Live life to its fullest!

hello again

2012-01-15T20:17:00.000+11:00

It has been a while.

Since the last post till today, many events have occurred. I have finished my studies, went on the graduation trip with my friends to North Island of New Zealand, attended graduation ball, graduated, and bid goodbye to Australia.

Arrived KL on the evening of 22 December 2011, then flew home the next day. Thank goodness it is still the monsoon season - or else I would have complained of the heat =P

Hopefully I can upload some pics around CNY. I still don't have my faithful desktop with me yet - it is still unassembled (like how Daniel helped me to dismantle it before I came back to Malaysia), and in KL. I shall be patient.....

Tasmania

2011-10-20T15:38:00.003+11:00

Forgot to blog about my trip to Tasmania. Tasmania is one of the places in Australia that I wanted to visit before I graduate, and I am glad that I managed to do so...according to my awesome hosts Conney and QY, Hobart and Launceston are the second oldest and third oldest cities in Australia respectively.

I arrived at Launceston at night around dinner time and we had this:

Dinner on the first day - udon with tempura and green tea mooncake

On the second day we started our journey to Hobart, which is about 2.5 hours away from Launceston. We made a few stops on the way:

1) Ross

Conney told me that it is famous because of Ross Village Bakery & Inn, which happened to be one of the places of inspiration for Japanese artist 宫崎骏 (you know, the guy who drew Totoro) in his cartoon 'Kiki's Delivery Service'. The bakery sells woodfired bread and a range of pastries.

in front of the bakery

QY bought a loaf of woodfired sourdough bread....really fragrant

us in front of a church

no idea why it is called female factory

crossing train tracks

2) Richmond
Famous for Richmond Bridge. We went there to feed ducks.

Richmond Bridge

And then we finally reached our destination Hobart. Had a fulfilling lunch at Kawasemi Japanese Teahouse....

bento box with miso soup (there was also entrée)

green tea pancake dessert with green tea ice cream

It wasn't really of good weather that day as it kept raining and it was really windy. We went to a few places around Hobart, mainly sight-seeing and some pictures.

Hobart city casino

The next morning we went to Salamanca Market.

they call this fruit leather...it is edible, sweet and chewy

We also walked around the harbour front and then drove up to Mt Wellington. It was snowing!

Hobart city in the background

hello snowman

Back to Launceston in the evening. The next 2 days spent at exploring around Launceston... (including buying groceries)

Cataract Gorge

we made nasi lemak at home

with Niva in front of Launceston casino

our last dinner together...kangaroo steak

and homemade green tea + red bean cake!

Thanks to Conney and QY for making the trip fun and memorable =)

Exploring Melbourne with Christine

2011-10-06T00:26:00.000+11:00

Haven't been updating my blog for a while since my birthday last month. I thought I should blog about what Christine and I did when she came over to Melbourne. It's her second time visiting Melbourne and I thought we should explore more makan places together (since she had already visited those touristy places)...and we did =D

Turkish lunch at Brunswick

Lebanese pastry from Balha's at Brunswick

Christine and I at the Shrine of Remembrance

First time trying out Koko Black hot chocolate

sunset in Melbourne

sushi burger....yummy but a bit expensive though

us at the Royal Botanical Gardens

desert 'garden'

coffee at the famous Brother Baba Budan

look at the ceiling of wooden chairs

Flinders Street train station at night

We went to Brighton Beach too one morning =)

we love the beach

colourful beach huts

♥

We also went for a day trip to Great Ocean Road....and surprisingly it was HOT when we were there!

the must-take picture

the view is absolutely stunning

with few of the Twelve Apostles that were left

pretty isn't it?

they call it London Bridge

I love this view, it's just amazing

I am glad that we had so much fun together and certainly happy that I got to see her before I graduate. We managed to update each other with our lives and happenings around us, which is great =) Hope we will meet again soon!

Food, Friends and Fun

2011-09-06T18:17:00.000+10:00

Amirah invited us to her house for Raya last Wednesday =) Made me miss the food back in my home town...never mind, just few more months to go!

yummillicious food!

Raya sparklers

last Raya celebration in Clayton

Shean Wei came to Melbourne with his dad for holidays, and we got to meet up on Friday!

at the Shrine of Remembrance

Went to the Olympic Park and AAMI Park unexpectedly after walking out of an exit from Royal Botanical Gardens....I have never been there before and I used to wonder how to get there, and then somehow we were at the place!

colour-changing lights

Melbourne Cricket Ground

We took the train back to the city for dinner, and while we were walking towards Chinatown we bumped into ah Buu's brother! It has got to be fate....Shean Wei's dad was just saying that it is easy to meet Kelantanese when travelling while Shean Wei said it would be quite impossible in Melbourne, and that he would treat the person to dinner if he did meet any - well we did meet one this time! It's just funny to recall that Angelene and I bumped into ah Buu at Amsterdam airport few months ago....and now his brother (I didn't know he has a younger brother)....fate fate =)

The next day I went boating with the Monash gang, at Studley Boathouse.

ducks ducks ducks

有点山芭的感觉……

row, row, row your boat...

After rowing boat for an hour, the 13 of us sat down in front of the cafe to chill...it was a fine sunny Saturday afternoon and we had warm coffee and hot chips. It feels great to just relax and catch up with friends that way...just then, I thought I saw someone familiar...all of us turned and looked, it's a Prof we all know from Paediatrics last year! None of us dared to go up to greet him as he probably wouldn't know us anyway, knowing that our cohort consists of 300+ students and we are just the few out of that 300+....but Yu Wan went to say hi before we left, haha...

On Sunday evening, Grace came to pick Christina and I up to Amirah's house - Grace planned to make tofu burgers! I brought avocado pudding over but I -absolutely- forgot to take a picture of it (nothing special anyway, just a bowl of green stuff) but it tastes really good (and really easy to make too)!

making tofu burgers

Christina's own recipe of fried Chinese mushrooms

Tofu burger with mashed potato as side

Unfortunately I couldn't taste how good the tofu burger was (it must have tasted really good with the lemon juice and herbs) as I was (and still am) down with a cold! Didn't get to taste much of my favourite avocado pudding either but I knew how it tasted like coz my dad used to make it at home (it's his recipe anyway)~

August in summary

2011-08-28T23:30:00.000+10:00

Can't believe that I have not blogged for a month! Have I been that busy? Not really actually, finished my general medicine rotation (miss the free lunches for three days per week) and just started a new rotation last week...anaesthetics, pretty interesting!

Everyone tends to look forward to weekends nowadays (more so ever than before), as it is the only time we get to catch up.

1st week (Thursday): Indian dinner at Carlton with our Scoopon vouchers bought earlier in the year

entrée

a few mains and dessert

us girls

accidentally found this place in the city....it changes colour!

2nd week (Thursday): Adilah cooked us nasi lemak a few days after she came back to Melbourne!

yum yum nasi lemak

3rd week (Friday): went all the way to Coburg for Middle Eastern food....kebab and baklava!

Middle Eastern desserts + baklava

with Tam and Camy who are doing BMedSci this year

the almighty mama Adilah =)

3rd week (Saturday): first time to Chelsea beach.

夕阳西下+海洋上的倒映

突然有美人鱼出现

trying to produce some 'unique' photo...

海鸥自由翱翔

we played frisbee

3rd week (Sunday): Grace suggested we go to Jells Park because it was a sunny afternoon.

we played frisbee (in the mud =.=|||) and had Grace's yummy vanilla slice

4th week (Friday): Adilah invited us to bake raya cookies at her house.

sugar high

Today: had fun making star-shaped pancakes!

I love to decorate and take pics of my food!

Winter is coming to an end....

Wonderful weekends

2011-07-31T23:59:00.000+10:00

Have been spending time together with friends (and good food!!) last weekend and this weekend, which is great =)

Went to Afghan Gallery restaurant at Brunswick to celebrate Amirah's birthday last Saturday...luckily I managed to find the place with my phone's GPS as I had absolutely no idea where the place was! And first time being at Brunswick too, and it was so dark at night....*shudders*

Afghan food

the boss of the restaurant brought this sparkler out with the dessert we ordered when we told him we were to celebrate Amirah's birthday....what a sweet surprise!

