Merepek about the flies

I hate flies!

If you have ever lived in OZ or pernah datang OZ time Summer, you will definitely understand what I mean when I say I loathe them with a vengeance!

They are everywhere making your life miserable.

Take my house for example ye…

Our doors and windows have all got screens on them to prevent insects like flies and mosquitoes from coming in when we leave the doors or windows open. Tapi, those fr***ing little b***ers boleh jugak masuk.

You nak tau how they get in?

1. Diaorang berkumpul on the screen doors and as soon as kita bukak aje screen doors tu untuk keluar or masuk, walaupun sekejap, kelam kabut diaorang akan masuk beramai2! Macam budak2 dtg beraya tak sempat2 nak masuk nak dapat duit aje .

2. As soon as kita keluar aje from the house, diaorang akan beramai2 datang kat kita and hinggap on our baju lah, seluar lah, rambut lah. Kiranya sebijik macam perangai pets kesayangan lah, datang bermanja2 gesel2 kat kita. And sometimes mana kita sedar kan bila dia hinggap kat baju so bila kita masuk rumah, dengan gumbiranya, those flies pun masuk sama lah!

And bila diaorang dah masuk rumah, memang bermaharajalela diaorang kat dalam rumah ni.

I have my own theory (which The Other Half kata menunjukkan I ni paranoid giler, hahahaha) yang the fly sprays yang dijual kat supermarket nowadays memang saje dibuat menjadi sangat2 lah tak effectivenya sebab the companies nak kita beli more and more sprays!

I said this sebab I think some of the flies yang we all sembur dgn fly sprays ambik masa berhari2 nak mati! In the meantime diaorang nak mati tu, sempat lagi diaorang torture I with their existence!

Do you agree with The Other Half yang I’m paranoid? Hikhikhikhik……

We’ve got fly traps around the house (well, 2 aje pun, hehehe) and we all dapat tangkap so many flies in the trap over 2 weeks but still banyak sangat2 lagi flies yang berkeliaran out there!

Where the heck do thay come from??????

But I should be thankful yang this only happens during Summer (and occasionally Spring when the temperature gets a bit high) and Summer doesn’t last forever, hehehehe…

(but before Summer finishes, I hari2 memang jadi hulk kalau I nampak a fly in the house!)

Oh, did I tell you, I tak boleh nampak walau sekor pun fly in the house. I really hate that insect! hehehehehehe…..

Enough of the flies, I tayang dinner pulak

Ini dinner malam tadi, I made mee goreng bodoh makan dengan grilled seafood. And tak lupa cili mentah potong (pedas giler cili yg I tanam ni, hahaha).

And ini pulak dinner malam ni, vege pizza (again I know) makan dgn salad and crumbed chicken breast.

Walaupun we all tengah berdiet, we still eat the normal food we eat cuma kurang kan portion, kurangkan cheese and lemak2, tambahkan salad/sayur2an and grilled stuff which means  that we have to be more aware of what we eat and kurangkan our daily calorie intake and exercise hari2.

The Other Half has lost 5+kg in 2 weeks! . I’m so proud of him .

(I pun dah lost some weight jugak but tak lah sebanyak dia sebab I tak exercise sekuat dia, hehehehe).

Australia Day and pics

Hari ni Public Holiday kat sini to celebrate Australia Day. So, pagi2 tadi bila Miss 7 bangun, I terus wish her Happy Australia Day sebab dia sorang dalam keluarga ni yang ‘true blue’ Aussie. Dia sorang yg lahir kat OZ ni, yang lain semua lahir overseas, hehehe.

Hari ni, we’ll spend it berkebun and lepak2 aje. Dah nama pun PH kan, mana ada kedai or shopping malls yang bukak kat sini that we can go to, hehehehe.

We need to recuperate from yesterday .

Here are some pics I took semalam.

I’m still learning on how to take photos of moving objects (especially The Little Misses yang kadang2 susah giler nak suruh ambik gambar sebab they were having too much fun to stop sekejap!). Nk ambik gambar candid, I’m still struggling to take good candid photos. Some people are just so natural at it, ambik gambar candid yang Wow! I think maybe I think too much kot about each photo yang I nak ambik, tu yg susah nak ambik candid, hehehe. So, tu yg a bit overexposed, a bit underexposed, a bit blurry and mostly not Wow.

Lagi best ambik gambar food and flowers and plants yang tak bergerak ni kan .

Gembira sungguh diaorang berjimba2 di dalam air.

You rasakan, kenapa Miss 7 terpaksa berbaring in this paddle boat?

Sebab…kaki dia tak cukup panjang! Hikhikhikhik….

