Ice Ice Baby!

Some people think that snow falls in Melbourne every winter but I'm sorry to tell you that its not true. We don't get snow in Melbourne in winter although it can get very cold, down to zero and below!

However when the temperature plunges down to zero degree celsius and we get a wet night, in the morning we do get ice forming on just about everywhere outside like on our Toyota Echo which was blanketed with ice crystals 2 weeks ago when we had a very chilly night!

People from parts of the world that do have snow every year may find this uninteresting but for Melbournians like myself this is a treat! We don't get to see this many times of the year but fair enough, if we were to go to the alpine regions where snow does fall then this is nothing. But we are in suburban Melbourne and the sight of white ice in the morning is a wonderful sight!


So don't be dissapointed if you come to Melbourne but there's no snow coz you have to go to the highlands for that! There's plenty of snow in the alpine regions this year so if you are a ski enthusiast, you will love it up there! Meanwhile down in suburban Melbourne, I'll just be content with my ice on the car! Ice ice baby!

Roof Cleaning, Anyone?

My neighbour across the street is having their roof restored and I'm just curious as to how they do it. I'm so nosey...I'm turning into my other neighbour who's an old man that like to check out everyone that moves in the neighbourhood!
Anyway, roof restoration involves first of all cleaning the roof with a high pressure 'watergun' to get rid of years of grim that's stuck to the roof tiles. The gutters are also removed and will be replaced with new ones. After the cleaning, any repair to the roof will be done prior to spray-painting it. I'll be watching the progress from my window and keep you posted! Hehe...I'm so kaypo!

Smells Like Shit!

Welcome back to the Tukang Kebun Show! Today I'm trying out a new fertiliser for my garden and its totally organic which is how I like my fertilisers. I've never like using inorganic fertilisers but that shouldn't deter you from using them, its just a personal choice.

This organic fertiliser I'm trying out is Seamungus from Neutrog, the maker of Sudden Impact for roses. According to the instruction on the Sudden Impact fertiliser which I apply during Spring, Summer and Autumn, Winter is when I should be using Seamungus to replenish the soil while the plants are mainly in the dormancy.

Seamungus is made from organic materials like seaweed, fish, humic acid and manure which then underwent specific composting and pelletised. It comes with a 100gm cup for application of 1 cup per square meter. And when first applied it does have an odour similar to aged shit! But the odour will soon go away after a couple of days.


I got a bit generous and gave 1 cup to each established rose bush which I don't think will do any harm. We'll soon find out how good it is from the blooms come Spring time!

This has been a community broadcast by your friendly Tukang Kebun of the Tukang Kebun Show!

Special Meme!

Me and my kaypo-ness! I put my hand up so now I have to do the meme...to be fair. Sorry Yvy for taking so long but better late than never! This is a special meme because I requested to be tagged. (I swear I wasn't reading it properly...hehe.)

This is how it goes;

If you comment on this post, I will…

1. respond with something random about you.

2. challenge you to try something.

3. pick a color that I associate with you.

4. tell you something I like about you.

5. tell you my first/clearest memory of you.

6. tell you what animal you remind me of.

7. ask you something I’ve always wanted to ask you.

8. pick a song that reminds me of you.

After I respond to the above mentioned 8 points in this blog, you will have to post the same meme, and my response, on your blog.

And this is what Yvy said about me;

Wuching> Ok, ok….kita main sekarang.

Random : I think that you’re one of those people that can easily mix and mingle in any age group - young or old, no problem but I’m sure most of the time u go for the young group lar.
Of course lah! What you think I spend my free time visiting nursing homes and keeping the ah pek & ah mu happy kah?

Challenge: I challenge you to tattoo ‘Yvy, spank me!’ on your bottom.
Can! Next time you're in town I'll go get a texter pen and get Terese to write for me on the bottom of my foot to show you! Hahahahaha!

Color: Yellow
Why? Because I'm chinese issit?

