1+1 Dumpling Noodles

Sorry for not blogging for such a long time.

Been having too much fun in KL and Langkawi that i did not have time to finish up even my previous post of Melbourne City Tour =P.

As said in that post, we had dinner at Footscray, in this restaurant named 1+1 Dumpling Noodles (1+1 水饺-手拉面), and as said in the previous post as well, this post will be solely to introduce that place. =)

The famous dish there is the Big Plate Chicken (大盘鸡). You have an option of either half chicken or whole chicken, and it is basically just the chicken boiled for god-knows-how-long with green peppers, ginger, potatoes, bak choy and god-knows-what-else.

Big Plate Chicken 大盘鸡, Aaron calls it "Dog Food"

You have the option to add in flat-noodles (宽面) into the dish as well. For four of us (two guys, two small-eater girls), we ordered three portions of the noodles, and in the end it is just nice to make all four of us really, really full. =)

It is pretty good, seriously, even though the looks are not exactly appealing. Somehow, the mixture of all these stuff gave this dish a unique taste that you cant really find anywhere else. Sometimes i wonder do they dump the leftovers of other customers back into the big pot to be cooked again -_-.

Yes, we managed to finish it

Another dish that is not too bad is the Lamb Skewer (羊肉串). This is the thing i eat frequently back in the days in Xiamen, but i somehow lost touch of it once i returned to Malaysia. Thus the re-discovery of it in Melbourne does give me the hype of it.

Lamb Skewer 羊肉串

But for those who had tried real nice lamb skewers, dun put too much hope in this. The lamb is dry and not juicy, while the spices are not being put enough on to the lamb. However, it is still worth it to be ordered to have a try =).

Those who are now still in Melbourne, do try out this place if you have the time, it will be worthwhile your time and money to make your trip there =).

1+1 Dumpling Noodles 1+1 水饺-手拉面
Address: 84 Hopkins St., Footscray 3011
Tel: 03 9687 8988

As for hows my life back here in Malaysia, i will be posting my Langkawi Trip post up soon, but please be patient, as there are just an unbelievable amount of photos taken. ;)

I Am Back

I



AM



BACK



IN



MALAYSIA!!!

Melbourne City Tour

It is quite common that we do not visit the tourist sites of the city we live in.

I've never visited KL's Museum, or the War Memorial, or the Botanical Garden, or anything like that.

I've decided to make a change in Melbourne.

I've decided to visit these places here ^_^.
We left Clayton at around 1030 in the morning of 14 November 2007 and started our city tour journey, which our first stop is to get brunch at Lygon street, at this thai place which i believe most ppl knows abt it, Ying Thai 2.

Us @ Ying Thai 2

After a nice brunch, we head to our first destination; The Melbourne Museum.

As it is only two streets away, we decided to walk there. As we approach the place, bunch and bunch and bunch of students are emerging from one of the buildings beside the museum, only we remmebered that, Melbourne Uni is still having their exams in the Royal Exhibition Building (haha suckers!)

The Royal Exhibition Building

The Royal Exhibition Building

The museum, which is located right next to it, is a modern looking building which takes up 3 floors. Entry for us student? FREE. =) Just show ur student cards and a ticket will be printed for u. =)

Shuo Mei, Aaron, Jia

Concession Ticket: $0.00

Quite an interesting place. The usual impression of "Musuems are boring!" did not occur, instead, we did not have enough time to finish seeing everything as we need to rush to the parliament for the free guided tour. However, hopefully there is another chance for us to visit that place again =).

Skeletal of the Big Blue Whale

Me & Aaron, In front of the First Computer in Australia

Some Skeletal of Some Dinosours

Destination 2: Parliament of Victoria

We arrived just in time to join the 3:00pm free guided tour through the Parliament, which, is actually just to show us the Gold Room (where the upper members have meetings) and to tell us some history about the politics of Victoria. Still, we spent more than an hour in it, which is not totally boring and somehow informative.

