Son Notre 1er Anniversaire de Mariage!

A year ago today....

A year has passed ever so quickly. Looking back on the year, we thank God that we have been blessed with so much. There is so much to look forward to and we can only wait to see what is in store for us.

With this year being our first anniversary, we decided to do something simple yet meaningful. Instead of having an fancy dinner out, we decided to have a nice, laid back late lunch, followed by a home screening of our church wedding and wedding dinner recording to remember the very special day we became husband and wife.

We had our late lunch at MyCafe, a modern Australian cafe located at the trendy dining district, Manuka. Alex had the Big Breakfast - scrambled eggs, buttered toast, bacon strips, tomatoes, pan fried sausages and wild mushrooms. I had the Wagner - turkey breast on a bed of salad leaves and tomatoes served on a toasted foccacia with guacamole, cranberry jam and chips on the side.

MyCafe - alfresco section

The Big Breakfast

The Wagner

We didn't hire professional videographers for our wedding but with thanks to our impromptu videographers, we have moving pictures of our big day.

Impromptu videographer#1 - Deborah

Impromptu videographer#2 - Cousin Ricky

Till this day we have not viewed the recordings. So tonight will be the first time we get to see what everyone else saw.

To add a little sparkle to our 'stay at home' anniversary, we bought a bottle of Moet & Chandon to toast to our first year together and the many more years to come.

The hubby was extra sweet and did the usual 'buy flowers for the wife' repertoire :) This makes it the 4th flower arrangement from dear ol' hubby this year.

Apparently white roses weren't available so light yellow roses had to make do instead. The wife was pleasantly surprised to receive flowers .... :)

cheryl

Adelaide - Part 1

Dinner with Deborah - Rundle Street Mall - Central Market

A week ago today (Friday 26th June) we were in Adelaide having yet another relaxing holiday away from Canberra. If you have been frequently visiting this blog, it would seem like we often go away on holidays... :) Before you think money grows on trees in our garden, not that we have one but figuratively speaking... I must say that it doesn't and we afford these trips because of the fantastic deals we manage to secure for our flights which make the trip worth making. We often travel on free flights, 1 dollar flights - with all tax included or very cheap flights. I can't shed any light on these flights because navigating flights is not my forte but Alex's hence only he can divulge the secrets. A separate entry on this later maybe?

This time our short weekend away was to Adelaide and it was a good time for the two of us. Adelaide is very different from other Australian cities. I have only recently been told that while Australia was a land of convicts in the past, Adelaide was the only city where no convict was allowed to reside. Entry was only for the upper echelons of society. Hence the beautiful buildings and classy heritage of this small city.

Pictures...

The green green grass of Adelaide - I took this shot because most of the time Canberra is brown. Green is my favourite color.

Our hotel room at the Stamford Plaza

The Stamford Plaza is a great place to stay in Adelaide. It is located at North Terrace which is a main road where heritage buildings line the street and it is a short walk away from Rundle Street Mall, the Botanical Gardens, the Adelaide Zoo and Central Market. Stamford Plaza is a 5 star hotel and if you would like to go cheaper, there is the Mercure Grosvenor further down the street which is a 4 star joint.

We met up with Deborah for dinner. She is an old friend from Penang who was also my very able 'last minute' videographer at our wedding-hopefully she can forgive us soon for putting her in that position without prior warning :p This dinner too was very last minute. Haha... I wonder why everything I plan with Deborah in it is always last minute?

Deborah and I

Hubby and I

Following morning we walked to Rundle Street Mall. This is like the Queen Street Mall in Brisbane and the Pitt Street Mall in Sydney.

Rundle Street Mall

Metallic ball sculpture in the middle of the street mall.

We then walked to the Central Market. I love love love the Central Market. It could have been the atmosphere, the people or the variety of goods sold at the market but it really made its mark on me and I will definitely return to this place on my next visit. If you plan on visiting Adelaide anytime soon, I suggest having your breakfast there. There are plenty of breakfast stalls that serve great looking food for brekkie within the building. Do go early to avoid the crowds though.

One of the breakfast stalls. Very casual setting yet very enticing.

Some of the stalls had interesting names. The names are outrightly direct about the goods they sell yet it was appealing and it captured my attention. I would so buy goods from these shops just based solely on their name. Would you? Here are some shots of them.

DOUGH - selling bread

THE SMELLY CHEESE - selling cheese of course

OLD LOLLY SHOP - selling lollies

The Central Market only sells food. The place had a great vibe and it showed a fantastic display of fresh South Australian produce. Made me wish I stayed in Adelaide. Great ingredients to work with to broaden my culinary prowess. Haha.. spoken like a true food afficionado. Oh greedy me..

