horseshoe crabs on kranji beach

the tide was out in the evening and as i drove past kranji beach, i saw quite a number of people on the beach foraging for clams or mussels. decided to take a closer look at these people.

when i got closer, i found out that not all of them were digging in the sand for mussels or clams. some were casting their jala to catch fish. some of the clams hunters were armed with trowels and they wore gloves to protect their hands.

saw four horseshoe crabs on the beach. somebody must have picked them up from somewhere else and dumped them there on the beach.

although horseshoe crabs look dangerous, they are not. and they are really not crabs at all; they are distant relatives of the spider and are probably descended from the ancient order eurypterida.

they feed on clams; they also include worms and other invertebrates in their diet.

the first four of the five pairs of legs are used for walking, while the last pair, located near the gills, have leaf-like flaps that are used for pushing. (the small pincers on the last pair are also used for cleaning the gills in the abdomen). the horseshoe crab has two pairs of eyes.

males can be distinguished by the first pair of legs which are heavier than those of the female.
the spike-like tail serves as a rudder, and, if the crab is flipped upside down, it may bend its abdomen at the point where it joins the main shell (carapace) and dig into the sand with the tail to support itself while it turns over.

ray's birthday lunch at temple street

i took bus service 190 to dhoby ghaut and from there transferred to a north-east train to get to chinatown station. emerged at smith street and walked a short distance to the restaurant at temple street.

the name of the restaurant is chan de fu. it looks like a family-run business. the owner is a singaporean. his assistants include his wife, who is a chinese national, and his sister-in-law. the chef speaks mandarin with an beijing accent.

they specialise in a cuisine which hails from a certain region in china. i cannot be sure about which part of china. anyway, the dishes are quite distinctive and you are not likely to find them in a regular restaurant.

we started with chilled brinjal pieces which you dip into some sauce before you eat them. there were pork ribs, chicken wings, steamed fish, soup, some vegetable stuff heated over a stove, fried and chilled aerovela, minced meat and other stuff wrapped in popiah skin and soft durian buns.

apparently, ray is a regular at the place. he, not only gets a 10% discount on the bill, but also received a birthday present from the restaurant owner. we rounded off the session with a slice of the (birthday) durian cake each.

home-cooked vegetable rice

i have been having vegetable rice for breakfast for the past two days. i cooked the vegetable rice on friday but did not have it for dinner. your mother, who was famished by the time she got home from work, had it for dinner instead. her complaint: it was too soggy.

must admit it was soggy. i had added more than the regulated amount of water. i had intended to drain off the excess water when the rice became tender. but, by the time the rice reached that stage, all the water had been absorbed by it.

i first cooked the rice in a pot. when it became fluffy, i stopped the cooking. i fried the ingredients to go into the rice. started with the ginger bits, then added in the bits of meat and the dried shrimps. after that, threw in the shredded carrot and vegetables (peh chye). of course, i used oyster sauce to add flavour to the ingredients.

when all the ingredients in the kwaili had been cooked, i threw in the fluffy rice and mixed everything up.

singapore chilli crab

your mom is acting a bit strange since my return from melbourne. first, she craved for roti prata. so, yesterday we went down to al-ameen at 7th mile bukit timah for dinner. then, she asked for chilli crabs today.

after my morning walk, i went over to the ntuc supermarket at bukit panjang plaza to buy the ingredients. i bought 2 female mud crabs, weighing in at 1.2kg, for $16.90 and a packet of the ready to cook meal kit for about $5.

i followed quite closely the instructions on the packet, with slight modifications. i fried some garlic before adding in the chopped pieces of crabs and i added tomato ketchup and extra hot chilli sauce to the paste.

decorations for national day & covered walkway

since you two are so far away from home, i will continually update you on events and happenings and developments in singapore.

to start off, i have posted two pictures.

first: decorations that have been put up for the coming national day. there are two big balloons in bukit panjang town and the trees opposite the plaza are adorned with christmas lights.

second: the covered walkway that linked our block of flats to the bus-stop. work is almost complete; they are now putting in the finishing touches. the whole walkway should be ready for use in a few days' time.

