It has been a while since I last updated my IPOD playlist. Like most things here in Sydney, CDs and DVDs are expensive! Good thing there are many ways of buying music and videos over the internet. Just like www.MP3rocket.com, which allows free music downloads! And for a minimal fee, you get more services like unlimited downloads and you can even burn them on CDs. How cool is that?

Depending on your usage, the basic set-up will give you the minimal functions but if you want to maximize MP3rocket’s features, then upgrading to a PRO account is a must. This is ideal if you want to get access to more movies and music and enjoy them in the comforts of your home. The user panel is so easy to use it’s a matter of clicking a few buttons to download. I will tinker with my basic account more and see if I should upgrade. Ah, the wonders of technology.

Buh bye April. HELLO MAY! What will you not miss about April? And what are you looking forward to in May?

I can’t think of anything that I will not miss in April. It was a good month. I am looking forward to cooler weather (it’s our first autumn and winter..) and the launch of a blog project!

~ my entry for That’s My Answer!

Blue Mountains, April 2008

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When is the last time you cleaned your home? Would you ever hire a cleaning service?

With other chores to do like cooking, ironing and laundry, there’s no way for me to clean the whole apartment in one shot. Plus, I have a toddler to attend to and she tops the priority list!

So what I do is, I clean certain areas of the apartment everyday. The living room today, bedroom the next, then the kitchen, etc. I would hire cleaning service if my husband and I can’t manage to do the chores anymore. If we can afford it and the free time would allow us to spend quality time with each other as a family, why not?

~ my entry for That’s My Answer!

I have a bad feeling that my Dell laptop will conk out on me soon. I have uninstalled many applications I rarely use and ran the disk defragmenter tool but the performance is still slow. What usually takes less than a minute to boot up has now become at least 2 minutes or more! I tried to free-up the memory by copying image files to a CD but that didn’t help either.

I’m not ready to let go just yet. My old ibook will be my fall back but I’m still very much dependent on this PC. Well, I just have to remember to make frequent back-ups of my PC files, just in case.

Last Saturday, my husband, daughter and friends went to Blue Mountains. We left the city after lunch and we didn’t expect that Blue Mountains will be very crowded. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful sunny day and the cool breeze just made it perfect for a quick weekend get-away.

The rock formation in photo is the Three Sisters. You want to know the legend behind these towering rocks? Read on.

The Legend

The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, ‘Meehni’, ‘Wimlah’ and Gunnedoo’ lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe.

These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry.

The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle.

As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.

~ Source: BlueMountains.com

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My husband has a tentative business trip to Perth planned in June. He was told that it is for two weeks and that he has two options. Either he flies back to Sydney after a week or he can stay in Perth for two straight weeks but he can bring us with him. The company pays for our fare and hotel.

If the first option pushes through, we are thinking of going with him on the second week. And that means scouting for cheap flights. The last time we checked on the internet there are budget fares as low as 260aud.

We have to wait and see. It would be nice to see Perth at least once in our lifetime.

What three things do you think of when you think of Thursday?

When I think of Thursday, I think of: the nearing weekend, the TV show Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and mall night (Rhodes shopping center closes at 9pm).

~ my entry for That’s My Answer!

(My entry for this week at Litratong Pinoy was shot in Pampanga in 2005. This is near the Lighthouse Grill cafe/restaurant within The Lakeshore Estate. The food at the Lighthouse Grill is really good especially the crispy tilapia which is their bestseller. There should be a lot of residents at the Lakeshore now compared to 2005 when the estate was just newly built.)

Ang lahok kong ito sa Litratong Pinoy ay kuha sa Pampanga noong 2005. Malapit ito sa Lighthouse Grill cafe/restaurant sa loob ng The Lakeshore. Masarap ang pagkain sa Lighthouse Grill lalo na ang crispy tilapia na sikat sa kanila. Malamang sa ngayon ay marami na ang nakatira sa Lakeshore dahil noong 2005 ay nagsisimula pa lamang magtayo ng mga bahay doon.

My husband likes going to the gym at least three times a week. He said that he feels more energetic after his workout. At the same time, it is a stress-reliever for him after a long work day. Good thing the apartment complex has a gym, which is so convenient for him. It has basic equipment like ellipticals, thread mills, bikes and benches for weight lifting. However, I may never come to enjoy going to the gym as much as my husband does because I prefer running outdoors more.