Yummy yum yum..

Menu:
Sat dinner: Honey-lemon chicken with capsicums
Sun breakfast: Bread, cheese, egg, medium dried tomatoes, bacon
Sun dinner: Pasta
Mon dinner: Garlic chilli egg-plant and minced meat
Tue dinner: Roll
Wed dinner: Fried rice with Mongolian stir-fry

And guess what? The food that I have been eating this few days may very likely be the kind of food that the ex-Philippines president used to eat. (Gosh!) This is because David’s mum used to be the caterer for the ex-president. No wonder every dish that David cooks just seems like gourmet’s standard. And yes, I have been helping out in the kitchen in small ways while David cooks (my specialty is finely chopped onion. :p) and at the same time trying to ‘steal’ some of his culinary skills. I haven’t tried out so I’m not sure if my culinary skills improved but I learnt a very important thing from David in the kitchen. He thinks of the dish he wants to cook, visualizes it and spends great effort in cooking and presenting the dish. In short, he puts his heart and soul into cooking. Personally, I believe that this plays a major role in the end-result of the dish. I admit, I don’t put much effort when I cook because to me, cooking as just another must-do thing. That’s probably the reason why my dishes never tasted fantastic. So if you ask me what I gained most out of my crash course of ‘cooking lessons’, it’ll be to learn to enjoy cooking and to put my heart and soul into it if I want to whip up more yummy dishes. I guess the same goes for everything else in life. Lesson of the week (and possibly a lifetime): To do a good job, do it mindfully (concentrate) and learn to take pleasure in doing the task.

In case anyone is wondering, David is NOT a chef. He does marketing. And he just migrated to Australia, that’s why he’s staying at The Manor (the bed and breakfast place I’m staying in Wagga) temporarily. His wife and kids will be joining him in Wagga soon. Aren’t we lucky to be at Wagga (& The Manor) at this time? Any earlier or later, we would have missed him. :) He really brighten up my last week at Wagga with his keen sense of humour and numerous stories.

Jeannie, David and I went to the Wagga Botanical Gardens over the weekend. It was quite a nice place, with a mini zoo, lots of open spaces and huge trees. Below are some photos that we took there:

Jeannie & I

David & I

New neighbour = yummy lunch. :p

I just had a very filling and delicious lunch. It was the best home-cooked food I ever had since I came to Australia. All thanks to my new neighbour in the place I’m staying in Wagga, David. He just came over yesterday and seeing the unappetizing frozen microwavable dinner that Jeannie and I were having, decided that he’ll cook a proper and good meal for both of us. At first we thought he was just kidding until he came back from the supermarket with lots of food this morning. The preparation and cooking took up almost 3 hours. (I think this may be the longest time I took to prepare any of my meals.) But the end result was more than worth the whole morning of chopping and washing. For the first course, we had soup with shredded chicken, corn, potato, carrots, peas and some spices. The main course consisted of margarine and bacon fried rice with a piece of excellently seasoned chicken covered with a very tasty fresh mushrooms and onion sauce. It was first-rate food, absolutely yummy!

My yummy lunch!

A short intro about the chef. David just came to Wagga from the Philippines. He came as under the skilled professionals’ migration scheme and is in the marketing line. His family runs a catering business in Philippines (that should explain his flair for cooking). He’s a genius in the kitchen and Jeannie and I were impressed by his ability to mix and match the ingredients and spices to whip up a mouth-watering, well-balanced and healthy meal. (David is a health buff, he calculates the amount of fats in the food we ate for us and even recommended us to healthier choices like corn chips dipped in salsa sauce rather than potato chips.) The workings of the world (karma) are just amazing and I’m so glad and grateful to have David who out of the blue, pops out with a few tasty dishes to brighten up the stay at Wagga.



