Field-Trip: A Gather of Coursemates

Time flies and we're in our final year now. We'd been spending our time in hustle and bustle. Study, study, and STUDY!

Field-trip? Hmm.. It's a really strange term for us. Staying back at laboratories and rushing for laboratory reports are what best define our student life, especially during our final year. Yeah, final year project! FYP FYP FYP~ Sounds haunted? Haha~ This is something more than enough to drive you crazy. 

If you don't believe, check this out. We're so short of time and managed to grab our lunch in the bus. Tabao lagi~ 

And we couldn't afford any waste of time--nap whenever and wherever we could!

So... Whatever it is, here we go!

-First Trip-Fermentation-@Dec 3, 2013

Ready, set and GO!

Station 1: Cocoa Boutique, Kota Kinabalu

Hmm.. Out of surprise, we visited a Cocoa Boutique. I feel nothing more than speechless to visit a boutique shop for our field-trip. It supposed to be something to gain us some insights on chocolate making. Though, it is a boutique shop! Seriously, we were like tourists. We listened to the short briefing on their poster presentation, had sample chocolate bites in our mouths, and were persuaded to buy some chocolate from them. That's it! Wow!  

The excited gang

Briefing briefing~

Never miss anything! Claps! =)

Cocoa Ferment Trough

 

A variety of flavors to be chosen from

Chocolate-making in progress! Camera, action!

Hey I know it's dark-brown in color but it isn't chocolate~

Managed to selfie with our gorgeous Mdm Ros! =)

Ice-cream Potong spotted!

Let's Potong~ =P

Souvenir giving

Station 2: Botanical Garden, Lok Kawi Wildlife Park 

This site was a spontaneous decision since we had a spare time for more visits. Lok Kawi Wildlife Park? I'd been here twice. Honestly I don't like this place. For me, a zoo is somewhere business hits on. Supposedly, wildlife are native faunas which live in a natural and undomesticated state. When it comes to exposing public on wildlife, I do think that a conservation park instead of a zoo should be established. Animals deserve to live in their natural habitat but not in cages. 

Orangutan? Proboscis monkey? Gibbon? Otter? Sun bear? Ehh~ No no no. We're going for the Botanical Garden. Regrettably I'd never know that there's a botanical garden in this park. Here we go!

First thing, check in yourself!

A lot of nature treasures in this garden

Green green world

Hmm? A free ride?

Station 3: Sabah International Dairies Sdn. Bhd. (SID)

Do you love milk? It's hard for me to resist the rich, smooth texture of milk and other dairy products. When it comes to the art of coffee, textured milk is the key for perfect lattes and cappuccinos. The finest crafting of milk is so appealing while fresh milk is an essential for me. Nom~ So, let's explore the milk-making process!

The meeting room was crowded by us

Our President of the day =P

Chocolate-flavored milk for the children, and us. =D

The generous sharing from the managerial personnel there. We learnt a lot man!

Viewing every departments of the factory

-Second Trip-Virology-@Dec 16, 2013

Makmal Diagnosa Veterinar Kota Kinabalu (Veterinary Diagnosis Laboratory)

And now, we made our way to another visit for Virology with Ms Tinie. Here they provide comprehensive and cut-edge services and clinical diagnosis for cows, goats, flocks, cats etc. 

Here we go!

Wow~ Aisha~ Super Model! The smile kills me. Bahaha~

We were briefed from laboratory to laboratory.

All about micropipette! Ahh!

Light refreshment after visiting

Ah~ You want grab the food from me? No way! =D

Ehh?

 

Tired. Shoo~

This amazed me! An egg under candle-light. I saw it moving!

Nonetheless, the field-trips marked some great moments for us to gather and have fun. Every fantastic moments that I've been experienced with my dearest course-mates and lecturers are something I'd really cherish. And of course I grabbed most of the photos from them. Hehe.

Here's my greatest gratitude to the organizers of the trips. Hey future biotechnologists, you guys are AWESOME! Let's have more fun soon! =D

诺亚方舟3D电影

距離3月2號已經有210天，當晚的每個細節仍然歷歷在目。怪獸老大秒殺的淺笑、瑪莎髮尾滴落的汗珠、主唱大人深情的告白......不好意思，我的位置看不到石拔和鼓手爸爸，所以只記得他們獨奏的神況。

從來沒想過，一場演唱會，足以讓我沉溺在那美好中好久好久，遲遲無法忘懷。而今晚，同樣是周末的晚上，我步入的是一場電影版演唱會。所謂的電影版，竟然是和當晚的盛況沒太大落差的電影。同樣是五個人出現在我面前，只是這次少了其他瘋狂的五迷在身邊一起緊張、一起歡呼、一起高歌、一起感動、一起喊安可。

人在沙巴，所幸唯一一間有播放的戲院不遠。只是，那討人厭的3D眼鏡、不舒適的座位、還有未達標準的音響都讓這場電影變得不夠完美。撇開這些，我必須享受當下的熱情和感動。打從一拉開序幕，我的雙眼就沒辦法離開銀幕，身體沒辦法冷靜，耳膜也忍不住要隨著節奏起舞。

