Moments of My Life

风生水起

2012-01-30T23:27:00.002+11:00

In celebration of the CNY, we invited our Vietnamese neighbour for a CNY gathering last Saturday. We both cooked some traditional CNY dishes, with us preparing 捞生,肉干 and our neighbour preparing Vietnamese spring roll and glutinous cake.

On Sunday evening, we went to the City to watch the CNY twilight parade. There are endless dragon dances and lion dances. Jiayu is very excited as she enjoys watching lion dances. We only reach home late at night but it has been a wonderful weekend. We hope in this coming year will be 风生水起!

Our CNY feast

捞生

The CNY twilight parade

Happy CNY!

2012-01-24T15:29:00.002+11:00

It has been a really quiet CNY over here in Sydney. On CNY eve, we invited a fellow Malaysian friend over for lunch and dinner. She prepared butter prawn and a dessert whereas we prepared ikan bakar, scallop and turnip soup. In addition, yitping also made some 肉干 to celebrate CNY. We spent the day eating and chit-chating. We are back to our normal routine the next day on Monday, which is the first day of CNY. I guess that marks the end of CNY for us.

Anyway, I would like wish everyone back home:

大吉大利万事如意

恭喜发财财源广进

Cooking spree...

2012-01-15T13:59:00.004+11:00

Although the University has reopened since 2 Jan, I still feel like having holiday for the past 2 weeks with Jiayu staying at home. Yitping and I have been working on alternate days to take care of her. To keep the little one happy, we have been going outdoor with many activities (park, museum, beach, libary etc.) to kill the time. In addition, staying at home for long hours has also enabled me to explore my culinary skill. One of my attempts is 猪脚醋, which I have learnt from my mother-in-law. It is a different variation from the usual 猪脚醋, which involves adding dried chili and white radish (Hakka version?). I rate the first attempt a score of 7/10 as it is way too spicy and not sour enough. However, I will sure to go for more attempts as the 猪脚 is quite affordable ($4/kg) here.

I have also wanted to experiment with beetroot but the plan was delayed when I mistakenly bought summer radish as beetroot. After a Google search, it seems summer radish makes good salad and that should be my next attempt. Anyway, I guess there won't be much cooking experiments as we will be back on track with Jiayu resuming childcare tomorrow. But we are looking forward to the next big feast which is the CNY reunion dinner. With CNY approaching, we have started to plan our reunion dinner menu. We have invited a fellow Malaysian over and we will be cooking the dinner jointly. We have decided the theme will be seafood this year and stay tune to find out what's on our menu!

The first attempt of 猪脚醋

The summer radish mistaken as beetroot

My many chili plants

2012-01-15T13:30:00.003+11:00

After many failed attempts in growing chili plant, I am very determined to get at least one to grow to bear some chili. I am lucky this time as my mother-in-law managed to seed many chili plants in a small pot when she was visiting Sydney last month. When they grow big enough, I transplant all of them into many pots. With the increase probability, I hope my dream of growing chili will come true!

A flip of mind

2012-01-06T17:03:00.003+11:00

The past few weeks have been full of chaos for us all because of a flip of our mind. We changed our mind about leaving Jiayu back in Malaysia as we have discovered that separating with her is not as easy as we thought. So we made up our mind that we will stick together as a family no matter how hard is the situation. Therefore, I flew back to Malaysia for the second time to pick Jiayu back during Christmas.

The sudden change in plan has affected many peoples especially the grandparents. As for us, we have to take turn to stay at home to take care of Jiayu until she resumes childcare in mid January. We are very lucky to still be able to secure place for her in the same childcare centre, despite starting late. The only consolation is that Jiayu has managed to pick up many words in mandarin and she is more keen in learning the language now.

Amid all the chaos, everything turns out surprisingly well with me manage to finish a paper due end of this week. In addition, Jiayu has been really good as she is now very independent and understands instruction well. We have spent many quality time with her, which we grow to treasure after what we went through. As the saying goes : "If there is a will, there is a way!"

Happy yet sad

2011-11-16T11:16:00.003+11:00

Time flies and it will be another 10 days before we fly back to Malaysia. Although I am happy about going back home, it also means my time with Jiayu is running low. We have made a difficult decision for Jiayu to stay back in Malaysia until I finish my PhD. The decision is made so that I can focus and wrap up my study by next August, which marks the termination of my scholarship. At the same time, we hope that Jiayu will pick up some mandarin with her one-year stay in Malaysia. Let's hope I can get a job after my graduation and the little one can then join us back here!

The tale of lekor

2011-11-06T13:14:00.001+11:00

Check out the 1st attempt of lekor by Yitping & Alan! The texture is good but there is something missing in the flavour. The ingredient is simple with mackerel, salt and tapioca flour. We suspect the missing secret ingredient is salted fish. What do you think?

Hurray!! Paper submitted!

2011-11-05T08:55:00.002+11:00

After enduring 3 long sleep-deprived weeks, I have finally submitted my paper this morning! Adding glory to the event, I have also won the best presentation award and a research excellence award in the student conference last Monday, in addition to winning the lucky door prize! What an unforgettable day! It feels so good to be able to relax finally, not to mention the coming trip to Malaysia in 3 weeks time!

Anyway, I am planning to celebrate the momentary peace by showcasing my culinary skill...the first attempt will be Lekor, which will be a joint effort with yitping's friend that will be coming over to our place later. Let's hope it will be a successful operation!

A hectic month!

2011-10-28T19:06:00.001+11:00

A lot has happened in the past few weeks which stopped me from blogging. The most significant event is the break-down in our ADSL internet connection at home. The outage is the result of a switch in internet service plan for us from a 40 Gb data monthly plan to a unlimited data plan at a cheaper price. We have been out without internet for 2 weeks until the reconnection yesterday.

Beside the internet outage, I have been extremely busy in my research with 4 deadlines within this 2 weeks. I have my annual progress review on last Tuesday, a poster presentation at Research Conservazione today, a journal paper submission deadline and a conference presentation on next Monday. I can finally take a short break after a satisfactory review and winning the 2nd prize at the event today. However, I have to resume my working mood tonight as I have yet to finalise my paper and also prepare the conference presentation slide for next Monday. That probably mean I will not be writing much till then!

Long weekend

2011-10-02T09:27:00.002+11:00

We are enjoying a 3-day weekend this week as it is labour day holiday on Monday. On Saturday morning, Jiayu and I went to explore a new children playground in Darling Harbour while Yitping is on his way back from Narrabi. We also enjoyed the Dance Fiesta while having a picnic at Tumbalong Park before doing our groceries shopping trip at Paddy's market. We finished the day with a ecstatic welcome home of Yitping by Jiayu.

We start our day late today with the enforcement of daylight saving. The time difference is now 3 hours between Sydney and Malaysia. In addition, our mood is dampen by the poor wet weather. We have to cancel our planned trip to the Tulip Show at Southern Highland (Bowral). I guess we will be stuck at home until the weather improves!

Mother-daughter bonding time!

2011-09-27T08:49:00.001+10:00

It has been a while since Jiayu and I last share someexclusive mother-daughter bonding time. With Yitping going away from todayuntil this Sat, we are going to share some moments together without herprecious daddy. Yitping’s trip to Narrabi is a timely one, with me still freshfrom guilt with Jiayu’s comment last weekend “Mummy is always working in frontof a computer!”. The words clearly reflect my neglect and lack of attention onthe little one. Let’s hope the few days together might change her perception!

Pasta 1-2-3

2011-09-26T20:12:00.004+10:00

Pasta is one of my favourite dish and I cook it at least twice per week. I always thought I know how to cook a proper pasta until I sat in a pasta cooking demonstration yesterday at Better Homes and Gardens live show at the Sydney Olympic Park. The authentic Italian chef that was demonstrating the cooking shared some useful tips:

(a) Put plenty of water to boil your pasta: 1 L of water to 100 g of pasta

(b) Add salt to taste to the water when it is nearing boiling point and just before putting in the pasta

(d) Don't wash your pasta after they are cooked

(e) Save some of the starchy water you used to boil the pasta so that you can use some of them in cooking the sauce

(f) Slightly undercook your pasta so that they can be cooked together when added into the sauce

(g) Always cook your pasta and sauce almost the same time so that you can add the pasta into the sauce immediately when it is cooked.

I realised that I have made many mistakes in cooking pasta in the past. Armed with these tips, I tried to revamp my pasta today. These tips indeed help me to improve the flavour and texture of the pasta. I guess I will be cooking better pasta from now on!

Chicken and french bean fettuccine

Resume blogging

2011-09-25T16:46:00.004+10:00

It has been quite some time since my last post. Finally I decided to resume blogging to temporarily escape from my academic writings. Quite a lot of things have happened in the last one month. Some significant updates include a 1-week visit from my brother-in-law and his girlfriend and the return of the temporary car to its owner.

As for my research, I have 3 deadlines approaching in the coming one month, with the first deadline of a short conference paper due by the end of Sept, and a second deadline of a poster due in the middle of Oct and the last deadline of a journal paper due by the end of Oct. The bad news is I have just started writing the conference paper 2 days ago and haven't really started working on the other two. After meeting all these deadlines, I then have to prepare for my annual progress review. Phew!

On the other hand, I am looking forward to my reward after meeting all these deadlines, which is a trip back to Malaysia. Although it is going to be short visit, but it will be a joyful one as I will be attending my sister's wedding. See you all by then!

Welcome to Obi-2

2011-08-20T07:20:00.002+10:00

With the recent intense writing, it has been a pain using Microsoft Word on my Macbook a.k.a Obiwan at home. There seems to be incompatibility issues with my equations appeared in #$%^&? and the response is sluggish. In addition, Obiwan has started to give sign of old age with the keyboard malfunction from time to time. With my frustration mounting, Yitping has suggested me to get a cheap windows laptop. I hesitate about the idea as it would mean additional expense. However, I soon realised that I have yet to claim from the personal computer assistance scheme provided by the school to every new student. Every new students in the school will be entitled to a one-off sum of $1000 for personal pc purchase.

