to find a new job is when I am in no hurry to land one, as I can look more carefully and negotiate the entry point better. Fingers crossed, hope I find a better job soon :).

Cheap Toy Options

2011-06-26T23:07:00.005+10:00

Winter means less outdoor activities and more indoor play time for the little ones. Rafa's current favourite toy at home is still the wooden Thomas rail set (no surprises here for anyone who have little boys at home) but he needs quite a variety of other toys too to keep occupied.

Buying new toys frequently can be quite expensive, so I am glad there are other options out there. There is always ebay for a starter. We got him a nice little bike for only $7 a few months ago. And then there is the Munchin Markets where you can buy 2nd hand toys for a small fraction of their original prices.

The 2nd hand plastic toys tend to show significant wear and tear so we prefer the wooden ones as they tend to be much more durable and doesn't show as much signs of ageing.

Cheap 2nd hand toys aside, you can always borrow toys from the local library here. Many libraries here have toy section too, not just books and DVDs. It's becoming a routine for us to walk there on Saturday mornings to return and borrow more toys every 2-3 weeks and stop by Bunnings for the hotdogs. The local library is just fantastic, Wenty also brought Rafa there for rhyme time a couple of time as our little boy loves to sing nursery rhymes. He loves it so much that he even sings in his dream sometimes, he'll go 'eya eya yo' or 'moo moo here moo moo there' out of the blue while sleeping. Anyway, that's getting off topic now.

Australia Becoming More Asian?

2011-06-20T22:09:00.003+10:00

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics, there are over 2 million Asian born people in Australia now, double of what it was 10 years ago. The trend has become more and more obvious in the past few years. Especially for those of us in Melbourne. I see many more Asian faces on the train/tram now and the proportion of Asians at my workplace has increased by quite a lot as well.

Whether or not that is a good thing depends on your perspective I guess. I may be stereotyping but Asian migrants tend to be hard workers with big focus on their kids' education so it will help the economy and education standards. But on the other hand, the unpleasant traits such as over-competitiveness, dodgy dealings (corruptions, frauds etc) will no doubt get imported as well to some degree. The things that drove some of us to migrate away from Asia in the first place.

Ah well, I can only hope that we take the good of our ethnic culture with us and leave the not so good ones behind, and adopt a good measure of the Australian culture. Would hate to see the beautiful Melbourne turn into another Asian metropolitan with unending rat race and unhealthy obsession with money.

2 million may not sound like a lot (roughly 10% of population) but you have to remember this does not include those with Asian background and born in Australia. The comprehensive 5 yearly census later this year will be very interesting. I for one am looking forward to the findings of that census.

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/national/asian-migration-a-tour-de-force-20110616-1g62x.html

Long Weekend @ Shepparton

2011-06-18T15:47:00.002+10:00

Finally have time to update blog again :).

Last month was a bit hectic but last week was nice. I handed my final uni assignment last Wednesday, and then had a four days long weekend starting with an after work bowling session with workmates on Thursday evening and then Friday at home with the little boy while Wenty enjoyed a much needed 4 hours massage/haircut/beauty treatment with her best friend and then a quick getaway trip for us three to Shepparton for the next three days.

The main highlight in Shepparton (for us anyway) is probably the Emerald Bank Leisure Land, with its picturesque windmill, mini golf, mini train, nice garden and chocolate shop and cafe.

Those with children should definitely visit Kidstown too while in Shepparton. Plenty there to keep the kids occupied for hours.

There is also a nice little lavender farm near Shepparton.

And a lot of art cow statues around.

Shepparton is actually only 2 hours drive north of Melbourne so you can even squeeze it in a day trip if you want to.

Hibernation

2011-05-08T20:50:00.003+10:00

This blog is going into hibernation mode for a while. I am just too busy at the moment to update it. Even when I had the time to write, it had been only superficial posts about the topic that interest me the most right now (still our little boy!).

There won't be any update for the next month and a bit at the very least. I'll still reply to comments (won't be timely though). Hopefully, I'll have more time to update it again during uni semester break.

ps. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.

The Local Playground

2011-05-01T22:06:00.005+10:00

Apparently the local playground is a rather busy place during weekday afternoons. The stay at home moms and the grandparents congregate there with their little ones when the weather is good.

Wenty was just saying that if people see their 'neighbours' (not next door neighbours, but people who live in the same neighbourhood) while they are walking in the park or something, they rarely stop and have a chat. At most, you'll greet them and then continue on whatever you were doing. But the parents and the grandparents at the playground do try to get to know each other.

I suppose they are not in any great hurry and as parents you want your kid to become friend and play more with other kids in the neighbourhood, like most of us did when we were little.

Rafa always enjoy playing there and will sometime ask his mom to bring him there. A mention of '去 Park 玩' and you will have one happy little boy heading toward our safety gate, sitting down nicely and ask us to put on his shoes. Wenty has been bringing Rafa there almost every day recently but now that we are in May and the weather is getting colder, she may have to cut the visits down a bit.

It was a very quiet (apart from the birds) Saturday morning when I brought him there yesterday so I recorded some of it on my mobile :).

Autumn @ Mt Macedon

2011-04-17T22:13:00.003+10:00

Just a few more photos from yesterday's day trip. Autumn in Mt Macedon has very nice colours! There is just something romantic about the autumn tree leaves in this particular street, the photo doesn't do enough justice.

This church was all red.

This is Rafa's 'I am going on adventure' walking sytle, left and right and left and right.

A bit of a race with daddy, need to exercise to keep warm, the peak of the mountain was about 10 degree colder than Melbourne city.

Oh and the Memorial Cross at the park near the peak of Mt Macedon.

Bold Garden Cafe @ Castlemaine

2011-04-16T22:41:00.001+10:00

We stumbled upon the Bold Garden Cafe in Castlemaine (Chewton) today and it's definitely a place that we wouldn't mind driving 1 hour to visit again every now and then. We didn't even plan to eat there or know about it beforehand. We happened to drive past the street and saw a weekend market going on across it so we stopped to take a look. Didn't see anything interesting in the market, but we then spotted the Bold cafe which seemed quite interesting and kid friendly.

The menu range was quite limited but the food itself was delicious and inexpensive. The staff was very friendly and service was good.

Rafa also liked the food there!

As the name suggests, they have a nice garden area and we chose to be seated outside today. Their indoor area also seemed very cozy and welcoming which will be ideal when winter comes.

There is a nursery adjacent to the cafe for those of you who are into gardening. We weren't interested in the plants but Rafa seemed to like these animal garden decorations.

That was the Bold Cafe. It's always nice to take a relaxing drive with the family to visit the countryside, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. The vast amount of space, the natural beauty, and the friendly country people have some sort of therapeutic effect on you. I am glad we find another excuse to visit Castlemaine in the future.

If you are heading to Castlemaine or Bendigo for a visit, then I highly recommend a stop at this cafe.

NGV Kids Corner

2011-04-10T20:39:00.003+10:00

We are quite lucky that Melbourne has a variety of free/cheap local attractions that are built for kids. They are quite handy to have, especially when the weather starts to get cold. Most are aimed a slightly older kids, but even toddlers would find these places very enjoyable. NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) is such a place, they have a little kids corner at Federation Square.

We went there this morning and it was quite crowded as they had story telling time at 10.30am. Rafa was more interested in the car than the story telling so he made good use of the story telling time to have a decent ride of the car while most other kids were listening to the story.

Unfortunately the kid's corner at NGV was quite small and there were more kids than toys there so some of the slightly bigger kids there could get a bit aggressive. I very much prefer to bring him to Scienceworks or at least Melbourne Museum Child Section as there are much more attractions/toys there to go around for everyone.

Having said that it's a decent place to kill some time and let the kids burn off some energy if you happen to be visiting Federation Square with a little one and when it's not too crowded.

They also have an art and craft market outside the NGV every Sunday, something that the parents may be interested in. Rafa was much more interested with his boost juice and having a laugh watching some bigger kids climb up and slide off the curves in the middle of the market.

Toddlers Love IKEA

2011-04-02T20:51:00.007+11:00

We went to IKEA to buy some children table and chairs for Rafa. We haven't been to IKEA for a while and I never knew a trip to IKEA could be so much fun for a little toddler.

There are toys and other distractions that Rafa found rather interesting.

And a mini kitchen too.

Oh and of course testing a few kiddo chairs which is what we were there for.

Anyway, we settled for a couple of wooden white chairs with a table to match. Our 'kay po' boy had fun 'helping' daddy put them together too. Although I probably would have them done in half the time without his 'help'.

The little boy now has his own table and chairs for some of his activities. Yay!

Land Taxes & Car Damages

2011-03-30T21:30:00.003+11:00

I just received my very first land tax notice from the SRO (State Revenue Office). It's only a few hundred dollars as expected so no drama there. My dad also received a land tax notice recently but his was an unexpected $4000+ bill which obviously doesn't sound right.

The developer (AustCorp) who built that estate went bankrupt a couple of years ago (around the time of settlement), and the developer still owed SRO land tax on the property and they defaulted on that. Apparently SRO has the right to go after the current owner for money owed to them on the property.

