...till I get to see my family again. I will be leaving for Malaysia on the 14th of this month. I am very excited as it has been a year since I last saw my mother and grandmother. I will be spending a significant portion of my time away working in Singapore, but I am still very happy to be able to spend time with my family. It is very unfortunate that I will have to leave KL on the third day of Chinese New Year, but I do have to be back in Sydney on the 12th of February for Joel and Yenni's wedding.
At work today, I received an email saying that the company for which I work has donated a sum of money to the Tsunami relief appeal and will match, up to a limit, dollar for dollar any donation given by any employee to the Red Cross/Crescent or World Vision. It is good to see, and hear about, people trying to give to others in need. Chris and I have given to the Red Cross and now we are both waiting for work to set up the donation matching fund so that we can give some more. I would encourage everyone to give at least a little to help out. Every cent counts. I mean, consider it, compared to the Thai Baht, the Indonesian Rupiah and the Sri Lankan Rupee, one pound, one dollar, or even one ringgit, is worth a fair bit. My parents have also given to the relief fund. I heard from Dad today that both he and his business partner are matching the donations of their staff. I am so proud of them!
Thanks to every one who emailed me or left me messenger messages asking whether I have been directly affected by the Tsunami. As far as I know, nobody in my family has been directly affected by the tragedy. I thank God for that. Eventhough I have not lost any friends or family to the tsunami, one can't help but feel sad that so many people's lives and livelihoods can be wiped out so quickly.
Last night I had the weirdest dream. I dreamt that I was spinning some yarn from some pencil roving that I dyed myself. It was a blue-ish greenish purply kind of colour with some pink spots - like the colours of the ocean. Well, I really am spinning a yarn from that roving, which I dyed on Saturday night. Anyway, in my dream I was spinning it because someone was paying me to do it. The strange bit was that part of the deal was that i had to name it. I struggled with it as I could not think of a suitable name, and I finally namd it Tsunami. As soon as I said the name in my dream I woke up. How bizarre is that?! I will take a picture of the yarn and you can see what I mean about the colours being really ocean-ish.
Right now I am knitting a scarf out of some mohair which was given to me. It's a bright red mohair held together with a black 'core' and it has some 'bits' in other colours. It's a simple 4-row repeat pattern. I suggetsed t Chris that I could sel it and give the proceeds to the Red Cross, bt he didn't think it would be worthwhile as I may not get much for it. Oh well, there goes that idea... I started the scarf when we drove up to the Blue Mountains on Sunday, and I have completed about a third of it.
We stayed at
Peppers Fairmont at the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately it did not meet our expectations and we were disappointed. We expected it to be a Romantic getaway, but the place was full of screaming kids. Now, I don't mind children, but screaming ones.. AAAAAACK! When we arrived at about quarter to two in the afternoon, the room was not yet ready for us, so we had to wait, and wait we did. That was ok as check in time is officially at 2pm. When the clock stuck two, we attemped to check in again. The room was still not ready, and they offered us a free drink at the bar while we waited. By then, we were hungry but we were still wanting to go out to Leura town for lunch. SO we had our drinks and then tried to check in again. Thrid time lucky I guess. The room was nearly ready, and we were told that if we staretd heading downstairs to the room, it should be ready by the time we got there, and it was. By then we were not sure that there was any point in going to town to get lunch as most cafes would probably have stopped serving lunch by the time we got there. So we ate at the bar.
That night, we decided to have a nice meal at the restarant. At $70 a head excluding drinks, we expected a nicer restaurant. unfortunately that was not so. There was a family sitting near us with two very loud children. The ambience was anything bt romantic. hris had to send his entree (rabbit tortellini) back to the kitchen as it was undercooked (or freezer burned, we speculated later). When it came back, it was just as hard! I must say that we were both impressed by our mains. I had the beef sirloin and Chris had the veal fillet. tehy were both very good. The dessert was also brilliant. The chocolate mousse was heavier than expected, but most certainly very rich and decadent. Chris' summer pudding was beautiful and quite light.
We headed home yesterday morning, but not before stopping for breakfast at
Solitary. My banana bread was very nice. Chris had scrambled eggs with chives, sourdough bread and pancetta. The sourdough bread was the nicest I had tasted in a long time. I would certainly recommend this restaurant for breakfast to anyone visiting the Blue Mountains. I am eager to sample their dinner menu the next time I am out that way again.
