Still Pretty Messy!

Our little pigeon hole is still pretty messy today. M is becoming more impatient by the minute. He just can't wait to get everything done all at once. I just want to sort and store things systemetically so we can track down any item easily in the future. The top photo shows some of the books waiting to be sorted last week. The second and third photos, taken today, show some empty boxes waiting to be filled and boxes that are ready to be taken to our storage unit. The 'Cave' is still a bombsite. There are heaps to do around here but to add fuel to fire, M had also been called in to perform an extra duty that is likely to take up even more of our precious time.

Grrrr...It is so annoying when the photos are not loading up properly. This post is currently missing a photo. There is good news though. It was absolutely pouring a few minutes ago. I hope the much needed rain had washed away the bird poos on my balcony. The funny thing is that, as I type this post, I can hear the caretaker doing his last round of clearing the paths inside the building with his all so annoying blower. Am I the only one who think that was a pointless chore when the paths are wet? On another note, I just learned from the news that I am temporarily sharing my postcode with a famous Hollywood family. They have just flown in today and moved in nearby while one of them is working on a film in the next few weeks at Docklands!

The Day I Saw MJ & My ‘First’ King of Pop’s Cassette Tape

Weeks before Christmas 1996, I got wind that Michael Jackson was to appear at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. I remember dragging myself there and got a seat in the second row. Seated next to me were a bunch of Aussie girls who must have been a few years younger than me. They were very excited. I remember thinking that they were more excited to see the boy band supporting Jacko’s appearance because they sang to their songs with gusto. Their enthusiasm attracted the TV cameras and I found myself on Australian TV that evening. LOL. I think the boy band was Human Nature and I thought they were like an Aussie version of New Kids on the Block at the time. LOL.

When the man finally appeared on stage, I was quite surprised to see such a shy person. His stature was also quite small, not quite what I had expected. I can’t remember much of what he had said when he was on stage. I guess I was totally taken in by his presence. His songs were my introduction to the pop music world and I never dreamed that he would be standing only a few metres away from me. It was very surreal.

One year in the 80’s, my brother, who is a decade older than me, played the Michael Jackson Thriller album when he came home (not Australia) for his Summer holidays. That coincided with the time when my English was starting to take off and I fell in love with that album, but I was not allowed to operate our family’s or my brother’s record player. I remember having to wait till my brother came home from all his so-called social commitments before I could beg him to put the music on. Then one afternoon when nosey me went to annoy the people working for us, I found a crappy looking cassette with Lionel Ritchie on its cover. I didn’t know who he was then but I could tell from the cover design that it must have featured music similar to Michael Jackson’s. So I asked someone where they bought the tape and they told me that they got it from the Pasar Malam (night market). I planned to talk someone into taking me to the market but I knew no one would have dared to because I was pretty small then. Then one day my mum took me to see the GP because I was running a fever. As we were returning to the car, I walked past a man selling a few items on top of a box. My mum was busy talking to a parking officer and I went over to see what the man was selling. He was selling cassette tapes and one of them featured a picture of Michael Jackson. Wow! I wanted that. My mum didn’t listen to my pleading at first but when I suggested that I would use the record player after my brother had returned to Canada, she gave me the money. She even dropped me off in front of the man, double parking in front of the parking officer that she was talking to earlier. I was so happy on the way home because I thought that I finally had my own Michael Jackson album. Up till then I had only been listening to Disney cassette tapes my father had ordered from overseas. I felt really grown up. LOL. When I got home, I dashed in to try my new tape in my own tape player. I was totally disgusted to learn that even though the tape featured the King of Pop’s songs, he sang on none of them! When I was older, I suspected that the songs were sung by ‘artists’ from a neighbouring country. So, there you see, fakes existed even back then! I did learn from that experience. I became a snobby little consumer instantly. It was also an embarrassing moment that I tried to hide from my family because I didn’t want them to ridicule me. Eventually my brother did teach me how to handle the record player before he left for another school year abroad and I had access to his huge collection that I could dance and sing to ‘til I dropped. LOL. It didn’t matter that I got most of the words wrong when I sang and didn’t even understand most of the lyrics.

