It's end of week 10...

I am seriously neglecting blogging. my last post was a month-plus back!

I just finished my mid-sems about 3 weeks ago and in 4 weeks' time, i will be having my final exams and I used to think that only secondary school is so exam-orientated.

But my much-needed one-week midsem break was indeed GOOD! Cooked quite a bit, read way too much food blogs, stuck to the laptop screen watching KHUNTORIA in WGM and went for my first road trip(sort of) to Sunshine Coast!

Made this Lu wei "tau eu bak", very simple cooking but took around 2.5 hours of simmering to achieve the tender juicy fatty pork rashers! YUMS

The beaches along Sunshine Coast were simply awesome. the super fine powdery-like sand and clear water

As much as I think this We Got Married series is unrealistic, I have to admit that I'm obsessed with KHUNTORIA! All their episodes that I've watched so far are so so FUNNY & CUTE!  In short, these episodes portray a What-a-girl-wishes-her-boyfriend-will-be-to-her kind of scene!

That was my one-week break. Trying hard to get back to my mood of studying though i've been sleeping quite a lot...

 Have a good weekend, people!

into Week 4 of semester 2 2011

hello people! back with another post after a month!

Winter break back in Penang was great. In a month's time a few of my buddies gonna have a fresh start in UK unis.

This semester i am living with a French girl and 3 Americans. Yeah no luck with Asians. hahahah! Luckily the French girl clicks so well with me! we have the same wave length in communication and she hates people partying more than me!

I am trying to expose myself to more activities other than just studies. I missed the times in high school in which I was able to juggle so well with my studies and extra-curricular activities! Boy, really wondered how i did that. Cos' i totally the opposite in uni, that's BAD!

That's all for now. To Adrian Eu and Patsy, hope you two will adapt well to your new college and uni respectively =)

Movie World, Gold Coast

This was my second time visiting Movie World. The first time was like 8 years ago when i visited Australia with my grandparents, jie and kuku.

we did not take this ride though, look(top righthand corner) at how the passengers' legs are hanging in the air!

but we took both of these. the Batman Spaceshot and Superman. The moment that vertical thing accelerates up, i was barely sitting on my seat, didn't expect myself to take this ride!

It was raining after lunch, so we didn't manage to get on some other rides. I would say twice would be enough already, there isn't much changes as compared to 8 years ago.

Old Town Kitchen, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane

Old Town Kitchen
221/247 Brunswick Street
Fortitude Valley
QLD 4006

Went for Jane's belated dinner last year at this place. There wasn't alot of people so i was a little wary of how the food would be like. Surprisingly, it's pretty good, almost the same stuff served in Little Singapore.

from top left moving clockwise to bottom left:
# Stewed beef with rice, Tomyam fried rice, Char koay teow and Kung Pou Chicken

All tasted pretty decent. Another alternative to the ever popular Little Sinagapore.

Hakataya Ramen, Sunnybank

Hakataya Ramen
Shop 27B, Sunnybank Plaza
Cnr Mains Rd & McCullough St,
Sunnybank QLD 4109

The first time I had this ramen was in Gold Coast, it straight away reminded me of the awesome ramen I had during a family vacation to Japan a few years back(we ate 4 bowls of the ramen on the 2 nights when we're in Osaka).

Last year, the shop finally has a branch in Brisbane and I wanted to try it so badly. So wet with jie and wah, it still tastes so awesome. It's pretty oily but it's okay to indulge in this once a while.

So when Daddy and Mummy came here last December, we took them there for lunch and they love it!

The ramen is so good and the soup is so thick!! The cold vege dish goes well with the noodles too.



I usually pick out all the fatty parts of meat but I just put all these pork slices into my mouth and they just melt in my mouth!

Do ask for additional ramen. The first time is FREE!

So far, I've only tried the Char siu ramen($13) and the nagahama ramen($10). They are the same thing actually, just that the char siu ramen has more pork slices while only about 2 slices for the nagahama ramen.

Do give it a try when you're visiting Gold Coast or Brisbane!

Switch party !

This is a very outdated post.

I created this last year and has been in  my "to blog" folder till now. That's how lazy I am. As you can see, Switch Party involves girls dressing as guys as vice versa. I think the guys did a much better job than us girl with the impersonation of Lady Gaga and geisha. they really wore the high heels!

