What have happened to my Ah Jin???!!!!

Look at how short his fur coat is?!!! His ears looks funny..haha

And just got news yesterday from Mei Theng and dad that he needs to shave all because it's all tangled up already so that's why he's itching sampai he scratches till he bleeds!!!

Gawd...JIN JIN!!!

Wait...does this means he gets to stay in the house?

He he....cos once he shave everything off, he'll be defenseless in the cold night air and rain and UV rays!!!!! So must protect him from all that, right?! Mei Theng, tell ma my concept....!!

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Hmm....I have been freaking hardworking already...finally able to get more work done when I'm studying in the computer lab in faculty. Think I can quite understand well enough for the retake this wednesday....heh...its another thing if I have to present it to the examiner orally.

I bought a new steamer from TESCO...Yes! I finally found a steamer in the czech republic...only costs about RM 100. So I have been steaming eggs past few days....now all i need to complete my 'chawan mushi' is Hua Tiao wine!!!

Then I have steamed my dinner for yesterday and today in the morning and brought it to faculty to eat....on the topic of 'bento' box....I broke not one, but TWO boxes which I bought yesterday at the 'vietnam shop'! =.= :'-( While I was washing it and taking it out from the steamer....GAWD!!!!

I steamed broccoli with crabsticks in butter and egg and rice for yesterday and broccoli again today along with sausages in honey and rice.

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Anyway, am just gonna review my calculations again then will be heading back to hostel.

And then get my somewhat text book to memorise what I understood from the internet.....

Gawd.......I am not much of a praying for results person....but biophysics is just making me so desperate.....:-

The Best of 2007

Yea, I know this list came a bit late since it is already 2nd Jan 2008 today. Nevertheless, I would like to make a list. Hmmm .... at first, I wanted to include the unpleasant things that happened to me but then again, why are they worth remembering at all, right? So here's a list of the best things in my 2007 life.

1. Graduating from Murdoch University.

Finally after two and a half years of sweats and tears, I can say I have successfully graduated and finished my university degree. I have to thank my Dad, Mom and Sister for all the supports they have given me, especially Dad because without his hard work throughout all these years, it would be impossible for me to even study overseas. Moreover, during my years in Perth, Dad had never asked me to work part-time (even though I was doing volunteering work for MMA and NLCWest). And he also allowed me to travel up north twice, and to Melbourne and Adelaide. Besides that, I want to thank all my friends that I had made while in Perth for their companionship, social support, and all the good times (eg. POTLUCKS!!!). Oh ... I will not forget when my sister shouted "Mei Theng! We are so proud of you!" when I was on stage to get my scroll. Thanks gal!

2. Participating in the 2007 JUNCAO Technology Course in Fuzhou, China.

As I had always said, if my boss did not sent me to this training course, I would have long resigned. Really! This course introduced me to many new things in the mushroom industry. But what made me happy here was the friends that I had made. In particularly, I want to highlight my new friend, whom I 'clicked' upon meeting her ... to the point most of the university staffs said we are like sisters. Her name is Li Jing and she is in her first year of masters.

Another memorable person is Wafaa from Iraq. I miss her so much. I can't really explain why I like her so much but she was like a mentor plus a mother to me. She actually gave me advices on how to pursue a romantic relationship which I hope I will follow. Now that I know her, I became very afraid when I read news about violence in Iraq because I don't want to lose her. When I sent her off at the airport, I really did not want to let her go. I wish I can bring her to Malaysia where it would be slightly safer.

I just have to mention Yan Ling, who is a doctor at the university at the age of 26. With her also, I immediately formed a bond with. Can't really explain all these friendship chemistry. That's her with Taqwei from Zimbabwe. She is really cute! She gave me a Xmas present which was a pendant similar to the ones she always wear. Makes it easier to remember her.

Other than these two persons, there are Mama Africa (Mtupili from Tanzania), Big Bro Tsepo, Yeboah, Taqwei, Nani, Jagadish and so on. So here's our group photo after a tissue culture practical.

Some good times together ....