Ice Skating & Some Kind of Light Show

A synthetic ice rink is being set up at QV square for people to try a bit of ice skating. It wasn’t ready when we were there this afternoon. According to the glossy flyer we were handed, the event starts tomorrow and each half hour session costs $7.50 per adult. I am not very keen to give it a go. Ice skating was one of the first things I was introduced to when I went to boarding school and I have to admit that I wasn’t good at it at all. When I wasn’t falling all over the place and worried that I was going to get my fingers sliced off by someone else’s blades, I was daydreaming about this prefect that I really liked. How could a girl concentrate with him around? LOL. This rink at QV seems pretty small. I guess it would be ideal for introducing the sport to little children. In the picture, the lady with the red pants looked like she was sharpening the blades.

What are these people doing? I wanted to find out but M just wanted to get home. The display is called Volume and it is at Fed Square. People get on stage to get up close and personal with the LED columns. I saw a guy touching the lights. I also saw a woman pressing her ear against a column. It seemed to me that the colours of the columns were changing to the beat of loud music. This is not the only display at the square. There are at least another two and one of them featured the different shapes of human eyes from around the world. We will have to go back on another day to properly investigate this event.

We were also given these mini lollybags when we were leaving Fed Square. It is always nice to receive Freebies.

Bitter Sweet Purchase

There is absolutely nothing wrong with our old Canon printer but the old computer it is hooked up to has ceased to work since a couple of weeks ago. This means that we can no longer use the old printer. It is not Vista compatible and it is therefore not possible for it to be hooked up to this computer. Bummer!

After careful consideration, I gave in to the idea of buying a new printer. We looked at the printers on sale at Officeworks. This is a good time to buy such things. M pretty much let me make the decision on which model to buy because he wasn’t fussy as long as it is a multi-function one that can be hooked up to this computer. I think he was secretly very happy that I have come to the decision of buying one. So we marched into the Officeworks at QV last Wednesday (17th June) and bought our new printer. We initially planned to go to the store on Kings Way but since we were already going to the city, we opted for the store inside QV. This time we didn’t really stick to what was recommended by computer magazines. We just stick to the same brand and our pre-agreed budget. Since we have some gift cards, we ended up saving an extra $40 on top of the already reduced sale price!

There are people out there who are not very fond of IKEA but I am not shy to let people know that I love IKEA. It doesn’t bother me one bit that my neighbour or someone in another country probably has a piece of furniture that is identical to mine because we have bought the item from an IKEA store. One of the most versatile items I have bought from IKEA is not actually a piece of furniture. It is a large blue bag that shoppers can pick up near their check-out counters. We bought one and it is used to lug a lot of things. We brought it with us when we went to buy the new printer and the bag was large enough for M to carry the printer home comfortably.

We are very happy with the printer but I must admit that I feel a little sad also. I find it really hard to have to replace something that is not broken. M promised to have the old computer repaired soon. If it can be repaired the old printer will be up and running again. The old computer is still useful to us because that’s where we type anything in Chinese.

All Messed Up Again

Less than two weeks after we tidied up the living areas within the pigeon hole because a tradesman was coming to install the new blinds, our little home is all messed up again. This time I won’t be able to tidy up in time for another team of tradesmen popping in to install new intercom handsets today! It is going to be an utterly embarrassing moment when I have to let them in!

We are trying to clear up the clutter collecting thick dust in the spare room (aka “The Cave”). Once upon a time, about 6 years ago, we turned the cave into a home office/spare bedroom. A couple of years later, I suddenly desired a more minimalist look in the living areas and ordered that all the bookcases be sent hiding in “The Cave”. From then on, the room ceased to be a spare bedroom and turned into a space for gaming, books, clothes and junk. It was quite a nice place for M to relax in there at first but all sorts of junk had taken over the space in recent years. The situation is so bad that we can no longer open the door to the little balcony and I found it increasingly difficult to access my own clothes in the wardrobe and tallboy. I am really tempted to shame ourselves by taking a photo of the Cave’s current state but I think it will scare readers away! LOL!

