Da Life in Da Auzzie~

Wow

2010-11-30T15:46:00.002+11:00

Is it time, to revive this place? (and maybe a change in name?)

Leaving.....again

2008-12-15T23:55:00.002+11:00

Another time, another place, yet the same thing all over again, this time, I'm leaving Melbourne....

Been moving around almost the whole of my life...from Malaysia to China, from China back to Malaysia, then to Aussie, now back to Malaysia...yet this time, somehow its a little different, somehow, there is this sadness in me that i've never experienced before...

It's not that I dun wanna go back to Msia, hell, I've been looking forward eagerly for the past few months for this day to come, just thinking of the food and things i can do back in Msia make me wanna go back even more...yet, this period of time in Aussie did give me a memory that I will definately miss heaps.

I guess thats life, where we move on from one stage to another, learning and experiencing in each stage, discovering more and more of ourselves as each stage passes by...this is the way that make us grow up, and these are the things that make us who we are.

显显的...

2008-12-01T00:38:00.002+11:00

好像...好久都没写这样的东西了...最近我的blog都只放了去了哪里玩啦, 哪里好吃啦, 在卖东西啦...*点点点*

今天过得...非常的显, 显到了有点受不了的地步...墨尔本又下雨了, 看来明天又是一个寒冷的夏天...

试考完了, 成绩也出了, 现在唯一的向往是回到KL的那一天的到来. 现在差不多每天的行程是:早上去Meeting Point上班,晚上回家和珈珈讲电话, 吃打包回来的剩饭, 看看已经看过的电影...过得实在是不充实. 我一向来是一个很喜欢一直有事情做的人,现在已经过了一个多月这样的生活,实在是有点痛苦

有一股冲动想立刻去买自己一直想要的DSLR照相机,可是自己心里却知道马来西亚是比较便宜,而且老爸也答应了会去PC FAIR帮我看价钱...所以也只能忍耐...忍耐....

成绩出了,得到了1HD 2D, 还算不错, 比起以前在Computer Science时得到的 P 和 N, 已经算是很大的进展了...呵呵, 转到Information System的确是一个没错的选择, 有时侯, 有牺牲才会有结果的...我这多出来的一个semester果然没白读了 =>

想一想, 今天过得那么显, 很有可能是因为前几天都一直有出去吧...出了一下, 现在又一个人在家, 竟然有了之前没感觉到的寂寞 =P

有时候做在电脑前, 唯一能做的就是瞪着电脑看, 脑子里完全不知道自己可以做什么. 如果老爸看到了, 一定会说我应该去读些Self-help books, 去学些以后在工作社会里有用的东西, 提高自己的价值...可是, 有时侯真的动不起来...一个人做事情, 真的没趣, 没动力...

看来我真的需要想想办法令我接下来在墨尔本的生活更充实...

Fire Sale 3

2008-11-30T18:27:00.004+11:00

More stuff are added to be sold, check out bl3kjonstuff.blogspot.com.

Hopefully all can be sold before i leave...

Fire Sale 2

2008-11-25T15:00:00.002+11:00

A site with my stuff displayed is up, check it out at bl3kjonstuff.blogspot.com

Will be adding more stuff once i can figure out how to fix the problem of transferring photos from my damn phone -_-

Fire Sale

2008-11-17T23:04:00.003+11:00

Im selling, everything (except myself).

You need anything, just gimme a call or send me a message and we can talk about it...

Currently the items for sale (that i can think of) are tables, chairs, stools, fridge, washing machine, microwave, clothes rack, single sized mattress and bed frame, queen sized mattress and bed frame...and others

Will have a full list soon, stay tuned.

Till then, contact me if there is something you need.

The Very Very Very Overdued NZ Log

2008-11-08T03:27:00.001+11:00

wellzz.....its been almost half a year since i been to NZ for the holiday...and till now i still have not finished the post about it.

I've decided to abandon project.

Too much effort, too lazy.

...

2008-11-08T03:26:00.003+11:00

hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe.....

ive finished my exam

hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe......hehe

NZ Trip 08 - Day 4 Taupo & Wellington

2008-08-20T16:40:00.000+10:00

Yes!! I'm finally bloggin abt the NZ trip again!! Damn...this is taking too long time...

We left Rotorua early early in the morning (7am) and start heading towards Wellington. Reason for this early departure is because we estimated that it will take us 6-8 hours to drive to Wellington...

The morning sunshine

Tree-shaded roads

An interesting event happened on the way to our first stop, Huka Falls. While driving on the seemingly alright road, our car started to become uncontrollable, banking left n right forcefully outta my hand. I managed to slow down the car and stopped by the highway before crashing into anything. We were lucky to have no other cars nearby us.

A snap-shot of that moment

My initial thought was that there is a burst tyre. But after checking the car by the roadside, i see no problems with the car. Though the road is iced up that might cause the road to be slippery, other cars that passed by us doesnt seem to have any trouble driving on the road in high speed.

Icy road. The green stuff are actually some frozen plant -_-

Stopped on the roadside, unsure what to do.

After trying to drive again and stopping again when it got uncontrollable again, we decided to just push on by driving real slow. I drove at 30-40km/h for the next hour.

When i try increasing our speed an hour later, suprisingly nothing happened and the car seems to be normal, thus continuing our "normal" journey towards our first planned destination of the day, Huka Falls, which is located right outside the town of Taupo.

Huka Falls

Huka Falls is a waterfall created by this huge mass of water entering a long narrow passage, thus causing this rush of water to rush through this narrow passage and come tumbling down at the end into a lake/river/im not sure =P. Anyhow, you get my point.

When we arrive to Huka Falls, its still very foggy thus we cant see much. But we still do manage to catch a glimpse at the waterfall itself and an unique, cool, scenary.

Huka Falls

Foggy with limited visibility

Still iced up branches

The fall itself

From another angle itself

Me n Jia

The girls

Where the roaring ends and peace returns

Tranquil yet mysterious

Special effect

After enough picture taking and freezing our ass off, we head back to our car and continued our journey...

Entering Taupo...

As we were driving towards Taupo the sky cleared up and a beautifully sunny weather shone upon us...before entering the town itself we made two stops: one at this small hill where we can see Lake Taupo and part of the town, another one at this unknown part of a river we discovered that is quite a nice place to just stand around n take pictures.

Seeing Lake Taupo from the small hill

Jia

The river

Still a lil fogged up

The girls

Me n Jia

The car

And finally...we enter the town of Taupo, to visit Lake Taupo...

Lake Taupo

Lake Taupo, one of the biggest lake in NZ. And its the size of Singapore. =_= A very very beautiful place and particularly for that moment we were there, blessed with extremely good weather ;)

SuperLoo requires an entrance fee to be used...

Thus i had to walk around to find a free public toilet to use... ><

Lake Taupo

Now...I'm not sure why did i climb that tree....

The girls

The Jumping Girls Episode 2, continuing from Great Oceans Road

Duck

An attempt for a group pic, with the lake visible

The lakeside that looks like a beach

Coolio

After Taupo, we commence our straight drive to Wellington, hoping for the good weather to stay.

Lindale

Jia speaks about a place where her dad always brings her for ice-cream right before entering Wellington. Since we are all quite interested in having it as well, we kept our eyes open when we were nearing Wellington for that mystical place speaks about yet cannot remember its name. As she saw the familar sign and shouted out at it, we turned in and here we are, at Lindale.

Rather than an ice-cream shop, its actually more of a barn yard with restaurants and shops for familis to visit during the weekends. A further lookup in the Lonely Planet guidebook shows that their ice-cream, are indeed famous as well =P.

On the way

On the way - Desert Road that snowed the day before

On the way

On the way - Discovered snow mountains, which later we realized is extremely common in Queenstown

SH took over the wheels halfway through

Lindale

Geese shooing us away

Approaching Wellington outer suburbs

Arriving Wellington's outer suburb

The sight of Wellington excites us, not just because we have arrived finally after long drives, but we arrived almost 3 hours earlier. Always better earlier than later eh? =)

Dinner in Jia's Aunt House

We get to stay in Jia's Aunty place in Wellington, thus upon arriving we went straight to the suburb of Johnsonville, where her aunt live, and where Jia used to live as well. Upon arriving Jia's Aunt's house, we were welcomed warmly and unloaded our luggages, washed up, and had a really nice home-cooked dinner

The view of Jia's Aunt's House at the back

The stumpous dinner

Helping with the dishes

HY with fridge magnets from around the world

Jia chattin with cousin

After dinner and cleaning up, we decided to fully utilize our time and decided to visit Mt. Victoria.

Mt. Victoria

I have to say, its not easy to drive up there. From the very beginning of trying to find the way up within this complicated arrays of roads, till finding the correct alley to turn into has been a big headache. After driving rounds and rounds around the city and Jia calling some friends up for directions, in the same time looking at the maps, we finally, found our way up.

Nightview from Mt. Victoria

Me n Jia

It was very very dark up there, and as a few more cars came up filled with teenagers, we decided to head back down as the girls are feeling a little unsafe.

We parked our car at Courtney Place in the city and took a walk around. As an opportunity came when both HY and Jia went to the toilet, me n SH came up with a plan for a surprise birthday party for Chin Chui Jia.

And thus....a surprise birthday party for Jia that night!

A Mini Birthday Party

The surprise is supposed to come at 12am but by 1130pm we were all tired and ready to sleep, including the birthday girl herself. Thus, when she said she was gonna go sleep, we decided to just initiate the plan and gave her the shock of her life =P (yea, a little exaggerated there... )

The birthday cake, which actually consist of 5 different pieces of cake since the only place that sells cake that night has no full cakes anymore

Jia's bday present from all of her ji mui

Sorry, no pics of the bday girl herself since she refused to let me post her in pajamas =P

And thus...the end of Day 4...

Delays

2008-07-27T01:38:00.002+10:00

Yes, its taking a blardy long time for me to post the NZ trip posts.

I apologize for it as I'm currently pretty busy and lazy; busy coz i now have a part time job in uni, and lazy coz each day of the trip takes more than 3 hours to write due to the massive amount of pictures.

But no worries, thy shalt finish. Thee be patient.

NZ Trip 08 - Day 3 Rotorua

2008-07-20T13:49:00.018+10:00

We left Auckland very early in the morning (7am) as we will have only that day to visit Rotorua and will be on a very tight schedule. Thus, even before the sun was up we were up, and before the sky is bright we have already checked out and is on our way to Rotorua, the city that lies on top of a lotta volcanic activity.

Spotted a full rainbow

On the way

Got into some foggy situation

Trying to figure out where are we

Kuirau Public Park

We arrived @ Rotorua 1030am in the morning, and went to visit the first attraction, the Kuirau Public Park. The reason for visiting that park? Its free! You get to see boiling underground water and smell the sulphuric air and see steam popping out from no where in this park.

The girls

Me n Jia

Yes, these stuff can be pretty hot

Kuirau Park

We left that place after approximately 35 minutes, and went to the place the town is named after, Lake Rotorua.

Lake Rotorua

I have to say, this place is just totally superbly gorgeous. We walked around the lakeside enjoying scenaries and fresh air, and after that visited an on-going flea market nearby. The whole feeling of this place is just too great.

Rotorua

Awed by the view

A lake that is so huge that it looks like an ocean

Tranquility

Me n Jia

The flea market

Stalls

This guy is pretty darn good in playing his culture's instruments. We bought a CD from him =P

SH n HY looking around

We left that place finally after an hour plus, had Subway for lunch near the town center, then head off to find our motel to check in.

Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland

As we found our motel and tried checking-in, we were told that the room is not ready and is asked to return at around 3pm. At that point, we were deciding between two thermal parks to visit, either the Waimangu or Wai-O-Tapu. After talking to the motel lady and discussing among ourselves, we decided to visit the futher Wai-O-Tapu. We had no regrets.

Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland

Toilet...and bicycle...you have to cycle to the toilet? 0_0

SH and HY

Safety precaution

Me n Jia infront of Devil's Home

The Three Emo Girls

The perfect weather

Boiling mud

Me n Jia

Some weird stuff growing on the branches

All of us in front of...something -_-

A walkway that goes through a wide span of volcanic activity

Me n Jia

Jia emo-ing?

Not sure whats there to eat but...birds love picking around these toxic places

Me n HY, with Jia in the background. Some pretty weird pic =P

The girls

Scenary

Sulphur precipitation

Shadows

Me with SH and HY

Jia surrounded by steam

Some cool-colored lake

A pretty cool stitching done by Jia

The whole park took us more than 3 hours to finish, and drained both our cameras dry. However, the entrance fee is worth its every cent for what we are being offered to see, learn and enjoy.

Devonwood Manor Motel

We went straight back to the motel, checked in (its already almost 5pm), and took our turns to shower. The motel cost us NZD130 per night, which is pretty cheap, but the room's pretty crappy as well.

The outside of Devonwood Manor Motel

The entrance of our unit

The room

The bathroom, which floods like mad when we shower

Though sucky, it still served the purpose of us budget travellers and one good thing is that we can park our car right outside our door, which make loading and unloading much easier.

Dinner @ Fat Dog's Cafe

After settling down and all showered and fresh, we head out to the city to find a place that is recommended by the Lonely Planet guide book, Fat Dog's Cafe.

Fat Dog's Cafe

This place is just good. Extremely comfortable atmosphere, good food, unique styling (there is no one same set of tables and chairs), friendly staff, and very very comfy.

Menu on the wall

Jia's Smoked Chicken Paninis

My Lamb Shank

SH n HY's Cajun Chicken

FAT DOGGGGG

Instead of giving us the boring numbers for our orders, we were given these cool "stuff" to for our orders. Speaking of creativity!

Me n Jia

SH n HY

We left the place with a full stomach and satisfied taste bud, and ended the day happy and eager for the next day to come =).

NZ Trip 08 - Day 2 Auckland

2008-07-13T16:47:00.026+10:00

Having a bad first day as a start of the trip, we are determined to make the rest of the trip as enjoyable as we can. As we already missed the Sky Tower yesterday, we decided to squeeze it in today's plan, along with other activities. =)

We left the hotel at 7am in the morning, and headed out to our first destination, the Otara Morning Market.

Otara Morning Market

Otara is a suburb of Auckland, and with it, the Otara Morning Market has been recommended in TripAdvisor.com when i was researching on what to do in Auckland (which is seriously not much). From the map the suburb looks like a 45 minutes drive away place, but to our surprised we arrived in 20 minutes. However, with inadequate map and lack of info, we got lost in Otara, and had to ask around before we finally found the busy morning market, when rain started pouring like crazy.

Otara Morning Market, operates only at Saturdays 7am - 12pm

Me and Persimmons, its dirt cheap and damn sweet, makes me wonder why Aussie does not have such sweet and cheap ones.

Apples, a type that is only found in NZ, which is damn cheap and sweet as well =)

Another view of the market

The girls

The market itself has quite a wide range of stuff, from vegetables to fruits to daily essentials to cooked food. We walked around very briefly as it was raining pretty hard. We stopped at a Chinese uncle's stall to look at his cookies when we found out that he a Penangite, who came 20 years ago to Auckland to work. He sold us a bag of his homemade cookies and told us to be careful in Auckland as there are many cases of snatch thieves happening, especially to tourists. After walking one round, we walk hurriedly back to our car as the rain starts to fall even heavier.

The cookies we bought from the uncle. Can't really see anything from the pic but its actually quite good

Bought some Char Siu Pau from another stall, not too bad but of course uncomparable to Malaysia =)

And off we go to our next destination, the Auckland Fish Market.

Auckland Fish Market

The fish market can be considered a major disappointment to me. As I've visited the one in Sydney before, i was expecting something similar, but was being greeted by a factory look-alike building with only two shops on the ground floor, no crowds, and no fresh oysters in sight. We were one of the very few customers around and the whole place look dead. However, the fishes do look fresh and the price reasonable. We ended up buying two pieces of fish (one salmon the other king fish) to be cooked tonight for dinner.

Auckland Fish Market

Fishy 4, seen outside the fish market

Me & Jia

Fish Market

As we were leaving the fish market, we saw a spot nearby that gives quite a spectacular view of the not-so-far-away city and clear green water...thus, photo session time.

The view

SH and HY

Me and Jia

City Council

We drove back to the hotel and parked at the curbside again, then walked towards the city council to pay the tow fine. Little that we know, or realized, that its Saturday, and on Saturdays, government offices are usually close. Thus, a wasted walk there, but we anyhow took a walk around the premises.

A cool car we saw on the way, a car that i will buy when im old n rich

"Office Hours, Monday to Friday..........uh oh"

Me with Lord Auckland

View

We walked back to our car, then drove to a nearby suburb for our next place of interest, the Auckland Museum.

Auckland Museum

A moderate-sized museum but with lots of stuff to see, at least for me as i'm always interested in WWII and this museum has a whole floor filled with it.

Auckland Museum, which was used to be called Auckland War Memorial Museum

A Memorial remembering the soldiers of the wars

Me and Jia

Me trying to take the picture below

The ceiling of the museum

Maori sculptures

This...just looks weird, and wrong

Kiwi bird and its egg. Notice how big the egg is relatively to its own body

Zero

Spitfire

Outside of the Museum, when leaving

After leaving the museum, we went and find a place to park somewhere near the city, and walked to Queens St. again for a quick lunch @ Burger King, then went to our next destination, the Sky Tower.

City of Auckland

The Streets

Where we parked our car

Sky Tower

After visiting a few big cities, i reakon that it is a characteristic, or a show of how rich the city is, for a city to have a tower to overlook the whole city; Sydney - Sydney Tower, Melbourne - Melbourne Rialto 360', KL - KL Tower, and Auckland - Sky Tower. See the pattern? =P

Anywayz, it wasnt cheap to get on the tower, but as we are students with student ID, we get to buy cheaper tickets for $18 per person to visit both the main observation deck and the sky deck, which is higher up.

Very similar to other towers that i have been to, only different thing they have is that they have bungy jumps from the tower itself (not exactly bungy, but just lowering you down at high speed from the top to the bottom).

Sky Tower from the bottom

Sky Tower

Me n Jia, notice how the floor is actually thick glass so we can see alll the way down

Sky deck entry

Us @ The Sky Deck

KungFu Panda!

Get what I mean for "not exactly bungy"? u just dun bunge-gy! you drop all the way!

We left Sky Tower, got our car, and went back to the hotel to wait for Jia's friend to come pick her up for dinner. After she left, us 3 went to our final destination of the day, One Tree Hill.

One Tree Hill

Yes, there is supposed to have ONE tree up there, but apparently it has been chopped off in 2003 as it has been too badly vandalised during one of the protest by the people. So, One Tree Hill has no tree, but a large monument, lots and lots of sheeps, and a very beautiful night view of the city. Still worth the time and effort to get there =).

Sheeps

Monument

And me, with the night view

We didnt get to take much pictures up there as one of the two cameras is with Jia, and the other camera is totally outta batt. So, we used only our phones for pictures. As the weather gets colder and the sky gets even darker, we left the place and head back to the hotel.

Dinner

Dinner was the two pieces of fish we bought earlier in the fish market with a pack of instant noodles each. As we dun really wanna invest too much in other food stuff, we just bought the cheapest salt and pepper we can find, cover the whole fish with loads of them, then grill it in the oven for 30 minutes.

The result, taste pretty good =P

HY and SH with the food

Me with the food

And thus, comes the end of the second day, and also the end of the first city in New Zealand.

NZ Trip 08 - Day 1 Auckland

2008-07-12T14:58:00.020+10:00

Yes, I'm finally blogging about this New Zealand trip of mine. Seems like I have disappeared right after the exam as I had been busy having fun, relaxing, partying and packing for this long trip =P

This trip lasted for 12 days and 11 nights, spanning through cities on both North and South Island, including the cities of Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington, Queenstown, Dunedin and Christchurch, consist of 1 guy 3 girls, and much much loads of fun.

THe journey started a night before when everyone gathered at my house in Clayton to wait for the taxi. As our flight is 7:15am, our check in time is 4:15am, which means we have to depart from my place at 3:00am. We thought of taking the train then the Skybus to the airport at midnight (the last train) and spend the night in the airport, but after calculating both the cost, we decided that it is almost the same to just take the taxi thus resided to that.

First picture of the trip - my house =P

As expected, no one got any sleep that night and we waited patiently while playing cards and chattin. Finally 3:00am struck, we got downstairs, hopped on the taxi, and is on our way to the airport.

The taxi cost $108.00 including the after midnight extra cost, and sleepily we headed to the check-in counter, surprised to see that quite a long queue has already been formed. We checked in, waited for boarding, which was on time, and was on the first plane to depart Melbourne Airport that day, heading towards Auckland.

SH, Jia and Me

Jia trying out the Wii in the airport shop

Our Emirates flight to Auckland - reason for choosing Emirates is because they give the cheapest fare to Auckland, compared to Qantas, Jetstar, and Virgin Blue

Me n Jia while waiting to board

The flight took 3 hours plus but when we arrived in Auckland, its already 12:30pm due to the time difference. After collecting our baggage and getting through custom, i called the car rental company,Apex Car Rentals , to pick us up in a shuttle bus to bring us to their office near the airport.

In-Flight

Apex Car Rental. Was planning to go with Thrifty when i only know Hertz, Europcar, Thrifty, Avis, and Budget. But upon discovering Apex, i decided to go with it as their cars are still not too old and the price is much cheaper than those big companies.

Our luggages, in the car rental office.

Our car, a Camry. I booked a Corolla but somehow got upgraded for free to a Camry, for both islands.

Camry rear

"Apex Car Rentals"

First destination would be our place to live, Oaks Smartstay on Hobson, when the first of a series of unfortunate events starts happening.

The first would be due to the total blurness and carelessness of mine. I booked the hotel on a wrong date. As i walked up to the reception, telling them that i have a booking, they got my name but cant find anything. After showing my booking number, i realized i booked the hotel for the same date next month.

You can feel me panicking from far far away

I guess in a way we got lucky as well as there is a same two-bedroom unit available for the two nights we are gonna be staying and the lady is kind enough to give me the same rate as i booked a few months ago (which is NZD 149 per night). We went up to our unit relieved and dropped our luggage, in the same time awe at how much nicer the apartment is than expected.

The living room

The view from our apartment, which is not much

One of the bedroom

Another bedroom

The kitchen

The bathroom

Money money money

We settled down, went downstairs to put more money into the parking meter, and started exploring the city in search of a Vodafone retailer for a prepaid SIM card. It wasnt easy. Having Telecom and Vodafone as the only two mobile network provider in the country, and with the majority using Vodafone, Vodafone has basically monopolized the mobile network market in NZ. Thus, unlike Melbourne or Malaysia where every 5 shops is a mobile phone shop, we had a hard time finding a place to get a SIM card, and finally saw this small Chinese shop on Queens St. that says it sells prepaid SIM card and got one from there, only after walking for approximately an hour.