人在現場，絕對比3D還要不真實

整場電影下來，不管從攝影、調音、燈光、還是特效，製作團隊的用心都不容忽略。他們有把每個細節都顧慮到了。每個人的眼神和表情，都完整地呈現在我面前。 （又是那狂甩的秀發！=D)

怎麼說呢？我的感覺是那些特效有點多餘了，我說的是後製加上的特效。每個人的臉好清楚，士杰和其他三位和聲在後頭玩鬧的樣子也一覽無遺，似乎沒有什麼逃得過攝影師的鏡頭。雖說大部分的拍攝都在鳥巢取景，好幾千萬人潮的壯觀仍奪不去那份親切感。我，有一點點身入其境的衝動。為什麼只有一點點？只能說，大部分的我早就好像回到了3月2日的那夜，萬人體育場的激昂和感動。

或許是太高清了，我覺得比較像是真的在看電影。闊別兩年前的《追夢》，我反倒覺得這次比較像電影。或許是因為，追夢時的我，對於看五月天演唱會這件事，還只是個夢想。稍微的演唱會鏡頭，就足以帶我到無邊無際的想像，彷彿我參加了一樣。反觀今天，我已達成了夢想。夢想實現的那一刻實在太不真實了。狂撒的汗水和眼淚叫人更覺得自己輕飄飄的，叫人不敢相信。

嚴格來說，我不算是五迷。我只是單純的喜歡五月天的每一個人，喜歡五月天的音樂，就像那些音樂單純地教會和提醒我好多事情一樣。謝謝五月天，讓我知道夢想的重量。謝謝五月天，讓我有繼續尋夢再追夢的力量。

啦～～～這，是我們的旋律。

每次沖動留下的 都有所不同

然而有天你會懂 就是那些 讓你不同

每滴眼淚掙脫後 都帶走懦弱

感動總在衝動後 苦澀回憶 都會溫柔

Kitchen Story (Tomyam Chicken Stir-fry & Spinach)

Staying alone in the house is something unusual to me, yet I'd stayed here for nearly a couple of weeks. Instead of dying of boredom, I'd decided to treat myself good by entering the kitchen. I'm not good in cooking as I often get the dishes over-cooked. Well, the meals here are for myself and who cares? I should have cooked myself rather than eating out, which is not budget-friendly and otherwise, not delicious yet unhealthy. Okay, cooking alone and eating alone sound so pitiful. Why not I spend some moments to jot them down here?

To kick-start my kitchen story, and to lower the risk of failure :P, I opened my refrigerator and got mummy's homemade tomyam paste. To be more accurate, mummy actually cooked it by blending in a variety of spices into the store-bought tomyam paste. The flavor is totally different from the base tomyam paste as mummy's special recipe made it a right twist! Usually, I would just add in the cooked paste to fry noodles, rice, or cook a soup-based delicacy. 

I usually stored spinach in my refrigerator. I first came across this kind of vegetable from Popeye. I wanted to be as cool as popeye from small. Popeye's spinach is always in a can. My parents, however, do not know that spinach means for in English. Until I was grown up and shopped for groceries, I noticed the packaged vegetable with the "spinach" tag and I was overwhelmed that I actually eat it quite frequently. The two points that I love spinach so much other than from Popeye are, spinach is rich in fibers and more importantly, it is easy to prepare!

Running out of ideas, I decided to prepare myself tomyam chicken stir-fry. I took out chicken breast and left-over spinach, then turned my kitchen alive.

Spinach with Egg

Ingredients

Spinach

1 egg

4 cloves garlic (minced)

1/4 onion (minced)

1/2 tbsp sambal shrimp

2 tbsp cooking oil

salts and pepper

Method

First, the thick stems of the spinach were cut off and discarded. The spinach was then washed and drained.

One egg was mixed with pinches of herbs, salts and pepper. 

1 tbsp of vegetable oil was heated in a skillet on medium high heat. The mixed egg was fried first.

The fried egg was collected. Upon adding another tbsp of oil, garlic, onion and sambal shrimp were added accordingly and cooked until they turned brown.

Spinach was added and cooked for 30 seconds. The fried egg was then added and cooked for another 1 minute.

Tadaaa! The dish was ready to be served.

**I used sambal shrimp to add an extra umami as I did not have fresh shrimps in hand. Surprisingly, the sambal belacan promoted the taste just right. 

Tomyam Chicken Stir-fry

Ingredients

1/2 chicken breast

2 tbsp homemade tomyam paste

1/2 yellow onion (chopped)

2 cloves garlic

1 Red chilies (sliced)

1 tbsp honey

1/4 lemon or lime

2 tbsp cooking oil

Salts and pepper

Method

The chicken was firstly chopped into smaller pieces and marinated with tomyam paste and desirable amount of salt and pepper for two hours (would be better if marinated overnight for a rich flavor).

After heating up 2 tbsp of oil in the skillet, garlic, chilies, and onion were added accordingly. 

 While the ingredients were turning brown, marinated chicken pieces were added and cooked until tender.

Pinches of salts and pepper were sprinkled and the dish was ready. 

I had the two dishes with white rice, they were about 650 kcal. Yum～ It feels so good and satisfying! =D

Okay...this is my only entertainment right now. Shoo shoo boredom and darkness! =]