O week

Been here for 3 weeks. First week was nothing much, was here to enrol, and were the first few whom arrived. But we did manage to board on the bus and travel around. The public transportation here is just very efficient and punctual, that without a car anything is possible, unlike Malaysia. Talking about the bad things on Malaysia, there is also one thing i love about Malaysia, the WEATHER. At least it is consistent. Unlike Australia, we can actually experience 4 seasons in a day. Yesterday, we went to Melbourne CBD to have a look at the annual Moomba festival and a Malaysia BBQ lunch. On our way there, on the train it started to rain, which followed with a sounds of something hitting against the window. When we looked out we realised that it was hailing, hailstorm is here to visit. As unexpected as it happened, many were not prepared for such storms, where the whole event was cancelled and even the public transport was interrupted. But it was rather serious, as the Yarra river flooded and some buildings has holes in the roof, as the frozen rain was as big as a fist. A month in Australia and hail happened, what an exciting year it will be. ><

Second week was orientation week, we visited Luna Park and St Kilda beach, went to the CBD to do a Scav (Scavenger) Hunt, where we did many funny stuff -smashing ice cream in front of public and saying "im not crazy" and dancing kan kan in front of a train station.

And last, Mr Phua.. This is war! :p

Maybe i thought wrongly, or maybe i'm just thinking too much. Maybe how things are now are just fine, making perfect sense that it does not cause unnecessary 'injuries'. I should look at things differently, and let things be. Just Let It Be.

P.S. What is friendship? A person you find when you need to fill up your time or is it just someone there so you don't feel too lonely?

2 more weeks

Its 2 more weeks before CNY but also 2 more weeks before i actually leave for Australia. Having all kind of feelings now, happy sad, nervous confident, worried but yet eager for it, so much mixed feeling. I just hope when im back, i remain myself, changed for the better and not for the worst. I already know i will feel home sick and lonely there, at least i have a group of friends who will be transferring, things will not change much in Uni for the least.

I have been rather lucky for at least half a year. I did not realised my car has no road tax for half a year,it expired 30 July 2009. When there was a road block yesterday, and i had a look at my road tax, i started to panic, with the 2009 words in my eye, and the police down the road. I really have to be grateful that i did not get caught for have an expired road tax, i went home and quickly told my mom, and even she didnt know, she thought she have already renew the road tax, as we had called up the insurance agent before. My mom quickly renewed today, thankfully. She claims that there must be a guardian angel - dad looking after us, because she also met with a road block today which were checking the road tax.

Leave/MC

Another Friday, but its different from the usual Friday, because i did not go to work, did not need to go to the hospital, did not need to study. I took leave! This is the second leave i took, excluding the one week i took for Korea. The first leave was due to my back, which i sprained since two weeks ago but has not recovered after seeing 3 different people to diagnose my back. So i went to a bone specialist in a hospital. I think my back is feeling better, but my mom say its because i chunking in painkiller and muscle relaxan, and i would not feel any pain even there is one. Ah well, 2 more weeks then ill know whether the medicine works, if not i have to do a xray which is going to be very costly.

So another day off, but this time it was not for me. When i woke up, my mom called me to take some diarrhea painkiller for her. She was not feeling well, and had diarrhea for the whole night. A record breaking event, she went to the toilet 12 times. So i decided to go a little late to work and take her to the doctors. Around 9pm she told me she did not want to go to the clinics so I was about to get ready for work, when my maid told me that my tyre is flat, how unfortunate can i be, so i decided to take the day off. Plus, i was reminded i should stay home and take care of my mom, which i agree upon her suggestion. Also, i was not feeling to well, i went to the toilet twice in 10 minutes, and after that i was feeling nausea and having slight stomach aches too.

Well, after fixing the tyre, making sure my mom is well, went to the market to get the grocery, and pack some of my stuff for Australia, or at least decide what i needed to buy, it was already the afternoon. My maid decided to cook some beehives for CNY. So i helped out, actually i cooked. Its been a long time since i did it, bring back memories. :)

Malacca Trip

After Xmas in Korea, now is New Years in Malacca. This trip became more like a Rubik's cube camp instead of a free and easy trip to Malacca

Day 1 - 1 Jan 2010

I brought my Rubik's cube to cure my boredom during the journey to Malacca. But I was not the only one interested in the cube, I found another cooler Rubik's cube, instead of the normal 6 colors cube, this cube has only one color - black, but it is 3D. It has a shape and the shape of each smaller cube is cascading increasingly and decreasingly, which to me was rather intriguing. Our first day in Malacca, we visited Dataran Pahlawan. After lunch, we headed to the arcade. This was Mandy's first time going to the arcade, but glad she had fun. Talking about the first time, think I brought many people to their first arcade... Am i such a bad influence?