The Chinese shop, which the lady asked me in Mandarin: "Do you have internet to register your number? I can do it for you here for 3 bucks!" -__-|||

Wanting to get lunch in Sky City then visit the Sky Tower, we walked back to our car planning to drive there, only to find, nothing, at the parking lot. Why? Coz our car got towed. After enquiring the reception desk, we only got to know that Hobson St. is a 4pm-6pm clearway zone, which means from 4pm to 6pm Monday to Friday, any car that is parked at the curbside will be towed, no matter what. I got the phone number of the tow yard, went back to the room, called them, got the address of the tow yard where my car is held, and started reading the map to determine a way to get there.

Where our car supposed to be, and is not

With no other transportation means and not sure how to take the bus to the tow yard, we decided to walk there, a very very long walk, which we finally arrived after approximately an hour.

Where we are supposed to go

Where we ended in, Auckland Tow Yard

I showed my driving license, my keys to the car, and was handed a fine to be paid at the city council and showed where my car is. On one hand we are glad that the car is back in our hands, on the other hand, we know that we are gonna be 30 dollars poorer each as the fine is approximately NZD 120.

Another study of the map, trying to navigate our way through the complicated roads of Auckland, when we finally arrived back to our hotel, parked our car at the same spot (its free after 6pm, we checked), then walked to a nearby Ramen shop called Mentatz for our dinner, which is also our first meal of the day. Not sure is it due to the hunger or is the food really that good, but i think that was one of the most satisfying meal we ever had.

Mentatz

Jia and Me with ramen and gyoza

SH and HY with don and ramen

After dinner we walked back to the hotel, on the way bought bread for breakfast, and settled in for the day. A wasted and tiring day it is, but lesson learnt indeed, which made us paranoid of parking for the rest of the trip.

More to come on Day 2. ;)

A Song for Unity - Here in My Home

2008-05-29T20:28:00.003+10:00

Check this out:-

I find this song especially nice...somehow =P

Anyways, if you have some spare time, just go check out thier website @ http://www.malaysianartistesforunity.info/

=)

2008-05-02T17:33:00.001+10:00

One down, Four to go.

Stressful semester it is.

Hair Cut

2008-04-27T22:12:00.003+10:00

As many of you might know, getting a hair cut in Melbourne, is something that has to be thought twice before doing it.

In Malaysia, we all go to the indian barber shop and get it for 5 ringgit.

In Clayton, I got mine in a korean saloon (the cheapest among the decent ones) for AUD 15.

Expensive.

Thus, I came out with this brilliant idea.

Why not cut my own hair?

A whole set of hair cutting tools, including the machine thinggy, cost around 25 dollars. And i can cut my hair as many times as i want.

The "Ka Chang"

Of course, there would be this problem of the whole mess that would be created with cutting ur own hair at home.

The mess

But with a vacuum cleaner, cleaning it up will not be a problem at all.

So, since getting the equipment is not a problem, and cleaning up is not as well, I've decided to do what i've been wanting to do all along.

^_^

Been a While...April 2008

2008-04-25T00:08:00.002+10:00

Been a while since i blogged...a month to be precise =)

Wells, a little update, is that I've been very very busy lately. Somehow assignments just kept popping out one after another, and somehow they are all not as easy as I think it would be =P

To those who are planning to take FIT3051 Finance for DSS...please do consider again. One warning, there is totally no computer systems or whatsoever thinggy in this unit, all it does, is to teach you 3 years worth of Finance stuff in one semester. Unless you love Finance extremely much, avoid this unit at all cost. =P

Aside from studies, I've been planning a New Zealand trip as well...basically all the necessities has been planned and are in order, except a place to stay in Queenstown, which is quite hard to find as it will be considered a peak season only in that town, since it is winter, and the 3 main ski resorts are all in Queenstown, =S Expensive and some fully booked. So if anyone of you do know any cheap and comfy and good place to stay in Queenstown New Zealand, please please do tell me. =>

Anywayz, thats about it I'm gonna blog about for now. Most probably the next blog would be about the New Zealand trip already...really...I don't really have much life =P

Ciaoz people

Road Trip Part 2 - Phillip Island

2008-03-30T14:44:00.038+11:00

Continuing from my previous GOR post...

We woke up later than the first day, since Phillip Island is nearer and we already have the car with us =P (everyone slept over my place btw) with enough rest, we then started our journey at around 11:30am. Being a driving lover like me, SH has the urge to "feel" the car as well, thus she took the first drive of the day to Phillip Island. =)

SH driving... [Photo by SH]

The day started out sunny n nice, with some clouds on the sky but doesnt look like a threat of rain. The whole journey to Phillip Island was much more comfy than GOR, as the roads consists of only multiple lanes highways and straight roads, and lots of clearly shown road signs to lead us straight to Phillip Island.

Sunny, sunny day [Photo by SH]

Straight roads [Photo by SH]

Me n Jia

However, the more we drive, the darker the skies got, and before even getting half way there, the skies has been fully engulfed by dark clouds and rain started pouring.

Dark skies, rainy clouds

This, of course, did not stop our visit to Phillip Island.

The bridge that connects Phillip Island to the Mainland, still rainy at that time [Photo by SH]

Thus, to our first destination on the island, the Koala Conservation Center.

Koala Conservation Center

One of the thing HY wanted to see badly except kangaroos are koalas, and no place is better to see those cute creatures than the Koala Conservation Center (KCC).

KCC Ticket, for 5, Adults, $9.50 per person

The concept of this place is that it maintains an enclosed portion of the forest, and in that small forest consist of animals like wallabies, copperhead snakes, plenty types of birds, wombats, and the main character, koalas.

The girls and the "Koala"

Me n Jia

However, one thing about this place is that it is outdoor, and a problem we had, is that it was raining, not heavy, but enough to get you wet.

With the kind of determination we have, we went on with the visit anyways =)

Eucalyptus Leaves, Koala's diet

One of the rare birds seen in the "forest"

The best pic we can get of a wallaby, they are too shy to be approached [Photo by SH]

In the enclosed forest itself, two raised platforms (or broadwalks as they called it) had been built at areas where the koalas are more concentrated. Through these platforms, we are able to get a pretty close-up look at the koalas, even though they are all just sleeping (they sleep 20 hours a day, so its pretty rare to catch them eating or doing other activities).

The platform (broadwalk)

koala pretty closed up

another koala closed up

me n jia with the koala

us and koala [Photo by SH]

We finished the visit, and then planned to head to our next destination, The Nobbies, with HY taking over the wheels.

A Detour

As we were going to the Nobbies, we passed by a Wildlife Center. Out of curiousity, we turned in and took a look.

Jia and the wildlife center

Upon checking the admission price, we decided not to visit it as it is an extra $15 per person, which is pretty expensive. =P

I love this car too much =P

Onwards, to the Nobbies!

The Nobbies

*At this point of blogging, i just cut myself with my new knife. Ouch*

As we arrived Nobbies, we went straight to the cafeteria there and had a hot cup of coffee or hot chocolate, as the weather outside is starting to become pretty cold, and we are ahead of our schedule...of course, the coffee drinking session is accompanied by a session of card games. =P

The Nobbies [Photo by SH]

Mocha. Hot Coffee + Cold Weather = SYOK! [Photo by SH]

We then started our "tour" of the Nobbies. Platforms are built around the cliffs for tourists to walk around, snap pictures, and to enjoy the scenic view of this part of Phillip Island.

The girls

Me n Jia, with the Nobbies visible behind us

A path that is closed as it is the nesting place of seabirds and has frequent freak waves

The Nobbies Center, where we had our coffee break

A penguin that looked funny was seen under the platform with other penguins. The penguin is fatter than usual as it is changing its fur and is not able to get into the sea to hunt, thus has gotten itself fat to go through the change of fur

Me and the girls

all of us

As we had enough of extremely cold wind blowing at us, we left the Nobbies but was still too early to go to Penguin Parade, thus making an extra stop, at the Town of Cowe.

Town of Cowe

The town of Cowe is located at the northern end of the island, and is where most of the shops, places to eat and houses are. We drove around the residential area before finding the commercial strip, parked our car, and took a walk around.

Town of Cowe

As we walked around, we decided to have our dinner at Chino's, a place where they sell fish & chips, and yes, it is better than the ones we get in Clayton =P.

The girls and the Fish & Chips [Photo by SH]

Me n Jia with the F&C [Photo by SH]

After dinner, its about time, to get to Penguin Parade.

Penguin Parade

Yes, this is, the highlight of the night, yet, it will be the place where we will have least photos, as it is not allowed for us to take pictures around here, since the flash of the camera would damage the penguins' eyes.

Penguin Parade Ticket. 5 Adults. $17.90 per person

We waited for more than an hour to see the penguins return from the sea back to their burrows...it was a real long wait, but worth it =).

Us while waiting

While we were still all excited abt the penguins and gettin a close look at them near their burrows, heavy rain poured, mercilessly. Within seconds all of us are soaking wet, and with no other choice left, run back to the center for shelter.

Yes, totally soaked [Photo by SH]

Last group pic, where all of us are soaking wet from the rain [Photo by SH]

As the rain got slightly smaller, we ran to our car, with me taking over the wheel, and drove back, to the town of Clayton.

Journey Home

The journey back was as smooth as the journey there, and with everyone hungry when we arrived back to Clayton, we went straight to Glen Waverley for dinner right before the shop close, and drew a conclusion to this Road Trip, of ours. =)

Road Trip Part 1 - Great Ocean Road

2008-03-28T20:45:00.050+11:00

Yes yes, its been a very very very long time since i blogged.

Had a road trip during this easter/mid-sem break with SH, HY, WF and Jia...pretty fun i would say. =)

Our initial plan was to rent a car and go on Saturday (22 March) itself, however, due to the long holiday, all cars had been booked and none of the car renters has any cars to spare. Thus, we had to delay our trip all the way to after easter monday, which is Tuesday (25 March 08), which became the date, we went to Great Ocean Road.

We wanted to rent a mid-size car from Europcar at first, as they have the cheapest rate, however, only compact car is left and we cant fit all 5 of us into that car, thus we turn to the next option, Budget, and got a mid-size car (The new Toyota Corolla that only has 1200km on it odometer ^_^) for $183, for 2 days, including excess liability =).

Toyota Corolla - Front

Toyota Corolla - Rear

Toyota Corolla - Side

Thus, began our journey.

We collected the car on 25th morning 9am, and using the route planned carefully and precisely by SH, we start heading towards GOR, with HY starting the first drive.

Heading towards Geelong [Photo by SH]

Going Through Westgate Brige [Photo by SH]

It took us approximately 2 hours to reach Geelong, then another approximately an hour and a half to reach Torquay, which we made our first stop, to visit the Information Center.

Information Center [Photo by SH]

As Torquay signifies the starting of GOR, we manage to get a map for free that shows all the attractions and scenic viewing sites along GOR, which became pretty helpful along the trip.