Those were the times, I don't think I would have gone to such events if I wasn't staying in IH last year.

Sometimes it's good, among friends, that you are not so close to each other. It gives us a space to ourselves and i like it. Not feeling pressured, hang out together when both of us want to...but that is also because both of us have the same mutual understanding towards each other. We don't share alot of personal things together, just daily stuff but gives each other encouragement and advice whenever we need them.

Thank you to all my friends who have been understanding towards me. This includes my mum too =) I usually go to her when i have problems. I just love my parents!

On another note, i realised that i actually have alot of coursemates who are very helpful. That day before my exam, I went for consultation, sat there for 2 hours, instead of waiting for my turn(the consult session was jammed-packed) to ask the tutor questions, i asked my coursemates(i don't even know their names) who attended the session, and they're so nice to explain the correct answers to me. 

On another totally random note, I think I would be able to know more people if I were to speak better Mandarin. Ergh, I should have learned this language well back when i was younger. Only if I have studied Mandarin well, then i wouldn't fear opening my mouth and speak in Mandarin fluently (need to work on it!)

I don't even know the reason i'm writing this post, everything so random, guess i just wanna rant and express my gratitude towards those who have made my life better through every tiny actions of theirs.

Loving myself for knowing how to cook!

Yes, I'm in love with cooking. Sometimes i think i spend way too much time in the kitchen. Even when I'm studying, i will think of cooking and recipes. I make lists of what to cook each week and sometimes end up reading cooking blogs for way too long (supposed to read them only as a 15mins time-out from my studies )

I do go out every week, for GROCERY SHOPPING mostly, i've never been to the city for like window shopping so far ever since i came back here. Every week, Jane and I would check Coles' catalogue and see what hot deals they have for the week. LOL, so aunty right? But both of us are loving it, i guess cos all these cooking and grocery shopping are very new to us since we lived in a fully-catered accommodation last year.

I'm loving Urbanest, cooking what i want to eat(instead of all those processed food at IH, and i've extended my contract till december =)

took us alot of time to fry this in batches. reminds me of KFC fried chicken.

We made this sweet and sour chicken using the Lee Kum Kee sauce.

I'm just too lazy to write up recipe post etc. so just a few pictures here and there on fb =)

Currently, can't really cook much cos it's the mid-sem exam seasons. Second year of uni is getting tougher..

Healthy food to a healthy life! eat well people!

my 20th birthday

I've come to realise that so long as I'm not in Malaysia, i won't be able to celebrate my birthday with my family and high school friends. the last birthday i spent with my family and 'lao peng yous' was 2 years back when I was in HSC, it's as though i knew i wont be celebrating my birthday with them for a long time after that, so i requested for a birthday celebration at home..

My 19th birthday surprise was planned by my beloved sis with a bunch of IH people celebrating it for me, some whom i don't really talk much at all already, hahaahha! but there are a few whom i grew much closer to.

This year, everyone was sort of like separated since we're not staying in IH anymore, i thought "hmm, i shouldn't be expecting anything special whatsoever" but another side of me was like "hmm, maybe they will have a surprise for me?" Lucky me, my second thought came true. Erm, I did have a random guess like how the surprise was gonna turn out to be etc.. but Jane was really clever in covering it up.


*fast forward*(happened 2 days before my birthday) 2 days be  When i followed Jane to her kitchen to take my food, suddenly i heard "SURPRISE!!" i practically shouted and was surprised!! LOLOL!! They baked choc chip cookies and made a colourful card for me =) Most importantly, I got to blow birthday candles and make birthday wishes. To me, that's two most important thing that a person should get for his/her birthday. no need big celebration/surprise(though it'll be an added bonus), just let me blow my candles and make my birthday wishes, i'll be satisfied.


Later that night, we went for dinner at Madtongsan 2 for korean cuisine. i celebrated my birthday at madtongsan 1 last year, hahaha! I enjoyed the dinner with all the gossips and laughters. Other people were looking at our table cos we talked and laughed so loudly!

On my birthday itself, i did not do much since i already had an early celebration. received a call from Janice at 2am in the morning, i was already ZZzzzz like a pig d. Just replying to the FB wishes one by one. got wishes from people i don't really talked too, oh well, they're FB friends..hahahaha! Jane bought me my fav Japanese cupcakes, that came unexpected as well .

