Fresh from the market

Look what I brought home from the markets today! I just love hydrangeas… They are so full, so round and so beautiful! They weren’t all that cheap but I had to have them when my eyes landed on them… So now they sit on my dining room table, adding a splash of warm lavender and purple to my home…

I love how flowers not only brighten up my home but also my heart :) I’ve had a wonderful weekend and I can’t wait to share with you what we got upto yesterday! In the mean time, I have to go study for an exam I have later this week…

Mamasita

A girlfriend of mine from Malaysia is holidaying in Melbourne at the moment so a bunch of us took her to dinner at one of Melbourne’s most popular Mexican restaurants – Mamasita.

It’s located right in the heart of the city and it’s a strictly no reservation restaurant which means whoever could’ve gotten out of the office the earliest on Wednesday had to head straight to the restaurant to put our names on the waiting list. Yes, they are that popular and that busy!

A friend of ours got there just after 5.30pm and he put out names down… In the mean time, we headed across the street to a bar for a couple of drinks. We waited an hour and a half before the restaurant called us to say our table was ready!

When we got to the restaurant there was a huge line coming down the stairs and out on to the street. I’d never been to the restaurant myself so I was extremely curious to see what their interiors were like and what their food was like! I’m glad to say that I wasn’t disappointed…

The restaurant itself is pretty tiny, hence the long queues… They have an extensive tapas-like menu and an even more extensive exotic drinks menu. We could not let the night get away without a couple of orders of sangria and margarita – though I couldn’t drink that much from having to scull my beer (I never drink beer!) from the bar earlier as we’d gotten the call from the restaurant just as our new round of drinks arrived.

We had a combination of everything from chips and salsa to tacos to quasedillas (spelling?!) to the most beautifully marinated prawns and duck. We had to end our meal with dessert of course… Sweet corn caramel pop corn ice cream!

Overall it was a fantastic experience and the food did not disappoint. It certainly proved worth the hour and a half long wait. The other thing I really liked about the restaurant too was despite the fact that they were completely flat out, even after we had finished our mains and dessert, they did not feel the need to rush us out the door even though there was a queue of waiting customers a mile long. They let us digest our food, indulge in a few more drinks, conversation and laughter.

Pleasant night, I thought :)

Happy Aussie Day!

It’s Australia day down under today! More importantly, it’s a public holiday! Hah, just kidding. Well I am glad to have the day off but Australia day is a lot more than a day off from work :)

Today, Marc’s dad got his Australian citizenship! A very exciting occasion indeed… His dad was born in the UK many years ago and his family came to live in Australia when he was just seven (they also came to Australia by boat! How cool is that? Very Titanic-ish). I’m not sure why he’s never considered becoming a full blown Aussie for so many years, but we are all so happy to have him as ‘one of us’ now! We’ve been calling him ‘Aussie Tim’ all day.

We spent a small portion of this morning at his citizenship ceremony which was actually a very lovely thing to do. What better way to spend today than at a ceremony where hundreds of people become Australian! My favourite part is always when they sing ‘I am Australian’ which personally I think should’ve been our national anthem! It always brings a tear to my eye and gives me that warm, fuzzy, proud feeling of living in this beautiful country…

After the ceremony we headed back to Marc’s parent’s where we had a ‘fair dinkum’ Aussie BBQ. If you don’t know what fair dinkum means, google it. It’s slang. I love Aussie slang! Sometimes just to be funny, I try and throw in some very Aussie slang and colloquialism in my conversations with Marc… It either impresses him or cracks him up… Usually the latter because it sounds so awkward coming from my mouth or I use it in the wrong context…

So that’s our Australia day… Low key and feeling grateful for this land we are on…

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

That’s Happy Chinese New Year for those of you scratching your heads reading the post title. So yes, Happy Chinese New Year, my friends!

Yesterday was the first day of the new year. Normally we would have a ‘reunion’ dinner with family on the eve of the new year, but since my brother in law was out of town on Sunday, we celebrated yesterday instead.

My sister had made a booking weeks ago at a famous dumpling restaurant in the city for us to have CNY dinner at. But lo and behold when we got there, they did not have our reservation! Gah! Stupid restaurant! My sister was furious… The restaurant didn’t have any spare tables so we had to have dinner elsewhere.

Marc and I suggested a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown that we always go to and luckily they had a table available! It turned out to be a lot more fun – the restaurant was in the heart of Chinatown which meant we saw about 4 different lion dances and heard a string of firecrackers. It was all very lively and colourful!

Lara was hilarious – I was carrying her when we spotted the first lion dance across the street. As we watched from across the street, she was a little terrified and wanted me to take her into the restaurant… The loud and heavy drums and cymbals must have been a little scary.

I have to say, I don’t think I’ve celebrated CNY in Chinatown for a very long time. I’m glad we were there last night though because the atmosphere was almost electric. There are quite a number of my work colleagues who also celebrate CNY and we’ve been talking about all the various traditions and superstitions in celebrating the new year… I’m pretty sure we also baffled some of our other non-Chinese colleagues… And this may seem weird, but because of all the crazy tradition and superstition it actually made me feel a little proud to be Chinese.

Sweet sunsets

I miss this. Watching the sun go down. On the evenings which did not rain in Bali (believe it or not there were a few despite the daily torrential downpour), we spent our evenings at beach clubs laying on our backs, soaking in a tropical sunset knowing that it will be awhile before we get to do this again whilst feeling the height of relaxation.

Wedding randoms

I think for me, sleepless nights caused by wedding preparation anxiety started around month 3 (post engagement)… lucky for me, it hasn’t been a nightly thing, it tends to come and go… But off late, the frequency of sleepless nights have picked up just a tad!

Like tonight for example. I spent about an hour reading in bed and that normally puts me to sleep, if not, at least close to sleep mode… But not tonight. I’ve spent the last 30 mins lying awake creating a to-do list to add to my already existing to-do list on a makeshift post-it note I’ve shoved between pages of my weekly organiser.

On my second to-do list are reminders for me to email my wedding coordinator regarding a whole range of things that I’ve suddenly panicked about! I also have to email the florist. Email the decor company. Speak to Marc’s mother about something. The list doesn’t end.

Why am I journaling this? Because I need to have some sort of record as to how this journey I’m on towards my most special day thus far? Is just in one word (or maybe two) – crazy and stressful! It should also serve as a reminder that I am never ever to plan another wedding ever again. Ever. Luckily I don’t predict my soon-to-be marriage to only last a mere 72 days like a certain Kardashian (I love Kim by the way and only feel sorry for the girl).

This may sound like I’m having an awful time planning my wedding but really, it’s not awful. Stressful? Yes. But I feel extremely lucky to have found the one I want to marry. And it’s a lot like childbirth, I imagine. The labour (of love) is excruciating, but the reward is magical… And that is really it. I cannot wait to be married.

Time to try sleep again.