Imperialistic Condiments

I have moved

2007-08-05T21:39:00.001+08:00

I am all set up here

Access is by and large unrestricted.

Mind Your Language!

2007-07-19T16:52:00.000+08:00

Dear MediaCorp TV Exec,

I refer to the newest addition to the MediaCorp family "Girl on Girl". Certainly this is one programme that you will be hawking at regional or international media exchanges. This may be one programme that will win us yet another accolade lauding the company for its ceaseless pursuit of excellence. This may be the one break-through local production of the year to propel us to international recognition!

This then begs the next question, do you know what "Girl on Girl" means? I am asking you if you know what it means, not what it insinuates. I accept that if it were mere insinuation then my worldly insight might taint my perception of an innocent reality show but I am asking you, do you know what "Girl on Girl" means? Probably not. After all you let Zoe Tay declare on TV that she has good skin because "she swallows", and I sympathise because ~~oral sex~~ IT is taboo, IT shall not be uttered, done or contemplated. Yet again I do sympathise because since IT that shall not be uttered, done or contemplated then surely girl on girl action must be condemned! I take it that you do not know what it means.

However, I must enter my reservations as to the company's ignorance. For example, the trailer features a contestant saying something like "I feel like I am a man in a girl's body".Perhaps I heard wrong, but there really is no need to put the show on at 11pm, don't you do that for stuff you don't really want the children to see like... I don't know Law and Order: SVU or Living with Fran (Ok that no one really wants to see)? Is there such need for caution when ladies go around banging each other with phallic-objects, it's just like American Gladiators or Battledome except it's just the ladies and some ladies who want to unleash their inner man. Also according to your website, you state "join us as 6 ladies take on tasks that men are usually called forth for" and my visceral reaction is "I see..."

Till then, I eagerly anticipate more quality programming, the newest season of Lifeline is simply... erm explosive?

Yours faithfully,

Mega Joan in the service of concerned citizens

***********************************************************************************************

Since I am on this tv thing, I must as well talk about Rihanna and her song that has seeped into my consciousness. I cannot look at an umbrella without breaking into song and I don't even like the song. Everybody agrees she can't sing and yet they break into song. It's just one of those damn ear-worms.

Today while waiting for Kah Ming at the sports hall, I witnessed an example of Rihanna's pervasive influence:

Imagine a JC floor ball tournament, the dejection when a team loses a match and a wailing team captain who wanted to accept responsibility...

In a bid to cheer the wailing team captain (whose name I subsequently learnt to be Stella), a team mate chirped "Stella...A...A...A... you can stand under my umbrella...ella...A...A...A..."

Class of 2008... Wow

2007-07-16T22:23:00.000+08:00

I went back to school this morning to register for my year 4 subjects. Wow final year already and most of everyone's back and it's really strange seeing everyone in school. After the registration was done, I hung out with the partners of Happiness Law Corp- minus Kenneth. Yup we had it all settled in year 2 in the throes of LCS, Mervyn and Kenneth will handle Corporate, Daniel and I will handle Litigation and now Jun Ming will handle FSD. Yes Happiness Law Corp has an FSD splinter! Yup in 7 years or so, let's see if our dreams would come to fruition. One thing's for sure, if Happiness Law Corp handles your contract, each para will be no longer than 7 lines.

Sometimes such reminiscing makes me feel really old. Imagine... LAWR was actually a pretty long while back. Nowadays reminsicing is a reminder that I've got just one year left and the steady rhythm, the comfortable friendships may soon change. We're all going to different places, the Happiness Law Corp partners are spread out all over Raffles Place and the A & G intern gang... some of us will return to A & G and some of us will be starting out somewhere else. It's all a little unnerving isn't it? We'll see... now wouldn't we?

Well one more year. Let's make the best of it. And I urge you as part of the class of 2008, to purchase and pimp law IV tix!

Come to Lai Lai/Golden Rose's Kopitiam Now!

2007-07-09T21:02:00.000+08:00

(Picture Koped from Mel Liew's Facebook album)

Hi Folks! This is what I've been busy with- the Law IV Production, Kopi-Shop Rock! Well according to the really untalented emcee yesterday, we are the people who call ourselves "The Law IVs"!

Mega Joan Travels to the Freudian Dimension

2007-07-05T13:25:00.000+08:00

Yes the world is fraught with evil! Mega Joan encountered evil in a seemingly harmless menu... oh yes these villains... Can anyone see what's wrong?

Cream Based

Rimmisu
Rimber
Rimcolate

Trust me folks, I kid you not and I'm really just talking about blended coffee and not about... analingus chased with tiramisu topped with raspberry or a mocha drink. Some naughty proprietor... and hey it was a legitimate cafe, with legitimate food, decent sandwiches and what not!

Mega Jo the Vigilante

2007-07-04T00:21:00.000+08:00

I have a new calling. Mega Joan has found her superpowers.

Triage Nurse to puking mum: U been overseas recently?
Me: Yes Kuala Lumpur. Is two weeks recent enough?
Triage: Where?
Dad: Kuala Lumpur
Triage: don't know
Dad: You are not from this region
Triage: I hold Singapore passport, you got a problem?
Me: COUGHS-SUPER-DEFENSIVE-COUGHS
Triage: You got go to poetry farm?
Dad: What? (gives wtf face)
Me: Poultry farm
Dad: Oh chicken farm
Me: Could be a duck farm
Dad: Could be pigeons
Me: Good be swans, ducks or any other feathered creature

Let's just say if Penniz got a hold of Triage Nurse's name, she'd massacre it and call her You Tiao

Mega Joan will rid the people who can't speak English properrrrry lorz.

The Name Game

2007-06-28T21:44:00.001+08:00

I got a call the other day from a woman who identified herself as Penniz (I think her name is Penny).

Penniz: Harlow, is this Mega, this is Penniz from (co) speaking.
Me: Yes, this is Megan speaking
Penniz: Yes Mega so the other day you...

And so it goes, I've found a new way to mangle my name. As of now you may call me Megan, MeeeGun, Maregen and now Mega. If I ever needed a super hero name I'll just add in my middle name and I'd be Mega Joan but for some reason I think Penniz will mangle that too and call me Mega Jo. I figure that Mega Jo's a super hero construction worker with a big hammer.

Oh about porn names... you're supposed to combine the name of your first pet and the street name of your first known address. I remember now that Muffin is not my first pet, I attempted the hamster thing in primary school. Their names were Xena and Gabrielle and I first lived on First Street.

My porn name is thus Xena First.

All Things Good

2007-06-25T23:03:00.000+08:00

Everybody meet Connie Talbot. She's 6 years old and extremely gifted. When I listen to her sing, I am reminded of everything good and pure. When I listen to her, I simply listen. I am unable to think, nor am I able to judge or consider making an allowance for her tender age. Isn't it amazing that she silenced the entire auditorium? Yes like Amanda Holden, I hung onto every word.

It's good to know that sometimes things are meant to be that uncomplicated. Bliss.

Girls Night Out and the Easties Meet the Westie

2007-06-19T10:43:00.000+08:00

Girls night out at Alaturka...

Victims of shaky hands but you get the picture...

From the top right hand corner we have the lavash (balloon bread) all fluffy and crispy. Moving clockwise, we have the ekmek (olive and garlic bread). Still moving clockwise we have my absolute favourite the Borek (spring rolls stuffed with Feta Cheese). Finally we come to the Felafel, unfortunately they are no longer what they used to be. Pity Farida... great pity because they used to take our breath away, so much so our hands get clammy and accidents happen. Oh I can't resist the anecdote but that's just between you, me and everyone I take to Alaturka.

This is the Iskender Chicken, slices of chicken served with bread and yoghurt topped with the signature Alaturka sauce. I think after awhile you realise that Alaturka has one generic sauce and everything comes under that but well at least they make a good sauce. Slurp.

This dish is called something something kofte and is literally translated to "Sultan's Pleasure". It's essentially beef stew on a mysterious puree. It looks like potato but it is not. Nurul believes that at the very least there is cheese and egg plant in the concoction. Oh well it's good enough for us to gloss over the details. We did get a few delicious morsels of tendon. Oh it just melts in your mouth but this dish does not please everyone, you either like it or dismiss it completely. Well I liked the stew but after awhile I can't stand not knowing what goes into the gooey puree. It's tasty but I can't stand mystery.
Complimentary Turkish tea, the owner asked if we would liked some complimentary !@#$%^&*( and we paused to look at each other for a second and went "sure!". After all, we stopped at complimentary. It was really smooth and it really aids digestion.
It's quaint that we can only find this in the Arab Street area where a ladder on the street leads directly into the second floor of the shop house. We're also extremely imaginative ladies...

Tonight... I celebrate my love for you.....

2007-06-17T23:05:00.000+08:00

17th June, it's been four years now. The mushy things have been whispered into the appropriate ear and I will not inflict them upon any other. It'd make your ears burn and your eyes itch. This year, unlike 2006, I decided to cast aside the apron, dress up and go out to dinner at Ricciotti's at Riverwalk...

We started the meal with a portion of Beef Carpaccio served with Parmagiano Cheese, tomatoes, capers, asparagus and as usual a liberal amount of rocket. Carpaccio made me happy. It was a luxury we (more I, cos I am the beef girl in the relationship) decided we couldn't deny ourselves. Slurp. Happy Carpaccio!

In the foreground you see my main course, the Cannelloni stuffed with Spinach and Riccotta Cheese . Heads up about this dish, you must share it with someone else. I love it but by the end I was kinda je lat with it. That aside, I love it still.

In the back ground you see Drew's torso cloaked in a pink linen shirt that I oh so adore him in and his delicious elbows. In the foreground the even more delicious Pizza Al Crudo. It's a simple Pizza Margherita topped with more than the Health Promotion Board's recommendation of vege intake. I'd say the problem with restaurants nowadays is that they adore rocket. Sometimes I do take issue with the flagrant abuse especially when they shove your rocket tossed in balsamic vinegar and expect you not only to eat all those leaves by yourself, you gotta fork out 10 bucks. Now this is proper use of rocket as it complemented the salty parma ham and gave the pizza a refreshing twist from the typical offering.

Then with every romantic outing there's dessert. This is merely part one... will wax lyrical about the other in a moment. On the left, we have the Soffiato. The warm chocolate souffle with the oozy chocolate centre served ala mode with chocolate chip ice gelato. I also ordered a scoop of bourbon vanilla gelato to finish off the meal. Why just one dessert... well because we strolled over to Gobi at the new Central mall and picked up a box of macaroons. They are to die for and part of my current study of macaroons. I am determined to make a good batch soon. There are no pictures because we gobbled everything up... every delicious morsel. I still have the plastic case they came in though because they cost too bloody much. Yes but macaroons always cost that bloody much. Nonetheless, I especially love the mint macaroon and the orange one came in a close second... yes yes and also the vanilla one. Nevermind I will be back. See Gobi is such an excellent shop and they even polish their glass doors to perfection, so much so I walked into it. At Gobi, it's about all rounded excellence. Ouch.

I think the best part of the evening was just this cute de ja vu moment. 4 years ago, Drew and I first held hands by the river and we were walking back to the train station via Marina Square when we were accosted by sales people at the wedding fair. We were then 18 and had been together a mere 5 minutes. We giggled over it of course and in our hearts I think we were secretly pleased. Yesterday, some 4 years later after dinner we were accosted by salespeople again asking us if we intended to get married soon. Oh well I know they're just doing their job but it was a nice bit of coincidence anyway.

I am one lucky girl.

Date Night!

2007-06-07T12:24:00.000+08:00

Here's a date one year in the making and a belated birthday treat courtesy of Cherissa. We decided that we weren't quite the season cam whores so we didn't dare pull out the camera at Cafe Iguana. Moreover, we were sitting at the bar so... must act cool...

Yes but at Seah Street Deli... we were extremely at home... in fact the waitress who did us the favour went "1...2...TIGER!"

Below, I had the weekly special... the Chef's Seafood surprise and Cherissa had the Baked Wild Pacific Dory. The picture of the Cranberry and Apple Crumble with Butter Scotch Sauce went missing in Cherissa's camera... I must say that the people that run Seah Street Deli are incredibly tactful. We were the last to leave and they were closing the tab for the day. Then they did the whole "oh take your time" pleasantries as they gave us the change. Then one of the waitresses went over to 'fix' the jukebox and my all time favourite song starts to play! Yup they played "Hotel California" and we sure got the message alright.

This post is dedicated to Kah Ming, whose company we sorely missed...

Drama Mama

2007-06-04T00:17:00.000+08:00

I devoted a good 3 days to the Snow Queen. If I were utterly morbid, I'd say I devoted 3 days to watching someone die. I knew she was going to die from the get go. It's really obvious in the first episode when the lead character (portrayed by a teenage actress at age 14), runs for a bit, stops, gasps for breath and then grabs her chest. I don't even think it's a spoiler when I scream Kim Bo Ra dies at the end of the show! It's very obvious. Alas I was still utterly devoted. I blame it on the perfect casting, the gorgeous Sung Yu Ri, the scruffy looking Hyun Bin and yeah my inherent emo-ness. I can't help it. At least watching Kim Bo Ra die was not as painful as watching Han Jung Suh, that one took 30 episodes and she went through the cornea transplant and all. Bo Ra just succumbed to cancer and they were so quick about it, her lover didn't even have to resort to the morphine shot.

Sigh I still teared. It was still a beautifully made film and yes I misrepresent Korean dramas. Though the plots are paper thin and the writers thrive on ironic coincidences and I do appreciate how they weave in themes into their stories. Like in stairway, they referred a lot to eternal life and by extension eternal love. It's a tad morbid though when it becomes Kwon Sang Woo's character's obsession of sorts. For Snow Queen, they built the story around the fairy tale and the story telling was very tight. So it can be fairly intelligent. Oh on top of this Myasthenia Gravis is the newest disease to hit Korean TV. I am very impressed with their research and how they managed to write a Thymectomy into the story. Yes we've seen leukemia (most common because the telling nose bleed is a good plot device), eye cancer (novel, very specific and symbolically powerful), cancer of all sorts, brain tumours (either naturally occurring or occurring as a result of scar tissue from an earlier surgery after a amnesia causing car accident) and now myasthenia gravis. So why the Korean obsession with death, can't these gorgeous people just get married, live happily ever after and produce fantastic looking offspring? Cher and I discussed this and we believe we have an answer. Aside from the tried and tested theme of how life is transient and we must seize everyday, the other reason is that pre-marital sex is still taboo for a mainstream drama and without sex, there really is not that much drama. So kill the female lead! Oh well for me, Snow Queen ends at episode 14. I really wanted them to have a happily ever after...

Yes I know B I M B O! But this bimbotic discourse gets worse... I want to show the world what happens if you really screw up your hair do..

Notice that these two men completely done in by their errant hair stylist.... they all look the same...

The nullification of me and the recovery of dignity

2007-05-28T21:41:00.000+08:00

So it's been awhile since I last blogged. There's nothing much going on except internships. They cause me to be ultra pensive and as I intern, I realise that I am a hedonist through and through and I just want to spend my life on holiday. The newest low of my internship life was when I was requisitioned by the receptionist for a day. She referred to me as her intern and when she wanted to talk to me she'd go "Girl-ah Girl." Yes so for a day, I manned the counter, dealt with mail and ran between the 12th and 30th floor exchanging office stationery with the other receptionist. It was a resounding clang I tell you, the realisation that the universe was telling me I shouldn't be a lawyer. I am meant to be a receptionist... Well on the bright side I am one of them now and as a gesture of friendship I was offered a you-tiao by a secretary. I am one of them. Yes if I wasn't whipped enough... this tops it all... apart from delivering stationery, I had to deliver the receptionist's jokes to her friend. They weren't funny and with my absolute chao-bin, they weren't funny at all... Ok la I am being a bitch, they are nice folks.

So to prevent the nullification of me and to assuage our pre-adulthood depression, Pam and I ventured out on Friday night.

Meet the two ultra cheapskate tai tai wannabes. We were dining on my Raffles Card so everything was 50% off. When asked if we wanted wine for the evening I asked "Is this also 50% off on the Raffles Card" and the waiter replied no then I said "I will pass on the wine tonight". Oh well he did grimace at my cheapskateness but was sweet enough to take this picture for us.

Pam had the pumpkin Ravioli. It does have a fancier name. It's very unique and we would recommend it. Pam the pumpkin lover cannot agree more. My holiday project is to master the art of making Ravioli. Watch out.

I had the gnocchi in crab sauce. Let me tell you the absolutely intelligent way I made my choice. If you recall in Season Two of the OC, Summer Roberts was estranged from Seth Cohen, and there was the water polo player Zach. Zach invited Summer to his place for an Italian dinner and he was making gnocchi for her when she saw Seth on MTV Spring Break licking whip cream of a gal's tummy. Since then I've always wanted gnocchi and this was my chance. It was extremely retarded when we got all high pitched and OMG when we were scrutinising the menu. Yes despite the bimbo discourse, this turned out to be an excellent choice.

Then there was dessert. This is some orange and chocolate mousse thing. More Chocolate and very little orange. I hate that the two flavours were discrete. I for one am a big fan of the chocolate-orange marriage but clearly that didn't happen here. It was disappointing.

These furry lumps are actually fried chocolate Ravioli balls. Bite into the crispy shell and you have dark chocolate oozing out. Very interesting but so not worth it. These 3 little balls, barely the size of a Ferrero Rocher cost $14.00 bucks and even with the 50% discount, it's not quite worth $7. So I'd say have a late meal at Prego's and rush to Menotti's where desserts are 50% off after 10pm. Well all in all I managed to recover my dignity. It was a good night out, and we really must do this more often.

Hahaha and yes the whole night was super 'hua suan'. The bill came up to a mere 46 bucks. Down from it's original price of $96. Nothing is shioker than the feeling of getting away with a good deal.

Spain Part II

2007-05-15T23:19:00.000+08:00

For this post I will let the pictures do most of the talking.

Meet our dinghy hostel room. Ok I exaggerate. I actually like the Hostal Aguilar. 17 euros a night per person and smelling fresh and clean of Lemon Pledge. There's the sweet owner Fernando who was genuinely interested in our work. So if you are in Madrid, do stay at the Hostal Aguilar. They have an amazing bathroom. I think the bathroom makes all the difference.

Nothing can keep us regular cam whores from strutting our stuff on the streets of Madrid.

A little horsing around before our first dinner in Madrid.
Most of the photos in the collage were taken at the Parque del Retiro which when translated does not mean Park for the retired. It was named by the King Phillip IV I think, and Parque del Retiro translates to mean the Park of the Pleasant Retreat. In the bottom left hand corner, you have the crystal palace designed by Ricardo Valazquez Bosco in the late 1800s. I'm afraid my photographs do not do justice to the spectacular architecture. I remember being completely awestruck when I stood before it.

In the bottom right hand corner, you have the Prado museum. I wanted to take a photo of the girl in white doing a Rory Gilmore-esque kind of thing.

Well that's it for my first evening in Madrid. By the time we had dinner, it was already past 10 pm Spanish time which translates to 4am Singapore time. I was dead and just trying very hard to hold it together. Alas no pictures of the toastas that we had for dinner.

Strumming my pain with his fingers

2007-05-14T23:08:00.000+08:00

Honestly... internship's a drag. I think it's just where I am. It's just not me. So the ole mentor's actually right. It's all about 'fit' and I don't quite 'fit' in where I'm at. No one's screaming at me or anything and the people are actually nice. It's just not me. I think I've underestimated what 'firm culture' means. I've always thought it rather poseur to wax lyrical about 'firm culture'. I've come to realise what it means. I just don't think it's a place I can work 12-16 hours a day in. It's not a place where I wouldn't mind returning to in the morning. I felt a sense of purpose the last time I interned but this place just saps the energy from me. Then the realisation rolls into a giant ball of resentment. It makes me wonder if I've wasted 2 weeks figuring out a place is not for me. I suppose it's a net gain but it seems like a 'negative gain' of sorts and it's hard to see it as worth my while.

Oh well 16 hours more... I can survive. See I've got nothing to talk about. That's how blah I feel. Oh the boredom... it actually hurts.

The Bachelorette

2007-05-07T00:15:00.000+08:00

My blog's really useful you know. If you refer to my tagboard and take up the suggestions offered there, you'd have gotten some help with your penile dysfunction, you might have found your soul mate or you might have just gotten acquainted with a new pen pal from Eastern Europe with a penchant for leather wear. Oh well, leather makes for good insulation and it's cold there. So since this blog is dedicated to commercial utility, dedicated to offering people the potential for intimacy (be it the creation of the physical condition for intimacy or providing an avenue to seek out the counter-party for intimacy), I bring you an advertisement of my own!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, more Gentlemen than the Ladies, at the behest of my friend Julia Kan (really! My MSN logs prove this point), I present you THE BACHELORETTE OF THE YEAR.

Meet Julia. Julia is a vivacious 22 year old woman with much love to offer. She hopes to start a family soon and she oozes exuberance when we discuss the prospect of children and I quote "Mainly I love kids." Julia will be able to care for the children she will have in the future. These privileged children-t0-be are so privileged indeed. Did you know that Julia is an accomplished baker? In fact she pioneered the upside down multi purpose cake. What looks like a warm-centred chocolate cake can, when turned upside down serve as your regular chocolate muffin. Delicious and most versatile! In the alternative, Julia surrounds herself with people who can cook really well (see Leon and Megan).

Julia enjoys classical music and she really enjoys the occasional piano recital. She would like a man to tinkle her ivories (Julia purchased a piano recently). She hopes to watch his fingers slide elegantly across the keys, stroking and caressing where necessary and hammering down hard as the tune escalates into the crescendo. Yes Julia would like a man with immensely dextrous fingers and together they can make sweet music together.

Such a man should be older and wiser, and should have accummulated sufficient pennies to last her a lifetime. Julia hopes to pursue a career in asset management and will be able to make his pennies grow. This is not a mere unsubstantiated assertion. In the academic year 05/06, Julia made the Dean's list. Since then she has gone on to master the Law of Personal Property (she is particularly adept in dealing with the proprietary nature, if any of chattel-leasing), Corporate Insolvency Law (everything except judicial management, and she can attest to the desirability of receivership), International Trusts , if you do intend to start a company dealing in widgets, Julia a published author on Limited Partnership will most competently advise you on whether it is the appropriate business vehichle. Of course if you so happen to require, Julia can also advise you on Vietnamese Law.

If you are such a man and you hope to pursue this highly intelligent and energetic lady, be prepared to woo her with copious amounts of chocolate (which this generous lady will duly share with her many friends). She loves the graceful tilt of the calalily and enjoys strolls after particularly exquisite dinners.

What are you waiting for. If you fall into Julia's desirable age-range, then you'd have lived half your life and you have no more time to waste. Please tag if interested. PLEASE ACT NOW because you are in the high risk group for heart disease and prostate cancer. Seize the day man! Experience the love of a woman who has so much to give!

*This advertisement was brought to you by the Megster. If you do intend to sell yourself, I will be glad to offer you ad space for due consideration.

The End of the Rainbow

2007-05-06T01:56:00.000+08:00

I'm finally done with Year 3. I took two extra days thanks to the DR and it sucks to camp in the library after everyone is out about town frolicking. It's good though that I've got amazingly considerate friends so no one rubbed anything in my face.

After submiting the essay at 5:15 am I caught two hours of sleep. On my way to work, I gazed at a rainbow all the way from Simei to Kallang. At the end of the day, Julia and I decided to celebrate the end of my misery with a drink and bless her soul! She found out that cuvee was offering $5 glasses of wines except when we got there we were greeted with free champagne for ladies! How apt! How apt! So we chinked our glasses together and spent our money on wagyu beef sandwiches and sushi. By the time I got home after dinner with the mother and brother, I passed out till 9 this morning. Ahhhhh finally done.

I also caught Sebastien Tan's "Broadway Beng". He sang the most disturbing version of Ye Lai Xiang ever! He translated it and it actually goes...

Ye Lai Xiang = Night Come Smell
Wen zhe ye lai xiang = smell the night come smell
wo wei ni ge chang = I for you song sing
wo wei ni si niang = I for you ding tong

Hrm night come smell... but ok la I wdn't say die die must see.

