My sister Lydia and brother-in-law Eric moved to Melbourne a few weeks ago.

Lydia has an Australian PR but she came back to Malaysia to work, then she got married to Eric. Now they’ve decided to move to Australia together.

My sister has a house there, which was being rented out while she was working in Malaysia.

The previous tenants didn’t maintain the garden, and the grass was so overgrown and they have to cut the grass by themselves.

Anyway, they have started a blog to document their exciting new life in Melbourne. Go check it out!

The Adventures of Eric & Lydia

If some of you are living in Melbourne, maybe you guys can network.

Photo By: Eric & Lydia

Just want to let you all know baby Caleb is now an “uncle”.

In my wife’s large (and complicated) family tree, Luther is her cousin’s grandson.

Caleb is also “uncle” to baby Christian, who was  born a few months before him.

Maybe next Chinese New Year we might have the 3 baby rabbits meeting.

Everyone, head over to baby Luther’s blog to say hello!

I love spending my weekends just resting, and catching up on my reading.

Today I’d like to share with you some interesting lists I recently found while doing an assignment.

1. Live It With Less: 7 Reasons Why I Suck at Eating Less

I admit that I’m overweight.I tell myself that I want to eat less, but I always fail. I like this list because I can identify with Greg. These 7 reasons apply to me too! Reading the seven reasons helps me realize where I’ve fallen short, and identify areas to improve.

2. Healthy Houston Kids: 7 Tips to Protect Your Child from Medical Errors

One of my worst fears is baby Rachel falling sick and being admitted to a hospital. Some of those fears come from hearing rumours and scare-stories from friends. This list gives us 7 important reminders if we ever face such situations.

3. Beyond the Artist’s Way: 10 Steps to Establishing a Routine

It’s almost time to set our New Year’s resolutions again. These ten steps will show you how to form a new habit or routine in your life.

4. HiLife2B: 20 Steps You Can Take Today to Be a Success

I like this list because it gives me ideas on how to find areas of improvement in my life, to become a better person.

5. The Kirba View : How to Save a Little Money When Costs Keep Rising

The problems of inflation and rising costs of living seem to common to every country, even Ethiopia. The context of this list is in Ethiopia, the advice can be applied in any country. Reminds me that I have written a similar post before on How to Live Within Your Means.

Have fun reading!

(Originally published on my frugal blog on August 18 2008)

When you cook, do you ever wonder if you’re cooking too much?

Sometimes I never know how many potatoes to put in, how much rice to use or even how much fruit to prepare. I wonder the same thing when I have to prepare food for a party or social gathering.

I found this cool web utility called the Perfect Portions Planner that will calculate for you how many portions to prepare.

All you have to do is:

1) Select the food to measure

2) Enter how many people you are cooking for

3) Get your portion details

Simple! I’m going to use this the next time I have to prepare food.

I thought I was alone all this while… until I read the Nerd Handbook.

Finally, someone else understands how I feel about computers, why I love solving puzzles, why I treat work like a game, why I devour information, the way I think, why I’m uncomfortable around new people, and where my sense of humour (or lack of it) comes from!

Some exerps:

“… a majority of the folks on the planet either have no idea how a computer works or they look at it and think “it’s magic” … [Nerds] intimately know how a computer works.”

“The nerd has based his career, maybe his life, on the computer…”

“When your nerd is staring at a stranger, all he’s thinking is, “I have no system for understanding this messy person in front of me”. This is where the shy comes from…”

Please read The Nerd Handbook if you think you are a nerd, or you think you’re married to one. At the end of the post, there are some tips for spouses on how to tweak nerd behaviour.

P/S: Last night we celebrated our wedding anniversary at TGI Fridays. Baby Rachel was well behaved, just lying there in her stroller and listening to all the noises around her. We were so stressed that she was going to cry.

Anyway, just want to say that TGIF has lost something. I can’t put my finger on it. The food still comes in generous portions, the service is still good, but the taste seems to be off. I thought my Chicken Caesar Salad was too salty.

There was a birthday celebration at the next table. The servers sang real loud, in the TGIF tradition but nobody could understand what they were shouting.

I’m not really complaining, but just saying that somehow TGIF has gone down a notch.

Photo and Model: Shonna Clark