Hitting the jackpot, I quickly applied for the fund and here's the new addition, an alien in our mac family. We named her as Obi-2, proposed by Jiayu. After a few trials on Obi-2, I decided that the 3.5-year old Obiwan is still fast and seamless in term of OS (the age-long mac vs. windows battle). I guess I will still be switching between the 2 laptops but Jiayu might get more access to Obiwan from now on!

the bulky Obi-2, a dell XPS15 laptop

Writing! Writing! Writing!

2011-08-20T04:37:00.002+10:00

For the past few weeks, this blog has been a vacumn. However, I have been venting my writing power on my research. With time running fast, I have began to write more chapters of my thesis. I am planning for a thesis of 9 to 10 chapters and I am able to write at least 6 chapters with my current findings. At the same time, I have to continue my left-over scopes in order to obtain sufficient findings for the last 3 chapters. I still have a laboratory component, a small numerical study and a major analytical study to go before I can write up the whole thesis.

Juggling between the writing and remaining scopes, I find myself hard to focus. However, the urge to finish the thesis writing is the strongest as it gives me a sense of security of how much I have achieved. To date, I have 3 chapters written and working on the fourth. At the same time, I have to keep on revising the chapters that have been vetted by my supervisor. In addition, more writings are awaiting me in which I have two papers to submit in the coming months. Therefore, this blog's inactivity period is going to stretch indefinitely until I need a break in my writing!

A new semester, an old soul

2011-07-26T16:58:00.002+10:00

Yesterday marked the beginning of the 6th semester into my PhD. With the last 2.5 years spent doing the same research, I try to think and reflect what I have achieved so far. I have completed a lot of experimental works, produced 6 publications and won 2 prizes at local events. However, my works did not produce significant contribution to the geotechnical community. I have not produced the break-through that I am longing for and I have lost my enthusiasm in the process. I am keen to finish my PhD as soon as possible but I start to ponder what will my future be after graduation. I guess I have fall into the "graduation anxiety" faced by many of my graduating researchmates. Anyway, it might be time for me to realign my focus and strategy as life goes on no matter what happen....

How unique is your name?

2011-07-23T09:22:00.002+10:00

Lately we have been seeing more "unique" names given to newborns by our Malaysian friends. An example is an English name given to a baby girl as "Yvette" together with a very complicated Chinese name in writing. Personally I have nothing against these names, but I can't help but to pity the poor girl who is going to have a tough time when she learns how to write her name in a few years time! Another unconventional English name is Jonas, which I think is a rare choice.

Naming your kid is definitely not an easy job. As a first-time parent myself, I have read through 2 books on name study to ensure that the name is nothing less than 'perfect' for our precious baby. Having said so, the name we have chosen (Jia Yu) has also caused some trouble for our little girl especially in term of pronunciation. Most people will pronoun the syllable "Yu 宇" incorrectly as 'you' in English. As the han yu bin yin for the chinese character '宇' is 'yÜ', we decided that putting "yu" is better than 'yÜ'. Anyway, this has caused some confusion for poor Jiayu and she started calling herself the wrong name since her carers in childcare centre can't pronounce her name properly. We had to correct her and everyone else. As a result, she will now correct anyone who pronounce her name wrongly.

Another consideration Yitping has is whether to join the two syllables together as 'Jiayu' or separately as 'Jia Yu' on the birth certificate. In Malaysia, the norm is to write the two syllables separately. However, this will cause confusion for Caucasian who will think the first syllable as first name and the second syllable as middle name. Anyway, Yitping has finally decided to follow the norm and write them separately. However, we now write her name jointly so that people won't get confuse here in Sydney. Ironically, I am constantly reminded about this flaw as I am called "Shiao" all the time here!

I have also came across an interesting documentary (made based on a book entitled Freaknomics) on the economics impact of having a bizarre name. It seems names are tied with social-economy status depending on the time era. For instance, 'Britney' is once considered as a upper class name, but not in present days. Another interesting finding is having a bizarre name might reduce your chance of getting a job. Therefore, please consider twice before you want to give a very "unique" name to your baby!

Bread Story 2

2011-07-21T23:18:00.002+10:00

I remembered when I first came to Sydney, bread has always been the bottom of my meal choice. However, bread has eventually became one of the staple food in our pantry due to its simplicity. With time, we have also learned to enjoy more varieties of breads. We are spoiled with choices at affordable prices in Sydney as compared to Malaysia. Looking back, my dislike of bread probably is caused by the ever-boring white or wholemeal Gardenia bread. Ironically although I think the bread in Sydney is tastier with more varieties, my French colleagues have complained about the poor quality of the bread in Sydney that is unbearable to them. Anyway, I am happy with what I got here probably until I get a chance to visit France one day!

Some varieties of breads that we grow to like (Rustic baguette, multigrain sourdough cobb, rosemary and seasalt ciabatta)

The multigrain sourdough cobb that is very dense

Selamat datang!

2011-07-18T14:21:00.001+10:00

With the semester break almost over, my office has welcome some new occupants. Today there is a pleasant surprise for me, with my supervisor introducing his new PhD student to me that has just arrived yesterday. I am very happy with the arrival of the newcomer as he is also from Malaysia! He is sponsored by University Pahang Malaysia and I am more than happy to find him a cubicle in my office. I have also shown him around the school and helped him to search for accommodation. I hope I have provided him as much help as possible as I could still remember the bewilderment that I faced during my first week here.

Coincidentally, Yitping has also met another new Malaysian PhD student that has reported about 4 months ago. She is sponsored by JPA and we invited her over for lunch last Saturday. We cooked loh mai kai for her to ease some of her homesickness and it feels really good to see our fellow Malaysians here. Selamat datang!

Yellow fever

2011-07-10T19:58:00.003+10:00

We have been busy this weekend. On Saturday, we went to the BERSIH 2.0 rally in Sydney with Yitping's friend. The rally attracted about 200-300 participants from young to old. The rally starts at 2 pm outside Townhall building and we arrived slightly late at about 2.15 pm. There were speeches and live musics throughout the 1.5 hours event. As compared to our counterparts in KL, we were very lucky with a smooth and peaceful rally.

After the rally, we went home and cooked a feast to celebrate the event. On the menu were butter prawn, grilled scallop with cheese and bacon, cincalok omelet and stir-fried chinese cabbage. The first two seafood course were cooked by Yitping and the later two were cooked by his friend. After the scrumptious dinner, we spent our night watching online news and videos reporting on the rally in KL. I am very disgusted with the abuse in power by the brutal police force and felt concerned for those protestants that were arrested.

Anyway, we were invited to a BBQ this morning by our neighbor whose son is attending the same childcare centre as Jiayu. They have just arrived from Vietnam in March and they are also doing post graduate studies in the university. Their son, Ba Lan is one month younger than Jiayu and enjoys playing with Jiayu. We went to a nearby park with BBQ facilities and enjoyed delicious Vietnamese spring roll and BBQ pork/beef skewers. After the lunch, Jiayu went to Ba Lan's house to play. It was a long day for us and we will be going bed early today. Good night, everyone!

BERSIH 2.0 in Sydney

Our home-cooked feast after the rally

Vietnamese spring roll made by our neighbour

Chili fever

2011-07-05T18:24:00.000+10:00

With the recent craze in trying out the various new recipes, we have tried to made paste and stock from scratch rather than buying ready-made product. Despite it is a timely and costly process, we have produced quite some satisfactory outcomes. One of the successful products is the sambal assam paste. We received good feedback from our guest when we serve sambal assam prawn to go with nasi lemak yesterday.

Two of the core ingredients (most expensive) to prepare the paste are chili and shallot. Chili padi costs about $24/kg here and shallot costs about $10/kg. I have been limiting the use of chili padi but it changes today when one of Jiayu's carers gave me some home-grown chili. I am overjoyed and immediately I start to plan to prepare more of the sambal paste. Yummy!

A car for 3 months

2011-07-02T20:22:00.000+10:00

As Yitping's friend is going oversea for 3 months, he has entrusted his car to us temporarily. Making use of the car, we decided to go for a ride to Marrickville Metro for our groceries shopping today. Marrickville Metro is the shopping mall we used to go when we were living in Stanmore. Another purpose of us going there is to taste the yummy Vietnamese beef noodle, Pho in a shop located nearby the mall. We have missed the pho very much since we moved to Darlington. Jiayu is very excited the moment she saw and sat in the car. As for us, we bought a lot of groceries before we enjoyed the yummy pho. I guess we will miss the car when its owner is back!

Everything Japanese!

2011-06-25T20:53:00.001+10:00

With our recent obsession in trying out recipes from Two Asian Kitchens, our pantry has been expanding fast and running low in space. As the book involves many recipes on Japanese cuisines, our pantry has welcomed many Japanese condiments and spices. At the same time, my wallet is also running low in cash as these new additions are quite pricey. Take a look at the stuff that I bought from Paddy's Market today!

More than music

2011-06-25T20:30:00.000+10:00

Although I have bought the piano for a while, I have yet to teach Jiayu. Although I have taught piano to young children (some part-time jobs during my secondary school and undergraduate days), I have never taught children as young as 3.5 years old. In my experience, formal piano lessons following ABRSM syllabus is more suitable for older child above 6 years old unless the child is very gifted.

Therefore, I began to look for alternative music program for very young learners. By chance, I came across the Suzuki Method when I was chatting with an acquaintance who is a music teacher in Australia. When I start reading about the program, I decide that it will be a good choice for Jiayu. I especially like its technique that focuses on training the listening of the child rather than reading music notations in the beginning.

Anyway, with my mind set, I bought a handbook on the method from Amazon. I have started reading the book but unsure whether I can be trained on my own to teach the little one. In addition, it is not easy to teach your own child/children. In my experience, most piano teachers don't teach their own children but send them to others (at least for my piano teachers). Let's hope the book will help me to cultivate Jiayu's interests in piano and wish me luck!

A familiar fruit

2011-06-25T16:59:00.000+10:00

I invited my researchmate, Chunshun and his wife over for dinner yesterday. To let them have a taste of Malaysian cuisine, I prepared Bat Kut Teh, rendang chicken and stir-fry pumpkin. Chunshun brought some fruits over and one of them is a familiar fruit in Malaysia. With the big fruit at home, we start to think what recipe we can cook using it. Any idea, anyone?

A big pineapple that costs $4

Food! Food! Food!

