Tuesday, 26th November 2013
One thing I've learnt from all our holidays is to countdown the days DURING our holiday, obviously not because I am looking forward to the end of it, but really to prepare myself mentally and just so that we don't get a shock or abrupt end to our holiday. Towards the last few days, we have gently reminded both Vic and Will that we have only x number of days left, so enjoy yourselves to the max, be appreciative and spend as much time as you can with J and W, because we do not know when we will see them again.
And so, the inevitable is here. Today is our last day here in Melbourne. *sob sob* We bought the tickets for this trip more than 6 months before and it's almost unbelievable that we are to leave so soon.
Our flight (D7213) is scheduled to take off at 1:25am tonight that is on 27th Nov.
Today we headed out in the morning to meet up with friends of Mama and Yeh Yeh. We met Uncle Bob, Aunty Doris and Ben at Brand Outlet in the suburb of Nunawading. In this very same mall, I bought a pair of skinny jeans for Vic at Pumpkin Patch for a mere AUD5!! Great bargain, but there weren't more, nor any good buys for the boy.
After saying goodbye to Uncle Bob and family, we headed to Boxhill where Kelvin and Daddy dropped us ladies and the two kids (minus J and W who were at school) off before heading off to return our rental car. Good bye ZBX 673! You've been good and reliable, and we have enjoyed going places with you. We unloaded the remaining stuff (GPS, caps, tissue, brochures, water bottles, etc) into Kelvin's car and took a last picture of the car...
The four of us walked just round the block to the Boxhill market. Great place to get fresh produce and any and every kind of Asian grocery! I believe EC is very familiar with this place now, as she lead us to different stalls and picked up grocery along the way.
There was a food court inside the market too selling all sorts of Asian / Chinese food and delicacies. Now when I say market, this is really unlike the market that we know in Malaysia. I didn't even feel we were in a market because there was no smell, no noisy bargaining and God forbid, wet floors!
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| Victoria watching a lady chef at work |
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| Shops selling vegetation and fruits as well as dry produce and herbs and other grocery |
EC brought us to the shops selling vegetables, fruits and grocery first. One is really spoilt for choices and there is no need really to miss food from your home country. If at all, you have even more choices here because you'd find sauces and can food from different parts of the Asia ie China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore all under one roof!
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| Somewhere in this shop, William left his water bottle here. We only "discovered" this when Vic asked William later where is his water bottle. She lost hers on the cruise to Seal Rocks so we gave her a sounding for that, and little brother knows it's a serious offence to lose his. So off William and I back to this shop looking for it. The keepers here are so efficient, it's already been cleared off, but thankfully after asking around abit, one keeper said it's in a box, almost to be thrown out. JUST IN TIME! |
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| Spices, instant noodles, soups... |
Confession: I "smuggled" in some dry salted fishes for EC when we arrived Melbourne, but the ones available here are even fresher... take a look!
And all the colors we saw... I'm told that there isn't much worry about non-organics here as the government has strict controls over the amount of pesticide and insecticide used on the plantation. But see how huge the veges are!
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| Wow, with such huge bundles, I'd be juicing everyday! |
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| I can make the kids love capsicum here : ) |
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| Juicy, red tomatoes filled with lycopene! Like all other prices here, just don't convert the currency. |
The fresh produce and the meat section was just amazing even to look at. I imagine my butcher lady back in PJ and all her meat hanging and layed out in front of her, ready to be chopped and sliced to every customer's needs.
But here in Melbourne, every part is ALREADY sliced up and layed out neatly and nicely on clean trays, cling-wrapped and put on display and the best part is that they are all sooooo fresh!! You don't have to walk from pork to beef to chicken, in a way, because it's all there. What is
halal and non
halal anyway? You get your food all at the same place!
So the happy
silai in me just went snapping away with my camera. I'm already cooking in my mind, haha, and I can't imagine how one NOT cook in Melbourne (or for that matter, any where with so much variety and accessibility to fresh food). A little part of me reminisce back to my student days in the United Kingdom, where I'd pick up stuff from the market and happily hopped into the bus with bags and bags of foodstuff.
Bear with all my pictures of raw food here. Some pictures were taken with permission from the stall helpers.
