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Claypot Cravings

This post has been pending for a very long time, since mid-winter I think. Lol. I was either occupied with stuff or just simply feeling lazy to type a big chunk of words.

During winter period, I was craving for claypot food, especially 'lou xue fun'. So we went to Petaling Street for claypot 'lou xue fun'. It was very nice and came in big portion, just a bit oily. And I think we were having some massive serious cravings, we went on to order a plate of 'kam hiong lala' also. Lol. Now only can feel like heaven.

Another cold winter night, we went to Coconut House for another round of claypot food. I think it was only my second time coming here. The first time was during my first year in Melbourne, and haven't been here often not because of bad food, but because it's always packed!

Apparently I've forgotten what did I order. It's something with mushroom and..... I don't know. Lol. I still prefer claypot 'lou xue fun' over other claypot noodles.

And it's already November! I can actually start thinking where can I bring my family to eat when they come next year. At least there are still some decent Malaysian food standing by if they cannot tahan eating western food everyday, especially my extremely picky mum. Lol.

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WAAVP Conference (Part 2)

Omg... I've been ignoring my blog regularly this year. The month of September was the most hectic of all so far. I was packed with lab work and preparing for my final seminar at the same time, and I've made a new record for staying in the lab for 15 hours just to get a better result to show in my presentation. I did already have results, just that not good enough. Even my colleagues felt frustrated for me when I have to get so many things done at the same time, provided that there's no guaranteed success in my experiments. Lucky me, I managed to get the results I wanted a day before the seminar and not only I was happy with them, my supervisor was 10x happier than me as he is indeed a very keen scientist.

Now that I'm done with both lab work and seminar, I finally can dedicate some time to blogging although I'm totally exhausted at the moment. So continue on my previous post on the conference, here are some pictures taken during the conference dinner. Before the dinner, they were showing some native Australian animals to overseas delegates. I don't care whether I'm from overseas or not, I will still head towards anywhere when there're animals hanging around.

A sleeping blue-tongue lizard.

Baby wallaby!! Sooooo cuteeee!!

It's a fine dining. I can't remember in details, but there was this funny discussion between ourselves about which side should we go when picking up our cutleries. But by looking back at this picture, weren't the cutleries have already been placed in such a way that you can't go wrong by accidentally using your friend's cutleries? Lol! Shows that all of us are not fine dining people.

The hall was filled with green and blue tables.

We can't really choose which main course we want. They randomly put either one in front of you. I got the barramundi and it's awesome!

This vocal singer was very good too. Enjoyed her singing.

 And the dessert was amazing as well. I cleaned up every bits of food on my plate eventhough I don't like passionfruit ice cream. It was a wonderful dinner after god-knows-how-long.

Port wine. I only took a sip just to try as they said I'll be gone if I finish even this little amount of it. Crazy alcoholic drink. But this whole week of the conference has also made me consumed a lot of wines, champagnes and ciders. Felt like my liver has already gone. x.x

The dance floor. I was extremely surprised by how good those old people can be on the dance floor. I thought all of them are just nerd scientists, but it's the exact opposite. Plus, the playlist was very very good too. The songs are popular and enjoyable regardless of oldies or modern. The playlist was catered for both older and younger generations, ranging from the 70's greased lightning to today's gangnam style. We danced all the way till the end without stopping. Unlike clubbing (which I think it's a super retarded thing to do), these were the nice and gentle people to dance with without going crazy. It was definitely the most amazing night of the year.

As requested, here's my full body with my dress. I love the coat more than my dress, so I still prefer to look like this instead. Haha.

Did I ever mention how much I hated shopping in my blog before? I got this $10 dress from Supre just on the day before I flew to Perth. Sometimes Supre do sell some really nice and simple clothes other than just those big hole shirts. This shop didn't cross my mind when I was shopping around for a formal dress because they mostly sell casual big hole clothes. Soooo glad that I went in that day and manage to get this dress that's acceptable for me.

So that's all for my first conference experience. It has given us motivation to work in this area because of these people. And it's super awesome to be able to actually meet some of the journals authors that I've cited in my literature review. There's also a Thai student who got so excited when she met my supervisor. Lol. Lastly, another thing that I've gotten much better at is how to do a firm handshake! But still can't be as strong as some really big-sized mat salleh's handshake. Theirs can generate a vibration so strong that it travels up to my face or can even dislocate my arm! Pengsan.

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WAAVP Conference (Part 1)

During early August, I didn't want the days to pass as I was still not prepared for this big event, but time still flew by at the speed of light anyway. At the end of last month, I attended the International Conference of the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology (WAAVP). I would've felt super excited if I just had to simply attend it, but I wasn't finish yet. I also presented a 2-minutes talk on my poster and that was a different kind of excitement.

