Kaylene's 19th Birthday

Tried out Malaysia O'Town Kopitiam Restaurant at Croydon...we had booked the place for Kaylene's Birthday, as it was only us in the restaurant.  Food was good and tasty.


Had Nasi Goreng, Nasi Lemak, Deep Fried Soft Shelled Crab, Char Kway Teow, Chicken Ribs fried in spices and Belachan Beans.

Haviannas and Australia Day, Kaylene's 19th and Nathan's 28th Birthday

So this Australia Day, Lily send out an invitation for Nathan and Kaylene's birthday. The theme, Haviannas and all things Australian.

I had set my sights on joining the throng of thong crowds at Bondi - NOT - but I did want one of those blow up thongs, so when I came across a website which led me to the Havianna's wesbite and saw that you could order a Backyard pack to celebrate Australia Day at home with the blow up thongs, I didn't think twice about it and put my order in. Although the website stated that orders up to 21 January would be filled, I was hoping that being only one day late would still get me the pack and on Thursday afternoon, there it was.

The pack consisted of 4 blow up thongs, a foot pump, pennant flags to decorate, a huge beach ball, 4 drink stubby holders and some tattoos.

Kaylene and I set to blowing them up, the first one was difficult with the hole not staying open to allow the air through, but once I found a way to get it connected to the foot pump, we were off and pumping. Blew two of them up and they are now decorating the back wall.

For their birthday cake I made a pair of Aussie day thongs. Using packet cake mix I baked the cake the night before. I also made it a rainbow cake on the inside, i.e. had coloured layers, yellow, green, red, blue. The layers didn't come out even, but when I cut out the thong shapes and positioned them on top of each other, the cake seemed to resemble a pair of platform thongs. The hard part was the icing. I bought a new box of fondant icing, but after adding the colours, I couldn't get the icing the roll out - very sticky and wet - didn't help that I had no icing sugar. So I threw the icing in the bin and went back to my usual fresh cream icing. But decorated it with fondant icing for the southern cross stars and union jack.

Ran out of time decorating the cake, on top of making salads and prepping the other food.

Although the forcast was for rain, it turned out to be a very warm day. We had a BBQ, with Mark doing the cooking.

Nathan had invited his friends, who did not realise the whole family would be present as well, but there was food enough for all.

Nanoblocks

As a christmas present goes, Nanoblocks are fun and addictive. I received a Meerkat set from Helen A. as part of her Christmas gifts to me and during the break between Christmas and New Year, got around to constructing it.

Before Nathan and Sylvia departed on their overseas trip they asked me what I would like. I gave them my list, a new Seiko watch SING$350 and some Nanoblocks if they came across them.

When they got home, all my Christmases and Birthdays had arrived, they had bought me a big shopping bag full of Nanoblocks.

Animals:
Giant Panda
Mallard (ducks) HK$93 = $11.50
Crocodile
Sheep
Lion
Giraffe
Ladybird
Turtle
Maneki Neko Money Cat

Buildings:
Eiffel Tower
Big Ben
Taj Mahal
Schloss Neuschwanstein
Leaning Tower of Pisa

Landmarks:
Easter Island giant heads

I had also ordered some from a website just before Christmas too.

Space Shuttle station $22.95
Schloss Neuschwanstein $22.95
American Shorthair Cat $9.95
Red and Green Macaw $12.95
Xmas Tree $9.95
Rabbit (gave to Marion as Christmas present) $9.95
Electric Guitar Red (gave to Justin as Christmas present) $12.95
Electric Bass (guitar) (gave to Justin as Christmas present) $12.95
Big Ben $19.95

Kaylene has been constructing some, I've constructed and deconstructed a few and we've still got some to do.

Nathan's 28th Birthday

 

On his birth date, we went out to celebrate at Shanger's in Ashfield. It originally started as going out to Ramen in the city, which I took to be Ippudo in Westfields, but when Nathan and Sylvia came home from a BBQ at his friend, Daniel's place, this quickly changed. Temasek at Parramatta was suggested, a chinese restaurant at Burwood maybe? Finally it was agreed we'd go to Shanger's at Ashfield.

We then came home for birthday cake, which Sylvia had bought at Hello Happy, Strathfield.