osim in melbourne

while i was in melbourne, i came across two osim outlets: one was at chadstone and the other was at knotts city.

i did not enter the shop but stood outside and watched. the range of products is almost the same as that in singapore. however, i realise the high-end massage chairs are not available in australia. i did not see the red ipilot in the shops.

osim has really gone global.

something hilarous & how to cook my speciality (bee hoon)

first, i will relate something hilarious that happened this morning. your mom definitely won't agree; according to her the moment i come back from australia, i am turning her world upside down.

for any event to take place, there is always an interplay of more than one factor. as you both know, i am the one who wakes everyone up in the house. so, i dutifully set my mobile phone alarm to go off at 5.20 a.m.

it went off correctly, at 5.20 a.m. i woke your mom up and she set about getting ready for school. i heard the 'winchester' clock chimed when the house door was opened. soon after i went back to sleep.

a little while later, the house phone rang. your mom asked: can you check the time. i looked at my watch. the digital reading: 4.15. then it dawned one me..i had forgotten to reset the time on my mobile phone. the time was melbourne's time.

which means your mom got up at 3.20 a.m. and at 4.15 a.m. she was outside her school gate. anyway, she drove back and caught an hour of sleep before she set off for school again.

so, what are the factors that were at play. first, i forgot to reset the time on my mobile phone. secondly, the 'winchester' clock was set wrongly. i had replaced the battery on sunday evening but i did not get the setting right. it was not supposed to chime before 6.00 a.m. thirdly, your mom failed to check with her bedside alarm clock.

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recipe for bee hoon

soak bee hoon for at least half an hour

prepare ingredients - shallots/onions, chye sim, prawns, carrots (thinly sliced) and stewed pork. for the stewed pork, remove the bones and the fat. two cups with two tablespoons of oyster sauce each. add hot water to the sauce and stir thoroughly.

fry shallots/onions first, add carrots and then prawns. fry until prawns are cooked, then add the stewed pork. fry mixture for a min or two. add bee hoon. stir continuously, adding the oyster sauce water from time to time. keep stirring until oyster sauce water has almost dried up.

turn off fire.

brand new honda civic vti automatic

went with ivy and ida to astoria at north road to the honda cars dealer. ivy had arranged with elaine to be there at 11 a.m. before going to astoria, we had gone to chadstone to buy 3 boxes of krispy kreme and ida got herself the latest harry porter book. i do not understand why there was such a long queue - at least 50 people long - outside borders. ida got it from augus without having to stand behind any person at all.

while ida waited in the car and read the book, we went to see the salesperson craig to negotiate the price for a new honda civic vti 1.8 automatic. elaine had been specially enlisted to do the bargaining. elaine drives a honda civic sports, which she bought from the same dealer - and she had helped ian and cassandra to close the deals with the same salesperson. the final price was aus$26,500 (s$34,450); the dealer would take in ivy's kia for $8000. after putting down a deposit of $500, ivy will still have to pay some $18 000 when she drives the car away in a month's time.

ivy's kia rio is about four years old, which she got brand new for about $14,000. it is a manual version and i - having been so used to driving automatic cars - do not feel confident whenever i drive her korean car.

as elaine had to go off for a lunch appointment, we drove to clayton to eat at the indonesian restaurant (warung gudeg) which has been advertised on ieatishootipost blog. lunch for three of us came up to aus$28.

korean bbq restaurant at clayton

tomorrow, i will be returning to hot and humid singapore. so today, my two daughters decided to spend the whole afternoon with me. in the evening, they will be at a care-group session at ivy's atlantic place. i will feel out of place at these sessions meant for youngsters. on thursday nights, they have one at ida's place, so i will usually try to delay my coming back to ida's lantana place till around 9.00 p.m.

ivy drove us to clayton for korean bbq. we did not cook our own meal at the table. instead we ordered the lunch specials which were prepared in the kitchen. we had spicy chicken, spicy pork and spicy beef. i think most korean bbq places provide complimentary chinese tea.

the dishes were mildly spicy and sweet. i guess sugar is one of the standard condiments in their dishes. ida and i ate most of the rice; ivy had only a small serving.

later in the evening, we went to car showrooms - toyota and honda's. ivy is keen on getting the 1.8 automatic honda civic which is priced around aus$26k. the toyota corolla costs slightly less, at $25k. ida and i actually suggested a 2-door toyota yaris but ivy is bent on getting a car with a higher capacity, both engine and passenger.

