黄大仙祠

这是香港一个最多善信的祠庙，因为据说黄大仙“有求必应”，签文尤其灵验。
每年农历新年前后，是祠庙香火最鼎盛的时候，信徒纷纷前来求问一整年的运势及酬谢神恩。

带着一颗看热闹但不失庄重的心，两手空空，没香没水果更没烧猪，来到了黄大仙庙。


一个在tvb剧集中，师奶演员的口中常提及的庙，就在眼前。


不忘带走一碗肠粉。

snowy day

wooohooo..! it snowed almost the whole of today! these three pics were taken while we were waiting for the bus to go to the school. ah, what was yixin trying to do? (siang leng, do you know her?? why was she next to you? lol) oh and look... snowballs!! we had fun playing snow fight though, just before our development econs lecture :) fun, FUN!!

yup, that's how one of our lecture halls looks like. and oh, finn's our development econs lecturer. his flight was delayed, hence he was a lil' late for lecture today.

oh that's nuno and pretty margarida, our coursemates from portugal :) picture taken while waiting for prof finn!

look at how thick the snow was! this picture was captured when we were on the way home after school. it's beautiful when it snows! i love it :)

and not forgetting... siang leng and i got a pair of boots each! noone in the world would ever guess correctly how much we paid for our boots! well, it's only dkk50, which is about sgd14!! omg!!

happy cny 2007!

our activities for chinese new year celebration:

1. fri (16/2/07) - dinner at sam&terri's place. it's a typical cosy jewish apartment with paintings hung on wall and candles to lit up the apartment (wow..!) we managed to get students from ntu, nus and smu together. it was a great knowing and meeting them. and the food was GOOD :) we had steamed salmon, sweet&sour pork, black pepper chicken, thai green curry chicken, xiaobaicai and laksa friend rice *droolz*



2. sat (17/2/07) - time for reunion dinner! we attended the reunion dinner organised by students from CUHK. we had all food typically found during cny celebration: chicken herbal soup, spring roll, pineapple tarts, yee sang, wanton, etc. the food was just good (the food at sam&terry's place was GOOD :P). it's great getting to know those friendly ones :)

3. sun (18/2/07) - the first day of cny! gong xi fa cai! siang leng and i visited china town. we met up with ayu, yee hong, sam and terri for a buffet lunch before heading to andersen's cemetry. i have no idea why we visited the cemetry on the FIRST day of cny. we basically broke all the rules - we visited the cemetry, trimmed our fingernails, vacuumed the floor, etc on the FIRST DAY of cny! oh my..!

oh yeah.. this is how yee hong looks like when he refuses to take photo of himself. "wanna fight?" lol.

alrite, peeps... hope you guys enjoy yourself during cny. may this new year brings you happiness, health and wealth! :)

chocolate bars 巧克力条们

As usual, there're alot of chocolates on my table/in my fridge.

This is a pic of BOUNTY coconut chocolates taken/copyright reserved by my lovely roommie Yeoktho...yup I think her phototaking technique is getting better and better. =)

一如往常，我的桌子上/冰箱里有很多巧克力。

这是一张BOUNTY椰子馅的巧克力条的照片，由我可爱的室友

yeoktho 拍摄。。。我觉得她的摄影技术又进步了。=）

由白粥變鮑魚

以爲新年將會是一個人孤單度過，但堂姐一家人的到來，卻讓我感受到不一樣的新年。
年初二一早，與堂姐一家人會合。原害怕會尷尬，因爲很久不見。但原來喜慶時期在他鄉遇親戚的感覺是如此的親切美好，那種孤單失落的感覺頓時消失。
吃點心時，無意閒說起南Y島，堂姐夫就爽快地說：去吧！於是，我們在那裏經歷了大家的第一次：行山。沿著山路，由南Y島的榕樹灣，爬過幾個山頭，到達另一端的索罟灣，費時一個多小時左右。



在索罟灣，本人又經歷了人生的另一個第一次：吃真鮑魚！還有幾種不知道什麽名字，但從沒吃過的海鮮。


花了將近900元，除了感激，還是深深地感激。感激的除了是讓我體會到了我之前都沒有機會吃的東西，更是因爲讓我體會到親戚閒的微妙感情。才知道一直以來指揮羡慕別人與親人閒的親密感情，自己卻從來沒有給自己給親人機會，讓彼此靠得更近。

就這樣三步一小吃，五步一糖水，十步一大餐的情況下度過了和他們在一起的兩天，新年呆在房裏吃白粥麥片的減肥計劃也宣告泡湯。

獨在異鄉為異客。幸好，有你們的陪伴，即便只有兩天，也已足夠我滿足。謝謝~

my creations

after buying my hotplate, it's time i start experimenting with cooking again..hee~

luckily, no one's gonna suffer cos i am the guinea pig! =P

anyway, so far, it has been delicious...and i am enjoying the time spent cooking too =).

above: basa fillet with mashed potatoes and cherry tomato soup
guinea pig's verdict: delicious but i added too much oil so there's room for improvement.


above: pasta muesli
guinea pig's verdict: tastes ok but should cook the pasta longer and add more sauce too. overall--nutritious, low-fat and high in fibre.




