Rare Superb Lyrebird captured my curiosity

Is it a peacock on the road? my husband asked when we saw a rare sight in front of our car as we were driving down from Mt Donna Buang on the Yarra Ranges. "Yes yes I think, but wait. I've seen this somewhere." Scrambling for the printouts on Yarra Ranges National Park and trying to pick up my camera at the same time. Before I could snap, it ran into the bushes carrying its long beautiful curly feathery tail. Wow, we saw a Superb Lyrebird which is unique to Australia and it's a stunning beauty. LyreB stayed on my mind, I feel even more blessed than blessed, caught in a rapture to be able to come into the presence of LyreB.

The more I learned about LyreB, the more I understand how special our experience had been. This bird immitates natural and artificial sounds in their surroundings, natural sounds such as other birds, human noises or other animals and artificial sounds such as machinery (chainsaw?) & musical instruments. LyreB is an ancient Australian animal, having been in the wet forests of NSW & Victoria for more than 15million years. Is this a sign of Australia opening up to us? welcoming us to their ancient land? I hope so, we have been waiting for our permanent residency visa for more than 15 months now.

LyreB would only lay one egg and takes care of one chick at a time. Even ostriches, the largest bird would lay 15 to 60 eggs at a time. Oh yes! we are coming back here for the christmas weekend...

Traveling the world in my own backyard

This is my favourite way of spending the weekend. We drove to Warburton, a town about 76kms from Melbourne in the Shire of Yarra Ranges. This is our second week there, we were there last week with Koe, our fur kid. We tracked up La La Falls (La La means welcome welcome in aboriginal).

I loved it so much, it's so romantic, lush, the trees, the valley, hills, river, shops ..so inviting. We went back today again. Just being in the forest and surrounding hills makes me feel nourished, my soul fed and ahhhhh...

Today was extra special because of a few people we met on the way.

Danny the wood artist at Powelltown - he does carving and etching of snakes, dragons, eagles, chain saw on wood. Danny had long grey hair tied up in a ponytail, wore a flannel shirt with jeans, reminds me of some people I met in US. We bought a large piece of wood with coat hangers made out from steel bullhead rails taken from the old train tracks nearby (probably Belgrave - oh no...from Puffing Billy?). They dont make things like that anymore. This will be an antique one day. Ours had Ayers Rock inspired on it.

Then we met a Finnish woman at the shop in Warburton selling beautiful wood crafted home knick knacks. We shared so many stories about our families, how she came to Australia, how her husband proposed, how the other people view her in town and her interests. We also found out that her husband is running for local council. Hmmm...might be worthwhile to think about retiring in Warburton - they make really good bruschetta.

But the most interesting of all must be the Polish Jester, Kristof Kaczmarek. We ate at the Polish restaurant named Polish Jester. The owner treated us like his closest friends, he even shared his SPECK - hardened pork fat. His idea of staying healthy is revolutionary, he thinks fat is the way to go especially the saturated fat. He had facts to prove it - look at the top 3 countries with lowest mortality rates - Japanese, Greeks, Swedish - all with high cholesterol in their diet. He's also an actor and director for Russian plays. His restaurant has a rustic setting, with very thick and heavy handmade wooden tables & stools taking us back to the medieval european times. We joked about Polish sausages, had Polish saurkeraut, dumplings, hunter stew while sipping balsam vodka and drinking Okocim, a typical brand of traditional polish beer.

Just one short afternoon, I felt I had been to Route 66 when I met Danny, to Finland Christmas town when we shared family stories with Leila and into the comfort of Poland homes when we shared our interest in food with Kristof.

"Hello Mom, I know you are there"

Yesterday I experienced what I didnt had to go through since I left Singapore for Australia. I spent the entire week at work preparing for the newspaper ads to be published this Saturday. I am not a fan of last minute work so I had briefed the design and the copy early so I would have ample time to submit the materials by 5pm Thursday (yesterday). As it happened, you can plan all you want but if others have a different idea with timeliness, you are just stuck in their timezone when you rely on their work to get things done.

So Design took their time to produce the first piece of work late on Wednesday. Before we could get back with feedback for more changes they were off home. The next morning they went for an early breakfast party ignoring the urgent work pending on their desk. By this time, I was fuming inside, my body starting from my shoulders was so worked up, I had a terrible headache and the feeling that I had abandoned so long ago came back overwhelming me. The feeling of rushing, of wanting everything to be done quickly. If I dont have things done my speed, I throw up a fit. I then realised I do that even at home. If I dont pack enough activities for the weekend, I feel unaccomplished. If I relaxed too much and found that the laundry or cleaning is not done by Sunday afternoon, I get upset.

It was after reading a book written by a buddhist monk that I realised, I recognised this habit energy and it had been transmitted to me by my mother. My mom is always rushing, wanting everything to be done quickly, quickly, quickly. "Hello Mom, I know you are there". As the book advised, I embraced this energy of rushing. Recognising and taking care of the feeling as I would take care of a baby. Slowly I watched it go away, giving way to relaxation, peace, fun, appreciation. I noticed my senses heightened a bit more - the buildings, the trees, the train journey and the people so much more alive and beautiful. I think for this short while, I was liberated and the rush feeling no longer dominate me.

a little of singapore came to visit

Yesterday a friend was in town for a visit. He had just recently moved to OZ from singapore. Its been a while since I saw him. The last time I saw him was when we were both single. That must be at least 4 years ago.

He brought the warm and humid weather with him when we were forecasted for stormy weather. But more than that he brought back old memories of carefree early days of my singapore life. For a very short while, we were sort of seeing each other. But it was never made public to our friends because he didnt want to. And I got pretty upset with that and didnt wait for him to explain but left in person and so left the issue too.

I wanted to know why....it's one of those things you had to know. If he was just flirting or if he was interested at all. Even now that we are both married, it's something I want to know. and I guess I hope I wasnt taking for granted and there was a genuine fondness that went both ways. Perhaps it's better to leave it as a mystery. Maybe one day I will have the opportunity and the guts to ask him. For now, I'm more comfortable having dinner with him with other friends around.

Starting point

I am starting this blog because I felt a strong need within me to document my diaries online - I don't know how will I react if my friends discover the good, bad the ugly parts of me. It's the asian genes in me to only display the good parts of my life to others and work on the bad parts in private. Not that I have lots of skeletons in the closet but life just throws you all sorts of situations. It's about how I ride through them and how I deal or not deal with them.

So this is for everyone, this is for me.