Thank You, David!

This evening, I received a call from Yan (Pizza Boy).

"Eh, what are you doing? Free or not?"

"Nothing leh. Free. Why?"

"Wanna go dinner? David treats!"

"Hah? David wanna treat? Cannot be lah!"

"Serious! I pick you up at 5:50p.m."

The clock showed 5:30p.m. already and I quickly changed my clothes and waited for Yan.

We went to the very same restaurant which I celebrated my birthday last year. However, this time, it was what I didn't expect! Read on...

Snow Crab with Sweet Chilli and Egg Sauce!

They actually ordered a snow crab! You know how expensive is a snow crab? It's so expensive that I don't think I'm going to order this dish any time sooner! The snow crab was fried with sweet chilli and egg sauce. It had more meat than the normal crab and the meat tasted sweet and tender. Out of 5, I would like to give it a 4. ;)

Man Tou (Deep Fried Buns).

The waitress recommended us this man tou to be eaten with the sauce. It's a bit crispy outside and soft inside. Good stuff!

Don't-know-what-chicken.

Yan ordered this don't-know-what-chicken. The chicken strips was well mixed with batter before they were deep fried. It tasted alright but can still be improved.

Cuttlefish Deep Fried with Salted Egg Yolk.

I couldn't remember what is the actual name of this dish. I had it once when I was having my birthday dinner here. It's one of the recommended dishes from me.

Look at all those dishes...

Two other dishes that we ordered were Kangkung With Belacan and Sizzling Toufu. Nothing to shout about for this two dishes.

The boss, Black David.

This is the boss who paid for the bill. Don't ask me how much was the dinner. Looking at the above photo with his middle finger up (censored), you can roughly guess the dinner wasn't cheap! Anyway, thanks a lot for the dinner, David! :)

Finished almost everything.

I think everyone around the table had not tried the snow crab before until today. It was a whole new experience for us. No doubt, it was a sumptuous dinner.

From left to right: Yan, David, Qi Wei, Firman, Kok

I think this was a sort of farewell dinner for Yan. Yan is going back to Singapore for good. All the best to you, Yan! Do keep in touch!

Again, David, thanks for the snow crab!:)

P/s: Sorry, guys. I know I'm supposed to continue on my Adelaide Day 4 but this snow crab resisted me to do so. Anyway, it's definitely going to be my next post. :)

Wok With Kok is Back!

Hello everyone! Welcome to today's *pointing the mic to the audience*

Wok With Kok!

Thank you!

Today, Wok With Kok brings to you a dish everyone must know how to cook!

Chicken Porridge.

Yes, Chicken Porridge (Congee)! No matter if you need a breakfast, lunch, dinner, or supper, porridge is still your best company.

Psstt... guys, if you want to win a girl's heart, cook this when she's not feeling well (of course, don't always wish the one you love to get sick lah :P). She'll be touched! Girls, you can do the same! :)

Now, let Chef Kok show you how easy is this dish.

First, prepare these ingredients.

1. Chicken/Pork (minced meat if you're cooking for someone who's not feeling well).
2. Half cup of rice
3. Water (a lot)
4. 1 or 2 pieces of lettuce
5. Pepper
6. Salt
7. Chicken powder (optional)
8. Oyster sauce
   

The cooking method is pretty straightforward but don't take it too simple.

1. Slice the chicken/pork and marinate it with a bit of salt and pepper. If minced meat is your choice, mixed it with a bit of cornflour and oyster sauce.
2. Clean the lettuce. Cut 3/4 into slices and chopped another 1/4 of it. Sounds troublesome? You'll know my reason later on.
   
3. Wash the rice and boil it over medium fire with at least 5 to 6 cups of water in a medium size pot.
   
4. Boil some more water since in most cases you'll need to add more water.
   
5. Constantly and gently stir the "rice" to avoid getting it burnt.
6. This is optional. Add in chicken powder at your own taste. You might need to skip this when you cook this for people not feeling well. They might want something "tasteless".
   
7. Add more water if the water in the pot started to get less.
   
8. When it's almost done, turn the fire to low and add in the chicken/pork slices. For minced meat, you may want to take a spoonful and roll it into meatball.
9. Turn off the fire when the meat is almost cooked.
10. Put all the letuce slices into a bowl.
11. Pour the porridge into the bowl.
12. Garnish it with the chopped lettuce on top and add a little bit of pepper if you prefer.
13. Finally, serve it HOT!

A close look...

Easy peasy, eh? Oh, before I forget, you might want to eat your porridge with this...

Preserved beancurds.

Preserved beancurds!

Alternatively, you can use your rice cooker to boil your porridge. It's just the same method and might be easier. Or, if there's leftover rice from yesterday dinner, don't waste it! You can cook porridge with that. Just add more water and boil it. ;)

Ok, folks! That's for today's Wok With Kok. Kok can cook, so can you! Enjoy and thanks!

Tips: You might want to add in slices of ginger and boil it with the porridge. It'll taste better. ;)

Edited: Additional tips! Try to toss it with sesame oil. I bet you'll like it.

