Three Bumpy Weeks

In the days leading up to Friday the 26th of March, our little pigeon hole was turned upside down as the tradesmen worked hard to fix up the two bedrooms that were damaged by the freak Melbourne hailstorm. I was happy that they were fixing our bedrooms so soon because my Mum and her helper were arriving from overseas on that Friday and they would have to stay in a hotel if the spare room wasn’t fixed. Imagine staying in a hotel for three weeks!

In the weeks leading up to their arrival, I was feeling uneasy about having my Mum around for three weeks. I have felt increasingly distant from my family in the recent year or two. It’s like I am drifting further away from them as time goes by. We still communicate regularly but things are changing. I admit now that I wasn’t really looking forward to my Mum’s visit but nothing could stop this Superwoman’s decision. Not even a storm damaged bedroom could stop her!

The first week was quite weird. I felt like I didn’t really know them at all. I was actually counting down to their departure date. Is that sad or what? I had to learn again how to communicate with them in person. I was also more than a little rusty in the language that I had to use to speak to my Mum’s helper. I used to speak that like a native as a child. Other than a few words, M doesn’t speak that language at all! By Good Friday, I was beginning to enjoy their company but that didn’t stop me from having an argument with my poor Mum on Easter Sunday!

In the first week, we mainly went to places around the little pigeon hole. Food is the number one thing that the two women like to purchase. Both my Mum and her helper are petit people but food is very important to them. Almost every meal that we consumed at home had to be elaborately prepared by the helper and ‘assisted’ by my Mum. Their favourite places to buy food were the Queen Victoria market, Victoria St (Richmond), China Town and QV. The two of them also liked buying clothes and souvenirs, so we spent many hours looking around Queen Victoria market, Outlet Stores in South Wharf and Harbour Town (Docklands) and Chadstone.

The second week was spent mostly visiting places where my Mum could gather ideas for her work and purchasing books. My Mum and I are literally in the same field, so I had fun going to these places as well. By the end of the second week, the two women realised that they had bought too much to lug home. A few church going backpackers came to the rescue. My Mum had managed to talk them into helping her carry some stuff home. I flew into a rage of course. I never like it when she approaches strangers but the deal was done behind my back. It is hard for me to believe how trusting some people are and I am not just referring to my Mum.

Last Saturday, my Mum’s helper, whom I shall call MT here, went on a bus trip to the Great Ocean Road on her own. I was a bit reluctant to let her go on her own but the poor woman needed some time to herself too. So off she went with a group of Chinese speaking tourists from various parts of East Asia. MT is not Chinese but she understands basic Mandarin & English. She is also semi fluent in the dialect I speak to my parents. She was the odd one out in the group that day. Apparently there was only a toilet break every three hours or so. She was so worried that she drank and ate very little during the trip. That evening, M and I took them to a popular Vietnamese Noodle shop for a budget dinner that I suspect was laden with MSG! LOL. MT was chuffed that she had eaten at a place where Jackie Chan had eaten in the past. They liked the place so much that the duo went there again with those helpful backpackers from the church and after the second visit, MT proudly told me that American President Clinton had two bowls of the same kind of noodles that she had! LOL

With the kind backpackers carrying some of their goodies home for them, the last week was spent purchasing even more things. MT was absolutely crazy about anything with the word “Australia” printed on it. My mum was not just buying for our own immediate family. She was also buying for our extended family in China. In the end, they weren’t able to take home a Sandwich Press that M and I would like to get for my Dad. We also went to popular places around the city to take photos. MT had asked over and over to see the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in person so she could go home to brag to her friends that she had been to the place where the Carols by Candlelight Christmas Concert is held each year. LOL. The place is within walking distance from the pigeon hole and we spent a few hours exploring it and the surrounding parks on Monday. I was happy to see my Mum getting around with greater ease this time. The surgeon and his mentor (another surgeon) have both done a wonderful job with my Mum’s left hip. When my Dad comes in the next trip, my Mum has already planned to go walking with him on the Tan Track – something that neither of them was able to enjoy in the previous trips.

MT has been working for our family for 12 years or so. The others were not aware that she was travelling with my Mum. They thought that she had gone back to her village. She is very kind to my parents. My Mum likes her because she is very alert and picks up new skills very quickly. She often jokes that MT is multi-purpose. If my Mum is the Superwoman, MT is the Wonder woman. MT is not perfect though; no one is. She has a quick temper on some days. She had never cracked it in front of M and I but she does get impatient if my Mum meddles too much. Hopefully she will work for us for years to come.

