Day Out With The Girls...

Haven't posted here for a very long time... Mainly because most of the posts have now migrated to Facebook which is much easier to upload photos. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since my last post, and I will attempt to catch up on the (huge) quota of backdated posts soon.

To start with I'd thought I'd write about today, which is special to me as I haven't had the opportunity to spend a whole day alone with the girls for quite a while now. Before I go on I think it's best to explain why both the girls and I are not at school and work respectively. The teachers have a pupil-free day each term which is called curriculum day in which the staff engage in professional development, curriculum planning and reporting. Since wifey is fast running down her stock of leave, and I really needed a break, I stayed home with the girls.

Started the day with bowls of Just Right cereal, yes, the girls now are starting to like the adult kind of cereals. Makes my shopping easier I suppose, no need to stock up on Cheerios and Coco Pops...

After brekkie, I went through the alphabet ring with the girls. In case you're wondering, these are cue cards with alphabets in both upper and lowercase bound into a stack with a ring. They are supposed to read the alphabets phonetically. Went through that pretty quickly, and on to the take-home books. These are books they take home everyday to read, and their progress is marked on a sheet in a special folder, indicating whether they had the books read to them, read with them, or read by them. They only got started on both alphabet ring and the take-homes on Thursday. The ones they got this round were not too difficult and both girls managed to read the books by themselves!

I then told them to go tidy up the rumpus which they had, for lack of a better description, practically trashed yesterday, while I head into the study to do some work. An hour later they seemed to have not done very much, so I helped them out.

Got changed and went out about 11 to get my extremely dirty car washed. I realised it had not been washed since November! It was dirty no doubt, but surprisingly not horribly so. I think cars seem to not get as dirty as they do in Malaysia. The lack of rain recently must have had a hand in that...

Dropped it off at Malvern Central and walked out to Glenferrie Road with the girls to look for lunch. After walking quite a bit because the both of them couldn't agree on what to have, I put my foot down and ended up at Gourmet Dumpling Restaurant. I kid you not, that really IS the name. Saw that it was reviewed by Matt Preston some years back with not unfavourable comments, so was hoping for the best despite my skepticism of establishments with the words gourmet, tasty, delicious, best, etc. having encountered a few in my time that were anything but what the claimed to be. Ordered the panfried dumplings (guo tie) and confusingly named Shanghai steamed pork bun (xiao long bao).

Both turned out to be pretty good. Dumplings were meaty and not greasy, and while the xiaolongbao could have had thinner skins, they were light and tasty with the broth being flavourful without being salty. Best of all it cost me $16! Taught the girls how to eat the dumplings properly (with vinegar, what else) and the trickier xiaolongbao. After the first one which I taught them to nibble the side and suck out the broth, they loved it and had 3 each!

Went back to Malvern central, but still had about half hour before my car was due to be ready so walked around the place which was really nothing much at all. Wound up in Woolies to buy some fruits, but ended up with tuna, a bag of pretzels that the girls wanted for lunchbox (Israeli and kosher by the way!) and a tub of ice cream, again requested by the girls. I am beginning to think I am a sucker when going grocery shopping with them...

All done, we collect my now clean car. They did a decent job, aside from a few spots they missed on the wheels. Drove back home and within like 2kms of leaving Jun Lee had fallen asleep. Jun Yen fell asleep a while later, and I had a bit of whining when we got to Bunnings and only by promising them a sausage in bread from the sausage sizzle were they more cooperative.

Went in to get my stuff, and they started being a bit whiny about wanting the sausage sizzle, so I teased them by saying they can only have a Jun Lee sizzle or Jun Yen sizzle. I asked Jun Yen how to make a Jun Lee sizzle and Jun Yen said, "you put her in bread, then put tomato sauce..." Haha! We did get a sausage later, and as I said before to wifey there is just something about getting a sausage with onions on bread from the sausage sizzle. It's the simplest food there is, but the satisfaction is completely disproportionate to the simplicity of the fare...