Highschool Flashbacks & Dramas (Final Episode)

continue...

The Popularity Scale
From the two previous posts of Highschool Flashbacks & Dramas and Highschool Flashbacks & Dramas (cont.), you all can see the comments from some of my highschool friends; Carrots, Sharon and Billy. Based on their positive feedbacks, I think I should be considered quite popular among, at least, my own classmates.

Why was I so popular? Well, according to Carrots, "You're the clown of St. Co. (St. Columba which was my highschool). Without you, the class would be very boring". Basically, that tells everything, right? I provide entertainment for the whole class and that's what I'm famous for. Just like radio, everyone wanted to listen to my singing, my lame jokes and surprisingly, my laughters(I only knew this few days back)!

Many of my ex-classmates would definitely remember the song "Qing Fei De Yi". Not because of the famous, Harlem Yu, but because of Law Kok Wei (me lah!) who sang it from 7a.m. till 12:50p.m. every Mondays to Fridays. Most of the time, I could just hear laughters from the girls and boos from the boys. And there it went, I started to lighten up the atmosphere of the whole class for the entire day.

There was once when I was down with fever and don't-know-what-sickness for few days. I went to school after I thought I'm much more better. However, in school, I had no energy to talk, no energy to concentrate on studies and worse, no energy to smile or laugh. I still turned up to school, hoping, I wouldn't miss anything in my studies. Although I was really sick, I could still hear some said, "Eh, how come so quiet today? No noise at all. Where's Kok Wei?" Yes, it's real quiet that day. I was with my head on the table, couldn't even raise my hand and answer back, "I...I....am....h...here."

That was how important I am in the class. And I think that's the main reason I had a shooting high popularity in my class. (Wahlao, I'm just praising myself! :P)

Among the teachers, I was quite well-known too. To be honest, I was well known for my bad side and not my good side. I remember when we had Chemistry experiments in the laboratory, I would fool around either with the others instead of concentrating on what we were supposed to do. Adrian came and disturbed me and I would chase him around the lab until Puan Beh shouted,

"Kok Wei! Jangan main-main dalam lab. Kamu tahu sangat bahaya ..." (Kok Wei! Don't play in the lab. You know it's very dangerous...)

Only then, I stopped. Not long later, I would start again until the end of the lab. Maybe I really didn't understand what happened then. Fooling around was easier than the experiments given.

Not only that, I was always the scapegoat among my friends. Whenever any teachers asked,

"SIAPA yang...?" (Who is the one...?)

Anything bad, I can confirm, one of my friends would definitely say,

"Kok Wei, Cikgu!"

After that, all the atomic bombs, nuclear bombs and hand grenades would come to me. I think my name was just too easy to come out from one's mouth. :P

That's the reason I was so popular among the teachers. I bet most of the teachers talked about me in the teachers' office after every classes.

You all must be asking. How about people from other classes? Am I popular till everyone knows me? This is tough. I seriously don't know about this. I might be quite popular if you read on.

Some people did remember me for some reasons. I think it's hard for me to commit crime in Miri. Few years back while I was window shopping at Boulevard Hypermarket, a guy greeted me. I think his name is Faizul (I'm not good with names). He was in the same class as I was in primary school but not anymore after Primary 4. He was in the same secondary school as I was though. I was quite surprised that he still recognised me. I had to scratch my head for some time before I could tell who's he. I was quite happy somebody can still remember me despite not in the same class for so long.

Am I popular or I didn't change much. That, I'll just leave it as a question mark.

Hmm, some might be quite interested in my BG (Boys Girls) relationship eh? Honestly, I was not into any relationship during my highschool (as if I have now... :P). I knew at that time if I was to have a relationship, it wouldn't last long. One because I think I was too young back then. Two because no girls like me my baba wouldn't allow me to do so. Third because no money how to pak tor (dating)? haha!

Despite that, I think I was "paired" up with some girls. Ok, not exactly pair up, it's just that my classmates like to tease me with some girls. Actually, I did that to them too. :P That was the "game" back then. Just to make you blush and laugh at you.

Kleio did touch a bit on her extra co-curricular activitites in school. I think that no doubt, this can increase one's popularity as well. Therefore, I would also write something about my extra co-curricular activities in my highschool.

As mentioned in previous posts, I was the school prefect in my school. I didn't get into the first batch of prefects at that time. I wasn't even in the list of candidates then. Probably I had really bad records in the school. More than half of my class was chosen as prefects. Danny, being one of them, had to release his post as class monitor and he suggested me to take over his post. My popularity in the class allowed me to do so. I was the class monitor for at least 3 months. After that, I was again recommended by Danny (head prefect) to become prefect as they were short of prefects.

Mdm. Tan Lee Chien, my form teacher in Form 4, was reluctant to let me release this post at first. Her reason was that no other people can take over the post after all the suitable students became prefects. She had a short meeting with me to discuss about this. She hoped I can stay and if not, she asked me to propose a suitable student in the class to take over the post. Prefect was a challenging post, I explained to her, and I would like to give it a try. She didn't stop me after that. At the same time, I proposed a name to her, Philip. She accepted.

