Mum's Travel Wrap

I bought (lots of) kid silk yarn, they were meant to be made into the bridesmaid’s wraps, but the hue is not quite right. Although the colour is coded pearl grey, I think it’s more light purple in colour. So, I tinkered for a little bit on what to do with 12 balls of kid silk yarn and came up with a few projects to make.

The first one in the list is triangle shawl for mum’s birthday. I’m hoping this is light enough to be carried around when she travels and it’s warm enough to be used during flight.

There are a few patterns to choose from, but I like this one best. I actually tempted to make another one in a different pattern, but I have already set to make other things out of the yarn. So, maybe next time :-)

Love this pattern:

(Completed 6th July 2012)

Bioluminiscence Glowworm - A Visit to Cedar Creek Estate

As promised in my last blog entry, a dedicated posting for glowworm :-) (Photos are not from our camera, as camera wasn't allowed, I got these pictures from Googling the web)

So, what are glowworms?

Well, I'm sorry to dissapoint you guys, but, they're not worms. They're actually larvae of a large mosquito-like fly. (Sounds yucky isn't it??)

They live in caves or shady spots with high humidity, they hide themselves among these vertical threads. These threads are actually traps!! The threads are studded with sticky droplets of mucous.

Their bums light up to attract flying insects and when the insects fly closer, they got trapped in the threads... and become lunch... or dinner or breakfast... well, you got the point.

The hungrier they are, the brighter their bums are :-)These works exceptionally well in their colonies. So, everybody got some chances to attract food.
For example, larva A and larva B are hungry, after larva A got some food, its bum got less brighter. Meanwhile, larva B's bum gets brighter. Thus, the insects will fly towards larva B. When larva B finally got something to eat, his bum will become less brighter and the insects will fly to other hungry larvae. And so on... :-)

What makes their bums glow?

Good question... I can't imagine if my bum glows... I'll save electricity! But, I might have to run around naked at night... hihihi... I don't think the neighbours will like that...

Back to our lovely glowworms, the light is called, bioluminescence. It's blue-green light, very pretty by the way, they look like small LED lights. This light is produced by a chemical reaction between their waste product (their poop?) called luciferin + an enzyme luciferase + ATP (adenosine triphosphate) + oxygen. The output of this chemical reaction is the light and pure water. (Yes! Pure Water! Amazing isn't it...)

You know the standard light that comes from our lamps, they're hot aren't they? Well, glowworm's light is cool. :-) That's what makes these little guys so special. 99% light, 1% heat. Amazing...

These guys aren't the only ones with this bioluminiscence ability, there are fireflies, jellyfishes, deep sea fishes.

Scientists are now inspired by these creatures, they're researching for more efficient lighting system. They use their genes to detect diseases in cells for cancer research, etc.

Would it be cool if we have a glowing trees on the road side, so we don't need to have lamps on the road sides anymore?Maybe glowing christmas trees? :-) That would be fun...

http://www.sep.org.uk/catalyst/articles/catalyst_19_3_412.pdf

Holiday - Gold Coast Sept 2009 Day 3

Day 3 of the Gold Coast trip :-)
Today is our last day in Gold Coast, we're gonna miss the weather...


First thing we did on the day was handed the key back to the owner :-) no drama... everything's fine, we didn't break anything...


And then we went to visit QDeck.
http://www.qdeck.com.au/
QDeck is the top floor of Q1 Apartment. Since Q1 Apartment is the tallest building in GC, we got to see the full coast line.
So, that's me in front of the entrance:



Oh yeah, since this is the top floor, the lift is a bit special... :-) It's a high speed lift. It's realllyyy fast... imagine going up 70 floors in 42seconds... Phew...


We got to see 360 degrees view of GC and its spectacular coastline. Now I know why they call this place "Gold" Coast.



This is me, blocking the spectacular view: *oops...*

After enjoying the spectacular view, we went.... shopping!!!! Yippee!!!

We heard the prices are good at Harbourtown, but, there weren't much sale going on, so, we just did a bit of window shopping, had lunch, and we went to Broadbeach (it's on the way to the airport)

Broadbeach is a bit less hectic then Surfers Paradise, most of the visitors are groups of families.

Had enough of the sun (it was quite hot that day), so we decided to go to the airport, returned the car, put the bags in rented locker, and catched a bus to Coolangatta Beach :-) for dinner.

Our flight was at 9pm that night, so, we had to get dinner beforehand.

The flight was unexpectedly early, so, it was perfect. As soon as we got to the Sydney Domestic Terminal Bus stop, the bus was there, excellent....

Got home and had some well deserved rest :-) We had 1 more day to rest before getting back to work on Monday. Perfect timing.

So, that's all for now... until the next holiday. LOL...