2011-06-21T20:17:00.000+10:00

We have been busy entertaining last weekend. We went for a farewell dinner on Saturday night to farewell Yitping's French colleague that will be returning to Brazil tomorrow. We went to a nice Belgium Beer Cafe to taste their famous mussels and then chilled out at a pub in the city. The next morning, we went for Yam Cha with my colleagues at a Hongki Dim Sum Restaurant in Hurstville. The dim sum tastes good and it costs much cheaper than what we used to pay in the city. As a result of all these outings, I feel not very well rested and had a slow start this week.

Meanwhile, we have also been busy trying out recipes from Adam Liaw's book. Our first trial, 烧肉 was very successful and our confidence boasted. However, our second trial was a disaster with the product going into the bin. We were supposed to produce a plate of crispy beef with shredded carrot but the beef was tainted with bicarbonate powder residue. The bicarbonate soda was used to tenderize the beef overnight and it has not been washed off properly before cooking. Anyway, we don't plan to repeat the recipe and will just move on to the next. Can you guess what will be the next recipe?

The successful 烧肉

The crispy beef with shredded carrot that goes into bin

Mangosteen, anyone?

2011-06-21T19:21:00.000+10:00

Saw this in one of the promotion flyers today, anyone interested?

Two Asian Kitchens

2011-06-16T19:54:00.000+10:00

Yitping and I have became fans of a TV cooking show, MasterChef since we were introduced to it during its Season 2. The show is currently in its Season 3 and we have been sitting down in front of our TV at 7.30pm everyday except Saturday.

We are especially impressed by the winner of Season 2, Adam Liaw. As the winner, he got a book publishing deal and $100,000 cash prize to start his food dream. His book goes on shelf a while ago at a price tag of $50 and Yitping has wanted to get the book the moment he saw it at a local bookstore. I as usual was being thrifty and stopped him. However, when Yitping saw an online deal with the book selling for $35, he quickly bought the book! The book arrived today and we plan to try out every one of the recipes in it. Can you guess what will we cook first??

Long weekend

2011-06-13T08:28:00.000+10:00

It is a long weekend this week with Queen's Birthday falls on today. Despite the 3-day break, we didn't go anywhere far as the weather has been cold, gloomy and rainy. However, the short holiday is less boring with Yitping's friend, Alan came to visit us yesterday. We had a cooking session together, making loh mai kai as lunch. We have attempted making loh mai kai several times in the past prior to this, but we couldn't get the flavor right. With a proper recipe and Alan's help, we finally produced a nice meal. After our lunch, we had fun playing Wii that was brought over by Alan. The day passed quickly and soon it was time to say goodbye to Alan. As for today, I will be going to campus to run some lab works while Yitping and Jiayu stay at home. What a boring long weekend!

The loh mai kai

How to finish a Ph.D.

2011-06-12T05:59:00.002+10:00

Finishing a PhD in a reasonable amount of time has always been the target for me and my research mates. Looking at past records, most of my ex-research mates finish their PhD in 3.5 to 4 years time. For most international students, the target is always 3.5 years as it is when the scholarship ends. On the other hand, 4 years is the longest a PhD student can stretch as it is the maximum period for his/her candidature according to USyd's regulation. Therefore, my secret dream will be to finish the degree in 3 years (which seems impossible judging by my current progress).

Anyway, a research mate of mine shared an article on how to finish a PhD (http://www.schonlau.net/finishphd.html). The author of the article finishes his PhD in 4 years and here are some of his tips:

Begin with the end in mind
You have no obligation to write an important or even useful thesis
Write!
Exercise regularly
Enjoy your "play time"
Talk to others about your problems
Don't find excuses - don't do too many other important things
Work on your strengths, not on your weaknesses
Take charge - it's your life not your supervisor's

My favorite is "enjoy your play time" as I have always failed to do that! I always feel guilty when I go on holiday and the unfinished works are constantly on the back of my mind. How about you?

The sound of music

2011-06-06T12:42:00.000+10:00

Today is a work-at-home day as I was anticipating a delivery. It is a Casio Privia PX-7 Limited Edition digital piano! I have been toying with the idea of getting a piano for a long time but was put off with the cost. I have always enjoyed playing piano and it is also about time for me to start teaching Jiayu. I finally made up my mind when Yitping's ex-colleague approached me about selling my Kawai K8 acoustic piano in Penang. With the Kawai sold off, I could finally buy a digital piano here.

I am very excited when the piano is delivered. With Yitping's help, we assembled the piano in an hour time. The piano looks sleek in white but I was quite disappointed with the touch as it is no where near my Kawai. Anyway, I am still very happy with a piano at home and I can't wait to see Jiayu's reaction when she is back at home later!

The piano is here in a bulky 36.5 kg packaging

The fully assembled Casio Privia PX-7

A late night out

2011-06-05T23:02:00.000+10:00

It is the time of the year again with Vivid Sydney festival illuminates the city. Every winter, Vivid Sydney will turn the icons of the city into light sculptures. Although this is our 3rd winter in Sydney, tonight is the first time we went to enjoy Vivid Sydney. Other than us, three of yitping's friends also join in the fun. We went to Circular Quay to watch the sails of Sydney Opera House being lighted on at 6 pm. We then had a walk around the Rock before having our dinner at Australian Hotel. We went to the hotel for dinner as it has a very special menu. Among the exotic choices are pepper kangaroo pizza and salt water crocodile pizza. We tried the crocodile pizza that tastes very much like chicken breast in texture and flavor. Overall, it has been a great night out and we look forward to the next late night out!

Vivid Sydney

Dinner at Australian Hotel

What's this?

2011-06-04T15:38:00.002+10:00

I bought this for $1 at a garage sales today. Can you guess what is it?

端午节快乐

2011-06-04T15:37:00.000+10:00

I was reminded about 端午节 when my Chinese research mate asked me yesterday whether we celebrate it in Malaysia. Then we started sharing stories about the type of dumplings that we have during the festival. With the festival falls on next Monday, I decided to shop for dumplings when I went for my groceries shopping earlier today. After a brief survey at Paddy's Market, the market price for 咸肉粽 ranges from $2.50 to $4.00 each. I wonder what's the price of a dumpling in Malaysia?

咸肉粽 from 2 different sources ($2.50 and $2.80 respectively)

Work frenzy!

2011-05-18T19:28:00.000+10:00

Now in the fifth semester of my PhD, panic starts to creep in as I am currently lagging behind my planned progress and trying very hard to catch up. As a result, I have been very busy with a tight experimental schedule juggling 3 different lab testings for the past few months. With most of the tests conducted by last week, finally there is a short break before I decide on my next move.

However, the momentary peace is short-lived as I have 2 abstracts due for submission within the coming weeks (I still have no idea about what I want to write yet!). In addition, I am supposed to start writing on my thesis during my "spare" time (only 2 chapters done so far...sigh). What's more, I need to start on my analytical work which has been on the top of my to-do-list since a year ago!

Anyway, this is the life of a research student and I am just trying to vent out some of my pressure and frustration (can't help it being a complaint queen all my life!). Probably I should have just channel the energy to do something positive and produce the breakthrough that I have been longing for!

My fruit of labors...

A visit from Alma Mater

2011-05-16T18:57:00.000+10:00

There is a group of visitors to my school today, and they are from my Alma Mater, UTM. I was informed about the visit by my supervisor last Thurs as I was supposed to give a 15 minutes presentation on my research. It is indeed a great pleasure to welcome the visitors, that comprise of 2 academics, 14 postgraduate and undergraduate students and two journalists from NST and Berita Harian. The visit is part of a Australia Geotechnical Study Tour organised by UTM under a global outreach programme. The trip is a 11-day tour visiting 2 universities in Sydney (USyd and UNSW) and some field trips to construction projects in NSW (including 4 days of sightseeing!). I can't help but to wish that there is such study tour during my time (I am unsure about the funding, but I think the trip is sponsored).

Anyway, I am happy to meet one of my ex-lecturers who lead the tour. It is also a very nice feeling meeting young juniors that look enthusiastic (ahh...I miss the youthful and relatively carefree UTM periods in my life). Last but not least, I was also given a very nice souvenir for my presentation. It is a pity that there is no other Malaysian doing a PhD in civil engineering in USyd, on top of one that graduated from UTM. Else we can share the joy of meeting our fellow members from our alma mater!

What a good deal!

2011-05-14T21:12:00.000+10:00

During my trip back to Malaysia last Dec, I was introduced to online group buying deals by my sister that bought heavily discounted facial vouchers on one of the group buying websites. As a bargain hunter, I start searching for similar websites in Sydney. After some google searches, I have signed on to several group buying websites such as:

www.stardeal.com.au
www.livingsocial.com.au
www.scoopon.com.au

These websites offer very good deals on dining, traveling and consumer services with up to 50% off or more. I have bought mostly food/dining vouchers, such as the $20 worth of Thai food delivery at a cost of only $5. In addition, I have also bought some discounted tour packages for our visitors. What fantastic deals!

Winter is approaching

2011-05-07T19:32:00.000+10:00

and we are readied for it!

The arrival of a visitor

2011-05-02T15:30:00.000+10:00

Although it has been a short working week with only 3 working days, last weekend has been a busy one for me. We went to Paddy's market for a massive groceries shopping on Saturday morning since we were anticipating a visitor that evening. My brother-in-law is visiting us from Malaysia and he will be with us until this Friday. He arrives late on Saturday evening and we brought him sightseeing to the landmarks of Sydney on Sunday. We went to Sydney Opera House, Harbour bridge and Bondi beach. I am unsure how he sees Sydney, but it is still a spectacular view for me everytime I bring a visitor to the Opera house!

After coming back from the city, I prepared for a BBQ dinner at a local park while Yitping brought his brother to tour around the University. With the cold weather in the late afternoon, it is a pleasure having a BBQ outdoor. With a full stomach, we went home and slept early after a day full of activity. With us back to work today, my brother-in-law is left venturing the city alone today. Let's hope he is used to all the walking and enjoy Sydney to the fullest in the coming days!

