While the Boulevard shopping mall was blasting away with a short countdown fireworks display on the 31st of December, I was shooting from a distance away. Safe from the traffic and crowd. As I clicked away, clocks around Kuching ticked their way into a whole new year.

Moments ago, I was blowing out the candles on my birthday cake as my family briefly celebrated my turning into 19 years old. In a few hours, it’ll be 2009. That’s how long I get to be 19-years old in 2008 — a mere 24 hours. It’s a fact people seem to dawn upon upon knowing my birthdate, while I look on for that sure chuckle that would follow.

Although, this — uh I meant — last year, I get to spend my birthday a single second longer than usual. They say every second counts, don’t they? =P

Thing is, the highlight of that day wasn’t that minute second that was added to it. Rather, it was the fact that I got my first dSLR! Contrary to popular belief, I was still dSLR-less when I wrote my previous post. =P

Thank you so much, Dad for agreeing to sponsor half the price of this beauty! I’ve been wanting a dSLR all my life. That urge only got stronger when I got to experience my uncle’s Canon EOS 40D in early December, which is that dSLR I was playing with in the photo in my previous post.

When it was clear that all that pestering and hinting of getting a dSLR wouldn’t budge my parents, I resorted to working for it. But being a student with no full-time job, there is no way I could afford a dSLR all by myself. It was then when I realised I could only actually cover half of it.

Upon getting a green light from Dad, I grew excited and started to scour for the cheapest entry-level dSLRs available in the market today and ended up with two choices — the Sony Alpha A300 and the Canon EOS 1000D. Initially, I leaned heavily toward the A300 as it was a much better deal both in terms of features and pricing.

The A300 had a better Live View system that wasn’t as clunky and slow as the one on the 1000D. The A300 has in-body Image Stabilisation (IS) which works regardless of what lens you’ll use. The 1000D on the other hand, doesn’t have IS built-in but comes with a IS-enabled kit lens. The A300 also has a tempting 2.7′ titlable LCD compared to the 1000D’s 2.5′ fixed LCD. Then there is a factor of lens and accessories for which Canon has the upper hand, having been in the dSLR market for a longer time. Sony dSLRs were rather new, and as such, accessories are a tad bit harder to find. I was virtually torn between the two.

Trips to camera shops revealed that both models are selling for the same price in Kuching. Double dilemma.

The shop’s tauke recommended I go for the Canon EOS 1000D. My Dad, an ex-amatuer photographer from those old days of film-based SLRs with his Canon EOS 888, was also in favour of Canon. The 1000D felt comfortable both in my hands, and it’s interface, for I’ve been using a Canon IXUS 75 point & shoot camera for more than a year now. So, in a way, I felt more at ease with Canon.

And so, after much consideration, on the 31st of December I decided on the 1000D and jumped on the dSLR bandwagon, just in time to usher in the new year.

The next day, my family headed to a good family friend’s house situated pretty far out from the city for lunch. I tagged along hoping I could make use of the rural setting to snap away with my new toy. The results are the select few photos you see scattered above. They’re not perfect, mind you. I still have a lot to learn.

That dog above is their dog, Brandon, an 11-year-old which is equivalent to about 60 human-years old. He sure looks full of wisdom, doesn’t he? =)

I’m still struggling with the manual mode, trying to get used to balancing the shutter and aperture values for that perfect shot. It is definitely not as easy as my previous point & shoot, but that is what dSLRs are for right? To allow a photographer greater control over how your camera take a photo.

Now if you’d excuse me, your’s truly, the photographer-wannabe has a dSLR to master!

P/S: Thanks also to Cedric, Fahriee and Teddy for those invaluable advice and tips you’ve poured when I was torn in the decision making for my first dSLR. I owe you guys one!

I’ve always wondered why would we humans find solace in that strip of sand where land and water meet, even when it is a 45-minute drive away. You see, we humans are a rather peculiar species.