Because of that I don't call this a vacation, it's just a short break off lab work. Our flight was in the afternoon, and I was still doing some lab work in the morning before rushing back home to do last minute packing. Lol. Only at the airport, I tried to throw all my lab work to the back of my head and stress more on my poster that will be seen by people from all over the world. x.x

We arrived at Perth after 4 hours flight. Once we've checked in, we went straight out for early dinner as all of us were starving like mad. Sadly, the city looked really dead on a Saturday night. We've walked for more than half an hour in the city still couldn't find a place to settle our dinner. So we ended up in a British pub. I nearly couldn't get in because of my look and I left my passport in my bag. Swt. But glad that the person still let me in. Lol.

Next day, I had bioinformatics workshop during the day with another friend at Murdoch University. The presenter was so so so good at explaining bioinformatics. Ahh... Our lives would have been so much better if we had this workshop at the start of Honours. After that, we headed back to the exhibition building to get ourselves registered.

This was my first time attending a conference and I didn't know what to expect, so I just observed as I go. There were many animal health companies had their booths set up throughout the conference. I was surprised when my friend told me there's a Malaysian booth too, so I went there and checked it out. It's set up by the Malaysian Society of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine (MSPTM). After a can't-go-longer-than-5-minutes chat with the person, all I got to know was they are organising a congress in KL and if I want to know more, I have to go to their website. I was like... err.... ok. @@"

My pretty lanyard. Glad that they printed my full name. If it's only 'Siew Loh' I would be so grumpy everytime I look at it. Lol.

The stage decorations were pretty awesome. Kudos to the designers!

Me with my bright red poster. The blue one beside belongs to my friend. We coincidentally have our posters next to each other. I didn't like this spot or this side of the foyer. There were lesser people passing by this area and the way they arranged the poster numbers and groups was very confusing. Many people had problems searching for a particular poster.You have to find the group first before you look for the poster number, and even locating the group was hard with just a small piece of paper with the group name stuck on a non-conspicuous spot on the board. Swt.

We also had a short trip to Perth Zoo as the Australian Society for Parasitology AGM was held in the zoo. After the AGM, we only had 30 or 45 minutes to quickly explore the zoo. That was so not enough.

Love this tree kangaroo scratching his body. So cute!

I haven't seen a hyena before. So I must post this up. Lol.

We still managed to walk through half of the zoo and I'd think that Melbourne Zoo is much nicer than Perth Zoo, and bigger too I reckon.

More photos coming up and I shall leave them for the next post. =D

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How I look like

Before I talk about my first conference, I want to relate this metaphor to how I feel while attending the conference. Majority of the conference consisted of expert old people or at least younger PhD people or experienced employees who were representing their companies; whereas I was part of the 1% who's got nothing but a degree people. So basically, there will be three different types of look at a conference.

This is how the professors and doctors look like.

This is how the PhD and Masters students look like.

And.....

This is how I look like.

Argh!

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Homemade birthday treat

It was Jane's birthday a while ago and since she's gonna have a late celebration and left the birthday night free, so I kindly offered her some homemade Malaysian dishes that night as I know she's keen on Asian food. I was thinking before this, what's the safest Malaysian food to offer to angmo, provided that I know how to cook it? Definitely not asam curry or laksa or anything with sambal, which I usually cook. And I'm not sure whether claypot chicken rice is Malaysian or not as I used to cook it almost every week. And I don't know how to flip roti canai! @@" I think back again, I was once asked if there's any Malaysian soup. Then suddenly a light bulb poped up on my head. Guess what I've decided to treat them on a cold winter night?? BAK KUT TEH!!!! XD

I seldom cook it, maybe that's why I can't think of it. Haha. So we headed off to her place after our lab work and get ready for an awesome dinner. She put on a cow apron for me because she knows that I like cows. Lol. At the same time, she wore her bear onesie given by her boyfriend as birthday present. Now I understand why people love onesies so much. It is so super comfy and warm. It's a perfect winter pyjamas. I think my first onesie would be a pokemon onesie.

Jane and her red-haired sister. The two girls on the right, Alexis and Jade, are our Honours mates, but in they are in agriculture, and also Jane's housemates. They have a small vegetable garden in the yard. It's really a typical aggies' house. Lol. For your information, aggy is the short form for agricultural science students. Because saying 'agriculture' is way too long and tiring, so Aussies shorten it to just 'ag'. I find it very convenient too. Haha.

After gobbling up the whole pot of bak kut teh, we had to cancel our idea of having dessert. Glad that all of us went for second round. I was so surprised they've got rice bowls, saucers, Asian porcelain spoons, chopsticks and even chopstick holders! I don't think I'll ever need to use a chopstick holder in a house. Lol! So... since they've got saucers, I showed them how to eat bak kut teh with garlic mixed with soy sauce, and they absolutely loved it.

Alexis and Jade are actually twins, or two of the triplets, to be accurate. They showed me their pet rats. Look! So cute!

I let one of them run around my shoulders. It was so ticklish. They are actually more fun to play with than hamsters. Hamsters are too tiny and you can't squeeze them too hard.

