Sam & Rosie!!

Sam's new knee

2009-02-26T09:14:00.018+11:00

I mentioned in my last post that Sam underwent a TPLO operation on his knee. Our vet had previously determined that he had torn the cruciate ligaments in both his right and left knees, but it seemed that the right one was in worse condition. And so it was that on Feb 13th we had him booked in for an operation by a specialist in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta. That's a two-hour drive for us to get there from our home in Wollongong. I took time out from school that weekend and flew home after classes the day before.

Sam was left overnight at the surgery, and later in the evening we received a call letting us know that he made it through with no problems whatsoever and that we could go pick him up the next morning.

The nurse was kind enough to show us the x-rays taken after the metal plate and screws were put in place.

He seemed to have gotten over the anaesthetic when we arrived to pick him up, and was keen to get home as quickly as he could. So we bundled him into the back of the car and off we went.

Rosie semeed quite happy to see him, I think she was fretting overnight while Sam was away having his operation done. She followed us all over the house and wouldn't let us out of her sight the entire time. Still, the reunion was to be rather short-lived.

Our instructions were to keep Sam quiet as much as possible in the first couple of days, and then his bandages were to be removed. Having Rosie around meant that she would try to get him to play with her and she might try to lick the wound/stitches on his leg. Really could not afford to have Sam over-exert himself or get his wound infected from having it licked.

So Rosie's been bundled off to a friend's place (thanks, Ann-Marie!!) where she's staying for the next 3 weeks or so. That's the time Sam's stitches come off and the risk of infection from licking goes away. Ann-Marie's got a lovely home with a beautiful backyard and a pool; and most importantly another lab called Willow to keep Rosie company. Here's a pic taken the last time Sam and Rosie went to visit. Willow's on the left in the foreground.

Meanwhile, Sam's at home with a HUGE bucket on his head to stop him from licking his stitches.

Fast forward - Melbourne Business School

2009-02-24T09:21:00.004+11:00

Blink your eyes and 3 years go past. As I am writing this, I am sitting in Syndicate Room 15 at Melbourne Business School undertaking a full-time MBA program for a year and a half!

Noon, Sam and Rosie are still back in Wollongong, a whole state away. Hard to believe that I have left my family and former life behind so completely isn't it? It wasn't an easy decision though, not by any stretch of the imagination. Noon and I had to come to terms with the idea that we would be separated temporarily while I pursued my education in a city more than 1,000kms away while she continues working in order to support our family (she's the Facility Manager of the Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry Laboratory at the University of Wollongong - you can tell I'm proud of her!).

Oh, and by "our family" I mean us and our two kids - Sam and Rosie. No children of the two-legged variety just yet!

Just to catch you up on recent events...

Sam and Rosie are doing fine. Rosie's her usual self, through the years she's developed quite an obsession with her toys and loves nothing more than to play fetch with the tennis ball or whatever you care to throw for her.

Sam, however, had torn his cruciate ligaments in his knees. Yes, both knees. I had to fly home to Wollongong from Melbourne last weekend for his first TPLO surgery to repair the damage. Didn't get to stay long as I had to then get back to classes on Monday. Noon tells me that he's doing fine and is starting to slowly walk on the leg, exactly what the surgeon ordered given that he needs to build up muscle mass again to speed up the recovery process.

Noon, in the meantime, is having her hands full looking after Sam (Rosie's staying with a good friend of ours while Sam is recovering at home, she stirs him up way too much!) and tending to matters a work. Since the last time this blog was updated, Noon's graduated with her PhD in Chemistry (she even made the Dean's Merit List!). I guess we will now need to call her Dr. Noon! Much easier that than her full name... try saying "Dr. Thitima Urathamakul" in a hurry! **sorry honey :)**. A couple of months after finishing her PhD she applied for, and got, the position of Facility Manager at the Mass Spectromety Laboratory.

Finally to myself. Noon and I started looking into furthering my education now that she had finished hers. The MBA was my top choice given my growing disillusionment at the managerial practices at my (now previous) workplace. I took out Australian Citizenship in March 2008 in preparation for this, studied for and sat my GMAT exam, and began the application process to the top business schools in Australia. Applied to both the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) and Melbourne Business School (MBS). I won't go into the details with this post, but Noon and I made the decision to go with MBS despite the fact that it is in Melbourne, as opposed to AGSM which was in Sydney. I'll write an entry on that at a later date. So in December 2008, I tendered my resignation and packed my bags. January came around and I kissed the wife and kids goodbye and boarded the plane.

...And here I am in sunny/rainy/cold/hot/wet/dry Melbourne!

We're alive!!

2006-04-28T11:51:00.000+10:00

It’s been a while since I last updated this blog, more than a month, actually. Probably lost quite a few readers, can’t blame anyone but myself – most would have thought that this blog had died off like so many others.

But… I’m here to tell you that it hasn’t!! :)

So! What’s been happening with us? Well quite a bit and not a lot, actually! There’s been lots to do at work for me, am settled in quite well by now and getting along with my new colleagues – they’re a great bunch, am learning heaps but still able to contribute in some areas, and will soon be starting on some of the bigger projects. Work-related business dominates my time these days, but I mean this in a good way. My stress levels are down, I’m eating more and no longer losing weight like I was last year.

Noon’s started on her thesis. Her paper’s on the subject of Mass Spectrometry (I think) and she’s working hard to have it completed by August. The kind of stuff she writes about is way over my head, but I try to help out where I can – this involves providing her with a properly set up computer and instant IT support when any problems arise, occasionally cooking our meals, cleaning the house and generally taking care of any household chores that need doing when she’s busy. She gets rather stressed at times, but it’s in her character to perform well under pressure so I’m not too worried.

Sam and Rosie are well. Rosie’s still her usual playful self, she grabs her toy every time she sees us coming out into the backyard hoping we will play fetch with her. About a month ago, Noon noticed that Rosie had broken her lower left canine tooth. Snapped it clean off! We’ve caught her in the past digging up rocks and chewing on them, must have been munching on something really hard to break it. We brought her to the vet to have it looked at and the vet was shocked at how she could have broken such a strong tooth. Fortunately there was no infection, and the point in which the break occurred was just above the nerve canal. For now, if the enamel doesn’t wear down any further, she should not be in pain. Rosie does have a lop-sided bite now, when she carries her toy in her mouth it hangs off the right side where she’s got her unbroken teeth.

Sam’s just his usual self, had a case of ear mites a couple of months ago and we had to use eardrops to clear it out. Nothing major there except for the fact that we initially tried a new brand of the stuff and found after two weeks that it wasn’t having any effect. Switched back to the old brand and it worked a treat.

Hmmm…. What else?

Oh yes, Noon and I have booked a holiday in September. Noon’s got a conference to attend in Prague in late August, after which we will meet up in London for a few days. Will be staying with my sister while we’re in London. Then we’re off for a 12-day tour of Europe with Trafalgar Tours. The tour will conclude back in London and from there we’ll fly off to Thailand for a week in Noon’s hometown of Udonthani. And since we’re already in Thailand, we’ve decided to have another couple of nights in Phuket before coming back to Australia. Have five weeks of annual leave booked for this trip, can’t wait!!

Sam and Rosie will be staying at Mark and Joanne’s again for the time we’re away, and I’m sure they will be well looked-after. Would have loved to have been able to bring them along though :)

Well, that’s it for now. Until next time, take care all of you!

Cooking for the troops

2006-03-05T21:46:00.000+11:00

For the past week, I’d taken to having my lunch at my desk at work. First it was spaghetti and meatballs, homecooked of course, and then the next day it was eggplant from our garden braised in sweet soy and also stirfried with mince, chillies and basil on steamed rice. Was rather inconsiderate of me, I think… the aroma permeated the air and got a few of my colleagues sniffing around. One even asked if I would take orders for Noon to cook some extra to bring in for her :)

I passed on the compliment to Noon, and we both decided that we’d take time out on the weekend to cook something up for my colleagues at work… to make up for the past week. Decided on Hokkien Noodles Noon-style!

First, 6 eggs in the wok scrambled lightly with soy seasoning and ground black pepper. Once cooked, set aside.

That’s Noon hard at work… and Sam and Rosie supervising.

We like putting lots of stuff into our noodles – seafood extender, fish balls, eggs and honey soy marinated chicken thigh pieces (works better than chicken breast because it’s more succulent and lends itself better to stirfrying).

Let’s not forget shiitake mushrooms and garlic. The shot on the right shows the sauces that Noon uses to season the noodles (not including the big tin of olive oil at the back – that’s not used for this particular dish).

So, after the eggs are cooked and removed from the pan, in goes the sliced onions. Season with a little bit of salt and let it sweat for a little bit before adding the finely chopped garlic. Adding the garlic too early will cause it to brown and possibly even burn.

Next, the marinated chicken pieces get added and left to cook through. We did this on high heat to let the meat sear and the sauce caramelise.

When the chicken is just about done, in go the shiitake mushrooms.

Left to cook for a little bit, the whole mixture reaches a darker colour. When this happens, it’s ready for the noodles.

And here are the noodles! In they go, along with all the sauces from before. Mixing it all up was a rather frenzied affair, Noon worked really quickly while I did the mixing for her. If I remember correctly, there was chilli sauce, fish sauce, dried chilli flakes, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and ground black pepper.

