Road Trip

Bits and pieces of memories captured along the road trip... Spent a lot... a LOT of time on the road... sometimes sang along with the radio till sore throat, sometimes tuned in to radio talk that was quite weird... :P , had a few stops along the way for the beautiful scenic views or the town's specialty...

Grilling oyster we bought from Nambucca, very cheap~! one dozen for aud7.50

Eating large raw oysters, also bought from Nambucca (AUD12)


Misty mountaintop...


Freddo pie, famous for its crocodile pie~! go to www.freddopie.com.au~!

Omg... desserts... Can I have 'em? (Although my hands are actually quite ladden with pies ad... oops?)

The hump on the pie actually means it is a camel meat pie... :D

Did in fact had a chance to drop by Canberra, although in terms of shopping and attractions, I much prefer Sydney to Canberra. It was flocked with tourists especially the Parliament House. Strange as it may seem to me, but I couldn't help wondering why when I visited the parliament House in Perth, no photography is allowed and only authorised visitors whereas Canberra's Parliament House is pretty much open to public? Although in comparison, Perth's parliament house brags of a LOT of chandeliers (say about 30+?) and they have a very priceless blackswan decoration at the bottom floor. Canberra Parliament House depicts paintings and mostly pictures with the occasional statues.

Canberra~!


The house of senate... attention~!


Beautiful embroidery decorating the great hall in the Parliament House


Yes, milady...


Conversing with black swan... quack quack~!


You are not much of a talker, aren't you?

Road trip destination 1: Sydney

25 - 26th of December 2009

Finally arrived in Sydney after approximately 8 hours on the road. The progression from Perth to Melbourne has bought me some insight to the beauty of Australia but then Sydney is well... way more beautiful. We checked into a hotel at The Rocks which housed a lot of nice shop lots and is just steps away from the circular Quay. At the rooftop of the hotel, there is a nice and clear view of the Sydney Bridge, The Sydney Opera House and the city. The sight was breathtaking~!

Sydney Bridge

Sydney Opera House

The first thing we did upon arriving was to fill our stomach, just on the corner is a Guylian chocolate house~! We bought a few chocolates to try out, quite forgotten their names by now. Only remember that it was delicious~! The white with bow on top had slight alcohol taste which blends nicely with the fruity sweet chocolate taste~! yummy~!

Guylian chocolates

The hotel was very strategic, just a few minutes walk to the circular quay and SOH. Although the circular quay brags of its wonderful view of the port and its many attractions, it is also flocked with sea gulls which leaves many unsightly messes... yucks~! At the side of SOH, there is also a nice botanical garden encouraging visitors to walk on the grass, sit and enjoy nature. Some locals choose to celebrate their christmas with a bottle of champagne and finger foods while lounging under the trees. Tourists were noted immediately by their bulky DSLR cameras and the backpacks. I wonder how I look to others with my bulky white handbag and trenchcoat (Hey, it was raining~!). lol...

Immersed in nature's beautyBottle tree found only in Aussie Sneak peak of the palace garden

Crowds throng the city streets for the Boxing day sale

So nice to be Queen Victoria's favourite pet, you get a statue all for yourself~!

Kawaii cakes~! :P yum yum...

Daifuku~!!!

Bondi Beach, supposed to be throng with crowds except it was raining tat day... They say the sand is supposed to be so fine, but I find it just ordinary in comparison to Coff's Harbour beach. The beauty perhaps lies with the beautiful town cove surrounding the beach which makes it all the more accessible.

No alcohol... seriously... XD

The famous Bondi Beach Rescue does their training here? The beautiful swimming pool beside the sea... I m sure the maintenance fee would be high...

Recycled bottle xmas tree

Unconventional cute doggy xmas log...


Night view of Sydney city... bye bye sydney~!

