Posted by Tuen on 4th December 2009 in Diary, Family
Last week, we had dinner with Jobina and two of her kids. Jobina and Lawrence and family were part of our kids’ home catechism group back in Singapore. We had seen Jobina only briefly in church when we were back in Singapore at the beginning of this year; otherwise we had not seen their family since our arrival in Melbourne.
It was lovely to see them again and to see how Joey and Joel have grown. We went to a restaurant in the city called Little King Eatery. The food wasn’t bad at all. We caught up with old times and made arrangements to meet up in Singapore at the end of the year. Jobina and kids have since returned to Singapore.
Posted by Tuen on 21st November 2009 in Diary, Family
Yesterday was my mum’s birthday, and my dad asked us to go out and have dinner on him, to celebrate. So we went to Sakata for some Japanese food. Melissa’s friend, Kai, came along as well, because they were going to go out clubbing with friends after that.
Anyway, we decided to record a video birthday wish for my mum, and here it is:
On Monday, Ren’s playschool organised a visit to Chesterfield farm, a small farm not far from where we live. I think they cater specially to tourists and kids.
This is not the first time we brought Ren to a farm. The first time was when we visited the Lims in New Zealand, and Jean brought us to a farm which was quite a bit larger than Chesterfield.
Anyway, Ren had a good time with his schoolmates and because this was not his first time, he had no fear at all in approaching the animals to feed them.
There was also a short and interesting farm show, and it was the first time we saw a sheepdog in action rounding up sheep. It was really fascinating!
Josh was confirmed on 6th November at St. Christopher’s church by Bishop Les Tomlinson. Josh had asked Mary and I to be his godparents and we had agreed.
The ceremony went nicely and after that, we went out for a nice dinner at Gold Leaf in Springvale. Dinner was on the Chias!
On our way there, Mary and I were trying to count the number of godchildren we had, and if we didn’t miss out on anyone, Josh is number 15.
On Sunday night, Mary and I finally made use of the Village cinema gift voucher that our kids had given Mary for Mother’s day (or was it for her birthday, I forget). We decided to try out the Gold Class cinema, which we had heard about but never tried before. The movie was “Mao’s Last Dancer”, which was about a Chinese ballet dancer who defected to the United States.
The movie was pretty good, but what really impressed me was the “Gold Class” experience. The seats were arranged in couples and were huge, comfortable and you could lower and raise the back and the foot rest so that it almost turned into a bed. There was a table where you could eat snacks, put your cocktails or even have a full 3 course meal (extra cost of course). There was a service button where you could press anytime during the show, and a wait staff will come to you and take your orders.
Wow! I don’t think I will ever be satisfied with watching movies in an ordinary cinema after this. It’s a pity the experience is so expensive.
I’ve finally completed and lodged our tax returns, one day before the submission deadine. Hooray!
As I’ve written elsewhere on this blog, Australian tax returns, compared to Singapore ones, are a real pain in the butt. But I must say that this year’s etax software has much clearer and better help and guidance as compared to previous years.
We attended Ian’s valedictory mass and dinner last night. Officially, it was Ian’s graduation and he is now no longer a student of St. Kevin’s, although he will still have to sit for his exams at the school. The mass and dinner went well and was much the same as Jie’s valedictory (click here). What was interesting this time around, was that the priest celebrating the mass, Fr. Gerarld Sullivan, was an old boy of St. Kevin’s who was there from 1931 to 1933! He’s 93 years old today, but you couldn’t tell that from the way he celebrated mass and gave the sermon.
Also, Mary and I were calculating and figured out that if all goes to plan, we will still be attending a valedictory at St. Kevin’s in about 14 years’ time, when Ren graduates. I would be a doddering 61 year old by then!
I’ve finally completed my shoe cabinet for Mary, after 3.5 months of on and off work. I must say this has been a tough project, because of the size of the cabinet, which is generally larger than my equipment can handle comfortably. As a result there are a list of errors which I will detail in the page which describes the building process (click here).
Overall, I’m about 65% satisfied with the finished cabinet. The main error is that the cabinet depth is too shallow, because of the limited space available, and also because when I did initial measurements, I forgot to take into account the thickness of the rails. As a result, large shoes can’t sit properly and have to be sort of slanted and stacked in order to close the cabinet doors. Well, what’s hidden won’t bother too much I hope!
I learned a lot from the mistakes made though, and the next thing I build will hopefully have less errors. Mary’s quite happy with the final product and I guess that’s what matters.
Since it was the school hols, we decided to do something together as a family. Except for Wen, the rest of us had not been to Eureka Towers in the city, so we decided to make a family outing there. A good description of the day is given by Mary in her email to my parents…
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Today, the family (except for Yanjie who had to submit an assignment by today & then work in the evening & Gern also wanted to do her work)went up the Skydeck in Eureka Towers. The building is 88 storeys high & is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. We took the train down, had lunch at Singapore Chom Chom before proceeding to the Skydeck. The view up there was magnificent & before heading home, we stopped by The Pancake Parlour for dessert & an early dinner. All in, it was an enjoyable outing, with Ren enjoying the most…
