chillipadiness.blogspot.com
The Simpsons Movie
Tuesday 31 July 2007

I'm not sure if they are showing The Simpsons movie in Singapore but I caught it on the big screen today. I would recommend it to anyone who like The Simpsons.

The Simpsons have been a very successful animated sit-com since like a long long time ago and I guess many characters in the movie will be very familiar to us.
I think the movie really brings out a lot of the very current fads and trends around the world. Of course, there were lots of humor in it. Do catch it you like The Simpsons.
Does any of you have a fav character in Simpson??

writtern @20:51

Sunday Art Market
Sunday 29 July 2007

We set out for the Sunday Art Market near Federation Square at bout 11.30 this morning. After breakfast at a cafe, we set out towards our destination. Melbourne city is actually sort of separated by the Yarra River. We had to cross a bridge to get to the other side. See those white tents behind me? Yup, that's the place we are going.

It was pretty crowded and there were many different stores set up. Most of the stores are selling stuff that are hand made by the store owners. From hand painted cups to cushion covers and accessories, its really a place to see the creativities of so many people. Prices can be quite expensive but all the stuff are handmade and maybe the design that you fancy might be the one and only one in this world.

I especially liked these 2 particular stores. One of them sells home ware like glasses and candle holder while the other sell socks and both of them have very beautifully hand painted pictures on all their goods.

There were also quite a couple of busker around the art market which actually help to draw more people to the market.

We took a stroll along the river and saw there were many of these statues along the bridge. Some of them look pretty cute. Not too sure if you guys can see from the pic below.


See, I bought a pair of hand painted socks! And these are for my handphone cause I lost my handphone cover quite sometime back. I think they look really cute. hehe..

And i bought a bottle of Mandrain essence oil as well.

writtern @22:47

Sick
Saturday 28 July 2007

Its Friday again and I can get to relax a little after a hectic week. But, there are still so much reading and research to be done.

Anyway, we had Korean for dinner yesterday. I have never really try out Korean cuisine before (yes, i know i'm a mountain tortise) so dar decided to bring me to the place which according to him serve pretty good Korean food.

The resturant was crowded by the time we arrived at bout 7ish. I decided to try out their seafood and tofu soup. It was very yummy! I have a festish for spicy stuff so the soup really satisfied my spicy craving. Didn't took a pic when the food arrived so as you can see from my very empty rice bowl, I really like the food.




Then we headed down to Max Brenner to chill out and relax. But, was really disappointed with the drinks. Mayb it was the dinner and cold drinks, dar wasn't feeling too well after we came home. Next thing I know, his stomach had rejected all the dinner and drinks.

So, we decided to keep our diet really bland and oil free at least for this weekend. Porriage and chai sim, dar's fav food when he is not feeling well.

writtern @15:29

Busy Busy
Wednesday 25 July 2007

Been busy with school work lately so there's nothing much to update. Our lecturers are putting us into groups for each and every module. So far, i'm still quite alright with one of the grouping and yet to find out more about the rest.

I have not been cooking anything special, thats why I have not been taking pics. Next week, i'm experimenting on something new so lets hope it will turn out nice..

Oh, the Melbourne International Film Festival will start tommorrow. Me and dar might catch a few foreign movie over the weekend. I'll have more updates coming, so do drop by to take a look. :)

writtern @19:57

Theories of living together
Monday 23 July 2007

Lesson 1: 'Ren'
Lesson 2: Keep it to yourself.

Dinner: Fried carrots, potatoes and cashew nuts (going vegan tonight)
Then, you wrap them in fresh lettuce and take a big nasty bite. Yum yum!

writtern @22:25

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows

This is the reason why I have not been updating my blog for the past 2 days. Yes, the last and final book for the Harry Potter series was out on Saturday and I have been spending my weekend reading it. I'm not going to reveal anything in the blog so those who have not read the book will have a chance of finding out after reading it.

Generally, I like how this book is being structure and how it ended. The book is full of adventures and actions. Some people may like it some might not, but i think its still one of the best children series today.
There was such a long q outside Borders on Sat all trying to get their hands on the latest series of Harry Potter book. And they even have the staff dress in robes and hats! Borders also printed the shop floor plan on parchment -like material and paste it on their windows. It was really interesting to see all these efforts they put in the market this book.


Dinner: Roast Chicken.

Just to make my readers drool, the skin of the chicken was extremly crispy and yummy. hehe..

writtern @15:24

Finally.. The weekend is here
Friday 20 July 2007

Thank god its Friday!! This whole week has been really very tiring and draining as i've been in school from 930 all the way till 4 or 5 in the evening. And i've got all my course ware and there is just so much reading and preparation to do before every class. And the assignment and projects will just kill me along the way.

