Happy Birthday To Me!!!! =)

Happy 33 Years of breathing!!!!!!!! And many more to come!!!!!! Have a birthday cake bought by folks (and refuse to sing birthday song, hahaha...) ... and a ang pow....

Trip To Port Dickson & Malacca

Over the weekend went to Port Dickson and Malacca with my 2 folks & cousin... Trip includes more places, of coz, like... maybe I'll just go straight to the point...

DAY #1

Breakfast at 潮园restaurant, dim sum. Was originally not written in itinerary, so was a pleasant surprise... not bad...

Up next, lunch at the restaurant... What?!!! Lunch right after breakfast??? ... Yeap, cos it was about 10am after our breakfast... and by the time we moved on and reach this restaurant, it was nearly 12 plus... hahahaha....

Very nice dishes served... the best was that everyone has a small... eh, what do you call it... nevermind, I'll call it a small pot... of nourishing soup! ... slurp...

After lunch, proceed to fruit farm to see dragonball fruit and passion fruit...

First thing was greeted by the monkey that knows how to smoke (sorry, couldn't get good pics as the crowd is too wild...)

Notice how the twine of the passion fruit curls around, like a spring? so cool...

Passion fruits hanging, riping soon...

Next stop, the tapioca processing factory, where it makes all the tapioca snacks you buy outside... those big bags of crisps are tempting...

After the factory, we proceed to the mushroom farm. It is more focused on the Ling Zhi ( 灵芝 )fungus.

Notice the top left bench is carved out of 1 piece of log... interesting... And they have lots more of these benches inside the farm...

Ever seen pink and yellow mushrooms??... of coz they are edible...

The very famous Ling Zhi ( 灵芝 )

Close up of the pink mushroom...

Nice scene behind the farm...

Then we proceed to have dinner (lousy, don't want to talk about it) before heading to the hotel... Avillion Admiral Cove... Its more of a yacht club... supposed to be a 5-star "hotel"...

Nice scene from outside room...

And that's my room! Luxurious... spacious... solid!!!! Have a very sound sleep in the comfortable room and bed...

DAY #2

Capture this before brushing teeth, around 7am...

Went for breakfast in the hotel... not bad at all...

Strolled around the hotel after breakfast...

After checking out, we proceed to the ostrich farm...

... and saw this old ice shaver...

Next, lunch at the Nonya restaurant that was supposed to have helped in the filming of the TCS serial Little Nonya, by cooking the Nonya food and let the people use it in the shows.... but obviously the standard is... First the rice smells sour, we had to change... then all except 1 of the dishes are...pathetically simple, too simple for Nonya dishes.... could be due to that we are the tour group meal, thus the lower standard, cos when we look at the regular customers' dishes, they look nice!... strange... anyway, its over...

After some unhappy incidents after lunch (basically is tour agency boss want to treat the tour groups of all 3 buses to chendol, and the whole 3 buses have to route to the place, which is pretty big loop. But the chendol is not prepared first, and we felt like beggars waiting and after long long time they still serving, and the serving method is extremely chaotic.... a few times want to go and take after the fella brings out some, he moves to the table of the other bus to give... like we are invisible... tour guide for our bus also like disappear, did not do anything till last minute.. by then too angry to eat anything... difficult to describe, but bad mood at then...), we finally managed to proceed to the famous sites of Malacca... we as only the 4 of us, plus our tour guide... The rest of the tour group people? All stoned after eating the chendol and split up to go different places... (later we watch the LOST episode, live ...hahaha...) Earlier we objected strongly to NOT going to see the sites...

Anyway, so coincident, took a pic in the bus along the way, that looks like above... then took a picture again when touring on foot, as below... notice how similar (in angle) the 2 pictures are???!!!! Amazing....

These are metal mixed with the concrete...used in almost all of the constructions... walls, pavements, etc...

And the tour guide told us about the amazing tale of the statue...

After finishing the site, the guide left off to hunt the rest of the tour group people.... we jalan at the nearby shopping mall for a short while, then go and eat the chendol we did not get to eat earlier... of coz we pay ourselves... there's a durian flavour too, although I still prefer the gula-melaka one....

After watching the LOST show live (yes, tour group members got lost...), we proceed to buy some local goodies and head to dinner at another restaurant... Food is average...

Fried prawn in mayonnaise...

And its home sweet home... and btw, my only souvenir....

Overall, $148 for this trip is quite ok, having the chance to see the historical sites in Malacca and 1st time stay in 5-star hotel... only major angry incident would be the chendol saga... Anyway, enjoyed my weekend!

I Survived This Week...

Started last week, this week is super super busy, went to school with panda eyes almost every day. Yesterday decided to take a break and not stay back after sch hours. Went over to Bugis to pray at the temple. Then went over to jalan for KO tfs, bought 2 which are not old (G1) moulds but they resemble the G1 characters, so nevermind lah, buy 1st (got the go-wild impulse) ... Went over to OG and bought lots of snacks, $20 plus... went crazy, hahaha...


