new pair of glasses + shorter bangs.
i smell the holidays…!!
yes, exactly one month from today we’ll be back in my hometown singapore! i cannot wait to see the fam and friends, soak in the humidity, fight the crowds, shop, and eat up all the yummy food on that island. people think i’m crazy when i say this, but i truly miss singapore. in fact, i have dreams to move back to singapore and set up a private practice there. we shall see!
the color coordinated us in singapore last year for our wedding! in changi (not that you could tell…).
love affair with the korean (food)
we had delicious home cooked galbi at a korean australian friend’s place tonight. she’s also lucky to have her mom live in the same town, which means she gets home made kimchi and was able to generously share it with us tonight. not to be a kimchi (or korean food) snob, but any korean person will tell you that mass produced kimchi bought in stores is almost always inferior to the ones carefully pickled at home. no, i’m not korean, but being married to one has certainly made me more particular about this. unfortunately, i have not penetrated the kimchi making world and in the last year away from the K-in-law’s, we’ve gone through jars of unsatisfactory tasting mass made kimchis. we’ve been lucky to have a couple of korean friends who have sporadically fed us with home made kimchi, and tonight was one of those lucky nights for us!
the well marinated and cooked galbi, home made kimchi, delightful korean style cucumber salad, really put our taste buds over the moon.
tonight’s meal also really reminded me that i need to try out more korean recipes. it was kind of an unspoken promise i made to bry’s mom when we left LA for melb, that i will endeavor to keep feeding bry with korean food. jang jo rim, a pickled beef meat, will be first on my list! as for kimchi…? hopefully i’ll get to make it sometime in the next 5 years.
bike dates <3
ever since i took on the saturday job, bryan and i haven’t had as much time to spend with each other. which is why sundays have become so much more precious for us. bry recently bought us new bikes – mine is a cool mountain bike with gears and brakes that work smoothly (unlike my old one that squeaked and required the strength of an ox to get the brakes going), and bry’s is a fancy bike with hybrid tires.
of course, our bikes are a far cry in terms of style and cool factor (and cost) when compared with my dad’s (who is an avid biker and whose bike costs more than two round trip air tickets to the USA). nevertheless, for fair weather cyclists like us, our current bikes will suffice.
we’ve been cycling to the parks, checking out different parts of town, and really just spending fun, quality time together. yesterday, we again cycled from our place to the royal botanic gardens (about 20km round trip). the botanic gardens is such a pretty place especially in the spring. the floral and fauna collection there is immense and the landscaping is delightful. it’s kind of a perfect backdrop for a date. the weather was also beautiful: blue skies, cool, dry breezes amidst the warm sun. .there, we hung out at the tea house and sipped our favorite chai latte, while chatting away and taking in other fun sights like the little wedding ceremony in the park, kiddos with odd gaits trying to run up the slope, yuppies playing fetch with their dogs, families with young and old enjoying a picnic together…
i love these beautiful afternoons with b. and hope the weekend weather doesn’t get too hot so we can keep biking around town together!
(Photo circa 2008, from our old bike ride phase this time last year.)
want to know how the job is going…?
so here’s a snapshot of what being an SLP employed by the department of education in melbourne victoria is like:
- technically, you don’t automatically get school holidays off (you have to apply to take those days off and yes you only get 20 vacation days a year);
- you sometimes work out of store rooms, principals’ offices, staff rooms…basically any spare room the schools can find you;
- you have to pay tax on your travel claims;
- you don’t really have a clear idea of a career progression path;
- you don’t get recognized monetarily for studying more;
- you get $300 to attend Professional Development courses;
- you have to pay for your own end of year celebration meals because apparently we don’t need a break or team bonding activities;
- you don’t get your membership with the professional board (Speech Pathology Australia) (about $450 a year) automatically paid for;
- you see kids for therapy at best once a fortnight which really allows you to see lots of progress (NOT).
and here’s what you get for being a teacher:
- almost all of the above catered for.
i’m still trying to understand WHY anyone would want to be a Department employed SLP for more than 2 years. the working conditions are absolutely shocking. not to mention graduate SLPs are paid WAY less than teachers for having similar qualifications (don’t even get me started on the fact that my Masters is not worth anything in this system).
take me back to california.