But, today ended really nicely because i got to meet up with some of the previous batch students and i must say, they are much more interesting than my own classmates. I finally found another Singaporean from the previous batch and it feels really quite good. I think I will not blog as frequent from next week onwards as my work load is really intense. But rest assured, I will definately update the different things that are happening in my life.

For this entire week, I have made many friends from amny different parts of the world. And there are several observations that I've made. I'll talk more about this in my future blogs.

Thanks mint darling for sending me the package and this really helpful oniment for my bunions. And pls pls pls, just send me an sms if you wanna talk. I'll call u asap when i can. Miss you!

writtern @23:23

Durians!!
Wednesday 18 July 2007

I was buying some fruits at the supermarket when i spotted the King of Fruits, Durians!! I guess everyone knows that durian is not easy to come by in Caucasian countries. And they are selling it for like AU$3 per kg. Oh, and there is totally no 'smell' coming from the durian. I love durian so if the durian don't even have a nice aroma coming from it, how can i expect it to taste nice...



Dinner: Stir fry sesame and butter chicken
Gotta keep today's entry short cause I gotta go do research for a presentation on this Friday. So sian..

writtern @20:54

Junkies

I guess so far, I have been blogging out the good stuff about Melb and Aussie. Well, there are of course the bad side too. Australia do face some issues with junkies or drug use. It is also one of the social problems that the government tries to deal with.

In some of the public toilets around Melb, you get to see these boxes inside each cubicle where one can use to disposal of used syringes. I used to wonder, do these people really carry the syringes around with them all the time and when they need to get 'high' they can use one of the cubicle? I guess its still much better than leaving the needles lying around when someone else can use it again and dieseas might just spread even faster and easier.


writtern @00:16

Harry Potter and The order of phoenix
Tuesday 17 July 2007

I think everyone knows about Harry Potter so there is really no need to further describe what this movie is all about. As usual, i felt that the movie left out many details that were mentioned in the book. So far, the Harry Potter series had 6 books that are out for sale and I can't wait to get my hands on the 7th and finally book for this series this Saturday!!!


The Order of the Phoenix is by far the thickest book. Frankly, i personally found it the most boring book among the 6 books. But, i felt the movie had show the most important part that the book was trying to tell us about Harry. Like i said before, many details had been left out, especially the other wizards and witches that were part of The Order of the Phoenix where the movie did not do justice to their contribution.

Nevertheless, they focus a big part on Harry's emotions where he is struggling with himself becasue he felt that no one understands him and also because he is a teenage boy growing up and having to face constant threats. I think the director did try to bring out the essence of this particular book though missing out some fair details on other characters.

writtern @23:59

Beginning of a new Sem
Monday 16 July 2007

Finally, the new sem begins today. I got such a long day in school today that i'm feeling so tired right now. Info overload and there are just so many things to remember. And guess what, my professors have started giving us large, thick folders that are filled with lectures notes and loads of reading that we have to do before classes begins next week.

Though this week is meant for orientation, there is still this project we have to complete by this Friday and present it to the lecturers. And the whole proj is also a part of one of the module. So i guess i'll be getting busier and busier.

I took the pic during a break so there wasn't much students in the class. So far, we are still at the stage of getting to know more people and its interesting that you get to meet so many people from all around the world. My class consist of people from India, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore (I'm the only Singaporean!!), Korea, China, Taiwan, Columbia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and of course the local Australian.



It fun to get to know people for different backgrounds and culture but it can be a challenge to work together as well. I guess time will tell.

Dinner: Tomatoes, carrots and tofu soup with steam egg and rice.
I'm so tired after i came home from school that i just decided to cook the easiest of the easiest food.

writtern @21:51

Yum Cha, shopping and getting ready for school
Sunday 15 July 2007

Been feeling pretty tired these couple of days cause i've been going out with dar to meet his friends to catch up before a new school sem begins.

We headed down to a chinese restuarant for some dim sum on Sat morning. The porriage and char siew bao was very very yummy! And i gotta meet this couple whom my bf met through playing computer games. FYI, my bf is crazy about online games and mostly MMORPG games. Sound chim right. Anyway, he get to meet lotsa of people online and somehow he forges friendship with some in real life as well.

So, he knew this Singaporean couple, who had migrated to Melb, while playing one of the old games. Since his arrival here, he has been meeting them to catch up and yes, talk about games..




After yum cha, we became tour guide to his secondary school friend who was here on business. We brought her around the different shopping streets and I also bought quite a bit. Hehe..
We were so drained out last night by the time we reached home.

The below pic is specially dedicated to AY. You will love the chips here. They taste so nice and has very unique and special flavour compare to Singp. But i know there is this particular shop at Millenia Walk that sells this brand: Red Rock. Not sure if they sell the bigger packets but i know they carry the smaller one.