Apart from school prefect, I was the president of Table Tennis Club. Heh! Never expect eh?:P Thanks to the club members who nominated me. I thought I wouldn't be able to handle the club at first but with helping hands from Allen (my secretary) and Tze Chang (member of committee), we did a great job. We managed to organise a table tennis tournament in school and also a friendly match with S.M.K. St. Joseph. Here, I would like to thanks both of them.

In addition to that, I was also asked to help the club to pick some potential players for an interschool competition after I left school. The players, I had picked, manage to grab a bronze medal which was an awesome achievement. Our school had not won anything for about 3 or 4 years before that. Not even in my year when I was the school representative with Allen and Shak Soon in this sports. I think I made the right choice by insisting the teacher in charge to arrange training for the players with Ping Pong Association, Miri. With proper training, the players improved a lot and hence, a bronze medal.

Another post for me in highschool was the member of committee in Science and Maths Club. If my memory doesn't fail on me (maybe Billy can correct me), together with the other members in the club, I helped in organising an exhibition in conjunction with the school's anniversary. It was one of the biggest events we had organised under the club. We managed to impress the visitors to the exhibition with lots of wow! It was indeed, a very successful exhibition.

I think I should stop boasting here. This is the most difficult part of the tag and yet, the most boring part (not a lot of funny experiences like previous posts). Anyway, with that, I end this tag.

Oh yea, before I forgot, I would like to let some of my ex-classmates as well as some of the bloggers to share their highschool experiences. I pass my baton to:

1. Billy
2. Carrots
3. Lynn Wei
4. Piglet
5. Sharon
6. Zhungyi
7. Aunty Alice
8. Aunty Judy
9. Jane
10. Mott
11. Teckiee
12. Dancing Queen

If possible, I would like to tag everyone under "Blogs Better Than Mine" as this is an interesting tag. For those who want to share their experiences, you can complete the tag as well. As for those listed above, you have the option not to do it. Not a must. :)

Highschool Flashbacks & Dramas (cont.)

continue...

Grades and Studiousness
I must admit my grades in high school had never been as good as my primary school grades. In Form 1 to Form 3 when I had to sit for my Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR), I did extremely poor in both Geography and History. Maybe for you, it's easy but for me, it's not.

For Geography, when everytime it came to tests, I had to cramp my head with all the names of the places and what they export and import and so on and so forth. I really hated that especially when I don't even been to that place before. Now you ask me where is Kedah or Terengganu, I don't think I can draw a map and show you where are they. That's how poor my Geography is.

I bet for most of the people, History is one of the toughest subjects. James Brooke, Tok Janggut, I mean, who are they? Why should I bother to know about all these? Those were the thoughts that always appreared in my mind whenever I had to open the books and start memorising. Despite reading those books for the whole night before a test (yea, I was always a last minute person) or maybe few nights before the exam if I was hardworking enough, I always ended up with either a C or a D.

Another stuff I hated most is the accounting part which was absorbed in Kemahiran Hidup (Integrated Living Skills) subject. Accounting might sounds easy, but for me, I couldn't catch up anything. Simply because the first day this accounting was taught, I was asked to stand outside the class for not bringing my buku lejar (ledger book). I totally forgot about that as I was sick few days before and that was the first day I came to class, still feeling a bit sick. I didn't bother to explain to the teacher as she was quite angry for quite number of students didn't bring the book. Outside the class, of course, I learnt nothing. No basic, what did you expect from me, right?

So, what subjects I were good at in Form 1 to Form 3? I would say Science, Maths and English (yes, English!). I was actually quite poor in Science and Maths in Form 1, until my results were so poor that I requested my mama for tuition. Yea, I requested it. How many children would do that right? :P Before that, I only had English tuition which started from Primary 1. Thanks to Cikgu Liew, my tuition teacher, that I managed to do better in Science and Maths. Seriously, English in high school was as easy as ABC. Even if I didn't go for tuition, I could easily secure an A. Maybe because of that, I didn't really concentrate in my English tuition and therefore, you can see how poor my English is now.

Anticipate to know my PMR results? *Drum rolls* I got 6A and 1B for my PMR. Guess what's that B. Not Geography, not History, it was Bahasa Malaysia (BM). Arghhh, due to that 1B, I had to down grade to Form 4 second class. Luckily there were some students leaving the first class thus, I was then reunited with my classmates. Now, why I could get A for both the subjects which I hated most? I don't know why but I miraculously managed to catch what's inside the Geography book just before the exam. As for History, I think I was just lucky. Maybe my gun was quite accurate that time (our exam was multiple choice answers and I just tembak (shoot)!).

Form 4 and Form 5 were quite challenging for me. I had no freaking idea of what were those science subjects namely Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Oh yea, the best two classes in Form 4 were Science streams. At that time, I managed to survive in Physics and Additional Maths (higher level Maths) while I was struggling with my Chemistry and Biology. I could do better in Physics and Additional Maths simply because I went for tuition for both the subjects. Tuition did make a lot of difference. In tuitions, teachers teach us more detail as they get side income for that whereas, in school, teachers just bla in front of the class and not concerning whether we did learn anything or not. I can't deny, therewere some good teachers in my school too.