All of Us @ the Info Center [Photo by SH]

By looking at that map, we briefly plan our journey, i took over the wheels, and initiated the start of the GOR self-planned tour. =>

Bells Beach

The first destination that attracted us is Bell's Beach. We drove outta Torquay and arrived to the entrance of Bell's Beach within 15 minutes. However, to our dismay, we couldn't enter the beach as it is being closed up for a surf competition, and to enter requires admission fee. Nevertheless, we still manage to spend quite some time taking pictures and looking at the scenes from a platform right before they start collecting money. =)

Bells Beach

"Wha....?" [Photo by SH]

The Girls

Perfect scences, beautiful skies. The weather was treating us well.

Point Addis

Second attractions of the day, Point Addis, which is only approximately another 10 minutes away from Bells Beach, is actually a National Marine Park. A platform was built on a cliff for tourists to overlook the sea and enjoy yet another beautiful scenic along GOR.

Point Addis

Point Addis View

Us @ Point Addis

Emo Pose -_-

Emo View ^_^

The breeze and sun combo, plus the excitement had caused us to linger around Point Addis longer than we should, by the time we realized, we are running kinda late, thus hurriedly continue our journey and scarping off a few other attractions we meant to visit.

Split Point Lighthouse

Though rushing for time, as we passed by Anglesea(a small town) and almost reaching Fairhaven(another small town), a lighthouse came into view. A few moments later, a road sign was sighted showing the direction of the lighthouse, which apparently is a tourist spot. A split second decision was made to visit the Split Point Lighthouse.

Split Point Lighthouse

This lighthouse, is of course, non-operational anymore. To have a tour inside the lighthouse, admission fee is required, thus, we just took a walk around the surroundings, and snapped more, and more, pictures.

Me & Jia with the Lighthouse

I had to get my butt on the floor to take this pic >.<

Them

An expression of tranquility

We left after a while, and continue with our journey.

Memorial Arch

A must-take-a-photo place to whomever that comes to GOR.

Why?

See it for yourself.

That's why - proof of arrival ^_^

Its like the stone sign on the Great Wall that says "不到长城非好汉!"

Anywayz,

We took out the sandwiches we made the night before and had a small picnic by the beach that is right next to the arch. Surprisingly, most of the tourist just left after taking the pictures, and had totally ignored the beach. Thus, we basically had the beach all to ourselves, except for a random guy walking a dog or a lady jogging with her dogs.

The jumping girls

And the jumping couple -_- [Photo by WF]

A decision was made as we finish our sandwich, to shoot straight to the 12 Apostles.

Between Lorne and Apollo Bay

Whenever you see an accident, fatal or not, that happened in Great Ocean Road, it happened mostly at this stretch of the road.

The roads between Lorne and Apollo Bay is one of the whindiest, most dangerous roads on GOR. To make things more interesting, it runs on the edge of the cliff, and has only one lane, without divider, for both directions of the traffic.

Me driving, on that stretch

But, i do find it fun, and extremely enjoyable to drive on that stretch. It's just...so...relaxing =P, i guess this does occur to all of those who love to drive. =>

The curvy road

After lots of driving, passing by another very curvy, uphill road after Apollo Bay, and a toilet break stop at Lorne, we finally reached the 12 Apostles during the evening.

The 12 Apostles

All i can say, is that it is worth the 5 hours drive, the risk of dangerous roads, and all those petrol money. That place is just beautiful. However, though named 12 Apostles, there is only 7 of them left, some had collapsed, while others remained a mystery.

Another must-take-a-photo spot

Some of the apostles

The other apostles

Group Pic

Emo Session

Me n Jia

As we are still busy taking pictures, dark clouds started creeping in...

Dark Cloud's coming!! Run for your life!!

And thus, another rush to the car, to get to the final destination, hoping that we are able to get out of the place, before rain or darkness falls upon us.

Loch Ard Gorge & Blowhole

Another 10 minutes or so drive on a straight road lead us to the Loch Ard Gorge, where several weird looking cliffs that has been carved from the erosion of the sea can be seen. Quite some interesting sculptures of nature.

Power of Erosion

Wonder of Nature

The Blowhole

We didnt stay long here, as darkness seems to be coming soon. Thus, after snapping some compulsary shots, we started our journey back.

The Journey Back

We drove all the way back straight to Lorne without stopping, and managed to get outta all of the curvy roads before sunset. On the way back, we stopped at a McD drive thru, and got ourselves ice-creams, continue our way straight back to Clayton, had naan and curry chicken at one of the indian shops that opens till 1am, and ended the day, getting rest for the next day's journey - Phillip Island.

Check out the next post for it. ;)

Check out Jia's blog for her version of this trip. =)

The "Superb" Vista

2008-03-02T17:51:00.002+11:00

Private Microsoft emails unearthed during a US court case have revealed that even the software giant's own executives struggled to get Windows Vista running smoothly.

Early adopters of the operating system, which launched last year, battled with widespread hardware and software compatibility issues. Many PCs initially sold as "Vista Capable" were unable to run some of Vista's core features, sparking a class action lawsuit against Microsoft.

Many computer components and peripherals required updated drivers in order to work with Vista. In numerous cases these were not available until long after the operating system launched.

But the emails show that it wasn't just end-users who were incensed by Vista's teething issues. In fact, Microsoft's top brass were fully aware of them from the outset.

One executive, Mike Nash, complained he was "burned" so badly by compatibility issues he was left with "a $2100 email machine".

Steven Sinofsky, the Microsoft executive in charge of Windows, struggled to even get his home printer working with Vista. In an email to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in February last year, Sinofsky outlined reasons why Vista struggled at launch.

He said hardware and software vendors never "really believed we would ever ship [Vista] so they didn't start the work [on updated drivers] until very late in 2006".

"People who rely on using all the features of their hardware (like Jon's Nikon scanner) will not see availability for some time, if ever, depending on the [manufacturer]," Sinofsky wrote.

Ballmer responded with a terse "Righto".

The "Jon" referred to is Microsoft board member and its former chief operating officer Jon Shirley, who experienced compatibility problems with his Epson printer and scanner and his Nikon film scanner.

He could not even get some of Microsoft's own MSN software products to work on Vista and refused to upgrade his other computer to the operating system.

"I cannot understand with a product this long in creation why there is such a shortage of drivers," Shirley wrote to Ballmer.

Other emails from various Microsoft executives show that even they struggled to work out what "Vista Capable" and "Vista Ready" meant when buying a new PC.

"Is it true that Vista Ready doesn't necessarily mean Aero capable? I got a Dell Latitude that is Vista Ready but doesn't have enough graphics [hardware]," Sinofsky wrote.

Aero, one of Vista's most heavily marketed features, is the operating system's new graphical interface. It resembles MacOS X but can only be enabled when running on a PC with the latest graphics hardware.

In a statement regarding the release of the emails, Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans said employees had raised concerns with Vista in order to make the program better for customers.

"That's the sort of exchange we want to encourage. And in the end, we believe we succeeded in achieving both objectives," Evans said.

Source: The Age

If you seriously think about it, all these rush of getting Vista on the shelfs is just to show "Hey, we are not THAT late anymore!"

Right.

Nyonya Breeze

2008-02-17T00:18:00.014+11:00

The night before flying off to Melbourne, I was feeling nyonya, thus, with the recommendation of my dad's friend, we went to try out a new nyonya place in Penang, called Nyonya Breeze.

Taken from the name card =P

This place has a reputation of having recipes that are original, as the owner claimed that the recipes had been inheritted from his/her grandmother. Looking at the settings of the restaurant, it shows a mix of old and new, with nicely painted soft white walls and air cond, in the same time using wooden tables and stools. There are also old pictures hanging on the walls, suggesting that the owner indeed is from a Baba inheritance.

Something pretty interesting is that the front page of the menu shows a brief history of Nyonya cuisine, which would be fun to read if you are interested in this kinda stuff. =)

Front page of the menu

Another interesting point is that instead of trying to translate each item in the menu into english, it is being spelt out straight from Hokkien dialect. Unique in its own way. =)

Kiam Chai Ark

Asam Heh

As we had 6 person in total, we ordered 6 dishes, and the waiter that took our order decided for us which dish should be big or small accordingly to what we order. A pretty good customer service i would say.

There are magazines on a shelf for those who doesn't like sitting around doing nothing while waiting for the food to come. A thoughtful thing to do. =)

Sis taking magazines while waiting for the food

The quality of the food is pretty good, and it does taste and look nyonya (at least to me). Each portion of the food is good enough for all 6 of us to eat and not get too full or sick of it. One thing to be aware of though is that each day the restaurants serves only one kind of soup and one kind of dessert. Thus, if there are things that you dun eat, its better to give them a call to ask what's the soup and dessert of the day before deciding where to eat. =P

Sambal Goreng Prawns, though no sambal is visible

Salted Fish Bone Tofu Soup. Excellent.

Jiu Hu Cha, to be eaten wrapped in a lettuce leaf. Very well made.

Some pork cooked with something-i-don't-know. Tasted pretty good though. =)

Potato leaves. I have to say, tasted pretty good too.

Dessert. Pink Jelly thinggy with Jackfruit and Ma-Tai. However, I really dun recommend this particular dessert as it didnt taste that good. Kinda ruined the finale of the meal.

Except for dessert, i would say the all the food had been done nicely and expertly. In these days, when a restaurant gets famous, the cooks would somehow become more clumsy which will produce bad food with low quality. However, though the place was pretty packed when we were there, the food was still good. Hopefully their standard can be maintained as they reputation rises. =)

Nyonya Breeze (Nyonya Cuisine, Non-Halal)
Address: No. 50, Lorong Abu Siti, 10400 Georgetown, Penang.
Tel: Rosie-0164160663 Gerald-0123348390
Opening Hours: Lunch 11:30 - 2:30 Dinner 6:30 - 10:00
Opening Days: Closed on Tuesdays, except Public Holidays

CNY 2008 @ Sitiawan

2008-02-16T01:08:00.036+11:00

As i didnt get to spend Chinese New Year last year due to my transfer to Aussie, i was looking forward to this Sitiawan trip to celebrate CNY. Its been a while since i've seen all of my relatives together and celebrating an event together with them. =)

Yes i know this post is a little overdue. =P

My family and I was planning to start the journey from Penang at 8am during 除夕 (6th Feb 2008), but delays and late wake-ups pushed our journey start-up to 9am. Was expecting jams as it is the day everyone returns to their hometown. However, suprisingly, the roads were clear and the whole journey was smooth without traffic. =)

The reunion dinner was pretty good. All the food was prepared based on the theme of 老菜, which are the dishes my grandma used to prepare during CNY of the old days when my dad and uncle and aunties are still young. I would say that the food are all pretty good, something unique to us young generations who usually consume so call "city food" =P.

Food Preparation

Long-time-no-see Cousin Clara =P

Simple and Tasty - Chicken Gizzards (鸡胗)

Fried lotus root slices with meat in between it (莲藕片夹肉碎)

Steamed Chicken (白斩鸡)

Something with Cashew Nuts and Preserved Pork Sausage (腊肠)

Sea Cucumber (海参)

Fried BeeHoon

Salmon

Otak-Otak

Zai-Cai (斋菜)

Lou-Sang!

Lots of fun, chit-chats, and catching ups happening before and after the dinner. A very good moment for all us cousins and relatives to update each other on what's happening to our lifes at the moment =). And, of course, lots of fun with the two new members of the family, my nephew Timonthy and niece Lareina.

Lena trying, very hard, to feed Timonthy =P

Clara and the food.