Easter long weekend

2011-04-25T18:13:00.000+10:00

Today is the 4th day of the Easter long weekend holiday. The holiday starts last Friday and ends tomorrow. Originally we were planning to go caravan touring to Parke and Dubbo, but we changed our mind when I was advised by my colleague to avoid the super peak Easter holiday with the crowd and costly accommodation. With the change in plan, we have to come out with alternative arrangements to spend the 5-day holiday.

On the first day, we went to Sydney Family Show. It was a disappointment with very little events other than the animal nursery where Jiayu enjoys petting the animals. The second day was a wet day with rain showering the whole day and we were stuck at home. On the third day (Sunday) with sunny weather, we ventured far to Royal National Park. We took a 1-hour train journey to Cronulla and then a ferry to Bundeena beach/Royal National Park from there. We went bush walking along a coastal trail from the beach and enjoyed the spectacular cliff view. We walked about 10 km and only reached home by about 5 pm. As for today, with another wet weather and with us running out of idea, we went to Ikea to kill our time. We managed to grab a few bargains and also shopped for some wine and groceries inside the mall.

With another day of holiday to go, we are still not sure how we will spend the last day of the holiday. Probably we will just bring Jiayu to a nearby park and then rest at home before going back to work. What a long holiday!

Bush walking at Royal National Park

Fresher Spread

2011-04-13T15:59:00.002+10:00

I came across an interesting article while I was reading and enjoying my lunch today. The article discusses a phenomenon "fresher spread'' in Australia where first year university students tend to gain weight during their first year due to lifestyle changes. In the US/Canada, the same phenomenon is known as ''freshman fifteen" where 15 pounds of weights is gained! The reasons for the weight gain could be stress, binge eating, over-consumption of alcohol, malnutrition and decreased level of exercise. Another point worth mentioning is that men tends to gain more weight than women!

Anyway, other than the freshman year, there are other events in life that are known to cause weight gain:
(a) Settling into a new romantic relationship
(b) In the first 2 years of marriage or co-habitation
(c) During pregnancy
(d) In mid life
(e) Around menopause
(f) For some, just about any time

Well, it seems that not all points above are true for me.On the contrary, I lost weight when I had just started my relationship, got married and my PhD! How about you?

Exhausted

2011-04-03T19:03:00.000+10:00

It has been a very busy and exhausting month for me as Yitping has been away half of the time. He has gone to Narrabi early March and then to New Mexico to attend a workshop last week. Although I am now quite used to handling the little one alone while he is away on his regular trip to Narrabi, it has not been easy this round due to a grumpy Jiayu. Jiayu is currently going through a behavioral change where she is trying to exert control. She now screams, hit and bite when she is angry and frustrated. As a result, I am always mentally drained and exhausted whenever she throws her almost daily tantrums. On top of this, I am also physically exhausted due to my busy research schedule with a lots of laboratory works. With Yitping back from his trip today, there is temporary relief for me until his next trip in 2 weeks time. How I wish I can take a break!

A trip to Cabramatta

2011-03-20T19:55:00.002+11:00

With the invitation from Yitping's friend, we went for our first visit to Cabramatta for lunch. Cabramatta is known as Sydney's little Asia and it is also famous for its Vietnamese food. We are there to eat at a famous restaurant with its famous dish of crispy chicken egg noodle. Upon arriving the restaurant at noon, we had to queue before we were finally seated after 10 minutes wait. Yitping ordered the famous crispy chicken egg noodle while I ordered curry beef with rice. The crispy chicken is indeed very crispy and Jiayu loves it very much. On the other hand, my curry beef rice is ordinary and a bit too mild to my liking.

After the lunch, we went for groceries shopping. The prices of the fresh food are identical with those of Paddy's market but I found and bought some rare finds, such as sweet potato leaves and sting ray. With my shopping trolly full with groceries, we finally left Cabramatta. At night, with the ingredients we bought, we had a dinner menu that is truly "Malaysian"!

A view o f Cabramatta and a meal at the famous Vietnamese restaurant

Ikan bakar and stir fry sweet potato leaves as dinner

Brain power boost?

2011-03-13T15:00:00.000+11:00

Since entering the 30s age era, I have noticed significant changes in my brain power. The most affect is the memory power, with the most common nuisance (to Yitping) of asking the same question twice within 30 minutes (I swear I didn't intend to nag and I really forgot about it!). My mind is also not as alert as before and it takes longer to think and solve a problem. I am not sure whether this is a middle-age crisis but it seems I am not alone in this problem. Yitping seems to experience the same problem but at least he is better off (at least he is not questioning me again and again about the same thing).

To help to regain the brain power, we have been eating fish oil which is a rich source of Omega-3. In fact I have started taking the supplement when I wanted to get conceive a few years back, and Yitping has been taking them to control his cholesterol level. Back in Malaysia, I used to get the fish oil from direct sales company (Cosway). Now with Australia as one of the fish oil producer, we are spoiled with plenty of choices at lower cost. I have tried various brand but with no noticeable difference. I guess eating fish oil might not really solve the aging problem but at least it makes me feel better. Probably it is time for us to start eating more brain food such as walnut!

Children fish oil is 2.5 times more expensive than adult fish oil!

An eventful weekend

2011-03-06T18:56:00.000+11:00

It has been an eventful weekend for us visiting places in addition to our weekly groceries shopping. We make our first visit to Powerhouse Museum yesterday. It was an unplanned visit and Yitping came out with the idea while we were walking to Paddy's Market. We have always wanted to check out the museum but delayed it since we thought Jiayu was still too young to appreciate the exhibitions. However, with Jiayu turning 3 years old, we feel that it is finally the right time for our first museum visit.

The museum locates minutes to Paddy's Market and the entrance fees is only $5 for student. The museum is not particularly big with 3 floors of exhibitions. However, it is children friendly with some play/exhibition corners for little ones. Jiayu particularly enjoys the music corner where she gets to play with all kind of percussion instrument and also steps on a giant keyboard on the floor to make music. She also enjoys the kid construction corner and the outdoor children playground. As for me, I don't really pay much attention to the exhibits other than focus on jiayu's need. After finish touring the museum, we decide to become an annual household member at a cost of $65. The membership enables us a year of unlimited entries to the museum and also to Sydney observatory. In addition, it also includes 6 free guest passes which are handy since we are expecting lots of visitors this year. Joining the membership also means jy and Yitping will get to spend some quality time while I do my groceries shopping at paddy's market. In the past, Yitping has been reluctant to shop there due to the lack of children playground within it's vicinity.

Having spending the whole day at the museum yesterday, we decide to top it up today by visiting Manly beach today. As the weather is getting colder, we want to savor the chance to go to the beach before it gets too cold in a few weeks time. At the same time, it will be fun for little jiayu who get to travel on a ferry to reach our destination. We also prepare some food to enjoy a picnic lunch on the beach. As it is a sunny day today, the beach attracts lots of people today. Jiayu doesn't want to play with water today and focus on building sand castles with her daddy. I as usual hate the heat and was sitting on the beach reading newspaper. Due to the heat, we are back at home early but it has been a very good weekend for us!

Yummy 肉干

2011-03-06T08:32:00.000+11:00

With the recipe given by Yitping's cousin, we finally get to make and eat 肉干 here in Sydney. We have been hunting for 肉干 in Sydney during Chinese New Year. Unfortunately 肉干 seems not to be as popular as in Malaysia during the festive season. The recipe seems simple with 24-hour marination, then rolling into thin sheets before drying in an oven for an hour and then grilling for another 30-40 minutes. What struck me is the amount of sugar you need to make the 肉干, with half cup of sugar required for 500g of meat mince! Therefore, it is really unhealthy to consume too much 肉干 and now I know why so many people put on weights after CNY!

Yesterday was our second attempt in making the 肉干. While our first attempt was lean mince pork 肉干, we make chicken breast mince 肉干 yesterday. We found the pork 肉干 is easier to roll and softer in texture. In addition, it is cheaper as compared to the chicken variation. Knowing how to make our own 肉干 now, we realize how high is the profit margin of 美珍香. During our last trip back to Malaysia, I bought 肉干 for ~RM90/kg. Over here, the prices for a kg of mince lean pork and mince chicken breast are about AUD9/kg and AUD 11/kg respectively (equivalent to about RM27/kg and RM33/kg respectively). Factor in the electricity/labour/marketing/packaging cost, there is still plenty of margin. Therefore, how about considering making your own 肉干 the next CNY?

Another new academic year

2011-02-28T19:06:00.000+11:00

Today is the first day of another academic year for the University. At the same time, it also bring an end to Spring with a change in weather. As usual, we welcome the new semester by visiting O-week stalls last week. After being deserted for over 3 months during the summer holiday, the campus is alive today with loads of students today. The beginning of the new academic year also brings in many new PhD students hwith a new neighbor sitting next to my cubicle.

Today also marks the beginning of the 5th semester for me. With the new semester, I am marching nearer to the completion of my study. However, my progress is still slow and I am now scrambling to finalize what I should do in my last year. Let's hope I can be extra hardworking so that I can finish on time!

Best jobs?

2011-02-26T15:42:00.003+11:00

I received an interesting email from an affiliated engineering society today with the title of : Best Jobs in America. It grabs my attention because civil engineer is listed as the 6th best job in America. Out of my curiosity, I went to the source (CNNMoney) to read more. Some interesting facts:

(a) The highest paid job is an anesthesiologist (Median pay of $290k/yr) but only rank as the 68th best job (money doesn't mean anything?).
(b) Although there is some potential in job growth (rank 13th), civil engineer earns only $80k/yr.
(c) The most surprising score for a civil engineer is it ranks 9th in low stress (can't believe it)!

Anyway, I guess civil engineer still fare well as compared to an electronic engineer or astronomer. They are off the chart! However, the survey might only valid in America as it definitely doesn't reflect the situation in Malaysia!

Caravan tour?

2011-02-14T19:32:00.000+11:00

We have been checking the holiday calendar this year and realized that there will be a stretch of 5-day Easter holiday near the end of April. We get excited and start thinking where can we spend the holiday. I was proposing to go to the Royal Easter Show and maybe to Jervis Bay for a day trip. On the other hand, Yitping is proposing to go somewhere far. I hesitate about traveling far as Easter holiday is considered as a super peak season and attracted surcharge for accommodation. In addition, we have just came back from Goldcoast/Brisbane which has used up a chunk of our vacation budget.

