Hari Merdeka!

Today, 31st of August, Malaysia celebrates its 49th Hari Merdeka (Independence Day). As a Malaysian, I would like to wish Malaysia a wonderful birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MALAYSIA!

White Chocolate and Macadamia Cookies

Last Tuesday, Chris and Kok from C.K. Bakeries™ decided to bake cookies instead of cakes. What a breakthrough!

White chocolate and macadamia cookies.

The reason we baked cookies instead of cakes is because we have baked almost every flavour of the pre-mixed cakes which are sold in the supermarket.

Basic first lah.

Since we have no experience in cookies, we decided to try those cookies which are easier to bake first. Or, are cookies easier to bake than cakes?

Instructions at the back of the box.

Just four simple steps and the cookies are ready.

The most important equipment, Mr. Toaster.

First, pre-heat oven/toaster...

Don't forget your baking tray.

...and grease the baking tray. Actually, you can use baking paper instead of grease it with margarine.

Baking can be fun! ;)

After that, take a photo mix everything using a wooden spoon until it is all combined before using hands to further mix in order to create a dough.

Almost there...

Next, roll 1 heaped tablespoon of mixture into a ball and place onto the baking tray. Alternatively, just roll the mixture to the amount that you want. But don't make the 'ball' too big. Or else, it will end up not baked.

First batch of our cookies!

Bake the mixture for 10-12 minutes and allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring onto the cooling rack. We didn't follow the instructions though. :P

Second batch of our cookies!

Since our toaster is quite small, we could only placed 9 cookies at a time. Just a reminder here, place the balls of mixture on the baking tray with enough space in between each other so that they have enough space to "grow bigger".

Comparison between the first and second batch of cookies.

The first batch seemed to be overbake. Practice makes perfect. ;)

Success!

The cookies turned out to be not too bad despite overbaked for the first time.

Chris, what and when is our next "project"?

Yanchep National Park

Last Saturday, I went to Yanchep National Park which is approximately 50 kilometres up North from the city. This trip, organised by the International Student Services (ISS), supposed to be a fun trip, if not because of the rain.

Rain, rain, go away...

Rain spoilt the whole trip I would say.

Some of the activities at Yanchep National Park.

There are quite a numbers of activities you can do at Yanchep National Park and each activitiy cost you some amount of money.

First activity for the trip, Crystal Cave.

This guy in green jacket (forgot his name) guided us in the cave.

He guided us in the cave and explained some of the stuff about the cave.

Stalactites.

Inside caves, there are stalactites everywhere. Stalactites are formed from the deposition of calcium carbonate and other minerals, which is precipitated from mineralized water solutions (quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalactite).

More stalactites.

It's kinda hard to take a good photo inside as it doesn't have enough lighting.

Crystal.

Besides stalactites, crystals can be found inside this cave. That's where this cave gets its name from.

What kind of crystal is this which looks like the larva of the volcano?

I did not pay much attention to what the tour guide has said as I was busy taking photos. So, I don't know most of the stuff. Sorry guys! :P

Olympic torch?

Actually under the crystal, there's this torch light to give those kind of effect to the crystals. The tour guide actually told us that we could take a nice photo with that trick.

Nice, isn't it?

We were in the caves for about 45 minutes. And guess what guys? Miri, Sarawak is famous with their Mulu and Niah Caves but I have never been to both of the caves! Anyone interested going with me?

We then proceeded to the next place which was the Koalas Boardway. On the way, we saw kangaroos feeding themselves!

The kangaroos were shy.

I never saw that many kangaroos before.

After some quick photos with the kangaroos, we then felt more curious about the koalas.

HUGE koala!

We tried our very best to spot any koalas at the boardwalk. Most of us will look up the trees to see if there's any koalas hanging there.

"Hey mate, what the hell are you looking at?"

Most of the koalas were hanging on the very top of the trees. Couldn't really take much photos of them. But you can feel that they are actually very near to you when you are walking at the boardway as there's no cell to lock them up.

What's next?

Beware! Kangaroo crossing the road.

If you are at Perth one day and saw kangaroos hopping across the road, don't scare. Believe your own eyes. There are actually kangaroos crossing the road. That's why some of the cars are installed with what they so called, 'Kangaroo Bar', so that their cars are not damaged when they knocked down a kangaroo.

That's one of the best photos I have ever take. We saw a group of kangaroos after the boardwalk.

Supposed to be our next activity.

Due to the bad weather, our row boats activity at Wagardu Lake has been cancelled. Too bad...

Lizard?

We wondered around the lake before it's lunch time! We had sandwiches prepared by the International Student Services' committees for lunch. Sorry guys, I forgot to take photos on that.

Since the outdoor activity has been cancelled, we went for an indoor activity; Aboriginal Arts.

Smaller version of the aborigines' 'tent'.

It's nice to know the aborigines' culture. I had never been exposed to this before.

Does he looks familiar to you?