SingSing, Clara, JiaHui, Me

Dad with Clara and JiaHui

Lecturing Session =P

Ah Pe, SingSing, Dad

Dad, Mum, BeeKuma

Me and Timonthy

Avin enjoying the food! =)

Eat Eat Eat

JiaHui and Lareina

"What you looking at?"

The next day (初一), we had another dinner, also something like a reunion dinner. But this time, we had it as steamboat and BBQ. =)

George BBQ-ing his pork while Avin looks.

The pork is marinated with a special recipe from Sarawak, tasted absolutely perfect. It is marinated along with the skin and fats, though fattening, but its worth all those extra kilos added into your body. Perfect perfecto.

Me cutting the chunk of meat into pieces

The meat, before being sliced.

The end product. =)

Anyways, that was the last night we spent in Sitiawan. Early morning the next day, we left Sitiawan and headed to Kedah to visit my mum's side of the family. Stayed a night there, and headed back to Penang the next afternoon, ending the CNY trip of the year. =)

More pictures from Sitiawan:

"Bl...ek"

Timonthy in the pool

Chilling and Chatting

Quite a nice CNY celebration i would say...as most of the family members are able to make it. Always the best time to have a reunion with all the loved ones in the family. =)

Wifi @ Singapore Changi Airport

2008-02-15T01:05:00.006+11:00

Despite the good review i had towards the facilities of Changi Airport in the previous post , there is this one thing that is a pain in the ass that makes me wonder why are they doing it this way.

It's the stuff u need to do just to utilize their free wifi facility.

Its Free, but...

The steps are as followed:

1. You log into Qmex website and register yourself.
2. In the process of the registration, u gotta give your mobile phone number (either its a local or international number with roaming)
3. You will be sent the username and password to your mobile phone.
4. Login at the Qmex website and then u can use the wifi facility for free.

Sounds easy? Hell no.

I did all the registration n stuff, and keyed in my Digi number that is currently roaming.

Guess what, i waited for at least an hour yet there is still no message coming in giving me the details.

After inquiring with the information counter, the lady told me they had feedbacks from their customers that it takes a long time for Qmex to actually send the sms, and offered to loan me a LAN cable.

Thus i ended up sitting at a station using the cable to go online.

Using LAN at one of the stations

Wouldn't it be easier if they just ask the customer to show their passport and boarding pass at the information counter, then is given the username or password? Or to submit our passport and boarding pass along with the physical key of our wifi network card to be recorded in the database to allow wifi access?

Sometimes people do like to do it the hard way instead of the easy way.

Transit @ Singapore Changi Airport

2008-02-14T23:33:00.009+11:00

The days in Malaysia has come to an end.

Somehow, this three months just passed by so swiftly that it is the first time i find summer holidays too short. Bah.

Jaz right before i left the house

My flight was to fly from Penang to Singapore, have a transit for approximately 3 hours, then to fly from Singapore to Melbourne.

The flight from Penang to Singapore, taken @ Penang Airport

Thus here i am now, sitting at one corner of Terminal 3 of Changi Airport, using a borrowed LAN cable, going online typing this post. =P

As some of you might know, Terminal 3 is a newly built wing of Changi Airport to accomadate flights to Australia, New Zealand and Europe. The moment i stepped out from the Skytrain, it is obvious that Terminal 3 is much bigger than the other terminals.

The first scene as you depart the Skytrain

What's even more impressive, is that Terminal 3 itself is like a shopping center.

Shops

All kinda shops, from Watson, to Giordano, to Osim, to Mont Blanc, to Burberry, to Coach, everything. It's quite obvious that Singapore intend to transform this airport into the most desired transit hub in the world.

Heck, they even have a Hard Rock Cafe here.

I wouldn't mind transitting in this place even if it is 5 hours. ;)

My Fat Face

Time to find some food. I'm starving.

PPRuNe

2008-02-10T15:51:00.000+11:00

As i was reading through The Star (Sunday 10 Feb 2008, StarMag), i came across an interesting article that was introducing this forum that is pretty interesting to read - its the PPRuNe - Professional Pilots Rumour Network .

This forum, though supplied through anonymous sources, is filled with information and gossips from insiders (real pilots and cabin crews) about air incidents, technical problems and specifications of planes, problems cabin crews face during their daily routine, which celebrity is the hardest to handle in their flight, and anything that u can relate to the aviation industry.

Interesting.

If you are bored and have nothing to do, no harm taking a look and having a read @ http://www.pprune.org/forums/.

=)

Happy Mobile Review

2008-01-29T03:28:00.000+11:00

Though Happy Mobile's advertising had been rampaging across Malaysia through roadside banners, TV-ads, and roadshows, i doubt there are many people using it as it is still something new and does not provide the security needed to most people to change from their Digi or Maxis to this new network (at least not among my frens).

Thus, with extreme courage and determination, i forked out FIVE(5) RINGGIT and bought a starter kit of a Happy Mobile, with 2 ringgit of credit already available in the number. =)

Happy Mobile Starter Kit: RM 5

Packaging

Simple, very simple.

Happy's Packaging

It only consist of a two-flap cardboard, which has the sim card inside of the flaps.

Thats all.

Digi's Packaging

They dun even have all those usual thick manual filled with tiny prints of terms and conditions included in the package to protect their own rights. Only these:

Love

Simplicity

Though the reason behind all these simplicity might be to save maximum cost, i do think it appeals to the consumers as these days, some things just gets too complicated even though there are much simplier ways to do it.

Activation

Unlike the other mobile providers, Happy Mobile is immediately available to be used, instead of needing to first activate it by dialling a number (remember those long, annoying steps to be followed the first time u use ur sim card?). Pretty darn good dun u think?

Coverage

Though an independent service provider, Happy Mobile uses the backbone of Digi to provide their services, thus, providing the same coverage as Digi.

It shows "happy" !!

Sadly, though Digi is being successful in these recent times, there are still certain areas that Digi struggles with their signal, and this would go the same for Happy Mobile as well (e.g., my penang home, where Digi struggles with barely a bar of signal, and Happy Mobile does the same thing).

Sound Quality

As said before, since they are sharing the same backbone of Digi, the sound quality is pretty much the same, though at times it does stumble a little, needing the other end to repeat things that had been said (it might be also my bad hearing =P).

Calling/SMS Rates

Just a quick browse to their website the calling rates of Happy Mobile can be mastered instantly. Instead of having different rates for different hours (peak/non-peak), different networks(Digi/Maxis/Celcom/etc), or even different settings (Top-5 Friend List, etc), Happy Mobile goes with a simple 3-rules configuration: 1 sen per second for calls, with a maximum of 99 sens charge per call up to 45 minutes; 10 sens per sms; 60 days validity for each recharge. All these rates apply to calls or sms to any networks, any time, anywhere.

The Happy Deal

Truly the Digi slogan. =)

Customer Support

No product is good without satisfying customer support these days. I would say Happy Mobile scores both high and low for this one. For the lows, reloads and starter kits can only be obtained from Giant Hypermarkets if you are the kind of person who does not trust online purchases and is more comfortable in paying in physical cash.

However, if you have adapted the convenience of the internet, everything can be done online, from ordering the starter kit (delivered free to you) to managing your account, every single detail can be done online without ever needing to step outta your house. But of course, you will need a credit card to do these stuff. =)

The Login Screen

One thing worth mentioning is the pretty good user interface Happy Mobile provided for their customers to manage their accounts. With a few clicks, you are able to check your account status or activate/deactivate services needed,

The Status Page

to check your monthly statement that records every single call you made since the one last month and the last 8 reloads you made to your number.

The Statement Page

Im pretty sure other networks like Maxis and Digi do provide the same services. However, i doubt their interface are as easy and eye appealing as Happy Mobile's. This can be considered an advantage of Happy having a simple functioning profile for their rates and services.

Conclusion

Yes, there are many advantages to this new network barging into the market. However, if you are a businessman that needs stability, i doubt Happy can satisfy your need. Yet, Happy is definately a must-get, if you constantly make phone calls that last more than 30 minutes, as only then, the rate of Happy is worth paying for. =)

Sabah Family Trip 2008

2008-01-21T02:45:00.000+11:00

Been a while since our whole family travelled to somewhere, as its either my dad been busy, or me n sis being busy during the holz...

Thus, with firm determination, we decided to have the first family trip of 2008, travelling to Sabah, more precisely Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan. =)

The Flight

First Day: Arrival Day to KK

We left KL in the morning of 7th Jan, and took a 2 and a half hour of flight in an Air Asia Airbus, and arrived in KK in the afternoon. We then checked into our hotel, The Tanjung Aru Shangri-La, located just 5 minutes away from the airport.

Tanjung Aru Resort

It is one of the nicest hotel i've ever been to. Upon arrival, a big gong is hit to announce our arrival, and a traditional instrument is being played constantly throughout the day to entertain the patrons of the hotel.

The Gong

The Musician

Customer service of that hotel is just excellent, and it is filled with mostly with Japanese tourists escaping winter in Japan =P.

The hotel is located just right by the beach, thus giving us a beautiful view from the room, along with fresh air and breeze that we can never enjoy from a life in the city.

The Hotel

Along the walk way, are displays of arts from the natives of Sabah. Apparently, these displays had been there ever since the hotel opened up some 60 years ago. Its like a historical walkway =P.

One of the displays

Another one of the displays. According to the staff, the hand was being "eaten" by the birds.

After we checked in, the first thing we did was to find lunch. Dad decided that we should go find something local in the city, thus after enquiring the staff of the hotel, we decided to head to Centre Point to search for food.

Centre Point

After walking around the food court, we realized except for Malay mixed rice, there is practically, NOTHING ELSE. Thus, we chose one of the stall that looks the nicest.

Looks can be deceiving.

In the hype of wanting to try new stuff, we ordered something called the Coconut Shake, which looks extremely nice from the picture in the menu. But, it turned out, to be something like this:

Two large-ass mug of sweetened ice

Honestly, it tasted like crushed ice, with white coloring and condensed milk >.<

In the hype of wanting to try new stuff as well, i took a veg that i've never seen before and never tried before:

Tasted like...

Tasted even more bitter than bittergourd =S.

Later, i got to know that its actually a part of the Papaya Tree.

Enough said, we had quite a bad lunch. But lukily, thats the end of bad food for the whole trip in Sabah. =P

We strolled around the complex after lunch. The complex is basically something like Sungai Wang in KL, with lots of small shops and kinda run-down, however, as we proceed to the 4th floor, the whole scenario changed:

Third floor and below

Fourth floor and above

Its like entering another shopping complex. Like a change from Sungai Wang to Lot 10, in the same building! -_- Weird stuff.

We went back to the hotel after walking around, then went for a walk at the beach and of the hotel and checked out the watersports and other facilities available. The beach is clean, water is nice, its just a perfect place to relax.

Me and Dad checking out the jetty

Along the coast

Qi Spa, a place to get massage and to relax if you are willing to spend the money =P

The Beach, just a small strip, but well maintained

Me, Dad, and Mum

Sis, Mum and Dad @ Sunset Bar

Me, Mum and Sis

Sunset Bar, a perfect spot, to have a martini, relax, and watch the sun set. =)

Me trying out the hammock

In the end having a hard time trying to get out of it

Scenary

As we finally finished looking around the hotel, we had a buffet dinner, then headed back to our room to rest...whats a better way to end the day, by just chilling at the balcony? =P

Sunset at the balcony

Second Day: Watersports

As the second day started, we realized that except for climbling Mount. KK and enjoying the watersports in the hotel, there is practically nothing else to do in this city. Thus, we decided to just explore around the hotel since no one else except for me wanted to go to Mount KK (i will go next time by myself =P)

First thing i tried out, is something i've always wanted to try, Parasail.

