Back to basics

These days I am doing the weeding and seed planting. That involves a lot of miles on the road. Been to many industrial areas lately .... Dandenong, Hallam, Braeside, Rowville, Knoxfield, Kilsyth, Scoresby, Bayswater, Clayton, Thornbury, Heidelberg, Thomastown, Port Melbourne, South Melbourne, Laverton, Derrimut, Truganina, Hoppers Crossing and the list goes on ....

I popped into Jean's Bakery Cafe in Braeside one morning for a cup of coffee and could not resist ordering a beef pie as well. I think I must have put on 1 to 2 kgs in the last few weeks .......

One thing I am 110% sure; there is no shortage of cafes in industrial areas!

Northcote has had a minor renovation done to remove the existing rear staircase and to have a new, more "wheelchair-friendly" staircase built. This time it incorporates a landing area and less steep steps.

Queen Victoria

Last Sunday we went to Queen Vic market to buy some seafood and fresh produce. It happened to be a "Festival Malaysia" at the market and there were some 20 stalls selling Malaysian/Indonesian food. There was a large crowd there being a Sunday and a bright sunny day.

This was the first time we experienced a Malaysian Festival in Oz. However the cultural exchange was limited to just the food...... I didn't feel much of a "festival" at all. 

We bought a Bratwurst and coffee for a brunch meal. Bananas were cheap that day, only $1.99 a kg for "lady finger".

New wheels

King of the roast

Darren Smith took me to this "King of the roast" in Clarinda one day when I went out to attend some sales calls with him in his area.

It was indeed some roasts! I ordered roast pork and he had roast beef. Aussies love their beef. I love pork crackling. The roasts were served in a huge quantity (one would say in huge truckloads), they were tender and juicy. DS gulped it down in less than 5 minutes whilst I struggled to eat it all. Best of all the roasts were only $7.50 each.

I said to DS, "Mate you sure eat fast!" and he replied' "I was in the real estate business and I learned to eat fast or else the food would be gone!"

DS's a nice chap, he worked as a butcher for 15 years and then spent 12 years in the real estate business. In the car he was calculating how much money that King Roast guy would be making a week....Tony the owner would use up to 1 ton (1000kg) of meat a week.

Find it at 111 Clarinda Rd, Clarinda (Oakleigh South) Tel 9551 8610

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It is the process of flying and the air journey that counts ....

LOOKING BACK ON ONE'S LIFE JOURNEY from time to time is always a good thing to do. It is in looking back and reviewing our life events that we derive personal satisfaction of knowing how we have fared on that section of the great journey. 

FOR ME IT'S LIKE FLYING FROM POINT A TO POINT B and I have done all my pre-flight planning of marking the way points on the aeronautical charts, working out all the flight time, fuel and heading requirements, getting the latest weather forecast and correcting my course for wind, and then off I go flying; believing that all my preps will work ....

And all along the flight route I will be looking out for my heading and compare that with my track made good, and making decisions to bring the airplane back on course when necessary. At the same time I have to be able to multi task cockpit activities such as looking out for conflicting traffic, taking care to avoid restricted air spaces, making a conscious effort to keep my heading and height, constantly calculating fuel and time spent; apart from the basic thing a pilot's got to do that is to navigate to my intended destination. From time to time I will look back to review where I have flown to make sure I am not boxed in by any weather should I need to turn back to base.....

AND WHEN I FINALLY LAND IN MY DESTINATION I almost always feel the immense satisfaction & elation of having done a good job of making a series of good decisions that enable me to get to that point. It is not to say that along the way I have not made mistakes or errors. I might have missed a radio call, I might not have spotted a nearby aircraft that I have to avoid, I might have been blown off course by wind before realizing I ought to do something about it.... But the main thing is I have made it to my destination and I have enjoyed the process of getting there.

In the analogy of flying I realize that the "process of flying" & "the air journey" are so rewarding to the man and his spirit; often times more enjoyable than reaching the destination. What I do and don't do in this process and journey have a 100% effect on the outcome (arriving at my destination).