School fees, AdventureWorld and Schnitzel :-)

Hari ni we spent the whole day at AdventureWorld which is a place a bit like Sunway Lagoon lah (but on a smaller scale, hehehe). The Little Misses memang tak berhenti langsung main air and naik the rides except bila kelaparan. even though bergelen2 sunscreen we all bubuh, they were still quite tanned when they got home .

I plak spent most of the time lepak2 dalam tent sambil baca novel. Cukuplah spent 2 hours main air kan, lagi best lepak2 dalam tent lepas tu .

I might letak some of the photos I took today esok2 lah ye.

Some people asked me rentetan entry semalam about the school fees and whether public school ada fees ke tak.

Students at public school in WA (I’m not sure about the other states) ni either primary or secondary schools still kena bayar fees. Takde free education kat sini, hehehe. They called this voluntary contributions. Different schools will charge different amounts of voluntary contributions ni. But the goverrnment has already set the max amount a school can ‘ask’ for. Tu yg amount dia boleh berbeza2 each school. But definitely lah tak semahal private schools!

Like Miss 7, her voluntary contributions this year will be $60. And on top of that $60, we still have to pay for anything that crops up throughout the year like swimming lessons, all the excursions, all the incursions, any activities that require some more money, edudance and so on and so on.

And the textbooks semua kena beli sendiri.

And for Miss 11 pulak, the fees depend on what subjects the students are taking. Ada subjects yang charge fees mahal and ada subjects yang charge fees tak mahal. And their voluntary contributions mahal sikit dari primary schools.

This is what we have to pay for Miss 11 for the whole year. Kalau kat private school, lain cerita lah ye, hehehe…

She’ll be taking all the subjects listed on the above bill. Subject yang paling mahal for her is Food Awareness. The Other Half kata, nak beli all the barang mentah to cook bukannya murah, hehehe.

So, anyone yang ada anak2 nak masuk public primary school or high school kat WA, this is just an example what you might have to pay.

And since we spent the whole day kat luar, I tak masak dinner malam ni. But I’ll show you what we had last nite ye .

I made crumbed beef schnitzel, oven baked wedges and green salad.

All this was about 500cals so tak lah banyak sangat kan .

Kat rumah ni lagi suka makan crumbed beef schnitzel dari chicken.

Back to school shopping

Rasa macam tak percaya pulak yang this is the last full week of school holidays. The Little Misses’ schools will re open next Wednesday after 6 weeks cuti.

(Jom ramai2 emak2 bersorak gumbira, woohooooooooo ).

Jadi for the past few weeks, I dah pergi kedai buku, kedai uniform and also kedai2 yang jual stationery masa tgh ‘back to school’ sales.

For Miss 7, tak perlu susah sangat nak beli uniform baru sebab her old uniform ada lagi and they are still good. I just need to buy a new hat for her sebab she’s lost her old hat. Pastu, cuma boleh beli hat at school aje pulak tu because kena beli yang ada the school logo on the hat.

Untuk Miss 11 pulak, kena lah beli semua serba baru sebab dah masuk sekolah menengah kan. Last week, I pun pergi lah beli uniform untuk dia.

Punyalah lamanya we all kena queue up semata2 nak beli uniforms dia, hehehe. First, kena ambil number untuk tunggu dia panggil to try the uniforms. I sampai, dapat nombor 63! Masa tu baru aje nombor 50! 40 minit we all menunggu for our number to be called!

Then, bila dia panggil our number, the lady helped us to find the right size uniforms for Miss 11. Nasib baik ada saiz untuk dia, hehehe.

Pastu, dah siap tu, dia bagi us 1 form which we had to take to another room for them to find the correct sizes for her. Then, kena queue up untuk bayar pulak!

Mengalah kan nak buat visa aje! hikhikhikhik…..

Ini lah the receipt of the uniform yang we all beli.

Nak tercekik tengok harga for only 5 pieces of uniform!

Harga shorts pun dah $31. Padahal shorts dia biasa2 aje, bukannya buat dari benang emas. Shorts pulak tu, mana ada pakai kain lebih2 kan. Agaknya sebab ada 5 pocket tu yang buat harga dia melambung2 kan, ye lah, banyak pocket, so banyak lah pakai kain, hahahahaha….

Pastu, masa PE or sports, tak boleh pakai t-shirts or shorts biasa2, kena pakai t-shirts and shorts khas dia. Sports t-shirt and shorts aje pun dah $50. Memang agaknya diaorang buat dari special kain yang serap peluh sambil keluarkan perfume Giorgio Armani  so tak bau hangit kot!

And then, school kemeja dia lengan pendek pun dah $26 each.

And I belum beli lagi the school jumper yang harganya $50 tu. Tunggu dah sejuk nanti lah baru beli, hehehe….

