Our backyard had a makeover!

Ever since we bought our lovely home, we have enjoyed every inch of the house. We can't say the same for our little backyard though. It was filled with weeds and that has deterred us from enjoying the beautiful Melbourne weather at the back. It just makes no sense to mow the weed every month. It's just horrible especially during spring & summer. Its dying for our personal touch!

We have been looking around on ideas how to give it a little makeover. Our initial plan was to lay a layer of golf grass but the price tag put us off. It seems that we need to recondition our soil before laying the grass, which I have to get someone in to get it sorted (labour cost too expensive) and we still need to maintain it every month or so. I am a little discouraged in that! 

We then started looking into decking and turned out to be something we can manage without much effort.  We can either do it ourselves or get someone in to get it all nicely done up. Good old friend of ours, Devin was looking into decking for his love nest as well and found a bargain on deck tiles at a local furniture shop. It was a bargain too good to refuse, we ended up saving a couple of hundred bucks! Sweet! 

It's not fixed in the ground, so we can take it with us if we decide to move to a bigger place 10 years down the line. Double Sweet!!

To be honest, it was a leap of faith. In theory the preparation and fixing the deck tiles seem easy but once we get into it, it quickly proved otherwise.

We bought the deck tiles end of April, we had to wait for 4 weeks before we can start to rock and roll. Weeds need to be killed, make sure they are stone dead before putting anything on top. Didn't realize it would take 1 month for the darn weed to die! A slight bump in our plan. That's ok.

Last weekend was the 4th week since poison was sprayed. Weather was beautiful, the sun was out, occasionally getting some cool breeze from the south with a maximum temperature of 20 degrees, it was the perfect condition for the makeover to happen. 

It took us the whole weekend, the first day (Saturday) spent more on re-planning and "discussion". :D The second day was a much better and it went by fairly quickly. We knew what we had to do and we had a firmer picture what's the end result we want it to be. 

When we finished laying the deck tiles, we were quite satisfied with our great job. Once we filled in the gaps with pebbles, we were just blown away with the effect. It's much prettier than we first thought and it looks better at night when the pebbles reflect the moonlight. It illuminates our backyard! Triple Sweet!

We are really happy with our backyard project. Though my back still hurts from the constant lifting of the deck tiles the whole weekend, it was well worth it! 

REALLY HAPPY!

 Our horrible weed garden at the back

 

The horrible weeds up close

The savior - deck tiles. 12 packs in total (1 pack = 4 tiles)

Horrible weeds exterminated

The casualty from all the stone-dead weed digging

Laying the deck tiles on top of the weed mat (1)

 Laying the deck tiles on top of the weed mat (2)

All deck tiles joined up (1)

All deck tiles joined up (2) 

White pebbles in, adds a new dimension to the whole area 

Next... BBQ.

Lily's Birthday - Surprise "Party"

I had this crazy idea of giving Lily a surprise party, filled the rooms with balloons, banners, streamers, etc to celebrate her birthday. I was procrastinating simply because we didn't have the space for such in our tiny apartment. 

Now that we have a little more space to play around in our house, I told myself, this IS the year. If I don't do it now, I'll never do it. 

Invitations were sent out early to our friends to join in the fun. I was expecting a number of couples to be not available as Lily's birthday fell within the CNY period. We were quite lucky that we still have enough headcount for the surprise. 

That was back in January. From then till the second week of February, I was tossing with a number of ideas on things I can do on top of the surprise "party". I couldn't decide and ended up using most of  it for the whole weekend (saving some for next year). 

It didn't take me too long too arrange the plans leading up to the surprise "party", as I knew exactly what I need to do. It started off with sending her a bouquet of lilies & roses on Friday morning to her workplace. She was shocked when her receptionist passed it to her. She was pleasantly surprised through the phone and embarrassed from all the attentions from her colleagues. :D Plan accomplished! 