Spain Part I

2007-04-28T19:27:00.000+08:00

Exams inspire sheer unhappiness in my being and every time they come round I just want to be anywhere but here. Since I have allowed myself this after-dinner digression, I shall write about my recent trip to Spain. It shall come truncated because some of my friends suffer from ADD. Of course it's because I don't want to feel excessively guilty if I don't get my work done by tonight.

The pictures were taken on our first afternoon in Madrid. European buildings are just extremely pretty and quaint. The top two photographs were taken at the famous Puerta del sol which is dubbed the heart of Madrid. We'd always arrange to meet people at the man-on-the-horse statue (squint real hard, it's the one behind the bear). We did however come to realise that in every square, you'd find a statue of a man on a horse so we learnt to be a little bit more specific. The bottom two were taken just 20 metres from our hostel along Carrera San Jeronimo. I think I was feeling mildly disconcerted upon arrival. I had absolutely no idea how we'd survive the next 12 days, so much trepidation, not a single soul spoke English and we got the vodafone people absolutely confused with our sign language. I thought all my plans for affordable connections had fallen through. Alas all was well and we were truly blessed when Carmen and Svet came to our rescue.

As usual the foodie will not neglect to report on the culinary delights of Spain. So here are the exploits from our first afternoon. In the top left hand corner you would observe a beautiful array of candy that I just gawked at but did not purchase. This picture reflected my hopes of pure European opulence and decadence. We moved on to the "Museo de Jamon" for paella. This was reflected on the menu as paella for two and apparently our petite Asian appetites did not do it justice. We came to learn later that the "Museo de Jamon" is about one of the cheapest places to dine when it came to traditional Spanish fare. We learnt expensive lessons thereafter so 13 Euros was a fare price for paella for 5. It was here that I had to turn to my phrase book to learn how to beg for water (agua) and I learnt how to say "bill please" (pronounced kwenta por far bohr). These two phrases along with Offspring's "Pretty Fly For a White Guy" helped me survive my stay in Spain.

I bought chocolate coated wafers because I pissed off the fella by taking a picture of him earlier so I felt bad and I wanted a real picture so I bought Renu and myself wafers. It turned out to be a fantastic idea. Yummm. Of course when I went to the supermarket for water, I found muller yoghurt for 71 cents and the Singaporean in me knew that it was like how super worth it so I bought it and consumed in and in part I did it for Pam Tan back home.

You might ask about our afternoon plans but let me tell you while the Spanish had their little siesta, we were huddled up in the hostel studying IHL. Muggers yeah but what to do, it's supposed to be all about the competition.

To be continued...

PS: Snippet on how KLM is racially unbiased

Steward says to Renu who is Indian and he notes the scarf around her neck might have been procured from Little India and launches into Oh girlfriend! Oh my I went to Little India today and it is so GORGEOUS! And I bought so many things and I had such a good time.

He ignores the two other Chinese people (us).

Then he comes back round to say: Oh and I also went to China town. It was nice.

He then trots off with his little trolley.

Good man. It's really attention to details like that, that help foster racial harmony and love for all humanity. Good job on the staff training KLM!

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

2007-04-26T19:16:00.000+08:00

According to Julia, I am paranoid. I say I am over-imaginative.

Every semester I encounter a Professor that I develop strong feelings for. This is not to say I am the regular college skank who flits up to them (I can't flit, I am too heavy) and drops a pen and a book or two. No not that kind of strong feelings that are built up within my loins. The strong feelings I have for them include intense fear, intense hatred, intense despise etc.

Last semester, you would remember yeah that the object of my obsession yeah was TYL yeah. Ok I have only good feelings for that man and I spoke about threatening to trespass him so that I could get a better grade because there was nothing else my intellect could do. This sem I am extremely extremely extremely terrified of WMS. I am plain terrified. He is, in my mind a fiercely intelligent man and his standards I feel are impossible. That is why half way through the sem I started to see myself as an abject failure. He is the father that I never had. Yes the scary one with the cane (hurh corp insolv joke). He is the father I will never satisfy (academically lah you dirty sods).

Julia did encourage me to be less terrified of him, to see him as mere mortal but I tell you, that to me is impossible. I told her that he is a man of many hidden abilities and if accosted in a dark alley one night, he would be able to defeat any common felon with his shaolin quan. He also looks like the type who does tai qi every morning and spends the night mediating and playing chess, oh with such mental tenacity, he can bend a spear at his throat. Yes WMS has within him the crouching tiger, hidden dragon. I am shit scared and I am so going to fail.

Dead I am, at the end of his fist of fury.

All Pictet-ed out

2007-04-24T19:25:00.000+08:00

For 8 months we slogged for Jean Pictet and it's finally over. We are now certified picteists and we have been baptised by the love of Pictoff the prophet (hurh). I am finally a full-time law student again and it's actually appealing.

What can I say about Pictet? It's an experience of a life time, though if you ask me if I'd do it again, I'd say no because it's really exhausting battling the jurors from 9 to 8 everyday. We did that from Sunday to Friday and it's plain exhausting. Ah and I must announce here that we managed to muscle our way into the finals! It was completely unexpected. We didn't even expect to get through to the semis and that is when they announced NUS, our reaction was pretty dramatic (yup we jumped on our favourite juror).

The coolest thing about Pictet is the great cultural exchange. At anyone time, people converse in Spanish, French and English. All the announcements are made in all three languages as well. The finals were conducted with simultaneous translation ala UN style. As usual in the spirit of cultural exchange, I gave Cantonese and Hokkien lessons in 'poetry' and in turn I received coaching in French and Arabic.

Will put up pictures in due time. For now I need to attempt some work. The jet lag is also bothering me, I slept from 2am to 430pm. Well jet lag and sleep deprivation. Imagine, I slept 9 out of 11 hours on the plane and woke up only for the meals. It's ridiculous. Alright there is much work that I must get done. The corp insolv paper next wed and my 8,000 word DR paper which is researched but not written muahahaha.

Wish me luck!

I Love You All

2007-04-05T12:42:00.000+08:00

It's been tough. This week has been horrible and everything's building up towards Spain but through it all, the support makes me weepy, emotional and just very grateful.

I am a very lucky girl. I got put in a team with two other girls that I've come to love, that have forcibly extracting invitations to my wedding if not they would sabotage my solemnization. The arduous hours in the moot office are always ameliorated by our fits of laughter. Yes when we do grow up and advance in our humanitarian work, we would one day come to start our own NGO- HuCon which though dubious in name means 'Humanity in Conflict'. So look out folks and donate generously.

The Kool Klique as usual have been amazing I feel the love yawl. I do. I will endeavour to carry back very expensive things from Spain. Yes must at this point not forget Pamsy.

My parents and my relatives are so cute. They are very proud that I am in university and actually representing it overseas. So they've come bearing, ang baos and other gifts. I feel like this kampung girl sometimes and the whole kampung is rallying behind me. I tell you I will definitely get homesick.

I am saddest of course to leave Andrew behind fo 12 days. Yes we've been all mopey and emo about that. Remember dear, it's just like BMT and field camp. I'll most certainly be back and I will call. It's all going to be ok. It sucks I know that I've been busy.

I love you all. For now I shall scramble back to work

Battle worn

2007-04-01T00:15:00.000+08:00

I guess when I signed up for moots, I knew that it is inevitable that much of the learning happens by way of bashing when seniors come down and pretty much beat me senseless and I've just got to claw my way out of the hole they left me to bleed to death in. So in the next two weeks, that's pretty much what we'd have to live with. I spent the whole of today being punched repeatedly in the stomach. Renu says she felt like she was being grilled on a spit. When we begged for a pee break in between rounds we realised that our faces were all pink and we were just burning up. Oh well but so far I'm ok because I take comfort in the fact that the learning curve is very steep. From ILP, I know that it is possible to get real good, real fast so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Hmmm I just want to say however before my brain flat lines is that I feel like Ryan Atwood. See they really beat me senseless today, so senseless that I am spouting OC references. Yeah OC, not even something more sophisticated like Grey's or House! So I am Ryan Atwood hear me roar!!! I foresee myself getting beaten by my extremely gifted seniors, I will mope around in my dirty blood stained singlet, punish myself by denying my brain off any intellectual activity (Ryan does this by taking up blue-collared jobs at the beginning of every season) and with sufficient love I will blossom and then in awhile lapse into fist fights and depression.

Ok but at the end of it all, I am fighting the good fight with good people. Haha that is why half way through tea time pep talk I declared "We've come so far together!" (quite sincerely mind you) only to degenerate into a laughing fit because I continued with "our common destiny" and they all chorused "Singapore forever, our nation strong and freeeeeeeeeeeeee!".

Happy Birthday Dear Andoooogooo

2007-03-29T00:02:00.000+08:00

Happy birthday to Andrew... happy birthday to you! My man turned 22 today. Since our good ole armed forces allowed him birthday off, I decided to pon class too and celebrate! I've cooked several birthday meals for friends in the past 2 years, so I decided my man deserved super royal treatment. So the following attests to that fact!

I baked nutella cupcakes. Let me tell you, I dislike baking simply because I think it's more exact than cooking. I hate the measurements part, I hate separating the dry and wet ingredients and I hate it that the batter sticks to every damn thing. Yup cleaning after a bake-out is a bitch but alas for Drew, it is all worthwhile. By exact, I mean I cannot bake by instinct, and counter-balancing is difficult because tasting batter really doesn't tell you all that much. Yes mama Megan cooks with much heart but it's harder to bake with heart. Nonetheless the fruits of my labour are commendable. I think I will leave baking to Leon. I find it too stressful.
For the recipe... now here's where my instincts come in. I will attempt another batch of nutella cupcakes after the exams but this time I am using my modified recipe because I think this one is just so-so. Having said that I must give due credit to the 'owner' of this recipe. Well apparently it was so awesome that she died and went to heaven hence the name 'blahblah_died_and_went_to_heaven_nutella_cupcakes" but alas it is not. I like cupcakes for the icing, otherwise it'd be a muffin really. This self-icing cupcake does not actually have an icing. It is a lie, just like the provenance of this recipe *ahem*. Anyhow, since she did provide me with a recipe and a very simple one, I decided to give her due credit. Haha see my little tribute Pam. See.

Today, for breakfast, the birthday boy had scrambled eggs, sausages, shaved ham on crepes served with topped with orange mustard. For a boost of vitamin C he also had some cherry tomatoes and a full glass of orange juice. For lunch there was pork chops with an apricot cream sauce and a side of roasted vegetables. I must say my chops are very tender and I like that Drew actually liked the sauce. Ahhhh a lovely day.

Ok before you judge me for the gluttony, let me say that we went on a very punishing run in the evening. Not only did we cross the overhead bridge into Pasir Ris, we ran back to Tampines via the flyover. So that was 5km or more and certainly the longest run I've ever embarked on so much so I now regret every movement I make.

I shall end off this perfect day by refusing to do any work!

A Right Now Plan

2007-03-27T11:54:00.000+08:00

Life is spiralling out of control. By life, I really mean school but then again that is life for now, unfortunate as it is. That will be life for now at least for the next 5 weeks. So I suppose there might be a hiatus of some sorts. It has come to the point where I can't stand for minutes to trickle away and now I am letting it do so. My excuse really is that I can't concentrate on corp insolv when Chopra and the crazy freshman who pastes his mind maps on the wall are whispering incessantly about legal theory. I think whispering in the library is particularly jarring, it just invades my mind and I am compelled to listen in. Also whispering isn't the corresponding equal to speaking softly because whispering is actually quite loud. I used to think the capitalist bunny was loud in Econs lecture but in truth, whispering is actually loud.

Yes this post is meant to tell you that my life is at its most uninteresting. Yup whispering has stopped. I no longer have an excuse.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2007-03-20T22:43:00.000+08:00

At lunch today, Renu and Charis remarked that I have very good friends and indeed I am truly blessed. Yes feel the utter bliss emanating from the followng photographs!

The happy bunch at Dan Ryan's. I was whisked into Pam's car, blindfolded and brought on the ride of my life. Poor Pam got honked at all day by unkind drivers while chauffeuring me around town and to my tuition kid's place but in her defence she is capable of zipping around town. Parking got a bit of problem but never mind we are all patient people. Haha yes, call me 'si Megan'.

Of course with every cam whore outing, we must all whip out our cameras, allow food to go cold and the post it. I had Dan's burger yum. As usual the signature chili cheese fries never fails to please. However please do not order the roast beef wrap or the Philly Cheese steak sandwich. The wrap left Pam pouting all day and to quote her she called it "worst than Toast's" which I suppose means real bad given Toast has just been on a downward spiral since internship. The only thing worth going to Toast for is the cupcakes.

It's a nice familiar feeling being at Dan Ryan's. This is the third birthday that I've celebrated there. So 3 out of 22 makes me a fairly loyal customer. If you must do Dan Ryan's, do it for their weekend brunch. I hope their pancakes are still up to mark. I think it's the maple syrup that makes all that difference. The highlight of the meal was the surprise birthday cake! A warm oozy chocolate cake, much like the chocolate fondant Farida used to buy me when I get depressed. Yes *tears* miss you bitch. Oh yes sinful... penance by way of my evening run (oh I know why they tell you not to run so soon after your wisdom teeth surgery, it gives you an awful churning sensation at the op site. It took 15 minutes to wear off but nvm the run was excellent so I shan't let this mar it).

At some point, I suppose the party got that boring and Kenneth decided to fold his napkin into a paper ball and blow it. Here's a picture of Kenn blowing his ball. It turned out to be quite the cube.

Thank you guys, I had a fantastic time and it took all my grumpiness away. I am truly touched by all the love. Thank you for the wonderful gift, I will buy my shoes and trot around in them asap. Hugs all around!!! Hehehehehe

Sibeh Tu Lan II

2007-03-18T20:46:00.000+08:00

Previously on Sibeh Tu Lan, this author was stuck in a jam right next to the EMAS recovery vehicle that was also stuck. Today on Sibeh Tu Lan...

Dinner was supposed to be this.

Except that I had Zi Char crap instead. For the ill-informed, it's my birthday tomorrow and since I am turning 22 and not 21, it's supposed to be a simple affair. of course I get to pick and I thought let's go gourmet, take my newly re-wired jaw on a ride and have myself a rib-eye steak. Yes all for just $14.00! Of course when I found out that waiting time was well over an hour, I decided to give my sullen mother notice. To which she was like no crazy. Well yeah I ain't the crazy woman who waits an hour to eat Ah Niok's Ko Lo Mee at Siglap what. Well she just doesn't share my taste in food and I knew... yes I knew from the onset that she just wanted cheena piak Zi Char. So in the end we had cheena piak Zi Char, waited like 45 minutes for it (15minuts preceding that thinking wtf to eat). We waited not because it was like oh-so-good but because they are blaaaardy incompetent and it SUCKS.

So folks do not go to Tong Meng Zi Char, Bedok South, Blk 16, the hawker centre across the road from TJC. Consider yourself warned. Unless you like passing off flour fritters as sweet sour pork, making your prawn paste chicken super crispy with bone fragments from haphazard chopping, crispy noodles that reek of soda and claypot sea cucumber with just a little sea cucumber because you happen to prefer gravy to sea cucumber.

That is why I dislike my birthdays. I never get what I want and when I do really get what I want my parents will fight about it for an entire day (think last year's Triple 3). Ok at least the ever lovely Drew managed to coax me out of sulking by promising to take me to Aston's. Yay I love you Drew and for that I forgive you for trying to conspire with Julia about WMS.

Well happy birthday to me. Please let it pass uneventfully... please.

For Pam

2007-03-14T23:29:00.000+08:00

Pam's a real sweet girl. Just before the extraction, she came to me with a gift bag consisting of instant mashed potatoes, tim tams and coconut apricot biscuits (pre-surgery indulgence) and the sweetest get well soon note. Yes the mashed potatoes were very helpful and yes there was so much love *tears*. Today I woke up feeling very inspired to do something good by Pamela Tan. I know Pam would kill for muller yoghurt and yes after I found Reese buttercups at Cocoa Tree and Apple Jacks at Cold Storage, I believe no product eludes the grasp of our great cosmopolitan republic. So Pamela Tan, I have hunted it down for you. Unfortunately your favourite Vanilla Choco balls are out of stock so we're left with blackberry and raspberry but well no longer will you be subject to the tyranny of your yoghurt licking boyfriend. Yes go forth Pam and gorge yourself on your favourite yoghurt, retailing at $3.95 at MarketPlace, Raffles City.

For this, Pam declared me to be a best friend. Yup that's how much our best-friendship is worth. Oh well better than nothing la.

Okaaaaaaaaay Sista!

2007-03-13T13:23:00.000+08:00

Picture this...

PIE...
Small hot pink sports car...
Driver...
Big man and spilling out of his window...
Sibeh chao bin...
In a peach shirt

Saw me looking at him and mind you I wasn't staring, just looking as my taxi zipped on by...
Shot me a watcha-looking-at-never-see-a-huge-man-in-a-peach-coloured-shirt-driving-a-hot-pink-sports-car-
smaller-than-my-body-is-it type of dirty look.

Well okaaaaaaaaaaay sista, well word of advice, sedans are just more you and yeah if you go up to JB, they can spray it pink too!!! So R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what it means to me! Certainly not a hot pink sports car sista.

Toodles!

BO GAY JIAK TAU GAY

2007-03-10T10:17:00.000+08:00

Kana Sai! Bluff who! It's more like Bo Gay Bo Ming Kia Jiak! Right now I am just missing 4 of my redundant wisdom teeth and I can't eat a thing.

Well it's been more than 18 hours after my surgery and I am going to attempt to eat some campbell soup so wish me luck. On the plus side, I last took the painkillers 10 hours ago and it's not painful yet. It's not all that bad for now. That is if Drew would just appear with my bowl of Tau Huay. You know I think taking out 4 is a good idea, I did regret my existence for awhile yesterday but I think if I just took out one or two and rescheduled the next, I would never do it again because I would never want to revisit the pooling of that much blood in my mouth and the ringing in my cheeks.

Well to share about the surgery. My dental surgeon is brilliant! He had everything out in 40 minutes. The actual surgery took 20 minutes and the rest was for the LA to set. He was absolutely gentle and guided me through the whole process telling me that I was doing great, one of the best patients haha and yes I didn't move an inch because that man had a drill in my mouth. I really did not feel a thing. My wisdom teeth are now soaking so that I can remove all the bits of gum. As for what I want them for, I don't know. I don't think my parents would reprise their role as the tooth fairy and leave me a sizeable ang pow for the wisdom teeth so yeah maybe I shall string it into a necklace.

Yes being the foodie that I am, I fixate on food when I cannot have it. When I came out of spinal surgery, I really wanted coke, the other surgery I had, I wanted Wee Nam Kee Chicken rice and now all I can think off is pizza. I ain't talking about no flat crust italian pizza. I want a thick crusted pan pizza. Yes I want a supreme pizza. I also want those pizzas they used to serve us in primary school, it was just pizza crust, sweet chilli sauce, minced meet, capsicum and cheese. Home-made by the curry puff auntie. Now I know where Canadian Pizza got their inspiration for their Singapura pizza.

Oh well now I will attempt to brush my teeth and eat soup. Wish me luck!

The Unbearable Auntie-ness of my Being

2007-03-07T14:34:00.000+08:00

I visited my dentist this morning and the woman is effervescent and I swear she made me high. After we took the X-rays she conclude that my wisdom teeth are impacted and growing into my molars. There is no way that they can right themselves so the pain is just going to get so much worse and each infection more severe. First she told me I had no choice but to remove the problematic one and then she pointed to the lower left one and said why not that too since you're under LA. I am like "ok la it's cheaper that way, take 2 out price lower and more worth it". Then she observed that the 2 of top were also growing out and are useless anyway. Also she did mention that if I didn't remove them they might grow out and cut my gums as well and I am like ok la "If two is cheaper than one then if I remove all four then the unit price of removing one tooth will go down, can la." Sigh yes macam like buying fish at the market buy 5 kilo free 1. I was that excited.

So I agreed to remove all four and was very delighted that wisdom tooth surgeries are now covered under Medisave. I should feel some form of a pinch because medisave money is still money but since it's not exactly a liquid fund I was most delighted that there was no upfront payment needed for the surgery. So happy was I that I urged the good doctor to schedule the surgery asap and yup it's all settled and set in stone, I'm gonna remove all four (yes everyone gasp) in one sitting under local anaesthesia which I am told is very effective.

I certainly am most afraid.

SI BEH TU LAN

2007-03-06T21:50:00.000+08:00

Pam was abhorred at my use of such language via sms and it shocks me that it I can still shock her with the things I do and say.

I could tell you that I am frustrated or peeved but it really doesn't quite do it as well as 'si beh tu lan' does. Let me tell you why si beh tu lan says it all. I was on my way to my tuition kid's place yesterday and I left well on time hopping onto bus 48. I fell asleep near Beach Road and I woke up half an hour later to find that we had inched just several hundred metres and the bus still hadn't gotten onto the ECP. The jam was massive and probably the worst I've been in. I turned on the radio and I found out that only 2 lanes were open due to a 3 car pile up on the ECP. Aiyah so what to do wait la. Then I see that the EMAS recovery vehicle is jammed up too right next to my bus! KNNBCCB. So I sat there on the ECP staring down as canoes sliced through the placid waters at a much more enviable speed. We did manage to finally pass the accident site. It wasn't particularly gory because it was actually one of those stupid tailgating accidents and the drivers were all fine and well standing on the road shoulder hollering into their handphones. Finally after riding on bus 48 for close to 90 minutes, my tuition kid calls me panicking because if I arrived any later her tuition slot would clash with her sister's. Yup her sister's idiotic tutor had rescheduled tuition and so there I was, having spent 90 minutes on a bus ride that would have taken half the time fuming.

As I speak, my wisdom tooth is erupting from my gums. It hurts a fuckload and I have been told I have a high threshold of pain. So yes it fucking hurts. I am grumpy that my dentist wasn't free today and I am grumpy because all I've had to eat today was instant porridge, campbell soup and bread and red bean pancake that I had to suck on for awhile before it got soft enough to eat. My tuition kid was very amused and tried repeatedly to make me eat her Tolberone. She also did remark that I was the "Queen of food" and my life is so sucky now. Bitch. Also I did try to call up the Polyclinic dentist for an appointment so that I could pay C class rates. Alas they will only be able to see me in two months, so yup tomorrow I will go burn giant holes in my parents' pockets and hopefully get the damn tooth extracted. Imagine that it bothers me so much that I am looking forward to the extraction. Oh anesthesia, oh ponstan come quick!

I did crack a stupid joke last night to Francis who had asked after my tooth. I told him that I prayed and asked God to take away my pain and it appears that he will be acting through a dentist.

Maybe I shouldn't have....

Ok will post pictures from last week's soon I promise. Right now I've got too much to do and Picasa is a pain.

Re Sleep Debt

2007-02-27T13:27:00.000+08:00

After a 48 hour run for the Emergencies paper (7 hours of sleep in 48 hours), I more or less collapsed into bed last night at midnight and was roused for breakfast at 10 this morning. I ate and I went back to sleep waking up only close to 1pm. My father woke me up to try his newest method of preparing kimchi chicken. Not bad, smells suspiciously like garam assam. Oh this is the life and high tea at 330pm with PAMSY! Ok yeah but tonight I will have to slog to pay off the debt that accrued after I tried to satisfy my sleep debt.

Right now despite sleeping close to 12 hours, I have a dull ache in my head. It's just there. It's not painful but I am aware of it. The best description I can give you as to how I feel is that I am a coconut. Well yes I think it's the residual sinus infection, when I shake my head it hurts, maybe because everything is sloshing around in it. I am a coconut that someone has tried to crack open. Ouch.

Well on the bright side, I think I am finally getting rid of the cough and expelling all that needs to expel so maybe tomorrow I will be able to go running again. Two weeks out of commission and lucky for me I lost my voice over CNY so I was pretty much prevented from eating anything sinful and crunchy. Alas high tea today will ruin it all but hell!

OOOOOOOH MR LONELY.

2007-02-22T16:50:00.000+08:00

I am thinking of Vasudha now. Only because we've been exchanging indecent and mindless gossip via email. Oh Vasudha is so much fun to be with. In the ole days back when we were slogging for ALSA, when both of us had to man the fort we would take to singing shit like Mr. Lonely by Akon.

Vasudha does the best rendition of it ever....