The Parliament of Victoria

The Hall of the Parliament

The Gold Room

The Ceiling, made of 24k Gold

One of the Twelve Angels Surrounding the Room

One of the Two Eagles Overlooking the Room

The Parliament

Destination 3: The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV)

As we arrived, we are left with 15 minutes to browse through the exhibition in there. Still, it is obvious that it has various kinds of displays from arts to ancient antique items that date back to thousands of years ago. Some place worth going definately, especially that it is also free ^_^

The National Gallery of Victoria

Shuo Mei, Aaron, Me @ the Entrance of NGV

Destination 4: The Shrine of Rememberance

We headed to the Shrine of Rememberance using the tram after NGV kicked us out at 5:05pm. Shrine of Rememberance, the place where warriors and soldiers who died during the wars, is another beginning of the terror of flies. I strongly suggest u either go during winter, or bring a bug repellent. Or else, there is a big chance that a swarm of flies will just have a picnic trip on ur back -_-.

Map showing location of Shrine of Rememberance, some parks, and the Botanical Garden

Shrine of Rememberance Pillar

Shrine of Rememberance Center

Surroundings of the Shrine

Surroundings of the Shrine

The Man And The Donkey

Shadows

Destination 5: Botanical Garden

We walked to the Botanical Garden beside the Shrine of Remembrance to check it out. And as usual, flies are attacking, we are waving like mad, bla bla bla...anywayz, without the flies, i would say that it is a nice park to walk around =)

Flowers

"I see...i see...i see...wha..?!"

Flower

Black Mama Swan

Black Baby Swan

Destination 6: Dinner @ Footscray

As we finally abandoned the swarming flies and got into the train, we headed to Footscray to check out a place where Aaron had tried before. I will dedicate a separate post for that place, so check out the next post for it ;).

Destination 7: The Finale, Skydeck

Yes, the tallest building in Melbourne CBD



88 Floors Residential Apartment, where the top is a restaurant and below it a skydeck where we can see the whole city and some suburb.

Its pretty expensive though, as it is 11 dollars per person for Concession rate.

However, once u get to see the view from up there (especially at night), the view is amazing. Its definately worth going

The Finale Photo

Though its extremely tiring, i would say its pretty worth it. So those who havent visited those places, i do recommend you to do so before you leave this place =).

Hair

Was having an interesting chat with a good fren last night...part of it went on like this:

X: So, how is Jonah?
Me: He has his hair tied up.
X: omg
X: some how that just reminds me of a sumo wrestler......
Me: ... 0_0

....

Jonah with his hair tied up, is like this:



Ooops, wrong one, i meant, like this:



So... Jonah = Sumo Wrestler



RIGHT. I see the similarities.

=)

Canon PowerShot SD750 Camera Review

Jia once mentioned that i will write a review of her new camera on my blog, a long, long time ago.

I never had the chance or time to do so.

After the chaotic days of assignments and exams, i can finally sit down now and write this long ignored, yet not forgotten review.

The Canon Powershot SD750

The specification of the camera is as follows:
Resolution : 7.1 Megapixels
Sensor Resolution : 7.1 Megapixels
Sensor Type : CCD
Light Sensitivity : ISO 80, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600, ISO auto
Optical Zoom : 3x
Digital Zoom : 4x


Before i start the review, i must clarify that i have very little exposure towards the usage of a digital camera ever since my old kodak 5 megapixel (or was it 4?) camera, which was just a simple point-and-shoot with no whatsoever fancy features for me to play with (either that or i didnt discover any). Thus, things that i find interesting in this camera might have already appeared in others.


Physical Appearance

The first digital camera i had was a big, bulky, first-generation Casio digital camera. I dun remember much about it, only that the pictures taken are exremely blurred and i told myself that this technology is useless. Its not like that anymore at this era of digicam.

The front view is simple, consisting the lens and the flash, with quite a simple yet elegant labelling of the brand and model number of the camera.

The Front View

A closer look at the camera front shows an obvious feature missing from the camera: a pathfinder. Remember those little, small windows we squint our eyes to look through to see what are we taking? Those has been elimanated from this digicam.

Not a big hoo-haa thing to be complained though, coz whats the usage of it when you have a big, clear 3-inch LCD at the back of the camera?

The Back View

The LCD took up most of the back of the camera. This is one of the rare feature u can find in a point-and-shoot camera, as most LCDs uses only a 2.5-inch LCD. The rest of the spaces are taken up by buttons and a scroll wheel that is necessary to function the camera.

Looking at the top of the camera, there are only 4 switches to be seen: the on/off button, the take photo button, the zoom in/out switch, and the mode switch,

The Top View

From the bottom, there is only the battery and memory card compartment and a hole to be screwed on a tripod.

