I did well in my exams. But unfortunately, not as well as I had hoped to. Thus getting in to Medicine would be tough. Also, as the uni advisors gave me some misleading information in the start, I found myself stranded in a very weird entrance category where I am neither a high school leaver NOR a mature aged student…. either that or I’m both. It’s very confusing.

Anyway, I would have to wait till January till they decide what to do with me. Meanwhile I will be appealing my case and pray.

Now, lets go on to the birds.

We’ve had an affinity with birds of late. For starters, we have 2 backyard hens who are absolutely adorable. Especially Lizzy:

We don’t know her breed exactly as she is mixed but we reckon she might have some Silver Laced Wyndotte in her.

She trusts us completely and runs to us whenever she sees us around, crouches down and ‘asks’ to be carried.

See, she happily comes close to Sunshine during feeding time!

She also invites herself into our house. I don’t think I know another hen who behaves like this. Hahahaha! We love Lizzy to bits.

We also have visitors………

When I was young, my mum used to tell me that these are mandarin ducks. The one with the green neck and head are males and the plain brown ones are females.

While she is right about the gender, these are not mandarin ducks and I only found out a few months ago. -____-

For all my life I’ve been going around thinking they are mandarins. I wonder if anyone else thought the same??

These ducks are Mallards and are the most common kind of wild ducks found here.

We get visits from them almost every other day and they would waddle up to our front yard. They sometimes even fall asleep, nestled in the grass!

Sunshine loves feeding them!

A few months back, we woke to wonderful chirps from above our bed. Birds had made a nest in our roof and the nestlings had hatched.

We were okay with this at first but as the nestlings grew older, their cute chirps sounded more like “Baarrraaaaaapp!!! Brrraaaaaaaaappp!!!!!! CRAAAAAAApppPPPP!”

They were irritating and when they were learning to fly, you could hear their claws scratching against the colourbond surface. It sounded like nails on chalkboard.

Our neighbour advised us to clear out the nest after the nestlings leave or otherwise the birds would come back next spring.

Well they didn’t come back next spring. They loved our roof so much that they decided to come back AGAIN NOW.

Either that or they told their friends, “Hey, know where’s a good place to nest?”

I would think it’s also because of the weird weather. It warmed up a few months back but then became bitterly cold again. Then it warmed up a little and now it’s cold again! And we’re already in summer!
I’m not complaining though. I love the cold.

I don’t have a clear picture of the bird and neither do I know the species but here’s a picture of one of the parents:

It was about to feed its noisy offsprings.

Okay.. that’s all about birds.

I’ve been soaping and designing a cardi for girls. Taking life easy for now. I feel a little lost without homework or studies but am otherwise happy to have a little break.

My expandabags were completely sold out within days of the update. Malabrigo has been ordered and hopefully would be here by late January (fingers crossed!)

Take care!

But check this website out!

Type out a sentence in English and watch it translate to Japanese, back to English and back to Japanese and back to English until it reaches an equilibrum!

My sentence:

there is a spider on the wall eating a fly

*Frantic barking*

IT’S HERE!!!!!!!!!

Something I’ve been wanting to get for years and years!

Thanks to my most generous husband who bought it for me. We can now enjoy every single episode of FRIENDS when the kids aren’t screaming.

Oh by the way, I’ve joined Twitter. You can stalk follow me (I don’t know how, but somehow you can follow me!) here, I think.

I’m very new and very clueless at it so please play nice!

And uh.. let me know if you want me to follow you. Leave a message!

The geek in me…… okay, who am I kidding.. THE Geek, ME, loves to watch or read about large scale productions or processing and I’ve often fantasied about taking a tour around the postal facilities.

That’s right. Should I change my mind about being a doctor (trying my darnest best now to get into MBBS in 2 years time), I would want to be a postal worker. (Not a worker gone postal… although that’s another story altogether)…

I did a search on Google and found this link with a video that shows how USPS works. However, the video didn’t satisfy my curiosity as it didn’t have much details. I need details! Tell me how the whole system works!

So I found this link. (As you can see, I SEEM to have loads of time to search for stuff that ‘normal’ people don’t give a 2nd thought about.. hehehe).

