Belated Merry Christmas!!

Ho! ho! ho! says the old man in the red suit, riding on his sleigh on night of christmas eve, climbing in through the chimneys and giving out presents to those who have been nice. So have you been good this year? 

A long christmas weekend which I spent in Penang this year. I haven't been doing much besides relaxing, squeezing into crowds and shopping. I spent my christmas eve having dinner at Paddington, in Queenbay followed by Sakae Sushi after that. There isn't any countdown event in Queenbay, we just hanged around till bout 11pm and a little tired and just countdown by ourselves at home looking at fireworks from the window. 

On christmas, Agnes and I planned to go Queensbay for shopping but the crowd and queue of cars were horrendous. I couldn't believe that almost all the parking around Queensbay were FULL. Some even waited for cars to leave. We could not. So we ended up in PISA as they were having some mega sales by Metrojaya. Clothings for men, ladies, kids, kitchenware, handbags, cosmetics and lots more. We ended up looking for cheap bargains as CNY is just around the corner. After shopping for almost 3 or 4 hours, we finally satisfied with what we've in hand. I couldn't believe myself when the cashier total up everything. It's almost RM250. I guess this is the first time ever I shopped this much. Hmm. I did had quite a lot stuffs though. It's quite reasonable with the amount of items I had though. Just not used to have such large amount while shopping. Hehe. 2 Tshirts, 2 s/s shirts, belt, pillow, jeans, and I guess the rest were all Agn's cosmetics. I know I shouldn't have spent so much but i guess a little too late. I think I've completed my CNY shopping. So I'll stop my shopping spree for the time being at least. 

I guess Christmas this year is just shopping shopping and more shopping. I'm tired.. after so many days of shopping. hehe. Enuf of longwinded stories. Just wan to wish all my friends and family a very Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Deco

Christmas in Midvalley

Christmas in Queensbay

Counting down to the new year...

Winter Solstice Festival!!

As the end of the year gets nearer, its time for festivals again. First comes the Winter Solstice, followed by Christmas and New Year. I'm not sure when is the exact date but I'm sure it's around within these few days. You'll be able to see Tong Yuen being sold everywhere. Nice nice. And they come with a variety of colours, sizes and taste.

I've decided to do my own Tong yuen. It isn't that difficult though. Just need some effort and time. It's pretty simple and you can make it to your own liking. I went google some recipe for this and I've found out that there are actually various type of tong yuen that can be made. Different style of cooking. It could be sweet, salty, hot, cold, wet or dry. I've decided to make the sweet ones as i'm more used to it than other types. All you need is just glutinous rice flour + water for the dough and some colouring, and for the syrup it'll be brown sugar or gula melaka ( preferably ) + ginger + pandan leaves. 1kg of glutinous rice flour i bought. I did it at Agnes' place where few of her friends all came over and join in the fun. We even decided to make some with fillings. And we had, peanut butter, ground peanuts, sweet corn, kidney bean, and even wasabi nuts? Haha. For the 'lucky' ones.

For dinner, it was kinda spontaneous, as it was lucky that Yin was in the island and so I tumpang her car back. So we manage to join Ryan, GY, YY, YKen for dinner at Tambun just to celebrate Dong Zhi.

These ends the one month holiday and will officially have classes tomorrow at 9am. Looking forward to Christmas.

p/s : will try to post more photos next time since Flickrs just got BLOCKED in campus... @#$%@!@#$%!@#$%..

Another break from work

Life at home is just great. Hehe.. no work, no stress, just relax. Too bad it's just gonna last till mon. Will be back in campus on tuesday. FYP was also stressing me out like i said earlier. Supervisor already warned us to complete 95% of most work this holiday. So I guess that really meant business. Gotta get things going and running. Anyway i'll have till tues before i start to trouble about it. hehe.
Back home been lazing at home. Din't really go anywhere. Probably I'm just too lazy. Oops. But I did met up with some of them though. The usual few, not many of them but just a handful.
Went out shooting with Ryan, lepaking and dotaing with the guys, met up with Boon, went for wedding dinner of Rajesh's sis, saw a bunch of ppl there. Besides that I'm pretty much at home lazing around enjoying the nice weather for hibernating. Hehe. And lazing is not the only reason of me stuck at home, but the massive jam in town that kept me away from those hot spots which is no where else to go but home.

