Yuting, Me and Our Teenage Son

In one of my previous posts I was describing our boat Avatar as our new born son like a proud first-time parent. The joy of motherhood! I carried Avatar's photos in my mobile phone and would show them to anyone who was too polite to ask me to sod off. I smiled when I thought about his blue and white stripy seat covers and his matching red cushions and fantasise about when he grew up we were going to go to all these cool places together. How wrong was I? In natural's usual cruel form, within half year Avatar has grown into what makes parenthood hell. Yes, you guessed right, our boy has turned into a teenager - who gives you nothing but headache, and as real good parents we are not going to give up on him yet.

It is all quite interesting really. We did our last joyful sailing in late summer, just before daylight saving ended. The good old summer time felt like only yesterday. And WHAM! Winter arrived and everything started going wrong. It's like one day you realised your 15 year old is smoking! What is the idiot thinking? After you spend weeks talking yourself into that this is just a rebelious stage and he's going to quit after all, you got a call from the police who told you your son's been caught speeding, under the influence of alcohol! You decided that he had to be grounded, and that's when he told you that his girlfriend is pregnant. Instead of trying to fix the problems this time, you started thinking 'Oh my god, what's next? Am I up for what's gonna be next?'

Okay okay I may be over-reacting and people tell me not all teenagers behave like mine. Yeah - so why cant I have a better one?! I look at all these other people on their nice boats drinking beer after a day's sailing and look at Avatar, who is not moving at all!

Avatar's problem began in late April, when I found out the lock was stuck and we could not get in (you always know something dodgy is going on when they lock the door). We had the lock lubricated a couple of weeks later and when we started the engine the 'tailpipe' shot out not water but smoke. With my very limited mechanical knowledge this is how I understand what happened. The water cooler system pumps in sea water, cools down the engine, and pumps the water back out. Where the system should have been pumping out water, was broken, so it kept pumping water in, and way into the bilge (the bottom of the boat). So instead of a boat, we had a bit of a bath tub. (Does that sound bad enough for you?)

We had someone coming in to have a look at the engine for us. And apparently the problem was bad, and without telling us the dude took the engine off and sent it to Melbourne to have it fixed. Is it really that bad that we have to send it to somewhere 1000km away? We got a report back saying the engine was 'reaching life expectancy' and that 'repair cannot be guaranteed' a month later. Not to mention it was OUCH all the way when I saw the bill. Wouldnt that make you scream? We told ourself that Avatar is a yacht, as long as we have wind and sail, nothing could stop us.

We went back to Avatar today on a fortunately, not a good day for sailing type of day, as there was no wind and the water was as flat as mirror. We tested the engine and Hooray! It worked! It was pumping out water beautifully and the boat was not even cover with bird shit like I expected. I grinned when I saw these people having a picnic at the beach looking at us all green with envy (like how I used to look at the people on their dodgy little boat), and then, Yuting started having a nervious breakdown. Our boat was somehow moving closer and closer to shore and he couldnt reverse it because the propeller was not moving!!!!

So, after fixing our lock and spending a fortune fixing our engine, obviously now we have gearbox problem!!!!

Yuting is going back to the boat tomorrow and guess what he's going to have to do? He has to dive into the water with a snorkel, and check to see if we had coral growing on the propeller, therefore having it stuck on the shaft. Well, things you have to do for your only child!

To be positive and look at the bright side of things, we could always get ourselves a new son. (I know how horrible that might sound) The annual Sydney boat show is on this coming weekend, I am determined to go check out what type of son I want next time. But before that I assure you Avatar would still get my unconditional love and fussing over - until mommy wins the lotto...

Todd, Brant and Leonardo

I guess it is not really an exaggeration to say that last weekend I have witnessed two of the greatest media moments in 21st century so far, which means I went to the movie 'the Da Vinci Code', and watched the Channel Nine interview of the two trapped miners, Todd Russell and Brant Webb: 'The Great Escape'.

Just in case if you have been living in a cave all this time, the Da Vinci Code is one of the most controversial stories told, which inspired all these great debates on Christianity and conspiracy. Dan Brown wrote the novel in year 2003 and after much anticipation, the movie of the same title was made 3 years after. I read the book and really enjoyed it, despite that I know very little about religion nor art (shame on me). Guess that's the sign of a truly great story, even as ignorant as I am I still managed to fall in love with all the plots.

