Dead Tree - update

Rod started a new tactic to remove the tree stump. He decided to dig around the tree stump and cut off any roots that are in the way. I thought I will put the protective goggle on it to give you a perspective on the size of the tree stump.I can't remember after how many hours of hard work. Rod then could put a steal rod in to try to lift up the tree stump.


FINALLY!

Rod gave me his permission to show his legs on Internet. I asked him to stand inside the hole to show how deep the hole is.

Steaming fish

Steaming fish: flat head on the left and tuna steak on the right. The result was pretty good.

One thing I can complain about using a steamer is that it produces a lot of steam!! We had steam fish smell in the whole house that night. I now leave the steamer next to the kitchen window so that steam can go outside.

Food Steamer in action

This is the steamer I bought on the weekend. I went to Choice website to see if they have any recommendations, but can't find any review on steamers. I had to do the leg work myself, and I went to K-mart, Target, Myers, and DJ.

Eventually, I decided on this one. What I like about this steamer is that it doesn't have multiple trays that stack on top of each other. It came with 2 stainless steel baskets that fit quite nicely inside the large plastic container. It also comes with a flat tray that can be used on both sides depending on if I want to keep the juice while I steam. I have not used this steaming plate yet. Hopefully soon, I am going to try to steam a fish. :-)

This is a picture of my steamer in action tonite. Inside the container, it has sweet potato, carrot, green beans, and tofu. Yum~~~

2000 pcs Jigsaw puzzle update - 4

Finally!! The "moon" bit of the puzzle is now complete. Took some time on the weekend to do this. This is the main bit that "glows in the dark". I spoke to Rod about how I can take the picture, and he will help me with it. Will post it once it's done.

The next lot will be all the black pieces. Ummm ... I think I will enjoy it! (maybe!)

Also, pressure and/or competition (!) is now on ... as Cindy has started working on her mona again ... ;-) PS: I think I have fewer than 750 black pieces though ...

Dead Tree

There was a dead tree outside our backdoor, and shortly after we moved into this house, we had it cut down. It was not rotten or anything, but Rod was worried that it might attract termite. I took this pic just before the workers cut down the tree.

The tree people only cut down the tree and they left the stump. There is no access for a big tree stump grinder to our backyard, so all the different companies we spoke to were very reluctant to do the job. They suggested that we put a pot plant on top of it!

Rod started doing it himself - with different tools: electric saw, mattock, etc. Little progress was made in the last 5 months. I contributed: 2 cuts with the electric saw and removing several smaller roots (up to 5cm in diameter).

We finally bought an electric chain saw, and it was great! The pic above is the "after" pic - it took Rod about 1 hour to cut 10 cm off the top. I took this pic this morning before he started the 2nd round.

2000 pcs Jigsaw puzzle update - 3

I have had a crazy week and I have not touched this puzzle since last Sunday. I thought I will take a pic before I continue. Progress is slower now as the remaining pieces are just all white/yellow. You can see all the pieces scattered on the table and on the puzzle. I think I picked up all the remaining pieces at least once!

Red Face Hopper

A funny little bug at our garden today. Not sure where he came from. Rod called it a grasshopper??! I thought grasshoppers are usually green. It has a red face and it's quite aggressive too. ;-)

I wanted to take a close up picture of its red face and fang, so I touched its butt/back with my finger tip. This little thing then hopped forward and did a 180 degree turn in mid air, and landed 15 cm away from where he was. Front leg up, and ready to attack. Very interesting ...

Last picture I took before it hopped away to freedom!

2000 pcs jigsaw puzzle update 2

After another couple of hours of work ... Now can see:

• Winnie
• Tigger
• Rabbit
• Kanga
• Eeyore
• Piglet
  

2000 pcs Jigsaw update 1

Jigsaw puzzle now looks like this after a couple more hours of work!

Insomnia + Eye sight test

Insomnia!!!

I was waking up every 30-45 min all night last night. How do I know? Because I could see the radio clock perfectly! In a way, this is giving me more confidence on my vision after the laser surgery. But ... this is not good for my 7.15AM Fatblast boot camp this morning!!

When I was tossing and turning on the bed, I started thinking WHY!!! My body was exhausted but my mind was wild awake. The only reason I could think of was the Chinese Tea I was "binge drinking" all weekend.