The final product! All in all we cooked 3kgs of noodles, filled up an entire lobster pot of it, ready to bring in to work with me tomorrow morning. Noon held back on the chilli sauce and dried chilli flakes for this batch, she and I normally prefer ours a fair bit spicier. And so we cooked a separate batch for ourselves (and Alex – who said he was up to the challenge).

Took us slightly over an hour to prepare and cook the entire batch of noodles, 3kgs worth of the non-spicy variety, and a further 1kg of the hot stuff for ourselves. 4kgs of noodles, with lotsa meat, fish balls, and seafood extender – cooked in 3 woks. Yum! Hope it goes down well tomorrow. If my colleagues at work like it they might even post their comments :)

Sleepyheads

2006-02-24T18:45:00.000+11:00

Title says it all.

Let sleeping dogs lie, eh? Nothing wrong with taking pictures of them while they're at it :)

Squirted!!

2006-02-17T17:19:00.000+11:00

Sam and Rosie got squirted on their faces!

A few days ago, Noon and I came home early from work to take Sam and Rosie out to the park for a walk. We hadn't done that in a while and felt that we were neglecting their exercise (especially when they've been eating burgers and cake and ice-cream!).

So off we went, Noon had Rosie on leash while I had Sam. We brought along Rosie's favourite squeaky toy as well - one of those balls with a whistle-like hole that squeaks loudly when squeezed. Rosie loves nothing better than playing fetch with it, especially in the park where we can throw it as far as it would go and she'll rush headlong to catch it, squeaking all the way back.

We were in the middle of doing just that when this burly, bare-chested guy came into the park with his rottweiler in tow.

Sam and Rosie caught sight of them, and as always when they see another dog, they bolted and rushed over to have a sniff and hopefully to play.

Guess what happened when they got there? Mr I-am-so-macho-
I-have-my-shirt-off-and-I-have-an-awesome-dog baulked, and his rottweiler cowered. I was already off to get Sam and Rosie back on leash but quite obviously could not match them for speed. Before I managed to get to them, Mr Macho was squirting Sam and Rosie in their faces with his drink bottle in an attempt to get them away from him and his dog. It was a hot day so Sam and Rosie happily lapped up the water, it didn't prove a deterrent to them in any way.

I finally got there and got Sam to sit while I slipped his leash back on, and Noon was doing the same with Rosie. Mr Macho walked past and said snidely, "No need to apologise, just keeping being rude!" Took me by surprise... of course I was going to apologise, especially seeing how Sam and Rosie caused the guy so much distress. But I thought the first priority was to get our dogs away from him. Not like he or his dog were in any danger, Sam's tail was wagging so much it looked like it was about to fall off and Rosie was squeaking her toy the entire time!

Anyway, I did apologise and asked him nicely if he wanted to let his dog off to play with ours, reassuring him that ours were only playful and not aggressive in anyway. His response: "No, my dog doesn't play well with others". Well no wonder, I thought to myself, with an owner as anti-social as that!

I really don't get it. Here's this guy who was obviously trying to act macho, and who was quite burly I thought, walking a rottweiler. And he was afraid of labradors? Even one with a squeaky toy in its mouth? Can you see anything wrong with this??

Noon was quite upset at the whole incident, and I can understand. There was no need for sarcasm from Mr Macho, even if we were wrong to let Sam and Rosie off in a park that wasn’t a designated off-leash area. Funnily enough, we’ve even encountered such anti-social behaviour even at designated off-leash areas! Although to be fair, we’ve met many more dog owners who are happy to let their dogs romp around with ours at such places. People like Mr Macho are in the minority, I’m happy to say.

Anyway, here are some photos of them that we took before we cleaned up their faces…

Rosie with her favourite squeaky toy...

...and Sammy with his face all wet

Doggie burgers

2006-02-15T18:19:00.000+11:00

Noon and I had Burger King for lunch the other day. Didn't want Sam and Rosie to miss out so we got them a double Whopper with cheese after we'd finished.

Told the guys behind the counter to hold the onions, of course. Onions are bad for dogs, causes their red blood cells to burst while circulating in the body. Also, chocolate is toxic too, causes the heart to beat irregularly. Death could occur within 24 hours following an overdose of chocolate.

For more information on foods that are toxic to dogs (and pets in general), check out this website.

Anyway, here they are waiting patiently for their burgers (sans onions).

It was their first burger ever, and Sam didn't quite know what to do with it. Waiting for Rosie to go first is always handy, and after he'd seen her scoffing her half he decided to have a go himself.

They both seemed to like it, came around sniffing for more after they'd both finished with their halves. Incidentally, I'd wanted to get them one burger each... but Noon had other ideas. Mommy didn't want her kids getting fat on junk food :)

Vegie garden - part 2

2006-02-14T17:42:00.000+11:00

I did say I was going to post updated pics of the vegie patch, well here they are. These were taken just a few weeks after the original ones from the previous post. Noon and I kept watering them throughout the hot weeks at the start and the result was they flourished, as you can see.

Here's the little plot with its lettuce, sweet peppers, basil and tomatoes. Couldn't believe how much they'd grown in just a couple of weeks! Noon and I were having leafy salads constantly and it didn't even seem to make a dent in the patch.

From left: mint, cherry tomatoes, and basil. Found some caterpillars in the mint and quite a few bugs in the cherry tomato plants, but we had decided not to use pesticides anyway - trying to keep everything clean and organic. Ended up picking through the plants to remove pests by hand.

The snowpeas had finished fruiting by then, and were withering away. So we pulled them off the lattice and put in some cucumber plants instead.

Our two kids keep us company while we work in the vegie garden. They're allowed in under supervision, and so far have not trampled over any of the plants. They quite often get in the way though... Sam tends to like sitting and leaning against our legs when we're weeding or picking off bugs, while Rosie keeps nudging at us with her toy in her mouth wanting to play fetch.

Our little vegie garden

2006-01-31T17:47:00.000+11:00

One of the major selling points of our home when we bought it was that it had a nice spacious backyard. I'd wanted to have dogs so space for them to run was important, and Noon had always wanted to have her own little vegie patch. As it turned out, though the house itself was small with only two bedrooms (more than sufficient for our needs) it had a large backyard that could accommodate both Sam and Rosie as well as a sectioned-off area for planting.

We dug up a 3m by 1m patch of ground and put in a frame of treated pine sleepers, cleared it of grass and weeds and filled it with a mixture of compost, manure and garden soil. After leaving it for a week for the soil to settle, Noon planted tomatoes, basil, eggplants, sweet peppers and lettuce.

Here are closeups of the little plants after we'd put them in. Sugar cane mulch was applied to keep the soil moist on dry days. Picture on the left shows the lettuce varieties, sweet peppers and eggplants. The right one shows the tomatoes, basil and more eggplants.

We also had some pre-existing plots along the side, in these we'd put in more basil and cherry tomato plants (in the foreground), and parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme and coriander (in the left corner background). There's also a chilli treeling in there but you can't see it coz the top edge of the photos cuts it off.

Here we have some garlic shoots just breaking out of the topsoil, with chives, lemongrass and galangal in the background.

And finally some of our snowpeas cimbing up the lattice we leaned up against the fence.

These photos were taken during the Christmas holidays. The plants have grown heaps since then, I'll have recent pics of them in the next post so stay tuned!

My new workplace

2006-01-11T18:30:00.000+11:00

Late in the afternoon now, past the 5pm knock-off time and I'm still sitting here at my desk. Since I have my camera with me, I thought I might take some pictures to put into a post.

My little cubicle with its 3 LCD screens; one of which is part of the server infrstructure that I manage (leftmost in the pic), one of which is part of the desktop computer I am provided with, and finally one that I purchased from Dell myself just so I could have a dual-screen setup on my main computer.

Here's a closer pic of my main computer with its screens. They're both 19" Dell Ultrasharps and actually look much nicer than in the photo. I'm rather fussy about my interface devices, hence the dual-screens, ergonomic keyboard, and basic optical mouse.

I hold the position of Systems Administrator, one of a team of 4 who focus on Windows Server systems. Having said that, there are still a number of Unix systems currently under my management running Solaris and Debian. On my desktop computer I have Suse Linux installed as a virtual machine under VMWare. Keeps things interesting, don't you think? :) This is what my desktop looks like typically... *ahem* there's usually quite a few more apps open, it's just that it's getting late in the evening and I'm already off the clock now.

Time for me to head home! The wife's just called and I've got to meet her at the car.

I'll bet Sam and Rosie are getting hungry too....

New watch!

2006-01-11T12:53:00.000+11:00

This was Noon's Christmas present! She actually got to open it early :)

I hope you've all had a good year-end break and a happy New Year. As for Noon, Sam, Rosie and myself, we spent our time mostly relaxing around the house. Had deliberately planned to keep everything nice and quiet, with trips to the park and the beach for the dogs. Was very restful, I think.

Am settling into my new job here. Surprised that I'm actually enjoying the days at work! Must be the new challenges and the friendly environment :)

Dogs and Christmas presents

2005-12-20T19:15:00.000+11:00

Been a long time between updates on how Sam and Rosie are doing. Well, I'm happy to say that they're both fine. Still happy as always and romping around the yard with their toys as usual.

Managed to get them to sit down together for a photo.

Sam and Rosie at play.

Noon and I were up in Sydney on Sunday, we both had a craving for yum-cha and there aren't any decent places to have this in our area. So off we went in the morning, and got there in time for brunch. After filling up on a variety dumplings, spring rolls and buns, we headed off to do a bit of window shopping.

