Another movie by one of my fav actress, Catherine Zeta-Jones. I think most of you would probably have some ideas what this movie is all about just by looking at the poster below. Well, Catherine plays a chef name Kate. She's a very uptight woman who closes her inner self and doesnt allow anyone in. Not until her sister passed away in a car accident and she had to take care of her niece, Zoe. Throw in this new guy, Nick, who was hire by the restaurant's boss while Kate was away tending to her sister's and niece's affairs, you get romance, kinship, laughter and lotsa yummy dishes serves up hot..

I love the way how the movie develops. It those small little things in life that you can relate to but yet at times we are so concern and bother by other things that we just don't see them even when they are right in front of us. Something light and relaxing for your heart and mind especially after a long day at work.

Had dinner at a Taiwanese tea house where one my of friend recommended the beef noodles. Wasnt in the mood for beef so I order pork noodles. The noodles were so-so but I really like the tea. It was Earl Grey with milk and pearl. East meets west.
Will try out the other tea drinks and tea desserts.

We were half way through our lecture when the fire alarm went off. Our lecturer went and check out if it was a false alarm. Turns out it was for real so we pack our bags and started moving towards the stairs. Remember, not to use lifts when there is a fire. Then, there was this rumor going around that it was a real fire and so everyone started walking a little quicker.

And it doesnt help when your class is situated on the 11th floor. I just kept going down and down the steps. Then it move even slower cause others from the levels below us were also trying to get out and more and more people just join the q going down the stairs.

Finally, we reached the ground level into the streets and the public were just staring at us and all the students wondering what we were doing. We only stood there for like 10 mins and they told all of us to get back. Apparently, it was a drill. And the even idiotic thing me and some of my classmates did was to climb all the way up again when we could have taken the lifts. Nvm, take it as a good exercise just to make myself feel better.

Finally!! The time has come for a new season. Spring is here!! Well, the seasons are still in the midst of changing and its really unpredictable, especially in Melbourne, famous for the really un-forcastable weather. Perth has been raining a lot these couple of days and temperature has been dipping low. But rain is good in aussie. In case you guys don't know bout this, aussie govt has been placing restrictions on the usage of water for quite sometime especially in the suburbans areas because it hasn't been experiencing a lot of rain.

Though the change in season means I don't have to wear layers of clothes, I'm starting to complain bout the 'heat' - thought its bout 20 degrees on average, but i'm feeling hot. So i guess when summer comes, I will suffer. And I will need time to adapt to the heat in Singapore again....
Its really good to experience the different seasons...

I really wanted to post this pic in my blog. Was having lunch today and I ordered curry chicken noodle. So when the noodles came, I just look at them and wonder to myself did they brought the wrong dish. Turns out it was suppose to be like that.

They give you a bowl of noodle soup plus another extra bowl of curry chicken. I gotta say, its pretty unique. Not quite what you will get in Singapore.

Just another boring day loaded with tons of research, readings and essay/report writing to be done. And having a migraine early in the morning is not helping me at all.
Wish me luck for my presentation this Friday...

Dinner: Haven't been posting any dinner pics cause I think my readers are getting sick of seeing food pics. Anyway, decided to go western today so I made chicken chop, mashed potatoes and mixed peas.

I know I have not been updating my blog for quite a couple of days. Well, there is 2 main reasons for that.

1) My life has been quite routine and there is really nothing much interesting going on.
2) I'm stress out with my assignments, reports and presentations. This is week 5 of this sem. And I have assignment due this week, next week, the week after next and of course the week after next next.

Yup, there are so much things piling up and I seriously have no time to relax. And to make things even worse, some of my group mates are not helping out.

OK, gotta go back to my research. I hope something interesting might crop up this weekend. Sick of staring at my laptop and tons of notes everyday......
And sw and gang, see what i meant.. Nothing for you girls to jealous about..

I really hate it to the core!!!

This is by far one of the best documentary I've seen. SiCKO, is a documentary produce by Michael Moore, the same director who brought us Fahrenheit 9/11. If anyone of you might have remember, Fahrenheit 9/11 was a movie about the 911 incident which was brought down the big screen after about a week it was first shown. I guess there were many 'reasons' behind why the movie was pulled down back then.

