Mini high school reunion in Perth

The gatherings with my high school friends are perhaps the best parts of my Perth trip!

The first person whom I met up with was CY ^^ It was such a happy moment when I saw him at the car park of Trinity college. Seeing CY warmed my heart instantly. It felt so comfortable and felt like it was just yesterday when we saw each other; when in actual fact, it was ~6 years and in between the time, we hardly kept in touch at all.

He then sent me to YP's place to drop off my luggages. Seeing YP - another heart warming moment.. T_T tears on the verge of rolling down just thinking about it.

We decided to have dinner at the Italian restaurant CY recommended. It does not take bookings hence it's a first come first served basis. And holy mama... it was a long, long queue when we got there! According to CY, it's very normal to queue up for foods at that restaurant. We waited for 40min before we were being led to our table.. *_*"



Outside the restaurant waiting for our turn to be seated..

Ciao Italia = the name of the restaurant





The pizzas were awesome!!!

It was a very relaxing and fun night. We did A LOT of catching up!! Thank you for the wonderful dinner guys~

PA could not make it that night but she made a very big effort to meet up the next day at Zanders - a cafe right beside the Scarborough beach. Felt very touched actually T_T. Thank you for showing up because I really had a wonderful time although it was too short though.. would be better if we got to hang out for longer :)


Us at Zanders.

PA and her sexy, luxurious new convertible. Congratulations on your promotion again!! And I like your car.. *salivate*

And of course.. how could I not meet up with IL?! YP drove me to her place that afternoon just so we could meet up as IL was not feeling very well. Once again, we chat chat chat.. laugh laugh laugh..chatted somemore.. giggled more...

Congratulations to you and your hubby again (newly weds)!!

That night, before I left; CY and his fiance, IL and her hubby dropped by YP's place for dinner and followed by my new obsession - Wii!! It's so fun! Thank you for introducing it to me YP ^^



Me - all focused on walking on a rope and staying well-balanced.. but alas.. I was always the one with the lowest score. I blame it on the wine ^_^

Don't you think IL and her hubby look very compatible???

AW, CY and his fiance.

My last day in Perth flew by and ended in a blink of an eye and it was time to say goodbye.

CY = Thanks for sending me to the airport and calling me after I arrived in NZ. Most of all, congratulations on your imminent wedding!!! I feel so happy for you!

YP and AW = Thank you sooo much for your kind hospitality. I really had a lot of fun with you two around. Thanks for taking me around Perth too!

IL = Thank you for having me and YP at your place and making the effort to drop by YP's place as well as played Wii haha

PA = Thank you for the wonderful gathering at Zanders. It was so nice to meet up again after so many years!

Lastly, Perth - I WILL BE BACK~

Working holiday in Perth 30th Sept - 5th Oct

I have been spending most of my summer holidays since 2005 doing researches for my school. I wouldn't consider myself to be passionate about researches although I don't think I repel the thought of being a part-time researcher.

One of the requirements for doing a summer studentship research for my school is I have to take part in a poster competition where I have to compete with my other fellow colleagues. The one with the best / most meaningful research will then have to represent New Zealand to compete with the Australians at the ANZ IADR conference.

I did not win any prize this year (or any previous years hehe). However, the school was extremely generous and decided to sponsor all of us who took part in the competition to attend the conference that was held in Perth this year. We found out about this great news early this year and the time finally arrived after all the preparations (we had to prepare a A0 size poster supplement to our presentation) and long wait.. I took off to Perth on the 30th Sept; last Tuesday.

As we were all given a fixed amount of money, I tried to cut on costs by taking a midnight shuttle leaving Dunedin on Monday evening 8:30pm. I arrived at Christchurch airport 3am the next day and waited for 2 hours before I could check in at the Pacific Blue airline counter. Including transiting time at Sydney airport, the journey totaled up to about 10hours. It was a good 10 hours though as I managed to get lots of sleep with the aid of motion sickness pill(s).

I was all excited about going to Perth especially at the thought of finally being able to enjoy some good long sunshine as well as get away from a place that requires me to wear layers of clothing just to stay warm. As I walked out of the airport after arrival, a wave of cool air welcomed me. It was just the right weather!! Not too hot and not too cold. Perhaps would be better if it was a little warmer but not having to put on my down jacket all the time - it was simply awesome!

Quickly hopped into a cab, I headed straight to the Trinity college - McDonald court. It's a hall of residence for the students of University of Western Australia (UWA) but it also has a few apartment units specially catered for visitors. Each self-contained unit consists of 2 bedrooms and therefore the unit was just right for all of us (5 in total).

At the main entrance of Trinity college.