And now in my loneliness in the CJ Koh Library, I remember her sitting on some random stair case singing...

Lonely...
I'm Mr lonely....

Indeed I am...

But it's because I am extremely bored. Yawn. Yes I am so bored that it's perverse and all I do is think of Vasudha. What can I say, she draws you in, sucks you in and is a major force of attraction. All puns intended. Viva la Vortex!!!

A Day of Simple Pleasures

2007-02-22T00:04:00.000+08:00

It's one of those days when I feel pretty much at peace, I exist on an equilibrium, I am neither petrified nor am I just bouncing with glee. I suppose they call this contentment but well not almost because there's always the occasional residual nagging voice at the back of my head but I think it's a nice day, something that I don't get that often and I ought to celebrate the simple pleasures that come with it.

Yesterday I visited my 'in-laws' for the CNY and well to be honest I haven't enjoyed the best relationship with them. They are very different from my folks and it's just hard for me to accept. They too found me hard to accept at the very beginning but hey we're been together close to 4 years now and they've got to at least tolerate me. Well the tide is changing and we have moved beyond tolerance. It's a good place now. I appreciate his mum's effort at being conversant. It's tough for her I know and god it was a painful hour, lapses of silence. Thank god for my coughing fit and my runs to the kitchen to fetch warm water. It was good. More than 24 hours have elapsed and all reports are in. Everything is better than I thought it would be and I am very pleased. Ok well I do like to be loved!

I've been sick for close to a week now. I lost my voice somewhere in between completely and last night I was coughing incessantly and my folks got worried. They dragged me to my family doc this morning and bought me breakfast before they kicked me off to school. Oh well need to be manja princess abit with my folks in fact I was so at peace today that the over the top doctor who I am sure is pumping herself with some drug was tolerable. Ok la she is nice it's just that sometimes it's so plastic it gets old. Moreover I no longer get lollies.

The real highlight of my day, as it was Julia's was the windfall from the vending machine outside the library. Some poor sod didn't get his cheezels because it was stuck. Well not quite intentionally, I bought another pack of crackers a few rows up from the cheezels and as it was falling to the collection chute it smacked the cheezels right down with it. Julia and I simultaneously screamed "YES!" so obscenely and embarrassingly loud that it illicited a "Congrats" from some passing smarty pants. Alas a 50 cents windfall can make one's day. Lalala! Of course with windfalls came the nerdy restitution jokes.

Right so I have finally conquered Oren Gross and I tell you that is one bloody achievement and I did a ton of work today, enough to get my rusty gears back in motion. I hope this spells the end of my 2 weeks of languid existence. Huff! Puff! Puff! I need to work. Of course I am extremely nervous that I haven't set down a single word for my paper due in a couple of days but alas I am famously last minute and for once I've done thorough readings for the paper. So all I need to do is shut out the entire world and do this the way I know how to, which is to the very last minute riding high on adrenaline. I think I am quite zen because I have not asked a single person how far they've gone and my immediate circle of friends are not taking this course. Oh well haha at least I have a detailed plan!

Crap the error of my ways. I never learn yeah. Haha.

Freudian Slip of the Century!

2007-02-18T20:50:00.000+08:00

Father was commenting on the way home that my mother gets flatulent in her sleep. With the snoring and farting, he pretty much gets surround sound every night. He then commented that the bed was too small. Then my brother asked most innocently...

"What size is your bed? Queen size or Masterbed?"

hehehe get it ?

Well my brother has just created a whole new bed size and what can I say...

With great imagination, all things can cum.

Also Gong Xi Fa Cai to all!!! *Air Pork zips through the clouds*

I am the Grinch who Tried to Steal CNY

2007-02-16T11:30:00.000+08:00

and I am paying for it...

Since Monday, after consuming the bribe lunch and the bribe ice cream and the part of the bribe pie without consuming the equal amount of bribe fluids, my throat started to act up and hurt alot. I tried to remedy this with copious amounts of water, cooling liang teh and some good ole 'chuan be pi pa gao'. On Tuesday I was just nua, having slept on 3 hrs while rushing IHL stuff. By Wednesday I could hardly romance but did nonetheless because I am a girl and even when girls disclaim Valentine's as a figment of commercialism, I cannot sit still without celebration. I suppose the turkish food (fantastic as it was www.alaturka.com.sg) exacerbated my condition. At present I have not much of a voice left and am sporadically bleeding out of my nose.

I must mention that in between I've been writing mean stuff on CNY cards, mostly out of envy to my friends abroad. I was complaining about the 'chink chonk' music and the meaningless small talk. Sometimes I complained of the incredibly oily Kiam Cai Ah which everyone enjoys every year or yuck the babi chin. I have no objections with the gravy. It's just the incredibly gross triple layer of fat, fat and semblence of lean meat. Last night I had to jostle with greedy and desperate people at NTUC and we practised surprising moderation buying up a mere 72 dollars worth of supplies. There will be more I am sure... oh mother oh mother who'd prance out of the house to grab the rest on Saturday itself leaving me with the pail and other cleaning supplies to spruce out of the house.

I dislike CNY, it's noisy and the super market's exactly like what we'd do if war was imminent or the GST hike. Stupid people with no sense of order, not an ounce of courtesy and in essence no common sense. Here's a shout out to all you irritating folk, if you are a weekend mother, send your maid to do the shopping because she's better than you, if you are a weekend mother make sure you smack your children when they scream or when they stick out of the shopping cart and grab stuff out of yours. You have a right to discipline your kids, only if it's at certain time slots. They will love you nonetheless because you are their mother. Do not be jealous of the maid. Also brief your maid in the car, at home whatever, just not in the middle of a shopping aisle. I suppose I am unduly harsh on weekend mums but there is a difference between a weekend mum and a working mum (ok probably a bias distinction between those I like and those I do not). Alas they make my life hell at NTUC. Maybe next year I upgrade to an atas supermarket like marketplace. Better yet, I run out of Singapore during CNY!!!

Somebody, shut off the music!

Well anyhow, all this bitching has left me in an uneviable state of illness. The powers that be, that govern the festivities are teaching me a lesson. I now sound like a crow which is drastic deterioration from Fran Drescher last night. Then there is the nose bleed and the hacking cough which strangely I suffered through just a month ago.

Fine, I've learnt my lesson, let me be well again and I'll tolerate new year!

The Deafening Silence

2007-02-11T22:12:00.000+08:00

This weekend we lost someone. Most people would recognise her frizzy hair and her maniacal laughter. If I think about her, it'd be her waving a softball bat in the sunset coming back towards the school after practice. I didn't know her at all, but I've been at school with her for 6 years. I've seen her waving her bat in the sunset and I've heard her laugh.

It's just that when someone passes on, there is a strange silence that is just oppressive. I cannot imagine what it is like for people who knew her intimately.

We went for the wake tonight, the B and I and sat amongst familiar faces. The same people I used to go to school with. As with the people you share a common past with and nothing more you re-acquaint them with your present self and speak tentatively about the future. Of course the usual questions would be how would we be in 5 years time? We really haven't changed much. Of course we have changed, we just look the same. With wakes, it's about helping those who remain move forward. The dead, I can't with certainty say are there to enjoy our company. Wakes are suspended moments of grief, times when we bury grief to the back of our minds as we busy ourselves with chatter and refilling peanuts. Then there is the funeral and then there is life again.

It's ironic that we discussed the future when her life had just truncated there and then. Her future has dissipated. It is particularly jarring when someone your age dies. It's a reminder of your mortality. Ought I to live each day as if it were my last? I cannot because it is just not that way. If I lived that way I would cast school aside. There's a moment of epiphany and then it's gone, we trudge on with life and when death creeps up, we are angry and claim that death robbed us but really it's because we never really lived each day.

I think at 21, I've come to a point where I really do not want to die because I'm still waiting for everything to unfold. So much potential, so much to live for everyday. That perhaps why untimely deaths always are so much more tragic.

I watched "Little Children" this weekend and one of the characters May McGorvey says to her son something along the lines of this...

Remember that we are all miracles because we can be taken away

Take good care of yourselves everyone.

If This World Makes You Crazy

2007-02-08T00:28:00.000+08:00

And you've taken all you can bear....

And I see your true colours.... shining through .

And I say to you can it! Every time I step onto an MRT platform the song will go off as if on cue, haunting me, nagging me that as a woman, I am inherently insecure. It's a good thing no doubt, this Dove endowment fund. Girls suffer from self esteem issues all the time and yes 1 in 5 girls contemplate plastic surgery or so they say.

I don't know if they actually intend to do this but none of the girls in the commercial actually are remotely near ugly. No one would tease them in school. In fact I find the girl with curls absolutely adorable, the other one who was spinning around on the merry go round could well be the next Sandra Oh but so much more gorgeous. They are good looking kids. This led Julia and I to conclude that if you were really committed to this cause you ought to have picked seriously ugly kids for this commercial. If you want a fat kid pick a fat kid, don't pick a tall kid and call her fat. If anything, this commercial tells us that we will never be good enough for this crazy world and if the normal/even good looking can't make it, tough luck for the real ugly kids. That's not what the endowment fund is for, that's what Extreme Makeover is for. In short the depressing message from the ad is that you can never be good enough for this world.

Oh well so much for serving an impossible cause. In the mean time this commercial is so overplayed it gnaws at my nerves. At least the bird one was something to laugh at. This one's just annoying, increasingly as more and more renditions of "True Colours" are released, it seems to me that the performer takes it upon herself to sing as out of tune as possible, to screech with great irreverence for pitch because as long as you flaunt your true colours, nothing else really matters. pffft yeah right.

Damn bring back the days when the dove girl used to stroke her lion's mane and let her boyfriend comment that "WAH somebody's hair has improved lah!"

Yeah it's a worthy cause because we all need saving but the ear worm is driving me nuts.

ALL THE BEST JASON CHONG!

2007-02-04T23:35:00.000+08:00

Dearest Jason,

Thanks for the beautiful cupcakes and the customised tags. I regret not having met you before you flew off for Australia but alas chances are plenty when you return! Drew and I savoured every morsel, cruel as it was to break through the grinning faces to reveal moist ambrosial chocolate cake and in the other very pleasing carrot cake . When you do return, we will take you to Toast for Nutella muffins where you will regale us with tales of your exploits in Austrailia.

Be well Jason and thanks for being a kickass pal to Drew. Put the past (mostly the past tainted by the wretched Tongster) behind you and live well!

I wish you Godspeed and good luck mate.

Sunday Morning Rain is Falling

2007-02-04T10:53:00.000+08:00

Here's an insight to Sunday morning dysfunction. Sunday mornings are characterized by the swift knock on my door that jolts me out of bed. Except this morning I was just fighting with my snooze button, I really tried to wake up to do my readings. Alas I am resigned to the late night Sunday cum early Monday morning crunch. Sometimes the swift knock spells pancakes, an omelette or just an invitation out to some frenzied market walk about. If the knock comes earlier, it spells the Botanical Gardens. These knocks do not come anymore because unless I announce that I am taking the cameras out for a session the next day, other than that they know I do not fancy feeding swans anymore, especially after they hovered perilously close to our picnic last October.

This morning there was the knock. I inquired over breakfast. It entails an extended trip to IKEA by then all hope of getting work done would have dissipated. So I finally turned off the alarm and went back to bed only to be awoken by my brother. This time it was his turkey scream. When my brother is under extreme stress or frustration he makes the sound that turkeys do. It's a gurgling kinda yoddling scream and this was followed by many many many Hokkien expletives. His computer had crashed one day before assignment deadlines. Of course the father and him got into a fight just a moment ago about his lack of regard for PC safety, back ups and stuff. This led to a study of his systemic failure as a father and how my brother's chronic procrastination led to the laptop crashing and the loss of all data.

Then the mother who is most susceptible to screaming and stress absorbs it all like a sponge and spends the time slamming pots and pans in the kitchen. Every word is perceived as an attack. I scurry between the parentals fetching, coffee and water and hanging out clothes. Oh the sound of a Sunday morning. Now my house is buzzing with the sickening beep of a laptop nearing cardiac arrest.

Sunday mornings and I'm in pain. Oh well I hear of a possible trip to VIVO city so anything to get out of the house. I will even queue for donuts there.

Oh to add a thing or two about dysfunction
Last night we were riding in a cab home from grandma's place and we were talking about what the new mall is gonna have. Somehow it became a conversation about how we need hotels in the heartlands, especially since they keep building smaller houses and our relatives have nowhere to stay while visiting. Of course the down side would be that it'd become a vice hub. My mother remarked that she would call her hotel hotel 69 and the tagline would read, "It's always about getting the right position". I know I am about the bawdiest person you'd encounter but this coming from my mum set my brain on fire. I also have no idea where she learnt about 69 because the last time I checked, my mother was the prudest of this dysfunctional lot. ARRRRRR my brain is on fire.

It's a Beautiful Day!!!

2007-02-01T10:34:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I had the best day in the longest time and let me tell you all about it! It was just one blessing after another.

On my way to school yesterday I met Ms. L, my JC Lit tutor who has since left TJ. I was just day-dreaming on the platform and she called out to me. We took the train together till I got off at Eunos. There's no bitching with Ms. L just a slight bit of catching up. Well coffee sometime with Jerry (yes and Vai since you're back!!!) and Lau combined. Interesting effect because it'd be a bi-polar experience having the two ladies together at the same table. I can't express to those who have not met Ms. L how happy a person she is and how her effervescence spills over and infects you. So I was all toodly- dee-tooodly-dum all the way to the bus stop.

154 passes Pamsy's place so I decided spontaneously to ask her out for lunch and indeed she was available. No no didn't play truant or anything, I had just intended to go to school early to study but alas who would submit to relentless mugging when lunch is so much more appealing. So I picked the lady up from her place, watch her scurry around deciding on the correct hairband and shoes and we were off! We've been talking about pret-a-manger for months and we finally made it there. Ok Pret-A-Manger is actually a French name so it's pronounced something line Prata-Manjeure. Whatever, all you need to know about this English Sandwich joint is that the sandwiches are cheap (as opposed to The Sandwich Shop at Caltex House) and it's just amazing! First floor of Oglivy house, just across the road from Lau Pa Sat.

Well I don't have the pictures because MSN was mean to tinkerbell last night so I got this off the pret website. It's a true representation of what they serve. Above you have the Crayfish Rocquette sandwich. I wanted to order this but this was opposed by Pam so we went for the Coronation Chicken instead. No regrets there. Several things I love about the sandwich, the cohesion, the brilliant addition of mango chutney and how soft the bread is despite having pulled the sandwich right out of the cooler. The last feature is a feat i tell you with cold sandwich, not everyone can execute that with such finesse. Yes such brilliance for just $3.90. At the Sandwich shop the same thing would cost $6.50. Then we shared the mushroom and chicken wrap, another must have, a good contrast to the cold sandwich. Again very cohesive, yes I have got a thing about cohesion, anyone can throw together bread and things to call it a sandwich so there are sandwiches and there are sandwiches, there are wraps and there are wraps and this is a wrap (pun intended)!!! There was also the tomato creme fraiche soup which Pam thought was healthy and not creamy until she realised that creme fraiche is a variation of cream. Sigh Pam sigh, Leon laughed very hard when I told him. Oh well good choice though and I shan't diss you no more.

Of course we couldn't forget Julia who was slaving away in school so we da bao-ed cupcakes for her from Marmalade Pantry. Unfortunately I couldn't get the pic from Julia and worse we caught Francis camwhoring. Ok here we go...

FYI, the cupcakes are that good.

As Francis' left boob (the white one), we have Cloud 9 and the right boob is peanut butter choco-banana. However I am still devoted to the Nutella Cupcake. Yes available at Toast and Marmalade Pantry. Marmalade Pantry now occupies the shop space where Tea Spa used to be. We only resorted to Marmalade Pantry because Toast was all sold out at 2pm. Deprived office people.

Mind you, we didn't coerce the fella to do it, he just kept on posing and we just kept on snapping. We learn something each day and we learnt that Francis is a camwhore. Of course no outing is complete with Pam without the requisite cam-whoring.

Note: We weren't trying to emphasize Francis. What we did want to emphasize was our matching earrings that Pam brought back from London. Pretty pink stones dangling on golden chains. This only some people will get. Well most people reading this blog wouldn't get because it's all about Pam's love for a certain person. So this is a spoof of said person. Said person takes all photos with eyes wide open and she makes sure to bare all of her teeth. The need to do that could perhaps be due to the years of Orthodontic correction, so much money, so much time, must as well make it all worth it in the photos. Unfortunately that is not the case for us, especially after eating chocolate cupcakes so make do but don't you agree it's a pretty good way to take act cute pictures? Smart girl this said person.

Another of said person's favourite poses. We are truly mean mean mean people. Ok Pam is because she put us up to it.

Yes the day was not done! I did go to class and I caught nothing but alas I was not alone in that. Then Drew took me out to dinner at Ms. Clarity's cafe. Ok la, decent food, reasonably priced and yes tea-light lit for that extra touch of romance. Then the biggest blessing of the day was wandering into Cocoa Tree, and finding Reese Buttercups!!! They do cost alot, some $18.00 for a packet. I hesitated and Drew most gallantly picked it up and bought it for me because I've been making so much noise about Reese for so long. I can't believe how this sinful globs can make me that happy. That of course topped by Drew's gesture. Awww love.

Such a beautiful day. It's been a good week, I managed to meet Radika on Monday after a sem of actually not having hung out with her. I brought her to Alaturka where the hardened cynic was delighted by the food. Radika believes that Singapore food pales in comparison to KL food. I agree, it's different and not in a good way. Anyhooo I had to resort to Turkish food to convert her. Oh well all worth it. We also beer at Blujazz. I love the bohemian feel of it. Ok too much food must starve, run and play squash!

Of course I didn't do an ounce of work yesterday but fret not I am gonna make it all up and I am going to start right now!

Taryn's Sexy Dance

2007-01-28T22:35:00.001+08:00

Taryn is all grown up. *wipes tears from eyes*

Same Ole, Same Ole Weekend...

2007-01-28T19:16:00.000+08:00

Somehow taking a saturday morning class makes me figure that I've done enough academic things in the weekend to deserve a complete break. I pay for this by panicking on Sunday night. Something's gotta give. So in the interim what exactly did I do? I wouldn't call it much of a break. It was extremely stressful.

After Marine Insurance, Francis and I took a little jaunt into town. Something that neither of us have done for awhile. It feels good setting foot on Orchard Road. We had lunch at Anatolia's and honestly every time I eat there I get so incredibly full it hurts. I think it's because they trick you into drinks and fries and then they stuff more fries into your kebab roll. The highlight of my afternoon wasn't sneaky Turkish cooks but rather MacDonald's Jie Jie meets Helga Schmitt.

Taryn Marina Yap turned 21 very early this month and decided however to throw a belated b'day bash. Yes certain a 21 birthday bash to rave about. This also attests to the fact that Taryn is such an infectious and sincere person that she's got so many friends willing to brave so much to make her happy. I love Taryn hence I forgive her. We were invited to KAP Macs. Yes MacDonald's for her birthday party, complete with party crowns, balloons, happy meals, tiny little chairs to squat on and most important of all, Ronald's ambassador- the MacDonald's Jie Jie ("MJJ").

MJJ is one class act. She has great passion for her work. She stuck to her convictions that we were 21 year old children, whistling at us ala-pre-Maria-Captain-VonTrap style. Then she taught us the chicken dance. Oh what grace! I can hear her now in my heart telling me "Raise your hand like twinkle star, flap your wings, shake your body, 4 clap then Merry-Go-Round hor Children!" Oh what fond memories of MJJ. Of course MJJ couldn't stand up to Julia who completely went all out for the shake the body part. Very raunchy chicken dance indeed and for all of Macs KAP to witness through the full glass panels! There was blow wind blow and Whacko too. You must wonder why Helga Schmitt. Well let me tell you, I am very competitive and I knew from the get go that if we had to play Whacko then we'd need a name that is not mine and a name that would make people stall and giggle before they call it. It worked for sure and that is why Taryn Yap stood in the centre of the circle performing her sexy dance. MJJ just decided that children raised in the MTV generation would be naturally good at "sexy dance". So our birthday girl performed this in full view of the hoards of curious muggers gawking through the glass panel. If of course you weren't there, don't fret, it'd be up on youtube in due time. "Dance floor" Taryn? Oh speaking of "Dance Floor", George is hott! Thanks Taryn for this little jaunt through childhood and do carry your Ronald handbag tomorrow hor, or MJJ will spank you. Heeee ok la I was real mean in "Blow-Wind-Blow" to MJJ but every kiddy party needs a bully and one so aptly named Helga Schmitt.

The long day was not over, I went to visit Drew's grand folks. He was very impressed by Cold Storage's honey roasted chicken and he popped a can of stout, the first in 6 months. He was very happy that the chicken cost just $4.50 and attributed it to my influence on Drew. He gave his stamp of approval and has informed my 'in-laws' that I am to marry his grandson. His reasons are as follow:

- Not pretty nevermind. What for pretty, not having public exhibition what
- Most important is your wife help you keep your money.

He then compared me to his wife who though unappealing in looks (according to him), helped him amass great wealth that has since been employed in putting his grandchildren through university and has floated them through 20 years of retirement most comfortably. It's always fun visiting his grand folks, because they are very conversant. So *ahem* at the behest of the grandfolks, Drew must hand me his salary upon receiving it each month and I will give him his daily allowance. The rest I will stow away in my Kong Guan biscuit tin.

Then we hung out with the folks and Uncle Chang at Seah Street Deli, where Chang met the 7 layer chocolate cake. The only problem with Seah Street Deli is the lack of alcohol in their Tiramisu. Well super long Saturday. It's a long week and I am just exhausted.

Now I shall go and read stuff for Stewie Wonder's class tomorrow. I hate it when weekends pass so fast and all I've got left is to look forward to the next one.

Home

2007-01-26T20:09:00.000+08:00

It's 8:10pm now and I am happy to report that I am home all clean and squeaky and blogging just before dinner. This is the first time in three weeks that I've been able to manage this. My intensive course ended on Tuesday and hopefully life will become less hectic. I could only pray for that. Speaking of my intensive course, I really liked it, so if Professor Dyzenhaus hops around again next year, I really urge you to take it up. For once I am glad the subject registration system screwed me over.

Well I also apologize for the dearth in photographs. My friends are startlingly illiterate and oblivious to my supreme wit. Alas too bad, we haven't had a chance to KTV for weeks now or go out for something yummy. So till then I shall continue to bore everyone with how mundane my life is.

So speaking of home, I think I'm starting to get an inkling of what life is going to be like. My auntie's in hospital and it took me a whole week before I had time to make it down. I do not want to be the big shot lawyer person who would never be there for anyone. I have been vexed by alot of guilt lately. I can't commit to outings and all. It worries me immensely because that is not what I had pictured. I know I would work long hours in the future but I had no idea what long hours really did entail. I just don't want to miss out. Yeah so maybe I will start that restaurant one day. Sooner than I'd thought. I've always coped with insane schedules, what with debate and school but now my life is morphing into school.

Tonight I am going to give myself some time off and I've got desperate housewives, house and gilmore girls loading. Too many late night going through the collective insolvency regime so much so that last night I dreamt about gathering all the directors of insolvent companies and their creditors together for a Deepavali party. Traumatic. They do say that if you can remember your dreams vividly you haven't been sleeping well. It happens from time to time. It's the guilt I tell you. The guilt.

Dinner time! I love it when Dad cooks.

What's Eating Megan Chia

2007-01-24T14:35:00.000+08:00

I have to tell somebody so that I can feel sufficiently vindicated. I am getting old. Today is Wednesday and Wednesday is running day except today it was cold. So I put on slacks instead of shorts, except when I was warming up I didn't think atrophy would have set in and halfway through the run I felt old, I retired and walked home completely deflated. SULK

Then I decided let's put on a bracelet since today is prim and proper pearl earring day and to complete the prim and proper prep look I decided on the simple silver bracelet except it took forever to put on. Ok since it's on I shall not remove it for awhile. It wdn't tarnish or whatever since it's plated with white gold. I feel stupid now. It was one of those-just-a-few-tries more things. I was at it full 10 minutes before I got the thing on. Perhaps I could blame it on my left handedness. Sigh sometimes signs like this in one day point to one of those neurological conditions they detect in House. After all the place I do my warm up is littered with pigeon poo.

