Cavehill and Belfast Castle

Cavehill and Belfast Castle

Yesterday, sunny 11 degrees Celsius. Finally, the weather allowed me to go for my Cavehill hiking trip. I quickly called my friends for hiking. One of them not feeling well and the other one still not yet awake so I just read online newspaper while waiting for my friend to wake up. We started our trip by taking bus ‘8a’ to the city centre. I paid £2.70 for the whole day pass. After taking out lunch at Burger King, we continue our journey by taking bus ‘1a’. My friend told me there is no Burger King at his hometown (NingPo).

(My friend was standing in front of the Belfast Castle)

Belfast Castle is at the foot of Cavehill so we visited the castle. Although the castle is quite small, it has a nice garden and architecture. The building that stands today was completed in 1870 by 2nd Marquess of Donegall, and was designed by Charles Lanyon and his son in Scottish baronial style.

We continue the trip after spending about half and hour there. We took cavehill trail. There are caves on the hill. I learnt that those cave were man made due to iron mining. We saw quite a lot of people bring their dogs to hike with them so certainly there are dog’s poops on the trail.
At the summit, it was very windy. I just stopped for a while and took some photos before leave. It is a plateau at the top of the hill.

I saw some tree with a lot of flowers. It is really nice. I am not sure is it sakura (cherry tree) or some other type of flowers.

We reached Elms around 5 something in the evening. I enjoy this trip very much.

Shy Baby

Shy Baby
My wife went to see a new gynae and is excited because the new gynae has a 4D/3D machine. The Dr. showed her our baby activities. At first the baby with one hand blocking her face. It was so funny that after the doctor said, "Let's wait for a while, her hand is covering half of her face.. Let's wait a while and see if she will remove the hand or not."

After that, she put 2 hands covering the whole face...She must be naughty or shy... to let us see her... So cute and funny.

Malaysian Night

Malaysian Night

Yesterday night, I attended Malaysian Night organized by Malaysian Students Society Northern Ireland. The event was held at Holiday Inn, Belfast so the ticket was not cheap. The evening events include Malaysia cultural dance, singing, magic show, and “Rojak” dance (mixed everything). Most of the performances are performed by the committee members. They worked very hard the whole night. They have invited honourable guess, Anna Lo, MLA for Southern Belfast.

My friend and I went together in semi formal (coat and tie). We were seated same table with invited performer (Chinese student) who performed Magic Show and singing. My friend was very excited and happy the whole night. He chatted with the Chinese Female students and asked me to take photos with them.

Initially, I was planning to put his photos with those Chinese students in my blog but he does not want his face to be shown in my blog. Since he is still single so better take care of his reputation and image. So you can imagine my friend was standing in between the two Chinese female student.

p/s. My wife said my coat design is old fashioned. Althougth the dress code is formal/semi formal, a lot of people are wearing quite casual. May be is organized by student for student.

Commonwealth Day

Commonwealth Day
Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) celebrated Commonwealth Day on March 9th, 2009. They have invited postgraduate student from Commonwealth country who are studying in university in Northern Ireland to celebrate Commonwealth Day. The event was held on Parliament Buildings, at Stormont. The events started with MLA members gave speeches. It followed by drum performance and light refreshment.

I have made a few more friends from different country such as Kenya, Ghana, India and Canada. One of the assembly members is Chinese migrated from Hong Kong, Anna Lo. She is the MLA for Southern Belfast which includes Queen's University area. I believe the Southern Belfast has a lot of migrants.

St. George Market

St. George MarketI was planning to go for hiking after my visit to St. George Market. I woke up early in the morning and walked to the St. George Market. The market opens two days in a week which is on Friday and Saturday. The design of the market does not impress me but one thing that is good about the architecture is the air ventilation system. Although the market is enclosed, it is not smelly. They used Gaelic blue material for the roof so it is not dark in the building. I spent about half an hour walking around in the market and took quite numbers of photos. Before I left the market I have bought a roasted pig (hog) burger costs me £4.

The roasted pork is just like the Chinese roasted pig but the taste is total out if compare to my hometown roasted pork (The one near the Pantai Hospital at Bayan Baru).
On the way walking back to the flat, it was raining so I decided just stay at home instead of going for my hiking trip.

Lee Garden Restaurant

Lee Garden Restaurant

This is my 2nd time having dim sum in Belfast. Last week, my friend came back from Malaysia after his long Chinese New Year holiday. We went to Lee Garden Restaurant to have dim sum suggested by my friend's sister. She works there as a waitress but she wasn't on duty that morning may be she wanted to welcome her brother back to Belfast. The interior design for Lee Garden is quite new and modern.

The dim sum served by Lee Garden is quite nice as compare to Water Margin. We ordered 8 dishes. My friend said the shrimp for the dim sum was imported from Indonesia. Overall I feel my hometown dim sim still the best.