Dinner: Fried Rice (No mood to cook)

writtern @21:43

Family ties
Friday 13 July 2007

I thought family are suppose to help one another when either one of us face difficult times.
I thought as an Asian we were brought up by Confucius teaching where we were taught to value kinship.
I thought being filial is the least we can do to repay our parents for going through the hardship of giving us life and bringing us up.
So what have you guys done for the past twenty years?

writtern @23:29

Family dinner
Thursday 12 July 2007

We headed down to the suburbs in Doncaster to have a family dinner with my bf's aunties and their families. He has a couple of relatives living in Melb. The dinner was arranged mainly because his sister was in Melb for holiday, so she wanted to take this opportunity to visit their relatives.

The best and easier way is to have steamboat! And having steamboat during winter is the best. Keeps everyone warm. See my darling checking to see if the soup is boil.



Look at the spread of food. And there were more at the other end of the table. After dinner, everyone just sat around to watch tv and chit chat.

I miss those days that i get to enjoy steamboat with my family. Even though we will be perspiring by the time we finished. And my mum's home made chilli are just superb. I miss home.....

writtern @23:02

Lamb, Kid

A Lamb is the young of a sheep
Ewes are female sheep
Rams are male sheep

A Kid is the young of a goat
Nannies or does are female goat
Bucks or billies are male goat

writtern @22:56

My first ski trip

Yesterday was the most exciting and fun day i had since my arrival in Melbourne so far. A large group of us, including my bf's bro and sister and their cousins and friends set out to Mount Buller for our skiing trip.

We set out from city at 5am and it took us about 4.5 hours by coach to reach the base of the mountain. Along the way, you get to see the large pieces of grassland where cows, sheeps and horses are grazing. It was really quite an amazing view.



This picture was taken while we were still on our way up the mountain. You can see that there were snow almost everywhere and this was even before we reach the top. I was also very excited cause its the first time I get to see snow!



Our guide whisk us to the ski equipment rental shop the minute we reached our destination. As there was time constraint, we had to get our ski gear as soon as we reach Mt Buller and start our ski lesson almost immediately.
By the time i take this pic, I was already wearing my ski boots. Anyone who has went bladding before will know that the bladding boots are quite heavy. Trust me, the ski boots are much worse and you gotta walk carefully on the snow (or rather compacted ice cause the snow eventually become ice after layer and layer of snow 'stack' up) if not you will slip and fall.

Me and XD, my bf bro. This boy was so exicted and he couldn't wait to start skiing. This was his second ski trip and he was so happy after the ski lesson ended so that he can go conquer the more difficult slopes.

Since most of us never had any ski experience, we had an instructor to give us a beginner's class. He taught us how to get our boots onto our ski and how to get our boots off the ski when we wanted to walk. Then, we learn how to ski down and how to stop. It feels really quite scary at the very beginning but after a while when I got a hang of it, it was very fun.
But, I still fell down twice when I lost control and went down too fast. The ice was really hard and falling down was no fun.


See, my dar in action. He is 'side-stepping' up the hill. Its a technique where we use to 'walk' up the slope. We spend more time climbing up the slope than coming down cause it just take you a few seconds to ski down.


Time to take photos with the scenery! Me and dar at the entrance of Mt Buller.



I feel like a 'dumpling' with so many layers of clothes and this thick red jacket. We wanted to build a snowman, but the most of the snow had turn to ice and it was really quite impossible.


Just in case anyone is interested to know how cold it was. It's bout 1 degree celcius. According to our ski instructor, it was one of the better days to ski since its not snowing and the sun was out. So, try imagine how cold it will be if there was no sun.
I had a really wonderful day and maybe i'll consider going again next year.
But right now, I gotta go rest my sore body. Hehe...

writtern @14:32

Richmond
Tuesday 10 July 2007

Time to explore another part of Melbourne. Well, acually i've been to Richmond 2 years back and its quite a nice place to shop so i decided to go take a look at some of the factory outlets to see if i can get any good bargains.

I came across this very interesting street name so I took a photo of it. Funny right?



I think everyone knows that i get hungry easily. hehe.. so we decided to fill up our tummies before we hit the shops. While waiting for the food to arrive, i took a pic of this cafe. There are many of such cafes in Melbourne and they are usually very cosy and most of them serve a couple of dishes that are unique to themselves.




If you walk along East Richmond, or many other places, you will see that there is a mixture of old and new architecture. Back in the 19th century, gold was found in Melb. It was then that immigrants from all over the world came to Melbourne to join in the gold rush. These old architecture design were also part of what the immigrants brought to Melb.

Those 'lines' that you see hanging above the ground are tram lines. Tram are one of the oldest public transport in Melb. They are also the 'biggest' in road transport cause when a tram approaches, cars, buses even padestrian has to give way to them.

