The place to be - Melbourne, the CBD

Basically the CBD of Melbourne is made up from nine vertical and nine horizontal streets. The government is trying to preserve the Victorian style in the CBD and hence most of the high rise and modern buildings are built outside the city. You can get around the city easily by tram, but the traffic can be very confusing too because they have tram lanes and car lanes, and the tram station is in the middle of the road. It even has carriages around the city too! If you take away the cars and the modern trams, it will be just like an old Victorian city.

Melbourne is a vibrant city, even though it is not as fast pacing like Sydney but it's definitely a good place to be at, except the weather is not very nice, the 4 days I was in Melbourne, it was very windy and you see just clouds and more clouds.  It is a smaller city compared to Sydney, Sydney has more high rise buidlings, and more like a business district to me as you can see big, famous, and listed companies around the city and people wearing suits going for work and Melbourne has more tourists and students as the University of Melbourne and RMIT just located around the city, and tourists are just everywhere in the city, like EVERYWHERE. I like how they have information booths and helpers to help the tourists to get around the city, which was really helpful for self-touring tourists like us.

There are a lot of Asians too, it's just everywhere, whenever you blink your eye you see an Asian. The whole city is just like a Chinatown to me, I thought I was in some Asian country. But the good thing is, the Asian groceries and restaurants are everywhere!! And it's cheaper! Well, the cost of living there is cheaper but the rental is crazy!

Okie picturessssssss!!

- The federation Square-

-still around the federation square-

-The very busy Flinders Street Station-

-random building which I found pretty interesting-

-I think this is the old fire station-

-the state library-

-I got locked up in the watch house... =(-

-and got this photo taken, for a crime I did not commit-

-gallop gallop gallop on on the street-

-if you happen to go Melbourne, you HAVE to go to this gelato place in Lygon Street!-

-They have the awesome durian flavoured gelato and it's like you're eating a durian! Their best selling is Ferrero Rocher and I think the 2nd best is the durian flavour already! I had the Durian and Pandan! I miss it alreadyyyyy!!-

-I think this is an exhibition centre or something-

-I am a teapot short and stout, this is in Melbourne Museum, which we got in for free! For being a student!-

-the night view of the city from Yarra river-

-The Crown Casino!! please ignore the stupid pole which trying to steal the spotlight. Everyone was soooo posh and classy looking and made us feel so inferior for wearing just t-shirt, jeans and sneakers.-

-The only picture we took inside of Crown Casino -

That's pretty much about Melbourne city, next up will be the Great Ocean Road!

Holiday

I'm on my mid semester break for 2 weeks and I'll be flying off to Melbourne and Tasmania tomorrow. Bye bye!! Wil blog about the trip when I come back 1 week later. =D

Dust Storm

No I did not edit the picture, this photo is taken in my room at 7.40 in the morning today. The dust is not so thick anymore now but the wind is still very strong. According to the news, it's the worst dust storm in 70 years. And the scientist says there might be another one coming up again tomorrow and Friday. Scaryy.... I need to go stock up my food storage already!

Anyway, it's holiday babeh!! 2 weeks of mid term holiday, not that I'm going anywhere but still it's holiday!! Maybe not exactly a holiday as I have three assignments due when uni reopen. For now, I just want to curl up in my bed watching drama series!!

*praying for a rain*
*praying for the dust storm to go away*
*praying for no more dust storm tomorrow*
*praying for the mid term test results to be at least decent*

How to enlarge picture

Been wondering how did I manage to upload huge pictures? Imma telling you now!

You will need to log in http://draft.blogger.com instead of the normal blogger you signed into. Then upload pictures like normal. Good thing using draft blogger is that you can upload as many pictures as you want at one time, bad thing is when you're uploading you cannot continue to type the post until they are finished uploaded. But another good thing is you can just post the pictures anywhere you want instead of having to drag it down from top to bottom but I already found an alternative for it.

Okay back to enlarging the pictures. After you uploaded and posted, then go to edit HTML and this is the code where you change the size of the photo.

The size will normally be s320 if you choose medium, all you need to do is change the number to either s576, s640, s800, or even s1600 if you want a uber huge ass picture on your blog. Normally I use s576 for all the pictures.

After you have done, go back to compose, you will see the size of your picture will change from this

 to this

Voila, it's as simple as that. Oh one more thing, some blog templete with narrow content margin might not be able to do this, so you will need to change the content margin in your blog layout using HTML.

Hope this is useful. =D

p/s: that absinth doesn't belong to me.

It's Spring!

-pretty cherry blossom in the uni-

Flowers are blooming! I ♥ Spring!

Except those insects that started coming out from hibernation that is.

2 more weeks!

It's already week 7 this week, 2 more weeks and I'm be on my mid term holiday! And, that also means 8 more weeks till finals and 12 more weeks till the end of the term! That's how fast time flies. I go to uni from Monday till Wednesday only, I don't even know how I spent my weekends and before I realize it's Monday again. sigh... I guess I have been wasting time a lot.