Long story short, this is something that the lawyer/conveyancer representing the property purchaser should have checked and obtained a clearance certificate from SRO prior to settlement. My sister and brother in law are still chasing their conveyancer to find out what happened and I have suggested that they should ask the conveyancer to pay it or take him to small claims court if it's due to his negligence (ie he did not obtain clearance certificate from SRO).

As often in life, you get what you paid for. I personally think that it's worth paying a couple/few hundreds dollars more for a lawyer rather than just a conveyancer. Too late for that now.

My dad is not having much luck lately. He was also involved in a couple of minor car accidents recently. The first was the other party's fault but they refused to pay for his car damage and he reckoned there was no point pursuing it further as the other party did not seem like they had money to pay anyway and he still hasn't got his Australian license, so his chance of getting anything if it goes further is virtually nothing.

The second one was dad's fault and he ended up having to pay thousands of dollars to fix his own car and the other party's car. Thankfully it was just car damage rather than personal injury. Not a good month for dad at all.

Chillipadi Mamak Kopitiam @ Flemington

2011-03-27T18:27:00.003+11:00

Talking about restaurants, we finally went to the new Malaysian restaurant that recently opened near our place. For those of you who like Malaysian mamak food, Chillipadi Mamak Kopitiam in Flemington is worth a visit (or a few).

The nasi kandar and satays were delicious, but the char kwe tiaw was quite ordinary. I am not much of a food blogger, so go to Jeroxie's blog for a proper review of the food there.

The decor is quite interesting and the place is very spacious for an Asian restaurant, no problems fitting prams in there (unlike the nearby Laksa King). They also have plenty of high chairs and even colourful plastic plates and utensils for the kiddos.

We'll definitely be eating there at least semi regularly.

1st May Update:
Another thumb up for their child friendliness. Rafa was a bit upset during our recent visit and the waitress brought some children book and gave him a free kiddo drink to help calm him down. All of that while maintaining their friendly attitude and smile too, unlike some other places where they start giving you the dirty looks. Really appreciated that!

Keeping Rafa Happy @ Restaurants

2011-03-26T13:47:00.004+11:00

We used to dread eating out at restaurants with Rafa as he would get bored easily and wouldn't normally allow us to enjoy our meals in peace. I suppose being strapped to a high chair while watching the adults eat and talk is not exactly exciting for a toddler. Toys and books don't keep him content for long too, unless it's a new toy and it's unrealistic to buy him a new toy every time we eat out.

Look like he may be starting to outgrow that phase. Just give him a bowl/plate, a tiny bit of rice, and a spoon. Apparently that keeps him happy and occupied throughout the meal without us having to entertain him. It gives him the much needed practice of feeding himself too.

He struggled with the large Korean spoon and the adult plate, but that didn't stop him from having a great time. I guess he just likes being part of the action, eating on the big table just like the grown ups do.

First post in nearly two weeks, which is quite rare for me. Thanks to the uni group assignment/presentation, It ate up what little time I had in the past couple of weeks after the usual work and family time, nothing left for me time (of which blogging is part of).

18-Month Immunisation & Check Up

2011-03-14T09:51:00.009+11:00

Rafa went for his 18-month check up and chickenpox immunisation last Thursday. He cringed a bit when the nurse injected the vaccine but it was over and done with before he even started crying as there was only one injection this time as compared to three during the 12-month old immunisation.

He is still a rather tall and skinny boy, 84cm and 10.455kg at exactly 18 months.

He loves playing with his trains and blocks at the moment. He would put a few blocks on the base and push it around like one of his trains, or he would stack them up really high and then collapse them.

The leaning tower of Pisa is collapsing. Timberrrrrrrrrr!

I still can't believe how fast these little cheeky buggers grow. It only seemed like yesterday when ours was just a little baby.

Caribbean Garden

2011-03-07T18:58:00.001+11:00

We went to the Caribbean Garden with my parents and my sister yesterday. There was a market there but we were there just to enjoy the rare warm day rather than to shop. Not much to write about the visit, lots of photos though.

Learning To Spoon Feed Himself

2011-03-05T22:49:00.006+11:00

It seems quite standard to start teaching a toddler to feed himself with a spoon at around 12 months of age here in Australia. We have been putting it off since we wanted to make sure that Rafa eat as much as possible given his slim build, and we were not particularly keen on the mess that comes with the learning process.

We have to teach him sooner or later though, and with him turning 18 months soon and his 18 months check up coming up next week, we thought we might as well start it now. It was messy all right, I am glad we did it at the balcony.

We started with a tub of yoghurt. It seemed like hard work for him and he tried to get out of it by telling us it's 'habis' (finished) before it actually was and then tried to laugh his way out. He started getting the hang of it toward the end though and eventually finished it but half the tub probably went to waste somewhere on his face, his clothes, the high chair and the floor. Ah well mess is an integral part of toddler learning and hopefully it will get better with a few more practices.

It's a late milestone for Rafa but hey it's still a big step for him and we recorded a video of his effort :).

Rafa's Little Friends

2011-02-27T22:20:00.001+11:00

Wenty and Rafa started joining a local playgroup about five months ago and so far it's been great. It's a good way for Rafa to socialise with other kids his age and for Wenty to meet other moms in the neighbourhood.

The group had a BBQ today at the home of one of the parents. It's the first gathering with the daddies coming along so I got to meet Rafa's little friends and their parents for the first time. It's so cute to see eight little toddlers together.

A few selected shots of the kiddos playing.

This is Sir Orange Helmet.

This little cutie found the curtain rather amusing.

Trying to get a clear shot of eight little toddlers sitting nicely together was never an easy task.

Another fun filled day of playing for Rafa and his friends.

Little Escape Artist, Time To Convert Cot To Toddler Bed?

2011-02-19T09:39:00.006+11:00

Despite being born in the year of ox, our little fella's restlessness is more like a monkey than an ox. But then again, what else to expect from a toddler his age?

Yeah Rafa has learned how to climb out of his playpen. Quite a little acrobatic move. He is also trying to do somersault now but hasn't quite mastered that one yet.

Now that he knows how to climb out of his playpen, it seems that he will learn how to climb out of his cot as well soon. Perhaps we should convert the cot to a toddler bed already? For the other parents out there, when do you convert your toddler from a cot to a bed or remove the cot side rail?

Happy Chinese New Year!

2011-02-06T23:31:00.007+11:00

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

This is the first time in nine years that I get to celebrate CNY with my parents as I haven't spent CNY in Medan since 2002 and it's their first CNY in Melbourne. And we had to wait til the weekend before I could go and celebrate with them as there is obviously no public holiday here for CNY and work is too busy for me to take a day off this week.

They live quite far from our place and I am simply too tired to bother driving a couple of hours there on a weekday evening after work (1 hour each way on weekdays) at the moment.

With a major delivery for my team due in two weeks, the intensity and pressure at work for me is much higher than usual so by the time I get home I prefer to switch off the brain and just play with Rafa and watch some TV. This is also the reason that I haven't updated the blog for a while.

Even my passengers find the long drive there quite tiring.

But seeing Rafa enjoy the time with his cousins and grandma is always worth the drive.

An incomplete family photo, too bad my brother and his wife and kid are not here. I haven't seen my brother for years and I have a four year old nephew whom I haven't even met yet! The good news is they will come to Melbourne for a visit later this year.

That was the big family photo, also need a small family photo of the three of us.

Is it just me or these two look alike when they smile?

Family and hong baos aside, Rafa also saw some liondance in Chinatown and got to eat some unhealthy snacks for CNY. He was quite scared of the liondance noises, that's why he was holding tight to his security blanket.

He absolutely loved the pork & beef jerky and the cheese potato. Yeah they are not healthy but hey it's Chinese New Year and it's only once a year!

Happy River Cafe @ Footscray

2011-01-27T07:09:00.002+11:00

It's not easy to enjoy eating out when you have a restless toddler with you. Even the most delicious food becomes rather tasteless if we have to gulp it down in a hurry because our little boy is getting bored and restless. With that in mind, we are always on the lookout for child friendly restaurants/cafes with decent food.

Happy River Cafe at Footscray is such a place. I don't know why it took us so long to finally go there considering it's quite near our place and we have seen the glowing review of it on Little Eats quite a while ago. I am just glad we went as it didn't disappoint.

They have a few toy cars and other toys to keep the kids occupied while the adults enjoy their food/drinks. The large grass area in front also offers enough secure space for them to run around and burn their energy within your sight. This blue Tike in particular was Rafa's favourite there.

The food was all right without being spectacular. It's the usual cafe brunch type menu with reasonable prices. We had the bacon & scrambled eggs on toast and smoked salmon plus poached eggs and hollandaise. The bacon & eggs were better than the salmon. Being able to enjoy the food leisurely was a big plus for us.

As the name suggested, the cafe is located next to the river. That's the Maribyrnong river behind the cafe and the CBD and the container port on the other side of the river.

