Thank You

I did not abandon my blog, okay. I was merely damn busy to update. Why so? These days I am really busy with my Honours. Going to graduate soon; here comes the thesis writings, endless laboratory trials, and spent the rest of my free time in gym or swimming pool. I was stressed inside out, stress can be excreted through my sweat pores into the environment...... So I go for gym, to release stress. Which proved to be a very good option!

I should post these up soon. But being a busy person, it took me 3 weeks later to post them up. As some of you guys know, I have finally moved out of residential. No more DC++, no more JJ (some of you will know what is that), no more 5 minutes walk to campus. But, at the same time, I met and become closed to a whole new group of awesome people! Hang out with them, playing monopoly until late, etc etc.

Back to my house, when I first came in, the house looked terrible. But I am not a person who particularly fuss with cleanliness. I can live in a place that looks like a dump, but give me a good bed and nice room, I dont mind! On the third day of CNY, Wing Sze came and cleaned my house, while I sat there being useless. Really need to thank her and her work, now it looks sparkling clean! She even squat down to scrub the floor tiles until they are squeaky clean, and caught cold the next day. This is the kitchen table, before the operation

This is the table after the operation

The janitor was quite happy with her work! Hahahaha

And lastly I wanna shout out for my friend, who is so dearly that she sent me a postcard with CNY wishes! It reaches on my doorstep the day before CNY. How nice!!!!! Till this date, the card is still sitting on my bedside table. I couldnt find a good place to stick it up. So it should sit there till I find a good spot.

I have heaps of movies in my harddisc, but I cant find the time to watch them......

Food Testing

I was doing an experiment on my food yesterday. Testing my fridge foods with subject being myself.

Case Study
The cabbage turns moldy over the cut-edge. Presumptive mold is Aspergillus sp. This is because Aspergillus can break down high carbohydrates from the cabbage and they presented in atmosphere. When the cabbage was cut, it may come in contact with the mold's spores.

But the thing is I was craving for cabbage. But we should not eat anything that is moldy, because we known fungi can grow almost every corner of the foods, just that we don't see it (Schliephake, 2007). So I was standing there and pondering. Here comes the objective; eat the cabbage to see whether I will get diarrhoea and prove Schliephake's lecture correct.

Method
The cabbage's edges were cut away. Chopping board was cleansed to prevent cross contamination. Cook the cabbage with carrots for a vegetarians stir fry.

Results
The meal tasted weird. Maybe because of the Chinese rice wine that was added into the stir fry. Watery diarrhoea after 3 hours (acute attack). But the diarrhoea was prevented by immediate consumption of Five Pagoda Medicine. Diarrhoea resided right after, no more water, but soft feaces were produced.

Conclusion and Recommendations
Moldy cabbage is bad. Don't try to eat it even when it appear to be slightly fluffy outside. Cause it will penetrate into the core of the cabbage. Just throw that cabbage away and eat some other veggie instead!

Schliephake, K (2007) Food Microbio in Food Microbiology Class. Should be in Room 3W-219

Slang

Okay, I was pretty lazy in blogging these days. I am sorry. Besides it is Chinese New Year and I have yet post anything about CNY. Hahaha. Maybe you should see my another blog MooMooLanders for those pictures of CNY Fest. And the slow speed of photo uploading in my new House is not helping......

Before I start rambling, I wish to greet everyone

Gong Xi Fa Chai
Keong Hee Huat Chai
Kong Hei Fatt Choi
Happy Chinese New Year

Okay, enough of seasonal greetings, I can start my rambling now. Hahaha.

Last month, yeah one month passed that quickly, when I have a good nite sleep! Anyway, I was calling my new landlord about my house, when the call divert me to a voice mail service. Yeah rite, it is a service where an operator will talk to you and ask you what you need instead of you talking idiotically to the silent on the other end.

