Part 4 Melbourne: Day 4 & 5 (24-25Nov09)

Day 4: Tues 24Nov09 Bacchus Marsh

 

We went to Kmart to get our handphone charger because the charger PaPa brought was faulty. We bought some biscuits and box milks at SaveWay.

We then took a slow drive to Bacchus Marsh and our first destination was the Information Centre. The staffs were so helpful that they even helped to call some of the places we wanted to visit and they suggested to call those places to confirm whether it was open or not.

It was about lunch time, PaPa ask for the nearest public park to have our picnic. They suggested Maddingley Park not far from the Information Centre, it was a nice big park with a nice wooden playground. PaPa cooked pasta that morning. So, our picnic lunch was pasta and salad. After lunch, again both kids went to play in the playground. It was a nice playground made of solid wood.

After lunch, our first planned stop was to pick-up some cherries in Paynes Orchards but unfortunately it was closed maybe due to no more cherries to pick-up because last weekend there was a Fruit Bazaar in town. So we went to the Strawberry Orchard. After picking, the kids ate some strawberries in the car while PaPa and Mummy were looking for the Witchmount winery (suggested by the Information Centre staffs). The address given was incorrect because the GPS leaded us to the wrong place. It was a residential house. We continued to go straight and eventually found the place at the other end of the road. The winery factory was closed but the guy, Adrian was very nice to show JL how wine was made. He took us out to the vineyard to show the grapes plants and the processing factor for the whole process from pressing to fermenting to bottling and innaly labeling the wine. PaPa and Mummy did some wine tasting after that tour.
We drove back to Aunty LL’s house. Since we were early, we went to Coles Market to get some grocery and that night PaPa cooked pasta for dinner. We ate with Aunty LL and YH because Uncle KM went outstation that morning.

Day 5: Wed 25Nov09 Sovereign Hill

We drove to Ballarat to visit the famous Sovereign Hill, a recreated goldfields township. We started the journey early because it was located quite far.

We arrived there early in the morning. We managed to get a coupon from one of the brochure collected from the Information Counter in Melbourne City which we could use as free entrance for JL. So, we only paid for two adults tickets.

We walked the whole area and it was quite a big place. JL experienced playing bowling in the olden days where everything was made of wood even the bowling ball. Besides that, he also witnessed how gold was made into a gold bar at the Gold Smelting Works. All of us went through an underground tunnel of Red Hill Mine to see how gold was mined underground. It was dark and cold. We also saw how candles, boiled-sweets and wheelwrighting(wooden wheels were handmade there all in the 1850s style. Then there was a marching session by the Redcoat Soldiers.

JL tried to mine for gold and tried a few locations along the stream. He had more fun playing with the spade to scoop the sand then to panning the metal pan for gold.

We had our picnic lunch outside the Sovereign Hill next to the souvenirs shop. It was good thing that the kids were not fussy of the food even though it was almost the same food. We promised JL that when we have enough budget next time, we would not have so many picnic packed food during our holidays.

After a late lunch, we went to the Gold Museum which was located just across the road since the entrance fees was inclusive when we purchase the entrance fee to Sovereign Hill. It was an interesting place with a few plasma televisions mounted on plasma mounts to display some of the historical events besides the photos on the history of the Gold Town.

After that, we drove back to Aunty LL’s house. We ate dinner cooked by Aunty LL that night.

• 
  
  Part 1 Melbourne: Planning before the Trip
• 
  
  Part 2 Melbourne: Day 1 & 2 (21-22Nov09)
• 
  
  Part 3 Melbourne: Day 3 (23Nov09)

Part 3 Melbourne: Day 3 (23Nov09)

Day 3: Mon 23Nov09 Melbourne City

In the morning, we took bus than tram to the city. Upon arrival, we went to the Information Centre to re-check our itinerary for the next few days. It was crowded at the Information Centre. After that, we went and sat at the Yarra River for our picnic lunch. We ate bread with tuna that we bought earlier. We also had fresh salad. After the fast meal, JL and AL played at the playground for a while. Then we took a slow stroll in the city and PaPa decided that we walked to the Melbourne Museum instead of taking the tram. It was a long walk. As so happen the Melbourne Museum was located behind The Royal Exhibition Building located in Carlton Gardens. The day when we visited the museum, the main hall was packed with students who were rushing to the hall for their exams. Melbourne City had many types of museums.