For those who are interested in local art, there is an art gallery next door too inside that charismatic old building.

Verdict? Highly recommended for parents with young kids.

Rafa's First Song

2011-01-23T22:59:00.007+11:00

The ABC song is Rafa's favourite song. We sing it to him or play it on youtube quite often to soothe him down when he is upset or to distract him. He surprised us about a week ago when he started trying to sing/hum the song along with us when we sang it to him.

Obviously it's still all over the places and the only part that he managed with some sort of consistency is the h i j k part although it sounds more like h i a k and a bit of the tune.

That didn't stop me from pestering him with the camera today in an attempt to record his first attempt at 'singing'. Another piece of priceless memory of our little boy for myself and Wenty.

Toddler Breakfast Suggestion For Our Weetbix Boy?

2011-01-17T23:40:00.004+11:00

What does your toddler eat for breakfast?

Our 16 month old boy has organic weetbix for breakfast at home, almost every single day for the past 3-4 months. He has some milk at around 6.30am, then some weetbix with more milk at around 8.30am and either a slice of cheese or a tub of toddler yoghurt for morning tea at 10.30am.

We think weetbix is awesome for him. It's quick and easy, healthy, cheap, filling, and best of all, Rafa likes it. Having said that, I think we should give him a few more alternatives for brekkie. As much as he likes his weetbix he is bound to get sick of it if he keeps eating weetbix everyday like this. Wenty puts a bit of manuka honey in Rafa's weetbix and that probably helps with the taste too as weetbix itself is rather plain and boring.

So far we have tried giving him scrambled eggs (he didn't like it), oats (he found it ok, can offer as alternative I guess), cheese and yoghurt (both are too light for breakfast for him now and are used as snacks between main meals), bread (he liked it plain but didn't like jams). Any other suggestions for a toddler his age?

Oh and we finally moved him on to 100% fresh cow's milk a couple of weeks ago. Prior to that he only had fresh cow's milk for his weetbix and formula for everything else.

We still have 2 1/2 tins of toddler formula powder left so I am not sure what to do with them. Just keep them for emergency food when we run out of fresh milk and are too lazy to go out and buy?

100000km Car Service

2011-01-15T23:21:00.004+11:00

Just had my car serviced, it's the 100000km service which normally comes with a hefty service bill. To my pleasant surprise the total bill this time was just over $400, that's not even half of what I paid for the 100000km service of my previous car. But then again the normal big ticket item at 100000km is the timing belt replacement, and the Accord Euro is chain driven.

I don't drive new (under warranty) cars so I never have my car serviced at the dealer. I normally just have them serviced at a franchised store such as Ultratune, Midas or KMart Auto, whichever I find convenient. Talking about which, if anyone know a good and honest car mechanic in Melbourne inner north/west, please let me know. I don't know anything about the inside of cars so I can't even tell the difference between a good or bad car service and whether I am getting ripped off.

Naughty Toddler? Little Angel? It's Relative

2011-01-13T23:07:00.004+11:00

When Rafa was in Singapore, his maternal grandparents commented that he was a naughty boy and asked Wenty to discipline him more. He couldn't stay still for long, would often want to go to places that he was forbidden to go to, and attempted to play with forbidden items, and threw a tantrum when not allowed. Well he is usually a lot crankier in hot weather so some of the tantrums were caused by the heat too.

I always thought that was what toddlers his age do, wanting to explore (especially when forbidden) and trying to push the boundaries, so in my biased opinion he wasn't being naughty most of the time. I guess it's all relative, here in Australia we are so used to having a much more relaxed attitude towards toddlers and their boundaries and normally encourage them to explore more, getting a few knocks here and there and getting dirty is considered a natural part of growing up.

Rafa's playgroup resumed today after the holiday period and Wenty came back telling me that compared to the other kids at his local playgroup, our little boy is considered quite mild.

It depends on what you are used to and the other kids around. Having the super well behaved and calm Singapore born cousin next to him did make Rafa look naughty by comparison. But then again that's not surprising. Pick an average kid raised in Singapore under their strict discipline and parenting style there, and an average kid raised in Australia with the relaxed parenting style here, and the difference in the way they behave will be obvious.

My parents on the other hand think that Rafa is a relatively well behaved boy. The reason? Well, all his male cousins from my side of family are super active and are what many Asians consider 'naughtier'.

Take his cousin Joshua (pictured below) for example. He is not even 2 years old yet and the moment we put him in my dad's bedroom and bolted the door he rushed to grab his stool, climbed on it and attempted to unlock the bolt and get out.

They need to put the bolt much higher for this little guy.

Rafa already had a few pushes with him fighting over toys and so far our boy always come out 2nd best against his older and bigger cousin. There will be many more pushes and shoves between these two bandits (in between peaceful plays) as they grow up together, so boy you better put on some bulk on your frame if you don't want to lose out on toys all the time.

Mornington Beach On A Hot Day

2011-01-08T21:28:00.002+11:00

It was a hot day today, mid 30 degrees. One of Melburnians' favourite activities on hot days like this is to hit the water, either at the beach or at the pool. Since Wenty just brought Rafa to the local swimming pool yesterday we decided to go to the beach today.

We planned to go somewhere around Brighton but our little boy fell asleep on the way so we kept on going further along the bayside rather than disturb his sleep. By the time he woke up we had reached Mornington already, so that's where we went in the end.

Given the fierce Australian sun, it's best for the kids to wear appropriate beach clothing with upf protection that covers a large part of their body (especially the head) and apply plenty of sun lotion on the uncovered area. Sunglasses and a large beach umbrella/tent are also recommended.

I bought him a little kiddo sunglasses but he refused to wear it and his mom complains that the model is so ugly. Apparently most kiddos his age do not like wearing sunglasses according to the other moms in Rafa's playgroup. We still need to get a beach umbrella/tent.

It was good to see him enjoying himself at the beach, he loves playing in the water. It's the perfect place to spend a hot day like this. I'll finish this post with a short video of Rafa playing at the beach.

Flying Air Asia With A Toddler

2011-01-03T23:53:00.002+11:00

Last month trip was our very first time flying with Rafa. It was our first time flying Air Asia on the Melbourne - KL route too. The first flight from Melbourne to KL was quite bad as it was an 11am flight and Rafa was full of energy and restless it was very hard to keep him occupied for the whole flight. Letting him explore the back of the plane and a portable DVD player with his favourite cartoons helped a bit. He was also struggling with the ear pressure change on landing.

Thankfully the other flights were mostly short flights (KL-Macau is only 3 1/2 hours and Singapore-KL is under 1 hour) and the flight back to Melbourne was a midnight flight so he slept through most of the other four flights and by then he had learned to suck on something during landing. We learned a very important lesson of flying with a young child, always fly at night for anything more than 3-4 hours.

I was actually quite happy with the Air Asia flights and it was definitely good value for money. It cost us a total of just under A$1k for Melb-KL-Macau-KL-Melb tickets for two plus infant, inclusive of taxes, meals and luggage charges. The service is better than the likes of Tiger and Jetstar.

Having said that you still get what you pay for. If it were just us two adults or if it were three of us on a shorter flight, Air Asia is still fine but on an 8 hour flight with a 15 months old, every little comfort helps. A full service airline for the Melbourne flight would have been well worth it for this trip.

The other things we learned are that the 100ml liquid restriction is not applicable when you travel with a young infant and that pram is not included in the luggage weight. The people at the airports were super polite and helpful too when they saw a little one in our group, at least that was the case with Melbourne airport, LCCT in KL, and Macau airport, can't say the same about Singapore airport unfortunately.

We spaced our flights so that there was at least an overnight rest in between flights and stayed at the budget Tune hotel near LCCT for a couple of nights during transit. The hotel is very convenience, you can either walk there or take a short shuttle bus which runs 24 hours. We tried both and walking is easier as you can push the trolley all the way there rather than having to load/unload luggage from the bus. There is also a shuttle bus to the KLIA from tune hotel but it's quite a lengthy ride.

Tune hotel itself is a no frill budget hotel much like the airline. You have to pay extra for air con and what not. The room is super tiny, much smaller than a business hotel in Tokyo! It has no TV, fridge, water boiler, but it's clean and the bed is comfy. It's just super convenient if you need a place to bathe and rest during transit. They have seven eleven and a few restaurants/cafes downstairs and free internet for guests.

It's the total opposite of Venetian and Rafa had to take his bath in the hand wash basin as the bathroom only has a shower.

I didn't write about the KL part of the trip as it was only a bit of eating and shopping there. A total of 4 nights in KL, 1 night of transit each way and 2 nights in between while catching up with my in laws there. We flew from Melbourne with 28kg of luggage and came back 47kg despite unloading a few kg of gifts to family in Asia, 2kg over the limit for a couple of our flights but luckily Air Asia check in lady let it slide without a fuss.

That was our experience flying budget with a little toddler. The flights aside, I think we screwed up Rafa's routines during the trip and he now sleeps much later than usual, only going to bed at 11-11.30pm. To be honest I think taking him on a trip like this at his age was a mistake. I think we'll stick to somewhere nearer (domestic or may be NZ) for our next holiday and wait til he is a bit older for further trips.