GET READY FOR CHRISTMAS FOLKS!!!! *jingle jingle bells*

Holiday - Gold Coast Sept 2009 Day 2

Day 2 of the Gold Coast Trip!! Yippeee... *Big smile* :-)

Finally we got a chance to take some photographs on the inside of the apartment. The owner of this apartment is very friendly, appearantly she bought the place for later when she retired.

Inside the apartment, they provide cooking utensils, toiletries, there's washing machine, dryers, and towels.

This particular apartment is on level 6, so, the view is just alright...

After a big breakfast, we're off to Tamborine Mountain. This is one of the tourist destination, so, the road is a lot better then Springbrooks'.

The first stop was the walking track of McDonald Rainforest Circuit, it was the easiest track there, and unfortunately there wasn't much to see.

Went to Cedar Creek Falls after that, again, to see waterfall :-)

We're very fortunate to come across a pair of kookaburra birds (I think they're sunbathing... or waiting to be fed!)

And our way back to main area of Mt Tamborine, guess what? BUSHFIRE! Oh dear.... it was a bit scary, the temperature was around 29-30 degrees that day. And the poor firefighters, they look really exhausted. We've never been to close to fire, so, it was quite scary. Even from inside the car, we can feel the heat, it was reaaalllyyy hot!!! Smoke is everywhere to be seen, you can see the trees and the grass turned black after the burnt. Wow.. It's amazing how easy it was for this fire to start.

But, we continued on our way, that was pass lunch time so we were really hungry :-) hee hee

The traffic was slow because of the bush fire.

Stopped by at this small shop that sells Chillean Pies - Yummy... I didn't actually used the fork and knife, just tried to be more lady like for the camera, LOL...

After that we just walked around in that small village area where all the shops are.

This is in front of a shop that sells Germany Cuckoo Clock. I would go to Germany if I want to buy a Germany Cuckoo Clock! But, anyways, I still posed in front of the store, LOL....

Right! So, with full stomach, we continued our journey to the Glowworm Cave. You guys every heard of glowworms before? I'll post a separate blog explaining these amazing creatures. Love them so much... Cameras are not allowed inside the cave as they're sensitive to light and noise. So, that's me, in front of the man-made cave:

And, that's it folks... we drove back to Surfers Paradise, just in time to see the market:

We had to hurry back home and get ready for dinner. We tried this restaurant in Surfers Paradise, Daniel's Steakhouse. It's a Japanese restaurant.

The photographs are a bit lack of lighting, so, I'd better not put them up. :-)

Surfers Paradise on Friday night was crazy... The pubs are full of people, drinking, of course... What else do you do in a pub?!

I thought the retail stores will open till late, but, they're not.

We tried to go to Woolworths to buy some fruits, but, guess what, they're closed!! LOL...

It was 10pm at night.

So, we just headed back home and decided to try the indoor swimming pool :-)

Holiday - Gold Coast Sept 2009 Day 1

Finally, the long awaited day has come. The Spring Gold Coast trip!!

Soooo excited, Sydney's weather had been so unkind lately, so, it was a good break. The weather in Gold Coast is soooo good, it's warm (it's actually quite HOT!) and everybody is so relax.

I booked an acommodation from stayz.com.au and without really noticing what I had booked, I got an apartment in Q1 Apartment. After I confirmed the booking only I realized that Q1 is the tallest residential apartment in the world! (*-*) 'Reaalllyyyy????'

http://www.q1-luxuryapartments.com/

Anyway, yeah, it's reaaaalllyyy good, it's modern, no party allowed, no drunken people allowed inside, security guards on the lobby, residents have to dress appropriately, and so on, and so on...

This is the picture of Q1 from quite a distance:

And this is from below:

After unpacking, we're off to Springbrook Natural Bridge, it was a loooonnnnggg and winding road... was crazy, we had to stop for few minutes to rest, my iPhone battery is also running quite low and we don't have a map, I just had a really bad feeling then *shiver shiver*

This road is one of the floodway area:

Why are we here? Waterfall!! It's quite small... should I call it mini waterfall, is there such thing?

Me on a wooden bridge:

We packed dinner from Sydney, Eel Sushi. We tried not to say it out loud there, appearantly there are eels around the waterfall. Hee hee.. don't want to scare them away...

Mmmm, eeelllsss...

Just before we left Springbrook, I got a realy nasty mosquito bite *cry* This mosquito is reaaallly small, but the swelling...

Lucky I brought my tiger balm with me :-)

I was preparing for leeches (Tiger Balm is very effective for leeches bites), appearantly Springbrook is quite famous for its leeches, it can be quite a problem during rainy season. Luckily, no leeches, only mosquitos... :-)

End of day 1... got back to Q1 and had some rest.

Oow, we got lost on the way back :-) iPhone battery died, no maps, just relied on our (luckily) good sense of direction.

*Can't live without my iPhone, love love my iPhone*