Aussie Life

We celebrated our 23rd monthsary at the Blacktown RSL tonight. It was a first time for me and Chris to have dinner there. Since it was a Saturday, it was Seafood buffet.

This was our view from where we were seated.

I find it amusing that while eating, we can see the roof of our apartment (it’s the one with reddish/orangey roof, almost middle part of the photo above). We were two blocks away from the RSL, very convenient for us.

Here’s some of the food the we ate:

Fried galore: prawn, crabmeat, fish cocktail, calamari rings and pork dumplings

Fried rice, crab, salt and pepper prawns, sweet-chili mussels

Ham and sushi

For dessert, we had a few slices of watermelon, chocolate mousse and cheesecake. We were so full, had trouble getting up. Good thing we had to walk going home.

We are also celebrating a milestone for Chris’ career today, an answered prayer: he was made a permanent employee at work (woohoo!!!). We are very very happy for this new development in our lives.

The journey for Chris to find a job here was no joke. It took him three months to break in the job market. We’ve had a couple of tough times because we were helping our families in the Phils, trying to make ends meet. In August, he got a contractual job. According to the company, they were on freezed hiring but they really need a graphic artist so a contractual employee is all they can afford. My husband accepted the offer, the important thing was just to have a job and at least it was a graphic artist job. Better than nothing and knowing us, we never said ‘no’ to an opportunity given to us.

Two weeks ago, Chris had a surprise meeting with his boss, he was asked if he wanted to stay with the company. Of course he said “yes”, because he loved it there already. Last Thursday, he was officially a part of the company. 🙂 According to Chris, it was on Wednesday afternoon that he was made to sign the contract and his boss announced the good news to everyone on their team during an afternoon tea celebration (with cakes and all hehe).

As his wife and partner, I’m very happy and relieved for my husband. I know that since he arrived here, his goal was to find a job as soon as possible so that we can start fulfilling our plans. I know it wasn’t easy for him to get over rejections one after another. It wasn’t easy, but the patience and resilience my husband has shown is admirable.

As I end this entry, let me just say a few thanks: to family and friends who truly listened and empathized, may God bless you a thousand fold with all the support you have given us and to The One Above whom we give back all the glory–maraming-maraming salamat po!

During our darkest days this year, we have held on to one of the most beautiful teachings of Christ. It is in this teaching that we have found more hope and comfort.

THE EIGHT BEATITUDES OF JESUS

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure of heart,
for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called children of God.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”


Gospel of St. Matthew 5:3-10

The Husband and I have a found a perfect meeting place. For the past two weeks, whenever we need to meet up after work, we’d meet up at the Apple Store: free computer and free internet…or you can hang out at the iPod area and listern to music. 🙂

Yesterday, I played with this:

…a 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display.

The Husband told me to put my hand on the screen…it’s massive!

Siyempre, a shot plaguing “A Wife’s Charmed Life” hehehe.

I’ve finally decided what Christmas gift I want…and the Husband is making that BIG Apple switch (he can’t wait).

…literally and figuratively speaking.

We had a sunny weather today, as if to make the first day of Summer here in Australia. And everytime the sun shines brightly throughout the day, we will surely be watching a beautiful show of colors during sunset, just like today. Husband and I were in awe of the spectacle infront of us after dinner.

This was the view from our balcony a few minutes before 8 o’clock tonight.

The sunset in focus…

Almost twilight…

To the one above who makes all things possible and spectacular, thank you for a beautiful day…and thank you for the wonderful surprise you blessed us with today.

After days of working late (Sunday included), the husband finally got thru a major product launching yesterday. And as a token of appreciation, each individual from the team got champagne from the President of the company.

What really amazed me was that last Sunday, his boss thanked him for working on a Sunday…and thanked me for letting him work on a weekend.

Nowadays, it is very rare to find a boss who give appreciation to their subordinate’s partners when they work beyond office hours. This was the first time something like this has happened to us. Maybe it has something to do with Australia being more family-oriented as compared to other first-world countries. Here, it is a norm that weekends are spent with family.