Ok… a bit about my life at Wagga. The weather at Wagga this week is a bit weird. At the beginning of the week, it was cloudy and warm. Then it started raining the whole of Thursday night and from then on, the weather is v cool. On Friday morning, it was cold! I think temperatures dropped to about 12-14 degrees overnight. My attachments are ok, pleasant because of the nice hospital environment and friendly staff but not particularly interesting or exciting. Life here is very quiet with no activities at night. Not many places to visit during the weekends too. In a way, I do enjoy staying here for a short period of time as life here is slow and simple. It has a rather calming effect on the soul. But having stayed in a city most of my life, I think I still prefer my busy life in Singapore. At least for now. But who knows, I may end up choosing a quieter lifestyle when I grow older and get tired of the city.

Seeing Wagga Wagga

Drivers, look out for the ducks! And we really saw a flock of ducks crossing the road. Too bad i was too slow in getting my camera out to capture the interesting sight.

One of the beautiful architecture of Wagga.

By the pond near our accommodation. The pond is full of water lilies. Lots of greenary in Wagga compared to Sydney.

Close-up view of the beautiful water lilies.

A beach in an inland city??? How is that possible? It turned out to be a 'beach' (with sand) by the river. The width of the river is only about the width of Singapore river.

Happy Birthday to me!

I had a quiet birthday at Wagga this year. My most quiet birthday in 23 years. But that’s alright, because I had 3 birthday celebrations already before I came to Wagga. 1st was with my ZR friends where we have a once-a-year-celebrate-everyone’s-birthday party. The 2nd one was with Zhen, Xin & Sandy. The 3rd was in Sydney with Sarah & Yiyan. And of cos, on my birthday, I had a “feast” with Jeannie.

Banana-choc cake with Sarah & Yiyan

Jeannie prepared the whole “feast” by herself. We had pumpkin soup, garlic bread, mashed potatoes, lemonade and Milo ice-cream. And I got a chocolate bar, a pretty flower and a surprise present (which I have not received yet) from her. So sweet of my housemate right? Think she was very stressed before my birthday cos she was the only one with me at Wagga and felt she had an obligation to make my day wonderful. And I have to say, I had a great night (minus the fact that I cut my finger). Thanks a lot, Jeannie! I’m so glad I have you.

My birthday feast's chef - Jeannie

Me & my birthday flower. :)

The birthday wishes that I received from all my friends and family made a huge difference too and definitely helped to brighten up my birthday. Isn’t auto-roaming, email and msn the most amazing thing on earth? The physical distance between people just becomes insignificant when you communicate with friends via sms or the internet. It certainly feels good to know that your family and friends still remembers your birthday and cares for you. *basking in happiness* :)



I remember one of my friends saying before that birthdays should be a day of gratitude to our parents for bringing us to this world and for bringing us up. I totally agree. Thanks mummy and papa!!!


To me, birthdays are a celebration of life. It is also a reminder that time is ticking by, prompting us to make good use of our life, to live life to the fullest. That shall be my birthday resolution.

Wagga Wagga

On the tourist broacher, it introduces Wagga as “the largest inland city in New South Wales”. Hmm… oh well, to me the 土生土长 city girl, Wagga seems more like a quiet country-town. The cbd consists of only 1 main street as far as i know. But the main reason why I chose to come to Wagga for my clinical attachments was so that I can experience the country lifestyle. So yep… I guess I got my wish.



Must start from the beginning and tell how I arrived in Wagga. On a 33-seater plane. My first time on such a mini plane. You can see the propeller of the plane from the window and can see it moving when the plane flies. A bit scary but overall, ok. Well, at least I arrived safely.

The 33-seater plane that we took. Notice the propellor?

I started work at the Riverina Cancer Care Centre already. It's a 35 min walk away from the place i'm staying. Along the way, i will walk past a river with has some greedy geese (that will start quacking for food when they see anyone) and a few rows of houses. Not very exciting... But looking on the bright side, the riverside walk is quite pretty in the morning.

Me with the tall, pretty grass by the river

The place i'm staying at is a very old-fashioned guesthouse. Those with the wooden floor which will creak when you walk on them. Has quite quaint furniture around. Like my room has an antique-like dressing table and bedside lamp. But it's clean and quite comfotable.



