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It has been wonderful being back in Melbourne again, even though the weather has been very cold.  I had misjudged the cold because I thought after going through such a harsh winter in the USA, I thought this would be a walk in the park.  How wrong I was!

However, it has been so great, seeing Matt’s parents, the boys had not seen them for about almost four years.  When Matt’s dad came to pick us up at the bus stop, Cameron kept whispering to me, if that was really “Pop, from the computer,” as we Skype sometimes.  They been down to the toy library already and borrowed toys to keep themselves amused.  It has been pretty low key in terms of activities because it is a short trip and been too cold to do anything outdoors.

One of the things that we caught on was watching “Masterchef.” What a great program that is! I wish we had something like that in the USA.  There is a very down to earth feeling about the contestants and judges, which makes it “real” and it has been the most watched program locally.  I heard that the elections had to be moved a week later because most people would be staying home to watch the finale of Masterchef!

Of course, no trip would be complete without train rides. The boys wanted to sit on the train and tram, so yesterday, all of us, without the grandparents, took a train from Frankston to the city.  From there, we caught a tram to Victorian Market. Over there, we ate at the food court, and we were reminded how wonderful food is in Australia.  Even though DC is a melting pot of cutures, the food cannot be compared to the freshness and diversity that we get in Australia.  Totally amazing. I was thinking all the time that I should take a picture of the food we were eating but I just couldn’t stop eating and the food was finished before I could even think of bringing out my camera

I did not take many good photos because it is so dark and dreary and wet! Still, more photos to come when I get a chance to upload them somewhere.

I love Australia and it is so good to be back, even for a short while.

Leaving on vacation tomorrow, have mixed feelings about going.  On one hand, I cannot bear the thought of not going to see my family until another year but I am a lot worried about leaving the house unattended for so long.  We do not know the neighbours well enough to ask them to keep an eye on the place for us. So far, we have asked our cell group leader’s teenage son, Austin, who is 13, to check the house and water our plants for us. We agreed to pay him a nominal sum.  We are so grateful for this family. However, he is only coming twice a week which is not really enough, but I don’t want to over ask this family because as he is so young, his parents have to drive him to my place.

Pray that the house will be safe… am excited to catch up with my family in Australia, it has been about 4 years since the boys met their grandparents! Can’t wait to see my brother too!

This morning, around 5am, I was woken up by a loud rumbling sound and the sensation that our house was shaking. It sounded like someone was dragging very heavy furniture across our wooden floors.  I woke Matt up and he ran down to check to see if anyone was in our house.

It only lasted for a few seconds and we went back to bed, mildly scared and anxious. This morning, someone called me to collect boxes that I am donating away and she said she was up, “since the earthquake.” I was like, “WHAT?” I never knew Maryland was on a fault line and it seemed like the epicentre of the earthquake was about 2 miles away from us.

This is Matt’s fourth earthquake experience and my first. I can’t say that I want to experience it again!

We are so happy to be at our new home. We love it and the boys have been running around, hiding in spots and empty wardrobes. I am slowly unpacking but we have unpacked most of the kitchen.

As I unpacked, I realised that I have a lot of things which I do not use anymore and will have to start getting brutal. I have been putting things aside to donate, the kids’ toys and books…we are just running out of space. Next, I will start donating my fabrics to charity. But what I might do is start having giveaway fabrics on my craft blog, just to increase readership.

This is very short because I have to unpack and go back to the previous home to clean it before returning the keys to the landlord.

We go on holidays Sunday and I am so looking forward to seeing everyone I missed.

Today the house settles. We hope there will be no problems as on Wednesday, the sellers moved out and as it was so hot, about 40 deg C, their truck damaged the driveway and it looks like there might be over $500 of damage.  They are only offering to pay $200-$300 but I have a very good real estate agent so they are going to sort it out.

Aside from that, our current place is almost ready to go. I have been packing over the last 2 months, slowly and with no type of plan or thought.  I hope everything gets there without being broken! We kept all our boxes from our move from Singapore and it was a good thing because here, you have to buy boxes at US$3-5 each.

Here is what our house looks like now:

The kitchen.  See how much it needs an updating?

The living room.

The basement. Well, the basement has always looked like that because I never really unpacked from Singapore as we knew we’d be out of here by the end of the lease.

Our landlady has been here almost everyday and yesterday she said she was bringing over a man to get a quote on the carpet to replace it. In the middle of everything!!! Matt was so furious, he wrote to her a very rude letter to ask her for space so we could get our packing finalized instead of workmen running around. She is panicking because she leaves for a vacation on the 12th July and wanted someone in by the end of the month.

We move tomorrow and our internet will be down for 5 days - sometimes I wish that America had the efficiency of Singapore.  I will not be blogging for a week.

Just found out that they are airing Tacky House on the Style Network in Australia, featuring one of my favourite interior designers, Thom Filicia.  I have not seen this here in any of the channels I subscribe to so I will have to check it out on hulu.com to see if I can watch it online.  The show is about someone dobbing in your spouse or member of your family in to get a room makeover.  Ooh, I would not mind being dobbed in, even if it is a moment of embarrassment in order to get a room makeover from Mr Filicia himself!