First, they strap me on a thing to strap me on the parachute

Then, they start setting up the parachute

Swuff! It is now half-flying

They then strap me on to the parachute, and asked me to sit down

And i started flying away....

Away...away....away...

The view from up there is just amazing...its like being on a helicopter but without the heli-buzzing sound...i regretted that i didnt bring the camera up there with me =(.

After approximately 15 minutes flying up there, they pulled me back, and landed back on the boat.

A gentle landing

A complete family picture =)

After parasailing, i went on to jetski by myself while my parents n sis stroll around the hotel more...sorry, no pics of that, since i didnt bring a camera and my parents and sis are not around =P.

Dinner time came and we went to this restaurant that is visited by most of the tourist, called PortView Seafood Restaurant, approximately 10 minutes away from the hotel.

PortView Seafood Restaurant

Food is just ok, though their seafood are pretty fresh, since all of them are alive in tanks in the restaurant, and they have a large variety of seafood to choose from. Price wise, a little on the high side but still cheaper than cities like KL. =)

Tanks and tanks of fresh seafood

The inside of the restaurant

Being a tourist spot, the restaurant had set up a stage and had performers performing every night dances of Malay and Kadazhans culture...pretty interesting for some, yet pretty boring for some as well. =P

One of the performance

And that concludes the second day of our Sabah trip.

Third Day: Chilling Day

With not much left to do during the third day, all we did is just relax and rest throughout the day.

My parents did carry on their daily routine of waking up early in the morning, and at this day they went exploring the morning market while me n my sis are still deep in dreamland.

Some stuff that is selling in the morning market. Most of them revolves around seafood.

Dun ask. I have no idea what is that thing.

As the evening came, my sis decided to go read by the beach, while me n my parents had a stroll towards a nearby hawker that we saw as we took the taxi to the hotel.

The hawker place.

It is nicely located just by the beach, though the place itself has not much stuff to eat. Thus we sat there, ate fried noodles, drank coconut, and enjoy the sea breeze. As we are done, we went for a walk by the beach.

Mum

Sitting near the beach

The beach

Footprints....footprints...footprints...

Another Family Picture

That night, we went back to the same place for dinner again, as i was craving for fried softshell crab.

Deep Fried Softshell Crab

That dish is absolutely gorgeously delicious.

Fourth Day: Arrival to Sandakan

Days in KK had came to an end. Next destination: Sandakan.

Family Pic before leaving KK

We took a 45 minutes flight to Sandakan, and was being fetched from the airport by my aunt, and took us back to her house, where we will be staying in Sandakan.

After settling down our luggages, we went to this famous place, where they sell giant groupers, also known as Long Dan, for lunch. Really good food i have to say. =)

An idea how "giant" is the giant grouper

Our Long Dan Meal

We went back home for a rest after lunch, and something worth mentioning is that while we were at KK airport, we bought two large Seven-Star Grouper (七星斑), weighing 3.2kg and 2.7kg. As we arrive Sandakan, the fridge wont be able to fit both of the fishes in as they are too long ( i dun think any fridge will be able to fit them in), thus, started the mission, to chop the frozen fishes into half.

The bigger of the two, 3.2kg

*Whack, whack*

Come on...break!

Finally...now...the next fish...

After we are all well rested, my aunt brought us to our first sight-seeing expedition in Sandakan...the Crocodile Farm.

The Crocodile Farm

Not so interesting except for looking at crocodiles and some performance...but overall its still considered an eye-opener.

There are other fishes in the farm as well...

Crocs

Crocs Performance

Dad, Mum, Aunt, Cousin Sis, and Me @ Croc Farm

As we got back home from the farm, my uncle arrived home as well, with a surprise.

A fruit, that can never be found in the Peninsula.

Its called, Tarap.

The fruit Tarap

Though its not the season yet, im lucky enough to be able to taste it as my uncle so happen to see it selling, thus he bought a few back to satisfy our crave to try something local.

It looks something like a combination of a cempedak and a durian, with sticky "antennas" sticking out. The aroma of the fruit is strong, and smells, like a combination of cempedak, durian and nangka. Just beautiful.

How do you open it? Just peel it. The skin is soft.

Like cempedak, u just pluck it out

And eat it!

The taste of the fruit is also like a combination of cempedak and durian. Somehow it just makes me think that this is a crossbreed of those two fruits, but apparently not. Those of you who ever had the chance to try this fruit, try it, u will not regret it. The taste is just heavenly good.

After a moment of rest, its time for dinner.

We went to this restaurant called Bai Sha (白沙) that has a wide variety of seafood and mainly, shellfish available. It's a big treat for people like me who loves this kinda stuff.

Shellfish

More Shellfish

Crabs...well, whats left of it. I kinda got too excited when it came that i forgot abt taking a pic =P

Im a dirty eater, especially when it comes to crabs

Heavenly, Heavenly, Heavenly.

Fifth Day: Probiscis Monkey

Yes, monkeys. With most of the Borneo covered with forest, wild life is the main attraction of this place, and one of them, is the Probiscis Monkey, which can only be found here in Sabah.

However, the journey to the Labuk Bay Probiscis Sanctuary is a hard one.

First, we drove approximately 30 minutes to the entrance of a palm oil plantation.

And then, we hopped onto one of these trucks sent by the Sanctuary.

And had a one and a half ride, at the back of the truck, through the palm oil plantation into the forest, on bumpy, muddy "road" filled with potholes caused by huge lorries carrying the palm oil produce outta the plantation, and listening to the constant roaring of the truck's old diesel engine, while sucking in fume's of the truck itself.

The "road"

Mum gettin dizzy

Yet, all those sufferings are worth it, as what we get to see next, was something that cannot be seen anywhere else in the world.

Probiscis Monkey, and yes, it has red penis.

It is interesting how they manage their "civilization". There are basically two groups of Probiscis Monkeys (Probiscis means "long nose" btw), one is the Bachelor group, which consist of only the Males, while the other is the Family group, which consist of only ONE male and multiple females and baby monkeys.

Each group has a dominant one. In the Bachelor group, the strongest male will be the one, while in the Family group, obviously the husband, the only male, is the dominant one.

One of the follower of the Bachelor group

The Leader (Dominant one) of the Bachelor group, notice the longer nose he has.

For a bachelor in the Bachelor group to get a wife, he has to fight the Leader of the Family group, and only if he wins the leader that he can get the girl he wants.

Poor bastards.

As the feeding time gets closer, all of them started to emerge from the forest and waited together in their groups, while in the same time keeping a distance from another group.

Waiting...waiting

And as the time arrives and the keepers brings the food out, under the lead of the Leader, each group progressively decend from the tree in order and march towards the food.

Decending from the trees in order

And calmly eat the food provided as a group. As one group of Probiscis Monkeys are eating at this certain location, other groups will not come interfere or share the food with them. Pretty coordinated eh?

Eating as a group, with the Leader in the middle

The whole experience is pretty interesting, as we saw fights broken out between monkeys, and some wild, normal grey monkeys challenging another group of Probiscis Monkeys and in the end won and got the portion of their food.

Other wildlife can be seen here as well, like the Hornbill

the normal grey monkeys (not sure what names are they called)

and the Greyleaf Monkeys

As the monkeys finally finished their food, we too return to the bumpy roads and went home.

Family with my Aunt

Dad with mum in the truck

Cousin Sis and Sis

Sixth Day: Orang Utan and Leaving Sabah

As our flight back to KL was in the evening, we made a final visit to another wildlife spot, the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehab Center, which is supported by the Malaysian Government and UK Appeal, an environmental organization based in the UK.

Sepilok Orang Utan Rehab Center

No bottles of water are allowed to be brought into the jungle itself, as wild monkeys, those normal gray ones, might appear and grab it away from us, which might cause injuries to the visitors.

Warning signs of the wild monkeys

As we arrived 30 minutes earlier prior to the feeding time, we waited, along with a large crowd of other tourists, for the orang utans to appear from the jungle. Note that all these orang utans are left wild roaming around the jungle, and only those who are still not used to the wild will come to the feeding platform for food. Many has already went deeper into the jungle and lived freely without the support of human beings =) pretty interesting.

An idea how large the group can be

Finally, after the anxious wait of us tourists, two orang utans finally came swinging on the ropes connected to the feeding platform.

Here they come

swinging

Keepers feeding them bananas and milk

One of the orang utans eating, ignorant to the crowd

Sis tip-toeing, trying to get a better look

Cheeky

Taking a rest after a heavy meal

After seeing the orang utans finishing their meal, lying around resting and doing totally nothing, we retreated from the platform and visited the exhibition room and AV room that shows a documentary regarding the center and the orang utans.

The forest

Sis, Mum, Me, Dad and Aunt

Profiles of all the Orang Utans in the Center

All of Us

We went to have lunch after that, headed home for a rest, then left my aunt's house and headed to the airport, which ends our 6 days journey of the state of Sabah. =)

The family pic of the trip

A pretty good trip i had to say. We all had enough rest and have seen things we never seen before, tried food and fruits exclusive to this place, and enjoyed travelling as a family once again. =)

The 9 Recaps of 2007

2007-12-31T00:44:00.000+11:00

1. I moved to the great country of Australia, to the city of Melbourne.

2. I started auzlife.blogspot.com .

3. I found her.

4. I became a fan of IBM.

5. I learned how to cook, which conveniently created new recipes.

6. I celebrated Merdeka for the first time in my life, in Melbourne.

7. I changed my major from Computer Science to Business Information Systems.

8. I started thinking of my future's career, in a serious manner.

9. I started playing squash.

Yes, there is only 9 =). The most of 2007 had been spent in Melbourne. Yet, this stay in Melbourne allow me to grow to be more independent and responsible. Compared to who I was a year ago, i had matured a lot. I guess, moving to Australia did caused good and bad effects in my life. =)

Financial Management

2007-12-23T16:44:00.000+11:00

You have to agree to this: Most of us live fairly comfortable through our growth from a child to an adult.

Our parents are able to provide us enough food.

Our parents are able to provide us shelter.

We are able to get things that we want and is not necessary from our parents.

Living and surviving is not a problem.

Thus, sadly, most of us do not have any sense towards the value of money.

While some work part time to support themselves in study, we work part time to earn money for the Ipod or expensive watch we want.

And, in most cases (at least the ones i saw), many fresh grads are poor and have no savings even if they earn RM3500 per month.

Lack of Financial Management, is what we are these days.

Imagine this, for example, you earn RM2000 per month, u save RM500, and live the lifestyle of a student when ur parents give you RM800 per month, imagine how much you can save.

Let's say, you use to saved money, to invest into unit trust or stock market. In 6 months time, you might earn 30% of what you invest.

Isn't that just great?

The key, is to live within your means. By carefully planning your finance, you might be able to retire at 45 and live a luxurious life till old age.

That's, what i call enjoying life.

Salmon Fishy Day

2007-12-12T19:25:00.000+11:00

My dad's friend surprised us at our place yesterday by bringing something unexpected:

A fresh salmon fish just freshly imported from Norway.

Yes, I posed like i caught the fish outta the longkang of my backyard.

You see, my dad's friend had been working as a chef in well-known Japanese restaurants in Malaysia, thus he knows all about Japanese dishes, and yesterday, was Sashimi Day.

