Hello and goodbye to Baxter, some work stuff and the new Batman movie.

I think it's about time I tell you about Baxter. It's was a mere few weeks before it was "hello" and "goodbye" to him. Don't worry, nothing bad has happened to him, it's just that he has gone off to another family who can love him for who he is. That was the main reason why we didn't want to tell people when we got him; cause we weren't sure if he was gonna remain ours.

Baxter's an 8 month old maltese / shih tzu. His owner listed him on trading post that she was selling him as she was going overseas. When we got to the house to see him, it didn't matter that the feeling didn't feel quite as "right" as when we picked Jasper up, but Tubbs and I were just excited that we were gonna to get a play pal for Jasper that we just decided to take him anyway. Now of course we did mention that our dogs are kept in-house and asked if he was house-trained and she said "yes", which we found to be totally otherwise in the next couple of weeks.

In the first few days, peeing and pooping everywhere was fine, we could understand; it was a new house and environment. But then when days turned into weeks and he got from bad to worse, we realised we just got ourselves a troubled mutt. He could pee and walk at the same time (totally oblivious that he's peeing), he shit at any corner/place in the house, even on our floor mats and carpets(once on our new doona and mattress!), totally refusing to do his business on the pee/poo soaked training mats. Those were the last straw, and we knew we didn't have the time to train him properly cause he was usually an outside dog and at that age, trying to re-train him to be an in-house dog was like trying to tame a bull. So he was up on trading post again and in a few days, another couple who had a maltese/shihtzu of their own adopted Baxter. And it was good cause they kept their dog outside as well. Anyway here some shots of Baxter, together with Jasper (below) as well.

We felt a little sad (especially tubbs) who is really sentimental about dogs, but it was better that Baxter had gone off to people who would love him more. This is especially true due to the fact that any other dog that comes is always compared to our smarty Jasper (which isn't fair we know), but like tubbs said, Jasper's sort of set a benchmark and we can't seem to accept any dog that falls below that benchmark. So we are always biased towards Jasper. So we have resigned to the fact that we either get Jasper a GF to mate and get his puppies or buy a puppy and train it from small. I guess adopting older dogs that are sort of used to their way of life and trying to re-train them again is not something we are actually prepared to do.

Apart from that, work is usual for me and Tubbs though he was previously stressed by the company audit last week. Then the health dept in CFA held a pilates / health check session last week. People can go for a 1-2 hour pilates class during office hours, how cool is that! I missed out on the last session cause I didn't bring my sports outfit, but I will certainly try it out the next session. I'm also going for an IT certification course (also organised by the org.) in a few weeks which includes a mini exam after that, boy it's like going back to uni again.

We also went to watch Batman - The Dark Knight in IMAX Theatre last night. It was awesome, what with the huge screen and the acting of the "truly evil" Joker played by Heath Ledger. A pity though it didn't seemed right that Katie Holmes wasn't acting as the main "girl" this time. They got someone who looked like her. I shan't spoil the story for those who haven't watch it, but don't expect too much action. It's more about the plot and menacing conversations between Batman and the Joker. Go watch it !

Visit to the Cuckoo Restaurant and being part of CFA Green Office

Work has been pretty good so far; busy but it's all good because it means time passes faster and also my colleagues are a helpful and funny bunch, so thank God for that. Just a couple of weeks ago, tubby, wangwei, ying and I decided to treat ourselves out at the famous cuckoo restaurant in the Dandenong ranges.

It was a buffet luncheon costing about $35 per person which boasted a spread of prawns, mussels, fish, beef, chicken and sweet deserts. The restaurant was bevarian styled and during the course of our meal, we were also treated with entertainment like singing, instrumental music as well as yodeling. I actually recorded videos of it, but coming from my mobile, the quality wasn't that good. So I didn't upload it. It's a good experience and I certainly recommend it to anyone visiting melbourne.

We later took a walk along the quaint little shops there just cause we were so full. Finally bought a very belated birthday present for my dear tigger but I haven't had the time to post it yet. Also tubby and I got a set of teapot+cups for our home so we can enjoy a cup of tea sometimes, especially during the cold winter now. :p

Working in a large organisation also means there are lots of things going on, like I chose to be part of the Green Office team. We're working towards to help our planet earth and do things like recycling staff, switching off lights and thinking of ways to save energy. So just last week, we had the green office training and after that we were each given a goodie bag and it always feels exciting to get a pressie after a long and tiring session! haha.. :) The goodie bag had stuff like the bus/train timetables to encourage you to take public transport, green lifestyle magazine, postcards and we also got a t-shirt and mug each.