I was very excited before the movie came out, almost as excited as I was when the last Harry Potter book was coming out (I still cant believe Professor Dumbledor is dead!). There is probably not one movie of Tom Hanks that I didn't enjoy and Audrey Tautou (the charming girl in Amelie) seemed a perfect choice to play Sophie. Not to mention that Gandolf was playing Leigh Teabing and Gandolf is definitely one of my favourites! But when I checked out the reviews I was a bit disappointed as 80% of them were quite negative, and some even went as far as implying that it was 2 and half hours of torture.

I went anyway, and I actually really liked it. I think all the actors played really well and the movie gave me the visualisation I needed for my lack of background in arts and history. I liked how the director didn't try to milk the attraction between Robert and Sophie (they shared a kiss at the end of the book but I reckon if they did that in the movie it would have looked a bit corny). I was also impressed by the portrait of Silas the albino monk. The monk character would be easily displayed as a cold psycho assassin type but when you watch Silas you just feel really sorry for him. Generally, I think it was a very good movie experience.

Okay, and last night, the interview on Channel Nine which generated so much hype - the Great Escape. For my great international fan base out there: On 25th of April an earth quake caused a collapse in a gold mine in a small town in Tasmania called Beaconsfield, killing one miner at the point and trapped two other miners for 14 days. The two trapped miners, Todd and Brant shared a muesli bar between them for 6 days before rescuers found them alive. After they were found they had to keep on lying down in a 1 meter by 2 meter cage for another 8 days before the rescue team drilled through rocks to get to them. Last night it was the first time they told their story on national TV. The interview became so high profile as there was a bidding war among three major TV stations and Channel Nine ended up winning the bid by paying the miners $2.6 million dollars to get an exclusive interview, which makes it the most expensive program in Australian TV history.

The interview was a bit slow at the beginning also I was expecting some animation to explain where Todd and Brant were and all that but it was just interview. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed how they tried to be for each other when the other person was having a melt down. For example, Todd would say to Brant 'If you don't settle down I am going to have to give you a kiss', or how they would sing this song called the 'Gamblers' when they heard explosives blasting away near them and they feared that the rescue team was going to accidentally kill them while trying to get to them. I was a bit teary when they told how they wrote letters to their families and loved ones on their overalls in case they got killed and how they tried to be positive when they fear that the rescue team would have thought they were dead thus giving up on them. I think the reason Australians were so amazed and inspired by these two blokes were that they were not your usual 'hero' types, they were just very normal people and they showed true 'mateship' down there and after lying down for 14 days in the dark (the cage was only 1 metre tall), they walked out of the mine on their own feet.

Well, I didn't write this post to explain what happened in the Da Vinci Code and what happened in the Tasmanian gold mine. I actually want to talk about the reaction from people I saw. I was listening to the radio yesterday morning and all these people called in to say what they thought of the miner interview, a lot of them were actually saying things like 'they don't deserve the money', or 'someone should coach them to say "MY" instead of "ME" all the time' (it's an Australian thing, some people would say 'me mate' instead of 'my mate', sort of like how we say 'G'day' instead of 'How are you?'), or 'the interview was not very interesting, they didn't seem to be doing much for the 14 days' - Well, hello?! If you could only lie down in a cage in total darkness, I guess you would be tap dancing?! And yes, the money, it was $2.6 million, yes, that is a lot of money, but it is for two of them so that is like $1.3 million each, and they would have to pay their agents and I wouldn't be surprise if one third of that is gone, and then for the remained $860K, at least another 30% would have to be paid tax - so that leaves Todd and Brant around $600K each. Well yeah that is still a lot of money, and I would love to have that sort of money but these guys went to hell and almost got killed and if they get something out of this that and they can stop working as miners and pay off their home loan and take their family for a holiday, good on them! (Todd has never gone on holiday, didn't even go on honeymoon when he married his highschool sweetheart)

It was the similar feeling I got when I was reading all these reviews for the Da Vinci Code, since when did we become so harsh and so cynical? I am not sure if this is just an Australian thing but when you read the newspaper these days you feel that nothing is ever good enough for anyone anymore. No movie is good enough for us, they were either too shallow, or too commercial, or they spent too much money making it, too much action, too many twists, too dull. If you read trashy magazines, the actresses were either too fat, or too skinny, too much plastic surgery, or too much of 'letting herself go' - it is so hard being happy these days. A few years back after a bad break-up I lost quite a bit of weight and everyone was telling me how sick and exhausted I looked (my bum looked pretty damn good in Calvin Klein jeans mind you), and all those weight has been back now that I am happy, I get told how round my face look and how my belly stick out like I was 4 months pregnant. If you are easy going, people say you are a push over, and when you stand up for yourself, you are labelled a bitch. If you are very tidy, people tease you about how anal you are, and if you are the opposite, no question asked you are just sloppy! As I said, it is just too hard these days!

