My NZDSA T-shirt

NZDSA (New Zealand Dental Student Association) T-shirts were finally being given out to its members... I love the design. Think the design is very creative. Not only that, it fulfils the current long T-shirt fashion trend. I like~~

(LA = Local Anesthetic)

The New Taiwanese Restaurant - Asian Delight~

A new taiwanese restaurant was opened 2 weeks ago about 10meter from the central library. A friend introduced it to me and since then it is the restaurant I most frequently visit. The food~ I wouldn't say is great but with the price and serving size taken into consideration - it becomes better than OK. The owners aim to serve foods that are high in nutritional values and hope to provide us students with balanced diet. It certainly is very balanced. Moreover, it tastes so much like home cooked food and the lady owner is so mummy like... reminds me of Taiwan everytime I go there.

My favourite dish = Pork chop with rice. Huge serving at a cost of $7.50.

$6.50 curry chicken on rice - not as good as the pork chop with rice.

1 thing I really like about the place is - for every $6.50 and above, we get a free dessert ^^ My favourite is the wheel cake (comes in different fillings like red bean paste, taro, custard and also has savoury fillings such as tuna, turnip etc) but not available all the time.

To promote the newly opened restaurant, the owners decided to hold a $1 dinner for first 50 customers yesterday. Being the 'Kiasu' me (and a few other friends) - we arrived at the restaurant 10minutes before it opened. And wooww.. apparently there were MORE kiasu people than ourselves. By 5pm, the queue has already reached the street outside the shop.

There were a few choices available: minced beef, vegetarian mince, curry chicken, stew beef and mapo tofu; on rice / noodles. They didn't allow us to choose what we would like but rather they served them at random turns and we had to just take whatever we were being offered.

When it was my turn - I got chicken curry on noodle. It was much smaller serving than what we expected but for a $1 meal, it's not too bad.

Too hungry, just gobbled the whole plate of food - then remembered I should have taken some photos before I got lost in the urge of filling up my tummy.. nevermind, still get to see the empty plates hehe.

Anyways, it didnt really fill me up so I went and bought some greasy fish and chips to complete my Saturday eat out experience.

My freezing cold Saturday~

It was a freezing day yesterday. It snowed for almost a whole day. However, the snow didn't settle because it was too wet, which was quite a pity as I would love to play with the snow a bit.

However, I felt very grateful that I had a warm shelter. Most times like this, I usually imagine people who are broke and have to live under the bridge or park.. then I tell myself, how lucky I am :)

Photo taken from inside the library while I was working in the morning.. very wet and it was VERY windy. The bl**dy wind broke my umbrella... again! I lost so many umbrellas because of the strong wind in Dunedin and the record was - opened the umbrella - the wind broke it in 3 seconds (and it was my most favorite polka dot umbrella which I bought from Brunei - then brought it back to Malaysia - then forgot to bring to NZ - then finally brought it with me to NZ during the following holiday, used it on a windy, rainy day and in less than 3 seconds - BROKEN!! THEN I had to walk in the rain......)

Well, at least this umbrella has served me 2 times before it broke yesterday.. T_T

Snapshot of the weather forecast on my cellphone (and also to show off my new LV themed wallpaper wahaha)

This is the place I spent my whole Saturday afternoon in. It is one of the Biomaterial labs at school and I was there working on my research project. Not the flashest place to be in on a weekend day but then, it kept me dry and warm ^^

Snapshot of the 'scenery' I got to enjoy when I was at the lab.

I really enjoyed my evening later on as I went to the cinema and watched Hancock. Feel it was time and money well-spent. Highly recommended as it was very witty and different from the usual 'superhero' movie storyline. Thumbs up for this one!

Shopping Spree~

Kathmandu's on sale! Well, in general, Kathmandu goes on sale many times a year.. but, this time it is DIFFERENT because EVERYTHING is at least 40% off.

Kathmandu is definitely not my favorite brand for fashion. However, it sells some really awesome and creative accessories for traveling. So, this time, with almost everything 50 - 60% off, I shopped and bought like mad.. yes it was madness indeed..

I spent about NZD200 in 2 days!! @_@" (feeling very guilty now~)



Bags of goodies...



Ok, not all are for myself.. some of them are for my parents and friend.. The accessories are: packing cells (to compartmentalize clothes and underwear etc) (Green and black), toiletries bags (Black and mint), Microfibre towels (2 X-large and 1 medium, very compact and light), foldable indoor slippers, shoes bags (green-gray and blue-gray), snooze pillow, anti-dvt socks and luggage tag.




My new shoe bag.. I love it! I tried using and I think can at least squeeze in 2 pairs of shoes..




This is my favorite! Toiletries bag. The best thing about this bag is it has many small sleeves / pockets which can carry bottles and sort them out nicely and neatly. Also, the sleeves prevent the bottles from falling all around.









The cutest thing I bought from Kathmandu - luggage tag with cartoon of a sheep :):)

Macho's Birthday

It was Macho's birthday on the 22nd June. He turned 3 years old that day. I put in the effort to try to come back from Wellington so I could spend birthday with him. Of course, he had no idea it was his special day but I think he can probably remember one day in the cold winter, don't know why, he would have lots of presents and good food... and last Sunday was the day..

I arrived Dunedin that morning and went to New World straightaway to get him some of his favorite food and a toy for him..


Needless to say, he had a lot of fun eating all the steak and mince.. until he had diarrhea..

5 days later, the remains of his birthday toy (he tried to steal a piece away when I was taking photos of them.. )

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..........