5 of us....trying out my newly bought camera remote~

And today (Sunday), we had breakfast together at a place in Richmond as suggested by Gina...errr I mean brunch =P

'leafy' coffee to kickstart our day!

our brekkie

love this pic!!

with Gina and Ravind

I went to the city in the afternoon to meet up a junior of mine from secondary school and INTEC, Shu Wen.

postcard pic, yes?

*Shu Wen and me*

Just nice to catch up with a friend whom I haven't seen for almost 5 years and talk about what's been happening with our lives and friends around us. [Her guy friend who went with us mentioned to me that us people from KB just seemed to know whoever from KB no matter whether we actually know that person or not e.g. my friend and her friend's friend know each other hahaha.] We went to Degraves St (yes second time for me!) for coffee (I had hot chocolate since I already had flat white in the morning) then walked around the streets, took some pics here and there then came across Brunetti cafe and decided to have some cake =)

cakes at Brunetti cafe

Weekend well spent =D

End of Rotation 4

2011-07-17T01:33:00.000+10:00

Just finished a week of new rotation at a different hospital. On the last day of the previous rotation (last Friday), I went to the city with some friends for coffee and dinner =D Finally went to Degraves St for coffee after staying in Melbourne for 4.5++ years...haha so many of my coursemates were shocked when they realised that I had never been to Degraves St before this (I usually just walked past and didn't really go inside any of the cafes to sit down for coffee).

By the time we reached the city it was almost 5pm and the sky started to turn dark (short day time in winter, remember...) We made our way to Degraves St and Kelly said that the waffles are a MUST-HAVE.

the famous waffles at Degraves St

First time at Degraves St underground tunnel and first time hanging out with Hamon, Gina and Kelly

We went to one of the coffee shops and ordered some cake....yes dessert before dinner =P

really rich chocolate cake

two cakes to share among the 5 of us

my cappuccino =)

with Syahir!! My Rotation 1 buddy =)

After that I joined a group of my other friends from Monash Malaysia for dinner...we had been talking about it throughout Rotation 4 and we finally organised this =)

with my new friends from Monash Malaysia (JB Clinical School)

Pizzas for dinner

crispy and yummmyy

Li-Mae, my clinical partner in Rotation 4~ good times~ hopefully we can meet in Malaysia!

'supper' at Lindt cafe after that (I was so full that I didn't order anything)

and with the guys =P

It was an extremely cold day, but it felt warm to spend time together with friends =)

我的一班 "好友"

2011-07-05T22:13:00.000+10:00

Comments taken from Facebook:

This was about a month ago.....

Ai Wei: Jenyun Koh....Nw Dr. Yunsiew Tay ask me go her convo at next year as her cameraman d....... T.T

.
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.
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.
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.

Me: yerrr at least yun siew can still ask u be her cameraman, i dun have anyone pro to be my cameraman ler, all pro one grad together with me lerr..

Ai Wei: jess, u sponsor me a flight ticket then i volunteer as ur cameraman~ hahaha

Wei Yong: Jess: I know i got limited skill in becoming the photographer, but i think sister needs her p.a wherever she goes...so 2 tickets please :D

Me: 趁机敲诈啊你 =P

SuGar Tye Si Nie: jess: i must follow where my lover go.so one more please

Me: ...............

Yunsiew Tay: jess: i need to help out to carry stuffs...so total up would be 4 tickets...tq!

Me: walau..like that also can...u guys...really good frens hor..hahaha

SuGar Tye Si Nie: of course lar.good fren so join ur convo lor

Loo Chuishen: my skill is better than mrs lin, so i can be a backup for aiwei, oleh sebab itu, one more ticket la nah jess! hahaha

Li Shan Loo: jess: me ticket number 6,other expenses i keluar myself,haha

--------------------------------------

And recently......

Ai Wei: Loo Chuishen! Jessica Tan say wan intro us her ang mo coursemate if we go her grad !! muahahahaha !!

Ai Wei: Bt after tat she says: Bt got gf liao...a few married dy...

Me: not yet finish my sentence....still got some single

Ai Wei: OOOOooooo !!!!!! then i wait ur ticket sponsor me as ur photographer!! im swear i will keep shooting u v my hand n my eyes keep kap lengzai~ lol!!

SuGar Tye Si Nie: jess,we wan ticket too~

Loo Chuishen: wowowow! +1

Wei Yong: here 1 please!!!!

Me: walau u ppl....趁火打劫again!!

Michelle Pohxuan: another one pls? lol

Gatherings

2011-07-04T17:30:00.001+10:00

June was a good month for friends' gathering, new friends and old pals alike =D

First was Italian food at Sofia with Kheng Wei, Justina's secondary school mate, my first new friend I made in June.

fritto misto - never miss

3 different types of pasta (on the menu it says this is for 2 people!) HUGE portion as usual!

not forgetting something sweet in the end - gelato

Justina, Kheng Wei and me

Next up was Greek food at Dion restaurant in the city, meeting up Kia Miang and her friend, and also celebrated Nooi Hoay's birthday at the same time.

dips for starter

my new Korean friend Sena

my ex-housemate from INTEC, Kia Miang!! Nice to catch up! =D

lamb cutlets....so yummy

Greek sausages

the restaurant prepared the sparklers specially for the birthday girl

group pic [partially]

Just last week Cheah Yen came over to Melbourne (finally!) and she decided to cook dinner on the last day of June...for the 12 of us!!!

home cooked food

baked potatoes with cheese and herbs

caramelised oven baked chicken wings....nicely arranged and decorated with parsley too!

creamy pasta suace with ham, mushrooms, sundried tomato, parsley..

garlic bread

I haven't met Cheah Yen for yearssss and it's certainly nice to see her again and to catch up! She is one amazing woman....she cooked everything in the above 4 food pics ALL by herself! All prepared with passion and love =D Cheah Yen actually blogged about this at her blog~

my other ex-housemate from INTEC, Cheah Yen (she was Kia Miang's roommate that time)

Cheah Yen, Yu Wan and me

group pic ^_^

We had breakfast together last Saturday morning at Glen Waverley with my housemates.

breakfast at Coco Lounge

we shared this together...I love poached eggs!

while Justina and Shea Chuen ordered Starvin' Marvin' each

number ONE~~

It is always fun to catch up with old friends and reminiscing the moments we shared....I was talking to Cheah Yen about the times in INTEC when she used to cook baked beans with eggs and it smelt really good....and how in 2007 when we first came to Australia she used to send random MMS which were funny and thought provoking e.g. 'naked' chicken bathing in water, first big autumn leaf etc...even though we haven't seen each other for the past 4.5 years we could still talk and laugh like old times and not feel awkward =) importance of keeping in touch, hahaha~

Great times in KB

2011-06-26T22:57:00.000+10:00

Since someone requested for this post...here it is =P Sorry this takes kinda long, been busy with work...

Anyway, just wanna write about the short shopping for batik trip we had one morning. We went to a batik shop on the way to PCB beach as ah Nie wanted to buy some batik back for her colleagues. Love the bright colours ^_^

miss Koh thinking hard whether to buy or not...

ah Nie choosing the right colour for her colleagues

Wei Yong 谈大生意=P

and me the photographer!

And that night we went to eat belut for dinner (a must every time I went back) =D

everyone has a sunflower! (yes even Song Yee!)

nom nom nom

We had BBQ too 2 days after the dinner =) BBQ is also one of the to-do-things on my list! It's sort of like an annual BBQ already =P

guys busy preparing the BBQ

food for BBQ

Michelle made this pizza...you can never find this pizza elsewhere in Malaysia...coz it's got bakgua in it! YUMMYLICIOUS

having friends around is always fun....top that up with yummy food =P

best BBQ sotong ever

group pic ^_^

Hope we can gather together again....maybe another Christmas BBQ party? Hehe~

Escape to Pulau Lang Tengah

2011-06-19T01:44:00.001+10:00

Finally got the time to blog about my trip to Pulau Lang Tengah with my lovely + funny KB friends. In case you don't know where Pulau Lang Tengah is, it is one of the small islands off the coast of Terengganu and is not too far away from Pulau Perhentian and Pulau Redang.

had an early McD breakfast at wee hours of the morning before depature

morning sun in Kelantan/Terengganu

The 8 of us went in 2 cars...and halfway through the journey Chui Shen received a message that showed:

for your information, 甄芸 is the driver of the other car =.=||||

We reached the jetty an hour before the expected time. So we walked around the stalls...