As it turned out, Noon was browsing in a handbag shop and a nice leather bag caught her eye. I decided to get it for her as her Christmas present. Was nice and soft, and large enough to hold all her stuff without being overly bulky.

On an impulse, I also decided to get Noon another, more expensive, present for Christmas. Here's the wrapped box... anyone want to take a guess as to what's inside?

How about a little hint?

Filler post

2005-12-16T14:51:00.000+11:00

What does your pooch get up to when you're not home?

No that's not Sam, and it's not Rosie either. Noon and I don't own a dishwasher :)

Credit goes to Richard Miller for sending it through, we enjoyed it and thought you might too.

Not forgotten

2005-12-09T16:48:00.000+11:00

I realise that updates and posts to this blog have been few and far between recently. I've not forgotten to write and maintaining this place is still important to me.

It's just that there have been a great many developments happening in my professional life at the moment, with a major change imminent within the next fortnight. These developments have been good for me - in essense I have secured a promotion of sorts, and confirmation in a role in which I wish to develop my skills.

What's not so good is that this has (I believe) precipitated a major shift in the operations of my team of colleagues, all of whom I consider very close and dear friends. This change was forced upon them, and while it may or may not represent an improvement in their professional careers, only time will tell.

I still feel responsible, however, and will have to deal with these feelings over the weekend.

What the???

2005-12-06T10:25:00.001+11:00

Saw this at the supermarket, had to get it! Check out the instructions on the back.

"...an authentic Malay style meal in minutes!"
Hmmm, okay then!

Having trouble finding the proper ingredients to cook it up though, never thought it would be that difficult getting halal pork...

Pork chops for dinner!

2005-12-01T10:14:00.000+11:00

You know how sometimes you just run out of ideas for what to cook for dinner? Happened to us last night. We were scratching our heads trying to figure out whether we felt like eating out or having a meal at home. Noon said we had long beans in the fridge and I remembered watching a cooking show on the telly a few days ago about grilled pork chops on a bed of beans. And so we came up with.... orange marmalade and balsamic glazed pork chops, on a bed of beans and sweet potato mash!

First thing we did was season the chops with a bit of salt and freshly ground black pepper, then seal and brown both sides of the meat on a lightly oiled pan. The glaze/sauce was a mixture of orange juice (2 oranges), orange marmalade (2 tablespoons), brown sugar (1 tablespoon), and a generous dash of aged balsamic vinegar. After the meat was browned, we poured the sauce into the pan and turned the meat to coat. We then left the whole thing to simmer on a very low heat for 40 minutes to reduce the sauce and slightly stew the meat.

We brought Sam and Rosie out for a walk to the park while we waited. When we got back, it was time to get the beans ready. We boiled them whole for just a few minutes...

...before plunging them into iced water to stop them from being overcooked and to retain the bright green colour.

While that was being done, Noon got the sweet potato cooked in the microwave and then proceeded to mashing it up.

And with all that done, it was time to plate up! The beans went on the plate first...

Followed by the sweet potato mash...

And finally the chops went on top, along with a generous drizzle of the now thickened sauce!

Opened up a nice bottle of wine and sat outside on the deck for an al-fresco meal :) The meat was nice and tender, and the sauce was tangy and fruity. Definitely something we will repeat in the future!

Not bad, eh? From not having a clue about what to eat to whipping up a nice little meal for ourselves!

Rosie's swollen face

2005-11-25T12:51:00.000+11:00

Woke up yesterday morning to find Rosie's face all swollen around the eyes and lips. Noon was in a bit of a panic but I'd gotten used to Sam having all sorts of allergies that I put it off to her having stuck her face into some grass or bushes she was allergic to.

With that, we decided there wasn't much we could do so off we went to work. I'd intended to call the vet to arrange for an appointment later in the afternoon. The plan was for us to wait until we got back from work to see if the swelling had gone down, we'd assess it and if needed, we'd then bring her to the vet.

Instead, when I rang up, I was told that I should bring Rosie in immediately. The vet thought it was most likely an allergic reaction to a bee sting or insect bite, and complications could arise causing difficulty with Rosie's breathing. Sounded serious enough and I couldn't bear to consequences should the worst case scenario arose. So, off I went to pick Rosie up from home and dropped her off at the vet where she was to be given medication to counteract the swelling and where she would be kept under observation for the rest of the afternoon.

Here's proof that you can never keep a good dog down! She had her favourite toy in her mouth when greeting me when I got home to pick her up :) Looked really comical having it in her mouth with her face all swollen up like that, and her tail was going at a hundred miles an hour wanting to play.

Am happy to report that Rosie's swelling has gone down almost completely this morning. She was looking like her old self again, and was tumbling all over the yard with Sam when Noon and I woke up. I personally think it was from a spider bite. The weather has been warming up lately and quite a few spiders have been spotted around the house. Big huntsmen that are not poisonous but can still give a pretty nasty bite.

Unfortunately, because of the dogs' nature, Rosie's unlikely to learn from the mistake and avoid spiders in future... that's what the vet told us. Silly dog... ah well, that's life!

Sunday outing

2005-11-24T08:30:00.000+11:00

Last Sunday, Noon and I went to attend a baby shower picnic for a work colleague. We thought that since it was an outdoor picnic, we could bring Sam and Rosie along with us. We kept in firmly in mind that this was the first time we'd be bringing the dogs out to a situation where there would be lots of kids running around, as well as strangers whom they hadn't met before. Despite this, we wanted Sam and Rosie to hopefully learn to socialise and behave themselves in public.

Here they are waiting to be let out the gate. Got rather impatient after a while, they knew we were up to something what with all the bustling around and putting the collars and leads on.

We loaded them into the boot where (we think) they're more comfortable with the flat floor

They seem to like sticking their heads between the seats' headrests, alternating between looking forwards at us and backwards at the scenery and cars behind us. Consequently, I've had to clean up snot marks on my rear windscreen everytime after we have them sitting in the boot.

Took a bit of effort, and quite a few stern commands, but in the end we managed to get them sitting still and not wandering around bothering all the other people there. But honestly, I think it was only because we had food in our hands and wouldn't give it to them until they behaved. Sam and Rosie got to eat lots of things that day... cabanossi, cheese, leftover sandwiches, smoked salmon, shrimp, crackers...

Sam was a big hit with the girls :)
Everyone wanted to cuddle him!

Rosie, of course, was up to her usual tricks - fetching anything that anyone threw for her! After a while you could tell she was bushed, she was slow in retrieving, and plodded slowly when the stick was thrown.
And yet the kids kept on throwing the blooming stick!

All in all a very enjoyable day for the four of us. Was mid-afternoon when we got home, and Sam and Rosie crashed into their beds and slept right up till dinner time. They're not very fit, those two... Tsk! Tsk!

Homestay

2005-11-22T13:37:00.000+11:00

I'd mentioned previously that I was away at training in Sydney a week ago. Noon came up to join me for two nights at the hotel, kinda like a short getaway for the two of us.

That meant we had to make sure Sam and Rosie were taken care of during the time we were away. We weren't too keen on having them put into the boarding kennels because they would have to be kept in locked kennel cages (not as bad as it sounds, and they get let out for exercise twice a day). Instead, we found this website - Roseground Labradors - which offered homestay accommodation for dogs.

I jumped on the phone and rang up, and was told that Joanne and Mark (the minders) would be happy to have Sam and Rosie over while we were away. Noon and I went over to visit that same afternoon and met Joanne and Mark in person, along with their two lovely children. They had a beautiful house with a nice backyard for the dogs to play in. And what's more, their place was just a few streets away from where Noon and I live! Here's a picture of the upper storey of the house, you can just see the backyard under the balcony.

The backyard was divided into two separate sections, where visiting dogs could be placed for 'timeouts' if they got too rowdy/grumpy/aggressive. Joanne and Mark had dogs of their own as well - Jazz and Molly. We were told that as long as Sam and Rosie were housetrained, the would be allowed to come into the house with the family when there were people at home. Oh, and we were also promised that they would get their daily exercise in the form of two walks daily or, if the weather was bad, games of fetch in the backyard.

As for food and sleep, they were happy to provide feeding routines and portions as specified by us (we provided the food, of course) and the dogs were allowed to sleep in the (very well) sheltered basement.

All this for $10 per dog per day! Sounds fantastic doesn't it?

Noon and I are happy to say that the arrangement lived up to our expectations, and more! Sam and Rosie were never confined to cages, they got to play to their hearts' content, they had constant human company and Rosie got to jump in for a swim in the family pool!

The feedback we got from Joanne and Mark when we went to pick up our kids was that they had been very well behaved throughout. They told us the kids were never jumped on; Molly, Jazz, Sam and Rosie all got on very well (Rosie and Molly in particular), and that Sam and Rosie did not end up destroying anything around the house. Not sure if any holes were dug though... I imagine there would have been at least some...

And you know what the most important thing was? Sam and Rosie both looked extremely happy to be there! Check out the following pictures to see for yourself!

I'm sorry I didn't take too many photos, would have like one with Joanne and Mark and their kids (and dogs). But suffice to say that this will not be the last time Sam and Rosie stay over with them.

And Mark, if you're reading this, you were right. Sam and Rosie were exhausted when they got home with us! The couple of days of playing with Jazz and Molly tired them out so much they slept for the entire day! :)

Back to Thailand

2005-11-16T13:10:00.000+11:00

Apologies first of all, for not having updated the blog in the past week and a half. I was away at a training course all last week and had no chance to write and post anything. Was back at work on Monday and had a heck of a time then and the day after just catching up on jobs and meetings I had missed in the previous week.