End of birthday video calling with my parents! =)

all my buddies who planned the surprise



Present from Jane. Jap green tea cupakes from 2in1 bakery! YUMSSSss



all the sweet birthday messages up on my board!

Now I have a big number 2 in front of my age already, no longer a teen! but still is one at heart..

p.s. thank you to Mone, Janice, Angelin and Kp for the birthday sms-es all the way from Malaysia!!

it's been more than a week since i'm back in brisbane

a week has gone by just like that..
as always, saying goodbyes to my grandma and parents are never easy,
this time, got extra hugs from my kuku and beloved grace =)
took the flight back to Brisbane on 24th feb at 9.15pm.

arrived at my new accommodation, Urbanest at around noon, checked in, then went out again for lunch with my HK friend, Crystal. It was really nice of her to accompany me to get my groceries and stuff in the city. I would have been even more miserable if she wasn't there. I'm living in a unit with new ppl, no ex-IH friends at all. Homesickness sets in so quick and badly as i see my room and small bathroom. I couldn't help it but cried when jie called me cos i kept thinking how expensive this place is after hearing my other friends' opinion. Thanks for the call, jie!

The next day, i went to Pauline's place to get my belongings. I was touched when she offered to cook lunch for me, it was a simple yummy baked Coles chicken wings and stir -fried lettuce. We took a cab back to urbanest and then out for grocery shopping again. Thanks for accompanying me pau pau!

Ate sandwiches for most of my meals, but on the third day onwards, i started cooking. Don't have much problem with that =)

Travelling to uni is a whole new thing to me, i was surprised to see the super long queue for bus no 109 from uni back to urbanest. Oh well, I will have to get used to that, after all, it's only a 10-mins journey, can't complaint much.

Starting to like my room and urbanest after i settled in and arranged my room. Loving the en suite bathroom and the view and the air-con of course! will upload some pics of my new place on FB soon.

Uni is gonna be pretty tough this sem as I've forgotten most of the elementary stuff i studied last year, plus all my precious, hand-written notes are damaged by the flood. And I have not got back my study mode yet, hari-hari FB like ALOT, on MSN whole day, cos there's no extension numbers between rooms, so MSN is a free and easy way to contact my friends who are staying in urbanest as well.

See, I'm even blogging now at 11.27am, i don't usually do that. That's all for now, gonna have classes later from 2-6pm.

This is my home-cooked dinner two nights ago. It's pretty good =)

Outdated post: Dancefest

Every year, UQ has this annual inter-college dance competition called DANCEFEST. My friends were all quite eager to participate in the IH(our college) team but i took some time to think if i wanted to join in. At last, I decided to give it a try. Boy, there were practices every week and when the competition was in a week's time, we had practices even more often. Luckily it did not interfere much with studies =)

This year IH had to choreograph a dance based on the theme: video games. So we had different dance parts on Mario, Mortal Combat, Tetris, and some other popular video games we used to play when we're kids. We thought we were pretty alright but when we reached the exhibition hall, wow, the costumes of other colleges were too nice as compared to ours. they really put in alot of effort. I only joined in for the finale part, hahah! Oh, there's a video on facebook under my profile where you can guys can  view our dance. I'm satisfied though =P Of course we did not win the competition but IH won the overall ICC(Inter-college competition) Cultural Cup! Glad i joined in cos if i donut, it will be very unlikely for me to experience such thing in the future.

Our costumes were nothing compared to theirs.

their dances were just so aww...

Dessert @ Three Monkeys Coffee and Tea House

where: 58 Mollison St South Brisbane 4101


It seems this cafe has been here for a long time already. famous for its chai tea(sorry, not a fan of chai) and cakes. went to tried it with 4 of my friends a few months back.
 

Looks yummy right? each slice is about $6plus. fresh cream that comes with each slice is free too. ambiance?yellow lights but quite stuffy inside though.

It's alright but i think Ritz cake house in Penang, Malaysia beats these any time. out of the four slices of cakes, the coffee one at the top left was the best.

 

some IH things

The things i do in my room besides studying and sleeping and facebooking...



I take pictures of clouds using my electric blue Sony camera. the formation of clouds i see through my windows. i'm mesmerised by clouds for some unknown reasons..

i take pictures of almost everything. the Uncle Toby's bars, my night-time biscuits, my favourite Nissin instant noodles( u know, in malaysia i always eat either chicken flavour Cintan Mee or the korean noodles) but here, i got a vast selection of flavours to choose from =). i cook instant noodles in my room. how? hahaha, just pour hot water over it, don't even have to use the stove and pot.

