What’s Green and Free?

Today, we had a contractor come and install 2 very innovative “automatic switching” adaptors, 2 new water saving shower heads and replace 10 of our bulbs with energy efficient ones. The cost of the items and installation – zilch!

I’m not sure how much the products actually cost, but I’m pretty sure it’s at least $100. It’s just great how the government is sponsoring this. But the other side of the coin I’m told – is prepare for the hike in energy bills due to carbon tax. Either way, we should all be more conscious and responsible in how we consume electricity, fuel and water. This community message is brought to you by – Eric & Lydia.

How’s the weather, mate?

It’s been mostly cold and wet here in Melbourne. And it’s not just the weather mind you. We arrived here on 14 February 2012, in which during these last 3 months, we’ve been able to settle down quite a fair bit. Yet in so many ways, we are still in the beginning stages of our journey – with much ground to cover.

This rainbow, which appeared on a cold, wet and gloomy afternoon, is a reminder to continually persevere in challenging times, not forgetting to enjoy the little joys of being on this journey together, while continuing to hope and have faith.

Anytime is Tea Time!

Lydia’s mum flew back to Malalysia yesterday after spending 7 weeks here in Melbourne with us. We managed to do quite a fair bit of sight seeing with her during her stay here, with the highlight usually being afternoon tea! Our tea-time escapades include Tuckerberry Hill Blueberry Farm Cafe where we had tea and scones with blueberry sauce while on our tour of the Bellarine Taste Trail, as well as Sassafras Cafe located in the Dandenong Ranges.

As you might have guessed already – Lydia’s mum loves her tea time. As such, we decided to take her for one last tea-break before she headed back. We decided on Portarlington Bakehouse – 1.5 hours away from where we stay. Between the three of us, we had an almond croissant, an apple cake and a chocolate eclair.

The food was great and so we decided to buy some bread back home as well. We paid for 2 bread rolls and a sourdough rye, but got an extra 5 bread rolls and 2 focaccia as it was near closing time. How nice of them. We will definitely be back for more! (not just cause we were given free bread)

Mum, we know you’ll miss your tea time here in Melbourne with us, so make sure you come back when the weather is warmer

The Dandenong Ranges

Lydia’s mum loves Devonshire Tea. A week ago, when asked where she’d like to go over the weekend, she named a little town in the Dandenong Ranges called Sassafras, known for – you probably guessed it right – Devonshire Tea.

As always, I tasked myself with planning the trip. Learning from our previous excursion to the Bellarine Peninsular, we decided upfront to visit 3 locations, leaving room for ad hoc stops. We also chose to make it a day trip rather than an overnighter as it was only about 90 minutes away from where we stayed.

First up was a winery in Coldstream, which was kind of on the way to Sassafras. We chose this winery because the name of the winery was the same as Lydia’s mum – Helen. The cellar door overlooked the vineyard, which was a beautiful sight of brown and faded green. Inside, we tasted some wine, which we found to be quite good. We also learnt that usually people try whites before reds.

At the entrance of Helen’s Hill Cellar Door

We soon found ourselves to be quite hungry and departed for our next destination in the not-too-far-away town of Olinda. Our targeted destination – Pie in the Sky – winner of various medals for their pies!

Gold Medal Aussie Beef Pie

Thoroughly satisfied with our fill of pie, we then decided to take a walk in the National Rhododendron Gardens. Being quite vast, we took a slow walk to take in the beautiful scenery and fresh, cool air. By the end of our walk, which lasted us some 45 minutes – we were ready for our final destination – Sassafras.

The view at one of the look out points in the National Rhododendron Gardens

In Sassafras, we stopped by a shop selling various types of tea (and coffee) called Tea Leaves. They had every type of tea you could imagine! Lydia picked up some tea leaves before we headed to one of the many tea houses in the quaint little town – Sassafras Cafe. What did we have? Nothing other than Devonshire Tea – for Lydia and her mum, and the usual coffee for me. The tea and coffee were great while the scones were nothing extraordinary. Maybe on our next trip to this area, we’ll try the other tea houses!

One section of the array of teas housed by Tea Leaves

Lydia’s Birthday Weekend

How did we celebrate? In a whole lot ways! Here are just some of them!

