Tuesday, November 28, 2006

lesson #057: project egg tart

1. Project Egg Tart

Attempted to make the dim sum dessert egg tarts today. Baked everything from scratch, including the pastry (instead of buying a ready-made one from Sains!). So of course, I am proud. Admittedly it's not all me because Zhi helped me lots with the heavy-duty stuff, like spreading the pastry:


The dough is so damn sticky and bouncy and tough! V hard to spread and have to use our fingers for lack of a roller to thin it out.


The custard mix. I used my Woman's Intuition and overdosed on the sugar. Result?


They tasted delish for a first attempt! Admittedly the crust is a bit thick but I'm very satisfied with the custard taste. Sweet and just semi-solid enough to bite into yet not wobble all over the place.


Why can't I look as good as Zhi in the picture?? Bah.


Looks can be deceiving!

2. Poker Winner

After the baking session I was in a good enough mood to play poker, despite having lost to Josh over a foolish hand just the day before. My luckiest hand was having a full house from the flop, a ten full of K's, and I think I milked it for what it's worth. From that hand on I knew I had a solid chance of getting first place. Anyhoo it felt good to beat Henrik, who's been winning way too much last week.

3. Thank God It's Friday

Went there on a Saturday for Thiru's farewell dinner. I'm not exactly close to this gang:


And there were a coupla more people besides.

Anyhoo, as I was saying, I felt awkward right from the get-go because I didn't know half of the people who came, and the half whom I did know, I wasn't exactly close to. It's kinda like pulling teeth actually, the whole dinner. But some people were nice enough to make small talk and make me feel more at ease.


Bad lighting inside TGIF. Oh and we waited 1 hour for our RESERVED table, which I think is ridiculous but that may be 'cos I'm too used to the Singapore way of treating reservations.

4. Italian Dinner

Nicola set the standard high for our upcoming Chinese / Asian fusion dinner. Last Friday, he cooked an amazing fusilli al ragu (he made his own sauce), followed by a second course of chicken with wine sauce or summat, anyway it just tasted so good that I ate until I was stuffed. The 2 courses were accompanied by the tastiest red wine I've ever drunk, it's Italian and called Chianti. Niceeeee.


Our housemate from France, Coralie, posing with the table Nicola had set. So pretty! Like having your own personal restaurant & chef. Italians certainly ARE purists.


Nicola, our wonderful chef.


The Chicken That Made Me Fat Yet Happy.


Burp.


After dinner, we started teaching each other phrases in the different languages that we know. Sherazade showed us our names written in Arabic!

5. Closing Statement

It's 4.14 am now and I'm sorely tempted to eat the remaining digestive biscuits sitting on my table. Digestives are bad, bad, BAD! I think I'd gained 5 kg so far being on this exchange! Anyhoo. Gonna be fastidious and wake up early tomorrow to start working on my lovely hedging program essay. Actually searched the school database and found 20 articles that may be relevant. I can just imagine how FUN it will be reading them. On the Scrumptilicious Scale of Fun Things To Do, I think it'll be in between a blind date with a Star Trek fan and a visit to the gynae.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

lesson #056: hello, my name is procrastina

As I was sitting here in front of the laptop with my swivelling chair turned frontside-back, I became conscious of a slight nervous twitch above my right eyebrow. The thing that I've been dreading all this while is finally here.

That little thing called

stress.

At the back of my mind I'm aware of the piling list of things that I have to get done. On top of which is the UBS internship application. My 2,500 words Treasury Management essay on hedging programmes (HEDGING!!! Why can't it be something more familiar, like, err, discounting...) came a VERY close second.

The nervous twitch is making me, well, nervous. But I'm refusing to acknowledge its existence. I'm just gonna procrastinate for as long as I can. Which won't be all that long now.

...

AAAACCCKKKKK!

My heart is palpitating. Hey, who needs to be in love when you can get the same adrenaline rush just by panicking? I should definitely panic more often. In fact, if I could bottle up panic and sell it in small quantities, I'd prolly make a fortune.

Then again, panicking may be 10 times worse than being in love. At least when you're in love, you sometimes get to feel giddy and happy. When you panic, the only time you can feel giddy is after you swallow a bottle of sleeping pills as a last resort.

That, by the way, was not a hint of the action that I will be taking in the near future.

OK. Rather than sitting down here surfing the net for pisang goreng recipes (that's goreng pisang for you Singaporeans... God knows that's actually grammatically incorrect) I should really be reading the text Anders helped me borrow from the school lib. Titled Asset Price Dynamics, Volatility, and Prediction, it seems very intriguing indeed.

...

Think happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts...

Have applied for internships in London and New York. Will see if I actually have a chance to go there next summer.

Oh, and there's BANGKOK. Can't wait to shop! Ah. *Swoon*

Thursday, November 23, 2006

lesson #055: self-pampering day

Today I'm determined to do the things that are good for me. I shall:

1. Re-paint my toe nails
2. Moisturize my legs
3. Put on the damn expensive Burt's Bees raspberry lip gloss to moisturize my lips
4. Do stretching exercises
5. Do my laundry
6. Eat healthily (...) (maybe I shouldn't have had bread with Nutella for lunch)
7. Finish applying for internships
8. Start on my research paper about bloody hedging programs
9. Shit.

