Mt. Baw Baw; A Day Trip

I took 5.35am train from my place to Flinders street station change over and took train to Dandenong. We ( me and Zul) reached Dandenong st. by 6.40 am. Then Huzaizi fetched us and took us to his house.

There were 4 other family joined us to Mt Baw Baw and started to move by 7.30 am once everybody ready. It was a long journey, approximately 2 and half hours before we reach our destination (hate long distance journey).

It was my 2nd time enjoying myself 'playing in the snow'. Last was in 2007 with Adel and her family. During the whole journey, I kept on teasing 'Tengku Muda' Ashraf. :-) Still drink water with his favorite bottle and his 'smelly' blanket. Never leave home without it. :-)

The whole journey was not so bad the weather was a little bit sunny, but once we reached the alpine area it became cloudy and then it started drizilling.

I still can remember, last time visited Lake Mountain playing in the snow and it was raining too. There was no snow drop because the temperature was not under 0 celcius.

Not too excited this time round. May be because I didn't do so much skiing or snow boarding. Not interested though just wanted to walk around.

My homemade Bread

A successful homemade bread. This morning for the first time, I had my successful Multigrain homemade bread. {Macam kat kedai lah pulak beli roti buku, panas panas potong sendiri. Bestnya. :-) }

Smells so nice. I purposely cut 2 thick slices for my breakfast at Austin today. Yummy..

Time for myself

I have been busy for the past two weeks. I had changed my daily weekdays routine. I woke up as early as you can imagine, cold-shivering early morning try to catch 5.42 am train to Melbourne Central then take 6.05 am to Hurstbridge. The reason why I have to get up and reach Austin early because my first patient coming for the exercise session at 7.30am or earlier. If I get my usual train, I will definitely late for my first patient session and I don't like to make my patient waiting for me, I don't mind the other way round. Despite coming early in the morning, I still finish late and reach home the latest by 7.00pm. By the time I reach home and had dinner, I already became exhausted What a long day and have to do this from Monday till Friday. (FYI here in Melbourne sunrise is about 7.24am).

) felt really nice when someone sent me a message to say hi and wondering why I have not been updating my blog lately, if I was busy. Thanks Jo for your concern, I was really touched.. :-)

I am trying to get use with my new routine. Once I get used to it then I can start back doing my usual thing...{updating my blog, :-) }

Otak - otak

I was inspired by 'Poh' Master chef final two of Australian Master Chef whom has Malaysian Heritage. The show has ended last Sunday which saw Poh as a runner up. The good thing was while her journey to reach the final two, she cooked a lot of Malaysian dishes. 'Nasi Lemak', 'sambal petai', used of belacan and so many more and made Australian public more knowledgable about Malaysian dishes. Thanks to Poh.

One of the dishes she made was otak otak. I was excited about it last weekend and bought a kilo of fish fillet to make Otak - Otak. It was a huge effort to make otak otak, not to bad though as I thought it could be so difficut. Just time consuming. Unfortunately I couldn't find coconut leaves, other wise I could put it in the leaves and 'grill' it. Anyway I accomplished my task well done. :-)
(Lain kali sapa sapa nak order otak otak boleh order lah yerr, tak yah beli otak otak kempas tuu hehe)

Local Fruits

When I was looking at the Manggoesteen (Buah Manggis) in Saigon Market last weekend, suddenly I remembered a nursing rhyme I used to recite when I was in Kinder.

Buah Manggis Buah Manggis
Isinya sedap rasanya manis
Bila masak rupanya hitam
Putih bersih, isi di dalam.

:-)
So so fortunate you can find 'Manggis' here in Melbourne, but really really expensive. A kilo for AUD 10. (nak makan punya pasal, belilah gak. Tapi kan bukan nak makan sangat pun cuma nak buat subjek tangkap gambar jerr).

I am not really sure, from where they import the fruit. Thai? Phillippine? Indonesia? Malaysia? Never thought of asking.