We took it nice and easy the next day, enjoying ourselves our well deserved weekend after a hectic working week. She was expecting us to go our for dinner and that was it. What she wasn't expecting was that we were going for one of the well acclaimed restaurant in Australia - Cutler & Co. We had a really good time, one of the best dinners we had.

Sunday was THE day. The day that she needed to be pampered. From the very beginning, I was giving her the impression that I didn't have anything planned, mistaken her birthday to be on Saturday. We then went out for our usual Sunday brunch, not realizing I found another great cafe to dine. - Cafe Vue at Heide. Went there early, savored their menu and was very impressed with the quality of food. We then took a stroll along the park next to the cafe, enjoying the sunny, cool Sunday morning. She was happy!

On our way back home after our brunch, I dropped her off at the local beauty therapy for 3 hours of pampering. She was really shocked as I had already made the payment, there was no backing out. Left her there, while I took the next 3 hours to decorate our house with banners, balloons, streamers and gathering all our friends. 

When I picked her up shortly after 3 hours, she was going on and on about how much she enjoyed her pampering and dying to show me her pedicure.

I was saying quietly to myself that the bigger surprise is yet to come. hehe :D We reached home, she opened the door and all our friends that were waiting quietly in the house shouted "SURPRISE" and started singing the birthday song. :D Plan accomplished! 

She was speechless for the first 10 minutes, trying to digest what has happened! hehe... slowly, she warmed up and back to her usual self. Occasionally, she would give me the "you are so dead" stare, for once I didn't mind at all.

Living room filled with balloons

Happy Birthday balloon filled with helium

The gang waiting for the big moment

A very surprised birthday girl

 

Still very surprised birthday girl

 

Giving her a birthday kiss

Everyone that made it a success!

Lily with the girls

Lily with the boys

Lily's birthday cake

Happy Birthday Lily!

Lily's Birthday - Cutler & Co

Staying true to our "tradition" (which I happily obliged) that whenever we have a occasion to celebrate, we'll put our budget aside and spend on some good food. Last week being Lily's birthday, I brought her to dine at one of local's well acclaimed restaurant, i.e. Cutler & Co. This is one of the few restaurants to received plenty of reviews, mostly positive.

That was good enough for us to celebrate Lily's birthday! :D

The service throughout was friendly and professional. We were made very welcomed and comfortable from the very moment we stepped into Cutler & Co. A very important point seems to be missing from Tetsuya's. The attentive staffs made sure every bite and sip was made in a relaxed company and pleasurable ambiance.

We didn't take too long to decide what to have as the menu is not extensive. We both ordered a 3 course meal and each one tasted better than the other! We sent each plate back to the kitchen squeaky clean. I wished there was more.   

Lily's 3 course meal

 Entree: Pressed quail terrine, foie gras cigar, orange and pistachio

Main: Pan roast leather jacket, fennel pollen and cuttlefish braise

 

 Dessert: Chocolate ice-cream sandwich, vanilla parfait & salted caramel

Stephen's 3 course meal

 

 Entree: "Salad Lyonnaise" frisee salad with crisp pancetta, garlic sausage, smoked tongue, confit gizzards & poached egg yolk

 

 Main: Suckling pig, sweet and sour onion and prune vinegar

Dessert: Violet ice cream, chocolate ganache & sour cherry

We both like the casual vibe cum reasonably priced fine food. It was a very good evening, great food, attentive & professional staffs, we were relaxed as we were never pressured to leave after our desserts. Surely, one of the best dinners we had.

p/s - Due to my 'superior' photography skills and the lights were rather dimmed, the photos didn't turn out right. Had to search around other blogger for their photos. 

Good flight experience

After years of accumulating enrich points... we finally saved enough to upgrade ourselves to the front. It was a good experience from the start and got our 5 minutes of fame!

When we checked in at KLIA, there were a couple of stares from the economy check-in counter. I didn't mind at all! Check in was a breeze, no long queues we were accustomed to. Heck, there was no queue at all! We then went straight to the lounge for some brekkie. I was quite disappointed with the selection of food though. They were serving nasi lemak with curry chicken, scramble eggs and sausages, fried/soup noodles, fruits and breads. Buffet yes, but there's no variety!