A shot from above to try and capture what I saw

Fresh fruit and vegetables

Huge array of cheese - blue, brie, cheddar, truffle infused...etc

More of CHEESE

A shot of lovely baked treats

More to come in Adelaide Part 2. I didnt want to inundate you with too many pictures in one hit :)

cheryl

Tiger Airways... Unlike what everyone thinks

I'm back, well... for the time being anyhow. Cheryl and I headed off to Adelaide last weekend kinda as a celebration thing after ending my semester of Pharmacy learning. Having bought some rather cheap fares with Tiger to Adelaide, we headed to South Australia to relax. Neither of us have been to Adelaide before so we were looking forward to the weekend with much anticipation. We stayed at the Stamford Plaza Hotel which was nice, but maybe more a 4.5 star rather than a 5 star hotel. I still prefer the Sofitel in Sydney that we stayed at in November 08.

I have heard of so many negative reports about Tiger Airways ever since they started flying. I have flown on them in the past and they were fine, except for a 3 hour delay which we experienced. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 4.05 pm from Canberra and we took of at about 4.20pm, arriving at 5.30pm, which was about 15 minutes late. A little late which is to be somewhat expected with the likes of budget airlines but nothing unbearable like the 3 hours or more that everyone has been complaining of.

2 days later we were back at Adelaide airport, 3 hours before departure. There was a passenger who was disallowed from checking into a Gold Coast flight, because check in had closed just 10 minutes before. She was made to purchase another ticket for the next flight out even though the boarding call for the flight was 40 minutes away. Its a strict policy, but fair as seriously, Tiger has to turn around a 180 seater in 30 minutes, which is really fast.

After checking in, Cheryl and I went to eat Hungry Jacks at Adelaide airport. The plane we were due to board was coming in from Hobart, with an ETA (estimated arrival time) of 1440. Not long after eating lunch we saw the plane land from Hobart. With about 150 or so passengers hoping off, we started boarding at about 1455 or so. But with only 117 boarding the aircraft, we pushed back at about 1515 and headed to Canberra. We arrived at 1720 pm, pretty much on time.

So there you go. Tiger Airways, on time for both flights. Not like the massive delays that everyone hears from the media. I don't know if Cheryl and I were lucky (if you could call it that) but let me just say that Tiger is seriously like any other LCC - Low Cost Carrier. Would I fly them again? Yes. Would I recommend them to others? Yes, especially since both landings were smoooth, unlike other airlines I have flown.

Thank you Tiger for an enjoyable flight to and from Adelaide.

More to come later from Cheryl. Gold Coast in two weeks and then Penang 3 weeks after that.

Alex

Off to South Australia for the weekend..

Another short trip, another Aussie city, gonna drop in on Deborah ... YAY! :) Back next week with photos!



cheryl

Michael Jackson Passes On at 50

Images from the web

I woke up this morning (8am Aus time -26 June) to a phone call telling me the King of Pop had died. In my sleepy stupor I thought it was a joke or maybe a dream. I distinctly remembered having a disturbing dream right before and thought maybe this was an extension of it. However it has been confirmed that he has passed on from a heart attack. He had been rushed to the hospital in a coma after suffering the heart attack and never regained conciousness after.

As this news spreads around the globe, it has been reported that many rushed to the web, accessing Facebook, Twitter, TMZ and other various celebrity webpages causing a record rush of traffic equal to the traffic seen during the inauguration of Barack Obama.

So much has been said about this man -plastic surgery, oxygen chamber, neverland, child abuse, eccentricity, financial woes, etc - how much of which is true we don't know.

Goodbye to the MJ era..

UNINSPIRED. BRAIN FREEZE

These three words sum up how I have felt for the past month. To those who have been periodially checking in on this blog, I do apologize for the lack of posts. Not only have I been suffering from a bout of brain freeze (both literally and creatively) but I have also had the finger freeze and the toe freeze. Its been nothing but weeks of cold and wet weather. And I DO NOT FUNCTION well in such 'extreme' conditions.

I woke at 7am this morning and this was the view from my kitchen balcony. I would have taken more shots from the living room balcony and the master room balcony but really it wasn't necessary. You get my meaning. Its the same view from all angles. GLOOMY GRAY. (For some reason the camera captured the color blue. But it was gray. Trust me.)

These are the shots at 9am this morning. Yes. MORE GLOOMY GRAY.

Whoop de doo. Excitement is me. This year is colder than usual because there is a cold front blowing in from the South Pole. Sounds like long term brain freeze to me. How can anyone be inspired to do anything by gray? I am so a summer girl. Give me yellow sunlight, nice bright blue skies, refreshing green grass and beautiful rainbows. I need color and warmth to function!

When I was a kid (and I think many kids in tropical countries do this) I used to tell my parents I wished we stayed in a country where there was winter and snow. I wished we had a swimming pool in our back yard and a multi storey house where I could explore and play games to my hearts content. I now wish I hadn't wished so much. What you wish is really sometimes what you get.

1. Winter?

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire = overrated. Cold extremities are not fun at all. Wearing gloves, beanies, socks and ugg boots only serve to make you clumsy while looking like Dopey (Snow White).

2. Swimming Pool?

Unrealistic. Great for kids who don't know the cost of maintaining one and the horrible task of cleaning one. It's worse with 4 seasons. Leaves in Autumn, fuzzy reproductive things in Spring and ice in Winter.