With all his special knives and tools, he showed us the whole process of how a whole Salmon fish becomes Sashimi. Pretty interesting, pretty cool.

*Gulp*

First the head is chopped off,

then separate the bones with the meat

The meat

Using something like a pincher, the bones in the meat are pinched out one by one.

The meat is then being cut into different portions for different usage.

Some became Sashimi

While skins and some other parts are being fried

Others became fish fillets

Like pork, the whole fish of a salmon can be used for various usage: the front portion of the meat is used as sashimi, the back portion of the meat is used as fillet, the skins can be fried and eaten crispy, the head used to cook fish head curry, fried or grilled, while the bones are excellent to be used to cook fish porridge. Such a beauty eh? =)

Front portion for Sashimi, Back portion for fillet

The sashimis are being placed in the freezer for around an hour to cool it down, then taken out and eaten. I have to say, its one of the best sashimi ive ever had. Its so darn good and fresh that i dun think any other restaurants are able to serve the sashimi so fresh.

The Sashimi

Just Beautiful.

Happy Mobile?

2007-12-10T18:42:00.000+11:00

Was driving around penang just now when i came across an interesting banner being hung all along the road side:

All that is written on that banner is "Happy :) www.happy.com.my"

Outta curiousity of course, the first thing i did when i got home is to log onto that website, and found this:

Cool site, now lets see what is this all about:

99 cents maximum per call, 1 cent/second??? does that mean if i make a 7 hour call, they will only charge me 99 cents?? that is blardy cheap!!! Thinking that they might have some terms n condition kind of stuff, i went to check the t&c of it:

'"Happy" and the symbol are trademarks of DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd'

Wha...?

I have not seen Digi doing any promotion or advertising on it.

Furthermore, apparently you can only get the number either by purchasing it online (which they will send the sim card to you later) or from one of the roadshow they are having nationwide.

Weird.

Still

I wanna try getting it and see how is it. So we shall see if i'm lucky enough to be able to catch one of its roadshows. =)

Updates: Just found out from my relative that they are actually having quite active campaigning in Damansara. Hm...i guess i did left Msia for too long time. =P

Photography

2007-12-07T19:55:00.000+11:00

I had always been interested in photography.

But I've never really own a camera on my own (sounds kinda sad eh? =P)

Not that I dun want one, just that circumstances till now just didnt give me an opportunity to have one.

In the Canon SD750 Camera Review I've mentioned that hopefully one day I would have a chance to review an SLR camera, right now im quite determined to get one to start pursuing my long-time-yet-abandoned interest.

However, a conflict occured while I was doing some thinking towards this.

You see, I am a total dumbass in terms of photography right at this point, so is it worth it to actually purchase a full SLR camera to learn from it? Or should I get a semi-SLR cameras that function somewhat like an SLR but not exactly like one.

Canon PowerShot G7 [Source: Cnet.com]

I've been lucky to be able to come across the Canon G7 (I've been aiming to get it) during my stay in Mersing a few days ago. It surprised me that even though it has built in lens, you can still attach external lens on to the camera to enhance further the zoom and image stabilizer functionality of the camera. Basically, from what I see, its a half SLR camera that does some of the SLR functions but not all, perfect for beginners, very affordable compared to an SLR, yet won't get you anywhere far.

On the other hand, an SLR is blardy expensive, big, bulky, yet offers everything you need if you are really into photography. It is real complex to use though (at least in the eye of photography dummy) and there are just lots of stuff to be learnt to be able to fully utilize all the functions of an SLR camera.

Canon EOS 40D [Source: Canon.com.my]

Decisons decisions decisions.

Will need to ask around for advices before I can decide which direction to head to.

And no, the ugliness of the camera is not a factor.

Langkawi Trip

2007-12-07T15:25:00.000+11:00

Yes, the Langkawi Trip.

Again, i must apologize for the lateness of this post, as the trip occured during 22nd - 25th of November, and only now that i can find a chance to blog about it.

Yes, I've indeed been too busy having fun. =)

Anywayz

The starting of this trip happened in the KL Sentral Station, where we all meet and gather up to catch a train to Arau, which we will then take a taxi to Kuala Perlis, and catch a ferry to Langkawi island. Yes it is a long trip, but if you do have the time, and the companionships with you, it will be a fun trip. =)

Our Bunk Beds

We got ourselves bunk beds instead of chairs, which is logical since we will be spending 13 hours on the train itself. =P

As there are just too much time on hand, me and Jia explored around the train, and found the first class cabins, to be like this:

Quite cool eh? at least u get ur own privacy in a room, not like ours, where we are only covered by a curtain, and things like gettin photographed when u sleep is common =P

"Swift...Swift...Swift..."

We finally arrived Arau at around 9am (we departed at 9pm), and hopped on taxis and head to the Kuala Perlis jetty. Once there, we waited for the next ferry and took it to Langkawi, our ultimate destination.

Arau

Getting off the train

Jetty

Us waiting at the jetty

The girls in front of the ferry

Once we arrived at Langkawi, first thing we did is to get in touch with the travel agent, got the cars we booked, then head straight to the first destination of our Langkawi Tour - The Mangrove Tour

We first drove to Tanjung Rhu, which we hopped on to a boat, and started heading towards the Mangrove area. The Mangrove Tour does not actually really brings you into a Mangrove area, rather, it takes you around the area to check out interesting scenes and stuff that is unique to that territory, check out the pictures to see those:

The boat

Kilim Geoforest Park

First Stop: Fish Farm (Don't Ask, I dunno why is it called Hole In The Wall)

You get to feed fishies. The one in the pic is a stingray

Then behind the fish farm you get to walk a hanging bridge that goes into the mangrove forest [Photo dedicated by Shin]

Which you get to see mangroves around you [Photo dedicated by Shin]

And take a group photo with a slanted tree [Photo dedicated by Grace]

Second Stop: Another Island [Picture dedicated by Shin]

Where it is infested with Monkeys [Picture dedicated by Shin]

And you get to see limstones and bats [Picture dedicated by Shin]

Me, Jia, HY, SH [Picture dedicated by Shin]

Third Stop: To feed the Eagles. The boatman (a.k.a tour guide) dropped chicken skin into the sea, and we waited a while, before a flock of eagles started feasting by grabbing the skins from the sea using its claws, and eating it while flying back up. Quite an amazing scene i must say. [Picture dedicated by Grace]

Fourth and Final Stop: Sunset. We are brought to several spot in the area, each spending approx. 15 minutes to see the sunset of the day. [Picture dedicated by Grace]

The group picture that marks the ending of the tour, taken at Tanjung Rhu after we came back from the mangroves. [Picture dedicated by Shin]

We left Tanjung Rhu and went to check into our hotel, which is located by Pantai Cenang. Pretty good hotel that is cheap and clean.

Room Door

Room

Except for certain attractions, Langkawi is also famous for another characteristic of it - Duty Free. Thus, us being university students, will of coz not forbid the opportunity given, and bought some beer for the night, and drank them accompanied by the breeze of the sea.

The Drinkers

The next day, we went to a snorkling trip at Pulau Payar. It is quite expensive though, RM110 per person, and includes a almost 2-hour ferry ride to that island, one way. Was quite a day for me, as somehow, i got seasick during the ferry, seasick during the snorkle (wave was strong), thus in the end was just strolling around the island while the others snorkle. One thing worth mentioning is, the corals around the island are mostly dead, thus if you are a big fan of corals, i wouldnt recommend you taking this trip, even though the water is clear and there are lots of fishes. I've been snorkling in Lang Tengah before and i find the corals and fishes there much more appealing to be seen. So if you sole purpose to Langkawi is to snorkle/dive, change ur destination now. =P

Pulau Payar

Scenary

The path we walked

Snorkling

Our Feet

Sea....Me?

On-the-sea Platform

We stayed for around 3 hours (actually we are ASKED to stay that long as the ferry only comes once and leaves once) then head back to Langkawi. Though tired and wet, but due to time constraint, we didnt go back to the hotel, but went to Oriental Village to take cable car up to the hill. Not much thing to see in this trip, only a weird looking bridge that connects two hills, which shows amazing architecture, and to enjoy fresh air up in the hills.

Oriental Village Langkawi

The Hill we went up to

Cable Car

The Magnificent Bridge that connects two hills

Scenary from the top

Thats about it actually, for our Langkawi Trip. We headed back to KL the next day, then thats all. Pretty good trip i would say, as it is quite relaxing, though at times we had to rush from places to places due to time constraints. =P

1+1 Dumpling Noodles

2007-11-28T17:26:00.000+11:00

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

2007-11-21T18:42:00.000+11:00

I

AM

BACK

IN

MALAYSIA!!!

Melbourne City Tour

2007-11-16T23:13:00.000+11:00

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 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

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

2007-11-15T00:41:00.000+11:00

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

2007-11-12T14:52:00.000+11:00

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. =)

My Dad's Blogging

2007-11-11T22:44:00.002+11:00

Yeap, you read the title right.

My dad's blogging.

Wellz...actually he has started blogging a while ago...but stopped for a while...

Right now, he has started again.

If you are interested in learning a few tricks and advices on how to manage your own finance, career, life, etc, read the blog and learn. =)

My dad's blog address is: http://yh-ilearning.spaces.live.com/

You can also find the link at the section "Blog of Knowns" on the left panel of my blog.

Have fun!! =)

The Terror of Flies

2007-11-10T23:17:00.000+11:00

When i was walking home from Monash Sport Center today....the terror of flies began.

Around 10+ flies started surrounding me n jon ong, and started sticking themselves to us all over.

Even after we separate our ways, the flies separate themselves into two groups to follow us.

I had to walk 20 minutes home.

Imagine me waving my hand like a madman, all the way, for 20 minutes.

This leaves me a question, in this great country of Australia, why are flies such a big issue?

I mean, in Msia, we only see flies in rubbish bins.

Here, they are everywhere; in the bush, on the trees, in the bins, inside ppl's ears, up in ppl's nose.

Heck, they might even be in some's mouth.

I now declare war with the Lord of the Flies. >.<

The SiChuan & Ice Cream Place

2007-11-07T01:29:00.000+11:00

I've been here for 7 months, and have eaten at those two places for countless times. Yet, i have never had the chance to blog about those two places.

Those two places, my friends, are a must eat in Melbourne if you are here, thus, introducing, Tian Fu SiChuan Restaurant and Freddo's Gelato.

Tian Fu SiChuan Restaurant 天府川菜馆

If you recall my birthday and the chilli donuts this year, its being held there.

I have been a fan of SiChuan food, ever since i first tried it in Xiamen, in this place called Little Chilli's (小辣椒). Ever since then, it became the favorite place of mine and my friends, a place where we will definately go at least once per week.

So, you can imagine the disappointment i faced when i cant find a similar place in KL, or in fact, Malaysia.

The discovery of Tian Fu (thanks to Eric Wang) brought back memories and revived my taste buds, maybe a lil too much... =P My tolerance for spicyness has been degraded to the minimum =S

Introducing, the dishes we had for the night...

Fried-Till-Dried Long Beans 干煸四季豆

This one is still too wet...the real one is really dry, and kinda crispy =P

Preserved Veg Fish 酸菜鱼

An alternate option if you do not want everything on the table to be spicy

Spicy Fried Chicken 辣子鸡

This thing is able to fire u up like u have never experienced before

Ants Climbing Up The Tree 蚂蚁上树

Something not really spicy as well, and a nice diversion from rice

Some-Name-I-Cant-Translate Ribs 籽然排骨

Keep in mind that this dish is pretty filling

Yes, go ahead and laugh at the names. Its pretty darn hard to translate it from chinese to english =S

I can say, that the food in Tian Fu is quite similar to Little Chilli's, which means the food is pretty darn good. A must try for those who havent had the chance too.

