I am Malaysian Chinese.

I'm just writing this entry now since this is still fresh in my mind.

So from all the english terms I use in my previous blog entries, you can prolly guess that I'm Malaysian Chinese cos of the "Manglish" or the "Cina-glish" I use. Hahaha. Anyway, I'm trying to talk about my features and my accent here.

When I first came to Australia, obviously meeting new friends is like the most exciting thing! I love meeting new friends <3 but coming to know their true colours later on sucks. But that's a total different issue.

When I talk to people, they tend to ask me a question. "Where are you from?" I personally think this is an interesting question, and then I'll always make them guess...

Korea             60%

Mix                 30%

Malaysia           8%

China                2%

Of course I am flattered when they say I look Korean because most Koreans look pretty like this:

These pictures are after plastic, I'm pretty sure of that.

But then, after a while, I will start wondering. Do I have korean features? Do we have korean blood in our family tree? Koreans are well-known for their single-eye lid. I'm double eye-lidded. Ha! Lucky me. Anyway it doesn't matter, that's not important. Plastic is not the issue here. I feel plastics are OK. I don't have anything against plastic, just so you know.

I'm not a korean-wannabe or something, its just that I think Koreans are pretty people. and that makes me happy!

Mix blood. This I can understand, cos I have lots and lots freckles on my face. and they get more and more! ewwww. When I was younger, people always say I look like Lindsay Lohan. I believe is because we have a similarity, i.e. freckles all over our face. 

I used to be pleased about it when I was younger, because she is pretty and innocent looking. Besides, I liked her in the movie "The Parent Trap". But when people compare me to Lindsay nowadays, I have no feelings. Not happy not sad no nothing. Prolly because of her notorious name, which I don't give a shit. 

Well not only me, my sister also gets these comments alot. I think people thinks she's japanese, if not mistaken. Am I right?

Accent:

So I was at a restaurant, and a blonde and a brunette were guessing if I was American or Canadian. Now this is something that I've never heard of. It's something very fresh! I heard them and it make me feel somewhat excited to argue over where i'm from.

Finally the blonde came and ask me, "where are you from?"
"Make a guess."

"America/Canada"

"Why would you think that I'm from there?"

"Cos you talk like one"

"I'm from Malaysia"

Blonde "Oh are you serious?"

Brunette "F*ck off, you're definitely not from Malaysia".

"Well believe it or not I'm a malaysian, grew up in malaysia."

Apart from this incident, I've got 2 friends asking me where did I pick up the accent already.

Well, here are some clarifications, I don't speak Malaysian english in Australia (unless with my malaysian friends) cos:

- my mom sent me to international school when I was younger. I spoke english at home until i was 7. Pure proper english. My teacher was American. That's prolly where I 1st picked up my accent, until my sister forced me into speaking chinese! Then again, I went to an American for english tuition throughout my primary school, until later when I met a teacher who stays near my house.

- I wanna learn proper english in Australia. I'm glad to say I have Australian friends. They are friendly people and I really enjoy talking to them, exchanging backgrounds and stuff. Was I supposed to go back to Malaysia and tell my parents, "Hey mom I went to australia for a year and all I learnt was China Chinese? or Hong Kong Cantonese?" 

- I had to speak proper english with one of my lecturers. He repeats after my question, to make sure if he got me correctly. But after speaking proper english with him (w/o the malaysian accent) and he understood me right away.

The main point is, I ain't tripping or anything. It just comes out naturally =)
here i must give thanks to my lovely parents for all the education they provided and equipped me with.

I believe all of you would like to improve yourselves all the time. I am also trying to improve myself. So let's work hard together for a better future! Proper english is important, but never ever forget your origin - Manglish (Malay+English).

(I know, that's a weird ending.)

Phillip Island, Australia.

Hello hello there mates!!

I'm back, after a loooong holiday =) A very enjoyable one.

As the joy of this trip is indescribable, I shall post more pictures so that you can virtually join me in this trip.

During the July holidays, my family + TW went to the Philip's Island. There was this 3-day pass on promotion, which is Penguine Parade+Churchill Island+Koala Conservation Centre at a discounted price.

We left home by noon and reached Philip's Island in the evening. So here goes our first stop.

Penguin Parade: can't expect much pictures here, as we are prohibited from taking pictures of the penguins, especially during the night time.

