What's growing in my garden

I have been killing lots of plants in the last 2 years, thanks to me neglecting them.
This year, when anything blooms I felt really excited as it felt so rewarding watching the plants grow despite me giving them very little care.
The chilli plant this year has fruited, and for the first time, my succulent bloom a brocolli looking flower.
The lemon grass has also successfully survived in the veggie bed.
Lastly, my one and only blooming cymbidium orchid. (this year it gave out two spikes).
What's growing in your garden?

Quinoa, Rice, Pumpkin and carrot porridge

Here's my attempt to cook healthy, wholesome food for N.
I used organic quinoa (pronoucned as 'keen-wa'), organic pumpkin and carrot and cook them together in lots of chicken stock.

Splish Splash

March '09

Taken at South Bank, Brisbane.

N the parrot

Pic taken at Southbank.


N's like a parrot now. He would copy whatever we say. Below took place last nite.

Me: Dear (to Jake), take him (N) to shower.

N: Dear, Dear..

Me: !?!?!?!?!

What do you do in your swimming tog?

Obviously to go swimming in.
N managed to do several other things besides going swimming in his tog. He helped me weed, then checked out my plant, checked out the fish, and played with the moth.

Slide

N loves playing on the slide.

Around London - Buckingham palace

Determined to finish my travelogue before the anniversary of my Europe travels.
Above is collage of us visiting the Buckingham palace. We used the trusted tubes and walked through Hyde Park to get to Buckingham Palace. There were deck chairs available for hire in Hyde Parks and tulips were abundant when we were there.
We were probably 1 hour early and the Buckingham square starts to get filled up by tourists when the marching is about to start.Coincidentally during our visit, the Malaysian orchestra armies had some sort of 'exchange' happening. So they were also in the palace compound playing songs with the British counterarts. There were also official visits from some officials and they came in horse carriage. All in all, it was pretty entertaining. I finally get to see the famous palace guards.

Ahoy!

We got this blow up pirate ship for N. It came with a treasure chest and cannon balls. It took us nearly 2 hours to pump it up with ur small pump. N loves it..the ship now sits in the backyard. N goes there probably once a week when the weather is very warm.

Overdue photos

These pics are taken on CNY eve and first day. On the first day of CNY, we let N wore the traditional costume and went to the mall. We let N check out the outside of the cinema. He loved it.

Puzzle

random

N is 15 months and 3 days. On Tuesday he had his immunisation jabs. One on his leg and one on the arm. He is 78.4 cm and 10.04kg.

On Sunday, he ran about barefoot indoors and stepped on a grain of rice. He goes...hooh hooh (Exhaling/blowing) at his foot and took the rice and show me.

Our conversation of the day:

Me: How does papa sleep?

N: korrr korrrr korrrr

He can say kai (means open) push(, catch (kek) , pup (for puppy) or gou(for dog). He can say baaa (for sheep) and kaa kaaa kaaa for duck. Sometimes he would say kaa kaa kaaa in a very forceful way as if to emphasis something (I don't think that means duck in that context). Otherwise, he would speak in his banguage.

He received a puzzle from auntie pinkcocoa during christmas. On Monday he succesfully 'nailed' cow into its designated space.

He could stack a few beaker to make a small tower. He gets impatient and push them all on the floor.

He loves noodle. Especially long ones so he could feed himself.

He can stack his stacker rings now (not in the right order though). When he first put in each ring, he would make this sound as if to show his accomplishment.

Lantern Festival 09

It is now almost ritual for us to go to the lantern festival held in Albert Park in the city. This year Jake's excuse is that N has never been so we have to show him Albert park and the lantern.

Saturday turns out to be a great day..sunshine and hot! we went out early for lunch and then proceeded to Albert park. the event officially started at 5 30pm but we wanted to avoid the crowd and let N ran around the park so we went 3 hours earlier. Each year they would add up new lanterns into their collection but we still see many of the older ones floating around.
I think N liked the sheeps and sheep dog the best. He kept wanting to go back to the sheeps and sheep dog and touch them.

