Outing Around Sydney

A day at Church Point

Picnic at Observatory Hill

The Painted Veil

I watched this movie some time ago and have been wanting to blog about it. First stop, I love Edward Norton since 'The Score'. He has this sex appeal that .. well appeals to me. But he's a little too thin in this movie but still sexy for me.

Not going to write a synopsis about this movie although I think it's a little too fast-paced for the story to be told and the sadness to sink in. One part that caught my attention was when Kitty Fane (Naomi Watts) asked Waddington (played by Toby Jones) a British who lives just next door to the Fanes in China, what is it that his girlfriend (a chinese girl, who looks a little insane to me probably due to too much opium) sees in him that she chose to stay with him. Toby Jones then asked the woman in chinese the same question, and to which she replied albeit to my surprise "because he's a good man". Because he's a good man.. wow, that was powerful, as simple as that!! I had expected the reason to be rich or something along that line since he is no good looking, short, stout well, to be crude, he was just plain ugly.

It then dawned upon me that being a good man, is still an admirable quality yet no one sees that as a priority pre-requisite in choosing a life partner today. Women will always boast about their partner being handsome, rich, talented.. and of course they want to live up to their standard and go all out to choose a man who possess at least one of these criteria. Not many women are willing to choose an ugly, poor and is incapable of any talent although they can be .... just ...plain good man.

I too am guilty of that. I remember rejecting guys who came after me and I judged them by their appearance, some short, some poor family background, some slow and not clever.. but I can tell you that they are all good man! I truly believe that they can make a good husband despite their seemingly unimportant short-comings.

For reasons that I figured out, women want the 3 things I mentioned because:

1. Rich - you don't have to boast that your husband is rich, people can tell from the house you live in, the car you drive, the clothes you wear, the handphone he uses and all the latest gadgets that he uses. These are all tell-tale signs that he is well-to-do. Women feel more confident with the fact the their husband is well-off.

2. Physical appearance - again, this doesn't need explanation. People who have eyes can tell your partner is awfully attractive that it makes other women feel intimidated and probably a little ashamed with their 'uglier' partner. Surely, women will feel proud to show-off their partner.

3. Talent - I know many women who are dying to be with talented men; gifted musicians, exceptional singers, great dancers, brilliant artist, commendable sportsmen and etc. They don't have to be famous like superstars, they only need to exhibit those talents among people they know. That is enough to warrant attention. Yet again, these talents speak for themselves. Everyone would be in awe with these talents.. not many people have them and surely women are proud of their other half because of their talent. Surely, they have been swept right off their feet with these talents.

Why then, isn't good man as desirable as the above-mentioned traits? Perhaps, a good man, I feel takes a longer time to 'discover'. Time and effort needs to be taken to truly discern a good man. And if one found a good man, are they truly satisfied? This is when I ask, do you love this man or do you love what he has?

The title is beautiful and is a great illustration of how women ought to look beyond the painted veil to discover what lies beneath a man whom they have no desire for initially.

Beautiful home? Not so!

It's been a while since I blogged and for obvious reasons (my in-laws are here), I am unable to blog. However, I have been typing serially and save them until I find time to finish blogging a post before posting them.

I've always dreamt of having a beautiful home since young. Well, who doesn't, I'm sure many people do. Personally, the interior matters more, so I don't need a big house, big yard nor a big garden. I like things to be orderly and beautiful placed and of course, clean! Unfortunately, homes like these comes with high price. Interior decors are costly and every little stylish/classy ornaments are expensive. If you know what I'm talking about, organised home needs a little more stuff than normal. With that I mean, nice boxes, drawers, baskets, cabinets, wardrobe and etc. Decorations are important too such as plants (artificial or non-artifical), lamps, picture frame, carpets, cushions and all the other impractical but pretty knick-knacks.

My dream home is to have a set of everything, a theme design and colour which is white and if I had to choose wood, it would be dark (chalet style) wood and not the lighter brown wood. Unfortunately, my husband prefers the latter and hence, you can imagine the conflict we are deemed to have.

Since we don't have a house of our own now, it really doesn't matter as much whether or not I have a beautiful home, as long as I have a clean and comfortable home. We perpetually choose not to have nice furniture as it may not fit our own house one day. We live in a very small flat and although so, I still try my best to make it look beautiful.

Council clean-up day happens twice a year. It was coming up, so I searched high and low for things we do not need, and placed them by the roadside to be picked up by the council. Sometimes, passers-by will pick up things which may be useful for them, like the saying goes, one man's waste is another's treasure. In a sense, we consider this as blessing others.

I did mention before and I believe I have changed my habit to only keep things I need. I have learnt not to hoard things. I tried so hard to de-clutter but I guess, things aren't as easy as I thought. Let me share with you. My in-laws are very shrewd and thrifty people. Perhaps, that is the reason why they are rich for they are good steward of God's money. However, I don't know if this is a good example to follow, being someone who loves to hoard things even when we don't really need it. Perhaps coming from their background and perspective, they do not view things like we do now. They think that we may need it someday, and when we do, isn't it good to have one ever ready for us to use without spending unnecessarily.