Straight after unpacking, we wandered out hunting for food... and to my delight - Malaysian restaurant!! :):) Being the Penang Char Kway Teow lover, how could I resist the temptation?

The cook was from Penang so I had high expectation. Tasted good overall; however, if less salty - perfect.


My meaning of 'working holiday' - some work and lots of fun. Some work = the rest of my first day and part of second day were spent reading up on the background information for my research again so I could present it and attend to all questions smoothly..

Not as exciting of course...


Coming soon - more about the conference and my experiences in Perth.

One day of fun was not enough!

Wahaha, I think God is very kind to me because he obviously felt one day of catching up was not enough hence decided to play a trick and made my friends who visited me from Brunei stayed for an extra day~

It was Sunday morning.. we were all exhausted from all the fun and activities we had on previous day.. SJ, Suan and the rest were supposed to leave by shuttle at 8am. Daylight saving started on that very same day so having one hour less did not help at all. So reasonably, they slept in! Haha.. I have never seen them gotten ready in such a short time. They were all ready in less than 30min and left in a hurry; after quick bear hugs and brief good byes.

SJ took this photo and I think it is very 'real' ^^

I went back to sleep thinking I would fully make use of my Sunday by having a good sleep in.. just as I was about to hit the dreamland.. my hp rang. "Hello Yeen ah, we are not going to Clyde today because apparently it's happening tomorrow. Can you come and pick us up?"

Therefore, ended up spending another day together. Did some shopping and they decided to drive all the way to the very end of Peninsula to see the penguins. I did not join as I had to work during that time. However, I managed to have dinner with them at the Lone Star.



We shared a Jack Daniel Chocolate Pudding for dessert. Tasted good and toothachingly sweet.


They came back to my place after dinner and we girls ended up chatting in the room until 1am. That was the best part of the visit as I finally got to really catch up with them~

Next day.. they left. This time for real...

As for me, I had to start packing as that was the night I began my next awesome journey - trip to Perth! :)

Guests from Brunei

My best friends visited Dunedin 2 weeks ago. It was a very happy day for me as I haven't seen one of them for almost 2 years now and it felt wonderful to meet my good friends in a different country and showed them around the place I spent most of my last decade in.They, together with 3 other friends arrived at about 10am on the Saturday morning. They rented a car but I decided one day is too precious for me and I didn't want to waste it in any way so I still went to pick them up from the airport.

The schedule was pretty full and they did not waste a single moment mucking around. Straight after the pickup, we went to the Esplanade for brunch (also to give them a chance to see the beach). To save time, we had gourmet pizzas as we were running late for the Speights brewery tour.


Seafood pizza and us in action trying to look cool @_@"


We managed to get to the brewery in time. Speights (pronounced as "Spayts") is the most popular South New Zealand beer and the main factory is situated in Dunedin. There are factories scattered around New Zealand but the tour guide claimed that the beer made from Otago tastes different because they have better tasting water here. I have never fancied beer too much so I couldn't quite tell the difference. My thinking is - as long as it gets me tipsy - it's good beer.

Towards the end of the tour, we were led into the tap bar where we got to taste all the 6 different kinds of beer they produce - from lager to dark ale.

Picture with James Speights - the founder of Speights


"Yum Seng" using the most popular Speights gold medal ale.

After the tour, we went to the former 'World's steepest street" (apparently now taken over by a street in the US). It was still pretty impressive though as it's almost 45 degrees steep. SJ and friends had a good time walking/running up and down the street while worrying they might tip and tumble downhill due to the steepness and difficulty in achieving balance.



We then toured around my University before they went off to the Peninsula by themselves while I quickly stole a short nap at home.

Dinner was done at my place. I have a fierce and strong passion towards Korean BBQ and had just recently bought a proper BBQ hot plate just to fulfill my cravings. Of course, it was the best opportunity to do it when they were here. I felt it would be better for them too as I figured they would be too exhausted by then after a long flight and lack of sleep. They were nice to get some liquor from the duty free shop. It was really fun as we got to feast, drink and catch up at the same time.




Pork belly is my favourite although I could sense my blood vessels clogging up and my butt grew larger by 1 inch the next day after I ate them. Oh well, I decided to disregard the feeling of guilt and will still eat them..

They fell asleep one by one after dinner as they were defeated by sleepiness and the fun-filled day officially ended at 12am.

My past 2 weeks..

It has been a very interesting past 2 weeks for me.

I traveled to Wellington and did a 1 week hospital placement at an awesome hospital there. I had to catch a bus to Christchurch as my flight to Wellington departed from there. And before I flew to Wellington, I had a short visit to a resort near the airport and it was so beautiful and awesome!! It has a golf course and the room has a magnificent lake view.


