During our day trip up to the Blue Mountains, we stopped at this quaint little tea shop called Bygone Beautys at Leura Village to have a real and truly elegant English style Devonshire Tea. Tea was served with freshly made scones with cream and strawberry jam... yum yum! As Explorer Bus passengers, we were entitled to a special two-for-one offer, so the tea cost us only $9.95 for both of us. It was perfectly sinful the way we dolloped the cream all over the scones. And there really is something elegant about taking tea using a proper tea set, at nice tea table just for two, with a rose tablecloth, in a little room with lace curtains on the windows. Aren't we elegant! Hubby and I had a little debate as to whether the jam should be on top of the cream or vice versa... in the end we decided that the jam should go on the scones first, followed by a dollop of cream. Apparently this turned out to the the Cornish fashion of eating the scones. We also walked around the shop to see their w...

Our trip to the Blue Mountains was refreshing... it was quite cold at this time of year... but the views were absolutely amazing... As I stood there looking out on the great expanse of valleys and highlands... the old words of one of my favourite Tennyson poems floated through my mind... THE splendour falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story: The long light shakes across the lakes, And the wild cataract leaps in glory. Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. O hark, O hear! how thin and clear, And thinner, clearer, farther going! O sweet and far from cliff and scar The horns of Elfland faintly blowing! Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying: Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. O love, they die in yon rich sky, They faint on hill or field or river: Our echoes roll from soul to soul, And grow for ever and for ever. Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying...

As we wind down to our final day of our NSW South Coast trip... we decided to drive back to Sydney using an alternative route via Canberra. Our first stop was a letdown. We drove through a very bad, gravel road to see the supposedly amazing Mumbulla Creek Falls... but this was all we saw... probably a result of the poor rainfall NSW has been suffering from lately. So then, it was on to Bega where the famous Bega Cheese Factory was located. Quite an educational experience to see the history of cheese and learn about the cheese-making process. The outlook along the route to Canberra is quite different... acres of wide open grazing fields filled with grey blobs of sheep. I love the view of these sweeping tall trees standing up against the blue sky which we saw along the way... so pretty. And then finally... our nation's capital: Canberra. This is the parliament house. Canberra is a very neat little city. All the roads and buildings perfectly planned. But it's nice to know that you...

Before I begin telling you about our trip to the Blue Mountains. I'd better stop and finish-off my saga of our trip to the NSW South Coast... Trip NSW South Coast Apr-06 Day 1 Trip NSW South Coast Apr-06 Day 2 Because... [A] You may possibly be aching to hear about the rest of the trip [B] I simply cannot stand leaving things undone and incomplete So here goes Day 3 of our trip to the NSW South Coast... probably my favourite day of all... was it because of: [A] The lovely warm & cozy smell of this handcrafted woodfired sourdough bread? [B] Being transported back in time inmy imagination: the year 1928, the shipwreck site of the S.S. Merimbula? (Imagine what it must have been like on that dark stormy night which led to the sad end of the sailors who died here) [C] Almost succeeding in persuading hubby to lick the salt deposits in these rock crevices? [D] Having Fresh sourdough bread and tuna for lunch? [E] Spending the evening in this cozy B&B at Tilba Tilba? [F] Meeting my ...

Well ladies and gentlemen... I am about to make a deep and dark confession. Are you ready for it? OK, here I go: "I don't really like babies" Yup. So are you shocked? Surprised maybe? It's not that I hate or despise them or am afraid of them... I just don't have the natural instictive desire to want to coddle and cuddle them like so many other girls. I remember many events event of visiting someone's newborn (e.g. parent's friends, relatives etc). I'd peer at the baby from the sidelines, while hoards of girl cousins, friends, aunties, grannies all fight each other to hold the baby... cooing and ahh-ing and making so many ridiculous noises... I feel almost embarrassed for them and even a little sorry for the poor baby. How scary it must be for the little mite to be smothered almost the death my so much "love". I usually try to mind my business as much as possible, until someone notices me and catches me to order me to hold the baby... OK, I ex...

The common question now everytime I meet up with friends and relatives is... "so when is your baby coming?". I always give a nice answer... "not so soon", or "we haven't thought about it yet", or "we're just enjoying this stage of our marriage for now". I try to take it lightly as it's just the natural progression of things people assume... after getting married it's basically the next logical step right? I try not to resent the jabs and jokes and knowing looks from these well-meaning friends and relatives... still part of me can't help being a little irritated... Currently, the latest version of my response to such questions is "I'm not psychologically prepared for it yet". Sometimes it stumps them for a moment... so are we having kids or are we not? But I decided to give this as my most frank answer... because really, that's exactly how I feel... Sometimes I wonder if most people ever really consider the wh...

Today hubby and I did our weekly grocery shopping at Burwood Plaza. First stop was at Tong Li supermart, a newly opened Chinese grocery shop. They were having a 10% storewide sale, so we took advantage of the offer to stock up on various Chinese and Asian groceries and snacks... the checkout was very busy, the cashier had to work very quickly to scan and bag all our items. As we walked out of the mart, I remembered this story which was featured recently on: Channel 9's A Current Affair : Don't get ripped off at the checkout ; and Channel 7's Today Tonight : Scanner scandal The two stories featured retailers ripping customers off because of scanning errors at the checkout, such as scanning the wrong price or wrong quantity etc. A survey revealed that over 80% of stores were found to have scanned items incorrectly. They didn't necessarily do it intentionally though, sometimes just computer glitches or human error. But we consumers all agree that it is their responsibility...

Highlights of the second day of our NSW southern coast self-drive holiday comprised mainly of... Seeing a lot of rocks... Cathedral Rock, Hanging Rock, Big Rock... and all sorts of other little rocks, weird rocks, interesting rocks, and some rather uninteresting rocks also Exploring the quaint little shops around Berry Village... some very amusing indeed More photos from Day 1 of NSW southern coast trip found at: Trip NSW South Coast Apr-06 Day 2

lil' bro Paul has been having a blissful week being pampered here... after the tragic stories of how he's had to fend for himself and cook his own very very simple meals for the past four weeks... I thought we'd give him a nice culinary treat while he's here... So for the past week... we've been enjoying: 01. Pasta with homemade tomato sauce 02. Pork cooked in black sauce with hard boiled eggs 03. Yong tau foo 04. Fried rice 05. Hainanese chicken rice 06. Chee cheong fun 07. Pancakes 08. Honey and spice cake 09. Ricotta cheesecake 10. Hot chococino And I also gave him a small farewell token of a jar of homemade peach jam, a jar of homemade chilli sauce, and a slice of honey&spice cake to munch on his journey. Hopefully, we got him well-rested and fattened enough to survive the remainder of his semester. I wish I had a big sister to pamper me too!