I also bought a kilo of pear. Huge pear and so crunchy. ( Makan sebiji dah kenyang, so kalau yang nak diet tuu datang sini. Buah pear kat sini besar besar. )

Laksa Penang

I found 'Bunga Kantan' from one of the Asian Groceries Shop. First in Laguna Supermarket then at KFL Groceries Shop not far from my place. When I first saw this 'Bunga Kantan' I was thinking of making 'Laksa Penang'. :-)

I made a pot of 'Penang Laksa' fish sauce enough for the whole week yesterday. It means tha I am going to have 'Laksa Penang' for the whole week. ;-) . Crazy

Federer The Legend

It was an epic battle between Federer and Roddick last night. More than 4 hours battle and Federer has won. Congratulation to Federer for breaking another record.

His the Icon and Legend in tennis.

Quick Fact record breaking

1. The longest concluding sets in Men final.
2. 7 Wimbledon final in a row for Federer.
3. Federer 20 Grand Slam final.
4. Federer claimed his 15th Grand Slam title breaking Pete Sampras 14th Grand Slam title.

Cassava / Tapioca / Ubi Kayu / Singkong

You can call it what ever you like, still it referring to the same thing. I have been wanting to have 'Ubi kayu' rebus with sambal tumis for such a long long time. 'Mesti terkejut' you can find tapioca here in Melbourne but freeze tapioca. If you are lucky you might get the fresh tapioca but very rare. Anyway, I bought it from Laguna Groceries shop in the city. I boiled it / steam it then made 'sambal tumis ikan bilis'. Eemmmm sedapnya. I Had 'Ubi Kayu rebus' for morning breakfast with Malaysian Coffee - Aik Cheong. So so sedap.

Saffron Rice

I heard about saffron, but never had a chance to buy saffron and use it in my cooking. I also heard the health benefit of Saffron. Sometime I ate saffron rice in a restaurant. Slightly expensive compare to white rice. While I was doing my groceries few days back I saw small package of saffron. For a small packet, it was really expensive. Anyway I bought it and made saffron rice. Turn out to be really nice. Definitely, would use it everyday, save the remaining saffron for later.

The saffron which I bought from Safeway.

Moorooduc Quarry Flora and Fauna Reserve, Mt Eliza Regional Park, Victoria

Jo (our ex volunteer for the exercise study program) email me few days back had asked me if I want to come along with her going to Mt. Eliza and try find places where we could take pictures. It sounds good. Immediately I call her and let her know to count me in. :-)

She fetched me at South Yarra train station at about 11.30 am then a way we go. We stop at Mordialloc, for a coffee and discuss where we want to go after JO completed her task. Finally we decided to go to Moorooduc Quarry.

Moorooduc Quarry is a reserve flora and founa of Mt Eliza. The Quarry is a little bit isolated though. I thought it was a bit spooky, out of no where there is a place for picnic, children playground and some other thing.

It occupies approximately 27 hectares of land and about 3 km walking track to enjoy and mesmerising the nature. We met a lady with her dog, praising how lovely the place is. Climbuing up the hill was not so bad at all, they have made trail and stairs to reach certain part of a higher level of the mountain.

Initially i didn't realise it, but Jo saw first. "Don't you want to take picture of Mushrooms?". :-) Then I started looking down and found more mushrooms.

There are more than 4 types of Mushrooms we found.

Finally we reached our last destination, the quarry lake. History wise The Moorooduc quarry was established in 1887.

Frankston Beach, Victoria

Stop at Frankston Beach to have lunch. I might say we (Me and Jo) were having late lunch after a long 'forest' trail/tracking. I was a little bit 'hypo' but fortunately Jo brought her home made orange cake. It was really nice. Thanks Jo.

I ordered Marinara Pizza, Large size only cost me AUD 7.90. Like it so so much, the base was really crispy. I couldn't finish it by myself, Jo had one piece and the balance I brought it back home. Second time had the same pizza, first time had it last year with Zul.