Anyway, enough whinging about these nothing-is-good-enough-for-them-people-are-not-good-enough-for-me. Since it is so difficult to survive lets be nice to each other. So, here is the plan: Next time you see me, please tell me that I look great and that I am glowing. I will ask you where you got your haircut cos it looks so good on you and that your outfit looks chic as. I will also tell you that I feel so lucky to have you as a friend as most people probably think I am not good enough for them and you know when I say I feel lucky to be your friend it is not even a white lie, it is a FACT.

And as long as Tom Cruise is not in it, I am going to try to like every movie I watch. I know I am trying to promote love and tolerance but that dude really gets on my nerves...

One Night In Avatar

I kept telling myself that I have to write a posting about our 'new' 14-year-old boat, Avatar. However I also felt that Avatar was too special for me to write anything non-interesting or non-exciting about it. For two whole months I waited and waited for interesting stories to happen (and how I almost fell into the water while trying to get on didnt count) but unfortunately, anyone who has bought a property/car/boat would know that these types of purchase comes with a series of very non-interesting and non-exciting activities. In a way it is like adopting a child.

We bought the boat on New Years Eve, 2005, which marked a wonderful ending to a pretty good year. We were scheduled to settle in 3 weeks time. Heck the things you have to sort out in three weeks! Boat Rego, Boat Inspection, Boat Finance, Boat Insurance (Who to go with?), arrange for a mooring/marina berth - public or private? How much would it cost? How long do we have to wait? Should we get a dingy? An aluminium dingy? An inflatable? Should we row the dingy? Or should we use an outboard? What outboard? How much? Actually, we almost didnt make it to our 'deadline'.

And then the things you had to do after you pick up the boat: Transfer of vessel, put our names down on a waiting list for a public mooring, etc. (Which is silly, as you cannot join a waiting list unless you have a boat. But then if you dont have a mooring set up - you risk buying a boat and then having no where to put it.) We also had two slightly more interesting and 'artistic' tasks - which was to 'decorate' our cabin and get a sign bearing the name 'Avatar'.

We originally had pretty horrible looking DARK GREEN seat covers with weird stains which smelt of diesel, which is a bit of turn-off. Fortunately Shang came to the rescue and offered to lead the project of getting all new seat covers for Avatar. We went to Cabramatta on Australia Day and bought this blue and white stripy cotton that cost only $5 a metre! Later on she bought matching navy blue piping and the zippers for us and also talked to her maker to put all of them together for us - which would have cost us a fortunate if we have gone to anyone else. We went to IKEA two days later and picked up brand new bed sheets and duvet cover for the V-berth and some bright red cushions (Stripy Blue and White + Red - How French is that?!).

During the 3 weeks while we waited for the seat covers to arrive we also did some serious cleaning and scrubbing of Avatar. This is just so much hard work and you pretty much have to do it constantly. Imagine keeping your white car in the ocean and all these birds would shit on your bonnet and windows. Yuting is also particularly obsessed with the toilet. I am very grateful that we have an enclosed toilet as most small boats just dont come with one (which means you have to hold) or you get portoble toilet 'boxes' (called PORTA-POTTY) and dump the crap yourself everytime after sailing. So one of the 'criteria' when we were boat hunting was that it had to come with an enclosed marine toilet.

So yes, back to the toilet. It is small but quite nice really even with a pothole so you can admire the water views when you are doing your business. The only problem is that it kind of smells. Well, it doesnt smell like a public toilet as you would imagine. Instead the smell is actually a mixture of the smell of mould, diesel, sea water and human waste. Yuting have cleaned the toilet for at least 5 times, with every product you can find in the supermarket. We suspect the problem is that we dont use the toilet enough to keep the 'circulation' going. It also doesnt help that it is next to the engine room so you could smell the diesel. We are now trying to use it a lot and keep flushing the toilet with fresh water too. It still smells but is getting much better - we will get there one day.

The last thing is to get Avatar's name on the boat, and to do that I had to take off the old boat name first. While doing that I accidentally discovered a spider's home in the handle at the stern and when the spider crawled out it gave me such a fright I almost fell into the water.

Anyway we had some friends (and kids) onboard and did our first twilight sailing last Friday, which was really nice as afterwards we just chit chatted and listened to Love Song Dedication on the radio (Eric did a perfect job pretending he was one of those creepy stalker guys who rang up and said he loved this girl and stuff) plus Eric and Jeicy took the dingy out and had some romantic time of their own in the harbour under the moonlight too.