So, once the lady was speaking on the other end, I actually thought that she is a relative or someone close to David. After she repeated the second time, I caught what she meant. Her Aussie accent was not really strong, and she is definitely not an Indian. I am not being a racist, but most voice operator these days in Aus, are Indians. Indians apart, this operator's accent is alright and I pretty much know the hell she is talking about. The problem was she couldn't catch what I wanted to say on my end......
Okay this is how the conversation goes (Let's call her Operator Penny, you will know what I use this nick later on):

Operator Penny: Hi, this is the voice mail service for David J------s
Me: Huh? David?
Penny: Hi, this is the voice mail service for David, what can I help you?
Me: Oh. I wanted to talk to David (hahaha, how idiotic can I be ay?)
Penny: No (I bet I really got her nerves this time). I am a voice operator for David. Can I leave a message for him? Do you want to leave a name, telephone number and a message for David so that he can call you back?
Me: (Finally get what she meant, hey I never encounter such thing before) Ooooh. Hi, this is Lex, I am the new tenant for Dalpura Court and my mobile is 04xx xxx xxx.
Penny: So Lex as in L. E. X?
Me: Yes
Penny: Mobile number, is 04 x x x x x x x x?
Me: Yes
Penny: and your message will be?
Me: I wanted to talk to David about Dalpura Court Unit 2.
Penny: Huh? about what?
Me: Dalpura Court
Penny: Oooh, Dalpura CouRT (with the emphasis on the "tk" sound)
Me: Yeah, Dalpura CouRT....... (thinking: can't she hear my "tk".......)
Penny: and how do you spell Dalpura? D for donkey? A for amy? L for lex?
Me: Yes
Pen: then B for benny.
Me: (Immediately) No, P for pen
Penny: yes yes, B for ben
Me: (is she trying to get back to me?) No, P for Pen (with the emphasis on sharp "p" sound)
Penny: Ben?
Me: Urgh..... P for Pencil. PENCIL!!!!!

And the line just cut there..... Cause I ran out of credit........ I can't believe that. I spent all my credit on spelling Pen. Pen Pen.......
Luckily David did replied me a few minutes later......

For your information, my Malaysian slang is not as bad as it used to be. I am not boosting, but I can communicate with my local friends pretty well and easy. So I just don't know what happened there......

Pipi

Okay, to make one thing clear. This title is Pipi. But it has nothing to do with cheeks. Pipi in Malay means cheeks. I am not going to talk about cheeks over here. This entry is about Australian Pipi (a bivalves which could be found in the sand, for Malaysian, they call it Lala(s).) It is pronounced as pee.pee, just like in Malay for cheek.

I better tell the whole story right here right now. Last Monday, it was Australian Day. So we thought of doing something more Australian. Not opening a barbie, or get ourselves drunk like babies. We headed to the beach!

It was Venus Bay. I will post that entry in my other blog Moomoolanders, when I grab those photos from Jon and Mel. Anyway, while we were in the beach, we were playing with waves and water, when Chun Yau found pipi which is alive and kicking!

Then I found another on the sand, and there goes the whole Pipi Expedition! All in all, we dug out about 2 bags full of pipi. After making sure we were not violating the law, we brought that 2 bags happily!!!! Mind you, they are completely FREE!!!!!Okay these are some of the photos of pipi and the menu made out of them! The big chef of that day was Yong, and I reckon he did a great job in cooking them!!!!!!

This is only one eighth of the pipi

Cooking those pipi. Yummm!

First dishes: Garlic Pipi with White Wine

Second Dishes: Tomato Pipi with Red Wine. Yum yum!!!

Third Dishes: My favorite, Belachan Pipi!!!!!

Jason getting ready to eat those pipi(s)

Me and Mel already started serving the pasta

Those pipi waste

Then here are some of the famous quotes of THAT day:

Yong: I was just complaining to Mel that I don't get to eat lala (pipi) since I came to Aus. Now I had plenty!
Mel: Are we going to finish those lalas?
Sookie: These are hell a lot of lalas...
Jason: If we want more free pipi, just go back to Venus Bay!
Jon: Are those black stuffs, shit?
Ammie: I can't be bother eating them anymore......
Me (Lex): I want more lalas!!!!! Yumm.

PS, None of us except Yong got diarrhoea after eating those pipi. This means they are safe to eat!