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lunch at docklands' yum cha dragon restaurant

ida got up at almost noon. managed to persuade her to go to the city with me. wanted to introduce her to the city circle tram - a free tram - but instead hopped onto tram 49 when it came along first. tram 49 took us to the docklands. docklands is victoria's new waterfront. it is an attractive place with colourful buildings, modern sculptures, nice restaurants and cafe and a beautiful view of victoria harbour and the west gate bridge.

although it was lunch time, most of the restaurants and cafes were almost empty. when we walked into yum cha dragon restaurant, only two tables were occupied. and during the course of our meal, no other person came into the place. the decor was chinese and they even played chinese (hokkien) music.

we had sticky rice, chow mein (fried noodles), hargow and char siew paus. the waiter/receptionist/cashier who served us looked like he is of italian descent but he could name the dishes in chinese. the pot of tea cost us $8. the meal came up to $50.

after that we hopped onto a city circle tram to get to melbourne central. ida bought a set of bedsheets from adairs for $30 (discounted price). she wanted to get a pair of gloves - the mittens type - but could not find a suitable pair.

we took bus service 900 from stud road, huntingdale to monash university bus loop. ida went for her pasta night and i headed for lantana. had to spend three hours in the living room because i had forgotten to take along the room key.

caribbean market & mga golf driving range

a cold and wet day in melbourne. chris sent me an email to ask where i wanted to go today. as the day/date on the email was tuesday, i thought it was a delayed mail and did not respond to it. only when he called me on the mobile, did i realise that it was sent this morning.

i suggested going to the caribbean market located at fern gully road, scoresby. he had not been there for sometime. the stalls in the open were not operating because of the weather. anyway, it was very cold in the covered area as temperature was around 6 degrees. stallholders pay about $45 rental each time, and the place is open on wednesdays and sundays. parking is free on wednesdays. chris bought some aluminium covers for his stove and a pair of pants for $10 at the market.

later in the evening, we went to the direct factory outlet (dfo) next to morrabbin airport. we did not buying anything. we then drove to the melbourne golf academy (mga) to check out the place. they have a golf shop and a driving range. putting is free but short game (chipping) costs $5.00. to whack 100 balls, you need to pay $9 during off-peak and $13 during peak. you have an option to drive 50, 75 or 100 balls for which you pay varying amount.

in the evening, ida and i went with chris and del to glen waverley for dinner. i had suggested rock kung, but we ended up at grand tofu to eat yong tau foo and some dishes cooked malaysian-style like beef hor fun, char kway teow, wanton mee and hokkien mee. like the vietnamese restaurant we visited two days ago, chinese tea was complimentary.

dinner at all people chinese restaurant

joab's parents and brother are here in melbourne for a visit. his father lectures at smu and his mother works in a firm dealing in energy. they are returning to s'pore on the same day as i. his parents invited his friends out for dinner and i was included as a father of one of his many friends. ida also came along. there were twelve of us at the table. most of them were joab's housemates or members of his care group.

we had more than ten dishes on the table, some of which were repeat orders. winter and young people is a combination for more food consumption. you tend to eat more when the weather is cold. dinner was at 6.30 p.m. at the all people chinese restaurant located at the junction of burwood highway and middleborough road.

ivy's circle of friends are mostly singaporeans and malaysians. there are also some china nationals. ida's housemates include two china nationals - cissy and angeline. most of them attend the same church at waverley. they also go to frankston for a church service on saturdays, which means they attend two church services a week.

some things they do here are beyond me. for example, ida and her housemates attend the same church but they go there separately. cissy goes in swee's car. cassandra drives herself to church. i suppose, on the way, she picks up a few passengers. and ida has jonathan to come and drive her to the church at waverley. i think the same car also picks valerie and ivan.