Kat sini, school informs memang beza2 antara sekolah and diaorang bukan jual badges sekolah yang you boleh semat kat any t-shirt. Kena beli school t-shirts yang memang dah sedia ada the school logo on the shirt which means lagi mahal lah dari t-shirt biasa kan.

T shirt sekolah biasa takde logo boleh dpt $5 satu, t-shirt yang dah berlogo harga dia around $15-$25, hehehe.

And ini pulak book list Miss 7. Text books cuma boleh beli kat 1 kedai ni aje, tempat lain takde jual.

List dia panjang tapi cuma 2 aje textbooks yang dia kena beli, hehehe. Yang lain tu stationery list yang dia perlukan which we can buy at any shop.

Pastu, each school uses different textbooks pulak nya so kalau you pindah sekolah lain during the year, you might have to buy new textbooks (on top of the new school uniforms).

Pening kan!

At least, we don’t have to buy any textbooks for Miss 11 sebab the textbooks will be provided by the school. They are included in the school fees.

But Alhamdulillah, semua yang major dah beli kot including school bags, lunch boxes, stationery, school shoes…

Our new garden beds

Weekend ni memang weekend yang memenatkan because we spent yesterday and today mostly with things concerning the kebun.

Semalam we all buat pelaburan kat Bunnings and hari ni buat pelaburan kat City Farmers. Kalau beli saham kat this places, memang dah lama we all kaya. Tu yg asik tak dapat beli handbags mahal2 aje sebab asik melabur duit kat dua tempat ni, hehehe.

Semalam we all beli raised garden bed kits sebab macam rasa tak cukup besar aje our current vege patch itu. We want to build a no-dig garden which is the rave sekarang ni. And alang2 dah pergi Bunnings, we all beli lah some more seedlings. I beli some more cherry tomato seedlings, some more strawberry plants, broccolini seedlings, spinach and a blueberry plant! But kena tunggu a few years lagi before boleh kutip hasil blueberries tu .

And tadi I pergi City Farmers beli bales of straw and lupin mulch for the no-dig garden beds. Habis penuh 1 kereta dengan straw tadi, jenuhlah we all kena vacuum, hehehe.

And mana boleh busy2 kat garden without taking photos kan. Dah nama pun mammarazzi berjaya, hikhikhikhik….

My vege patch now. The cucumber plants, the tomato plants and the silverbeets semua dah kena pulled out by me sebab dah tak mengeluarkan hasil yg bagus anymore.

And I gantikan dengan english spinach, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, broccolini and red onions seedlings. Penat gak lah berkebun semalam digging the vege patch and planting all the seedlings (sorang2 I buat you, hehehe).

And petang tadi, The Other Half made up the garden beds and we all bertiga (including Miss 7) bekerja keras filling it up with layers of stuff. We’ve decided to put the garden beds on the concrete under the shade.

First we put old carpet at the bottom layer and then we layer the straw.

Then we scatter dynamic lifter on the straw. Miss 7 as usual nak buat by herself so terpaksalah Dad jadi supervisor aje, hehehe.

Then we put compost (from our own compost bins) to cover the straw.

Then we added potting mix on the compost. But tak cukup pulak potting mix nya so we had to halt the building of the garden beds until esok. We are going to put lupin mulch as the top most layer. Pastu, next weekend boleh lah we all start tanam plants in it.

Dah kepenatan the 2 labourers. Duduk lepak2 atas the straw bale, hehehe…

(memang sebijik farmers lah kan, hahaha).

And then bila dah penat berkebun satu hari suntuk, rasa sangat lah sedapnya bila dapat makan nasi ayam, hehehe.

I made nasi ayam tapi ayam tu di bakar so kuranglah sikit fat nya kan.

Kangkung form our kebun and cili pun from our kebun. Sambal cili ni I guna recipe sambal ayam penyet Ijan. Memang sedap sangat2. Recipe I dapat from here. Thanks Ijan!

Dapat jugak I tahan nafsu dari makan 2 pinggan, hahahaha….

Miss 7 making pasta

I love cooking and baking with The Little Misses but it is definitely a ‘chore’ when doing it with Miss 7.

First, I have to tune my ears to listening to non-stop talking mode. Kira macam dengar morning talk show without any songs intervals lah, hehehe. Lama2, bosan jugak kan .

Second, I have to brace myself for getting usurped from my job as head chef by the assistant chef! Like just now for example…

Tadi I asked her to help me make pasta. I wanted to make lasagne for dinner tonite (the low fat version, hehehe). So, I pun keluarkan lah mesin pasta and showed her how to roll the pasta nicely and all the steps. Sambil2 tu, I masak the bolognaise sauce to use in the lasagne.