The week in Shepparton

Sunday - Went for a road trip to Echucha, which is roughly 1 and 1/2 hours away from Shepparton. It is like a small town version of Ballarat with quite antique style architecture with quaint gift shops and cute home-made candy and confectionery shops. Hard to find such a place where it is open during sundays. Echucha also boasts of its red-gum wood and steamer services down the Murray River. You can choose to take a short ride or join in for their lunch/dinner menus atop the cruise. You can even choose to organize events such as weddings on the simple steamer cruise, so not my type anyway.

,
We opted instead for a nice picnic along the shore of Murray river. A-ha... maybe not a very good idea, we spend almost half the time trying to chase off flies and the birds who are not shy at all~! XP

There is another quite important place to drop by in Echucha, which is a fish and oyster bar which boasts the best fish and chips in Victoria states. Unlike other shops who claimed that they are the best in certain fields, this shop actually displayed the newspaper article dubbing them Victoria's best fish and chips shop. True to its name, it is very nice, winning over Fremantle's fish and chips. And the amazing part is? the shop is managed and handled by only one person~!

The week in Shepparton

Friday night - went to Tatura for a pre-Xmas party organized by Bay's company. In order to socialize, had to drink alcohol. Unwilling to drink beer, chose almost the sweetest dessert wine they had. After downing 4 to 5 glass, felt dizzy already...

Saturday - went to Melbourne for a day trip. Why is it everytime I go down to Melbourne, they had some sort of peace protest going on in the CBD area? first time was some student rights thing, second time was the 'let the refugees into australia' protest and this time is called 'the greens' protest. It is actually something that hits close to heart, makes me wanna be involved in something that can assists in conserving the environment. Actually, to be honest, it seems like a bit of a parade if not for the speeches they gave about carbon capture and rising sea tides beforehand. lol... just take a look at the band of musicians atop the weird cycling machine.
A great place to go especially during xmas shopping is the chocolate and confectionary shops, they have the most cutest and adorable merchandise for the season~! First stop was Darrel Lea, that one was quite mild. The second stop was to Lindt chocolate shop, omg... I swooned at the ranges of products they have up for xmas celebration. If you think the supermarket version of Lindt chocolate is all you can concede for, you haven't seen this bunch~! If they just allow me to take pics of the range of chocolates, cakes and delic, I sure you would salivate at the view. The cakes look really nice. For one whole yummy cake cost about AUD40, which I think isn't so bad if you consider it is LINDT!! :P But the weird thing is the queue doesn't seem to reside at the cake department but at the delic section~! So we decided to follow the crowd and bought the delic... elegance, champagne white and passion for a price of AUD2 each. It is actually very very sweet but the texture is very nice. I am not a fan of sweet stuff but the elegance delic is really nice.

Finally...

Yes~! The final result that I will ever receive finally has been released.

4 years of chemical engineering has finally been drawn to an end, although the official ceremony to celebrate the actual day has not been performed but can't repressed that feeling of completion... yeah~!

Although the results are not what I have been working towards, One of the project that I have been working very hard... Initially the university stated that they will assess the project in two parts which are the group part and the individual part, which means that for the same group, each member will have different marks. However, now we found out that everyone in the member got the same marks. I am not very opposed to my other group members but there was one very very selfish group member who simply do. When I think about it, it could be due to her part that our overall marks was pulled down. I really wanna cry when I think about it.

But never mind, luckily was able to maintain my average still... yes~! Can obtain first class honours~! yeah~!

I made my decision~!

30/11/2009
Finally made my decision what I m going to do for the next few years. Have been offered either a job back home with Shell Malaysia or further my studies with a PhD scholarship offered by Curtin perth.

It took quite some time to make this decision. When I was a little girl and while I was still actively seeking my dad's approval, a career similar to his seems like the absolute goal. That was why I look towards Shell and a career in engineering instead of all the other fun stuff I could be involved with. I was lucky that I got to like this job after 2 years into the course. The first two years was anger and resentment for this course, totally over that now. :D

However, my russian supervisor have constantly brain washing me about the prospect of this research in the current industry. So... hmm... After much thinking and badgering by my siblings, I am going to undertake PhD studies starting next year~! Yikes~!