2 weeks ago, I went to ChamShan temple located in Morriset, it's around 40 minutes drive away from Newcastle. It was my first time visiting a temple in Australia and I was pretty excited about it. The temple was nice, the people were nice too! It's more of a cantonese speaking temple, but I'm glad I am able to understand it all thanks to the TVB dramas I have been watching all this while. Visiting the temple is now a fortnightly event for the uni newly formed Buddhist Society.


On a totally unrelated thing, I have tasted my first char koay teow in Australia!!! *big wet eyes* Even though it is not very authentic but the flavour and the fragrance of wonderful char koay teow is there! *bliss*

I just registered for IELTS exam in November, I really hope I can get at least 7 for each component so I don't have to retake it. I really need to brush up my English, I know my grammar is horrible and my vocab is limited. How to score like that! T__T Yesh yesh I know I should read more books but my reading phase comes and goes. And now I'm not in the reading phase. But on a bright side, I just bought 2 books during the book fair last month for 4 dollars each! All I need now is to get myself into reading it.

That's all for now, will update more! It's Wednesday again tomorrow!

Merdeka Night 2009 - Fusion of Culture

Yesterday wasn't exactly Independence day yet, but everyone's patriotic spirit was there! The food wasn't bad, cannot complain since I'm not in Malaysia but still get to eat satay!! *bliss* There are performances going on and lucky draw. The 1st prize is a return ticket back to Malaysia!! Unfortunately I wasn't the lucky one. =( Anyway, I had a lot of fun! Met a lot of people, it was a great night!

Since everyone will be turning up pretty, I also tried my best to look good too! I think it wasn't bad, since I got compliments from friends! =D Here's the picture after I did my make up.

Here are some photos from yesterday:

-Joe, me and Thia-

-me, Pung and Chermaine-

-Thia and me-

-the ladies-

-Mr X, Kenneth, Michael, LayPing, Me and Ah Fu-

-dikir barat performance-

-see, I am very patriotic!!-

Yep, it was a great night! Happy Merdeka everyone! =D I will be going to a temple tomorrow! That will be my 1st time going to a temple in Australia! I am very excited!! Stay tuned for more!!

What I do when I have a sudden craving for Malaysian food

I was browsing some recipe blog last night and I found some Malaysian recipe and that made me had a sudden craving for it! I know I must do something to stop my craving, so the next day, which is today, I headed to Woolies and Asian store and bought all the ingredients needed to make Char hor fun, and I even made sambal belacan to go with it! I would say it was quite nice! at least it helps to satisfy my sudden craving. =D This is the recipe if you're interested in making it too! *click*

-this is how mine looks like-

-the sambal belacan I made-

I still have some sambal belacan leftover for the next few days! I'm feeling great! That's how much I miss Malaysian food that I needed to make myself so I can stop craving for it! Gonna make nasi lemak next without the lemak rice, I've got all the ingredients needed already!! =D

Recap

Went to Sydney last Thursday, it was a hair cut trip. All 5 of us cut our hair and this is how I look like now

-I have fringe!!!!-

It was eons ago since I put my fringe down like that, even though I have had fringe in the past but normally I'll push it to the side way, and I totally can't recall back when was the last time I put it down like this. Some people say it doesn't look good tho, but some say nice! So what do you guys think? The length of my hair still about the same as just some bad ends being cut off only and it is more layered now.

Of course we don't just go to Sydney to cut our hair, we went to karaoke session after that and sang for 3 good hours! And definitely cannot miss the must-have Korean meal every time we go to Sydney. They are just sooo good! And there is this ice cream place called Passion Flower that serves Ice Cream on waffles, crepes and pancakes! Nice! =D

Okie that was just a quick update! It's the 2nd week of my final semester already! and it's the end of the 2nd week already coz my classes are only from Monday till Wednesday! So I have Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday off! I should be doing something more productive than watching drama series everyday! I'm currently watching Desperate housewives! I'm only on season one, I am so outdated!!

Will blog again soon! Gonna go continue my drama series! Chao~

New Semester

Holiday is over, party is over, it's time to embrace the new term and which is also my last term of uni. I'm having some mixed feelings about graduating, I dunno should I be happy or sad or... whatever... it's kinda scary not to know what to do next, like yah, I'm graduating soon, so what's next? Continue master? Pack everything and go back home or stay and work? It's just so hard to make the decision.