it rained hailstones in clayton

today, chris came to pick me to go to dandenong market to buy vegetables for ivy and ida. bought cabbages, cauliflower, pak choy and mandarin oranges. chris bought a kilogram of assorted nuts for bel in singapore. as it was raining quite heavily, we waited it out by having a cup of coffee at a cafe.

as i needed to get some stationery for ida, chris drove me to ikea at victoria gardens, richmond. it is just like the ikea back home: they have a restaurant that serves swedish meatballs and cheap breadfast. got ida a set of file holders, a corkboard and two pieces of plastic for her table top. we did not have lunch in the ikea restaurant; instead, we had it at the food court.

after lunch, chris dropped me off at lantana. at about 2.30 p.m., i heard the sound of objects hitting the roofs of the houses. i looked out and saw pellets, the size of a pea, on the road. i realised that it was raining hailstones. hailstones can range from the size of a pea to that of a golf ball. it can be a very painful experience to be hit by 'golf ball sized hailstones'.

about that time, ida came back from her lectures at the university. she had her umbrella with her, otherwise she would have been hit by the white peas.

st kilda's art & crafts market on sunday

ida came back to the lantana's place after church with dorcas. dorcas, who is doing foundation at trinity, had helped to bring over all the stuff that she had forgotten except the disney's diary which lay bee could not find in the house. we waited for ivy to drive us to st kilda. whole day parking at st kilda on a sunday costs aus$7.00.

st kilda art & crafts market is a 'makers market'. this means that the stallholders either make their own stuff or design the stuff and get it produced. so, the items that are on sale are not cheap stuff because they are quite exclusive and of a high standard. in fact, you can pay for your purchases using your credit cards.

after having parked the car, we walked the length of the art and crafts market. unlike the last time when we had spent a few hundred dollars buying stuff like handbag, hat and art pieces, this time we did not buy anything. the stalls selling japanese calligraphy works and personalised book marks were not around previously.

from the market, we walked towards the luna park where a busker was performing outside the entrance. decided to have coffee and cake at one of the popular cake shops. there are four cake shops along the stretch of road: alcand, monarch, le bon and europa. we picked le bon because there were seats available. the tiramisu, mango cheese cake, chocolate rum cake and the sausage pie were yummy.

we walked to st kilda pier as it was still bright. the sun was about to set and there were many people on the pier. from the pier you can take a cruise out to watch penguins. they charge $20 for an adult and $10 for a child.

prices of foodstuff in melbourne, australia

over in australia, prices of foodstuff can be ridiculously high. example: one mangosteen (yes, one piece and not one kilogram) is priced at aus$1.68 cts. in singapore, i pay between $1.50 and $4.00 for a kilogram of the fruit. one piece will cost slightly more than 10 cts to about 35cts. and the mangosteen here is not of any special variety. i guess they are from thailand. in fact, some of the mangosteens are not even eatable because the rinds are so hard.

even the local fruit and vegetables are not cheap either. watermelon is sold by weight and one kilo costs around aus$1.29. in singapore, i can get a whole watermelon for slight over s$2. grapes are not much cheaper also, except when they are on special offer. i do like their way of selling/buying fruit - if you want one banana, you just pluck one from a bunch and pay for it; you do not have to buy the whole bunch.

the coke from the vending machine costs aus$2.40 (s$3.00). the cheapest bottle of mineral water costs aus$1.50. in singapore, you can get it for 40 cts. one cup of coffee costs around aus$2.50 but at taste of s'pore, teh tarik is cheap, aus$1.50.

there is no way you can have a wholesome meal for $2 in australia unless you settle for a simple donut. not like in singapore where you can have 2 plain pratas for $1.20, 6 pieces of chwee kway for S1.50 or one piece of you tiao and a cup of coffee for $1. 30. in the food court in australia, you pay about aus$7.50 for a small plate of rice or noodles which will you can get for less than $3.00 in singapore.

are the prices higher in australia because of the higher cost of labour or higher cost of living? must be the higher cost of living. transport cost is high, like when we took the train to the city from clayton. in singapore, maybe, we will pay about $1.60 for that distance but over here it is aus$5.30, which works out to 4 times our cost.

