To Chefdom!

Picked this up from the library this afternoon. I love the way he writes; it's just so as-a-matter-of-factly, not that different from the way he presents himself on screen. Will share with you guys some of the exciting food adventures found in here soon!

yawning too much for my own good

I don't know when it started but I need to break my habit of excessive yawning! Tears well up in my eyes everytime I yawn and it gets so uncomfortable and itchy whenever I try to rub those tears away. And I'm sure people find it incredibly rude of me to be yawning halfway through a conversation; I'm not bored, just have this inexplicable need to yawn, sorry!

East Coast Kid

I can't be any more thankful that I live in the east when I've to head down to ECP 2 days in a row for different events; urban skating organised by SMUXtremists and windsurf's weekly training!

Wasted my recess week away; procrastination (& more procrastination) and nothing done. Boo, I'm super regretting it. Serves me right for getting distracted so easily, I'm sure.

Enough of whining. 

2 nights ago, I caught a rather interesting documentary on National Geographic. It touched on transgenderism in different cultures and 'transition' operations. In Samoa, fa'fafines (male cross-dressers) are accepted for who they are in the Samoan society. Most of these fafas are appointed female roles in their families (for there may be too many boys in a family); be it housekeeping, child-raising, or anything else related. From young, they are raised as girls. These fafas have day jobs (teachers too!) and from what I got off the net, they're usually the best employees one can find.

The documentary got me really fixated on the topic of transgenderism; or maybe, I just got really amazed by the determination of people who decide to go for sex-change operations. They have the belief that they are trapped in the wrong bodies, and go through so much; be it physical or emotional just to right that wrong. I used to think everything's about choices, but seriously, I don't think they could choose the gender they were born into. And I don't think they'd have chosen to go through all that pain and humilation if they could do without all of it just to be happy.

Certain things are just pre-planned in a way, I guess. 

woo woo woo whooooo~

Instead of doing any revision, I spent my time looking at how I will spend my next (long) vacation.

I came up with:

1) Visit Xue in the land of Oz; as well as go fruit-picking & exploring Aussie OR

2) Whale Shark Expedition in Thailand

Just thinking bout either one of them gets me excited all the time! And so does Suckao from Max Brenner's.

The Omnivore's Hundred

From here.

What you need to do:

1. Underline or bold items that you've eaten before.

2. Strike out items that you never want to try.

*Words in orange links to their wikipedia entries

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk (one mouth was all I could take)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette, Kway Chap
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

my score's 33/100. weak!

Recess Week!

Waraku last night with OWY and gang was fun with so much catching up to do. Doug ordered a single serving of sake and I tried it for the first time (just another kind of alcohol lo). Visited Singapore Art Museum (SAM) to look for some cheap buys at the flea-tique that was held. The girls (excluding me) had their upper lips threaded and I had a good laugh while they endured the pain. The price of beauty.... sigh. lol.

& these are mainly the junior girls in windsurf club. The 2 girls on the left of the picture are Doug's secondary school classmates, such a small world!

The weekend's just gone by so quickly and I've had my fair share of fun, so, it's time to get back to my notes and essays!

Great week ahead people!

Windsurfing Diaries 1: Shifty Wind and Barnacle Cuts

So instead of the usual 3.5 sq m sails that I've been using since the start of my windsurfing days (few weeks up to date), I switched to the 4 sq m one yesterday. It's probably a tad heavier than its smaller sibling, but I probably would not have felt that much of a difference if I didn't know it's bigger.

In the seniors' words, the wind was rather shifty yesterday. In the first part of our training, I guess everyone did alright (even though the wind was kinda light) when we first got out of the bay on port tack; it was only when we reached the-middle-of-nowhere that the wind decided to die on us. 

It was so tiring trying to get back to shore! When I felt that I wasn't moving anymore, I decided to paddle back. Started paddling and instead of getting closer to the shore, the current seemed to be pushing me further away from it. In the end, the Sea Sports Centre uncle came and towed many of us back to shore on his powerboat. 

After we got ashore, we were told to stay within the bay by the SSC staff and only get out after we've mastered our tacking since most of us were not in very good control of our boards. eeks. Then headed back into the water after a short water break, and this time, a storm was brewing on the opposite end of the horizon.

The wind grew really strong and after KH and David showed us a proper tack in the waters, we tried to get our boards out and up too but I got washed onto the big barnacles-covered pipe instead. I tried to get my lodged board off but I must have been too afraid of the barnacles on the pipe and I couldn't move an inch on my board.

