2007 HBF Perth City to Surf

Last Thursday, Danny and I went to Perth Convention Exhibition Centre to collect our 2007 HBF Perth City to Surf racepack. We had signed up for the 12km walk category.

More than 15 counters...

This is our final year in uni (HOPEFULLY) and we thought this is the best chance to do something outside uni.

My race tag.

Transponder.

The race pack contains one race tag and one transponder. The transponder is for timing purpose during the race. No more using stop watch!

After getting the race pack, I fell quite sick the next day. Flu and sorethroat to be exact. I slept and had all sort of medicine to get well in the shortest time.

Last night, I was feeling better and decided to go for the run. However, the weather was quite bad with strong wind and rain.

Sunday morning, I was welcome by the strong wind and rain again. I was thinking twice before I decided to give it a go.

Starting line.

The race was scheduled to start at 8:15a.m. at St. Georges Terrace. When Danny and I reached there about 7:30a.m., the street was already packed like sardine.

Count how many people are there.

Most of the people were wearing disposable raincoat. Some were so creative that they use bin bag to create their own.

Participant 25522, wearing a jacket with two t-shirts inside.

Our race then started shortly. It was so difficult to walk/run with thousands of people. Since Danny and I aimed for below 2 hours, we ran here and there, trying to overtake some of the people in front.

I was quite slow today compared to the other day when I trained. My sickness as well as the bad weather were the factors which slowed my pace down.

I won't give up!

I asked Danny to go without me. I ran and walked and ran and walked. That's what I did for the entire race. At some point, I felt like giving up but after giving a second thought, I pushed myself forward.

While walking/running, people at the side of the road were cheering for us. Some of the participants even encouraged each other by giving high five. Now, tell me, how could I stop half way?

After running and panting along the race, I finally reached the finishing line at City Beach Oval. People were shouting "well done" and I am glad I had gone this far.

Kok with his commemorative medallion.

Danny with his commemorative medallion.

I met Danny in the oval later. I didn't expect to meet him since there were lots of people there. He finished the race about 10 minutes earlier than me. That's mean I was not that slow eh? Hehe.

It was still quite windy at that time. I suggested to take the bus provided back to the city straight after that. Danny agreed since we were still sick. Yes, Danny is sick too!

A commemorative medallion to be proud of.

Anyway, I am quite proud of myself. I challenged myself to participate in this marathon although I'm not a long distance runner. My Baba is better than me in this but he hasn't even participate in any marathon before. I think I can show off to him this time. :P

Although it's merely a 12km run, it's a great achievement for me after considering the worst case in a marathon; sick, bad weather and least training. Well done to all who participated in this charity marathon! :)

P/s: It's quite amazing that I felt much more better after the run.
P/s/s: I'll start to bloghop soon after I am fully recovered. :)

Current Condition...

After sleeping for more than 14 hours a day, I'm now feeling more energetic than usual. My sickness is about to recover. No more sorethroat. Only a bit of flu. I think I made the right decision for not going to uni to meet up with Danny for our lab report. If not, my sickness would probably get worse.

So, now what? I've made up my decision to go for the marathon tomorrow. I know, it's probably not a good idea to run a marathon after a slight recovery in my sickness. But then, considering I won't have the chance next year (if I was to go back Miri for good), I decided to go for it. It's just a 12km WALK by the way. I might be just walking all the way towards the finishing line. :P

Anyway, I'll have to head off to bed soon. The marathon starts at 8a.m. tomorrow and I have to get up as early as 6a.m. Maybe go for a Hungry Jack's or McD's brekky with my friends and get prepared for the marathon. The only thing I'm worry about is the weather tomorrow. Like Joe's said, the weather here is very unpredictable. I hope it's going to be a good weather tomorrow. Fingers crossed...

Before I end this post,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNTY JUDY!

One year older, one year wiser. Wish you all the best in everything!:)

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Get Lost!

"Get lost, flu and sorethroat! I'm not going to friend you!"

Some of you might know that I'm down with flu and sorethroat since the past few days. Yesterday alone, I slept as early as 7p.m. until the next day 9a.m. But still, my flu and sorethroat do not get any better.

Anyway, I'm going to try everything possible to get rid of this flu and sorethroat before this Sunday because I'm going to participate in...