Twilight: New Moon... Wad do u think of it?

Been waiting like forever for this movie to be released!!! Twilight: New Moon... After the release of the first movie which I have watched front to back several times than I cared to reveal (after the first 8 times, I lost count anyway... >.< ), I have read up on the story books. And honestly, I was kinda disappointed with the story books coz it was what it is... a typical teenage romance novel. There was nothing eloquent about the words used, nor anything extra... Nothing compared to the first few harry potter story books which had a nice plot and use of brit english, or funny as Sophie Kinsella... But anyway, it was what it is. It is the expectation that brought it down.
But anyway, we went for the movie and we had to queue up pretty long to get into the cinema... as can be seen... and we weren't exactly the last one. When we were in the cinema, it was packed to the brim. You can hear gals squeel and squeak in excitement as Edward or Jacobs makes an entrance. But unlike the first movie, I guess the main focus of this movie is the werewolves. The guys are practically there to show their biceps and let's just say Edward Cullen is pale in their wake. There is no nice soundtracks like the ones in the first movie... which is kinda disappointing. And the part where Bella keeps worrying about her looking older than Edward, I really see no worry coz in this movie, Edward looks very old with extra wrinkles compared to the last movie. And did you notice? How come Bella is fashioning eye bags in this movie? And did you notice when she is acting with Jacob, her eyes can't leave his biceps alone... I thought she is supposed to be immensely in love with Edward? I don't recall that in the story book... elo... very unconvincing acting~!
In summary, my bf was asleep most of the time during the movie and at the end of the movie, a guy scream 'this movie sucks~!' (O well, i did mention both guys, how about the gals?) Well, at the end of the movie, a group of gals scream 'that's it?'. Perhaps they're waiting for more biceps... >.< But in summary, soo not worth it...

Carrot Cake

Today, had the chance to bake carrot cake without the proper equipment, e.g. measuring cup and mixer. Wasn't very used to the convection oven, resulting in slightly burnt but nicely crisp top surface. Although I have reduced the amount of icing sugar for the frosting, it is still very very sweet, could further reduce the amount of icing sugar in the frosting.

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups finely shredded carrots
1 cup oil
4 eggs

Icing:
1 package cream cheese
1/2-1 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

Instructions:
1. Mix dry cake ingredients
2. Add carrots, oil and eggs
3. Stir till all is wet
4. Put in greased and floured pan
5. Bale at 180C for 55 minutes
6. Cool
7. Cream together cream cheese, butter, vanilla and icing sugar.
8. Spread over cooled cake

The final farewell

20/11/2009

The day started off like any other day except I had to wake up earlier, about 7am (after only sleeping for about 4 1/2 hours) to finish my packing. The looks of my room after everything has been removed from the room is simply... painful... kinda recalled the day that I came all the way from Miri and was first assigned the room. I had to painstakingly take down all the little things that I put up throughout the year. When we cleaned the living room, weird to see everything we loved just being removed one by one till it seems like it was never there before. I wish the beautiful memories would still live on, like the times we baked scones in the kitchen, the time we cooked meals together, our movie nights, our dinner dates, me talking on the phone till late at night... oops? lol...
In the afternoon, Daddy sheng brought us to Adventure World. It is kinda a themed park, but it is rather deserted. And unlike Brunei's jerudong park, they still let u enjoy those rides even if it means operating the whole thing for just 2 persons~! lol... The water slides were fun~! Although it was summer, by the time we climb out of the water, we were kinda shivering... soo cold... >.< *I had to miss 2 of the slide as I was wearing denim~! >.<>.<
We did went up on another ride, which is called 'shutter' or something. It looks like a mild ride from far off, so i didnt suspect anything. So when Kelvin and Daddy sheng suggested that we sit opposite each other so they could take a look at my scared expression, I was pretty confident. *yeah right* Let's just say... initially I am still able to open my eyes, after a while I had to close my eyes amid screams of 'I hate you, Hamid' lol.. All these time, images from Final Destination flashed across my mind... >.< scream until no voice liao... lol... After the ride, found a bruise on my chest...
Too bad we couldn't take pic while on the rides coz NO loose objects allowed~! But anyway, after Adventure World, Daddy sheng brough us dinner at Chin's noodle restaurant~! Had sambal Kangkong~! The restaurant is so chinesey... kinda make me more homesick... reminds me of Miri nia. lol... and the food is so authentic chinese... hard to find that in Perth, unfortunately. Before we went home to pack our stuff for the flight, managed to visit Daddy Sheng's house. Woo hoo~! It is such a homey and comfy place, I totally don't understand how he manage to drag himself off home and to uni every single day. yeah, every single day... If this is my home, probably I will use every excuse possible under the sky to just laze at home. :D probably in merely a week, i will turn into a pig though... >.< lol...
After such a day, it is kinda sad to end it with a goodbye... but need to thank my friends for seeing me off. thank you... I am the type that can't easily shed tears infront of others, but the pain inside is pretty real. I wish u all the best for your future undertakings and have a nice holiday. See ya all this coming February~! XOXO