My new work place, the new "addition" to the family and netball & tennis craze.

Thanks to all who cared, we're pretty much settled on the move down to city. Just a few knick knacks and there left in Gippy, which we will endeavour to take the next time we visit. :P The first week of work went by quickly and I must say I really feel so blessed to get this job. It has a great working environment, you get training and courses to attend, the benefits are awesome and most of all, I can finally concentrate on my area of expertise and what I like doing; which is purely web design. Anyway, here's some snapshot of my workplace:

The first day was really overwhelming because I had so much to learn and the tour around the two buildings itself took about one and a half hours and I was introduced to so many people that I probably can't remember half of who I have met. It's so cool to walk into the SECC (State Emergency Control Centre), the room looks exactly like the scene from movies where they have the U.S Security of Defence giving commands in the control centre during am emergency. Also the 000 centre is also situated in the same building, so that's where all the 000 calls go to. :P My department is in the second building, which is on the right of the main building and there's also a snap of my little workplace. My colleague also took me to the fire stations in other regions for a visit and it was all truly an information overload week, but it was all good.

Then I'd also like to introduce my new "baby" to our family (apart from Jasper). It's nothing big or posh to be proud about, but still it's my first car which I financed from my own hard earned money, so it's just something I'm just really happy about. The mitsubishi colt is similar to the Honda Jazz, but it's just less common and I certainly like the red colour! It's much more secure buying from a dealer as you can a mind of peace as compared to private sellers. As you can see, I can finally "doll up" my own car with all the cutie girlie stuff. *hint hint* chaboh loo, time to get me that devil mirror cover already. heehee.. :D And to top it off, thanks to darling who bought me a GPS to go with it, now I know I won't get lost.

And so everything sort of ended about the same time, my tennis comps ended around mid may and so did the netball comps. Though we didn't win any game at all, we're still proud of ourselves cause we did our best and I'd say we're one of the more united teams who have the same players playing for most of the comps. *Alright we didn't win cause we needed more practice and the ang mohs are very tall okay!" :P I'm pretty glad for gaining some new friends throughout that period too and now it's time to find a new tennis club around my area to continue my tennis and hopefully a netball team to join as well?

Tubby & WW's farewell dinner, securing a new job, our new place at Bentleigh East and the fuss of buying a car.

Sometimes, many things can happen in a short period of time and since the last update, Tubby and I are finally slowly settling down into our new place, and everything seems to be turning out as we hope it will be. Over the last few weeks, we had a farewell dinner for Tubby and Wangwei at Qu Bah, I met up with Stacey who came over for a visit to Melbourne for her sister's graduation, and I also got a job at a Government Department, which is really a blessing.

The farewell dinner at Qu Bah. Sorry I didn't put up the cam-whoring shots, you guys can come and get the photos from me when you all are free. Heehee...

Our new place at Bentleigh East, somewhere we will call home before we settle down and get our own house in a few years time. I know, it's very IKEA style and it's not surprising since 98% of our furniture came from IKEA anyway. :p And the guest room is still pretty empty I know. That's cause we had to spend a lot on appliances and furniture so the guest room would have to wait for awhile. The house was literally empty when we first moved in, and we had to buy our own stuff like the fridge, washing machine, microwave, bed etc. Gone were the good old days of having a fully furnished house like Dalpura Court.

Going back to the job, I would say it's another blessing from God. I prayed to Him to give me the right job he thinks I should get and I guess I did. It was really funny cause I was in a bad mood when I went for the interview for this job that day as it was (you know) that time of the month and I was being pissy cause the location was in Burwood East, which is near Glen Waverley. And it meant that tubby and I can't car pool to work together. So I went there half heartedly and even reached there almost 3 minutes to being late! But when the interview started, everything just seemed to flow and go on smoothly and just a day later, the recruitment agent called me and told me they would like to offer me the job. And so the position is back to being what I'd like, a Web Developer with Victoria's Country Fire Authority (CFA) http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/ I'm so nervous yet excited to work for such a huge organisation and having the chance to upgrade myself with training opportinuties given, and the higher salary is definite a plus too! :p