It is decided that the bookcases be returned to the living areas. The minimalist look is out the balcony door until we can afford to live in a purpose built house where I can actually hide my books in a personal library. We are trying to do things systematically by sorting things into different groups. Some things that we want to keep will be boxed for storage while others will be kept here. There are also things that we would like to get rid of by selling them on Ebay and things that we will give away. This is why almost the entire pigeon hole is in such a pitiful state. I think it will remain quite unsightly until the end of Winter. After years of neglect, we have so much to tackle. As things improve, I will start taking photos for when I blog about the progress. It’s just too embarrassing to show the current state now.

Praised Too Soon

We have changed most of the light bulbs in the pigeon hole to those energy saving ones in the last 12 months. I think I even blogged twice about it and I think I also praised them on both occasions. At this stage, only two lights in the dining area and the light at the main balcony still need to be changed but we will have to be quick in finding energy saving light bulbs that can fit the dining area lights because traditional light bulbs will be phased out soon.

12 months on, I must say that I am not completely satisfied with the change over to energy saving light bulbs. The light in the living area takes three candle shaped light bulbs and without checking out what are available at Bunnings Warehouse, the only energy saving option we have at the moment is Philips Brand Ambiance light bulbs. They are good in that they never emitted any annoying noise but we have only ever seen the warm white ones and overtime, we noticed that they are becoming less and less bright. When we replaced the ones in the bedrooms and the loo, we also ended up buying warm white ones because the cool daylight ones are super rare. So when the electrician came to fix the hall way light before Christmas 08, and installed this cool daylight one that I scored by pure luck, I was overjoyed. It was so nice to be able to see what I am looking for in the pantry and the hallway cupboard but the fun didn’t last long. Everyone kept saying that Energy saving light bulbs last longer than traditional light bulbs but not this one pictured here. It died a couple of weeks ago. The hallway light is only turned on when someone is trying to access the pantry or cupboard. So, it has never been turned on for hours on end. It is not the light’s fault. The electrician didn’t do a dodgy job because after we replaced the blown light bulb with a new one, the light works as normal. It is so annoying to have to buy another new light bulb after just less than 6 months. On top of that, we are now unsure of how to dispose the used light bulb safely. I read somewhere that these energy saving light bulbs have to be disposed off properly. Apparently you can’t just place it in the bin along with the other household rubbish. I think I will have to Google it.

We will be going to Bunnings soon because I wish to give the bedrooms a fresh lick of paint. We will definitely check out the light bulbs they sell when we are there to see if we have more options. Because I sew/craft (even on some evenings) and because my work area is part of the living area, I really need brighter light bulbs because I don’t want to further harm my eyesight. Right now the living area is looking more and more like it is lit with a few real candles.

Buying A Few Things

Here's a post on what I bought in the last 12 days or so. I know that I only just blogged about the need to stick to a budget that also allows a bit of fun. That’s what we did when we went shopping recently. We left the ‘Fun Police’ at home to make decision making easier and the trips guilt free. I specifically held onto the gift cards and money I had received for my Birthday in May for use during the June Sale. Quite a few items are things for the kitchen because since I changed the menu recently, I realised that I need a few extra things.

Here is what I bought so far:

• A pair of tongs because the other ones are broken.


• A set of scone and cookie cutters because I want to make sure that my homemade hamburgers are relatively the same size (M thinks that this is pathetic.) but I can also use them to make scones one day.


• A plastic butter box. We used to use butter portions but are unable to find them these days. So this box is a hygienic way to store the block of butter we now have to buy.


• A pack of three tea-towels because we need more to replace the retired ones.


• A pack of 5 dishcloths.


• A small fry pan because I want to make blueberry pancakes that are relatively uniform in size. (Moosh thinks that this is pathetic also.)


• A pair of wool blend socks from Target and believe it or not, they are made in Australia?


• One pie plate because the menu now includes a vegetable pie once a fortnight.


• One long sleeve Spencer – I love Holeproof Thermalite and the whole range is now made in New Zealand.


• One photo snowglobe because I just want another ornament housing a photo of my Guinea Pig.

The small fry pan is a really cheap one ($4.50) from IKEA. The truth is that I am a little unsure about it. After I got home from IKEA the other day, I suddenly felt a little unsure about using it and still am. If anyone is reading this post, have you used cheap non-stick fry pans before? What do you think? Apart from the snowglobe, all the other things I bought were for practical use. I just hate to be seen as a Gold Digger if I bought only pretty things for myself.