Recap of 2011 :)

Ahhhhh Thank you God my exams, final year project and etc burdening stuffs finished just on time before Christmas, which I can definitely allow myself a deserving self-declared Christmas and New Year break like some of the friends do. 

So before flying off to my christmas break, just in time for me to write an entry recapping the eventful 2011 and my 2012 resolutions!

With God's abundance blessings on me and the family, 2011 had been a really great year because everyone in the family has been doing good. Parents are healthy and happy, sister is adapting to London lifestyle, brother to Melbourne's, me to Shell and then back to uni, and my aunt blessed with a baby girl! I'm going to summarize my 2011 in numerically, from the early 2011 to the later:

1. Internship in Shell Miri

I had my internship training in Shell's Wells Department where I was given the opportunities for various trainings, attending courses for different certificates (extra credits to the resume!), meeting people from different companies and fields, traveled to Brunei quite frequently for data collection (which I dislikes), training & workshop in Labuan, BOSIET training/sea survival training, onshore and offshore experience. 

For that 8 months, not only I enjoyed and learnt a lot from the internship, but the fact that I met a lot of people and expanded the social network did delight me as well. Did I forget to mention I met my Mr. Right in Shell during my internship as well? LOL

2. Visited bf's family in Kuching for the first ever time

This is nothing new for most of the people actually but it was my first time meeting boyfriend's family, the first time I actually followed someone back to his house and being introduced as the girlfriend. Man thinking back, still can remember how nervous I was that time. 

3. Celebrated CNY without my sister ( >:( )

Even though my 2011 CNY was great, but the fact that my sister was not around the house cause she is pursuing medicine in London added a tinge of sadness to me during that time as well. My sister and I are really close that we can sleep together, do craps together and etc etc. So imagine my CNY without her and I have to bear with this for another 2 years. :(

4. Islands Hopping in KK

I have always love beaches, islands and water activities! Island hopping had always been in on of my to-do list and I did it with the boyfriend when we went KK together! We conquered Sapi, Manukan and Mamutik Island in KK. (:

5. Celebrated his birthday together for the first time

Haha, I still remember this vividly. Only my mum and I knew how much time I spent planning for his birthday. From the decoration to the gift to the surprise, did it with all my heart. Glad that he loved it and it was our first time celebrating birthday together since we were just together not long that time. 

6. Expanding the social circle

Been hanging out a lot with my friends throughout the year as well. Movie, sing k, shopping, tea, and many more. It did not sound like an achievement in 2011 but for me it is. I have always wanted to become closer to my friends! 

And I made a lot of new and great friends too! :D

7. Autumn- Winter Vacation in Perth

The bf and I also took some time off and went on a relaxing vacation in Perth - a very very laid back country, really comfortable. We went there for 1 week or more and spent some quality time there. It was approaching winter that time, really love the weather there. Also, for the first time ever, I experienced my first farm stay at Margaret's River, Perth, where in the middle of the night, I could hear the sound of ponies, kangaroos and some other animals which I don't know. 

8. God blessed our big family with Angel!!

On 13rd of July, my aunt gave birth to a baby girl - Angel Lau! Such a great blessings and all of us are so so so thankful to have her around. She brings so much happiness and laughters to the family. My cutie pie.

9. Completed my internship in July

I bidded goodbye to Shell in July and fulfilled my internship requirements by UTP. 

10. A food trip to Muar, Penang, Malacca with besties

Went on a 8 days eating trip with my close friends in uni right after internship around Penang, Malacca and Muar. Tasted the infamous penang fried kuey tiaw, loh mee, prawn mee, assam laksa, durian puffs, satay celup, nyonya food ... ... ... ...  and many more. Great memoriessssss and road trips!

11. Conquered Beijing in early August

The bf and I went to Beijing during the summer season in August. It was unbelievable hot but still, proud to say that we conquered Beijing! It was my second visit to Beijing and since my last visit like 4-5 years ago, Beijing really did change tremendously. 

12. Conquered Shanghai in mid August

Visiting Beijing alone wasn't enough for us. Hence, Shanghai during mid August. Managed to visited Hangzhou and Suzhou as well. It was scorching hot and I got tanned. What I missed in Shanghai the most would probably be the food! 

13. Conquered Hong Kong in September

Hong Kong topped all the places we visited in 2011 I would say. I love the food there to the max especially their roasted goose and dim sum. And the shopping? Truly a shopping heaven not to be missed!

14. Conquered Macau and the casinos there! :P

We went to Macau and tasted the famous Macau eggtarts, beef briskets and visited majority of the historical places. And we visited almost all the casinos in Macau as well. :P

15. Shenzhen in September

Our only regrets would probably be catching the wrong show/performance in Shenzhen's windows of the world. T.T But shenzhen was kinda boring, so don't think I will go back for the third time anymore considering I been there twice already.

