New Year Again?

It's new year again ah? Time can really flies. In just a blink of eyes, it's another year again. I'm sure I had a challenging year this year. What about you?

I listed few new year resolutions for the year 2007. Have I achieved everything?

1. Study HARDER and SMARTER! (I don't think I studied harder and smarter. But at least, I graduated! :))
2. Get a job and earn some $ for travelling. (Didn't manage to do so due to several reasons)
   
3. Improve my English. (I don't know whether my English has improved or not. What do you think?)
   
4. Enjoy more food. :P (Definitely I did. Just go back to my food posts and you'll know.)
5. Remove some fat on my body. (Does this contradict with 4?) (1 or 2 kg, considered succeed or not? Hehe.)
   
6. Decide to stay in Australia or Malaysia for career. (Haven't decided yet. Bring forward to 2008.)
   

At least 50% of my new year resolutions have achieved. Not bad huh?

You must now be asking, what about 2008 new year resolutions? Hmm... frankly speaking, I'm quite lost at the moment. So, I haven't thought of any resolutions yet. I'll jot down when I'm ready, ok?

The last but not least...

I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! Enjoy your holidays and start a fresh new year again this year! :)

Merry X'mas Everyone!

Today is the busiest time of the year for Santa Claus. He already had a name list of those who are good or bad. Now, he has to ride his reindeers to distribute all the presents. Are you the one on his list to receive presents? ;)

Kok's Christmas tree.

Here, I wish everyone a blessed Christmas and a great 2008! :)

Happy Dongzhi!

Today is a once a year Dongzhi Festival. During this day, a sumptuous dinner is a must for all the family members to get together.

Fish, yam basket, tofu with vege and steamed chicken.

Roast pork and duck, deep fried prawns and fish.

Those were the many dishes I had with my family from my mama's side. It has been quite some time since I last had a dinner with so many people. I enjoyed both the dinner as well as the company.

Happy Dongzhi to everyone! Hope you all had a great one, too! :)

Little Caesars Pizzeria

Short note: Just came back from Sibu-Bintangor (Sarawak) trip.

The last dinner before I flew back to Miri was at Little Caesars Pizzeria. I wasn't aware of this pizzeria until Zhungyi told me that it serves the best pizza in Perth. For your interest, this pizzeria has won a lot of pizza competitions.

Little Caesars Pizzeria.

Located at Mundaring, which is about 45 minutes drive from Perth, the far location didn't stop us from having our dinner there. Nevertheless, I had to thank Zhungyi for driving us. :)

Busy staff.

Once we reached there, we saw a large crowd filling up the small pizzeria. All the staff was either busy making pizza or serving the customers.

Only few tables...

One of the downside for this pizzeria is the limited seats they offered. Maybe this is a trend for those famous restaurants at Perth? Remember Ciao Italia? It also has limited seats.

Danny and me with a large pizza.

Choosing the pizza was not an easy task. They had a long list of menu. Not wasting anymore time, we ordered some award winning pizza and then, settled a seat outside the pizzeria.

Janes Addiction.

We thought we might have to wait for quite some time before our order came. To our surprise, our first pizza, Janes Addiction, was served on our table after only plus minus 15 minutes.

Thin crust, generous toppings.

I couldn't wait any longer. After taking photos, I grabbed a piece of pizza and gave it a bite. Gosh! Janes Addiction tasted heavenly good. The thin crust was topped with huge prawns, pieces of Italian bacon, herbs and Mozarella cheese. Seldom, I could find such big, juicy prawns on top of a pizza crust. It definitely earned two thumbs up from me.

Pisagne.

Came next was Pisagne. This pizza was entered into competitions. That was the main reason we ordered this.

Disappointed...

The name, Pisagne, is actually a description of the pizza; pizza combines with lasagne. It was topped with Parmessan cheese, pasta cheese and bolognaise sauce. I was quite disappointed with this pizza as the taste was quite bland. Maybe I expected quite a bit from this...

Mudhoney.

After those traditional pizza, we went on to order two small dessert pizza. That was the first time I tried dessert pizza. I didn't know such pizza exists! :P

Chocolate mudcake pizza.

Mudhoney is basically chocolate mudcake on top of a pizza base. For me, this pizza was quite unique. I could taste both cake and pizza at the same time. No doubt, this is one of their most famous pizza.

Black Forrest.

We thought one dessert pizza is not enough for us, so we ordered two. The second one was Black Forrest. It was a chocolate and cherry cake on top of a pizza base. The cherry flavour was not strong enough. Therefore, it tasted almost the same as the Mudhoney except for additional ice-cream.

All and all, we were satisfied with the pizza from Little Caesars Pizzeria. We were so full that we couldn't even finish the dessert pizza. How much was the bill? We paid about Aud$22 for 2 large pizza (Mondays - Wednesdays special) and Aud$11 for 2 small dessert pizza. The bill was quite reasonable for the quality of pizza they served.

This pizzeria is strongly recommended by me.