But i'm glad I caught SiCKO. It a film about the healthcare system in America and truly the only word to describe it - SICK!

There are people in America who took up health insurance but were deny payment for their health care bills for all sorts of reasons you can think of. There are hospital who wouldn't treat a particular patient because the health insurance does not apply to that hospital and the patient (running a very high fever) had to be transfer and guess what, she died because of delay treatment. There were even the 911 volunteers who couldnt seek medical/government help (because most of them contract respiratory related illness) after what they have done for their country.

There were many many more of such stories but the worst was to know that when you compare America with other Western countries around the world, they have the worst health care system. There might be a 50/50 chance it might not be showing it like what happen to Fahrenheit 9/11. Do catch this documentary if its going to be show in Singapore. Its even worth your weekend ticket price.

Today is the last day for MIFF. I caught my last movie for this year's film festival It was an animation from Japan. The story was about this girl who is a scientist working on a cutting edge technology of an object that can assist people in their dreams. To do so, her alter ego will be transformed into a teenager and go on mission in the dreams.

I didn't really enjoy the show partly because I didn't quite figure out what exactly is going on. And because its an animation so i guess you need to have a fair bit of imagination and at time not to question the logic. I still prefer the previous 2 films.

I think Singapore do organized international film festival as well. Do catch some of these films if they are in Singp.

2 women walking pass. One of them ask the other,

Woman to her friend: Where is Jay?

Mr Lame to me: Just before 'K'

Bbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... ...

Dinner: Stir fried lemongrass pork with cherry tomatoes and xiao bai chai.

One of my classmates organized a karaoke session tonight. We went to one of the better karaoke outlet in Melb. We were only expecting about 10 or so people to turn up but in the end, there were 20 of us squeezing inside a room that was only meant for 10.

There were the usual rounds of beers and it was kinda noisy since there were so many of us. Everyone was trying to sing so we ended up shouting at the top of our voice. I guess it was really difficult to satisfied everyone's preference of songs since there were so many people from different nationalities in the room. So, the classic and popular English songs became our 'hit' list. I was quite pissed off with a certain group of people because they just sneak out of the room and disappeared before the bill came.

Before i left for the karaoke session, I had a very yummy dinner at home. Dar attempted to cook yao chai ji. But it was a little too salty cause he used up the entire packet of herbs which was meant for a whole chicken. But it was still very tasty. :)


Does any of you read The Straits Times for 10/08/2007? Can anyone of you see any photos taken from Melbourne showing us celebrating the National Day? I can't see this online cause we need to subscribe to Straits Times online.

Happy 42nd Birthday to Singapore!!

I just came back home after a whole lot of us joined the RMIT Singapore Student Association to celebrate our national day. We arrived at bout 7pm Melbourne time (5pm Singp time) and there was already a q forming to get into the room. Before everything got started, we took a couple of pics. Dar with one of his friend, Lynette. Very nice girl doing her PhD here.


Me and dar. Can see that i'm wearing red? Hehe.. The function room was initially book in anticipation of about 40-50 pax. But the response was so good that more than 100 sign up so it was quite packed and stuffy as well.

Dinner was provided so we had nasi lemak. Most of us sat on the floor to watch the parade while eating our dinner. The parade broadcast was sponsor by Singapore International Foundation (SIF) where they aim to reach out to Singaporeans who are overseas.

Unfortunately, some of the people just kept talking and talking so we couldn't hear what the commentators were talking about. To make things worse, the broadcast was lagging so badly that we didn't catch any performance after the armed forces left the stage. We could have stayed at home and log on to the Straits Times website for the telecast. But then again, its fun when you celebrate with so many Singaporeans.


Since the broadcast was lagging, the organizer suggested to make a toast to Singapore and got it on film and video as it was a request by Straits Times. The paper will do up a column on how Singaporeans celebrate the National Day Overseas. Get a copy of the paper if you can and tell me if i'm in there. hahahahahah..

After the toast, it was lucky draw time. There were 5 National Day goodies bags courtesy of SIF. And another 5 by other sponsors for today's event. XD was one of the winner for the goodies bag. Check out what are some of the things that were in the bag: Tissue (wet and dry), Flag, A star shape torch, A lion's mask, A portable fan, A CD & A thick booklet of coupon.