And if that's not enough, I'm scheduled to take a server systems certification exam tomorrow morning! So it's another trip on the train up to Sydney again. Finally, to top it all off, I've got a very important calendar entry for Friday morning. *Sigh* Hopefully things will calm down once I hit the weekend.

For now, I thought I might post an entry from my old photo archives. This one comes from two years ago, back in 2003. In December of that year, my parents and I made arrangements to visit Noon's family in Thailand to discuss our (then) impending marriage. Noon was with us as we traveled through Bangkok and up to her hometown of Udonthani.

We visited the Bang Pa-In Summer Palace first, was a pretty big place but we managed to hire a golf cart to drive around the compound instead of having to walk. Have to mention here that Noon's parallel parking abilities here were somewhat... *ahem, edited*

Next stop was the Ayutthaya ruins. It was rather hot in the sun that day so we didn't spend all that much time wandering around. Still, it was a nice place to visit and, for me, interesting to absorb the historical significance of the city.

We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant situated by the riverside, and let Noon do the ordering for us. She got us a green curry chicken dish with fermented noodles, and a crispy pork knuckle that was tender and moist on the inside. It's great when you have a local guide who not only speaks the language but also knows what to order!

After our trip, we returned to Bangkok where we met up with our good friends Off and Nid. We got to know them while they were here in Australia, and they have since returned to Thailand upon completion of the University studies. They brought us to a great Thai restaurant in Siam Square.

Here are just some of the dishes we ordered. Lots of vegetables, and fish, and prawns, and meat... Turned out the be a great big feast of traditional Thai food! Yum!!

And at the end of the meal, the delicate desserts Thailand is so famous for! Those little treats looked almost too good to eat!

From Bangkok, we made our way up to Udonthani where Noon's family live. Believe it or not, the have elephants walking past the front of the house every evening with their handlers. The handlers would have combs of bananas or sticks of sugar cane for sale. One would purchase these bananas or sugar canes and feed them to the elephant. I personally believe this is a great thing to do, seeing as the animals have lost their homes due to human encroachment into their natural habitat and have had to resort to other means for survival. And one cannot truly expect the handlers to be able to offer their charges a home and at the same time afford to pay for its food all by themselves. Dad was immensely taken by the elephant as it walked by.

The evening we got into town, Noon's family brought us out for dinner by the lakeside. Yummy food all over again :) That's Noon's sister and grandmother in the photo on the right.

As I said before, the purpose of this trip was so that our respective families could meet to discuss arrangements for our marriage. So, after dinner, we proceeded back to the family home. Noon and her brother had to translate because they were the only ones there who could speak both English and Thai. All in all, the discussions went smoothly.

The following morning, Noon brought us to the local markets where we browsed around and picked up some food for breakfast. There were grilled and fried meats, fried dough (great with the local coffee!), packaged sticky rice or noodle packs, and barbecued fish and chillies.

One thing you don't want to be at the market is pig-headed... you might end up on the chopping block!

I mentioned before that Noon's grandmother is over 80 years of age, and still runs a tobacco stall at the market every morning. Well, here's the proof!

We were treated to a Vietnamese lunch that day, after which my Mum and Dad caught a flight home to Malaysia. I stayed on with Noon for a few more days, before catching a flight back to Australia.

Rainy days

2005-11-04T09:55:00.000+11:00

Sam and Rosie seem to love it when it rains. They don't really care about getting wet, in fact they enjoy it! So long as they get to play in the mud. Here's what we came home to one evening...

....

Rosie was covered in mud!..................... And so was Sam!.........

Both of them covered in mud, and sitting in their beds!!!

The very next morning and they're both clean again!
Guess where all that mud went??
*grumble grumble grumble*
...mud on my white walls...
*grumble grumble grumble*

Make me clean my walls will ya? You know how difficult it is to get those stains off?? I'll show you... BATH TIME!!!

Ha ha! Who's laughing now?!

After a whole lot of playing and mucking around, they collapse in an exhausted heap for a snooze. At last, some peace and quiet for Noon and me!

Sometimes they sleep inside...

And sometimes they sleep outside.
This is Sam giving his best "go-away-leave-me-alone" look to Rosie.

No such luck, she crawls in on top of him anyway.

Rosie is FAT!!!

2005-11-02T12:43:00.000+11:00

It's official, Rosie's a tad overweight! The vet said so!

Even at 28kgs (and significantly less than Sam's weight), she's been deemed a little too rounded for her size. So it's time for our fat little girl to go on a diet. We've been advised to cut her food by a third and leave it at that until she loses a few kilos.

Guess the piece of cheesecake I gave them this morning didn't help...

Meanwhile, here are some more puppy pics of her that I dug up from my archives.

Pretty isn't it?
The grass, I mean... before she decided it looked better all torn and dug up!

Here she is, enjoying her (then) new rope chew toy on her (then) new futon mattress. Check out those sharp little puppy teeth. They were lethal, I tell ya!

That's a cheese-flavoured rawhide chew. Was funny how she ended up with yellow lips and tongue after a while.

If you hadn't noticed by now, Rosie likes to chew! Anything goes... even the spiky plants and ferns we have in the yard. This was our neighbours' kids' ball kicked over our fence, we thought we'd let her play with it a little and then return it... Bad move! A couple of minutes was all it took for her to puncture it. Ooops, sorry kids, we'll buy you a new one if you like.

Wedding Slideshow

2005-11-01T11:45:00.000+11:00

Have decided to upload the slideshow file shown at our wedding in Thailand. It's a montage of old and recent photos of Noon and myself, along with the song we chose to be "our" song.

Some of the animation and effects may look a bit corny, that's because Noon and I had no creative control over its making. We just provided the scanned pics and the song, the studio took care of the rest and gave us the final product as is. But corny effects aside, we still kinda liked it :)

Just a warning in advance, the file has been resized to make it smaller, but it still weighs in at over 10MB so you really do not want to be on dial-up when attempting to download it.

Having said that, here's the download link - Wedding.wmv (10.6MB)

Enjoy. And if you care to, let us know what you think.

A day at the beach

2005-10-31T17:00:00.000+11:00

Well, not really a whole day... more like a couple of hours.

Brought Sam and Rosie to a beach which was also designated off-leash area for dogs a couple of days ago. We'd been to the park so often that we thought a change in scenery would be good for them. Plus being a legitimate off-leash area meant we could let them run to their hearts' content chasing birds and the like.

They seemed a bit intimidated by the waves initially, especially when it washed up on them and got their coats wet on the bottom. But they did have fun chasing Noon and I around and kept running back and forth between us as we walked along. Kept a close eye on them just in case coz we were afraid they might just dash into the sea. Neither of them had actually swum at the beach before, although Rosie likes wading around in ponds of still water.

They both went exploring a fair bit, up and down the little sand dunes. Didn't stray too far from us though... kept looking over their shoulders at us as if to asking us to keep up with them. We didn't, and after a while, they got the idea we weren't going along with them. Then they'd both come bounding back to Noon and me.

They also met up with other dogs along the beach too. Sam loves playing with newfound friends; don't let his size fool you, he's still a puppy at heart and once he sees another dog, he has selective hearing loss and will never heed any calls to return. I personally don't like this in him - his size makes him intimidating and seeing a huge dog running right at you doesn't instill a whole lot of confidence, no matter how friendly it looks! Kids are a major concern as well, since Sam and Rosie love kids and like nothing better than to tumble around with them and lick their faces silly. I can only imagine the apprehension that goes through the parents' minds when they see Sam bounding up to their toddlers. Gotta get this under control, methinks.

Anyway, on this occasion, Sam and Rosie met up with a friendly dog who was happy enough to run around with them and play tag for a little bit. They got quite a good workout doing so, giving Noon and I a bit of a break from keeping them company the whole time.

And what do you do when you're buggered from all that running? Plop your butt down under the cool and comfy shade of the beach umbrella! That's my Mum in the pics, Dad got displaced by Sam when he came around all dripping and wet. They look pretty content, don't they? Cheeky little buggers!

When they looked like they'd had enough and didn't want to run off anymore, we brought them home. Had to wash them off to get rid of the salt and sand. Don't think they liked that part very much, kept trying to run off, but that's the price you pay for having fun at the beach :)

Sam's 1st Birthday

2005-10-27T12:54:00.000+10:00

Our little Sammy turned 1 year old on Tuesday the 25th!

We decided to have a birthday party for him, complete with party hats and cake.

Both Sam and Rosie were happy to take pics with us... after some persuasion :)

Mum and Dad got in on the action too!

Mum insisted on getting them a BBQ dinner that night as a special treat. They each had 1 piece of steak, 1 lamb chop, and two sausages. And I made sure the meat wasn't too thoroughly cooked.

And here's the birthday boy with his cake!

Talk about having your cake and eating it! :)

We got Sam a simple banana cake. Had wanted to get him a carrot one instead, but that was sold out previously. We only let them eat half the cake that night, didn't want them overdoing it and getting sick as a result. Sam and Rosie got the other half the next afternoon for tea :)

Happy Birthday Sammy!!

Wedding, December 11th '04 - Thailand (Part 2)

2005-10-20T16:15:00.000+10:00

Here we go, part 2 of my wedding adventure in Thailand!

The morning events concluded at about 1pm, but by the time we wrapped things up and adjourned back to the hotel it was almost time to get started on preparations for the evening ceremony. Didn't get much time to rest at all.