16. Back to uni in late Sept

Uni started on 25th of September and on the first week itself, we rocked our final year student life with a drinking and bonding session at euro house. Hanged out with Wai Boon for the first time ever as well. :D The second week, we went to KL Zouk for clubbing session and despite all the funs we had, I LOST MY PHONE THERE CRAP. 

So, for the first time ever in my life, I lost my phone, a freaking iphone4 and lost it in a club and it happened in 2011! :(

17. Celebrated my 23rd birthday in Singapore

The bf and I flew to Singapore to celebrate my 23rd birthday in October! :D Super happy that time. We dined at the best fine dining restaurant in Singapore - Forlino Italino and went to Universal Studio the next day. Best birthday I ever had. :)))

18. Conquered Bali in November

The bf and I went to Bali for a short holiday in November. Bali was an open eye to different cultures to me and it was beautiful. However, everything in Bali is super expensive!! 

19. Will be celebrating Christmas and new year with the bf together differently 

Which I will blog about this separately after the celebration itself.

To sum it up, my 2011 had been full of traveling here and there with the bf. :) Also been able to spend quality time with family back home all thank to having internship in the hometown. No regrets for my 2011 at all. Thank you God for everything that happened as I believe things happened in your ways, with your reasons and I have no questions towards it. 

As for my 2012 resolutions, I wish that:

1. The family will be in great health, amen
2. Graduate successfully in September 2012
3. To be able to visit my sister in London end of the year
4. To not skip Sunday services
5. Spend wiser, think wiser, be more grateful and forgiving
6. Consume less junks like ice-cream, chips ... (LOL?)

That's all! :) A Merry X'mas and Happy New Year in advanced to all of you. 

<3

The ME Time! :D

I FINALLY have the time to sit back and relax, cooking a decent meal for the housemates and doing anything I like: nail polishing, playing with hair, staring at the wardrobe and etc etc after a really hectic week! I'm done with FYP 1 at least and 2 tests! 

All left for me to do now is to pack my stuffs and start counting down to my Christmas holiday. It's going to be a really eventful week. Have a guess why. :P So super duper excited but wait, there is one more thing for me to finish up: (secret!). Will announce in facebook soon if it is successful! 

Omg omg omg omg sooooo happy now! :D

The other day right after I played my hair with the hair band below, the flower came off from the band. Such a turn off! There gone my $$ of purchasing this cause I barely wear it T.T Like this so much and I have no idea how to fix it back. 

Anyway, will be back tomorrow. Time for some other things at the moment. =)

missing the matcha green tea ice cream currently. :/

Uni 3.0

Took me such a long time to blog about uni. :/ My university life has been all this while different from my brother's and sister's. My brother is studying in Melbourne, sister in London, while me? In Perak Shit Hole. But I have no blames. 

It was my choice at the first place to accept the scholarship.

But I clearly remember when I googled UTP before coming here, it mentioned that it is an engineering school, not a religion school. Why the phrase? Because i'm so sick shit of listening to certain group of people or whoever preaching about their religion nobility all day long. I'm not being irrespecutful or trying to stir anything up. I just don't understand why can't you guys just practice your own religions quietly without interfering with other people. 

You don't come and tell me what and what not to do. Just mind your own business. So freaking sick of all these shit. Even if it doesn't happen on me, by just listening to it I feel damn sick already. 

A random shot taken as early as 7am in the university

Putting all else aside, I have been trying hard to make my university life as interesting as I can. Been hanging out with the guys to Ipoh for dim sum, k session, movie, shopping or just for the sake of food quite frequent this semester. 

One thing I'm grateful of is my drilling lecturer whom also happened to be my fyp supervisor. He is really a nice and knowledgable guy and finally there is one lecturer in my university whom I really like. :) Previously I don't even bother who's going to teach me or what, but this guy he is really patient and passionate in teaching our class. 

Then also when I was attending a short course last week, my lecturer insisted me to chat with the course instructor wife who can't speak English. Pfffftt. The husband had to practically translate all our conversations and become our translator. Funny. Anyway, one thing that I should mention here was my instructor was 33 years old while his wife, only 18. :O

And she was really pretty.

Food wise, I had quit eating cafe food, again due to the fact that I had diarrhea or stomachache almost every time after that and they charged us student at very unreasonable price, serving vege soaked in oil, needless to say about the chickens. So, I had been eating real lots of dairy products nowadays and it was wayyyyyyy 10000 times wayyyyy better than cafe food.

My most favorite and the perfect combination would be: super cold low fat milk with kokocrunch as breakfast; bread with tuna and cheese + half boiled eggs + crackers & jams + grape as dinner.

