movement or paralysis?

Olla people.

Probably two non-blogging months is a respectable distance to start putting my experiences into perspective, or write some sort of narrative to them.

First up: teaching.
It goes pretty well so far. My assigned classes are alright. The syllabus, which is pretty much standardised (and which I got to jig about a few months back), is showing me how I can make my life more liveable. I write an immense amount of comments on the works I mark: in itself the act is not exactly a chore as I tend to chortle a lot on paper. However, multiply that by 20+ and the tasks get pretty intense by the end of the day. I was told that the amount of time that I spend marking students' works is "way too much." Students, if you are reading this then be thankful that you have a lecturer who actually bothers correcting almost every single mistake you make. They do find out about me from my virtual paper trails, but that's another story in itself...

Second topic: digital consumer ware.
I managed to bungle my dad's pocket camera's lens motion software, and I haven't exactly saved up enough to buy a nice new digipocket camera, so it's the Drone Phone's job (minus t3h personal assistant yours truly.) It's boring black in colour, as opposed to whingey white. Not exactly the easiest personal electronic device to extract picture files from. Sulk please.
Following the limitations that (1) numbers cannot be carried over across different mobile network providers (boo!) and (2) the Drone Phone's minuscule SIM card slot, I got myself a new mobile phone number... which comes with an easily recitable number and a sometimes-dodgy network coverage. Oh well.

Third topic: socialising.
Sometime in December I met up with Mr John of the Orford fame, who happened to be soaking up some winter sun and culture. Quite an interesting man whom I hope would make the sun-seeking behaviour a more regular part of his travel itinerary. Hoping to see him again at in a year's time, and hoping to extract that photo of him in flip-flops out of my mum's now-defunct mobile phone.
Also, there was a picture of me in a glossy magazine out earlier this month. It wasn't exactly for my work, though. Well, there's room for improvement I guess :)

Fourth topic: culinary pursuit.
Out of all those mint tisanes I drank in the past few months, I finally managed to get a green-tinged ice cream using only mint and no colouring. Considering my first attempt for mint stracciatella resulted in a sand-coloured concoction, it's a progress in the right direction.
I'm also looking forward to honing my no-yolk recipe as a form of homage to my favourite ice-cream joint. For the record, the runner-up is Gentong, surprisingly enough a native of Jakarta. Lickme is third, and that Lygon gelati place is off the charts - I don't miss it anymore. I haven't practised my mini-cake skills for almost a year. Geez, that means I haven't seen Bandit for almost a year.

Fifth topic: daily commuting.
Er, it's not exactly commuting because I drive a car to get around. Verrrrry bad for the environment, unless I ride a manually leg-powered bicycle. When I get to choose between the two, I choose the car, because I'd rather turn up at work smelling olfactorily inoffensive. It's almost impossible not to sweat when travelling by public transportation in Jakarta (taxis excluded.)
Plus, in the past three days I got hit/swiped by motorcycles on two different occasions. On both times my car was stationary when my rear bumper got hit. On hit #1 the errant gap-weaving motorcycler ran off (I wish I have some sort of projectile weaponry to deal with this sort of road users), and on hit #2 I managed to fan off my frustrations to the remorseful-looking motorcycler (his mind was somewhere else when he squarely ran into the middle of my bumper.) Really, it takes lots of patience to drive myself here.

On Anne, Mag, KY, Heidi and those VIPs in London:
I miss them. My work (both teaching and studio work) excites me but when I catch glimpses of their life online (when I actually have some time off) it makes me wonder what they would say to get my arse moving better. Maybe their reactions would be a mixture of wonderment, disgust and laissez-faire... who knows. I care about them anyway.

Which brings me to this rather existentialist question:

am I in movement or paralysis?

And so, closing the post, I would like to check my mattress...

morals of fighting

I had a fight.

Having a sister who is around my age, I grew up learning that strategically placed bites could overturn the result of a scuffle and that hair yanks only work on girls. As we grew older, we learnt that linguistics make good armaments and that body language works better than scratching. (Fear not, the said fight is not between her and me.)

Personally, I dislike fights. My first response as a toddler was to cry and run away. This persisted into early primary school life, when one afternoon my exasperated mother said that if people hit me then it solves no problem if what I did was yelp for her - so I should hit them back (for everyone's sake I say now that I am no fan of retaliation and this sort of response does not apply to many cases when one is violated or victimised!) Well it is pretty clear now that I don't like scuffles, both physical and mental.