          Process of flying

                     +

           Air Journey

                    =

           Satisfaction    >>>>>  Destination

Similarly, what I derive from my day-to-day life journey is more important than its destination. What I do and don't do in my life's journey have everything to do with my outcome in life.

I KNOW MANY PEOPLE DO THIS REVIEW CONSCIOUSLY OR UNCONSCIOUSLY .....

From March 2008 till now I have had a tumultuous but interesting journey of sorts. At an age 4 months shy of 48 y.o. I was confronted with a stark reality that my life's "sabai sabai" or "que sera sera" attitude had come to an abrupt stop.

Bang! the phone stopped ringing, the laughter subsided, everyone had left the room, and the eerie quietness was deafening ..... .....   

When a man is faced with future uncertainties he either gets dragged down by the circumstances he is in or he rises above the ashes or he does nothing. It's the old adage of "yes, no or indifferent".

IN ANTICIPATION OF THE STORMS ahead of me I changed course and diverted for the relative safety of a calmer, smoother, more predictable flight path. During the process I deliberated, I agonized, I read widely, I prayed, I looked at my "aeronautical charts of life" and made a decision I would make the best of the diversion and find an alternate "destination of life" to land.

I dug deep.

It has been 1510 days, 36240 hours of life journey since I faced the storms of life that day .....

My "flight diversion" has not been an easy one.  Just when I thought I had dodged the storms there was another storm cell in my path, and another one, and another one .....

In those 1510 days I had to do so many things during the "diversion" exercise  - to work out fuel remaining in the tank, to peel my eyes out the windscreen for other possible threats (weather, aircraft, terrain), to fly the airplane and to find the next available safe landing area, . BUT I WAS REMINDED AGAIN AND AGAIN THAT it's the process of flying and that air journey that determine the outcome of the flight. Whilst I was on that life journey I made the most of it ...... I counted my blessings and enjoyed the good things and experiences that I could create for me, my friends and my loved ones.......

And now I am starting another distinct phase of my "air journey". A seemingly calmer, smoother path ahead is in view. But who knows what life will bring on the next section of my journey? Who can say that the flying weather ahead is better than the one I had traveled on?

THE ANSWER OF COURSE LIES IN THE LESSONS LEARNED. it is what I will make of my life journey that truly matters. After all, no matter whether it is storms ahead or it is the promise of a blue sky, ultimately it is the "process of flying" and the "air journey" that will count for me .....

Sunday night BBQ

SUNDAY WAS A LAZY DAY. Sundays are almost always lazy days! AS I AM WRITING THIS POST IT'S MONDAY MORNING AND I AM LOOKING OUT FROM MY DINING ROOM TO THE VEGE PATCH AND I am thinking; what a lovely day .....

On Sunday we decided to laze around and to do some "communicating and sharing". We only went out in the afternoon to buy a bit of stuff at a local mall and for SM to get some yarn.

I volunteered to cook barbie food so I got us some lamb cutlets. We already have the corns, strawberries, prawns, peperoni salami and salad in the fridge anyway. Just an easy way to cook dinner and with a cool night we had and a glass of Riesling .... awesome.    

 Food prepared

 Food cooked 20 minutes later

The lamb cutlets were super fresh and tasted good just with sea salt, crushed pepper, rosemary and a bit of extra virgin olive oil cooked on the barbie

On my request SM made a salad with vinaigrette dressing....

Frenchie

Saturday night we went out as a group for dinner at French Food Art Lygon Street Carlton. The company was good but the food was average.  It was a pleasant night weather wise, not too cold. Lygon St was packed with diners and throngs of people came out for meals and drinks. Lovely spot.

I had Tiger prawns, Château de Quinçay, garlic, flat leaf parsley, Rump steak au poivre, potato stacks, pink peppercorn sauce and Crème brulée à la rhubarbe. SM had oysters mornay, Riviera bouquet linguini, Château de Quinçay, garlic and wasabi cream and Berry et mousse au chocolat blanc for desert. The food did not live up to the beautifully sounding names, though.

