Going for a walk 走走路去

While the sun was still up in the sky, I put on my sneakers to go for a walk.

Idealistically I shall go for a walk everyday for at least 15 minutes, then it somehow can be counted as exercising... *.*  (I know I know, 15 mins is nothing>>> to real exercisers~~  but I'm not...)

Usually I (+G sometimes) go for a walk around our area, never really go too far... (the only one time was going over to the other side of the Royal Park Golf Course)

So often that G hassles me to go for a walk when I feel tired or when I feel lazy.....

At first I just wanted to say NO to him, yet most of the times I did what he said...

Then after I did it, I appreciated him for pushing out for a walk!

The trip usually surprises me!!

Sometimes it's because of the blossoming colourful flowers;

sometimes it's because of the interesting buildings;

sometimes it's because of the frinedlyness people show on their faces;

Sometimes it can be a big surprise because of what we find on the streets!!

Especailly G's into picking things out from whatever rubbish that people throw out on the streets~~

It can be a piece of wood, a pot, a matress, a chair.....

Once we dragged a wooden table home (its condition looks perfectly fine, nowhere broken at all!).

It serves me well-- with some of my make-up stuff, lotions and some girly sort of thingys dwell in it....

MM, it's good to go for a walk!!  Keep it up, Princess J!  :) 

趁著太陽跑出來露臉

趕緊著裝出門走路去~~

(理論上應該是要天天去走路的

至少也要走上15分鐘

才算是有運動到...)

範圍不遠,就在家附近晃晃~~

常常我總是被Greg逼著出去走路

但每次晃完之後都心存感激!

因為路上的景物常常讓我感動或驚奇>>>>

有時是因為各色各樣盛開的花朵~

有時是因為各有千秋的建築物~

有時是因為路上擦身而過友善的人們~

有時是因為眼中充滿驚奇的可愛小孩~

更有些時候

是因為撿破爛挖到寶!!! (Greg最愛尋寶~~)

這裡的人常常會把家裡不要的東西放到門口屋外
讓有需要的人撿去用

所以可能昨天看到沙發

今天看到床墊

而明天也許茶几就出現了

之前就撿了一個還非常完好堅固的小木桌>>>

現在安置在床邊成為我的瓶瓶罐罐安身立命之區呢~

嗯!! 走走路是有益身心的 :)   公主  加油呀!!! 

Thread Den @ Fitzroy Opening

March 25th, Thursday, Greg and I went to the opening of Thread Den @ Fitzroy.

The first Thread Den is located in North Melbourne and now this second one just opened in Fitzroy.

We were planning to pick up our car from the Car Service and drive there for the opening....

However, you know, as I said before>>>>

Accidents always destroy your plans no matter how perfect the plan is!!!

Yep! Right after just paid for the fixing of the car, it stalled on the road again and agian!!!

That was just too terrible.  @_@

So G drove it home SAFELY!! (Luckily we didn't get hit by other cars while our car stalled right in the middle of the roads...)

We had dinner at home then headed off to catch the tram.

After Tram 19 and Tram 112, we were there.

The store is right next to IGA supermarket, good spot, I think.

There were already people in and outside the store. Two people were playing live music in the venue. People were having white wine (that was the only drink offered that night~~  oh, and a jar of water...).

I had a look around the store in the ground floor and also went upstairs to the sewing lounge.

I don't know if that was because of this opening night, the way of setting up in the store is like what yo see in the picture~~

I wonder if they'd change it after this event...?

So G and I were looking for his Aluminium Jewellery (cz we both wanted to know how they look in the store...).

Finally we saw them in the bottom in a cabinet~~ ~
mmm, to be honest, it was a bit dark and not clear enough to be placed there....  (maybe it was at night... so it might look better during the day..?)

 

In the store, I saw some skirts (which made me feel like that as a princess, I should have one, at least~~~).

Not sure how to spell it-- "tutu" maybe?

If anyone knows the right spelling of this style of skirts,

please do tell me the answer! Thanks  ^^

Wedding Day 婚禮那一天

Jan 28th, 2010, Greg and I had a great time!!