My daggerboard would probably have broken into 2 pieces if Ben did not come to my rescue. He pulled my board away from the pipe and we started pulling it back to shore together. Got himself some really nasty-looking barnacle cuts when he tried to help me and I feel extremely guilty over it. I hope his cuts are better today :x

We kinda stopped training after the seniors decided that it was too dangerous for us to be out there, and that was the end of the day's surfing. A short debrief session after. I thought I'd lost Doug when he got out really quickly and was nowhere to be seen. Turned out he ended up on the shore just beside.

I'm still not too sure of the wind or myself out there, so far. Hope I'll be able to keep in mind all the seniors' lessons and put them to good use. Proper tack, real soon!

Mama M!a

The movie was a lot of fun! Sing-along lyrics subtitles were provided, and I really enjoyed the upbeat tone that was set. It got a little cheesy at times but nontheless, I thought the scenes were put together to create an interesting effect. Couldn't help bursting into laughter each time Pierce Brosnan started singing cause I never imagined the same person to be the oh-so-familiar James Bond in 007.

Meat Overload!

Last Saturday was Dinner of the Month Day with Doug. We visited Brazil Churrascaria at 6th Avenue (Address/Reservation No.: 14/16 Sixth Avenue Singapore 276476 +65 6463 1923 / +65 6467 817)


Not going into a long and wordy entry, so here are some pictures and few words!



sauces; I only went for the bbq one in the middle






Some greens from the salad bar, lettuce tossed in salad sauce, crunchy long beans and deep fried mushrooms, black pepper sausage that I thought could probably give a miss on the next visit.




Doughy bits that contained cheese(but very subtle in taste) in them, served as sort of an appetiser dish.




Lamb... nice. Should try this....


Chicken hearts; must try. Liked the bouncy texture a lot.




beef topside; it was damned good with all the fats.




The much-raved about roasted pineapple; warm, sweet and not too acidic. Wasn't exactly melt-in-your-mouth but it was really soft. Definitely helped to make some space for more meat!





pineapple with chicken heart.

I don't know bout you but I'm a meat-person and whatever that was served was definitely my cup of tea. I love how the layer of oil from the fatty layers of meat seem to spread in my mouth; warm and heartening. Yummy.

If you're a meat-person like me, go pay the friendly folks at Brazil Churrascaria a visit. Your $42 definitely won't go to waste!

http://www.yearbookyourself.com/

this is how I'd have looked like in 1958

and this 1976!

thanks to rl who helped me with everything! Hope you guys had a great laugh!

flu bug

The last 12+ hours've been spent drifting in and out of sleep, and swallowing pills. It feels terrible to be sick, I hope it'll go away soon enough.

The day in a few paragraphs

It felt so good when I finally got out of the bay today; my 4th attempt! I'm thankful for the light wind conditions as it kinda provided a good learning opportunity for all beginners. The seniors were extremely helpful in every possible way, and that made me feel pretty much welcomed.

Visited Brazil Churrascaria at Sixth Avenue with Doug today. It's definitely THE place for all meat lovers; think servers (called Passadors here) walking around with skewers of different cuts of meat to slice onto your plates, rephrasing Doug's words, "they walk around with the mindset that no plate should be left empty". "This is good", one of the Passadors kindly offered me some topside beef after I decided that no more meat for me, how could I say no to such a friendly guy.

Must-tries include the chicken heart, beef topside, tenderloin, lamb, pork ribs, deep fried mushrooms, chicken thigh and not forgetting the sugar-roasted pineapple. There's also a salad bar with a pretty extensive selection.

All in all, it was a rather enjoyable dinner. Good food, great service, (not-too) affordable price though!

mental block

I've been stuck for a very long while now. 

Most of the time, after logging in, I just can't seem to find the right words to describe what my mind's going through; feelings and all (not inclusive of daily occurances).

The mental barrier that keeps me from expressing some of my thoughts leads me to frustration often; and I feel kind of helpless about this at times. Frustration leads to me getting annoyed with myself, and I believe this is definitely not healthy in the long run. 

Guess that until I resolve this issue, I'll need to continue churning out more chunks of incoherent passages hur. Maybe somewhere in generating such entries, that 'feeling' will come back to me! 

funny shit - russell peters

"ne-ga... ne-ga..." 

couldn't stop laughing!

If there's ever going to be an award for switching blogs, I'd probably come out tops.

School's work piling, but I'm thankful that I'm busy with work and not idling around. Activities've been great too, I guess I just need more catching up on everything!

On Tuesday, I went through the first round of presentation in my university life, and I can't believe it went so smoothly, despite all the nervousness prior to it. Positive comments from both the tutor and the rest of the class, sure felt good!

ps. reason why I'm shifting back to blogger's cause I can't do much bout the stylesheet editing back in wordpress. They don't allow embedding of videos, and many restrictions bout the css/html stuff. I can't work it out!