Anyway, let just put that aside and think something happier! So what have I been doing for the past 3 weeks since I came back from New Zealand? 3 weeks ago, I was like what should I do for the next 3 weeks, and in a blink of eye, 3 weeks are over!! *blinking in disbelief* Basically, we went out like almost everyday! So yah, been spending a lot! The hole in my pocket from New Zealand haven't healed and now it's even bigger! *trying to sew the hole up* We were busier than the time when having exams! We can always come up with something to do everyday like "okay, tomorrow bak kut teh" "tomorrow let's eat steamboat" "let''s go thai restaurant tonight" "let's go Sydney" and MORE! And I'm also growing horizontally too! For eating too much during the holidays, dine out almost every night, how not to be fat?????  T______________T

I'm pretty much lack of sleep lately coz I was chasing over korean drama every night... oh my eye bags and dark eye rings!!! I have been sleeping with my laptop for almost a month! This is bad.... oh don't worry, I already shifted it back to the table. =)

Now, the holiday is over, it's time to save up again for the upcoming sem break 7 or 8 weeks later so I can go travel!! And lose some weight before I go back to Malaysia! Oh did I say that I am jobless now? no? So yes I'm jobless now, fyi, I didnt get sack. It's because the shop is closing down and everyone working in that shop is jobless now. How to save up like that??? I guess I'll have to go into a fruit and vege diet and porridge only....

...
..
.

Okay that was just a joke, I am not that pathetic yet, and I wouldn't torture myself like that! I live to eat!!!! NOT eat to live. =D

-The day before hippo sis left, at Newcastle beach-

-On the train back from Sydney-

That's all for now, will blog again soon! Cheers~

p/s: I'm loving the huge ass photos now! Thanks Joe!!!

Bye bye Khai Chi

Khai Chi aka hippo sis finally leaving Newcastle and heading back to Malaysia today and gonna start working soon! Have a safe trip my friend and I will be missing you... I'll definitely miss the OI! SERIOUSLY!! and NYASENG ler!! lol!! And see you again in October! =D

Of sheep, snow and heaps of fun

I'm back from New Zealand 3 days ago and it was an awesome trip!! The sight was spectacular and everything looks utterly picturesque! We saw snow capped mountains, green pastures, snow covered land, crystal clear water, ferns, sheep, cows, and more! The weather wasn't that great during our trip so we saw a lot of clouds instead of clear blue sky. Nevertheless, it was still great!

We went to South Island, the colder part of New Zealand, the place where bungee jump was invented. Obviously I didn't go to try out bungee jump and the nearest place I got to bungee jump is to stand at the viewing deck and see other people jump. It costs around freaking 200 dollar to jump and that jump might cost your life! And it finishes in less than 2 minutes. South Island is famous for its adventurous activities like skiing, bungee jump and shotover jet especially in Queenstown. There are also hot air balloons, sky diving and stuff but I only took up the shotover jet, too little time to do everything and it wasn't cheap too! Each of the games costs at least NZD100 and it can get to a few hundreds too! so if I were to try everything I would be broke by now. Our trip involved a lot of driving, everyday we drove like around 5 hours to get to one place and in total we have driven around 1878km in 5 days according to the trip meter in our car. But I'm glad the sight along the way was great too! And the best part was it snowed in the last day of our trip! It was just stunning!! I couldn't describe the happiness in me when it was snowing, it was just plain amazing and beautiful! I have been wanting to see snowing for a long time and I finally did! All of us were so excited and we just had to get out of the car and play!

As all of you have known, the population of sheep are higher than human, and I'm just here to varify that. Yesh! It's absolutely true! During my trip, I see sheep everywhere, and cows too!! They are just everywhere! Eating grass and sun bathing on the grass. New Zealand has so many empty land and all the grass are nicely trimmed and you hardly see any untrimmed grass. I wonder how they managed to maintain the neatness, is it the sheep and cows that did the trimming? Besides that, they have a lot of hedges alongside the borders of each land. They are all nicely trimmed too! I wonder how they did it coz the hedges are very tall.

Okay, enough of crap, I'll just post up the pictures and elaborate more in point form.

-Snow capped mountain from bird's eye view-

-The cars that we rented-

-1st stop, Dunedin. When we arrived already late so we just went out for dinner and did the sightseeing the next day-

-the church outside the place we had our breakfast, there are a lot of churches looking like this in New Zealand and I think they are really pretty-

-Dunedin, it's also called little Scottish because the architectural designs of the buildings are very Scottish and there live a lot of Scottish people. The picture above is the train station of Dunedin.-

-Cien and Siang, my car-mates and also roommates for 5 nights-

-This is Larnach Castle, the only castle in New Zealand-

-The view from the top of Larnach Castle, the weather wasn't great that day-

-the white spots that look like maggots from far are sheep-

-this is mirror lake, the reason why it's named that way coz it gives a reflection of a mirror-

-on our way to Milford Sound for a cruise, pretty right!-

-the cruise we took-

-the view from the cruise, I got a bit sea sick tho, and threw up after that, sad case-

-the view from the gondola(cable car) ride in Queenstown-

-the top of the hill, I like the glass structure of the viewing deck-

-the ride up for luge, a go-kart like game-

-We went to puzzling world too!-

-I am Hercules!-

-an unknown place on our way back from Puzzling World-

-bungee jump!-

-View on our way back to Christchurch from Queenstown-

-This is how snow looks like up close-

-The road-

-Snowing!!!!!!!!!-

The experience in New Zealand was just amazing! It was an eye opener, it's different from other part of the countries that I have been to, I like the quaint, the beauty and the peacefulness of everything there. And how organised the places are. Even for the land!

-isn't it amazing?