a story about eggs
My Pa and I both love eggs. I don’t quite know how to explain it, but eggs are the perfect food – they can morph effortlessly into a multitude of textures and tastes. An egg can be the perfect snack, or a couple with some accompaniments, a filling meal. We love them curried Punjabi style, with onions, in a souffle all light and airy, creamily scrambled, half boiled Singapore style, fried with a bit of soy sauce, sunny side up and runny, sunny side up and crispy on the edges, deep fried, , sliced, poached with smoked salmon and hollandaise… Any way, really. Eggs are always welcome in our world.
When I was a kid, Pa would wake me up on a Saturday or Sunday morning. We’d cycle or he would drive down to the local coffeeshop and order some Roti Prata for the whole family. Whilst waiting for it to be cooked, he would order us a hot Milo, and some half boiled eggs. We’d sit there eating our breakfast together, my legs swinging under the chair, me marvelling at how fast my Pa could drink the world’s hottest Milo and slurp down his eggs. When we were finished, we would bring the Roti Prata back home for the rest of the family and all sit down together for a noisy, chatty meal.
The perfection of having that breakfast hour with my Pa before the rest of the family did every few Sundays has stuck with me till adulthood, and now I’m happy that S and I recreate that tradition every Saturday before I go to teach.
If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you’d know that my Pa is in Melbourne visiting me for a month. It’s been a nice 2 weeks so far, with lots of swimming, time together and activities.
The other day, he turned to me in the afternoon, more bright-eyed and chirpy than usual and with a huge smile on his face.
“Girl,” he whispered, “how about some eggs?”
Still grinning widely, he made a motion with his hands, of dipping a hard boiled egg in salt, and he didn’t even have to tell me, I knew exactly what he was craving. And suddenly, because my Pa said it, so was I.
moments giggling with Pa
I whipped up some hard boiled eggs pronto and we sat on the swing in the garden for a gorgeous half hour, dipping them in salt and taking huge bites whilst holding hands and enjoying this beautiful spring weather. And all of a sudden I was 12 again, sitting with my Pa and enjoying a precious sunny hour over some eggs.
See, eggs are good. That’s why they call them good eggs.
Read Morelearning to love the footy
So what I’m about to say may be a bit blasphemous to a LOT of Australians.
I’ve lived here for 11 years now, and up to a year ago, had never been to the footy.
Australian Rules Football, for those of you not in this land down under, is a hugely popular game here, particularly in Melbourne. It’s a way of life, a culture, and sport that grips the entire nation. Most people, even if they don’t follow the footy avidly during its season, at least have a club that they barrack for.
I had no interest in any of it, whatsoever.
I don’t love sport generally, and haven’t ever watched a whole lot of it on TV or live. Footy, to the uneducated eye, can seem like a messy game (especially when you see it on tv, and don’t even know the first rule about it).
However, since being with S, I have unwittingly been dragged into the footy culture. S is a HUGE sports head, and is passionate about following, it seems, almost every sport around the world. Footy is one of them. At the beginning, I was perfectly happy to let him enjoy this passion undisturbed and leaving me to “more time for ME stuff!”
Over time though, he wore me down about coming to a game, citing my love for dance and physical form as the one thing that would make me appreciate it. So finally, I acquiesced. After all, I had nothing to lose – I’d have a handsome man next to me and a whole swarm of handsome men on the field to watch. WIN-WIN.
hello, boys.
It is testament to S’ amazing ability to make anyone excited about even the most mundane topics, and his absolute talent for explaining sports so clearly, that I was not only able to follow the game, but even grew to appreciate and love it. Since then, he’s taken me to a few more games, and I gotta tell you, I’m slowly starting to enjoy it, even getting a bit emotionally involved in the games I’m watching.
I haven’t hit the moment where I’ve chosen “my team” yet though. S has a theory that I should, as a good girlfriend, simply follow HIS club, but I like to taunt him by telling him I’d like to choose Essendon because they have lots of cute men on their team.
On Sunday, we took my daddy to HIS first footy game, and he adored it, thanks again to S’ passion and great explanations.
It was a fabulous experience, where Dad got super into the game, even cheering for the team we’d picked to support!
half time chatter
me and my honey
It was a ripper of a game, with plenty of heart-stopping moments and a super close result. Our team barely made it, but we won, and there was genuine jubilance. There’s something about sport that makes you truly believe you were in the game with the players, particularly with 30,000 other screaming fans in the stadium with you.
It was a wonderful afternoon, and a super fun one at that. Yup, the footy is definitely growing on me.
