Hello, Aidan!

Baby Aidan was supposed to make his appearance two weeks later, but he just can't wait. The warm bath in the bathtub pacified him for a bit, but by midnight, he's at it again. At the Canterbury Hospital, Mau was taken to the birthing room and put on the laughing gas. The jokes must be lame because I don't hear her laughing. It did make her forget about her contractions until we were able to find an anesthesiologist awake enough to give her an epidural.

By morning, when everyone is up and awake, the doctor walked in and announced yup, it's time for business. So Mau started pushing. She huffed and she puffed, but she wasn't pushy enough. So out comes the scissors - snip, snip. In goes the forceps. And before you know it, Aidan slid out into the world. 2.49 kilos, 49 cm.

Hello, Aidan!

Oliveto 1st Anniversary

What better way to celebrate the first anniversary than to eat?

For our anniversary lunch, we make a booking at Oliveto Ristorante & Bar, nicely located at the Brays Bay Reserve in Rhodes. It was a sunny day, and we got a table overlooking the bay.

Menu, please:
Primo

• Crispy pork belly, orange, radicchio, snow pea runner salad, apple jam
• King prawns alla diavola, tomato chilli, garlic

Secondi

• Lamb rack, confit truss tomatoes, radicchio, fennel, black olive tapenade
• Confit duck, pearl barley risotto, morello sour cherry sauce

Dolci

• Limoncello souffle, lemon sorbeto
• Hot chocolate
• Cappuccino
  

Vivid Sydney - Macquarie Visions

As part of Vivid Sydney, the whole of Macquarie Street is converted into one big lights and sound show called Macquarie Visions.

This is already the last week, so I decided to take some photographs after work. It was colder that I expected. I had coughing fits, while walking my way to St. Mary's Cathedral. After picking up my complimentary festival torch, I proceeded to watch Designing the Nation, projected onto the facade of St. Mary's. On the way to the Hyde Park Barracks, we pass by the Downer Macquarie Arch, symbolizing the construction of the road over the Blue Mountains by Macquarie.

Next up is Fair Go at Hyde Park Barracks Museum and Common Wealth at The Mint. The Parliament House is featuring Advance Australia, with interviews on inspirational projects. At the State Library of NSW, we see Words on the Street. There's more at the Conservatorium of Music, but it's too far and too cold for me.

At Circular Quay, some of the building nearby also have special lighting turned on.

Premier Seat for the Baby

I'm in the market for a convertible baby car seat. Instead of going to Kmart or BigW or Babies R Us, I went to eBay. The secondhand ones on eBay are definitely cheaper. The only downside is that there are so many brands and models and price ranges, and you're not really sure what condition they are in.

So I find this auction for a Safe-n-Sound Premier baby car seat ending soon. $78 sounds reasonable to me, so I put in my bid at the last minute. Just to test the waters. There were a few interested bidders, so I'm pretty confident someone with increase the bid. I wanted to see how much a Premier really costs. I ended up winning the auction.

Steamed Fish Fillet with Fried Garlic

Ingredients:

• one piece of fish fillet
• 3 cloves of garlic
• ginger slices
• rice wine
• salt
• oyster sauce

Cut fish fillet into small chunks. Marinade fish chunks with salt and a little rice wine for half an hour.
Boil water. Put fish chunks in boiling water together with ginger slices and drain when the meat has changed colour. Pour a little oyster sauce on the fish.
Heat oil on pan. Fry chopped garlic until golden brown. Sprinkle on top of fish. Serve.

Baby and Kids' Market at Lane Cove

Got a last-minute email about a baby and kid's market at St. Ignatius College, Lane Cove. By the time we got there, all possible parking spaces are occupied. Lucky for us, on our third survey of the place, we managed to find one.

$3 entrance fee gives you access to lots and lots of preloved and brand new stuff for babies and little boys and girls. I find the baby clothes and towels and toys a real bargain. Nice cupcakes, too.