Aussie BBQ

The Aussie BBQ is such an important part of our lives in Melbourne. It's an informal way to wine and dine with your family and friends without being too worried about the cooking.









We used to have a charcoal griller but I recently bought a gas griller for the convinence. I am normlly the BBQ cook in our holdhold. Here we have my brother-in-law helping out.


It's currently winter in Melbourne. Here's my father starting a fire to keep us warm.


Of course, you've got to have red wine and cheese!

Why Batukawa?

Yes, this is a photo of Batukawa, near Kuching in Sarawak,
Malaysia. It was taken during a flight from Kuching to KL in January 2003.

I actually spent my early childhood around the Green Road / Pisang Road area in Kuching. But my family often visited Batukawa because we had a very close relative there.

In fact, the lady was my grand father's only sister. My grand father died in an accident when I was very young, so our great aunt was our closest elder.

Her family owned a 5-acre property by the river and they used to run a business that manufactured yeast. They also supplied water to the town.

I had lots of cousins there and we all learned to swim in the river just off their private jetty. We swam, dived, jumped off coconut trees into the river, fish, paddle in a sampan, ..., you name it. We had lots of fun and I even swam across the river once just to proved that I could do it.

So Batukawa represents time in my life when life was simple, carefree and fun. You could say Batukawa is my Shangri La.

This Blog is therefore dedicated to finding "Batukawa" again.