Sometimes, it feels like there is more than enough on my proverbial life-plate to deal with and I would lash out (complete with difficult words and all) on unfavourable injustices done onto me. I don't like lashing out, and I don't like how it makes me feel throughout the process, but when I have managed myself and expressed myself clearly I can be quite happy to have had a good fight. A fight where both sides can clearly communicate "you wronged me", "you're wrong", and sometimes "I hope you &*$#^¢£¥¿§!!" (although clearly not preferred for possible undoable mistake done with minimal actual progress achieved.)

But yeah, I just had one such fight. We've each stated our own points, had our disagreements, and think of the other as dickhead. And then we make up.

And I'm happy with it.

(..........)

I was chatting with a friend of mine last night, and to me it confirmed a few things about friendship.

There are a few types of catalyst-motivator circumstances
Be it birds of the same feather flock, opposites attract, common goal or common enemy - these are legible enough reasons to cause people to stick to one another.

You'd feel/act/show partiality towards the other person
Unless you're an emotional masochist, I would be hard-pressed to find people who decide to hang out with their friends and/or posse to find no benefit from doing so. (We humans are selfish creatures.)

There will be times when 'friendship' is tested
A person who is not yourself is not you. As personality can be used as a mask, I do not discount the train of thought that there is only so much of another person we can understand. And as we open ourselves up to another person, that essentially gives them power to elevate or break the person within us. Misunderstanding will arise. Hurts will be exchanged. Trust me, it will.

Then, it's up to you to decide
...if you want to preserve your relationship with that person, or let it crash and burn. The most outstanding friendships are borne out of this baptism of fire.

I have had quite a few massive rows with some of my friends. Some ended with a spectacular fallout (no need to name names here.) Some ended with a fallout... and an almost shameful crawlback. Issues can remain unsolved - largely stemming on differences of opinion that, despite the chances of opinions converging, still do not converge.

However, genuine well-meaning relationships shine through and after the fire. If I had to draw up a list of ten most I-wish-I-have-wrung-his/her-neck moments of living, they would definitely involve people closest to me in at least half of them. Being hurt didn't stop me from cultivating the relationships I chose to be in. Why? Partially for pride, and partially because sometimes I see something of worth coming out from it.

As they say in ancient times, "love is stronger than death".

..........

I've run out of things to say.

Maybe this entire post had just proved how tolerant I am to be on the short end of sadism friendship stick, how stupid I am or how noble I am (there goes my twopence for self-praise is no praise.) Go and have your own takes on friendship - each person's set of experiences are different, and you might even be vehemently against me. But then, at the end of the day I still wish and strive to be the last person proven right standing.

Written by an obnoxious, often inconsiderate, selfish and calculative person who may care more than she seems to care.

Have a good day ^__^

(stroller-a-rama)

Went out with Vinny, little Joshua, Ibeth and her (their?) mom today.


I don't have much to say other than travelling with youngsters seem to be a mammoth logistical task that can turn nightmarish at every idle glance. However, Joshua's cheerfulness seemed to break a few icy demeanours. He managed to run amok inside Harrods' foodhall, touched a few fresh produce, called oranges 'oranges' and onions 'oranges', gulped down a sugar cube AND two macaroons (sugar rush anyone?), and shook hand with a security guard. Not to mention his later fray to annoy the cleaners by emptying the contents of his biscuit bag on the floor. A little reminder: the kid is a whopping sixteen-month old.

Eating seems to be a constant battle of attention and boundary-pushing.
Needless to say, sometimes I wondered whether the tricks my parents and the maids did on me would work in the long run and be effective enough to ensure my kids eat well. Or maybe I should work out a few tricks now to use later in life...


Travelling on buses is okay if the weather is fine.
The tube travel experience was murder.
Nappy change time ranges from conversationally pleasant to ...assault to the olfactory.

Other than that, manoeuvring a pram/stroller is an acquired skill.

Tomorrow's battlefield is Spitalfields Market. Wish us well...

Under the Sea

The deed is done, my sister is married!
Officially this signals the start of my 'true' summer holiday... which, in light of holiday homework, becomes non-existant.