I bet if we were fish, there would be sand resorts built on that same strip where we would flock to flip around in the sand. =\ And of course, we would call ourselves humans despite having gills and fins and whatnot.. and those dumb two-legged creatures wandering around on land would be called.. fish. Blah.

Humans being fish aside, a few form 5 classmates and I went for a three-day-two-night stay at the Permai Rainforest Resort in Damai. Originally meant to be a full-scale Form 5 reunion, the girls couldn’t make it and so they all bailed out, leaving a bunch of us guys.

The hormone imbalance didn’t spoil the fun tough, for it became an all boys trip (save for Zhi Xian and his girlfriend) armed with boys toys — four laptops, PSPs, games and whatnot. Armed also with five whole kilos of marinated chicken wings for BBQ, beef patties, hotdogs, snacks and instant noodles, 10 of us set for Damai in two cars.

We checked into Cabin 4, a single-storey two-room cabin with a capacity of six. It wasn’t long before all of us were on our way to the pool for a dip before we headed to the sea. We came back all wet and soggy only to find out that apparently, the Resort had this policy of charging 10 bucks per head to those who brought in outside food for BBQ if you don’t opt to get your chicken wings from the Resort cafeteria.

So we had to pay up RM100 extra just for that. We spent 15 bucks a person for our own BBQ food and now we have to pay 10 bucks extra per person for not getting food from the Resort. Awesome.

Not wanting to fork out a 100 bucks extra, Ah Bin demanded that the manager call us back, who 5 minutes later came knocking on our cabin door. We tried to reason with him and threw everything onto the table but he didn’t budge with the extra charge, adding, “I know that there are more than six of you staying in this cabin, the extra four of you would have to be charged RM20 per head and will have to leave immediately”

Double whammy.

We froze and decided to buy time to extend the manager’s ultimatum for the extra of us to leave to 30 minutes later. We almost decided to call the whole trip off when weighing our options. We headed for the check-in counter and discussed our options with the manager, this time, rationally.

In the end, we returned to the cabin with an upgrade to a 9-person capacity two-storey cabin and 50 bucks cut off from the BBQ food fee.

That night, we had a bloody good BBQ dinner despite being a tad bit more expensive having to pay an extra of 5 bucks each.

The breakfast could be better though. But because of the complications regarding the room arrangements, we exploited the extra breakfast coupons and had extra helpings of omelets. =P

And so we spent much of the time there down at the beach where the waves were humongous-ly fun. The waves were so huge they literally sweep you off your feet.

We took precautions though and didn’t go far out. And no, there were no sharks. =D

The weather throughout our three-day stay was perfect — cloudy. Which meant zero sun burns. =)

Baywatch Permai Version.

Before

We had dinner the second day at Buntal’s Lim Hock Ann Seafood Restaurant. Nothing’s better than seriously good seafood fresh from the sea.

After — in not more than 2 minutes

The food was so good, the bunch of us must’ve looked like cavemen when we wiped freshly served dishes sparkling clean in 5 minutes tops.

After a buffet breakfast the morning of the last day, we took another group photo courtesy of a waiter. It might not appear to you so but we were actually looking up from the balcony a floor below where the waiter took this photo. =D

James and I in Dennis’s

By 12pm, we checked out and headed back to Kuching in Dennis’s car at 90km/h windows-down.

It was definitely a fun three-day stay despite the scare on the first day. Perhaps that’s what that make trips to the beach fun.

We humans, after all are a peculiar species.

Seems like it was only yesterday we were prepping our battleguns. If only tomorrow would seem like the holidays already!

The past week though, was grueling. I’ve never had a worst study week.

It’s a period of seven days where your mind floats between crushing exam stress and the sunny post-exam holiday paradise. On one hand, you’re frantically worrying about circuits, integrals and whatnot. The other, you’ll be drifting along the freeway at 190mph steering your 370Z around sharp bends in Undercover and how to tackle that backlog of games and movies after the exams.