Reason: Penguin eyes are sensitive to bright lights, and the flashes from our cameras may blind their eyes. Still, some inconsiderate people didn't care about the eyes of the little penguins. >.<

Well, we reached the penguin beach at around 5.30pm, as stated in the brochure. We grabbed some really awesome seats (front rows), but to our despair, all we saw were just several penguins quickly climbing up the shores. I think I can count them using my fingers+toes.

OMG, what a waste! TW went to chase the little penguins and followed them all the way, only to see that there were more penguins coming up from the other side of the beach, which was labelled "Penguin Plus Ticket Holders only".

That totally explains why the Penguin Plus tickets was about double the Penguin Parade tickets. I swear I'm gonna go for the Penguin Plus the next time I go check the little penguins out. They were so very cute that I'd love to see more of them!

Fun facts: The Little Penguins in Australia are the smallest kind of penguins in the world. They grow up to 6-8 inches in height.

Couldn't take pics with the real ones, so I'll just settle with some posters!

While waiting for the penguins:

My lovely grandma+ever loving mother.

Next day:

At the Koala Conservation Centre, we saw:

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Koalas

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and

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Wallabies

Fun fact: Koalas sleep for 21hrs/day and spend their 3hrs crawling and looking for food.

Group Photo:

In the afternoon, we hit Churchill Island, my fav place throughout the trip.

There was only one thin road to drive through from Philips to the Churchill. and on the 3km way from the main destination, we drove passed:

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and

Two really big-sized Highland cows.

I was so worried they would chase me behind my car. GG. >.<

When we reached, there was this schedule shown on the billboard. It was so nice that all the activities were scheduled, one after another, making ones visit there a fruitful and interesting one.

The cow-milking:

Apparently, the guy explained that he has to squeeze out around 2 litres of milk/day to ease the cow's 'boobies'.

TW wasn't really into farms and animals, unless its Farmville; so there he goes, enjoying the breeze in the old horse cart.

and then to the horses.

With some camera skills + angling, I managed to make it

as though TW was standing near the horse.

TW happily taking pics with a carved horse.

The olden water pump, which is actually still working until today.

*Alert* The handle was really hard to push, so as you can see,

in the olden days had to really work their ass off to pump water.
and

Next stop: Working dogs (Border Collie in the working)

The targets

A demonstration of the Border Collies chasing the lambs back to their paddock.

Followed by: Whipping and Boomerang session

Day 2 ends.

Last stop: Nobbies Centre - Beautiful Scenery+Strong winds to mess up your hair.

Supposedly, you are to see seals at the rocks, but I didn't see any. Bad luck I guess =.=

Terrific view.

The best lunch ever.

My best lunch ever throughout the first semester of my stay in MRS.

It must be because we are all free from classes, assignments, exams.

We had nothing to worry about, and therefore, we put all our hearts to preparing our lunch feast.

There were other dishes as well, but we were so engrossed in eating and food tasting, I forgot to take pictures of the other food.

Cheesy sausages.

Mushroom and prawns with a hint of sourness *sluuuurp*

-by Jeff Lim.

Cheese baked Broccoli *yuuum yuuum*

-Recipe coming up in the next post.

Clara's Chocolate Chips Cupcakes.

First thing after exam: BAKING TIME!

It has been quite some time since I last baked.

This year's Chinese New Year (CNY), I skipped baking because of being so tired after working in Ernst & Young, and I must spend some time catching up with my girls. CNY cookies recipes will be up in the upcoming CNY.

Since it's my granny's 80th birthday, I had to come up with something special for her. She has been the nice granny you read in fairy tales. Always kind to kids, patient and doesn't grumble.

This chocolate chips cupcakes are based on butter cupcakes, and fairly easy to bake.

Baking in the process!

*For recipe please scroll down*

It was my first time piping words.

Usually I just decorate with:

icing and chocolate flakes, marshmallows, rainbow rice, etc.

In the end, my granny had a happy and wonderful birthday celebration! It's my first time celebrating with her. All the while, I grew up without experiencing love from grandparents. Now that I visit her very often, our bonds are closer, and I feel blessed to have a granny like her.

