Taman Negara Pulau Pinang

In the mood for hiking and ahdik is home. So went for an early breakfast at the fishing village at Teluk Bahang. There weren’t many stalls open but we did find a stall selling nasi lemak. After breakfast, we walked over to Taman Negara Pulau Pinang (Penang’s National Park), registered to walk to Pantai Kerachut (Kerachut Beach, which is situated at the top left tip of the Penang Island) and apply citronella oil to gear ourselves for the mosquitos that we’ll be bumping into.

The hike to Pantai Kerachut was lots of fun! We came across all kinds of funny looking root arrangement, black ants hive, and a large diversity of flora. It took us about 2 hours to get to Pantai Kerachut, stopping every now and then to catch a breath.

The best was when we arrived at Pantai Kerachut. It was definitely worth the 2 hour hike. It feels good to see that we still have pristine beaches in Penang. Ping had lots of fun climbing up the rocks by the beach!!! The one thing that ahdik and Ping missed from Bali is the huge waves. There are barely any exciting waves at Pantai Kerachut but the beach at Pantai Kerachut might be a little dangerous for those who can’t swim because the sediment does not gradually deepens but it deepens in step-wise. If you go too far, you’ll realize that you can no longer reach the bottom.

After spending sometime soaking in the seawater and drying on the rock, we took the boat back to Teluk Bahang. We got a really nice boatman who told us about the Batu Penyu (Turtle Rock) and Batu Buaya (Crocodile Rock) along the way back. It was definitely a fun Sunday morning! We are planning to make another trip there when Mei Ling gets back, this time with maybe with some homemade char bee hoon by gee kim!! *grins*

Around KL

As Ping haven't been back to Kuala Lumpur (that's the capitol city of Malaysia), we stayed in KL for a few days. It also so happened that mum and dad's birthday was on the Saturday that Ping was back. So we also had ahboy came in from Penang to celebrate their birthday with a surprise birthday cake for them...a birthday cake with an incorrect greetings - Ma, ma, macadamia cake.
The next day, we went to Brickfields temple for Puja and then later to meet up with Li Foong and Sze Huey to catch up with all the latest stuff, talked bout the old times and all the good stuff. After temple, we head over to Titiwangsa Lake to see The Eye on Malaysia - huge, tall, but nothing special lah. It is just a ferris-wheel. We didn't even walk near it. Just took photo from a far.
After walking around, we went to the Pavilion for more window shopping and lunch. That's the new shopping center near Bukit Bintang area. Definitely a place for window shopping only as everything is super expensive - a place where credit card is totally acceptable.
For lunch, there is a large food court area that has all kinds of food, from Asian to Western. We had Korean, yup, even after Ping just had Korean in the plane.
Done with KL, we drove to PJ - to makan again!! There is this indian uncle who sells indian rojak at the corner of a playground at SS4. We used to go there on mornings of weekend when we were still staying at SS4, and once in a while when we moved to Sunway. He used to sell it on a motorbike but sometime ago, he started using a lorry. When we got there, it was raining and yet, we still wanted to eat it. So we ta pau and had it inside the car. It is still one of the best indian rojak Ping ever had!
At night was junk food from pasar malam. Ping's favorite - keropok lekur!!!

Back in Malaysia

Ping is back home!! Been back in Penang for 3 days already. Ping flew out of Michigan last Thursday morning via Detroit airport...
Had a 2 hour transit at Atlanta and flew out of US of A to Korea via Korean Airlines. Pretty decent food but there were not much nice movies to watch so end up watching Bourne Ultimatum.
Almost missed Ping's connecting flight in Korea as the flight from Atlanta arrived 20 minutes before departing time but lucky thing, the connecting flight was delayed for 2 hours. Ping was so bored then that Ping slept most of the trip back to Malaysia. Was super excited to see mum and dad and being back home!!!!

Back home....

Ping is currently on Michigan Flyer bus heading towards Detroit to catch her flight to Atlanta and later to KL, M'sia. Will see you all soon!!!

Thanks a bunch to all who helped Ping!!!

Happy 2008!!!

Happy New Year!!! How was everyone's new year celebration? Ping had a very unique celebration this year. One that Ping would not have done before - invited some Malaysians over for steamboat. Yup, not the 'si si man man' style they serve at Omi Sushi or korean restaurant but the 'chong ar!!' style. Hehehe....

Got out from work around 4pm and went to pick Lin Pei up to get the stuff for steamboat. We spent about an hour and half preparing everything, which was super easy since they don't have to be fully cook as we'll be cooking while eating! The last thing was the 'bak uan' (pork balls) where we sat in front of the TV rolling the 'uans' while watching 轉角. 遇到愛. Just as we got everything all set up, Wei Yi, Pei Hwa arrived, bringing along Sabrina, a new Malaysian undergrad who just arrived the day before. While we were preparing drinks and talking about taking photos, our professional photographer - Ming Woei - came by with his video-cam this time!! Although a lot of the 'gang' was away celebrating their NY with friends or families, just the few of us remaining made it possible for Ping to invite them over. But, it would have been much more fun if TT and Jo was around!!