琳琅满目的手信

五颜六色的锁匙圈

batik - especially famous in the East Coast of Peninsula Malaysia

the Fabulous Four!! =D

Finally it's time to take the boat to our destination....

it was quite a long journey to the island....we all felt hot and sweaty in the boat...

When we FINALLY reached the island, we were mesmerized by the breathtaking scenery of Pulau Lang Tengah....

blue sky, white sand, greenery and crystal clear water, what more can you ask for?

After checking in the resort, we explored the sandy beach while taking pictures....Pulau Lang Tengah is not as commercialised as the other two islands and it is a quieter island without many tourists around. We basically have the whole beach to ourselves =P

渡假心情

咦，少了一个人……两个人

cool people

Soon it was time for lunch....we were soooo hungry!!

food provided by the resort

Time to soak ourselves in the cool seawater after lunch!

fun time with my buddies

埋诗霓是一个很大的工程

Spent the whole afternoon at the beach, then had dinner at the dining hall....we were so disappointed with dinner because we had leftover fish and prawn from lunch and the only new dish they provided was fried eggs! So basically our dinner was "nasi + telur goreng" =.=|||

We also had a surprise birthday party for Ms Perfect aka Chui Shen!!!

It has been a long time since I last celebrate birthdays with my KB friends....

the birthday girl brought us super delicious pastries all the way from Penang!!!

The next morning Ai Wei woke us up bright and early to take pictures at the beach (wanted to catch sunrise at first but Ai Wei was the only one who managed to wake up early and yet have to wait for us.....but couldn't have seen sunrise that morning either due to the clouds).

beach in the early hours of morning

we dressed up for beautiful pics =)

couldn't stop laughing looking at this pic

kaki-kaki

breakfast was great!

After packing our stuff and checking out of the resort it was time to say goodbye to Pulau Lang Tengah...

finale

All in all it was a memorable (and my first trip) with my KB friends. Thanks to everyone who made effort to join this trip by taking work leave (and come back all the way to KB just for that weekend), thanks to those involved in organising and planning the trip and thanks for providing snacks throughout the trip =D We should have more trips together in the future guys!

Hello Amsterdam!

2011-05-31T23:32:00.000+10:00

My last trip in Europe was to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, together with Angelene...it's our trip that we planned and discussed together....wait, I should say Angelene did most of the planning while I was at Bristol/Plymouth =P

We arrived late at night at Schiphol Airport and we had to rush to one of the stores in the airport to get our Holland Pass...and guess what we bumped into ah Buu and his girlfriend!!! Of all places in UK we just happened to meet each other outside of UK...hahaha! Just the right place and the right time =) After settled some stuff we took the train and the long bus ride to our hostel. We were both so tired when reaching the hostel and not knowing that there's another 'surprise' for us. When I booked 2 places in a mixed room for 6 people two months before the trip we certainly did not expect that 2 of us girls would be sharing the room with 4 British guys! *heart sank....God please keep us safe* However after the 4 nights chatting together and laughing (okay, Angelene was the one who did most of the chatting part with them while I just laughed along....she can really talk talk talk! Salute nuh!!) And the chat topic? You would never have guessed....about price of weed and psychiatry and the medical profession and whatnot...and one of the guys claiming marijuana can cure everything while Angelene the Doctor-in-the-House said NOOOOO! LOL *and this cute girl even left them a note on our last day....aiyoyo*

Anyway...getting back to the main part of our trip. First place we visited was Keukenhof, the famous tulips farm....very colourful and pretty and absolutely stunning view of tulips, tulips and MORE tulips! Seems like tulips overdose dy...hahaha~

pretty pretty tulips

we definitely wore the right colour combination =D

huge clog!

Went to Amsterdam city in the afternoon for a canal cruise and some sightseeing.

how many canals can you see in this pic?

Amsterdam is a city of bikes!

Dinner at the Pancake Bakery, famous for its various pancakes.

huge savoury pancake

Next day was the Queen's Birthday, public holiday and wear-orange day! Apparently 'over 1 million people came to this annual event' as said from the guide books.....

orange is THE colour nowwww

our lunch....fried fritters and fresh raw fish sandwich

There were soooooooo many people..it was just a sea of orange! I won't forget how Angelene led me through the crowd with me clutching to her arm 'like little duckling following mummy', how I tried to hide my camera while we both squeezed through the huge sea of people, how we had to avoid some 'obstacles' while finding our way.....

Dinner at an Indonesian restaurant

yummm...

We decided to head back to our hostel after dinner....went to the beach near our hostel =)

love this pic...those 2 are like shooting stars!

On the third day we went on a half-day excursion to Zaanse Schans and Marken.

cheese factory

windmills

loads of souvenirs

wooden tulips

little pancakes for snack

lunch at Marken....simply love the fresh fish!

nice view~

in the clogs factory

Spent the afternoon learning how to appreciate Van Gogh's painting....am amazed by his skills! Lines, strokes etc....and how many artists drew their own self-portrait?

his self-portrait

Van Gogh Museum

Explore more of the city after that....and got lost in the process haha~

I amsterdam!

skinny bridge....we found you, finally =)

French dinner....should taste nice I suppose....couldn't taste much coz I was down with cough and cold since the start of our trip....poor Angelene had to bear with me all the time >.< (from the pics didn't look like I was sick right =P)

fish and potatoes

duck

Last day at Amsterdam...explored the markets and had a go at tasting Heineken beer!

street market

Febo!

kebab for lunch

Heineken Experience =)

the brewery

never know beer can be refreshing O_O

We also visited the diamond factory and the Red Light District....yes the place where you see the girls like 'items on windows display in supermarkets'....didn't dare to look much, both of us walked one round then quickly walked to another area...lol...

hard at work

'entrance' to Red Light District

super duper many bikes!

That marks the end of our Amsterdam tour...wild and interesting adventure we had right? Everyday travel up and down the train and bus which took us nearly 2 hours one way....there was once when we were inside the bus at night, waiting to go back to the hostel from Leiden Centraal, the bus driver hasn't started driving yet as he was still waiting for passengers. Just then one random guy came and hit him on his nose for I-dunno-what-reason-coz-I-don't-understand-Dutch, then left the bus angrily and slammed/kicked the bus door....someone contacted the police and more talking then....quite a scary experience...then every night went back to our hostel and the boys were always back earlier than us, drinking beer in the room and started random conversations with us when they saw us, though they swear in every sentence they speak but I could tell they are nice people in a way =) 'We're going out now, remember to lock the door and don't let anyone in....if anything, just shout for us, we're downstairs.' Nice of them to say like that right? haha =P

Easter weekend in Plymouth

2011-05-31T01:10:00.000+10:00

Super duper delayed post about my trip to Plymouth =P

It all seemed so perfectly planned by God that I was able to join Mel to this sunny place during the Easter weekend =) how funny it was when I recalled the time she taught me how to pronounce Plymouth.. *Angelene, we learnt something new noh hehehe*

welcome to Plymouth!

As it was still quite early in the afternoon to check in our hotel, we walked around the city and the port for sightseeing and pics....finally get to see the coast of UK!

Ta-dah!!

After dropping in the tourist information centre (took us quite some time to find it) for some information about cruises, we quickly jumped in to one of the boats for a short cruise, just in time as we were the last 2 passengers on board!

*Mel and moi*

Reached this beach called Cawsand but we didn't get down as our boat was the last boat to get us back to Plymouth. It was relaxing to just enjoy the calmness and coolness of the sea breeze as well as the warm sun =)

Cawsand

a man feeding the seagulls with fresh fish

We were quite hungry when we got back to Plymouth as we didn't have lunch (we had Mel's cupcakes in the train). We wanted to try the seafood and hence we searched for a nice restaurant....quite worth it though slightly pricey than average, but it was really delicious and yummmmyyyyy

starter - mixed seafood

another starter: fried mackerel

can't remember what's this called....but it's got LOTS of fish and scallops and prawns and crab meat

mussels

Took a bus to our hotel after dinner and spent the night watching a comedy on TV.