We got to our seats early, settled down and ready to enjoy the pampering. :D Shortly after take off, we were given a welcome pack - hand sanitizer, moisturizer, toiletries, etc. Nice!

Welcome pack

While watching the movies, the air steward came around asking us what we would like to have for our 3 course brunch. I chose sirloin steak and Lily chose cheese omelet with salmon. Before our meal arrive, we were given "starters", very fresh and the bread was still warm! Once finished, came our meal we chose. We were quite surprise how well cooked and tasty it was! Finished our meal with the very tasty chocolate blackberry dessert. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal!

"Starters" - Fruit yogurt, seasonal fruits, bread, etc

Minute tenderloin steak with boursin butter, baked potato with cheese, grilled tomato and sauteed mushrooms

 Cheese omelet with lamb croquette, salmon fillet, cherry tomato, asparagus, sauteed mushrooms & baked potato slices

Chocolate blackberry cake with mango sauce

About 2 hours before we reach Melbourne, we were served with another round of delicious food! This time it started off with chicken and beef satay and then followed by lobster and crab salad. The satay was really good... better than those we had back in KL and the peanut sauce was just out of this world! We had the choice of having more and it was too good to resist for another plate!

Then came the lobster and crab salad, which Lily thought it was a little salty. I loved it!

Our second meal ended with blueberry cheesecake which was comparable to the ones you'll get from a really good restaurant.

 Very tasty - Satay (all lean)

Lobster medallion and crab meat salad

  Blueberry cheesecake with tropical fruit salsa

For the first time, we both felt that our flight ended too soon. Food was really good... service was attentive, the tv screen was bigger and clearer as well...

This is something we both don't mind getting used to.

Tetsuya's

When I called back in Jan 09 to make a booking, there wasn't any dates available. I was told the next available date was in mid July. That's 7 months of waiting?? Even then the weekends were all taken up! I was telling quietly to myself, this business is never going to go out of business, unless they themselves stuff it up.

This is echoed by the long list of awards they have won:-

• 3 chef's hat from Good Food Guide 
• Restaurant of the Year
• Best Fine Dining, and
  
• most important of all, 5th place in the world's top 50 restaurant.

We threw a few preferred dates to the floor manager and we finally got the date that we wanted, i.e. November and we were the 7th to place a booking. GFC?? what GFC?? We were quite ecstatic and at the same time very unsure if we will still be interested in it after 11 months! We sought of forgotten about it after a month and had to call a couple of times every now and then to check on our booking time.

We were getting excited all over again by the end of October and got even more excited when the floor manager gave us a call to re-confirm our booking. We obviously played it cool! We were like young kids given all kinds of lollies!

When the day arrived, we were seated at the far corner next to the window, looking out at the well maintained Japanese garden. It was a nice spot! Gave us the space and privacy, away from all the noises from other tables.

A waitress in charge of our table asked if we would like to try the degustation menu. It didn't take us too long to go for it. It's not a restaurant where you can go every once a month (at least not yet). We weren't sure how many dishes we will get or even the type of food. Some might think otherwise, we prefer that way, keep us guessing and looking forward to the next dish!

Our 13 courses for the night

 Chilled Corn Soup with Saffron & Vanilla Ice-cream

Smoked Ocean Trout & Avruga Caviar

Marinated Crystal Bay Prawns with Soy Caramel

Confit of Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Konbu, Apple, Daikon & Wasabi

Terrine of Queensland Spanner Crab with Avacado

Grilled Fillet of Barramundi with Braised Baby Fennel

Twice-cooked De-boned Spatchcock with Foie Gras & Red Wine Jus

Beef Fillet with Nameko, Shimeji & Enoki Mushroom

Comte with Lentils

Green Apple Sorbet with Sauternes Jelly

Strawberry Shortcakes

Lemon Scented Floating Island with Vanilla Bean Anglaise

Petit Four