Hah, so I've been lazy, but my dear friends know what's been happening with me the past few months :)

Last Friday I was mucking about on radio talk shows on my iphone and came across one title ' Navigating Multicultarlism' by Wayson Choy on CBS radio.

He gave a sort of biography of his growing up in Canada and the lessons he learnt about multiculturalism and the true meaning of the word Family.

In a gist, he termed 'toxic certainties'. Strong beliefs we bestow upon people/situations/culture/history etc. In a nutshell he elaborated that if you have toxic certainties, fate/karma/gods will strike you and the kingdom you thought was under your control will be altered and changed to the degree of honor killings to the degree of utmost horrors. He advised that we should be flexible against unforeseen circumstances and to remain claim and malleable to changes. Be it the larger society/work/lifestyle and even more so our own personal circumstances.

I think I found another Author to read and admire...

And then this is what you do after guests go away... you eat a good lunch prepared in 30 mins flat, no lies.

Adapted from that kitchen goddess - Nigella Lawson.


Serves 2

2 skinned Salmon fillets
1 kg frozen peas
2 garlic cloves
1 spicy chorizo sliced (or bacon)
1 Tblsp / knob of butter
Salt & pepper to taste
Lemon to serve


1. Heat pan till very hot then add chorizos. Fry till crispy, remove and set aside. Retain some of the oil from the sausage to fry salmon. Add in the salmon fillets and cook through. While fish is cooking start on step 2.

2. Boil water in a pot then add the whole bag of peas and garlic with skin on. Let it boil. Add a pinch of salt if you like.

3. Fish should be done or almost, brown it for crispy bits. Turn attention on peas. Drain water, add dollop of butter and take masher and just mash lightly. The skin of the garlic will fall off, remove skin. Carry on mashing peas. Fish should be done by now.

4. Dollop peas onto plate, add salmon on top, followed by chorizo and slice of lemon.

5. Eat slowly with glass of your favourite...

I've been putting off posting for some time now mainly because I have been really busy offline. Tee hee.
Some highlights of a recent Girlie #1 trip.

Caversham Wildlife park - Ro first encounter with Kangaroos..



So this has a little story. This Wombat, moments earlier decided she was fed up with taking photos. She started wriggling, bouncing her bum and head butting her keeper. When she had quietened down we sat, and she started again..wriggle wriggle, bounce, bounce, butt, butt, butt. She may look light, but this deceivingly cute little thing has a mean head butt. And she was strong!!! So I wasn't very keen to be sitting so close to her...I wanted to get out of there asap. Interestingly, we have Joyce touching its paw and the keeper looking like nothing happened, making me look like the scared, squirmish tourist. Hai!


Down South

Kids love chasing birds hey...here we have 2 schemers trying to throw food above Rohan's head so the gulls would flock near him.

The best sausage rolls and baked pies ever...best eaten under a tree on park bench.

We deposited our visitors at the lighthouse...

and started on the path to see if we could spot...(not a wild bobtail lizard)..


Whales...they always amaze me. One of my favourite mammals.

Someone already at the look out point had binoculars, whom Dm managed to sweet talk to let me see through them and I saw a tail fin! I tried to capture the seals on the rocks below...bad zoom feature.

And then one of the most magnificent sunsets ever....

On Sunday we were invited to a soft launch art exhibition at the artist’s residence. He was Dm's client who had a hidden talent. Admittedly it was not the most outstanding exhibition. All 14 pieces were brush stroked abstracts. I am not a big fan of this kind of art especially from amatuer artists, but surprisingly there were 4 pieces that had some calibre. And only 1 piece engaged me ,titled 'Dolphin Sunrise'. Enough for me to ask Dm if we could put a bid down. He had a reserve price of$79 but $100 was as far as I would go for a non-professional artist. If we get it hurrah, if not, oh well at least I helped generate a better price for this aspiring artist. And then Dm got the email that we had won it. There was 2 other bids after us, but they had wanted another piece instead. It was the splash of bright yellow that caught me and the diving shadows of dolphins. It evokes contentment and calmness for me. On first impression it looks almost childlike, then you catch sight of depth and then the use of neon bright yellow springing out of the board. And then you get the stirring of feelings. The guy has done pretty well translating an emotion onto canvas. His other pieces were ok, but this one struck a chord with me. Dm was convincing me that I could do the same, but honestly you have to have no sense of timing, be able to still your mind and dive into the perception. Work out your layers, your colours, conveying your subject onto canvass and then have the commitment to finish the art piece! Hee hee, waiting for it to be delivered.