Farewell dinner at Rendezvous

19/11/2009

The day I finally finish my last paper in my history of 4 years of bachelor of chemical engineering. That morning was pretty eventful... if you count being thoroughly annoyed as eventful as well... Alvin gave me a ride in the morning as it was raining intermittently. However, he had a minor accident during the drive over, the good news was his kangaroo bar had only a minor scratch and the other person is a fellow chemical student, the bad news was? The other person's car bumper wasn't so lucky. But luckily the matter got resolved now.
During the exam, there was one question that requires us to calculate the slope and intercept of the system. So i asked for graph paper... the lecturer nodded, went out and returned with a bunch of A4 paper. The worst part is after i waited for that amount of time, he said he only expected us to scribble on the paper itself, we don't need to draw it so accurately... WTH, right? Since accuracy is not part of the concern, o well, i assume linear relationship and to the heck with it. :P I am definitely not going to waste my time trying to figure out how to draw to scale something on the exam paper...
But the night was the major highlight of the day. For our farewell dinner, we went to Rendezvous hotel for their buffet dinner. It only cost about aud29 and they had chilli mussels~! Perhaps i should also mention the thai style fish that begs the question 'is this chicken or fish?' lol... the restaurant overlooks a very relaxed beach, and although it was kinda windy with intermitten drizzle outside, it was quite warm and inviting inside.
There was about more than 25 ppl who turned out for the dinner, although we only allocated 25 persons. The table just got larger and larger that kinda didn't get to talk to every single person on the table, but it was great. The table kinda split into four groups of ppl with our group being the noisiest and loudest~! :P (the first group consists of peggy, zhao ying, kelvin, yilin, yee hui, vicky, yu sheng, winnie and angel --> the sophisticated group; then the second group is the love bird --> li sha and kevin; the third group is ours --> me, SS, loong, seng chye, chris, letitia, nam and the last group i would call the miscellanous group who are kinda caught up with eating... haha... )

Good days and Bad days alike will come to pass....

Throwing out one junk one item at a time... so far I have thrown away 5 plastic bags full of my collections/stuffs/junks... lol... I didn't realise that I have accumulated so much memorabilia during my short time here. Have thrown out one bag, sport shoe, some clothes and my collection of arnott's box (dun ask me why i collect those stuff... I dun know as well), transperth maps and lots of papers... Tomoro will be the start of my last two papers... Ugh... I am so eager to get the exam behind me, but it tears me inside to say good bye...
If I close my eyes, could imagine the first day I reach here, when everything look so foreign and different. Now everything spells familiarity and homey... Can't believe Erica Underwood Flat 6 is going to break up... >.<

Good days and Bad days alike... will come to pass... (1)

Hard to believe that it is almost the time to summarise my whole semester/year in Curtin Perth. I believe in another few more days, I will sit for my last paper which will inevitably mark my last day in Perth. However, I will not be going back to Malaysia that soon.

