Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Ciao Italia

*Editted* This post was actually written way before I went to Adelaide and Melbourne. I'm back from holidays now. :)

I'm supposed to lie on my bed and sleep now as I have to catch a flight to Adelaide early in the morning tomorrow. However, I decided to write another post before I sleep.

Ciao Italia, Perth.

About 3 or 4 weeks back, Chris brought me and Brendon (a friend of Chris) to Ciao Italia before he left for Singapore. Ciao Italia is one of the most famous restaurants in Perth. And to be exact, I think it is the famous Italian restaurant in Perth. I am ashamed of myself simply because that was my first visit there after staying in Perth for almost 4 years! I have to thanks Chris for taking me there.

Just a small restaurant.

As early as 5:45p.m., you can see that the restaurant were already packed with people. For your information, the restaurant only opens at 5p.m.

Queue up, please.

This restaurant is so famous that it doesn't take any reservations. So, take note! You'll just have to queue up and wait for a place. I suggest those who wish to dine-in to arrive early.

Moscato from Brown Brothers.

Earlier before the dinner, Chris bought a bottle of Moscato. He highly recommends this wine to everyone. For those who loves sweet white wine, you'll love this.

Garlic bread.

To start off with our meal, we ordered a serve of garlic bread. This garlic bread was way above my expectations. Unlike other garlic bread, all the surface of the bread was generously spreaded with garlic butter.

Marinara Spaghetti.

Here comes the main dish; Marinara Spaghetti. Again, this was another high quality food. I had never tasted any spaghetti which is as good as this. It was quite a large portion with all the fresh seafood such as the squids, mussels, prawns and fish. The spaghetti sauce wasn't those ordinary type. It's just too delicious to describe using words. I give this spaghetti a rating of 4.5/5 stars.

Chilli Mussels.

Next up, Chilli Mussels. Many in Perth know that Conca's has one of the best chilli mussels. However, I can tell everyone that the chilli mussels here can compete with those in Conca's. The mussels were fresh and quite huge. Seafood is all about freshness, don't you reckon? Therefore, I prefer the mussels here.

Two dishes, three persons.

I would love to try the pizza there but since we doubted we can finish all the food, we only ordered two dishes. We didn't manage to finish all the food though.

Look at these! Slurppp!

In this restaurant, you must be prepared to finish your food as soon as possible. They have limited place to accomodate everyone. Thus, they'll politely "chase" you out from the restaurant when you tend to just sit there and chit chat.

Tiramisu.

Now, this dessert is dedicated to Mei Yen as she's a fan of Tiramisu. At first, I thought, it's just another piece of Tiramisu. But no! I was totally wrong!

The best Tiramisu.

When it was fed into my mouth, I almost shouted "one more piece please". Gosh! That was one of the best cakes I have tasted so far. The texture was just right and it wasn't too dry. It's not cheap though with a price of Aud$7.50 per piece. Despite that, I strongly recommend this to everyone. You won't be disappointed with the quality of this Tiramisu.

Flat White with Tiramisu.

Chris and Brendon ordered a cup of Flat White each. How enjoy, right?

The three of us really had a wonderful dinner that night with all the delicious food, friendly staff and great atmosphere. I'll definitely come back to this restaurant again. ;)

The address?
Ciao Italia
273 Mill Point Road,
South Perth, Cnr Douglas Ave.
Phone: 9368 5500

Trading hours?

Open everyday except Sunday and Monday
5p.m. to 10p.m.

P/s: I just came back from my holidays. Apologise to everyone for not giving any notice about my trip to Melbourne and Adelaide for my holidays.
P/s/s: Stay tuned for my posts on my holidays.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Nanga Bush Getaway Camp

On Sunday, I participated in Nanga Bush getaway camp which was organised by International Students Service (ISS). This is just a small camp for the committee to know each other more.

Wonderful morning.

As early as 7.30a.m., I started to walk from my home to uni to meet the other committee. The weather was not too good. Rain was forecasted to pour on that day.