Right now I shall struggle off to class, get completely floored and panic. I am getting old and I am starting to get very grumpy.

Run Meg Run

2007-01-21T21:47:00.000+08:00

I've been keeping my new year resolution. I think it's the only one I've made- that is to exercise and I've been running. I dare say I enjoy it and it's even better when I make poor Drew run with me. Well I've improved and no one has outwalked me this week (the lady that did was power walking ok). Yup we ran past Mrs. Cameltoe and we managed to see it again on our way back. 'It' as in cameltoe and the woman is visibly a 'she' given she has 'it'.

So for the past 3 weeks I've been running to the highway where TPE separates Tampines and Pasir Ris and then turning back because the bridge across the highway looks too damn intimidating. After all when a fella cycled down the bridge he almost got his head chopped off by the no-cycling barrier (since removed after much public outcry- especially from the MP who is herself an avid cyclist). So today Drew and I decided to conquer the bridge and that we did. We ran up and hey it wasn't bad at all. Except when we were almost crossing into Pasir Ris, two girls stopped us and told us not to venture further, the beehive on the tree right next to the bridge had been compromised and swarms of bees stopped them from going home across the bridge. Oh well and back we turned. The universe was telling me that was far enough for today. Good run nonetheless, it allowed me to cross the bridge. With any luck on Wednesday I'd run into Pasir Ris.

Did I tell you I love my new Mizunos? Great mileage on the new pair of shoes so far. I ruined my last pair during squash (yes remember buy special shoes for court games) and they are a pretty blue. Of course they don't look as good as Nikes, I tell you Mizuno and Asics make the ugliest shoes but they make great shoes and the shoes are worth the price. Mine's even more worth it because it was on 50% off. I jostled with aunties trying discounted Birkenstocks and tolerated the mandarin touting service staff at Takashimaya to procure this pair. They cost just $83.00! A steal right! My now glued up ex-gym shoes cost $157.00 but it lasted 3 years and now since it's all glued back I have a spare pair. Oh well happy happy. I just hope I never get sian of running. I really hope so.

Also if you'd note I've finally added a tag-board to my blog because jullykanny wishes to comment. Since this is my blog and I am not the most courteous or civil person you know (I probably lie on the other end of the spectrum), I've unchecked the expletive block so curse away on my tagboard. Jullykanny i did this for you so do tag. Feel free to use aliases, that way I would look like a real popular person with tons of friends. Pamsy Tan also, you jolly well tag nice things or else... or else.... and yes Farida our liaisons should be kept discreet the world doesn't take well to S & M.

Destiny... and our paths did cross

2007-01-20T22:23:00.000+08:00

There are food places you just discover, not from some magazine or tv show. It is your discovery and it's ever so rare that you just stumble upon good places. It's destiny I tell you and as and when it happens, it becomes your duty to tell the world. This duty is ever more imperative because it is the universe that commands you. It is your discovery. You discovered it because destiny led you to the joint in question.

Today, Francis, Andrew and I discovered 'Swirls'- a gelato shop at Crown Centre. It's next to Renaldo's. Turns out this is just their first week so they need lots of love and support. They also deserve the love and support because they make damn good gelato. I had the durian gelato. My goodness it was like eating pure durian cream. It was light and bursting with flavour. I love that there is nothing synthetic tasting about the durian gelato. I really believe her when she says they make it from good quality durian, lots of it. Francis had the rum and raisin and for once it wasn't just raisins that we tasted. Drew had the Hazelnut gelato, it was very luxurious. The best part about the gelato is that you don't get jelat after a few spoonfuls. I finished my cup regretting that I didn't take her advice to get 2 scoops. At island creamery one cup may often be too much.

All I can say is that Island Creamery is gonna face some stiff competition from now on. So spread the word because Swirls is certainly one gelato joint you want to have around.

Oh yes they also give free water and soon they'd start serving sandwiches as well. They also have one up on island creamery because they serve coffee and other beverages. Oh well I certainly can do without the good looking ice cream scooper and the pretty pictures on the wall. The gelato makes it all worthwhile.

I know you retards can't be bothered to read all the words. Little brats! Sorry la it's retarded to carry a camera everywhere and as you know my phone is so primitive I think it doesn't even have polyphonic ringtones much less a camera. Well can make calls can already.

Realisation

2007-01-18T02:03:00.000+08:00

We received confirmation last week that we've qualified for Jean-Pictet so it's finally official. We're going to Spain. For the past few months while preparing the qualifying papers, I haven't always been all in. There's always this chance that we'd be the first NUS team to not make it. Real malu I suppose if I've got to go to Razali and return the key. Alas now that it's a done deal, I've actually got to really bust my ass something that I am enthusiastic about doing but I am sure procrastination will get the better of me.

The past 2 days we've spent arranging our flights and hotels, today I spoke to Javier about the metro and the remfe. It's all really going to happen. Sure I am real excited but I suppose there's always the typical trepidition. Most of all I hate the feeling of missing Drew. It'd be like BMT all over again, Korean moments, tears and what I hate the most being unable to talk as much as I want whenever I want. There would be the time lag and it's all going to be expensive. Nonetheless, we're coming to terms with that part. I suppose many I know would scoff at our mushiness but it's almost 3 and a half years and we've talked every night (with exception of the wretched field camps of his) since. I used to fall asleep on the phone (well not anymore since my mother broke my cordless )and when we first started out, Drew would all so charmingly say "Penny for your Thoughts" when I got all quiet and pensive and now of course I make fun of him and say "hey if I got a penny everytime you said..." Oh well we'd weather it through of course, I have no doubt but it just makes me sian.

We've also discovered that in the hotel we'll be staying at, which is the La Petit Palace Puerta Del Sol, the toilet door is made of glass. It's absolutely dumb and we tried looking at another hotel in the La Petit Palace chain and apparently it's their trademark toilet door so well lots of tape and newspaper then. Well go to another hotel you say, ahhh it ain't that easy to find that price and the kickass location right in the centre of the city. I guess I'm gonna get intimately acquainted with my team mates. Yay.

It's all happening now. Sometimes I still don't get it. I'm in a moot team, something that I thought was inconceivable in year 1. ILP, I did it and survived it all in tact and I've become so much better at what I do and I just can't believe it. Right if I don't slap myself now and get back to trying to kiss my tutor's ass during the presentation this week, I am screwed. Ok Farida and Julia don't even start with the drop pencil jokes or whatever. Ok shall stop procrastinating or I'll have to seriously think about it!

Bad Inclinations

2007-01-12T11:40:00.000+08:00

The internet just decides to be snappy with me when I go for my evening class. It's 3 hours long and I am miserable if I have to pay complete attention. Ok it's always painful not to have the option of a distraction, even if I didn't want that distraction. I just need recouse because I feel castrated without one.

In the interim while the good people at itcare figure out why they are refusing to give us IP addresses (it's not an NUS v NUSOPEN thing, it's another problem because no one can get on), I play my usual game. Since half of my class is made up of exchange students and we're all not on speaking terms yet I have given them names. Just like how I named Chopra High Pants. Look we talk now and he asks after my health, I even know his real name and he's a generous and genuine fellow.

So there is this guy who resembles Clay Aiken so he is called Clay Aiken. There's this other girl I call S Club 7. I think she resembles Hannah but ah maybe it's the accent. Then there is Gwen Stefani (not that she does look like Gwen Stefani all that much but she does have her eyes, ok maybe just her eye liner). Then there is Twinky the fellow from Prison Break- Ballick's rat. Well if they don't fix the net I will have to start victimising more of my classmates in my mind.

Also I just woke up from the worst nightmare ever. This comes from mixing 'chuan bei pi pa gao' and panadol or maybe it was just the fever. Imagine this...

Party World KTV in a bid to compete with Kbox built a KTV mega complex and we (as in my KTV gang) were asked to come try out the new facilities. It was huge! The rooms were huge and there were so many floors! Then it became one of those chase dreams where I dreamt someone chased us through all the floors. We got stuck in the lift and before getting stuck, every floor we passed we saw that person through the glass. Then the person tried to pry open the door. We had to climb through the lift shaft onto the roof and we barely escaped by running into another lift that brought us somehow out of the building. Well this is generally very watered down... sensitivities... I think I am disturbed. Well just killing time and procrastinating till I gotta do my readings. Damn it I am on MC ok.

My Movie Soundtrack Meme

2007-01-11T01:26:00.000+08:00

Since school is in full swing and sapping all my brain cells, I shall do something mindless. I shall do a meme. This is the first meme that this blog will host. Not bad eh, I took thaaaat long to resort to a meme. Yup a whole 2 years. Ok here goes the meme, just ask the relevant question, shuffle on your ipod or whatever player or whatever media player or itunes and the song it ends up playing is the answer. Haha played this game with Vai and Keval at the arts canteen (now closed... oh woe but well comiseration is good, the Summit at BTC is crap) except we used it to tell our fortunes.

The Opening Credits to my movie: Busted by Jennifer Paige (From the Simply Irresistable Soundtrack, God I love that movie, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Sean Patrick Flannery, I watched it twice in the cinema in those days when Tuesdays were $5 movies. I was a lonely bored teen).

Waking up: If (The Chyi Chin version from his Longer album)... you know the song that goes "If a picture paints a thousand words... then why can't I paint you?"

First Day At School: Kiss Goodbye (Wang Lee Hom) haha how ironic. Yeah school sucks.

Falling in Love: Moon Glow (Rod Stewart- The Great American Songbook). Yup I'd live with this. I think it's super apt. Gee this game is freakishly accurate.

Fight Song: Rosemary (Suzanne Vega). Wah Cheeeem. Well quite a poetic fight. I think I'd film it black and white with several slow-mo sequences. Yes definitely some chase scenes with pretty scenary. Cobbled Stone streets.

Breaking Up: Feel Good Inc (Gorillaz). Harh?

Prom: Better Together (Jack Johnson). Ok Prom's by the beach, some kinda OC Harbour High School kinda stuff or warm fuzzy graduation non-bitchy prom.

Life's Ok: Save Me (Corrine May). Ok life's ok but not ok. Catchy, up beat with a touch of craziness.

Mental Breakdown: Ode to Oren Ishii (Kill Bill Vol I sound track). About the worst rap I've ever heard...
Oren Ishii...
Half Chinese
Half Japaneseeeee

Flashback: One Day I'll Fly Away (Moulin Rouge Soundtrack)

Getting Back Together: Cold Day In the Sun (Foo Fighters)

Wedding: Gus: The Theatre Cat (Sarah Brightman). Well Julia's certainly not attending...

Birth of Child: Background Track from Stairway to Heaven OST when the two lead characters prance around Seoul doing happy things like playing soccer, walking around bazaars. Ahhhh... happy light music. HAVE I TOLD U HOW MUCH I LOVE STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN! SONG JU BAK!

Final Battle: Angel Voices Calling (Emi Fujita). Very Celtic version. I think someone died.

Death Scene: Ba Bump (Black Eyed Peas). Woot death makes your booty goes ba bump ba bump. See death should be rejoiced! This is the beat you bum your bump! Well maybe if you died by vortex...

Funeral Song: I'm Back (Eminem). Talk about eternal life.

End Credits: Siboney (Connie Francis). From one of my atas audiophile CDs. Not bad. Classy end to my Cannes nominated Film.

Oh well didn't lie so lucky none of my embarrassing songs came up. I've this phobia that my ear phones are not actually plugged into my laptop and the whole library can hear me. Ok happened once to a girl and she had "Leaving on a Jet Plane" playing. Certainly if I did do this, Chopra would have something to say or at least a throat to clear. Ok Chopra is actually nice but he is still the guardian of the library.

The Kool Klique Klan Takes Spain and GO FUKUSAN!

2007-01-03T23:20:00.000+08:00

If memory serves me well, there in farm in Spain, peppers grow from everywhere. All beautiful, bountiful, crunchy and oooooh so yummy. I say to myself that one day all its base is belong to me! Here we have challenger who is very krever with the kelp. I choose Iron chef America Masaharu Morimoto!

*bites into pepper, swallows the pepper and tries to keep it from coming back up*

Oh the great Chairman Kaga Takeshi of Iron Chef!

We too pay tribute ala Chairman Kaga Style! Meet the Kool Klique Klan and the magic pepper...

AND GO FUKUSAN!
Mussels in Tangy Pepper Salsa

I love how it induces one to first proclaim a general dislike of seafood or mussel and then said persons slurp down the mussel. Of course Julia is the undisputed Mussel Queen boasting 10 shells on her plate. She did proclaim after 5 that she couldn't eat anything more but alas the great magnificent mussels in tangy pepper salsa beckoned to her and she consumed another 5. I must now give credit to my assistants Leon, Julia and Mervyn who scrubbed dubious looking stuff off all the mussels while I busied myself with the other dishes (or was I simply evading arduous labour haha never question the chef!). If anything the greatest success in cooking is to convert and win over people conquering their blatant dislike for the particular item. One can achieve this by eliminating the undesirable traits. In cooking cod for example, simply toning down the after taste with the right spices but not removing its taste completely. For me this dish epitomises balance, where the mussels retain the smell of the sea, but none of the aftertaste of fishiness. Refreshing! I give this many stars. Oh mussels are also on sale at NTUC so for $7.80 you get like 36. It's a great steal!

Spanish Omelete

The Spanish omelete has been described as the ultimate tapas. It's simple, substantial and very flavourful. For this modified Spanish omelete, I seasoned the potatoes with garlic salt and paprika to give it the extra kick. Then to top it off I also added cheddar cheese. I think mozarella would have been better but I was just trying to use up all the cheese that we did not exhaust in the quiche. The Spanish Omelete is really the cousin to the frittata. Simple to make and a regular crowd pleaser. There really is nothing quite as comforting than the aroma of fried eggs and the potatoes in the omelete gives it the extra kick. Today I went to Leon's place with an omelete pan. The last time I cooked at his place I brought a crepe pan. People who looked into my plastic bag on the train did a double-take. Yes call 999 because I look very suspicious and am carrying a potentially dangerous weapon. Death by frying pan. Very common.

Beef and Avocado toast and Mushroom and Alioli Toast

Then there there are the open top sandwiches. The beef and avocado sandwich is not a traditional tapas recipe and it was created today! We first created a spread of djion mustard and apple cider vinegar spread. Then we added finely sliced avocado, a generous slice of well marinated pan-fried rump steak and topped it off with some onions. The problem with this and the Francis' b'day steak sandwich was bread. Today we settled for Gardenia Foccacia loaf. Well if you do try to replicate this, I hope you'd have the luxury of better bread. I think the ciabatta might be nice or a freshly baked French loaf. Next to the beef sandwich we have Mushroom and Alioli Toast. This is supposed to be very common in Spain, or so says the website. Alioli is actually garlic mayonnaise but we had to improvise and I toasted garlic and mashed it into the mayo. The mushrooms were sauteed with red wine and oregano. Served with onions and chopped tomatoes. The mushroom takes on the flavour of the wine beautifully. Very rich. Very luxurious. Ahhh the finer side. Also note the glass of white Sangria.

White Sangria

The White Sangria is very goooooood despite the many last minute substitutions. Imagine what we could have achieved with apple cider and the mint leaves. There's a pitcher left in Leon's fridge. I hear the magic of potent sangria lies in leaving the fruits to soak overnight in the alcohol. So lucky Leon. Well very very good for our last minute Sangria effort. Refreshing, saccharine, tangy and packs a mean punch. A 4 out of 5! Ok I might be generous only because it made me high.

Quick Quiche in the foreground and the feast

I didn't manage to get a picture of the quiche by itself but please note our maiden attempt at quiche making. We just picked a very simple recipe off the internet. It looks a bit like quiche, tastes like quiche and incidentally it developed a little crust just like quiche. If it doesn't then we've succeeded in making custard. If anything bacon always saves the day. However I think it's an issue to bake the thing in corningware but we were just lazy. It would have been much much better and more consistent and balanced if we had separated it Leon's muffin trays and made mini quiches. That said we are lazy people. See at least we made quiche!

Peach Cobbler aka Peach Bingka

Of course what is a cook out without one of Leon's famous confections! I present you his version of the Peach Cobbler or the incidental Peach Bingka. We call it that because the texture really is nothing like Peach Cobbler. Of course you'd miss nothing if you haven't had peach cobbler or we didn't start out calling that in the first place. The texture is almost like Tapioca cake, hence the name Peach Bingka. However disgusting you might think that is, it is actually surprising good. Mervyn even da-baoed it home and the top did caramelise very well. Well to many more cook-outs and many more real Peach Cobblers!

Daniel and Kenn

To end off I must offer up my sincerest apology to Daniel who missed out on the gathering due to my failure to confirm. I also spent the day cursing at him. This picture commemorates the dear kliquers who I accused of bang-sehing us. Daniel and Kenn (ok just make do, I know Ken Lim is not quite Kenn Cheow) and for the record Kenn did bang seh us. Hmpf.

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T15:20:00.000+08:00

New year's eve dinner. I wanted to take a photo of the carnage but that would have been grossly impolite and that would have sent the father through the roof. In a bid to 'detox' from the debaunchery of the week, we settled on a light steamboat dinner. As you might well know steamboat is my all time favourite food, next to my home made popiah that is so tedious to make that I get it once ever year and a half or so.

Speaking of carange, I don't mean metaphorically like oh check out how many prawn shells have stacked up. Rather I refer to the giant black burn on my table. My brother was tasked with setting up the hotpot while we busied ourselves in the kitchen preparing everything else. My brother did as he was asked. Nearer dinner we were greeted with the smell of burning. It first smelt like joss paper then the smell became more defined, wood was burning. So we rushed to the table which had by then started to smoke. It turns out that my brother had inverted the hotpot and the heating element was on the table instead of under the pot. He was trying to cook the table but really quite by accident. The father was pissed, it was always a sore point for him that I, rather than my brother took a greater interest in D.I.Y work, electronic work and stuff so he went on a mini tirade on his disappointment. Drew, mother and I tried to suppress our laughter by commenting on the freshness of the prawns. It was nice to see at least once in 3 weeks, my mother had to act all chipper to placate the father instead of us rushing to quell the fires of her hormonal rage. It is just funny and we laughed privately when we could. Right now a piece of cork sits on where the burn is. It looks like some U.F.O landed on my dining table. We are currently racking our brains ala Debbie Travis style on how to cover the thing. We could sand the table top then apply a coat of melamin. We could sand it and prime it. We could paint it over with toxic metallic paint so that the table looks metallic. However the layer beneath is made of compressed wood so we wd have a problem with sanding. Till we figure out something, the cork board lies on the spot. I know buy a new dining table but the father is opposed to that because fundamentally, the table works. This function vs aesthetics argument was first invoked by my brother in his defence. He told my father "I don't see why you are concerned with how things look, the table works what". To which my father went off tangent in his counter-argument. Great family entertainment.

I spent New Year's with Drew watching DVDs into the weee hours, and snacked on a potent serving of virgin bye bye (a spiked fruit and custard trifle really christianed by JC mates such). This time I used instant custard because I wasn't keen on scrubbing out a pot. My greatest culinary failing is that I can't make custard. I haven't been able to master it. Well neither has Leon. If ever we did participate in Iron Chef one day, Murphy's Law will have it that custard is the special ingredient. Well "Oh fuck" we will scream! I doubt I will ever in my lifetime squeeze with hoards of my countrymen at some outdoor venue, listening to Gurmit Singh's voice boom over loud speakers because the stage is just too far away. It would really demean what the year was all about, no matter how bad the year was, listening to Gurmit Singh on New Years' Eve is far worse. Further I am particularly boorish when plonked in the centre of an equally boorish crowd. I would be content to spend the rest of my New Year's at home in relative inactivity, and celebrate the sedentry that is contentment.

Right the obligatory bit about resolutions. Nah don't have any but one thing I'll say for sure is 2006 was an amazing year. I got to know great people, started to actually learn things in school, figured myself a bit, drew and I got through really tough bits together and yeah I even went running in 2006. 2007 here I come resolved simply to live as well as I did in 2006 or even better! Happy New year my friends! Oh happy am I!

Eeeeyur next up Chinese New Year.

The Arena

2006-12-30T23:47:00.000+08:00

Had I been younger, I might have jumped at the chance at being on the Arena. After all at that age, I was crazy about the Mock United Nations and surely the gungho wannabe debater then would have jumped at the chance to bat my eyelids on national tv. So what do I feel now? I cringe every time I see the trailer on TV. I suppose this restores debate back to its former glory when SIA still mattered. Every year we watch "Bridging Minds" and bleed helplessly out of our ears. Oh well makes for good entertainment. I remember how when we were at the Mediacorp studios in 2002, they forced us to clap, raise our hands visibly high and clap. Ok I exaggerate, they make everyone clap at recordings. Well I hope "Bridging Minds" is not a herald of what is to come.

It was something we had talked about incessantly, 'raising the profile of debate'. It's happened and well I am not sure if I want it to happen. Things have changed, and I have become for lack of a better word horrible. Some lady did refer to me then as an 'anti-establishment 19 year old' on her blog some time back to assuage her guilt of going on vacation. To give her credit, she was capable of guilt and I too probably guilty of being too harsh on her. However she did have big eyes that threatened to water and I still am capable of snapping her into half, not because I am all huge and strong but because she's built like a twig. Enough of this baggage! I am horrible, I understand the folly of speaking your mind, when what is on your mind remains malformed because everything else is running at super sonic speed. As coaches, we drank after debate competitions, once we hid a stairwell to guzzle convenience store stash that our then 18 year old senior (Josh) procured for us. Ahhhh memories.

As I was saying, the need for alcohol and other mind numbing devices really says alot about what debate does to your dignity. That is fine, we recover, and we know because we have said stupid things in our day but hey however stupid we said it in the confines of a classroom in front of 20 people max. With time, people might forget (we don't really, we still laugh all the time). In front of the nation... Nah I don't think I've got the balls. I do want to tape the entire series though and wait for Josh and Ni to get back and we could watch it over beer.

Right and now I remember why I left this all behind: http://ch5.mediacorptv.com/thearena/

Arggh Oh Woe

2006-12-30T00:28:00.000+08:00

I need to whine like a petulant child. Since everyone is more or less affected there lies no sympathetic ear around and I resort to whining on the world wide web. Hark back to the days of 56K! House will not load on dailymotion and my holiday plans are thwarted. As you may have heard, I intended to watch as much TV as I can on alluc.org before school begins so that I would never have to be slave to my TV. Ok ludicrous I know, I just don't like waiting for people to take one step a week towards escaping from prison. Anyway for my holidays short as they were, I decided to kick back, watch as much TV as I want, read, solve crossword puzzles, meet up with friends, dabble with abit of fitness stuff and do the tutorials like the day before meetings, and live on coffee during discussions. Alas it is not to be and I am now whining. Maybe I should just pick up online monopoly like Julia. BAH

Don't laugh at my TV addication ok! I learn alot of stuff. For example on House, I learnt that I cannot do MRIs because of my spinal surgery because the magnet would rip the prosthetic rod right out of me. So I was like wah die if touchwood they need to scan my brain then how, so I went to wikipedia and researched on the various types of scans available. And yes if you have something magnetic in you, just go for the costlier CT Scan. With technological advancment it's as good as the MRI. Further I finally understand why they ask you to wash your new clothes before wearing them.

Ok never mind. Stop judging me!

I shall go back to my book. I want to buy the new murakami but it is now $34.50. When I first started reading Murakami in 2002, he was a nobody in Singapore. His books were hard to come by, and if they did come by, it'd be under $20. Now everyone reads Murakami. When I was reading 8days the other day, I learnt that Yvonne Lim (yes the one who played the betel nut girl) was reading "Norwegian Wood"! I was mortified! There is nothing wrong with reading what everyone is reading, it just ceases to be my little find. If I did tell anyone else to read Murakami, they'd assume I picked him off the best seller's shelf. I found him and I can no longer be proud. I must seem mad, but me and my books, it's personal.

The Kool Klique Klan Post Christmas, Pre New Year Outing

2006-12-28T19:21:00.000+08:00

For the uninitiated I belong to a clique in school. We decided that since the other cliques name themselves, we ought to name ourselves too. All this said when we were on a sugar high at Island Creamery. So the Kool Klique Klan came into being. Why the many 'Ks' you ask? Well it was part of our policy of harmony and we wanted to inject the Penangite flavour into the clique name in honour of one Mr. Francis Cheah. It's weird of course when we proclaim this allegiance to the KKK, but yes we are the KKK but instead it's really the Kool Klique Klan.