Here are some of his work which happens to be in my design inspiration folders.

How I would love to have a kitchen like that!

Love his masculine tones in this room.

I like how he has subtly used a light blue into this room through the white chairs.

Love the Asian elements of this room above.

This would be my dream bedroom.  Love everything about this room from the gray walls to the bed to the sunburst mirror… perfect!

For those of you living in Melbourne, I believe Tacky House starts on Monday at 7.35pm.

Our neighbourhood organised a July 4th parade which incorporated a fire truck coming down the road with us as we headed towards the pool.

It was such a wonderful feeling to see everyone outside, the children with their decorated bikes and scooters, prams with red, white and blue.

People were handing out all these things for the children to wear, James had these cool Americana glasses and Cameron had a tissue - lei around his neck.

The boys raced down the road while Matt and I walked leisurely, talking with our neighbours.  I love the community feel of this place and it is something I am so going to miss when we leave here next week! We will be going from many neighbours to almost none!

One of the neighbours waving the flag high.

That is us, all decked out in red white and blue. I had a blue skirt on but I hate wearing skirts so I went inside to change.  Our nice neighbour took the photo for us, otherwise, it would be the usual Matt-and-the-boys photo.

At the pool, parents had contributed food to sell and they had many games for everyone.  Here, coins were tossed into the pool and everyone had to go fish them.  They got to keep what they found.  Poor Cameron could not get deep enough so he only found a penny! James is in the picture above, in the extreme left, with his hands up in the air.

Daddy, I can’t get the coin!

This is what they found.

There was also a sack race, a limbo dance and toss a watermelon into the pool.  They greased the watermelon with vaseline and threw it into the pool and people had to get it out.

Not sure about fireworks tonight, it might be too late for the kids so maybe next year…

Happy Independence Day and hope you had a great one!

James’ big day today! He came 7th overall with his timing. 30.82 secs. It was pretty cold this morning, about 16 deg C.  Poor boy! But he was so happy because he was the “first.” (Nevermind that the others were 6 year old kindergartners!)

We signed the boys up for swimming last week and it is conducted everyday for half an hour. We can either choose a morning or evening session.  As the pool is just behind our house, it is a nice activity during these hot days.

After less than a week, the teacher said James was ready for the B Meets. I was like, “What is that?” and here they have a very neat community thing going (this is what I mean when I find Americans very community based, which builds strong relations with your neighbours)   It is an event almost like a competition with your neighbourhood kids, and it is very relaxed.  In the B Meets, or the B team, the kids have no pressure of winning, they are trying to swim to their fastest ability. (Their personal best times) The A meets is more competitive, and you must win the event to let your team win.  In order to enter the A Meets, you have to qualify first in the B Meets.

It is so well organised and planned. There is a website where parents can sign up for the meet and it is expected that once your kids are in it, you must volunteer to make the event successful.  Parents can opt to go for training because they need judges, so they need to know the technicalities of strokes.  Parents are called to bring pizza, bagels, muffins, etc.  There is a head timer, then about 9 other parents who time each swimming lane. There is a singer - someone must sing the national anthem at each meet and read the pledge of allegience.  A parent must do the ribbons (this is more for the A Meets, which is competitive, unlike the B Meets) as prizes.  There is an announcer, announcing each event and the child’s name.  It is only a neighbourhood thing but the amount of thought and preparation that goes into it is amazing. This is run twice a week, on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings.  For Independence Day, there is a parade that starts at the top of our road, with a fire engine. We are all meant to wear the colours of the flag and I have already purchased some T shirts with the US flag on it.  We walk about 1 mile down and end at the pool where there will be a party.  Again, parents are called to contribute food and kids and adults are meant to sell the food we provide in order to raise funds for the swim team.  I am bringing a broccoli salad.

Back to the B Meet, James met with Rockshire on Wed.  Rockshire is just up the road and it was nice that many of the boys in the opposition team were from his class.

James completed the 25m freestyle in 32.52 secs.  He said he was nervous.  Can you hear Cameron’s voice, cheering James on?  Also, see the amount of parents involved? I did not even film the other side of the pool, where parents were selling ice cream, packets of chips and pizza.  This was on a Wednesday evening at 6.00pm.  There are usually more than 50 parents each time. Totally amazing.

What was surprising was yesterday, his coach came up and said that he qualified for the A Meet this Saturday! Yikes. I hope he doesn’t freak out.  He is such a perfectionist and when he feels that he has lost or let the team down, he gets very upset. This time, they are meeting students from another school.

We hit the pool at 7.30am at the pool tomorrow!!!

Today outside Matt’s office, there was a pipe bomb in a suitcase.  Someone discovered it, reported it, and soon, the Secret Service was swarming all over the place.

Matt was trapped inside his building as they locked it down and wouldn’t let anyone out.  Why would they do that? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to evacuate the building?  It turned out that it was a fake bomb.

Read the report and see pictures here.

It was an exciting day for him!