SUNNY'S FIRST PARTY

Last Friday, my husband and I took part in my old daughter, Sunny;s Xmas party which was held by the Southern cross long day care center. It was my first time to join formal party in Australia. I found it was very different from china. In this party, they didn’t arrange kids to sing or dance, but it was still very interesting and meaningful.

The party was divided three steps. First step was afternoon tea. The staff of the center prepared delicious food such as pies, chips, cakes, cookies, fruits, drink and so on for parents and children. The parents and children enjoyed these food and had chatting each other. After half hour afternoon tea, we entered into the second step which was lottery time. Every family had a ticket which marked number, and the number was a proof of lottery. There were 20 piece of chance to draw a prize. The teacher let some children to choose ticket from a basket, and whose number was same as the ticket’s number which were chosen by these children, it meant this people drew a prize. It was very lucky that my daughter Sunny drew a prize. The third step was Santa’s time. Santa is all children’s hope, it means so long as a child meets Santa the child will get present. So this step was that Santa presented gift to every kid. I found every kid was excited to wait for Santa’s gift. Although my daughter was afraid of Santa she still was full of expectation, and when she received Santa’s gift, she looked so happy and exciting.

All in all, this party was very special party in my life,because it was my daughter’s first party when she became a student. I absolutely believe my daughter will have a lot of chance to take part in more wonderful party in future ,but I hope this party will give my daughter special meaning and a good reminiscence.

ON SALE

Recently, my husband and I are busy on selling our all funiture. I find it is difficult to get a good price as second-hand funiture. Actually, most of our funiture are nearly new, but we have to sell out. So if somebody read this article and want to buy useful and beatiful funiture, please call me!

My mobile no. is 0406938996.

The best class!

Thursday was my last English course in TAFE. Because my father in law got cancer, our whole family have to move to china in next month, it means I won't meet some of my classmates and teachers for ever in future, and I was so sad to say goodbye to my teacher and classmates.

I joined the AMEP-B class on 17th September,and it is only 1.5 terms, but I feel I have a good relationship with everyone. My teacher, Rosa, is a very responsible and intelligent lady. she uses different assessment methods to make every student study English much more interestedly, moreover,she has quite patience to correct my assessment even though in holiday. I think I am so lucky to be her student, which makes me love to study English. Thank you,Rosa!

My classmates are very special. All of us are adults, and many of us come from different countries. I think it is not only useful to study English but although make more choice to learn different culture and knowledge. For example, teacher lets every student prepare a topic in order to talk about the topic together on radio program. We all like this assessment method. When we were talking about different topic such as love, child, health, story, music,food,religion..., every student shared her or his special opinion which consisted of experiences, culture, education background, and so on. And we could get a lot of meaningful and valuable opinions. I absolutely believe that this is a kind of benefit from studying with adults.

All in all, I love my teacher and classmates. Further more I have learned several software and tools by this course and I can keep going on studying English by myself when I live in China. So long as Internet is still working, I promise to update my HAPPY MOTHER blog at least once a week. So I hope my friends and classmates pay a little bit attention on my blog and give me comment.

Spiced beef Recipe

Ingredients:

1 Beef Shank (1 piece about 1kg) ,water

2 spices:

ginger(1g) half onion
4 cloves garlic

a few pieces rock sugar
soy sauce (150ml)

1 teaspoon of salt
wine (15ml)

Fructus Anisi Stellati (6 )
dry chilli (4)

pepper (20)

Method:
1. put the washed beef shank into boiling water for about 5 minutes in order to clear up; fish the beef out and drain

2. Put the drained beef shank into a stockpot and add boiling water over the beef, then put all spices listed on the ingredient list below 2

3. light the fire then put the stockpot above the fire

4. boil the beef about 1.5-2 hours(up to your taste)

