Visit + PG Conference

I know, I know. I haven't update my blog in a while. Sorry! Things are going crazy around here. I'm going into my sixth month here, and my boss is starting to expect some results from me. Stress!! So that's basically what I've been doing all these while. Work. And why am I not working now? Because I'm sick. I haven't been feeling well this whole week. I know I should be resting, but what better time to blog than now? So, here I am, blogging while I'm sick. I tend to like to do things when I'm sick (an excuse to not be working), like cleaning, cooking AND blogging. But anyway, two big events since I last updated my blog: my parents visit and PG Conference. How did they went? Well, that's what I'm going to tell you now. Be patient! A word of warning though. This is going to be a long, long post.

Parents Visit

The best way to share is by showing pictures. Well we didn't do much on the first day. Jet lag PLUS lotsa catching up to do. On the second day, we went to QV market. It was a special day. So we went to the market and get some food to be cooked for dinner (I'm cooking dinner!!). And of course, QV is a must in to-visit list. Lotsa things to see. Perhaps it was pre-Melbourne's Cup Day race on that day, a couple of stalls were closed and the market wasn't as crowded as usual (Good for us!!). Bought lotsa souvenir..

Usual me being a "si lai"

The rest of the day was spent shopping and preparing for dinner. We were celebrating daddy's birthday!! Whee~

The next day was spent on Bacchus Marsh. We went to visit Aunty Jenny and family at Payne's Orchard. Very nice orchard I must say, but too bad it wasn't cherry picking season yet. Thank you Aunty Jenny and family for being such perfect host. Thanks Graeme for the lovely barbeque pork :D and thanks Kim and Lee for the bag of lemon (still sitting in my refrigerator).

The well known Avenue of Honour

Payne's Orchard

Ride around the orchard on quad bike

Sitting from left: Playful Zara, Aunty Jenny and Graeme

Standing from left: Sabina, Kim and Lee

The next day was spent with Uncle Moo Chong and family. We went for an outing to Yarra Valley and Philip's Island. Yes!! We manage to go two places in ONE day. All thanks to Aunty Wing's perfect planning. And of course, thanks to Uncle Moo Chong and Hon who drove all day long with us sleeping at the back of the car =P

From left: Daddy, Uncle Moo Chong, Aunty Wing, Mummy, Me and Darling

Yarra Valley

Yarra Valley

Colourful birdie

The bird whisperer

Chefs of the day

Yummy!

Lovely barbeque lunch in the midst of nature. Fabulous! We moved on to Philip's Island right after the lunch. Didn't manage to snap any photo of the cute penguins as cameras aren't allowed. But it's a once in a lifetime experience, this I can say. It's a must visit place if you come to Australia. It's the only place where you can watch wild fairy penguins upclose.

Then of course, there's tour around Melbourne City. We went to several places. Among the higlights: the state library, Royal Botanical Garden, Melbourne's Aquarium, Melbourne's Zoo and Eureka Tower. I was quite disappointed with the zoo. Perhaps we went a little too late, most of the animals were sleeping. Some were hiding. Can't even spot any koala and elephant (yes, I know they're gigantic and supposed to be easy to spot!). But others were quite okay.

The Victoria State Library

National Gallery of Victoria

Melbourne's Cup Day parade

Melbourne's Aquarium

The King penguins

Melbourne Zoo

From Eureka Tower (Day scene)

From Eureka Tower (Night scene)

Yarra River (Day scene)

Yarra River (Night Scene)

Night scene of Melbourne City

Night scene of Melbourne City

We saved Ballarat for the last. Went to the Wildlife Park and Sovereign Hill. Not bad-lah. The Wildlife Park is actually more interesting than the zoo!! We finally get to see koala!

 

 

Wildlife Park entrance

Kangaroooo...

Emu

The lazy wombat

The tai ko

Some funny facts on koalas

Sovereign Hill is particularly interesting. A lot of things to learn. Traditional processes in making wheels, candles, bakery etc. Couldn't post much of it here so just show couple of pictures.

Candles making

Printing shop

Old time express train

Two refugees

Traditional Chinese herbs store

Singing cowboys

The Gold Museum

That pretty much conclude the trip. But not bad-lah, took a few places off my to-visit list =) Did a lot of catching up, and I'm homesick again!! =(

PG Conference

This is going to be relatively short. Nothing much to talk about. Presented my poster and gain some experience. A small conference, but not bad for my first conference lah. Took a group picture at the end of the two-days conference. And I was awarded with one of the Dean Poster Award. Whee~

Okay, time to really get some rest.