Entrance of Nanga Bush Camp.

Nanga Bush Camp is located about 90 minutes from Perth. It is a great place to organise a camp as there are loads of activities you can do there. In addition, Nanga Bush Camp offers three large bunkhouses and also smaller cottages.

Timbarra bunkhouse.

We were placed at Timbarra bunkhouse. I find this bunkhouse quite unique as the whole building was built using local timber. This is a huge accomodation which I think can accomodate more than 100 people.

There are different facilities in the bunkhouse. This includes sleeping facilities, catering facilities, dining area, indoor activity area (sports activities for example) and also toilets for both male and female. With all these facilities, I'm pretty sure this place is perfect for camping.

After we settled everything in the bunkhouse, we decided to take a short rest and had our lunch.

"Treasure" hunt.

Our first activity started at 1p.m. This activity was similar to the normal treasure hunt.

Potato Salad Team.

At first, the 13 of us was splitted into two teams; Potato Salad and Egg Mayo. We were required to walk around Nanga Bush Camp using only compass and map provided and find 10 hole punchers within the time set. For each hole punchers, we need to stamp it on a piece of paper. Team with most stamps win.

How to get the most stamps?

Prior to the game, each team were discussing on the shortest route to gather the most stamps. We need to come out with an agreement among our team members on which route to take. In this game, we learnt to communicate and develop team spirit.

Devil's Elbow.

During the game, we walked through a lot of places. It seems like a game to explore the whole Nanga Bush Camp. We had to walk non-stop and also to chase the time as our goal was to win the game.

On top of one of the highlands.

We had to walk up and down hill. It's not easy! To add, the weather was not kind to us. It kept on raining!

Murray River.

My team, Potato Salad, managed to collect 6 stamps before we reached Murray River. The next hole puncher is across this river according to the map. That was extremely challenging. If we could cross the river, we would be able to collect the remaining 4 stamps. If not, we only could go back to the bunkhouse with only 6 stamps. At this very moment, conflict arose. I suggested not to cross the river but some of my team members was not supportive on my idea.

In the end, I had no choice but to agree on crossing the river. As you all can see from the photo earlier, There were only 2 guys in the team. So, either me or the other guy would go first. Since I think I'm sort of older, I decided to lead them.

We took off our shoes and socks. When I took my first step on the water, I shouted, "WAHHHH!!! So cold!!!" The water was really cold. It made my legs numb. I, then, took a step followed by another on the rock to cross the river, followed by the other members.

"WAHHHH!!!" I screamed.

I fell down!

Some of the bruises.

The rocks were very slippery in the water. I got myself all wet and worse, I picked up several bruises on my hands and legs. I don't know whether I was lucky or unlucky. Lucky because I didn't have any serious injuries and unlucky because I fell down.

I think by then, my team members finally realised that my suggestion at first was correct. *Sigh* If they listened to me at first, I wouldn't get such an accident. If I insisted on my suggestion, I wouldn't get such an accident. Anyway, we went back to the bunkhouse after that since we exceeded our time limit.

The results, Egg Mayo won the game with 7 stamps.

Warm, warm and warm.

In the bunkhouse, each of us have our own activities. Some sit around the burning wood fire to keep themselves warm. Some played table tennis and also basketball to entertain themselves. I had to take a bath as I was wet from head to toes.

BBQ for dinner.

At about 6p.m., most of us started to get hungry. Therefore, we agreed to have our dinner. Nothing can be easier than the BBQ. Sausages, corn, chicken wings and vegetarian patty were the food on the barbecue pit.

Let's eat!

Overall, not a great meal, I reck on. It was just a meal to fill your stomach.

After dinner, two navigators named, Peter and Jonathan, came and took us for a night walk. Using only moonlight, we were led by the navigators and walked through the forest. Every now and then, Peter would stop and pass us some information. He told us about night vision (how to use our senses to walk in the dark), the history of Nanga Bush, the space and so on. It was an interesting walk which lasted us for about 1 and a half hour. I simply love this walk. :)

Game time.