5. take the beef out and drain, when it becomes cool, put it into fridge

6. cut the spiced beef into slices and put onto plate to serve

Penshurst

We live in Penshurst suburb, which is located quite close to King Georges road and Hurstville CBD. Although it is not very famous, it is a pretty nice place to live in. If you walk through the penshurst street, the main road of the suburb, you will definitely enjoy the beautiful environment. Many trees grow up quite well and you even can smell the flowers’ flavor. As many other suburbs, the railway station is in the centre of the suburb. You can go to city by train in only 35 minutes. Or, you can select to take bus to other area, such as Bankstown or Rockdale. When you drive through King Georges road, you can find Hurstville Athletic Centre, you can play tennis, basketball, or swimming. Local council spent a lot money on these kinds of public facilities and they make our live more interesting and more convenient. Thanks for our local council provide us a very good community services.
The most important factor for us is that there are three or more public schools in Penshurst. The reason is we have two gorges daughters and they will enroll in local public school in three or four years. Nowadays, they are still study in local child care, Southern Cross Child Care. All teacher are very nice and patient, sometimes they are even better than us. All in all, it is very hard to summarize all our feelings in only couples of sentences. Anyway, we all definitely enjoy our living in Penshurst.

What's a bad day

The day began terribly. My alarm went off and I left the house with only 1 hour to spare before my English class was started.

I got up quickly and spent 10 minutes to wash up and have breakfast, then went to class.when I got to bus station after 5 minutes walk, the bus had gone away.At that moment, it began raining.I wanted to drive to school. So I walked home in rain, unfortunately,I fell down the stares nearby my house and my left foot was broken so that I could hardly move. I tried to ring to my husband ,but my mobile phone was lost. I felt so depressed. Suddenly, my neighbor, Joe, who is very warmhearted, appeared, and he helped me move to my house and lie down on the bed. Then he rang to my husband and my teacher to tell them all what happened.

That was my bad day last week!

My reaction to Annabel's story

When I listened to Annabel's story, I couldn't help to having two thoughts.

First one is I am so lucky and I have never lived on one place where a war happened, and I could be free in my country as a female.

The second thought is that Annabel is a respected girl. Although she was a new immigrant when she was in year 9, she still could achieve great mark quickly, and went on to further study at university.

I have to think of myself. I had studied English for ten years as my second language when I lived in China. Moreover I have high qualification and good working experience which are transferable. So I absolutely believe that so long as I study English hard and I will have a good future in Australia.

My favorite sculpture

It has been one week since we went on our excursion to Bondi beach for Sculpture by the sea last Tuesday. Some sculptures I have already forgotten, but some sculptures always appear on my brain. The sculpture shown on the left photo is the most special sculpture in my memory and it is my favorite sculpture.

I like this sculpture very much because of the following reasons. Firstly, the artist chose the right material with excellent skills and design, which makes the sculpture look like two very real eyes. Secondly, the sculpture matches the environment quiet well . These two sculptures were put on a big rock, inside a natural whole or niche, which makes the whole rock look like a person’s face from any direction. Last but not list is that this sculpture has a good position, in front of the sea; it is only the sea which is stretched as far as the eye can see. Because the rock has formed special lines after being attacked by waves and the wind for thousand of years , in my opinion, the rock with the sculpture looks like a man who has experienced many vicissitudes of life and become wise and farsighted. So I love it!

In conclusion, Sculpture by the sea is a good art exhibition, these sculptures amaze every visitor. I am looking forward to the next Sculpture by the sea in 2010.

Margarita Sampson

The name of this sculpture is Margarita Sampson and it was made by Fiona Hall. The sculpture is mainly black and decorated by red dots. The artist used crochet to construct these organic shapes out of a mix of recycled wool, armature wire and a box of old videotapes.

The sculpture hung above the cliffs, which matches the environment quite well. In my opinion, it is a typical abstract sculpture, and different people have different imagination. When I looked at the sculpture on my excursion,I thought it looked like a bird which was locked under the cliff and it couldn't fly and couldn't move. Because of its shape and colour, it reminded me of a tragic story that my grandmother told me when I was a child. It was about two dead persons that lived in their own ghostly world. When I listened to the story first, I felt so sad and confused. I didn't know why it was so difficult that these dead people wanted to get freedom from their boss who was the owner of hell.

However, the sculpture is soft and hangs from the cliff, so it is very difficult for the public to interact with it. From my point of view, the artist just wants to say that making life is a pretty difficult process for any living beings. After a long term struggling with nature, some beings continue to live but some others don't. It's the law of the strongest.