trash collection @ clayton

over here in melbourne, the households separate their trash into two bins: one for paper, cardboard and boxes and the other bin for food, rubbish, nappies and bags. they used to have another category - glasses, bottles and plastic . it seems they have lumped this with the first category (recyclables).

the one-man operated trash truck comes around once a week, every friday. so, early on friday morning or on thursday evening, the residents will move the bins from outside their houses to the main road, if their houses are not along the main roads, like ivy and ida's.

i think there are two separate trash trucks that come round on fridays to empty the two different types of bins. the operator does not have to leave his truck to empty the bins. the truck comes equipped with a mechanical clamp which grabs the bin and dumps its content into the truck. i learnt from ivy that the truck that collects recyclable waste comes around once a fortnight.

people here are generally quite disciplined and environmentally friendly. they separate their trash accordingly and used plastic bags to contain food remnants and soiled stuff.

now i understand the need for two bins. one is for recyclable stuff and the other is for non-recyclables.

yam cha at westlake restaurant

finally got ida to go down with me to the city. walked to clayton to take the train. tried to use a short-cut but ended up walking through monash medical centre campus. found out later that taking the train from clayton was not a good move. clayton happens to be in zone 2 whereas huntingdale - one station away - is in zone 1. it is not worth boarding a train to the city from clayton when you can do it at huntingdale because you need to pay more. it costs us aus$5.30 to make a one way trip to flinders station.

showed ida around the city; not that she had not been to the city before but just to get her re-acquainted. as ida was hungry, we made our way to little bourke, chinatown. ate at the westlake restaurant. yam cha is available up to 5 .00 p.m. for 5 portions of tim sum, we paid aus$25.60. after lunch, walked over to maxim to buy 5 pieces of egg tarts for $7.00.

we did not plan to go back to lantana too early as the place is used for a care group meeting on thursday night. we browsed and did some window shopping. went to myers, target and the basement. ida went to the kids' section in target and got herself a bath robe.

ivy called to let us know that she would pick us up from the huntingdale station. when we reached the station, joab was with her. she drove us to holmes, where they had dinner in a korean restaurant. ida and i chose to drink the complimentary tea.

taste of singapore in clayton

when we were coming back from geelong via the princes highway, ivy decided to stop at a small eatery in clayton for lunch. she wanted to give me a treat of familar home food. told her i was not hungry enough to eat lunch yet, so i asked for a teh tarik. she ordered a nasi lemak, which cost aus$5.50, which is cheap by australian standard. she also had a teh tarik for aus$1.50. the nasi lemak is quite authentically singaporean although the chilli paste seems to have more salt than the norm today.

the taste of singapore eatery is located across the road from clayton north primary school. if you are driving towards clayton, it is on the left after the 7-eleven petrol station. it is actually next to another fuel station. it is open from 10 a.m. onwards.

it is a family run restaurant. a number of customers who were in the eatery when we dropped in spoke malay. it seems the owner of the place is a malay family from singapore who have been there for about 6 years. i saw the man preparing the roti prata on his own. the roti prata costs $1.50, which is cheap, compared some places which sell it for as much as $7.00.

satays are available on fridays, saturdays and sundays and they cost aus$8.00 for ten sticks. i suppose they have chicken, beef and mutton satays.

the eatery is within walking distance from ida's place. she can go by brown street, cross wellington road and walk a short stretch of the princes highway to get to the taste of singapore at clayton road.

today (14 jul) i took ida to try the food there and i bumped into the same malaysian couple who ate there when i was with ivy.

glorious sunrise at geelong

ivy's interviews for internship took her to ballarat and geelong. after leaving dr pradeep's dental clinic, we travelled along bulleen road to hit the eastern freeway. the eastern freeway eventually joins the western freeway, which is a quick access to ballarat.

when we reached ballarat, it was almost 2.30 p.m. we had lunch at a cafe in town. ivy had a soup while i ate fish and chips. the interview at the ballarat base hospital lasted 15 minutes. by 4.00 p.m. we were on our way to geelong via a300 - the midland highway.