Work Work Work!

Life is getting repetitive lately. Lots of work load waiting to be done. I wished I can split myself into more of ME. & having unlimited time for me to do more work. Moreover I'm going back this weekend. Happy I am. But that means that I'll have lesser working time which is not too good for my works. But I can't not go home. I can't not have rest. Haha. Work is work. Going home is still a must. So I'll need to speed things up a little.

Project approaching due date. Done, redo, over and over again to a point that some things seems to begin from zero. Probably partly due to bad planning. Maybe partly due to under specifications of components provided to us. Probably due to taken things for granted. Too much of possibilities or I should say excuses. By hook or by crook things need to get done and working. Arms we have broken a few, and so does cutting up bodies. Making things complex probably isn't helping much. But the best solution might just be simplest one.

FYP is another part of my workload. Probably I'll write about it tomorrow. Bedtime. zzz.

Holidayzz!!

Happy am I over the sem break. But here I am stuck in campus. It's been 3 days in campus and I've been busy for the whole 3 days. Busy with Robocon, FYP and another project with the muzium. Running around the school, working and working. Well I've expected this anyway. At least I fully utilise my holidays and get my FYP going. Else you know who will start chasing after me. He already did.
Though busy in the morning at least I still have time for sports and some extra relaxing time at night to watch some movies and have a good sleep. I'm still trying to keep up to the work load. Looking forward going home in bout 2 weeks time.
^_^

Exam's Over

Finally the long waited day has arrived. Although it's just 3 papers for me but had to struggle it through the whole 3 weeks was kinda horrible. I've been hanging around in the library for most of the time during this period. It's been like a routine going to the library, lunch, library, dinner, library and sleep. Finally I've broken out of these countless cycles. The days of being nerd are finally over. Or at least for the time being.

However, it'll be a new starting of another holiday. But I doubt there's much holiday as I'll need to work on my FYP, supervise the juniors in Robocon, and lots stuff more. I'll be spending most of my time in campus rather than home. Well I'll need to get my work done or else someone will start kicking my S. You know who. Hehe. Not much of a after exam celebration but at least went Jusco in S.Prai with Lian, Phang, Yin and Li and had McD and BigApple and stroll around the new shopping mall which I've not really explore yet. It's nice going shopping with a more relax mind. Finally can format my 'harddisk' from all the downloaded, OM, Aircond, Measurements that i've been downloading these few weeks. Hehe at least compressed them and put them in one small corner to minimize the usage of space. LOL.

Most of the people will be going back soon or had gone back except me. I'll need to kickstart my work at least for a few weeks when there's sight of progress then at least I can have the excuse of taking a break and sneak back home.

Well that's life, dun complaint about it, just live with it.

Happy Holidays!!

Completed, Tired, Satisfied

PBIM ( Penang Bridge International Marathon )

Comes the time of the year for this yearly event once again. I've been joining this event for several years already since long long long ago. However this time I think there's a slight change in the organisers. Usually it's being held somewhere in July in USM, but this time in November in Queensbay Mall.

I took part in the half marathon as usual. I haven't got the courage to challenge myself taking the full course. Even so, the half marathon this time is slightly more than usual. Even previously, the total route was 22.5km which was already more than normal 21km, but this time it went up to 25km. This will be the furthest I've taken part in. I did trained a little, just this little. Hehe. Well at least I did run. But still I fear if I couldn't finish the whole race.

Yesterday, I dropped by at Queensbay to collect my shirt and bib number. Then I went to shop for some Powerbars, Powergel and Redbull. Hehe, i need extra energy. Got my stuff ready, pin my bib number, shorts, vest, socks, shoes, that's about it, then went to bed early.