The ceremony was simple and warm, though I was hell nervous for quite a while before the real moment was coming... It all went good! I didn't fall because of my high heels (actually they are not very high at all, but to someone like me who hardly wear high heels, you know..). I did the make-up myself (with only a week of practice) and the hair, all turned out looking good. So glad that Z and K were here with us! K walked me to the groom and Z is my witness of our marriage!! How cool!

The party in the evening was the real excitement! Most of the friends we invited showed up and had fun at the party, and all of Greg's family were there with us! The whole evening G and I were just busy talking to people and laughing happily~

It was such a specail and great day that it'll shine in my memory forever!!

2010年一月28號,Greg和我度過快樂的一天.

婚禮簡單而溫馨, 雖然在那之前我其實莫名地緊張了好幾天--

但還好當天一切進行順利,沒發生我想像中因穿上高跟鞋不會走路而跌個狗吃屎這種事...

連化妝和頭髮都是DIY喲!!

經過約莫一個星期的密集練習,臉上的形形色色算是登陸成功,可以見人.

最高興的是,Z+K千里迢迢的從故鄉臺灣飛來參加我們的婚禮!!

兩人都是重要角色-

K要帶我走進証婚室!!

Z是我們結婚的簽名目擊證人之一!!

黃昏開始的Party更是將這重要的一天帶入高潮--

大部分我們寄出喜帖邀請的朋友,都從四面八方現身

而且Greg的媽媽及所有兄妹都到齊了

太令人喜悅!

整晚Greg和我都忙進忙出和不同的朋友打招呼講話,嘻嘻笑個不停~~

百分百是個特別而深刻的一天

這天的情景將會永遠在我的記憶中閃耀!!!

@ Rose St Market 市場上工囉

Saturdays and Sundays are G & J's working days + social days.  :)

Rose Street Artists' Market (a venue where artists and skilled craftspeople can sell their wares direct to the public) is the spot where we are on the weekends.

On Saturdays we have to be there around 9am to set up our store. The market is open between 11am to 5pm. It usually takes us about 2 hours to set up whilst it only takes 5-10 mins for some stallholders to set up...

Because Greg's got quite some amount of his jewellery pieces for the market, it takes a long time to finish setting up... (plus G's anal / fussy about the way of presenting, you know~~)  And recently it seems like people (potential customers) turn up in the market earlier than 11am especially on Saturdays. (a bit stressful...)

It's interesting to see different kind of people at the market. There are always people from various places, no matter in the state, from other states or even from other countries! Sometimes I hear people talking in their own languages and I always wonder what they talk about.... good things or bed things about our products? how they feel about Rose St Artists' Market? what do they think about the prices? ...

Because English is not my first language, I can't really interact with people like the way Greg does..

Smiling would be my first reaction when eye-contacting happens.. Yet I grab the chance (usually from those owho seem frinedly, or those ask questions..) to try to establish conversations with people if I can. Otherwise I try to listen to what Greg and people talk about and digest the conversations, if I am able to.. (cz some of the contents are still difficult for me to understand....  >_<). Every now and then I get a bit frustrated due to no understanding of the talks or the jokes~~ I still ask questions when I don't understand, yet it's not always easy to entertain the whole pictures of conversations...

However, sometimes I get to talk to people who can speak Mandarin (I speak great Taiwanese, too! Just don't really encounter with people who speak my mother tongue that often~). It's some sort of form to shorten the distance between me and strangers by using the same language (other than English) to talk about things. I guess, to some degree, this allows us to sense a link that's being built within a short time~~ 

It's great to have the opportunities to communicate with people and get to know how they think toward G's work, the market, and even other topics that's been talked. Also being at the market, I get to chat with  interesting friends I made there and look around at other storeholders' products. All these add up the points for being at the market on the weekends when most people view the weekends as days off - no working.

Oh, and when you see customers buying with a satisfied smile because of either your products, service, or even just friendly conversations; that definitely brights the moments being at the market!  :)

Some photos to share~

People wear G Mann's jewellery with smiles~~

每個星期六和日,就是Greg和我市場上工+社交的日子.