2007 HBF Perth City to Surf.

2007 HBF Perth City to Surf. It's an annual marathon event in Perth. I'm taking part in 12km walk category for the very first time this year and I hope to get it done below 2 hours.

I'll blog about this event more if I'm getting my handphone for photos on that day (camera too bulky and difficult to jog with it). At the mean time, I'm going to rest more and get well as soon as possible. No bloghopping these few days for me. Sorry, guys!

Corica Apple Strudel

These days, whichever blogs I hop to, I'll see food. Being the "kiasu" (scare lose) me, I decided to write a post about pastry. I've written about this post before but it's a shared post. So, I decided to dedicate this whole post for it. Melbourne Day 2, I'm sorry I've to put you behind for a while...

Anyway, today, I'm going to introduce Perth most famous-everyone-must-try-Apple-Strudel!

Corica.

Many pastry shops make apple strudel. However, I have to say, Corica makes the best apple strudel in the world Perth. Although Corica is famous for its strudels, no doubt, their cakes and pastries taste good as well.

Continental strudels, cakes and pastries.

The other day, I was telling Chris that I craved for apple strudels. Without asking me, he ordered 2 apple strudels few days after I told him that. One for his friend from Singapore and one for me. Not his treat, I paid! :P

Apple strudel in a box.

Corica apple strudel is well packed in a rigid cardbox. You don't even have to worry you might accidentally spoil the strudel during transportation. This shows how thoughtful they are in maintaining the best quality of strudels for their customers.

How long is this?

An, 35 to 40 cm long, apple strudel costs Aud$15.50. I know, it's kinda pricey for pastries but I can tell you that it's definitely worth every single cent of yours!

Salivating yet?

Corica apple strudel is made of layers of crispy pastry with generous amount of custard and apple filling in between. I think the secret recipe behind this studel is the custard and apple filling. ;)

A piece of apple strudel for me.

The pastry is crispy and topped with fine sugar. Not like other apple strudels, it tastes not too sweet which makes it heavenly delicious! One small piece of that? No... it's not enough.

So, what are you waiting for? For those who have never tried before, grab one now!

Where is Corica?

Corica
106 Aberdeen Street,
Northbridge,
Perth, 6003 Australia.
Tel: 08-9328-8196

What's the opening hours?

8a.m. - 5:30p.m. (Mon. - Fri.)
8a.m. - 12:30p.m. (Sat.)
Closed (Sun.)

Since these apple strudels are famous and run out fast, be sure to order through phone one day before to avoid any disappointment.

P/s: If you're visiting Perth, worry no more. You can still get it board on plane. Corica does provide specially made box to make this possible! :)

Additional Info:

If you're in Perth City or Metro Area, you can reach Corica by taking a FREE Blue CATS bus (Central Area Transport Service). This is a free bus service provided by Transperth. A copy of the bus route can be downloaded HERE!

Hop on to the Blue CATS and get down at Stop 10 (Aberdeen St.), shown in the route. It's just right across the road if I'm not wrong. Happy Hunting!:)

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Simple or Complicated?

I know I am supposed to continue on my Melbourne Day 2 trip but I haven't sorted all the photos out yet. So, I'll post it maybe in the next few days.

Anyway, yesterday, a news in Yahoo! caught my attention. The title says it all; Chinese Couple Tried to Name Baby "@".

Does it sound simple or complicated to you when you are to use symbol as your children's name? For me, it can be simple or complicated.

"!@#$%^ Don't fall down ah!"

Dancing Queen calls her children No. 1, No. 2 and No.3 while, Mum In Miri calls her children Abeh, Asei and A? (don't know her household name yet). Luckily they didn't name their children with those symbols, if not, it'll be like "!@#" which sounds so wrong!

My name is .

How about naming your child "."? Filling up the "name" column in any application form would never be that easy! However, he might ends up getting responses such as "You haven't fill up your name!", "What? Your name is a "."?", "Don't try to fool around with me!" and etc.

Now, is it a good choice to name your children with symbols?

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Melbourne Day 1

After much delay, I finally manage to sit down and write the first post of my Melbourne trip back in July. Aunty Judy, don't flood the whole U.K. after this ah! :P

2nd July 2007
It had been a long time since I last travelled in a long journey bus. After having an 8 hours ride, we (Danny and I) finally reached Melbourne from Adelaide at 6a.m. sharp.

