Last Tuesday, I bought a new hard drive and finally have somewhere to offload all that data!
It’s a 1.5 TB Seagate :) and ready to be filled!
Cyclone Olga died on its way to the coast... over where I live, we didn't get much rain at all but up north it rained all day. We also got a thunderstorm in the middle of last night that woke me up. she will continue to spread her ex cyclonic rain over north QLD now lol
In the middle of last week (wed) Cyclone Neville was around but he got downgraded to a tropical low/ex cyclone on Thursday. Then cyclone Olga came along yesterday. She is expected to hit Cairns at 7pm tonight.
Today we go out for noodle soup in the morning for brunch with my uncle, auntie, dad, AL, GL, KL, ML, AT and T. You get to pick out of curry or just plain soup and what kind of noodles you want; thin, thick, egg or rice. Every bowl gets a few vegies and fish balls and in a separate bowl, you fill it with your choice of stuffed vegies and they cook them up for you. This bowl gets placed in the middle of the table for everyone to share. Some of the vegies available are; stuffed red chillies (the long ones, so aren't all that hot), stuffed eggplant and okra. There were also some deepfried items.
the vegies. In the back, where you see a silver cylinder, is full of boiling water and is where the fishballs get made.
garnishes
Later on, my sisters dad and I catch a train to go to one of my uncle’s house for the day. Later, we have dinner with few other uncles and aunties and cousins then head off .
Dad goes home and we meet up with AL, KL, GL, KE, and T at some markets at about 10-ish. I can’t remember the name of them but they are KL’s longest market and we don’t finish them XD instead we stop by a little restaurant for some refreshments. There’s a selection of desserts and fruit juice and soft drinks. I get ais kacang. :)
Baby deepfried crabs from the market. They weren't that good, just really crunchy with not much flavour
View of the markets
Ais kacang
Thursday 03 December 2009
After a breakfast of frog congee, noodles and vegies etc. we go to the Batu Caves. There are 272 steps and lots of monkeys lol. My auntie and AL don’t go up cos they’ve done it before and it was also a hot sunny day. My sisters, dad, uncle and GL go up though.
at the bottom
At the top
We were going to go to Malacca today, but once we finished with the Batu Caves, it was about 2pm and seeing as driving there would take 2 hours, it wasn’t going to be worth it. So instead we just go home and on the way, we get some fresh coconuts cut up for us at a street stall we drove past.
Friday 04 December 2009
We have breakfast out…the longest breakfast of ever, it takes a total of 5 hours because the place we are going to is far away and there is also a traffic jam. Malaysia traffic jams are awful!!
In the afternoon, we go to the supermarket with my auntie and AL, they are quite different to the supermarkets in Aus, firstly for poultry and fish, none of it is prepacked so you grab you own instead of asking for them at the deli. There is also a sushi section which is quite popular. They also have several different flavours of Ribena there and a little section of dried fruits and stuff.
Chicken
Fish
Sushi
After that, we go to the pet shop to find a new toy for AL’s dog and there you can buy sugargliders as pets as well as some other animals I've never heard of like Syrians which look like little rodents and Winter Dwarfs. Speaking of unusual pets, my cousin KL, (same initials as Kuala Lumpar lol) has a pet hedgehog, it’s so cute, it fits in the palm of one of your hands…aww, I didn’t get any photos of it tho :(
Winter dwarf: they look like tiny furry balls. lol
Saturday 05 December 2009
Today, we are doing more shopping with AL and GL, poor GL, so bored being dragged around by girls all day. In the morning we go to some boutiques then head to the shopping centre later on in the afternoon. Here is when GL gets less bored I hope as we are on the lookout for some ties and a belt for him.
afternoon drink, tea in a can...kinda confuses you at first because you think it'll be fizzy but it's not XD
We have dinner at home and head out that night with the cousins. After a late night roti, we go home and sleep :)
Sunday 06 December 2009
Lazy day. We pack and chill at home. We head to the airport at about 6-ish… our flight is at 9:40pm. There is enough time to have dinner at the airport before we have to board. Then it’s off back to Australia.
Roadtrip #2: to the
About 2 hours later, we have reached our pit stop, Ipoh, where we stop for yum cha lunch and get some of the famous ‘Ipoh White Coffee.'
Durians were also bought….many many durians. I like durian, but 17 is just way too many for 16 people. And... they were put into our car (for those of who don’t know, durians have a very strong smell) so the entire car pretty much smelt like durian!
We reach the hotel in the afternoon and have some durian, mangosteen and some other food. At about 4;30 a group of us are off to explore cactus valley, I’ve never seen so many cactuses in one place before in my life! haha
durian and a rice cracker
Mangosteen
For dinner, we have steamboat. Yummm. Then we head to the markets. There we buy some souvenirs and more food. I especially liked this crepe thing with peanuts. It was like really thin crepe folded over into a 'u' shape and lined with peanuts and is really crunchy.
Steamboat!
The markets
Tuesday 01 December 2009
We wake up early-ish again and drive up a mountain to reach the Boh Tea Centre where we have breakfast. Then we go on the quick tour, like 10 minutes, of the tea factory and learn how tea is made. Lots of tea was also bought from the shop there :)
View from the tea centre
At the tea factory
After that, we go to the Rose Centre where they have lots of absolutely beautiful flowers. The centre was built on a hill so there were lots of stairs to climb up and down. Unfortunately it started raining so we decided to climb back down, not before some nice shots of the view where we stopped climbing, we probably weren't even half way up, there were so many more stairs!
After this, we leave Cameron and have a late lunch/early dinner at a little seafood shop that is about 2 hours away from KL.
We arrive back in KL at about 8pm ish and Mrs Chiyoko and her daughter leave back for Japan.
Happy New Year everyone!!! Hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday!
A new year and a new decade, last decade was the 2000s or ‘oohs’ as some people called them, what is this decade going to be named; the 2010s, the ‘tens’ hmmm, lets wait and see who names them shall we?
I’m not really a “News Year’s Resolution” kind of person, I’ve never actually made any before but this year, I figured I’d give them a shot and make a list and see how I go with accomplishing all of them. It’s not an extensive list and the things on it aren’t really that hard to accomplish, they just take motivation, like most things in life.
Am not listing them here, instead they are written in my notebook, so I’ll read them pretty much everyday as a reminder lol
Best of luck to everyone who has made some in achieving them by the year’s end. :)
