Haven’t had Korean food in a few weeks. Heh, tried out a restaurant in Carnegie, and the food wasn’t too bad. This was beside a restaurant we normally go to have Korean BBQ and as that one was close.

There’s plenty of interesting dishes in Korean cuisine. You have the side dishes that are standard in most Korean restaurants, with small dishes filled with kimchi, cucumber slices or bean sprouts with sesame oil etc. The noodle dish shown here is jap chae, basically a potato noodle stir fried with vegetables.

* * *

Heh, this is the first Valentine’s Day that Vyanne and I have spent together. Usually we are in different parts of the world during this time and date.

Today we didn’t do terribly much to celebrate. Went to market to do some grocery shopping and I had not booked no fancy restaurant to celebrate the occasion. It’s sometimes overcommercialised these thingss. Decided to cook at home instead.

* * *

Today we also went out to look for a place to stay. The market is about right to dwell into the property market but unfortunately, everyone else thinks the same way too. Was in Glen Huntly today looking at this townhouse, and it was literally swarming with people. It was a nice place and the pictures on the real estate website looked a little deceiving as it was actually not as big as it seemed.

Vyanne and I have been having a discussion on the kind of place to stay and I started out being keen on an apartment as it was about the only amount of money I thought I could afford for staying near the city. Vyanne preferred houses, being more spacious and having a more homely feel. We sort of settled on townhouses as they are still relatively within budget and spacious enough.

Back to the place we saw. It was in a nice area, facing north/south, close to public transport. Quite a nice place indeed, with much of the space allocated to a front and back porch, meaning that the actual townhouse itself was a little cramp. Not much space to put furniture though.

* * *

Keen to invest in a place now. Will be talking to a loan manager soonish, and we’ve been looking at various places now and I’m starting to get a feel for what would work and what wouldn’t.

Heh, in terms of furniture and appliances, the first thing I’d want to get is not a uber sized TV, but rather the largest refridgerator I could cram into a kitchen. You think you won’t need that much space, but when you start cooking and want to have people over, you need space to chill drinks, store fruits, vegetables and so many other things, that the more space you have, the better off you are.

* * *

Anyway, my brain is starting to blank out now. The site redesign has started and there’s been progress, albeit slowly. Better slow than not moving, so at least I’m happy on that front.

One of the many meals I had while I was in Malacca. A lot of tasty food everywhere and you just can’t say no when offered. The white dish is flour made into a chewy skin with a filling of dried shrimp and leek. You really can’t find these traditional foods in Melbourne.

* * *

Brought some new year cookies which I had lugged all the way back from Malaysia to work today. My Malaysian colleagues were appreciative, and I realise that no matter how much Malaysian food you can get in Melbourne, you still miss out on a lot of the local delicacies that will probably never be made here due to the difficulty in sourcing ingredients (or the prohibitive price of importing) or just the amount of labour involved.

* * *

Apparently the weather is going to be 44 degrees tomorrow. Everyone’s just bracing for it and not looking forward to it. I’m just looking on the bright side and think it’s a good day to hang out the laundry. It will dry within 30 minutes. Heh.

* * *

Lasted through the week doing month end reporting. Heh, as tedious as accounting is, it still has its interesting bits. Like any other learning process, the further you go along, the nature of the questions you ask about your work will evolve.

* * *

Here’s the last bit of post I typed out while I was in Malaysia. This was shortly after I came back from Malacca visiting Vyanne’s family there.

* * *

It’s been an interesting few days. Went down to Malacca to visit Vyanne at her hometown. Many thanks to my brother and mom for chauffering me all the way down. Heh, would have took a bus instead, but it was a good opportunity for them to see bits of Malacca as well.

Vyanne’s family runs a sort of convenience store, selling various items including food, toiletries etc. It’s an old shop house building from the early 20th century, so I was seeing a part of history when I arrived. I saw old cabinets with green netting instead of windows, architecture from a different period which I recall from my childhood days when one of my aunts still stayed in a similar kind of place.

Met quite a few of her relatives and had dinner with them. Heh, they are very nice to me, providing me with endless streams of food to eat. Me being my usual self, didn’t really speak much during the entire time I was there. I offered snippets of conversation every now and then, but listened most of the time.

Visited several places of interest, and felt strange to see shorelines with coconut trees. I haven’t seen such a sight since my highschool days and it’s nostalgic.

Malacca is a very lively city, and even at 12am, there were still people bustling around the city centre. Eating is the main attraction for most of us, and we had satay celup at one of the more famous places.

* * *

Sort of ended abruptly on the post. Heh, will put pictures up when I get the time.