Address: 14-18 Botanic Avenue, BELFAST,BT7 1JQ

Failure the Secret of Success (Honda)

Failure the Secret of Success (Honda)
I noted this movie clip when I was surfing on the Discovery Channel. I like this movie clip very much. It reminds me those failures I made and the measures I took.

http://dreams.honda.com/#/feature_fa

Queen's Eng. boost to N. Ireland & Malaysia

Good News. More Malaysian will come to Belfast. Good news or bad news depends from which perspective. From student point of view, it is another opportunity to further study. From Malaysia economy point of view, more Malaysian will spend their money in Northern Ireland. Malaysia University need to increase the quality from time to time at least Malaysia can become an education hub for South East Asia. Below is the excerpt from the news.

January 28, 2009 Malaysian students will have greater opportunities to study and live in Northern Ireland, thanks to a new agreement between Queen’s University and the University of Kuala Lumpur.The President of the University of Kuala Lumpur (UniKL), Professor Dato’ Hakin Juri and Deputy President Professor Mohd Azemi bin Nor are at Queen’s today (Wednesday 28 January) to sign an agreement allowing Engineering Technology students from the UniKL to transfer to Queen’s MEng undergraduate degree courses in Chemical Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, or Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. The agreement comes as Queen’s prepares to send a delegation to Malaysia next month (February) to further develop relationships with a number of leading educational establishments.

Malaysia Economy

Malaysia Econonmy in Ox Year

January 2009 is the time when most of the corporate having their Q4 earning announcement. Quite number of corporate executives end up lost their bonus, pay cut, resigned and some even got fired. Citibank’s Rubin has resigned, Merrill Lynch’s CEO John Thain also resigned, Bank of America’s executives and Citibank’s executives also accept pay cut. Next will be people losing their jobs, Intel cuts 5000-6000 employees and Craig Barett going to retired in May 2009, Qimonda AG filed bankruptcy protection,.....

Is Malaysia ready for this economy crisis? (I use economy crisis instead of financial crisis because it is no longer just financial problem. Almost all the sectors are impacted.) United State has cut their interest rate to 0.25%, this follow by UK until 1.5%, Japan to 0.1% and others countries also doing the same. Malaysia only announced OPR cut of 0.25% (on Nov 24, 2008) and follows by another OPR cut of 0.75% on (Jan 22, 2009). Are this OPR enough to get our economy going? Does RM 7 billion enough to maintain Malaysia economy? I don’t even see any solid plan from the government on the stimulus plan. So far no details are disclosed.

I would think the OPR should further reduce, since more and more people are losing their jobs in Malaysia. Malaysia is not like China with huge population that might able to absorb the economy slowdown. Malaysia quite depends on foreign investment and export. With recent news of Qimonda AG filed bankruptcy, what would happen to the plant in Melaka? Intel shuts down two plants in Penang and redeploys their employee to Kulim. But no one ever mentioned what will happen to the supporting industrial, like the nearby restaurants, properties price, and other service sectors. It is obvious that the impact is not just to factory workers. It should also include those people that provide services to the factory workers.

More and more people are facing hard time to service their loan. Certain people might have some saving to sustain their household expenses when they are looking for jobs. With the current situation in Malaysia, reducing the interest rate further will certainly help them to reduce their burden in serving their loan.
Hope the coming year, all this will get better. Hope in the coming Ox year, the Ox will bring bullish to the economy.

p/s I just came back from my Chinese friend house. We wrapped dumplings (jiaozi 饺子). In northern China, it is customary to make dumplings (jiaozi 饺子) after Chinese New Year eve dinner and have it around midnight. Dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape is like a Chinese tael. By contrast, in the South, it is customary to make a New Year cake (Niangao, 年糕) after dinner and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives and friends in the coming days of the New Year.

BISHOPS - Fish & Chips

BISHOPS – FISH & CHIPs
Before I came to United Kingdom, my friends told me to try out Fish and Chips. Since today weather is so nice, I have decided to eat out. I have chosen fish and chips. It is thought that fish and chips is British meal but new research by Professor Panikos Panayi of Leicester's De Montfort University claims that the original idea for fish and chips came from Jewish and Frence dishes. It was influenced by immigrants 150 years ago.

I went to BISHOPS (http://www4.btwebworld.com/mcvsnitv/bishops/) – a franchise shop that serve Fish & Chips. The shop is at 30-34 Bradbury Street, Belfast. They serve the Fish and Chips with salt and vinegar not tartar source. The serving is a bit too large for me; it considers 1.5 serving for me. It costs £5.85. The fish and chip is not nice. I still like the one I have at Secret Recipe at Bayan Baru serve with tartar source.

My Sunday Meal

My Sunday Meal
Sunday is the last day of the civil week in United Kingdom. In many Christian traditions it is the Christian Sabbath, which replaced the Jewish Shabbat.