Excursion To Bondi Beach

Make a Smilebox slideshow

My class went on another excursion to Bondi beach to see an exhibition, Sculpture By the Sea, on Tuesday 10th November. I got up very early and dropped my two daughters off at their childcare at 8:30. When I got to Kogarah railway station, most of my classmates had been there for a while. We departed at 9:16am on time as we had arranged.

The first stop was Bondi Juction where we transferred to a bus . Because the bus can only use pre-paid tickets, we had to buy the ticket from a bus ticket machine, which made everyone feel it was quite interesting. It was the first time any of us had bought bus tickets from a vending machine.

We arrived at Bondi beach at 10:15am and started our excursion. We walked along the way from Bondi beach to Tamarama beach. In total there were around 100 art works. Two of my classmates, Anna and Jin and I formed a group. We found sculpture no.5 , which was my assignment, quickly. They took photos for me. We were shocked by the sculptures and the natural views on the beach. We enjoyed the beautiful environment. After a while, we arrived at a flat area on top of the hilll, where there were a lot of sculptures . We looked at these works and took photos of each other happily.We took the opportunity to practise our oral English. But it was a real pity that I missed the first sculpture, Alchemy, which is made by Lucy Humphrey and everyone told me was very beautiful. After lunch, around 12:30pm, we walked to the next stop.

Tamarama beach was the last stop. Because our group was the first group to be at this beach,a fter finishing our assignment,we had enough time to play on the beach. We walked around the beach and played in the ocean. We found some people were lying on the beach and enjoying the sunshine, some children were playing games and some teenagers were surfing. Time went so quickly it was time to leave.We took a bus to Bondi Junction and finished our excursion at 2:00pm.
Although I felt a little bit tired,I was attracted deeply by the art works and views, and I enjoyed myself and learned a lot from the excursion. I am looking forward to the next excursion with my teachers and classmates

A LETTER TO EDITOR

Dear sir,

Smoke Get in My Eyes

We are fed up with people like youself ,Joe, amokers.

Maybe,you contribute alot of money in taxes,however non-smoking protesters also pay a lot money to the goverment,But because of your smoking everywhere, we have equal rights to enjoy the fresh air,can't hardly enjoy that.

Secondly,you can't think that you pay money ,so you can destroy the enviroment.Meanwhile, it is harmful to your health and the health of others.Stop smoking for your own sake and the rest of us.

Your sincerly,

Non-smoking defenders:Jin &May

03/11/2009

Physical Punishment and Children

Traditionally, parents, in China, often punish their children physically. However, in my opinion, it is no good for our kids.
The first reason is that hitting children can be harmful for their personal development. I found some of the children who live around us look very shy. When they meet a stranger, they often hide behind someone. These kids have lost their confidence as their parents hit them often. As time goes on, they are quite fearful to contact some others and their IQ losses a little bit. Some of these kids gradually become negative and they like to quarrel with anybody around them on purpose.
The second reason is obviously physical damage. When loving parents get into angry moods and nearly loose control, their booming power might cause serious physical injuries for their kids, especially from fathers. But it is only the small tip of a huge iceberg. It is more serious that the brain of these poor kids might be damaged. Someone will possibly suffer the damage permanently. Even, we read news occasionally, that some kids might choose to commit suicide to avoid physical punishment.
Last but not least, physical punishment has no use for our children. After being physically punished for a long time, children might feel horrible and terrible when they met with their parents. These feelings can absolutely damage the relationship between their parents and them. Moreover, because these kids can not get enough care from their parents, they might do not trust anybody any more. Much more seriously, they try their best to make some trouble in order to make their parent angry.
All in all, it is something like a war, which is not a good choice for the whole world, for our education of our kids. Physical punishment is not a good choice either. It can only make things worse. What we need to do is to deal with our kids patiently. That is the only way we can make our kids future better.

Sculpture by the sea

Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2009, the 13th annual exhibition, is on from 29 October - 15 November 2009.It is staged along the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk.In the exibition, there are over 100 sculptures produced by artists from Australia and other countries across the world.

Actually,the original creater of sculture by the sea,David Handly,wished to create a major free to the public arts event for Sdyney.After over 10 years developing,Sculpture by the sea is not only showed on Bondi beach,but also on Aarhus beach and Cottesloe Beach.Meanwhile, by developing school education program ,Sculture by the sea makes sculpture accesible to a wide range audiences.

