All dolled up and off me go!

Ok so the bike is ready. As the bike pants and helmet.



Front light, to see where I am going at night.



And back light, just incase someone don't see me and come up to me from the back... Could be nice in some cases but I rather not...



And now I'm ready.



Oops sorry wrong photo. Yes, this time I'm ready.



My next destination. Fountain in Mission Bay.



Wish me luck for the beginning of my training.

The fifth day of the fifth month in Chinese Calendar

Happy Duan Wu Festival to all my dear friends and family!!



Yes some people called this day Dragon Boat Festival where lots of dragon boat competitions are held in most Asian Countries.

And today dear friends and family, you are allowed to stuff your tummy up with lots of Zong Zi (Glutineous Rice Wrapped with meat, mushroom, etc).



Have another two for me because I might not have a chance to go buy it lah. Too bizi...

Call me nuts!! I'm doing it!!!

Well here is my next challange. Last week one of the managers emailed us and asked whoever that wish to participate in the annual Auckland Marathon on the 1st November this year please email her. It is free of charge for Coke employees. If there are more than 35 people interested, the manager will have to do a draw because she only has 35 places for us. So I emailed her thinking: Well, this is something new for me. I've never done any Marathon and will be good to give it a go. Best part is I get to run/walk over Auckland Harbour Bridge!! Having said that if there are more than 35 applicants from work, it will have to depend on my luck then. She advised the result of the draw would be reveal Monday, yesterday.


Photo of Auckland Marathon 2008 on Harbour Bridge

I didn't hear or receive any confirmation email about my application yesterday so I thought maybe I'll have a better luck next year. This morning when I arrived at work, to much of my surprise, an email told me that I am one of the successful applicants!! Quickly, I enrolled myself online for half Marathon (which is approximately 21km run/walk) I would love to try the full Marathon but that will be suicidal.

Map below shows the starting point for both full and half Marathon at King Edward Parade in Devonport.



And this map is the route for half Marathon.



As we can see it is NOT a short, walk in the park type distance. It's going to be full on and intense.


All Marathon, including Quarter Marathon, 5km Walk and Kids Marathon, will finish on Fanshaw Street by Victoria Park. And there will be a after-Marathon party in Victoria Park. A stage will be setup for prize giving and bands to play on throughout the day. I saw that there will a massage tent setup as well. Might go and get me self somekind of massage after my exhausting 21km walk...



Guess I better start my training when the time comes closer so that I won't ended up crawling to the finish line.



Yes it's going to be hard but the slogan above says it all: Impossible Is Nothing.

After all ths typing, I'm hungry now. Where is my McDonald Double Big Mac Supersize Combo?

Kuching, me, food

This was one of the most exciting part of the trip. Food~~

I went to lots of places, ate so much that I thought I must have put on a few pounds during this trip.


One of the many food stalls on a not so busy morning.


Food Court in The Spring Shopping Mall.


Hawker Stalls in Hui Sing Garden


For alot of Kuchingites, one of the most important thing in life is eat. This photo was taken at 9.30pm at night and hawker stalls still packed with people.

Let me list out the food that I tried during this trip.


Kuching Laksa @ Golden Arch


Yum~~


Kueh Chap @ Thrid Mile (mixture of pork parts including pork belly, pork skin, pork ears, pork tongue, pork intestines, pork stomach, lean pork cooked with thick rice noodle in herbal soup)


Kolo Mee, Vegetarian version.


Kan Pua Mee, a Foo Chow Mee but I prefer Kolo Mee than this one. This dish a drier than Kolo Mee but looks really similar.


Nasi Lemak which are available in some Food Courts around Auckland


Char Kueh, means Fried Cake (Cake is made from steamed white radish. It is then fried with Chai Poh (Preserved Turnip), eggs, spring onion, and soy sauce)


Char Ham O Mee (Fried Egg Noodle with soy sauce, just like some Mee Goreng which are available here, only difference is this one is fried with small clam)


Beef Satay


This was how the satay got Peng Gang (bbq)


Now this is different, BBQ Egg Plant. It was actually nothing special and didn't taste very nice. I tried it, that's all it matters.


Jiu Hu Eng Chai (Kangkong, a semi-aquatic tropical plant grown as a leaf vegetable, cooked with cuttlefish and a sweet and spicy sauce)


These were not fried chicken, there were fried pigeon. And prawn balls on skewer.


Fried Chinese New Year Cake, the name is weird but the taste was divine.


Barbequed Stingray covered with some kind of spicy sauce.

I went to Four Points @ BDC with couple of friends for dinner and we had buffet 'Steamboat'. It consists of variety dishes, where ingredients are cooked in a pan and pot of broth at the table. The ingredients that were available include thinly sliced meat, vegetable, mushrooms, tofu, fresh seafood, hotdogs, noodle, crab, etc... The cooked food is either eaten with a dipping sauce, or sometimes as a soup.


This was how the setup looked like. We had mixed Tom Yum and chicken soup. Nothing beats chick with a bit of spice.


And this was how we cooked and then eat.


And again, a messy aftermath...

The next night, my friends invited me to a food stall in Kota Padawan just after 10th Mile Bazaar. Well, we had...


Oyster Omelette. This is quite different from the normal soft omelette. It is crispy and really tasty, probably one of the best ones I've tried so far.


More king prawns


Belacan Paku (Miding Fern which could be collected from thick bushes along the road side in Kuching cooked with shrimp paste)


Wild boar, yes pork!!

And this was the highlight of the night. Fruit Bat!!


Live free, or


Die hard


Part of the bat, guess where?


Still can't guess it? Let me bring it closer...


Yes, bat head, in half. And the white square stuffs were the teeth.


It's wing. Well part of it anyway.


Yes I know... very ge li~~ (gross)

That was my first time eating bat. Its texture was a bit like duck. It wasn't too bad but just very weird and uncomfortable... I'll say that it was my first and probably the last time to do this again...



That night, I beat Batman.

So many things to eat, yet so little time... damn tummy is not big enough to take them all in~

Ripped Off!!

When I was in Kuching, I decided to try Starbucks Coffee at Precinct 88 Jalan Song to see how big the difference of coffee is compare to Starbucks here.



I ordered grande (medium) Chocolate Frappucino with a bit of cream. There were no price tags on the order board so I thought: 'Ok, maybe RM8.00 at the most. It's alright. I can cope with that.'

Who knows, when the bill came..



Rm14.20 FOR A GRANDE!!!!!! I almost pengsan (fainted, in Malay). With trembling hand, I handed a RM20.00 note to the cashier and looked at the leftover change.. with tear in me eyes and speechless.

I finished the whole lot, not even a single chocolate chip left over.

That was a lesson well learnt. NEVER buy things when you can't see the price!!!

I never went back to Starbucks again in Kuching after that experience. Who wants to pay so much for a glass of not-so-delicious coffee when you can pay RM2.00, at the most, for a glass of kopi at the local kopitiam back home?