The night was still young after the walk. Everyone's eyes were still wide open. Hence, we had some card games to fill our time. Those who lost the game will have to eat the left over; sausages and chicken wings. Another punishment was to have a sip of Vodka Cruiser.

We stopped the game at about 11p.m. Many started to take a bath despite the cold weather. I just chilled with two and three committee members around the wood fire.

Finally, our tiredness made us surrender.

Next day, we were supposed to wake up at 7a.m. Nevertheless, almost all of us were reluctant to do so until 7:30a.m. It was freezing cold once I get out from my sleeping bag. How I wish I can crawl back to my bed and hide in my sleeping bag.

Superb scenery.

Thereafter our breakfast, we had our canoeing as our final activity. I was quite looking forward for canoeing actually. In spite of that, after I realised that we wouldn't be able to go far using the canoe, I was quite disappointed at it. We were just paddling around one area as we scared the strong current of the water might sweep us away.

Say cheese...

Canoeing ended our 2 days 1 night getaway trip. We went back to the bunkhouse for cleaning up and also packing our stuff. Before we went off, another accident happened. Now what, you must be asking.

My poor camera.

Someone dropped my beloved camera! I was quite sad actually. The "zoom in/out" button and the body of the camera were dented. I was speechless seriously. I didn't know how should I react except saying "never mind".

Initially, I thought this would be a fun camp but ended up, two accidents happened to me. Should I still enjoy the camp? I should have just stay at home and relax. :(

P/s: I was quite unlucky these few days. Apart from what happened during the camp, my laptop is giving me problem now. I can only deal with this laptop after my trip to Adelaide and Melbourne. *Sigh*

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Oz Dumpling

Argghhh! You, you, you and you made me crave for dumplings! Luckily in Oz land, there are still dumplings for sale. My housemate kindly offered me one dumpling the other day.

Bak chang (dumpling).

Seriously, I don't know how much one of this costs. I think it definitely costs more than Aud$2 for one. As you all can see, the dumpling here looks like the dumpling back in Miri. However, it's not tied using the "natural string" (I don't know what's that), instead, it's tied using nylon string.

Take a peep...

Four years in Oz land, this is my first time sampling a dumpling here. I was actually quite excited to take my first bite on it. Does the meat filling taste like kangaroo meat? Or maybe koala meat? I was quite curious...

Does it taste good?

When I was unwrapping the dumpling, I told myself that this is my first and might be my last dumpling in Perth.

Break apart and take a look...

I broke apart the dumpling. To my disappointment, the fillings were not generous enough. It only had few tiny cubes of meat and one or two thinly cut mushrooms. It actually did have a chestnut but then, it somehow melted after I reheat it.

About the taste, I can say it's not too bad in a country which is only well-known for its pies and cakes. However, it's just an ordinary dumpling.

The most important aspect I'm looking for in a dumpling is, the glutinous rice must be fully cooked. Another thing to note is the fillings. Stingy fillings get one star less from me. By the way, if anyone happens to make dumplings, just a suggestion from me, try to cook the fillings (meat) in dark soya sauce with a tad more pepper. Up till now, I still cannot find a commercial dumpling which can match my expectations. I know, I expect too much. :P The best dumplings I have ever had are those made by my cousin (Jane's sister) friend's mum about 10 or 15 years back.

Anyhoo, I'm one happy man now! :)

Thursday, June 21, 2007

The Truth About Sarawak

I got tagged by Clare from Kampua Talk! “The Truth About Sarawak” is an interesting tag I would say. Many still don't know where's Sarawak. My Singaporean housemate even told me that Sarawakians are all head hunters. Wahlao! Not only that, some of the West Malaysians (no pun intended) don't even know where's Sarawak (I think not now anymore. Thanks to Airasia). This reminds me of chatting with some random people in Internet Relay Chat (IRC) some ten years back when a guy from West Malaysia did really ask some of the questions below.

