Photos of the week - Dinosaurs & Crazy Sales

The museum had this DIG DINOS event and one of the attractions was the LIVE T-REX. It made roaring sounds that scared the shit out of my son - look at the lady's legs!

Boxing Day Rush - everybody had to queue up to get onto the escalators and there were wardens to monitor the "boarding" process so that it won't break down.

A storm was brewing sometime before Xmas day...... wished we had more rain this summer. It's getting too darn hot!

Milton Park - 5 mins ride away from our house. The place for my son to play train master!

Cycling - the most common activity for father and son bonding.

Brisbane City

Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland Australia, is my current stop. We should be staying here minimal for another 1.5-2 years, so I should call it HOME for now.

This 2 Million population's city has a very good bicycle path. It takes me only 15 mins to ride along the Brisbane riverside to the City. Driving to the city often incurs hefty parking charges. Therefore, cycling is the best mode of transport (FOC). Other means of getting to the city include via the City Cat ferry, by train or by bus if you do not want the hassle of looking for car parks.

In Brisbane, people seldom need to go to the city because every suburb has its self sustaining facilities like shopping malls, parks and shops. So far, I have cycled to the city to visit the museum, the man-made beach, government and banking institutions. Below are some good shots of Brisbane City downtown. The photo with the multiple colored buildings is the City Council Library. The one with the old architecture is the Treasury Building where the city's Casino is located. City buses and City Cats could be seen as well. I was really proud of these last 2 photos as they looked like post card shots! I took them from my bike on a 30C sunny afternoon.

Santa Brought Us A Gift

Sorry for the long absence in blogging. I was pretty preoccupied with Santa's gift in 2009 until now.

We were expecting our new child sometime early Jan 2010 but my wife started to have contractions on the early hours of Boxing Day. I have always thought that the Boxing Day (day after Xmas) was related to the boxing sport until I finally had time to google boxing day. It is a day whereby the old Victorians used to put gifts into small boxes to give to workers like postmen, garbage collectors and other public servants.

Boxing Day is also the day where huge sales are everywhere. There were really people who lined up from 5am outside the department stores waiting for them to open at 8am. Initially we were also planning to get to the shops for some loot, but the plan was slightly changed with my wife's contractions that started at 4am. We were packed and ready to go to the hospital but the contractions slowed down. My wife rang the hospital and the staff advised her to wait. In the end we decided to go shopping instead. I was a bit worried that she might give birth at the mall! I had a pen and paper with me recording all the times of her contractions while we walked and shopped.

After lunch, we had to drive to the hospital because her contractions got more frequent. However, as soon as we arrived at the hospital, the contractions started to slow down again..... I waited with her until I got kicked out from the hospital at 10pm. I managed to get some sleep until 1am on the next day when she called to say that she is about to give birth. I rushed to the hospital to find that she was already at the delivery bed. Within 30 mins, she gave birth to a charming baby boy! We really thanked and praised the Lord for giving my wife a safe delivery to a healthy child.

The next day, we informed our family members and they brought along our 3 year old son to see his baby brother. He was pretty excited to see and hold the baby. This is the start of our "new" life with an additional family member. Stay tuned for more news to come and what happened between 27th December and 15th January....;)

SAHF

I am sure many moms are familiar with the term SAHM because it stands for Stay-At-Home-Mother or moms who work at home. They could be housewives or moms who has a part time business.

Since leaving Palembang, I have been a SAHF (Stay At Home Father). Initially, it was a blow to my morale since I was the major family income provider for the past 6 years. Suddenly, I felt as if I was no longer contributing to the family cause, plus there were so many new things to learn about living in Brisbane and Australia. Experiencing a new environment change is never easy. After 2 weeks of struggle and support from my wife, I finally found my footing and also bearings around doing things in Brisbane.

Life suddenly became full of purpose since I now have more time to spend with my 3 year old son and my wife. Teaching my son, reading to him, playing with him, taking him out for a ride or run in the park.... nothing beats spending quality uninterrupted family time. Now, I have ample time to learn about being a stay-at-home father, at least until uni starts again.

Entertainment That's Worth The $$ - The Wiggles Concert

Many of you might think that $35 Wiggles Concerts were only meant for kids but you were wrong. We managed to buy last minute tickets for the Wiggles Concert 2 weeks ago.

The event was held at the Brisbane Entertainment Center. We drove off 1.5 hours before the event and were surprised by the number of cars entering the car park. We had to line up for almost 30 mins before we could get a car park and it costs $10!

I did not have very high hopes of an entertaining event because I thought that it would be more like a kids event whereby the Wiggles (Sam, Murray, Jeff and Anthony - the yellow, red, purple and blue Wiggles respectively) provide kids with some sing-a-longs. We managed to get front row seats which were just 2m away from the stage.

The concert had a big round platform in the middle, trapezes and swings hanging from the roof. The show started with the circus ring master Ringo introducing the Wiggles. Acrobats and gymnasts came out performing their respective feats and created a circus-like atmosphere. Of course there were singing, jokes and performances by all the Wiggles.

I was surprised that many adults were as excited as the kids when they saw their favourite Wiggle perform on stage. We also knew many songs that they performed and had a great time as well. For sure, the $35 front row seats were definitely worth it for the 1.5 hour concert!