Yuting decided on Saturday night that we should do a 'sleep-over'! I was a bit reluctant - I guess emotionally I was not prepared so I tried to come up with excuses like how we havent tidied up the place yet and how we havent cooked dinner and it was already late, bla bla blah. Yuting was so determined that he tidied up our apartment and then cooked tandoori chicken and then packed it in lunchboxes so I had no choice but to follow him - it was already 9PM at the point. It turned out to be great. It was like camping on the water. We could see the stars from the V-berth and felt the nice sea breeze coming in from the hatch. It was nice to hear the waves and the gentle rocking of the boat just puts me asleep in no time.

We both slept in the next morning and Yuting got up and had breakfast and read the weekend paper while I just used the loo and went back to sleep. It was tiny but it felt like we had a holiday home where we could just chill out and forget about work. The guys at the boatshed had to come and check on us as they were getting a bit worried that they knew we were on board but didnt see us out of the cabin for the whole day. (I think Yuting looks like the quiet serial killer type - hee hee)

Anyway that's where we are at with our dear Avatar. It is not that interesting but have you listened to new parents talking about their babies?

On a side note, we had to go to the boat after work yesterday because Yuting left an avocado in the cabin on Sunday - what a genius, and we didnt want to risk it rottening away on its own - it's bad enough having a toilet that smells...

You Are How You Shop?

All my good friends know that I LOVE shopping. Okay, that was an understatement, even the security guy at my office building knows I have a serious problem. I think every person has his/her secret addiction, be it cigarettes, or alcohol, or food, or drugs. Mine is shopping. It's pretty bad really. I work in the CBD, which means I am 3 minutes away from shopping central. I try to go check out all the new stuff in the shops at lunchtime, and get really cranky if I dont get to do that for a few days.

I have been wanting to go on a shopping spree since the Boxing Day sale started (which was last year if you think about it) because it has been really hectic at work and I am working on some sort of compliance campaign which is both 'important and urgent' which means I have been staying back almost everyday and having sandwich at my desk at lunch and geez wasnt I feeling grumpy. I whinge about this so often that even my manager's greeting to me now goes 'So have you gone shopping eventually?' Everyday I fantasise about all these beautiful clothes, cheap, comes in my size, in every colour, and there are shoes to go with them.

You would be pleased to hear that I finally got to go shopping last Saturday and I think I really havent hit the racks for way too long. I felt very conscious about what went through my mind when I shopped, like how you would taste something you havent eaten for a long time. And I realise how the way a person shops really reflects his/her personality - you reckon?

1. I shop well under stress. Most of my shopping is done during lunchtime when I need to get back to the office in 15 minutes. This is really bad. Last Saturday I spent the first 4 hours being very picky and I 'only' managed to find a top that I think is good enough and cheap enough. I rang Yuting to ask him to come pick me up at 5.30pm and I thought I would just shop a little bit more while waiting for him. You wouldnt believe this - I managed to get a dress (at Jigsaw), a skirt (at Ted Baker) and a pair of suede shoes (at David Jones) in half an hour! I was so efficient - I should shop for my country at wartime.

2. I think I am more special than I really am. I spend a lot of extra money due to the fact that I skip chain stores only because I dont want to wear the same thing with other people. Which proved to be such a pain because there is no real one-off and let's face it, Marc Jocobs is just another Sportsgirl with much more expensive price tags and much less stores. But then I truly believe I am too cool for like, Portmans or Witchery. I think this comes down to low self-esteem. Deep down my ultimate fear is to wear the same thing with a 21 year old graduate who is taller, skinner, has no cellulite and a great tan and when people see me all they could think of is how you can buy clothes but you cant buy youth.

3. I am a pathetic cheap work slave who thinks about work even while shopping. Seriously, everytime when I see some nice tops or skirts or dresses, the first thing I think about is 'Can I wear this at work?' I couldnt get any gypsy/hippie/boho stuff this year because I just cant wear those things to work. I think this is so sad because I work in a big tech team where I am pretty much the only analyst who wears skirts (we do have quite a few girls in the team but they all wear pants) I really dont know who I am trying to impress. I guess like how lunchtime is the highlight of my days, dressing up in the morning is the only thing happy about work?! (Now this is getting depressing)

Anyway, all the self-analysis aside I had a great Saturday afternoon. And I have also re-arranged my wardrobe last night for some possible mix and matches. I am a happy addict - at least before my next craving hits.