Noon had to get into her dress and had to have her hair and make-up done again. Was really nice of her sister for being there to help and keep Noon company.

Here are photos of the banquet hall prior to the arrival of the guests. Surprising that they could accommodate all our 500 invites and still have plenty of room to spare.

The wedding cake, ice sculptures and decorations were all provided by the hotel as part of our wedding package.

I did say that we had 500 guests, didn't I? Well here's what it looked like from the stage when they all turned up!

The evening kicked off with Noon and I getting water poured over our hands by each and every one of our guests (with the exception of children younger than ourselves). I believe this was symbolic of us receiving well wishes of luck and prosperity from our elders. We had to kneel the entire time but luckily cushioned paddings were provided for us, but we had wrinkly, pruny hands by the end of it all :)

A picture with family and we were on to the requisite speeches. Noon delivered hers in both Thai and English, the latter for the benefit of my side of family as well as our friends from overseas. My speech was completely in English, but the Master of Ceremonies was provided a translation transcript of it in advance.

The cutting of the cake! There really wasn't much cake to go around, and not everyone had some. Heck, I don't think I even got to have a slice myself :)

We also had to light a few candles too, and at the conclusion of the evening event pinch them out with our fingers. I must say the props provided were quite elaborate indeed, was impressed by all the detail work on altar and its decorations.

Managed to take some pictures with our respective families once we got off the stage.

Had to pose outside the banquet hall for photos with all the guests, but I still like the ones with just me and my wife alone best :)

Remember Iain who gave Noon away at our Australian wedding? Well here he is with his wife Robyn at our Thailand wedding. Yes, they came all the way over just to be with us! Noon and I were both very touched.

And last, but definitely not least, our two very good friends Off and Nid, whom we'd come to know while at University in Australia. They're both living in Thailand now, and had been instrumental in helping us with all manner of arrangements. We couldn't have pulled things off without them.

And there you go! That's the story of our wedding told on Sam and Rosie's blog :)

Noon and I were exhausted at the end of it all, and at times things were less than smooth but we got through it. Was a rather interesting event, I think... and I'm still learning more of the Thai culture with each and every visit I make to the country.

Wedding, December 11th '04 - Thailand (Part 1)

2005-10-19T17:05:00.000+10:00

Noon and I had our second wedding ceremony on the 11th of December 2004. This time it was held in Noon's hometown of Udonthani in Thailand.

Many of Noon's family and relatives did not manage to travel to our wedding in Australia previously because of distance and cost. This time, we wanted to bring the occasion to them so they could celebrate along with us. Noon's side of the family made up the bulk of the 500-guest list, with only 10 of my family members and friends in attendance from Malaysia and Australia.

Before we go any further, let me state for the record that I cannot speak Thai. And Noon's family, with the exception of her eldest brother and younger sister, do not speak English. So you can imagine the interesting time we had. I basically tried to smile and gesture my way through the entire ceremony (very clumsily, I might add) while Noon did her best to translate.

Basically, the events of the day were split into two parts.

First the morning ceremony. Ours consisted of the customary groom's procession to the bride's residence, followed by a passage through 3 symbolic gates, and a blessing ceremony by a group of monks chanting for a happy and prosperous future for the two of us. Pictures and comments as follows, enjoy!

My procession began a few doors down from where Noon was waiting. I came bearing gifts, so to speak :) I can't recall exactly what was carried along, but I know for sure that that big bundle was a whole stack of cash. Imagine if you will $30,000 in $10 bills. And all in cash too! That was my dowry payment to the bride's family for their consent to our wedding. Other assorted gifts included jewelry, gold and fruits.

At the end of the procession, I came to the 3 symbolic gates. In order to pass through these, I had to negotiate the price of passage - a bribe in essence :)
Each successive gate cost more than the one before and by the time I got the last gate I was dealing in Australian dollars!

Once past the gates, I handed over the dowry. Noon's Mum was obviously happy with the money :)

Now that I had access to Noon, we could begin the traditional blessing ceremony. A group of Buddhist monks were invited from the local temple to chant blessings upon our marriage. I was told I would have to sit kneeling for the duration of the ceremony, about 2 hours or so, but they were kind to me and allowed me to sit normally because I was a foreigner.

During the course of the chanting session, Noon and I were tasked with preparing the food offerings for the monks. Again a symbolic gesture, we placed food items into the offering bowls together.

At the conclusion of the blessing ceremony and following the departure of the monks, we had a photography session with various friends and family. Seen on the photo on the left are Noon's mum and dad, and her brothers and sister. The photo on the right are of us and our parents.

Photo on the left are Noon's extended family, and the one on the right is her grandmother who is about 90 years old and still manages a tobacco stall at the local market every morning. Hats off to the grand matriarch!

And this photo of my Mum and Dad that I really like.

Finally, with everything finished and done with in the morning, we could sit down and get a bite to eat from the catered buffet. It was already lunch time by then.

Me and my new sister-in-law on the left, and me and my wife on the right.

The traditional form of greeting in Thailand. And the same for saying a big Thank You for sharing the experience with us!

Well, that was the morning in a nutshell. I had fun reliving the memories, and I hope you enjoyed reading and looking at the photos. Part 2 to follow tomorrow, covering the evening events with another lot of pictures.

Wedding, July 10th '04 - Australia

2005-10-17T15:35:00.000+10:00

As mentioned previously, Noon and I were married last year. Our first ceremony was a simple affair held here in Australia, more specifically in the city of Wollongong on the south coast of NSW. We decided to have a local ceremony because a large and significant part of our lives belonged here in Australia (it was where we met, after all) and we had many close friends we'd met and grown to love during that time.

Noon and I had picked a spot just by the beach, on a grassy knoll between two tall pine trees. The invitation list was small and we wanted to keep the ceremony very simple. The idea was that we could have an intimate gathering without the need for p.a. systems or formalised seating. The marriage ceremony itself was kept to a maximum of 20 minutes anyway, because we didn't want to keep everyone on their feet for too long :)

Here are some pictures of the wedding bouquet. Noon picked the flowers and the arrangement a month in advance. She chose champagne roses with purple tulips.

Next some pics of the beachside ceremony itself. The weather took a turn for the worse just as we started, but luckily the rain didn't turn too heavy during the time we were outside.

As Best Man, Mitchell had the rings

Iain Stewart gave Noon away at the ceremony. Noon and I have known him and his wife Robyn from the time we met, and they've been like family to us the entire time.

And here we are exchanging vows and rings. Iain was nice enough to hold the umbrella for us when it started to drizzle lightly.

Finally done with the readings and vows, we sat down to sign the register.

Following the ceremony, we adjourned to a reception at a local Thai restaurant called Jasmine Rice. It's a favourite of ours (and quite a few of our guests, I'm told) and it helped that we were friends with the owner and staff of the establishment.

My family had flown in for the ceremony, including my sister.

Pics of Sarah (Noon's Bridesmaid) and Mitchell (my Best Man).

Our wedding cakes. White chocolate mud cake in the middle.

And there you have it! Selected pics and a quick rundown on our wedding in lovely Wollongong. I think Noon and I were happy we kept it small (no more than 30 guests in total), because we had a second ceremony in Thailand for those relatives of ours who couldn't/didn't make the trip over to Australia.

And that second wedding had....... 500 guests!!!

Some photos

2005-10-12T10:05:00.000+10:00

Decided to try my hand at scanning some photo negatives. Used a Canon scanner, not very high-end, and apparently very limited when it comes to scanning negatives.

Anyway, here's how they turned out. I'm sure something could have been done to balance the colours and adjustments could have been made, but these were the raw, unedited scans converted to jpeg.

First up, Noon and me in traditional Thai garb for our wedding in Thailand.

Then some photos of Noon on her own. We were both given a range of costumes to choose and try on.

And this last one of myself, I hadn't had my haircut back then :)

These photos were taken in a studio in Bangkok, as part of our wedding package. There were quite a few more pictures taken, but the scanner was severely limited in what it could do with negatives. As it is, even the ones put up today had to be (badly) cropped just to fit into the scanning attachment.

Hmm... I think for some of the upcoming posts I might upload pics from our wedding. Gotta sort through them first.

Weekend getaway

2005-10-11T10:35:00.000+10:00

Back in June of this year, Noon and I took time out for a weekend getaway. We wanted to bring Sam and Rosie along with us so we set about looking for a pet-friendly place. We found Rock Lily Cottages B&B on the Internet and knew at once that was the place! As mentioned on the website, dogs were welcome indoors as long as they followed certain rules such as no jumping on the furniture and no sleeping in the beds provided for guests.

Rock Lily Cottages B&B was located in a town on the south coast of NSW called Brogo. Brogo was in a region famous for its cheesemaking industry, called Bega. The place was just 4 hours' drive away and Noon and I had planned our trip with regular breaks in between for the dogs to get out and stretch their legs.

Sam was obviously excited, he gets that way every time we bring him for car rides. He jumped into the driver's seat before I could get in, the rascal.

We covered the back seat before rounding Sam and Rosie up, then bundled the two of them into the car and set off in the late morning. They played around a little bit for the first hour of the trip, then settled down after our first stop in the town of Nowra.

We made several other stops along the way, each time Sam and Rosie would come wide awake and start bounding around all over the place. But as soon as we got back in the car, they'd go out like a light! Was an uneventful journey all the way to the B&B, the dogs did not get carsick, were well behaved in the car, and slept most of the way.

