My 1st ever Rock Concert

Our Australian Open nightly marathon was interrupted by a night of rock & rolling at the Sydney Olympic Park with songs like ...

Message in a Bottle
Roxanne
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
Don't Stand So Close to Me
Doo-Doo-Doo
Every Breath You Take
Can't Stand Losing You
Walking on the Moon

The Police rocks! And Sting is still looking Hot (he he), I wish I was able to take some photos to share but unfortunately not.

The husband is still walking on the moon ... he's been a loyal fan of Sting and with Fergi's booty in the front act, he couldn't ask for more (ha ha).

Nelson Bay, Port Stephens

Ah ... sun, sea and sand ... it is the time of the year (well, at least down under).

A day trip to Nelson Bay Port Stephens is not an ordinary weekend, specially when spent with friends close to our hearts. We shared good laughs and experienced a couple firsts - sand boarding and whale-watching. The photos sure do speak for themselves.

Watching Josh Live

Just came from Josh Groban's supposed last night concert in Sydney (it's been extended for 1 more night tomorrow) and I have two words: SUPERB & YUMMY!

Can't get enough of him, he came back to the stage three times until the audience stopped screaming and stomping feets! He was undoubtedly worthy of the Opera House.

Full-house

March 10, 2007

It was my newly-wed cousin's birthday (Natasha's) and she, together with her husband, left for Brisbane from Sydney. They were here for 3 days accompanied by her brother - also my cousin - from Melbourne, just chilling out before embarking on their round-the-world honeymoon trip. We were full-house but we all had a wonderful time, mostly at home, watching DVDs, feasting on food, and just having fun.

Weekend Visitors

Been busy since we got back, trying to catch up with laundry, chores, e-mails, posts and last weekend, on our first weekend back, my aunt came to Sydney for holidays. She was travelling with her husband, our wedding ninong sponsor, who was here for business trip. My 2nd-degree niece is also in Sydney from Adelaide trying out for job opportunities so we all got together and drove around the city on the Sunday. One of our stops was the famous Bondi Beach. Check this out ...

Joy Ride

This morning, we were in the mood (or pressed!) for New Year's meal shopping. We've always been invited by a friend to go to a Filipino store in Dee Why (~25km from our place) but we were always tied with something else, so for a change & out of curiousity, we thought of getting our Asian needs for NY in that store. We didn't know where it was but with the address and the Sydney map in tow, we thought of giving it a go.

However, even before we found it, we discovered the Dee Why beach instead! If you know us real well, you would have guessed that we dropped everything and went straight to the beach! We forgot about the shopping we had to do, searched for parking and stopped for the view and savoured the good food. There was a fair bit of people picnic-ing, sunbathing and swimming, too bad we weren't ready with our bathies.

We spent at least 2 hours in the place when we realized we were there for a reason. We tried searching for the shop but didn't find it. We were too shy to ask our friends so we continued on the joy ride, drove further the coast line of the Northern beaches and enjoyed the water views (and wondered how much we need to earn to get a house with this view).

We ended up getting our Asian needs in a nearby Asian store (~1km). Well, it was a productive day after all.

Wet & Wild at the City

Below are some snaps from my nurse cousin, who is visiting from England, A's idea of Sydney adventure.



The harbour jet experience was so fun! We went on a 50-minute jet ride with more than 10 270-deg spins from 75km/hr jet speed. I think these photos don't justify the enjoyment we felt, specially since we looked horrible. Lesson learned, to be prepared for this ride of your life, make sure you tie your hair, wear a tight cap, wear your sunnies and put some sunscreen!

I felt like I was in a resort island when we boarded this jet, complete with holiday music, and yet I realized when we were passing by one of the bays, which we frequent during lunch-break-walks from the office, that this was actually in the city! Who can have the luxury of having fun like this while in your home city? Not everyone I bet.

Sydney Motor Show

This is the event we have both been looking forward to since March/April, well more for hubby perhaps since this is mostly a guy thing -- the annual Sydney Motor Show. If we hadn't been out looking for our first car down under, I do not think I'd be there for the full 6-7 hours. There were some that made it to our shopping list ... what happens to the list is still beyond our control.



The best experience we had on that day was 4WD'driving on the test track at the back of the event venue. On board an actual 4WD, we drove thru mock-ups of rocky road, a hill-like incline and a balancing lever (see-saw). That was a first for us and we both enjoyed it -- it was like riding on a private roller coaster. I was too excited I forgot to take a photo of track. It was really so much fun!

hubby's Great Barrier Reef dive video

Let's complete this blogsite's theme with an underwater movie shot of ours. This is one of the most exciting experiences we've had so far here in the land down under. Unfortunately, though, I chickened out at the last minute and didn't let go of the rope (and got my refund! hehe), hubby managed to get through the strong current and got us this short 6-minute video.