So now with Tubby and I working in opposite directions of the city, I now have to get myself a car. Just last saturday I found a blue Mitsubishi Lancer which I really liked going for $11,000 and so I gave the lady $500 deposit to hold it. For some reason, though it didn't feel right to be able to find a car I like at a reasonable price so soon, I chose to think otherwise. Then on monday, my sales manager Terry noticed the number plate was pretty new for a 2002 car made sure I did a vehicle check with VIC ROADS and guess what? The vehicle was written off before! OMG! Written off meant that the vehicle was in an accident so bad that it's not possible to safely rebuild it! Gosh I felt my heart plunged and I immediatly called the lady to asked for my deposit back. Lucky she agreed to return it and tubby said she looked like she didn't know about the matter when he went to collect it. I refuse to believe her anyway and want to have nothing to do with her anymore. Anyway, yet another lesson learnt, and now I make sure I check out the vehicle with VIC ROADS before placing any deposit. Till the next time, stay on the up side everyone... :)

The emotionally stressful period, Easter break getaway and the transition update.

Apologies for the lack of updates. A lot happened in the past month or so and it's only recently that we sort of settled down a bit. Everyone sort of know that Tubby's got a job in Carlton. So we fretted about finding a house near city since house rental vacancies are at an all time low rate of 0.9%. It's like a fish market, 20-30 people go for a house inspection and then apply for it there and then, and the landlord gets to choose which tenants he favours. So I would say we were pretty lucky when our application was approved in a week of searching, though we didn't even view the house. And considering its so hard to even get a house, we are so blessed to get one that allows pets. Of course we filled this criteria out in all our applications since Jasper definitely goes everywhere with us. So our place is in Bentleigh East, a suburb near Clayton and Oakleigh. Will send an email to you dearies once we are settled in.

The main stress didn't stop when we got the house. Tubby's parents started a torment of hell the last couple of weeks. They would call him every couple of days, nagged to him hours on the phone, all the time refusing to let us move in together. I even wrote a long letter to them, telling them about our story and how much we mean to each other. I won't deny we almost got to the point of breakdown and it affected us quite a bit. But I'm glad Tubby stayed firm and stood his ground and they finally said they won't discuss about the issue anymore. For how long that's gonna stay, I don't know. But for now, we will just be focusing and getting excited about our move the next few weeks. Rental in melbourne is super expensive, we are paying like 2.5 times the rent we are paying per month, as compared to Dalpura CT. Of course it's unfair to compare between city and country rental, but still, it's a huge difference. And the house is totally unfurnished, which means we have to spend more money on appliances and furniture. We also have to start paying for electricity, gas and water bills since they are not included in the rent too.

Anyway, straying from those moving and emotional stuff for a bit, here's some photos from the Easter trip to Tarra Valley:

3D2N getaway at the Tarra Valley Rainforest retreat. we just wanted a relaxing weekend away for the 3 of us during Easter. Jasper had his fun being able to run all over the house since it was pet friendly. On the first day, we laze around in bed, had dinner served to us in the evening, took a short walk around after dinner, had tea in the veranda under the moonlight. On the second day, we went down to Yarram for the Easter festival. It was nothing too exciting, just vehicles and children all dressed up in costumes parading down the street. Then we went to Port Albert for the famous and fresh Fish and Chips; the seafood was really awesome and we also went for a short walk in the Tarra Valley Rainforest. On the last day, which was also my birthday, we went back for another walk in the Rainforest, this time to the suspension bridge. It was just lovely, with the fresh air and cooling atmosphere which makes you feel so relaxed.

Then on the night we went back to Churchill, we also had dinner with the people from Dalpura CT. And I just wanna say thank you again to you all for the sports bag, I love it. And it works best for my tennis nights. Also I have started playing netball with Eileen, Ying and the other uni students. It's so fun being able to go back to it again, I played it ages ago in high school. We haven't won yet on the last 4 weeks or so, but we're just out to sweat and have fun. :) We also had dinner and played Kup at Helen's and Michaels' place again. It's probably one of the last gatherings where everyone can turn up. Some of the photos have been added on facebook by Ying, so check it out there if you want.

And for those of your darlings or "kpos":p out there, we will be moving into the new place this friday and slowly bringing more stuff in every weekend. I won't be moving in permanently just yet cause I want to get a job down there first. And this time, I really do want to get a job that I really love doing; like graphic or web design. Plus it's not a rush for me to move down yet cause I still have tennis and netball comps going on here. And so I have lazily started sending out job applications last week, and I got called for an interview this friday, which was surprisingly fast, considering they take ages sometimes over here to process the applications. But anyway there's no promise to anything yet, so I'm just going to leave it in God's hands, like I always do. Till then, take care everyone and I hope the next update will come again soon.