This also means that no longer shall I be 'shielded' from incessant go-betweens, marriage offers et cetera. So, does that call for a hurrah to speed dating...?


On a note, I managed to meet up with this lady, who turned out to be a pleasant and well-versed young woman to converse with yet has enough insanity (cam-whorship?) to match my cousins'. Thank you ^__^

I need to get my thoughts together as this blog sorely needs a few well-written posts! So, adieu for now :))

The Sun, the Stars and the Moon

In relation to mentioning my attendance at two friends' wedding a couple of days back, I oblige myself to give a visual report of the reception to ensure that it wasn't my sister who got married :D



Top photo: groom and bride.
Bottom photo: what my sister looks like (in approximate)

It was a good party, and I managed to bring home a loot of white cymbidium orchids and calla lilies. Thanks to a flatmate's ingenious/scrimp-some-money advice, there was no need to buy fancy or minimalistic flower vases. Instead, I relied on what was left out of their 'wine-tasting event' (which I conveniently opted out from due to alcohol intolerance and dislike of red wine.) Pictures of said loot and corresponding makeshift flower display units are posted on myesight.

As I was walking to Learning Zone earlier today, Anne mentioned that we have lived without internet connection at home for nearly half a year. Whew! Now it is still possible to live without the internet, although it isn't the most convenient type of contemporary lifestyle.

Have I mentioned I broke my SE mobile's headphone jack cable? Well, I did (rather stupidly) a few weeks back, and have currently been forcing myself to adopt the Nokia phone for more diverse uses other than for calls and texts. I do so begrudgingly - not too good an attitude - because I don't want to spend money yet on purchasing a new jack cable (note the decision to delay consumption.) Sky pictures taken on the Nokia mobile, oddly enough, appear to have a more purplish tint compared to SE ones... another reason I nitpicked to stake against embracing the Nokia.

Anyway, enough faffing around... it's time to work.

Hey! Get out of my way

Before we start, let me share something awesome a person on some part of the world has done with paper and cutting devices. Great video.

With nine days to submission/project completion, I still have plenty of things to do in hand. Oh, and also a wedding to attend.

Yesterday I went to Shepherd's Bush to buy more fabric again (yeah... we know the drill.) I was quite pleased that, despite the astronomical cost of jersey fabrics, denim is quite affordable at around £3-4 a metre. Now why do designers charge outrageous prices on jeans again?? Must be branding. (Uh-oh.) Anyway, I set out with £10 in pocket, confident that I'd get two metres of denim and use the change to buy some fruits.

The fabric store I went to was unusually busy for weekday early afternoons... hmmm... must be fellow students frantically buying fabrics. I couldn't find the bolt I wanted and so joined the long queue of customers waiting to be served. After an inderteminate amount of time (thanks to Wania for waiting for me), the guy who served me went high and low to find the elusive bolt of denim... only, after checking the storeroom twice, to find it was completely gone and there'd be another week before the store is having it restocked.

Great... not.

So now, my denim is no longer thick, stiff and grey-white; it's either mottled blue-brown or brown-khaki and - most importantly - soft and easily mouldable. Definitely a point to be grateful on, especially when I just spent an entire morning trying to sew on patch pockets with every type of threads I have on hand and failing miserably.

...and I guess KY's feat of French seaming an entire pair of trousers is the stuff of legend (the website ain't his.) It ranks highly on my list, along with Anne's feat of perfectly sewing a sleeve opening into the bodice's armhole.

Guess that means I still have plenty to learn.
And if you're wondering what fruit I got with some change, it was £2.40 worth of plums.

Itu Aku

Despite the fact it's Day 8 of the Gregorian calendar year 2008, I feel no qualms on... fretting about the previous year. Blame the fireworks, fabric-hunting and globe-traveling for the lateness :}

With my general state of health back in check, I'm happy to start the year doused in work (save the untouched holiday homework for next week's presentation). When it comes to 2007, my mind inevitably comes to these...

Getting into a BA course
For most of February and March, my favourite pastime (other than doing schoolwork) included hand-wringing and UCAS form-filling. The pageant experience came in handy for BA placement interviews.

Spending summer
Didn't score a job at Maticevski, wasn't needed for costumes and sets. So, it was London for summer. The weather was good on occasions, the pay was kinda okay, made lots of friends, learnt lots of things (both academically and life-wise), felt lonely, went on a Sloane Ranger life... summer flew out of my window and painted my memory with vivid colours. Which reminded me, I did win something.