After Dataran Pahlawan, we went back to the apartment to rest before heading out to dinner. Dinner was a nightmare. It was Portugese food, as delicious as it sounds, it is horrendously SPICY. Actually CRAZILY SPICY. I admit my tolerance for chili is low, but the food was really horribly SPICY. The food were nice, except the SPICY part. I only eat the fish out of the many dishes, and Portugese Grill Fish is no joke. It practically burned a hole in stomach; forget the exaggeration, but i really almost puked after dinner because it was too spicy. I ate 3 plates of plain rice to cover the spiciness and 3 cups of water. After dinner we walked by the Jeti. I didnt see boats there, but saw many Karoake, Bars and Snooker places. According to Serene, its more like a party place than a scenery place. Such a waste. It was right beside the sea i think.

Well, instead of being addicted to Rubik's cube, addiction was on Uno during that day. We played on the way to Malacca, played before dinner, and played during the night, till 2 am.

Day 2 - 2 Jan 2010

Breakfast was dim sum, then we went to Sam Poh Well. It was the most important source of water during the old times, and because of that the Portugese and Holland used it to poison their opponents. They actually build walls around it to protect this week during the war times due to its important and there are cannon holes.

Next up, Malacca Red House and Jonker Street. As usual the Red House has a church then you walk up to see this fortress, or at least the residue of it. Its built on the top of the hill, the scenery was not that nice, but from far we could see this big ship which looks really cool. A really huge ship but i have no idea what is it actually. Probably the Portugese ship. After that we crossed the bridge we were already at Jonker street. TCH joked that because the river was Malacca river, by crossing Selat Melaka you will reach Indon. Lol. Lunch was Nyonya food. First impression it would be spicy, but i survived which means its not even spicy. Nothing I can't handle :p The cendol was like, maybe it was the Gula Melaka, the Gula Melaka was really the secret recipe.

The Rubik's cube addiction was then reaching its peak, everyone wanted to have a try and the cube, and amazed how XY and XC can solved it so fast. The craze only reached its peak, when the whole group actually bought 7 or 8 cubes from Jonker street. Everyone was getting obsessed over it. Many wanted to learn how to solve the cube, and bought one just to learn.

So Jonker street was like the place to get the cube as every shops seems to be selling it, guess it wasnt only KL crazy with it, Malacca too. The best evidence was when we were outside Sap Sam Gong (Malacca souvenir shop) we saw this two kids playing it. After Jonker street we headed for a bath back at our apartment. Dinner was just Bak Kut Teh opposite our apartment. The food wasn't really to our liking, we had many left over and i think they were not really happy about it. But we were really full, even if we weren't think some was saving up for sate celup. Something you cant get in KL, specially in Malacca. Or maybe because our whole table - full of girls were addicted on the cube, each of us had a cube with us and playing with it.

So talking about sate celup, it is like KL lok lok but the different is the gravy. In KL it is just soup but in Malacca it is sate soup. Although it sounds really unhealthy or maybe unhygienic, which i totally agree, the sate sauce really tastes good. The food will really be tasty if the gravy actually sinks into the food. But I ate quite little because i was rather food. I was amazed that some people could accumulate the bill up to 100 plus over food that only cause 60 cents per stick. There was practically more than 100 +++ sticks on the table. ><

Day 3 - 3 Jan 2010

Breakfast was porridge (Ting Zhai Jok) better known as just Seafood porridge, with steam chicken, and yong tau foo with fried wantan. A very heavy breakfast, but it was because it was more like brunch because we were heading back to KL already. After breakfast we packed everything. We headed to this shop called Tan Kim Hock, which sold food food food, but produced by this guy called Tan Kim Hock. Apparently he is this really famous Malacca doctor, or so i think, my Chinese has its limits. We managed to grab another cendol, which was "invented" by him too before we headed back to KL. :)

This whole trip was totally a eat walk sleep trip. The first trip ever, nothing hectic just plain leisure. Rather enjoyable yet headache because of Rubik's cube existence.