Like: You blog wacky and that the way you should be. I absolutely love that wackiness in you!
Yes baby...I so lafu you too, if not for Ted...dunno what I'll do! *Go confession tomorrow*

Memory: I’m pretty sure we started on a ‘dirty’ note!
Chey! I got shower twice a day wan! Where got dirty lah!

Animal: Horse
I'd rather you said 'stallion'!

Question: When can I really spank you?
When Ted's not looking lor!

Song: Hold me, thrill me, kiss me, kill me by U2
Huh? I can't remember this one, how does it go?

Holy Crabs!

Before I start I just want to tell Yvy that I'm sorry I still haven't done your meme yet! I've been rather busy at work coz my boss went AWOL on us and I'm stuck doing his works as well as mine! Furthermore tonight being thursday night is my TV marathon night so I have very little time to write a long post let alone the meme I asked Yvy to let me play too! I promise I will do it as soon as I have some time maybe tomorrow...

So instead I'll just post a couple of photos a friend from Sibu sent me just to tease me! With friend like that who needs enemies, right? This is Sibu mud crabs and its making me go nuts! Ohh..juicy juicy crab claw meat..*slurp*


So Suituapui, this is what I would like to eat if I happen to come to Sibu. You know what to do lah, Beautiful Mountain! And then after that you can take me to eat Tian Mian Hu, Jiu Hu Eng Chai, Kampua, Kompia, etc ....

He's Back!

He said he'll be back and now he is! He was spotted in Johnston Street, Collingwood and looking mean as ever! The T100 Terminator is back to finish off mankind and he chose a good start in Collingwood!

Torn and battled, this Arnie look-a-like is a gimmick outside the junk shop on Johnston Street placed there to attract customers. Well he sure attracted my attention but I only wanted to take his picture! Hope he managed to lure more humans into the shop where I'm sure more terminators are waiting! Hasta-la-vista baby!

"Why Do You Still Play With Toys?!"

People ask me "Why do you still play with toys?" to which I answer "Why not?" But I don't play with just any kind of toys, they have to be Star Wars toys!

I saw this Star Wars Clone Wars Clone Troopers Pack and I just had to get it! Its The Muunilinst 10 from the animated Star Wars series as seen on Cartoon Network!

You have to be a Star Wars fan to understand why I still buy and play with these figurines and I am not even going to try to explain it to you if you don't! I've practically grown up with the Star Wars fantasy and it will stay with me for the rest of my life!

This battlepack includes the captain of the elite team of troopers sent to hunt down General Grievious of the Droid Army. Leading the assault team is Captain Fordo and his command crew!

This is Captain Fordo of The Muunilinst 10, known for his aggressive fighting tactics and prefers to employ firepower over finesse. Fordo was once awarded the Chancellor's Service Medal, which he refused and transfered to a fallen member of his task force.

One of the command crew is the specialised heavy gunner with his super duper gun! I like this trooper best! Notice that he doesn't wear the shoulder guard like the others and his helmet is also different from the rest.

The rest of the command crew carry standard blasters except for one who carry the same type of rifle-blaster as Captain Fordo. The rest of the team are made up of ordinary clone troopers which are not included in this pack.


Here's Captain Fordo leading his men on their mission to hunt down General Grevious. After I've done playing with them I'll repack them back in the box. 20 years from now they will be worth a fortune! Che-cheh, are you jealous now? Hehe...

The Annoying Frog

On Saturday we went to Spotlight in Box Hill to get some yarns for Terese and some other knitting needles. This place is full of women shopping for cloths, needles, craft thingies and all kind of female stuff! So while Terese was choosing her yarns, I was wondering around the place and made my way to the clearance bin where I saw...

...this little gadget. Its a bottle opener but its the annoying frog bottle opener! It was selling for $12.95! I couldn't believe my eyes but its supposed to be cheaper coz it was in the clearance bin.