After hours of shopping, i only bought a wallet at a shoes and bags factory outlet. We decided to stop by this cafe to have a cup of hot choc. Nothing beats having a warm cup of hot choc in hand during a cold winter day....

The next important man in my life after my dad...


Me in a daze. See the sun reflection behind me? You think its very hot right. Nope, the sun during winter is for light purpose. Usually you won't feel much heat from it. So different from Singapore. I miss the warmth back home..

writtern @17:47

Dinner
Monday 9 July 2007

Dinner: Chicken casserole

I check out this receipe from the internet and gave it a try today. Didn't turn out quite bad but i will improve on the taste the next time when i cook this dish again..

I know there hasn't been much update lately on my blog cause there is nothing much happening. But, i promise all you readers there will definately be something exciting coming up this week. I'm personally looking forward to it too.. :)

writtern @20:39

My food blog
Saturday 7 July 2007

I'm starting to feel that my blog is becoming a food blog. The reason being, i've been going around to try the different kind of food and also cooking some myself. Hence, this blog has more food pics then anything else. Surprisingly, what i've learn so far and improve on these days is my cookery skill (not that i have much of it anyway)

But so far, i'm enjoying the cooking process and experimenting with new ideas. Actually, there's nothing much to blog about today. Just some simple updates. Check out these flowers. Dar bought them for me (after i sort of nag at him a bit) hehe... The florist actually gave us this little packet of powder called ' Cut flowers food'. It helps to keep the flowers looking fresh for a longer period.



I was also making red bean soup while i was rearranging the flowers. My mum used to make this kind of 'sweet soup' once in a while back in Singp. Guess i really miss her cooking and all those yummy soups she made. So i try to make some myself.



Dinner: Alfredo with fusilli
*There will definately be more excited updates next week. I'm so looking forward to it!!


writtern @21:17

Box Hill
Friday 6 July 2007

Today, I visited this suburbs in Melb called 'Box Hill'. This place is famous because most of the inhabitants are asian and they sell many asian food stuff here. It took us about 25 mins by train from city before we reached our destination.



I was hungry when we reach Box Hill. So we decided to have some lunch. I had this very sepcial crepe whereby its made with egg, flour mixture and spring onion and 2 dough sticks (you tiao) was wrap inside the crepe. Very yummy!!

I didn't take a pic cause it was so nice i gobble down the whole thing in like less than 10 mins. Hehe.. then we shop around and bought some asian groceries like lotus and herbs which i can used to make soup. It was raining half the time when we were there so the ground was wet and it was freezing cold. See the pic below and you can see the wet floor.

Dinner for tonight: Cold soba.
Since we were out most of the day we didnt have much time to prepare so we settle for something that was easy to cook.

writtern @21:16

i finally found it
Thursday 5 July 2007

After gym, we decided to try out this place where they claim to sell Sinapore food. Just to let everyone know, i'm like on a quest to find out the most authentic laksa in Melbourne.

And i think i found it at this restuarant! So far, this has the most authentic taste. If there is more chilli and not as ex as AU$9.30 then it will be perfect. Hehe...


Dinner: Oven bake butter chicken with a bit of tandoori sauce with mixed peas and rice.



Stay tuned for more updates tommorrow as i'm going to visit a very asian town in Melb.

writtern @21:48

Another lame joke....
Wednesday 4 July 2007

This was meant to be with the previous entry but i forgot to blog it out. Enjoy!

Scene: Waiting for tram (Wind getting stronger)

Her: I'm feeling cold. Wind is getting stronger

Him: I lend you my jacket?

Her: Don't want. Then what you wear?

Him: Your jacket loh...

Her: -_- (totally don't make sense and very lame)

writtern @22:45

Enrolment

Today is enrolment day. Basically, I'll have to make a trip down to the Uni to enrol myself for the course and get all the relevant details from the school.

So far, i have been given my timetable which i can get to choose the time slot of which lectures or tutorials that i wish to attend. I sort of saw some of my classmates but didn't really gotta know anyone yet. As you can see, i was also given a copy of the student handbook which double up as a diary where they note down the important dates in a semester. There are also many useful information in the handbook where they give you discount vouchers, where you can find a doctor (the way their medical system operates here is a but different from singp whereby we can just pop by any poly clinic or private clinic), where to get old textbooks etc.


My timetable is kinda pack and i think i'll be much busier when the new sem begins.

While i was on my way home, i walk pass this park next to my place. And i saw that all the trees were 'bald' but somehow there was this sense of senerity so I took a picture of it. And i can't wait to see how this place will change with the season.



And for dinner tonight: Lightly fried potatoes with onions (AY, its your fav)


writtern @22:19