Ohh I had trouble keeping my heart from skipping beats. Such detailed explanation! (Somewhere, someone reading this is going to say, “Shut up, you dork!” but I don’t care.   )

Machines that can READ HANDWRITTEN ADDRESSES AND POST CODES! Can you IMAGINE THAT?!?! Woohoo! This must be the greatest invention ever!!! (Who cares about inventions like lightbulbs and toilet bowls when you CAN HAVE A MACHINE TO READ HANDWRITTEN ADDRESSES?!?!?)

This is why everyone of you should write PROPERLY and LEGIBLY so that these awesome machines can read your handwriting and send the letter to the correct address. Okay?

And oh… it doesn’t stop there!

Check this out!

Because these items (packages) vary so greatly in size it is difficult to design a machine which would accommodate all of them. Instead, packets are sorted manually. Sometimes they are placed on a conveyor and sorted by operators along the track.

One may wonder where can one apply for the position of ‘sorting operator for packages along the conveyor’?

I’m pretty sure I’m not just speaking for myself. I’m sure you’d want to be a Sorting Operator For Packages Along The Conveyor too! Who wouldn’t like such a brilliant job?

It’s a pity that stamps are canceled (or ‘chopped’) by machines nowadays (did you also know that they have machines that can detect the ‘right side’ of the envelopes by searching for the presence of stamps? They can even FLIP THE ENVELOPES to search for the stamps!!!!!!) err.. where was I?

Oh.. it’s a pity that stamps are canceled (or chopped’) by machines nowadays because a Manual Stamp Chopping Operator job comes pretty close to the Sorting Operator For Packages Along The Conveyor job for me! I wouldn’t be able to choose between these two if I had to. Maybe I can go on rotation?

I’m pretty sure I will be dreaming of touring postal facilities tonight.

Oh come on……! I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks about these things often from time to time!

Off to write a cover letter: RE: APPLICATION FOR THE POSITION OF MAIL SORTING OPERATOR ALONG THE CONVEYOR

The truth is, no holiday is really a holiday when you have kids in tow. WHAT were we thinking?? 2 kids under 2?!?!? On holidays?!?!?

3 years (I think) ago, I went to Melbourne to visit Nad who was then my boyfriend. I didn’t like Melbourne.

3 years (or so) later, I STILL HATE MELBOURNE.

The traffic, the crowds, the ARGHHHH!

We didn’t take pictures in Melbourne. I don’t want to talk about it. Except that I got to meet Debra and Alison and Tara and many other people who came up to me to say hi (I’m easily identifiable because I’m asian and have 2 kids in tow… ). I would have enjoyed Bendi better without the kids. Had to stop to change diapers and feed and etc etc etc. Sunshine was VERY tired and cranky as we didn’t have a stroller so she couldn’t sleep while I shopped.

Thank God for Debra… well, her hotel room….. Sunshine and Chubbs got to rest up there and Nad slept in the car for awhile (because our chatting kept him up). We had dinner and then we drove back down to Melbourne.

I also visited Alison in her home up in the hills. Scary drive! I don’t think I’m suited for living in the hills. Alison taught me how to Navajo ply (spinning). Will have to try it soon otherwise she would nag at me! LOL.

As for Tassy.. we loved the place. Scenery was pleasing to the eye. Was a little chilly though. Strong winds at night, howling and Nad couldn’t sleep for the fear of our little cabin being blown away and we’d find ourselves blown to Kansas.

We stayed in a self-contained cabin/ container in a caravan park. It was the most we could afford.

It had a rustic look to it… most pictures taken in the cabin had a sepia tone, especially when the light streamed through the window.

I achieved this soft look not because of my excellent photography skills (although I DO have excellent photography skills, *ahem*) but because I left the camera in the glove compartment in the car overnight and the lens fogged up!!!!!!!! It took so long to defog. That’s how cold it was.

Isn’t she sweet?

Saying her grace.

Nad tried to tempt Chubbs with some bread. -___-”

This is Chubbs with Sunshine’s favouritest toy. She calls him ‘Mossy’ (because he looks like a mosquito) but I want to find out what his real name is. Typing ‘muppet with blue long nose that looks like a mosquito’ in Google might not yield any results. Can someone let me know who this character is from The Muppets? Please?

By the way, our little boy is now 7kg. He’s 3.5months and is already 7kg. Sunshine is almost 2 years old and only weighs about 11kg. Sigh. He’s gonna grow bigger and bigger and he would soon be bigger than her!

They look alike, don’t they?

Random scenery for you.