Yes, he's the tour guide for the cave's tour. He used a Didgeridoo (traditional music instrument) to create some of the enchanting sounds. He can make loads of sounds using the Didgeridoo such as the sound of the Kookaburra (a kind of bird) and the sound of the wolf. He also can used the word "Didgeridoo" and the Didgeridoo to make a piece of music. I know it's hard to get an idea by reading what I have written. But, trust me, it's excellent!

He then perform the traditional dance.

Imitated the kangaroos.

There were two dances performed by him; kangaroo and emu dance. The reason the aborigines have this kind of dance (by imitating the animals) is because they can understand behaviour of the animals more with those dances. In this way, it will be easier for them to hunt the animals.

Boomerangs time.

He then demonstrated to us how to use the boomerangs. The aborigines use just this piece of curvy wood to hunt for animals. Unbelievable? Believe it. ;)

The trip ended with a photo of me with this cool guy.

Watttchhhaaaaaa!!

Again, if not because of the weather, this trip would be more fun.

Engineering Week

This week is Engineering Week. There are lots of activites going on for the week during common lunch time at my uni. Yesterday, Brian, Nathan and I decided to join a Drilling Rig competition. We have joined this competition last year during the Engineering Week but we were disqualified due to some reasons.

This competition went like this. We have to construct an oil derrick out of straws and sticky tape to hold the strongest load without the drilling rig being fail.

You can have your very own design.

The drilling rig built, does not depends solely on the load that it can hold to get points. It also depends on how high your drilling rig, how many straws left after you have built you drilling rig and also the time taken to build the drilling rig.

Lots of participants.

Creative.

But of course, most of the points are given to the drilling rig which can hold the most loads.

So, three of us planned to build a drilling rig which can take more load and pay less attention on the points given for the height of the drilling rig, the amount of straws left after we have built the drilling rig and the time taken to construct the drilling rig.

Our design!

Mechanical engineers can build drilling rig too! Don't play play ok? :P

Drilling rig and I.

After we have built our drilling rig, the judge will then measure the height of the drilling rig and also the amount of load it can take.

Three of us should change our course to Civil Engineering.

To our surprise, our small little drilling rig held the maximum weight without failing. They have used up all the weight but our drilling rig still not failed.

So, we are the champion? Still no idea. As we know, there are two other groups with their drilling rig held the maximum weight. It now depends on the time taken to build the drilling rig, the height of the rig and also the amount of straw used to determine who is the champion. I hope that we win cause first place will get Aud $50 worth of tavern coupons while the second and third place will get Aud$40 and Aud$30 respectively. Hope the email sent will congratulate us that we have won the competition.

If we win, our next project should be similar to this...

The Grand Old Lady (Miri), the first oil rig built in Malaysia.

I Miss The Days...

When a person is growing older, he/she will certainly want to go back to their great old days. This happen to me. When I grow older, I always miss my childhood days.

Cousins, sis and I.

I miss the days when I did not need to worry a single thing.

"Graduated" from Methodist Kindergarthen, Miri.

I miss the days when I only need to finish my writing and drawing homeworks.

Cousins Forever.

I miss the days when my cousins and I would gather together for some "War Game".

How old am I now?

I miss the days when my Baba, Mama, sis and my cousins celebrated my birthday.

Primary 2?

Seeking for old classmates.

I miss the days when I would rush to the canteen just for a packet of RM0.20 bee hoon.

Teachers from SRB. St. Columba, Miri.

Another photo of my primary school's teachers.

I miss the days when my teachers told us stories about "Human Sausage" and also guided us to become what we are today.

I performed on the stage before ok?

I miss the days when life was not so complicated.

How I hope I can have it by my side now...

Doraemon.

to bring me back to the past.

It's impossible, I know. I should enjoy my current life now.

I do hope to keep in touch with my family, my friends and everyone who knows me though. Anyone happens to know any contacts of my friends back in Methodist Kindergarthen (Miri), St. Columba Primary School (Miri), St. Columba Secondary School (Miri), PRIME College (Miri), The University of Western Australia (Perth), teachers and anyone who knows me, please let me know. Or if you are the one whom I have lost contact to, do let me know, too! It would be glad to gather once again, all my friends, teachers and those who know me.

My Housemate is a Star!

Has anyone heard of Machi? Machi is a popular Taiwanese Hip Hop group. An hour ago, their leader, Jeffery Huang, decided to make it a quit as he would like to see a more energetic and good looking young man making a cut into the music industry and lead Machi into a higher level. He named Chris Chen to take over his role as a leader of Machi.

Chris Chen, new leader of Machi.

Congratulations to Chris Chen, who will release the group new album about three months from now. Their new album, "Muachi 2006", will have a song which is sung solo by Machi new leader, Chris Chen. Continue to support Machi and buy only their original album.

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*Laughing* Ok, I made up the whole story. Machi is still Machi. They don't need a new leader. Their leader, Jeffery Huang, is good enough to lead the group. I just find that Chris looks like Machi's leader, Jeffery Huang. You will definitely agree with me after you see this.

What do you think?

I didn't notice until my sis told me that Chris looks like Stanley Huang (Jeffery Huang's bro). But I personally think that Chris looks more like Jeffery Huang.

What do you think?