Fun Time with CityLife Manningham Members!

For those who's been asking, have asked, are planning to ask, or are simply wondering, yes, we did find a church we're happy with =) Our search for a church in Melbourne did not take long actually... in our 2nd week here, we landed ourselves at CityLife's newest site in Manningham, and I dare say we've settled down there church-wise. I must admit it was initially due to the fact that they have a great Sunday School programme, namely ROAR, that Ryan and Noel loves (and has brought back a whole lot of art and craft (and sunflowers) to prove it!) However, having said that, I believe the reason we're feeling very much at home here after all this while is that we've kinda grown to love a Bong family =) and no, it's not Debbie and Caleb's Bong family. hehe.

The history lessons, summarized, is that we met Marjorie Bong the first day we were at CityLife, because she was volunteering as a Sunday School teacher for Ryan & Noel's class. After a lunch at her house and our continuously failing to attend a LifeGroup (or what we used to know as a Cell Group) over the next few weeks, we eventually ended up in the LifeGroup of, who else, but Henry and Marjorie Bong. It's been alot of fun spending time together, and their girls, Valerie, Vanessa and Vivian are such a joy to be around... AND ... *news flash* for all you guys back home - Joey organized and carried out the icebreaker during our last LifeGroup meeting =) yes, no typo there, it wasn't me =) *clap*clap*clap*

Well, here's to share with you all a great day we had with the Bong family and other Manningham church members today!

Lunch
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What can I say, doesn't all our lives revolve around some kind of food-related event? what makes you think that's changed now that we're in Melbourne. Haha... actually, when we were invited to attend the sort of Guitar Graduation performance of Vanessa and Valerie's guitar group lessons, we had no idea food was involved. And, I'm saying sort of, because it was later introduced as not a performance, but a short Worship Session... but with 8 guitarists and their trainer... err... followed by food =)

(you need to switch OFF the website player so it will stop playing the background song, before you can hear the video... or else it will be pretty noisy!)

Dinner
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We had the privilege of having the Bong family over for dinner after that - dessert and games included, of course!

[Left to Right: Marjorie, Noel =), Henry, Ryan =), Vanessa, Valerie, Vivian]

we had some pre-dinner fun:


then dinner:

(and I forgot to take pictures of all the different ice creams we managed to create from Chocolate Chip ice-cream + Peppermint Ice-Cream + choc fudge + whipped cream + nuts + choc sprinkles + coloured sprinkles + M&Ms ... not to mentioned we also had some yummy strawberries with whipped cream as well as pistachio nuts, choc brownies and potato chips... and NO, its not to be eaten simultaneously. yeah, we enjoy food. haha)

and then more fun:


As far as I can tell, the funniest event of the day was actually the video that Joey took of the Father and Daughter Wii Boxing match between Henry and Vanessa. For those of you who don't know how the Wii Sports - Boxing game works, it has to do with 2 people facing the screen, each holding a remote in one hand and a 'nunchuk' (an extention to the Wii remote) in the other so that the Wii console can calculate your punches/movements.


Fathers Day Tip! This is what you can do if your daughter is beating you at a seemingly masculine sport! LOL!

Henry, Marjorie, Valerie, Vanessa & Vivien - thanks for spending the day with us, we loved every moment! Do come again!...and Henry, Joey's still planning to see u at church at 6am tomorrow to help out with the audio stuff! =) Happy Fathers' Day* to you both!! =D

*Its Fathers' Day here on Sunday, 7 September 2008.

1,000 visits!

Ladies and Gentlemen, today, 2nd September 2008, marks the day we officially hit (and exceeded) 1,000 visits on this site!
... or, in other words,
"YAAaaaaayYY! Woo Hoo! Look at the counter! over 1,000 visits!" *jumping up and down* *waving arms around* *doing cartwheels*.... errr... no, actually, I can't do cartwheels... well, at least I didn't say backflips =D that would be way too unreal for me =)

Either way you say it, its still exciting to know someone reads our blogs! Come on, you guys, leave us a chat message or a comment! we wanna know u're there! strangers included! =)

well, a big thank you to all of you who actually come and check on how we're doing (and to those of you who just found our site informative!), glad you visited, and do come again =D lol... I can do a commercial, right? hehe...

Home cooked food...

So, what do we eat in Melbourne? Unlike our original belief of the lack of rice in Australia, we have found that Australia (or Melbourne, at least) is teeming with asian food, rice included. In fact, some of our friends here have invited us over for Hokkien Mee, Laksa, Prawn Mee... not to mention going out for Nasi Lemak! and someone brought over rendang too! everyone also seems to know where to buy red beans to boil... but we haven't personally looked it up yet. will try to look out for it the next time we're shopping in Doncaster.

Anyway, here are some things Joey's cooked up in our kitchen =)

Wan Ton Mee with Curry Chicken and Siew Pak Choy (aka baby bok choy) ... we had this for dinner tonight!


Grilled Ribs with Mixed Vege, Mushroom Soup...


Lamb Chop with Baked Potato, Steamed Vege...


yeah, the two of them look alike coz I couldn't think of interesting side dishes. haha. not to mention Joey only likes mushroom soup and orange juice.... lol..

