More cooking adventures!
Okay, as promised, a lot of long-overdue food pictures. Proof of my cooking! The above is when we made chicken with chicken rice, mashed potatoes, carrots and cucumber. I didn't take the process of it because I was too busy cooking! :P Mom told me to add butter to the rice, so I'll do that next time. I think I'm getting better at making mashed potatoes.
Then, one morning I decided I wanted a hot breakfast. So french toast it was!
Apparently you need to add milk and a bit of sugar in with the eggs before you whisk them.
Then butter the bread.
Fry the bread.
Serve drizzled with honey...and eat!
Yummy...
Bonus picture of me waving from outside the kitchen door. Yes I'm in pajamas.
Look! Salad! OMG healthy eating!
Only problem was, I tried to be creative and added eggs and ham to it, which is fine...
...but then I added Thousand Island sauce.
Turns out, eggs do not go well with Thousand Island sauce.
Lesson thoroughly learnt.
I bet you're all staring in amazement at this picture going 'DID YOU SERIOUSLY COOK THAT YOURSELF???'
Well.....
....
....
No, no I didn't.
(Awwww)
My dad's friend took me and Michelle (a friend) out to lunch somewhere in Glen Waverley, and that's what I chose - salmon with scalloped potatoes.
I now love scalloped potatoes.
Michelle had a beef burger. It was a very big burger with very big fries.
And this is what Aunty Ai Hong (at least I hope I got the name right) ate..I think it's called seafood marinara?
Here you go Kai Hui..a full fledged bar complete with possibly every kind of alcohol you can think of.
This is apparently what they call 'bangers and mash'...sausages and mashed potatoes. But we made it healthy and colourful with veggies!
Trying to make stirfry noodles. Onions, chicken and veggies. I know broccoli and carrot feature prominently in just about every dish I do, but hey they're the easiest and they're still veggies!
I didn't know what noodles to use so I just kinda randomly picked one.
Painstakingly chopping the half-defrosted chicken.
Cooking the noodles.
Cooking the chicken and veggies.
Adding the stirfry sauce!
The finished product.
Note to future people who might attempt this - do not skimp on sauces and buy the cheap stuff. The sauce is EVERYTHING.
A typical night in the dining room.
Trying to make carbonara. Put waaaaaaaay too much cheese in! So fattening x.x
Some kind of cordial. It was fizzy and tasted a bit peculiar!
There, that should be enough food photos to hold you all till my next meal :P
Look at me.
Hello world.
I think my face looks chubbier. :(
I have finished the last of my assignments due before Easter (woot!) so that's hurdle one of Semester 1 gone. I am so extremely relieved. Note to self - when you have three assignments and a test due on the same week, don't leave it all till the last minute. (Easier said than done, yes I know).
It is now Easter, and most of the Australian residents here at Normanby have gone home. Those that have stayed are mainly international students and a few Australians who didn't go home. It's much quieter, but I find that not a bad thing - it's times like this when you really can just 'chill out', and stare at the computer all day doing absolutely nothing.
I like it.
Uncles Ka Soon and Cheng Liat have come to visit me in my room, they wanted to take me out for lunch on Friday but I had an assignment due then (on the same day) which I was rushing to complete so I couldn't go. Uncle Cheng Liat called me again today saying he was going to look at printers/fridge/rice cookers for me. There are quite distinct advantages to your father having contacts in almost all corners of the world at times.
Yes, I think I might get a fridge. Keeping my veggies in a place where chicken blood can drip on them rather helped change my mind about not getting one.
The weather is getting colder and colder, today it was something like 15 degrees and I was shivering so I put on a cashmere sweater and my black jacket. Then when going into the city, it went up to 24 degrees so I was feeling hot...and then I came back home and it was cold again. Stupid unpredictable weather :(
I need a properly working heater.
On the other hand, I have been cooking and eating quite well, actually. Today I made instant noodles (because I was lazy) with a fried egg and a fried sausage instead of just noodles. I know it doesn't seem like much but when you've hardly ever had to cook in your life, never mind cook by yourself, it's quite the achievement.
It's nearly been two months since I left sunny Malaysia and flew over here to new, unpredictable Melbourne. In that short amount of time, I learnt how to use the washing machine, iron my clothes, cook, vacuum, and do a million other things I would never normally do. I can catch public transport by myself, have resigned myself to the fact that being dependent on it sucks, and I can walk somewhere alone if I need to. To be sure, these are all little things and I know a lot of you must be thinking how spoilt I must have been to not be able to do these things before.
But I don't care. I'm proud of them - even though living on residence means there are still people who take care of you, I'm more independent now than I have ever been in my life. I feel like saying, "Hey, look at me. I can do it now."
Because you know what? I can. :)
Today I went out with a group of people, only one of whom I have met before and only for a few hours at a time. However the advantage of being international is - when you meet a fellow international, instantly you're 'the same people' - because you're both stuck in the same boat, have shared experiences, and if you come from the same country/region, have the same background. So it's really not too difficult to just mix around. In Malaysia, I probably would never have gone alone to meet a group of people I'd never met before. But rules change when you're not playing on your home turf.
To those thinking about going overseas but are worried about taking care of yourself: Don't worry. You'll learn. And everyone else will be learning right along with you.
Picture post fans, don't fret. There's a massive picture post coming right up!
In desperate need of a break
Taken from 'bikerlawblog'
The past two days have been immensely frustrating for me. On Tuesday, I realized that I'd lost my student ID, and would have to pay AUD60 to get a new one. That itself was cause for dismay, but it wasn't until the next day that I fully appreciated the nightmare of not having one.
Not having a student ID meant that I couldn't use the Monash shuttle bus - which meant that I had to use normal public transport. You'd think it would be faster since I wouldn't have to walk down to the bus loop, but after two days of public transport I can now gleefully tell Melburnians - I have now joined the ranks of the public transport haters.
It's still nowhere near as bad as Malaysia, but being someone who doesn't take public transport all that often and especially not on regular days, it was really, really frustrating. Take this morning for example - I woke up at 8 for a meeting due at Caulfield at 9, thinking surely I'd be able to get there in time.
Boy was I wrong.
I missed the early bus at 8, and thought well okay, I'll just catch the next bus, it'll be fine. I went to the board and saw that the 8.13 bus was going to be a little late, but thought that would be okay.
It ended up arriving at about 8.30.
Then we drove down to the Monash Bus Loop, and the driver just SAT THERE for a few minutes while I was anxiously looking at my watch.
And when we FINALLY got to the train station, it was 8.50, but I figured I'd make it in time if I could catch the train.
Which JUST LEFT right as I reached the station.
The next train was 9.05.
Sighing, I figured I'd be a little late.
It got delayed.
When it did come, it arrived at 9.15.
I got to Caulfield at about 9.40.
Sigh.
Also, another lesson learnt..ALWAYS request receipts no matter what you buy.
On Tuesday I bought discounted movie tickets from my campus bookstore, and because they were just tickets the lady didn't give me a receipt.
I got home, realized that they were child tickets and tried to get them exchanged today.
The lady kept staring suspiciously at me and kept going 'well I didn't know what tickets you wanted' which is ironic since she herself had ASKED ME if I wanted student tickets, and I nodded yes. I mean seriously? If I'm at uni, I sure as hell don't qualify for child tickets, and do I LOOK LIKE I have kids?
Furthermore she was the one who didn't give me the receipt, so it's her fault technically, no?
Ugh. :( Add to that the fact that I have no idea what I'm going to write about for my rainwater story, and I feel like I need data but lack in data, and some people haven't gotten back to me about stuff, and damn I just feel so lost.
Easter :( Hurry up already.
