“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. “- George Bernard Shaw
My personal mission is to make the rest of my life the best part of my life. I am looking forward to my next stage of adulthood and hope to continually meet more friendly and great people. Here I would like to share with you some highlights of mine over the month of September.
Moving out of a house into my first apartment
Having lived in a house in the western suburbs my whole life, it was a difficult decision to make when I had to decide whether to move out into a city apartment in order to reduce my travel time between teaching in the Eastern and Western suburbs . My first concern was that I could not fit a baby grand piano in my apartment so I had to leave it behind. My second concern was that I had minimal storage space and had to decide what to leave behind. I wish I could have taken everything with me because choosing what to bring with me to the apartment was like choosing which future child of mine had to survive or die. My brother helped me a lot in furnishing the apartment with his excess furniture and homewares.
Apart from music, real estate and property development are also one of my many interests. I love my new apartment which is an Australand development and am enjoying the facilities and its convenient location to the University of Melbourne, Eastern Freeway and Highpoint Shopping Centre. Some of my personal favourites about my new home is the communal facilities it has to offer. I am now able to watch free to air tv and foxtel as well as surf the net while on the treadmill at the gym, so there is no excuse to not exercise due to work. Residents can go for a swim in the swimming pool and enjoy the beautiful views overlooking the nearby parklands. Last but not least, the communal bbq area is a great place to host a simple party for a small group of friends and family outdoors during the warmer months. I am excited about this new lifestyle change because the City of Melbourne is Australia’s hub of music, the performing arts, sport, style and culture.
Furnishing an apartment
I enjoy shopping for furniture but I don’t like assembling it. When you are moving from a house to an apartment, furnishing an apartment is all about maximising storage space. The MALM series from Ikea offers a simple modern design with lots of storage.
I enjoyed shopping for the mattress, quilt covers and bed sheets. There was a lot to learn in regards to sizing, thread count and different materials used.
The importance of a healthy lifestyle
I tend to over work myself and burn out very quickly. I do suffer from insomnia and perioral skin infection due to high levels of stress from growing and managing LMH. My health is now my first priority and I hope to control my insomnia and skin infection one day. The best part of gymming for me is being able to watch free to air tv and foxtel as well as surf the net while on the treadmill at the gym. I have no more excuses to not go to the gym and so I hope this change in lifestyle will help improve my overall health and well being.
Frank’s Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder
A healthy lifestyle change would not be complete without some delicious home cooked meals. My personal chef cooks a different dish a few times a week. The slow cooked lamb shoulder is one of his favourite dishes.
Ingredients:
A lamb shoulder
Zest of two lemons
Juice of one lemon
Dried oregano (2 table spoons)
Garlic (6 cloves)
Olive Oil ( 4 table spoons)
Method
Step 1. To make the marinade for the lamb shoulder, mix the zest of two lemons and garlic and dried oregano and olive oil in a bowl. Mix well.
Step 2. Massage marinade onto lamb shoulder.
Step 3. Cover marinaded lamb shoulder with cling wrap and place in fridge to marinade over night.
Step 4. Preheat oven to 160 degrees then remove cling wrap and cover with foil.
Step 5. Place the lamb shoulder into the preheated oven and cook for one hour at 160 degrees. Lower the temperature to 120degrees and then cook for 5 hours at this temperature. After the 5 hours have passed, remove foil and increase temperature to 160degrees and cook for 1 hour to crisp up the skin.
Dealing with the emotional stress of moving out
A great way to deal with stress is taking a break and hanging out with friends, meeting new people and having nice food.
Miss Asia Beauty Pageant – A different view of stage performance
The Miss Asia Beauty Pageant is not your usual Chinese beauty pageant. They had contestants from Korea, Philippines and China. Watching beauty pageants make me cringe because I watch in the audience from a music teacher/examiner perspective. I judge based on what I teach my students about music performance. When I read in a girl’s profile that they play various instruments, but they choose to perform a newly learnt dance routine that is not well prepared as part of their talent section, I feel disappointed. However, I was more disappointed when a girl did perform the traditional stringed instrument Gu Zheng and the audience was talking over the performance and did not listen to her until she got up and started dancing. I saw with my very own eyes that night with what attracts the audience’s attention at these competitions. I observed that the audience wanted visual stimulation from each contestant and not aural stimulation. Sitting in the audience that night, I realised that in order for a musician to sound good on stage, the sound equipment and instruments used must work together. No matter how well a musician is, if the sound system is bad, it will ruin the entire performance. All I can say is, it’s hard being a musician…..
Les Misérables the musical – Highly recommended
There are many songs from the musical Les Misérables in the AMEB Vocal Syllabus. At first, I didn’t know why AMEB would select so many songs from this musical, which is why I had to see the musical myself when it started showing in Melbourne. The show was amazing and the singers have such amazing vocal control, power and technique. Les Misérables is one of the best musicals I have seen so far in Melbourne.
Les Misérables reviews in the media include:
“FIVE STARS… THE STUNNING ORIGINAL HAS NOW BEEN SURPASSED” – TIME OUT
“POWERFUL AND ENDURING… WILL HOLD A NEW GENERATION OF FANS IN THRALL” – THE AGE
“A THEATRICAL TRIUMPH” – HERALD SUN
“ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL… BEG, BORROW OR STEAL A TICKET” – RADIO 3AW
“IT’S 10 OUT OF 10, I COULD NOT RECOMMEND IT ENOUGH” – FOX FM
Are you a doctor?
I attended my friend Winnie’s birthday recently and the room was full of doctors and elite professionals. When I was asked whether I was a doctor amongst the other doctors in the room, I did feel like saying “Yes, I am a doctor…. in music.”
Life would not be complete without fun and exciting people to hang out with. I have a professional side and a fun side and so do my friends. I would like to use my friend Fraser as an example below:
Fun side of Fraser
Professional side of Fraser
I hope my LMH Lifestyle blogs will help show how life is an ongoing adventure. So live your life and forget your age and most importantly smile and have fun! xoxo Lina