About a year ago I had a pact with Dear L on saving coins everyday for a luxury bag or item. I had been duly saving, even pasted a little pic of the bag I wanted on the box as a visual aid. An LV Totally in Azur. I figured it could be the nicest mummy bag ever...
And then I had the opportunity that was too hard to pass and the coins in the little box got taken out and counted.....The reveal...













Ta da....
Admittedly I didn't have any intention to get a bag, but this came at an unbeatable price it would have been damn silly to turn down. And I seem to fall in love with her more and more each day. The quality is of that I have not seen before. The leather so smooshy and to die for. Its scratch resistant too. When I put her on my lap, she seems to melt and purr. There has to be something said about luxury leather, it is a real joy to carry. To feel the firm softness under the shoulders, to brush against decadent textures and to sweep a hand over a non harsh corners...ooooo..oh climatical. I love her so much I could breast feed her..hahaha.
And having done my research, it appears that the Luxury leather suppliers usually give Hermes the first pick of the leathers and then Ferragamo before the other labels. Just thought I'd add that little bit of info to this small little shallow post. But ahh, one has to have some indulgence no? Can't be all about eating hahaha...

But seriously, I no longer am a fan of LV or Fendi for that matter. If one has to spend good money on a luxury bag, it better hell be made of damn good quality materials. And be unique enough to not be replicated or be seen on someone else's arm! Which is why I've fallen out of favour with LV. That monogram isn't even leather, its bloody canvas. I don't care that people say the 'honey-ying' of the leather straps or the 'patina' colour adds to the character. To me, it looks grubby, especially the older it gets. No more highly marketed labels that everyone seem to be carrying. Yes to the under the radar labels that have quiet understated elegance and superior quality that don't need to be a trend follower.

Last Friday it was the mad chaotic hyped release of the iphone 4 here. Because of the population here in Perth, there weren't that many doing the camp out as compared to the other cities and countries. I reckon this is apple's way of selling their prod. Hype it up so much, bring in the minimal amount of products so you get people backlisting an order, then release the intended amount after a few weeks. Its extremely intelligent marketing, even better than Louis Vuitton or Chanel in terms of product awareness, advertising and very clever retailing.

I foresee the iphone as the phones of the future. More and more entities are creating, releasing or selling iphone applications. Oh and the number of iphones around is a tell tale sign. On the train last week, out of the 10 people surrounding me 6 were clutching an iphone. The rest were a blackberry, 2 nokias and a samsung.

I'm not iphone bashing, rather just musing over the global phenomena that Apple has cleverly created. Because see, I tried putting in an order for the next shipment and got rejected at 3 Telcos. All said they are not taking any orders as previous experience perchanced that when they did, people didn't show up for it. 1 guy told me to wait a month and thigns should g back to normal. Back to normal? Ahhh...So in the meantime, I am expected to check in on an almost daily basis for the next week or so till they come in, because they will still be sold at limited numbers and on a first come first serve basis.

I wonder if Singapore has this sort of bullsh1t. But I have much better things to do for the next few weeks and one of them so happens to be renewing my passport. The high comm here directed that I could renew my passport online, when I went to the website, it clearly stated there I couldn't if I was overseas. Rang the high comm, they said to ignore that phrase and nominate them as the receiver. I wonder if they had a B.A for this process, because its just not clean or professional to contradict a public tool. You'd think!

Oh and is it only me that thinks ipad is a very unfortunate name for the product? Why not itab/islate..anything other than something you'd put in between your legs once a month.

Ok enough yarning.... time to turn in