"玫瑰街藝術家市集" (Rose Street Artists' Market) - 一個讓藝術家和手工藝達人們能夠直接銷售他們的作品/製品的地方- 就是我們週末出沒的地點. 

星期六大約早上九點就要到那兒.市場開放時間是11am-5pm.

每次都要花2小時左右才能完成將攤位擺設起來這事兒~~

(當有些人卻只花5-10分鐘就完成擺攤.....  真是天壤之別啊!!!)

我們家的東西又超多,加上Greg處女座龜毛的個性....

再加上這陣子以來,來逛市集的人出現的時間又越來越早... (尤其是星期六), 真是OMG!

有趣的是總會有來自各地不同的人來逛.

有時聽著他們用著他們的母語對話,就會很好奇地想--

到底他們講些什麼ㄋㄟ?

好話還是壞話ㄋ? 對這個市集的看法嗎? 對價位的反應ㄋ?

由於英文非我母語,我無法像Greg一樣輕輕鬆鬆就能和人喇勒~~ (再者他天生就很"搞喂")

當我和人眼神接觸時,微笑就成了我的第一反射動作.

但我還是會找機會與人攀談啦~

(就挑一些"軟柿子"下手--

他們看起來要是較和藹可親的,或是那些先主動開口問問題的,

我才比較敢開口- 畢竟公主也是會害羞嘀....)

要不我通常都在旁聽Greg和人聊的咚咚,試圖東拼西湊理出一個大概...

有時還是頗沮喪- 因為他們對話內容或用字太深,"我聽無"   >_<

可是有時也會有來逛的人剛好會講中文.

這時就會有那麼一些些瞬間拉近距離的感覺

去市場上工讓我有機會能和人聊天--

不管是他們對Greg作品的想法,對市集的感覺,或甚至是天南地北莫名聊起的話題...

而且我也喜歡和同在那兒擺攤的朋友講話~

這些因素為週末上工這事兒加分!

當然還有就是當看到顧客們帶著滿意的笑容付錢時(不管是因為太喜歡我們的東西,或我們提供的極佳服務,甚或是聊的很爽),這無疑是為市場上工這事兒增色許多!!!

A gift from MaMa 來自G媽媽的包裹

Someone knocked on the door yesterday afternoon while I was stamping cards (one of the tasks for the assistant...).  I opended the door-- no one there?? 
Then I saw a parcel on the ground next to the door (the postmen here have the ability to disappear very quickly after they knock on your door~~).

It was to Greg + Jamie, from C Mann (Greg's mum, he uses the term "MaMa").

I was curious about what was in it??  mmm~~~ G wasn't home yet...

Be patient! Princess J    *_*

Finally G got home from his boring part time job. (Usually he's not in a great mood after this  ><....)

Plus he forgot his mobile at home..
so he couldn't call the car service in the morning, like what he planned to do originally. To enable this, I even kicked him out of bed yesterday morning just to make sure he'd have enough time to call before starting to work.... 

Oh well, that's life-- Accidents always destroy your plans no matter how perfect the plan is!!!

Anyway, back to the parcel...

After several hours (you know, wait until G's not that grumpy is often the best choice at a moment like that), he was finally willing to entertain the idea of opening it. 

It's a bling bling frame with a photo of G + J on the left side and------

The right side is the poem of the reading that we asked MaMa to read for us on our wedding ceremony!!!

Touching.....

See, we both are smiling in the photo, ah~~ how cute!!

This is the reading~~

Here's the reading we chose for MaMa to read

  (we slightly changed a bit from the original one)

May the road rise to meet you
Traditional Irish blessing

May the road rise up to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

And the rains fall soft on your fields.

May you have warm words on a cold evening,

A full moon on a dark night,

May the roof above you never fall in,

And the friends gathered below never fall out.

May you be poor in misfortunes, rich in blessings,

Slow to make enemies and quick to make friends,

But be rich or poor, quick or slow,

May you know nothing but happiness from this day on.