3. Love

Yep, I am not kidding. I fell in love this year (last year, technically), very unexpectedly. It happened during this training course. I did not planned to be in love at all. It just happened. To this end, I do not know what possessed me to love this guy so much. I dare to say this is love because how else I can explain that I managed to be comfortable with him even though he is a smoker. My friends, you know me well, I have said on numerous times that I wouldn't fall for a smoker. Well, he wasn't a smoker until after a few weeks in Fuzhou though. Nevertheless, as y'all probably know my character, I went and confessed to him one night. I was prompted when he said he is too shy to approach girls even if he likes her (I asked if he minds girls making the first move). Initially, he said he likes me too but we are from 2 different countries. After much consideration, we decided to give ourselves a try. So we were like going out for all but 3-4 days when after that he told me that he likes me as a friend. Oh well, bummer for me of course. But I gotta respect his decision. However, I can't explain why I went and complicated the friendship between us by asking him to hold my hand when we are out together and he didn't mind (even though he don't enjoyed holding hands and things like that ... I asked him before). Ok la ... I really enjoyed holding his hand. I have held other guys' hands before but did not have the same feeling when I held his hand. How to explain that feeling of completeness when I was holding his hand? Anyway, that was how it was. Until the end, I just have to accept that he likes me as friend while I couldn't stop my growing feelings for him. The only thing I know was that I loved him and right now, since I returned home, I have been missing him a lot. Oh yea ... writing this much and I didn't even include his name. haha ... His name is Tom, from South Africa. Yea, most of my close friends thought I have fallen for a China guy. Anyway, Tom is caucasian but skin colors don't matter to me. He has green eyes ... my favourite colour. These two are my favourite pictures.

Oh yea ... I gave my first kiss to him which he accepted. He said I am the only friend that he hold hands with and kiss. Sometimes I wondered why did he kissed me when he only likes me as a friend. I am tempted to ask but I think I shouldn't pursue this matter anymore. The good times I had with him will be a sweet memory in my heart and mind. I called him on Xmas Eve, mostly because I miss him. By the way, to those friends who knew that I was previously 'in love with' my cousin for many years, I actually considered Tom as my first love because the feelings I had for my cousin happened when I was too young to know about love and all and now is when I am old enough to understand and know what I am experiencing although I am learning how to deal with these emotions.

So, maybe I miss other good things that happened to me in 2007 but these few things I mentioned here were the happiest I had ever been amidst the disappointments and sad things that happened to me in 2007.

Good-bye 2007!

Qianzhou and Zhangzhou

This week we did not have any classes as the university had arranged for us to go for a trip to other cities in the Fujian province. It was also in conjunction of the First Chinese Mushroom Days in Zhangzhou which we were invited to attend. There are 40 of us; 35 participants and 5 university staffs including a doctor who practises chinese medicine and a security guard. As I was informed by my practical teacher who went with us to take videos of our activity, 80% of Fujian province is covered with mountains while the rest is water area and flat land. There are 3 major pieces of flat land which are Fuzhou, Qianzhou and Zhangzhou. Along the highway which we traveled on, there were many tunnels. My friend, Tom, said that the army used to store firearms or explosives in the mountains during the past. Hopefully there are no more explosives in any of the mountains, otherwise China will have a 'timebomb'.

MONDAY: It took us 2 hours to reach the first city, Qianzhou. This city did not look any different from Fuzhou but there wasn't time to stop and explore as it was planned that we visit a mosque in this area only before leaving for Zhangzhou after lunch. This mosque is the first sign that Islam reached China in the past. It is not in use now for prayers but serves as a museum. The two top left corner showed a incense burner. At first I thought "eh, when did Muslims burn incense to pray?" only to find out that the incense was burned to purify the air or something like that. When we were there, we met a Singaporean old man who wanted to take picture with Tom and Herix to show the white, brown and black skin colours. Hahaha ....

After lunch at Qianzhou, we left for Zhangzhou which took another 2 hours to arrive. Once there, we checked into Zhangzhou Guesthouse. Zhangzhou is also known as a City of Flowers. There were really a lot of flowers decorating the streets and at night the city was lighted up like Christmas. I am not sure if the city is usually decorated in this way or was it because there was also an agricultural expo going on in this area.