It makes that annoying sound everytime you open a bottle with it! And it was daring me to press the button! The store was full of people and lets just say I saw a lot of heads looking my way! So now I'm daring you to watch the video!

Leo's

Here in Australia the supermarket chains are monopolised by 2 very big corporations namely Woolworths and Coles Myer. You can find these 2 supermarkets just about anywhere you go.

But there are smaller upmarket supermarkets in some affluent suburbs like Leo's in Heidelberg and Kew where we went yesterday to get a particular brand of chilli jam that only can be found there. We don't normally come to Leo's mainly because of their prices but only if we have to, like when the stuffs you want can only be found there.


Leo's stocks a lot of unusual brands of products not normally found in the mainstream supermarkets for example Sarawak Black Peppercorn at $7.90 per 100 gm can! Talk about expensive!

2 SYTs

Went to lunch at Van Van today and saw 2 SYTs sitting across the room that caught my attention. I think they cannot be more than 18 years old but that's when they start to miang nowadays true anot?


After they finish their meals, quickly quickly they did their makeups! Wuah both doing at the same time pulak! Reapply lipstick lah, touch up foundation lah..aduh! That one look like got wearing mask on! What to do? Have to meet boyfriend mah, right anot?

My Luck Will Go On...

I feel like singing "My Luck Will Go On..." belting out with gusto at the top of my lungs my version of Celine Dion's song from the Titanic movie! Don't worry I won't but you wanna know why I feel like singing?

Well today was another beautiful day like yesterday, kind of like a carbon copy day of yesterday. Remember yesterday was also my lucky day when I scored myself a 17" monitor? So how long do you reckon my luck is going to last? Would it last for another day since today was like yesterday?

Oh yes it would! And that's precisely what happened when I got home from work today to find a ticket for 2 to see the latest Michael Douglas movie called The Sentinel! I've won this from a phone competition when Terese asked me to call this competition line for the movie. Terese did the right thing and if she hadn't done so we wouldn't have won the ticket!


The movie premieres at 6.30 pm on Wednesday the 2nd of August so y'all know what we'll be doing on that night! *Back to singing...My luck will go on...*

Not Another Monitor Post!

Today was a beautiful day, the sun was out but it was still cold. At least there was no rain and gloomy sky and we decided to go down to North Melbourne for lunch at that malaysian place.

This is Errol Street in North Melbourne with the clear blue sky! People who miss Melbourne, miss it even more now? Hehe...thought you like a little peek at what you're missing out.

Anyway as we were heading towards the restaurant we came across the front of the council office where an old 17" monitor was sitting on the floor right in front with a note stuck to it.

Had a better look at the note and it said that its free for anyone who wants it! The monitor is working except for the power button. I couldn't believe my eyes and went inside and spoke to a lady who confirmed that it was a giveaway and that I could have it now! So what do you think I did?

I took it home of course! I tested the monitor with my old IBM computer and found the monitor to be in good working order. Don't let the photo fools you coz the display is very good! It just need a good clean on the outside because of years of abuse from the council workers!


The only fault I could find was the power button which appeared to be stuck on ON all the time which doesn't bother me one bit! Its not everyday I get something free so I am grateful for today! The weather was good and the sun was shinning on me!

Roadwork Sign

Its Wednesday which is hump day coz its in the middle of the week thus 'hump' like the hump of the camel...never mind, just excited that we've moved halfway through the week and the weekend is on its way!

Here in Melbourne we get a lot of road repairs in the middle of the busy roads and there's always good clear signs warning motorists of the road work being done ahead and to be cautious and prepare to stop if need to...very good.

But last week I was driving along busy Victoria Parade when there was another road work ahead. Traffic was slow but moving along but I didn't see any roadwork signs anywhere until I spotted a very small orange sign on a post...


What the...? No money in the budget to make new signs? Have to resort to home-made sign of a stick figure holding a sign! Or is he holding a giant lollypop? I reckon just trying to save some money by doing away with a real person. So very unnoticeable not to mention unsafe!

