Celebrating with gratitude

CA and I toasted our 10th wedding anniversary yesterday with - nah, what romantic dinner by candlelight in a posh restaurant? - loads of satisfyingly greasy char siew chee cheong fun, siew mai and har kow, the smoothest pei dan chok (century egg porridge) and just-out-of-the-oven egg custard tarts at our favourite Plume Restaurant, Maribyrnong.

Thanks be to God for the way He has protected, nurtured and strengthened our marriage these past 10 years. And a special thanks too to all our family and friends who have - without being conscious of it - added to the colour and vitality of our lives as a couple.

To assuage the guilt of the carb overdose, we strolled through the intriguingly named Pipemaker's Park to where the muddy Maribyrnong River runs through on its way from Mt Macedon to Port Philip. The freezing wind made our noses pink and shocked our post-lunch systems awake.

Was (as usual) amazed to find joggers and people out running with their dogs. My preferred way of tackling the cold is to curl up on the sofa with a blanket on my lap and my fingers around a steaming mug of hot chocolate, hehe.

At the highest point of the bridge, we paused to admire the view and noticed a cluster of pastel coloured apartments high on a ridge with what must surely be fantastic views of the river and parkland. Our amateur investor minds did a quick calculation. Water views. Parks and golf course. 8 km to CBD. Imagine owning an apartment here! And so we went in search of the property. Tracked down the apartments, and lots of double-storey houses besides, after a relentlessly uphill drive along Van Ness Ave to an estate at the peak called Fabian Court.

House hunting is such an addictive pastime. I'm afraid even after we've found our house and moved in, I'll still be looking at Internet listings and the local paper to see what else is out there!