Anyway, back to the subjects. Chemistry has never been my cup of tea. I could still remember the only three persons who always failed in this subject were Adrian, Andy and I (if Adrian and Andy happened to read this post, please don't get angry for revealing this :P). Addition to that, I think the three of us were also the most naughty in class. Therefore, my chemistry teacher, Puan Beh, always scolded us especially me.

"Kok Wei! Jangan buat bising sana. Kamu tahu Kimia kamu sangat lemah..." (Kok Wei! Don't be too noisy there. You know your Chemistry very weak...)

That's what Puan Beh would always shout at me. She's as loud as me I can tell you all. It's more like screaming than shouting!:P

Which subjects I were good at? Hmm... maybe Maths, English (yes, English again!) and Moral Studies. I think that's about it. My other subjects were just so-so. About Moral Studies, I did quite poor in Form 4 but I was quite good in Form 5. I still remember we had to memorise all the nilai-nilai (values) of up to 4 or 6 pages long. At first, I didn't know what to write for exam but after I attended a sort of seminar, my marks shoot up like rocket. I think I got the highest mark together with Carrots in one of the exam (Bear in mind that Carrots was the top student leh. ;)). That's the highest mark I got for my entire Form 4 and Form 5. I even showed off to Jing Jet (another top student) telling him I could also beat him in studies. Haha!

In the end, what are my results for Sijil Penilaian Menengah (SPM)? The results are as follow:

Bahasa Malaysia (Malay Language) - A1
Bahasa Inggeris (English) - A1
Maths -A1
Additional Maths - A1
Moral Studies - A1
Physics - A2
Sejarah (History) - B3
Kimia (Chemistry) -B4
Biologi (Biology) - C5

I obtained A1 for all the useless subjects. Haha! However, I was more than satisfied with the results as I was considered quite lazy back then.

When I went back to the school to get my SPM results, I went to see some of the teachers. I met Mdm. Teh, our Moral Studies teacher. She was actually quite pissed off with our class. Best class in school but always the noisiest. Always talked and talked and never listened to her. That's the reason why she didn't like our class. There were few times when she walked off the class after the bell rang, not giving us the chance to say "Terima kasih, cikgu". We actually had to say that everytime a period ended. While walking off, she mumbled, "Saya tahu kamu semua tidak dengar saya punya lah." (I know you all never listen to me).

Anyway, back to the teacher. I met her and as usual, the naughty me trying to tease her.

"Cikgu, macam mana? Gembira dengan result kami?" (Teacher, how? Are you happy with our result?)

I said that because I know she's extremely happy. Almost all of us in the class get A for our Moral Studies and she never expected us to get that good. You know, who would expect you to get good result when you don't even listen to the teacher in class? :P

She answered while smiling happily, "Ya, ya, gembira, gembira." (Ya, ya, happy, happy).

Honestly, I never saw her smile that happy before. I think she really never expected the whole class to do that well. Haha!

Since Kleio wrote a little about her study style, I might as well just write something about that. Like I mentioned earlier, I was quite lazy and I normally did my revision very last minute. The good thing was, I always went for tuition and never ever skipped any of them. I seldom did any exercises except in tuition. What I did was to just read and understood the reference books. I only did past year papers when the exams were around the corner. Generally, that's how I study. ;)

...to be continued

Final part "The Popularity Scale" is coming soon...

Highschool Flashbacks & Dramas

Sorry, guys, another tag here. This is going to be an interesting tag, so, enjoy. :)

"Highschool Flashbacks & Dramas" tag was passed to me by Kleio. I have thought of writing this down before but I was collecting photos back then (failed since I'm in Perth now). This topic is as hot as chilli padi everytime I met my highschool friends. Just recently when I was in Adelaide, meeting Sharon, Oliver and Melissa, this topic was brought up again. So, now, I'll write this up. Hopefully no one falls asleep after reading this.

Before I move on, take a look at this photo...

Spot me!

This is the only photo I could find at the moment. I grabbed this from Lynnwei's friendster. (Lynnwei, hope you don't mind I get this photo without your permission). Now, you don't have to imagine how I look like during my highschool days. ;)

By the way, for everyone's information, some of my frequent readers were my ex-classmates. This include Billy, Carrots, Hui Jiun, Lynn Wei, Piglet, Sharon and Zhungyi. Maybe there are some more ex-classmates of mine who were reading my blog but I don't know. Silent readers... :P

Of Differences and Barriers
It's still fresh in my memory when I was still in Form 1. A lot of new faces which I never saw before. Mainly because there were other students from other primary schools. It was a big class in SMK St. Columba (a national school) with about 50 people back then.

Honestly, I don't mix with people very quickly. I'm like an old motorbike; you need to give a few kicks before it starts. Same thing happen when I was in secondary school. I only mixed with my primary schoolmates at first before I started to know the whole class. I was quite lucky that most of my classmates stay together from Form 1 to Form 5. Therefore, our relationship was quite close (that's what I think, maybe not for others :P).