I eat in my room as well. these are the packed lunches i had when i have my 12-2pm lectures. egg sandwiches/ham, cheese and mustard/ pesto chicken and mesclun sandwich with one packet of Arnott's biscuits, a banana/apple/orange and a box of Just Juice drink.



i find these candy wrappings special, which was why i bought the whole packet and collected them. but after taking pictures of it, i threw them away d and i'm sick of Minties d, a result of overeating them. hahaha!

try and guess what these pictures are trying to convey.

no internet connection

After moving out from IH college on nov 24th, I've been staying at my sister's apartment( just the next building) till now. no cable or internet connection so i can only online for a limited time using my che's laptop..

I've been eating alot of home cooked food which means I've been cooking, washing the pots and plates, and do grocery shopping ALOT! of course i do all of these together with my sis =) cooking is fun, grocery shopping too but not the washing up part..hahahaha, but this i-don't-really-fancy chore comes along with the fun cooking, so i don't have much choice. i took quite alot of pictures of all the dishes we made, will blog about it when i get back. I've also compiled some food pictures but I'm no longer keen to blog about them for now.


2010 is coming to an end soon..time really flies this semester as compared to the first semester. Got back my semester results and I'm satisfied. hard work paid off! think i put in more effort this sem than the previous semester. wonders whether can i regain this kind of self-discipline again next year after having a long summer break..hmmm, okay that's kiasu-ism..hahahahha! i will get to celebrate CNY next year, woohoooo! remember this year, i came to Aussie on the night of the first day of CNY, damn sad case de. next year i will be in msia till CNY ends!


most of my friends are now back in their home countries for about 2 weeks already..so my only friend now is my che che, hahahha!


daddy and mummy will be coming over for che's graduation this Thursday! then they will go back msia with me on Sunday night =( but I'm looking forward to all the good food and meeting up with my beloved friends!!


That's all for now! *continues watching Wongfu on YouTube and checking out baking recipes*

no title for this post. hahaha

i'm supposed to write about the stuff i did during my one-week break 3 weeks ago but i'm too lazy d. so basically, i went to DFO and  Movie world!!! it was super fun, and i sat on the rides which i was afraid to ride 7 years ago when i came to aussie with my grandparents and aunt.

yeah i sat on these two rides! i was practically not sitting on the chair when the spaceshot went up!

ate some good food that week as well. i will write a food review on the food i ate next time..too lazy to upload pics =)

final exams in 3 weeks' time, macroeconomics is me crazy..time is really passing by quickly this semester.  can't wait for daddy and mummy to come! i'm thinking of home almost every other day! can't wait to be back in penang!!

Hard work paid off?

got back all my mid-semester results. they're all rather satisfactory. however, due to my kiasu-ism(or to put it in a nice way, to know where's my standard), i always compare my marks with my other coursemates. they got higher than me.

sometimes it seems unfair why a person who puts in less effort than i did got a higher mark than me..
here's one example:

she parties quite a lot, does a lot of last minute studying, seldom attends lectures, reads only the lecture notes while i did my tutorials weekly, attend lectures almost every other week, read my textbook chapters but she got a higher mark than me.

one more:

i read my textbook, make notes, attend lectures&tutorials..she did about the same thing(not the textbook part though), she kept on saying she doesn't like this subject, but ended up getting a higher mark than me.

so here's one advice that my friend gave me to make me feel better.
If you work hard, it doesn't mean you'll achieve excellent results but if you don't work hard, you'll definitely not be able to get excellent results. the point being made here is AT LEAST YOU'VE TRIED.

and i dislike comments by people like "you genius", "ahya, you don't have to be afraid of the results wanla, cos you always do so well" and when the results are good, they say "see, you guys surely get good results wan" and if results are bad, they have nothing to say already. what the heck man?! just by labelling us "genuis", all the effort we put in to achieve the results are forgotten? you don't know how much time we spent studying in order to get good results and all that we get is "ahya, u so clever,sure can wan la." i guess all these comments don't mean any harm, it's just me who is overly sensitive =).

p.s. i do use such comments at times too, but I'm trying hard not to use it because i personally think that it's rather insensitive to give such comments.

