2013

1. We traveled:

• to Singapore with my parents and 2nd brother
• alone to Penang
• overseas together to come to Melb and Queenstown for our proper honeymoon (hopefully there's more travelling next year)
• to Great Ocean Road when the parents came for a visit. I don't mind going again but maybe with friends the next time round

2. Bought furniture's for our room

3. Our 7th year as a couple

4. Parents came for a visit but had to cut the trip short because my grandma passed away. But my dad came back a week after the funeral because he was supposed to stay longer than my mother

5. Developed a few of our favorite wedding photos to frame up in our room

6. Ate and traveled whenever we could to explore Melbourne (or rather Victoria) more

7. Experienced shopping really EARLY in the morning

Some of the malls were open for either 24 hours or 34 hours straight. So we went to Chadstone at 11 pm, getting into the parking area was a little bit crazy and that was when we decided that we didn't want to go to Chadstone on Boxing day. Even when we were leaving at 1.30 am, there were still people coming in. Some even brought their children who were asleep in their prams. It was definitely quite the experience because we don't get this in KL

8. Bought expensive Christmas presents for each other just cause we wanted to spend on each other

9. Celebrated Christmas for the first time here

This year's Christmas was a little bit weird because usually month's leading up to Christmas would've been insanely crazy, even on Christmas day but we had a quiet one this year. We would also usually have a huge family dinner

10. Went for Boxing day

We were the crazy ones who wanted to experience the crowd and queues but as mentioned in my previous post, the hubby had to work from 10 am - 4.30 pm. But thank God he had to work because we skipped all the crowds and queues and still managed to get what we wanted. If not, I think we would've fought a lot and gone home without buying anything because the both of us hates crowded areas

11. Tried to save money

We were blessed from the wedding with a generous amount to survive here in Melb (maybe one day I'll blog about it, just in case I forget in the future). We used up quite a huge sum from that and we've been trying to save money to reach the same amount that we started with. It was tough in the beginning because we wanted to travel, shop, and needed to buy some household items. But I think we're almost reaching the same amount that we've started with. We still shopped and ate out quite a fair bit, yet at the same time, we managed to save up quite a good sum of money. Imagine the amount of money we could have had now if we didn't shop or ate out as much

of running errands, coin machines, & doing projects together

Before I got married, I've always saved $2 coins into my cute lil piggy bank and at the end of the year I'll deposit it into my bank. So this year I've decided to continue it with the hubby. So just recently we opened the piggy bank, counted the coins, and deposited into the bank

The machine was quite cool. Looked like an arcade game. We dumped all the coins on the tray which has a conveyor belt on the bottom. The coins will slowly move in batches. We managed to save $490 worth of $2 and a few $1 coins. Which was amazing!


Actually we had to go to a few banks before we found one that was open. A few of them were closed for the holiday season until the first week of Jan. After the bank, we went to Ikea to get either a magnetic or cork board to put up some photos. I would've wanted a magnetic one so that I don't damage the photos. But it was too heavy because we can't drill holes into the walls of our rented house. So I guess I gotta wait till we get our own house to buy the magnetic boards

We stapled on a nice piece of cloth that was given by a friend. It was quite a fun project to do together. I like doing projects together with the husband. We laugh, scold, get angry and impatient at each other but yet we enjoy it. I'm still looking for ideas on how to decorate the board further because it looks too bear now even though the cloth has subtle patterns on it

Then we went to officeworks to laminate photos for him to put into his new wallet because we've learned from experience that over time, the photos will stick to the wallet which damages both the photo and wallet. So since we were there, we looked for hooks to stick on the wall that won't damage the wall if we wanted to remove it

While looking for the hooks, I was also looking for sticky labels because I was putting together a folder to hold our warranties. As we were looking, I found the label maker and told the husband that I've been wanting one for a long time. I've always wanted the old school one but the husband doesn't like it. But oh wells. I'm not complaining because I got a pink one. So that's fine! We stayed up till late last night because we were doing our lil project and playing with the label maker

Boxing day

Boxing Day today. We didn't manage to buy a lot of things because well, we've bought too many before Christmas already. And I wanna shop some more when we go home for holiday, so need to watch our spending wisely

He had to work today because it's a very busy day for them and there were no exceptions for anyone so that it's fair. So we decided that he should work the first half of the day (10 am - 4.30 pm) instead. Thank God the shops open much later on Boxing Day. To our amazement, the crowd actually died down when we were about to start our shopping