Restoration Projects

In the holidays, with no plans and no where to go, I decided to tackle some projects which have been sitting around the house.

Project 1: Restore the reclining chairs on the front porch. 

Just before Christmas, the house across the road had a garage sail and I spied a pair of reclining chairs just like the ones we had outside, but these ones looked much better and were only $15 for the pair, but I thought, no...I can fix up the ones we have at home, maybe for cheaper.

So on 4, 5 and 6 January, I sanded the chairs, and painted them. These were extremely hot days and I was hoping to go for a swim instead, but alas, no invitations were forthcoming.

The next step was then to paint the iron cushion supports. Sanded them to get rid of the rust and then painted them with some paint that Lily had bought to paint the car's bumper bar and windscreen wipers.

They were starting to look like new. The next step is to replace the cushions and sew new cushion covers. I hopped online to check out the prices for foam and saw that to buy an outdoor chair cushion would actually set me back $50, that would be $100 for a pair of cushions.  Hopefully buying a foam piece won't cost as much.
Will probably check out Clark Rubbers when we go to Coffs Harbour in February. In the meantime, the chairs are wearing their old cushions, but at least that one less I need to paint.

Project 2: Restoring the arms from the old lounge suite.

After seeing how good the chairs came up, Lily suggested that the arms of the old lounge suite could do with a sand and paint too. So on 19, 20 and 21 January, I set about sanding these arms and painting them as well. The weather was not quite as warm as previously, in fact it was windy and rain clouds kept threatening. So it was paint, and let them dry in the garage overnight before applying another coat. Eventually applied around 4 coats till I was satisfied with the colour. On Monday before tennis, I screwed them back on the chairs and these also look pretty good too.

APIA Tennis at Homebush

Wednesday January 9

I took a flexi so that Evan and I could make use of the free tickets that Kaylene received for volunteering at the tennis.



We got Janet to drop us off and took a quick look around before heading to the Main Arena to watch a women's match.

When that finished we went out to tray our luck in the outside courts, but they were full and not letting anyone in, so we bought some lunch and went back to the Main Arena to watch a men's match.

As we were waiting to go back in, we spied a Channel 7 cameraman taking a shot of someone, and that someone turned out to be the man himself, Ken Rosewall, which the Main Arena is named after. Didn't spy any other famous players, and if we did pass any current ones, we wouldn't have been able to tell whether they were players or not.
Stayed on to watch Bernard Tomic win his match.

Kaylene popped in on her break just before the match ended and said she was working out at Court 6, so at the end of the match we went in search of her.

Couldn't find her but managed to get into one of the outside courts to see the Aussie men's double players play a match against an Indian and Canadian, the Aussies lost :(.
At that stage we Kaylene had finished her shift and was waiting for us also watching the doubles match.

Called home for someone to pick us up and Lily arrived to take us home, just as the night matches was about to start, I think Li Na was playing.

New Years Eve

We invited Seeto's over for New Years Eve lunch and dinner. Had a BBQ for lunch and had extra for dinner. Mare also came over for lunch and a hair cut.

 We had Costco Lamb Chops, Pork Chops, Prawns, Sausages. We also roasted a rack of beef ribs which we had later for dinner. Made a potato salad, garden salad and caesar salad. A. Cath and Angel cooked the fried rice and we also had the leg of ham which U. David gave for Christmas.

After lunch Lily opened up the hair cutting salon and we had time to paint our nails and then the girls played mah jong.

 Kaylene had managed to get 5 tickets to the 9pm fireworks, as well as Ken getting 5 tickets for 9pm and 12 midnight, but because we had dinner later, we watched the 9pm on TV and then Kaylene, Evan, Angel and I took the train out ($5.80 return) to watch the 12 midnight fireworks.

Got there as they were letting people in, so not much of a wait in line, but most of the front spots on the Cahill were already taken. Waited 1 and a half hours sitting and then as soon as the fireworks started had to move back in order to get a better view.

 Then had to flow with the crowds into Wynyard to catch the train home. The first train was packed and people were just pushing to get on, so we waited for the next one, that one was also packed, so third times the charm. Managed to get on the 1:11 to Penrith and I got a seat with Kaylene sitting on my lap.

Got home around 1.30pm