Snatches-of-Bliss-and-Are-You-Freaking-Out-Yet?

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* Welcome *

Changed da house,
Changed da look.

BTW, my bathrobe's usually pink
and we don't have a fireplace.
Other than that,
it's pretty accurate...

Psst...click the words above to navigate.
Best viewed, unfortunately, in Internet Explorer.

Monday, January 30, 2006

~ It's gonna be a slow year ~

So it's the year of the dog.

In the heat of summer, we celebrated Chinese New Year. The Big Do at the Chinese restaurant of my choice turned out to be a success - not phenomenal because we had Singapore chill crabs served under our noses and then hastily taken away when they realised - after the 15th prodding - that it wasn't part of our order.

But boy are we coming back for the chilli crabs! Some day...

Apart from that and mahjong with a couple of friends on new year's eve, it hasn't been crazy fun. There were fireworks in Queanbeyan apparently, which is sweet for an ang-moh community to do.

HOWEVER, we did spend the first day of Chinese New Year buying things for the house. We are now proud virtual owners (the items haven't arrived yet) of a full-wool tan living room rug/carpet from Myer (got it at 20% discount) and a wonderful vacuum cleaner that scrubs, shampoos and vacuums ALL AT ONCE. Got the latter on 50% discount.

HUGELY boring news to everyone else, small little yee-has for me. Tony's just happy when the wife's happy.

I have to say that a spot of creativity came on Thursday when Tony brought home the company's $4,500 projector. We made plenty good with our big white living room wall that night.

Are we settling down and becoming one of those super-boring couples that work, cook, sleep and shop at the farmer's market on Saturday morning (which, by the way, we did - everything cost a fraction of the price at Coles/Woolies)? I think so. A part of me feels rather guilty and sheepish about it all. A part of me recognises that it's just one of those things for a while. And a part of me is rather relieved that life is turning out quite undramatic and easy.

# posted by Velle | 6:39 pm | 0 comments

Saturday, January 14, 2006

~ I'm baaa~aaack... ~

It's been too long. How have you been?

A part of me feels I should cover lost ground with everyone, and a part of me's thinking it's almost 10pm, I want to play Worms 2, and not that much has happened anyway. Besides, the last time I promised to retrace my steps on one of the most important occasions of my life (*cough* my WEDDING), I spectacularly didn't. I got all the pics ready to accompany the commentary but now that Tony's computer has minced all my files within an inch of their sorry lives, methinks I'll never get to it.

So it's now 2006, I still have my Christmas Letter to send out to close friends and I'm up to those whose names start with the letter E, and I've been at the New Job for a month tomorrow. My mother has come and gone and Tony and I had a rivetting conversation this morning about whether we should buy this $299 2-in-1 cleaning machine for our floor (shampoos and vacuums), or should we just live up the yuppy life and hire a cleaner once a fortnight.

(HAH! Managed to rehash the whole of last month most surreptitiously. )

We just got back from a wedding at a park we ALMOST wanted to hire for ours, until they advised us to get helpers in the morning of the wedding to sweep the area for needles. (Charming.) On our way in, someone cheerily remarked about how similar this wedding will be to ours, to which I reflexively shot back, "No it won't."

When will ANYONE ever learn not to compare weddings to the actual couple involved in the comparison. Gaaaah...

Someone at work worked out through his keen powers of observation (i.e. the rings on my 4th finger) that I am a Missus. Considering I'm obviously Chinese (flat all over) and my surname is as Brit as it gets, I thought that fact would be as clear as day. Apparently not.

Chinese New Year is around the corner and to spare myself from the Housewifery Competition that was Chinese New Year 2005, Tony and I have taken it upon ourselves to organise this year's at a restaurant near us. This has several advantages, namely no dirty dishes and no clamouring for accolades on every single dish. The others hate the distance but as Tony and I can walk there, we secretly really can't be stuffed.

Granted, if the food sucks and the parking is abominable, I will be blamed for the lousy choice. Still, I reckon that between the grief of being bullied as the newest Chinese wife/cook of the group, and being told that the restaurant I picked couldn't have been more appalling, I've decided to try out the latter option. If it's less painful than last year, I'll eat at restaurants every CNY until I grow a thick enough hide to wok it out at another intimate potluck with pushy Chinese housewives.

It's a brand new world, this wifery thing. But you knew that.

# posted by Velle | 9:52 pm | 0 comments