On other husband-news, the husband came home with some other loot today from his first ever fun run. The company was invited to join JPMorgan Chase 2008 so they all went to the Centennial Park this afternoon.

I was so excited last night that he was asked to join, I kept on teasing him “Wow, may fun run ang big boy ko” hahaha. I just find it funny that he would be running when in fact, he was never a sports person. As in he doesn’t have a sport. But he did me proud today because according to him, he ran 5.4 kms. Oh ha? May talent din pala siya other than being an artist.

Tuesday, 8 October 2008

Informed by agent that we got the unit we applied for. Left the office early so I can pay the reservation fee.

Thursday, 9 October 2008

Agent told us that we can have the signing of lease the following Monday.

Saturday, 11 October 2008

Shopped for cleaning materials and stuff we need for the move.

Sunday, 12 October

All day packing of at least 85% of our stuff. Ready for moving on Wednesday.

Monday, 13 October

(1) Finalized arrangement with a removalist company.

(2) Signing of lease at 4:30pm. Got the keys. Waited for Chris at Dolce, had to reward myself with Iced Coffee (hehe). When husband arrived, we bought pork buns and dim sums then walked straight to our apartment. Had dinner on the floor which I found very peaceful because we were watched the sunset via our verandah while eating. Cleaned kitchen and toilet and administered Do-it-yourself pest control before we left our unit.

Now for some photos….

Presenting our very bare 2-bedroom unit on the 3rd floor a building….

We arrived at the unit in time for sunset so it was such a lovely welcome.

We had dinner on the floor…siopao and siomai. 🙂

My mom advised me to bring our little Poon, rice and sugar. It’s probably for good luck so I followed what she told me.

My little but powerful helpers.

Before we move in, we want to make sure that the kitchen and toilets are clean so we brought a multi-surface spray and degreaser. We also want to somehow eliminate the cockroaches and insects’ eggs so we brought and administered the Do-It-Yourself Pest Control kit.

Wednesday, 15 October

The BIG move! =)

10:00am pic-up of mattress at Hilda’s place. Before 11:00am we were at Woodcroft already. Putting stuff in the truck took less than 30 minutes. Arrived at our unit at 11:30am. Took about 45 minutes to bring everything in from the truck to our unit. Moving was over by 12:30pm.

Our removalist’s truck. I had the experience of riding on the front of this truck, scary but fun.

Chris arrived from RTA and Westpoint a little after 1:00pm with KFC in tow for our lunch. After lunch, we made our way to Bing Lee: bought a refrigerator, vacuum and iron. From there, we went to Westpoint: bought house stuff like Brita, ironing board, garbage cans, placemats and food that I will cook for dinner.

This was how our home looked like when we arrived from the shops. Luggages, boxes and plastic bags lying everywhere.

On the first night in our unit, I started working on the kitchen while the husband worked on our room. The goal is to have both areas somehow functionable, being that we need to eat and sleep.

Tired and busy but I tried to make the unit a home by cooking dinner. I cooked Adobo becuase it is the easiest ulam to cook. We still ate dinner on the floor…the dining table hasn’t been set up by the time the Adobo was cooked. We had plates made of hard plastic so we used that instead of Corelle as I didn’t have time to open boxes yet. I had the Tefal pots and pans, cutleries, knives, etc. setted up first.

Our first visitors were our Grandma and the Balilos. They came in around 8:00pm.

We ended the sorting, cleaning and vacuuming by 10:00pm. We realized it was late already and our neighbors might complain due to the noise the vacuum made.

It was a good day. We were blessed with a good weather (cloudy but the important thing was it didn’t rain) and helpful removalists. Moving was a scary thing, was worried that things may turn out wrong or something, but we’re relieved everything fell into place and we’re just happy we have our own place now.

Back story:

It took us almost three months to find a unit that we like. Looked at options in Parramatta, Surry Hills, and Ashfield–but Blacktown won our hearts. Chased up Real Estate Agents who never call back. Gone thru cancelled ocular inspections, applications that did not go thru due to suddenly being sold or leased.

After all we’ve been thru, we are so relieved that we found our first love nest. It was worth all the trouble.