Coinciding to the outdoor exibition, Sculpture inside is held at the same time.It is an indoor exibition of sculpture which made by selected invited artists.Sculture inside is well respected and popular with collectors and the general public who has good opportunity to buy works showed on the exibition.

Now,Sculture by the sea has become a big event just like "Opera in the Park" in Sdyney, and it attracts more and more artists and people who love art to visit it from all of the world.

Platypus

The platypus is an egg-laying, semi-aquatic mammal that lives in Tasmania and along the eastern coast of mainland Australia. Platypus and echidnas are the only existing species of egg-laying animals on earth.
The body of the platypus is 30 to 45 cm (12 to 18 in) long; the flattened tail measures 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in) in length. The feet are webbed. The body and tail are covered with a thick, soft, woolly layer of fur, from which long, flat hairs protrude. The platypus has three layers of fur: 1. an inside layer to trap air and keep the animal warm 2. a middle layer which works like a wet suit 3 .an outer layer to feel if it is close to objects. A Platypus grows to a maximum weight of 1 to 2.4 kg (2.2 to 5.3 lb).
The Platypus is semi-aquatic and requires access to freshwater habitats to forage, and earth banks to dig their burrows. Platypus is a solitary animal that only lives together to mate, although several individuals may be found living in the same section of habitat.

The Platypus usually feeds at night on aquatic insect larvae, shrimps and worms by dabbling in mud or silt on the bottom of rivers and freshwater lakes with its sensitive, flexible, duck-like snout, aided by electroreceptors on its bill. These are stored in the cheek pouches and will be chewed after returning to the surface. Platypus has no teeth, but instead has small horny pads which it uses to hold and grind its prey. The Platypus can eat its own body weight in food in one night.
Male platypus are larger than the female. They reproduce by mating which occurs once a year, between June - October. The female lays between 2 - 4 eggs and incubates these for a two week period. Newborn platypuses are helpless. They are blind and hairless .They feed on their mother's milk, which is expelled through pores on her body. The babies suckle on milk for 3-4 months.
Platypuses have a lifespan of over 10 years in the wild, but they do face a few threats. They have several natural predators, such as snakes, foxes, and birds of prey. Platypuses are also susceptible to habitat destruction, but that is at a minimum. They are protected from being hunted. As such, their populations are stable and they are listed as low risk for extinction.

Featherdale Wildlife Park

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

My class went on an excursion to Featherdale Wildlife Park on Tuesday 20th October. Unfortunately,because it was too late to get to the bus stop when I dropped my two daughters off the childcare,I couldn't go to the excursion with my teachers and classmates.I felt so disappointed to give up this opportunity whole day!

It is very lucky that my teacher,Rosa,shares a lot of animal's photos and videos which was taken in Featherdale Wildlife Park on Tuesday ,and I can get some information about this park and some animals.Meanwhile I transfer some related photos from her blog to my blog and let my friend who is intresting in learning Australia to appriciate.

My favorite belonging

Now I am going to introduce this necklace to you, although it is not quite expensive, it is my favorite. My husband gave the gift to me on this year’s father’s day. Although I received it just for only two months, the necklace has special meaning for me. My husband and I were classmates when we were postgraduate students studying in Northern Jiaotong University in China. Time goes so quickly, it has been ten years since we fell in love. Because I came from a small city which is a little bit far away from Beijing, while my husband was born in Beijing which is the capital of China, his parents thought we might have different culture and living customs, therefore they insisted in their opinions and opposed us to be married. Finally, after keeping an effort we came together and we were married in four years. In my opinion, it was a very hard journey, but we didn’t give up and we have been able to live together happily until now. I have been married for six years and lived in Australia nearly for four years. In these years, we faced a lot of difficulties, especially when we just arrived in Australia. Now, we have already got two beautiful daughters and my husband has a relatively stable job. We believe that we will make our family better and better so long as we work hard shoulder to shoulder. To some extend, this necklace is a landmark of our love, meanwhile, it is also an important award to us for running our marriage and family attentively.

SUNNY'S ART PHOTO

This is my oder daughter sunny.How beautiful she is!It was taken in last spring festval in Beijing when she was 2 years old.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Hi everybody,

I have made four cloud faces on the site which is provided by Rosa. I find it is very interesting to make it.If your are available ,click the picture and look my daugher's cloudy photo.Of course you could make your own cloud face.Try it!

