The One About Inori

Two days ago we went to the sand dunes with our guests. It was a 2 and half hour drive from home and since we left rather late, we reached there when it was about 5pm when it was almost sun down.
We saw the sign that only four wheel drive (4WD) vehicles were able to enter the area. Since a passing tour guide told us that our guests’ 12 seater van could probably go on the first leg of the dunes and since there were no more tours leaving at this hour, we decided that we would go as far as we could. Nad, the kids and I were in front since we have 4WD and told our guests to signal to us if they feel that they couldn’t go any further.

We saw the sand change to a slightly softer consistency and were wondering if we should stop when ACK! They got stuck!

The back right wheel was just spinning in the loose sand and with every acceleration, it dug a deeper hole and the van was sinking in. It was hopelessly stuck!

A kind passer by came to us and tried to help. We tried pushing but that didn’t work. He said he’ll go get a piece of rope and will be right back. Meanwhile Nad and I (with our kids) drove out to take down the number of the rescue team. They had signs with their numbers on them just outside of the area.

We went back and waited for the man to come back with the rope before calling the rescue team.

Then, we saw these:

There were 4 of the red ones and one white one coming towards us!

They did a parallel park :

Hahahahah we felt like we were in an action movie!

Then men then got to work and they started pushing.

And pushing.

(Note: See Nad wearing his new sweater I knitted?   )

We were finally freed.

We were so thankful for the rangers’ help. We watched them drive into the sunset:

Hahaha. What an experience! It sure made an otherwise boring day into an exciting one!

We got a nearby tour guide to bring us on a tour of the dunes in their big ass bus after all (my friend paid an arm and a leg for that) and we got to sandboard for awhile in the semi-darkness.

Then it was a loooonnngg drive home.

What an adventure!

Firstly, I have to update you on the ongoings in my life since I have not updated for more than a month.

Had not have the mood to blog at all!

My morning sickness has passed, thankfully. I do not vomit every evening now. However, I am still off some foods and I still have palpitations every day.

Baby is 18 weeks now and I can feel him/her moving. Only a little, though. It’s rather ticklish. An anatomy scan is due next Monday and we will hopefully be able to find out if it’s a girl or a boy.
I’ve been knitting more though progress is slow. Have been dyeing yarn too! No pictures yet though.

Mum and Lulu came down for a visit. Mum is leaving soon but Lulu will stay on for a week more. We went to the zoo and also drove down to Margaret River (5 hours from home) and spent some time in the countryside. We stayed on a farm. The farm experience wasn’t too bad. Could have been better if the people there were to be more friendly.

When we were driving home, we got into (another) car accident. !@#$%^&*(

More on that later in the post with pictures.

For now, I shall post pictures of our trip.

We were at a cafe on the way down to Margaret River and this duck was patiently waiting for us to feed it.

Sunshine found something interesting!

Yeah, nice butt!

This is one of my favourite photos.

Mum and Sunshine are fillies. Hehehe.

Look at her shoes! Soooo tiny~!

Me handing a chick to Sunshine for tea to observe.

Orphan mutton lamb.

A Clydesdale horse. It’s rather small for its breed, I think.

Billy the (fat) Border Collie.

Bottle feeding a lamb.

The forests in Margaret River are amazing. I cannot, for the life of me, remember what kind of forest is this. I want to say that they are Jarrah Trees but I know they aren’t. Nad told me but I forgot!

..9…10 a BIG FAT HEN!

An orphan joey… SOOOOO cute!

That is all for the farm stay. I didn’t take many pictures because… well.. I didn’t.

We went to a Shearing shed and wool shop in Yallingup (on the way back home). They had sheep shearing and sheepdog herding demonstrations. The farmer, Steve Butterly, was very friendly and very detailed in his demos.

I even bought a bag of raw merino fleece (just off the sheep!) to spin! I have been advised by my very loving knitting and spinning friends not to scour and spin the raw fleece just yet though. Because my tetanus jab is not up to date and also, being pregnant, I could risk getting tetanus from the dirt in the fleece. Would have to wait till next year after bubby is born, I guess.

Anyway, here are the pictures to Yallingup Shearing Shed.

Docile Merino sheep, fasted for at least 12 hours so that it will not be cruel to hold them in this position while they are being sheared.

Shearing in progress.

All in one piece! A sheep usually gives 6kg of fleece. Shearing it all in one continuous piece would allow the farmer to skirt the fleece easily.

A Border Collie is chasing them from behind!

Kelpies love to walk on sheep.

Sunshine touching the wool on the lamb.