Woke up at 3am, grab some bread, coffee, powerbar, redbull for breakfast. A mixture of too many things will lead to a weird feeling in the tummy. Picked up HL then headed for Queensbay. We had to report ourselves. Hanged around a little and at about 4.30am off went the starting gunfire. Bang! The race has begun. The race on the whole was smooth going right until the last 5km. My left foot feels a little pain. It's not due to muscle cramp but some sort of internal injury i had these two weeks. I slowed down a little but keep struggling on. But it forced my to stop and I had to walk for a short while, while it relaxes a little before I slowly started running again. I try to take it slowly hopefully to struggle my way through. Luckily I manage to keep going at a slow pace but constantly until the finishing point. Completed in about 3hrs 15mins ( a little slow ). Tired, limping my way now. But SATISFIED.

The morning view

Queensbay Mall

Finally...

At the finishing line

ZZZ time.

p/s : back dated post due to exams

A Visit Around The Historical City

I was back in M'cca for the diwali holiday and also due to the study break. I was back until the day after diwali. Stayed home, enjoyed home food, went out pooling with the guys, went Diwali visiting @ Rajesh's and Vigren's, met some friends that i haven't met for ages ( Jhen, Vik, Sath, Rajesh himself, Kenny ), and went touring around m'cca a little.
Hmm, I just love Diwali, those nice and delicious food which i craved for every year. I haven't been for Diwali visiting for few years cos usually it's during study week and I'm suppose to study, but luckily this year our papers were a little later so I've had 2 weeks break instead of one, so i manage to visit Raj and Vig this year. @ Raj's you'll be served with nice homemade puree with curry mutton + chicken + dhall + other side dishes. @ Vig's you'll expect homemade tosai which comes with curry mutton + chicken + others. ALL my favourites. I wish I could have those everyday. They are just so delicious that none of the mamak stalls that I've eaten could beat either.

Then Agnes came down with Nini + 1. So I sorta had to be a tour guide and plan the itenary. They reached on Sat evening and so we started of with the typical m'cca satay celup @ OngKimWee. Then we head on to Jonker for a stroll. The next day, we started of the day with Chicken riceball. I just hate queueing up. I only does this went bringing friends around. Or else, I will NEVER EVER step foot in that shop. The queue could last the whole day. Then we went around the Stadhuys' and went up St Paul's hill for some photo taking with Eugene's 400D. ( Thx for the cam dude ) Then we were hot and thirsty, so we walked back to Jonker to enjoy the cool cendol and try some local laksa. But first enjoy the sun, cause you'll need to QUEUE up LONG queue AGAIN. Malacca is just getting so crowded nowadays which makes me prefer staying at home rather than going out cause thinking of the massive jam. After that we went over to Dataran Pahlawan to enjoy the airconditioning. We were really tired of walking around, so we choose to go for a movie , Eagle Eye. The following day, we went breakfast at DimSumGarden which is just nearby my house. Then they stopped by at TanKimHock for some local product before heading back. Short sumary of the trip. Here are some pics.

The famous chicken riceball

Up at St Paul's hill

Jonker Street

waiting for cendol

Big Apple donuts b4 movie

evening view of dataran

another nice view

PIC2008 Update3

Last day of trip, we all slept late. Well not too late though. Get ourselves ready, packed all our stuff and took our breakfast. Then we had another beach cleaning activities to clear up the camp site and the surrounding area so as to have all our rubbish packed nicely so that the beach will still be clean. Then we had to break the tents and get everything back in place, waiting for the transfer back to the mainland.

Our camps

One last sight of the beautiful view

The beach clean up

Another one before leaving

We hopped on a ferry this time so it took us a little longer to get back compared to travelling in a speed boat. The seats were quite full, I ended up having a first class seat beside the captain. Hehe. nice view from the top. I see him handling the controls, GPS is one main component that plays an important role in navigation. Manage to chat with the nice friendly captain throughout the journey back.