next try at pasta...noting my mistakes previously and aiming to improve....hmmm~


above: pasta with tomato and romano cheese sauce
guinea pig's verdict: sauce and pasta are just right and the sauce is thick enough. however, a dash of basil or italian herb leaves would enhance the flavour of the tomatoes.

now, i am in my pasta craze...haha, actually it's cos i bought the pasta sauce so must quickly try to finish it la..but everyday just eat pasta wif tt sauce alone boring sia..so my brain starts working again...



can u guess what's inside? hee~

above: pasta bows with peach and plum puree and mashed potaotes

guinea pig's verdict: i simply love this dish!yummy! the sauce is thick and is naturally sweetened by the plum and peach while the tomato-based pasta sauce which is a little soury checks that the sweetness is not too overwhelming. this dish has no oil, only 2 grams of fat from the pasta and the fruits provide the fibre and vitamin c. the potatoes also has anti-oxidants..hmmm, i'm so happie =)


above: milky pasta with plum and peach puree
guinea pig's verdict: this one doesnt look as appetising as the former but it's more tangy cos of the hardened milk which tastes like cheese...just that this is without the fats..haha..the 1st pic looks like lontong..i don noe what i did to the cam such tt the colour in the 2nd pic looks different. anyway, i like the sauce cos the peach and orange miraculously retained their juiciness while at the same time giving the sauce a hint of sweetness..yummy!

CNY alone...

there is practically no sign of chinese new year in brisbane..not unless u step into chinatown...since there was no one to accompany me, i went there alone today..


this is a kungfu performance by the shaolin kungfu group in brisbane. most of them are young kids and ALL are caucasians.

the sunday markets in chinatown was more lively this time and many aussies were seen buying the red and gold pig decorations.

this is a pig-shaped pouch..its so soft and cute i even thought of buying it for myself..all of them have a small pink ribbon on the side of their right ears..i didnt buy in the end though, its 7.20sgd!

this roadside thai style chicken satay is one of the biggest and fattest ones i have seen before..highly unhealthy though...




my lunch. bought from the same stall above. its a thai/laos delicacy and its made of glutinous rice, red bean and banana. banana leaves are used to tie it up tightly and then they are steamed. the beige thing u see in the pic is the banana..taste---a little sweet and sticky..you get sick of eating it after a while though...

團年飯。。

年三十晚，白粥配bovril牛肉汁，一個人的團年飯，一個人的夜晚。。
每逢佳節倍思親，隱約感受到了。。想念的不是家裏豐盛的晚餐，而是一家人一起吃飯的溫馨感覺~
這是tradeoff,要來香港，就要嘗試美和家人一起過年的滋味

不過還是謝謝新加坡的朋友們，在年三十晚的兩天前準備了豐盛的晚餐，早來的團年飯~

outing to sunnybank

today,Mandy and I went to sunnybank for lunch and supposedly to buy my heater for winter and my hotplate to cook too...sunnybank is the so-called "2nd chinatown in brisbane".. we settled for shanghai food at the shanghai noodle house..below is a picture of wat I ate...hey, its so much i couldn't finish!!!


shanghai fried noodles with minced pork

anyway, it was reali delicious and judging from my strict food restrictions that it cant be too oily/salty, cant hv too much green leafy veggies and cant hv seafood..(lord noes what else in the world am i gonna eat?!)..this dish still earned my praise! haha..it was seriously not too oily and salty and with chinese tea to wash down any excess oil, i did not suffer from any "withdrawal symptoms" due to it being to salty and/or oily...

and...greedy me..i caught sight of a crepe store and it only costs 3.50aud--it's considered cheap le in aussie terms.. the menu made my mouth water..the price? it made my hand "itch"...my brain? it was in a dilemma...*0* hahaha..

anyway, the menu has items like mayonaise with pork floss crepe, banana with nutella crepe, peach yoghurt with crepe, gelato with crepe, banana custard crepe etc....i was SPOILT FOR CHOICE!...i chose the last one in the end and omg, it was super delicious!

the crepe is hot and crisp and the heat made the custard melt which meshed well with the soft bananas and left a creamy and lingering after taste..omg..its heavenly! sigh, i wanted to take a picture of it b4 eating but haha greedy me alr bit a bit off!


banana custard crepe
--you cant exactly see the filling here but well, i'm telling you its delicious and u gotta believe me ya?

on the way back to my home, i saw the most no. of police cars in my whole life..there were reali ALOT...more than 10 and their lights were on and hey, they were not empty and had real policemen in them...a whole section of the roads in the city was cordoned off too....what's happening???

on the extreme left, you see the van with the big camera on top? haha..many pple stood around to take pictures too..hee, and i thot only sgpns were kaypoh! haha..=P



haha..they were actually filming a show and all the white cars you see lining up behind one another are ALL police cars..haiz...nan de let me see a show being filmed live and why...of all places in aussie when i noe none of the stars..i don feel as much excitement...sigh..let me see one in HK or TW..hmm, or even Sg wld be more exciting compared to....

k k, to everyone out there..do have a safe and happie cny with ur frens and family =)