Sometimes The Latest Is Not Necessarily Better.

One of our monitors at work died and since it costs too much to repair it my boss decided that it is more economical to just purchase another monitor. The old monitor was a 17" CRT monitor and a replacement monitor of the same specification would be sufficient for our need.

My boss being computer illiterate, got talked into by the sales person to buy a 19" LCD monitor instead! Its a BenQ but can't remember the model number and comes with a 3 year warranty.

I remember LCD monitors used to come with separate power supplies but this one didn't. It just came with a cable to plug directly into the wall, a cd containing the manual and warranty card.

All that was required of us to do was to attach the stand to the screen and that's it! Not a bad looking monitor since we're so used to looking at CRT screens! This is going to take some getting used to.

From the side it looks so flat as compared with the CRTs! Wouldn't be a bad idea to change all the monitors to LCD but we can only dream. I'm glad the sales person did his job!


The only problem is that this monitor requires a 1280 x 1024 resolution to take advantage of its full use. Our system being really old does not display such high resolution thus we get a little bit of the display missing either from the top or the bottom depending on how we adjust it. There's no control to compress the display like we could with the old CRT which I don't know why so I rang up BenQ support who basically told me that's all we're gonna get! Very unhelpful support on the part of BenQ but we can live with it!

And the monitor looks out of place next to all the old machines! Sometimes the latest is not necessarily better.

The Suituapui Club

You've read their comments and you've often wondered who they are. Finally the moment everyone in the blogosphere has been waiting for is here! Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you...

The Suituapui Club! *Jeng Jeng Jeng* The club where most men can only dream of becoming a part of but only a handful elite chubby checkers are allowed to join. This is the story of the 3 cousins who took the blogosphere by storm and had SYTs and silais screaming for more!

Starring the beautiful mountain himself who is the epitome of the modern day hero, Suituapui! Fat and sarcastic, Suituapui leads his cousins on their quest for destruction and mayhem across all blogs in the blogosphere!

Also starring Kampong Nangka Boy who though less fat than Suituapui but just as sinister as he plundered all blogs he comes across with his cousins. Got the hots for Jessica Alba but since that is but a dream he settles for Phuket's pondans which is his also his all time favourites!


And last but never the least special guest starring the 3rd but most malicious of the 3 cousins is none other than QuaVadis who is known to spread his q.v.virus all across blogger's comment boxes right across the known blogosphere!

Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado I present to you The Suituapui Club! *Special thanks to Cocka who provided me with the video.

How To Turn Your Rubbish Into Good Use!

Welcome back to the Tukang Kebun Show. Today I'm going to share with you a simple tip on turning your rubbish into good use!

The rain stopped today which gave me an opportunity to resume my work outside. Once a year in winter I'd prune my roses hard and clear most of my perenial bushes back to make ways for young new shoots in Spring.

Rose clippings are full of diseases which I'd throw out in the green bin but I also ended up with piles of green wastes from the perenial bushes like the catmints and other herbs I got in my backyard.

I could just throw all my green wastes away into the green bin but a better alternative is to turn them into green manure! I knew I made the right choice when I bought my mulching mower where it not only cut the grass but will also shred them into fine pieces. So if you're in the market for a new lawn mower, get a mulching mower like I did and you'll never regret it! I ran my mulching mower over the pile of green wastes to shreds and ended up with...

...a pile of green clippings! You can use these to mulch your garden beds but I found that they tend to get slimey when wet but hard and crusty when its hot and dry. What I do is collect them and put them into my...


...compost bin to let it rot down before I'll use the composted materials for the garden beds! This way nothing is wasted and I get free compost which I use to enrich the soil in the garden! Its all good for the environments!

This has been a community service broadcast brought to you by your friendly neighbourhood tukang kebun. Till next time, happy kebuning!