Q: Oh, you are from Sarawak! *eyes wide with excitement* So far away! How you people come here ah?
A: Neh, we got Burung Kenyalang mah. We normally whistle them and they'll come and pick us up. There's how we go to your place loh.

Q: Oh, like that! So back home, you people live in trees ar?
A: How you know? Our trees not small you know? All the trees here in Sarawak very huge one.

Q: You guys have electricity or not?
A: Got wor. If not, how I blog now leh?

Q: Kuching got airport or you use boat go Johor?
A: Of course got mah. You think Kuching only has kucing (cats) is it? Don't play play I tell you. Kuching airport can accomodate many Burung Kenyalang one leh.

Q: How long if you take bus from Singapore to Kuching?
A: I think you fail your geography subject in Form 3 lah. Singapore is in Kuching.

Q: Over there got what car?
A: We don't use cars lah. We use ropes to swing from trees to trees. That's why Sarawak no traffic jam.

Q: Got road or not?
A: Road ah? Got! That's for us to have illegal cow racing.

Q: You Bidayuh from Sulawesi there huh?
A: Aku pun sik tauk aku orang Bidayuh kah, sik.

Q: Sarawak inside Sabah, right?
A: Nolah. Sabah inside Sarawak and Brunei inside Sabah. Got it?

Q: Eh? Sabah Sarawak not the same meh?
A: You really have to check your eyes lah. Sabah and Sarawak, the name also different liao mah. Abu and Ali, you see their name, you'll think they're the same person?

Q: Kuching how big ar?
A: Kuching not really big lah. Sarawak big!

Q: Kuching got a lot of cats hoh?
A: Got lah. You know Pussycat Dolls? From Kuching one leh...

Q: Sarawak got Malay?
A: Sarawak not only got Malay lah. Got Chinese, got Indians, got Kelabit, Melanau, Iban, Bidayuh and many more lah. But I say so much you also don't know lah.

Q: Sarawak people can speak English?
A: No, we spiak (speak) London.

Q: You people from Sarawak use Ringgit?
A: Ringgit? Nolah. We're not that advance. We still use Barter System lah, dei. One potato can exchange one bowl of Kampua. Good right?

Now, you know more about Sarawak right? ;P

Let's see who are the victims for this tag.
  1. Zhungyi
  2. Sharon
  3. Carrots
  4. Lynn Xuan
  5. Jane
  6. And those who would be interested in this tag. :)

Five

I owe Dancing Queen two tags! Alamak! One by one lah, ok? I'll start off with the most recent one. The older tag, I'll do it later since I still need some photos on that. Sorry for dragging it so long, Dancing Queen.

5 things found in your bag:-
1. Mechanical Engineering Building's keys
2. File with notes
3. Book
4. Thumbdrive
5. Water bottle

*DON'T try to steal anything from my bag!

5 things found in your purse/wallet:-
1. Driving license
2. Money
3. ATM cards
4. Uni card
5. Transperth card (for bus)

5 favourite things in your room:-
1. My going-to-die laptop
2. Bed for me to take a good sleep
3. IKEA study desk and chair
4. IKEA cupboard
5. My more than 10 years old blanket (all the way from Miri)!

5 things you've always wanted to do:-
1. Travel around the world
2. Have my own business
3. Take up cooking lessons
4. Visit my grandpa's hometown back in China
5. Improve my photography skill

5 things you are currently into:-
1. Blogging
2. Holidays
3. Bloghopping
4. Relaxing
5. Can't think of anything liao. :P

5 people you tag:-
I think most of the bloggers I know have done this tag. Therefore, I'll tag those who haven't done this. ;)

Boring Meme...

Well, I finally finished my exam! Yahooooo! Now I'm trying to complete all the tags from Dancing Queen, Zhungyi and Clare. First one, from Zhungyi a.k.a. King of Tag! :P

1) Name one person who made you smile last night.

I was in my bedroom for revision whole night, so, no smile.

2) What were you doing at 8:00 this morning?
Prepared to go for my final paper!

3) What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
Prepared for dinner

4) What was something that happened to you in 2006?
I started this blog?