Though it could be fattening at times since I do not exercise in UTP but who cares. Super love these two combinations. 

Back to work now. Can't wait for Christmas to come. 

Though I may not be celebrating it in a Church, but I will never forget the real meaning behind it. A mighty savior was born because He loves us and died for us on a cross for our sins. <3

Bali 2.0

I'm actually very blardy busy all thanks to my final year project which is such a !$^@^$%^Q#@ pain in my ass! Decided to take a break off it for a while and suppressing my urge to curse my final year. On the bright side, accomplishing fyp means i'm one step towards graduation, even though it is 9 months away. 

:S God knows how much how desperate I want to leave this shit place. 

Continue with Bali 2.0, it will be all about one of the must-trys in Bali as advised by trip advisor - Babi guling also known as suckling pig. Which means piglet being roasted and serve to you on table with their special sauce. Reading so much about suckling pig from the internet, I had so much expectations towards it especially how people exaggerated how nice how extremely delicious the suckling pigs in Bali served in Ibu Oka Warung are. 

Ibu Oka Warung Suckling Pig was so famous that they have branches all over the places in Ubud, Bali. Being a pig pork lovers, the bf of course insisted the driver to bring us there despite the jam in town. Omg one thing I must about is the traffic in Bali, really OMG, I will go insane if I'm to stay there for long. 

We reached Ibu Oka Warung at around 1030a.m. I expected to see people queueing up for it like how people queue for nice food in China, Hong Kong, Perth and etc but to my "dismay", we were the first customers. The whole shop, minus out the workers, was empty. Were we too early or what? 

(.______.)

The driver stopped us at the road side and showed us the direction to walk to the restaurant as there's no way the car can drive in such a congested path. The Ibu Oka Warung branch we went was right beside some sort of jungle and hence the mosquitoes.. =__=

I super duper hate mosquitoes.

So, since it was a shop that sells pork, everything there, the design had something to do with pigs, even the basins. Pardon me it was my first time seeing such thing. :P So NOT adorable at all. It was like our own shop that we just left our bags on the seats and walked around snapping pictures and did a wee bit of exploring to the kitchen to see how they roast the pigs but unfortunately, no. :( They roasted the pigs elsewhere, brought to the shop and sold there.

In just 10 minutes, there came our food. It was like pork rice to me. Ibu Oka did roast their suckling pigs to their own specialities and their sauce just went perfectly well with the rice. It was worth the 1 hour drive in search for suckling pigs in Ubud. I gave it a 8/10 as the plate of suckling pigs actually made me super duper fat and full after that. I had mine at RP20,000. 

The bf opted for no rice but more porks and pork skins instead. Price around RP27,000. Serve him right when he told me he felt so bloated with porks half way eating. (Troll face). We were so full that we even skip whatever snacks that we planned to have initially. :S He gave his a 9/10 ratings with a "nothing special" comment. He just loves porks. 

My bf told me that kenny sia rated Bali as his #1 trip in 2011 and USA as #2. Well Kenny Sia, are you for real?

AlexChen's Birthday!

I particularly love birthday party/bash cause it's damn of a sign of nice food and catching up session. Celebrated one of the close friends - Chen Ming Hui's 22nd birthday with the gang at Daorae Korean Bbq last night. It was my n times dining in daorae, be it KL/Penang/Ipoh, and it is still the best korean restaurant ever for me. At least the taste is authentic and genuine enough. 

The boss birthday. We celebrated on the 6th of December which was yesterday, coincidentally, it was the beginning of the close friendship which took place exactly a year ago when both of us were offered internships placement together at the same place and spending the next 8 months together. Throughout these 8 months, what can I say. We basically know each other flaws pretty well. 

Since there were 8 of us last night, we ordered 4 bbq sets: 80% porks, 20% chickens. The porks we ordered were the marinated pork belly, pork ribs and pork specials. While the chickens were just marinated chickens with sweet sauce. Price range for one set of bbq was between RM28-RM35, which was reasonable enough as it was quite a big portion. 

Serving with 8-10 main appetizers (for free and refillable), it was really good. I myself truly love the kimchi, steam egg and coleslaw. I think we refilled like 3-4 or more times yesterday. Part of the reasons why some of us feeling so bloated before eating some of other main courses. 

The highlight and my personal pick in Daorae would be the bbq pork belly marinated in specially made sauce. Upon bbq-ed, dipping it in two different sauces and wrapping it with super fresh vege was just beyond words. For people who know me well, I do not eat pork belly. But when it came to Daorae, I couldn't help but putting slices of bbq-ed pork belly into my mouth and chew to satisfaction!

