Gondola Ride

At first I thought punting and gondola are the same thing.. but gondola in Christchurch is a cable car system.... kids loved it.

Even Hisham was impressed. I thought he will have some issues with heights. Baby.. (oops Rohan - no longer a baby) slept all the way up (I said to Hisham, he won't remember the experience even if he is awake) ??? But he was wide awake up the top and running around the souvenir shop happily.

The closed-up view of Littleton Harbour from up the top.

Punting on Avon- Grand Tour Pt 2

Punting on Avon is quite romantic, the punters with their ties n hats and suspenders.. the weeping willow trees, the bridges, the ducks... aaaahhhhhh...
Going down the stream was not a problem - punting up stream - arrrgh arrgh.. We had a 'full house' and at one stage I thought we were not going anywhere but the punter did a good job.

Luke (our punter - the younger one)

'kaki mokcik n pokcik' - kikikiki

I had to ask somebody else to take O's and A's picture

Cheeky Rohan, somehow he managed to suck on some river water..

Grand Tour - Pt 1

I only had 1 day to 'see' Christchurch. There's so many places to see and experience and not enough time. So I decided .. "Grand Tour". Which include soem park, punting on Avon, Gondola (heard so much about it) , Sumner Beach and Tram Ride (all in one day)

Few pictures from a stroll in Mona Vale...

There are houses along the river.. with impeccable gardens - UNREAL!

Crystal clear water - OMG!

Bearded Iris - must get this color..
Can you believe it??! private residence in 'paradise'? - aiyyo!

Even the grass look pretty.

That's the grand tour bus we took. There were only another three adults on that bus, we basically had the bus to ourselves!

Inflight shots

Tengah study evacuation plan???

Orion: Mummy, they are mermaids!
(kakakakkakaka..)

No, they are people swiming in the sea..
why they swimming?
mmmm if the plane decided to land in the sea... ??
Why they put they hands up mummy? errr so that.. it won't get wet... why they won't want their hands to get wet? ---aiyyo on n on - But I managed to distract them from the evacuation plan with chips and fruit juice.


But what awed me was this :

WOW! The Southern Great Alps... No wonder this one kiwi bee keeper got his name on 'the first to climb Mt. Everest'.. he got a lot of practice in the South Island!!

Now.. The Important Bit

Christchurch - Boasting as The Garden City - I thought I should show you guys the 'gardens' shots I have.. Yes I've been to some part of it's huge botanical garden.. very nice! I heard somebody said Christchurch has something like 750 gardens! that is WOW! The heart of the city is a huge park (Hagley Park) - with so many golf courses and jogging tracks etc.. The hospital also near the park - (very handy I thought...)

But first-The Cathedral Square..


Founder of Christchurch? immortalised in Green Stone?

I wonder what's it look like from inside?

The chalice - new addition to the square
You can climb the stairs up the balcony (..but not today!) hehehehe

The square is quite big and bustling with many activities, wedding, churchy services, lotsof souvenir shops, lotsof tourist walking around with backpacks, tourists taking pictures like us, cafes, toilets [I like this toilet - you need to go on the lift to get to it], aquarium [where you can catch a glimpse of kiwis (the bird)], I saw chemist, tram stop, airport shuttle stop, more shops, stalls [selling food like fish n chips, kebabs etc], giant chess game, baskers, preachers, homeless sleeping under the tree? It is a good meeting point too. Met few Malaysians at this square!

Hewwo kawang kawang semua

I miss you guys... Christchurch was awesome [takder perkataan lain si farid ni - kata Intang]. But I only had one? two? days for sight seeing and harassing the locals. Most of the time 'brain storming' [read - trying to stay awake through talks] at the Convention Centre. I met few Malaysian PhD students. 3 social events - I only managed one! [the wrong one!] Cesss tuih tuih tuih! Forget about networking during dinner - the music too loud to even hear myself thinking.. let alone talking! n most talks are with the drunks or semi-drunks [buek mengabih boreh!]

Intang - at my conference - there was a time that I wish that I were at your kinda conference instead - standing ovation and all.. I could even get my Medical Physics 'mojo' back there.. - or even at Cik Wang's one in Bali!

Not all is bad I guess - I was able to put few faces to few names (even though it's not all the correct names n correct faces) and the fact that I somehow felt .."Ohhh Noooo I have to take the accreditation exam no matter what"... also our new 'all singing and all dancing' machine looked a bit primitive after listening some of the pow wow papers! - but it was all good... it was all good... this whole thingy about conference (try to repeat this to myself). [not to mention the report I am trying to 'dream up' n aaarggh presentation soon!] it was all good... it was all good.....it was all good

We are back.. safe and sound

Stories and pictures --- later
first thing first - this image is to whoever that is.. who miss Chch ;-)

Menjadi!!! menjadi!!!