Riverfire festival

this post is way outdated.

Riverfire is one of the few big events in Brisbane. Basically it's an annual 30mins show of fireworks along the Brisbane River. went there after my first mid sem exam.

this is one of the few days in which you can see Brisbane packed with people.

all of us bought sushi rolls from the city before walking to Southbank

fireworks would only start at 7.30pm.
 it was only 5pm when we reached, so took lots of pictures.

the fireworks were much nicer than the photo. thanks to my lousy camera.

everyone smiles!!!

dinner at Madtongsan.it has been so long since we last dine in the city. we were are super 'kiam siap'
this is spicy pork hot stone rice.
the first time when i had this, it was really good but somehow it wasn't that great this time.

spicy seafood soup. this is always yummy, love the silky smooth tofu in it.

that's all for now. more food pictures to come.... going clubbing later, hahaha. guess i deserve to go this time cos it's like post-exam celebration =) and  no, i don't drink. entrance is free, so i will only spend on the bus ticket which is less than $4. I'm a good girl =)

melbourne part TWO

as we have finished walking all around the city on the 2nd day, we decided to go to the suburbs. so bought the $6.80 daily ticket and off we went to Brighton beach.

reminds me of the poem "the road not taken" from high school

Brighton Bathing boxes
the whole stretch of colourful huts

a closer look at the nice huts, there are like more than 70 huts all together 

JUMP SHOTS!  you don't need a DSLR to capture these, just perfect timing

my canon digital camera(rm699, the lowest range) did it =D

I took this! so proud of myself hahaha!

had this toasted Turkish bread with ham and tasty cheese at the nearby cafe

went to St kilda after that...

Luna Park
it's theme park
we went in to have a look only, so it's FREE

there was a street in St Kilda which has quite a number of cake shops

i'm like "it looks so yummy!" but didn't try any cos we too "kiam siap" d

only had these. shared by 3, $2.50 each. i love latte art

Monarch Cakes

http://www.monarchcakes.com.au/

Mediacorp artistes, Christopher Lee and Cynthia had a filming session in that cafe before

Met up with fay's friends who are studying in Monash Uni.had dinner at a korean restaurant(so called famous among the students). so so. MadTongsan in Brisbane tastes much better, i think the one i had in Penang is better,so didn't bother to out up the pics.

the last day: took the free city circle tram to Docklands

had sushi rolls for lunch before taking the flight back.
you'll be able to see many sushi shops in every corner of melbourne

tonnes of pics on FB.
our one silly act in Melbourne: we left our hotel room key outside one night, forgotten to take it in. then as we were chatting at night, someone knocked on our door, we were so scared to open the door(my heart was pumping so FAST). the next morning, couldn't find the key. so i suddenly remembered "maybe yesterday the person was kind to remind us bout our key but we didn't open the door" went to the lobby, the key was with them! how KIND of that person. one good point of aussies. =)

BYE BYE MELBOURNE!
 this metropolitan city indeed offers alot of Asian cuisines but as i have said,we were too kiam siap to eat all those yummy food. imagine, if i were to come with my family, i will definitely spend a bomb on food with my dad who loves to eat!

thinking too much?

I have been thinking alot
about friendship and things along those lines..
people i can trust.
friends whom i'm sure will be around for me when i need them
i feel like i give more than i get.
ahh, i don't know how to explain further.
sometimes i just join in cos' i don't want to be left out
why am i so prone to follow the crowd?
where is 'ME'?
guess i'm just being over sensitive,
guess i'm expecting too much from my friendships with them...

I gotta learn to be strong
learn not to depend too much on others
start to think of their goodness instead of their flaws
should i just make "to give more than to get" as my life philosophy?
but if i were to do so, then i would be taken advantage of.
AHHH!
we'll just see how things progress

it's thursday night, i'm lazing cos' i have no classes on friday!


i've been really sleepy lately, of unknown reason..i only have like a maximum of 4-5 hours( not continuously some more) of lecture/classes a day and i'm already so tired. HSC in Inti back then was much worse.(8am-4pm) and all the workload was scary. but i survived! so i should be doing better in uni right? hmmm...

the courses i'm taking for this semester are more math-based, like SERIOUSLY.

i told myself i have to study tonight but end up facebooking and msn-ing. see, never ending procrastination.

I NEED TO DISCIPLINE MYSELF!