5) What is the last thing you said aloud?
Yeahhh!!! (Exam finish liao mah)

6) How many different things did you drink today?
Tea and Mountain Dew

7) What color is your hairbrush?
Brownish?

8) What was the last thing you paid for?
Lunch this afternoon.

9) Where were you last night?
In my bedroom trying to do my final revision for today's paper!

10) What color is your front door?
White

11) Where do you keep your change?
Pocket

12) What is the weather like today?
Sunny, windy and cold!

13) What is the best ice cream flavor?
Ice cream? Apa pun boleh lah...

14) What is something you are excited about?
Holidays.

15) Do you want to cut your hair?
I look like lion now. Do you think I need a haircut?

16) Are you over the age of 25?
Nolah, just 22

17) Do you talk a lot?
Sometimes...

18) Do you watch The O.C.?
Nooo...

19) Do you know anyone named Steven?
Yea, so?

20) Do you make up your own words?
Like?

21) Are you typically a jealous person?
Oklah...

22) Name a friend whose name starts with the letter A?
Allen

23) Name a friend whose name starts with the letter K?
KampuaKevin

24) Who's the 1st person on your received calls list?
Like this also wanna know? Lawrence

25) What did the last text message you received say?
So kepoh for what?

26) Do you chew on your straws?
Nope

27) Do you have curly hair?
When it grows longer, a bit.

28) Where is the next place you're going?
Nangabush camp this Sunday.

29) Who is the rudest person in your life?
A lot leh...

30) What is the last thing you ate?
Chicken Karage

31) Is marriage in your future?
I think so

32) What is the best movie you've seen in the past two weeks?
No movie. Exam!

33) Is there anyone you like right now?
*Scratch head* No?

34) When was the last time you did the dishes?
20 minutes ago?

35) Are you currently depressed?
No way!

36) Did you cry today?
Cry? I laughed lah! Exam finish still cry?

37) Why did you answer and post this?
Zhungyi asked me to!

38) Tag 5 people who would do this survey
This tag quite boring leh. Don't feel like tagging anyone. :P

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Wok With Kok Again?

Today's theme...

BEE HOON (RICE VERMICELLI)

Since I'm in the midst of preparing my exams, I always want a quick dinner. But how to prepare a quick and yummy dinner?

Bee Hoon Soup.

First up, Bee Hoon Soup! I must say this is tasty. Actually this was my first attempt on bee hoon soup. This only took me less than 30 minutes from preparing till cooking.

Delicious bee hoon soup during winter...

You must be wondering how easy to cook this. Let me show you how I did it.

Ingredients
  1. Bee Hoon
  2. Pork
  3. Vege
  4. Chicken stock/powder
  5. Pepper
  6. Salt
Instructions
  1. Slice the pork and marinate it with just pepper and salt. Don't use any soya sauce. You don't want the whole bowl of soup to be in dark in colour, right? ;)
  2. Soak the bee hoon in boiling water (not on top of the stove). Make sure it's 70% soft and not 100%. The reason: you'll have to put in the bee hoon into the soup later and you wouldn't want your bee hoon to be too soft.
  3. Clean and cut the vege.
  4. Boil water in a small pot before you add in chicken stock/powder. The amount? Trial and error. :P
  5. Add in the marinated pork.
  6. 5 minutes later, add in bee hoon.
  7. After 2 minutes, add in vege.
  8. Let it boil for 2 more minutes. Do not add anymore salt as the chicken stock/powder itself is salty enough.
  9. Finally, you can serve your bee hoon soup in a big bowl with little bit of pepper on top.
Easy right? Less than 10 steps. You can use chicken bone instead of chicken stock/powder. That'll taste much more better. For me, since I don't have any extra things left in the fridge, that's all I can find for my bee hoon soup. Any comments to improve this are most welcome! :)

Next up, Fried Bee Hoon!

Fried Bee Hoon.

I didn't expect this fried bee hoon to as delicious as the bee hoon soup. I can say, I cincai (simply) fried only. :P

Almost the same ingredients.