The only thing keeping my will to live on during this dark period are these:

SERIOUSLY.

If I’d manage to secure results good enough for a Merit Scholarship this semester, Kinder Bueno’s would single-handedly hold full credit.

No other wafer bars come close to these absolutely creamy milky heavenly bites. RLC Circuits are suddenly so darn interesting. So here’s another picture to keep you salivating.

Wish me luck! =)

Happy Birthday!

I drove dad right after lectures for a quick trip to the bakery for a cake and headed back to the hotel, where dad has been having his week-long course. Mom and sis joined us in the hotel room, where we had a small yet meaningful celebration.

Words can’t express my gratitude to you, mom. Perhaps me squeezing the time out of my queue of *five* overdue tutorials (seriously!) to blog this would be a testament to that. HAH! Like that even counts. =P

Seriously, thanks for everything mom. Wish I had the time to say more, but I’d really have to get back to my work. That said, Happy Birthday to the greatest mom on Earth, this year and for many more to come.

Lots Of Love (LOL),
Your son.

And no, there’s nothing uncommon about this post. Hehehe.

Seriously, everyone in Kuching’s blogosphere has been talking about the new Big Apple Donuts & Coffee outlet in The Spring. And I’m not losing out! =P

Ever since my first encounter with J.Co donuts last year, I’ve been craving for those heavenly rings for like ever. I wanted them so bad, I got myself another box of donuts, but this time, in Big Apple’s when I went to KK in February.

Now, Big Apple has finally set foot here in Kuching! And better still, it’s just right across the road from campus. =P Yay! No more squashed donuts in travel bags all the way from KL or KK! What would you call this? Donuts finally within reach! xD

So it was after lectures this afternoon when my buddies and I decided to try out Big Apples since Lao pan has been talking about wanting to go over for some Big Apples for the past week. The queue was okay so we decided to share two half-dozen boxes.

Ah Wu posing with a catalog, showing how small the donuts are when they’re actually bigger in real life.

What I always liked about the two donut chains is their outlet’s deco. There’s always an abundance of glass and how every process of the donut making is easily visible to customers.

..like this section showing visitors how they apply the donut toppings. You actually don’t feel the wait despite the rather long queue when you get to look at how your favourite donuts are prepared. =D

Ah Soon and me lined up while the others went for a stroll around the mall. Soon, it was our turn and we picked away while salivating at those very, very tempting donuts.

My box of donuts in queue at the cashier.

We then drove back to Swinburne in Kee Seng’s Altis when we realised, we had no proper place to eat those donuts. In all its oddity, we ended up having a donut feast on the 1st floor of the car park LOL.

So there we were, six of us, standing outside the Altis savouring every bite, with Kee Seng’s two boot woofers blasting to the max. It was sure as hell the most random way I’ve ever eaten a donut. xD

Of the six in a box, I ate one in the car park and Ah Siat took another one. Leaving four which I took home for my family.

The donuts were damn nice all right. Thing is, we Kuchingnites had grown up eating those 20 cents apiece sugar-coated donuts available at roadside kueh stalls. Then suddenly comes this Big Apple store that doesn’t sell apples but instead sells donuts at ten times the price we’re normally used to pay.

And if you’d ask me, even at 2 bucks a piece, they’re still freakin worth it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — it’s worth every single penny man. But still, 2 bucks a piece for something that size isn’t all that cheap. Like Ah siat said, Big Apples are easily the most expensive donuts he had ever spent on.

That said, having spent on a half-dozen box of Big Apples, I’m officially broke for the rest of the week. =(

Red, oranges, ang pows, fireworks, you know the drill.

One thing I always love about Chinese New Year is the FOOD. Well Mom and sis is already preparing for the reunion dinner as I’m typing this. And seeing the pictures of a particular fruit throughout this post you’d know I’d be talking about them — Mandrin oranges. xD

Thanks to Boulevard, we stocked up LOADs of them tiny and bloody sweet mandrin oranges. It was a frenzy when Boulevard had them available at dirt cheap prices.