Yes, I did state item #9. Boys shit, girls shit, your second-removed uncle shits, goldfish shits, supermodels shit. So what?

Ah, I forgot to put down 'win at poker'! I have to do that again. Been awhile since the last time I won (it was in between the firetruck day and the pubbing/clubbing day). I had the greatest pleasure of kicking J out of the game. He had the highest flush of diamonds (Ace). So he went all in.

I had a four of a kind.

...

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA.

For some strange reason I found myself cooking for the 2 Norwegian boys + Yang yesterday night after dance. Henrik wanted to eat some Singaporean food, so I cooked... fried rice. Was that anti-climax or what? Haha. I just put in some eggs, some prawns, chicken and luncheon meat along with the rice and chockful of Ajinomoto! Kinda cheating eh? In return they're gonna cook us salmon. Wowieee!

All right, I'd better get on with the list of stuff I need to do before I get even lazier and my butt decides to melt into the swivelling chair.

French lesson for the day:

"Je ne sais pas cuisiner mais je peux essayer si tu veux."

(I can't cook but I can try if you want!)

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

huh.

This isn't the best picture of us.


This isn't either.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then your hug is worth a thousand pictures.

I miss us, I miss the really good times we had, maybe even a bit of the ugly times... (I hope I can still fit into that bikini once I get back).

Monday, November 20, 2006

lesson #054: nights in and out wit the boyz

Was rather bored one night so decided to observe the boys playing poker (didn't have a good feeling about playing so I stayed out of the game).


Our poker group has grown from just Jerome, Quentin, Manual, Yang, Zee and I to include the Italians (Nicola & Rosario), more French (Alex - top left waving hi, Kosta - bottom right scratching nose), Ozzie (Josh - top right next to Yang), and the two Norwegians (bottom left, Henrik in white and Anders in grey).


Unfortch I chose the wrong night to observe them as mid-game they were interrupted by the fire alarm. The fire brigade came over to check things out and contrary to popular belief, they do not consist of hotblooded men with pulsating muscles. In fact, the representatives gracing our Thornbank Gardens were a middle-aged man with a paunch and a beefy young woman. What a way to break down stereotypes!


A few days after that we all went out to a pub / club called Revolution (which closes at midnight! Like... what???). Zee and I photowhoring (but she did it under duress).


Top left: with Sherazad and Coralie, whom we bumped into at the club.
Top right: with Henrik and Rosario.
Bottom: two takes for a photo with Chelsea and err a Czech girl I still don't know the name of.


Top left: Bernal posing.
Top right: with Alex.
Bottom left: with Anders and Henrik... Anders doesn't like taking pictures! He never ever smiles!
Bottom right: with Kosta, who did a cute little dance for us; and Manuel, who looks kinda creepy here!


What's a party without a disco ball? Bottom right: A scene right out of a Hoegaarden advert, with the man and the beer gal.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

lesson #052: murder on the orient express

Feeling pretty stressed out over my impending Agatha Christie presentation on Monday. Sure it's only ten minutes; sure it's only an individual presentation; sure it's only a pass/fail grade. But despite all these assurances I can't help feeling jittery. Can't help feeling that the slides I came up with were just not good enough. Mediocre. Sub-standard. Guess this comes from being a perfectionist. One of these days I may just stress myself out to madness. Touch wood.

Some French girls from our corridor cooked us crepes yesterday night. The dessert crepes with Nutella was heavenly! I'm an extreme Nutella addict now. Just ate three slices of white bread with huge dollops of Nutella. Ack! You won't recognize me with my spare tires when I come back!

Spoke with Uncle G after a long hiatus just now, and it was refreshing, sad, and gut-wrenching all at once. I still have on the cheesy MSN nick impulsively typed when we first chatted earlier today. =)

Friday, November 10, 2006

lesson #051: the evils associated with chocolate and shopping

I've been putting off doing work all day, and suddenly I find myself sitting in front of the laptop doing online shopping at 1 am in the morning. Also sipping hot chocolate from Shari's mug (Zee - OMG! The Horror!).

The story of Shari's mug is thus: Once upon a time, I was putting on Prescriptives' self-tanner (winter's no excuse to blend with the snow) all over my legs. Not wanting to stain my comfy grey pants I took 'em off and was walking around half-nekkid when I heard my door open. Shrieking, I stepped back behind the door of my wardrobe to hide. The surprise visitor turned out to be Yang, who shouted from the other side of the door about boiling water for hot chocolate.

I said to him I'd be out in a minute, but then I was in the middle of online shopping, so what with browsing and all that, quite a long time passed. I heard my door again, and repeated the shrieking/hiding sequence (self-tanner still working its magic). It was Yang again, and he told me he'd finished HIS hot chocolate. So I hurried out to make mine (fully-clothed) but I forgot to bring out my mug.

So I just picked out any old mug near the sink.