My hometown

My hometown is JinChang,which is a small city in China and has 470,000 people .JinChang is located in the north-west of China, and belongs to GANSU province. Because it lies at the edge of TENGGELI desert ,and at the bottomof the QILIAN mountain ,the climate of JinChang is typically contimental , in winter it is very cold and windy , but in summer it is very dry and cool.

Although my hometown is a small city in China, it is very important . The first reason is that JinChang has the biggest nickel mine in China and it’s reserves are the second largest in the world. So people give my hometown another name “NieDu”. In fact, JinChang is a young city. When geologists found the nickel mine in my hometown in 1969, many people who have plentiful experience in digging mine immigrated to my hometown. In order to provide better service and management to these people and original residents ,the government built up a new city named JinChang in 1981. New city included one CBD and two suburbs .The second reason is that JinChang area is one of the stops along theSilk Road. As well known,the Silk Road was a trade route that went across Asia to the Mediterranean Sea that let China trade with other places. It was named the silk road because there was a lot of silk traded along it. Today, a plenty of historians and tourists have paid more attention on researching and discovering the Silk Road, and it makes my hometown get more reputation. The last reason is that JinChang is an important place for the staple food supply. It is one part of HeXi Hall which is famous for the farming industry. As a result JinChang is the richest city in GanSu province. At the same time it has become one of the top 100 richest cities in China.

I have left my hometown many years since I went to college in 1991. The last time I returned to JinChang was in 2006 before I came to Australia. I found this young city had developed very well and quickly. I love my hometown,.. I hope more and more people would like to travel to JinChang. And it will become a more popular city.

SHARE MY LOVELY DAUGHTERS

NARRABEEN

Last month, we went to Narrabeen beach.My husband had gone there when he was a student. He told us several times that it is a very beautiful and quiet place. So, we invited our friends to go there and have a BBQ party together. We woke up quite early, especially our two beautiful daughters. When they were told we would go to a place a little bit far away and would play with other kids, both of them were pretty excited. Our four whole families drove to Narrabeen together on that day and each family has at least one lovely kid.

Our first stop was Dee Why shopping centre. One of our friends would like to go fishing and so he wanted to buy some bait. Meanwhile, others bought some food and drink for ourselves. After arriving at Narrabeen, we saw the lake first. The lake gave us a big surprise definitely. It looks so nice and very peaceful. Many kinds of birds were walking around freely. We settled down beside the lake. After that, our children played together, and we chatted with each other and prepared food for lunch. On the other side of the lake, there are several beautiful houses, so all of us dreamed to buy that kind of house in future.

After lunch, we walked to the beach. It looked so long that we couldn’t find the end. Beside the beach, a huge golf field is there and many rich men played golf. Many people swam in the ocean, and children played games in the water. We walked along the beach and picked up shells. My husband took my old daughter into the sea, but she looked very scared and screamed loudly. We laid down and play sands. Meanwhile, we enjoyed the sunshine and the happy family day together. Because it is located so far away from our home, at around three o’clock, we drove back home and every kid fell into sweet sleep on the way.

We loved the place very much and one day was not enough for us. Every one wanted to play together more often. So, we made an appointment that we would go there during Christmas.

Technology and ESL

Using new technologies (such as computers, internet, smartboard, palm and notebook etc.) is beneficial for learning English. Although it can’t replace traditional education methods, using new technologies brings us much more improvement in using English.

First of all, learners can communicate with others by using new technologies. They can exchange ideas in a discussion room or a forum. Learners can find lots of English articles through the internet and learners can express their own feeling freely in a discussion room or a forum. Learners can record spoken messages, for example, using voiceboard. It is very useful for learners to practice their pronunciation and check the recording. Even they can learn how to use words speaking like local people. Moreover, learners can listen to other peoples’ messages. By using mobile, learners can leave voice messages to some others or receive messages from their friends.