Having said this, we aren't quite the gigglies.

I have also been told that people are lazy to read blogs that contain too many words but damn, some of the prose is actually witty. Oh wounded am I. Right so I shall attempt to pander to the few illiterate souls and also attempt to please the cam-whore in me.

First of all, Happy Birthday to ZQ. He is not quite the baby of the group, he's 23 today. He's is exceedingly inconsiderate though. He didn't tell us today's his b'day until Julia smsed us. Leon and I then ran around in a frenzy picking out something that looked befitting of a birthday cake. Of course the fondant always does the trick. Fondant for the birthday boy and eclairs for all of us. Gloria Jean's was most accommodating and didn't complain about our outside food and us having picked out only their Happy Hour $2 cap. Good coffee place. We had intended to have our coffee with glazed donuts from this new donut place at the Raffles place basement. Run by complete idiots, you've actually got to wait an hour for your donut. Yes even if you just want 1. They claim it's an issue of freshness, I tell you it's just bad management and lack of any semblence of common (not even business ok) sense. Fellow food lovers! We may lament the lack of Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Donuts in Singapore, but this is no reason for these donut sellers to own us! We can always ask our dear friends AHEM who are overseas to bring them back for us! Do not allow for this tyranny to continue! Yeah as I was saying Happy Birthday ZQ!We had lunch at the Hog's Breath Cafe. It was the set lunch, value for money. Incredibly slow service and well kudos to the waiter who even put on the fake Australian twang to complete this Australian experience. We being poor students ordered from the set lunch menu which comes with a choice of garlic bread or soup and a drink. We had the Cheese burger in Paradise, well it was a cheese burger, not so much the paradise part. I hate having to fight with my burgers and when people serve burgers open like that, it leads to a loss of cohesion. Just like canteen ladies who slap starchy brown gravy on top of pasta and expect it to be a real dish. That's the problem. I think Dan Ryans makes the better burger but good effort on the mince. I would however recommend the steak sandwich. That is exactly the same thing and is actually cohesive! Kenneth does not recommend the Prime rib. He says he prefers the Lamb Chops in school and that says something... Daniel had the chicken in Djionaise sauce. He liked it, and he called it 'substantial'. I must however say I like the mug of beef soup. It's slightly murky but a refreshing change from all those creamy lumps that they serve at other places. Alas the Hog's Breath Cafe did not live up to its great reputation. Oh well so much for franchising. Oh I almost forgot to mention ZQ's fish and chips. No it's not because he had already polished off part of it. It came like that by its paltry self.

Of course we did camwhore. Check out first of all Leon who paraded in his new vest. He wanted to know if it was 'too much'. He did suspend his suspenders at his waist and much to his horror, we watched too many cartoons in our childhood and wanted very much to see how far he could go if we held on to his suspenders. They were very resilient and they clung on to his jeans despite the tugging. So is is vest too much? Let him know ok. Then check out the men in horizontal stripes. After our demanding art direction, the boys decided to take revenge but hey no problem Julia and I were game and check out how co-ordinated we are. This I call the 'Hi-Hi' pose. In the bottom left hand corner is Kenneth's debut album cover. Right and some papparazi moments to end off the day.

So much talk about school.... it's starting all over again. Wah si-beh sian but hey it's gonna be great fun! We're gonna have Law IV auditions, the A & G teas again and many many more KTV sessions. You know Pamela, I swear you are back in SG and you're not telling us. We snapped a pic of a girl who looks like you. Ok anyone tiny and in a dress reminds us of you either that or you're haunting us.

Pensive Fluidity

2006-12-28T02:57:00.000+08:00

3a.m. and I'm wide awake. I think it's either the tea or the dank moroseness that surrounds me when I am awake and pretty much alone. For Royston Tan, that happens at about 4:30 am? Well 3am is about as late as I want to be up. I am upset because I am now feeling pensive. As habit, when I am so, I write. However after the rigours of legal writing and precision drills, I think I am no longer able to express myself as best I can in the mould of economy that I have cramped into. This in turn leads to a vicious ball of frustration.

I have been meaning to write for a bit on death. It has been on my mind for a couple of days now. Yes I know what with the Christmas cheer and all. It just is particularly tragic to die at Christmas. There might be ironic given that it is the epitome of peace. Christmas or Christmas Eve comes with a certain serenity. This year Auntie Rosalind left us on Christmas Eve. In 1997, my own Auntie left us on Christmas Eve. Both of them succumbed to cancer. Both of them great ladies who fought tooth and nail to stay just one more day to watch out for their children. I was at Auntie Rosalind's wake last night and I saw how her husband was completely broken but we all knew cancer would take her soon enough. It wasn't a surprise to us but that does not mean anyone is prepared to lose her.

I cannot begin to imagine how paralysing grief is when we can no longer speak to the person we love. It is not a matter of taking people for granted. The fact is that we often do not, we say we do, but truly we do not. We just miss having them there. I feel that paralysing grief when I can no longer speak to my grandmother. Sometimes I fight to keep the memories alive. I no longer remember her voice, sometimes I would deliberately mispronounce my name because that is how she used to call me but I can no longer remember with great clarity her voice. I remember a silhouette but I do not remember her face exactly. Even the pictures we've taken together, they just don't quite do it. There will be more who will go, who I will come to love in a way more fiercely than I love my grandmother. I am terrified.

The sad reality in loving someone is that one day I might end up completely broken. It might be a privilege then to go first but I too would never want to let go. There is a certain romance in missing and pining because there is certainty of reunification. I wish I could be fortified in faith to believe as they did in (forgive me for lack of a better example) "Stairway to Heaven" where the characters had the almost rabid belief that in heaven love as they shared would be preserved and they would be reunited.

Oh well this was not too bad. A good wee hour dose of pensiveness. Not sure if it would make me sleep better but at least I said it. Phew.

Christmas and my systematic stomach shutdown!

2006-12-27T22:10:00.001+08:00

My stomach is telling me to stop. I feel my oesophagus clenching and closing up but alas it is Christmas and tis is the season to eat like there is no tomorrow. This year I feel that my body is getting old and watching copious (I hate this word just so you know) amounts of House does not help. I shall attempt to shed some light on what I have consumed thus far. Just so you know I tried to assuage this guilt by going running and having salads. I just can't do the finger down the throat or drink-so-much-iced-tea-then-puke-everything-out method. Aiyah that is what New Year's resolutions are about.

Christmas celebrations began with the Kool Klique outing to the Axis Bar at the Oriental hotel for the free free flow of tapas. It is a very pretty place and they've caught on with the string curtain craze. Truly string curtains are fascinating and I hope by the time I do get my own place, they wouldn't be to passe. I love the semi-voyeuristic, semi-discreet thing about the string curtains, oh very sexy. Then there was dinner at Asian Kitchen. We realised that it is immaterial what they scribble on their walls. Never try to order off the walls. So what if the walls read "Xiao Long Bao". So FYI, Asian Kitchen serves up food from differentAsian countries at different joints. At Marina they're attempting to make Thai-Viet food and the joint at CityLink serves Chinese food. So our efforts at light and healthy eating went out of the window as we settled for fried kway teow, la-mian (yes I think this is slightly misplaced), prawn toast and viet calamari. I have come to the conclusion that everyone likes fried calamari. Speaking of which I had amazing fried calamari coated in oatmeal batter (just like the oatmeal prawn) at Thai Village Restaurant. Kudos to them for bringing all mankind's favourite dish to another level of excellence. Speaking of fried Calamari I missed my friend, I forget her name from time to time, that small dark girl oh yes Siti who is now in Rotterdam, how we dreamt about Calamari as Ewing yammered on and on! But I digress. Note the very gentlemenly Daniel distributing the cutlery to us ladies. Very sweet but alas he is taken.

We are after all firm believers that we have a separate stomach for desserts so we moved on "Earshot" at the Esplanade. They finally relegated the gift shop to a tiny corner and now they sell surprisingly good crepes at the place. A pity my camera ran out of batteries so I couldn't get a picture of the crepes. For further reference, see www.jullykanny.blogspot.com. The Crepe Suzette beat Le Petit Breton at Upper Thomson hands down and yes this place reeks of Pamela Tan. So see even though you are romancing your lover boy in London, I think of you and we must bring the A & G gang down for tea one day! Set! Oh yes, Pamsy I am such a cam-whore. I shall silently usurp my dad's Camera and camwhore away. Just you watch! Right Julia and I have sealed our lampost picture archive because it's absolutely embarrassing and because Daniel the photographer erm is very artistic.

Then there was Christmas Eve Dinner. Danish Roast Pork with crackling, caramel potato, salad and chicken and corn soup. Then there was Christmas lunch with the extended family, a seafood dinner at Changi Village. Last night I attempted to save myself by ordering a salad at Seah St Deli. Remember "Tornado on a Bowl" is a meal for 2 people. However it is what every salad should be about, smoked mussels, prawns, sauteed beef and mushrooms on a bed of lettuce and tomatoes. Yes none of the rocket in the new-fangled salads. Just a good ole traditional salad. The eating ensued with Dad's birthday today. Unfortunately I was unable to cam whore. Well shy lah but right now I feel like a tub of lard. I have absolutely zero self-respect. I do not love myself enough, instead I always defer to food. Alas Hog's Breath for lunch with the Kool Kliques tomorrow. Hmmm let's see if I can be diligent enough to wake up and go run. I like the town link path where people are not competitive and I get to save some of my dignity because everyone runs just as slow. Ok I shall go plod (or run) tomorrow. The sin! The sin!

Oh Christmas Eve! Oh Christmas Eve!

2006-12-24T13:57:00.000+08:00

Word from the frontline...

The mother has decided on a truce. She is still adamant about making it to this mega mall in Johore on the 27th however that one lies just beyond the flood lines so we braved a brief assault of low yield nuclear arms this morning. Well one thing I did learn today was that women at that age absolutely adore jewelry and she bought herself a ring and made herself all happy. Of course throughout the process, or rather this peace process, just nod vigorously and make comments like "wah so bling, wah so worth it, wah so nice, next time give me ok?" Well crisis averted. I also learnt that my brother inherited some form of imbalance. The cleaning lady threw away his homework. Not so much something that he painstakingly produced but just some random price list he collected from NTUC so there he was slamming doors, thrashing things around and screaming at the poor cleaning lady. To which I told him that it was probably his fault that he left things all scrunched up and crinkled. He replied in an almost Mavis Hee fashion that "I should not think I am God". Oh well soon we'd note the progression in his disease. Alas the family is insane and I am taking them all to the movies tonight as a Christmas treat tonight. I hate it when they all tell me "Anything" and I have to pick between the "Curse of the Golden Flower" and "A Night in the Musuem". Well I know the latter's more about family entertainment but my mother's cheena and Chow Yun Fatt would appeal to her more so I am picking the 'correct' movie and I hope it works out. It's artsy and I hope it's not too heavy after Christmas even dinner.

Speaking of Christmas eve dinner we've got our annual the Danish roast pork and caramel potatoes and some soup. No idea what's going into the soup though, I've just been instructed to prepare the stock. Sigh with Dad as master chef I've been relegated to all the tedious leg work. I had to score the slab of roast, prick the tough skin with a fork, yes all across the 2.5kg slab. Later I will stuff in the bay leaf seasoning. Yes I had to decapitate the chicken today as well. Unpleasant work on Christmas Eve but well all in the name of Christmas!!! Now to research the cocktail recipe for tonight.

Merry Christmas folks.

It's Katie Ka-Boom!

2006-12-23T23:33:00.000+08:00

Dear Friends,

This might be the last time you hear from me. I tread on very tenuous ground that will tear asunder as soon as my mother emerges from her lair. You might think of us as characters in 'The Host' or any other equivalent monster movie. Katie Ka Boom (an instalment in the Animaniacs) might well sum it up, I suppose if we broke down the reason for her transformation into a monster it's because of hormones.

My mother is menopausing. For real she is and this is the second time in a week that the hormones have reared it's ugly head. My father, brother and I are confined to our rooms and we're tip-toeing about the house whispering about her condition. Today she vowed to take the Malacca trip by herself because we were merely concerned about the flood waters. She is upset that I, as an ally expressed doubt over the safety of making such a trip. Well with 11,000 people displaced in Malacca alone, I would really call that compelling evidence that this trip would really not be advisable and should we go, it'd be the type of trip where we ought to leave our names with the embassy lest they needed to do a body count later. Ok perhaps I exaggerate but it's one of those things where we could always afford to wait. It would be cute to watch her cursing at the authorities as she stands on the roof of some coach on some Malaysian road but we know wither way to go or not, if we were turned back the hormones will kick in again.

Ah well if anyone has experience dealing with volatile menopausal women, please let me know. We need to form a support group or something and try very hard to isolate factors and understand the reason for outbursts. My father and I attribute the current condition to weather. The first outburst was because of the storm and how my father suggested to her that we ought to stay in for dinner. The ongoing tantrum is due to the rising flood waters in the region. It's either the weather or the moon. Well for those other helpless individuals out there dealing with a similar condition, here is some help for you....

Adventures of Cicak Girl

2006-12-18T21:31:00.000+08:00

I was absolutely thrilled with the Konsortium snoozer bus. It kicks ass. Yes once you've gone snoozer the 26 seater is nothing! Although I was tricked into watching "Running on Karma", by Drew who managed to catch "Fantastic Four" on our way up, I soon fell asleep, all comfy and stretched out in my seat. The driver's a maniac as well so we got to Penang at the ungodly hour of 6am. This is where I must pay due tribute to my faithful driver Mr. Francis Cheah and his mother Kanari which I now miss.

Mr. Francis Cheah, Penang's very own tourism ambassador, the 100% authentic home-grown Penang boy who as I speak is acquiring a tan in Langkawi. So watch this space girls! Our deepest appreciation go out to Francis who despite battling the flu tooks us everywhere! We had the best Penang experience anyone could ask for.
Also meet the co-penang tourism ambassadors,
Joshua, Erica and Jin Huang.

Joshua is Francis' best friend and Erica is Joshua's gf from the states. Jin Huang is just deranged. The picture above was taken at Baskin Robins. It's a cute story; how we ended up there. I met Joshua when he came to Singapore in August and somehow ended up buying him a scoop of ice cream at the Island Creamery and he decided to return the favour, except it was so much better at Baskin where I had the Quarterback crunch (mix of vanilla with caramel and chocolate rice) and the chocolate and Peanut butter flavour. To the right, we have Jin Huang, just before we embarked on our Red Light District tour. To be politically correct, Penang does not have a Red Light district, girls/man-girls just decide to stand around wherever they choose. Well yes it was a safe tour, windows up, doors locked. In any case, Jin Huang's window is spoilt so want to roll down also cannot.

Food: Quintessence of Penang
What is Penang without its food? Well this is but a modest account of what we consumed. Yes too ashamed to go all the way. On the top left hand corner we have Penang Laksa and Siamese Laksa from Pulau Tikus. The latter is just Penang Laksa with Lemak. They also had good Char Kway Teow at the same coffee shop but by the time they served it, we were too wrapped up to photograph it. Just take my word for it, it's goooood. Next we have Francis and Drew grinning at the Lok Lok. I am a Lok Lok fanatic . This is where Drew discovered that Mantis Shrimps can be more than just pets. Next I present the best tandoori chicken in the world on top of better than average cheese naan. I love the smoked taste of the chicken. Yes half a chicken per person and at just RM 6 if you get the plain naan set. Wanton mee also at Pulau Tikus, I think it's got Ipoh roots seeing how it's almost like Ipoh Hor Fun, what with the dark sauce and the shredded chicken. Approved by Drew the Wanton Mee fanatic. If anything go to this kopitiam to witness the amazing kopitiam boy. His voice resonates and he speaks perfect Hokkien (He's indian). I really admire his enthusiasm, he's the model Kopitiam boy. Just 15ish I think but one day he's gonna get his very own Kopitiam and there the pillars tremble at the timbre of his voice. Roti Canai, ok lar, it sucks. The Nasi Kandar is just colourful but I didn't get to try it so for prosterity's sake here is the picture. Now here is what I call Newton's circus. It sure looks like it and has an impossible Malay name. It's either Newton's circus or the place where the Japanese killed many people (there's a monument). Here is where we had the Lok Lok and the most amazing discovery of all time PASEMBOR! I love Pasembor. I think it's my weakness for Asian salads. This is the Penang version of Indian Rojak. It's pretty standard fritters with cucumber, beansprouts and tau kwa. I have also picked up the recipe so I shall make Pasembor at home to my heart's content. Did I already mention that I LURVE PASEMBOR! If you notice those rounded mounds behind the Pasembor, that is Jin Huang's tribute to Jullykanny who earlier in the year featured my boobs behind an ice cream. As she was not there with us we decided to feature her mock boobs in the background. Enjoy jullykanny!

Dinner at the End of The World
You know how everywhere else you go there is always an "End of the World" Seafood place. Well this is not called the "End of the World" but certainly it deserves the name. Situated in Batu Muang it's about 11km away from the Penang Bridge and 19km from Batu Ferringhi. It's really obscure and if I didn't have the good fortune of having Francis and Joshua showing us around we would have never ended up here for dinner. There was also a different call of fate, or should I say nature that led us to this place for dinner. Just check out the spectacular view from this place! We watched the sunset as we dined on clams, hokkien char, mantis shrimp, nestum prawn, chi-le (the spikey thing which is the Penang version of Gong Gong) and crab. By the time the baked crab came my hands were already dirty so I took a picture of the carnage. I suppose this testifies to it's ultimate yumminess. I had an entire crab stuffed with roe! I was so happy and yes all this for *drumroll* RM 105! Yes shiok! I am very proud of Drew, venturing beyond his comfort zone and trying the chi-le which he now loves. Don't know when I will be back again, but I will miss this place forever man!
The Room With a View

This is the view from our room on the 11th floor of the BayView Hotel Georgetown. Yes it's the faint image of the Penang Bridge in the background and we can see Gurney drive from our room as well. Pretty awesome eh?

Tribute to Malaysian Motoring

I know I have been a bad girl, a narrow-minded bad girl making fun of Malaysian cars. Well cut me some slack the Perodua advertisement they screen in Singapore is packed with lies. Our streets are not "impossibly narrow!" So as a tribute here is a collage of me in Malaysian cars the first two in Francis' Kanari and the white Proton belongs to Jin Huang. Wah it's damn powerful. I also love Joshua's My-V, it's built like a Chevy and it took us through several rocky patches of off-road riding. They are amazing cars, auto-lock functions, safety features (minus air bags but that's ok because it's realistic, most of the time air bags hurt rather than protect) and most importantly they are adept at navigating the "impossibly narrow" streets of Malaysia. Imagine Jin Huang's idea of an illegal U-turn is to mount the divider and drive onto the other side of the road. See how powerful the car must be?

Sightseeing

End Notes: A Lesson in Colloquialism and Malaysian Folklore

So I've heard of kids referring to their privates as Appoms. Apparently that's what they call it too in Penang. On the second day we drove by an Appom stall and ordered Appom. Sandwiched in the Appom was sliced banana. Jin Huang really puts it best, that's the best thing to go with Appom. Yes if you really think about it, appoms sorta resemble the Labia. Oh well so does anything that folds in half. Waffle anyone?

And why Cicak girl you ask? Well I've got to introduce you to Malaysia's newest super hero (I am serious).... he is the CICAKMAN (translated literally as lizard man). The movie's out in theatres all across Malaysia right now. Well we never really gave Cicakman a chance (we passed him over for Mr. Bond) and we speculated that it's because he ate lizard shit thinking it was chocolate and his superpower includes regenerating limbs when they are ripped off in combat. Well to end of my Penang blog post, that's me with a picture of the Cicakman.

Penang... ah great times. Thanks yawl

Le Random

2006-11-29T15:57:00.000+08:00

I decided to blog today from the library because I have Mary Alice Young's voice buzzing in my head. It's very drama I know and I feel I have to chronicle something. Once on the OC, Marissa caught Summer listening to her own voice. Summer was selecting her bikini and in the background we hear the voice over. Except they don't do voice overs on the OC, it was Summer listening to herself on her mini combo. So I feel dramatic. Ok this has no relevance to what I will say henceforth.

Perhaps it is because of where I am today, for the first time in 2 weeks I am actually facing Chopra High Pants (hence forth known as CHP). This is as usual part of my on going campaign to get to know all the freshies intimately. CHP as he is called is the guardian of the library. He purchases coffee for everyone (but me) and stares at me when I do a little smuggling of my own. Today someone had already taken our favourite table. It was already ten so I decided hey Wolverine's not here, I'm going to take Wolverine's table. Except Wolverine is CPH's friend and CPH stared hard at me and in usual Megster bitchiness I reciprocated and took the time to empty out my bag and toss my belongings all over the desk, sigh if Farida were here she would have licked the desk. Jackass. Vasu (hence forth no longer known as vortex but the hypnotic magnent- HM) asked what's up his ass and I tell her his pants. CPH is just plain offensive and that is why I am playing all offended right now. See he is staring again. He must know I am blogging and not reading my HR notes. CPH is also great friends with the security guard. He hey brudders him every morning. Yay CPH is gone for his afternoon coffee jaunt. Yay! 20 minutes of Chopra-free time! And will the dumb shits stop smoking under the window, it makes the library smell like burnt toast.

Alright other than CPH I have nothing more to say. I should prepare my requiem or auto-biography given my impending doom (oh they spell it Dhoom 2 in bollywood, anyone wanna watch?) but as with violent deaths, we never have the chance to leave anything behind.

Brrrr!

2006-11-27T22:15:00.000+08:00

My Korean cleaning lady Auntie Kim (shut up, I'm not being cute or anything, she is Mrs. Kim) tried to kill me. She laundered my blanket and 3 of my jackets in the same day. Even the Nike jacket that I don't wear. It was midnight when I discovered that I was without a blanket and it was too late to sneak into my parent's room to get the spare. Even if I did, I would be dismayed to learn that the spare was also hanging out to dry overnight. I thought I'd use a spare bed sheet for a make shift blanket but somehow she's used them all. So I slept without my blanket.

In the morning I woke up in a frantic haze. I searched for my jacket. They were out hanging in the balcony too. So I bundled myself in the warmest I could find and hoped to God I would survive the CJ Cold Library and that I did even through the thunder storm. Ahhh the anger pulsating through my veins keeping me warm as I learnt of all the flagrant violation of the right to life and liberty! This has been the suckiest exam period ever. Next sem, one exam.

Epiphany on the move

2006-11-23T14:06:00.000+08:00

So it hit me like a sign from above that I am exhausted and I deserve a break. I deserve a break at the price of $318.

I decided hence to evangelise and share my epiphany with you all dear friends.

The palm studded talcum fine beaches of Boracay, with its balmy weather, warm crystalline water is a hypnotic magnet that lures one to a lotus existence.

Visit Boracay, call Chan Brothers travel.

Yeah I shall just forget about visiting Penang man. God wants me elsewhere. Do you suppose it would be more refined if we referred to the VORTEX as the HYPNOTIC MAGNET. Oh dear having odd thoughts of lotus existence in the black hole. Not pleasant.

Oh well epiphany available on some MRT trains.

OMFG

2006-11-19T00:45:00.000+08:00

Remember the paper cut from my post like 1 minute ago. It's not a paper cut. No wonder it feels that nasty. It's a small piece of a a stapler bullet that had broken off frome one of TYL's stacks of notes. Mind you friends that is a heavy duty carl stapler. So it was a stapler bullet splinter and there I was wriggling and bending my finger because I thought my goodness this paper cut just hurts so bad and I cannot believe why.

Well with a little bit of in-house out patient surgery. I managed to get it out with a tweezer. Not bad, next time I can burst my own blisters which till today I don't dare do and it starts to get infected and by the time they do burst I am pressing yellow or green goo out of it. Like the one on my right index finger from a nasty burn. Now there is just a pink patch of skin where the blister used to be.

Ok this is divine intervention. I need to go sleep.

Papercut

2006-11-19T00:29:00.000+08:00

Just to add to how much I just hate personal property, I got a nasty paper cut on my writing hand from the personal property notes. That is how much my life sucks now!I will never do anything for a man again! ARRRRGHHH, so won over by his twang which I am now convinced is fake. Ok the error of my ways, read your cases all the time.