2010 Asia Holiday: Family Reunion in Singapore

2010-12-20T23:15:00.013+11:00

The main reason for our visit to Singapore this time was family. With Wenty in Melbourne and one of his brother in Indonesia and another one in Singapore, the last time all three siblings and my parents in laws gathered together in the same place was over seven years ago at our wedding!

We had seen her parents or her brothers separately more recently on their visits here or our visits there but not everyone together, so this was all about family reunion. Rafa had a cousin who is about two weeks younger than him too so it was good to see him for the very first time and cute to see the two kids together.

Oh yeah we went to the new Universal Studio in Singapore while we were there. The kids are definitely too young to remember, but hey it was a good family outing and the most excited person was my father in law. We took some complete family photos while we were there.

Did I say family photo? Yes I always suspected that we were somehow related to that big green guy in the middle.

Rafa's trusty yellow pram came along too and I am glad we decided to bring it on the trip. Thanks to our friends who recommended against getting a light and cheap umbrella stroller for the trip. It was definitely more comfy for him to nap in while we were out, and easier for us to push and navigate in the crowded area.

Singapore was just mostly spending time with family, a bit of shopping and eating. Did I mention eating? Yum... mee pok, chilli crab, laksa, etc etc.

Even this random Singapore laksa from Laksania at a local food court in Singapore tasted better than the best laksa in Melbourne!

That was our Singapore visit in a nutshell. We had hoped to catch up with some friends in Singapore during our visit but between Rafa falling sick and spending time with the family, it was just too hard to organise so we'll have to do that next time. Ditto with KL. I hope our Singapore and KL based friends understand it was hard to organise catch up while travelling with a sick toddler and a large entourage of family members, and not because we are 'sombong'.

2010 Asia Holiday: Falling Sick in Singapore

2010-12-19T18:23:00.002+11:00

We spent 8 nights (exactly half our trip) in Singapore after the Macau leg and a 2-night stopover in KL. We initially planned to spend less than that in Singapore but Rafa fell sick on our first day in Singapore so we adjusted our plan.

Poor boy was coughing, had a runny nose, minor fever and constipation. It was very terrible for him, being sick while away from the comfort and familiarity of his own home. Needless to say, he was very cranky too. We ended up bringing him to the KK Children's Hospital on our first night there.

It was somewhere between 2am-3am so the queue at the emergency room was quite reasonable. The S$85 charge (including the prescribed medicine) at the ER was very reasonable too for a foreigner. Apparently the charge for foreigners is the same as locals? We also had to bring him to a local GP the next day to get something for the constipation. Rafa's first couple of days in Singapore were anything but pleasant.

Apart from sickness, Rafa is very picky with his food. He doesn't like those commercial infant food and can't take much of adult food yet so he had been eating quite poorly during the trip. He had lost quite a bit of weight between that and his sickness and he was a slim boy to start with, seeing him so skinny was quite a heartbreaking sight for Wenty and me.

On the flip side, it could have been worse. At least we were at my brother in law's place and he knew where to go for a sick child as he has a son about Rafa's age. His presence and assistance were invaluable. It would have been much worse if he fell sick in Macau or Malaysia.

It also meant that there was a proper kitchen for Wenty to prepare Rafa's favourite food, his mom's cooking.

Everyone in the house could tell that he was so glad when he saw/smelled the familiar congee that Wenty normally cooks for him. Nothing beats mom's cooking eh? Made 100% with love. It felt good to see his appetite returning and him eating proper portions again.

We initially planned to travel from Singapore back to KL by land and stop by places like Malacca on the way back but after the drama with Rafa falling sick, it made sense for us to remain in Singapore longer and only fly back to KL on the night before our flight back to Melbourne.

Between the prescribed medicine and his mom's cooking, we slowly nurse Rafa back to health and he recovered toward the end of the trip. Well that was the story of a little sick boy in Singapore. Will post the happier parts of the Singapore visit next.

2010 Asia Holiday: More of Macau

2010-12-16T22:36:00.002+11:00

More from the Macau leg of our trip.

We took a cab from our hotel to the St Paul's ruins as the lady at the hotel advised us that it's a fair walk from the shuttle bus and taxi is quite cheap and that we would be better off with a taxi since we were pushing a pram. She was right, the cab ride cost less than A$10.

You can see how bad the pollution was. We could hardly see the tall buildings on the other side of the bridge while our cab crossed the bridge thanks to the thick grey smog. After crossing into Macau central and up into some small lanes pass a bunch of tour buses, we arrived at one of Macau's most famous landmarks, the St Paul's ruins.

After a quick look and a few photos, we explored the lanes and the streets around there.

And we decided to eat at some roadside hawkers. A bowl of fish congee and a bowl of some local snacks for about A$4 total, much better price than the food in Venetian.

We could easily get by with Mandarin inside Venetian as most of the staff there understand Mandarin, but I had to throw in some of my rudimentary Cantonese when speaking to the hawkers here and Wenty had to throw in some sign language with her hand :P.

I was still a bit hungry after that so I got myself a pork chop bun.

Honestly, the pork chop bun from this store was disappointing. This is the store with bright yellow colour and has a TV screen showing some TV shows that say how good they are. A friend warned us against it but somehow I forgot and fell for it.

Anyway, more photos of the area, including the Senado Square.

Then we walked to the casino area and went into the general area of a couple of them. There are so many casinos in Macau, I am not much of a gambling person so we didn't actually went into the gambling area at all. Even if I were to gamble I would prefer to do it where the odds are better than the casino. We overheard a group of Chinese visitors at lunch nearby and one of them was telling her friends how she lost 60k (over A$8k) in the casino that day, no wonder these casino tycoons are so rich.

The Grand Lisboa (first photo) and MGM (the next two) were quite nice and we let Rafa roam around there to satisfy his curiosity and burn his energy since he had behaved himself very well being strapped in his pram for hours.

Oh and they had Crown in Macau too and it looks like a replica of the one in Melbourne. You would have believed me if I told you this photo was taken in Melbourne rather than Macau yeah?

We also spent some time in Taipa to enjoy some local food and the famous crab congee.

A few more photos from Taipa.

The Venetian aside, that's all we managed to do and see in Macau. Four days and we didn't even get the chance to visit some other famous local attractions like Ah Ma Temple.

A clip of Rafa in Macau to wrap up these two posts.

Will post about the Singapore & KL legs soon.

2010 Asia Holiday: Venetian Macau

2010-12-14T23:07:00.004+11:00

We are back from our holiday to Macau, KL and Singapore. I'll start with a post about the first leg of the trip which is Macau. We stayed in Macau for 4days/3nights, but I think we only managed to see less than what most Asian tourists could cram into a 2d/1n visit in Macau.

Travelling with a little toddler is quite different compared to just a group of young fit adults. We have to stop to feed him, change his nappy, let him roam and explore to his liking to burn off some of his energy, and stayed indoor at nights mostly. With that in mind we decided to stay at the 5 star Venetian resort and take it easy.

The room was nice and spacious and not too expensive thanks to the strong Australian dollar at the moment.

As the name suggests, the Venetian tries to create an artificial Venice, complete with gondola rides on waterways. To be honest I find the Venetian to be too artificial, it even has a fake blue skyline (which they need because the real sky in Macau is smoggy grey due to the pollution from mainland China).

Man Utd supporters will be glad to hear that they have a Man Utd experience store there. The upper level of the store contains a section with facilities for visitors to test their soccer skills and some Man Utd specific experience.

Venetian also has a children play area. While most of the toys and rides are for bigger kids, they have something for little toddlers as well.

The food at the food court in Venetian cost more than outside and is nothing special, however there is this Portuguese stall (next to Boost juice) that quickly became my favourite there.

A couple of samples of the pork chop noodle, ox tail noodle and some dessert from that stall in the food court. Alternatively, you can walk to Taipa from Venetian (only 15 minutes walk from the west entrance) and the food there is better.

While the food court is nothing special, the egg tarts were rather special. Lord Stow (one of the best in Macau apparently) has a store inside Venetian. Wenty likes egg tarts and while I don't normally like them in Melbourne, I really like the ones in Macau. Lord Stow's egg tarts have just the right amount of sweetness, right level of crisp and very yummy taste.

Taipa aside, the rest of Macau's attractions are simply too far to walk from Venetian. Thankfully they have free shuttle buses that go to many different places. Having said that we went to MGM thinking that they have a shuttle to Venetian and it turned out the shuttle from MGM only went to City of Dreams. Luckily City of Dreams is just opposite Venetian and there was a nice Chinese gentleman who walked us back to our hotel. Taking the wrong bus also meant that we had to go back through the main entrance and guess what?

We saw Louis Koo and Cecilia Cheung shooting a movie outside our hotel main entrance due to this.

Well this post is getting longer than I expected I think I will have to split it and post the rest of Macau in another post.

ps. Some of the photos are of rather poor quality as I only brought a portrait lens for the trip so I had to make do with mobile phone camera for some photos.