I was very mischievous at that time. I did a lot of crazy stuff which ended up giving lots of laughter to my classmates but poor me, I always got the scoldings from my teachers. In form 4 or 5, there were several times when everyone was too noisy in class and was asked to stand up for the whole period as punishment. Only those who managed to answer the teacher's question were allowed to sit down. One classmates after another was allowed to lay their bums on their chairs. Only left me and few of my friends who were still standing up. My buddies (Adrian, Jeffery, Jing Jet and Danny) and I came out with a plan of purposely answer the questions wrongly and not sitting down. There we went, only few of us and another one or two classmates who remained standing. Then, we started to fool around. Telling everyone that we were F4 and Energy (famous Chinese group singers) and started singing a bit here and there. We did as if the teacher didn't exist! Of course, we were not that stupid. We did that just before bell rang (end of a period). The teacher could do nothing as she had to go off for another class.

Talk about singing, I really sang a lot in Form 4 and Form 5 despite my singing was not good at all. Ask all my ex-classmates about "Qing Fei De Yi" and they'll tell you. There was once when we were separated into few groups and each group had to use their most creative way to present the sajak (Malay poems). Everyone just did the normal reading and that's it. However, for my group, we did something special. Danny and I went in front of the class. Everyone was looking at us. The teacher was sitting at my seat and her eyes were targetting both of us. We were so nervous then but we still managed to laugh. After we calmed ourselves down, we started to rap the whole poem. We even had our very own sound effect. "Yo yo! Check it out, kua dio gui" (as always rapped by the Taiwanese), we made the whole class laugh out loud. Even the teacher had to hold her stomach while laughing like there's no tomorrow. Not only that, I always sang and laughed so loud that even the next few classes could hear. There was once, a friend from next, next door (2 classes away), asked me, "Kok Wei, just now what are you laughing at ah?" Now you can imagine how loud I was.

In Form 5, there was a funny and mischievous occasion which never failed to be brought into our "memories" conversation. You all have to picture this scenario. Again, this involved my buddies and I. Jeffery, Jing Jet, Danny and I sat together in a group of 4 while Adrian was always an "illegal immigrant". There was once Jeffery brought to school some frozen Australia chocolates for Jing Jet. Australia chocolates leh! Expensive stuff you know? Jing Jet being the nice friend, decided to share a block of chocolate bunny with us during Bahasa Malaysia (BM) class. Yes, we ate DURING the class. We were supposed to do some exercise but we decided to eat the chocolate. The chocolate bunny was so hard that we couldn't break it into pieces to be shared. At first, Jeffery tried the normal way which was to break it into half. He failed. Then, it was Jing Jet turn. He tried to knock it on the table!

*KNOCK* *KNOCK*

"Apa yang bising sana?!" (What's so noisy there) Puan Huang, our BM teacher shouted.

"Hah? Tak tahu, cikgu," (Hah? Don't know teacher) Jeffery answered spontaneously.

We started to giggle knowing Jeffery was lying. At the same time, we still tried to figure out a way break that chocolate apart as the chocolate was still remaining in its original shape.

Jing Jet, being the usual smart him, decided to wrapped the chocolate with plastic bag and threw it on the floor. There the chocolate went "BAM!" This time, Puan Huang thought it was just something dropped on the floor and didn't question.

We unwrapped the plastic bag and found out the chocolate was broken into 3 pieces (if I'm correct). One piece were sent flying to Adrian's place. The second piece was shared between Jeffery and Jing Jet. I think they just had a bite each. The third piece was supposed to share between me and Danny. Danny was the good guy back then, as he's the head prefect. (Did I mention that Jing Jet and I were also prefect? :P) So, he rejected my offer. It was quite a big piece and I asked Jing Jet and Jeffery, who were sitting in front of me, whether they wanted another bite or not. With the chocolate still in their mouth, they waved at me, giving a don't-want-signal. I had no choice but to immediately stuff the whole big piece of chocolate in my mouth as I scared the teacher might notice us eating. While eating, we giggled non-stop. Unfortunately, we giggled too loud that it brought up Puan Huang's attention.

"Siapa yang bising-bising sana?" (Who's so noisy there) she asked.

Jeffery finished his chocolate earlier, thus, answering back, "Tak tahu, cikgu. Mungkin budak sesi petang. Panggil Danny tangkap mereka!" (Don't know teacher. Maybe the students from afternoon session. Ask Danny to write down their names).

Danny was stunned, not knowing what to do or answer. I was then laughing with my head on the table while trying to cover my mouth to make sure Puan Huang didn't notice that we were eating. I think those around us knew what happen and laugh.

Luckily after 5 minutes, the bell saved us again and it was time to go home!

Basically, I mixed quite well with everyone during my high school life. I really enjoyed my time with my friends. I had so much fun that I thought school is just another playground for me.

...to be continued

Next will be about "Grades and Studiousness".

Ladies, Do You Need This?

*Warning* This post might makes me sound like a pervert. Take it or leave it.

