Naturally Horsey

I wanted to surprise my sweetheart with something different for his birthday, I took him out for horseback riding. I wanted to bring back the wonderful memories we had when we went riding at Yellowstone Park on my birthday to a cookout.

Riding tours are really popular in Australia. The horses can take you out through vineyards, forest or trail rides or rides on the beach. We went to Spring Creek Farm for our horseback winery tour. Our horses are well behaved and beautiful. The whole experience was unforgettable. It was a true escape into the solitude and tranquility of the Mornington Peninsula valleys. What spectacular scenery!

Address:
356 Shands Road
Main Ridge, Victoria
Australia 3928
Phone: +61 3 5989 6119

We have arrived

We have to live in a way that liberates the ancestors and future generations who are inside of us. Joy, peace, freedom and harmony are not individual matters. If we do not liberate our ancestors, we will be in bondage all our lives and we will transmit that to our children and grandchildren. Now is the time to do it. To liberate them means to liberate ourselves.

This is the teaching of interbeing.
"A wise advice for us all by Thich Nhat Hanh"

The best Black Forest Cake in Melbourne

For Alex's birthday, we followed a friend's recommendation and drove to Oakleigh to find Nikos Quality Cakes. Nikos is on Portman Street, close to Oakleigh Railway Station. We walked in through a chic restaurant and when we stepped down into the cakes section of the shop, my mouth was watering. Beautiful cakes were displayed everywhere, on the window there were cookies and all sorts of sweet bakeries. The entire place was very chic, modern and inviting.

We are aiming for the Black Forest Cake or Black Forest Gateau. The lady had it wrapped in a dome shaped box shaped from large petals like cardboard, it looks divine.

Right in the middle of the cake were generous curly chocolate shavings with icing on them. There were so many layers on the cake, the sponge part was so soft and the cream so light, the cherries were not the usual sickly sweet. It was slightly wet at the base, possibly because of kirsch.

It's a definite must try.

Oakleigh Quality Cakes
25-27 Portman Street,
Oakleigh VIC 3166

$1.09 per litre gas - Drive Drive Drive

The price of gas has come down so much, it would be such a shame not to take long weekend drives. So my hubby picked a 48km loop in the Yarra Ranges National Park where he could rough it out on his 4WD with his two favourite girls (me and Koe, our miniature schnauzer). The loop was Lady Talbot Drive situated 1.5hrs away from Melbourne. It was forecasted to rain and it did continuously for more than 36hours! But that didn't deter us, in fact I love the rain, the colours in the rainforest look so much more vibrant and we could have the forest all to ourselves. Well, maybe except for the leeches and they were on our boots, on Alex's neck, on our pants when we finished the walk.


Next to the river, there was a large tree and it was hollow right in the middle of the trunk. Looks like a really neat hideout or a home for gnomes!!
We picked the easy walk.
The path was slippery with the rain making the walk interesting. On the way there...


We finally got there in about half hour.

The entire forest was in a mist, the temperature was only 11degrees Celsius. It was like a magical kingdom.

Catholic traditions

As a baby catholic (I was baptised 8 years ago), I am still learning its traditions. What I know is all attributed to Mary my best friend. She introduced me to her family, the teachings and prayers, the churches, the clergy (priests, nuns, monks etc.), feast / obligation days. We attended midnight mass together, walked the stations of the cross and drove from church to church on Good Friday, trying to stay up so we could accompany our Lord Jesus as he endured his suffering on the day before his crucifixion.

One of the traditions is waiting at the manger on christmas eve, to wait for the arrival of baby Jesus. There would a creche or a nativity scene in most local churches in Malaysia and it is usually next to the altar, all lit up, and carries the pride of the church. Sometimes there is a pageant on christmas eve and the church will be filled with people with more standing on the aisle or outside the church watching everything that is happening inside the church on a projector.

We have been on a quest ourselves to find our perfect nativity scene that would evoke the same feeling of awe, reverence, peace, love and gratitude. Today at the Christmas Shop in Marysville, we saw some...but we will wait till we moved into our own home and the nativity scene would be the symbol that we have finally come home, bringing home our baby Jesus.

Some interesting things to note about the creche...did you know the manger should be empty until christmas day. Only on the next day, the shepherds will arrive. But the wise men would only show up in January, by that time shepherds would have return to their duties, so shepherds and wise men/kings are never seen together. Creche would stay up until February 2, which is the feast day of the Presentation Of the Lord.

The tradition of creche only came about during the time of St Francis of Assisi, that's why there is an ox and a donkey. He wanted to allude to Isaiah 1:3 which states "The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not understand."

Hello Yogi Hello Booboo

Tonight my memory brought me back to my 2006 holiday of a lifetime.

