Mountain Hiking

28/6/2012

I've been calling for an outing by one of my best friends in secondary school- Cheng See. Such a shame that i can't really find a proper slot to meet her recently, but thank GOD, i've finally found myself one to meet her for a quick lunch and chill out after lunch (was about to meet other friends- Chong Cheng ex-colleagues for dinner but somehow it was cancelled). Together with Kin Yew, we went to Gurney Plaza to try on the newly opened Famous Bowl (managed by Xuan Xin). Food was okay, more information will be disclosed on my food blog. Simply walked/ window shopped around Gurney Plaza, and off we headed to Taman Kheng Tian for some tea.

We had some Gelato ice cream from Maxim too. Pretty good outing but i guess the next outing with her and some of my secondary school friends will be at the end of this year.

29/6/2012

* I shall skip afternoon's activity of having food review at Eastin Hotel *

I've figured out that i need to do some exercises recently, well, at least i need to put off some weight before i leave to Australia *wink*. Notified all of the members via Facebook and collected some data on whose interested and whose not. Kin Yew, Shu En, Shu Ling and Alvin responded by clicking attending, after some persuade on Zhou Chen and Xiao Rong, they've finally agreed to go with us too. On that day itself, when all of us prepared to depart, Alvin did not show up, called him but was told that he could not make it anymore (my guess was he had totally forgotten about this outing =/) . To my surprise, Zhou Chen called me and telling me about Xiao Rong's shoes, which had been stolen apparently, and so-on, they could not make it. Poor me, whom made them bunch of sandwiches which meant to be enjoyed at the mountain peak. 

We opted for Bukit Gambir since its near, cheap (in fact, Free Of Charge) and easy access. Wanted for badminton earlier ago, but figured out that, that area will be jam packed and full of cars that time, possibly no empty courts for us either. Bukit Gambir mountain is pretty easy and suitable for hiking, due to the following reasons:

1) smoother roads, no stairs.

2) steep, but not slippery as they are sand-based.

3) shorter distance compared to hiking hot spots like Bukit Jambul and Youth Park.

"An outing is never an outing without group photos", Ken. 2012. The group photos shown were not easily taken tho, i had to carry all the equipment up to the mountain peak and also my stupid heavy dslr. Randomly taken some pictures while Mr. Lee had to rest for at least 15 minutes as he was very tired and can't seem to breath normally (consequences of running towards the mountain peak, tsk tsk). Quite an amount of pictures were taken at different angles, we even tried out some outrageous sexy postures too (as usual lah) ! Fellow mountain-hikers enjoyed my sandwiches shortly after that. Those are my lovely secret recipe of mixing Mayonnaise, Tomato Ketchup and Wasabi to form a bombastic sauce to complement with my ham/sausages, of course, some lettuce as well. Its always great to have such outings, burning some stubborn fats, bonding with friends, sharing recipes/foods, photo shooting...... How i regret for not doing so when i had all the opportunities last time. People always said, one will only cherish that moment when you are about to lose it, kinda agree to it right now.

一个叙别晚会

光阴似箭，新学期马上就要来临了，感觉上个学期的完结也才刚结束没多久。。。虽然说这过去的学期确实很忙，可也想说过得挺充实的，可能是忙里偷闲吧，闲完又得忙，功课感觉没有做完的一天。苦中作乐的日子好像也没想像中还难过吧？我好久都没来写篇华文的文章，感觉语法生疏，欠缺通顺（以后会多加练习）， 不过今晚心血来潮，就特想秀一秀，呵呵。

好友们为我办了叙别晚会，皆因距离我要离开的日子也不遥远了，当初出国留学这想法，我至今都不后悔，虽然说伤感无疑会偶然涌上心头，毕竟人非草木。单人匹马出国是有一定的困难，可我觉得这是一个挺好的机会，也不想随手放弃这千载难逢的机会。

那一天其实时间还挺急的。早上弄了头发，毕竟头发也没理好几个月了，简直是杂草丛生， 就差没长出蛇来。午间会了nicole，wye min 和凯雯，在japin吃了午饭，过后逛了几圈，感觉好多东西都还没买一样。回顾那晚，连聚餐地点都不晓得的我，就跟上了alvin 的车，同车的还有根优。后来才得知，大伙儿原来就在我家面前的大草场集合，事后，就浩浩荡荡出发去了。遥远的路程坐得我屁眼都麻了，我才晓得原来是坐落在十万八千里以外的 batu ferringhi. 其是我早已有在想，是否是那间餐厅，早前有见到珈汶在 “非死不可” 上加载照片，再说，这几名路痴也找不出新地方来，不是我小看他们，而是我了解他们。更被我算中的是，alvin 又迟到，其实我早在他接我前20分钟已做好准备。当晚出席的有淑玲，凯雯，珈汶，根优，周辰，肖融，annie, win sam ，alvin 和我，合共十人。