MmmMMmmm.. soft merino wool!

Lulu loves the smell of lanolin.

Happy happy bubby!

Now on to the stupid accident I was talking about before.

We were traveling home and were about 3 hours away from home when the cars in front of us stopped suddenly. Nad applied an emergency brake and managed to stop in time. A ute (truck) behind us also stopped in time. However, we heard a screeching noise and then BANG! Our car was slammed in the back and we lurched forward and slammed into the car in front of us!

The car in front of us was not badly damaged so they drove off. The ute behind us didn’t suffer much damage either as the vehicle has more metal than plastic. The stupid asshole woman who slammed into the ute had it the worst. Her car’s bonnet was smashed in and was leaking coolant.

No one was hurt in the accident, thank God.

Our rear. Badly smashed inwards.

Our front wasn’t so badly damaged.

The woman’s car. (She’s not the one pictured above.)

She must have swerved in attempt to avoid hitting the ute. That’s why her car faced the kerb.

This idiotic woman must have been traveling at a higher speed than the road conditions (wet and rainy) allowed. Before we stopped, we were going at 60km/h. She must have been going at AT LEAST 80km/h.

Can you imagine that our damage was suffered THROUGH the ute? If she were to hit us directly, we would have much worse damage than this! Even with the ute as a ‘buffer’ and absorbing most of the impact, we still had it pretty bad!

What pissed me off was that ALL SHE DID was to sit on the verge to CRY. I understand that she is in shock (Hello? So am I?) but please, if you are old enough to hold a license, you should understand the responsibilities that come with it! If you cause an accident and you are unhurt, at least have the decency to check on the people in front of you! Not sit and cry! Crying doesn’t solve anything!

She refused to show us her license to copy down her details and said that her parents were on the way. When her parents came, they too refused to show us her license and said to wait for the police to arrive instead.

What asshats.

They refuse to admit that she was driving faster than she should. Even though any fool would be able to tell from the extent of the damages.

What saddens me the most is that we JUST paid off our mortgage for this car. If you recall, we had another accident when I was 19 weeks pregnant with Sunshine. That car had to be scrapped and my guess is that this car too, has to be scrapped. It’s like a demise of a family member. I loved this car!

Now we MIGHT have to owe banks again to get another car. This is unnecessary expenditure through no fault of ours!

We’ll be able to claim from our insurance company. So at least that’s a relief.

Sigh.

OKAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY…

I seriously think I’m suffering from some disease that whenever I look at photos to edit/ upload/ print/ send out etc, I feel lethargic.

Esp if pics are in bulk. *Groans*.

That’s how lazy I am. I wish I could just blog by recording my voice and not have to type out the words. I wish I could clone myself so I can sleep while the clone does work for me.

Grr. Why does one have to do things to survive? Can we just sleep forever? (And shit too. Coz I love shitting.)

Without further adieu, although I would very much like to whine about how Nad has gone back, leaving me alone again in this cruel world, I shall present to you, PHOTOS from THAILAND.

I love my family to bits.

Lulu and I are nutcases. That’s the BTS, by the way. Something like our MRT.

In case you don’t know what we are doing, you may want to watch ICHIGO MASHIMARO, 2nd episode where Mi-chan tried to challenge Ana-chan to a fight. This is the “Helupu meeeeeee~~~~” pose Mi-chan did.

Jan with a Russian Blue cat in Chatuchak market. Pity the pet corner was demolished a few days after we left.

Sorry, did I say pity? I meant, NO pity the pet corner was demolished.

Some of these rabbits were dead in smaller cages. But I shall respect them by not taking photos of their poor dead selves. May they rest in peace.

Did I mention that most animals for sale there are underaged?

However cute they are, they are still underaged. Ok?

Me shopping. (Rare!)

Me trying on skirts. (Rarer!)

Jan and Lu adopted tiny mouths at a Japanese restaurant.

And the pig does what it is best in – sleeping.

I wish I placed something more obvious for comparison in this photo. But the sashimi spread was quite a good size and tastes SUPERB. I melted everytime I ate a Salmon Sashimi. *Melts again*. Please remind me to always not to share Salmon Sashimi with others. Why did I share it with them? Sigh.

Jan’s noodles came in a bowl bigger than her head.

And I’m the happiest in a Japanese 2nd-hand bookstore. >.<

Nad in a ball.

I have more pictures of stray dogs as well as very very cute pictures of the animals in the Safari.

But I’m getting cranky.

I received my wedding photos today in the mail. As well as a NANA calendar from my Japanese friend.