For me, I usually wake up late since I am not Christian who needs to go to Church for prayer. I usually spend more time in the kitchen as compare to other days. I have cooked 3 dishes stir fried salmon, cabbage with carrot and ABC soup with meat dumpling. (as shown in the photo are those raw material). That small piece of salmon costs about £2 for 200g.

I noticed my apartment birdview from TESCO website when I was looking for their business hour. Quite cool the map so detail, Google Map not even that details.

I saw the Red Cliff 2 trailer quite nice. I am waiting for the online stream version to be available.

DimSum at Water Margin

Dimsum at Water Margin
This is my first time having dimsum in Belfast. My friend and I went to this restaurant which situated at the corner of Donegall Pass and the Ormeau Road. From the exterior design, it looks like a church. (The photo for the building a bit `cacat', will need to take the photo next time). My friends confirmed that it was a church and now home to a large-scale Chinese eating emporium. We ordered 4 dimsums. Overall is just ok only.
1. The xiu mai is big in portion but not nice.
2. The cheong fun is a bit too thick.
3. The beancurd roll with meat was quite nice.
4. The vegetable bun (韭菜包) just ok only.

The restaurant address :159-161 DONEGALL PASS BELFAST BT7 1DT

Mailbox

Mailbox

“You’ve got mail...” acted by Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. I like this movie very much especially one of the scenes Tom Hanks with a small kid visited Meg Ryan’s book shop. The small kid kept on spell out his surname “F ... O... X... FOX”. It has been almost one month, I don’t have access to my mailbox (letter box) not the email mailbox since I moved into this apartment. This morning the university accommodation maintainer rang my door bell. He came by yesterday evening but I was still at the ECIT research centre. We talked about the mailbox which I don’t have the key to access the mailbox. He was not able to solve it right away and need to buy part.

For the past one month, every time I noticed letter in the mailbox I just pull it out from the mailbox by through the covered flap. This approach only works for big envelopes type of letter so small envelope certainly will not work, it already went too deep into the mailbox.

In the afternoon, I was on the way going out to the ECIT research centre. The maintainer was fixing a new mailbox on the wall. Oh my god he changed the whole mailbox with a new mailbox just because I do not have the key to access the mailbox. I thought he will just buy a new lock to replace the old lock. May be he was not able to get a mailbox lock or may be this area does not sell just a mailbox lock.

He passed me all the old letters including the letters for the previous tenant. From the whole stack of letters, seems to me there are letters for two different previous tenants. It is obviously the previous tenants also did not able to retrieve their letters from the mailbox. I don’t know how come they allow their mail to rest there without bother about it. May be they just don’t bother to complain to the university accommodation. May be they have just moved away before the maintainer come to fix the problem. May be they were fed up with the situation. (The box next to the apartment main door is my previous mailbox)

Must See Queen's University Belfast

Must See Queen’s University Belfast

Welcome to Belfast!!! Queen’s University Belfast is quite nearby to tourist spot such as Botanic Garden and Ulster Museum. Whether you are first time visitor to Belfast of a resident of many years, there’s always something new, stimulating and exciting to discover in and around Queen’s University.
This area is steeped in fine Victorian and Edwardian architecture. How to start? Start off at the Lanyon Building, the centrepiece of Queen’s University. It named after its architect, Charles Lanyon, a key figure in development of Belfast’s architectural heritage, it was completed in 1849. There is a Visitor Centre just inside the main entrance. There is plenty of tourist information at the Centre, certainly can buy souvenir from here.
The Botanic Gardens is next to the Queen’s University just need to follow the University Road until it becomes Stranmmillis Road. The Botanic Gardens is just on your left. Since I am from tropical area so does not have much surprise. Still have some feeling like back to home.

Ulster Museum is currently undergoing extensive renovation. (Too bad)

New Year Eve 2009

New Year Eve
Dec 31 the last day for year 2008. A lots of things happened in 2008, Barrack Obama won the President Election in US, Mr MaYinJiu won the President for Taiwan, Malaysia Opposition won majority votes in 5 states, US Financial Crisis, Summer Olympic in Beijing, Political instability in Thailand and others.
For me, there were also quite numbers of things happened and most of them were happy occasion such as on January 18 and October 28. Beside that I have made a life changing decision to quit the company that I have worked for almost 9 years to pursue my further study. Quite numbers of my friends laugh at me for giving away good position to become a student. L It is ok. I can take it. Things were quite smooth in year 2008 but it ended with a headache.

Since Dec 31 is the last day for 2008, should have a good meal. I have my New Year Eve dinner at Tony Roma’s (TR). My friend and I have ordered different pork ribs Lunch set. TR serves Lunch set from 10am – 5pm. Lunch set is cheaper as compare to dinner set (£6.95). The pork ribs were juicy. Awesome.
Year 2008 ended with Malaysia stock market plummet about 39%. BAC ends with $14.08. INTC ends with $14.66. I am still in front of the computer for my New Year Eve.
Year 2009, is a year that full of challenge.