It's sad but this week has been characterised by the feeling of falling. I go to sleep past 1 and I fall into the next day, waking up feeling bruised all over, my neck I believe has gone into rigor mortis. Then it all goes on again. Reading, typing furiously, pretending to think, home, the eternal struggle of whether or not to study and in the end the TV or sleep wins me over. I wake up guilty the next morning. Yes, I have cheated on TYL or LCL by going to sleep. Infidelity that is choosing the TV over my text.

Ok I am just so melodramatic. There are spurts of fun. Lunch, tea, dinner and coining wretched nicknames for all the retarded freshman. Look people I am not mean, if they'd wear name tags or introduce themselves we wouldn't have to identify them by their physical traits. Oh well someone out there probably has a mean name for me but till then wtf.

So now I am struggling, after putting together all the nonsense I have to read for personal property, I am feeling resigned and the bed beckons. Hmmm the angst, this all probably explains why I spent the day listening to my Eminem album. The first one, the one with Stan and the Real Slim Shady. Ok I think he's ridiculously funny. I am not one to be offended with the homophobic slur, so bite me. It's dramatic and cheesy, it saw me through TKGS and I got it all for RM 15 on Petaling Street some 7 years ago. Good times. Good sony discman then too.

Right so I shall attempt to be good. Later.

Remedies

2006-11-12T16:55:00.000+08:00

So I was feeling absolutely rotten yesterday. I had the cold. I sneezed, wheezed and had a terrible headache. When I am sick I have absolutely irrational food demands. I think it's the need for balance. When my nose is stuck I am just dying to taste my food so there is no point making food any blander. That's really my philosophy. So I wanted Rosti. I have always hung on to that philosophy. When I was in hospital, the moment I came to from my spinal surgery, I wanted coke. Nothing else but coke. I couldn't drink coke for 3 days because I couldn't sit up and anything I suck up the straw would just go back into my oxygen tube but yes see my point. So I had rosti last night because I was sick. I had intended to create magic in the kitchen since the folks were away. I had it all planned. Pan-fried fish fillet on a bed of water cress, with baked almonds, roasted tomatoes and sauteed asparagus, topped with a slightly tangy butter based mustard sauce. Then I got sick and decided Rosti was the way to go.

The boyfriend and I rented 2 movies, Hard Candy and Mrs. Henderson presents. I was perturbed by Hard Candy, not because of the castration but because of the incessant repetition of the date 19/03 which as you all ought to know is my birthday. Oh well I guess when they give you numbers, all you can do is buy 4-D and that I did today. Wish me luck.

Mrs. Henderson presents, pure genius and I am sure Judi Dench is every bit the Laura Henderson. Why the hell is she not in Harry Potter yet, where Maggie Smith goes, Judi ought to follow and Judi is much more pleasing to the eye, I am sure you agree. So inspired, haha Law IV, creative direction... hmmmm nude... ok nvm don't worry girlies, just audition. Remember we still need the MDA licence so I shall restrain myself. I will not be an Iris Tan!

Yes I think I am almost fine, except for the residual sinus infection but that would clear in due time at least the nose has stopped with the damn leaking. Yes I achieved all this with cheetos and ben and jerry's cookie dough. Well stressed, sick and a boyfriend who has no say in what I put into my shopping basket haha. Ok but he ate most of the ice cream at least.

Well short reprieve, back to mugging. Well wait a minute there is no 'back to' mugging if there wasn't mugging. Oh who gives a fiddler's fuck! Figure of speech! figure, manner whatever!

Good Week

2006-11-12T01:08:00.000+08:00

So it's come to that eh, weekly post but generally there is nothing interesting in this lil life of mine. Unless you want to hear about what I think about restitution yeah. Oh Oh Oh Farida! THW is married! Our absolutely favourite tutor of all time is actually married and to think we thought he was... he was... oh well and this I am sure, Julia, Francis and I heard it from someone high up in the administration.

Well good week indeed. Personal Property is finally in and I am just glad it's done. Wah tedious essay to write and the cool zen that I approached it within 24 hours of the deadline is just very worrying indeed. Cleared the last of the Jean Pictet tutorials before the exams. W00t. Had a potentially nuclear like crisis blow over. Sigh formating marks are a bitch phew. Yay happy.

The weather has finally changed. I love the wet cool days. This week to celebrate the coolber months. Francis, Jules, Drew and I trooped off to my favourite hotpot place. It was a good meal. Wasn't stuffed at the end but just happy. Steamboat is such happy food. We are such nerds, conversation revolved around personal property. Well I guess first step to doing well is just living and breathing the subject. The predominant theme at dinner was abandonment. Sigh the other day we even questioned if a mother or a father had title over a child and whether gestation could be considered as manufacture such that specificatio occurred vesting title in the creator of the new product. I say gestation is.

Today I celebrated the changing weather with a toffee nut latte. A must have when the weather turns cold. I tested water this year and indeed it is good this year. It was just bad last year, one helping and I decided to move to Coffee Bean. Now I am back at starbucks because at starbucks they value Christmas. I love Christmas. I love how Orchard Road is back to the red and gold palette. Opulence, that's what it's all about! wheeeeee high. Oh yes but starbucks does have a sabbath rule, expressed best by the barista (pardon the spelling).

"On weekends, no books can be opened at starbucks" so off we trooped with the coach to Burger King where no such sabbath rules applied.

Right as for security in school, the door chime in the toilet has gone flat. I think it's because I play with it all the time while waiting for my slow pissing friends to get out of the toilet. Oh well still haven't figured out what the hell happened at BTC. At the firm where I interned at, the female toilet had a lock on it and we had to key in a code to get it. At least I know a couple of years ago, a woman was ambushed and raped in her office toilet. So there are always reasons and I just need to know why things are what they are.

Right sick. Shall sleep. This really all explains why this post is absolutely random but hey we all need to celebrate good weeks. Just a good simple week.

Some random thoughts from the week…

2006-11-04T00:35:00.000+08:00

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in the library this week and correspondingly in the library loo. It’s very disconcerting when you’re sitting on the toilet bowl and all you have is this notice at the back of the door which says.

“Campus Security Hotline: 65163636, You may want to key in the number in your handphone”.

2 days ago they installed a door chime and on the toilet door it says “For security reasons a door chime has been installed.” So when you enter or leave the toilet it sounds just like 7/11. You of course don’t get all this in the men’s toilet, well gender biased worries I supposed, we are all weak and vulnerable but honestly on BTC, if I am working late at night, the dangers I am afraid off… well let’s just say the campus security will be no match against.

Right so every time I go to the loo, which is a lot because they wouldn’t turn the ac up, my mind starts to wander. Bad horror movie, door chime keeps ringing but there is no one else in the toilet, you call campus security but that is not enough because the mother-son duo are sucking you into the toilet bowl. Yeah since the mother usually crawls up from somewhere or comes from behind then I guess yeah she comes outta the toilet and the little one just peeks in at you with his big ass black eyes from under the cubicle door or from the next cubicle. I also wonder if it’s paranoia or did something really happen on BTC. I might just search lawnet one day. Ah well till then it’s some source of entertainment when I sit on the bowl.

Another random thought, yesterday the tutor came in and decided that work was too tough and she made us write an essay during the duration of the lesson. Well of course there was tonnes of cursing involved. Then there was incessant giggling when we texted nonsensical messages on our screens to each other.

One of them included the contemplation of which charmed one would you rather be? In that class last night I chose to be Piper, if I were diligent I would freeze the class, run to the library in a frenzy and seek out the answer. If I were feeling destructive and I was, I would have blasted my tutor to smithereens. At the same time I contemplated blasting off her arm, summon my white-lighter husband to re-attach it and blow it off the other arm and have Leo reattach it again and it goes on indefinitely until I feel sufficiently vindicated. Yes real waste of time.

Random conversation on how the only way I can ace P Prop is to seduce the convener. Let him be known as X.

Me pins X to the wall
X: I can help you with trespass, yeah, conversion yeah, detinue and even replevin yeah but you know you are committing trespass to my person yeah, and yeah…
Me: Ooooh trespass… I am a bad girl professor.

Oh never fails to make Leon screech each time I perform it.

And random snippet, Macs does not deliver to BTC. They just don’t the dude volunteered to give me the address of the nearest Macs which really is just 400 metres away and I am like… “No! I am stuck on a hill and that is why I sought delivery in the first place and if you can’t I am hanging up now!”

That I did. Sigh it was supposed to be the highlight of the long day. In the end the highlight turned up to be watching the last episode of “Enchanted Life” on NUS cast with Julia and deciding that there was no way Meiya could have been tried in the Sub courts, no way she could have been escorted out by the front entrance, no way she could have fallen off the escalator in that manner and so on and so forth.

Long day and even longer night…

To that no good piece of shit

2006-10-30T22:49:00.000+08:00

Save your fucking trophy condoms for your neighbour's door knob. Meanwhile I am disappointed in you. So bugger off.

Good Ole Jerry

2006-10-29T19:18:00.000+08:00

I have decided to dedicate this post to Jeremy Tay and in some part express my deep gratitude to Nigel Na for leaving a bottle of Mcallan in my care. You know very well I will not make a fantastic bailee and when you do return of course, the substitute liquid in that bottle will be so vile you'd be able to plead intoxciation when you molest a student.

Yes having thanked Nigel I will get back to the matter at hand. It's great that we've all moved on, become happier, snipped of the great bangs of depression and in general do what we sorta wanted to do. It's even better because we can come back from all this and still talk. We can come together and talk like NS, NUS, and other things never did happen. We are not any more complacent nor are we guarded. Well it's just great knowing that even when we move on, we can hold on to the trust we've always had in each other. I say this with even greater conviction because that's not true for everyone I know really. It's great that I can go to Jerry or Jerry can come to me and talk whenever we want to, with really no agenda whatsoever.

Well perhaps this glee is somehow elevated because of the Mcallan which I think is well alright, I think I still swing the Johnny Walker way. Nonetheless it's a good drink, there were no hang overs to speak of. Yeah Nigel, thank God for that because Jerry can now hold his drink very well, I think another one and a half outings, I'll start pumping in Black Cat into the bottle. Yeah remember when you come back I would have gotten my first pay check as a pupil, not much but I can buy you a drink. I WILL buy you a drink, I know things have not been easy managing the income and other necessary expenses (also I did not encourage the extra expenses like you accused, I merely expressed concern over the neglect). Yeah what the hell I will throw in a steak sandwich. Well at least when Jerry and I discuss the world at our heartlander gatherings (this time it was Tampines), we will have that bottle of Mcallan present.

That representation of you is exaggerated in size I know but at least we feel it important that you remain with us, after all the bottle is merely symbolic, we know you for who you are. Remember we love you no matter what.

Flights of Fancy

2006-10-22T21:21:00.000+08:00

Indulge me as I procrastinate and think of my future.

When I am past 40, I wanna be like Vera Wang. Oh she's way cooler than Michael Kors.

I want to be a lobbyist. I just watched "Thank You For Smoking" on DVD. I now want to be a lobbyist and why not. Like the other day, Leon accused me of being all form and no substance and I told him he was right, just throw me any legal position and I will moot it for you, doesn't matter if I don't believe in it. Yeah I'm pretty good at mooting, just have some associate do my research for me. Yeah fast forward my legal career, I only do Court of Appeal last ditch closings because I can. Yup, I have been a debate coach, speech writer more than debate coach and mooter. I thrive on lies. I deliver lies with aplomb. I shall be a lobbyist. Hmmmm not just for any industry but yes the alcohol industry. I no longer feel for the tobacco conglomerates. Wait if I were a lobbyist for the alcohol industry then I will not be lying anymore. Hell yeah all the better. The days of fighting the battle against child porn are over. I shall fight this battle with my bottle slung on my belt, below my belt haha.

I have decided that when I grow up I will purchase an elliptical machine and ellipticise after work. If I am to make partner, I will not have time to utilise the corporate membership at my firm haha *tsk. So I shall ellipticise when I get home and play squash on weekends with my squashers who by then would have become first rate squashers and we would beat the young punks at the Law Fraternity Games. Yes by then Law Fraternity games would feature squash, golf, tennis and curling. Yes curling, I wanna do that too.

We would get so good at ktv that we would perform at the Law Fraternity Concert when we are like 30 or something. We would perform 'Ai Bu Pa' and we would do it year after because we are that good.

I wanna sell food. I wanna sell KL chee cheong fun with yong tau foo after I gave that sorry stall a chance at Parkway Parade. I shall pioneer fantastic chee cheong fun sauce. If I fail then I will deep fry all my yong tau foo. It worked so well for the Siglap stall that they now have an entire shop all to themselves. Either that or I can try to sell Mee Pok Ta and make the chilli so damn hot that people don't care what the rest tastes like anymore. I will be famous. Of course I want to do that spot of fine dining so I have yet to work out the logistics. Maybe I will have them operate side by side, share a common kitchen etc. That's a thought.

I want to buy over Golden Beach Resort and yes make it work.

I want to retire now.

I also want to smoke sheesha all day.

Right before I end, I must tell you all about Sultan's Kebab at Parklane Centre. You can't miss it, it's on the main road. It's goooooooooooood. The beef kebab, I had a chance to try it last Saturday and it trumps Al-Tazzag's which is now on Haji Lane and it's only 5 dollars a roll at Sultan's. I had to restrain Drew with much difficulty from getting another. It was one of those places where you'd pass and be completely won over by the aroma. We discarded our zi char plans for this humble stall when we passed it after KTV 2 weeks ago. Yes Julia, no longer that humble since they've since put up a sign board and built a proper counter. Oh delicious and yes the chef is fastidious in keeping his stall spotless.

Ok to a weekend spent nua-ing. I shall attempt a mad Sunday night scramble to get some work done.

Life Goes On Despite Haze

2006-10-17T19:29:00.000+08:00

Braving the haze at PSI 130, loyal friends of Francis Cheah a.k.a the Prince of Wales ventured out into the heart of Botanics to celebrate his 22nd birthday. Inhaling noxious fumes, we feasted on the finest picnic spread ever and I kid you not when I say the finest picnic spread ever. So for Francis Cheah, we poor sods who remain in SG to brave the nastiest semester ever and toxic air, brought the birthday boy a slice of Europe right in the heart of the Botanical Gardens. Yes Europe, all atas and civilized.

Presenting Francis Cheah's loyal friends who braved lung cancer and other smog related diseases to be with him on his birthday.

Beautiful ain't it? I present you the roasted pumpkin salad. Oh yes the blend of farmer's mix greens, roasted pumpkin, roasted cherry tomatoes and blanched asparagus topped with vinaigrette sauce. Best salad around I tell you and even if you do not like salad, admit it, it's damn pretty.

Quesadillas that I insist everyone eat with loads of sour cream. It's an absolutely simple recipe but it packs a mean punch. I love this. Goes well with everything. Pam will inherit this recipe so that she can nourish her Romeo in London.

My absolutely sinful steak sandwiches. Yes it's an original recipe conceived by me! The bread you see is actually ciabatta bread rolls. Aren't they just so cute. Simple sandwich, well marinated steak and caramelised onions with a mayo-mustard spread. Yes and I now know the secret behind tender steak. Muahaha. It's a personal favourite.

The birthday boy's favourite, prawn skewers with pineapple and haloumi. I love Haloumi cheese it's got amazing texture, it's not pungent and is adequately aromatic. It's a great indulgence if you just pan fry the haloumi and toss it into any salad. Goes great with almost everything. Prawn skewers were served with a side of chilli and mint salsa. This took very long to prepare and caused Leon and I much pain after we handled the chilli with our bare hands for over an hour. Our fingers were burnt throughout the afternoon. A true sacrifice indeed! I would like to throw the skewers onto a real bbq grill soon. If I ever do another atas dinner I would like to serve this on Risotto.

Yes see it altogether now on Julia's plate, notice the tender steak sticking out of the sandwich.

This is Leon's proud creation. The 8 Cs cake.
See Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Cookie Crumb Cup Cake. It's heaven especially when paired with the strawberries.

All this topped of with Julia's bottle of Shiraz.

Please note the checked picnic mat. We even brought a basket as well as an ice box.Yup you can see the ice box right under Leon's cupcakes, we were damn prepared. So much sin in just one sitting! It was great seeing everyone just enjoy themselves, yes and we make a great headliner, living it up at the Botanics. Yes picture us on the front page in the news, rising from the haze "Life goes on despite PSI 130". Yes it was good to be out, laughing,traumatising swans, challenging them to fights and cam whoring. Good friends, good food, ahhhhhh nothing expresses it as well as Francis' tee-shirt. Ahhhh La Bella Vita!

To us!

*All pictures courtesy of www.jullykanny.blogspot.com and http://tabulas.com/~francis

Wanna Friend or Not?

2006-10-09T21:47:00.000+08:00

So I signed up for this talk and they sent me the programme. Wah check out how blatant they are.

4.00 – 4.30 pm Registration

Networking Reception & Light Refreshments

4.30 – 4.35 pm Welcome & Introductory Remarks by Mr So and So

Aiyoh I hate it when people are blatant about saying I wanna "make contacts" therefore I am going to this university. I mean if you're gonna be all fake and manipulative and go all the way and pretend to be warm and all. Haha some more this talk is on the future of International Humanitarian Law. Ok let's can diplomacy, Mr. George Bush I need to network with you. Here's my card and that's the drawing of my nuke that I am housing (*interrupts with "in my pants" scream but alas that's an inside joke). So that's what humanitarian law is about.

Monday funk

2006-10-09T12:44:00.000+08:00

It's Monday. I do not have to be in school. The first Monday since ILP that I'm enjoying a stay-at-home monday, with the cancellation of the team meeting but I am in a deep funk.

Maybe because I started the day going through footnotes for the bossman. I just learnt the bossman met Queen Elizabeth, really the man has a lot to be proud of but it is painful sometimes to listen to him when I just really wanna go off an do fun stuff.

Maybe it's the weather, bleak as it is. On free days I like to swim especially when the sun is blisteringly hot. 30 laps with my coppertone. Alas bleak hazy weather... I'd rather be home.

Maybe it's the emo songs I've been listening to. I haven't had the mood for anything rockish for 2 weeks now. I have had an embarrassing playlist for close to a month now and I didn't even react to Electrico's newest album.

Maybe it's food. All I ever want to eat is yoghurt. The stomach flu has left me in bits and pieces.

Maybe it's Oktoberfest and it's not the same anymore. I could eat a whole knuckle with the bala now but it'd be weird and he doesn't eat crackle. Why go for a knuckle with no crackle. This year there's some Erdinger Oktoberfest extravaganza. Details are hazy but you just gotta pay $31 pre sale... ah well like I said Oktoberfest is just not the same.

Maybe it's starting monday reading the blogs of people I just want to reach out and slap because they are just so annoying. Yeah don't ask me why I read it's just a morbid desire I have to cause myself pain. Seriously some people are just stupid and even on my most patient day, most Catholic of days when I believe in the goodness of all man (happens very often you know, I just look grumpy) I can't accept their irritating presence on Earth. These are trials indeed.

Most of all I think it's the clothing situation. Everything is wearing out at the same time and I like all of them nonetheless the prospect of shopping and shopping and shopping with the incoming paychecks makes me feel slightly better.

Ok I think I'll put it down to two reasons, one personal property and two haha proferred by Drew is KTV withdrawal but nah I think it's personal property.

Gaya is ailing...

2006-10-08T22:17:00.000+08:00

Oh Gaya is sick and so are the rest of us hacking our lungs out in the Orient. So Captain Planet where are you!

Where are your planeteers, we just need the water dude to douse the flames with water re-diverted from some river. We need the wind planeteer to employ his wind powers to blow the haze to some uninhabited place. Anywhere but here. As to what you do Captain planet I don't know, hmmm make Gaya happy?

Well Captain Planet is one super hero we need right now, right here in Singapore and elsewhere in Indonesia. Come quick! (At least in the form of some UN education initiative, after all Captain planet's the right colour for the UN, yes and I am sure the suit is fire proof).

So sing it with me!

Captain Planet
He's the hero!
Gonna take pollution down to zero!!!!!!!!!!!

*hack hack die cough*

A Day to Be Remembered in the Lianification Exercise

2006-10-07T03:25:00.000+08:00

This is momentous day indeed. Oh great is this day! A*Meg is now a member of kbox. Of course the membership card is shared between Pam, Leon and me but haha my name's on the card because I am absolutely thick skinned and the other two were just too embarrassed to fill up the form. Yay to many more ktv sessions. So we did it, 3 hours of non-stop ktving. Thankfully they put us in this corner room so we were free to dance about. Yes we did the customary Ai Bu Pa by the Grasshoppers complete with the oh-so-early-90s dance moves, the Macarena, Wannabe and much much more.

Now do you know why KTV is an ah-lian thing and the anglophiles never really did catch on despite their penchant for after tea piano sing-a-longs? Well because they make crummy English MTVs with absolutely zero relevance to the song. Ok not zero relevance, there might sometimes be a logical link. For example in What's Up, the woman walks around touching pillars in the temple, but I guess since the temple is upon a hill it sits well with the lyrics on standing on a hill and screaming your lungs out. Further there were references to an institution in the song so I guess a temple counts. If you think about a little harder maybe she was addressing God "What's going on and I say hey......hey...."

Now this I dedicate to Joshua, when I did Charlene's "I've Never Been to Me" the modest and conservative Chinese subtitle person decided that 'subtle whoring' was absolutely too vulgar so he or she replaced it with "son of horing" which well is no longer vulgar because it made no sense. Leon and I of course crumbled onto the couch laughing.

Oh well much needed outing after the very depressing Personal Property class where every week we gawk at the brilliance of the tutor and wallow in self pity. Oh God I am so stupid. Well at least I am not the only one but we as a group can form the bottom of the bell curve so ARRRRRRRRRRRRR. Yes KTV is effectve stress busting and we just had so much fun dancing and letting loose. Think salaryman with tie around head on a Friday evening, that's what we were.

To end of my ah lian day, I encountered two ugly toad bengs on the train yapping very loudly about clubbing and how they 'kill'. So I am thinking happening lar, ONS but no la Lar cheeeeee only la.Then then when we emerged from the tunnel, the Ah Beng saw the haze and well for lack of more sophisticated vocabulary, he exclaimed "chio siah". Why remind you of smoking a ciggies issit chao ah beng? Well yes treated to an explantion of how the girls must look good and shit and my god are they racist clubbers, profiling clubs by the racial proportion of clubbers and hitting clubs with a predominantly Chinese crowd. Aiyah why Centro must close down! So I turn to look at those two yandaos and as they are always just mere ugly toads who under the cloak of darkness (they need it) seek the affirmation of chao ah lian girls. So when girl dance with them they say girl "wah so loose". Well nauseating conversation and just one thing to say to you KNNBCCB. Ok I did put my ah lian cursing to use though except I said "fuck you" to some errant cyclist with bad english. I heard "Sumei Sumei" and he actually meant "excuse me excuse me" so as he passed me he glared at me and said "sumei sumei" and I said "Fuck you la it's excuse me". Wah lucky he never come down and fight.

Alright rambling, late at night need sleep. Muakz Pam and Leon thanks for a great outing!

Tony Takitani

2006-10-01T21:11:00.000+08:00

I can't resist anything Murakami and so I made Drew watch the movie with me at The Picturehouse. On a side note, it's very cold in the Picturehouse or maybe it was because there were just 8 of us in the theatre this afternoon, I swear everything I saw the scene of the trees billowing in the wind, I shivered. The scene comes in periodically when the director wanted to express the passing of time.

Murakami's work have always been about the interplay between the extremes of monotony and the sudden spiral out of control. It helps of course that the protagonists are always intensely intelligent so the monotony is not that glaring. Play it out in grey scale and it drives you crazy for awhile. I am not saying the movie tanked. It was difficult at first coming to terms with Tony. The actor was strange looking. His wife was however hot. Tony Takitani was not ugly per se, he just struck me as perverse looking. He struck me as one with great potential for turning psycho and inflicting many many things upon any woman. By the end of it I was struck by his gentleness. I think if I met Tony Takitani, he'd smell really musty. I don't know why but I think he'd smell like that.

Ok shall not spoil it for anyone else who wants to watch it but I shall end this with 2 thoughts.

