We Found A Dragon

During our quick walk around the Fitzroy Gardens yesterday, we found this beautiful dragon. We had to wait for some people (adults, not kids) to leave before we took these pictures. As soon as I finished taking the 3rd picture, 4/5 kids and their parents arrived and we had to leave.

The Dragon turned out to be a slide. People are supposed to climb up its neck to get to the top of the slide between her wings and then slide down her spine and tail. Behind the Dragon is a sand pit. That's probably where her eggs are! Better not tell Hagrid about that!

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Next to the Dragon slide was what looked like a two legged Giraffe holding a beam with two swings.

I love playgrounds, especially slides. I used to think that playgrounds should not be installed in gardens like the Fitzroy because it will distract the children from properly exploring the plant life. There is one getting built on Grant Street - not far from our Pigeon Hole. I first heard of the council's intention in April last year and nothing happened until a few months ago. I thought the people living in the apartments directly next to it may have objected to the idea. After seeing the plan for this new playground at a notice board, I just can't wait to have a look when it is completed. There is an increase of little Vegemites living in our area in the last year or two. People are slowly accepting the possible idea of raising children in pigeon hole type housing. Small families in our building tend to move out soon after their babies become toddlers but lately we are beginning to see a change.

Happy 174th Birthday Melbourne

Today is Melbourne Day. We received an Events and Attractions Program in our letter box around a fortnight ago and decided to attend the Official Flag Raising Ceremony and visit a few places listed in the booklet. Despite living close to Enterprize Park, we got there with less than 5 minutes to spare. LOL. A man named Ron Walker walked past me as we were crossing the bridge to get to the north bank and as usual, I didn't recognise him. LOL.

Here is our current Lord Mayor (Robert Doyle). Like Jeff Kennett, he seemed to like dressing up too. Is that jacket cool or what? LOL

Raising the flag ...

At the ceremony, speeches were made, a town crier read a letter from the Mayor of Launceston, semi-naked men danced, old style tram conductors gave away 'tickets' but the things I like most were performed by this small group of 'soldiers'.

The birthday cake consisted of 174 cupcakes made by Epicure. Other food and drinks were also served for free to the public but we took only one cupcake. LOL.

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Our next stop was to visit the replica of the Enterprize docked at Waterfront City Marina at Docklands. This was a free event. I was quite surprised to see that it was much smaller than the Young Endeavour.

Docked in front of the Enterprize was the Zephyr. It is apparently Australia's oldest yacht.

We had lunch at Nandos over at Harbour Town and bought a toy for someone's birthday and another Schleich animal figurine, a kid (a baby goat) this time, for ourselves.

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After leaving the Waterfront City Marina (Docklands), we took a tram to the other side of the city. We got off at the Parliament and then walked over to the City Museum at the Old Treasury. We have been into its basement to check out the vaults years ago but we have never explored the rooms displaying the development of Melbourne as a city. The picture I took shows a part of Melbourne in the 19th century. We were only there for about 1.5 hours and were the last to leave because it was closing time (4:00 pm). I really wanted to stay longer. I am curious about the family (the Maynards) that used to live there all so long ago. We also didn't have time to check out the shop at all.

After we left the museum, we walked over to see what was happening at the Cooks' Cottage. Although the entry fee was super affordable, we didn't take up the offer this time. We have been in there before and will properly visit this park (Fitzroy and Treasury Gardens) again later in the year. We did find something interesting when were there and I will blog about it tomorrow.

The Bonus Bundle Finally Arrived

We bought a new printer back in June. As part of the purchase, we were offered a choice of two bonus bundles that were supposedly valued $100 each. To redeem the bundle M had to go online to submit some contact details. Unlike people who turn up on shows like A Current Affair or Today Tonight to complain about being ripped off by similar promotions, we have never experienced such bad luck over the years. The bundle of our choice arrived last week. We chose the Home Bundle and it consisted of a pack of 10 T-shirt transfers, 40 sheets of A4 size, glossy photo paper, 40 sheets of small semi glossy photo paper, a pack of 25 DVD-Rs and 10 sheets of A4 coloured cards. Other than the T-shirt transfers and the DVD-Rs, I have never bought the other products in the bundle before, so I don’t really know if the bundle is really worth around $100. LOL. I did wonder why Canon didn’t offer Cash Back bonuses like other home office products though. Maybe this is one way to encourage us to use our printer more. Imagine the cost of replacing all the ink tanks regularly because we are printing anything and everything!!!

Sad Memories and then a Sweet Dream

Winter is almost gone! I have been kept so busy all Winter this year that I have almost ‘forgotten’ to feel sad. I have been experiencing gloomy Winters since 2006 and last year was particularly bad because my Guinea Pig died and I was grieving. Winter 2009 has been only short in my opinion. It was only cold and grey for a month and a half. We have been experiencing more Spring-like days in the last week or two. The days are slightly longer, the temperature is slightly higher for at least part of the day and what I love most is when the sky is blue for at least a few hours. Spring is now my happiest season.

I woke up at 4:00 am on Sunday morning feeling a bit sad. I stayed in bed and stared at my Guinea Pig’s photo. This is the same photo of him as the one featured in this blog except that this is a framed black and white version. The photo used to sit next to the fish tank in the living area but because we have moved the fish tank over to the dining area, I had moved it into our bedroom last Friday. Both M and I love this photo of our Guinea Pig but for some weird reasons, it got me thinking about his final hours. Tears started to roll and I began to feel like my tummy was upside down, but the feeling wasn’t as intense as it used to get. It took me nearly two hours of thinking about other things before I went back to bed. When I did eventually get out of bed, I still felt a little sad about my Guinea Pig.