The name of the resort - Peppers Clearwater



The room was nice and spacious with nice, good quality and thick carpet. The bed is huuuggeee (super king?).. and the bathroom.. bigger than my room in my previous flat *_*"" Definitely enough space for me to exercise Pilates / Yoga in it and not bruising myself from kicking anything accidentally. It was so comfortable I probably wouldn't mind sleeping there (actually, think about it again, I would) because it even has floor heating.



And the view from the balcony... thumbs up! I would go back if I want to have a relaxing holiday one day.

After the quick stopover at the resort, the staff drove me to the airport and I flew off to Wellington. The experience at Christchurch set me up for a good 'holiday' in general. During the time when I was in Wellington, not only did I enjoy my time at the hospital, I also got a chance to meet up with some wonderful people especially the lady who rent one of her rooms to me. She has shown me too much hospitality and because of that, I felt my trip was much better than it would have been without her. Her house, like what she said over the phone, is indeed a very nice house. Imagine, I paid NZD120 for a room, and together with it; power, phone, food (she was happy for me to eat anything from her kitchen) were all included. Over and above, her bathroom has jacuzzi @_@..towels etc were all provided -like staying at a motel / hotel!! Oh and also, because she works at the same hospital, I got rides to the hospital every morning and some evenings. How much better could it get?!

During the week in Wellington, I ate out a lot and whenever I ate out, I chose Malaysian food.. to reminisce wonderful memories of delicious food back home. Char Kway Teow is my favourite dish and needless to say, I ordered the same dish (haha) everytime. Eventually, I managed to try this same dish at a few different Malaysian restaurants: I can't remember the name of the first Malaysian restaurant I went to *_*, Sungai Wang @ lower hutt, Taste of Malaysia @ lower hutt and KK Malaysian Restaurant @ Wellington city. And of all the restaurants, I think the Char Kway Teow at the first restaurant which I can't remember the name is the best (haha, very informative I know). However, the foods in KK Malaysian restaurant is greeeaaattt!! Very authentic and the serving sizes were BIGger (compared to the other few restaurants). Most importantly, the food there is cheap! NZD8 per dish.. yum!! Highly recommended and would definitely go back again. Apparently there is also a KK Malaysian restaurant in Auckland and the food is just as good?! I wonder if they are run by the same owner? Anyways, I ordered Mee Rojak when I was at KK but I took away the chicken rendang, Char Kway Teow and Mee goreng so I could continue pamper myself after I returned to Dunedin..:)



Mee Rojak



Chicken Rendang



I came back to Dunedin happily and felt too satisfied having my food cravings taken care of...

My Holiday at the Mount Cook

I am having my holiday now and it's been 3 weeks since I have been free from fixed schedules. During this holiday, unlike last year, I don't get the chance to go home and enjoy life back in Asian countries. This time, I get the opportunity to go to Mount Cook and Wellington! :)

I went to Mount Cook and Lake Tekapo during the first week of holiday and I must say, it was a great great experience! I utterly enjoyed my trip and for the first time, I actually appreciated NZ's scenery whole heartedly.

Lake Tekapo has one of the most beautiful night skies in the world and star gazing is a popular thing to do when tourists visit the place. There is an Canterbury University built observatory where it holds a very powerful telescope. There is a star gazing tour every night where the tour guide would introduce the different stars etc and people get a chance to experience the powerful telescope. Well, it was certainly very tempting to try but too bad, it was too expensive - NZD65 per person! Eventually, I decided to just star gaze with my naked eyes haha. Cheap and convenient. Was told by a friend that apparently the city council has a rule where the houses in the area were not allowed to install lights that shine towards the sky as this would hinder the reflection of light from the stars.. very interesting indeed.

There is also a cafe built beside the observatory named Astro cafe. It is in general built of glasses and it has a million dollar view where people get to enjoy the scenery of Southern Alps and Mount Cook while having coffee / sandwiches. I had lots of fun looking at the wonder of nature while having my cup of Latte.




There are also Salmon farms around the area. Apparently the salmons are extremely strong and lean because they swim against the water flow in the river. Whatever it is, I didn't really pay much attention as my main focus at that time was to: BUY the SASHIMI and feast on them. On top of that, I also had the opportunity to feed the salmon and introduce Macho to his favourite food. I think I overdosed myself with sashimi in the 3 days.




Then it's the Mount Cook. All I have to say about that place is - it is beeeaaaauuuuutttiiffuulll!! The snow, the hotel, the scenery, the glaciers..



Take home message = MUST GO!

And after the 3 days of fun-filled road trip, Macho was the most exhausted 'person' *_*"" He was so exhausted he slept through the night and day after he got back to Dunedin..........