Our wardrobe is now a walk-in once again. After a day-and-a-half of reorganising, the shelves at the back of the wardrobe are now accessible without me having to fight off clothes flapping in my face or clamber over shoes and shoe boxes. I even made extra room in there so that I am no longer living out of my suitcase.^^
Oh, but my sister comes home this weekend. How long before our wardrobe becomes a jungle again?
Dark skies...perfect for a lazy day indoors.^^
Thought about going to an ANZAC Day service but I couldn't make myself get out of bed at 6am. Dad & I both slept in after a late night watching a Korean drama series. Dad made soup noodles made from leftover hotpot soup for brunch after which we put our legs up and watched a DVD. J slept till 5pm. I don't know how people can sleep that long. Ok, so he walked home from St. Ives (10-15 minutes away by car) in the middle of the night and probably didn't sleep until after 3am, but still.
Today marks my 5th trip to the airport this month. My brother came back from HK/China this morning, and Dad & I went to pick him up. Saw off Mum and my brother 2 weeks ago, and Aunt C and my sister last week. The tally will increase to 6 on Thursday when we go and pick Mum up. With the 3 more vocal members of the family overseas, it's been pretty quiet at home. Just my youngest brother yapping away on the phone with his music turned up until the wee hours of the morning every second night.
Well, after weeks of bumming around at home most of the time, last week was pretty full-on and I'm exhausted. Early mornings every single day. I need to work on increasing my energy level...Anyway, last week, I went for my first interview since I've been back (though unsuccessful), went to the airport twice, ate out with relatives a few times, had one of my best buddies over for dinner (we had shabu-shabu^^), went shopping, did reception work at my uncle's medical practice (it usually starts off pretty slow and then everyone decides to arrive at the same time an hour before he closes), played badminton (at least my muscles didn't ache afterwards like they did 2 weeks ago), studied Japanese, tried to talk my youngest brother who is in Year 12 this year into studying (without success), and participated in the JETAA trivia night (I was in team MOMIJI and I think we came last, or close to last, but it was fun nevertheless). I also spent many nights cooking with Dad. We even made dessert most nights. And the stories are true - he's a pretty good cook.^^
Sydney has been blessed with some decent rainfall these past 2 days. The first big rainfall since February apparently. I pray that the Qlders also get some soon...they've been on level 5 water restrictions for some time now, the poor things. I don't know if I could ever live with 4-minute showers!! Water sustainability is the talk of the country these days. I noticed that the daily changes in dam water levels are reported in the newspapers and even on the TV news. I wonder when that started...I heard on the radio today that a large percentage of the rainwater that falls on Sydney runs straight out to the ocean, which is a terrible waste. Apparently it's good enough to drink. I admire the people out there who have spent a great deal of money (it's expensive even with the government rebate) to install a rainwater tank in their backyard, which they somehow connect to the water pipes to use for washing their clothes, flushing the toilet, etc. If only there were more cost efficient and more effective ways to capture and store the precious rainwater...
Compared to before Easter, it's been dead quiet at work these couple of days and I'm bored out of my mind. Been sitting around reading old gossip magazines. I guess that means no sick people, which is good thing.^^
I was supposed to meet a friend for lunch at 12:45 today. Got a call at 12:15pm..."I'm still at home," which is an hour and a half away by train. I suppose I should be grateful that I got a call, eh. I ended up staying out for lunch anyway and walked around the shops. Even had a cup of coffee.^^
It's just Dad and me again tonight. Dad's cooking...Chinese cuisine. It was pretty good! Chinese broccoli and 2 eggplant dishes. I made Walnut and tea muffins. They turned out ok...a bit dry, and not much of a 'tea' taste.
Since the Easter long weekend, it's basically been work in the mornings, lunch at home (with the exception of Tuesday when I had lunch at Hornsby with Aunty C and Dad, and yesterday when Dad, J and I tried out Alice's, a small Malaysian restaurant in Thornleigh which featured in some TV program - we had fried rice noodles, hokkein noodles in black sauce and a laksa, which I thought was the best out of the three), grocery shopping (or just bumming around at home), then preparing dinner for the night. Back to working 2 days next week. Sigh. The days seem to pass so quickly. It's already mid-April. A quarter of the way through the year. Big sigh.