View from the ferry

Co captain

The control panel

As we reached the jetty we went to enquire for direct bus transfer back to penang as we wouldn't want to travel down to kl and back to penang. Kinda redundant and also I wouldn't wanna sit upright back. We manage to get our tickets but we will need to get to Jerteh for the bus. So we took lunch at K.Besut and took a taxi ride to Jerteh. About 20 min ride. But our bus was at night. So we took our own sweet time just to pass sometime. We reached Jerteh at about 4pm. Nothing much there. It felt like Parit Buntar. No McD, only KFC, I wonder why. KFC seems to have wider coverage. And their shopping is EconJaya if i'm not mistaken just like our nice little Billion. We went into shopping to cool down for a while then we hang around at a hawker nearby. There's pretty much of local food there. They all looked tasty. So we grab some snack, little bit of this, little bit of that. And lekor is of course a not to be missed snack. I ended up having too much snack that I skipped dinner. We took a quick shower public toilet before getting on the bus. Little did i know that being at the last seat provided me with once again an upright seat. Damn!! Well had to bear with it. Lasted all the way till penang. My neck...

mouth watering

Well one hell of a challenge it was. We'll be back next year with a more well prepared condition.

PIC2008 Update2

Race Day. We were awaken by the morning call. I was a little early that morning as it was quite hard to get a nice sleep the night before as it was hot. Clean up myself and got ready for the big day. Vest, shorts, shoes, powerbar,powergel, sunblock, counterpain. Everything was ready to get going. We had our breakfast then headed on speedboat to the starting point which was at Kampung, on the other island. We could see everyone all geared up ready for the big race. We waited for about an hour for everyone to be transferred and waiting for VIPs to arrive and officiate the event.

At exactly 10am. The novice racers were being flagged off. Another half hour to go or less. We had our last briefing just before the race. Then right at half past ten, off we go. As we were being flagged off, everyone headed to their kayaks, which was our first event.

finding for our kayaks

We had to kayak to the other island. When HL and I got into the water I could see some of the racers were already way pass us. Damn I gotta catch up. An initial burst of energy with our good coordinations *grins* we manage to glide across the water catching up with the others. As soon as we landed on the other island, we jumped out, hauled our kayak up to the beach, grabbed a can of cold RedBull and proceeded with our race. It was a hike up one of the peak of the island. Little did I know that hiking was way much tougher than running of flat land. I've already start feeling the tiredness and strain in the muscles. Probably I've over exerted during the kayak, and also the little knowledge of me towards kayaking got me sitted there still got my legs all numb as we jumped out of it lead to the strain in the leg muscles. However, the race must go on.
Slowly we hiked our way through. I had to make several stops just to catch my breath. It was quite a struggle through the first loop up the hill.
As soon as we see the beach, how glad i was to be back on flat land. We were back at the point where we left our kayak. We grab some water and proceed on foot to the other side of the beach. A less straineous route but still taxing my both legs leads us back to our campsite area where we were required to get wet and do some task. The first was getting a 20kg sandbag from the sea ( about 5 ft deep i guess ) and a short swim to and fro the marked position. We did that easily as it was suppose to give us a short break to relax. Then we grabbed some 100plus and water and proceeded. On our way we met some participants we were having cramps and the little counterpain i brought along actually helped. We need to hike to the otherside of the beach at Awana and hike back to our kayak point. That was one hell of a hike. I had several cramps along the way but still manage to make it back to the kayak.
Without wasting much time, we got on the kayak and make our way back across the sea to the other island. As we landed yet again, we had to do some obstacle crossing before continuing. Another hike all the way up to the windmills. The view up the windmill was just breathe taking. We stopped for a few moment to catch our breath and enjoy the wonderful scenary. When we reach back to the beach we had to run in flippers along the beach. *giggles* It was funny doing that but I was already out of energy just to laugh at it. Then we proceed our way back to the starting line which was also the finishing line. The sight of it immediately give us an extra burst of energy. We came back in about five and a half hours. What a relieve it was, tired we were but satisfied with our completion. Another achievement to be added into the list.
We waited for the boat transfer back to campsite. Although we may be tired but as we reach back we headed directly to the water. Relax and enjoying the cool clear water till about 6 when we had to clean up and get ready for dinner at Kampung.

cool..

...clear water, see the fishes?

We were served with bbq dinner. That's fantastic, but having few hundreds of people bbqueing over 3 fire could be a pain in the S. We were already starved since lunch. Yet we need to queue for dinner. Yet, we still manage to fill our grumbling tummy at bout 9. Then there were prize giving ceremony and some entertainment by local artist and cultural dance. And the whole event finished with a 5mins long fireworks display which was just perfect. It was right above us, simply beautiful.

after a tiring day

we feast.. hmm which is my chicken i wonder

PIC2008 Update 1

Well, just wanna update my trip to Perhentian. What can i say? Extremely tired but satisfied.