And breakfast provided the next morning....English breakfast! (same goes for the second day, and together with the previous morning in Bristol I had English breakfast for 3 consecutive days!)

nom nom nom

Went to explore more of Plymouth after breakfast.

hello =)

hugssss

Smearton Tower (lighthouse) in the background

Our main aim that day was actually the National Marine Aquarium, largest aquarium in UK!

UK's largest aquarium!

stingray =D

Had tea break/lunch after our visit as we wanted to try out the Devonshire tea...

Devonshire tea with scones, and we also ordered fish soup

Took the Cremyll Ferry over to Cornwall to visit Mount Edgcumbe estate and spent the lazy afternoon there =P

Evening came and time to get back to Plymouth...we walked around the Barbican area again and found this restaurant that claimed to be the best restaurant in Plymouth, there's certificates on its door!

starter - deep fried chicken fingers

spaghetti with beef

lamb shanks

It was a great weekend getaway....a fun 3D2N well spent with my hometown friend, it's nice to catch up and share our stories of our hometown and school days =D *Mel told me that I almost explored all 东南西北 of UK dy....hahaha*

Quality time shared =)

2011-05-25T01:46:00.000+10:00

I have been longing to see a musical since long time ago but the theatre tickets at Melbourne always cost quite a bomb (at least AUD$100+)....and when Angelene suggested to watch Mamma Mia I immediately said yes (tickets were less than 30 pounds each) =D We had an early Danish dinner at Kro Bar before going to the musical.

seafood platter as starter

main dish: Medister sausages with potatoes and two pieces of beetroot

other main dish: Biksemad (a classic Danish meal)

We were so stuffed after the dinner....we took the bus and then walked to Palace Theatre, just enough time to take a few pics before we went to our seats.

first musical with my bestie

We were quite surprised to find out that our seats were right in the middle of the theatre! On the first day of the show even....(and our tickets said 'limited legroom') haha~ It was a great show, money well spent =)

couldn't agree more....ABBA-solutely fabulous!

Went home after that and couldn't stop playing their music on our laptops...and then we decided to take some crazy pics...hahaha....fun times =D

crazy us hahaha

On one other fine morning we headed to Platts Field park...been planning to go there for quite some time but both of us couldn't find the right time to go until that morning, on the day I left for Bristol.

welcome to Platt Fields!

sunshine and happy faces =D

I love this pic....very cute!! =P =P =P

Spent about 1.5hours there then headed for kebab lunch....which according to Angelene is the must-eat in Manchester!

the must-eat kebab in Manchester....super huge portion!!!

and so...

Musical....checked!

Jalan jalan in park with Angelene....checked!

Kebab....checked!

p/s: the Plymouth post will have to wait....

Bristol & Bath

2011-05-18T02:08:00.000+10:00

I went to Bristol over the Easter weekend to visit Mel...it was about a 3-hour train journey from Manchester to Bristol. She came to pick me at the train station and it was our first time seeing each other after so many years! We went over to ASDA Wal-mart near her house to buy some stuff before heading back to her place...and how touched I was when she told me she boiled some soup for me and made cupcakes and cooked salmon porridge for breakfast the next morning =D

Mel's cupcakes - her first attempt!

The next day we went to Bath as planned by train.

the garden that we passed by

us by the river

nice view....

entrance of the Roman Baths

inside the Roman Baths

ground floor...

drink from the Bath waters

outside Sally Lunn's

Sally Lunn's bread for lunch....yummy~~

After lunch we rushed back to Bristol as Mel had to work in the afternoon. So I went to shop around the shopping area....

Cabot Circus shopping centre

Soon it's time for dinner and Mel had finished her work, so we had Spanish dinner together at La Tasca =)

everything is RED

small portions of various kinds of Spanish food

I ordered sangria too after Mel's suggestion. It was a really fulfilling dinner....after dinner we walked around Bristol to see the night view.

the ship behind...is a restaurant/cafe

The next morning Mel made English breakfast for me....YUMmmmm =D

super delicious English breakfast

Then it was time for us to head to the train station....to start our holiday in Plymouth! Stay tune for the next post!

A weekend getaway in London

2011-05-12T00:34:00.000+10:00

This is a very super delayed post....visited London almost a month ago (2nd weekend in April) and didn't have time to update till now. It's a birthday gift from me to Angelene =) Not her first time there but definitely my first! =P Still funny to recall how I kept this as a secret from her until her birthday...

We went down south to London by train and reached London Euston station in 2 hours' time, bright and early in the morning. What surprise it was for us when we bumped into Winston, whom we just got to know at a BBQ 2 days earlier! We had breakfast together and chatted for a while before moving on our ways....as we were at Euston station and not too far away from King's Cross we decided to take picture at the famous platform 9 3/4 for the Hogwarts Express....unfortunately for us King's Cross station was undergoing some renovation and hence the platform had a 'plastic'-ky appearance =.=

waiting for Hogwarts Express...hehe

We then took the tube to our first destination....St Paul's Cathedral. It's a really magnificent building....we didn't go in as we had to reserve our precious time for other attractions =P

us in front of St Paul's Cathedral

We then walked around (and got a bit lost in the process) to finally reach our second destination, Tate Modern....planned to cross the Millennium Bridge to reach the Tate at first but somehow we made a big round and went the other way....but we made it anyway thankfully =) We went in to explore a bit and then decided to move on to the other main attractions of London.

in front of Tate Modern

We passed by Borough Market....quite unexpected as we didn't know it's open that day! Happy happy =D

Borough Market

bought our lunch and enjoyed them under the sun

As we headed out of the church courtyard (where we had our lunch) to continue on our journey, we saw some people handing out coupons for free coffee...so we took one each =D Such unexpected surprises...as I told Angelene, 'God knows you like visiting markets so he led us here; God knows you love coffee so He provided coffee for you!!'

got coupon for free coffee each!!! And we claimed our BIG cup of latte and mochaccino....haha

Continuing our journey with free coffee in our hands...

HMS Belfast

Tower Bridge ♥

Took loads of pics at Tower Bridge....we set up the tripod and start posing away...many passers-by looked at us as though we are photography professionals LOL. We crossed the Tower Bridge to reach the Tower of London, a castle...there was quite a long queue so we didn't go in. (And besides I had been in a castle before)

Tower of London

We then took the tube to Pimlico to check in our hostel....left our luggage in the rooms and then took teh tube again to Westminster. As I walked out of the Underground station I could see so many people on the streets!! Busy busy busy...so this is what they call 'hustle and bustle of the city'!

Big Ben!

Westminster Abbey

London Eye

Met a group of people who were giving out free hugs near Big Ben....such happy moments =)

We walked down the street to Trafalgar Square...so shocked to see even MORE people.....the huge crowd!! I mean I expected a lot of people at London....but not this huge crowd!

Event promoting Amsterdam...hence the orangy colour

To avoid the crowd we 'escaped' into the National Gallery nearby. Photography inside the gallery wasn't allowed though and we walked out a few minutes later....

the National Gallery

We walked along Oxford Street for some shopping and took the tube from Piccadilly Circus to Leicester Square, where we headed to Chinatown for dinner....

Chinatown

Angelene told me that she used to go to London with her friends 'just for the famous roast duck'....hence our dinner:

DUCK...YUMMY!

colourful badges

Night time came....time to go back for rest =)

Next morning we visited Buckingham Palace. Wanted to see the Changing of the Guards but unfortunately didn't have the chance as the London Marathon was going on and the 'ceremony' was cancelled! But oh well, not many people get to 'experience' London Marathon during travelling right...

Buckingham Palace

London Marathon

Wellington Arch

We even managed to go to Hyde Park

And finally, Harrods!

The Diana and Dodi Memorial inside Harrods

Spent some time shopping at Harrods...then time to rush back to check out, grab our luggages and cabut! But before that we need to have lunch....Angelene wanted me to try the English pub food but we didn't know where to look for one...as we headed back to Euston station we prayed that there's a pub somewhere near the station so we could have lunch and get back to catch the train in time....and God listened =) There's a pub just opposite the train station! We happily went in for our late lunch =D

Sunday roast (beef or chicken)....with Yorkshire pudding!

bought these macaroons near Harrods earlier...finally got to taste the famous Laduree macaroons (supposed to get them in Paris), though in London~

Though the time spent was short, though we were both dog tired at the end of both days...I'm sure we did enjoy ourselves...I love our pics =D

Beautiful York

2011-04-16T06:30:00.000+10:00

I went to York with Angelene last Saturday, and what a sunny day it was =D We took the train at 8am...painted our nails and then slept through the journey in the train. We reached York 1.5 hours later, happy to know that the weather was nice and good for us to explore around...