Gawd. My cheeks are souring at the sight of these sweet and tangy fruit available only once a year.

Well, when we’re not munching away on these seedless tangerines, we’d hand-pick a bunch of them to be scrutinized under the camera lense. xD Dad even deliberately picked those with leafs for that photo opportunity.

The result is all the photos you see in this post, taken on our dining table.

The set. The shots you see above were all focused on the tip of that bunch you see above. With the rest of the oranges serving as a backdrop, kinda. =D

The lighting was great, morning light coming from the kitchen windows.

But after lots of snapping (we took at least 40 shots) and trying out tons of different angles and arrangements, my sis and I got bored.

We looked at all the fruits on the table and had a brain fart.

My sis’s (rather) lame attempt. She looked like she was trying to gobble a whole KFC XL burger in one go. We were trying to achieve that effect of..wait, what actually were we trying to do..? xD

After we had enough of rolling on the floor laughing, my sis challenged me if I could do better:

Gawd, I failed. Miserably.

Note to self: Need to eat more oranges. I’m constipated.

P/s: A Happy Chinese New Year to you all out there! =D

Seriously, Kuching needs malls of this size. Not tiny ones like Boulevard.

While my aunt went on her official duty, we spent our time hanging around. The mall was surprisingly deserted, even with a pretty good selection of outlets, probably suffering from the new-mall-syndrome. xD

The plan was for us to hang around until dinner. So we had to choose a place to eat. Sounds easy? Not quite.

It’s not because of the lack of choice, in fact, there were plenty of renowned franchisers operating there. Okay, so you know eateries in huge malls and how expensive they are?

Problem is, me and my sis forgot to bring our bloody wallets, and we have tagging along us, two little cousins of mine. So walking around a huge mall looking for a place to eat with all those big names around you without a wallet isn’t a really good idea.

So we sort of looked around for the cheapest ones and settled for this PastaMania outlet right opposite Starbucks.

We hesitated for awhile before we were ushered in by some very friendly waiters. But when we looked through the menu and saw all those 15 bucks on average prices, we thought, no way, and sneaked out!

A few steps into looking for cheap eateries, we started to regret sneaking out from PastaMania. And when we finally decided that Starbucks, Kenny Rogers Roasters, KFC and McD isn’t any cheaper, we rather awkwardly walked back into PastaMania, being ushered in again by the very same waiters. Talk about being thick faced! XD

We sort of surrendered to the pricing and ordered away. I got myself a Chicken Sausage spaghetti. Don’t be deceived by it’s innocent name though, for it was So. Bloody. Spicy! Even your average bowl of Curry Mee doesn’t sting as much as this plate. I was literally in tears all throughout the meal. =\

Nonetheless, it didn’t taste so bad. Despite it’s over-spiciness, they managed to retain it’s creaminess, which was what made me wipe that plate clean. =D The slices of chicken sausages were quite good though!

My cousin, Wei Fan, went for this absolutely heavenly Creamy Chicken spaghetti. Did I say heavenly? You bet. Everyone knows how chicken taste like, but when you add tons of cream into it, oh boy! xD

My other (younger) cousin, Wei Han, ordered this Spaghetti Bolognese. Didn’t get to try it but it sure looks good!

My sister went for something slightly more exotic. Al Funghi as they call it, is slices of Shiitake mushrooms (that’s a Japanese word, mind how you pronounce it. xD) in cream sauce. She liked it, I suppose. But I wasn’t really used to the taste. Funghi? Ummm..okay.

Well, the tomato cream soup which came with the spaghetti’s were also very nice. Coupled with slices of garlic bread. But as for the spaghetti themselves, Bella Italia of Kuching still retains my number one spot. =D PastaMania could very well be leading in second.