On Monday morning, my sleep was disturbed again when I woke up around 3:30 am. This time I wasn’t feeling sad because I woke up from a pleasant dream. The photo that I mentioned before sits near our bedroom door. In the dream, the area near the entrance to our bedroom had turned into our Guinea Pig’s new home! His cage sat on top of a special metal trolley and I was placing fresh hay into the cage. My Guinea Pig burrowed in and out of the hay. He seemed very happy. I think I went to the kitchen to get a drink and was back in slumber land within minutes.

M came home with the latest catalogue for IKEA yesterday. I can’t wait to look into it. I want to buy a new lampshade for the lamp placed next to my Guinea Pig’s ‘ashes’. I am going to re-organize the things on top of my new chest of drawers. I want it to be peaceful and neat. I also want the lamp to be placed closer to my side of the bed so it can actually be used as a reading lamp for when I am reading in bed.

Surprises from Long Ago inside This Little Diary

I found this little Sanrio diary in a crate filled with unused or partially used stationery that I was sorting through last Friday. I bought it during my first trip to Melbourne when I was still attending a boarding school interstate. I remember liking it because it has a lock. Lucky for me though that it is not locked up because I do not know where I have stashed the keys!

Anyway this little diary was passed around school, mainly among the population of boarders + a few day kids, in the final weeks of the school year for anyone interested to leave me a few lines as remembrance of my wonderful time spent there. The diary was passed around so much that at times I didn’t even know its whereabouts. Eventually it did come back to me and yes people actually left me more than just a few lines! After I moved to Melbourne, the diary sat at first inside my desk drawer before it was stored inside this plastic crate for years.

After the diary came back to me, I had a look inside briefly but I never read what anyone had written. It wasn’t because I didn’t bother to. I just couldn’t face up to what people have got to say about me. As time goes by, I have completely forgotten about this little diary. When I first saw it last Friday (14/08), I remembered buying it in Melbourne and that’s about it. That is strange for me because I am known to have a superb memory. I am a bit like that TV character called Monk. LOL. As soon as I saw the note stuck just inside the front cover I instantly remembered what this little diary had been used for. This time I was eager to read what had been tucked away inside this diary for so long and because it has been such a long time since I left the boarding school, I was ready. There were no nasty surprises at all. The diary was just filled with pages upon pages of encouragements, reminiscences of shared experiences and what they have noticed of me. No one was rude at all. In fact, they loved me. I can’t believe it but people had actually liked me and this included people whom I thought at the time were a little frosty towards me! Because of my own refusal, it had taken me so many years to realise that they didn’t mind having me around after all! At this stage, I still haven’t finished reading everything written in the diary. I am saving them for when I am down. The little diary is no longer stored inside that plastic crate. It has now joined my drawer of favourite T-shirts.

Homemade Takeaway Meal for Moosh

I cooked this meal for M to take to work last week. It consisted of three small burger patties, a few slices of zucchinis and some broccoli and carrots, plus a small dollop of Lingonberry jam. A little bit of homemade Teriyaki sauce is drizzled over the food but it didn't show up in the picture.

There used to be a Four’N Twenty pies ad on TV where one tradie declared the food inside his brown paper lunch bag as “Rabbit’s food” and his mate peered inside his own lunch and declared “Mine is still growing” before the two went to buy pies for lunch instead. I used to think that is how M would see any food I made for him to take to work. I didn’t think he would appreciate my effort but it turned out that he quite likes the meals I make for him, including this one.

I don’t think the meals I make are particularly healthy but they are certainly cheaper to make than if M had to buy his meals everyday. My frugalness did and still does to a certain extent bother me from time to time because I don’t want him to look shabby but he doesn’t seem to mind one bit. It is bizarre how he doesn’t care how others perceive him while I am still slowly learning to ignore others judgements and criticisms.

A Walk to Docklands

Spring is definitely around the corner. We had beautiful blue skies this morning. The temperature was mild enough for me to wear an unlined denim jacket over a long sleeve t-shirt. Since M didn’t have to go to work until after lunch, nosey us decided last night that we would walk to the Docklands to see Costco. It’s their first day of operation. At the entrance, we were given the impression by this lady that we had to sign up for membership before we could enter but M thought that anyone could walk in and that only members could purchase anything. The place looked very busy. There was already a long queue of people entering another door to either sign up for membership or to pick up their membership cards. The membership fee is only $60, an amount that is not too pricey in the eyes of many shoppers but is it worth getting one since there are only the two of us in this little household? On top of that we didn’t have all day to wait around because we had to be home before lunch time. In the end, we decided to ditch Costco and went window shopping at Harbour Town instead.

This is the moment when we first spotted Costco. I was given a few stares by a father and son team for taking this photo. There were no signs indicating that photography was prohibited in that area.

Oh, just look at this poor Ferris Wheel. It operated only for a few weeks and is now getting taken down because it is already broken due to the drought apparently.

We bought a Swabian-Hall piglet and a Gnu calf from Toy Kingdom to add to our collection of Schleich figurines. We also picked up the latest catalogue.