Address:
Little Caesars Pizzeria
Shop 7, 7125 Great Eastern Highway
Mundaring WA 6073

Phone:
(08) 9295 6611 (Does not take reservations)

Business Hours:
Open 6 days a week (closed on Tuesdays)
4p.m. till late

P/s: The dessert pizza can be quite sweet from some people but it is definitely a must try. ;)

Officially Graduated!

Just when I reached Miri, my sis already sent an sms to my dad to brag about her exam result. Yalah yalah, no doubt, she really did a great job; 3 High Distinctions and 1 Credit! This more or less gave me a bit of pressure about my result.

Anyhoo, take a look at this...

Enlarge this...

I didn't mean to boast, but this is by far the best result I've ever obtained. :P

• Engineering Tribology and Maintenance - 71 (Distinction)
• Fundamentals of Engineering Fabrication and Metalworking Processes - 70 (Distinction)
• Introduction to Offshore Plateforms and Ships - 76 (Distinction)
• Mechanical Engineering Project (Thesis) - 71 (Distinction)
  

Although I didn't manage to get myself an honours for my degree, I'm quite satisfied with my results. Here, I would like to thanks all my friends and lecturers who have helped me throughout my uni life. Without you all, I don't think I'll go this far.

Arigatou gozaimasu! :)

Fish or Crab?

Short note: I'm back in Miri now!

Four engineers, one boring night, what could we do? Fishing lah!

Usual fishing spot.

We reached our usual fishing spot at about 10p.m. This time, we brought along crabbing stuff to try our luck.

Crabbing scoop, cooking pan and fishing rod.

Just minutes after stepping our feet on the jetty, Jono and me found a crab moving in the water. We grabbed our crab scoops immediately and ready to scoop the crab up.

"1, 2, 3!" both of us whispered. We gave no chance for the crab to escape. There it went, our first crab of the night. We couldn't believe it was so easy! :P

Two unlucky crabs.

After the first crab, we didn't have much luck. We even tried to go into the water for more "victims" but only Brian managed to scoop another one.

Serious Jono.

Later on, Jono spotted a stingray. He tried to fish it but it wasn't even attracted to the bait.

Kok with the sausages.

While everyone was busy fishing and crabbing, I was given the responsibility to fry the sausages. This is what everyone was looking forward to. Eat!

Two became lots!

Of course, we didn't forget our main task; to catch more fish and crabs. Too bad, no fish was hooked.

What to do with the crabs?

We gave up on fish and targeted more on crabs. Thus, we ended up with a bucket full of crabs. What did we do to them?

Cooked and ate them!

We cooked them in boiling water and ate them fresh! The meat was so sweet without even adding any seasoning. I think those were the freshest crabs I have ever eaten. So yummy!

Mission accomplished.

Crabbing on the jetty and eating them fresh on the spot. This is indeed a wonderful experience for everyone. What an activity to end our year together! :)

Ciao Italia With High School Friends

Couple of days ago, I visited Ciao Italia again. This time, with my highschool friends; Danny, Zhungyi and Leon.

Ciao Italia.

Although we are in the same city, we hardly come out for a meet up or gathering. Probably, most of us are caught up with our own work.

It's always packed.

Seeing that we are all having our "holidays", we decided to have a dinner together at Ciao Italia. I have to admit that it's always nice to have this kind of gathering once in a while to keep the friendship going.

Ciao Italia Fettucine.

We reached Ciao Italia at about 7p.m. and it was already packed with people. We were lucky enough to get a seat without waiting.

Danny ordered himself a serve of Ciao Italia Fettucine . It's basically flat, thick pasta in a creamy white sauce. Tossed with the fettucine are strips of chicken, sundried tomatoes as well as fresh tomatoes. Priced at Aud$21, it came in a generous portion which could be shared between two persons.

Ciao Italia Spaghetti .

Zhungyi decided to get the same pasta as Danny except, his was spaghetti instead of fettucine. I tried this out and overall, it tasted not too bad. The sauce was just right, however, I think additional pepper can do a little bit of trick. ;)

Calzone Pizza.

For me, I ordered a huge Karipap (Curry Puff) or Apam Balek or whatever names you could think of. :P Just look at the photo, I thought it was a wrong order. I always had a mindset that a pizza should be in a flat piece but no! This pizza was not.

Pizza?

It's actually pizza base topped with mozarella cheese, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms and capsicums and then folded into half. I think it's worth the Aud$21 I paid as it tasted real good. In addition, this huge Karipap was definitely filling. A strongly recommended dish by me!

Leon enjoyed a serve of Carbonara Spaghetti but I didn't manage to take a photo of that.

Tiramisu

Not to be missed, a piece of Tiramisu was shared among the four of us for dessert. Yes, only 1 piece for 4 persons! What to do? A piece of this finger-licking-good-Tiramisu is priced at Aud$7.50. However, I still have to stress that this Tiramisu is heavenly good. A must order at Ciao Italia.

A dinner at Ciao Italia was definitely satisfying. We all had a full stomach while walking out from the restaurant.

After dinner, what did we do? Check out this short video clips and you'll know...

Hahaha! We were Wii-ing! A good exercise after dinner. ;)