I actually cooked this fried bee hoon tonight and bee hoon soup the night before. So, the ingredients are roughly the same.

Ingredients
  1. Bee Hoon
  2. Pork
  3. Vege
  4. Egg
  5. Pepper
  6. Salt
  7. Dark soya sauce
  8. Oyster sauce
  9. Light soya sauce
  10. Garlic
  11. Olive oil (I use olive oil to cook) or cooking oil
Instructions
  1. Slice the pork and marinate it with just pepper, salt, oyster sauce (not too much), light soya sauce and dark soya sauce. I marinated this over night as I had sliced the pork earlier when I cooked the bee hoon soup.
  2. Soak the bee hoon in boiling water (not on top of the stove). Make sure it's 90% soft now. For your information, it won't be getting any softer when you fry it.
  3. Clean and cut the vege.
  4. Chopped some garlic.
  5. Add in a small amount of oil (just to make sure nothing stick onto your wok/pan later) to the wok/pan.
  6. Fry the egg. One egg per serving is preferable. By the way, just scramble egg. If you planned to just leave it at the side before you cook the other stuff, ensure that the egg is only 70% cooked.
  7. Add in chopped garlic and fry for 30-60 seconds. At this time, the aromatic smell of the garlic would fill in your whole kitchen
  8. After that, add in the marinated pork. Fry until it's 90% cooked.
  9. Now, fry the bee hoon with all the ingredients. Mix everything together.
  10. Salt, pepper, little bit of dark soya sauce (to make the bee hoon "looks" better) and light soya sauce are added
  11. Put in the vege.
  12. Fry for 2 or 3 more minutes. If the bee hoon is getting too dry, add in small amount of water.
  13. Your plate should be ready by then to serve your fried bee hoon.
How's it? Not too difficult, eh? The bee hoon was lacked of taugeh (bean sprouts). It would be more delicious with the taugeh.

So, that's for today's 30 minutes Wok With Kok! Kok can cook, so can you! Thanks for reading. :)

P/s: I must admit, I'm not good at giving instructions.
P/s/s: I don't have much ingredients left in the fridge. That's why all you can see are just bee hoon, vege and pork.
P/s/s: I'm rushing this post. I think there's lots of grammatical mistakes or typos. Forgive me as I want to get back to my study! :P

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Another Birthday

13th of June? What's so special? To you, maybe not but to me, it's my 22nd birthday!

First year in uni, my housemates Danny and Mian Er gave me a slice of cheese cake from The Cheesecake Shop and we had a small "birthday party" at Ronnie's house. Second year, again with my housemates, we had pizza feast for our dinner. Nathan did join us since he was staying at our house for preparation for exam. Third year, I celebrated my 21st birthday with my housemates, Chris, Henry and James, together with pizza boy, Yan. This year, a bit special for me because I celebrated a quiet birthday. No matter what, I enjoy every single birthday of mine. :)

My birthday presents...

This year, I received numerous birthday wishes and also some birthday presents. The presents can be seen from the above photo. Can you guess what's that in aluminium foil and also the gift wrapped in blue?

Blackcurrant Ratan Sticks Fragrance

My first birthday present came as early as 1 month before my birthday. The sender, Chris. Why so early? Better early than forgot, he told me. It is a spreader of essence with rattan sticks. The smell, fuyoohhh (learnt from Sasha's blog), super strong. :P

Cute photo frame.

This cute photo frame is gifted by Danny and Mian Er (my ex-housemates). Mian Er told me that this photo frame matches my pencil case! For your information, I have a Kuku Malu pencil case. Eh, this is the lah!

Choc and Apricot Muffins.

Anyone guess correctly for the gift in aluminium foil? Mian Er baked me three Choc and Apricot Muffins. Those were my birthday cakes for this year. :) I think in return, I'll bake her a cake for her birthday (only if Aunty Judy's recipe works) . :P

Besides the presents, I did receive loads of birthday wishes as well! Here I would like to take this opportunity to thanks the following:

Chris
Thanks for everything. Next time can give Calvin Klein perfume or not? :P

Mama
Although I'm not by your side, I'm happy enough to listen to your "Wei, Happy Birthday". Thank you, Mama.