Rafa & Josh

2010-11-27T22:47:00.003+11:00

My parents are back in town, and two of Rafa's cousins came back with them. It's good to see them again after about six months and it's good to have some first cousins around for Rafa, especially considering he has no siblings.

Josh is only 5 months older than Rafa and is based in Melbourne (mostly), so the two will be growing up together.

Hu Jr Birthday Celebration @ Wattle Park

2010-11-23T22:26:00.001+11:00

One of our friends' son celebrated his 3rd birthday on the weekend. Rafa went and had a blast there. They have a couple old tram frames in the park and a nice playground. Unfortunately I left my camera at home, five little kids and an old tram would have provided a lot of decent photos.

While Rafa was enjoying himself with the other kids, us adults were treated with these yummy homemade Indonesian foods thanks to the grandma of the birthday boy.

Water Play @ Maribyrnong Aquatic Centre

2010-11-14T18:12:00.008+11:00

Wenty let Rafa play with water at home last Friday when it was hot (32 degree). When I came home in the evening, our little boy showed me how much he liked the bucket and bathtub by walking around with this bucket in his hands.

Seeing that he is starting to enjoy water play a bit more we brought him to the local aquatic centre today. Wenty did a few laps at the lap pool to help with her sinus (her long gone sinus back thanks to the hay fever season), and all three of us jumped into the heated children play pool after that.

The place was quite crowded with children of various ages. Rafa started to get used to staying in the pool for extended period this time, unlike when we brought him to the pool at San Remo last time. I guess seeing so many kids around him and having a few water play features in the pool helped.

We also bumped into a workmate of mine who lives nearby. She was with her three years old son who has been going there for regular swimming lessons since he was one. She told us how fun the classes for little toddlers are and Wenty is pretty much sold on enrolling Rafa for the lessons there. Obviously a parent will have to jump into the water with the kid during lessons at Rafa's age.

If anyone is looking for a pool for themselves or their kids in this area. The Maribyrnong Aquatic Centre is located at the aptly named Aquatic Drive, opposite Fitness First in Highpoint Shopping Centre. In fact it shares the parking lot with Highpoint so it's quite convenient (can shop and then swim and then back to Highpoint for a cuppa) and it's pretty new (only opened in 2006).

Both mother and son are tired after swimming/playing in the pool and are taking a nap now. Dinner is all taken care of too, courtesy of our local authentic Latino takeaway. I can study for my uni exam in peace now, right after I finish procrastinating by writing this blog entry first :P.

Another Dodgy Asian Restaurant

2010-11-13T15:52:00.005+11:00

I posted about J's Surf and Turf restaurant in Brighton a few months ago. If anyone is thinking of going there, don't bother. I just saw a link from a friend that they had recently been closed down by their local council.

"HEALTH inspectors have shut down a Brighton restaurant, alleging more than 130 breaches of the Food Act.

Bayside Council ordered J’s Surf and Turf restaurant to close on October 21, stating unsafe and unsuitable food was being prepared and sold at the premises.

The council’s infrastructure services acting director Samantha Krull said the Japanese restaurant was also unclean and in a state of disrepair.

Ms Krull said the restaurant posed an immediate and serious public health risk.

She said proprietors were issued with a notice outlining 133 Food Act breaches."

More at http://bayside-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/restaurant-shut-down-1/?ref=nf.

Didn't know they were that dodgy, luckily we didn't get food poisoning or anything like that.

Piggy Bank Saving

2010-11-06T22:48:00.000+11:00

One of Rafa's favourite toys is this piggy bank that we bought for him a few months ago. It's kinda cute watching how happy he is each time he puts a toy coin in. Here he is digging up one from under the mat (he has hidden treasures scattered under the play mat and under the mattress) and 'saving' it. Now that he has learned to open the piggy bank vault, the toy coins inside get emptied out frequently too.

Piggy bank aside, Rafa went to the beach and the playground today. I had visitors from Singapore so we brought them to breakfast at St Kilda Beach and then Brighton Beach as it's a nice sunny day today.

We Love Our Lil’ Tappy Turtle!

2010-11-02T12:52:00.007+11:00

Sponsored by Nuffnang

Yay! Rafa has a new toy to explore, learn and play. It is the tappy turtle, courtesy of our sponsors at Mattel and Nuffnang. I always love to see how Rafa play with his toys, it never ceases to amaze me to see how creative his little mind thinks sometime.

I didn’t open the parcel as soon as it arrived. I waited until the daddy came home so that we could play with it together. As soon as Wills came home and finished our dinner, we opened the parcel. When I looked at the toy, I thought to myself “Great! I can teach Rafa about colours and shapes in a more interesting way with this tappy turtle”.

As you can see in the photo, tappy turtle has a few different shapes with different colours that pop up on his shell, and when all the shapes are tapped down, the cute turtle’s head will pop out and make a “boing” sound, you can push the head back in to start again. It comes with a little mallet too!

When we gave it to Rafa for the first time, he grabbed the mallet and put it in his mouth lol, after all he is still a 13 months old. We started showing him how to tap the shapes with the mallet after that. He tried it but it’s mostly misses rather than hits with the mallet at the moment.

“Hhhmmm…. How do I get Tappy’s little head out?”

He only knows how to tap the shapes with his hands now. I am sure it won’t be long until he knows how to tap the shapes with the mallet after he plays with it more. There you go Rafa, you can practice your hands and eyes coordination more with your new toy, lil’ tappy turtle! :D

I took the turtle out for him to play again the next day just before his playgroup session. Look at the big cheeky grin on his face after the “boing” sound that the turtle made and the head popped out.

Since Rafa is 13 months old now, he is starting to learn something about the consequences of his actions from each one of his experiments. Therefore the tappy turtle is just perfect for him. I am sure the big cheeky grin after the “boing” sound shows the sense of excitement and accomplishment for him.

Thanks again Nuffnang and Mattel. We love it! :D

Melbourne Scienceworks

2010-11-01T19:22:00.001+11:00

It has been a cold and wet weekend so we couldn't do much despite me having four days off. Fortunately we thought about Scienceworks and decided to bring our little boy there. Rafa had a great time there.

This ship has lots of things to keep a little toddler busy.

And there were many other things to do and see.

Including this nice lego model of Melbourne CBD.

Those were just some of the things that he could play, there were plenty more stuffs for the bigger kids (even for big kids like daddy and mommy!). I gotta say that Scienceworks is even more fun than Melbourne Museum. And it's the same price as the museum ($8 for adults, kids and students go in for free) and has free parking (unlike the museum).

So Much To Learn

2010-10-27T22:29:00.003+11:00

Most of my recent days (and nights) had been filled with learning and study preparations: 3 full days of external training, uni night classes, assignment and presentation preparation, uni exam preparation, certification exam preparation, learning new technology for a project at work. I guess constant learning is part of the package in this industry.

I can finally breathe a sigh of relief today as all the uni deliverable had been delivered by last night, and this afternoon I sat the exam and got the certification that my employer sent me to do. What's left to do is just to study for the uni final exam in about three weeks and making sure the project at work is delivered on time. Project work is only during business hours and I can study for uni exam while commuting on the train/tram daily so at least Wenty and Rafa will get a bigger slice of my time again.

Oh and it gets better from here. Melbourne Cup is on next Tuesday so I have a four-day long weekend coming, and after that it's less than four weeks until we start our trip to Macau/KL/Singapore (unfortunately HK leg is canceled as we think it's too hard to enjoy HK in winter with a little toddler). And by the time we come back it will be very near Christmas break already.

Wenty just commented earlier today that I have got more grey hair already so I can definitely do with a break or two soon. Need to recharge as next year will be another busy year with yet another big project at work until September and more uni at nights and having to keep the big boss (aka the mrs) and the little boss (aka the son) at home happy.

Walking

2010-10-25T21:43:00.003+11:00

Rafa gained enough confidence to walk a bit more today. His learning to walk progress had been slow since he started making a couple of steps over a month ago so it's good to see him finally started walking around 2m in one go into my arms :).

On the flip side, he is a bit sick and has been coughing since Saturday evening after we came home from an outing with a few friends. Hope he gets better soon.

Cool 'Hat'

2010-10-21T22:54:00.002+11:00

Our little clown and his cool 'hat'. I am sure we'll show it to him when he is older and have a good laugh together.

Shopping for Health Insurance

2010-10-18T21:46:00.004+11:00

We have been with NIB for a while now and have been very happy with their cover during Wenty's pregnancy and the few extras that I claimed. Unfortunately, they are going to discontinue the package that I am currently on from next month. They are going to move me on to another package that seems to cover less (hospital excess goes up from $200/person to $250/person and extra cover dropped from 80% to 50%) but a bit more expensive (go figure!).

I am obviously not happy with the proposed change, so it's time to start shopping around for a new insurer. A quick search on iSelect seems to return La Trobe Health as the cheapest provider for what I am looking for. Anyone has any experience with them or has any other recommendations? I know I had asked this before about 2 1/2 years ago, but things may have changed since then (as evidenced by the changes in NIB package).