Secondly, learner can study online. Learners can find many online activities and exercise. For instance, ourclass09.blogspot.com, is one of the websites with this kind of function. Teachers usually put assignments in the website, and all learners can log in and download the assessments directly from the website. Sometimes, learners also upload some interesting pictures on it. Learner can read articles. There is a great amount of e-books listed on websites. Learners can find any articles they are interest in on GOOGLE. Learners can listen to pronunciation websites, podcasts, radio news and many lectures. ABC and channel 7 always put news on their website meanwhile the news is broadcasting through TV.

Thirdly, learning with technology is more fun. Learners can use online educational games. Playing word games can build up vocabulary. ESL learners can listen to songs and get the lyrics, for example, yappr, has videos with lyrics. Learning is interesting, which makes more fun. Seeing films attract learners who are going to learn English. Online, learners can find many original English films or videos.

All in all, using new technologies is beneficial for learning English. Either learners or teachers can use new technologies for English learning or teaching.

DUST STORM

Yesterday Sydney had a dust storm that covered the city in red. It hadn't happened in more than 70 years.

When I got up and entered the kitchen,I found our cookware was covered with dust .Because I hadn't closed the windows,the balcony,washroom and living room were covered with dust too.I orignally planned to pick up my two daughters to join the Joy Tale which was held in Hurstville library,but because of the DUST STORM we had to stay at home.
After lunch,the sky became blue,but it was still very windy.At 3:00 oclock,my older daughter didn't want to stay at home and begged me to take her out.when we opened the door of the building,we found everything outside was covered in dust,including cars,leaves,rabish bins etc.The air was full of dust,and I heard dust was harmful to children,so we returned home as soon as possible.
Although the weather in Beijing was bad,I never met this kind of DUST STORM.I hope the weather in Sydey becomes better and better!

Ultimo TAFE Heritage Office

The building is an outstanding example of Federation Romaneque educational building. The designer of the building is W. E. Kemp and it was constructed in 1891. The Building is a large three storey brick building with a slate hipped and gabled roof. It is double semicircular arched recessed panels between expressed pilasters and has carved sandstone and terracotta tile decorative panels to the window spandrels. The college building illustrates this earlier phase of Sydney's growth, when the industrial heart of the city was located on the south side of the central business district. The original purpose is attracted more Aboriginal people to choose to live in Sydney.

What an interesting weekend!

Yesterday Lugarno Lions Spring Festival was held at Gannons Park, Peakhurst. Many items were included: Donnie Sutherland's Sound of Jukebox live, the Lugarno Lions Showjumping Spectacular, 350+ Classic Cars and Bikes were on display. There were over 150 stalls, adult's and children's rides, pony rides and clowns and so on.

My husband drove our whole family to Gannons Park quite early in the morning. But, what I couldn’t believe was a lot of people were up there already. We could only park our car pretty far away from the park. After gathering with our friends, we took our children to kids'paradise (the rides).
Both of our two kids were very excited after arriving. Sunny, my older daughter wanted to go horse riding. She always wants to ride a horse like a character from a Chinese traditional story, Western Journey. So, she did ride a pony three times and was extremely happy with that. The younger kid, Cindy, gave us an absolute big surprise . She went on the Small Merry Go Round by herself and felt quite happy and without any fear. My husband also went on the slide with Sunny and Victor who is a son of one of our friends. They went on the bumper cars as well.

We visited the old style auto show and found that some of the cars were nearly a hundred years old. Oh, time goes so quick. We saw the technical development in the whole century and felt the big changes in time.
After a yummy lunch, we went back home. And our daughters fell into a deep sleep just as we left the park. My husband and I felt a little tired, but we thought it was worthwhile. Our kids learnt a lot of things from this event. They enjoyed the whole day themselves. We would like to attend this kind of events much more often if it is possible.

Hi everybody!

Original image: 'Opera House' by: Joseph Younis

My name is MAY. My family immigrated from China three years ago. I love to live in Sydney. In the last three years, I got two lovely daughters. The older one is two and half years old, she is a very clever girl. She can read nearly 200 Chinese words, she can tell short stories, she can sing many English and Chinese songs, she can do so many things although she is so young. I am proud of her. My younger daughter is only one year old. She can't talk, can't walk, but she has excellent understanding. She knows when I am happy or angry, I can communicate with her freely. I think I am a lucky and happy mother because of my two daughters.

Now, I've returned to TAFE to study English again. I think it is a very good opportunity to improve myself, so I'm really focused and want to do my best.