 

 

 

正當我非常認真地做著蓋印章的工作(助理事務之ㄧ)時,有人敲門!!

於是我挪動身軀去應門>>>

咦,那沒人????

低頭看見一個包裹躺在門邊~~~

這裡的郵差真不是蓋的----

他們擁有超能力會迅速消失於他們敲門之後!!

是一個給Jamie + Greg的包裹ㄝ, Greg媽媽寄來的

好好奇裡面究竟是啥米咚咚呢?

嗯..可是Greg還沒回到家.... *_*

(就算是公主,也要有耐心呀. 是美德.  嗯!)

終於Greg下班回家了~ (但他這種時候通常沒有絕妙好心情...)

加上那天(3/24)他竟把手機遺忘在家 @_@

搞得他沒辦法照原訂計畫利用上班前call修車廠---

為了要讓他有足夠時間在上班前打電話,

我還硬生生一個大早就把他踢下床去!!!

結果>>>>>> 一切都是枉然 @_@

哎,人生就是如此---

意外總是搗蛋你的計畫,無論計畫再完美都逃不過它的破壞!!!!!!!

言歸正傳,回到包裹~~

總之經過數小時後,Greg終於想起它了

(在那種狀況下,最好的選擇是等待,等他心情回復人性...)

包裹終於被拆封了!!!

是一個閃亮亮框邊(鑲有閃亮亮鑽石)的相框!

左邊放的是G+J的合照,而右邊是>>>>>

一首詩! 是那首我們結婚儀式時請G媽媽為我們唸的詩.

感動ㄋㄟ~~~~

Car broke down... 車在半路銹逗了

   

What happened yesterday would be something that no one wants it to happen to them...
Our little cute car broke down on the way to shops--

At first there was a noise from somewhere in the car... (yet it has been like that recently)
After we did the puschase of buff (a tool for polishing things) at the only Buff Company (manufacturing) in Australia, not far from there our car started to produce a weird smell--

Then we realised that there was smoke coming out from under the bonnet!!!
So Greg pooled over and checked... finally found out the problem--
It was a short rubber hose that was leaking oil... It's got a hole!!!!

G called RACV.
Soon someone showed up, briefly fixed it (basically just taped it with insulation tape... cz he said that he didn't have the same kind of material to replace the broken one  @_@).

The whole situation disgusted me like snakes disgust me~~

The plan was to drive to somewhere to get the replacement..
So G dropped me on High St Preston for OP shop shopping while he went for the thingy~

Until this moment my mood was still like this happy red lip disonaur~~

Then G called me and said the car broke down!! And he didn't want to just restart it to make the condition worse...
What was even worse, G was somewhere near a reservior~~~
The plan changed to -- getting home by public transportation for me...
For poor G, he had to wait there to get the car towed then try to make his way home....

It was a big day especailly for G...

This dancing soldier matches to the image of Greg going crazy....?!

The report for yestderday...   


                

A letter from Grandpa 家書

This morning, I saw some mail lying in our mail box (space maybe, cz it's not really a box...).

There was one notice from the post office!! WooHoo~ It's the box of the boxes we ordered!

We've been looking forward to seeing these recycled paper boxes (for packaging jewellery) since we ordered online from a shop in UK...

Then I saw a letter from Taiwan!!!

I knew it must be from Grandpa. So I opended it, read it, and I cried~~

No bad news from home at all (Don't worry)..

Just the emotion of reading Grandpa's handwriting--

It was not a long letter.. nothing special mentioned.. He replied to my letter and said he was happy to receive it! "Everything is fine", he wrote. Of course, even if there were some things not so fine, he wouldn't let them worry me~ That's my grandpa, I know!

The last part of the letter triggered off my tears--

Grandpa said that there were nothing really special to write to me... and he hasn't written for such a long time that he couldn't express that well and even not that familiar with some characters..  So that's it for this letter...

I know Grandpa did this for me. I can tell that his writting is not as neat as before; to the end of the letter the writing became sloppy... I read more than what he wrote! It must take his a lot of effort to write me a letter. He could have just not done it and told me that he's been lazy~~ (he always knows that I would accept his excuse...)  