I picked up my mobile and started to call my friend, Siong Bing. Before I could do so, my mobile rang and it was him.

"Hey, I saw you! Stay where you are," he said.

I saw him coming out from his car wearing a short pants. It was so cold and he could stand the coldness. I was freezing at that time, holding on two luggages and a backpack and went straight to his car.

He fetched us back to his house after that. On the way to his house, I could see myself the Melbourne city which was full of high rise buildings. And at about 6:30a.m., the freeway was already lining up with cars.

"What a busy city", I thought.

Once we reached his house, he asked us to take a rest (sleep). Although I manage to take a nap once in a while in the bus, I was real tired. Danny felt the same. After setting up the living room with two mattresses, comforters and pillows, we slept. The living room became our "bedroom" for the next few days. Thanks to Siong Bing and his brother, David, for taking these two refugees.

Sleeping for about 4 hours, we were woke up by Siong Bing.

"Eh, time to explore Melbourne!" he reminded us.

He drove us to the nearest shopping centre, Chadstone Shopping Centre, to take a look. Yea, just take a look since guys seldom shop.

Chadstone Shopping Centre.

Oh, fresh Mrs. Fields.

The "open" roof is fabulous!

Coconut trees in the middle?

Lovely flowers.

Siong Bing claimed that's the biggest shopping centre in Melbourne. In my opinion, every shopping centre in Australia looks the same. In addition to that, all are occupied by the very same chain stores. So, nothing to shout about.

It only took us less than 30 minutes to walk around the whole shopping centre. Fast eh? :P

It's about 1p.m. already. Siong Bing suggested us to have lunch, next. Now, frankly, guys are more interested in food!

Toorak Road, South Yarra.

Darling Street? ;)

He took us to Toorak Road, South Yarra which he explained, this place is a rich-men-road. Want shopping for expensive and branded stuff, this is the place to come.

Pacific House Seafood B.B.Q. Restaurant.

He proposed to eat chinese B.B.Q. that day at Pacific House Seafood B.B.Q Restaurant. It is located along Toorak Road.

Packed.

The design of this restaurant is a bit classy but all the "colourful menu" on the wall spoil everything. Maybe this is the modern Cha Chan Teng (Coffee House).

Roasted duck.

We ordered roasted duck which was seriously good! The meat was tender and tasted better when it was dipped in the plum sauce provided.

Roasted Pork.

Served next to the roasted duck was this roasted pork. Like the duck, this roasted pork was served in highest quality. The meat was very juicy and I simply love it!

Salted Egg Yolk Chicken.

Siong Bing highly recommended this Salted Egg Yolk Chicken. The chicken was deep fried with salted egg yolk batter and curry leaves. This dish is definitely a must when you come to this restaurant.

Complimentary soup.

The dishes were accompanied by a bowl of complimentary soup each. They use pork bone to boil the soup. It was sweet and tasty. Yummy!

Both Danny and I agreed that this restaurant served far better B.B.Q. than B.B.Q. City Restaurant in Adelaide. I'm willing to pay more for the quality of the food.

All and all, it costed us about Aud$50 for everything. It is definitely worth every single cent. Out of 5 stars, it deserves a 4! :)

After lunch, time to go to some of the tourist spot.

Shrine of Remembrance.

We went to Shrine of Remembrance in St. Kilda Road. It is one of the largest war memorials in Australia. This was built as a memorial for those who served and died in World War I.

To remember those who sacrificed...

Private John Simpson and donkey.

40 metre wall of 4000 service medals.

Father and Son statue.

"Greater Love Hath No Man".

No matter it is inside or outside the shrine, there are all sort of stuff to remember those who were sacrificed during the war. The most interesting being the Stone of Remembrance. The marble stone, which was craved with "Greater Love Hath No Man", would require the visitors to bow their heads to read the inscription. No one would be able to touch the stone as it was well below the pavement.

Not only that, at 11a.m. on the 11th of November, a ray of light will fall on the word "LOVE" on the Stone of Remembrance. Only on that particular day as it marks the end of hostilities in World War I. Interesting eh?

Look at how huge is Melbourne city.

On top of the shrine, we could have a view of the Melbourne city. The city is three or four times bigger than Perth city!

Prince of White Horse in the red.

After spending quite some time in this war memorial, we agreed to move on.

Albert Park.

