A Bed of Strawberries =9

7/17/2011

I'm back in one piece! :3

Have been away for three days and the enjoyment was indescribable! :]]]

Went to Murray River Cruise with my whole lifegroup and everything was laid perfectly ahead of us. Thank God!!! The best weather, best events, best boat, best activities, best sceneries, best people all in one! Had never felt so good this long. And I really mean it.

First we all gathered at our lifegroup leader's house on Friday night and started off our journey with four cars that evening. We reached our destination after 4 hours of ride (just imagine travelling from KL to Penang roughly that long) and our butts are literally freezing cold due to the super cold weather but *I like it*! I wore like my ai-xin long light peach coat that was bought by my beloved mother from wintertime and puffed up like jigglypuff (not as cute as her *winkwink*) but I feel super warm.

Reached Wilkaden at approx 12midnight after we unpacked everything onto the boat. We were greeted by this cute dog called Murray, hence named after the river. I heard the place was 4-stars and indeed it was in tiptop condition, clean boat and great facilities. Not to mention everything is on the boat from dishwasher to BBQ pit. Really 设备齐全！Luckily we also have heater to survive the night. The weatherman mentioned that this place reaches zero degrees at night. Brrrr.....r....r..

That night was dark and everything seems gloomy not until we woke up the next morning. WOAH! The sccceeeennnerrrryyy caught our attention like woahh.. (All pictures coming up and let them speak for me)

This is the first photo I took when I woke up in the morning.

Went to the top floor of the boat that we were in.

Did Titanic Signature Pose too :P

I brushed and made breakfast for the people which is mushroom soup and garlic bread. After that 15 of us took turns to drive the boat ourselves. It was great fun! =)

The organizer and his girlfriend.

I am glad that I can drive the boat for around half an hour around the river. After that we had BBQ on the boat which was quite exciting. The wind was blowing strong and we were digging into our barbecued chicken and sausages.

The four people that helped to BBQ. I only helped for awhile as I was busy driving the boat at that time so didn't take photo.

The clear water that we can even see the mud underneath it.

My housemates that ate happily outside the balcony of the boat. I was taking this picture while driving the boat. =P

The ones sitting inside the boat.Only my lifegroup leader looked at my camera. I was still driving the boat so I'm not inside. LOL

Came up the boat to visit a local BEER factory. It was only this big but has produced quite a lot-of-beer. Drank some to try and it was not bad but I'm not in the place to say because I never drink. Haha

Freshly made beer pumped out from here. The end product.

This place was used to shed sheep's skin once upon a time and now turned into a beer factory.

The place and the logo of the beer =)

I even took photos of the 4 cars that didn't let us down. <3

After BBQing we continue to enjoy the scenery as we drove around the place. I even get a chance to throw a canoe into the water and start to row about. Damn fun!!!! Did it with 3 other friends! And it was absolutely free!

We sat about and watch the sunset. It was super breathtaking. Never had a chance to see this.
Wish I can do this all over again with my family members.

A silly idea by the organizer. We sat by the heater and BBQ marshmellows and it did work.
TASTE AWESOME TOO! >.<

We went to this nearby Rose Garden (which was not in season but has Sakura Trees instead which have Beautiful Sakura Flowers). MY look so pretty with one on her hair! And it was my idea *winkwink*

This person also wanted to try and look gay-ish. HAHAHAHA! =P (his idea horr?)

My housemate's sister looking out the garden.

There was this silly guy stuck on the ground near the boat so many of us took picture of him. Here, two retards. HAH!
*I just noticed one of the scary fellow's finger broke* Terrifying. I wonder if he can glow in the dark at night.

Our organizer is also our photographer.
Wonder when will he post all the wonderful pictures up since he is so busy with current work.

We also went to visit some local fruit farms nearby.
This place was packed with oranges. And it was quite big and smell SWEET like Sweeeetsss!! <3

Millions of oranges around. REALLY A LOT.