Come to think of it, perhaps if I was the one wiping that plate of Creamy Chicken spaghetti, that might be a different story. XD

After breakfast which was some really good assorted roti canai at Mamak Bistro in SS14. Tony and Jia Rong got their PMR results and we headed for the new wing of Sunway Pyramid for lunch. Five of us was like, looking for a place to eat when we passed by a J.Co Donuts and Coffee outlet.

Now I’ve heard, and read all about these apparently extremely heavenly donuts from this very famous chain of bakery from Indonesia. They have bloody long queues all day at their Pavillion KL outlet, so I’ve heard. But this particular outlet in Sunway Pyramid was well, blessed with a queue with a grand total of 5 people. =\

So Tony was like, hey! Since there’s no crowd, why don’t we get some of those donuts! So we joined the relatively small queue and settled for a box of a half a dozen donuts. But then again it was only around 11am at the time which would probably explain the lack of a long queue. Nonetheless, we didn’t have to wait 30 minutes!

The presentation of the donuts in glass were particularly interesting to look at. I mean, even an Ah beng who would just walk past a J.Co outlet without second-guessing would be attracted to all that edible rings on display. Heck, he might even walk in thinking it’s a jewellery shop and get one of those colourful rings for his proposal to Ah Lian. =D

Bwahaha. xD Okay ah beng jokes aside, Tony was kind enough to treat me and my sis to a whole 1/2 dozen box of donuts of our own choice. Seriously, there were all sorts of donuts in all shapes and sizes, flavours and colours. Even to pick six out of those selections is no easy task because each and every flavour looks so equally tempting! But under the pressure of a growing queue behind us, we randomly picked out 6 lovely rings.

So there you go, 11 bucks worth of a box. =D

And inside, 6 heavenly rings. Since we picked out the flavours in a rush, we couldn’t recall it’s exact name.

All four of us, my two lil cousins, my sis and I gathered around the dining table, eyes all wide and fixated on that very box. I mercilessly barred anyone from touching even the box while I went on snapping close-ups of those very well-presented donuts.

You have one mango flavoured ring which is the golden one with white cream. Tiramisu would be the one with white cream and spotted brown. The one further in with dark cream toppings is blackberry flavoured.

Tiramisu in close range. Try not the lick your screen. =P

You have the black Oreo flavoured one here.

And another one topped with creamy New Zealand cheese. The one further in was one of my favourites, rich peanut butter on the inside, white chocolate topped on the outside.

I have to say, the donuts were bloody damn sweet. But it’s not that bland sweetness you taste in those typical 30 cents a piece donuts covered in a thick layer of icing sugar sweetness. Probably the only way I can describe it is that it’s as sweet as J.Co donuts. XD

Honestly, it wasn’t really that earth-shattering when I took that first bite. Neither did I remember growing wings flying to heaven and back. But what I really have to praise of these donuts is that of the richness of it’s taste. And when I say rich, I mean bloody rich. xD

The only downside is. I didn’t get to eat those donuts as a whole! All I got was like, a fraction of each flavour. Grr. I WANT MORE. =P

Welp, let’s put aside all not-so-pleasant thoughts, shall we? =D

I’ll be heading back home in about two hours. These few days have been pretty fun and you bet, I’ll posting all about ‘em when I get back to Kuching. In the meantime, here’s a teaser: (a pretty big one at it =P)

Tense times for some, yet carefree days for others (Hint: ME).

But really, with the final exams over, and the results day drawing nearer, we are constantly reminded of the pass or fail dilemma much of us are facing now. I daresay most people would be almost oblivious to that fact right now though. (Hint: erm..ME!)

Most of us wouldn’t acknowledge the fact that some of us might be heading different ways after only one semester. Face it, the foundation in engineering course is. not. easy. People fail. And when they do, they either repeat the whole subject, or simply switch courses.