Auckland from the eyes of pinkcocoa

Okay this photo doesn't have anything to do with the title but this is our brunch prior to showing pinkcocoa auckland city.
The usual fare we had was the chicken feet (or Phoenix feet), beef tripes (Ngau tou and Ngau pak yip), pork ribs, wu kok, egg tart and some dessert type dish, such as that yau chap kou (the violet and cream jelly), and some lo mai chi (Mango and durian flavours). There's also the mochi with ice cream (the middle pic).

We basically just walked up Queen Street towards Downtown. Checked out the DFS and then went up Vulcan lane turning into High Street. I think, Pinkcocoa having come from Sydney won't find the shopping here that nice anyways:P HEHEHEH

we also showed her beachhaven. many yachts are being moored there and it overlooks the cityscape of Auckland. then it was to Mt den the dormant volcano in Auckland City. there's also fa lu gung advocates there, practising their 'qi gong'. Did i tell you I also saw fa lung gung advocates in Munich? it seems to be their standard procedure to meditate with a radio playing in the background.

Where is your...

Me: Where is your nose?

N: Grabs my nose.

Me: Where is your ear?

N: Touches my ear.

Me: Where is your eye?

N: Poke my eye with his fingers. *OUCH!

N and his big toys

N has been to the orchid meeting with me twice. The last one he went was for the Christmas do. he was shy for about 1 minute, then he sets out to play with the trolley. As you can see, the trolley is meant to carry the chairs which are stacked real high.

He pushed it around and entertained himself for a long time. He also used the mooncake tin as his cymbal. the afternoon past quickly.
maybe he can learn how to plant orchid soon. hehe.

oh oh...

N was playing hide and seek with me outdoor.
Next thing, he ran and gave me one of his sandals and said OH OH ..(his sandal has somehow came off) and he wants me to put it on for him.

Bean Bag

Some overdue pics..Jake bought this bean bag for N from one of his work trip across the tasman.
After we filled it up, we let N sat on it. He was very apprehensive to the point he cried :P
hehe. Now he would slam himself onto the beanbag.

Teppanyaki Dinner

my SIL treated us to a japanese steakhouse the other day. She also invited her friend who has a toddler daughter.
We had the crayfish and steak set. hehe. The accompaniment dish were salad, miso soup, green tea and rice.
Our teppanyaki chef came and cooked us the side fish first, which is the prawns, zuchinnis, onion and mushrooms. then he cooked the beef and finally the crayfish.
N was a little tired so he stayed in his stroller all the time (we had to take him out for a few strolls) before he fell asleep.
That's Helen in the pic. She is very cute and switches between Mandarin and English when she speaks. She also tries to 'sayang' N. Kids are so cute.

Finally..at Gisborne

After Tolaga Bay jetty, we drove and arrived in the Gisborne township. We drove to the James Cook statue and chill out a bit. N wants to touch everything again, and me and Pinkcocoa accompany him in his sensory adventure while jake is just resting after the long drive.
We then hunt around for dinner and decided to go to the Works.

Pinkcocoa had seafood chowder, while I had the abalone and foccasia bread(came in the form of soup) while Jake had the mixed seafood entre. We also ordered a salad. I was a little disappointed with the salad (it was greek whereas I was expecting more rockets and mesclun).

We left Gisborne at about 8pm and start driving back to Mary and Barrys after that.

Tolaga Bay Jetty

The tolaga bay jetty is 660m long. it boasts to be the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere. However, i think the record has been beaten by another jetty in Western Australia according to my google result.

it was very windy at the jetty. I saw people diving into the waters and I imagine it must be freezing cold. There was sea cave too ..We went during high tide so we couldn't explore much apart from just walking on the jetty itself. It took us a while to walk the whole jetty as N was determined he wanted to walk by himself. As usual, he doesn't always walk in a straight line. he prefers to stop and touch the jetty and what not.