Here goes. Me, HL, and Tim took a bus from Parit Buntar to KL at 3pm. Due to some accident on the way, we were caught in traffic and ended up in KL 8something. It was like a long long trip. Well, packed in our backpacks, as we arrived in Pudu, we make our way to MTC ( Malaysian Tourism Centre ). It wasn't to hard to locate it though. Hungry we were at that moment since we were rushing our way to MTC to make sure we don't miss the bus. On arrival we just look for some mamak stall nearby and grab some food just to fill our empty tummy.

Then we gathered back in MTC, many people were already there. Some were newbies like us, first timers, while some were all fully equipped. Later we can categorize the participants into 2 categories. Category one are those who were have been training for month, and are fighting for the finishing line. Category two are people like us, little training just wanna get pass the finishing line, and enjoy. Hehe. That night was a little havoc among the organisers, as there were lots of restless people waiting eagerly to be registed, get on the bus as we were tired, wet, and cold. After some hassle here and there, finally we got our bus number and hurried to the bus to get a comfy seat. There were like 10 buses, nice and brand new by the Terengganu gov. Very nice indeed the buses, but little did we know when we were about to enjoy our nice sleep we found out that the seat of the buses CANNOT be adjusted. Not even a little. Try imagine that, a nice comfy looking bus turned out to be the most dreaded bus anyone would ever wanna travel in. The buses were flagged of by the organisers at about midnight.

Horrible journey it was, having to sit upright for the whole 8 hours or so. Even before the race, I already had a terrible ache on the neck. As we arrived in Kuala Terengganu, the sun had risen. We could see the seaside and the some local views of KT. My first trip to the east coast, so a bit "sua ku". Everything seems fascinating even if it was just a sign "Keropok Lekor". We arrived at seaside which has a nicely built park. Toilet is what everyone was rushing for as the bus stopped. We were welcomed by big banners by the state gov and were provided with "wonderful" breakfast. Felt so honoured, like some sort of VIPs. We hanged around for breakfast for an hour or so. Then there were some speech by some BIG people of the authorities to welcome us. Then we were brought around to have a short tour around KT. We visited the Taman Tamadun Islam which has a variety of mosque followed by the State Museum.

Crystal Mosque at the back

Another view

us in the mosque in potter like robes

inner view

just another one

some other structures there

Terengganu state museum

Went travelling in the bus, i found out something interesting. The bus seems to be on the move all the time. I realised they didn't stop at traffic lights. Then i found out that there were several policemen escorting our convoy. They were there stopping all the traffic while we make our way through. Wow. People on the road were like staring at us like some sort of VIP. That's way cool. After the short tour we headed to Kuala Besut where we will be transferred to P.Perhentian.

Lunched was ready on arrival at the jetty.

After lunched, we waited for our turn to be transferred to the island. We went on speedboat which was fast as we could see them sort of floating in the air.

Speeding all the way

In the speedboat

The sight of the island were more and more visible. The sea water looked very clear. We can't wait to jump into the water. As soon as we step down on the island, registered for our tent, settle down and immediately we headed for the clear cool water. It was amazing. We could see lots of fishes swimming around.

Welcome to Perhentian

Our kayak destination

Kayaking with HL

At 4pm, we were served with some food, and briefed on the schedule. We had a little beach cleaning session just after tea. Then me, HL and some new found friends whom we met along the trip, went exploring the island a little. We went over to the other side of the island where there were more people. Then we rented kayak and went kayaking, just a little warm up before the race. Haha. It feels harder to kayak here probably due to the stronger wave here. We headed back to our campsite just in time for dinner and briefing for the race. We had Uncle Chan to reveal the race course and brief us on it. After dinner we sat by the beach chatting a little and enjoying the cool breeze as it was very hot in the tent. We jumped in to bed early that to get more rest and to prepare for the race day.

Some views of Perhentian