Price wise, I would say it is on the slightly expensive side. We ordered six dishes, which consist of 2 vegetables, 1 fish, 1 pork, 1 chicken, and 1 ant-climb-tree thingy, which cost us a total of AUD112, which is approximately 14 dollars per person...not too bad, but definately not on the cheap side.

However, one warning: The service they provide is just bad. It seems that they are seriously understaffed, and the continous large volume of customers they have to handle just give them bad attitude and grumpy faces all the times, a sacrifice we have to bear to have the good food.

Also, if you are planning to have dinner during the weekends at that place, be prepared to wait up to 30 minutes for a table, even if you have a booking sometimes...it is just amazing how many ppl, both chinese and aussies, know that place even though its located in one of the small, dark alleys.

As for the location of it, its in an alley of the part of Chinatown AFTER Russell Street. If you need more directions, just contact me =).

Freddo's Gelato

What's famous for Italian eatery except for Pizza and Pasta? Of course, it would be their gelato. Along Lygon Street a.k.a the Italian town, there are a few gelato shops lying around. However, Freddo's is the one that so far won our loyalty.

Their famous flavors would be the Durian and Roche. Absolutely a must try flavors for first timers...

All of Us

Us @ Freddos

It is AUD4.00 for a single cone/cup with two scoops, which will be more than enough for each person. On a good day, they might even give u two blardy large scoop on that cone... =P

The details of the place is as below:

Address:
Il Dolce Freddo
116, Lygon Street, Carlton

Phone: 03 9639 3344

Hopefully, more of these places can be discovered in Melbourne, as no matter what, Melbourne is indeed famous for its diversity of food. =)

Categorizing in Blogger

2007-11-06T12:39:00.001+11:00

Unlike other blogging sites like Wordpress or Wretch that allows categorizing functionality, its quite surprising the Blogger does not offer the same functionality, considering that it is one of the most used blogging site right now.

Thus, since I've finished all my exams, I have no where to go, and I have nothing else to do, i decided to explore ways to categorize my blog.

A search on google got me to this site where it teaches you a simple way to do it. Simple, but troublesome.

BloggerLounge.com

A much less troublesome way is found, but much more complicated, which is being created by this guy named Li Zhao. Impressive, but complicated.

In the end, I decided to use the simplest way ever...

The label function of Blogger itself =P

So far, it works fine for me...but lets see how long can this last... =S

Good Day

2007-11-05T19:42:00.000+11:00

Its a good day today.

Why?

Because...

Its 13 days before I return to Malaysia

Its a beautiful day.

Im seeing my dog Jaz soon.

Im seeing my family soon.

The egg is smiling.

But most important of all...

I've finished all my exams. =)

Stress Part 2

2007-10-25T23:36:00.000+10:00

Right now

I'm deprieved from sleep.

I'm frustrated with studying.

I'm scared shitless with the coming exam.

I'm having headaches from time to time.

It's bad to have 3 subjects in a row, especially so early within the exam season.

My first 3 papers are at October 29th, 30th, 31st.

Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday.

3 Subjects that need overwhelming memorization.

My schedule for the past 8 days had been as below

12:00pm Wake up
12:15pm Find something to eat
01:00pm Start walking to University's library
01:25pm Start studying in the library
08:00pm Leave library, walk home
08:30pm Cook/Find something to eat for dinner
09:45pm Start studying again
04:00am SLEEP

And it repeats, and repeats...since 8 days ago till today

Arg. This is no fun.

October 23rd

2007-10-24T01:49:00.000+10:00

Recognize this symbol?

Source: http://www.crazyjohns.com.au/home.aspx

Crazy John's founder is a guy named John Ilhan, who migrated from Turkey to Australia when he was young.

As of yesterday, he was a multi-millionair with shop branches all over Australia.

And he is only 42 years old, with a wife and ~~a kid~~ four kids. You can say, that he had a happy life.

Source: http://www.crazyjohns.com.au/home.aspx

He passed away this morning, during his morning walk. Just collapse, and dead.

Only 42 years old, died from a heart attack.

What's life if u have wealth but not health?

I guess this incident serves as a reminder to all of us...

Also,

Another multibillionair died today...

Genting's Founder, Mr. Lim Goh Tong

Source: thestar.com.my

Well, at least he lived till 90. Managed to spend the money he earned.

Read about John Ilhan's News Here

Read about Lim Goh Tong's News Here

Pressured....For the First Time

2007-10-22T07:29:00.000+10:00

Been feeling weird...

Been acting weird...

And only I realized...I'M BECOMING OVERLY STRESSED OVER THIS EXAM

Yes, yes...I'm not saying that i wasnt stressed over the previous exams...but not to this extend...not to the point where my mind is thinking of exam continuously, to the point where i cant even sleep properly coz i kept waking up thinking of exams, to the point where before i go out i think whether i got time to study for exam...

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!?!??!?!

maybe its coz its a new major...
maybe its coz ive been suddenly scoring well in assignments, thus putting on more pressure....
maybe its coz i have 3 papers in 3 days straight...

anyway it is...i just cant wait for the exam to finish soon

coz...

i think i will be pretty messed up if this continues =S

思念是一种病

2007-10-19T02:28:00.000+10:00

A song to share

Title: 思念是一种病
Artist: 张震乐feat. Tanya
Album: OK
Year: 2007

Enjoy!

2007-10-14T00:01:00.000+10:00

我需要学习...

再不学习的话

我会变个疯子...

也很有可能会毁了美好的一切

2007-10-13T23:47:00.000+10:00

Been a while since i blogged...mainly due to the overloaded weeks with assignments...

You know how it is during this time of the year.

Anyways.....

Havent been doing much except for rushing for assignments (ive done a blardy 44 pages, 11000+ words report)

But im still able to visit a few places ^_^

Frankston Beach

A night without sleep as we were watching Heroes (yea, i know i know, assignments are excuses) and when season 1 is finally finished, a conversation took place...

me: *looking out the window* woa...such a nice weather today.....*yawns*
jia: wanna go frankston!!??
me: .......O_o

Thus, our journey to yet another beach begun.

Took the 703 bus towards Middle Brighton and got off at Bentleigh train station...

As it is on the Frankston line, we took the train, and headed all the way...to the end...end...end...

Bentleigh Station

Frankston Map

Frankston Town

Frankston Town again, somehow...this place is filled with dodgy looking clubs -_-

We walked eagerly towards the direction of the beach as we got off the train...unlike Brighton and Sandringham beaches, we do require a small walk through the town to reach the beach in Frankston....

Walk through the town, pass a river...

And a bridge...

And finally we see the beach

The weather became gloomy, and threatens to rain, which is totally different from what we saw earlier in the morning (damn), but anyhow...

The beach looks good...slightly dirtier compared to Brighton and Sandringham but still considered a nice place to go, and the water is still as clear as it can be. However, it is obvious that this place is much more "developed"...which kinda spoilt the whole natural feel of it...

Beach

and again...

Was planning to stop by Chelsea to check out the beach there too, but we were just too tired to continue on...thus we took the train to Caulfield, had lunch, then make our way back home, back into our beds, and slept like pigs for the rest of the day ^_^

More Pics:

Shadow

Saw a bridge

Wanted to post more pics but the internet been a biatch lately...so forget it...dun really have the patience for it =P

^_^

Locked

2007-09-17T18:12:00.000+10:00

Have you ever had a moment where you were so lost, so miserable and so guilty that your mind just blanked out, and you have no idea what you should do?

I just had that moment.

I left my keys in the house.

And I only realized it, right after the door clicked, and locked, shut.

I just locked Jia and myself outside our house.

I havent had this kinda feeling for a long long time. Usually, I always do find out solutions for troubles and ostacles, but this time, I really got defeated.

After getting over the stunned and helpless moment, my senses started returning to me and both of us started making phone calls around asking for help. Eventually it ended up calling this company called API Security, which provides locksmith's services 24/7 nationwide (Australia).

However, get ready for this, guess how much it cost us to use up 15 minutes of the locksmith's time to get the door open?

198 Aussie Dollars

Yeapz, thats how much it cost us. Blardy blasted a large hole in our pockets. -_-

Wondering what are we gonna eat in the next two months.

Good experience though. Maybe i should consider attaching my keys to my fingers permanently. -_- Instead of being Captain Hook, I can become Captain KEY. -_-

Anywayz, by the time you read this, I do suggest you save this number into your phone if you live in Aussie:

13 15 39

Thats the number of API Securities.

You will never know when you will need it. ;)

Self-Made Cooling System

2007-09-16T09:36:00.000+10:00

In my previous post i mentioned that my IBM shuts off by itself when the GPU overheats...

It gets worse and worse as days pass by.

I got frustrated.

Then I got pissed.

Finally Im enraged.

To solve this problem, I finally came up with one solution:

1. First I got a novel that i bought and finished reading

2. Then I place it under my laptop, and ta-da!!!!!

I now got myself the simpliest and cheapest Notebook Cooler!!

-_-

Yea i know, its ugly, but hey, it works. My laptop no longer shuts down when im playing games, which further proven my theory of my GPU overheating. ;)

Been a While...

2007-09-15T17:36:00.000+10:00

Its been a while since i blogged...

Not that im lazy, but life's been peaceful and unproductive for the past few days =P

Assignments are starting to pile up again, will have 4 assignments due right after the so called "mid-sem break" =S

Anyways...planning to visit the Great Ocean Road during this coming break, hopefully it will happen when the time comes =)

Till the next post, ciaozzzz

P/s: Purpose of this post? NONE, IM BORED.

A Play in Melb Uni - The Empress Dowager & I

2007-09-10T17:40:00.000+10:00

I've never been to a play before.

Now, the play i meant was the kind of show where people act on stage with sets and costumes and stuff like that.

A chance finally came, as Eric invited me to a play called The Empress Dowager & I on Saturday night.

The Poster (Picture from muctg.org)

This play is mainly about the Empress Ci Xi during the Qing Dynasty and how this slave girl named De Ling changed her prespective towards foreigners, and tried to save the Dynasty from declining through corruption and ignorance.

According the Eric, whats being shown in the play is partly true according to history and partly made up to enhance the whole play.

$15 per ticket

This play is being presented by CTG (Chinese Theatre Group) of Melbourne University, which Eric is the Activities Officer of it. Considering that the whole play including the producer, story lines, sets, costume, director, actors/actress, etc are all done by students, I would say that it is very successfully made =).

They present 2 plays a year, one will be in Cantonese, and the other one will be in Mandarin. This one that i watched is in Mandarin, and the actors and actress did an excellent job representing their characters with facial expressions, emotions and voice tones. Bravo!

Anywayz, more pictures for you to get a slight idea of how was it ;)

The Package

One of the scene where the characters were so angry they were practically yelling at each other

Kneel you mortals!! The Empress is pissed off!!!!

The Final Scene - The Dying of the Empress

The End of the Play

Well done, very well done. If you guys are interested in watching it, they are still performing on the 13th, 14th and 15th of September. Just visit CTG's Website or tell me you guys are interested and I will get Eric to sell u the ticket. =)

One warning though, the play is 3 and a half hours.