This is the bridge in the town we stayed in (Richmond). It was built in the 1800s…. I think. And has a few potholes so every time we drove on it we had to be very very careful.

Rumours were that Richmond is haunted (so says the reception lady at the caravan park)…. But we weren’t afraid at all. Richmond is a very nice, old town.

One day we drove around Richmond and Nad parked the car on the grass on a slope. WE GOT STUCK!!!!!!!!!

It had rained the whole night before and beneath the grass was MUD!!!!!!!!

We were hopelessly stuck and wished that we had rented a 4WD instead. -___-

Nad borrowed the Yellow Pages from a resident nearby and called the tow truck.

Err.. we had $100 less to spend on our trip.

It was funny though, thinking back. I thanked my lucky stars that I brought my knitting along. I sat in the car to knit while waiting to be towed out. Lol.

We also went to church while we were there and made fast friends with a family. They invited us to their home and we got to meet their VERY VERY VERY cute cow, Jenny.

She came RUNNING towards us like a puppy when they called her name!!!! SO CUTE!!!!!!!! Sorry about the picture.. it was sundown by the time we reached their house.

They also had chooks and 2 goats. One of the goats, Bubbles, was pregnant with at least 2 kids! How exciting!

We were really blessed to have met and gained the friendship of this family as they have been checking on us everyday we were there, making sure we were safe and well. Thank God for placing these friends in our lives.

That’s all I have to say. I have a long list of THINGS TO DO in front of me and I’d better do it fast while the kids are asleep.

I’ve also started night classes in preparation to gaining entry into Uni so I am without the kids Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.

Last night was Maths class and I think I can ace this class easily. I’ve done these in Secondary school and just need to refresh my memory. Tonight and tomorrow night would be Chemistry and Physics and I think I might have problems with these. I was only good in Maths (and Geography) when I was in school.

I missed little Chubbs very very badly when I was in class. 3.5 hrs without him! (And then I came home and decided that it was great without him for awhile. LOL!)

Okay, my house is in a mess and I’m just rattling on to myself and no one is reading this anymore. Catch ya later!

‘bout where she should go
And what town would be nice
To raise her 2 kids
And what is a good price

She will take her pets
And her Hubby too
All of her belongings
To start out anew

That is rather daunting
To move interstate
All of the decisions

One has to make
Im sure she’ll do fine
And find a new town
One that is homely
to lay her roots down

Her Hubs will find work
And she will make a new life
But all she wants to do
Is knit and be a good wife

She has looked at 14
Possible towns
She should write a list
And break it down

Visit the towns,
one by one
Take in the sights
And have some fun

I am glad it is her
As I hate to move
I don’t envy her at all
As it ain’t my groove…

Lovely poem isn’t it? Deb’s such a talented woman.

Anyway I won’t be able to blog much for at least 3 weeks. I have house guests (8 adults, 4 kids) all squeezed into our TINY house (don’t ask) for a week and then we’ll be flying over East for a holiday after that for 2 weeks.

I’ve got much to say though. Will try to update this week as much as I can!

Lulu reckons that I need to post pictures to get responses. Really? I shall try then.
So talking about Bendigo Wool Show.

(insert random photo of… err.. sheep )

I’ll be meeting up with my online friends. People whom I’ve never met in real life and only chatted online.

What many people don’t know is that I’m quite different in real life vs online. I can talk rubbish non stop online but when I meet people… I don’t know what to say!

For example, the other day, Debra called me out of the blue and I was struggling and wondering what I should talk about. I may have come across as ‘normal’ and ‘calm’ but I felt like a duck in the water.

(insert random photo of a duck )

(Okay I don’t have a photo of a duck in the water so this one with the duck begging for food while pooping green slush would have to do…)

You know… ducks look cool and calm but under water it’s frantically paddling.

When Nad was chasing after me and I started dating many years ago, he was bored to death by the silences that punctuated the phone conversations we had.

It took many years to finally get me talking and now he can’t shut me up can hold proper conversations with me.

So yeah… I’m nervous. Nervous about meeting these people. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to keep conversations alive. I don’t know where to put my hands. And *gasp* I don’t even know if I’d understand their accent!!!!!!

Maybe I should just hide as much as I can.

“Have you seen Inoriz?”

“Oh.. ah… she’s hiding right behind that llama over there.”

(insert picture of random llama)

Sigh. I sound so pathetic. Wait. I AM pathetic.