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easter noice-ness
Did you all have a nice Easter?
I’d never celebrated Easter before so it was particularly wonderful to have Easter lunch with S’s family, and also my dad who’s here visiting from Singapore.
Evelyn (S’s mum) put on a lavish spread, with 2 legs of lamb that fell off the bone, a slew of roast vegetables, and her absolutely famous cheesecake.
"make sure you make them equal slices!!"
Ok, so it’s not famous, but it seriously should be.
It was truly a lovely day, with lots of lounging about, plenty of laughter, and the kind of warmth only really great family days can bring.
kids lounging around
the boys took too long to pose, so Evelyn posed instead!
3 generations of fine Krygger men!
Meanwhile, the womenfolk had fun too, giggling, sharing the latest goss, and bustling about.
I love this shot of S’s mum and I, think it’s the best one we’ve got. She’s just a gorgeous, warm and loving mum figure and I’m so lucky to have been as welcomed by her as I have into her family. This photo I think really reflects how much affection we have for each other!
aww.
And then don’t forget whilst being able to spend Easter with my favourite man and his family,
OH MY GOD sorry, he's so handsome I had to insert this shot.
SORRY, I interrupted myself with his hotness.
But back to the sentence – …I ALSO got to spend Easter with my first ever favourite man, and definitely the most loved man in my life.
It was truly a double happiness moment!
Did you have a nice Easter too? How do you celebrate it?
Read Morepj partay
My daddy and I in our pyjamas, just chillin’. (Ok actually, he was hovering over me in the kitchen as I chopped his next day’s carrot sticks and munching on them surreptitiously.)
aww.
visit from the royal family
Well, almost. This last week, my parents visited us in Melbourne. Mum came for a whirlwind 4 days, and my, what a whirlwind it was! I have written about my mum before, and she is just the most amazing, energetic, exuberant and vibrant woman I know (really, and truly, this comes verified from many other sources)! Whilst she was here, we ran around crazily cramming superhuman amounts of errand running, shopping, dining, giggling and catching up in each day to maximise her stay.
This is the first time Mum and Pa have seen our forever home since we moved in barely 6 months ago now (it feels like it’s been a year, at least!) and before they arrived, we cleaned and modeled the house in excitement, as though staging it for a sale viewing. Despite being a full grown adult, my parents are still a huge influence in my life, and I wanted them to see for themselves how happy me and S are, and for them to be proud of our new home and life together.
our house is a very very very fine house!
I was pleased when Mum said she loved how beautiful it was, pleased that my Dad thought it has a beautiful interior and ultra beaming with joy when they commented on how well we had done the decor. My parents are shockingly stylish and brought us up in beautiful homes, and it was important to me that they liked our home too!
We also managed to have a truly lovely dinner at home for S’s family as well as mine – so they could all meet. Happily, everyone got along like a house on fire and it made for a wonderfully warm evening filled with laughter and merry story-telling.
pakir-krygger dinner!
the handsome Krygger boys
Mum spoiled me CONSIDERABLY in the short time she was here – she needed to buy clothes and an array of things, and rather wonderfully, bought me some gorgeous pieces too (since I’ve been oh so good about shopping lately due to my self imposed, but not very well kept spending ban).
She also decided it was her mission to help us make our house more of a home, with a few well-placed purchases that we were lacking. Like insisting on replacing our tea towels, stocking up our pantry and fridge with the biggest supermarket shop I have ever witnessed, and buying us a couple of lamps like this incredible gorgeous one below:
- mmmm… lamp love.
giggly fun in my house! (making fun of my dad is FUN!)
My dad is staying on for a total of 3 weeks, whilst I help him with lots of rehab and feed him like a king, as he so deserves. Last night I even made a gourmet restaurant style meal of fresh shucked oysters, herbed salmon, black pepper crusted seared tuna, kumara mash, grilled zucchini, and prawns cooked in butter and wine. He ate so much I thought he was going to explode! YAYY FOR EXPLODING DADS! 
I’ve so far made him tell me that I’m his favourite daughter only 17 times in a week (ha to Sheila!), which I think is pretty restrained of me. We have had lots of laughter and it’s just been lovely to spend such oodles of quality time with him one-on-one, something I’ve missed in the last 3-4 years that he hasn’t travelled here.
So whilst it’s been a tiring, whirlwind week so far (and 2 more to go!) – it’s been just filled with so much warmth and love that it’s hard to think of it as “tiring”, more like “an adventure”, really. And as with all adventures, it’s fun, exciting and even a little bit tingly with family time.
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