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| The boy and all the meat. |
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| Quails. Duck tongues... and everything else. |
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| The odd parts. See how cheap it can be. But the ox tongue is very geli lar... How does one cook that? I mean, is it for eating? |
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| Seafood was tempting too. |
The two men - Kelvin and hubby met us in the market after returning the car. We headed off nearby to a chinese restaurant for lunch. Kids' tummy were rumbling already after all this walking.
We went here...
The Roast Duck Inn
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| The place doesn't look crowded yet. But towards the second half of our meal, the lunch crowd have moved in with every seat filled. |
Not surprising, the food was great, and portions were huge too.
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| My roast duck rice. |
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| William's kuey teow soup with roast duck on the side. Portion is too huge for the small boy. Can feed him two to three meals with this, haha. |
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| Porridge with roast duck for Daddy. |
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| Victoria had braised roasted pork (siew yoke) and beancurd. She enjoyed this lovely dish. |
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| Kelvin had seafood cantonese kuey teow. Comes with fish fillet, squid, prawns and huge scallops and a lot of egg. Undeniably very filling. Recommended to share. |
During lunch, we planned out the logistics for our remaining plans in the afternoon. After lunch, EC and I continued our shopping at the market. The men went home with the kids and groceries bought earlier.
EC and I headed off to the BWS and Woolworths chain in the market place for a few more things on our list. We also stopped by the pharmacy to look for some toiletry but I couldn't find the Moogoo brand here.
I bought three bottles of wine and EC bought three too... these were all on an irresistible offer! Bought some salami, ham and cheese too to bring back to Malaysia. : ) If only we had more luggage space (the story here is hubs normally does the planning and packing, but since he verbally mentioned to me what extra luggage to bring, he thought I'd pack it, but I thought he was asking me for my opinion and that HE would pack it... classic case of I-thought-you-do-you-thought-I-do but end up no one did it), I'd have bought more. REALLY REALLY more. OK, nothing to mourn over now. The memories are a heck lot more important and these are stored in the penthouse of my brain!
Kelvin picked the two of us up shortly after, then headed home. We unloaded our stuff, and EC took over the wheels now. We went to the nearby shops - another BWS chain to see if they have the 4 litre cartons of De Bortoli wines that we were looking for.
YES!! So, I bought a carton of Traminer Riesling, Carbenet Merlot and Chardonnay - each 4 litres. I don't know how we are going to pack these up but this was already on the shopping list from Day One so hubs will figure out somehow. He always does *wink*
Total alcohol - 14.25 litres!
Woo hoooo!!!
Back home, William took a much needed nap whilst hubby attend to work matters and sorted out the luggage. Vic and Kelvin walked to J and W's school in mid afternoon to pick them up. Or did William follow? I can't recall as I wasn't there. They played badminton in the house compound in the afternoon and also visited the nearby park one last time. EC prepared dinner for us.
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| Funny poses... in action |
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| Sumptuous bak kut teh dinner single handedly prepared by EC. Our last meal together between both families. |
After dinner, the kids had their bonding time whilst we adults continued our chatting. I can't describe the sadness we felt, having to leave our good friends but life have to go on. Indeed, they have been truly amazing and very hospitable hosts. I forgot to mention that we had cell time together a few nights back and that was also a much-missed session of sharing and praying.
We bade EC, J and W farewell at their home. Kelvin sent us off at to the airport.
While waiting for our gate to open, I dozed off. Before the flight took off, William slept already.
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| FIRST TIME ever that we underpacked our luggage so badly. We used whatever bags and plastic bags and filled up even Victoria's Sasha bag to the brim. William had to carry just a couple of bags as part of his "7kg" handcarry limit pass the security before passing it back to us. Was quite time-consuming for hubby to pack, repack, weigh, rearrange so that everyone had a total combination of 7 kgs. The check in luggage also could not be above a certain weight eventhough we bought more. |
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| Vic wanted to see the cockpit, so Daddy asked the air stewardess if the pilot would allow. When the plane touched down, we were adviced to wait till every other passenger got off, then we were ushered to the cockpit where the Captain was very obliging. He even wrote a card for the kids! And the advice to them, "If you wanna be a pilot, you have to do well in Maths and Science!" |
Arrived home to a clean house, maid already in the garden and expecting us. Daddy headed back to office after lunch and the rest of us rested and unpacked. The machine went a few rounds and by end of the day, we had almost all the laundry washed and cleaned. Feels a little weird to be home, though.