Moving out
So yes, I moved out of SW3 (who knows I'll be back?? living in my own property?? XD) It was like comparing Yve to Rumah Susun Kemayoran. But then, central London residential buildings on average are old and dinghy, so there weren't much shock involved. I was way too timid, and I'm glad to have friends who managed to send chills down the spines and make me pick up my acts. I still cringe whenever 'toilet' and 'elevator' come to mind, but other than that life's fine and my flatmates managed to make that place feel like home.
(Oh, and they took the TV out of my room too, thank God I have more space now.)

Being not ashamed of myself
Big homework starting from last year, and probably will last for a while.

The resolutions
No new year resolutions for me - I'm sticking to this. Deadline is less than five months away.

Socialising
Moving in with friends is like marriage - each found out about the dark sides of the others. It helps me to be less politically correct and more astute in expressing my views and preferences on many issues, some of them being nutrition and personal hygiene.

The BF question
Once and for all, I shall make it clear that I do not like to be hindered by anything or anybody while pursuing what matters to me. I am normal, I appreciate guys and occasionally I like them too. But if asked whether I'd leave my study uncompleted, please don't be suprised if a d'oh glare becomes currency of the day.

Desire to own...
Pantone colour fan, exquisite fabrics and the ability to fly private jet on demand (visa included.)

Well folks, I think these sum up a lot already. Have a nice day! :))

P.S. shopping in Dubai yielded reasonably-priced face wash and isotonic drinks, $40 Nintendo DS excluded.

Dear God

I have truly moved into the new flat.

So far we've got some small scuffles and arguments - mostly minor (i.e. carrots versus mushrooms, who uses the bathroom at what times of day, which pasta to buy). The whole experience of living together with [good] friends and some people I haven't known before is a bit like marriage. It can get stressful when relationships are strained and people respond out of spite, but it couldn't get much better when we get along well.

I quite like it, too, when my housemates 'visit' my room for a chat. It's been a while since I lived in a house of young people. The general state of mess can get irritating at times, but it's not something we can't work on.

There's still no internet connection at home, but it's relatively little inconvenience to lug my laptop to school.

...I bet that's pretty much all I've got to say for now. I'm getting by okay.
Take care! ^__^

P.S. nice song.
P.P.S. feeds can now be emailed to you - check the feeder section.

Dear God
I don't understand
What you're doing
If You're real and you're in control
You must see the path we're choosing

And I don't understand
but somehow I believe
it's all in your hands

Yeah but I don't believe in a God who gives
more of his love to those who say they believe
And I've read your book and I think it says
it's not what you say but it's how you live

(spices and endorphins)

Spices and good food can make you high.

Today I had dinner with Anne, Mag and KY... in a Malay/Indonesian restaurant (one of the two reputedly original Southeast Asian cuisine restaurants in Europe.) As it is located in SoHo, we have passed through it many times before, but tonight's dinner was our first taste of this restaurant. The spices are tastefully mixed without giving much concession to there-might-be-too-much-spices culinary suspicions, and all of us enjoyed our meal. Highlights of the night were kangkung belacan (staple veg dish), sambal kambing (interesting with a hot/zingy aftertaste) and ayam mas derwaji (leave no sauce unlapped.)

We got high after the meal and kept on laughing on what seemed to be funny... arguing on how the combined sounds of elephant and monkey would be, afterlife shopping, the jelly fish man event tomorrow, and how good our next-table neigbours' food look like - mussels! The thing was, we didn't order any house wine to go with the dishes (despite Anne's initial persistence.) It was the right thing to do because I honestly don't think spices, mutton and red wine would mix. And even without any alcohol, we managed to stay high throughout the night...

Is there a strong, direct correlation between eating/ingesting certain spices and subsequent release of endorphins?
I want to find out more about this :))

In the meantime, we folks will be staying clear of alcohol and sticking to spiced Southeast Asian fares. The food does us good when it comes to keeping our bottomless appetite satiated ^__^

Take care!

(blip)

A simple message to somebody: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :D
(We'll work on the list later...)

Erm, that's all. Gotta rush for course induction at 10:30. Take care!

(sisterhood)

With Anne's arrival in London this morning, both my 'adopted' London sisters are around. It's also a sign that school days are just around the corner.