So what is steamboat and why do we like it so much? It is simply a pot of soup (usually made from chicken stock or pork ribs) and a variety of bite size seafood, vegetables and meat. The most common sides is the 'uans' (balls) - 'hu uan' (fish ball), sotong ball, 'hae uan' (shrimp ball) - all kinds of balls you can think of, they are usually there. We missed out on one of the best types of fish ball though - the Fuzhou style fish ball where there is meat and a little bit of sauce in the fish ball. Of course there is fish and shrimp.
To eat, we will dump anything we want into the pot of soup and then sit around and chat until the soup boils, the balls will float up and they are ready to be eaten. Most of the balls are usually partially cook so they cook very fast. However, the meat like chicken and fish, they have to sliced thinly so that they can cook faster. Traditionally, a pot that can be separated into two compartment is used so that one side is the non-spicy soup base and the other is spicy soup base. Since Ping doesn't have that kind of pot, we started out with the non-spicy soup and then after the second round, Ping added some chilli paste to make it spicy. However, knowing us Malaysians where there must always be chilli even when we're eating stuff that are not spicy, it didn't matter if we had spicy soup or not.
Just for the fun of it, Ping also made Blueberry Puff Pastry. Easy stuff but wish it was raspberry instead of blueberry because red would have made the picture look nicer than the blue that blends into the chocolate filling. Anyway, it was tasty though! Hehe!

We were done with dinner by 9pm but sitting in front of the pot for most of the night is not necessarily good because Ping 'zhui yang', keep picking on the food. We sat around and sang lots and lots of '安靜' and them being awesome friends, didn't mind watching Jay's 無與倫比 Concert since majority of Ping's DVDs are Jay's work. We switched between that and ABC channel showing the countdown at New York City.

As we approached midnight, we had Ming Woei playing Auld Lang Syne on the guitar and more Jay after midnight. Thanks a bunch for coming over guys!! Ping had lots of fun!!

Reflecting back, this year is the most social that Ping have ever done! Not just while Ping is in the States but 'THE　ＭＯＳＴ’. Sometimes it takes the right people to just get you out of the shell or maybe it is finding the right 默契. Also thanks to you all, Ping 可以驕傲的說, 我已經不會再給某人讓我傷心了. 因為遇到你們, 我看得到這世界其實還有真實的愛, 還有一種可以讓人感覺到安慰的愛. Happy 2008!!!

Black Friday shopping

Was lepaking at Gylin's place after we makan and karaoke-ing. The guys mentioned that they wanted to go to Birch Run for Black Friday shopping. Ping's first reaction - gila! Drive until so far, line up in the freezing cold weather...where got worth it wor. Somemore Ping got nothing to buy also and already plan to go to Frankenmuth with the girls on Saturday mah...so wait until Sat lah. Why want to go 'khek khek' with other gila people. Then first Wei Yi offered to drive us there so Ping mah okay lor...got people drive, why not? But kong lai, kong khi, Ping end up driving all of us there. Haha..even BK was surprised Ping actually drove all the way. 自己都還有點奇怪為什麼會做這麼無聊的事. 可能是因為那晚不太想回家吧.

*Black Friday is like Merdeka sale in Malaysia but 10 times worse. You have to line up to get into the store, then sio chiau with people to get the stuff you want, then line up to pay...

So we drove there at like 12 mn...got there around 1am or so and shop till 5am. Think we bought lots of stuff? Nope. The longest we spent was at Columbia where the line to the cashier is like super long but the winter jackets were very cheap lor - less than USD50. But then Ping didn't buy any...hehe..only bought a pair of gloves. Just teman the girls to get it. 無聊? A bit ler...but 都一起去, 當然要一起走馬. Just for the fun of it.

The one Ping really wanted to get from Thanksgiving sale is a Samsonite luggage. Already thought about it since Ping got her air ticket to go home. Her luggage is super old and has lots of cracks edi...probably can last one more trip home only. So that is actually where we spent the majority of our time - at Samsonite. That is also because Ping cannot make up her mind if she should get it, and which one should she get. So we kinda lepak there for while, called mummy, then think think think somemore, and finally decided on one. Was glad Ping bought it 'coz Ping really do like it. It is very easy to move it around.
But Ping was most satisfied with the stuff the got at Nike. Got 4 long pants and they are all very comfortable! Love Nike pants! Their quality last much longer than most. Ping got one before Ping came to MSU and still look like new!! Haha..but you know what, almost all of the stuff Ping got at Nike are Made in Malaysia!! Well, at least Ping can say she supports Buatan Malaysia!! Keke... Also bought some clothes for ahdik. Not sure if you can wear the white one but you so san kiu kiu, should be okay I think.