it was getting dark when we reached geelong. in winter, the days are shorter, so by 5.30p.m. the sun is already getting below the horizon. we settled for an accommodation along the beach - the seamist holiday apartments facing the sea, at the eastern beach of geelong.

we decided to have dinner at the smorgy's family restaurant at cunningham pier. it was a buffet dinner, for whch we paid aus$17.95 each. it offered a modest range of the usual eatable buffet food. cannot compare to the spread at straits kitchen or the buffet at royal scotts in singapore. (we had buffet at royal on scotts the day before ida's departure for melbourne.)

this morning, i went for my morning walk along the seaside and was treated to a spectular sunrise. yes, the sun rose at around 7.15 a.m. the glow enveloped cunningham pier, fisherman's pier and the royal geelong yacht club.

dental appointment at doncaster

ivy had interviews for her internship at ballarat and geelong. ballarat is about 2-hour drive away from her place in clayton and geelong is about a one and a half hour journey by car. but we first had to make a detour to pradeep's dental clinic in doncaster, bawlyn north, to have my denture fixed.

pradeep is, my monk's hill colleague, rama's son who studied dentistry at melbourne university and decided to set up his practice in melbourne. he lives in hawthorn on his own, i think. at the clinic he is known by the name dr shawn rama.

when my denture broke, i was at a loss. i contacted ivy who told me that dental, like medical, charges were very high in australia. i first thought of soon's brother-in-law, dr gong. we had stayed with him during our earlier visits to melbourne. he lives and practises in a house in kew. soon messaged back to let me know that dr gong was back in singapore.

next, i thought of getting the assistance of anu. anu is a dentist by training but she does not practise. instead, she lectures in the university of melbourne. i called nara but there was no response; then, i remembered him telling me that he was going to sweden and germany in july to visit his two other daughters. i needed to get anu's phone numbers from nara.

then ivy mentioned rama's son whom she had met when she first came over to monash to study. i called rama in singapore and he gave me his son's mobile number. i called the number and he called back. i made arrangement to go down to his clinic the next day, the same day i had to accompany ivy to ballarat and geelong.

ivy had, in fact, contacted her friend pansy, also a dentist, who was able to do the job for me but ivy could not get in touch with me earlier. since i had already called pradeep, i decided that i would go to him to have it done.

i managed to locate his clinic quite easily, with the help of the melway. this australian street directory has the addresses of the houses indicated along the roads.

this evening i went with ida to collect the denture and pradeep refused to accept any payment.

dinner at atlantic street, clayton

ivy prepared dinner for five people today - herself, myself, ida, valerie and suzanne, ida's bukit view schoolmate. we were told to go over at 6.30 p.m. but i was there one hour early. ida had gone shopping at chadstone with her two friends. they were late, reaching ivy's place at 6.50 p.m., when it was quite dark.

ruth was working late; swee was having dinner out ; so was rachel. so, we had dinner by ourselves. had to help ivy clear the table and set the table for dinner.

ivy had cooked a soup, in australia, unlike in singapore, they use chicken bones rather than pork rib bones for preparing the stock for the soup. she fried chicken in some chilli paste. there was also steamed salmon with bits of ginger, cai xin and toufu with mushroom. we had mixed rice - brown rice and long grain thai white rice.

we managed to finish half of the cooked food; the leftovers were sealed with glade wrappers. ivy told me that swee and rachel would normally have them for their lunch.

after dinner, ivy dropped her laundry to dry at blackburn, dropped valerie at arnott, dropped suzanne at huntingdale station and ida at lantana. i went back with her to the laundramat to collect the dried clothes before she sent me back to ida's place.

bus and train to the city

ivy passed me her metlink card to be used for rides on the bus, train and tram in melbourne. i walked ida to arnott street, where valerie is staying, and crossed over to monash university campus to catch bus service 630 to huntingdale station. from the station, i took the city loop train to flinders street station. across the station is the tourist information centre and federation square.

i first tried to locate the singapore kopitiam - which is supposed to be at the junction of bourke street and russell street. not a sign of it. bought red bean bun (aus$1.60) and custard pie (aus$1.80) from breadtop along brouke street. walked down to liitle bourke - chinatown. found out later that the kopitiam is at 213 russell street.