The Bottom View View

On the left side of the camera, there is...wellzz...nothing, except for a kinda-spiral-shaped-holes which i think where all the "beep-beep" and "ka-cha" sounds come from.

The Left-Side View View

The right side of the camera consist of only a hole to tie the string (or whatever weight u wanna put on the camera) and the connectors of the camera, covered by a protective cap.

The Right-Side View View

Connectivity

As following universal standards, this camera connects to the computer using the USB port.

AV OUT and DIGITAL ports

There is also an AV OUT port to be connected to the TV to view the photos and videos in the camera on TV, which is quite a common feature in most of the digicam.


Battery and Memory

Both battery and memory are covered by a metal protective cap.

The Battery and Memory Card

The battery can last a good amount of time, approximately 2-3 days taking a total of approximately 350-400 pictures (we on it to take a picture, then we off it, then on it again when we need to take a picture). However, one flaw with this camera is that there is no indication of how much battery life is left, until the very end when the camera is dying only it will have a red battery icon flashing.

The Battery

It will be good to purchase an extra battery as the battery is needed to be taken out to be charged. Thus, if you have only one battery, the camera will not be able to be used when the battery is being charged. And no, it cant be charged using the USB cable connected to the computer. Somehow, even though many handphones have already adapted this technology, digicam hasnt. Maybe its due to the amount of power needed to charge the camera.

The memory card that comes with the camera is only a 32MB SD Memory Card. However, Jia's sis bought her a 2GB memory card, which, in a way its a convinience as she never needs to delete any picture from the camera. The capacity of a 2GB memory card is approximately 1000 photos. Good enough for us casual camera users =P.

The 2GB SD Memory Card

Functionality

Start-up time of the camera is fast, i mean, real fast. Some old digicams take it's own sweet time to start up by first displaying a 3 seconds animation, then play a short theme. But Canon decided that its too much of a hassle for us consumers to wait for such a long time just to start up (which is true), thus, as for this camera, it takes a total of less than 1 second from the moment the power on button is pressed to the camera ready to be used. Same goes to shutting off the camera. Bravo, finally something that is designed for convinience instead of looks.

As i said, digicams that i used does not consist of much features. Thus, the discovery of many features in this camera does amazed me. One of it is called the Stitch Assist. What it does is it allows you to take a stretch of object by helping you match up pictures by pictures.

Take it

As seen in the picture above, you first take a picture from the beginning point, then just connect to the next scene, and take again, and repeat till you are satisfied =).

Connect it

Cool eh? A software is provided by Canon as well to later upload the pics into the comp to be "stitched" together. The picture below is what sticthed photo of the construction outside my house, used a total of 3 photos:

See the Rainbow? [Click Picture to Enlarge]

An attempt to capture a whole rainbow, which, kinda succeeded =P.

Other functions are also included in the camera like the different modes of Beach, Night, Underwater, Snow, Indoor, etc, and you are able to manually adjust the ISO settings for your own desired light sensitivity.

Another cool function it has is called Color Accent. Basically what happens is that you are able to filter out all other colors except for one selected color. Ive seen these stuff on a SLR camera before, but not in a point-and-shoot. Check out the images below:

Green [Click Picture to Enlarge]

Red [Click Picture to Enlarge]

Purple [Click Picture to Enlarge]

Orange [Click Picture to Enlarge]

Considering this camera being a normal point-and-shoot, i would say that it is a pretty well feature-packed cameras and provides quite a reasonable flexibility for self customization. More pictures below, all taken with the resolution of 3072x2304 in auto mode, if not stated otherwise:

Sun in the City [Click Picture to Enlarge]

Buildings [Click Picture to Enlarge]

State Library [Click Picture to Enlarge]

The Famous Shot in Melbourne Central [Click Picture to Enlarge]

The City [Click Picture to Enlarge]

Sandringham Beach, using Beach Mode[Click Picture to Enlarge]

Sun Rise, with Normal ISO [Click Picture to Enlarge]

Sun Rise, with High ISO [Click Picture to Enlarge]

The Sky [Click Picture to Enlarge]

Thats all...hopefully i will have a chance in the future to get my hands on to a SLR camera and try it out...or even better, to own one. =P


Updates (2 Feb 2008): The equivalent model sold in Malaysia is actually the IXUS 75, as the model reviewed here is actually from the US. =)