We went to round Albert Park thinking the car that we were sitting in is Ferrari or Mclaren. haha! Oh by the way, if anyone doesn't know what's Albert Park famous for, it's no other than the Formula One.

Pit stop?

It's quite cool eh? A real track is opened for public. Nothing much to see here as there's no race on that day. So, move, move, move!

Smith Street, Collingwood.

Several factory outlets.

Since I wanted to try my luck to get some cheap stuff from some of the factory outlets, Siong Bing brought us to Smith Street, Collingwood. In this street, there are quite some factory outlets. Nike, Adidas and Calvin Klein, to name a few. Shopping for cheap, branded stuff, come here!

However, I was disappointed to find anything that suits me. I just didn't have the luck to shop. :P

Our next destination, a church nearby. I couldn't remember what church is this actually. Aunty Judy, maybe you can help me with this.

Lovely church.

Garden outside the church.

The architecture is just awesome.

"The angel showed me a river whose waters give life, it flows as clear as crystal from the throne of God and of the Lamb."

Interior.

Classic.

This is a huge church with awesome architecture. Siong Bing told me this is one of the most beautiful church in Melbourne. I fully agree with him.

I snapped a lot of photos of the church. Most of them appear to be blur. How I wish I have a better camera with anti-shake technology.

Anyway, we left the church and rushed to the Eureka Tower.

Eureka Skydeck.

Eureka Tower is Melbourne's tallest building and is the world's tallest residential building. It 300 metres from ground with 92 storeys high.

88 levels in less than 40 seconds.

We paid Aud$11 each to travel to the 88th level of the tower. This is what they named, "Eureka Skydeck 88".

Snack on the 88th level?

Yarra River.

How huge is Melbourne?

City view.

All the high rise buildings.

On that particular floor, we walked around the tower. Taking photos of Melbourne in all direction. That's also the time when my camera's battery started to go low, forcing me to take photos using the "zoomviewer". It was extremely tough to take a good photo there. Nevertheless, I enjoy the sceneries there. :)

In addition to that, we paid another Aud$10 for the observation deck; The Edge. It is a glass cube which projects 3 metres out from the building - with you in it - suspended almost 300 metres above the ground! Shiok, I tell you! :P

Inside the glass cube, a photo was taken. We had no choice but to purchase that photo as no camera is allowed in there. We paid Aud$15 for one photo! I'm sorry I don't have the photo to show here as I haven't scanned it yet. Next time, ok?

Now, do the maths on how much we spent there.

We left Eureka Tower after spending about 2 hours there.

Since we were in the city, Siong Bing decided to bring us to Crown Casino for a while. Not for gambling, but to just walk around.

Night view of Yarra River and high rise buildings just beside Crown Casino.

Warner Bros.

Bugs Bunny.

Warner Bros Shop.

Crown Casino is rather huge with not only the casino itself. It has coffee shops, retail shops and many more. The one that attracted me most is the Warner Bros. Too bad, according to Siong Bing, there were more cartoon characters (like the Bugs Bunny) if not because of the renovation.

Fireballs.

We were lucky that day to see fireballs (gas brigades) released from the top of the towers outside Crown Casino. The brigades operate on different times depending on the season. I only managed to capture two photos of the brigades as my camera's battery finally drained out.

Dinner time, dinner time!

What do you want?

Again, it was Siong Bing to bring us for dinner. We went to a Malaysian cuisines restaurant (I forgot its name, sorry!) somewhere near Lygon Street.

Nasi Lemak Kerabu.

Nasi Ayam Goreng (?).

Fried Kueh Tiaw with Egg Sauce (Wat Dan Hor).

I ordered Nasi Lemak Kerabu while Danny and Siong Bing had Fried Kueh Tiaw with Egg Sauce and Nasi Ayam Goreng respectively. Nothing to shout about for all the food actually. It's so normal that I don't have anything to write about. Oh, maybe one thing about the sambal of my Nasi Lemak Kerabu. It was so hot that I had to gulp down two or three glasses of water!

Dessert? We wanted to try the famous gelati at Lygon St. but unfortunately, the good ones were closed on that day. Don't worry, stay tuned for the gelati on the next few posts. ;)

We went home straight after dinner. We were too tired that we slept after taking a shower. It was a long day that day. More to come...

Melbourne Day 2, soon!