 

 Nice diner room for 7 couples: Aus, Mark, Boon, Colin, Wei, Peter, Jesse, Serena, Celina, ??, ??, SM, Stella, Jeff

Photo I took of my entree, King prawns in a sauce I can't remember what it's called.

SM's entree - oyster mornay.

Home Maintenance II

The rear decking timber has lost its luster, and some places have gone a little mouldy. The French doors leading from our dining room to the decking have lost their shine and looking a bit tired. They need freshening up and spring time is the best time to do this. I go to Bunnings and buy a container of Cabot's deck cleaner and a 4 liter tin of Cabot's natural decking oil (merbau color). At the same time I get some British Paint external gloss paint (4 liters costs me $59.90, same with the decking oil) made up to the formula I want for the doors.

 Freshly painted French doors - the color is off-white and a bit driftwoody

 Freshly painted decking - merbau is a fairly dark pigment

 Freshly painted steps

I paint the side gate with the decking oil too......bit of a contrast now with the framework

 Freshly painted teak garden table

That's our rear decking and dining area looking from the side of the house

Sanding down the doors and painting them takes me 1 full day. And that's just one coat of paint which I think it's good enough. I like it. They now look good and should last a few years.....

I next start on the rear decking - cleaning it using the deck cleaner takes me a bit over 3 hours with a hand brush. I some places I have to sand down the tough stains. The decking area is approximately 16 m2. That is hard yakka. I rest for a day to wait for better weather so I can start the painting and also to rest my tired back.

Today I start painting the decking with the decking oil firstly around the sides and the area below the French doors. Then I coat the rest of the decking. And that's the first coat of natural oil. I need to let it dry for about 3 hours before applying my second coat..... All done in a total of 2 days. All in all a great result and I am happy, so is SM.

Today's weather is so good, sunny, warm and 21C. Except early in the morning it is a bit fresh. I can't resist taking some pictures around the house and see, the sky is so B.L.U.E. Beautiful day. And tonight we are going to Lygon St to have dinner with friends. It's their 21st anniversary. French restaurant it will be ..... should be good.

BBQ at home

Lat Sunday was a sunny day and we had my sister and her family over to our home for BBQ. We tried out our new electric BBQ hotplate which to us was good enough for a small group of 4-6 people. We had on the barbie my favorite porterhouse steaks, some nicely trimmed lamb cutlets, some mackeral fish, corn cobs and a freshly baked Vienna bread ...................

To cook the porterhouse it's real simple, just put them on the grill with some rosemary and sprinkle some sea salt on both sides of the meat. Same with the cutlets. For the fish I just added sea salt and lemon juice. Served with ground black pepper and mustard to taste. With the corn hobs it's best to put a nob of butter on them so they taste yummy. The Vienna? Just get them fresh from Coles.

It was a lot of fun cooking for the guys because we figured that the electric barbie is the way to go as we do not need to start a fire on charcoal and we do not need a big storage space if it were a gas burner unit I would need to leave it out on the deck and it's messy. Now I just stick the unit in our garage and it is so easy to store. The easier it is to use the BBQ and to store it and clean it the better the incentive for me to use it.

The cleaning is also easy as I just have to wash the hotplate which has a non-stick surface.....    

Getting down to brass tacks on home repairs & maintenance

Our living room timber windows have been in a state of disrepair for some time. Most older dwellings have timber window and are subjected to the elements; ours are no different. Moisture has seeped in to the timber frames over the long years and caused them to have rotten in places over time. Long before our extended overseas trip in March I have got a quote to get the windows repaired with new frames and sashes and finally I am able to get the job done done now that the weather is more agreeable.

The repair job is done over 2 days in late August by this trusty tradie, Mark Walters. He proves to be reliable and skillful. It turns out that the repair work is really fiddly and requires someone with a great deal of patience and attention to details. The frames and sashes have to be measured and cut to sizes on site and fitted. Mark does the job amicably.