The Melbourne Museum was interesting where it displayed a lot about dinosaurs, animals and even science (including parts of human body etc…). We paid the entrance fees for the adults only as it was free for kids. Besides that, the worker even loan us another stroller for free to be used in the museum. We were busy looking after AL who was so excited running around because we were worried she might get lost or even accidentally bang on some of the display items which were not covered. We would not want to be caught via the security cameras.

After museum, we walked down the shopping mall road (Bourke Street) to go to the tram stop. The shopping mall was not that big. We did not realize that we actually even walked past the ChinaTown area. We were tired of walking and went back in the evening. We had dinner cooked by Aunty LL.

That night, Uncle KM sent PaPa to the airport to collect car from Hertz. It took PaPa a few hours to come back that we were worried whether he got lost or having trouble using the GPS. Then later we found that PaPa was waiting for 4-door Toyota Yaris to be returned because the ready available car was a 2-door Toyota Yaris. Hertz wanted to give a free upgrade to a bigger sedan car which PaPa rejected because PaPa did not want to pay for extra petrol/fuel consumption- bigger car higher consumption.

• 
  
  Part 1 Melbourne: Planning before the Trip
• 
  
  Part 2 Melbourne: Day 1 & 2 (21-22Nov09)

What would you do when…

What would you do when your almost 1 ½-year-old girl wakes up earlier than PaPa and KorKor? Then she pulled PaPa to bath her. After that, upon seeing KorKor sitting down at the dinning, she started to climb her booster seat to sit down. That was not the end; she went and took her shoe and carried KorKor’s old school bag which he used when he was 3 yrs old. Later, insisted to follow Mummy to the car to join KorKor to his kindy.

PohPoh ended up following AL to the kindy and the principal was nice enough to let her join the 3-year-old class. AL was not on any hgh supplement. It started end of last week and including yesterday too.

The feedback PohPoh gave was about 10am plus, AL would start being cranky because it was her nap time. Other than that, she happily joins the kids during mealtime and if she doesn’t want to join the lesson, she would keep herself busy with the toys and books on the shelves.

How long would this continue? Mummy really don’t know.

Income Tax

Income tax submission would be coming soon. Mummy started to check the whole envelopes of receipts which were mostly books. We even had some handwritten receipts which we insisted when the receipt printer was down. Even though we did not need to submit the physical receipt during the tax submission, but random checks would be done. Better be safe than sorry, just in case.

Food food food

Imagine we had been eating non stop from Christmas 2009, New Year 2010, then our team January Birthday lunch and next Chinese New Year 2010. Most of the food was either oily and a lot of meat with not much vegetables. Mummy was feeling bloated and tummy was increasing too. Mummy felt horrible and wondered what best colon cleanse would be able to help.

Exercise

Mummy must find way to get rid of the flabby belly mention in previous post. Argh…. Is there any fitness equipment which is not too expensive and compact for storage because our apartment is lack of space? Hmm….another thought, maybe Mummy must change Mummy’s diet back to last time by cutting on carbohydrates and late night heavy unhealthy snacks. Addition to that, Mummy must work extra hard to do some sit-ups. It is a slow and discipline process but hopefully it will work.

Flabby Belly

Due to stress as mention in the previous post, Mummy had been indulged on a lot of unhealthy habit especially on food. Even though Mummy was not hungry, Mummy would be munching and munching especially during late night after the kids were sleeping. Mummy knew Mummy should be sleeping but Mummy could not sleep even though Mummy was so tired, maybe over exhaustion and overload. Mummy’s flabby belly from two pregnancies got even flabbier and Mummy was having trouble buckling some of the pants and shorts. Sigh... sigh... Mummy must get rid belly fat soon…

Merging and Retrenchment

My previous company is at the midst of merging with another company – both in healthcare industry. Some of the staffs starting to make healthcare job search since last year just in case they are asked to leave the company. The retrenchment package is not being finalized yet so everyone is on stand-by mode. Mummy hope Mummy’s friends will not be affected and if yes, the retrenchment package will be good enough to sustain them financially till they get a new job.

Stress with deadline

Mummy had been caught with work to hit the deadline till some acne and wrinkles became so visible and ugly on Mummy’s face. With all these stress, Mummy doubted any top acne treatment would be able to help Mummy’s face. It was hard to focus and concentrate when too many things just came at the same time but no proper direction. Maybe Mummy would need to sit down and take a few minutes break to list out all the tasks and plan. Mummy must remember to include in the list to make sure update some of the overdue posts in the blog.