I also have my wedding video sent to me today. So I was going through both video and pictures. Put a smile on my face. Yet, made me tear a lil. Coz I miss Nad so much.

Another helluva chunk of photos to edit and upload.

When I’m feeling less lazy, I guess. I’ve alot I want to write. But I’m dozing off……………………………..

I know I seldom blog about my faith and my relationship with God. But I want to share this with all of you~

I was in Melbourne in early springtime when the sun still sets between 4.45pm to 5.15pm. By 5.30, the place would be shrouded in darkness as if it were 10pm in Singapore.

Anyway, we went by the Great Ocean Road to visit the 12 apostles.

It was a LONNNNNNNGGGGGGG LOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG LOOONNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG drive from Melbourne – I almost died.

It was pretty late when we were only halfway through. Like 3pm? I was worried that we may not reach there in time to see the 12 apostles before sunset. It was a waste to turn back halfway also as we’ve already driven for a long time.

Behind the wheel, I was praying and praying to God to allow us to catch a glimpse of the place before sunset. It was nearing 5pm and we were still very far away.

I drove at a range of 60 to 110 km/h . I know that’s not very fast for most of you but I just got my driving licence not too long ago. Besides, the Great Ocean Road has alot of bends round the mountains. Can’t go too fast or else the car will fly off the cliffs.

Road signs were rather scarce to me and I actually thought I took the wrong road once as we didn’t see any signs for quite some time.

But, praise God, we reached the place!

The time was 5.45pm! It was a MIRACLE that the sun was still hanging dangerously low at the horizon.

Had we reached there earlier, we would probably miss a chance to see this:

It was so beautiful and breathtaking, I tell you.

God is so great.

Yes, the picture from the previous post was taken at the 12 apostles.

This is one scene I will never ever forget in my entire life.

My first sunset with my husband-to-be and God and His 12 (11 and a half?) apostles.

I pray that I’ll witness more of His greatness in time to come.

Although I didn’t really love Melbourne, I have to say that I’m impressed with their public transport.

For one, I cannot find any signs that say “No eating or drinking; Fine $500.”

NOR do I hear stupid irritating messages being repeated over and over again to remind commuters not to litter/ stand behind the yellow line/ leave belongings unattended/ not to eat or drink etc etc…..

There is also lack of posters to remind commuters not to jump down to the tracks.

The train seats are fully cushioned for comfort and both stations and trains are really clean. I can hardly find litter at all.

Although the seats are facing each other, you seldom see people putting their feet on the opposite seat. (In fact, Nad scolded me when I did that *blush blush*).

When the door opens, nobody rushes in nor out. Even if it’s rush hour, no one pushes anyone. And, nobody would rush for the empty seats!

This only points to a few things:

1. Australians have more common sense to not to jump down to the train tracks nor stand so close to the edge that they may fall in accidently.

2. Australians LOVE their country and so, naturally, they would keep it clean without being reminded to.

We are allowed to eat and drink (in fact, they sell snacks and drinks at the stations) but yet people have the initiative to dump their litter at one of the nearest litter bins in the station. (Well I guess since we LACK that bit, we have no choice but to dump our litter around our own stations. *Shrug*. Too bad then.)

Seriously. People who say that Singapore has world class transport system have obviously not been out of Singapore. *Eyes rolling around*.

Why should I think so passionately about a country who has to REMIND her citizens not to litter? If citizens love their country, they wouldn’t even think of littering. It’s just like reminding your own sons and daughters to love you.

It doesn’t come from the bottom of their hearts then. They do it because they have to (or else they have to pay a fine).

This is not sad. This is Pathetic.

I also took the trams around the city area and although most of them were rickety rickety old, they were clean and efficient. Same can be said of their buses.

While it is true that their buses do not come as frequently, they have a schedule that is mounted at all bus-stops and their buses are usually on time. If they aren’t, the driver would apologise.

And oh…. I only saw one person being ‘caught’ for not paying the transport fees. And all I can say is, she wasn’t Australian. *Hint* Black hair, yellow skin. (Disclaimer: I’m sure there are some Aussies who don’t pay their fares but I just happen to see ONE non-aussie being caught, alright?)
I try not to be racist, alright, but as manzart mentioned, please PROVE that you deserve people looking up to you, rather than bitch and whine about us Singaporean Chinese forgetting our roots.

Opps…I digressed……

Well, that’s all for now. I have been diagnosed with intestinal infection and have to rest more.

Suffering from separation anxiety from Nad this time round. (-___-”)