Mian Er and Danny
I love the muffins and the frame! Thanks!

Dancing Queen
Two birthday wishes from you in a day! Thanks a lot! :) By the way, two people sent me their birthday wishes earlier than you leh; Chris and my Mama. :P

Sasha
"Happy Birthday to anyone that is celebrating birthday soon.[KW]." I supposed that "KW" is me eh? hehe. Thanks, thanks! *Jokingly* Present mana? Haha!

Chiew Lee (sis)
Thank you for your birthday text, Lee. I shall see you in less than 2 weeks time!

Sharon
I'm actually reluctant to join your club lah. 22 years old sounds so old. haha! Thanks for the wishes! :)

Stephanie
I'm sorry to miss your MSN message. Thanks for the birthday wishes, anyway. Do I look like a chef, seriously?:P

Jane
Thanks a lot, Ah Jiuan! haha! You're the only cousin who wished me "Happy Birthday" leh. Maybe you're the only one who read my blog. :P

Ah Foon Yee Yee
Thanks for the birthday text, my beloved yee yee. Hope you'll do fine in your current job. Sorry for not keeping you in touch these days. Have been busy. Hopefully after exam.

Emilia
Thanks for the early text. I'm still waiting for your present. :P

Nathan, Brian, Jeremy, Jono, Lawrence, Ronald, Singli, Zhi Dek, Nicole and Zhungyi
Thanks for all the texts and calls! I really appreciate it. :)

I think this list will be keep going after everyone has read this post. hehe.

Anyway, THANKS, THANKS AND THANKS to everyone. You all made my day. :)

The last but not least, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Catch a Breath

*Stay away from blogging! Study!*
I can hear some of you are asking me to go back to study already. Oklah, but after this
loh. Promise! :P

Actually I just want to catch a breath and stay away from my books for tonight. Today, I want to talk about my exam. So, I have sat for my first exam this afternoon;
Engineering for Sustainable Development. Honestly, it wasn't that bad though. I think most of my friends agree with me on that.

This exam was split into two parts. Part A was a 1000 words essay and Part B was multiple choice questions.

Part B, We were given a computer based multiple choice questions to practice. There's a 500 pages book to refer and also about 30 (?) i-lectures to listen. I didn't bother to go through the book and the i-lectures. I just completed the computer based questions and review on what I did wrong. That's my preparation for Part B.

For Part A, we were given 4 topics of essay prior to the exam. From the 4 topics, we have to choose 1. So, last few days, I was busy researching for the topic I had chosen. After all the research, I combined all the points and came out with a final essay on that. It was about 1200 words altogether.

25 pages of these...

What I did was, I memorised the whole essay! Can you imagine that? I used more than 10 hours to do that! 10 hours of nightmare! I couldn't believe I can do that, anyway. I started to write the essay over and over again. One page after another. Addition to that, I read out loud to make sure everything was sticked inside my head! When I was sleeping last night, I still tried to remember what I had written. Arghhh...

My exam was at 2p.m. At 1p.m., I decided to stop and then had my final revision on the multiple choice questions. Then I rushed to uni with two pieces of peanut butter breads (breakfast+lunch).

You won't know how panicked I was. Sitting in the exam hall, still trying hard to memorise my essay...

"You can start now..."

Once I heard that, I took my pen and started writing out the whole essay. I wrote as fast as lightning. I was afraid I might forget some of points. For about 45 minutes, my pen never left the paper. But, I am glad I managed to write everything...

After I completed the essay, I started to flip over the question paper for Part B. I thought there's no more chance for me to get at least half of the multiple questions correct. However, surprise, surprise! All the questions were similar to those computer based questions! I finished 60 questions in 30 minutes? No complaint on that. :P

There goes my first exam. I expect the marks to be scaled down. Please don't fail me, that's what I hope.