Meanwhile Jo had a nice fish and chips and cappuccino. It was a nice weather today, it was a sunny day on the beach. Enjoying our late lunch on the beach while the scavengers eagerly waiting for us to give some food.

It was not really cold. Not windy and the sea was really calm. Thought of walking along the beach but bit tired after climbing Mt. Eliza regional park earlier.

While enjoy entertaining the scavangers suddenly we saw one of them has one foot.

Cooking Therapy

Busy and stressful week.
Want to do something which will make me relax a little bit.
Watched Master chef , really inspired me.
They show how to make scones, hmm why not I make myself a scone
Jump of the couch and went to Safeway to get all the ingredients.
Completed making and baked the scones less than 30 minutes.
Nice..
At least I have something for breakfast tomorrow.

Winter Light Festival, Melbourne

Saturday, 2o June 2009
Time: 5.00 pm till 8.00 pm
Location: Federation Square

Almost went back home that day. Then we decided to just go and have a look at Federation Sguare on Saturday evening. Then we saw a group of people worn traditional costumes, two stage preparing for an activity that night and few stalls.

A multicultural show for Light Winter festival.

Opening ceremony start at about 5.30pm . Performance after performance from different cultural background. The best part was we have to walk and change stage to see the performance at different stage or stall.

Punjabi Cultural performance

The turkish cultural performance

The Burmese cultural performance

Not buying anymore bread/bun

Thanks to Jo (one of the volunteer who came for the exercise study program) gave me 3 recipes of Soft Bun. For the past 3 weekend, I have been making the bun with one of the recipe, get use to it and my bun dough getting softer. The results was really good. Last night I made again the bun and I am really happy with it. I just spent less than 30 minutes to mixed it and kneed the dough leave it until it rise into double size then baked it between 12 - 15 minutes. Since last week I don't buy any more buns coz I can make them myself. Again thanks Jo for the recipe. Next I will make my own bread.

Menu for today

The last remaining Pumpkin in the refrigerator. I made 'Labu masak lemak' , 'sambal belacan' and 'goreng ikan masin' for my lunch.

While for dinner, I had something light; Grill Salmon with Salad.

Calm Evening

Beautiful day and beautiful evening in Winter.
I've made a joke with one of the staff at Austin. I told her It is a nice day to go to the beach but it going to be a bit chilly. 'It alright you only need to wear a thick cloth',she replied. 'How about I'll bring the heater to the beach. Portable heater with batteries". Then she laugh. :-)

Pity the sky not as clear as the day before but it was still a nice evening. Calm wind , clear water on the beach. Not many people though may be it weekday still or everybody going for dinner with friends after work on Friday night.

My Work Place

Another week ended. Time flies. Slowly but surely, my patients number increasing, still lot more to go. I am still confident to reach the numbers required for my research study by the end of the year. But sometime I do feel worried. Never lost hope even at time the out come was so disappointed.

Since yesterday I achieved a lot. Called few patients and arrange for their test appointment and today few patients came to research gym for some discussion about the study. I went to diabetic clinic this morning and few patient interested to know more about the study, I need to call them back on Monday and arrange time for further discussion.

I am really hoping for the best and going well for weeks to come.

So far I already have number of patients which come from different background, which is interesting. There are really nice and even some of them help me to recruit some more patients. 'Shukur Alhamdulillah'.

(my working station at the Research Gym, Austin)

I am so fortunate to have 3 work place/working station. One at Victoria Uni and 2 at Austin. It was coincident but It really make my work much more easier and convenient.

My working station at the main Austin Hospital building. All patent's file I need to have it here for security reasons.

Winter Night

I have been trying to avoid going to the city at night during winter but not this time, it was an exceptional.

Zainah and family have never been to south bank at night and watch the flame show. Take the opportunity to spend time for a while in the city at night after visited my place last weekend.