I wasn't a big believer of insurance a few years ago, but I have learned since then that they are necessary. Especially with a child, health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, income protection insurance, they all become very important to protect your family.

You may say that you don't need them because you are still young and healthy. But hey you never know eh. I just found out today that one of the ladies at our work has recently been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, very sad, and she is just around our age. Obviously the main thing is that hopefully she can beat the cancer and recover. On top of that I also hope that she has the relevant insurance to protect herself and her family.

Another Baby Boy Joins The Club

2010-10-10T22:16:00.001+11:00

Being in our age group means that our friends are starting to have babies too. Another baby boy was born recently, Callum is his name and he had a full month party today.

Baby Callum with his proud daddy.

It seems that most of the kids born in our social circle in the past two years are boys! The few little ones (under 2) that were in the party today were definitely all boys.

There were Nathan and Rafa. That was a rare moment when both of them could sit still in the garden at the same time!

There was little Oscar (little in age but not in size).

And of course, there was Rui Rui too.

I reckon there is something in the water. If this trend applies outside our social circle as well, the boys are gonna have to fight over a limited pool of potential girlfriends when they grow up :P.

Just Turned 30

2010-10-07T23:08:00.005+11:00

I feel like I have been living the life of a 30 years old for a few years already, having been working full time for over 10 years and married for over 7 years. The reality is I just turned 30 last Friday, hence the day off on Friday and the weekend trip to San Remo/Phillip Island.

Generally speaking, 30 is actually quite a good age to be at because:
- You start to have enough life experiences to give you the courage and some wisdom to face any problems in life with much more confidence.
- Your body is still young enough to easily do most of the things that you want to do.
- Your income earning capability is growing to allow you to do the things that you have wanted to do in your 20s but may be couldn't afford to.
- There is a good chance that you may have worked out what you really value in life rather than wandering around aimlessly or just following the crowd.

30 is also the age that people normally stop thinking that their body is invincible and start to look after themselves more. I am becoming more conscious of what I eat and do health wise, Wenty is also starting to tell me that I should eat less oily food now that I am 30 :P.

I had previously set myself some goals of where I want to be at 30. Those goals were achieved, but they are not what made me happy and content. Having Rafael and spending time with him and Wenty are what makes me really happy. We would be pretty sad now if we were still childless at 30 (considering we started trying when both of us were only 23).

Phillip Island

2010-10-06T23:10:00.001+11:00

We had visited Phillip Island a few times before, but our previous visits were always limited to the Penguin Parade to see the penguin colony (its main tourist attraction) and not much else. This time we went to the nearby Nobbies World.

It's a nice spot for a walk and if you put some coins into the many binoculars there (or bring your own), you should be able to spot some fur seals nearby (Phillip island is also the home to the largest fur seal colony in Australia).

If you ever wonder why most of Australia is quite clean, this should explain it. Start them young eh... good boy!

We also dropped by the Wildlife park on the island, home of many local wildlife species.

And the wildest of them all, my little homo sapien doing his best imitation of koala face.

A quick visit to the main township and beach of Cowes wrapped up our weekend trip.

It was a nice little break, my only complaint is that one night was way too short. May be we should go on another mini getaway on the Melbourne Cup long weekend early next month.

San Remo

2010-10-03T23:25:00.004+11:00

Just a quick post about our weekend trip to San Remo. We stayed at an apartment in Silverwater resort in San Remo, which I highly recommend for families with young children.

It has a heated indoor swimming pool (among many other facilities) and the weather was starting to hit 20+ degree celcius so we introduced Rafa to the swimming pool for the very first time.

The sunset from the resort is also quite nice.

A few silly photos about Rafa and the cooler box. He kept playing with it inside the apartment, perhaps he thought that's where the grown ups kept the cold beers and he wanted some :P.

And this was him after he finally got to the content of the cooler box, just kidding, he just had too much fun during the day.

One of the things that San Remo is known for is Pelican.

To be honest there isn't much to do within San Remo itself. It's just a nice place to chill and relax.

The most important thing is the kids enjoy it! There were a few more things to do and see at Phillip island across the bridge, will post them and more photos in the next few days when time permits.

Williamstown Craft Market

2010-09-19T22:37:00.000+10:00

Yes, I know I have written a few posts about Williamstown before. It just happens to be one of our favourite places to visit on a lazy weekend. They have a craft market on the waterfront there on every 3rd Sunday of the month.

Unfortunately Rafa fell asleep just as we got there. Not wanting to disturb his nap, we ended up having fish and chip in the car while waiting for him to wake up.

The craft market is mostly made up of stalls selling homemade products.

We didn't see anything we liked in the market. However, we saw something we liked in one of the shops across the street.

Gelato ice cream :). Strangely enough Rafa hated ice cream, we thought he would like it since he likes yoghurt.

They also have live music performance at the market. Rafa likes the grass so we let him down to explore around while Wenty relaxed and enjoyed the nice day and the music.

Rafa seemed to enjoy the music too and grooved a bit.

I think we often take what we have for granted. We should really be thankful just for the simple facts that all three of us are in good health and we are able to spend time together like this with no worries. We were reminded that not all families are so fortunate, when we saw this piggy bank appeal for families of children with life threatening illnesses.

That feeling was further reinforced when we got home and saw the news about a Victorian family whose son has a severe illness. The dad is going to push his 7 year old son on a wheelchair on a 300km run from Wodonga to Melbourne to raise some fund to pay for medical tests and make their van wheelchair friendly. They had run some marathons before to raise money for Royal Children Hospital and other worthy causes. Very unfortunate but inspirational.

I don't know how a post about Williamstown craft market got so off topic, but I hope some of you appreciate what you have more after reading that. And it never hurts to raise more awareness about good causes like these.

Tooth Extraction

2010-09-17T22:54:00.001+10:00

Not good! I haven't even turned 30 yet and I already lost my 2nd permanent tooth today! I guess that's the price of not taking good care of my teeth as a kid. I also happened to be one of those people who didn't visit the dentist unless something was hurting badly.

It was never drilled into me while I was growing up that we need to visit dentists regularly for check up and professional cleaning and scaling. We'll need to make regular dental visit a habit for our son as he grows up.

Anyway, the last time I went to the dentist was back in Medan over 8 years ago to extract a molar and had a cavity filled in another molar. Well the one that was filled back in Medan started breaking off a few years ago and I didn't bother to do anything about it for a long time. I finally booked into a local dentist to have it extracted this morning.

Despite having lived here for many years, today was actually my first visit to a dentist here. I have heard from friends that dental care is quite expensive in Melbourne and some of them went back to Asia when they need to get their teeth fixed. A root canal and crown on a single tooth cost multiple thousand dollars.

If I were trying to save the tooth I would probably do it in Asia too and give myself and the family some much needed holiday while doing it. Since I was having it removed I just went to the nearest dentist.

The local dentist I went to charges $320 for surgical extraction, normal extraction is cheaper but this required more work as more than half the tooth is already broken off at the gum line. While I was there the dentist also took a few intraoral photos and x rays, the x rays cost an extra $45 a pop and the intraoral photos another $30 each.

By the time he was done with it the total came to just over $500. Luckily my insurance paid for most of it and I only have to pay $64 out of pocket. I think I should shop around first next time. Having said that I was very pleased with their service and professionalism. It wasn't painful at all and the dentist stitched up the gum nicely after the extraction to help it heal faster.

He also commented that I should really get my teeth cleaned up professionally to prevent losing more teeth due to the amount of calculus. I think I have learnt my lesson and will go and have it cleaned professionally at somewhat regular basis from now on. But I'll have to wait until early next year to start that as I nearly hit the threshold of my very limited dental insurance cover with this single visit already.

Wenty is also long overdue for a visit to the dentist so I should keep hassling her about it until she makes a booking for herself.

Big Electricity Bill

2010-09-15T23:13:00.002+10:00

We received a $600+ worth of quarterly electricity bill from our supplier this week. We normally only pay $300+/quarter for electricity in winter and $200+/quarter for other months. Well, the big bill is kinda expected since we have the heater pretty much all the time when Rafa is at home this winter to keep him warm. Thankfully winter has ended so the heater won't be used as much.

Anyway, this bill was enough to get me looking for alternative electricity supplier again. I am currently with Red Energy and they charge 18.4c/kWh for peak usage, 9.8c/kWh for off peak usage, and $57.60 for quarterly service charge. Looking at Origin web site, they charge 18.1341 c/kWh for peak usage, 9.3549 c/kWh and $44.96 for quarterly service charge. Both have some discounts applied.

If I calculate this bill with Origin's rates and discount I would be paying around $35 less. On a normal (non winter) quarter, the savings should be around half of that. Not that much in the grand scheme of things, but hey better a few extra dollars in my pocket than their pocket. It's the same electricity at the end of the day anyway. I'll give Origin a call tomorrow to confirm their rate and discount and switch if that's correct.

