Fun and fast

In one of Agnes' bookmarked websites is Susan B. Anderson's blog. It's for one simple reason - she loves her knitting patterns. One day last week, she checked the blog just before dinner and immediately fell in love with the new hat pattern that she shared for free! Without any delay, she started working on the hat right after dinner and finished a ball of yarn by 2a.m.

The next day, she woke up early to continue and by noon (and half a ball of yarn later), it was done! What did she love about this hat? It was fun and fast to knit! Best of all... it can be worn in a variety of styles! ;)

Agnes can cook #4

On a lazy day, isn't it great when you can just throw everything together and just shove them into the oven? Cooked penne, english spinach, portobello mushroom and home-made beef balls mixed in Leggo's creamy sundried tomato & garlic sauce, and finally topped with grated mozarella cheese!

Somebody stop us!

Long before that fateful impulsive car-buying day, Kevin placed more orders on Amazon for yet another Cosmology book and other not-so-essential stuffs. Now that they've finally arrived, it feels quite painful having decided to spend the money (yet very happy for the goodies!). Oh... and as usual, they have to deliver the parcels when no one's home!

Scrap-booking Day

Last Sunday, Agnes attended a scrap-booking workshop organised by one of our church members, Fiona Paice. Fiona is a consultant of Creative Memories, which carries a lot of goodies, from punchers to cutting tools to other artsy-fartsy materials, each calling to Agnes, asking to be brought home!

After church, Judy and Agnes made their way to the workshop whilst Kevin and Perry went for brunch. Instead of making scrap-books (all her scraps are back in Malaysia anyway!), Agnes ended up making (only) 2 cards in that few hours. Nevertheless, she had a good time and was very much inspired. Also, Judy was so kind to get her a gift for her first workshop - a multipurpose tool! You will see it in the picture below, right on the orange card... ;)

2 years old!

With the help of Kevin's parents (from Perth to KL to Ipoh) and Agnes' parents (Ipoh to Singapore), the red hat that Agnes knitted finally reached our adorable niece, Kate, in time as her 2 years old's birthday gift!

Jane'nette: N hahahaha that red beany u sew Agnes! I can imagine a cute little girl wearing it! :P

You are so right, Jane, and you have to imagine no more!

Agnes is SO thrilled to finally see Kate wearing the hat! If anyone remembers, she did request for a red, black and white hat. Apparently, she started dancing when Stacey put the hat on for her!

What can you buy with $1,200?

A car, of course!

We took the bus to Denny's place (he was the one who alerted us about the car for sale) to take a look at it. Kevin test drove it, bargained with the owner (the original price was $1,500) signed the transfers paper, paid the previous owner in cash, and Agnes drove it back to our place. And that's the story of how we got our new car. Well it's not exactly new, it's a second hand '94 Toyota Corolla - and it's bright red!

Of course, that's not all! There are all sorts of other things which we have to pay for and will need to spend on from now:

$165.00 to install an immobilizer (compulsory to legalise the transfer)
$ 69.70 of vehicle licence duty and transfer fee
$193.95 a year for third party insurance, just in case we bang into a Porsche or Ferrari or any other car
$  83.00 a year for Roadside Assistance, just in case it breaks down, since its an old car
$392.85 a year for car license (better known as road tax in Malaysia); due on 6 December 09
$145.00 every six months to service the car
$ xxx.xx for fuel... where x is still to be determined

So it's never been about  the price of a car, but the cost to maintain it! Let's hope it's worth it... at least from now onwards, our visiting friends and family will not have to pay the expensive taxi fares to and from the airport to our apartment! :D

Counting our blessings: Candidacy Confirmed!

After all the stress and anxiety of presenting his research proposal, Kevin's PhD candidacy has now been confirmed - which means that he is now officially a PhD candidate at the University. Thank God the presentation went well and Kevin managed to handle the questions that were asked. Thank you to those who prayed with us!

He felt so relieved after the presentation... that he decided to take some time off to relax for the rest of the day!

A little celebration dinner at Tony Roma's...

feeling greedy...

Something you can't get at Tony Roma's in Malaysia - pork ribs!

we finished everything! :O

However, Kevin has now realized that the confirmation of his candidacy is just the beginning of the long, arduous road towards his thesis. Giving a presentation on what you plan to do for your research is one thing... actually DOING IT is another thing entirely! So how is he going to do it? He has absolutely no idea!