But he did, cz he remembers he promised me! 

I'm such a lucky person to have such a great grandpa that loves me so much!!! 

今天收到阿公寄來的信!!!

讀完信之後,我眼睛都紅了~~

Greg回到家看到我臉色怪怪的,問我還好嗎?

他一問我的眼淚就撲通撲通掉下來了...

他還以為發生什麼事了~

我只是很感動又很感觸~

因為我的阿公年紀愈來愈大了

想到阿嬤過世之後,他一個人內心的孤單和對阿嬤的思念無處說...

但卻又總是堅強地微笑,每當我們回家或打電話給他時,都是一切ok,不用擔心~~

我的決定他都支持..

無法多打,這些感受太龐大,也太深邃

Untangled 解開糾結

Can you imagine spending several hours just untangling fucking more than 100 necklaces???!!

Well, I can tell you that it's defiinitely not something you'd like to do to kill your time...

That was my task yesterday~~

Greg had 2 boxes of necklaces back from shops that were all tangled up. As a good assistant, of course I'd deal with this. So I made a cup of tea and opened the heavier box first--- BLOODY HELL!!  They were not just slightly tangled, it was more like some sort of artwork that had been done purposely--  Just to make it perplexed so that people can't figure it out  easily.... All the necklaces were completely knotted!  @..@

Oh well, if I didn't do it, Greg would have to spend extra time dealing with this...

As a good wife and helpful assistant, sure I'd make it done...

After about 2 hours, I was finally half way there~~ the cup of tea was cold, my neck became stiff and my fingers were dirty...   But I was only half way through, so I drank up (tea, I mean) and threw myself back to the "wonder world" (so sure I was very lost in the tangled world!) to fight against those naughty necklaces..

Another 1.30 hours passed, I was nearly there yet still not quite there~~ There was a moment that I realised my tears were about to come out... This task frustrated me!!!

However, Princess J is not someone that would give up easily! Of course I would persist to the last minute and prevail over this daunting task..

Fianlly I made it!! And what's even more, I invented a much better way of packaging necklaces into boxes! It turned out quite good and I was satisfied with the new way of packaging ( I'm such a smart princess, HaHaHa!).

First Drive 開車練習第一次

Just did my first practice of driving...

Of course with my very strict coach Greg in car next to me~~

As I thought, stressful  >_<

Because I knew he would be telling me all the rules and things that I have to do as a "good" driver!! (Which means the way I drove in TW, you know, like a crazy txai driver, doesn't apply to how I can drive down under...)

We, no, I drove us to a friend's exhibition opening somewhere not too far from where we live. Yet due to the heavy traffice on the main road, Greg directed me to drive a further way to get to the place (you know, as practicing~). I got told off several times (not surprising at all, isn't it?), then my arms were very sore (I guess to some degree my mind was sore at being told off, too...).

We were home safely, I parked okay but not great, done with my first time practice~

Sure there will be more and more driving waiting for me ahead! (cz there isn't a sedan for Princess J....)

our cute little car~

終於來到了這一刻,我的開車練習第一次!!!

早就料想到Greg會正經八百神色嚴肅地坐在駕駛座旁"指導",果然壓力給他一個超大~

呼,幸好只是到離家不遠的地方看朋友的攝影小展,路途不是太遙遠,否則我神經都要緊繃到壞死光光了吧!

在這兒開車就是要"守規矩" (別人我是不知啦,但我肯定是要的...)

所以呀在臺灣翹腳耍狠開車那一套是完全派不上用場的了 (泣--- 懷念我的舊日台客時光啊!!!)

Princess has to cook too!! 公主也是要煮飯的~~

That's right!! Even a princess like me has to deal with daily life~~

Princess J's ability to cooking is improving!!!

Grown up in a place that provides a huge varity of food on the streets, I was never someone who'd into cooking at home~

To eat out or to take away would be much cheaper than cooking by self. It's not only money saved but also time-saving to me (as the way I cook...).