Monthly expenses: Utility Bills etc

Another info session on living in Melbourne, for those of you planning to come too. This should assist a little with your monthly estimates =) Utilities here are quite reasonable, we're happy with it... for anyone trying to estimate how much you need a month on utilities, this is generally how much we spend (but of course it will be different for everyone... not to mention, it may differ for different seasons... and its winter now)

Electricity:
Our electric bill came yesterday (we're billed quarterly), so for the past 3 months, it cost just under $250... which averages to slightly over $80 per month. not too bad! We're only in the house on weekday evenings and weekends, though. Things we have running on electricity include laptops, TV, fridge, dishwasher, oven, microwave, washing machine, dryer etc. We're with AGL for electricity and gas, but there's alot of energy provides here... some are listed in http://www.artog.com.au/ArtogUtilities/providerList.aspx but there are still others like TRUenergy, which I didn't see on the list.

Gas:
The gas bill comes every alternate month, I think... and our last one cost approximately $30 per month.
Things running on gas includes the stove and central (gas ducted) heating

Water:
To be updated after we get a bill... haven't received any from May til now. At Coburg, if we remember correctly, it was about $30-40 per month. hmm... what was the organization called?

Telephone:
Generally less than $50, depending on whether we use it or not. The monthly fixed cost (line rental) is about $26. We're with Telstra, but I believe you can choose to go with Optus or some others too.

Internet:
We're with TPG, on the $69.90 package for ADSL 2+ with a capping of 40GB daytime use and 110GB midnight use (3am-9am) per month. do note there are cheaper packages with TPG / Telstra / Optus ... there are alot of broadband providers here. If you're looking for one, check http://broadbandguide.com.au/

Foxtel (cable/satellite tv):
well, this is not a utility, but its something we spend on monthly... We're not on the full package so its about $60 for the basic package + the package that playhouse Disney belongs to. Full package would cost about $105 I believe.

Mobile Phone:
We're with Vodaphone, on a prepaid package. We usually top up $49 monthly, which gives us $310 (sometimes $330-$350 depending on the promo). Mobile phone providers here include Telstra, Vodaphone, Optus, 3 and Virgin Mobile.

What to gear/ equipment to buy for a camping trip in Melbourne?

Good question... I wish I knew... well, we had to think of something, coz we just signed up for a camping trip with my colleagues next March =) So, I went round asking, and my friend said, start with the basics... fine... basics... first thing I had in mind was the survival camp we had about 11 years ago... ooh... not good... and that's why I specifically said camping in MELBOURNE! not the jungles of Malaysia or something. hehe... anyway, my friend went on to describe the 3 room tent, bunk beds, sleeping bags, air mattresses etc.... hmmm!! that's starting to sound better already, not to mention we're booking powered sites, so we get electricity! she told me to expect the start up costs to be about $700. Which, thinking about it, isn't horribly bad, coz if we took a cabin instead of a powered site, its already about $800 for 4 nights... whereas, our powered site is only $216 for 4 nights... so, we decided to spend the money on something we can keep and reuse. And the result? (Okay, if there's any seasoned campers reading this, do note that we're newbies at camping in Melbourne)...

Shopping Total = $728 (yes, we went shopping!)

1. 3 room tent! ...the 2 room one was $50 less, so... might as well =)


2. Sleeping Bags



3. Air Mattresses


4. Bunk Beds


5. Chairs


6. Tables



...and if u had been counting and the numbers didnt't add to my total... its coz I didn't specify how many we bought? hahaha... (no, we're not insane, we're planning to do some camping with some of our guests when they come)

we haven't decided at this point if we're gonna be doing the cooking on site yet... we might have to... or just eat out... assuming that there's a town =D

well, that's gonna bring up the topic of a stove and mini bar fridge, I believe.

Anyway, camping here can be quite interesting, as far as shopping goes, at least! Here are some stuff we did NOT buy - taken from Kmart's catalogue - Fathers' day sale - and yes, I said Fathers' Day... we learnt the blur way that Fathers' day here is not in June... its in September. hehe... anyway, imagine camping with all this:

Airasia FREE flights to Melbourne!

Ok, we're a little bit late with this news, but better late then never =) Airasia is giving out 1,000,000 free seats ... all destinations, so this includes Melbourne! Who's coming next? =)

http://www.airasia.com/nl/nl080825-en.htm

Hot Air Balloon!

No, I didn't go on a hot air balloon ride... but if anyone wants to know, there are a couple of tour operators here that have either the Melbourne or Yarra Valley sunrise packages that include breakfast with champagne from about AUD$250 onwards I believe (yes, per person), depending on whether its on promo, or its weekday or weekend etc.

Anyway, I'm hoping to get to ride on it for our 10th wedding anniversary if we can still remember it by then... haha... we literally forgot our wedding anniversary this year til Saundra reminded us =D *thanks, Saun!*

Oh wait, where was I? Oh yeah, I was just trying to blog a little on my trip to work today. It was about 7am, and as I got out of the house, I saw this in the sky...



ooh! how cool! so many of them too! =) so, I went on my way to work (no, actually, I ran back up to take the camera to take this shot first) and the balloons accompanied me all the way... I believe this one was at Hoddle St, which is a main road, BUT as you can see, the traffic lights were red when I took this pic (with my iPhone from inside the car... thank goodness we can sorta make out the balloons. hehe_



and the next one is on Johnston Street in Abbotsford...



Ok, fine, the picture quality isn't great, but the point is that I managed to capture the moment anyway.... (note: the light is red again =) safe driver here!) I especially like the next one...



I like it not because of Tibet, but coz its smack on top of my office. Yeah, that building in the pic is the side of my office... I was driving into the car park... we use the whole building =) anyway, I enjoyed the balloon accompaniment today!