This afternoon, I was trying to survey the price of an external hardrive in Australia and Malaysia. After scanning through the price in Ebay, I proceeded on to Malaysia largest auction and online shopping site, Lelong.

When I was in the site, this caught my eyes...

Enlarge the image and look at the picture in red circle.

I thought, "selling girls online?"

Reading the description of it had increased my curiosity more. "Have you try to pee standing like a m..(an)" I stunned for a second. What could it be?

I clicked and I was led to a page which showed this...

How to use the product.

Wahlao! Someone actually invented a product which allows ladies to pee like a man!

WhizzzzzBizzzzz

I was quite curious that I went to their company website, WhizzBiz. I went on to read why would a lady need this. And I was understood that, this product is not only used for hygenic purposes (where ladies have to sit on some unsanitary toilets for nature call), it is also used by the temporarily or permanently mobility impaired people. I was really impressed with this product for it can help those with urinating problem.

By the way, this product was invented in 2005. Maybe most of you have known this product already but I only knew it now. I think I'm just a "katak di bawah tempurung" (doesn't know the outside world). :P

So, ladies, do you actually buy this for hygenic purposes?

P/s: This is NOT a sponsored post.

Four? Why Not Five?

For the very first time, I was tagged by Mott with this "Four Four Four Four" meme. But, why four and not five? Mott! Please answer. Haha!

Anyway, this is the meme:

Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Mechanics
2. Salesman
3. Future Engineer
4. Computer-man (?)
   

Four places I have lived:

1. Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia
   
2. Perth, Australia
3. No more
4. Don't know where else
   

Four countries I have been on vacation:

1. Malaysia
2. Brunei
3. Australia
4. Hope to travel more but sadly, those were the only countries I have travelled.

Four of my favorite foods:

1. Char Kueh Tiaw
2. Kolo Mee
   
3. Sweet & Sour Pork
4. Curry Chicken

Four is a bit too little for food lah. :P

Four places you would rather be right now:

1. Miri, Sarawak! Home sweet home...
   
2. Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Want to climb Mt. Kinabalu.
3. China. Just want to go to my grandpa's hometown. Must be interesting...
   
4. Japan. Want to take a look at one of the most high tech country. Aunty Alice, sponsor? :P

Actually there're more than four places I would rather be right now. Too bad, can only write four.

Four friends to tag:

1. Dr. Yenjai
2. Sis
3. Carrots (now you can show off your food :P)
4. Joe
   

Quality? No More!

For the whole week after I came back from my trips, I have been busy fixing my laptop and my external hardisk. At first, I had problem with my laptop as I mentioned earlier here. After several tries, thanks God, I finally managed to get it well again. It's still in testing mode and I hope everything is alright for my laptop. No laptop = lots of things cannot be done.

Ok, done with laptop, now problem occured for my external hardisk. I bought this external hardisk about 9 months back but actually it has failed on me after few months of using it. First problem was related to the lousy casing and the second problem was about the difficulty to boot up. Since it was bought in Kuala Lumpur (KL) by my friend, Brian, I had to ask my sis to bring it back to the shop for checking during her previous trip there. However, nothing was changed there as the guy detected nothing wrong to the hardisk. Ok, fine, brought it back to Miri, used for few days and same thing happen. I just thought it must be the lousy casing.

Anyway, since nobody's going to KL, I decided to continue using it. It can still be used but with loud noise due to the fan and also difficult to boot up.

This time round when Brian went back to KL for a short holidays, I had to trouble him to bring this hardisk back to KL to repair. The casing was changed. It was then brought back to me after that. I was extremely happy at the time when the hardisk was brought back home. I thought, "Finally! The hardisk is ok now!"

My nightmare actually began there. It successfully booted up for the first time. Nevertheless, my laptop couldn't detect it after I turned it off and on.

Problem after problem, sometimes, I'm quite frustrated about the quality of the product nowadays. Somemore, I have to spend my time fixing them. We are living in a high-tech world today but it doesn't seem to be "high-tech" for me at all. I guess most of you have also experienced this every now and then. Why can't the manufacturer produce something which can last longer? The refrigerator at my home (Miri) is older than me in age but it's still functioning well (only few times, it has cough and fever). I'm sure we don't mind paying more for a better quality product.

If this still doesn't improve, I'm not surprised we'll have to use "daily disposeable products" in the future. Buy, use once and throw. In this case, we don't care about quality...

P/s: This is quite random I know. Maybe I'm just too tired physically and mentally fixing all the stuff which fail on me. Hope things will be better.
P/s/s: Adelaide Trip Day 4 will be up soon...

Adelaide Day 3

29th June 2007
Today, I had to wake up quite early. We were scheduled to leave for Barossa Valley (famous for its wineyards) at about 9a.m. We as in Danny, Sharon, my sis and I. We had to rent a car for our journey as Melissa's car was not big enough to accomodate all the giants of us. By the way, Melissa and Oliver decided to follow us there at the very last minute. Two cars for one mission; Barossa Valley!

I was supposed to meet Danny at the car rental place at 8:45a.m. to take the car. However, my sis and I were quite early that day. Thus, we went to the Central Market for, what my sis claimed to be, the very nice Xiu Long Bao Polo Bao (Custard Polo Bun).