1. It's a movie that can make you feel very down, some more I am the very emo sort. Lost in Translation made me very sad. Takitani's all about burden.
2. It's ironic that with his wife's obsession with clothing, and his alluding to the clothes containing her shadows that she has left behind a whole mass of genetic data to reconstitute a person. That is what I think to be the new frontier of death and life really, the so-near-but-yet-so-far.

Alas I shall go do work. End of the break and completely exhausted not because I had a shitload of fun, well yes there were moments, the ktv and the squash... haha imagine I ate mooncakes in between games. By mooncakes I mean I popped the whole miniature snow skin moon cake into my mouth but hell we've become so pro at squash in one week, I can try for a pizza next time. I've also discovered that prata is my must-have after squash. I crave prata after squash just like how some people crave Coke after sex.

The Lianification of A*Meg

2006-09-25T22:23:00.000+08:00

Truly a day of firsts. I had no clue what I was heading into. After all, I met Pam for an atas lunch at Toast. Then it just degenerated from there, we tried to sample mooncakes after lunch but we were too shy to just go grab. I think it was more or less inscribed on our foreheads that we were cheapskate students. Of course Pam had her Ah-Lian jump suit on so there was no way the Raffles-the Plaza booth was going to take us seriously and hand us some champagne truffle.

We then strolled off to cineleisure, stopping by at mini toons to squeal at my Samsuni pig and then we ended up at the arcade. I could not resist Crazy taxi but so far Bugis has the best machine because you can jump over other vehicles there. Then upon coercion by my pam the lian, we played DDR. Me, playing DDR! We were very lucky the arcade was empty so we didn't have an audience. Yeah I also suck at DDR. I scored 5000 points and Pam was ahead of me by 12000.

On to greater lianer things, we went to the Kbox and screeched our lungs out for 3 hours. Yes and of course I must say this, ZiQian is the next jue diu superstar!!! Trish and Shuqiu, the rabid S.H.E fans belted out song after song, there was ZiQian, who was both the perfect Jay Chou and the fella in One Night in Beijing, Julia scaled the keys with her emo-ness and Leon is our resident Karen Mok. Xiaowe is one serious rocker. Pam and I, the lians of lians did Mavis Fan's jian kang ge, The Grasshoppers, The Pussy Cat Dolls and the Spice Girls.

Very very hilarious afternoon. Complete only with the beng server who insisted the snacks were compulsory. Wah will completely floor him if we taught him how to say complimentary instead. Biang eh. Ai Ai Ai bu pa, pi la pa la ai bu pa!!!! Next time shall dress lian too.

For photograhic evidence see http://saccharine-sweet.blogspot.com (I only have serious camera, don't have ah lian cam whore camera.

The Grape Vine

2006-09-24T22:05:00.000+08:00

Have you ever wondered why Japanese Grape flavoured sweets taste the way they do? Honestly, yummy as they are, they taste nothing like what grapes taste like. Alas I am wrong. Parents in their bid to stay cancer free have been buying all things anti-oxidant. So we do have a high grape diet here in he Chia household, except it gets boring. So the Chia parentals up it by a notch and buy interesting grapes. The other day we had Champagne grapes (oh amazing, small little pockets of juice just bursting in your mouth).Today we had Japanese grapes. They taste nothing like grape. They taste just like the gummy Japanese grape sweets. The texture's gummy as well. It's amazing, it's not synthetic after all.

Well yes like every other Japanese import, these grapes come with a less than palatable Japanese price tag. Today to add to our anti-oxidant list, we have been chugging sweet potatoes like there's no tomorrow. Of course curiosity kille the mother cat and she blew 12 bucks on 4 sweet potatoes from Japan. I had to pretend it was really unique. Ok don't need to be sweet potato connoisseur to know this. Japan one and Malaysian one taste jus the same la.

My Weekend Hijacked

2006-09-24T18:39:00.000+08:00

So this is it. This is THE historical mid-semester break, the first 9 day one in history and there are no assignments or pesky company law tests to speak of (Well not if you TYL's overzealousness for the assignment due Nov 6). So the weekened of the 9-day break and I am sitting on my ass at home ploughing again through footnotes for the indomitable Captain. Can't say I am extremely fond of him though. This was supposed to be THE weekend. We even planned for a Malacca trip of course the IMF came along and yes the boyfriend was on regimental duty this weekend, well of course nothing happened but alas I am chained to the desk still (yes I know IMF technically ended on Wednesday but this is what they probably call aftermath-regimental duty).

I think my mantra for life is all wrong. If I truly were as big a hedonist and I thught myself to be, I would not have chosen to do what I do. I think the you-deserve-a-break-after-spurts-of-work mantra is all wrong. I should just do the chug-chug-choo-choo-train thing and power through life and then die or something. I so do not want to be an adult. Right must stop whining.

It's Sunday anyhow and I hate them. I should have no reason to hate today because there is no school tomorrow, well I don't school on Mondays anyway. I think it's because the parentals are home on Sundays and on Sundays they are not fond of each other. I like to think that they are so because they passionately love each other in the shirt-ripping-heart-thumping kinda way (gross) but I think maybe they have just grown older to become very different people. My father is grossly uncompromising and we live around that. It annoys me but I put it down to his nature and just live with it and then there are the moments of course when he shows me how much he loves me by making me Bak Kut Teh as soon as I ask for it. So today Auntie Kim the Korean Cleaning lady (yup don't laugh, they are as generic as they come), broke a fan. She is damn strong. She damaged it so badly that the wires were all exposed. Imagine the neck of the fan just broke into half. My mum and I are fine with it, we even think it's funny. It's a fan, it's been around for 2 years and it was probably no more than 80 dollars and that is in itself a stretch. Of course dad went around slamming the remains of the fan onto the floor. It is highly disconcerting and his tirades repeat itself with increasing hilarity. The man of the house growls and we giggle when he retreats to his cave of a computer room. Well no wonder his anger escalates each weekend. He confided in my mum that we don't respect him as the man of the house anymore but I suppose manifestation of respect differ. We can't respect him with fear in our eyes anymore. I think the silent restraint that we keep up is respect in itself. So on weekends, he prowls the house, scrutinizes, growls, looks for laundry that the cleaning lady allegedly misplaced for reasons we can no longer fathom.

Anyhow I really hope he doesn't fire Auntie Kim. She is just amazing and I like her. Yup especially how she ironed my suit for the moots and how she made me a whole tub of kimchi. I am so easily won over aren't I? Yes another unrelated issue to my Korean woman of steel. I realised this weekend that I am growing old. Well partly because of Friday's squash game that has left me wincing in pain (eh no joke the pain in my butt as I climb up to my flat) and the fact that I can't eat as much as I want or whatever I want. The greasy egg omelette from Blk 85 with chicken wings and beer with Jerry on Friday( Damn good) left me unsettled for the entire weekend, not in the runs kinda way but I just can't digest anything properly. I feel perpetually full and yet I crave for food. All I want is a drain cleaner of sorts that I can pour down my throat. Sigh. I am growing old and so is everyone else around me. So the key word of this weekend is 'nua'. My body and mind are both 'nua'. Yeah la, hero, go play squash with those two punks, now I live to regret it and can't wait for the next game. Hmmm maybe I like the pain.

Hah! It's not me!

2006-09-19T03:38:00.000+08:00

As you all know, I have a problem with lifts. I have not been in the lift of my block for 5 weeks now because I was stuck in it. I climb 7 storeys everyday and yes it does wonders for the ass, just in case you're wondering. Drew laughs at me and he'd abandon me at the foot of the stairs. Of course I'd always say "If you need me, just ring" and start stomping up the stairs. Lucky man never gets stuck!

Today my neighbour, the good ole uncle Tahir chats my father up on the corridor and tells him about my walking up the stairs. He lives right next to the lift. Apparently, it's been nuts lately. One day, it malfunctioned 3 times and yes thank God for Uncle Tahir he has been there to rescue the poor souls. Yup so it isn't me. It's the damn lift. They don't give a crap about the lifts now because lift upgrading has begun and very soon they'd shut off the existing lifts anyway. That really is no excuse you know...

Yes that's all I wanted to say. I just want to prove to all you skeptical people (read Julia Kan) that my fear is well founded and essentially don't be lazy, the classroom's only on the second floor. Ok time to go sleep for 3 hours. Human Rights bright and early. Yay at least the assignment has been completed. I really honestly don't have any stamina for such work anymore. I wonder how many more assignments I can stomach. Well whatever, rejoice I shall till personal property comes my way.

Night folks.

Cos I had a Bad Day...

2006-09-15T22:44:00.000+08:00

If I could sing a sad song and turn it around... "Both Sides Now" just ain't doing it for me (however it has finally nudged Charlene's "I've Never Been to Me" off my emo song of the year list).

It has been a sucky day. For one the weather, it makes the school look like the set of a Japanese horror flick or a bad Korean High School Comedy. Either way, it's not at all pleasant. Melancholic... that's what it all was. Then there was the lesson with Professor Mageneto, he is brilliant and it's disheartening that I can never aspire to such greatness. Oh well, I'm used to that and that's not the real downer of the day.

It's all about hunger. Hunger for food that you cannot define, nothing satisfies me. Of course that half baked lemon butter fish will never do the trick even for the simplest days. Bleagh. I have been perturbed by this nagging feeling, it's hunger I know for something and I can't put my finger on it. I feel very disconnected. I should be able to figure out these primal things shouldn't I? Yes, I know it's just food but it's disconcerting that I am never satisfied.

Then there was the bus ride and the easy scapegoat that is Singapore 2006. I had embarked on my bus 48 journey. It should take me 40 minutes to get to tuition. It took me 1 hour and 40 minutes to get to tuition and by the time I was near enough I had to call to cancel because the kids sleep at 9pm. It was already near 8. It was pathetic to have to pass their place and come back tomorrow morning. I am sure by then I would be exhausted from the night of readings. It was painful that long bus ride, took me over 2 hours to get home because of the jam from Bukit Timah all the way to Marine Parade. It has never taken that long. I left when I normally should and I never got there. It was cold. So cold, it was dim and I couldn't read. The people beside me on both bus rides were out cold and they took up far too much space. Of course, the ride got worse when a troupe of wet NCC boys clambered on. Sucky weather. Sucky day, so sucky that I decided what the fuck, let's just have some Macs and I'll just go all the way. Cold day, hot fries well that still doesn't address my insatiable hunger issue (ok not so much a hunger thing but rather a satisfaction thing). Not making much sense anymore am I now? Yes and that jam. It's all because no one can get on Nicholl Highway. It made me so pissed when the news was on TV mobile and Dominic Loh was on location at Suntec city. It was dead quiet, not a soul other than some random armed individual pacing up and down and you know where everyone else is? Stuck in traffic right there with me. ARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH

I leave you with...

Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons evrywhere
Ive looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on evryone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
Ive looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
Its cloud illusions I recall
I really dont know clouds at all

Moons and junes and ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As evry fairy tale comes real
Ive looked at love that way

But now its just another show
You leave em laughing when you go
And if you care, dont let them know
Dont give yourself away

Ive looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
Its loves illusions I recall
I really dont know love at all

Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say I love you right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
Ive looked at life that way

But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say Ive changed
Well somethings lost, but somethings gained
In living evry day

Ive looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
Its lifes illusions I recall
I really dont know life at all
Ive looked at life from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
Its lifes illusions I recall
I really dont know life at all

Thank you all.

2006-09-11T00:45:00.000+08:00

Dear Drew,friends and family,

I just wanna say thanks. I really mean this and if I could I will buy each and everyone of you baked Alaska. Alas only Julia gets it cos she did me this huge ass favour (hurh).

So ILP is over. The internal selection was completed yesterday and I got into a team. Yay. Well got some time to breathe and catch up on tutorials.

Durng the ILP period there were times when I was a complete wreck. Drew was always there to pick me up. It helped too that he was on MC. Yes I am not going to get into details as to how ridiculous I was but it was pretty bad and he was there all the time. I love you Drew and without you this wouldn't have been possible.

My mom and my dad. I think it's the first time they saw me crack because of work. I have always been pretty strong. Thank you mummmy and papa for picking me up from school, buying fantastic dinners and offering to take me out for a walk to clear my head (yeah like dog like that) after the midnight deadline.

To my friends in school, Francis, thanks for taking notes for me, I know it was hard, taking notes and drooling over Melanie. Thank you Julia for spurring me on, taking me to ice cream after the disastrous memo. Thank you thank you, revers-o has never been yummier. Ida for cheering me on from outer space. Thanks babe for the love. Mervyn for taking notes for me. Pamsy for your smses before moots and Leon too and all who asked after me. Yes I can't forget my FCG buddy for praying for me. Thanks Olivia. Muakz. I love you all.

If anything, I feel super blessed. I wouldn't have been able to do it without you guys. Heh. So I got some time to catch up on tutorials before training actually starts. Yay can't wait to do real work, can't explain how great it feels to come home and not have to think about saving children from sexual exploitation and refugee porn. Well at least when LLT goes to Japan for Space she'd know to look out for pixelated porn. Haha.

Checklist!

2006-09-01T20:49:00.000+08:00

In the universal procrastinator style, the marathon will begin at 2100hrs, and as of now I have 11 minutes to deal with AOB. I did say something like that at 1500hrs but I fell asleep. Oh well I must have you know that in these 6 hours, I know as much about being a Quebecer (really- not like Penangite) as Gary Bell and I am close to figuring out the legal status of Palestine. I also crown myself the Queen of stewed chicken feet and stir-fried bittergourd and pork in spicy black bean sauce. I have not attained grandma-status for my watercress soup yet. It has been established that I cook when I am stressed and I also took the time to scrub my stove. Ah therapy. [3 minutes have elapsed]

Ok so I now have 51 hours to my deadline. Ok I wrote my mallal's memo in 12 hours and I believe I can do this in 51 hours, for one it's much shorter and I think I know what I want to say and precisely where. So I am giving myself about 2 hours for point headings and other infrastructural work! Woohoo. I am also allocating alot of time to citation and formatting (eh did you know microsoft word can generate a Table of Contents without you manually entering anything! It's damn cool!). [6 minutes have elapsed].

Do I have what it takes to last the next 51 hours! Yes!

Caffeine Fixes:
2 cans of Red bull, stupid brother wasn't dedicated enough to get me my carbonated one so yucky yellow syrup is all I've got and remember never, never drink Shark unless you want to keep up all 24 hours (check)

Old Town Coffee Hazelnut check!

Green Tea check! (Yes it is confirmed, green tea does contain caffeine, so says Oprah and I place great trust in Oprah!)

Rose and Hibiscus tea (courtesy of Jullykanny) check!

To calm my nerves:

Hoegaarden
Mt Gay
Absolut Mandarin
Lots of ginger ale and tonic water

Sustenance:

Crunch bar check!

Granola bar check!

Bananas check!

Oranges check!

Green pea crackers check!

One hiro chocolate cake check!

Smoked oysters and crackers check!

I must have you know that I am not going to drink all that or eat everything. It's just good to have a variety, so I don't spend time thinking of what I want.

Music:

Tuning in to 987fm check! (I know sucky music but it's nice to know someone is staying up with me till 2am at least)

Korean sound tracks check!

Audiophile collection Check!

HAHA 2100hrs. See yawl when I am done!

Only Inside Food Allowed

2006-08-31T10:22:00.000+08:00

Went out with Julia, Leon and Pam yesterday. As we waited for Princess Pam to show up, we hung out at the Bugis Food Court and I decided to have myself a bowl of Bak Chor Mee since all the food at our table constituted "outside food". The Bak Chor Mee was SOR-LiD ar. I have also come to reaise that I can no longer order my Bak Chor Mee with a straight face thanks to Mr Brown. I told the lady "Bak chor mee, tam po hiam, mai te kua" and I grinned.

We also came to the consensus that when we set up that food joint of ours, we will sell Parliament House Mee Siam, the one with 'hum' in it. On all our tables we will write "Inside food allowed only, got pork, got lard".

Anyway do you know what is better than fried calamari? Fried Octopus in seaweed powder! Aji-tei is gooooood. I wanna go back for the macha parfait or the red bean sundae,and coming from a person who abhors the green tea-red bean combo, it says a hell lot about this place. Beware however of the dango (the sesamee one is fine, the green tea red bean one is solid, in the sense that you actually kill someone with it la).

We must do this sometime again when I regain my freedom. Haha taking a break was really worth it. No regrets, in fact I was pleasantly surprised by an email last night, awarding us a 24 hr extension. Whooopie!

On Destiny and Claustrophobia

2006-08-27T19:48:00.000+08:00

There was a time this week when I felt very low, the beginning of the week to be exact, when I wasn't able to get over the horrible moot practice. I was unable to control my emotions, I let panick sweep over me and I thought several times of giving up. I sought refuge in the toilet and I couldn't eat. I walked out of the house feeling very uncomfortable on Monday. It was akin to my experience in Primary 2, walking out of the house and crying so that my grandmother would take me home and I wouldn't have to go to school. It is of course futile to feel this way because I really am on my own now. So I decided to pray as I walked and by then I had already spent 2 days trying to tell myself that "I can do this! I can get over this!" to no avail. I was frustrated and I asked God, why can't I just get over my fears?

Now I have written about this before, I am very claustrophobic. I am terrified of being stuck in the lift. It was traumatic during the internship. The office's on the 26th floor and during the day, I had to take the damn lift several times. To make matters worse the lift would just stop suddenly in between floors during rush hours and we would just twiddle our thumbs. It's not that the building's old, it's just a system I suppose. Once I did get stuck, however the system had a fail safe and after awhile the doors opened and the out of order light started to blink. I also got stuck momentarily in the Ikea lift. It's a huge cargo lift and I still panicked.

So on Monday as I prayed asking God about my fears, the lift stopped.

The fellow next to me pressed 1 and it lit up again. Then the number 6 also lit up. Then the lift began to vibrate. Well I didn't die in there. I took deep breaths, pressed the alarm bell. Tried to make the call, waited patiently. Then in 5 minutes, the lift (or God) relented. Joan of Arcadia moment I tell you, swift communication, albeit a nasty one, but much appreciated. It took awhile to get it, it gave me abit to think about. I no longer let ILP overwhelm me, in fact I've started to enjoy it again.

There's another problem with my religious life. It's funny really. Drew and I resolved to go to church yesterday after moots. I was damn sure when I passed Good Shepherd last week that the sunset mass is at 6pm. Most churches have it at 6pm anyway. We also thought maybe we would give his church a shot, but they don't do saturday services anymore. So off we trooped to Good Shepherd. It was 5:35pm so we thought nevermind can pray for a bit. Then we found out that mass began at 6:30pm instead. Then we thought nevermind, go for morning mass but Grandma decided very obstinately that she wanted to get her hair cut. So we were like ok nevermind miss la. We ended up at the arcade today. I've gotten addicted to "Crazy Taxi". I was supposed to drive a passenger to the church and I was just 2 seconds away and my time ran out. The passenger didn't make it to church....

So I suppose the message in this is, religious life is not a matter of convenience ain't it?

Think deep thoughts...

Rubber Time

2006-08-25T21:25:00.000+08:00

There are limits, even when rubber timing is concerned. We have this professor and he's a great professor. He gets so engrossed in teaching that time is inconsequential. By inconsequential, I don't mean 5 minutes, I mean a full 45 minutes or so.

So we were in class. Given the 2 1/2 hour break we sauntered to prata cafe, had ourselves a very heavy lunch. Then we decided dessert at the Island Creamery was in order. Great ice-cream, you just get smarmy company. Really the number of brats. Worse, their pictures plaster the wall. So Leon as he always is, struggled to fight unconsciousness and during the extension, we really couldn't take it much longer. We couldn't understand a word.

Then it happened.

Leon's pen exploded. The pen decided it could take no more and spontaneously broke into several parts. The spring in the pen caused a rather explosive disintegration. Really, Leon was not doing anything to the pen. He exerted no force whatsoever.

Oh in case you were wondering, it was a free pen. I guess it couldn't take it anymore. There is a limit to stretching rubber time after all. Yeah so we spent the last 5 minutes very alert, trying to suppress our laughter.

I am stupid hear me roar

2006-08-20T20:11:00.000+08:00

ILP the intensive version should be a reality show. Watch how contestants buckle under pressure. Anyway my tutor has already started to refer to it as 'the game', so must as well go all the way. Eliminate me please! I am tired.

Resolve? Now where did that go? Hmmmm, maybe someone stole it to sabo me. Haha. I certify myself a little insane. Ok one week down, one more week to go. Then two weeks of sai kang which I really look forward to. After that I am free yay yay.

Ok la not too bad. I bungled big time yesterday but I learnt a lot.

1. I now fidget in moots. The judges looked at my feet and how I shuffled a hell lot.
2. I am actually very persuasive
3. I am a passionate advocate of child rights and when I want to be I am very effective
4. El reads me like a book, she knew I was going to be depressed big time. Oh well what to do, you tried to pin a public service star on JBJ what.
5. I need to sleep before the moots, if I don't I can't moot. (I stayed up a full 40 hours, now 8 more to go and I can do a surgical internship and sleep with my boss)
6. We call them "your excellency"
7. I sorta suck
8. I am entitled to one melt down
9. I can do it one! They certainly believe it, if I can't then at least I am good at conning people. Eh remember I am very effective.

Ok breathe. With his blog post, I have put the setback behind me and I take away everything that I did well.

1. I survived hell week 1
2. I am brave to apply for this shit in yr 3 and for all those who want to do it in yr 3 next time, please think damn hard about it. Know what you are getting yourself into because I would prefer to do it yr 4 if I had stellar grades to sell myself to my future employers
3. I am effective and I am slowly learning how to pimp it
4. I stumbled and rectified it in 12 hours
5. I mooted once successfully before I tried to change my argument and get all tangled. Too ambitious I admit but I tried.
6. I lost 2kg! Hahaha ok maybe just water weight from all that sneezing but yeah it's sibeh stressful so yay!

I love you Andrew Lam for propping me up. I know it's hard on you too and I wish I could be there when they extract your teeth but remember I wanted to be and I still want to be.

I love you my dear friends for believing in me. I really love you guys for praying for me, talking to me, taking notes for me, listening to me rant, studying with me, teaching me how to tab and buying me food. I love love love all of you so much!

And Farida, go rock in the Netherlands. I don't think I can send you off. I love you too. I already miss you. Muakz.

Hustler

2006-08-18T10:15:00.000+08:00

SO week one of school is almost over. I just need tomorrow to pass by really quickly. Quick and painful is fine, like one swift kick to the groin, sure no problem but we are rarely blessed with such fortune.

If you remember last week I was cooking fanatically to vent at my frustrations. I had thought last week that I would not make it to ILP. Alas I did make it so venting was uncalled for. Now of course I am frustrated again. 4 times a week, moots every week, legal writing redux to the power of infinity, giving up a social life and to what end? Well prestige, a very pretty resume and potentially a good job. So I decided to bite the bullet and hope that in a span of 1 month, my life will change.

Right now I am terrified. I have always been terrified about being told I do not have 'it' to be a lawyer. The revelations from yesterday's critique sent alarms ringing in my head. So in 36 hours, I will attempt to undo 2 years of bad habits. What makes me pissed is Kah Keong did not prepare for this day and again I express my undying hatred for him. Ok my fault also because I am too thick headed to see stuff.

Alright so where do I stand. I think I have tonnes of potential that is why I am here in the course. What I need is for this potential to realise itself. I am akin to one of those people imbued with good energy for martial arts and I need someone to punch the correct accu points to unblock the 'flow'. So yesterday I was kicked in the butt. A kick sufficiently hard to knock the air out of me. I hope I see it soon... I better.

Right,I am basically just suffering right now. I hate the way the tutor refers to it as "the game" and I suppose subconsciously it is the fear of elimination.

Thuggery

2006-08-10T19:51:00.000+08:00

Dear Joshua,

Right in the middle of the movie, I wanted to tell you about this dream I had recently about thugs.

Think Balestier, I'm working in one of those neighbourhood law firms, and we get wind that my friend's brother is in imminent danger. He has offended the secret society. We rush to her place but it is too late, gangsters have already pulled up in the parking lot and we keep her quiet by covering her mouth and hiding behind the pillar. It's too late, the brother's going to die and the only one that can help him is God. These gangsters are not your run of the mill Ah Bengs. They are the Hong Kong type mobsters that will snip off the tips of your fingers with plyers sort of mobsters.