历经三十六劫，九十九难，大伙儿总算是来到这 Tarbush 餐厅了，说是吃黎巴嫩菜，本人就觉得略为不正宗。价钱绝对不便宜，也为难了这班可怜的孩子为我破费。其实价钱还真的是其次，重要的是大家可以一起聚餐。味道尚算可以，可惜价钱与味道不成对比。晚饭后，大家就往外挤，在这餐厅前的夜市散散步，可本人就觉得没意义，不过也没说出来。晚饭吃得挺上火的，也只好找间凉茶店来降降火。又走了两万公里路，终于回来市中心，熟悉的凉茶铺来喝两杯。由于那时候还蛮早的，大伙儿就决定去找个地方坐下来聊聊天，左思右想，不是打烊了就是没位泊车，无奈之下，也得再去海峡商场 (straits quay) 那里坐坐。

其实相片也没照几张，也只能说一切尽在回忆里吧。事后，我们来到了海峡商场的 “图书馆” The Library 酒吧，老实说，我们也别无它选，很多商店都打烊了。我不是一个嗜酒的人，价钱也不便宜，就随便点了个绿茶来喝，也烧了本少爷九千大元，心疼不已。在那儿，大家都是照照相留念，闲话家常，也离不开成绩这话题。成绩确实甚为麻烦，也是种心理负担，烦恼，可大家都不太想破坏气氛，纷纷都不敢大谈，只是略提。貌似我玩得很开心，感叹的是，心中深知与大家出来玩的机会也廖廖无几了，悲从中来。虽然这晚上的节目流程有待改进，可能是我本身要求过高，但我也衷心感谢你们，为我安排此次聚餐，但愿我回来时不会人面不知何处去，桃花依旧笑春风吧。*要是桃花与我对笑，我觉得我是患有精神病了*

Parit Buntar/ Taiping One-day Trip

It was rather a boring-busy mixed semester break for me, attending farewells, casual outings, preparing my take offs etc.... Out of a sudden, i had the sudden urge to go on a run-away trip from all these hectic life. Why these two place ? 2 of my buddies here are from Parit Buntar and Taiping; shu en's home town is parit buntar, whilst annie's is taiping. The whole idea was rather a rush one, did some research two day before departure and i had to plan for the itinerary too. Research shows that Taiping has decent Heong Piah. Contacted both of them to arrange the plan. The other gang went to Genting which makes them unavailable for the trip, there were a total 7 of us in this trip, namely shu en, annie, win sam, zhou chen, xiao rong, kin yew and me; with kin yew and me in a car, to meet shu en at parit buntar, win sam with zhou chen, xiao rong to meet annie at taiping. Kin yew and i departed from penang as early as 10am that day. 

The trip was pretty smooth, penang was bloody hazy that time, anyway, we've made it to jawi toll, as instructed by shu en successfully. The time estimated was just superb, she was there, waiting for us at the toll as soon as we arrived, following her car back to her home and she hop on my car and off we went for our breakfast. She was so bloody steam that she brought me to eat ROTI BAKAR for breakfast, i thought i've compromised with her jawa mee on the night before the trip. Apparently she had forgotten her promise and took me to this isolated, corner coffee house for roti bakar. It was pretty awkward that we had to walk out without ordering (we have found our seats and sat for few minutes). Drove to the place where the jawa mee located. The noodles were good, i would say above average.

As soon as we finished our lunch, we headed to taiping. We were able to reach taiping lake following the instructions given by shu en. Waited some time for win sam and friends, then we headed to annie's house, which is 3 minutes drive from taiping lake. All i remember was, her house was situated on top of a very very steep road, and has quite a variety of fruits planted beside the house. We parked our cars at the rukun tetangga, which apparently next to her house. Annie's mom was very friendly, she welcomed us by giving us an icy cold sugarcane juice and some of their Teo Chew rice cake. It was okay but too filling unfortunately. I swallowed one and it just stayed in my stomach for the rest of the afternoon. We went lunch short while, i was not able to eat lunch as i was too full from the teo chew cake. Lunch was randomly taken at a food court followed by biscuits (Heong Piah) hunting after that. The place was too isolated and was quite distant from the small pekan/town. Our poor annie does not even the directions and we had to stop and ask a very helpful uncle for the directions. Thank god we were able to locate this place after some time. Its a home-made biscuit place, which sells various kinds of biscuits. The Heong Piah was flavorful and crispy to my liking, the sugar filling just oozes out as soon as i had my bite on it........ Opps, should not have written so much of these since i am not writing on my food blog :P

Au Long Heong Piah

No. 768, Lorong 29, Aulong Baru, Taiping. 

605- 868 7608

Opens daily, from 7am.

Taiping zoo is one of the must-go tourist attractions in taiping. One is not counted to be there if one has not visited this place. Led by annie, we were back to the zoo/lake area once again. Annie cleared the payments (apparently Taipingers get discounts for the tickets) and we just off to see all these miserable animals.Weather was so damn hot and it melted some of my body fats (i wish lah of coz). The zoo was pretty small, with some of the areas being unavailable (reptile farm was closed), we walked around the area but we had a lot of fun at the crocodile farm (many stories about the movements of crocodiles, bird shit thingy etc). I believe there will be no objections if i were to declare the scariest moment of the day, was to pass by a line/queue of those wild monkeys due to many attacking cases happened recently. We lined up ourselves, forming a team of 7, everyone was like looking at the ground (forgot whom, but someone screamed to the whole team that if someone were to stare at those monkeys, they will attack you eventually). It took us nearly 2hours to finish touring the zoo. Everyone was melting thanks to the killing weather. 