Welcome to York!

We walked out of the train station and turned right....and soon I could see the city walls.

at the southern entrance to York, Micklegate Bar

Initially we planned to have breakfast in the train but didn't manage to....we found a place at the city square to have our fried meehoon while listening to live street music =D

had our breakfast

First place to visit was York Minster. It was around 11am when we bought our entrance tickets to go in (thankfully no queue) and Angelene was quite worried that we might not be able to cover the whole York in time....

inside York Minster

colourful stained glass windows

outside York Minster

Treasurer's House

We spent about an hour at York Minster then walked around the Treasurer's House which was just nearby, and then bought our lunch at York Hog Roast. We walked to the Museum Gardens to have our lunch while enjoying the lovely sun =)

our lunch

York Museum Gardens

ruins of St Mary's Abbey

colourful flowers (tulips?)

After lunch we 'strolled' along the river bank and crossed the bridge, walked along the busy streets now crowded with people/tourists/locals....

River Ouse

streets of York

...to reach Clifford's Tower.

Clifford's Tower

It was not long before we decided to have high tea at Betty's (earlier than planned), just an hour++ after we had our lunch....luckily we went early as we had to queue for half an hour before we got a table. Had we not changed our plan and went there at 4pm instead we might have missed our train at 6pm...

high tea at Betty's cafe

Since there's still time to kill, we went to walk along the city walls then to the National Railway Museum near the train station.

York city walls

in the National Railway Museum

the only Shinkansen outside of Japan

spring is here!!!

Soon it's time to catch the train home. Another nice day trip, great weather, great photos and of course great company =D

Exploring Manchester

2011-04-16T02:53:00.000+10:00

It's not too late to update about this 'day tour' around Manchester right, although it's about 2 weeks ago?

I have Angelene as my tour guide =D

in front of the University of Manchester

After walking around the University campus we took the bus to the city centre.

Manchester Central Libary

love this pic, 很有英国的感觉

Manchester Town Hall

market stalls

Marks & Spencer!

Primark.....very huge shopping store

my caption for this photo on Facebook is: ALL RISE
hahaha absolutely love this photo (and my own caption) =P
taken at the fountain at Piccadilly Gardens

Walked to Chinatown for lunch, we were deciding between Jap and Thai and finally settled with Thai....

Lunch at Try Thai, Chinatown

Chinatown Manchester

After lunch we quickly took another bus to Old Trafford and the journey took us about 40 minutes. I joined the stadium and museum tour while Angelene waited for me for 1.5 hours (because she's been there 3 times)....and she watched the cricket match in which India won while I toured the stadium =P

Old Trafford stadium

got interviewed =P

players' changing room

Manchester United!!

trophies

in the Man U Megastore

It was about 4.30pm and we made our way to Trafford Centre, a huge shopping centre....

food court inside Trafford Centre

super high-classyyyy

Trafford Centre shopping centre (this is just a part of it)!!

Went to ASDA/Wal-mart after that to buy some groceries before we took the bus back to city centre.

Triangle (another shopping centre)

Printworks

Wheel of Manchester =D

Arndale shopping centre

Dinner at Wasabi

back to Chinatown at night

A fun-filled and interesting day touring the city of Manchester, thanks Angelene for bringing me around =D

Roaming the streets of Rome

2011-04-12T02:43:00.000+10:00

Our last stop of our Europe trip was Rome, the capital of Italy. We arrived near midnight on 17th March and when we went to the hostel to check in (pre-booked online), we were told that they had mixed up our bookings and there were only one room available instead of two. Luckily the receptionist told us that he could give us an upgrade to an apartment which has two rooms - which of course we agreed! And we have free breakfast delivered to our doorstep too the next morning =D

Room service =D

After breakfast we walked around the city for a bit.....

Welcome to Rome.....

sunny day in Rome

We walked to Termini station in hopes of getting a free map of the city but it took us a while to find a tourist information centre....and we didn't manage to find any! Just then a guy from a tourist agency came to talk to us and somehow we just followed him and went on this hop-on-and-off bus tour.....

人山人海

colours of Italy

ruins

Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II

We toured around on the bus and decided to hop off at Vatican City for pictures. There were so many tourists like us around, possibly due to the fact that the previous day was Italy's 150th anniversary of unification and it's a public holiday (shops closed?).......

at St Peter's Square with St Peter's Basilica in the background

the Apostolic Palace, official residence of the Pope

Time for lunch! Found this pizzeria restaurant called Zi Gaetana...food was just 'okay' for our taste buds.

Macaroni with carbonara - quite hard and very salty

tortellini in salsa

ordered a pizza to share

fettuccine ragout

After lunch we walked around and tried to find our way to the next destination....why so much walking, you ask, when we had already paid for the hop-on-and-off tour? That was because we didn't think of going back to the place where we hopped off the bus as it's quite far from where we had lunch....but good thing was that we managed to buy gelato.....true Italian gelato!

quite a long queue at Gelateria Old Bridge...apparently it's one of the famous gelateria in Rome!

with our gelato =D

we passed by this place so many times that we just had to take pic with it

VERY VERY long queue to get in the Vatican Museum, so we just took pics outside instead

From the Vatican Museum we walked around the streets and went to this bus stop that we were told we could hop on the bus from.....waited for around 20 minutes and when we saw the familiar green bus, we waved our hands to catch the driver's attention he didn't see us and hence didn't stop!!! And we crazily chased the bus to the next street but to no avail.....what did we pay 20 euros for, to chase the bus?! We grumbled along as we walked back to St Peter's Square.....however this time round we waited at the wrong bus stop (they changed the stop) and we missed the bus AGAIN!!!!

It took us quite a while to go to the right bus stop and hop on the bus.....and then hopped off at the Trevi Fountain.

nice view of Tiber River

the huge crowd surrounding the majestic Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain =D

After loads of pictures we made our way to the Colosseum (didn't want to wait for the bus any longer).

natural colours of sunset + rain coming soon

Just a few minutes after the picture was taken there was a heavy downpour!!! We tried to find cover under a stall with everyone else, then we decided to take the train back to our apartment. There were so many people at the station as well, waiting for the rain to stop. Before going back to our apartment we went to buy some drinks and snacks, then came out again to have dinner at La Vecchia Conca, a pizzeria restaurant. Surprisingly good food (best meal we had in Italy)!!!!

Roman spaghetti (just with cheese and pepper)

can't remember what is this called

spaghetti with....errr....

seafood antipasti....YUMMMMM

That concludes the end of our Europe trip.....it was a fun 10-day trip with Wei Ven and 2 new friends, Hao Keat and Lee Cil....they had been very helpful throughout the trip, for example with carrying my luggage, planning where to go and where to eat, buying tickets and taking public transport etc.....and my role in this trip was only as the main photographer following them around. Thanks guys for letting me join the trip, hope we will meet again =D

Water and more water - Venice

2011-04-07T03:22:00.000+10:00

After spending almost half of the day at different airports, we finally reached Venice, the city of water. It's raining when we reached there =.= The rain stopped after we checked in at our hotel and it was still a few hours before dinner time, so we left our comfy hotel rooms and out to the cold and wet grounds, exploring the beautiful city.

Street view from outside our hotel

masquerade masks

Murano glass....specially in Venice

selling vegetables....they look really fresh!!!

water bus

Water taxi

one of the bigger bridges

Venice has a lot of bridges connecting each street!!!

Typical Venice scenery =D

me and Wei Ven

Found a place for dinner at a cafe....other than the spaghetti, we didn't really enjoy the dinner.... (maybe coz we had good French food the day earlier and this was comparatively not as nice....haha)

soft bread

biscuit-like sticks

spaghetti with cuttlefish in black sauce - BEST dish of all, I still miss this to this day

beef lasagne

spaghetti con vongole (i.e. with clams) - nice and fresh, yummy!

fried fish of the day

chicken chop with salad - certainly not the best ever and we didn't really like it

I didn't like mine either....this is pork chop with chips, quite dry....