Korea Trip Day 7,8

Day 7 - 24 Dec 2009

Shopping shopping and shopping. We went back down to Seoul. We had western breakfast at the resort. It snowed that night, so everywhere was snow. At last, a White Xmas Eve. Back in Seoul we had a shopping spree, first was SinCheon Women Street then it was Daidoman. 5 hours of shopping wasn't enough, but we had to go on with the tour to Lotte World. Lotte world was like a Mini Disneyland or a Genting look alike. There was actually a Disneyland castle, it looked like one to me. There were all the theme parks game, roller coaster, arcade food stalls.

Lunch was Duck. Think the last meal was still the best. As long it is not pork, everything is good. Although it was duck shabu shabu, but yum.. Lunch was fantastic.

We spend Xmas eve separated, sad to say, because we could not find each other. It was just Mom and me, while Aunty, Fion and Feli was missing. And to say we were supposedly to have a nice Xmas Eve Dinner, we ended up with sandwich and cup noodle.

On the way to Lotte World, there was this massive traffic jam. And to say, we ran away from the busy hectic KL to Korea, trying to avoid the jams, but Korea traffic was really bad during the eve. Every single road was flooded with cars, all i see out the windows was the brake lights. Got to admit, we were surprised, because i only expected KL to have such bad jams....

Day 8 - 25 Dec 2009

Xmas shopping spree again. We went to the shopping mart again. This time we went crazy, we bought 3 boxes of FOOD, and only FOOD. We didn't managed to buy much stuff throughout this trip, because everything was such in a rush, but that's what going on a tour feels like.

We headed to the airport at 12pm. This time lunch was... fast food and Korean food. The others took fast food but i decided to have one last try on Korean food, and I decided i get better Korean food in Malaysia, or maybe its because I get MSG here in Malaysia. :p

Korea Trip Day 5,6

Day 5 - 22 Dec 2009

It was a really really early morning, we woke up at 6.30am which is 5.30am local time. We flew back to Gimpo and was heading for Mt Sorak. It was a 3 hour journey from the airport. Lunch was pork and shabu shabu again. There was seaweed soup too. Luckily we ate something at the rest area before lunch. So however bad lunch was, we will survive. And pork with shabu shabu was becoming an icon for Korea as every meal was just pork + shabu shabu. ><

On the way up to the mountain, we stopped by the temple, more like a Buddha status, the biggest in Korea. After the long walk to see a statue, we ended up at a teddy bear farm. It was a rather small museum of teddy bears, but it was nicely done. I was amazed with the decoration. They explain every scene with just teddy's, but it was like Teddy's Land.

Dinner was great. It was seafood shabu shabu with fried fish. No pork, yippee. Even the side dishes was delicious. They even served sweet potato, not to my liking, but everyone enjoyed it. The waiter was really friendly and he understood what we were talking or asking for. Another culture shock from this trip was that a minority of Koreans do not understand English at all, while a majority knows just a little. We met some whom spoke Canto and Mandarin but those are like duty free area, where they were to sell duty free products. Otherwise, normal places, there were hardly a handful whom could speak fluent English, Chinese or Cantonese. But they are learning, as they know how to speak certain words. According to the guide, he mentioned that only the younger generations learn English, while the Elderly are less exposed. He even told us, there were some Elderly that was born when the Japanese conquered Korea, could only speak Japanese, as they were forced to learn Japanese only. Then we reached Kensington Hotel. It was really special was the rooms were the Old Era Rooms. There were tatami's plus a bed, and the heater was actually from the floor. It was like living in those Old Korean houses. Nice place, but the only bad part was they didnt provide a bath towel, but only face towel. So we were stranded with just two face towel each for bathing. It was a trend in Korea, where they only provide face towel in hotels instead of bath towel - those older hotels.

Day 6 - 23 Dec 2009

Ski Time. The whole day was just ski ski and ski. I had a bruise from the fall. Ski-ing aint hard, but walking up the slope with your ski equipment was. You have to talk sideways like a crab. If you try walking straight up the slope with your equipments - Skis, you will only end up ski-ing down the slope. But I managed to learn how to ski, brake and turn. Lunch was on our own, thank godness. I had instant noodle for lunch, but it was really nice. I'm not much of a fan of instant noodle, but i needed some change from the usual menu. Lunch had dessert this time - ice cream. It was cold outside, but eating ice cream during winters is really nice. I actually ate ice cream 4 times in this trip, more than my usual diet. Dinner was the best. We went to this restaurant where we were required to sit on the floor, the Korean way, and we had BBQ pork. The food was tasty, but it was pork again. For the night we stayed in a ski apartment. My mom and aunty stole the bed, so we 'kids' were on the couch and floor with tatami.