  

When I request that I take his picture for my post he says, "In my thirty years of business no one has ever asked me for my picture taken". Here you go, there's always a first!

Over many cups of coffee during breaks, and one with two shots of brandy in the coffee because it is cold outside, we get to talking about his family and his love for footy and beer. He is almost like a regular Aussie tradie except that he has a bit of grey matter between his ears and an inquisitiveness for learning.

After the job is done the night mare begins! I have to paint the new timber windows! Yuck! I hate painting jobs but someone has to do it. So I spend 2 days solid, taking advantage of the good Spring sun early this week, sanding down the timber, vacuuming, painting the timber, and finally it's over. It's looking good. 

Mark says, in answer to my question, "This should last 100 years. Let's put it this way Al, the windows will still be there in good nick long before you and I have gone". That's assurance from a tradie and I hope he means it.

 The new window frames and sashes ........ costing $1400 to repair. Ouch.

This is one painting tool I find most useful - line it up on the timber edge against the glass and paint the frame so that the paint does not get on to the glass, it's brilliant

Whilst I am on a roll I also paint two zinc-alum downpipes which I added sometime ago to a front verandah gutter and a side roof gutter to facilitate better rain water flow. On my painting work list I still have the rear decking to oil and stain, a couple of deck furniture to sand down and re-varnish, one part of the dining room ceiling that needs to be re-painted due to some water leak, and to repaint my front verandah ceiling. Wow, this is incredibly overwhelming and when am I going to finish them all??? (I hope by end of September!)

Time to take stock

It's been 2 months since our return from overseas and I have been slacked in putting my thoughts down in writing .... I have been running around a fair bit of late to make people's lives better, which can only be a good thing.

I am still living the time of my life experiencing stress-free and meaningful moments. Thank God.

My big brother has been away for 5 weeks traveling and the responsibility of looking after my folks falls on me, which is great. In the last weeks I have managed to do a number of things for them apart from the usual carer activities of sharing meals, seeing doctors, buying groceries and mowing their lawn.

I have built and put in new wardrobes, pantry, and storage units for them and they are so pleased with the new spaces they now enjoy. In the process we have also cleared some clutter from their home. All these activities take time and efforts on my part but the end result is they are happy. It really reminds me of the primary reason for my wanting to live in Oz. And that there is a trade off in life, a balance, a give-and-take. What is valuable in life is what one enjoys doing the most......

My Mom is now sure that she will be going for a lumbar laminectomy at St. Vincent's within 90 days as advised by her neurosurgeon. The laminectomy surgery is to relieve the pain and discomfort in her buttocks and legs caused by pressure on the spinal cord, the cauda equina or spinal nerve roots. Hopefully all will go well for her and she will be able to enjoy walking again. She is a fighter and she looks forward to being able to travel again after she has recovered from the surgery.

And Spring is here soon in a couple of days. Our lawn and garden are doing well and a surprise we have in recent days is the two peach trees we transplanted from Veronica have started to flower. Hopefully we will see some peach fruits growing on the trees in a few months.

SM is looking forward to planting some vege in her garden patch. She has bought some seedlings and is ready to plant them this weekend......

 I am doing the hard yard donkey work ..... weeding and adding mulch.

And I have worked p/t recently and enjoyed the work a great deal. More extensive travel is off my radar loop for the next 9 months with the exception of perhaps a quick trip in and out to KL in January.

My wish list this Spring?   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Build a wood fired oven. Nothing big or fanciful. A ground surface area of 1655mm x 2020mm and an internal dome size of 820mm wide x 920mm deep will be ok. It will be fantastic to be able to cook meat, vegetables, pizza and for SM to bake some bread.

2. Convert my existing rear open decking into a rumpus room with nice Tasmanian Oak flooring and build a new open deck at the side of our dining room. This will depend very much on $$ available and so it could be an infinitely futuristic project. Ha ha.

3. Take my mom and dad to visit our ancestral kampung, Fenshuicun, again.