went to the tourist information centre to get some literature on geelong, bellarine and ballarat. a lot of information and help are available at the information centre which is manned by paid staff and some volunteers. it is busier than a clinic and you have to take a number to wait for your turn to be served.

walked across the yarra river to the arts centre which includes a building housing theatres and a concert hall- hamer hall. there is also an art gallery further down the road. back at federation square, walked over to st paul cathedral which reminded me of st mary's in sydney. somewhere along the side of the yarra river, at birrarung marr, there is a circus (of oz) with a giant sky wheel, carousel and a trampoline.

to return to clayton, i took the train from flinders street to huntingdale. from huntingdale station, i walked to north road to take bus service 630 back to monash.

dandedong market

this market is open from about 7.00 a.m. to 2 .00 p.m. on tuesdays, fridays and saturdays. dandenong market offers over 300 stalls, selling everything from apples to zippers, including fresh fruit and vegetable stalls, chicken shop, deli, butcher and two fish mongers.

i found an interesting stall here, it is actually more a shop than a stall. one that even has a halal certificate displayed on the glass window. it is called the minaret meats. it sells beef, mutton and chicken. saw quite a number of middle eastern people in the shop.

i got ida to buy me three doughnuts from the travelling van. they are the ball type, without a hole in the middle. she also bought a doner kebab, which she had for lunch.

ivy had wanted to go to dandenong market after church on sunday. told her that it was not open. she said the vegetables sold there are much cheaper than those sold elsewhere.

overnight at wantirna south on arrival in melbourne

our departure was delayed by nearly one hour. instead of flying off at 3.20, the plane took off at about 4.20 p.m. we touched down at melbourne at 1.30 a.m. on 5 july. it took more than half an hour for us to wait to claim our luggage. our four items were about the last to be off loaded from the plane. the customs check was very thorough and strict. they would not allow certain foodstuff to be brought into the country. fortunately, our bengawan solo's pineapple tarts and prawn rolls and our dried cuttlefish were cleared.

by the time we reached our friend's place at wantirna south, which is about 50km from the airport, it was way past 4.00 a.m. did not get much sleep as i was up at 7.00 a.m. because ida had to enrol and register at the university. ida finally got up at 9.30 a.m. my friend drove us to the monash university where we met ivy's housemate rachel who helped us with the enrolment.

chris and del has adopted a new dog named toby since the passing of their old faithful called buggsy. toby is a cross between a doberman and an alsatian. he is as mild as buggsy was.

we went for lunch before returning in the afternoon to do the registration for the modules that ida would be taking in the first semester. there were four other new students in the lecture room. meanwhile my friend chris had returned home to rest.

in the evening, at about 7.00 p.m., we went for dinner with chris khoo, his wife del, ida, ivy and ida's friend valerie. valerie arrived about a week earlier and she is doing the same course as ida. we had shanghainese food at one of the main shopping centres in waverley. the food was nice and inexpensive. paid aus$45 for the dinner.

today, got ivy to drive us to chadstone to buy stuff for ida. still need to get a few more stuff for ida.

home-cooked dinner in melbourne

had a taste of ida's first home cooked meal in australia. she had picked up some cooking tips from joel who was back in singapore for the varsity break. she cooked a pot of soup using chicken bones, carrot and onion. she fried vegetable - cabbage - with lean chicken meat.

late this morning, we drove to danedong weekend market to buy the foodstuff. danedong is about 12km from clayton. it is quite easy to get there as it is also along the princes highway. i bought some donuts and ida bought a doner (lamb) kebab. she had it for her lunch. danedong market is no different from victoria market or any of the weekend markets in australia.

we were at danedong for about an hour only as ida also wanted to visit springvale to get some asian foodstuff. i think saturday is not a good time to go to springvale. although there are more than 1000 parking spaces in the vicinity, we were unable to find a single unoccupied lot. gave up and headed for clayton. bought sesame oil, oyster sauce and soy sauce from the asian grocery in clayton. had my lunch in the chinese vietnames restaurant.

we finished all the food; there was no leftover.