Although I didn’t want them to visit me at first, I did end up enjoying having my Mum around. I managed to tell her something about myself and I am glad that she has accepted it. She even bought books to learn more about it. We talked about my childhood, reminding her things that she had forgotten. She updated me with news of friends and family. Again she came with another business proposal (proposed by a good family friend) for M and I and again, I turned her down before she even finished explaining. I was surprised that she took my decision just like that. It was with great sadness that I saw my Mum and her helper off on Thursday night (16/04). She was in tears. She has never been in tears whenever we separate. It’s like she has finally realised why I remain here. Seeing my Mum in tears reminded me of my Grandma’s sorrow when she recorded an extra long voice message on a cassette tape that was to be taken to China during my Mum’s first trip in the 80’s to visit the siblings that returned to China when my Mum was only a small child. Citizens of my birth country weren’t allowed to go to China until the 80’s and then only people with immediate relatives were allowed to visit. This was because China is a communist country. Three of my Mum’s siblings were stuck in China after 1949 and I think my Grandma blamed herself for the hardship they had to endure over there. I sometimes wonder if my Mum blames herself for what had happened to her siblings. I hope she doesn’t start blaming herself for my wish to remain here for the time being.

The little pigeon hole is all quiet again. My neighbours no longer have to put up with loud conversations in 4 languages filtering out from our place. Not for a while anyway. One good thing about speaking Asian languages in public is that people collecting money for charitable organizations tend to steer clear of you but it doesn’t necessarily stop beggars. MT just couldn’t understand why Aussies have to beg anyway. Before my Mum’s visit, my sense of loneliness was further heightened by something that had happened to my blog, but since they left Melbourne I feel truly lonelier than ever. With the 2nd anniversary of the death of my beloved Guinea Pig looming and the arrival of winter, it will take me ages to get over this sadness inside me. I am glad that M likes to have them here. I think that he felt it too that our little pigeon hole is a whole lot livelier when my family is here.

Visited the Jumbo Baby and Friends (Content Edited)

We went to the Zoo on Sunday. The animals were wonderful as usual and we got to see Baby Mali twice. Sadly, a few of my favourite animals were nowhere to be seen. I am still waiting to find out what happened to them but we will never go to the Zoo on a Sunday again. It was very busy.

"Mum, can I go into the pool yet?"

This is Makulu. He had grown so tall so quickly.

Oh Look! It is the Paddle Pop lion. What do you think he is dreaming of?

Apparently people can pay a fee to pose with some zoo animals including this tortoise. While this photo was taken, an evil male was pinning down another female among the trees. That poor female couldn't outrun the big male. I swear I have not seen tortoises moving so fast before. I thought they were meant to be slow.

What are you looking for Monifah? Isn't she just pretty?

Watch out, Mali! Don't be naughty Mali or those spikes can really hurt.

Here is Mali playing with her red ball. She has a blue one as well.

This is Menyaruh and he is NOT stupid! The zookeepers had left a few chunks of ice on the netting covering the Orang Utans' outdoor area. Menyaruh found one and tried to retrieve it. Later when I was in the building, I heard something knocking against the wall above one of the windows and I could see Menyaruh dangling right there. It turned out that he was trying to smash the ice into smaller chunks!

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OK, I am off. I am suppose to stay away from this blog.

One Of My Favourite TV Chefs

Jamie Oliver was at MYER on Saturday morning. M was happy to go with me. We thought we had secured ourselves a nice spot until minutes before the chef appeared when this camera guy from Channel 9 came to set up his camera on a little stage in front of us. How annoying?

Some lucky people (mostly kids) scored themselves sets of TEFAL cookware and a select group of people (winners of a competition) got him to autograph their cook books. We didn't have anything for him to sign. Even though I enjoy most of his TV shows I don't own any of his cook books but I do borrow them from the City Library from time to time. Tonight I am making Bolognaise Sauce according to his recipe.

Dreaming of Insignificant People

I have been dreaming about insignificant people from my past lately. It's BIZARRE!

On Monday night, possibly early Tuesday morning, I dreamt about a girl who attended the same school I did. I think I have spoken to her once or twice. Today, she is some kind of IT hotshot that travels the world. In the dream, we were both teenagers again and I was at a fairground of some sort with my Dad. When she saw me, she came over to hang with me. She was following me around like I was supercool. Is this because I felt so rejected recently? LOL

On Tuesday night, I dreamt about D. You could say that he was my first boyfriend. ROFL. D's mum and my mum are good friends and when we were little, we used to play together. D is bi-racial. His mum is Chinese and his dad is English. He was very fair and looked nothing like a Chinese. When we were out together, grown ups would joke that I was his mum's daughter and she was D's nanny/amah. I absolutely love playing with D but unfortunately, good times come to an end when D's dad decided to move back to England. I can still remember the lost I felt to this day. Anyway, in the dream, we were both kids again. I was around 6 and him being a year or two older, was around 7/8. We were in the car driven by someone to a new tutor's home because our mums have decided that we need to learn the local language. During the car ride, we went past a little house next to a small park where we used to go for art classes. I know where D is today but sometimes I wonder where our art teacher's daughter is. Nicole is about two years younger than me. It was fun playing with her but her mum was always worried that we could be too rough. Like D's dad, Nicole's parents were expatriates.

