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Days Fly By. Good Grief, It's Almost July!

28/6/2014

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Ling and Noah brought Bunty round for another Sunday dinner and set up a new TV system for me which means I get to watch Chinese soap operas! Especially useful this week as Steve is away so I can indulge for hours at a time.
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This time we had a bit of a fowl feast. We started off with Peking duck. And then we had sticky rice stuffed chicken which is one of my favourite Asian dishes to make. Ling brought dessert of jelly and ice cream and it was a lazy afternoon.

Steve had been out on a boys' night the night before and was a man of few words. This pub crawl had the theme Northern Exposure. Apparently boys' nights these days need a name to make it more of an event. I guess it's like adding "fest" to something to make it more of an occasion. So Northern Exposure was a traipse around the Northern suburbs and given it's our chomping ground, apparently Steve had to plan the route. Whatever it involved he came home around midnight swaying and subsequently passed out till morning and then it was "hello Hangover!"
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What else have we done? Met up with Jacqui, Rich and the t wins for Sunday lunch.

Walking round the local neighbourhood, we can really feel Autumn move towards Winter. There's been a lot of rain and even I have to wear a coat to keep out the chilly wind.

Steve is currently away this week in KL and then Nagoya with work. So this weekend I've busied myself with a spa session and a date with the sofa and a Chinese TV series!

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We've also had occasion to celebrate resulting in a two bottle of Champagne evening followed by delicious seafood.

Steve's commitment to his work and all the effort he has put in has been rewarded with a promotion!

We're continuing the celebrations by booking a holiday in October too! We lodged an application for permanent residency on Monday and that means it's a bit of a pain leaving the country so we'll be having a week on an Australian island of the Queensland coast. Please come quick October!

As Australia moves into Winter, UK friends head towards Summer and holiday season. And Amelia enjoyed a weekend away with her mum and dad and grandparents in North Yorkshire where she petted some animals and enjoyed jacuzzi time with her daddy! Such a happy toddler. Can't wait for her to come and have fun in Australia at Christmas time.

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Weekends that Whizz By

9/6/2014

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We've had a couple of lazy ish weekends and weeks doing what we do best: eating, cooking, entertaining friends. Last weekend Steve and I cooked up a storm as Ling, Noah and baby Bunty and Stef all came round. I had warned them about the volume of food to the extent that Stef actually changed her outfit to an elasticated waistband!

Poor little Bunty was not very well with a cold but she was still on good form and open to giving lots of cuddles. The little cutie coped so well being passed around and being under the weather.
Steve and I started off with a visit to Queen Vic market on Saturday morning followed by supermarket trip and as the rain set in we worked on marinading ribs and chicken and creating a chilli con carne.
The next morning we started on the salads and the pulled pork which we cooked long and slow and by the time our guests arrived it was perfectly pulled. So what was on the heavily laden table:

  • Sticky chicken wings Chinese style
  • Spiced drumsticks Indian style
  • Chilli con carne
  • Pulled pork
  • Bourbon and caramel ribs
  • Coleslaw with a buttermilk dressing
  • German style potato salad
  • Pickled red onions and cucumbers
We ventured out in the drizzle to N2 for gelato for dessert and I packed up a lot of the leftovers to feed the crew and me for lunch the next day and the day after!
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There was a midweek excursion to the Food Society meet for May at Morris Jones where we feasted on Kobe beef and truffles. The theme was mushrooms and pinot.

We enjoyed the company of our table - strangers at first, friends by the end and the food was just amazingly good.


Highlights were the beef Wellington and dessert was a triple cream Brie which was infused with black truffle and served with sweet truffle honey. Oh my lordee, was that cheese heavenly or what? I remember it so vividly! All the courses were delicious but these stood out for me! I love our monthly meetings of the Food Society at Morris Jones!
This weekend is a long one with today (Monday) being a long weekend for the Queen's birthday. Thank you Ma'am. It's been pretty leisurely with evenings in, walks during the day and yesterday we went to the matinee performance of Wicked seated in the second row.

I missed Amelia on Skype this weekend. Timings didn't work but we have had plenty of photos including cheeky faced ones as she enjoys baking chocolate cupcakes and going out for yum cha with the family.
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    Authors

    We are Steve and Minda and we've been given the opportunity to move to Melbourne for two years. We arrived November 2010 and passed that two year milestone and are now Australian citizens! This is a blog of our experiences as we move to this new country, settle in and have fun!

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