flawed work of art.
Friday, March 28, 2008 @ 9:04 am
it had to happen.
after a month or so of good edible home-cooked meals, it was bound to happen.
I finally cooked something bad. what! why are you looking at me like that?! I can cook okay! in fact, I cooked delicious meals the past weeks.
mee goreng, black pepper steaks, lemon and herb chicken, sweet and sour pork, bako's hidden egg recipe and the creme de la creme out of this cook's kitchen - fried vermicelli.
can you wipe that smirk of your face?! I'm being serious here! my bihun is awesome kay! beat all those ones I've eaten at potlucks and christmas parties!
after today's linner (like brunch, only this one is between lunch and dinner), I've hung up my jamie oliver apron (borrowed from the ever faithful fan, my sister) and sought comfort in ready-to-eat meals, which in my world equates to chocolates (thank you mama king for the lindt easter chocs!) and sesame street strawberry yoghurt. honestly, kids' yoghurt tastes tonnes better than adult ones. that's sooo age-ist!
right right, so what DID I cook that deterred my 'yan can cook' spirit?
chicken breast with orange sauce. I saw the recipe in the donna hay cookbook my sister loaned me and although it was meant for duck, I thought hey, chicken might work right, right? wrong! it was so disastrous, I couldn't eat it, I really couldn't! *gags*
poor bako put on a brave front and licked the plate clean, while I eyed the lindt chocolates in the corner. hello mister, you don't have to say it tastes good when it tastes putrid lah. sob sob.
a few lessons I've learnt through this culinary experience:
- do NOT substitute a different meat with another
- don't be a smartarse and season meat with other stuff besides those listed in recipe (yeah, the nando's-loving mr. bako decided to season our chicken with peri-peri. omg!)
- fresh fruit don't make good mains. I dunno why I never learn my lessons. a few weeks ago, I ordered a risotto with poached pear at a restaurant on lygon street, which got me a 'senorina, you don't like the risotto?' from the elderly waiter who went, 'it's a pear' when I asked earlier if the risotto was gonna be sweet.

p.s: i'm thinking of a cinquain for one of my poetry assignments. that's a good start. at least I'm not fretting about haiku anymore.
puzzled about poetry? me too.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008 @ 6:41 am
wawasan 2020!
turning twenty!! actually has a nice ring to it - prefer it in word terms (twenty) than number form (20). so yeah, I'm a twen soon, no more a teen. and how do I feel? kinda cool, actually. dunno whether it's my subconscious mind or something, but I feel less drawn to shops like JayJay's and more attracted to neat shops like BenSherman. also, am digging the brit indie wardrobe even more cos' people here just aren't the FredPerry sort, are they? I've always glanced twice at dudes in skinny ties and in-your-face work shirts in London, and am disappointed every dude's version of smart wear is nike air force ones and jeans they haven't washed in weeks.
yes, so birthdays come with lists, here is this year's hopeful-dream on wishlist:

- ben sherman coat (you can't miss it, it's just the first thing you see)
- new bag :) (good ones from adidas and roxy!)
- grapeseed oil from thebodyshop
- birkenstocks papillo
- watch (haven't seen any nice ones so far..)
- underwear - because who doesn't need 'em?
- pj's (paulfrankisyourfriend!)
- esprit sweater (sold out, last I checked)
- white tulips! yummy!
- max brenner as personal chocolate slave for my whole lifetime

see, not so demanding right? winkety winks.