Finally I get interested when Yitping comes out with the idea of visiting a famous observatory in Parke which is about 300 km away from Sydney. I suddenly thought of caravan touring which is a cheaper option and also something that we have not done before. I started doing some search online about caravan rental and coincidentally bought a used book on caravan touring when we went for groceries shopping the next day. While reading the book, we realize that we can visit another attraction near Park, i.e. West Plain Zoo at Dubbo. I guess we might have found a place to spend our Easter holiday!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T18:28:00.000+11:00

It is Valentine's Day today and I have been constantly reminded about it everytime I passed by the "Valentine's Day Dinner Special - buy1 free 1" poster displayed on the restaurant on our way home. In addition, the various posts and videos posted on Facebook also helps in reinforcing my memory. However, we didn't join in the celebration (don't think it is easy with a little one even if we want to celebrate it!) other than buying some Valentine's Day themed donut from Coles. I also relaxed my rules on junk food and let Yitping indulges in a pack of Twisties. In addition, I also bought a weighing scales as our Valentine's day gift so that Yitping can monitor his seemingly increasing weight! It seems 15 years together has washed off all the romance but a better sense of practicality in the gift choice!

CNY holiday trip to Queensland

2011-02-06T18:08:00.000+11:00

We have just came back from visiting Gold Coast and Brisbane today. We planned the trip last year when we know that my sister in Brisbane is not going back to Malaysia during CNY. We arrived Gold Coast on the first day of CNY (3/2) and spent our first day touring Gold Coast city and its famous beaches (Currumbin Beach and Surfer Paradise). We then spent our second day in Gold Coast at Seaworld Theme Park. We enjoyed the four shows (Dolphin, Sea lion, Sesame Street and Pirate shows) with Jiayu especially loves the Sesame Street Beach in the theme park. I got on roller coaster for the first time in my life and felt extremely dizzy after the rides!

On Day 3, we left for Brisbane from Gold Coast and my sister became our tour guide. We toured around Brisbane City visiting its famous landmarks such as Cityhall, Casino etc. We also visited the University of Queensland and the University is very much bigger than our USyd. It is unfortunate that the City is still recovering from the devastating flood weeks ago and a lot of its riverfront attractions are all under restoration. The day ends with a home-cooked dinner at my sister's place with her fantastic cooking.

This trip has been a very 'refreshing' trip as we also got to escape from the scorching heat in Sydney in addition to spending our CNY in Queensland. We are very lucky to be back in Sydney today to welcome back the first cool front after 6-day of continuous hot days (reported to be over 30Deg C even at midnight). The trip also see us bringing back some CNY goodies from Malaysia (my mum asked my sister to bring over Jy's favorite 炸芽菇 during her last trip back to Malaysia). On the down side, yitping and I also brought back the Queensland flu bugs. Overall, it has been a fun trip and let's hope we will get to visit Queensland again!

Currumbin beach

CNY goodies from Malaysia

兔年快乐

2011-02-03T08:48:00.000+11:00

Today is the first day of Chinese new year and I would like to wish everyone a very happy and prosperous CNY 2011!

大吉大利万事如意

恭喜发财财源广进

Our simple CNY eve dinner

Quality or quantity?

2011-01-31T10:04:00.001+11:00

The life and blood of a researcher/academician depends on his/her publications. As an ex-lecturer, no one understood this better than me. I was updating my resume just now and starts to do some self-reflection when I came to the 'publications' section. A count reveals that I have about 15 publications so far, but sadly with only 3 international publications. It seems I only produce quality work when I was/am studying rather than working with the international publications produced during my masters and PhD. As for the rest of the regional/local publications, they are the products of my work era as I have always try to publish at least 1 journal and 1 conference papers every year when I was teaching. I tend to blame this to the lack of research facilities/funding and technical support at that time but I know better (there is always theoretical works and numerical simulations!!)...

The question is: do you want to go for quality or quantity in your publication list? Ideally you will want both, but in real world it is very difficult with a few exceptions of extraordinary and brilliant researchers (I know a few of them...yes, they are now Professor in their universities although in the same age group with me!). How do you judge the quality of a publication? To start with, a journal paper always weighs higher than a conference paper (but that doesn't mean you should not write a conference paper as it is a perfect chance to meet people/networking and gain new ideas by attending the conference). However, a journal paper published at a 3rd tier journal means nothing as compared to the 1st tier journal. Therefore, a common method to judge a journal paper is by its impact factor (IF). IF depends on the number of citations on your works by others in 2 preceding years after a paper is published. The higher the IF, the better is your work. However, IF is not always a reliable method with possible manipulations in editorial policies. There are also tips to increase the IF of your paper, such as citing your own papers in your new paper (sometime you can't avoid that, not intentionally but to save page length/repeating explanation). Anyway, getting a high IF paper is always in my wish list but it is more important to produce sufficient work before I can even dream about that!

CNY goodies

2011-01-30T16:28:00.000+11:00

Because of rail track works, I changed my plan of going to Ashfield today and went to Paddy's Market and Chinatown instead for my CNY goodies shopping. In a way I am glad that I get to go Paddy's market because I have been yearning for the juicy cherry and lychee that are now peak in season. Today is the 3rd time in a week that I have been to Paddy's Market to get them. Both cherry and lychee are now only $9/kg and they will be off season in a few weeks time. I usually buy a kilo of each and can finish them within 2 days. On the other hand, white nectarine is Jiayu's favorite and it seems to help her constipation problem.

While I was doing my shopping at Paddy's market, Yitping brought the little one to admire some CNY decoration items sold in some of the booths in the mall upstair. After the groceries shopping, we started out hunt for 肉干 at Chinatown. On our way out, we saw an assembly of lion dance. Too bad Jiayu is still afraid of the lion dance as before and instructed Yitping to go kill the lions rather than watching the show! After some walking about, we finally gave up on the 肉干 and went for our lunch. I guess the fruits will be our goodies for the CNY and it will be just another ordinary week for us next week!

Cherry, white peach, white nectarine and lychee

Lion dance outside Paddy's market

CNY 2011

2011-01-29T19:18:00.000+11:00

Time flies and it is going to be the 3rd CNY for us in Sydney. As before, there is not much of CNY festive atmosphere here in Sydney. However, we don't feel as lonely as before probably we have just came back from Malaysia a few weeks ago. In addition, we will be spending our CNY in Goldcoast and Brisbane with my youngest sister next weekend.

There is also less CNY preparation this year for us, with no decorations nor massive house cleaning. However, I start to plan the reunion dinner (with only 3 of us....sigh) since we will still be spending the CNY eve in Sydney. Yitping has started frying the prawn crackers that we brought back from Malaysia. However, all the crackers are gone and finished in a day by jy and yitping before they can be offered to any guests. I have also started my shopping for the feast today and am planning to go to Ashfield (a suburb lived by lots of Chinese) tomorrow to get some 年货 (possibly 肉干).

With the first day of CNY falls on next Thurs, I guess many back in Malaysia would have taken the whole week off and traveled back to their hometown today. I wish a safe journey to everyone and a very happy and prosperousChinese new year 2011!

Chicken Deluxe Burger

2011-01-26T14:17:00.000+11:00

When I went back to Malaysia, I have tried to avoid fast food whenever possible. The reason is because while fast food is the cheapest option in Sydney, it is an expensive choice in Malaysia as compared to hawker food. However, I still dined at Macdonald once or twice to sample the Prosperity burger that is not available in Sydney. Now if you happen to visit Sydney, there is something that you can try in Macdonald that is not available in Malaysia...Chicken deluxe burger that is very delicious according to yitping. However, I don't think it is the cheapest option at $7.75 per burger. I would recommend a Mac Snack Wrap at only $1.95 (is it available in Malaysia?)!

Drive in service

2011-01-26T08:20:00.000+11:00

What is your first impression about a drive-in service? To me it has always been a fast food drive in service. However, it is an eye-opener for me when I spot this drive-in service in a suburb in Sydney..can you guess what is the drive-in service for?

Symphony in The Domain: Midsummer Shakespeare

2011-01-22T23:30:00.000+11:00

It has been a while that we go sightseeing or participate in any events in Sydney. We did these a lot in our first year here especially when both my parent-in-law and parent were visiting us. Eventually the fascination dims when we enter into our second year. Finally today we decide to join in the celebration of Sydney Festival and attend a free open air concert in The Domain called Symphony in The Domain: Midsummer Shakespeare. As I am a classical music lover, it is an event that I don't want to miss and several friends are joining in the fun as well. Although the event only starts at 8 pm, we go there early at 6 pm in order to get a good picnic sport as near to the stage as possible. We bring along our picnic rug and enjoy a picnic dinner with our friends. True to the theme, it is indeed a midsummer night dream enjoying live music under the starry night sky!

Holiday mood still?

2011-01-21T10:32:00.000+11:00

It has been almost 2 weeks since we are back from Malaysia. However, I am yet to recover from the holiday mood and slow in picking up works. It doesn't help too with Yitping away to Narrabi again after barely back in Sydney for a few days. However, our mood improve with a surprise visit from my sister and her friend, Ryan from Brisbane. Due to the floods in Brisbane, they have been stranded in their houses without electricity and access roads blocked until last Friday. They flew over to Sydney the moment the water subsided and have been spending their weekend with me. With their visit, Jiayu enjoys back some attention that she has missed so much after coming back from Malaysia. In addition, we get to enjoy some good food cooked by Ryan. Although we feel sad (especially Jiayu who wants to follow her yi yi back) when they left on last Tuesday, it will be soon that we get to meet my sister again. See you Brisbane in 2 weeks time!

Back in Sydney

2011-01-10T09:28:00.000+11:00

After spending 4 weeks in Malaysia, I am finally back in Sydney since yesterday. Yesterday has been a very busy day for us with the unpacking, house cleaning and groceries shopping. I enjoy the nice weather but find that I lack my stamina in walking after driving around in cars for 4 weeks. Other than that, all my plants died due to a lack of watering during my absence. The first night back in Sydney also brings back my allergy with my nose completely blocked.