Imagine the excitement contained in me when I finally stepped foot in Yellowstone Park, USA. This was where Yogi Bear came from, the brown bear wearing a green tie and a hat that appeared on Huckleberry Hound show with his best friend Boo Boo. Of course, the cartoons were based in Yellowstone Park, although they called it Jellystone Park but everybody knew they meant the Yellowstone National Park. The oldest park in the world, declared by US Congress as a national park for the enjoyment of everyone since 1872.

We spent almost a week there staying in a small cabin, freezing our butts off every night and only touching the tip of the iceberg, barely covering half of the park. It's so large it extends into 3 states - Wyoming largely, Montana and Idaho. We flew in really late after a big mix-up with the airlines at a small airport in Jacksonhole, picked up our 4WD & drove into the park on a 2.5hrs journey. You can read about all the attractions of the park on the internet but what I really want to talk about is the influence it had on me.

In general, I fell in love with US national parks the minute I was introduced to Yosemite National Park in California back in 2001. Ever since then I make it a point to go back to US to cover other national parks because each one of them presented something unique and different that makes me feel life is all worth it even if everything else would fail. Once I immersed myself into the nature of meadows, wildlife, lakes, craters, snowfields, birdlife, mountain ranges, valleys, lush forest, burnt forest, summits, cabins, geysers, rangers, streams, waterfalls, hot pools, trees, flowers, I knew I was never the same person again. I feel magic, majestic proportions, precise calculations, unimaginable stories & history - it makes me feel like a kid waking up on a christmas morning full of anticipation for what I may find at the bottom of the christmas tree. All I could do is drop my jaw with awe, and thanked God over and over again for bringing me there.

Since Yosemite National Park, I have been to Zion National Park, Sequoia National Park, Olympic National Park, Mt St Helen National Park, Crater National Park, Grand Canyon National Park and Mt Rainier National Park in my 3 or 4 other US trips. One of the most significant moments in world's history I had spent in one of the parks. When the first plane hit the first of the twin towers in Manhattan, I was making my hike up a 6hours hike on Grand Canyon from the plains to the top. Whilst I was walking, we made small talk with passing strangers and they asked me if I have heard about a plane going into the twin towers. I didnt believe what I heard only to witness that evening the second plane going into the second of the twin towers.

Somehow Yellowstone National Park was different, it's on the world map, we studied about the Old Faithful Geyser that erupts every 91mins in geography lesson in Malaysian schools. Boy oh boy! It's my most favourite place on earth - it's where I first saw two coyotes in front of our car, my first sight of geysers after geysers, beautiful emerald / turquoise/ opal clear coloured thermal pools, my first wild black bear (so close we could touch it but the minute it makes a sudden move, everyone ran), my first big moose, my first herd of buffaloes taking their time to cross the road and my first moose burger.

Ever since, it changed me. I knew in order to get me back on track whenever I get too drawn into work or had too much dealing with human complex emotions, or to be unstuck, to open up my mind, to draw in new ideas, to find hope again and to feel alive again is to just spend time with nature. When I do that, just being outside in the nature helps to channel all the memories and experiences I had at the national parks back into the present moment. All the wonderful feelings that were awakened in those national parks would keep rushing back in and I would feel refreshed all over again.

Harvest of a summer

We are into our explorer mood again. We went to South Melbourne market on Saturday morning. Definitely one of my favourite places in Melbourne. Everything about it breathes charm, perhaps being there for more than 140 years and going strong has something to do with it. There is just so many different stalls to keep one interested - the produce are so fresh and different from the typical Victoria market or Springvale market, Delis after Delis with all kinds of sausages, cured meat, cheeses, pickles, cakes shops, organic shops, flowers, clothing, candles, personal toiletories, pet, cookwares shops. Most notable is Best Bargain South Melbourne Shop which sells all the shampoo, conditioner and personal care brands under the rainbow at really good prices. It has better range than regular Coles or Safeway, maybe that's why the goods are stocked up all the way to the roof. South Melbourne market is definitely a feast for the eyes, it is somewhere I would like to go back often to get really fresh produce or gifts for family/ friends and still not worried about crowds.

Last weekend was also the first time I went on my bike alone to join the weekend cyclists on Beach Road, I got into my SKIN tights and new adidas 360 climate long sleeve and pedaled away. The feeling was freedom even though my thighs & calfs were burning climbing the slopes but the scenery of the coastline on one side, beautiful homes or interesting shops on the other side makes it all worth it.

Just when I thought it wouldnt get any better, we visited my sister and ended having a pow-wow BBQ. We had squids, fresh mussels, silver bream fish, honey chicken wings and finished it off with walnut & carrot cake to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday.

Now that's what I called a harvest.