Temperatures here range from about 17 deg in the early morning to a height of 35 deg in the afternoon. Very dry. People here are quite friendly. But i think Jeannie and i are probably the very v v v v few asians here. As a result, some people tend to give us a curious 2nd and sometimes even a 3rd look. :) But they are pretty harmless (i hope... )

Well, that's all for now. Shall update again after i see more of this place.

Update on my Life...

Here's a quick update on what i did during my 3 months of vacation.



1. I was an intern in the Youth Ministry of Kong Meng San Monastery for about 6 weeks. My job there was to learn, anything that i wanted to learn. So i tried doing a little of almost everything that the staff there were doing. From distributing flyers at MRT stations, folding lots of origami boxes and lotuses, shifting chairs, packing staff to setting up booths, managing volunteers, taking part in important (but sometimes boring :p) meetings and organising events like a Countdown party and even a wedding ceremony. And some unexpected things like bringing stray kittens to the vet and selling roses during V-day popped up along the way too. The result of these 6 weeks of internship is heaps of new experiences, lots of fun and laughter, sincere encouragement to believe in myself, a deeper understanding about Buddhism and a great group of new-found friends. I truly enjoyed my time at the Youth Ministry and was quite sad when my internship ended. :( But nvm, shall look forward to volunteering there in future.

My friends and colleagues at kmsYM

2. Met up with lots of my old friends, my DHSCO Zhongruan frens who went through thick & thin with me, my beloved longtime pri school frens, my NYP lecturer & classmates who made my NYP days most memorable, my VJC classmates who have changed but are still as crazy and fun, my aikido frens from all walks of life who i'm so glad to have met, my Buddhist teacher and mentor and my good fren, HL.

The ZR grp's once-a-year birthday celebration at Youya's house

3. Spent some time with my family too, esp during CNY where i had the opportunity to catch up with some of my see-once-a-year relatives. Met my 6 months old nephew for the 1st time too. He's so chubby.

My younger nephew, Nicky

4. Not to forget, had lots of my fav local Singaporean food too. Ate lots of delicious vegetarian food too, provided by the stern but very good chef at KMS.

5. Went to Perth with my mum from 22 Feb to 28 Feb 06. Pls go to my album, http://weimei.shutterfly.com/action/ to see the pictures i took in Perth. It's a beautiful place. Lots of natural sights that we never get to see in S'pore (eg, The Pinnacles, The Wave Rock etc). But the weather there was scorching hot n very dry, esp on the last 3 days where temp reached 36 degrees. Felt like i was being roasted alive.

At the Wave Rock

The Pinnacles

Cape Leeuwin - the place where the Southern & Indian oceans meet

6. Well, that's a summary of what i did during my hols. I'm currently back in Sydney, but will be going to Wagga Wagga for my 3 weeks of clinical placement. Wagga Wagga is an inland town that is between Melbourne and Sydney and is 1+ hours plane ride away from Sydney. Hope it'll be fun there.

New Blog!

Feels a bit weird blogging after so long. (My fault. i kept procrastinating.) But many of my friends have been asking me about my blog, so i decided to revive it.



I know i said i wanted to change the look of my blog. And i really did search for nice templates and tried my best to edit the html language etc to personalise my blog. The picture that was supposed to be the highlight of my blog was this very cute Forever Friends bear holding a bunch of flowers. Oh well, i shall still put a picture of it in my blog for myself n all of you to admire.

But, (as you may have guessed) after many many unsuccessful tries to adapt the template to my needs and a huge headache, i decided to stick back to the conventional templates provided by Blogger. (My gratitude to Blogger for creating simple templates for html idiots like me.) So there, my blog is back again. With a very simple design. And it's a different design from the one last time, so it's still a new blog. :D



And I decided, to add more colours to it, i shall upload pictures. Hope that compensates. ;p