I have been trying to make tosei (dosa) from scratch since months ago.. I know you guys - can just go down the road if you fancy tosei..
Thanks to Lydia and Shireen for their recipe/tips/tricks... and patience.

This is the fermented batter - sort of 'bubbly'

It will rise a smidgen on the pan

This is the 'sticky' old (cheap) pan - hard to get nice tosei 'pancake'

Voilaaaaaaaaaaa

I hope it's a GOOD idea

Aladdin already has his packed bag on his bed.. excited about Christchurch?? I am not sure now if it's a good idea to haul the whole family to my conference venue. I had a good time in Vegas but also terrible time missing the family. So, I thought this NZ trip, better take them with me, at least I can spend time with them at dinner... wouldn't it be cool to check out some kiwi food together as a family? (even though it will be just fish n chips dinner and a maori or two!). Now I am not so sure... There're six nights altogether (presumably that we got there in one piece - eerr 5 pieces err nevermind!) and I have half of Saturday there and basically the whole Sunday with them. Now after reading the programme, there's welcoming party on Sunday Night, and Conference Dinner on Wednesday night. Not happy with two drunken nights - they added another function, women's in medical physics night [can't miss that one!]

I believe the department expects me to do some networking whilst I am there so networking I will. I just hope we won't be too tired to enjoy Christchurch together as a family - half of Saturday and Sunday (azwang : I must find a way to get Hisham up on those Gondolas)

Big Momma on Bike

The jacket is XXXL! - aiyyo! It is quite bigger up the top but I had no choice if I want to zip up tummy area while still breathing all the time I have the jacket on!

This scooter is slightly higher than it should be for me, maybe I should get a super high heel?? But I must say this - whoever has riden on the honda 'kapcai'... stick to kapcai.. to me - my kapcai in Malaysia is way way more superior than this one.. more comfortable too. I wish they sell kapcai here.

Christchurch beckons

I've booked tickets for Christchurch ages ago.. end of July, booked it and forgot about it. Last week I realised that.."we'll be flying next week" which is this week. As usual nothing is ready...

I know I won't have time to roam around around Chch as much.... but I still need to pack and think about it for the family as well as to think about my conference, report etc. [just as well I didn't present any paper or poster].

Must do's..
1-Print all e-tickets, hotel information-phone numbers for: pickup service etc.
2-Get business cards from my boss (checked)
3-Get questions ready (OBI,RPM, ConeBeamCT, IMRT, etc
4. ...

You know what?... I just gonna let this trip unravel by itself......... no point planning and planning n miss the whole lot of things [like the Malaysia Trip back in May]

Let's look at this trip as a mystery adventure!
yeee har!

How to make 'Dosa'

Not the sinful dosa - rather the 'tosei' or 'dosa' the Indian healthy meal!

1/3 cup urud daal
1 cup rice
1 table spoon fenugreek
pinch of salt
2 table spoon cooked rice
few dried chillies

soak daal, rice and fenugreek overnight [or at least 4 hours]
blend them [lydia said to blend them separately but I soaked n blended them together - I use the normal blender - but if you have 'indian' blender the mixture would be finer]
leave it to ferment [the mixture will double the size]

then you can cook it as pancake - eat with curry, daal and/or coconut chutney..
------------------
I cheated a bit - I put a pinch of soda bicarb but mine didn't ferment at all! supposed to double the amount - but it didn't and I decided not to wait.. so we had 'un-sour' dosa [dosai, dosei, tosei]
for dinner last night. Tasted quite nice - I even had the confidence to invite Faye for dosai dinner. She liked it too. (I got her excited too, she wants the recipe) -- wait till I know how to make it perfectly.

Must try try try until I got it right!

Sorry no pictures - maybe next time???

Quilting Competition

I said that I like a useful craft like quilting - only if I can use them and not as wall hangers ---- until I saw these!
Van Gogh?

"Quilters never grow old, they just go to pieces"

The earth n star kinda neat but the writings around it spoilt it??

This orange one is the "First Prize" winner.

Bad Fur Day - cute little owl
Judges's comendation also one of my favs.

My fav.

My Fav.


As you can see this is not just quilting and patchwork but the whole shebangs! [stichery etc]