I really see Mag and Anne as my sisters now.
When we went to Freshers Fayre (some sort of welcome-new-students-who-grab-goodie-bags), I kept introducing both of them as friends "who are like sisters to me". I practically spent the whole day with the two of them, and got to know their boarding family too. It was a largely unplanned day that turned out to be highly entertaining ^__^

Going to Heathrow at 6AM in the morning is fun, once one got past the morning freeze. Free food supplies from Freshers Fayre (baked beans? instant mash?) replenish emergency fast food stash. Sucked into reading Death Note (it's....... good. Intriguing plots.) Have an idea of trialling this out, maybe. What else... the past few days passed in a flurry of events, parties, exhibitions and lots of new faces.

Ah, it's bed time for me. Have a good day :))

Puzzle

Google is an amazing thing for ego boost.

I have done countless searches on names of people I know (myself included), and I have found amazing results. My sister handles tasks with relative ease/familiarity, my dad has extensive professional interests in health services development, my mom is a self-made career woman. Amongst those I keep in constant contact with - through visual and physical means - are TV personality, technology advisor, student animator, web developer, medical student, petshop business owner, various office-y people, teacher-in-training and beauty queen.

By the way, please don't sulk if you weren't mentioned - not being mentioned is not the same as being forgotten or seen with lesser value! 8O I'm mentioning these people in no particular order because their fields of profession give a profusion of colours to this post ^__^

Google can be intrusively disturbing - I have so far rediscovered my once-existing and non-functional email addresses, messages I posted that I have completely forgotten about, things I participated in that had escaped my mind. Probably the next time around my ICQ number would pop up somewhere on the WWW - I still remember the sequence number, but am not bothered to reactivate it (scary indeed.)

And yes, at times when I feel low and run Google searches on familiar names, I find myself smiling at myself. Odd perhaps, but definitely reassuring. Could this be a mobile charger effect? :D

Ah, just did these guys some publicity. Shout for me if you don't mind, but otherwise have a good day :))

Sashinobeta ryoute kami awanai pazuru wo
Okizari ni shiteta futari deau made
Nakushiteta nani ka saigo no kakera wo
Tori modoshite

Itsuka wasureteita tooihi no kioku
Kokoro no katasumi kasanetanara
Natsukashii keshiki kuchiguse dake wa sonomama

Tomadou you ni hitomi wo fusete
Tachi tomaranaide oikakete

White Cat Waltz

Things to Try Before You Die in UK #9: afternoon tea.

Afternoon tea is an extension of leisure eating and hence one of my favourite things to do... when there's time to kill and chat-worthy topics to go through.

Tissa and Nat are my sister's friends from high school. Since they are in London as part of their tour of Europe, I managed to get a booking for the three of us in an attempt to be a good/helpful/hospitable host. Since afternoon tea tends to be quite pricey, good experience is as indispensible as the edible consummables are, so the venue choice was quite narrow: Dorchester or Berkeley. I couldn't get a timely booking at the Dorchester, so Berkeley had to do... and off we went to Berkeley.

I am used to having my own 'afternoon tea time' at Liberty or Partridges accompanied with scones and jam... but this afternoon tea is in a league of its own.



We were booked for 2PM and stayed all the way till the end. We had such a good time chatting and catching up, and we practically sampled everything that was provided. We also watched the Caramel Room scenery changed as customers came and went and waiters changed their work shifts - it started off with ladies and ended up with lads. I'm trying to list down the things I learnt about proper afternoon tea today.

First, there were no scones in sight.
(Ouch!)

Second, afternoon tea at Berkeley is basically like a lunch buffet. You get bite-sized servings of sandwiches and savoury bits, and you get the fancy-looking, nice-tasting, fashion-emblazoned sweet little creations. Aaaaaand... the plates are refilled when they run low.
(Just come early and skip lunch altogether.)

Third, you can stay till the service ends at 6PM.
(Stay back and pig out on the refill service.)

Fourth, drink all you like... as long as it's tea.
(Anything else are charged. Steep.)