Up next was to take some photos at another famous tourist attractions of taiping- the taiping lake. It was windy, but hot. We parked our car at car park D i think, and took a 5 minutes walk from the car park to this small little red stop to take our group photos. Breath taking scenery was behind us, picture above showing group photo for the 7 of us. The whole gang was too hungry after so much walking, and we've decided to head for some cooling places either. Annie brought us to Taiping Sentral in the end, where we get to see some civilization at last, out of no choice, we had to go for sushi king to ease our hunger. I was too hungry as i've skipped my lunch. Coincidentally, there was this 3-6pm discounts for weekdays too, walloped quite a lot of the sushi. Upon walking out of sushi king, we were stopped by some F&N crew members, they were asking us to help them on doing some weird postures to let them take a few pictures, which to be submitted as event report. We decided to help these poor kids in the end, and we were rewarded a few bottles of F&N orange carbonated drinks. Goodbyes ahead and off we went, back to parit buntar, whilst win sam decided to stay with annie at her house.  

Shu en brought us to her house after we've arrived at parit buntar. We greeted her mom whilst she was busy handling her customers. Her mom went in the house and treated us some honeydew sago, really thanks to her for being so kind and had the dessert prepared for us. Short rest followed by dinner at nibong tebal area, where the famous octopus/crab porridge at. Led by shu en, we were able to find the place easily. Dinner was satisfying as the portion was great, price was cheap and most important, quality was impressive. After the dinner, shu en led us until the toll and sent us off. 

In conclusion, it was really a tiring yet memorable short trip for this semester break. Probably the last semester break for us as we are graduating very soon (only 1 semester ahead). I think i'll miss a lot of fun for this coming semester as i'll be transferring to perth shortly (10 days left as at the date i wrote this blog post). Hope to go for a short trip with you guys again as soon as i get back from perth. ;)

Boon Siang's Birthday

It has been quite some time since i last updated this blog. Life has been very busy due to school work and those procedures/application of the transfer.

Time has passed by way too fast this semester, almost on par with the speed of light. Without us realizing, my 5th semester just ended like that. Due to time constraints and the need to release our soul after the hectic final exam of our 5th semester, we've decided to have boon siang's birthday held right after the exam. Problems arises one by one, i had my concept cleared way earlier before the final exam started, which was to hold an event just for a big kid like boon siang. Our main focus on the party were the decorations and the cake, the big big problem was: where am i gonna get such place to accommodate all of us and actually allowed us to decorate the place ? I first thought of Jeff & Winds. Facebook-ed one of the owners, settled the venue. Unfortunately, things don't went well as smooth as i thought for the cake. I had my first attempt from one of my friends whom good in making cakes, but they rejected my order as they failed to mold the whole cake. Living no choice, i had to contact another facebook friends of mine, and thank god, she accepted the deal, with a "sky-high price" as cost. 

The final product was delighting, instructions were given to her on the designs, but she had successfully designed this cake for me, bravo to her. Boon Siang was delighted and happy with his cake, thank god.

Aside from the cake, i've took the trouble to place my order from Weehouse just to custom-made a bento for him, design was none other than One Piece either. Price was a bit steep, but still, worth the money for this buddy. =)

It was 12/6/2012. We had the party celebrated few days earlier before Boon Siang's exact big day. Few of us, the working "crew", had to arrive earlier to decorate the room and get things done before the arrival of our precious guests. Special thanks for kai wen, jia wen, annie, win sam, alvin and most importantly, shu en. She just reached Penang for 2 days and she had to face all the troubles to come and meet us from Parit Buntar and joined us for the party. She had given us some of her mom's secret dessert to sample as well as some chocolates bought from Australia. The "blow job" for the balloon was rather annoying, i just took part in blowing of the balloons :P

Guests starting to make their way to Jeff & Winds starting 7:30pm, the attendees were shu ling, stephy, jia shyan, kin yew, xin hao and most importantly, or rather, the main character of the night, boon siang. Arrangement was made, that jia shyan and stephy were asked to fetch boon siang from his place to this mysterious place. Venue was not disclosed to him beforehand. Xin hao was rather late for the event due to some girl issues. Dinner was served shortly, attendees were given a balloon each, with boon siang (the birthday boy) receiving two. Group photos were taken and were posted above.

The birthday boy posting happily together with his bento and custom-made cake. Just look at his smiley face. :D The event went out smooth, hard work paid off and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Last but not least, Happy Belated Boon Siang ! :) 

On a side note, four of us namely kai wen, shu en, jia wen and me went out for a buffet lunch at Tsurukame Shabu-shabu on that day. Jia wen bought the vouchers way earlier before the final exam, redemption is always cool right ? *wink*