I’m horrible in crowds and I don’t know why I’m going.

Maybe because I’ll get to do this:

or this:

or this:

(right.. those aren’t even my kids… )

But I think I’d most likely be overwhelmed and end up curling into a fetal position like so;

Ok……. so back to topic….

Debra and Alison are assuring me that I won’t get left behind to play with llama poop… and will be keeping my company throughout the show. And protecting me from the crowds. Okay, they didn’t say that. They just said that they won’t ignore me.

But they’d probably would after I ask them for the 26th time to repeat themselves. Because I didn’t catch what they said…

I hope not.

I probably just nod and play along then.

“Lets go over there!”

Inoriz nods.

“Let’s get a drink!”

Inoriz nods.

“Let’s you buy me a ton of wool!”

Inoriz nods.

“Really?”

Inoriz nods.

“Ok, time to pay the vendor.”

“Huh?”

———————————–

So… regarding the post before which I didn’t get any useful advice, I’ve decided not to make my life miserable and just go with a pair of mittens and a beanie for myself. A earflap hat each for Sunshine and Chubbie and a pair of mittens each for both of them as well. A cardigan would be an overkill and I’d end up appearing with half a cardigan with needles still attached and looking deranged more deranged than usual.

Probably won’t keep me very warm that way either.

I am finishing up Nad’s sweater. Only the sleeve caps left to go! Whoopee! He can wear that to Bendigo!

As a parting shot (and another lame attempt to get more comments), I shall.. er… post a random picture…

Chubbie’s smile.

The hubby’s sweater is also almost completed! Woot Woot!!!!!!

The kids have been driving me a little nuts lately… sometimes I feel like bursting from the front door, screaming my head off and then hide under a bush, cowered and sobbing like a little child….

Yeah. It makes me want to rip my uterus out and have no more kids forever.

We are apparently raising Chubbs to be a sumo wrestler. Judging by the 500g he puts on every week. He’s almost 6kg now and he’s only 8 weeks old. -__- Still cries a lot. But he settles better at night now, waking only once or twice for feeds. He smiles back at me when I talk to him so those (rare) moments sort of erases the frustrations for a while. That is, until he starts screaming again. That’s when I want to rip out my hair.

Sunshine’s vocab has increased too. She can speak in simple short sentences now and can read many words. I got a shock, actually. Was in the car one day and wrote on her magnet writer. Surprised that she recognises words like ‘Truck’, ‘Pig’, ‘ Yellow’ etc…. She can read so well!

When Nad comes home from work, she goes up to him and greets him and asks him, “How was work?”

Other sentences she says are, “Say Grace?” (before a meal), “Off/On the lights.”, “Close/Open the door”, “Chubbie don’t cry…”, “Keep your toys!”, “Watch videos?”, “I want lunch”, “I want milk”, “Where’s Mummy/Daddy?”, “Pen and paper”.. etc. Her famous sentence is, “Wanna play?” Lol.. She sounds very cute when she asks that!

She can also read the titles of her favourite books.

She can count to 20 now (but has some trouble from 15 to 18… ). She’s learning to write some of the letters like ‘A’ and ‘W’. She just absorbs like a sponge now!

The only problem with her is that she is as graceful as an elephant walking backwards on two legs. Perhaps the elephant is more graceful than her. She can fall from just STANDING up. Sigh.

Nad has been resting at home these few days as he wasn’t feeling well and the doctor gave him medical leave from work. We’ve been renting and watching tons of movies! Just like the old times. Pre-children times…

We’ve watched Alien (1 to 4) and I fell in love with Sigourney Weaver. We also watched Alien Vs Predator and those weren’t as nice. AVP2 was better than the first one though. I hate it when people like the lead actress acts like she knows everything. I wanted her to die in the show. No chance. Pfftt.

We also watched shows like:

- Without a paddle (funny!)

- Man in the Iron Mask (don’t waste your time)

- Slumdog Millionaire (touching!)

- Yes Man! (time waster)

- The Ex (time waster)

- Cloverfield (the only one we gave up watching barely few minutes into the show….)

- Cave of the Yellow Dog (very simple, documentary like depicting the [very dirty] living of the Mongolian nomads… I mean, the kids play with cow dung…..and then put their hands into their mouth….)