At the end, we got offered to bring home the remaining little cakes and biscuits in our plate. Tissa's plan to get more 'of that smoked salmon' failed miserably; we quickly finished up anything they put on the lower trays so that they are refilled with savoury nibbles. Well, towards the end we had nothing but sweet, and had to be content bringing them home ^__^ Probably we should've asked the kitchen... nevermind :q

Recounting the experience, afternoon tea left me with these things: frivolous little sweets, precious moments, an injured bank account and allergic rashes on my back. Probably I should've stayed clear of the bubbly ^^;


Special mention goes to Gincu, who suggested me to try Pret-a-Portea sometime last year. Thanks for the info, we had a good time ^^

Anyway, have a nice day! :D

(foggy weather?)

Yesterday I went to this exhibition with Mag and KY before they leave London for summer. A 27-ton tilting stack of hollow metal boxes (assembled Lego-style with nuts and bolts) was one of the main attractions, but the top one was a fog-filled glass box visitors could walk into. I couldn't see objects that were half a metre away inside that box; that was how thick the fog was.

It turned out Mag was mildly athsmatic due to the humidity (the fog was generated from water), and KY was claustrophobic due to fear of bumping into another person (he did bump into two ladies). Here's a little scene a mischievous me created...
KY: "Where are you?"
Me: "Here..." (takes two steps forward)
KY: "I can't find you..."
Me: "Here!" (takes three steps to the right)
KY: "Gosh, stop moving around!"
Me: "Haha, I'm here!!" (run past the source of KY's voice)
KY: *bumps into two ladies*


The catch of going to art galleries is not being allowed to take photographs during visits, but we managed to snap some pictures anyway... thanks for the thick fog inside the box. We also took a picture of the man who stood next to the entrance with health and safety warnings, his hair covered with beads of water. Visit my flickr site for more pictures.

I wish I had one of these rooms at home...

Less than three months to go till school starts.

(thoughts from other sides)

I'm quite shocked to find out Picasa is limiting the picture upload limits to 1GB. There are still ways to host and upload pictures through flickr, but it's quite an inconvenience compared to the existing system. One gigabyte of free data hosting is generous, but the restriction is like a lame leg to those who upload massively sized picture files.

In the past 48 hours, I watched Schindler's List... twice.
By the way, my friends are chatting behind my back (literally), and somehow I'm interested to put down several lines that they verbalise. I want to verbalise myself too, but I find it more interesting to be on the listening side of things.

You can't stick to one rule and make yourself all... difficult.
--Magdalene

Do you believe in fortune-telling? --Mag
Let's say... I believe what they say, but I intend to prove they're wrong. --Anne
Then you should go. --Mag

How do you define what's beautiful and what's not? --Mag
It depends on yourself. --Anne

If people have the courage to kill themselves, they should have the courage to live on.
--Anne

You have to get worse before you can get better. --Anne
Frame of reference, hey? --Mag
'Cause sometimes when you pass the worse, you don't really realise it, but when you get the sun you realise that you pass it. I know there are more worse but at that moment, you know you're there because you were worse. --Anne

Take care from me and my friends ^__^ (although I'm borrowing their names because they didn't know what I'm typing out)

Whenever Whereever Whatever

I have got quite a lot of things on my mind lately. I really don't like thinking and talking about it, let alone blogging on it, but I feel like I'm going to rot on the inside if I try to make myself seem invincible.

I'm quite disheartened to hear my mom isn't doing too well with her health. This came to me as a quite a shock as she's a woman who excercises almost everyday and looks after herself particularly well (albeit with a tendency of pushing herself too far at times). As far as I could recall, she's always the healthy one at home, save a few occurences when we had food poisoning a year ago (and another one in the States) which usually occurs after we eat too much seafood. For a lot of reasons, this hit to her health is definitely scaring me... my brain runs at a slower rate because of thinking about her. Despite these, I really appreciate my family's openness about what's going on, because I hate to think everything is going well and smooth when everything isn't.

(I'm somehow glad my sister is going back to Indonesia soon, as it means she can look after mom when she's there. She was planning to go back to be with our parents, and the timing couldn't have been more coincidental... I don't quite believe in pure coincidence but hopefully all turn out well.)

I'm currently staying over at my friend Magdalene's place for the Easter weekend. It gives the landlady at home some extra breathing space, and I'm kind of keen to have unlimited showers at Mag's due to the fact her water bill is already included in her rent rates (which are unlikely to increase.)