Perfect Job

It is not easy to hunt and get the perfect job. After working for so many years and submitting many resumes to many companies, so far the current company is Mummy’s third company (excluding the company where Mummy worked as practical trainee). It is impossible to find 100% perfect job where the salary, benefits, location, job time, job satisfaction, boss/supervisor and etc everything meet our requirement. Sometimes Mummy does envy those who has good job with good boss and flexi working hours. However, Mummy also has to keep in mind nothing come perfect to everyone. The only thing why Mummy likes Mummy’s current job is because it is near to our apartment with minimum jam (almost zero).

How about you?

AL’s Milk Intake Update

AL’s milk intake was still zero except direct breast milk at night. Some of Mummy’s remaining frozen milks would be expiring soon because AL totally rejected breast milk in bottle. A lot of people commented that AL had lost a lot of weight and she was much thinner now. AL was even much lighter now as compared to last time. Rejecting milk looked like the best fat burner. Mummy was quite sad…

We tried to introduce Full Cream Fresh Milk to her. She would take a few small sips via her spout cup and once the milk became warm, she would give us back the spout cup without finishing it. Well, we guess maybe because she could smell the milk smell when the milk became warm unlike when the milk was chilled, the milk would not have strong milk smell.

Two days ago we tried her on Oatmilk and she accepting the taste a bit better even though it was warm and not chilled. She drank a few small sips but Mummy got to be patient. All of us including JL KorKor and PaPa would cheer her when she drank some from her spout cup (even little also it was an achievement).

If she preferred Oatmilk then we might let her take Oatmilk and supplement her with Flaxseed Oil. We planned to replace JL’s intake on pure Cod Liver Oil once he finished to pure Flaxseed Oil. So far, AL was accepting the Flaxseed Oil very well which surprised us all. We were also glad that she loved vegetables and fruits like JL.

Affordable and Recognized Online Degree and Programs

Western Governor University (WGU) would be able to make a lot of people’s dream come true via their affordable and recognized online university.

What impressed Mummy was WGU being a non-profit university, thus making it more affordable, Western Governors University is nationally accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council and regionally accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, one of the major accrediting commissions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

This university objective was to make courses affordable as students are their main concern without having to worry of benefiting the shareholders.

The principal mission of Western Governors University is to improve quality and expand access to post-secondary educational opportunities by providing a means for individuals to learn independent of time and place and to earn competency-based degrees and other credentials that are credible to both academic institutions and employers.

WGU offered a wide range of courses from Degree to Master. It might be time for people like Mummy to consider upgrading by taking the online mba or other master program without having to give up our career and also role as mother.

2010

Before Mummy proceed to all the long overdue posts, it would be good to keep in mind what Mummy would love to achieve in 2010.

The list would be a long list and Mummy was not sure if all could be achieved in 2010. However, Mummy would list all and keep dreaming for all to come true one day (if not in 2010) in God’s grace, time and blessing.

1. The most important, all of us including family members and friends (including bloggers friends) to be happy and healthy.
2. AL would to take dairy products again in her diet besides Mummy’s breastmilk at night.
3. JL would get to the Chinese School which we registered without having to hassle on the appeal process.
4. JL would be well-prepared with his 2011 new challenges in Standard One Chinese School.
5. PaPa and Mummy’s career for a better career with a bit better remuneration but more time for the kids.
6. PaPa would pass all his exams without having to re-sit and graduate by this year.
7. Mummy to start cooking dinner on weekday for PaPa and Mummy.
8. PaPa and Mummy able to fulfill JL’s wish to learn more things. (For example JL had been requesting for Art lesson which we put on hold for time being).
9. Another holiday for 4 of us…
10. Changed our simple microwave to microwave cum oven (Price had dropped as compared to few years back.It would be cheaper to get an oven but due to kitchen space,we needed to get 2-in-1) so that we could fulfill JL’s wish who wanted to do baking together.
11. Afford another car so that we could give our kancil to KongKong for him to go around with PohPoh.
12. Afford to buy a landed property at a suitable location to fulfill JL’s wish (and of course PaPa and Mummy’s wish/dream) who wanted more space and garden to play with AL.
13. Mummy to continue study (which sounded impossible due to time and financial restriction unless Mummy had a smart brain like richard willich).

Mummy could go on thinking and writing more but Mummy better stop now before Mummy sounded so demanding and greedy…

To all Mummy’s beloved families and friends…

May this 2010 would be a great and fruitful year to all of you.

May the God blesses you all always…