See!!! And super ripe and orange loh..=3=

The last day we went to eat lunch in Renmark Club which was 102 years old and still look like new. Really new. I think they had refurbished the place not long ago. This is the free SALAD BAR and I'm really into salads lately *been hating them so far haha*

The super big burger which is as tall and big as my hand. I cant even carry it up with one hand but both. Mouth cant fit. (Not my dish so didn't care! Blek =P

MINE MINE MINE!!! (You really need to get use of my attitude) =3 Garfish and Chips Yummie!!
Never had so fresh fish for so long.

My friend's Tandoori Chicken Wrap. Can't wrap it also due to the big portion of stuff in it.

The Delicious Banana Split. It was long time ago since I had my last banana. It was used to be 1.99 Aus dollars last year until not it raised to 11.99 Aus dollars per kg this year due to the Queensland Flood early in this year. I do love bananas but can't afford them. They are even more expensive than chicken, lamb and beef altogether! :(((

The 102 year-old club.

Doesn't really look like 102 years of anniversary to me.

Went over to Banrock Station and tried Riverland Wines.
Bought 2 bottles of Sweet Wine. How I love them. Just reallly taste like sparkling juice.
Shall bring them back to Malaysia soon. Moscato and Frizzante!

The Banrock Station View as we walked onto the balcony. Had no time to explore the rest of the place as we were heading back to Adelaide.

Aww....I didn't get to post every single picture that I took and some that was not uploaded yet. I guess it was this experience that was felt within the heart, the peacefulness and calmness where even internet, phone and virtual entertainment were cut off and opened our eyes to see the awesome world God has created for us. I do love this holiday trip dearly. Shall go there once more if I had another chance.

How was your winter holiday?

7/15/2011

Trip for 3 days 2 nights

Off to the trip that I've been harping about. Take care and keep warm people =)

BRB in a few days. <3

7/11/2011

Running away from Reality

A lot of my friends asked why did I not go back to Malaysia and support the Bersih 2.0 event that was held last Saturday.
For your information, I did only pass by a park near my place where there are this group of young people that were supporting Bersih with everyone wearing yellow holding banners and all. However there is not much sign of stress yet so calm and peaceful. ~~*no polis mah*~~ I admit was too timid so I sat in the bus and stare at them from a distance after I went grocery shopping.

I came across the funny angry birds picture that very much describe this situation back in Malaysia.

Fat pigs: Policemen
Yellow: Supporters of Bersih 2.0
I hate the sleeping pig most! :/ :/

I guess Malaysia is the worse place to be in right now. And I pray and hope that God will turn this around *although it's very hard to do so* Friends, do be aware of this and keep praying.

Fair election is our future. And our future generations depend on us.

7/10/2011

Next Stop Japanese CheeseCake

Ingredients:
140g/5 oz. fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
50g/2 oz. butter
250g/9 oz. cream cheese
100 ml/3 fluid oz. fresh milk
1 tbsp. lemon juice
60g/2 oz. cake flour /superfine flour
20g/1 oz. cornflour (cornstarch)
1/4 tsp. salt

Instructions:
1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, the cornflour, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.

2. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.

3. Add the cheese mixture to the egg white mixture and mix well. Pour into a 8-inch round cake pan (Lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper).

4. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hours 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160 degrees C (325 degrees F).

Makes 1 (8-inch) cheesecake, 12 servings.

Did my research and there's super lot of best review about this recipe. Gonna try it out this Tuesday! If you're free, try it too! :3

Related Clicks: Step by Step Photo Recipe, Got this from here, Baked CheeseCake

I know what you're thinking

I know what you're thinking. Is this a food blog or what? Hmm.. I shall answer that question.

It has been quite many posts that I've been posting about food and pastries/ desserts. The reason is that I've got nothing better to do lately than to be an ah Soh..Since I spent my time cooking, baking and eating. Simple life and of course the worse is that my tummy starts bulging abit. Just a lil bit. =/

Anyway, holiday is to relax and enjoy, agree? How can we, Malaysians not eat to relax, right?right? *winkwink*

Don't sigh at this post because what I am about to show you is last night's dinner and its about food AGAIN. =9

I didn't go out much lately since the weather is terrible (rain and rain and rain and...) and winter is here so I rather be cozy at home than to go out and freeze.