Mag's apartment is sunny and small, and wasn't exactly interior magazine-prim... it's her 'creative chaos'. Anne and I ended up cleaning up the whole place out of our own initiatives just to make our stay feel nicer... and Mag was definitely pleased when she came home to find her apartment to be pristine and clean (she confessed that the clean state was actually better for her psychological/mental health.) I then realised that staying with that clean-obsessed, clutter-clearing landlady of mine has definitely done something good in terms of making zealously good efforts to be clean and proper. I know I have complained before about how strict she could be with water droplets in the bathroom taps, but I'm glad for her disciplines. It's like living with the headmistress of a finishing school.

On the funnier, more vain side of things, I've got a friend who's going to JRP. She's got a pristinely clean skin thanks to her mother's cravings of avocados when she was expecting, and back in Melbourne I would love to have her kind of skin (even now I still want to.) Also, she's the kind of person you would last ask for lotions or creams. If her class instructor at JRP found out what kind of skin maintenance regime my friend keeps, she's so bound to be shell-shocked... ^__^

I'm heading out to church now. Take care and happy Easter! ^.^

Lead me on girl if you like
Take my heart and my life
Take of me all that you want
And if there's a thing that you need
I give you the breath that I breathe
And if ever you yearn for the love in me
Whenever, whereever, whatever baby
Whenever, whereever, whatever baby

Wish I knew if I could
Be the one that you would
Love forever and a day baby

(one odd spring day)

Cherry blossoms, a herald of spring, were spotted as early as mid-January about 10 minutes away from home in London. They were again spotted late last week as I went around to help out the sewing (see my post on myesight for pictures.) And yet it snowed on Sunday... and Monday... and today. In what order should these natural phenomenons happen anyway? Blame it on climate change if you'd love to, and blame it on yourself for creating carbon footprints (myself included.)

Yesterday (Monday) was supposed to be a relatively snowy day. I was pretty disappointed to wake up to a blue sky. When later in the afternoon a brief snowstorm hit, I frantically tried to capture its images to no avail. But then, I was really lucky today. I went to Anne's place, and the snowstorm hit literally right after I got into her room! Call me a lucky lass if you'd like to ^^ so what we three never-really-lived-in-snowy-seasons girls put our boots and jackets back on, then ran as fast as we could down the stairs and onto the courtyard! Nevermind the chilly bite ^^



Hang on... I was planning to talk about wagashi as well. Due to the fact that the Japanese enjoy imbuing every facet of their lives with seasonality, and also to their love of sakura/cherry blossoms, some very creative people/chefs created what is affectionately known as sakura-mochi. Yes, as its name says, it is mochi made out of sakura.


The variety sold at Minamoto Kitchoan is not tinted pink. Regardless of its colour, it basically consists of a ball of sweet red bean paste that is wrapped with proper mochi (made from mashed-up steamed glutinous rice), which is then wrapped with a salty-flavoured preserved cherry leaf and topped with [yet another preserved bit of] a cherry blossom. It looks properly fancy. It inspires me to hit the store bedecked in a kimono attire that's properly of the season too ^__^

I wonder where I can get these preserved cherry leaves and blossoms... it would then mean I'd be able to recreate sakura-mochi whenever I choose to, although I'd rather reserve it for springtime occasions.

Oh yeah, the preserved cherry leaves and blossoms are also edible. I must be joking.


I also had a bit of fun by playing Monopoly. It turns out proper financial and strategic planning can be easily ruined just as easily as rolling dice. Playing Monopoly also sharpens one's sense of business dealing and bargaining... nevermind the fact that five grown-up Asians are playing at it. While trying to abide to the written rules, we feverishly over-invested on and over-developed our respective plots, and happily gave out soft loans when a renter could not afford the rent... as well as developing various tracts. (The I-pay-peanuts-when-I'm-on-yours-and-you-too-when-you're-on-mine kind of agreements.) It was like there was a secondary money market other than mortgaging properties to the bank. There was simply not enough money circulating in the game while we spent every little pretend cash we had on building hotels. Amusingly, the exercise had an ironic ring that sounds so close to reality. It did dawn on me that the whole banking/financial system that is widely enforced in the world bears the essential spirit of the exacting and calculative Moors (which in turn spread their influence to Europeans.) Probably it was just what I observed; do please correct me when I'm wrong.


At the end of the day, it was one good day... and I'm happy for it ^^
Have a good day, everyone!

(cooking again)

Submissions aside, it's socialising time for me.