On Wednesday night, possibly early this morning, I dreamt about Henning. I really do not know how he ended up in my dream. Henning was a German exchange student staying with the same Aussie family that I was staying with in the 90's. I was only staying with this family for about 9 months and after learning my lesson recently, I am not going to blog in detail about this family. Henning is about 3/4 years younger than me and I think we talked may be a handful of times. He was somewhat curious about me but I won't go into it here. So, in the dream, he was back in Melbourne again and we bumped into each other at a small park not far from Prahran Market. Isn't that location weird? I hardly ever go to that market. He looked a little bit older and was asking me a tonne of questions. Apparently he had wanted to ask me these questions for years but couldn't find me. LOL.

My dreams baffle me. When I get up, I always see the need to tell M about my dreams. M doesn't remember his dreams most of the time. The ones he remembers most are the ones where someone is trying to chase him. LOL

Before I upload this post, I would like to say that I will keep this blog going for now but I won't be blogging much. I will make the final decision in either April/May

The Big Storm

Our little pigeon hole was battered pretty bad on Saturday. Here are a few photos for anyone dropping by to enjoy.

Moving or Staying

Lately I have been thinking about what to do with this blog. M has suggested that I should move my blog over to Wordpress. One thing I like about Wordpress is that I can upload a post that is password protected. It might be possible to do something similar on Blogger but I am not so sure. I will have to explore a bit to see if there is such a function on Blogger. When I started this blog in 2008, it was partially because I needed a space to remember my little Guinea Pig and I still do but I am also increasingly aware that my need to write about my (dead) Guinea Pig makes me look like I have gone cuckoo. So it might be wiser to password protect any post about him. Another idea would be to move everything except the posts on my Guinea Pig over to Wordpress for a fresh start and then turn this blog private in loving memory of my beloved pet.

I am going to take a little break from blogging to think about what I want to do but the first thing I have got to do right now is to take down our decorations for CNY.

Two New Bottoms

Just before Australia Day in January, I bought myself two new pair of bottoms from Target. I wore the denim shorts on Australia Day and wore the other grey cropped pants on the first day of CNY on Valentine’s Day. I desperately need new clothes. In fact, both of us need new clothes because more and more clothes are becoming too big!

With Summer coming to an end, many end of season clothes have been drastically reduced in shops such as Target, but we don’t really dare to buy any because if we lose more weight during the year, they may not fit by the time Summer comes around again at the end of the year. The new shorts we bought M in January 2009 are now so big, they don’t stay up without a belt. LOL. The new belt he received for Christmas is also becoming too big. He is down to the last hole. Is there a place to go to punch another hole? Mr Minit?

My own need for a transition wardrobe started around April 2008. I noticed that I constantly need to hitch up my jeans every few steps. I thought there was something wrong with my jeans and it was happening to all of them. It never occurred to me that my weight was dropping. So, I solved the problem by wearing a belt but by the time AFL Grand Final came around in September 2008 I had no other option but to ditch those jeans. Reluctant to buy new clothes for the warmer months because I tend to only like to play dress-ups in the cooler months, I went digging in the wardrobe for pants/jeans that I wore back in 2004 and found some Levi’s that fitted just nice. They looked alright still but they didn’t last. They too were becoming too big by May 2009 so I went back to the wardrobe for another dig. It was like going on a trip in a time machine. So until I bought the two new pairs of bottoms from Target last month, I have been wearing clothes from circa 2001! LOL. Believe me, the clothes from 2001 do look quite outdated and I don’t mean in a fashionable vintage kind of way. I did buy a few new pieces for Winter last year to mix and match with the old clothes but I just can’t bring myself to buy a whole new wardrobe every time I drop a size. That is just too wasteful don’t you think?

M and I are not on any miracle diets. We love food, including junk food. As I type this now, I am craving for some Pulut Udang - ewww… to some but absolutely delicious to me right now. We have however added more vegetables into our meals and we walk everywhere. I think the walking is playing a big part in the weight loss because I think we are losing more from the waste down. That doesn’t mean that my upper half is not shrinking. It happens a little slower than the rest. When M and I were queuing to buy super cheap Korean instant noodles last year, some guy behind us was going on and on about another guy’s unusual weight loss. He insisted that his friend must have undergone some kind of treatment (e.g., liposuction) because the resulted weight loss was ‘uneven’. LOL I tried desperately not to laugh at the time. Someone else I know also insisted that walking alone does not result in weight loss because according to her, walking is a good exercise for your heart only. I beg to differ and I think M will agree too that all the walking we had done had also contributed to greater improvements to our lower halves.