The Breakthrough

Hello everyone,

Its been a good week! Aerin finally got used to the idea of playschool as she quickly naps and play her Friday away with Ms Elmira. We used the time to have a date and catch an endearing movie called "The Bucket List". It was such a sweet movie - Morgan Freeman (he's so kewl) and Jack Nicholson played two terminally ill people who went on a bunch of adventures to make up for their limited time left.

Our cargo finally arrived, so we were very busy unpacking our stuff. The smell that accompanied our goods made us miss our home! We experienced the hottest day in Queensland, it was 40 degrees on Saturday....and here we were eating fish and chips outside under an umbrella. It was stupidest thing we did since we all came out looking like a lobster but the food was so worth it!

I thought of posting our pictures at the community soccer club. Ariff wants to join them once his food gets better. The lil one loved the open field, she kept running around and lying down on the grass daydreaming. I was a bit more cautious since it was a windy day and I wore a dress - so had to be careful that the dress didn't blow up to reveal my Bridget Jones get-up.The car at the back is our go-go mobile.

Take care, and write soon! Love heaps to all.

Dear Wan and Atuk

Dear Wan and Atuk,

This week was my first playschool week. It was very scary and I cried a lot. My new bibik has blonde hair and her name is Auntie Jac and another one is called Auntie Amyra. They smell different and talk in a strange language but they cuddle and hug me a lot so that I won't miss mama and papa.

Ma and Pa took me to Chinatown this week. I fell at home since there was lots of black hair people around and mama kept getting excited over some rempah shop. They also took me to the museum in the city which they were getting excited over some big cicak and kept asking me to pronounce 'di-no-saur'. I was more excited about the pigeons outside the museum. I gave them my chips when mama was not looking.

I met my new cousins this weekend. It makes me miss Along and Abang Nizam.

Hope everyone is ok and love you all.

Cuddles,

Aerin

Ode to Steve Irwin

Hello again, hope all our loved ones are well. Its was a fun weekend last week. On saturday, we thought of treating the lil one to Australia Zoo - about 40 minutes drive to a place called Beerwah. This was the home to Steve Irwin aka Crocodile Hunter. It was such an amazing zoo with all the animals being fat and healthy. Aerin had such a good time patting the animals but for some strange reason she was highly drawn to the baby piglets which we kept dragging her away from due to the non-halal elements! The only thing about Australia Zoo was that it was filled with crocodiles and not many other animals. But, it was sad to know that the amazing owner has passed on. He really build a wonderful animal haven.

On Sunday, we had a visit from my Melbourne friends. All of us decided to have a lazy day at Southbank, swimming in the manmade lagoon. Aerin had a great time throwing sand onto her parents and just grazing about at the beach. She is such a confident water baby now that at times, it was hard to drag the screaming koala away.

Anyway, we will post the latest on Aerin childcare soon. She just started part-time childcare. Its such a fun place filled with toys, pool, sandpit, hamsters and the lot. It was easier to leave Aerin there as there was so many distractions for her to forget her parents! Here's a quick picture of her first day:

Our weekend Escapade - Australia Zoo

The Nest and the Dream Car

Ariff is in love with this Lexus! The picture above is our lil rented nest at Mt Gravatt.

Our new friend, the possum

Hi everyone! We finally got our own broadband instead of stealing the neighbours! I haven't uploaded any new pictures but I thought the old picture of Aerin is adorable.

We discovered a lot of new things on a our second week......kids immunisation is free here (and we get paid by the Govt as an incentive to get Aerin immunised!) , the Direct Factory Outlet in Brisbane is the coolest place on earth, the library is actually a semi-retirement village and that the thing on the tree in our backyard at night is not a cat, but actually a possum. The possum seems to love our backyard, I think its all the new sambal rubbish that he finds in the bin!

Its been a good week with the exception of Ariff fracturing his toe. We discover that Brisbanites have nothing better to do but shop since every suburb has a massive department mall! We went to the Brisbane International Car Show on the weekend and was salivating on all the beautiful cars.....I had to keep taking pictures of hubby in his dream car.

We were taking the bus for a few days and Aerin found it the most fascinating thing. She keeps making truck noises and her mouth keeps gaping at the thought of being in the bus.

We will keep you posted with the latest soon!

The Southbank Pics

Believe it or not, this is in the middle of the city. Lil one happily playing away with SAND and the parents are just posing away....some mat salleh guy took this pic by the way and quickly disappeared after taking the photo. I think he's afraid we'd ask him to take it again. Maybe we should have offered him a free bath in the "beach"....

We have arrived!

Location: Mt Gravatt, Brisbane
Days at location: 4 days

It was an exhausting journey for the uncultured nomads! We had to resort to a few drops of shiraz in the lil princess milk as she was an active untranquilised koala on the plane. We arrived at Brisbane with two trolleys of luggage which the immigration dog refused to smell. As we drove and navigate ourselves through Brisbane traffic, we noticed it was raining serenely. "Hujan Rahmat" Ariff said - a good blessful sign.

The first 2 days was a mad dash to the shopping centres buying everything from prepaid cards to kicap. We went nuts at the grocery as dollar to dollar, a $100 could buy a lot of yummy stuff. Can you imagine, with $50, we bought 2 potterhse steak, 1.5kg of Oz beef, 8 lamb chops, 1 whole chicken, 500g of Oz tail, 4 chicken sausages and nuggets! The halal butcher looked at us with dollar signs in his eyes. - We have to definitely learn how to cook now!

We are posting pictures of our trip to Southbank today - a manmade lagoon in the city centre. At 28 degrees - it was bliss to see the little tyke enjoying herself.