Monday, March 17, 2008 @ 3:24 am
the whole apartment is being subjected to fire escape evacuation test thingies right now and it's driving me berserk. I seem to be the only one who's in on my floor though, which is not surprising, since it's 2.30 pm on a monday afternoon. just today I was looking around my microeconomics tutorial going, 'where the hell are the girls?!' it could be that the guys were so big that they seemed to have a larger quantity as well, but it's weird, cos' apparently my faculty has a majority of girls. I don't know about that, cos' in most of my tutes, the fairer sex stands at the minority end. then, I thought to myself, 'maybe girls are smarter to switch tutes to a more convenient time. and c'mon, a monday 10 am tute?? you want that???
everytime I do the laundry, the cleaners pop up from nowhere and invade my floor. now I actually have to wear pants instead of walking around in boxers. it's so bloody hot here, you know? gives me headaches! (and the maintenance dudes testing the fire alarm isn't helping either) so much so that I've gotten distracted from opportunity costs to type out my frustrations here. gah!
speaking of frustrations, I'm not frustrated that I'm turning 20. oh no, quite the contrary, I'm looking at it as an achievement in life! that I have successfully breathed in oxygen for the past 2 decades. DECADES! sounds like a millenium doesn't it? wow! I can't believe people live that long. today during the creative writing lecture, I was introduced to this poem called the Man-Moth. moths live so short, they barely flit their wings and then they're turned to dust. humans should have lives like that, so we 'experience' everything for the first time. the first taste of chocolate, the first kiss that sends sparks all round your body etc. I'd like that. I'd prefer that to seeing myself age in the mirror. I bet I'm the type with crow's feet around my eyes and painful joints when it rains, the grandma whom everyone on the same street call 'the mad old lady who's always angry'. and I don't want that.
today, I've decided, I wanna be a moth.

Saturday, March 15, 2008 @ 3:32 am
my brother, david and I; albeit 10 years apart, share many things in common.
we both hate yee sang and papayas.
we love to eat junk.
we are comedians in our own right and laugh like crazy.
plus, we both have major headaches when we're under the sun or faced with heat for a period of time.
I'd like to touch on that last point. isn't it supposed to be autumn already?? the high 30's doesn't really mirror that!
last weekend, bako and I with our trusty blanket, sat on the grassy slopes by Yarra River to watch the Bingle Birdman Rally. (Bewdy or Bingle??) I know RedBull has one as well, somewhere in the world. speaking of RedBull, there are numerous cute little silver and blue new minis with huge RedBull cans on the top racing about the melbourne streets with funky licence plates like wingz4 etc. 2 weeks back, one of the little cars was parked outside the Commerce building and I happily told May, 'RedBull gives you wiiiings!' and a dude who had a RedBull in hand went, 'it sure does!!' LOL.
oh yeah, back to the Birdman Rally, where crazy people (I think the heat got to them) dress up in 'aerodynamic' suits and try to fly off the edge, but end up kerplonking into the water. quite amusing, really.
a random event: I was outside the DavidCaro physics building, waiting for bako, when this dude who was on the phone, got on his skateboard, slipped and fell with a thud onto the hard pavement. ouchie! I went to grab his skateboard under the car (reminds me of the time when whatsherface absconded with mine and tried to show off her skills, with my skateboard skidding down the hill towards mrs brown's car) and went to check if he was okay. his elbow was a bruised and I bet his head hurt like hell, so after a word of thanks from him and a 'take care!' from me, which ignited a snort from him, he went off, skateboard in hand now.

Monday, March 10, 2008 @ 4:00 am
do you ever look at someone, sigh and go, 'damn, I wish I had his/her job!' I will never never say that about anyone ever now, cos' I know everyone's job isn't as easy as it looks.
my sister's egging me to gain brownie points in my commerce lectures and tutes so that I'll get to join pwc. but what if I don't wanna join pwc? or kpmg, or deloitte touche tohmatsu, or ernst & young. she says her friend who works in one of the big 4 works from 9-5 and sips on expensive wine. my sister has a very bad perception on things. I can tell she regrets doing medicine and wishes she'd done accounting so she'd enjoy sipping on expensive wine and uh, blogging about her expensive makan escapades. (oops, isn't that what she's doing already??)
the grass is always greener on the other side, people. so shut up and concentrate on your job already. and that goes to you, jie.