In the spirit of gossiping about my housemates, here are useless trivia about my Chinese Canadian next-door neighbour:

1. His hair reminds me of a porcupine's needle-y back.
2. Everytime I see him he's always wearing the same scuffed navy long-sleeves, and it seems like it hasn't paid tribute to the washing machine since 1985.
3. I have only seen him a total of 3 times in the past 1 and a half months.
4. His definition of 'cooking' is to boil noodles in a pot, and then bring the pot into his room to eat, and THEN leave the fork and pot in the sink unwashed. KNN CCB.
5. He likes to play really fugly music until the wee hours in the morning. Really fugly. Techno and shits like that. And it's kept me awake on a number of occasions. One more and I'll be forced to be a bitch and tell him to cook his hair, put it in the washing machine, and plug it instead of the stereo so that it'll change shape.

Here's a picture of the dress I just bought online:


Oh yes, last night was poker tournament night. 8 people played, I was the only girl. And I beat - every - single - one - of - those - boys. Grrl power.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

lesson #050: no, no, no, and a thousand times NO!

But you're still leaving me behind.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

lesson #049: The Cin-ka-por Guide to Travel

http://cin-ka-por.blogspot.com/

Yang's blog. Forever the bullcrap-talking man in real life, he transforms into the most eloquent blogger. Love his latest post. It gives voice to the uncertainties of the heart.

Zhi left for Prague & Budapest a few hours ago. No one left to crack Mike TeeVee jokes with (that dream of hers! OMG).

I've been reading Great Expectations for my Lit class. It's a marvel how Charles Dickens could string simple words together to make them sound so beautiful that they're worthy of quoting.

" '... I have seen you give him looks and smiles this very night, such as you never give to - me.'
'Do you want me then,' said Estella, turning suddenly with a fixed and serious, if not angry, look, 'to deceive and entrap you?'
'Do you deceive and entrap him, Estella?'
'Yes, and many others - all of them but you.' "

Been pre-assigned FT G1 and Ethics G6 much to my chagrin as this spoils my initial bidding plans. I wonder if I'd know anyone in the class! Bah.

Monday, November 06, 2006

lesson #048: my lappie's got the flu

As I'm typing this I'm also running an antivirus program which I just downloaded because the previously installed one (from SMU!) was erroneous. Earlier on I was happily discussing courses to bid on MSN. Downloaded the class timetable and wanted to open it using Excel. There was an error, I couldn't open it, and suddenly some viral infection imploded inside my com.

Currently there are 86 infections found and the programme's still scanning.

I can't open iTunes, Excel, MSN... I had to re-install all of the programs. This took a lot of time. I have a presentation tomorrow (on Charles Darwin yawn zzz snore) which I haven't got the time to rehearse for. I still have to connect to the VPN network so that I can get my hands on the Office software. B-A-H.

I have an Entrepreneurship project meeting at 9/9.30/10 pm with 2 French boys. I think we have different working styles, theirs is very succinct and chop-chop. Whereas I like to let my thoughts coagulate. So just as I begin to warm up and open my mouth to speak they would say, "Okay end of meeting now we play poker online bye bye." Blaaaaah.

I foolishly left my phone charger at Victor's in London. Asked him to mail it back to me. I feel like hitting myself over the head for troubling him yet again! ARGH. I think we've already invaded his privacy enough by staying there and now THIS. Curse my stupid hangover. It's making me clumsy and all forgetful-like. Indeed, today is a day of bad, bad discoveries...

But yesterday was fun. Shopping at Bershka (impulsively bought 25 GBP mini skirt with suspenders) and Luc's birthday party at night:


Drank champagne, champagne and more champagne!


And I was rather high... Bottom left picture - us with the birthday boy! Bottom right is his girlfriend. Think she's really pretty!


We met up with Jaslyn and Liqing who were also up in London. They shopped a lot more than me (lost steam after Bershka).


Top left - with Victor, our kindly host for the 2 / 3 nights we were up in London! Bottom right - with Chok. I learned to play the drum at his place. It was so fun!


Wore the top Kunz got me yet again... It's one of the only 2 clubbing tops I brought to the UK!


The photowhoring session started at this dessert place before we went to the club. Victor, who boasted about his photo-taking skills, couldn't fit everybody in the picture!


Erm I can't remember who the two ang moh guys are... I don't know who the girl in green is as well! But she's pretty!

Friday, November 03, 2006

lesson #047: london tomorrow

All packed up (sort of) and ready (sort of) to go to London tomorrow morning. Zee and I are taking the 8.25 am coach up. Woohoo. Not sure how I'm gonna spend my time in London, aside from attending Lucas's birthday party (which was the main purpose of going up in the first place).

Rough Plan of Activities While In London:
1. Buckingham Palace
2. Shop at Oxford Street
3. Sho...

Hmmm, never mind. I'm sure I'll think of other things to do.

The human mind is such a marvel. When put under pressure it's amazing to see what it can churn out. I actually finished writing my essay and preparing for the individual presentation on Monday in less than 48 hours. Yippee! The downside is now that I'm done with all the preparation I find myself at a loss for things to do. I have way, way, waaay too much time to think (and overanalyse things). Fuckadiddlydoo.

I don't wanna be a Miss Havisham! Save me!