And then I notice the car number, it says MID 50201. Erm never report for reservice? (Damn if it were just 4 numbers maybe I was meant to profit from it),

Regards,

Meg

Domestic Goddess

2006-08-10T01:02:00.000+08:00

Over the weekend + Monday, I cooked up a storm. In part because I wanted to vent my frustration on something, and it’s particularly satisfying to turn something that is absolutely ugly, into a product that pleases everyone’s palette. I was also upset that I couldn’t join the folks in Hong Kong this weekend because I had to meet the dear ole Captain about Halsbury and as always, my mum feeling a little guilty for chucking us at home left me some cash for groceries. Well there’s not much, it’s a $10 a meal subsidy. Of course if I were content with a 2 dish + soup Cantonese meal, I would have no problems making it but hell, since I was depressed and very indulgent I made the following:

- Chocolate Tiramisu for the boyfriend
- Spicy Orange Pork Ribs
- Quesadillas (boyfriend and A & G gathering)
- Mac and Cheese ( A & G gathering)
- Virgin Bye Bye (A & G gathering)

Again like my Aglio Olio Puttanesca I would like all of you to try this for yourself because it makes the world a much better place.

Chocolate Tiramisu

Genesis: The original recipe was from Oliver’s Twist but I figured jia lat ang moh jiak is too damn expensive so this was improvised and it’s actually so amazing that Drew said that he would marry me because of it. He has volunteered to foot the bill for the tiramisu this coming weekend. Yes ladies, this is entrapment and I have securely anchored my lover’s tummy, in a matter of 40 years, I will have it anchored to the ground.

To make the sponge you need:

110 g of castor sugar
4 eggs
85g of plain flour
30g of cocoa powder
50g of melted butter

First you have to beat the eggs and sugar together, it is very important that you keep at it till the mixture becomes super fluffy. This will ensure that the sponge remains soft after baking and will soak up as much alcohol as you want. If you use an electric mixer, this will take about 2 minutes, so by hand; it takes great diligence and a very long time.

After the mixture becomes super fluffy, gently drizzle the melted butter into the sugar and egg concoction. Sift in flour and cocoa powder. Fold the mixture carefully so as to retain as much air in the mixture as possible. Just remember that you do not want that excruciating beating episode to be in vain. Pour the mixture into a baking tray and spread it out until it forms a thin 1cm layer.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

To make the filling you need:

500g of mascarpone
70 g of sugar
2 egg yolks
Sweet Italian wine (I used Mount Gay Rum)

Fold all this together

Tear the chocolate sponge up as you please, press it into the base of the dish, pour 3 to 4 shots of espresso onto the sponge. Lace it with rum, tia maria or kahlua. Ok don’t need to be so cautious, I say just ply it on!

Melt half a block of white chocolate and pour it onto the sponge layer. Then spread on the filling. Dust with cocoa powder and icing sugar. Leave it refrigerated for a day.

Over these past few days I have also learnt that buying ready prepared canned custard is the way to go. It is either canned custard or no custard. Do not bother with bird custard. Over the years I have burnt pots, my hand and the other day Leon and I burnt Pam’s mother’s corningware. Of course with dogged persistence (more on Leon’s part), we got all of it off. Of course I am wondering if I should keep on practising, how can I continue cooking and eventually quit practice to set up my own restaurant if I can’t master custard. Imagine how much higher my operating cost would be if I had to serve virgin bye bye with canned custard? How much more it would cost me to hire a dude just to make the damn custard because I can’t! Must master custard… at what cost you ask? ARGGGGGGGGHHHHH

Some pics from the A & G intern gathering, courtesy of Pam’s conscientious uploading:

Some A & G interns

My Quesadillas and Bob’s Penang Laksa

My Quesadillas and my first attempt at Mac and Cheese

My attempt to get everyone drunk… everyone meet virgin bye bye 20% cake 80% alcohol. The JC mates named it so because there was so much alcohol in it, everyone would get so drunk and I would rob them of their virginity. MUAHAHAH see how much faith people have in me?

Meg’s Puttanesca Aglio Olio

2006-08-04T22:46:00.000+08:00

I have come up with the most amazing pasta recipe ever! It’s quick, simple and just kickass. It’s one of those few moments when pasta and sauce are one. Most of the time, the sauce/seasoning is obviously distinct from the pasta. I want everyone in the world to try this because it really turned my day around.

The Genesis of this recipe…

This is actually a combination of Rocco’s (from Rocco’s Dolce Vita and not that dumbass reality show) and Jamie Oliver (from Oliver’s Twist). Here’s the thing about Rocco, his recipes are not fantastic. They are simple and homely but they are not fantastic. I’ve tried Oliver’s recipes and they have turned out pretty well. The problem with Jamie Oliver’s recipe was Argula or rocket. Both chefs tell us that argula packs a peppery punch but the argula we get here is just bitter and damn expensive. I was telling Josh that day that it’s a neo-socialite vegetable. So I decided not to burn a hole in my pocket and I did away with the argula and replaced it with chives which cost just 10% of the price of argula.

So my recipe is really Rocco’s Puttanesca sauce with the capers and tomatoes and Jamie Oliver’s pasta without the argula.

So here goes (serves 2 to 3):

1. Cook the pasta al dente, I found tubular spaghetti today and it’s amazing, you don’t get this at NTUC, I got it at Cold storage. It’s actually pasta with a hole right through the centre and the texture of the pasta changes dramatically with this. It gives the pasta a lot more volume obviously, and makes the pasta slightly chewier (which I like so it’s a matter of preference). Only thing about cooking tubular pasta is that it cooks faster than regular pasta so 8 minute is the max.
2. Be generous with the olive oil
3. Fry up 4 to 5 cloves of chopped garlic, 4 or 5 chopped dried chilies, some chopped olives, add about 5 pieces of anchovies and a handful of chives.
4. Anchovies are fairly expensive but I tell you they are worth it. It melts into the oil and it’s not fishy, it coats the pasta with a very nice oily sheen. Very nice salty aroma to it.
5. I wanted some heat in the pasta and without the argula, I compensated with paprika, Tabasco sauce and a generous dose of black pepper
6. Once the anchovies have melted, toss in the pasta
7. Season with salt and add more olive oil, I also added some of the olive oil the anchovies came in
8. Top of the dish with lots of parmesan cheese

I served this with a side of smoked duck (courtesy of Cold Storage’s rotisserie) and roasted peppers.

This really made my day and I hope sometime soon it will make yours.

White Polymer G-string alert!

2006-08-03T00:29:00.000+08:00

Dear Friends,

Farida is a very shameless person. So shameless that she has demanded to know if we are throwing a farewell party for her, if not she will throw one herself. Francis and I were forced to confess that we did have such great plans for her, which included hiding everyone upstairs and then jumping up to scream SURPRISE! But alas, we shall be content with Farida pretending to be surprised.

Farida has also requested a farewell present. That biatch is going to be away for a mere 4 months and she is demanding a present. Anyhow she has requested a battery-operated vegetable as a farewell present. Lord knows *bats eyes most innocently* what that's supposed to mean so a little research on google yielded this result.

Now the retail price is $39.95 (in pounds) and that makes it over a hundred bucks here. If we factor in postage, gee we'll have enough to pay for a GUESS watch! So yeah an equally demanding farewell gift 'request'.

Another option is Farida should purchase this herself in the Netherlanda; the renown land of of debauchery. While she is there, she could take drugs, possibly euthanize someone, claim a free needle and marry another woman. WOOHOO! Since she could do all that she can also go buy herself a spanking new vibrator at the nearest super market. So honey if you really, really, really want he battery operated vegetable, we'll just give you an ang bao and you can go help yourself.

Yours,

Megan

Member of clandestine white polymer g-string committee.

Always dedicated to bringing out the most delicious taste in you...

Missing Friends

2006-08-02T23:23:00.000+08:00

Josh, Ni and I went to watch 'Click' today. Not kickass and the moral of the story is so obvious and Adam Sandler's character is so stupid because if I ever did get that Universal remote, I'll be using the rewind button more than I would the fast forward button. So mildly stupid movie, with horrible woman and her wretched bad breath. It's horrible that it's a comedy because every time she laughed, I would be forced to hold my breath. Not pleasant at all.

What was fun however was our visit to the arcade. The arcade's a horrible place for an adult. You have pretty good spending power now and those evil bastards that make the damn games make sure you will lose so that you will relentlessly slot in the coins. I used to do that for "House of the Dead", an impossible game I tell you. This army game isn't too bad and there's always Time Crisis, except it's now one dollar a turn. It used to be just one token and that's just 50 cents. We've also discovered this new racing game with a twist. It's the super mario race circuit! You get to compete and best of all sabotage your opponent by hurling magic items at them. You also win meaningless things like an absorbing mushroom... what for I don't know. Well good fun and it certainly got Joshua all competitive. So competitive that we took a total of 3 turns at that game. Too bad they didn't have air hockey, that is a mandatory part of the arcade experience. It was why we started going to the arcade in the first place.

We went to dinner with the B at the Nadezhda Russian Restuarant on Arab Street. Utter crap well it's definitely a euphemism when the "Wine and Dine" people refer to it as homely. B's chicken with mushroom over rice can best be described as 'chai bng' and I had morsels of pork. Joshua was concerned in the afternoon as to whether the Russian place was really any good and I told him, Russian cuisine might actually be crap. Russians lived in abject poverty for a whole century. They were liberated only in 1991. It was only in 1989 that they first discovered McDonald's so we might actually be in for some crappy peasant food tonight. To which he rebutted by saying the Chinese too lived in communist poverty and we enjoy Chinese peasant food. To which I replied that China was liberated long befoe Russia. To which he rebuked "Ridiculous!" Well guess I was right after all because in the beef blinchiki, instead of real ground beef, they stuffed it with corn beef hash. I hate corn beef hash along with spam and lotus brand sausages. To hell with peasant food, not to mention that shrill SPG sitting behind us, begging her very mature companion to entertain her with stories of his travels around the world.

To make things worse, the B was grumpy and desperate to please him, we dragged him to Samar's for dessert, except service was just crap tonight and we didn't even get our desserts proper by the time his parking coupon expired so we trudged away with just a drink each.

When it doesn't go your way food wise, it just doesn't and everything just sucks. Bad night out for food and we surrendered to our impulses and hit the arcade again. My reflexes were dulled by my full stomach so the money went away much faster.

Sigh will miss the two fellas when they troop off to the UK to study. Then there is exchange where wretched Farida will troop off as well. Well everyone's yapping about currency, meeting up in Germany and smelly flatmates, hmmmm we non-exchange people should bind together and pretend we're excited about our move to Bukit Timah. Yeah, time will pass so damn fast and before I know it, they'll be gone. Crap. There used to be Ni at least, now it's just the B and me and it'd be damn weird dining alone with him. Well till summer then.

Mortality

2006-08-01T22:05:00.000+08:00

Here's a big if. If I ever got sick or if Andrew ever got sick, I will cry. I will weep for days. I don't think I can be strong.

The day before I underwent spinal operation I was praying the rosary, meditating on Jesus at Gethesemene and I got even more frightened. But that night, my rosary glowed in the dark and I was comforted. I found out later that the rosary was glow-in-the-dark anyway but my point is the fear is paralysing and no matter which end I might potentially be on in the future, I will cry. I am a real cry baby.

I visited Drew's grandfather yesterday and he is not well. Today I visited my Uncle. It came as a shock that what we had initially thought was IBS is actually stomach cancer. It was a blessing that he had collapsed at home after some drug allergy. He's 50 this year and he used to look real good. He's going in for surgery tomorrow and let's just hope for the best.

What really struck me was that although he was surrounded by friends and an assortment of relatives, his wife wasn't there. It's not because they're having a fight or anything, my aunt's just made like that. She's very calm, nothing can shake her and I wonder if that's a good thing. Pillar of strength? I would cry, I certainly would.

when I went in for surgery, my mum stayed the night before with me in my hospital room. We all cried before surgery but it was fine that we did.

I am terrified. The thought of cancer is so stifling. I had begun to lapse in my one anti-oxidant rule a day. If anything, I am terrified and I am just terrified if one day I too were to be confronted with losing Drew. I wouldn't be strong and that much I know. Please be well Drew, please always be well.

In the same post as I contemplate mortality, I can't resist sharing this ironic snippet. We went across the road after visiting my uncle to the new Taman Serasi Hawker Centre. We intended to have dinner there. It struck me that the architect who designed the place probably did Mandai Collumbarium as well. The resemblence is striking and you can't resist the conclusion. It doesn't help that the food centre is tucked away in the basement. Morbid yeah? Oh well, bad food there, we ended up at Beach Road anyway. Don't bother, they've got some nerve naming it Taman Serasi food centre... not even a shadow of its former glory.

Crude and Cantonese does it!

2006-07-31T23:35:00.000+08:00

I spent last night agonising over the Professor's brimming inbox and the prospect of Drew's grandparents shooing me out of the house with a broom. Didn't happen. Turned out to be a good day indeed.

We trooped of to Chinatown and I picked out roast pork and HongKong confections, all enough to melt the good ole Cantonese heart and at the same time clog up the arteries. Armed with the bribes, we went off to his grandparents' place in Lakeside. Wah Lau ulu land. I only see that part of Singapore en route to Tuas.

So my Cantonese, described by his grandfather to be tinged with my 'Hokkienness' was also described as heartwarming because they hardly get a chance to speak their dialect. Although the man encouraged me to eat the very good roast pork, he also said he understood if I didn't want to if I was on a diet. Haha, but it's ok I also have child bearing hips so the old man wasn't on my case about being fat. Ok good intentions, yes fatness can lead to many heart stopping diseases. We had planned to skip out of there in 30 minutes, I entertained his grandma for 2 hrs with my rotten Cantonese. Of course the grandson sat there as his grandfolks accused him of not understanding Cantonese and I accused him of only learning all the curse words. Haha. Ok crude and Cantonese was I today. Not bad for a Peranakan girl! Woohoo! Grandparents down, next stop the in laws. Yes today I launched mega pom piahs (Oh God they are huge, they could really fill a bra type, thrice the size of your average pom piah) to his mother. Hopefully she will start to crave the Amoy Street Tau Sar Piah and dutiful daughter-in-law will brave the disenfranchised proletariats to snatch up those 20 tau sar piahs and a bonus packet of ma tee su for his sisters.

So we got home and I finally found elusive fettucine at NTUC. Stupid people stock it under the 'Australian Products' section away from the pasta section. Well found it nonetheless, if not I would have had to settle for linguine and that was not acceptable today. Yay so the family had yummy al funghi fettucine.

And then mum comes home with the "My Lovely Samsoon" soundtrack and a special features DVD. Of course the soundtrack was defective and came with one song missing but I have managed to procure the last track from friends! So yay! Good day! *dances un-coordinated Samsoon dance*. Yes such a good day that I forget that the Captain is going to chop off my head if I don't meet his deadline. Whooooooooops!

Work beckons and I shall work to the strains of "Over the rainbow".

Twiddle Dee Twiddle Dum

2006-07-31T08:56:00.001+08:00

I am literally sitting before my computer re-sending emails in 3 hour intervals, praying that this Professor finally eases the load in her inbox. I am also 8 hours past the deadline because her inbox is full.

I attempted this due diligence exercise by emailing the co-teachers but their email addresses do not exist on the domain. So now I am just waiting. I am also terrified that I will miss out on this opportunity because she never will read my CV. I also wonder if her inbox is clogged because way too many people want to be in this course. I guess my attitude towards this is, I am just trying lar. Cannot then maybe and that's a big maybe, year 4 then try again.

This is one time that only divine intervention will deliver me.

I am also starting to wonder if all these legal writing types are the same... after all there was Kah Keong, and then the LCS course. I really wonder if this new structure will cock up. Well don't mind me I am just panicking about her jammed inbox.

Alrightey I shall leave my computer for a couple of hours to go visit Drew's grand dad. I think he might have a heart attack after meeting me. I am a mammoth of a girlfriend. His mother did the first time I met her but I am told she loves me nonetheless... right. PLEASE CLEAR THE DAMN INBOX BY THE TIME I GET BACK. Damn it I don't feel good until I know that woman reads my email. Maybe I should request one of those 'read' pop-ups. BAH! HELP ME OH LORD!

One Marina Boulevard

2006-07-29T21:28:00.000+08:00

“One Marina Boulevard”, the newest legal drama to join the ranks of “Ally Mc Beal”, “The Practice” and “The Heartlanders” (law enforcement dramas also included within the definition of ‘legal drama’) promises to be explosive, raunchy, witty and at opportune moments you will bend over… laughing very hard.

“One Marina Boulevard” chronicles the lives of hapless interns in a mega corporation that some describe as a “tight family” and almost akin to “a small firm”. It’s priceless of course when lead actress Megan Chia sniggers in pure bemusement when TV’s most hated character rattles of lines he probably learnt from desperate contestants in “The Apprentice”. Of course this frat boy delivers all his lines with much aplomb and with his hands on his waist. One day he aspires to be the first Indian man to play Superman. Well perhaps he should change that enormous letter ‘H’ on his belt to a gi-normous ‘S’. That should up his chances and yeah if it doesn’t, at least he could pretend that he’s carrying his family name above his well oiled ding dongs! If you did at least find him familiar, perhaps it’s because he was a light weight pro-wrestler before.

The dramedy delves into Pamela’s dark struggle with cookie addiction, her recovery and subsequent relapse that culminated in jelly strawberry heart cheese cakes! As all dramas run, “One Marina Boulevard” revolves around the seduction and lust after ACH, the man with 2 Porsches, WO the man with one haversack and no car, the young associate. Day after day the office skanks congregate and practice their seduction methods to ensnare these most unfortunate men to no avail.

For screen shots from the crazy drama, visit http://saccharine-sweet.blogspot.com. Otherwise I will leave you with some memorable lines from this dramedy.

On naming yourself:
Leon: The author’s name is Chelastier. How do you suppose he arrived at his name?
Meg: The Chalice and the Chandelier? Or he lives in Balestier?
Leon: Close. It’s a combination of 2 words. His favourite team is Chelsea and he lives in Balestier
Shuwen: That makes me Evertimah
Jo: That makes me Mancoast
Meg: That makes me Realpines (pronounced real penis).

Cruel and unusual behaviour:
Meg: Is Bob?
Pam: (Spits out popiah)

Lunch time banter with the others from the other firm:
Mel: Pam’s dad is well kept
(Pregnant pause, everyone stops talking at the table)
Mel: I mean he keeps himself toned, good body
Farida: I think when a man maintains himself, it does not mean he is well kept, well kept means…
Mel: Eh having lunch, don’t come and correct my grammar!

On anatomy:
Liangwei: Women have smell kang kang and men have smelly kang.

On Chinese names:
Liangwei: Megan’s Chinese name is Chia Kang Kang and in dialect Chia is ‘chow’ so Megan is Chow Kang Kang.

On Digestion:
Pam: I don’t know how to tell you this but my shit has been green for 3 days.
Meg: Yes your body cannot digest the mix wrap. Hey Leon had the red wrap…

CREDITS:
Meg on her declaration of love for fellow interns:

I love you all folks. It was a blast! I love you guys:

Pam: Because you’re bursting with love and energy. Love you for entertaining me with your outfits and shoes.

Leon: For your confections and wit. Irony eh, the night we were informed of each other’s existence.

Farida: The Ramadan vigilante for combating evil with me, for sneaking me biscuits in her pocket and slacking with me on the roof garden. Yeah woman I love you, you already know this.

XY: For lending your little alcove for our morning pow wow. For your magnanimous mercy haha I owe you like 2 meals. Ok slip of tongue… ok better shut up now.

LW: For calling me gross and screeching “smelly kang kang” every morning

Juju: For your skanky outfits and our aspirations of yuppiness. We lurve you despite… urm ok you just need to know we love you.

YAYAYAY! Internship is over. I shall not miss the early morning rush and the occasional OT. I will miss seeing you folks everyday though and now I shall attempt to lead some form of a healthy life in a bid to recover from all that pantry raiding and weekly teas.

Desaru

2006-07-16T23:17:00.000+08:00

I tried to cam-whore with limited success on this trip. Unlike others (ahem) I really just can't and I put it down to nature I really don't have the skank part in me.

So we left on Friday morning and I decided that we should cam whore a bit on the ferry but as you can see we got shy after awhile.

Malaysian waters most pristine.

They really put alot of effort into the whole theme, they really mean it and when they say Heliconia Villas, it's Heliconia Villas. It's just quite ridiculous when you actually have to say Bougainvillea villas

This is our sea view room and the door leads to the balcony, one which we did not actually sit out on much at night, particularly because there's a Frangipani tree right next to it.

Ice on fire, perhaps the pinnacle of the Sunrise Cafe's gourmet achievements. Drew complained about the food and if you know him that means it's not great...

And this is what we came to Desaru for. We let the waves toss us around, ultimately the sea did swallow Drew's glasses. When no one was around we made sand angels and tried to bury ourselves. The water's great and we'll definitely do Desaru again.

These are the requisite sunset photos, we never did the sunrise thing, always happened too damn fast so by the time we quit procrastinating we would have missed it. Well I guess it was a good thing we upgraded to the sea view chalet so that at least we could catch some of the sun rise in bed.

Apart from crickets, our hotel houses monkeys and some manner of sheep.

Great holiday... wander lust... must have... some more. Good times.

Not Single White Male

2006-06-30T22:46:00.000+08:00

I am pretty competent in the kitchen so I get to sneer at cooking shows. I am currently in the midst of deciding if I like Rocco's Dolce Vita, well I will try his recipe tomorrow to find out but he should stop speaking in Italian, because it's as bad as my Mandarin.

They recently replaced Jamie Oliver with Ching's Kitchen. I watched the first episode yesterday and today I tried to do so again. Her accent's very garbled so I gather that she is somewhere between British and Australian. For those who know what I mean, she reminds me of a girl with an in-between accent and I really say this very mildly.

Alright correct me if I am nuts but I think Ching is a crazy Jamie Oliver stalker.

1. She has the same kitchen as Jamie Oliver. The window, the fridge (except there's a laughing Buddha on it), the knives on the wall are gone and it has been replaced by a Chinese scroll. Yeah the cutting board, the stove, everything is the same.

2. She scoots around London (but why she brings us to a mini mart I don't understand, it's so dinghy and all she wanted to buy was eggs and peas)

3. She opens this door in some alley way to clamber up to her loft to cook

4. She emphasizes that her boyfriend 'Jamie' loves her cooking

5. Today she made pudding and Chinese Steak (erm?) for her boyfriend Jamie (who is btw very gorgeous, just obviously not her boyfriend because he air kisses her). Scary right, so shamelessly naming the extra Jamie

Of course she refrains from wiping stuff down on her designer jeans and well apparently eats a large soup bowl of rice every morning for breakfast. This woman is absolute nonsense, she tried to teach viewers today how to make egg and bacon fried rice. She also has a real chopping board, she doesn't chop stuff on the counter like Jamie.

Her favourite phrases are "Boiling Hot Water", "Fantastic" and she punctuates every sentence with "lovely". She is also skinny, and I don't trust skinny chefs. This reminds me of another show called "Never Trust a Skinny Chef", the Aussie bloke who hosts it is not skinny, but yeah you can't trust a fatass bloke chef too.

I have decided that Ching's Kitchen misrepresents Chinese/Asian food and I rather Jamie Oliver overdose on Cardamon and passes it off as curry than ever try to pass off Chinese steak and Bacon and egg fried rice as authentic Asian cuisine.

For the record, my heart goes out to that French Chef in the now defunct Dessert Circus, Martin Yan because he tries very hard to speak English, Jamie Oliver because he is delicious, and Rocco because his fake girlfriend on the set is delicious (cos he is flaming). While we are on the Home and Cooking subject, I always love that fellow on Savoir Fair, The Designer Guys and what's the name of the fellow who goes around in a giant toaster trailer? Oh yeah before I end, "Backyard Cooking" should be canned, the chefs on Channel 8's Golden Years should be hung for teaching old folks how to deep fry everything to make it yummy. Not everyone has access to a bucket of oil each time they want to cook.

Yeah only very bored people have time to pursue such leisurely things and actually get so involved. Don't mind me.