We ordered one set of bibimbap as well since it was one of the recommended dishes by the restaurant itself. Serving at RM20 for one, it was definitely worth the price. With the serving size, it definitely can't be finished by just one person. Mixing it with the prepared chili sauce, stirred it with the spoon, and ready to be consumed.

Not missing the Korean pancakes which was omelette-like. I'm gonna try making this when I'm back in Miri as it seems pretty easy, except for the sauce which was their sort of secret-recipe. 

And the most appetizing of all and best served in cold weather/room would none other than the kimchi steamboat. Inside the steamboat were: korean rice cake, korean noodles, porks and kimchi. For a large set, just enough for portion of 8. 

Our last main course was the fried glass noodles which was Alex's most favorite of all. Do not look down on such a small plate of fried glass noodles, it may look normal but it absolutely do not just taste normal. 

It was definitely one hell of a nice gathering and celebrations. 

And the 5 of us called a night off by spending 4 hours in kbox, singing to the heart contentment. 

Happy belated birthday, Alex Chen!

Hong Kong 2.0

The bf and I had covered 12 places/2 continents in 2010 all in all. And we came to the conclusion that Hong Kong definitely served the best food be it fast food, franchisee, local delicacies, snacks and etc. Hong Kong would never be completed without tasting their dim sum. This was my second time visiting Hong Kong, and their dim sum has definitely improved much since 2004. 6 years gap, the quality did not deteriorate at all. 

After doing much research, we decided to give 添好运点心专卖店. Tourists from various continents been giving almost full rating out of 5 on this shop. So, waking up as early as 9am, (do bear in mind that almost all the shops in HK open at 10am or after 10am only), went to the nearest outlet of 添好运 based on the place we stayed, we still had to queue for 1.5 hours for seats. 

With people queueing up way earlier than us already, we knew that we did not make the wrong choice choosing this dim sum restaurant. The chef himself was a former 4 season chef, specializing in dim sum, where he decided to quit 4 season hotel and started running a restaurant himself. Within 1 or 2 years, he has opened at least 3 branches in Hong Kong. 

The choices of dim sum offered weren't that much. But, they were all really FANTASTIC. From the look to the taste, the bf and I gave 11/10. So good that we agreed that it was the best we ever came across. And so we ordered everything that was recommended on the poster even though there were only the two of us. 

Another thing worth mentioning would be this restaurant been awarded the OpenRice Best Restaurant Award 2011, best Guangdong Restaurant, and best restaurant in Mongkok.

So, our utmost favorite in this restaurant would be the 波罗叉烧包. All this while the 波罗叉烧包 that I have tasted in other places if not too dry, then it was too hard or not crunchy at all. But this one, omg it was so good. I had the urge of bringing some back for my family but too bad, there's no such thing. This is a must try! The bf and I even re-visited this restaurant the next day just for this but too bad the queue was like 2 hours so we shrugged the thoughts of it. 

Highly recommended! 

Then we also had the 猪肠粉, but an extraordinary one. We decided to try the 猪肝粉 which we never come across of in Malaysia. It was more to acquire taste I would say. Another worth trying. 

There come my favorite 虾佼 as well. The skin wasn't thick at all. It was just right. I hate eating 虾佼 which the skin was too thick that I can't see the prawns at all. This was real good, no kidding. 

The bf ordered this as well which actually seem to be the less attractive for me in terms of appearance. But then again, it really taste yummy. Oh no I'm definitely missing hong kong dim sum for now. I hope my mum will eat all these for me again when she is going there somewhere in April 2012. 

These are the 烧卖 that we always heard of in the TVB series/movies. What I must say is, no wonder hong kong people love ordering this so much. The pork together with the prawns are just perfect. I was wondering what sauce they used to marinate the porks and prawns while eating, totally clueless how awesome it can be. 

As for our desserts after such a heavy breakfast, I ordered the 桂花糕 which the bf dislikes by just looking at the pictures. It was actually some kind of jelly alike thing with chrysanthemum tea leaves in it. The moment I stuffed it into his mouth, he fell in love with it. My favorite!

And since we been waiting for the seats for like 1.5 hours, we decided to order another plate of dim sum before leaving. Our choice for the last plate went to 箩卜糕. Was feeling so full after the breakfast, so happy!

I was not exaggerating how good the dim sum was at all do take note. And I'm not writing as an advertorial post for them, in fact i quit writing for the sake of pocket money for quite a long time already. Now, it's purely interest. So, when I said it's good, I mean it. A total honest opinions. 

So for those we will be paying Hong Kong a visit soon, do visit this restaurant if there is a chance! Or I must say it should be in one of your to-do list in hong kong!

The bill came to around hundred something. Price range for a plate of dim sum is HKD16-23. Despite the long queue, it was worth it. 

Address:

旺角广华街2-20号翠园大楼2期地下8号铺 电话: 2332 2896