Back in my school today, it is also another busy day of desk cleaning, work scheduling and a round of catching up with colleagues. However, Jiayu doesn't share the same enthusiasm. Although she misses her friends in Sydney when she was back in Malaysia, she was crying when I left her this morning. It will take some time for her to get back to the old routine but she will definitely miss all the attentions she got in Malaysia. Not only her, I also feel a pang of sadness and miss the good days and everyone in Malaysia...

Back in Malaysia

2010-12-16T20:17:00.000+11:00

Having back in Malaysia since last Thursday, it has been a nice holiday staying at my parent's place in Sungai Petani. The weather is cooler than I expected, probably due to the rainy season. I have been finding every possible chances to eat out to enjoy hawker foods. So far I have managed to sample Penang laksa, kuay teow soup, hokien mee, char kuay teow, Jawa mee, curry mee and chicken rice. I still have a long food wish list and hopefully I can get to eat all of them before I leave for Sydney. Other than the food spree, I enjoy spending time with my family, including my brothers who came back from KL to sp over the last weekend. I have also met up with old friends and ex-colleagues, catching up with the latest gossips and news in town.

After being back for nearly a week, I can't help but to notice some stark differences between sp and sydney. Although eating out is very cheap in sp/penang, the groceries price is ridiculously expensive as compared to Sydney. I was shocked today when the groceries bill comes to RM70++ when I shopped in Tesco this morning. My groceries bill in Sydney has seldom reached that much and usually I can buy the same amount of stuff with less than $30. The language diversity is another scenario that I have missed in Sydney, with my incoherent Bahasa Malaysia after not speaking it for 1.5 years.

It should have been a perfect holiday with all the nice foods and family gathering, except that I have to finish my unfinished paper which is due soon. It is so hard to focus on work during holidaying and I hope my supervisor can understand that when he receives my overdue paper!

Counting down: 4 more days!

2010-12-05T15:25:00.000+11:00

We will be flying back to Penang next Thursday and our holiday moods have been kick-started with the packing this weekend. To help with the packing, I have drafted a list a long time ago (half year ago) and the list has been expanded since then. Initially the list only consists of souvenirs for family and friends. Eventually the list has expanded to include a to-do list of works that need to be done in Malaysia and a shopping list of things to be bought back to Sydney (I will be spending lots of $$$$ in the next 4 weeks time!).

On the other hand, the holiday mood is shadowed by my lack in progress in my planned tasks. I have only managed to complete all the planned experimental works but not my writings (thanks to the online novel reading!). I have only completed about 10% of the writings. I have not completed my intended literature review on another major scope of my research and I have not even started writing the conference paper that is due for submission on 15 Jan 11 (there is still another journal paper need to be written....arghhh)! I doubt I will be able to finish these writings by next Thursday but pray hard that miracle will happen!

Ready to go!

2nd degree?

2010-12-01T14:28:00.002+11:00

The semester has officially ended last week and it marks the end of the 4th semester for me. The end of the semester also signifies the beginning of the summer holiday, a 3-month break for all the undergraduates. At the same time, my office has also welcomed some temporary occupants who are summer scholars. These summer scholars are undergraduate students who are awarded summer scholarships to spend their summer doing some short term research work in the school. This summer scholarship program has been introduced since 3 years ago and it has managed to cultivate the research interests in the scholars resulting in many of them joining as PhD students upon their graduation.

What interests me is the quality of these summer scholars, with some of them so bright producing high quality works in such a short period of time. Among these scholars, I have met two who are pursuing their second bachelor degrees. Both of them share the same history with their first degree being a commerce degree and now pursuing civil engineering. They have worked in the industry before deciding that their interests is elsewhere. Knowing what they want they are more determined and focused as compared to others; and their efforts is evident in their results.

Looking at them, I try to put the same scenario in Malaysia. How many of us actually know what we want when we study our first degree (I know my answer as I want to be studying civil engineering since secondary school)? Will we go back to the university like the two summer scholars if we realise that we do not love our job? I know some friends who have made such choices, but how many would really made the switch after sinking into comfort zone after working for a few years? How about you?

Mythbuster : Only-child = lonely and selfish?

2010-11-27T23:46:00.003+11:00

I have never been so happy when I came across an article in The Time magazine today. The title of the article is Only-Child : Debunking the Myths. One particular sentence (along with many similar findings from other research mentioned in the article) that captures my attention is:

"No one, Falbo says, has published research that can demonstrate any truth behind the stereotype of the only child as lonely, selfish and maladjusted"
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2002382-2,00.html#ixzz16U4E7Qwj

To me, this sentence busts the myths that only-child is lonely and selfish, which happens to be the most common reason behind the choice of having a second child. There are also many other interesting findings about an only-child, such as higher intellectual and achievement in life.

It is also worth mentioning that parent often decides to have a second child because they think it is better for the first child. But will it make the parent happier especially in limited financial situation? I guess the choice of having one or more children is a personal decision, but it is always good to have an article debunking the myths to aid in the decision (it certainly reinforces mine)!

A famous only-child
(after http://www.elvis.com)

1 week early!

2010-11-26T14:30:00.001+11:00

I have been extremely lazy lately not only in blogging, but also in my research. Since weaning off Jiayu, I have more time than usual with no more night waking by her. However, I have indulged in this sudden freedom and wasted the valuable extra time by reading online novel rather than finishing off the piled up works before the xmas break. I have finally decided that it is time now for me to focus on clearing the unfinished work, the main reason being I will be going back to Malaysia a week earlier! With the change in the travel plan, this has resulted in a disruption in my research schedule. However, the mere thought of going back to Malaysia in less than 2 weeks time motivates me to finish my work! See you all soon!

告别奶妈生涯

2010-11-14T14:45:00.000+11:00

7/11/10 是我告别三年奶妈生涯的日子。自珈宇出生至今，坚持哺育母乳令我经历了不少酸甜苦辣。然而看着珈宇活潑健康的成长，这一切的辛劳都是值得的。好笑的是虽然才停止哺乳过了一周，我已开始怀念哺育母乳的日子。。。

Trip to Perth

2010-11-14T01:12:00.001+11:00

I have just came back from attending a conference in Perth a few days ago. At the same time, I also get to meet my family members and old friends. I was staying with my sister who has been sent by her company to work on a short-term project and my parents who were visiting her in Perth. The trip has been jam-packed as I tried to cut-short the days in Perth with yitping and jiayu being left behind in Sydney. I arrived on Sunday afternoon and the conference program began with a welcome reception on the same evening, and 8 am to 7.30 pm on Monday, 8am to 11pm on Tuesday with a gala dinner and 8am to 5.30 pm on the last day. It has been a fruitful trip to be able to meet lots of experts in my field. I also get to meet some of my old friends from NTU at the conference and a secondary schoolmate who has migrated to Perth on the last day in Perth. Most importantly, I came back with loads of goodies from Malaysia thanks to my parent who brought them all the way from Malaysia to Perth for me!

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First separation

2010-11-06T15:44:00.001+11:00

It will be the first separation for Jiayu and I tomorrow when I am leaving to Perth for a conference. To come back to Sydney as soon as possible, it will be a very tight schedule for me. The conference is from Monday to Wednesday and I will be flying back on Wednesday night itself. On the other hand, yitping seems relax as compared to me who keep on checking with him about his meal plan. I guess it will be a very good chance for him and Jiayu to taste all those forbidden food with a legal excuse!

Gone in days!

2010-10-31T18:13:00.000+11:00

Can you spot what are in the pot? They (5 of them!) devour my lettuce sprouts in a matter of days and it is too late when I notice them with the pitiful leafless stems ! I have lost my whole crop and the hope for organic supply of lettuce in a few weeks time is gone!

Dust or pollen?

2010-10-30T19:28:00.000+11:00

I have been asking myself this question lately: am I allergic to dust mite or pollen? I have been having itchy eyes and complete nose block since the beginning of spring. My nose block improves considerably after buying a nasal spray to treat hayfever. On the other hand, my itchy eyes still persist despite two visits to the doctors. It has been very annoying with the eyes getting very itchy after staring at the computer screen for only few hours. With my conditions getting worst this week, I went for my third doctor visit. The doctor explained that I am more susceptible to the allergen due to my very dry eye condition in addition to my existing sinus problem. The doctor advices me to go on eye drops several times per day to keep the eyes properly lubricated. I finally left the health centre with some free eye drops samples. Let's hope all the eye drops will improve my condition and I can focus on my long overdue reading again!

Another 'second' surprise!

2010-10-29T22:59:00.000+11:00

It seems that I have been really lucky with being 'second' lately. In addition to my last win at the AGS presentation, I have just won/share another 2nd prize in a school level event today. It is called Research Conversazione to showcase the research works of postgraduate and final year undergraduate students (using poster presentation) to the industry. It is a nice surprise winning the prize as I was not putting high hope. There are 22 entries and I have been putting my bets on the 3rd year PhD students that have produced lots of results. I guess my efforts to talk to everyone passing by my poster must have helped to some extent. Anyway, the good news is the prize comes with a certificate and most importantly a cash reward of $225 (extra money is always good!). I already start planning on how to spend the money although I am yet to get my hand on it!

PhD with kid!

2010-10-25T12:34:00.001+11:00

Yitping shares this comic with me yesterday. I can't help but to notice that we are off the chart with 2 PhD students and a kid! However, I have not regretted my decision. Doing PhD is just a job that get lesser pay but ended with a degree by the end of it! Anyway I guess the lesson to be learnt from the comic is anyone out there who is interested in doing a PhD should get married first (but don't choose a fellow PhD and it has to be a domestic partner that can handle all the household chores and take good care of you) so that you can finish earlier!

Spring time!

2010-10-17T13:44:00.000+11:00

It is now the middle of spring and it has been a good season for growing greens. My small garden has been benefited too from the wonderful weather, with lettuces sprouting and herbs booming. With the parsley overgrown to the verge of flowering, I finally find a way to consume the parsley in large quantity. As a result, I had tabbouleh for dinner yesterday. It is too bad that yitping and jiayu doesn't share my enthusiasm and I ended up the only one eating the freshly made salad!

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A complete family!