He's in the blue fins taking the photos that you see in the photos post.

an attempt to underwater photography ...

These are hubby's underwater shots from his Great Barrier Reef dive using the disposable Kodak underwater camera :) I do have 3 shots there, first one from the platform about to jump into the water to snorkel .. second from the sundeck still convincing myself to go for the dive .. and the last one underwater doing the 3-point exercise before I chickened out! Hehe!

Hubby's biggest b-day balloon!

To my dearest hubby, happy BiRtHdAy!

You fill my heart with happiness, you chase the clouds away.
Our hopes and dreams we share together each and every day.

I hope that on your birthday, your wishes all come true
as you've made my life so complete, just by being you.

I love you honey.


Here are some snaps from our 5-days Cairns and Port Douglas holidays to celebrate hubby's birthday and our 1st year anniversary in Australia. Port Douglas is the closest point to the Great Barrier Reef, the largest natural feature on earth stretching more than 2,300km along the NE coat of OZ - where we spent most of hubby's birth day.

If you can't be bothered installing the filmloop player, photos can also be viewed from our Port Douglas webshots album.

Bedtime Funnies

When we got to bed last night, the following conversation transpired after I saw hubby making funny faces.

Wife: What are you doing?

Husband: I'm stretching my face, it feels so dry.

Wife: Well, use my moisturizer. Put some on your face.

Husband: Ok, can you please get it and apply it on my face? Have no idea how you do it.

Wife (too tired to get up): Hmm ... do it tomorrow, one day (after thirty-plus years of no moisturizer) wouldn't make that much difference.

We both burst out laughing.

"Firsts" for us

The husband and I experienced a lot of Firsts this past week. Sounds exciting huh? But not all of them were fun ...

First time for me to work from home on weeknights! That was three consecutive nights working from home and Friday night, I was at work till 7pm. The husband waited in the train platform for more than hour ... and I wasn't very happy either. I guess it's time to start job-hunting again! Something less stressful and less demanding, maybe?

First time for us to attend an OZ wedding! Best Wishes & Congratulations J&D! It was fun ... a bit different from the Pinoy weddings - they served 4 courses of meal and everyone stayed and danced the night away! We met new friends again and our circle is getting bigger and bigger!

First time for us to hire a car and drive on our own! We enjoyed this experience as well as the comfort of riding at our own pace and not worrying about missing the train. Call it beginner's luck for we didn't get lost to and from the wedding venue. It was a good team effort for the driver and the navigator :)

Well, it's also the first time we missed a weekend laundry. We had to attend another party today so there's barely time to do household chores. I haven't even iron'ed the clothes from last weekend's laundry! I can tell my coming weeknights are booked ... so guess who'll be doing the cooking? Hehe the husband's learning fast anyway!

Dinner Guest

We had a dinner guest tonight in the person of our godfather - Uncle A. He lives in Adelaide but he is in Sydney for a week's work and we planned to have dinner together tonight. We didn't expect that he was willing to come all the way to our place for dinner so when he told me that he was driving to our place for dinner, it was a bit of a surprise. It turned out to be a good idea after all.

We were home a bit earlier than usual today - 10 mins before 6pm. And the visitor arrived 40mins later, it just took him 35mins from the Sydney CBD to here, which is good.

We had the all-time safe-recipe Filipino dinner -- baked oysters, pork spareribs adobo and steamed peas and corn on the side. We also popped open the Rose' wine that we got from Hunter Valley. The box of chocolates in the fridge (2months old Xmas present) came in handy for dessert. Everything went well and we'd like to believe he enjoyed dinner as much as we did.

After that, we had a nice chit-chat on the balcony where the breeze was not so cold but just right and comfortable.

It was a good first experience after all. We're starting to entertain -- which is healthy and good (could be bad?)! He promised to try to stay longer the next time he visits -- probably for a night. Looking forward to that!

My Colorful 30th

As I close the chapter of my 30th year, let me look back and give a last hurrah for the top 8 events that made it colorful:

1) Travels to Bangkok, Thailand:
- first one as the husband's tag-along in his business trip
- second as a meek tour-guide during the family's out-of-the-country trip

2) First time on trampoline ... it was so fun to be a child once more!

3) The birth of a new Salvador -- Jannifer Zoe :)

4) Para-sailing in the beautiful island of Boracay

5) Goodbye old house, Hello retirement house -- for the parents!

6) The first studio audience experience in ABS-CBN's Home Boy

7) "Basic Make-up Application" lessons with my friend J

8) Migration to the land down under and the works as detailed in my first post -- "Finally Blogging .. I think? "

Wow, what a year that was ... gearing me up for my 31st!