Went home ard 2plus, decide to get my lunch... saw this new Sarawak Koolo mee stall in the kopi shop, decides to try.... Solid!!!! Was what I had eaten last time at a 1 Day Tour in M'sia, and I have been wanting to eat this again... So nice to find it just ard my house...

Note: This is the dark version called You Jiang Mee ( 油酱面 )... the original Koolo mee is white one... and the chillies they have is red chillies in vinegar (something like the green chillies, but red chillies used)... one word - NICE...

Dog-tired....

Past weeks have been nightmares.... Work is like unlimited in school... all the chasing for work, consultations, set papers, mark papers, mark coursework, conference session sharing (damn, 4 hours!!!), LEGO Conference... Worse has got to be the shifting of workshop & office stuff back to the renovated places... Not too difficult, you may think... but just you try carrying all the big raw wood, metal, plastic, then you will know... and there are tons of them!!!!!! And we are expected to shift back in what we shifted over last time for 2 weeks in just 2 days... insane mission... but miraculously did it...with help of many students, preent and past... Thank you all! Gave those students a pizza treat on Fri as they help me to assemble the furnitures... And stayed until 8 plus pm dat day .... I'm tired liao.... yet manage to find the strength to clean up and pack my exrememly dusty KOs from the shelves to the plastic boxes, hahahaha.....

Sunday... Dun Feel Like Working...

... partly also because I have been having a very bad and painful throat for the past few days... Strted around Thursday, only yesterday then realised that should be du to the black melon seeds that I eaten on Wednesday... Wah, throat was extremely painful, and iritating, feel like vomiting... and worse is whole head feels heavy... sigh... Fri last min got to go back eat dinner, have to miss out the makan trip with HZ, ZW, CYQ.... sorry guys...

My SH8 is back!

... with an inactive pixel right at the top of the screen... nevermind lah, its my fate to always get a new product with some defects... fated... ut since not so obvious, so still ok lah...

Anyway, left office early to go collect the notebook... was drizzling when I got into the car, so, switch on engine an then flip up the left lever to wipe windscreen... an saw the driver side wiper gone!!!!!!!! wow!!!!!! Stealing a wiper...man, this thief must be having problem with his wiper, in a hurry, pluck mine... haha... suay ... or possible is the student's work??? Possible too... Anyway, was not bothered... Yeah, I am also surprised why I am not that angry...

So got to drive to the nearest petrol kiosk as the rain gets heavier, and bought a pair of wipers... good also lah, my wipers are long long long long overdue... Maybe the thief is cursing and swearing he so suay to have stolen a lousy worn out wiper, hahahahaha...... maybe that's why I dun feel so angry...

Wah, so tempted to buy the (not-so) new Kohjinsha SC series notebook... so small and light!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Althoguh the harddisk is only 60GB (SH8 has 120GB), I dun mind, cos the processor is Atom, and 1.33GHz (compare to my SH8 of 800MHz)!!!!!!! Tempting... THe stafdf advise me if I want, I could get a better prie thru' selling in forums and such, than trade in with them... He quoted $400-500... and says becos my model is selling at promo porce of $599 or $699 at last computer show... hmmm.. sounds fishy, how can be that low??? So 'eng siew' him a while then leave... nevermind... since I just upgrade to 2GB for this little machine, I shall still use it for a while more ( "a while" approx = few years...)....

Happy Lunar New Year !!!!!!!

To all of you, Happy Lunar New Year !!!!!!!

Havn't gotten back my Kohjinsha yet, am currently using the HP 2133 from Starhub... not so good, but can do...

Browse thru' some of my students' blogs, realised some of the concerns which they are unwilling to say in class, or not showing in emotions... Its a good thing they are able to express out, or even vent out their inner emotions thru' blogs... of course this is their side of the story, but again, what I wanted to know is their own feelings... not who is in the right or wrong... I mean, definitely they feel they are right, no matter what you tell them...

Last night is 小年夜, or Little Lunar New Year Eve, ie. the day before Lunar New Year Eve as known in folk tradition. Another (more correct) definition for 小年夜 is the 24th day of the 12th Lunar month. Anyway, as tradition, went down with my mum to the wet market besides my house last night (actually past midnight liao, not really the 小年夜....). Its a bit late, so did not see so much people at the wet market like last year. But still, can you imagine, market stalls still open at 12 plus midnight? People still buying fish, fruits, etc... Mum needed to get some vegetables, and lime... There's even a dim sum stall in the hawker centre besides the market that is still open! Went over to buy some supper, haha... Quite fun to see the market still open in midnight... only once a year such scene will happen...