Comments from Rozana and Sharifah

FYI:
Rozana and Sharifah travelled a lot. These are what they say about Down Under:

1. Expensive - Believe it or not Australia is the most expensive place they ever been to. Even though in Europe the Euro is more expensive but the things you can buy with it are much much more than in Australia. Even the 'made in Australia' products - is more expensive in Australia than in Malaysia. There's this one nutty bar that Rozana likes, it cost $4.99 in Australia and only RM4.00 in Malaysia!
2. Tasmania is beautifulllllllllllllllllllll
3. Public toilets are nice.
4. They are impressed with the car hire service, when they returned the car 5 hours later than the time they specified, no extra charges what so ever. When they dropped the key at the counter, they were just asked is the tank full? yes. OK - off they went! (VERY trusting - US taswegians! hehehehe)
5. Easy to find yummy vegetarian food.
6. Food are nice - juicy mushrooms, fresh fish and beef..lamb (hmmm no wonder Farid is super big now!- wakakakakaka)
7. Laidback culture
8. This is the first place that Rozana felt like staying longer - ie finding work etc.

---WOW??? really??? here am I always thinking about how can I find work elsewhere??

Bare in mind - they are here on holiday - hehehehe
holiday = nice (no matter where you are....)

Pick-a-boo!

Hobart-Mures

When we finally reached Hobart, It was quite late and we were all very hungry. So whilst Zana and Sharifah hit the Salamanca Market we were waiting for our orders. Too long queue and the food not nice at all!

This black ship is called 'Steve Irwin' after the late 'Crocodile Hunter'. The ship is notorious for shoo-ing/harrassing them Japanese Whalers.

Imagine the skyline on a blue sky day.. next time maybe?

Crayfish traps

Grand Chancelor Hotel

Holding the Rainbow

Can you see the rainbow?

Rendang Hangus

Old story. I wanted to do something different for raya. I thought 'Prawn Rendang'... but I went to bed without remembering to turn the electric wok first! - I got charcoal prawn the next morning!

I did say domething different didn't I?

--- p.s my chooks love it!

Pacific Blue

Nice blue flowers.

I always wanted to do this!

Meet my visitors. Rozana and Sharifah. Rozana was my senior in St. GoRGeOuS. Sharifah and Rozana work at the same place. They are very seasoned travellers. Name what country... they've been there! lucky buggers! hehehehehe

There was this yellow spot along the Midland Highway {connects Hobart-Lonnie} that I always wanted to stop for 'kodak moments' but you-know-who always said NO. [He stopped for kodak moments a lot of times for me but not in this particular spot].

The fence was also a 'good' one - no barb wire! Even I... managed to lug my bigself through it - don't ask me how!

Latest finished quilt

You guys have seen this quilt before. But this is the finished version. I used the cheetah? fabric for the borders. and at the back, frangipani fabric. I like the frangipani side too but Hisham prefers the bright side. It is now resting on the sofa next to the colored windows. This quilt is quite big - I think it is about 2 x 2 meters.

Next one to finish (if ever) is the block of the month I am making for Hisham. I finished all the blocks but the lady at the shop still hasn't give me the border parts. I am also running like a headless chook at the moment. There's things to be settled at work and most importantly at home before I go to Penang.

Trip to tulip farm - Wynyard Tasmania

"Gambar bakal menantu letak dulu okay!"

Boys enjoyed the bus ride except for 'wittle wohan'... After about 5 minutes on the road, he started to cry "I don't want to go here!" uwaaaaa. Fortunately he came good when I started to snap his pictures

I think he missed daddy - this is the first trip he took without his daddio. The bus was very comfortable and new. 33 seaters for 16 of us!

Wynyard is no Keukenkof but every year they will hold tulip festival for about 2 weeks. The farm we went to is called Van Diemen Quality Bulb. On the way, we saw other smaller farms around wynyard.

The place was quite crowded with people. But the place is big enough that you can get a tulips only shots.

It is boasted as the biggest tulip farm in southern hemisphere. (yer lah southern hemisphere tu kan mostly oceans!)