3. Multi Storey House?

Bah to staircases. Have you tried lugging a vacuum cleaner up and down the stairs plus plugging and unplugging just to cover all areas of the house? Cleaning is a pain. Or yelling just get everyone together for dinner? We have a 3 handset phone plus one corded phone and still its a 100m sprint to get to one of them before the call rings out.

Winter. Whingey. Whiney. Winter.

I'll try and come up with something more cheerful later this week.

cheryl

In-Laws Place Got Burgled!

Last Wednesday evening we received a call from my inlaws telling us their place got burgled. It was only ~3 weeks ago that our neighbours two doors down got burgled. What is this quiet, previously country town, slow growing city coming to?

The police were called in and all losses accounted for. The forensics team ala CSI was brought in to dust for fingerprints and footprints. But as all domestic break ins go, the thieves were wearing gloves so no fingerprints were left behind. The police made enquiries and discovered that there were some eyewitnesses who saw 3 teenage looking boys with backpacks walking down the driveway and subsequently knocking on the front door. Their actions did not arouse suspicion because it was thought that they were fund raising or going door to door to sell stuff. No one was home to answer the door and its our conclusion that they then brazenly broke in.

Entry was via a window at the back of the house and the ransacking was quick. The house is currently in a mess and it will take roughly a week to sort things out. Drawers were pulled out of place and even the night table was turned upside down and tossed onto the bed. Packaged food and bottled drinks were left on the floor and no cabinet was left unsearched. They even went through the freezer, pantry plus pots and pans! They must have known that Asians tend to keep their earthly treasures in the oddest places.

My in-laws have been staying at our place since and hopefully all things will return to normal next week. A burglary/break in always changes the atmosphere in a home. The sense of security has been broken and it will take awhile before confidence in the 4 walls returns.

A total of 6 homes were burgled in the same suburb that day. Each house was on a different street. We figure it must have been the same 3 men.

We pray for security and for angels to look over us and our homes.


cheryl

Friday Work Lunch

We had a special lunch get together at work today. It was a quick yet warm lunch with flavours from India, Italy, Lebanon, Scotland and Australia - delicious meals cooked by fellow colleagues. Our work place is truly international :) I got snap happy and here are some of the pictures from the work place.

All in a row - plates full to the brim

Chocolate rum balls covered with dessicated coconut

Fresh home made tabouli

Fresh home made Italian Bread

Tomato chicken with feta cheese

Indian Onion rice

Indian Beef curry

Homemade strawberry tarts - very visually appealing!

Yummy chocolate cupcakes - also visually stimulating!

Quick shot while going 2 floors down in the lift

Our workplace Monday-Friday

cheryl

Avocado Obsession

I love avocados. Since settling down in Australia, that love has slowly become an obsession. Of late I have been eating an average of 3 avocados a week. I must admit I am a little concerned about my eating them so much because of the high fat content but I suppose since its good fat and since it decreases the LDLs I can eat them to my hearts content right? A single mid sized avocado contains 30g of fat.

Avocados are so much cheaper here than in Malaysia and readily available at any green grocers. I like to buy mine from the markets because I can get them at good prices there - usually AUD 2 for 3 avocados. Good eh? The guy at the markets will often pick them out for me according to their shelf life - ready to eat 3 days later or maybe a week after. Last week he sold me 5 for AUD 2! Hurrah for being friendly with the green grocer :)

How do I have my avocado?

1. Guacamole (the lighting in this shot doesn't do the green justice)

2. Just as it is on a bread roll

3. Tossed in my Caesar Salad

Oh avocado~~ :)

cheryl

Pharmacy Ball 2009

Last Friday was a night of celebrations for the Masters of Pharmacy students at UCanberra. The ball was held at the Hellenic Club and it was a pretty awesome night. It was a formal event themed Gold and Silver. Lecturers, students and their partners made up most of the participants that night but there were some specially invited guests who had kindly sponsored the big prizes of the raffle draw that night. The second prize were female products by SonFx while the biggest prize was two flight tickets with Qantas to select destinations within Australia. Too bad we didn't win it! Another short weekend away would fantastic :)

The dinner was organized by Caspa the pharmacy society at the university of which Alex was the out going president for 2009. I went as Alex's partner (naturally..) and we certainly enjoyed ourselves.

Here are some pictures of the night.

President and 'First Lady' :)

Alex making his speech for the night

A picture with the Andrew from Qantas Link - the sponsor for the main prize for the night

The bar from which drinks were served from that night.

Much action took place on the dance floor-everyone showcasing their moves and grooves

2nd year Master students

There was a guy taking photos for OutinCanberra. Out in Canberra is an independent restaurant, fashion, entertainment and bar website that offers news, offers and latest discounts of popular spots around Canberra. A part of the website holds social photos of people caught out and about in Canberra. We got our picture taken by the photographer and here it is :) Yay!

cheryl