TUESDAY: We went for an opening ceremony at the agricultural expo and haha ... my friends are the instant celebrities there. Actually everywhere we go, they are looked at and most people would ask to take pictures with them. The expo was beautifully done. In the afternoon, we visited a mushroom farm that mainly sells wood ear fungus or mu er. Some of the other mushrooms they have were grown in climate controlled rooms. I heard that it took about RMB 2 million to build 20 rooms with climate controls in a single building. That is quite cheap if you take into account that most of these machineries needed are also manufactured in China. That day, the fun time I had was when Li Jin, Tom and me went to 'delicacy street' . We had a banquet earlier which I didn't enjoyed but my friends did (I was seated next to a table full of chain smokers). So I was quite hungry. The doctor that was with us, Yan Ling, had her relatives shown us the street. We bought mutton kebabs, cakes, duck wings and sugar cane drinks and ate in my room.

WEDNESDAY: Today we left Zhangzhou for Xiamen. But before that we have to attend the seminar presentations. What I must really complained is that if the presenter is presenting in Mandarin language, the slides should have information in Chinese and English then at least most of us won't sit there like idiots. The afternoon lectures were better because we get to see the mushroom technology that was used in Europe, particularly Holland and oh cos the organisers finally got someone to translate the Chinese presentation to English for us. Unfortunately we have to leave during the DVD presentation. Here is where I did an embarrassing thing. Tom and I did not know that the staff had passed a note telling us to leave one by one. So we thought it wouldn't be nice if all 35 of us leave together. So I stood up and make a speech to absent all of us from the presentation. I felt quite paiseh after that. But hai ... at least I did a polite thing instead of leaving the presenter thinking that we did not enjoyed his presentation which was good by the way. =D

Fuzhou Panda Research Centre

Last Thursday, there was a china-africa union conference in Beijing which my lecturer, Prof. Lin was invited to. Therefore, we have Thursday and Friday off instead of the weekends. So the university organised for us to visit the Fuzhou Panda Research Centre, which is very near to the hotel I am staying now, West Lake Hotel. That day, as there was no translator around, I had to be one. Man, it wasn't easy as I have no idea how to say biology terms in mandarin language among many other things. Anyway, according to our guide, there are 5 pandas in the centre; 3 females and 2 males. This centre has the most pandas among the centres in China. The female pandas are all age above 15 human years old while the male pandas are about 6 or 7 human years old. One human year is equivalent to 4 panda years. The panda in the top left corner is the oldest panda at 27 human years or 108 panda years old. During her earlier days, she was a performer panda. She had traveled to places such as San Diego to perform in public. Since she is considered quite old now, she does not perform anymore.

Other than pandas, there are animals that were called as lesser pandas, which are the same pandas but they share a common ancestor line with the pandas. Like us humans sharing a common ancestor line with the chimpanzees. They are smaller in size and brown in color with a long striped tail of brown and black. I couldn't get a clear picture of them so I did not put the picture up here. These lesser pandas performed a few tricks for us. I didn't get pictures of the performances as my camera was with my friend at that time. The performances was quite cute really.

The pictures which I indicated an arrow is a sequence of pictures that I took as the panda caretaker wanted to lure the female panda from one place to another with a piece of apple. If you can see the large picture, you might see her with her tongue out at the final picture. Maybe she don't enjoy being photographed at ... Hahaha...

Red dates tang yuen

Last Saturday we had a buffet lunch at Peony Restaurant. The package price is RMB38 during lunch hour between 11am till 2pm, and RMB58 during dinner hour between 5pm till 8pm. Anyway the reason I mentioned this is because I found a dessert that is somewhat similar to the tang yuen that I loved. Tang yuen is also known as glutanious rice balls. When I was in Shanghai two years ago, I had tang yuen in rice wine almost everyday. Actually tang yuen is just normal rice balls but i love eating them. This version I found here in Fuzhou have a piece of tang yuen stuffed into red dates. The taste is very red date taste and sweet. Yummy! I actually had two plates of them. HAHAHA ....

Riverside Park, Fuzhou City

Journey Uphill Everyday ... Almost

I decided to show you guys the route that we all have to take everyday when we are in the university. Basically the area is JUNCAO Research Centre. Just that the class where we have our lectures is at the top of the hill. The route starts from the the first pic on the bottom left. In the top right pic, the thing is the purple box is where we grow mushrooms. The air around here is very clean except during the morning tea break where a group of chimneys suddenly start puffing smoke. ;) We have to take this route twice a day; once after breakfast and once after lunch. So it is good exercise isn't it? Hahaha ... By the way those black stones that looks a bit like gravestone are actually commemorative stones to represent the working partnerships between China and different countries. They planted Giant JUNCAO to represent the partnerships.