I bet the picture would be nicer in low light. But we were there right in the middle of the day. Not so effective for photography...

flower children

Rohan is fascinated by the tractor

Inside the shop. I didn't buy anything

I wish I went on the choppa ride.

Guess where is this?

Yup! I went for my second session on Monday. This time instead of doing her stuffs on my head, she was doing 'stuff' on my right leg. Nope! I haven't got any sensation down my spine. "Your body is really really blocked!" was the comment.



So I had one more go.. before she or I will give up. ""QUACK!"" did you hear that?


More through the doorway

Craniosacral therapy - Wikipedia

Craniosacral therapy (also called CST, cranial osteopathy, also spelled CranioSacral bodywork or therapy) is an alternative medicine therapy used by osteopaths, massage therapists, naturopaths, chiropractors, physical therapists, and occupational therapists. A craniosacral therapy session involves the therapist placing their hands on the patient, which they say allows them to tune into what they call the craniosacral system.[1] The practitioner gently works with the spine and the skull and its cranial sutures, diaphragms, and fascia. In this way, the restrictions of nerve passages are said to be eased, the movement of cerebrospinal fluid through the spinal cord is said to be optimized, and misaligned bones are said to be restored to their proper position. Craniosacral therapists use the therapy to treat mental stress, neck and back pain, migraines, TMJ Syndrome, and for chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia.[2][3][4] Several studies have reported that there is little scientific support for major elements of the underlying theoretical model, which has not been rigorously analyzed.[5]

You know what I'm thinking right now??hmmm dodgy.. dodgy...

Chinese Medicine

My whining for today: I have a lot of ongoing health issues. Overweight, borderline diabetic, feet sore, this noise that I can hear in my right ear - I swear I can hear my heart beating loudly in the right ear. Saw doctors about it - nope they can't hear a thing. So why not give this 'alternative' medicine a go.
Her name is Michelle Schafer - and she has many qualifications after her name. It says on her yellow pages entry as -Traditional Chinese medicine, Craniosacral Therapy, Homeopathic Injections (Biomesotherapy-Biopuncture) etc. etc. They were all mouthful and I don't even understand what most of them meant.

I heard glowing testimonials from few people I know. $80 a session is not very expensive for your health and well being isn't it - considering current spending climate - (My stepson just bought an iPhone for $800! - for a phone?!)

My first session was early this morning. 7:00 am. Her clinic is near where I work. Crikey! the clinic's internal walls and hallway are covered with framed diplomas and certificates.

She is quite a middle aged woman with Polish background. The treatment (actually she diagnoses and treats at the same time) She said "no point talking about them, just do it!"
Very straight to the point. I had to lie on my back and she put some devices (looked like a box with some electronics?) Two of them on my back. Sitting near my head, she put one hand under my back and the other one on my tummy. She reckoned my gallbladder doesn't drain properly and my right kidney is also not very good. She then manipulated (not really massaging) but she turn my head n neck and shoulder area. I was supposed to tell her when I feel the 'sensation' on my feet. I didn't get the sensation, but I did get the sensation from that device - the one on my back. She said there are some reasons why it didn't reach the feet - so I have to go back for another couple of sessions. Have to remove the 'blockage' of some sort??

Okay..... then we chatted for a while..

She asked me if I ever had a forced delivery?
Two cesarians
That explained a lot. Do you have a sore right foot?
I used to have painful painful feet but not at the moment
On your toe?
No, the heel
OK can you come back 11:30 am next Monday
Sure

She asked me how I felt with my head. Seriously I didn't feel any different. Based on our conversations.... I am not convinced... hahahahahaa
Another annoying fact was that I can smell her cigarette breath all the time I was there. So everlasting that I can still smell the cigarette even now!

But I will go back for 2 more sessions - Why I heard you asked???
Because I am crazy!? I don't know, if only she can fix that annoying heart beating noise in my ear it will be worth it... and I thought it's not really a 'magic' treatment like you do with 'bomohs' - so why not?
what the heck is 'craniosacral treatment'! must google it!