For us, particularly myself (since I'm the home minister and hubby is the food minister) I decide what sort of furniture we need and what we don't. Since council clean-up day is around the corner, the whole neighbourhood starts clearing stuffs and you can see there are at least something gathered at the front of every house. Hence, it is a great opportunity for my in-laws to pick up stuffs which 'they' think are useful. Inevitably, they managed to pick up several things, notably an old computer desk (wood in colour) now being used in the laundry area, a 3-drawer bedside table (also wood in colour) now being used to place our broiler at the kitchen and a fruit basket.

Here I was, trying so hard to clear unnecessary things at home, and instead I got a few additional unwanted stuffs at home. It was quite a blow to my effort of keeping the house beautiful and clean. I just totally didn't have the mood to clean up the house anymore because things just looked ugly the very instance I saw the picked-up furnitures.

Well, what can I say? Those furnitures aren't light, and we learnt that my father in-law actually carried them all the way home. It was cruel, unsympathetic and ungrateful to reject the good intention and well-meaning from my in-laws. I just had to take it with a pinch of salt and worry about the furnitures later.

Thank God it's only our rented home, should this be our own and beautiful home, I have no idea how to react to this situation. My dreams of a beautiful home might as well be squashed and trampled on the ground till it no longer exist.

Just so you know, what sort of furnitures I'm talking about..

The computer desk.

The supposedly bedside table.

This was collected by my in-laws last 2 year and no, we haven't done anything with it.

Perhaps, I am just being repugnant, but seriously it just isn't my liking at all. Oh, Lord, help me!

Kindred Atmosphere

My in-laws arrived on Thursday evening and are comfortably settled in our place. They had a pleasant flight from Singapore to Sydney, well, obviously since their son, Paul was the pilot. They only had praises for Paul throughout the whole journey, commenting about the smooth take-off and landing, how well the announcement was made and how he went to the first class cabin numerous times to make sure his parents are comfortable. I am happy for my in-laws for being so blessed.

Andrew and I arrived at the airport shortly before my in-laws passed the custom check. Praise the Lord that it was a smooth one too. Nothing was confiscated and the custom officer was very kind towards my in-laws. So, no drama at the airport. However, we weren't at the airport earlier to catch Paul before he left the airport. I was told how good he looked in the captain uniform. No doubt about it, I can imagine.

We headed home soon after and gave my in-laws some time to freshen up a little before going out for dinner with Paul. My mother in law was particularly impressed with our humble abode, and commented how clean and well-kept the place is. I was absolutely flattered and happy that it made an impression on her. Soon, it was time for dinner. We expected to meet Paul at the Hurricanes (Darling Harbour). All SIA crews stay in a luxurious hotel, so no need for Paul to crash at our small little flat.

We met up at the restaurant and Paul still looked good for his age. We greeted each other and for the first time, to my surprise, Paul gave me a hug! I wasn't expecting that at all...(I could've worn a better bra, ohh anyways... he's my brother in law, for goodness sake!!!). I think Paul doesnt know I have a blog, and he's somewhat a very private person. So, I think it will cheese him off to find that I blog about him.

Look, girls, there IS someone out there still!! He's handsome, he's a pilot and a captain that is, needless to say he's rich, he's kind, generous and has a heart of gold. The only proverbial downside is that he has very high expectation of a partner. So, it's not going to be easy to fit his criteria. He has another downside but... I believe his good points outweigh the bad ones.

Ok, enough about him.

We proceeded to the restaurant and had one of our favourite meal, pork ribs. Everyone wasn't as famished as I was, so we only had 2 full racks to be shared among 5 people. The treat was on us. After dinner we headed back home to show Paul where we live. We had a good time just catching up with one another and Paul was so kind to help install some useful programs on my laptop. It was really nice to have family members around. It was close to midnight and so we sent Paul back to his hotel and called it a day.

Both Andrew and myself took a day off on Friday. I have no qualms about blogging my day off as my boss knows my in laws are in Sydney. My boss even reminded me, in-laws will never be like family. To what extent it's true, only I myself know. We had planned for yum-cha for brunch and we picked Paul up from the hotel. Went to Marigold for yum cha and my in-laws loved it although they thought it was rather expensive. Paul graciously treated us and soon, we had to part with Paul as he had to fly back to Singapore that afternoon. Sadly, it will probably be another 6 months or 1 year before we see Paul again.

We had a lovely weekend. We went for grocery shopping, had lunch at a Shanghainese restaurant. Andrew and I made sure his parents are comfortable and forbade them from doing anything at all. Our arrangement is such that we will cook on weekends, and they can cook on weekdays if they like. Andrew cooked some nice lamb steak and marinara pasta whereas I made the vietnamese cold dish. They absolutely loved our cooking so far.

That's our weekend. So far, no dramas with my in-laws and I pray pray pray hard that there won't be any for the next 4 weeks. Ok, that's all the update for now.