We used a total of 3508kWh (38.98kWh/day) this quarter, 2260kWh peak and 1248kWh off peak (ie hot water). It's probably a lot for a household of three, but that's with Wenty and Rafa home most weekdays and heater on nearly 24/7 and everything running on electricity as our current home does not have gas. Just out of curiosity, how many kWh does your household use and how much energy (electricity + gas combined) bills do you pay?

12 Month Immunisations

2010-09-13T22:53:00.005+10:00

Part of the package of turning one is the 12 month immunisations. Wenty brought Rafa to the usual maternal child health place near our home for his injections this morning. Poor boy cried a bit when he was jabbed three times.

He should be glad that he doesn't have to go back for more jabs until the next round at 18 months. The nurse also measured him while he was there. He is now 9.45kg and 79cm.

Now that he is 12 months, the nurse recommended us to start switching him from formula milk over to fresh cow's milk. Fresh cow's milk is only around A$1.70 per litre here in Australia and that's for a good brand, generic home brand is only around $1.10/litre. It's definitely a lot cheaper than formula, Nestle NAN HA2 costs $24 per tin which is equal to 6.52litre = $3.68/litre, the HA3 is a bit cheaper but still works out to be around $3.20/litre.

If there is a good reason nutritional wise then I don't mind paying the premium. Going by the nurse's advice and a few of our friends who have older toddlers and what I read online though, apparently there is no real benefit of staying on the formula at this stage unless the baby is allergic to cow's milk or has troubles eating enough solid. Anyone has a differing advice from their pediatrician?

Rafa eats a full slice of cheese for breakfasts these days and the nurse said each slice of cheese is made of 150ml of cow's milk so it should be safe to say he is not allergic to cow's milk. He also eats quite a lot of solids and Wenty put healthy stuffs into his congee and feeds him fruits so he should be all right.

Conclusion is we are gonna slowly cut down his formula and get him used to fresh cow's milk. We probably won't cut it away completely for a while yet as the formula is still quite convenient for travelling. We'll definitely need to bring some formula along for our end of year trip to Asia. It's too hard to carry fresh cow's milk around.

Rafael Turns One

2010-09-10T22:21:00.000+10:00

Rafa turns one today. I can't believe it's been one full year already since he was born. We opted for a simple and intimate celebration at home, just the three of us, a cake, some red eggs, and noodles (spaghetti actually :P).

As per the tradition in our culture, we put some objects for him to choose on his first birthday. It's supposed to signify his future career path. We put a book, a tool, and a ball in front of him.

Guess which one he went for?

He went for the hammer! How many of you guessed book?

If this thing can be trusted, he is gonna be a builder!

Put the hammer down securely in his trike trailer.

And off he goes! He doesn't know how to paddle it yet so still has to rely on us pushing him. But hey he got the facial expression like he is paddling real hard! :P

We got him a trike as his birthday gift. Well, that's the toy gift anyway, my real gift to him today is time, I took a day off work to spend the day playing with him. Call me delusional, but I reckon he prefers spending time playing with me than his new toy.

I remember watching a movie a few years ago and in the movie a child stole money and got caught. When his dad asked him why he did it, his answer to his dad was a heartbreaking 'I stole it so that I can have money to buy one hour of your time'. Because the dad was always busy and never had time for the son and said his one hour is worth $$$$. I promised myself I will never be like that and will always make time for my family, other things can wait.

Wenty also got a little gift, a one hour Thai massage voucher. Well, it's the one year anniversary of the most painful day in her life so she deserves it. Thank you dear for all the sacrifices and hard work in the past year to raise our son. Being stay at home mom is perhaps the most under appreciated job in the world, but know that Rafa and myself do appreciate it a lot!

My First Father's Day

2010-09-05T20:38:00.001+10:00

It's my first Father's Day today and I asked my little boy what gift he was going to give me. The answer is in the first part of this video, the second part was just him in a shouting contest with his mommy a few nights ago. Good to see that his first word is still his favourite word.

It was very nice of him to offer me one of his most precious possessions (to him anyway, at his age he still thinks we all like the same thing as he does). For me, just having him is the best ever Father's Day gift I can ever ask for. Thank you son for bringing so much joys into our life.

Anyway, we expected the weather to be really bad this weekend with forecast of the worst rains in Victoria in decades, so we didn't make any plans. Thankfully Melbourne itself wasn't hit hard (poor country towns though) and it was actually quite nice and sunny today so we went to Werribee Park.

Rafa got to explore the park and took some silly photos with daddy.

Oh and of course, a family photo together with both daddy and mommy.

That's the Werribee mansion behind us. We didn't go in this time as pram is not allowed inside the mansion. Werribee Park is also home of the Victorian State Rose Garden and Open Range Zoo. They used to charge for entry into the park and mansion, but it's free now (not the zoo though) so we'll probably go back again in November for a picnic when the roses are in full bloom.

Happy Little Fella

2010-09-01T23:05:00.001+10:00

Blissfulness is coming home from a busy day at work to this happy little fella.

Bundo Raya Padang Restaurant

2010-08-29T19:51:00.002+10:00

We haven't visited our hometown Medan for five years and I do miss the Padang food sometime. Sate Padang yum yum.... If any of you in Melbourne happen to have a craving for Padang food as well, I have good news for you.

There is a new Padang restaurant in Melbourne. It's called Bundo Raya and it's located in 176 Commercial Road Prahran. Apparently the restaurant used to be based in Sydney but the owner moved to Melbourne a couple of months ago.

We bought some takeaway from there recently and decided to go back to eat there today. Some sample of their dishes, sate padang and soto padang.

Their portion is quite small for what we normally expect in Melbourne so I had to order both of those to fill me up for lunch. Wenty just ordered the usual rice plus dishes from the hot plate.

Their sate padang is good, but it lacks a certain punch (not as spicy) as the ones that they sell on the road side in Medan. It's quite expensive too, $10 for those four small sates and a serve of lontong. But then again, this is Melbourne and it beats the flight ticket and long flight to Medan. It's definitely better than what Nelayan passes as sate padang.

Their soto was very nice too, in fact it was better than their sate padang.

The verdict? Thumbs up. Recommended for those who miss Padang food or those who wants to know/taste what Padang food is all about. Indonesia is quite big and diverse and Padang food is quite different from most other Indonesian restaurants (Javanese style) that you find in Melbourne.

Today's Feel Good Story

2010-08-27T22:34:00.003+10:00

Saw this on the news today, the following excerpt is copied from http://www.essentialbaby.com.au/baby/baby-health/baby-brought-back-to-life-with-skintoskin-contact-20100827-13uoa.html.

'Little Jamie Ogg was pronounced dead by doctors after his premature birth at 27 weeks, weighing just two pounds. His twin sister Emily survived.

Doctors tried to resuscitate Jamie for 20 minutes before passing him to is parents to say their goodbyes.

After being handed her limp baby, Kate unbuttoned her hospital gown and held Jamie against her chest. Over two hours Kate and partner David then spoke to their baby, increasingly noticing signs of life.

As she told Channel Seven's 'Today Tonight' program,

"I took my gown off and arranged him on my chest with his head over my arm and just held him. He wasn't moving at all and we just started talking to him. We told him what his name was and that he had a sister. We told him the things we wanted to do with him throughout his life."

Jamie's occasional gasps for air were dismissed by doctors as a reflex action, or 'death throes'.

"After just five minutes I felt him move as if he were startled, then he started gasping more and more regularly," said Kate.

"I thought, "Oh my God, what's going on?" A short time later he opened his eyes. It was a miracle."

"'I told my mum, who was there, that he was still alive. Then he held out his hand and grabbed my finger.
'He opened his eyes and moved his head from side to side."

The parents sent news to the doctor who had delivered Jamie but he dismissed them, claiming it was impossible. A midwife continued to film the movements, and once given breast milk on his mother's finger, he began breathing regularly.

"At that point the doctor came back. He got a stethoscope, listened to Jamie's chest and just kept shaking his head," recounted Kate.

"He said, 'I don't believe it, I don't believe it."'

I can't even begin to imagine how the parents must have felt in those two hours but fortunately for them it ended up with a miraculous good news.

Never underestimate the importance of love and touch on your child, whether in sickness or good health. I am a big believer of that, and I can't understand parents who say don't hold or cuddle your baby often, you'll spoil him or her. Why would you deny your own child simple joys like this? Numerous researches have shown that a cuddle or gentle touch from the parents or trusted carers releases positive chemicals in the child's brain.

If you are a parent with young child(ren) and are interested to read more about the positive effects it can have on your child, I recommend Margot Sunderland's What Every Parent Needs to Know: The incredible effects of love, nurture and play on your child's development and Steve Biddulph's Complete Secrets of Happy Children.

ps. Today Tonight program is not exactly the most reliable source and is prone to exaggerate stories. Still, it's such a feel good news story I thought I would share it. The actual interview with the parents is available on http://au.todaytonight.yahoo.com/video#, just go to 'Miracle survival An amazing tale of a miraculous survival' under the video archive.