Excitement..

Most of you already knew that I am going back to Malaysia for 2 weeks at the end of this month (Insyaallah offcourse). But that excitement could wait. Right now I am excited about the imminent trip of my schoolmate (and Unimate) and her friend to Australia. I sort of try to plan part of their trip (car pick-up and time line for trip, so that they don't waste time looking for simple things... and a bit of budgetry issue). The thing that scares me a little is that the trip that I proposed to them, I haven't done it myself. It is just by chatting with some people here and googling the net. I hope and pray everything will go as smooth as possible and they will achieve what they want to achieve.

I am also excited about the tulip farm trip this coming weekend. I have always wanted to go there but Hisham is anti-sight seeing. Always : next year, next year, next year... This time I will go with a group of Malaysians. IT WILL BE A SCREAM!!

Eid weekend with the students

This entry will be all words - no pictures. First story - My new pressure cooker. I bought the medium range one. For many reasons... but Hisham didn't understand - kept on teasing me about it. I know I can get much better pressure cooker in Malaysia for cheaper but I don't think I want to lug them heavy buggers since I can get them here. Things that I should lug back is the things that I can't possible get here (like that charcoal stove in Che Nas's facebook)

I bought my new toys on Saturday, took it home and quickly made beef rendang (2 kilos worth using the toughest, cheapest cut you can get here- it's called 'gravy cuts). What normally took me more than 2 hours cooking time had been cut short to 30 minutes!

Then I boiled potatoes = 3 minutes

Then I put the whole chicken for 20 minutes then put the chook in the oven for browning for another 20 minutes.

I must say that I was HAPPY with the meals!

I also tried first time making 'lemang'. I was HAPPY with the meals!

We had a mini gathering with the Malaysian students at the City Park and there's some kuih rayas [thank you students for sharing them with us all], BBQ chicken and beef, nasi impit, daging hitam, various cakes, biscuits, ..beriani rice, 'roti jala' and chicken curry.

Noticed that I didn't even try to translate some of the names because we had hard times trying to translate some of our kuih's names to non Malaysian. For example - this one kuih, very nice taste but very bad name.. kuih batang buruk! ha Cik Kiah - translate sikit!
Kiera - one of the students - translated it to "ugly trunks"
Anymore suggestions? LOL. Can I repeat one more time, I was HAPPY with the meals!

I didn't take any pictures - but there were some serious posing sessions going on with the students. Maybe I could asked for some pictures. I just need to remember their names??? Most of the students I haven't seen before. Mental note : must make some more orientation sessions!

Old Cottages around Perth TAS

One of my dreams is to make a book of traditional houses so that the X,Y,Z? generations of the recent sick world know how genius and practical the old folks were. It saddened me no end to see the nice old timber houses are dying one by one. A lot just left to be occupied by jins! (haunted houses leh! lol)

In Tasmania - There are some derelict beauties about, but generally people have more respect of old buildings. They would spent millions to restore something that many people deemed useless.

I would like to share some of them with you guys. These cottages are just around walking distance from where I live.

This one has a nice well-kept english garden out the front

This one is called "Chapel's Keeper Cottage" - we looked into buying it but it wasn't within our budget, although it looked small. There's a chapel across the road, hence the name

This looked like old chapel? school? not sure I wish I knew the histories of those buildings. This one has been renovated recently. Can you see the line to the rightside. It is all glass. So it looked as if the building is sliced into two parts.


This one is at the back of our house - my backyard facing it's backyard. I have been through the property. Don't like the house as much as I like the old horse stable at the back. Some of the old tools are still present!? Beside it, there is a building that they use to dry rabbits! euwww

The old Perth Crafts Shop. Hisham wanted to buy this 'derelict' as I saw it but the current owner did a good job fixing it up.

This one is a cutey.

But as I see it, traditional malaysian houses are way way prettier and intricater (such word mah?) than these. Why aren't we restoring them? - Too many reasons - $$, privacy, safety, etc. But arn't we clever enough to at least restore and live in some of them like these people here.