It was an awesome dinner, cooked by me. Lol. And I don't have to worry about storing that big pot of soup, which is always the problem when I eat it alone. Now I know, bak kut teh can be anyone's all time favorite. =D

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A visit to Maffra

Since Jane is from Maffra and it is close to Gippsland, so we dropped by and pay a quick visit to her place after collecting faecal sample. When we arrived, these three dogs were so super excited. They were running, barking, sniffing and jumping around us. The one nearest to me is Tiger. He has no idea how fat he is and he loves to lean on people. My leg also kena squashed. Lol.

This is Jane's dog, Red, an Australian kelpie. He loves to talk to people and sometimes he has to wear a mouth guard for talking too much. Haha.

Spotted one of the cats resting outside the window. I like how the dogs get along with cats. A good example of harmonious living.

Countryside scenery. The river would come in handy during summer.

A picture of me 'driving' a tractor. Inside is so cool with all the different controls. Feels like if I click a button, it will become a transformer.

Even the tyre is taller than me.

I was so fascinated by everything, even a fireplace. Jane laughed when she saw how attracted I was to the fireplace. Though it's not as big as those chimneys where santa clause can slide down from the roof, it's still the first fireplace I saw in a house. Glad I took this chance to explore a typical Aussie countryside. =D

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Guest poop collector

Since one of my Honours colleague, Jane, travels to farm occasionally to collect data for her project, so I tagged along one day to meet with some adorable calves. I woke up early in a freezing 2 degrees Celsius winter morning, got my gumboots ready, and all set for another field trip to a cattle farm. It's about 2.5 hours drive to Gippsland, and this is how it looks like when you are driving in Gippsland. Very interesting. They said this was considered good visibility. Sometimes the mist can be so thick that all you can see is the front of your car.


Here we are! Say hello to the 18 months old calves! =D

That's Jane (left) collecting faecal sample from the cow's bump and Tim (right) drenching the cow at the front. Both of them are working on drug resistance, so they often travel to farms to collect samples.

After being forced to swallow a not-so-tasty medicine and feeling ticklish at the asshole at the same time, most calves tried to cough out that medicine once they were released. Just like dogs. Haha.

Jane's first attempt on drenching a smaller calve. It is not an easy task at all. Calves this size already have strength like a mini Incredible Hulk. So it's definitely a guy's job to do the drenching. But she still managed to drench a few tamer ones. Haha. Every calve has its own personality.

How they looked like after drenching.

After sitting, watching and recording data for the whole day, I finally gave it a go on the last few ones. Felt totally awkward to stick my cold fingers into the cow's anus for the first time. It's actually much better than what I've expected. I thought I would have to stuff my whole hand in. Lol! But what you do is just put your index and middle fingers in and tickle the spine. This will make its intestine to contract, and then the poo will come out for you to catch it. Sounds fun right! XD

At the end of the day, we herded the calves back to their paddock in a car. Didn't know you can herd the cows with a car. Lol. By the way, seeing calves galloping and chasing each other was so enjoyable. A city girl like me will always be fascinated by all these sights.

And they say "you are never a qualified parasitologist if you never stuck your hand into a cow's bump before". Well, you can't use that statement on me now. I've already passed it. Haha.

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Knock Knock! Are You There?

G'day mate! Seems like I need to spend a fair bit of time wiping off this inches-thick layer of dust from my blog. Obviously I'm being less adventurous this year compare to my first three years of uni. I don't know where else to go or what new things I can do, so I chill at home instead whenever I have free time. Didn't realise it's already the middle of the year! Ahh! Still thought Chinese New Year was just a few weeks ago. Swt. Anyway, here are some updates from me.

One of the challenges I had during the start of my research project was bioinformatics. I only got to know this term few months ago, so it's totally new to me. When I started learning how to do bioinformatics, the same sentence always float around my head: "oh god... what am I doing..." while staring blankly at the computer screen. Swt. So I ended up borrowing this interesting book from one of the PhD students. No choice but had to classify myself as a bioinformatics dummy. @@"

However, once I got the hang of it, it's actually quite cool to be able to do that. Whenever I had to report my bioinformatics results, no one can ever understand what I was talking about except for my supervisors and the PhD students. Lol. Eventhough I have the most bioinformatics, but I'm glad that I don't have to do any statistics, which every other student has to do for their projects. I think I rather do bioinformatics than stats. Hehe. Never liked stats since secondary school.

The good thing about knowing some Japanese friends is that they will bring you to a manga paradise if you're a manga/anime fan, which I am. I never knew my uni library has manga collections until Yugo showed me this spot. My jaws dropped when I saw this shelve. Lol. Though they are old mangas (not gonna read the first episode of One Piece), but I can always read those that I haven't read before, like Slam Dunk. Haha.

A file that will make me go crazy! Can only get it in Japan and it costs 300 yen. I seriously have to go there one more time just to get One Piece collections. Haha.

This giant grasshopper surprised me. I was so scared that it will jump onto my face while taking this photo. @@"

The Smurfs UHU glue. Just thought of my best friend when I saw this. XD

Tried out this Korean instant noodles and it got my mouth burning like no tomorrow. It's also the quickest way to get Angelina Jolie lips. Hahahaha. Korean instant noodles are still the best.

That's all for now. Will update more soon..... hopefully. Haha.

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