Venice at night

Walked into a gallery/museum randomly to take pics....free entry

When nightfall came there was a sudden heavy downpour....we quickly got back to the hotel as fast as we could as it was quite cold and the streets were dimly lit. And the ground was very wet....we spent the night just relaxing ourselves in our rooms and surfing the internet with the free wi-fi at the hotel =D

The next morning greeted us with good-quite-sunny-warm weather. What a joy....good timing to have our gondola ride!

by the balcony of our hotel...

We had free breakfast at the restaurant next to our hotel

Gondola ride!!

apparently the movie 'The Tourist' was filmed here

group picture in the gondola =D

masquerade...

we're LOST....everywhere looked very similar to us!!

Using the map the hotel gave us, we managed to find our way through the many passages and bridges and alleys.....to reach Piazza San Marco. We spent a lot of time taking pictures and by the time we reached the square we were very hungry. Time for lunch!

Decided to have pizzas so we ordered 4 different pizzas to share

Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square)

There were a lot of pigeons at the square

one of the buildings in Piazza San Marco

nice architecture

Soon it started RAINING again....and everyone quickly looked for cover in the buildings, including the stall owners. It was really 人山人海.....we waited a while before the sky cleared for a bit then continued to walk around and find our way back to the hotel, as we had another flight to catch in the evening.

TRAFFIC JAM in Venice.....so-called traffic jam in water!

bye-bye Venice....

Bonjour de Paris!

2011-04-04T10:05:00.004+10:00

Europe trip continued.... =P

14 March:

Spent most of the day at airport.....took the flight from Zurich to London Luton (our flight was delayed for an hour++) so by the time we reached London Luton it's lunch time.

Had Burger King as our lunch

Took the afternoon flight to Paris; by the time we reached Paris, dragged our heavy luggages up and down the Metro train stations (staircases =.=), checked in at our hostel (we got the top floor, another pain to climb the staircases with our luggages)...and then to find out that our room was quite dark/dimly lit as there's no light except the toilet light and small light near the entrance door....it's already about 9++pm when we walked out our hostel to the streets to look for a place for dinner. Yes we hadn't had our dinner then and we were so very hungry....

GPS-ing....Hao Keat's Nokia N8 GPS system helped us a lot during our trip!

With the help from Hao Keat's phone on restaurant guide we finally found a French restaurant nearby called Chez Paul. Not bad....really authentic French...menu's in French, waitresses spoke French, and you wonder how did we order the following dishes:

First entrée - salad seafood cocktail

Second entrée - Lyon sausages with pistachios and warm apple

Third entrée - ratatouille (remember the cartoon?)

We decided to order a bottle of red wine to truly enjoy it the French way =D

First main course: roast lamb in its original juices and mashed potato

Second main course: red tuna fish fried with season vegetables (in this case, carrots and beans)

Third main course: chicken with beans and potatoes

By the time we finished dinner it's already about midnight (speaking of super late dinner...). Walked back to our hostel (or should I say, the dark room) to sleep.

15 March:
Woke up early in the morning to have breakfast at 7am. It's included as part of our stay...nothing fancy but better than having none at all.

You can have as many bread as you like....they have butter and jam spread, and coffee/hot chocolate/espresso/just click on the coffee machine for whatever you like.

A full day tour in Paris!

In front of Musee du Louvre

Unfortunately it's not open on Tuesdays!! SO we didn't get to see Mona Lisa...just took the pics of these statues from the window....

Louvre buildings

Louvre Pyramid

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (smaller arch)

inside the Palais Royal

Palais Royal garden

pretty colours

有没有像冬季恋歌的感觉呢？

fountain and a couple of ducks

cute dog watching the ducks!

chalice

Obelisk

Seine River....with the Eiffel Tower in the background

moi =D

in front of Assemblee Nationale

elephant statue outside Le Musée d'Orsay

Arc de Triomphe!

Had late lunch at a French restaurant, La Villa d'Este....simply love French cuisine =D

some snack before we ordered our food

First entrée: duck liver mousse and salad

Second entrée: warm goat cheese salad

Third entrée: escargots

I really love French cuisine!!! Thumbs up!!!

First main course: tagliatelle with seafood

Second main course: some meat with potatoes and beans....YUMMY!

First dessert: fromage blanc (cottage cheese yoghurt)

Second dessert: charlotte with berries

Third dessert: cake (gateau) with 3 types of chocolate

Then off we went to the main tourist attraction of Paris.....

Eiffel Tower!! Finally =D

We pre-booked our tickets online so we didn't have to queue to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. There was really a long queue....wonder how long did they have to wait....

Night view of the city of lights

Eiffel Tower at night

Last night in Paris.....

Finally I got to visit this city that I always wanted to go to since young (don't ask me why, I don't really know the reason either)~

God works wonders

2011-03-29T11:16:00.001+11:00

I was walking around the streets today, trying to get some sunflowers for a dear friend of mine....I walked over to the florist and saw that the shopkeeper just opened the shop and was arranging the flower pots.

"Can I help you?" she asked, after I spent a minute or so just pacing there looking for the flowers I wanted.

"Do you have sunflowers?" I asked, half-expected a 'No' as I somehow have the thought that sunflowers are not in season now.

"No I don't, sorry." Spot-on. Oh what should I do now? The only thing that I could think of right then was 'I NEED flowers...or else I couldn't come up an excuse or a reason for a 'missing' gift number 5!' I was desperately walking around the shops to see what other types of flowers I should get...but none of them caught my eye.

I walked further down to the University....there were a LOT of students walking around. It was quite a sunny day =) I couldn't stop thinking about gift number 5. What should I do? Just then I past by a bench, and I saw some stalks of yellow flowers on the bench itself! Someone must have left them there. Immediately what came across my mind was that this must be one of God's work...if it is true that You want me to take the flowers then I shall take them. I sat down on the bench next to the flower stalks, just to make sure that no one left them there on purpose or if anyone came back to get them. Few minutes past by and there wasn't anyone coming to claim the flowers, and I thought, I shall do as You say...so I took the flowers and kept them in my handbag =P

These might not be enough, I thought, though I didn't have an idea of an exact number I wanted. Maybe I should try to see if there were any flowers on the ground at the park nearby (i.e. I wasn't thinking of plucking flowers)....so off I went, walked around the wet grass in the park and picked up some yellow flowers....just then I thought, I wonder how many I have? Hopefully I have 24, just enough for my BFF. I picked up a few more flowers, saw a squirrel on the way, got my shoes wet due to the grass and then I decided it was time for me to go home.

I came home and took out all the yellow flowers I got and started counting them. Looks like I don't have enough, as I started counting....but lo and behold, when I reached the final flower the number was 24!!!! OH MY GOODNESS....this is truly God's gift!!! What a wonder this is =D I was truly amazed!

Adding some liveliness to her room =D

Happy birthday dearest, love you bunches ♥

Thank you Lord for the special gift and thank You for the time spent with Angelene....

I was in Switzerland

2011-03-28T01:30:00.001+11:00

Welcome....to Switzerland =P

Arriving at Zurich airport, we were a bit lost of how to get to the city centre...whether to travel by train or by bus, as everything was in German...finally we found an information centre so we bought our train tickets to Zurich city centre and another set of return tickets to Luzern, which is the place we would be staying. I had absolutely no idea what awaits me in Switzerland - or should I say, I never know what are the places to visit in each city beforehand - I only find out when I arrive at the place itself! So is the case at Switzerland....it's only when Lee Cil mentioned '我们明天去雪山' that I realised we were going to the famous Swiss Alps the next day!!! Didn't expect that I would see snow during my trip! Not my first time seeing snow but equally excited =D

In the train from airport to Zurich city centre....Swiss transport is quite expensive!

Zurich streets

In front of a church-like building

river

group pic

in front of Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich HB) train station

After touring quickly around the city we took another train to Luzern....an hour's journey it was, and what a coincidence that there was some soccer match going on in Luzern so there were A LOT of soccer fans taking the train from Zurich....and it was so noisy inside the coach! ALL big guys with a bottle of beer each, talking and singing and some even smoking even though it said No Smoking in the train. Not a pleasant train ride....however it was nice that there was this lady sitting beside me who was a teacher who taught German to overseas students and we were able to talk in English, so we had a little chat =) And when we arrived at Luzern train station, all the soccer fans gather together and cheered (kinda like a strike)....and the policemen stood afar (quite a distance away from the crowd) to ensure nothing dangerous would happen.