1 down, 2 more to go... Wish me luck!

Engineering For Sustainable Development - 9th June 2007
Reliability Engineering - 18th June 2007
Design Tools: Finite Element Modelling - 21st June 2007

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Wok With Kok

I am still mourning over my precious photos. I was trying my very best to rescue all of them from my hardrive. However, only part of them (less than 10%) can be retrieved. Anyway, shit happens (quoted from CC) and life goes on... Thanks everyone for your concern. I think I'll just have to leave those 3 months memories alone...

Back to the normal life. Few nights back, I decided to cook again. Just simple dishes lah. hehe.

Bak Choy with Oyster Sauce.

First up, fried Bak Choy with Oyster Sauce. Nothing to boast about though. I just cooked it with garlic and oyster sauce. No MSG, little oil, pinch of salt. ;)

Black Pepper Beef.

The second and the last dish, Black Pepper Beef. Actually this is not a complicated dish. I cheated a bit to be honest.

For you all!

I used a packet of instant sauce and added a little bit of dark soya sauce so that it looked better. Cannot tell, right? ;)

Alright, that's for today's "Wok With Kok". Don't forget to tune in the same channel again some time later.

P/s: I won't be updating so often for these two weeks. Crucial time now as exams are coming up real soon. For those who're sitting for exam, best of luck. :)

Monday, June 04, 2007

DISASTER!

I can tell you, my heart is broken! I thought I have saved all my photos in my external hardrive(I did a double check) before I reformat my whole laptop. But now when I'm trying to find some of the photos, it doesn't appear to be there! Why why? All my 2007 memories just vanish like that! Memories are priceless... :(

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Short Update...

I think most of you have noticed there isn't any new post for these few days. I would like to apologise for the lack of updates. Here, I'll just write a short update...

  1. These few days, I just couldn't find a time to blog. Most of my time were spent for my projects and assignments. Next Saturday is my first paper for my first semester exam and I haven't had any revision yet. I have my last group project to complete and that's worth 40% of the whole unit. Wish me luck, guys...
  2. My current rent is almost twice the rent of my previous house. Therefore, I am always in a tight budget condition this year. I don't wish to burden my Baba and keep asking him for money. And now, I can honestly tell you guys that I have less than Aud$200 in my bank account. I hope this can sustain me for another 2 more weeks. Do you think I can make it? I'll let you all know the result after 2 weeks.
  3. My housemate, Chris, is going back to Singapore for first semester holidays! He has no exam at all for two consecutive semesters! Anyway, he deserves a break. After all, he rushed his assignments like crazy for these two weeks. Enjoy your holiday, Chris! As I have mentioned earlier, I'm in a tight budget condition now. So, I couldn't treat you a dinner before you leave Perth. I decide to treat you a dinner at Matsuri when you come back later!:)
  4. My laptop, again, gives me headache. Whenever I shut down my laptop, it hardly can boot up. According to my computer technician, it seems like Windows have corrupted. I need to backup my stuff and reformat the whole laptop, which is very troublesome. Somemore, it's exam period now. Hopefully I can finish everything by tomorrow. By the way, I think this computer man of mine really has a good after sales service. I normally contact him through MSN and he'll provide me with some solutions for my laptop problem. I strongly recommend anyone who wants a laptop or computer to find him. ActivSolution (Miri) is the company and Mr. Liew Kuan Fah is the technician if anyone is interested.
  5. I do still bloghop whenever I have time. However, I seldom leave a comment nowadays due to the lack of time. To my blogger friends, I hope you all don't mind. I'll come back to you all as soon as possible, ok? ;)
I think that's about it. I have no idea when is my next post but definitely, you'll see another food post coming up. Stay tuned!

I'll end this post with two photos which I found in my computer lab. I think they are quite interesting and true. Enjoy!:)

"Just because you are unique does not mean you are useful"

"Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now"

P/s: This month is a month I should be happy about but like last few years, it doesn't seem to be any special to me...
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