2010-10-13T10:03:00.001+11:00

With the arrival of C3PO the iPhone4 as a belated birthday present for Yitping (it has been out of stock for a while in Sydney), our Mac family is finally complete. Yitping has a long association with the Apple, from Yoda the Mac Mini, to Obiwan the MacBook, Amidala2 the iMac, Leia the iPodTouch and Quiygon the MacBook. One can't help but to notice his gadgets are all named after the characters in his favorite movie. Jiayu has been groomed young to love the Mac products, with her first computer being Cookie Monster the iMac and now Abby the iPad. Like father like daughter, she name all her gadgets after her favorite Sesame Streets characters. As for me, Yitping has tried very hard to convert me with some success. Although Obiwan now belongs to me, I have not fully maximise its potential other than enjoying some of the program such as iPhoto to edit photo. I will be getting the pass-me down Leia today and still thinking what can I do with it! Anyway, the arrival of C3PO also means 2 extra hours of part-time work per month to finance the purchase!

A wake up call!

2010-10-07T09:40:00.000+11:00

I have just given a talk at the school seminar yesterday with the audience consists of academician. It has been a 45 minutes talk with 15 minutes of Q & A. As compared to my last presentation at the AGS with mostly practitioners from the industry, I have been more worried. My fear came true as I have been bombarded with loads of questions throughout the presentation. There is no doubt that I have received a lot of constructive criticism and suggestions to improve my works. However, I felt so depressed after the presentation as I don't think I have been able to answer all the questions. I feel that I have not understood my work for the past 2 years! Anyway, it is a wake up call for me that I have to work harder from now. I guess I will have to test myself again soon by doing another presentation. 加油！

Super busy!!!

2010-10-01T10:43:00.001+10:00

It is semester break this week for the university. Although this signifies the completion of my tutoring, I have been extremely busy for the past few weeks with lots of deadlines to meet. I have to prepare for a presentation scheduled for the school seminar series next Wednesday and two posters to made for conferences by mid of October. In addition, the annual progress review is coming with the report due soon and the interview in early November. I have also 2 more papers being planned and need to get them written before going back to Malaysia in December (although it sounds far away, but I already start counting down the days and clearing all the works). How I wish I have extra time to finish all these works....in the middle of all these, yitping has been away in Narrabi....

3D, 4D, 5D?

2010-09-16T21:27:00.001+10:00

I was attending a Civil Engineering Foundation Governance Lecture today where the speaker is the principal of Arup. Arup is one of the big civil engineering firms in the industry and has branches all over the world. The presentation focuses on the current technology used in civil engineering design and I feel like 'katak bawah tempurung' after listening to the talk. The presenter showcased a lot of interesting projects undertaken by the company including the Aldar Headquarters in Abu Dhabi, Water Cube in Beijing and many more. It seems that the era of manual and 2D drafting is almost over, with most of the designs produced using 3D modeling. The speaker even talks about 4D and 5D drawing (the 4th D for timeline and the 5th D for costing). It is the age of computing and numerical simulations and those without the skills will be left behind. I can't help but to compare what I have learned in my undergraduate courses and the current expectation of an international employer. I feel sad that we are so far behind with the out of date content and no significant effort has been done to improve the situation (you can tell from the ever-dropping university ranking). Can we really 'Boleh' other than in the self-proclaimed land?

Hari Raya Open House

2010-09-11T18:53:00.002+10:00

Malaysia Hall Sydney is having a Hari Raya Open House today. Not to miss the scrumptious Malaysian food, we joined in the fun together with another Malaysian friend. The event is between 1 to 5 pm and we reached there promptly at 1pm. We feel so much at home with the loud Raya songs and festive atmosphere surrounding the building. There is already a small crowd at that time and we started our feast with a wide variety of food ranging from nasi pulut with beef rendang, nasi minyak with ayam masak merah, satay, nasi impit & kuah kacang, lemang & dalca, laksa penang, bihun goreng, soto ayam & roti canai, various kuih muih, biskut raya, drinks, fruits, rojak buah, lai chi kang, etc. My favorite is the nasi pulut with beef rendang and lai chi kang. On the other hand, Jiayu loves satay very much! After several rounds of top-ups, we finally left with very round stomach and happy smiles on our faces!

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A nite and a prize!

2010-09-08T22:25:00.000+10:00

I have just came back from presenting at the AGS (Australian Geomechanics Society) Young Geotechnical Professional's Night. This has been an event calling for all young geotechnical professionals in Sydney to submit their works and four finalists (two from industry and two from university) have been selected to present their works tonight. As one of the four selected participants, I am the third presenter tonight to present my research. As I have not been presenting for a long time, I have been nervous on stage and did not get the first prize of $500. But the good news is, I manage to share the second prize with another presenter. I am still unsure the amount of the prize but it has been a great night out for me!

Arts in Civil Engineering

2010-09-04T22:09:00.001+10:00

What can you guess about the course content of a course named 'Civil Engineering Design'? Well, the one that I have attended in UTM involved design of civil engineering infrastructure (sanitary & plumbing, highway, building etc.). To my amazement, the same course here in USyd involves introduction of arts in civil engineering! One of the assignments involve producing an oil painting including a writing on your feelings behind the painting. Another assignment involves writing an essay about the motif behind a sculpture on displayed at the annual 'sculpture by the sea' event at Bondi Beach. In addition, the students also get to visit the Art Gallery of NSW. How cool is that!

All the oil paintings being displayed in the conference room

Can you guess which one is my favorite?

A healthier choice?

2010-09-04T21:17:00.001+10:00

This is what I bought back from my groceries shopping trip today. We have been switching from canola or peanut oil to olive oil as cooking oil lately. I am not sure whether it is a healthier choice but it is certainly more costly!

It is spring!

2010-09-01T15:29:00.000+10:00

Today marks the arrival of Spring. I embrace the news happily as this signifies warmer weather in coming days. On the other hand, it reminds me that I have not much time left to finish my study as this is my second Spring in Sydney. Time flies so fast...I can't think but to wonder...人生能有几个春天？

University Open Day

2010-08-28T17:51:00.000+10:00

Today is the open day for high school leavers for the three universities in Sydney City, the University of Sydney, UTS and University of Notre Dame . As Yitping is helping out in his school's booth, I decide to take the chance to join in the Open day. There is not much crowd when we arrived at 10.30am and we decided to had our morning tea before Yitping started his duty at 11am. Yitping is manning a telescope observing the sun and jiayu and I get to watch it and its sunspot. Jiayu and I also get to watch some locusts at the School of Biological Scienes booth. I got to listen to a very interesting explanation about the use of locust in obesity research. After Yitping finishing his duty, we went for our usual groceries shopping trip at Broadway shopping center before going home.

月圆吃月饼

2010-08-23T19:15:00.000+10:00

I saw this when I went for my groceries shopping in Ashfield yesterday. It is on special and costs only $10 for 4x double yoke white lotus paste mooncakes. Not wanting to miss the good deal, I grab a box as it is yitping's favorite. Although it is a month away from the mooncake festival, we can't resist but to sample a mooncake tonight under the full moon!

Stove story

2010-08-21T18:36:00.000+10:00

While I am cooking dinner just now, suddenly I realize that I have been doing electric cooking all this while. I have been using an induction cooker even back then in Penang. I find an induction cooker attractive as it is efficient, safe and space saving as compared to a gas stove. It heats up very quickly and there is no fire danger as a timer can be set for slow cooking. In addition, no gas cylinder is required saving additional storage space. The only drawback is that the induction cooker only works on stainless steel cookware with flat bases. Those that are use to wok will find it hard to switch to a flat frying wok.

After arriving at Sydney, pretty much we don't have any control over the choice of kitchen stove as we are renting. However, we have been using electric stoves as most units are equipped with electric stoves and houses are equipped with gas stove here. However, my experiences with the electric stoves here is less than satisfying, with the electric coil type at my previous unit and the hot plate type at my current unit. These electric stoves are inefficient that take a long time to heat up and cool down after use. I especially dislike the electric coil type in which the coil might break when too much force is applied during cooking.

Due to the small kitchen I have in Sydney, I have also switched my cooking wares from the heavy and big stainless steel Buffalo pots (that were shipped from Malaysia early last year) to the light and small Ikea pots that I bought when I just arrived at Sydney. Occasionally I will still take the Buffalo pots out for some special dish but most of the time they remain in storage. However, there has been very little use of them these days after the arrival of the Buffalo Magic Cooker that is multipurpose and versatile. Let's hope we get to move to somewhere with a bigger kitchen in future and I get to enjoy these beautiful cookware again!

The hotplate stove with the Ikea pot on it

The buffalo pots deep in storage

Black beef rendang

2010-08-08T19:18:00.001+10:00

With Jiayu's latest obsession with a podcast called Poh's Kitchen, we have learned a lot of recipes. Poh is an Aussie with Malaysia heritage and she went back to learn some Malaysian cuisines in the past few episodes. I was salivating when I watched an episode where she co-chef with Chef Ismail to cook the famous Penang black beef rendang. I can still remember vividly the mouth-watering black beef rendang that we used to buy during the ramadan bazaar at Permatang Pauh. The ingredients are simple and off I went to Paddy market yesterday to shop for the ingredients yesterday. There is no problem at all for me to gather all the ingredients including fresh curry leaves and gula Melaka. With great anticipation I cooked the dish for our dinner tonight that took an hour and half to finish. Too bad the rendang is not as black as it is supposed to be and Yitping thinks that there is too much mints in it. Anyway it is a good attempt and I will sure to try it again soon!

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Something about flu

2010-08-07T13:13:00.000+10:00

Getting flu and colds is pretty common here especially during the change of seasons. Jiayu and I have been regular victims last year but have been lucky this year until this week. Usually my flu is stress-induced and caused by the fatigue after taking care of the sick little one. The warning sign is always the tickle in the throat and it is not too late to fend off the flu at this stage. I have discovered some ways to combat the flu including some tips from friends and websites.

Tip 1: Take high dose of Vitamin C (at least 1000mg). The soluble type is the fastest to act.
Tip 2: Drink plenty of fluid. My youngest sister recommends drinking steaming hot honey+lemon and then bury yourself under blanket to induce sweating. I found out that Manuka Honey works wonder for me.
Tip 3: Plenty of sleep. Stop thinking about work!

If all the above fails and you are still down with flu, you will just need to rest and depend on panandol! Forget about seeing a doctor (unless your fever doesn't go away in 3 days) as this will be the same advice you get!