The Climb

Sorry that I've been missing for a while. Things are a little bit crazy at work at the moment. Deadline has been brought forward, and I have no where near completion. It's driving me nuts. Millions things are on my mind now. I'm never good at multi tasking. Well, practise makes perfect. And I've gotta start practising!!!

Anyway, this song by Miley Cyrus really describes what I'm going through and feeling now. It's now officially my favourite song. Here it goes:



MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com
 I can almost see it
That dream I am dreaming
But there's a voice inside my head saying
"You'll never reach it"

Every step I'm taking
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking

But I gotta keep trying
Gotta keep my head held high

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be a uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb

The struggles I'm facing
The chances I'm taking
Sometimes might knock me down
But no, I'm not breaking

I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I'm gonna remember most, yeah
Just gotta keep going

And I, I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on

'Cause there's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be a uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb, yeah!

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Somebody's gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb, yeah!

Keep on moving, keep climbing
Keep the faith, baby
It's all about, it's all about the climb
Keep the faith, keep your faith

 
Things are going to work out just fine!! Now, get back to work!!

Productive Weekend

I still have the same routine for weekend, which is going to Victoria Market. This weekend has been productive though. Not productive in the kind of way that I hope it is but productive nevertheless. My goal is to finish writing my literature survey as soon as possible so that I could take a week off when my parents come visiting next month. That was the deal I made with professor. But I don't see much progress in my writing. It's progressing alright, but really slow.

But anyway, my plan to spend Sunday writing kind of get off track. I spend the day baking instead. I baked an orange cake, which tasted more like butter cake instead of orange cake. Too much butter perhaps. I didn't put any icing on coz we both don't like it.

Yes! I finally got my mixing bowl. In fact, that was not all that I bought. I also bought a muffin tray and a few other kitchen ware on sale. And since it's already spring and summer is coming, we went to Harvey Norman and bought a huge 40 cm fan which costs $79. That's like RM 240!! For a fan!! Gulp~ So expensive!!

Hopefully it's enough to get us through summer. Otherwise we'll have to get a portable air-conditioner which will costs $800 at least. And guess what? I finally bought new novels!! Though I have no time to read right now. It was on sale! What can I say? I've waited so long to buy this:

Set of Twilight saga novels

The side of the novel is RED! How cool is that? Yeng man! Buying them separately when they're on sale is much cheaper than buying box set. So I didn't hesitate. And also:

Dan Brown's new novel, The Lost Symbol

After finished baking, we decided to cook something new for lunch on Sunday which is:

Carbonara sauce with ribbon-like pasta. It tasted good on the first mouth. Second mouth, ok-lah. Third mouth, a bit geli. Fourth mouth onwards, uweeekk. Guess I still don't like creamy stuff. Better stick to Bolognese next time. Still got half a bottle of Carbonara sauce though. Don't know how we're going to finish it. Sigh~

After all the "hard work", of course we need to reward ourselves a little. Ahem~ So we went for a movie. We watched a movie starting with G. No, not G-Force (though I wanted to watch so badly) but G.I. Joe. I know, it's an ancient movie. But we haven't get time to watch till now. Good movie I have to admit. Lotsa action and cool stuff. But there are certain parts of the movie that doesn't seem so logic to me. And where did we watch it?

I know, I know. I know I vowed not to go back to watch in the cinema with those so uncomfortable bean bags. But that's the only cinema that screen something we want to watch at the time that suits us. So no choice. But it's better this time. Coz we actually went to shop for new pillows before we went to the cinema. The old pillow is giving me neck and body ache all over. So we manage to sit comfortably on the bean bad  with our new pillows :D Everyone else is looking at us, puzzled, thinking, "Why do these guys bring pillows to cinema? I wish I bought a pillow. These bean bags are killing me!" Ha-ha.

A last picture to share. We saw this when we passed by the church on our way home. Wedding bells are in the air. What I was interested in is the car:

Cantik!! You don't get to see this very often. And I have never ever seen these kinda cars back in Malaysia before. And guess what? We saw TWO of these on the same day! Saw another one in the city which is white in colour. Didn't get to snap a picture though. Too bad. Now I'm considering using this kinda car when I get married next time. Hmm...Maybe.