Because its a small world and an even smaller blog word

I have to ask, does anyone know what happened to intint?

Does she have a new blog if so where?

Oh yesterday...

yesterday was one of those perfect days that you never want to end.

For the first time in a very long time the weather was beautiful.

And I finally ventured out to macro wholefoods in Richmond.

If you are a fellow foodie, heath freak, vegetarian, vegan, wanting anything organic (including meat), or just like your eco friendly products then I urge you to go there.

Foodie me was in heaven. It's huge! It's like a gigantic health food shop with organic groceries too. If you thought passionfoods or wholefoods was big then forget it. I walked around expressing lots of 'oooooohhhs' and 'arhhhhhhhhhs' for 45 minutes with Mr T and saying on more than one occasion 'I love it here'. They have everything!

There are a few American products that I've enjoyed in Hong Kong that I have never found anywhere, a few that I have never tried but been looking for and a few I never heard of that I couldn't resist. Americans you might as well ignore this post because I guess you can easily get all of them. However you struggle to get all of these products here:

* clif bars -although no luna bars
* apple butter (now I can make these amazing looking sandwiches)
* canned black beans
* soydelicious purely decadent vanilla bars which were beautiful

We also got a sourdough bread on special which is by far the best bread I've ever eaten.

No wonder they have macro discovery tours.

The downside: most things are not so cheap but it is so worth it for those hard to find products that no-one ever seems to have.

They also have a cafe(which I didn't get to try) and free parking.

We then went to vic markets to pick up some cheaper veggies, organic fruit and Asian products from the Asian supermarket across the road and ate desserts at Invita Living Food (next to the market).

Here is a pic of the tea section (yes it includes everything within those four metal posts):


and a pic of the jam section(on the left and all the way to the box):


Such a pity I had to go back to work today!

Good news for Mr T

He got his learners permit which means he can now drive with me or any other fully qualified driver next to him. Kind of scary, but he's already had a mini lesson with me and it wasn't so bad. We also were extremely relieved to receive a immigration letter advising that his spouse visa has finally been approved.

Its amazing to think how far he has come since he moved here almost 9 months ago. I'm extremely proud of him. He took a big gamble moving here and it wasn't a decision we made easily because we both were aware of how much of a sacrifice it was. So far though he's managed to get himself a full time job and stick with it for 6 months. Ok it's not the greatest in the world but a lot better than his door to door sales job and other illegal jobs he was facing at the beginning. He's also managed to work out the public transport system in fact he now knows more than me. More importantly though he's made my family fall in love with him, and made every cat he has regular contact with fall in love with him including a weird relationship with our family cat where he comes when Mr T call him. He's eased quite well into fri night drinks with colleagues (easy one), get his learners permit, adjusted to all the cultural and language changes (including eating out a lot less), learnt how to waste time now that work takes up much less time (no more 24 hrs straight working on film stuff), go out and do things like go to shows by himself, learn all the good eating places near his work and other metropolitan areas, find and attend a ok yoga school, make some new friends, become pretty close to the perfect domestic partner (he's doing the dishes as we speak after he cooked dinner) and so much more.


Mr T studying for his learners permit test the night before with the family cat dairy

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Btw, I've finally fixed my template (the flowers) hopefully it will look a little better for internet explorer users. It's been so long since I used it and I had no idea that they were overlapping the top by so much.

Vegetarian Sydney

I've organised a weekend trip (3 days) for Mr T's birthday present. Now that the secret is out I can ask advice openly for your Sydney advice.

I've only been to Sydney once years and years ago.

Now I need the most important advice: food advice!

While I've been looking and asking some well informed friends I've found some really good websites:

HappyCow
Veggie Friendly
and even Sydney Vegan

The problem is how do I choose from all the restaurants?

So fare I've been informed that bodhi and Peace Harmony are must eats.

Also need to know where to stay, I keep finding hotels that look great online only to check out some really bad reviews at tripadviser.

So I need your help, where should I eat and stay?

Btw, does anyone know where to get vegetarian turnip cake (yum cha item) or good vegan breakfast or desserts in sydney?

Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault

I've just started a subject at uni with that exact title. Apparently its the only class on this subject at a university in all of Victoria. Perhaps in all of aus, but not sure about that. Either way though it's insane considering how prevalent it is. It just goes to show how much of a taboo it is, discussing such a topic.

So consider this a forewarning if you like to keep your head in the sand then you might want to stay away from this blog for the next 12 weeks.

I'm really looking forward to it but just wish I had it before I started my new job. There are so many things I could have learned before hand. Possibly the best advice I got from an external supervisor was in regard to women leaving their violent partner and returning on average something like 11 times before they leave for good. I was and still am slightly heart broken about a client returning to her violent partner and the advise she gave me was to look at in a different way 'ok so she left once so she's one step closer to leaving for the final time'.

She also gave me a list of reasons why women stay in domestic violence situations which was huge and I promise to type up one day to share.

But for now here a few facts to digest over courtesy of CASA:


Violence as a gendered issue
CASA House stats - 2001- 2002

* 97% of offenders were men
* 84% of those accessing CASA House were women

Victorian Victims of Crime Survey (1998)

* women were 10 times more likely to have been victims of sexual assault than men (approximately 18,000 women and 2,000 men)
* men were slightly more likely to report sexual assault to police

Women's Experience of Violence - ABS Women's Safety Survey (1996)

* 7.1% of Australian women over 18 years experienced an incidence of physical or sexual violence in the previous 12 months
* 23% of women who had been married or in a de facto relationship experienced violence by a partner at some time during the relationship
* 42% of women who experienced violence by a previous partner were pregnant at the time of the violence and 20% experienced violence for the first time during pregnancy
* the group of women most at risk of violence are young women (18 - 24 years old)
* women are most at risk of violence in the home - 55% of sexual violence occurred in the home; 35% of physical violence occurred in the home by a male other than a partner.

Women's responses to violence - ABS Women's Safety Survey (1996)

* most common action taken was to discuss it with friends (58%) and family (53%)
* 19% of women who experienced physical violence contacted the police
* 15% of women who experienced sexual violence contacted the police
* women who experienced violence from a stranger were most likely to report to police
* women who were assaulted by a current partner were least likely to report to the police.

Speaking of women in music, and all female groups

Sleater Kinney have broken up. Ok i'm really slow with this news but I only just found out on the weekend. First I heard it on the radio and thought maybe it's just a rumour and then I bumped into Claire who confirmed it and then just to make sure I googled and sadly it is true. After 11 years! I loved them and only dicovered them about a year ago.

At least I got to see them at Big Day out this year. However, now I really wish I went to see their side show as well.

Photo taken at Big Day Out 2006 probably by Mr T

Btw, Carrie was my fav member.