Regardless of which, I’d like to shout out to all of you who had made studying in Swinburne for the past four months so much fun. I, and I’m sure all of us do, certainly hope that we’ll all make it to semester two. Words can’t express my feelings to you all, but I’m sure this post with reminiscences of the semester would. XD

..and that was a bloody lengthy intro.

So here’s to some of the best of things fortunate enough (or unfortunate, your pick xD) to be caught on camera! =D It’s superlatives galore! xD

Best Parking Skill

We all know parking in Swinburne is a breeze with those ever-so-spacious parking spaces. It is all thanks to drivers like the one who drives this 4 wheeler, with their impeccable parking skills, we drivers have the ultimate peace of mind in looking for that bloody parking space.

I think we all know who’s car this is. =D

Sexiest Butt Shot

Unfortunately, this particular award doesn’t belong to a hot chick. But since beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, I’ll leave it up to you to ponder if this dude really deserves this prestigious award (we’re not even giving it to bert-bert! xD). But really, this is really the sexiest butt we can find in campus.

Oh, the curves! xD

Best Laptop in Campus

Forget that dude typing off on his Macbook Pro in the library, ah wu’s laptop got to be the best in campus. Look! It’s even optimized for spiderman. o_O

Most Generous Dish

Okay, this probably wasn’t taken anywhere near campus but I couldn’t resist including this here. Seriously, the waiter must have been reaally thick-faced to actually serve this oh-so-generous plate of kampua and no, the plate is un-touched. Noodles prices are spiking, egg prices are up too, beats me if I remember reading that vege prices are increased, hmm.

If you’re that curious, you can find more thick-faced waiters at the Jalan Song SCR outlet.

Best Drink Ever

No it’s not soya bean milk, but you’re close. It’s neither that cup of Teh C peng I adore so much. Because once I step in campus Chillipeppers, there’s only one drink I’ll be craving for, ah siat know’s best. xD Since it’s so good, I’ll be nice and tell you that it’s none other than the Susu C Tarik! xD

Alright, it’s simply just milk. But not really just that, it’s evaporated milk plus condensed milk, add a little hot water, tarik it a little for that foamy texture and then served with ice cubes! Oh, the creaaam! All that, for a mere RM1.50! xD

Okay, I just ridiculed myself for admitting to still adoring milk at this age. But seriously, this is a must-try for all milk lovers out there! =P

Best Entertainer during Lectures

Face it, lectures are boring at times. But luckily, we have this dude doing engineering with us. We’ll call him R. R’s pretty camera-shy, so this is the best I’ve got. As seen above, he was entertaining us with his smiles at girls behind him. xD

Most Attentive Students

It’s a sort-of widely known fact that Swinburne students are really poor in paying attention during lectures. Thats why for the greater good, we decided to give recognition to those good students in class.

See for yourself!

Photos are taken halfway during lectures. Seriously, we are such good boys in class, we put others to shame. =)

Cutest Teacher in Campus

This is our beloved Ms. Chong. Our Engineering Math tutor. It all started when she was teaching us about acute angles. Some dude decided to make fun out of “a cute angle?!” Ms. Chong went into laughing fits and couldn’t go on teaching when another dude concluded “a cute teacher lah.!”

But seriously, EM tutorials are most fun, thanks to Chee Jiun jie jie. xD

She’s so good, we made sure she excelled in the recent Swinburne surveys.

Must ask her to chia us next time. =P

Best Attendance in Class

We don’t skip lectures! Honest. =)

No really, photos above were taken during lecture breaks. xD

Best Car Body Kit

Forget those Hypermax or R-four clans-with-styled-body-kit-cars you see in campus. Dump your spoilers, skirts and the like. Check out my new antenna body kit! =D

Best Candid Photo

Lao pan is soou going to kill me for this. xD

Dude with Best Manners

All men have desires. Most of us have serious problems trying tame to our inner tiger from lurching at the sight of females. But among us, piaw seems to have his moves under best control. =D

Peace out peeps! =D