Why Staying in Hostel Dorms is Always Better

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To A.S, travelling is not just bout going sight seeing and taking pics but the overall experience. The best and most memorable ones would be when strange things happen or she met or learnt something from fellow locals or travellers. 

One fine day, on the 6th day of her travel, she was awaken by lights turned on in the middle of the night in her dorm. She heard voices. It was the Kiwi+German couple she earlier spoke to in the earlier chat session with everyone in the dorm. Lights weren't turned on long to disturb A.S who was sleeping on the upper deck.

Bed shook a little as they lie in bed. Then it shook more but she let it be. Shaking went more aggressive and she heard pantings. "Ermm, this sure is not so right!" she thought. "Where the heck they think they were?" Moments later, A.S felt she was riding a horse and the bed frame made small squeaks.

A.S was so nice to ignore and tried to get back to sleep. Riding and whispers and pantings continued. "Can you guys please not shake the bed?" For a split seconds, there were silence then they went out for a little while. "Thank God."

Few minutes past. Door was opened again. Bed started to shake all over again. Whispers and panting and rolling and giggling. Looking at her mobile, it was 4 a.m. A.S conveniently turned on the lights from the upper deck.

"Can you guys please not shake the bed? I can't sleep,"

 Waiting for response.

 "Guys?" 

"OK, now, turn off the lights please," said the guy.

"Sure if you want to sleep and not make so much noise and shaking the bed."

Lights turned off and silence ensued.

The next morning....

A.S climbed down from bed. The lovebird were asleep of course but somehow then the guy said, "Hi".

"Hi, good morning, sweet night eh?" A.S replied.

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At 4pm, A.S went back to the dorm to fetch her luggage and you guess it right, lovebird were still cuddling in bed.

"Don't you want a private room with spacious bed?"

"No money." 

Waiheke Island - 40 mins Away from Auckland

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A Kiwi friend of A.S suggested that she visit Waiheke Island which he thought to be a must-visit place. A.S did not initially buy that idea since she had not learnt the art of wine drinking which is what Waiheke is famous for producing. Nevertheless, she went, for the sake of spectacular sights of vineyards, ocean, and cattle farms. 

Transportation is mainly by bus, or if one were adventurous, do some hitchhiking, of course with caution. Else, spend some money renting cars or scooters, or do the Oh-What-A-Torture biking up and down the hills, of which some is gravel road. 

What a blessing, A.S just arrived at paradise!!!

It's nice to cycle but wait till you see the hills and gravel roads

Waiheke Island is basically all about vineyards and beaches.

A fort with adjoining tunnels from the WWII, a contrast to the green pastures.

Too cold for fishing but A.S is kinda proud to catch this shot.

Old sheep, still and panting away which puzzled A.S.

A.S: What would you guess the diameter is?

Alpacas and ocean, SOOO LOVELY!

More of them and don't you like this picture?

The first time A.S caught sight of a bull and many more but no cows.
Go 'All Blacks'!

"Turn it upside down and here's how the name Silver Fern' originated," a proud Kiwi lady said.

Facts about living on this island....

Pros : You feel like you're on vacation everyday and people would die to live here like you. You swim, fish, sail, kayak, BBQ whenever the day's warm. A.S even sighted a school of dolphins at one of the beaches, and 2 kayakers were thrilled to be following them.

Cons: If you're not rich, you rely on rain water (limited availability) for use at home. Even though A.S went through water rationing at home in Malaysia, she never had to be this cautious. Groceries cost double  compared to the city - Auckland.

Sights: Dairy Processing Plant

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These are not exactly equipment to process the SCM featured in my previous post. AkiraSabine's intention here is just to briefly share typical sights in a dairy processing plant. Yes, let A.S bring you wandering not to another country but to the dairy processing plant. Becareful, do not touch everything you see! Surfaces could be as high as above 100++ degree Celcius. Or else, to save you, what she could do is direct you to a cold surface.

The sugar dissolving system comes with a heating element - Tubular Heat Exchanger(THE), pumps and monitoring instruments.

Respective utility supply pipings and product pipings both in-coming and out-going, as well as monitoring and control instruments.

The dry powder handling area where milk powder from each silos(upper powder holding tanks) are transferred and weighed according to formulations at the weighing hopper(lower tank).

These are Retort Sterilizers which operate in batches. Bottled/ Canned milk are stacked in crates before being pushed in for high temperature, high pressure processing to extend the shelf life of the milk. 

To a layman like AkiraSabine, she used to think the gigantic equipment/ tanks were moved into the factory on the ground. She sure was wrong. It went through the roof! Less obstruction.

The Processing of Sweetened Condensed Milk (SCM)

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Flow diagram: The processing of SCM (click pic to magnify)

How is the SCM processed which makes the Malaysian Teh Tarik so tasty?

AkiraSabine shall explain it as simple as possible in layman terms...

Powder Handling 

The different types of milk powder (SMP, SWP & SBMP) are weighed according to formulation and mixed before finally arriving at the final hopper. 

Dissolving, Hydration & Mixing

Water is then added to dissolve the powder batch at a certain temperature before the mixed batch was transferred into the hydration tanks(HT). Each hydration tank fills one hydration batch to ensure continuous supply to the downstream processing. From the hydration tank, the hydration batch makes a loop and return to the same tank. In the loop, the milk is preheated, in-line mixing of liquid ingredients which are the palm oil, sugar syrup and liquid maltodextrine takes place and the mixture passes through the in-line turbo mixer in order to mix them well. 

Evaporation

Before the evaporation, the milk is first homogenized. Homogenization is a mechanized high pressure forcing of the mixture through micro gaps in order to disperse the oil molecules. As a result of it, the miscibility of oil in water is more stabilized to avoid separation due to the density gap between both liquids. Pasteurization (at a high temperature but short time) is meant to kill most of the bacteria without compromising on the quality of the milk. Last but not least, the milk then passes through the falling film evaporator. This stage at 55 deg C and vacuum condition, water is sucked out of the milk to yield a more viscous product as it passes through the calandria portion of the falling film evaporator.

Cooling

It is then cooled down with a Plate Heat Exchanger(PHE). Lactose powder is added to ensure crystallization of uniform sugar granules in the end product to avoid grainy texture.

Crystallization

Allocation of 1 hour for the sugar to crystallize properly at 23 degr C in the super huge (60Tonne) crystallization tanks.

Rework

As the name implies, the earlier crystallization batch which was not up to expected standards is returned and added to reprocess the milk together with the current batch.

Filling

The ready product in the crystallization tank is transferred to be filled at the filler into 505 g tin cans.

UP NEXT on this topic...

AkiraSabine shall share real pictures of these gigantic processing equipments.

Stay tuned!

Guitar Playing: LUCKY by Jason Mraz ft Colbie Caillat

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AkiraSabine is putting effort in mastering how to play this song properly. Wish her luck, LOTS OF IT!!! She'd feel very much accomplished finally being able to play and sing along at the same time till the very end. It may not sound pro, but it is hoped to cheat sounding as one.

The hard work - 30 minutes of practice, once every 2 days if not daily...

First and foremost, she'd need to get the lyrics at her fingertips.

Secondly, she'd need to know the strumming chords, the rhythm and getting the best strum effect.

Thirdly, she'd need to combine both and practice, PracTISE and PRACTISE!!!

Last but not least, she'd entertain herself over and over again and only upon special request, cheat as a pro to her family and friends.