We dragged our luggages to our hotel in Luzern....quite a tiring journey as we had to go uphill and downhill, crossing the bridge and the road (and also because our luggages were between 15-20kg!) but we finally reached the hotel.

Nice comfy place to rest for two nights =)

We explored Luzern a while to look for a place for dinner...

snowy mountain as our background

Luzern streets

an ad in a language I don't understand

Our shared Thai dinner.....yummy especially when we were so hungry!

Went back and had a good night's sleep. The next morning after having breakfast with the aunties....Mt Titlis here we come! We had to take the train from Luzern to Engelberg, about an hour's journey...

Snowy mountain again~

In the train on the way to Engelberg

The thick layer of snow

Before taking the cable car

View from cable car...simply breathtaking

Time to play!

Exciting and fun

Cute picture taken by Wei Ven

nice =)

Jump shot!!

Group jump shot

Snow attack

In front of an igloo-shaped hotel/restaurant

Inside the souvenir shop

Finally reached the top of Mt Titlis....10,000 feet above ground!!!

一片白茫茫的雪

Had Movenpick ice cream =)

Bought this t-shirt at the souvenir shop =D

And then we had to get back to Luzern before darkness came....so back with the train again....and while on the train:

Another award-winning picture.....trying to advertise watch

Walked around Luzern for dinner...

Night view of Luzern

Swiss restaurant where we had our dinner

Yes it has cheese fondue!!!

We ordered several dishes and shared around the table.

Swiss dining =)

Lamb skewers with rice

Pork chop with fries

Chicken skewers in sauce with rice

Cheese fondue! Dip bread with it

Swiss-style fried potato strips

After the dinner we went walking around Luzern....spotted some watches...

Only available in Switzerland!!!

Went back to hotel for another good night's sleep as we had to wake up early the next morning to catch a flight to our next destination....the journey continues =P

In Scotland still

2011-03-22T09:09:00.001+11:00

We reached Edinburgh at around 2pm. It was raining!! Waited for a while for Wei Ven's friends to come pick us up. We went to their place to put our luggages and rest for a while...

The living room and kitchen - guess which of the cupboard is the fridge?

Didn't want to waste the afternoon, the two friends, Hao Keat and Lee Cil, brought Wei Ven and I to walk around Edinburgh for a bit. Luckily the sky cleared =)

The National Gallery of Scotland

black building - sorry I don't know its name

I don't know what is this building either....

Came across this Disney shop along the streets!

We walked up Calton Hill

View of some cliff from Calton Hill

The National Monument at Calton Hill

Edinburgh city view from Calton Hill

first jump shot! ('lompatan yang cantik' according to Wei Yong)

Nelson Monument

Dugald Stewart Monument

Wei Ven and I had dinner at Mussel Inn as the other two had bought chicken from Sainsbury (only 1 pound for one whole roasted chicken!)

1/2 kilo of mussels in white wine, garlic & cream (6 pounds); and also onion & croque soup - nice and warm for the cold weather

We went home after dinner and started to repack for our Europe trip together as we had a flight to catch the next day evening.

The next morning Wei Ven and I went to Edinburgh Castle.

In front of the University of Edinburgh (School of Divinity, New College)

Inside the University

On the way up to Edinburgh Castle....quite a walk up hill

Welcome to Edinburgh Castle =)

It's a huge castle!

Some random guy....

Bagpipes, Scotland-only =P

Inside the Castle grounds

Some memorial for the soldiers

In the Crown Palace

cannons

Edinburgh city streets....can you imagine walking down the streets with whole stretch of this type of buildings?

Scottish flag =)

Went home to have microwaved lunch we bought from Sainsbury....and soon it was time to head for the airport.

The third airport I had been since I came to Europe

nice car on display

We flew to London Luton airport and stayed there overnight as our next flight to our next destination was early in the morning. A few hours into the night and suddenly the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate! We followed the crowd out of the small airport....there were some fire trucks (apparently it cost 1000 pounds for each truck to come), thankfully there wasn't any fire. But I just wanna get some sleep...

It was extremely cold outside...and with the strong wind, brrrr~

Soon came morning and we were able to check in. Went through security and to the waiting area to see which departure gate we had to go to. And I had my very first Starbucks coffee! (YEA first Starbucks coffee ever, and in the UK!)

my cappuccino and Wei Ven's latte

Time for boarding....stay tuned for the next destination =P

Back from MIA

2011-03-21T12:06:00.001+11:00

Long time no see, I'm back to blogging!

Let's talk about my trip to this other side of the world. First stop, London Stansted airport.

After a long non-stop 15-hour flight from KL, I finally landed in London Stansted....without any jetlag (lucky me!) Waited a few hours before my next flight to Glasgow, to be welcomed by Wei Ven who was hiding behind one of the columns at the airport (and she thought I couldn't notice her?!) =.=

It was already about 9-10pm then. And it was raining and windy and cold, but I was sweating from carrying my luggages and wearing 2-3 layers. We took the bus to Kelvinhaugh, the place she was staying....after some chit chat and a quick bath we started to relax and enjoy HK drama....

....and also Ben & Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie ice cream!

Had a good night's sleep after that. Next morning we toured around Kelvinhaugh and Glasgow - the largest city of Scotland.

The University of Glasgow....magnificent!!

You can find statues everywhere

I love walking down streets like this, feel very relaxed, calm and peaceful...

We went through this gate to the University....obviously this isn't the main entrance (and the metal gate actually reminds me of Halloween)

University of Glasgow - awesome view

The 'award-winning' picture on Facebook - poser yet to be given the award

Inside the University

There's the famous red telephone in the University!

Nice view =D

Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum - didn't manage to get in coz we were there before its opening time

Went back home to get our luggage as we had to take the bus to Edinburgh in the afternoon....and so we 顺便 SS 一下

Dragging our luggages we took the bus to Glasgow city centre and then to Buchanan bus station to store our big luggages in the locker. Then we had brunch....

Sauces are free in the UK!

Shared the big Scottish breakfast with Wei Ven, which included: eggs, black pudding, tattie scones, bacon, fried tomato, baked beans, toast, mushrooms...yummy!

We then walked around the city though it was raining (hence the dark sky in the pics).

The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

George Square

Gallery of Modern Art

one of the art pieces inside the Gallery

Buchanan Galleries....a shopping centre!

Soon it was time for us to catch the bus to Edinburgh...tickets only cost us 1 pound each coz Wei Ven bought them earlier =) Bid farewell to Glasgow and say hello to Edinburgh....stay tuned for my next post!

不约而同

2011-03-02T13:38:00.000+11:00

一个平常的星期一至五早上：
早上七点出门，走到朋友家，miss call朋友，然后一起走到火车站，搭火车到医院“上班”。

昨天：
早上6.58睁开眼睛躺在床上，感觉睡眠不足，sms朋友说我会迟一个小时后才去（意思是要他自己先去）。反正我们的assessment也做了，没人会理我们到底有没有在医院出现=P
第二次醒来的时候已经是早上九点，我慢吞吞地吃早餐刷牙洗脸换衣服后才出门，走到火车站，坐下来，拿出ipod边听歌边等火车。心想，我的朋友应该是在忙着“做工”了吧！
不到十分钟，突然听到好像有人在叫我的名字，抬头一看，正是我的朋友！我俩你看我，我看你，然后一起大笑起来。笑了又停，过后又自然而然地再大笑（火车站里的人一定觉得我们很奇怪）。没想到原来他也迟起床，哈哈哈！

Batman invades Melbourne!!!

2011-02-17T19:10:00.001+11:00

My best friend finally came to visit me...after 3 years of not seeing each other =D

Last Saturday I went to pick her up at Tullamarine Airport...how funny that it didn't really turn out to be a 'suspense' as I had thought, maybe coz we have always been keeping in touch and updating each other (we even just chatted the day before she left for Melbourne!)

While waiting for her at the arrival hall, all the while I was thinking, how is it going to be like to see each other again after so long? What should I say? Is she going to walk out through this door, or the other door? If we have fate, she'll walk out of this door and see me, I thought.