Security Blanket

2010-08-24T21:56:00.004+10:00

Rafa is very attached to his security blanket. This blanket has been with him since he left the maternity hospital. The blanket settles him more than us rocking him when he wants to sleep. I guess they don't call it security blanket for no reason.

He can be in the middle of playing and if he feels sleepy he will just grab his blanket and dummy and fall asleep by himself.

The floor feels so comfortable for him as long as the blanket is there. We obviously have to move him to the mattress or cot after he falls asleep.

The role of a security blanket is very important for young children, and it's best to get a back up or two. Does your child have a security blanket (or a teddy bear or other toy) that settles him/her too?

Rafa @ 11 Months

2010-08-23T22:11:00.005+10:00

Rafa went back to the nurse for an extra check up this month after concern about his minimal weight gain the month before. In the past four weeks he has put on an extra 450g and is now 9.235kg.

It's still on the light side for his age, but hey if you put myself and Wenty on a weight chart against the average Australian weight, we will be quite low on the chart too. The important thing is that he is growing healthily. Kudos to his mommy for his latest weight gain and it's good to know he is not [hokkien] chi liaw bi :P [/hokkien]. It also helps that he has stayed completely healthy in the past seven weeks or so (touch wood!).

He also gained an extra 1cm in height and is now 77cm. At 11 months (and a bit), he is learning to stand unsupported and can do so for around 3 seconds before losing his balance and falling down. Let's hope I will be home when his first steps happen, daddy wouldn't want to miss it!

A couple more random photos of Rafa in his eleventh month.

Attempting to 'fix' his ride.

I know teething can be painful son, but please don't pull out your teeth, you have very little of them as it is.

Baby Goes To Museum

2010-08-15T21:52:00.002+10:00

Little Rafa went to the museum for the very first time today. Melbourne museum has a child section that can keep even a little baby like Rafa occupied. He hesitated a bit when we first put him on the ground, but was exploring happily soon after that.

Hhhhmmm what's under there?

I want to touch that...

Little caveman is in the cave.

It says I weigh about the same as a koala.

Giant caterpillar!

I like crawling through tunnels.

Climbing on top of the seal.

The kids like sitting inside this triangle and checking their own reflections.

Exploring the animal sections.

We got there late and only had 1 1/2 hours before they closed so we didn't get to explore all the sections. It's an excellent venue to visit with children during a cold or rainy winter day, and it's very cheap too only $8 for adults and free for children and students (I still have valid uni student ID :)). The museum is located at 11 Nicholson St Carlton, same building as IMAX.

I can see ourselves going back there again later this year when Rafa is toddling. Let's make it a group visit eh next time?

Dada Dada

2010-08-14T22:23:00.003+10:00

We take heaps of videos of Rafa growing up and doing silly things. I just thought we would share this one as we think it's cute. Not because he is pushing his walker, it's just the way he goes about it, babbling 'dada dada' non stop while doing it and attempting to wave at me.

ps. 'Dada' in our hometown means good bye, not dad (that's papa).

Parent PR Requirements Met

2010-08-12T22:45:00.001+10:00

The case officer at the Parent Visa processing office just emailed me today. She has received all the paperwork and my parents have met all the requirements for their PR, so the next step is to pay the 2nd VAC (Visa Application Charge). I expect it's just a formality of them sending a letter to ask my parents to get their passport stamped with the PR visa once payment is made.

I am glad that went smoothly as new uni semester has started and I am getting even busier the last thing I need right now is going backward and forward a few more rounds between my parents and the immigration office. Dad will be glad too, he can't wait to come back here already. It's almost like he has developed a new allergy toward Indonesia can't bear to stay there for long.

Day Trip To Queenscliif

2010-08-07T23:18:00.002+10:00

We took advantage of the gorgeous sunny weather today and went for a day trip to Queenscliff. It's a nice little town (more like a village) about 100km from Melbourne. Some of the shops there have quite interesting characteristics or displays.

We had lunch at the Panache Cafe & Creperie. I had the tuscan chicken crepe (recommended) and Wenty had the seafood crepe (not recommended).

We also stopped by the busy point lonsdale playground to let Rafa play a bit.

And we stopped at Geelong and Rafa got to ride the carousel for the very first time.

He didn't seem to enjoy the ride though. He was tense and a bit scared. He would rather crawl around the floor next to the carousel than go on the ride.

It's just nice to take a drive and get away from the busy city and enjoy the countryside every now and then, especially given how busy and hectic the past couple of weeks had been.

All these towns are right next to water too, but it was still quite cold (around 14 degree celcius) despite the sunny day so we didn't go to the beach.

Australian Tax Office & Joint Account Problem

2010-08-04T22:53:00.001+10:00

It's never good news when you receive an unexpected letter from the tax office. I got such a letter today, saying there is a discrepancy between the bank interest income I declared for 2007/2008 compared to the details they receive from the banks.

The reason? Long long time ago (back when I was still a naive 18 years old uni student), dad bought a home in Melbourne and needed a home loan. In those days, the loan was approved by the local branch manager. The bank manager asked him to put my name down in the loan as well (just the loan, not the home title :P) because he thought that was safer as dad was pretty old (nearing 60 at that time) and was a foreign resident.

They ended up opening a saving account as well for the mortgage payments to be deducted from. That saving account is also held jointly in dad's name and my name for convenience. Bad bad mistake, and that's a no no. We should have opened that account in dad's name only.

I never declared the interest on that account as my income when lodging my tax return. It's simply because the money in the account and the interest earned from it aren't mine, so why should I be paying taxes on them? I pay enough taxes as it is for my own income.

Alas the tax office probably thinks differently and they see it as a 50:50 joint account so they are now chasing me for the taxes on half the interest payment as my 2007/2008 tax return was randomly selected in their audit. Looking at this old ATO ruling, I may have a case to argue that the account was 100% dad's, which is not a lie.

I am just not sure if it's worth the hassles and risks. They would probably ask for another mountain of paperwork and the extra tax liability for me for 2007/2008 is only a few hundred dollars.

Pay it and get it out of the way as this is most likely generated by their automated system? The risk of writing to ATO is that it's asking for someone in ATO to look closely at my taxes. Not that I have something to hide, but it's a big hassle if they start asking for all the receipts and statements for all my deductions. And if they don't accept my argument of this being dad's account and they start looking at all the interest earned on this 'joint' account on the other years as well, I will be looking at thousands of dollars in tax liability, not just the few hundreds.

Dad earns the interest, son pays the taxes, I should teach that to Rafa :P. I am not complaining about my dad today, he has worked hard for many years to provide a good start in life for me so even if I have to pay a few thousand dollars taxes for his interest income, so be it. I am just blaming myself for not asking him to close the joint account sooner and open his own Australian account. He finally closed the joint account mid last year so we shouldn't run into this problem again in future.

New Toy: SB400 Speedlight

2010-08-01T20:51:00.003+10:00

I bought a Nikon SB-400 speedlight yesterday. It's the cheapest flash in the Nikon range but it does the job. It can tilt up to 90 degree so I can bounce the light off the ceiling, which is the whole point of me getting one as I hate the unnatural colours and lighting produced by direct flash and direct flash annoys Rafa's eyes.

It's also very tiny and light, so it's easy to carry around and doesn't look that intimidating when I use it. Anyway, enough talk of the flash itself and let's look at some sample photos taken with it.

No longer do I have to put up with unnatural direct flash colours or grainy high ISO shots when shooting Rafa indoor in low light. And yeah the boy had a haircut today.

I can even shoot with flash on through the holes in his playpen as the light is bounced off the ceiling.

I was also hoping to upgrade my kit lens to a constant f2.8 zoom lens but they are so expensive! The one I have my eyes on (the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 with VC) cost A$700+ over here. I guess that will have to wait until I have a really good reason to spoil myself.

In the meantime, I will have to use my prime 1.8 lens and zoom with my feet when I feel the need for speed.

J's Surf & Turf @ Brighton

2010-07-27T21:47:00.006+10:00

13 Nov update: Just in case if the restaurant reopen, please read this article before you decide to go there.

Original Post:

It was my sister's birthday on the weekend so we went to J's Surf & Turf at Brighton. Despite what the name and location may suggest, it has nothing to do with surfing. J's Surf & Turf is actually a Japanese restaurant.

I don't know why, the place seems to be quite popular with Indonesians. It's located at a quiet residential street in Brighton and it's nowhere near the beach. Anyway, my sister opted for the buffet option. Rather than going and grabbing what we want to eat, their buffet system is you can order as much as you want from their menu.

It's a Japanese restaurant so obviously we ordered some sushi and sashimi. First plate arrived and it looked pretty good and tasted pretty good.

The tempura prawn and teriyaki and salmon were pretty good too.

We ordered a few other dishes but I must say that those three above were the only ones that I rated, the rest was quite ordinary.

My verdict? Well at $28 per person for buffet Japanese lunch, you can't expect too much. Even my sister said she will be in no hurry to go back to that restaurant again (it's her first time there too, after being recommended by a friend).

If you really like sashimi and happen to be visiting Brighton, then yeah go for it. Otherwise, there are many better places to have lunch in Melbourne.