Ingredients:

125 g salted butter

4 oz of castor sugar

5 oz of self-raising flour (sieved)

3 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1/3 cup Milk

1 cup Chocolate chips (to your preference)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven at 180°c.

2. Put butter out in room temperature until it softens.

3. Mix butter and sugar, stirring in one direction on high for 3 minutes.

4. Fold in egg, vanilla essence and sieve flour.

5. Add in milk and chocolate chips then continue folding.

6. Fill cups with batter until 1/2 or 3/4 full.

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cupcakes turns golden.

8. Wait until cupcakes cool down, then decorate the cupcakes with icing.

Icing:

250g icing sugar

125g margarine

Sieve in icing sugar and mix.

For colours, add in drop of food colouring.

Hope you'll enjoy baking!

xoxo.

A Moment back in High School.

This is a typical Doctor Butterfly video.

Although a lot of people might think this is a stupid video, I enjoyed this alot.

It brought back a lot of high school memories.

I miss high school!

I miss Scales DJ, the JADE, and the girls.

I miss our class party and how we would splash each other with water balloons, pails or water, etc. at every last day of school.

Teachers joined in the fun!

I miss being a high-schooler.

No matter how many times I watch this, it never fails to make me smile.

Beautiful Challenges.

Behind every tide, lies a beautiful rainbow.

Every tide is an obstacle,

See these obstacles as challenges in life,

Face these challenges with strength and belief,

Because every tide you overcome,

A beautiful rainbow awaits you at the other end.

Picture source: BBC Wild Weather documentary.

Salmon with Thai Herb Salad & Lime Dressing.

Personally, I enjoy eating fish alot! There are many benefits in eating fish. Firstly and most importantly, fish is high in protein and low in fats. Fish is an excellent source of omega-3, which is good for our brain, eyes and heart.

Staying/studying overseas, it isn't easy to get fresh fish unless you go to the market such as Victoria Market, Preston Market and the market in Footscray. At my place, they don't have markets here, not that I know of.

In my blog, I will only introduce food that I feel is nice and easy to prepare/make as I understand that as students we do not have much time to prepare our meals, or sometimes we feel lazy. And for this, I will advice my readers that this is a fairly easy dish. Not much cooking involed =)

Ingredients:
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tbs palm sugar, grated (brown sugar)
2 tbs fish sauce
200g fish fillets (salmon)

Salad:
1 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh coriander leaves
1/2 cup Thai basil leaves
2 spring onions, sliced thinly
2 medium red chillies, sliced (red capsicums)

Directions:
1. Oil pan, preheat to medium.
2. Make lime dressing by combining lime juice, sugar and fish sauce in a small jug.
3. For Thai Herb Salad, combine mint, coriander, basil, spring onions and capsicums in a big bowl. Set aside.
4. Cook fish on preheated pan until lightly browned on both sides until well done.
5. Serve at once topped with salad and drizzled with lime dressing.

Honestly, as I prepared this dish, alot of my friends did not enjoy the Thai salad as it had a strong smell. In addition, I believe alot of youngsters are not used to eating raw mint, basil and coriander leaves.

Dear readers, this recipe is just for your referral. You guys can just skip the Thai Herb salad. Try the fish with lime dressing. It is really very nice and scrumptious.

Clara's Paratha.

I am sure alot of Malaysians (peninsular especially) have tried this nice and tasty Hot & Roll.

I used to buy this alot in Monash Sunway, especially where there isn't alot of choice of food in the Monash cafeteria.

Well, I was suddenly craving for Paratha wrap, so I decided to treat myself to something tasty and delicious in the middle of the exam preparation night.

All you need:

1. Paratha wrap (you can easily get this from Coles/Woolworths)

2. Cheese

3. BBQ Sauce/Mayonnaise

4. Ham/Bacon

Directions:

1. Heat paratha on a frying pan on medium high. When colour changes to very light brown, flip to the other side and continue heating.

2. Turn to medium-low heat and add toppings ham, then cheese. This is because you wouldn't want your paratha to be burnt.

3. When cheese melts, add in mayonnaise/BBQ sauce. Fold into desired shape and serve

Tips:

Ham tastes fantastic with mayonnaise, and bacon and BBQ sauce are perfect match.

However, these are only suggestions and you can alter to your preference.

Taa-daa~ Freshly made.

Can you see the cheese oozing out?