Yup, i just caught the 2nd film from MIFF tonight. It was a film based in Prague. The main character in the film was a man whose ultimate dream was to become a millionaire. This dream brought him on a journey that revolves around money, women, sex and power. A humorous movie with some scenes of intimacy and nudity but the director did a pretty good job of portraying it in a very artistic manner without having the feel of the film being sleazy.

I can't up load any pics with regards to this film because the pic contains nudity. Nevertheless, you can also go to http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/2007/film?film_id=7784 to find out more about the film.

My skin has been feeling very itchy these few days and dar bought me this cream to stop the itch. Guess my skin is very sensitive to the dry air here. Thanks darling.

I have shortlisted 3 films out of the hundreds that are showing in this year's Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). Yesterday, I caught the very first one, 'A Hebrew Lesson'.
The entire film was portrayed like a documentary. Its a film about Israel through a foreigner eyes. The main setting was based in a classroom where a group of people from all over the world who went to Israel for whatever reason to learn Hebrew (the language spoken in Israel) and the culture of Israel.

Most of the film focuses mainly on 2 Chinese woman who married Israel men, a Russian man who was fighting to gain custody of her daughter who was taken away from him by his ex, a German woman who is attached to a Israeli boyfriend and a lady from Peru who got pregnant and got dump by her Israeli boyfriend because of that.

The film brings out the other side of Israel through the feelings and insights of a foreigner. How they struggle to cope with the language barrier? And how they cope with their new life in a foreign land. There were scenes that will really touch your heart and bring tears welling up your eyes.

Its a really good film and i personally feel that it is amazing and yet to a certain extend sad that we are all human beings living physically close to one another but yet there is this huge barrier of culture, language, perspective and mentality between each and everyone of us that we sometimes feel lonely inside us.

We decided to have an early celebration for our anniversary as the actual anniversary date falls on a weekday. Dar made breakfast for me again! This time round it was pancakes. Hehe.. Looks yummy right? It was indeed very nice.

After breakfast, we went to the gym and did some routine stuff before dinner.

A photo before we step out of the house. I really do have to admit that a girl with and without makeup really makes quite a big differences. See, after make up i look so different.

We had a lovely dinner and anyone who is looking at this pic now, please try to control your drool. Its choc cheese cake! It was very sinful, but ultra delicious. I had to control myself from scoping up the remaining choc that was left on the plate.

Time flies and this 2 years had pass faster than I could ever imagined. It felt like yesterday when the 2 of us first met. And i got to admit, i'm really fortunate to have found someone like my dar. My only wish is to have many more 2 years, 20 years, 40 years or even 60 years to come.

Some guy in my class organized a gathering at this place call 'The Lounge'. It was a chance for our classmates to get to know each other better. But, it was the same usual group of people who turn up cause most of them are the party animals. Some of them stay very far away from the city to it was really quite difficult for them to join us.

We took some photos but i guess i'll have to wait for the camera owner to send it to us. Will update the pics when i get them. It was nice getting to know about other cultures and languages especially when we tried to learn some of the more simple words. I was trying to learn thai while another guy was trying to ask me to teach him chinese. Its really a great opportunity to develop a friendship.

Bro 1: Why you always play game?

Bro 2: Why you always go out?

... ...

Ok, can someone please enlighten me about this Love Boat thingy? Today, we were having some discussion about global population in class when my lecturer starts talking about Singapore birth rate going down and there are more old people and stuff like that. So, he then post a question to the class asking what are the measures the Singapore government taking.

Being a Singaporean, I guess i should know the answer better than most people in my class. So, i say something about giving subsidies for babies and attracting more people from overseas to gain citizenship Singapore. And he said 'No'. He said the answer was that the government actually has this scheme where they get couples onto boats and let them spend the night in the boat. I was like, What?!! (In my head) I think all of you can agree with me that this is seriously not the solution that the government is really depending on to increase our population.

What the hack is this loveboat thing? Something by SDU? Anyone knows?

Dinner: Grill pork chops & You Chai (Van, i try out your recipe using pork chops but some marinating stuff i couldn't find so i substitute with others. hehe)