Election! Election!

2010-08-06T11:10:00.001+10:00

Australia is going to have its Federal election in another 2 weeks time on 21 August. Being the first time witnessing an election in Australia, I can't help but to compare the differences between Malaysia and Australia. The most noticeable difference is the missing of the party flags that decorate the streets. I still can remember the last by-election in Permatang Pauh where I lived in which the streets are literally covered with maze of flags. The next difference is obviously the two-party system in Australia with the Labor and Liberal party holding almost equivalent seats in the House as compared to the almost-majority by BN (not sure whether this is going to be the case in the next election) in Malaysia. There is also a open debate between the party leaders as compared to none in Malaysia (maybe except the debate between Lim Guan Eng & Koh Tsu Koon but I would love to see a debate between the top two instead). There is also equal amount of advertisements on media from both parties as compared to Malaysia.

It will be exciting to see who will win the coming election. Although I have no right to vote, I am supporting the first woman PM Julia Gillard from the Labor party. She seems to be smarter in my opinion but I am not sure others share the same. One of my aussie colleagues think both parties are equivalent useless and it is just hard trying to pick a better candidate from the two. Anyway, I can't wait to see the next general election in Malaysia and hopefully I can be back to cast my vote for a better Malaysia!

Another new semester

2010-07-26T18:42:00.000+10:00

Today is the beginning of another new semester for the University. This signifies the beginning of a very busy 6-week for me. The first week is particularly tough with yitping currently away in Caltech attending a workshop. As usual I am earning some extra $$ by tutoring soil mechanics lab. Although I am tutoring more hours this year as compared to last, there is not much preparation work due to the accumulated experience. However I do feel a need to find more time for my research as I am now halfway through my candidature. I have been busy redefining my scopes of work and realize that I have so much more to work on in order to graduate on time. There are more publications to be written, not to mention the 3 scheduled presentations till the end of the year. I am however happy with a better sense of purpose as compared to the first half of the year. Let's hope all works well with smooth sailing months ahead!

Raynaud's phenomenon

2010-07-20T16:13:00.000+10:00

What's that? It is a medical term that I learnt today when I visited a doctor. My toes have been swollen from time to time for the past few weeks. The condition usually worsen after I stay inmobile for a while such as sitting in front of my pc for a few hours. I finally decided to see a doctor this morning when I was limping due to the unbearable needle-picking pain yesterday afternoon. I was in fear that it might be gout (I skipped my chocolate drink yesterday because of that!) or arthritis but am relieved that it is just raynaud's phenomenon. The condition usually happens in woman according to the doctor due to insufficient blood circulation to the body part involved under extreme cold condition. The solution? Woolen socks!

Happy grilling!

2010-07-17T16:44:00.000+10:00

It has been a month full of moving sales and give away by yitping's colleagues. We have grabbed some bargains including a free electric griller. We decided to give it a try this morning with grill beef sausage and toast as our breakfast. It is a successful attempt with juicy and nice sausages. However, it takes some patience to clean it and I have to reshuffle my kitchen cabinet for the newcomer. Anyway, we decide to fully utilize the griller and next on the menu will be grilled chicken breast!

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Lazy....

2010-07-11T13:55:00.000+10:00

I have been lazy to blog for the past few weeks. Work is not particularly busy as it is currently semester break in the University and it has been extremely quiet in the campus. However, it is going to be momentary peace before the hectic new semester starts in 2 weeks time. As before, I will be taking up tutoring for the first 6 weeks but with higher work load this year of 8 hours/week. With less time for research in the next semester, I hope to finish as much work as possible in the coming weeks with the top of the list of completing writing a paper. At the same time, July has been a month full of traveling for Yitping with him currently away in Narrabi and his impending US trip coincides with the first week of the semester reopening. Let's hope Jiayu will be corporative and a smooth week for me ahead!

To infinity and beyond!

2010-07-04T10:08:00.000+10:00

Jiayu has started to watch movies at home with good concentration. She is able to finish the movie in one-go and among her favorites are Toy Story and Finding Nemo. Therefore, we decided to go for our first family movie outing yesterday to watch Toy Story 3 at the nearest cinema in Broadway shopping centre. The price of a ticket is $17.50/adult and $15/concession. Jiayu doesn't need a ticket as child below 3 is given free entry. The cinema is free seating and we are lucky to be early to pick the best seating for us. There is plenty of space and leg room between row of seats. One observation is the cinema here is much more baby friendly. Booster seat is provided for the little ones so that they can sit higher with unobstructed views. In fact the whole cinema is filled with parents with young children (I even spot some babies). Jiayu also met her friend, Avier from her nursery who is also having his first movie experience. With the first successful movie outing, there will be more to come!

'Chinese' English

2010-06-27T08:55:00.000+10:00

In addition to my research works, I have been trying to find time to improve my English. It has been an eye-sore for David (my supervisor) when he is editing my papers (can't help it when you have a native speaker supervisor graduated from Cambridge U). He said he has no problem understanding my writing but I will have to learn to write good english. One of his comments is that I have been making typical mistakes made by Asian non-native speakers, a.k.a Chinese English. My main problem is my inability to spot these errors (else I would not have made these mistakes in the first place). I am aware that I am particularly weak in preposition but it seems the problem is more than that.

I have tried different approaches including seeking help from an expert at the University Learning Centre. After assessing my writing, the expert says I do not have a big issue but it can't be solved overnight. Apparently my main problem is the missing of article (a/an/the) which is a common problem spotted in 'Chinese' English. I was given a self-learning module to work on the issue. Although I have finished the module, there is still not much improvement. David then suggests me to visit a website called TheWriteSite. I benefit a lot from going through the module and exercises. I am yet to finish all modules but I have realized now that I have additional issue with run-on sentence. Another suggestion by David is to read novel; classics to be exact as I have been reading a lots of fiction and romance in the past (which clearly is not helping). I guess it is time for me reread those classics and put Abby the iPad into good use by downloading free iBooks....Charles Dickens, Jane Austen..here I come!

Disappointing malaysian food

2010-06-26T15:45:00.000+10:00

We discovered a Malaysian restaurant near Broadway shopping centre a while ago and decided to give it a try during our groceries shopping today. The food is quite pricey and we ordered nasi lemak and char kuay teow ($10 & $9.50 respectively). To our disappointment, the food is not as tasty as we have imagined. I guess we will just have to wait until year end to taste authentic malaysian food when we are back in Malaysia for holiday.

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End of financial year sales

2010-06-21T21:32:00.001+10:00

Contrary to Malaysia with year end as the end of financial year, Australia's end of financial year is on 30 June. Taking advantage of the stock-take sales, I have been busy drafting my wish list. Check out my latest bargain of a 14-piece mini blender/grinder/juicer at $20. With the blender, there will be sambal ikan bills on the meal platter this weekend!

A weekend of nice food

2010-06-20T21:05:00.000+10:00

As it is 端午节 a few days ago, we decide to have 棕子 for breakfast when we go to Chatswood for our groceries shopping today. We had the meal at a HongKi restaurant, a hidden gem that we discover a while ago. The breakfast menu is yummy at an attractive price. I ordered the set of 皮蛋粥＋肠粉＋油条 while Yitping ordered the set of 牛肉粥＋咸水棕. Jiayu's favorite is the 肠粉 and she kept asking for more.

Back at home from the groceries shopping, we decide to cook Beef stroganoff for dinner. I have been inspired by a reality cook show on tv called Masterchef that I get hooked on recently. The dish is the subject of a 'pressure test' where one of the top ten contestants was eliminated. Although missing two ingredients (brandy & beef stock), we go ahead with the dish. I am not sure what rating will we get with the dish but it is a good weekend of nice food for us!

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if..else if...end!

2010-06-18T18:43:00.000+10:00

I have been cracking my head for the past few days trying out my newly acquired skill in MATLAB. I have never been good with programming. My only ancient experience was Fortran programming that I have learnt during my undergraduate studies. I have always wanted to learn programming ever since I started my academic career but with fruitless result due to my lack of determination (the proof being the visual basic book that has been collecting dust for the past few years).

Anyway, I finally make up my mind early this year when I have to do repetitive analysis using Excel that takes up so much of my time (even with the use of macro). I decided to sit in a MATLAB introductory course for the first year engineering students. I have no problem blending in with the hundred over students in a big lecture hall and it has been fun looking at those innocent and young faces (a pang of nostalgia as well..missing the old school days). I finally complete the course 2 weeks ago and decide to test my knowledge by writing simple program (other than asking the pc to display "hello world!" during the first lesson). Well, writing the script is pretty fast but the debugging takes forever.....

If the program is working
I can sleep now
Else If I will have to wake up in the middle of the night
to solve the issue
Else
Yitping will have to help to debug and I get to sleep
End

风水轮流转！

2010-06-14T16:36:00.000+10:00

Yitping was commenting that our unit is very cold as compared to our previous unit in Stanmore. I can't help but agree. Probably that has something to do with the 3 balconies although we keep the door closed all the time. I guess the main reason is the north facing of the unit which gives us little sunshine as compared to the East facing of the Stanmore unit. We used to enjoy some morning sun during the cold winter last year but not as lucky this round. Anyway this has reminded me about our house in Prai which is West facing. West facing house is not exactly desirable in Malaysia with the hot and humid weather all year round. We have to keep the curtain down after 2pm as the afternoon sun starts to invade the living room and master bedroom. However, west facing house can be a selling point here. You can always see 'plenty of sun all year round' highlighted in the house rental or sales advertisements. In fact Jiayu and I are now sitting in front of the balcony savoring whatever little sunshine that we can find before it is gone....sigh...no wonder those ang moh love sun bathing...

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Winter warmers

2010-06-13T17:52:00.000+10:00

The temperature has been dropping fast since entering winter. Other than a change in the wardrobe, our meal menu has also been affected. My current favorite is hot and steamy soup while Yitping craves for hot curry. These dishes seem to make one feels warmer during a cold day. I also found out that I tend to drink less water during winter as the water is icy cold (the water will cool down super fast after being boiled for a while). In fact I tend to get 'heaty' problem more often during winter than summer. However, that does not deter me from cooking "Bat Kut Teh" tonight and the proposed meal plan for tomorrow will be beef rendang!