The only thing that I'm really looking forward is my Boat Trip organized by my lovely lifegroup to Murray River for 3 days next Friday to Sunday. *cant wait!!!!* There will be so much time to fellowship and enjoy the wonderful scenery there whilst of course, delicious food!! (bbq, town hopping, fishing and much more..) Shall blog about it when I come back from that trip *yay* (n.n)v

Oh ya, last night's dinner! =D Only managed to grab a few pictures since everyone started digging into them as we are all hungry bungry :9 Greedy people..haha O.o Just kidding =P

By someone special <3

Spinach with Seafood Special.

By my housemate.

Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs.

Sorry about the blur picture. It is caused by the steam coming out from the dish :P

The one and only. Moi! =3

Spicy Sesame Squid Special.

Now only I realise our dishes has a lot of S in them. =.=0

What a coincidence!

I am glad that I can cook many more dishes than I thought I could.

Who wants to taste them?

Hehehe!

7/08/2011

Aus Vs Mas Part I

1. The Awe-so-mous Shaker Pencil

Remember the first time we discover this Pilot Shaker Pen and say "WOAH" You shake and It pops out!
That was long time ago perhaps even more than 10 years I reckon'. But in fact, many or most Australians are so fascinated when we shake that thing. They were like "OMG..that is sooooooooo coooooooooool".

2. The Weirdest Advertisements

Click to view one this LAME AUSTRALIAN ADS link!

Malaysian advertisement is always so interesting and appealing however we have been ~~cursing~~ "enjoying" the noisy and ~~entertaining~~ boring advertisements here in Australia. The love to shout in allll of their advertisements. SALE SALE SALE SALE blahblahblah *screamed into our speakers* then they will go super fast speed in their speech and end them like so suddenly..OMG..Can't you do better than that? Or even make something more creative? Sometimes, what they do is purely HAMSAP and makes no sense. wth. That's the worse. Most of the time my housemates and I will be like "what's that gonna do with this? O,o *stunned*

I MISS

3. The ~~Doughnuts~~ Bagels

Finally bought one today and tried it after looking at them so long hanging on the rack in the shop. It was the last bagel and I wanted to try them so badly because it really shaped like a doughnut but apparently have a very different taste. Never really have chance to taste the rest but it's much cheaper than the actual cinnamon doughnut that they sell back in Malaysia. Here's a picture.

Blueberry Bagel

Look at the texture. It's quite hard like bread and the blueberry smell is just running through your senses when you are about to bite it. I think it does not taste as good as doughnuts but maybe I didn't get to taste it HOT. Shall add some melted butter on it. =D

4. The Transportation

I admit most of the time in Malaysia my butt spends half the day sitting in the car seat while my legs placed on the car mat. However, this is not the case in Australia. My feet are constantly moving/walking around that's why I know my leg calves are getting stronger each day *not a good thing I guess* since muscular legs are not fit for ~~women~~ females.

Not a good thing in my opinion.

Nicer right? =3

Anywaysss, beauty is not everything but health is. So I bet I can have a healthier lifestyle here compared to the rest of the Malaysians that travel by car A LOT. The transportation (buses, trams) here are super efficient. 5 min means 5 min or even earlier. *when will Malaysia learn to be punctual?* tsk tsk tsk.

5. The Popcorn

You know how we use to crave for popcorn everytime we get pass by TGV or GSC. Here in Australia, Malaysians just got to stop eating popcorn because they will cause high blood pressure. There's too much salt in popcorn. Imagine that! :( Maybe some of you might prefer salty popcorn but I hate them! Really hate. Caramel popcorn I MISS YOU THISSSSSSSSSSSSSSS much. And for all of you that is going to leave Malaysia for studies overseas, better eat them before you miss them. I got to make my own popcorn in the microwave and add caramel myself *sad case* =(