- Phantom of the Opera (still watching this)
Well, that’s all I can remember. I’m sure we watched more but I can’t recall now. I think the movie marathons will stop after Phantom of the Opera because I’m too tired! I won’t mind watching Alien again though.

That’s all I have to say. I wonder if anyone reads all the literary diarrhoea I’ve committed even.

Off to finish that shawl!

UK woman, 66, defends right to have kids.

A 66-year-old pregnant British woman has defended her right to have a baby at her age.

Elizabeth Adeney, who is believed to be around eight months pregnant after undergoing fertility treatment, is expected to become Britain’s oldest mother when she gives birth.

The divorcee has told reporters that her pregnancy is her own business.

“I don’t have to defend what I have done. It’s between me and my baby and no one else,” she told the Sunday Mirror newspaper.

“It’s a very private thing and I don’t expect anyone else to understand it.

“It doesn’t interest me that I’m going to be the oldest mum in the country.

“It’s not my physical age that is important; it’s how I feel inside. Some days, I feel 39. Others, I feel 56.’

Ms Adeney, of Lidgate, Suffolk, runs a plastic fastenings factory.

A friend told the Daily Mirror that she unsuccessfully tried to have a baby five years ago.

The UK’s oldest known mother was 62 when she gave birth in 2006.

The oldest mother in the world is believed to be an Indian woman who gave birth at the age of 70 in 2008.

What is the problem with having kids at 66 years old and why is the media so interested in other peoples’ lives?

And the article is wrong – the oldest woman to have a kid is Sarah – Abraham’s wife who had a kid at 90 or 91 years old – Genesis 17:17.

Pfft. Let her have her baby and leave her alone!

MY UPDATES:
I have received great encouragement from fellow Ravelry mates and will be writing up a PDF pattern for the scarf . Stay tuned for it! Many have even volunteered to test knit prior to the release to check for mistakes! I’m so touched by their kind gestures.

I’d probably work on it over the weekend.

SUNSHINE UPDATES:
Three days ago, I left the room I was in with Sunshine to get something from the living room. She called me, “Mummy?” and I replied, “Yes?” and she called me again. 3 times. And I replied, “Yes?” each time.

Then, she said, “I miss you…”

AWWWWWWWW! That was sooo sweet!!!!!!!

She’s been saying that a lot nowadays. And been asking for hugs more now.

Today, Nad turned off the fan and she walked into the room and casually pointed to the fan and asked him, “You off?”.

I burst into laughter while Nad replied, “Yes I did!”

That was SOOOO random and unexpected from her!

She’s also been trying to sing the ending part of the Alphabet song. She only gets as far as, “Now I know my……….. now I know my……… now I know my……..”

She also sings, “Row row row your poot…” and she breaks into laughter because she thinks ‘poot’ is funny.

She enjoys pulling her alphabets out of the bag and reads them out. She can name most of the alphabets and even can say some of the words that it begins with! (Ie, she would pull out ‘D’ and say, “D!” and then say “Dog!”)

The other day, she showed me an ‘X’ and she said, “Y!”. I told her that is not ‘Y’ but ‘X’. She then pinched the bottom part of the ‘X’ together and proudly showed it to me, now that it looked like a ‘Y’.

“Y!!!!”

Cheeky girl!!!!!

She’s also interested in the planets and the sun and the moon. We have the solar system as our desktop wallpaper and she happily points out, “Jupiter!” and “Mars!” and “Moon!” and “Sun!!!”

She can’t really pronounce the rest yet.

What else is she in to nowadays? Hmm… shapes. She can name triangle (“Triang”) and square, circle, moon (crescent), star (“tar!”), pentagon (funny she can pronounce ‘pentagon’ but not ‘star’?).

She knows colours like Orange, Yellow, Blue, Red and Green.

She can count from 1 to 10 and can say out the numbers at random when she’s being shown too.

Yep. We are proud of our little girl. I hope she continues to enjoy her learning.

CHUBBS UPDATES:
I’m feeling the weight more and more now and there is a significant slow down in my walking pace. Getting harder to get comfy in bed as well.

He still moves around but is not as violent as before so I take it as a sign that he’s coming soon!

Debra is offering chocolate to people who guess his birth date right. Hahaha. But I’m not allowed to participate. Boo.

NAD UPDATES:
Nothing. He’s a boring person.

I leave you with this video. This is why everyone should knit/ crochet/ sew!!!!!