Agnes can cook #3

Last Saturday, we went to a house-warming party. The hosts thought that it would be nice if we could bring "something Malaysian". Now, with the thinking cap on, we thought of stuff like ais-kacang, watermelon (well, we always had this during barbeques...), ling ji kang and koniyaku jelly (which is not even Malaysian!).

For one reason or the other, we were not able to prepare any of the above. Inspired by the Indonesian Night, Kevin suggested pisang cekodok (banana fritters) and Agnes was delighted to find a very simple recipe with a few clicks of the mouse!

For the very first time, we witnessed an Australian barbeque using carcoal (instead of gas) - also known as the manly way... ;)

Coopers, Peroni or Budweiser???

DON'T PANIC

It's been six months since Kevin began his PhD research...

Now, he can no longer depend on the following excuses:
1. I've just arrived, so I'm still not really sure about X...
2. I've just started my research, so I still don't understand X...
3. I'm still doing my literature review, so I haven't read about X yet, though I'm planning to soon...
4. It's not really my field, I did an engineering degree, so I haven't heard of X...

where X is whatever that someone else is expecting him to know/ understand/ do but which he really has no inkling about.

In other words... the honeymoon period is over (if there ever was any)! Time to get serious (not that he wasn't)! Time to work harder (not that he didn't either.. ahem)!

In two day's time, Kevin will be presenting his research proposal in front of a bunch of astronomers and engineers... and the promotional flyers are out - there's no turning back...

Click on enlarge... for anyone who may even be remotely interested in whatever Kevin is doing so that they can find out the main reason Agnes is here with him instead of back home in Malaysia with all her wonderful friends who will no doubt be missing her and wondering why she gets to knit all day while they have to slog it off in their offices.

It is important that Kevin keeps himself sane through all this, so he has decided that he should spend a small amount of time each day on some entertainment - which led to him purchasing the entire series of the Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy - which led to Agnes picking up the books to read them - which then in turn led to her being addicted to the books too - which then made Kevin wonder if it made any difference at all since he was becoming crazy anyway no thanks to all the crazy stuff in the books - and which has then led to Kevin to begin thinking and writing like Douglas Adams - finally resulting in you reading a blog post that sounds not unlike what you would find in any of these silly books.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...

 
DON'T PANIC? Great advice! Highly recommended for anyone who wants to release stress - though there is a chance that after releasing that stress for a few hours, he or she may find himself/herself in a mental institution where there will no longer be any need for stress... ever!

... best to read with a cup of instant cream of chicken & mushroom with croutons and half a pan-toasted hotdog bun!

Turning on the Christmas Lights

It was marketed as "the most magical family event in Perth. Millions of lights and every Christmas decorations imaginable are switched on as the finale for a huge welcome to Santa as he arrives, turns on the lights with the Lord Mayor and meets the kids in Perth".

The most magical... so, thought we had to be a part of it and took the bus to the city last Friday evening. We also took the opportunity to meet Hui Sean, the sister of Agnes' long-time school friend (fondly known as Ban), who is also studying in Curtin. Hui Sean brought two of her friends along and we had fun trying to catch a glimpse of the event in the sea of people.

The highlight of the event was of course the turning on of the Christmas Lights...

For those of you who know Ban/ Erica/ Hui Khun, here's her sister. :)

By then, Kevin had long left the Forrest Place where the event was held, for the Dymocks bookstore, to buy some books... we'll tell you about them next. ;D

Indonesian Night

Vegetarian

Nasi Putih (Steamed Rice)

Nasi Kuning (Yellow Rice)

Gado-Gado (Vegetable Salad with peanut sauce)

Telur Berlada (eggs in Fried Chilli Sauce)

Pagri Terong (Fried Egg Plant)

Sayur Lodeh (Vegetables in Coconut Milk)

Bihun Goreng (Fried Rice Noodles)

Slada Padang (Padang style Salad)

Non-Vegetarian

Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice)

Cap Cay (Stir Fried Vegetables)
Lumpia (Indonesian Spring Rolls)
Rendang (Spicy Minang style Beed/ Lamb)

Smoor Daging (Braised Beef in Soy Sauce)

Mie Goreng (Fried Noodles)

Krupuk (Prawn Crackers)

Dessert

Pisang Goreng (Banana Fritters)

Ketan Hitam (Black Sticky Rice Pudding)

Nanas Berbumbu (Spiced Pineapple)

Sambal (Chilli Sauce)

That's the menu for the tantalising Indonesian dinner we had....

... in CHURCH!

As usual, the children found other things to entertain themselves with... :)

That's Wendy and Bethlyn serving the dessert. Ohhh.. the ketan hitam was excellent, reminded us of our chinese-style pulut hitam red bean soup (black glutinous rice with red bean and coconut milk)!