Friday afternoon was spent sewing bits of lacing strips and hooks-and-eyes. Lesson learnt: no matter how accurate you've measured your hook-and-eye placement, always sew them 2mm further apart from the [supposedly accurate] markings. Lesson learnt #2: curved needles are definitely H-A-N-D-Y to sew them with.

I also went to friends' place for what was advertised to be 'a Mongolian BBQ' night. It turned out to be a stirfry night. Oh well, I had nothing to complain because it was fun to be able to cook with an abundance of ingredients and seasonings! I have neither oyster sauce nor sweet chili sauce in my pantry cupboard (woe me for the lack of space), and consequently haven't tried to whip up anything fancifully Asian at home since I moved to London. Anne is against buying new bottles or jars cooking condiments so I haven't got much to experiment with at her place. But last night was... amazing!!


I first tried to be discreet about my desire to handle a substantial part of the cooking process, but when people were wondering who should be assigned what to do... I kinda jumped into the kitchen and blurted out "the chicken should be sauce-y and have carrots and broccoli, and probably some of the peppers can go in there too." And since I stayed in there to cook and season... well, it was pretty obvious I was into it. It was good that the other girls didn't mind and chatted happily while we cooked. Overall results: out of the four dishes, all are edible and bordering on delicious. I got compliments too on my cooking, which ain't bad after all. Plus, it was fun seeing the boys crowd the kitchen to cook, while having disagreements on whether the Guinness should go into the lamb or the gut.



One good side-effect of hanging out with the [cool and younger] English is getting a good dose of learning about slang vocabs and how they are used. And since it's been over 12 hours since I had a decent meal, I'm gonna go off to lunch. Have a good day, everyone! :D

Katamari Holiday

Even though it's a day late to blurb about what happened on Wednesday, I'm doing it anyway.

OK, first things first: my normal attitude to Valentine's. Regardless of being dateless or not, I consider Feb 14 to be a day purposedly created by chocolate manufacturers and florists to generate half of their annual revenues (really.) Red roses nowadays have become a hot issue in England, particularly because of the carbon footprints created in growing and sourcing these roses from areas such as Africa and South America (I'd have lilies anytime, thank you.) Furthermore, there are 365.25 days in a year when you can express your care for that special someone, so why do it only for one day in a year? :q (calad's thoughts are pretty much on the same line with mine.)

Secondly: why I acted differently this year. Quite recently a friend ditched/was ditched by her boyfriend and she was feeling down, hence I arranged a dinner outing so that singletons (fresh ones in particular) wouldn't need to spend their evening wailing for their lives. All plans went well... until *somehow* almost all of the girls found romantically-charged dates to spark up their evening. At the end there were only three of us: KY, Mag and myself. We had fun eating out and hopping from one cafe to the other... who says being single on V-day means misery? :p




One thing I learnt from this stray occasion is... never eat out unless you really want to have the ambience of eating out! The queues were 20mins long (it was the restaurant's no-booking night), and service was... mediocre. It took us frantic hailing for about 15 minutes for us to order, before a further table chat of 20 minutes on oh-so-hungry-where-is-the-food wait. Paying took us 10 minutes. All these tell me something about planning for any sort of outing on Feb 14: either come in really early at five or really late at ten for dinner if you want decent service. Next year if there's anyone who wails for not having a date, I'll just come to her place and cook there instead.

And today, I've decided to stay home despite the offers to watch a late evening fashion show. I was told I need to put in more fabric and textiles into my research, which turned out into a day of making something that resembles a cabbage rose... and which made me think of Chanel's move to obtain Lesage is strategically sound. Honestly, that fairytale good ol' poor shoemaker is really lucky to have an army of crafty leprechauns to help him do his orders every night - I'd love to have that, too!

(I just have this thought that Lesage in reality is a factory chock full of crafty leprechauns, human-sized.)


Also, today's song hails from a videogame called We ♥ Katamari. This is my motivator song - it makes me stay put at what I do! Probably it's the prospects of stress-free holiday after the COMPACT scheme interviews that really makes me stick my head into what I'm doing, but anyway... it stops me from singing along and helps me do what I need to do :p

Alright, it's time to bed for me: hard work starts tomorrow at 7AM! With 13 days left to pack my portfolio, there are lots of things to do. That's life, isn't it :)) Take care!