Got home close to 7am, took shower and KOed straight away until 12noon. Gila right? Aiyer,久久才一次吗. *bleh*

But Ping's best deal for Thanksgiving is actually something more awesome! That is definitely a luxury...but but but....a bit hard to resist lah. HEhe...wanna know what? Will post pic soon...now wanna go home and eat orange!

Thanksgiving Dinner

This year's Thanksgiving dinner is at Gylin and Boon Keat's house. It will also be one of the last few gathering we will have at their place for this year as they will be moving to Indianapolis soon. Will definitely be meeting the two little kids - Jayden and Chloe - soon. So we gotta find more 機會 to play with them!

Inside of the usual Malaysian food potluck during our gatherings, we decided to have an American style Thanksgiving dinner instead. So what does American have for Thanksgiving?

Turkey! That's the most important dish during Thanksgiving! It's the symbol of Thanksgiving Day! TT and Jo were the main cook for the turkey stuff - the turkey itself and the stuffing.
Besides turkey and stuffing, the other traditional stuff are green beans and mashed potatoes, which were prepared by Lin Pei. Jo also prepared the sauces like the brown gravy and cranberry sauce to 'poey' with the turkey. Ping likes the brown sauce more; never really did like the cranberry sauce when Ping first tried it. Wei Yi also made spinach dip which was really good! We definitely did get a little full on it before everyone else starts arriving and while we (mostly TT and Jo) were preparing the food.
What did Ping made leh? Blueberry bread which actually didn't turn out as well as Ping wanted it to but it was edible so okay lah. Ping also made a chicken almond rice casserole. Ping got the recipe from Rachel Ray's site. Ping quite like it. It has no cheese like most casserole has and it uses cream of mushroom rather than milk. Ping also decorated the top with the broccoli tree to make it look not so plain. Zhi Thing and Pei Hua also made spaghetti but Ping just realized that Ping didn't take picture of it!!

The uncle and aunty who manage the one and only Malaysian restaurant in town - Suria - were also invited. But as we had expected, they brought mee goreng! Malaysian food! Kinda spoil the 'traditional American' theme but everyone was glad to get to eat Malaysian food....Malaysians mah...go until where also will end up looking for Chinese/M'sian food wan.
One of the great dish is the dessert. Bread pudding! (by Gylin) Pumpkin pie! (by Ming) They were both really good! Not too 甜 like the ones you get from the stores. Have to get the bread pudding recipe from Gylin edi since Ping really like bread pudding!
It is definitely one of the best Thanksgiving Ping have had in the States. Will definitely be missing the Chui family when they leave but that also means that we now have a reason to go to Indianapolis! Keke...

Happy Thanksgiving!

The first snow fall on Thanksgiving Day! Isn't it lovely?

Ping went to bed when it started snowing. When Ping woke up, the view outside the window is all white. The weather is kinda gloomy but the brightness of the snow cheers you up...makes you wanna run out there and just feel the snow! Love days like this!

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrates it and have a great break to those who celebrates the holiday!

Jet Boating!

Yippee...finally got the Jet Boat pictures scanned! Wanna guess where we are?


Haha! We're all the way at the front! Ping is all the way to the left corner side of the front seat! Very chi kek!! Awesome ride! Love the splash of the water! and....the cute Canadian captain! Haha!!

colors of Fall

The days are getting shorter...weather is getting colder (snow is started to creep its way into the forecast)...mood gets gloomier..but no matter what season, there's always something out there that makes you feel better...makes you wanna treasure 'this moment' more than brood about the gloomy weather.

Ping's favorite thing about Fall...the colors of the leaves - the change from various shades of green to various colors, from brown to yellow to orange to red..lovely! Was upset over some experiments earlier this week and the best remedy - take a walk! So Ping took a walk to get a cup of bubble tea and snapped some pictures on the way back. This one right below is by the Red Cedar River - the river that separates the campus into North and South side. Not entirely clean based on bacterial and chemical load but definitely way better than Sungai Pinang since you don't see any visible solid wastes. See how the colors range from green to red and yellow? Nice!
It is nice to get a book and hang around by the river - something that Ping have yet to do - or feed the ducks that roam around there. The rocks were not placed there for aesthetic purpose, but to increase the aeration of the river so that more oxygen is available for the activity of the high load of microbes in the river. However, it turned out to be a very nice spot as you can hear the water rumbles through it.
Here's Ping's favorite color combinations....(not for clothes ya! just for leaves...*Grins*).