Nanna Hot Bake.

From far, I could scent a very aromatic smell coming from a particular shop. As we went closer, we saw Nanna Hot Bake.

Hotdog bun, egg tarts etc.

It's just a normal bakery with some ordinary types of buns and tarts. The price range from Aud$1.30-Aud$1.60. For breakfast or snack, this price is quite affordable.

Custard Polo and Coconut Custard Kaya Bun

Without hesitate, I got myself a Custard Polo bun. However, looking at the size of the bun, I decided to get another bun to satisfy my stomach. Kaya Bun was my choice, thinking I won't be having any Kaya Bun until I go back to Miri. No doubt, the Custard Polo bun tasted great with fresh, soft texture and generous fillings towards the centre of the bun. On the other hand, the Coconut Custard Kaya bun did not meet my expectation. It has too much "coconut taste" if you know what I meant.

After a quick brekky, we met up with the rest. We settled all the car rental stuff, got a car and began our journey.

Kies Estate.

Our first stop, Kies Estate. At first, I thought it was "Kiss Estate". :P It's just a small, old winery with quite a huge vineyard.

Sharon, the koala?

The weird thing about this winery is, they sell some sorts of drawings apart from the usual wines. That koala drawing costs Aud$5 per piece. We noticed few similar pieces drawings. I was sure that they photocopy and laminate it as there's a photocopy machine right beside those drawings.

Nice pose.

After leaving Kies Estate empty handed, our next vineyard was Jacob's Creek. This is a much more famous vineyard which I guess most of us would have recognise.

Wine tasting, anyone?

They have a huge, long bar for wine tasting. The design of this building is quite new and modern. I think they refurbished it before.

Baby wines.

The expert Danny told us that Jacob's Creek produced huge amount of their quality wines. Thefore, many of their quality wines are cheaper compared to the other wines of the same range. Too bad, I couldn't taste any of them as I was the driver for the day. That's my first time driving for so long in Australia. I never drive here for your information.

Not the right time...

For the vineyard, there's nothing much can be seen during winter. No grapes, no leaves, nothing...

Danny bought two bottles of wines while Oliver had one. At least, we were not empty handed here.

That's all for wineries! :P Ok, I'm joking. We took a rest from wines for our lunch.

Just light lunch.

We stopped by at this small "restaurant", with the name Bean Sejuiced, in the town. Not much choices we could choose from, only those light and simple meals.

Hungry smile?

We waited patiently for the food to be served while hoping the rain to stop. The rain was pouring quite heavily at that time.

Summary of the food that we had.

That's all the food we ordered. I had foccacias, Oliver had hotdogs, Mel had baked potatoes, Sharon had baquettes and both Danny and my sis had yiros. Nothing much to shout about for the food except Oliver's. The hotdogs that he ordered are flat piece of hotdogs instead of the normal cylindrical shape. He commented it's tasty!

By the time we finished our lunch, thanks God, the rain had stopped too.

Two Hands Wines.

We reached Two Hands Wines after turning here and there. Blame it on the unclear map.

Pay a small amount of fee (returnable) for wine tasting.

I somehow like this classy winery. There's table and chairs for all of us to sit down and enjoy the wines.

All the wines could be tasted.

Despite our no-money-to-buy look, they were still willing to let us taste all the wines listed in the portfolio. If my memory served me right, there's one bottle of wine which costs Aud$100++. And it's very nice! Ok, frankly speaking, I had a sip or two in this winery. ;)

I strongly recommend Two Hands Muscato to everyone. We bought a total of half a dozen Muscato here. They kindly gave us a discount for that. By the way, the wines here are only available through cellar door.

What's this?

There's a small building beside the winery. I don't mind staying there with such a good scenery surrounding the place though. :)

Group photo at last!

Another winery was in our list. This time, Seppeltsfield. Before we entered the winery, we manage to capture a group photo. I think this is the one and only group photo we had.

I know, wines again...

Danny was quite satisfied with their tawny port here. He got himself two bottles of that if I'm not wrong. He's a drinker! :P

Wine brewing process.

The decoration in this winery is quite different from the previous wineries which are classy and elegant. This building is full of antiques! Very "old" feel.

Look at my sis' face.

Penfolds is one of the most famous wines in South Australia and is our next winery. By the way, Sharon was the one who drove us here. ;P

All the bin range.

Danny insisted to come here as he thought there might be discount through cellar door. However, he was so disappointed to find out that there wasn't any discount to any of the wines!

The price...

Just look at the price. A bottle of 1995 Penfold Grange (1.5 litres) is sold for Aud$3069. It is almost RM9000++ for a bottle of wine! How expensive can it be?!

We left Penfolds earlier than expected.

1 or 3 eagles?

Now, which winery? Wolf Blass is our next destination. Again, it is a well known winery which Danny expected to get some cellar door discount.

Modern look...

Danny tasted the wine with Melissa and Oliver (I forgot whether Sharon and my sis did join in the fun or not) but Danny was not satisfied with the price of the wine.