Pastu, dia boleh cakap kat I, “that’s ok Mum. I can do the rolling by myself. Why don’t you go and do something else?”. (sambil tepis2 tangan I tak bagi tolong dia roll the dough).

Say what? Hahahahahahahaha…..

Memang lawan tokey betul lah budak tu. Baru aje dilantik jadi assistant chef, dah pandai2 suruh head chef retire, hikhikhikhik…

Nasib baik lah head chef nya perangai bukan macam Gordon Ramsay tu! Maybe sebab tu kot assistant chef tak takut, hakhakhak…

Pastu, dari awal sampai akhir tak berenti bercakap!

Even The Other Half pun geleng kepala dengar dia cakap non stop (and he wasn’t even in the kitchen with us, hehehehe).

Happy sungguh dia sebab I tak ‘kacau’ dia menggelek pasta, hehehe.

Sungguh tekun bekerja sampai bibir pun herot merot .

Masa ni terpaksa panggil head chef datang tolong sebab assistant chef tak cukup tinggi nak pegang the dough sambil pusing the roller. Pastu, siap berdiri atas kerusi lagi!

And the end product, low fat beef and vege lasagne. I letak diced capsicum, diced eggplants and diced carrots in the bolognaise sauce.

I tak letak bechamel or cheese sauce langsung for this lasagne. I cuma tabur low fat mozzarella and a bit of grated parmesan cheese on the top most layer.

It still tasted good even without the cheese sauce .

Malam esok The Other Half nak makan nasi and lauk. Macam mana lah I nak avoind makan nasi 2 pinggan ni ye? hehehe…..

Sambungan cerita our non romantic lunch for 4

The lunch yesterday went well. The girls were very well behaved and the adults were very well behaved too (takde adegan lentuk2 manja atau hembus2 telinga, hakhakhakhak (tak kuasa I)).

Macam mana lah nak buat adegan lentuk2 manja kan, The Other Half and I weren’t sitting next to each other or even bertentangan each other (nak main footsie bawah meja pun tak boleh sebab my kaki not long enough, hehehehe).

I was sitting next to Miss 11 and opposite Miss 7 so senanglah I nak pantau both of their perangai . And takde masa pun we all nak berdua2 an sebab bila sorang duduk kat meja, sorang lagi kena bawak the girls pergi ronda2 buffet tables and vice versa. The girls were good but we would rather take them to get the food instead of bagi diaorang pergi jalan2 sendiri. Ye lah kan, kalau jadi apa2, we the adults yang responsible.

Then The Other half said to me, “Happy anniversary Dear!”

The Little Misses said, “ Wasn’t your anniversary last month?”

I said, “Yeah lah, but we couldn’t find anyone to babysit you and we couldn’t find the right time to go so we decided to celebrate it with lunch with you girls instead!”

(aren’t your parents baik hati! hehehehe)

Then they asked, “So, how did you propose to Mum anyway?”

That my daughters will be another story all together, hehehehe….. One day when we have the time and the inclination, we’ll tell you all about it .

And if you asked me to show you what we had, memang tak boleh nak tunjuk lah because we were too busy stuffing our faces to take photos, hehehe.

(and The Other Half were too busy  writing down all that he ate so he could enter it in his daily food diary. I pulak couldn’t be bothered doing that and just told him that I’ll put the same on my food diary.)

And seperti yang di jangkakan, memang our calories intake semalam berlebih2 giler just for that lunch and yet, we didn’t eat that much either sebab tak nak pig out beria2. We definitely tak ambik carbs sangat semalam. And I guess sebab dah berhari2 diet, our perut pun dah kecik sikit so memang tak boleh nak makan banyak sangat, hehehe.

I was saying to The Other Half, no wonderlah kalau balik M’sia memang akan naik 2-3kg even cuma balik for 2-3 weeks aje. Sebab hari2 melantak sakan all these high calorie food! Pagi makan roti canai 2 keping with kopi ais, tengah hari makan nasi with all lauk pauk, petang makan goreng pisang and kuih muih 2-3 ringgit and malam makan mee or KFC or nasi again. We probably eat a week’s worth of calories in 1 day, manalah berat tak membelon masa tu, hahahaha…..

(Luckily lah balik M’sia cuma occasionally aje kan! ).

So, last night we all cuma makan sup aje and The Little Misses cuma makan toast aje sebab everyone was still so full from lunch.

But malam ni I masak balik dah, mana boleh malas2 lama2, hehehe..

I made vegetarian pizza (loads of veges and not much cheese and all low fat ).

I letak thinly sliced onions, diced eggplant, diced capsicum, diced tomatoes and diced pineapple.

And then makan dengan scrambled eggs and smoked salmon and green salad.

This is about 400+ cals aje so ok sangat2 lah kan for dinner .