Today's weather is still pretty nice. It gets much colder at night but Ping likes it...makes her wanna cuddle into bed, hugs her Elli-O and escape to Fantasyland...haha.

This is as much as they could do????

Awards for non-Malay scholars

KUALA LUMPUR: For the first time, Wanita Umno is presenting gold medals and a RM1,000 award each to non-Malay university students in recognition of their academic excellence.

The three non-Malay medal recipients will join the 18 other exceptional Malay students getting the annual award.

The three are from the Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Universiti Teknologi Petronas and Universiti Malaya......

Seriously, is this all they can do???? Three!! Chinese consists 26% of Malaysia's population of 22 million (as far as Ping can remember). That makes the number of Chinese people to be 5.72 million...so 3 people out of 5.72 million???? That's like 0.00005% of the Chinese population..AND that's not including the Indians and the other races yet!!! First, we had to compete with the quota system (yeah, not with other smart people BUT with the quota system) to get into a university. Then, we have to pay if we wanna study higher than a bachelor's degree (not because of no funding from the professor but the school doesn't care, they just want you to pay). Worse, for those from less-well-to-do families, they can't even apply for scholarships no matter how smart they are. Sad..

Now, they are proud enough to report this in the nation's newspaper? Geezzz....

“We thought, since this is the 50th independence year, we will present the gold medals to the non-Malays in recognition of the other races.

Oh wait, they were not really thinking of awarding the outstanding students, it was because this is the 50th independence year. Doesn't that sentence sounds like the non-Malays are placed in a different category?

Well, maybe I'm just missed out some facts and I'm reading this all wrong. So if I am, why don't you tell me? coz all I see is 'racism'. Seriously, why should the 'race' be a fact in awarding scholarships? Just because the one who forks out the money is UMNO? Hmm...why don't we all pay tax differently then? and RM1000? Three months of rent and it is probably gone.

Ping is in a foreign country. No special status - just simply an alien. But hard work as an undergrad pays off with scholarships sufficient enough to pay tuition fees AND rent. Would I have gotten this in M'sia? Why don't you tell me? Ping could have not read the article. But Ping knows a few people who had bad experience with local unis and they deserve way better than what they get. Is this what M'sian education is teaching us? That if you're not 'their people' no one is gonna back you up?

Don't get me wrong. Ping still loves Malaysia. Given a second choice, Ping would still choose to be born in Malaysia. The rich culture and the life experience that Ping have gotten there is what makes Ping today. But there are times when the country just shouts out disappointment.

Disappointed.

it will never be the same...

Steph left this morning. For good. She's moving on to better science and a new stage of her life. Ping is totally happy for her that everything worked out fine despite the hard start she had. But it also means that Ping will have to get use to not having Steph around.

Being an international student, trying to find a friend whom you can get really close and call her/him your best friend was never easy for Ping. You always feel that they are superior to you because you're in their country living within their culture. It was pretty adventurous for Ping to adapt to their culture but it is impossible to lose your own culture within theirs. What does that mean? That means that to be your true self, the friend does not only have to be willing to share their culture with you, but also be able to accept your own culture. Steph is the 2nd person whom Ping totally clicked with here in the States. It took some time but when Ping felt comfortable enough, Ping knew that she's someone Ping will always be friends with, and not someone whom you meet, hang around for a while and then never contact at all. She patiently taught Ping a lot about what and why they do some stuff here, about all the fun stuff, about stuff that is a no-no, about words and terms they use, and all the little things...she was also caring enough to ask about Ping's life in M'sia, how Ping maintain Ping's own culture and she's curious about other cultures.

Being in science, it is also not easy to find a friend who is willing to listen to your 'hit-the-wall-moments', a friend whom you feel comfortable discussing with and not feel like you're being judge, someone whom it's okay to ask a stupid question that you should have known but did not, someone whom you could tell your ideas to, someone who could be a mentor. But with Steph, that was all possible. Grad school was much harder than Ping had expected. It wasn't just like undergrad research, it was not just research, it was also learning to deal with times when research does not work. There were times when the thought of quitting and going home to get a job crossed Ping's mind. But because of Steph's encouragement, Ping had gone through her pre-lim and is now having a pretty cool project to work with. Okay, that's also thanks to the boss but without Steph, grad school would be much much harder than this.

Daniel Powter - Bad Day. It was Steph who introduced this song to Ping. Steph, there can never be enough thanks for all that you've done for me - both in and out of lab. You've been a great friend and mentor to me. You totally fit into the 'hard-to-come-by' category. I will be missing you!!! Not only when I'm having a bad day (and having to get yogurt parfait or bubble tea all by myself) but also when I'm having a great time (and getting weird glares for my excitement)....I'll make sure it'll transmit over to the land of Tattoine (I wonder if they are much more environmentally friendly there? Don't forget to recycle the papers!).