It all happened because Kees and Wendy went to Indonesia for a few years as volunteers to teach English in the universities over there. They then came back here to Australia with all these wonderful recipes, and took this opportunity to introduce Indonesian food to the rest of the church members (and their friends)... and of course, being Malaysians who eat absolutely anything... we loved it! It was a pity that Kees was feeling unwell for the night and couldn't join us. :(

12 years

12 years is a long time. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to meet a friend you have not met for 12 long years? Erin is an old friend of Agnes from school who migrated to Australia with her family.

The girls hugged. Then, we talked. And we laughed. It was like trying to make up for all the times we have not talked and laughed together. The pharmacy conference brought Erin and her husband Ray, to Perth from Melbourne. Thank you, Erin, for the "sacrifices" you made so that we could meet up. ;) And Ray, it was really nice meeting you!
 
12 years is a long time indeed. We have grown up from being teenagers to being a man, a woman, somebody's husband, somebody's wife, and in Erin's case, somebody's mother (very soon now!). :D

Red and all colourful

You may recall the work-in-progress red hat that Agnes was working on. This is how the completed hat looks like. It came from a jester hat pattern but she decided to feminize it with some embroideries.

After the recent trip to Spotlight, there are now ten thousand projects that Agnes would like to embark on. However, due to limitations in the number of hands, time and money, she has narrowed it down to only a few. She's almost half way through the first project which was a request from Kevin.

While preparing this post, she succumbed to temptations and started on the second project. However, she can't continue without a tennis ball!

There is one main contributing factor as to why she can work on more projects at a time now. Kevin has gotten her an early Christmas gift!

a set of metal interchangeable circular needle sets which Helen had kindly brought to City Nits last Saturday...

It's blooming!

One day, we found two flower blooms on our tomato plants. How about that? Mr. Bees, please work harder! :D Agnes also found a teeny weeny snail next to the plants that must have crawled through the mesh. Recalling Pat's idea, she crushed that small snail and left it near the tomato plants (next to the twig it was crushed with). To our surprise, we later saw a slug feasting on that small snail's carcass!

On another hand, the capsicum plants are officially gone. It's not the snails nor the slugs this time. It must be the heat. Oh dear, what's going to happen when we are back in Malaysia and no one waters the plants? Hmmm....

Counting our blessings: No egg yolks

On the day we collected the rented car just before the arrival of Kevin's parents, we also finally collected the mooncakes flown over from Malaysia! These mooncakes arrived on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival about two weeks before, when the sender's Head of Department (tak paiseh!) was asked to bring them along on his trip to Perth. The sender had hoped that we would be able to enjoy the mooncakes on that day itself. Unfortunately, Hillarys is quite a distance to where we lived so we thought we'd wait till we had the car. It was initially meant to be a surprise, but the sender had no choice but to reveal what she had sent. She was afraid that it would expire by then!

Red bean. Lotus paste. Just the way Kevin likes them - no salted-egg yolks (else they will not be allowed in to Australia!). We did see them in some shops here but it's too pricey so we decided not to buy. The sender was really thoughtful and we finished them in no time... even though she tried convincing us to keep them for next year's celebration! ;p

Anyway, thank you, Yuet Pei! (and Sam!) :D

A day more with the car

After sending Kevin's parents to the airport (on the last day of October at 4.00 am in the morning!), and after a short nap back home, we decided to make full use of the rented car since we'd be having it for one more day! So how did we make sure that the car was fully utilized? Where did we go? What did we do?

1. Drove to the Spotlight store so Agnes could buy more yarn for her knitting projects!

2. Drop by Herdsman Lake for a short walk and to commune with nature... There's something mystical about this place...

local wildlife

along the boardwalk...

rather spooky at times...

we actually saw a spoonbill!

3. Visit a Christian bookstore on Albany Highway

4. Drop by Sam's Warehouse to buy a fan - summer is just around the corner...

our new fan! It's already starting to get pretty hot on certain days so it made its way out of the box few days ago...

 5. Drive to Victoria Park Leisurelife Centre for a charity fundraising (organized by Homeless Connect) Quiz Night!

Agnes made some currypuffs to bring along, using leftover chicken curry that Kevin's parents cooked

Our team, including Denny, Sheela, Han and their friends, among a host of other participants

Our final score.... 40 points! Just look for Spandau Ballet. Who cares that we're 7th from last.. its all for charity! And we had loads of fun!