Welcome 31, let's make this work!

Finally blogging ... I think?

I have finally convinced myself to give the blogging a try! I'm not very good at words nor at writing journals but I love sending emails to update everyone anyways so why not just create a one-stop shop for everyone to see and visit at their own convenient time. So here I am trying out this stuff.

I do not really know how to start since I do not have an idea of who I'm writing this for? It's different if you don't know who your target readers are ... am I really ready for this? Can I really share my thoughts and stories about what its been and how its been for us? Can I make the commitment to regularly blog and not keep the posts outdated? It's not easy but why not. Maybe after a few posts, it will get better?

I'm sharing a summary page of our first three months of our journey in the new land. A lot has happened during our first three months in the new country we chose to live in other than the Philippines, the land down under, Australia.

We came here after 3 years and 4 months of living together as husband and wife. It was a big decision we had to make leaving families and friends behind but it's a leap of faith for us. We prayed that God lead us to where He wants us to go and passing all the immigration requirements in a short 10-months processing time was a positive sign that He has greater plans for us here.



The first month was easy -- it just felt like we were vacationing in a foreign land, like we used to. Only this time, we had four full bags to carry and no return tickets to secure. In a little less than a month, we jumped from one state to another - New South Wales (NSW), Australia Capital Territory (ACT), Victoria (VIC) and South Australia (SA). After this we realized we're halfway, only four more to go!

Our friends, L&S and E&N with their families, welcomed us in Sydney with arms wide open on the day we landed. They were witnesses to the puffed eyes and a few more crying on the first days. They considered us as family and offered their bedrooms for us to rest. L&S generously extended their offer indefinitely until we find a job and find our own place. What great friends we have here! L even patiently gave me a crash course in laundry!

The week after we arrived, we joined my cousin S, in his Melbourne flat to have a look around the said to be Europe of Australia. We were there for a week and learned that this was much more tourist-friendly than Sydney. We liked the convenience of riding in trams and the simplicity of the street layouts, loved the fun of shopping in what we call "tiangges" back in Manila and adored the Italian cuisine down at Lygon street. There was so much more to see ...

A week after that, my tita E & the rest of her family - ninong A & cousin N, arrived in Melbourne and we drove all together back to Adelaide where they live. It was an interesting 8hours drive as there were endless roads, skylines and farms (canola oil farms for one!) like forever. They showed us the beach at Goolwa, the view at Victor Harbour, the vineyards at Barossa Valley and the quiet little towns of Gawler and Tanunda. We were able to meet our friends M&C and their cute little kids B&N in their lovely residence. We introduced them to our other kumare and kumpadre M&J who're also based in Adelaide so they can have each other to get-together with on some occasions that they need others to keep them sane. We also had our first barbie party with some more relatives (all of them, we met for the first time!). We had fun and they captured our hearts but we had to go back to Sydney to start on the more serious fun -- the job-hunting. Then we realized vacation was over!

The job-hunting in the second month was not fun like we expected. There were fears and there were discussions here and there whether we can make this work until after 2 weeks when we learned of the husband's job offer. It was a big relief and we praised God for all the blessings He's been showering us. When the husband started working, I started apartment-hunting. I made phone-calls, inquired if they had the least of the facilities we needed, I short-listed apartments to inspect and we did most of the inspection on weekends. The look-see-and-feel lasted for three consecutive Saturdays until we found THE ONE.

On our third month, we were moving to our own pad and have started settling-in. It was interesting renting the first time since it's very different from how it's done in Manila. As tenants here, you first get "The Renting Guide" from the Office of Fair Trading under The Department of Commerce. This pamphlet details your rights and responsibilities as a tenant. Then when you move in, you have to fill in a "Residential Premises Condition Report" which is a checklist of items for inspection whether they are clean, undamaged or working. This report protects the tenant from any unnecessary charges the lessor may demand from the bond. I wondered if and when Philippines will be able implement rules like this.

Choosing which utility company to tie up with was another dirty work ... I didn't imagine there could be so much choice even for electricity and gas (for water-heating and cooking). The home phone was understandable because in Manila there are now more choices than it used to but the electricity and gas was something new to us. We finally settled for what was popular amongst the friends as well as what was recommended by the building property manager. There was no charge for water which was good, one less bill to worry.

During this month, we also celebrated the holidays -- Christmas and New Year days in our new abode. Lots of cooking and eating for two! It wasn't very bad for first timers. I guess the TV with lots of DVDs helped ease the homesickness.

Tomorrow will be the start of our fourth month adventure here in OZ. I wonder how it will be? I hope and pray this month and the coming months of year 2006 will be kind and generous to us. Let's see.

Till next post then ...