Canada - Niagara Falls by day

Yes, yes, this is a super old trip but Ping have not been organizing her pics very well lately so forgot about the pics that haven't been posted yet. Aiyo, bo eng mah. :P

Think we got enough of the falls after the wonderful fireworks and watching the colorful falls at night? Nope. Once you're there, you have to see it during the day also mah. Think that standing by the streets watching the falls is as close as you could get? Nope. You can get way closer.

BUT, the falls was not the first thing we visited the next morning. Instead, we drove past the falls (while ooh- and aahing over it, and having emo moments), past a few parks and lovely house, listening to 王力宏's 蓋世英雄, for about 30-40 minutes west of the falls. Why leh? It's the Whirlpool Jet Boat!! What is that leh? It's a jet boat that takes us into the whirlpool (large, swirling pool of body, usually created when there is an almost 90 degrees turn by the river landscape). A bit expensive, but it was definitely lots of fun! When they told us that we would get wet, we were wondering how wet, what should we wear.... When we got there, they make us remove everything (including sunglasses, keys, anything that can fly away), put on a poncho and wet shoes. Some of us was like, aiyah, got poncho wouldn't be so bad lah....but you know what, don't even bother thinking about it because no matter what you wear, you'll get wet - TOTALLY WET, including underwear and bra! Unless you have on a wet suit (like the super cute guide that we had!!). The poncho was mostly to keep us from getting too cold due to the cold water from the river. We get to sit right up front too!!(and kap the super shuai ge in front..hehe). Since Ping do not have a water-proof camera, Ping cannot supply any photos, except for this one that we took after the ride.
What do you all think of our 'kampung style' Nissan Altima? Hehehe...lucky thing we brought extra clothes.

While driving back to the falls, we stop by to take some pictures at the Butterfly Conservatory, and was excited to see a Buddhist temple, so we stopped by to take some pics too. Really miss going to the temple as all the Buddhist temples in Michigan are at least 1 hr drive from Ping's place...not that you can't be a devoted Buddhist without going to the temple, but...aiyah, dunno how to explain lah.

After finding a parking spot, we are finally going onto the Maid of the Mist! Yup, that's the one thing no one should miss when going to Niagara Falls. One thing Ping realized when we were lining up to get onto the boat - there's a M'sian feeling - people cutting lines!! It must be due to foreigners...or maybe Canadians are like us M'sians too! That is something you don't see at the States (or the limited amount of places Ping have been in the States) - they are very polite about forming lines for ANYTHING...getting on the bus, getting on rides, buying stuff (even free stuff). At the Maid of the Mist, if you don't keep pushing your way thru, sorry lah. You stand there ban ban tan or until you kena push by other people.
That's a view while we were in line to get onto the boat. Yup, the boat goes right into the middle of it. We do get wet, but not as bad as the jet boat.
Yay, we're finally on the boat! They also make us wear the poncho, but it is one of those made of plastic long. They have a recycling bin where you can put them in after the ride, which you think most people would put it into if they don't plan to bring it home as a souvenir. But no, we saw some fallen down on the street and some stuffed into rubbish bins. Why? Why? Why?!!!!?!?!?!?
That's how close we got. We are in the whirpool area. Looks really cool to do a white water rafting there...but might be too strong to get good control of the raft unless one's a pro.

Okay, back to studying. Ping got an exam on Wednesday...kinda excited! It's been a while Ping took an exam. Hehe...

周杰倫 - 我很忙

Woohoo!!! 杰威爾終於聯播周董的新專輯了. 好帥哦!!! 好期待!!! 但希望他的新風格不會太 Country, 因為Country 一點都不適合他. 好想在台灣買他的預購海報!!! 真的很酷!!! 哈哈...等不及了!!!

星期六的深夜

王力宏的星期六深夜 - 很配合我現在的心情.

星期六晚上, 哪都不想去, 也無法入睡
看著電視機, 持續在發呆, 喝了七分醉,
闭上了眼睛, 試著不想你, 但已來不及,

星期六深夜, 我想起了你, 沒什麼特別, 只是回憶



剛剛在朋友的家看 The Ex 和 Step Up. 兩個戲都有愛情的故事. 讓我們想到戀愛的感覺. 讓我很想念以前的生活, 在高中的生活, 在大學的生活, 還有在跟BK交往的時候. 我們分手已經快三年了. 雖然一個人有自己的自由, 要做什麼都沒人關, 有比較多時間跟朋友出去玩玩, 但有時候還是會想念有個男朋友的感覺. 不一定是想著那個人, 是想那種甜蜜的感覺, 想念有個人陪著你作無聊的事情. 你孤單的時候有個人在你身邊, 你難過的時候有人能讓你笑, 你開心的時候有人跟你一起笑. 哈哈...好奇怪哦, 為什麼我今晚這麼想有個男朋友的感覺呢? 應該是因為看太多戲了吧. 也有可能因為single的朋友越來越少吧. 或許是因為很想家, 所以想有一個男朋友來給一個家人的感覺吧.