Every time a semester starts, you will be filled with an anticipation of what it could bring and what you will achieve. Sadly and some happily, it did not come to pass. For one, design project, I have such a high expectation and anticipation for it. Well, for me, there was no regrets. I gave it my all and did my best. The only complain may be, sometimes love is blind. Sometimes you love a friend so much, that you deny the existence of their flaws soo much that it will come back to haunt you in the end. You forgave, tolerate and change for them while they complain ceaselessly... if there is one thing I find so annoying is when someone who give so little, complain sooo much. Criticism after criticism, attitude problems and complaints~! O gosh... I really cannot stand it. Finally, that episode is over.

I lost one friend that day but I found that I gained more friends along the way. I didnt realise that by clinging to this friend, it thwarts my own personal growth. She was always complaining about every single of person around her, that I was very depressed and didnt dare to make friends. There was no one out there worthy to be our friend. How I laugh at that thought now. Losing her opened up my eyes and those ppl that she complaint ceaselessly? I love them dearly. *I guess that would make me now one of those ppl she complain incessantly. LOL... who cares?

During these period of time, I have also met some people who changed my mindset. I have been debating whether to take up PhD study after my undergraduate program. But... lol... I met too many lonely and desperate PhD students during my one year here and it seriously scares me off. God have a way of arranging our life road ahead of us. So, NO, I am not taking PhD study~! There was this guy who was taking PhD study, i have only talked to him a few times due to my project. And I dun know why he is so desperate for companionship after his break-up. He made up really stupid excuses for me to meet him in his office. Serious~! He also asked me in 4 different ways whether i have a bf. And i told him, yes i have a bf. Then he said, dun worry, he won't disturb ppl with bf. BUT he emailed me every single day~! During that period of time, I was rushing for my project and where got time and energy to find him? He grew kinda cranky and sensitive, and accuse me of thinking he is harassing me when he just wanted a friend. *yeah, right* To cut short all the drama, one day kinda gave him a piece of my mind. LOL... be ta han~!!! Now he has changed his target to my best friend... er er er... Sorry, dear~! >.<

My mood today...

*Here I am*
They tell you a good girl is quiet
That you should never ask why
Cause it only makes it harder to fit in
You should be happy, excited
Even if you're just invited
Cause the winners need someone to clap for them

It's so hard just waiting
In a line that never moves
It's time you started making
Your own rules

You gotta scream until there's nothing left
With your last breath
So here I am
Here I am
Make em listen
Cause there is no way you'll be ignored
Not anymore
So here I am
Here I am
Here I am
Here I am

You only get one life to work it
So who cares if it's not perfect
I say it's close enough to perfect for me
Why should you hide from the thunder
And the lightening that your under
Cause there ain't nobody else you want to be

If how your living isn't working
There's one thing that will help
You gotta finally just stop searching
To find yourself

You gotta scream until there's nothing left
With your last breath
So here I am
Here I am
Make em listen
Cause there is no way you'll be ignored
Not anymore
So here I am
Here I am
Here I am

The world better make some room
Yea move over, over
Cause your coming through
Cause your coming through

You gotta scream until there's nothing left
With your last breath
Here I am
Here I am
Make em listen
Cause there is no way you'll be ignored
Not anymore
So here I am
Here I am
Here I am
Here I am
Here I am

Stressful weeks

These past few weeks have been laden with stress, sometimes really don't know how to see the light at the end of the tunnel. One of my now re-curring nightmare is the light blue colour/yellow colour/red colour in Hysys indicating something is not converged, error or missing datas~! Ugh... Phobia... Phobia... But luckily the simulation file is now up and going, so i can worry on another simulation (FLUENT) for the individual research project. =D lol...

