Sculpture by the Sea

This is the first time I’ve been to the Sculptures at Bondi. It was a really beautiful day, the sun was blaring but the wind was just as strong which made the heat quite bearable. We spent about 2 hours walking around, hoping to see as much as we could. There are over 100 sculptures and let me tell you that a couple of hours is definitely not enough! Here is a tiny snippet of the sculptures we saw during our walk yesterday afternoon.

big drink by Justin Drape / Simone Brandse

cement truck by Jimmy Rix

the shoppers by Jie Qian

chaos and order by Barbara Licha

fractal columns by Alan Rose

dream home by Jane Gillings

tribute to a workhorse by Belinda Villani

Unfortunately, today is the last day to see the sculptures so head down to Bondi if you can. However if you can’t, Sculpture by the Sea is an annual event so be ready to see it next year! In the mean time, check out the website to see more amazing art.

Have a great Sunday!

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Egg Free Banana Bread

An egg free banana bread, that is easy to prepare, both Stella and Jake gives the thumbs up.  Having a child who is allergic to egg and nuts definitely make me more creative in the baking department, before I had Jake I would never imagine a cake without egg, butter or milk.  The brown sugar is optional, I made mine without any sugar.  I figure if the kids wants a bit of a variety, I could just smothered a little jam on top, so far the kids are happy to gobble it just the way it is.

Instead of making it in one huge loaf tin, I made it in a mini 4cm deep, 4cm x 9cm loaf tin.  This recipe make 4 mini loaf tin or 1 : 7cm deep, 13.5cm x 24cm loaf tin.

Ingredients

2 c Self raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 c sultana

1/2 c brown sugar (OPTIONAL)

1 c plain low fat yoghurt

2 Tbs milk

1 Tbs olive oil

1 1/2 c mashed banana

Preheat oven to 180 C.  Grease and line the tin.

Sift flour, bicarbonate soda, and cinnamon into a bowl.  If you are using sugar, stir in the sugar at this point.  Add in the sultanas too and mix well.

In a jug, whisk the yoghurt, milk, oil and banana.  Stir into flour mixture and mix until combined.  Spoon into the prepared tin, smooth the top with the back of a spoon.

For mini loaf bake for 20 – 30 minutes and for the big loaf bake for abour 45 – 55 minutes.  Stand for 10 minutes before turning it out on a wire rack to cool.   Slice it thickly and serve.

The bread stays moist even on the next day.

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3rd stop – 15 days in Surabaya

The last time I went back was in mid 2004, right after our wedding and just before we moved to Sydney – so I’ve been looking forward for this leg of the trip for awhile!

We went back to the same cozy house, same driver (since 30 years ago!), a semi new house keeper and lots of new buildings and shopping centres. It seemed to be a lot more congested than before, motorbikes everywhere. It’s super hot and humid in Surabaya, almost unbearable. Poor Jayden was always drenched in sweat and his face was always red from the heat. Jayden really enjoyed his time there though, he loved chatting with Uncle Buadi (our driver) and loved to find Mbak (our helper). He managed to communicate with them somehow, even though they don’t speak the same language! He was fascinated with the ants, flies and mosquitos, well I guess because he doesn’t see them very often here. haha

From day 2 onwards, Jayden attended the Twaddler Class at Tutor Time International Preschool. I was happy to send him there so that he could continue to play and mingle with other kids and not get destructively bored for the next 2 weeks. We knew about the centre through one of my cousin’s friend who also sent her daughter, Sakura to the same centre. So 5 days a week, 2 hours a day, both of us were in school 😉 I decided to stay in the class with him for the whole 2 weeks (sat in the corner most of the time). I tried leaving him on the first day, but he was really upset, he cried and cried and was even more worried the next day that he kept looking for me, even though I told him that I would stay. After that I decided that I’d prefer that he enjoyed his time there for now, rather than try to discipline him and only to break the cycle when we leave 2 weeks later.

Jayden enjoyed most of the activities, especially singing, story time and play time on the big playground. Overall it was such a great experience for both of us. I got to see different teaching tools and methods and I met some lovely teachers who were really friendly and enthusiastic.

Jayden loved the playground and that's his favourite car!

Meal Time

Miss Dyta and kids doing some painting

The main reason for this trip was actually to attend my cousin Sanny’s wedding. I love weddings, especially a family wedding! So many events, so many traditions, so many people and so much food! Hmmm, yummmm!

Caroline, Stella & Jake

Cousins!

Lastly, we had a small pre-birthday celebration for Jayden and Anton at the Angus Steak House with all the family and some of my dad’s friends. Jayden loved all his presents, because they all have wheels… Happy Birthday Jay-Den!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Jayden!

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2nd stop – 3 days in Jakarta

From the 9th to 12th October 2009. We were there particularly for my cousin Rina’s wedding but also had a chance to catch up with some old friends. This was Jayden’s first meeting with most of my cousins and some aunts and uncles. By the end of the first night, he’s already picked his favourites (well, this would be anyone and everyone who would take him out of the restaurant and see the cars outside). Akong & Uncle Yang Yang were the chosen ones.

Uncle Yang Yang, Jayden & Akong

It was a beautiful wedding, great food, great company and best of all – Jayden slept from 6pm till 10pm (just before everyone left). So I didn’t have to play catch all night with him in my heels! I also thank God for the earmuffs which took up space in our luggage but worth it at the end 😉

Sleeping so peacefully

my prince charming just woke up from his sleep

We also visited my friend Steven’s newly opened KindyRoo at Kemang Square. Jayden had such a great time there! If you live in Jakarta, you should really give it a try. Great stimulation for the kids, it’s fun and it’s the same as Gymbaroo in Australia. I promise to tell everyone about it, so here it is, Li!!

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1st stop – 3 days in Singapore

We are finally back from a month long holiday in Asia 🙂

I wrote this a few weeks back, but the internet connection was super slow in Surabaya, so I couldn’t even upload photos and just didn’t bother use the internet at all.. !

15 Oct: Finally – I have internet access! We were in Singapore from 6th till 9th Oct. A short stopover on the way to Jakarta. We went on the Qantas A380 from Sydney.

After quite a few problems at check-in (Jayden’s ticket wasn’t issued so we had to wait for that to be sorted, then we were told that our stroller would most likely get stuck in the chute because it’s too big so they suggested that we checked it in as luggage. The lady was nice, she saw mini me struggle with giant Jayden + carry on luggages, she offered us a semi broken stroller to be used to the gate, which ended up to be pretty useless, since we couldn’t figure out how to fold it to be x-rayed, so we had to leave it behind and carry Jayden to the furthest gate in the airport), we boarded the nice brand new plane, but was again delayed for over an hour due to storm and other things. Sigh.. Jayden had his own seat though, which was really good. I can’t imagine him sitting on my lap for 8 hours! so Thank God for my mum, we arrived 3 hours before the flight, if she didn’t come with us, I would have probably missed the flight 🙂

Anyway, we stayed in Swissotel the Stamford just right above City Hall Station. Great location, especially with kids. It was so easy to get around and lots of food around the hotel. We met with families and friends and did some sightseeing, Jayden was happy to see his grand parents 🙂

Jayden's favourite Duck Tour

So excited, he sat right at the front!

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