I'd informed Delphine, the owner of Rock Lily, that we would be bringing our two dogs when I made the reservation. She'd very kindly left out two doggy biscuits for us on our arrival! Noon sat down for a nice cup of tea, while I wandered the grounds around our cottage.

The back of the cottage had a fenced area for keeping the dogs in if we were to go away for a bit without the dogs, but for the most part we didn't use it since we wanted to spend time with Sam and Rosie. The rest of the compound around the cottage was open with no fences. Sam and Rosie had free run of the place and we let them roam to their hearts' content.

Check out the view from the verandah! Awesome isn't it? The dogs were never far from the front door, the didn't wander off into the bush if Noon and I weren't going along with them. And quite often they'd be wanting to come back into the house with us.

The nights were rather cold, since it was winter in Australia after all. But the nice thing was the cottage had its own little fireplace! We got the woodfire going before climbing into bed, and the dogs had their futons setup right by the fire. They were really well behaved considering it was their first time sleeping the whole night indoors.

Part of our accommodation package included a breakfast hamper of bacon, eggs, and a freshly baked loaf of bread. The verandah outside the cottage was an awesome setting for a breakfast, especially with that view. I got up early to fix up the bacon and eggs for Noon, as well as Sam and Rosie's breakfasts.

We stayed two nights at the cottage, were feeling very relaxed by the end of it and didn't want to leave. Stopped by at Bega and some little historical towns along the way back. One of them had a beautiful meadow of green grass.

We're now looking for other dog-friendly holiday accommodation in our region, some place we can drive to and spend time relaxing and enjoying ourselves, and sharing the experience with our two dogs.

When hunger strikes

2005-10-07T10:49:00.000+10:00

Was chatting with Noon last night while preparing our dinner together. We somehow strayed into talking about my time spent at boarding school in Singapore. More specifically what I had to do at nights when I was hungry and it was almost time for lights-out.

Mind you, the situation was not limited to just myself, it was pretty much the majority of the student population as well.

By far the most convenient and satisfying quickie snack/meal was the Instant Noodle.

All hail the almighty Instant Noodle.

Saviour of the rumbling belly, banisher of hunger pangs, redeemer of the less-than-satisfied appetite, able to banish late-night cravings in a mere 2 minutes, packaged conveniently in a hand-sized packet, packing sachets of delicious and flavoursome MSG goodness.

God to students/busy executives/single parents/children/adults of all ages, from all walks of life!

*Sigh*

Okay, back to boarding school. That place was a hole.

Meals would quite often be less than satisfying (a VERY generous statement, believe me!) and many a student would go to bed hungry. So, what were we to do? There were no amenities available to us, no refrigerators to store food or snacks, no hot water dispensers to fix up that late-night cup of tea/milo/hot chocolate. It was also a standing rule that no electrical appliances were allowed to be kept or used by students in their rooms.

So here we were - hungry kids with packets of Instant Noodles in our hands looking for a means of cooking them. The only source of hot water was... the showers! I kid you not, the showers were the only place we could get hot water from at that time of the night.

And even then, life was never quite so simple. You see, the toilets we had in the dormitory corridors did not have hot water! Only the large communal bathrooms on the lower floors had hot water showers in them, and these lower floors got locked prior to lights-out.

Being the ever resourceful individuals that we were (motivated by rumbling tummies), we worked out a way to get to these bathrooms. All action had to be carried out under the cover of darkness after lights-out and after the Housemaster had made his inspection rounds. Preparations had been made previously by rigging the locks in the stairwell doors so that they didn't engage by virtue of bits of paper being stuck into latching holes of said locks.

The designated lookouts would signal when the Housemaster had completed his post lights-out inspection rounds and a team would head to the stairwells. The doors would be pushed open and the bits of paper removed to hide any evidence of tampering. One person would remain on lookout duty while the rest would head into the bathrooms and start running the showers to get hot water for soaking the noodle cakes. Once the containers had been filled, we'd make our way back as quietly as we could back upstairs and into our rooms (it was too risky to stay downstairs in the bathrooms).

And so it was that after all this effort, we would have in our hot little hands a luke-warm half-cooked too-diluted serving of Instant Noodles! Still quite palatable, and the most important thing was that one did not have to go to bed hungry.

Some people did this more often than others, some carried out the operation solo when nobody else could be roped in, and some people would choose not take the risk and instead ate the noodle cakes raw. And from time to time, some people would get caught and had to face the consequences.

I hated my time there, 4 years of my life lost to that place. The whole experience had left an indelible mark on my character, I believe. And perhaps my indulgences now (where food is concerned) is a direct result of the experience described above... well, part of it anyway.

What the....?!?!

2005-10-04T15:37:00.000+10:00

This is an R-rated (Restricted) post.

No minors allowed beyond this point.

If you are under 18 years of age, navigate away from this post NOW!

Warning: DO NOT PROCEED if you are sensitive to graphically suggestive/explicit material.

This is your last chance to leave NOW and go somewhere SAFE!

By proceeding beyond this point, you hereby indicate that you are NOT a minor and that you consent to view the content of this site that may be deemed to be graphically suggestive, as mentioned above.

Dude, I am not kidding. Leave NOW or risk being scarred for life!!

SERIOUSLY!!!

.

.

.

Alright, you've been warned.... here you go.

And then a little bit later.... this.

I swear, this gave Andrew lasting nightmares! (Didn't it, Andrew?)

Weekend ramblings

2005-10-04T10:35:00.000+10:00

Yesterday (Monday) was a public holiday, so we spent a nice long weekend at home with the dogs. Did a bit of cleaning up around the house while at the same time having fun with Sam and Rosie. Here's an account of some of the things we got up to...

Remember how small Rosie was?
Well, she's grown... Caught her and Sam in bed together (again!) and decided to take a pic for comparison. See? Told ya she'd catch up :)
Noon weighed her on our bathroom scales and found she's now 28kgs

Seeing as the weather was sunny and warm on Saturday, we decided to give them a bath... after which they decided it would be nice to sit in the sun to dry off.

I previously had a hammock strung up in the backyard under a tree. Nice shady spot perfect for an afternoon snooze or a good book. Unfortunately, I'd left it out one afternoon and Sam and Rosie decided that it would make a nice tug-toy while mummy and daddy were away at work. It got wrecked, and I no longer had a hammock.

So... off we went on Sunday to get a new one! Guess who decided to give it a try!

Not to be outdone, Rosie tried to get in on the action as well. Unfortunately, Sam wouldn't budge and Rosie's not such a good jumper.

Sunday turned out to be a scorcher of a day! Temperatures outside were hitting the mid 30s, it seemed, and the only cool place to be was inside with the air conditioner on. Noon and I remembered that we had received an ice cream maker as a wedding gift last year, and thought it would be a good time to whip up a nice cool snack for the four of us (yes, the dogs too!). Banana ice cream, it would be!

Chucked all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and broke out our handy hand-held blender (another wedding gift!)

Just about ready to go... The mixture was then poured into the machine and left to churn.

We played around with Rosie while we waited, Noon flopped her ears back and took this picture.

After about 40 minutes, it was done. Well, Noon said it was.... methinks she simply couldn't wait any longer :)

We heaped a generous amount into Sam's and Rosie's bowls, and put the rest of it away for another portion for the next day. Oh, and Noon and I did have some ourselves too, of course.

I wonder if dogs get ice cream headaches. They gobbled it up pretty quick... guess they must like it then. Not bad, considering it was our first try at making homemade ice cream. It was also the dogs' first taste of the stuff :)

And here's what Noon cooked up for our dinner on Monday night. Chicken breast stuffed with ham and cheese, on a bed of penne pasta with cream of tomato and mushroom sauce. Was very yummy!

Hope everyone else had a good weekend!

We love to eat :)

2005-09-29T12:32:00.000+10:00

Let's be frank... some people eat to live; Noon and I, we live to eat!

Our weekly expenses are spent not on shopping sprees, no not even at periodic 'sales times', instead we find that we spend our money on food and groceries. We do tend to eat out from time to time, even making the occasional 1 1/2 hour trip up to Sydney just for food alone.

However, doing so on a frequent and regular basis would break the bank for us. So instead we try to cook up special meals at home on the weekends. Some recipes taken from cookbooks, some from television cooking shows, and some from friends and family.

Here are some pics of some of the things we've cooked and had for dinner in the past month or so.

First up, we had a barbeque spread from when my Mum and Dad came to visit back in July. On the menu were swordfish steaks, beef fillet steaks, honey soy chicken wings, lamb chops, sausages, grilled vegetables (zucchini, capsicum, and mushrooms) and a fresh leaf salad.
I'd thought that we had plenty of food, and there'd be some leftovers for Sam and Rosie (with the cooked bones removed, of course), but Dad had other ideas... nothing was left in the end.

During Mum and Dad's visit, we also decided to make sushi for dinner one night. Had an assortment of different fillings for the rolls in the pictures, from salmon to unagi to prawns, with combinations of Japanese mayonnaise, rocket, snowpea sprouts, alfalfa, cucumber and salmon roe.

If anyone's interested in specific combinations that we have found go well together, feel free to leave a message in the comments section and I'll get back to you via email.

Then a couple of weeks later, Noon and I had a craving for duck! And this is what we came up with... Spiced duck breast on a bed of roasted potatoes, onions and carrots, with steamed broccolini. The sauce was made from crushed garlic, red wine, stock, cranberry sauce and a dash of vinegar.