Well, I am not a tea or coffee person. I LOVE WATER. Every now and then, when I remember the Chinese Tea (Kao Shan Tea) my uncle/auntie gave me when they visited Sydney, I will make a pot and have it with Rod. "Kao Shan" = "High Mountain" in Chinese, and these tea are from the high mountain range in Taiwan.

My uncle and auntie are TEA people, and they really know how to indulge themselves with good tea. The tea they gave me, for example, cost around AUD$15/100g. This might not be much in Australia $, but this is a lot of money in Taiwanese $ terms. PS: you can buy a traditional breakfast with as little as AUD$2 or less in Taiwan!

This tea leaves a subtle "sweetness" in the mouth after the tea is swallowed. When Jason and Ester visited us on Sat, Ester really loved it (she is a tea person) and I was over the moon that somebody loves my tea so much (and gave it really high praise). So I made more of it on Sunday and drank almost 2 pots of it all by myself...

As the radio clock went from 12:30, 01:30, 02:20: 03:05, 04:30, and so on ... I started thinking if I should skip my Fatblast boot camp in the morning. I was also contemplate on how I can use the first aid room at work for a quick nap during the day. It was just all "think", no action. I got up at 5.30AM as planned and caught the 6.06AM train, and was wild awake on the train ride all the way to work.

This is all the blogging I am doing tonite, as I am heading to bed soon after this to make up for all the sleep I missed last nite!! Ciao!!

Renovations: quads

We did some renovation on the weekend. We recently had the gyprocking done in our garage, 2nd toilet, area near back door, and the laundry. These used to be asbestos panels and these were removed before we moved in about 6 months ago. Rod and I already got used to not having ceilings and walls. One day my next door neighbour (lovely people) told me that winter here is VERY VERY VERY COLD - will be worse if we don't have a ceiling in our garage. They have lived here since 1966, so I guess it will be wise to believe them.

I got my act together to get the gyprocker to come and do the work on the same weekend as my laser eye surgery. If you have dealt with gyprockers/plasters before, you will know that they don't always do "everything". Some of them will do the woodwork (meaning the cornices or quads) to make it look neater, and others just prefer to stick to plastering. The gyprocker prefers not to do the wood work, so Rod and I had to do it ourselves. Since getting a 50mm or 90mm cornice is a bit of an overkill for rooms like laundry/garage, we went with 19mm quads.

These quads are very "special" as they were purchased from Bunnings at Gosford! Yeap, we drove to Gosford just for these - as that was the only Bunnings that was open on the Easter Sunday. Lucky that Rod's boss pays for his patrol! Cutting them is a tricky job as you have to cut at the correct angle otherwise it just won't fit together. It's like making a picture frame. I made some mistakes, and I think this is just good practice for me when I make frames for my jigsaw puzzles!!

I put plaster on all the nail holes and will have to give them a quick sand before painting. Overall, I think we did a good job.

Do you know this bug?

As I was going thru the pictures on our PC, I came across this pic Rodney took about 2 weeks ago. It's a bug sitting on the clothes line. The bug wouldn't be that big as it's not that much bigger/taller compared to the clothes line. I wonder what it is!

Backyard

This is my back yard - picture taken from the living room window. When Cindy and Dave visited on the weekend, they were surprised at how large the backyard is.

It's a bit hard to see from the picture that the land is slopping downwards. Our house backs to the reserve, and the land eventually goes down to a creek. There's plenty of gardening to keep us busy. Actually, I shouldn't take the credit: ever since we moved in, Rodney has been doing 90% of the gardening! Haha~~ (or should I say 99%!!)

This house comes with a gigantic clothes line ... and I LOVE IT!

10 days after laser eye surgery

Well, it seems that I am addicted to this blogging thingie already! I thought I will take a picture of my right eye to show the aftermath of my laser eye surgery from 10 days ago. This is due to suction during surgery - to stop involuntary movement of the eye! The surgeon described this as the "hickey" from the machine. LOL~~ Apparently, this will take up to 2 weeks to go back to normal. I shall wait and see ...

2000 pcs jigsaw puzzles

I thought I will start my *first* ever blog by posting a picture of a 2000 pieces jigsaw puzzle I recently started. I've done many jigsaw puzzles before, but I always forgot to take the W.I.P. stages. Now that Cindy has been telling me how good/easy it is to blog ... I thought I will give it a go.

Stay tuned, I will be posting more pictures as I complete more and more of it.