Sis with hundreds bottle of wines.

After I finished snapping the photos, off we went to the next and last winery.

Peter Lehmann.

Peter Lehmann Wines, or better well-known as Peter Lemon by Sharon and my sis, is another unique winery. To me, it looks more like someone's house rather than a winery.

Different type of wines.

This time round, I'm almost sure that my sis didn't taste any wine anymore. She raised white flag up! :P

Pretend to drink only lah.

After Danny bought his final three bottle of wines from Peter Lehmann, FINALLY, we called it a day on wines! I was the happiest person at that time as I didn't need to be torture with those I-drink-you-can't-drink kind of feel anymore!

So, we left Barossa Valley at about 5p.m. On the journey back to Adelaide city, Danny was a bit tipsy with all the drinks that he had. He talked and acted funny a lot. Thanks to him. If not, I would have close my eyes while driving. Seriously, it's not fun driving in Adelaide.

Now, can you all guess where we were heading to?

Kopi Tim Restaurant.

If your answer was dinner, you're right! We went to this Kopi Tim Restaurant for dinner. I was puzzled at first when Melissa suggested to come to Kopi Tim Restaurant. I was like, "Huh? Kopi Tiam (coffeeshop) is Kopi Tiam lah. Where got restaurant? She say salah (wrongly), is it?" Who knows, in a small city like Adelaide, there's really such a place called Kopi Tim ("a" is missing?) Restaurant.

Simple restaurant.

It was a very simple restaurant with not much fancy design. They have plenty of spaces to accodomate their customers. Anyway, Kopi Tim Restaurant serves authentic Malaysian cuisines. You must be asking, how authentic can it be? Just look at the photos below and you judge it.

Sambal Eggplants.

The first dish is the Sambal Eggplants. Priced at Aud$10.80 per plate, it was too sweet for my liking. It should be called, "Sweet Sambal Eggplants".

Curry Fish.

We ordered a bowl of Curry Fish, priced at Aud$16.80. It came with a thin piece of fish cooked with long beans, dried bean curd and egg plants. This curry can be improved by increasing the spiciness of the sauce. Do take note for those who want to order this dish. There are two types of curry fish in the menu. One is Curry Fish and another one is Curry Fish Head. Curry Fish Head is double the price of Curry Fish. So, you make the choice. ;)

Ayam Kadazan.

To be honest, I don't even know this dish exist in Malaysia. Somemore, it's so specific that it's a Kadazan (an ethnic group in Sabah) dish. Since it's written in the menu that this is a chef recommended dish, no doubt, it tasted good. Taken from the menu, "chicken marinated in our chef's special spices and deep fried to perfection". A plate of this is priced at Aud$13.80.

Special Spare Ribs.

Our last dish was Special Spare Ribs. Out of so many dishes that we ordered, I think this spare ribs was the most authentic. It tasted exactly like the "Pai Guk Wang" (Spare Rib King) in Miri. Priced at Aud$15.80, it is highly recommended by me.

Char Kueh Teow.

We were all served with free complimentary rice. Danny was too drunk hungry that he ordered himself a serve of Char Kueh Teow (Aud$11.80). It's just normal Char Kueh Teow to filled your stomach. Nothing can beat the best fried kueh tiaw in Miri.

Overall, Kopi Tim Restaurant might be a good restaurant to dine-in if you're not looking at the price.

After dinner, Melissa and Oliver had to attend a friend's birthday party. As for the four of us, we didn't have much choices left. Either we went home, or, we went for a drink (not alcohol). We opted the latter.

Melissa or maybe Sharon suggested Elephant Walk Cafe for their Sticky Date Pudding.

Melissa was not leading us to this place. The four of us had to go there by our own. Worse, with me driving. On the way there, we made loads of mistakes as none of us know the exact route there. My sis was so funny when she shouted "turn left, turn left" with her hand gestures showing the right hand side. She's drunk! :P

Elephant Walk Cafe.

To comment, Elephant Walk Cafe is ideal for couple. It has a quiet ambience (not until we reached there) and equipped with dim lights. The lights were so dim that we could hardly see the menu.

Sticky Date Pudding.

We ordered three types of desserts which were Sticky Date Pudding, Chocolate Pudding and I-forgot-what-dessert. All the desserts seemed to be normal to me. At one time, I thought the Sticky Date Pudding was almost the same as the frozen one which Chris had bought some time ago.

There were not much photos taken on the desserts as it was quite embarrasing to keep on having the camera flash turned on. Apologise for that.

We spent the whole night chatting and laughing. We had two sessions for that night. First session was with a group of four people and the second session was with additional two people. It was a great night when we started to talk about our high school life. All of us were from the same high school. From friends to teachers and from prefectorial board to the mischevious activities in class. It's all unforgetable memories which brought us all the fun.

At about 1a.m., it's the time of the day when we had to say goodbye. I'm sure it was an enjoyable day for the sixth of us.

Adelaide Day 4 coming soon...

P/s: Sorry for the delay of these holiday posts. I had problems with my laptop previously and now problems with my external hardrive. *Sigh* Bad luck...