We only had to queue once when we wanted to go into Lacoste and that was it. Every shop that we went in, we heard that the crowd was crazy. There were long queues going into Myers and David Jones. It was so bad that the queue even went on to the escalators!! Unbelievable! We didn't even have to go through that. We just walk straight in and around like it was any other shopping day. Thank God because we hate crowded places!

christmas day

On Christmas Day, we walked around the city which was pretty much deserted. There were still some people walking around but no shops were open except a few Asian restaurants. We had lunch at a Korean restaurant called White Tomato because there weren't many restaurants to choose from anyways. After lunch, we walked around the city and decided to take a lovely stroll to the mistletoe bridge

We saw a bunch of locks on the bridge. It was quite interesting because we only thought it was done somewhere in the UK. So we decided that we'll find a nice lock and add ours on the bridge as well. Yeah, we're THAT couple. One who enjoys wearing the same clothes, if not, the same colors

Under the huge mistletoe

We took another photo with a camera app that I got but Dayre don't seem to allow me to post it because it's too large

a new fan

We bought a new fan with a safer base. It comes with a remote control which we (or rather, I) couldn't stop playing it for a whole 15 minutes lol

This is our old fan base. It was on loan from my brother. We kept hurting ourselves with it where we were always kicking the legs of the fan. But now with the new fan, we will never hurt ourselves anymore!

I made chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight because the husband is still unwell. Hopefully he feels better soon. He hasn't been sick for this long since forever. He hasn't been feeling well for about 5-6 days

Work

I'm not getting as many working hours as I hoped I would. Before my holidays, we were counting the number of hours I would've had from work and the pay and stuff. But now, it's not as much as I would've wanted it to be. I'm still earning a bit over the course of a few weeks but.....

Next week for instance, I won't be getting any hours at all. Most of the children are going for holidays and there won't be much need for casual staff. I can't wait for my studies to be over and done with so that I can be at least a part time staff or permanent where I would get more regular hours

Maybe the Director doesn't like me that's why she's not giving me the hours. Haha

Don't know. Oh wells. 

At least we have enough money to go back for CNY next year

Oh it's gonna be exciting!!! I can't wait to eat, shop, eat, shop, eat, and shop!!

Love Is.. Christmas Spectacular

At Bridge Church, they have a Christmas Spectacular production that is usually held before Christmas. On Christmas day there's only 1 hour service and that's it. This year the theme is Love Is and they had 4 productions, 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday.

I've never been to any of the productions because usually I'll be back in KL once my summer break starts. So this year is new and special to us because we're spending it here. 

He was offered a chance to serve for the production and coincidentally he got the role of vision mixer. I was trying to be the encouraging and supportive wife, however, on the day of the Christmas Spectacular I couldn't keep it in anymore.

It was a battle and conflict inside of me. On one hand, I was happy that he has the opportunity to serve. To vision mix (which is what he did in Astro before he had to leave it to come to Melb with me). On the other hand, I was miserable. I felt lonely. I felt that he agreed to serve without even discussing it with me. You see....the people who served had to do all 4 services. And we've argued about making decisions without consulting one another beforehand as well. So, I was trying to be fine with it. After all, he's serving God, doing things in church. But I couldn't shake this sad and lonely feeling inside.

Before he came to Melb, I went to church on my own. Then when my brother rededicated his life, we went to church together. Once we came to Melb together after the wedding, in a month or so, we decided that we want to volunteer. Him in production and me in Children's Church. Usually we'll serve on the 1st service on Sunday then stay back for the 2nd service. However, his production slowly required him to serve for both services. So, I was back to being alone in the service. 

After a while, I felt like he's settling down in church more than me. I only serve once a fortnight and he serves twice a fortnight. Also, his work already takes up a lot of time. Sometimes when I get up for work, he's still sleeping and when he gets back from work, I'm sleeping. 

So over time, the emotions kept gathering up causing me to be overly dramatic whenever he doesn't have much time to spend with me. 

All in all, it was enough to say that the outcome of my outburst on Saturday might have caused him his role in the Christmas Spectacular. He did once on one of the productions on Saturday and on Sunday, he was not needed. 

I really don't know how to solve this problem. We are still trying to figure out what would be best for the both of us. I don't know. Maybe once we settle down in church, it'll be better because then I might have friends to sit with. I don't know. I still feel like a stranger in this church. Maybe we need to find a smaller one? Sigh. I really don't know