3 more hours left to year 2006 and I’ve just enough time to do a recap of my life in year 2005. It had certainly been a year in transition, with critical events that nearly threw me off-course for a couple of times. Experienced first-hand on important lessons that taught me what life’s really all about. I’m glad that the transition year is coming to an end and I’m settling down now for the better year ahead.

Below are the synopsis of 4 major stages of my life this year.

1) Farewell Kuala Lumpur

I’ve spent a good two years there in Kuala Lumpur studying in TAR College for a Computer Science diploma. It’s bad that I’ve to leave KL, for the food, the friends, and the life. Sorely missed the Penang “char kuey tiaw” there - been the best I’ve ever tasted.

2) Work and Life Experience in Miri, Sarawak.

I moved on to Miri, Sarawak, to take up a job position as a automobile store assistant, where I was exposed to a warehouse of spare parts. Believe me, you’ve to know every nuts and bolts if you’re in this business. Then, I became interested in auto-works and cars. Took a lot of effort in learning all the parts in a car and how to fix them.

3) Marriage and Honeymoon

This year is also the year when I took a step further in my love relationship. Known to many elder, married man and women as the call of death, marriage is the one word that many fears. When my friends AND some relatives knew that I’m getting married, hey, nobody wants to get married at my kinda age - and if that happens, believe me, gossips and speculations will sure be on the broadcast. “Aiya, gf got pregnant lah, sure one”, or “Aiya, accident lah” cases. Hey! I’m sorry to disappoint you all hor, but I’m not your case! We’re just too crazy about each other then, that’s all.

My wife and I had been travelling a lot since we got together, and ultimately, Europe became our destination for our honeymoon.

4) Moving to Melbourne

Not long after our marriage, we decided to head down under to Melbourne to begin a new chapter of our own.

If you were looking for more photos of my life in Melbourne, may I point you to the monthly archives on the left hand side. They’re basically all there due to the fact that I only started this blog after I came here.

Anyway, I would like to thank all of my readers for the support, especially Wuching - for all the fine comments, Rojaks - for all the free rojaks, and WongPK - for some valuable tips and advice. It’s been nice knowing you guys, Ajay, Amy, JoeC, 5xmom, and Kenny Lee. If anyone was left out of the list, my apology, please let me know.

That’s it for now you guys, see you all next year and have a cracking New Year!

Just after Christmas, I received a late gift from Santa. The recent weather is so hot that my car engine went on riot - it almost gone over-heated! My wife was driving to work yesterday when she noticed the temperature meter jumped well over the average mark - pretty much on the red line. She pulled by the roadside and called me. Suspecting it was a radiator leak, I grabbed a couple bottles of water and walked 15 minutes to where she is - just in case it’s all empty already.

Inspection

The radiator hose on the engine end has a leak and it’s spewing the coolants all over the place. Obviously, the engine has responded to the freaking hot weather of late.

Acquiring the Replacement Part

Initially, we were thinking about getting it fixed in a workshop nearby, but hey, why not do it ourselves and save on those labor charges? which might cost up to 100% more than the replacement part itself!

So, we went to a Toyota parts and accessories outlet just outside of Melbourne CBD to grab a new radiator hose.

The new radiator hose. This is an original part, so it’s exactly the same as the old one. While I was working in a spare parts supply store back in Malaysia, as long as we find a hose that fits the opening size, and looks similar, regardless of the what manufacturers it belongs to, we’ll sell and the workshop mechanics would still accept it - cause they know it works as long as it gets the coolant to where it needs to go. Neat eh?

Total cost is $27.30, including two hose clamps to lock both ends. That wasn’t so bad, the counterfeit one might cost $4-5 cheaper but I won’t spare that amount for reliability.

Operation

The faulty one has to go, so…

Losen the clip on the radiator end, pop it out.

Removed the hose on the engine end. Some remaining coolants splashed out during the removal due to heat-pressure. I didn’t empty the radiator tank because I’ve no time to buy a new coolant just yet.

Pop in the new radiator hose and screw it tight. Make sure everything is tight and tidy.

Whooosahhh! A new radiator hose and the engine gets cooled again.

Before it was fixed this afternoon, I had to drive extra cautiosly to the city to get the replacement hose, monitoring the temperature meter constantly just to prevent it from going overboard. Cause you know, once the engine goes Kaboom! I’ll be wishing for a new car for this coming New Year. Luckily my wife is pretty good with cars, and her awareness saved the day!

Christmas is the day to celebrate and enjoy, and to the Australians here, Christmas and the New Year is the equivalent of our Chinese New Year. They go visit friends and relatives, go on vacation, bashing out parties and picnics, hanging out, etc. As for me, I don’t have any relatives or ‘ang mo’ friends here Melbourne yet, so, Christmas is best lived with my wife.
We decided to make a visit to Brighton Beach, on a super windy and cool Christmas day. Brighton Beach is famous for its long beautiful beachline and its luxurious line of mansions and resort-like beach houses. Here are some of the pictures I took.

I think I know what I want for next year’s Christmas, hehe.

It took me almost 2 hours to shop for my wife’s present, and believe me, in Chadstone shopping complex, you could find anything you wanted. Of all the prescious commodities, I ended up buying this box of candies from Suga. I stumbled upon this special package they made for Christmas. Without a doubt, this is going to be her Christmas present for 2005.

Suga is a home-made candy shop where you can actually see how the candies are being made, live! You can even have your own custom-made candies with your names imprinted inside those candies. Not only does it look good, it taste better than I expected! The green ones are lime-flavored, orange is orange-flavored obviously, and the red ones are strawberry-flavored. The white-colored middle part tasted like candy-floss.

Sometimes, people like me tends to consider too much about the cost of a present. Various questions will pop up in my mind, e.g. Is that too cheap for her? What if she don’t like it? Let me tell you, if he/she likes/loves you, they’ll accept anything you give them, regardless of the value. What can I say? She liked my present. Thank God and Merry Christmas!