別擔心, 不會吹它的. 我相信愛情自己到時間的時候一定會來的. 現在只能欣賞以前完美的回憶.

If you can be a superhero, which one would you be?

This question recently came up when Steph and Ping was having a 'crazy moment'. Have you ever thought of that? Not really eh?

Ping's answer - Captain Planet!!!!

Remember him? Captain Planet and the Planeteers would fight against the Eco-Villan to save the Earth. It was one of the 4/5pm cartoon during Ping's primary school days (maybe it was still playing during high school but Ping always get sekolah petang so never did took notice then). Ping actually forgot about him until Steph brought him up that day! During the commercial break, there is usually a public service announcement about how to reduce pollution (we're gonna take pollution down to zero!), save energy, and all the other environmental friendly stuff.

So yeah, that's who Ping wanna be. But with the amount of pollutants that we are creating today, Captain Planet is probably having a hard time saving the Earth.

Sometimes, we can't avoid creating more pollutants since they are in almost every cleaning products. But, there are definitely greener products out there. Ping recently found 'Method' at Target. Ping got their dish soap scented with pink grapefruit. All their products are made up of biodegradable ingredients. As of now, Ping had already used 1/4 of the bottle and washed 3 months worth of dishes and it does not seem to be any different from the other Earth-destryoing dish soap. The prices is a little bit more than the cheap ones but USD3-5 for a bottle of dish soap that last 1/2 year is worth it. Another nice thing with it is that it does not contain phosphate, which is harmful to rivers and lakes. Now Method can also be found at Walmart and CVS, or just buy it online lor. Too bad they don't market it to M'sia yet.
Check it out this book too....it is lots of fun! There's actually so many ways to save the environment! We can help Captain Planet!

Happy Friday!

There are times when you go to bed, with your alarm clock set. But you wake up fresh before the alarm clock rings....your first thought, let's get the day started! That is when you know you had a GOOD NIGHT's SLEEP.

That was how Ping's morning started today. Woke up, washed up and started reading some review paper for class later that day. By the time Ping finished the paper, it was only 6.30am...so decided to make some breakfast - roti canai and kurma chicken!
Roti canai...that's one of the most popular breakfast dish in Malaysia. It is a piece of dough cooked on a flat pan and eaten with various types of curry. Ping's favorite roti canai is roti planta - roti canai with some margarine (but Planta is much nicer than margarine. Actually Planta is a brand name of a margarine that is often used in M'sia but Ping thinks that it taste a little different from most margarine)...yeah, not a very healthy one but 'ho chiak' enough already lah. Hehehe... Occasionally, Ping would order roti telur (add egg) but it usually makes the roti much more filling so it is the choice only if Ping is super hungry.

While Ping is on the roti canai topic, some memories of eating at a roti canai stall right next to a main road back in Sri Subang. This particular stall has one of the best roti canai Ping ever had. It started out as a small stall on the pavement right next to someone's house, next to the main road of Sri Subang. There was only one long table where we have to share it with random strangers. Later, they moved into a food court closer to our house. It was not any posh restaurant and stray cats frequently roam around the table...nope, not a pretty sight, but that's what Ping grew up with...one of the great memories. Wonder if the stall is still there at the food court....

Back to today, continued working on stuff for ESP after breakfast. It was definitely a very productive morning for Ping. The feeling is awesome!!! Class was great too! Ping was a little lost every now and then because Ping didn't know the background of the author of the report, which sounds like a pretty scandalous background. But, Ping still loves the class!

After work, we (Steph, Kristi and Ping) went over to Jen's place for dinner and hang out. It was nice just to sit around and talk about what's going on about us...just life in general, talk about our childhood ( we actually talked about 尿尿 and 夢游). It has been quite a while since we had the chance to do that. Ping have been planning the big gorilla experiment on Fridays so always end up skipping our Friday girls night out because by the time Ping is done with the experiment and the cleaning up, it is pretty late.

Jen and Kristi prepared dinner for us while Ping and Steph met up with them later due to some unavoidable incident. Salad with mushroom and Wheat Thins. The multigrain Wheat Thins are really good!
After salad, we hang around Jen's place for a while before heading towards Krispy Kreme. That's the best doughnut in town! Way better than the Dunkin Donuts here but Ping still likes the doughnuts back home.
There's the football season donuts...none of us got it but it sure looks cute!