This next one's a simple salmon steak dish. Mildly seasoned with sea salt and crushed black pepper, panfried for a crisp skin and then quickly sealed on high heat to preserve an inside that was still moist (Noon and I love raw salmon sushi, hence we didn't want to overcook this dish). The sauce was made from olive oil, balsamic vinegar, capers and parsley.

Noon and I are Asian, both of us are Chinese, she being from Thailand and myself from Malaysia. And while we do cook a lot of Asian cuisine, we also believe in not limiting ourselves that one particular kind of food or cooking style. Overall, I think we've had a very good run where experiences are concerned, and we're constantly on the lookout for different foods to try.

And Andrew, if you're reading this, hurry up and finish with whatever it is you're doing; we want to organise another food trip up to where you are in Sydney. Want to catch up and go try out all those eats you've been telling us about!

P.S. - Sam and Rosie said to say "Hello" :)

One more from the archives...

2005-09-27T10:35:00.000+10:00

Here's another email that I sent out in March of this year. It was actually a follow-up to the original email of Rosie's first night at home.

Noon and I have observed some very surprising things with the two dogs right from the beginning. Firstly, they don't fight over food! We thought we had to be extra careful when it came to feeding time, had to make sure Sam's bowl was put down first and then Rosie's to follow at a distance. What happened was we put Sam's bowl down, Rosie slipped out of our grasp and ran over. Sam was still sitting there waiting for the 'okay' command to allow him to eat, and here Rosie was sticking her nose into his bowl. No growling from Sam, no getting up, nothing! He just sat there looking at Rosie and then at us. We quickly let him go, pulled Rosie away and then directed her to her bowl. After a while, Rosie wandered over to Sam again and they both happily ate out of his bowl!! Again, no growling or fighting, just two dogs with their noses in the food. So back and forth they went, Sam finished her food while she was still eating his, and him wandering back and sticking his head in with Rosie's!

The other thing was that they don't gulp their food, Sam actually chews now!! And Rosie too. When we first got Sam home, he practically INHALED his food! Now instead of rushing since there's competition, they both actually take their time at eating! Another strange thing - Sam seems to be learning from Rosie. Bad habits, to be sure, but he's learning all the same. She's already taught him to destroy one of the plants. Sam's never touched it before, especially after we growled at him for chewing on the leaves, but now you can often catch them both chewing on the bare branches of the little bush.

Sam like bounding around in the backyard, especially when we're playing fetch with his toys. When Rosie tries to join in she often gets bowled over when Sam barrels into her at full speed. The yapping, growling, teeth baring and biting then comes in... Sam gets excited (and clumsy) and in the end, Rosie has to retreat (yapping all the way) to her safe-place: under the steps!! Sam's too big to fit under these steps now, so Rosie's worked out that she has sanctuary here.

There was one occasion two nights ago, however, that I went outside to see what Rosie was yapping on about, to find Sam stuck in the gap under the steps! He'd somehow managed to wriggle himself in but could not get back out. Rosie was indignant that he was in her private spot and was sitting just outside the opening yapping away at him! I cracked up, I really did!!

Rosie's using that spot less and less now. She's got no problems bounding up the steps (Sam was too intimidated to try for almost 2 weeks after we brought him home). She sleeps up on the deck, Sam leaves her alone when she's asleep, and they seem to play quietly when we leave them alone.

I think Sam's got the idea now that she has to be a bit more gentle with her when he grabs her ears or head between his jaws. They seem to be getting along much better now too.

Woke up this morning to find them in bed together again with Sam trying to pull her ear while she had his cheek in her mouth. Sam weighs 20kgs at the moment, and Rosie's just 4kgs. Big discrepancy there, but that should even up soon :)

Rosie's first night at home

2005-09-23T12:10:00.000+10:00

This post has been taken from my email archives, was originally sent out to family and friends in early March of this year. I'd written quite a bit in that email, and thought I might save myself some trouble by using it here.

- Just to repeat, this was an email sent out in early March 'o5 -

Well, Rosie's been with Noon and me for the better part of a week now, we brought her home last Friday on the 4th. She was 6 and a half weeks old at the time and much smaller than Sam was when we brought him home at 8 weeks. Rosie's much lighter in colour than Sam, perhaps the colour and shade that most people would associate Labradors with. Sam's family line had only black and chocolate labs though, so that's got to have something to do with his darker colouring. Rosie's mother and father on the other hand were both golden yellow coloured.

Before we brought Rosie home, she was already demonstrating that she was one of the more (most?) dominant pups in the litter, though not the largest by a long shot. She'd be the one to run up to the other pups and wrestle them to the ground when they were playing.

Rosie seemed docile enough when we were bringing her home in the car. We only managed to pick her up at 7.30pm in the evening. Got home, put her on the ground, and let Sam make his own way over to say hello. Sam was wary at first, but then went into overdrive - pushing Rosie around, trying to get his muzzle over her head and pushing her over with his paws... just the usual dominance assertion behaviour.

Rosie seemed to put up with this for a while, but lo-and-behold, she soon got tired of it and started dishing out some of her own instead!! Teeth bared, growling, yapping, and even biting Sam on his cheeks while he's got a hold on her ear! The noise was terrible, but I must say that at no point did Sam ever look threatening. His hackles were not raised, he wasn't growling or baring his teeth in an aggressive manner. If anything, I'd say he was wanting to play (albeit too roughly for a puppy so much smaller than he is).

Rosie tried hiding under our outdoor dining suite and even under Sam's hammock bed. Sam's now big enough and strong enough to shift these items by walking into them, so you can imagine the noise this was making. We tried leaving the two of them alone so they could sort out the whole dominance thing, but that didn't quite work out because Rosie's too strong-willed to give in, and Sam's too lenient on her.

Anyway, after much noise-making and furniture-shifting, they both finally grew tired and went to sleep. That was at 11pm and Noon and I went to bed at 11.30. Next thing I knew, I was woken up by a commotion going on outside. I came out to look, and they were at it again. Time was 12.30am. Hushed them up, crawled back into bed. Dozed off... commotion again at 1.30am. Cat napped after that... commotion at 3.30am. Snapped at them through the window and got Sam's attention. Went back to bed... Got woken up again at 5.45am. Same deal, quietened them down and tried to sleep again. Finally got up at 7.30am and decided that it was too eerily quiet so I went out to take a look.

And guess what? The two of them were in the sling bed together!!! Imagine my shock! Anyway, I *had* to get a picture of this (otherwise I wouldn't have believed it myself) but didn't want to go outside in case I woke them.

The picture was taken from inside of the house,
with the window closed and the flyscreen in the way.
Still, it didn't come out too bad!

Seriously, I just could not believe my eyes. The night before was so riotous and chaotic we weren't sure if the two dogs would get along. We were even wondering if it was a good idea leaving the little puppy alone with Sam on their very first night together.

...And then just look at them in bed together on the very first morning! Brought a tear to my eye :)

The furniture outside on the deck were a mess. Chairs had been pushed all over the place, water bowls spilled, even the big heavy table had been shifted. Was afraid all that noise during the night might have disturbed our neighbours, and the only respite we had were when they tired themselves out long enough to fall asleep.

Then they woke up and were back at it again!

Throughout the course of the weekend, we observed them playing together and even sharing toys.

It rained on Sunday, so we let them come inside to sleep. The standing rule is "No Playing Inside The House", and Sam seemed to get the idea after we told him off firmly. He's a smart boy, that one... when he wants to be...

Ever since that first morning, Sam and Rosie have curled up to sleep together every single night. Noon and I might put them to bed separately in their own hammocks, and even tucked them in with their own blankets, but in the morning they'd be snuggled up together again.

Little Puppy Rosie

2005-09-20T16:33:00.000+10:00

Around about January of this year, I was looking for a companion for little Sammy. Noon wasn't so sure about getting a second pup so soon after bringing Sam home, and indeed he had been a handful during that time too. Plus we'd been advised that it would be better to wait a little while before we added another dog to our family.

Still, I decided to go ahead anyway and started browsing advertisements on the net and in the papers. Call me stubborn and compulsive - I don't mind... always have been :)

Had originally wanted a beagle for a second dog; how could you resist those droopy eyes and floppy ears? Called around a few local breeders as well as the state's beagle club. Straight off I was told how hard it was to own/train a dog of this breed and despite the fact that I was prepared to put in the effort, I found the tone of these conversations very dissuading, which was a surprise.

Then a colleague of mine at work mentioned that her daughter's lab had just had a litter of 10 pups, all of which would be for sale. Noon and I talked it over and decided that since it was so much trouble getting a beagle, and since we were both so happy with Sam, getting a second labrador puppy might be a better move.

So off we went to visit the newborn pups, and since we were the very first in, we got first pick of the litter :)

Here's what we saw in the whelping box. Which one would you pick?

We couldn't really decide ourselves... they were all so tiny and cute. The one that Noon picked up literally fit into the palm of her hand - that's how small it was, at just a week old.

All the while, Bella, the pups' mum looked on, occasionally sniffing us as if to say "Be careful with my pup up there". She's a lovely dog, Bella, with a very friendly disposition and no aggression whatsoever.
Over the next couple of weeks, we went back to visit several times more and managed to pick one out of the litter that we liked. Here's how we made the choice:

Little Sammy was a rather darker shade of yellow... so we wanted a pup with a lighter coat.
Little Sammy seemed to frown a lot... so we wanted a pup that had a happier look on its face.
Little Sammy was a boy... so we wanted him to have a little sister to grow up with.