Seeing Lydia’s favourite Christian artist – Israel Houghton – lead worship on Friday night at one of Planetshakers Conference’s night events. We also had the privilege of hearing one of our generation’s well known evangelist – Reinhart Bonke – share the gospel.

And then there were the gifts…

And the dining…

The Bellarine Taste Trail

Australia is a big country with much to see, experience and taste! Where we stay, west of Melbourne, is no different.

Last weekend, we decided to go on a taste trail – the Bellarine Taste Trail. It’d take several days to cover the main attractions which include farmgates, wineries, provedores, restaurants and cafes, so we decided to cover it part by part. After all, it’s only about an hours drive from where we stay.

The main town we visited this time was Queenscliff. It’s located on a little peninsular, from which you can actually take a ferry over to Mornington Peninsular. But that’s not what we were there for – we were there for the fresh seafood! On the top of our attraction list was The Coovara Fresh Fish Trawler! Supposedly, one can hop on and purchase the catch of the day straight off the trawler. Sadly, we couldn’t find out for ourselves as we never found it at Queenscliff Harbour. We were disappointed, but at least we still managed to have a good fish and chips meal at the local Trident Fish Bar. The fish was fresh and we ended up getting some local blue mussels to bring home.

A display counter – not what you’d usually find in an average fish & chip shop

Fresh local Flathead tails with chips!

Another one of our major stops was Tuckerberry Hill Cafe & Orchard, in Drysdale. We were not disappointed this time – as we treated ourselves to coffee, tea and scones with wonderful blueberry sauce!

The cafe overlooks the blueberry orchard, which to our pleasant surprise had a few rows of strawberry ready for harvest! This is what we brought home.

In addition to the blue mussels, blueberry sauce and fresh strawberries, we also picked up some fresh vegetables from Lonsdale Hydroponics, located in Point Lonsdale. The produce looks really good, so we’re expecting it to taste as great!

Rocket Science

One of the things we decided that we’d explore here in Melbourne was gardening. If you’ve been following us, you’d know that our backyard is in no condition for that. And so, we decided to start with potted herbs! One of them is our favourite salad – ROCKET! Hence the blog post title.

Here, you can see, after 5 days of sowing the seeds – little rocket sprouts! According to the description on the seed packet, it should be ready for harvest in between 6 to 8 weeks. We’re really looking forward to that time, to be able to savour our own produce.

Some of the other herbs we’re planting at the moment – parsley, thyme, basil and chives. I suspect we’ll be seeing more in the coming months. Rosemary, oregano, coriander, chilli, etc.

Welcome!

Arrived 940am on 18th March 2012 at Melbourne Airport with 60kg of ‘goods’ from Malaysia, first to visit us at our humble home since our arrival – Lydia’s parents!

In the above (blurry) picture we have Herbal Soup, Onion Omelette, Stir Fried Celery and Chicken cooked in Dark Soy Sauce – all cooked by Lydia’s mum.

It sure is great to have them here!

The Garden

This morning, as I got out of bed, I couldn’t help but notice the patches of yellow flowers across our backyard. It was a refreshing sight, considering how awful the backyard looked when we first arrived. And that got me reflecting…

We had ideas for our backyard way before we arrived in Melbourne. Garden beds, flower patches, deck, pergola, tiles and pavements. But when we first set eyes on the backyard, all we saw was overgrown weeds! Looked like the only gardening I was going to be doing was weeding.

Well, thank goodness that’s been taken care of more or less – but our ideas for the backyard still couldn’t take off due to the fact that every improvement needed money, and we’re currently still without an income. Reality was that it would probably be quite a while before we could start carrying out any of our plans. Disappointed as we were, we had to accept the fact that we would probably only see nice flowers in our backyard several months down the road.

But this is what we saw this morning. It was a reminder, that where we think conditions are impossible, God makes it possible. As we complete our 1st month here, we hold on to that promise and continue to have faith that our future is in good hands.

Fast Food

Well yes, we’ve had our share of fast food here – McD, KFC and Hungry Jacks (known as Burger King in Malaysia). But the fast food I’m talking about here is healthy, home cooked fast food.

Lydia recently borrowed a cook book from our local library – Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food.

Here’s one of the things she came out with – Fish & (baked) Chips with a side of mushy peas. The larger photo is from the cookbook and the smaller ones are hers. By my records, she did a great job, especially considering the fact that it was her first try.