This one on the right is Ping's favorite! Chocolate coated...custard filling...yummy!!

We also get to watch them make doughnuts...and we happens to be there when the machine was not 100% efficient because we saw lots of cacated doughnuts.
After the snack, we took a short trip to Chang-Wee residence for a lantern walk to celebrate Lantern Festival/Mooncake Festival/Mid-Autumn Festival.

好快樂的星期五!

Watermelon Frost

Remember the watermelon frost? It is applied on canker sores. Nope, we don't use any Ibuprofen or modern medicine. Instead, we would dab a little of the powder on the canker sore and go to sleep. It is usually much better the next morning. Ping gets canker sores quite often, especially on the bottom left of the inner cheek...for some reason, Ping's cheek is a little too fat there and Ping always bites on it..ouch! So Ping brought some of the watermelon frost here. Don't apply it during the day though because Ping would look like a vampire who just had a lovely meal. Kekekeke...

Anyway, just finished reading an article on Mercury in power plant emission and Ping thought of an old news where mercury was found in watermelon frost...remember that? It happened probably about 10 years ago? Agak-agak lah. So Ping decides to slack and start surfing for mercury and watermelon powder/frost.

The first thing that came up was today's news from the Taiwan government.

Lawmaker seeks stricter rules on Chinese-made medicines

So this is actually prohibited in Taiwan eh...but all brands or just some of em? Hmmm....wonder what is the mercury source in the watermelon frost? Is it while the watermelon is sitting in the Earthern bowl that the mercury is being absorbed into the watermelon? But only HgCl and CH3Hg are the reactive form...and it seems like it is more likely for the watermelon frost to accumulate elemental Hg right? But when you google around more, you'll find companies 三金 saying that their products are safe to be consumed. Unfortunately, Ping brought the watermelon powder in a 'eok uan' container rather than in its proper container since Ping only took a little of ahmah's stock...so Ping could not look to see what company was it produced from and what is the ingredient. On the other hand, the entire generation or two before us (mum/dad and ahmah/ahkong's) were using it all their childhood life...so does that mean that we should be tested for mercury to see if it is at a toxic level? Haha...where got so kua cheong hor...

But of course still have to be careful lah...don't want to end up like this case here.

Mercury intoxication presenting with tics

Wanna look at the article but Ping is currently at home (yah lor, slacking lor....haha..I wish ar!) so could not get access to the article. Maybe will check it out later...

Ping definitely still prefer the traditional medicine...hate pills! In fact, whenever Ping falls sick at home, Ping would get the appropriate 'eok uan' from ahmah rather than going to the doctor. Here, no choice lah...when cannot tahan have to go to the doctor..but even then, Ping usually gets the injection rather than eating pills. Yup, still do the injection. Ok ok, it is a psychological 'I can't do it' but why must Ping try when injection is so much less painful, faster effect and less hassle? *grins widely*

中秋節快樂!!

Happy Mooncake Festival and Happy Lantern Festival!!! That's Ping's favorite...lotus paste with egg yolk!!

It is getting much easier to celebrate mooncake festival here now that you can get mooncakes here for a pretty reasonable price. Ping bought 3 for USD 5 today...because it is actually the day after Mooncake Festival since according to the Chinese Lunar calendar, it was yesterday. But get to eat enough edi mah...in addition to that, we'll be having a lantern walk this weekend too.

Ping's first baby

When Ping came back from Woods Hole last year, Ping planted her first baby....plant in the States - chilli! Now it is huge and giving Ping lots and lots of 'luak luak' chilli. In addition to that, Ping also got a chilli plant from tiptup early August and it is also making lots and lots of chilli edi! By the way, blogger thinks that 'chilli' is a wrong spelling! Is Ping really spelling the word wrong or is blogger just dumb? Hmmm...the word is confusing in the States anyway. When you say chilli (which is probably spelt chili), people will think of this stew that is super yummy! But when we (M'sians) say chilli, we usually mean 'hot peppers' (as known by the Americans) aka 'huan chio' (hokkien) aka la4 jiao1 (辣椒).

The growth of Ping's chilli....
This is just about 1 month old. It was still warm outside so it was sitting out at Ping's balcony (or as the Americans call it, patio). As it grew bigger, Ping stopped taking pictures because Ping's prelim was getting near. Eventually, Ping had to bring it back to the lab. It sat right next to a radio that was by the window near Ping's bench and desk. However, it didn't get much TLC (tender loving care...as learned from Steph) because Ping was mostly at home reading and writing.

Then, the big day came, the break down came (but Ping handled it pretty okay...I think?), and then it ended and *phew*, can finally 'chuan tua kui'. But just a few days after Ping passed the scary exam, Ping took off and went back home, leaving the baby chilli in Steph's hands. She did a great job keeping them alive! As we can see on the right, it grew and grew and grew and became really tall that Ping had to tip-toe to water the top leaves! It became so big that it blocking Ping's awesome view of the campus.