With that in mind, we ended up with.... Rosie!!

Once when we went to visit, the puppies were still asleep and had to be woken up for their meals.

At 6 weeks of age, the pups were ready to be sent home with their new owners. Noon and I picked Rosie up on a Friday evening after coming home from work. That first night at home was quite an adventure, let me tell you!

But that's a story for another blog entry :) That's coming up soon, I promise!

Gonna leave you all now with a few more pics of Rosie romping around with her littermates just before we brought her home.

Funnies 19/09/05

2005-09-19T10:48:00.000+10:00

Received some funny pics in my mailbox this morning, thought I might share them with everyone.

First one was sent in by Dad, entitled
"You know you're diving too fast when..."

This next one was sent in by Nathan.

If anyone has anymore amusing/funny pics, feel free to send them in. All contributions are welcome!

Hope you've all had a good weekend. I'd been away sick from work for 3 days in the past week, and there had just been so much to catch up on once I got back. With any luck things will be back to normal this week (I'm no longer coughing my lungs out) and I can finally put up the post on Rosie I'd been meaning to since last week.

A big thank you to those people who had commented on the previous posts, and also to Chase who's posted pics of her beagle x blue tick pups - go check out her little guys here.

Give a dog a bone

2005-09-15T12:12:00.000+10:00

Firstly, apologies for the lack of posts recently. I've been off sick with the flu and Noon's been busy with work.

Noon bought a couple of marrowbones from our local butcher yesterday. I'm back at work again today and the dogs have been left alone at home, so we thought it was a good time to give them the bones to keep them busy. Check out the size of the thing! It's been halved down the middle to expose the marrow inside, and I decided to hold it up just give a sense of how big it is.

Both of them were made to wait for permission before we let them loose on the bones. We believe in using food time for reinforcing the "sit-stay" command every day. Most times Sam's salivating so badly while he's sitting there that we don't have the heart to keep them waiting for too long.

More pics of the two of them sitting patiently, Sam with his usual houndog face.

And finally getting stuck into it! Yummy!

Not bad for $1 eh? That's what it cost Noon to get the marrowbone... the last time I went in there, I got charged $2 per bone!

Noon's MUCH better looking than I am :)

Little Puppy Sam

2005-09-12T14:48:00.000+10:00

Sam was born on the 25th of October 2004 to chocolate coloured parents. The litter was expected to turn out chocolate as well, but instead there were four yellow coloured pups! And Sam and his yellow littermates retained their parents' brown colouring in their noses and eyelining.

Around that time, I was looking for a puppy to join my wife and I at our new home. While browsing the Internet for breeders within the state I found an ad for labrador pups available for delivery just before Christmas. The timing was ideal for Noon and I because we were due to leave the country for our wedding in Thailand in early November, getting back into Australia the week before Christmas. As it turned out, we picked Sam up at the airport two days after we arrived back in the country.

It's a good thing too, that we got Sam just before Christmas. That meant that we could spend time at home helping him settle in into his new home. We actually had far fewer problems than we expected with this, he never once cried at night when we put him out to sleep in his new kennel. He'd spend the evening inside with us after dinner, woke up for the occasional romp and cuddle, and when we put him outside before we went to bed, he'd just settle in and fall asleep without any fuss.

Little Sammy had the most gorgeous green eyes when he was little, and he was little more than a ball of soft fur!

And he loved his toys too!

The next photos are of him when he was a
little bit older, sitting with me and getting
his first taste of bananas from Noon.

And finally, just for the sake of comparison, here's recent a pic of Sam, taken in July when he was just 9 months old :)

It's all about the food

2005-09-08T09:58:00.000+10:00

Vivan asked, "Goodness, what do you feed them? They are growing exponentially in size!"

Andrew said, "Man they're huge! What do they eat?"

Nathan emailed, "Good old labradors.... how much do you feed them?"

In response to all these questions I'd received about Sam and Rosie's diet, I thought I might post a photo entry of what they get to eat.

Breakfast kicks off at 8am

On the menu are: 2 1/2 cups of puppy kibble, 1 tablespoon of chunky canned dog food, carrot pieces, diced apple, 2 pieces of wheatbix (broken up), and a piece of crusty bread with a bit of marmalade (sometimes vegemite).

Next Up, Fruits

Fruits are next, can be anything - in this case whole oranges - other times apples or pears (whole or chopped for variety). Noon likes to scatter grapes around the yard too, to keep the two of them occupied with scavenging from time to time.

Dinnertime at around 7pm

Dinner's a pretty flexible affair. Depending on what we have on hand, Sam and Rosie might get sardines, raw mince, chicken frames or chunky canned dog food (of various flavours), along with either broccoli, string beans, caulifower, carrots or frozen mixed vegies. In this case, it's puppy kibble, lamb mince, rice, steamed broccoli, a whole carrot, and a dash of olive oil.

-
And sometimes the little buggers get lucky on the weekends...

Krispy Kreme anyone?

Sam finishing off our leftover pasta carbonara. Was too lazy to even get up.
-

They're both still growing pups at this stage, hard to tell, I know :) But we'd heard that large breeds such as labradors only reach adulthood close to 2 years of age. At that point we'll reduce their diet to one main meal per day.

Everything said and done, while Sam and Rosie aren't exactly lean, they're both still trim and most importantly NOT overweight.
Trust me!

Just like kids!

2005-09-07T12:04:00.000+10:00

Being puppies still (both less than a year old), Sam and Rosie sleep for the better part of the day. What normally happens is they both come into the house after their dinner and nap on their futon mats while Noon and I watch tv.

Then, at about 10.30pm or so we'd have to wake them up to put them out while Noon and I get ready for bed ourselves. Being winter in Australia at the moment, they get to wear their doggy coats to bed :)

The past couple of nights, however, have been different.

See, Noon and I had bought large marrowbones for Sam and Rosie to munch on and to keep them occupied while we were away at work. The marrow and meat on the bones would be gone by the time we get back in the evening but the leftover pieces would then serve as munch toys! Sam and Rosie have been enjoying these so much that they've opted to stay outdoors while we watch telly inside, chasing and teasing each other around the yard and on the deck. Every so often we hear a loud THUNK! as the bones are dropped on the planks.

We'd tried coaxing them into the house while leaving the bones outside but they'd just look forlornly at us over their shoulders and stand frowning at the door wanting to be let out. *Sigh* What else could we do but let them out? Then they'd be happy again and resume chasing each other around each with a bone in the mouth!

10.30pm last night - bed time and they were still munching loudly on their bones. Noon and I went outside to put them to bed. They didn't want to sleep, refused to drop their bones when we told them. Finally had to take it away from them and put the bones away where they couldn't reach. Again the forlorn look, again the frowning and 'please let me have my bone back.... please....' look.

Noon and I stood firm, "Sam, Rosie, BED!!"

One final look over their shoulders and they both slunked sulkily off towards their hammock beds. As we've been doing every night since the winter chill set in, we put their coats on and covered them both in their blankets and tucked them in to sleep.

I'd barely finished tucking Sam in before the boofhead started snoring! I mean the guy was fast asleep! Less than 5 minutes ago both he and Rosie were still maniacally chasing each other around the yard refusing to go to bed!

Seriously!

Out like a light!

I swear, the both of them are just like little kids!!

Introductions

2005-09-06T10:56:00.000+10:00

Hello and welcome to the inaugural post of the Sam&Rosie blog!

This site was started with the intention of sharing the experiences and joy my wife and I have with our two dogs - Sam and Rosie - both of whom are labrador retrievers. I'd written a few emails in the past to close family and friends interested in following their development and daily antics, and a blog seemed to be the next logical step towards making these updates more widely available and accessible.

Just a quick warning though... this blog is intentionally strongly photo-oriented. So for those with slow 'net connections, my apologies.

And now, on to the introductions!

First and foremost, my leading lady and the love of my life - my wife Noon!

I met - and promptly fell in love with - Noon in college about 6 years ago and we were married in July of last year. She's from Thailand but had completed her high school education in New Zealand prior to commencing University in Australia. Noon's currently in the process of completing her PhD in Chemistry. In addition to being brainy, she's also friendly, has a great personality, and is a fantastic cook!

Next up we have Sam!

Little Sammy (well, not so little anymore) was born in October '04 to chocolate coloured parents. Both he and some of his littermates turned out yellow but retained the brown colouring on his nose and eyes. Sam always did have a 'frowny' sort of face... leading to comments that he needed botox injections and a facelift! Despite looking sad a lot of the time, Sam's a happy and well-adjusted lab.

And finally we have Rosie!

Rosie's 3 months younger than Sam, born in January '05. Noon and I had wanted little Sammy to have a companion growing up seeing as we would be away at work during the day. Plus the fact that the only thing better (or worse, depending on how you look at it!) than one labrador puppy is TWO labrador puppies!

That's the introductions done for my part... What about me, you might ask? Well, I'll leave that to my wife to write about! (...hopefully...)

Stay tuned for further posts on Sam and Rosie, I plan to revisit my photo and email archives and tell the pups' stories from when we first brought them home right up till the present. After that, we'll just take it from there and hopefully keep this blog interesting with fresh stories as and when they occur.

Plus there may be some interesting, non-Sam-and-Rosie-related entries as well :)

Cheerio for now!

Coming soon...

2005-09-05T09:52:00.000+10:00