Went to Sydney International Airport again today. This time, it was to see off R who's going to China for 10 days as a member of the 2007 Nova Youth Orchestra tour. One person of the family leaving after another. This time next week, it'll just be Dad, J and me at home.
Anyway, on the way home from the airport, we stopped by "yellow" cafe for brekky. Creamy scrambled eggs on a slice of sourdough toast with asparagus, roasted tomatoes and a side of rocket and parmesan salad...mmmm....Great coffee too. We bought some cake to take home for afternoon tea - loved the cheesecake...soooooo yum!
We were so lucky with the weather today. There were short bouts of rain throughout the day, but it was clear when the extended family gathered at the cemetary for the Ching Ming Festival (April 5 this year). Yes, we are a rather traditional family.^^ Anyway, normally we would have a picnic at the cemetary, but since it looked like it was going to rain any minute, we made it a quick visit today. So after all the tomb sweeping, food offering, incense burning and what-not, everyone came to our house for a nice long afternoon tea.
For dinner, we went to B’s friend’s restaurant in Castle Hill and ate the yummiest beetroot, goat’s cheese and rocket lettuce salad ever. The cabbage and parmesan salad in balsamic vinegar was an unusual dish, but quite tasty, as were their French fries which they fried with chilli and herbs. The chocolate nemesis, rich in chocolate but light in texture (somewhere between a mousse and a pudding?), was moist and oh-so-delicious! I wonder how many kgs I put on today…feels like I’ve been eating all day!
It was just Dad and me at home for dinner (and DVD movie^^) tonight. We had Indian takeaway from Newtown. The rice kept getting trapped in the gaping holes where my wisdom teeth used to be which kinda annoyed me. But the curries were tasty - eggplant, potato and vegetable curries with rice and naan for $6. That's $3 per person...bargain! And we didn't even finish the naan. I love Newtown. So much good food. We went there after seeing Mum off at the airport. She went to HK to visit Gramps who isn't in the best of shape...and to go to D's wedding. I was going to go as well and kill two birds with one stone but I changed my mind since I've decided not to find a job in HK just now. Plus, it's peak season. Thought I might stick around and get some experience here first, get Level 1 in the JLPT and maybe sit the HSK before setting off again. Want to save up and go to Europe late 2008 or 2009.^^
After 8 months of virtually no physical exercise, I decided to go and play badminton yesterday. It had been more that 3 years since I went to play at the Sunday morning badminton club I'd been a part of since grade 9. There were some new faces, and I could barely recognise the kids - they've grown up so much! I remember some were still running around in diapers back then, and now they're taking part in the DASH training sessions. So many more kids have joined now that there's a coach. The atmosphere has completely changed. After playing 2 doubles and 2 mixed double matches, I was beat. My backside, legs, arms...my whole body was (and still is) aching. As soon as we got home after lunch and grocery shopping, I lay down on the sofa and fell asleep instantly (which is not at all like me). I'm so out of shape...
This morning, I went to the dental surgeon to have two wisdom teeth removed. While I was sitting in the dental chair waiting for the anesthetic to do its stuff, the dental assistant babbled on about how repulsive she found the sight of hair growing out of moles, yesterday's tv program on aquaculture in China which then turned to talk about the tsunami warning for the east coast of Australia (due to the huge 8.1 earthquake near the Solomon Islands this morning), the difference between washing clothes in cold water and hot water, the ridiculous laws that restrict people living in apartments from hanging their washing out to dry on their balcony, and how Saturday's "earth hour" saved an amount of CO2 that is equivalent to taking 50,000 cars off the road for an hour. It just goes to show how much energy businesses use and how simple it is to help reduce carbon emissions if people, especially businesses, embrace energy-efficiency. If only the govt didn't just think about money and the economy. Anyway, back to the teeth extraction, no holes needed to be drilled after all. The teeth came out smoothly with some skillful tugging by the very experienced dentist. It's still bleeding and my face is still numb, but at least it's not painful. Thank God.