After about an hour, the princess finally made her appearance - she saw me! We DO have fate =D There were a lot of people so we had to walk to the side before giving each other a welcome hug. No screaming, no tears of joy...it's just a simple warm welcome, 即温暖又温馨 =)

Dragging the luggages we walked out of the airport and took the Skybus to Southern Cross station. It was close to noon time when we put the luggages at the luggage hall (locker), so I suggested we went to have lunch first...forgetting that her body clock is still at Malaysian breakfast time =P However somehow the train bypassed the city loop and did not go to Melbourne Central as I wanted and went straight to Parliament instead, so we got down and we went to the Parliament, as well as the Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton Gardens and Melbourne Museum....just taking pics outside of those buildings. And oh....weather forecast said that there was going to be morning showers and strong winds in the afternoon, but I guess our princess brought sunshine with her wherever she goes and so it turned out to be a fine day =D

Parliament of Victoria

Royal Exhibition Building - a World Heritage Site

Carlton Gardens

Went back to the city to have Vietnamese beef noodles for lunch at 2pm. I couldn't even finish my bowl of beef special noodles despite being hungry earlier...guess we were talking too much =P We then walked around the streets, down along Swanston and Bourke St to Flinders St, planning to catch a tram to Docklands.

Flinders St station

There was a Japanese summer festival being held at Docklands that day (quoted from my sister: 'we were there for almost a month and there's no jap festival, she just 1 day nia le') hahaha how lucky we were!

It's been a while since I see 人山人海 at Docklands

Wanted to go further down for a closer angle for pictures but there were too many people

How could I forget to ask her to take pics with these white 'artistic things'?

There were performances, dances, many food stalls selling Jap food and snacks, and even kimono! We were too full from lunch so we didn't buy anything...after hanging around for a while, we took the tram back to the city. Went to the State Library and Chinatown, then headed for the Shrine of Remembrance via tram.

State Library of Victoria....where there's always people sitting on the grass =)

She would never forget her Batman pose!

I love this =)

Next, dinner at a Jap shop...wanted to go to Stalactite for Greek food but it's kinda far from where we were. Plus there's more exciting things happening at night at Southbank and we certainly didn't want to be late for that!

Southbank is always so pretty at night....and of course the pretty girl too =P

Lanterns by the Yarra River!

The beginning of the fire show

Bright and warm fire...not just this one column, there's a whole row of them along the river!

There's more Chinese New Year atmosphere inside the Crown Complex

Time to go home and sleep!

Next day...Sunday. Ivie came to pick us up for church =) went for lunch at Grill'd then off to Brighton beach we went! What a sunny day it was!

3 girls + 3 houses

'kidnapped' some ang mo kids to come take pics with us =P

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine~

Batman is in Australia!!

It's such a small world...for the connections between us

Trying to get some 'beach' feel

erm....

After that it's time for Angelene to fly to Adelaide....we're lucky we have Ivie who has a car!

What a weekend of fun...so happy and relaxed, as we have all passed our exams, no worries whatsoever. Now is the time to truly enjoy life =P

Thank You Lord for making it possible for my dear Angelene to come to Melbourne to visit me....for us to pass our exams, for us to meet each other again after all these years (and more to come!). Thank You, for everything has gone as You have planned =)

you

2011-02-09T23:33:00.000+11:00

I thought I saw you walking down by a street yesterday
I thought I heard your voice though I could not hear
just what you say and I am waiting
And I'm waiting here for you

Just a few more days =P

恭喜恭喜

2011-02-03T11:58:00.000+11:00

恭贺大家新年快乐、恭喜发财、万事如意、身体健康、‘兔’飞猛进、步步高升、心想事成、兔年行大运！！！

Strangers' Sunday

2011-01-23T14:19:00.000+11:00

从来没有在一天出外时和多过一个陌生人讲过话/被问东西，今天短短两个小时里面我就和五个陌生人interact了~

~7am，第一个陌生人：
一大清早走到Clayton火车站要买票给妈妈和妹妹时，站长看到我站在ticket machine前面，就一边忙着他的事情一边随口建议我买Sunday Saver，我也随口答“是，谢谢你”，因为我早已决定要买Sunday Saver。可是ticket machine上只有：2-hour, 10x2-hour, Daily, Seniors Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Off-Peak Saver。站长又开口说话了，我没听清楚，加上我又不知道什么是Off-Peak Saver而且也没看到Sunday Saver的option，所以就问他，怎知道他就不耐烦地说：“AS I SAID（大声地）bla bla bla.....”　我怔住一下，想：我几时得罪你了？一大清早对我“大吼”？………………算了，我生气一下就好，我又没做错事，你要发脾气是你的事，本小姐宽宏大量不和你计较，哼！

~8.05am，第二个陌生人：
到了Southern Cross火车站，有个中年妇女问我到哪里买票，我就问她什么票，她说她要到country去，哦，原来是V-line的票，我就说到楼下去买好了～

~8.20am，第三个陌生人：
在Skybus前面排队时（我帮妹妹拿行李），后面的妇女问我Skybus是不是去main的机场，我就答说是去Tullamarine Airport，是Melbourne's main airport，她又问不是那个JetStar 的对吧？我就说另一个机场叫Avalon，她松了一口气说谢谢，对她旁边的朋友说这就对了，还说她从来没发觉Tullamarine是main airport呢。

~8.30am，第四个陌生人：
在Southern Cross火车站坐在长凳上等火车回家时，旁边有个男子没发觉他把钱包遗漏在长凳上。眼看他要走了，我就问他钱包是不是他的，他转身看长凳上的钱包，很惊奇自己竟然遗漏了它！并满怀感激地向我道谢！我笑说不用客气，这时脑海里想到的是小学常写的作文，拾金不昧，哈哈！

~9am，第五个陌生人：
在火车上回家的途中，看到对面不知什么时候来了几个高大威武身穿uniform的男子，原来是来查票的，是“突击检查”。其中一个查票员对我说"Morning ma'am"，我微笑着把票递给他，我可是有valid的票的，当然是顺利过关啦～

一天里面和五个陌生人说到话，还是第一次呢！

More graduations

2010-12-20T01:27:00.000+11:00

After Amelene's graduation, I attended a few other friends' graduation....everyone is graduating this year and us meddies still gotta wait till our turn =P

Hui Xuan's graduation at University of Melbourne where she did her Honours

Harry Potter in the making

Went to Eugenia's graduation and attended the ceremony at Robert Blackwood Hall...first time attending a graduation ceremony!

Though not my first time inside the hall, it still looks impressive to me....notice the pipe organ in the middle

Ancora Imparo =)

Eugenia is my ex-neighbour at halls

Carmen and Wai are some of the few HK hallmates I met last year (halls kitchen is a good meeting place), so surprised to see them graduating on that day too, coz I didn't know!

It's always happy to see people graduating, because there's always a happy atmosphere around... =) and also because it kept me wondering how my graduation will be like next time =P (Nooi Hoay and me even came up with some tips for dressing for graduation day after some observation in the graduation ceremony....hahaha)

First graduation I attended

2010-12-13T17:25:00.000+11:00

Went to Amelene's graduation last Saturday at the Royal Exhibition Building. It's my first time attending a friend's graduation...and it's an honour to be able to attend my ex-roommate (at INTEC)'s graduation! From the day we first met at the INTEC hostel office and found out we were roommates, till 5 years later today...Who would have known that we both ended up in Melbourne together to pursue our degrees despite being at different universities. And to be able to attend her graduation too!

Inside the graduation hall

In the Melbourne Museum opposite the Royal Exhibition Building....thank you aunty uncle for still remembering me even though it's been 4 years since we last met at Kuching! *so surprised and touched*

Outside the graduation hall

During our chat I asked Amelene, where's your mortarboard (the square graduation cap)? And she said Melbourne Uni undergraduates don't get mortarboard, only Masters (and above) do...So I said 'then you won't be able to throw mortarboards up into the air, like how we used to talk about/dream of doing during our INTEC times...' to which she said, 'Yeah 梦想破坏了'....aiks =P

The Royal Exhibition Building - a World Heritage site

Congratulations Amelene and happy birthday in advance (tomorrow)! All the best in your future and may your dreams come true... Hope we get to meet again in Malaysia =D