Yet living down under is a big difference. It's way too bloody expensive to eat out!! So being a good housewife, having the ability to cook is essential~~

That's way my ability to cooking has improved!

After all, I've never burnt something, nor used sugar instead of salt, which are things I consider someone at the very beginning of being a wife could have done!!??

So far I've cooked several dishes according to my memory and imagination (again proved how intelligent Princess J is,haha).

These dishes are- "Three-cups Chicken", "Ginseng Chicken soup", "Miso Vegie soup", and of course some fried vegies with different kind of meat....

This is a mix of minced beef, celery, sweet potato, capsicum and mushrooms.

One dish of our dinner today~ the other one, originally I was gonna make stew with vegies and chicken..

yet it came out to be a pot of tasty soup~~  Oh well, I put too much water at the beginning > <

 

 

Ingredients: cabbage, carrots, tomato, shiitake mushrooms, broccoli stem and chicken

However, my dear hubby said dinner was very delicious, haha!

I think so, too.  :)

雖然貴為公主,但也沒忘卻我為人妻的身分-

飯也是要煮的!!

說真的,個人覺得我的廚藝是有在進步的~~

前陣子做了"三杯雞", "人參雞湯", "味噌蔬菜湯".... 等等

都是自己煮的ㄛ! (沒有看食譜或經人口授)

憑著吃過的記憶中的感覺和有天份的煮食想像力,就成功煮出來囉!!

圖片的湯,原本是想作燉滷的,但不小心水加太多,意外煮成了非常美味的湯~~

真是太佩服我自己啦!

到目前為止都沒有做出糟糕的東西過.. 成品都是端得上桌,吃得下肚的ㄝ!!

太厲害啦!!!!

Presents Greg made for Mum ㄚ姆的禮物

This is one of the gifts that Greg made for Mum in 2007, recycled the souvenir spoon that had been in Mum's shelf for a long time.

Greg added the paua onto it to give it a totally different look.

I always love the colour of paua (it is also called "Sea Opal" or Abalone in USA). It's got that kind of blue which contents a deep feeling within it.

This is another pendant, which was also one of Mum's unused souvenir spoons. Greg decorated it with the beats (sorry that I didn't take the photos that well way back to a long long time age, because it was not taken by Greg's Powershot G10...).

The brass colour of these pendants gives them sort of a humble attitude as Jewellery. However, these two used to be dead spoons are enlivened by the bits attached to them and the work Greg did with them. Good on ya Greg!  :)

By the way, here's some information about Paua that I found from Wikipedia--

"The Paua shells make up the decoration on Xena's first chakram in the hit TV series Xena: Warrior Princess. Although the show was set predominately in Ancient Greece, the shell is used because the Paua is native to New Zealand, where the show was actually filmed."

這兩樣是2007年時,Greg利用ㄚ姆給的無用的紀念湯匙,稍微加點小巧思,而變身成功的作品 :)

 

Photo taking

 

Here are some of the pictures that I took for Greg's newest series work and the name cards I've done for him.

Photo taking should be one of my tasks as an assistant anyway~

I'm supposed to take photos of G's pieces, by using his NEW Canon Camera (PowerShot G10).

To be honest, I'm never one of the experts who can handle 3C products well...

Yet to some degree, I'm much better than G is (because of the age??? cz Im YOUNGER!!! HAHAHA).

What I did first was to find the language setting and changed it to Traditional Chinese (luckily it's got this version).

Then just tried to use it with my intuition (my intelligence born to be???) to take photos~

Anyway, to prove that I've been helping~ :)

最近終於開始拿起Greg的新相機,認命地肩負起攝影者的工作~~(除此之外我還身兼好幾個不同頭銜的工作, 但總稱助理啦)

Canon PowerShot G10 看起來真的好高檔喔~

拿起來也好有份量呦(就是一個重)

功能多到3C白癡的我頭都暈了@_@

但還是很努力地研究摸索(以茲証明公主也是勤奮工作呢!)

所以就照了Greg最新系列的作品-

個人覺得還不錯(作品讚,相片也拍得不賴! 果然是個有天賦的公主,哇哈哈)