My loving husband

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What the???!!!!!

He brought this home from work which was shared among all colleagues. Left one and he took it home (with the big empty box). Oh well, at least he thought of me! I enjoyed it to the very last bit!!!

La Dolce Vita

We live in a suburb in Sydney best known as "Little Italy". If one should live in Sydney and inner-west to be precise, Leichhardt should be the place. It has everything a little community needs, perhaps even more. Every year round about this time, Leichhardt community will hold an annual event called "Norton Street Italian Festa". Norton Street is the main street in Leichhardt and is most busy on weekends. We don't really follow the events and happenings in Leichhardt as we are too busy working and on weekends, our ideal activity is to stay at home apart from doing grocery shopping. We were on our way to the marketplace but to our surprise, all roads were blocked. Immediately it dawned upon us that it's that time of the year again.

We headed back home to secure our street parking before any car comes along and park on our spot. Then we took a stroll to the park and then the street to check out the festival. It was a great day for such festa but boy, the heat took a toll on me after just 10 minutes. I am never fond of direct heat from the sun. There were stalls of all sorts set up along the streets. There were children's activities in the park. There were throngs and throngs of people wandering the street and feasting on italian food, wine, cheese and etc. It's amazing how people seem to be enjoying themselves still and not seem to have much care about the financial crisis hitting the world. People still spend and continue with their lifestyle as usual. As for us, the 'kiamsiapness' in us still prevail, we have to save money and hope others (who are not affected) spend to help boost the economy. Hence, we didn't have any urge to spend on anything.

Oh did I mention we had to get some groceries, which was our initial plan. So we walked all the way to Coles and got us some essentials like eggs, bread, toilet rolls, etc. That was the only thing we spent on. Had italian sausage for lunch (notice the singular word for sausage, that's because we shared one!) before long and came straight back to our home, sweet home.

Managed to take some shots of the event and I was just thinking, we live in the perfect suburb, perfect location, perfect community, perfect food! What a life!

A view of the park from our balcony.

That's Norton Street right at the end of the road.

They even have an SIA booth promoting A380!

Actually there was a MAS booth nearby, but I didn't bother taking a photo of it.

That's my gym!

She's a real lady!

There's live music, too! It was jazz by the way.

After grocery shopping and on the way home. Thankfully we didn't have the car with us, so that limited us to buying only what we needed!

Big Elf queuing up for sausage roll.

Reminiscing the day!

I was just reminiscing on our wedding as I was looking at some wedding photos in facebook. I just can't get enough of weddings and each time I see those wedding photos, they are all beautiful beyond words. Oh well, I had my share of photo taking on my wedding day and I guess those were the best photos I've ever taken in my entire life. My really good friend Lilian just celebrated her 2 years of marriage.. it puts a smile on my face knowing that she's blissfully married.. =) Congrats darling and I wish you both "white hair till old".

An Imprint in My Heart

I was just browsing on facebook since I had some time to spare before I call it a day. The thing I enjoyed most about facebook is that I get to see many photos uploaded by friends. Pictures do tell a thousand stories and you would assume from the photos how your friends have been keeping. Of course, you will never be able to tell the sad side of their lives because everyone only puts on their most beautiful photos on the net for another's pleasure viewing. Nevertheless, I am satisfied to learn that people I know are doing fine judging from their photos.

I then caught a long lost friend of mine through facebook. I asked if my friend has MSN, no was the answer. Why not? I thought. "Dunno" was the reply. What a peculiar answer, I thought. Hm... that leaves me no choice but to chat through FB. I have a slight dislike for chatting through FB. I find the bopping sound whenever a message comes out, annoying. Still, I had wanted so much to chat with my long lost friend that I couldn't care less about chatting through facebook, whatever it takes to get hold of my friend and update myself with stories that I've missed out.

When finally we concluded our conversation, I said to my friend, "You are a good friend, remember that" to which my friend replied, "You left an imprint in my heart, remember that."

I was so taken aback by those words. It was so powerful that it just hit me in an overwhelming way. It's just wonderful and reassuring to know that my presence in this world actually meant something to some people, especially my friends. I also happened to learn from C.S. Lewis that there is apparently 4 kinds of love. With my family, it's storgē, with friends, it's philia. There's eros too which involves physical love and with my husband, it's a combination of philia, eros and agape. After talking to my friend, I'd experience one of the strongest philia I've ever felt for a long time.

Time to time, we do need emotional reinforcement such as this. One of the reasons I don't make many friends is because if I know our friendship is going to be superficial, I'd rather not have one. A strong friendship needs constant nurturing, a mutual understanding shared by both. This however, is not easy once true friendship has been developed and over time, lack of nurturing and distance can add strain to the friendship. Still, it's understandable when life is so demanding, that it's quite difficult to hold the friendship as priority. But I do believe that once true friendship is forged, it will always remain in my heart.

My friend, I cannot thank God enough for making our paths crossed. I haven't been a great friend and I hope you'd forgive me. I wish you all the best in life, from the bottom of my heart.

****Special Note****

Hey everyone,

If you noticed my blog's new makeover, you'd grasped that I am trying to find out who have been visiting my blog, be it regulars or not (particularly the latter), or it so happens you chance upon my blog by googling or through another friend's blog. I must say, I am flattered by the number of people visiting my blog. You guys are from everywhere around the world!!! I just feel so....... grateful and touched!

Of course, this is not a blog to promote myself (I have nothing to promote anyway) nor to earn any income, fame or glamour. This is just a very plain blog by a plain lady (but is being accused by one's own husband that she is full of herself when she blogs) who tries to express her feelings and more for discovering the real her in the midst of blogging. This of course is a realization only to be discovered by me and me only in due time.

This blog initially was meant to update my mum and sister about my life, being so far apart from them... but inevitable, the whole world will be updated too! Like I said, I don't have many friends or rather I have a handful of friends, so blogging is a fantastic way of making friends. However, it is only possible if this intention is being reciprocated. I would like to get acquinted with all of you who visits my blog. If it was referred, I thank you for visiting. If it's by chance, it must be a divine plan. I am not desperate but I sincerely hope that you will let me know if you like what you read here, so as to serve as encouragement for me to blog.

I hope that you will drop me a note, a simple hello and a word or two about yourself on the chat box. Or if you'd like to remain discreet, please email me. If you have listed me in your blog, let me know, because I'd love to check out your blog!

Thank you once again, for visiting this very ordinary blog of mine.

City to Surf 2007 II

Unfortunately, I didn't join the race this year although my company pays for it. Partly because I had no motivation and no company. It is a tough 14km walk/run so finding someone who is fit enough to do it, is quite hard.

Anyway, I am sick today and took a day's leave. Since my in-laws are coming to visit us end of the month, I took the opportunity to clean up the house. Gosh, I have to really clean up every nook and corner of the house as preparation. As I was organising the drawer containing all my mails, I came across this newspaper which I kept since last year. I wanted to keep it forever but I didn't think I'd be able to keep it for that long. It's a special edition on SunHerald which contains the finishing list of all participants for City2Surf 2007, and needless to say, I was one of them (feel so proud of myself).

Thought I'd take some photos and keep it as remembrance!