Then the weather warms up and Ping brought it home...and so it went to the balcony again. Ping had to change pot for it too because the roots where starting to become visible from the top.

As time goes by, Ping started to see flowers....







then the chilli buds...








Next thing you know....jeng jeng jeng....the whole tree is full of chilli!!!
However, it has already been about a month since some of them came out and they don't seem to turn red so maybe they are 'cheh huan chio'.

On the other hand, the one from tiptup is 'ang huan chio' as it has recently started to turn red. This was taken last week and now, half of them is red already.

Yippee...just in time to watch House!! House is back! The crazy doctor!

Resident Evil

Just got back from Steph's. Had a Resident Evil movie spree - watched the first and second one in a row. The third one is out and Ping have yet to see the first two so Steph and Jen was nice enough to spend our Friday evening activity watching the first two so that Ping can catch up to watch the one that is coming out today.

Played the PS game a long long time ago when ahdik had his first PS console. Love the movie! The effects during the action scene was awesome! They gave it a very nice storyline too. Ping like the last part of the second one when the bad guy had expected Nemesis to attack her but in the end, Nemesis remember her and attacked the bad guy instead. Chun!

Ping accidentally deleted the old layout. Found a really nice sunset template but too lazy to edit the frames to fit Ping's liking. Most of the new frames for the Beta seems to be very narrow. It makes some of the pictures way too small. The bigger ones are mostly html templates. Ping wanna get the xml one so can add the widgets at the sidebar. Ping prefers the xml one 'coz it is way more intuitive. The html one is a bit more mahuan to edit. Or can Ping edit the html one using the same codes as the xml? Don't think so right? Since the xml codes are much easier than the html ones. Oh well....will make do with this layout for now, until Ping has time to edit the sunset ones, or find something nicer.

Canada - Niagara Falls at night

Ping's second Wonders of the World - Niagara Falls. Okay maybe it is not on the new list of wonders of the world but who cares..to Ping, it is a wonder's of the world. Ping's first one was Great Wall of China in 2004.

Never thought Ping would get a chance to make a trip there so soon. It was actually a pretty spontaneous trip for Ping. Ever since coming to Lansing, a lot of Ping's 'I want to go' places is usually back home, places where Ping's friends and relatives are. Niagara Falls was definitely not one of the "aih..if only I get to visit there". But Ping's Canadian visa was expiring and for the price Ping paid, of course want to get the best out of it lah. So off we go to Canada, with Niagara Falls as one of the must go destination.

After the Lion Safari, we checked in at Niagara Parkway Court. We got an awesome deal there. It was also pretty close - less than 10 minutes drive to the falls. After a short rest, we drove towards the town area - Clifton Hill. It is like a mini Hollywood, San Francisco bay area, a more upscale Bintang Walk...crazy fun!! In the afternoon, people are busy shopping for souvenirs, enjoying the various museums and adventure attractions. When we first drove into the street, it was totally exciting...like 'lembu lepas kandang'...like 'sua pa kau' only...so jakun. The same feeling Ping had when she went to San Frans two Christmas ago. But it got quite a little overwhelming when you're actually walking along the street itself...the city just eats you up. Thanks to the small souvenir shops, Ping managed to get a Niagara Falls sweatshirt, which Ping didn't bring and it was getting a little too chilly for Ping.

After walking around, taking in the city atmosphere, we went to Mamma Mia's for Italian dinner. The bread sucks but lucky thing, the pasta was pretty good. It was a little too pricey for comfort though...but almost any non-Chinese food is expensive in Canada due to their super high taxes. Then must give tips somemore...'kao giak' man.

Just as the sky turns dark, we head over to the falls for the fireworks show. We were lucky enough to be there during one of the nights when they have the fireworks show.

As you approach the falls, you start to feel the mist from the falls, the air cools, the rumble of the falls stronger, the atmosphere is totally different. It feels like a dream. Can you imagine standing so close to something so amazing? There's just no way Ping could describe the feeling. Definitely not something Ping had ever imagined. To make it pretty, whoever who manage it decides to color the falls. It does look pretty but nature is beautiful by itself. Even when the lights are off, the falls can still takes your breath away.

It is simple mesmerizing. Indescribable.
No picture could capture the feeling of standing right there in front of it, feeling the breeze, listening to the falls, letting the cool mist embrace you...definitely one nature's creation that has to be self-experienced.

Papaya Sisters - 881 (Ba-ba-yao)

Papaya Sisters!!! The modern revolution of 'kor tai' (歌台). Brought to Asia by S'pore's Royston Tan.