My 4th Winter
This is my 4th winter since I moved here. I noticed I don't mind the cold as much as the previous ones. Does that mean I had adjusted and had acclimatised to this country already? Or maybe I learned how to dressed more warmly. Or maybe the clothes I got now are more suited to the wintry cold. I doubt this year's winter is warmer than the previous ones. But I'm certainly not complaining about the cold, about the short days ... I wonder if I'm actually starting to like it.

I still think though that the northern hemisphere got a better bargain out of their winter season. In their winter season they would be looking forward to the festive days of Christmas holidays, of shopping and presents, of family and good cheer in those cold nights and short daylights. Whereas we in the southern hemisphere don't have anything really to look forward to except maybe the waves of flu viruses that would render us off-sick from work for a couple of days, and for avid winter sports people a glide in the snow for a few days.

But yes, winter will almost be over soon over here.

Getting more Australian
I came from a family ignorant of tea drinking. After I married and moved here, I got exposed to people drinking tea as part of their daily lives. My husband and his family drink tea as part of their meal. I supposed my parents-in-law are knowledgeable in the areas of chinese-tea drinking and had kept the culture from their parents. My husband and his brothers, I supposed, are accustomed to their family tea drinks as well as to Australian's culture of tea drinking for years.

I was not too keen then and had always preferred water. When my workmates asked me to join them for tea in the kitchen I'd get water while I waited for them to finish their tea-making routine. I'd see people getting up from their desks, going to the kitchen making themselves a cuppa too.

But that has all changed. I started liking tea. It started slowly I would say. From the usual jasmine green tea I get from Chinese restaurants, to herbal teas infused with fruits or flowers, to the British way of drinking tea ... black tea with milk and sugar.

Clarisse and her Adventures
She just loves chocolates. This is a normal conversation:

C: Mommy, hold chocolate me.
M: Ok, you can only hold them but no eat-eat. After you finish your rice you can have 1. OK?
C: (nods)

Mommy gave C a small chocolate in a small plastic bag to hold.

C: Mommy, I'm hungry, I want rice.
M: You just eaten.
C: No I'm hungry. Rice please.

Mommy relents and gives clarisse some rice.

C: I finish rice I eat chocolate

Ahh, so that is what it's all about.