Our group design project is basically to design a LNG plant producing 5MMPTA of LNG~! So our work scope includes design from the slug catcher to the storage tanks of the process. Might sound fun from an outsider view as we get to consider how our plant layout would look like to optimize space and reduce hazards, how we wanna optimize operations and processing, costing estimation, equipment sizing, etc. But be warned, do all these within 7 weeks... you might just end up feeling overworked and crazy... lol... Who says chemical engineering is easy should just come to this lab at 2am and get beaten up~!

4 bubble milk tea in a day?? li hai le? Not me, of coz...

Cute flower

Visit to WA parliament House

During our visit to the parliament house of Western Australia last friday... was great fun, had a chance to sit in those rooms where they have their speaking. lol...

We weren't allowed to take pics inside the parliament house; such a pity coz it looks really nice. Really articulately decorated... had about 160 chandeliers in one building (according to the tour guide).

Got a chance to meet with the minister of education and tourism and was fun sharing our experience in Malaysia with them. They were especially impressed that we were educated in chinese in primary school, Malay in secondary school and then english in university.

A great big thanks for the opportunity for this chance, WA~!

(Very apparent, i m at loss of words coz my brain too fried with simulation... lol...)

Short info: http://www.uniteddaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=32322:-5&Itemid=113

14th of August and Curtin Open day

14th of August:





Ate dinner at Hanami... Liked their whole concept of Japanese culture with the bird origami serviette, the staff wearing their traditional Japanese attire (no, it is not kimono, not sure what they're called) and the bamboo shoots at the front. :)





Ordered Assorted tempura coz it was a long time since i ate any fried food. But i think it was due to that same fact that although the tempura was really delicious, i couldn't finish it as I couldn't stand too much oily food. But the sashimi ordered by Shu Qing and Fish was really nice and fresh.

Origami Serviette

Assorted tempure (aud17.90)

16 of August 2009: Curtin Open Day

Yea~! Yea~! Had many things going on, too bad it was raining as well on that day. They have those free hugs for grab (lol...), free ice cream (using liquid nitrogen to make de... dun dare to try... lol), free lip balm (made by the pharmacy students~!), petting zoo ( The white goose, turkey and chicken is so well fed!! super fat!!!), bouncy castle, free helicopter ride, belly dancing, face painting and etc. The best part was you could go around and visit those buildings u never get to enter before (like pharmacy labs, nursery and midwifery centres) and see what they do behind closed doors. A very good eye opener, except most of the time I had to spent in the international office.

Austronaut walking on the surface of Curtin

What m i doing there? lol... promoting Curtin Sarawak lor~!

What am i promoting? I am promoting the quality of teachings which is on par with Curtin Bentley with an added adventure edge to it, crocodiles in lake and swarms of mosquitoes!! lol... Cheap food and lots of late night entertainment~!

So this is what student ambassador of Curtin Sarawak are for...

International office

People on stilts

At the end of the day, managed to snuggle down for my late lunch at Makan-makan, Vic park and have their sambal fried rice. Quite nice but then as always, Malaysia food should be eaten in malaysia for maximum satisfaction~! lol... But the spicyness complements the cold weather

Sambal fried rice

Beautiful moments in Erica Underwood

My very own notice board

I super love the breadou, wanted to buy that in melbourne during semester break but couldn't find it. I am so blessed that my housemate bought each of us one during her trip back to Singapore. I had also stuck some of my collections on, my earring collection, my collection of restaurant napkins (hahaha... ) and postcards.

Our notice board at the common area

lol... This is our notice board in the common area where we listed our individual phone numbers and Wee lih's caricature of Pei chee. lol... so cute~!

Li sha give de domino chocolate lava cake

Today, my housemate had a craving for scone. so she bought the flour mix for scones. But turns out we all decided that the typical scones isn't good enough for us, we came out with a lot of our designs. lol...

Picture of scones before baking

Picture of the scones after baking (the dung scone looks so nice~! lol..)

Pig head scone (copyright by: ME~!)

Pig head scone after baking... the nose got slightly burnt... and the ear drop off... :D

Shu Qing made de little scone boy with nutella hair, staying afloat on the surface of the sea