We're now two days into 2010 and I'm thinking: where have the hols gone? A couple of weeks more and we'll be back into the grind of morning rush hour, afternoon swim lessons, Sat keyboard and Chinese class...
On 30 Dec, Mandy organized for the Sunday School kids to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, at Werribee Regina Cinemas. My good intentions of going for the 10.45 Body Vive class at Fenix Fitness were scuttled when Beth insisted tearfully that I be with her for the movie. This is my second visit to the cinema in three years, a record I am proud of. Cinema tickets cost a fortune here. $16 for an adult ticket! And a medium popcorn costs $6.50. How do ordinary families afford it?
On New Year's Eve, we invited our friends Michael and Clara over for dinner. On the menu were Hainanese Chicken Rice (anything is possible with Prima Paste), Thai green curry, fish assam pedas, pappadum and a lovely choc mud cake with ice cream after the countdown and the TV screening of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (a movie Michael commented never seemed to end).
We had such a good time that the following night, it was our turn to be guests at Michael and Clara's. Pizzas, heaps of cushions, a game of Monopoly between Michael and Beth, and two movies: Monkey Magic and Forbidden Kingdom. Both movies had Sun Wukong as the central character. MM was pure comedy (audio in Japanese) , FK was drama/fantasy with a nice spin. An American (Anglo Saxon) teenage boy is magically taken back in time by the staff of Sun Wukong and is dragged into the conflict between the evil Jade Warlord and the fearsome Witch reared by werewolves on one side, and an unlikely trio ( two monks and a young girl bent on vengeance) who are trying to defeat the Jade Warlord and recover Sun Wukong's missing staff before it falls into the enemy's hands. The boy eventually helps to resurrect Sun Wukong, who has been turned into a stone monkey by the Jade Warlord.
Today, we drove to Abbotsford to check out the Convent Arts Precinct and Collingwood Children's Farm.
We particularly enjoyed lunching at Lentil As Anything, a vegetarian restaurant staffed by volunteers where you pay as you feel. They were running a buffet lunch when we were there and the kids loved the food, which is saying something as there were no pizzas, pasta, chips or fries in sight. Beth had the privilege of putting our contribution into the wooden money chest on the counter. There's something very special and inspiring about coming to a place where nothing is expected of you, everyone is friendly and you know you're doing your little bit to be part of something that is creating a greater good.
Another reason we're grateful to be living in AUS, where there is always something new to see and do every weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment